Sympathy for the Devil...

So after a long conversation that I just had with my friend (over fb chat) about the BP hearing that are going on, on Capital Hill it inspired me to write about how I feel about the situation. So Tony Hayward is now practically on trial for this mess, Fox News and others like it call it a "public flogging" and that's pretty much what it is. As my friend put very well Hayward's face during this hearing looks like he's "staring at a guillotine." Now the thing is I don't really have much sympathy for the guy. His company made a HUGE mistake and he deserves to fess up and admit that it was a HUGE mistake, and he should be made to answer the questions that Congress has for him. The problem with this is, what is this doing to fix the actual PROBLEM? Nothing, nothing will come from teh Representatives spitting out their feelings, and pushing the guilt envelope for Hayward. He knows he screwed up, he knows that he's in hot water (well more like lava) and all this is doing is pointing it out to everyone. Sure it's great that we're gonna get our questions answered, but what about the biggest question of all: When is this whole mess gonna go away? And this hearing isn't doing much to help this question. And the front runner to all of this, none other than our fearful, I mean fearless, leader of these hear United States. Shouldn't the Obama administration be the fire that's lighting the hot water that Hayward is in? Where were they when this first went down? They're supposed to be the top officials in the country and surely they know what they are doing right? Well then why is this problem still a PROBLEM? Why is it taking this long? If you ask me I feel that OBAMA should be the one that's on the cutting board, he's the one who should be facing the guillotine.

Apathy

So last night I had a very long talk with my roommate about politics and current events that was very enlightening. I thought about how much I watch the news and how invested I am in politics, and realized in my generation I am the minority. Now a days students (specifically college) are more concerned with what's going on with their favorite celebrities then what's going on in politics, economy and such. They consider watching E! or TMZ watching the news, and where I am like many guilty of watching those programs (and reading perez hilton's website) I balance it out with watching the news. Then you have the students that watch the news, read the paper and such, but they only read ONE paper, and only watch ONE station. This isn't good either. You have to get every side of the story. My ritual in the morning, is while getting ready I watch Fox News, flip in between that and CNN/HLN (this is of course unless the Boy Meets World episode that is on is one of my favorites), then when I get to work after checking my email, I read the headlines on foxnews.com, cnn.com, msnbc.com and washintonpost.com (which I mostly look at to get my daily dose of the comics). This way I get to see all points of view of the headlines so I have as much information about a subject. Then if someone brings up the subject and can give them my opinion based on all the knowledge I've gathered on the subject and I can back up my stance.



The problem with doing all this, well a lot of people don't really seem to care about the issues. I miss working on Capital Hill where everyone was paid to know what was going on in the world and especially with politics. Now it's even worse. Living in an apartment complex where the majority of it's tenants are students, who have shut their brains off over the summer, don't want to sit down and have intelligent conversations about current events and political candidates. So I usually result to calling up my mom and having hour long converstations about that stuff. But I miss debating people. I want to have a meaningful conversation with someone who doesn't agree with me so i can get their viewpoint and they can get mine. Over the school year it's easier to do this since I can talk to Professors and debate them. Of course I picked a major (anthropology) which tries to stay away from politics so it's hard to have conversations with my classmates and profs that aren't about the new archeological or anthropological studies.

Now obviously I can't force people to be like me (even though sometimes I really wish I could) so all I can do is keep people in the know about these things and hope that it sparks their interest. Then I hope that they go out on their own and read the paper, or watch the news.

Would you Rather...

So, since today I'm alone in the office I'm listening to my home radio station DC 101, (online obviously) and they are talking about this woman in Cambodia. The woman was living in the jungle for 18 years and when she returned hated it back at home. Then she went missing again. Then they found her 11 days later in a dugout toilet, where she was chest deep in waste. This whole story has now sparked the most ridiculous of the "would you rather" game. Would you rather spend two days in the Cambodian Jungle, or spend two days in a dugout toilet? This conversation has been going on since 9 o'clock and is entertaining me immensley. It's good there's no one else really here cause I'm laughing my head off at the rationalization of the answers. The general census: most would rather stick it out in the jungle then chest deep in fecal matter. Their answer is what mien would be. I'd much rather risk my life in the jungle then be in the dug out toilet. So all you people out there, what would you rather do?

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h6fnhhlk3fv0AgI5XvnGkYZfmrcg