Does Every Country Have To Have A War On Terror?

by rhealitycheck

In my personal opinion the “War on Terror” in the United States was possibly one of the stupidest things I had ever heard of. And now to hear things like that coming out of India. To hear about how the Mumbai bombings were India’s 9/11. Well, frankly, they were not. The circumstances were entirely different and certainly the impetus behind it were not even close to being the same. Surely there are radicals everywhere but a War on Terror and “trying to keep the country safe” by essentially creating hysteria within the people is dumb. I know that may be a bit much to take for some people but let’s face it how much has this “War on Terror” really done for us? We (the US) are successfully in the middle of two miserably failing wars and on the brink of starting something up with Pakistan that I have no doubt will be equally as ineffective if we try that route. These wars have caused the rest of the world to lose almost all their respect for us, if it weren’t for the fact that world has simply become too globally intertwined I do believe most of it would have turned it’s back on the mighty US a long time ago. In the modern world that is not possible so they simply whisper behind our backs about what fools we are.

This brings me to India. Now why on earth would anyone want to follow such a failing model? I recently read a beautiful article by Arundhati Roy on her thoughts about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. It is truly a well thought out and eloquent piece on the complications of naming the Mumbai bombings “India’s 9/11”. And if anyone needs some historical background on the complexities of India it also illuminates many of the reasons why it can never be “India’s 9/11”. It saddens me to think that such a great democracy is leaning towards becoming a police state.

And I find it atrocious that we only seem to be able to blame Muslims for acts of terror. Wake up, world, there are terrorists of every nationality, religion, race, ethnicity, you name it there is probably one out there. The scale may be different in what they have been able to accomplish but they are out there. I do not think any people should be persecuted simply because of their beliefs. Perhaps we should try to understand the context, understand why they are so angry and try to fix the problem diplomatically instead of by creating more war, more terror, more hurt, more pain and more anger. Perhaps creating a little understanding might be a better way than to keep on increasing radical beliefs.

Is America Becoming Socialist?

by rhealitycheck

Because that’s certainly what it feels like at least from *all* the socialized losses that we seem to be picking up these days. What I want to know is where are the benefits for the majority of Americans? Surely there has to be something more in it for the average person to be picking up over a trillion dollars worth of bad business. At the rate that we are handing out money to corporations I really do hope that someone is going to be held accountable because I find it absolutely unacceptable that there are many executives that have truly made a giant mess of things and yet are still being paid in the millions.

Perhaps I just don’t understand capitalism but I was always under the impression that should you run your business poorly, it will go under and you will “lose your shirt”, but clearly we no longer believe in that. As it is being proven by the fact that we are now bailing out the automakers along with Wall St. Who else are we going to take on as charity cases? I’m just waiting for the next shoe to drop. For all these years we have criticized and absolutely down-played the need for any socialist tendencies, yet now, now we are essentially taking from the poor and giving handouts to the rich who have managed to mismanage their money. (Sure, I know I’m exaggerating a bit but if you really do take an overly simplistic view that is exactly what is going on.)

So I hope that the new administration does not forget that this is not a socialist country. And until the base standard of living can come up to some sort of reasonable standard, such as universal health care and an appropriate minimum wage and appropriate taxes on the wealthy to compensate for such things, I would hope that the government can control themselves as to just how sorry they feel for those poor, poor corporations that have managed to go astray.

Unintentionally Vegetarian/Vegan

by rhealitycheck

So here’s the thing, I’ve been reading this book Skinny Bitch, which by the way is awesome, that has some really horrifying passages about slaughterhouses and dairy farms that are pretty darn disturbing. So the first day after I read it, I was a little put off the whole meat and dairy thing. Now, I find this interesting because well I read The Jungle and that had absolutely no effect on my eating habits or desires. So I don’t know when I gained such a conscience or perhaps the passages were just different from the ones included in this book, I read that over 10 years ago (for school) so I’m a little fuzzy on it. It might also have to do with the fact that I’m reading this book by choice and I was reading The Jungle because it was on the reading list in high school.

I’ll put a disclaimer on this here and now, I may not be a vegetarian/vegan permanently, I truly do enjoy my animal products, I just find it fascinating what one book can do to your life which is why I am writing about it here.

The thing that I find most interesting is that it has been a few days since I have read those horrifying passages and I can generally forget things I don’t want to know relatively easily (at least when it comes to food that I like and don’t particularly want to give up). But for some reason I am finding that when I go out or am in the office cafeteria I will actually opt to get something vegetarian and if possible vegan before I choose anything with meat or dairy. It’s almost as if the women who wrote this book got into my head and changed my psyche a bit. I choose to eat differently. And I keep telling myself that I miss meat but honestly, I don’t really mind not having it. It’s only been a week that I’ve been doing it but um, I’m also the girl that used to say she likes to “eat her steak still mooing”. I mean one of my good friends and I talk about how we like to cook our steaks “black and blue” which basically just means it’s very rare. So I just find it fascinating that just by reading one book I have made a huge change in my diet. It just jolted me into the realities of the industry and my opposition to eating meat and dairy really has more to do with the way that industry works than my taste preferences.

Also, what I have found in the past week is that you can find tons of really tasty vegetarian/vegan food out there! You don’t necessarily need meat or dairy to make yourself a fabulous meal. All it takes is a little creative thinking. And quite frankly half the vegetarian/vegan food is better for you anyway.

The only thing I will say is that my experiment with a soy latte was horrifyingly disappointing. I really didn’t think it would taste all that different but I don’t put any sweetener in my lattes and I swear the soy milk made it sickeningly sweet. I couldn’t even finish it. That was really sad because while I don’t drink lattes often, I do like them on occasion.

I’m curious to see what this difference will make in how I feel when I go to the gym. I injured myself last week so I took a week off but I’m back as of today I think it should be interesting. And I mean the book is called Skinny Bitch so I’m curious as to how much changing your diet so drastically will change the rest of your body image etc. I suppose simply making healthier changes should make it easier. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Being a “Skinny Bitch”…

by rhealitycheck

seems to be a tall order. At least if you read the book Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. I never truly intended on reading this book, I had read a review in the New York Times and aside from the catchy title I didn’t really have much interest in it. But recently I’ve been a little more into health and being more proactive about getting healthy and well I ended up with a 3 hour delay on my flight back to Chicago after Thanksgiving. So what’s a girl to do other than go pick up the first relatively interesting book she finds at the airport bookstore.

I inteded this to be an amusing, interesting read. Considering I had already read the Times review on it I had a vague idea what the book was supposed to be about and I had no intention of changing my eating habits to become a vegan. Little did I know that they took excerpts from a book slaughterhouses when I first cracked that book open. The most interesting part of the whole thing was that this little book does not look like it can change your life. Quite frankly, it looks like a fabulous piece of fluff to put on your bookshelf for shock value – much like this book Queer that I own which just has fabulous pictures and some historical content but mostly fabulous pictures.

Yet I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I read it on the plane and then the train and in the cab and even in bed once I got home. I haven’t gotten through the entire book yet but I am about 3/4 of the way through and I think it is great. I also had no intention of becoming vegan yet I can’t seem to look at meat the same way. Those passages about the slaughterhouse just changed something in my psyche. I can’t say that this will be a lasting change just yet since it has only been 2 days of relatively vegetarian eating (I am stubbornly trying to hold on to my carnivorous roots, it’s not working out so well for me – I rebelled when all my friends became vegetarian and I have a hard time eating my words).

It’s amazing how without even intending to make a huge change in my life, I have done so anyway. And I actually feel really good about it. Partially because, well if even a fraction of what they said was true about the slaughterhouses I can’t eat meat in good conscience. I was happy being blissfully unaware but now that I know I do think it may just be time to make that change in my life. I don’t know how I feel about being vegan because well, I haven’t cooked in about a year and it is hard to find easily available vegan food. I will try to be as vegan as possible but I don’t know that I can go the whole 9 yards that the girls tell ya to go.

And I would truly recommend this book to anyone. I mean you don’t have to believe what these women believe to find this to be an interesting read. If nothing else it makes you well informed. I may not stay vegetarian or vegan for long but the information that I have gathered here has certainly changed me and will stay with me for the rest of my life. I think that just changing your mindset and your outlook on life can be helpful and these women just put it so well in the book. I think one of my favourite passages was one about carbs when they start ranting about how only idiots don’t eat carbs. Having been an athlete, I have known about the virtue of carbs for years – trust me crew coaches don’t let you get away with not eating carbs.

The other thing I really love about the book is that it gives you a place to put all that energy most women spend about obsessing about being skinny. It gives you so many things to think about that are truly interesting and ways to change your life that are not difficult. Most of all it uses common sense that people can relate to easily. I mean what’s better than a book that tells you, come on idiot just use your brain, think about what you’re doing and you’ll be fine. It’s pretty awesome, at least I certainly think so.

The Mumbai Bombings

by rhealitycheck

So the bombings in Bombay have really bothered me. Part of it is that it is a hot topic for the fam and part of it is that I was there just 2 years ago right around this time. I could have easily been one of the people gallivanting around the Taj. And that is really upsetting and disturbing.

And on a slightly different note I’ve had several people take offense to Obama’s hard line stance on Pakistan but really at some point I think we need to look at what Pakistan has been doing for years. They harbor and train terrorists and quite frankly India bears the brunt of a significant chunk of these attacks. It’s amazing that India has chosen not to crush Pakistan quite yet. Everyone knows that just by sheer might it is quite possible and if India were the US it would’ve happened decades ago. But I think that’s part of what makes India so great that they haven’t opted to crush them. In fact there are more Muslims that live in India than in Pakistan and you know what they aren’t persecuting them in the same way the west does. After all is said and done India is the only true democracy where minorities are treated as equally and fairly as possible. Certainly there are discrepancies between the majority and the minorities and there will always be a few extremists everywhere but all in all I think India is handling the whole thing quite well.

Also I would like the US for once in its history to just stay out of it. This is not your problem, this is not your dispute just keep to yourself. I mean it isn’t enough that they gave the terrorists their weapons and training way back when they wanted their puppets in office in Pakistan, all this “help” is really unnecessary. At any rate it is truly tragic for anything of this type to happen and I wish someone would take the time to analyze why there are so many young people filled with so much hate that they would go on these terrorist missions. I think it is an important question that all world leaders need to think about and in particular those in Islamic countries (considering that’s where many of these people cone from). It just doesn’t make sense to me. And to destroy buildings with so much history.

One concluding thought, why would these people target Colaba? It is essentially a tourist destination and yes in India you obviously can’t find anywhere without lots of native Indians but seriously why would they target the largest tourist section of the city? What do you think was the message in there?

Is Dark Matter For Real!?

by rhealitycheck

Because that would be awesome. It gives me hope for String Theory after all. Now I know I rarely get to let my nerdy science side out on this blog but secretly I am a pseudo theoretical physicist. I say pseudo because I was really into it in college but have left the realms of amazing academic science for corporate America. Yes, it is rather disappointing but I do like to keep up with what’s going on in the world of physics and I have a special place in my heart for the articles that make it to places like the New York Times Science section because it gives me hope that maybe some day more people will think it’s cool too! (Because really it is the coolest thing EVER!)

Anyway, I was super excited to open up my Science Times this morning and find this article talking about dark matter. Now I’m not sure how this will all pan out, I mean people have been talking about dark matter for years and it really only seems to come in bursts. But boy would it be exciting if we could actually prove that there are particles interacting in another dimension that has some sort of effect here! Also I happen to be a little partial to this because I am a bit partial to string theory and if they can prove that dark matter exists in another dimension this is just one small step in proving that string theory is *actually* the theory of everything! I am *so excited*.

Should Hillary Be Secretary Of State?

by rhealitycheck

I actually think that’s a very tough question. Obviously I’m no political expert but for a woman of her stature, especially with the manpower she has behind her right now that’s a big question. I know nothing is formal and that most speculate that the offer will be formally made and that she will formally accept it but I wonder if it is the right choice.

Now, when I first heard that Hillary might be Secretary of State, I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty excited. But then I discussed it with my mother and I read a few articles by some pretty intelligent older women about the reasons why she shouldn’t and I have to say I am torn. Right now Hillary Clinton is a power house in the senate. She is the woman that has 18 million votes. She is the woman that everyone wants on their team. She may be the junior senator from New York but she will never be just another senator. Everyone wants her on their committee, everyone wants her to be their friend because Hillary Clinton wields a lot of power with her 18 million votes.

So why would she want to move over to being Secretary of State. It’s true being the head of the state department is extraordinarily prestigious but it isn’t quite the same sort of change as being the party leader in the Senate or heading up as many committees in the Senate. At the same time being Secretary of State she gets to make her own rules in her own department and there is far less clawing for position. The part that I find interesting is that as Secretary of State, she is officially Obama’s face to the International World and that is what would given me pause (you know, if I were cool enough to be Hillary Clinton).

As Secretary of State you are not quite your own woman anymore, which I find interesting. I just wonder what this step means should she choose it. I am sure she will do a fabulous job no matter what she decides but would it be better to be your own voice, your own power house in the senate or to be the president’s voice to the world?

You Know It’s Bad When…

by rhealitycheck

The guy that checks to make sure your x-rays are readable comes out and says, “So, what did you do to your foot?! Did you, like, fall or something?”
My response, “Uh, no.” [insert pause] “Why?”
His response, “Oh nothing, you know, I just, uh, wanted to get some info for the doctor, you know to give them some history. So if my hand were your foot can you describe where it hurts?”
[brief pause as I look at his hand]
Guy again “does it hurt like here around the toes… like the big toe?”
Me “not really… actually it hurts below them and on the side.”
Him “Oh… well the exit is that way.”

So now I wait for the doctor to call and let me know exactly what I did to myself. Personally, I think it’s pretty funny and my foot really doesn’t hurt that badly anymore. I chalk it up to finally getting some decent sleep and deciding to give myself a break, regardless of what work or school seems to think. Well that and the fact that I’ve stopped walking funny on it, my doctor pointed out when she did her exam that I’ve actually been favoring the side of my foot that hurts, so I have consciously been trying to walk normally and it has been feeling better. So maybe that was part of the problem. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Next time, I surely will not go running when my foot is already smarting. Lesson learned.

Mysterious Injuries

by rhealitycheck

I’ve always been a bit accident-prone and I know that but I don’t let it stop me from being active. I mean if I did I think I would end up in a padded room somewhere just so I could not end up with mystery bruises. But the latest installment of mystery injuries is actually fairly sever and I’m trying to figure out what happened. So I went running the past two days and the first day my right foot was smarting just a bit after I had cooled down and was walking home from the gym. I didn’t really think much of it and carried on with life as usual. Then I decided to go running the next day but my foot had been a little irritable all day but nothing severe enough to cause me reason to pause. By the middle of my run it was a little painful off/on so I cut it short to ask the trainer what they think. First they asked what happened and I told them “I haven’t been running in a couple of weeks and I just got back on yesterday and went back to running as usual and then came back for a second round today. There was honestly nothing else that I can think of that was unusual.” And it’s true there was absolutely nothing unusual about my run or even after my run that would have made me think that the two were related. So I am scheduled to see my doctor and get an x-ray tomorrow and I suppose I will just have to wait and see about what might be wrong and how I got this mystery injury.

Yes To Bailouts, No To Thinking

by rhealitycheck

Sometimes I truly believe that is what is going on in our government. Has everyone just decided to leave logic and reason at home for the past few weeks? Because I surely don’t see many good decisions being made. Not that a lot of good decisions have been made in the last 8 years but nothing quite so drastic as what seems to be happening with the economy and our lovely tax-payer dollars today. I was having a lovely ride to work today on the bus until I happened upon this article in the New York Times.

First of all I am absolutely incensed that Paulson believes that the money from the bailout should only go to “investment” in financial institutions rather than “spending” on rescue efforts.” Well quite frankly Mr. Paulson, you and your Wall St cronies fucked up big time, pardon my french. Why should we allow you to fritter out tax dollars away giving these guys golden parachutes and money to “invest”? I’m sorry, I think you’ve done a lousy enough job screwing up our economy thoroughly, I think it’s about time we gave back to the people who are losing their homes. Sure, I believe that one should not invest in something one cannot afford but let’s be realistic, we bailed out Wall St for making poor investment choices, which I would like to mention were based on these same mortgages that we are not allowing to be refinanced. So basically what Hank is telling us is that it is ok for banks to make stupid decisions, let’s not hold them accountable but average people who make those same stupid decisions should be held accountable. Right, I’m glad that we’re all on board with this privatized profits and socialized losses system. I love it. Perhaps I am a little too jaded on this topic but I have to say that this editorial did make me happy that at least someone else thinks Paulson’s thinking is flawed.

Although I have to say I was at least happy to note that Paulson does not want to bailout the auto industry. While I don’t like most of what he has done, in this is one instance I do agree that bailing out the auto industry is a bad idea. I actually think the op-ed by Mitt Romney was a really good take on Detroit. I certainly think he made a really great argument for what should actually be done that would be effective.