I'm increasingly convinced that politics is nothing but a tribal "us vs. them" religion, and that conservatives prove more with every witch hunt that they're more in tune with their monkey roots.
I'm also growing more and more detached from politics due to my frustration that little to nothing is being accomplished. A clean air bill was just struck down, once again proving America's anti-intellectualism and utter distrust of science. Congress just passed a 59 billion dollar bill further funding the hopelessly unwinnable war in Afghanistan, showing that the documents leak from wikileaks didn't do a fucking thing. What's so frustrating to me is that this was the best we could do. I doubt the Democrats will ever have a majority as big as this again into the foreseeable future, and this was the best we could do with it. Republicans are going to stomp them in November, and we're going to be stuck in a Clinton-esque dead zone again.
I haven't lost faith in our political system, I've simply lost faith in the American people for being so fucking stupid. Ever since Obama came into office, Republicans have been doing nothing but spreading smears and lies, and by the time they're all debunked, they've moved onto other ones and nobody cares anymore. Progressives have all the arguments on their side, but emotions are more powerful than rationality, and conservatives have figured out how to tap into those brilliantly. When Democrats started saying we should better regulate the biggest corporations to prevent a recession like this from ever happening again, Republicans said it was a socialist government takeover, and the momentum died right there. To stop health care, Republicans started crying death panels and abortion, and then the bill turned into a miserable mess. Their lies are working, and Democrats are going to lose control of Congress because of it. And just as Chris Hayes emphasizes, once they have a good number in Congress again, their obstructionism is going to grind the U.S. government to a complete halt. And then they'll blame the very problems they are causing on Obama some more.
It's very frightening to witness just how easily the American public can be manipulated. A few days ago, conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart released a heavily edited video of a speech being given by Shirley Sherrod, a director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The speech was given to the NAACP back in March. Breitbart edited the video to make her seem like a racist. By the time the video in its full context was released, the damage had already been done. Sherrod's comments were not racist in any way, but she was still forced to resign from her job. If you want to read what was said/wasn't said, wikipedia sums it up quite well.
The White House has apologized to Sherrod, and has offered her another job, but she still hasn't decided if she'll take it. Fox News was literally the only news outlet pushing this story. Now that everyone knows the truth, Fox has completely ignored its own role and shifted the blame entirely to the Obama administration (surprise!). And it's working. Even on liberal sites like the Huffington Post, the top story right now is how it was Obama who dropped the ball (proving once and for all that the far left media controls America!)
But it's not like the White House doesn't deserve criticism over this. They need to get a fucking backbone. The mindset of the Democrat Party in general is largely responsible for what happened (and by "mindset," I mean they're a bunch of pussies). Obama himself has to direct his attention towards shit that's actually important as president, so I highly doubt that he even knew what was going on by the time the shit hit the fan. But in the end that doesn't matter, because Fox is going to do everything it fucking can to make sure it all falls in his lap.
Fox News has long since moved past its "news" status. This is propaganda. You know how I can tell? I could send the following video with Maddow's take on the story to any one of my conservative friends/family members, and they will dismiss it outright without even watching it. I won't pretend that many liberals wouldn't do the same if sent a video to a Fox story, but Fox as at least earned its reputation (see: this story). Conservative media convinces its audience that every other news outlet lies, because they are liberals and that's what liberals do. Do they ever bother watching rival stations to confirm this? Of course not. They're liberals and they'll brainwash you. Maddow and other journalists like her can expose all they want, but Fox knows its audience, and its audience simply does not care. Maddow's smackdown of Fox is pretty epic. Just stop watching once Kent comes on.
To be fair, I'll give a shoutout to Fox's Shepard Smith. Smith, an actual journalist, said that he refused to run the edited video because "we did not and do not trust the source." Keep it classy, Shepard. It's a real shame that you'll be fired soon for being fair and balanced.
Camp ended for good on Saturday, and I'm already depressed about it. On Friday I sort of had a moment as I was cleaning up the ranges for the last time, when the smell of gun oil was emanating off my clothes and I heard nothing but the birds chirping and the wind blowing, and the significance of what I'll be missing really hit me hard. I nearly choked up, which kind of shocked me at the time because I'm not really emotional towards things that aren't my favorite television shows. That night we built a fire in this little wooded area near the tents and hung out as staff for the last time. At the end I felt like I had to say something, and so I pretty much just poured my heart out and told everyone how much I loved them and how much I'll miss making memories with them. I was getting teary and I felt like I was about to lose it, and so I had to end it a little more quickly than I wanted. But as soon as I was done, the entire staff got up almost simultaneously, and I was in the center of a massive hug. I got compliments on the speech afterwards from like three or four people, and overall it was a very satisfying ending, and oh god I don't really want to think about it anymore.
I don't like leaving blogposts with no actual content in them, so here's some Red Sparowes. This isn't connected to the story in any way, I simply discovered them recently and they're fucking badass.
I shouldn't care about Twilight. Everyone is allowed to have his or her own guilty pleasures, and I should just leave it alone. And I would, gladly, if its fans didn't take it so damn seriously and shove it in my fucking face so often. Hell, the series takes itself way too seriously. It calls itself the Twilight Saga for crying out loud. Star Wars doesn't even call itself a saga. And even Twilight fans should be sane enough to admit that Twilight is way below the music played in that trailer. I mean, Two Steps From Hell? Really? The most epic trailer music company ever formed, playing for Twilight? That makes me want to listen to Flameheart the next time I take a shit.
And Stephenie Meyer placed a quote from Shakespeare at the beginning of this book. I'm sure Shakespeare would be proud.
Yeah that's right, I've read the first chapter. And you can too. It's online for free. Favorite sentence:
"I panicked because Gran didn't know that I was in love with a vampire--nobody knew that--so how was I supposed to explain the fact that the brilliant sunbeams were shattering off his skin into a thousand rainbow shards like he was made of crystal or diamond?"
HOW COULD GRANDMA EVER UNDERSTAND MY BOYFRIEND'S BRILLIANT RAINBOW BEAMS OF CRYSTAL-LIKE DIAMONDS?
The beginning of this movie consisted of Bella moping around (surprise!). She was turning eighteen. And eighteen is... old? She was actually worried about becoming old, while Edward would always look the exact same since he doesn't age. Because he's a vampire, you know. Everyone else around Bella was celebrating, while Bella just looked at it as another excuse to hate herself. Buck up, kiddo! You're legal! Now at least Edward doesn't have to worry about going to jail!
So remember my review for the first Twilight? Twilight and New Moon are the exact same fucking movie. I wish I was exaggerating. In the first Twilight, Bella met Edward, dicked around with his vampire family, and then stood by and did nothing as the "good" vampires and "bad" vampires fought over her. In New Moon, Bella meets Jacob, dicked around with his werewolf family, and then stood by and did nothing as the "good" vampires, "bad" vampires, and werewolves all fight over her. My fingers are crossed for a mummy boyfriend in Eclipse.
"Oh Matthew, I hope I don't get into a situation where my life is in danger, I'm entirely powerless, and I need to depend on you and/or other boys to rescue me!"
"MMMMMMMEEEEERRRRRGHGHGHGRGHHRHGH!!!!"
"Tee hee, don't you try to almost kiss me you silly boy!"
Okay, maybe that's not entirely what the movie is. The rest is a blatant ripoff of Romeo and Juliet. At one point Edward thinks Bella is dead, so he tries to kill himself. He unfortunately does not succeed, as Bella came to him just in time. So, like Romeo and Juliet except less interesting. Normally, I don't have a problem with retellings of Shakespeare's plays. Sons of Anarchy is a fresh take on Hamlet. The difference is that Sons of Anarchy takes on a persona of its own. It has its own atmosphere, with its own characters, and its own plots. Meyer didn't even try with this. Edward and Bella are just as shallow and two-dimensional as Romeo and Juliet. The only "twist" she added on was metrosexual vampires, and that's a pretty bad twist because, let's be honest, vampires are pretty lame even at their coolest. Watch Blade.
I very rarely drink. I try to never do it at all. But I don't get to hang out with my high school friends very often, and a drinking game just sounded fun. We took a drink whenever a vampire was in slow motion. Take a drink whenever someone takes off his shirt. Take a drink whenever any member of the wolf pack, while in human form, howls or makes references about wolves. Take a drink whenever Edward cries. I stopped about halfway through the movie.
It's not exactly a secret that Twilight panders to the raging hormones of fifteen year old girls, such as when they photoshop fake abs into Jacob. But New Moon isn't even subtle about it anymore. Werewolves fucking hate shirts. After Edward breaks up with Bella, she decides to collapse on the forest floor in a fetal position like the victim she is. A few hours later, a werewolf finds her and brings her back to the search party. I was confused as to why Bella's father seemed extremely grateful, when a normal person probably would've been wondering why a boy with no shirt on was carrying his unconscious daughter out of a dark forest.
"Shirts are against our religion."
I am convinced that Stephanie Meyer tried to write herself in as Bella. So I am convinced that Stephanie Meyer has her share of mental disorders. Bella's self-loathing and constant willingness to sacrifice makes her especially vulnerable to being sucked into relationships with terrible people. Case in point: she still went back to her emo boyfriend at the end of the movie, even after he told her he never wanted to see her again. And Jacob the werewolf seems to have issues of his own to deal with. First of all, he's attracted to a girl like Bella. Here's the lowdown: Edward breaks up with Bella because he wants to protect her or something, I wasn't really paying attention. Bella leads Jacob on for half the fucking movie, and Jacob follows the whole way, even after she made it painfully clear that she doesn't want anything to do with him. God damn it, Jacob. Look at you. You could fuck any girl in the entire damn school if you wanted. Why did you decide to pursue the depressed, insecure attention whore who strings you along so she can feel better about herself? You're supposed to be the man in the Team Edward/Team Jacob feud. Grow a dick.
Bella is one screwed up bitch. She loves being the victim, and can't stand being in control of her own life. Every freakin' room she enters, there are a dozen people who want to kill her, and then a dozen more who fight to the death to protect her. All while she just stands by wide-eyed, making silent gasping noises to herself. She never does a thing. She never makes any decision for herself. Ever. Additionally, not only does she find her boyfriend's cannibalism sexually appealing, but once he breaks up with her, she goes and actively seeks out situations that put her life in danger. She went and hopped on a motorcycle with a stranger twice her age because she wanted a rush. She dove into the ocean off of a fucking cliff. She finds herself in love with a man who consumes human blood. I can't wait until they finally try to have sex with each other, so we can see Bella call Edward a pussy because he doesn't want to choke her or smack her around.
Have you ever been around someone who did something so unbelievably stupid, that you felt embarrassed for them? That's how I feel when I think about the fact that people enjoy Twilight. It makes me feel ashamed to be a human being. I've had fans tell me "Well you haven't read the books, so you can't really say anything!" I've read the first chapter okay? I know this shit. And from what I can tell, there really is no difference. It's just a bunch of whiny teenagers obsessing over the romanticist era without bothering to understand exactly what it is. Reading Romeo and Juliet over and over again while listening to Debussy or Chopin doesn't make you deep. It doesn't make you special. It is what normal human beings do every day. And they do it for the sake of enjoyment, not for the sake of fooling people into believing they have a personality. Fucking stop it.
My week off from camp started today. We'll go back next Sunday, and then we'll have another batch of scouts for one more week before it's over for good. Usually we do about five or six weeks every summer, but scouting doesn't have money anymore and the whole program is basically imploding, so we can only afford to do it four weeks this summer. It's very unfulfilling, and it doesn't feel like a complete year at all. Most of the veteran staff won't be coming back next year, including myself (school). Program Director Skippy has been entertaining kids at Camp Bunn since I was eleven years old. He's now my boss. He is one of the most hilarious and heartwarming people you could ever meet. He's been a huge influence on my life, and he's one of the main reasons why I decided to go work there in the first place. This is Skippy's last year too.
This year's been a huge letdown, honestly. The staff has gotten unbelievably lazy, both in work and in being social at night, and it's really just not as fun as the previous years at all. Me and a few others have been trying pick up some slack and encourage things, but it doesn't do much when no one is really inspired. I've known Camp Bunn for half the time I've been alive, and the best memories of my life are all there. It is very depressing that it all has to end with such a whimper.
Last night at firebowl, Amanda got up there and told all the visiting parents a little story from earlier that day. She explained that her day had been absolutely terrible, and she was just in a horrible mood. Then a little scout walked up to her, and gave her a poorly made bracelet, which he gives to his favorite staff member every year. Amanda was in front of this crowd looking like she was on the brink of tears, explaining that all she needed was a quick kick in the butt to remind her of why she was working there. I know it sounds cheesy as hell, but that right there is probably the best memory I'm going to take away from this year. I can complain all I want about how much the staff sucks, or how little I get paid, or how it seems like half the girls working there have annoying little crushes on me; but when it all boils down to it, I am having a fucking blast shooting guns with those kids. I was down on the shooting ranges for almost nine hours straight yesterday shooting off guns and making sure kids didn't kill themselves, and it was probably the most stressful and exhausting day I've ever had at camp. But even then, I still can't say it was all that bad. I don't have any right to complain, because I just have so much fun doing it. The look on a scout's face after pulling the trigger of a shotgun for the first time is one of the most hilarious and beautiful things you will ever see in your life.
I was fucking swamped yesterday at the rifle range. All day. They just. Kept. Coming. I'm the only staff member who is ever down there, so as you can imagine, it started getting pretty hectic. A scoutmaster popped up out of nowhere and just started helping me. He stuck around for hours, and I really don't know what I would've done without him. At one point I pulled him aside and said "Thanks a lot, I really appreciate you're doing." He looks at me and says, "No, I appreciate what you're doing. You're doing a lot for these kids, thank you." I'm going to take a lot away from Amanda's story for the simple fact that I could relate it to a similar experience on the exact same day. Leaving is really going to hurt.
