i hate rocky top!
Well, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, quite possibly most of the state of Alabama as the University of Alabama just took out the University of Tennessee, one of 'Bama's biggest (in my opinion THE biggest) rivalries.
Image courtesy of al.com.
Hey, Lee Corso & Kirk Herbstreit, how do you like that?!?! ROLL TIDE ROLL!!
Hey Vols, hey Vols! We just beat the hell out of you! Rammer jammer, yellow hammer, give 'em hell Alabama!!!
shameless
The only thing that I can say for this is… Oh. My. Redneck. I swear, it's not like this all over the South, just the "special" places.
I've got fifty bucks that puts that photo at a NASCAR racing event…
each & EVRY1
Just because I shared this story with my new grad school gal pals tonight over scrumptious Mediterranean food, I realized that I meant to post something earlier this week. Plus, it's not often that I get on a soapbox about the integration of faith and politics, but sometimes, there needs to be an intervention, whether divine or secular. 
Last April when I was getting my tag renewed from the state of Alabama, while I was still living in Washington, D.C., I chose to rid myself of my personalized tag and go with a standard tag. Upon that decision, the following conversation emerged:
vulcan's|muse's mother (mm): "They've got two kinds of tags now, which one do you want?"
vulcan's|muse (vm): "Two tags? What are they?"
mm: "Well, there's that old tag with the Stars Fell on something or another, and then there's the God Bless America tag."
vm: "I want the old one."
mm: "You don't want the God Bless America tag?"
vm: "No."
mm: "But why?"
vm: "I have no labels on my car, no stickers that suggest who I am… Having a tag like that in Washington, D.C. would lead others to believe that I'm a right wing conservative."
mm: "And what's wrong with that?"
vm: "Well, first of all, I'm not. And, there's plenty wrong with that… I don't need anything that points me out as one side or the other. I'd like to make it through intersections without being flipped off a few times."
mm: "Well, fine… I'll get you the old boring tag."
Well, here's the "old boring" tag: 
Here's the new religious "standard" tag: 
There are a multitude of sins that I could cover with this coercion of tag distribution that is going on in the state of Alabama, but I won't. But, there is one piece of this that just REALLY gets me steamed, and it lies in the bottom of the tag: God Bless America
Yes, I consider myself a person of faith. And yes, I hope that God does bestow blessings upon this country, but not on my country alone – to all of his creation. However, when this statement is made, it usually isn't made in the sense of God bless America, and everyone else too. No, it's God bless America, and sorry that you aren't apparently as "blessed" as we are.
There are a few fundamental questions that people should be asking themselves when they say or pray that God blesses America. When you pray for God's blessings on America, are you essentially praying that you will be more blessed than the person you meet on the street, speed by on the highway, or completely ignore despite their pain? Are you thanking God that you were "blessed" to live in America and not some other developing nation where they don't have the "blessings" of running water or heat and air? Are you deep down asking that God bless everyone, even the Iraqi insurgents, Saddam Hussein's followers, the terrorists in training to wreak havoc on America, Osama bin Laden? Because in all honesty, God gives everyone the same blessings. Our placement isn't blessing; it's geography. And, the last time I remember, Christ said that if you ignore a homeless man, despise an enemy, or petition for the death of an evil man, you are doing the same to Christ. In that way, we forsake Christ, our faith, and our "blessings."
So, seriously? Are you praying that God bless America? Or that God keep you safe from those that you are uncomfortable with or unable to handle? We are all God's children, and we are all given God's blessings… even those whom we feel don't deserve it. After all, it's not our place to judge.
rock star
‘…Sometimes, there just aren’t enough rocks.’
-Forrest Gump
rehab
As Amy Winehouse says, ‘They try to make me to go rehab, and I said, no, no, no.’ Apparently, the following fella went to rehab ‘down there in Alabamer’ [which clearly means he's not from the state, right?] and says that he will not do cocaine… however, he will drink that Tequila, and his girlfriend better watch out. This clip was TOO hilarious to not share.
Ahh, old videos, southern accents, and horrific senses of style… well, as Forrest Gump said, ‘they go together like peas and carrots.’
generation q
Today, as this Baby Buster/Gen Xer spoke with her Baby Boomer professor, the world of history was to be written in front of our eyes. As he spoke of the pathetic performances on the Western Civ mid-terms and compared them to the graduate seminar whose sole intent this semester is to try to objectify the term nationalism. I told him of my days working with youth, and how many of them had no idea what they wanted to be, and maybe, just maybe that’s why they weren’t performing, or becoming passionate about anything. And just then, he remember an op-ed in the New York Times today, that wrote about Generation Q. To be perfectly honest, I’ve lost count of what generation is what beyond my own, but this guy who wrote the article hit it dead on. Here are few important snippets that I enjoyed from the article:
But Generation Q may be too quiet, too online, for its own good, and for the country’s own good. When I think of the huge budget deficit, Social Security deficit and ecological deficit that our generation is leaving this generation, if they are not spitting mad, well, then they’re just not paying attention. And we’ll just keep piling it on them.
There is a good chance that members of Generation Q will spend their entire adult lives digging out from the deficits that we — the “Greediest Generation,� epitomized by George W. Bush — are leaving them.
…Generation Q would be doing itself a favor, and America a favor, if it demanded from every candidate who comes on campus answers to three questions: What is your plan for mitigating climate change? What is your plan for reforming Social Security? What is your plan for dealing with the deficit — so we all won’t be working for China in 20 years?
America needs a jolt of the idealism, activism and outrage (it must be in there) of Generation Q. That’s what twentysomethings are for — to light a fire under the country. But they can’t e-mail it in, and an online petition or a mouse click for carbon neutrality won’t cut it. They have to get organized in a way that will force politicians to pay attention rather than just patronize them.
Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy didn’t change the world by asking people to join their Facebook crusades or to download their platforms. Activism can only be uploaded, the old-fashioned way — by young voters speaking truth to power, face to face, in big numbers, on campuses or the Washington Mall. Virtual politics is just that — virtual.
Maybe that’s why what impressed me most on my brief college swing was actually a statue — the life-size statue of James Meredith at the University of Mississippi. Meredith was the first African-American to be admitted to Ole Miss in 1962. The Meredith bronze is posed as if he is striding toward a tall limestone archway, re-enacting his fateful step onto the then-segregated campus — defying a violent, angry mob and protected by the National Guard.
Above the archway, carved into the stone, is the word “Courage.� That is what real activism looks like. There is no substitute.
If you want, you can check out the entire op-ed here.
Protected: one in a million
passwordiness
So, I’ve decided that since this is my only outlet, and it’s a very public outlet, that I still need a chance to vent things that are only meant to be among close friends. From here on out, some posts might be password protected. If you know that you are one of those close friends, then gimme the shout, and I’ll give you the code.
