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Thursday, January 15, 2009

Come January 20, 2009, I will be celebrating the fact that I won't have to call W "president" anymore. I never voted for him, and still maintain that he was never my president because he represented pretty much none of the things in which I believed.

One thing about his speech that I didn't understand: "I hope you can agree that I was willing to make tough decisions." Is that supposed to a trait that only he was privy to? Which of our presidents was not willing or never had to make tough decisions during their tenures?

I do feel sorry for W. Just a teensy bit. He's gotten the lowest approval rating since Nixon, and that's after people voted for him for two terms. I still remember discussing the Iraq invasion with a fellow classmate who was (is?) Republican. He kept saying that we didn't know or didn't have the information then as we do now. I asked, was it really because we lacked the info, or were people willing to overlook at the information that was there? If it wasn't there, then why did the UN and other European nations come to a totally different conclusion? Those who supported W so heartily and claimed to have x-ray visions of WMDs so quickly pulled their rug of support under him.

We can blame W, but many should look in the mirror at themselves. No one else to blame.

In any case, I look forward to the day when W's and his smarmy sidekick Cheney's pictures are off of the wall at our office.

thus spake merserene on January 15, 2009 23:56 | link | comments (1) |
file under politicking

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Remember that book, "All I Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten"? It's true. Except maybe I'd like to substitute junior high for kindergarten. As I go along in life, I've become increasingly convinced that what happened in junior high continues to happen in daily life, no matter how old one gets.

Take my current office politics. I may have totally shot myself in the foot by publicly outing someone's, shall we say, BS. But my gut screamed for it to be done, and it was over one of the most ridiculous reasons known to mankind.

I didn't get invited to a party.

Not that I'm suggesting it would be completely ludicrous for another to leave out someone as fabulously as me from her party. (Just typing that made me giggle!) What made it ludicrous was the person's reaction to being called out.

So here's how it went down. Read on if you like drama. X is having a joint birthday party with her possibly gay friend. X tells M (that's me) tentatively about her party and asks M to make sure to bring M's boyfriend along. X has met M's boyfriend only a few times (but FYI, M's boyfriend is outgoing, a lot of fun, and apparently a favorite with gay men). X sends out a formal invite on Facebook to everyone else in the office except M, but somehow includes M's boyfriend on the list. M's boyfriend gets offended (as does M) and tells X he won't go without M (like he should have!). X tries to ha-ha it off, tells M's boyfriend that M has been invited, and apologizes to M's boyfriend that it was "obviously inadvertent mistake," even though M is her co-worker. Two days later, X again messages M's boyfriend that "you" can come to the party now. M's boyfriend gets more offended and tells X she shouldn't be apologizing to him. X then does what one with a guilty conscience does: X messages M's boyfriend again, lies about having apologized to M privately, badmouths M's boyfriend as if he's the bad guy, but ends her message by saying we are both still invited anyway and a smiley face. M gets tired of being quiet, of being referred to as if she didn't exist, and of being treated as a doormat on other occasions by X. M thinks this gets stinikier by the moment because M never heard a peep from X, and X dares to badmouth her boyfriend! M struggles with the decision to publicly call out X on her BS, figures what the hell, and tells X publicly on Facebook that M didn't mind not being invited but it was uncool for X to lie about her apology.

Got it? Me neither. Why did any of that have to happen in the first place? A smiley face does not genuineness or sincerity make. In any case, it's X's party and she can do whatever she wants. But to try to cover up her actions, lie, and point the finger at someone I care about...that smacks of a guilty conscience. And of a totally irrational mind. There must be some great reason why she went through all that trouble for something so ridiculous. I've been trying to figure out why but maybe I just can't. Perhaps I should be flattered that I can inspire such irrationality in people. Maybe because I refuse to play stupid politics and buddy up to X like everyone else, it must've meant I am a threat to her. I can only arrive at such a conclusion because this past week, another co-worker tells me that people know not to mess with me because I look like I can bust their balls.

Yikes. I swear I don't bite! Unless you give me a reason to, like lying and attacking my peeps.

So for now I am forced to play in junior high and wait for the reprecussions of my own actions, as I share many co-workers and friends with X who may take her side. But unlike in junior high, I'm no longer a victim.