Good lord....time flies when you have fun.....or is it that it has felt like an eternity to get here. So much so that I had already forgotten I have a blog.
Now what has happened since 2006....that is only 6 years. How hard can it be??
Now let me see...I have
- gotten 2 more kids
- moved to Germany
- built a house
- changed jobs
- started a small company of my own
To be totally honest, I do not even remember WHY I set up a blog to start with...perhaps as a little diary of my own. To be totally honest, I do not care if anyone else ever reads this, but it might be nice for me to later reminisce.
So....what is the world around me today....I am a father of 3, working in Germany in a job that pays the bills but living in a brand new house we had built to meet our needs. Sure, I only house-sit it for now since bank owns my soul for the next millenia or so.
I still play pool....but I think I have gone back in my capabilities....playing probably worse now than years ago....lack of practise I say. Having a big family, house-projects, spending good 2h per day in commute for work and having million other commitments, it takes it's toll and this time it is my skills on the pooltable (if I ever had any) that have suffered.
but enough about that mundane stuff......I am still kinda wondering where I should take this blog to....what direction. At the moment my thinking is dedicating it to my pet-peeves....just pick a topic that has managed to tick me off or managed to get me going on a rant for some reason (positive or negative)... Sure, I think I can try that...
let me start it off by something easy
US POLITICS
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The presidential elections are coming in the US and the entire political-scene is at each others throats...again. Why should you care, I hear you ask. Thanks....a good question. I do actually not. Well not that much really. I only get really annoyed when their president starts making decisions that have direct impact on our daily lives here. So during the reign of GWB, I was vocal about this in a number of more or less politically inclined discussion forums. Starting a war in Iraq has a direct impact on us here, but it was more the process of how we ended up there that really ticked me off.
But that is water under the bridge....you can not change that anymore. Now we have to deal with the consequences.
Today however...I am just baffled. The readyness and the willingness of BOTH parties to go at each others' jugular is just beyond my comprehension! Whether it is about whether Obama has a birth-certificate or Romney pays 10% or 20% in taxes. At the time of elections, the country seems more divided than any other time. The only thing that seems to be common is the belief that US reigns supreme and is beyond reproach on anything. The country is the best country in the world on everything and if you claim otherwise you are probably a communist or a traitor.
Just saw an interesting documentary on Finnish television yesterday. Actually it was an american production, but still. It was a documentary on country severely divided in more ways than one. In the documentary they interviewed many different people from many parts of the country and what shone clear through, is that civil discourse on politics is practically impossible in the country. The whole attitude of "you are either with us or against us". So if you do not whole-heartedly accept the political agenda of one party then you can not participate. Same goes on both sides. And both parties are not interested in any kind of compromises. By default it seems that if a D comes up with an idea, R will reject it with review and vice versa.
I blame the US political system. I claim that the 2 party-system in power there (sure other parties are allowed, but any other parties have about the same chance of survival as a snowman eating an ice-cream in the center of our sun). The 2-party system has managed to indoctrinate the people so strongly "me good, they is bad!" that any dissenting opinions are ridiculed, shot down or marginalized.
This is getting very annoying. If you could take the budgets these parties have for the electoral-campaign and re-direct it to something useful...we as humanity could achieve wonderful things. What annoys me even more is the negative campaigning.....and the worst of all....IT WORKS! Where are the principles of human decency when you have to resort in your campaigning to tactics where you spend more time on telling the people why they should NOT elect the other guy than you actually spend telling people on how to move forwards and how you plan to take the country forwards.
Anyway....that is just my 0.02 for today....have to do something else now....until next time...perhaps a little earlier than 6 years from now.
cheers,
kimmo
