A while back, some of you may remember a little video I posted of Jason Castro…
Well, not only has it been resubmitted to youtube.com, AOL video, Truevo Video and a host of other blogs, it has also been linked from the official American Idol forums and nearly every other Jason Castro/American Idol forum out there.
Sorry my bandwidth was nearly 12 Gb last month Jimm…
So I found this editorial online and thought it was oddly insightful and interesting. The basic premise… don’t forget the angry white man in 2008. It’s written by Gary Hubbell of the Apsen Times:
There is a great amount of interest in this year’s presidential elections, as everybody seems to recognize that our next president has to be a lot better than George Bush. The Democrats are riding high with two groundbreaking candidates — a woman and an African-American — while the conservative Republicans are in a quandary about their party’s nod to a quasi-liberal maverick, John McCain.
Each candidate is carefully pandering to a smorgasbord of special-interest groups, ranging from gay, lesbian and transgender people to children of illegal immigrants to working mothers to evangelical Christians.
There is one group no one has recognized, and it is the group that will decide the election: the Angry White Man. The Angry White Man comes from all economic backgrounds, from dirt-poor to filthy rich. He represents all geographic areas in America, from urban sophisticate to rural redneck, deep South to mountain West, left Coast to Eastern Seaboard.
His common traits are that he isn’t looking for anything from anyone — just the promise to be able to make his own way on a level playing field. In many cases, he is an independent businessman and employs several people. He pays more than his share of taxes and works hard.
The victimhood syndrome buzzwords — “disenfranchised,” “marginalized” and “voiceless” — don’t resonate with him. “Press ‘one’ for English” is a curse-word to him. He’s used to picking up the tab, whether it’s the company Christmas party, three sets of braces, three college educations or a beautiful wedding.
He believes the Constitution is to be interpreted literally, not as a “living document” open to the whims and vagaries of a panel of judges who have never worked an honest day in their lives.
The Angry White Man owns firearms, and he’s willing to pick up a gun to defend his home and his country. He is willing to lay down his life to defend the freedom and safety of others, and the thought of killing someone who needs killing really doesn’t bother him.
The Angry White Man is not a metrosexual, a homosexual or a victim. Nobody like him drowned in Hurricane Katrina — he got his people together and got the hell out, then went back in to rescue those too helpless and stupid to help themselves, often as a police officer, a National Guard soldier or a volunteer firefighter.
His last name and religion don’t matter. His background might be Italian, English, Polish, German, Slavic, Irish, or Russian, and he might have Cherokee, Mexican, or Puerto Rican mixed in, but he considers himself a white American.
He’s a man’s man, the kind of guy who likes to play poker, watch football, hunt white-tailed deer, call turkeys, play golf, spend a few bucks at a strip club once in a blue moon, change his own oil and build things. He coaches baseball, soccer and football teams and doesn’t ask for a penny. He’s the kind of guy who can put an addition on his house with a couple of friends, drill an oil well, weld a new bumper for his truck, design a factory and publish books. He can fill a train with 100,000 tons of coal and get it to the power plant on time so that you keep the lights on and never know what it took to flip that light switch.
Women either love him or hate him, but they know he’s a man, not a dishrag. If they’re looking for someone to walk all over, they’ve got the wrong guy. He stands up straight, opens doors for women and says “Yes, sir” and “No, ma’am.”
He might be a Republican and he might be a Democrat; he might be a Libertarian or a Green. He knows that his wife is more emotional than rational, and he guides the family in a rational manner.
He’s not a racist, but he is annoyed and disappointed when people of certain backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes of their race. He’s willing to give everybody a fair chance if they work hard, play by the rules and learn English.
Most important, the Angry White Man is pissed off. When his job site becomes flooded with illegal workers who don’t pay taxes and his wages drop like a stone, he gets righteously angry. When his job gets shipped overseas, and he has to speak to some incomprehensible idiot in India for tech support, he simmers. When Al Sharpton comes on TV, leading some rally for reparations for slavery or some such nonsense, he bites his tongue and he remembers. When a child gets charged with carrying a concealed weapon for mistakenly bringing a penknife to school, he takes note of who the local idiots are in education and law enforcement.
He also votes, and the Angry White Man loathes Hillary Clinton. Her voice reminds him of a shovel scraping a rock. He recoils at the mere sight of her on television. Her very image disgusts him, and he cannot fathom why anyone would want her as their leader. It’s not that she is a woman. It’s that she is who she is. It’s the liberal victim groups she panders to, the “poor me” attitude that she represents, her inability to give a straight answer to an honest question, his tax dollars that she wants to give to people who refuse to do anything for themselves.
There are many millions of Angry White Men. Four million Angry White Men are members of the National Rifle Association, and all of them will vote against Hillary Clinton, just as the great majority of them voted for George Bush.
He hopes that she will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, and he will make sure that she gets beaten like a drum.
Because it fixed the bug where my iTunes Artwork Screensaver isn’t tinted red on my secondary display. Thanks Apple for paying attention to the little things!
This weekend Ann and I attended a marriage retreat put on by our church and our lead pastor, Steve Stroope. Unlike a lot of marriage seminars/conferences/retreats that I’ve seen and/or attended, it was not content driven. Instead Ann and I were given direction, guidance and time to dream individually, compare said dreams, and then develop strategies together to accomplish them. On top of that we were encouraged to spend as much time together as possible (including an assigned date last night-we could do whatever we wanted, as long as we did it together).
The biggest little “nugget” that I walked away with (other than realizing that Ann and I are on the same page on darn near everything dream-wise) was this from our worship pastor, Danny Davis:
There is no radical difference in my life if I get everything I want or if I get nothing I want. Knowing this frees me up to spend my energy and time making sure Ann has her needs met.
This weekend also marked another large milestone. It was the first time we were away from Lilybeth overnight. She did really well while Grand Ma watched her apparently. That said, she would not, under any circumstances, go down for a nap after we got home this afternoon… that is until Ann let her fall asleep while she was lying on Ann’s chest while Ann was lying on the couch watching the NFL Pro Bowl. I’ve never seen my wife happier than when I walked by the couch just now.
I signed onto Last.fm today for the first time in a long time and I noticed a new “Recommended Videos” section. So I took a peek at what Last.fm was recommending to me, and lo and behold this Fatboy Slim video was on it… I love this thing:
I figured it was about time I invited other people to participate around here, so I decided to ask a little question:
What are some of your favorite single lines from songs, and why?
I’ll start us off with a couple:
“I’m only faking, when I get it right.” – I’ve always liked this line because as a self-taught man there’s a lot of moments where you’re pretty sure you have no idea what you’re doing, but it seems to work out alright in the end.
“No need for tomorrow when you can’t find today.” – This is a song I’ve been listening to more recently… As the biggest dreamer in the world it took me a while to figure out that if I don’t actively participate in what’s going on in my world today, I’ll never reach those dreams. As it turns out, dreams take hard work.
“The only thing I’ll ever ask of you, you’ve got to promise not to stop when I say when.” – This one always makes me think of Ann. Just like the aforementioned dreams, marriage is a tough job. There are gonna be times when it doesn’t seem like it’s worth it, and you just want to throw in the towel. I’m lucky enough to have a woman that won’t let me quit.
BTW, if you don’t know the above songs – email me and I’ll send you something to listen to…
