Certain mixes just don't work.

 There are certain things in this world that just need to be combined. I think purple and orange are an awesome color combo, and my best friend thinks that blueberries and peanut butter were made to be together. Go figure. There are also certain things that should never be put together. Ugg boots and shorts, for example. The perfect example of what should never be mixed, in my mind at least, is religion and politics. 

 Dear World,

Religion is like a penis. It's fine to have one and it's fine to be proud of it, but please don't whip it out in public and start waving it around... and PLEASE don't try to shove it down my child's throat.

Sincerely, tired of hearing your religious guff

  
   The fake letter above from a site called Dear Blank Please Blank. If you haven't been, don't. Its as bad as Facebook when it comes to being a time suck. That being said, I love the quote, and agree with it completely. 
  I am what you would call a sceptic. About everything. Almost. I do believe in a great high heel, Hitchcock and mint chocolate chip ice cream. But about religion, I have my serious doubts. This is not to say that I think religion is a bad thing. I think during the Middle Ages, it saved peoples sanity, and still is a great community thing to have. I also think some people really need religion and faith to live their lives. I am just not one of those people. I am not sure there is a God, but I'm also not sure there isn't, so I'm not going to spend my life praying to him, but I'm also not going to be a terrible person. Its actually pretty easy. I also don't mind religious people. There is just a couple things that truly drives me crazy. 
  When they try and shove it down my throat. I have my own life, own beliefs. I don't believe yours, so don't try and force me with with threats of something I don't believe it. For all you who don't understand me: threatening an atheist with hell will not make them convert. They don't believe in hell, so this is a really lame threat. 
  When they use it as a political talking point. Lets make this clear. When someone is running for a political position, such as president, I look at their views on economics, human rights, foreign policy, and whether they have the balls to actually lead our country. I don't care if they have religion, until they use it as a reason to be elected. As soon as someone says they should be elected because America need a true Christian president, I lose interest. America needs a president that can fix our screwed up country, a country which actually has a law that states that we need to honor the separation of Church and State, something Republicans seem to be ignoring lately. I don't care if you are Christian, I bet it makes you happy and helps your life. I do, however, worry about your sanity if you think, say, that holding a two day prayer circle will bring rain. That is not someone I want leading the country. 
  Out of all the idiots running for president in the Republican party, three of them have said things that have made me seriously worry about them and their religious beliefs, and how it would affect their presidency. First: Michelle Bachmann telling Rolling Stone magazine that she became a tax attorney because her husband told her too, and she did even though she didn't want to because the Bible tells her "submit, wives, submit". I think that if she sticks to that idea, the first female president would be a huge blow to women's rights. Oh the irony. Also her believe that gay people are in "personal bondage" that we need to save them from themselves in her "pray the gay away" program. Second: Ron Paul and his creationism. Creationists worry me to the core, and there is a logical reason for that, I promise. Believing the creation story means that you are forcing yourself to ignore heaps and heaps of scientific evidence in the name of your religion, religion that has been disproved before (Galileo, anyone?). It makes me wonder what else that person would be willing to ignore because it challenges his beliefs, in a world where science is constantly challenging beliefs. Third: everything about Rick Perry scares me, actually. He is a ridiculous person on a whole new level. As if his political ideas weren't bad enough, his born again attitude and obsession is on the verge of terrifying. The idea that the man might be president gives me nightmares. 
  Maybe I am putting to much blame on these people, though. A lot of America wants a person with religion in charge. As long as its their religion though. If its a slightly different belief, there are problems. Even Obama, who I like and respect (mostly), plays up the religion card with a couple "God bless America"s, or thanking God. This doesn't bug me, because he keeps it to that. Religion is his private thing, like it should be, like his smoking is. He does it, but he doesn't force others to as well. As soon as he uses the Bible to stop a bill though, I'm getting annoyed. 
  -teenageliberal

I'm busy. Live with it.

   My original plan was that junior year is a bitch, so I would write during summer. I didn't. This was noticed. So. Its not that there wasn't anything interesting to write about this summer. There were sooo many things I could talk about, but I was totally uninspired to actually write about it, although I have no idea why. Normally ranting to the world wide internet about everything that bugs me in the political world today is my idea of fun. Obviously the huge amount of free time I had to actually write made me not want to, because as soon as my packed, scary senior year started I could not wait to run back to the internet and continue my obsession of being a political troll. So lets begin!
   Just an overview: Right now President Barack Obama is "in charge" of the United States. I put "in charge" in quotations because I am one of the liberals who believe that he is playing pet to the Republicans. President Obama, in my opinion, is a good man, and a good president, or he would be if he wasn't so desperate to make everyone like him. Which is never going to happen. No matter how much he rolls over for the Republicans, they will dislike him. I think Bill Maher put it best, "Hes the wrong age, the wrong party, the wrong color." Bill Maher, who I don't always agree with, because I think he can be a bit of a douche-bag, and even to liberal for me, I really agree with on this, and with another comment he made, when he was talking about Republicans not supporting the bills they wrote up after Obama began to support them. He said, "The entree isn't the problem, they just don't like the waiter." That, in my eyes, is all too true. 
   I do have hope for Obama, though. I will be voting for him again, come November, because I will be 18 by then and able to vote, and also because I believe in him as a president. In his recent campaign he has been mentioning all the stuff he has given the Republicans in exchange for their agreement on something he wants to do, and how they always change their minds right before they have to help him, but after they have been served. Eg, he has deported more people than any other president in history. He has tightened border patrol. He has cut budgets, given grants, and sold out to a major corporation, all at the urging of the Republicans, and yet they screw him every chance they get, even if its on passing bills they themselves came up with and supported. I hope, if he gets re-elected, he will behave as a president in the country that needs help, and not as a politician hoping to win a popularity contest. 
   Speaking of popularity contests... There are currently 16 Republican candidates running for president for 2012, each one more ridiculous than the last. Here are my favorites: Michelle Bachmann, who I seriously hope is running for a joke, as she makes Sarah Palin look good at fact checking; Ron Paul, who is running as a Republican, claims he is a Libertarian, and who has ideas about privatizing businesses and making the government smaller that honestly makes me worry; Mitt Romney, who is either a total idiot, or very good at pretending to be; Rick Santorum, the most homophobic asshole to hold the spotlight, which was received well by the gay community (Google "Santorum", I dare you); and then of course, Sarah Palin, who isn't actually running, but she has a bus with her name on it and is visiting all the red states, so at this point we're all waiting for the day she announces so we can pretend to be surprised, then get Tina Fey back to mock her again. I'm not even going to MENTION Rick Perry, as that will get me  into a rant I don't have the time or energy for, so all I will say on him is this: All the other Republican candidates look normal next to Rick Perry. 
   While the Republicans scrambling for a job none of them can handle is funny, there have been a lot of very serious things happening in the world today. My heart goes out to everyone still suffering today in Haiti and Japan, just because its not headline news anymore doesn't mean its rainbows and unicorns over there. More later on the Republican candidates, though.
   -teenageliberal

10 years

   10 years ago today, I was seven, just starting second grade. I had long blond hair and refused to wear anything but dresses. And ten years ago today my country was attacked in the biggest terrorist attack on our soil to date. I had no idea.
  Some may criticize my parents choice not to tell me and my brother, who was four at the time. One woman actually told my mom it was "child abuse" to not make us aware of what was happening around us. Now that I am older, though, and know what happened ten years ago, and all of the horrors that followed, I am very grateful to my parents from protecting me that day. As an empathetic child, it would scare, upset and confuse me. That being said, they couldn't complete hide it. I lived in San Francisco. While my school had decided to hide it from the younger students, it was hard to miss the fear and sadness around me. When we tried to go out to dinner, everything was closed. The city mourned with flags and black clothing.
   I was loosely told at the age of 11 what happened, and by loosely I mean I was told that bad men had crashed planes into important buildings in New York City. I was not told the death count, or about the wars that followed it. After that, I slowly got details from various people. By the time I was 13, visiting New York for the first time, I was able to visit Ground Zero and know what happened there. Seeing the area, the people crying there, effected me more than I ever thought it would.
   When earlier this year, President Obama announced that Osama bin Laden, the man responsible for the horrors we as a country faced ten years ago, was dead, I admit, I was happy. Bin Laden being dead wouldn't bring back the people he had killed that day, but we hadn't given up on finding him. The people celebrating with parties I found a little disturbing, and really disrespectful, but I got it. Not only had he killed so many September 11, 2001, but he had made us feel us unsafe in our own homes. He had also taught young children in America new terms no kids should know, but way too many do, such as "terrorist attack" "Al Quada" and "Taliban", while teaching them that people do terrible things in the name of hate, power and religion.
  However, today I would prefer to forget all that. Today, it's been ten years. Yes, we are still at war, but today isn't about that. While the heroes and the dead from the wars should be honored, today is about the people who were not involved in war, its about the people who were at the wrong place at the wrong time. It's not about the politics, not about what this attack started. It's not even about the attack. It's about the people who are living without a spouse, parents who lost a child, and children who grew up without a parent. There are way too many, and in the rage and blame, they tend to be forgotten. These forgotten people are the real heroes in my eyes, and deserve more respect than we can ever give them.
    -teenageliberal

Really, Obama?

We put the president of Egypt in power, supporting his way to a dictatorship. We bought the Taliban their weapons, then were shocked when they went power crazy.
In the early days of our country, we fought an important civil war, that changed the course of our country and it's politics. We asked for help, and didn't get any. That was for the better. We needed that war, and we still reference it when talking about the strength of our country. Obama has mentioned it in his speeches. So why, President Obama, are you trying to get involved in Libya's civil war? They need that war.
They need that war. That war is the rebellion of the people, a much needed rebellion to change the course of their fucked politics. This is the people getting what they need. We did that, and we needed that. It sucks that the last resort they could think of was war. What sucks more is that Obama doesn't leave them alone. When we invaded Iraq, we had to stick around for a long time to help them rebuild their government, and retrain their military. The country and the people were a mess, and we felt obligated to help, which was only right. But after what happened in Egypt, do we have the arrogance to believe we can rebuild another country's government?
President Obama, I get that you want to help, you want to make the world better. Lets focus on America. Namely, Wallstreet. Rebuilding the economy in the US is going to help. I hate it, but the modern world runs on money. That's what you need to focus on. Not invading yet another country that is not technically our concern.
-teenliberal

The problem with being a teenager...

   There are benefits to being a teenager. We can be irrational, immature, nasty in general, and all this will be waved aside as "teenage hormones". There is also drawbacks. For one, those evil "teenage hormones" are real, and actually evil. The thing I hate the most though, is the stuff I can't do because of my age. When I tell people older than myself that I want to go into politics, there is two reactions; either they think that I'm one of the idiots whose basic knowledge is who our president is, or they start quizzing me on my beliefs, my knowledge on politicians, and the state of politics today. I don't mind people asking me my beliefs. I love talking about my opinions. See the name of this blog if you don't believe me. What I don't like is people I barely know quizzing my intelligence, and judging me by the mistakes my generation and it's role models have made. 
   I hope this will change. If you ever happen to watch the news, or glance at a newspaper, you will know about the revolution in Egypt and Libya. Rioting in the streets, dictators being removed from their places of power, people finally getting fed up with the obvious corruption. Who are the people rejecting this awful status quo? My generation, teenagers and young adults. They started a revolution, deciding what they wanted their future to be, not letting the politicians decide for them. This is something I hope teenagers in America get this bug of wanting a different future, wanting new politics and new ideas. Seeing what we really need for us, and going for it. Not what Wallstreet needs, not what the corporations ruling politicians today need, what we need. I have lists of what we need. And we are not getting that right now. Whats wrong with this picture? 
                                                                       -teenliberal

When is respect blindly due?

The Bible says, "Honor thy father, and thy mother", a direct order to show respect where it is due, respect for the people who raised you, took care of you, and will support you in life. I have a lot of respect for my parents, and agree, even as a teenager, that this is an important part of society, valuing the home and parents. Parents and your childhood is directly related to personality and the rest of your life. I don't believe, however, that some parents should get respect purely for being parents. While I don't believe respect is purely earned, that everyone deserves some respect from the beginning, I also know respect is the easiest thing to lose. 
   There are people who should be respected immediately, that should earn respect from strangers, even if they don't know what they have done personally. An American soldier is one of these people, who deserve respect during a first meeting, even you don't support the war. You don't have to support what they are fighting for, as long as you remember that they are fighting it and deserve our respect. A senior citizen is another individual who deserves complete and total respect from anyone who talks to them. Being rude to old people is a whole new level of disrespect, and way too common in our country. My grandfather once told me that you didn't have to stop and talk to a senior, just smile and you'll make his day. I still remember that, and still smile at seniors when I pass them. I always get a smile back. 
  However, there are people I have no respect for. After the paragraph before this, about smiling at old people, I'm sorry to get pissy and political again, but I have to say this: I have zero respect for Rush Limbauh. I am not saying I don't have respect for the people that  listen to him, or even the people that believe his every word. I am sure that their nice people, even if I don't agree with their political beliefs. I have relatives who listen to him, who believe him and Glen Beck to the end of the earth, and though I argue with them, and strongly believe they have no idea what their talking about, I do respect them, not only as relatives but also as good people. 
  I don't respect Limbauh, or any of the other FOX crazy posse, because of what they spread, and what they represent. They tell lies as facts, act like kind people while saying horribly offensive things for the world to hear, and then act shocked and offended when their lies are proved such. I don't respect these people as journalists, as political experts, as intelligent thinkers, or even as good human beings. I don't see them doing any good for the world, even a little bit of community service to redeem them in my mind in any way. They, in my mind, are purely terrible human beings. If someone can prove me wrong, show me that one of these people have a soul, I would apologize for these thoughts. But I don't see that happening. 
  I also don't have any respect for politicians and businessmen that corrupt their line of work through stealing, cheating, and lying. I hope to go into politics, and every time I tell someone, they think I am going to see Capital Hill and sell out. I don't have respect for the politicians that made this the main stream method. Or the businessmen that gave themselves million dollar bonuses in the middle of laying off 12 year employees. These are people who I don't respect as my elders, or even as fellow humans. I think you need souls to be a human.  
  What I am getting at, respect is a hard thing to just know. It can be lost quickly, and is hard to earn back. Respect is power, however. No matter how I feel about the FOX team, they are highly respected by a large part of viewer. Why, I will never understand. Many parents are very highly valued members of society, which is why there is such shock when they are arrested for abusing their families behind locked doors. Then there are parents, teachers, soldiers, even the rare politician that deserve our total respect, for what their doing, and what they are trying for the future.
                                                             -teenageliberal