Thinking of the national scene, and the international scene has got me down. Maybe I should be thinking of my more local scene.

I do live in a pretty nice city, in a pretty nice area. Maybe I should narrow my focus and concentrate on my insular town.

I got myspace spammed with a local website: www.ontheedgeoflaco.com

It’s a homey website, talking about where the garage sales are and what kind of community events are upcoming.

Also, last night, I managed to paint one wall of my living room and wash my dog. That wore me out, so I couldn’t finish transcribing the recipe for peach cobbler I had created out of two other recipes.

We had a birthday potluck at work yesterday–our first–and the cobbler was a hit. Therefore, the recipe was worth retaining.

Also, the crib arrived on Tuesday and is in it’s box waiting to be assembled.

So manymany things happening. Relevant, important things. The dog truly needed a bath and a peach cobbler is a thing of beauty.

And yet these things are very mundane. Contemplating the voter fraud activities of ACORN is a little more exciting, but less wholesome.

Perhaps I should have a sub-blog as part of this website, “Little House in The Foothills”

Our house is little. And perhaps it would be worthwhile to celebrate the nano-events of my life as a point of perspective.

Or maybe…or maybe…I should just read more books.

I’m feeling a certain regret for becoming an informed citizen.

Talking with a staunch democrat friend, I told her that I thought  Obama would probably win and that maybe it was a good thing: “Maybe people wouldn’t be so mad.”

“ See, I feel like the anger is coming from the right,” she said.

She was talking about this:

The Secret Service is following up on media reports today that someone in the crowd at a McCain/Palin event suggested killing Barack Obama, according to Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley. The shout of “kill him” followed a Sarah Palin rant on Obama’s relationship with radical Chicagoan Bill Ayers.

Assuming that is an accurate report, shouting murderous intentions is pretty angry. No doubt a rally for McCain is a republican site. So, there is some right anger going on. 

But I’ve been hearing so much rage against Bush for so long, personally. I’ve had liberal friends describe violent and humiliating things they would like to do the the current president. Do I think they would actually do  such things? no. But I am amazed to find these usually rational people be so full of destructive ‘bad energy.’

And now we are at the election. Almost there. I see this old anger directed at McCain, and my homegirl Palin.

What is up with this? I hate to continue to spread these nasty things, but here is some ofwhat I’m talking about:

In a sign of increasing nastiness on the left, supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama have been booing rivals John McCain and Sarah Palin, and even screaming “liar!” — with no response from Obama.

Okay, screaming “liar!” about the opponent is not so bad. But there is more. Michelle Malkin chronicles what she’s found. That post is a comparison of left rage vs. right rage. She, like me, is a conservative. She has collected a bunch of nasty things about Palin and McCain, and reaches back to show the Bush-rage that I’ve been noticing too.

I wanted to find a quote to paste in here, but I just can’t…it’s so distasteful. Read it if you are feeling very balanced, but if you don’t want a downer skip it.

I find this rage incomprehensible. Passion about an issue, I understand. But how do these people, who claim to be so interested in “serving the common good” (a phrase I see repeated and repeated in democrat literature in my community) justify this kind of nastiness?

A lefty femme does admit (an act of honesty) that she enraged by Palin:

What I’ve written on this site about Palin so far has been pretty restrained, considering what I feel for her privately could be described as violent, nay, murderous, rage. When Palin spoke on Wednesday night, my head almost exploded from the incandescent anger boiling in my skull. And I’m not the only one! I had simultaneous IM conversations with many friends, who said things like, “she seems like a fucking monster” and “this feminist wants to murk that idiotic c*nt.”

The tone of the comments on our Palin acceptance speech live blog was pretty similar; in fact, this comment says it all: “I want to punch her in the face and ruin her sh*t. **** her for ruining this historic moment. THANKS SARAH, THE HOTTEST VP.”

[I have censored the language, sorry it’s not a direct quote. Go to the link for the full text]

I see anger from the left, and my friend sees it from the right. It’s not really possible to say which is stonger.

What IS possible to say is, to quote my childcare training, “It’s not OKAY.”

It’s time for a little refresher course:

Expressing your angry feelings in an assertive—not aggressive—manner is the healthiest way to express anger. To do this, you have to learn how to make clear what your needs are, and how to get them met, without hurting others. Being assertive doesn’t mean being pushy or demanding; it means being respectful of yourself and others.

Anger can be suppressed, and then converted or redirected. This happens when you hold in your anger, stop thinking about it, and focus on something positive. The aim is to inhibit or suppress your anger and convert it into more constructive behavior. The danger in this type of response is that if it isn’t allowed outward expression, your anger can turn inward—on yourself. Anger turned inward may cause hypertension, high blood pressure, or depression.

Let’s get real people. Who are we helping with this kind of rage?  Step back, take a breath, and remember it will all be over in less than a month.

So, basically, just this year I got all excited about the election.

And it looks like my team is losing. I could give the links that support that assessment, but I am too depressed.

I guess my newly acquired status as informed citizen has to find a new outlet.

Perhaps I can stay up on women’s issues. I have been reading what IWF.org has to say, and it’s an interesting perspective.

Or maybe I can try to wade through the mess of info about what the heck is happening with the ecoomy. I’m trying to get to the bottom of it, but it’s murky.

I’m sort of too bummed to work it out.

I guess when you get high, there is a come-down. I’ve still got my McCain/Palin lawn sign out, but it’s mostly a token now.

UPDATE: Chris suggests I watch some Fred and Ginger. “That was what they did in the Great Depression! It should be good enough for you.”

http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit

There is a precedent of president’s whose last name begins with ‘Mc’: McKinley was elected in 1897

McKinley is best known to me for having a mountain misnamed after him. That big ol’ alaskan mountain, you know.

And McCain has an alaskan running mate, you know.

But McKinley is also known for being killed in office. He died early. And his VP Teddy Roosevelt, was touted as being inexperienced. But McCain has said in speeches that he admired Teddy Roosevelt.

I’d just like to say, McCain. Take your vitamins and keep your eye out. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to the POTUS.

So, Barack Obama has a unique name in the ranks of presidents. He has said “I don’t look like other presidents”

But I the fact is, there has not been a president in living memory whose name ends in a vowel.

Perhaps americans like the security of names which end in the finality of a consonant. It’s reassuring.

Excepting the ‘sometimes y’ from vowel status, the last president with a vowel at the end of their last name was Coolidge.

But let’s be honest, that is a SILENT vowel. There is only one president whose name truly in a vowel sound:

Monroe: elected in 1817, he is the lone vowel ending president.

I’m not sure Obama will be able to face the challenge.

I’ve been watching so many news channels and listening to so many different radio stations, I can’t say which one said it. But I heard it more than once:

the house needs to pass this bill; they can’t cave into their constituents

I can hardly believe this is happening. Like the people they are representing are the bad guys?

It seems I can’t be surprised often enough this week.

I just listened to this, an interview with Bernard Henri Levy regarding his book Left in Dark Times.

Levy points a stern finger at American leftist, who he says gage the suffering of the oppressed only in terms of whether it matches the leftist anti-american stance. He says that lefty types are all worked up over the suffering of the Palestinians–who are indeed suffering–but fairly indifferent to the suffering of the Chechens who are probably suffering more.

Why sympathy for the Palestinians and not for the Chechens?  Shouldn’t suffering wherever it happens be a cause for sympathy and action?

He says that liberal americans are only motivated to sympathize when the suffering upholds their anti-american opinions. Chechnya’s suffering is not caused by america, so it’s not interesting.

 Larry Mantle, the host, also points out and Levy agrees, that the left has a ‘cult of the underdog’ that gives importance to the oppressed people that does not require factual support.

I appreciate that this very passionate lefty liberal guy is willing to criticise his group. He seems willing to look at the man in the mirror, at the group he is part of, and say plainly that something is wrong.

I don’t agree with him, that the state has the responsibility to take care of all social problems. I think that individuals can come together and do it better than a big government entity. But we agree that social problems should be addressed.

It made it easier to listen to him with an open mind when he affirmed  “Capitalism is a good thing. There is no better than capitalism, but not the jungle…”

And he dismissed the system of communism, declaring that no one can take it seriously except a few fringe crazies.

I wish that he could go talk with some college professors.

I like that he is willing to point to the self-destructive elements of the left. I think that a willingness to grapple with the present realities is a first step towards finding a path towards improvement.