The Day Before Hell on Earth (i.e. Election)

In the last few months I have found myself distanced from politics, as well as news in general (probably made obvious by the lack of cited news stories). I mean I browse maybe two to three articles before first hour. Aside from that, I keep up very little with the news lately.

But today was a little different. For a month I've neglected various issues of TIME laying on my living room table, so finally I picked up the most recent one since I don't feel like I'm fully making an informed decision on election day. I'm just playing into some power hungry bureaucrats hands, I'm as gullible as the rest of the mainstream less intelligent general public no matter how I vote, and no matter how informed. why? Because who ever said the clowns up for office are telling the truth? And no matter what, you vote for a lie somewhere somehow, because some people base decisions off false information, like the false attack ads run by both campaigns, as chronicled among other things like debate falsehoods at FactCheck.org, its a really damn good source for nonpartisan facts instead of information manipulated by the party and candidate for the party and candidate.

So yeah, I vote in a little more than 12 hours before I go to school, and I'm going fucking nuts about the choice. Others can easily and blindly cast a vote for whomever they think looks better, or has a better voice, or strictly by party lines, or based on their "faith". I can't. Especially in this election which is obviously crutial in the history of America. A history that will be defined and decided upon in some ways tomorrow, as well as the subsequent lawsuits claiming foul play by both sides eager to manipulate to end up on top, even if they don't deserve to be by the true vote count.

Urg. Yeah, losing it. Heh. Not really, but when I really think about it I fall prey to the cynacism I cited slightly in more short article on Voter Apathy in the school paper.

...

One thing I recently realized after the party was how thinking I could help a friend out and cheer her up over the last few months only ended up bringing me down with her. Except, I'm not suicidal. No where near it. I'm just... sad? disappointed that that was to be the fate of our friendship.

She also has the misconception that I had my dad say some things to her after I went to work on Friday. I didn't. He did that on his own accord. He just doesn't like seeing me hurt or frustrated.

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I interviewed several teachers today for my article on "Patriotism". Mr. Snidman kinda gave me answers as though I was crazy with the questions I was asking. Meanwhile I liked Mrs. Minutes answers quite a bit, such as where she went "blind patriotism is bad. intelligent patriotism is good" - she was refering to questioning those in charge being a form of patriotism, and more intelligent than just blindly following them and trusting them.

This story if I have the time to finish it as I want to write it will be so much more awesome than the short and kinda crappy Voter Apathy article that got published in the paper. It's a topic I can just ramble about and flow with because of how its about the subjectivity of Patriotism and what is Patriotic. All I've really got written so far is the lead and the teacher just loved it:

"You're unpatriotic". It's flung around like trays and meals during a food fight in the political crossfire, and it raises a question similar to the subjectivity of what is considered "good" or "real": What is "patriotism"?

Speaking of the paper, I liked Bova Conti's investigative stories on how foreign language classes are now supposedly for honors, but they don't count as honors, and how its affecting the top three ranking students in the class of 05.

In 6th hour we had three former students back from their Marine Corps training and a Sergeant who is usually at the school for recruitment (at least he was last year). We got to learn some of their hand to hand self defense techniques. Unfortunately my partner in the practice was a giant buff football player. That is my luck. Heh. One Marine was going into Logistics while the other private and the PFC (Private First Class) were going into Aircraft Maintenance.