The Real Nothingness…

Not so surprisingly, a major event in my personal life had kept me away from sharing my highly irreverent and irrelevant thoughts on highly critical global issues. However, what surprised me the most was even the ongoing political season seemed to have no impact in generating my blogging instincts and seemed to add very little or absolutely no flavor into my blogging soup. Yes, it was a major distraction and all my energy was focused on getting the newly adopted daughter bond well with us personally and with the environment. It is an ongoing process. However, the honest confession is that I wasn’t prepared for this amount of distraction. All good.

This post is dedicated to the real nothingness of the Republican campaign. While I start typing this I learned that President Obama finally shared his views on same-sex marriage and that he is in favor of it. Yay. 3 years late in coming out to support this. But in my mind, it is never too late as far as this issue goes. With that said, this topic may be a different post all together.

Ha! Now, The real nothingness…

Isn’t it really boring? I mean this GOP campaign? It is almost like a rerun of John Kerry of the 2004 election.

You have nothing to hate in him except his politics. Yet, he will never be in your best friends list. Romney (coincidentally also from Massachusetts) is everything that a party can offer if it wants to offer nothing. He represents nothing. He is full of gas. He says one thing one day and says the exact opposite thing the next day or a few weeks later. He wants you to like him. He actually tries too hard to make you like him and in the process thinks that he is saying things that you like but actually he doesn’t even know what he likes. Because his only goal in life seems to be “to be accepted”. So he chugs along. He keeps making things up to make you like him. He tries switching positions on issues so that someone could like him. He doesn’t want to admit that he has nothing to offer except his wealthy & boorish background and of course a vault full of Cayman island transaction receipts.

Poor fellow !(not in literal sense – that would be a total oxymoron). I hope he finds something to cling onto. Definitely not something like his latest claim that he should take credit for the auto bailout. I mean, c’mon! Who buys that? Ok. May be the party of gas could buy that. But seriously…

Romney taking credit for the auto bailout is like the Pilgrims taking credit for the Indian Reservations of today.

What next? He is going to take credit for President Obama being born in the United States and for the stain on Monica Lewinsky’s satin blue dress.??(sorry that doesn’t make sense..But that’s exactly the point).

So in pursuit offering everything for this campaign by putting all their eggs into one campaign basket called “Obama-Hatred”, the GOP has found the perfect nothingness for this campaign.

And who else can represent real nothingness better than Romney? 

Tihar Live

Renuka Chowdary (or Chaudhary or..) Congress party’s official media spokesperson asked a panel last night on a TV show if anyone had seen the movie “Peepli Live”..And that was in response to a pointed question about how the government has handled this whole Anna Hazare issue so far. For the next few minutes, she demonstrated how a politician can speak for 10 minutes and yet not answer a simple question directed at them. She also demonstrated how a clever panel member participating in a debate can create a new issue on the spot, which is totally irrelevant to the main topic of debate and find a way to accuse other panelists and the moderator of making assumptions & being biased on that particular issue, thus putting them all on the defensive.

For the next 30 minutes of the debate, in spite of multiple attempts by the moderator, she never elaborated on the Peepli Live reference. It was almost as if she left it for the listener’s imagination. May be that clearly was her intention.

Anyways, What’s going on in India is a culmination of pent up frustration over corruption for the past few decades. Those who are on the streets protesting are mostly middle class people and youngsters who deal with corruption on a daily basis in every walk of their lives..So their frustration is totally justified.
As it normally happens, Indians tend to follow their emotions more than common sense.

What people need to understand is the fact that actions more than laws & bills that will eventually minimize corruption in a society like India’s.

Some Actions I suggest:

1. Stop paying bribes under all circumstances (ok..life and death situation could be made an exception for now)
2. Stop paying bribes under all circumstances (don’t give any excuses..If you do, then you don’t have a right to point fingers at a politician. Rs.100 or Rs.100 crores – It is still corruption)
3. Stop paying bribes under all circumstances (yes, some of what you want may not get done when you want them to be done. But this will change when every person who is used to receiving bribes suddenly realize people have stopped giving bribes)
4. Stop paying bribes under all circumstances. Yes. Exactly.
5. Repeat 1-4 forever.
6. Remember Corruption is not just about exchange of money or material gifts in order to receive a service or a product which you otherwise duly deserve & paid for. A person is corrupt when he/she is not being honest even for the the smallest of things. Let those who are fighting on the streets monitor themselves for 24 hours while they go about performing their normal day to day activities…They will realize how dishonest they are on a daily basis through their actions and words (not talking about bribes at all). Be Honest 100% of the time for 1 full year.

Although Hazare has taken up a good cause, his means have been populist (including the Janlokpal Bill) and in the process he and Team Anna seem to have lost sight of the real end goal. Given that the UPA government is hellbent on digging its own grave through a series of errors in terms of how it handles the whole issue, Team Anna is now playing a very intelligent game where every move of the govt. is being checkmated and thus making this emotional drama stir up more passion and faux patriotism amongst Indians – than ever before.

Of course Indian media is relishing the feast served out to them in an all-you-can-eat format..:)

Peepli Live? No. This is Tihar Live.

American Jihad

And before my blog readers (who by the way are increasing in 100s every day) give up on me because of my rather dry output in the month of March, let me assure you that this too shall pass. Errrr..what a coincidence to be talking about it during Passover!

It sort of feels like I am trying to finish this post in such a hurry, leaving it unleavened (sort of like how the enslaved left Egypt),  if you know the reference. But all references apart, I ask myself why is the American Jihad on the rise? Why couldn’t the genuinely patriotic conservatives of this country make sure that the inflammatory passion doesn’t rise? – Leave it unleavened, in other words. Real Republicans are those who care for the country and will always wish for its good. Not those who ignite fuel to the fire..(comments like “let us not retreat but reload”)! Now I think if this continues, we are not going to end up with a “Matza” but with literally some messy bread crumbs.