RantsCounterRants:  Dean told the truth; are we ready to hear it?

Howard Dean’s recent statement about a need to plan for a time in the future when the U.S. is no longer a military superpower started a flap within the Democratic candidates.  It also provided fuel for the Republicans to rant about the necessity for military strength.

Here’s the rub: Dean spoke the truth.

Looking at the demographics alone should tell you Dean’s based in reality and not off on some left-wing delusion, as many in both the Democratic and Republican parties would have us believe.

Arab/Muslim Nations

423,009,196

(Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen,

 Syria, Libya, Jordan, Lebanon per current estimate, IDB)

China

1,286,975,468

(current estimate, IDB)

India

1,049,700,118

(current estimate, IDB)

Get a firm grip on reality and come to terms with the fact that the America’s power is economic and tenuous; remember what an awesome economic power Japan was a decade ago?  As these other countries and unions come into their own, perhaps by adopting the same consumerist attitudes as ours or organizing themselves into stronger entities, they will be far larger and stronger than the U.S. is today. 

And what would we be then?  A rather annoying rogue nation with proven weapons of mass destruction, or a civil, diplomatic economic and political ally?

Or should we stay firmly in denial, bankrupting ourselves and our children’s children by continuing to amass an enormous military to stay ahead of the global neighborhood Joneses?

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Top 50 Countries, ranked by population estimates for 2003  (link may include all countries)

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2:09:59 PM    comment []

Salon: Vitzthum’s Endless Whining

I don’t know which annoyed me more: Vitzthum’s tediousness about dating at 40 and beyond, or the ageist artwork that accompanies it.

Ms. Vitzthum*, if in 20+ years of adulthood you’ve never found a love interest worth committing to (in one form or another), then perhaps the problem isn’t the mechanism by which you seek commitment-worthy partners.

It’s YOU.

Spare me the whining about on-line dating services.  EVERYTHING ON LINE IS “BUYER BEWARE” – whether news, blogging, purchasing, dating.  Frankly, same applies off line.  Welcome to the real world. 

No, I’m not dating, haven’t been in a very long time and I don’t anticipate doing it any time soon.  But I’ve been watching at close range a handful of people who’ve been dating in their adulthood – guess what?  Things really haven’t changed since high school and college.  There’s still the same distribution of winners to wieners; the things that turned you off (like smoking, selfishness, neurotically obsessive behaviors, to name a few) twenty years ago still annoy you now.

The only thing that seems to have changed is the cycle time.  You can find more candidates and weed through them faster with the help of the internet.  You’ve less tolerance for the annoyances than you had in your earlier days of naiveté and you drop them like a stone. 

But does mySimon-ing other human beings really get you closer to what you really want?

At some point you have to come to terms with the fact that the man/woman who’s stellar in bed also has annoying habits or interests; the same person who shares your tastes in art flicks has weird phobias about certain foods.  Pick it.  Whatever it is, trust me, those of us who’ve been in and are still in long-term committed relationships discovered that, too.

It’s commitment that helps us get through the toilet seat up, the checkbook untidily balanced, snoring, the roast overdone, the half-done yard work, too many black T-shirts, cap left off the toothpaste, etc.

Draw the line about the BIG things: no chemistry and completely incompatible values.  The chemistry draws you together and gets you through the rough patches; no chemistry, no bond.  The values are what you build upon; no common values, no foundation.

Everything else is negotiable.

Like my guy’s compulsive shopping at his favorite hardware stores.  Or my caffeine addiction.

In the big picture, that’s just the quirky stuff about which we blog, about which we whine to our peeps.

Get over yourself.

And the artwork – nice caricatures of people in their SEVENTIES, Mr. Watts.  You made your point about love interest continuing into age, but really, such overkill.

Ugh.

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* clarification added upon request.

10:03:24 AM    comment []