On Those Intolerant....Liberals?

My liberal friends: the Tea Party Movement has ruined us.

Now, before you go and get all confused on me, I am not saying that Tea Partiers have ruined America or ruined society...because I don't think they have. I think the Tea Partiers have turned us into monsters. Hateful, intolerant monsters.

I'll admit to having used the term "Tea Baggers" to describe the Tea Party Movement. It's shorter than saying "The Tea Party Movement," and I've admitted that I've gotten angry enough about things that have happened that I've used it as a derogatory term.

But when I realize I'm doing it, I stop myself. The reaction to the Tea Partiers has been hateful. Yes, there are racists in the Tea Party movement. Yes, the most outspoken voices (Limbaugh, Rand Paul, Glenn Beck) are crazies. But the fact of the matter is that there are some normal people who are scared by what has happened to the country they live in and have been dwarfed by the radical right, who really just want a different option from the ones they have now.

Let's face it: the very heart of the Tea Party movement is anti-corporate and anti...big. They don't want big business. They just want to know that their peaceful, quiet lives aren't going to be controlled by things bigger than themselves. At worst, you could call that misguided.

We've made the Tea Party so radical because they're under constant attack. When a child misbehaves, you get the best results for a change in behavior by ignoring them...neither positively or negatively reinforcing their behavior. It's basic psychology. When a movement misbehaves and we respond with press coverage and intolerant hate speech, the behavior is reinforced.

Let security handle the guns at rallies. That's their job. It doesn't need to be publicized and super-politicized. Let the hate speech sit with the people who are truly hateful. The solution to face a hateful movement is not by hating those people.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Hate cannot drive out hate. It can't. The more hate in the world, the stronger the hatred and the grudges become.

D0n't blame the problems of the world on FOX News. Don't bad mouth people just because you believe their opinions are misguided. There is still a moderate Republican. Refusing to separate the individual from the voice of the party is an intolerant mistake we can't afford to keep making.

Peace and Love,
Rachel Leigh

On Blog Face-Lifts

So I've been playing around with a new layout, and with the exception of the fact that the title text does not adequately fit in its little box, I rather like this new minimalist one. I really like white text on black background. It's refreshing and it pops nicely.

Anyway...

Part of my blog tune-up included the input of an "About Me" section (YAAAAY!), a change in photo, and all sorts of other fun things.

I'm not sure why I want to give my blog a makeover, knowing few people will actually read it, but I like knowing that, were someone to stumble upon my humble blog, there might be reason enough to check it out a bit more.

On that note, to flesh out my About Me bio:
As of this moment, I am not yet 18, but will be in 6 days. I am a graduating high school senior in suburban Philadelphia with a strong interest in politics, especially international. In the fall, I'll be attending the University of Richmond, and who knows? Maybe you'll get a view of college from the inside. I'm a little scared to be going to school in the South when I'm a Yankee, born and bred, but I think I'll survive. I started blogging, or at least posting my personal thoughts on the web, when I was 14, and have done so on and off since then. I rarely post about my personal life. I love the internet. I currently have a laptop with a broken spacebar and "t" key. It also has Adobe PhotoShop CS4, which I love.

I think that's about it for now.

Love,
Rachel Leigh

On The Gospel According to Ann

Hello hello hello again, readers!

I'll admit it: this post is mostly a shout-out to my friend Jamie at http://www.theseventeenmagazineproject.com/. The idea is pretty simple: 30 days of fashion, beauty, and social commandments as issued by our Lord and Master, Ann Shoket, editor-in-chief of Seventeen Magazine.

I have a dirty secret: I'm a subscriber. Yes, I turn in my family's Coca-Cola Coke Points for 6 issues of garbage. I started getting it when CosmoGirl stopped printing and they moved my remaining subscription to Seventeen. Most of it serves as the basic material for my wall (including a really fantastic picture of Anthony Michael Hall smoking a joint in classy black Wayfarers from my favorite movie of all time, The Breakfast Club, from an article discouraging girls from hitting the THC), which is a 60-square-foot monstrosity of a collage done in a lot of shiny, semi-glossy magazine print.

Being my cynical self, though, I do have to question it. I keep most of my back-issues for collage material or just petty entertainment, but a lot of the girls and the lifestyles it promotes annoy me. For example, Whitney Port and Lauren Conrad have been cover girls for Seventeen multiple times in the last year. One issue I have, I blacked out both Whitney's eyes and mouth...which I kind of wish I could do to her in reality. These are two girls who gained fame for hook-ups, break-ups, and drama, and have used their not-so-earned fame to...what? Release a clothing line which they designed partially by themselves? Write two pieces of trashy teen literature about girls behaving exactly like they do? It's kind of shameful that these are the role models we as readers have been given.

What about Emma Watson's animal activism? She's beautiful, famous, AND has a cause that gives girls something to look up to. Or better yet, how about the young, female moguls and entrepreneurs they mention deep in the depths of the magazine in the 100-something pages, after the make-up tips and "Styles to Make You Happy"? Aren't THESE the girls we should be aspiring to be? Beautiful, independent, creative, strong?

So why Whitney and LC?

Waiting on the world to change,
Rachel Leigh

On Emotional Masochism (and why continuing the cycle is selfish)

Have you ever noticed how there are some people who seem to enjoy their own misery? It seems like someone who was nearly halfway as miserable as they say they are would go out of their way to avoid the people or things or places that upset them, yet they appear to want nothing more than to repeatedly wallow in things they know will do nothing more than depress them.

I just don't get it. Do people not realize that continuing to pick at scabs does not help them heal. It's not like the treatment for the flu is more flu virus or the treatment of post-war PTSD is to put people back in combat. You heal better and faster if you don't just keep poking the same old wounds. If you insist on doing that, there's a part of you (a part big enough to overcome your urge for emotional self-preservation) that for some reason (guilt, self-disgust, or irrational belief that things will suddenly change) wants to continue to suffer. And if that's the case, you have no right to be depressed.

When you're at the point when you're hurting or upsetting the people around you by your bad mood [which you will, because people who care about you are always going to be impacted by your emotions (you treat people worse, are less personable, and generally drain good moods when you are depressed)], it becomes selfish to continue to wallow in your own misery. To quote a terrible commercial, "Who does depression hurt? Everyone." Everyone who comes into contact with a depressed person suffers, so continuing to depress yourself when you could very easily desist the behavior which causes the depression is incredibly unfair to anyone who cares about you.

Cynically yours,
Rachel Leigh

On...Trending?

Okay, I'll admit it, internet community:
I'm a trending junkie.



Seems weird, right? But my desktop homepage [at least for the shared computer (I personally am an iGoogle nut)] includes the Yahoo! "Trending Now" box, and I check it several times a day.



Can someone please explain to me the sudden surge in searches for Val Kilmer?

I love trending because it gives me some sort of insight into the global universal consciousness, which is pretty damn cool, if I do say so myself. As an attempted intellectual and concerned global citizen, however, I have to voice a little concern that the brilliant technology which allows us to tap into the international collective overmind has revealed that the most pressing thing on the minds of many, many people around the world is...Pee-Wee Herman? Really?


I certainly wouldn't expect people to be searching for the answers to the great questions of life, the universe, and everything (because we all already know that's 42 anyway), but I feel like this kind of opportunity, the ability to find out what is on the minds of the world at large at any given moment by searching their searches is rather wasted on Heidi Montag's latest plastic surgery (she's already 98% silicone, is her new boob job REALLY that important?) or the fact that Miley Cyrus was caught on tape grinding at a party (WAIT, teenagers dance suggestively? Where has my wholesome America of the 1950s gone?!?!).


My point is pretty simple: I like trending. I like knowing what the people of the world are thinking right at any given moment, and trending analysis is a pretty fantastic way to achieve that. But come on, international cyber community: couldn't you have something a little more worthwhile on your minds to search for?


Like...my blog? (Kidding)


Psychically tapping into the global consciousness,
Rachel Leigh

Apologies

As you can tell, seeing as the title of this post does not begin with the word "On," it does not have a topic other than to apologize for my lack of posting. I guess I don't have anything to snark about. Sorry :(