A mind of your own

Maybe it's because my mother taught me to always speak for myself, or maybe it's because I admire people who go against the grain, but I think having a mind of your own and voicing your opinions is the key to survival. To some, that sounds a little dramatic so I'll just say that I can't stand people who don't have a mind of their own.

In this day in age people have so many choices and things in which to believe. Along with those choices is a vast amount of information available for you to research before committing to your decisions. So it bothers me when people tell me they like this or that, or they believe in such and such, but they can't tell me exactly why. How could that be?! If you believe the government is failing us and you refuse to vote, be sure you can articulate why you feel that way. If you think polyester is far superior to cashmere, you better damn well be able to back it up! Time and time again I've come across people who like something just because someone else told them to. I just don't understand it. It can be as simple as preferring Jiff peanut butter to Skippy, or being Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice. Whatever it is, you should know why it's your choice. I actually enjoy talking to people who have a different viewpoint from my own; it's an opportunity for interesting discussion and either one of us could walk away learning something new. However, talking to people who have opposing viewpoints, but are too stupid to actually converse about it, is both frustrating and sad. Sometimes it's OK to smack people who say ridiculous things, but it's even more OK to smack people who have absolutely nothing to say. If you ever come across these people, just go ahead and smack them. PLEEEEASE!!

Friday morning I was watching the Today Show and Meredith Viera was interviewing Laura Bush, so I purposefully didn't pay too much attention to it. In the seven years that she's been First Lady, I have yet to hear her saying anything insightful or even remotely genuine. I'm not knocking her because she's married to a putz, I just honestly think her brain can only function at certain levels. She proved my point when Meredith began asking an uncomfortable line of questions about the war. Meredith played a clip of Senator Chuck Hagel saying, "we better be damn sure we know what we're doing, all of us, before we put 22,000 more Americans into that grinder. We better be as sure as you can be." After playing the clip, Meredith said to her that the majority of Americans who are fighting in this war are young people and that Laura herself has young children that could be fighting as well. She asked her that given that fact, does she still feel comfortable sending those young people to war and if she feels it's the right thing to do. Laura's answer?

"Well, I do feel comfortable because I know the President does and that's what he thinks..."

Can someone please smack this ho?