Staticfree Blog

"Merry Christmas!", but what's it really mean? Christmas to many people, like other holidays, are really a time of getting together with friends and family - spending time together, catching up on life, sharing an experience together.

I'm glad we're able to do this this year - my sibling, Cole, is in from Oregon where 'e's doing AmeriCorps. My younger brother's back from school, we're all at my dad's place and it's good. Well, almost. We're missing one person - my mom. She's gone off to her own world where she's left her family for someone who has made himself unwelcome in the presence of anyone else in her family.

It makes me sad, she has a new house in southern MA, but no one wants to visit a place where he lives with her. I wish she'd be able to see the mistake she has made by being with this guy, but that's really only something she can do. He's the kind of guy who would prevent her from reading this blog if he could, as it shows him in a negative light. He's the kind of person who expresses his anger through violence, the kind who irresponsibly takes drugs of varying legality and blames his misplacing of them on others. He's the kind who threatens people and makes them lock themselves into their rooms at night. Of course, she won't see this part of him - she's hopelessly blinded by his shiny façade and has lost sight of what really makes a family.

He may treat her how she likes, but what about everyone else? What about when times are rough? Is he the kind to leave when he no longer has incentive to stay? Is he the kind to help her be a better person? Is he the kind to pull himself out of the rut he's forcing her into? From what I've seen, the answers to these questions are: no. They're both without jobs (despite her having a job doing what she liked before they got a house together) and living off alimony. What kind of life is that?

So, despite the shining Christmas tree, good music on the stereo, and plethora of Border's gift certificates, Christmas just isn't the same. It won't be, I realize, but I'd really like to see her house, her Christmas tree, her life - not theirs.

On a related note: Gah! Why does the general American idea of Christmas generally involve such wasteful glutton? I really could do without cheap plastic schlock "made in China". Polluting my life with marginally useful single-function things like wooden pencil sharpeners in novelty shapes only makes me sad at the state of the world. I'm not ungrateful for the thought of the person for getting said items, but it's akin to not being ungrateful for someone who wastes a month of their life running in circles for you. The thought is well, but ultimately it's just unnecessary.

You know you're an addict when.. you stay up until 4:30, dispite waking up at 6:30. Repeatedly. Thankgoodness for comfy couches in cozy coffee shop. Sleep...

I don't think I want to be American much longer. Does that make me a terrorist?

The Ministry of Love Department of Homeland Security has now labeled those who provide anonymous free access to the internet as "terrorists". Next thing you know, soup kitchens (which can be used to provide bodily nourishment for terrorists) will have mandatory ID checks in order to only feed Good, Honest American Citizens™. Beware those that do things without regard for profit - they could be terrorists.

I'm going to do a minor act of civil disobedience here and put online a book which every American (and citizen of any country siding with the US) should read. This book has yet to have its copyright expire, thanks to fairly recent legislation designed to keep Mickey Mouse copy protected, but I'm putting it up anyway. I imagine Orwell would be spinning less in his grave at the violation of a copyright than the reality that what he warns in the books is coming true.

If you haven't read it at all or recently, I highly recommend you read George Orwell's 1984. It's a story about a government that loses touch with the people it represents and starts waging war with other countries. At first the wars are bloody and with obvious, clear goals. As time goes on, the wars lose their meaning and become background noise that causes just enough terror to keep people worried that they won't end if they're not supportive of them. The wars are always there, but no one really knows why they're fighting the other country or if they're actually fighting at all. In fact, the only reason ever given by the government is that the countries aided a very evil (yet hard to find) person, Emmanuel Goldstein.

If this doesn't sound insanely familiar to a certain large country's recent actions, replace the name "Emmanuel Goldstein" with "Oslama Bin Laden" and try reading that paragraph again.