I realize I probably say this every year or so, but I'm so fed up with politics. I'm so fed up with the prevailing strategy of "hey, I didn't vote for X" when, for me, the problem is that not enough legislation has made it through, not too much. So who am I supposed to support? The endless cycle of "I'm an outsider, I'll change things" which is obviously untrue is ridiculous. The Democrats haven't been seen to do anything, and the Republicans actually want to do less, so in the end what are we voting for?

I'm so tired of being told that I'm not an American by people who think that my support of tax dollars going to programs is un-American. (It's okay when non-US people tell me I'm not American, because I think it's a compliment, but it's still sad.) If I can live on what I make, then people making several hundred thousand dollars more can afford some taxes. Obviously the difference is philosophical, not a matter of financial survival, but am I that far out of step with my country that I can't relate to any of them?

There's a fundamental impossibility in all of it, in that Obama was supposed to change everything, and didn't, and people are angry about that but also angry at the things that were changed, "because I didn't see any improvement." And that assumes an expertise in the layperson that is nonsensical to me. For one thing, people are pretty subjective about reporting those things, and for another, I don't think most of us are qualified to sit on our front porches and say "X politician/law/program did nothing because my view hasn't altered." Every year we vote for change and then hogtie the people we elect. And somehow assume that the one year they've been in charge explains the past eight.

Now, I'm not saying "Obama is our savior" or anything like that--but I am disappointed on the opposite end from where all the ads seem to be targeted, with everyone denying responsibility for the stuff he has been able to do. It just seems pretty short-sighted to run screaming from policies that most economists claim we'd be worse of without, and selfish to judge the current climate only by how much your house is worth. This isn't to downplay the impact the economy has had on people, and some people are well within their rights to complain. I'm just saying that I can't be the only person out there who's surviving and doesn't respond to the call to turn away from social programs and healthcare and treating corporations like corporations, not people.

But you wouldn't know that, from our options. Or the polls.

With the passing of Yves Saint Laurent, this is either the best or the worst time to mention one of my biggest, and most inconsequential, pet peeves:

I hate the word pantsuit.

Don't get me wrong--I love women in suits. For my money, there's not much hotter than mid-series Scully in a dark (expensive) suit. But I have never understood why, when "suit" means "jacket and trousers," we need a new word to specify that this one's worn by a female. Yes, I get that suits for women used to be exclusively skirt-oriented. If you weren't some kind of rebel. So maybe it was necessary to specify--decades ago. As it is, since it appears to me that as far as business attire goes it's all good, it really bothers me. Now that women are "allowed" to wear suits, can't we just call them that? I can't help but feel that the word now implies something about the wearer--that "pantsuit" is code for "woman playing a man's game."

Plus, it's just ugly. The word "pant."

Yeah, there are better things to be angry about, and I don't really feel oppressed or anything. But it's one of those things that rankles when I hear it, like getting my sock bunched in my shoe.

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On a completely different note, we have now finished Battlestar Galactica season 3, and loved it. Yeah, there were a few slow episodes in the middle, but they were better than the slow ones from S2, and I think watching it all in a batch of a few weeks really alleviated what everyone who watched it as it came out hated. So now the issue is--wait for all of S4 to air because we know we usually like things better in bulk, or head on in on the high of the finale?