TGFF...Random ramblings

Happy Halloween! It is really frightening what all the pundits are saying...but I digress -- I will keep it lighthearted today!

TGFF is not Thank God For Friday -- even though today happens to be Friday. It stands for Thank God For Facebook!!!!!!! I don't know about you guys but FB is addictive -- it's like crack. One try and your hooked! lol! I have reconnected with a childhood friend who left my neighborhood where I grew up and where my parents still live. He left almost 25 years ago to Puerto Rico to live with his dad (his parents are divorced). I had seen him a few times when he visited Miami a long time ago but it has been many years since we last saw each other. He found me on FB. I've also connected with old friends from high school, plus the ability to communicate with people I still see or talk to on the phone has been great too.

It's so cool to try and find someone and see if they are on FB and when you do it is like whoa! And when you don't...it's like -- what's wrong with you??? why aren't you on FB??? Get with it! The other thing about FB is that it is competitive. My wife has a FB page and she wants to see how many Friends I have and compares it to how many he she has. Secretly, we all want more than our spouse, our friends, children (impossible), etc. Don't we??? Or is it just me? It becomes so competitive that you send out Friend Requests to people you hardly even knew or spoke to in school (going back to Elementary school -- probably even PK!!!) And you'll accept anyone who sends one to you -- even if you don't know who they are! Ha! I have more than you, nani, nani, boo, boo!

So, if you wanna find me, Facebook me. I will be Facebooking whenever I can. Heck, I don't sleep at night thinking who wrote on my wall today. I even have Facebook Mobile...I told you it's like crack!

Speaking of crack...I miss the ability to drive anywhere at anytime of the day regardless of the temperature outside (usually very hot) and have a cafecito or a cortadito. That's one of the things I miss about Miami. Pulling up to La Carreta on 87th Avenue or Versailles on 8th St was always a trip. Not only could you get a pastelito de guayaba and a cortadito, but you could always get a life lesson from all of the old men (and sometimes not so old) talking about the good ol' days in Cuba and how everyone had a maid. And more importantly, how they would solve all of today's ills. That was awesome!

Living in Marietta, GA now and dealing with cold weather already I wish I could grab a cafe con leche and a tostada of pan cubano...mmmmmm. Looking back, why the heck would I have a shot of cuban coffee at 3pm when it was 97 degrees outside and 95% humidity???

Speaking of cold weather...it is so crazy that this morning when I woke up to take Tristan and Ethan to school it was 37 degrees. 37 friggin' degrees. What's even crazier is that by 3pm it will be 68 degrees!! Por eso se enferman la gente!! You put on 3 layers of things to only have to take them all off after lunch and then inevitably leave your jacket at school with all of the other jackets left from previous days from all of the other kids. I saw a table that must have had enough jackets in "lost and found" to clothe a third world country. We can redistribute our jackets to those that don't have them -- had to get an Obama dig somewhere.

Here's another for all you Obama Kool-Aid drinkers...

Be Careful What You Wish For...You Just Might Get It!!!

Happy Halloween!! See you on Facebook! Think of me when you are having your cafecito today at 3pm.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a video worth?

There is a saying (not sure if it's a Cuban saying) in Spanish that says, "Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres". So without further ado, listen and learn about who Obama REALLY is...





Wow. So Rev. Wright is a "wonderful" man, huh?



Obama all of a sudden said he didn't support Rev. Wright's view's on America yet he was a member of his church for 19 years. What would one say if McCain visited a White Supremacist meeting for 19 years but didn't support their views??? Can you answer that America?



So now it's $200,000 and not $250,000...Interesting.

What type of "Change" are you really looking for?

Change for the sake of change is not really change, now is it??? I've talked to some of my friends in Miami -- people my age and in my socioeconomic status -- and I am surprised when they say they are voting for Obama. The interesting thing is that when I ask them why, they do not really provide a real answer as to why they are voting for him. The typical answer seems to be because "he is the lesser of the two evils" and/or "we need a change from these disastrous 8 years". The latter statement really irks me the most. I have to give Obama's team credit for their ability to develop and distribute a really good Kool-Aid to the masses. I just hope the aftertaste is not too tough for them to bear.

If the last 8 years have sucked as bad as you believe, why didn't you vote differently 4 years ago. I know there are many who are voting for Obama this year, are the same who voted for Kerry 4 years ago, and Gore 4 years before that. These people will continue to vote Democrat come hell or high water (I wonder who came up with that saying). But my friends...people like me...I know they voted for Bush 4 years ago. Which brings me to the former statement of "he is the lesser of two evils", and really the crux of the problem with our government today. Because, you see, I have also taken that approach forever and am doing it this year as well. I liked the McCain of 2000, not the McCain of 2008 -- I am not really sure who the heck he is or what he stands for. That said, I cannot vote for Obama. I admit that I was intrigued about a year ago, before I really knew anything about him, how he stood on certain issues, his background, his beliefs, etc. I liked the fact that he was young and wasn't from the Washington establishment like most of these candidates always seem to be. He was eloquent and seemed like an outsider and was more like my generation -- using the Internet, playing basketball, etc. Now that I know more about him and his stand on the issues that are important to me, I am scared. I am not a conspiracy theorist, or paranoid like some of the hard-core right winger's are. However, for the first time I am truly scared about the future of this country.

I am not a big fan of labels, but in this case the best way to describe Obama (or label) is as a populist. And that is a frightening thought with recent populists taking control of their governments and changing the constitution for their benefit. Populists like Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Lula da Silva (Brasil), and the worst of them all, Fidel Castro. I have first-hand experience with the aftermath of failure of Chavez and more closely, Fidel. My family -- who I am -- experienced the terrible results of a populist president saying the right things (rhetoric) and what people wanted to hear and grabbed absolute power...you know what happens next...

So I will leave you with this to think about until my next post...

Populism is a political philosophy or rhetorical style that holds that the common person's interests are oppressed or hindered by the elite in society, and that the instruments of the state need to be grasped from this self-serving elite and used for the benefit and advancement of the people as a whole. Hence a populist is one who is perceived to craft his or her rhetoric as appeals to the economic, social, and common sense concerns of average people... Sound familiar?

More...
Essentially a political outlook or mentality rather than an ideology, identified by a popular reaction to dramatic change, such as rapid industrialization. People feel that events are beyond their control, which is blamed on some conspiracy of foreigners, ethnic groups, economic interests, or intellectuals. The populist reaction is to regain control from the suggested centres of power, usually through some form of participation, and to seek revenge and redemption. Beyond that, populism is an obscure and variable outlook.

Chew on that for a while...

I need a shot of Cafe Cubano to warm up...it's 42 degrees here and I'm still not used to the cold!!