Napoleon, Snowball & Squealer

Lots of links... don't get too distracted. You're welcome :)

After a really fantastic (and rather educational) walk last night the most brilliant (and incredibly good looking) man I know and I ended up at a bar (go figure, right?). As usual our conversation drifted to politics and somehow the subject of Animal Farm came up. Neither of us could remember the exact details but we had the premise and message of the story right. What it came down to was trying to figure out why the book is still required reading in most middle schools even though it's obvious that the lessons Orwell was teaching are ignored. Back in the late 70's and the 80's it was a testament against communism and tyranny. It was a statement against Populism and explained the idea that Populists (as it's traditionally defined) are not in it "for the good of the people." And now?

Now we have a populist as President. (that one's a cartoon... click it) He's a man who captivated enough Americans to win the election, promised a change that would be in the best interest of the people and had the charismatic, laid back, coolness that people flock towards. Sixty-two days into this and we've got a man who had hand picked lobbyists for his cabinet despite promises not to, has not followed through on his promise to publish for five days on the internet everything he plans on signing into law, and apparently has to spend four or five days to "know what he's talking about" before he comments on something the American public has been raging about since the beginning.

Just like in Animal Farm, Napoleon the Pig and his buddies start off creating change (sound familiar?) and end up with Napoleon taking the entire farm over and everything being worse than it began. Obama is exactly what every other poor (not financially, but behaviorally) politician and the transformation from Fearless Leader to Worthless Self-absorbed Authoritarian hasn't taken long. To top it all off...

"Squealer, Napoleon's propagandist, justifies every action to the other animals, convincing them that Napoleon is a great leader and is making things better for everyone—despite the fact that the common animals are cold, hungry, and overworked."

And if I have to explain to you that Squealer is synonymous with Robert Gibbs you may want to start paying more attention.

____________________________

In Other News, my experiment continues although I've altered it a bit. Instead of trying to alter my current relational styles I'm simply going to try to expand. Who says people should only have two main styles? Why not rely on four of them? It seems to be working pretty well (read: I feel a better despite still struggling a bit), expanding is so much easier than a complete conversion. And who doesn't want to be touched and verbally affirmed anyway? Well, I can think of one but he's not the norm (thankfully) and that's not the point. Moving on! I painted my nails a weird color just now and it's really getting on my nerves. I could bite it off but that would ruin an entire week of work. I started volunteering at a Horse Rescue Shelter and it breaks my heart. I've started working with the three studs to get them lead broke so we can lunge them after they're gelded but unfortunately, I just don't have the time or money to be out there as often as they need training. Doesn't help that I'm in love with half of them now and want to just love on all of them. Finally, I miss my Mommy. Tune in next time when I tell you about our first home-brewed batch of beer (Unreasonable Red) and more experiment findings.