Thursday, October 12, 2006

I Have a Little List

For a number of years now my friends have been amused at my Publisher's Clearinghouse list. This is the list of people I am going to hire a hitman to take out when I win the Publisher's Clearinghouse. Since I never enter, no one is in any danger, but it gives me a good way to blow off steam.

When I was working with parents to reunify with their children in foster care, I would often hear a horror story about spousal or child abuse, and I would mentally put the name of the abuser on my list. In my on-line support group, someone will tell an awful story about being mistreated and someone else will say, "Joycelyn had better put that name on her Publisher's Clearinghouse list."


There are just some things that people do for which there is no answer other than to put them on my list. The current administration is on my list, one and all. Al Qaida is on my list,one and all. The Dems who buckle and vote with the GOP for the most reprehensible things, like expanding the powers of the self-declared "war president" during his self-declared war are on my list. The press that has allowed him to lie his way into a war we can't win and a national debt our grandchildren are going to have to pay off are on my list. The attorneys who bend the law to allow the suspension of habeas corpus are on my list. The lawmakers that compromise on allowing torture and warrantless wiretaps and the trashing of the Constitution are on my list. The lawmakers that earmark clauses into other laws that grant ever larger concessions to the religious right in the forms of exemptions from taxes and regulation are on my list. The forces behind the militarization of our nation to enrich the corporations are on my list. All holders of the mindset which allows the average citizen to bear more than his share of the cost of running a country while the big guys shelter their money offshore are on my list. The folks responsible for the desertion of New Orleans and the cover up of the Foley affair are on my list.

Actually, I have a very long list these days. If I actually wrote it down, it would take several steno pads, with no repeats at all.

8 comments:

Harold/AQ said...

That works for me!
I may just toss my list and adopt yours!

J said...

Hmmm. I might need a list, too.

Celfyddydau said...

remind me to never cross you! Great list though. I'm going to start a UK based one. Then when you win I'll mail it to you :D

Anonymous said...

I am so relieved that I'm not the only one who has all of those 'people' on a list as well.
It's pretty sad that we've been driven to even have those kinds of lists.
The state of things & how they have been is absolutely disgraceful. I could type for days about it.

Ginnie said...

You've named just about all the ones that I'd put on a list if I had one. I just wish you'd enter and win the big money and wipe out the whole bunch.

Never That Easy said...

At our house, the list is called, the "when-we-move-to-a-country-with-no-extradion-policy" list. There are many people on it, whom we just call "Those people". It's kind of nice to know other people have the list too.

Anonymous said...

I think it is a good was to vent the fustration that you have with certain people. I am going to try that.

gawilli said...

That's a pretty long list! I do the same thing with e-mails...get irritated, fire off a scathing letter, put it in the draft folder, and usually I feel better in the morning.

If not, I just hit "send". Works every time.