The Zombieslayer

Laura (the Sarchasm) posted a study that conservatives are generally happier people than liberals. In all my years, I’ve known this to be pretty much true. Sure, there are happy liberals and unhappy conservatives, but generally speaking…

The study has a lot of premises and explanations why this is so. You can read into it what you like. The link is in her article if you want to read it and it’s a short and easy read. It also includes percentages too.

From my experiences, I’ve seen that liberals see injustice everywhere and want to change too much. Conservatives on the other hand roll with the punches in life and only want to fix a few things. I’ve always said that if you want to change too much, you will fail, become disillusioned and cynical, and end up not accomplishing anything.

The press likes to make fun of us one or two issue people, but guess what? We’re effective. Don’t try to change the world. Just pick your battles. Find the one or two things that you want to work on and just do that. You will find that if you focus on one or two things, you will be a heck of a lot more effective.

Imagine if bad drivers drove you nuts and you beat up everyone that cuts you off. You’d never get home. You’d be beating someone up every other minute. That’s how I see liberals. The whole world drives them nuts and they’re unhappy because they see injustice everywhere.

I’m not at all denying there is injustice out there. I gave Laura the example of my Aunt. She knows sports more than any man you’ll ever meet and has just as much if not more charisma than 99% of the sports announcers on TV. But she’s a woman. Had she been a man, she’d have sports networks knocking down doors to hire her. Is it fair? No. Is it something I lose sleep over every night? No.

Learn what works, then do it. You can see the world as unfair and be unhappy or you can see what’s right with the world and tweak a thing or two that’s wrong. I think the latter is a lot more effective and also less likely to burn out.

The other thing with liberals - I’ve found that liberals tend to find what they disagree with you about and argue it over and over and over again, then argue it some more. Then the next day, they’ll bring it up again. No, not all liberals do this, but I’m using a stereotype that has some truth to it. Me on the other hand, I’ll try to find something I agree with you. I don’t care about changing your viewpoint to mine. If I like you, I like you and accept we have our differences. You can be Left-wing, Right-wing, Middle-wing, Christian, Muslim, Pagan, Atheist, Gay, Straight, Brown, Green, Orange, Male, Female, Narnian, or whatever. If you’re cool to me, I like you and just accept you as is.

I like keeping it simple. Liberals tend to make things complicated. Is that because conservatives are dumb? Hardly. It may be though because we’re more secure. And that may be why we’re happier.

Anyways, before you get mad at me, check out the study. I’m just saying what I’ve experienced. As I’ve said, I’ve known happy Liberals and miserable Conservatives. But generally speaking, the study has truth to it.

If your son is in a gang, or your 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, you screwed up.

I had this discussion with my wife earlier, how people with natural abilities often take them for granted, and you see so many people with obvious handicaps who excel in life.  Of course, not at all implying it’s better off to have a handicap, because that’s just one more hurdle you have to get over in life.

My point though was this - it’s better to have drive and persistence than natural abilities.  We mentioned the smartest people we know in terms of straight up I.Q. and they’re struggling, really struggling.  Hands down the smartest person I know is a year older than I and still hasn’t graduated college.  He’s heavily in debt, and is always changing focus in life.  He starts a million things, but never finishes any of them.

The same goes with good-looking people of both genders.  You almost never meet anyone funny who’s good looking.  It’s probably because if you’re good looking, you don’t have to have a personality.  Things just happen for you.  You’ve probably heard it a million times - I thought that person was attractive until they opened their mouth.  That’s because they’re used to the world revolving around them and they never had to develop a personality.  Naturally good-looking people are often dull.  They get by on looks alone.

I was living in an Old Rich town not too long ago.  I liked the kids, but they lacked substance, character, and depth.  Ironically, a lot of the kids from my old refinery town, well, the ones who didn’t go to jail, are doing quite well.

Rich kids don’t have to struggle.  They know when their parents die, they’ll inherit some fat coin.  So they often don’t.  Why when you don’t have to?

It’s not just the good-looking, the rich, but everything.  Sometimes the best athletes are the ones with serious handicaps - they had asthma, they were crippled as a child, people made fun of them, they were considered too small, too slow, or whatever.  I’ve known kids with natural artistic ability who have done absolutely nothing with it because their art came too easy to them.

So, once again, I’m not at all implying you’re better off with a handicap.  I’m just saying that those with natural talents often take them for granted.

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And completely changing the subject, I went to Tshsmom’s blog and read the best post I’ve read in awhile.  Give it a read.

I have 3 Chuck Klosterman books here.  Finished one, half-way through the 2nd.  I just went to a book sale and picked up a book by Peter Lynch.  Have barely cracked the book when I read this.  Some of the best words I’ve ever read.

You start to recognize that you’re only going to exist for a little while, whereas you’re going to be dead for a long time.

You remind yourself that nobody on his deathbed ever said: “I wish I’d spent more time at the office.”

-both quotes Peter Lynch

I love money as much as the next American, but come on, we work too hard.  Get out and enjoy life, folks.  Don’t work too hard.

I wish someone told me that ten years ago.  I worked my butt off and they still sent my job to India.  Had I known that, I wouldn’t have tried so hard to keep it.

Get to know your spouse better.  Get to know  your kids or your parents better.  Also, don’t forget you have neighbors.  If you give them a chance, you might find out that they’re interesting people.

This morning, Benazar Bhutto from Pakistan was assassinated.  She had been in exile and recently returned to Pakistan to run against President Musharraf.

I’m deeply saddened to hear about her death.  The 54-year-old former Prime Minister had twice the brains and ten times the charisma of Musharraf and I was really hoping she’d win in the elections.

This sets Pakistan back.  The Pakistani people are an intelligent lot of people, and this is a country I’ve been following for years now.

For those of you who don’t know who she was, Benazar Bhutto was the former Prime Minister of Pakistan.  Her father was Prime Minister but he was assassinated.  Educated in Harvard and Oxford, Bhutto was a good friend of America and the West.  She was Prime Minister of Pakistan twice between 1988 and 1996.

Musharraf warned her about returning to Pakistan for he said he was worried for her safety.  He said he couldn’t guarantee her security.  I’m not at all implying Musharraf had a hand in the attack.  I don’t know if he was genuinely concerned or not, but for right now, I’m mourning her death.  I think it’s more likely that he had no hand in her attack and actually was worried because the country’s stability had been deteriorating in recent months.

She was a good woman and could have taken Pakistan far into the future.