While I have had a good bit of good things happening in my life lately, there have been several things that are really frustrating me. These range from stupid code-related issues at work all the way to turmoil in the government. I don't want to spend all evening detailing every little thing, but let me give you a taste of it, starting with the code.

I have been using jQuery in a lot of my project lately, thanks to Dustin's recommendation in a previous blog entry I can't seem to locate. At any rate, jQuery offers a user interface library that makes sprucing up your applications really easy. In the UI is a dialog "widget". While establishing the widget is really easy to do, styling it is nigh impossible. I spent about an hour on it this morning, which overlapped with our quarterly conference call at work, and I gave up in favor of the dhtmlwindow widget provided by another group entirely.

The government issues are pretty touchy for me right now. Now, I have been given a lot of names according to my beliefs and values, some as demeaning as "redneck" or "hick", and others downright shameful, such as "bigot" or "racist". I'm sorry, but if you want to stereotype me, I believe I should be granted the same rights and liberties of labeling other groups and individuals according to their respective stereotypes. I mean, as you're reading this and thinking I'm being a whiney redneck republican, you're just as wrong as I am for asking for this right. Why? Because you're doing what I would like to, but are getting away with it.

Let's take this government thing further though. I'm sure you've seen the reports about the Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment report issued by the DHS over the last few days. What really irks me about this report is the fact that many of the claims they make in the report are unfounded, or at least have no cited references, but also that they are calling the beliefs that this country originally lived by propaganda. I mean, come on; "end times prophecies" are in the book that Christians call the "divine word". If I remember right, the pilgrims fled to what is now known as the U.S.A. to flee the religious restraints that the Church of England had on them, and to continue practicing Christianity. Thus, this "divine word" has a lot of historic value to the country: The USA would probably not exist as it does today without the belief of Christianity and that the Bible is truth in its prophecies. So why are those beliefs now being called radical or extremist?

I maintain that I am not associated with any single political party. However, many recent profiles on my beliefs have shown that I am "extremely republican". Let's set that label aside though. I just want to know why the "Leftwing Extremists" are not being placed under such fire? Do we really want this country to become the socialist nation it is heading towards? I said I would give the new president a chance, and I continue to do so, but it is very hard when these things are happening in our government. To date, I have yet to see any benefit from any of his choices and orders.

These things really frustrate me.