Enough!

Trouble Never Takes A Holiday

"Women's rule of thumb, if it has tires or testicles it's gonna cause you trouble". I am in agreement on both counts since my deluxe broomstick and the possessor of testicles that I'm married to have conspired to interrupt my vacation plans today.

For most of the day, Broomstick sat patiently outside the muffler shop waiting for an unplanned for installation of an exhaust system. Which was to take place "sometime this morning" via other two legged critters who also possess testicles. Around noon Hubby called them to find out if Broomstick had an exhaust system sans holes and they hadn't even pulled her into the bay for repairs yet. We got the call around 3 pm that we could pick her up, they were finally done.

I had nothing planned for Wednesday since Broomstick is scheduled for a visit to the regular mechanic for a headlight relay replacement and inspection. I had been told that would take all day since it's a tricky job. The relay, not the inspection. Come to think of it, he has testicles too. Since I knew I'd be without transportation, Wednesday was to be my day stuck at home. I had intentionally arranged it that way so that the testicular mechanic could have my vehicle for as long as he needed. I was not planning on being stuck at home for today.

We have 3 vehicles. Hubby's business van, his personal small pick up truck and my car. Hubby needs the van today, which should have left the pick up truck for me to use. I had envisioned dropping the car off and then dropping Hubby off at his garage where the business vehicles are parked. This plan would leave both of us with transportation today. So, what does Hubby bring home with him last night? The van. In which he followed me to the muffler shop and then brought me home. To an empty driveway. Which, of course, totally destroyed today's plans.

When he came home this afternoon, he had the pick up. I opened the passenger door and decided that I will not ask to use it Wednesday. The floor on the passengers side was totally covered with tools, empty car part boxes, tissues and empty chocolate milk bottles. It closely resembled a rolling trash dump. Smelled like one too.

There is no way I'm going to use that vehicle without cleaning it out first, and there is no way I'm going to clean up his mess in HIS vehicle. It's bad enough that I have to clean out his mess in my vehicle. Which when he uses it is usually littered with his tools, empty car part boxes and whatever of his clothing he picked up from where he left it last. He dresses in layers in cooler weather so his vehicles are storage places for the jackets or heavy shirts he leaves the house wearing.

He used my car a week ago and when I cleaned it out I found: 2 sets of box end wrenches, assorted used spark plug wires, loose plastic stay straps, empty thermostat box, 1 jigsaw, 1 winter jacket, 1 denim shirt, 1 sweatshirt, 1 plastic container of assorted washers and a short length of pvc pipe. I haven't looked in the trunk yet. I'm almost afraid to. Last time I did I found I was driving around with an empty 20 pound propane container rolling around in there. There are times when ignorance really is bliss.

One bright spot is that after nearly 24 years we finally got him housebroken. The reason I say we, is that Butterscotch had a great deal to do with his decision to take better care of his possessions when in the home. Having a cat that thinks papers are for shredding plus anything not nailed down is a play pretty, has been instrumental in helping Hubby understand the error of his ways. I must say that these days Butterscotch is a lot less trouble than he used to be. After all, he doesn't have testicles or tires.

Just Thinking

I have to say I'm a bit shocked that New York passed a same sex marriage bill. The shock exists due to the State Senate being controlled by Republicans. Apparently the protection from lawsuits against churches who choose not to perform the marriages made it palatable to the Republicans in our state government.  So far local churches are booking the marriages all ready. Of course, the law doesn't go into affect until July 24 of this year so there is time.

On the news tonight, Archbishop Cunningham of the Syracuse Catholic Diocese is on record calling this a "terrible thing". The Catholic Church is not on board this particular train, apparently. Given church doctrine, I can understand that. Don't have to approve of it, but I understand. What I don't understand is how this same church that declares the marriage bill a terrible thing failed it's duty to the children of many parishes by covering up for those priests who were molesting those children.

While traveling around today I saw a sign outside a Methodist Church that is just around the corner from where I live. It said: "There are but two truths in life. #1. God does exist. #2. You are not HIM." I shall apply truth #2 to the question in my mind regarding the cover up of pedophiles in the church.

The other issue that I am applying truth #2 to is this. While there are cautions against the commission of homosexual acts in the Bible, there is no commandment against it as there is against adultery. Since I am applying truth #2 here, I can't say that God seems to have considered adultery the much more egregious sin, now can I? I can, however, say that given that adultery is covered by a commandment while homosexuality is not, there is ample room for thought there.

I am human and as such I am imperfect which means there is a part of me that enjoys forming opinions and that part of me tends to resist truth #2. That part of me would enjoy no end of satisfaction if it turns out that same sex marriages turn out not to have the same divorce statistics as heterosexual marriages do. A full 50% of marriages end in divorce these days. I'm thinking maybe we'd be farther ahead if people tended to their own marriages with the same fervor they showed while protesting against the same sex marriage act.

Led Zeppelin - The Ocean

I Haz A Vacation

I'm not exactly sure, but I believe I started work for my present place of employment in March or April of 1999. Except for the occassional day off here and there and 2 or 3 days off for the death of each of my parents, I have not had a vacation in all these years. Until now.

As of 4 PM today, June 24, I am on vacation.

I'm writing this offline since it's pouring out which has effectively interfered with my satellite connection to both the TV and the internet. I'm listening to the rain, the very distant rumbles of thunder and am considering what I plan on doing during my vacation.

When I went by the town park today, they were setting the bleachers up for the graduation ceremony, just in case. I will be there IF it doesn't rain and they hold the ceremony in the park. Won't need a ticket for that. Her party isn't for another 3 weeks so after the ceremony I plan on heading for Super Shoes to see if I can find a pair of new ones for work. My Reeboks have lost the cushion under the balls of my feet and it's starting to hurt. My right foot has developed a stone bruise which will be removed on Thursday, and I need to have the right kind of cushioning there to stop it from redeveloping right away.

I have a short list of things I need to do around the house which will include trying on clothing to see what fits now, or may fit soon. The larger items in good condition will be going to one of the many charity drop boxes that are being installed all over the area. I've laid in some fresh fruits for snacking along with a few good books to read in the afternoons. I have a massage booked at a local spa and a date for lunch with the girls.

With the exception of the things I've mentioned here, my plans aren't set in stone. I'm off until July 5th so I have plenty of time to enjoy myself. I'm just going to do a few different things so you might not find me online much this week. I plan on using my vacation time as a break from the usual things I do. I think I'll just shut off the rest of the world and spend time with myself and my cat. Don't break anything while I'm gone. Not having anything to come back to would just ruin my vacation.

Sometimes You Just Have To

I've been trying to work on a new playlist for the blog. Unfortunately the weather is interfering. Wind, thunder, lightening, heavy cloud cover and conditions are ripe for internet connection interruptions. Frequent interruptions. Which is perfectly fine by me since there are far too many lightening strikes happening to be having the computer on at all.

My only complaint regarding the weather is that it will be doing this thunderboomer stuff until sometime on Sunday. My granddaughter graduates from high school this year. Graduation ceremonies are Saturday morning. Normally held in the town park. This year it might be held in the school auditorium which isn't large enough to hold everyone who wants to come. Each graduate is issued only a few tickets to the indoor ceremony. Which will leave me out.

She has 6 tickets for 8 people. Youngest, his wife, the graduate's brother, maternal grandfather, paternal grandmother and paternal grandfather. Which would leave out paternal grandmother's husband and me. I don't have a problem with this, however, Hubby's ex wants his ticket for her husband and she's pitching a bitch over the decision to give it to Hubby.

To keep the peace, Hubby said to give his ticket to the ex for her husband. We will be hoping for a long enough break in the weather that would allow for an outdoor ceremony and we have told our granddaughter that we are very proud of her accomplishments and we will be there if it's outdoors. Hubby feels that he doesn't want to leave me out any more than his ex wants to leave out her husband. He just isn't spiteful enough to take his disappointment out on our granddaughter during her special event.

I've never tried to be anything more than a wife to the father of her kids. I've always felt that they have a mother, they didn't need two. Probably because I had a step-mother who tried to interfere with my life when I already had a mother. I know what that felt like and refused to do it to anyone else. These are people we're talking about, not prizes awarded for the games we play.

Unlike their mother, I won't do for one what I wouldn't be willing to do for all. I have watched the times she gave expensive leather jackets to the kids and then gave the oldest one a cheap flannel shirt because he disappointed her or she was angry at him. Two of her children have been the recipient of expensive tech toys and then again the oldest would get some inexpensive item. She would do this regularly, until recently. Then she wonders why the oldest is so jealous of the other two.

I've kept my mouth shut and ignored everything she's done because there's nothing to be gained by creating drama. I've always been pleasant to her, because I've known right from the beginning that Hubby's brothers and sisters like me better than they ever did her. I know that's a petty satisfaction, but it has helped me overlook all of the nonsense she's tried over the 24 years we've been together.

Sometimes I do wish I could fight back. My Dad could be one mean sonuvabitch, and none of his children missed inheriting that particular gene. She's going to push my buttons one too many times and she isn't going to like the results. Until then, I'm just ignoring her and trying to heal the wounds she causes. Her turn will come.

Relaxing The Mind.

I joined Twitter to have the pleasure of engaging with different people on a level that blogging doesn't allow. In the beginning there was the sharing of news, laughter, music, and realtime conversations with people from all over the world about everything under the sun. Then, somehow it started to change.

Long time users started publishing blogs with rules for the rest of us to follow. Businesses started advertising their wares. Some bloggers began to use it as a self promotion tool and slowly Twitter became something else. It became all about broadcasting, popularity and the engaging aspect of it started to die. People who were there for the fun went to Facebook and set up their FB accounts to post to Twitter when they posted to their walls in FB. Then apps began to develop which were designed to automate ones Twitter account. Write your tweets, pick your times and tell the application you chose to post them at prescheduled intervals. Look Ma, no hands. If you can't be there to speak with people, you can't see the ugly.

I have many different interests, including politics, so I follow many different people. I'm not interested in popularity so my account is small compared to some others. This usually protects me from being a target of scammers and spammers, and since I'm not in Twitter for hours on end it usually allows me to ignore the trolls. If someone bothers me, I just block them and since I'm not a big enough account, they don't come back as someone else to attack again.

My problem is, I follow some very lovely liberal ladies who are being targeted by some very nasty trolls. These trolls are using pornography to attack these women.

The accounts are being set up via mobile phone applications. The background page is usually graphic pictures of anal sex acts. All tweets consist of a list of these ladies names with an added sentence promising them sexual activity of a type that I'm thinking they don't wish to engage in. When blocked, the troll just creates another page and comes back at them. Twitter can't really help because these are being created from mobile phone applications so there is no ISP to block. In a way, this is a rape of their dignity and peace of mind.

The stress is beginning to show in all of the women who are under this form of attack. Those of us who enjoy the tweets and conversations these women provide are frustrated as well. There's not anything much more maddening than wishing one could solve the problem and totally being unable to. It's making all of us too quick to see insults where none are intended.

It isn't just the women who are having problems. There was an email attack on one of the more politically active males on Twitter. He expressed an opinion about the people who are involved in supporting Bradley Manning and Wikileaks. The emails suggest that the sender hasn't graduated from the school yard yet. All were threats to expose his secret life as a lover of cybersex. All done on camera, mind you. The evidence seems to have gotten lost in the intertubes since none of it materialized. Threats are easy, proof on the other hand, not so much.

Since the attacks began, some of my more fun and engaging Tweet friends have been taking vacations from Twitter. I am as well. I will post to my account using the lovely twitter tweet button I have on my browser. Which will remind people that I'm still alive. I found, the last time I took a quick vacation from Twitter, my inbox got filled up with messages asking if I was all right.

I spent 10 minutes there last night and lost my sense of humor 2 minutes into the experience. I restored it with the help of the video I embedded at the beginning of this post. Bird songs, relaxing music and some awesome landscape pictures helped to right my equilibrium.

It's sad that people have to do that to each other, but they do it. I used to fight against that kind of behavior, but have learned to take steps to ignore it. When it's so prevalent that I can't ignore it, I just silently steal away to another part of the web where the air is clean, the waters calm and I can breathe.

Just One Click

Before we left Blogstream, John the Squabbler and I shared email addresses. He's a fellow NY stater, wasn't sure what he was going to do and didn't want to lose touch. I was among the first people to comment on his blog. There are times when I wish I had his writing ability although he says (I think he's lying) that I write better than he does.

One can believe they have knowledge of someone else through their interpretation of the writings of that person. That knowledge I believe I have leads me to think that his email has been hacked. I received 3 emails from him a week ago which came to me as "No subject" and didn't contain anything except a link to someplace. Something didn't feel right to me about them. My belief in who John is leads me to feel that if this were something he wanted me to see, he'd have said so. John likes words. Lots of words.

His only access to us, at the moment, is from a library computer and possibly a cell phone. Even given that he would have to be working quickly, I still believe he would have said something in explanation. Since that's how I feel, I didn't click the links. I did send him an email asking if his email could have been hacked, however, the only response was more emails with more links and still no explanation. The last that I received occurred at 3:30 this morning.

I am no longer even opening them on the off chance that they contain malware. He has a Facebook account and another online friend of mine with a Yahoo email had her email hacked via her Facebook account the same day I started receiving the ones from John. Facebook is a hotbed of problems like that. I can have enough trouble with Twitter along those lines if I were not careful about clicking on links. Come to think of it, most of the malware picked up in Twitter are posted through peoples Facebook account.

For the social media addicts, being able to post once and have it occur in all of their accounts at the same time seems to appeal to them. With the number of people who still use the internet without proper security on their computers the number of computers that can be infected is infinite. Once infected, that computer sends out the malware infected emails to all those listed in the computer address book and so it goes. On and on and on. Very hard to contain when that happens, since most don't know they've been hacked until their friends start complaining about the unwanted items they were sent.

That reminds me, in case opening the first of those emails infected my computer with something, don't open anything I send you if there isn't something said by me in the subject line. I keep checking my "Sent" folder and nothing is in there that I didn't send. I'm not sure that's a good way to tell, but it seems to me to be. After all, if I send out something it's in there, so why wouldn't a hacker's be too?

I Should Have Married A Farmer

Nobody knew that Larry's farm was for sale, not even Larry.  He's a second generation dairy farmer and owns a Dairy of Distinction. That is an award the NYS Dairy Association gives to immaculately clean farms with happy cows and high volumes of milk production. I should say Larry owned the farm, it now has a new owner.

A few months back, there were a group of men going around the hills in my area and stopping at farms asking if the owners would be willing to sell. CASH on the barrelhead, prices that few would refuse. Larry's in his middle 50's and has farmed all his life. His family consists of wife and one child, a child unwilling to take on the family farm. When he heard the figure he was being offered. He said yes. So did 3 or 4 others. The only one that didn't sell was Maynard, and that was only because his wife wouldn't let him. She says the only way she's ever leaving that place is in a pine box so Maynard still has his dairy farm. Apparently, a large group of men wearing black and carrying an obscene amount of cash on them didn't impress her much. They just couldn't make her an offer she wouldn't refuse.

We first heard about it when Larry called to arrange delivery of 2 portable restrooms. Seemed the new owners need to use them until they make the renovations needed to live in the house. A Dairy of Distinction has a well kept house as well as barn, so I'm sure you're asking why they needed to renovate? In addition to that, I'm not sure renovate is the best word here, since what needed doing was removal of all plumbing and electric wiring, and the building of outhouses. Yep, this large group of men wearing black and carrying an obscene amount of money on them were Amish. Larry was offered a quarter of a million for his farm and slightly less for the smaller farm he also owns.

Stopped at one of the farms on my way home from work today. Scored 2 quarts of the best tasting sweetest strawberries I've ever tasted in my life. Along with a loaf of home baked whole wheat bread. This farm, not Larry's, has a walk in cellar where the sales take place. There's a table set up and on the other side of the table was a young lady doing wash in an old fashioned wringer washer, no electricity, just a gas engine to run it.  This farm family sells cookies, pies, bread and fudge.  Plus some produce, in season. I was told the berries were picked fresh this morning and I'm sure they were since the fingers of this young lady were stained red from the juice. About the time it finally wears off, it will be time to pick strawberries again. In the stores they're running $2.99 and they don't taste as good, nor do you get as many. I paid $3.75 and think they're well worth it.

One of the other farms will have wood furniture and artwork for sale, along with the fresh produce, and yet another farm will have other items for sale that the Amish are noted for, along with their fresh, in season produce. They are known for the quality of their work and if these strawberries are any indication, that quality extends to their produce. Grown with good old fashioned cow manure from heritage seeds.

My bucket list has long carried my wish to travel to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to vacation in Amish country. We've had few vacations due to Hubby's seasonal business. We can't just take time off, we lose income. Somehow going in the Winter months just didn't appeal to me. I thought that my trip would wait until after he retires, IF he retires and now, Lancaster Amish country has come to me. I'm actually excited about this addition to our small community. It's going to make my healthy eating lifestyle much easier since I'll be able to find the produce I will need without traveling all over the county. Life just gets so amazing every once in awhile, doesn't it?

Balancing Act

For the past few days I've been trying, unsuccessfully I might add, to avoid the topic of politics. It seems to be all anyone is talking about. In real life, online, all the same. Even my clients have gotten into the act. That I understand since their Social Security and Medicare are at stake. I know Congress keeps saying it won't affect them, unfortunately politicians don't always understand the consequences of their decisions. Plus, all of them lie.

I admit, we need to take an interest because we vote. However, we also do other things. We sleep, we dream, we read, we have hobbies. We listen to music, watch TV, go to movies. Some of us are involved in charitable organizations or youth activities like Little League. We take walks, take dance classes. We go to the YMCA to walk on the treadmill or to swim. Some people plan vacations and enjoy themselves. Are we having conversations about these things? Why not?

I've looked around and all I'm seeing are people taking sides. The finger pointing, the name calling. The  anger, the bullying, the hate. There are no informed, quiet discussions during which people are keeping an open mind with the view to learning more about the issue. Each side is doing nothing more than shouting loudly in the hopes of hiding the flaws in their own reasoning, and to gather followers willing to repeat every word they say as if they're pearls of wisdom.

I admit the occasional conversation about politics can add a little spice to an otherwise humdrum life, but this constant bombardment is in itself boring. I keep hearing Peggy Lee in my head singing "Is That All There is". Who knew that the internet, the highly touted Information Superhighway could become little more than a rut? Something tells me that what it's becoming isn't what the originators envisioned. How sad is that?

I've begun to believe that what we hear on the Nightly News is being directed by what's being discussed on the internet. It's become a driving force in our daily lives in a way that isn't always positive. How we act, what we say online is what is being reported because we give some events relevance by our conversations. Even people without internet connections can join the conversation because they get their information via the news. What goes viral on the net is more likely to be commented on at 6:30 pm. The news is no longer giving us the news, it's replaying what we want to hear, and we seem to want to hear the dirt. All of it. Every prurient detail. Then we want to talk about it until something else catches our fancy.

It has occurred to me that while everyone online and in coffee shops and bars are arguing about whatever the hot topic of the day is, I'm out there doing things that help people live independent lives. I'm engaged in positive pursuits, ones that really do make a difference. I think it's what I do for a living that is helping me learn to shut off much of the anger I see online when I shut off the computer. It still gets to me on some level, but not in a way that makes me want to fight back. I can even listen, in real life, to the opinions of those around me and smile without saying a word. After all, I have a blog for that.

I'm Gonna Need A Bigger Pot.

Just call me Noreen Gooseboiler. I took a shot at a witch name generator and that's what it came up with. I'm still laughing at the possibilities there. I mean, really! I can think of a whole bunch of geese I'd like to boil right about now. Starting with Congressman Anthony Weiner. I wonder if I could get the entire GOP along with him in the pot? If not, I can always just add Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin. Just think of the cost savings to Rep. Weiner. Two women he can proudly display his man bits to AND no cell phone charges. Of course, he'll have to work fast, I am pretty sure that boiling water won't improve the looks of those man bits any.

Random Witch Name Generator

Click the link, get your name and go ahead and share it with me. I know this is usually a Halloween pastime, but frankly, with all that's happening on the political front it might just as well be Trick or Treat time. I'm just going to laugh and party my way through until the next election cycle. Maybe I'll just sit back quietly and wait and see whose goose is going to get cooked next.

Making Better Choices

Since the focus of my lifestyle change isn't primarily weight loss, the doctor only weighs me every other visit. Although I am aware that I've lost at least 30 pounds, the numbers haven't been translating in my head, to the need for new clothes yet. Like most overweight people I have thin clothes and fat clothes so my closet is the source for whatever size I'm fitting into at the moment. However, I work wearing scrubs. Actually I wear the tops with my older slacks or this time of year, with my capri pants.

I hadn't thought about how my scrubs had begun to look on me. I had two tops that had been purchased in the fall right before the need to do something to help myself be healthier. I wore them until I found someone who could use them and didn't mind second hand clothes. They were size 22. Actually purchased not because they were the size I wore, but because I liked the print on them. They were admittedly, not so big on me that they looked sloppy.

Scrubs wear like iron. They don't stain the way our regular clothes can, and pretty much hold their colors even after repeated washing. Most of my scrubs were purchased in 2007 and still look fine, except they are getting so big on me that I look sloppy. I hadn't really thought much about that until the Director of Nursing made an off hand comment during an inservice a couple of weeks ago. She was addressing some client complaints against some of the aides who wear their clothes too tight.

Since the company doesn't give a clothing allowance, they can't demand that we wear scrubs. I do because they're cheaper than other styles of tops and more comfortable to work in since they give me movement room where I need it. We're pushing, pulling, lifting and reaching constantly so clothing that doesn't bind anywhere is something I want. Especially during hot weather. Nothing we wear is ever really comfortable when it's hot, but loose is the next best thing. Unfortunately at the end of her comment about clothing that is too tight she also said something about clothing that is too loose. I'm not sure she was aiming it at me. At the time, I wasn't thinking about how loose my clothes had gotten, so it never occurred to me that it was.

A couple of days later, while at a client who is the only one that says anything about my weight loss, she did something that surprised me. She reached out, grabbed a handful of shirt and pulled it out away from my body. I looked down and saw all this material that I hadn't seen before. It made my jaw drop. She probably had 6 or 8 extra inches of material pulled away from me, but it looked like twice that amount. Needless to say, I went and bought some new tops.

From nearly being big enough to need a size 22, my new tops are size 16. Tomorrow I'm going to pick up a couple of new pairs of capris to go with the new tops. I managed to choose colors that worked with the capris and slacks I all ready own, except, now that I think about it, by Fall those slacks will be too big. I still can't wrap my mind around having lost at least two sizes without counting calories or depriving myself of the things I want to eat.

I don't have a size goal, or a final weight goal. My goal is to be healthier, maintain a healthy blood pressure and experience less joint pain. Just making the nutritional changes recommended by my doctor has allowed me to rid myself of around 5 pounds a month, without any sense of deprivation at all. That's a mythbuster in a way. I've heard it said for years that weight is harder to take off when you're older, and frankly, from personal experience I have to say, no it's not.

The Zombie Apocalypse Better Hurry Or They Won't Have Anything To Eat.

I've come to the conclusion that Americans, or at least those living in the United States, are either insane or stupid. My preference would be that we are insane, but my common sense tells me that stupid is more likely. Having said that, I now wish to find a cabin on a mountain top that would be inaccessible to anyone but me and a very few others that I think might possibly still have some brains. OK, so I'll let Hubby and Butterscotch come with me. I love them, they can be whatever they want to be and I won't say a word.

I need to get away from all media for the rest of my life or at least an hour or so. I am at a point where I want to take this idea of American Exceptionalism and shove it where the sun don't shine. We're so busy believing we're exceptional that the rest of the world is outstripping us in almost every category except bullshit and we're freaking blind to it.

I ask this in all honesty. Tell me please, if you can, why we're stuck on gossiping about Anthony Weiner's wiener pics and not discussing the $800,000 income that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas "forgot" that he made and never claimed on his taxes? What about his refusal, so far, to recuse himself on healthcare challenges when his wife is a lobbyist for people who might want to overturn the healthcare reform?

Oh no, we have to display our righteous indignation over Congressman Weiner's "Weinergate". Shouts of "He's a LIAR" or "He's a PERV" ring loudly and are drowning out those of us who want to discuss the issues facing America today. His behavior was shameful, stalking all those women. Oh! Wait! He said he "EXCHANGED" pictures of himself with several women. So, what kind of pictures did they send to him? Frankly, if these women didn't like it, they could have asked him to stop. They could have reported him years ago, or they could have blocked him.

I am not, in any way, shape, form or manner excusing him. What I'm saying is that we, the "exceptional" American people allow the sex lives of the rich and famous to overshadow the narrative about what should be more important. Like the state of our economy. How about the cost of our healthcare? How about a Supreme Court Judge that also, if you remember, was accused of sexual harassment by Anita Hill when he was being examined as a potential Supreme Court Judge? One who now appears to be a tax cheat and a con man with few ethical standards. So far, Weiner is just...well...a wiener.

So, Anthony Weiner has now joined the ranks of powerful Washington players who seem to have difficulty keeping his pants zipped up. And that appears to be what's most important to the people of America. That and getting a date with Kim Kardashian. Excuse me, I need to go find my cat. He doesn't say anything but he makes a hell of a lot more sense than people do.

Sarah Palin And Friends, Changing American History, One Page At A Time

Little Green Footballs - Palin Fans Trying to Edit Wikipedia Paul Revere Page


It never occurred to me that any American educated in American schools would not know the purpose of Paul Revere's ride. I was taught about the signals in the Old North Church which were created via lights. "One if by land, two if by sea" to indicate the direction from which the British would be coming. The purpose of that ride was to warn the colonists that the British were on the way. By it's very nature, given that not all colonists were supporters of independence, the ride would not have been accompanied by the sounds of musket fire or ringing bells.  Both would be the perfect way to draw unwanted attention to yourself and quite possibly doom the mission to failure.

It has never occurred to me that any different version of this event would be taught in any school in the United
States of America. Despite the fact that the State of Texas is rewriting portions of history to suit their view of it, I can't believe even they'd go this far. Ahhh, but Sarah Palin would, and did. When in Boston, she was asked about Paul Revere and in her version he warned the BRITISH that the colonists had guns. Of course, he warned the Britsh that they wouldn't get the weapons being amassed by the colonists, so she didn't quite make a traitor out of him. She even embellished her answer to include some musket fire and ringing bells. Her defense, of course, is that she is right and if she was wrong, it was a trick question anyway. Oh! Wait! To be accurate here, it was a "gotcha" question. Her word, by the way.

Sarah Palin making a laughingstock out of herself is nothing new. Sarah Palin being believed by certain people, no matter what she says, is again...nothing new. What is new is the attempt on the part of one or more of her supporters to alter the Paul Revere Wikipedia page to conform with her version of the events. I don't know about anyone else since I can only speak for myself, but I find that attempt very disturbing. To attempt to alter our nations history to make it coincide with the blatherings of an idiot is beyond reprehensible. I doubt you have the decency to be ashamed of your actions. Why would I doubt you? The fact that you support Sarah Palin would be a good place to start.

Despite it being known that Wikipedia is not always 100% accurate and it's owner says it shouldn't be used as a final say in any matter, it does require a source for it's information. Given the importance of Paul Revere and his ride, any changes to the accepted version must include impeccable sources. Plural, not singular. The editors of that particular Wikipedia page determined that the words of one person, in this case Sarah Palin, was not a sufficient enough source to change American History. The entries were removed.

What disturbs me even further is that somewhere in America there are families with young children in school.
These children are most likely being taught by their teacher's the truth about Paul Revere and his ride. Unfortunately, if their parents are "Palinista's" they are, most likely, being told by their parents that the school
teacher and the history books have it wrong.

Some Pretty Packages Sure Do Stink!

I haven't had much to say this week. My muse evaporated while looking through my blog stats at the Search Keywords used to find my blog. In a world populated by trolls, sock puppets, bullies and racists, what I found should not have surprised me, but it did.

"If God wanted us to be equal, he'd have made us all the same color."

Every time I sit down to write, no matter what I'm writing my mind suddenly turns to gift packaging. I start thinking about dog turds wrapped in tissue paper, placed in a box and then wrapped in pretty paper with a big bow. Still a dog turd no matter how attractive the package is, isn't it?

On the other hand, if I take two identically expensive diamond rings, wrap one in a pretty package, and place the other in a brown paper bag, am I destroying the equality of the two gifts? I don't think so. It isn't the outside of the package that creates the value, it's what's inside that counts.

In real life, the people I meet, the people I know, the people I love are like those diamond rings. Some of them come in the attractive packages, others in the brown paper bags. It's only when I'm online that I encounter the dog turds wrapped in pretty paper.

No matter what color we are on the outside, we're all the same on the inside. We all consist of bones, muscle, soft tissue organs, a heart that pumps blood. We all have a central nervous system and a brain that awesomely operates all the body functions that we don't have to think about, like breathing. It seems to me that the package it all comes in does very little to change how every thing else works. If that's not equality, what is?

And That's All I Haz To Say About That!