Photo courtesy: http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_oct2006/CarSurgeon.htm

Those would be in my ‘Fantasy Tweaks’ category, but I can think of two realistic changes right off the top of my head.

And it’s some freaky combination of Obama-mania mixed with the worst of the 70′s.  

If it wasn’t so scary, it would be hysterical :-/

One of the things I like about being married to a “European” is how he not only stays on top of the news here in the U.S., but keeps himself abreast of newsworthy stories in Europe, as well:

 Where does one even go to purchase a “naked gnome”? 

In the story, naked gnome collector, Sandra Smith, said she was told to put clothes on three of her favorite ornaments because they were deemed offensive.  Personally, I find the entire display offensive because it’s so kitschy and overdone.

I mean, really, Sandy… the wet t-shirt gnome is over the top! J

Senator Specter,

I am writing again to ask you to PLEASE not put your name on this insulting “stimulus” bill until we can say that all the items contained within it will actually stimulate our economy and not just put us deeper in debt while we fulfill the numerous spending projects that are now also filling its pages.

I have four children, one of whom is 16-years-old and [seriously] wants to know if he should start buying gold NOW because the new President and Congress are in the process of ruining his future with this bill. I can’t make him feel any better, because he’s right – that’s what you’re doing. I can’t offer him any “hope”.

Please don’t be one of the people responsible for destroying the futures of so many young people. Yes, we need to do something and we need to do something [relatively] soon, but we DON’T need to meet Mr. Obama’s ‘deadline’ of 2/16.  “Haste makes waste”!!   We don’t want to screw this up. Like Mr. Obama, you are supposed to represent US… we are not a group of idiots, we are registered voters, and we don’t want our money spent like this:

• $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Dept. of Energy defunded last year because the project was inefficient

• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film

• $650 million for the digital television (DTV) converter box coupon program

• $88 million for the Coast Guard to design a new polar icebreaker (arctic ship)

• $448 million for constructing the Dept. of Homeland Security headquarters

• $248 million for furniture at the new Dept. of Homeland Security headquarters

• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees

• $400 million for the CDC to screen and prevent STD’s

• $1.4 billion for a rural waste disposal programs

• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities

• $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion

• $75 million for “smoking cessation activities”

• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges

• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI

• $25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction

• $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas

• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into “green” buildings

• $500 million for state and local fire stations

• $650 million for wildland fire management on Forest Service lands

• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities

• $1.2 billion for “youth activities,” including youth summer job programs

• $88 million for renovating the headquarters of the Public Health Service

• $412 million for CDC buildings and property

• $500 million for building and repairing NIH facilities in Bethesda, MD

• $160 million for “paid volunteers” at the Corporation for National and Community Service

• $5.5 million for “energy efficiency initiatives” at the VA “National Cemetery Administration”

• $850 million for Amtrak

• $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint

• $75M to construct a new “security training” facility for State Dept Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies.

• $110 million to the Farm Service Agency to upgrade computer systems

• $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations.

• State Medicaid Bailout: $87.7 billion Through 3 different mechanisms, the bill would provide additional federal funds to state Medicaid programs over the next 3 years. This is nearly $70 billion more than the governors asked President Obama for in December, and should be a loan to be repaid by the states.

Source: Website of Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn 
Respectfully,
Someone who votes for you only because the alternative is voting for a liberal Democrat

To write that being in the hospital is anything but unpleasant and something we all wish to avoid would be obvious and unnecessary. Yet sometimes, it is the only way to enable someone to return to good health, or at least better health. And during a stay at the hospital, there are things we can learn - other than exactly what diagnosis put us there in the first place.

Beginning with how grateful I am for my own bed and pillow, I personally learned how much I really do appreciate the mundane, annoying chores I do on a daily basis that normally give me only the slightest gratification. I missed getting my children ready for school and making my 7-year-old’s school lunch at 6:30 each morning. I missed doing laundry, cooking dinner, paying bills and loading/unloading the dishwasher. After 6 days away, I missed seeing my family every day - even when they were in my face making too much noise when I wanted to be ‘alone’. For the most part, I was alone each one of those days, all day… all night.

It is a conundrum of human nature, I think, to initially be content with what we have… then dissatisfied once we have it for a while… then miss it and want it back once it is taken from us. Or maybe I am the only one who is guilty of this unappreciative tendency, along with the lack of appreciation of the phrase “at least you have your health”.  Spend some time as an anxious patient in the hospital and you, too, may eliminate the words “at least” from that sentence… at least for a while.

Because my stay in the hospital was a bit longer than average, I enjoyed the company of 4 different roommates, 2 of whom were sicker than I was. If not ignored, this benefits one’s perspective; focusing on the pain and anxiety of my roommates was definitely helpful in temporarily diverting attention away from my own problems. While I felt bad for what these two women were enduring, I admit I felt grateful that it wasn’t me. And when I pray for my own health and future, I remember them, too.

Well, I was privy to dozens of people’s medical records while in the hospital every day, without a subpoena or anything… using just my ears. My hospital room was close to the nurses’ station and every time the shift changed, the nurse on duty would relate each chart’s information to the nurse coming on duty. She would go over each chart, starting with the FULL NAME, diagnosis, doctor’s orders/medications, details of what transpired during her shift, and for some patients, some added anecdotal information, such as “what a nice woman she is,” or “he’s a real nasty one”. I wasn’t trying to hear what they were saying, their voices echoed into my room and to my bed, which was the furthest from the door.

Thankfully, I didn’t recognize any of the names I heard, so all of this information means absolutely nothing to me, but what if I DID know one or more of these patients? I would now know their private, medical history (unless I stuck my fingers in my ears and did that la-la-la-la-la thing). And who might have heard MY medical information? There could have been someone there who recognized my name from seeing it on my check at the grocery store, or the pharmacy, etc. Now they know exactly what is ‘wrong’ with me. I’m not liking this. Why don’t the nurses have a room with a closed door where they can do this confidential job? Why do any of us sign those HIPAA forms in the first place – are they just to make us THINK our privacy is being protected? Hmm…

 Whatever the case, I was released from the hospital the day before Thanksgiving and enjoyed a toned-down eating experience, but a day full of more gratitude than usual. I valued this more than the usual type of celebration, and hope I can remember this important lesson for future years without preceeding the holiday with an unpleasant trip to the hospital.

In addition, some of the other firm boundaries set by Mr. McCain were:

• No Michelle Obama attacks
• No attacking Obama for his lack of service in the Military
• No using children to depict Obama being soft on crime
• And absolutely no ad of a black man busting a move with a lesbian!

The idea is that this last one would be too provocative, but it’s more likely that it would have led to liberals belly-aching and whining about how McCain and conservatives are intolerant racists and bigots (see “The View” for an example of said belly-aching and whining).  So, perhaps it was a shrewd mood in such a malicious and hyper-critical environment.

Woman in yellow is grandmother being harrassed - after having her cross trampled.

Actors just love being the center of attention…

…it is the courage to continue that counts.”  

- Sir Winston Churchill

There is little that is final about Mr. Obama’s success, since he now needs to live up to all the promises he made, but will be nearly impossible to keep.  The watch begins…

I thought these other Churchill quotes were also quite notable:

“If you’re not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you’re not a conservative at forty you have no brain.”

(Well, doesn’t THIS explain a lot? :-)

“The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.”

…Or, in this case, a 2½ minute conversation:

Wright:

Courtesy: Newsweek.com

Courtesy: liberalvaluesblog.com/ibloga.blogspot.com

Pfleger:

Courtesy: cbsnews.com

Rezko:

Courtesy: achicagoblog.com

Courtesy: http://Quipster.wordpress.com

 

…and I’ll tell you who you are.”

Love Conquers All

No, I did not just realize he was a democrat after four months of marriage. This is not something that has reared its ugly head during the last few weeks of a heated and critically important presidential election. It is something that other people find interesting about us and our long relationship, wondering how we are able to ‘get along’ so well. We met in a republican chat room during a previous presidential election when he came in to instigate arguments, but he didn’t know *I* would be there to argue back :-) And neither of us could have guessed that heated political dialogue would someday lead to marriage.

So here I am many years later with my liberal honey, whom I love dearly and whose opinions have helped shape some of mine over the years. And after the Clinton and Bush years, amazingly, we find ourselves on the same political page – and somewhat disoriented! While he is still a liberal, he is not, nor has he ever been, stupid, so it is as obvious to him as it is to me that Barack Obama is miserably and frighteningly inexperienced for the job of Postmaster General. Oops… I mean, President of the United States. (Personally, I would not want him for either job, but that’s another story).

It concerns me that he is the least experienced candidate in history, how he also has less experience than Sarah Palin (who is number two on the republican ticket, despite how the democrats vilify and dismiss her), how he is a blatant opportunist, how his social/political associations speak to the matter of his character – as does his behavior, causes, and what he has allowed his children to listen to in church every Sunday. I find the prospect of an Obama presidency off-putting, to say the least. Lying is nothing new in Washington, but media substantiated lying and having one’s own party cleaning up behind a candidate like the sweeper behind an elephant in the circus, is something I don’t remember witnessing before, or certainly, not to this degree.

Personally, the best thing about this election cycle is that my husband has finally seen for himself what I have been trying to get him to see for years: that media bias DOES exist. It’s really something when someone has a ‘light bulb moment’, when they see what you were never able to explain. Of course, with the majority of the media in the tank for Obama, one would have to be Helen Keller to miss it, but still…

It would be difficult to narrow down the worst thing about this election cycle to just one. On the personal side, though, it may just be the very thing that has always been so good (and entertaining) about previous elections: the fact that my husband can’t vote because he is a citizen of The Netherlands. It was always nice that he could not “cancel my vote”, but this year he would actually have voted for John McCain.

It’s just part of that irony I’ve experienced with this election – like when I found myself supporting a Clinton during the primary.

Today I think of how quickly everyone forgets the unity and singularity of purpose once known as the years increase between September 11th 2001 and the present.  My sense is that we could not be more divided than we are right now and our enemies probably enjoy the satisfaction of knowing they have not only hurt us physically, but emotionally and politically as well.  I wonder if they knew how quickly we would all turn on one another; I, for one, am appalled at such a realization.

But life goes on for all of us in all our cocoons.  I am keenly aware that Americans are an impatient sort.  Not entirely our fault, I’ll concede, but not always a beneficial quality to possess.  While our desire to see things accomplished “yesterday” has contributed to our success as a Superpower, individually, we want what we want NOW… or sooner.  And when it comes to war, we Americans have precious little tolerance for the unavoidable accompanying discomfort.  Of course, as Americans, we also want THE best, 100% infallible plan that can be carried out neatly and quickly with little to no casualties. 

Sadly, this is not a reality we can know and we all scurry for someone to blame.  Blame makes us feel a little better and gives us a focus so moving forward is bearable.  But what we all really want is for none of this dreaded ugliness to ever have touched our lives in the first place, for our fragile version of innocence to have been left in tact, for those terrorists to have been stopped before they boarded the planes on that fateful day six years ago.  We want what we can’t have, and, heck, we’re Americans… we usually figure out a way to get it!  So instead of acknowledging a pain that cannot be quelled, we collectively grumble, complain, name-call, and viscously blame easy targets.

And today I think: How many years before we figure out that our country’s dissension feeds our enemy while starving our ability to heal and triumph?