Congratulations to my daughter

My daughter placed 3 times during the Feis this last weekend.
A Feis is an Irish step dance competition. She placed for her two hand, her slip jig, and her double jig.
Great Job Baby!

One Vote

Something very important happened today. The supreme court overturned a handgun ban in Washington DC. The problem? It was only by a margin of 5 to 4.

Here are some thoughts on the subject:

Benjamin Franklin: Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." (Nov 11 1755, from the Pennsylvania Assembly's reply to the Governor of Pennsylvania.)

Thomas Jefferson: "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined or determined to commit crimes. Such laws only make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assassins; they serve to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." (1764 Letter and speech from T. Jefferson quoting with approval an essay by Cesare Beccari)

John Adams: "Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion in private self defense." (A defense of the Constitution of the US)

George Washington: "Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the people's liberty teeth (and) keystone... the rifle and the pistol are equally indispensable... more than 99% of them (guns) by their silence indicate that they are in safe and sane hands. The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference (crime). When firearms go, all goes, we need them every hour." (Address to 1st session of Congress)

George Mason: "To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them." (3 Elliot, Debates at 380)

Noah Webster: "Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe." (1787, Pamphlets on the Constitution of the US)

George Washington: "A free people ought to be armed." (Jan 14 1790, Boston Independent Chronicle.)

Thomas Jefferson: "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." (T. Jefferson papers, 334, C.J. Boyd, Ed. 1950)

James Madison: "Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose people are afraid to trust them with arms." (Federalist Paper #46)

Times change, laws change, attitudes change and these men knew that. They also knew that if ever their people had to take back their country again from a corrupt government, they would need their guns.

In Memory 5/12/1937 - 6/22/2008

The Seven Words You Can Never Say On Tv

by George Carlin

I love words. I thank you for hearing my words.
I want to tell you something about words that I think is important.
They're my work, they're my play, they're my passion.
Words are all we have, really. We have thoughts but thoughts are fluid.
then we assign a word to a thought and we're stuck with that word for
that thought, so be careful with words. I like to think that the same
words that hurt can heal, it is a matter of how you pick them.
There are some people that are not into all the words.
There are some that would have you not use certain words.
There are 400,000 words in the English language and there are 7
of them you can't say on television. What a ratio that is.
399,993 to 7. They must really be bad. They'd have to be outrageous
to be seperated from a group that large. All of you over here,you 7,
Bad Words. That's what they told us they were, remember?
"That's a bad word!" No bad words, bad thoughts, bad intentions,
and words. You know the 7, don't you, that you can't say on television?
"Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, CockSucker, MotherFucker, and Tits"
Those are the heavy seven. Those are the ones that'll infect your soul,
curve your spine, and keep the country from winning the war.
"Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, CockSucker, MotherFucker, and Tits"
Wow! ...and Tits doesn't even belong on the list. That is such a friendly
sounding word. It sounds like a nickname, right? "Hey, Tits, come here,
man. Hey Tits, meet Toots. Toots, Tits. Tits, Toots." It sounds like a
snack, doesn't it? Yes, I know, it is a snack. I don't mean your sexist
snack. I mean New Nabisco Tits!, and new Cheese Tits, Corn Tits,
Pizza Tits, Sesame Tits, Onion Tits, Tater Tits. "Betcha Can't Eat Just
One." That's true. I usually switch off. But I mean, that word does
not belong on the list. Actually none of the words belong on the list,
but you can understand why some of them are there. I'm not
completely insensetive to people's feelings. I can understand why
some of those words got on the list, like CockSucker and
MotherFucker. Those are heavyweight words. There is a lot going on
there. Besides the literal translation and the emotional feeling.
I mean, they're just busy words. There's a lot of syllables to contend
with. And those Ks, those are agressive sounds. They just jump out at
you like "coCKsuCKer, motherfuCKer. coCKsuCKer, motherfuCKer."
It's like an assualt on you. We mentioned Shit earlier, and 2 of the
other 4-letter Anglo-Saxon words are Piss and Cunt, which go
together of course. A little accedental humor there. The reason that
Piss and Cunt are on the list is because a long time ago, there were
certain ladies that said "Those are the 2 I am not going to say. I
don't mind Fuck and Shit but 'P' and 'C' are out.", which led to such
stupid sentences as "Okay you fuckers, I'm going to tinckle now."
And, of course, the word Fuck. I don't really, well that's more
accedental humor, I don't wanna get into that now because I think
it takes to long. But I do mean that. I think the word Fuck is a very
imprortant word. It is the beginning of life, yet it is a word we use to
hurt one another quite often. People much wiser than I am said,
"I'd rather have my son watch a  film with 2 people making love
than 2 people trying to kill one another. I, of course, can agree. It is
a great sentence. I wish I knew who said it first. I agree with that but
I like to take it a step further. I'd like to substitute the word Fuck for
the word Kill in all of those movie cliches we grew up with. "Okay,
Sherrif, we're gonna Fuck you now, but we're gonna Fuck you slow."
So maybe next year I'll have a whole fuckin' ramp on the N word.
I hope so. Those are the 7 you can never say on television, under any
circumstanses. You just cannot say them ever ever ever. Not even
clinically. You cannot weave them in on the panel with Doc, and Ed,
and Johnny. I mean, it is just impossible. Forget tHose 7. They're out.
But there are some 2-way words, those double-meaning words.
Remember the ones you giggled at in sixth grade? "...And the cock
CROWED 3 times" "Hey, tha cock CROWED 3 times. ha ha ha ha. Hey, it's in
the bible. ha ha ha ha. There are some 2-way words, like it is okay for
Kirk Youdi to say "Roberto Clametti has 2 balls on him.", but he can't
say "I think he hurt his balls on that play, Tony. Don't you? He's holding
them. He must've hurt them, by God." and the other 2-way word that
goes with that one is Prik. It's okay if it happens to your finger. You
can prik your finger but don't finger your prik. No,no.

Is alimony outdated?

My husband and I were listening to the news while shoveling down some scrambled eggs before running out the door this morning. There was a small blurb about how more judges are awarding alimony to men. It sparked an interesting conversation between us that almost had me late for work. Should alimony be done away with completely?
His position is yes, mine, no. I know, the first thing you are thinking is of course she's for it, she's a woman, but I would take issue with that. In today's world family roles are changing. It is no longer unheard of for the woman to make the money and the man to make the house run smoothly. My thought is that if the decision is made that one of you should stay home, that person is sacrificing their career for the betterment of the family unit. If that unit falls apart, where does that leave the housewife/husband after fifteen years of being out of the workforce. I think alimony should be awarded to assist them reentering the workforce.
My spouse argued that they have social programs for that. I don't think that is society's responsibility, and there, we were at an impasse.
I'm not saying alimony should be handed out haphazardly, I definitely don't think it should be the norm, but I do think there is still a place for it today.

How sad...

I hated to do it, but I didn't feel that I had any choice. I had to delete what I thought was a very interesting topic because of personal attacks and obvious flame bait. Also, unfortunately I had to change the way comments are posted, if you are one of those anonymous cowards looking to sling mud with nothing intelligent to say, your comments will never post so you might as well take your traffic elsewhere.
I began this blog for several reasons, one of them being I would like a forum where the discussion of various topics, banter and even open disagreement could help bring around better understanding for everyone involved, and that will always be welcome here.

Summer Vacation

My bored kids are driving me up the wall. They are ganging up on me. Every time I turn around I have a pair of blue eyes staring at me expecting me to find something to help entertain them. The fact that I work makes the matter worse. By the time I get home they have been stuck in the house together all day, are restless and ready to kill one another. I try but after a long day I'm out of patience. I can't wait for fall.

Do Not Call

I got a telephone solicitation on my cell phone. It was one of those really annoying ones where you get the recording first, then if you're interested in their product you are supposed to press a number to talk to a real person. Well I pressed the number to very politely tell them that they had called me on my cell, which is on the do not call list and if they could please remove me from any follow-up dialers. Before I got the first four words out they hung up on me. That really pissed me off, so I wasn't feeling like being kind or polite any longer.
They had left their number on my caller ID. I promptly logged on to www.donotcall.gov and reported them. I felt much better after that, and I would like to encourage others as well. It is kind of a pain in the butt but if you do it they will pay. Calling numbers on that list will get them fined up to 11k for each call made to a prohibited number. Vengeance is mine!

I forgot what a good looking son I have.

I couldn't take it any more. Every time I looked at him he was greasy, disheveled and dandruffy. I have told him more times than I can remember that if he wanted to grow out his hair, I was fine with it as long as it was kept clean and neat. He would swear up and down that he would, and insist he was doing just that when questioned, even though it was obvious he was not.
At dinner tonight I was so disgusted looking at him I could barely choke down my meal. I went straight for the shears. He was pissed, and it didn't matter that his little sister tried to tell him that she thought he looked better with short hair. "I think I'll look gay!" He roared at her, then glowered at all of us. Didn't stop me, I was on a mission.
I never even touched his hair, just ran the clippers over his head while he continued to glare about the room, his objection oozing out of every pore. As I buzzed his head I tried to lighten the mood, telling him funny stories and such. When I had finished, his siblings were voicing their approval and he seemed to be feeling tentatively better about the whole thing. Then I had him rolling with merriment when I backed up to get a better look at him and with a smile in my eyes stated "No, I'm afraid you were right, you do look gay."

Brown Thumb?

In my family I have a reputation. I'm not proud of it, but there it is. I can't grow anything. Alright, I exaggerate a little, those weeds that grow in-between sidewalk cracks, those I can grow. Actually weeds in general do seem to like me. The only thing I can keep alive on purpose so far, seems to be roses. My yard has a lot of roses, and weeds, and dead aspen trees. Usually I look around at my little 1/4 of an acre, shrug my shoulders and say "at least the weeds are green". Occasionally I will get a little fire under me to change my proclivities. This weekend I am trying to do just that.
My kids and I spent all day yesterday doing some serious landscaping, including emptying and moving those big whiskey barrels, taking down ornamental fencing, building planters and planting flowers. We planted yellow day lillies, mums left over from Memorial day, and some purple flower that while we were at Home Depot attracted the biggest prettiest butterfly I had ever seen. I don't know exactly what kind it is but it's a perennial and my daughter just had to have it, hoping it would attract some more of her favorite insect to our back yard. The day left us tired, sore and sunburned but we are all very pleased with the results so far. I worry, however, that I may be about to overextend myself. I plan to return to the hardware store today and purchase tomatoes and herbs to go into the planters I made yesterday out of the fencing we took down.
Keep your fingers crossed for me...

Sprint Sucks!

I recently received an email from my ISP stating that they would be discontinuing my service on 7/31/08 due to a recent FCC decision about bandwidth blah, blah, blah. That was a bit irksome, but I guess it's not really their fault.
Let me start by saying that we depend on the Internet to an unhealthy extent at our house and we have a setup that suits us perfectly. We have a receiver for Sprint Broadband Direct on our rooftop, and a cable that runs to our modem, then a hub which has an Ethernet connection wired to our "command center" (the only desktop) and wireless connections which my husband and I both tap into for our notebooks. I use the connection to manage all of our family finances online (Who actually writes paper checks anymore-I mean really!). I also use it to pipe into my office computer when I need to work from home. I use it to research, keep an eye on the kids' grades, price-shop, keep in touch with family and friends, find out what's going on in the world and of course inconsistently post on my blog (sorry about that, I'll try to do better). My husband uses it to track his schooling and can also often be found either playing WOW or checking out his favorite message board StarDestroyer.net. Our kids are also into it, checking email, getting homework help, the list could go on and on, even our tivo uses it. We got rid of our traditional land line a few years ago and have never looked back, working solely off of our internet connection and cell phones.
All of this goes to show that without our internet we would be lost. It took me some time but I was able to find a suitable replacement with our cable company, Comcast. We got a 'bundle' deal where we are going to be able to get that and cable TV on the same bill. We'll see how that works out.
But anyway, onto why Sprint sucks. I called the number given on the email and they couldn't help me, it actually turned out that the number was for Nextel, you know, the walkie talkie guys who partner with Sprint. I got a new number from them to try to talk to the right people. When I finally got someone on the phone they weren't the right people so they gave me another number. I played this game a couple of times until I had my fill and tried the live chat option. Again no help, none of the reps I talked to or chatted with were even aware that Sprint offered the kind of service I have with them, I explained that they did and I had been using that particular service since 2001 and that Sprint had been taking $50 a month directly from my checking account for the privilege. After almost three hours, I eventually gave up, printed the chat record, and called my bank. They agreed to let me disallow any further drafts from my account from Sprint. I figured that if they stopped getting money they would either a, get in contact with me, or b, cancel my service early, which was what I was trying to do in the first place.
Anyway, as previously stated, Sprint sucks!

BTY, all of our earthlink email addresses that we have through sprint are still active. I will get the new ones out to our contacts as soon as I know what they will be.