Doggie Xanax

The thought brings up images of tiny little poochies with painted toenails, bows on their ears and silly little doggie outfits. If I were a dog and treated like a doll/child I know I would be stressed about it, I would want a Xanax. My dogs however are actually dogs. They’re big, both between 80-90lbs, black and furry. One of them more so than the other and he HATES the groomer. It’s rather comical actually, me trying to force him from the car through the groomer’s door is an exercise in patience, strength and stubbornness. But I digress, this is supposed to be about why my dogs need Xanax.

To start with, I live in Utah, beautiful country if you’ve never been here, pretty blue mountains up north, red rock desert down south, gorgeous. There are some drawbacks though, most recently the new legislation allowing fireworks through the entire month of July. It used to be that fireworks were allowed the week of the 4^th and the week of the 24^th (pioneer day), that was hard enough on the poor doggies. Now though, it’s gotten rather ridiculous. My dogs used to like to sleep outside in the summer, they don’t like it now, in fact one could argue that they don’t appear to like sleep at all now.

It’s the 22^nd and there have been fireworks of some sort or another pretty much every day. My poor dogs must think the world is coming to an end. They now stay closed in the bedroom with us, we have to keep them in the room because if we don’t Dozer wanders all over the house peeing, that’s not normal behavior for him, it’s caused by stress as are the red irritated hairless spots on his legs where he has licked his skin raw. I don’t know if any of you have experienced being shut in a room with two stressed out dogs, but let me tell ya, dog stress smells bad and makes the whole room stifling. Generally, my nights are spent turning back and forth listening to the frantic panting and pacing with an occasional whimper thrown in for variety. I have no idea if this behavior will end with July since even on the rare occasions when there are no fireworks, they seem to stress in anticipation.

Please, I need some good sleep, as I'm sure do they. I think I'll call the vet.

Ah, the innocence of youth...

Or should I say ignorance really? I've been reading about a recently released study http://stats.org/stories/2011/debt_self_esteem_jun13_11.html that claims debt promotes self esteem in college age adults. I have to admit, looking back, it makes sense.
During my 20s having things made me happy. We had a house, we had cars, we had cool electronic gadgets, we had way more cool stuff than we actually needed. My husband and I used to pat ourselves on the back because we had almost everything on our 'list'. We both felt pretty smug about the whole situation, to us those things meant we had succeeded and done it so early in life. That meant we were ahead - Yay us!!! In our 30s reality hit.
What we truly had was an obscene (and still growing) amount of debt. We still had the stuff, or most of it anyway, but also we began to glimpse the truth. It's a heartbreaking realization when you discover that after a hard month's work the money is already gone with little, if any left over for fun. I guess, if nothing else, this study has us as 'normal'. My hope is that our children won't be.
They've witnessed, and sacrificed along with us as we struggle to make it to the top of this pile. I'm crossing my fingers that they will learn from it and avoid the cool stuff= status & success illusion.

Taxes *shudder* Ooooo say it again.

As a nation we’ve cut the satellite TV, ditched the cell phones, replaced the flashy sports car with a sensible economy model and started using the cheap crappy shampoo. Must we really subsist only on ramen noodles, have the power shut off and have our home foreclosed on before we come to the realization that if we’re going to make it we are going to have to get a second job?

Tax. Don’t you just hate that word? I really hate that word. Know what’s worse? The inevitable collapse of our government if we can’t come to some sort of agreement on it.

I’m not saying just tax the rich, tax everyone. I’m willing to pay my share, meager as it may be. I agree government is too big and has been ridiculously wasteful, absolutely we need to fix it, but we also quite simply just need more money.

I don’t understand why you can compromise a health bill to death, okay, to the point where it’s death would have been preferable, but you can’t budge on this issue. Oh wait, I do understand. It’s about being greedy bastards. The insurance companies are poised to make more money than ever before because of this mutated monstrosity of a well-intended health care plan. Those monies will then move along to lobbyists and re-election campaigns, oh and I almost forgot, the favorite ‘charitable’ foundations of our elected officials.

For them it’s all about the dollars folks, they want to make as much of it as they can, and hold onto as much of it as they can. I can’t really blame them for that, as I’ve said before, I am a capitalist, but this is capitalism at the expense of everything else. This is plain and simple greed.

I may have to vote liberal next election.

A lesson from history?

My sister-in-law recommended a movie some time ago and I added it to my Netflix cue. It was only available on disc, not for instant streaming so when it finally made it to the top of my list and my mailbox, I had almost forgotten about it entirely.

Thank you Katie for recommending Iron Jawed Angels, it was truly outstanding. I knew about women’s suffrage in the US of course, but I didn’t KNOW about it. I was aware that in most cases, women just weren’t thought of as on the same level with men. It wasn’t always a situation where men thought themselves better, often times they were just viewed as different minded. It was widely believed that women didn’t have the capacity or the concern for such matters. The astonishing part is that it’s been less than 100 years since such beliefs were so common and that we as a society were so unenlightened. I’ve seen references to old magazines and advertisements, and I love classic literature where the themes are all present, clues are everywhere, but it’s never struck me so blatantly. It’s definitely a thinking movie, and as such it got me thinking.

Where my thoughts lead me may be somewhat unexpected to some. The movie chronicled a time when the leaders of the NAWSA (National American Women Suffrage Association) had been focusing on a state-by-state approach, thinking the nation as a whole to be too overwhelming a target. They were wrong. In the end it was a national campaign to amend the US constitution that was successful. I think the same approach is warranted with another civil rights issue.

I am a wife, a mother, and a proud American citizen. I have never heard a good argument as to why other American citizens because of their sexual orientation are denied the ability to legally marry.

I applaud New York, the most recent of our states to allow same-sex marriage, but they are still a minority. I think taking each state on individually will ultimately take more time and be more costly then taking the fight straight to Washington, DC. I am inspired by the news I heard today, Mitt Romney one of the frontrunners for the GOP Presidential nomination, refused to sign a conservative Christian group's pledge outlining, amongst other dehumanizing points, the denouncement of same-sex marriage. That was a step even Obama wouldn't take, when pressed, he stated he was against gay marriage. Bravo Mitt! I may end up voting conservative next election.

Animal Rights?

While doing a little researching on a local meat processor, I came across the website www.finalnail.com. This came up because I've recently become a lot more concerned with the food I feed my family. The unsafe industrial processes that most of our food, as Americans, goes through is shocking (more on that later). Anyway, I purchased a pig from a local farmer, and was checking out the processor he recommended. So I typed Tooele Valley Meats into google to see what would come up. Just slightly down the results page, after the directory listings, was this website. I thought, hmm, final nail, if there was anything bad to be said about this business, it might be listed here.

Turns out this site is a listing of furriers, trappers, lab animal suppliers, and 'slaughterhouses' or meat processors. I'm not sure where they get their information for sure but after a little digging, it appears their source is federal, maybe some regulatory database of some kind. I was concerned that my potential processor was on this list so I sent an email. It was very simple, I subjected it Question, then wrote "How do you know that every business on this list abuses their animals? Is there a watchdog organization you rely on?" They responded, "Thanks for the e-mail. We do not make any claims about specific businesses. But we do believe that fur farms, slaughterhouses and businesses that provide animals for vivisection are inherently cruel and exploitive. We hope that our website will encourage people to take a closer look at businesses in their community.".

After that, I did a little research on them. It turns out that they've been connected multiple times to animal rights activists who have committed crimes targeting these businesses. Locally here, they were connected to incidents where mink farms nearby, had their animals 'released back into the wild'. I wonder how those minks are doing now? Were they able to adapt to their new environment? Could they find food and shelter? More likely, they starved to death, slowly. A death which, I think would be less preferable to the quick and presumably humane death at the furriers. It's also possible that some of them were hunted and eaten by local wildlife, which brings up another point, what about the natural balance of the ecosystem of the area?

What effect would releasing those mink into that habitat have?

It is my feelings that websites like the finalnail bring violence to corrupt and honest business alike. The finalnail of course has a legal disclaimer claiming they don't encourage illegal behavior, but I never saw anywhere where they discouraged it either.

I was eventually able to find some positive information on the processor I'll be using, my meat will be delivered on March 3rd. I'll leave a comment and let you know how it goes.

There is one group however I think does need an advocate, and I would like to bring it to the attention organizations like the finalnail. Fruits and vegetables have long been abused and exploited by both man and beast. All you vegans out there thought you had the moral high ground but you have treated poor fruits and vegetables horribly just because they don't have faces! They live, they grow, they breathe, they reproduce, and what do you vegans do? You cut them down, you dig them up and you eat them! You even often eat their children! What kind of monsters are you?

I love, love, love my family

Original message forwarded by my dad (Lee):

HB 1388 PASSED


You just spent $20,000,000 to move members/supporters of Hamas, a terrorist organization, to the United States ; housing, food, the whole enchilada.

HB 1388 PASSED

Whether you are an Obama fan, or not, EVERYONE IN THE U. S. needs to know....

Something happened.... H.R. 1388 was passed, behind our backs. You may want to read about it.. It wasn ' t mentioned on the news... just went by on the ticker tape at the bottom of the CNN
screen.

Obama funds $20M in tax payer dollars to immigrate Hamas Refugees to the USA . This is the news that didn ' t make the headlines...

By executive order, President Barack Obama has ordered the expenditure of $20.3 million in "migration assistance" to the Palestinian refugees and "conflict victims" in Gaza .

The "presidential determination", which allows hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with ties to Hamas to resettle in the United States , was signed and appears in the Federal Register.

Few on Capitol Hill, or in the media, took note that the order provides a free ticket replete with housing and food allowances to individuals who have displayed their overwhelming support to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the parliamentary election of January 2006.

Let's review....itemized list of some of Barack Obama ' s most recent actions since his inauguration:

His first call to any head of state, as president, was to Mahmoud Abbas, leader of Fatah party in the Palestinian territory.

His first one-on-one television interview with any news organization was with Al Arabia television.

His first executive order was to fund/facilitate abortion(s) not just here within the U. S. , but within the world, using U. S. tax payer funds.

He ordered Guantanamo Bay closed and all military trials of detainees halted.

He ordered overseas CIA interrogation centers closed.

He withdrew all charges against the masterminds behind the USS Cole and the "terror attack" on 9/11.

Now we learn that he is allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refuges to move to, and live in, the US at American taxpayer expense.

These important, and insightful, issues are being "lost" in the blinding bail-outs and "stimulation" packages.

Doubtful? To verify this for yourself:
www.thefederalregister.com/d.p/2009-02-04-E9-2488

PLEASE PASS THIS ON...AMERICA NEEDS TO KNOW

WE are losing this country at a rapid pace.

Reply by my Uncle (Jay):

Looks like these are refugees FROM Hamas, whose only "ties to Hamas" are that they were victims of the organization and are likely to be again. The money is in an existing fund.

I wonder who this "we" is that is losing this country?

Reply by my Uncle (John):

The WE is everyone who values freedom over social engineering; who wants government out of the way, not blocking the road so everone goes equally slowly. It is those of us who want to earn our own money, and keep it. The next guy can earn his and keep it too. He's not entitled to mine, and I'm not entitled to his. It is the people who think that maybe, just maybe, the founders of this country had some pretty good ideas, and Karl Marx did not. Granted, we seem to be a minority any more.

Reply from my Uncle (Jay):

John, thanks for your prompt and frank reply. I learned when I was in the NRA and the GPAA that people speak differently when they think there are no strangers present.

You can rest easy, because you aren't losing America. You never owned it, any more than anyone else. Your opinions were even in the minority among the founders - Jefferson and Adams wrote prominently as you do, the others disagreed to greater or lesser extent. Jefferson did not even believe in a standing army.

Your viewpoints are important and need to be a part of the political scene. Getting upset over anti-Hamas immigrants or accusing those with contrary opinions of being Marxist doesn't add anything constructive.

Small problems left untreated become big problems. When any substantial part of society has big problems, they become your problems too. This has happened many times in history; Jack London traveled with a "hobo army" that basically stripped every town they went through, on their way to Washington. For famine and government abuse, read about the Irish potato famine. Whole families starved to death on the roadside - who buried them? What about disease?

What if something happened in your area? Do you think anyone would respect your rights if it meant watching their families suffer? You can't just shoot everyone; someone has to clean up the mess.

You might think of government programs as protection money or extortion. I think of them as preventive maintenance or a vaccination. Some like to imagine that the poor are lazy and don't want to work. There is no truth to that. If it were so, I'd vote with you.

Jay

Reply from my dad (Lee):

Just a couple of points, Jay…the founders made an agreement even though they disagreed. That is the America we are losing now. What was seen as the proper role of good government has been changing since the early 20^th century. The role these people want to force down our throats would push governmental power past the tipping point where tyranny is probable and means of the people to resist problematical.

The “poor” aren’t really a homogenous group. There are as many reasons for being poor as there are people. The only thing stopping some people from a good life is to look facts in the face and take those actions needed to prosper. Some people drink, others refuse to relocate to where the jobs are, others laugh their way through school and are as ignorant coming out as they were going in. These aren’t random happenstance, and I don’t owe these people a dime.

It would be like me buying land in the middle of the Salt Desert and demanding Washington do something about the bad soil and lack of water.

Another point: This government hasn’t ever been able to do that preventive maintenance or vaccination without creating more problems than it solves. I seriously doubt the solutions this government (as opposed to any particular administration)comes up with that offsets the almost certain disaster that giving that power to the feds would mean.

Another point: Helping your needy neighbors doesn’t require government. It’s not an either/or solution. People have been helping each other over the rough spots a long time before our government existed. I promise you that if someone hungry went to your brother John’s door and asked for food, he’d feed them, if he didn’t need it to feed his own. I won’t describe my Church’s program as I’m sure you’re familiar with it. The common factor here is that such giving is voluntary. What the current administration wants is the power to take what it wants for it thinks it needs, whether or not mine miss a meal or not.

Last point: If that hungry person comes to the back door and starts picking and choosing what he will and will not take, he’s dog food, and we’ll clean up later. I ask that you remember the record number of guns and ammo sold recently. For a good portion of society we are reaching the “deal-breaker” point where this government is intolerable, which, as you pointed out, becomes other people’s problems too.

All that aside, I’m glad you have some land you and Jing will be moving to. What can you grow there?

Lee

Reply from my Uncle (John):

I work with some of those poor. They are in a government program to put them with productive employees to show them good work habits, such as showing up on time and actually doing something. Most of them are poor not because of divine providence or bad luck. They are poor because of the choices they have made in life. They are primarily alcoholics or drug addicts who are going (or have gone) through recovery programs. I must disagree with your belief that they are not lazy. Most of the ones I have worked with are. They are there for the tax free paycheck. Nothing more. Even among those who are not, they do not want to stop the drugs or drinking and often get thrown out of the program. Some are actually getting paid for fake disabilities, which seems to be a badge of honor among them.

As someone once said, if you want someone to repeat a certain behavior, reward it. Thats why we have multi-generational welfare types who produce nothing but children, but oh yeah, a community activist can get them out to vote. That way they can vote themselves more of my money. Between state, federal, local, and all the add on taxes, I am over 50% taxed. For every dollar I earn, 50 cents is taken from me by force and given to someone who did not earn it, or at the very least did not have my permission to use my money. When is it too much?

As to my use of Karl Marx, like Dad used to say, "If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, has feathers and a bill like a duck, chances are what you're dealing with is a damned duck." Good old Dad.

Ok, I'm done. I have to get some sleep so I can put in my 4 hours for me and four hours for someone who doesn't feel like it.

Reply by my brother (Leland)

It's very interesting to hear some of the reasons you think the poor are poor, bad work habits, drugs, poor choices. Its all just a function of social Darwinism to you isn't it? The Fact is 60% of the people who go Bankrupt in this country, do so because they can not afford their health care costs. That can happen to any one of us. No one gets to decide the genes they are born with. I could get sick tomorrow and have my insurance denied, because I failed to mention that my father has a history of heart problems. It doesn't matter that he did not exercise regularly, and his life choices did not reflect mine. The amount of money flowing from our Corporations to the law makers is atrocious. The entire system is set up to redistribute wealth to the already rich(Yes, right wingers, we already have a system in place for the redistribution of wealth).

You are misdirecting your anger at the wrong class. Take a look at the median incomes for Americans since the Reagan administration. Your money is not going to the poor. It is going to the rich. They cut income taxes from 70% (admittedly high) to 35%!! Telling us all the while that the benefits would trickle down. Well its been nearly 30 years, what do those median incomes tell us about their economic theory? Complete bull shit. There is class warfare going on, and the rich have convinced you that they are on your side. The top 10% in this country receive 42% of the income according to the Library of Economics and Liberty. We are nearly back to the decadent levels of the 20s. The top 5% own 57%!! of all available wealth. They fought tooth and nail to deregulate our financial system, and when they manage to fuck it up again, seeking what to normal citizens are high risk investments. The corporations are found to be to big to fail and its the Poor and Middle Class who have to foot the bill so the entire world economy doesn't melt down, and then they still fight for more deregulation!! We had strong regulation from the 30s until the 80s and how many financial crisises did we have? NONE. But since the 80s we have been jumping from one to the other. Bust, then bail out, bust then bail out, bust then bail out. If you think it won't happen again without serious regulatory changes, you are fooling yourself. The rich are not better workers, and they certainly don't make better choices. They are not the cream of the social crop. They just happen to be who the system is set up to reward. I work with many poor people too, and not one of them is addicted to drugs or alcohol, commit fraud or fake disabilities. They are people who raise kids with autism and work 2 full time jobs while raising a family and they wear that as a badge of courage. But our system is set up to kick them in the teeth for the rest of their lives. The sad part is few of them know it, if the poor had any inkling of how good the rich have it. They would all register to vote.

And please spare me the Marxist rhetoric, there is not one truly capitalistic society on this planet (or even close to one), if your calling us "ducks" you're calling the whole world "damned ducks". Christ, are we living in the 50s? "Sir, are you a member of the Communist Party?" Give me a break.

Reply by my Uncle (John):

Not calling you a duck. I am calling people who think I owe them a living ducks. I am calling the people who think they have a right to the fruits of my labors ducks. I am calling people who think it is my job to pay for their damned kids ducks, when I didnt even get the piece of ass. I'm calling people who dont hold my private propery sacred and think they can use the government to take it any time they want ducks. I'm calling the people who tell private businesses they cannot allow smoking or have to put wheelchair ramps in strip clubs ducks. I am calling the people who vote to raise taxes on other people ducks. Im calling people who think hard work and good choices are passe, and the government is the source of prosperity ducks. I am calling the guys who think the wino passed out in his own puke has equal value to someone who pays his bills and takes care of his family a duck.

Mostly I am calling the people ducks who think whats mine is rightfully theirs, and the Constitution is a living document, subject to the interpretation de jour.

My money is only going to the rich if I buy something from them. The poor are taking my money and giving me nothing, the government is giving me damned little. You see the waste all the time, as I do now and did in the military.

It doesnt matter how much the rich earn. Their money is theirs. As long as there is fair competition (granted, there isn't), they can earn whatever they want. Good for them. This is America.

Social Darwinism? I like it!

I agree the government is corrupt, but the answer is not to make it bigger or richer, or to allow it even more power.

But whatever. I'm done with this.

Reply by my dad (Lee):

Just curious, Oh eldest son…where do I find your stats?

Oh eldest dad

Then he Dad/Lee added:

Y’know, It doesn’t seem as if Leland and Johnny are all that far apart on what the problem is…just the solutions…

An email my boss sent me

My boss sent me an email, he told me I could rebut it for 1 min, which I thought was unfair because the composer of the email obviously took longer to write it than that. I did however try to keep it as short as possible. I'll post the email first, then my response at the bottom. Let me know what you think. :)

Subject: FW: C'mon, that will never happen in America !!!

What would you say if I gave you 11 reasons why the elections in 2010 will be the most important in the history of the United States ? 1. What if I had told you in October 2008, before the last presidential election, that before Barack Obama's first 100 days in office, the federal government would be in c ontrol of both the mortgage and the banking industries? That 19 of America 's largest banks would be forced to undergo stress tests by the federal government which would determine if they were insufficiently capitalized, so they must be supervised by the government? Would you have said, "C'mon, that will never happen in America." 2. What if I had told you that within Barack Obama's first 100 days in office the federal government would be the largest shareholder in the US automakers GM and Chrysler? That the government would kick out the CEO's of these companies and appoint hand-picked executives with zero experience in the auto industry and that executive compensation would be determined, not by a Board of Directors, but by the government? Would you have said, "C'mon, that will never happen in America!" 3. What if I had told you that Barack Obama would appoint 32 Czars, without congressional approval, accountable only to him, not to the voters, who would have control over a wide range of US policy decisions? That there would be a Stimulus Accountability Czar, an Urban Czar, a Compensation Czar, an Iran Czar, an Auto Industry Czar, a Cyber Security Czar, an Energy Czar, a Bank Bailout Czar, and more than a dozen other government bureaucrats with unchecked regulatory powers over US domestic and foreign policy. Would you have said, "C'mon, that will never happen in America!" 4. What if I had told you that the federal deficit would be $915 billion in the first six months of the Obama presidency - with a projected annual deficit of $1.75 trillion - triple the $454.8 billion in 2008, for which the previous administration was highly criticized by Obama and his fellow Democrats. That congress would pass Obama's $3.53 trillion federal budget for fiscal 2010... That the projected deficit over the next ten years would be greater than $9 trillion. Would you have said, "C'mon, that will never happen in America !" 5. What if I had told you that the Obama Justice Department would order FBI agents to read Miranda rights to high-value detainees captured on the battlefield and held at US military detention facilities in Afghanistan. That Obama would order the closing of the Guantanamo detention facility with no plan for the disposition of the 200-plus individuals held there. That several of the suspected terrorists at Guantanamo would be sent to live in freedom in Bermuda at the expense of the US government. That our returning US veterans would be labeled terrorists and put on a watch list. Would you have said, "C'mon, that will never happen in America!" 6. What if I had told you that the federal government would seek powers to seize key companies whose failures could jeopardize the financial system. That a new regulatory agency would be proposed by Obama to control loans, credit cards, mortgage-backed securities, and other financial products offered to the public. Would you have said, "C'mon, that will never happen in America!" 7. What if I had told you that Obama would travel to the Middle East, bow before the Saudi king, and repeatedly apologize for America 's past actions. That he would travel to Latin America where he would warmly greet Venezuela 's strongman Hugo Chavez and sit passively in the audience while Nicaraguan Marxist thug Daniel Ortega charged America with terrorist aggression in Central America. Would you have said, "C'mon, that will never happen in America!" 8. Okay, now what if I were to tell you that Obama wants to dismantle conservative talk radio through the imposition of a new "Fairness Doctrine." That he wants to curtail the First Amendment rights of those who may disagree with his policies via internet blogs, cable news networks, or advocacy ads. That most major network television and most newspapers will only sing his phrases like state-run media in communist countries? Would you say, "C'mon, that will never happen in America!" 9. What if I were to tell you that the Obama Justice Department is doing everything it can to limit your Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms. That the federal government wants to reinstate the so-called assault weapons ban which would prohibit the sale of any type of firearm that doesn't require the shooter to pull the trigger every time a round is fired. That Obama's Attorney General wants to eliminate the sale of virtually all handguns and ammunition, which most citizens choose for self-defense. Would you say, "C'mon, that will never happen in America!" 10. What if I were to tell you that the Obama plan is to eliminate states rights guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment and give the federal government sweeping new powers over policies currently under the pro vince of local and state governments and voted on by the people. That Obama plans to control the schools, energy production, the environment, health care, and the wealth of every US citizen. Would you say, "C'mon, that will never happen in America!" 11. What if I were to tell you that the president, the courts, and the federal government have ignored the US Constitution and have seized powers which the founders of our country fought to restrict. That our last presidential election may have been our last truly free election for some time to come. I know, I know what you will say. "That will never happen in America!" If we don't do everything in our power to stop this madness in 2010... May God have mercy on our worthless souls. Pass this on to every freedom loving American you can.

Response/Rebuttal to What if I had told you points 1-11 in one minute or less, hopefully.

1. I would say that, the polices that caused the mortgage and banking crisis' have been in place for about a decade and we had been as a country, blissfully unaware of the impending breakdown of the system, hindsight is 20/20. I would also say that obviously those stress tests were insufficient.

2. I would say that blaming Obama for the mortgage/banking/auto issues is about as stupid as blaming Bush (W) for 9-11. The policies, attitudes and trends that caused these problems have been in place for a long time (see 1.). Also I would add that given McCain's plan for fixing the mortgage crisis, things would not be any better.

3. I would agree with you that it is pretty stupid.

4. See 1. & 2., plus I would like to add that the whole bail-out thing started before the elections even took place and that, oh yeah, McCain was for them also!

5. I would say that they are acting like honorable Americans, and that they are protecting themselves from accusations of mistreatment. They are keeping history's judgment in mind. As far as Bermuda goes, I'm uncomfortable with that as well, but what's our option? They can't live here, their countries won't take them back and we can't punish them by imprisonment or execution without them being found guilty. What's your solution? As for the veteran/terrorist, I need proof to believe it.

6. I would say you're exaggerating with the whole 'seize' thing and that the government has been regulating the financial system since, well, pretty much forever.

7. I would say that good relationships with our neighbors is vital, even if we don't agree with the way they run their government, it's theirs to run, not ours. I would further say that America is a great nation, but not a perfect one, and that if we have wronged our neighbors, we should apologize.

8.-11. I would say you are fear mongering.

I think it's time to start teaching my son about finances

Cody and I just finished watching a documentary called Maxed Out. It was about the credit crisis circa 2006. It detailed a few stories where people were under so much pressure to get the bills paid they actually committed suicide. In particular, I was effected by the stories of two different college students with similar plot lines. I was aware that credit card companies were taking up residence on college campuses and signing students up for cards, I just didn't realize how predatory the practice is. 18 year old students, not knowing anything about money yet, without credit histories and without jobs, are given credit cards with ridiculous limits. They then do what kids do and go a little crazy with them. Before they know it, they are in debt up their eyeballs and have no idea how to get out of it.

In general in our family it has been our practice that we try to keep the kids out of our financial business as much as possible. Being children, we really don't want them overburdened with adult concerns. They have the ability to earn an allowance, which they have to work for, and then they are allowed to spend their money pretty much as they wish. If they earn money outside the home, it's our rule that half of that money goes into their savings account, which they will then have access to when they turn 18, the other half is theirs to do as they please with. I thought we were doing pretty well with teaching them about being responsible with their money until I saw this movie. I realize now that I totally missed the credit angle.

Our oldest son is 16, and we're thinking it may be time to have him learn exactly what it takes to keep a household financially afloat. I think for our younger two, what we are doing already is fine, but at 16, Christian will be on his own in two years at the most, if he gets into Job Corps, it will be less than that. I want him to go into self-sufficiency with his eyes open. I will show him the money we earn, where it goes, and why we never seem to have any. I will do my best to explain the responsible use of credit, how you can use it and how it can use you if you're not careful. I don't want him to end up in a hole wondering what happened.

Budget friendly produce

This summer I've experimented with food co-ops. I've tried two different ones in my area. The first one is called the Community Food Co-Op based out of Salt Lake City. Here is a link to their September order form https://foodco-op.net/downloads/order-web.pdf. My experience with this food co-op has been pretty positive, although their meat quality is kind of hit and miss. Because of this when I order from this co-op, I tend to go with the harvest share with the nutty guys sampler add on (my very favorite part).

The second co-op I have found is called Bountiful Baskets, their website is www.bountifulbaskets.org. I believe they are based out of AZ, but they have many locations in UT and are now in WA as well. I prefer Bountiful Baskets to the Community Co-Op for a few reasons. First, they tend to have more variety with the produce and I like to try new things. Second, they have pick ups in my area every two weeks instead of every month. But mostly, they work much better with my schedule on Saturdays. Well enough in fact that I actually have time to volunteer at the Clearfield pick up location. My daughter actually quite enjoys getting up a little earlier and helping out too.

Both co-ops are good options if you are looking for a way to cut your grocery budget. The only real quality issue I've had so far is that sometimes the fruit is not quite ripe, an easy problem to solve. If you have it available to you however, my favorite place to get fruit and veggies is at my local U-Pick farm, ours is Day Farms in Layton. The quality is always much better that way. In fact I've become quite spoiled, I won't even buy grocery store corn on the cob anymore, after getting it fresh from the farm, the store stocked corn just seems to have no flavor. Also if you happen to be into canning, there's nothing better than canning food so fresh it was actually still growing that morning.

Anouncements

My kids' schools have adopted a new way of communicating with parents. The pre-recorded telephone call. In years past, I would get pre-recorded calls letting me know when one of my children was unexpectedly absent from class, now I get them for everything. When I say everything, I mean everything that the school or the district would have found important enough to send a paper home, they now send out pre-recorded calls.

In the days before President Obama's speech to our nation's youth was the worst. For two days preceding the speech my husband and I each received two phone calls a day from each school. Considering we have three kids, one in high school, one in jr high school, and one in elementary school, our cell phones were ringing off the hook with recordings of principals letting us know they would be having the children watch the speech and wanting to make sure we were okay with it. You have to listen to the whole message too, if you hang up, it just calls back again.

The old method left a lot to be desired as well, notes that maybe came home or maybe didn't, and when they did they may or may not have been read. After which they would end up in a ridiculously high stack of mostly other notes home but also old newspapers and junk mail before finally making it to the garbage. I agree that the whole thing was an inefficient form of communication and a huge waste of paper. There has got to be a better way.

My suggestion? When registering our children for school why can't we select the preferred form of communication. We could check the box for paper notification, telephone notification or my preferred form, email notification. Just a thought.

Expensive Tomatoes

I have learned how to can over the summer. I've successfully canned pints of apricot jam, pints of cherries in syrup, pints of pickled peppers, pints & quarts of dilly beans and quarts of tomatoes. I may have canned my last for the season though because under the weight of a full canner, my glass cooktop cracked.
I had been using a canner that was way too big for my stove anyway, it held 9 quarts and needed to rest on two burners in order to get the water boiling. It's not all the canner's fault though, from the looks of it the stove was chipped to begin with, somebody must have dropped something on it.
My Kenmore range is only about 5 years old and I have love, love, loved it since the day it was delivered. It's so easy to clean. I don't know for sure how many boil overs we've had in that amount of time but I'm sure one could accurately guess there have been many. With a coil top you have to lift the burner and clean the drip pan and often times lift the whole top up to clean the mess. With a glass top, just grab a towel. We were warned in the beginning that if the top broke, it would be just as expensive to replace as it would be to buy a whole new range. I guess that means I'm getting a new range. *sigh*
Anyway I'm not letting this happen again, I'm selling my too big canner to a lady I work with who's stove can handle it and I will buy a smaller one later. So let this be a lesson to all of you who would bite off more than they can chew (like me) don't load your canner up with more than your stove can handle or you will end up paying way more for those tomatoes than you intended to.

Thank you Beyonce

Hip hop artists are usually known for their big houses, their big spending habits, their big egos and their very little consideration for the rest of the people around them. Not all of them obviously, but it's prevalent enough that attitudes like Kanye West's surprise us a lot less than attitudes like yours. Thank you for showing the whole world what a good person you are.

Keith Olberman is a volcano!

I was sitting with my Cody yesterday watching Keith Olberman and it occurred to me, the man erupts. He builds and builds and builds and then he erupts, I found the whole thing hysterical.

If you remember from 'Talking Heads Piss Me Off', I'm not a particular fan of political commentators. Not because I'm not a fan of politics but because I think this brand of 'reporters' (I use the term loosely) are more about spreading fear and increasing their own popularity then they are about reporting.

Anyway my Cody is a fan and I'm a fan of my Cody so I endure it, as long as he can endure my laughing, cracking jokes and referring to Keith Olberman as the Volcano from now on.

Cash for Clunkers?

I'm interested in getting some feedback on the Cash for Clunkers program. I would like to know what, if any, experiences you had with it. Do you think it was successful? What impact do you think it's success or failure will have on our current economic situation short and long term?

My own experience with the program was frustrating to say the least, but probably not typical. We weren't actually trying to purchase a car, we were trying to sell one. At first we tried to sell our 2002 Cavalier, no takers. We had it listed at a fair price but it was listed for a month and the whole time I think we had one phone call. After that we re-listed the Cavalier, and also listed our 2004 Vibe, also for a fair price. We decided that we would sell which ever one went first and keep the other. Still no takers, although we did get a few more inquiries. At this point we were getting a little desperate so we dropped the price on the Vibe from $6100 to $5500. Again we got a couple of inquiries, but nothing serious. We were in limbo with them for almost another month until Cash for Clunkers ended. The next day, we got 3 serious phone calls and had sold the Vibe within the week, thank goodness.

We were under some pretty uncomfortable financial strain waiting for one of the vehicles to sell, and it is my belief that if it weren't for Cash for Clunkers we would have sold a lot sooner. What are your thoughts?

D.A.R.E. to keep your kids off drugs!

Hello all, I'm back! I know it's been a while. It started out that I was just taking a little break, then when I was ready to come back nothing seemed important enough to post about. Then it just got ridiculous, I'd been away so long I just had no idea where to start. So, I guess, lets start with yesterday. :)

Yesterday my daughter Erica came home from school with a permission slip for D.A.R.E. I thought she knew better. Turned out she did. She had told her teacher, Ms. Anderson, that she would not be participating in D.A.R.E., that as a parent, I just do not approve. Ms. Anderson then requested that Erica bring home the permission slip so that I could list my objections on the back. That was a new one. As most of you know, I have three children, Erica being the youngest, and have not allowed them to participate in this fine tax dollar funded program. My reason? Propaganda should never take the place of good parenting.

D.A.R.E., and other programs like it, have a great goal, who wants a drug addicted youth? The problem is that they attempt to attain that goal in an ends justifies the means fashion. They use half truths and inflated statistics to scare children away from drugs. I prefer another way, honesty. I respect my children and their intelligence. I know that to partake, or not, is a decision they will make for themselves. I myself chose not to even though some of my friends did. My choice was made because of the honest information given to me by my father, and the observation of my mother, coupled with the desire to end up nothing like her. It had nothing whatsoever to do with PR campaigns and catchy slogans. In truth, by the time I was making that particular decision, those things had become a joke. In this way, my 16 and 14 year old sons have attested that nothing has changed.

Erica has pleaded with me, professing the fun they have, while she is allowed to do nothing. I told her that 'Hitler Youth' had fun too. She complained that the other kids will tease her. This I felt bad for, as sad as it is, it does happen to be true. In fact last year, it wasn't just the kids, the office staff was mean to her thinking that she was in there because she was being punished and had been bad enough that she was not allowed to participate (don't worry, I set them straight, Erica received her apology first thing the next morning). After school, teachers, other children, and even the officer running the program singled her out wanting to know why. When she told them, the adults didn't seem to understand, and the other kids thought she was weird. It's my belief that the real reason she wants to participate is she wants to avoid all of that. I do feel for her, I just don't think it's the way to go.

Oh well, I told her that if she has problems after school with it this year, she needs to tell them that she doesn't have the time, she has to run home and light the crack pipe for her mommy. I wonder if I should write that on the back of the permission slip?

I am so pissed off I could spit fire!!!

My own religious beliefs being somewhat, unconventional, I'm usually a pretty tolerant person when it comes to other creeds. I'm glad people have them and that they give them fulfillment in their lives they would otherwise lack. I'm a very live and let live type of person, you know, if it makes you happy, I'm happy for you, even if I don't understand it. I even go so far as to have one of those funky bumper stickers where the word coexist is spelled out with different religious symbols, and I truly believe that we can, as long as we show mutual respect.
Enter the missionaries. Having lived in Utah for most of my life, I'm pretty much used to them. "No thank you, I'm not interested in hearing about your savior." "Thank you for your concern about my immortal soul, but I'm fine, really." "No I don't need anything, and I don't think I need you to come back either." I'm usually much nicer than that last one. My problem with missionaries is fundamental. You can't show mutual respect when one of you is trying to convert the other. That's nothing new though, it's always been that way.
What's new is a couple of them cornered my 15 year old kid while he was talking to a friend, gave him a book of Mormon and started talking about their god. I'm not sure if it's illegal to try and convert a minor in Utah without parental permission, but I'm sure it ought to be. I tried to track the pair down but as of yet I have been unsuccessful, they weaseled my address out of my kid though so I'm hoping I'll run into them soon, and I can tell them- Well, I'm not sure yet what I'm going to tell them, but I am not pleased and it probably won't be very friendly. I'll let you know how it goes.

School is back in session Woo-Hoo

My three kids went back to school yesterday and I couldn't be happier. They have stuff to do and friends to see, they are no longer stuck in the same house with nothing to do but stare at one another. They were tired of one another about a week in to summer vacation and I have been sick to death of them being tired of one another ever since.
Growing up, I used to be insulted at the idea that my parents were glad to be rid of me. Now I totally understand and apologize for any grief I may have given them because of it. It's a beautiful thing to arrive home from work with the house in relatively the same condition you left it, I say relatively because they do get home a little before me, but just haven't had the time yet to do their regular all day damage.
Anyway, I'm so happy I think I'll make up my own little 'back to school' dance!!! Again I say, Woo-Hoo!

So what have you done?

I've been thinking lately about how as a populace we seem to have a sense of entitlement. I'm talking about everything we seem to think we deserve just for existing. I've started with a broad brush, but this simple issue encompasses many problems both large and small. For example it can be linked to racism, sexism, immigration and nepotism just for starters.
A couple of weeks ago I was having a conversation with a co-worker. We were discussing some of the immigration issues we are having and different feelings about them. He said that some hold the belief that we are actually all immigrants, to which I chuckled and replied, "Not me, I was born here, I have the birth certificate to prove it!"
Then he got a little ranty, stating that so was he and his great grandfather, grandfather and father had all bled for this country so he deserved his citizenship. I let him dig himself in a little deeper before blurting out. "Cool, they should be honored for their sacrifice, but, what have you done?" After stammering for a moment, he was ashamed to answer that he had done nothing.
My point is that to begin with, for natural-born citizens, US citizenship is nothing more than a lucky circumstance of birth as are a lot of other things people assume they deserve.
I believe that it's important to know and be proud of your heritage, but also know that it doesn't make you any more deserving or any better of a person. You have to do that on your own.

My new toy

I have been seriously neglecting my blog lately, I've been a little preoccupied. The truth? I haven't even turned my computer on for a couple of weeks (work doesn't count). What's been keeping me so busy? I got an amazon kindle and I haven't been able to put it down.
If you haven't heard of them, let me fill you in. A kindle is an ebook reader. There are a few other kinds out there but I got this one. I just love it. It was rather expensive a little over $350, but in my opinion well worth it. This one, unlike the others isn't back lit so you can read forever and it won't strain your eyes. Also it comes with it's own internet hook-up, you can download books straight to your kindle from amazon, so far I haven't found anything that costs more than $10 to download.
I would not have bought it however, if amazon was the only place I could get books. I'm a library girl myself, I like reading for free. Luckily, my library has ebooks available, there is some formatting involved in that though. You can only read kindle formatted books on your kindle, so you have to take them to the amazon site and have them format them for you. If you use the USB port to send them to your kindle from there it's free, if you do it wirelessly, it will cost you ten cents, still not bad. The only problem I have found so far is that you can't necessarily find all the books you want in ebook form, it's a rather new idea though compared with paper bindings, I'm sure publishers will come around. It's not too bad though, I was able to download the new twilight book from my couch for the weekend it came out.
There is a lot more it can do, but I think if I go any further, I'm going to have to try to get some money out of amazon for promoting their product.
Anyway, sorry to be away so long, I'll try to do better.

Move to the right if you want to go slow II

At the risk of starting a fire all over again, I just had to follow up on the previously deleted post. I was rushing home from work in the middle of the day because my kids called me telling me that my oldest son had cut his finger and it was 'gushing blood all over the place'. After establishing that it wasn't spurting, I instructed them in some basic first aid and was on my way home. On the freeway I ran into the familiar issue with people in the fast or passing lane, who refused to go over 65mph. I will admit, I was speeding at about 80mph, not my regular behavior, but I was trying to get home to see exactly how many stitches my son needed, I consider that emergency enough to warrant the speed I was trying to travel. Well unfortunately these self appointed patrol men had the freeway bogged down as if it were rush hour. I finally was able to weave my way to the source and tried to politely signal my request, by flashing my brites, not by tailgating, and was totally ignored.
My son ended up fine, the cut was not very bad, it just bled a lot, but to make what I think is a very good point, you never know why the person trying to get past you is so determined.