 |
| Rain, rain, glorious RAIN!!! |
 |
| SPLISHSPLASH my ducks are takin' a bath... |
And call me crazy, but like a mama bear who always responds to a baby bear's cry, I have maternal hurricane attention disorder (mhad)...I cannot quit watching any channel covering Irene as she approaches. Guess it's in my blood from living down here so long and going through several myself. Part of me even falls back to thinking Irene's gonna hit here, until I remind myself that is not the case. I told Hubs my entire weekend is probably shot, I might as well give it up to watching Irene.
And then my Ike memories always come back -- check out the link of those memories.
And then my thoughts go to what a waste and tragedy it is that stimulus money was not spent in a more coordinated way federally to put electrical lines underground all over this country, particularly on the coasts. Damn, I truly sometimes believe that I could do a better job as president! Especially when it comes to thinking up solutions to what we out here in the real America need and don't need. I imagine the East Coasters will be learning up close and personal just how good it would have been to have had their utils put underground already. Cuz, I've said this a million times but it's still true: It ain't so much the storm that sucks, it's the aftermath.
So, speaking of governors who let me down by using our stimulus dollars to build fricking highway visitor centers on our borders:
I took Chris Cellizza's quiz, How Much Do You Know About Rick Perry? -- and my score was:
Your Results:
Wow. You are a Rick Perry expert. You got 9 questions right out of 9 (100%).
So, that must make me an expert, right? Ha-ha. I actually blamed Perry's opponent, former Houston mayor Bill White, last election for the lack of underground lines more. I mean, he was mayor during Katrina, Rita and Ike, so he more than anyone would have known how our quality of lives would have improved. But noooo. Nobody can think up the good stuff until it's too late, if at all. EYEROLL.
Back to Perry. I guess he's gone and done it now. I have all kinds of mixed feelings about it, too. But I am often finding myself mentally defending him, so I've had to examine my real feelings. And I've discovered that I'm a bit pro-Perry. It's more of a gut feeling at present. I cannot tell you exactly why, but I do recognize a great source when I see it.
If you want a reasonably objective listing of Rick Perry's facts, accomplishments, problems and criticisms, go HERE. It's a blog called The Pesky Truth, and after reading his last few blog posts about Perry, I have to say he's done a pretty good job ironing it all out without a lot of persuasion or any manipulation of facts that I could see. And this guy is a Republican from Dallas who has voted for Perry the last 3 elections.
I am a recovered Demacraholic-turned-Independent who has even less desire to join the GOP and I only voted for Perry in 2010 in order to send Team Obama the message that Texas is not in play for 2012. See above: my vote was also really more against Bill White for being same old same old when he could have really made a little difference for the good. So my point is, if I feel I can trust this info, you can too. Go read what Pesky Truth guy has to say.
I also want to speak up for Rick on something. You may have heard the uproar about his trying to force a Guardasil vaccination into every 6th grade female student in Texas. Turns out that evangelical Christian conservatives are completely over the top histerical about it. Here's the deal on it. First off, being a mom of one of those girls, I THANK RICK PERRY for making us all aware of this vaccination, and AT NO TIME was my daughter ever in a position to not opt-out of it. We made the decision to vaccinate her, and we are already thankful. A few weeks ago, her grandmother was diagnosed with cervical cancer and her doctors believe it's the kind caused by one of the strains of HPV that the vaccine protects against. When you get that kind of karma message, it hits home. Any protection is better than none.
Yeah. You don't hear that story too often, but there are many Texans who feel thankful like myself. Plus, never once did I or my husband ever worry about sending our daughter a message condoning promiscuity by vaccinating her. GIVE ME A BREAK! Geebus. Let me tellya, though, that is the real reason why the evangelical CC's were and are so hot about it. Just the other day, on a popular political blog, I tried in vain to defend Perry on this and I got run out of town (figuratively) by those people. I was all but called a jezebel mom for allowing it.
My eyes were really opened as to the vehement behavior of some of these people. It's hideous. And really wrong-minded, too. I tried reaching them by posing, what if it were an AIDS vaccine? I KID YOU NOT, THEY ALL SAID IT WOULD DO THE SAME THING, SO NO THANKS.
WHAT????????
Unbelievable. Not only do I have personal knowledge that the vaccine does not lead to promiscuity, which is ridiculous, condemning your child to death by AIDS for disobeying you once is a REAL IDIOT THING to do. This completely reinforced my previous belief that the far right fringe is every bit as looney and bad as the far left fringe. They are like matching bookends. And it's not so much their beliefs themselves, because I'm always willing to let everyone believe what they want, it's the making me have to believe it too and thinking it is okay to impose those beliefs because you think it is your divine duty or something, or even worse, you feel cornered and have to lash out so aggressively. Believe what you want, but do not expect or fight to make the law of the land a codified image of your weird-ass fringe beliefs.
Now, the far left fringe (and the far religious right fringe) will have you think that Perry will crack down and end freedom and yadayada. Oh yeah? I haven't seen him do it here, and he's had over ten years to try. A couple times when he's believed in something, he has tried to execute it into law, but when the people rose up and told him no, he backed off and said fine. Dang, wouldn't it be nice to see this done nationally (Obamacare)?
What I do not like about Perry is his communication skills, or lack of. The little greet line video of the boy being prompted by his mom to ask Perry why he hates science is a great example of what I mean. Perry said we teach both evolution and creationism in Texas and that is true. We teach both and let the student decide. I'm fine with that. Gridlock over, move on. But what Perry missed was an opportunity to say, I'm not anti-science. I use it all the time. Last month, I had experimental back surgery using my own stem cells to grow new nerves. I believe in good sound science so much that I used myself as a guinea pig for it. (it is true, he really did have that surgery and his own stem cells were used).
He is very good at rehearsed choreographed stuff and not so good at off the cuff stuff. And I wish that were not true, because thinking up those kinds of ways to put in some good info is what he needs to do in order to calm a lot of the rhetoric going around about him.
Dang, ok, first I have to be president, and now I gotta be Perry's advisor. Geebus, my life is suddenly so busy. WINK WINK
Back to Perry. I guess he's gone and done it now. I have all kinds of mixed feelings about it, too. But I am often finding myself mentally defending him, so I've had to examine my real feelings. And I've discovered that I'm a bit pro-Perry. It's more of a gut feeling at present. I cannot tell you exactly why, but I do recognize a great source when I see it.
If you want a reasonably objective listing of Rick Perry's facts, accomplishments, problems and criticisms, go HERE. It's a blog called The Pesky Truth, and after reading his last few blog posts about Perry, I have to say he's done a pretty good job ironing it all out without a lot of persuasion or any manipulation of facts that I could see. And this guy is a Republican from Dallas who has voted for Perry the last 3 elections.
I am a recovered Demacraholic-turned-Independent who has even less desire to join the GOP and I only voted for Perry in 2010 in order to send Team Obama the message that Texas is not in play for 2012. See above: my vote was also really more against Bill White for being same old same old when he could have really made a little difference for the good. So my point is, if I feel I can trust this info, you can too. Go read what Pesky Truth guy has to say.
I also want to speak up for Rick on something. You may have heard the uproar about his trying to force a Guardasil vaccination into every 6th grade female student in Texas. Turns out that evangelical Christian conservatives are completely over the top histerical about it. Here's the deal on it. First off, being a mom of one of those girls, I THANK RICK PERRY for making us all aware of this vaccination, and AT NO TIME was my daughter ever in a position to not opt-out of it. We made the decision to vaccinate her, and we are already thankful. A few weeks ago, her grandmother was diagnosed with cervical cancer and her doctors believe it's the kind caused by one of the strains of HPV that the vaccine protects against. When you get that kind of karma message, it hits home. Any protection is better than none.
Yeah. You don't hear that story too often, but there are many Texans who feel thankful like myself. Plus, never once did I or my husband ever worry about sending our daughter a message condoning promiscuity by vaccinating her. GIVE ME A BREAK! Geebus. Let me tellya, though, that is the real reason why the evangelical CC's were and are so hot about it. Just the other day, on a popular political blog, I tried in vain to defend Perry on this and I got run out of town (figuratively) by those people. I was all but called a jezebel mom for allowing it.
My eyes were really opened as to the vehement behavior of some of these people. It's hideous. And really wrong-minded, too. I tried reaching them by posing, what if it were an AIDS vaccine? I KID YOU NOT, THEY ALL SAID IT WOULD DO THE SAME THING, SO NO THANKS.
WHAT????????
Unbelievable. Not only do I have personal knowledge that the vaccine does not lead to promiscuity, which is ridiculous, condemning your child to death by AIDS for disobeying you once is a REAL IDIOT THING to do. This completely reinforced my previous belief that the far right fringe is every bit as looney and bad as the far left fringe. They are like matching bookends. And it's not so much their beliefs themselves, because I'm always willing to let everyone believe what they want, it's the making me have to believe it too and thinking it is okay to impose those beliefs because you think it is your divine duty or something, or even worse, you feel cornered and have to lash out so aggressively. Believe what you want, but do not expect or fight to make the law of the land a codified image of your weird-ass fringe beliefs.
Now, the far left fringe (and the far religious right fringe) will have you think that Perry will crack down and end freedom and yadayada. Oh yeah? I haven't seen him do it here, and he's had over ten years to try. A couple times when he's believed in something, he has tried to execute it into law, but when the people rose up and told him no, he backed off and said fine. Dang, wouldn't it be nice to see this done nationally (Obamacare)?
What I do not like about Perry is his communication skills, or lack of. The little greet line video of the boy being prompted by his mom to ask Perry why he hates science is a great example of what I mean. Perry said we teach both evolution and creationism in Texas and that is true. We teach both and let the student decide. I'm fine with that. Gridlock over, move on. But what Perry missed was an opportunity to say, I'm not anti-science. I use it all the time. Last month, I had experimental back surgery using my own stem cells to grow new nerves. I believe in good sound science so much that I used myself as a guinea pig for it. (it is true, he really did have that surgery and his own stem cells were used).
He is very good at rehearsed choreographed stuff and not so good at off the cuff stuff. And I wish that were not true, because thinking up those kinds of ways to put in some good info is what he needs to do in order to calm a lot of the rhetoric going around about him.
Dang, ok, first I have to be president, and now I gotta be Perry's advisor. Geebus, my life is suddenly so busy. WINK WINK
