It-Depends Dance Day

As we usher in the 233rd year of America, recent polling from Pew and Gallop indicates that a small majority of its citizens are genuinely worried about its continued existence, and about theirs. They think the federal government is spending far too much money, money it doesn't have. Many of them voted for change, but not this kind.

I've become convinced that our citizenry has never been more politically partisan; not in my lifetime, anyway. I don't know if the media's partisanship is a cause of it or merely a symptom of it. But our precious free press is a willing hostage to this mess and in the process We the People lose the means by which we are given by our forefathers to keep our government in check and accountable.

For many of us, we are hard pressed to be positive and excited about our national future. We've lost our Hope amidst all of this Change that has set us adrift. To what end all the fuss?

The typical American wants to know he (she) is free to pursue reasonable goals and futures; he'll pay reasonable taxes if they are being spent wisely; and he expects reasonable costs of living which can be overcome with hard work and economy. And he expects society to kick in and chip in for those who aren't as fortunate, but not by changing the entire house decorating scheme.

Americans still operate by and large on a need-to-know basis and with a if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it attitude. Problems annoy him, especially needless ones. So much of the Obama constructs require many months to years of inflated prices for necessities, shortages, unforeseen retooling downtime, and results that don't quite pan out as intended or hoped for. Will Americans endure these without a grumble, or will they revolt and demand another revolution, another civil war?

Right now it's vox nix (six of one and half a dozen of the other), but it won't be long until we begin to know in our guts if these new paradigms take off and create that Brave New World, or sputter and crash to Earth. And, regardless of the outcome, will the hope have been worth all of the change?

A pox on both houses

Time after time I get the same question from people: am I a Republican? Because I'm critical of Obama and the Dem leadership, I must be, right?

Wrong-o. I was a Dem -- a happy unquestioning one -- for, oh, what's 53 minus 18? {thinking}....

25 years!

I'll probably never join the GOP, tho, as it presently stands. Only if they lighten up a bit on the social issues and the almighty worshipping of business. Now, see, that right there USED to be my niche in the Dem den. No more. They are too far left now.

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Wacamole My Week

I just finished one of the weirdest, saddest and pissiest weeks of my life.

***SNIP SNIP SNIP***

Yup, I don't want the hassle of having to explain my feelings.

Here's to better days. :-)

Spin Cycles

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Would you like some bul*sh*t with that climate change?
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The Obama administration released this week a climate impacts report that was ready for the public in April, but has been in the hands of a San Francisco consulting firm that specializes in ecologic campaigning, allegedly in order to make it more digestible and understandable for the public.

Hmm. Given this administration's track record, I am going to take that as code for letting the consulting firm edit the report to make it back up what Obama and the Dem Congress want to shove down the public's legislative throats.

Even if the content wasn't "massaged", how credible or uncredible does it make that report to go through the promotional rinse cycle, a report of such importance mandating changes of such immense costs?

Once again, this administration's brazen play on the public's trust proves breathtaking but consistent. I mean, why let people read a record stimulus bill? Nobody needs to know what's in it, right? Same with this report. Better to just let us tell them what they need to know.

Even if you are a total Obama backer and green citizen who believes 100% in global warming, just think about this for a moment. Everything we've been told may well be happening. Let's assume that. The one big question I have is this: the facts are that we are in a warming trend, but why does everyone assume that our behavior as mandated by this report will reverse any of this warming, or even have a positive effect on it?

See, my beef is not with the spotting of this trend or climate phase. I do not dispute it one bit. My beef is, no one can prove conclusively that immediate, intense, concentrative, disruptive, expensive behavior change is going to make a good gawd-dang in the end, so why are they constantly trying to shock and scare us, and blatantly intimate that our behavorial changes will save us and undo these climate trends? Because, that's the hinge the entire argument rests upon, otherwise, why bother.

Oh, I'm not advocating doing nothing. Not at all. I'm just saying, why throw the baby out with the bathwater? Why rearrange the entire economy so quickly and intensely that people, sectors, industries are decimated and economic recovery threatened, when a slower, more steady approach delivers us to the same destination eventually.

This report's scare factor is huge, from what I read. So, could they be using this to scare us into adopting the political reforms of their agenda? Ask yourself this: how deep is your ecological resolve when your electricity bill in the summer is $1,000 a month, when it's $400 now? Or if you can only get electrical power intermittently?

I write this to force readers to just think twice before buying all this lock, stock and barrel. My take is, if the warming trend phrase we are in is causing heavier rainfall, rising tides and temps, and more violent weather storms (and I believe it is), we may be chasing quixotic windmills thinking we can control a Heat Age. Don't fall for it.

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Let's Play Spin the Letterman Bottle
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I'm sure you've all heard about David Letterman's latest attempt at spin. I would love to see Dave versus Sarah on Wopner over this, wouldn't you, heehee? At first, he tried to apologize for his series of tasteless jokes without really apologizing at all, and fruitcakes like Joy Behar echoed his denials.

Then, the American public got involved and suddenly it became all about money being lost, advertisers pulling out, and Dave's real heartfelt sorries came out (as did Joy's 180 reversal now making him guilty).

LOL, yep, probably alot of the same American public who were belittled and insulted as "tea baggers" and idiot hapless hacks of the GOP, people not even worth listening to, according to the Obama administration. I bet a lot of them were, so isn't it odd that when money's involved, they suddenly have a point?

Newsflash: that's only the tip of the explanation iceberg, see, because to many who are calling for Dave to be fired, his recent junior-high-immaturity-gone-old-pervert behavior was the last straw, not the first. Many who protest Dave have cited his plan to entrap McCain during the campaign (along with "hard-up-news" anchor Katie Couric), and employer CBS's unequal treatment of Imus in similar situations as factors requiring some tough consequences.

Palin accepted the second sorries, but this thing ain't over til the fat citizen lady sings.

If you are so inclined, there's actually a lot you can do to make your voice heard. Go here to sign the protest letter, get advertisers' numbers and addresses to inform them via letters of your intent to boycott their products, and see where other protest rallies are being held.

Make the little no-longer-funny immature brat in his 60's uncomfortable for as long as possible. Personally, I think he should be fired because he hasn't been funny in years, but that's just my opinion. If this accomplishes that, so much the better, means and ends and all.

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Senility or Spinning Sin?
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We learn that AmeriCorp Inspector General Walpin, whose job it was to protect the public's interest against wasteful spending in that agency, was fired for successfully doing just that. And when Walpin fired back to defend his good name, he was told it was because he was senile. If so, why would he be asked to represent the agency at a huge meeting and speak extensively the day after the board meeting where he supposedly exhibited the senility? Gee, wouldn't he have been immediately suspended and not allowed to so this? And, if this was truly exhibited (I doubt it), it was only on one occasion. Walpin couldn't have just had a bad day? Come on, this smells. Even worse, ACORN seems to be intricately tied to this agency as well. San Francisco, too.

My favorite headline on this was the Youngstown Vindicator's "Obama's transparency goal undermined by opaque acts". Ain't that the truth?

I continue to wake up each day thinking it can't get any weirder or more dangerous to our present way of life. But every day I am proven wrong...sheesh!

Honest Aimes

Emily presented me with this neat award, so thank you very much Em!! Please visit her blog.

There are a few requirements to accepting the Honest Scrap Award and they are as follows:

A). Here are 7 honest things about myself:

1. I desperately need to go get an eye exam and some new glasses. So much so that I've worn a pair of broken glasses for the last year that I've taped back together.

2. I have what I guess you might call a bit of a talent for naming things. I would probably have done well in an advertising firm creative department (which is what my daughter will be doing once she graduates college in a year, if the economy cooperates).

3. I just signed up for two online summer workshops, one in creative lettering and the other a study of techniques in Gwen Diehn's book, The Decorated Page.

4. My favorite hot breakfast cereal is Malt-o-Meal.

5. A neighbor gave us a sack of home-grown tomatoes last week and I sure did enjoy slicing them and eating them.

6. In the summer I combine Aveeno Moisturizing Body Wash with St. Ives Facial Scrub on my wash cloth in the shower, and it gets the dead skin off, plus it moisturizes and invigorates my skin all over.

7. I just got my hair cut off super short. I went to my usual hair salon, but began using a new stylist who gave me an old-fashioned razor cut, which is perfect for my hair type. I haven't had this good of a cut in years.

Thinking of 7 things that I haven't already blogged about was hard! So, these may seem obscure things about me. I am in a mood not to repeat anything, though, so, whatchya gonna do?

B). I must put a copy of The Honest Scrap Logo on my blog which I have proudly done!

C). I must select at least 7 other worthy bloggers and list their links. Well, I recently decided that while I refuse to refuse to do tags and quizzes, I am going to refuse to hunt down new recruits. This is entirely my fault as I am very slow and it takes me forever to do that. So, if you are reading and want to do this quiz, consider yourself lovingly tagged by me, okay? And, if you have tagged me, please accept my thanks for understanding. :-)

Laid Bare

{digital art by me using Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 and a Dover clip art image}

Recently, I've stumbled into a series of eye-openers that have left me feeling as if I've been laid bare for all the world to see...if the world knew how to see it. Luckily, most of the world is blind to these matters.

It began innocently enough. I can't remember exactly now what led me there, but I began reading online about a new book called A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel H. Pink. I read an article about it, an interview with its author and I even read a little of the book itself thanks to Amazon's Look Inside feature.

Pink's book, in a nutshell, is supposed to be one of the so-called Library of the Age of Obama -- books which explain what's going on and why and how everything's changing. And it intrigues me so greatly that I bought it and am waiting for it to arrive later this week. I'm intrigued because this left brain / right brain thing appears to be a pendulum swinging back and forth, guiding our technoconomy. I was born in a right brain age, saw it shift to a left brain age about the time I reached adulthood. And if Pink is right, I'll see it swing back to right brain soon.

From what I've read so far, my hunch is that he may have it about right, because when you consider the other attributes he describes that are needed for this to happen, you can see them already influencing the changes we've been experiencing, if you are paying attention. I'll report more on this as I read it.

My journey doesn't stop there, though. A local reporter's newspaper's column linked this NYT column that asserts that our moral foundations explain our political leanings. With a title like "Would You Slap Your Father? If So, You May Be a Liberal", I had to read the column, which led me to the Moral Foundations Questionnaire.

Here is the graph of the results of my questionnaire answers:

According to the website, the questionnaire "...measures your reliance on and endorsement of five psychological foundations of morality that seem to be found across cultures. Each of the two parts of the scale contained four questions related to each foundation: 1) harm/care, 2) fairness/reciprocity (including issues of rights), 3) ingroup/loyalty, 4) authority/respect, and 5) purity/sanctity. The idea behind the scale is that human morality is the result of biological and cultural evolutionary processes that made human beings very sensitive to many different (and often competing) issues. Some of these issues are about treating other individuals well (the first two foundations - harm and fairness). Other issues are about how to be a good member of a group or supporter of social order and tradition (the last three foundations). Haidt and Graham have found that political liberals generally place a higher value on the first two foundations; they are very concerned about issues of harm and fairness (including issues of inequality and exploitation). Political conservatives care about harm and fairness too, but they generally score slightly lower on those scale items. The big difference between liberals and conservatives seems to be that conservatives score slightly higher on the ingroup/loyalty foundation, and much higher on the authority/respect and purity/sanctity foundations."

I was generally not surprised at my results, as a whole. I have always said that I am a Moderate, meaning between Liberal and Conservative. You can see that in 2 of the 5 foundations my results (in green) came out in between the 2 extremes of Liberal (blue) and Conservative (red). Those foundations were Fairness/Reciprocity and Ingroup/Loyalty. On Authority/Respect, I am fully Conservative, which is a little strange and probably over-stated since I support legalization of pot and I think our Drug War has failed miserably. And on the Harm/Fairness foundation, I'm even more to the right than Conservative, which I also question, since I am a fairness freak at heart. So, given that the last two foundations are a tad off, that would make the results be Moderate all the way.

I should stress that the way the questionnaire is designed, its quite tempting to answer in the most compassionate manner, as that puts one in the most charitable light. But if these are answered completely truthfully, it really can show you where you are on these matters.

But you will feel a slight draft. Feeling naked does that to a person...winkwink

I Needed This!

My friend Dee sent me this in an email and it just cracks me up every time I look at it. So, I figured, why not spread the chuckles? Hope it delivers for you if you need a chuckle.

I'm pretty sure this is a scam...

Warn your friends!








Oh, man, I'm peeing my pants, that just cracks me up....have a good one!

Oops, I let 10 days go by

...without posting. Sorry. I've just been doing boring old everyday things: chores, rearranging, a lot of drawing out furniture plans for 4 rooms (I'm redoing one room that impacts 3 others), made some art, did a bunch of laundry, cooked some meals, mailed off some RAK goodies, did some online shopping. Just regular boring stuff.

One thing I've also been doing a lot of is watching old movies on Turner Classic channel. The other day I spent all day watching Robert Montgomery movies and had such a pleasant day. He was one of those actors from the 1930s thru the 1950s who was a master of intelligent and chic light comedy. These are some photos of him:
In his younger days ---

With Carole Lombard in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, 1941 (a firmly established movie star) --

In his later years before retiring, 1950s --


His daughter was Elizabeth Montgomery, who was Samantha on Bewitched. Her first gig was on his very popular tv show in the 1950s.

My favorite Robert Montgomery performance is in the film adaptation of the Noel Coward play, Private Lives. The fact that he is romantically partnered with my favorite actress, Norma Shearer, is a big part of it, but also because he is in all his debonair and witty glory in this kind of vehicle. A very attractive man, too. Those eyes were unlike any on a man, next to my favorite actor's eyes (Gary Cooper).

Another fun time was had catching up on all the episodes of The Girls Next Door that I taped to watch. LOVED the episode where Hef shares his more than 2,000 scrapbooks with the Kendra, Holly and Bridget. The crazy thing is that in his earlier scrapbooks before he was famous, he ART JOURNALED in them, mostly cartoons he would draw and dialogue about a guy who created a tasteful magazine for men about women. Too dang funny.

A few days ago, we finally got Missy's old car out of our driveway and into my brother's driveway. My nephews were thrilled to get the vehicle and were already making plans to change the sound system. I'm really glad we gave them the car.

Well, as soon as I can think of some more boring stuff to blog, I'll be back! winkwink

New Car Days

Well, we finally broke down and got our new car. After weeks of determining where, on an imaginary graph, economy met reliability, the x-y hot point landed on a Honda Civic.



From there, the choice lay with our peculiar tastes. And since it was technically my ride, my choices won out. It had to be silver. It had to be the 4-door sedan and not the 2-door coupe like Hubs preferred.



The interior dashboard won us both over. Sitting in the front seats made us feel like we were in a spacious luxury vehicle. For me, that's easy, as I am only 5'5" on a good day. But for my 6' Hubs to think it's spacious was a plus.



I'll be getting used to my new car in the coming weeks and months. Already I'm getting used to being lower to the ground. I've been higher up for almost a decade and I've been spoiled by it. Down here, a vehicle that is higher up fares better when streets flood. Hubs' answer is that I am to just stay home on those days, and that is a-okay by me. ;-)

Mother May I?

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone. May is steamrolling through my life at about the same speed as the rest of this year - superfast. Mother's Day is this Sunday and then before I blink good it'll be Memorial Day.

It's also heated up even more down here on the Third Coast since my last entry. Slowly, surely, noticeably. One good thing that has come from it is that I have renewed my efforts to lose some more weight. About dang time, huh?

I should say, if I just make sure every day that I eat and drink everything I am supposed to, it's pretty much a weight loss program. Some days it's a real struggle just to drink the metamucil, the green tea (cuz I gotta have my coffee, too!), the water, the V8... eat the salad, the cheese, the fruit, and the Lean Cuisines or dinner-in-a-bag entree... and not the fast food.

I've been hanging in there, though, and been good for a few days now. Hopefully this will continue.

I want to make clear that I am not at all motivated to do this in order to wear a bathing suit. Lord, no, I can wear my bathing suit in my own pool in my own backyard just fine the way I am. I'm motivated to do this now because warmer weather makes me less hungry overall, and I sweat more. If you had my body, you would know that my fat folds get positively psychotic about sweat.

Ok, ok, I get that way. One summer a few years back, I ignored my fat folds and developed a bad skin infection. Not fun. I believe that's when I discovered Gold Bond medicated skin lotion and I use it religiously to this day, year round. If you are reading this and not in menopause yet, just suffice it to say that after menopause your skin crawls, itches, burns...for no reason at all. It's like your nerve endings are freaking out. Gold Bond helps immensely.

So, anyway, I'm thinking that the more weight I can lose, the better my fat folds will get. A girlfriend of mine scoffs at the idea, though. She has fat folds too, and she says that fat folds are better than skin folds, meaning when you lose the fat in your folds, you are left with skin folds and they droop more.

Great, just great. Deep down I refuse to believe that my skin has lost all of its elasticity, that if I lose the fat in my folds I won't also lose the folds. Say it ain't so, Joe.

I will say one thing, I'm losing those folds one way or another, even if I have to go under the knife. I'm thinking a full frontal slice-off would do just the trick, and take the boobs off, too.

Such is the madness that May brings.... ;-)

One-Topic Fool

It seems like all I write about here lately is rainy weather and politics. It's Wednesday, so it's supposed to be Politics on the Hump, but I don't feel much like getting all riled about anything overtly political today.

I have a waterlogged brain and am anxious about this Swine Flu outbreak / potential pandemic.

We did have a few hours of sunshine today, but down here around Houston it's been mostly cloudy and stormy. We are lucky to live on one of the highest points in my area with good storm drains, so aside for temporary street water that drains quickly, we've had no flooding problems. Much of Houston has not been so lucky, but then they never are.

Since the 1990's, Houston floods every time someone spits good. It's mostly blamed on too much concrete and not enough drainage planning. I am so glad I don't have to navigate that place anymore on a daily basis, because it gets extremely dangerous to be caught out in rising waters. There were commuters interviewed on the local news last night who had their vehicles flooded last week and had their rental cars flooded yesterday! Many people keep getting water in their homes. I would be coming unglued at that point. You would maybe be hearing about me taking my city councilman hostage or something.

To me, living there is just not worth all that. I have experience, having lived there in the 1980's. I'm happy to let Hubs have the Toyota and just be homebound on days like this. I get really nervous even thinking about having to drive to the grocery store or post office.

It's situations like in Houston that make me realize that we pay all of these monies in local, county and state taxes, yet we are still in the end on our own or worse, at the whim of inadequate drainage in a rainstorm that we pay taxes to maintain properly so we are not flooded. Or like with my land line phone -- on rainy days it still crackles so badly the phone is unusable -- even though Verizon's been out on multiple occasions and proclaims it fixed every time. Or like the untrimmed trees and unchecked undergrowth that Centerpoint Energy is supposed to keep free from the power lines and doesn't.

It makes me wonder if things would be any worse if our taxes were halved and governments had to nix many of these services that we are not effectively getting. I'm almost ready to try, too. Especially since some governments are making plans to assess even more taxes and fees for the same inadequate services.

My dad told me yesterday his town is discussing changing their garbage fees to an assessment of $1 a pound, and no pickup...citizens would have to take their garbage to be weighed and disposed of. I would be fighting that big time. For one thing, like my dad says, what are all of the elderly people who cannot drive and have no kin going to do? Also, who is going to weigh that garbage and what controls are on them to be accurate? And who is going to police the increase in dumping in order to avoid the garbage fee?

Yes, services might need to be cut back and redesigned, but could ya start with something a little less important to public health and safety than the garbage? Sometimes I wonder if people in responsible civic positions even know how to think something through or walk in someone else's shoes while they're doing it.

Add the dull razor mood that constant rainy weather tends to cause, and pretty soon I'm throwing up my hands and deciding we are all going to hell in a hand basket. If we don't all get the swine flu, that is. I saw my first mosquitoes of the year yesterday, too. And my feet, ankles, calves and fingers have been swollen up like sausages for 2 days. My Ford Focus decided it needs a new alternator and Hubs doesn't want to fix it, so until I can get out and buy a new car, I am back to sharing Hubs'.

I doubt that sunshine could wipe out every glum thing, but boy, it sure would be nice to see. Forget Seasonal Affective Disorder -- I think I have Humidity Affective Disorder. ;-))) So, if the sun is shining today where you are, please try to bottle some for me. I will gladly pay for the postage to send it to me.

Rainstorms...again!

Well, tonite the sky fell out once more this week. Another rain storm, with training. 4-5-6 more inches. I think we are caught up on rain by now.

In other news local to me, perhaps this proves just how hard-nosed folks down here can get:

Riding out the storm? You’ll pay for the rescue

This is a bill going through the Texas statehouse right now. Now, it is something that is logical on the face of it, but we should remember that it is not the wealthy who stay behind, it is the poor and blue-collar working class who do, even those who stay for their pets because they cannot afford to keep them off-site. Billing them for this will just bankrupt them all.

And it takes the focus off the fact that Centerpoint Energy should be shot for not trimming the trees around the power lines which caused most of the power outages.

All I know is that the next time we all have to evacuate down here, if you add 20,000 more people on the roads just from Galveston alone, I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO GET OUT!

Be careful what you wish for, Texas, you just may get it! (And, I cannot wait to see what kind of legal chaos this is going to cause when they try to enforce it...or when there are thousands more deaths of people who stayed and got no help, but oh well, they asked for it, right?) Heaven help the Act of God that might leave you having to turn down help because you cannot afford it!

Just more and more micro-management of my freedoms, insidious creeping into my privacy. Here's the deal on what happened to me: I would have been able to come back within a few days had the untrimmed trees not downed my power lines for 15 days! And did Centerpoint pay for my hotel room? Hell no, FEMA did. Do you see the problemo here? I do not blame the state for crying that they can't spend the money, but hey, if they would bill Centerpoint for it instead of the people, maybe Centerpoint would trim those freaking trees!

Just sayin! LOVE what a poster on the Chronicle's site commented about this story:

"What if you were in a freeway accident and needed to be rescued with say, the jaws of life. You had better start carrying plenty of cash. Rescue is rescue; that's why they call it a rescue. After all, you've had just as much warning as everyone else about how dangerous these freeways are and I assume you choose to drive on them anyway. The real answer to this issue is to find some people intelligent enough to come up with realistic, workable plans, not some cockamamie idea that has not a prayer of working. "

YES! Oh, well, it's an Obama World we got here, let's prosecute the Bushies for...keeping us safe for 8 years. I mean, those 8 years are already over now, and no one would dare hit us now because the O man is loved by the entire world!

Why not? Placate the idiot uber-left, that's much more important, they have our best interests in mind, right? And let's do this cap and trade nonsense that will force Exxon and Chevron and the rest of big oil to relocate to other countries that welcome them with open arms to do business, oh yeah, that's gonna really stop carbon-based activity. But don't you dare force California or Martha's Vineyard to put up wind turbines that blend into the scenery farely invisibly. Oh, no, Not In My Backyard!

And let's make obesity a freakin crime against humanity and not let overweight people have medical insurance because they are all nazis and perpetrate crimes against humanity, even thoough 65% of Americans are obese? RIGHT. That works!

I am so sick and tired of all this crap. I just love how the ObamaBots are trying so hard to make all of us pissed-off people into tea-bagging thugs and horrible unpatriotic trouble-makers. Wow, if only Jefferson could be alive right now.

Months ago, I warned people right here on this blog, how Obama takes the teachings of marxist socialist Saul Alinsky in Rules for Radicals, to perpetrate CHAOS in the name of progress, and that one day he would not be able to control what he unleashes.

Well, the way people are proposing to prosecute the Bushies for torture is a great example of what I was talking about. Obama's let this thing get out of hand. Billionaire George Soros, who made $1.8 billion off of this economic crisis by betting against the dollar, but who bankrolled Obama and the Dems and who holds the puppet strings on Obama, has declared that Bushies are to be prosecuted at all cost.

So, what does Obama do, even though he knows it is not a good idea? Does he show any backbone at all? Hell, no. He pushes it off on his Attorney General to tell Soros no deal. Or not. See, Obama is so good at throwing people under the bus, and on passing the buck. Not so good at stopping the buck or showing any kind of political courage. Some leader we have here.

Obama knows it is not a good idea, because Bush's advisors, the ones targeted for possible prosecution, were giving him their legal opinions about waterboarding and other torture tactics. You prosecute them and no subsequent president will ever get any decent advice ever again. And, if we do get attacked again, Obama could be prosecuted for not keeping us safe!

None of that is logical, fair or wise. It's just revenge! I thought we were gonna be POST-partisan, and it turns out we are more partisan and vindictive than EVER! When is it going to be enough? When? When BOTH parties get thrown out on their butts?

Hey, guess what the Tea Party Patriots are advocating? THREE GUESSES....

When do seasons really change?

What is the real criteria for seasonal change?

I know the summer solstice is in June. I know this because it's on my late paternal grandmother's birthday. I always get a phone call from my dad, who always brings it up and asks how old would she be.

For me, though, summer comes long before then. The feel of it, the sweat, the constant wish for a cool sweet breeze, mosquitoes and bugs, and car interiors that never seem to cool off no matter what.

The last two days have been suggesting summer down here. 95 degrees for the afternoon high. What a spike, even for us. This usually happens in May!

I haven't been paying to the tv forecast but every once in a while I've seen a big red splotch over the middle of the country. Today I heard the weather guy say that it's moving east and that NYC would be in the 80's tomorrow from the 60's today.

My first thought was, I sure hope it moves way east...and a little north too. My second thought was, I hope this is just a weird heat wave anomaly. I hope everything will go back to the way it was.

I'm not ready to face this every day, I suppose, even though I have been thinking that this summer Reggie and I are gonna live in the swimming pool as soon as it heats up enough. Well, not exactly true. I can stand this just fine. It's how much hotter than this that it's gonna get that I dread.

I've been spoiled by the cooler than normal weather we've had for the last year. Last summer had some rough days, but there were also plenty of fronts to help cool things off a bit. That's what I'll hope for.

I do need the pool to heat up, because I'm planning to exercise in it every day. Last year it was almost June before it got warm enough. I remember that Missy was back home from school a couple of weeks before she began bugging Hubs to clean it, which led to finding The Pool Guy.

Isn't it funny, me complaining about heat already, when others to the north of me are complaining about still getting the occasional snowfall. You'd think America spanned 2 hemispheres and was this long land mass like Italy.

Heck, if I lived in Mexico in the summer, I'd want to cross the border just to get some cooler weather and air conditioning. And I'd work for pennies in the bargain. Perhaps I've just solved the immigration problem. How about an air conditioner bailout for Mexico? winkwink

Politics on the hemp

Today isn't just my weekly political essay. It's also Earth Day...or, to be more exact, one of several Earth Days we seem to celebrate in the name of ecology. Never could figure out why we had to have multiples of this, or multiple Arbor Days for that matter, but I digress...

Recently I read that the American tradition of Earth Day will be 40 years old next year, having been celebrated first in 1970. As a 53-year-old, I can testify that our society has come a long way in cleaning up our water and air in that time. The cost and whether it has been too high will be left to debate another day, but federal government mandates that ordered pollution reductions and fines for those who disobeyed appear to have made a difference, and all while our population grew and our technologies and industries experienced vast changes.

As I sit here today, the issues of the day that seem to warrant immediate attention are anything but environmental ones. Our current economic recession is at the forefront of our problems, and on the back burner sits our Middle Eastern diplomacy problems (fornerly known as the war on terror...I can't remember what it is now being called).

However, smack in the middle of issues that could explode in our collective face is this "drug war" on our Southern border. Yet, little is being done to effectively address it. Call me crazy, but it seems to me that we are treating all of these like problems we just have to endure. Meanwhile, Congressional leaders prepare to write and debate a Climate Change Bill with what seems to me to be a misplaced enthusiasm.

Here is where I remind the reader that the original aims for Earth Day included an embracing of hemp as a natural resource and marijuana as a natural therapeutic herb...both naturally bio-degradable. Remember that Thomas Jefferson made his living from growing and selling hemp crop, then check out this visual about hemp's uses:

NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) was also born in 1970, along with Earth Day, a symbol of natural ecological living.

In the 1970's progress was made toward evolving to more natural lifestyles. The fledgling pharmaceutical industry, whose first commercial success in the 50's and 60's was in collusion with doctors to prescribe amphetamines and barbituates (uppers for weight loss and energy, downers for relaxing and handling stress), was slowly being challenged. Seriously. Baby steps, but steps.

Then came the Reagan years. One presidential administration managed to return the power in the equation back to the pharmaceuticals and take away a big chunk of citizens' privacy and personal liberty through the Drug-Free Workplace Act. Suddenly, your urine could be taken and examined, in order to work and support yourself. Then your blood. Then your hair, and by way of technological advances, your DNA.

So, what does this have to do with ecology and Earth Day? A lot, actually, and we are moving in the wrong direction if we want to advocate life with less pollution and negative ecological impact. Because we chose pharmaceuticals over embracing pot and hemp, we have just as much drug abuse, if not more. It's just legal. We have record high levels of biomedical and pharmaceutical waste showing up in our drinking water (including what gets put in those bottles we buy). Hormones, chemicals of all kinds. It's really a hothouse science experiment in the making and we are the test rats.

There is also the lifestyle byproduct waste of our society choosing not to embrace the more laid-back natural approach. Who among us does not have one or more cell phones, mp3 players, pda's, laptops, and that's just your mobile devices. At home, there are perhaps desktop computer or more laptops, tv's, dvd players, cordless phones, home theater and sound systems, electronic security and temperature systems, and a ton of battery-operated small appliances from toothbrushes to vibrators.

Where do all of those used-up batteries go? Landfills, if we are lucky and they are properly handled. So do the devices themselves after a few years. Very little of this stuff is ever recycled or even recyclable. But it could be. The positive ecological impact potential is huge, but remains ignored.

Many of us are genuinely concerned about our ecological future and will be touting and promoting the Earth today. Many of us do the right things: no cigarette smoking, cloth bags to sack groceries in, curbside recycling, clothes thrifting. We might drive cars that get 40 mpg, and have energy-efficient appliances in our homes. We also might align our politics with those who promote the dangers of climate change. Al Gore may be considered a hero and a visionary.

We go along with Just Say No. Perhaps we had one relative who got hooked and it ruined their life. Or we are too weak to be self-responsible about casual drug use and so welcome the draconian laws of restriction. Or we have no personal experience whatsoever and believe our pastor or our drug czars who tell us that hair grows on palms and all who take illegal drugs will go to hell, and pot is a sure-fire gateway drug to cocaine, heroin, speed.

And yet, most if not all of us continue to obliviously pollute with electronics and medications. We think we are helping by using products with biodegradable packaging, but don't realize the huge amount of it sitting there as waste and waiting, because it takes years to biodegrade. WE might buy on the internet thinking it saves fossil fuel pollution, but much of the shipping packaging and the increased transportation fuel use makes the gain small (less cars and more freighters and cargo planes). Take a look at your packaging the next time you get some. While it is true that a lot of it is made of recycled materials, what happens to it now? Ever think about that?

I've mentioned before that I think most of the ecological commemorations are just a lot of hooey to help people feel like they are somehow connected and correct. People are reminded of it a handful of times a year. It's what we do every day that counts.

Ask just about any Mexican national who is here working, either legally or not, and they would rather see you working to get marijuana and hemp decriminalized. They will tell you that doing that one thing will end these drug wars because the demand that drives the mafia power struggle will evaporate.

And it will also make life more safe and stable for their loved ones back home. This is important because something called a Kuznets curve shows that more stable economies grow wealth, and wealthier economies tend to take care of their environments better once they stabilize their wealth. Mexico still needs to do that.

Remember this the next time you hear the knee-jerk reactionary line about if we legalize pot we will have kindergartners high on every street corner, or that California's pot clinics are really providing product to dealers to sell to kids. This is the same Psy-op tactic as was used in the South in the 1920's when citizens were urged to support making hemp and marijuana illegal on the grounds that if black men smoked it they would rape white women.

The real issue might be that if people could smoke a bowl instead of pop a pill, the pharmaceutical industry might suffer. Stress-induced crime might go down. More folks might drink less and drive drunk less. Small farmers might find a lucrative crop to make a living with, as Jefferson did. A lot of people might not waste important years incarcerated. And we might could continue making progress in advocating natural lifestyles in the process. That's ecology we can all celebrate.

Politics over the hump...

I apologize for not posting on my usual Wednesday, but my entire day and evening was Tea Party related. My friend Vanny and I rode the bus into Houston to the downtown event. I got the photos off the Houston paper's site because although I took cell photos, I can't figure out for the life of me how to get them off of there. Technology really annoys me sometimes...

Anyway, that first photo is of the woman who was voluntarily making signs. She asked you if you had a phrase preference, otherwise she chose one. She made us a couple of double-sided ones. I chose "Country Before Party is The Only Change We Need" on one side and "Why Waste a Good Crisis? I'll tell ya why!" I wish we'd have gone ahead and brought our own signs, but we were afraid we wouldn't be able to bring them on the bus.

I chose the remaining photos because I think they give a good visual of the majority of the protesters. I crashed in front of 2 tv's when I got home, and for a few hours I watched CNN and MSNBC to see how they covered Tea Party Day. I knew Fox would repeat later on, but I also knew they were carrying all-day coverage.


I have to say that I was pretty shocked at how blase' CNN and MSNBC both covered it. I was also highly insulted at times by how both of their more ridiculous partisans (that Jack guy on CNN and Keith Olberman on MSNBC) kept minimizing it as a trumped up GOP-controlled gimmick and thereby dissing participants, like myself, as being either brainless or right-wing terrorists, thanks to Homeland Security choosing today to release a report on right-wing domestic terrorism threats.

If there was any doubt in my mind about how those two networks don't even try to report news that is unfavorable to Obama, then my mind is free of doubt now. Any reporter without an agenda had only to wade into these crowds all over the nation and he/she would clearly have seen only Mom and Pop, Middle Age, Middle Class, Middle of the Road Taxpayers. No terrorists. No Aryan Bro-hoods. No KKK. Gosh! Read those signs in the photos. They say it all.

Just some observational notes from my day... I was amazed at the number of people around me who had voted for Obama...(sort of, as one woman said it all came down to enee, meanee, minee, mo in the voting booth)...but had they known how he'd govern they never would have and that's why they were angry first and foremost. This is almost never talked about on tv, and I think it's why the CNNbc's have written it off as a stunt. I mean, Heaven forbid they'd have to send several reporters into the crowds and ask for honesty...they might get it and that would make Obama look bad, perhaps almost illegitimate if too many voiced buyer's remorse.

What I saw was, sure, the GOP latched onto the coattails of Tea Party, but they have never controlled it or even influenced it. That means that Fox was actually the only cable news to cover the event and give it the importance it deserved.

As to whether it will continue, who says it has to as strongly? I mean, we got our point across and we got one cable news network to do its job and cover it. We're beginning a long season for good weather and there will be another event like this. I'm guessing July 4th is looking the part more and more...

Personality Test

Took this test the other day. Here are my results:

Your Personality is the Rarest (INFJ)
Your personality type is introspective, principled, self critical, and sensitive. Only about 2% of all people have your personality - including 3% of all women and around 1% of all men. You are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging.

I've changed slightly since my last 6 times to take the same test. Previously, I was always a INFP (the only difference is a tendency to perceive instead of judge, and INFP's make excellent writers...bingo!). This slight change means I've become more judgmental, and that totally makes sense to me.

Ever since a certain presidential election, I've known that. ;-)

Here's what else it has to say about me:

"As an INFJ, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you take things in primarily via intuition. Your secondary mode is external, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit with your personal value system.

INFJs are gentle, caring, complex and highly intuitive individuals. Artistic and creative, they live in a world of hidden meanings and possibilities. Only one percent of the population has an INFJ
Personality Type, making it the most rare of all the types.

INFJs place great importance on having things orderly and systematic in their outer world. They put a lot of energy into identifying the best system for getting things done, and constantly define and re-define the priorities in their lives. On the other hand, INFJs operate within themselves on an intuitive basis which is
entirely spontaneous. They know things intuitively, without being able to pinpoint why, and without detailed knowledge of the subject at hand. They are usually right, and they usually know it.

Consequently, INFJs put a tremendous amount of faith into their instincts and intuitions. This is something of a conflict between the inner and outer worlds, and may result in the INFJ not being as organized as other Judging types tend to be. Or we may see some signs of disarray in an otherwise orderly tendency, such as a consistently messy desk.

INFJs have uncanny insight into people and situations. They get "feelings" about things and intuitively understand them. As an extreme example, some INFJs report experiences of a psychic nature, such as getting strong feelings about there being a problem with a loved one, and discovering later that they were in a car accident. This is the sort of thing that other types may scorn and scoff
at, and the INFJ himself does not really understand their intuition at a level which can be verbalized. Consequently, most INFJs are protective of their inner selves, sharing only what they choose to share when they choose to share it.

They are deep, complex individuals, who are quite private and typically difficult to understand. INFJs hold back part of themselves, and can be secretive. But the INFJ is as genuinely warm as they are complex. INFJs hold a special place in the heart of people who they are close to, who are able to see their special gifts and depth of caring. INFJs are concerned for people's
feelings, and try to be gentle to avoid hurting anyone. They are very sensitive to conflict, and cannot tolerate it very well. Situations which are charged with conflict may drive the normally peaceful INFJ into a state of agitation or charged anger. They may tend to internalize conflict into their bodies, and experience health problems when under a lot of stress.

Because the INFJ has such strong intuitive capabilities, they trust their own instincts above all else. This may result in an INFJ stubbornness and tendency to ignore other people's opinions. They believe that they're right. On the other hand, INFJ is a
perfectionist who doubts that they are living up to their full potential. INFJs are rarely at complete peace with themselves - there's always something else they should be doing to improve themselves and the world around them. They believe in constant growth, and don't often take time to revel in their accomplishments. They have strong value systems, and need to live their lives in accordance with what they feel is right.

In deference to the Feeling aspect of their personalities, INFJs are in some ways gentle and easy going. Conversely, they have very high expectations of themselves, and frequently of their families. They don't believe in compromising their ideals. INFJ is a natural
nurturer; patient, devoted and protective. They make loving parents and usually have strong bonds with their offspring. They have high expectations of their children, and push them to be the best that they can be. This can sometimes manifest itself in the INFJ being hard-nosed and stubborn. But generally, children of an INFJ get devoted and sincere parental guidance, combined with deep caring.

In the workplace, the INFJ usually shows up in areas where they
can be creative and somewhat independent. They have a natural affinity for art, and many excel in the sciences, where they make use of their intuition. INFJs can also be found in service-oriented professions. They are not good at dealing with minutia or very detailed tasks. The INFJ will either avoid such things, or
else go to the other extreme and become enveloped in the details to the extent that they can no longer see the big picture. An INFJ who has gone the route of becoming meticulous about details may be highly critical of other individuals who are not.

The INFJ individual is gifted in ways that other types are not. Life is not necessarily easy for the INFJ, but they are capable of great depth of feeling and personal achievement.

Jungian functional preference ordering:
Dominant: Introverted Intuition
Auxiliary: Extroverted Feeling
Tertiary: Introverted Thinking
Inferior: Extroverted Sensing"

The only thing I think it's off on is the detailed work (this is pre-arthritis meds...on the meds, I make it 100% true, lol).)

Anyway, that's a pretty accurate look into me. You?

Politics on the Hump

I had the most awesome response to last week's post, but I did not approve any comments for publication because most of them were prefaced with "Please don't publish this, but". Many of them finished this sentence with comments like, I am so sorry I voted for this jack-ass, or My online business thrives on liberal customers, etc etc. So, I just did not publish any of them. And I'm going to continue doing that on Wednesdays for Politics on the Hump. So, feel free to comment as always. I'll be reading them. :-)


White House to Idiot Nation: "This was not a bow. There was a height difference"

Are you kidding me? Seriously? Oh, he was just looking at the Saudi Prince's belt buckle? His head clearly dipped down below the Prince's shoulders!

For any of you who think this kind of governmental deceit is okay, I have a book for you to read called "1984" by George Orwell. Yes, I know it's boring. That's part of the story line, because it is the total of many little boring seemingly uneventful changes that create the world Orwell warns so effectively against.

In the spirit of Orwell, I am from now on calling the Press Secretary Gibbs the Minister of Spin. Or maybe, the Minister of Misinformation. Or maybe, the Minister of Obama Speak. {Sigh.}

I have no feeling one way or another about Obama bowing to the Saudi Prince. If it is correct protocol, then it's ridiculous to accuse him of being soft on the Saudis for doing it. The only reason I'm ticked off is that the administration feels the need to blatantly lie about it? Oh, what you saw is in actually not what you saw? I'll never agree to that crap. Ever. This is far from the first time this has happened with them, either. This and the complicity of many in the media is the true danger here. I'd rather have a donkey as president than one who treats the truth this way and hides behind it instead of manning up and just saying, yeah, so what about it?

ColdSunSpringDay

Poor Reggie. So far, no bath. We keep getting cool fronts.

Today was very windy, and quite cool for a sunny day. The photo is of the pasture behind our house after one of its semi-annual grass mowings. It was so windy that the wooden gate next to Reggie's doghouse kept rattling because the latch is a loose one and lets the gate move a bit. Reggie was constantly barking at it, thinking someone was outside opening it. He was annoying me so much and making himself so anxious that I gave him half a melatonin so he would take a nice long nap. :-000



This is just an every day photo of what I did today. Ate breakfast while sketching some designs for cards and washing and drying a load of clothes, and trying to carry everything with me. I am grateful that I didn't try to dry the sausage biscuit. winkwink

I have no other food to show. Hubs insisted on preparing Sunday dinner and we had steak, baked potatoes and salad, my favorite. Then, tonight he did not eat dinner at home because he worked over and they got catered. I worked on some leftovers. ;-)

I'm head-down into artsing and crafting right now. The Muse is making demands and my creativity is flowin'. Hope everyone has a good week. I think I will. ;-)

Goulash & pudding

Yum, what a combo, eh? LOL Well, not eaten together! Separately, though, it was a good meal tonight. I saw someone else online do this photo effect on their food photos, so I thought I'd try it. Here's the goulash:



And here's the banana pudding:


You can find the recipe for Vintage Hamburger Goulash right here. But I want to say something about it. I will be making it again, but I will only eat it as a leftover and I will cover it with a layer of shredded cheddar cheese. I might even occasionally add in a small can of corn, drained. The dang thing is too bland otherwise, just fresh off the stove.

Yes, I know this how? I ate a small bowl at supper unenthusiastically, but later on in the evening my hunger tempted me to try another, and the taste difference was like night and day. Then, I tried it with the shredded melted cheese and it was even better.

Isn't that the way with a recipe sometimes? I've found I have to pull some kind of trick on them about half the time. I have to laugh, remembering when I was younger blaming it on a typo, but now I just think not everyone has the same taste buds.

I guess I should fess up that I'm beginning to cook dinner now. Last night was roast chicken, mashed pots and peas. Tonight was goulash and biscuits. I think I'll order a pizza tomorrow...that way I'll have something. I had to scour the kitchen cabinet dungeon for the goulash fixins (the macaroni came out of a Kraft mac n cheese box), and I'm not going to the grocery store on Saturday.

Not my best day...

Wednesday was bill-paying day for me, no foolin'. I began the day just going to check out to see if that computer virus was causing any harm, then ran my anti-virus, then started in paying bills online.

You know it takes me forever to do stuff that just 10 years ago I could do brain-dead, but I was going good until my internet connection began slowing down in the afternoon. I was ready to quit paying bills and only had a few more. Talk about aggravating. It probably wasn't a good idea to keep on. Just should have saved the rest for today. But, then I began getting a load of emails in my inbox to look at this art and that art, etc. So, I kept on through the slowness.

By the time Hubs got home from work I was totally scattered. Could not focus on a thing. Shoulda just laid down for a nap, but I was behind on my to-do list. This is just one reason why my condition right now during my treatment totally sucks: I cannot control my concentration well any more and so if there is a deadline involved I better get it done early.

I think I now know why elderly people have to pester you until you do their work. For years as an accountant, that irritated me to no end. I just couldn't understand, why no patience? Well, now I think I have some idea.

Anyway, by about 10pm, I was way behind and tried to sleep, but now I was too keyed up. So, for the last 6 hours I've been trying to get some done and have managed to only go through emails, do the dishes and two loads of laundry. Oh and take a shower. That won't win the Olympics of Chores, will it?

Worst part was, I missed posting a blog entry for Wednesday. {Pout!} I was on a roll!!! (Said like I'm Marlon Brando not being a "contendah" in On the Waterfront...lol.)

Now, my left thigh hurts. So does the left side of my lower back. I'm feeling little tiny spasms. This cannot be good, ok? I hate my frickin body. I wish I had a masseuse who made house calls...at 5 a.m.

Off to try to take a nap and relax and quit thinking about stressful things.....

Politics on the Hump

If you are not happy about how Congress is spending, then go here to find out where the nearest tea party to you will be held, and GO.
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COCAINE SNORTER IN VIDEO LOOKS LIKE BIDEN'S DAUGHTER
Go here for the story:
Times online UK
and Here:
Radar Online
So, what are we to make of this? The left-leaning sites and tv news orgs are either leaving this alone and censoring it from you, or they are suggesting a set-up.

Hmmm. In cases like this, I go for the simplest and most logical test. That would be, what if this happened to me?

All sources who are reporting this say that neither Biden nor his daughter can be reached for comment. (Biden is not commenting and Ashley is not returning calls.)

If I were innocent (if that wasn't me in the video), I'd be shouting it from the rooftops into as many major league reporters' mikes as I could. And if I were guilty (meaning it was me in the video), I'd be laying low and hoping for strong and fast blowover winds.

So, I think it was her. It's only logical.

Plus, I really need a detailed explanation of how you can be set up if you are videoed snorting cocaine. Like, what's the set-up again? Oh, she was hypnotized into doing it? Seriously, what does being set up mean here?
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I DID NOT TURN OFF MY LIGHTS FOR EARTH HOUR
Guilty as charged on that account. Didn't feel guilty, either, because I think it's a stupid, superficial eco-status thing. Like, it makes people look all enviro if they do it.

Well, turns out it probably made no difference in actually saving any energy, if one uses California as a marker, and that's also pretty dang logical being what Cali is and all. Check out the charts over at the Grand Rants blog. They show that Earth Hour was a total bust in California, where if you can make it enviro there, you can make it anywhere, right? Apparently not. So, I'm concluding I missed nothing at all and any guilt over it would be a waste. :-)

Wow, wonder what other *facts* will turn out to be myths before too long. I cannot wait to see if the Polar ice cap melts in 4 years as promised....{Sigh}