Category Archives: news

my thoughts on politics – don’t make me say it again (Vote for Elmo!)

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Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.
Gore Vidal

I hate talking about politics. Partly because the facts in each election, major or minor, get so skewed by the media that it’s hard to tell who is telling the truth at the end of the day when everyone writing has their own agenda. Partly because elections bring out the absolute worst in a candidate – I’m pretty sure that if Elmo ran for governor that I’d hate him by the time the election was over. By the time election time rolls around, the mud slinging gets so intense that the sound of a political ad on the tv or radio sickens me – the picket signs on all the lawns on my street irritate me beyond reason and the SNL parodies of political candidates become more compelling and well rounded than the candidates themselves.

I think it’s a terrible shame that politics has become show business.
Sydney Pollack

Today my state is voting for governor. For months now we’ve been bombarded with “information” about Candidate A who hates kittens, runs an illegal honey badger prostitution ring out of his billion dollar vacation home in the Bermuda Triangle and wants to take all the money from the orphans and give it to Hitler using his time machine built by Skynet ; or Candidate B who flunked out of kindergarten and can’t spell his own name, is married to his pet donkey and thinks he can solve our states financial problems by playing Bingo at the Senior Center. Or something, I wasn’t really paying attention because I was too busy changing diapers and smoking bon bons while watching a Toddlers in Tiaras marathons.
Democracy is being allowed to vote for the candidate you dislike least.
Robert Byrne
In some elections you are lucky enough to know who you think the right candidate is. They say something in a debate that strikes a cord with you or they have a really cute butt or …something. Whatever the reason, you know without a doubt who you want to vote for. That’s awesome. Other times it feels like you are trying to decide which serial killer to give the keys to the city to. Neither candidate is remotely compelling or interesting or good looking and you are left voting for the one who either belongs to the politcal party you ascribe to at the end of the day or the one who you know probably hasn’t killed anyone. Or you like their name.
Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.
Doug Larson
But the thing that irks me the most is that come election time, you cannot escape it. From the Facebook statuses of every friend and fremeny you know, to the Political Televegangelists who ring your doorbell every night at exactly the same time you are trying to put your baby down for a nap or feed your toddler dinner – to the signs on every street corner and the commercials running every fifteen minutes on the television and radio. It’s everywhere. Long after you’ve made up your mind about who to vote for (Elmo for Governor!) they continue to invade your space, making sure that you know that Candidate A wants to give you herpes and that Candidate B thinks you look fat in that dress. Awesome.
It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen.
George MacDonald
And then election day finally rolls around and you think, “Awesome – now we can all stop talking about politics already.” But that’s never the case. There is always another election, another evil dictator that we need to get rid of or The Second Coming of Politicians that we need to rally behind and shove into office. No sooner than this governor election ends, we’ll all be talking about the presidential election instead. And no matter who gets elected, somebody is going to hate the pants off said politician and never shut up about it, ever.
We would all like to vote for the best man but he is never a candidate.
Kin Hubbard
Look, all I’m trying to say… is that although a little political debate and conversation can be fun and educational and thought provoking – that too much of anything, especially politics, is just not good for you – it’s not good for your soul, it drains all the good karma right out of your day and it will probably make you gain ten pounds when you drown your angst in a chocolate sheet cake while the kids are “napping.” And nobody wants that. So can we all agree to NOT talk about politics for like ten minutes tomorrow? Please?
There ain’t no answer. There ain’t gonna be any answer. There never has been an answer. That’s the answer.
Gertrude Stein
/ rant

Do You Even Know Who You Are?

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According to The Internet (i.e., the experts, right?) we all have new Zodiac signs. This is rather disconcerting since our Zodiac signs determine so much of our personality. For twenty eight years now I have been a Capricorn, which means that I am was :

“melancholy and stern because [I] live by self-discipline and responsibility. [I] evaluate everything and [I] don’t take daring chances without weighing the advantages and disadvantages first.”

But apparently now I am a Sagittarius, which means that now I will

“crave adventure and excitement and welcome change with open arms. Sagittarius is the sign of the philosopher and the explorer, [I] will go as far as road will go and explore every corner thoroughly in [my] ever eternal search for wisdom. Freedom is so important to Sagittarius that [I] will actually make decisions based on the amount of freedom that is given by the choice [I] have made.”

That just seems like an awfully big change in personality for me to take on over night. Don’t get me wrong, being all adventurous and carefree sounds fun. And the lack of responsibility that comes with all that awesome freedom I’ll be chasing sounds like a nice cat nap after almost five years of motherhood. But, still…

When I was a Capricorn I was a born leader, steadfastly loyal and apparently infinitely patient (who knew?) if a bit melancholy. Now I am apparently a big flighty, anti-commitment chick (shhh, don’t tell my husband) and a bit unemotional to boot. I’m feeling a bit hesitant about embracing my new personality traits. I’m just not sure how to go about suddenly becoming this new person. Cause, well, it says here online that I’m not allowed to be emotional or moody anymore. I have to be an optimist with dreams of being a world traveler. And while the travel part sounds all well and good, I’ve been an emotional mess all my life and frankly I like committing to things until the bitter end. It’s just my way.

Besides, why can’t I be the Ophiuchus instead? That name is simply nifty and I think if I’m going to take on a new personality overnight, I’d rather jump on the new fun Ophiuchus bandwagon instead.

Anyone else struggling with their new Zodiac sign? Let’s make fun of astrology together in the comments section below!

Who Will Be The Next American Idol JUDGE?

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Has anyone else been following the crazy restructuring going on at American Idol? We all knew Simon was leaving and this left the show feeling a bit shaky with only Randy, Kara and Ellen left. I liked all three of them but none of them felt like Leader Material and I kind of think a leader of the judges is necessary, even it’s unofficial. My husband had basically decided to stop watching the show when he heard Simon was leaving.

Then Ellen left. Like just now basically, even though she’s apparently been set on the decision for awhile, they are really only just now announcing it – she’s gone. I love Ellen but I totally get that this wasn’t really her forte – she has no musical background and she’s so nice that it must have been tough to try and deliver any real criticism. Then just to add to the crazy, it looks like Kara is gone, too. And I was just starting to get used to her as a judge. So the only original judge left is Randy Yo Dawg Jackson.

I don’t know if anything is official yet but it sounds like Steven Tyler of Aerosmith fame and J Lo of Really She Needs No Introduction fame will be the new judges joining Randy. I’m on the fence about how I feel about this. I think my husband might say, “Good,” as I think he maybe likes Steven Tyler quite a bit and really at this point what harm could it do?

As for me? I don’t actually like Steven Tyler at all, but that’s for another post entirely. And as a judge I really can’t say anything about him at all except for “we’ll see.” He might make a very good Simon-esque Cranky Pants judge, but I’m just speculating. J Lo is perfectly capable of filling the Pretty Girl requirement (cause, hello she’s gorgeous) and her musical background is huge – she could be really good.

I don’t know. I’m not willing to write off the show entirely with this news. It might be the show’s ultimate downfall – one of many signs that it’s gone on a bit too long now and really needs to just end already. Or maybe in a long, convoluted way, this might be the smack of life the show needs to shake things up and save itself. Maybe all the new will revitalize the show and keep it fresh somehow? Maybe it will be awesome.

What do you think of the new potential judges and the ones who left? Will you be watching Season Ten?

I’d Like To Propose A Toast… State of the Union Drinking Game 2010

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Stole this from McMommy. It’s been a long time since I got political here at the old bloggeroo. Don’t expect much more than this:

Huffington Post’s State Of The Union Drinking Game 2010

State Of The Union Drinking Game

NOTE: The Huffington Post in no way encourages binge drinking. This is the comedy section. If you actually drank as much as we suggested you would die, so do not do that.

Event Instructions
Obama says “let me be clear” Do one shot
Obama says “change isn’t easy” Do one shot
Obama says “make no mistake” Do one shot
Obama says “Let me be clear, change isn’t easy, make no mistake.” He’s screwing with you to get you drunk, so five shots
Joe Wilson yells something Do two shots
Obama yells back Finish the bottle
Obama says “jobs” Do one shot, two if you’re unemployed
Obama says “health care” Do not drink, you will not be given a replacement liver
Nancy Pelosi claps like a seal Do one shot
Nancy Pelosi becomes a seal STOP DRINKING FOR THE LOVE OF GOD
Obama mentions Bo Put beer in your dog’s water bowl
Michelle Obama wears a slinky dress Go immediately to the HuffPost Style page for close-ups
Joe Biden nods-off/laughs inappropriately/starts talking before the speech is over Do three shots
Obama uses the term “Congressional leadership” Do two shots carefully as all that laughing will make it difficult to swallow
Obama says he’s “fighting for you” Do one shot, two if you believe him
Obama mentions Haiti Text “Haiti” to the number 90999 and donate $10 to the Red Cross

aloha friday: health care reforms and holiday wishes

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Before I get into my Aloha Friday question for this week, I want to wish all my readers a Happy Holidays – whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, The Winter Solstice, Awesome Day After Christmas Shopping, Humbuggery or other – I hope you are having a great time with your friends and family this weekend. Stay warm; eat, drink and be merry; make wonderful memories.

Now, all that aside – let’s talk about something so much less festive that it almost pains me to put this out there, but I really want to know…

How do you feel about the Health Care Overhaul being proposed right now?

Are you for or against the changes they plan to make?

Do you have a better idea of what they should do instead?

Do you follow this kind of stuff or choose to ignore it?

Did you vote for the current administration?

aloha friday @ an island life

Kailani @ An Island Life takes it easy on Fridays by posting a simple question for you to answer – and she invites you to do the same. Just post your own question on your blog and leave your link at An Island Life. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

I Seriously Don’t Even Know What To Call This Post…

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I know I don’t normally talk about stuff that matters (you know to, like, anyone else but me) but my husband told me about this thing he heard on NPR today and it just.broke.my.heart. Apparently the low milk prices that we’ve been rejoicing about for months is not really such a great thing. See dairy farmers are apparently having a hard time making ends meet and a lot of them are now being paid by a program called CWT (Cooperatives Working Together) to slaughter their cows. My first instinctive reaction to this news was disgust.

“Maybe I’ll switch to drinking only soy milk,” I commented, but then stalled immediately, “But would that even fix anything?”

How far down the rabbit hole of this problem am I really willing to go? Let’s be honest, me not drinking milk isn’t going to change anything. And if everyone joined me in my endeavor (or say a lot of people) would this help the problem or hurt it? If the dairy industry were struggling further, what would they do? Slaughter more cows? Or maybe free them?

And about that soy milk thing. How much do I really want to support the soy industry which is so closely tied to the corn industry (oh god don’t even get me started on the corn industry) because of the whole crop rotation dealio where farmers will plant corn for like one year and then soybeans the next to keep the soil fertile or something, I don’t know I’m not a farmer! Point is, ever since reading the first third of The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, corn has been ruined for me. I still give it dirty looks when walking down the aisles of the grocery store. And I have to see it everywhere – not just in the fresh produce, canned veggies and frozen veggies – but everywhere. Because now I know just how many things corn is a part of in our diets, and other places, too. Seriously, corn might be slowly taking over the planet.

And then while I’m thinking about corn, I have to think about the beef industry and how all those poor cows are being force fed a diet that they were never intended to eat, and then killed when they are basically still toddlers. Eighteen months I think is the ideal goal? Disgusting. And since soybeans are being kept in business because of corn and both are used for everything, both, in some regard, are suspect. Right??

And the more of the book that I read, the more upset I got, and in the end I stopped reading partly because it was taking me freaking forever and partly maybe because I was tired of being upset. But I’m still upset. And now I have to be upset when I look at dairy products and man dairy products are like… my everything. I adore dairy. I love milk and cheese and yogurt and ice cream and milk chocolate and… Seriously? What am I supposed to do with this information?

This seems to be one of those areas where ignorance is bliss. Because, let’s face it. My husband will not be wooed into a vegan diet. We are probably not going to start growing all our own food (especially not in our third floor apartment). This situation will not take over my life, as much as it upsets me. I can’t afford an organic vegan diet even if my husband were game for it, and trust me, he’s not. Oh, don’t get me wrong. It bothers him, too. But this man is a carnivore. He’s not like his wimpy wife who detests working with raw meat and almost cries when she hears third hand sob stories about the dairy industry.

So you know, I probably won’t switch to soy milk, even though I already drink it once a day. And I’m not going vegan, at least not today. And I’m probably not going to go trying to free all the dairy cows from their respective farm prisons (but if I did, I’d totally free all the beef cows, too, and any other cow slaves, and we’d all run away together to some great cow worshipping island with all the great things cows love like grass and Chick Fil A‘s as far as the eye can see…). I’ll probably do nothing other than publish this blog post, but dairy farmers reading this, you should know. I’m a little disappointed in humanity right now and while it’s not entirely your fault, you are definitely not making me happy. You and corn are kind of at the top of my Naughty List right now.

*disclaimer* I don’t really know what I’m talking about and should not be held responsible for any foolish comments or hurt feelings. I don’t have a degree in anything useful to this situation and I didn’t do much research further than reading that article I mentioned and that first third of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I’m just a bleeding heart with a blog, you know? Carry on…

Reflecting on Nine Eleven

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So as not to let this day go unnoticed, I just want to take a moment to reflect. Last year I wrote a great deal about 9/11. And of course I’ve thought about those awful events a lot this week – about people I know who have lost someone to that day, people I know who are still out there fighting for us today, and of course thinking back to my own experience of that day, silly and naive as it was. One thing I have personally gained from that terrible loss is a huge leap in maturity.

Even if it didn’t happen immediately, I grew up a lot after September 11th and thank goodness I think about people other than myself a lot more now. I pay attention when things matter and try to be more aware of what’s going on. I’m not perfect, but I’ve  come along way. And I think we can say the same thing for America. We’re not perfect, but we’ve come along way. And I don’t think we’ll ever forget, though sometimes we’d like to. I know sometimes I’d like this day to pass without a thought. But I also know that it can’t.

I’m not going to go on about this. My brain is all newborn mush today and I’ve said better before and other people are saying it better right now. So feel free to go read their thoughts and just know that I was here, I did think about it, and my thoughts and compassion go out to everyone who is hurting today for what happened then.

The Speech We’re All Talking About

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I’ve been hearing an awful lot of chatter for the past few days about President Obama’s speech today which was broadcast for school children across America. To be honest, the whole thing puzzled me – what is all the hooplah about? Hearing that a lot of parents planned to keep their children home today just baffled me all the more. Really? I thought maybe I was missing something so I tried to read what I could about the issue. Kailani @ An Island Life published an article written by the Center For Education Reform entitled, Making Sense of President Obama’s School Speech – it listed ten ways we can use this opportunity to talk with our children about education. It addresses a lot of issues including:

6) Why are some people so mad about his giving the speech?

Some people think this is another attempt by the president to take over an issue that’s historically been a local one. Clear authority for school improvement needs to be made at the state level. The federal government can provide support or incentives, but we’d prefer that decisions about how we operate schools and what kinds of reforms we adopt be made closest to where we live–by state legislators that we elect from our communities. Local decisions are not always the best, but we can monitor them more easily and they reflect the unique differences of each state. As long as we all recognize that, no one should be threatened by the president’s speech.

Karen @ Write From Karen gives more examples of why some people are upset and also why she thinks kids should be allowed to hear the speech and make their own decisions. A lot of people are planning to watch the speech with their children and talk about it together, which I think is an excellent idea. I was definitely intrigued to find out what President Obama was actually planning to say to our children (well not my children as they are both not yet in school, but…) so I was really thrilled when a couple of bloggers pointed out a link to the full speech on Whitehouse.gov.

So I read the speech and I have to say, “Seriously?” This is what you were all so upset about? I thought he made some excellent points in this speech and while I might not agree with every word, I think kids will get it – I hope they will – and maybe even be inspired by it. I wish someone had said some of these things to me, when I was in school, bored out of mind, wondering, “Why does this all matter? Really?” Because now, now I get these things and wish I’d studied harder and taken advantage of more opportunities. And if President Obama or even former President Bush or whoever, Sarah Palin even – does it matter? If any of those people want to be the one to tell our children that education is important – let them say it. Applaud it – embrace it – and join in – make sure that you, personally, tell your children that education is important and why. Because you are just as much of a role model to your children as these politicians, maybe even more so.

Remember When Facebook and Twitter Went Wonky?

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You know, yesterday. My husband sent me a link to this article on Slashdot that tells the alleged story of what happened and why Twitter was down on and off most of the day and Facebook was acting like a buggy, crazed website from heck:

“An anonymous reader writes “A Georgian blogger with accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, and Google’s Blogger and YouTube was targeted in a denial of service attack that led to yesterday’s site-wide outage at Twitter and problems at the other sites on, according to a Facebook executive. The blogger, who uses the account name ‘Cyxymu’ (the name of a town in the Republic of Georgia), had accounts on all of the different sites that were attacked at the same time, Max Kelly, chief security officer at Facebook, told CNet News.” Here are user Cyxymu’s LiveJournal Google cache and LiveJournal account (unreachable at this writing). Larry Magid writes on CNet that this individual blogs about independence of a breakaway region of Georgia. Macworld has some speculation in other directions on the motivations behind the DDoS attack.”

So now you know – and knowing is half the battle. :) I just thought I’d post this for anyone who experienced the craziness yesterday who waas maybe curious as to why it happened.

Sometimes the news is more interesting than… the news

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You know what I mean. The headlines – the media frenzy – the rumors and the backlash. Sometimes I’ll be scrolling through my RSS feed and read a headline and be like, “Oh this is gonna be good,” but then I read the article and it might as well be telling what the journalist had for lunch, it’s so boring. Or take these examples…

Octuplet’s Mom’s Son Rushed To The Hospital!! - Or – Infamous Octuplets mother Nadya Suleman made the parental decision to call the paramedics Friday night because her two year, Caleb, old drank some liquid from one of the older boy’s volcano kits and consequently threw up. I read this much to my husband who said, “Don’t those kids usually just involve salt water and baking soda?” But as parents we could understand why it’s better to play it safe than sorry. Suleman comments in the people.com article, “I knew it would all get blown out of proportion if I called, but I didn’t want to take any chances,” Suleman tells PEOPLE. “I think I did the right thing. He’s okay.”

Seriously – what won’t kids put in their mouths? And yes she did the right thing – I’m not one to say nice things about this woman, but to be honest, I’m not one to mention her at all if I can help it – the media does that enough for me – but from one mom to another, I think we can all agree it’s better to be safe than sorry, right? Of course the mixture turned out to contain mostly salt water and the boy is absolutely fine now. And the media got their mini frenzy.

How about this one?

Why Amazon Went Big Brother on some Kindle e-Books – My husband emailed me this article from Ars Technica. We’d just been talking about Kindle the other day and how the book industry may or may not be dying and how e-books may or may not have anything to do with it. And I mentioned at one point that the books on the Kindle, being on Amazon’s server and not your own, bothered me. So when Dan read this article about how Amazon recently deleted many, many copy’s of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm without much explanation at all – well he figured I’d be interested. So I read the article, which was written by someone who clearly likes to “write pretty” for himself, but whatever – what I learned was that the two books in question were added by a 3rd party who did not have rights to the book – the publisher in question typically deals with public domain books and at this point in time 1984 and Animal Farm are not public domain. So I’m thinking – so what? Amazon in my mind was legally bound to do what they did. And sure there was some legal jargon that blah blah blah, seriously? It was illegal, they took care of it. They probably could have better explained themselves to the public but it’s really not the salacious story that the media and many online bloggers are now trying to make it out to be. The End.

What are your thoughts? Read any good headlines lately (ones that were maybe better than the stories themselves)? Any thoughts on the two bits of news I shared? Feel free to disagree with me, that’s what opinions are for – being different. :)