Terminal Chaosity

How Can Ron Paul Justify

2011-12-23T10:49:00.002-05:00

his old newsletters, written in his name and published in a newsletter named after him as something "he didn't write and didn't read?"

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/272102/20111223/ron-paul-newsletter-ad-really-sign-matter.htm

Even a half-ass, mediocre, rarely published poet/writer like myself is very careful to always know where I'm publishing, who I'm publishing with and who else is routinely published in any given magazine or Internet site.

I spend time researching before I submit a poem or an article. I've been known to pull poems right before publication and to have poetry already published on Internet Sites removed if and when I suddenly find out that the media outlet in question has a reputation for also publishing racist, sexist or religiously bigoted poems or who has a habit of publishing work of artists who are racist, sexist or religiously bigoted people.

It's my name, yanno? It's what I have. It's who I am. Where I publish defines me almost as much as what I publish.

In the same vein, what an editor or a newsletter owner publishes also defines them.

Face it, Howard Hefner is not a chaste individual. Nor does anyone who's ever read Playboy expect him to be. "The Catholic Digest" is not going to publish articles promoting Judaism. The "Jewish Poetry Monthly" is not going to print a lot of poems praising Jesus.

If you read my blog you expect to read about me. Or about things I believe in. If my name is on an article posted here or elsewhere, you are going to expect that I've written it myself - or, at the very least, have taken the time to read and approve the content thoroughly enough that I fully support every idea that it contains.

Thus it is with a newsletter called, "The Ron Paul Newsletter."

I don't know what's worse - to think that he was aware of everything his newsletters contained or that he wasn't.

Happy Blogversary!!

2011-12-08T08:58:00.003-05:00

Wow!! I just noticed that this blog is 6 years old today.

I wish I had something profound to say.

But I don't.

There have been some major changes in my life. My aunt died, my mother became unable to care for herself and had to be moved to a nursing home. I sold her house and became her Power of Attorney and guardian. My mother-in-law suffered a catastrophic stroke in July, 2010 and Dan and I moved her from her home in New Jersey to a near-by nursing home here in Virginia in March of 2011 when it became clear she was not going to have a good recovery.

I have learned many of the ways I do not want to get old.

I have learned that Medicare pays for almost nothing when it comes to nursing homes and that a "life savings" can and will disappear in less than 18 months.

I have learned about feeding tubes and obsessive/compulsive behaviours in dementia patients. I have also learned that "dementia" covers an extremely wide range of things and is used much too loosely in many instances.

I have learned that nursing homes are not well staffed and that the staff they do have is overworked and underpaid and that most of them work very hard and are extremely dedicated in spite of it. I have also learned that a few bad apples really DO spoil the whole bunch.

I have surmised, although I have no proof, that the new Medicare/Medicaid rules which state that they will no longer pay for nosocomial infections (infections acquired while a patient in a facility) such as Urinary Tract Infections or MRSA simply means that the nursing homes and hospitals will do their best to avoid testing for such infections in order to bypass the possibility of not being reimbursed for the treatment. Therefore, if you want your loved one treated for such infections you must take it upon yourself to watch them very carefully for signs and/symptoms of such infections and insist upon testing if and when you think it's a possibility.

I have learned that it's always a possibility that they've got either a UTI or MRSA or both and that, in the elderly, often the only sign of a UTI is confusion, increased confusion, combative behaviour, increased lethergy or a sudden mood change.

The rest of the family is well. All children and grandchildren are wonderful. Spouse is fantastic.

Gaining weight is hard for some people and the struggle is often dissed badly by people who do not have a problem gaining weight.

I no longer recognize even one name of anyone nominated for a music award.

Cats are crazy.

Poets are crazy.

I like cats better than I like poets.

Cockatiels live forever. They only get louder and more demanding as time passes.

Jeeps rock.

Winter sucks.

Oceans rule.

Someday I will touch a dolphin.

Herman Cain, Ginger White, OWS and WTF?

2011-12-02T10:46:00.000-05:00

You gotta wonder --- how does this:

Herman Cain recently criticized the Occupy Wall Street protesters, saying, "Don't blame Wall Street. Don't blame the big banks. If you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself."At Tuesday night's CNN debate, Cain stood by his comments -- to loud cheers from the audience. "I still stand by my statement," he said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/1...n_1018798.html

Square with his suddenly big-hearted sympathy and understanding for Ginger White's unemployment situation?"

Sean, unfortunately, I'm a softy, and I feel sorry for people when they get in deep financial trouble, especially given this economy and people being out of work. This isn't the only person I have helped. There are members of my church, members of my family, you know other friends that I have helped all the time in terms of trying to help them during these tough economic times."

Herman Cain 'Hannity' Interview: GOP Presidential Candidate Says 'I Am Going To Reestablish My Character' (VIDEO)

Hypertexts

2011-09-26T10:42:00.008-04:00

Ugh. The poetry world sucks.

It recently came to my attention that a blog post of mine from 2007 has been taken out of context and reprinted in The Hypertexts in at least two different places.

I've written the following letter to Michael Burch, the editor there and hopefully he will remove the posts as well as take down my page there.

There are people, places and things I do not care to be associated with - The Hypertexts is all three.

Dear Mr. Burch,

It has come to my attention that you've reprinted a blog post of mine from 2007 at least twice in The Hypertexts. Neither time have you bothered to link to the post in question, thus denying people the opportunity to read my post in surrounding context or have you asked my permission to use my name or quote my words.

I did not ask to nor do I not wish to be involved in your petty little war with Eratosphere or the people there.

If you had bothered to ask me why I left Eratosphere for a short time in 2007 I would have been happy to tell you that it was most due to a difference of opinion with several posters there at the time - only one of whom remains today. I've been a member in good standing there for many years and my leave-taking was quite temporary.

In fact, the interview in which you most recently used my blog post for as "evidence" of discontent with Eratosphere was an interview with one of the people I most had problems with and who was one of the posters who was most instrumental in my decision to leave temporarily.

There was a time when I would have expected more of you - but not now and not any longer.

Your site has consistently been turning into a political/religious arena and remains little more than a vanity site and a place for you and those of like opinion to air their petty grievances against a poetry world which should be big enough for all of us but somehow is not.

If you would, at the very least, care enough to be honest in your hatred you will remove my blog posts from these two pages Interview with Janet Kenny.
Eratosphere & The Response.

and while you are at it, please remove my page from you list of contemporary poets.
Laura Heidy, Poet,Poetry, Picture

I do not like the company which surrounds me and I do not wish to be associated with such mean-spirited and petty people and practices.

Thank you,

Laura Heidy

UPDATE:

Mr. Burch has agreed to remove anything with my name on it from his site. He replied prompty and politely - for which I am grateful.

Rosenthal Crysler Jeep Dealer, Arlington, Va.

2011-06-14T12:45:00.001-04:00

Chuck Singleton
General Manager
Rosenthal Jeep
Arlington, Va.

Dear Mr. Singleton,

Thank you for your email of 6/14/11 in which you thank me for the opportunity to serve me, assure me that my satisfaction is your Number 1 Priority and inform me that if I am not satisfied, you are not satisfied.

Just to let you know - I filled out an Internet form for a rough quote on the value of my trade in on Sunday. Since then I have received 4 emails and 7 phone calls. I've asked, politely, with each successive phone call after the first one, that I not be contacted any more. I even went so far on Monday phone calls # 4, 5 and 6 to say that if I got another phone call or email contact that I would take my business elsewhere. I am ashamed to say that I simply yelled at Caller # 7 earlier this morning.

I've explained from phone call #2 on that I was not going to be able to bring my car in for a quote or to look at any other new car until the weekend. I asked, quite articulately and specifically, for people not to pressure me into coming in sooner. I made it quite clear that I was not interested in phone conversation or email advertisements between now and then.

Buying a car, like anything else, is something done at the buyer's convenience - not at the dealer's insistence. In fact, the more you insist, the more determined I become not to fall prey to high pressured sales tactics.

I don't know how well you all communicate at Rosenthal but to all appearances it is not at all. I asked the woman who called me from the concierge office yesterday to, yes, please, remove my name from your contact list when she asked. She apologized profusely, assured me she would - and here I am two phone calls and one email later - still asking.

In other words, I've been contacted 11 times in less than 48 hours and it's moved beyond frustrating and right into totally irritated.

So please, if you really want me to be "satisfied," if you really want me to be "confidant" that my satisfaction is your "Number 1 priority," start pay attention to me.

Do not, I beg of you, continue to ignore my very clearly stated wishes unless it is to give me the phone numbers and addresses of other Jeep dealers in the area.

Thank you,

Laura Heidy-Halberstein

Estate Sale

2011-02-14T11:51:00.001-05:00

Estate Sale

Although you’re not yet dead we rifle through
your closets and your drawers. We creep into
the crawl, we climb the attic stairs, we brush
ghost dust from books; find camisoles once lush
with lace and latched secure with eye and hook.

We spy a braid of faded blonde, and look!
A half-full flask is stashed beneath your wedding gown.
Whose masks are these? Whose ivory circus clown?
Who wrote the letters never sent or signed?
And why are we, your daughters, so resigned

to never knowing who you were or why
you left this task to us? We do not try
to suss you out. We sniff the flask and drain
it dry. We sell your treasures in the rain.

Sarah, Sarah, What Have We Created?

2010-12-08T19:24:00.001-05:00

Sarah Palin's All My Fault

How to Take the Fount out of Fountains

2010-12-08T09:15:00.002-05:00

Apparently someone forgot to turn the water off before the temperature hit freezing.

The SocioCapitalist and Me

2010-11-24T10:21:00.003-05:00

Neat new site for those who are interested in truth and sustainability. Please check it out. Browse it, read it, comment on it, bookmark it. Heck, if you want to, you can even think about writing for it.

The SocioCapitalist.com

Oh, and while you're there.....say hello to ME!!!

Medical Loss Ratio What It Means to Your Premium

Housewife Haiku

2010-08-30T07:10:00.005-04:00

There is a layer
of dust which coats the front room
Quick - shut the drapes

___

Food is wonderful
There's no way I will cook it
every single day

_____

Cat puke on the floor
barely digested morsels
with luck, he'll recycle.

__________

Eight licked stamps, two spoons,
a box worth of cracker crumbs
where is the mouse pad

_________________

Pillows leak feathers
Silk sheets have no elastic
Close the bedroom door

______________________________

Children with dirty
faces are a gift from God
Please do not adjust
_______________________________________

Where I want to be when I don't want to be here

2010-08-24T13:04:00.004-04:00

Recent Pics - 2 Poet Places and 1 Small Yellow Finch

2010-08-24T12:58:00.004-04:00

Richard Young

2010-08-15T07:22:00.004-04:00

The first boy I ever lied to my parents about is dead. That's how old we've become. And my mother has outlived him. That's how strange and fickle death is.

Death has to do with age to some extent, but death is also random and fingers the young before the old sometimes.

This is not to say I wanted my mother to die before my first real boyfriend - only that I would have wanted my first real boyfriend to have outlived my mother, which is different.

In a perfect world, my old boyfriend would still be alive, as would my mother. And whenever she died, he would have died 35 years later.

I am searching my imperfect memory for pictures and thoughts of those long ago days. I remember he had long hair - blonde, unruly and curly, curly, curly, and a ready made smile which lit the world. He was heavy set, but compared to me, Twiggy was heavyset, so that's probably not a true memory. He played bass guitar and sang in several different bands over the years I knew him and I would sit at the edge of the stage and revel in my "she's with the band" groupie-ism. We laid on top of his car back in 1969 and watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. He was tripping and he saw more than I did, but I had chills, anyhow. We went with a bunch of people to his parent's cottage in Michigan (that's where the lie to my parent's came into play) and everyone drank and smoked and partied until most of them threw the hell up. It was fun. It was especially fun because I didn't throw up and it was my very first "vacation" sans parents.

We held hands alot and swore undying love - and then, I forget why, we broke up and moved on. But we remained friends. I got pregnant by someone else and he stuck by my side when a lot of other, less open-minded friends did not. He still dragged me to band dates - I still sat on the edge of the stage, and scandalized the nuns and all the little Catholic girls because of my advanced state of unwed pregnancy. I gave birth and he met a new girl - she, too, became my friend. I believe that she, too, is dead now, although I do not know for sure. We lost touch sometime in the mid-eighties. They were divorcing and she was the victim of a little known genetic disease which had slowly robbed her of her ability to function physically and a demerol addiction which quickly robbed her of her ability to function mentally. The last I heard she was being placed in a nursing home and then silence from everyone.

I did not pursue news of either of them. I had my own angst at the time and it was easier to wait for a phone call which never came.

And then, a few days ago, thanks to Facebook, I thought I had found him. There was a friend of a friend of a friend on mine and they had a link to his old group, Fawn. I joined the Facebook Page, I wrote to the friend of the friend of the friend and asked for news.

And the news was neither expected nor was it good.

RY died 5 years ago, at the age of 54, of Hodgkins Lymphoma.

May he rest in peace and may he be walking on the moon, smiling that 1,000 watt smile down on us all.

One More Revision

2010-08-13T23:38:00.002-04:00

My Sister and I

We were the worst Girl Scouts. We did not sell
our cookies we just freely passed them out
to long-haired boys we barely knew and hell-
bound men on low-slung bikes who'd hang about
a day or two until their engines cooled;
until their fresh-inked dragons scabbed; until
our sainted mother dragged us home. She fooled
no one. She wanted us to cry; to spill
our guts; to crack like china; crumb like cake;
surrender unto Mom; to never cling
to strangers but to her; to cower; quake
on sheets still wet with Daddy's sweat; to sing
through tears that only she could make us shed.
She swore to Christ we'd bleed as she'd been bled.

NagsHead 2010 Slide Show

2010-08-13T18:04:00.001-04:00

Cleaning House

2010-08-13T10:04:00.003-04:00

Arghhhh....Half the poetry links on the sidebar here were no longer valid.

I'm old. I've outlived my internet poetry publications, apparently.

Anyhow, I've gotten rid of the deadwood and added a few new ones. Very few, however, since I've virtually stopped submitting poetry altogether.

It's such a small world - and an incestuous one at that.

Having spent the last few years involved in it to greater and lesser degrees I've found that I either don't agree with an editor's politics and therefore do not wish to be associated with his/her ezine or that I don't like them or they don't like me or their friends don't like me and so what's the point? Regardless of how an editor might strive to be impartial it's hard to believe that seeing a known name doesn't bias a person in one direction or another. I'm afraid to send to the editors who don't like me for fear they'll dismiss my poetry based on my name and I'm afraid to send to editors who DO like me for fear they'll accept my poetry because they don't want to hurt my feelings.

For awhile I was concentrating on anthologies but that soured quickly when I would get my "contributor's copy," (which a few times I had to PAY for) and found that I was disappointed in the quality of poetry provided within it's pages. Makes me think that I'm "that bad," too, and it creeps me out.

Don't get me wrong, I like being published, I just don't like the idea that somewhere someone is sitting there reading my poem which happens to be on the page opposite their poem and they're going, "Damn, she's bad. What the heck is she doing here?"

I've also reached the conclusion that no one reads poetry except other poets. Not that that's a bad thing, necessarily, it's just that I really wish it wasn't the only thing.

Besides, I'm in one of my black-Irish phases where I hate everyone.

What I'd like to do is never leave the house again.

Except to get White Castles.

And maybe Fudruckers.

If they only delivered life would be perfect.

What a Difference a Day Makes

2010-07-21T07:37:00.003-04:00

Things that change when the truth becomes known:

1) The NAACP retracts their original damning statement regarding Shirley Sherrod:

With regard to the initial media coverage of the resignation of USDA Official Shirley Sherrod, we have come to the conclusion we were snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias.

Having reviewed the full tape, spoken to Ms. Sherrod, and most importantly heard the testimony of the white farmers mentioned in this story, we now believe the organization that edited the documents did so with the intention of deceiving millions of Americans.

The fact is Ms. Sherrod did help the white farmers mentioned in her speech. They personally credit her with helping to save their family farm.

Moreover, this incident and the lesson it prompted occurred more that 20 years before she went to work for USDA.

Finally, she was sharing this account as part of a story of transformation and redemption.

The USDA, who stood firmly by their resignation request and acceptance is now saying, "Of course we'll review it."

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said early Wednesday that he will review the case of a former Agriculture Department official who resigned after a video clip surfaced of her discussing a white farmer.

"I am, of course, willing and will conduct a thorough review and consider additional facts to ensure to the American people we are providing services in a fair and equitable manner," Vilsack said in a statement.

Even Glenn Beck who was one of the first to shout "Off with her head," is now playing magician and magically erasing not only his involvement in spreading "the news" but also absolving Andrew Breitbart, FOXNews and all of it's assorted front men of any culpability by laying all of the blame firmly where he thinks it belongs - on The White House.

Glenn Beck devoted the first twenty minutes of this evening's Fox News program to attacking the Obama administration for their response to the release yesterday of heavily-edited clips a speech then-USDA official Shirley Sherrod gave. Beck savaged them for not waiting to see the full context of her comments before attacking her, saying that it appeared that she was discussing a "turning point," and said that she shouldn't have been fired.

But Beck -- while claiming that "Context matters" -- somehow manages to erase Andrew Breitbart and Fox News from the creation of that image.

All Beck says about Breitbart is that he's "trying to get the full video." In fact, it was Breitbart, without having that full video (the "context" that "matters") who originally posted the clip, claiming that it was "video evidence of racism" by Sherrod, and illustrating his post with an actual "race" card. Breitbart called her a racist without knowing the context of her statements, and has subsequently said that the context doesn't matter, that what he saw in the clip is sufficient to support his claims. Beck doesn't mention that -- in fact, he actively suggests the opposite is true, that Breitbart is engaging in responsible journalism.

Beck does not mention Fox's own horrendous coverage, which certainly did not wait for "context" before declaring Sherrod a racist. FoxNews.com's first report on Sherrod -- the first mainstream report on her speech -- gave no indication that her comment might have been taken out of context. It reported that Fox was "seeking a response from both the NAACP and the USDA," but not that they had attempted to find the full version of the tape or contact Sherrod herself. In the network's first coverage of the comments, Bill O'Reilly said they were "simply unacceptable" and called on Sherrod to "resign immediately." Newt Gingrich said that her comments indicated a "viciously racist attitude," Sean Hannity called them "racially charged," and the Fox and Friends co-hosts agreed they were "Exhibit A" of "what racism looks like."

Sue 'em all, Shirley, sue 'em all.

Shirley Sherrod Update #1

2010-07-20T13:44:00.003-04:00

More information coming forth:

The NAACP had the following statement issued by Ben Jealous on their website:

"Racism is about the abuse of power. Sherrod had it in her position at USDA. According to her remarks, she mistreated a white farmer in need of assistance because of his race."

"We are appalled by her actions, just as we are with abuses of power against farmers of color and female farmers."

That statement has now been removed - which is good since she didn't "abuse her power" in her "position at USDA," and if Mr. Jealous had not jumped the gun and done exactly as those manipulating the news wanted him to do, he would have realized that by the remark "right after Chapter 12 for farmers."

It looks as though everyone from the president on down might need to say they're sorry right along with Mr. Jealous.

Sherrod told CNN on Tuesday that she was told repeatedly to resign Monday afternoon after the clip surfaced.

"They harassed me," she said. "I got three calls from the White House. At one point they asked me to pull over to the side of the road and do it because you are going to be on Glenn Beck tonight."

Sherrod said the calls came from Cheryl Cook, USDA deputy undersecretary for rural development.

Sherrod is also saying that she and the white farmer she referred to in the video, Roger Spooner, became friends. Apparently this is so because Spooner's wife, Eloise, confirmed to CNN that she and her husband considered Sherrod friends.

"She helped us save our farm by getting in there and doing everything she could do," Eloise Spooner said. "They haven't treated her right."

Sherrod said she told the story to make the point that at the time she thought that white farmers had the advantages because of their race but she learned that was not the case.

"The point was to get them to understand that we need to look beyond race," Sherrod said.

There's more worth reading here, in The Washington Post.

CNN has also just announced that The NAACP has issued a statement saying they are now conducting an investigation into the matter - and after speaking to Shirley Sherrod, the farmer in question and after viewing the entire video they will issue another statement.

Which means they never even bothered to contact either of those people before publicly condemning Ms. Sherrod.

Nor did The White House apparently.

__________________

Shirley Sherrod Video Edited?

2010-07-20T07:11:00.003-04:00

I'm trying to find more information on this story but it's either not there or it's slow coming......

There's enough available, however, to mention here, especially since it doesn't seen to be being mentioned anyplace else.

We've all seen the FoxNews, Andrew Breitbart video of Shirley making her speech to the NAACP dated March 27th. We've all heard that she's resigned her position and her resignation has been accepted. We've all read that The NAACP has condemned her actions.

What we're not hearing much about is the fact that in the video Shirley states that this white farmer incident took place shortly after Chapter 12 was established for farmers. Chapter 12 for farmers was established in 1986. In 1986, Ms. Sherrod worked for The New Communities Black Farm Coop in Georgia - she was not employeed by the government in any way at that time. It also means that the white farmer in question came to a black organization for help - 24 years ago - in a different racial climate and a different time. It's not unreasonable to believe that the farmer in question was not associated with the black coop and thus not eligible for help from the coop which Shirley worked with.

What's more, in a telephone interview with Ms. Sherrod this morning, The Atlanta Journal Constitution is reporting that Ms. Sharrod told them the following:

Sherrod said what online viewers weren't told in reports posted throughout the day Monday was that the tale she told at the banquet happened 24 years ago -- before she got the USDA job -- when she worked with the Georgia field office for the Federation of Southern Cooperative/Land Assistance Fund.

Sherrod said the short video clip excluded the breadth of the story about how she eventually worked with the man over a two-year period to help ward off foreclosure of his farm, and how she eventually became friends with the farmer and his wife.

"And I went on to work with many more white farmers," she said. "The story helped me realize that race is not the issue, it's about the people who have and the people who don't. When I speak to groups, I try to speak about getting beyond the issue of race."

The AJC is trying to recover the full video footage of Sherrod's speech to the Douglas NAACP.

Stay tuned.

Flip That Room - By Joe

2010-07-11T18:49:00.012-04:00

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

Middle

After

Tilt-A-Whirl - Journal of Repeating Poetry

2010-07-01T10:06:00.002-04:00

New journal out today - brought to you courtesy of Kate Benedict, who's also the editor/publisher of Umbrella.

This one is called Tilt-A-Whirl and deals strictly in repeating-formal poetry.

And I is in the premiere issue with one of my all time wacky, twist-around-come-back-and-bite-you-in-the-ass favorite forms The Rodeau.

Already Read Used Books - Read More of Them

2010-05-30T17:38:00.004-04:00

Dan and I are truckin' on down to Nags Head again on Saturday for a much needed week of sun-soaking, sand sitting, gull feeding, crab watching and hoping to catch the occasional daybreak dolphin dancing in the surf.

And what do we do when we're not watching the sun rise over the Atlantic? Why, we read, of course. (HA!! Fooled ya, didn't I?)

Today we went on a trek to find a decent used bookstore since I read at the speed of lightening and it pains me to spend upwards of $10.00 or so for a paperback book that I'll blow through in a matter of a coupla hours.

And, much to my delight!!! It was a EUREKA moment. We found, courtesy of our beloved IPhone - a neat little nook called Already Read Used Books right here in Alexandria, just West of Old Town on Duke Street.

Very neat owners - friendly, helpful, down-to-earth and knowledgeable. Big bonus in Gwenievere - a fairly vocal, very pettable purple-nailed tailless biblio-cat whose sole purpose in life is to ease you through the check-out process.

If you're in the area, check it out. You won't be disappointed. They've got a large selection of just about everything you could possibly be interested in reading and the prices are modest. We got a big recycled bag full of books, enough for two speed-reading-type people spending a week at the beach, for less than $60.00.

Go!! Visit!! Buy!! That's an order.

Really.

K. Thx. Boi.

The Amazing Courage of Roy Benavidez

2010-05-28T14:49:00.006-04:00

Roy Benavidez

If you don't get a chance to read anything else this Memorial Day weekend - read about Roy - a first generation orphaned immigrant who dropped out of school in the 7th grade to become a migrant farmworker.

God Bless Military Personnel, keep them safe, and grant them the courage that very few of us will ever have.

Things I Have Been

2010-05-17T07:51:00.004-04:00

Daughter, Granddaughter, niece, cry-baby child, student, sister, Catholic, teenage runaway, grocery store clerk, babysitter, page at The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, bill collector, advertising agency secretary, homeless, disowned, unwed mother, welfare recipient, scared, frightened, alone, hospital laboratory clerk, wife of a heroin addict, battered woman, atheist, divorcee, aunt, waitress, cocktail waitress, bartender, bar manager, rape victim advocate, suicide hotline worker, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, used car salesperson, wife of an alcoholic, step-mother, bitch, mother of two, mother of three, home health hospice worker, agnostic, housecleaner, chronically ill, divorcee, medic, firefigher, ambulance driver, content, CPR instructor, EMS instructor, dead tired, homeowner, mother-in-law, published poet, published freelance writer, mourner, Washingtonian, grandmother of 1, medical secretary, wife of a good man, deist, great-aunt, POA and parental caregiver, grandmother of two, unemployed housewife, happy.

[edited to add] Mary wrote and told me I had forgottn to add "good friend." So - consider it added.

That's about it - but it's enough and I wouldn't change a thing of it. Accomplishments are sometimes made simply by living through it and the greatest accomplishment is looking back and smiling and knowing that you got where you got by getting there.

How Words Die and Take On New Meaning

2010-04-20T10:26:00.002-04:00

It's just a word - how much weight can it carry? Can a word's meaning change over the years? Like the word, "gay" for instance - it used to connote joy and wild abandon - like in the "Gay '90's." But now, 100 years later, it's meaning has changed entirely.

Or take "bad." Bad used to mean, well, it meant bad. Now it means, "good." Like saying, 'Man, Randy Moss was baddddd in last night's game," when, in fact, he scored 3 touchdowns.

"Christian" is another changing word. Used to be anyone who believed in Christ was happy to be defined as a "Christian." Now, not so much. It's been commandeered by the extremists - and other religions, such as Catholics, are shying away from using it as an identifier because they do not want to be identified with the fanatics who've claimed it as their own. It makes me feel very sorry for the few remaining real "Christians," - those who carry Christ in their heart and soul and practice doing the things He did in their every day life with joy and personal committment but without the fanfare and self-administered pats on the back we're beginning to distance ourselves from.

The more any one group of people use a word to define themselves the more that word becomes the new definition in the minds of those hearing it.

I have a feeling it is going to be so with the word "Patriot." More and more people are narrowing the definition of the word to suit their own personal needs or beliefs. More and more fringe groups, such as The White Patriot Party, the Tea Party, and numerous extremist militia groups are tossing the phrase around or incorporating it into their selling point as if it belonged to no one but them and anyone who disagrees with them or their views are suddenly "unpatriotic."

Given time, overuse and misuse of the word itself and it will become something to avoid for many people. It will have been co-opted by a few to the distaste of the many. People will still love their country but they will be too disgusted by the ever-narrowing "them or us" mentality of those who incessantly use the word for their own gain (Sarah Palin, The Tea Party and the Oath Keepers come to mind) to continue using it in any old and familiar sense of the word.

It is my personal prediction that the definition of the word "patriot" that we grew up with will become obsolete and come to mean something entirely different - probably within our lifetime - maybe within the next decade.

Gun Rally in Gravelly Park & Fort Hunt

2010-04-19T15:43:00.006-04:00

The rally in Va. today - the one in which people are carrying their loaded hand-guns and waving around their (supposedly) unloaded assault rifles, is being held in a National Park. (Gravelly Park.)

I've seen a few clips on the news so far - random interviews with the participants - and each of them, when questioned, say they are there to protest a possible repeal of The Second Amendment or they say that they are there because we are in grave danger of losing our rights to own/carry weapons under the current administration and they want to make people aware of that danger.

The rally organizer said he put this all together to protest the Democratic Congress's capitulation to a "totalitarian socialism" that tramples individual rights.

Washington Post

Here's the "you, moron" part:

This is the first year that they've been granted the freedom to assemble at all - thanks to President Obama signing into effect the recent law which permits the carrying of loaded or unloaded weapons into a National Park.

Guns allowed into Federal Parks

Does this really sound like a president they need to be afraid of and a congress which is "trampling the individual's right" or does it sound like a great opportunity to show off how well your internet-ordered green and black fatigue cammie's go with your new AK and, oh yeah, check out this shiny new black leather ankle-holster and my intimidating but classy bandoleer of magazines containing ammunition which I have artfully draped over my shoulder while you're at it?

The High Cost of Less Taxes and the Accompanying Loss of Freedom

2010-04-12T14:29:00.004-04:00

It seems very odd to me - like we have a whole nation, that wants to move backwards.....back to the "old days" which were not "the good old days" at all, but rather a time when life expectancy was low, health was poor and life was hard. Back when the average worker had no recourse if he were put at danger, if he were abused by his employers, if his situation was an unhealthy and unhappy one. A time when corporations called all the shots and no one monitored them or watched over them and they could do whatever they wanted, to whoever they wanted, whenever they wanted. A time when people had 12 and 14 children for two reasons - one being that there was no such thing as health insurance and so you had to produce many so at least a few would live. The second reason being that you needed them to live long enough to support you, their parents, because you sure as hell couldn't save enough and there sure the hell was no pension plan or social security to work for or to rely upon.

It was a time of very little "government interference," granted, but it was also a time when children routinely ate lead paint and got brain-damaged. A time when conditions in factories were horrendous and people routinely suffered life-threatening injuries - and were promptly fired without compensation when they did - and all because there was no mandatory insurance protecting them. A time when people went hungry, children of hard working fathers suffered rickets and malnutrition, gainfully employed men died from untreated pneumonia and undiagnosed ulcers, mothers of 10 children died giving birth to their 11th - and all because there was simply no money to pay the doctor and there was no employee-sponsored insurance plans. A time when, because there were no unions to speak for the common man and there were no government agencies making sure safety laws were passed and enforced, men and women worked 16 and 17 hour days, 7 days a week in the most hellish conditions and children under 12 were routinely hired at half the wage of an adult and made to do the same job as the adult would have done.

Is that what we want? All in the name of "freedom" and all in the name of "being mad as hell and not wanting to pay taxes" any longer?

Sometimes, the more laws we have, the more oversight and safety that's provided, the more free we become.

Those days of lower taxes and less government intervention - people weren't "free" then. They were slaves to making a dollar - that and only that. There wasn't much joy to go around, nor was there any "freedom." A person is not free when he worries constantly about a dangerous work place, an illness that he can't afford, a child he cannot feed, an old age he cannot support, a house full of lead paint and asbestos, two parents who are destitute and looking to him for sustenance.

All good things come at a cost - the cost is sometimes taxes. If we were to suddenly have all taxes repealed, as well as the loss of all those things that government provides us by virtue of our paying those taxes, how much better off do you think you'd be? How much richer? Does a few dollars a week more in your paycheck offset the cost of providing your own health insurance, the painfully higher cost of commercial products which do not contain things like lead and asbestos, your own retirement fund - without matching funds from your employer, your own workman's comp. insurance in case you get hurt in your suddenly way-more dangerous workplace, tuition for your children's schooling since the government will no longer be able to subsidize them, your own security since the police force will be full of under-qualified patrolmen because salaries will not longer be competitive, hauling your own trash to the dump - which will be full of radioactive junk and harmful materials, since the government will no longer regulate things like waste? The list could go on and on, but you get the point, I'm sure.

The Tea Party is telling us what they don't want....they don't want government interference. They are telling us what they do want - which is LESS TAXES. What they are not telling us is how we survive if and when they succeed.

They are telling us what they want to give to us - but not what it will cost us in the end - or what we will be giving up to get it.

How Revisions Work

2010-03-25T20:36:00.005-04:00

Poems are made to be tinkered with.....change a rhyme, fix a meter, adjust a thought. It's a boring process for the most part - except to the author, of course. To the poet it becomes a puzzle, a labor of love, almost. The search for perfection which never gets found.

It's hard to give it up sometimes - and it can be done to death.

This is where the poem posted a few days ago has ended up....there's not much changed, actually, but it's taken hours and hours of time and thought to do. No one will even notice, I suppose, except me. But I heard a neat thing last night and it made the agony that no one will notice worth it.

"Better to have no public and write for yourself than to write for others and have no self."

Anyhow - here's the revision: See if you can find the changes.

My Sister and I

We were the worst Girl Scouts. We did not sell
our cookies we just freely passed them out
to long-haired boys we barely knew and hell-
bound men on low-slung bikes who'd hang about
a day or two until their engines cooled;
until their fresh-inked dragons scabbed; until
our sainted mother dragged us home. She fooled
no one. She wanted us to cry; to spill
our guts; to crack like china; crumb like cake;
surrender unto Mom; to never cling
to strangers but to her; to cower; quake
on sheets still wet with Daddy's sweat; to sing
through tears that only she could make us shed.
She swore to God we'd bleed as she'd been bled.

My Sister and I

2010-03-22T16:10:00.002-04:00

My Sister and I

We were not good girl scouts. We did not sell
our cookies. Instead, we gave them away -
to long haired drummer boys in bands and hell-
bound men on low-slung bikes who'd let us stay
a day or two until their engine's cooled,
until the new ink tattoos crusted and
a worried mother dragged us home. She fooled
them all. She wanted us to cry; to bend;
to break; to fold like butter; crumb like cake;
surrender onto Mom; to never cling
to strangers but to her; to sleep and wake
on sheets still wet with Daddy's sweat and sing
through tears that she alone had made us shed.
Her daughters had to bleed as she'd been bled.

295.34

2010-03-10T10:57:00.005-05:00

295.34

I hear his voice inside my head.
I count the dried stains on the bed.
The sounds and stains begin to blend.
I'm drugged, unable to defend
or to repeat the things he's said.

My walls are white, his whisper's red.
There's blood to spill and flesh to shred,
grave rituals we must attend.
His is the voice

that no man hears but all men dread.
Eventually the sound will spread.
He keeps insisting I depend
on him alone, my only friend.
He leads; I follow; needle; thread.
I heed his voice.

Beginning Snowmageddon

2010-02-08T16:21:00.006-05:00

02/06/10

Snowmageddon DC

2010-02-08T16:17:00.009-05:00

2/8/10

2010-02-01T15:17:00.001-05:00

Yikes!! I have joined the ranks of the unemployed. Voluntarily, no less.

Snowfall n DC

2009-12-19T17:56:00.003-05:00

Veteran's Day 2009

2009-11-11T07:00:00.001-05:00

Arlington National Cemetery
Section 60

A lone house-key, a melting Twix,
two Miller Lites, a crucifix.
A fifth of rum, a pack of Kools,
report cards from Chicago schools.

Four hard-backed books, a tear-stained poem,
a cell phone programmed to call home.
Three dozen letters never read,
a pillow from a double bed.

A Barbie doll, three Lego cars,
Nine lightning bugs in Mason Jars.
Six polished stones, a strand of beads,
a planter filled with apple seeds.

Two coffee cups that catch the rain,
three baseball caps, a plastic train.
Eight birthday cards, a catcher's mitt,
a sweater someone's mother knit.

Four thousand pictures creased and torn.
One wedding veil that won't be worn.

Don't Ask

2009-09-25T15:17:00.003-04:00

What started out last Friday as a much anticipated 4 day weekend in The Outer Banks of North Carolina ended up an 18 hour drive and a 2 day stay in Indiana.

Don't ask.

Who's Calling Who What?

2009-09-16T21:15:00.005-04:00

Mike raised an interesting point in an earlier thread that I'd like to take a quick minute to address.

He asked me how I, as a "typical liberal" (although how he thinks he knows me well enough to know what I am is a little puzzing) asked how it felt being called a Nazi for expressing an opinion. He then correlated his (not really) calling me a Nazi with how the Obama-adoring media like to characterize peaceful citizens with concerns as Nazis and hate mongers.

I Figure I could go on and on in response but since a picture's worth a thousand words I'd save my tired fingers about 10 thousand key strokes:

Seen at Town Hall Protests:

I could go on and on about who's calling who what - but well, you get the picture.

Joe (Cry-Liar) Wilson - Lies!!!

2009-09-16T21:06:00.004-04:00

At last Thursday's press conference Joe Wilson said the following:

We need to be discussing issues specifically to help the American people. And that would not include illegal aliens, these are people-- I'm for immigration, legal immigration, I've been an immigration attorney. But people who have come to our country and violated laws, we should not be providing full health care services.

According to his web site, however, Joe's a real estate attorney by trade, who helped found the West Columbia law firm Kirkland, Wilson, Moore, Taylor & Thomas, before entering Congress in 2001. He also has served as a Staff Judge Advocate with the South Carolina Army National Guard.

A lawyer familiar with Joe said the following: "Joe has never been anything but a real-estate attorney."

In fact, no one familiar with The South Carolina Bar Association has any knowledge of Joe ever having worked as an immigration attorney.

What's more, according to an extensive search of the American Immigration Lawyer's Association membership database, no one from South Carolina by the name Joe Wilson or Addison Wilson has ever been a member.

Go figure!!

Third Time's The Charm?

2009-09-10T18:35:00.000-04:00

Fragility
2nd Rewrite

Fragility's the curse of age:
weak stick-like arms, quick flashing rage,
slow shuffling feet, lethargic brain.
Beloved pleasures become strain:
to read each word, to turn each page.

You leave your room to find the cage
confining you is safety's gauge.
Frail spinal bones rasp one refrain,
"Fragility."

The hands won't grasp, nor fists engage.
You're battling the seventh stage
with parchment skin atop gnarled vein
while jars and tight lids mock your pain
until there's nothing to assuage
fragility.

Fragility -Version 2

2009-09-08T20:58:00.006-04:00

Fragility - V2

Fragility's the curse of age;
fine-tremored hands, impendent rage,
slow shuffling feet, lethargic brain.
Beloved pleasures become strain;
to read each word, to turn each page.

You leave your room to find the cage
that once confined is safety's gauge.
Decaying bones grate one refrain,
"Fragility."

The legs can't kick, nor fists engage,
you're pushing back the seventh stage
with parchment covered gnarled vein.
Dropped pills, steep bathtubs mock your pain.
Your memories alone assuage
fragility.

Fragility

2009-09-08T17:26:00.002-04:00

Fragility

Fragility's the curse of age -
unsteady hands that shake with rage,
slow moving feet, decaying brain
Simple pleasures are a strain -
to read fine print, to turn the page.

You leave the house to find the cage
that once confined is safety's gauge.
Old bones rattle one refrain,
"Fragility."

The arms cant lift, nor mind engage,
you're staring down the seventh stage
with parchment skin and gnarled vein.
Bedroom mirrors mock your pain.
There's nothing left that can assuage
fragility.

Euthanized On the Bridge to Nowhere

2009-08-14T13:23:00.002-04:00

Sarah Palin on April 16, 2008

WHEREAS, one of the principal goals of Healthcare Decisions Day is to encourage hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, continuing care retirement communities, and hospices to participate in a statewide effort to provide clear and consistent information to the public about advance directives, as well as to encourage medical professionals and lawyers to volunteer their time and efforts to improve public knowledge and increase the number of Alaska’s citizens with advance directives.

WHEREAS, the Foundation for End of Life Care in Juneau, Alaska, and other organizations throughout the United States have endorsed this event and are committed to educating the public about the importance of discussing healthcare choices and executing advance directives.

WHEREAS, as a result of April 16, 2008, being recognized as Healthcare Decisions Day in Alaska, more citizens will have conversations about their healthcare decisions; more citizens will execute advance directives to make their wishes known; and fewer families and healthcare providers will have to struggle with making difficult healthcare decisions in the absence of guidance from the patient.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Sarah Palin, Governor of the state of Alaska, do hereby proclaim April 16, 2008, as:

Healthcare Decisions Day in Alaska, and I call this observance to the attention of all our citizens.

Sarah Palin on August 14, 2009

Gotcha!! That's not what I meant at all!!

Last year, I issued a proclamation for “Healthcare Decisions Day.” [6] The proclamation sought to increase the public’s knowledge about creating living wills and establishing powers of attorney. There was no incentive to choose one option over another. There was certainly no financial incentive for physicians to push anything. In fact, the proclamation explicitly called on medical professionals and lawyers “to volunteer their time and efforts” to provide information to the public.

Comparing the “Healthcare Decisions Day” proclamation to Section 1233 of HR 3200 is ridiculous. The two are like apples and oranges. The attempt to link the two shows how desperate the proponents of nationalized health care are to shift the debate away from the disturbing details of their bill.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=116979483434&ref=nf

Does she even know what she means? Does anyone?

Christian Claim #3 - Parents Will Be Prosecuted for Not Seeking Health Care

2009-08-13T12:53:00.004-04:00

I've been dying to get to this one.

Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt said the following:

Can a government-run hospital still allow Christian chapels, or pay Christian chaplains, or permit Christian doctors to pray Christian prayers with their willing patients, or even allow Christian parents to control the health care options forced upon their dying children?
Ask Pentecostal Ministers Dale and Leilani Neumann, who were charged with second-degree murder of their 11-year-old daughter, because they refused to trust the power of a government hospital to heal their little girl who tragically died with diabetes.

Dale and Leilani Neumann are already in deep shit. So deep, in fact, that they've already been found guilty of second-degree reckless homicide and are awaiting sentencing in October.

The truth is, Dale and Leilani didn't just "refuse to trust the power of a government hospital to heal their little girl." They refused to trust anyone at all. Little Kara died at age 11 from ketoacidosis - a common (and entirely treatable) consequence of untreated diabetes. She had last seen a doctor at the age of 3.

Dale and Leilani wanted to pray her well. They sat there and prayed while their daughter died a death that was easily preventable. Even when she quit breathing they didn't call the ambulance or a doctor. A friend of the family who was present called them. An aunt who lived in California, hundreds of miles away from Wisconsin called them. But mom and dad - mom and dad didn't call them. They knew Kara was sick - they knew she was very sick - they had sent an urgent text message days before her death asking for prayers, they asked friends to come over and pray with them. They were told by still other friends to seek medical assistance in the days preceeding their daughter's death. But no, they didn't call them. Not before she died, not while she was dying and not after she died. Instead, they prayed.

Those parents didn't fear a "government run" hospital - they simply didn't believe in medicine at all. Not Government medicine, not Jewish medicine, not Christian medicine, not ancient Indian tribal medicine - they believed in the power of prayer and it failed them.

And so, if we accept that prayer failed them, we must also accept that they failed their daughter. A tragedy all the way around - but light-years away from having anything at all to do with the currently proposed health bill.

Would they be held accountable under the new health plan? Maybe so. But what would be different about that? They're being held accountable now. A jury of their peers decided they were guilty of second degree reckless homicide. I doubt they'd be any more or less guilty regardless of what health plan is covering the nation.

One other little "exaggeration" I'd like to address: Chaplain Klingenschmitt states that both parents are Pentacostal ministers - they're not. Dale studied to become one but what he actually did was run Monkey Mo's Coffee Shop and hold bible studies in his home. He and his wife are followers of an online ministry called Unleavened Bread Ministry.

Small point but one that pits hyperbole and wishful thinking against truthfulness.

Score one for wishful thinking and hyperbole.

The truth is - The Neumans are not Pentacostal ministers and the government's not trying to take over your children. The government's trying to keep your children alive.

The proposed health care bill is not trying to take over your children - it's trying to assure that your children, my children, all God's children have access to health care when needed and/or desired.

It's sad that Kara died - but Kara would have died regardless of her health care options. Kara's parents weren't agonizing over which health care plan to choose. She didn't die because the only option available was a federally funded and managed care system that her parents didn't trust. Kara died not because her parents didn't trust government run hospitals - she died because her parents didn't believe in medicine at all. They believed that prayer, and only prayer, cures and conquers all.

A national health care plan has nothing to do with it and it's a cheap shot as well as an outright lie to claim that it was fear of government which caused Kara's death or that will continue to cause still more needless deaths of our children.

Kara died. The government didn't cause it. Fear of the goverment didn't cause it.

Diabetes caused it. Ketoacidosis caused it. Her parent's refusal to intelligently acknowledge the severity of her illness, to accept the limitations of prayer, to get their heads out of their asses and take the child to a doctor or a hospital where they could continue to pray while Kara's disease was being medically managed and treated as it deserved to be treated caused it.

Obama's plan can't save the Kara's of the world - but it can save hundreds of thousands of other children whose parents do recognize the severity of their children's illnesses and who, if only they had insurance, would not only be morally and mentally willing but would also finally be financially able to seek the assistance of the medical professionals who can save them.

The Lord works in mysterious ways - perhaps medicine in one of them.

Guess Whose Premuims Are Already Paying for Abortions?

2009-08-12T20:20:00.003-04:00

Lie #

2) Tax-payer funded ABORTION on demand is another guaranteed result.

From Rep. Chris Smith on The Capps Amendment:

"It's one of the most deceptive amendments I have ever seen. The bottom line is that money is fungible, and the plan itself will be subsidizing abortion-on-demand, with taxpayer funding commingled, and the numbers of abortions will go up significantly."

From PolitiFact:

First, we checked a claim by Rep. John Boehner that the plan would require Americans to "subsidize abortion with their hard-earned tax dollars." While there are several versions of the health care plan floating around Congress, and it seems that full abortion coverage would be permitted in the government-sponsored program, we didn't see anything in them that would put taxpayers on the hook for subsidizing abortions. In fact, we found an amendment in a key version of the House plan that specifically seeks to ensure that federal funds are not used to subsidize abortion coverage. And so we ruled that claim False

Side note to those who are concerned and morally outraged that somehow "your" premiums will end up paying for someone else's abortion.

If you are one of those worried about this happening, and you also happen to have health insurance from a private insurer - guess what? You've probably been paying for it all along. Most private carriers already cover all or part of the cost of elective abortions for those customers who elect to have one. And guess what else? They're already using your premiums.

Laws differ state to state and insurance plans vary - but since the majority of them DO cover elective abortions, as well as birth control pills and the "morning after pill" you're already contributing.

The only way you AREN'T contributing is if you're in a federal or state funded insurance plan since the government, state and federal do NOT routinely cover elective abortions.

Opps.

Explanation of benefits from The Philadelphia Woman's Center: ( Be advised that you're encouraged to look up your own state at your leisure - or you can just trust me and save yourself some time by realizing most states are pretty much the same)

Those patients wishing to use insurance will need to provide all necessary insurance information prior to the scheduled abortion, and will usually be responsible for a co-pay or deductible. Philadelphia Women’s Center accepts the following insurance carriers:

Aetna/US Healthcare
Keystone Health Plan East
Personal Choice
Blue Cross/Blue Shield
Amerihealth
Healthnet
United
Cigna

These carriers are all private insurance plans, usually obtained through an employer. Most plans will cover elective abortion, but not all – patients are encouraged to contact their member services department for more information.

Medicaid (health insurance provided by the State for low-income individuals) in Pennsylvania will generally not cover the cost of an abortion.

In other words, that thing you're worried about happening? It's already happening. It's been happening - and you're part of it.

Now if you happen to be a member of one of those very satisfied families that's covered by one of the private health insurer listed above you can drop your health insurance in morally outraged protest.

I hope no one in your family's been sick in the last 4 or 5 years, tho.

And good luck finding new coverage if you have.

Come for the Teaser - Stay for the Truth!!

2009-08-12T17:52:00.004-04:00

Since I'm getting hits from people looking for Chaplin Gordon James Klingenschmitt's little manifesto I thought it only fair to tear his little talking points apart one by one.

I mean, why not? If you're interested in the truth someone might as well be willing to break it down into common-speak for you and hope you're willing to read the truth and at least consider it.

Who knows? Maybe you'll even be moved enough to research on your own in an attempt to prove me wrong.

I'll welcome the attempt. Maybe we'll all learn something.

1) EUTHANASIA is the first result of Obama's socialist government "health" care plan.

False. Not only is it not the first result - it won't even be the last one. It won't be a result at all. Whatever sinister plan you're looking for - look elsewhere. The wording in question refers to a patient's ability to request (I repeat request) if HE/SHE SO DESIRES to make such a request for a consultation regarding the patient's OWN wishes for his/her end of life care.

I gotta tell you - this has been available for a long time now. It was available years ago when I first started working in The Emergency Room. It's called "having a living will" and it protects the patient more than any other single document in the world does. It is up to the PATIENT, not the insurance company, not the doctor, not the hospital and certainly not the government to decide what, if any, measures he/she would want taken if his/her life was seriously threatened by illness or injury. The bad thing is - if it's not written down and witnessed, it's not possible for any of those people to honor it.

The only thing the new health bill would have to with this whole process would be to exlain your options in language you can easily understand and to pay for it. BUT YOU ONLY GET IT IF YOU REQUEST IT. If the patient doesn't request it, it doesn't happen. There is absolutely nothing in the current bill which mandates this admittedly delicate but utmostly important consultation. Nothing, I repeat, NOTHING says you have to take advantage of it.

Personally, from what I've seen of serious illness and grave accidents (and I've seen a lot of both - much more than most people have seen,) anyone who doesn't take advantage of the offer is either a fool or insane.

Making an Advance Directive is just plain common sense - and kindness. It absolves your family from making agonizing decisions regarding your care should you become unable to make your own wishes known plus it prevents the doctors and medical staff from doing anything you, yourself, have not already decided you would want done in advance.

Plus (here's the good part) it WORKS BOTH WAYS!!! People get hysterical easy, apparently, and they've all decided that the only thing an Advance Directive or a Living Will is good for is choosing the death option. WRONG!! It's as much about life as it is death. If you say "I wish for all possible resources to be used to extend my life" then by golly, that's what the doctor's will do - everything. Your family can't override it, the doctor can't override it, the insurance company can't override it and the government can't override it.

On the other hand, if you DON'T have a living will or an advance directive (like, say, Terry Schiavo didn't have one) then, and only then, will your family and/or maybe your doctor and/or the local courts, and/or the State Supreme Court and/or The US Supreme Court be forced into making that decision for you.

In other words, regardless of what you want done - be it a peaceful death without machinery or a full out fight to the finish - if YOU want to make that decision and spare the rest of the world from getting involved then this little "write in" co-written and co-sponsored by two Republicans, House Rep.Charles Boustany (R-La.), a physician, and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) which is currently causing so much false alarum and being bandied about like so much Nazi-ism is exactly what you need and want.

It's a good thing even now (thanks in no small part to President Bush who, in 2003, had the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality issue a 20-page report outlining a five-part process for physicians to discuss end-of-life care with their patients with nary a whisper about euthanasia or "death panels") when the options have to be figured out alone or, if you're lucky, with a kindly doctor or nurse who's willing to explain it all to you without benefit of payment.

It's an even better thing when your insurance is going to have to pay for the professional to explain those options to you.

And that, in a truthful nutshell, is what all this needless hysteria stems from.

How sad for everyone out there who either wants to hold onto life with a vengence for as long as possible as well as for those who wish nothing more than to be allowed to die with dignity.

Yet another disgusting "Catholic" website

2009-08-12T11:09:00.002-04:00

Garbage In, Garbage Out.

Amended to add: It took awhile but my comment and Julie's comment did get approval and show up on the web site.

A tip of the hat and a thank you for publishing opposing views to The Hermitage.

Letter From Catholic Online.Org - and Response

2009-08-11T13:41:00.002-04:00

I've not been this ticked off in a long time.

This is the email and accompanying petition being sent by Catholic Online:

Grandmas and Unborn Babies Face Extermination by Obama's "Health" Care Plan

Investors Business Daily has just exposed the Achilles' heel of Obamacare, that hostile, socialist government takeover of your hospital, doctors, children, and grandparents. In an editorial entitled, "How House Bill Runs Over Grandma," the editors report how President Obama was personally confronted by a North Carolina woman asking if "everyone that's Medicare age will be visited and told they have to decide how they wish to die."

In response Obama joked that he hadn't yet hired enough bureaucrats to conduct such an operation, yet he could not deny the New York Post's discovery the House bill "compels seniors to submit to a counseling session every five years (and more often if they become sick or go into a nursing home) about alternatives for end-of-life care" (pages 425-430). In other words, your grandmother will be told, when insufficient resources are rationed to young people, that her duty to die begins with mandatory "end-of-life counseling," or as Obama explained, "encourage the use of living wills" that terminate otherwise salvageable lives prematurely through signed "do not resuscitate" (DNR) legal releases.

1) EUTHANASIA is the first result of Obama's socialist government "health" care plan.

Bankrupt state can't afford to pay for grandma's hip replacement? Obama's plan sends her a lawyer to make her sign a DNR, explaining her hastened duty to die, and obtaining her signature legally absolving him of all guilt. Euthanasia begins where capitalism ends.

SELECT HERE TO SIGN PETITION, AND WE WILL FAX ALL 52 "BLUE-DOG" DEMOCRATS IN THE HOUSE, AND ALL 100 SENATORS, TO OPPOSE OBAMACARE.

Widely respected Minister Rick Joyner wrote this week, after reviewing Mat Staver's analysis of H.R. 3200 "Health" care bill, voicing his strong opinion that this bill "is about euthanasia, the power to determine who lives or dies in America. Hitler and Stalin would have loved to have had a means such as this for dispatching the millions they killed—it would have made their job much easier, and probably given them the ability to kill many more than they did. THIS BILL IS THAT SINISTER. This is not a joke." You can read Mat Staver's line-by-line analysis of the 1000 page health care bill at the bottom of this email.

2) Tax-payer funded ABORTION on demand is another guaranteed result.

Last week several so-called "pro-life Democrats" executed a bait and switch that will fully fund abortion on demand in the new Obamacare "health" bill. Led by compromiser and ex-pro-life Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH), who was recently booted as an advisor to Democrats for Life of America for his lack of principle, the liberal House Democrats overruled conservative Republicans 30-28 to pass the hideous "Capps Amendment" to H.R.3200 in the Energy and Commerce Committee. This amendment now deceptively creates a phony accounting scheme that gives the false impression your tax-payer dollars will not subsidize abortion, while it simultaneously nationalizes free abortions for low-income urban neighborhoods, fulfilling the dream of Margaret Sanger (and her protege Ruth Bader Ginsburg) that African American babies will be the first exterminated in the government funded ovens that weed out "Populations that we don't want to have too many of."

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) explained the Capps Amendment: "It's one of the most deceptive amendments I have ever seen. The bottom line is that money is fungible, and the plan itself will be subsidizing abortion-on-demand, with taxpayer funding commingled, and the numbers of abortions will go up significantly."

SELECT HERE TO SIGN PETITION, AND WE WILL FAX ALL 52 "BLUE-DOG" DEMOCRATS IN THE HOUSE, AND ALL 100 SENATORS, TO OPPOSE OBAMACARE.

3) Obama will REMOVE Christian prayers and symbols from Government-run hospitals

The hostile socialist government takeover of Catholic or Christian hospitals will eventually result in atheistic silencing of religious expression (and removing all Christian symbols) from the very place where faith in God is critical to sick and dying patients. For example, look at the Veterans Hospitals, already government-run, who are busy removing crosses and Christian symbols from their chapels (like in Iowa), because easily-offended atheist complainers have successfully intimidated hospital administrators with threats of lawsuit, by demanding separation of church and state. Just imagine more atheist lawsuits, when all Catholic and Christian hospitals are seized in the same way Obama took control of General Motors, inviting easily-offended atheist complainers to demand we change the name of the hospital from "St. Luke's Memorial" to the "Obama Government" hospital, falsely claiming tax-dollars cannot subsidize religion. But if St. Luke's refuses government subsidies, they will be drummed out of business, and Christian doctors' licenses revoked.

Can a government-run hospital still allow Christian chapels, or pay Christian chaplains, or permit Christian doctors to pray Christian prayers with their willing patients, or even allow Christian parents to control the health care options forced upon their dying children? Just ask Florida Hospital Chaplain Danny Harvey, fired last year from Leesburg Regional Medical Center because he prayed "in Jesus name" at a public memorial service. Ask Christian Pharmacists who Washington has already forced to dispense "Plan-B" abortion pills against their conscience, or doctors denied a "conscience clause" to opt out of abortions when Obama refused to renew Bush's pro-life executive orders. Ask Nurse Catherina Lorena Cenzon-DeCarlo, who recently was forced to participate in a second-trimester abortion against her will, and is now suing Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan for “blatantly” violating her rights under a 35 year old federal law that protects health care workers with religious objections from being forced to assist in murderous abortions. Ask Pentecostal Ministers Dale and Leilani Neumann, who were charged with second-degree murder of their 11-year-old daughter, because they refused to trust the power of a government hospital to heal their little girl who tragically died with diabetes. Can you say mandatory godlessness in "health" care? If government has power to dictate your health care options, they also have power to seize your children when you refuse. Think about it. Will you dare refuse the H1N1 vaccine when ordered to poison your children? No religious exemptions for doctors, patients, or parents are readily apparent in the current Obamacare bill. So take action with me...
SELECT HERE TO SIGN PETITION, AND WE WILL FAX ALL 52 "BLUE-DOG" DEMOCRATS IN THE HOUSE, AND ALL 100 SENATORS, TO OPPOSE OBAMACARE.

4) Homosexuals free $50,000 tax-funded sex-change surgery not excluded by Democrats.

My friend Matt Barber with Liberty Counsel made phone calls to several Congressional staffers, and Democrats from the offices of Sen. Harry Reid, Rep. Charlie Rangel, Rep. Barney Frank and the House Subcommittee on Health all refused to give, very simply, ‘an assurance that the proposed health care plan will not allow taxpayer funded gender reassignment surgeries or hormone therapies.’ Instead, they affirmed page 972 of the House version of the bill (H.R. 3200) which provides for “standards, as appropriate, for the collection of accurate data on health and health care” based on “sex, sexual orientation [and] gender identity.” The Senate draft likewise requires the Department of Health and Human Services to "develop standards for the measurement of gender." (i.e., officially recognize subjectively self-determined "transgender" or "transsexual" gender identities). It further mandates "participation in the institutions’ programs of individuals and groups from…different genders and sexual orientations." Democrats want more than 2 genders included the bill. In your townhall meetings, ask them how many? Forgive me, but I was raised on a farm, and there was one simple test for "measuring the gender" of mammals. They're either male or female. Just look.

The bottom line? Your tax-dollars will pay for preferential hiring of homosexual hospital administrators, who distribute $50,000 grants to gender-confused activists for unneeded elective surgery to mutilate their own genitals, (and force Christian doctors to perform it.) And nobody has yet offered an amendment that excludes this. Let's get started, by asking your Congressman in your town hall meetings this week, "Will you sponsor an amendment that excludes elective sex-change operations from tax-payer funding?" Some media complain conservatives hire thugs to challenge Congress with tough questions, but we don't. So please just read the bill summary far below, get informed, and show up to speak Truth at town hall. Meanwhile I will do more research for you myself.

So let me summarize Obama's health care plan: 1) Euthenizes grandma, 2) Mandates funding murder of innocent children, 3) Empowers atheist litigants to outlaw the healing power of the Christian faith, 4) Refuses to exclude funding sex-change operations.

SELECT HERE TO SIGN PETITION, AND WE WILL FAX ALL 52 "BLUE-DOG" DEMOCRATS IN THE HOUSE, AND ALL 100 SENATORS, TO OPPOSE OBAMACARE.

We all gasped when the federal government seized control of General Motors, and Obama effectively fired the Chairman and replaced the board with government bureaucrats selected by Treasury Secretary Geithner. Now Obama and his liberal Democratic House allies want to replace your doctors with bureaucrats, hasten grandma's demise, abort and kill children in urban neighborhoods, cut doctors' pay and control their religion, and transform Christian hospitals into government-controlled atheist bureaucracies. Does any of this remind you of Communism? I won't stand idly by to allow this. I will fax Congress to say, "no to Obamacare." Will you? Please sign our petition and I'll send your faxes now. Then please forward this email to all your friends who care about our beloved country, especially those senior citizens who may be at greatest risk.

God Bless you, in Jesus' name,

Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt

P.S. Time is urgent! When the House and Senate return from summer vacation their first priority is to send Obama this dangerous "health" care bill. Please don't delay, but sign our petition today!

---------------------------------------------

This was my response:

This is not the first time in my life I've been ashamed to have been raised Catholic but it is, without a doubt, one of the most memorable.

Such lies The Church is propagating and spreading. Such fear mongering and such hate-inducing literature it's sending around in the name of God and the church. Your email and your petitions are nothing but half-truths, untruths and bold faced lies so blatantly false and vile as to take the breath away from any person who's reached the age of reason and who possess even a moderate degree of intelligence and a half-decent grasp of the bible and Christ's teachings.

Do you not think that God looks down and reads occasionally? I don't care how much you disagree with the proposed health care plan or how much you petition against it's passing - but if you can't do it truthfully then maybe you shouldn't be doing it at all - and certainly not in His Name. Last I heard the bible never once said that the end justified the means.

The very fact that you choose to scare senior citizens most of all speaks volumes - not about them but about you - and your opinion of their intelligence and their own God-given ability to tell the truth from the untruth, the rational from the irrational.

Not only have you insulted them, you have lost sight of faith - and hope - and charity as ways of serving humanity and instead are crudely and dishonestly attempting to manipulate them using the devil's own tools - fear and horror and mistrust - and all of it built not on truth but on lies.

You need to ask yourself - would Mother Terese, would Pope John Paul, would Jesus Himself have used these tactics? Ever? As a means to any end at all?

Even if I give you the benefit of the doubt and try to believe your motives are pure and your intentions are good I cannot find a precedent (or a biblical precedent for forgiveness) for the way you've resorted to starting and perpetrating bald-faced lies and for the positively sinful resort to fear mongering.

People sign up for your mailing list expecting to find comfort and faith and hope.

How do you manage to justify your humanity, let alone your Christianity, knowing that what you've fed them instead is bleakness and fear and mistrust?

Sincerely yours,

Laura Heidy-Halberstein

Insignificant

2009-08-02T11:21:00.001-04:00

Insignificant
Originally uploaded by Laura Heidy Halberstein

Mine, Mine, Mine

2009-08-02T11:20:00.003-04:00

Mine, Mine, Mine
Originally uploaded by Laura Heidy Halberstein

Reflections at Nags Head

2009-08-02T11:20:00.001-04:00

Reflections at Nags Head
Originally uploaded by Laura Heidy Halberstein

Reflections in the sand

2009-08-02T11:19:00.003-04:00

Reflections in the sand
Originally uploaded by Laura Heidy Halberstein

Beach at Nags Head

2009-08-02T11:19:00.001-04:00

Beach at Nags Head
Originally uploaded by Laura Heidy Halberstein

Sunrise at Nags Head

2009-08-02T11:18:00.001-04:00

Sunrise at Nags Head
Originally uploaded by Laura Heidy Halberstein

Nags Head Morning

2009-08-02T11:17:00.001-04:00

Nags Head Morning
Originally uploaded by Laura Heidy Halberstein

Nags Head, North Carolina

2009-08-02T08:57:00.002-04:00

What can I say? I want to live here. Forever.

Nags Head

Still more WC

2009-06-11T18:10:00.003-04:00

More WC

2009-06-11T18:00:00.004-04:00

West Chester 2009

2009-06-11T17:49:00.002-04:00

Thanks, Patti!!

Memorial Day 2009 - Section 60 - Arlington National Cemetery

2009-05-25T11:07:00.008-04:00

Arlington National Cemetery
Section 60

A lone house-key, a melting Twix,
two Miller Lites, a crucifix.
A fifth of rum, a pack of Kools,
report cards from far distant schools.

Four hard-backed books, a tear-stained poem,
a cell phone programmed to call home.
Three dozen letters never read,
a pillow from a double bed.

A Barbie doll, three Lego cars,
Nine lightning bugs in Mason Jars.
Six polished stones, a strand of beads,
a planter filled with apple seeds.

Two coffee cups that catch the rain,
three baseball caps, a plastic train.
Eight birthday cards, a catcher's mitt,
a sweater someone's mother knit.

A thousand pictures creased and torn.
One wedding veil that won't be worn.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/05/23/section.60.cemetery/index.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Look!! In the Sky!! It's a Bird! It's a Plane!! It's Insanity Come to Claim Me!!

2009-05-24T16:55:00.004-04:00

Ok - I have officially joined the rank of Loonies. Not intentionally, mind you, and I am still convinced that eventually I will come up with some reasonable rational reason which will explain what I think I saw this afternoon.

Eventually.

I washed the bedroom windows last night so about 45 minutes ago I was lying in bed simply staring out the windows and enjoying the view. I suddenly realized I was tracking this thing in the sky - at first I thought it was a balloon - one of those large helium ones which sometimes escapes a child's backyard party....but then I realized it was considerably larger and traveling much too independently of any wind current to be a simple balloon. Simultaneously with that thought, a helicopter appeared and my mystery object abruptly quit floating and bobbing and weaving aimlessly and suddenly sped up and adjusted it's height to pass over the helicopter and quickly went out of sight immediately after the helicopter passed under it.

The helicopter stuck around for nearly half an hour....just repeatedly circling the area north of me and then it, too, finally took off - but in the opposite direction of where I last saw the object.

I'm laughing but I'm not laughing. I tried to get Dan to look but he was not quick enough and he will only admit to seeing "something." Balloons do not fly high enough to pass over a helicopter - do they?

It wasn't like the helicopter was flying low, either, because it wasn't. And I'm on the 15th floor and this thing was flying (although flying doesn't feel like the right word - flying takes wings and it had no wings) quite a bit higher than eye level with the 15th floor.

And no, I am not high at all.

You Walk

2009-05-18T10:46:00.003-04:00

You Walk

You walk. The floor beneath your feet
magnifies each groan and creak
yet fails to drown the droning in
your head. How often did you win?
Or better still, accept defeat?

It's memory - it's bittersweet.
It's half forgotten, incomplete.
It's left-behind abandoned sin
you walk the floor

remembering. You're feeling weak -
replaying deaths you failed to cheat.
Recall the sirens and the din
and feel the sweat against your skin.
No longer do you ride the street.
You walk the floor.

Cats Cats and More Cats

2009-05-12T16:33:00.005-04:00

Blushing

2009-04-18T22:17:00.003-04:00

For once it's not a poem BY me, but OF me!! How's that for finally "making it?"

Thanks, Mary - how very cool of you.

When the Boat Comes

Just Hangin' Around

2009-04-09T21:04:00.001-04:00

POEM REMOVED

2009-04-02T14:22:00.005-04:00

Opps - Too late. You snooze, you lose.

Leaving Town

2009-03-14T06:30:00.002-04:00

It's been sporadic around here - and it's going to get even more so.

I am outa here for a few weeks beginning today. I'll be back in Indiana without computer access.

When parents get old it gets hard to know what's best for them. Being a thousand miles away doesn't make for good decisions, hence the trip home to see what can or should be done.

What should be done never happens, though, does it? Because someone's "should" is always someone else's "shouldn't."

I should move back home to care for her - but I can't or won't. Giving up my life seems too high of a price although I should be willing to do so.

It would mean leaving my husband, my home, my job, my future and while I thought for a while that I was capable of doing so I now realize I cannot do so without setting up a situation built on dread and resentment which will affect not only the rest of her life but the rest of mine and my husband and my children as well.

She will not come here and I cannot stay there.

So the question is - where do I go from here?

And where does she?

Rondeau Romp!!

2009-02-23T18:27:00.002-05:00

Excellent new poetry site by the amazing Allison Joseph which contains a certain poetry form near and dear to my heart.

The rondeau is often overlooked and almost always underrated. Howver, one only needs to read In Flanders Field or We Wear the Mask to understand just how spine-tingling intense the form can be when mastered.

Marilyn Taylor's Old Woman With a Cat is pretty darn tingly, too, if you're looking for contemporary rondeau.

Read those three and tell me Rondeau is not amazing. I dare you!!

Hand-Me-Down Genes

2009-02-12T17:12:00.008-05:00

Closed for Repairs

Perhaps I Can Get In Through the Roof

2009-02-07T15:24:00.001-05:00

"45 Minutes X 8 Babies = 6 Hours" or "Not Enough Time In a Day For Octuplet Snuggling"

2009-02-06T11:02:00.008-05:00

The mother of the octuplets recently stated in her first televised interview that "she holds each premature infant 45 minutes each day," and that she's sure that she'll be able to afford them when she's done with her schooling and she further states “I'm providing myself to my children. I'm loving them unconditionally, accepting them unconditionally. Everything I do, I'll stop my life for them and be present with them. And hold them. And be with them. And how many parents do that? I'm sure there are many that do, but many don't. And that's unfortunate. That is selfish.”

That's all well and ernestly meant and well articulated, I'm sure, but where's the reality?

The reality is - a baby needs far more than 45 minutes of attention daily - and 8 babies need 8 times as much attention daily as one does. Premature babies eat frequently - sometimes as often as every two hours - and generally it takes at least 30 minute to give a bottle. Small babies are slow babies - and they can't hold much more than 2 or 3 ounces at a time. Add another half hour for burping, changing and cuddling and you've lost yourself an hour already. One person couldn't even, logistically speaking, manage to feed 8 premature infants every two hours. The most she could manage would be two of them and it would be time to restart with the first as soon as she finished with the second - ad infinitum.

"45 minutes of daily holding" for 8 children fills 6 entire hours. From personal experience, 45 minutes of holding isn't even 1/4 of the amount of holding time a new infant needs, wants or demands. Going back to school to complete your Master's Degree is a full time job, as well. So now we've filled at least 12 to 14 hours of a 24 hour day with personal snuggle time and schooling. What about breakfast, lunch and dinner for 15 people on a daily basis? And shopping for 15? And laundry for 15? And housecleaning? My God, just think about the housekeeping and laundry!!

Plus, believe it or not, even super-moms need to sleep sometimes. (Yep, really, it's a fact, they do.)

Mom says that as a child, she missed a “Feeling of self and identity." She goes on to state that, “I didn't feel as though, when I was a child, I had much control of my environment. I felt powerless. And that gave me a sense of predictability. Reflecting back on my childhood, I know it wasn't functional. It was pretty dysfunctional, and whose isn't?”

Please, for the love of God, someone tell this woman that having 14 children in 8 years is not a good way to regain "control," nor is it behaving like a functional adult. In fact, it's so out-of-control and dysfunctional as to be truly depressing.

Plus, as a side point, it totally disses her parents who, from all acounts, have stuck by her like white on rice. They've financially and emotionally and physically supported her, they've housed her and her children and they've loved her and helped her navigate every bizarre step of her adult way.

Personally, if you ask me, this woman has controlled everyone around her for her entire lifetime. Ask yourself this - would your parents have supported you, would they have allowed you to live in their house (or bought you your own house) while you continued going to school well into your thirties AND watched your 6 illigitimate children while you did so or would they exercise a little "parental control" of their own and finally say, "Honey, we love you, but enough is enough?" Even now, Grandma and Grandpa are dealing with the media frenzy as well as providing for the daily needs of the six forgotten siblings while mom herself rests up at an undisclosed "safe" location.

Would you do the same for your children?

As for mom missing a "feeling of identity and self" as the result of being an only child, does she really think it's going to be easier for her own individual children, growing up with thirteen siblings and an overextended mother, to find either one those things for themselves? Does she even understand that they are as entitled to those things as she feels she is and that, as a single parent, it's now up to her and her alone to provide it not only for herself but for them, as well?

But that's assuming that, like most parents. she wants a better life for her children than she had herself and that she's willing and able to put the current and future needs of her children before her own.

From what I've read so far I don't think that's a safe assumption to make right now.

Add: From AP: Among other things, the documents reveal that Suleman collected more than $165,000 in disability payments between 2002 and 2008 for an injury she said left her in near-constant pain and helped end her marriage.

Well now don't that beat all? $27,000 a year in disability payments for a back injury and still capable of carrying roughly 1 pregnancy per year (not counting the octupulets in 2008 - which more than doubles the average pregnancy per year) to completion and no one questioned the true extent of the " near-constant and excruciating pain?"

I've been pregnant and I've had a back injury. Fortunately not at the same time. And I say fortunately because as anyone who's ever had either condition can attest to - they're just not compatible - nor would anyone but a total masochist attempt it more than once or twice. Were I her disability carrier I'd be looking into it. If your back can handle carrying a minimum of an extra 40 or 50 pounds of pregnancy around on a yearly basis I'm pretty sure it can handle a desk job without too much difficulty.

God Does Not "Plan" Octuplets - People Plan Octuplets

2009-01-28T14:29:00.007-05:00

I'm sure everyone already knows about the woman in California who gave birth to octuplets the other day. More power to her, I guess. I'm unsure how anyone even raises 8 children of differing ages but they do and I'm sure these parents will find a way to raise eight children of the same age as well.

There is a mom with similar experience, a reality show TV mom named Kate Gosselin who had twins and then gave birth to sextuplets.

I figured that, regardless of what I think about her and her really strange reality show, she was probably the one to give the best advice until I read this little gem of pro-offered wisdom from the old experienced mother to the new inexperienced one:

"Trust God's plan -- He knows best!"

Huh?

Forgive me for pointing out the obvious but God doesn't plan for a woman to give birth to a litter which would exceed even a six-nippled animal's ability to nurture. I'm pretty sure it was never part of God's Plan for eight children to be the result of one pregnancy. The fact that it's never occured without medical intervention pretty much justifies my opinion.

I don't have a problem with in-virto fertilization. I do have a little more of a problem with large multiples of children being born as a result, though. It's dangeous to both mother and children and I don't much see the point of endangering anyone's life or health unnecessarily.

What I do have a problem with is calling it "God's will" or "God's plan" when (face it now) the reason people take fertility treatments or use in-virto fertilization in the first place is because the woman and her husband are unable to conceive naturally which would be the "God's plan" we're talking about here. Seems to me that He decided "no children at all" not "eight children at once" way back before humankind decided we could, and therefore should, make large amounts of newborn babies the new-fashioned way - in test tubes.

Call it science, call it a medical breakthrough, call it in-vitro, call it "fertility treatments," call it "Thank-God-I'm-Alive-In-The-21st-Century-and-I-Have-Money," call it whatever it really is, but don't call it "God's Plan" because it's not.

God's never planned anything as foolishly dangerous as human octupulets.

There's Something About Snow in DC.......

2009-01-27T15:13:00.003-05:00

that makes it impossible for even experienced snow-drivers to navigate the streets. I think it's all the rolling hills - and the lack of preparation like salt and snowplows - or maybe it's just the rarity of it all. Or maybe we just move here and immediately forget what it's like to drive in less than stellar conditions. Whatever it is, it sucks.

It snowed this morning - first time this season. It was a rather pretty snow, as snows go, anyhow. Thick, white, fluffy and dry enough that the wipers took it off the windows of the car. No big deal, right? Barely an inch on the ground when I left the house.

An hour later - and a block and a half down the road - I began to feel quite differently about it. It was no longer pretty, it was a disaster waiting to happen. I was going downhill - no big deal - except the cars in front of me, for as far as the eye could see, weren't moving. Probably because they were trying to get UP the next hill. (I live on the top of a series of hills, up and down, up and down, up and down, all the way to work.) I glanced over at the traffic on the other side of the road and realized that there were only 3 or 4 cars headed the opposite way - and none of them were having any success getting there. In a 20 minute block of time I watched at least 4 cars slide right back down the hill and into a car behind them. Up ahead at the corner I watched a garbage truck slide down into the intersection and really make a mess there. I think I moved about 4 car lengths in 40 minutes. I hate that, can't go forward, can't turn around and go back because you're just stuck wherever you are.

I finally made it to the second light ( 2 blocks away) and the car in front of the car in front of me decided he'd had enough and he turned right, got half way up that hill and slid right back down into the passenger side of the the car in front of me.

At that point (an hour after I'd left home and roughly 2 1/2 blocks from home but with 2 miles left to go to work) I called work again and the good Doctor Young told me that everyone had cancelled for the day and I should go back home.

Easier said than done, of course, because now I have to figure out how to turn around and get back up the hill.

I made a left hand turn from the right hand lane (which didn't matter since everyone had already run into someone else already anyhow) and pulled a quick U-Turn and gunned my way up the hill.....don't stop don't stop don't STOP!!!

I had to avoid three stalled vehicles on my way up but somehow, through sheer determination, I managed to keep moving and not hit anyhow. I meant to stop at the light but skidded right through it. Fortunately I was the only one with enough momentum built up to be moving at that point - one more semi-illegal turn and I was in our parking lot.

Dan had given up waiting for the bus already and he was upstairs waiting for me.

And yes, it's supposed to snow again tonight. This time accompanied by freezing rain and sleet.

I think I'll not even try tomorrow.

Papal Revisions and How Infallible Can THIS Be?

2009-01-26T11:13:00.005-05:00

A little Wiki background on the dude that The Pope has seen fit to reinstate.

Williamson is viewed as being at the hardline end of the traditionalist spectrum, though he does not go so far as to espouse sedevacantism. He opposes compromise with the Vatican, accusing it of deceit and of being under "the power of Satan" and judges reconciliation between the Society and the Holy See to be impossible, noting that some SSPX members might refuse to follow the Society even if an agreement were reached. Williamson holds that the SSPX is not schismatic but the body of genuine Catholics that keep the "complete faith".

Williamson holds strong views regarding gender roles and dress. He opposes the wearing of trousers or shorts by women and has urged more manliness in men.

Williamson supports conspiracy theories regarding the assassination of President Kennedy and the collapse of the Twin Towers, denying that the latter were terrorist attacks but were instead staged by the U.S. government.

Williamson has expressed controversial views about Jews. He called Jews "enemies of Christ" and urges their conversion to Catholicism. He claims that Jews and Freemasons have contributed to the "changes and corruption" in the Catholic Church. He has also stated that Jews aim at world dominion[3][44] and believes The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to be authentic. Williamson has denied that he is antisemitic, stating that he goes against "adversaries of Our Lord Jesus Christ", that not all Jews are such, and that he also attacks other groups such as Communists and Freemasons.

Williamson has been charged with Holocaust denial. He has denied the existence of gas chambers and has claimed that not six million but 200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps. Williamson has also praised Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel.

Now that you've got some background above and beyond the oft' mentioned Holocaust denying, what's up with this decision on the part of Pope Benedict XVI, anyhow, and does it make anyone besides myself not only extremely irate but more than a little bit nervous as well?

A Most Incredible Picture

2009-01-15T18:24:00.002-05:00

Bird Chasing

2009-01-09T17:40:00.002-05:00

Just out of camera range, sitting atop the fireplace mantle is, you guessed it, a very loud and very excited bird. Someone wants her.

Just Who's The Underdog?

2009-01-07T07:13:00.001-05:00

Misc. Drive-By Views on the Way to Charlestown

2008-12-28T19:59:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure what I enjoy more, the journey or the destination:

Shenandoah River + Bridge at Harper's Ferry

Harper's Ferry, West Va.

Blue Ridge Mountains in West Virginia - Seasonal views

Sunday Trip

2008-12-28T19:40:00.005-05:00

Old Town Alexandria, Va.

Dangerfield Island

Saturday's Trip

2008-12-27T18:27:00.003-05:00

Sunken Road in Fredricksburg, Va.

The Week In Pictures

2008-12-27T07:23:00.005-05:00

My son is here for 2 weeks and we've been busy taking day trips in between my work schedule. It's been a great time so far and we've still got a whole week left!!

CHRISTMAS DAY IN ATLANTIC CITY

GREAT FALLS, Va.

MOUNT VERNON AT CHRISTMAS COMPLETE WITH CHRISTMAS CAMEL

What Banned Books Have You Read?

2008-12-26T11:51:00.002-05:00

Look through this list of banned books. If you have read the whole book, bold it. If you have read part of the book, italicize it. If you own it but haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, *** it.

(And if you’re drawing a blank, skip it. At least I did.)

1. The Bible
2. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
3. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
4. The Koran
5. Arabian Nights
6. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
7. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
8. Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
9. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
10. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
11. The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
12. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
13. Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
14. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
15. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
16. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
17. Dracula by Bram Stoker
18. Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
19. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
20. Essays by Michel de Montaigne
21. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
22. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
23. Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
24. Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
25. Ulysses by James Joyce
26. Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
27. Animal Farm by George Orwell
28. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
29. Candide by Voltaire
30. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
31. Analects by Confucius
32. Dubliners by James Joyce
33. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
34. Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
35. Red and the Black by Stendhal
36. Das Capital by Karl Marx
37. Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire
38. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

39. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
40. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
41. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
42. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
43. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
44. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
45. Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
46. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
47. Diary by Samuel Pepys
48. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
49. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
50. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
51. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
52. Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
53. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
54. Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus
55. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
56. Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
57. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
58. Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
59. Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke
60. Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
61. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
62. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
63. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
64. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
65. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
66. Confessions by Jean Jacques Rousseau
67. Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
68. Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
69. The Talmud
70. Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau
71. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
72. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
73. American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
74. Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
75. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
76. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
77. Red Pony by John Steinbeck
78. Popol Vuh
79. Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith
80. Satyricon by Petronius
81. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
82. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
83. Black Boy by Richard Wright
84. Spirit of the Laws by Charles de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu
85. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
86. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
87. Metaphysics by Aristotle
88. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder89. Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin
90. Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
91. Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
92. Sanctuary by William Faulkner
93. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
94. Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
95. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
96. Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
97. General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
98. Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
99. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Brown
100. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
101. Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines
102. Émile Jean by Jacques Rousseau
103. Nana by Émile Zola
104. Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
105. Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
106. Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
107. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
108. Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
109. Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
110. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
111. Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
112. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
113. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
114. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
115. The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Keatly Snyder

Sightseeing in Virginia - Great Falls

2008-12-21T13:47:00.004-05:00

It was worth freezing our butts off for:

Hero of the Day - David Clowney

2008-12-14T14:56:00.001-05:00

This dude's got my vote.

Sometimes

2008-12-07T09:29:00.004-05:00

Sometimes she lies in bed and all
he sees are limbs, white-willow tall
and aspen thin. He doesn’t care
what's underneath her tousled hair.
He only sees the artful sprawl.

She has the power to enthrall -
to back him up against the wall
and pin him hanging, hopeless, there.
Sometimes she lies

In bed and orders him to crawl
across the floor and down the hall.
If he’s obedient she’ll swear
she loves him, stretch, and slowly bare
her breasts, secure he won't recall
sometimes she lies.

Whaaaat? I am NOT Fat!!! I'm Well-Padded

2008-12-04T19:45:00.000-05:00

Pepsi Cats

2008-12-02T15:04:00.003-05:00

It's just like you tolds me - the humans all the time cover their pepsi. But why????

Seen On DC Busses

2008-11-27T06:36:00.002-05:00

Wisconsin's New Poet Laureate

2008-11-12T18:04:00.002-05:00

I'm so excited!!! The State of Wisconsin has announced it's new Poet Laureate and it's none other than the delightful and talented Marilyn Taylor!!!!!

(Who, if you haven't already guessed, is a friend of mine.)

She's also one of the most talented formalist poets that I know - and I'd say that even if I didn't know her - because it's true and I'm pretty ruthless about the truth when it comes to things poetic.

Congratulations, Marilyn, you rock!!

Presidential Web Site

2008-11-07T23:51:00.002-05:00

This is just so cool.

When was the last time your government bothered to ask you what you thought or what your story was?

When was the last time anyone asked you?

Recognize Anyone?

2008-11-05T19:11:00.001-05:00

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

These Are the Tasks

2008-11-05T10:01:00.006-05:00

These are the tasks the past has laid
before us. It's time. Be undismayed.
Rebuild the earth to house the weak.
Comfort the sick, protect the meek.
Give honor to the men who’ve paid

the price that war extracts. They've prayed
for this. We've seen our nation frayed
by strife. It's time. It's change we seek.
These are the tasks

that must be balanced out and weighed;
The peace restored; all debts repaid;
all fears allayed. It's time to speak
with clarity – each voice unique
yet one with hope and unafraid.
These are the tasks.

YES WE CAN

2008-11-04T23:27:00.002-05:00

YES WE WILL

YES WE DID!!

Florida Robo Calls - The Last of the Lies

2008-11-04T18:56:00.002-05:00

Automated calls paid for by Republican John McCain are going out to voters in South Florida, portraying Democrat Barack Obama as an ally of Fidel Castro.

Voters hear: "This just in! I'm calling on behalf of John McCain to tell you that at 1:28 PM today, the independent news agency Reuters reported that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro endorsed Democrat Barack Obama as 'more intelligent' than John McCain. Castro said America will become a country where 'an extremist can legally acquire a sophisticated modern weapon on any street corner.' That's just why a thug like Castro would endorse Barack Obama. Don't given Castro what he wants. Get to the polls now to vote for John McCain and stop Cuban-like policies in America."

What Reuters really reported:

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban's former communist leader Fidel Castro on Tuesday praised Democrat Barack Obama as "more intelligent" than "old, bellicose" Republican John McCain, but said that he was officially neutral in the U.S. presidential election.

The ailing Castro, 82, said in a column published in state-run media that neither of the candidates running in Tuesday's election was concerned with the world's most pressing problems as they campaigned to lead what he called "a parasitic and plundering empire."

Obama, Castro wrote, is "without doubt more intelligent, cultured and calm than his Republican adversary."

McCain, he said, is "old, bellicose, uncultured, not very intelligent and not healthy."

Quoting from a letter he wrote to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Castro said if McCain wins "the danger of war will increase."

"When this opinion (is published), no one will have time to say that I wrote something that can be used by one of the candidates in favor of his campaign," Castro wrote.

"I had to be and have been neutral in the electoral contest," said Castro,

Castro also said the U.S., which has imposed a trade embargo against Cuba for 46 years, had a long history of racism and that Obama's selection as the Democratic presidential nomination had "astonished" many because he is black.

He warned that Obama "will run growing risks in the country where an extremist can legally acquire a sophisticated modern weapon on any street corner."

Poets and Voters

2008-11-04T14:57:00.001-05:00

Voting day stories to warm the heart.

Just Do It

2008-11-04T07:19:00.001-05:00

Go vote!!!

Found on a Poetry Board - Obama's Everywhere!!

2008-10-30T12:12:00.000-04:00

Campbell Brown Gets Bullishly Biased

2008-10-29T11:01:00.004-04:00

Today Campbell Brown came out swinging - insisting that Barack Obama broke his promise not to take federal campaign funds.

The fact is, there was no "promise." What existed was a pledge which Obama signed (although no one else, including John McCain ever bothered filling out) and which agreed to pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve the public financing system. Obama contacted McCain way back in the beginning - before funding was decided upon - to invite him to discuss the acceptance of such funds. McCain never returned the call.

Sometimes rudeness really is it's own reward.

I've always liked Ms. Brown but that's two in row for her. Last Monday she was indignantly insisting that "diva" was a sexist remark and that the word itself meant an ambitious or successful woman.

Agreed, "diva" is sexist. However, it does not now, nor did it ever, mean "ambitious" or "successful." A diva may very well be successful and ambitious but it's the way in which she pursues her ambition and enjoys her success which gives meaning to the phrase. A diva is difficult, a diva is rude, a diva cares nothing for those other than herself, a diva is ruthless and cunning and petulant. One can be successful as hell and still not be any of those things. If fact, most people would prefer their ambitiously successful ones not to be any of those things.

The RNC included, apparently.

It is biased and bull to complain about a word being used when one apparently does not understand the meaning of the word they are complaining about.

Makes Me Proud to Be From NW Indiana

2008-10-27T21:33:00.003-04:00

Dozens Of Call Center Workers Walk Off Job In Protest Rather Than Read McCain Script Attacking Obama

By Greg Sargent - October 27, 2008, 5:18PM

Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.

Nina Williams, a stay-at-home mom in Lake County, Indiana, tells us that her daughter recently called her from her job at the center, upset that she had been asked to read a script attacking Obama for being "dangerously weak on crime," "coddling criminals," and for voting against "protecting children from danger."

Williams' daughter told her that up to 40 of her co-workers had refused to read the script, and had left the call center after supervisors told them that they would have to either read the call or leave, Williams says. The call center is called Americall, and it's located in Hobart, IN.

"They walked out," Williams says of her daughter and her co-workers, adding that they weren't fired but willingly sacrificed pay rather than read the lines. "They were told [by supervisors], `If you all leave, you're not gonna get paid for the rest of the day."

The daughter, who wanted her name withheld fearing retribution from her employer, confirmed the story to us. "It was like at least 40 people," the daughter said. "People thought the script was nasty and they didn't wanna read it."

A second worker at the call center confirmed the episode, saying that "at least 30" workers had walked out after refusing to read the script.

"We were asked to read something saying [Obama and Democrats] were against protecting children from danger," this worker said. "I wouldn't do it. A lot of people left. They thought it was disgusting."

This worker, too, confirmed sacrificing pay to walk out, saying her supervisor told her: "If you don't wanna phone it you can just go home for the day."

The script coincided with this robo-slime call running in other states, but because robocalling is illegal in Indiana it was being read by call center workers.

Representatives at Americall in Indiana, and at the company's corporate headquarters in Naperville, Illinois, didn't return calls for comment.

The Vet Who Did Not Vet

2008-10-25T21:35:00.001-04:00

What's Worse Than a Cat Stuck Up a Tree?

2008-10-24T19:55:00.002-04:00

A horse stuck inside one.