Well, I haven't posted in awhile, due to being bogged down with unexpected personal issues. This isn't really a personal, whining-about-my-life-type blog, but you can still plan on seeing some updates from its author from time to time :)
I had two deaths this week that occurred somewhat close to me. One was a close friend at work, a supervisor. It brought it home to me how very much you can know about someone (especially in workplace relationships) in one realm of life but how very little about the rest of his life. My friend Lloyd, who passed away suddenly, apparently in his sleep but we don't know why or how, was all sunshine and light. He was that guy at your job, if you're lucky to have such a guy, who always has a smile and a joke and a positive spin for any situation. You know the man has his share of personal troubles and history, but he never brings that shit to work. He's just kind and happy and always a gentleman. Lloyd was great at diffusing situations that were escalating, both with employees and managers, as well as customers and service issues. Like I said, he was sunshine, just like that.
My dad says the good die young, and the rest just hang around.
Then my great aunt Lois died. I didn't know her well; in fact, I might have met her once, if that. However, she wrote me letters and was my beloved late grandmother's sister (if you followed all that!). When I was very sick in the hospital a couple of years ago, and I had lost my job and was filing bankruptcy (yeah, a bad time indeed!!), she kept writing me letters and praying for me in her prayer group. I am grateful for her love and faith, so send up a prayer for her please, if you are faithful or spiritual at all. I'm always glad to do the same for your loved ones if you ask!
Well, in death we are in life, as the saying goes. My cousin is having a baby as we speak, and that is exciting. I don't have any info yet, but maybe soon.
In regard to my last post, that was a photo of a Teamsters Rat. Around here, they bring an inflatable or large plastic rat and place it at businesses or construction sites to protest the use of non-union workers. It's the strangest sight! I didn't know what it was until after I had taken the picture. All I knew was that I had never seen a giant rat like that on the back of a pick-up truck! So I was wondering whether the Teamsters do this where YOU live?????
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Thursday Mishmash
RIDICULOUS: Goddammit, AIG (you too, Fannie Mae ... I see you!)... We are all tryin' to be in this together. Except for the almighty fucking rich people. The bitches. Why are you all tryin' to be like that?
Here's who's a real asshole: CEO Liddy (how do you get another job when you drive sad-ass SEARS into the ground???), who brings a letter from a lunatic to read as an example of what's going to happen if the names of the bonus - takers are ever released to the public. Is he serious? No one is going to strangle the little rich white children with piano wire, you idiot. Does everyone know what I'm speaking of? Ask in the Comments if you don't, and I'll explain further.
Secondly, I was half asleep in bed with the early - morning news on yesterday when I heard Senator Dodd (whose home state is, well, home to many of the bonus-takers) "explaining" that he didn't know WHEN the language of his bill got changed to allow for this mess. He was babbling and stumbling around trying to say that somewhere between the House and the Senate, the Dems and Republicans, somewhere between his hand and his dick, the language got changed in hideous ways of which he would never approve! I thought to myself, now that just doesn't sound right. I can't imagine a senator losing control of his bill that way, but what do I know, right?
Well, it comes out today that he was LYING, although Senator Dodd is quick to mention that HE does not FEEL that his comments today (the TRUTH, which is that he himself changed the language, oopsy-daisy) are in conflict with his comments yesterday (the LIE). Yes, I realize that it's MY life and job which are completely pathetic if I don't get paid thousands to live and behave this way everyday and be considered a completely acceptable citizen.
UNACCEPTABLE: Why are we doing business with China? Does no one remember the baby formula? Does no one remember the pet food? Does ANYone remember, like, last week, when their pathetic Navy tried to get into a chest-bumping contest of sorts with an unarmed survey ship of ours off of their coast???????
Well, in case no one does, there are reports aplenty today regarding dry wall imported FROM CHINA and used to build homes in Florida (and, I would think, other states???) that is making people -- what else? -- SICK. People living in the homes are complaining of everything from nose bleeds to asthma, and that's just right now, not even two years into living there for some.
What is it going to take for us to put a boot in this country's ass? You know, we don't need to go to war. That's not how to get things done in my opinion, and it's certainly not something the USA needs right now. Plus, it's not anything that the USA needs to do to prove itself. But what about boycotts? What about economic and social shutout? What about only dealing with righteous and upstanding countries and entering into contracts that serve the best interests of each? That's just smart businesss. Wake up, AMERICA. Stop buying SHIT from China. Stop dealing with CHINA unless and until that country wants to play a fair and balanced and quality game.
SPEAKING OF THINGS THAT AREN'T QUITE RIGHT: What's going on in Florida? There's a child there named Haleigh that is missing from a small town there, not far from the now-infamous Caylee Anthony situation. I'm concerned about what I'm seeing and hearing out of her parents and step-mother. On some of the recent programs on radio and TV, they keep playing the original 911 tape of the father reporting his missing daughter in the middle of the night. He had been called home from work on the night shift (as I understand the details...) and had called to make police aware of course of what appeared to be a kidnapping. I don't have the link yet, but I'll get it. Anyway, the father, Ronald Cummings, tells the 911 operator, as she is trying to keep him calm and give him crucial instructions, that "if I find the person that took my daughter before y'all get here," he's going to kill him himself. He's goes on to threaten that he doesn't mind spending life in prison for this act, as long as he can get his mitts on whoever has his daughter immediately.
Obviously, I don't know the family, and I will be first to tell you with the utmost in gratitude that I have never had a missing child. However, I've seen and followed many of these cases and witnessed some things as the partner of a sheriff's deputy and the daughter of a 911 operator. Does anyone else think the father's immediate reaction is quite strange?? My own immediate reaction to HIS is that it makes me feel he knows something or suspects something about who took his child or at least why. I don't know why exactly I think that when I hear this tape, but I do. It's the same hair-standing-up-on-my-neck feeling of something being wrong that I felt when that Dodd asshole was lying to all of us on TV yesterday.
Now I don't mean to victimize a victim in the father of this child. I, like many people including the police, just want to know the facts so that the objective of finding this child and seeing her returned safely (unlike what happened in the Caylee case) can be reached. But I don't like it. I feel like a parent might be scared, might feel helpless and yes, angry about that helplessness and fear ... But to start making specific threats about a specific perceived act done by a person ? I don't like it. It smells to me.
And that's the rant for the day.
Here's who's a real asshole: CEO Liddy (how do you get another job when you drive sad-ass SEARS into the ground???), who brings a letter from a lunatic to read as an example of what's going to happen if the names of the bonus - takers are ever released to the public. Is he serious? No one is going to strangle the little rich white children with piano wire, you idiot. Does everyone know what I'm speaking of? Ask in the Comments if you don't, and I'll explain further.
Secondly, I was half asleep in bed with the early - morning news on yesterday when I heard Senator Dodd (whose home state is, well, home to many of the bonus-takers) "explaining" that he didn't know WHEN the language of his bill got changed to allow for this mess. He was babbling and stumbling around trying to say that somewhere between the House and the Senate, the Dems and Republicans, somewhere between his hand and his dick, the language got changed in hideous ways of which he would never approve! I thought to myself, now that just doesn't sound right. I can't imagine a senator losing control of his bill that way, but what do I know, right?
Well, it comes out today that he was LYING, although Senator Dodd is quick to mention that HE does not FEEL that his comments today (the TRUTH, which is that he himself changed the language, oopsy-daisy) are in conflict with his comments yesterday (the LIE). Yes, I realize that it's MY life and job which are completely pathetic if I don't get paid thousands to live and behave this way everyday and be considered a completely acceptable citizen.
UNACCEPTABLE: Why are we doing business with China? Does no one remember the baby formula? Does no one remember the pet food? Does ANYone remember, like, last week, when their pathetic Navy tried to get into a chest-bumping contest of sorts with an unarmed survey ship of ours off of their coast???????
Well, in case no one does, there are reports aplenty today regarding dry wall imported FROM CHINA and used to build homes in Florida (and, I would think, other states???) that is making people -- what else? -- SICK. People living in the homes are complaining of everything from nose bleeds to asthma, and that's just right now, not even two years into living there for some.
What is it going to take for us to put a boot in this country's ass? You know, we don't need to go to war. That's not how to get things done in my opinion, and it's certainly not something the USA needs right now. Plus, it's not anything that the USA needs to do to prove itself. But what about boycotts? What about economic and social shutout? What about only dealing with righteous and upstanding countries and entering into contracts that serve the best interests of each? That's just smart businesss. Wake up, AMERICA. Stop buying SHIT from China. Stop dealing with CHINA unless and until that country wants to play a fair and balanced and quality game.
SPEAKING OF THINGS THAT AREN'T QUITE RIGHT: What's going on in Florida? There's a child there named Haleigh that is missing from a small town there, not far from the now-infamous Caylee Anthony situation. I'm concerned about what I'm seeing and hearing out of her parents and step-mother. On some of the recent programs on radio and TV, they keep playing the original 911 tape of the father reporting his missing daughter in the middle of the night. He had been called home from work on the night shift (as I understand the details...) and had called to make police aware of course of what appeared to be a kidnapping. I don't have the link yet, but I'll get it. Anyway, the father, Ronald Cummings, tells the 911 operator, as she is trying to keep him calm and give him crucial instructions, that "if I find the person that took my daughter before y'all get here," he's going to kill him himself. He's goes on to threaten that he doesn't mind spending life in prison for this act, as long as he can get his mitts on whoever has his daughter immediately.
Obviously, I don't know the family, and I will be first to tell you with the utmost in gratitude that I have never had a missing child. However, I've seen and followed many of these cases and witnessed some things as the partner of a sheriff's deputy and the daughter of a 911 operator. Does anyone else think the father's immediate reaction is quite strange?? My own immediate reaction to HIS is that it makes me feel he knows something or suspects something about who took his child or at least why. I don't know why exactly I think that when I hear this tape, but I do. It's the same hair-standing-up-on-my-neck feeling of something being wrong that I felt when that Dodd asshole was lying to all of us on TV yesterday.
Now I don't mean to victimize a victim in the father of this child. I, like many people including the police, just want to know the facts so that the objective of finding this child and seeing her returned safely (unlike what happened in the Caylee case) can be reached. But I don't like it. I feel like a parent might be scared, might feel helpless and yes, angry about that helplessness and fear ... But to start making specific threats about a specific perceived act done by a person ? I don't like it. It smells to me.
And that's the rant for the day.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Movie Discusion: JESUS CAMP
...I watched this movie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486358/ today, because, as always, I was interested in this documentary covering the lives of the hardest of the hardcore conservative Evangelical Christians in our American midst. And, as this movie points out, this group is by far not a fringe community. I grew up with, worked with and employed in my lifetime kids from this community. The fact that the documentary was so well-done is what in my opinion made the topic and the information so accessible.
A few thoughts ...
1. Ted Haggard is a fake and an arrogant dick (and yes, that is my moral judment, technically).
2. Cannot stand the way the church attacks abortion with the pastors carrying little pocket wallets full of rubber images of fetus representations; yet say NOTHING about how to fix the problem, where to fix the problem, why this IS a problem (besides, the DEVIL).
3. Loved the little kid named Levi who preaches to other children and DO believe that he's been touched by God for some purpose. Might not be the one and the way his parents and church have in mind.
4. I thought it was so sad the way that the little girl who was about 10 had no other professional aspirations than to be "one of those people who does the [finger]nails," so that she could talk to them in that relaxing setting about Jesus.
5. Although I disagree with her intensely, I really admire the children's pastor (Becky) because of her passsion (it's beyond Passion!) and the fact and way she turns that drive into real action. I'm sad and sorry that it's the action she chooses, but I love people who do what their heart says, every minute, every day, to the fullest.
6. Finally, I love the DJ. Didn't learn much about him, but I didn't know there were others out there with moderate and liberal views just like mine. What he was saying on his radio show and speaking about with his listeners was as though it came right out of my brain. In case you were wondering how I think.... :)
A few thoughts ...
1. Ted Haggard is a fake and an arrogant dick (and yes, that is my moral judment, technically).
2. Cannot stand the way the church attacks abortion with the pastors carrying little pocket wallets full of rubber images of fetus representations; yet say NOTHING about how to fix the problem, where to fix the problem, why this IS a problem (besides, the DEVIL).
3. Loved the little kid named Levi who preaches to other children and DO believe that he's been touched by God for some purpose. Might not be the one and the way his parents and church have in mind.
4. I thought it was so sad the way that the little girl who was about 10 had no other professional aspirations than to be "one of those people who does the [finger]nails," so that she could talk to them in that relaxing setting about Jesus.
5. Although I disagree with her intensely, I really admire the children's pastor (Becky) because of her passsion (it's beyond Passion!) and the fact and way she turns that drive into real action. I'm sad and sorry that it's the action she chooses, but I love people who do what their heart says, every minute, every day, to the fullest.
6. Finally, I love the DJ. Didn't learn much about him, but I didn't know there were others out there with moderate and liberal views just like mine. What he was saying on his radio show and speaking about with his listeners was as though it came right out of my brain. In case you were wondering how I think.... :)
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Rape is ok, but not abortion, says the Catholic church!
Okay, update ...
I am steamed about the issue outlined in my previous post. And it's no secret that I am an outspoken protester of many abuses that the Catholic church does from its patriarchal, archaic post "on high" at the "vatican." So, let's not pretend that this is a new issue for me or anything.
That being said, I was nevertheless APPALLED and outraged by the church's decision in this matter. How is it that everyone (mainly women, and women's advocates, naturally) in the whole mess is ex-communicated EXCEPT for the RAPIST of a 6 year old child!!!??? I am not protesting the ex-communication as much as the constant, rampant HYPOCRISY of this organization. I mean, how can they even be taken seriously as a religious, moral or social force in our society anymore? The more they render their almighty decisions like this, the more they render themselves irrelevant to the real lives of their would-be members. But hey, the dissidents can always just be ex-communicated.
Remember who was ex-communicated centuries ago and only TEN years or so let back IN to the Catholic church posthumously (as though if he were here, he would relish and fall to his knees at this benevolence) ... Galileo. His sin? Stating in public that our planet revolved around the sun.
"Every word of God proves true ... Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a Liar." Proverbs 30:5-6
I am steamed about the issue outlined in my previous post. And it's no secret that I am an outspoken protester of many abuses that the Catholic church does from its patriarchal, archaic post "on high" at the "vatican." So, let's not pretend that this is a new issue for me or anything.
That being said, I was nevertheless APPALLED and outraged by the church's decision in this matter. How is it that everyone (mainly women, and women's advocates, naturally) in the whole mess is ex-communicated EXCEPT for the RAPIST of a 6 year old child!!!??? I am not protesting the ex-communication as much as the constant, rampant HYPOCRISY of this organization. I mean, how can they even be taken seriously as a religious, moral or social force in our society anymore? The more they render their almighty decisions like this, the more they render themselves irrelevant to the real lives of their would-be members. But hey, the dissidents can always just be ex-communicated.
Remember who was ex-communicated centuries ago and only TEN years or so let back IN to the Catholic church posthumously (as though if he were here, he would relish and fall to his knees at this benevolence) ... Galileo. His sin? Stating in public that our planet revolved around the sun.
"Every word of God proves true ... Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a Liar." Proverbs 30:5-6
I'm Coming Back With a BANG
What in the world is wrong with these people? The "vatican," the "pope," the Brazilian "bishop,"?! I am so angry that I can't relay the entire story to you right now, but maybe that's good. Maybe you should read it for yourselves here: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/03/11/brazil.rape.abortion/ and here:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09030903.html
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09030903.html
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