http://www.punditandpundette.com/2011/01/baby-boy-so-big-he-could-walk-me-to-bus.html
If you haven't seen this article, you should.
It is horrible. It is graphic. It is almost, ALMOST, incomprehensible to me.
It makes me sick and makes me feel hopeless for our country.
The easiest thing to do is to stop the problem.
On TV when I see teenagers talking about what they think we should do about teenage pregnancy, (Let's stop right there: WHY are we asking teenagers what they think? Are we not giving them more credit than they, perhaps, are due? Is this not like asking the fox how he thinks the henhouse should be guarded? Contemplate this question.) and the interviewer asks "What about abstinence"?, (Let's stop again to contemplate whether this is, indeed, a common sense, affordable solution that anyone can accomplish) the teenagers get a flat eyed, arrogant expression on their (still forming, round cheeked) faces and say "That's not realistic".
Now, let loose and laugh, all you people with children, laugh and laugh and laugh. I did. Every time I saw it, and I saw it 4 times. Once for each child I had. Of which I planned exactly 1.
I would refer these teenagers to generations of women AND men, who, from the dawn of time, have had to face the reality that action A would have a very good chance of resulting in consequence B. And those were just the MARRIED ones!! These teenagers could ask their parents, grandparents, friends, neighbors, why, they could even ask a priest (!) and they would get the same story from anyone who has ever given birth, found themselves pregnant, or known someone who has.
Yep.
I think that a responsible adult would tell them the truth and NOT sit there and listen to the drivel they come up with to excuse themselves from taking responsibility, as if it made any kind of sense.
I think a responsible adult would say "Get real, people."
Here is another good article with some history on abortion since Roe vs. Wade:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/257640/truth-about-abortion-robert-verbruggen
If you are inconveniently pregnant or know of someone who is, please consider adoption.
I almost always know at least one couple who would give anything to have a child. LOTS of people know couples who want a child. At least consider it. It would be a realistically good choice. A true win-win situation as close to "no regrets" as it is ever possible to be in this world.
Jan 21, 2011
Jan 20, 2011
Bricks in the wall
Both halves of the grand finale were thrilled to have another snow day today. I was pretty thrilled also, and left instructions for the driveway to be cleared. I left detailed instructions for them to wear boots, coveralls, hats and gloves and told them to get it done while the sun was shining.
When I got home at noon it wasn't done. The sun was shining brightly, and I left detailed instructions for them to wear boots, coveralls, hats and gloves and told them to get it done while the sun was shining.
I called from work at 2 pm and it wasn't done. I left detailed instructions for them to wear boots, coveralls, hats and gloves and told them I was getting tired of telling them to get it done while the sun was shining.
When I got home at 5 it wasn't done.
SO, I fired some lasers out of my eyes and asked why it wasn't done.
The youngest baby said the oldest baby had told him to do half of the driveway because that's what the oldest baby did last time and I was happy!! The oldest baby said the last time he just did half of the driveway and I was happy!! Then the youngest baby fired off his favorite attack, which is "WHY DON'T YOU EVER GET ONTO THE OLDEST BABY!!!!! YOU ALWAYS BLAME ME". And I said "FOCUS, GRAND FINALE! FOCUS!!" And I gave them detailed instructions to wear boots, coveralls, hats and gloves and told them that it was really cold now, so to hurry as much as they could before they got frostbite or something that would be a terrible burden for me to deal with in addition to my other daily duties.
The driveway is done. Sort of. Probably.
It's dark now, so it's kind of hard to tell, but while I may have *technically* won this battle, I do not think I won this battle. At least not in the way I was imagining.
Which is the point of my post tonight.
You have to pick your battles, of course. But the biggest part of being a parent in repeating, repeating, double checking, triple checking, and making one last swoop through to make sure you haven't forgotten anything. It's pretending as though things are going to happen when you know in your heart that these things are not going to happen exactly the way you have pictured.
It's acting as though they have done what you asked them even when they haven't, and praising their effort rather than focusing on their short-comings.
When my kids were little and refused to pick up their toys I would do it with them. I would make them do it.
......I am still doing that, and with the Grand Finale I have been doing it for about 11 years.
Will it ever pay off? Who knows. Not me. Sometimes I wonder if I'm having any affect at all.
It's all I can do sometimes, not to throw dishes and break things. The only thing that keeps me from doing that is the certain knowledge that if I did, I would just have to clean up the mess. Oh sure, the kids might help, but it wouldn't be a stellar job. Someone would get glass embedded in their foot and we'd have an emergency room charge on top of me losing my mind and breaking all the dishes. And that's enough to stop me.
At least so far.
Being a parent is doing the same things, repeatedly, without thanks, praise, ackowledgement or compensation for years with only the hope of them ever paying off. Building walls, one small brick at a time. Chinking away ceaselessly with no end in sight.
The thing is, that's all right. You just keep on keeping on.
It is kind of hard not to keep repeating things, but eventually, if you get old enough, they will forgive you for that.
And I know that, eventually, the Grand Finale will have little argumentative ones who need to be reminded (4 times) and double checked.
Which makes it completely worth it.
Winter seems to drag on, doesn't it?
In 6 more weeks it will almost be spring!
When I got home at noon it wasn't done. The sun was shining brightly, and I left detailed instructions for them to wear boots, coveralls, hats and gloves and told them to get it done while the sun was shining.
I called from work at 2 pm and it wasn't done. I left detailed instructions for them to wear boots, coveralls, hats and gloves and told them I was getting tired of telling them to get it done while the sun was shining.
When I got home at 5 it wasn't done.
SO, I fired some lasers out of my eyes and asked why it wasn't done.
The youngest baby said the oldest baby had told him to do half of the driveway because that's what the oldest baby did last time and I was happy!! The oldest baby said the last time he just did half of the driveway and I was happy!! Then the youngest baby fired off his favorite attack, which is "WHY DON'T YOU EVER GET ONTO THE OLDEST BABY!!!!! YOU ALWAYS BLAME ME". And I said "FOCUS, GRAND FINALE! FOCUS!!" And I gave them detailed instructions to wear boots, coveralls, hats and gloves and told them that it was really cold now, so to hurry as much as they could before they got frostbite or something that would be a terrible burden for me to deal with in addition to my other daily duties.
The driveway is done. Sort of. Probably.
It's dark now, so it's kind of hard to tell, but while I may have *technically* won this battle, I do not think I won this battle. At least not in the way I was imagining.
Which is the point of my post tonight.
You have to pick your battles, of course. But the biggest part of being a parent in repeating, repeating, double checking, triple checking, and making one last swoop through to make sure you haven't forgotten anything. It's pretending as though things are going to happen when you know in your heart that these things are not going to happen exactly the way you have pictured.
It's acting as though they have done what you asked them even when they haven't, and praising their effort rather than focusing on their short-comings.
When my kids were little and refused to pick up their toys I would do it with them. I would make them do it.
......I am still doing that, and with the Grand Finale I have been doing it for about 11 years.
Will it ever pay off? Who knows. Not me. Sometimes I wonder if I'm having any affect at all.
It's all I can do sometimes, not to throw dishes and break things. The only thing that keeps me from doing that is the certain knowledge that if I did, I would just have to clean up the mess. Oh sure, the kids might help, but it wouldn't be a stellar job. Someone would get glass embedded in their foot and we'd have an emergency room charge on top of me losing my mind and breaking all the dishes. And that's enough to stop me.
At least so far.
Being a parent is doing the same things, repeatedly, without thanks, praise, ackowledgement or compensation for years with only the hope of them ever paying off. Building walls, one small brick at a time. Chinking away ceaselessly with no end in sight.
The thing is, that's all right. You just keep on keeping on.
It is kind of hard not to keep repeating things, but eventually, if you get old enough, they will forgive you for that.
And I know that, eventually, the Grand Finale will have little argumentative ones who need to be reminded (4 times) and double checked.
Which makes it completely worth it.
Winter seems to drag on, doesn't it?
In 6 more weeks it will almost be spring!
Jan 19, 2011
The House passed the bill to repeal Obamacare on to the Senate. This is very good, although it may come to nothing in the Senate. There are at least 21 Dem's in the Senate who are up for re-election next year, so it could actually get kind of interesting. So far 27 states are suing to get out of Obamacare, however, Missouri is not yet on of them.
This is going to be a page that is just my opinion, and I will provide links.
I kind of got drug into politics by forming a serious long-term monogomous relationship with someone who had followed them his whole adult life. I will call this man the Cyclist, and he used to force me to watch news talk shows for hours on end. I always had a book with me and mostly read, but there was one show that just drove me crazy and made even me put my book down. I called it The Motormouth and The Dead Guy. I would explode and say "AAAAAHHHH. Why do they do that? It can't be that hard to find out what the truth is and report it!!!!"
Then the Cyclist would explain to me that this was not the news, it was a talk show. Furthermore, that all the talk shows did that, just let people ramble on about crap that had nothing to do with what they had been asked. I got that it wasn't the news, but I could not get why WHY they didn't ever back up anything they said with any facts. Well, ok, it was mostly The Dead Guy that did that, The Motormouth would wear you out with facts, which got on my nerves until it just physically upset me.
So I started watching different stations, and comparing what I saw reported with what I could actually verify.
I did this to prove the Cyclist wrong, naturally. And naturally, it turned out that it couldn't be done. I was appalled.
Now, where you go to verify is up to you. You can, and will, find almost anything on the internet to support almost any claim, no matter how strange.
I go to National Review Online, The Heritage Foundation, Brietbart, Fox, there are lots of places you can go. If you are a facebook friend you are probably already familiar with these places.
What I found was that Fox had more facts. Especially if you just watch the regular news. The other networks spin it one way or another. This is just my opinion.
The other thing that I started doing was looking up the voting records of politicians. This is key. The best place I have found is Votesmart.org. This is so important for you to do before you go vote because a lot of them lie. Not all of them lie. But some of them are absolutely shameless and if you follow their voting record and then see them on TV talking exactly the opposite you know they are a liar right there.
Also note that lots of research needs to be done when voting on Propositions and Amendments. You can find lots of information on these usually, but you have to look for the truth. The crap they hand you on pamplets is usually bent toward one side or the other.
One that comes to my mind from recently was the Proposition to make 60% of our energy come from renewable sources in 10 or 20 years. It appealed to the folks that think anything Green is good. It turns out that it will make our energy costs skyrocket and no one will be able to afford electricity....We voted this on ourselves, people. We could practically be from California. I find this very frustrating. And I mean nothing bad toward my good tea party friends in California. There are good Americans there. They have Dennis Miller there, for God's sake.
I am an Independent voter. I am a Tea Party Member.
I am both of these things because I still believe that American goverment is run by the people, for the people, and of the people.
I am both of these things because I believe that most people are capable of making their own decisions and taking care of themselves and their families without any "help" from some person they don't even know who has a bunch of paperwork to fill out that doesn't make any sense.
I am both of these things because I don't throw in with large groups of people easily.
I am afraid of the future for the first time in my life.
It starts slow, but it has moved very fast.
When I was growing up, if I got sick, my mom drove me 30 miles to the Dr. The Dr. fixed whatever was wrong with me, be it strep throat, a bladder infection or a broken leg. Well, for the broken leg we went across the street to the hospital for the cast.
This cost about $25. Ok, the cast was probably more. Say $200.
Fast forward 30 years.
You can get in to see your "primary" physician, but if anything is really wrong with you, you have to get a "referral".
This referral consists of you getting another appointment (in 6 weeks, if you're lucky) at another Dr. in a town approximately 250 miles away from where you live.
We have been doing this for so long that we have young women of child bearing age who think nothing of driving 250 miles to give birth. Giving birth is a process that can usually be accomplished by calling your women relatives, driving a stake in the yard and boiling water. I kid, I kid. But do you see the point?
Why is this? It's because none of our small hospitals carry insurance for deliveries anymore.
It's because they can't afford to carry insurance because they can be sued. This is why we have lost our hospitals and our doctor's. They literally cannot afford to stay in business.
Torte reform is one of my biggest causes and no one wants to address that.
It is very important to think for yourself, be well informed, and do NOT, DO NOT get used to standing in line, filling out paperwork and being herded through like cattle.
This has been kind of a long post, or at least it seems that way. And it's been kind of rambling, but stick with me here.
If you have children, you can't really not pay attention anymore. When I was younger I would just go get drunk and dance till 4 am myself, but I'm too old to do that anymore.
Now is the time to start paying attention, however you feel.
Feel free to leave comments. We will see where this goes from here.
This is going to be a page that is just my opinion, and I will provide links.
I kind of got drug into politics by forming a serious long-term monogomous relationship with someone who had followed them his whole adult life. I will call this man the Cyclist, and he used to force me to watch news talk shows for hours on end. I always had a book with me and mostly read, but there was one show that just drove me crazy and made even me put my book down. I called it The Motormouth and The Dead Guy. I would explode and say "AAAAAHHHH. Why do they do that? It can't be that hard to find out what the truth is and report it!!!!"
Then the Cyclist would explain to me that this was not the news, it was a talk show. Furthermore, that all the talk shows did that, just let people ramble on about crap that had nothing to do with what they had been asked. I got that it wasn't the news, but I could not get why WHY they didn't ever back up anything they said with any facts. Well, ok, it was mostly The Dead Guy that did that, The Motormouth would wear you out with facts, which got on my nerves until it just physically upset me.
So I started watching different stations, and comparing what I saw reported with what I could actually verify.
I did this to prove the Cyclist wrong, naturally. And naturally, it turned out that it couldn't be done. I was appalled.
Now, where you go to verify is up to you. You can, and will, find almost anything on the internet to support almost any claim, no matter how strange.
I go to National Review Online, The Heritage Foundation, Brietbart, Fox, there are lots of places you can go. If you are a facebook friend you are probably already familiar with these places.
What I found was that Fox had more facts. Especially if you just watch the regular news. The other networks spin it one way or another. This is just my opinion.
The other thing that I started doing was looking up the voting records of politicians. This is key. The best place I have found is Votesmart.org. This is so important for you to do before you go vote because a lot of them lie. Not all of them lie. But some of them are absolutely shameless and if you follow their voting record and then see them on TV talking exactly the opposite you know they are a liar right there.
Also note that lots of research needs to be done when voting on Propositions and Amendments. You can find lots of information on these usually, but you have to look for the truth. The crap they hand you on pamplets is usually bent toward one side or the other.
One that comes to my mind from recently was the Proposition to make 60% of our energy come from renewable sources in 10 or 20 years. It appealed to the folks that think anything Green is good. It turns out that it will make our energy costs skyrocket and no one will be able to afford electricity....We voted this on ourselves, people. We could practically be from California. I find this very frustrating. And I mean nothing bad toward my good tea party friends in California. There are good Americans there. They have Dennis Miller there, for God's sake.
I am an Independent voter. I am a Tea Party Member.
I am both of these things because I still believe that American goverment is run by the people, for the people, and of the people.
I am both of these things because I believe that most people are capable of making their own decisions and taking care of themselves and their families without any "help" from some person they don't even know who has a bunch of paperwork to fill out that doesn't make any sense.
I am both of these things because I don't throw in with large groups of people easily.
I am afraid of the future for the first time in my life.
It starts slow, but it has moved very fast.
When I was growing up, if I got sick, my mom drove me 30 miles to the Dr. The Dr. fixed whatever was wrong with me, be it strep throat, a bladder infection or a broken leg. Well, for the broken leg we went across the street to the hospital for the cast.
This cost about $25. Ok, the cast was probably more. Say $200.
Fast forward 30 years.
You can get in to see your "primary" physician, but if anything is really wrong with you, you have to get a "referral".
This referral consists of you getting another appointment (in 6 weeks, if you're lucky) at another Dr. in a town approximately 250 miles away from where you live.
We have been doing this for so long that we have young women of child bearing age who think nothing of driving 250 miles to give birth. Giving birth is a process that can usually be accomplished by calling your women relatives, driving a stake in the yard and boiling water. I kid, I kid. But do you see the point?
Why is this? It's because none of our small hospitals carry insurance for deliveries anymore.
It's because they can't afford to carry insurance because they can be sued. This is why we have lost our hospitals and our doctor's. They literally cannot afford to stay in business.
Torte reform is one of my biggest causes and no one wants to address that.
It is very important to think for yourself, be well informed, and do NOT, DO NOT get used to standing in line, filling out paperwork and being herded through like cattle.
This has been kind of a long post, or at least it seems that way. And it's been kind of rambling, but stick with me here.
If you have children, you can't really not pay attention anymore. When I was younger I would just go get drunk and dance till 4 am myself, but I'm too old to do that anymore.
Now is the time to start paying attention, however you feel.
Feel free to leave comments. We will see where this goes from here.
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