31.5.07

boo hoo

Conor is going off to tech school this summer. Anybody wanna come visit, say July through October?

30.5.07

On Guatanamo

ROMNEY: I am glad [detainees] are at Guantanamo. I don’t want them on our soil. I want them on Guantanamo, where they don’t get the access to lawyers they get when they’re on our soil. I don’t want them in our prisons, I want them there. Some people have said we ought to close Guantanamo. My view is we ought to double Guantanamo.

Let's start scrounging up some more Arabs then. We've got work to do!

GIULIANI: In the hypothetical that you gave me, which assumes that we know there is going to be another attack and these people know about it, I would tell the people who had to do the interrogation to use every method they can think of. Shouldn’t be torture, but every method they can think of.

Like an Irish Jig? What are you implying exactly?

MCCAIN: R-Ariz., agreed that the U.S. should ensure that no prisoner at Guantanamo is subjected to torture. But, he said, closing the prison is premature without a legal resolution to the prisoners’ cases.“I don’t think they deserve a fair jury trial, but there should be some sort of adjudication” to decide whether detainees are held for life, executed or released rather than held indefinitely, McCain said.

Not a fair trial? What kind should it be?

CLINTON: “Guantanamo has become associated in the eyes of the world with a discredited administration policy of abuse, secrecy, and contempt for the rule of law. Rather than keeping us more secure, keeping Guantanamo open is harming our national interests. It compromises our long term military and strategic interests, and it impairs our standing overseas. I have certainly concluded that we should address any security issues on what to do with the remaining detainees, and then close it once and for all,” said Senator Clinton.

Well. Color me impressed.

OBAMA: “We need to bring to a close this sad chapter in American history, and begin a chapter that passes the might of our military to the freedom of our diplomacy and the power of our alliances. And while we are at it, we can close down Guantanamo and we can restore habeas corpus and we can lead with our ideas and our values.”-Barack Obama, Richmond, VA, May 8th

Does this man always speak in poetry? I heart him ever so much.

On the heels of another suicide

In the proverbial nutshell

1) Kids play in garage
2) Dog pees in garage
3) Baby crawls through pee in garage
4) Baby is stripped, sanitized, and placed on the floor
5) Baby makes it to the fifth stair before Mother notices he's missing
6) Mother returns with Baby to discover Toddler has dumped tupperware full of itsy teeny weeny ponytail holders on the floor
7) Mother re-deposits Baby on the floor, and picks up 700 itsy teeny weeny ponytail holders.
8) Mother turns around to notice Baby is missing
9) Mother collapses at the bottom of the stairs as Baby looks down from the top landing.



pictures from a previous accompanied trip up the stairs

24.5.07

Let them cry.

We have no TV. Well we have a TV, but we don't "get" tv. Get it? The satellite man (which sounds more exciting than it is) came to the door today. He wanted to offer us a cheaper option than cable. I stood there with Finnegan (who is currently known as "electric boogaloo") on my hip and told him we didn't have cable. He stood there for a second. "You don't have ANYTHING?" Nope. "Not even with the little one?" I was nice. But seriously. He's ten months old.

Now I'm not going to pretend that we don't watch movies around here. In fact, Violet has a pretty nasty addiction we're attempting to conquer. And by addiction, I mean if she gets hurt, or is generally upset, rather than crying and dealing with her emotions, she wants a movie. So we're working on getting her crying. Sounds kind of strange, I know. But it's what she needs. Don't worry, I'm not pinching her or anything to get her started.

It's just based on the general idea that if you have an emotional upset that you don't deal with (by releasing those emotions through crying or raging) those emotions don't go away. I think people often have this idea that kids have it easy. That crying is a manipulation. That they're not really feeling the emotions they obviously are. Kids feel things intensely. More intensely than you or I. They don't conjure up tears to get what they want. They genuinely feel hurt, confused, disappointed. Any number of things.

We tend to see the emotions of children as pretty one-dimensional. If a child is hurt or frightened and really letting loose, I hear people all the time say things like "Oh, he's MAD!" No he isn't. He's hurt. If you fell down and hit your head and were crying, and I said "Man, you're MAD!", wouldn't you feel a little insulted. Either that, or the pull the old "Oh, you're OK!" No. No, I'm not. I'm hurt. Dumbass. But by cajoling them into ignoring those feelings, we're doing them no favors.

I once saw a little girl trip and fall into a cement drainage ditch. She was holding a pail, and fell with her throat on the pail. Her mother scooped her up. She was terrified, had the wind knocked out of her, and then started making a noise I'll never forget. It sounded a little like a seal barking. So the neighbor starts talking about her fricking shoes. "OOOHHH. I like your shoes. Look how pretty your shoes are!" I wanted to take the shoe and stick it in her mouth. Just ignore your feelings! They'll go away.
Now, don't for a minute think I'm advocating "crying it out" in the sense that you put a baby in a cage in a dark room and teach them to have a really really healthy relationship with sleep and darkness by screaming themselves to sleep. Or say, hey if you want to cry, cry, I'm leaving. I'm talking about holding a crying child and helping them release pent up emotions.


I've found a little bit of freedom in the ideas that kids need to cry, just like adults. It does two things. I realize that 1) It is not my fault that she is crying. I have not failed as a parent, because my child is upset. and 2) I don't have to fix it. I hold her. I tell her it's ok to cry when she needs to. I had found myself getting angry when Violet would get upset. This has really changed that. I help her sort through her emotions. I'm patient. I hold her or sit with her. She gets her "sads out". And we go on with our day. Rather than trying to do a song and dance all day while nothing makes her happy, the mood has passed, and been dealt with.

The Flipside of the Gardasil Push

Judicial Watch Uncovers Three Deaths Relating to HPV Vaccine Event Reports Obtained from FDA Detail 1,637 Adverse Reactions to Gardasil
(Washington, DC) -- Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released documents obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, detailing 1,637 reports of adverse reactions to the vaccination for human papillomavirus (HPV), Gardasil. Three deaths were related to the vaccine. One physician’s assistant reported that a female patient “died of a blood clot three hours after getting the Gardasil vaccine.” Two other reports, on girls 12 and 19, reported deaths relating to heart problems and/or blood clotting.
As of May 11, 2007, the 1,637 adverse vaccination reactions reported to the FDA via the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) included 371 serious reactions. Of the 42 women who received the vaccine while pregnant, 18 experienced side effects ranging from spontaneous abortion to fetal abnormities.
Side effects published by Merck & Co. warn the public about potential pain, fever, nausea, dizziness and itching after receiving the vaccine. Indeed, 77% of the adverse reactions reported are typical side effects to vaccinations. But other more serious side effects reported include paralysis, Bells Palsy, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and seizures.
“The FDA adverse event reports on the HPV vaccine read like a catalog of horrors,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Any state or local government now beset by Merck’s lobbying campaigns to mandate this HPV vaccine for young girls ought to take a look at these adverse health reports. It looks as if an unproven vaccine with dangerous side effects is being pushed as a miracle drug.”
Judicial Watch filed its request on May 9, 2007, and received the adverse event reports from the FDA on May 15, 2007. Judicial Watch has posted the adverse event reports below.
(A recent study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also questioned the general effectiveness of Gardasil.)

...but that weed....that'll kill ya!

Visit the website for the reports

22.5.07

Gay Adoption

LONDON (AFP) - A pair of gay flamingos have adopted an abandoned chick, becoming parents after being together for six years, a British conservation organisation said Monday.

We're being less progressive than birds.

20.5.07

Belief-O-Matic

1. Liberal Quakers (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (99%)
3. Mahayana Buddhism (92%)
4. Neo-Pagan (89%)
5. New Age (84%)
6. Theravada Buddhism (84%)
7. Reform Judaism (82%)
8. Jainism (82%)
9. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (79%)
10. Secular Humanism (75%)
11. Bahá'í Faith (72%)
12. Taoism (70%)
13. Sikhism (68%)
14. Hinduism (62%)
15. Orthodox Quaker (61%)
16. New Thought (56%)
17. Scientology (54%)
18. Orthodox Judaism (53%)
19. Islam (49%)
20. Nontheist (47%)
21. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (39%)
22. Seventh Day Adventist (30%)
23. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (29%)
24. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (27%)
25. Eastern Orthodox (20%)
26. Roman Catholic (20%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (15%)


I always get the Quakers. I took this years ago, still the Quakers. I don't think I'd be into the silent church thing though.... We probably will start going to the UU church when Conor gets back from Tech School. The closest Friends church is in Downers Grove. I found, while taking the quiz, that it was honestly difficult me to divorce myself from what I was taught to believe, or what I'm "supposed" to believe, and answer the questions with what I actually believe. As hokey as the idea of taking a religion quiz is, it actually raised some interesting issues for me. Like the fact that I have the right to decide what I believe, sans an instruction manual or esteemed clergy to tell me what's allowed. Honestly, the idea that there may be no book out there with the answers is still terrifying, but rather liberating for me. Try it out. Let me know what you get. I'd be really interested to see. Just try to answer the questions honestly, with no residual childhood guilt.

Belief-O-Matic











17.5.07

it's a hate-stravaganza!








who, exactly fits into their dogma?

16.5.07

Remembering the Legacy of Rev. Falwell

“I listen to feminists and all these radical gals… These women just need a man in the house. That’s all they need. Most of the feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home. And they blew it and they’re mad at all men. Feminists hate men. They’re sexist. They hate men; that’s their problem."--Jerry Falwell

If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure as a human being.-- Rev Jerry Falwell

AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.-- Jerry Falwell

"I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'"Jerry Falwell 9/12/2001

"If Chief Justice Warren and his associates had known God’s word and had desired to do the Lord’s will, I am quite confident that the 1954 decision [Brown v. Board of Education] would never have been made…. The facilities should be separate. When God has drawn a line of distinction, we should not attempt to cross that line."

The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country.-- Rev Jerry Falwell, Sermon, July 4, 1976

“[homosexuals are] brute beasts...part of a vile and satanic system [that] will be utterly annihilated, and there will be a celebration in heaven.”

"[Vice President Gore] recently praised the lesbian actress who plays 'Ellen' on ABC Television...I believe he may even put children, young people, and adults in danger by his public endorsement of deviant homosexual behavior...Our elected leaders are attempting to glorify and legitimize perversion." People for the American Way, "Hostile Climate", 1998, p.9

The ACLU is to Christians what the American Nazi party is to Jews.-- Rev Jerry Falwell

Labor unions should study and read the Bible instead of asking for more money. When people get right with God, they are better workers.

I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them.

"The Anti-Christ is a Jewish male alive in the world today."Jerry Falwell


It appears that America's anti-Biblical feminist movement is at last dying, thank God, and is possibly being replaced by a Christ-centered men's movement which may become the foundation for a desperately needed national spiritual awakening.

Textbooks are Soviet propaganda.

Billy Graham is the chief servant of Satan in America.

Christians, like slaves and soldiers, ask no questions.

"Someone must not be afraid to say, 'moral perversion is wrong.' If we do not act now, homosexuals will 'own' America!...If you and I do not speak up now, this homosexual steamroller will literally crush all decent men, women, and children who get in its way...and our nation will pay a terrible price!"--Jerry Falwell quoted in People for the American Way's, "Hostile Climate,"

I am such a strong admirer and supporter of George W. Bush that if he suggested eliminating the income tax or doubling it, I would vote yes on first blush.

14.5.07

Meme

I was tagged by Purgatory Lory and Punk Rock Ladybug. One for 8 random things, and one for 7. So here are my 15 things. Conor would be so proud of my math!

1) I find removing body hair to be a completely ludicrous tradition. But I do it anyway.

2) If I could have one superpower from the Heroes crowd, it would be the ability to acquire and retain information, a la that chick from the diner that got her head chopped open.

3) I find doing things in order to not disrupt the status quo, or because you'd just "rather not know" to be the most deplorable qualities.

4) I recently learned about a practice called Christian Domestic Discipline, which entails physical discipline of the wife by the husband. Consensually. I'm not sure how I feel about it on the level that, an adult woman should be able to do what she wishes with her body, but I find it repulsive.
5) My favorite artist is May Ann Licudine.

6) Conor and I are getting matchy matchy tattoos. Aren't we special?

7) I swear Finnegan was trying to say "button" yesterday.

8) I have the uncontrollable urge to suggest parenting books to people, even though I realize that people don't get as thrilled about them as I do.

9) Wife beaters are sexy. SEXY I SAY! (the shirts...not the christian domestic discipline crowd)

10) So is chest hair, dammit!

11) However, gold chains resting in a nest of chest hair tufting from a wife beater are NOT.

12) I like visiting bizarre websites. (CDD, for example) I also like to look at families advertising for "sister wives", and read about feral children.

13) While I was writing this, Finn was playing in the toilet.

14) Since getting married and having kids, I think about death almost everyday.

15) Have you ever seen that montage from America's Funniest Home Videos of men changing diapers and falling all over themselves gagging? I didn't find it funny at all. It made me want to punch them in the face.

ow. the tiny fingernails.


11.5.07

happy birfday to me!


I have now retired my free hp camera! I'll be sending to Kiva. Kiva is a microfinance group that allows anyone to make small ($25 min) LOANS (not donations) to entrepreneurs in developing countries. If you've got an old digital camera sitting around, send it on to Kiva.

8.5.07

general help

Africa is not a country. Thank you for your time.

1.5.07

don't check my internet history

finnegan decided to visit some websites today.

Immigration Day

Try out the citizenship test: I got 11 out of 10 right. I have no idea how that is possible....I must be THAT good.

Naturalization Test

In the spirit of the festivities, let us also celebrate the crazies:

In order for Satan to establish his 'New World Order' and destroy the freedom of all people as predicted in the Scriptures, he must first destroy the U.S. The mostly quiet and unspectacular invasion of illegal immigrants does not focus the attention of the nations the way open warfare does, but is all the more insidious for its stealth and innocuousness. - From a resolution sponsored by Don Larsen, Utah District 65's GOP chairman.
 

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