Tally the Little Things - A Positive Post!

I just got a new van.  It wasn't possible without my mother.  Often times, I've wondered way too much "Why me?"  I have a ridiculously dysfunctional family - fractured, broken and missing.  My first husband was abusive while I was pregnant.  I grew up in weird situations, the poor, ugly, nerdy girl.  I had six total miscarriages.  My oldest is bipolar.  A property management company making off with thousands, and the tenants he left behind who caused thousands in damages, causing us to lose the home we left behind in Colorado and ruin our credit (and no lawyer will touch without thousands on retainer.. because they won't make tens of thousands...) Desperately tired and overworked.  Even through last year, I was wondering... why me?  How much is God going to throw at me?  Is there a God?  Does he listen?  Does he laugh?  But alas, this hath borne a positive post.  From me.  The ever loving cynic.

Don't Call Me Gay, You Fag!!!!

I'm not gay, don't call me gay!  Don't call ANYONE gay!  What's that you say?  But you are gay?  Well you are just as guilty sometimes.  You see, in the last eight months, we have seen many GLBT strides towards equality and that's a good thing.  But the comments from both GLBT supporters and GLBT's themselves is disgraceful.

Why I Sympathize With Gaddafi

You can call me whatever you want for this piece.  You'll read it, probably be outraged, call me un-American, and shout "How dare she?"  My purpose is to make you think.  We've lost humanity and America and the world have become the biggest hypocrites than any of our and other countries ancestors.  Hypocrisy is my peeve.  I'll go through some histories it's rather long and interesting, but jump to his murder, sympathy and hypocrisy if you want to get to why I sympathize with him.

Colonel Moammar Gaddafi (who has about 100 versions of his name out there - here, he will go by MG) was something else.  The traveling tent with his camel, the crazy outfits, and he was a dictator.  Dictator derives direct negative connotations today.  Oh no!  Bad man rules a country and no one can stop him!  Did you know Saudi Arabia is under dictatorship?  Oh wait, they are of noble blood, it's "monarchy".  I have a problem with anyone who isn't privileged being labeled a tyrant off the bat (like the US did when he took over the country in the first place).  Apparently, having loads of cash can buy you favor in the world too!  In fact, there are quite a few countries left in rule of a monarchy or dictatorship, but they are too strong, give us free stuff, or their country doesn't have anything cool so we don't want to deal with them.

Stop Glamorizing Suicide

*Update for further clarification added below

You won't like what I'm about to say.  It's controversial, it's straightforward, it's the dialogue we should be having instead of having pity.  Another day, another suicide from bullying.  It's parents fault, it's the school's fault and we all take sorrow in a child/teen dead.

Every time we glamorize the suicides (most notably from bullying lately) we are telling kids, "Aw, poor thing, I'm going to give you the recognition and sorrow you should have gotten in your life".  Kids on the edge are being pushed over by the notion that they'll get famous, in my truly honest not-so-humble opinion.  Even a decade ago, suicide was shameful.  Not to mention two, three or four decades ago.  I experienced the full realm of bullying from having my homework stolen out of my hand and no teacher willing to listen, to being thrown from my desk (or it toppled with me in it), hair pulled, spit on because I was a heavy girl (not even obese at the time, just not a stick), because I refused to go anorexic, a double whammy in wearing glasses, a triple whammy in being poor and a quadruple whammy in having a messed up family.  I was taunted, teased, physically harmed, every day of my school life until I got so fed up (even with my straight A's) that I stopped going overall.  Parents even hated me because I addressed them as Mr. and Mrs., which they felt was trying to suck up to them.  The early boyfriends I did have ended up dumping me sometimes because of the pressure they faced from peers taunting them about being with the fat, ugly chick.

AttackWatch.com Dispels Lies or Perpetuates Them?

A good friend of mine posted a link to Attack Watch on her Facebook today.  I thought it was satire (I'd been out of the news loop for the last day).  It's real, it's run by Obama's campaign manager.  Not only is it butt ugly (all that money and you can't spring for more than black and white?) but it's part opinion, part lie.

Obama's campaign is to have us all tattle on each other.  Seriously.  You can go to the site, put in an "attack" from a drop down menu and even attach files to support the attack you want to report.

Feel free to go to the report section and put in silly attacks like "Obama refuses to wear underwear" and flood the report system so someone has to weed out the dumb ones from people genuinely tattling on people they don't like.  This wouldn't fly with me regardless of who it is.  Obama has successfully turned the country to racist, classist, elitest, religious groups all hating each other.  Now, you too can tattle on that "other race", that person that has more than you, that person who has a job or that damned Catholic down the street!

I'll tackle the first "attacks" here.

9/11 In A Child's Eyes - Never Forget

10 years.  I was 17, turning 18 the 12th.  Now, as a mom to four sons - I allowed my oldest, who turns 8 in two weeks to watch the news footage and personal videos of the horrific acts that day.  I made kiddie coffee, something I wanted to share with him at the right moment that my Pappy let me have when I was 8.  (About a teaspoon of coffee in milk and sugar.)  I made us cinnamon rolls and we curled up on the couch together to begin watching.  The others were asleep.

I was prepared, but still flubbed the words to explain "Why did they attack us?".  As I started to explain, I realized that my wording was leading him to think all Muslims were bad.  I had to clarify further the definition of terrorists and extremists and that there are good Muslims out there.  He had many questions.  I answered them as unemotionally as possible, but I teared up when they showed the jumpers.  I tried to convey their feelings when he asked why they would jump to their death - noting that if they knew they would die, it's better to jump and die quick than to burn alive.  He said "Mommy, I'd jump too.".

 (More after the jump)

Casey Anthony - Opinion of the Jury (Updated)

Update Below

I must first preface anything I say in that I believe the evidence showed Casey was guilty.  That said, I've always taken great pride in my ability to see both sides of the coin.  I present the coin in the air.  I don't think there is another side to the coin in this case, just a coin flipping, maybe just enough to avoid murder one.  I also strongly feel the jurors knew they were going to cash in.  Scott Peterson's jury wrote a book that became a top seller - those who wanted to, could stay anonymous.  I won't lay out the case by details, there's plenty of blogs and articles out there already who have.  I raise some serious questions however, based on the evidence, the jury's comments and what we do know.  The trial happened an hour away.  The jury lives in my county.

Caylee Anthony 2005-2008

The world was shocked by Casey Anthony's not guilty verdict, and I mean the world.  Just in my very limited understanding of vernacular and prose of other languages and some minor words - comments not in English were pretty much the same as those who were.  Unfortunately, the comments sections of news stories are some of the very same people who insisted on her guilt, saying "oh, uhm, yeah, I knew that".  Juror's paid media appearances after the fact may show some serious incompetence and underlying motives.

More after the jump - click on headline

Urgent: A Plea, Call to Action over Medical Collections Act

Stay with me here, there's some hope, a rainbow and some personal experience.  At the end is a call for action from voters that could save you thousands of dollars, even just in the next 5 years, depending.

I was reading the St. Pete Times when I came across the business section recently.  In a short story the headline stated "Medical debts may torpedo credit scores".  Tell me something I don't know.  For the last 12 years (yes, it started when I was a minor), I've been fighting with medical collections companies over my credit reports - not only in a few unpaid bills, but on paid ones as well.  They talked about the Medical Debt Responsibility Act.  Feel free to surpass the personal items to get to the legislation discussion.

Click on headline for more after the jump

Updated: "Go the F to Sleep IS Funny", Karen

Update below, looks like our lovely hypocrite can't stand the courage of her convictions.

I came across an article today on CNN that somehow managed to grab the headlines.  It was titled: "Go the F*** to Sleep" not funny.  Normally, it would just be an opinion, but Karen Zacharias managed to make the leap of the entire article that people who enjoy this book are abusers, while quietly dispelling that in a one off sentence.  (An example of her leaps is equating Lady Gaga's charity theft to sexual abuse by Bishop Eddie Long.) An excerpt: 

As the title suggests, "Go the F*** to Sleep" mocks the parental frustrations of trying to lay a child down to bed. Crass in concept and execution, this is an expletive-filled bedtime story intended solely for the amusement of parents.

 More after the jump - click on the headline.

Stolen Valor and InfantryFacts.com Is A Lie

Ah, the ever present internet has created another false prophet.  This post addresses the statements by InfantryFacts.com - his stolen valor of our service members and degradation of us measly little military wives.  I am not just a house wife though.  I'm a well spoken mother, military wife (twice over, including first one being infantry), daughter, granddaughter (twice over) and niece.  Though I wasn't able to join the military myself for medical reasons, I think with my surroundings I must bleed little American flags.  Even if we ran with his "I'm Infantry", he had to have been in the service at least a decade ago before all this started, then he had to re-enlist, against his conscience to have any semblance of current service members tribulations.  How does that make sense?  In fact, I have a pretty good idea who of who the actual creator is in Twitterland and have constantly had a problem with the lies and assertions from there too.  It's all ripped from conspiracy headlines, sometimes damn near verbatim from places like Above Top Secret.  Because it's becoming a pattern, I want to address it.

More after the jump