Consider this...

According to an e-mail I recently received, Fox News radio & TV personality Glenn Beck is said to have received a letter from a fed-up 53 year old woman who’s had it up to the eyeballs & above with BOTH major (& the various minor) political parties. To be honest, I have, too, as I think I vented pretty bluntly in my blog entry of a few weeks ago when I asked whether the Republicans are a political party or a megachurch. I suspect I shared the alleged Glenn Beck item with most of my own readership (at least, those of you who’ve commented & I know personally!) yesterday, so you know whereof I speak.

To put it succinctly for those who may not have gotten this thing, basically this woman sounds off about how she was a lifelong registered Democrat until “the last Presidential election,” at which time she switched party allegiances. NOW she’s dropped BOTH parties, stating her impression that NEITHER represents either her own nor the interests of ANY American Citizen. She tasks those sitting in the marble halls of Washington to get off their collective duffs & do ANYTHING to show their support of those who ELECTED them & to heed OUR voices when they vote on matters of national importance, rather than lining their pockets, pushing legislation through that may or may not be such a hot idea, listening only to special interests, ad infinitum. In summation, she concluded with a line to the effect that if they DON’T do this, We The People are coming to get them OUT of the offices WE put them into in the first place—because We The People sure as hell aren’t impressed or pleased with anything coming out of D.C.

I have two things to add here:

1) DO AWAY WITH PRESSING “1” FOR ENGLISH, DAMN IT! If you COME here, YOU NEED TO LEARN ENGLISH! I promise you, nobody took pity on my mother’s grandparents when they arrived from Hungary around the beginning of World War I, changing street signs over to Hungarian for them any more than business was conducted in Gaelic when the Irish influx hit after the potato famine or Italian/German/Polish became the languages du jour during WWII. Along with closing the immigration loophole, make English the official language of the USA already. I didn't take Spanish in high school--with good reason (it's called, "I wasn't interested" and took French instead!).

2) Time for a state by state assessment of a similar nature. After all, I live in the state that was abandoned by its governor for most of two weeks, not even leaving the lieutenant governor in charge. I am of the opinion that, if the lieutenant governor is considered to be MORE inept than the fool who left us hanging with NO chief executive in charge while he went gallivanting off to “the Argentine end of” the Appalachian Trail (as if!), it’s time to fire ‘em both & start all over again. (I couldn't care LESS about Mark Sanford’s extramarital affair--let Jenny Sanford deal with that, though I feel that if I were in her position, I’d leash him in the future!). I do, however, believe he should think with the head on his shoulders and vacate Columbia’s corridors of power to someone with better discretion.

He’s only the latest—he’s by no means the first, the last, or the only governor to screw up during his current term of office (remember Jim McGreevey in New Jersey being replaced unceremoniously by Jon Corzine or Elliot Spitzer’s epic screwup in Albany, New York leading to David Patterson?). And WHAT is Sarah Palin thinking, vacating office only halfway through her FIRST term?! That makes no sense whatsoever to me. Buh-bye, Sarah--you shan't be missed.

It's been said that "Power corrupts…absolute power corrupts absolutely!" Shakespeare was correct when (in 1594) he wrote: "The first thing we do is get rid of the lawyers" in Henry VI, Part II (Act 4, Scene 2). How did many of these pols get where they are now? You guessed it; via a law school! Time for them all to go back & bone up on the basic freedoms guaranteed to ALL American citizens in the Constitution ("secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves & our posterity" is more than a Schoolhouse Rock lyric!).

In closing, let me cite Alexander Hamilton: “The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original foundation of all legitimate authority.”

Stuff & catching up

I'm so glad to FINALLY have a weekend to just lie around with my feet up (I'm avoiding the "eating bonbons" part as I've finally lost a few pounds & want to continue THAT momentum!) for a little while. Hubby dearest is painting the garage floor to minimize dust out there; the laundry room is next, & I hope to get to the Y for my mile walk on the treadmill this afternoon.

Last weekend saw us running amok between a (3 hrs one way on the Interstate!) trip to Pickens for a swim championship, younger son's 20th birthday celebration at my mother-in-law's house (thanks, Mom!), & hubby doing more substantial than anticipated automotive repairs to both boys' vehicles. Yes, it was a pain for him to do an oil change, replace an entire cooling system, & change front end brake pads in the parking lot of an apartment complex--but in the long run we're relieved, because now we know the cars are again mechanically as safe as possible for our offspring.

The past week was relatively quiet at work, though I was still busy between catching up all the mandatory paperwork & taking a client to an appointment in order to "git'r done" before school resumes around 8/20. (Yes, ALREADY!!!) Today I skipped my religious choral obligation in favor of sleeping in, making waffles from scratch for the girls & myself, & helping to clear out the laundry room so hubby can perhaps paint (at least part of) that floor later today. (Hubby fed himself & was sweeping the garage floor by the time I considered waffling.)

What does the future hold? One never knows, but I know ours holds a mortgage burning celebration (likely around Christmas) and exploring an eventual move from Sweltering Ovenville in the next decade. Stay tuned for further developments in the continuing story (no, we're not quacks who've gone to the dogs!!!). ;)

Pumping Iron (quietly!)

Since earlier this year (March or so, I think!) I've been trying to take care of ME first, for a big change. (As the mother of 4, you might imagine--correctly--that this hasn't always been my priority.) Through my participation in Mobile Fit at the local Y, I've started doing some Nautilus & free weight work--NOT something I ever thought I'd do, but here we are. I've also been taking a Core Crush class 2 nights every week with my 10 year old.

I'll never rival Gov. Schwarzenegger, but hey, I can pump iron too! (To quote Bill Bixby in The Incredible Hulk, "Don't make me angry...you wouldn't like me when I'm angry!" Though I certainly don't transform into a green Lou Ferrigno, either, I AM improving in my ability to kick butt & take names!)

Look out, a new resource!

I grew up in a family of, shall I politely say, independent women. Women's Lib meant little to me other than Title IX forcing co-ed gym classes & a Helen Reddy song when I was growing up simply because the exemplars were right there in my daily life. One great grandmother was resourceful in her day (roughly the first quarter of the 20th century) despite societal restrictions on employment of married women at the time; she made her living as a seamstress (working from her home) who sewed everything from clothing to curtains for Broadway theaters.

My father practically invented the term "frequent flyer" due to his business travels during my youth. As a result, if the lawn needed mowing, the garden needed weeding, fruit trees needed pruning, or the driveway had to be cleared in the dead of winter, it was almost certain that the job would be done by my mother, myself, my sister, my aunt, or my grandmother. (It all depended on what the job was & at whose home!) I remember once he returned from Europe (where he'd been for three months of training) to find a completely remodeled house. In his absence, my mother had repainted every room, wallpapered & tiled kitchen backsplashes, rearranged the furniture in the living room & all the bedrooms to best catch summer breezes (what's air conditioning in southern New England?), & created a lush floral oasis full of begonias, Dusty Millers, marigolds, coleus, etc. in front of the back porch (for which I think Dad broke ground just before his departure). I'm not sure whether the shock or the jet lag was harder for him to recover from!

With that in mind, it should come as NO surprise whatsoever that my aunt has steered me to a really cool site called eHow.com. It can tell you how to do pretty much ANYTHING you may not know how to do, from rewiring lamps to budget conscious remodels of your kitchen or bath to interesting new recipes. I highly recommend it for any head scratching dilemmas you may have!

Why CAN'T we be friends? (to borrow an old War lyric)

Or, "Can't we all just get along?" What ever happened to, "Blessed are the peacemakers?"

I’m quite tardy remarking on this, but my day job has been extremely busy recently and I wanted to be as succinct as possible when I did comment. This excerpt from Arsalan Iftikhar’s article from (I think!) CNN's website quoting our President from his recent speech in Cairo sharply veers from the blithering idiocy that’s been American foreign policy for at least the past eight years (and probably much longer):

“President Obama concluded his remarkable Cairo address by highlighting the individual mandates for peace in each of the major Abrahamic religions.

He said that, "The Holy Koran tells us, 'O mankind! We have...made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.' The Talmud tells us: 'The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace.' The Holy Bible tells us, 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.'

The people of the world can live together in peace. We know that is God's vision. Now, that must be our work here on Earth."

Would it EVER occur to one of our politicos who’s spent far too long inside the Beltway (OR their less than benevolent “Christian” spiritual leaders!) to quote the Torah, let alone the Koran, to emphasize EVERYONE'S similarities? It's about time someone reminded the Middle East that not only are we all in this together, but we're all descended from Father Abraham, no matter what name we call God by.

I find that speech quite consistent with traditional American values; the Establishment Clause prohibiting the Federal government from preferential treatment of one religious group over another AND the Free Exercise Clause guaranteeing EVERYONE's right to worship as THEY see fit, are both covered as "Freedom of Religion" in the first article of the Constitution of the United States. Therefore, I marvel that anyone could feel our country was slighted in any way by that speech.

Unlike the character of Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation, I do NOT ask that we "Please continue the petty bickering." Time to knock it off for the sake of our own next generations.

Tired of MJ

Enough already--the man has been deceased for more than a week, & here we are JUST laying him to rest!!!

While on the treadmill earlier I happened to catch part of a news broadcast during which the parents of a soldier who was killed in Afghanistan the same day Michael Jackson died. They were more than slightly miffed that their son had received almost NO recognition for his sacrifice on the altar of Service To The Country--as the wife & daughter of two veterans of our nation's armed forces, I have to agree this is grossly unfair, particularly with the country STILL entrenched in a war in two countries.

Will Michael Jackson be missed? Surely. His musical talent was & remains unquestioned. However, the pedophilia & other weirdness that tainted his life for the past 15 years or thereabouts I WILL NOT miss seeing profiled in the media, & I'm sure neither will the vast majority of other people (one hopes this certainly includes members of his own family, who should be sickest of all about how he's portrayed in the media!).

Irrelevant? You decide

The more I watch the implosion of numerous politicians' careers, the more I marvel that politicians whom WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES elected seem clueless about how life runs outside the Beltway--or outside of their state capital buildings, in the case of our numerous wayward state governors.

When I initially registered to vote ate age 18, I actually registered AS a Republican, though as time has gone by I've been less committed to party lines and more committed to common sense. Since I left home in the mid to late '80s, I've observed the GOP veer further and further onto its present trajectory, a path on which it caters without question to the whims of ONE religious sect--with no regard for party faithful of differing faiths. What is this; a political party or a megachurch?

The Democratic party is by no means a flawless creation, either, between the business in Illinois over the "sale" of now-President Obama's vacated Senate seat, or the fervent belief of some Democrats that all Republicans are like our last President (anyone else remember the bumper sticker that reads, "Yee Haw is NOT a foreign policy!"?).

How the mighty have been falling in droves over the past few years: New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, and now Alaska's governor voluntarily deciding against finishing up her term of office (for God only knows what reason, though I suspect the investigation into her husband earlier this year may have been a factor).

While I hesitate to wonder what's next, I also remember an adage of my grandmother, who would now be nearly 105 years old were she still with us: "There's nothing new under the sun." My father quietly foresees another American Revolution, in which the sitting politicians find out the hard way how they've disappointed the rest of us, we who elected them in the first place. All we can do now is what King Arthur said he'd do in Monty Python & the Holy Grail: watch and pray!