Why I didn't want Carty to run for Mayor

Well it's official, the "Carty Party" tonight was held to confirm that former Mayor Carty Finkbeiner has tossed his hat into the mayoral race.

Mr. Finkbeiner, noted for a highly emotive leadership style that could sometimes create tension, said he would be “patient and more disciplined in my emotion. That would be in my best interest,” though he added that his drive — which he admitted could be a “pain in the butt for everyone around” — was what it took to “move mountains.”

I'm not one of the Carty haters out there that exist in Toledo, nor am I Team A or Team B (if you don' t know you probably don't want to). I'm not a Democrat at all. Carty did do alot for Toledo when he was the Mayor before. Granted he brought alot of attention to us like his small PR disaster when he suggested having the deaf live in the homes near the airport as an idea; but he did and does love Toledo and his vision of what he thinks Toledo can become.

I'm not a fan of our current Mayor Jack Ford either (sorry Frank). I am not sure about Keith Wilkowski yet but I do like some of what I've heard him talk about so far on Denny's show. Why this is important to me even though I am not living inside the city limits at this point is what happens in Toledo does affect us out here in the townships.

My biggest fears when I heard this could possibly be a three way race between Jack Ford, Keith Wilkowski and Carty Finkbeiner was OMG it is going to get nasty and that Rob Ludeman, the lone Republican candidate is going to be the one who benefits from this. I don't dislike Rob because he is a Republican (there are some good Republican politicians out there), I don't like Rob because he doesn't seem to be willing to make a stand. What respect I had from him was lost with the whole Steam Plant deal. He has a pattern of voting along with the herd yet stating later he really didn't believe in it.

Could I be wrong about Rob? Yes. However I think Rob is one happy man at this moment knowing that Carty has helped him alot more than anyone might want to admit. If the Democrats fall apart and start attacking each other in more of this A Team B Team bs the real winner is going to end up being Rob and the Republican Party on this one. Speaking for myself, I'm tired of the infighting and name calling and finger-pointing. Carty's announcement means buckle those seatbelts and cover your ears...we are about to enter some turbulance.......

UPDATE: uh oh...Bad form Rob Ludeman, when commenting on (Channel 13) why Carty appears to be ahead in the local polls he makes a snide comment about how he thinks people just repeatedly click vote on Carty and that "his supporters have jobs". Tsk Tsk...the first low blow goes to? Rob....

Distance....

I was invited by Steve to post on his blog Distance on Education from a Parental point of view and National Political items.

Hopefully I won't mess up his blog as I already discovered I need to learn more codes to make my post look like his posts. I already had to ask for help, so let's see if I can pull this off without making a total mess of it.

His blog is on my blogroll and I've moved it up to Favorites for those of you who aren't already visiting there that want to see what I and the others he's asked to join have to say as well as his posts as the founder of Distance. I will not be posting items here that I write about over there.

So head over, and tell me what you think of my writing but please not what you think about my grasp of technology when it comes to blogging. I still have alot to learn -

:-)

Something this way wicked comes....

For some people storms are things to be afraid of. I love stormy weather. We just got hit with a wicked line of thunderstorms that was an amazing display of nature's power. If I could have a dream trip it would be to storm chase. I've seen tornados, and I'd love to get closer. Not close enough of course to see if I can be like Dorothy and really fly - lol.

I've tried to take pictures of lightening, I of course don't have the right equipment. Watching the sky turn that dark greenish gray color and counting the time between the light and the boom.....

Laying there at night when a thunderstorm is hitting watching a display that is more awesome than fireworks. Sitting here today with transformers blowing up, trees falling, power flickering, feeling the strong winds blow thru......

I need to watch Twister again....We got Cows!!!!

:-)

Key to non-Bellicose children

Yes, I am thinking about creating a whole new line of Subculture Bellicose Blogger wear....hehehe

But on to the serious situation of having children who are not bellicose....Let them get their own cell phone. Make them pay for it of course because we do have some common sense. Technically she's not a child she's 16 and she is earning her own paycheck now.

So we went and got her the most coveted of all teenage possessions besides a car a cell phone.

Now not only are my day time minutes safe but my cell phone will never be left with a dead battery again.

Thank you cricket for making unlimited minutes with free text messaging at an affordable price.

And thus is the key to non-bellicose children....

:-)

A Non-Bellicose quiz

Okay I got this from a conservative site...but it was a quiz and my curiousity took over to see what I would score as. Had I not gone over to SavetheGop to see what Jesus's General was up to over there? I would have missed this one....It is rather long and took some thought....

You scored as Roman Catholic. You are Roman Catholic. Church tradition and ecclesial authority are hugely important, and the most important part of worship for you is mass. As the Mother of God, Mary is important in your theology, and as the communion of saints includes the living and the dead, you can also ask the saints to intercede for you.

Roman Catholic		82%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan		75%
Classical Liberal		54%
Emergent/Postmodern		54%
Neo orthodox		54%
Fundamentalist		43%
Modern Liberal		43%
Reformed Evangelical		36%
Charismatic/Pentecostal		29%

http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=43870

Bellicose bloggers

The new subculture.....

Okay I had to laugh, I was reading this piece in the Washington Post about the President's speech last night when I came across this:

Bush's speech aired on all the major broadcast networks, something of a surprise since as of mid-afternoon yesterday, neither NBC nor CBS had plans to cover it. They felt, correctly, that the speech contained nothing new or newsy and that it didn't merit a half-hour or more of prime time. But something changed as the day wore on, and Bush showed up on NBC and CBS as well as on ABC and the various cable news networks that previously had announced they would cover the speech.

In a time when some polls show the popularity of the news media to be even lower than the approval rating for Bush's conduct of the war, the managements of the networks may have feared hostile reaction if they didn't air the speech live. Political conservatives keep up a steady drumbeat of hostility against the media, something the Bush administration does nothing to discourage. Refusing to air the speech probably would have led to unpleasantness -- or at the least given the new subculture of bellicose bloggers another alleged media conspiracy to shriek about.

Tom Shales the Washington Post "Style" Columnist does not like we bloggers? Wait...maybe he does. Bellicose...not a word you hear often so let's be sure and look it up, it means warlike in manner or temperament; pugnacious.

I do like the whole subculture part though....however I don't shriek, well often anyway.

Fear the blog....before we go bellicose......

:-)

Baghdad Burning

Alot of you have probably read river's blog but there are some of you who might not have seen it. She writes from Baghdad and gives a very personal view of what she is experiencing there. She doesn't get a chance to blog alot, but she has written a recent post on June 21st that I recommend reading.

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

Not only does she detail what her family is going thru in dealing with the shortages of water and electricity but it gives an insight into topics we might not typically think about like this:

The price of building materials has gone up unbelievably, in spite of the fact that major reconstruction has not yet begun. I assumed it was because so much of the concrete and other building materials was going to reinforce the restricted areas. A friend who recently got involved working with an Iraqi subcontractor who takes projects inside of the Green Zone explained that it was more than that. The Green Zone, he told us, is a city in itself. He came back awed, and more than a little bit upset. He talked of designs and plans being made for everything from the future US Embassy and the housing complex that will surround it, to restaurants, shops, fitness centers, gasoline stations, constant electricity and water- a virtual country inside of a country with its own rules, regulations and government.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Republic of the Green Zone, also known as the Green Republic.“The Americans won’t be out in less than ten years.” Is how the argument often begins with the friend who has entered the Green Republic. “How can you say that?” Is usually my answer- and I begin to throw around numbers- 2007, 2008 maximum… Could they possibly want to be here longer? Can they afford to be here longer? At this, T. shakes his head- if you could see the bases they are planning to build- if you could see what already has been built- you’d know that they are going to be here for quite a while.

The Green Zone is a source of consternation and aggravation for the typical Iraqi. It makes us anxious because it symbolises the heart of the occupation and if fortifications and barricades are any indicator- the occupation is going to be here for a long time. It is a provocation because no matter how anyone tries to explain or justify it, it is like a slap in the face. It tells us that while we are citizens in our own country, our comings and goings are restricted because portions of the country no longer belong to its people. They belong to the people living in the Green Republic.

5000 Page Views...My first milestone...

I woke up this morning, came on the blog and early this morning broke the 5,000 Page Views...

Not to shabby for a little blog who's only been around since the end of February...


Total Page Views
5,010

Average Per Day
55

Average Per Visit
1.4

Today
17

This Week
386

So I do a huge WOOOOHOOOOO and a happy dance in my chair...Thanks

:-)

Toledo stuff, Damon's closed....

Don't know if it was related to the smoking ban or if the new Smokey Bones took out too much of their business but Damon's closed on Airport, supposedly with no warning to some of the employees that still showed up for work.

The store location has been removed from the company's website though....

Rib off won't be the same without them.

Last few times we went there they were not busy, even on a Saturday night though...

Rick Santorum does not speak for me....

This article was brought to my attention via Lauren at Feministe. It actually made me after I read the whole article feel a brief moment of shame that I share the same religion as Rick Santorum.

The impression he tries to give with his comment made me pause.....

It is startling that those in the media and academia appear most disturbed by this aberrant behavior, since they have zealously promoted moral relativism by sanctioning "private" moral matters such as alternative lifestyles. Priests, like all of us, are affected by culture. When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm.

Priests that sexually abuse children are not created by alternative lifestyles. This is more of the same anti-homosexual bias that attemps to snow people into thinking that it is those Gay Priests out there abusing our children and if we just got rid of them? Life would be grand. Are there some pedophiles that are homosexual? Probably. However being a homosexual has nothing to do with the psychological disturbance that makes adults pedophiles. Is Rick Santorum running out there proclaiming that all Teachers that sexually abuse children are homosexual? No of course not.

It's more of the same Carl Roveish bs about blaming liberals for everything that is wrong. How long as Pedophilia existed as a problem? Certainly alot longer than there have been Liberals in Boston.

I find it ironic that Senator Santorum talks about how we should follow what the Pope states, emphasizing "the need for fidelity to the Church's teaching, especially in the area of morality," when he supports the President on the war in Iraq. Pope John Paul made it very clear his feelings about the war in Iraq:

In an annual "state of the world" address Jan. 13, the pope said the future of humanity depends partly on the earth's peoples and their leaders having the courage to say "no to war."

"War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity," he said.

"And what are we to say of the threat of a war which could strike the people of Iraq, the land of the prophets, a people already sorely tried by more than 12 years of embargo?" he said.

"War is never just another means that one can choose to employ for settling differences between nations," he said.

The pope said the U.N. charter and international law "remind us war cannot be decided upon, even when it is a matter of ensuring the common good, except as the last option and in accordance with very strict conditions, without ignoring the consequences for the civilian population both during and after the military options."

So Senator Santorum, while you are out there trying to lay blame on liberalism and homosexuals as the reason for pedophile priests, and advising American Catholics to follow what the Pope has said, you might want to read up on what the definition of a hypocrite is.

"Free" Speech the Flag Amendment and the Koran

I started off my day today stopping in at What is it Today (she's very good). There was a post on Orcinus that she pointed out that was about these "Liberal Hunting Permits". After 911 some person in an attempt to make money similar to the whole Bin Laden toilet paper ideas created "Terrorist Hunting Permits". Not to be outdone evidently a few have now come up with the idea of "Liberal Hunting Permits". It is of course supposed to be humor, sick humor but this is type of thing is protected under Free Speech. The incidents of people having to remove bumper stickers or signs because they are considered offensive has been pretty rare.

Some of you are probably wondering, okay now what does some silly bumper sticker have to do with the Flag Amendment or the Koran?

When the stories first came out about the Koran being defaced there were protests in other countries. People died. Newsweek was blamed. People here on the internet and in real life talked about how silly it was to place that much of a big deal over a book. That someone could burn our Bibles and it was no disrespect to the words contained within. It was only a symbol.....We talked about the laws in some of these countries and how silly, how backward, how un-civilized these people are to have laws that would have a death sentence for merely defacing a symbol. That here in our Country we have Free Speech. We can put stickers or signs or state basically what we want as long as we don't harm someone.

It's become pretty common on the media to see groups of anti-American protestors in other countries burning our flag. Why? Because it is a symbol. This amendment would of course not affect them because most of the flag burning incidents don't even happen on our soil.

I personally think that anyone that would sport one of those "Liberal Hunting Permit's" is a twit. I personally have never burned a flag or a bible or a koran nor do I intend to. I never even burned a bra during that whole era (okay it was because I didn't own one but still). I don't believe that type of protest gets the message in a way that facilitates change or action.

But if you want to burn the flag or the bible or the koran or any symbol? I certainly won't hand you a match, but I will remember a time in history when our own founding fathers wrote our Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I will remember how many died to give us the ability to have free speech, that it is not really free at all. It has been paid for in blood over and over again.

Nuclear Weapons scare me....

This is a nuclear weapon. This is a nuclear weapon that is going to be hugely destructive and destructive over a large area. No sane person would use a weapon like that lightly, and I regret any impression that anybody, including me, has given that would suggest that this is going to be any easier a decision. I mean if this weapon were in the arsenal right today it would still be a hugely difficult decision for any president to even contemplate it. So I -- the administration believes and I personally believe this study should continue but it -- I want too -- I do want to make it clear that any thought of sort of nuclear weapons that are not really destructive is just nuts.

Ambassador Linton Brooks....March 2, 2005 on funding for the Robust Nuclear Penetrator.

Why does this administration and Rumsfeld feel we need this kind of a new "Nuclear Bunker Buster"? Because we obviously don't have enough weapons right now to blow bunkers that are created in hard ground. That said the millions already spent on weapons like this? Scares me because I agree with Brooks....no sane person should use a weapon like that.......

Why today? Because the report on funding for this weapon was just released to

www.opencrs.com

Thanks to Frank Szollosi I have another cool place to get research.......

President Bush makes another prime time tv appearance

Thankfully this time it won't interfere with Survivor or the Apprentice.....Dan Froomkin asks the question on my mind as well....

So the big question about Bush's address on Iraq tomorrow night is whether he will come to the podium equipped with a speech that addresses the mounting concerns of the American people -- or whether he will simply roll out a repackaging of the talking points that contributed to the disconnect in the first place.

Supposedly President Bush doesn't care about polls or even read the news, but I'm sure some of his staffers do. I'm voting for a re-packaging, telling us however how War is hard work, and it takes time, and we have to stay the course.

Oh and those liberals? It's all their fault.

:-)

I may be an Insignificant Microbe but...

It's been a good week for me here on Liberal Common Sense. My hits are up, and I will probably break the 5,000 page views this week which is not to shabby for a baby blog like mine that's only existed since the end of February.

Most of you visit but don't comment which I will continue to harrass you about because I am of course me, but having TCF visit me and comment was one "Wow" moment, as well as Frank Szollosi not only commenting but finding out he listed me as a link on his blog was a double "Wow" moment. I got a really nice email from Lauren this weekend too, which was appreciated.

Will I let this go to my head? No, of course not, but it was still cool.

I kind of like being an insignificant microbe, if it bothered me I wouldn't link it because it shows me how far I have to go and baby it's only up from there......Today's insignificant microbe might be tomorrow's higher being (yeah okay if I'm going to dream dream big - lol)

Sorry seems to be the hardest word....

Dana Milbank writes about the whole increase in not only rhetoric but lists in more detail than I did the other day....

Perhaps we could arrange for a group apology. It would certainly save time.

The capital has been racked by a bipartisan barrage of incautious remarks this year -- a bull market in over-the-top rhetoric -- as Democrats and Republicans take turns expressing outrage that the other side has crossed the line.

While Rove's rhetoric now has Democrats pouncing and Republicans squirming, one Republican has reason to smile. Rep. Deborah Pryce (Ohio), chairman of the House Republican Conference, should be relieved that hardly anybody noticed her statement Wednesday that Democrats represent the interests of "foreign criminals" and "would-be terrorists."

Also worth noting from the article:

The Republican-controlled state House of Representatives in Pennsylvania took the paddle last week to its home-state junior senator. Santorum, of the aforementioned Hitler controversy, had received tens of thousands of dollars from Penn Hills School District, outside Pittsburgh, for tuition for his children to attend online charter schools called cyberschools. One problem: Although the Santorums own a house in Penn Hills, they live most of the time in Northern Virginia, where their children are home-schooled. In a bill inspired by the Santorum case, the House voted 175 to 24 to restrict eligibility for such payments to people who actually reside in the state. The measure now goes to the state Senate.

John Kerry's petition to President Bush

Courtesy of

http://thatcoloredfellasweblog.bloghorn.com/


No, I haven't changed my mind about not being crazy about on-line petitions, but I did add my name to this one and felt it was worth posting here for those of you who don't read TCF's blog. I do believe Rove's comments were out of line because he is a member of the White House staff and not a spokesperson for the RNC where it would still be over the top yet at least not sanctioned by a President who is supposed to be the President of the United States, not the President of Republicans only......

http://www.johnkerry.com/petition/rove.php

Well excuuuuuse me USA Today...

In the course of another endless fluff piece about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, USA today writes a piece wondering what the Nuns of Toledo think about the whole engagement/conversion to Scientology.

First hate to break it to you USA Today but you didn't ask any nuns or if you did you forgot to write about them. Secondly alot of us really don't care that much if "Toledo's own Katie Holmes" converts or marries anyone.

Thirdly, and the real reason for even spending more blog time on the whole "Tomkat" issue:

Holmes is the youngest of five siblings, the daughter of an attorney in a town where coney dogs and bowling still equal a decent night out.

We have more restuarants than most other cities our size and guess what? Most of them don't even serve coney dogs. Sure Toledoans love to bowl but we actually have movie theatres, minauture golf and lots of other "decent night out" activities. Our zoo with it's concert series, our Art Museum, the Toledo Symphony, all of our local festivals, Fifth Third Field one of the best stadiums built for our Toledo Mudhens and on and on......

Hard to believe but we even have malls out here, more than one even. So while of course Tony Packo's has given us the reputation for coney dogs, we are much more than that and somehow without Katie Holmes being here anymore either.....

Sides anyone with a brain knows you can't open bowl till the leagues are done -- sheesh...

:-)

and yes, I did send a copy of this to USA Today...I will of course await their correction, while I still wait to here from Governor Taft and Mr. Obi too....

Not pulling rank?

I watched this unfold yesterday on the local news. Yes it's a Toledo story but still full of the excitement and thrills you can expect from the Glass City.

A woman pulls up infront of the Municipal Court Building and parks in a no-parking zone. She is told by a police officer it's a no parking zone. She tells him she will just be a minute and goes inside. Now for most of us what would happen is we would get a parking ticket, which did happen. When the police officer ran the plates on the car he discovered they were expired, as well as the driver's license for the driver as well. So he called a tow truck. So far not exciting is it?

Before the tow truck starts to hook up her car, she returns, get's back in the car and asks the Police Officer to not tow her car. She then identifies herself as a Toledo City Councilperson and starts making phone calls, to the Safety Director, Joe Walter and the Chief of Police Mike Navarre also ended up being called in the process. During this time with media on the scene she is sitting in her car appearing to be very bored with the whole thing, reading a magazine when not on the cell phone. Her father, who is a Judge on the Municipal Court was also called by someone, so he left the bench and went outside to make sure she was okay.

Chief Navarre over-rules the tow, a police officer then gets into the driver's seat of the car and takes it with the city council person in it to a parking garage.

Ms. McConnell Hancock said she asked the officers not to tow her car, but didn't raise her voice or try to pull rank. I'm sorry but I cry Bullshit! Yes, with a capital B. How many of us have direct access to Joe Walter or would have command officers call the Chief of Police for us? She identified herself as a council person for the specific reason of trying to pull rank.

Mayor Jack Ford said he would talk to Mr. Walter. "In a case of a mayor or councilman, if their car should be towed for a legitimate reason, there should not be any intervention," the mayor said. Considering Jay Black resigned over a phone call, shouldn't there be demands for McConnell Hancock to resign as well?

The irony here? Councilman Karyn McConnell Hancock, a lawyer who is chairman of council's law and criminal justice committee and was recently was elected president pro tem of council.

She did release the following statement:

"I apologize for taking up the valuable time of our public safety officers on such a hot day when I'm sure they had more important matter to which to tend".

So my fellow Lucas Countians, or those visiting Toledo, remember if you ever park illegally and they want to tow your car even if you have an expired driver's license or expired plates? Tell them you are a tax payer and that you would like a Command Officer to call Chief Navarre for you. Make sure you write down this phone number 419-936-2020 and ask to talk to Joe Walter.

This is the problem with what is wrong with Toledo politics, both Democrats and Republicans, there are too many "Good old boy" type family connections that make it so apparent that from being assigned to City Council to getting away with not having your car towed depends on who you know. And by the way? She's up for re-election this November, she also paid her 25 dollar parking ticket and renewed her driver's license and car plates.

Toledo has a shortage of police officers, unlike us out here in the township where several cars can be spared for this type of thing. Had the car been ticketed and towed, yes it would have been inconvenient for Ms. McConnell Hancock, but it would have required less police time. A person who is the chairman of council's law and criminal justice committee should demonstrate they are not above the law.

Ice Cream for Liberals....

Yes, I am allergic to chocolate but I can have it once in awhile without breaking into major hives that would make people run from the sight of me.....

I am a Ben and Jerry's fan when I'm not going across the street to Mr. Freeze that is...and since when I eat chocolate I reallllyyyyyy eat chocolate? I have to say Thank you Ben and Jerry......

Chocolate Therapy kicks death by chocolate's ass I must say.....

Chocolate Ice Cream with Chocolate Cookies & Swirls of Chocolate Pudding Ice Cream

Uh-oh. Call the emotional rescue squad. Whatever wrinkle, glitch, minor upset or major mishap may be the cause of your discombobulated state, that "must-have-chocolate" mantra you're muttering calls for primal s'cream therapy of the sublimest chocolate kind.











On sale, at Giant Eagle...Buy one get one free which means? Two for 3.98...

If you've never visited their website? I always get a kick out of the graveyard...

http://www.benjerry.com/our_products/flavor_graveyard/


:-)

English and Engineering....

This article from the New York Times interested me, because my oldest daughter is a mechanical engineering student and I know from personal experience that she has experienced a similar situation.

Valerie Serrin still remembers vividly her anger and the feeling of helplessness. After getting a C on a lab report in an introductory chemistry course, she went to her teaching assistant to ask what she should have done for a better grade.

The teaching assistant, a graduate student from China, possessed a finely honed mind. But he also had a heavy accent and a limited grasp of spoken English, so he could not explain to Ms. Serrin, a freshman at the time, what her report had lacked.

"He would just say, 'It's easy, it's easy,' " said Ms. Serrin, who recently completed her junior year at the University of California, Berkeley. "But it wasn't easy. He was brilliant, absolutely brilliant, but he couldn't communicate in English."

Ms. Serrin's experience is hardly unique. With a steep rise in the number of foreign graduate students in the last two decades, undergraduates at large research universities often find themselves in classes and laboratories run by graduate teaching assistants whose mastery of English is less than complete.

The issue is particularly acute in subjects like engineering, where 50 percent of graduate students are foreign born, and math and the physical sciences, where 41 percent of graduate students are, according to a survey by the Council of Graduate Schools, an association of 450 schools. This is despite a modest decline in the number of international students enrolling in American graduate programs since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The encounters have prompted legislation in at least 22 states requiring universities to make sure that teachers are proficient in spoken English. In January, Bette B. Grande, a Republican state representative from Fargo, N.D., tried to go even further after her son Alec complained of his experiences at North Dakota State University. Mrs. Grande introduced legislation that would allow students in state universities to drop courses without penalty and be reimbursed if they could not understand the English of a teaching assistant or a professor.

"If a student has paid tuition to be in that classroom," she said, "he should receive what he paid for."

I agree with this, if a professor or a TA cannont communicate with basic English as a second language skills it is a waste of tuition dollars. I do not believe however it should be necessary for states to legislate this, colleges should want the best and students should demand it as well.

Sir...I demand Satisfaction....

No, I'm not writing about sex, remember the old days of duels, glove smacking and pistols or swords at dawn? Well today we don't have that but we have the demands for apologies.

Let's briefly review the most recent ones:

Democrats demand Carl Rove apologize....

Republicans demand Richard Durbin apologize....

Democrats demand John Hostettler apologize....

Republicans demand Howard Dean apologize....

I'm sure I missed some but what can we gather from all of these recent demands for apologies?





Wow what a sorry lot both sides are....

Cat Friday.....

Yes, I do not participate in the sharing of cat photos every Friday. I realize this goes against blogger tradition, but when have I ever been traditional? lol

However, today I have an awesome one to share of one of the cats in my house. Perhaps he is a reincarnation of Buddha.....either way? He's watching you.....

So there Bob Frantz

Who is Bob Frantz some of you are asking? He is the morning talk show host for our local WSPD AM station. I used to listen to him quite a bit, didn't agree with him most days but he wasn't rabidly conservative and there were times he made points I did agree with. So I would listen, and talk to my radio, but still listen.

After the whole George Voinivich situation I felt motivated to write Bob an email because I felt the constant replaying and taking out of context what was said was wrong. I had already felt some disgust at some other statements he had made so for me that was the final straw. I'm sure Bob is surviving just fine without my listening to his show. (Especially since he never bothered to email back, not even a lame "thank you for your email") However, I do read Frank Szollosi's blog on a fairly regular basis and at times I comment there. Some of my regular readers will know that Frank is a local democrat on Toledo City Council who not only responds to emails (Yes Bob, he responds to emails) but has his own blog (which you can see is on my blogroll).

I've never pretended to be a Democrat, nor have I claimed to be a strong supporter of Frank's. However it appears as before Frank is one of Bob's favorite local targets. On Frank's Blog it was suggested he go on Bob's show because Bob was ripping him again. Then low and behold Bob Frantz appears on the blog to state he has offered numerous times for Frank to go on his show.

That to me was a well duh moment as to why Frank would not go on Bob's show. Why would anyone want to be made fun of or slammed then say "Gee let me go on his show". So I wrote I wouldn't do Frantz's show either. Not that I have that to worry about - lol

An open exchange of ideas isn't going to happen on the Bob Frantz show, it's all about Bob and what he wants to get across. That's what the majority of his listeners want, conservative Democrat slamming type entertainment. He's the host, he gets in the last word or snide comment in some cases.

So I say to you fellow Toledoans...don't tell Frank to do the show...congratulate him for having the brains NOT do to the show.....

True fact or bullcrap is your favorite daily game right Bob? I say yes, you are really good at the bullcrap portion of it.......

Oh and Bob....it's really easy to create a profile to post comments so that you don't have to be "anonymous"....honest...

:-)

Blog gone wackko?

I have no idea why the blog is showing the huge white space -- must be something going on with blogspot...

so until they fix it wow look at all that lovely white space --

UPDATE:

Yes, I changed the template...was the only way to fix it for now....not sure I like the new look but? at least there's no wide open spaces - lol

"Patriotic" Food

I realize this is nothing new, but as I just returned from the grocery store where Little Debbie products were on sale, (Krogers 97 cents hurry)...I saw the selection of the regular Little Debbie items all dolled up for the upcoming fourth of july holiday.

Red and blue rice krispy treats, marshmallow puffs with red and blue decorations, snack cakes, brownies, etc., all decorated with a Patriotic theme. Then down the jello isle with the display of the berry blue and red jello. Even the store cookies and the lofthouse cookies all little stars and other red and blue decorations.

So besides making me think of the George Carlin routine about why there is no blue food, I wondered, how does eating a such decorated snack make me patriotic? Sure I can see the whole xmas or valentines day decoration scenario because parents do buy that stuff for school parties. Yes there is of course the kid factor, "MOMMY buy me the stars and stripes snack cakes"....

So is it really "American as apple pie" anymore or is it now....American like "insert brand name that decorates for fourth of july".....Put down those Freedom Fries and grab a red and blue rice krispy treat....

still.....where is the blue food.....

:-)

Supreme Court sides with New London....

I have been to New London, I have extended family that lives there, while I understand the need for the City to create more economic opportunities I still do not believe that the government has the right to take homes for private industry. What the Supreme Court stated was basically those who are going to loose their homes should have tried to get State Law changed since the majority could not rule on this as a Fifth Amendment issue.

Some of the background information:

Petitioner Susette Kelo has lived in the Fort Trumbull area since 1997. She has made extensive improvements to her house, which she prizes for its water view. Petitioner Wilhelmina Dery was born in her Fort Trumbull house in 1918 and has lived there her entire life. Her husband Charles (also a petitioner) has lived in the house since they married some 60 years ago. In all, the nine petitioners own 15 properties in Fort Trumbull--4 in parcel 3 of the development plan and 11 in parcel 4A. Ten of the parcels are occupied by the owner or a family member; the other five are held as investment properties. There is no allegation that any of these properties is blighted or otherwise in poor condition; rather, they were condemned only because they happen to be located in the development area.

Justice O'Connor, with whom The Chief Justice, Justice Scalia, and Justice Thomas join, dissenting.

Over two centuries ago, just after the Bill of Rights was ratified, Justice Chase wrote:

"An act of the Legislature (for I cannot call it a law) contrary to the great first principles of the social compact, cannot be considered a rightful exercise of legislative authority ... . A few instances will suffice to explain what I mean... . [A] law that takes property from A. and gives it to B: It is against all reason and justice, for a people to entrust a Legislature with such powers; and, therefore, it cannot be presumed that they have done it." Calder v. Bull, 3 Dall. 386, 388 (1798).

Today the Court abandons this long-held, basic limitation on government power. Under the banner of economic development, all private property is now vulnerable to being taken and transferred to another private owner, so long as it might be upgraded--i.e., given to an owner who will use it in a way that the legislature deems more beneficial to the public--in the process.

To reason, as the Court does, that the incidental public benefits resulting from the subsequent ordinary use of private property render economic development takings "for public use" is to wash out any distinction between private and public use of property--and thereby effectively to delete the words "for public use" from the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Accordingly I respectfully dissent.

Read the Opinion Here

It means no one's home is safe and supposedly the idea of just compensation makes up for this, how do you compensate someone who is about to loose the home they were born in? Can you replicate the memories of those years spent there? Can you put a price tag on that?

Several of the families involved say they are not giving up, however in the end unless they can somehow get the State Laws changed in time, the bulldozers will come and they will be forced out. The good of the many outweigh the needs of the few, but at times that comes at too high of a price for those few.

Dancing with the Stars Vote Fraud

Okay Aubrey wanted to watch it so we did -- she wanted to vote for John and Charlotte -- you are limited to five votes per phone line.

So we called after the show was over....finally get thru and get a recording that "you've reached your call in limit for this phone number".

Fraud? Obviously since we never got thru we only got busy signals or the message "all circuits are busy please try your call again".

Why is it a big deal? Because my daughter at age ten still has faith in people being some what honest....I wrote abc will it matter? Probably not but whoever ends up winning? Doubt they were really "selected" by callers.

Update on Colorado Rape Therapist

When last I wrote about this:

http://liberalcommonsense.blogspot.com/2005/05/military-has-different-idea-on-privacy.html

The attorney for Jennifer Bier was trying to get the arrest warrant dropped. The case has taken what appears to be a turn in a direction that would be a further disservice to justice. There is a chance that the whole case against 1st Lt. Joseph Harding could be dismissed. That leaves Bier in a difficult situation, give over records she feels are private and protected Colorado State Law or continue to refuse and end up with the charges dropped. How that serves the victim, Jessica Brakey I can't claim to understand. If she had not sought rape counseling this wouldn't be an issue so it appears she is being punished for seeking help. It almost appears rather than force the issue of does the military have the right to force or punish a civilian for following their state law on privacy of records by arresting Biel they would instead turn this into a situation where it will appear that Biel's refusal will cause the charges to be dimissed.


I seriously do not think this is the message we want to send to victims of rape while in the military.

From the mailbag.....

From my friend Ann...


What Makes 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder
about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been
to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%. How about
achieving 103%? What makes up 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these
questions:

If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:

H- A- R- D- W- O- R- K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

and

K- N- O- W- L- E- D-G- E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But,

A-T- T- I- T- U-D- E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

And,

B- U- L- L- S- H-I- T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%

AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.

A- S S- K- I- S- S- I- N- G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%

So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that While Hard work and
Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, it's the
Bullshit and Ass kissing that will put you over the top.

Politics and Genetics....

A few days ago I was being sarcastic in joking with Brew over at robot-invasion about the topic of some Republicans not supporting emergency birth control.

I told him if we could convince some of these same Republicans that a majority of the babies born from lack of contraception or for that matter ending abortion would end up being Democrats, the resulting rush to make sure contraception was available would surely happen.

I've thought about that as well as a response when things on message boards have gone wacko with the constant statements about liberals being the main cause of abortions, as if somehow these people think a conservative or a republican or an independent would never support or have an abortion.

So while I was being sarcastic....imagine my surprise in reading this article that states:

Political scientists have long held that people's upbringing and experience determine their political views. A child raised on peace protests and Bush-loathing generally tracks left as an adult, unless derailed by some powerful life experience. One reared on tax protests and a hatred of Kennedys usually lists to the right.

But on the basis of a new study, a team of political scientists is arguing that people's gut-level reaction to issues like the death penalty, taxes and abortion is strongly influenced by genetic inheritance. The new research builds on a series of studies that indicate that people's general approach to social issues - more conservative or more progressive - is influenced by genes.

Environmental influences like upbringing, the study suggests, play a more central role in party affiliation as a Democrat or Republican, much as they do in affiliation with a sports team.

From an extensive battery of surveys on personality traits, religious beliefs and other psychological factors, the researchers selected 28 questions most relevant to political behavior. The questions asked people "to please indicate whether or not you agree with each topic," or are uncertain on issues like property taxes, capitalism, unions and X-rated movies. Most of the twins had a mixture of conservative and progressive views. But over all, they leaned slightly one way or the other.

The researchers then compared dizygotic or fraternal twins, who, like any biological siblings, share 50 percent of their genes, with monozygotic, or identical, twins, who share 100 percent of their genes.

Calculating how often identical twins agree on an issue and subtracting the rate at which fraternal twins agree on the same item provides a rough measure of genes' influence on that attitude. A shared family environment for twins reared together is assumed.

So, while I may not know what the hell I am? Don't blame me.....It's in my genes obviously......

:-)

Andrew Sulllivan...he nails it too...

On Durbin....

http://www.andrewsullivan.com/

ONE ACT AT A TIME: When you read the account Durbin was citing you notice an important thing: the detainees were thoroughly dehumanized, robbed of any personal dignity, left in extremes of heat and cold, shackled, covered in their own urine and excrement, with one having apparently torn parts of his hair out, and left without food or water for up to 24 sleepless hours. Durbin could have quoted worse incidents - and there are many, far worse cases - but he wanted to ensure that his incident was testified by an FBI official.

The moral question that Durbin is absolutely right to raise is a simple one: two years ago, would you have ever believed that the United States would be guilty of such a dehumanized treatment of a prisoner in its care? If the particulars had been changed, would you have believed that such a thing could have happened in a totalitarian regime's prison? Does the way in which human beings have been completely robbed of dignity, treated cruelly and turned figuratively into "barking dogs" shock your conscience? The moral question is not simply of degree - how widespread and systematic is this kind of inhumanity? It is of kind: is this the kind of behavior more associated with despots than with democracies? Of course it is.

When a country starts treating its prisoners like animals, it has lost its moral bearings; and, in the case of the United States, is also breaking its own laws (and, in this case, the president has declared himself above the law). I don't know about Hugh Hewitt, Bill Kristol or NR, but I supported this war in large part because I wanted to end torture, abuse and cruelty in Iraq. I did not support it in order, two and a half years later, to be finding specious rhetorical justifications for torture, abuse and cruelty by Americans. I'm sick of hearing justifications that the enemy is worse. This is news? This is what now passes for analysis? They are far, far worse, among the most despicable and evil enemies we have ever faced. Our treatment of their prisoners is indeed Club Med compared to their fathomless barbarism. But since when is our moral compass set by them? The West is a civilization built on a very fragile web of law and humanity. We do not treat people in our custody as animals. We do not justify it. We do not change the subject. We do not accuse those highlighting it of aiding the enemy. We do not joke about it. We simply don't do it. This administration - by design, improvisation, desperation, arrogance, incompetence, and wilfull blindness - has enabled this to occur. They must be held accountable until this cancer is rooted out for good. It has metastasized enough already.

John Danforth, Former Republican Senator....

In his Op-ed piece Titled "Onward, Moderate Christian Soldiers", he rasies some very valid points. One paragraph I was especially struck by was this one:

In the decade since I left the Senate, American politics has been characterized by two phenomena: the increased activism of the Christian right, especially in the Republican Party, and the collapse of bipartisan collegiality. I do not think it is a stretch to suggest a relationship between the two. To assert that I am on God's side and you are not, that I know God's will and you do not, and that I will use the power of government to advance my understanding of God's kingdom is certain to produce hostility.

I think he nailed it.....

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

My home...where I was born and raised
used to be warm and lovely
now filled with darkness and horror.
My family...whom I had grown with
used to be cheerful and lively
now living with fear and terror.
My friends...whom I shared my life with
used to be pure and merry
now living with wounded heart.
A free bird...which is just freed
used to be caged
now flying with an olive branch
for the place it loves.
A free bird towards a Free Burma.


In the Quiet Land, no one can tell
if there's someone who's listening
for secrets they can sell.
The informers are paid in the blood of the land
and no one dares speak what the tyrants won't stand.

In the quiet land of Burma,
no one laughs and no one thinks out loud.
In the quiet land of Burma,
you can hear it in the silence of the crowd

In the Quiet Land, no one can say
when the soldiers are coming
to carry them away.
The Chinese want a road; the French want the oil;
the Thais take the timber; and SLORC takes the spoils...

In the Quiet Land....
In the Quiet Land, no one can hear
what is silenced by murder
and covered up with fear.
But, despite what is forced, freedom's a sound
that liars can't fake and no shouting can drown.


She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and has continued to be a target and under house arrest. This lastest time period she's been under house arrest for over two years. The UN and our government has demanded her release, but not much has been done. She's spent ten of the past 16 years under confinement.

Burma has been ruled by a military junta since 1962. Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a 1990 general election, but the military refused to accept the results of the vote.

She could have given up and been able to return to England to be with her husband when he was dying but she realized if she left they would never allow her to return. So she stayed because she still believes a democracy in Burma is possible. I think even our founding fathers would agree "the Lady" is a Patriot......

Today must be Rant Day...or

How Ohio can screw child support up even more..

Back when I got divorced in the late 90's Child Support here in Ohio was administered by each County. It worked very well here in Lucas County. My ex's employer would send the funds to the County office, they would send a check to me, you could set your clock by the regular arrival of your child support. The only exception was if Monday was a State/Federal Holiday then you would get your check the next day.

Then the Federal Government decided that States had to have a centralized Child Support System. So, the once reliable delivery of child support checks became a joke. Now the money goes from my ex-husband's employer to the County then to the State who processes the payment and then sends it from Columbus. You'd think that less than four hour drive wouldn't cause much of a delay wouldn't you? So now rather than Thursday you could get your check on Friday (rare), Saturday or Monday or if there is a Monday State/Federal Holiday? Who knows when you will get it.

So to make this easier (hahahahahahahahahaha) Ohio designed this new system called "e-Quick Pay" where they send you a debit type card and the money is electronically deposited to your card, this is supposed to be faster and eliminate the mailing of checks.

I applied four months ago, because the idea of not having to wonder did the check really get delivered to me was I thought I a good one. This Saturday I got a letter instead of a check. It stated my enrollment was complete and that within ten business days I would receive my card and that I had to call to activate the card. I was told initially that no funds were put on the card until it was activated. (I asked if this would delay child support before I applied because I wanted to be prepared, I was assured that there would be noooooo delay that the system was designed to prevent this. Yeah Okay that should have been my first warning sign).

So no big deal, I didn't get a check Saturday, that happens and since I don't have the card nor have I activiated it I'm thinking it will come on Monday. Today comes no check. So I call the Lucas County office and they tell me the money was put on my card. But I don't have a card......Sorry can't do anything about that....You'll have to call the customer service number for the card company. (This was after 45 minutes on hold).

Then I call the card customer service people, who tell me as soon as you are approved for enrollment the money goes on the card and they state they mailed me my card back on May 27th. So now they have to send me a new card, and they will supposedly take the funds already on the card I never got and put it on the new one. It will take 5 to 7 business days to get a new card out which means basically I'll probably go a month without receiving child support. We will of course survive nor will the kids starve, but it is the principle of the matter. My ex has it taken from his check every week so that it will go to the kids, not sit somewhere in the electronic banking system for weeks. Why they would put funds on a card not activiated isn't logical not to mention that means once again I was given misinformation.

Before I called the card people, I commented to the Lucas County Child Support worker that I would have been better off to have kept getting the paper check. She told me actually I was better to do this now, Ohio is going to force everyone to either have electronic deposit or these debit cards and if the way this has worked for those of us who have "volunteered" is any indication it's going to be a royal mess when it is mandatory.

Somehow that didn't make me feel much better........Welcome to Ohio where we take a system that worked really well and we find a way to screw it up......And whoever in the Federal Goverment that thought this was a good idea? Argg....just reinforces my opinion that the Federal Goverment should but out of most State functions.....

Teens talk....are they listening?

In the continuing battle in this country over Sex Education today's Washington Post article concentrates on what is happening in Montgomery County....some parts of the article for you:

"People talk about sex all the time," said 16-year-old Claire Davey-Karison. "It's casual [conversation], you know. You'll hear gossip. It's no big deal."

But sex education has become a big deal in some Montgomery County schools -- a deal that involves lawyers, organized parent groups and a federal court. Although students like Claire talk about sex in the same casual manner they might discuss last night's homework or the hijinks of Marissa and Ryan on "The O.C.," some adults are less than comfortable with them learning about it -- or certain aspects of it -- in class.

Last month, Superintendent Jerry D. Weast scrapped revisions to the county's health education curriculum, which for the first time allowed eighth- and 10th-grade teachers to initiate discussions about homosexuality. The revised course materials included a video, to be shown to sophomores, that used a cucumber to demonstrate how to put on a condom.

The groups, Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, argued that the condom video would encourage teenagers to have sex and that allowing teachers to discuss homosexuality might send the wrong message to those confused about their sexual identity.

What's more, the groups said students should also be taught that people can choose not to be gay.

The statistics speak for themselves: By the time they have reached their senior year in high school, three out of five young people in the United States have had sex, and one in five of those has had sex with four or more partners, according to the 2001 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance.

"You can take the sex out of the curriculum, but it's still going to be in society," said Laura, who just finished her sophomore year and would have been in the class introduced to the contested sex-ed curriculum.

A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation on the media habits of young people found that on average, 8- to 18-year-olds watch nearly four hours of television a day and devote nearly two hours a day to listening to music. Another Kaiser report released two years ago said that in a sampling of programming from the 2001-02 television season, 64 percent of the shows included some sexual content, 32 percent had sexual behavior and 14 percent featured strong suggestions of sexual intercourse.

Mark Strom, 16, said adults don't understand something else: In the end, sex education isn't all that exciting.

It's a class, he said. It's a grade.

"People think this stuff is more advanced and racy than it really is," he said. "That's just not true."

There's more at the article for those who sign up to the Post....I will add in closing....Abstinence only programs do NOT work. Most of these sex ed programs do not work. If enough parents out there were doing a good job in talking about sex with their teens it wouldn't even be necessary.

You didn't have to be rude....

As the regular readers of this blog know my fourth child recently entered the wonderful world of work via a fast food place. Yesterday a policeman came into the place, came up to the counter, ordered and when she told him what the total was he snapped at her.

"I don't think so, you better promo that, get ___(manager's name) up here now" in a very threatening tone of voice. She looked at him... "Excuse me?" she asked. "GET ______(manager's name) UP HERE NOW" he said in a very loud tone of voice, scowling at her.

Well the manager heard, came up and told Erin police get to eat for free so to promo it. Then proceeded to apologize profusely to the policeman.

No one had told Erin, police eat free, nor is it in her manual. Fireman have to pay, EMS workers have to pay but for some reason police get to eat free and like employees who have limits on what they can get, there is no dollar limit placed.

I realize this is to encourage police to hang out at a place, the local carryout that cashes checks does the same thing with free coffee and it's not uncommon to see several different combinations of local, sheriff or highway patrol hanging out there. That way when they are bored they can also run plates of cars of people that are inside then wait for them to get in their cars and pull them over. Get's those miscreants who have problems with their stickers or some other minor issue dealt with.

My point is he didn't have to be rude. Will she come across lots of rude customers? Of course, she has already, but he came in all attitude and was threatening when all he had to do was tell her, "we get to eat free while on duty, call _____ and she'll tell you."

What message did every teen get that worked there yesterday? "Cops get to eat free and they are real jerks about it too". The fact that the manager made such a huge deal about apologizing when "hello" if it was that important why isn't it in your training manual? How was Erin supposed to know? Just automatically promo it because a police officer demanded she do so without question? He's the one who should have apologized.....

How internet urban myths are created.....

A friend sent me this email forward, and while it was a nice one, I started to wonder what I always wonder.....is it true? How much of it is true?

So to show you how this starts, here is the email forward text and then? The true story...Yes the true story alone would have been enough for some of us but email forwards like this one are "spiced" up to create feelings, emotions, a response. Why? Because for some reason whoever starts these don't think the "real" story is enough, when most times? It would be in the situations there is a real story behind them. Some of them are complete fabrications. Most of us pass them on not realizing what is true or isn't true. A few of us "snopers" like me, check some of them out and let people know either a) it is true, b) partly true or c) totally bogus......

I hope the picture will go through for you of this Army soldier in Iraq with his tiny "plot" of grass in front of his tent. It's heartwarming! Here is a soldier stationed in Iraq, stationed in a big sand box. He asked his wife to send him dirt (U.S. soil), fertilizer and some grass seeds so he can have the sweet aroma and feel the grass grow beneath his feet.

If you notice, he is even cutting the grass with a pair of a scissors. Sometimes we are in such a hurry that we don't stop and think about the little things that we take for granted. Upon receiving this, please say a prayer for our soldiers that give and give (and give up) so unselfishly for us.

You don't have to send this on, but gosh, who wouldn't...?









Now for the "real" story:

Warrant Officer Brook Turner, a native of Stayton, grew a miniature lawn on a U.S. military post north of Baghdad.

Now a photograph of the Army soldier trimming the grass with scissors has turned up on a Web site for hoaxes and another for urban legends, and its authenticity is being questioned.

"I never intended for it to get around like it has," Turner said via e-mail from Camp Cooke, "so it really doesn't bother me whether people think it is real or not."

He sent the photo to his wife, Kim, in Honolulu, where he is stationed with the 1st Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment and where she and their four children live. Last spring, he asked his wife to send him some grass seed because he missed the green he was accustomed to in Hawaii and before that in Oregon.

"I wanted to imagine for a moment I was home in my normal routine," he said. "Usually after work I will water in the backyard and listen to the radio barefoot, and just relax and feel the cool grass. I thought if I planted some grass I could still do that in a silly kind of way."

Kim Turner was happy to send her husband a little slice of home. She bought a packet of grass seed and a small hoe and mailed them with other goodies in a care box.

Brook prepared a spot behind the single-wide trailer he shares with a few other soldiers, lining the 3-foot-by-7-foot area with large rocks and adding some dirt.

"I did not make it wider because there is a walkway between trailers that everyone uses," he said. "I didn't want people to walk all over it with their boots."

As soon as the seed arrived, he planted it. He knew keeping the seed moist would be a challenge in the 125-degree heat.

The next morning, however, he discovered something else that would prevent the seed from taking root.

"Thousands of ants came from nowhere and had a little chain gang going, walking off with all my grass seed," he said. "I guess grass seed is like a chocolate treat to ants here in Iraq, cause every bit of grass seed was gone within a couple of days."

His fellow soldiers teased him about his failed project, but he was determined to grow a patch of grass. He talked with some Iraqis civilians authorized to be on post, and arranged to buy some sod. He purchased seven 1-foot-by-3-foot patches.

Turner watered his lawn three times a day. He used a 5-gallon jug he filled in the bathroom, where the camp has running water.

Once he saw the grass was flourishing, he wanted to e-mail his wife a picture of him tending his backyard.

Kim Turner wasn't surprised her husband had success growing the grass.

"He's my green thumb at the house," she said. "You can tell by the way my yard looks."

The Turners were high school sweethearts. They both graduated from Stayton in 1990 and have been married 11 years. They have a son and three daughters, ages 12 to 4.

So..if you get this as a forward? Pass it on, just remember to change it to the real story which demonstrates one of the reasons I respect our troops, when the ants stole the seed..... He didn't give up.



Link to story

Am I really a Liberal?

Labels are not something I typically indulge in, par for the course for me in my "gender Abolitionist" type personality I guess. I get told varying things in person and by email, from I'm taking a"..... steep turn to the left. Posting anti-American crap" to "how dare you consider yourself a liberal or even mildly feminist".

Being a Liberal obviously depends on what the definition of that person feels a liberal is rather than some real firm definition. Ironically to some I'm not extreme enough and to others I'm too extreme. However in the end it's not how they see me it's how do I see me that really matters.

How do I define me...I am of course alot more than just a "liberal" and the whole designation of the liberal title came about because I am basically a rebel at heart. The very things spewed about how Liberals have no common sense, Liberals always deal from emotion, Liberals are what is wrong in America endears me to claiming the title of Liberal if nothing more than to demonstrate you can believe in what are called "Liberal values" yet have common sense.

Will I at times piss off the more extreme Left as well as the extreme Right? Yes, I most certainly seem to have that ability. I was interviewed the other day for a local newspaper on blogging in general and one of the questions he asked me was why do I blog? Do I have a message...That was an easy one for me. My whole message is the majority of us out there are not one extreme or the other. Alot of the blogs I read catered to one extreme or the other, there were very few out there that were heavily political that I felt at home at. I have since that time found I am not alone but at the time I created this blog, I knew there were others out there that felt like I did and I started writing to them. I am not enough of a feminist to be comfortable at most of those blogs, I'm not a democrat, and I believe the true way to save our political system would be to demolish the power of both republican and democratic parties. I don't feel comfortable with all of the Green Party message and I do like some of the Libertarian platform but not enough to be able to embrace it fully. I strongly believe in social programs as I do believe it is our duty to help those who are less fortunate, but I believe it should be at a state level not a federal one. I do not believe in unfunded or underfunded federal mandates. If the federal goverment is going to tell my state it has to do something then it should either fund it fully or back off. I believe in State Rights....our government was not designed to be the huge monster it is today, nor were the states meant to basically hold very little power at all. The federal goverment was supposed to be the thread that bound us all together into a Union, not a chain that choked us. I believe in the constitution and I think things like the Patriot Act is far from even resembling anything patriotic.

On the subject of religion, I believe the constitution gives us freedom from a government approved religion, whatever we decide personally we want to believe in as far as a God, or have no God is our personal choice. If you want to pray you should be able to pray, however you should not have the right to tell someone they have to pray or cannot pray. It's all about respect, something many of us seem to have forgotten in our rush to make everyone do things "our way". I learned quite some time ago that I don't always get my way, that at times a compromise is better than both sides losing.

I don't like the idea of abortion, however, my personal decision to not have an abortion should be respected the same as the opposing view. I believe if we spent half of the money spent on both sides fighting each other on realistic sex education and prevention of pregnancy, abortion would become a non-issue.

Education is not "one size fits all". It is and should be more individualized. While of course each child has to learn the basics each one has their own strengths and weaknesses. They should be encouraged to grow at their own pace not forced into some set standard of what must be accomplished realizing some will exceed and some will take time. Some struggle to complete what must be done while others wait impatiently becoming bored while waiting for others to catch up. Would this be more challenging for teachers? Yes, but the end result of having each child reach their own personal goals would end up making it better for all of them. Don't coddle our children by not giving them grades, learning how to set and make goals is one of the most important lessons they can get from education. Teach them balance, that while an A is an awesome thing, a C that was obtained from hard work and their best effort is nothing to be ashamed of.

Make gender a non-issue. It' s not the best man or the best woman for the job, it's the best person.....While there will always be biological differences these should not separate us, a woman may be the only sex able to give birth to a baby but that does not mean that there are not men out there that have the ability to be the logical choice to be the stay at home or primary parent. It's not a matter of sex after the birth process takes place, it's a matter of personality.

Stop the extremism from both sides. Temper it with common sense and the reality that there are alot of us out there more in the middle on most issues. We are forced at times to feel as if we have to pick one extreme or the other when in reality? We hold the power, we are the majority if we would just make our voices heard.

So while I have confirmed what a complicated person I am, I also know none of us fit one definition with the exception of the one that should matter, we are human......

Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester or

Women can't handle combat huh?

This should have been a much bigger deal but I almost missed it from yesterday.

WASHINGTON - A 23-year-old sergeant with the Kentucky National Guard on Thursday became the first female soldier to receive the Silver Star — the nation's third-highest medal for valor — since World War II.

Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, who is from Nashville, Tenn., but serves in a Kentucky unit, received the award for gallantry during a March 20 insurgent ambush on a convoy in Iraq. Two men from her unit, the 617th Military Police Company of Richmond, Ky., also received the Silver Star for their roles in the same action.

According to military accounts of the firefight, insurgents attacked the convoy as it traveled south of Baghdad, launching their assault from trenches alongside the road using rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Hester and her unit moved through enemy fire to the trenches, attacking them with grenades before entering and clearing them.

She killed at least three insurgents with her M4 rifle, according to her award citation. In the entire battle, 26 or 27 insurgents were killed and several more were captured, according to various accounts. Several Americans were also wounded in the firefight. "Her actions saved the lives of numerous convoy members. Sgt. Hester's bravery is in keeping with the finest traditions of military heroism," her award citation reads.

"I'm honored to even be considered, much less awarded, the medal," Hester told the American Forces Press Service, a military-run information service. "It really doesn't have anything to do with being a female. It's about the duties I performed that day as a soldier."

Hester, a native of Bowling Green, Ky., joined the Kentucky Army National Guard in April 2001 and moved to Nashville in 2003, according to a biography provided by the Army. She works as a retail store manager. Her unit deployed to Iraq in November 2004 and remains in the Baghdad area, escorting convoys and assisting the Iraqi Highway Patrol.

Also receiving the Silver Star for that action was Staff Sgt. Timothy Nein of Henryville, Ind., and Spc. Jason Mike of Radcliff, Ky. Five other members of their unit received other medals for the action, including another woman, Spc. Ashley Pullen of Edmonton, Ky.

The awards to Hester and Pullen come only weeks after some Republicans inCongress abandoned an effort to curtail the roles of military women in combat zones. The Pentagon and some Democrats and other Republicans opposed the measure.

Current Pentagon policy prohibits women from serving in frontline combat roles — in the infantry, armor or artillery, for example. But the nature of the war in Iraq, with no real front lines, has seen women soldiers take part in close-quarters combat more than in any previous conflict.

Watch those chat rooms....

Today's New York Times has a several page article about a 16 year old muslim girl who was suspected of terrorism. While I think situations like this are questionable as far as really stopping terrorism, the bottom line is it was her parents immigration status and her participating in a chat room that brought the attention on her and ultimately ended in her leaving the US.

Some selected parts of the article:

The story of how it happened - how Tashnuba, the pious, headstrong daughter of Muslim immigrants living in a neighborhood of tidy lawns and American flags, was labeled an imminent threat to national security - is still shrouded in government secrecy. After nearly seven weeks in detention, she was released in May on the condition that she leave the country immediately. Only immigration charges were brought against her and another 16-year-old New York girl, who was detained and released. Federal officials will not discuss the matter.

But as the first terror investigation in the United States known to involve minors, the case reveals how deeply concerned the government is that a teenager might become a terrorist, and the lengths to which federal agents will go if they get even a whiff of that possibility. And it has drawn widespread attention, stoking the debate over the right balance between government vigilance and the protection of individual freedoms.

Two former F.B.I. agents, presented with the known details of the case, declined to discuss it specifically, but spoke of the pressures and practices that shape such investigations today.

Pasquale J. D'Amuro, who headed the New York F.B.I. office until April, said that since 9/11, agents have had to err on the side of suspicion. More potential threats are being reported, he said, and every one must be thoroughly investigated through whatever avenues are legally available, including enlisting immigration authorities as soon as a noncitizen is under scrutiny.
But Mike German, who left the bureau a year ago after a long career chasing homegrown terror suspects, said that the agency's new emphasis on collecting intelligence rather than criminal evidence has opened the door to more investigations that go "in the wrong direction."
"If all these chat rooms are being monitored, and we're running down all these people because of what they're saying in chat rooms, then these are resources we're not using on real threats," said Mr. German, who has publicly complained that F.B.I. management problems impeded terror investigations after 9/11.

From the beginning, the government framed this case as purely an immigration matter. When a dozen federal agents plucked the girl from her home in a dawn raid on March 24, they cited only the expiration of her mother's immigration papers, telling the family that Tashnuba would probably be returned the next day.

Instead, after two weeks of frantic inquiries by her parents, The New York Times learned that Tashnuba was one of two girls being held, officially on their parents' immigration violations, but actually for questioning by F.B.I.'s Joint Terrorism Task Force.

From childhood, Tashnuba embraced religion with a kind of rebellion. By 10 she was praying five times a day - and reproaching her more secular father, a salesman of cheap watches. At 12, Tashnuba even explored Christianity. But at 14, she adopted a full Islamic veil.

In part, she was emulating her closest friend, Shahela, an American citizen who, in an interview, described veiling as a way to oppose "the degrading treatment of women's bodies as commodities" and "to hold on to my faith after 9/11." It also provided Tashnuba a refuge from her parents' marital rifts and fragile reconciliations. Soon, the two friends were conducting religious classes for other girls at city mosques.

....the government had apparently discovered her visits to an Internet chat room where she took notes on sermons by a charismatic Islamic cleric in London, a sheik who has long been accused of encouraging suicide bombings.

But on March 4, when she knocked at the Hayder family's door, Ms. Younis and her partner did not reveal that they were F.B.I. agents, said Tashnuba's mother, Ishrat Jahan Hayder. They claimed to be from a youth center, following up on the police report filed five months earlier when the girl tried to elope. Mrs. Hayder readily sent the woman upstairs to her daughter's bedroom. "I trusted her," she said.

From the moment she walked in, as Tashnuba tells it, Ms. Younis started paging through her papers. "She was like, 'Can I look at this?' Not waiting for an answer."

Three weeks later - two days after Ms. Younis wrote a secret declaration about Tashnuba, court documents show - immigration agents raided the house. As an immigration matter, that was highly unusual; there was no active proceeding against her mother or father, whose separate, long-pending applications for political asylum had lapsed without action in the late 1990's.

But Tashnuba said the agents told her, "Your mom just admitted you're not here legally and we have to take you, or else take everybody." At immigration headquarters in Manhattan, the F.B.I. was waiting, along with the other girl, Adama Bah, a native of Guinea whom Tashnuba said she knew slightly from a Manhattan mosque. Ms. Bah was of less interest to the authorities than Tashnuba, according to the government official who reviewed F.B.I. reports.

At day's end, the girls were driven to a maximum-security juvenile detention center in rural Berks County, Pa. Suddenly they were among delinquent girls accused of drug crimes and assaults. Tashnuba was required to wear a sweat suit, march at attention and submit to strip-searches, she said. And the questioning began in earnest.

A government psychiatrist concluded that she was neither suicidal nor homicidal, and recommended her release. But the agents, Tashnuba said, kept "trying to link me to the psychological state." They zeroed in on the single artificial rose in her bedroom (her little sister's); a psychology course (required by her correspondence program), and an essay she wrote about the Department of Homeland Security (assigned as a writing evaluation by her tutor).

The tutor, Asmaa Samad, recalled the essay as innocuous: "It said nothing derogative, nothing unpatriotic." Tashnuba said agents seized on one part. "I wrote, 'I feel like Muslims are being targeted, they're being outcasted more.'"

But instead of backing away from opinions that the agents seemed to find alarming, Tashnuba said she dug in her heels, especially on her belief in jihad. "If Islam is threatened, you have a right to fight back," Tashnuba declared, citing Koran verses.

The other girl was allowed to return to her East Harlem high school in early May, under strict conditions including an order not to discuss the case. But for Tashnuba, there was no prospect of release, her lawyer, Troy Mattes, said he was told.

Broke and distraught, Tashnuba's mother asked to take "voluntary departure" with her daughter, rather than fight. The government agreed, and an immigration judge issued the necessary order.

Of course the ultimate responsibility lies with her parents for not making sure they remained here in the US legally. Had they been here legally the charges may have well ended up being dropped for lack of evidence rather than ending up with deportation. This should also serve I guess as a reminder for those who visit chat rooms and message boards that they are watching us. Of course if they watch me they'll be hopefully at least entertained....

I will soon be RICH! WooHoo!!!

Wow..today is a good day, as I got this letter in my email:

Please permit me to introduce myself, my name is JOHN OBI I work with TRINITY TRUST FINANCE SARL of Nigerai as the (SeniorAccountant). In the discharge of my duty, I stumbled on this domiciliary account that has remained dormant for some years now withUS$15m (Fifteen million dollars) on it. I contacted my Director and we sent out staffs for enquiries and discovered that the account holder died. On the 25th of July 2000, the deceased, his wife and their two Children died in the Air France concord plane crash bound for New York in their plan for a world cruise. Below is the website you can check if need be.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

I am writing you so that we can work together to remit the money to you as the next of kin of the deceased . This is because you have the same surname with the deceased. I guarantee this transaction under a legitimate arrangement that will not breach the law by both parties, it is simple process which will take a short while to process. We can invest this fund in joint partnership in any business of your choice.

USE MY ALTERNATIVE EMAIL AND REPLY ME FROM NOW, THIS IS FOR MERE SECURITYREASONS ONLY. Regards,
JOHN OBI

Of course I emailed him quickly....

Dear Mr. Obi:

Thank the Lord Jesus, my prayers have been answered!! I have been struggling to care for 8 young ones after my husband, (God Rest his Soul) was killed at a mishap at the local chicken processing plant. Don't let any of those PETA folks fool you, those chickens are not only mean but killers. Poor Fred never saw them coming. The children and I have been surviving by making air freshners and collecting aluminum cans. Fred Jr., needs braces as he has ruined his teeth bitting off the wires to hang the freshners on, and Susie, she has some kind of strange swelling happening, her stomach seems to get larger every day. I swear you can feel it move, must be some kind of a live tumor.

I don't know much about legal type transactions and we are simple people here. I prayed for God to give us 15,000 so we can pay off the farm, and take care of Fred Jr., and Susie; it would be a sin to take more than we needed. So you can send me the 15,000 Wal-mart's money wire is cheaper than Western Union and then promise you will do good with the rest of the 15 million.

Thank you Mr. Obi....you must be related to that Obi Wan Kenobi, as you sound wise and kind.

May God bless you and keep you safe.

Lisa-Mae

So there it is - I'm sure I'll have the money any day now --

:-)

My take on Steve Gillard...

The blogosphere is once again in an uproar over comments made by a male blogger, this time Steve Gillard. He comments on the Natalee Holloway situation and basically asks the question how did this even happen in the first place and why hasn't the media reported on that part of the story.

Really he has a point, how many times are children injured or killed when it could have been prevented? Look at the Michael Jackson case, how many responsible parents would let their child sleep in the same bed as him? The case of the five year old girl here in Toledo that was raped, don't know about you but I would tend to say "No thanks" to letting one of my children stay at the house of a man who not only did crack but had a prior jail record.

If I had the financial means to allow my kids to go off to Aruba to celebrate graduating would I? HELL NO!!! not if there were only one chaperone for 30 students, not if I knew they were going to be allowed to drink and party, the legal age for drinking may be different in Aruba but here? Letting kids who probably had no real experience with drinking given here in the States it is illegal alone is not a smart move. As a mother with four daughters and having had personal experience with rape, it's something you should worry about and warn your children about, the same way as you tell them "look both ways before you cross the street". Sure just because they may cross that street 100 times doesn't mean the one time they don't look there won't be a car there.

While Steve is being taken to task for having a "blame the victim" mentality, that's not the way I took what he wrote. I don't agree with some of his comments on the whole "American sexual schizophrenia", but I am commenting here just alone on what to me is the main basis of his blog. He never said she deserved what happened to her, he stated:

Sure, she made bad decisions, but they shouldn't have the death penalty attached to them.

Should she have left that bar with three men? Of course not, had there been proper supervision or to be even more logical kids that age not been out drinking and partying that late to begin with, none of this would have happened. Not all men are monsters, but the reality is better to be safe than sorry, or in this case end up missing or dead. So according to her friends she thought she knew this guy, someone still should have been aware she was leaving. That doesn't mean that excuses the three men involved behavior in any way shape or form, they bear the ultimate responsibility in this situation if it turns out they are guilty.

But that doesnt make me from continuing to ask? Do we have to help things like this happen? Shouldn't we as parents exhibit more common sense in making sure our children are protected?

Thoughts on Edgar Ray Killen

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. (AP) - One-time Klansman Edgar Ray Killen was removed from court on a stretcher Thursday on the opening day of testimony in his trial for the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers.

Killen, 80, was taken to a hospital to be treated for high blood pressure, said District Attorney Mark Duncan, who said he had no other details. Killen was sitting up on the stretcher as he was loaded into the ambulance.

The grand jury refused to indict anyone other than Killen, the prosecution had sought indictments of all eight living members of a group of 18 men who were tried for conspiracy to violate the rights of the three men in 1967.

Killen was tried once on federal conspiracy charges than ended when one juror would not convict him.

Forty years have passed and even the District Attorney admits "a lot of witnesses have passed, a lot of evidence has been lost, people's memories have faded."

If he's found not guilty it will still not give the families of the three men killed justice, if he is found guilty given the rest of those still living were never convicted they still don't have justice. Does it really help to try to do this type of decades later justice?

The Saga of Jay Black

or, why you should always use your own name on talk shows

For those of you outside of Toledo, Mayor Jack Ford has had another top staff member resign over questionable behavior.

Gregg Harris, president of the Toledo Police Patrolman's Association, a guest on WTOL, was discussing a police class, police jobs, and department retirements. Mr. Jay Black who was the mayor's chief of staff heard the discussion. He disagreed with parts of what Gregg Harris was stating. Rather than calling the station in an official capacity or arranging an interview to clarify what he felt the Mayor's office didn't agree with he called into the show creating the fake name of Jeff Lowenstein.

Two problems, Jeff Lowenstein is a real person, an attorney and Gregg Harris recognized Jay Black's voice. Harris confronted Black who then apologized but then everyone knew.

Black was suspended for five days, three to be served immediately, two at a later time. He has submitted his resignation after returning from the suspension. Seems to be a split locally as to should he have resigned, most that say he should believe him staying on staff would hurt the Mayor's chances of relection. Could Jack Ford's chances of being re-electing be hurt anymore than they are now? Will Carty really run for Mayor? Will Wilkowski be accepted as a mayorial candidate or seen as a traitor for running against his friend Jack Ford? Will Jack Ford resign? Is Rob Ludeman sitting there enjoying all of this?

Tune in for the continuing tale of....as the Glass City Shatters.....

Frist..the memory fades but the the transcripts remain...

Let's go back into time....Dr. Bill Frist's comments on Terri Schiavo...

March 17th....

She will be starved to death next Friday. I have had the opportunity to look at the video footage upon which the initial facts of this case were based. And from my standpoint as a physician, I would be very careful before I would come to the floor and say this, that the facts upon which this case were based are inadequate. To be able to make a diagnosis of persistent vegetative state--which is not brain dead; it is not coma; it is a specific diagnosis and typically takes multiple examinations over a period of time because you are looking for responsiveness--I have looked at the video footage. Based on the footage provided to me, which was part of the facts of the case, she does respond.

On March 18th:

Persistent vegetative state, which is what the court has ruled, I say that I question it, and I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office here in the Capitol. And that footage, to me, depicted something very different than persistent vegetative state.

he quotes from ``Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine.'' And in the 16th edition, which was published just this year, 2005, on page 1625, it reads:

..... the vegetative state signifies an awake but unresponsive state. These patients have emerged from coma after a period of days or weeks to an unresponsive state in which the eyelids are open, giving the appearance of wakefulness.

Yesterday.....

"She had devastating brain damage, and with that the chapter is closed," Frist said Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"I raised the question, 'Is she in a persistent vegetative state or not?' I never made the diagnosis, never said that she was not. I did say that certain tests should be performed to determine that before starving her to death," Frist said in the interview.

The autopsy by a medical examiner in Florida, released Wednesday, showed irreversible brain damage, consistent with a persistent vegetative state.

"The diagnosis they made is exactly right. It's the pathology, I'll respect that. I think it's time to move on," Frist said on CBS'

One can question if he really made the claim she wasn't or not -- he certainly used his medical license as evidence he had some superior knowledge in this based on watching the video tape. However? At least he's decided to move on -- Terri's mother, father, sister and brother are still out making the rounds of the conservative tv outlets denying it.