Month: July 2012

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I Needed That

Best laugh I've had all day!

Why didn't I have the foresight…oh, right. The technology wasn't there.

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A Little Yoke

Q: What does the pope like best about twenty eight year-olds?

A: There are twenty of them.

Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week!

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Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Whoopsie!

From Joe.My.God.:

GOP legislators in Louisiana have realized to their horror that their bill to provide vouchers for private religious schools can actually be used by Muslims.

Rep. Valarie Hodges, a Republican who represents East Baton Rouge and Livingston, now says she wishes she hadn't voted for the Jindal voucher bill. "I actually support funding for teaching the fundamentals of America's Founding Fathers' religion, which is Christianity, in public schools or private schools," Hodges told the Livingston Parish News. "I liked the idea of giving parents the option of sending their children to a public school or a Christian school," Hodges added. The newspaper reported that she "mistakenly assumed that 'religious' meant 'Christian.'" "Unfortunately it will not be limited to the Founders' religion," Hodges told the News. "We need to insure that it does not open the door to fund radical Islam schools. There are a thousand Muslim schools that have sprung up recently. I do not support using public funds for teaching Islam anywhere here in Louisiana."

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State writes:

Some legislators aren't comfortable funding Muslim schools. What's to be done? How about not establishing these programs in the first place? Let Muslims fund Muslim schools. Let Catholics fund Catholics ones. Let fundamentalist Protestants pay for the conservative Christian academies and so on.

The law has already gone into effect and provides for no state oversight regarding curriculums or educational standards.

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Happy 4th

From Bill in Exile:

On this 236th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence from Great Britain I think its important to think about what that document and those words meant when they were written.

How it set the stage for our Founders to write our Constitution and for this country to become the greatest country in the world.

A country that was constantly reinventing itself and the only country among the nations of men that had as its foundation the concept of always striving to become a better place.

And yet somewhere along the way we lost all that.

And we lost it all fairly recently.

We are no longer the greatest nation on Earth. The most powerful, yes—by far. But the greatest? No, not hardly.

We torture people and we order the execution our own citizens at the hands of our government {us} without benefit of trial or even being charged with a crime.

We invade foreign countries based upon lies perpetrated upon us by our elected officials and enabled by a compliant press and we do nothing about it.

We allow our government to spy on American citizens on American soil and we've militarized our law enforcement agencies. Agencies who routinely respond to peaceful and lawful protest with deadly force.

We worship the 1% of the richest among us—malefactors of great wealth who care not one wit for the common man—while at the same time holding those of us in need in deep contempt while stripping them of even the most basic of safety net protections.

We allow our elites in government and finance to commit crimes that drive the world to the brink of economic collapse and then not only do we not punish them with prison, but we reward them with free money so they can do it all again.

This while sending people to prison for the crimes of simply trying to feed their families.

We have become nothing more than a third world country with nuclear weapons and we are completely undeserving of the title "Greatest Nation on Earth."

But because we are who we are, we're more than capable of reclaiming that title and regaining the moral high ground and the approbation of the world that this country once enjoyed.

We simply need to remember who we are and where we came from.

And just fucking do it!

Happy Fourth.

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Some Thoughts on Home

A few days ago I read this heart-wrenching article about the long-term unemployed who are homeless and living out of their cars in Santa Barbara.

One quote from a woman whose family had just recently gotten resettled into an apartment especially resonated with me: "For the first month after getting the place," she said, "I didn't want to go anywhere. I didn't want to talk to anybody. I just wanted to be in this house."

While Ben and I were never homeless per se, after leaving Phoenix, the affect of being unemployed and living three months in that hotel room had much the same effect on me, and is something I never want to go through again. For months after getting back into an apartment I wanted nothing more than to simply come home from work and be there. Even now most days I crave the security of our apartment over going out and doing much of anything after work.

That's why any talk—even hypothetical—of us moving to a different place now leaves me very unsettled.

Ben will be graduating and receiving his Masters Degree in Education next month. This will be the first time since I've known him that he will not be in school. This is a huge change for him, and I think he's feeling a bit lost as he begins his chosen career. The other day he told me that he now wants to get his Doctorate, and added, "We'll have to decide where we want to live."

Where we want to live? Excuse me?

When I was Ben's age, I wouldn't think twice about packing up and moving once a year. But now that I'm older, having stability—especially after the radical changes this past year have brought—is extremely important to me. The last thing I want to do is cross state lines again—especially since I've finally adjusted to living in Denver.

"Don't worry, it won't be for another six years."

I pointed out the obvious fact that I'm no longer in my 30s and can't just walk into another job like I used to be able to. In six years I will be at an age that even with my impeccable skill set and piles of kudos from previous employers, finding work in my chosen profession might be prove difficult. While my current job is far from ideal, it's still a job, relatively secure (or at least as secure as any job in this economy), providing a steady income with benefits paid. There are millions of Americans out there still desperately searching for what I have, and I'm not exactly sure I'm willing to give that up—especially as I get older—just so Ben—as much as I love him—can become a professional student.