A Poem

Today's frame-of-mind poetry:

Hard around the edge

The good stuff falls in the holes

Life is a waffle

Missing Link

There it is, right in the middle, the missing link. Scientists have been searching for this forever!!! I think I should inform Richard Dawkins right now.

Both the grill on the left and on the right have evolved from this primitive form over the years. It's quite the (rusted) fossil!

This lovely display is in front of the house across the street from mine. I fortunately/unfortunately face the side and back of the house. All angles are equally bad I think. Penn State football weekends are not complete without a party at this house. The young, hairy-backed, knuckle-dragging primitive men who inhabit the house recycle their beer bottles from the upper floors. I wouldn't walk barefoot in their yard. I once saw a burning mattress being shoved out of a second-floor bedroom by a couple of firemen. I wonder whether someone was grilling in bed.

F School

So, Pennsylvania needs a new Governor. What fun. And once again we get to hear about education.

According to Republicans, we shouldn't bother fixing our broken educational system. Hell no. We should just trash it and start over. We really don't want to waste time and money to provide "certain people" with classrooms, teachers and textbooks, do we?

Republican candidate Tom Corbett, thinks its just too hard on the parents to have to deal with the complex issue of where to send their children to school. He also believes a child shouldn't have to bear the burden of being placed in a school with children whose intellect is superior or inferior to their own.

Corbett, the state attorney general . . . proposed assigning grades to schools -- A though F -- to make it simpler for parents to decide where to send their children.

WTF? You would think it would be easy for the parents to send their child to the public school in their neighborhood. Nooooooo. That's far too difficult. It's going to be really simple to know that their "non-gifted" child will be going to the "F" school. Probably across town. Their average child will need to go to the "C" school somewhere else in town. The genius child will go to the "A" school in the next town. That'll be easy for mom and dad. Right?

And why should we assume that the "A" school is going to be for those smart children. Let's shake it up a bit and put the gifted children in the "F" school and those backwards minorities and poor children in the "A" school. If we're going to label our children, we may as well have some fun at the same time.

Corbett is also developing a plan to shift tax dollars from public schools (where they apparently are flushed down the toilet) into charter schools, PAROCHIAL schools and other private learning programs.

Mr. Corbett, I think you are wasting your time and breath on these convoluted plans. I say, lets take the poor people, the challenged, and the darker folks and just teach them how to be maids, busboys, and field hands (easier if we just do on-the-job training). We'll let the gifted folks (rich and white, preferably male) go to those charter schools or the parochial schools and be taught science by God himself.

We don't want our "A" school students to be drinking from the same water fountains as the "F" school students during recess.

Packing Mule

Me, September 10, 2010

Friday morning, the family climbed into the politically-incorrect SUV and drove on down to Richmond, VA, to visit close friends. I should say, the hubby, child and dog climbed in. Here's what I did to prepare for this trip.

Laundry in preparation of travel.
Located 3 bathing suits (pool on premises, wheeeee)
Set up cat's things for cat sitter - all food (dry and wet) with accompanying bowls and plates, medicine, notes for each item.
Packed my suitcase.
Packed daughter's suitcase.
Packed daughter's sleeping bag and pillow.
Made sure hubby had packed allergy meds, wallet, gps.
Packed all meds and creams and shampoos for special needs (except for hubby's - his job, he just gets questioned about it).
Packed road snacks.
Packed dog items for kennel (food, blanket, toys, meds -- we're a bunch of sickos apparently).
Packed CDs for road listening pleasure.
Packed daughter's toys and books and stuffed animals in her backpack.
Pack sunscreen and sunglasses.
Watered plants.
Made sure that birds and squirrels would be fed in our absence.

Then, an hour down the road, someone had the gall to ask ME if I had packed their swim goggles. I said, "No. I did not." Someone said, "Mama forgot my swim goggles." I said, "No, I did not forget your swim goggles. You did. Your daddy did. But I DID NOT." Hubby says, "We all forgot your swim goggles." I recited the list above, and once again stated, "I did NOT forget your goggles.

Shit. Is it because I have tits and ovaries that I'm supposed to remember to pack all the above, including the damn swim goggles? I think not.

Next time, I'm putting my stuff in (and dog's I guess), and I'm climbing in and putting on my CD and screw the rest of 'em. They can wear soiled undies and sneeze from allergies and itch because they have the wrong shampoo and have nothing to read or write with and no stuffed animals and no wallet and nothing to eat but McDonalds (wait, the hubby did prepare sandwiches) no pillows no sunglasses burn from lack of sunscreen. And no freakin' swim goggles.

Packing mule is on strike.

Today's Patriotism - Stupidity on Parade

I’m guessing that because yesterday was Labor Day in the U.S., that there was a parade somewhere. And parading will be folks that glorify in the stupidity that is rampant in this country. Somewhere, signs will be held aloft stating one’s believe in the Tea Party group. Others will insult our President, possibly calling him a Muslim or scribbled with a lightly veiled racist comment, quite possibly misspelled. When Americans gather to celebrate our country on national holidays, the voices of the ignorant ring out the loudest.

Why is it that Americans are encouraged, or even coerced, into equating patriotism with ignorance? The less we learn about or question our government, the more patriotic we become in the eyes of the flag-waving public.

Don’t believe me? Remember in the last presidential election, those who did their research on the candidates and wanted to ask them questions were called intellectuals in voices tinged with disgust. And the candidates themselves? Those who were educated and employed a varied vocabulary were also called intellectuals in voices filled with disgust and then equated with communists.

We are so quick to poke fun at other countries and laugh about their methods of mind control. In North Korea, loud speakers praise the Great Leader and countrymen are expected to believe every word. Many countries (attempt to) ban all media from outside sources and to trust their leader and their God at any cost.

We label those here who question their government as treasonous or communistic. We are quick to believe anything we hear in 20-second “news” reports without bothering to know or care who owns the news station. We sit in front of our televisions watching reality shows while eating genetically modified foods without knowing or caring how this food arrived on the non-recyclable, microwavable plastic tray in front of us. Our reading material is Us and People magazines. Our books, if we have any, are “self-help” books written by televangelists. If we are “connected”, we are embedding cute animal videos on Facebook.

I am fortunate to live in a Democracy. I don’t have to worship a Great Leader. I still don’t have to wear a Burqa. I have the freedom to write this blog. I have a brain and it has great capacity (less as I age, however). I am fortunate along with more than 300,000,000 people. We will, however, find ourselves much less fortunate in the near future if we shirk our duties as citizens. It is our duty to learn and contribute (not just financially) to our country, not just sit in our overstuffed recliners and let corporate government feed us soft drinks and Twinkies.

We’re not doing ourselves or our country any good by remaining complacent, ignorant, and running up our flags of patriotic stupidity on every national holiday.

Yet Another (not so) Little Girl Crush

Stephen Fry, Atheist Hottie

Yes, another brilliant, British atheist.

While I am as impressed with him as I am Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, I would have to say, that of the three, I would most want to have dinner with Stephen Fry. I would have to expect to have partially-chewed food violently expelled through my nose and mouth. This is one funny man.

In my house, we have just started watching the Wooster and Jeeves series. There is nothing that cannot be improved by this man's charm and wit. It does seem that he has a bit of a bite, though. Good for him.

Check out his take on the Catholic church on YouTube.