Right As Usual

I'm finally, somewhat, recovered from my long bus trip (14+ hours). I took a nap yesterday, and went to bed at 8:00, but it worked. I bounced out of bed at my usual 5am-ish time. The holiday was great - I saw family, spent quality time with the kids and grandkids, and bonded with my brother and sister over the death of my elder brother. I deliberately didn't bring any schoolwork. This trip was NOT for work - it was for family. However, that means that I have to collapse all of the necessary work into the remaining 3 days. That barely leaves me any time to focus on the US Budget Crisis. For, it IS a crisis, isn't it? No? Periodically, the news gets its knickers in a twist, and trots out the usual gloom & doomers who pontificate about how The Heartless Republicans will, gleefully, deprive the Poor Children and Elderly of Desperately Needed Money. Oh, and don't forget Womyn, who, despite out-earning men, will surely starve without the government largess. Yes, womyn...

I have a hearing disability. I've lost about 30% of my hearing, meaning that about 3 out of every 10 words are garbled. I hear the sounds, but can't make sense of the word. It's worse in high frequencies, so women will often find that hearing impaired people may fail to pay attention to what they say (so, ladies, you really ARE being tuned out - what you say comes in at such a high pitch, it is near impossible to understand what you say. Worse, when you become upset about not being paid attention to, the stress will cause your pitch to raise - making it even likelier that you will be ignored. The solution? Lower your voice, and talk about 1/3 slower). Today, I snapped at my son-in-law. We had been looking for the remote controller, and, in the process, I noticed that an exercise band was caught under the futon leg. I tried to move the futon, but was having difficulty. I asked for assistance. Unfortunately, my son-in-law decided that I hadn't heard that the cont...

I'm back. I've been wallowing in grief - not the teary, helpless kind. The soul-deadening, dry-eyed, resolute kind. Grief for the young lives snuffed out in CT. Grief for my brother, dead in the spirit long before his body was cold. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to work to make sure that America of the next century never deploys servicemen and servicewomen in foreign countries without a GOOD reason. We're not using our best strategies: We're not managing our borders - the ONLY reason for anyone to gain entrance - for a short visit or forever - is because it is in OUR best interest for them to do so. We need to put a premium on the RIGHT kind of education. Government grants should be STRICTLY limited to those majors that we want to support - Mid-Eastern and Asian languages - the more obscure, the better - STEM careers - health careers and the like. Anyone wanting to become a teacher should be given grants ONLY if they also earn a ce...

I've been out of town for the holidays (I left a few days earlier, due to a death in the family). I basically haven't looked at news on TV or on the Internet for the last 3 days. It's kind of refreshing. I tend to obsessively watch current events, looking at the interconnections and working my way through the original documents (I use Thomas.gov for the original text of legislation). I find that the news does a poor job of getting the information out. Too often, they rely on press releases and quick conversations with legislators that favor their pre-set biases. As a result, the public is often in the dark about the "pork stuffing", hidden costs, and full implications of pending legislation. They use the sound-bites of their favored party's arguments, and fail to get the true story out. But, for the last few days, I've concentrated on dealing with the items that I had to - family, shopping, time spent with my husband (not that I HAD to), and other imm...

It's been a rough week. On Tuesday, I received a call from my sister that my elder brother, Mike, had been found dead in his apartment. He likely was there for days before being noticed. Mike had been battling alcoholism for years. Due to it, he lost his job, his home, and nearly all his friends and family. Periodically, he'd surface, needing to shower or clean his clothing, and my sister or brother would take pity on him and let him in long enough to clear up. I was spared much of this; by the time he hit the streets, I was living in SC. I was only occasionally present when he surfaced. In 10 years, I doubt I saw him more than 10 times. He couldn't get along with others at the shelters. He claimed that they "messed with" him, but I suspect that he irritated them quite a bit - he was smart, and could use his intellect to put people down. His smart mouth, even in his youth, got him in a bit of trouble. When he was in his 20s, he started a science fiction no...

I'm steamed. I went to a sight about the CN shootings , and found a commenter who used his child as a rhetorical weapon against those who disagreed with him. Mark Dudley, who claims to be in the Army, writes: ...if you want to protect yourselves, why does it have to be with a gun? Is it because others have guns? Is it because it makes you feel powerful? OOOOH, that's right!  It's ONLY because 'dat big, bad gun compensates me for my weak sense of self that I would prefer to be armed in a confrontation with an armed intruder!  What other reason could there possibly be? He continues: How could someone be so ignorant to think that my child's life is worth you keeping your gun? Right.. I agree our gun control laws are terrible. They need to look more like those in Europe, esp . the UK, where gun violence has dramatically decreased since the ban on hand guns was enacted. Let everyone keep his or her rifles and shotguns, but membership in a licensed and sanctioned hunting ...

The spousal unit is at his part-time job, leaving me free this Saturday.  The thing I really enjoy about having this time alone is the fact that I don't have the TV on all day. The silence is WONDERFUL! Without the TV, I can think clearly.  I'm surrounded by noise all day - the students talk non-stop.  Even when they keep the volume down, there is too much noise in the background for me to be able to concentrate. I'll be making my plans for the day after I finish my coffee - another treat that I haven't enough of lately. Of course, the news about the shooting in CN is on everyone's mind. It put a damper on the holiday party for our school staff last night. Once again, the calls for gun control have been blasting everywhere. I don't think they've considered this.   Crazies are going to kill, whether they have guns, knifes, or bricks. And, by crazies, I don't mean the mentally ill, I mean those so focused on their own self that they see others as "thi...

I was reading an article about this & that in National Review , and I started thinking about social responsibility. BNP is demonized for the Gulf Oil Spill. It wasn't intentional. The scope of it was unexpected. They dedicated tremendous amounts of money and manpower to solving the problem. They paid a fine (imposed by fiat by the Obama administration, not the courts, even before the full cost was known). They paid reparations to the communities affected. They acknowledged guilt. But, they're considered, by the Left, to be irresponsible. Pick any urban city. In response to a provocation, their inhabitants riot, destroying property not their own, injuring scores of innocent citizens, and creating general chaos. They never accept responsibility. It's someone else's fault, even though it was their hands, and mouths, causing damage, and egging others on. The damage was predictable. It's happened many times before. The perpetrators do not pay for the clean...

Obama wants to, FIRST, raise taxes. That's the wrong approach.   Charles Krauthammer agrees with me. Think about what you do with your own household - when faced with financial reverses, do you immediately start looking for a second job? No. Instead, you examine what you are currently spending money on, and look for ways to reduce the expense, or to cut it out altogether. You stop the newspaper, and start reading it online at work. You cut your cable package to the basic, or eliminate it completely. You hold off on new expenses. You buy cheaper cuts of meat; generic foods; bulk supplies at discount suppliers. You completely stop the frills - eating out, entertainment that costs anything, new clothes or furniture.  You buy, if you must, secondhand, or "shop" the curb deposits. Only AFTER you have cut the monthly outgo to the bone do you consider adding income.  Your first action is to reduce expenses. The same procedure should be undertaken by the budget-makers. ...

I've long enjoyed Right Wing News' John Hawkins' work.  He is thoughtful and pays attention to the personal motivations underlying the political strife. This post, on 20 Observations About Human Nature That Liberals Would Disagree With , is quite insightful.  I noted several of them, 2) The more a behavior is rewarded with attention, fame, sympathy or money, the more of it we'll see. We recognize this almost instinctively when it comes to good behaviors, but we also tend to almost habitually block it out when it comes to behaviors we don't want to encourage. and 19) Greed isn't about wanting to keep what you've earned; it's about wanting goods, products or services that you aren't paying for or haven't earned. which were some of my favorites. Note that most of the listed observations have to do with the culture, not politics or religion.

Let's look at what WE, the Americans, need of the new immigrants: They should be self-supporting, or sponsored by someone who IS self-supporting, who will provide a guarantee that they do NOT take government benefits while still a non-citizen. They MUST have at least a high-school diploma.  Preference should be given to those applying that have a college degree.   Statistics say that, if we do allow those who  haven't reached that level in, they are far more likely to be a burden, not a benefit, to our economy. More recent studies have shown that the situation hasn't changed.  We have MANY Americans without specialized skills/college degrees of usefulness, who are unemployed.  Does it make ANY sense to bring in more unskilled laborers? The issue of American citizens, born in this country, whose parents are illegally here, is, indeed, a problem.  I'm generally against the parents staying, once their status is known, unless they are NOT in violation of any laws, ...