Thursday, November 24, 2016

Gotta Brag - With Fingers Crossed

I've been planning to write, once retired - in another 6 months to 2 years, depending on how the financials work out.

Meanwhile, I kept up my blogs. And, occasionally, started writing books.

I'd never gotten past a few chapters. Life would intervene, and I'd put another one aside - just for a while, you understand.

This year, in October, I decided to try writing in National Novel Writing Month. It starts November 1st, and runs until November 30th, at midnight. The idea is to write 50,000 words in a single month.
It sounded crazy to me at first. And, to be honest, kind of impossible.

But, I blocked out a sketchy outline, and, on November 1st, started writing.

I've just updated my wordcount, and I'm at 36,194 words at of 11:30 today. I still have time to add to the count before the end of the day (I'm probably going to make some notes offline after dinner, and get back to writing once I return to the motel). I just have to keep adding 1973 words a day until the end, and I can do it.

It's going to be rough. On Friday, we'll be at my sister-in-law's - she has very limited internet. Saturday, we'll be on the road back to SC. If we stretch the trip out to 2 days, I can possibly continue writing at the motel Saturday night.

But, I am hopeful. Even if I fail to make goal, I've written the framework for an actual book, and can add to, revise, and complete it over the next 6 months or so. The beauty of this month-long push is that it accustoms you to writing a LOT - I reached the point that I think of 2000 words as not a big deal. Previously, it had been a stretch to write 500 words in the same time.

I've also learned a lot about structuring a novel, writing dialogue, and developing characters.

If you want to test this process out, here is the link.

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Tuesday, November 22, 2016

The Pope's Ruling on Priestly Forgiveness of Abortion

I am a lifelong practicing Catholic. Here is what this is REALLY about:
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Abortions used to be relatively rare (despite what feminists argue). When a Catholic woman had an abortion:
- IF she knew the Canon Law covering it, she was AUTOMATICALLY excommunicated.
- Excommunication means that she was still a Catholic, she was NOT damned to hell, but - she could not partake of the sacraments until she repented, and sought forgiveness (funnily enough, this punishment did NOT remove the requirement that she continue attending church).
- A priest could forgive her IF she was ignorant of the rule against abortions, and did not realize she would be forbidden to receive the sacraments. Unlikely, if she was educated in Catholic schools in the old days. Possible, for those with education dating from the 70's onward.
- Normally, an excommunication had to make its way through official church channels, before landing in the bishop's lap (for things like abortions, he could lift the excommunication - for more serious offenses, it had to continue on up the ladder, perhaps even to the pope).

Priests - before this clarification, could, with the bishop's permission, lift the penalties for an abortion, if the penitent came to them. Now, it's automatic that the priest can handle it on his own discretion.

NOT a major change. Feel free to correct the ill-informed about this.
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Sunday, November 13, 2016

Running the Numbers - Why the Electoral College is Important

The reason D's hate the electoral college is that it makes it very difficult, if not impossible to cheat. They can win in the cities, where the determined efforts of a very few can stuff ballot boxes, rig machines, and otherwise  twist the will of the people to reflect what they want it to be.
But, it's very hard to do that in less dense regions. Too many people would have to be involved. So the vote in the rest of the country is relatively fair.
Why is restricting immigration so important? Because the current plan is to offload those aliens - soon to be voters - onto the heartland, by sheer numbers overwhelming the natives. And, of course, predictably voting as grateful Democrats.

UPDATE: Voter Fraud has been verified - perhaps as many as THREE MILLION votes. True the Vote and other players are contemplating a lawsuit.

On a different note, the Cry-Bullies are on parade. A Cry-Bully is one that aggressively displays his/her/zher HURT - they FEEL so bad about Trump's election, that they insist that you DO SOMETHING about it. Sarah Hoyt has a post about this very issue, and how we should deal with it.
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I'm Taking a Fay-Cation

Right now, the level of venom and vitiorol interactions on Facebook, and other social media, has risen to a level that I don't choose to be a part of.  I don't personally blame any individual.  I just think any participation in that conversation, however well meaning, and how much that individual is trying to gently get their extreme level of concern transmitted to their friends, is doomed to failure.

Therefore, I am taking a Fay-Cation from social media.  Time out is undecided, for now.

If you want to contact me, send a message to either my personal email (close friends and family will know the yahoo address), or to rightasusual2003 - it's a gmail account.  I'll answer when I can.

I'm fine with you sending me personal pictures of your family and friends.  Don't bother to send politically/socially conscious/fall of the Republic-related/invective about Trump-Clinton-Nazis-Homophobia-etc. stuff - it will go straight into the trash.  Continued abuse will result in putting your address into the Spam folder, until I feel up to dealing with you again.

I am, of course, fine with you sending me text messages, as well.  Same rules as above apply.

I do realize that you are passionate about your concerns.  It's clear that you feel America is on the edge of some Apocalyptic Precipice.  I do get that, I really do.

I just want some respite from the noise.  I'm choosing to detach, with love.

Please respect that.

BTW - this doesn't mean that I won't be posting here occasionally.  I'm just not going to bother responding to comments.

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Thursday, November 10, 2016

Post-Election - The Storm Before the Calm?

Last week, the Democratic Party was calling for Trump's supporters to accept the results peacefully.

This week, we have "protesters" in the streets, disrupting traffic and spray-painting their "Everyone besides me is a Nazi" KKK slogans on innocent buildings.

What happened to peaceful transfer of power?

The wrong side won.

Look, I do understand being disappointed about the outcome of an election. I was sick at heart when Reagan won.

BUT, unless you plan to live in a "100% of the votes for our benevolent overlord" kind of society, you have to accept that, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

The better lesson to take from this is:

Don't give so much power to change lives to one level of government. Leave most of that power at a local level, where your influence on those elected officials is stronger.

For what it's worth, I doubt that DT will start dropping the bombs any time soon. I expect that a guy who spent most of his life in negociations, trying to get his way, would prefer to do the same in the White House. I do believe that, if he CAN persuade others to see things his way, that isn't exactly the behavior of a dictator.

Things that WILL probably change:

  • Composition of the Supreme Court - he's likely to avoid those ideological candidates, and choose a Justice who hews to the Constitution. Not optimal from the Progressive view, but not imposition of tyranny.
  • Federal government's size - I would HOPE it decreases, in the non-essential areas. Government wasn't intended to be Big Daddy. A better solution to people not having enough money is for the government to take less of it from them. That includes cigarette taxes, alcohol taxes, gasoline taxes, and taxes on communications devices - all of which the poor pay a larger percentage of.
  • A repeal of the executive actions that were an overreach. That includes forcing schools to allow men into the ladies rooms and locker rooms. The states are free to make that decision themselves, but it should NOT be imposed from on high.
If DT does just that, I'm OK with it. I would hope he emulates Calvin Coolidge, and says little, and does less.


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Wednesday, November 09, 2016

Ding! Dong! The Witch is Dead - At Least Her Political Life

SUCH a pleasure to wake up to good news the day after elections.

I went to be early - saying, as I did so, "Thy Will Be Done". Having put it into his hands, I sleep well and soundly.

My husband couldn't stand not knowing - so, when bathroom needs woke him, he turned on the TV. Where horrified political "experts" were babbling, trying to explain how this was happening.

I've been smiling all day. My gut feeling was vincdicated. The average person had spoken (and voted), and The World Was Turned Upside Down once more.

At work, most of the teachers, students, and staff are in shock. They just cannot believe that the unthinkable has happened. Worse, they express fear (and, too, loathing) at the prospect of a Trump/Republican ascendancy.

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Lies of the Left

This COULD be a lengthy post. But, I'll try to winnow it down to a reasonable length. The CA Parent Bribery 'Scandal' - the 1...