Click this, Bitch!

Yesterday at work a couple of the girls were talking about seat belt laws. They both knew of at least one person whose life was saved because they were NOT wearing a seat belt.

My husband, in fact, was in an accident where he would have been killed had he been wearing a seat belt. Now he refuses to wear it, ticket be damned.

You've all seen the commercials. Click it or ticket, they say.

My favorite commercial is the one where they tell you that police officers are trying to save your life. Bullshit! The seat belt issue is about revenue. Your state wants money, so they'll just whittle away one more wee bit of your freedom to fill their coffers. Anyone who believes otherwise is deluding themselves.

I know there may be a risk if I don't wear my seat belt. There may be. I'm an adult and I'll take that into consideration. Then I will make up my own mind. After all, who gets hurt if I am in an accident without a seat belt? I do. Well, maybe I do. Or maybe by not wearing one my life is saved.

I wear my seat belt only to avoid a ticket and I resent it. People may think that this law doesn't matter much. Just shut up and strap yourself in, Missy. Fine. But remember this...every time you let the government tell you how to live your life, every law they pass and make us conform to is just one more step towards fascism.

Are you prepared?

People that Have To Go!

This feature feeds my fantasies in which great portions of the population disappear and always for the better.

For the introductory issue I have chosen...soccer moms.

Gods, how I hate them.

While it's admirable to take an interest in your children and to allow them their own interests, everything about soccer moms bothers me. Starting with their kids. If someone had told me that one day I'd be saying, "These kids today..." well, I wouldn't have believed them. Your children ARE NOT your friends. They are children and they need rules and boundries. Instead parents lets them do whatever they want. They have no respect for anything or anyone.

Also, you soccer moms need to let your children fail and be criticized. You keep telling them how perfect they are even when they aren't and what will they do when they get out into the real world? We now have generations of soft, lazy morons who don't know how to take responsibility for anything. Good job.

Of course, the most important prop of the soccer mom is the SUV. Do you really care about your kids when you're so obviously willing to destroy any future they may have by polluting the enviroment with vehicles that use up so much fossil fuel? No wonder your kids are selfish and think of no one other than themselves. They have learned by example.

And every soccer mom in her monstrous truck, which she really can't handle, has a cell phone in her hand. Thank you for taking my life into your hands. Why don't you just grab a cocktail and we can have the trifecta of dangerous driving situations.

The sweater sets, the personalized plates, the manicures, the total disregard for anyone outside of their own pathetic family. For these and a hundred other reasons, the soccer mom MUST GO!

Suggested Reading:

It Can't Happen Here-Sinclair Lewis
Brave New World-Aldous Huxley
1984-George Orwell
the Handmaid's Tale-Margaret Atwood
The Plot Against America-Philip Roth
The Door into Summer-Robert Heinlen
Martian Chronicles-Ray Bradbury

Does anyone sense a pattern? If so, I want to know you!

Suggested Reading will be a recurring feature. More than likely it will list only a couple of books, but these books together are so ominous I couldn't resist. As a bonus, here is a non-fiction that has ties to above listed eight.

American Facists-Chris Hedges---"Tolerance is a virtue, but tolerance coupled with passivity
is a vice."

I know how to solve the world's problems!
Does it amaze anyone else that governments can't seem to get it together when they are composed of mature adults with advanced college degrees and real world experience? One might think that those charged with running the world should be able to agree on a plan of action that will fix what is broken. But that doesn't seem to be so.
Now, when I was in the 4th grade, I was asked to join the PAT. That stands for Program for the Academically Talented. Once a week we were let out of regular classes and we did mindbenders and minute-mysteries.
In the 5th grade, PAT introduced Future Problem Solving, or FPS. The purpose of FPS was to teach us to think in the abstract, to think in broader terms and to solve the problems of the future. We would be put in groups of 5 or 6 and would begin by reading the problem aloud. Next, we were given a half an hour to brainstorm. After our papers were filled with ideas, we would share them and pick the best. Finally, we were to go into detail about how to implement our plans.
I think FPS allowed me to learn how to see the bigger picture and I am able to imagine several outcomes instantly. FPS was fun and educational and I never knew anyone who didn't feel the experience enriched them in some way.
It doesn't take a genius to see that if 5th graders can work together for a mere 5 hours and solve the problem of starving children in Ethiopia that our government officials could use the same techniques successfully. Since no one will suggest that they are only given 5 hours, they will have the advantage of time. With their greater education they will know facts off hand that we could only suppose. And they will have far more resources than than we ever did.
Of course, it would probably be more successful if we let the 10 year olds do it themselves!

I'd like to express my proclivity towards language from the very beginning of this blog. I adore words. When 2 words are synonyms, their meanings may still be very different. I love the way words and language can be subtle or in your face.
I not only love the words themselves, but also the way words work together. I am a grammar fanatic. You won't catch me dangling a participle, ending a sentence in a preposition or using an adjective when I clearly meant to use an adverb.
It's unfortunate that when people communicate by computer they use all sorts of vulgar shorthand. When correspondance was solely through letters, people wrote properly. Even though writing by hand is far more tiring, the writer still managed to write in complete sentences. I see this as just another step in our trend towards laziness.
I will strive, within the confines of my blog and without, to always be proper and correct in my musings. I promise. And, if anyone else wants to bring back the art of language but has forgotten just how to do so, may I suggest reading Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynn Truss. It is both educational and entertaining.
While you're at it, read her amusing Talk to the Hand.

My First Riff on Responsibility

I often wonder where that old American can-do spirit went. My guess is that it left along with the concept of responsibility. Nothing is anyone's fault nowadays. They have a disease or a syndrome or it is just plain someone else's fault.

We make choices. That is what freedom is all about. You make a choice. If it doesn't turn out to be a good choice, then that's on you. Accept it and move on with your life.

My mother teaches nursing and has been a pediactric nurse for 37 years. She sees a lot of women who have chosen to be mommies without daddies. And that is fine. I know lots of women who do it successfully.

There are those, however, who use single motherhood as an excuse. They can't make classes or turn in an assignment or get any real study time because they have a child. Bullshit!

In the early 1980's my father was laid off from his job. There was still the mortgage and my ballet lessons and my brother's hockey. To pay all the bills, my mother worked the night shift.

The night shift, you say? So?

Every night Mom tucked us into bed. Then she worked the 11-7 shift (on top of her regular part-time shifts). She would get home after 7, take a bath and put on her pajamas---as if she had been in bed all night. She'd get us up and make us breakfast and get us off to school. As far as my brother and I were concerned, it was business as usual. I wouldn't even find out how close they came to losing the house until I was 30.

Now I agree, it was easier for her because she did have a supportive, loving partner. So, let's look at what she did when Dad was working. My mother was at the hospital 3 days a week. She also gave tours of the facility, taught Cpr and first aid classes and was the president of her nursing school alumni. She took on both cub scouts and girl scouts at the same time. She was always our roommother at school and was the president of PTA while we were in elementary, junior high and high school. As a nurse, she was always asked and always accepted to chaperone fieldtrips. She spent 12 years getting a second Bachelor's in education. The house was cleaned once a week, but always looked like it had been done that day. Dinner was always on the table at 5:30. All while raising 2 children who turned out pretty good.

All I'm saying is, it's hard but it can be done. If you are willing to take the responsibility of your choice and put in the work it can be done! If your not willing, maybe you should think twice before...well, conceiving.

Bought my soul at Goodwill for a dollar ninety-eight.
Spread it on the ground for a picnic;
Knocked over a bottle of wine.
Stuffed it in the washer; stuffed it in the dryer.
It shrank two sizes.
What the hell, I wore it anyway.
Dude burnt a hole in it with a cigarette.
Threw it in the trunk and forgot about it.
Found it later, wrinkled and dirty.
Got it stuck in the door and it tore.
Stained, shrunk, burnt, wrinkled, dirty, torn.
Looks like it's time to buy a new soul.

I don't know about you, but my soul's not disposable. I've tried to live my life by looking at the larger picture. It's been lonely. What I 'd like is a community of people who can see there are problems and want to fix them. I need people who don't think they are the center of the universe.
Let this be a forum for politics, the enviroment, education---indeed for all those things we've broken and need to repair if we are to have a future.
I don't know where we're going to start, but the suspense is killing me!