George Bush and His War.... What a Fool You Elected, Again

I am a Texan and lived under this man's rule once. I knew better than to vote for him as leader of an entire nation. But you elected him anyway. You elected him because he is pro-life yet he has murdered more people than all the abortion doctor's in the U.S. , and they are just siphoning off unliving tissue. Bush is directly involved in the murder of live human beings. This is not very "pro-life." How many children has he killed in Iraq? How many children has he taken a parent away from?

You elect anyone based on such a narrow view of things and this is what you get, besides incompetence.

Then the opportunity to go to war fell into his lap and he ran with it. He used lies, fear and anything else that he could pull out of his cowboy hat to convince a wounded America that war against Iraq was the answer. I tend to think that his dad is still pulling the strings but this is only my opinion, and since his chance at Iraq failed he took this opportunity.

Now George Bush, very insincerely, admits that all is not going as planned so he is going to send in MORE troops to make more of a mess of the horror he has created. He is also trying to divert our attention by going into Somalia. Yet the man responsible for 9/11 is just skipping around without a care in the world.

We as the voting public made our voices heard in the last election and his smugness cannot bear it so he is acting the bully and attacking anyone and anything that will hold still. Do I feel safer with Saddam dead.... um.... NO. Would I feel safer with Bin Laden dead or captured, you bet your ass. Do I feel safe now that we are attacking Somalia... I think that it is a diversion tactic by his dumbness. He will do what he wants to do despite what Congress, the American people and his cabinet (Condi doesn't count she is a suck up) wants done.

I think that it is time to look at impeachment, the man is out of control and is becoming as dangerous to the world as he says they are to us.

With Bush's new enlightenment that he screwed up and is going to send more American kids to be slaughtered... my step-daughter will now be sent to Iraq. She is not prepared for this mentally or physically, thank you U.S. military. Why don't the spend some of their TV advertising money and buy our military the safety equipment that they need.

I want to go on record that if something happens to her I hold George W. Bush responsible. He already goes to bed at night with the blood of thousands of American citizens on his slimy little hands. I'm sure that he sleeps well as you have to have a brain to feel emotion.

I am furious, she has been in limbo for over a year. I just knew that someone with some sense would bring a halt to this before she was sent over there. It is my contention that if the U.S. pulls out, the "insurgents" would not feel the need to defend their property, the police force could gain control because they would bring in the old army, the government would work itself out... in their way... not the American way.

Someone has got to rein in the loose cannon in Washington. There is no winner or loser in this atrocity just a lot more dead people.

My Stop Smoking Progress

Well, I have to be honest, I am not doing so great on this venture. On my target date I ended up getting a cold/flu/bronchitis and was in bed for a week. Even though I could not smoke because I was coughing up a lung anyway, the urge was still there. The nicotine gum tasted like shit and the patch was making me feel worse than I already did. So I decided to push my start date back to when I am well again and start over.

I am not smoking as much as I did but I think it is because I feel so wretched. But cutting down is a good thing. I am not beating myself up over this either. Guilt gets you nowhere, I have not failed I have just hit a bump in the road.

The past two days I have started to feel a bit better, at least I have been able to get up and move around some without feeling like I am going to end up in a heap on the floor. I have also been able to socialize with my family. I sequestered myself to the extra bedroom so as not to share my germs with the whole house, my only company was the dogs and the occasional someone poking their head in the door to make sure I was still alive.

Hopefully by next week my taste buds will be functioning again, the snot will have gone away and this severe cough will have diminished. Then I will give it another go.

Boy am I glad I got my flu shot this year.

Stay healthy.

I am going to quit smoking... Jump Aboard

I decided the other day that I am going to quit smoking on Jan. 1, 2007. I am pretty nervous about this decision too.

Only once before have I attempted to give up cigarettes and that was several years ago. I had my Wellbutrin (to kill the craving and save my sanity) and some little faux cigarette looking things to help the hand to mouth fixation. I was set. My mind was made up.

All went well for the first 3 weeks and then the holiday season crept up on me. You can read my previous posts for my thoughts on the holidays. The stress began piling up and I was around my mom who smokes like a chimney. She was not supportive of my decision. She may have been supportive but she did not offer encouragement nor did anyone else in my family.

I am not one for pats on the back and lots of "way to go" bs. I do what I do because I enjoy doing it and I also try to make a difference each day that I am on this earth, not for back pats. But giving up a 30 year habit deserves a "thata girl" everyonce in a while. I failed anyway. It didn't take and the pills made me bonkers.

This time I am not using pharmaceuticals I will get some nicotine gum and cross my fingers. I will not count on encouragement from my family (not even my husband who has bitched for 20 years about my smoking). I am doing this for me, I will get selfish about the whole ordeal.

This is for me, I want this. I will take my weekly cigarette money and stash it away for a nice trip. I know it will not be easy and I am prepared for that but I have to do it and I can do it.

Holidays Suck....

I have had it with the holiday season. Next year I am going on strike and I am leaving town with or without my kids and grandbaby.

As I stated in an earlier post, I have had problems with the holidays for a few years. I just can't get into the holiday spirit due to the stress the holidays reign down upon my little shoulder's. I volunteer year-round so the "spirit of giving" is nothing new to me. I work with those in need on a day to day basis. The impoverished have needs all year not just for 1 month out of the year.

Now due to all of the stress and strain of the holidays I am sick. I have a horrible head and chest cold that has put me in bed for 3 long days. The stress wears down the body, a germ crosses your path and WHAM... it gets you.

So instead of relishing the fact that I have survived another holiday season with my sanity. I am laid up in bed reliving each moment.

We did change things up a bit this year and rented a nice hotel room on the Plaza.. as in the Kansas City Plaza. If you aren't familiar with the Plaza, it was the first open aired shopping center in the U.S. built in the 1930's in a Spanish style with loads of architectural detail and numerous water fountains. It is wonderful down there during the holidays with the buildings lit up, carriage rides, beautiful shop windows and great shopping. This is where we have some of the more exclusive shops, Armani, Tivol, Tiffany, Williams Sonoma, BCBG and many more.

When I got to the hotel they did not give us the correct room with enough beds in it. Yes they did move us but when your reservation is for 4 adults and 2 kids common sense dictates that you need more than 1 king sized bed and a single fold out sofa bed.

My oldest daughter's car broke down on the way to the hotel and delayed their arrival 2 hours, plus stressed out my daughter.

We also treated the family to what was to be a very nice dinner in a posh restaurant. The posh and wealthy are as loud as Arrowhead Stadium when the Chiefs have the ball. It was so damn noisy in the former Bristol that we could not even carry on a conversation at our table. The service was crappy too. I noticed that several tables around us were getting excellent service but it also appeared that they knew someone that worked there or were regular's. We sat without a glass of water, a speck of bread or our $40 bottle of wine for 25 minutes after we placed our order. I was ready to get up and walk. I complained to the server but he couldn't hear me..... It was hot, stuffy and obnoxious. This is one place I will never darken the door of again. This is probably where we all got sick from. Both of my daughter's have colds too.

Then you throw an alcoholic parent in on top of this, shake well and you have my Christmas Eve. It rolled over into Christmas day to the point that I was ready to throw myself out the window of the hotel.

I was then looking forward to my husband and I spending some quality time together, as he has this week off. I am so germy he won't come near me.

Next year I will close the shop a week before Christmas and I am going to the beach. I love the sound of the waves. Everyone is game except the drinker but I think that majority rules.

Merry Christmas To All

I just want to wish you all a happy holiday season, whatever it is that you celebrate may it be the best, the healthiest and happiest ever.

From my family to yours.....

Happy Holidays and All That Stuff

I have been a real scrooge the past few years, I don't know why and I have quit worrying about it. I do believe it is the stress that the holidays bring.

So... this year I decided to give. I was going to withdraw some money and hand out $50 bills to folks I felt could use it. I don't have the money to give, we have a pile of bills to pay and barely make it from month to month but I thought this might help ME. But the little voice kicked in and started saying things like "they will use the money for drugs," " you will be enabling," etc. Therefore, for the moment that option is out.

Hey, I will buy a Christmas tree and decorations for 5 different families. I called the local Social Services with the idea with the criteria that the family, preferably a single parent family, must be working. No can do, you can't be that specific and it would be too time consuming for "them" to find me ONLY 5 families. So much for that idea.

So I turn to eBay, I will buy something from a non-profit organization. I am not a fan of the Red Cross or United Way, they siphon off way too much money for staff and admin costs (United Way 17+%) and the upper management makes in the 6 digits. I find some items for auction by a group helping Hurricane Katrina "Victims".

I go to their website to learn about them and they have a nice site, but some of the info like homes for rent... in New York City, jobs available in Ohio, seemed odd. I thought they wanted to rebuild New Orleans, by the way they are only working with New Orleans folks.

Then I start reading the news articles on their website pertaining to the hurricane. In the article one of New Orleans officials was quoted as saying "... this is the first time in American history that a whole town has been destroyed." That stopped me in my tracks. 1) the whole town was not destroyed and 2) most of the f**** death and destruction was preventable.

I am from that area and I recall discussion back in the 1970s on the failure of the levee. This is just when I began paying attention to that kind of stuff, I am sure they were talking about it way before that, like when the sucker was built and officials pocketed $$$ instead of doing the best job possible. Common sense tells you that when you are at sea level things shift and change and without proper maintenance and vigilance you get the levee that broke during hurricane Katrina. DUH.

Back to #1, I started looking for other American town disasters.....

Jacksonville, Florida: "By 1900 the city had a population approaching 30,000 people. The new century dawned with the Great Fire of 1901 when embers from a stove ignited materials at the Cleveland Fiber Factory. Before it was extinguished, the fire had destroyed nearly 2,400 buildings, decimated 146 city blocks, killed 7 people, left 10,000 people homeless, and destroyed $15 million worth of property. Fortunately, the city was once again quickly rebuilt and the population grew to more than 91,000 people by 1920." http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-South/Jacksonville-History.html


1888
March 11–14, East Coast: the “Blizzard of 1888.” 400 people died; accumulation of up to 5 ft of snow. Damage estimated at $20 million. (The town wasn't destroyed but this is pretty horrible considering the time period, resources and availability to warmth.)

1889
May 31, Johnstown, Pa.: collapse of South Fork Dam left more than 2,200 dead.

How about the drought in the mid-1930s. The "great dust bowl" covered 50 million acres in the south-central plains during the winter of 1935–1936. I have not seen any number on how many died and the number of towns destroyed and abandoned but I imagine it is well into the thousands.

Hurricane - 1900 Sept. 8, Galveston, Tex.: an estimated 6,000–8,000 dead, mostly from devastation due to tidal surge.

1906 April 18, San Francisco: earthquake accompanied by fire razed more than 4 sq mi; estimates range from 700 to 3,000 dead or missing. For more, see The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.

I live in tornado alley and there have been some horrendous tornado's that have destroyed towns. An interesting note by looking at the information on this website ... I noticed that for the most part the lose of life decreases as FOLKS LISTEN TO THE WARNINGS BEING GIVEN. We get about a 5 minute warning to get into the basement, if you have a basement. You bet your butt I am in mine and have my supply closet stocked at all times.

1840 May 7: Natchez, MS. A tornado ravaged the heart of the city, killing 317 and injuring over 1,000. The northern and central portions of the city were destroyed. 269 people perished on riverboats on the Mississippi River.

1908 April 24: Purvis, MS. The majority of the town of Purvis, MS. was leveled as a tornado moved from Amite, LA into Purvis. 55 people died as a result of this tornado in Purvis alone. People reported that the tornado was “2 miles wide” at times.

1925 March 18: Ellington, MO. to Princeton, IN. The “Tri-State Tornado” is the most deadly single tornado in history. Murphysboro, Illinois was the hardest hit by the tornado, where 234 lives were claimed. Several cities in the tornado’s path were obliterated, including: Annapolis, MO; Gorham, IL; Parrish, IL; and Griffin, IN.

1936 April 6: Gainesville, GA. A pair of tornadoes converged inside the city on the morning of April 6th, 1936. 203 people were killed and most of the city’s buildings lay in ruins. Damage estimates from the tornado were around $12.5 million.

1947 April 9: Woodward, OK. An F5 tornado moved through the northern portions of Woodward, OK. Over 100 city blocks were demolished from the tornado and over 1,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. 107 people were killed, 1,000 people were injured, and over $6 million in damage occurred.

1953 May 11: Waco, TX. 114 people died when an F5 tornado moved through downtown Waco, TX. A six-story brick furniture store was destroyed. The main street was filled with bricks from the building, in some instances nearly five feet deep. Some people were buried under brick for nearly 14 hours.

1979 April 10: Wichita Falls, TX. $400 million in damage occurred when an F4 tornado moved through Wichita Falls. Nearly 3,100 homes were destroyed and about 20,000 people were left homeless. 42 people were killed and 1,740 were injured.

1984 June 8: Barneveld, WI. An F5 tornado struck around 1 a.m. in the small community of Barneveld, WI. Nine people were killed, 197 were injured, and 90% of the community was destroyed. Over $40 million in damage was caused from this tornado.

2002 November 10: Van Wert, OH. An F4 tornado moved through Van Wert, Ohio around 3:30 PM local time, destroying the entire northwest corner of the city. This tornado was part of one of the largest November tornado outbreaks in history, with 70 tornadoes occurring within two days. Total damages from the outbreak totaled $490 million.

This was/is to date the most devastating to America and Iraq -
2001 Sept. 11, New York City, Arlington, Va., and Shanksville, Pa.: hijackers crashed 2 commercial jets into twin towers of World Trade Center; 2 more hijacked jets were crashed into the Pentagon and a field in rural Pa. Total dead numbered 2,992, including the 19 hijackers. Islamic al-Qaeda terrorist group blamed.

My conclusion is, I am a scrooge and I guess I will remain that way until whatever happens, happens, to turn me around. In the mean time I think that New Orleans needs to flush the pity pot and clean up the mess. The other devastated areas seem to be doing okay.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Jolly Kwanzaa and a Most Joyous Whatever You Celebrate