By now, the vast majority of you have heard that there is a “pro-life” ad to be run during the SuperBowl this Sunday.

Many people are up in arms about it, for various reasons. I’ve heard many reasons given
“This ad is being sponsored by a religious organization.”
“There isn’t an ad from the ‘pro-choice’ side airing. It’s biased and unfair!”
“The SuperBowl is a family event. I don’t want to explain the abortion debate to my children!”
“Why bring up such a controversial subject, in the middle of a fun event?”

These are all valid complaints. And they all resonate with me, to a point.
But then the other side of me kicks in. The capitalistic side, if you will.

Religious organization that promotes an unrealistic view of family as the ideal, and promotes intolerance of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and any and all who subscribe to different set of dogma then they themselves choose to believe, they may indeed be.
But. They paid for the air time, just like any non-religious company would have to do. And in our society? Money often trumps all objections. I suspect this is the case for NBC CBS apparently I wasn’t completely awake when I wrote this. Oops? as well.

In theory, this means that a pro-choice ad would be aired by CBS, during the game, *if* an organization could drum up the outrageous price for air time. Whether or not that is actually true, I don’t know.

UPDATE Apparently, it’s not true. CBS is still censoring ads (see this story here), as long as they aren’t from right-wing religious organizations. This angers me on a whole ‘nother level.)

To the best of my knowledge (and please correct me if I’m wrong) there hasn’t been a pro-choice organization that has gathered enough money, and submitted an ad.

I agree that the SuperBowl is not an appropriate event to bring up an emotionally charged topic. Nor is prime-time, while little ones will still be up and running about, the best time for an abortion ad (for or against) in my opinion. It’s tasteless. It’s Klassy, with a capital K.
I know, I know, the organization in question claims that they just want to reach the widest audience possible with their message. Fair enough.

But what I see happening? Is not a whole new wave of pro-lifers signing up to protest outside the clinic doors. What I’ve seen, is people who were, not indifferent, but less than passionate, become passionate about the issue.
They began to care deeply, they voiced their opinions and shared their thoughts.

And many of the thoughts I saw aimed in this organizations direction? Were not super-positive, or warm and loving.

So there you have it. My middle of the road, no solutions provided, thoughts on the matter.
You’re welcome!

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Tags: abortion, anger, choice, family, kids, publicity, superbowl

If I had to describe our lives right now, that’s the phrase I would use to do it.

So many things going on! Wrapping up the end of semester for both TheMan and I. He’s doing great in all his classes, I have one I’ll have to repeat. Which is frustrating. I’ve already set things in motion for a tutor in it next semester though, so fingers crossed it clicks this next time around.

The kids are getting way too big, too fast. Truck has beat himself all to heck the last couple of weeks. Currently, he’s showcasing a bruised jaw, a goose egg, a bit lip and a shiner. Oh, and a lovely bit of road rash from his forehead down to his upper lip. All from separate incidents. TheMan is threatening to buy him a helmet for Christmas.

Miss Question is learning how to spell! It’s a little hit and miss right now, but today the word “got” clicked for her, and she spent the car ride out to Grandma’s singing “I can spell got, it’s G-O-T, it’s my favorite word, because I can spell got, G-O-T!”
So not only can she spell, she’s clearly destined to be a musical genious.

May have finally reached the end of this mess with the GI Bill, thank god. Ron Lecker has been very helpful with the last couple of minor issues that came up, and word is that the payment should hit the bank account any day now!

Starting to gear up for the holidays. May have to actually put effort into decorating, since the kids are now old enough to notice! We did put up the window decals the other day, and they really enjoyed that.
Didn’t really do a lot of decorating when we lived in California. It was hard to get motivated when it was 70 and sunny out, especially when you’re used to snow by November!
And then last year, we were so broke (I don’t know why that surprises us anymore, we’ve spent most of our time together cash-poor), we did the basics, but didn’t go all out.
This year probably won’t see a lot of outdoor decorating, but I do want to make the inside cozy and Christmas-y. Invest in some stuff I can use again and again.

That about sums up where we’re at right now. I apoligize if, over the next couple of weeks, posting becomes sporadic. Literally tons of homework is now coming due!

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Tags: family, gi bill, kagan, kids, testing, veteran

Dear Firearm Makers,
While I understand that you are attempting to reach out to a new demographic here, I’ve got a bone to pick with you.
It’s about the current “Paint it Pink!” trend.
Here’s the thing. Just because I have a vagina? Does not mean I want a pink gun.

It’s hard enough to be taken seriously if you are a female who enjoys firearms. Showing up at the range with your pink gun probably won’t help matters any.

And seriously? They look like toys. So even if I wasn’t irritated on the “This is condescending crap.” level, I *still* wouldn’t have them in my house. Because guns are not toys. And guns are not meant to be handled by young children. But you, as an industry, thought it would be a good idea to make them look like something Fun! and Cool!

I mean really, how am I supposed to teach them safety, and that guns aren’t toys, and shouldn’t be “played” with, if you paint them pink? What’s next? Cartoon characters?

Signed,
Slightly Irritated

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This a post that I didn’t want to write.
This is the post where I tell you, “You might not be seeing me much in a month or so, because I’m not sure how I’m going to pay the water bill* this month, or keep the cars insured*, never mind internet access.”

This is the post where I admit that the scales have tipped, and I feel more defeated than angry. The one where the system? Is kicking my ass.

It’s a looooong story, but I’ll try to sum it up. When TheMan was considering going back to school, a major deciding factor in whether or not we could swing it, was the GI Bill, aka “Money that was promised to TheMan for his educational expenses, because he put four years of his post-high-school life into the military.”

Now, we’ve worked with the government before. We’ve worked with the V.A. system before.
We realize that they are slower than mud, and fond of red tape. It is what it is.
So we planned. We looked at the time frame they gave us for how long it would take between submitting an application, and when we could expect to see payment. We tacked an extra month onto that when we planned.

Ah, but things did not go according to plan, not even a little. After trying to work with the unresponsive school rep, who seemed to know little about the GI Bill, despite it being part of her departments advertised services, we called our local county V.A. office.
They gave us a form to fill out, they told us to give it back, and we’ll send it in for you.
So we did. And we waited, patiently.
Then we called the national hot line, to see what the status of TheMan’s application was.

And we found out that, not only had they never received a form, but even if they had gotten it, it wouldn’t have been the right one.
Lovely. At this point? We were starting to run low on funds, despite TheMan working part-time for his mother.
And my pavement pounding? Was NOT turning up a job. At all.

Our next step was to call our congressman, Steve Kagen, and speak with the guy on his team who handles veteran affairs, Ron Lecker.
Initially, I was thrilled. Mr. Lecker said he would send us a release form, and that we would get this all straightened out.
Then there was illness in the office, and our family fell through the cracks…again. The form was never sent out.

After apologies from Mr. Lecker, we received the form last Saturday, 10/31/09. I mailed it back the following Monday, and the USPS assures me it arrived on Wednesday morning.

Hopefully, this time, we won’t fall through any more cracks. Hopefully, Congressman Kagen will be able to work miracles. Because I will tell you right now, I’ve been picking and choosing what bills to pay for the last month. And some of them are starting to get a wee bit cranky. But at this point? There’s no picking and choosing. They are all screwed.

___________________________________________________________
*At the time I wrote this, I honestly didn’t know where we would get the money for these two bills, each in the NEED TO PAY IMMEDIATELY! catagory. Thankfully, the credit union is done investigating the fraudulent charges (which I totally thought I wrote about, but now can’t find), and the returned money (after our account is no longer negative) is just enough to cover those two bills. Even the small miracles count.

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I debated whether to post anything or not. I wasn’t super close with the blogger in question, more like acquaintances. And my opinion doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme. But since I helped spread this story, I feel a little bit responsible for the drama.

Some of you who were on various social networking sites this weekend may have seen some of the drama go down. I know you saw at least a few tweets and a facebook link from myself. For which I apologize. My only excuse is that after reading the blog in question for awhile, after chatting with the author a handful of times, I thought that surely she was the sort who wouldn’t make up a story so dramatic and outrageous. I was wrong.

A blogger wrote a post that went viral in a matter of hours. Nic wrote a post entitled “TSA Agents Took My Son”
It was a heart-wrenching, inflammatory story of how a mother and her child were separated in the Atlanta airport, by the TSA.
It was also, it turned out, highly dramatized, at best. At worst, an outright fabrication.

When Nic first posted the story, the blogosphere responded by emailing the TSA, blogging and re-tweeting the story, calling for answers and explanations. Myself included.
The TSA responded by posting a video. A video that bore only a vague resemblance to the story as told by Nic.

Her friends rallied, pointing out that the video was spliced together, and that there MUST be more to the story. Because in a battle that pits gov’t. agency against mother and child, the mother and child are easily more sympathetic. Again, myself included. I wanted to believe her. I wanted her to have been wronged, however screwed up that sounds. Partly because I would rather believe that the TSA is a bunch of incompetent asshats, than believe that I had been duped by someone I had admired for her openness.

Nic responded, claiming that there was a chunk of time missing from the video. In the next breath, she asked that people move on, and not to worry it’s being worked out between her family and the TSA. Even though she also said in the same post that she had not been in contact with the TSA.
In short, her “response” left me, and others, with a sour taste in our mouths. It’s wishy-washy, sweep it under the rug tone solidified that uneasy feeling that maybe something isn’t kosher, that some of us got (although I admit not voicing it very hard) when we saw the video tape.

At this point, the TSA responded by updating their post to include the footage from all 9 camera angles that caught the incident. Not spliced together, no missing time. Again, it barely resembled the supposed incident as told by Nic.

And now, people are mad. I do not condone creating sites, or twitter profiles, dedicated to hating this person, nor do I think posting her private information is helpful to the situation. I think the first is a waste of time, and the second is inflammatory.

But I understand why people are mad. Hell, I’m mad.
I was lied to. I spread this story, I feel used.
And I’m angry because I *should* have waited. I should have found out more, waited for more info. Instead I let my emotions get the best of me, and I shared a story that turned out to be a lie. I was a part of this debacle, and I’m not happy about it.

I’m angry at the blogger who lied to us, and I’m angry at myself for allowing myself to be swept up into it.

I sincerely apologize to those that I forwarded the original story to, please know that I will be more diligent in the future.

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~Non-American readers are excused from this post, if they want, because it’s all constitutional~

One of my assignments in my American Society class, was to read through the 10 amendements that make up the Bill of Rights, and the 17 that followed those. (That’s 27 for those of us who are not math whizzes)
Then we were to narrow it down to the three which meant the most to us personally, and post this on the class discussion board.
I think that was the hardest part of the assignment.
Anyway, here is what I came up with.

I think that the three most important amendments to me personally are the 19th amendment, the 1st amendment, and the 2nd.
The 19th, because that amendment guarantees that I am allowed to vote. I am allowed to have a say in where the nation that I live in is headed.
The 2nd amendment gives me the right to protect my family, and my property, should I need to. Not every country provides their citizens with that ability.
I also choose the first amendment as one that means a lot to me, personally. It provides so many things in it.
It means that I am free to publicly say that I disagree with my government, without fear of arrest. Again, not something every nation provides.
It means that, if I feel strongly about something, I can break out the ol’ picket sign and march in protest.
It gives me the right to practice whatever religion I darn well please, regardless of what the majority religion is
It says I have the right to say, or write, what I want to say (as long as I do it without the intent to hurt someone with untruths) As a blogger/writer, that last little bit is very near and dear to my heart.

So those are the ones that I would choose, which ones would you pick? (and for my non-American readers who read through this, feel free to play along)

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Today is 9/11…it’s been quite a few years now since that date took on a sinister meaning. Eight years. Nearly a decade.
I wonder if people have forgotten the terror and confusion they felt that day. I know that, for me, it was surreal. I was a junior in high school.
I had friends that were already planning to enlist, or who enlisted after the attack.
I was a kid, I lived in the midwest, pretty far from any of the attack sites. I didn’t fully grasp the tragedy then.
I think it saddens me more now, now that I understand the real loss, than it did then.
So today, in remembrance, I hope you’ll join me in sending up a little prayer for the survivors, the public servants and rescue workers, and the soldiers that were all affected by this disaster.

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