Another one bites the dust!

Now Home Depot doesn't want to use that inflammatory phrase: "Merry Christmas" in any of its "holiday" decorating. Give me a break! Why don't we just become the land of Cream of Wheat--the country of blah-neutralism?? Our flag should be changed to a solid of beige--two-toned stripes being too divisive. No colors, no differences.

I can honestly say that if I were to ever visit India or China and I saw places or phrases celebrating their religious traditions, it would never cross my mind to be offended, in any way. I may not choose to participate in it; I may not agree with it; but it is THEIR way and THEIR country.

Does the left really think that we can create a world where there is never opposing opinions or views, really? Are there people who are OFFENDED by the words "Merry Christmas"? In what way does this phrase infringe in them? How can it? It's a statement.

I have never been offended by the words Happy Hannukah--wouldn't even cross my mind to be riled by that. Why should it? It's a phrase of celebration about something that I don't celebrate--sort of like Happy Halloween or Happy Kwanzaa. I don't celebrate either of those, but I'm happy to accomodate, in this tiny way, people who do.

It takes an expanse of consideration for others, not introspection and consideration only of one's self. We're losing the battle of putting others first in this country. It's been going for a long time. Parents, are unfortunately, on the frontlines of this battle and have been caving for far too long.

Politics, again...

Charles Krauthammer's column today warrants all our review:

Read here, "Why I'm voting for McCain" read now

For those of you unfamiliar with Mr. Krauthammer, and why we should care what he thinks (as I was until this past year or so), here is a brief summary from Wikipedia:

Krauthammer was born in New York City to parents of the Jewish religion whose citizenship was French. He was raised in Montreal, Canada where he attended McGill University and obtained an honors degree in political science and economics in 1970. From 1970 to 1971, he was a Commonwealth Scholar in politics at Balliol College, Oxford.

He later moved to the United States, where he attended Harvard Medical School. In his first year there in 1972, Krauthammer was paralyzed in a serious diving accident. Continuing medical studies during his year-long hospitalization, he graduated with his class, earning an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1975, and then began working as a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital. In October 1984, he became board certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

From 1975-1978, Krauthammer was a Resident and then a Chief Resident in Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital. During this time he and a colleague identified a form of mania (a part of bipolar disorder) which they named "secondary mania" and published a second important paper on the epidemiology of manic illness. The standard textbook for bipolar disease (“Manic Depressive Illness” by Goodwin and Jamison)contains twelve references to his work.

In 1978, Krauthammer quit medical practice to direct planning in psychiatric research for the Jimmy Carter administration, and began contributing to The New Republic magazine. During the presidential campaign of 1980, Krauthammer served as a speech writer to Vice President Walter Mondale.

In 1981, following the defeat of the Carter/Mondale ticket, Krauthammer began his journalistic career, joining The New Republic as a writer and editor. His New Republic writings won the 1984 "National Magazine Award for Essays and Criticism." In 1983, he began writing essays for Time magazine. In 1985, he began a weekly column for the Washington Post for which he won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for commentary.

In 2006, the Financial Times named Krauthammer the most influential commentator in America,[10] saying “Krauthammer has influenced US foreign policy for more than two decades. He coined and developed `The Reagan Doctrine’ in 1985 and he defined the US role as sole superpower in his essay, `The Unipolar Moment’, published shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Krauthammer’s 2004 speech `Democratic Realism’ set out a framework for tackling the post 9/11 world, focusing on the promotion of democracy in the Middle East.”

And, if only my grandma would read this before she votes: "The Comprehensive Argument Against Barak Obama".

Beverly Hills Chihuahua

Yeah, yeah, I know. But #2 won movie passes at the library reading program this summer. And when she saw the previews for this, way back at Narnia or something, I knew this was in our future.

Can I say that I was pleasantly surprised? There was nothing objectionable, that I can remember, at all. There weren't any of those adult jokes meant to go over kids' heads. There wasn't innuendo or implication. I expected some drunkenness--NOPE. I expected some lasciviousness--nope. No bad words, nuttin.

Drew Barrymore had the perfect voice for Chloe and Andy Garcia was great as Delgado. But it was Poppy that I loved. The rat and the iguana were unnecessary and creeped me out, since we had that rat in the barn this summer.

But I let #3 go, as her first big-girl movie. I wasn't with her, but they said she did great and liked it a lot. Of course, it's not surprising, really, since we love dog movies--Good Boy is also one of our favorites.

PS-Bought a copy of Madison for hubby, on Ebay. If you haven't seen it, you should get it from the library. Handyman made the movie and it is really a great, true story. Especially a good boy movie.

Politics!

I am so bummed that McCain is not spending more media money in my state. If you want a little inspiration today, go to www.johnmccain.com and watch the video at the beginning, click through to the site and start watching the commercials. They run one after the other and it will give you a big lift.

Don't let our country slip away...

blog-o-versary

Yep! 100 posts. I hope you've read them all. Here's a doozy, and I didn't write it...

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/10/14/reason-9999988-to-homeschool-obama-fied-textbooks/



PEOPLE'S GLOSSARY:
Socialism: A progressive political system that takes the power away from wealth creators and gives it to wealth distributors. Wealth distributors are typically a class of highly trained government bureaucrats who are being watched by a class of political commissars, who, in turn, are being watched by a class of secret police, all of whom are banded together by shared progressive morals. Because progressive morals are relative by definition, a certain measure of absolute propaganda is necessary to encourage collectivism and discourage counter revolution. Since such propaganda is delivered through mass media, arts, and schools, a degree of ideological monopoly, uniformity, and censorship is also required in those fields. The resulting mass enthusiasm creates a vibrant state-subsidized culture, leading to great economic successes and technological breakthroughs, e.g., North Korea.

The above humor from The Peoples Cube

Celebrity Sighting

Usually it's Handyman who sees celebrities...and I mean lots of 'em. He's been there, done that with more than i can remember. We play "Six Degrees of Separation" with Handyman and usually get it done in 3. Debbie Reynolds, yep. Liam Neeson, yep. Faye Dunaway, you-have-no-idea. John Mellencamp, almost had coffee in his kitchen. Courtney Cox, yep. Cloris Leachman, yep. Jennifer Anniston, yep. Angelina Jolie, thank-the-heavens-resounding NO.

Anyway, this week it's my turn. We have tickets to see Sarah Palin on Friday, in our own county! Wooohooo! Somehow, I don't think it will be up close and personal like Handyman gets. But, it'll be a glimpse of history for #1 and me.

I just finished reading John McCain's biography. It was very interesting. I learned a lot of military history. I enjoyed reading it. I wish he were more conservative, but I am just glad he's not a socialist. I am frightened for our country now.

Do I think John McCain is a great candidate? No. But he's not a socialist. He understands the importance of military strength and Palin understands small business and how to stimulate growth in small-town America. They should be banging away harder at Obama's associations/influences and his complete lack of experience. But they're being "nice".

My concern is that we've become a nation of whiners who want the government to solve and manipulate everything to make life easy for us. I see many people who look no farther than Entertainment Tonight for their information and couldn't define socialism if they were asked. More people can name Angelina Jolie's kids than can name their congressman. What's up with that? Bigger government is not the answer, and never has been. Quit waiting for someone to come along and make your life better.

If you're that unhappy with how things are here, feel free to move elsewhere; France could use some more people and they have "great benefits".

BTW, check out my uncle's new political blog at http://itcanbefixed.blogspot.com . Leave him a comment--he'll love it!

Anyway, we'll be seeing the gal from Alaska on Friday. My kin-folk are rolling in this weekend to help with my exciting week next week. Thank God for kin-folk. I'll be kind of busy next week, but hope to post by the end of the week.

Horses are enjoying the cooler weather since Reno is already fuzzy-like-bear.

Found this lying around the house...

On my way to feed horses the other morning, I came across this in the breezeway:



Whew! There's a shocker--for a horse owner--fortunately, it ain't an equine.

Actually, I had some foreknowledge of this little specimen back in July. We were out by the trampoline, and the closer you got, the more vile the smell. It was oppressive. And, I have always considered my nose to be not-so-sensitive. I've always marked it up to smelling lots of horse manure over the years, and now of course, living with Handyman for almost two decades.

Anyway, it was just noxious. I had no idea at the time what it was, nor was I all that interested in finding out. At that time, Handyman was out of town frequently for jobs and I was not interested in coming across "something" when he wasn't home. I felt the strength of the odor was indicative of the size of the "something" and I recognize my gag limits.

Well, the smell lasted for a couple of weeks and then was done. Thank heavens! I forgot all about it actually. Then 6 weeks or so ago, Handyman and #2 came in saying there was a complete deer skeleton on our property, down by the creek. I wish I had photographed it then. It was laying out in perfect formation, the spine in beautiful alignment. The legs were spread out somewhat, and I believe the pelvis might be missing altogether. But it was clean as a whistle and pretty cool to look at. I am really amazed at the speed with which it was completely "cleaned" by all forms of decomposers.

So, a neighbor boy asked for the hooves for some boy-thing, which we allowed. And the rest have been reduced to this not-so-honorable storage for now. A great project for homeschoolers; Handyman wants to lay it all out on the driveway and draw a chalk line all around it--snicker, snicker.

Part of the cycle...

This is too funny:

Today's funny, from Clair over at The Zees Go West.
_______________________________________
If you had purchased $1,000 in shares in Delta Airlines one year ago,
you would have $49 today.
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago,
you would have $33 today.
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago,
you would have $0 today.
But if you had purchased $1,000 of beer one year ago,
drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for
a recycling refund, you would have received $214.
Based on the above, the best current investment plan is
to drink heavily and recycle. It is called the 401-Keg.

Today's housekeeping tip:

Are you tired of those eensy-weensy fruit flies that spontaneously generate from the pile of tomatoes on your counter (or is that just at my house?) Every day the compost tub is producing new generations of fruit flies that can never be swatted. Today, they met their match at Netherfield.

Try your sweeper hose--just don't forget to empty the bag when you're done. I'll never have to worry about them again!

Happy sweeping!

Horse Blankets hanging in the wind

When I was in high school, I was head of the prom decorating committee, my junior year. I have no idea how I got in that position, but it involved lots of fresh flowers and crepe paper. Anyway, there was a class vote on the prom theme and I only remember that it resulted in one of the largest acts of dishonesty in my entire life. I'm sort of proud of it really--the class voted for Kansas' "Dust in the Wind", which is a really cool song, even though I haven't actually heard it in 15 years or so. But, as head of the prom decorating committee, there was just no where to go with that as your theme, other than floor fans and sand. And I just couldn't go there.

So, we created a conspiracy and told everyone that the winner was "The Way We Were" by the Carpenters. It worked out fine.

This is what I think of as my two winter horse blankets are astride the fence, drying out from yesterday's welcome rain. This was my first year to store horse blankets all summer and I thought I was pretty smart hanging them over a rail in the loft all summer. I knew they were getting some surface dust, but I thought it would keep mice out of them.

When we got hay the other day, I dragged them down to put outside for a dusting and was shocked to find mud dobber nests inside both blankets. The nests were abandoned, but not that small! Also, found lots of lethargic big black flies--ick-o-rama!

I left the blankets laying in the grass overnight for the flies, hoping they'd freeze to death. Then hosed off both blankets and left them to dry. Then it rained on them all the next day and today they are dry again. Perhaps not the method I'll go for next year, but seems to be ending alright.

The blankets are both hunter green and make the horses look like big pieces of LL Bean luggage.

The only horse blanket washing service in my area is called The Soapy Pony. I think that is the cutest name. I was considering starting a blanket washing/repair business, forcing my mom to do the repairs, because she can. But not this year. I don't think my customers would go for the whole mud dobber thing.

Just so you know...

I'm going to be starting another blog--for a more specialized topic; a topic especially for women. My new foray is super-evident this month, as it is Breast Cancer Awareness month and pink is everywhere! So, in order to keep my close friends even closer, I'm delving deep into the pink, so you can all journey with me, through Breast Cancer!

Yep, even with all that organic milk and no commercial beef, it got me! I have an early stage breast cancer, that isn't going to be staying with me long. If you want to know more details, or keep up with that segment of my life, you'll have to switch over to my new blog!

I'm going to keep them separate, because, dag gone it--this part of my life is way too big, and much too fun to spoil with all that.