First of all can I say the room MIR gave us was wonderful. I slept like a rock and I'm sure I would've even had I not had 3 beers and 2 shots, skated in a bout that evening and danced until I almost dropped at the afterbout party. We played hard and it was a fairly tight game with the score at 39 - 51 at the end of the first period. In the second period Omaha pulled ahead by quite a bit, we were serving penalties like crazy and had a few jams with our jammer in penalty. I bonked my cheek bone on the top of someone's helmet when we both went down and iced it in between jams but no mark, just a little tender to the touch and I kept playing anyway. Coach Big Truck gave us some solid advice and in the third period and C-Tal Fa-Tal (MIR jammer) grabbed lead jammer a couple of times scoring as well as holding off Omaha's jammer and stopping their rampant scoring. Final score was something like 82 - 140 (I'll have to double check on that.) It was a great match up, lots of passion (I think Disturb Ya #420 broke her thumb she was playing so hard), no major injuries and many smiles, bruises and high fives afterward.
I have entirely too much reading and Teevoed viewing to catch up on. Tomorrow night, I am going to stay home and vegitate in front of the Presidential Debates, two weeks of Project Runway and the season premier of the Office. Then I'll put The Incredibles in for the kiddo and read blogs until my eyes scream for mercy. Then I'll put my head phones on and listen to two hours of This American Life and then I will colapse into one giant heap of entertained happiness.
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Me and my skatey ladies Tally Turmoil, Redneck B. Yotch and Jackie O'No are traveling out to Des Moines this Saturday night to sub for the Mid Iowa Rollers against the Omaha Rollergirls. I'm excited to be bouting, I'm on my third season and Tally, Red and Jackie are beginning their second seasons so we are used to skating together and Mid Iowa played against us twice last season, we won one at home and they won one at their house, so the skill level is about the same. It's be especially nice because we have a slew of new skaters on the Divas this season and it'll be a few months at least before we are able to even scrimmage against each other even in practice. (I'll be fine Mom - I promise) ***
I am descending on WI in two weeks to walk door to door for Obama, his campaign called and asked me to and since I don't have any money to give, I'll give him my time. While we were in Florida we saw campaign commercials from both sides at every commercial break and yard signs galore even on the island. Even those t-shirt shops that have all the Lazy Lizard and Shark Bait shirts hanging under all the wind chimes made with shells had campaign shirts in the windows. Illinois is never a swing state, we just don't get any of the fun.
We spent a whirlwind three days at Disney Word and two and a half days winding down from Disney at the Sunburst Inn located on the softest, whitest, shell filled beach on the Gulf Coast. It was a week filled with princesses and pirates and fireworks and family and fresh grouper sandwiches and wild dolphins and sting rays and piña coladas and believe it or not on the last day we were home sick.
"...Eight years ago, complaints about charging rape victims for medical exams in Wasilla prompted the Alaska legislature to pass a bill - signed into law by Knowles - that banned the practice statewide.
"There was one town in Alaska that was charging victims for this, and that was Wasilla," Knowles said A May 23, 2000, article in Wasilla's newspaper, The Frontiersman, noted that Alaska state troopers and most municipal police agencies regularly pay for such exams, which cost between $300 and $1,200 apiece.
"(But) the Wasilla Police Department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests," the newspaper reported.
It also quoted Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon objecting to the law. Fannon was appointed to his position by Palin after her dismissal of the previous police chief. He said it would cost Wasilla $5,000 to $14,000 a year if the city had to foot the bill for rape exams.
"In the past we've charged the cost of exams to the victims' insurance company when possible," Fannon told the newspaper. "I just don't want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer."..." and then follows it up with this!
"Palin On Abortion: I'd Oppose Even If My Own Daughter Was Raped... ...the soon-to-be governor said she would fund abstinence-only education programs in schools. "The explicit sex-ed programs," she added, "will not find my support."... in line with John McCain's own stances. The Senator is against federal funding of birth control and sex education. He has called for the overturning of Roe v. Wade and received a zero rating from NARAL. Once, aboard the Straight Talk Express, McCain was asked if he supported the use of contraception or President Bush's abstinence-only education program to stem the spreading of AIDS.
"After a long pause, he said, 'I think I support the president's policy.'..."
My favorite Exceprt from the Salon article Zombie feminists of the RNC How did Sarah Palin become a symbol of women's empowerment? And how did I, a die-hard feminist, end up terrified at the idea of a woman in the White House? By Rebecca Traister
"...It's true that the last time I had this kind of visceral yearning for a politician to save the day was on the evening of Sept. 11, when the only person whose face I wanted to see on my television was Bill Clinton's. Perhaps when the Clintons took office in my 18th year, they became imprinted on my brain as my presidential parent-figures, my ur-protectors. But it's hard not to notice that if that's the case, it's Bill I want to nurture and soothe me, and Hillary I want to show up, guns blazing Ripley-style, to surprise the mother alien just as she is about to feast on independent voters, protectively shouting, "Get away from them, you bitch!"
There I go again with the hyper-feminized anxieties. I think it's mostly that I want Hillary Clinton -- the imperfect history maker whose major selling points for "First Woman..." status, in retrospect, included the fact that she was not a Republican, not pro-life, did not believe in teaching creationism alongside evolution, had never inquired about the feasibility of banning books, understood the American economy, supported universal healthcare and did not kill wolves from planes -- to make Sarah Palin go away and stop threatening to make history I don't want to see made.
It is infuriating that Clinton, her supporters and, yes, also those Obama supporters who voiced their displeasure at the sexist treatment Clinton sometimes received, and also female voters, and also females full stop, are being implicated in feminism's bastardization..."
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Also, yes I took down my new diatribe, from the other day. I'm still sorting out where I sit and how I feel about it. I suppose I'm not comfortable leaving it up because I keep flip flopping in my own mind on the subject depending on what day you ask me and what I read last and so I didn't feel like it was exactly fair for me to leave it up if I wasn't 100% behind it.
What I am 100% sure of is this, I am voting D, because I miss prosperity and peace and because I think we should help each other. If I have bread and you need some, have some of mine.
I went and saw Disaster Movie last night. Mostly because we had already seen everything else that was playing that was of any interest. I went in expecting the movie version of a MAD Magazine and actually got the 6th graders version of the movie version of MAD Magazine. my advice... don't even rent it. It was soo bad I am nt even going to be bothered to link to it. But then again how bad can an evening out with your husband at the taco shop and the movies whilst Grandma is hanging out with the kid be? So I should be careful not to complain to much. (Thanks Mom.)
What I did see that was interesting is the first teen movie in a long time that looked "cool." Up until now the younger crowd has been easily been written off as totaly un-hip Justin/Brittany/Sponge Bob loving freaks that weren't around when the REAL cool stuff was happening and I never paid any mind. But suddenly there is a movie that gives me hope that some of these youngsters are cool, complcated, fresh and funny people.
This isn't the only part of my discovery, the other part is this: they all look like they are 14, making it painfully clear how far away I am from club hopping, running around town with my boyfriend and driving a beat up old hatchback full of shenanigans. I usually don't ever miss those days. I like dependable cars and the relative predictability of my saftey and I don't think you could pay enough me to go back to that uncertain age of 22, but something about this movie makes me want to be young now in 2008 with these people and now I am really looking forward to seeing Nick and Nora's Infinate Playlist.
While the movie American Teen promised to be the new Breakfast Club, new generations don't need the new and improved (fill in the blank of whatever was cool before.) That's like saying GenXers should get excited for the new and improved Easy Rider. Nope, just doesn't work. Each generation get's a new movie that we all fall in love with and I think this one may be it. Nick and Nora's Infinate Playlist opens in October 3rd.
And I have a total confession to make. I am judging Palin based on her personal life and her commitment to her family.
I should clarify, I've recently found I judge politicians based in two hemispheres the logical and the emotional totally contradicting my own post a few weeks back. Sometimes one outweighs the other. In Bill Clinton’s case the logical outweighed the emotional for me. The logical debate is easy to talk about and make, just read the Republican Party Platform (PDF) and the Democratic Party Platform and you can see the differences. The personal issues are much more delicate and need more explanation and are sometimes scary to talk about for fear that we are being unfair, bigoted or misogynistic.
The Logical half of me agrees with none of Palin’s policies, including her propensity to be against "earmarks." A very large earmark for $250,000.00 is what is keeping my water bill from doubling this year because Barak Obama and Dick Durbin earmarked the money for our tiny town's new sewer plant. It was an incredible feat for a town of 2,000 people to get that kind of windfall, but Durbin knows us and we already pay more for our water that people in AZ do. Our monthly bill is around $80.00 for a family of three. So we here in tiny town LOVE the earmarks. I won't even start to talk about abortion, foreign policy or the environment; we've all been there and know her policies are the same as 50 years of republican platform.
The emotional half of me sees a woman with five children, two of which need special care, a newborn with downs syndrome and a teen that is pregnant. Either of those things would require a lot of attention and dedication from the entire family. I fully understand when people have to work and need to get childcare so that can make their house payment and put food on the table, it's a choice they make to keep everyone afloat, I grew up in a dual income home. But I do not understand a parent ANY PARENT male or female putting their career in front of the well being of their children.
Let me say that when my brother got cancer both of my parents wanted to spend every minute with us children. The jobs they worked at reflected exactly what our family needed and when the travel to the hospital became too exhausting and the situation extreme, like the Obamas have done during campaign season, my parents had the good sense to send me to spend time with my Grandparents.
People make their own priorities and have to recognize their limits. Yes, at first it may seem like a double standard for the Obama’s to send the girls to live with Grandma during campaign season and that’s ok with me, versus Palin and her five kids. However, I think the situation is very different. The Obamas recognize Michelle needs help and they recruited another family member to help. The Palins have an extreme circumstance, they have five children and two with special needs and they keep insisting everything is hunky dory. In the mean time Palin’s driving around with her newborn in her lap and abusing her niece/nephew by making disparaging remarks to the children about their Dad. Even Joe Biden the Bulldog’s initial response was to put off his Senate seat when his children needed him most.
Now, one could argue that Plain’s children have the best care a Governor could pay for and a very capable stay at home Dad, but I stay home with one child and I can't imagine staying home with five and two of them with special needs. I demand the respect, help and support of my spouse and I mean very specific things by help and support, because saying you support someone and sharing your income with them isn't it. I mean, getting up in the middle of the night with the baby, coming straight home from work to be here for dinner and homework, giving me time off from my job to get out of the house, doing a few loads of laundry, playing board games with us all, being in the house when the baby poos in the tub and the dog needs to go out and the phone is ringing all at the same time, all of the wonderful tasks that make us a family and not just roommates who eat the same groceries and screw occasionally.
By no means am I suggesting I am the norm and because I couldn't handle it the Palins can't, but I am saying that I have lived in an extreme situation with a sibling that had special needs and I am a parent and these are the experinces I have to aid in my judgment.
So publicly I may not feel completely comfortable saying I don't think Palin is a good parent because I’m worried that the initial reaction may be calling me a misogynist, but if she had a penis I'm pretty sure I would be saying the same thing. My husband would and has passed on jobs that paid more, with better titles to be here, largely participating in raising his child because that's where our priorities are right now. Yes, he has ambition and goals and so do I. They are something that we have the luxury of putting off until we can and want to spend more time away from the house and family life.
Perhaps this is the inherent difference between me and Palin. To me children are something one plans* and enjoys spending time working at and it seems to me that Palin thinks children are something that happen to you, something God plans for you and something she copes with. This is not putting into question her love for her children; it is directly questioning her judgment and commitment. The way her children are prioritized in her life says something about her character, the same way finding out a politician is having an affair can say something about their character. I can't ignore it and I don't think it's fair for people to ask me too. So there, I've confessed. I think Sarah Palin’s priorities are not in line with what I expect from a leader. I don’t think she upholds any of the same family values I have and I think she has poor judgment. I also think that if McCain can't see this he also has poor judgement.
*or in the case of an unplanned pregnancy somethng you have the good sense to adjust your plans for,
Hello bloggies, I know I've been on a political tangent for some time and I can't help it. The conventions are over and now we just have the long slog up to the debates (I can hardly wait!) Today I'm going to try super hard to not check CNN 40 times and besides my family is scheduled to be make landfall in FL soon and so I should really start packing. Its cool enough here that we aren't wearing our shorts anymore so I it makes sense.
OH! My dear husband spent hours on the phone with Travelocity again yesterday. We ordered plane tickets through them in May and after the flight was changed around no less than three times the flights were cancelled all together as the airline stopped serving Orlando and get this... they haven't refunded our money yet. After much customer service arguing, Dan finally climbed the frustration ladder to the call center manager who informed Dan for the first time ever we didn't get a refund because we hadn't returned the paper ticket (that we never requested in the first place, who still uses paper tickets?! That's soo 1996.)
No one ever asked for the totally useless, there is no flight, paper tickets to be returned and the manager apologized for that and gave us $150.00 to use at Travelocity to make up for it. Which is real nice accept we can't use it for renting a car or getting a cheap flight or upgrading our current flight or anything that would be useful to us in the least. He might have well given us a three night’s stay on the moon but no way to get there so as far as I'm concerned Travelocity can go call itself.
In the mean time we overnighted the tickets back and our $700.00 is lost in red tape hell and is now money we will not be spending in FL. I called the credit card company and refuted the charge telling them the story they said they'd open an investigation and put a freeze on the amount and while they agreed it was some bull pucky I was being put through, it would still take 6-8 weeks to resolve the ticket dispute for items I bought in MAY! And the travel industry wonders why people aren't participating in their little S&M game anymore.
On Friday I walked the children to preschool school and on the way asked them what they brought for show and tell.
F: I brought a very cute stuffed animal mommy kitty cat and her kitten N: I brought my bat man gloves My kid: I brought my science book full of human body diagrams and my imaginary friend Shang.
I'm not sure what to say about this beyond thinking about Wednesday Adams.
Ok McCain you tell me which time were you lying? In these clips or last night?
He has no idea how right he was when he said "We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us." While I believe in the last few months McCain received the message loud and clear that this country is ready to for a change I hope the people screaming for it see that no matter how much new paint and pin-striping he throws on that old Studebaker it won't ever become a high-bred. Even if there's a cute young chick driving it, it's always gonna be slow, need lots of repairs and burn oil.
In case you missed Palin's speech last night, you didn't miss much beyond cheap jabs and the usual retoric. Here's the condensed version:
Hi I'm Sara Palin, I'm normal just like you and so's my entire family wich I will now intorduce for 10 minutes. I support the miltary and am a fiesty maverick too. The guy I'm running against had big styrofoam collums at his speech, what a liberal eleitist jerk, plus he's gonna forfeit a war we are already winning, talk shit about you behind your back and raise your taxes alot, and that'll suck for my sister who just opened a gas station just like many of you other small business owners. In closing I'm mavericky and so is John McCain, we are the most mavricky mavricks that ever mavricked and that's a good thing... 9/11 and mavrick.
Keith Olberman put it perfectly after her speech last night when he said if she's gonna talk like a fighter then she shouldn't be surprised when the Democrats come out swinging. I can hardly wait for her and Biden to debate, he's going to chew her up. So I'm turning my attention back to McCain and going to make a prediction about the speech he'll give tonight. I bet it'll go like this:
I'm a regular dude just like you, all mavricky and regular getting in trouble at school and at the bottom of my class and stuff, oh accept for that part where I'm a war hero, and married to a blonde billionaire that's not so regular, but I feel mavricky and that's regular! I'm more experienced cause I've been working in Washington a longtime but wait!... but I'm totally new too. I never back down from a fight and don't play well with others, and that's mavricky. Besides, you don't want a president that can work well with the other branches that run the government, you want one who will totally be all like "What... What are you looking at nerd!" and then jump towards them with flexed muscles and make them flinch and then yell "Thought so beeyotch!" Plus, Obama's gonna totally call you a slut behind your back. I'm a stright talker I'll do it to your face! Cause I'm a mavrick and I'm gonna change stuff, win a war and give you money. Mavrick!
I watched the convention last night and heard the same ol' party platform accept they've thrown the word maverick in there. Here's what all the speeches I heard sounded like to me:
Fine young men and women serving this wonderful country, God, maverick, 9-11, drill for more oil, maverick, terrorists, tax relief, fine military, maverick, family values, surge, maverick, defend America.
Just because you throw the word maverick in there 400 bajillion times it doesn't make it a new platform or different ideas, these are traditional Republican ideals that McCain is trying to uphold while speaking to his base voters. Do we still require kids to read 1984 in school?
I've been barely able to step away from CNN for a week now. With all the getting to know Palin and the hurricane right on the tails of the DNC, I'm going to overdose on Anderson Cooper (what a way to go!) Despite my recent joking and video shenanigans I agree that some things are left untalked about and actually I wish the press would move on and pick up this story about Palin belonging to and promoting the Alaskan Independence Party.I think this little group goes beyond a neat little bunch of mavericks that love and promote the state of Alaska and moves more into that weird gun toting crazy militia territory. Ok yes, I am questioning the patriotism of the VP Candidate and I really wanted to move past that rudimentary portion of the debate but dangit if there isn't reason to ask for a response. If Obama has to confirm that he loves his country because he doesn't wear a lapel pin I think the GOP should have to answer to this!
Also: I heard this bit yesterday on CNN radio where Cambell Brown drills Tucker Bounds from the McCain campaign and wish I could've seen it live and today there is video!
Some places you vacation for the scenery and some places you visit for the people and the spirit of the place. New Orleans is one of those places. Yes, it has beautiful architecture and wonderful old houses and neighborhoods but what I remember most about being there was the people and the culture. We couldn't get a bad meal in New Orleans. I imagine any restaurant not serving divine fare closes up after the first meal is served. We felt like we danced through the daily while we were there, it seemed everywhere we walked jazz was ringing down the streets from musicians on the avenue or tucked into eateries serenading diners. It was a place where you could join any conversation that happened to be close to you and you could participate in any toast someone happened to give. Perhaps that's what was the best, we felt welcomed and included and cared for in every way, right down to the waitress in the diner who remembered us Yankees and had hash browns ready for breakfast instead of grits because we asked the day before. As I type CNN reports the lower ninth ward is flooding again the levee has breached.
First of all can I say the room MIR gave us was wonderful. I slept like a rock and I'm sure I would've even had I not had 3 beers and 2 shots, skated in a bout that evening and danced until I almost dropped at the afterbout party. We played hard and it was a fairly tight game with the score at 39 - 51 at the end of the first period. In the second period Omaha pulled ahead by quite a bit, we were serving penalties like crazy and had a few jams with our jammer in penalty. I bonked my cheek bone on the top of someone's helmet when we both went down and iced it in between jams but no mark, just a little tender to the touch and I kept playing anyway. Coach Big Truck gave us some solid advice and in the third period and C-Tal Fa-Tal (MIR jammer) grabbed lead jammer a couple of times scoring as well as holding off Omaha's jammer and stopping their rampant scoring. Final score was something like 82 - 140 (I'll have to double check on that.) It was a great match up, lots of passion (I think Disturb Ya #420 broke her thumb she was playing so hard), no major injuries and many smiles, bruises and high fives afterward.
