w00t w00t booyah

Why the bleep is Oprah Winfrey's weight headline news?

California politics at its finest - I'm sure you've been hearing all about this little graphic making the rounds as part of a newsletter published by a Republican Women's group in San Bernardino County:



I think I can clearly state that truly - politics in California can be as both as polarized as you can possibly imagine...and equally as brain dead on arrival.

She said she doesn't think in racist terms, pointing out she once supported Republican Alan Keyes, an African-American who previously ran for president.

"I didn't see it the way that it's being taken. I never connected," she said. "It was just food to me. It didn't mean anything else."

Ummm. Yeah. Sure.

But the real kicker? Who do you think built that graphic?

They didn't even have the balls to create the artwork themselves. They lifted it from this 'liberal' blogsite.

In May I drew this cartoon and posted a satirical article regarding a fake Obama food stamp plan. This article was complete satire and I wanted to let anyone reading this know that this was not a slight on Obama at all. It was a satirical look at some of the Fox News watching right-wingers out there that are afraid of a government that sponsors welfare type programs.
It was intended to poke fun at the unrealistic fears and agenda of racism that a fringe element of Republicans strongly embrace.

Evidently, people that did not take the satirical nature of the article in to account and not exploring other posts on this site forwarded my "Obama Bucks" food stamp image to their racist right wing counterparts.

So now this is a major news story.

Some dumb ass from the right wing group Chaffey Community Republican Women led by a housewife named Diane Fedele, thought it would be a good image to include in their Republican newsletter.

What a complete moron.

I'll second that. Now - to the question at hand.

I'm calling both sides on this one - the original for doing something so completely STUPID in the first place...and the second party for one STEALING (oh no john ringo no) without noticing that someone played right into their little paranoid fantasies. (Your daily dose of irony anyone?)

skademonx knows of what I speak. dracowayfarer, featherquill too. Ya wonder why I'm a Green - with this kind of stuff going on, would you claim any part of it?

I've got the Obama yard sign now - but do I check to see if its still in my yard every morning? Please. The little market down the street that is plagued with hispanic graffiti - big surprise, since a lot of my neighborhood is - also has reader boards with a real estate agent's advertising on it. She's not white...and not hispanic. And her picture has a great big X sliced through it. Like, with a knife sliced through it. Yes, we can indeed.

I should really piss them off and put a No on 8 sign up too.

California politics at its finest - I'm sure you've been hearing all about this little graphic making the rounds as part of a newsletter published by a Republican Women's group in San Bernardino County:



I think I can clearly state that truly - politics in California can be as both as polarized as you can possibly imagine...and equally as brain dead on arrival.

She said she doesn't think in racist terms, pointing out she once supported Republican Alan Keyes, an African-American who previously ran for president.

"I didn't see it the way that it's being taken. I never connected," she said. "It was just food to me. It didn't mean anything else."

Ummm. Yeah. Sure.

But the real kicker? Who do you think built that graphic?

They didn't even have the balls to create the artwork themselves. They lifted it from this 'liberal' blogsite.

In May I drew this cartoon and posted a satirical article regarding a fake Obama food stamp plan. This article was complete satire and I wanted to let anyone reading this know that this was not a slight on Obama at all. It was a satirical look at some of the Fox News watching right-wingers out there that are afraid of a government that sponsors welfare type programs.
It was intended to poke fun at the unrealistic fears and agenda of racism that a fringe element of Republicans strongly embrace.

Evidently, people that did not take the satirical nature of the article in to account and not exploring other posts on this site forwarded my "Obama Bucks" food stamp image to their racist right wing counterparts.

So now this is a major news story.

Some dumb ass from the right wing group Chaffey Community Republican Women led by a housewife named Diane Fedele, thought it would be a good image to include in their Republican newsletter.

What a complete moron.

I'll second that. Now - to the question at hand.

I'm calling both sides on this one - the original for doing something so completely STUPID in the first place...and the second party for one STEALING (oh no john ringo no) without noticing that someone played right into their little paranoid fantasies. (Your daily dose of irony anyone?)

skademonx knows of what I speak. dracowayfarer, featherquill too. Ya wonder why I'm a Green - with this kind of stuff going on, would you claim any part of it?

I've got the Obama yard sign now - but do I check to see if its still in my yard every morning? Please. The little market down the street that is plagued with hispanic graffiti - big surprise, since a lot of my neighborhood is - also has reader boards with a real estate agent's advertising on it. She's not white...and not hispanic. And her picture has a great big X sliced through it. Like, with a knife sliced through it. Yes, we can indeed.

I should really piss them off and put a No on 8 sign up too.

I really don't like being right. I don't like predicting the future even more.

What, you say?

A Council Bluffs teen who was dropped off Tuesday night under Nebraska's safe haven law remained in the custody of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services this morning but could be returned to Iowa eventually.

The 14-year-old girl was left at Creighton University Medical Center, HHS officials said. It was the first time an out-of-state youth has been left under Nebraska's unique safe haven law.

"We have made a formal report of the abandonment to the Iowa child abuse hot line," said Todd Landry, children and family services director for HHS. "We are working with the Iowa Department of Human Services to resolve this situation as quickly as possible."

The child is the 18th youngster left at a hospital or, in one case, at an Omaha police station by a parent or guardian intending to use the law, which went into effect July 18.

What, you say? No babies being dumped turned over - but mostly teenagers?

OH MY. Tell me it ain't so - well, don't try too hard.

You want why, you can talk to someone also on LJ working in the system in Iowa who might know more.

People abandoned their pets...they started tossing them over fences into the yards of people they trusted to take care of them.

Now, people are doing the same with their kids.

When I think we've hit bottom with the whole 'morality of modern conservative thought' - the bottom falls out again. Falls WAY down again.

(BTW, this liberal didn't have children before she knew they would be 14 someday and tell me to get stuffed. Or expected someone to take them off my hands when they did. *eyeroll*)

Even though it might be called by the same thing.

You talk to some of the activists concerned about the rights for adoptees (bastardnation.org is one of my favorites), and you hear about the term 'attachment disorder treatment and training.'

Shoot, I've heard nothing but attachment, bonding, attachment since I began taking classes with DCFS - but after checking in with the activists...there is something going around by the same name...and it's brutal abuse, full stop, no more, no less.

The Good Guys? The Texas Christian University Institute of Child Development. They're the ones who developed the book "The Connected Child" - recommended by my agency, and reviewed by me elsewhere.

The Bad Guys? Evergreen Psychotherapy Center Attachment and Training Institute" in Colorado. These are the guys who tipped me off.

Guys, I have NEVER heard of the Evergreen center in any of my contacts with DCFS, Heartsent or any other legitimate parenting class. Matter of fact, anything that smacked of coercion or physical restraint was forbidden and considered, well, WRONG.

Just wanted to let you know. Attachment Training is going around by the same name - but with two REALLY different practitioners.

(*reads* Jeebus. Yes, you hold children to form attachment - and you expect some resistance, but you don't FORCE it. WTF. OVER. REPEAT.)

Even though it might be called by the same thing.

You talk to some of the activists concerned about the rights for adoptees (bastardnation.org is one of my favorites), and you hear about the term 'attachment disorder treatment and training.'

Shoot, I've heard nothing but attachment, bonding, attachment since I began taking classes with DCFS - but after checking in with the activists...there is something going around by the same name...and it's brutal abuse, full stop, no more, no less.

The Good Guys? The Texas Christian University Institute of Child Development. They're the ones who developed the book "The Connected Child" - recommended by my agency, and reviewed by me elsewhere.

The Bad Guys? Evergreen Psychotherapy Center Attachment and Training Institute" in Colorado. These are the guys who tipped me off.

Guys, I have NEVER heard of the Evergreen center in any of my contacts with DCFS, Heartsent or any other legitimate parenting class. Matter of fact, anything that smacked of coercion or physical restraint was forbidden and considered, well, WRONG.

Just wanted to let you know. Attachment Training is going around by the same name - but with two REALLY different practitioners.

(*reads* Jeebus. Yes, you hold children to form attachment - and you expect some resistance, but you don't FORCE it. WTF. OVER. REPEAT.)

dracowayfarer, did you have this instructor for English while you were at UCR?

Wrote this fantastic book on values related to race.

Found dead in Long Beach - had been dead for days when he was found.

The irony of dying another statistic. When you assume death because of race...a popular, erudite college professor is not what comes to mind, is it?

CW factors in race and just shrugs.

(Check the percentage of while males that die by their own hand, by comparison. Most of them by firearm.)

Seriously. The thought has to cross your mind, past the obvious "OMG we're pregnant - okay, we're having kids."

The mindset I prefer on the subject is happy acceptance - having sex and having kids? Kinda goes together. You're okay with one, you're okay with both - win/win.

So - unexpected pregnancy doesn't exist in your world. And when you want one, you get one and that's even happier.

I wouldn't know about that. Had the sex, didn't have the kids - and then didn't have the sex for a long, long time. Then got single again. Then married again. Annnd - the pregnant thing didn't jump out and snag us.

Now, you get to think about it. Because now - it costs. Regardless of the route you decide to take, it costs. A bunch. Take a figure and add six zeros or so. Past that, it's just random details.

Somehow, paying money to make a baby didn't make sense when paying money to provide a family to a baby who needed one existed as an equally viable option. We wanted to be parents - and the more I looked at assisted reproduction, the more squicked I got. Jim? He chatted up some coworkers who went that route and just about lost his lunch. Nobody was going to do THAT to his girl!

Not appealing. We don't have to pass on the genetics - really, really.

If it didn't happen on its own, we weren't going to force it. Now, keep in mind back then we were still back in the "adoption is going to be EASY, there's a BUNCH of kids needing homes" frame of mind. That may still be so, but the ability for us to actually connect with a child who COULD be adopted by us has turned out to be, well, not so much - as it turns out. We didn't know - I'll be honest. But I'm really grateful that we didn't spend the time and money on the AR merry-go-round - we didn't have the infertility loss issues to overcome approaching adoption. It IS our first choice.

(Could I still get pregnant? Hang on - I'm getting there. Short answer - yes.)

But why have kids at all - if it doesn't happen on its own?

I'll admit - looking at the house, the yard, the stuff...gathering dust, going to waste...really bothered me. If I've been learning, and growing as a person all this time...why? If I don't pass this baton on to someone...what have I've been doing this for? My own enjoyment? Wow. Not so much!

I want people at all ages of life, in my life. I want oldsters...and kids. And people my age. And people both twenty years older and younger. I LIKE IT THAT WAY.

For me, those are good reasons to have kids. I'll be blunt and admit it - I've considered putting "torch the house with everything in it" in my will, if I survive Jim. After dealing with Cliff's things - and still am - all of the things that really don't belong to anyone else but him - please, just burn it and toss the ashes after mine. (With a few exceptions, of course.)

This just rocks me back on my heels.

"The couple were so desperate for a male heir that they spent their life savings and took out a bank loan for IVF."

The mother is 70 years old.

The got twins. One of each.

Someone is going to have to cross-check me on this one, but wouldn't an adopted child have inherited the same as a biokid in India? (Adoption in India is an incredibly scary place right now - the corruption is mind-boggling and heartbreaking. Might not have been any kind of option for these folks - as old as they were.)

Why are you having children.

Wow.

Every time I look at this, I find another hot button linked to it - property, acceptance, proof of life, immortality, employment, identity....and none of it much involved with the fact that a kid has nothing to do with your issues, and has every need that has to be met by you as the parent.

They're happy - and this is their challenge that they met with these steps. Can't judge. But the mind boggles a bit, neh?

It's not what I would do. For me, I hope to have my adopting done by age 50 - hope, mind. I'd like permission to get older, with my kids being my kids. Not be old - and trying to make things work regardless.

They're happy. Is it wrong to feel sorry for the kids? Would it be more acceptable for the parents to have accepted their lot and not fought 'the system'?

And this is all before I talk about gender preference. Messy, messy, messy.

Seriously. The thought has to cross your mind, past the obvious "OMG we're pregnant - okay, we're having kids."

The mindset I prefer on the subject is happy acceptance - having sex and having kids? Kinda goes together. You're okay with one, you're okay with both - win/win.

So - unexpected pregnancy doesn't exist in your world. And when you want one, you get one and that's even happier.

I wouldn't know about that. Had the sex, didn't have the kids - and then didn't have the sex for a long, long time. Then got single again. Then married again. Annnd - the pregnant thing didn't jump out and snag us.

Now, you get to think about it. Because now - it costs. Regardless of the route you decide to take, it costs. A bunch. Take a figure and add six zeros or so. Past that, it's just random details.

Somehow, paying money to make a baby didn't make sense when paying money to provide a family to a baby who needed one existed as an equally viable option. We wanted to be parents - and the more I looked at assisted reproduction, the more squicked I got. Jim? He chatted up some coworkers who went that route and just about lost his lunch. Nobody was going to do THAT to his girl!

Not appealing. We don't have to pass on the genetics - really, really.

If it didn't happen on its own, we weren't going to force it. Now, keep in mind back then we were still back in the "adoption is going to be EASY, there's a BUNCH of kids needing homes" frame of mind. That may still be so, but the ability for us to actually connect with a child who COULD be adopted by us has turned out to be, well, not so much - as it turns out. We didn't know - I'll be honest. But I'm really grateful that we didn't spend the time and money on the AR merry-go-round - we didn't have the infertility loss issues to overcome approaching adoption. It IS our first choice.

(Could I still get pregnant? Hang on - I'm getting there. Short answer - yes.)

But why have kids at all - if it doesn't happen on its own?

I'll admit - looking at the house, the yard, the stuff...gathering dust, going to waste...really bothered me. If I've been learning, and growing as a person all this time...why? If I don't pass this baton on to someone...what have I've been doing this for? My own enjoyment? Wow. Not so much!

I want people at all ages of life, in my life. I want oldsters...and kids. And people my age. And people both twenty years older and younger. I LIKE IT THAT WAY.

For me, those are good reasons to have kids. I'll be blunt and admit it - I've considered putting "torch the house with everything in it" in my will, if I survive Jim. After dealing with Cliff's things - and still am - all of the things that really don't belong to anyone else but him - please, just burn it and toss the ashes after mine. (With a few exceptions, of course.)

This just rocks me back on my heels.

"The couple were so desperate for a male heir that they spent their life savings and took out a bank loan for IVF."

The mother is 70 years old.

The got twins. One of each.

Someone is going to have to cross-check me on this one, but wouldn't an adopted child have inherited the same as a biokid in India? (Adoption in India is an incredibly scary place right now - the corruption is mind-boggling and heartbreaking. Might not have been any kind of option for these folks - as old as they were.)

Why are you having children.

Wow.

Every time I look at this, I find another hot button linked to it - property, acceptance, proof of life, immortality, employment, identity....and none of it much involved with the fact that a kid has nothing to do with your issues, and has every need that has to be met by you as the parent.

They're happy - and this is their challenge that they met with these steps. Can't judge. But the mind boggles a bit, neh?

It's not what I would do. For me, I hope to have my adopting done by age 50 - hope, mind. I'd like permission to get older, with my kids being my kids. Not be old - and trying to make things work regardless.

They're happy. Is it wrong to feel sorry for the kids? Would it be more acceptable for the parents to have accepted their lot and not fought 'the system'?

And this is all before I talk about gender preference. Messy, messy, messy.

Just put him in a cell near train tracks. Where he can see them...and never get to them again. Maybe where he can see people leaving every day, happy and free as lairds.

Prosecutors denounced his claim of being suicidal as a lie and said he was trying to cause a calamity to get the attention of his estranged wife. Prosecutors said he started out that day with thoughts of killing his wife and then killed the rail passengers because she wasn't available.

The derailment created a horrific scene of mangled rail cars. Workers from nearby businesses scrambled to rescue the injured before firefighters reached the scene.

As he lay injured in the wreck, John Phipps used his own blood to scrawl what he thought would be his last words to his wife and children: "I (heart symbol) my kids. I (heart symbol) Leslie." He survived.

According to trial testimony, Alvarez fled the vehicle, left the scene and went to a friend's house, where he stabbed himself with scissors. Alvarez testified he did not remember stabbing himself but did remember being in a hospital with puncture wounds.

The verdict relieved relatives of the dead.

Alberto Romero said he is reminded of his uncle Leonardo Romero's death every day because Metrolink commuter trains run past his machine shop. Teresa Nance, whose mother, Elizabeth Hill, was killed, said that as the trial began she had nightmares of being in the train with her.

Neither Romero nor Nance, however, thought it was necessary for Alvarez to be executed.

"He needs to think about this every day of his life," said Alberto Romero, 45, of Rancho Cucamonga.

I used to ride those trains every day to get to work. You do that long enough, you make friends of the conductors and engineers that make everything possible.

Friends of mine died that day.

And if those folks can hold off on the death penalty - anyone can.