April Week 5, 2005
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April Week 5, 2005
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Monday April 25 , 2005 'Maybe,' I said feebly, 'he's trying to be conciliatory and see the point of view of the other side. Or maybe he believes the welfare of the whole is more important than the welfare of the part and the fears of the collective can only be calmed by the sacrifice of a minority. Isn't that the way it's always been?' 'Some people,' Aunt Emily answered sharply, 'are so busy seeing all sides of every issue that they neutralize concern and prevent necessary action. There's no strength in seeing all sides unless you can act where real measurable injustice exists. A lot of academic talk just immobilizes the oppressed and maintains oppressors in their position of power.' Joy Kogawa, Obasan The self
proclaimed oppressed are condemning the new Pope before he even gets his
vestments rumpled. It's as though they have taken a cue from the Republican
Party and they're sending broadsides at every imagined chink in his armor,
Hitler youth (he was a child), Wiermacht, (a teenager, and he deserted at his
first opportunity). The pope is no more a Nazi than I am a Roman Catholic. Is
anyone prepared to be held accountable for everything they thought said and did
when they were 9 years old? I'm sure not. Give the old codger the benefit of
doubt, don't condemn him on the word of some lame, un-signed, article. They are
using the same bigotry in their attacks as the people they claim to be
persecuted by. Someone didn't like what I wrote and sent me an e-mail... "Surely you can't expect honesty and truth from the catholic church. They spread lies about condoms causing AIDS." First, I
don't expect anything from any church, as near as I can tell the primary purpose
of any religion is to perpetuate itself and it's primary method of promoting
itself is to belittle other religions... their secondary focus is on getting as
much money from you as possible... If you would take a second to try and
understand what I wrote instead of leaping to a biased preconception formed from
your own personal prejudice you would see that I was talking about the idiots
that are calling the Pope a Nazi... not the Roman Catholic Church. It is interesting to try to fathom why churches even exist. They can't all be right, actually I don't think any of them are. God didn't create religion, if he had he would have created one and he would have done a better job. He didn't create churches either, he doesn't need, money, churches need money, god doesn't. It is fairly obvious to me that Churches and religions were created to serve the coffers of men. Tuesday April 26 , 2005 The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. Steve Biko; South African political leader (1946–77) I listened to some of the preachers and Mr. Bill Frist from the Justice Sunday broadcast. They were wagging their fingers and shaking their heads in utter dismay that there are still people out there in the country that hate democracy, don't love God, they are Anti-Religious and have not accepted Jesus as their Savior... And OH GOD Aint It Awfull!!! The speakers have apparently has been able to make this determination because they know that they are right and rightious and that God is on their side and God wants the the country to support their policies and therefore anyone who disagrees is in the grip of the devil and needs to be taught the error of their ways or be driven out of their jobs or if that doesn't work,,, the country . What bothers me a lot is that there are folks accept that argument unquestioningly or that there are even more people in the country who are completely oblivious to what is going on and that even if they are told what's going on they say; "I don't care, it doesn't affect me, I'm not "political". ? Or; "Gee that's terrible, did you watch American Idol last night, where's lunch?" When I feel threatened and I see that there is a whole community that either doesn't care, is not aware or is in fact of the opinion that what I see as a threat is actually a positive thing... I become concerned. There are enough people out there that agree with me to allow me to have some conviction that I am not crazy but I guess I am having a hard time trying to figure out why I am on one side and they are on the other. What is it that allows both sided to believe they are right when it seems that the positions are diametrically opposed that there has obe a Right and a Wrong. There is only one Reality... isn't there? I wonder. If your focus is to maintain the status quo there is one truth and if your ideal is to carve your vision of security in stone there is another if your believe that the country was founded on the assurance of equality among men then you have a whole other reality. If you want equality there is another battle because and then when you start to argue about the definition of equality the whole cycle starts all over again... If equality to you means that I get to use my power and influence and you get to use yours... If it means your hope is a reality and that my hope is an illusion, if you are ready to trade a short term profit for inevitable failure you have an different reality than I do. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, what I am looking for is a way to explain to hard-nosed Right-wing autocrat that there are permutations to the world. I believe that when passions collide there is no right and wrong, no absolutes no good and bad. Your God lives in your mind, all you can possibly know of God is what your mind will permit you to know. Your religion is no different, you believe what your mind tells you is right for you... It's so damn simple!!! We are cursed with an idiot in the presidency, he has taken this country into a war of revenge...his administration has manipulated the will of the people with lies, incompetence and arrogance. He is like the madman who struggled to knock down the wall keeping him from his dream of freedom only to discover a world he didn't know existed... another analogy is that he is like the little dog that finally caught a car... now what... he hasn't a clue. I see GWB as a blustering fool who is just trying to bluff his way through the next three years so that he can retire and build his library of coloring books...
The girls baseball team won another game... that's all five games of the 'regular season', the playoffs start next week, if they lose two they are out. (You know by now that you can click on the pictures to enlarge them... right?) Picture above , (Top Row) Flavio R., David T., Alyssa M., Michael J., Josh T, Charis J., (Third Row) Jonathan, David M., Alyssa P., Robert S., Saul E., (Second Row) Marina A., Calie D., Karla C., Monica D., (Bottom Row) Kevin., Melanie A., Timmy T., Cody M., and Mr. Smith.
Wednesday April 27 , 2005 The empire is in the hands of a single madman who demands that we show our loyalty and patriotism by trading our humanity, our freedom, our dignity and, sadly, our children, for the mere illusion of safety in a world that is crumbling around us. Shelia Samples; 4/25/2005
This made my morning, I tried to figure out who wrote it but I couldn't, I did find a site that described the whole process as a Biology Lesson someone had a lot of fun turning it into this joke though... The one below gave me a grin too.
Baldo didn't take his medicine, this morning, he threw it in the trash, we didn't know. We got a call about 1030 from the school saying that he was hitting another kid. I know the kid, he is small and he is Autistic. He's an annoying little guy but he can't help himself. Baldo can be a compassionate kid but he can also be an insensitive, impatient bully when he's in one of his "I may be handicapped but I can still kick your ass" moods. He talked to the therapist and she thinks he was being a bully and picking on the kid because it felt good to be the picker instead of the pickee for a change. Thursday April 28 , 2005 I am so convinced of the advantages of looking at mankind instead of reading about them, and of the bitter effects of staying at home with all the narrow prejudices of an Islander, that I think there should be a law amongst us to set our young men abroad for a term among the few allies our wars have left us. Lord Byron, poet (1788-1824) Today started out OK... after I took the kids to school I had a $15 breakfast at Otto's... way too much for what I got. $7.95 for the breakfast and apparently the other seven bucks was for the toast and coffee and tax & $2 tip... upset me... I went home, vowing never to go back to Otto's [until I forget I vowed never to go back to Otto's] did my e-mail and laid down for a short nap (yeah I know... rough life) I got up and went to brush my teeth and the new crown fell out into the sink. I called the dentist and they said I could go right in... 45 minutes later I was walking out of the office and the phone rang... It was Christy, she said Steve L. [The Principal] just called to tell us that Autumn had had a seizure at school and she wasn't snapping out of it and that they had just called the paramedics. I had Christy's car and she couldn't find the spare keys so she called Rhonda H. who was on her way over to pick her up. I headed off to the school and the phone rang again. it was Christy, she said that the school had called again and that the Paramedics had decided to 'transport' and she is now on her way to Henry Mayo Hospital, about 5 minutes away. I turned around found the emergency room and already had her checked her in before she arrived... When the ambulance arrived (with lights and siren, scaring the crap out of me) she was in the back with a fuzzy blanket, a new teddy bear and a blown up rubber glove with a face drawn on it clutched in her arms. Big Grin. She showed me her finger where they had drawn blood and frowned and said ow-eeee... She was fine. They checked her out and called Autumn's Pediatric Neurologist Dr. Nathan to be sure she would be getting some follow up and we were sent home... took about 2 hours. But she's fine... that's all that matters. She has an appointment for the 5th. We picked up Cindy and the boys came home, Mike came in to mug us for some more money and then he said... "Did Baldo tell you he ate a mushroom out of the yard at school?" Christy said; "Where is he?" The kids said he went to bed... she yelled at him to come out, he seemed pretty mellow and a lot tired. We took his pulse and blood pressure... 144/84 120 then again 133/84 133 his pulse rate was double what it is supposed to be. We called Kaiser and they said Bring him in so that's what she did, she left about 5 minutes ago, it is now 1915. With any luck the day will end soon without further trauma... I probably have just placed a jinx on it by saying that. Friday April 29 , 2005 "It is
unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom." There's a site called the Tombstone Generator that's sorta fun to play with... I took Autumn to the lab to get her blood drawn and then to school. Ran some errands for, had lunch and came home... puttered with the tractor for an hour or so, picked up Pooh and deemed it to be a full day. I missed Bushie's speech/News Conference... what a bunch of drivel. The son of a lady at the girls school called yesterday to say that 7 of his men were killed on Thursday... Americans... but not soldiers, bodyguards.. I an convinced that we are not being told what's going on in Iraq, we know that they aren't telling us about 'civilian' body guards and other mercenaries are being killed, we aren't told about Iraqi civilians... this war is obscene. This is from an article in the New York Times:
Saturday April 30 , 2005 According to the New York Times, last year White House lawyers concluded that President Bush could legally order interrogators to torture and even kill people in the interest of national security — so if that's legal, what the hell are we charging Saddam Hussein with? Jay Leno Baldo screwed up again yesterday... he really has a knack for making bad choices. Just as I suspected, England and Grainier will take the heat for Abu Grieb, no one over Sergeant has even been reprimanded... apparently we are not very nice people... We have attacked a country and one of the reasons we cited was that they killed and tortured their own people... what is wrong with this picture?!
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