Things that Make You Go Hmmm. . . A Pie Hole Series: Casey Anthony vs. Scott Petterson’ s Case and Jury

     

VS. 

I am going to go there and question what the heck the Casey Anthony jury were doing while days of damaging testimony and evidence was presented to them?  Before you boo and hiss me, please hear the Pie Hole out. 

I keep hearing the jury tell in interviews that they “kept to the facts” when making the final decision.   There were a few pieces of key evidence that were pretty factual that somehow they seem to not take those as facts.   I have been doing some serious thinking on both of the Casey Anthony case  and the Scott Peterson case.  Even though the cases were different in nature, the evidence and crime seem to have a lot in common,  and yet the verdicts were polar opposites. How is that possible?    Here are some observations I came up with.

Cadaver Dogs:

Anthony: Cadaver dogs hitting on the trunk of the car after three separate people at three separate times reported to authorities that the trunk smelled of death.  They also hit on areas within the Anthony’s backyard.  

Peterson:  Cadaver dogs did a mild hit on the boat.

Hair Samples:

Anthony: One hair sample was found in the trunk of the car.

Peterson: One hair sample was found on a pair of needle nose plies in the boat.

Lying:

Anthony:  Lied to everyone including authorities and allowed a huge search to go underway costing organizations nd the state hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Peterson:  Lied to everyone including authorities and allowed a huge search to go underway costing organization and the state hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Behavior Post Crime:

Anthony: Partying, tattoo, stealing checks from friends, lying shopping,  having lots of sex and texting or calling anyone and everyone she knew.  Hard evidence shows that behavior.

Peterson: Maintaining relationship with mistress, Amber Frey – even called  Amber from a vigil service saying he was in Paris.

Ditching Cars:

Anthony: Ditched her car.

Peterson: Sold his car.

Recovered Bodies:

Anthony:  Found months after the crime . Could not pinpoint time of death or cause of death in an area Casey could be linked to.

Peterson:  Found months after the crime. Could not pinpoint time of death or cause of death in an area Peterson could be linked to.

Reporting the “Kidnapping”

Anthony: Not reporting your kid missing for 31 days and having hard evidence to proof she was parting like a wild banchie during that time.

Peterson: Scott Patterson reported it right away when he got home from his fishing trip.

Motive:

Anthony: Feeling  trapped in her life. Wanted to do her own thing – behaviors screamed this!

Peterson: Felling trapped in his life. Wanted to do his own thing – behaviors screamed this!

Additional “facts” of the Casey Anthony case that is strong circumstantial evidence:

• The FBI testifying that traces of chloroform were found in the trunk post the evidence that there were 87 searches on chloroform and neck breaking.
• Grandma Cindy LYING on the stand saying that she did the searches and was busted a few days later.
• The opening statements from Jose Baez, that George and Lee Anthony sexually abused her starting at the age of 8 when this was the first time in 3 years anyone heard that accusation AND there is jailhouse video of Casey telling her dad that, “He will always be her buddy and the she loved him”. 
• The baby found wrapped in her blanket from home, in plastic bags with duck tape (that matched the same tape recovered from the home) in an area where the Anthony family has buried their family pets only a 2 minute walk from their house.
• Sending the authorities on wild goose chases that would be completely debunked in five minutes.
• Accusing some random stranger of kidnapping your kid.

Jury:

Anthony: From a state that does not know how to count votes or have a problem with capital punishment.

Peterson: From a state that just does not know how to vote and does not like capital punishment.

Bottom line is, this was one of the most insane  saddest verdicts (outside of OJ – which I think this state learned from) I have ever heard.  The “justifications” the jury gives the press and American people, can’t convince me otherwise.   I hold them accountable for her walking free and for them NOT giving at least a  child abuse and manslaughter charge.  When they went into deliberate two jury members wanted capital and half wanted manslaughter.  No one asked for additional evidence to review  and they only deliberated for 11 hours.   Some member or members of the jury were as convincing as Jose Baez in that deliberation room . . .

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Top Ten Things I Wish Politicans Would Say!

http://goodmenproject.com/good-feed-blog/study-of-the-day-political-disagreement-and-income-inequality-are-friends/

As you all know it is gearing up to be another doozy of a campaign year.  This is the inspiration for my Top Ten Tuesday!

10. Heck yeah I inhaled and then I followed up with one of the best munchy binges I ever had!

9.   Look Mr. John King, I get you are tying to showcase us as “hip – not in the dark ages” GOP presidential candidates, but with what is going on in this country and the world right now, I think my take on pop culture is a bunch of (bleep)!

8.   Of course I am going to raise your taxes.

7.  Everything I say during my campaign is nothing but smoke and mirrors.

6.  I may not know how many states there are in the Union, but I am only really counting the ones that matter to my campaign or political party.

5.  To be honest with you, I have no idea what is like to be poor or middle class, but I am going to legislate like I do.

4.  Constitution-smonstituion!  Who really reads that old rag anyway?

3.  You bet I had sexual relations with that woman.  It is just one of the many perks of being the leader of the free world.

2.  Attention Media: No matter how many times or ways you ask me a question I will never answer it. And another thing, take this to your breaking news desk . . .(bleep) off!

1. Yes, that was my Oscar Mayer all over the internet.  You got a problem with that?

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Soap Box Sunday: Whatever Just Happend to Reading ,Writing and Arithmetic?

The other day I was listening to the news while driving my kids to the doctor’s office.  Let’s not forget to mention that I was spiking a fever of over 101 and had not had a full night sleep in nearly a week and I had two sick kids in the car. I thought I was hallucinating what I was hearing until later that night I saw the same coverage. 

A school district in Oakland, California has just launched its first teaching curriculum of  “gender diversity” as early as Kindergarten.  I went online and reviewed the curriculum.  It was a bit puzzling the comparison of the animal kingdom (fish and reptiles) they used to make the point about “gender diversity”; none of it made sense to me.  The reason those species change gender and/or transgender  is to keep the species in existence.  I don’t see how teaching that concept really reinforces pro-tolerance and ” human gender diversity”.  That is like comparing apples to oranges.   The reason people are gay or transgender has nothing to do with saving a species.  

However, this segment is not about pro or against gender diversity; this is about our schools doing the jobs of what should be done at home and since it is not being done at home (by a very small minority),they are taking on the responsibility.  The problem is that not only are they doing a poor job at taking on the job, they are losing sight that the Chinese are passing us by in the science and math department.  So while they are going to space and forming new ground breaking patents we will be well versed in the ill-informed information on hermaphrodite amphibians.  

 Is spending the VERY limited resources we have on education, teaching “gender diversity” in the  early elementary years really going to solve our problem of bullying, lack of tolerance and hate?  The sad thing is we will never be able to eradicate that from the human race.  Is this in the early classroom really going to set up our kids for success in competing with the dog eat dog socio-economic world? 

As you know I am not a fan of the Chinese government, they are not the beacon of good will and humanity towards mankind, but the one thing they understand is that knowledge and discipline is power. We have such a cutting  edge on true balance of both discipline with good boundaries and good education, but we fail to no longer combine them and that is to our losing race to countries like China.

Kids no longer have a healthy respect and sovereign fear of their educators.  Not because the educators have grown soft, but the educators are govern by out of touch legislation and administration that no longer allow the educator to hold true and meaningful consequences. 

I have several friends that teach, and the number one complaint they all have is that they have a few in the class that are just rotten kids that make educating challenging and downright impossible. The good kids suffer, the bad kids win in ruling the classroom.   The administration does not back them to get those few bad apples out of the mix, hold those parents responsible and get on with teaching the core subjects.  Instead they throw a new “teaching curriculum” at them to try to intercept the ill-behavior of a few.

I will be teaching my children “gender diversity” when it is appropriate and I will be using a realistic approach instead of felt boards filled with hermaphrodite amphibians and reptiles to pled my case.   I know that 99.9% of my friends and circle of influence will be doing the same.  Early elementary years is not the place or forum.  I expect my kids to be taught reading, writing, and arithmetic and be in a setting that reinforces respect for authority figures. 

It appears my choice to be sending my kids to Catholic school (even if it means I have to work two jobs to do it) will be in the cards for our family and we are not even Catholic.   It is known the Catholic school system knows how to produce competing test scores, reinforce respect and moral code, and demand parent involvement on a budget grossly less than what the public schools require.

Come on America, let’s get involved on the future of our kid’s education and support the educators do what they went to school to do; teach these kids how to achieve academic greatness! Especially since we are paying for it greatly in both tax dollars and competing with the rest of the world for economic security.

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Being Accountable: Where Does the Line Start or End?

This morning my neighbor and I went on our walk and the subject of NPR’s big brouhaha of management shake down came up.  To bring up to speed about the current event, NPR fired contributing journalist Juan Williams for saying he was uncomfortable boarding a plane with a Muslim on it, when he was on FOX news.  James O’Keefe, a conservative activist, recently did an undercover sting on one of the execs, Schiller, no relation to the CEO Vivian Schiller,  said that the tea party are racists Christian fanatics and that NPR does not really need the federal funding it gets from the feds.  Vivian Schiller stepped down because the board pretty much told her either she was fired or she had to resign and executive Ron Schiller was fired. 

First off did they not  fire Juan Williams for “racist” comments on another network?   Isn’t it what is good for the goose is good for the gander?  I really don’t care what was said about the tea party or Juan’s issue with getting on a plane with Muslims.  What I care about, and what I think NPR cared about, was Ron Schiller getting caught with his pants down on tape saying that NPR does not need federal funding.   He is one of the faces of NPR and even if he believes that, he is accountable to the board of directors and those that sign his paycheck to have and edit button on his pie hole, he just had a huge wake up call.  I feel NPR did the right thing.

Now, let’s get real here.  Anyone that listens to NPR on a daily basis, knows that NPR leans more to the social left so being targeted by a conservative activists because it is funded by the tax payers on where they really stand on issues is not suprising and they should know that as well.

I don’t like shady operations, I like everything out on the table and seeing everyone’s cards.  However we live in a society where both sides of the political spectrum do pretty outrageous things to prove or make a point and the conservative activist group found their golden nugget of opportunity and now we are dealing with the emotional fall out of that act.

 I see that many are outraged that NPR fired these two executives and a journalist for saying and doing things that are not “socially/politically correct”.  I say good for NPR.  These people were representatives for NPR and getting paid very well to be that face of NPR and there should be consequences to be in that role stating extreme opinions and speaking off the record about financial standings of that company.  Luckily for NPR President Obama is going to protect its funding despite this hiccup of diarrhea of the executive pie hole.  Yet, I do ask the question if NPR can really afford to be on the air without the federal dollars, then why are we not taking the money back and applying it to other areas of need?  Just a thought to ponder on.

The question I have for you fellow bloggers is the what was asked me today.  Where is the line crossed when you are accountable of what you say and do even if it is off the record and in a casual environment? 

My answer is that if you have a level of authority or a face of a “thing” you are accountable for everything you say and do on and off the record.   You are being compensated accordingly to be that face and it is a 24 hour job.  If you don’t want that responsibility, then step down.  I think the consequences that NPR handed out were fair.

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This Tiger Mother is Done with the Tiger Blood!

Soapbox Sundays! Better Late than Never!

Yes, I am the Chinese sign of the Tiger and I actually loved the book ,Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.  I am not saying that I am for not allowing  my kids to attend sleep overs or make them practice the piano a million hours a day.  I just like the fundamentals of the book and the author is hilarious and laughing all the way to the bank because she has roused up a whole sect of “soccer moms”.  I digress . . .   What my Soapbox Sunday is about is good ‘ol Charlie Sheen and his “tiger blood” syndrome.

 I am going to own that I am going to be guilty of doing exactly what I am on my soapbox about, but maybe if I can get enough of you to agree with me, words like Charlie Sheen and tiger blood will fade away as quickly as it  ignited.

I get that for some sick and strange reason America loves to watch train wrecks of humanity Hollywood.  No one really wants to face the reality that the world is in economic crisis, the Middle East is in civil distress, the Mid-West is in civil unrest, we are going to be bellying up to the pump at $5.00 a gallon soon  and there are only three episodes left of Big Love.   I get watching some “fictious” character of Hollywood on his crash and burn tour to either Promises Rehab Facility or to something far worse with only a True Hollywood Story episode to be remembered by, seems to be a good way to fill up the days of our pathetic lives. 

Unfortunately, Charlie is not a fictious character. He has people who actually love him and hates seeing this happening.  You have the mothers of his children trying to shelter them from them seeing their dad self destruct and a family that just don’t know what to do, so they are just bracing themselves for his rock bottom moment, ready to pick up the broken pieces, if there is any left to pick up.

This is a man who is not fueled by “Tiger Blood”, even thought my Sirius Radio has a whole station dedicated to “Charlie Sheen’s Tiger Blood Radio”, like it is something real.   What he is fueled by is all the attention he is getting out of this.  He is an addict and this is classic text-book addict behavior, I should know I grew up with addicts my whole life.

The media, the fans or non-fans need to leave him alone; he should be hearing a million crickets, not a million tweets. No one should be adding fuel to this train wreck.  

He is losing everything tangible and in his surreal false reality he is thinking he IS gaining everything and has an edge on the market of life.  A life that is troubled, disturbed, and wounded.   Please America, can we please stop with the tiger blood and get back to True Blood.  At least that is fiction and not someone’s true reality.

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Top Ten Reasons Why Mankind is Becoming More Like Troglodytes the Smarter the Technology Gets!

We are in a world of Wi-fi, smart phones, DVR machines, Google, Facebook, Twitter, GPS, and even cars that can turn on by simply pushing a button.  Heck, my Miele double ovens have more features than the average mid-sized sedan.  In all of this advancement in technology there is one part of the equation that is not meeting its demands – the human race.  We seem to be reverting backwards in society where the only thing we have to show for the progression of technology are sore thumbs and more opportunities to morph into troglodytes.  This is the inspiration of my Top Ten Tuesdays:

http://visualrian.com/images/item/315389

10:  No one can spell anymore.  Yes, and I have to say I too, have thrown that whole notion out of the window.  Why would I ever continue to waste my time in learning to spell when  my smart phone not only checks my spelling but actually anticipates correctly the word I want to use with only two characters entered?

9. What would we do without  GOOGLE:  Why would anyone ever go to the library to do research and used the Dewey Decimal System when you can stay at home in you skivvies and drink booze while doing your reasearch?  All you have to do is type in your misspelled search words and Google will spit out nine million options on that subject AND most of all supply a healthy amount of porn to go along with it.  All the Dewey Decimal System did for me in college was add five extra hours to my time spent in the friggin’ libary with no “happy endings”. 

8. Blue Hairs.  This generation is just a lost cause.  They are still trying to figure out the  “Clap On” light switch and the thought of trying get them to hop on the world-wide web-internet highway without stalling out and having “fatal” error messages appear all over their computer screen is almost impossible.

7.  Customer service is no longer an instant service.  Yes, you know what I am talking about.  You call and you get a computer answering service that asks you to speak certain things, yet never understands what you are saying.  All you get out of the call is, “Sorry I did not get that, please try again.”  Which sadly ends in, “Sorry, we cannot understand your request, please hang up and try your call again.”  By this time you are throwing your phone across the room crusing up a storm and now you not only do not have the information you needed, but you have to go to the store and replace a phone to go through the same thing again.  

6.  No one can write with a pen or pencil.  Pretty soon babies are going to be born with hands and fingers in “text ready” position. It is already stating, all that most people can do is sign their name on the dotted line. 

5. Mail a letter? What is a Stamp? Isn’t that what email is for?  Who needs to know how to lick a stamp, let alone know even what a stamp is when all you have to do is send an email.  Right now I can tell  you that the mail I get on a daily basis is only advertisements and a few bills.  On the slim chance there is a card or letter in the mail from a friend of family member, I see the beam from heaven shining down on my little mail box and as I open it, I hear Handel’s Messiah!

4. Never leave home for it.  Who needs to knock the stank off,  get dressed, put on the war paint and drive to a store and interact with humanity to get items needed when with just one click of the mouse, you have your hearts’ desire with free shipping.  You can even have your groceries dropped off at your door. 

3.   Twittering and Tweeting are not longer just for the birds.  There was a time when all the tweeting you heard was the cute little robin or sparrow sitting outside your window.  Now all you get is the annoying chirp of your smart phone letting you know someone just tweeted.

2.  Who needs doctors when there is the internet?  It seems that thanks to modern technology and the internet, those that spent sleepless nights serving their medical residencies, are now being replaced by some blogger that is probably living his mother’s basement high on bad weed and is now your “authority” on the rash that you currently have.  Sure he may have a rash, but it is due to the combination of bad weed and not moving from his computer screen for  three days.

1. Diarrhea of the Facebook and Twitter:  I will admit, I enjoy getting updates and pictures posted to my Facebook account to stay connected with many of my inner and outer circle.  HOWEVER, I  did not need to know that you are checking in and out of the grocery store, the gym, Bed, Bath and Beyond, the proctologist, the local “dispensary”  and now the bathroom.   I also love those that have no sense of self edit or restraint of their virtual pie holes and accidentally post something catty about somebody on the wall of the person they are being catty about. Or better yet, just post something horribly embarrassing to their character of what a total tool they are.   It is amusing to watch that fire storms brew when that happens.  You can pretty much tell who will NOT be coming to the next Holiday dinner in certain families.

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Sarah Palin’s Silver Lining

This is an inspired moment from a recent post from my blog buddy and dear friend The Idiot Speaketh’s, “Sarah Palin helps me yet again” .

Having a” relative” secure spot in the harem I dare go out in the ledge and say that since the Kate Gosselin and Sarah Palin TLC incident, I have a new-found respect for Palin!  She made that crazy and media obsessed, (even though she says she hates it) Kate Gosselin lay in the fetal position sucking her thumb in one of the most beautiful places in the world. 

http://brainz.org/news/sarah-palin-and-kate-gosselins-camping-trip-disaster/4086/

I also watched her recent interview on FOX ( January 17, 2011).  Yes, I do cross over to the “dark side” and watch that network along with CNN  CYA (they will not use “targeted”, “cross hairs”, “sticking to your guns”, “point-blank” or any reference that could be construed as encouraging violent rhetoric.  Give me a friggin’ break!   I am a smart person who writes and that just insulted my intelligence and love for the use of metaphors.) I digress. . .

The next day after the interview I  heard all the media scuttlebutt on what she said.  I was really disappointed on how many of the sound bites taken were not at all what was really said or even within context.  I double checked that by replaying the interview and what was being reported. It actually disturbed me.   The bottom line is, she may play the victim well, but falsely reporting what someone says it what the media obviously does well on both sides. 

For example, last nights’ news cycle on FOX was stating that the Democratic side was calling the Republicans Nazi’s during the repeal debate of Health Care Reform on the House floor yesterday. I saw and heard what the gentleman said.  IT WAS A METAPHOR so he could make his point.  Was it a bad metaphor?  It sure was not one of the best ones I have heard, but there was passion behind it and passion can fuel bad judgement in choice of words.   I have fallen victim of that many times (I am the queen of open mouth insert foot).   There was NO need to run that and have a “taking head” commentator instruct the viewer on what was said between the lines.  All it caused was more hate mongering and getting off point to what matters.

What unnerves me is how all this false reporting and stirring the pot for a story just continues to egg on hate for someone who if they would just blow each other off and not comment they would shut up and actually work on getting this country back on its feet. 

To me this whole thing is just a big political game.  It is like both sides need each other.  The left needs characters like Palin for a good story to showcase how conservatives and Tea Party constituents are a threat and ignorant and the right needs the Palin character so she can say what they are all afraid to say;  total passive aggressive approaches and that boils my blood. 
The bottom line is, whether you like her or not she has balls.  Are they smart balls? Yes, I think she “dumbs”  down like the stupid blond in High School in math class so she gets the attention she wants.  The one thing I can give her credit is that she does stick to her guns (no pun intended) and you know where she stands regardless if you like the smell of what she is standing in.  You don’t see that often enough in politics and that is something that I can appreciate and it makes me angry that she was portrayed in saying things regardless if you like what she said or not in a very untruthful spin.  

Just to clear it up, I not a “I love Sarah Palin” fan, but there are things she says that I can understand where she is coming from and I find myself agreeing with.  There are also things she says that I feel she just crawled out from under a rock on.  However, it all comes back to the fact she was able to showcase Kate Gosselin’s amazing ability to birth a cow on national television (roughing it in the great outdoors is always a good way to bring out someone’s true character)!  This just proves my point that you can always find silver lining in anything, even when it comes to Sarah Palin.

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Free 2 Work!

I have  a good friend that has humanitarian as part of her DNA.  She is a child psychologist that focuses on PTSD in children and young adults.  She has led teams to Shir Lanka 6 weeks post the devastating tsunami and then did follow-up six months later.  She has traveled the world working with oppressed and traumatized people.  Recently she headed off to South East Asia to work with orphanages and safe havens for those that are fighting to stay off the radar of human trafficking and sold into sex and other forms of slavery.   This developed a passion that she is taking on and doing something about.

Currently she is trying to raise around 40k to build a safe haven for those that have their mark on them to be sold into the sex industry of South East Asia.  This is a place where these kids will live, grow up and be educated and protected from those, mostly family members, from being auctioned off for pennies on the dollar to be prostituted out at young as the age of five. 

Unfortunately, it does not just stop in the remote parts of the world.  It is here in the US in a very serious way.  There is a big question of the millions of  illegals that are in the this nation, how many are here against their will with death threats to themselves and their families if they do not comply with those that they fell into the hand of for trafficking and slavery.  There have been several sting operations that have been successful in my county alone within “massage” parlors and drug houses that is clear evidence that this is happening here on our soil.  

It just does not stop there with the US and the world having some responsibility in this issue.  Companies that take their business overseas  or across the border for a higher profit are not holding up their end of the deal on ensuring a realistic work environment that ensures safety and humane working conditions. They are not holding up their end of the deal to ensure that children are not being born into indentured families and having to work in insane work environments as early as the age of five or seven years of age.  

Free 2 Work is an organization that is slowly setting up a resource for consumers to be able to make informed decisions on the products they are chosing to buy and be able to boycott the ones that are not holding up their end of the deal of ensuring safety and humane treatment of the people who make or are a part of the manufacturing of that product.  It is graded from A-F on the US standards of manufacturing.  Obviously we can’t hold other countries to our standards, we can’t even do that without killing the profits of a company (that why is we send a vast majority overseas or across the border to be manufactured).  However, this website seems to be realistic in the fact that an A to a C- rating are companies that we can still do business with.  Those lower than that, need to get their act together and stop looking away from crimes on humanity. 

They have developed an application for your smart phone where you can scan an item and get a rating, that can help with making informed choices and not being part of enabling companies being able to profit and get away with bad horrifing business practices. 

This is something we all should think about;  it is our fiduciary responsibility as consumers to think about it. If you knew for a fact that the shirt or sneakers you are wearing were made by a child that was 5 years old or anyone of any age for that matter,  working 16-18 hours a day, never seeing the light of day, beaten, on machinery that exposes to radiation and/or no safety guards in place where there are daily amputees and serious injuries would you really want to support a company’s profits and wear that? 

Learning about this has changed our household and how we look at products before we buy them.  I wanted to get a Leap Frog toy for my child, and I will not now that I know they have a D- rating.  I love Carter’s children’s clothing, especially their jammies, but they get an F because they will not respond or communicate their business practices (which means they don’t feel they have a responsibility to be transparent to the consumer providing them their profits).  

 Free 2 Work is a good starting point on trying to make a difference in how consumers of the world hold companies accountable to just being humane. 

 http://free2work.org/home

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We Don’t Need Constitutional Weight Watchers, but Congressional Spending Gastric Bypass

Lately I have heard that  this past Congress has spent more than the fist 100 Congresses combined. Considering this past Congress is the 111th that seemed like a fairytale, and it was hard to believe.   I went to research this and the only place I could find that fact was on conservative news presses, there was nothing coming up on mainstream media.  So I went to the treasury site and started breaking it down for myself.  They are right!  Why is that not being reported? 

Regardless of what your political views are we all agree that living within your means is an absolute.  When you think about putting the national debt (which is not just this and the former administration’s fault, this has been decades of doing) in perspective with an  average individual that is making 100k a year, that person’s credit card debt would be around a million dollars.  We would think that person was insane and understand that they would never get out from underneath that kind of debt nor would his kids, grandkids, and great-grandchildren. 

Obviously the politicians have a serious spending problem!  Everyone of us would questions the judgement if an individual behaved like this with their own life, why are we not doing the same with politicians that are in charge of spending the taxpayer’s money to make this country a great place? 

Regardless if we need healthcare reform, extensions on unemployment, bail outs of companies, the first thing that the politicians should ask is can we afford it and if we can’t and it is important to us, then what do we have to get rid of or cut down in order to make that happen?  I know that is how I have to live. 

When an average person hears that the national debt is around 14 trillion dollars, it is a number that is so hard to conceive, that we just blow it off.  But when you put that number into perspective to someone who deals in just thousands, not billions or trillions, it changes its shape to having a great deal of concern. 

Today Congress changed hands, and there was  a lot of grand standing and show-boating of reading the Constitution like it was the first day of grammar school.   Politicians as a whole are not trust worthy and they should have been reading the Constitution decades ago.  It is like someone with their New Year’s Resolution diet plan; we all know how those work out in the end.   Unfortunately, it looks like we need Congressional Spending Gastric Bypass,  not Constitutional Weight Watchers.  Counting points to cut spending is not going to cut it, we need an extreme and invasive spending cuts that may be hard to digest to get us on the right track. 

It is time to wake up America, this is our future and it is in some seriously scary hands on both sides.  We are the ones that can change this, not Congress or any politician in Washington DC.  We need to start holding these overpaid, out of touch, on their own health care plans, guaranteed retirements and the “unlimited credit card” funded by us, the world and our future generations accountable and really see what is happening on the Hill.

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The Wall

Today is Veteran’s Day and since I am a daughter of a Vietnam Vet, I sit and really think about this day and what we are truly observing.  I will never fully understand what the Veterans of this nation from any war has gone through and are currently going through, but I have a compassion and honor towards each and every one of them.  The below post is a piece of something I have been working on for over ten years.  It is the birth of a book. 

 I remember walking in the cold and rain past the Korean War Memorial and its frozen majestic metal soldiers.  The dogwoods were in bloom and blossoms were falling with the steady sprinkle of the rain.  I caught one in mid-air before it could reach its final resting place; it was delicate and perfect.  I placed it behind my ear under my hood and continued on my journey.  My purpose was to pay respects to a man who had fought for this country beside my father.
As I made my way up the sidewalk I saw a black structure ahead. It seemed to grow in size as I drew closer, and suddenly I was enveloped in an ocean of black stone walls with numberless engravings.  I was unprepared for this; I had heard that The Wall was big, but that was a gross understatement.  I had no idea where to start among the many flags, flowers, family pictures, unopened letters, and poems left at the base of The Wall.  Then I noticed a kiosk a few feet away where there were directories.  I flipped through one as if I were trying to look up the local pizza parlor.  Eventually, I found the name and location code.  I was on a mission, still very detached from what I was doing; it was exactly like solving a puzzle.
As I walked down the sloping sidewalk, the wall seemed to grow even larger and the engravings became recognizable as individual names.  My heart beat faster; I felt hot and sweaty beneath my raincoat and my throat tightened.  I was beginning to understand that this was not just one of the many tourist attractions of the Nation’s Capitol, but was instead a horrifying reminder amidst this beautiful setting of manicured dogwood parks, majestic granite, and immaculate walkways; a perfectly evanescent of Viet-Nam.

I could not grasp the sheer number of names on that Wall.  It seemed to go on forever, with each name representing a family, a wife, a lover, a friend, a son, an enemy never reconciled with… but most of all a life never truly lived unto its fullest.  How did this happen?  How did it get so far out of hand?  Those were the questions that ran through my mind as I finally found the name for which I was searching.   It was too high for me to reach; I found a step stool provided by the groundskeepers, pulled out a pencil and a scrap of paper and began taking an impression (never suspecting that when this mere scrap of paper, when presented to my father, would cause him to fall on his knees and weep as no one had ever seen before). 

 As I rubbed, I began thinking about his family and those who survived him.  How they must have felt so robbed and betrayed by death, the Government, and the senseless war he fought.  He was very young — in his prime — and it never should have happened.  It never should have happened to any of them.

I left the dogwood blossom that I had caught earlier on the ground just beneath his name, and an undeniable truth suddenly occurred to me: The Wall is not big enough… it is missing numberless names, and for countless reasons!  Most particularly, the names of the survivors with whom these men and women took their last breaths.  My father is one such survivor.  The guilt that he bears on that account is just another death sentence awaiting execution at any time.  He is only the least bit better off than those veterans who have lost their minds, their self-respect, and who sit outside the local grocery store hoping for a handout.  Likewise the veterans who didn’t make it even a decade past the war, whether death was by their own hand, or drugs, or alcohol, or violence.  And you must include the veterans who cannot cope without substance abuse or some toxic relationship to dull their pain.  Their widows, their ex-wives, their estranged family members, their forgotten high school classmates, their neglected children who forfeited childhood because their fathers lost all enthusiasm, compassion, understanding, and their once responsible outlook on life… they must be included in the list of casualties.

At that moment, standing in the rain and looking at my reflection in The Wall, the child of a Vietnam veteran, I knew that this Wall did not only memorialize the tragedies of those engraved upon it.  I realized that this Wall was only prologue to another war that will be fought for generations yet to come.

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