Another news cycle has floated past. Morning always brings a news revelation. It may be something we would consider unimportant, those usually happen on a "slow news day." Or it may be something of great consequence; the latest natural disaster, tornado, hurricane, mudslide, sinkhole, flood. It could also be a political disaster or scandal.
This morning is no different; Senator Byrd died, no great shocker, he was 92, Supreme Court Justice Nominee Elana Kagan's confirmation hearings begin today amidst a cloud of ,"does she have enough experience to be on the Supreme Court?", The General McChrystal gaffe, and yes, still that oil.
Yes the oil that continues to flow out of the earth and into the Gulf of Mexico continues to plague us. It is still flowing, it has not been resolved and the massive amount of oil that has already flowed out into the water is looming over us like a serpent ready to strike the mainland in disastrous ways. There is the potential hurricane that could push oil far inland along the Gulf Coast, the prospect of floods of oil flowing into New Orleans after the floods of Katrina are still haunting the residents of the Big Easy. All of the wildlife will be dead, if not dead already. And where will this floating oil-berg go? The oil that is already out and floating around, will they be able to suck it up and get it out of the water? I don't think so, not all of it. It will be in the gulf for decades to come, it may move with the Gulfstream tides up the East Coast soiling beaches in it's wake.
I know this is the third time I have sounded the alert on the oil spew. But I feel that we are still not paying enough attention to it as a disaster. I don't have that reassurance that it, "will be ok" eventually. Nobody is even saying that, and they shouldn't say it. I don't think we have any idea what this is going to do to the US economy, the US ecology and the long term viability of the area. Can you say 2012? I know that is a bit over the top. Lots of doomsday believers think that natural and man made disasters will kill us all in 2012. I don't think this is part of that theory but I do think it is more serious and deserves more attention than our government is giving it.
The appearance of inaction seems to be linked to some political endgame. Let's not let other countries help us. If we do that, it appears that the government cannot take care of it's own problems. HA! I think it would serve the Democrats better and Obama better to bring in ANY help necessary to get this job done, no matter what the cost. Screw the stimulus, the bailouts, and all of the pointless Census jobs that were created. Our taxpayer money needs to go where it is needed most. We need to be bailing out the Gulf of Mexico, literally. We need as many boats, volunteers, experts from any country to be involved as will get the job done post haste. Why is this not the top priority second in line only to the troops at war in the Middle East? If it is, it really doesn't feel like it is.
Yes, there are other things going on. We have an immigration mess heating up like crazy. My simplistic solution to both the war and the illegal immigration problem is bring our troops home now and station them at our borders with orders to shoot anyone that tries to cross illegally. Period. We cannot have any meaningful legal immigration policy or reform without control of our borders, especially our southern border. We cannot allow drug thugs to control parts of Arizona. That is pure insanity. This is OUR COUNTRY, not theirs and we need to be in control of our own destiny. Arizona has done us a favor is forcing this issue to the forefront. Many previous administrations have pledged to reform our immigration system but none have addressed it at all. This administration may be forced to.
We also are at war in two countries that we have no business being in. I feel for those troops giving their blood, sweat and tears for this country and knowing that we are there for no good reason. Any of the good reasons to be fighting there have long since passed. We need to be bringing our troops home now, en mass. We are not supposed to be nation building. If we are, there are many other hot spots around the world that could use assistance and we have neither the money or manpower to help any of them.
Let's concentrate on our own country and let the chips fall where they may in Afghanistan. Our military was not permitted to fight with all of it's might in either Iraq or Afghanistan. We could have blown the Tora Bora mountains to bits to kill Bin Laden, the Taliban,and their ilk, but we didn't want to lose the"hearts and minds" of the Iraqis or Afghanis. We were too concerned about civilian casualties. You can't fight a nice war. War is ugly, innocent people die, that is how war is fought. Do Hiroshima and Nagasaki bring to mind a nice war? Does anyone think that because we spared civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, we now have the hearts and minds of the majority of Iraqis or Afghanis ? We may have some but by no means do we have the majority. They are countries of separate tribes that have no desire to live the way we live.
The economy rounds out the trio of other problems lurking over us this summer. It is an ugly summer to be sure. Not a whole lot to be cheerful about. We are all in a default position of keeping our heads down and hoping this all passes us over like a stray tornado. Hoping the oil stops flowing, hoping our troops can come home soon, and safely, hoping the immigrants stop flowing illegally into our country, and hoping we don't lose jobs, lose homes, lose our standard of living. All of these other crises are fueling the economic crisis.
The oil situation will cost the taxpayer one way or another, whether it be higher fuel costs due to slowdowns in oil production, or reimbursement of people in the Gulf region who have lost their businesses, homes, etc. BP will go bankrupt eventually and then we will have to shoulder the financial burden for their mess.
The war is costing billions of dollars a month. Those are dollars we pay to supply the troops, pay bribes to local tribesmen, and for logistical support. That can all be eliminated when we bring them home. It makes good economic sense.
The illegal immigration issue is costing us billions if not trillions in lost revenue every year. The wages that are not taxed, the jobs that are taken by illegals that could go to Americans that are collecting unemployment. The money that illegals make here and send out of the country. The amount we spend patrolling the borders but don't allow the border patrol to do that much to deter any further illegal immigration is money not well spent. The amount we spend in social programs for illegal immigrants, the welfare, the food stamps, the low income housing, not to mention the free health care for anyone coming into the emergency room. We all pay for that. That is a major contributor to our health care crisis.
The economy has been a mess on it's own as well. The banking crisis, the mortgage foreclosure disaster, the credit card mess, the American Automobile Manufacturers bailout. This list goes on and on. It is hard to believe we are in any kind of recovery. Pundits play with the numbers so it looks like things are better than they are. The jobs numbers are one area that are tampered with and spun a lot. The government hired almost 1/2 million census workers. Those Census jobs will not spur any other job creation. They are not producing any product that can be sold. And they are temporary government jobs. They are not helping anyone. Have you gotten a call from these people? I have gotten 3 calls and I sent my form back all filled out the day I got it!! They are calling me for NO GOOD REASON other than to justify their jobs!
The housing numbers continue to go up and down. More houses sold one month, less sold the next. There is a house in my neighborhood that has been for sale for months. My neighborhood used to turn houses over in less than 1 day on the market. That was the market a few years ago. We have one acre lots, underground utilities, desirable school district, and a cul de sac located in suburbia. Sellers here used to get bidders that got involved in bidding wars to buy. Now a house sits (albeit overpriced) for months unsold. That tells me the real story. There are houses selling, if the buyer is willing to take a big hit in price. There are loans out there if you have stellar credit only. There are cars selling but dealers are getting very low profits for these sales. There are a few jobs here and there but they are not higher paying permanent jobs. The employers are also taking a heads down until the crisis passes stance. Economically speaking, things are not really that much better than they were a year ago.
So what do we do with a summer full of bad news and worse news? We need to take a vacation! That could help do a little stimulating of the economy and get us in a better mood. It is really good to get away from reality once in a while. Go visit some of the lovely beaches on the East Coast while they are still lovely and before the Hurricanes start coming. Go see some historical locations and try to remember what life used to be like here in America; go to a theme park and ride some thrill rides to get some endorphins flowing again. This Spring has seen an endorphin drought of the first magnitude. Visit Arizona, if you dare, to thank them for trying to get us to focus on our national security. Visit Washington, well, maybe not!! We don't have a lot to thank them for lately!! Actually, we can thank them all in November! 8-)
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Blind Leading The blind? Blinded By The Light? 3 Blind Mice?
Ok, in case you haven't figured it out, this is a tale of blinds. Window blinds, honeycomb/cellular blinds to be exact. I have had either the world's worst luck with ordering honeycomb blinds or someone up there is trying to tell me to deploy some other window coverings in my house.
It all started in December 2009. We had painted our kitchen, dining area and our old honeycomb blinds in our bay window were looking pretty dirty; suddenly one of them broke. So now I had to do something. It was not repairable. A friend suggested I try a company that supplied all the blinds for Extreme Makeover, Home Edition. A friend of hers had used them to outfit an entire vacation home with honeycomb blinds. OK, I got adventurous and ordered color samples from Select Blinds. They had a 30% discount going (which I now know is an all the time discount) so I ordered 3 honeycomb blinds for my bay window. They were in a lovely shade of light coffee.
The blinds arrived, and we hung one of the small side window blinds, the middle large blind and then moved on to the 3rd blind, another side window blind. After installing it, we noticed it was at least 2 inches too short. Great!! I rechecked my order form, yup, I had ordered all the blinds to be the same length. I looked at the top to make sure the bracket was mounted in the same locale as the other brackets of the other blinds. Yes, it was. This was not our human error. I contacted Select Blinds and they made me wait a week to see if the blind "dropped down over time." It didn't. So about a month later, our replacement came and it was case closed. I really liked the outcome.
Fast forward to April. In our family room which is attached to the kitchen/dining area in an open floor plan, we have a set of french doors and a double window. The cord to the blind on one of the french doors broke. You see, all of our blinds in the house are about 12 years old at this point, thus many are beginning to fail. I was faced with the decision again. What to do. Do I order from Select Blinds again and hope this time it turns out for the best? I ended up ordering the same color blinds from them for the family room so the whole area would blend together. I ordered two corded blinds for the french doors and one cordless blind for the double window. The blinds came in about 3 weeks. When I opened the first box, the blind was fine. We installed it on one of the french doors. When I opened the box for the second french door blind, I saw that the end cap with the cord was detached, broken off, and we realized that no matter what we did, that was not going to work. I was pretty angry. I called Select Blinds right then and there. They told me they would send a replacement cord assembly and directions telling us how to tension it up. That arrived 2 weeks later. It worked fine, but the length of the loop cord on that french door blind was at least a foot longer than the other one that was already installed. It looks a little funny side by side but nothing can be done.
We had held off installing the double window blind, out of aggravation. When it came time, it installed nicely and worked nicely. That is for 2 weeks. Then all of a sudden, one day I went to raise the blind (this one being cordless) and I heard and felt a distinct pop inside the blind which no longer raised or lowered, but settled at a cock-eyed angle toward the top of the window. The cord inside had snapped. My goodness, our luck with blinds is amazing! After speaking with 2 customer service agents at Select Blinds, they agreed to make a new blind and have me send back the old one. I had decided at that point that I will not order from them again. Based on past experience, I suspect I will be waiting about 3 weeks or more for the new one to arrive.
Meanwhile, I just painted my dining room and put up new window treatments (curtains) but wanted some blinds for that room, and for the adjacent office. I was not going to order from Select Blinds, but had received a circular from JC Penney that had cordless honeycomb blinds in it. I took a chance and ordered 4 (2 for each room) and hoped for the best. The JC Penney blinds arrived yesterday. Two of the blinds were the blinds we ordered, the other two were some random other kind of window treatment, and not even close to the size I ordered.
Is this a case of bad (blinds) luck strikes again? Or is someone trying to tell me something about ordering blinds....like NOT TO!! Or a third possibility is that quality control is non existent these days! Even if you stick a sticker with your name on it telling the world you inspected this item, nothing happens to you if the item fails. What good is the sticker? Is there really even an inspector #432? Maybe nobody inspects these things and they just put a sticker on it to make you think they do! The fourth and most sensible option is not to try to save any money buying cellular blinds. Pay top dollar for the name brands, Hunter Douglas, Graber, Levelor and maybe you will have better luck. The thing is, the cost of a double window cordless cellular blind from one of the name brands is hundreds of dollars more. Is it worth it? Maybe the quality control is there with the name brands unlike the off name brands.
In any case, I phoned JC Penney, they put in a new order to replace the incorrect blinds and I have to haul the incorrect ones down to a Penney's store to get a credit. Fun fun fun. in the meantime, my cellular blind ordering days are over for now. I can't take any more of the drama. Summer is too nice to waste worrying about this minutia. If I need to re-blind any other room, we are going to have to pass a cooling off period first!! That means fall.
It all started in December 2009. We had painted our kitchen, dining area and our old honeycomb blinds in our bay window were looking pretty dirty; suddenly one of them broke. So now I had to do something. It was not repairable. A friend suggested I try a company that supplied all the blinds for Extreme Makeover, Home Edition. A friend of hers had used them to outfit an entire vacation home with honeycomb blinds. OK, I got adventurous and ordered color samples from Select Blinds. They had a 30% discount going (which I now know is an all the time discount) so I ordered 3 honeycomb blinds for my bay window. They were in a lovely shade of light coffee.
The blinds arrived, and we hung one of the small side window blinds, the middle large blind and then moved on to the 3rd blind, another side window blind. After installing it, we noticed it was at least 2 inches too short. Great!! I rechecked my order form, yup, I had ordered all the blinds to be the same length. I looked at the top to make sure the bracket was mounted in the same locale as the other brackets of the other blinds. Yes, it was. This was not our human error. I contacted Select Blinds and they made me wait a week to see if the blind "dropped down over time." It didn't. So about a month later, our replacement came and it was case closed. I really liked the outcome.
Fast forward to April. In our family room which is attached to the kitchen/dining area in an open floor plan, we have a set of french doors and a double window. The cord to the blind on one of the french doors broke. You see, all of our blinds in the house are about 12 years old at this point, thus many are beginning to fail. I was faced with the decision again. What to do. Do I order from Select Blinds again and hope this time it turns out for the best? I ended up ordering the same color blinds from them for the family room so the whole area would blend together. I ordered two corded blinds for the french doors and one cordless blind for the double window. The blinds came in about 3 weeks. When I opened the first box, the blind was fine. We installed it on one of the french doors. When I opened the box for the second french door blind, I saw that the end cap with the cord was detached, broken off, and we realized that no matter what we did, that was not going to work. I was pretty angry. I called Select Blinds right then and there. They told me they would send a replacement cord assembly and directions telling us how to tension it up. That arrived 2 weeks later. It worked fine, but the length of the loop cord on that french door blind was at least a foot longer than the other one that was already installed. It looks a little funny side by side but nothing can be done.
We had held off installing the double window blind, out of aggravation. When it came time, it installed nicely and worked nicely. That is for 2 weeks. Then all of a sudden, one day I went to raise the blind (this one being cordless) and I heard and felt a distinct pop inside the blind which no longer raised or lowered, but settled at a cock-eyed angle toward the top of the window. The cord inside had snapped. My goodness, our luck with blinds is amazing! After speaking with 2 customer service agents at Select Blinds, they agreed to make a new blind and have me send back the old one. I had decided at that point that I will not order from them again. Based on past experience, I suspect I will be waiting about 3 weeks or more for the new one to arrive.
Meanwhile, I just painted my dining room and put up new window treatments (curtains) but wanted some blinds for that room, and for the adjacent office. I was not going to order from Select Blinds, but had received a circular from JC Penney that had cordless honeycomb blinds in it. I took a chance and ordered 4 (2 for each room) and hoped for the best. The JC Penney blinds arrived yesterday. Two of the blinds were the blinds we ordered, the other two were some random other kind of window treatment, and not even close to the size I ordered.
Is this a case of bad (blinds) luck strikes again? Or is someone trying to tell me something about ordering blinds....like NOT TO!! Or a third possibility is that quality control is non existent these days! Even if you stick a sticker with your name on it telling the world you inspected this item, nothing happens to you if the item fails. What good is the sticker? Is there really even an inspector #432? Maybe nobody inspects these things and they just put a sticker on it to make you think they do! The fourth and most sensible option is not to try to save any money buying cellular blinds. Pay top dollar for the name brands, Hunter Douglas, Graber, Levelor and maybe you will have better luck. The thing is, the cost of a double window cordless cellular blind from one of the name brands is hundreds of dollars more. Is it worth it? Maybe the quality control is there with the name brands unlike the off name brands.
In any case, I phoned JC Penney, they put in a new order to replace the incorrect blinds and I have to haul the incorrect ones down to a Penney's store to get a credit. Fun fun fun. in the meantime, my cellular blind ordering days are over for now. I can't take any more of the drama. Summer is too nice to waste worrying about this minutia. If I need to re-blind any other room, we are going to have to pass a cooling off period first!! That means fall.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Like the Wild West Out There!!
What happened today was a perfect example of how driving in this country has gone terribly wrong. It is a dangerous undertaking every time you turn the key. I was approaching a highway entrance ramp, and a woman with Florida plates who was in the lane to the left of me began to drift toward me. I leaned on the horn and she just kept coming over. She was attempting to get into the lane that lead to the entrance ramp but she didn't ever signal, or look to her side for that matter. I was not at all in her blind spot. I was right next to her. She just came over willy nilly, the rest of us be damned. I slowed down and let her get over because it was obvious she was not stopping or turning back into her own lane. Once on the ramp, we accelerated, she in front of me. When it came time to merge into traffic already on the highway, she pulled into the slow lane and began again to drift. Only this time, she drifted toward the middle lane, never looking to see that someone was right next to her....there is no way she didn't see that car if she looked to her left. But she never looked and BOOM, she hit the car in the middle lane. They bounced slightly off of each other and kept driving.
A lot of things ran through my mind at that moment. One was to not panic and cause another accident in the process.There were a lot of cars around us and they were all going at very different speeds. The Boomer and the Boomee pulled over to exchange info. A quick glance told me there was no major damage so I continued on. But as I drove away, I couldn't help but think that this was either someone driving impaired i.e. drunk, medicated, low blood sugar, over 80 years old; or it was someone that was distracted by cell phone conversation or texting. Then I was really mad I didn't stop and see for myself and defend the poor boomee from this menace woman. It is hard to tell when to stop when there was no obvious damage.
The road is a dangerous place, at least in Massachusetts, these days. The throngs of elderly drivers that accidentally push the accelerator instead of the brake pedal are all around. There were many of these incidents last summer and people were hurt and killed in some cases. The Mass. state legislature has failed to pass any legislation on RMV retesting of seniors or a texting while driving ban. We are way behind other states on these issues.
Then there are the Camrys and Corrollas that are accelerating out of control. You never know when one of those will come up behind you!
Let's not forget about the teens and tweens and even twentysomethings that think they are invincible and are talking on the phone and texting to beat the band. PEOPLE, as I have said before, THAT IS A DANGEROUS AND DEADLY THING TO DO! Nobody's brain is capable of driving and texting at the same time. You don't usually read a book and drive, do you? I hope not! It almost never fails that when you see someone driving like a bonehead, they are either texting or talking on the cell phone. How did we get here? Just because it is possible to do something, does not mean it is a good idea. I am able to stab myself with a knife, but it is not advisable. This seems to be the standard people are using to determine that it is perfectly OK to text while driving. And the other argument I always here from people is,' Everyone is doing it," Wow, that one boggles me. Goes back to the old adage, " if everyone jumped off a cliff would you follow them?
Maybe I am glorifying the good old days, but I don't remember driving being this dangerous when I was a new driver in 1977. You were courteous, you stayed in your lane and signaled to change lanes, you had both eyes on the road at all times. In terms of driving in America, it feels like we live in the Wild West now. You never know what stupid maneuver someone is going to attempt right in front of your eyes. You are never sure what is going to jump out at you or into you. If you are not always on the defensive, you will get into a crash, for sure.
I had a roommate in college from Thailand. She used to tell me about driving in Bangkok; how there were very few traffic signals and even fewer traffic laws enforced; Intersections were a big free for all. She spoke of pedestrians being hit by cars and the cars just driving off. That was routine and it happened every day. That was the norm in Bangkok in 1982. I don't know if you have listened to the news lately but I have and I think that more people than not DO NOT stop when they hit someone with their car nowadays. It is immoral and it is infuriating. Nobody wants to take responsibility for their actions anymore. Sad.
Well, my advice is be careful out there. As Oprah says, take the "no cell phone zone" pledge not to use your cellphone in your car. Or at the very least STOP TEXTING while driving. There is NO EXCUSE for that. Watch for idiots doing just that and be ready for evasive maneuvers. I don't think anything in the driving realm is going to get safer for us until computers drive our cars while we just sit back ,text, talk, shave, read, eat, and sleep in our cars. I look forward to that day!!
A lot of things ran through my mind at that moment. One was to not panic and cause another accident in the process.There were a lot of cars around us and they were all going at very different speeds. The Boomer and the Boomee pulled over to exchange info. A quick glance told me there was no major damage so I continued on. But as I drove away, I couldn't help but think that this was either someone driving impaired i.e. drunk, medicated, low blood sugar, over 80 years old; or it was someone that was distracted by cell phone conversation or texting. Then I was really mad I didn't stop and see for myself and defend the poor boomee from this menace woman. It is hard to tell when to stop when there was no obvious damage.
The road is a dangerous place, at least in Massachusetts, these days. The throngs of elderly drivers that accidentally push the accelerator instead of the brake pedal are all around. There were many of these incidents last summer and people were hurt and killed in some cases. The Mass. state legislature has failed to pass any legislation on RMV retesting of seniors or a texting while driving ban. We are way behind other states on these issues.
Then there are the Camrys and Corrollas that are accelerating out of control. You never know when one of those will come up behind you!
Let's not forget about the teens and tweens and even twentysomethings that think they are invincible and are talking on the phone and texting to beat the band. PEOPLE, as I have said before, THAT IS A DANGEROUS AND DEADLY THING TO DO! Nobody's brain is capable of driving and texting at the same time. You don't usually read a book and drive, do you? I hope not! It almost never fails that when you see someone driving like a bonehead, they are either texting or talking on the cell phone. How did we get here? Just because it is possible to do something, does not mean it is a good idea. I am able to stab myself with a knife, but it is not advisable. This seems to be the standard people are using to determine that it is perfectly OK to text while driving. And the other argument I always here from people is,' Everyone is doing it," Wow, that one boggles me. Goes back to the old adage, " if everyone jumped off a cliff would you follow them?
Maybe I am glorifying the good old days, but I don't remember driving being this dangerous when I was a new driver in 1977. You were courteous, you stayed in your lane and signaled to change lanes, you had both eyes on the road at all times. In terms of driving in America, it feels like we live in the Wild West now. You never know what stupid maneuver someone is going to attempt right in front of your eyes. You are never sure what is going to jump out at you or into you. If you are not always on the defensive, you will get into a crash, for sure.
I had a roommate in college from Thailand. She used to tell me about driving in Bangkok; how there were very few traffic signals and even fewer traffic laws enforced; Intersections were a big free for all. She spoke of pedestrians being hit by cars and the cars just driving off. That was routine and it happened every day. That was the norm in Bangkok in 1982. I don't know if you have listened to the news lately but I have and I think that more people than not DO NOT stop when they hit someone with their car nowadays. It is immoral and it is infuriating. Nobody wants to take responsibility for their actions anymore. Sad.
Well, my advice is be careful out there. As Oprah says, take the "no cell phone zone" pledge not to use your cellphone in your car. Or at the very least STOP TEXTING while driving. There is NO EXCUSE for that. Watch for idiots doing just that and be ready for evasive maneuvers. I don't think anything in the driving realm is going to get safer for us until computers drive our cars while we just sit back ,text, talk, shave, read, eat, and sleep in our cars. I look forward to that day!!
Friday, June 11, 2010
These People Need a Good Smack!
What is with this explosion of Extreme Parenting? Some of the things read about boggle my mind. Currently in the news is the story of 16 year old Abby Sunderland, a girl who wanted to become the first 16 year old girl to sail around the world solo. A few days ago, as she continued on her journey, her family lost contact with her (satellite phone) and the Coast Guard in the Indian Ocean region picked up a distress signal from her. That meant that either her boat had sunk or she was overboard in a life raft. I bet her parents felt really smart at that moment. Abby was saved yesterday by a French fishing vessel in the middle of the Indian Ocean in the middle of the stormy season.
What goes through the mind of a parent encouraging their daughter to sail around the world alone at age 16? Do they love her? Are they so bent on the theory of "you can do ANYTHING you want to in life" that they lose perspective about danger and consequences? This theory is echoed again and again...first kid to climb Everest, first kid to climb tallest mountain on all 7 continents, first kid to fly a plane coast to coast, and on and on and on. Are these people living in some warped version of the Guiness Book of World records? Is this just a more extreme example of parents that push their kids so hard into sports because they themselves wished they had been the star quarterback or captain of the Football team? This is a version of living vicariously that is both dangerous and reckless.
New information on the Abby Sunderland saga is that her father had signed a deal to sell his (her) story to a reality show and was in the process of filming when Abby's signal was lost. Do we smell a rat here? Was he jeopardizing his daughter's life to make a buck? What a monster!
It is so true, and also obvious that you don't have to pass any test to become a parent. You don't have to be screened before you get pregnant. You don't even have to be sane to become a parent. It is a purely biological process. Too bad for the children that you don't have to be screened. There would be far fewer bad parents and far less child abuse and neglect if you had to pass some kind of competency test in order to bring your baby home from the hospital. Every week we hear awful stories of parents leaving kids in hot cars, shaking babies to get them to quiet down, leaving toddlers alone in apartments to fend for themselves while Mom goes out to a bar to get hammered. These are examples of bad parenting, ordinary bad parenting. This is slightly below the level of Abby Sunderland's parents, but none the less dangerous. The run of the mill bad parents are just ignorant, or stupid. The Sunderlands have knowingly exploited their daughters life to make a buck and that is really disturbing.
A while back there was a sudden upsurge in the number of "kids" piloting planes across the country. Who can be the youngest, who can fly the furthest, who is the best, etc. Then there was an accident, and a young pilot, Jessica Dubroff (age 7!!!!), her Dad, and flight instructor were killed. Jessica had been at the controls at the time of the accident. That child piloting fad died down as a result. Maybe that accident made parents rethink sending junior up into the wild blue yonder he was too young to drive, or smoke, or vote, or stay out late at night, or go to middle school.
A lot of these daring pilots, sailors, climbers, extreme sportsmen, all children, have set amazing goals for themselves and have succeeded at achieving them but, at what cost? What if they failed and died, or were maimed in their attempt? Would it have been worth it? How would their parents have felt about their decisions then? And what happens when you do something so dangerous, and succeed; you have your 15 minutes of fame...then what? Either you have just had the ultimate peak moment of your life (so young) or you will seek to do something slightly harder, more dangerous to one up yourself. Both of those options are lousy. For a scant few people, these experiences can lead to a lifetime of leadership, responsibility, and greatness. But unfortunately, those people are rare indeed. Think of Hollywood, and the music world. How many young sensations flame out, die of drug overdoses, suicides, never learn to deal with being famous or great. That seems to be more the norm than the exception.
It is very different story when your 20 year old wants to compete in a dangerous sport or participate in some extreme games. They are old enough to decide for themselves and understand what consequences they could face. All a 7 year old pilot is thinking of is "won't Daddy be proud of me and won't I be famous when I get done flying this plane." She cannot be anticipating the horror of potentially killing all of them because her brain is not sufficiently developed to understand the concept of consequences of your actions.
I am sure with the rush of new reality shows every year there will be more and worse examples of extreme parenting to come. (think balloon boy and his whack job parents.) Everyone likes to push the envelope further and further, but more than that they like to get paid more and more.
What goes through the mind of a parent encouraging their daughter to sail around the world alone at age 16? Do they love her? Are they so bent on the theory of "you can do ANYTHING you want to in life" that they lose perspective about danger and consequences? This theory is echoed again and again...first kid to climb Everest, first kid to climb tallest mountain on all 7 continents, first kid to fly a plane coast to coast, and on and on and on. Are these people living in some warped version of the Guiness Book of World records? Is this just a more extreme example of parents that push their kids so hard into sports because they themselves wished they had been the star quarterback or captain of the Football team? This is a version of living vicariously that is both dangerous and reckless.
New information on the Abby Sunderland saga is that her father had signed a deal to sell his (her) story to a reality show and was in the process of filming when Abby's signal was lost. Do we smell a rat here? Was he jeopardizing his daughter's life to make a buck? What a monster!
It is so true, and also obvious that you don't have to pass any test to become a parent. You don't have to be screened before you get pregnant. You don't even have to be sane to become a parent. It is a purely biological process. Too bad for the children that you don't have to be screened. There would be far fewer bad parents and far less child abuse and neglect if you had to pass some kind of competency test in order to bring your baby home from the hospital. Every week we hear awful stories of parents leaving kids in hot cars, shaking babies to get them to quiet down, leaving toddlers alone in apartments to fend for themselves while Mom goes out to a bar to get hammered. These are examples of bad parenting, ordinary bad parenting. This is slightly below the level of Abby Sunderland's parents, but none the less dangerous. The run of the mill bad parents are just ignorant, or stupid. The Sunderlands have knowingly exploited their daughters life to make a buck and that is really disturbing.
A while back there was a sudden upsurge in the number of "kids" piloting planes across the country. Who can be the youngest, who can fly the furthest, who is the best, etc. Then there was an accident, and a young pilot, Jessica Dubroff (age 7!!!!), her Dad, and flight instructor were killed. Jessica had been at the controls at the time of the accident. That child piloting fad died down as a result. Maybe that accident made parents rethink sending junior up into the wild blue yonder he was too young to drive, or smoke, or vote, or stay out late at night, or go to middle school.
A lot of these daring pilots, sailors, climbers, extreme sportsmen, all children, have set amazing goals for themselves and have succeeded at achieving them but, at what cost? What if they failed and died, or were maimed in their attempt? Would it have been worth it? How would their parents have felt about their decisions then? And what happens when you do something so dangerous, and succeed; you have your 15 minutes of fame...then what? Either you have just had the ultimate peak moment of your life (so young) or you will seek to do something slightly harder, more dangerous to one up yourself. Both of those options are lousy. For a scant few people, these experiences can lead to a lifetime of leadership, responsibility, and greatness. But unfortunately, those people are rare indeed. Think of Hollywood, and the music world. How many young sensations flame out, die of drug overdoses, suicides, never learn to deal with being famous or great. That seems to be more the norm than the exception.
It is very different story when your 20 year old wants to compete in a dangerous sport or participate in some extreme games. They are old enough to decide for themselves and understand what consequences they could face. All a 7 year old pilot is thinking of is "won't Daddy be proud of me and won't I be famous when I get done flying this plane." She cannot be anticipating the horror of potentially killing all of them because her brain is not sufficiently developed to understand the concept of consequences of your actions.
I am sure with the rush of new reality shows every year there will be more and worse examples of extreme parenting to come. (think balloon boy and his whack job parents.) Everyone likes to push the envelope further and further, but more than that they like to get paid more and more.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Time to Go Home!
After reading an article and hearing this subject spoken about on talk radio, I feel the need to vent on this topic. I mean no disrespect to our military here. What the hell are we still doing in Iraq and Afghanistan? The article in the New York Times today said that the US strategy had shifted in Afghanistan from a potential surge to kill the Taliban fighters that are creating chaos in the region to a Civilian building and reconstruction effort. WHAT? WTF??? We did not sign up for that, and more importantly our young men and women soldiers are still dying and for no good reason at all.
I said it during the Bush administration and I am saying it now during the Obama administration: These people, the Afghans and the Iraqis, do not want our help, do not want us there and will go back to what they were before as soon as we pull out of there. We have not changed their system of government fundamentally. It is and always will be a group of different tribes at war with each other. They live in a manner like it is the year 1110 not 2010.
The sooner we pull out of both countries and bring our troops home the better. There are security and "civilian building and reconstruction efforts" they could be doing to help out OUR country. It is not our job to fix everyone else's mess, especially if they won't help us help them!! The amount of lives and money that have been spent on these two wars is obscene. Let's stop the bleeding both literally and financially right now. It would be nice if Obama kept at least one promise and brought the troops home shortly after taking office. He didn't do that but he can do it now, now that we are not going to let the troops fight the Taliban, Al Quaeda, or any other terrorist that crops up in the Middle East.
I think of those families that have lost sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, sisters, boyfriends, and friends to these "wars." My heart goes out to them. They will have no victory to make them feel a little better about their sacrifices. All they will have is a gravestone and a folded American Flag to remind them their loved one put their trust in our government to do the right thing and not send them to die for no good reason. Heartbreaking. Devastating. Maddening to the 10th power.
America has so many issues at home right now; we could deploy our troops on our own behalf. We have a southern border that is like a free flowing river of illegal immigrants and drug smugglers. That has to stop. Put some marine battalions armed with weapons, and the authorization to use them, along that border and that river would run dry pretty darn quick. We have a natural disaster of epic proportions in the Gulf of Mexico. The Army could help out building berms, sand bags, oil booms, Perhaps someone in our military has some knowledge that is better than the lame "know how" BP executives have used thus far to try and contain this gusher. Our armed forces are stretched very thin. Many of the troops have served multiple deployments and deserve a break and to come home now.
Enough is enough. Tail between our legs or not, we are done there. We have to be done. The commanders in chief didn't allow our military to use any force necessary to get the job done, so we in essence tied their hands behind their backs and expected them to still win a (2) wars. We have so many weapons and systems in our arsenal that did not see the light of day in these wars because of political correctness. We were afraid of what they would think of us! Is that not the most ridiculous thing you ever heard? How do you win a war by singing Cumbaya with your enemy? If we were not prepared to have civilian casualties when we did our bombings, we should not have gone there in the first place. This enemy places civilians in high value target areas so they will be killed by US bombing raids. This serves to sway world opinion against the US. I don't think the world could have a lower opinion of us anyway.
Should we care about the world's opinion of the US? Maybe not, but the thing we need to worry about is when the US is losing war after war, our enemies may not FEAR us anymore. That will embolden terrorists to strike at us both overseas and at home. That will make our enemies seem stronger and us weaker. We have a lot of work to do to get back our old image of the lone Superpower in the world. Though. it may never happen, I fear.
There is no good answer here other than our troops are getting killed for no good reason. The people don't want to work together or to defend themselves so we need to leave it alone and go home. The time has come, Mr. Commander in Chief!
I said it during the Bush administration and I am saying it now during the Obama administration: These people, the Afghans and the Iraqis, do not want our help, do not want us there and will go back to what they were before as soon as we pull out of there. We have not changed their system of government fundamentally. It is and always will be a group of different tribes at war with each other. They live in a manner like it is the year 1110 not 2010.
The sooner we pull out of both countries and bring our troops home the better. There are security and "civilian building and reconstruction efforts" they could be doing to help out OUR country. It is not our job to fix everyone else's mess, especially if they won't help us help them!! The amount of lives and money that have been spent on these two wars is obscene. Let's stop the bleeding both literally and financially right now. It would be nice if Obama kept at least one promise and brought the troops home shortly after taking office. He didn't do that but he can do it now, now that we are not going to let the troops fight the Taliban, Al Quaeda, or any other terrorist that crops up in the Middle East.
I think of those families that have lost sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, sisters, boyfriends, and friends to these "wars." My heart goes out to them. They will have no victory to make them feel a little better about their sacrifices. All they will have is a gravestone and a folded American Flag to remind them their loved one put their trust in our government to do the right thing and not send them to die for no good reason. Heartbreaking. Devastating. Maddening to the 10th power.
America has so many issues at home right now; we could deploy our troops on our own behalf. We have a southern border that is like a free flowing river of illegal immigrants and drug smugglers. That has to stop. Put some marine battalions armed with weapons, and the authorization to use them, along that border and that river would run dry pretty darn quick. We have a natural disaster of epic proportions in the Gulf of Mexico. The Army could help out building berms, sand bags, oil booms, Perhaps someone in our military has some knowledge that is better than the lame "know how" BP executives have used thus far to try and contain this gusher. Our armed forces are stretched very thin. Many of the troops have served multiple deployments and deserve a break and to come home now.
Enough is enough. Tail between our legs or not, we are done there. We have to be done. The commanders in chief didn't allow our military to use any force necessary to get the job done, so we in essence tied their hands behind their backs and expected them to still win a (2) wars. We have so many weapons and systems in our arsenal that did not see the light of day in these wars because of political correctness. We were afraid of what they would think of us! Is that not the most ridiculous thing you ever heard? How do you win a war by singing Cumbaya with your enemy? If we were not prepared to have civilian casualties when we did our bombings, we should not have gone there in the first place. This enemy places civilians in high value target areas so they will be killed by US bombing raids. This serves to sway world opinion against the US. I don't think the world could have a lower opinion of us anyway.
Should we care about the world's opinion of the US? Maybe not, but the thing we need to worry about is when the US is losing war after war, our enemies may not FEAR us anymore. That will embolden terrorists to strike at us both overseas and at home. That will make our enemies seem stronger and us weaker. We have a lot of work to do to get back our old image of the lone Superpower in the world. Though. it may never happen, I fear.
There is no good answer here other than our troops are getting killed for no good reason. The people don't want to work together or to defend themselves so we need to leave it alone and go home. The time has come, Mr. Commander in Chief!
Monday, June 7, 2010
Grease is The Word.....
First let me say it has been a while since I have blogged. I have had a health issue and have not felt like blogging til now. But, I cannot sit idly by without ranting on this. I have ranted on this before, too! But the situation is not only not going away, it is getting worse by the day. By now, you must know I am referring to the BP Gulf Oil disaster.
This "accident" in the Gulf of Mexico could turn out to be the costliest, deadliest, and most destructive disaster the world has known if it is not brought under control soon. Nobody seems to be talking about the long range environmental implications of this oil spill. Water is a liquid and the sheer volume of water that has so far been affected by the oil cannot be contained. Maybe the Gulf Stream will keep a lot of the tainted water inside the Gulf of Mexico. But we do have hurricanes, and windy storms. Water moves all over the globe. This greasy oily water could end up at all ends of the earth. Think about the message in a bottle that is put out to sea from a beach and ends up on another continent years later. Now picture little balls of tar like oil rolling all over the world. I believe that is what we are facing and nobody is talking about that because the idea is just too depressing.
Then there are the possible health considerations. Countless fish and crustaceans will undoubtedly be affected by the oil and so will we if we eat fish or seafood. How will we know where it is safe to fish, and if we deem an area to be safe to fish, how will we know that the fish that is caught in the safe area was not lurking in dangerous waters before being caught in the "safe" waters?
I believe it is possible that a whole new series of illnesses will be brought about by this disaster. There will be people that will have skin contact with the oil by virtue of evaporation, rain, storms, cleanup efforts. Those could result in skin rashes, or systemic illnesses. Then there will be the people that eat food tainted somewhere along the food chain by the oil. That will result in gastric illness and possibly systemic illnesses as well. Then there are the people who live and work those Gulf waters. They will be the ones with the most exposure. As I said before, this is a major major disaster unfolding and nobody seems to be alarmed enough.
Our government has dragged its feet in getting involved in this mess. If tar balls were washing up on the shores of the Potomac River maybe some in Congress and in the White House would be more concerned and proactive. But the Gulf is a distance away from Washington, both in miles and in lifestyle. Maybe the government feels a kind of "burn out" in dealing with the Gulf Region due to having to clean up from the Katrina disaster. If we put more resources into drilling the (2) relief wells that are not due to be completed until August or September, could it go faster? How about doubling the personnel and equipment? or about tripling it? Is that not reasonable under the circumstances? I may be naive and not understand how these things work, but I just have the feeling that those in power both governmental and corporate are not as concerned as they should be.
I am also feeling really sad about all of this. I was thinking back to the vacations of my youth spent on beaches in the North and South. We visited Myrtle Beach, St. Petersburg,FL, Cape Cod, Wildwood, NJ, The Hamptons, Virginia Beach,and grew up on Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk, CT. It is possible that all of these beaches could be affected and someday not be usable or swimable. That makes me sad for my kids, and all the other kids who have not experienced these wonderful places. It is positively unacceptable to me that our government and BP are not doing everything humanly possible to stop and reverse this curse.
The images we have seen so far are devastating. Blades of sea grass coated in oil, seabirds that look like they have been chocolate dipped. I feel so bad for the wildlife. They have no chance to save themselves; a large number will die. There are beaches with lines of reddish black tar, fishermen and resort owners going bankrupt a day at a time. This tragedy will have a profound effect on our overall economy, and economy that is fragile at best right now.
What about the future of drilling? I am not sure. I know this, until we can be 100% sure that this can't happen to any other drilling platforms around the world, no other new wells should be commissioned. All of the existing wells need to be inspected for the problem that existed at this one. And they need to make sure that all operational wells have or build a remote shut off that this well was lacking.
This oil spill situation is a wake up call of the first magnitude for the US and the world at large. We need desperately to investigate and invest in clean renewable sources of energy. So, if windmills can only provide 10% of our energy needs, let's still do it. They are clean, they don't pollute, if they break down they just stop turning, they will not cause a natural disaster. Solar power is low key too. No pollution given off, if they stop working, no disaster happens. There needs to be a national or international focus on new energy sources. Maybe this is the "next big thing" that will pull the globe out of a recession too.
How many of us that were considering vacationing this summer at some beach on the Gulf Coast or East Coast have changed our plans?
This "accident" in the Gulf of Mexico could turn out to be the costliest, deadliest, and most destructive disaster the world has known if it is not brought under control soon. Nobody seems to be talking about the long range environmental implications of this oil spill. Water is a liquid and the sheer volume of water that has so far been affected by the oil cannot be contained. Maybe the Gulf Stream will keep a lot of the tainted water inside the Gulf of Mexico. But we do have hurricanes, and windy storms. Water moves all over the globe. This greasy oily water could end up at all ends of the earth. Think about the message in a bottle that is put out to sea from a beach and ends up on another continent years later. Now picture little balls of tar like oil rolling all over the world. I believe that is what we are facing and nobody is talking about that because the idea is just too depressing.
Then there are the possible health considerations. Countless fish and crustaceans will undoubtedly be affected by the oil and so will we if we eat fish or seafood. How will we know where it is safe to fish, and if we deem an area to be safe to fish, how will we know that the fish that is caught in the safe area was not lurking in dangerous waters before being caught in the "safe" waters?
I believe it is possible that a whole new series of illnesses will be brought about by this disaster. There will be people that will have skin contact with the oil by virtue of evaporation, rain, storms, cleanup efforts. Those could result in skin rashes, or systemic illnesses. Then there will be the people that eat food tainted somewhere along the food chain by the oil. That will result in gastric illness and possibly systemic illnesses as well. Then there are the people who live and work those Gulf waters. They will be the ones with the most exposure. As I said before, this is a major major disaster unfolding and nobody seems to be alarmed enough.
Our government has dragged its feet in getting involved in this mess. If tar balls were washing up on the shores of the Potomac River maybe some in Congress and in the White House would be more concerned and proactive. But the Gulf is a distance away from Washington, both in miles and in lifestyle. Maybe the government feels a kind of "burn out" in dealing with the Gulf Region due to having to clean up from the Katrina disaster. If we put more resources into drilling the (2) relief wells that are not due to be completed until August or September, could it go faster? How about doubling the personnel and equipment? or about tripling it? Is that not reasonable under the circumstances? I may be naive and not understand how these things work, but I just have the feeling that those in power both governmental and corporate are not as concerned as they should be.
I am also feeling really sad about all of this. I was thinking back to the vacations of my youth spent on beaches in the North and South. We visited Myrtle Beach, St. Petersburg,FL, Cape Cod, Wildwood, NJ, The Hamptons, Virginia Beach,and grew up on Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk, CT. It is possible that all of these beaches could be affected and someday not be usable or swimable. That makes me sad for my kids, and all the other kids who have not experienced these wonderful places. It is positively unacceptable to me that our government and BP are not doing everything humanly possible to stop and reverse this curse.
The images we have seen so far are devastating. Blades of sea grass coated in oil, seabirds that look like they have been chocolate dipped. I feel so bad for the wildlife. They have no chance to save themselves; a large number will die. There are beaches with lines of reddish black tar, fishermen and resort owners going bankrupt a day at a time. This tragedy will have a profound effect on our overall economy, and economy that is fragile at best right now.
What about the future of drilling? I am not sure. I know this, until we can be 100% sure that this can't happen to any other drilling platforms around the world, no other new wells should be commissioned. All of the existing wells need to be inspected for the problem that existed at this one. And they need to make sure that all operational wells have or build a remote shut off that this well was lacking.
This oil spill situation is a wake up call of the first magnitude for the US and the world at large. We need desperately to investigate and invest in clean renewable sources of energy. So, if windmills can only provide 10% of our energy needs, let's still do it. They are clean, they don't pollute, if they break down they just stop turning, they will not cause a natural disaster. Solar power is low key too. No pollution given off, if they stop working, no disaster happens. There needs to be a national or international focus on new energy sources. Maybe this is the "next big thing" that will pull the globe out of a recession too.
How many of us that were considering vacationing this summer at some beach on the Gulf Coast or East Coast have changed our plans?
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