go giuliani

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070731/NEWS81/70731053/-1/NEWS05

very libertarian ideas - tell people they have to be responsible for themselves, explain why (look at the cracks in socialized medicine around the world ... do we want the entire medical system to become one giant VA hospital where no one can get any care?), and take a step to reduce government to enable people to pick up the reigns :)

-s

THE MOMMY TEST

another shamelessly stolen from mass emails ...

I was out walking with my 4-year-old daughter. She picked up something off the ground and started to put it in her mouth. I took the item away from her and I asked her not to do that.

"Why?" my daughter asked.

"Because it's been laying outside, you don't know where it's been, it's dirty and probably has germs" I replied.

At this point, my daughter looked at me with total admiration and asked, "Wow! How do you know all this stuff?"

"Uh," ..I was thinking quickly,"All moms know this stuff. It's on the Mommy Test. You have to know it, or they don't let you be a Mommy."

We walked along in silence for 2 or 3 minutes, but she was evidently pondering this new information.

"OH...I get it!" she beamed, "So if you don't pass the test you have to be the daddy."

"Exactly" I replied back with a big smile on my face and joy in my heart.

What do you want?

If you want someone who will bring you the paper without first tearing it apart to remove the sports section
Buy a dog.

If you want someone willing to make a fool of himself simply over the joy of seeing you
Buy a dog.

If you want someone who will eat whatever you put in front of him and never says its not quite as good as his mother made it
Buy a dog

If you want someone always willing to go out, at any hour, for as long and wherever you want
Buy a dog.

If you want someone who will never touch the remote, doesn't care about football, and can sit next to you as you watch romantic movies
Buy a dog.

If you want someone who is content to get up on your bed just to warm your feet and whom you can push off if he snores
Buy a dog.

If you want someone who never criticizes what you do, doesn't care if you are pretty or ugly, fat or thin, young or old, who acts as if every word you say is especially worthy of listening to, and loves you unconditionally, perpetually
Buy a dog.

But, on the other hand, If you want someone who will never come when you call, ignores you totally when you come home, leaves hair all over the place, walks all over you, runs around all night and only comes home to eat and sleep, and acts as if your entire existence is solely to ensure his happiness...

Then.....................................

My friend, Buy a cat!

(You thought I was talking about men didn't you!)

shamelessly stolen from one of the mass emails that regularly circulates ...

-s

awesome ride.....but Lowes is CLOSED...!!! eeerrrrrgh

c's a dork. i need to rotate this pic ... how did he take it with no hands???

-s

clinton's style

wow, i'm actually taking note of a hillary article??? i'm so not a hillary fan. but, as capricious as this article seems (an analysis of her style and decision to show some cleavage) ... i actually think it nicely captures by biggest issue with her. she doesn't seem real. every move she makes seems strictly calculated. she's not someone i could see having a conversation with over a glass of wine. and, as a woman, i value some warmth to a person - especially for a female candidate. whether i agree with their political positions or not, i want to feel like i could engage in a conversation with candidates.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/19/AR2007071902668_pf.html

apart from the clinton aspect of the article, i particularly liked this section:

Showing cleavage is a request to be engaged in a particular way. It doesn't necessarily mean that a woman is asking to be objectified, but it does suggest a certain confidence and physical ease. It means that a woman is content being perceived as a sexual person in addition to being seen as someone who is intelligent, authoritative, witty and whatever else might define her personality. It also means that she feels that all those other characteristics are so apparent and undeniable, that they will not be overshadowed.

i like the idea that a woman doesn't have to tone down her sexuality to 'compete with the boys' - heck they flaunt it, why can't we? because it intimidates the 'boys' too much? ;) it's part of who we are and we should be proud of it.

-s

i miss buffy

http://www.atpobtvs.com/index.html

it's amazing the thought that goes in to buffy. i suppose trekkies feel the same way about star trek, but i never related to it like i did to buffy.

-s

poor peyton

Peyton Manning, after living a full life, died. When he got to heaven, God was showing him around. They came to a modest little house with a faded Colts flag in the window.

"This house is yours for eternity, Peyton," said God. "This is very special; not everyone gets a house up here."

Peyton felt special, indeed, and walked up to his house. On his way up the porch, he noticed another house just around the corner. It was a 3-story mansion with a blue and red sidewalk, a 50 foot tall flagpole with an enormous Patriots logo flag, and in every window, a Patriot towel.

Peyton looked at God and said "God, I'm not trying to be ungrateful, but I have a question. I was an all-pro QB, I hold many NFL records, and I even went to the Hall of Fame."

God said "So what's your point Peyton?"

Well, why does Tom Brady get a better house than me?"

God chuckled, and said "Peyton, that's not Tom's house, it's mine.

"GO PATS!!!!!

Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more. -- Mark Twain

Multimedia message

working at the car wash

now why can't our government adopt this policy?

http://www.boston.com/jobs/news/articles/2007/07/08/fewer_policies_is_the_best_policy/

i particularly like the point that you can't create a policy to solve one problem without creating another.

-s

yay troy brown!!

so exciting :) it's almost football season!!

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2007/07/10/brown_inks_one_year_deal_with_pats/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+New+England+Patriots+news

-s

serenity

I saw this online from a book-a-holic ...

Lord, please grant me ...
the serenity to accept that I can't read everything,
the time to read and understand everything that I can,
the wisdom to know the difference
[so that I don't have to leave my estate to Amazon.com],
and a sufficiently well-read network of friends
[to tell me all about the books they've read].

Let's see ... modify this way for buffy/knitting ...

Lord, please grant me ...
The serenity to accept that i can't buy EVERY yarn,
The time to knit and watch buffy,
The wisdom to know whether to make tea or open a bottle of wine,
And great girlfriends to stitch & bitch with

slacker mom's rock

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6960732/site/newsweek/

and it teaches kids things like limits, respecting boundaries, respecting other people, that the world doesn't revolve around them, how to think for themselves, find their own entertainment ... not a bad thing, huh?

-s

my new paperweight

my work laptop died and i've completely lost it. i knew it wasn't exactly healthy for a couple weeks now and backed up 99% of what i needed to my office desktop so i *should* be able to keep working with minimal disruption. but nothing is in the same place. the toolset is slightly different. it's throwing me off. i think i should just go home for the day. but i have stuff to do. gr.

-s

what problem is this intended to solve?

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/07/02/free_tuition_not_a_cure_all_warn_mass_educators/

why offer free tuition? kids who can't afford higher education but want to go have options of loans, grants, scholarships and other financial assistance. how many kids will use free tuition as an excuse to put off the 'real world' for 2 more years and party a bit more? should higher education be free? or does even the token cost of admission of a few thousand a year serve a valuable role in itself? isn't there a lesson here that things worth having are worth working for? i'm not opposed to making higher education accessible to those who want it ... but i think there should be costs associated with it whether those come in the form of tuition, community service, student loans, charitable work post graduation. is there a benefit to society to put kids in a 2 year program just because they opt to? why do we need to make higher education free? what problem does this solve? right now, it sounds like a 'nice thing to do' ... but (being self-centered for a minute since it will be my tax dollars funding this ... instead of funding my child's education) where's the benefit to me?

-s

don't leave your past untold

i love beverly beckham's articles ...

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/07/01/dont_leave_your_past_untold/?p1=MEWell_Pos1

this is exactly why i scrap. i've always loved photography and family stories but i did *not* need another hobby when i first heard about scrapping. yet here i am ... 2 years into scrapping with bunches of albums and the perfect excuse to sit with family and capture those stories.

-s

Found an old email where a girlfriend and i were discussing a father who was arrested for trespassing at his child's school. Weird, huh? The little boy's kindergarten class was learning about 'atlernative families' and the father didn't want his child learning about them. The school refused to inform the father when the class would occur and wouldn't let him pull his child out of the class. The father stopped by to talk to the principal and refused to leave his office until the principal agreed to let the child out of the class. So the school arrested him. i've kind of hobbled this piece together from our exchange ... hope it makes sense ...

What happened to parental involvement? Personally, I wouldn't shield my child like that (then again, i don't know what the curriculum looked like). But isn't it the parent's right to decide what the child should learning and when? When did public schools become so standardized and unflexible when it comes to the needs of the kids and their families?

everything is so sanitized, sterilized, and pre-packaged at this point, that the general expectation is for a one-size-fits-all solution and god help you if you want to deviate from that model. this isn't the america we were born in. and it certainly isn't the america our founding fathers envisioned. but it's what we get when we take on initiatives like 'no child left behind' and all of the social welfare. to make things manageable on a large scale (and pretend to be fiscally responsible in the process) everything has to be stripped down and standardized. gives us the illusion of helping a great number of people, but i somehow feel that more people are falling through the cracks this way.

And it's not that i think we shouldn't help our neighbors. But is the government redistributing the wealth (our tax dollars) in the best way? Or do we just need more band aids every time they try to help? Is there a better solution?

some of the post WWII ideas (like medicare) weren't even considered good ideas back then. there are a lot of great theories - and admirable intentions. but implementing these ideas on the grand scale costs a lot more than it would seem ... and then you have to start controlling costs somehow which standardizes things into programs that just don't meet the needs of anyone. while local programs might not make the splash of national programs, it is easier to see and feel the difference your money makes.

it's very unpopular right now to let people keep what they make. it's total socialism - the rich must support the poor. the redistribution of wealth is a socialist ideaology. unfortunately the Ds and Rs both incorporate a lot of socialism into their platforms these days.

with the slow erosion of our rights ... will we blink before it's way too late? Will we even notice? 9-11 seems to have proved that we'd rather have security than freedom. Is that right or wrong? I don't know.

"Man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find someone quickly to whom he can hand over that great gift of freedom with which the ill-fated creature is born." --Fyodor Dostoevsky

"Those who give up liberty for the sake of security deserve neither liberty nor security." --- Ben Franklin

i wonder what the outcome of the father's case was?

-s