With my circle of women from the family.  Sisters, aunts, cousins, cousins’ wives.  It was…awesome.

Anyway, when I got back I heard there was Swine Flu in Texas.  My dad lives in south Texas.  Not good.  But I talked to him today and he and the entire step-family down there are taking precautions and being careful.  So I will keep my fingers crossed.  In the mean time, The Boy’s district has cancelled all extracirricular activities through the middle of May and an elementary school about 12 miles away is closed through May 7th due to three cases.  Nice.

I have to admit as addicted as I am to scouring political sites from all party affiliations, it was really nice to not have news and the only T.V. we watched was the Bio channel.  Otherwise it was music, drinking and dancing Thursday through Sunday of last week.

And then…when I get home…I come back to:

1.  Worldwide swine flu outbreak.

2.  North Korea making more threats.

3.  A budget approved by Congress that…let’s just say….astronomically increases the deficit dems complained about during the last election.  Not happy about that but I’m sure you could have guessed that without me saying it.

4.  More than $600,000 added to the deficit with a dumb-ass AF One flyover and a wasted trip to St. Louis just for a press op prior to the press conference tonight.

Glad I had the time away, but worried about the flu, North Korea, the quadrupled deficit and the rampant spending by the White House for photo ops.

But….I am being good.  No personal attacks.  Just disappointment over irresponsible spending.

Time to finish drink four.  Trying to wean myself slowly from the all day/all night drinking that ensues on girls’ weekend.

But…I will work out for an hour and a half tomorrow. At least I’m functional…..

Okay…seriously.  I wonder how much money has to come out of school funds to generate hard copy letters and do robo-calls and emails to parents to notify the school population that a child has this or disease or that. Today the call was about another case of whooping cough in The Boy’s school.

Now, I realize people that have been immunized can still get whooping cough or other diseases.  But I also know there are many waivers that go out every year to families that do not want to protect themselves or others from these diseases for this reason or that.  I suspect that if people would get get their kids the damn shots (which have now been proven not to contribute to autism – you can read all about that finding here) we would get far fewer calls and it would cost us far less money.  Also, immuno-compromised kids that can’t tolerate the shots would not have to be exposed to diseases that could have been prevented if parents had just acted responsibly and for the public good.

Ridiculous.  And selfish.  And expensive.  And sometimes dangerous to others.  And also, irresponsible.  Not to immunize.  For the public good.  Is all I’m sayin’….

DALLAS —  A federal judge has dismissed the claims of a parent who wanted to remove the words “under God” from the Texas pledge of allegiance recited each morning by public schoolchildren.

You can read the whole article here.

I can understand why the suit would have merit if kids were required to recite the pledge.  But when they are given the option to simply remain silent…this ruling is a good middle ground.  At least for me.

I know, I know..separation of church and state and all that.  But this is Texas, damnit!  We do the right thing down here.  Just so we remember, Article 6 of the Bill of Rights says:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

I’m just sayin’.  It’s getting a bit ridiculous, all these anti-religion lawsuits.  If they want to change things, they should put it to a national vote and try to get 2/3 of the voting public to agree with them instead of wasting the state’s time and money on these suits.  I’d rather my tax dollars go toward something else.

They’re here to work and they are willing to work and I’m sure they do good work.  But…it’s really, really, really, really scary when they surround your vehicle and attempt to open the doors.  This leaves a woman alone with any sense no choice but to leave the store and seek their home improvement supplies elsewhere….which in turn causes the business where this happens to lose sales.

The Home Depot is not pleased. Blaming the job seekers for causing accidents and driving away customers, the world’s largest home improvement retailer has been working to discourage them from rushing vehicles in the driveways and trespassing in the parking lot…….the sheriff’s office receives calls from customers who are frightened or annoyed after being surrounded by job seekers. General contractors and builders often send their wives in trucks to pick up supplies at the store, he said, and the women are sometimes startled when well-meaning workers surround the truck and try to open the doors.

You can read more about it here.

Here’s a suggestion…it’s just a suggestion and I know it’s silly.  But if they are here illegally and are likely undocumented…why not check their I.D.’s and deport them if they are not citizens?  It doesn’t seem like such a difficult thing to fix.  This is the problem with laws in certain cities that don’t allow the cops to at least find out if someone is here illegally or not.  Personal safety and business revenues both suffer in this case.

How much has to happen before they at least start checking I.D.’s in the interest of public safety?  Does a toddler have to get trampled when a worker opens the door and the vehicle is rushed?  Is that what has to happen before we start to figure out sanctuary cities have to go?

If you have not experienced this, I can understand why you might think it’s not that big of a deal and they are just trying to make a buck.  Once you have….you just might change your mind.  In the interest of your own safety if nothing else.

I’m just sayin’…it’s not fun to be accosted when you are only trying to buy blue tape from Home Depot.  It’s getting out of hand.

Seriously……

There are some bright spots:

1.  I’m supposed to be in the pocket of earners he’s supposed to “help”.

2.  He’s graciously allowing me to keep my own health care (for now).

3.  My husband is no longer active duty military.

But I’m left wondering:

1.  What about the people whose spouses ARE active duty military?

2.  Will he ever deliver on the promise of free health care for those who can’t afford it, including illegal aliens?

3.  How low will he go on the cap for how much it’s too much to make before he starts taking some away to give to others?  How low?

4.  You can only tax so much before your numbers go bad.  How the hell is he going to pay for all his promises?

It’s good we have alcohol in the house.  Or right now if you were here you’d be hearing “Clear!!!”

Final thoughts:  I can’t believe he actually has that many people snowed.  But then so did Carter.  It took Clinton working with a Republican Congress to bring us out of being a welfare state with the Contract With America.  And now we regress.  We shall see what he can do considering he has the hurdle of the high-cost bailout to jump.  Me?  Bitter?  No…..just worried about how much people were willing to overlook with this guy…and worried about what he will do when we are attacked.  But it appears that really doesn’t matter as long as he’s gonna fill your gas tank and pay your mortgage.  I will expect the worst, but hope for the best….I guess.

For first graders at a public school in California.  PUBLIC school.  On the taxpayer dime.  You can read about it here.  But the bottom line is the teacher took the kids to witness and participate in her marriage to her girlfriend.  Of course, the school’s director feels she was within her mandate as director to approve the trip.  Whatever.

Those kids are only six and seven years old.  They don’t need to be required to go to something like that.  I really hope it wasn’t covered under a year-long blanket permission slip.  I would be furious if I found out academic time was used for personal reasons by the teacher to help her celebrate.  So….I’m just hoping parents had the chance to opt out in case they thought their kids should be doing age-appropriate academic learning that day elsewhere.  BTW-I would feel the same way if it was a hetero wedding.  But the gay factor adds a whole other level of inappropriateness.

Times like this…I’m glad I live in Texas.

UPDATE:  I just saw a story on this, and it appears parents WERE given the option to keep their kids from attending this serious waste of teaching time.  But apparently, 18 of them still thought it was a good idea for their kids to go to a wedding vs. learning anything useful.

Hey, don’t get me wrong. If someone gets injured or a doctor is negligent, I think people should be allowed to sue….for a reasonable capped amount. Say..cost for medical bills and cost to live in case they can’t work due to the injury plus up to a certain amount for “pain and suffering”…I think a quarter of a million isn’t unreasonable for this as long as all the other aforementioned needs of the person are taken care of.

Okay, I’ll stop whining about frivolous law suits and tort reform and people trying to get something for nothing. Except…for THIS girl:

Patterson’s lawyer told The Smoking Gun that a “design problem” caused a decorative metallic piece on the underwear to fly up and hit Patterson in the eye while she was putting the underwear on.

What? Some stupid girl couldn’t figure out to put some infection-causing Vicky’s Secret undies on and now she thinks she has grounds for a law suit? What the hell? How easy would it be to just rip the thing off the underwear and “say” it flew up and hit her eye? Right?

Every time I hear about a law suit like this I just cringe. If she wins, the cost of the “good” stuff will certainly go up for all of us.

We all have felt the pinch at the pump every time we fill up our tanks lately. Congress has been hammering home the idea that it’s all the fault of big oil companies making a profit at our expense. But the numbers don’t necessarily prove that out:

The 27 largest US energy companies forked over $48 billion in income taxes in 2004, $67 billion in 2005, and more than $90 billion in 2006 – an 87 percent increase. Since 1981, the Tax Foundation calculates, the oil industry has earned a cumulative $1.12 trillion in profits – but it paid a cumulative $1.65 trillion in taxes (add another half-trillion to account for taxes paid to foreign governments).

You can read the whole article here. It’s in The Boston Globe. I think few people (including me until now) realize just how much oil companies have to pay to do business with foreign countries that are actually allowed to drill for and sell oil. So I ask you…who’s the villain here? Is it the oil companies that raise prices just to stay in business, or is it the Congress that not only continually tries to increase already burdensome taxes, but also refuses to allow oil companies to improve and build new refineries or drill for new oil in waters and areas close to home? Something to think about at least….if you’re one who looks at all sides of an issue before making a snap decision.

For a case study in new drilling, I offer the example of Brazil:

By specializing in advanced ultra-deep offshore oil exploration, Brazil has moved from being a country dependent on Ethanol for its gasoline consumption to becoming a net exporter of oil within less than a decade.

You can read the whole article here. Less than a decade to be independent of the world market for oil needs. Can you imagine?

We’ve got naval submarines that have operated with nuclear power plants for decades with no incidents. Yet Congress refuses to allow any new plants for fear that “something” might happen. France now gets 80% of its electricity from nuclear power. Yet 60% of our power comes from coal, the evil-doer that creates so many greenhouse gasses. I am left wondering…..this democratic Congress which is SO worried about the environment insists upon continuing the use of coal vs. the building of clean, safe, greenhouse-neutral nuclear power plats…for what? Because they don’t want to be blamed for “what if”?

Nothing about any of this makes any sense. Here’s what we should do:

1. Drill offshore on the continental shelf. I get that Anwar is a political hot potato. But for God’s sake…the continental shelf…can’t they give a little to gain a lot since other countries are already there taking the oil so close to our shores?  China has been drilling for oil 50 miles off Florida’s shores since 2006.  Something is wrong with that whole scenario if you ask me.

2. Allow oil companies to build new refineries. If we can’t convert the oil to gas, nothing matters.

3. Build as many nuclear power plants as we can and move away from the use of coal…if you TRULY care about the environment and aren’t just saying you do for the sake of furthering your political careers.

4. STOP GOUGING THE OIL COMPANIES. Near as I can tell from all that I’ve read, currently the government makes more than three times the profit on a gallon of gas than the oil companies do (15 cents for the government vs. 4 cents for the “eveil” oil companies when you factor in foreign taxes and demestic taxes plus the cost of transporting and refining the oil). Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think raising taxes further on big oil will solve the problem of prices at the pump. Jimmy Carter tried that and we all saw how that went.

For once…just once…I wish the Congress would get their heads out of their butts and do what’s right to save the country from crippling fuel and energy costs instead of doing what’s right for their own political careers.

At least, that’s what I think. After thinking about ALL sides and looking at the facts….what say you?

Don’t show it to a pre-schooler.  Seriously….how stupid is this?

Police Department spokesman Brick Lewis said the child took the gun from her grandmother’s purse Monday and shot herself in the chest.

Talking to supporters of terrorism and accepting what they say is true, expecting them to change their ways is like talking to a kid that’s done something wrong, accepting their lies and expecting them not to do it again.

Leaders that support terror are like kids.  Until there are real consequences for their behavior, nothing will change.  In fact, they will only get worse.  It’s been proven time and again.

In a perfect world, talking would work.  But we all know we do not live in a perfect world.  I’m not talking about nuking anyone….I’m just talking about consequences that matter to those countries that support terror so that hopefully those leaders will experience pressure from within and outside their country and perhaps their behavior will at least not cost so many lives.