Proof That Snow Can Be Fun...

for dogs! I love this video. My dogs act the same way up north. We'll be up north in the U.P this Thursday until January 2nd. We didn't get much snow here in IL. but we have it up north.

Enjoy!

The Latest Happenings

I was out of town the last few days for a private jewelry show. I had a great time and sold lots of things. I also ended up with several new orders. It was great to spend time with my niece, nephew and the rest of my family.

Unfortunately I drove home and ended up going straight to the hospital with my husband to check in on his 97 year old Uncle. This man is basically my husband's Father. My husband's Dad passed away when my husband was 11 years old and Uncle Joe (his Dad's brother) took up where hubby's Dad left off. He's a great guy. However, he's now seriously ill.

One month ago he had stents put in 2 arteries and it was then that the Doctors discovered he had colon cancer (on top of this he has atrial stenosis and the biopsy results show the cancer has metastasized to the lymph nodes near the section removed). 10 days ago he had surgery to remove the cancer and he did not do well. He had to return to surgery straight from the recovery room to stem some bleeding. That required the removal of his spleen. Ever since he's been retaining far too much fluid and he's not very coherent. His condition changed greatly from last Friday to Saturday. The Pulmonologist told me he's basically just maintaining his oxygenation status which is so-so. Since then he's failed a test of his ability to swallow and his breathing is shallow, somewhat rapid with periods of apnea and crackly(a result of fluid overload). The hospital cultured the sputum and he has developed Staphylococcus aureus. They have him on vancomycin hoping that he doesn't develop MRSA. Needless to say, it doesn't bode well for Joe.

We spent an hour with him and he's very weak, very bloated and barely recognized us. So now we are on "Joe watch". We doubt he'll survive this and even if he did he'll never be the same. It's a very sad time for us. So every day it's back to the hospital to check with the Doctors and spend some time with Joe. Very soon my husband may have to make a final decision.

Until something happens one way or the other I probably won't be blogging. Our time will be spent keeping vigil. We love him dearly and wish him peace

UPDATE:

The decision has been made. Oxygen has been removed and morphine drip is making him comfortable. It's simply a matter of minutes. Thankfully he is at peace. We will miss him. He had a wonderful life and many family members that cared for him deeply. It's now time to mourn and get the funeral process going. I'll be gone for a time. We wish him a speedy journey to a better place.

A Song for Sarah Palin

That woman is everywhere..in my newspaper, on my teevee, on my internets. She's inescapable and I'm drowning in her image. LOL So anyway, I was trying to find a song that would fit Sarah Palin. Searching youtube, searching my CD's, searching. And then it came to me like a blinding Northern light--flash!

Living Colour - Cult Of Personality Lyrics @ LyricsTime.com

Check out those lyrics. Perfect. That's what I see, a cult of personality. Now, to be sure, the Palinistas will say the same about President Obama but it's only in their minds they think he's been ordained by God. Sarah actually has said God's opening doors for her. Ew, Ew, Ew.

Here's a sample:

I sell the things you need to be
I’m the smiling face on your t.v.

You gave me fortune
You gave me fame
You gave me power in your god’s name (btw at lyrics they left out the word "gave")
I’m every person you need to be
I’m the cult of personality

Now if that doesn't peg Palin perfectly!

Here's the video:




Heh, I love Living Colour. They're still playing and you can check their website here. Wonder how many remember them? Enjoy

Thanksgiving

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone. I'm busy making pies, stuffing, cranberry sauce...all the homemade goodies. Crazy since there's only 3 of us! OK OK, I'll include the dogs (2) and cats (3). If you get time off for this holiday enjoy the time with ones you love. Find something to be thankful for even if life is throwing you lemons at the moment.


And now for some Thanksgiving humor:

How pumpkin pies are really made!





Make sure you know where that turkey is lurking:



I lo-o-o-o-ve pumpkin pie. Enjoy yours!

Going Victim

I am a victim, always have been, will continue to be so and will tell you all about it in a little over 400 pages, you betcha. Buy my book, also, too.

-Sarah Palin

Chickenhawk Roasted

Yesterday, while playing around on the new laptop, I had the pleasure of witnessing a chickenhawk get roasted. Markos Moulitsas put Tom Tancredo on a spit and roasted him. It was well deserved.




Being a Viet Nam era veteran myself I can't stand people like Tancredo. It's time for all these war cheerleaders that have never served and yet presume to speak for all us veterans to be taken to task.

Tom Tancredo got his ticket punched for the draft after graduating from college in 1969 yet found a way to not end up in Vietnam. During his college years, as a member of his college's Young Republicans he was outspoken in his support for that military disaster. Instead of standing behind his words he found a way to keep his rear end from facing the horrors of 'Nam by garnering a 1Y deferment. All of his records state that he "eventually" received that classification. Eventually, huh? Just that word smacks of suspicion to anyone from that era. Prior to that he would have received a student deferment which was fine as many received that classification. But afterwards he went looking for a way out. A 1Y deferment meant he was available for service only in the event of national emergency. Tancredo received this deferment by stating he had been treated for depression. The interesting thing is that there appears to be no record of subsequent treatment for that ailment after he received said deferment. He still continued to cheerlead FOR that war.

I think it was an ailment of convenience. During 1969 deferments were getting more difficult to come by. I personally know of 3 people that tried the depression route. 2 even went so far as to spend 6 weeks in a psych ward to accomplish their goal...it didn't work. However, some men with the right connections did succeed in getting a Doctor to write them a letter to the draft board that ended up disqualifying them from service. Some other men just flat out lied. Some, like my ex-husband, pulled incredible stunts to garner either a 1Y or a 4f classification. And for some their lottery number was high enough that they were never called up. Some, like George W. Bush, had the right connections and received a stateside National Guard or Reserve assignment. Believe me, to many in that day a reserve/guard assignment was tantamount to being a draft dodger because many of us knew what kind of people received these posts. There were also others that were so desperate to go fight in "Nam that they lied to get IN the service. I knew a guy that should have never been around any weapon and was an unstable person yet he pulled a fast one and off to 'Nam he went to go kill. All kinds of shenanigans were pulled during that time. Since Tom was such an avid supporter he could have found a way to go serve.

Regardless, chickenhawks like Tancredo can never speak for all veterans. I know many vets and while there are some that bitch and complain about the VA, they're still mostly grateful that it exists. Yes, it could be run more efficiently and be better funded but I have yet to hear anyone demand a voucher to go purchase private insurance to take care of their service connected maladies. I could just see it; get a voucher and be denied for a pre-existing condition. Either that or the voucher would never cover what would be extremely high premiums. Most of the complaints seem to revolve around the time it takes to get an appointment and then the driving distance to get to a VA facility. If the VA were better funded and better run appointment time could be drastically reduced. In the past Republicans have voted against better VA funding so I find it rather hypocritical when they pull the "I support the troops" nonsense.

I also think it's time all the chickenhawks that gleefully cheer war get called out. People that cheerlead a conflict, never put their own life on the line, but are too damn eager to send someone else to go need to be exposed. These people are not ultra patriots and have no business telling those of us that have served that we are traitors simply because we are on the other side politically. That's what I heard them doing every time a Republican was President. They also have no business acting as though they know what we vets need when it comes to the VA. How the hell would they know, they've never been a service member. I call bullshit on them and their words. I call bullshit on people such as Michelle Malkin, Tom Tancredo, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Mike Savage, Dick Cheney and whole host of other right wing neocons. If you collect deferments because you have better things to do (like Cheney) or never even volunteer to serve you have no right to speak for me and no right to cheer lead conflicts you never want to find yourself or your children in...ever!

Outrageous Hyperbole

As many of us have seen the so-called tea baggers resort to some fairly low and disgusting tactics to spread their poisonous views. However, a sign seen at today's rally in Washington D.C., organized by Michele Bachmann (lunatic-MN), has crossed a line.


Look closer:



These photos were taken by Think Progress's Lee Fang at the rally today.

I barely had words to express my disgust when I first saw these photos. How dare they use such a horrific world event to express their thoughts about health care reform.

We are not moving to socialistic health care and what happened in Dachau had nothing to do with socialism. It was murder, plain and simple, of people Hitler blamed for his own inadequacies.

This kind of hyperbole has no place in any health care debate. But this is what we get to see as a result of some of the ugly language employed by people such as Bachmann. Virginia Foxx and Eric Cantor also attended this event and when Cantor was asked on MSNBC for a comment about some of the ugly signs he never said a negative word. How any Jew can condone this is beyond me. How any HUMAN can think this is OK stuns me.

What I also noticed about this crowd today was how white it was along with being ill educated. They have to be ill educated to so cavalierly use photo in this manner. Now tell me once again how these people are not bigots. These people feed on hate and ugliness. How sad they are a partial representative of America.

This is also not the kind of garbage Americans should engage in ever. If they want to argue policy fine. But I'm sick and tired of the language being employed. The references to Hitler, socialism, fascism, communism, etc. None of those monikers apply. In fact, I would bet most of the people attending this hate fest have no clue as to the definitions of any of those words. But not so for the elected representatives that organized and attended this event. No, Bachmann, Cantor and Foxx don't get off that easily. They know exactly how to use this kind of language to fire up these clueless people.

It is time for this kind of rhetoric to stop. I called Bachmann's office and the woman that answered basically lied to me telling me Bachmann only engages in facts! I told her about the sign and she didn't care stating Bachmann's not responsible. BUll! I will be sending this photo to quite a few Synagogues with a request for a response. I will also call my state representatives. Alan Grayson was skewered for using the word holocaust in one of his speeches a few weeks ago and he apologized publicly. It's time for Michele Bachmann to be held accountable and apologize. Not just to all those that lost family in Dahcau but to all Americans with a sense of decency.