I don't care what other people think of me. I don't care what other people say about me. I don't care that other people are advocating my demise.  When I first started blogging, such a suggestion would have crippled me emotionally.  I would have been wounded; I would have obsessed about it. Now, I can say with all honesty that I really don't care. If the comment had come from someone I respected, from someone who's opinion I valued or someone who I cared about, then I w...

I was thinking about freedom of speech today. I was thinking that whilst speech is, for the most part, constitutionally protected, there are some things that are just not a good idea to say. Words don't have to be illegal to be hateful.  You don't have to break the law in order to be investigated for defamation and hate speech.  Both the ACLU and the ADL have on line reporting forms.  I encourage anyone who thinks that have either been a victim of hate speech or has encou...

It seems that we have a blog spamming outbreak on our hands. First, poor Miggy got hit, and she got hit hard.  More than a half-dozn of her articles were violated with spammy trash inviting us to play online poker or order controlled substances via the internet. Miggy fought a good fight, asking them politely to please stop...but to no avail.  They kept on. Today, I saw 3 more articles that had been spammed too.  Miggy is not the ony victim of this awfulness, ...

I read this in Oprah's magazine and immediately thought to ask my fellow bloggers their thoughts..... QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND SPIRITUALITY 1) Which of your beliefs are unshakable? 2) When and how has your faith been sorely tested?  What beliefs and practices sustained you though those times? 3) Ultimately, faith is an individual decision.  We discover for ourselves what works for us, whatwe believe in, how we relate to the divine.  Write a simple prayer that expres...

I had to see the neurologist yesterday about my back. He's referring me to the neurosurgery department at Barnes Jewish hospital in St Louis..thinks that the time has come or is coming for me to get operated on.  I have a herniated disk at L2 and osteoarthritis in L1 and L2.  Rather than do a diskectomy, he thinks I should have a spinal fusion done instead....have the disk taken out, then use either cadaveric bone or some taken from my pelvis to fuse L1 and L2 together.  This i...

Sometimes I watch you sleep. In the mornings, after the madness has departed and the air is still I stand in the doorway of our room and watch you. Hand under pillow, in a tangle of arms and legs and sheet you lay, gently breathing.  You look so.....calm.  Unfettered.  Distant. I like you then the most.  I think it's because it's the only time I ever see you be still.  Even when you're awake and physically still, your head and mind are always charging away with ...

Hopefully this article will settle a lot of 'yes they can/no they can't' arguments that I've been hearing about. This was written by one of the captains at the Judge Advocate's Office (legal office) here at Scott AFB....let me know if you have any questions. 'Democrats and republicans want your vote and your help in getting other votes.  Military members can be politically active, but they must do so within specific limits. Nonpartisan political activities are generally permissible...

I had to go see the neurosurgeon this morning (that's a whole other article).  There's an abortion clinic right next to his office, and there were the usual motley crew of assorted whacko's and nutjobs protesting outside. One of them caught my eye.....because she had her 2 kids with her.  Little kids, maybe 5 or 6, certainly no older than 7.  Little kids, holding big pictures of aborted fetuses.  Bloody, gory, graphic pictures of tiny shredded and mangled bodies. Li...

Chip Frederick (no relation to myself, honest!) the highest ranking solider in the Abu Ghraib scandal, was sentenced to 8 years in prison today.  He also got a reduction in rank, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and a dishonorable discharge.  If I were Lynndie England, I'd be starting to get a little worried.

  My husband, despite having spent the last year away from his family, is slated to go to Iraq in March. This sucks.  I mean, it blows.  He's been back 9 weeks, and already there are plans for him to have to leave for another 6 months. If anyone ever doubted that the military is undermanned, I ask them to consider my scenario.  This is not an isolated incident, in fact, it's really quite common.  Men and women in the armed forces are overstretched...there aren't...

My kids got their school pictures back today..... This is our daughter, Shea-Ann.  She just turned 12... This is our son, Davey.  He's 10. This is our youngest, Jacob.  He's 8. Those are my kids!  

Ahem...*clears throat and steps up on soap box*.... I am finding that people have no respect for night worker's sleep time.  My husabnd's on nights at the moment, and his squadron appointments monitor got quite indignant today when he said he wasn't prepared to schedule and appointment at 9 am on a day that he's scheduled to work.  He had to explain the he gets off work at 6am, is usually asleep by 7am, and gets up at 3pm to leave for work at 415pm.  She still didn't get it - s...

Thanks to Blue Dev for the inspiration for this article.... Earlier this year, Rapid City, SD (where I used to live) saw it's worst snowfall in a single storm for 20 odd years. This is what I was confronted with when I got up the morning after the storm: That drift extended close to 6' down my driveway. If you look at the house in the distance in this pic, you can see that the drift comes up almost to the top of their deck. This is the house next to me: And th...

My 8 year old found a baby snake in the yard today.  It crawled over his foot, causing him to run inside screaming and shaking with fear. I went out to see what it was, and spotted it under the outside toy box.  Small, about 8" long, with a grey/tan pattern and a flat diamond shaped head.  It struck at me, so I went and got a stainless steel bowl and my garden hoe (I looked for gloves and couldn't find any) and trapped it.  We're lucky; we have an entomology ...

'......the nature of the essential urge toward enlightenment is enlightenment itself.  The very fact that we are intrigued with the spiritual quest stems from the source of the light, so to speak.  Consequently, enlightenment is not an end; it is truer to say that it is the beginning' David A Cooper, Silence, Simplicity and Solitude.