July 22 - When my surprise twins were born my first words were "that kind of thing never happens to me!" It was true; my life had always been fairly mundane (until the unexpected twins, that is) and, once we adjusted to the challenge of having two infants to feed, change, raise and educate, life quickly returned to unremarkable. I've done all the usual things that can be filed under "coming of age" but I never won big in Vegas or even came up with something that could get me into the Guinness World Book of Records.

But life likes curve balls. I actually saw the ghost we always joke about last Tuesday night and, as time passes, my freaked-out meter readings are rising rather than lowering. For the first time in my life, I wish I were far more a flaky person than a stolid Capricorn because then I could shrug off the sighting to an over-active imagination for the requisite "rational explanation."

It was a definite sighting, but there was no heeby-jeeby stuff. He didn't enter my line-of-sight, he just appeared and then disappeared in my line-of-sight and there wasn't even any eerie shimmering or fading-in and fading-out stuff.

In the ghost's defense, I felt no malice or hostility from him. He just appeared for a few seconds walking toward the receiving dock, and his gait and body language was so matter-of-fact that I'm pretty certain that his presence at my place of work is due to happy memories rather than unresolved issues. I find that reassuring.

I know, this is a weirder post than my usual. I just needed to write it down. I already made the mistake of telling Mark about it. I guess Scorpios have even less flights of fancy than Capricorns.

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June 23 - Some quick hits: Charles Krauthammer pays tribute to our kick-ass cousins in Why I Love Australia. Do they show Australia Rules Football in the U.S.? The game is tough and gritty with daz-za-ling-ly dressed refs.

CBC execs try damage control (I know what you're thinking and no, Don Cherry didn't say anything that freaked out the Perennially Panties-in-a-Bunch Crowd):

CBC programming executives scrambled to do damage control yesterday in the wake of a firestorm that erupted after fans of The National learned that the flagship newscast would be bumped eight nights this summer for an American Idol knockoff reality show.

After announcing The National's schedule shift yesterday, The Globe and Mail received 50 e-mail messages from readers from readers enraged that the Peter Mansbridge-led news hour would be pushed back to 11 p.m. on Tuesdays, starting July 18 and ending the first week of September. (Emphasis added)

N.B.: The Globe and Mail requires free registration. (Links via Newsbeat1.)

John Hawkins lists the Worst People in America as selected by bloggers and also his own selections and brief reasons for his picks -- and reminded me of some people I'd forgotten to despise. Only one of my picks didn't make it: Maureeen Dowd.

Attila girl wants silly pictures:

Send me pix if you want to participate: I'm interested in the silliest examples you've seen of cell phone towers dressed up to look like something else.

Ace highlights some reviews of the Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank affectionately (?) nicknamed "Donk."

And, in case you were worried about Saddam (cue dramatic music) he's ended his hunger strike after missing one whole meal. Damn. I was really conflicted: force-feed him or just let him starve to death?

Don't Pester the Teacher: Tony Snow did some great stick handling with Helen Thomas during today's White House briefing that included questions about the latest NY Times breach of national security story about the program to track money sent from al Qaeda operatives to and from the U.S. (I wonder how much President Bush's approval ratings will go up this time? Seems to me that, if the people at the NYT really wanted to hurt the Republican administration, they wouldn't print these stories. But what do I know?)

The other Snow, Treasury Secretary John Snow, also held a news conference on the program.

I just don't get it. You have a gaggle of reporters just dying to break a Watergate-type story, yet somebody has to explain to them about "follow the money" to track down wrong-doing? That was covered in the movie, wasn't it?

President Bush and Gen. Pace attended a T-Ball game today. The things you have to do when you're president ...

I need to get myself off to work (One. More. Night.)

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June 22 - And now for something we always suspected about raising healthy children: Alpha Patriot reports on some studies that indicate that over-protecting and over-anetheticizing your kids is bad for their health.

I especially love the clip in which the The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents warns parents that healthy, energetic play may result in some boo-boos.

Let's bake up those mud pies!

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June 20 - My internet provider's frequent incapability to connect to Munu sites (including mine) continues to be a problem. Sometimes it lets me in long enough to start a post and then it loses the connection when I try to save.

I wouldn't be so angry if they had actually tried to address the problem, but when the same person asks me three different times in one conversation if I'm sure my modem is on then I get a little miffed.

This should all be resolved by Thursday because Hooray! We live in a country that allows consumers alternates.

Now let's see if this stupid post will publish.

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June 17 - Posting continues to be difficult: the denial of service attacks targeting My Pet Jawa have affected alll Munu sites (despite the inconvenience, there's also some satisfaction that a fellow Munuvian is pissing off the right people but that is offset by the infuriating fact that the Jawa Report is still off-line) plus my ISP seems to have intermittent problems finding the the Munu server. At least I have options if my ISP can't resolve the second problem.

Indeed, one of the fundamental values of Western civilization (and capitalism) is that there are a variety of options for most situations, yet when we women make choices that don't fit with what other women believe we should do there is an incredible amount of spin to make it appear that what we have freely chosen is evidence of victimhood.

For example, child-care advocates continue to be baffled by a strange phenomenom in Alberta and British Columbia. Despite the West being one of the "hottest job markets" in the country, more women in theose provinces are leaving the workforce and the numbers are especially high for women with children under the age of six. Now I'm no expert, but it seems to me that they are opting to stay home with the kids until they enter school.

Shocking, huh? They could have jobs, you know, yet they choose to stay home and focus on raising their young children during "the formative years."

But the author of the study concludes that this is due, among other factors, to the lack of child care::

The author of the study, Francine Roy, says women are entering and exiting the job market for reasons that have little to do with financial need.

Instead, Roy argues that factors such as the availability of day care, educational levels, number of children and the type of employment drive women's participation in the workforce.

"The rising participation rate of women in eastern Canada appears associated with greater use of daycare and higher education levels in Quebec, lower birthrates in the Atlantic provinces, and a lower proportion of immigrants than in the West," Roy writes in the study.

Having constant, one-one-one interaction with young children in those early years is not only incredibly satisfying for both parent and child but has the additional benefit of establishing a solid bedrock for the child which can stabilize him or her after they enter the "real" world of elementary school as well as later on when they become teens and the inevitable struggle ensues to redefine limits and capabilities as well as themselves as independent from the parents (except for money, shelter, food, and the family car!)

One of my aunts told me long ago that the primary duty of parents is to raise responsible adults. You can't sub-contract that job out, yet universal childcare with the attendant heavier tax load will force women out of the homes and into the job market.

The sad part is that having government agencies raise children is being presented as an ideal scenario by daycare advocates. There are two glaring problems with that position: the ridiculous notion that we can raise children on an assembly line, and the inability to have quality control. (Actually there are three: the absurdity of thinking the government actually performs routine tasks better than the average person.)

Whatever happened to the tiresome assertion that each of us is unique? Uniqueness doesn't roll off assembly lines (reminds me of the old joke that you can buy a Ford in any colour you want so long as you choose black.) Uniqueness, also known as individuality by us older types, is nurtured by consistent, one-on-one interaction that parents are best fitted to provide. The family remains the best setting where good qualities can be encouraged and bad qualities can be dealt with, and it should go without saying that dealing with behaviour problems when they first appear is far better than trying to deal with them after they become entrenched characteristics.

I make this claim about the family for one simple reason: parents love their children. Parents have an ongoing interest in their children's future. Parents are emotionally invested in their children in ways that reach far above and beyond someone who is paid to look after their children. Parents don't go on strike.

I keep thinking that the real impetus for government day care is that the social engineers are frustrated that, try as they might, this country continues to produce square peg children who defy efforts to pound them into round holes and they figure that if they can get the children at any earilier age it will better their chances of making children more pliable, i.e., into uniform, cookie-cutter kids.

Issues over quality control are fairly self-evident when you are dealing with a monopoly and more so when the government is the sole provider. Both health care and education issues continue to plague us, and tangential to the problems in the education sector, it is worth noting that children who learned to read at home before they entered school do better scholastically than those whose parents rely exclusively on the schools to teach that basic skill.

People conveniently forget that even that bastion of early childhood education, Sesame Street, was specifically designed to be viewed by both parent and child, which tends to reinforce the necessary role of the parent as a child learns how to learn.

Am I saying that families where both parents work cannot raise children well? No, but I do think it is a lot harder and a lot more frustrating because we've already devoted our best and most productive hours of the day at work. And then there's the need to discipline children, which require two vital tools: patience and maintaining a calm atmosphere. That's damned hard to achieve when your day is one long rush: rushing to get them and you ready to leave in the morning, rushing to pick them up after work, rushing to prepare dinner, rushing to bathe them, rushing to read the bedtime story ... all this yet rushing to get them to bed at a decent hour. Even with both parents performing those tasks, where's the time to teach them why it's wrong to bop another child on the head with a Tonka truck? or find a suitable answer to "why is the sky blue?" or "why do I have to kiss Aunt Martha even though she smells funny?"

Interestingly, David Warren comments on the steady encroachments on personal freedoms, including the destruction of the family unit, with the goal being that "the citizen becomes a kind of jelly to be fit into any desired new mould."

So, rather than deplore the choice to stay home and raise their kids, we ought to applaud their good sense and committment to parenting.

So if you opt to say at home with kids and someone says "what do you do," i.e., where do you work and what job do you perform that enables you to pay more taxes, just look them straight in the eye and say "I'm an early childhood specialist." And you will be telling the truth.

(David Warren link via Newsbeat1.)

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May 28 - Bob of Let It Bleed announced that he has written his last post for the blog.

Many Toronto columnists will sleep better tonight, secure in the knowledge that their skewed logic, mixed metaphors and non-sequiturs will not be exposed at Let It Bleed.

I'm really going to miss him.

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May 14 - Happy Mother's Day to all my sisters engaged in the struggle to raise children and/or cope with the realities of having adult children.

A lot of those adult children are deployed abroad and won't be home for Mother's Day. Words are inadequate to compensate for the sacrifice these Moms are making, but one courageous Marine Corp. Mom writes of her memories of the past 21 Mother's Days she spent with her son and sends her own best wishes and some darned good advice to the all the Moms out there.

Members of the C Troop, 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry conducted a Good Mother's Day Patrol which ended in the best of all ways: they all returned safely.

As part of the effort to bring the troops home from a stable Iraq, some insight as to how Transistion Teams Coach, Mentor Iraqi Units

Serving on a military transition team may be the most important job in Iraq today, with members working with Iraqi units to realize President Bush's promise: "As the Iraqis stand up. We'll stand down."

Military Transition Team 0911, the "Mohawks," is where the rubber meets the road. The team works with the 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade of the Iraqi 9th Division, the "Desert Lions." The Iraqi unit is a mechanized outfit and patrols the area north of this sprawling base. The Iraqis secure the three water points that supply 70 percent of the drinking water to the capital.

Ahh, the moonbats and tin-foil hats ask, how do we know they're not putting Cindy Sheehan's number through the database? The answer is, who knows? However, several facts would lead a reasonable person to conclude the answer to be "ain't happening."

First, NSA, while large, at some point has limited resources. Basic laws of bureaucracy dictate that NSA will only apply enough resources that will allow them to meet their basic mission - catching terrorists and agents of foreign powers.

So there are now two basic templates in terrorism media coverage:

Template A (note to editors: to be used after every terrorist atrocity): "Angry family members, experts and opposition politicians demand to know why complacent government didn't connect the dots."

Template B (note to editors: to be used in the run-up to the next terrorist atrocity): "Shocking new report leaked to New York Times for Pulitzer Prize Leak Of The Year Award nomination reveals that paranoid government officials are trying to connect the dots! See pages 3,4,6,7,8, 13-37."

(Last three links from Newsbeat1.)

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May 13 - John of Right Wing News requested that right-of-center bloggers submit in ranked order their favourite columnists and the results are in. I was among those polled and the hardest part was definitely the ranking.

It is an impressive list. Mark Steyn came in first, Charles Krauthammer came in second, and Victor Davis Hanson came in fifth.

John has provided links for the columnists to their home pages or to their publication sites for those who might be interested in reading what these columnists offer. There are a couple of gems in the group and worth the time and effort to check them out.

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Apr. 20 - Mark's youth team (he's a lowly coach) had some exhibition games on Saturday. They seemed to field and pitch okay, but don't have game sense, i.e., they don't seem to know what to do with the ball when they field it.

It ought to be simple. Before the ball is put into play, fielders need to have a notion as to what they will do if the ball is hit to them and what they will do if it's not hit to them, i.e., what position they will back up. It's not exactly hard to figure; after all, a 3-1 play is fairly routine (that's the first baseman tossing the ball to the pitcher for the out at first) and I know the kids have seen it several times.

And relay. It's a baseball fundamental, but kids don't get it - they want to be the hero who throws it into home from left field. They also don't get why trying to hit a legitimate home run (as opposed to a single and 3 errors) is selfish. The sorriest statistic in the world is "runners left on base."

And deeking out a baserunner? Dude, we call that a balk.

Strikes are fascist, ground balls are democratic. The truth and implications of that statement is crystal clear to me but very difficult to explain to those who don't already know it. Luckily I don't have to; Mark does. Heh.

I hate the way the concept "team work" has been bastardized. In a sports setting, team work is the magic that happens when the players have a winning attitude and bust their asses to win the game. The fielders do their utmost to retire batters and "passed ball" is regarded by catchers as grounds to commit suicide. Everything comes together and the bang-bang plays create an intensity and excitement that drives the entire team. Who doesn't love a clutch hitter?

Team work is that intangible thing that cannot be artificially created but comes straight from the heart - a stubborness and perseverance that marks those who strive to win.

In a work setting, though, team work seems to be code for "some people need to work harder to cover up for those who refuse to perform." If a company really wants team work they need to do as sports teams are supposed to do: bench or release players that won't or can't strive to win in order to keep that winning edge.

It's going to be an interesting season.

I managed to get a few consecutive days off work before Easter and resolved to do those things most easily deferred: my taxes, and washing the windows and curtains.

The windows and curtains really do need to be done. I haven't done them since Sept. 11 despite my earnest intentions. Somehow it always seemed more important to surf the news channels and internet to see if there had been another terror attack - and, too often, there had indeed been one.

But I found we had only a tad of window-washing solution, so I did my taxes - sort of. Mind, I was very well prepared. I had sharp pencils, the correct forms, my adding machine, scratch paper, all my receipts, and some cold beer in the fridge to celebrate the successful conclusion of this annual ritual. When I went to get my T-4, though, it wasn't where I had seen it less than 24-fraking-hours earlier.

I began to search, and boy did I search. I found all sorts of papers and mailers and stuff I meant to look at (some of it went back to the beginning of Gulf War II, which I guess is a commentary as to how long I've been shutting out everyday stuff) and, because I still suffered with a mild variety of the spring cleaning bug, I began to toss or file. Then I went through the newly bulging files; I'm not sure why I had baseball registration lists from 1997, but I can honestly say that now I no longer have them. Was I still procrastinating? Yes, because all the figures I needed were on my final pay voucher of 2005 so I finally bit the bullet and did my stupid taxes (and called work Monday morning to humbly request a replacement T-4.)

Then I noticed this weird smudge on a wall. You know what happens when you wash a smallish section of a wall, right? Right.

If anyone next to you has just fallen off their chair you are undoubtably sitting beside someone who knows me and how much I hate housework. It was all very well and good when the kids were little (and, come to think of it, spending most of my time trying to up clean the dirt they and the dog brought in from outside) but that was the in the pre-Internet era as well as those days when all history ended and life is much more exciting now - and considerably more dangerous.

Solutions seem harder to come by now (maybe because the Cold War strategy was conceived before I was even born.) Except for Iraq: that one is as simple as A-B-C. We keep faith with the people of Iraq. We don't flinch. We stick it out.

Iran, though, is hard. Those who discount the messages coming out of Iran as simple rhetoric simply haven't been paying attention. Bin Laden used to be dismissed too, until we learned to our shock that he meant business.

We can't go back to 1979 (which is why a long vacation would look good on President Carter right now) and have to deal with what is happening today. The U.N. will likely be useless - will there likely be a new Oil-for-Food program for Iran after sanctions prove to be a burden on the Iranian people? Puh-leeze.

And then there are those voices that are carefully implying that if we abandon Israel we'll end the "root causes" that caused Sept. 11 and the threat from Iran. But let's get serious: the root cause of barbarism is, you know, barbarism, and even the barbarians didn't occupy Rome until the Romans had lost the will to fight -- most clearly evidenced in that they had sub-contracted their fighting out to others.

Come to think of it, one of Bin Laden's grievances was on behalf of dead infants in Iraq which he attributed to the sanctions. Has he lifted the jihad now that the sanctions have been lifted? Or directed one to Saddam for diverting money from health care for his own personal gain? Of course not. There will always be grievances because there will always be those who will justify unbelievable acts of savagery for their own ends. But do we have to play along?

I would be willing to go on a bit of faith that the cartoon controversy was viewed by many national leaders as a skirmish and the feckless response was simply a feint, but something very precious was seen to be surrendered: the right to be irreverent, and without irreverence we lose our joy. No South Park? No Simpson's? Or, and this is really scary, no Monty Python?

Those who take themselves too seriously run the risk of ulcers and migraines, but I doubt waiting for the dour mullahs to develop life-style health problems is a useful strategy.

So the spectre of nuclear weapons in Iran - a country that has absolutely neither reverence for international relations much less a sense of humour - continues to pose a problem that challenges us all. I do feel certain we need to come up with a strategy that differs from those employed in both Afghanistan and Iraq and the best one I've heard thus far is to give more tangible support to the pro-democracy forces within Iran. It's a long shot, and I guess that even though I never would have characterized myself as a gambler I do remain, at heart, a liberal (in the classic sense) and I'm willing to gamble on my belief that the yearning for freedom remains the most compelling urge in the history of humanity.

Relying on the choice less hopeful is straight out of Tolkien - the quest to destroy the ring was one such choice, and Arvedui's claim of the kingship in Gondor was another. [That's an admittedly obscure reference; my fellow explorers in the the History of Middle Earth will undoubtably recognize it and others can find it in the Appendix of Return of the King where Earnil's ascension to the throne is discussed.]

Oh well, I'll do the stupid windows and curtains over the weekend but place the responsibility on Mark to remember to buy window cleaner. That might work, but I know I'll have to keep reminding him. And if it rains, maybe he'll have to cancel practice and then can help me take the curtains down!

Yeah, sometimes team work means cursing obstinate household fixtures together.

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Apr. 20 - Okay so I asked Mark to look into the cats mouths to check out their toothy status. He simply gave me That Look (the women know what I mean and the men are allowed to look perplexed) and left the room to, you know, do something. When he returned he remarked that the cats tend to yawn prodigiously and we I could take a peek then. Very logical (don't you hate that?)

Naturally I have consistently failed to remember to look when they yawn, but I remain guilt-free as both cats are content with their soft food diet and, as they continue to be nuisances, I'm going on faith that they are just fine.

Archie pulled another stupid act. I went through my pseudo-furious routine when he jumped on the table as I was eating my Steak and Potato With Mushrooms Chunky Soup and when he jumped off, his hind foot clipped a chair and it fell on top of him. He limped away but still managed to look offended. There was a lot of cat hair but no blood, and the limp was gone before I went to work.

Why did I think my life would be saner just because the kids grew up and moved away? I am beginnng to conclude that children are like dogs and teenagers are like cats. Unfortunately, cats never grow into adulthood.

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Apr. 6 - Can cats lose a tooth? (I mean due to causes other than injury or trauma.) I found a small, hard object on the floor and finally decided it was either a small tooth or a deformed clove and, as our cats are getting old, thought I'd better check them.

I approached the older one with my flashlight and he immediately became defensive.

Hold still, I said. I just want to look at your teeth.

I'm not taking a pill, he stated and commenced to stare me down.

I'm not trying to give you a pill, ya stupid cat. I just want to get a look at your teeth. (A firm statement of intent should work.)

I'm not taking a pill he insisted, and then did that acrobatic squirm thing cats are famous for and got away. He's a mean, ornery bastard on his good days and bites - not to draw blood but to bruise, which hurts a lot more - so I figured I'd tackle an easier target.

Naturally the younger cat had been watching the whole thing. He's the needy, velcro kind of cat that requires two legs to eject him from the bed or couch and just won't leave you alone, but he did the unexpected and fled when I approached him. I finally located him at that sweet spot under the bed where he couldn't be reached without a baseball bat and tried to coax him out.

I'm not taking a pill, he said.

Sometimes I hate these cats. The only thing they're good for is blocking and tripping us when we come home and, of course, shedding, but I and most of North America have been brainwashed into thinking we owe them something because we rescued them from pounds and feed and shelter them.

Anyway, I got even with them for their stubborness because, still fretting over the tooth issue, I added water in their kibble. Soft food diet! Take that you stupid felines! Watch your steps or it will be jello and watery soup for the rest of your natural lives!

They liked it. They really liked it. The younger and usually more apprehensive one even finished it and wanted more (thus rising to the position of most likely candidate for tooth issues) and the nasty older one even purred when he tried to take over my pillow.

It was much, much easier raising the children. Ever try to give a cat a time out?

As for checking their stupid teeth, I'm waiting for Mark to get home. It will be entertaining to say the very least because he may be patient with kids but not with the cats and he can swear like a sailor when they piss him off. I can observe and come up with all manner of useful suggestions safely behind enemy lines ...

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Apr. 6 - Any introduction is impossible, so just click and go read The Gatorade Conspiracy.

(Not safe for work. Or drinks. Or your mother. It is, however, completely safe for children who don't know how to read.)

Link from the always surprising Rocket Jones.

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Apr. 3 - Robins are all very good and all but there are some more tangible signs of spring today: York regional police warn that the ice on Lake Barrie is unstable and the 2006 baseball season begins!

President Bush throws out the first pitch at the Reds home opener.
(Photo via FoxSports)

The Cubs win was a welcome bonus: with President Bush on hand, Cubs rout Reds.

The answer to The Burning Question: the president says he threw a slow ball and it was high and off the plate.

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Apr. 2 - Sometimes I could kill Tuning Spork. Or myself.

His latest story here got me good.

Be sure and check the date. I know I didn't.

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Apr. 1 - That's all for now. Time to watch Supernatural, followed by Battlestar Galactica, then the movie Army of Darkness, or, if you prefer, time to get scared, time to get serious, and time to get slapsticky.

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Mar. 30 - Sorry for the silence; my attention has been focused on some extremely interesting developments at the workplace -- the one subject that this blog does not address -- and as I tend to write (at length) on my thoughts I've been unable to focus sufficiently to compose anything worthwhile until it's stale.

There was another factor as well, namely the Dubai port management fiasco which gave public expression to the one sentiment that I feared most after Sept. 11: that our identification of the enemy would irrationally grow to include those who are oppressed by our enemy.

Those of us who advocate war must remember that war is a means to peace -- but not the false peace that is achieved with cowardly appeasement -- and therefore we must pursue a strategy that solidifies allies and isolates those who support our enemies. We failed.

Furthermore, if it's really "all about the oil" the U.A.E. is out of the equation. Is that why Democrats and Republicans found them dispensable but aren't outraged over this? It's enough to make one drink (or eat chocolate!)

One of the catchwords of this post-Sept. 11 era is despair. I guess anyone who is interested in politics can rightly feel despair at the rank opportunism which dominates, at minimum, Canadian and American politics. But I'll never again use the expression "rock-bottom" again after opposition parties up here managed to set a new low by calling for a debate on Canada's role in Afghanistan -- as though they hadn't already had the opportunity to do so.

The twins turn 23 today. Good heavens, they're going to be adults soon ...

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Mar. 2 - Very interesting column by Peggy Noonan in today's Opinion Journal.

We don't talk about such sensibilities much these days but maybe we should start.

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Feb. 17 - Canada has won the gold and silver medals in the men's skeleton events! Great news, but ... um, what is a skeleton event? I didn't know and Mark didn't know so I did a quick google and came up with one answer by by Michael Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press in an extremely humorous article Why skeleton is a dumb sport.

A brief primer: Skeleton is exactly like luge, except that instead of flying down the track on your butt, you fly down the track on your stomach. Skeleton athletes (that's what they call themselves, which is title inflation of the worst kind) say skeleton requires a totally different skill set than luge. Let's just take their word for it. Otherwise, they might explain.

I know: It sounds like a ridiculous, inane, stupid, non-sport kind of sport. But that's what people said when luge first became an Olympic sport in 1964, and now, 42 years later, many of those same people are dead. So maybe we shouldn't question it.

Mark and I can't quite figure out how a hair restorative can be considered a performance enhancing drug (in sports, for crying out loud. Sheesh.)

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Feb. 14 - I have some kind of virus thingy and my brain is fuzzy.

We're all having a good laugh at the Vice-President's hunting mishap. Lord knows we need it - and the icing on the cake has been the indignation by the White House press corps that a local Corpus Christi news reporter scooped them. Only in America!

I'm posting a too true email that Dex sent me and heading back to bed.

25 SIGNS YOU HAVE GROWN UP

1. Your house plants are alive, and you can't smoke any of them.
2. Having sex in a twin bed is out of the question.
3. You keep more food than beer in the fridge.
4. 6:00 AM is when you get up, not when you go to bed.
5. You hear your favorite song in an elevator.
6. You watch the Weather Channel.
7. Your friends marry and divorce instead of "hook up" and "break up."
8. You go from 130 days of vacation time to 14.
9. Jeans and a sweater no longer qualify as "dressed up."
10. You're the one calling the police because those %&@# kids next door won't turn down the stereo.
11. Older relatives feel comfortable telling sex jokes around you.
12. You don't know what time Taco Bell closes anymore.
13. Your car insurance goes down and your car payments go up.
14. You feed your dog Science Diet instead of McDonald's leftovers.
15. Sleeping on the couch makes your back hurt.
16. You take naps.
17. Dinner and a movie is the whole date instead of the beginning of one.
18. Eating a basket of chicken wings at 3 AM would severely upset, rather than settle, your stomach.
19. You go to the drug store for ibuprofen and antacid, not condoms and pregnancy tests.
20. A $4.00 bottle of wine is no longer "pretty good stuff."
21. You actually eat breakfast food at breakfast time.
22. "I just can't drink the way I used to" replaces "I'm never going to drink that much again."
23. 90% of the time you spend in front of a computer is for real work.
24. You drink at home to save money before going to a bar.
25. When you find out your friend is pregnant you congratulate them instead of asking "Oh S*$# what the hell happened?"

Bonus:
26: You read this entire list looking desperately for one sign that doesn't apply to you and can't find one to save your sorry old butt. Then you forward it to a bunch of old pals & friends 'cause you know they'll enjoy it & do the same.

Posted by: Debbye at 07:15 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Feb. 11 - When the first set of churches burnt I was dismayed. When the second set were set ablazed I was alarmed. Now I'm getting angry (10th Alabama church burns) and I mean angry American-Style ... the kind of implacable, watchful anger that can be mistaken for calm and even forgetfulness by those who don't know us.

Can you imagine the response if 10 mosques had been burnt down in two weeks? The horror! And I'd be one of those horrified and angered. The fact that it's Christians being targeted doesn't change the fact that this is a hate crime and is not only unlawful but threatens a fundamental value for which our ancestors fought: the right to worship as we choose.

That evidence indicates that at least some of the fires were set by the pulpits may contain an somehwat threatening message. That they started so soon after MLK Day is disquieting (need I remind anyone that Dr. King was a Baptist minister?) even though I realize that these arsons seem aimed more at Baptists generally and are not colour-based. Nevertheless, Dr. King appealed to Christian consciences which was why, in large part, his message could not be disregarded and why he remains to this day an inspirational and visionary American figure as well as a refutation to those who despise religion.

Whatever, the motive, whoever is doing this don't know Southern Baptists. I think it likely the parishioners will still attend services tomorrow whether the location is a neighbouring church, a barn, a tent, or the open air. I also think they will, even as they mourn for the loss of their churches, pray for those who are doing this evil. (Although I also think it might be better for the perpetrators if the feds catch them, if you know what I mean. It's unlikely that anyone will read 'em from the book, but still.)

[No, I'm not a Baptist but I've attended Southern Baptists services and they bowled this sophisticated urbanite over and filled me with humility and joy. But then maybe urbane is just another word for jaded. Or pretentious.]

Posted by: Debbye at 10:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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