Can You Nanowrimo?

Hello.

So it’s that time of year again. In two and a half weeks the noveling monkey will be jumping on the backs of fools everywhere. Are you up for the challenge?

Let me say that in all the time I have been doing this I HAVE NEVER WON. Not even once. Last year I came close but then “Life”, that little bastard, got in the way and I dropped out at 30,000 words. Sigh.

Always the glutton for punishment, I am back in the ring this year. I have no story, no plot, no characters, nothing. I like an impossibility, don’t you?

So if you don’t have plans for November, why not jump into the pool of crazies and try to write 50,000 words in thirty days. You just might surprise yourself.

I always do.

Dogwoman

PS. Will be listing embarrassing word count in the sidebar. Come to mock.

 

Get Your Pirate On

Hello.

Afore I forget, as I do, it’s Talk Like A Pirate Day once again. Feel free to confuse others with your pirate speak and squinty eye.

Dogwoman

 

Beef For Sale

Hello.

If you are such a complete puss that you can’t tell someone off without help then these ladies might be for you.

Of course, keep in mind that libel and slander are still illegal.

I do love how Americans just keep sliding on down the intelligence scale. If we, as a nation, took the Stanford-Binet, I don’t think we’d rate above 100.

Stupid.

Dogwoman

 

Presidential Aside

Hello.

Thank you President Obama for saying what everyone in the world was thinking.

Kanye West did indeed act like a jackass.

Dogwoman

 

The Road Not Taken

Hello.

For eight years I have managed not to post on 9/11.  That’s not to say I don’t read everything that is posted by others. I feel that anything I could say about that day would be inadequate at best. How many words can we use to describe the desecration and horror Americans lived through? So many words have already been used. And I am word poor on the subject.

Today in class Teachers chose to show a documentary about Firefighters who were trapped in one of the collapsing buildings but somehow managed to live through the ordeal. I was trapped in the class. I was not at liberty to leave.  I tried very hard not to watch the video and covered up my aversion by getting students to pay attention. I was a hypocrite. I couldn’t help it. Unlike the students, I was fully aware during that day and the days after it. It is still a moment in history I cannot confront without pain. To have watched people choosing to throw themselves off the buildings rather than burn to death is something I cannot put out of my mind when the footage is shown. The horror of listening to people scream when the buildings came down  haunted me for a very long time.  The silence of the skies afterward is something that I hope to never live through again. I still cheer when a plane flies overhead with a great rumbling sound. I marvel at the trails they leave against the blue sky and am grateful.

Why am I writing today?  Because I have been avoiding not just the pain, but the anger that came with that day. And the anger is not entirely directed at those who engineered that horror and then danced afterward. It is directed at our government and how they took advantage of the fear and sorrow of a nation. The lies they told to ensure that we remained in a state of panic so that they could persue other objectives that had nothing to do with what happened. And how we are still locked in the trap they set for us. A nation at war with ourselves.

Instead of following a course of action that would yield positive results from a terrible situation,  our government chose to go to war against countries that had little or nothing to do with the actual act perpetrated. Wars we are still fighting. Instead of burying the dead, we added to the body count. And it’s still rising. Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Wolfowitz and Powell are walking around free and men and women are still dying. And the reason we were given for these wars no longer holds. They WMD farce, which had nothing to do with the destruction of two buildings in New York City, has already been exposed.

To this day I don’t believe that we are actively pursuing an enemy so much as an agenda. A monetary agenda. Because let’s face it, three thousand Americans lost their lives and a great many unscrupulous companies made money. A lot of money. Halliburton, Blackwater, Lockheed Martin, Boeing… to name a few. The government awarded lucrative contracts to private prisons to lock up undesirables. The banks and private investors took advantage of a nation whose attention was riveted  elsewhere. In eight years, we became not  the beacon of freedom and tolerance we should have been  but a byword for greed and stupidity. We became the international icon for lies and a haven for charlatans.  Where we could have emerged from 9/11 stronger, wiser and unbeaten, we allowed the pundits to convince us that everyone is out to get us. We began to fight amongst ourselves. Instead of banding together, we fractured. This is the legacy we have given ourselves. And we built it on the graves of firefighters and emergency personnel who died trying to help in a moment of hopelessness.

To this day I am ashamed of where we allowed ourselves to be led. It is my undying belief that those thousands of innocent people deserved better than what we have now become. A nation of backbiters and bickering fools who care more about what an uneducated pundit screams  than confronting a terrible truth. That, in our fear,  we helped our lawmakers create this mess.   The 9/11 victims deserve to be remembered not once a year, but every time a law is made, a deal is brokered or a lobbyist starts talking.

And the only ones who have the true power to ensure that this happens is you and I. When are we going to use it?

Dogwoman

 

The Times, Are They A’ Really Changin’?

Hello.

Now that classes have started I don’t have a leisurely 60 minutes to write a post. Often, I am trying to get it in under 40 minutes. So it really has to be something that completely chaps my ass to motivate me to write. Today’s topic is the word “racist”.

As you my fine reader know, I am bogged in world of English. Though I may spell like crap, I still believe we as a Nation can rise above our situations and learn to use language properly.

Racist, racism.Interesting word. It implies, when you sling it at people, that the person you are referring to has a problem with the cultural origins of you the speaker.

The Dictionary definition: a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule others.

I would like to state that at this time in history, though there have been many studies attempting to prove superiority, no particular race has come out on top. This means that no skin color or culture has won the race for best in show. Which prompts me to believe that we are all essentially the same, i.e. equal.

Republicans are sending e-mails of a highly racist nature about our President. When they get caught, they try to deny what a thinking person can clearly see. They are idiots. They are the gun-toting, beer swilling, redneck cousins of rational thinking. Oh, I am sorry, was that racist? No, because I am a white girl and I can say whatever I want about these crackers. Right?

According to Republicans Barak Obama is : racist, communist, fascist, socialist, and centrist. Christ, how does the man get through his day without collapsing under the weight of all these different ideologies? Especially considering that the last one is the only one that might be correct.

Ask yourself this, When was the last time a sitting President was called a racist by the media or sitting Senators? Never. And why is that? Yeah, exactly.

Republicans having had their time in the Big Chair are mad that their rule has ended. And like tired, whiny children the best they can do is throw a giant fit and say mean things. And perpetuate bogus rumors that hamper actual progress. Calling the PRESIDENT a liar in open session is just too much. He is not a liar. Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh  Bill O’Reilly and Republicans of their ilk, are liars. They treat the truth like a chessboard. They just move it wherever they think it will give them the most advantage. And that includes leveling charges of racism against Obama. Because it will get them more crazy Birther devotees, not because it’s true.

I am sick of hearing that word bandied about as though it were proof of something. It’s only proof that those who are using it have nothing else to sling. Barak Obama, unlike the e-mail sending Republicans, hasn’t done one thing I would consider racist. He hasn’t leveled charges of racism against anyone, he hasn’t sent revolting whitey hating e-mails, nothing.

He is trying to get health care for every American. He is making all students responsible for their education. He is trying desparately to undo the complete FUBAR mess he was left.

Do I like everything our President is doing? No, not really. I, as a SOCIALIST DEMOCRAT (that right, socialist, socialist, I said it out loud, nahnahnahnahnah), don’t agree with all of his policies. But I agree less with those who are using the thin cover of  the word ‘racist’ to cover up the reality of what they are doing. And what they are doing is trying to halt progress. By doing so, they can point at the President and say its all his fault. It’s is in fact Republicans who won’t come to the table. Republicans who are pushing a hate filled agenda. Republicans who are stalling this country and pointing fingers at everyone but themselves. It’s their only response when they can’t get what they want.

In the immortal words of Bob Dylan ” Get out of the new one if you can’t lend a hand”

Dogwoman

 

The Agony of De Feet

Hello.

Today is the first day of  school for those of us in Michigan. So that’s good. Kids will be running in the halls, banging on tables with pencils and shouting. And I will be there to tell them to knock it off. Have I mentioned I love my job?

However, as I go through the day there is one thing I no longer have to concern myself with. My feet. You heard me, my feet. See back in the day when I was really worried about what people thought I would cram my oversized giantess feet into cute little creations. Heels, pumps, strappy little do’s that caused me an great deal of agony. But, hey, they looked good. Then the back problems and trouble bending started. Not to mention my poor feet which constantly felt like they needed immediate removal. So I switched to cool tennis shoes. Air pumped, nifty designed tennis shoes. And the pain marched across my lower back and the leg cramps started. Ever been woken up at three am screaming  because both legs have seized up with giant knots? Well I have and it was not pleasant. And it frightens your family something awful.

Then the gods of footwear smiled down on me in my time of trouble and charlie horses (they’re bigger than regular horses, trust me) and said “Let there be Crocs” and there were. Amen. I have been wearing the shoe deemed the ugliest thing since Mariah Carey’s Glitter for over a year and I haven’t had any pain since. None, nada.

They are ugly. Hideous. But man, are they functional. Except on wet surfaces. Like marble school floors during the winter. I digress.

My point is they now have new designs and some of the ugly has been worn away.  I don’t care how much people rail against my footwear choice, I will never wedge my giant feet into regular “fashionable” shoes again. When I am ninety and still standing upright while walking without assistance and the fashion conscious of my generation are in wheelchairs then tell me how awful Crocs are. At least my feet won’t look like they have suffered Japanese binding treatments for twenty years.

Fashion gurus like Peter Whatshisname can issue all the fashion edicts against Crocs they want. I’m keeping my ugly shoes. Maybe  just maybe I might even start wearing clothes I find comfortable rather than trying to wedge my giantess body into tiny fashionable ’stretchy’ dos that make me feel naked. Where did that horrible fashion trend come from anyway ? Not every woman wants to highlight certain aspects of growing older.

So ignore the fashionable and do what is comfortable. Unless you live in Hollywood. Then starve and be completely miserable because we like the way you look on screen. And people like Peter Whoeverheis need to have a job too.

Dogwoman

 

Bend Over, Beck, UPS Has A Delivery For You

Hello.

I just can’t help it. I am jumping  into the pool.

Glenn Beck.

UPS has pulled their advertising ‘temporarily. And rightly so.

Beck is another one who speaks out his ass while trying desperately trying to make sense. In one of his videos he  says something like “President Obama said he was going to change America and..he did” Like it was like a bad thing. Wouldn’t that make Obama the first President in many years who tried to do exactly what he said he was going to do? How is that a bad thing ? What does it say that about American politics when commentators like Beck are surprised when a political figure does exactly what he says he’s going to do. I am guessing they thought that it was going to be business as usual up on capital hill and are now freaking out.

Among all of his other false allegations, Beck takes exception to Obama’s community service program for high school students. Why?

Community service has more gains associated with it than losses. Students should be encouraged to work within their own communities. Oh, it’s a communist thing. Okay Glenn, just because it has the word community in it doesn’t mean it’s communist.

What I think the Republicans are objecting to, and I lump ’social commentators’ like Glenn Beck together here, has little or nothing to do with actual Presidential policies. It has to do with the power being taken from them because they could not stop them selves from raping and pillaging America while they were in power. Now along comes a man who is trying to straighten out the mess and bam “He’s racist” “He hates white people.” “He’s gonna put your kids in concentration camps and force them to help people” “He’s got Death Panels ”  Unlike Bush who just chucked people into prison and ignored any wrongdoing by the overseers. Bush, a man who encouraged water-boarding and other forms of torture because “it was good for America”. Do we really want that sort of thinking back in power?

At the end of his presidency Bush’s approval rating was 26 percent. That means that 74 percent of the people in this country did NOT approve of his policies. One has to assume that some of those people were Republicans who helped draft those policies. In fact, do I not remember Republicans fleeing from George as though he were carrying a social disease? Was he not asked by Republican leaders to not attend their Convention because it might cast a negative light on Mc Cain’s campaign?

But it’s Obama who’s the bad guy. He’s the one whose going to kill your parents and force your kids to do something besides play video games.

Glenn Beck and others like him are attempting to capitalize on fear. They like it when people fearfully agree with them because it gives them a small measure of power. But as dictators around the world have discovered, rule by fear has a short shelf  life. At some point people refuse to be spoon fed garbage. UPS boycotting, not only Beck’s show, but the FOX network, is a signal that the time has come to stop wrangling over foolish claims and start doing something that might be productive.

To add your voice and ask that UPS make the boycott permanent send an email to customer.service@UPS.com.

Today Beck, tomorrow O’Reilly? One can only hope.

Dogwoman

 

Naughty Kings

Hello.

Okay this is just a thought, a mental belch if you will.

I’ve noticed something.

If you are famous and  having some kind of illicit affair you can neither acknowledge or deny to the press, you have another option.

Go to a Kings of Leon concert.

This is apparently the proper venue for airing your dirty laundry or, not airing it. You and the object of your affection just go and wait for someone to notice. And to post pictures on the Web.  Simple really.

First, it was the tween idols Rob Pattinson and Kristin Stewart.

Now, LeeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian.

If I were a member of the band I would worry about this disturbing trend. Who will show up next?  John Edwards and Reille Hunte?

I’m just sayin’

Dogwoman

 

Insert Snarky Title About Bill O’Reilly Here

Hello.

I don’t actually watch T.V. I don’t have to. If there is something I want to see, I can find it on the Web.

There has begun what I like to call a “video off” going on between John Stewart and Bill O’Reilly. To be fair, it’s mostly O’Reilly trying to start something.

It began when Stewart intimated that Fox News, using their own critieria, is now Liberal. Well, Bill just couldn’t let that one slide. He attempts to maintain that the video clips that Stewart uses are taken out of context. He does a poor job at best. In attempting to explain how off the mark Stewart is O’Reilly actually makes Stewart’s case for him.

But don’t take my word for it.

Here is Stewart.

And here is O’Reilly trying to shoot back with a water gun.

Those crazy liberal Republicans. They’re all loons.

Dogwoman