Category Archives: Politics

7 Quick Takes: Big Brother, Roasting Beasts, and Not Reading 50 Shades

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

To those of you trolling the “Catholics for Choice” group on Facebook: CUT IT OUT! I’m aware that you feel that they’re raging heretics and hypocrites and you’re entitled to that opinion. I’m not going to argue with you on that one. What I will argue with you on is the efficacy of getting yourselves banned from the group. All you’re doing is giving them ammo to say that pro-life Catholics are intolerant, so cut it out! It’s also really bad manners.

— 2 —

REMINDER: Brett’s Blogathon 2012 is next Friday. It goes from 7 a.m. on Friday the 27th to 7 a.m. on the 28th over at Blogging for Brett. I’ll have information on how to donate on a sticky post at the top of the blog during the event.

— 3 —

Big Brother is back on. I don’t have a contestant I dislike thus far as much as I disliked Rachel on the last two iterations but Mike Boogie is starting to be a contender. I’m glad Frank got HOH for this coming week though — it will be interesting to see if he puts Willie up.

— 4 —

My evil twin and hopefully my sister-in-law are coming over for a barbecue on Saturday. If Jeanette (my sister-in-law) is coming, I’ll be needing to find a My Little Pony to put on her birthday cake as well as acquiring some cake mix. I also have to figure out the menu which means figuring out which beast to roast and how I want to roast it.

— 5 —

Going back to #1, I got a call from Planned Parenthood a few weeks ago. It was interesting because I never heard from them during the years when I was sympathetic to them. (I’m not unsympathetic to their practice of providing care to impoverished women — I’m just not in favor of abortion.) I’m guessing that they got my name from the campaign to take down Dan Lungren (my Congresscritter who I loathe because he’s a tool, not because he’s Republican). I don’t know exactly what they were calling about because after the person explained who they were, I politely said, “I should probably tell you that I’m pro-life and I’m not really interested.” I said good-bye and hung up. I’m sure there are some who would argue that I should have tried to debate with them but I had the bear child clamoring for my attention and I had no desire to pick a fight with someone who was probably trying to be nice and volunteer their time for their charity of choice.

— 6 —

Facebook had an interesting Yusef/Cat Stevens question this week. The question was which song you’d want to hear if he ever toured again and sang his secular stuff. It was interesting because a number of my Facebook friends commented who had absolutely no connection to each other. (My answer, by the way, is “Peace Train”.) I still can’t listen to “Moonshadow” with a straight face after the parody someone did on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me after Cat Stevens was taken off a plane in Maine for being on the no-fly list. “I’m being followed by an air marshall/Air marshall/Air marshall…”

— 7 —

I finally had a parishioner ask about 50 Shades of Grey today. She couldn’t understand why I was laughing so hard until I explained about the review that described it as “Twilight with spanking and no sparkly vampires”. What I told her was that she’s an adult and can read whatever she wants but I didn’t think it would benefit her Christian witness. It was at that point that I found out that she had joked about me having it on my NOOK during Bible study that morning. Yeah… not so much. 🙂 I’m generally not into reading whatever is popular with the exception of the Harry Potter books. I didn’t read the Twilight books until they had been out for awhile.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

Just A Thought…

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To my loser Congressman and his cohorts:

Just a thought, but could you quit pulling stunt votes on repealing the Affordability of Care Act (or Obamacare, as you call it) and actually do something like vote to create jobs, feed the hungry, or… you know, whatever it is that my tax dollars pay for you to do during your time in DC?

Hugs and kisses,
jen

PS: Words cannot express my joy at being rid of your sorry butt come November.

The Winners in the SCOTUS Decision on “Obamacare”

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I should probably mention that the Obama administration *likes* it being called “Obamacare” because it shows that they do care.

So… I thought I’d post a picture of the winners of the Supreme Court decision.

We win!

Wait… isn’t that — yes, that’s Jon and I with Daniel 3 years ago. Obama had only been in office for 2 1/2 months when Daniel was born prematurely. His NICU bill alone was $254K and with all the x-rays and specialists, the bills were close to $300K. Last year’s hospital stay in March totaled more than $500K when all was said and done. The provisions of the Affordable Care Act keep there from being limits on lifetime medical coverage (which I’m pretty sure we could hit easily with Daniel) as well as there being laws prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage to kids with pre-existing conditions which is actually in place in California today. This means that my little medical mystery child will always be covered. (Medicaid is also a lovely thing as they’ve paid the majority of what insurance hasn’t covered.)

I didn’t ask for all the pre-existing condition designations placed on me after having HELLP Syndrome with Daniel and I didn’t ask for Daniel to have to be delivered prematurely at 29 weeks. God willing, insurance companies will not be able to deny me coverage based on pre-existing conditions come 2014. I am thankful, however, that the provisions in place now cover Daniel and I’m thankful to every representative and senator who voted it through.

7 Quick Takes: How to Be Political When You Have No Time.

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7 Quick Takes

It’s an election year so politicians are falling over themselves for votes and most are pretty amenable towards doing anything you want within reason. So… how do you bug your politicians in a non-election year? How do you do it when you’ve got young kids and no time? Here are a couple ideas. If you have any more, the combox is open for them.

— 1 —

Petition sites. I subscribe to MoveOn.Org and Change.Org among others but for those who are my polar opposite politically, there’s RightMarch.Com. For Catholics, there’s CatholicVote.Org. For those into human rights, there’s Avaaz.Org and Amnesty International. To make your own petitions, you can use SignOn.Org and Change.Org.

— 2 —

We The People @ WhiteHouse.Gov. This kind of goes along with #1 but it’s a bit of a different thing. You go through the petitions already open on the site and if there isn’t one to fit your issue, you can start a new one. You have to meet a certain threshold of signatures but if you can meet it, it will be reviewed by the Administration. It’s kind of nice because you can cut out the middle man and go straight to the Administration.

— 3 —

Call your Congressional Representative. I have a feeling that my representative has me on the “oh-for-the-love-of-God-will-she-stop-calling-and-emailing-me” list. 🙂 If you don’t know who your House person is, go here. It will ask you for your address and zip code + 4 because in urban areas, there can be multiple Congressional representatives as it is based on population. I know that my town is split between two districts. Once you get the name of your House rep, click on their name to get their phone numbers in DC and in your local area. Every Congressperson has a website. Here is mine as an example. His contact page is here. I recommend calling them vs. emailing them because then they send you a form email and if it isn’t something you want to hear, it doesn’t make you feel happy. Calling them connects you to a person and they’ll listen to you and take down your comment. Be nice to them — many of them are college kids doing internships and they don’t need your vitriol. If you despise them, petition them all you want and remember not to vote for them when they come up for re-election in two years.

— 4 —

Call your senator. This should be easy as there are two per state and they’re generally more recognizable than one’s Congresscritter. Their websites are easy to find — it’s [last name].senate.gov and they also have pages with their contact information. Senators serve a six year term so you’re stuck with them longer and you might as well make them serve you.

— 5 —

Write a letter to the editor of your newspaper. It never ceases to amaze me how many times newspapers publish letters from people that deal with the latest conspiracy theory. It was almost humorous to see what my local weekly paper published in Montana. My answer to this is to submit something of substance on an issue about which I am passionate. I’ve been published a few times in various papers and it helps to bring your issue to the forefront.

— 6 —

Pray. Romans 13:1 states “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” (NIV) In other words, we’re called to submit to the authority of the governing authorities, regardless of whether or not you like them. Part of our job as Christians is to pray for those in authority. Our liturgy in the AALC even has specific collects for this. If nothing else, praying for those in authority whom you hate will change your heart and teach you patience.

— 7 —

Vote. I’m a permanent mail-in ballot and it’s not hard to acquire one. If you don’t vote, you’re actions are a confirmation of the status quo and in my opinion, you lose your right to complain. The right to vote has only been given to women in the last 100 years and to African-Americans without prejudice in the last 60 years. Honor the sacrifice of those who came before you and exercise your right to have a voice.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

7 Quick Takes: British Choral Competitions, Autistic Gripings, and Honest Toddlers

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Holy British choral music, Batman! A YouTube video off of Unapologetically Episcopalian fed into the UK School Choir of the Year competition videos.

This is from Ysgol Y Strade and the way they performed made me weep from the sheer beauty and the harmonies. The solo is in English but they do the rest in Welsh and perform it more beautifully than I’ve ever heard it sung in English.

Their inspirational song was “Clap Yo Hands” by Gershwin which they also did in Welsh. Gershwin is difficult in English so I have a huge appreciation for them translating it. I also love that a staid school choir instantaneously morphed into an African-American church choir.

The other two schools that made it to the finals are also breathtaking but Ysgol Y Strade just captivated me to the point of tears. Here are the others for comparison:

Their inspriational piece didn’t go over well so I’m not embedding it.

This is the choir that won:

This is the song that clinched it.

— 2 —

My monsters have vet appointments this week. I took Cullen/Edda (who is trying to sleep on my hands as I type this) on Wednesday and Finian/Freya will go tomorrow. Both Cullen and Edda got relatively clean bills of health though Cullen needs a teeth cleaning. We’re hoping he can wait until August/September when they have a special where they’ll do it for 10% off. (Cullen’s name, BTW, has absolutely nothing to do with Twilight. I had him long before I had ever heard of the Stephenie Meyer books.)

— 3 —

Just a tip: if a parent has an autistic kid, they’ve probably read all the studies and know that a gluten-free diet sometimes works. Seriously, it’s getting hard not to slap people who ask me if I’ve heard about a gluten-free diet when I tell them that Daniel is autistic. I was talking to a parishioner last night who has an autistic grandson and she expressed the same frustration. Autism is one of those disorders which affects everyone differently. For some people, the GAPS diet is a miracle. For others, it does nothing. I’m also about to mangle the next person who (not knowing Daniel is autistic) tells me that they’re not vaccinating because they don’t want their kid to develop autism. The 1998 study positing that was disproven and the doctor was stricken from the British Medical Register (a.k.a. lost his license to practice medicine).

— 4 —

Daniel loves being “watered”. Jon was watering today while Daniel was playing in his wading pool (which has a sprinkler function attached) and he accidentally splashed Daniel with the water from the watering head on the sprinkler only to have Daniel squeal and giggle. He had to go grab some stuff at the church and asked if I could “water the bear” while he was gone. Too funny! We knew he was aquatic but maybe this will help him grow?

— 5 —

The Proposition 29 vote is still too close to definitively call right now. About 55,000 votes separate “yes” and “no” with all the absentee ballots from people like me left to count. They shared a statistic on the news last that about 50% of Sacramento County voters requested absentee ballots and about 18,000 people in San Joaquin County requested them. If this is the trend across the state, it will be July before we actually know anything. California residents, you can go to the Secretary of State website if you want to see how a candidate or ballot measure did.

— 6 —

I’m still plugging along on planning Brett’s Blogathon. Head over to his site to see my progress and donate a few bucks to his adoption fund while you’re at it.

— 7 —

I have found a website that describes my life. Kendra @ The Nerdy Wife introduced me to Honest Toddler on Twitter and I found their blog. One entry describes the mom “drinking room temperature white wine out of a ceramic mug” and while I’m not that bad (mostly because I can’t drink), this is how I look after a day like the one described in by that entry:

Me in the morning... or maybe at 6 pm.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

An Idea

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For all my Catholic readers who are fighting the HHS Mandate:

Here are two numbers where you can call and make your voice heard to the president.

Obama for America Campaign HQ – 312-698-3670

The White House – 202-456-1111

Call and politely make your thoughts known. Call both numbers.

I’m sure someone has probably thought of this but if nobody has, this is another option.

7 Quick Takes: Jesus Music, Political Grumping, and Brett’s Blogathon

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

I downloaded a Mandisa song. Hades hath officially frozen over. It’s the “Good Morning” song and I got it off iTunes because I love the Toby Mac section in which he starts out going, “Top of the morning to ya ‘Disa!” It got stuck in my head and I finally had to download the song to get it out. I would normally rather have my nails pulled out with pliers than listen to Mandisa but this song is OK even if it has a “Jesus is my boyfriend” feel. Here’s the video:

— 2 —

The song blowing me away at the moment is “Jesus, Friend of Sinners” by Casting Crowns. Casting Crowns does it again in coming up with a song that is completely quotable. I honestly can’t come up with a “best” lyric because it’s all wonderful. The more interesting of the lyric videos is below.

— 3 —

In case anyone doesn’t normally read my blog, I have a cool eclipse pic. My suburb of Sacramento was too far south to get the full ring but I got what looks like a cat’s eye. My parents brought eclipse glasses up with them when they came for the communal birthday on Saturday so I got to watch it staring at the sun. It was quite spectacular and if Jon hadn’t had baccalaureate on Sunday night, we might have gone north to a place where we could get the full ring. Here’s the pic:

The eclipse from my porch.

— 4 —

I’ve had large amounts of insomnia which leads to naps while Daniel is at preschool. I’ve found that if NPR or Airline Pilot Guy don’t manage to put me to sleep, a good episode of old school “Mythbusters” does. Explosions calm me. If only I could get “World’s Wildest Police Chases” or COPS streaming on Netflix…

— 5 —

I’m continuing to be thankful for my pledge not to discuss electoral politics this election season. I’m blown away by the rhetoric from both sides in the presidential, Congressional, and Prop 29 campaigns. Some of it, especially in the presidential campaign, are outright lies. I knew our country was polarized but seriously… get a grip, people. Even if you think someone is a complete idiot for supporting the candidate they do, you don’t have to be rude about it. I wish I could actually do some of my own campaigning but it would really not be good to do as the pastor’s wife. Anything I say/do reflects on Jon and has the significance of Jon saying it which isn’t great because he and I are on opposite sides of the political coin.

— 6 —

The one thing we do agree on is that the “No on 29” campaign is the work of Satan in the form of the tobacco companies. It’s absolutely hideous that those monsters have come into California and are outspending the “Yes on 29” campaign 8-1. I don’t believe smokers have rights. It’s a filthy and disgusting habit and I think it should have as high a tax as possible to discourage people from doing it. I also believe those jerks who drop their butts on highways and streets should have to dodge cars to pick them up. I definitely don’t believe it should be allowed in any public place, especially since I’m asthmatic and cigarette smoke triggers respiratory distress in both me and Daniel. I’d love to make the people who land us in the hospital pay our ER bills. OK… off my soapbox.

— 7 —

Even though Brett’s Blogathon is two months off, I’m working on it now. I have some Pioneer Woman type entries so I’m trying to get the pictures for those while I’m actually cooking them. (I’ll add the text later.) I also need to compile links and such so that I have them at my fingertips for the event. Come check out the fun at http://peacefulwaters.org/brett. While you’re there, consider donating to his adoption fund.

Brett

C’mon… he’s really cute and he needs to get to the USA so he can get some therapy for his cerebral palsy.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.