Blogging For Kicks

Here’s wishing all of you a Happy and Prosperous New Year. Again, not much time to say anything, so I just wanted to let you know I’m still around and will be back at it again next week.

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while. It’s the Christmas thing, you know. I’ve just been too busy, and now my brother is here so we’re running all over the county, visiting favorite places and old family homesites - you know how it is. Anyway, I just want to write a quick note wishing all of you a Very Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwansaa, and a wonderful time with family and friends. I may not post anything more before New Year’s, so I hope you don’t give up on me altogether, but I will be back, in fighting form, so keep checking back.

Up at the top of the page, in it’s usual spot, you will find my new tenant for the week, from Blog Explosion’s “Rent My Blog” feature. This week I chose The Monaco Manifesto.

I usually accept the first offer, just to keep from seeming to play favorites or something, but this week I had offers from two sites I’ve visited and enjoyed, either of which I would love to have on my site. I checked both of them out, trying to get some kind of clue from….somewhere….as to which I should choose. Well, I still chose my first offer, but the choice was also based on what I read there. I really needed a laugh, and I found it in the Manifesto.

Go check it out, there are some really witty thoughts, and a couple of surprises to boot. I know you’ll enjoy yourself.

I have heard since I was old enough to understand that we are a nation of laws, meaning we have laws that define our country and our citizens, including the way we interact with the rest of the world. The laws are there for a reason: to keep us from degrading into anarchy. We all need rules to live by as long as we are living in the midst of other people, and that’s been the case since God created Adam and Eve.

We have laws that regulate how we drive, what we can sell and buy, what we can see on TV or hear on the radio. Laws that dictate how our homes are built, how we can communicate with others, and how we can’t. There are laws governing any and every facet of our lives, and we either live by them or pay the price for ignoring them. There are even laws of nature, set in motion by God at the creation of the world and still in effect today. Laws are a part of our life from the time we are born to the time we die, and even after. That being the case, anyone who tries to circumvent those laws is supposed to pay a price for it, set up by our elected officials.

In the last few days we’ve heard that it is very likely the leader of our country, President Bush, deliberately broke laws set in place to protect out citizens from an over-zealous government. The question becomes, then, do we let him slide because he “had a good reason” for doing it, or let him know that no one, not even the President of the United States is above the laws of the land?

Now, this isn’t a Democrat vs. Republican thing. Senators and Congressmen from both sides of the aisle are questioning how this man could do what he did, what made him think he had the right to do it, and why he felt he had to circumvent the law set in place that would have given him the right to do what he did with the full approval of the Congress. And there is just such a law in place, which makes one ask why he totally ignored it.

The Congress passed a law, the name of which escapes me now, that allows the President to ask the Congress for permission to bypass the need for warrants in order to spy on US citizens for Domestic Security reasons. All he has to do is go to them, explain what he wants to do and why, and they either give him permission to do it or not. In every case, every Senator and Congressperson I’ve heard talk about this situation have said that in most of the cases there was no doubt permission would have been given had the case been made.

So why the subterfuge? Why pull an end-run around the laws? That’s something that needs to be looked into. Now, apparently he went to some congresspersons, and although there were some concerns expressed at the time, he still went ahead with it. He didn’t ask for permission, he simply told them what he was going to do, then did it. What’s wrong with this picture?

We have a presidency, not a monarchy. The leader of our country cannot, under any circumstances, decide to abridge the rights of any US citizen ex parte. It simply doesn’t work that way, and he should have known that. But then, this just fits right in to the pattern this administration has set since day one - they will do what they want, the way they want to do it, and laws be damned. It happened with the torturing of POW’s, and it’s happened with the so-called terrorists whose civil rights were trampled on.

Just how many terrorists did they find with their illegal snooping? Apparently not very many. They apparently (or so they claim) stopped a bridge from being blown up. Very good, but how many people were involved in that? How many of the people whose privacy was invaded so callously were simply targeted because of their name, their religion, or their nation of origin? How scary is it that you could have government snoops listening in to your conversations, or watching every word you write on your computer? What are they watching you do, and when? What have you ever done to deserve having observers during every minute of your day?

I understand that there are times when extraordinary measures are required, and so did the framers of the law that allows such things under certain circumstances, but there is never a good reason for the outright ignoring of the laws we are supposed to follow, and there is no good reason for subjecting law-abiding citizens to unwarranted scrutiny in every area of their lives. This is America. We have rights, and we have them for a reason, so whenever someone in the government wants to snoop into what we do and when they’d better have a really good reason, and jump through all the legal hoops before they start. Otherwise we become no better than the Soviet Union, and we all know what happened to them.

I just got back from my grandson’s Christmas Concert, at the public school where he is a second-grader. I went to see my Gorgeous Guy singing and enjoying himself with the other second-graders, of course, because I never pass up a chance to see him. But I also went to see just how bad the “Attack On Christmas” we’ve been hearing so much about really is. I mean, this is one of those dastardly public schools, you know, so certainly the songs would be of Santa, snow, reindeer, and presents, isn’t that what they are saying? I should have known better.

My kids, aged from 20 to 38, were all educated in public schools, from Kindergarten to 12th grade, and in all those years, all those many Christmas concerts I attended, I never saw anything that made me feel the Christian Holiday was being ignored, choked out, or avoided in any way, but hey, things change, right? So as I was heading through the Tule Fog, hoping I wouldn’t run into something I’d never see until I hit it, I decided I was going to see just how much things really have changed.

I walked in and they were already singing (Darn that fog!), and the song was a benign, non-secular song about Santa and gifts. The next song - Old Saint Nick, with appropriate (and really cute) hand gestures. Then Must Be Christmas. We all got a real kick out of the kids all trying to remember the gestures describing this song - “Cap on head, suit of red, special night, beard of white….”, you know the one. Then they sang a very moving rendition of Little Drummer Boy, with special emphasis on the “Ba rumpa dum dum” parts, then Rudolph, Silent Night, Away in a Manger, and finishing up with “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”

After making my way to the front to kiss and hug my baby and tell him what a great job he and the other students had done, then watching him marching in line back to his classroom, I left, wondering what all the fuss was about. Now, I will admit, I haven’t seen anything up to this point that indicated to me that anyone was prohibited from celebrating the Christmas season however they wished to, unless they were working for a Federal, State, or Local agency, but I really wanted to see this “kids aren’t allowed to mention Christ or any other designation of Christmas”. Needless to say, it was much ado about nothing. As usual.

Now, maybe in other states, other areas, things have tightened down, or maybe some people are so afraid of being hauled to court that they won’t mention these things, but for goodness sake, this is California. You know, the famous “Left Coast”. If Christ isn’t under attack here, then where on earth would it be happening, and yet there they were, those beautiful little children, singing about Jesus and his birth, big as day. Go figure.

I don’t know about you, but to me it seems to be a no-brainer that all the dire messages of Christianity, and Jesus himself, being under attack, with the intent of taking Him out of any mention during this time, add up to absolutely nothing. What we have here is a bunch of guys who want to stir up controversy, knowing it’s a good way to shake more money out of those that fall for their lies, and they are proving themselves right. This country is going crazy fighting an enemy that is non-existant, apparently, but if it does exist it’s so weak and inaffective that it’s not worth talking about.

I guess some people just aren’t happy unless there is turmoil going on all around them or something. I mean, what other explanation is there for the fact that so many people are so sure the enemy is hiding behind every bush, just waiting to jump out and steal their religion away with one fell swoop? It is a well-planned scare campaign, designed to build up their income while bankrupting those who fall for their line.

I have to tell you, if anyone is being a Grinch it’s those that are barking the loudest about all this nonsense. Christmas is alive and well, and there is no danger of it being swept under the rug and allowed to smother itself out any time soon, so stop all the worrying, concentrate on celebrating Jesus’ birth, and have a wonderful time with your friends and family. Ignore all those that want to dampen your holiday spirit, and have a very merry and Blessed Christmas.

I have to write down some thoughts that are running around in my head, get them out before it explodes or something. I’m in a pensive mood, as I usually am when the state kills someone in my name, and sleep isn’t anywhere in the neighborhood for me, so here I am.

I know of a man who killed a whole lot of people. Innocent, decent, Christian people, who’d never done a thing to him. He simply hunted them down and killed them because they were different than he was, and he just couldn’t stand “different”. He did all this with relish, enjoying every minute of it, believing he was doing what God had told him to do. Did he hear voices telling him this? I don’t know. I only know that he felt he was doing God’s work, even tho every person he stalked and killed had given their lives to Jesus Christ. The man simply didn’t like them and enjoyed watching them die as painfully as possible.

By our standards today, this man should have been put to death for taking innocent lives. He should have been killed, even as he had killed so many others. Yet, that didn’t happen. This guy was forgiven all these bloody, cruel murders, and ended up becoming a major force for good, talking to crowds of those who had been like him and convincing them what they were doing was wrong, leading them to a better way.

Now, the Old Testament says it’s “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” when it comes to killing people, and even tho Jesus changed that when he was here, people today still believe that’s the way God wants us to be. But it isn’t. We are supposed to forgive and forget. It just doesn’t happen that way, tho, and today is a good example of that.

Tookie Williams killed four people. Only four. He steadfastly maintained he didn’t do it, but whether that’s true or not is anyone’s guess. What is known is that he became a Christian while in prison, wrote several books and made personal speeches to groups of kids to keep them from following his footsteps by joining gangs. Many kids today credit him and his words with getting them out of the gangs they were in and keeping them out. He was even award a Nobel Prize for the work he did. Today, Tookie Williams is dead.

He died at approximately an hour and thirty minutes ago, as I write this, after being denied clemency by the governor and a stay of execution by the courts. All the good he could have done for the kids of this country is gone with him, and the lesson the kids learned today is that it doesn’t matter if you change your ways and do all manner of good works, you will still be looked on as trash to be done away with by those in power in this country for things long done and over with.

Saul of Tarsus hunted down and killed the early Christians, and did so gleefully, feeling he was doing God’s work. Yet, on the road to Damascus, on his way to find more Christians to kill, Jesus faced him down, forgave him, renamed him Paul, and sent him out to do his work with the very Christians he’d been killing for years. You would think, if Jesus really believed in the “eye-for-an-eye” concept He would have required Saul’s life for the people he’d murdered, but He didn’t. He forgave him.

He realized that the work Paul could do in bringing souls to Him was worth more than seeing his blood spilled out onto the ground to avenge the Children of God he had killed. Not only did He forgive him, He made him one of the greatest Apostles of all, in charge of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. It never ceases to amaze me how those of us who consider ourselves to be Christians, meaning we are supposed to follow Christ’s example, are so willing to ignore His teachings and fall back on the old Hebrew Laws that never worked well in the first place.

Ok, so we can and do commit murder to avenge murder. I get that. I simply don’t get how we can be so happy about the deaths that result from that belief when Jesus himself told us to ignore it. Is that really Christ-like? It sure doesn’t seem like it to me. Stanley “Tookie” Williams is dead, and it was done in my name, and I really hate knowing that. I ask God to forgive me for his murder, and pray that he will do the same for all the others involved, also. God forgive us.

You know, I’ve been considering buying my daughter a portable DVD player to take with her when she takes her kids on trips. It seems like a good way to keep them interested in something and make the trips easier for their parents. There’s nothing worse than tired, cranky, arguing kids in the backseat when you’re trying to get somewhere on time. I’ve been looking around at the prices, trying to find the best deal. One thing I found out today, tho, is that no matter what the price at K-Mart, I won’t be buying it there.

I saw a commercial for one today, and it really bugged me. Maybe I’m being picky, but I really didn’t like the message it portrayed and I don’t want to reward whoever thought it up by giving them my money for the product.

The commercial shows a man and woman in a car, obviously on a long trip, with two young children in the back seat. Those kids are yelling, pushing, arguing, and carrying on like savages all the while, with the parents sitting up front feeling sorry for themselves. All at once whatever they were arguing over, whether it was a book or a game I couldn’t tell, went flying into the front and whacked the mother upside the head, and still neither parent did anything. The announcer then comes on talking about how a portable DVD can make traveling easier, and you can get one at K-Mart.

Now, I grew up traveling with my parents from one end of California to the other, and at least three of four times each year we traveled from wherever we were living at the time to one or the other of my grandparent’s houses, sometimes to both in one trip. My brother and I knew that we were to sit quietly, read our comic books, play car games, or whatever, and that’s what we did. To put it simply, we realized if we didn’t, we wouldn’t like the consequences. My dad wasn’t above pulling the car to the side of the road, getting out, and spanking both of us while reminding us that we were not animals and needed to act like decent human beings. We learned to behave.

Are we really so afraid of disciplining our kids these days that we will allow them to act like wild animals and do nothing rather than teach them how to act right? And if we do let them act that way, do we deserve any pity because of it? I think not. I was taught to be quiet when told to be, to be courteous to my elders, no matter whether I liked them or not, and to respect my parents. I knew what I could and couldn’t do, and tried my best not to do what I shouldn’t. I never “sassed” my parents, I never “sassed” any other adult, and I survived just fine, thank you very much. My psyche never suffered because I was taught manners and made to use them, and any spanking I got never left any permanent damage to my rearend.

I don’t understand why parents feel they have to let their kids do whatever they want to do these days, as if any restrictions on them will somehow turn them into criminals or freaked-out psychos. Kids need limits, they do better when they know what those limits are and live by them, and they actually learn to live and let live. My mom was a “Mean Mom”, and so was I, because I realized the value of what her “meaness” had taught me. I’d like to share something I found on another blog today. It so well describes my mother’s parenting style, and my own, and I think it might do some good. So here, courtesy of supermom at Sending Smiles Across The Miles, is “Mean Mom”.

I loved you enough . . . to ask where you were going, 
with whom, and what time you would be home.

I loved you enough to be silent and let you
discover that your new best friend was a creep.

I loved you enough to make you go pay for the
bubble gum you had taken and tell the clerk, "I
stole this yesterday and want to pay for it."

I loved you enough to stand over you for two hours
while you cleaned your room, a job that should have
taken 15 minutes.

I loved you enough to let you see anger,
disappointment, and tears in my eyes. Children must
learn that their parents aren't perfect.

I loved you enough to let you assume the
responsibility for your actions even when the
penalties were so harsh they almost broke my heart.

But most of all, I loved you enough . . . to say
NO when I knew you would hate me for it.
Those were the most difficult battles of all. I'm
glad I won them, because in the end you won, too.

And someday when your children are old enough to
understand the logic that motivates parents, you
will tell them.

Was your Mom mean? I know mine was. We had the
meanest mother in the whole world! While other kids
ate candy for breakfast, we had to have cereal,
eggs, and toast. When others had a Pepsi and a
Twinkie for lunch, we had to eat sandwiches. And you
can guess our mother fixed us a dinner that was
different from what other kids had, too.

Mother insisted on knowing where we were at all
times! . You'd think we were convicts in a prison. She
had to know who our friends were, and what we were
doing with them. She insisted that if we said we
would be gone for an hour, we would be gone for an
hour or less.
We were ashamed to admit it, but she had the nerve
to break the Child Labor Laws by making us work. We
had to wash the dishes, make the beds, learn to
cook, vacuum the floor, do laundry, empty the trash
and all sorts of cruel jobs. I think she would lie
awake at night thinking of more things for us to do.

She always insisted on us telling the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth. By the time
we were teenagers, she could read our minds and had
eyes in the back of her head. Then, life was really
tough!

Mother wouldn't let our friends just honk the horn
when they drove up. They had to come up to the door
so she could meet them. While everyone else could
date when they were 12 or 13, we had to wait until
we were 16.

Because of our mother we missed out on lots of
things other kids experienced. None of us have ever
been caught shoplifting, vandalizing other's
property or ever arrested for any crime. It was all
her fault.

Now that we have left home, we are all educated,
honest adults. We are doing our best to be mean
parents just like Mom was.

I think that is what's wrong with the world today.
It just doesn't have enough mean moms!

My new Blog Explosion renter is Backwoods Bob, and I’d like to say thanks, and welcome. I’ve visited his blog and was impressed by the layout, the contents, and how much he makes me feel as if he could be part of my own family. He is funny, with the down-home type humor that I grew up with, and his insights, at least as far as I read, make a lot of common sense. Go visit Backwoods Bob by clicking on the icon at the top of this page. It will be well worth the time and “trouble”.

My TV’s alive with some beautiful scenes 
of trees, lights, and kids on their sled. 
It seems like some wonderful, sparkling dreams 
I’ve had while asleep in my bed. 
The world looks so white and shiny and clean 
the lights seem to sparkle like stars. 
The trees are so beautiful, covered in snow 
And the kids on their sleds glide like cars. 
The sounds are amazing, they echo, rebound, 
Fill the air with mellifluous chords 
Of talking, and yelling and laughing out loud 
Dancing lightly off Chevys and Fords. 
I look out my window and hope I will see there 
A scene like the one on my screen,
But there in the front is just one little square, 
And the color’s not white, it is green! 
The weather is balmy, 68 in the shade 
The breezes are gentle and fragrant. 
The smell of the blossoms on sale at the Glade 
Make my stomach jump like I was pregnant. 
I long for the fresh, crispy cold of a winter, 
I hunger for snow on the ground. 
I really would like to bid Jack frost to enter, 
To hear the hushed snow-falling sound. 
I know there are those who are tired of snow, 
Who think a warm Christmas is fine. 
But what they don’t realize, don’t really know 
Is that Christmas in snow is divine. 
God made snow for Christmas because it’s so pure
It muffles all sounds but the singing, 
When angels brought joy to us, made us secure 
In his love, and left our heart bells ringing. 
So I will keep right on praying for snow 
And hope that it soon will appear. 
But whether it does or not I still will know 
That there’ll be a chance once more next year. 

Well, it’s that time of year again. The Holiday Season. Now, you’d think during this time of happiness and good cheer the President would catch a break for a while, wouldn’t you? I mean, they guy’s practically drowning in bad news, and although they are trying very hard to make even the slimmest of not-so-bad-news seem like they’ve hit the mother lode, things just aren’t picking up for the guy. Iraquagmire, gas prices on an up-and-down (mostly up) track, and an economy that keeps trying to make itself look better but can’t quite make it are just some of the mill stones hanging around his neck as he tries to swim across the last three years of his white-water-rapids Presidency without drowning.

Now he’s been slammed again, and by some of his most ardent admirers, over the wording used on his Holiday greeting cards. See, that’s it right there - Holiday. It seems when they had the cards printed up, they decided to make it an all-purpose card, targeted at all the various groups that make up this great country of ours, and that’s pinched the tails of his Religious Right backers. See, they want him to only recognize Christmas, not any of the other holidays celebrated by other religions around this same time. Personally, I think it’s time someone educated these people on what America really is, as well as what it’s not. Let’s see what one American had to say about it:

“We are under the United States. But the United States is not the kingdom of God. It does not profess to be under his rule, nor his government, nor his authority…. ” ~ John Taylor (1808-1887) American religious leader, from Journal of Discourses 21:68.

Now, for those who don’t know, Mr. Taylor was the third leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or Mormons, one of the religious groups that so admire and support Mr. Bush today. Well, they did, anyway. They may or may not be among those who are revolting against him today. But it’s clear from the quote I cited that we haven’t always thought the United States is some kind of extension of God’s right arm or something. Nope, that’s a fairly recent twist on “history”, pretty much starting in the late 70’s/early 80’s. It just goes to show how quickly a deadly fungus will grow if it’s not treated early and intelligently.

Anyway, W’s most ardent supporters are now ripping him a new one over the fact the message chosen for the White House Greetings Cards said “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”. As I said in the title, I’m on Georgie’s side this time. We celebrate important holidays for several religions/factions of this country at this time, not just Christmas, and encompassing all Americans in his greeting cards is the right thing for the President to do. We are all Americans, and American is not synonamous with Christian, no matter what these stiff-necked bigots say.

Should we really ignore the Jewish holiday of Hannukhah? Or the African-American holiday of Kwaanzaa? How about the Winter Solstice, which is celebrated by many Americans, and which, by the way, Christmas was invented for? Oh, you never knew that? Why doesn’t that surprise me? Let me enlighten you.

The early Christians didn’t celebrate Christmas, meaning the Apostles and those who knew them, along with those who followed for the next 300 years or so. They felt it was wrong, since they didn’t know His real birthday. However, the pagans celebrated anywhere from the 21st to the 25th as the birth days of the sons of various goddesses, including Isis, and the birth of the sun and moon, among other things, and the Romans celebrated the birth of Saturn, the god of agriculture, as the winter solstice, and believed the 21st, the shortest day of the year, was the birthday of the sun. Emperor Constantine of Rome was a member of this sun worshipping cult before he converted to Christianity in 312 AD, and he’s the one who started Christmas as a way to keep Christians from celebrating the other holidays.

It’s interesting to note that the “birth of the sun” became the “birth of the Son”, and that the goddesses who gave birth to these various luminaries were worshipped as holy, too. But it’s not a coincidence. So, when we celebrate Christmas, we are really carrying on the ancient sun- and moon-goddess worship of the pagans. How’s that for irony? The truth is, no one knows when Jesus was born, and it’s not really that important, or it would have been made known. However, judging from the fact that the shepards were sleeping in the hills with their sheep ought to tell any thinking person that it wasn’t the dead of winter, but more likely Spring or Fall.

Now, when His birth is celebrated makes no difference, really, so being so selfish with the dates that were picked arbitrarily in an attempt to keep early Christians from worshipping other gods makes no sense. Celebrate December 25th if you wish, and have fun doing so, but don’t think it makes you any better than any other American who celebrates their own special days around the same time. Lighten up. Remember, the angels told us “Peace, goodwill, toward men.” Why not try it and live the real message of Christ’s birth?

There are many things you can complain about as far as the current President is concerned, but this is really getting pickiuni if you ask me. The man recognizes there are several holidays celebrated in December by most of the citizens of this country, and including them all in his well-wishes is the right thing to do. These guys need to back off and realize they are not in charge, nor should they try to be, since this is not Heaven and they are not God.