Am I done yet?
My Relaxed Approach to Christmas Decorating
Am I done yet?
Category: Commentary
A Paranoid Congress and Guns
I am a gun owner who once again weeps in horror and disbelief at our Republican legislators’ most recent unconscionable actions.
From the New York Daily News, 12/04/15:
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans voted against barring suspected terrorists, felons and the mentally ill from getting guns on Thursday afternoon, parroting National Rifle Association arguments that doing so would strip some innocent people of their constitutional rights to gun access just a day after yet another massacre on U.S. soil.
A pair of Democratic measures – one to close background check loopholes to make it harder for felons and the mentally ill from buying guns, another to ban those on the terror watch list from buying guns – both went down in flames against near-unanimous GOP opposition.
Most of these same legislators offered up their fervent prayers for the victims of the tragic domestic terrorist attack in San Bernadino the day before they voted against measures that might help avoid similar tragedies.
I couldn’t conceive the thinking behind their votes. After all, the GOP and its puppet masters the NRA assert again and again that,
“Guns Don’t Kill People. People Kill People!”
Wouldn’t any sane and decent person then logically deny certain people, say those on the terrorist watch list, those with a history of mental illness, and those who have served time for felony convictions, the right to purchase and own guns?
Gosh, it seemed like a no-brainer to a little old country girl like me. So, why did our supposedly learned legislators vote in such a decidedly unlearned way?
Carly Fiorina provided a clue in a recent televised appearance saying that a friend’s husband had been placed on the terror watch list in error and that she did not believe the list was accurate. I deemed that a small picture reaction to a big picture problem, until I looked at the Republican Party’s behavior over the past seven years.
Since the first term of President Barak Obama, the Republican Party has operated as an extreme oppositional force. On the night of President Obama’s first inauguration a group of powerful Republican Party members assembled in a not-so-secret meeting, led by Paul Ryan (who has just recently been elevated to Speaker of the House), and agreed to block the President in any way possible. Often this agreement has worked to the detriment of the nation as a whole. Common sense and the best interests of the country were tromped on in favor of making certain that the Obama presidency failed. Treason, anyone?
Instead of failing, President Obama was elected to a second term. Could Republicans and their NRA backers be concerned that depending on the outcome of future elections that some of them might end up on a no-fly, no-buy watch list? Has their paranoia gone to that extreme?
That could certainly help put their decidedly unlearned votes in a new light. Unless of course their favorite slogan is meaningless. Maybe it is the guns that kill people. Pick a side GOP. You can’t have it both ways.
Peace, and common sense, people.
Check out the Twitter feed of Igor Volsky @igorvolsky for information on the amount of money provided to congressmen by the NRA. Each time a congressman tweets out his or her thoughts and prayers Mr. Volsky supplies donation details. It’s a sick, slick business.
Paranoia is an unfounded or exaggerated distrust of others, sometimes reaching delusional proportions.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV), the diagnostic standard for mental health professionals in the United States, lists the following symptoms for paranoid personality disorder:
suspicious; unfounded suspicions; believes others are plotting against him/her
preoccupied with unsupported doubts about friends or associates
reluctant to confide in others due to a fear that information may be used against him/her
reads negative meanings into innocuous remarks
bears grudges
perceives attacks on his/her reputation that are not clear to others, and is quick to counterattack
Sources:
Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
National Institute of Mental Health. Mental Health Public Inquiries, 5600 Fishers Lane, Room 15C-05, Rockville, MD 20857. (888) 826-9438. http://www.nimh.nih.gov.
Mouthing Off
I scalded the roof of my mouth several days ago while dining on the exquisite Fit Fare Veggie Skillet at the Denny’s just down the road. Before you look down your nose at my choice of restaurant let me assure you that our Denny’s in Midway, Florida, is the best in the world. It is well-managed with an efficient and personable wait staff, and food that looks exactly like the pictures featured on the glossy menu, and tastes just like I need it to taste.
When my favorite server brought me my favorite meal I dug right in and was immediately rewarded by that ohmygoshtoohottoohot!!! panic. I couldn’t very well spit the food into my plate so I grabbed my ice cold soda and took a long drink, holding the liquid in my mouth until the food cooled.
I knew immediately that I’d pay for my eager gluttony for days, after all, this wasn’t my first burning mouth event. But I don’t think I’ve ever gotten actual blisters in my mouth before. Worst of all I couldn’t even drink my coffee this morning! Maybe I should just go back to bed. To heal.
Peace, people!
Postscript: Several days after scalding my mouth I’ve been rinsing with lots of Shiner Bock beer. Salt water would probably be better for the healing process, but it doesn’t mellow me out like beer does.
Christmas Catalog-o-Rama
Winter, and the impending Christmas holiday, are heralded in Florida not by cooling temperatures, but by the arrival of catalogs. I estimate that Studly Doright and I began receiving between four and eight of the glossy mailings daily beginning around the first of November. Today there were 12 catalogs in the Doright Manor mailbox. Twelve. I almost needed to make two trips to carry them all.
Some of the catalogs go straight into the recycling bin, while others are put into a stack for future browsing. Generally, the future browsing pile never gets browsed, but I like to give them a sense of hope.
The Hickory Farms catalog is one I always take a few minutes to thumb through. Back when Studly and I were newlyweds the Hickory Farms catalog was about the only one we’d get in the mail. I’d read each page and daydream about someday hosting a Christmas Eve party where I’d serve all the cute little cheese and sausage trays. I’d be the hostess with the mostest for sure.
One year I scraped up the money to place an order and was so very disappointed in the sizes of the cheeses. I had looked at the pictures and not the dimensions. So much for my hostessing abilities. Nowadays I know to have plenty of wine and beer on hand so nobody cares about the size, quantity, or even the existence of the hors d’oeuvres.
That’s why my new “go to” catalog is the one from Wine Country Gift Baskets:
Of course I don’t often buy anything, but I’m still planning that perfect Christmas Eve gathering…chestnuts roasting by an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose…
Peace, people.
John Scalzi Presents Your Day to Promote Charities!
Friends, so many of you are passionate about charities you’ve started or organizations you support. Today is your day to submit information about your charitable organization to John Scalzi’s Whatever Holiday Shopping Guide.
Go to the link posted at the top of my post and carefully read the instructions for submission. Do it. ‘Tis the season.
Peace and gratitude, people!
John Scalzi Presents Day Four
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2015/12/03/whatever-holiday-shopping-guide-2015-day-four-fan-favorites/
Day Four of John Scalzi’s Holiday Shopping Guide gives fans an opportunity to provide input.
Do you have a favorite author, artist, or musician whose work you want to promote? Go to the link above and check out the criteria. Then make your pitch.
Ungrateful Wenches Like Me
they let me vote
even pick out my own clothes
i can also read
whatever, whenever i choose,
but they tell me
this body i inhabit isn’t mine
they try to tell me
i have no right to decide.
they let me think
but on some issues my thoughts
do not have weight
though mine’s the changed life.
one day they’ll find,
this powerful contigent of “theys,”
that wenches like me
don’t listen to theys like them.
Yes, I got all political today after reading that a lawmaker in Colorado blamed Planned Parenthood for the recent shooting that occurred at a clinic in that state. Instead, we should blame the domestic terrorist who broke numerous laws and took the lives of innocent people. We should blame the lies and anger-fueled rhetoric of far right conservative politicians whose pandering to the lowest common denominator among the Republican party lead people to believe that they have the right to break the law of the land.
Keep your hands off of my reproductive rights.
Peace, people.
John Scalzi Presents Day 3!
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2015/12/02/whatever-holiday-shopping-guide-2015-day-three-arts-crafts-music-and-more/
Are you the artistic type? Do you create art for others, either photography or paintings or any other item that the public needs to know about?
Here’s your opportunity to get attention on a site that receives literally thousands of views every single day. I’d like to say that describes my blog, but no. It’s John Scalzi’s “Whatever” blog site.
Scalzi is a science fiction author who has followers all over the world, and who at this time of year accepts submissions from writers and creative types who want to get their work in front of a wider audience. Go to the link above and get your name out there.
He explains the submission criteria in detail, so go. Tell him I sent you. That won’t help your chances of being accepted because John Scalzi has no idea who I am, but if he reads my name often enough he might just remember me next year when I have something to submit.
Good luck, and as always, Peace, people!
Messing With Cats
Doright Manor is built in such a way that four doors open onto our porch. There is set of French doors in the formal living, another from the den, and another from the master bedroom. Then there is a single door opening from the master bath directly across from the French doors in the den.
Since completing our covered/screened in porch project we’ve almost exclusively used the den doors to access our new seating area on the porch. This morning while sipping my coffee and watching squirrels cavort around the lake I decided to open the door to the master bath so the cats could easily access their litter box without having to go all the way around the house.
Our older girl, Scout, is totally chill about the new doorway. She’s sitting in one of the patio chairs like, “Yeah, I knew that door would open eventually….No biggie.”
But our younger baby, Patches, has had her mind blown. It’s like she’s discovered Narnia. Patches has run back and forth nonstop across the porch all morning to verify the door’s existence, stopping at intervals to meow a clear question, “What’s going on here?” There might be an expletive in there, but I’m not that fluent in Cat.
At some point she’ll run out of steam and questions. That’s when I’ll open the door onto the master bedroom. That will really blow her mind.
Peace, people!
Day Two of John Scalzi’s Holiday Shopping Guide
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2015/12/01/whatever-holiday-shopping-guide-2015-day-two-non-traditionally-published-books/
Today’s the day John Scalzi, awesome scifi author and all-around good guy begins accepting promotional blurbs from authors who have gone the non-traditional route in publishing. For more information go to his Whatever blog (link above) and read the entire post. Don’t read three or four lines and say, “I don’t get it….” Read the whole thing. Then if you still don’t get it shoot John a question.
Good luck folks, and as always, Peace, people!
Praying for Eyebrowz 