November 12, 2004
Suggestions for Commenters
I welcome anyone to comment unless they are abusive or are spammers.
May I suggest that writing a long treatise about the ignorance of 'people on this blog' might be better presented if you had some white space in your comment. Paragraphs make things easier to read and understand.
That said, President Bush is our President. You do not have to love him, but as an American (assuming you are a citizen), you really ought to respect the office.
Going on about how big a liar he is will not help your blood pressure or your political point of view.
I am very well aware of the fact that Osama Bin Laden was operating out of Afghanistan. I know that Saddam Hussein did not cause 9/11. However, Hussein backed terrorists in many places. For example, he gave thousands of dollars to Palestinian parents of suicide bombers as an award. Hell, the man terrorized his own people - attacked them with chemicals, raped them, cut off body parts, buried women and their babies in mass graves.
President Bush said we would go after terrorists and their supporters - and that is exactly what we are doing.
The world has put up with terrorism for far too long. It is way past time to do what we can to stamp it out. I support President Bush in the Global War on Terror - the Iraq War is just one part of it.
I don't really understand why so many leftists pretend that if you ignore terrorism it will go away - that is what we (the USA) did since the Palestinians kidnapped Olympic Atheletes way back probably before some of you were born.
Terrorists, seeing that there were few repercussions, got more and more daring until we ended up with September 11th, 2001.
It is well past time we stop as many terrorists as possible.
See, isn't it easier to read this with white space in it then if it was one huge block of words?
Live and learn, lefties, live and learn.
Posted by Beth at 05:27 AM
February 21, 2004
Procrastination
I guess it serves me right. I have been planning on flying John down to South Carolina next weekend with one of my free tickets from Delta. I called them today to make the reservation.
Seems I should have called last weekend - Delta makes you call 14 days in advance. I have been spoiled by Southwest, who lets me use one of those free flights anytime I want to!
So, I had to go look up good rates, and found the best at Expedia.com.
And it will cost more to fly from KC to Columbia S.C. than it cost me to fly to England.
Sigh.
Posted by Beth at 03:01 PM
November 22, 2003
Michael Jackson, freak
I agree with Kim of Velociworld. Michael Jackson is such a freak, that I totally believe that he would sleep with kids without 'sleeping' with them. Personally, I suspect he is asexual. He wants love and attention, but doesn't have much desire for sex.
Along with many others, I also agree that any parent who lets their kid go spend the night with Michael is nuts, or greedy. The man is 45 years old, for God's sake! He has not grown into puberty yet, from what I can see, and has a fairy tale view of life.
It's too bad someone didn't convince him to get into therapy when his self-abusive plastic surgeries started making him look more like Dianna Ross than a talented young black man.
What is nuttier, is that the whole country is more focused on Michael than on what's going on in the world - yeah, yeah, I know - here I am talking about it too.
I hope he gets a fair trial, and I hope all parents keep their kids the hell away from that knucklehead!
Posted by Beth at 03:26 PM
October 28, 2003
Hyphenated-Americans
I am against Hyphenated-Americans. Those are US Citizens who find it necessary to define themselves by their own or their ancestors homelands.
The whole point of the USA is that we leave our homelands behind - it has been this way for a very long time. My ancestors came here because they didn't like it in Ireland or Germany, or wherever. Why should I suddenly want to identify with that long lost heritage. Many Americans of color want to call themselves African-Americans, now admittedly, many of these folks had ancestors who did not come here by choice, but since slavery was abolished over 140 years go, can't they let go?
Others may have recently moved to the United States - many seem to think that it is very important to identify where they came from - but if that is the case, why did they move here?
If you are Irish, and you think of yourself as Irish-American, why did you leave Ireland?
If your parents are from India, but you were born here in the US, why do you consider yourselves to be Indian-American?
This may be too esoteric a point, I don't know. But defining ourselves as different from the rest of our countrymen and women seems to be used as a way of creating divisions.
Suddenly, there are African-American clubs, Irish-American clubs, Italian-American clubs, Pakistani-American clubs - and what good are they, really?
Seems to me it is a chance for them to all get together and bitch about those hyphenated-Americans that they don't like.
The Arab-Americans bitch about the Israeli-Americans. The Irish-Americans bitch about the English-Americans. The Serbian-Americans bitch about the Croation-Americans. And so on. And so forth.
And this is even before religion is brought into play.
The thing is, those countries who have held on with extreme tenacity to their ethnic backgrounds are those countries with the longest histories of upheavel and war and 'ethnic cleansing'.
Look at the Balklands. Look at Ireland. Look at the Middle East. Look at Rwanda.
Separating ourselves from each other is harmful. Once we are here, we are Americans, and we need to carefully consider this before sticking a hyphen in front of our names.
Our society gives the individual rights that very few countries can match. We have the luxury to believe or not believe in whatever religion we want to. We have the luxury to marry anyone we want - regardless of caste, ethnicity, religion or race.
We become more and more, every day, a melting pot - and this is a good thing.
Words are important. What we call ourselves is important. If you call yourself French-American, you are diminishing the US. Once you are an American, you are an American, no longer Irish, French, German, Morrocan, Egyption, Mexican, Israili or Palestinian. You are part of us, part of our family. Don't cause division by insisting that you be called a hyphenated-American.
Ok - now, discuss among yourselves!
Posted by Beth at 09:24 PM
October 21, 2003
Dean esmay
Dean has a terrific essay on Terri Schindler-Schiavo (Justene) and her forced death by starvation.
I know, I know, many people think she should be 'allowed to die', but starvation is painful. Terri had never written a living will, this whole thing is based on her husband's words. And the fact that she was not even allowed Communion is beyond belief. Read Dean. I should have added him to my blog roll long ago.
And be sure to read the comments, an interesting and nicely calm argument. Even though I disagree with Mrs. du Toit.
Posted by Beth at 07:50 PM
October 07, 2003
Another reason to ban drivers from talking on Cell Phones:
People, this is not terrorism, this is a defective cell phone -
Posted by Beth at 08:17 AM
October 06, 2003
Who really cares ...
About Kobe Bryant and his marriage problems?
About a tiger mauling someone who smaked him on the face with a microphone 5 times"After the fifth time, the tiger, which weighs about 600 pounds, attacked"?
About all the women coming out of the woodwork an making accusations against Arnold now - one day before an election - and being encouraged by an obviously biased LA TimesYahoo! News - L.A. Times Faces Anger for Schwarzenegger Coverage)?
If NOW is upset that Arnold is running because of accusations, while they defended Bill Clinton after proof of misbehaviour(FOX40 KTXL | Schwarzenegger Apologizes For Mistreating Women And Says He's A Changed Man -- Now What?)?
Hell, I don't. I'm more concerned about other things (see the above entry)
Posted by Beth at 06:44 PM
October 02, 2003
Speaking of Trolls and old Prodigy Boards...
Oddly enough, I found that someone has actually kept copies of the old boards that John and I met on.
He has a long string of evil Troll things that Mark Pena (that was the last name of the Mark mentioned in my first Troll blog) wrote.
Amazing someone would keep all that stuff - if you are interested and very bored, go look:
Mark Pena
Anyway, I suppose the more things change, the more trolls come out of the woodwork!
Posted by Beth at 01:22 PM
September 29, 2003
Political Diversity - and the lack thereof in Higher Education
DC at brainstorming has a thoughtful post on the plight of conservative thinkers in US Universities.
It's quite well thought out, go read it!
Posted by Beth at 07:00 PM
September 28, 2003
Donald O'Connor Died
I never realized that Donald O'Connor never got an Oscar. He was so wonderful in Singing in the Rain and other musicals. Always funny.
And he apparently kept his sense of humor to the end. His last words were:
"I'd like to thank the Academy for my lifetime achievement award that I will eventually get."
He was one of my dad's favorite actors, too.
FOXNews.com - Foxlife - Donald O'Connor Dies at 78
Posted by Beth at 07:41 AM
September 26, 2003
This Explains a Lot
Frank J. has decided to begin writing his autobiography ~
IMAO: Yvonne's Ashes: Part I - Wacky California
Posted by Beth at 01:06 PM
September 25, 2003
Dreams of Never Finishing School
Rachel Lucas had her first nightmare about never really graduating from college.
I hate to tell her this, but I graduated in 1975, and I still have that dream, only worse - I find out that because I did not take Home Economics in High School, my High School diploma doesn't count. Therefore, my College Degree is nonexistant.
Those dreams never, ever stop happening.
Sigh.
Posted by Beth at 08:08 PM