At Home With Barbie Crafts

The audacity of hoping for a few good men

2012-02-08T07:26:00.203-05:00

This is not a political endorsement or lack thereof regarding any political candidate, but a reflection on the conversation, which does change daily. There are a lot of voices in the dialog, and you might have tuned them out already at this point in the process. Not around here! My husband calls from work on debate or caucus nights reminding me of the upcoming evening's entertainment. We are, for lack of a better word, Political Wonks. (I have not had as much time to devote to the coverage as in years past.).

What are we looking for in an applicant?
One interesting thread that has run throughout the Republican Primary has been the discussion of whether we need a "Good Man" as President or a man who can solve problems. Through this gut-wrenching primary, we have heard these thoughts bantered around repeatedly. This one has had affairs, this one has had business experience, this one has governed, this one is so smart about almost everything to do with the office, this one is as very good man, this one is not, this one has served in office, this one has never served in office, this one has made a lot of money in the private sector, this one has never been corrupted by the private sector, blah blah blah....

Does the current state of our nation require that we overlook a man's character and concentrate only on his qualifications? Is character a qualification for the job of "LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD?"

Most importantly, are there even any Good Men left?

No, not one
It is very true that nobody is perfect. Redemption, the hallmark of GRACE, involves acknowledging that very fact. It has been said that it takes a big man to acknowledge they have made big mistakes, and I do agree with that, having observed the male species for over half a century! I respect that.

Woman conflicted

I was sitting in church a few weeks ago contemplating the election (the pastor had mentioned it!) and was thinking about Newt Gingrich and his keen mind and vast knowledge of governmental affairs. Then I thought about his two terrible failures at marriage, both ending in infidelity. Supporters are quick to remind us that it doesn't really matter because he is so well-qualified to hold the office. In almost every debate, he left Americans feeling confident that whatever was wrong, Newt could climb under the hood and fix it!

The thought also occurred to me that people can still be changed, and I certainly have made mistakes myself. I could certainly never judge someone's heart before God. (Of course, I am also not qualified to be President, in case any of you were planning to write me in. )

What about King David, the thought came to me? He had someone killed! God certainly used him to lead Israel, even after this event for which he repented. Maybe Newt is God's Man for the Hour? Who am I to judge?

Women rejected

A few weeks later, I was perusing Facebook when I came across a long-time acquaintance who had posted about her current travail after 30 years of marriage. In short, her husband left her for another woman and it appeared she was getting the short end of the stick, being forced out of the home that she had helped build. As I read her grief, I thought about the Infidelity issue again. Maybe, the way a man treats his wife and family is important enough to be an issue? I began to think of the women I knew who had been done in a similar way as Newt Gingrich's ex-wives were allegedly treated.

I have never experienced that kind of pain and anguish, because I am blessed enough to have a very GOOD MAN who has put up with me and loved me unconditionally. I was, however, thinking about how women who have been so badly treated must feel when they hear explanations that this past behavior does not matter.

What do you think?
I am not going to pretend I know the answers to any of the above questions. I guess that's why I won't be running this year, but one thing I know for sure: I refuse to accept that our American Society no longer even produces Good Men anymore!

Surely somewhere across this land, there are men who stand head and shoulders above the others to lead our nation. I refuse to accept that we must lower our standards and expectations because good men just do not exist.

I wrote an article today about Rick Santorum and what he stands for. You can read that article right here: Rick Santorum: Representing the few good men

Whether you agree with Santorum or not, it is hard to make a credible case that he is not a man of thoughtfulness, honesty, and integrity. He is, by my estimation, a VERY GOOD MAN.

Love, Laughter, and Looking for a few Good Men,
Barbie

What in the world is data aggregation?

2012-02-06T11:51:00.004-05:00

Pandora's Box

I got up this morning and scanned my regular Facebook, which I have not done too much lately, to be honest. I have another account for playing Words With Friends and I find myself on there when I have time to be online. (My articles are posted from the Examiner site by the click of a button.)

My name is Barbie, and I am a hopeless Words With Friends Addict

I have been very upfront about my WWF addiction,and apparently I am not alone because the New York Giants also have such an addiction! See what it did for them last night. I am sure that sharpening their mental acuity and relieving anxiety had a lot to do with their win. You can read about their WWF addiction here. When I am puzzling over a word for my turn, I think of nothing else: no worries, no problems, no NOTHING! I keep many games going at one time, and I make a few moves on each game every day at my leisure, with the occasional spurt of head-to-head play for a half hour or so with a friend.

Anyway, back to the subject: data aggregation
As I was perusing the various posts in the newsfeed, I came across an article posted by my cousin in Kentucky. It was the most spot-on, scary description of our online vulnerability that I have ever seen. The New York Times article is titled, Facebook is using you., and it is written by Lori Andrews, a law professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law.

She brings up the obvious advertising and legal slant to the use of our social media data, but she takes it a step further. She explains how these data aggregators are compiling data that is sold and used by human resources, credit, and insurance agencies to approve or disapprove people. Ms. Andrews mentions this startling fact:

Employers sometimes decide whether to hire people based on their online profiles, with one study indicating that 70 percent of recruiters and human resource professionals in the United States have rejected candidates based on data found online.

Milk spilled, eggs scrambled, empty bag

The sad thing is that the proverbial cat is out of the bag! Surely tightening up our privacy settings is a good idea for personal safety, if nothing else. Being cautious about how much of ourselves we put out there is also the only way to go from this point on out, but truly it is too late.

Storage facilities for data are being enlarged and built as we speak, and if you don't believe me, read here. This is just Facebook's data storage, and Google is another entire entity to be feared, especially with the new privacy policy compiling 60 different Google services under one username.

Why do you want to know?

If you have an inquiring mind, you may conduct a large amount of online searches, but you should realize that you have no online privacy. While you may not have any intention of getting a tattoo, you might search tattoos for information to share with a friend considering a tattoo. It could be that people with tattoos are predisposed to NOT pay their credit card bills, and thus you have a negative against you when you apply for that credit account. Does this sound crazy? Read the article by the law professor, and see for yourself.

The future is here, and it appears that they have saved all your past carefully in a cool vault in Oregon.

Love, laughter, and living under a microscope......

barbie

Have lunch at my house today!

2012-02-04T15:18:00.001-05:00

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Hi, friends!

I am getting things back to normal on BarbieCrafts.com. I thought I would share our lunch with you today. Yes, I write a cooking column, so I am always sharing some dish or other with you that might or might NOT have worked out. But, today's lunch was prepared with care by a dear friend who truly is a gourmet cook, Donna Schiano. You can read some articles about her and her cooking and entertaining talents here. I have written about her cooking, sharing tips, techniques, and recipes so many times that the Examiner has a whole page just about Donna Schiano.

I was not feeling very well today, which I won't bore you with the details, but this was such a nice surprise! Donna had cooked a lot of food, and she was delivering gifts of her labors of love to three homes today. She has done this once before while my mother was in the hospital. We met Donna at Kroger when we went to see my mother at the nearby Skilled Nursing Center where she is in rehab after surgery for a broken ankle. She handed me a huge paper shopping bag full of goodies:

A container of her famous Chicken Salad Croissants. Although I have become privy to most of the secret recipe, I have yet been able to emulate them. (Much to the chagrin of my family, who actually tell me they are good, but ....not like Donna's.) Donna made several crowd-size trays of these for my daughter's recent wedding. Many of the attendees would actually remark about the chicken salad croissants before they would remark on the beautiful bride or beautiful wedding! (I noticed many people slipping out the back doors of the church with styrofoam plates--Yes, I did notice!)

Pasta unlike any I've ever had

Let's describe it this way: When my husband saw this pasta dish, his eyes bugged out! We each had two plates of it. It was long tubes of pasta stuffed with a mixture of ground beef, mozzarella, and ricotta. The sauce was her homemade tomato sauce, and it was so good. There were some big hunks of cheese thrown in the dish on the top. It was absolutely crazy it was so good.

The photograph is not very "pretty" because my husband had dug in about as fast as he walked into the room and saw it.

You can see dessert at the top of the page. This is Cream Cheese Pound cake, and it takes like a combination of angels and velvet. The coffee can she stuck down in the bag was from Italy. We immediately made us a pot by our regular measurement: 5 scoops to 6 1/2 cups of water. About that time, Donna called, and she told me that that coffee worked well at 2 Tablespoons to 8 cups of water!OOPs! WE added a little more water, and it was wonderful.

Hope you enjoyed that little synopsis of the case.

Love, Laughter, and Lying down for a while...

Barbie

Redecorating again!

2012-02-02T09:54:00.002-05:00

Hello, and thanks for stopping by. I am in the process of redecorating and reorganizing this page to make it more user friendly. I hope to provide an easier, one-stop location for all my online-activity. Be sure and check back throughout the day to see what I've done, and leave me a comment about what you like (or don't like!) about the changes. Nothing is set in stone.

Don't you love the mushrooms in the header photo? This photo was taken by Lisa Runnells of Magee, Mississippi. You can email her at Lisarunnells@gmail.com

Barbie