Melhi Ink

New Year's Meme

2011-12-31T23:43:00.000-08:00

Kayecee invited her online pals to join in this meme. http://www.lifeoverhere.com/2012-new-years-resolutions-from-kayecee/ I thought this might be an effective way to cleanse myself of the sorrows of 2011 before I get a fresh, clean start what I hope will be an awesome and joyous 2012. :)

1. Did you keep your New Years' resolutions from 2011? Will you make any for 2012?
I don't do resolutions - I'm of the opinion that change has to come when we are truly ready for it, not when some silly tradition forces us to set ourselves up for failure. Plus, I am perfect, soooo.... (ha ha)

2. How will you be spending New Year's Eve?
I had a quiet dinner out with my hubs & youngest daughter, then I did research on a predatory pedophile who attempted to initiate contact with my daughter toward filing police reports. I am glad 2011 is over.

3. What was your biggest achievement of the past year?
I ran for the first time in a very long time and I didn't die or do myself a serious injury.

4. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?
I begged my grandma not to die and then buried her. As I said, I'm glad 2011 is over.

5. What was your biggest failure?
I did not earn as much as I needed to earn, this year. ...and I do mean *need*ed. I really need to step up my game in a big way in 2012.

6. Do you have any big events planned for 2012?
Youngest's Jr. High graduation in May.

7. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
Better sales, patience, for worry and grief to lift so my muse can whisper great ideas in my ear again, for everyone I love to be healthy and happy.

8. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Gardening. Like serious gardening... for food and for business use.

9. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Play silly time sucking games on Facebook. Except Sudoku - It helps me with focus in the same way meditation does but I don't have to achieve an unachievable state of relaxation to use it in that way. So, it's actually helpful. The others are not.

10. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Yes. But nobody who should not be in prison for doing what made me hate them.

11. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Yes, but nothing life threatening.

12. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope.

13. Did anyone close to you die?
Yes.

14. Did anyone close to you get engaged/married?
Nope. Pretty sure all the current engagements began in 2010... with wedding dates set for 2013.

15. Where did most of your money go this year?
Bare necessities. (Most of which were purchased at Save A Lot, on clearance.)

16. What was the best thing you bought during 2011?
My new camera - which I use for my shops on Zazzle. Part of me wishes I hadn't splurged because I know how many weeks of groceries its price would have bought, the other part of me knows it is an investment that will more than pay for itself - hopefully long before the end of 2012.

17. What places did you visit this past year?
Hannibal Missouri - the Mark Twain stuff. Middle Tennessee - my son and my parents-in-law live there.

18. What song will always remind you of 2011?
Mony Mony by Tommy James and the Shondells - because when I was little, I called my grandma Mony and thought the song was about her and during the time she was in the process of declining and dying and since she passed, I have needed to hear it... a LOT.

19. What was your favourite TV program?
Tie between Big Bang Theory, Doctor Who and Misfits.

20. What was the best book you read?
Don't remember the name of it - it was one of John Hodgman's books.

21. What was your greatest musical discovery?
The Ben Ross band (now renamed to Color You) - not because they're my cup of tea, necessarily, but because of how awesome they were to my daughter when we took her to see them at Bongo Java in Nashville, TN and how awesome they've been to her, since then. I wish them much success.

22. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
"Everybody hurts... sometimes." (Have I mentioned I'm glad 2011 is over?)

23. How would you describe your personal fashion in 2011?
I wouldn't even describe it as "fashion."

24. What was your favorite film of 2011?
Hmmmm... not sure... maybe The Help.

25. What did you do on your birthday?
My middle daughter threw a surprise luau for me!!!! It was AWESOME!!! I even wore my grass skirt!!! Definitely one my best memories from 2011.

26. What kept you sane?
Close online friends and my kids.

27. Who did you miss?
My son who's away at school. My grandma. My parents (who have been too ill to visit with much.)

28. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?
Sadder. An itty bitty bit thinner. A lot poorer.

29. Were you in love with anyone in 2011?
I am fairly certain I was in love with exactly as many people as were in love with me.

30. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:
I learned no new lessons in 2011 (except maybe that when I'm old, I should not, under any circumstances, fall) - lessons I've already learned were reaffirmed and 2011 could have been a lot worse even than it was if I had not learned them, already.

Scroll back up - click on the link to the meme and join in!

Tis The Season To Go Hungry

2011-12-08T11:20:00.000-08:00

I saw something, yesterday, that I hadn't seen in a long time. In fact, I'm not even sure I had ever seen it with my own eyes, before and not just in a movie.

I was feeling sick to my stomach, last night. The supper I'd planned wouldn't have set well, and we were out, anyway, so I suggested we swing by KFC/Taco Bell, where my family could get whatever and I could just get mashed potatoes & white gravy. As we waited on our order, I noticed an older man come in and a few seconds later, I heard him order just a cup of hot water. I wasn't really paying attention. I guess at the time, I probably assumed he took it to go and needed it to thaw something on his car or some-such. Our number was called a minute or two later, we grabbed our to-go bag and turned to leave.

As I turned, the older gentleman's eyes met mine and we exchanged warm smiles. He was seated in the dinng room. What he was doing, though, took a couple of minutes to register - he was emptying a ketchup packet into his hot water to make hobo soup. I was so stunned I didn't react as I should have, I SHOULD have given him my meal -- sparse as it was, it was more than he had to eat. I will long regret that I did not react quickly and correctly to offer my meal in trade for his. Perhaps if I had not felt ill, I might have had my wits more fully about me, in the moment. Instead, I wasted precious time processing, over and over, whether what I'd just seen was real.

This gentleman was no bum. His attire wasn't new, but it wasn't shabby. He was clean and shaven. And he wasn't whining or moaning, he was smiling. I've memorized his face - if I see him again - and this being such a small town, it's not unlikely that I will, he will not go hungry that day.

Slang Thang

2011-12-05T15:03:00.000-08:00

It amazes me, sometimes, the terms I've heard and used, for years, that are completely missing from Urban Dictionary. Today, while browsing and musing over what they *do* have ("Wow, they even got THAT one!" I discovered a whole family of terms completely absent, that surprised me far more than anything else I've ever discovered missing:

Running and Gunning -- when a cop is cruising up and down the highway, usually between two emergency turnarounds on a divided highway or
interstate, at the legal speed limit (running) and is shooting his speed gun (gunning) at passing motorists.

Stunning and Gunning -- when a cop car is sitting in such a well concealed place that you don't see him (stunning you with his presence) until it's too late (he's done gunning you with is speed gun.)

Stinging Like Bees -- One cop (The scout bee,) guns you, but doesn't pursue you. Just when you've traveled far enough you're sure you're safe, you see more cops (worker bees) - some may have other motorists pulled over, one has his lights and sirens on in your rear view mirror - this one pulls you over & gives you a ticket (Sting!) ALTERNATE USE: When several cops are spaced out along the same few-mile stretch of road, so that if one clocks a speeder & is too busy (busy bee)issuing a ticket to gun you as you speed by, there are plenty more bees buzzing around to sting you. (In this case, the one who scouts you is the one who stings you.)

Barking And Biting -- Usually done over holidays where people are more likely to travel or drink, this is when the police have advertised heavily, (barking - same meaning as in Carnival Barker) ahead of time that they'll have extra forces out aand/or will be operating road blocks and they let motorists know exactly where, when and what they'll be cracking down on (biting)... like speeders, drunk drivers, lack of seat belts, etc. Then they issue tickets (or harsher penalties) to each and every idiot who ignored their advance warnings.

Not the usual snark or commentary, but I thought I'd try sharing something a little different than my usual blog fare. I now return you to your regular Internet, in progress.

James McMurtry and Occupy

2011-12-04T09:34:00.000-08:00

According to the WHIP newsletter, James McMurtry is offering his famous song "We Can't Make It Here" (one of my personal favorite protest songs on the issues of economy and the working class) for free download and encouraging fans to use the song to make videos telling their story and/or supporting the Occupy movement. The best stories and videos will be featured on jamesmcmurtry.com

Download the song HERE

Send your videos to mcmurtrysite@gmail.com with the subject line: OCCUPY MOVEMENT or
post them to the James McMurtry Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/JamesMcMurtry

Excerpted from James' Blog:
In October, the New York City Police Department arrested over seven hundred Occupy protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge. Some were held for hours without charge. Earlier this year, J.P. Morgan/Chase, one of the recipients of the government bailout, derided by both Occupy and the Tea Party, donated 4.6 million dollars, partly in technology, patrol car laptops and such, to the New York City Police Department. This was the largest single donation ever received by NYPD. You can't tell me there were no strings attached.

Petition Smetition

2011-12-01T07:01:00.000-08:00

There's a petition making the rounds on the social networks that asks the Republicans to stop sabotaging the economy. It's a noble cause, but there's little point to signing it.

Why? Because Republicans don't believe they are sabotaging the economy. They are successfully shaping the economy they want. This is the economy they've openly legislated for and campaigned on for decades. They haven't hidden this agenda, it's been their party line for as long as I can remember. That so much of the wealth of the working class has been redistributed to and then hoarded by the ultra wealthy is a huge success for them. That profits of major corporations have gone up while wages and standard of liviing have gone down for the overwhelming majority of Americans is a huge success for them. Our 99 problems are their goals. It's what makes them Republicans.

That's why this petition and others like it won't work. Boiled down to its salt, the petition is asking Republicans not to be Republicans. And that's not going to happen.

Are we stuck, then? Are we doomed to live in their modern "libertarian" version of a feudalist society, eeking out survival as serfs to our corporate lords and masters? Is there nothing that will work?

There is one and only one thing that will work -- vote them out. Vote them out at every level from the Federal to State to County/Parrish to Township to City/Village. And never vote them back in, whatever name they might campaign under. But we have to act fast - while we still have the right to vote and the vote of a poor man is equal to the vote of a rich man.

Ex-Evangelical Frank Schaeffer Denounces Michele Bachmann & Calls Her Mo...

2011-08-17T10:34:00.000-07:00

So What If We Have Sex?

2011-08-03T15:06:00.000-07:00

(Read my response, below the quoted section, in italics.)

Via Think Progress

This week, the Obama administration announced that all health insurers will be required to cover birth control and other women’s health services without charging co-pays. This historic move has sent the burgeoning right-wing campaign against birth control into an apoplectic fit.

8<----snip----

Fox’s anti-birth control “expert,” Family PAC Federal Vice President Sandy Rios, however, found her own reasons to lambast the policy as “ridiculous.”

8<----snip----

– “Why in the world would you encourage your daughters, and your granddaughters, and whoever else comes behind you to have unrestricted, unlimited sex anytime, anywhere and that, somehow if you prevent pregnancy, that somehow you’ve helped them. I would submit to you that uncontrolled sexual behavior is what is harming our girls, not our lack of birth control — which by the way they don’t seem interested in taking anyway. Having a baby is not the worst thing. I think having multiple sex partners without any kind of restraint or responsibility is much more damning, why would you support that?”

Dear Ms. Rios,
Three of my four children are grown, my youngest daughter is in her teens. I am no child and I have not started menopause. Has it ever crossed your mind that perhaps I and millions of other adult women might want to have unrestricted, unlimited sex anytime, anywhere... many of us with our own husbands?

Why would I want to encourage my daughters NOT to have and enjoy unlimited, anytime, anywhere sex with their spouses?

And what, exactly, is so damaging about women enjoying sex - whether it's with one person to whom they are married or a series of people to whom they aren't, so long as that's what they want, enjoy and prefer? It is certainly no skin off your nose and who are you, exactly, that what YOU think about it is any more or less important than what any other individual person on this planet thinks? If you think it's wrong, if it's not what you want, enjoy and prefer - don't do it.

I am curious whether you grew up isolated from other females through your late teens and early 20s. I suspect this because unless you were so isolated, you know full well what free form of birth control a lot of promiscuous young girls (not to mention cheating girlfriends and wives) use and recommend to their female pals. It's this piece of sage advice, that's been handed down through generations of women and is still alive and well to this day: "You can't get pregnant if you're already pregnant." So much for your theory that cutting off access to birth control will prevent any girl or woman from sleeping around... it frees some women up to do exactly that and it's been doing that for centuries!

I am sorry for you that you don't or can't or won't enjoy sex, Ms. Rios. (I'm assuming you don't since you seem to think only young girls enjoy it AND because you are not home caring for your 20 some odd children whilst recovering from the birth of your newborn and celebrating the news that you're expecting yet another.) I know frigidity is your preferred birth control method, but I still feel sorry for you because I am fortunate to know what you are missing. Oh. So. Fortunate.

When sex is good, it's awesome! I mean, seriously, mind blowingly, OH MY GAWD, Earth shaking awesome! And yes, I tell my daughters and my son that it is. But, I also explain to them all the things that make the difference between awesome sex and just copulating or procreating.

I will give you credit, though. You're very right, having a baby isn't the worst thing. I'll even add that it can be the best thing, when it's something you want. It was certainly the best thing ever, for me, with each of my four children. But, Ms. Rios, lots of things, many of them quite horrific, aren't the worst thing. (ftr, death is the worst thing.) Example: Having both your legs amputated is not the worst thing - but I'm guessing if you suddenly found yourself legless you wouldn't be jumping for joy. (*ahem* so to speak.)

If you don't like prescribed birth control, fine. Don't use it. Your life, your choice. I respect that. Please, afford me the same respect: leave me to my life and my choices.

That said, want to know what I don't like? Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. I don't like war. Guess what, though - my tax dollars fund it, anyway and I guarantee you that defunding war would save us a helluva lot more of the tax payers' money.

So You're Getting Raptured...

2011-05-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

We know the date of the Rapture! May 21, 2011. This may come as a shock, dear Righteous reader, but I will not joining you. That's right, I will be a Rapture Reject. It's OK. I know what I did. (and I really, REALLY enjoyed doing it... I mean like REALLY enjoyed doing it!)

That said, I could not be more excited you'll be shaking loose this mortal coil (and your clothing) to rise into the sky with your beloved Savior & accept your heavenly reward for all those years of being completely uncool & having no fun at all. Seriously, I am thrilled for you! My only regret is that I won't get to read your tweets about how cool it felt to be naked, outside, for the first time. (It does feel AWESOME - you're going to LOVE it! That I know this is part of why I don't get to go with you.)

But, what to do with your Earthly belongings? You won't be needing them, but not all shameless sinners are created equal. You don't want the home you raised your children in or Grandma's wedding ring falling into the wrong hands? Satan LOVES to defile that stuff. (Yes, in THAT way! EW!) And you don't want your hard earned money used by Satan to pay his whores. Do you?

Well, dear Righteous Reader... I'm not THAT kind of sinner. I'm the fun, harmless kind. So harmless I made it through all but the final Rapture cut. I can't stand Satan or his devoted minions and they can't stand me right back!

I've been letting it be known on Twitter and elsewhere that if you're being Raptured, you're welcome to send, sign, deed and/or title your Earthly belongings & holdings to me.

Today, it came to my attention, via The Political Carnival that I have competition. Yes, that's right! There is another person making the same offer, but via the vile/evil stalking grounds of murderers & rapists (aka Satan's executive staff!)known as Craigslist. (Don't believe me about the murderers & rapists who hang out there? Look it up on Google News! It's true!!)

Please, May 21 will be here before you know it. If your choice comes down to trusting your Earthly gains to him or me, know that UNLIKE HIM I promise not to let Satan lick, hump or in any way defile your stuff!

If you're interested, leave me a comment that includes some method of private contact so I can let you know where to send your money, property deeds, jewelry, etc. without tipping Satan off to where they'll be after you've departed.

Bon Voyage & God Speed!

We Got Him!

2011-05-01T22:46:00.000-07:00

May 1, 2011: At long last, Osama bin Laden is dead. May he rot in Hell!

More on Wisconsin

2011-02-22T13:43:00.000-08:00

It bears noting that real American workers are being stripped of a hard earned right they can name but have zero support from those teabaggers who have screamed at rallies and protests and town hall meetings about their rights being taken away... whether those who whined that we were taking their guns despite not one gun being taken from them or those who frantically cried that they were losing their religious freedom despite not one church being closed or those who couldn't name a single right they'd lost but were dead sure they'd lost some.

Here's my response to the question "What is the Unions solution to the budget problem?" posted to a thread on MoveOn.org's FB, by an anti-American-workers teabagger:

The Union's solution to the budget problem? In Wisconsin, there was no budget problem. In fact, there was a surplus until tax cuts to corporations created this so-called budget crisis. They're asking workers there, many of whom hold jobs t...hat require a college degree, to pay for those tax cuts through decreased income, decreased benefits and by losing the right to bargain collectively, forever and henceforth - even if the state recovers and runs huge surplusses for decades on end. In other words, they're redistributing wealth directly from the working class to corporations - the workers agreed to all the concessions asked of them and Gov. Walker said "No" - only union busting will do. This isn't about the budget. Here's a thought for solving some budget problems: Address the trade defecit head-on, discourage companies from relocating to third world & communist countries by enacting tariffs on imports. Where's the Governors' lobby on this issue? The Governors have power at the federal level when they band together - but they are mum, as are the legislators on both sides of the political aisle at both the state and federal level of our gov't. Why is that?See More

My letter to Gov. Walker

2011-02-22T09:03:00.000-08:00

I support the hard earned right of every American worker to bargain collectively and I strongly oppose your methods to redistribute the wealth of the working class to corporations and conglomerates, by paying for tax cuts to businesses by stripping working class Americans of their rights, their incomes and their benefits.

My family and I will set neither tire nor toe in Wisconsin - we will not visit your tourist attractions, eat in your restaurants, shop in your stores, fuel our vehicles at your gas stations, sleep in your hotels or in any way contribute to Wisconsin's tourism income until the rights of all Wisconsin workers are out of jeopardy. I will encourage others to work, shop and play elsewhere, as well.

Beyond Pissed

2010-05-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

A foreign entity has seized control of a portion of at least one of our US states, assuming command of the police, sheriff and fire depts. in that area. This foreign entity is controlling which American citizens are allowed in or out of that area and has suspended our constitution in that area - most notably, our constitutional guarantee of freedom of our American press, allowing only minimal, escorted entry into the area and often, flatly denying the press any access to these (previously)public lands. This is not a satire piece. What I have just described is actually taking place on American soil, at this very moment.

Don't believe me? (or even if you do believe me) Click here to read the first hand account of an American citizen and member of the free American press, who was trying to travel to a public beach, on American soil and still open to tourists, to report on conditions, there.

As you read, bear KEENLY in mind that BP is a foreign entity, traded on a foreign stock exchange. Note that they freely admit they control the local constabulary, that the local constabulary has been instructed to route calls to BP, that the press is denied access to PUBLIC AMERICAN beaches via PUBLIC AMERICAN roads except on permission of AND escort by BP officials and that when they are informed that they do not own the land, their response is "It's BP's oil."

It is time to revoke BP's leases, not only to that one well, but to all wells on American soil or in American waters, so there is no question that while it is BP's catastrophic spill, it is NOT BP's oil and that soaking portions of our nation in that oil does not "mark their territory" allowing them to seize command of any American land or deny any American citizen the rights and freedoms guaranteed to them and to each of us by our constitution.

It is also time to consider whether BP's seizing of control and suspending of our constitution in that area changes what was either a horrible accident or the result of criminal negligence into an act of aggression or war by a foreign entity.

The spill is crippling countless American businesses - small businesses, large corporations and even entire industries, in the region - the most obvious and most talked about, both in the press and at water coolers and other gathering places across this nation, is the fishing industry.

Got Issues?

2010-05-21T13:15:00.000-07:00

Tis the season for political rallies! But what to wear? Melhi Ink's got you covered with shirts, buttons, stickers, etc!

Is Rand High?

2010-05-21T13:08:00.000-07:00

Rand Paul - the dream Teabagger candidate:

Anti Civil Rights Act
Anti Americans With Disabilities Act
Anti Equal Housing

Now, Rand Paul says it's unAmerican & anti-business for Obama to chastise a foreign corporation (BP) whose spill is crippling countless American businesses.

Important: Feel Teal - Ovarian Cancer Awareness

2010-04-14T07:08:00.000-07:00

I wanted to move this recent posting out from the comments of an older post, so it could be seen. The following is written by Debbie Stevens (Thanks for the info Debbie!)

Thought this may be of some interest to you & your readers-
The Feel Teal Club is up and running, with some great opportunities for the Artist & all members!

We continue to raise awareness for Ovarian cancer, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, with the focus on the need for an early diagnostic screening test which will save more lives of the women & girls around the globe.

As a Club, we are all contributing to a common purpose, supporting the Community, while supporting each other.
Our community-based website & forum, endeavors to serve all those who join, including FREE promotion & advertising resources for its artist members.

FTC (Feel teal club) also offers everyone equal opportunity to share their "personal stories" & "experiences" with Cancer, while enjoying the benefits of a wonderful community spirit!
We invite our members to actively participate within our safe & friendly environment making the most of all available resources.

Become a fan of the Feel teal campaign, join our Club TODAY!
http://www.feeltealclub.com

This Is A Big Fucking Deal!

2010-03-23T18:56:00.000-07:00

I could go on and on about what a perfect quote that is to sum up the sheer awesome monumental hugeness of the occasion... but instead, I made a T-shirt... you might have seen it on MSNBC or heard about it somewhere online, today. Yes, the infamous shirt commemmorating the infamous quote is one of mine.

I keep getting asked for the link to my store... Here's where you can get one:

My Zazzle Store

Open Letter to Teabaggers.

2010-03-01T08:48:00.000-08:00

Dear Teabaggers,

I've watched countless videos of your events, including interviews with your attendees. It's easy to laugh or grow angry at barely literate signs and protesters who rail on about the evils of "socialized medicine" only to make empassioned pleas for "Medicare for all" (aka evil socialized single-payer.)

However, one common occurance at these events sticks in my craw more than any other and it should bother those of you teabaggers who are sincere in your hatred of social programs and those who abuse it on our tax dime. What is this common ground for shared outrage? Tea-party protesters at your events who are clearly able-bodied enough to make and carry signs, to yell and fist pump and applaud and stomp and physically display the same full range of emotions as anyone else at these rallies and who are obviously able-bodied enough to walk long distances from their vehicles, carrying their signs & coolers & what-not and then stand on their feet for hours at a time at these events, but who, when asked by interviewers what they do for a living, readily admit that they suck off the government SSI tit, claiming to be "too disabled to work."

I don't agree with your members about the evils of socialized medicine. I want nationalized health care (like our veterans have)and consider single payer (medicare for all) an acceptable compromise.

What I don't understand is why you don't root these frauds out at these events and turn them in. The biggest, most effective argument MY side has for expanding the very programs you would like to see diminished or eliminated is the number of Americans who rely on them to survive. Those cause-chasing frauds in your midst add to that number while making a mockery of your position on social programs. Further, the biggest, most effective argument YOUR side has for not expanding these programs is the number of lazy Americans who prefer sucking off the government tit to working... and the best way for you to prove that number is to find the frauds, boot them out of these programs and keep track of how many are caught each year and how much they've received from those programs over the period of time they were stealing from hard working American taxpayers.

Next time you attend one of these events, put your elbow grease where your mouth is... talk to some of the protesters around you. Ask them where they're from, what they think of the lovely weather you're having, what they do for a living... and if they're clearly able-bodied enough to stand by the highway for a couple of hours a day, holding up a sign that points the way to a car or furniture sales event, exchange contact information & get some video footage with your camera or your cell phone so you can turn them in for mooching off the tax dollars you worked so hard for.

...And if you, yourself, suck off the government tit you rail against... partaking of welfare, SSI, medicare, medicaid, VA-med, social security, etc. Just as I'm free to "pay extra taxes" if I want to, you're free to refuse acceptance of money and services from these programs. Prove you really can live without them and that you really are as against them as you claim to be.

Thanks.

Feel Teal On The High Seas!

2009-11-18T08:08:00.000-08:00

Special thanks to Debbie Stephens, who commented on my "Feel Teal for Ovarian Cancer Awareness" post to let everyone know...

presently getting ready for our 2nd leg of the event,looking for more supporters to join us!
We have a 38' sloop preparing to circumnavigate the globe, flying the ovarian cancer message high upon its sails!!
http://feelteal.blog.com

How awesome is that? Pretty awesome, huh? So, what are you waiting for? Check out the FeelTeal blog!

Thanks!
Mel.

Feel Teal for Ovarian Cancer Awareness!

2009-09-03T17:05:00.000-07:00

A good friend who's always quick to congratulate and help a long list of people she networks with, socially, on one of the large social networking sites as well as on various forums for POD designers asked, today, if someone would please help her raise awareness for Ovarian Cancer. Nobody stepped up. Not a soul.

I missed her 1st request, but saw her 2nd request a couple of hours afer she'd made the first one and couldn't believe nobody stepped up. Since I don't have a broad readership here, anymore, due to my lack of time to add new things for you to read here, I'd like to ask the couple of you who've stuck with me this long to pay this forward by posting something about Ovarian Cancer to your own blog, MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter and/or any other social networking venue or information sharing site you might use. I'll even make it easy by writing this in tweet-sized text bites you can cut and paste!! Thanks in advance!!!

President Obama signed a proclamation naming September National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.

Feel Teal for Ovarian Cancer Awareness! Tomorrow is Feel Teal Friday!

There is no screening for Ovarian Cancer and no symptoms until it's too late!

Every 10 hours, a woman dies from Ovarian Cancer.

Help raise funds for an early detection test for Ovarian Cancer: http://www.raceraelene.com.au/

Learn about Ovarian Cancer: http://www.cdoc-online.org/ovarian/

Death Panel

2009-08-16T17:56:00.000-07:00

Click here to buy!

My Town Hall Questions:

1. Where do I apply for a position on a Death Panel?

2. Will the Death Panels compete directly w/ Cheney's private geezer hunting preserves or will taxpayers be subsidizing those?

3. As a taxpayer, I'm concerned about paying for Obama to kill Grannies. Shouldn't grunt tasks like that fall to Biden?

4. If I take my Granny out back & shoot her, myself, can I get reimbursed for the cost to build the Grannypult I use to launch her into the air like a clay pigeon?

An open letter to Sarah Palin:

Dear Sarah Palin,

Thank you for removing death panels (aka "end of life councelling") from Medicare and pending health care reform. Thanks to you, my tax dollars will not be used to inform my Granny how she can stop me both from being appointed her legal guardian and from pulling the plug on her to protect my inheritance from the expense of life support!!

Need Health Care?

2009-07-27T16:18:00.000-07:00

I just applied for a job in Sen Grassley's (R-IA) office so I can get his health plan! (He says if we want health ins. as good as his, we should get jobs in the Fed Gov.) You should apply, too!

http://bit.ly/9l6Qm |url

Thanks to @EileenLeft for providing the URL & info on Twitter.

2010

2009-04-24T16:25:00.000-07:00

I don't care if it's too soon, I'm officially endorsing Alexi Giannoulias for Senator in 2010.

Io! Saturnalia!! 2008

2008-12-17T09:21:00.000-08:00

Today kicks off the week-long Saturnalia and thus I extend my usual traditional Saturnalia greetings: Io! Saturnalia, cast off your toga! (or for you modern celebrants, Io! Saturnalia! Toga! Toga! Toga!

Normally, I revise the same snarky little cease-fire in the war on Christmas Saturnalia message and repost it. But, I thought this year, instead, I'd post a piece I wrote on the Saturnalia, last year, that I published on Qassia.

Enjoy!

Mel.

Io! Saturnalia!! Cast Off Your Toga!!!
by Melhi

"Cast off your toga" is an ancient addendum to the greeting "Io Saturnalia," that would have been extended at or just prior to the beginning of the Saturnalia. But, did it mean what so many assume it did, today? Was the Saturnalia really just a week long sexual orgy as so many believe? If not, what was it?

Several years ago, I read a journal or letter or diary from ancient Rome wherein the author described returning home, in a (dark or somber?) mood, at the start of the Saturnalia and as he met his fellow Romans in the street, they called out this greeting, "Io Saturnalia! Cast off your
toga!" As he made his way through the street, that he was met with the greeting by each jubilant passerby, brightened his mood and put him in the celebratory spirit. In the piece, he extolled on how wonderful it was to return home from such a journey at the Saturnalia and how it renewed the spirit...
not that dissimilar from reading a similar diary passage of someone returning home at Christmas and feeling renewed by it, nowadays.

"Cast off your toga" did not mean "get naked" as many assume -- they weren't naked under their togas anyway, so that would just be silly -- it basically meant something more along the lines of, "it's time to make merry" within the context that made the toga inappropriate to the celebration.

The toga had a lot of "importance" and meaning, different togas were for different people or occasions and meant different things. Slaves, foreigners and ex patriots weren't allowed to wear them, at all. As the "fashion" trended heavier and looser, over time, they became too cumbersome to wear in battle -- so soldiers did not wear them and the toga became a symbol and even a word for peace. Togas were too cumbersome to wear when doing physical labor, such as farm work, so they were also associated with loftier or more civil pursuits. They weren't practical around the house, so they were associated with one's public or "official" presence, etc. In a way, it was the 3 piece business suit and tie, of its day.

The whole role switching & "lord of misrule" turning society/civility on its ear custom, coupled with the fact that it would have been difficult to make so merry as was made for Saturnalia in a heavy, loosely wrapped woolen toga, made it highly inappropriate dress for the occasion of celebrating the Saturnalia. Thus, only prostitutes and convicted adulteresses would have worn the toga during the Saturnalia.

Those who might read a more sexual meaning into the greeting, due to a belief that the Saturnalia was a week long omni-sexual orgy, gay orgy and/or celebration of pedophilic depravity and debauchery should note that sexuality, too, was viewed quite differently, in that ancient time and culture.

Excepting those periods of ancient Roman history when same-gender relations were condemned as being too Greek-like (Greek men were seen as effeminite, dirty, lazy and impotent by their Roman conquerors,) they were open and very widely accepted as just part and parcel of everyday life.

There were no words in the language to distinguish homosexuality, heterosexuality or bisexuality from one another. Homosexuality existed, certainly, but it was uncommon. Heterosexuality existed, too, but was just as uncommon. Bisexuality, not monosexuality, was the norm through the bulk of the Roman Republic from the early period through the late. The graphic record of this, from Rome, is considerably sparser than that from Greece, but the literary record is just as prolific. Of the first dozen or so emperors of Rome, all male, most had husbands -- that's right, legally wed same gendered couples -- and only one of the first few emperors kept exclusively to female partners.

Pederasty/pedophilia, was seen as a dirty Greek practice and forbidden, early on in the Roman Republic. A similar, socially accepted or even expected practice emerged that involved relations with slaves, of either gender -- the slave was a legitimate sex partner, but being less worthy than a Roman citizen, the slave had to be a "bottom" and the citizen had to be a "top." Not that anyone followed that rule... and there was, indeed, a word used to distinguish male citizens who not only took the passive role but purposely tried to make themselves more attractive to "tops" or worse, to boys, by taking on a more feminine appearance and mannerisms -- it was the same word as that for eunichs.

Pederasty went in and out of social acceptance (or perhaps more accurately, societal tolerance) through the mid to late Republic, but even during periods of its highest acceptance, it was hotly debated, publically derided and seen by many as nasty and wrong. The periods of acceptance, from what little I've been able to piece together from what I've read, seem to have a direct correlation to whether the emperor or others of great importance/influence at that time were engaging in pedophilia.

Curiously, and there's not a lot out there that I"ve found to read on the subject so this may not have actually been the case -- it seems that the biggest literary proponents of male pedophilia and of effeminite passivity with both adult slaves and boys, were also the most harshly condemning of
sexual relations between consenting adult females.

The Saturnalia celebration was not just a big gay pedophile sex free-for all as so many wrongly assume and as "Church" has intentionally rewritten into the history.

Sexual prohibitions were, indeed, lifted durning the Saturnalia, but prohibitions weren't what they are, today, and were, instead, things like a citizen being the bottom to a slave's top... a lot of what went on,
sexually, during the Saturnalia was also going on, sexually, on any given Tuesday. "Orgies" as per the modern group-sex meaning were a much greater part of or maybe even the central focus of other holiday celebrations in ancient Rome, particularly those honoring the goddesses.

During the Saturnalia, the role reversal theme extended to cross dressing by both men and women (another lifted sexual prohibition) and there's said to have been some traditional processional or
parade involving a large phallus -- question is, was that to represent "depraved" sex or was it to
represent that fertility would begin to return with the waxing sun of the solstice? Or did it begin with a meaning that was lost as it became just part of the annual tradition, as has become the case with so
many of our borrowed or converted trappings?

Sex was a part of the celebration and it certainly wasn't as hidden as the hookups at the annual office Christmas parties are today... but sex wasn't as hidden or restricted in that society on any given
Tuesday as it is in this one, either. Sex is viewed, largely, through Christian eyes, now --
it wasn't then.

The Saturnalia was not just one celebration, but a series of separate celebrations within the larger celebration and one of these separate celebrations was a night dedicated to the childen... they were spoiled and lavished with gifts, they got to role-reverse with the adults... Unfortunately, from some of the discussions I've read on various religious forums... it seems that somehow those two separate parts of the celebration got twisted into one sick version. It's not clear whether this was an intentional corruption of the history or just ignorance and/or intellectual lethargy regarding history. Either way, this alternate version is actively being passed along or handed down as the true history of that holiday... contrary to the surviving literary record of the time, and usually laced with vehement, sometimes angry, disclaimers that no tradition of a modern Christmas was carried forward from the ancient Saturnalia.

Even the word "orgy" does not mean, today, what it once meant. The Christian church intentionally made the word "orgy" synonymous with "Saturnalia," but at that time, the word "orgy" meant "secret worship." The word gradually came to mean what it does, today, specifically because of the church's pre-occupation with sex and the idea that all secret or private worshipping, if not all worship outside Christianity, must involve something not only sexual but, by their definition, sexually depraved. (A particularly curious mindset, given that Christ dictated, in the Christian Bible, that Christian worship should be secret or private, in nature: Pray not thou in the streets... ...go secretly into thine closet...)

As per the modern meaning of "orgy" it's probably a more fitting description of the Greek counterpart to Saturnalia... Dionysia, which (I've read considerably less about, so am not as confident I have it right) was a fertility based celebration, at which you would have had your fill of both phallic shaped cakes/treats and group sex, there would have been a big wooden penis paraded through the street and a special phallus song would have been sung.

Sidenote: I've also seen mention of an all-female sexual December celebration, but a mention is about all I've ever seen and I don't remember, off hand, what it was called, to try to research for more information on it.

Imagine if our modern Christmas carried any of the traditions of Dionysia forward... Condoms hung by the vagina shaped fireplace opening with care, presents tucked neatly under the big wooden Christmas Penis all a-twinkle in colored lights and tinsel, anatomically exaggerated Gingerbread men.
Oh and I don't even want to THINK about what Santa's costume might be... but I suspect it might look a lot like Borat's neon green man-thong thing only red and trimmed in fur.. *shudder.* Sounds pretty depraved compared to our modern fir trees (which were carried from the Saturnalia,) velvet Christmas stockings and anatomically challenged gingerbread men, doesn't it?

But, if you're looking for true, sick, twisted, "Saturnalia" depravity... it actually does exist in the historical record... at least, by MY definition of sick, twisted and depraved. To find it, though, you'll have to fast forward from Ancient Rome to the new and improved, under new Christian management, Saturnalia v 2.0 of the 15th through at least 19th centuries and get a load of the traditions Pope John Paul II started in the 15th century. He was a real piece of work, that one.... and apparantly a couple hundred years or so of his successors were cut from the same holy cloth as he.

Which do we really find more depraved, today -- filling a hollow statue of Saturn with fresh olive oil, loosing the ties that bind the statue's feet and seating his effigy at the feasting table to pretend he's dining with us mere mortals, as was the custom of the ancient Saturnalia OR rounding up all the Jews, stripping them naked, forcing them to gorge themselves beyond full and then run, stumbling over one another, through crowded streets lined with good Christians who take merry delight in hurling rocks and rotten food at them to further their humiliation, as was the custom of the Christian Saturnalia revival?

Most of us would probably assume that our various modern December holiday celebration customs will seem respectable, normal and wholesome, to people looking back on us, centuries from now. But, we cannot know or even guess how the historical record of our time and culture will have have been misinterpreted or corrupted, by then, or how what is perfectly normal and innocent to us, today, might be seen through the eyes of tomorrow's cultures.

E. Pluribus Unum

2008-11-05T08:10:00.000-08:00

E. Pluribus Unum

It's been a long time coming, but at last our nation is whole and we the people, for whom this great nation of promise and plenty is of, by and for, are one people, created equal.

For the last several years, far too many of us, myself included, have been told we're not as American as "them", not American enough, not real Americans.

Our love of country was derided as we were told we are not patriotic enough or not patriotic at all. We've been told that we are anti-American, pro-terrorist and traitors.

The faithful among us who shared a faith with those separating us from the herd were told we are not religious enough, somehow not as favored by God. The faithful among us who hold at the core of our souls a faith that differs from those separating us from the herd were told we are not religious, that our God(s) are evil and that we are a danger to our country, to the world and to all that is good. Those among us who are not among the faithful were told that we are the most dangerous of all - that we are evil incarnate, servants of Satan or Satan, himself.

We have been told that our morals are immoral or amoral, that our values are valueless and costly, that our dreams, realized, would be the foundation of a nightmarish reality for all.

We have been blamed for everything from terrorist attacks to hurricanes to wild fires... and told these things, whether acts of men or acts of nature, were God's judgement of and punishment for our wickedness.

Those of us who fought for rights and freedoms long denied or fought to protect and retain rights and freedoms hard won were told if we did not like the changes they had made, were making or wanted to make -- we should leave this country.

Many among us, far too many, have endured these things through multiple generations that stretch back through the centuries, back farther even than our founding fathers' promise upon birthing this great nation, that we are all created equal, that this is our nation, that it was created and exists of us, by us and for us.

Over the centuries, through the generations, countless Americans, both those deemed less worthy by some of their fellow countrymen and those who were not themselves deemed less worthy but who could not live with the injustice and wrong of lifting up some Americans by holding down others have stood up, raised their voices, worked, fought, served, sacrificed, suffered and even died to make good on the promises made to them and to all of us by our founding fathers... the names and contributions of some have become great in history, the names and contributions of most are not recorded in the history books. The contributions of all are among the strongest threads in the grand tapestry of our past, our present and our future.

In the last few weeks, at early voting locations, on mail-in ballots and in the election day voting booths, Americans, by the millions, put their hands up and said, "No more! We are not 'us' and 'them,' we are one people. This is not my country or their country, it is our country. There is no real America and phony America - there is only the United States and the united people of America."

Today, I'm not fighting back the tears, but letting them flow freely and my dearest wish is one it's not possible to make true: that I could reach back through time to tell every person whose contributions led to this day that it was not in vain, that this sunrise did come and to thank them and to thank every person who voted for the promise this day makes good on and to thank Barack Obama for welcoming us into the fold for the first time or back into the fold after being cast out for a time.

I am an American, a real American, no better or worse or more or less than any other American, but equal -- and damn, it feels good.

Birthplace of a Political Career

2008-10-12T11:51:00.000-07:00

I've been pondering Sarah Palin's words... (paraphrased) "Obama launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist and we're expected to believe he didn't know it? He had sat on a committee with the guy!"

The reason I've pondered this is because of the first person who offered to hold a fundraising coffee in her own living room, for my first bid for office in 2006. I'd known who she was since I was in Jr. High, because she was a teacher and she coached the pom squad at the high school. Everybody knew her. She was never one of my own teachers, so I never officially met her back then. But, it was a small town and a small school district, so I knew who she was and later learned that she remembered vaguely knowing who I was.

My first encounter with her, in a political sense, was, coincidentally enough, at a Barack the Vote event hosted in her living room.

I had attended that event for two reasons -- the first being the most obvious -- I was a supporter of Barack's Senate campaign. But I attended with an ulterior motive. The local party chair and much of the committee was to be there and I wanted to observe them in their natural habitat, without the committee/gallery split making my observation so obvious.

I'd been in e-mail contact with the chair of the local party for a few weeks, I'd spoken at length with a couple of precinct committee members in the party and I was in the process of determining whether I was ready to join my efforts with the party in a more "official" way and I was also trying to decide whether getting involved with the local party was the right path for me to take in that regard.

Prior to that event, I'd been "lone wolfing" it as an underground grass roots pro-labor liberal/dem for many years... writing and releasing anonymous political and labor humor pieces into the wild and letting them take on lives of their own, keeping up with current events, learning how the government functions and how it doesn't, talking with people, learning about mine and other parties, choosing carefully which "letter to the editor" local battles to take-on so as to not be a regular in the paper (becoming a regular contributer is the fast track to being read ONLY by the choir you're preaching to, which is a pointless exercise for an unpaid contributer.) Etc.

I liked what I saw and I started my time with them in the gallery as a volunteer "activist" in the local party. At first, I attended only when their meetings didn't conflict with my schedule. Over the next year or so, their importance in my scheduling priorities increased such that I rarely miss a meeting and shortly into my regular attendance, I accepted an appointed position as committeman of the precinct I'd grown up in, which had been vacant for some years.

It was upon accepting the committeeman appointment that I began sitting on committee with the aforementioned woman who'd hosted the Barack event. As an officer in the party and as one of the four precinct committeemen in the district I reside in, she later became a strong supporter of and offered to host a similar fundraising event for my own campaign. These events are known, at least in my little nook of the prairie, as "coffee"s.

She's still an officer and committeeman, I'm still a committeeman, thus I still sit on committee with her. But, what do I know about her? What have I learned about her in my time working with her on the committee? Not a whole lot. Almost nothing, really. Our personal lives really have nothing to do with the agenda points we cover between gavels. Pleasantries exchanged on either side of the gavels are just that -- pleasantries... "how was your weekend," "how do the (kids/grandkids) like school this year" "did you hear so-and-so passed away?"

The committee of the local Democrat Party is not the only committee I sit on or that I have ever attended, with regularity. Most of the people who've sat on committee with me or who've sat on committees I attended regularly in-gallery couldn't tell you how many kids I have, much less tell you the names of my husband and each of my children. Many of them, on the two committees I sit on right now, call me "Michelle" -- which is not my name -- I can only assume that I must look like a Michelle. My present is almost entirely unknown to most of them. My past is definitely a complete unknown to them. I could be anyone. The same is true in reverse, except that I know their first names... and that is only because I suck with names and thus intentionally worked hard at memorizing their names from the roll calls of meeting minutes.

But, back to the topic at hand...

I know the woman who offered to host that coffee for me had been an active Dem for a long time and I know that she worked, locally, for the JFK campaign. I don't know if she was active before that. I assume because she's a strong partisan Democrat, but I don't know conclusively, that she's been active in every Democratic campaign to appear on her ballot since then.

Was she an anti-war activist? Was she anti-war at all? I have no idea.

To be fair, neither did/does she know that I was against the Vietnam war...as a VERY small child, (note: I'm younger than both Palin and Obama,)who was in the process of being informed and shaped by the world going on around me -- a world I haven't been able to take my eyes or mind away from, since I first opened my eyes to it.

Could my strong supporter have been part of some subversive politically motivated underground group at some time in her past? I strongly doubt it, but the fact is... I have no clue. I'm just assuming. She seems very nice and she's never discussed bomb making techniques in my presence, but the news has taught us that it's almost always the ones the neighbors would have least suspected, right? So, who knows?

The fact is, I didn't run a background check on her... or on anyone else I've sat around a committee table with or on any of the people who supported my campaign -- nor will I. ...And, to my knowledge, none of them has ever run a background check on me. It's just not a common practice... and frankly, volunteers are too hard to come by for a new face and name on the ballot, to look that gift horse in the mouth with that kind of paranoia and suspicion. I doubt Ms. Palin demonstrated that level of suspicion in regards to her own early supporters.

I declined this woman's offer to host a coffee for me because of the small size of my campaign and the short time remaining before the election. But, I accepted her equally generous offer to host a strategy meeting of the Precinct committeeman in my district. Together, the five of us worked around her kitchen table for the better part of an evening, working the phones to get sign locations, signing up volunteers to work phone lists for me, etc. The local Chair also stopped in to check on our progress and help for a short time. I showed them the mailers I was about to send out and the fliers for the second knocking/littering of my district and they gave some valuable input, some of which I incorporated, some of which I did not. It was, far and away, the singlemost productive evening in my campaign.

I didn't win my election. I did, however, get 40% in a district where 16% would have been great for any Democrat, but particularly for a previously unknown Dem. I'm very proud of that accomplishment and I also know it was due only in part to my own hard work -- I didn't do it and absolutely could not have done it alone. I owe a lot to those who volunteered to help me -- particularly that one woman who first offered to host a fundraiser coffee for me and later helped to organize my campaign and secure the help I needed. As an unknown and an upstart, I was lucky to have any volunteers at all... and I have to say, I had the best.

But, in the event I later learn that she's not the wonderful, law abiding person she appears to be, I have to ask myself... what time and what place is to be credited with the launch of my political "career" - did I launch it in her home? I cannot answer this question without acknowledging my keen awareness that, even if I never run for office, again, my political "career" is not nearly over.

Did I launch it around the kitchen table of this woman whose political history I know almost nothing about on that night we strategised for my campaign with a group of people I know even less about?

Did I launch it when I became an official member of the local party committee, of which she is not only a fellow member, but an officer?

Did I launch it in her living room at a Barack the Vote event she hosted in 2004?

Did I launch it long before I met her, with my first letter to the editor or the first humor piece I wrote and sent circulating in the wild?

Or was it longer ago?

Did I launch it in the arms of my mother and father, before my earliest memories kick in... observing, asking about and figuring out the world going on around me and finding my own place in it?

Did I launch it watching the news I begged my parents to let me watch even as a toddler and caring deeply about what I saw and heard?

Did I launch it in Kindergarten when so many of my classmates show-n-tell was a military photo of a dad they'd never met who was about to return from 'Nam or did I launch it a week later on the reading rug as my classmates and I comforted them and dried their tears, when the dad they couldn't wait to meet only a week before turned out to be a funny smelling awkward stranger who was probably even more confused and afraid of them as they were of him?

Did I launch it when I began to speak or when I began to read or when I began to write?

The answer is so easy and obvious to me and I would bet my last dollar the same answer is true for both major party candidates for the Presidency...

I launched my political "career," dangling upside down from my ankles as I drew my first breath to cry out in protest of the stinging slap to my ass. ...And I'll likely end it when I draw my last breath.