PBS is doing a poll which asks if Palin is qualified to be VP. The right wing has organized a yes campaign–and the “yes” is at the moment winning. It took me less than a minute. Go to:??> http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html??and vote NOW
Archive for September, 2008
24
Sep
08
Vote AGAINST Palin, NOW
WOOHOO…today is the day! I’m getting the hang of this blogging thing I think. So, one rite of passage is the 100 things you don’t know about me entry…here you go….this should get me some fans *smirk*…
1. My middle name is Susan
2. I use my middle name when I want to be anonymous
3. I have a Ph.D. and it took me 8 years and 2 babies to get it
4. I work at a University; not all it’s chalked up to be!
5. I have learned that Ph.D. really does mean Piled Higher and Deeper
6. I use the title ‘Dr.’ when I want a good table at a restaurant
7. Or when I feel like I need some ‘f-ing’ respect
8. I did the deed in the middle of a city park in the middle of a sunny afternoon
9. Dude was a HOT HOT HOT blend of creole and cherokee and knew how to ride (a horse you nasty people!)
10. I inhaled, often
11. I was a young hippie flower child, beads and all
12. I went to the first ‘love-in’ in Pittsburgh
13. I used to cut school and go drinking with my friends (Annie Green Springs or Boones Farm Apple-CLASSIC!)
14. I went to Monroeville Mall the day it was predicted it would collapse..wanted to be where the action was
15. I was the Mascot for Duquesne University for one basketball season
16. I got stoned (literally, stoned with stones) while a mascot for Duquesne University (in the city of brotherly love no less)
17. my BBFL and I used to go buy a pint of french fried gizzards when we got high in college…yummmm!
18. I’m a friendly person but sometimes prefer to stand back and watch
19. I get frustrated with myself for not choosing to live a healthy life style
20. I think that ties-in with the lifelong depression that I deal with
21. I didn’t know that I had a lifelong depression until I almost acted on a suicidal thought…but my BBFL saved me from myself
22. Funny how ‘back then’ kids couldn’t be depressed…I was
23. DBT therapy does work…I’m proof
24. Eating is a sport for me…hrmph–I am going to seriously try to get back to my pre-mommy weight
25. I am going to lose 80 pounds…can’t imagine the number in kilo, stone, whatever
26. I LOVE to read
27. I LOVE to sleep
28. I LOVE to be out and about (so why the hell am I sitting at a computer?)
29. I LOVE to travel…see the world…
30. I’d rather see the world than the 50 states in the US
31. My favorite country so far is Australia…I’d move in a heartbeat
32. The most daring thing I’ve done is SKYDIVING
33. The dumbest thing I’ve done is get a virus you can’t get rid of (not HIV)
34. The smartest thing I did was marry my hubby
35. The most challenging thing I did was to stay married this long…it is hard work and worth it
36. The second most challenging this is writing this blog entry….damn, 100 things is hard!
37. I can sleep in any position at any time
38. I fell asleep with the shower on laying on the floor reading a book with my feet propped against the bathroom door…my parents were not amused
39. I fell asleep standing up in the shower in my dorm room when I was an RA (slept like that for about an hour…water running and all)
40. I fell asleep with MY EYES WIDE OPEN during a summer program I attended at Northwesern University in 10th grade….my roommates WERE NOT AMUSED!
41. I fell asleep while doing the deed…..don’t need to tell you who was not amused
42. I fell asleep while driving home from school….I was not amused (love those rumble strips)
43. When I’m REALLY tired, I bite/chew on my hair
44. I took ballet lessons with my sister-in-law when I was about 30 years old…shoulda seen the gorgeous PURPLE leotard….I was the early BARNEY!!!!!
45. I still have the purple leotard!
46. I was a majorette in high school….a hippie majorette (got the image?!)
47. I got my nickname when a good friend in high school got very polluted and he said, “Hey, DUH-EEE”…jeez, it stuck!
48. I snuck out of my house after my dad went to bed and went with above said friend and two other good friends and drove around the city of Pittsburgh ALL NIGHT in a very cool convertible and was chased by the police, but we lost em…snuck back in just as dad’s alarm was going off
49. I snuck a guy up to my third floor ultra cool bedroom suite in my house (I was the oldest so I was SPECIAL) and hid him there for a day! Love slave he was……
50. I had a fling with a Metropolitan Opera singer…
51. I learned to love opera (not just the singers) when I worked for the Metropolitan Opera for three summers while I was in college
52. I am having a brain cramp from thinking of all these things to write down here and I’m only at 52
53. I was born at 4:44 AM
54. At least once a week I have to wake up to *tinkle* at 4:44 AM…I kid you not…
55. I have never used a Diva Cup… in fact, I couldn’t even make myself try an OB tampon
56. My mother had to help me the first time I used a tampon cause (I hope you are sitting down for this one)…I couldn’t find the hole
57. I was on TV twice…once in 1st grade when I was a Brownie and we went on the afternoon show on channel 11 with Captn Jim and the Nancy B and second in 11th grade when I was on the local teen dance show equivalent of American Bandstand ala Pittsburgh…
58. I was a total DORK both times
59. I was in a PBS special about outstanding college programs that use technology in their teaching…as the Director of one of those identified programs I got to tout IUP nationally
60. I was very COOL on that show!
61. I only know manually coded English (MCE), I don’t know ASL–NO SIgn Language is NOT a universal language!
62.I was in several high school musicals—singing and dancing; had a lead part in Bye-Bye Birdie
63. I got ‘A’s in Geometry…LOVED the drawing and the theorems
64. I took college Spanish with my son
65. We both got ‘A’s cause we were one helluva team and we rock!
66. I did that because my high school Spanish teachers SUCKED DONKEY BALLS
67. I did not have a particularly excellent time in high school
68. I have my mother’s toes and wrists, my grandma’s knees, and my grandpa’s nose
69. My best feature—my eyes; happy to say Lilac got my best feature!
70. I wear glasses and have since first grade; ummmm, she got that too.
71. I can’t wear contacts because I get corneal erosions
72. I’m too chicken to do lasik on my eyes…I’d be the 1 in 1 gazillion that would have halos and worse vision…nope, I’ll keep these babies the way they are
73. I’ve only had two real honest to goodness loves in my life…the first one lives in California and I found out is a retired Sheriff, the second is my hubby
74. I love to wear clogs
75. I have a tattoo; over my heart and I’m never afraid to show it
76. My hair color has been brown, blond, red and streaked
77. I like to blog late at night…I seem to think more creatively then
78. I have to make time for blogging now that I’m back to work
79. My sister and I like to go on cruises together
80. We chase each other (actually race to our cabin) on every cruise….split decision so far
81. I’ve had two C-sections…couldn’t fit a square peg in a round hole for Lilacspecs; Bouncin Baby Boy was planned; also had a miscarriage
82. I am right handed but taught myself how to write with my left hand cause I thought it would be cool
83. I should have been born in the South…I ADORE grits, southern fried anything with sausage gravy, andouille sausage, and Muffalettas give me chills
84. My OB-Gynie once warned me about becoming anorexic—fat chance!
85. Ben and Jerry’s Chubby Hubby is my most favoritist icecream in the entire universe; I can eat a quart in one seating
86. Um, that is why I need to lose 80 pounds……
87. I also adore triffles (I think that is how you spell it)–layers of cake-fruit-pudding-whipped cream—like a desert lasagna!!
88. I used to be a terrible nail biter…made my cuticles bleed
89. Now I get a weekly manicure and that takes care of the problem ( I am so cheap that I won’t waste the money I spent on the manicure by chewing on my fingers—warped, I know)
90. I always wanted to be a twin or have twins… 0 for 2 on that one
91. I actually feel like I found my twin at a professional conference several years ago…we discovered each other strictly by accident and found out that we were so much alike that we wrote a book together (long distance via email attachments and two weekend write-a-thons)…I love my Lizzie
92. I LOVE rollercoasters and will stand in line for hours to ride one
93. I get pukey sick on any kind of swing-style ride
94. I am now so friggin old I have to take dramamine when I go to an amusement park…I take a bottle with me…got to ride those rides!
95. I am unbelieveably anal about things….not quite OCD, but close
96. How anal you ask? I couldn’t stand the thought of waiting until my 100th actual post to write this list….I started working on it at the 51st posting…yep, anal!
97. I love waterplay…that translates into washing the dishes (oh, fun)…sex in a hottub (OH, FUN)…playing on a slipnslide (not as much fun now that I am old and might break something)
98. Actors I think are sexy…Yul Brynner; Dean Cain; Sean Connery; Antonio Banderas; Cuba Gooding, Jr.; Eric Close; Mark Harmon; Chow Yun-Fat; Johnnie Depp; (I used to want to be the love-slave of Harrison Ford, but he has not aged well…:P )
99. I was a registered Republican my whole life but changed to Democrat in order to vote for Hillary in the PA primary…why was I Republican? Cause I was an ass when I was younger and figured I could be a voice of reason in the party—-WRONG!!!
100. I am extremely grateful to those of you who took the time to read through this entire list…I hope you come back to visit again!
Lilacspecs sent me here and I am printing the entire thing because EVERYONE needs to read it!
This is Your Nation on White Privilege (Updated)
By Tim Wise
For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you’ll “kick their fuckin’ ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance because “if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me,” and not be immediately disqualified from holding office–since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the “under God” part wasn’t added until the 1950s–while if you’re black and believe in reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), you’re a dangerous and mushy liberal who isn’t fit to safeguard American institutions.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.
White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto is “Alaska first,” and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you’re black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do–like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor–and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college and the fact that she lives near Russia, you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a “second look.”
White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.
White privilege is when you can take nearly twenty-four hours to get to a hospital after beginning to leak amniotic fluid, and still be viewed as a great mom whose commitment to her children is unquestionable, and whose “next door neighbor” qualities make her ready to be VP, while if you’re a black candidate for president and you let your children be interviewed for a few seconds on TV, you’re irresponsibly exploiting them.
White privilege is being able to give a 36-minute speech in which you talk about lipstick and make fun of your opponent, while laying out no substantive policy positions on any issue at all, and still manage to be considered a legitimate candidate, while a black person who gives an hour speech the week before, in which he lays out specific policy proposals on several issues, is still criticized for being too vague about what he would do if elected.
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.
White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a “trick question,” while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
White privilege is being able to go to a prestigious prep school, then to Yale and Harvard Business School (George W. Bush), and still be seen as an “average guy,” while being black, going to a prestigious prep school, then Occidental College, then Columbia, and then Harvard Law, makes you “uppity” and a snob who probably looks down on regular folks.
White privilege is being able to graduate near the bottom of your college class (McCain), or graduate with a C average from Yale (W.), and that’s OK, and you’re still cut out to be president, but if you’re black and you graduate near the top of your class from Harvard Law, you can’t be trusted to make good decisions in office.
White privilege is being able to dump your first wife after she’s disfigured in a car crash so you can take up with a multi-millionaire beauty queen (who you then go on to call the c-word in public) and still be thought of as a man of strong family values, while if you’re black and married for nearly 20 years to the same woman, your family is viewed as un-American and your gestures of affection for each other are called “terrorist fist bumps.”
White privilege is when you can develop a pain-killer addiction, having obtained your drug of choice illegally like Cindy McCain, go on to beat that addiction, and everyone praises you for being so strong, while being a black guy who smoked pot a few times in college and never became an addict means people will wonder if perhaps you still get high, and even ask whether or not you may have sold drugs at some point.
White privilege is being able to sing a song about bombing Iran and still be viewed as a sober and rational statesman, with the maturity to be president, while being black and suggesting that the U.S. should speak with other nations, even when we have disagreements with them, makes you dangerously naive and immature.
White privilege is being able to say that you hate “gooks” and “will always hate them,” and yet, you aren’t a racist because, ya know, you were a POW, so you’re entitled to your hatred, while being black and noting that black anger about racism is understandable, given the history of your country, makes you a dangerous bigot.
White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism and an absent father is apparently among the “lesser adversities” faced by other politicians, as Sarah Palin explained in her convention speech.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole “change” thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain…
White privilege is, in short, the problem.
Source: http://www.redroom.com/blog/tim-wise/this-your-nation-white-privilege-updated
19
Sep
08
I Miss you Mummy…
Five years.
It has been exactly five years today that I lost my mummy to cancer. And, it is still so raw.
It is so easy for me to sit and weep. I lost mummy in what I consider the worst way possible. She was unbelieveably brave, but she was also so very scared. Everything that she feared about cancer happened to her. And to her spirit and her credit, she fought. She fought hard, but the battle was lost relatively quickly.
At times of happiness and stress, I think of you, and weep. I weep for weddings you won’t see, great-grandchildren you will never meet, pride in your children’s and grandchildren’s accomplishments never shared. I weep for your love and compassion that I often took for granted.
I weep for daddy…he really misses you terribly; but OH MY GOODNESS, would you be proud of him and how well he has taken care of himself. He still weeps over his last birthday card that you struggled to sign.
A dull, throbbing pain in my heart, an aching emptiness…sometimes it comes out of the blue and I must stop and respond to it; your memory is as strong as ever and I will always carry it with me.
Five years; I miss you mummy.
9 weeks to Specs and Cabanaland
WORDS
Fluid or stilted
Emotional in content
Beautiful in sound
Running through the air
Breeze through your writing with ease
focus to succeed
Share your thoughts with all
writing allows you to vent
or share words of praise
Write with all your heart!
61 days to Specs and Cabanaland…gonna switch to weeks, the number is smaller 
I think that it is likely that someone you know, some time in your life, will be diagnosed with Breast Cancer. It is insidious and still invokes fear. What is great medicine for much that ails you? Laughter…you just gotta have fun…look for the humor…this marvelous website, Save the Tatas, provides you with a number of clever ways to laugh and SUPPORT an incredibly important cause…we all need to “save the ta-tas”.
64 days to Specs and Cabanaland
12
Sep
08
Haiku Friday-Rain
Rain brings- color to
nature: flowers, grass, trees; but
destruction also.
Rain, rain go away
Come again another day
People NEED dry days.
68 days to Specs and Cabanaland
12
Sep
08
I bear witness-Hurricane Ike
Have you heard about a little storm that is brewing in the southern US? Its name is Ike. He is a category 2 going on 3 level hurricane that is almost as large as the state of Texas itself! If you don’t know how big that is, go look at a map (500 miles for those not willing to look it up). Folks, that is a BIG Hurricane. So, I am here in New Orleans and I can honestly bear witness to the very beginning catastrophe that Ike is about to inflict on ALL of the southern states….from Pensacola, Florida to Galveston, Texas. The hurricane literally covers that much area..the ENTIRE Gulf Coast of the US.
My friend Kate and I took a quick ride to Lake Ponchatraine which was one of the areas that was totally devastated by Katrina and took a hit again last week with Gustav. Look at a couple pictures of what we saw and this was BEFORE the hurricane made landfall and really surged across all of the Gulf shores.
The first picture shows a home that is still being rebuilt with its FEMA trailer out front and both are on the way to being under water-AGAIN. The second shows a road in a beautiful neighborhood that was recently rebuilt that had water already up to the top of an automobile’s wheel wells…and I can tell you personally how terrifying it was to drive through that level of flood water, because I DID. I was terrified, my heart was pounding out of my chest, I wanted to vomit…and then a truck passed me in the other direction on the road and created a wave that was so high it washed over the entire car. Friends, I can tell you that driving through those flood waters was more terrifying than jumping out of an airplane. And to put it in perspective for you, this happened at 3pm today and the storm had only begun to send its surge.
I’m listening to the news now and the levees just south of New Orleans have breached and people are stuck. The water is too high for people to get out if they had not evacuated earlier. In one parish they are planning a search and rescue mission…knowing that people didn’t get out.
Galveston is gong to all but disappear. Ike is a monster. If you have any chance at all to help any of these folks, please do…
10
Sep
08
Wordless Wednesday-Yes We Can
09
Sep
08
Let me introduce you to
My JUNIORS! This is also a really dynamic group of students. During their junior year they have to travel about 120 miles every Tuesday in order to tutor children at the Western PA School for the Deaf. Today was their first day…all nervous and ready to work with real live kids. I know they will all do a wonderful job…after all…they are MY kids!
71 days to Specs and Cabanaland
