tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-342406862024-03-17T23:02:50.695-04:00Mauigirl's MeanderingsA 60-something Baby Boomer's views on politics, pets and life.Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.comBlogger565125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-47483523277519545332019-05-05T21:43:00.002-04:002019-05-05T22:27:35.476-04:00Can Democrats Manage Not to Lose Again to Trump?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPvjWM5Z0CL-6PI2qohN-gg2vbAOLasOwVA9Ts-m-JgPja5niDI9ksPWkfY0m-uPrWs9wvaVKqITF3G5K_xVtJ1uR6PiO0_pJ035LEHnqGs7VCJr4-UkpS4_4s5MzESqvcVG6n/s1600/2020-collage-768x559.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="559" data-original-width="768" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPvjWM5Z0CL-6PI2qohN-gg2vbAOLasOwVA9Ts-m-JgPja5niDI9ksPWkfY0m-uPrWs9wvaVKqITF3G5K_xVtJ1uR6PiO0_pJ035LEHnqGs7VCJr4-UkpS4_4s5MzESqvcVG6n/s400/2020-collage-768x559.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Photo source: AP, from<br />
<a href="https://whyy.org/episodes/biden-enters-massive-2020-primary-field/">https://whyy.org/episodes/biden-enters-massive-2020-primary-field/</a><br />
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Well, here we are. It's a year and a half before the 2020 elections and there is a bumper crop of Democrats running for President, and more may be coming. Those leading the pack so far are Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Beto O'Rourke, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg (yes, no one heard of him until this year) and Kamala Harris.<br />
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Others seem to be struggling to get traction, with media focusing on each "shiny new object" (to quote a Facebook friend of mine) as they announce their candidacies. The latest rumor is that NY Mayor Bill DiBlasio may throw his hat into the ring, a bad idea in my opinion, given he isn't even popular in his own city.<br />
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Last time we didn't have enough choice. This time we may have too much. But it's a better position to be in, since we have plenty of time for the field to thin out before things get really serious, and it gives us a much more robust field of qualified candidates.<br />
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In early polling, among the top 5 Democratic candidates, <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2019/05/donald-trump-loses-to-top-democratic-candidates-but-poll-suggests-sexism-could-be-his-trump-card.html" target="_blank">all but Warren would handily beat Trump </a>in the general election if it were held today. But of course, we are a year and a half out, and we know how that can change.<br />
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But the bigger question is, will Democrats show up at the polls if their favored candidate does not become the eventual nominee? Early indications are this could be a problem, especially if that nominee is not Bernie Sanders.<br />
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While I know that posts on Facebook and other social media are not representative of votes, my impression from Facebook and Twitter is that so far, Sanders fans are least likely to say they'll "vote Blue no matter who" in the general election. Are we heading into yet another debacle if Bernie doesn't get the nomination? Will Democratic/Progressive voters split again and give Trump the presidency for a second term?<br />
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I'm seeing more and more posts lately with Bernie supporters claiming the early polls are "rigged" against their candidate and favoring Joe Biden. The most recent issue that came up was the <a href="http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/images/04/30/rel6c.-.mueller.report.pdf" target="_blank">CNN poll</a> that came out after Biden announced his candidacy.<br />
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The poll, which was conducted by CNN by research firm <a href="https://ssrs.com/about/" target="_blank">SSRS</a>, was a pretty ordinary poll, conducted among a little over 1000 adults (913 voters), balanced by political stance, demography and geography, and weighted to make up for any undercounted groups. Respondents with both landlines and cell phones were included. In fact, more cell phone users were included than landlines, no doubt reflecting overall trends.<br />
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Subsets of respondents were broken out in the crosstabs. But they did not break out results for any group that had less than 125 raw respondents because small sample sizes may not be projectable to the group's size in the population.<br />
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This led to a number of very misleading articles and posts about the validity of the survey.<br />
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Bernie fans posted a Youtube video of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVgdhA7p4CY&feature=share&app=desktop" target="_blank">Jimmy Dore Show</a> on a pro-Bernie Facebook page I follow, where Dore (who admits he is no expert) misinterpreted the results of the CNN poll, saying the pollsters "left out" everyone under 50 and those making less than $50k annually. Then later in the video he casually says "or didn't poll enough of them or something." He made it sound as if they purposely didn't include enough in order to skew the results.<br />
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Others posted the actual cross-tabs showing the N/As among the younger respondents, again misinterpreting the data to say it indicated they weren't polling Bernie's base, which of course is absurd.<br />
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They also post "polls" from Progressive sites like Daily Kos or <a href="http://poll.democracyforamerica.com/results" target="_blank">Democracy for America</a> which are just surveys of their OWN members - not balanced or weighted or in any way statistically valid - as "proof" that the mainstream polls are biased, since Bernie blows all the others away on those sites.<br />
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It is especially irritating to see this misinformation (dare I call it "fake news"? Yes, I do) being posted as truth, especially since all major polls showed the same results that were consistent with the CNN poll, with <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/democratic_nomination_polls/" target="_blank">Bernie behind Biden</a>.<br />
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Look, I get it. You want to believe your guy is really winning. And I'm not necessarily a Biden supporter. Like Hillary, he has a whole bunch of baggage and may not inspire younger people to vote. But he would bring in some of the lost voters from the states Hillary lost, such as Pennsylvania and Michigan. I would prefer a younger candidate than either him or Bernie - it is time to "pass the torch" to a new generation. But of course I will vote for WHOEVER wins the nomination.<br />
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Once again the media is going to play a big part. We're already seeing a lot of emphasis in the media on the white male candidates (incuding Beto and Buttigieg) vs. all the very qualified women who are running. Given the importance of Democratic women voters, and particularly, women of color, in the 2018 elections, it is concerning that the women aren't getting as much airplay and press as the men.<br />
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And of course, let's not forget about Russia stirring the pot, voter suppression and gerrymandering. While a couple of states' <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/03/us/politics/ohio-gerrymander-ruling.html" target="_blank">gerrymandering issues</a> may make it to the Supreme Court, I am not sanguine that the Court will rule that their gerrymandered maps are unconstitutional, now that Kavanaugh is on the court.<br />
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But in the meantime, I wish the Bernie supporters would be team players. Instead of trashing the other Democratic candidates, they should just push positive information about Bernie. Maybe doubting Thomases like myself would be more pro-Bernie if we didn't feel such hostility from his fans and feel as if THEY are shoving him down our throats.<br />
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They need to stop anticipating or assuming that the "mainstream media" and the "corporate Democrats" are going to push Biden and spurn Bernie. It never seems to occur to them that not everybody loves Bernie. I know I don't. I like some of his ideas and I am pretty liberal. But I'm also practical and don't see how he can get his ideas through a recalcitrant Congress (it is unlikely the Democrats will regain the Senate, absent some miracle - or a very motivated Democratic electorate).<br />
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Bernie's fans complaining about the Democratic establishment and continuing to relitigate 2016 and the DNC debacle is not going to get him nominated by the overall Democratic electorate. Not everyone is ultra-progressive and not all will support Bernie. But any Democrat would have better policies than Trump.<br />
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I think Bernie would have trouble being elected in the general election vs. Trump despite current polls. Trump will ream him out about his "socialism" if he is actually nominated. He'll be Crazy Bernie this or that. And he won't get the kid glove treatment he got in 2016 from the GOP in general. They were fine with him challenging Hillary because of how much they hated her. But if Bernie is the nominee that would change abruptly, in my opinion.<br />
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Do Bernie supporters really think that all Democrats are "just as bad" as Trump? If so they are sadly deluded. What about climate change? The environment? LGBTQ rights? Women's rights and health? There are CLEAR differences.<br />
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No candidate is going to be perfect. But we can't afford purity in 2020. Too much is at stake. Those who insist on that purity are insisting from a position of privilege; it is not their rights or lives being marginalized by Trump. It's easy to be righteous and pure if you have nothing to lose by not voting, or voting third party.<br />
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Sadly, I am seeing a lot of Bernie supporters saying yet again that if he doesn't get the nomination, they will refuse to vote for whichever Democrat gets it. (Not all, of course. I know many who voted for Bernie in the primaries in 2016 but voted for Hillary in the general election).<br />
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But there is a substantial subset that is dead set on repeating the mistakes of 2016. Here are some examples from a Progressive/pro-Bernie Facebook page I follow:<br />
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"<span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I refused to vote last time. I just COULD NOT vote the lesser of two evils. I WILL NOT fall in line this time either. I will fucking revolt."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">"</span><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">f you really cared about the things you claim you wouldn’t settle for any corporate establishment hack to be President because in the long run it will lead down the same path as electing Darth Cheeto again</span><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> "<br /><br />"If</span><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> DNC cheats again I vote Green."<br /><br />"</span><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I will NOT Vote.. if Bernie is not the nominee. Period. The other oligarchs aren't going to rectify much of anything. And.. I would work to grow the MovementforPeoplesParty. End of story."</span><br />
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...And that scares the hell out of me. We can't afford another four years of Trump. Wake up people!Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-73327721827118325692017-07-05T15:12:00.001-04:002018-02-08T17:20:53.059-05:00Day 166 and Counting<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhIvvn-03V6kQGDGU6FgdR4H5vD-RmYwi3RrydnC9dAaEMRr42VzjqPFMwCmCM8kgTyMDmziLs7KfyTb2q37OBqWJ76XwDt_lfn23zO66pQJZNyJqIjk-2nMjfiU2A3ydWcpmZ/s1600/Trump.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhIvvn-03V6kQGDGU6FgdR4H5vD-RmYwi3RrydnC9dAaEMRr42VzjqPFMwCmCM8kgTyMDmziLs7KfyTb2q37OBqWJ76XwDt_lfn23zO66pQJZNyJqIjk-2nMjfiU2A3ydWcpmZ/s320/Trump.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: Getty Images</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Well, it's been a long 8 months since the election, and an even longer 5-1/2 months since Trump officially became president.<br />
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It's been even worse than we thought it would be. I think some of us hoped his whole campaign was an act to get elected and that afterward he'd show that he wasn't quite the hateful right-wing bigot he had seemed when on the campaign trail.<br />
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But he immediately went to work showing he meant every bit of it. It all started with the appointment of his transition team and closest aides; then his inauguration speech, which was a vile and dark denunciation of the current state of the country. He then went on to appoint the worst of the worst as cabinet members, as well as doling out key positions to his immediate family members.<br />
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With the exception of Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who seems to retain a modicum of integrity and actual competence in comparison to the rest, those he appointed to cabinet posts are all from some Bizarro World where they embody the complete opposite of what their department is supposed to support.<br />
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Betsy DeVos, champion of charter schools and school vouchers, for Department of Education; Jeff Sessions, a man with <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/despite-racist-past-jeff-sessions-confirmed-as-attorney-general-46f70e02eec2">white supremacist ties,</a> for the Attorney General, leading the Department of Justice; Rick Perry, who famously <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/ap-reports-former-texas-gov-rick-perry-selected-lead-energy-department/">wanted to eliminate the Department of Energy</a> - if he could have remembered the name - as Secretary of Energy; and worse yet, longtime EPA critic Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, who is already doing everything he can to <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/epas-pruitt-moves-to-roll-back-over-30-environmental-regulations-in-record-time/">roll back as many regulations</a> as possible.<br />
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And that's not all. Now we have Tom Price, a staunch opponent of the Affordable Care Act, as head of Health & Human Services; and Ben Carson (who outright said <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/306045-carson-turned-down-offer-to-serve-in-trump-administration-report">he wasn't qualified for a cabinet position</a> despite having run for President) as Secretary of Housing & Urban Development, a topic in which he has absolutely no experience. I could go on. But you already know all that anyway.<br />
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The one bright spot is the uprising on the left, now known as The Resistance, that happened immediately after his inauguration, starting with the Women's Marches all over the world. As soon as we heard there was to be a Women's March on Washington, several friends and I immediately made plans to go. As everyone knows now, the march was so large that the members couldn't even actually march - the area was full all the way to the Washington Monument. We were tucked into a packed street next to the Air and Space Museum. Despite the crowds, it was a calm and peaceful demonstration of what "Democracy looks like," as one of the chants pointed out.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYiW4WRXIyRk_aaQB1yK0tG2Akk-BemRr7KdQMJD4nR-f6rLq6RUyxcRvt3cwXDwTX6p139vKldSCiuXyKJ9TxIrROOvmr-IJ_ihY6WMBESgFOyRqinnOKYhdt6YgT89qkEOWf/s1600/washmarch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYiW4WRXIyRk_aaQB1yK0tG2Akk-BemRr7KdQMJD4nR-f6rLq6RUyxcRvt3cwXDwTX6p139vKldSCiuXyKJ9TxIrROOvmr-IJ_ihY6WMBESgFOyRqinnOKYhdt6YgT89qkEOWf/s320/washmarch.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Then came the first Trump travel ban that spurred thousands to protest at airports and elsewhere. Then there was the march to support Science, and many others, demanding he release his taxes, be impeached, etc.<br />
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This is something I don't remember seeing happen under any other president since the Vietnam War. The response to the election of this self-aggrandizing, petty dictator has been visceral. And women are leading a lot of it. Part of that is our fear of having our rights taken away, part of it is the anger about the misogyny that played at least some part of the vilification of Hillary Clinton by both the right and by Sanders supporters from the left. Part of it is just plain disgust that a man who once bragged about grabbing women "by the pussy" actually got elected. And the fact that no matter how vile he is, how inappropriate and unpresidential his tweets are, nothing seems to matter to the Republican Congress or the voters who supported him. The frustration is all-consuming.<br />
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The endless speculation and drip-drip-drip of the administration's ties to Russia, and the possibility of collusion on the part of the Trump team with the verified Russian interference in our election, have just spurred further resistance. Trump firing Comey, reminiscent of Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre, fueled the fire and deepened the suspicions that there is something big to be discovered that Trump doesn't want us to find out.<br />
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Special counsel Robert Mueller is gearing up for a full-fledged investigation into every aspect of Trump's past, including his business dealings, possible money laundering and more. People keep asking why this process is taking so long. We have to keep reminding ourselves that the Watergate investigation took several years before culminating in Richard Nixon's resignation. And we have to make sure that Democrats win in Congress in 2018 so if impeachment becomes a possibility, there will be Democrats in power to initiate the process. Because the GOP never will as long as the president is able to sign off on any bills they bring him.<br />
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Another bright spot is, despite the many mean-spirited and harmful executive orders Trump signs, not that much actual legislation has taken place. Some reversed President Obama's own executive orders, many of which were put in place just before he left office. Others, like the travel ban, are still being litigated in court. Many of the loosened regulations pertaining to climate change, such as favoring coal vs. clean energy, or loosening restrictions on mileage requirements for vehicles, may not ultimately make that much of a difference, given the public and the rest of the world will continue to demand cleaner energy and better mileage for their cars. Companies aren't going to make special polluting vehicles or gas guzzling cars just for the (maybe?) 30% of Americans who don't care about climate change or clean air.<br />
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The biggest harm that Trump has been able to do is appoint Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, which is all thanks to Mitch McConnell's unprecedented obstruction of the nomination of Eric Garland for the seat well before President Obama's term was ending. For now, although Gorsuch has been reliably conservative, possibly even more so than Scalia, the Justice he replaced, at least so far Anthony Kennedy, the swing vote, has not yet retired. That seat (or those of any of the more liberal justices, should they leave) will be the key seat that could change the course of justice in this country for a generation to come.<br />
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The Resistance must continue and must be effective. We need to make sure we don't get distracted by the tweets or by hateful memes about Trump and focus on the policies he and his cabal are promulgating that will do lasting harm to our democracy.<br />
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One thing we are lacking is real protest music. Where is Phil Ochs when we need him? Thankfully, since he is no longer with us, someone has already had the brilliant idea of reworking Phil's denunciation of Richard Nixon (which in itself was a remake of his earlier song about the state of Mississippi) for the Trump era. The words have not changed much at all from the Nixon version. Amazing how in 2017 so much has remained pertinent.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/deabBWj69mM" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Follow me on Twitter - I never tweeted much until January 20. It is now the center of The Resistance. https://twitter.com/Mauigirl52<br />
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<br />Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-20047718333016859722016-11-19T13:57:00.003-05:002016-11-19T14:16:03.636-05:00President-Elect TrumpWho would have believed two years ago that this could even happen? Well, it has. And there were a lot of reasons for it.<br />
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First of all, no one took him seriously at first. The media loved him because he got them ratings, so they kept showing all his outrageous speeches and his big rallies without criticizing their content or calling him out on his lies. Democrats didn't take him seriously. Pundits didn't take him seriously. And neither did I.<br />
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I had been aware of Trump for 25+ years, especially since I live in the Metro NY area. But I never really paid any attention to him, even when he was bloviating about Obama not being born in the U.S. I mean, who cares what a reality TV star who runs casinos and builds gaudy towers thinks about the President? I never even watched his Apprentice shows, not even once. I just ignored the guy as someone who was not worthy of attention.<br />
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Well, as it turned out, he was. And in a very bad way.<br />
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As for the Democrats, they had a three-way race in the primaries that the media narrowed immediately to Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary Clinton, totally ignoring Martin O'Malley, who, in the brief moments he had to comment during their primary debates, actually sounded like a decent candidate. I had not originally been a fan of Hillary Clinton, as I felt she had way too much baggage and the Republicans hated her. So I voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary.<br />
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Then came the nominations - and it became Trump vs. Hillary. In watching their conventions, I felt it was obvious that Hillary had the advantage. Her convention was full of hope and positivity, while Trump's was dark and foreboding. Didn't we learn that Reagan beat Carter in 1980 because Carter had spoken of the "malaise" in America, while Reagan offered that sunny vision of "a shining city on the hill"? I assumed history would repeat itself. No one wants to think America is no longer great, and believe a dark vision of the country that only Trump could save, surely.<br />
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Sure, there were some stumbles - Hillary didn't campaign much in August, devoting a lot of her time to fundraising; and then she had that bout with pneumonia in September. But she bounced right back with three solid debate performances, where she seemed to best Trump in each one. Her poll numbers rose again and I was feeling confident she would do well in the election.<br />
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Then came the Comey announcement about the discovery of new emails "pertinent to" the FBI investigation discovered on Anthony Weiner's laptop, putting her on the defensive again and giving red meat to the Right. Nine days later Comey said "nothing to see here after all," and moved on. But probably by then the damage was done.<br />
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On election night, Trump won the electoral college and thereby the Presidency.<br />
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Then came all the recriminations and the blame. The polls were wrong. Comey did it. Wikileaks did it. The Russians hacked it. It was the DNC's fault for cheating Bernie out of the nomination.The media was complicit by giving Trump too much air time and touting false equivalencies between his flaws and Hillary's. The Democrats didn't turn out in sufficient numbers. There was an underground white working-class rebellion everyone had missed. Clinton's campaign hadn't focused enough on states like Wisconsin or Michigan. They took African Americans and Hispanics for granted. Trump supporters were voting against their own self-interests. Bernie supporters refused to support Hillary. And so it goes.<br />
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All of these factors came into play and led to the result that most thinking people hadn't believed could happen. America voted in a president who has no knowledge of how government works, knows nothing about policies - neither foreign nor domestic - has spouted various stances on every issue imaginable and has no actual moral core. However, his campaign was run by Steve Bannon, who headed up Breitbart news as it became a vehicle for the "alt-right" movement, and who has now been chosen as Trump's strategist in the White House. He picked Mike Pence, a far right religious conservative whose policies as governor of Indiana show he is a formidable opponent of women's and LGBTQ rights. Other names being touted as potential cabinet members are equally concerning, especially when it comes to the EPA.<br />
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And let's not forget that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is champing at the bit to get rid of the ACA, Medicare, Social Security, and various other programs. And of course, that Trump will be able to pick at least one, and likely more, Supreme Court Justices. It all adds up to a total disaster for the Progressive cause, and a huge setback for so much progress that has been made over the past 8 years.<br />
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So what went wrong?<br />
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I had an uneasy feeling about the election since the spring when Bernie Sanders' movement got under way, and I saw the enthusiasm for him, and not so much for Hillary Clinton. It all felt a lot like 1968. I remembered how Eugene McCarthy's followers had refused to get behind the winner of the Democratic nomination, Hubert Humphrey, and how the former candidate himself had refused to endorse Humphrey until the last moment, when the damage had already been done. And Nixon was elected President.<br />
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I was pleased that Bernie did endorse Hillary immediately after conceding the nomination to her. However, that did not please his followers. Looking back, maybe McCarthy's followers wouldn't have cared if McCarthy had endorsed Humphrey earlier either. The result might have been the same in 1968 just as it was in 2016. Some called Sanders a traitor for endorsing Clinton. Others just didn't care. There was so much bitterness left from the hard-fought primary, and also from the revelation that the Democratic National Committee had favored Hillary, revealed in the Wikileaks release of emails among DNC members. Some Bernie supporters weren't Democrats at all and maybe they would never have voted for Hillary in the first place. But others probably would have, if they hadn't seen another choice.<br />
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I was one of the people who supported Bernie, but not blindly. I knew his policies would be hard, if not impossible to implement. I just wanted to protest about having Hillary Clinton being presented as our only choice, as I felt she would be a flawed nominee..<br />
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However, once she got the nomination, I was committed to her, and the more I saw of her, and the more I learned about her, the more I actually liked her on top of supporting her politically. I could put myself in her place and remember what it was like for women of our age (I am 63) back in the day; how hard she had to work to get to where she was. Whether or not you agreed with everything she has done (or that Bill Clinton did) - which I didn't - she was strong, she was brave, and she was qualified. Trump was none of those.<br />
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Trump is a weak, insecure bully with no pertinent experience for the role he will now be playing. His thin-skinned, easily offended nature terrifies me. Will he, as someone on Facebook said today, start a war because of a tweet? One can only hope there will be cooler heads in his administration who will control him insofar as international relations - and the use of nuclear weapons - are concerned.<br />
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I must say the results of this election have gotten me angry and fired up to a degree I have not felt in many years. If any ordinary Republican - say Romney, Jeb Bush, or Rubio - had been elected, I would be unhappy, but not like this. I immediately sent a small donation to about ten different organizations that work for LGBTQ rights, racial justice, women's reproductive rights, and the environment. And I'm going to the <a href="http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2016/11/14/plans-take-shape-for-womens-march-on-washington-on-january-21-2017/">Women's March on Washington</a> on January 21, 2017. But I feel rather helpless as the GOP will be controlling all three branches of government; there will be no checks and balances. They will have carte blanche to do the things they've always wanted to do.<br />
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We cannot let them succeed.<br />
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One of my big concerns is that many avid Bernie supporters refuse to join with those who supported Hillary to work to defeat the Trump administration's agenda.<br />
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They cite the fact that the Democratic Party has done things they disagree with - from using drones that kill civilians, or allowing fracking, to supporting foreign governments that allow human rights violations - to say that both parties are equally evil and they say they want no part of the Democratic Party. They say those of us who are calling for them to work together against Trump are acting "privileged" or "self-satisfied" and "sanctimonious." They say we didn't try to create a force that would have destroyed the oppressors.<br />
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I have done some soul-searching as I am always open to constructive criticism. I do not see what we could have done differently under the current system to reject both parties and somehow become powerful enough to have influence over what this country does.<br />
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Whether it was the fault of the DNC, rigged voting or just plain not getting enough votes (and you can argue any one of those points all you want), Bernie did not win the nomination. I'm sorry. He just didn't. If he had, I would have supported him wholeheartedly against Trump.<br />
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As far as voting for a third party - which I know many Bernie supporters chose to do rather than vote for Hillary - that would not have worked either. First of all, our system is completely rigged against third parties winning, so that is a problem that needs to be addressed at another time. This year was not the time. I also did not even agree with Jill Stein's perspective on a lot of things (let alone Gary Johnson's!) and felt she was supremely unqualified to run a government. So please spare me the idea of "Well, if everyone had voted for her she would have won." I wouldn't have WANTED her to win.<br />
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So that leaves this question for the Bernie supporters who reject the Democratic Party: What is your solution to the mess we are in? I am open to all suggestions. To me there are two things at stake:<br />
(1) How to prevent the GOP from reversing all of the progress that has been made in terms of civil rights and a cleaner environment; and (2) Longer-term, how do we ensure that true Progressives gain power in Washington?<br />
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For (2), there are also two things that can be done. One is to work from within the Democratic Party to reform it and bring it back to its original Progressive values, by working at local and state levels to get Progressives in office in state legislatures, governorships, and Congress. The second way, if you think the Democratic Party is a lost cause, is to champion a Progressive third party that can develop real power - not the Greens who barely run any candidates on local levels and then trot out an unqualified candidate for President every four years, if that. (And yes, I am aware there are SOME Greens in office in some parts of the country but not nearly enough). Those third-party candidates have to start at the grass roots level. Run them for town council, for freeholder, for assembly representative, for state senator. Then run them for governor and Congress, and finally for President. Only then will it be possible for a third party to have power, and not before.<br />
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If anyone has other solutions to the mess we are now in, please, let me know. Because we have no time to waste.Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-29232315534028195062016-07-16T17:52:00.001-04:002016-07-16T18:55:09.088-04:00A Sad Goodbye to Baxter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello Blog Friends. It is with great sadness that I must report that Political Blogger Extraordinaire and Cat-About-the-House Baxter passed away suddenly in April. He had numerous health issues, from an overactive thyroid to what we think was inflammatory bowel disease, which was mitigated by Prednisilone - but that caused diabetes. So he was getting two pills and a shot of insulin, twice a day, for the previous six months, and was doing pretty well, until one evening he just collapsed in the upstairs hallway. He went into a coma and died the next morning after spending the night on our bed. We didn't take him to the vet as we could tell the time was near, and didn't see the sense in stressing him out with a vet visit in the middle of the night. He was 15.<br />
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He had a good long life, of course, but we always want a longer time with our furry family members. It's strange to no longer have a cat. And given our dog Angel thinks cats are a type of snack, we probably can't have another cat as long as we have Angel.<br />
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Diva is now close to 15 as well, but thankfully is in good health except for arthritis. She is still as demanding as ever and she and Angel are best friends and both sleep on the bed with us now that Baxter is gone. (Angel used to have to sleep downstairs and Baxter and Diva shared our bed with us before). Here they are both giving me the stink-eye about something. Angel (right) learned how to do this from Diva, of course.<br />
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So, sadly, there will be no more blogs from Baxter. He had started his last entry back in February and never finished it. But, for old times' sake, I am leaving the unfinished version here below. It's interesting to see what was happening 5 months ago and to realize things have only gone downhill since then!<br />
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BAXTER's LAST POST:<br />
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Baxter here.<br />
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Well, here I am Again. I took a Break for awhile to see how Things Worked Out. And here we are in mid-February and Things are Just as Weird as ever.<br />
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Donald Trump is continuing to Lead the Republicans in their Primary race, which I find Unbelievable.<br />
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My Female Human says her now-deceased Mother would be Spinning in her Grave at the idea of President Trump. Her Mother was Amazed that Ronald Reagan became President. "Only in America," she would say, "could an ACTOR become President." She should see what's Happening now!<br />
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And worse yet, in Second Place is that Cruz guy; he makes my Fur stand on end. He's the one who some believe has been <a href="http://deadstate.org/megachurch-pastor-ted-cruz-has-been-anointed-by-god-to-be-president-of-the-united-states/">Anointed by God </a>to be the next President. And oh yeah - his Dad is one of them.<br />
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To Me, those Overtly Religious Types are really the Scariest of all. Now, you know we Cats don't hold much Truck with Religion. Yes, there is Ceiling Cat. But Ceiling Cat kind of minds His own Business. Ceiling Cat doesn't expect us to Worship Him all the time (except for an Occasional Offering of a Dead Mouse or something). And certainly we aren't Required to have Specific Beliefs or to kill Other Cats if they don't Believe in Ceiling Cat. Basically we Cats can do Whatever we want and Nobody Butts into Our Business.<br />
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But some of these Religious Types who call themselves "Christians" (not to be confused with Real Christians who try to live Life by the Golden Rule, as instructed by the actual Christ that Humans call Jesus), seem to think they should Rule the World. In Fact, this Cruz fellow is part of a Sect called <a href="http://www.religionnews.com/2016/02/04/ted-cruzs-campaign-fueled-dominionist-vision-america-commentary/">Dominionists</a>, who actually believe the United States should be run as a Christian Nation and that Biblical law trumps Civil law. In Other Words, he wants the United State to become a Christian Theocracy. Now I find that Highly Ironic, considering these Types of People are the ones that are So Afraid of Muslim Theocracy (i.e., Shariah Law) becoming the Law of the Land. Pray tell, what is the Difference?<br />
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Then we Get Down to Marco Rubio. This guy is just Too Young and doesn't really Know What He's Doing yet. Give him another ten years maybe. He was supposed to be the Big Deal among the Republicans, before Trump came along and Blew that idea out of the Water.<br />
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Oh, and Jeb Bush - I think the Genes were spread out Too Thin - by the time they got to him, he didn't have Anything left. Not that there was Much to Begin with, when you look at W. But he has not had the Success I would have thought his Name might have Brought him.<br />
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Thankfully, by now some of the Field has Dropped Out, so I don't need to go into people like Christie. I'm a New Jersey Cat. Enough said. We in New Jersey know this man is an Idiot and a Bully. It just took a while for the Rest of the Country to figure it out.<br />
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Ben Carson should have Dropped Out ages ago. But I'm glad Governor Kasich did not. Out of All of Them, he may be the most Sane. Of course, that isn't saying a Lot.<br />
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Who do I think might win? Hard to Say. But I hope it's not Cruz. Frighteningly, Trump seems like a Safer Choice, overall. And again, that's not saying a Lot!<br />
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****<br />
Thank you, Baxter, for your last thoughts on the election.<br />
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Note that Baxter hadn't even gotten to the Democratic race. Now we have Hillary as the presumed nominee, and she and Trump (who believe me, I do find terrifying, especially now he's picked Mike Pence as VP, since he brings all that religious nonsense along with him and especially his anti-LGBT attitudes). But I also find it highly concerning that Hillary is disliked and distrusted nearly as much as Trump as this does not bode well for November.<br />
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The Republican convention starts on Monday. I wonder how crazy it will get. I look forward to watching Stephen Colbert Monday night, as I hear he and Jon Stewart are planning to do some convention coverage!<br />
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Watch this space... I haven't given up on blogging for good and hope to get back to writing a little more often. Facebook's format isn't formal enough to do any real writing, so I would like to address some issues over here, even without Baxter to help. Maybe Diva, being an old and wise dog, could help out now...<br />
<br />Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-54466061000661103782015-10-29T14:08:00.001-04:002015-10-29T14:11:38.400-04:00A Cat's Eye View: In it for the Long Haul<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Baxter here. I am Complaining because there are Too Many Republicans. Here at My House, we were Thinking of Maybe watching the Republican "Debate" but in the End could not Bear to do it. How can there be any Sense made out of ten people answering Stupid Questions for Two Hours. What kind of Substantive Conversation can be had?<br />
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The Worst Thing is, there isn't even One Candidate that would make a Good President out of the Bunch of them. I don't know What this Country is coming to. And I think those with No Support Whatsoever (I'm looking at YOU, Chris Christie!) should Drop Out and let the other Bozos get more Air Time so Everyone can see what Idiots they all are.<br />
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Then on the Democratic side, there is the whole Hillary vs. Bernie Problem. Hillary supporters say Bernie can't Win so people should be Rooting for Hillary. They say don't Waste Your Vote on Bernie because he Can't Win. Bernie supporters, on the Other Hand, say Hillary is as Bad as the Republicans and if you Vote for Her you are as Bad as a Republican too.<br />
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Neither of these Opinions are True, in My Own Not-so-Humble Opinion. Why not Wait and See who Wins the Primaries? If you really Agree with Bernie, vote for him in the Primary. If he doesn't Win and Hillary is the Nominee, then vote for her in the General Election. Isn't that Simple? Oh, you are one of Those who say Hillary is no Better than a Republican? Have you SEEN who the Republicans are? Do you KNOW what they Believe? Check out <a href="http://www.ontheissues.org/default.htm">this link.</a><br />
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You will see their Views on Many Subjects are direct Opposites of Hillary's OR Bernie's, especially when it comes to Family Planning and a Woman's Right to Choose. Check out their Views on Energy and Oil and Alternative Energy Sources. Compare their Civil Rights records and their Views on Global Warming. If you are a Democrat, you will realize there IS a difference between the Parties and that Hillary's views are a Lot Closer to Bernie's than You May Realize.<br />
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Then Keep in Mind that there will No Doubt be Supreme Court Appointments to be made in the coming Presidential Term. If Hillary is the Democratic Nominee and you Stay Home or Write in a Candidate You Prefer, then if one of these Republican Candidates wins the Election, you will have Only Yourself to Blame if we get a Completely Right Wing Supreme Court as a result.<br />
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Me, I am in it for the Long Haul. First, let's see who Emerges among the Republican Crew as the Actual Nominee. Then let's see who the Democratic Nominee is. And then things will Get Interesting. Right now it's all a Big Show.<br />
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So... Carry On with the Debates. Maybe by Next Spring they might Mean Something. In the Meantime, I think I will enjoy some Catnip and Relax.Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-7858177293313153172015-10-28T18:53:00.003-04:002015-10-29T13:17:52.222-04:00In Memoriam: Farewell to Doris<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Of course, I never called her Doris. I called her Mom - because she was the epitome of a good mother and I didn't feel the least bit odd about calling her that even though she was my mother-in-law, not my own mother. But once she was in the nursing home for a long time, a lot of the people who cared for her referred to her as Doris so I started to think of her that way too.<br />
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We first met in 1983 when my then-boyfriend, now husband, Ed, was admitted to the hospital with appendicitis - a perfect way to meet one's future in-laws without any pressure! I still remember my first sight of her and my future father-in-law in the waiting room at the hospital. It worked out well for me since I am the one who brought Ed to the hospital and made sure they took good care of him. I was in their good graces from Day One.<br />
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My mother-in-law was always kind, generous and loving. She never made me feel like an outsider. In fact, later on my father-in-law told me that she always considered me a real daughter, not a daughter-in-law. I feel honored that she felt that way. We were good friends and always found a lot to chat about. Sometimes Ed or his dad had to break in to our conversation in order to get a word in edgewise.<br />
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Mom was born in 1928 and grew up in South Amboy, New Jersey, the oldest of five. She went to Catholic school and graduated from St. Mary's High School in 1946, just after the war ended. She then worked as a secretary in a doctor's office for awhile. She met Ed's dad at a local dance - soon after he had returned from serving in the Army during World War II. How could she resist this dashing young man, who was still in uniform when they first met? From the pictures I found in an old photo album, they made quite a handsome couple as they were dating.<br />
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They married in 1948. She was 20, he was 22. Mom only worked until their son was born in 1952, and then became a homemaker. Dad, who had become an engineer, was the breadwinner.<br />
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During her last illness, Dad said over and over what a wonderful wife and mother she was... but he also revealed they were truly a product of that pre-women's liberation era.<br />
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He said when they got married, she had wanted to go to school, and he said she could -- but he told her she would not work afterward. He said he told her she was to stay home and take care of any children they had, take care of the house and have dinner on the table, and he would earn the money. So she did. "You know," he reminisced, "We never had an argument in all those years."<br />
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When Ed was older and in college - they only had the one child - she did work briefly as an administrative assistant in a doctor's office and as a secretary in the local high school. Ed said she loved it. But by the time I met them she was home again. As she once told me, "Dad wanted me home." He wanted to know he could call her any time of day and she'd be able to talk to him, or run an errand if need be.<br />
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Mom was kept busy with all of her homemaking duties. The house was always spotless; no speck of dust would dare appear on any surface. She was an excellent cook, able to make everything from roasts to fried fish that was light as a feather. She made a pumpkin pie that was everything a pumpkin pie should be. She made fabulous cakes. She was an expert seamstress and made a lot of clothes, including men's jackets, and drapes for the living room. She helped a friend's Girl Scout troop earn their sewing badge by teaching the little girls how to sew. She wrote a weekly social column in the local newspaper. And she was president of the Women's Club, the Garden Club and the PTO.<br />
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Every summer the whole family would go on a road trip, including four cross-country journeys where they toured the national parks and other sites of interest. A map still hanging on the wall of the family room marks with red pins the various spots they stopped along the way on each trip. They also took trips with Ed's grandparents, to Florida a few times, and once to the Bahamas.<br />
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Right before I met her, Ed had told me his mom had just gotten her real estate license. She later explained to me that Dad was getting close to retirement age and she thought it was something they could kind of do together - she could do the selling and he could help with the paperwork, which would keep him busy in retirement.<br />
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But it was not to be. Dad's whole division was laid off when he was 61 and he suddenly found himself retired a year earlier than he had planned. After the first shock wore off - which took only a weekend - he adjusted with lightning speed and immediately started planning all the trips they would take. And Mom never did sell a single house.<br />
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Don't feel sorry though... they had a grand time. They went to Hawaii for 4-6 weeks each year (several times with us); they drove up the coast of California repeatedly, and visited the Blue Ridge Mountains multiple times, as well as taking trips with us to Portugal and Italy. They went on a tour of China and walked on the Great Wall. They took a cruise that stopped at various ports of call in Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore. They skied every winter in the French Alps. When they were home they skied locally in the winter and spent time at the town pool each day in the summer.<br />
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It sounds as if they were rich, doing all this traveling, but they weren't. They were very frugal and saved their money.<br />
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They had moved from Perth Amboy, where they lived when they first married, to Holmdel, New Jersey, in 1958. The house they bought was part of a new development going in where an old apple orchard had once stood. Generous to a fault when giving gifts, they didn't splurge on material things for their home. Instead, they spent it on travel and family.<br />
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Dad still lives in the house today; they never "traded up" to something fancier. It's a modest split level home with 3 bedrooms, two of which are quite small. The house still has its original kitchen, and they had the same furniture and carpeting throughout most of their married life until Dad had to spend down some of their money to make Mom eligible for Medicaid in the nursing home, and he installed new carpeting and central air conditioning at that time. I think that was the only improvement that was made to the house, other than painting it, during most of their marriage.<br />
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Here are a few pictures of them from their early retirement years. The top left picture is from a cruise they were on, the group picture was taken on Maui, the one below is on the Asia cruise, and the bottom left photo is in our living room at Christmas one year.<br />
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Sadly, my mother-in-law's dementia began to gradually become noticeable in the early 2000s, when she was in her mid-to-late 70s. She started to forget things and ask the same questions over and over. Then she began to lose her vocabulary. She still went on trips to Hawaii and California as long as she was able to function, but on the last trip to the California coast, Dad realized she couldn't cope with traveling anymore. She was too confused.<br />
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He carried on, taking care of her at home, until he was struck with illness in early 2008. He ended up in the hospital and we ended up caring for Mom for a few days. It was then we realized how bad her condition had become. We were still working at the time, and couldn't keep taking days off to care for her, and Dad was going to be in the hospital for a couple of weeks after a severe intestinal bleed and surgery.<br />
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So we researched and found a nursing home, Laurel Bay in Keansburg, about 15 minutes from their home, that was able to take her on a temporary basis until Dad recovered and we figured out what to do. Mom at that time became easily agitated and we were very grateful to the wonderful staff who were able to care for her despite the difficulties. Once Dad was out of the hospital he agreed he couldn't care for Mom properly at home anymore. We looked at a few other nursing homes in the area but none were as cozy and homey as Laurel Bay. So that is where Mom stayed, and we are glad she did.<br />
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For almost 8 years, Dad went to Laurel Bay twice a day and helped Mom eat her lunch and supper (she had by this time lost the dexterity to feed herself). He knew everyone there and they knew him. Sometimes he drove them crazy because he always made sure his Doris got the best care of anyone there, and let them know if he felt they hadn't lived up to his expectations. But they all understood he did it out of love for her.<br />
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Sometimes he'd take a break and go shopping (usually to buy her something) and I would go down and help her eat her lunch. Even though at this point she could no longer speak much at all, she knew me and always gave me a big smile. She knew me right until the last few months, I think. I would chat with her as if she could answer back and let her know what was going on. I always wondered whether she was just trapped in her mind and couldn't speak but did understand. It must have been so frustrating for her.<br />
<br />
She had a wonderful caregiver, Obai, who is originally from Haiti. She and Mom developed a very special relationship. They understood each other and Obai truly loved her. A former hairdresser in her native country, Obai loved to dress Mom up for the "elegant dining" events they had three or four times a year, and she'd always do something special to her hair.<br />
<br />
Elegant dining was a really nice event; they had a singer there who would sing a range of songs from the old standards to more modern rock-and-roll from the 50s and early 60s, to accommodate the various age groups at the nursing home. The cooks would make a special dinner, complete with appetizers and desserts, and they served wine. Mom enjoyed these events a lot when she was first there. Later she was less responsive but I still think she liked the music and she always ate all her food.<br />
<br />
Here are a few pictures where Mom is dressed up for these events. The black-and-white picture is her with Obai.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmleQEuiYEQsebXqjJMLJQF8Mrvrdbguc_BmiUtvsRbIerJ_1dbVqsarffWtWiFjMswNhnluRdtY0uojV22z9fUa73TCFEPskcvsiko4MVE3e9mPTQ4eBdwx2lx1-N-4rzOYzV/s1600/Mominnursinghome.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmleQEuiYEQsebXqjJMLJQF8Mrvrdbguc_BmiUtvsRbIerJ_1dbVqsarffWtWiFjMswNhnluRdtY0uojV22z9fUa73TCFEPskcvsiko4MVE3e9mPTQ4eBdwx2lx1-N-4rzOYzV/s640/Mominnursinghome.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Dad did get away for some respite from caring for Mom. We had bought our cabin in the Adirondacks just after she went into the nursing home, so he started to come up for long weekends about once a month or so to relax. While he was away, he called the nursing home, without fail, at noontime, to make sure Doris had eaten her lunch and that she was doing well. For a long time she was.<br />
<br />
In the past year or so, though, she began declining. She was having more trouble chewing and swallowing and they put her on thickened liquids and pureed food. I knew, from experience with my own father, who had had dementia in his later years, that this was the beginning of the end. But Ed's dad never looked at it that way. To him, anything that went wrong could be fixed, as long as he tried hard enough. And try he did. He blamed her problems on everything possible except the dementia. I don't think he ever admitted that it was a terminal disease.<br />
<br />
Just before she truly could not swallow at all anymore, we had a discussion about whether he would choose to put in a feeding tube if she could no longer swallow her food. At that time he said no. But when the time came, about two weeks later, he couldn't let her go. There was even a piece of paper, in her own handwriting, that had been found among her belongings at home a couple of years ago, that said she did not want to be kept alive by artificial means. "Let me die in peace," she wrote, and signed and dated it, in the mid-1990s. She had seen her own mother die in a nursing home from dementia. She knew what awaited her if she got it too.<br />
<br />
Dad didn't agree that a feeding tube was "artificial means." He said he "couldn't let her starve." So she got the feeding tube, and he got three more months with her. He was happy just holding her hand - he said she squeezed his hand so tightly he knew she knew he was there. I hope that was true and not just some reflex she had.<br />
<br />
The end finally came despite the feeding tube, or maybe because of it. She got pneumonia, ended up in the hospital for yet another time (she had had pneumonia several times in the last year of her life due to her inability to swallow properly, which causes aspiration pneumonia, even when someone isn't being fed by mouth). She then began vomiting blood. The doctor, who was a very compassionate woman, said it was common for people with feeding tubes to get bleeding ulcers. She gently told Dad that "it is time to let her go." He finally agreed to sign a "do not resuscitate" order. Mom was put into a private room and Dad kept watch over her for three days, going home only to sleep. We were there as well for much of the time. She finally drifted peacefully away on October 20, 2015.<br />
<br />
It was Dad that couldn't bear to let her go. And it is heartbreaking to see his grief. But the next morning when I woke up, I felt her presence around me, and a great sense of joy. I am not a big believer in an afterlife or religion, but I do think there is something out there after death. I do know I felt that she is finally free and able to express herself again and is happy, wherever she is. I am not sad for her, I am happy for her. I hope Dad will feel that way someday too. I know she would want him to.Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-18997602237060390002015-10-17T23:08:00.000-04:002015-10-17T23:57:43.089-04:00Fighting the Rat of Death<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3GdEpArIJ7XYdluy0I-hNkC657VtHIUx0P5Tsp7vNDScI2NeiqmgGOm9eqE4VWwU_PsvnD2DZ38Etf9MjceybyyzYzJ4wWG4qDGHj21JAqhNtZsq1itAiZyrwoDS2R_nosf6X/s1600/evilrat.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3GdEpArIJ7XYdluy0I-hNkC657VtHIUx0P5Tsp7vNDScI2NeiqmgGOm9eqE4VWwU_PsvnD2DZ38Etf9MjceybyyzYzJ4wWG4qDGHj21JAqhNtZsq1itAiZyrwoDS2R_nosf6X/s320/evilrat.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
It's been a rough year. First Baxter was sick and we weren't sure if he was going to make it - thankfully, as he explained in the last post, he is doing well.<br />
<br />
Then my mother-in-law, who has dementia and has been in a nursing home for nearly 8 years, started declining rapidly, after being relatively stable for a long time. Looking back, we realized she had been declining all along, but so gradually we didn't really notice it until this year. By June she had forgotten how to swallow properly and had started getting recurrent cases of aspiration pneumonia. Finally, she wasn't able to eat at all. DH's father made the decision to have a feeding tube inserted to enable her to continue to eat. "I can't just starve her," he said.<br />
<br />
DH and I had looked into this back in 2005 when my own father was in a nursing home with dementia and was no longer able to swallow. All of the literature we read online and elsewhere said that inserting a feeding tube when someone has dementia and has lost the ability to swallow does nothing to prolong life and just results in numerous, constant complications.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, after 67 years of marriage, in the end, DH's dad couldn't let her go. He wanted just a few more months with her. So, the feeding tube was inserted after a few days of angst and tears on all sides. (Except for my mother-in-law, who, thankfully, had no idea of the drama circling around her). She hasn't been able to speak, other than occasional grunts or simple yes or no answers, for years, and at this point she was hardly even doing that, and was sleeping most of the time.<br />
<br />
Next came a problem with our 13 or 14-year-old dog Diva. We adopted her 10 years ago, but were never really sure how old she was at that time. Given her arthritis and very grey muzzle, we are thinking she may have been as old as 4 when we adopted her, making her 14 now.<br />
<br />
We started to notice changes in her behavior over the summer. She gradually stopped coming upstairs to sleep on our bed, preferring to stay downstairs on her own bed nearby her adoptive "sister," Angel.<br />
<br />
Then in September we realized she was getting very deaf, and more and more sensitive to odd noises. She had developed a fear of thunder and fireworks a few years ago, but now she became afraid of acorns falling on the tin roof at our cabin in the Adirondacks, nail guns, hammering, and any other abrupt noises. She started shaking whenever one of these objectionable sounds occurred.<br />
<br />
Then we went to Cape Cod for a week and she acted nervous in the car going up, panting and restless; then at the cottage, a new one for us that we hadn't stayed at before, she started acting nervous and pacing around every evening.<br />
<br />
We had gotten a prescription for Xanax from the vet for her since we had started noticing this nervousness before we left, and that calmed her down but didn't cure the problem. She decided the bathroom was the only safe place to sleep, so we put her bed in there. Not very convenient when we got up in the middle of the night to use the facilities, but at least Diva was happy. We were afraid she was developing doggie dementia and that it was a sign of age and it would only get worse...<br />
<br />
Then, the day after we got home, we finally realized what might be part of the problem - she had a urinary tract infection! She started asking to go out and urinate every half hour and we realized there was blood in her urine. We rushed over to our local emergency veterinarian clinic and had her checked out and the vet gave us antibiotics and painkillers for her. After only a day on the antibiotics and painkillers, her behavior became much more normal. After two weeks she seems back to her old self; but she still won't sleep on our bed.<br />
<br />
We were up at the cabin this past week while she was still getting better, and we were still worrying about her, as well as DH's mom, who was back in the hospital with yet another bout of pneumonia. She had also developed a <i>C. difficile</i> intestinal infection from the antibiotics she was being given for the pneumonia, and was not doing well at all. Based on my experience with my own mother, this infection could very well be what swept her away.<br />
<br />
One night while we were at the cabin, DH had a terrible nightmare. I woke to find him pawing my shoulder and making odd noises. I finally shook him awake and said, "What's wrong?" He said, "A rat. A huge rat."<br />
<br />
The next day he remembered the dream: He had been dreaming there was this huge, snarling rat attacking Diva, and he was trying to beat it with some kind of a stick and get it away from her. He had been calling for our other dog Angel to come kill it but she was nowhere around in the dream. He said it was one of those dreams where you can't do anything -- you can't hit the rat, you can't move fast enough, nothing works.<br />
<br />
I told him it must have been that he was fighting the Rat of Death and trying to keep it from Diva, and that Diva might be representative of his mother as well, since he was so worried about both of them.<br />
<br />
The next day one of the doctors taking care of his mother in the hospital in New Jersey called to tell us that his mom had taken a turn for the worse and it was really time to let her go; he said it was unfair to keep having her go back to the hospital for treatment over and over, and make her suffer further (which of course we did agree with).<br />
<br />
We left the cabin earlier than we'd planned and returned home, arriving late in the evening The next day we received a morning call from the doctor overseeing my mother-in-law's care to tell us she'd had to entubate her after she had stopped breathing earlier that morning, because DH's dad had not made a decision to put her on palliative care. She said Mom had been moved to intensive care.<br />
<br />
We met at the hospital along with DH's dad, and told them we would like her taken off the respirator, expecting her to pass away an hour or so later.<br />
<br />
As it turned out, after the respirator was removed, she stabilized and has been holding her own ever since. She is being given morphine and is no longer receiving any curative measures. But she continues to fight against the Rat of Death a little longer.<br />
<br />
My father-in-law asks, "Why? Why am I going through all this at this stage of my life?" I can't give him an answer.Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-85067164948497767592015-10-15T14:06:00.001-04:002015-10-15T14:13:04.078-04:00A Cat's Eye View - Baxter has returned just in time for the election season!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ew13T_HpUmpxUFV327D4LNpBfE54MSfvvGF_vXf2HeJQW4UhYcd2NlJStQ224HxiP56qbpRjkrENqissGo-3yl1YmkB2pIUsWwU7qH6prHwO_g-IBnksK1JCk4LhAvwHP-xq/s1600/Baxter4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ew13T_HpUmpxUFV327D4LNpBfE54MSfvvGF_vXf2HeJQW4UhYcd2NlJStQ224HxiP56qbpRjkrENqissGo-3yl1YmkB2pIUsWwU7qH6prHwO_g-IBnksK1JCk4LhAvwHP-xq/s320/Baxter4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, here I am again. I expect Many of you have wondered
where I have Been; I suppose a Few have also wondered about the Disappearance
of my Female Human over the past Year or so. Of course, not as many as would
have missed Me. That Goes without Saying.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On My part, I have had a Bad Year, health-wise. In Fact, I
may have used up one of my Nine Lives this past Year. It all started Last Fall
when I started Losing Weight. That Female Human who sticks needles into Me and
pokes at Me in that Office we go to (my Humans call her a Veterinarian,
whatever that is) suspected I had something wrong with an Organ I apparently
have called a Thyroid. She decided my Humans would have to shove some little
White thing down my throat at Periodic Intervals in order to Fix the Problem.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Well, Needless to Say, I tried my Best to trick them out of being able to do
this. If I see one of them coming, I Hide under the Bed until all risk of
having that Thing shoved down my Throat is over. If it’s at Night, I just wait
till they go to Bed and turn out the Light and then I can come out. Sometimes
they try to Trick Me into eating it in my Food but I am Too Smart for them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nonetheless, I eventually had enough of these things (I
believe they call them Pills) shoved down my Throat that the Veterinarian
thought I should be gaining back the Weight I had lost. But I wasn’t. She got
worried there was Something Else Wrong. After Several Months they finally
decided I needed something called an Ultrasound. I was Dropped Off
ignominiously at 8 a.m. one day at the Veterinarian’s Office and left in a CAGE
(the horror!) until the Procedure was done. As it turned Out, I have some kind
of Thickening in my Guts somewhere that could either be Cancer or Inflammatory
Bowel Disease. The Veterinarian and my Female Human agreed that at My Age it
wasn’t worth doing a Biopsy to find out which it is; the Treatment would work
on either, one more long-term than the Other. I think they called it
Prednisilone.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So now – to my Horror – I have to have TWO of these Pill things
shoved down my Throat twice a day. I had gotten Very Thin – down to 8-1/2 lbs. -- when I was once a Hearty 23 lbs.! My Humans said I looked like a walking Furry
Cat Skeleton. Lo and Behold, after 6 weeks on these New Pills, I have gained
back 4 lbs. and am looking much more like my Old Self! On top of That, I have
enough Energy to jump up on the Bed again instead of using the Cat Steps my
Humans had put there for my Use. How do you like my New Look?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sure, I sometimes still Manage to avoid taking the Pills but
I know underneath that they may be what is Doing Me Good. So I get enough of
them to Do the Job. My Humans hope it is the IBD and not the Cancer. Seems to
Me if it were the Latter, I wouldn’t be doing as Well as I am! <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, now that I am feeling Better, I thought it was About
Time that I went back to Blogging, as one of my Fans suggested to my Female
Human recently on Facebook.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And just in Time, too – the Presidential Election Season has
Already Begun! Oh my, I can’t Believe the number of crazy Candidates there seem
to be on the Republican Side! And the Leading Candidate so far is that Donald
Trump person – what on Earth is going on when more Republicans think he would
be a Good President than any of the others? I am only a Cat, but even I can see
he has no Qualifications to be President. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then there’s the Neurosurgeon, Ben Carson. Being a
Neurosurgeon doesn’t mean you’re smart. It means you are a Good Mechanic. You
can cut open someone’s Brain and make a lot of delicate changes that require
Steady Hands and a Knowledge of what Nerves are located Where. That is
something you Memorize. But when it comes to Knowing Things outside of
Medicine, or even Thinking Right in general, there is no need for that in that
career. And obviously, this one lacks
both of those types of Knowledge. I mean, <a href="http://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/ben-carson-evolution-life-evolve-non-life-incredible-fairy-tales">he doesn’t believe in Evolution</a>, for
One Thing. How can you be a doctor and not believe in Evolution? Even I know
that we Cats weren’t always in this form. We are related to Big Cats like Sabre
Toothed Tigers! I am proud of my Tiger heritage! It is obvious we Cats of all
sizes have Common Ancestors. How can it not be Obvious to these
Evolution-Deniers? He actually said that the basic Tenets of Evolution are "fairy tales" and compared the Similarities between various Species to different models of General Motors cars! <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Secondly, he obviously doesn't believe in the Constitution. To think that he would Say Outright
that he would not "advocate" that a Muslim be "put in charge of this nation"! He
later amended that to say <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/27/politics/ben-carson-muslim-president-sharia-law/">“a Muslim who believes in Shariah Law.”</a> Either one is
Reprehensible given the Constitution says there should be “no religious test”
to be President. But even if you go by his Amended Statement, what about Christians
who are Fundamentalists and believe the nation should be governed by the Rules
in the Christian Bible, which they believe unconditionally? Shouldn’t they also
be Barred from the Presidency under his principle? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then there’s Carly Fiorina, failed CEO of Hewlett-Packard.
Another one with No Political Experience.
For what other Job would people with NO experience in the Job be the
leading Candidates to get the Job? None, I daresay!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If they all Fail then Ted Cruz may have a chance to Win. I
can’t even Go There…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The even halfway-reasonable Candidates like Kasich and Jeb
Bush (I can’t Believe I am Saying that) haven’t Got a Chance! The Republican
voters are Out of Control! It is Scary.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, the Democrats have to have their own Drama too.
Hillary Clinton was supposed to be the shoo-in for the Nomination – but of
course, being a Clinton, there has to be a Scandal that comes out. Is it her
Fault the Republicans jump all over her for everything they can dig up? Well,
yes and no. She had a private email System at her home that she used for emails
during her Tenure as Secretary of State. Maybe it wasn’t Technically Not
Allowed at the Time she had it but it Didn’t Look Good. It seems as if the
Clintons are not very good at avoiding things that Don’t Look Good. Sure, it
may all depend on what the definition of “is” is, but in the End, if you are
Smart, you don’t do things that Don’t Look Good at all, and then you don’t have
these Problems.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So Bernie Sanders saw a Weakness and realized he might have
a Chance! Bernie is probably the Least Likely to Succeed Candidate the
Democrats could come up with in the current Climate of a Country constantly
edging to the Right… he’s not even a Democrat, he describes himself as a
“Democratic Socialist.” And you know how the Right loves to call anyone to the
Left of Barry Goldwater a “Socialist” as a Pejorative Term. This guy actually
calls HIMSELF a Socialist. That can’t go well. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That said, he embodies the Beliefs of a Whole Bunch of my
Female Human’s Facebook friends, and, in all honesty, hers as well. She took
one of those Tests where you answer Questions about various issues and then it
tells you which Politician you most agree with. What did she get? Yep, 98%
Bernie Sanders. And apparently a lot of other People agree with Bernie too. He
is going up in the polls vs. Hillary, which will present a Quandary for Many
practical Democrats. Do you vote for who you believe in, or who you believe
will win in 2016?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My Humans have me up at that place they call The Cabin in
the Mountains somewhere this Week and we can’t get CNN so I wasn’t able to watch the
Democratic Debate the other Night. However, I hear Hillary acquitted herself
Nicely and it went well for her. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s Too Soon to Tell how this will all Play Out, because we
don’t know which Crazy Republican will be running in 2016! It all hinges on
that.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So Stay Tuned. It should be an interesting Year! I hope my
Health will Hold Out and I will be able to See What Happens! In the meantime, I
can only Hiss at the craziness that is the United States election process…<o:p></o:p></div>
Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-69029094866809172212014-05-28T13:46:00.000-04:002014-05-28T14:02:33.505-04:00Curing Childhood With a Pill<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUR9s5uQTlwNsiKSVag7MYuDxKlGxc-2Dj0-jOyPIyy1IjtOWnCFygez2UeotJu3xY1DVPDfBa0N7fB0dajtqTWGvL4RKnW6Ae5od86GJeGKS6oCBUcw7r3bzohjwhYuoSfsfj/s1600/tomsawyer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUR9s5uQTlwNsiKSVag7MYuDxKlGxc-2Dj0-jOyPIyy1IjtOWnCFygez2UeotJu3xY1DVPDfBa0N7fB0dajtqTWGvL4RKnW6Ae5od86GJeGKS6oCBUcw7r3bzohjwhYuoSfsfj/s1600/tomsawyer.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
I have had this post percolating in the back of my mind for over a month now, ever since reading an article in the New York Times about a newly-"discovered" mental disorder in children called <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/12/health/idea-of-new-attention-disorder-spurs-research-and-debate.html?_r=0">Sluggish Cognitive Tempo</a> or SCT. According to the article, "the condition is said to be characterized by lethargy, daydreaming and slow mental processing. By some researchers' estimates, it is present in perhaps two million children."<br />
<br />
Over six million children in the United States, according to the article, have been given diagnoses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), usually treated with one of several drugs. Adderall, Ritalin and Concerta,all stimulants, are among the drugs used to treat kids with standard ADHD symptoms.<br />
<br />
Eli Lilly makes Strattera, a non-stimulant type of drug used for ADHD. Lilly recently funded a <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24206099">study</a> to learn whether Strattera can help symptoms of SCT as well. The conclusion was that Strattera did have significant effects on children with the condition, <a href="http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/04/16/does-sluggish-cognitive-tempo-sct-exist/">which may or may not be an official mental disability</a>. It may just be a subtype of ADHD. It is not yet listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as a separate condition even though symptoms have been recognized for several decades.<br />
<br />
Then I saw yet another article in the Times, this one saying that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/17/us/among-experts-scrutiny-of-attention-disorder-diagnoses-in-2-and-3-year-olds.html">10,000 toddlers are being medicated for ADHD</a> - these are children of 2 or 3 years old - many of them children who are on Medicaid. These medications haven't even been studied for safety or efficacy in children this young, and using them on toddlers is outside the standard of care for pediatricians. And yet, this experiment on our youngest citizens is taking place across the country. Young children, practically still babies, are being given powerful drugs with unknown consequences when their behavior patterns could be the result of poor nutrition, poor family life, lack of sleep, etc. Toddlers develop at different rates and this age group is in flux - some children are precocious; others may be a bit behind and find it harder to settle down. Shouldn't their physicians be looking deeper, or waiting longer to see what happens as the toddler matures, rather than prescribing a pill to "cure" him or her?<br />
<br />
I am not denying there are children who do have real learning disabilities and that they have been helped tremendously by these medications. This new or renamed disorder may be another type of ADHD or a separate condition and there may really be kids who might benefit if properly diagnosed and medicated. In fact, I am usually a strong proponent for "better living through chemistry."<br />
<br />
But - I do wonder whether it is true that this many children in our country truly have something wrong with them, or whether adults' expectations of children's behavior have changed in the last 30 years or so. Schools and teachers are being judged on how well they are functioning by how well the children they teach do on tests. Many children worry about things like getting into college at an age which my generation wasn't even thinking about it yet. They take expensive classes just to ensure a high SAT score; something no one did in my day. Heck, in New York City, parents compete - and even cheat - <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123782">to get their children into the "right" preschool.</a><br />
<br />
When I look at the definition of SCT, I think of some other students in the past who may have had those symptoms - students like Albert Einstein or Thomas Edison, for instance, both of whom were considered problem students.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"He [Einstein] was a poor student, and some of his teachers thought he might be [ mentally handicapped]; he was unable to speak fluently at age nine. Still, he was fascinated by the laws of nature, experiencing a deep feeling of wonder when puzzling over the invisible, yet real, force directing the needle of a compass.... Einstein's formal secondary education ended at age sixteen. He disliked school, and just as he was planning to find a way to leave without hurting his chances for entering the university, his teacher expelled him because his bad attitude was affecting his classmates." (<a href="http://www.notablebiographies.com/Du-Fi/Einstein-Albert.html#ixzz32yB0SfxV">Source</a>)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Edison was a poor student. When a schoolmaster called Edison "addled," or slow. his furious mother took him out of the school and proceeded to teach him at home. Edison said many years later, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt I had someone to live for, someone I must not disappoint." At an early age, he showed a fascination for mechanical things and for chemical experiments." (<a href="http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventors/a/Thomas_Edison.htm">Source</a>)</blockquote>
And think about Mark Twain - who also left school early and was a dreamer who preferred going on escapades with his friends and aspired to become a riverboat pilot. Most of his learning thereafter was self-taught, and he eventually became the journalist, and finally the esteemed writer that we are so familiar with today.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"In his youth, Twain was a mischievous boy, the prototype of his character, Tom Sawyer. Though he was plagued by poor health in his early years, by age nine he had already learned to smoke, led a small band of pranksters, and had developed an aversion to school. Twain's formal schooling ended after age 12, because his father passed away in March of that year." (<a href="http://www.gradesaver.com/author/mark-twain/">Source</a>)</blockquote>
What about Winston Churchill, who <a href="https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/winston-churchill-education.html">also struggled to conform to formal education</a>?<br />
<br />
I wonder what would have happened if these notable men had received medication for their conditions when they were children? Would they have gone on to be the geniuses that they eventually became? Or would their creativity and inventiveness have been stifled and would they have just gone on to be cogs in the wheel of commerce instead? The truth is, none of them were suited for the rote learning in standard schools and excelled when able to learn in their own way and pace, and to learn about subjects that interested them.<br />
<br />
How many of these children currently identified as suffering from ADHD (or SCT) would blossom if they were given the opportunity to learn in their own way rather than the way the school expects them to learn? Would they still need medication? Some of them, probably. But there might be a good number that turned out not to need medication, but instead have their needs better addressed.<br />
<br />
I am not ordinarily a fan of charter schools, because diverting tax dollars to private enterprises just robs the public schools of much-needed funds. But there are innovative schools, whether charter, public or private, that are trying out new ways to teach children. They should be viewed as laboratories for learning what works best and for whom. If some of these innovative methods are successful, then they should be transferred to regular public schools as well so that all children can benefit.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.publicschoolreview.com/articles/2">Magnet Schools </a>are public schools that focus on a specific discipline, such as math, science, history, performing arts, music, etc., and often use innovative teaching methods as well. While these schools do promote integration in some areas, the fact that they cannot accept every student who wants to attend them generally leads to less diversity in socioeconomic status than in public schools.<br />
<br />
Charter schools, of course, are the latest idea for disrupting the status quo of the public schools. <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/admins/comm/choice/charter/report_pg8.html#innovating">Those schools that do well for their students</a> tend to use innovative teaching techniques such as project-based learning, portfolios instead of grades, thematic, multi-grade classrooms, and more.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.altschool.com/about-us#our-team">AltSchool</a>, based in San Francisco, is an example of a private school that is using innovative techniques to help children learn. Their website defines AltSchool as a network of microschools, which provide "personalized learning plans" for their students and address the needs of the whole child. At $19k annual tuition, it costs as much as many colleges; however, there is a tuition assistance fund.<br />
<br />
Now, mind you, I am not a teacher, have no experience in the education field, and have no children. I am certainly not up on the latest and greatest when it comes to curricula, or the challenges teachers - and school administrators - face every day. There is no magic bullet and I invite all of you with more experience in this field than I have (and you are legion) to comment and add your perspective.<br />
<br />
But it seems as if there has to be a better way to deal with children who have difficulties learning in the standard classroom other than medicating them into lock-step with everyone else so they can fit into a mold.<br />
<br />
I'll leave you with Harry Chapin's classic song about the kid who didn't fit into the mold - Flowers Are Red.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/CWV3fJB2Mfw" width="420"></iframe>Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-75891640609956690952014-04-02T15:41:00.001-04:002014-04-02T15:41:27.533-04:00Haiku WednesdayProcrastination<br />
Is such a lonely talent<br />
At which I excel.<br />
<br />
I should be cleaning<br />
And laundry is a-waiting;<br />
And yet here I sit.<br />
<br />
Articles to write,<br />
A resume to update;<br />
And yet here I sit.<br />
<br />
A trip to pack for,<br />
Instructions to write for pets,<br />
And yet here I sit.<br />
<br />
The dogs should be walked,<br />
The kitchen must be cleaned up,<br />
And yet here I sit.<br />
<br />
Blame it on Facebook,<br />
And the videos of cats,<br />
And so here I sit.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/AvPNaJ8OWCM" width="560"></iframe>Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-77184204623743598822014-04-01T14:40:00.001-04:002014-04-01T16:54:54.091-04:00The Early Internet - An Ode to Prodigy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKEC2M4urMiF7u8g1gIMhl2WuxBlbQceX0t3WHbExcfzjDX_ZCDAHdWAmcHRxp4UN_ZXIkEzBL_4q75lj1s1JFvbqyrT8wPhtAuZVRPnlUTbVF6rLq7_VOjq259WOX1W60O57D/s1600/prodigy_login_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKEC2M4urMiF7u8g1gIMhl2WuxBlbQceX0t3WHbExcfzjDX_ZCDAHdWAmcHRxp4UN_ZXIkEzBL_4q75lj1s1JFvbqyrT8wPhtAuZVRPnlUTbVF6rLq7_VOjq259WOX1W60O57D/s1600/prodigy_login_large.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/mentalflossmagazine">Mental Floss</a> recently posted a bunch of <a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/50955/8-old-prodigy-ads-explaining-why-you-need-internet">old ads for the Prodigy internet service</a> on their Facebook page and I took a trip down memory lane by watching them.<br />
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We bought our first computer in 1990 - it had something like 40 MB of hard disk space and used 5" floppy disks. It was some kind of IBM PC clone and we had debated for awhile whether to buy a Mac or a PC, deciding ultimately to go with the PC because it was cheaper; and even then we shelled out about $2000 for a computer that couldn't hold a candle to the computing power in any of our smartphones.</div>
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I don't even know what we used that computer for when we first got it - maybe spreadsheets? We weren't early adopter types, like those who used CompuServe in the 80s; we were internet virgins. But then we heard about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_(online_service)">Prodigy</a> because there were commercials on TV constantly. So we became early subscribers to their internet service. Of course back then we only had dial-up modems to access the internet. But in those DOS-based days, even though Prodigy had a graphical user interface, accessing the service was not a problem since the graphics were so much more primitive back then.</div>
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My first non-work email address was through Prodigy, and my first online shopping experiences were through Prodigy. From the beginning I saw the advantage of shopping online - and now I do almost all of my shopping that way, even for groceries! But it was thanks to Prodigy that I first got hooked on it.</div>
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I remember getting up every morning during the first Iraq war and getting online to see the latest headlines from the night before. It was through Prodigy that I started to be addicted to getting the latest news without waiting for a newspaper.</div>
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My favorite aspect of the service was their message boards, which they called bulletin boards. They were organized by topic and subtopic. So, for instance, there was a Pets topic, a Dogs subtopic, and then individual subjects under that. You could either create your own heading or get involved in a discussion under another heading, such as, in my case, Pit Bulls. In 1995 we had just adopted a pittie mix, our dog Alice, from the local shelter, and I got into discussions with other lovers of the breed on that bulletin board. We had a great community there and I got to know one of the members well enough that we started exchanging snail mail Christmas cards each year. She lived in Fresno, California. Unfortunately, we eventually lost touch. I am hoping she and her husband and pets are still doing well.</div>
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By the mid-90s AOL was overtaking Prodigy as the more popular service, but I never liked their format. I tried their service a few times, using one of the free floppy disks they sent to our house, but ended up sticking with Prodigy.<br />
<br />
However, as time went by, we eventually dropped Prodigy because the costs were going up - and by then there were so many other ways to access the Internet. We tried Juno for awhile, and then Earthlink, all still using dial-up. Then we finally succumbed and got Comcast cable, which gave us high speed internet access as well as cable television. Believe it or not, we did not have cable TV until then.<br />
<br />
By this time - maybe it was 1999 or so? - the Internet was much more established. I was in touch with many old friends through email and went on various forums from time to time, but I missed the interaction with other people that I got in a more organized format.<br />
<br />
In the early 2000s I found that kind of interaction on the online forums on our New Jersey site, <a href="http://www.nj.com/forums/">NJ.com</a>. There were forums about our town of Bloomfield, for our county - Essex - and for various subjects, including religion, politics, and pets.<br />
<br />
Once again I found myself part of a community of likeminded (or not so likeminded) people, and delved into deep conversations with people I had never met. We all had "handles" to disguise our real identities. I went with Uhuru, which means "freedom" in Swahili. Uhura from Star Trek was also based on the word, which is where I got the idea, but I just took the generic Swahili word without the feminized ending, just to be more mysterious.<br />
<br />
I used to get into heated arguments with a poster named Greylady, who rescued greyhounds but was not a fan of pit bulls. We used to argue incessantly about the issue of breed-specific legislation, in which certain breeds of dogs, particularly pit bulls, are restricted or banned.<br />
<br />
I also had a lot of fun on the Religion forum, where atheists and believers clashed on a daily basis. I made a lot of good friends there, including a poster named Friday. I wonder what happened to her...<br />
<br />
Then came blogging. In 2006 I started hearing more and more about blogs, and found out that a neighbor of mine at the time was a blogger - a well-known and prolific blogger. She wrote about her family, her son, her dog and many other subjects. Some of her posts would make you laugh; others would make you cry. She has since become a <a href="http://alicebradley.net/">published writer </a>and she teamed up with another blogger and wrote a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Panic-About-Babies-Worthwhile/dp/031264812X">whole book</a>. At that time I was simply impressed that she actually had a blog; it seemed so interesting and trendy. I thought to myself, hmmm. I wonder if I could do that?<br />
<br />
My inspiration came after writing a long post on our hyperlocal news site, <a href="http://baristanet.com/">Baristanet</a> - yet another location where people exchange comments and opinions. I had posted, along with others, an account of where I was on 9/11, on the fifth anniversary of the attack. I figured, here I had my first blog post all ready to go. So I got on Blogger and started this blog, and plonked down the remembrance of 9/11 as <a href="http://mauigirlsmeanderings.blogspot.com/2006/09/remembering-91101.html">my first post</a>.<br />
<br />
I was glad I named the blog Mauigirl's Meanderings, because after that I had no idea what to write about. I meandered.... a lot. I was nervous about actually speaking my mind and having people who know me figure out who Mauigirl was and know what my thoughts were about various subjects, especially if they were people from work.<br />
<br />
In the early days I made a few blog friends - one of the first was my friend Ruth from England, who wrote the blog<a href="http://ruthjen.blogspot.com/"> Me, My Life, My Garden</a>. A few others joined in commenting on my blog, but not as many as would eventually become part of my little circle of blog friends.<br />
<br />
Finally came the first Blog Against Theocracy event and I decided to participate for the first time in 2007. I wrote a<a href="http://mauigirlsmeanderings.blogspot.com/2007/04/absolute-power-corrupts-absolutely.html"> fairly scathing post </a>about the evils of mixing religion and politics (sadly in some ways even more pertinent now than it was then), and after that the gloves were off. Although I still write about anything I feel like writing about, and I still meander, I have long since given up the idea of keeping my liberal politics - or my real name - a secret. I met a lot of great blog friends in the liberal blogging community and am happy that many are still commenting even after all my gaps in posting here.<br />
<br />
Then in 2008, I joined Facebook. A friend of mine had joined and said 'You have to join, it's perfect for us - it gives instant gratification!" Sure enough, I became hooked. I ended up being Facebook friends with many of my blog friends, and then friends of theirs, and friends of their friends... At the same time I got to know a lot of people in my own community, some of whom I'd met in person and some not; and on top of that I got back in touch with childhood friends I hadn't been in contact with for, in one case, 40 years!<br />
<br />
Looking back, I see my online involvement has been most focused on finding a community or number of communities in which to exchange ideas, find likeminded people who are interested in the same things I am, and keep in touch with distant friends and even relatives. Facebook is the ultimate when it comes to this function. I love reading blog posts and making the effort to write well-thought-out posts of my own, for when I want to do some serious thinking, or even not so serious thinking. But in terms of carrying on a conversation and providing the opportunity for give-and-take that builds a relationship, I find Facebook to be a great resource.<br />
<br />
My Facebook friends tend to post links to thought-provoking and informative articles that I might not have ever read otherwise. They post points of view that invite intelligent discussion. We commiserate on one another's losses and share in our successes. Some people complain that their Facebook feeds are full of silly things and are a waste of time - I am happy that is not the case with mine.<br />
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Don't get me wrong, I love a good joke or meme as much as the next person, and my friends and I are certainly guilty of posting pictures of our dinners from time to time. But I like seeing people's dinners! They inspire me to want to cook something good for my own dinner! Often a post like that leads to a request for a recipe, or a restaurant recommendation. So it's all good.<br />
<br />
So many people criticize Facebook and other means of online communication as leading to people being more lonely and less social than when they were confined to interacting "in real life." I disagree.<br />
<br />
Between blogging and Facebook, although I am often by myself at home now that I retired from the Big Corporation, I am never lonely. I can always find someone out there who is online at the same time I am and we can talk. Some of the people I talk to may not be people I know "in real life," but I feel I know them nonetheless and they are no less "real" than other friends.<br />
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When you think about it, ever since people went online, what they have always been looking for is what is now called "<a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/03/social-networking-past/">social networking."</a><br />
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So, looking back on how it all started, in my own case, I have to thank Prodigy for having sucked me into the world of the Internet and changing my life forever. For others it may have been one of the earlier services, or a slightly later one like America Online. But in the end, we were all looking for the same thing. Connectivity with other human beings.</div>
Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-80163724153777086392014-03-14T18:59:00.000-04:002014-03-14T19:23:18.682-04:00Science is Not an Opinion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwWneknfOm7ihzl6KGdlTXj60gNu-ObypjsMpbC7EYYTu4PSu1Pp0gIhzEnQ7Oqglmi3B4uyqjF2k2CUr0m9zJqTpLRIi8RecPeJRe3bYQ_NE80gwt1X2hssYKOBRrNfOgUgIT/s1600/creationism-picture-1k7i6uq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwWneknfOm7ihzl6KGdlTXj60gNu-ObypjsMpbC7EYYTu4PSu1Pp0gIhzEnQ7Oqglmi3B4uyqjF2k2CUr0m9zJqTpLRIi8RecPeJRe3bYQ_NE80gwt1X2hssYKOBRrNfOgUgIT/s1600/creationism-picture-1k7i6uq.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="http://ingeniouspursuits.blogspot.com/2014/01/dr-roy-spencers-intellectual-honesty.html">Source of cartoon</a><br />
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One of the things that really worries me about the "modern" (and I use that word loosely) Republican Party is the insistence by many of the party's members that scientific facts that others take for granted are merely matters of opinion - and not facts at all.<br />
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For instance, I really thought the question of evolution versus creationism had been settled back in 1925 with the <a href="http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/evolut.htm">Scopes Trial</a>, which was widely seen as a setback for anti-evolution forces at the time, although the Supreme Court didn't rule on the issue until 1968, in the case of <a href="http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/epperso.htm">Epperson vs. Arkansas</a>.<br />
<br />
At that time, two states, Arkansas and Mississippi, banned the teaching of evolution in schools. The Court ruled that the Arkansas law<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"...must be stricken because of its conflict with the constitutional prohibition of state laws respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The overriding fact is that Arkansas' law selects from the body of knowledge a particular segment which it proscribes for the sole reason that it is deemed to conflict with a particular religious doctrine; that is, with a particular interpretation of the Book of Genesis by a particular religious group."</blockquote>
A <a href="http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/edwards.html">1987 Supreme Court decision</a> also ruled a Louisiana law requiring teachers to teach creationist theory if they were teaching evolution was also unconstitutional, again based on the establishment clause of the First Amendment.<br />
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With the rise in importance of the Religious Right in the U.S. over the past few decades, teaching evolution as the accepted theory of how different species, including mankind, came into existence, has become <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4630737">a source of contention in many states</a>. Some states, like Kentucky, have laws that allow teachers to teach creationism along with evolution at their discretion. Curricula in other states downplay evolution by emphasizing that it is only a "theory," or authorizing the teaching of alternative explanations.<br />
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One of the exasperating things about those who claim evolution is "only a theory" is their lack of understanding of the scientific method. The use of "theory" as it pertains to evolution is as a part of that method:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"A scientific theory summarizes a hypothesis or group of hypotheses that have been supported with repeated testing. If enough evidence accumulates to support a hypothesis, it moves to the next step—<a href="http://www.livescience.com/21491-what-is-a-scientific-theory-definition-of-theory.html">known as a theory</a>—in the scientific method and becomes accepted as a valid explanation of a phenomenon."</blockquote>
It is all the more concerning that in a recent Gallup poll, <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/168385/whats-matter-creationism">46% of Americans believe God created people and animals just as they are</a>, less than 10,000 years ago, despite tons of scientific evidence to the contrary. People who believe this stuff <a href="http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/1999/11/05/dinosaurs-and-the-bible">come up with excuses</a> to explain away the evidence, or to say the evidence is fake, or even say <a href="http://www.truthingenesis.com/2013/01/03/dinosaurs-and-the-bible/">Satan is the one who came up with the idea </a>that dinosaurs are millions of years old.<br />
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The even scarier thing is that the same percentage of college graduates believe this. And of course, 58% of Republicans.<br />
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Then there is the issue of climate change. It appears<a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/167843/climate-change-not-top-worry.aspx"> pretty low on the list of things that people worry "a great deal about," at 24%</a>. But when it comes to Republicans vs. Democrats, there is a clear difference. When you look at the Democrats, 36% of them are concerned "a great deal" about climate change, while among Republicans, just 10% have that level of concern.<br />
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And although, overall, <a href="http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/">67% of Americans believe the earth is heating up</a>, 85% of Democrats believe it, but only 48% of Republicans do. When you look at conservative Republicans, it's only 43% - and among those only 16% think it is happening due to human activity.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8K5UVzHSyae-pp-7d3HlMOLr9NLMvHp-0aRg2o5z0DWGR1oJj29B1ek5Lkvc5kkieALr7tMMBULPWJn6-RBDzGZh_s5PF4Jgec1At36Lz7t6JR6sROCRMGmp9b1Wb_o5xonKK/s1600/republicanglobalwarming.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8K5UVzHSyae-pp-7d3HlMOLr9NLMvHp-0aRg2o5z0DWGR1oJj29B1ek5Lkvc5kkieALr7tMMBULPWJn6-RBDzGZh_s5PF4Jgec1At36Lz7t6JR6sROCRMGmp9b1Wb_o5xonKK/s1600/republicanglobalwarming.png" height="218" width="320" /></a></div>
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97% of scientists who have studied the issue <a href="http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus">agree that global warming is taking place</a> as a result of human activity, and will cause catastrophic results during the next 100 years.<br />
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But the deniers either deny the existence of climate change, or else agree it's happening but is part of a natural cycle - despite the steep trend line of the warming. And many conservatives refuse to admit that the scientists agree, <a href="http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus">saying the 97% number isn't right</a> or even saying that <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/365220/ice-everywhere-no-hockey-sticks-mark-steyn">the earth is actually cooling.</a><br />
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But despite this winter's<a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2014/01/06/what-is-this-polar-vortex-that-is-freezing-the-u-s/"> Polar Vortex </a>that caused unusually cold weather across the northern hemisphere, climate researchers on Hudson Bay are reporting a <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/global-warming-finally-reaches-the-last-arctic-region/">continued reduction in Arctic sea ice</a>, with open water periods lengthening by about 3 weeks just since the 1990s. And despite the chilly temperatures in the U.S. over the winter, global average temperatures in 2013 are nevertheless <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/01/06/can-global-warming-be-real-if-its-cold-in-the-u-s-um-yes/">expected to be among the 10 highest on record since 1850.</a><br />
<br />
And if you look at the trend by decade back to 1881, you can see the relentless climb in average global temperatures. The last three decades have been the worst, as<a href="http://www.pbl.nl/en/publications/2012/trends-in-global-co2-emissions-2012-report"> developing countries, particularly China, have vastly increased their carbon emissions</a> as they become more industrialized.<br />
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Source: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/07/09/you-cant-deny-global-warming-after-seeing-this-graph/">Washington Post</a><br />
<br />
But you can't tell any of this to a climate change denier. They will just have more excuses why it's a hoax perpetrated by liberals.<br />
<br />
And then there's another big group of people who are anti-science. These people are fervently against vaccinating their kids. This group comprises an unlikely alliance of lefties who feel vaccines are unnatural and dangerous, conspiracy theorists who believe the government is trying to poison them for some unknown and nefarious reason, and some right-wingers who think vaccinations are an example of government overreach.<br />
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As a result, <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/13/thanks-anti-vaxxers-you-just-brought-back-measles-in-nyc.html">diseases such as measles that were close to being eradicated in the United States are making a comeback</a>. Most of those who are against vaccination don't even realize that diseases such as measles can kill people. They think the cure is worse than the disease, when that is emphatically not the case. If something isn't done, at this rate, polio could even come back. The problem is most people today weren't even around when these diseases ran rampant in our population, so they don't know what it was like.<br />
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The other problem with not vaccinating kids is the loss of "herd immunity," wherein the few people who aren't able to be vaccinated for one reason or another - or for whom the vaccine just didn't work - are protected due to the fact that the rest of the people they interact with have been vaccinated. Unfortunately, as the number of unvaccinated children rises, that herd immunity is no longer effective and the risk of contagion becomes higher for everyone. When a family refuses to have their child vaccinated, they are not only putting their child at risk, but they are putting others at risk as well.<br />
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Thankfully, there are some people who do see the light in regard to vaccines - see this <a href="http://www.voicesforvaccines.org/leaving-the-anti-vaccine-movement/">blog post</a> written by a young mother who had jumped on the anti-vaccination bandwagon, only to have the good sense to reconsider her views.<br />
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But many others will refuse to listen to reason. In fact, a scientific study showed that <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/02/vaccine-denial-psychology-backfire-effect">exposing anti-vaccine believers to evidence and factual information often backfired </a>and actually decreased their intention to vaccinate.<br />
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In fact, for all of these issues, no matter how much you tell actual facts to people who have a strong belief about something, the less they listen. They claim you have been brainwashed, you have drunk the Kool-Aid, or are part of the <a href="http://www.conspiracy.itgo.com/custom.html">Conspiracy</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/">Other studies bear this out</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger."</blockquote>
This means that there is no current solution to pull this country out of the abyss of ignorance. How do you argue with people who won't believe facts because they contradict their opinions?<br />
<br />
Science is not an opinion. But until more people in America admit that, we will continue to fall farther and farther behind other countries that are a bit more rational in their beliefs.<br />
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I predict the era of American domination is nearing an end and we will fall into a dark age of sorts, while other countries take the lead into the next century.Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-15011747644250139192014-03-04T17:42:00.002-05:002014-03-04T17:46:55.143-05:00Haiku Tuesday - Mardi Gras Edition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguRZ09f1KcDovkeexu7DQFjgzpJ2kM9HAa0y3bxwQL03eQ9mLl-M7a6ky_1oPVv8ivfEJoZB9sN-sKEPbzmcipaOjIBOKn5pVm3HCyFE80Cab4sIcLnkyPNF2_SWGN0pnJUjW0/s1600/mardigrasbeads.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguRZ09f1KcDovkeexu7DQFjgzpJ2kM9HAa0y3bxwQL03eQ9mLl-M7a6ky_1oPVv8ivfEJoZB9sN-sKEPbzmcipaOjIBOKn5pVm3HCyFE80Cab4sIcLnkyPNF2_SWGN0pnJUjW0/s1600/mardigrasbeads.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />
Fat Tuesday is here<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn7h4RzWtbQ">Wish I was in New Orleans</a></div>
<div>
Celebrating it.</div>
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<br /></div>
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But all is not lost</div>
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I'll be at the Yellow Plum</div>
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Eating and drinking.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
What's the Yellow Plum?</div>
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Ah, well you may be asking</div>
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<a href="http://www.yellowplumnj.com/">It's a restaurant</a>.</div>
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Tonight they will have</div>
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Gumbo and jambalaya</div>
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And red beans and rice.</div>
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I'm sure there will be</div>
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<a href="http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Hurricane-I/Detail.aspx?evt19=1">Hurricanes</a> and <a href="http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sazerac-2/Detail.aspx?evt19=1">Sazeracs</a></div>
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To wash it all down.</div>
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For dessert, beignets;</div>
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Whatever else would you have?</div>
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On such a fine night.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I must get ready</div>
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My friend is picking me up</div>
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I must find my beads.</div>
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Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-76858563746671310212014-03-03T17:19:00.001-05:002014-03-18T12:27:35.566-04:00My Little Town<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I asked Baxter if he wanted to post but he said he isn't ready yet, as he needs to catch up on current events a bit before deciding on a good topic.<br />
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So, I'm here again instead, to talk about something that occurred to me Sunday morning as I was lazing in bed trying to get up the energy to get up. My father-in-law was coming for breakfast, and it made me think about the differences between where he lives and where we live.<br />
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DH's dad and mom bought their house in Holmdel, New Jersey, when DH was about 5, and they were about 30. The house was not completed yet, so they went every day to watch it being built. At that time, Holmdel was the wide open country; their housing development was built on the site of an old orchard, and the road that their house faced was a country road with little traffic.<br />
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Now, 57 years later, that road is very busy; the farms in the area are all gone, replaced by highways and strip malls...<br />
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Holmdel is grouped into neighborhoods of 1950s homes like my father-in-law's modest 3-bedroom, split level/1 car garage house, tracts of slightly larger homes built in the mid-60s, and new neighborhoods filled with expensive McMansions in more exclusive locations, with an occasional original farmhouse scattered here and there.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7OtNEfHFFp4hmvVvchSM7q1eC1uMPNb5IAlItLYMRO0BgN6PcdLnBMlnUYqrOLXQrSpCwV_oToVYMKwXuvOt4VujkG2hGwtX06XYBf6RiVRE6YvHQQr06WnuoVY0q0Sidso90/s1600/bethany.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7OtNEfHFFp4hmvVvchSM7q1eC1uMPNb5IAlItLYMRO0BgN6PcdLnBMlnUYqrOLXQrSpCwV_oToVYMKwXuvOt4VujkG2hGwtX06XYBf6RiVRE6YvHQQr06WnuoVY0q0Sidso90/s1600/bethany.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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(House photos courtesy of<a href="http://www.zillow.com/holmdel-nj/"> Zillow.com</a>).<br />
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The top picture above is the house next door to Dad's, which was recently sold. If you look at that picture you can't tell it sits on a busy road, but believe me, it does. As you can imagine, people who live in the neighborhoods that have houses that look like Dad's do not interact with those who live in neighborhoods that have houses that look like the second picture. At all.<br />
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In earlier days, when DH was young, and his parents were active in their church and community, they knew their neighbors and had friends in the area, as well as siblings and cousins. Everyone had moved to the area at around the same time; their kids were all growing up together, and families had similar jobs and incomes.<br />
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But as everyone aged, their friends and extended family all moved far away or died, and now my mother-in-law has dementia and is living in a nursing home and Dad lives alone in the house that he and Mom watched being built so many years ago. He visits Mom in the nursing home - about a 20 minute drive from his house - every day, twice a day, unless he is away for the weekend up at our cabin for a break.<br />
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I was thinking about how isolated he is living in that house now that all his old neighbors are gone. He doesn't know anyone in the neighborhood. There is never anyone walking up or down his street, not even walking their dogs. There are no stores near enough for anyone to walk to, so everyone uses their cars to go anywhere. And where do they go? Strip malls, big box stores on the highway, and enclosed malls.<br />
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I am thankful that Dad does go to the nursing home every day, because at least that way people are watching out for him as well as for Mom. If he didn't show up unexpectedly they would worry and call us.<br />
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Thinking about all this, I started comparing his situation to our town. We live in Bloomfield, a suburb of New York, a gritty older town that has been pretty much built out for at least 100 years.<br />
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At one time Bloomfield too had farms, and went through its own development into a more populous town. But the housing that was built in the early 20th century was built under the assumption that people would need to be able to walk to stores or public transit. Much of our neighborhood was developed in 1912, so most people did not have cars. Even the north end of town, which is newer, was built when most families had only one car, so some walking was still required.<br />
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Many residential areas, particularly in the older end of town, were interspersed with businesses or factories, including the old Annin Flag Factory right down the street from us (<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1988-09-20/news/mn-2508_1_flag-factory">visited by George H.W. Bush during his 1988 presidential campaign</a>). This made it convenient for local people to get jobs in these companies and walk to work.<br />
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Westinghouse also employed many local people, who either walked to work or took the train to get there.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqZaLNv4FJZP2sjxTMu_0O_4riYBGrLl29MnYqx6AY08XUylJeB_81lO2rnf4WP73Qwn1rpgFYEslbjuH2lRLEbEqbsscHtCxseotaW7qK32xaVTSST0z1ZpYRzEcepEDMwMrL/s1600/westinghouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqZaLNv4FJZP2sjxTMu_0O_4riYBGrLl29MnYqx6AY08XUylJeB_81lO2rnf4WP73Qwn1rpgFYEslbjuH2lRLEbEqbsscHtCxseotaW7qK32xaVTSST0z1ZpYRzEcepEDMwMrL/s1600/westinghouse.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
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Now Westinghouse is gone (torn down, with the land still being remediated due to residual contamination from years of manufacturing as well as residue left from when uranium was refined there during the Manhattan Project). This is one of the few currently undeveloped spaces left in town other than a few parks. Other local factories were replaced with retail stores. Annin Flag Factory has been converted to upscale apartments.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQzXQjO9XSmeOX_a6ySJRNqttiSEsio2i7PkMjjl1uPqUh-ggS1KBcxE75iirsLN556RHRVa9IR_jOyCbVAwWGts-bRIfBnh_KGx1j0Fhut9tNxkT2jDeiT2qHC1UvzRThLIPx/s1600/silkmilllofts_building_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQzXQjO9XSmeOX_a6ySJRNqttiSEsio2i7PkMjjl1uPqUh-ggS1KBcxE75iirsLN556RHRVa9IR_jOyCbVAwWGts-bRIfBnh_KGx1j0Fhut9tNxkT2jDeiT2qHC1UvzRThLIPx/s1600/silkmilllofts_building_0.jpg" height="206" width="320" /></a></div>
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But the town is still laid out to enable people to walk to destinations. Our house is within walking distance to the train station (25 minutes to Penn Station, New York), and there is a convenience store on the corner where we can buy newspapers, coffee, and a good selection of groceries. There are convenience stores scattered in a number of nearby neighborhoods - almost no one is more than a 5-minute walk from a little store, at least at our end of town.<br />
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There are also a myriad of very good local restaurants in several areas of town, offering foods of various types, including Greek, Japanese, Thai, Italian, Cuban and many other cuisines.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI0WyvdzhyrbJKfXutKU-4I0cxIWAzz_w8VVycr-q_WqOj_5quyKAWjpUWgLOQMyuuH3d_9knhLTGUprvfgPXxf2p0NGU1cwKuwM_6D5MYynT1gIB1yY5Eu0GzFeThxIf8opBk/s1600/stamna.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI0WyvdzhyrbJKfXutKU-4I0cxIWAzz_w8VVycr-q_WqOj_5quyKAWjpUWgLOQMyuuH3d_9knhLTGUprvfgPXxf2p0NGU1cwKuwM_6D5MYynT1gIB1yY5Eu0GzFeThxIf8opBk/s1600/stamna.png" /></a></div>
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In contrast, in Holmdel, there aren't even any local or family-owned restaurants except one nearby Italian/Pizza restaurant; the rest are all out on the highway and most are chains.<br />
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In our neighborhood in Bloomfield, there is a senior citizens apartment building nestled within the residential homes, two blocks from our local county park, enabling seniors to walk to stores or the park and mingle with other neighbors who they see as they come and go.<br />
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The neighbors look out for one another here. Elderly neighbors living alone are a matter of concern to the whole neighborhood. One of our neighbors regularly took an elderly woman grocery shopping and helped her with her bills, since her own children lived far away. She did this until the woman, at age 100, moved to Colorado to be with her daughter.<br />
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Many neighborhoods in town hold block parties, which draw new neighbors into the fold and reunite other neighbors who don't see each other often due to their work schedules. People of all ages come to our annual block party and enjoy the food and good company.<br />
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Some residents have formed neighborhood associations that try to tackle ongoing issues in town rather than moving elsewhere in defeat.<br />
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Ours is a <a href="http://www.city-data.com/city/Bloomfield-New-Jersey.html">diverse town</a>, with people of all nationalities, races and ethnic backgrounds intermingling. Our population is 54% white, with the rest a mix of African American, Hispanic, Asian, and others. Holmdel, in contrast, is <a href="http://www.city-data.com/township/Holmdel-Monmouth-NJ.html">78% white, with 17% Asian</a> and very few other nationalities represented. I feel diversity leads to strength, versatility, and open-mindedness. Many people move to Bloomfield from places like Brooklyn, and cite our town's diversity as a positive in helping them make their decision to move.<br />
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Best of all, at least from my perspective, if you move into Bloomfield, a fully developed town, you don't have to worry about the open space around you being turned into strip malls and highways - the parks are preserved for our use already, and whatever else has happened, for good or for bad, has already happened (such as the Garden State Parkway ramming itself through the middle of town in 1954).<br />
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The town center may have a different look now, but the streets are still the same, and the Green on which the local militia once drilled during the Revolution is still there, along with the 1796 Presbyterian church.<br />
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When you come to Bloomfield, you know what you are getting. There will be no surprises, as can happen if, as my in-laws did, you buy a new house in a new town surrounded by lovely farmland, thinking it will stay that way.<br />
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Bloomfield is continuing to emphasize walkability in town, making its streets even more pedestrian friendly by narrowing portions of one of its main roads and making bump-outs to slow traffic. More bike lanes are planned as well.<br />
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I am not writing this to put down Holmdel in any way - Dad's house has a lovely back yard, which is surprisingly quiet despite the busy road out front. The PNC Arts Center is nearby - in fact, Dad goes there to walk in the open space and woods on their grounds every morning for exercise. His town is convenient to the Parkway (to come visit us!) and the Jersey Shore. When they were younger, Dad and Mom used to go Sandy Hook State Park regularly to ride their bikes or attend concerts on the beach.<br />
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But the lack of a downtown of its own or a culture of walking and interacting with neighbors is a downfall of this type of community, built during the peak of America's love affair with the car. It is particularly problematic if a person is elderly and alone because of the lack of social support. Dad is 87 now, and still drives. But what will happen if he can no longer drive?<br />
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Does Bloomfield have its problems? Hell, yes. The racial diversity that works well most of the time can also lead to friction; there is a perception that those who live in the north end of town look down on those in the south end of town, which tends to skew somewhat more to the minority population.<br />
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Our town has managed to drag out a redevelopment of the town Center for well over a decade due partly to a lack of savvy, poor decisions and dissension among the township officials, with a couple of lawsuits thrown in. The project is finally getting off the ground and other parts of the downtown are also being redeveloped. However, many developments taking place are opposed by some of the residents.<br />
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The last few years have also seen their share of big controversies in town unrelated to redevelopment. The Bloomfield Health Department and the Board of Health were embroiled in one over the <a href="http://baristanet.com/2012/08/bloomfield-pit-bull-given-temporary-reprieve-at-board-of-health-meeting/">fate of a pit bull named Memphis</a>. The controversy continues to this day, as the dog was sent out to South Dakota to be "rehabilitated" by a person purported to be a trainer - and remains there to this day.<br />
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The police department has also been roiled by dissension, with disagreements over who should be police chief, claims of political interference, and most recently, accusations of <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/dash-cam-video-clears-nj-man-violent-traffic/story?id=22660928">police misconduct.</a><br />
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But, for all its ups and downs, my little town really IS a "little" town - despite its population of almost 50,000 - because people know each other. We meet up with neighbors in the local stores, at the park, at the restaurants and at town meetings. We discuss our concerns on Facebook, on online forums, and in the Letters to the Editor of the local newspapers (there are two). We are a community.<br />
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We may not always agree with each other on various issues, and emotions can get heated at election time, but we are all Bloomfielders. And I'd rather live in Bloomfield than out in the sterile, suburban sprawl of Holmdel any day.Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-41236794043233918582014-03-01T13:04:00.000-05:002014-03-01T14:32:16.811-05:00The Snowpocalypse Continues, and What I've Been Up to for 8 MonthsWell, here is my first post of what I hope will be a month of daily postings. I decided that is the only way to get back into the habit of blogging and catching up with all my blogger friends and their posts as well.<br />
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One reason for my long absence is, for the second half of last year we were living in a condition of total chaos as our kitchen was being totally renovated.<br />
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It all started about a year ago when we decided to renovate our upstairs bathroom, which had deteriorated to the point that we truly expected the tub to land downstairs on top of the kitchen stove at some point. Tiles had fallen off the tub wall to reveal that there was no actual wall behind them. Things were not good.<br />
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The configuration of the bathroom was horrendous as well - it was claustrophobic and dated to the 1940s or 50s, we believe.<br />
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So we contracted with a local kitchen and bath contractor and started on the bathroom. It was to be a full rip-out, and they would be turning the tub crossways under the window to make the room more spacious.<br />
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Once they ripped everything out, they found, no surprise to us, that all the joists needed to be replaced and/or reinforced since they were rotting from water leakage over many years. This meant ripping out the kitchen ceiling to be able to get underneath the joists.<br />
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Now, the kitchen ceiling was a problem to begin with. It was a dropped ceiling, and we had long known that above that was a long-ago disaster of some sort, as there were two layers of plaster ceiling above it that had obviously collapsed at some point. All of the later plumbing had been piped in below the plaster ceiling and above the dropped ceiling.<br />
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To make a long story short, the bathroom turned out great. The change was amazing.
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But before the contractor did anything about closing up the kitchen ceiling, he said, "Um, since your ceiling is already all torn apart, if you were ever thinking of redoing your kitchen, now might be the time to do it."<br />
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DH and I looked at each other, thinking about the fact that some day we may want to sell the house, and the current kitchen just didn't cut it. It should be noted I'd also been watching a lot of HGTV recently. We decided to go for it.<br />
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We had to take everything out of the kitchen and the pantry. I had no idea how much STUFF we had stuffed into the cabinets. It all went in boxes. I tried to separate out stuff we didn't need anymore or was too old and gross to keep, from stuff we wanted to keep. The boxes went in the living room, the dining room, and the sun porch where we hang out and watch TV.<br />
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The boxes stayed there from the end of August to the end of December. No cooking could take place so we spent a lot of time up at the cabin or eating out.<br />
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When we were at home, DH would go out and buy McDonalds Egg McMuffins for breakfast on weekends and I was hitting Dunkin' Donuts for a bagel and coffee during the week. Every day around 8 a.m. the Men would come to work on the kitchen. We got to know a lot of the Men. The dogs loved all of them, and they loved the dogs too, luckily. The cat mostly hid under the bed.<br />
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Finally just before the holidays, it was all complete, even the painting. And then we had to put everything away. We managed to give away all the stuff that we wanted to give away (thank goodness the veterans and the Lupus Foundation keep calling me to see if I have anything to donate - I kept saying yes and making sure I had boxes to put out for them).<br />
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In the end we had gotten rid of our pantry and replaced it with a powder room. We finally have a first floor bathroom, and now that we have it, I can't imagine how we lived here for 27 years without one.<br />
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The rest of the pantry was converted into a deep closet, which we are using as a smaller version of the pantry - we put a set of shelves from Ikea that we'd had in our pantry into the back of the closet, so all the extra cans and boxes, pet food, paper plates and whatnot can go there. The rest of the closet has room for the vacuum cleaner and other cleaning items. We put hooks on the back of the door for coats, since we usually come in the back door.<br />
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We like our new kitchen so much we put a small table in the middle so we could eat dinner there and sit and stare at it in wonder. I've even been cooking more as a result of having a brand new stove, and refrigerator that actually is in the same room as the stove and sink! The old configuration required that our fridge be in the pantry, which was quite inconvenient!<br />
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So. That is what kept us occupied last fall and early winter. </div>
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Then the snow came.</div>
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If you are living anywhere in the Northeast, or even many parts of the South, you know this has been the Winter from Hell. I haven't seen this much snow since maybe the mid-90s.<br />
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Of course, there were snowstorms in more recent years, including 2011 when our dog Angel showed up in our driveway at 8:30 at night on February 10. I wrote about her briefly at the time, but I don't believe I shared the full story of how she was found.<br />
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When we first saw her, she came from behind a huge snowbank at the end of our driveway, just as we got out of our car. We had been to an "elegant dining" event at my mother-in-law's nursing home and were just getting home. As I stepped out of the car, I heard DH say, "Well, hello little pit, where did you come from?" And then this very thin white and gray pit bull with cruelly cropped ears and hanging teats, who had obviously recently had puppies, timidly approached him.<br />
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She let us both pat her and the next thing you know she was following us up the front steps. The forecast was for the temperature to plummet to 17 degrees overnight. What could we do but bring her in?<br />
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Diva started barking when she heard and smelled a strange dog, but we were able to hustle the new arrival into the kitchen and keep her there with gates overnight. We started off the next day by giving her a much-needed bath and clipping her over-long nails. Here is what she looked like right after we found her.<br />
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We then took her to the vet and learned she had mange and had to have shots of ivermectin and special medicated baths. After a few days it became clear that she was now our dog. She wasn't going anywhere and we had fallen in love with her by then. We think she was used for breeding and then dumped when the last puppies were gone. </div>
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We learned later on that she had approached another house in our neighborhood just before we came home, and they had not let her in. At that point she must have seen our car drive up and ran up the street to greet us.</div>
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We named her Angel because she came out of the dark like a white apparition. Her personality matches the description as well, since she is as sweet as can be and all she ever wants to do is sit as close to her people as possible. In the beginning she would run out in the yard to do her business and run right back in again as if she was afraid she might get locked out.<br />
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Now, after three years, she is much more confident. She and Diva have become great friends and make a wonderful team; especially when they're begging for food! And, she's not skinny anymore!<br />
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Of course, things aren't completely perfect. Angel has a very strong prey drive and apparently wants to eat our cat Baxter. He has to stay upstairs now, separated from Angel, as we still have not managed to train her out of trying to chase him. </div>
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However, Baxter and Diva sleep on the bed with us at night, so he does get his share of attention. Plus we have been bringing him up to our cabin in the Adirondacks when we were still going up there - he actually seems to enjoy it. He gets the whole loft to himself and can look down on whatever we are doing and lord it over the dogs.</div>
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So, anyway, back to the snow. </div>
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Sunday night we are supposed to get yet another snowstorm, and I really don't know if I can face it. Here it is, March 1, with possibly 8-12 inches of snow bearing down on us. Many other years we've been able to go up to the cabin by this time of year, but not this time. It has been so cold that we haven't been able to go there since early December. We truly have cabin fever this year, in more ways than one! </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture courtesy of BitStrips(R)</td></tr>
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So basically I've been a hermit for the past several months. I sit around most of the day on Facebook; it's amazing how fast the day goes. While Facebook is indeed a big time-sucker, on the other hand most of my Facebook friends post links to interesting articles and news items, which I find very educational. Plus I have some really good discussions with many of them. (Of course, that's because a lot of my Facebook friends I first met through the blogging world!) </div>
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I haven't even gone out to go grocery shopping if I can help it. I have discovered the joys of <a href="http://www.peapod.com/">Peapod</a>, the grocery delivery service used by Stop-n-Shop. It is remarkably reasonable - only $6.96 for delivery of all orders over $100, which is easy to reach with very little effort! Plus you give the driver a tip. But it's worth it to have it all delivered to my door, especially when there are heavy things like cat litter or bird seed! Too bad there isn't a wine delivery service as well!</div>
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I also keep busy with local goings-on. I write articles about my town's council meetings and occasionally planning, zoning or other board meetings, for a local blog called <a href="http://baristanet.com/">Baristanet.com</a>, which includes news, restaurant reviews, and other information about several towns in our area. My mother would be happy I'm finally doing something with my communications degree, for what it's worth.</div>
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There has certainly been no shortage of news in our town. We've become a national spectacle because of <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/police-dash-cam-video-exonerates-nj-man-implicates-cops-article-1.1701763">an incident where our local police were caught on video</a> pulling a car over on the highway and then proceeding to beat up the driver. All the facts have not come out yet, but the video is pretty clear that the man was being hit even after he was in handcuffs, and that his hands were up when the police first approached the car. This came on the heels of another scandal where the acting police chief accused one of the councilmen of trying to coerce favors from him. Both incidents are now under investigation by the county prosecutor's office. So, never a dull moment in our little town.</div>
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I think I have caught you up on the main events in my life for now. Next time I may have Baxter post! I know he is very popular with all his fans, and he has lots to talk about, I am sure, after all this time.</div>
Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-73826589571537317052014-02-27T19:11:00.002-05:002014-02-27T19:11:56.533-05:00Watch this space!Just wanted to check in and let you know, if anyone is still looking at this page, that I have, as usual, made a New Year's resolution to blog again. I know, I know, it's the end of February. But I've been working on my other New Year's resolutions and have to do this a little at a time or my brain can't take the stress.<br />
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I updated the format and colors of the blog a bit - always a good way to procrastinate rather than actually write something - and deleted some of the links in my blogroll. I deleted any "professional" sites such as Huffington Post or Daily Kos, because, after all, aren't we all on Facebook these days? I see links from these sites all the time in my news feed over there so no need to link them here.<br />
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Sadly, I also deleted some links to blogs that I have enjoyed in the past but have not been updated in over a year. I hope if any of you are among them and see this post, you will let me know if you start blogging again and I will be happy to add you back to the list!<br />
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I also cleaned up a bit of the junk that had accumulated along my sidebar - all those old "awards" we used to give each other back in the old days - just to make it look a bit cleaner.<br />
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So, now that the housekeeping is done, I'm ready to blog again. I am going to try to write something every day starting on March 1. Hope you will hold me to it! ;-)Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-6745003898206027242013-06-26T11:03:00.002-04:002013-06-26T11:09:05.828-04:00A Historic Day in America!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Oh happy day! The Supreme Court came down on the right side of history today by ruling the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional and dismissing the Proposition 8 case due to the plaintiffs not having legal standing to bring the case before the court, thus allowing marriage equality again in California!<br />
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As a result of the DOMA ruling, the federal government will now recognize legally married gay couples in states that recognize their marriages and give them all the rights and privileges afforded to all married couples. And because the ruling is based on the equal protection clause, this ruling could have much broader consequences.<br />
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This is a historic day for the whole country - it is a huge step forward to fulfilling the country's promise that EVERYONE has a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness! Let's keep the momentum going until all states become marriage equality states!Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-26686124628284641352013-06-13T12:31:00.001-04:002013-06-13T12:31:46.549-04:00This Blog is Not Dead Yet!Where does the time go? I can't believe it's been five months since I - or more properly, Baxter - last posted. I miss reading everyone's blogs, but for some reason keep getting sucked into Facebook and end up in long conversations over there. One of the things I always liked about blogging was the conversations we have in the comments section, which Facebook seems to so easily supplant. However, I miss the effort it takes to actually think about a subject and write coherently about it, and even more so, read the excellent posts on other blogs. I must come over to the Blog World more frequently again.<br />
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So, for those who only know me from here, I apologize for being out of touch for so long.<br />
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I never did write a post on gun control as planned - as you can figure out, I am in favor of it - but did have some great discussions over on Facebook about it - so much so that one of my former FB friends unfriended me. She is a libertarian I had known from having worked together years ago, who had such strong feelings about the Second Amendment that she couldn't even bring herself to deal with me anymore.<br />
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We used to have what I thought were civil discussions about the issues we disagree on (which is most of them with the exception of some social issues), but apparently she just couldn't address the issue further and unfriended me! I was sorry, as I do value being able to discuss issues with people who don't agree with me so as to understand their perspective and also to know what the opposition is up to!<br />
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Now I have discovered a Facebook friend who friended me at some point is apparently an Islamist extremist, which I had no idea about until a post he made yesterday. I am thinking I should unfriend him before I find myself getting a visit from the FBI or CIA or something after they monitor my Facebook friends list!<br />
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Speaking of which, what are your thoughts about the U.S. surveillance program that Edward Snowden recently revealed to the world?<br />
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Personally, I was not shocked. It's not as if we didn't know the Patriot Act had plenty of questionable things in it that gave the government broad powers when it came to tracking terrorism.<br />
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But this does seem like a slippery slope, and I am disappointed that President Obama has supported these practices as well as other policies initiated under President Bush.<br />
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That said, I am very suspicious about this Snowden guy and how he happened to have access to the information he subsequently revealed. Here's a high-school dropout who suddenly got a $122,000 a year job at a major government contractor, and immediately apparently had secret clearance (which usually takes a lot of time to get) - and then leaves after only 3 months to spill the beans to the world about what the government is doing to monitor American citizens' communications. Who is this guy? Who placed him where he had access to all this sensitive information, and why? I am not convinced he acted alone.<br />
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Now he's saying that <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/edward-snowden-claims-evidence-shows-us-hacks-china/story?id=19384436#.Ubnwy_msiSo">we've been hacking into China's computer systems</a> and the<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-fears-edward-snowden-defect-china-sources/story?id=19389672#.UbnyhvmsiSo"> U.S. is afraid he may defect to China </a>along with all the secrets he has compiled. While I understand some may applaud the revelation of the U.S. government surveillance program, this man has ultimately endangered the security of the United States and to me is more of a traitor than a hero. I'll be interested to hear others' thoughts about this.<br />
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In the next post, Baxter will tell you about his Great Escape on our recent trip to Cape Cod. More to come.Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-42586030538863031102013-01-08T15:47:00.001-05:002013-01-08T16:01:30.069-05:00A Cat's Eye View: Looking Back and Looking Forward<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Baxter here. A Belated Happy New Year to all my Fans.<br />
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As the Old Joke goes, I'm glad to be Here - in fact, I'm glad to be Anywhere!<br />
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Some of you may know that I had a Scary Health Problem a week or two ago. All of a Sudden I couldn't eat my Food properly! My Tongue hurt. It stuck out the Side of my Mouth and that made me Drool. It was Disgusting.<br />
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Luckily, as soon as my Humans noticed the Problem, they rushed me to the <a href="http://www.animalerc.com/patients/index.shtml">Animal Emergency and Referral Associates</a> over in Fairfield, NJ; because of course this first popped up on a Friday night after the Regular Vet closed.<br />
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They are Wonderful People there, although I did not Appreciate being held and having them look at my Tongue. It turned out there was a Big Lump down there under my Tongue with a sore on it. The vet thought it was Cancer, but they couldn't tell until they did a Biopsy. So I spent the Whole Weekend at the AERA with an IV to keep me hydrated until they could Put Me Under on Monday morning and do the Biopsy. In the Meantime they gave me Steroids for inflammation.<br />
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By the time my Female Human picked me up on Tuesday morning I felt Great! I came Home and happily scarfed down a Whole Bowl of wet food. I purred. I rolled on the Bed. I was a New Cat.<br />
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Amazingly, the Biopsy turned out to be Normal - no Cancer! I am still taking Steroids, but am feeling Fine. I go back for a Checkup next Tuesday to see if the Problem is gone.<br />
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So that's the News from My perspective.<br />
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Now, for the Rest of the News. As Everyone knows by Now, the Fiscal Cliff Disaster didn't quite Happen. At the Last Minute the President and the Republicans were able to <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/02/politics/fiscal-cliff/index.html">come to an Agreement</a> to raise taxes on the Richer-than-Most-People, those making $400,000 or above as a Single Person, or on couples making $450,000 and higher, among Other Things. Plus, Federal Unemployment Benefits were Extended for a year. But none of the Budget Cuts that were originally part of the So-Called Cliff were enacted - that Fight is Yet to Come.<br />
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Now, I know Some of You feel that the President gave in to the GOP by allowing the Cutoff for being "Rich" to rise from $250,000 in income, which was the Original Idea, to $400-$450,000. But as a Cat, I look at it This Way. If there were a Big Tomcat over on one side of the Yard that had a big HUGE Two-Gallon Bucket full of Catnip, the difference between those two amounts would probably be the Difference between a Quarter Cup of Catnip vs. a Half Cup of Catnip out of that whole Two Gallon Bucket. So the Tax is going to be on the Rest of the Bucket, which is still a Lot. Right? Please do Correct Me if I am wrong in this Analogy. I am Only a Cat and we don't really Understand Taxes too well.<br />
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Looking Ahead, it seems the GOP still doesn't Admit that they Lost the Election in November. They vow to have a <a href="http://prospect.org/article/yep-republicans-plan-use-debt-ceiling-leverage">Big Fight over Raising the Debt Ceiling</a> next month even though President Obama says he won't Fight about that subject. It Remains to be Seen whether he can avoid that Fight.<br />
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My Female Human will be back shortly to discuss Gun Control issues. In the Meantime, hang in there, the Days are already getting Longer and Winter cannot last Forever! Have some Catnip and Relax. I know I will!<br />
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P.S. My Female Human has added a Word Verification thingie to the Comments. There were Too Many spammy comments being Posted on the Blog. Apologies to Our Loyal Readers for having to Put you through that Annoyance.Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-5657825419072362962012-12-01T18:41:00.000-05:002012-12-01T20:17:35.991-05:00Downsizing Man's Best FriendThis is one of those "WTF is wrong with people?" posts.<br />
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I was reading the New York Times today and saw an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/29/greathomesanddestinations/in-raleigh-nc-cutting-living-space-to-make-room-for-life.html?_r=0">article about a family in North Carolina </a>who downsized their home from a 3,200 square foot home to a much more manageable 1,300 square foot house.<br />
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Always attracted to stories about people who manage to simplify their lives, I read the article with interest. Ever since we bought our cabin in the woods in the southeastern Adirondacks, which is basically one big room with a bathroom and a sleeping alcove plus a sun porch that can double as a guest bedroom, I have realized that our larger home in New Jersey is really more than we need.<br />
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The article started off in a heart-warming way, explaining how the family realized that the only reason they used one of their bathrooms was to wash the family dog, Toby, and that they spent most of their time as a family in one section of the house, in the back where their family room was.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"'<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14.999999046325684px; line-height: 21.999998092651367px;">The eat-in kitchen and the family room in the back of the house,' Mr. Kelly says. 'If we looked at where we lived as a family, it was the back of the house. When I thought about it, I realized we never spent any time in the bedrooms, except to sleep. The boys did their homework in the kitchen. The house was a waste.'"</span></blockquote>
So the family sold their big house for $675,000 and instead bought a 1,300-square-foot ranch house for just $245,000, leaving lots of money to play with ($300,000 was spent on renovations). So they added a large deck (15' by 45'), redid the kitchen/dining room/living room area, and installed built-in storage space in their new home.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14.999999046325684px; line-height: 21.999998092651367px;">Another big-ticket item was the built-in storage. Made by Bo Taylor Custom Woodworking, a local company, it cost the Kellys $52,000. But it includes an entrance closet where the boys can drop their book bags, and cabinetry throughout the house. It’s so extensive, in fact, that none of the bedrooms have a dresser."</span></blockquote>
The article goes on to describe their wonderful new situation. The gas/electric bills have fallen from $300 a month to $100 a month, their property taxes went down by about half, and they now keep things simple by digitizing their paperwork so they don't have stuff all over the house.<br />
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So what's the problem with this story? The last paragraph, the kicker:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14.999999046325684px; line-height: 21.999998092651367px;">"There has been one sad downside to the downsizing, though. The new house, the Kellys realized, was too small for a dog the size of Toby. So he has gone to live with a family that has a bigger house, as well as another collie to keep him company."</span></blockquote>
So, back to my first line. WTF??? You downsized your house but now decide it's "too small" for your DOG? Are you KIDDING me? First of all, the dog couldn't care less how much room he had. He just wanted to be with you. (Our two dogs are each sitting next to us on our respective couches here at the aforementioned cabin that is basically one big room. There is plenty of room.)<br />
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This house this family bought is a 3-bedroom house. People lived in houses this size for years back in my childhood (and still do) - along with dogs, cats, and hamsters and children - and there was room for everyone.<br />
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No, there was plenty of room for Toby in the house - but apparently not in their hearts. If they had a third child they wouldn't have gotten rid of the child just because they moved to a smaller house. So why is it OK to give away the dog? And what kind of example is that for their children in terms of teaching them a sense of responsibility?<br />
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Yes, I know this is not the most egregious example of uncaring dog owners. I know that there are worse dog owners, dog owners who turn their 15-year-old dog in to a high kill shelter because they don't feel like taking care of him, or turn their dog in because they're "moving to where dogs aren't allowed" or because "they had a new baby" or "don't have time." Yes, those people are much, much worse. At least these folks found a good home for the dog. But I don't think they should be having feature articles written about them in the Times. They don't deserve the attention.<br />
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Toby, you are probably the lucky one in this story. Hopefully your new family will value you more than your old one did.Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-88081630183437638412012-11-29T19:06:00.001-05:002012-11-29T20:25:20.804-05:00 A Cat's Eye View<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Baxter here. It's been awhile, but don't think I have Forgotten my Fans. I have just been Waiting for this Election business to be Over. It was all Too Much for Me.<br />
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I am just Glad that it turned out the Way it did and that we didn't have another Big Mess like back in 2000, as some were worried we would. Of course, I knew a Cool Cat like President Obama would know the right way to get back in the White House for four more years!<br />
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He sure didn't have much of a Second Honeymoon, though, did he?<br />
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Boom, right after the Election came the News that General Petraeus, the Director of the CIA, had been Fooling Around with his Biographer, Paula Broadwell - and then came all kinds of other Stories about these hot <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/jill-kelleys-sister-ducks-questions-petraeus-allen/story?id=17767813#.ULfreaw0WSo">Twin Sisters</a>, Jill Kelley and Natalie Khawam, who were hanging around all the Generals.<br />
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Amusingly to Me, these <a href="http://www.dailynews.com/ci_22001765/petraeus-sex-scandal-puts-halt-socialites-climb-top">stories always refer to the Twins as "Socialites," </a> a rather Quaint Term. Reminds My Humans of a Tom Waits song called <a href="http://www.tomwaits.com/songs/song/226/Invitation_To_The_Blues/">Invitation to the Blues.</a> "He probably left her for a socialite, didn't love her 'cept at night, and then he's drunk and didn't even tell her that he cared..."<br />
But I digress... sorry...<br />
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Apparently the former head of the CIA is spending his Days "grovelling" to his wife of 38 years, Holly, according to an <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2236936/Petraeus-sex-scandal-Former-CIA-boss-groveling-wife-Holly.html">Article in the UK's Daily Mail</a>. My Female Human doesn't blame his Wife for being Furious, which is how her Mood is described by Those in the Know.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI2y2afFcIRbH-8SOsCp7A09SSmENoPnxaBxU28-O8CKzoTBTD3GPPAcDSmQtyE2uCctUfZoQDTlCpWWUMqQ4RdSYwlyN4s7zMNd7J87z8I5A2aw8KKfntQ81bp-9qXl2XJFQ4/s1600/petraeus-kelley-fa_2397468c1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI2y2afFcIRbH-8SOsCp7A09SSmENoPnxaBxU28-O8CKzoTBTD3GPPAcDSmQtyE2uCctUfZoQDTlCpWWUMqQ4RdSYwlyN4s7zMNd7J87z8I5A2aw8KKfntQ81bp-9qXl2XJFQ4/s320/petraeus-kelley-fa_2397468c1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Even though it was Broadwell that had the Affair with the General, the Involvement of the Twin Socialites also seemed Rather Suspicious... something my Female Human felt was particularly Obvious in this Picture which has been Published far and wide, of the two Women, Petraeus (second from left) and Holly (far right) along with Jill's husband, in the center.<br />
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Two of these things are Not Like the Others, wouldn't you say?<br />
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In Fact, it has all Become so Convoluted and Involved so Many People in the Cast of Characters that the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/11/how-to-tell-if-youre-involved-in-the-petraeus-scandal.html">Borowitz Report posted an Article</a> saying the CIA has come out with a Pamphlet to help you know whether YOU may be part of the Petraeus Scandal without even knowing it!<br />
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It is also being Reported that Paula Broadwell, who is married with two Children, is <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57551644/broadwell-said-to-be-devastated-by-petraeus-scandal/">"devastated"</a> by the Harm caused by the Fling between her and the General.<br />
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Ah, Humans... what is that Old Saying? "What a tangled Web we Weave, when First we Practice to Deceive."<br />
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Just goes to Show that perhaps Male Humans should be Neutered, just like Tomcats are, so they won't be Getting Into Trouble when they are past their Prime and vulnerable to Younger Women's wiles.<br />
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Or, per the Cartoon that Some have been Posting over on Facebook, maybe this is what Happens when you Allow Heterosexuals to Serve Openly in the Military?<br />
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At Any Rate, this Scandal is finally moving Off the front pages since it's been a Couple of Weeks and we're Off to the Races again with the Fiscal Cliff looming.<br />
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My Female Human says if she hears the words "Fiscal Cliff" one more time, she Won't Be Responsible For Her Actions.<br />
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President Obama Won the Election. I Hope he will use his "Political Capital" as They call it, to Stand Firm and not let the Republicans walk all Over Him during negotations. So Far So Good, as far as I can tell. For all the Latest News about the Fiscal Cliff, here's a <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/11/29/cliff-talk-latest-from-boehner-mcconnell-reid-pelosi/">Good Article</a>. A few Choice Quotes to follow. The first, from GOP House Majority Leader Boehner:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">"Mr. Boehner said that the White House needs to get serious about offering specific spending cuts they would put on the table towards a potential deal. 'All eyes are on the White House, the country doesn’t need a victory lap, it needs leadership,' Mr. Boehner said at a press conference in the Capitol."</span></blockquote>
This was countered by a Response from Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">Mr. Reid said it was incumbent on House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) to put forward a realistic offer in response to Democrats’ plan to allow tax rates on the wealthiest Americans to increase at the end of the year. Mr. Reid said that Mr. Geithner has not made a new offer to Republicans as both sides try to broker a tax and spending deal before the end of the year. 'The president’s made the offer–there’s no offer to be made,' Mr. Reid told a handful of reporters as he walked into his offices. 'There’s no offer to be made.'"</span></blockquote>
Ah, Humans. They continue to Spar like a bunch of Tomcats Yowling in a Circle, hoping One will finally get the Upper Hand and get a Good Grip on the back of their Opponent's Neck.<br />
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The Good News I see is that at least President Obama apparently hasn't already Given Away the Farm up Front, as he was wont to do in the Beginning of his first Term. There is No Sense in him Offering ANY cuts in Medicare, Social Security or Medicaid. Let the Republicans make that Suggestion. Otherwise the Republicans will take Whatever the President Offers in Cuts and then want MORE. Plus this way, it is Obvious that it would be the Republicans who want to Cut these Programs that are Very Popular with the people!<br />
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In Other Good News, Senator Dick Durbin said that<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/27/dick-durbin-social-security-fiscal-cliff_n_2199224.html"> Social Security should NOT be part of the Fiscal Cliff talks</a> as it does not contribute to the Deficit.<br />
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Let's Hope that the fact that some Republicans are finally <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/26/republicans-grover-norquist_n_2193785.html">Rejecting their Pledge to Grover Norquist </a>to Never Raise Taxes may Actually lead to Progress in the Talks. But I'm not Holding My Breath. So far I don't see a Lot of Compromising going on on the GOP side. It may Take Awhile for the Fact they Lost to really Sink In. If it ever does.<br />
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With that, I will Bid you Farewell for Now. I think we will All need a Lot of Catnip to get through the End of the Year. Hopefully January 1 won't Find us at the Bottom of the Fiscal Cliff!Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-91353019735086353602012-11-08T13:36:00.001-05:002012-11-08T15:10:43.017-05:00Money Alone Can't Buy You LoveWith President Obama's decisive reelection on Tuesday night, the American people said "no" to the many millions of dollars spent by GOP Super PACs and people like <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/us/politics/little-to-show-for-cash-flood-by-big-donors.html?pagewanted=all&gwh=446E748D7B9831E310642270A8DCE259&_r=0">Sheldon Adelson</a>, who donated a small fortune of his own money to support Republican candidates, ending up with nothing to show for it.<br />
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After the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission">Citizens United decision</a> by the Supreme Court, many on the left feared that the practically unlimited amount of money that would pour into these surrogate organizations for the Republican candidates would leave the Democrats in the dust.<br />
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As it turned out, all that money was not enough to buy the election. President Obama was declared the winner a little after 11 p.m., with over 300 electoral college votes already in and possibly more to come, if Florida goes his way, as is expected. <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/">Nate Silver</a> was right, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/unskewed-pollster-dean-chambers-nate-silver-election-dick-morris-michael-barone-2012-11">Unskewed Polls</a> and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/08/karl-rove-american-crossroads_n_2092523.html">Karl Rove</a> were wrong. It's all over but the spin.<br />
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So why didn't all that money and advertising help the GOP? Maybe the answer isn't that the money couldn't help, but that it was used inefficiently.<br />
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In market research, there are models that can analyze and predict the effectiveness and the efficiency of advertising. There is a certain point at which advertising no longer influences the viewer. There is a certain point when the amount of money spent is no longer efficient and additional spending adds diminishing return on investment.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBG2rBw04W46_6UYLuZoXmcUMFXvFx2UZhKuT8yAtxxICqWQwJQQh4vV2G2oADwiRURm_bRKskoDUl-yU5FGHT4yHg9A6jw4sdJE2_3tVfbDrpUyd5-GnXzz2W-PH95iRvY_uX/s1600/Advertising_Curve.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBG2rBw04W46_6UYLuZoXmcUMFXvFx2UZhKuT8yAtxxICqWQwJQQh4vV2G2oADwiRURm_bRKskoDUl-yU5FGHT4yHg9A6jw4sdJE2_3tVfbDrpUyd5-GnXzz2W-PH95iRvY_uX/s320/Advertising_Curve.png" width="320" /></a></div>
(Source: http://www.consumerpsychologist.com/marketing_introduction.html)<br />
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That saturation point is probably reached even sooner for negative advertising than for other kinds of advertising. The voters just start wishing it was all over, and become cynical about whichever candidate continues to push these ads on them. And it doesn't help that some of Romney's last ads, in Ohio, were full of lies that the voters knew better than to believe in the first place.<br />
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Of course, the Obama campaign also had plenty of money from donations. They raised a billion dollars themselves and had plenty of advertising. But the difference was in the way they used it. Their advertising started earlier, before Romney's campaign really took off, and defined him to the American voters before he had a chance to.<br />
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In addition, they <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/us/politics/obama-campaign-clawed-back-after-a-dismal-debate.html?hp&gwh=5E964E51AECE8B5A92C827C9AB8EDC95">targeted individual voters</a> and identified a whole database full of potential supporters who fit the profile of Obama supporters - but hadn't yet become supporters.<br />
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In market research, this is called identifying your <a href="http://www.communicateyourcause.com/2012/02/positioning-your-organization-part-i.html">"Strategic Value" stakeholder</a> or consumer - the target person who is most likely to respond to you or to your product and help you achieve your objectives. The next trick is to gain insight into that person and understand what makes them tick. Apparently the President's campaign was able to do this and to motivate those stakeholders to go out and stand in line for hours to vote for President Obama.<br />
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But it came down to a lot more than just good marketing principles for the President and his supporters.<br />
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It also came down to changing demographics - and a new coalition of diverse citizens who came together to reject the old viewpoints offered by the GOP, to reject hate and bigotry, and to support the President's vision of moving "Forward!" rather than backward.<br />
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<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-08/asian-voters-send-a-message-to-republicans.html">Hispanics, Asians and African-Americans</a> were all key voting blocs in the Democratic victory. Obama won among Hispanics 71% to 27% for Romney; among Asians by 73-26%, and <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Wire/2012/1107/Election-results-2012-Who-won-it-for-Obama-video">among African-Americans by 93%</a>. These population groups are all growing, while white Americans, who were more apt to vote for Romney, are declining as a portion of the electorate,<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2145687/Non-white-births-outnumber-white-Ethnic-minorities-surpasses-whites-US-time.html"> a trend that is expected to continue</a>.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRPZeVZ0lSAqhk3nVS-WQ-YPmlGoCT9DI2qzV1zbw4_xm2YZPNqg1L0_WSuS2_AIPdFFdbJ8cP6yOaV1akU_I6yJd_cnrx0FdZJ8k4OkK-nFYKRHREFUvyjO5XnvC40S7jvA5m/s1600/population.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRPZeVZ0lSAqhk3nVS-WQ-YPmlGoCT9DI2qzV1zbw4_xm2YZPNqg1L0_WSuS2_AIPdFFdbJ8cP6yOaV1akU_I6yJd_cnrx0FdZJ8k4OkK-nFYKRHREFUvyjO5XnvC40S7jvA5m/s320/population.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
President Obama did better among women than his opponent, with <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/11/07/us/politics/obamas-diverse-base-of-support.html">55% of women voting for him </a>vs. Romney. And, showing the importance of women's issues, candidates <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-07/republican-candidates-lose-after-rape-comments/4358902">Akin and Mourdock,</a> both of whom were castigated by their remarks about rape, lost their Senate races.<br />
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In addition, many women were elected, including <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-07/elizabeth-warren-ii-she-s-baaaaaack-as-a-u-dot-s-dot-senator">Elizabeth Warren</a>, who took back the late Senator Edward Kennedy's seat from Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts, the first female senator from the state. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/female-candidates-made-gains-in-the-2012-election/2012/11/07/9b2e6f02-291c-11e2-b4e0-346287b7e56c_story.html">Other firsts:</a> Tammy Baldwin, from Wisconsin, will be the first openly gay Senator. In Hawaii, Mazie Hirono will be the first Asian American woman there, while Hawaiian Tulsi Gabbard will be the first Hindu elected to the House of Representatives.<br />
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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/youth-vote-2012-turnout-exit-polls_n_2086092.html">Young people came out to support President Obama</a> again, as they did in 2008. He captured 60% of the vote for people 18-29, compared to only 36% for Romney. This age group represented 19% of the electorate, up a point from four years ago.<br />
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In addition, gay marriage was approved by voters in Maryland and Maine, and will likely be approved in Washington State as well, the first time same-sex marriage has been approved by the voters themselves. Other states allow gay marriage, but the decision was made by the state courts or legislatures. And in Minnesota, a referendum to amend the state constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage failed, another victory against bigotry.<br />
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Washington State and Colorado voted to legalize recreational marijuana; Massachusetts approved medical marijuana use. The times truly are a-changin'.<br />
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And as <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/maddow-to-gop-the-moon-landing-was-real-evolution-is-a-thing/politics/2012/11/08/53323">Rachel Maddow pointed out last night</a>, if the Republicans don't start changing and join the reality-based world, they will be a footnote in history. Now they have to figure out whether to continue to double down on their far right wing positions and become less and less relevant to the population, or whether they will do some sincere soul-searching and try to come into the 21st century.<br />
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I'm hoping for the latter, because we need at least two viable parties in this country to keep a real dialogue going and to work together to solve problems. There are too many issues that need to be addressed; we can't afford another four years of gridlock and partisanship. But it takes two to tango and the GOP needs to step onto the dance floor.Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-43812358942624392412012-11-05T12:54:00.001-05:002012-11-05T12:54:08.927-05:00Down to the WireWell, here it is, finally - the last day before the 2012 election. And things are looking relatively good for President Obama, thanks to the October Surprise that turned out to be Hurricane Sandy.<br />
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<a href="http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/nov-4-did-hurricane-sandy-blow-romney-off-course/">According to Nate Silver,</a> the President now has an 86% chance of winning reelection, thanks to leads in the battleground states and a growing lead in the polls for the popular vote (now at 50.6 vs. 48.5). Although Silver says there are plenty of other reasons that Obama has rebounded since his performance at the first debate, I have no doubt that the hurricane and its aftermath did play a part in Romney's recent slippage.<br />
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I live in New Jersey, which, along with New York City, suffered the worst damage in the storm. Thankfully for us here in Northern New Jersey, the worst we got was a lot of downed trees and power lines. Since the rain wasn't that bad, we were spared the flooding we got last year during Hurricane Irene. But as everyone knows by now, the Jersey Shore was virtually destroyed and will take a long time to rebuild.<br />
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The destruction in New York City and New Jersey brought an <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-01/a-vote-for-a-president-to-lead-on-climate-change.html">endorsement for President Obama</a> from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an Independent former Republican, who said he thought the president is best equipped to do something about climate change, which he said the storm made clear was an important issue.<br />
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And, even more importantly, Republican Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, who gave the keynote speech at Romney's convention, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/in-superstorm-sandy-new-jersey-governor-chris-christie-praises-president-obamas-crisis-leadership/2012/10/30/89769e32-22b5-11e2-ac85-e669876c6a24_story.html">praised the President's response to the hurricane</a> and accompanied him on a tour of the devastation at the Jersey Shore.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 22.5px;">"Christie told news outlets that the president’s response had been 'outstanding,'</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 22.5px;"> said that coordinating with the administration had been 'wonderful,' </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 22.5px;">and remarked that 'the president has been all over this and he deserves great credit.'</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 22.5px;"> He even told Fox News </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 22.5px;">the president had done a 'great job for New Jersey' while staying above the fray about politics: 'I’ve got a job to do here in New Jersey that’s much bigger than presidential politics, and I could care less about any of that stuff.'" </span></span></blockquote>
After receiving criticism from the Romney camp for his embrace of President Obama during the crisis, Christie <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/APdb025ad1d8694fdca1e28c32e91c3cf5.html">reiterated his support for Romney</a> but refused to back down on his praise for the President.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.5px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"'I'm a Republican, I've endorsed Mitt Romney and I support him. I intend to vote for him on Tuesday,'" Christie said. 'But the fact of the matter is that if the President of the United States comes here and he is willing to help my people, and he does it, then I'm going to say nice things about him because he's earned it.'"</span></span></blockquote>
In the meantime, Romney didn't do himself any favors by cynically calling an already-planned campaign rally a <a href="http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/2010-elections/mitt-romney-stages-fake-donations-hurricane-sandy-storm-relief-rally">"storm relief rally" and actually buying some of the "donations"</a> that supporters then picked up to "donate" to hurricane victims. It also doesn't help that he ignored the fact that the Red Cross discourages physical donations and prefers monetary aid, as sorting and shipping actual goods just takes more time, when it is usually faster to use the money to buy goods from locations closer to the center of the crisis. (You can go <a href="http://www.redcross.org/charitable-donations">here</a> to donate to the Red Cross, by the way!)<br />
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Romney's campaign also shot itself in the foot by airing deceptive commercials in Ohio during this same time period that warned Jeep and General Motors were sending jobs to China. Both Chrysler (which owns Jeep) and GM <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/31/us/politics/2-american-automakers-rebut-claims-by-romney.html">emphatically denied the accuracy of the ads</a>.<br />
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So the general public saw President Obama acting presidential, suspending his campaign to look at storm damage, putting politics aside and joining a Republican governor in commiserating over his state's losses, while his opponent was holding a storm disaster campaign photo op and airing commercials that people knew were lies. Romney supporters shouldn't wonder why their candidate has lost his momentum and President Obama is pulling ahead.<br />
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But nothing is certain yet, as Republican governors in Florida and Ohio are doing their darnedest to suppress the vote in their states by <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/11/04/1136701/why-the-lines-are-so-long-in-florida-and-ohio/">limiting early voting,</a> making sure there are horrendously long lines to vote in the (mostly) Democratic areas of their states, and any other strategies they can come up with.<br />
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In contrast, Christie has <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-34222_162-57544864/n.j-n.y-make-more-voting-changes-due-to-sandy/">tried to make it easier</a> for those displaced by the storm in New Jersey to vote, by adding early voting opportunities at county clerks' offices, extending the ability to vote by email to all citizens of the state, and allowing people to vote using provisional ballots if they are currently staying in a location outside of their usual voting area.<br />
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I am no fan of Christie, but I am very impressed with his fairness and bipartisanship during this crisis. There are certainly a lot worse Republican governors - and the ones in Ohio and Florida come to mind.<br />
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This is a very close election and every vote counts. Be sure your voice is heard and go to the polls tomorrow, if you haven't already voted early or with an absentee ballot!Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-54795361686586290832012-10-27T11:59:00.000-04:002012-10-28T10:59:37.121-04:00Romney, Rape and the RepublicansHi all, sorry for my long absence. I have been busily posting political thoughts over on Facebook and getting into lots of conversations but have not gotten around to posting here for much too long.<br />
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But now that the race is near the end and there is a very real possibility that Romney might manage to win the presidency with his sudden turnaround to Mr. Moderate, I felt I needed to write more about what a Romney presidency would mean.<br />
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It seems Romney's plan all along was to veer hard right for the primaries and then, as one of his advisers memorably said, use the <a href="http://themoderatevoice.com/142136/romney-aides-etch-a-sketch-comment-will-greatly-limit-romneys-general-election-flexibility/">"Etch-a-Sketch"</a> and get rid of all that in time for the fall campaign when moderates and independents become important in the race. At the time, the comment was seen as a gaffe, but it turns out that is exactly what he had in mind all along. And the Democrats didn't see it coming. No doubt that is one reason President Obama seemed so flummoxed in that first debate; he came prepared with all kinds of anti-far-right rhetoric and there was Romney, blithely making statements supporting moderate positions on subjects he had previously been "severely conservative."<br />
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Or at least, he made it seem that way. His dissembling was particularly noticeable in his claims about his stance on health care. Contraception? Oh, he's for it. All women should have access to contraception. But he, and unfortunately, President Obama, did not point out that the whole difference was the President's plan requires women's insurance to cover contraception and Romney's plan would not.<br />
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Pre-existing conditions? Oh, yes, a Romney plan would cover those. But of course he didn't say that his plan was simply a return to the current situation we already have - people who have already had insurance can continue being covered despite pre-existing conditions. It doesn't help anyone who hasn't been insured already, although the individual states could choose to cover them - again, no change from current policy. The pre-existing conditions lie was such a whopper <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/10/top-romney-adviser-states-will-have-to-cover-people-with-pre-existing-conditions-under-president-rom.php">his spokespeople had to explain it after the debate</a> - when all the undecided voters had stopped paying attention.<br />
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So who is the real Mitt Romney? Apparently there isn't one. Mitt Romney is whoever he needs to be to get elected. The real question is, who are his masters? Who is he beholden to? It seems pretty obvious - The far right. Grover Norquist. The Tea Party. Right-wing evangelic Christians.<br />
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Heck, <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/13/1064417/-Grover-Norquist-on-the-GOP-candidates-All-we-need-is-someone-who-can-handle-a-pen">Grover Norquist himself said it doesn't really matter who is president</a> as long as he signs the legislation that comes to his desk. And, if he wins, that person would be Romney.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"All we have to do is replace Obama. We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don't need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget... We just need a president to sign this stuff."</blockquote>
So whatever Mitt's real beliefs, if he has them, he will be kowtowing to the far right end of his party. He chose Paul Ryan as a running mate to do just that. Ryan's positions are what are "severely conservative." Ryan's <a href="http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/11/13227713-what-is-the-ryan-budget?lite">proposed budget</a> would change the tax structure, lowering the top bracket to 25% from 35%, as well as making Medicare into a voucher program and making Medicaid into a block grant program administered solely by the states.<br />
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Romney has distanced himself from the Ryan budget, coming out with his own budget. However, his budget includes a large increase in military spending, as well as lower taxes, which he said could be covered by getting rid of unidentified loopholes. According to the <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3658">Center on Budget Policy and Priorities</a>, in order for Romney's budget to work, it would require cuts in many programs that help the elderly, veterans, disabled people and poor children.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For the most part, Governor Romney has not outlined cuts in specific programs. But if policymakers repealed health reform (the Affordable Care Act, or ACA) and exempted Social Security from cuts, as Romney has suggested, and cut Medicare, Medicaid, and all other entitlement and discretionary programs by the same percentage to meet Romney’s overall spending cap and defense spending target, then they would have to cut non-defense programs other than Social Security by 22 percent in 2016 and 34 percent in 2022... If they exempted Medicare from cuts for this period, the cuts in other programs would have to be even more dramatic — 32 percent in 2016 and 53 percent in 2022."</span></span></span></blockquote>
Then there is the "war on women." For some reason this year the Republicans have been very focused on rape. <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/rape-how-many-different-kinds-does-the-gop-believe-there-are/politics/2012/10/25/52075">Legitimate rape, forcible rape, other kinds of rape</a>. Many of these discussions about rape pertain to the issue of abortion and pregnancy that occurs as a result of rape. And in Pennsylvania, there is <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/24/pennsylvania-welfare-benefits-rape_n_2012417.html">proposed legislation requiring mothers on welfare to prove they were raped</a> before they would be allowed to collect additional funds to support a new baby.<br />
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So, why are Republicans so fixated on rape? Because in their eyes, if a woman is raped, it wasn't her fault she got pregnant. She didn't have sex in order to enjoy it, heaven forbid. It was forced on her - and it better have been done forcibly, because after all, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/10/roger-rivard-rape_n_1956491.html">"some girls rape easy."</a> If she just had sex voluntarily, out of desire, then she should reap what she sows, even if she was being responsible and using birth control that failed. She made her bed, let her lie in it. And of course the man had nothing to do with it, did he? No blame falls on him. It's all about controlling women.<br />
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Republican Richard Mourdock, who was recently criticized for his comments saying that pregnancy as a result of rape is <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/23/richard-mourdock-abortion_n_2007482.html">something God intended</a>, is just one of several Republicans, including Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan, who don't believe in abortion even in the cases of rape and incest. But you know what? I don't really have a problem with that. If their belief is that life begins at conception, then an exception for rape or incest makes no sense at all. Either it's a life or it isn't. And if that's what you believe, fine - just don't impose that belief on everyone else.<br />
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Again, even the rape/incest exception is an example of the blame game against women - if the woman didn't mean to have sex, then it's OK to kill the fetus. Otherwise the woman should be forced to have that baby because again, she should reap what she sows.<br />
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Unfortunately, the idea of making the exceptions for rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother, is now being construed as a "moderate" position in the Republican party. As <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/27/opinion/talk-about-a-way-with-words.html?gwh=1C046232BF53421394CDB84EADF6BF01">Gail Collins points out</a> in today's New York Times,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">"<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 21.999998092651367px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 21.999998092651367px;">One of the truly disturbing parts of our current politics is that we have begun to identify people who want to impose their religious beliefs on millions of women who don’t share them as moderates as long as they’re O.K. with the rape exemption."</span></span></blockquote>
The real shame of the whole "pro-life" stance in the Republican party is that they only care about that baby before it's born - afterwards, that baby and its mom are on their own. Don't expect handouts from the government to support that kid! Oh, and if he turns out to be a criminal, they have no problem with the death penalty. This has never made any sense to me either.<br />
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If anyone thinks Romney doesn't endorse these antediluvian positions on women's right to choose, remember he said he would support amendments to the constitution <a href="http://www.mittromney.com/issues/values">proclaiming life begins at conception and that marriage is between a man and a woman</a>. He also pledges to take away federal funding from Planned Parenthood, which provides needed health care to many low income women.<br />
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And if he has the opportunity to appoint one or more Supreme Court Justices - which is extremely likely - he will appoint justices who would vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade and who would be favorable to a constitutional amendment supporting marriage as being only between a man and a woman. According to <a href="http://www.mittromney.com/issues/courts-constitution">his own website</a>, <span style="font-family: inherit;">"<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 21px;">As president, Mitt will nominate judges in the mold of Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span><br />
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Then there's the whole issue of racism in the Republican camp. Every time I try to believe that racism isn't at the core of many Republicans' antipathy toward President Obama, another reminder smacks me in the face that yes, obviously, that is part of it. The coded and not-so-coded words (Sarah Palin, <a href="http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/sarah-palins-shuck-and-jive-comment-triggers-backlash">"shuck and jive"</a>??? Really???) - <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/10/26/obama-effigies-surface-in-california-and-north-carolina/">Obama being hanged in effigy</a> - and now, most recently, John Sununu, co-chair of Romney's campaign, accusing former Secretary of State Colin Powell of endorsing President Obama due to racism. Of course, <a href="http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/10/sununu-powells-endorsement-of-obama-racedriven-147310.html">he later backed off of his comments</a> - but that is the Republican way: put it out there, send your signal, then say, "Oh, I didn't mean it like that."<br />
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Don't even get me started on climate change and the environment. Suffice it to say that Romney says he loves coal and <a href="http://e360.yale.edu/feature/obama_vs_romney_a_stark_contrast_on_the_environment/2572/">would love to drill for oil and gas on public lands and in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge</a>, and wants to gut environmental regulations.<br />
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So what is the upshot of all this? A Mitt Romney presidency would be bad for:<br />
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Women<br />
The poor<br />
Children<br />
The middle class<br />
The elderly<br />
LGBT people<br />
The environment<br />
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The only people it would be good for is the richest 1% of the population, and the military-industrial complex.<br />
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We are better than this. We must ensure that President Obama gets another four years to enact his policies.<br />
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Now we have the "storm of the century" bearing down on the eastern coast of the U.S. Let's hope it does not disrupt these elections. Voter turnout for President Obama's supporters is key. Let's make sure everyone gets to the polls and votes! This election could not be more important!Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34240686.post-85984901824178824752012-08-15T18:14:00.000-04:002012-08-15T18:18:48.314-04:00I am still here fighting the good fight... for dogs!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYXBoMe32ExCEdihtIO7Tg5n0f0S0MJf3MfxVK27lg-nNd51xVqAQwhLXMKNuRNdjM3dWWCI3OXdnaZII4NeEavys0uathMB7FCWSoqDreGxQ5uytD-zlchvSfRJQ_JLAkkTdL/s1600/memphisprofile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYXBoMe32ExCEdihtIO7Tg5n0f0S0MJf3MfxVK27lg-nNd51xVqAQwhLXMKNuRNdjM3dWWCI3OXdnaZII4NeEavys0uathMB7FCWSoqDreGxQ5uytD-zlchvSfRJQ_JLAkkTdL/s400/memphisprofile.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
Sorry for the long absence from the blog world. I have been caught up in some local issues and am trying to save a pit bull named Memphis that is being held at the Bloomfield, NJ shelter without opportunity for adoption despite never having bitten anyone since he has been at the shelter.<br />
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This dog came in as a stray in February, and the shelter manager, who is herself a dog trainer, but not familiar with pit bulls, felt he had issues that needed to be resolved.<br />
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She sent him to be evaluated at an animal welfare organization called <a href="http://www.sthuberts.org/">St. Hubert's</a>, where he was deemed "an accident waiting to happen," due to his responses to other dogs and to strangers who approached him in a threatening or scary manner. He did, however, act very friendly to a stranger who approached him and greeted him.<br />
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At this point, the dog had been found wandering as a stray, probably abandoned by his original owner, and then kept in a cage with only limited interactions with the outside world for several weeks. Of course he was nervous and over-reactive.<br />
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The shelter manager continued to work with him, but never felt she could trust him despite the fact that shelter volunteers and others who met Memphis said he was friendly and had never shown any signs of hostility to them.<br />
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Finally a <a href="http://www.pittyrescue.com/about">well-known local trainer and pit bull rescuer</a>, Jeff Coltenback, who also runs a pet store in our town, offered to take Memphis and work with him to ensure he could pass the temperament test and be adopted out. He had hoped to take him on permanently as his rescue is a registered 501(c)(3) rescue organization, but instead the local Health Department insisted he only keep him to train him and made him sign a long agreement which included stipulations on what he could or could not say about the dog's training, among other details.<br />
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To make a long story short, although Jeff did not comment on the dog's training, he did put up pictures of Memphis with other people, including children, on his Facebook page, and the Health Department demanded after 8 days that he bring Memphis back to the shelter, as he was "putting the public in danger" and it could be a liability for the town. As you can imagine, he was doing nothing of the sort.<br />
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In fact, Jeff said he only exposed people to Memphis who agreed to work with him, Memphis was supervised at all times, and he said that this is the way he always works with dogs that need socialization.
Furthermore, he said since Memphis had come to him he had seen zero evidence of any dangerous traits. The dog gave him no cause for concern or any need for correction during the eight days he had him.<br />
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In fact, because of Memphis' friendly and winning personality, Jeff and his family fell in love with the dog and now want to adopt him.
Since Memphis was returned to the shelter over a week ago, he was given another behavior test, and his future is now an item on the agenda of the Board of Health meeting tomorrow night. Even though the Health Department must have received the written results of the behavior test by now, they are not revealing the conclusions until the meeting takes place.<br />
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The story of Memphis has gone viral, thanks to social media, Examiner.com and Facebook Causes. I know many of my blog friends are fans of pit bulls; for those who are not, please understand this is a good dog, a family dog, who deserves a loving home. Being with a professional trainer and rescuer who loves him would be a perfect solution for him. How could anyone deny him this happiness?
Please see <a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/time-sensitive-petition-bring-memphis-home">here</a> for further information about Memphis and his plight.<br />
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I will try to get back into the political scene shortly; as always, I have been following what is going on and am appalled at the choice of Paul Ryan as Romney's running mate. On the plus side, it gives President Obama plenty of fodder to work with. No one can say this is an election without stark differences between the two sides.Mauigirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15529827915262851910noreply@blogger.com9