This unfortunate choice of vanity plate has inspired me to make a few observations.

1. Are the powers that be at the Ohio BMV unaware of what the initials “FTW” stand for?  I can’t believe the BMV is completely devoid of bikers.  Maybe the owner of this Passat is named Franklin Thomas Williams or something, but if my initials were FTW I don’t think I would want to advertise that on a vanity plate.

2. If the owner of the Passat truly subscribes to the FTW mentality, then why would he give an “F” about wildlife?

3. If I were the owner of the Passat  I would have to take a secret delight in  basically flipping off the world via my license plate.

It is bloody hot here in central Ohio these past few days.  What most people don’t realize is that 95 degrees here might as well be 115 degrees because of the humidity.  Lovely Ohio weather- either cold and damp or hot and humid. Right now we are in the “hot and humid” season. “Cold and damp” will resume sometime in October.   Right now the air conditioner is struggling to keep up but at least I’m in where it’s cool and so far have avoided being carted off to the ER for heat stroke.   I have my iced tea and Powerade Zero so I’m staying in.

The dogs have the right idea.  So I think I’ll go back to sleep as long as people leave me alone.

“And the LORD God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.’  So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.”- Genesis 3:22-23 (NIV)

As it has been since the Fall, so it continues to be.  Humankind unfortunately really knows how to choose evil.  Sometimes evil finds us even when we aren’t looking for it.  This week I’ve been stress on a stick.  Along with the constant worry about money and the lack thereof, and the eternal quest to scrounge enough money to keep Steve-o in school, I have other demons to contend with that no amount of money or time can assuage.  The main problem with me and emotional distress is that I don’t deal with it while the situation causing the distress is in progress.  I deal with the rational/practical implications as the situation unfolds,  but I don’t feel anything.  It’s as if I am watching a movie.  I am detached from the situation as it unfolds.  My body does what it needs to do to respond and my mind simply records the details- so I can fall apart over them later, usually at a most inappropriate or inopportune time.

Monday night Jerry insisted I let the dogs go out on the lot even though we knew there were still young feral kittens that the dogs were trying to get to.  Clara is the fastest and the most prey-driven of the three dogs.  Unfortunately somehow Clara got ahold of one of the feral kittens.  I heard the fracas and went running, screaming, “Clara, NO!” but by the time I got close enough for her to let go of the kitten she had already crushed its skull.   The kitten died in my hands and mercifully so because it was obvious it had been mortally wounded.  It was a lovely black and white kitten about four weeks old,  and appeared to be of good size and health- at least before Clara decided to rearrange its head.

Logically I know I should not be so upset about the loss of a feral- they are (barring extraneous circumstances) doomed from birth to short, violent lives and often ghastly early deaths, but this was sad.  I don’t like being this close to death and the knowledge that there wasn’t one single damned thing I could to do prevent it is still eating at me.  Feral cats can be socialized if they are captured young (before 12 weeks) but there are too many of them to socialize them all. Yes it is a commentary on people failing to spay and neuter cats, but it is also a sad by-product of necessity.  Without feral cats our homes would be overrun with vermin.  While they are not native species neither are the vermin that humans brought along with them.  The lesson of the Great Plagues in Europe was that it really isn’t a good idea to kill the cats.  We need feral cats on one side, but it is hard to see the way that they suffer especially compared to pampered house  cats.

The other part of this slaughter that disturbs me is that it brings home the knowledge that gentle Clara can also be a ruthless killer simply because she carries ancient and powerful instincts, and she is a large and powerful dog.  The same dog that protects me and sleeps in my bed is capable of unprovoked bloodshed, even as she allows the house cats to sleep on her and groom her.

Is good always good?  Or is it more correct to acknowledge that all creatures are tainted with the evil unleashed in the Fall?

Why should I shed tears for a doomed feral kitten simply because I had the foul luck to witness its death?  I can’t blame Clara for being a dog even though she is well-fed and did not kill the kitten because she intended to eat it or because she was starving.

I don’t deal with emotions well at all.  If anything I choose not to deal with them and then something out of the blue will trigger a memory that will cause me to break into tears or anger or most commonly, depression.  I am hopelessly emotionally crippled.  I try to make up for it by being logical and thinking things through, but sometimes logical answers seem pale and cold and barren.

Sometimes I have to stop for a moment and weep for a dead cat, whether it makes sense or not.

Maybe apathy is the wrong word.  I do care, but only about certain things.  Staying remotely cooled off is one of those things, and I had a hard enough time with that over the winter.  I don’t know what I am going to do when summer brings 90+ degree days for days at a time.  Obviously staying in the A/C is a must already. 

A bit of perspective here though.  I might have had better temperature regulation this time last year, but compared to Aunt Flo and her curse a few hot flashes are really no big deal.   Breaking my arm was like getting a mosquito bite compared to suffering through the curse-  it was that bad- especially in the few months before my surgery.  Even if I had to sit in the freezer (and I have contemplated it) to stop sweating for a moment,  dealing with the heat  is better than dealing with everything associated with Aunt Flo and her agonies.  Menopause doesn’t last forever but I wish it would hurry up and get over with, at least the hot flash part of it.

I’ve never been the outdoors type.  I appreciate the beauty of nature, I really do, but heat, bugs, dirt and all that sort of spoil the mystique for me.  I love swimming- but since I scorch something wicked in the sun, sometimes even in spite of the Factor 50, and I detest unauthorized insect life, I’ve always preferred an indoor pool even when weather conditions allow outdoor swimming.  If I go to an indoor pool I don’t have to worry about third degree burns on my face and shoulders nor do I have to worry about swarming insects that manage to end up in the pool water with me.  When I was a little kid I had a pathological fear of flying insects (probably because my sisters liked to throw live stinging insects in my hair for shits and giggles) that I have not fully recovered from.  I hate bees and wasps and any other potentially dangerous flying insects.  I don’t like anyone or anything touching my hair at all.  It takes a lot of restraint to let someone cut my hair.  I hate the thought of anything sticking in my hair especially if it is a live insect, a booger, or anything other than hair.  I had way too much gross stuff land in my hair when I was a child apparently. It didn’t help that I had thick, straight, long hair that went past my butt for several years, then I had spiral-permed big hair after that.  I like having my hair nice and short like it is now as there is less surface area for unauthorized gross things to land in.

My idea of camping is  have at least an RV with an air conditioner, flush toilet, shower and kitchen.  I had enough of primitive camping in Girl Scouts when you had to sleep in tents and use latrines that were infested with spiders and Lord only knows what other foul critters.   I had nightmares about getting bitten on the butt by a snake or something trying to use one of those nasty latrines.  That would be my luck, although I was smarter than the girl that ended up in the hospital because she wiped with poison ivy.  Rumor had it she had to have a catheter in for a week just so she could pee.  The Girl Scouts teach you, “leaves of three, let them be,” for a reason.   I never liked the idea of substituting leaves for toilet paper to begin with.  If I must drop and squat outside I will consider myself fortunate if I keep from peeing all over my pants and I really won’t worry so much about drip-drying for a moment or two, or getting a drop or two in the pants.  Guys should be thankful they can do trucker bombs from the privacy of their own driver’s seat.   I hate to break it to the unenlightened, but that yellow stuff you see in that soda bottle along the freeway is most certainly NOT Mountain Dew.  Unless of course the Mountain Dew is used.

Poison ivy is yet another reason for me to avoid the great outdoors.  I have found that if you know you’ve gotten into it and you wash immediately with dish soap (dish soap is primarily a degreaser) that it will take the oil that causes the allergic reaction off your skin and you won’t break out.  I don’t like taking chances with it though, because when I get it, I get it wicked bad and usually end up having to get a shot to get rid of it which of course, sucks.

I always wondered why little old men have hair growing out of their ears.   Apparently God must get a laugh to curse some old bald guy with plumes of waxy hair protruding from his ear holes.  It seems kind of normal that Dad has ear hair (he’s 64, and no he doesn’t care) but it’s creepy that Jerry does too.  Jerry really doesn’t like it when I tweeze it out with pliers, or with tweezers for that matter, but he is not sufficiently geezerly enough to justify sporting ear hair.  If he’s going to just let the ear hair grow he might as well go wandering about wearing those hideous old-man plaid Bermuda shorts (talk about clothes by Purina) that go up to his armpits, with black socks and sandals.   Yikes.

I am constantly reminded that humans too, are mammals, which explains why I have superfluous and undesirable hair sprouting out in all kinds of places that are awkward to shave and/or tweeze.  The hair removal battle is a constant war for me.  As we age everything seems to get bigger, hairier and closer to the ground, which is sad but true.  I know if I did not tweeze my eyebrows every other day or so I would have one voluminous and frightening unibrow that would overtake my forehead within a week.  I shudder to think what would happen should I neglect to shave my armpits and legs at least every other or every day as I generally do.  Within a month I could give Sasquatch a run for his money.  Yuk.

I’ve always thought human body hair to be rather gross, especially on a woman, and in many cases (such as ear hair and unibrows) gross on men too.  Hair is OK on one’s head,  on carefully sculpted eyebrows and lashes, and that’s pretty much it if you’re a woman.   I don’t mind dudes who have tasteful facial hair but that does not include wild eyebrows, unibrows, nose hair that just sort of grows into the moustache hair, or out of control beards.  There is nothing sexy about ZZ Top to me.  Clean shaven is much better for most guys.  I also find back hair to be revolting.  If I wanted back hair I’d have a dog.  (and I do have dogs… but) Dogs are supposed to be covered in hair.

This weekend was more relaxing than I had originally thought it would be.  Usually when Jerry is in Lancaster it is a lot quieter because then my only imperatives are cleaning and sleeping.  As hot as it was of course I had to limit my time outside but I did get some laundry and cleaning done. 

I know it sounds critical, but I can get so much more done when Jerry isn’t home demanding this or that.  Drop everything and do this or go here or get that…ad nauseam.  I’m one of those people who hates to be interrupted in the middle of something, especially when I am on my own time.  I don’t think he realizes what a drain he is on my stamina nor does he realize how demoralizing it is for me to constantly have to do things for him that big boys do for themselves.  What’s worse is that he can physically do things for himself but instead he chooses to harangue and threaten me into doing them for him.  It would be different if he were mentally deficient or crippled and couldn’t function for himself.   I know he is one of those people who wants to make a group project out of everything,  but far too often his idea of a group project is to make a mess and then watch me clean it up. 

I know I shouldn’t enable his infantile behavior but there comes a point where it is easier to just do it and get it over with.  Which battles are worth fighting?

Theoretically I know that appeasement is simply feeding alligators- it may buy a moment of time but the alligator is always going to want more. 

Anyway, on a lighter note, I have to say I am thankful for a lot of things today.  I am thankful that jellyfish can’t fly for instance.

I am also thankful that I am not the owner of this boat:

Intelligence is a constant, the population is growing.  At least I remembered to get my butt to Sally’s for more fiberglass wraps, and to get some more TP and paper towels before we ran out.  It is a sorry thing to be out of paper towels especially considering the dogs had Montezuma’s Revenge over the weekend and I ended up giving the rug cleaner a workout twice.  If only they would have the shits on the linoleum it would be so much easier to clean.  I think they do it on the carpet because they can’t get their footing to squat as well on the linoleum, but that’s just my theory.  It’s sad the things my mind will actually bother to ruminate on these days.

There is a huge difference between opposing someone based solely on race or national origin, and opposing someone’s flawed ideology.  I really, really don’t care about a person’s race or ethnicity, or sexual preference or any of that crud, as long as people don’t use race or ethnicity or sexual preference to gain some sort of preferential status for themselves.  I may disagree with certain lifestyles and don’t think certain choices should be encouraged, but if that is the person’s preference so be it.   Just don’t try to shove such deviations down my throat as being “normal,” or worse, “protected.” 

I care about people’s character and integrity.  This being said, I believe there is nothing wrong with people working together to help each other and the greater society.  In the Book of Acts, Christian believers formed a collective community that appeared to work rather well.  Some people use this early Christian community as an argument for “Christian socialism,” but they miss an important point.  The community spoken of in the Book of Acts was a voluntary collective community.  No one was going around requiring the working poor who can barely  provide from themselves to starve and do without basic necessities so that those unwilling to work would have luxuries provided for.  No one was throwing people in jail if they chose not to contribute. There was nothing mandatory or punitive about the collective system of the Acts believers.

^“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”  Acts 2:42-47 (NIV) (italics and bold mine)

Yes, the believers sold their possessions and shared their goods, but their charity toward others was in response to what God was doing in and through them.  God is good, God provides, therefore let’s share and celebrate and likewise care for each other. No one was levying higher and higher taxes from them, taking from those who do not have enough for their own needs,  or taking their possessions and goods by force.  People chose to give and contribute to the common good- as they were praying and praising and loving God.  This is the part that the forced collectivisms of history deny and leave out, which is why forced collective systems always fail.  They leave God out of the equation.  The only way that collectivism works is when the sharing of resources is  done in response to the goodness and love  of God.

This being said, the Constitution does not provide for the reverse Robin Hood system that is currently operating in this country today.   The role of the Federal government was supposed to be limited to a very few things.  The broad aims for the role of the Federal government are stated in the Preamble to the Constitution: 

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence,  promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

“Welfare” used in this context does not refer to a monthly government check, by the way.  It means “common good” or “greater well-being.”  Just thought I should clarify that. 

Article 1, Section 8, of the US Constitution pretty much sets forth the specific limited role of the Federal government:

“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”

Pretty much everything else was supposed to be left to the states.

Anyone with any sense of justice should be outraged that a working person can’t afford utilities or food or medical care because they are taxed to death and billed outrageously for insurances with outrageously high deductibles -while those tax dollars being extorted from them are used to pay for illegal aliens, welfare bums and other scum who are unwilling to work but who get all of the above for free.  

Sometimes I’m surprised in a good way- I see that some people are finally reading the Constitution for the first time and realizing that the Federal government is not supposed to be a reverse Robin Hood- stealing from the working poor to give to their own fat pockets and to the entitlement crowd that sucks off that teat.

Ok, I am usually not into such puerile mockery, but I couldn’t resist the creative use of the “Paint” program on this one.  Does he ever shut up?  Wah-wah, Obama’s pet- Arlen Specter- didn’t make it past the primary.  Good. If only other people could see what I see… but (insert flicker of optimism here) perhaps they are.  I have always believed Obama is n0t just wrong, but evil.   His aim is to destroy this country from within and to fulfill Nikita Khrushchev’s  ominous prophecy on the future of America.  For those who don’t remember 20th century history, it was Khrushchev who said of the (now defunct may I add,) USSR to the US:  “We will bury you.”  Khrushchev and his once supremely powerful USSR are the ones who are dead and buried, and Obama has no business digging up those skeletons and continuing the failed socialist/communist strategies to destroy this country from within.  Once upon a time, going along with the commies and their ideology was called “treason.”  Obama’s bad habit of sucking up to leaders of terrorist harboring countries, and that boot-licking apologizing for America BS smack of treason as well.

Obama is not stupid, though he should have learned that forced collectivism has failed every time it has been tried.  His flawed ideology and his willingness to use any means at his disposal, be they honest or ethical or not, are what make him both dangerous and evil.   He has too shady and nebulous a past to be legitimate,  and he is doing so many downright spiteful and evil things now to have the best interests of this country at heart.  Maybe the recent primary surprises are sending a message- that the American people are sick and tired of Obama’s type of  “change.” 

Americans have never liked the idea of having a king- especially an arrogant one who imposes his “almighty” will on the people whether they like it or not.

Personally I would like to see Ted Nugent run for President.  Here’s a guy who would send a message to both the terrorist harboring countries and the handout crowds.   Rock on, Uncle Ted.

If being worth a shit were easy, everyone would be doing it, and if you observe the world around you, you will see that very few people are worth a shit.

Usually when passers-by give me feedback on the political commentary I display on my car, it is overwhelmingly positive.  In Delaware County especially I get a lot of friendly waves and thumbs-ups for my conservative viewpoint.  For anyone who hasn’t figured it out yet, politically I am slightly to the right of Reagan, and for good reason.  Today however, I got cussed out and flipped off, for the first time that any such dissenter has gotten my attention long enough for me to actually see the one-fingered salute.  Who knows, she may have put the African voodoo curse on me or something too the way she was screaming and cussing.  I couldn’t hear her over the stereo which is probably just as well.  I’ve been called everything other than a fine upstanding white woman before and one more time isn’t going to make much difference.  She was probably about my Mom’s age and should have shown her disagreement with me in a more civilized way, but when you fail to have a valid argument why not resort to name-calling and bird flipping?  I’m actually surprised, as often as I drive down Morse Rd.  and in other conservative-unfriendly areas that it doesn’t happen more often.  It makes me so sad that so many people have been deceived and taken in by Obama and his false hope and mindless blather.  Then again, regarding my political commentary, one would have to be able to read and comprehend the English language in order to protest it in the first place.  Maybe the prevalence of illiteracy, apathy and the proliferation of the  entitlement mentality explains it, which is a far deeper ailment than the Naked Emperor and his manipulating minions.  It’s a depressing thought.

I look at it this way.  The First Amendment applies to everyone, even those who dissent, and even those like me who would dare to peacefully protest the current evil regime.   So I will continue to exercise my First Amendment right to peacefully protest what I believe to be evil incarnate, whilst others may exercise their same First Amendment right to show their ignorance and/or stupidity.  I am somewhat proud of myself that I had the fortitude to refrain from returning the old bat’s one finger salute. 

If all goes well Bob is supposed to come home today which is really a surprise to me.  In the space of two or three days he has made remarkable improvement, which we all hope is a welcome reprieve for him.