Fucking Libtards.....

I don't get it.
If suspected terrorist jerk-offs in Gitmo decide to go on a hunger strike and starve to death, our military is viewed as heartless suicide-enablers.

On the other hand, if we intervene and have military doctors force-feed these hunger strike dipshits.... the US medical community sees them as violating medical ethics by treating patient who refused treatment?

I DON'T GET IT.

Jesus H. Christ. Damned if we do; damned if we don't.

On my mind

Georgia, Georgia,
The whole day through
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind

I'm say Georgia
Georgia
A song of you
Comes as sweet and clear
As moonlight through the pines

Other arms reach out to me
Other eyes smile tenderly
Still in peaceful dreams I see
The road leads back to you
-Ray Charles

Well, Georgia's not the only thing on my mind these days. Hell, I have so much on my mind it's no wonder I'm ready to pass out by 10pm every night. This is gonna take a while. I have a lot on my mind, and it's just gotta come out.

Thomas is going to overnight Boy Scout camp for the first time this week. He's never been to camp before without his Dad or me being there. I'm not worried about him- it's just that this is one more step towards being grown up and it makes me a little sad. I can't believe he'll be 10 in a few weeks. I'm sure I'll cry. Tears of pride, knowing my oldest son is on his way to being a man.

Kevin started football a couple weeks ago, and so far, he loves it. He's suited for football- he was a 10 pound baby with ginormous head and shoulders. He was born built like a football player; it's just taken him seven years to actually get the itch. He looks so tiny out there, but then I realize that I'm looking at him as my baby, and not the boy he's growing up to be. All pumped up and looking tough in those pads, he'll grin from ear to ear...and I'll cry. Tears of pride, again, knowing my youngest son is also on his way to being a man.

My Mom has this disease called Scleroderma. It means "hard skin", literally turning its victims into stone over time. When she was diagnosed about 9 years ago, the average life expectancy for patients was 10 years. That thought looms in my mind. My Mom is incredible. I don't talk about her much on the blog, but she's simply amazing to me. I know we all die, and we all lose our mom's at some point, but damn... that's just something I don't want to deal with.

That brings me to the next thing on my mind. Losing your mom.
Just over 17 years ago, a baby boy was born to an older couple. She thought she was going through menopause; she was pregnant. He was thinking about retirement- not fatherhood. But the baby was born, and they called him David. David's parents have always been a lot older than his classmate's parents- old enough to be his grandparents. The parents were concerned for their child- after all, they would be in their 60's and 70's by the time he graduated from high school. So, they named a younger couple as his guardians should anything happen to them. The younger couple was my ex-husband and I; the baby boy... my ex-husband's cousin.

I never had a good relationship with my ex's parents, but I absolutely loved David's Mom, Sandy. She was a huge source of understanding for me. She took the time to know me, instead of the person my in-laws hated. I always felt comfortable in their house, even when my in-laws were present.

When David was about 6, Sandy's appendix burst. She nearly died. It was a HUGE wake up call for all of us- since she was 15 years younger than David's dad, we always thought that she'd be around for his adulthood even though his dad may not be there. But she pulled through, and we all moved on, thinking that the worst was over. We were wrong.

A few years later, she felt a lump under her armpit. The lump turned out to be Stage 4 breast cancer. By now, I was a mother myself, which really put her situation in perspective for me. I just can't imagine not being around to see my children grow up and become parents themselves. She underwent a full year of chemo. She lost her hair. She puffed up due to the steroids. She lacked the energy needed to keep up with a 10 year old son, but somehow, she did it. The cancer went into remission, but she was not cured.

The cancer came back.
It came back with a vengeance, ravaging her body. They found breast cancer cells in her lymph nodes and several organs. We knew this was not a recoverable illness. Doctors gave her a few months to live many times over the past 5 years. They finally got it right though- Sandy died Saturday morning.

When I made the decision to get divorced, Sandy was very sick, and had again been given a few months to live. I didn't want her dying knowing that David wouldn't have the backup Mom she'd chosen- me. But we told her anyway, and somehow, she lived well past those few months. That was nearly two years ago. I remember her telling me once that should anything happen to her, I would become David's mother, "so take care of yourself, ok?". We both knew that something WOULD happen to her... so those words sting so much now. I absolutely hate knowing I let her down.

Her service is Wednesday morning. I'm hoping to go, even though I'm not very well thought of by my ex's family (for good reason, I might add). But I loved Sandy, and I miss her.
I miss her a lot. Not as much as her son and husband.... but I will always miss Sandy. I'm so sorry I let her down.

*SO* much cooler online....

I'm thinkin' Brad Paisley is a closet-blogger..... cuz I don't know about y'all, but I'm so much cooler online too.
HEHE



I work down at the Pizza Pit
And I drive an old Hyundai
I still live with my mom and dad
I'm 5 foot 3 and overweight
I'm a scifi fanatic
A mild asthmatic
And I've never been to second base
But there's whole ‘nother me
That you need to see
Go checkout MySpace

'Cause online I'm out in Hollywood
I'm 6 foot 5 and I look damn good
I drive a Maserati
I'm a black-belt in karate
And I love a good glass of wine
It turns girls on that I’m mysterious
I tell them I don't want nothing serious
'Cause even on a slow day
I could have a three way
Chat with two women at one time
I’m so much cooler online
So much cooler online

Math 911

h/t to Tater for this one... LMFAO!

Kevin and the Tooth Fairy

My son Kevin has seen the tooth fairy. Not just once... but a few times now. He told me about it tonight.

"Mommy... you renember (yes, he says "renember" instead of "reMember") when I lost my second tooth when I was five?"

"I do, honey", I replied.

"Well... I saw the tooth fairy that night!"

Now the first time he told me he saw the tooth fairy, I was worried I'd been caught and ruined his first childhood fantasy. Tonight was not the first time he'd told me about seeing the tooth fairy, so I wasn't surprised when he told me.

"Yes, I remember, Kevin", I told him.

He then proceeded to tell me all about the first time he saw the tooth fairy- only the story, like every great fish story, has evolved into an epic work of storytelling. It went something like this:

Well, you see it was the Carson Palmer tooth fairy, and he was playing football with his tooth fairy friends. I know, cuz I was watching with my eyes just barely open, like this *squint*. He got hit in the helmet with a ball and it knocked his helmet off because he forgot to put the chin strap on- but it didn't hurt, cuz he's a Bengal, you know. Then he picked up his helmet, put it back on WITH the chin strap and told his friends, "Well, time to get back to business", and left them to play the game without him. Then he flew right over me *woosh sound*, and carefully traded my tooth for a WHOLE DOLLAR.

After he had finished, I said "WOW! I don't remember the Carson Palmer tooth fairy. HUH! Wasn't the last one a guy wearing a purple suit?"

He said, "Yeah- and the funniest thing happened when he was here! It was his birthday, and he brought his "Hamster Dance" birthday card with him- the SAME CARD YOU GOT ME FOR MY BIRTHDAY! It was SOOOO funny, Mommy!"

oi.
You know, some people have no imagination at all. Others have some, and then there's that small group who end up as world-famous writers with imaginations that, well, I can't even begin to imagine. Heh. Rascal. Bengal quarterback and hamster-dancing purple-suit-wearing tooth fairies. Who knew!?!?!


Kevin with his best friend at his birthday party last week. I can't believe he's 7 now!

al Qaeda and Kids

I don't usually link Michael Yon, because, well... he's THE YON. Hell, EVERYBODY reads THE YON.
But sometimes , I just can't help myself and I post links to stories you've already read, just because they need to be repeated as often as possible. His two latest dispatches are perfect examples. The first you've probably already read, but if you haven't, here's a link: Bless the Beasts and Children

And here is an exerpt from his latest, Baqubah Update: 05 July 2007

Since my reporting of the massacre at the al Hamari village, many readers at home have asked how anyone can know that al Qaeda actually performed the massacre. The question is a very good one, and one that I posed from the first hour to Iraqis and Americans while trying to ascertain facts about the killings.

No one can claim with certainty that it was al Qaeda, but the Iraqis here seem convinced of it. At a meeting today in Baqubah one Iraqi official I spoke with framed the al Qaeda infiltration and influence in the province. Although he spoke freely before a group of Iraqi and American commanders, including Staff Major General Abdul Kareem al Robai who commands Iraqi forces in Diyala, and LTC Fred Johnson, the deputy commander of 3-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, the Iraqi official asked that I withhold his identity from publication. His opinion, shared by others present, is that al Qaeda came to Baqubah and united many of the otherwise independent criminal gangs.

Speaking through an American interpreter, Lieutenant David Wallach who is a native Arabic speaker, the Iraqi official related how al Qaeda united these gangs who then became absorbed into “al Qaeda.” They recruited boys born during the years 1991, 92 and 93 who were each given weapons, including pistols, a bicycle and a phone (with phone cards paid) and a salary of $100 per month, all courtesy of al Qaeda. These boys were used for kidnapping, torturing and murdering people.

At first, he said, they would only target Shia, but over time the new al Qaeda directed attacks against Sunni, and then anyone who thought differently. The official reported that on a couple of occasions in Baqubah, al Qaeda invited to lunch families they wanted to convert to their way of thinking. In each instance, the family had a boy, he said, who was about 11-years-old. As LT David Wallach interpreted the man’s words, I saw Wallach go blank and silent. He stopped interpreting for a moment. I asked Wallach, “What did he say?” Wallach said that at these luncheons, the families were sat down to eat. And then their boy was brought in with his mouth stuffed. The boy had been baked. Al Qaeda served the boy to his family.

The Deputy Governor for Diyala Province had told me on 04 July that al Qaeda burned the home of a Provincial Council leader named Abdul Jabar. Jabar, an Iraqi official who has no reservations about being named as a source, provided information about the killings I described in the dispatch “Bless the Beasts and Children.” Abdul Jabar lived in the area of the al Hamira village, which he said is properly spelled al Ahamir. Jabar agreed to a video interview, during which he said al Qaeda killed and disposed of hundreds of people in the area. He also said during the video interview that he did not believe the remains of the murder victims I saw were people from the village. Abdul Jabar believes the villagers were run out, and that the people being dug up were kidnapped from elsewhere.

al Qaeda members are animals. No, they're worse than animals. They are the devil incarnate. Lord help us defeat this devil....