Octuplets Lady: WTF? The first thing that needs to be said about this story is that we should NOT be even talking about it (guilty, I know). We're giving her the publicity she wants. This is child abuse. When you're living with your parents and are unemployed, having children should not be on the list of to-dos... add to that equation that you already have six kids, the last thing you need to do is purposely implant more kids into your overactive uterus. Now, from the pictures of the house they all live in, this was a CPS case just waiting to happen BEFORE the other 8 came home... what are they supposed to do? This woman is no "Jon and Kate Plus Eight". Remember the McCaughy Septuplets? Remember how many dozens of bottles and diapers they went through per DAY, let alone how much they're going to need for the month/year/whole life. It's just sad to me. This is no way to go about getting your 15 minutes of fame.
Stimulus Package: All of the economy stuff really effects me because until things improve back home, we have to stay here where we have a good job. Stu and I are trying to rebuild our credit (so we can buy a house when we get home) because, with the way FICO scores work, if you pay off all your debt, your score actually goes down... seriously. Because now that there is no revolving debt, it doesn't show we can "make payments". We've got plenty of money in savings now, but none of that matters since America is in a credit freeze and no one is lending at all. So we just have to wait for time to do its magic. And in the meantime that means my husband is (quite literally) losing his mind being stuck here.
Whatever they decide to do, I just wish they would do it already. I am not a huge believer in this whole pumping zillions of dollars into the banks and "economy" (<--- which actually means NOT YOU... it's pumping money into places that are black holes for money). I have no amazing ideas about how to turn this around, but I worry plenty as I see people I know losing their jobs and being unable to find new ones. People have to be making money to spend it. Two thirds of our economy is dependent on consumer spending. This is a problem.
Chris Brown/ Rhianna Drama: This is one of my celebrity gossip news stories that segued into a real news story. This is pretty sad. Having been faced with domestic violence first-hand, it's unfortunately to see it happen to anyone else, much less an otherwise widely successful young couple. Not that celebrities deserve more than anyone else, but when bad things happen to regular people, it is a relatively private matter. To have your dirty laundry aired on the evening news must makes a painful situation that much harder.
The First Couple: Michelle is gracing the next cover of Vogue; Obama’s speech writer is being introduced by MSN.com as “the hunky 27-year-old” who’s been linked to a Maxim model. What? Since when does the presidency coincide with celebrity gossip? I mean sure, Jesse Ventura and The Governator went into politics, but shouldn’t it stop somewhere before Commander-in-chief-of-the-known-universe? Don’t get me wrong, after Dubya, I’m all for a make-over of the perception of the Office of the President, I just didn’t think it would go to this extreme. In one of the town hall meetings Obama held in Florida, a guy actually stood up and hooted into the microphone like he was a tween girl at an 'N SYNC concert. Where is the line?
Australia Wildfires: (I probably could have included this higher on my list) How tragic has THIS story been? I read an article about a blue-eyed ten-year-old boy that a firefighter found along with his brother and mother on the side of a highway, killed from smoke inhalation. Absolutely tragic. My thoughts go out to all of the people effected by this horrible event.
Iran: Ahhhmadinejad (I LOVE saying his name!) has decided that he is apparently ready for talking now that his personally loathed Bush administration has been ousted. I’m interested to see where this is going to go. (He actually made a public statement that Bush should be “tried and punished” for his policies in the Gulf region… now that’s some resentment!) Personally, I don’t see much room for playing nice with Iran anytime soon. We’ll see how it goes.
Anyway, I think I might stop watching the News again. Sesame Street doesn’t get me all worked up. I’ll end this on a happier note… Kaden just came up to me and I said, “I love you, Monkey.” And he said, “Luss Jew” and walked off. Ohhhhh! Sweet baby!
Here are some monkey pics:
Building with Daddy
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Using his TOTALLY AWESOME bath crayons from Great Aunt Mo!
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Aren't the bath crayons the bomb? HAHA! My kids LOVE them. They do make for a messy tub, though, when four kids use them daily!
ReplyDeleteWe have two adults and a toddler using them daily! Lol I drew Italy! :) And Stu leaves me picture memories for me to guess what they are! They're sooo much fun! Haha
ReplyDeleteCute pictures! I had no idea bath crayons existed!
ReplyDeleteHaha you know more news than I do. I catch pieces here and there, but I mostly try not to watch the news. I keep up with the truly important things, but even our local news is so depressing that I stopped watching it. Sounds like national news/celebrity news is the same way. It's like positive news hardly exists any more.
-Sarah
"Personally, I don’t see much room for playing nice with Iran anytime soon"
ReplyDeleteWhy, because they are trying to get nuclear ENERGY?
What about Israel that hasn't even signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has proven nuclear WEAPONS?
You know one other country that hasn't signed the non-proliferation treaty? North Korea.
Talk about double standards set by America and Americans towards similar countries: They hate Iran, hate North Korea but love Israel. Makes little sense to me
wow, totally agree with you on pretty much everything you said. That lady that had the octuplets makes me sick. I feel bad for ALL her children
ReplyDeleteI like how it's only the "double-standard" Americans who have the balls to post under their real names. I'll take my Americans over the rest of the fucked up world any day.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: We don't see much room for playing nice with Iran anytime soon because they're a breeding ground for terrorists. Isreal is a small democratic nation surrounded by terrorists and have not only the right to protect themselves but the responsibility to protect themselves with any means necessary. As for North Korea: We are still at war with North Korea. We are only in a cease-fire. There has never been a treaty signed between North and South Korea or the United States of America.
ReplyDeleteI don't see how you can call this a double standard. We want our friends to be able to protect themselves and our enemies to be as weak as possible. Makes complete and perfect sense.
North Korea and Iran are our sworn enemies. They have publicly and quite loudly stated this.
Would you allow your enemy to keep building its arsenal knowing they still want you dead and there is absolutely nothing you can do to change their mind?
In your own words: Makes little sense to me.
"I like how it's only the 'double-standard' Americans who have the balls to post under their real names."
ReplyDeleteJust want my comment to stand up for its own merit. I don't people judging my comment based on my name...
"Isreal is a small democratic nation..."
ReplyDeleteSo when Palestinians VOTE (remember, vote = democratic) for Hamas, isn't there a problem? Is that an example of democracy failing? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_legislative_election,_2006). Kinda goes against Bush and co.'s mantra of 'democracy = peace'.
Also compare this with what's happening in Iraq - I'd take dictatorship over failing democracy any day of the year.
(This is Jo using Aaron's acct...just so as we're all clear about the "who's who" posturing)
ReplyDeleteI have more than a few things to say, but I will leave the octuplets comments for my own blog, coming soon via myspace.
In regards to the comment debate that seems to be going on, I feel as though both sides deserve some defense, I guess.
Syd and Damon and I have had more than our fair share of heated discussions regarding these types of issues before, so nothing I say will likely surprise them, as they are quite used to my heart bleeding blue by now haha! But, the fact of the matter is is that the comments against "americans" is a lump comment against millions of people based on the poor decisions of the 10 most public entities over the past 8 years. To say that these decisions were right, fair, or unanimously supported as the decisions of us all is as wrong as it would be to say that all Arab peoples and nations are walking time-bomb terrorists that hate fast food, sex, and Americans.
Damon is right, people and countries choose to keep themselves and their friends strong and protected whilst keeping their enemies weak and defenseless. It's how humans work, and has been since tribes started deciding who got to hunt where. So what makes the difference between an friend and an enemy? Diplomacy. Israel never misses a meeting when it comes time to kiss up to the highest American at the time, and therefore they become the friend based on agreements and promises made in order to continue that "friendship" a bit longer. When a government says they disagree with a certain action that another government is taking, and wishes to discuss the issue with that other government, the second government bases their wants to be "friends" by stating they are or are not willing to talk about it.
In this light, mistakes have been made on both sides. The previous administration took their hand too hard and laid their stakes out without much room for compromise. The other sides have developed a hatred for a much larger number of people based on those and similar moves and have made open threats to attack Americans on our own soil without debate. As is, at the moment there aren't a lot of optimistic views when it comes to any discussions that Iran and the United States might have at the moment. But the case is what it is, and Syd's views on the matter hardly change that, and don't deserve to be berated as a double standard based on that opinion alone.
I do believe that your comment should be based on the merit of its content, rather than by your name. But the fact of the matter is that if you want your comment to be based on any real merit at all, you have to have the courage to stand behind your comment in name as well as content. However, as a "double-standard" American, I would like to put in here that I don't fully disagree with what your are saying. As those who have spoken to me about this before well know, I don't think that Israel should receive special treatment over Palestinians, as the basis and creation of their country was far too swift, violent, and unfair to those people who already lived there. In that same grain, I think that our attacks on Iraq were unwarranted, but that they were also brought on based on the lack of compliance by that government at that time. I also feel as though countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan should be watched more closely, as they openly fund some of the better-known terrorist groups and commit some the most atrocious acts against human rights, all while shaking the hand of the American nation.
The end result here is that mistakes have been made, and we have a new administration in action that is trying to rectify those mistakes. Not all of them will be forgiven, such as detainment and torture of the people arrested over the past 4 years, just as Iran still has to live up to a previous administration that once took civilian Americans as hostages for several years and killed all of the Israeli athletes 30 years ago. These are losses and travesties that cannot be revoked, but must be lived with and the action of moving beyond them and going forward must begin. However, as new and fresh and diplomatic as our new administration is - it will still depend on the words and actions of BOTH governments as to whether or not any progress will be made.
And...done. :P
Anonymous: Vote does not = democracy. Vote = vote and that's it. They voted in Cuban and Iran too. That doesn't make them democracies. That makes them a dictatorship with a sense of humor.
ReplyDeleteDemocracy: government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections. (Usually comes down to "the majority rules" and can cause a lawless society, this is why the US of A is a Representative Republic not a true democracy).
Usually is the operative word. Democracy isn't about voting it's about the exercise of the power of the people.
The majority of the people in Iraq are happy with their new found representative republic (democracy), or they wouldn't be showing up to vote and the Sunni and Sheite wouldn't have both decided to participate in the last election. As proven by the fact they're willingness to take their lives into their own hands to exercise that new found right.
You statement of taking a dictatorship over a democracy any day of the year: Feel free to go to Iran or China or North Korea or Palestine and voice your opinion over there. I imagine we'll never hear from you again.
As for not wanting to be judged by your name: Nut up or ovum up (depending on your sex). No one here cares if your name is Ahkmed or Bobbi Sue.
Jo: I agree with you on many things and you know we disagree on many things, that's why we're friends. I truly believe we are friends with Saudi and Jordan because "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Personally I wouldn't be in bed with either of those countries but I'm not in a position to make that call. As for the "arrest" thing I don't think you arrest troops and that is what they are. They're groups or cells think of themselves as armys in a war against the great satan. We don't arrest soldiers. We capture them and other than the highly politicized few cases I don't believe torture is as wide spread as the media would lead us to believe.
I have friends in those places and I know them as well as you know any of your friends and I know in my heart of hearts they would not participate in the things the media is telling you are going on. Do things happen? Of course they do. I'm not condoning that but I can't stand idly by while my friends and brothers-in-arms are soiled by the deeds of the few. I know that's not your intent Jo but it is the intent of some.