Mean Mothers

Mean Moms & Grandmas
Someday when my children are old enough

to understand

the logic that motivates a parent,

I will tell them, as my Mean ole Mom told me:

I loved you enough . . .

to ask where you were going,

with whom,
and what time you would be home.

I loved you enough

to be silent

and let you discover that your

new best friend was a creep.

I loved you enough

to stand over you for two hours

while you cleaned your room,

a job that should have taken 15 minutes.

I loved you enough

to let you see anger,
disappointment, and tears in my eyes.

Children must learn that their parents

aren't perfect.

I loved you enough

to let you assume the responsibility

for your actions even when the
penalties were so harsh

they almost broke my heart.

But most of all,

I loved you enough . . . to say
NO when I knew you would hate me for it.

Those were the most difficult battles of all.

I'm glad I won them,

because in the end

you won, too.

And someday when your children

are old enough to understand

the logic that motivates parents,

you will tell them.

Was your Mom mean?

I know mine was.

We had the meanest mother in the whole world!

While other kids ate candy for breakfast, we

had to have cereal, eggs, and toast.

When others had a Pepsi and a Twinkie for lunch,

we had to eat sandwiches.

And you can guess our mother

fixed us a dinner that was
different from what other kids had, too.

Mother insisted on knowing

where we were at all times.

You'd think we were convicts in a prison.

She had to know who our friends were,

and what we were doing with them.

She insisted that if we said

we would be gone for an hour,

we would be gone for an hour or less.

We were ashamed to admit it,

but she had the nerve
to break the Child Labor Laws

by making us work.

We had to wash the dishes, make the beds,

learn to cook, vacuum the floor, do laundry,

empty the trash
and all sorts of cruel jobs.

I think she would lie awake at night

thinking of more things for us to do.

She always insisted on us telling the truth,

the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

By the time we were teenagers,

she could read our minds

and had eyes in the back of her head.

Then, life was really tough!

Mother wouldn't let our friends

just honk the horn when they drove up.

They had to come up to the door
so she could meet them.

While everyon else could
date when they were 12 or 13,

we had to wait until we were 16 .

Because of our mother

we missed out

on lots of things other kids experienced.

None of us have ever
been caught shoplifting,

vandalizing other's property

or ever arrested for any crime.

It was all her fault.

Now that we have left home,

we are all educated,
honest adults.

We are doing our best to be mean
parents just like Mom was.

I think that is what's wrong with the world today.
It just doesn't have enough mean moms!

emailed to me by my daughter

well actually it was probably meant for my wife

A John Glenn Quote

John Glenn

There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq in January.
In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the month of January.

That's just one American city,
about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq.

When some claim that President Bush shouldn't
have started this war, state the following:

a. FDR led us into World War II.

b. Germany never attacked us; Japan did.
From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost
an average of 112,500 per year.

c. Truman finished that war and started one in Korea

North Korea never attacked us.
From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost.
an average of 18,334 per year.

d. John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962.

Vietnam never attacked us.

e. Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire.

From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost ..
an average of 5,800 per year.

f. Clinton went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent.

Bosnia never attacked us.
He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three
times by Sudan and did nothing.
Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions.

g. In the years since terrorists attacked us , President Bush has liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Libya , Iran, and, North Korea
without firing a shot, and captured a terrorist who
slaughtered 300,000 of his own people.
The Democrats are complaining
about how long the war is taking.

But Wait

It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno
to take the Branch Davidian compound.

That was a 51-day operation..

We've been looking for evidence for chemical weapons
in Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton to find
the Rose Law Firm billing records.

It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the
Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard
than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police after his
Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick.
It took less time to take Iraq than it took
to count the votes in Florida!!!

Our Commander-In-Chief is doing a GREAT JOB !
The Military morale is high!

The biased media hopes we are too ignorant
to realize the facts

But wait!

There's more!

JOHN GLENN (on the Senate floor - January 26, 2004)
Some people still don't understand why military personnel
do what they do for a living. This exchange between
Senators John Glenn and Senator Howard Metzenbaum
is worth reading. Not only is it a pretty impressive
impromptu speech, but it's also a good example of one
man's explanation of why men and women in the armed
services do what they do for a living.

This IS a typical, though sad, example of what
some who have never served think of the military.

Senator Metzenbaum (speaking to Senator Glenn):
'How can you run for Senate when you've never held a real job?'
Senator Glenn (D-Ohio):
'I served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps.
I served through two wars. I flew 149 missions.
My plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire on 12 different
occasions. I was in the space program. It wasn't my
checkbook, Howard; it was my life on the line. It was
not a nine-to-five job, where I took time off to take the
daily cash receipts to the bank.'

'I ask you to go with me . . as I went the other day...
to a veteran's hospital and look those men ..
with their mangled bodies .. in the eye, and tell THEM
they didn't hold a job!
You go with me to t he Space Program at NASA
and go, as I have gone, to the widows and Orphans
of Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee...
and you look those kids in the eye and tell them
that their DADS didn't hold a job.

You go with me on Memorial Day and you stand in
Arlington National Cemetery, where I have more friends
buried than I'd like to remember, and you watch
those waving flags.

You stand there, and you think about this nation,
and you tell ME that those people didn't have a job?

What about you?'
For those who don't remember
During W.W.II, Howard Metzenbaum was an attorney ho was representing the Communist Party in the USA.

Now he's a Senator!

If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you are reading it in English thank a Veteran.

sent to me by a great friend and guardsman Highpower

Tragic Internet Deception

A very, sad story today has touched my emotions and peaked my anger. Please, guide your children but, don't live for them.

Web Hoax Victim's Family Seeks Reforms
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 at 7:21am ST. CHARLES, Mo.

An Internet hoax that ended with the suicide of a 13-year-old has led to calls from her family for better protections against online harassment, though any solution may run afoul of the First Amendment.

Megan Meier, 13, hanged herself Oct. 16, 2006, just minutes after receiving mean messages on the social networking Web site MySpace. She died the next day.

Megan's parents learned about six weeks after her death that their daughter, who thought she was communicating online with a 16-year-old boy, was being deceived. The boy was created by a mother down the street who wanted to know what Megan was saying about her own daughter, who had had a falling out with Megan.

Lt. Craig McGuire of the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department said authorities could not find a crime to charge anyone with in Megan's case.

"How do you legislate bad behavior?" he asked.

Megan's family wants reforms that would make it illegal for adults to misrepresent themselves to children online and make it illegal to harass or bully online.

Aldermen in Dardenne Prairie, the Meiers' hometown of about 7,000 residents about 35 miles from St. Louis, have proposed a new ordinance related to child endangerment and Internet harassment. And Republican Rep. Cynthia Davis, a state lawmaker who represents the area, said she is trying to see if existing Missouri laws can be improved.

But, she noted, any legal reforms must protect freedom of speech rights. And federal reform might be more appropriate since someone from outside the state could interact with Missouri children online, she said.

Even so, it's hard to know what would work as a response to Megan's situation, Davis said. "This girl was not threatened on the Internet. Somebody said some things that were extremely horrid," she said.

What happened to Megan isn't just awful, it ought to be criminal, her mother, Tina Meier, said Monday.

"You cannot, absolutely cannot, as an adult, pose as a 16-year-old boy on a computer and play games with someone," Meier, 37, told The Associated Press.

"If there's not a law out there to punish someone for that, that's despicable," she said.

Tina Meier, who acknowledges she let her daughter open a MySpace account before she was 14 as the Web site requires, said she monitored her daughter's activities, logging on for her daughter and using software that was designed to capture Megan's communications online.

MySpace did not comment specifically on Meier's case, but an employee said the site does have information about keeping teens safe online, with guidelines for what people can do if they feel they are being bullied.

Meier said more needs to be done to protect children.

"We want the law to change so this doesn't happen again," she said.

My question is this - what is an adult doing on MySpace playing games like this. Perhaps her mental and/or emotional development is equivalent to these early-teen children she is playing mental games with. I guess some adults never grow up. Some parents don't know the difference between supervising their children's activity during their growing years and meddling or living their lives for them, or even sometimes through them. This woman now has to live with the consequences of her actions and with her arrested mental development I hope she can handle it.

In the end, my prayers go out to the Meier family.

^

Master of Malapropism

In my youth I greatly, enjoyed old reruns of 'The Bowery Boys' and especially loved the linguistic twists so often employed by it's lead character, Slip Mahoney. Well, I didn't realize there was even a word for it. A malapropism is the incorrect use of a word by substituting a similar-sounding word with different meaning, usually with comic effect. This is exactly what ol' Slip Mahoney always did and what attracted me to the hilarious series in the first place. Slip, played by Leo Gorcey, was a master of malapropism which henceforth became my favorite style of comedy. If done with talent and timing nothing beats this method of comedic effect.

From the mid thirties to the mid fifties Leo Gorcey was a very, busy actor. He became famous as the leader of the fictional gangs known as The Dead End Kids (1937-39), The East Side Kids (1940-45), and best of all The Bowery Boys (1946-56).

On Freedom

FREEDOM

Most of us have been thinking of freedom lately, with it being the first week of July. I know I have. So I found an amusing photo in that vein. Let this be a reminder to us all. Freedoms and liberties can be taken away from us if we are not diligent. Even unlikely sources or from where we may perceive no threat.

"We will never be through with our fight for Liberty, because their will always be people who do not want the responsibility of freedom, and the will always be people who will gladly take that responsibility away from them, for the power it brings." N. Scott Mills

"America was established not to create wealth but to realize a vision, to realize an ideal-to discover and maintain liberty among men." Woodrow Wilson

"I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me Liberty or give me death." Patrick Henry

"We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first Revolution. Let the word Go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.... Let every Nation know, whether it wishes as well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to ensure the survival and success of Liberty." John Fitzgerald Kennedy

"The true danger is when Liberty is nibbled away, for expedients and by parts.... The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men do nothing." Edmund Burke

Memorial Day Observation

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 and was first observed on 30 May 1868. It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May. In 1915 a woman named Moina Michael conceived of an idea to wear red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. She was the first to wear one, and sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need. This tradition soon spread to other countries. in 1922 the VFW became the first veterans' organization to nationally sell poppies. Two years later their "Buddy" Poppy program was selling artificial poppies made by disabled veterans. Sadly, many Americans todays have forgotten the true meaning of Memorial Day.

Here is what everyone shoud be doing -

• visiting cemeteries and placing flags or flowers on the graves of our fallen heroes.

• visiting memorials.

• flying the U.S. Flag at half-staff until noon.

• flying the 'POW/MIA Flag' as well

• by participating in a "National Moment of Remembrance": at 3 p.m. to pause and think upon the true meaning of the day, and for Taps to be played.

• by renewing a pledge to aid the widows, widowers, and orphans of our falled dead, and to aid the disabled veterans.

Here is Cpl. Levi T. Angell. A hometown hero that gave his all for our freedoms. Pray for him and his family.

Lance Cpl. Levi T Angell, 20, of Saint Louis, Minn., died April 8 due to injuries received from hostile fire in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He was assigned to Combat Service Support Group 11, 1^st Force Service Support Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Federal Government Slacking

Everyone hears me spout about less government and less regulations. I preach this all the time. What about the laws that are already on the books, though? I say if the law is in place - enforce it. Now if you don't like the law, change it or eliminate it, but if the law is on the books then we must go by them. Otherwise, why have a legal system at all? Everyone should, also, know my stand on illegal immigrants, by now.

Now here is an article describing a town's problems concerning it's passing of an ordinance regarding the prohibition of renting to illegals. Good for them, but civil liberties advocates want to ban the ban. Again, illegals are illegal (I know that's a tough concept). If a town wants to prevent them from moving into their community they are only doing what the federal government is failing to do, ie enforcing the laws that are on the books. If the federal government were doing it's job this would not even be a local issue.

Groups: Block Texas Town's Immigrant Ban
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 at 11:23am DALLAS

Latino activists and civil liberties advocates asked a federal judge Tuesday to block a voter-approved ordinance that prohibits landlords from renting apartments to most illegal immigrants in the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union, which have already sued the city, requested the temporary restraining order in U.S. District Court.

The ordinance, scheduled to take effect next Tuesday, requires apartment managers to verify that renters are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants before leasing to them, with some exceptions. Violators face fines of up to $500.

"It is unfortunate that the residents of Farmers Branch have chosen to implement a law which is not only bad policy, but is likely also unconstitutional," said Lisa Graybill, legal director for the ACLU of Texas. "Now the issue will have to be resolved in federal court."

City council members first approved the ban in November without discussion, then revised it in January to include exemptions for minors, seniors and some mixed-status families. On Saturday, residents voted to approve the ban with 68 percent of voters in favor, according to unofficial results.

Councilman Tim O'Hare, the ordinance's lead proponent, contends the city's economy and quality of life will improve if illegal immigrants are kept out. O'Hare declined to comment Tuesday.

Since 1970, Farmers Branch has changed from a small, predominantly white bedroom community with a declining population to a city of almost 28,000 people, about 37 percent of them Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Farmers Branch already faces four lawsuits brought by civil rights groups, residents, property owners and businesses, who say the ordinance discriminates and puts landlords in the precarious position of acting as federal immigration officers. Their attorneys argue the ordinance attempts to regulate immigration, a duty that is exclusively the federal government's.

Nationwide, more than 90 local governments have proposed, passed or rejected laws prohibiting landlords from leasing to illegal immigrants, penalizing businesses that employ them or training police to enforce immigration laws.

Someone tell me how this ordinance is unconstitutional. I have no problem with protecting the rights of our citizens regardless of their race, religious affiliation, sex, age, and so on. I do not feel illegals are afforded the same rights. If you what the rights that American's hold so dear then become an American. Until then - shut up.

Harry Reid You Got To Go

Harry Reid has got to go. We don't need any anti-Americans in office. The great blogger Sunni Kay says it all, way better than I could, on her site. Please check it out -

Rantings, Ramblings, and Other Miscellaneous Stuff: Harry Reid

Illegals - Don't Rally!

A collaboration of writers have penned a story for AP yesterday entitled, "Immigration Rallies Planned Nationwide". When I first started reading the article I was ok with it. I feel all citizens have the right to protest. Then I was reminded of last years demonstrations when reading, " . . . some illegal immigrants wore T-shirts saying "I'm illegal. So what?" This is what really bothers me. In my opinion these illegals have no right to protest. If legal immigrants want to demonstrate, or otherwise use the system, to fight on behalf of others, I am ok with this. Citizens have this right, illegals do not.
To be fair, the article states that, "many immigrants are now afraid to speak out in public." This is reportedly because of the raids on illegals in recent months. This is fine with me. Stay home illegals. Not that you're at a legal home! If you like America so well, let the American system work for you, don't debase her more than you have.