We Interrupt This Vacation for an Important Announcement

I'll get back to fun in the country later. Right now, I need to let everyone know the latest antics of the loser I'm trying to divorce. Since he didn't pay the home phone bill or the Internet bill nor did he forward said bills to me to pay, the fine folks at AT & T interrupted my service. I found this out on Tuesday when I couldn't log in to my sbcglobal account.

Rather than pay the $642 owed (because the last payment was made by me on March 29), I had to set up a new account. So I've lost all my emails, email addresses, and bookmarks. I'm trying to recreate the addresses and bookmarks so if you haven't heard from me, it's because I can't remember yours.

Yes, life is such a joy. I just wish he'd get the hell out of mine.

A Wednesday WTF?

I saw this, and felt that it was the kind of story that was deserving of WTF? treatment.

I mean, really. If we start testing the ideological purity of an accessory, are we any better than the jihadis? Don't get me wrong. I like Michelle Malkin just fine. She does a great job of sniffing out the left's BS, and exposing it for all to see. However when she starts saying things about a scarf like:
[it] resembled a kiffiyeh, Middle Eastern garb that is "popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos."

Then I start wondering if she's been sharing a sippy cup with Howard Dean and Obama's speechwriters. Really. I don't fear a scarf. Not even if it truly is some jihadi rag, or worn by an actual jihadi. I worry about the head that chooses to be a jihadi. Like members of the DNC and candidates for office with a (D) after their name, they share a distinct disconnect from and disdain for reality. Using a national soapbox to make remarks linking a piece of cloth that has a place and history in western society seems no less foolish. Maybe she should have saved the clout for a burqua.

A good reason Lenore is on vacation...

Apparently the tornado season is only just beginning, and since she lives where the toothless old guy in trailer park gets interviewed after every storm "The twister came right over top of the trailer, howlin' like a freight train..."

Seriously, maybe she'll consider staying on vacation a little longer. When I talked to her yesterday, she said that she found some interesting trinkets from her travels to share with y'all.

Memorial Day

Somewhere during the crush of travel, and cookouts, and grandma's potato salad, please give a thought to all the Americans who can't enjoy the holiday. You know which ones; all the ones who have taken up residence in the silence of Gardens of Stone because they fell in the cause of our freedom on other shores. And then tomorrow, give some thought to those who, by means of hyperbole and hysterical rhetoric, continue to roundly condemn the efforts being made today to preserve these freedoms from bloody grasp of an insane, but dedicated adversary.

Fun in the Country, Day 1

So we arrived late last night and quite frankly, I have no freakin' idea where the hell I am. I know I passed Nashville, Murfreesboro, and Shelbyville to get here and somewhere around here is the Jack Daniels Distillery. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night due to a dog barking and the goats...well...baaaing or whatever it is that goats do. I can say that this place my sister and her husband own is really cool.

Anyway, today we wandered around the property and I discovered the joys of picking off ticks while my children discovered the fun of shooting cans with BB guns. Of course, no adventure would be complete without an injury. My oldest son ran into a ladder that spans the overhang of the steps and hit the steps with his head. He was out cold for a few minutes and now has lovely cuts all across his forehead. I'm happy to report that he appears to be fine.

Tonight, I discovered my new favorite show: My Big Redneck Wedding. While I laughed my butt off, I was also amazed that people could actually do this stuff with a straight face. My favorite episode is when the groom decided to write his vows. Here is, word for word, what he wrote:

I wish I could put your love in a locket,
you're hotter than a Hot Pocket.

We did it in the backseat,
We did it at the zoo,
I don't care where we do it,
as long as it's with you.

Romeo had a writer's block and couldn't come up with anything else because, "I was going to use fancy words but I don't have a clitoris." (Not making that up). And of course, like all weddings, the bride and groom exchanged gifts. He gave her a bear he won from the claw machine at the bowling alley while she gave him a pink bowling ball with these words inscribed on it, "Think of me when you touch your ball."

So now everyone knows what I've been doing for two days. Oh and beer. Lots of beer.

Looking at the Achilles Heel

Yesterday, I posted a link to the first of "The Loser Letters", a modern take on The Screwtape Letters. Today, I thought I'd post a link to this month's letter, which neatly highlights the weakness in some of atheism's most pernicious slanders against Christianity. Again, I recommend reading the whole thing, but if you are lazy, or short on time or patience, I offer the following excerpts for your consideration:

It’s not like I’m saying He’s wrong, of course! But once again, if You’ll
just let me explain from the point of view of a former Dull, it sounds to
other people like what we Brights are really saying is, “If most of humanity has turned to religion out of fearfulness, then I must be an exceptionally brave and brilliant person to reject that way out.” Well, maybe Voltaire and Baron d’Holbach and Bertrand Russell were just such beasts, and maybe some of You are too (especially that Mr. Dawkins — grrrrr!). But speaking as someone who is not, it seemed to me better to give some sort of other explanation for theotropism —
I mean, something other than the “I’m a universal genius MUHAHAHAHA and I see things that other mere ordinary mortals don’t” kind of explanation. You know, just to avoid this problem of being misconstrued as some unbelievable egomaniac head case or something.

and:

But don’t You see the problem here? The very character of the Judeo-Christian God that has given You such a romp with the adjectives actually turns out a pretty big problem for the Atheist side. The point Everybody’s missing is that this particular god is hard to live with — so hard that the atheist idea of his having been made up just for the supposed “consolation” of it all is just too LOL. Even at his best, he’s not the sort of supernatural easily cuddled up to. As Graham Greene’s fallen whiskey priest puts it in The Power and the Glory, making the point that even god’s “love” is pretty scary stuff, “It set fire to a bush in the desert, didn't it, and smashed open graves and set the dead walking in the dark. Oh, a man like me would run a mile to get away if he felt that love
around.” And a Female human like me, too. That’s how I felt even back then, the few times when I bothered to stop and think about it.

and:

So You see, this very scariness of this Judeo-Christian god is seriously bad for Us — or at least bad for the atheist claim that he was invented by people to make them feel better. Because if the human purpose that keeps calling the Loser into existence is some deep search for comfort — if he is just supposed to be some big cosmic Prozac, or a blankie in the sky — I have to tell you this god is seriously not cutting it for me, and not just for me but for a lot of other people as well.

Now having known a few atheists very well, I can understand if these cuts are
goring some people's oxen. I still think it fertile ground for a civilized
debate on the subject. So how about it? What do you think?

Howdy, everybody.

Lenore graciously asked me to guest post while she is on vacation. I was worried about not meeting her usual high expectations, but she assured me that I should just blog about whatever caught my fancy, so here we go.



If you hadn't picked up in it yet, we have a literary bent around here, and one of the great men f letters of recent years was the inimitable Clive Staples Lewis. C.S. Lewis was known for many works, but of his most important writings were his Christian apologetics. Among these was one of my personal favorites, the Screwtape Letters, in which an older, experienced demon counsels his young nephew on the best way to corrupt and draw away from Christianity a young Englishman. The letters, and the young demon's setbacks show the strengths and triumphs of Christianity over the demonically inspired philosophy of man, until the man's conversion to Christianity is sealed, as is the fate of the young failure of a demon.



Imagine my surprise when I was reading NRO today, and found the modern day equivalent, in which a young convert to atheism sets out to demonstrate in a series of letters to atheism's old guard the weaknesses in the philosophy that must be overcome if it is ever to become the dominant mindset. I think you should read the whole thing in its entirety, but I did want to call these excerpts out for further examination:

The bottom line is, after everything that’s happened since the sexual revolution, I’m telling you that we atheists really need to knock off all the happy talk about how fantabulously liberating sex is. Privacy, privacy, privacy, Everybody mantras — as if that word settles anything at all! It’s messed up, isn’t it, when you think of how otherwise puritanical our own times are, that the church’s notion of sexual discipline should seem so funny to so many people? After all, it’s the only kind of discipline that’s out of bounds! We all know that people who eat too much are pigs, people who drink too much are drunks, people who don’t exercise are slobs and parasites on the body politic what with all their health costs, and people who smoke are just as disgusting as it’s possible to be, like an old person crossed with a fat one wearing a fur coat and eating venison and cake at the same time or something — and the rest of us are all really put out at every one single of those kinds of people for being such slobs and so hard on our own eyes and wallets. You know?

Yet sex behind closed doors, just as the Dulls point out, has more serious consequences for the world than any of these other kinds of piggishness. It’s those “private acts” outside of marriage that have sent the illegitimacy soaring and put so many kids in the rough hands of mom’s rotating boyfriends. It’s consenting adults who have turned AIDS and STDs into global health problems. All this is to say nothing of the consequences that are harder to measure of all those mature adults doing as they please “in private.” And kids know all about those kinds of consequences, as You can see if You ever look at their music and movies and Facebook pages. There’s a backlash out there that none of You seem to know about — one you might call Ozzie and Harriet, come back — All is forgiven! I would go even farther, based on what I saw as a Dull, and say that this notion of sexual discipline and its importance is not only serious rather than unserious; it is also what pulls many of the Dulls into practicing or even turning to religion the first place, because they feel somehow better about life when it's lived inside of those rules.

Please understand that I’m not criticizing here! Cheering for pornography and omnivorous sex and by extension, broken homes and abused and screwed up kids and all the rest of the revolution’s fallout may not be everyone’s thing; but most of You new atheist Guys have definitely made it Yours. I respect all that! I’m just saying for now that we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that the believers’ sexual codes are an unmitigated bad on them and a plus for Us, when most evidence suggests it’s quite the other way around.

When I read this, I thought of several blog discussions I have witnessed recently, and tried to reason out why I didn't see the same things advocated bearing themselves out in practice. I 'm sure that some people have no desire to discuss these things a rational fashion. If there is one thing that is missing in today's marketplace of ideas, it is the ability to carry on a civilized debate without engaging in ad hominems or simply shouting the other side down. Maybe I'm a fool to believe that Lenore's loyal readership could have such a discussion, but that's what I'm asking you all for regardless. So what do you think? Has the gospel of "Doing whatever you want" improved the lives of its followers, or are they missing something lacking in the lives of those who subscribe to the tenants of Judeo-Christian beliefs?

Okay, One More Post Before I Split

Is Clinton really that stupid? Seriously? Is there anything in her head resembling a brain? She invokes RFK's assassination as justification for her not doing the....oh....I don't know....GRACIOUS thing and bail out of the race? This woman has a law degree and hoodwinked us for 8 years on her and her husband's antics and she now can't open her trap without saying something incredibly stupid. Makes you wonder who was running the White House from 1992-2000.

If she wants to invoke some historical event, how about the Challenger or Columbia disasters to describe her campaign? The Hindenburg maybe?

Senator Clinton, stop embarrassing yourself and just quit. Obamamessiah has the nomination sewn up. Let us concentrate on digging the skeletons out of his closet for awhile. Otherwise, you're starting to sound like Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich.

Vacation

Tomorrow, I'm outta here for a week of well-deserved rest. I'm sure my special guest blogger will keep everyone highly entertained.

Something Else I Filched From BiW...

And he filched it from like 3 other people.

1. What is your occupation? Products Liability Attorney.
2. What color are your socks right now? Brown.
3. What are you listening to right now? Nothing.
4. What was the last thing that you ate? A Dove chocolate bar.
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes.
6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? A friend.
7. Do you like the person who tagged you? I wasn't tagged. I stole it.
8. How old are you today? 41.
9. What is your favorite sport to watch? College Football.
10. What is your favorite drink? Beer.
11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Yes, I've been a blonde and a redhead but I'm back to my natural brunette color.
12. Last time you hugged your child? This morning.
13. Favorite food? Lobster.
14. What was the last movie you watched? Raiders of the Lost Ark
15. Favorite day of the year? Christmas Eve.
16. How do you vent anger? Blogging, duh.
17. What was your favorite toy as a child? Barbie.
18. What is your favorite season? Fall.
19. Ocean or pool? Ocean.
20. Cherries or Blueberries? Both.
21. Do you want your family & friends to participate? Sure.
22. Who is the most likely to respond? Oh probably Deadman and Zooma.
24. Living arrangements? Suddenly single with two teenagers.
25. When was the last time you cried? About 3 hours ago.
26. What is on the floor of your closet? The closet has a floor?
27. Who is the family or friend you have known the longest that you are tagging? Deadman.
28. What did you do last night? Im'd with a friend.
29. Hawaii or Florida? Florida native. I've never been to Hawaii.
30. What inspires you? God.
31. What are you most afraid of? Being old and alone.
32. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Cheese.
33. Favorite dog breed? German Shepherd.
34. Favorite day of the week? Saturday.
35 How many states have you lived in? 5.
36 Do you like these questionnaires? Yes, if they don't suck.
37. What kind of car did your very first date drive? A 1969 Mustang Fastback.
38. What is the last book you read? When Bad Christians Happen to Good People.
39. What are your hobbies? Blogging, reading, and plotting world conquest.
40. Can you still make the Hula Hoop stay around your waist? Yes.

You Know You're From Oklahoma If...

Shamelessly stolen from BiW who did a hilarious one on Washington. So here's the Oklahoma version:


You could be from Oklahoma if:

1. You can properly pronounce Eufaula, Gotebo, Okemah, and Chickasha. (U-fall-a, Go-tee-bo, O-key-ma, Chick-a-shay.)
2. You think that people who complain about the wind in their states are sissies. (Yep. The Windy City isn't Chicago.)
3. A tornado warning siren is your signal to go out in the yard and look for a funnel. (Guilty.)
4. Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor on the highway. (Or waiting behind a truck hauling a doublewide.)
5. You've ever had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day. (We call that Spring.)
6. You know that the true value of a parking space is not determined by the distance to the door, but by the availability of shade. (Especially in August.)
7. Stores don't have bags, they have sacks. ( I still call them bags but I'm not a native.)
8. You see people wear bib overalls at funerals. (Yes, I have.)
9. You think everyone from a bigger city has an accent.
10. You measure distance in minutes. ("im about 5 minutes away")
11. You refer to the capital of Oklahoma as "The City."
12. It doesn't bother you to use an airport named for a man who died in an airplane crash. (Will Rogers World Airport in OKC.)
13. Little smokies are something you serve only for special occasions. (Like the Super Bowl.)
14. You go to the lake because you think it is like going to the ocean. (No, to me, lakes are like big mud puddles.)
15. You listen to the weather forecast before picking out an outfit. (Yes.)
16. You know cowpies are not made of beef.
17. Someone you know has used a football schedule to plan their wedding date. (What I will do if I get married again. I had to miss the OU/TX game one year for my niece's wedding. Pissed me off.)
18. You have known someone who has had one belt buckle bigger than your fist. (Half the men in this state.)
19. A bad traffic jam involves two cars staring each other down at a four-way stop, each determined to be the most polite and let the other go first. (Guilty.)
20. You know in which state "Miam-uh" is and in which state "Miam-ee" is. (The first is in northeast Oklahoma. The second is in South Florida.)
21. You aren't surprised to find movie rental, ammunition, and bait all in the same store. (Nope. One stop shopping.)
22. Your "place at the lake" has wheels under it. (No, but I have seen them.)
23. A Mercedes Benz is not a status symbol. A Ford F350 4x4 is. (A Ford? Try a Chevy.)
24. You know everything goes better with Ranch. (These people keep Kraft in business.)
25. You learned how to shoot a gun before you learned how to multiply.
26. You actually get these jokes and are "fixin" to send them to your friends..


Finally, you are 100% Oklahoman if you have ever heard this conversation:
"You wanna Coke?"
"Yeah."
"What kind?"
"Dr. Pepper."

However, I added a few:

27. If you had a state legislator introduce a bill to provide boxing gloves for roosters.
28. You know Barry Switzer's complete win/loss record. (157-29-4).
29. You firmly believe that Les Miles is a traitor.

Oil Prices

The price of a barrel of oil is now $135. Am I the only one who genuinely hopes the entire industry collapses like it did in the early 80's? There's free market and then there's flat out thievery. Personally, I think OPEC is trying to crush the US economy, not because of greed but because it's made up of a bunch of anti-American dictatorships.

The members of OPEC are:

Algeria

Angola

Ecuador

Indonesia

Iran

Iraq

Kuwait

Libya

Nigeria

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

UAE

Venezuela

Nine of those states are Muslim countries while the rest are run by thugs. Essentially it's the mob and we're at their mercy. These aren't even the largest producers of oil, by the way. 6 of the top ten producers aren't even members of OPEC, including Russia (No. 2), the US (No. 3), Mexico (No. 5), China (No. 6), Canada (No. 7), and Norway (No. 10).

The US is the largest consumer of oil in the world. We consume 2 1/2 times more than we produce. I'm not saying everyone needs to go buy a Prius but it's time to start looking at what we can do to cut back on our dependency. Pretty soon, none of us will be able to drive anywhere if gas is $6/gallon. Sorry but I'm tired of being at the mercy of a bunch of countries that hate our collective guts.

Crazy People

I was talking with one of my co-workers today about my stbx's antics and she said, "I think this is the real _____," which kinda made me pause to think. If this was my spouse's real personality, then he hid it from me for seven freakin' years. That, to me, takes a special kind of crazy.

Seems to me that if you can hid your entire personality from your spouse for the better part of a decade, you either deserve an Academy Award or commitment to the local psychiatric hospital. Granted, he did letter in Drama so maybe he really is that good of an actor. If so, he should head out to Hollywood and make some real bucks. I don't think so though. I think he's genuinely crazier than entire forest of squirrels.

In that case, I've been had. Big time. Hoodwinked. Taken for a ride. This person completely had me fooled and that, my friends, is not a nice feeling to have. I feel like a total idiot. I mean, I know crazy and I totally didn't see this one coming. The one saving grace is that now most everyone we know knows he's crazy and it isn't just me being a bitter hag. It doesn't make me feel better but at least I now know that I'm not the nutty one.

Looks Like Obama's Got It

Oh joy. I guess he's within 100 delegates of clinching the nomination or something. Clinton is proving to be...well a Clinton in that she's so arrogant she refuses to believe that her own party doesn't want her. She says she's sticking around until June. For what? Is there a DNC BBQ in June she doesn't want to miss?

Unfortunately, I think McCain will get trounced in November and we're stuck with a guy who, in 20 years, couldn't figure out his pastor was a race-baiting bigot. That bodes well, doesn't it? If he can't even figure that out, how is he supposed to protect the country?

Ted Kennedy Has Brain Cancer

Okay, he isn't one of my favorite people. Okay, I don't like him. But it's still sad that he has to deal with this illness. I try not to wish ill on anyone ( except the stbx) just 'cause I believe in karma and what goes around comes around. Of course, my first thought was: Hey maybe they can get a Republican to take his place. Then I remembered it was Massachusetts and Mitt Romney was their only Republican. So we're still screwed when it come to the Senate.

Anyway, I...uh..hope he gets better. Seriously.

It's Sad

That I had to give up my other blog because the idiot I'm divorcing went whining to his lawyer like a freakin' 8 year old girl. Jeez. Nothing better to do, huh? You know, like figuring out how you're going to keep your business afloat.

I didn't tell his ex's spouse to Google the old blog then show it to his kid. Who gave him the name of the blog to Google it in the first place? Damn sure wasn't me. I don't talk to those people. Plus, he whined about the comment of proving what I said about him is true (i.e. he's an irresponsible jackass). That had to do with him stiffing our friends on the church service because he couldn't be bothered with it.

He's the one acting the fool and I'm the one paying for it.

New Name?

So I'm thinking about changing the name of this blog to:

"That Bitch and Her Blog"

I figure if I'm going to be called that, I might as well get some mileage out of it. Any thoughts?

Hello and Welcome

Once again, the antics of a few have forced me to get rid of a blog I really liked and start a new one. The old one isn't gone yet but eventually I'll delete it. I did bring my links over from the old site. The title of this one is taken from The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, one of my favorite poems.

I do promise not to spend a lot of time bitching about my soon-to-be-ex on this one. I'll even bring back Friday's WTF? It will be a lot more entertaining. Sorta like the Wench before the idiots at my old church ruined that one.

Anyway, sit back and enjoy the ride.