Tooth Fairy

Let's set the stage here.  You're an attractive woman.  You're married and have kids.  You've been at the same job for ten years - with the same boss.  You were considered an excellent employee. You're fired.

Not because you're a woman mind you, but you've suddenly become a danger to said bosses marriage because he finds your "tight" clothing provocative and he might be inclined to try to start an affair.  Inclined to try?

And it's all perfectly legal, at least in Iowa.  The court rules it's about family values, not gender.  It's about preserving a marriage.  Never mind that the wife who also works in the office found the two were texting one another and demanded the woman be fired.  Never mind too that the texts were inconsequential things about kids and such.  In this day and age, for heavens sake don't text a good looking employee!  If she had been ordinary would it have mattered?

A couple of thoughts come to mind.  I go to the dentist regularly and I've yet to see beyond lab coats, eye shields and masks enough of anyone to lure me into an affair.

I will concede that office personnel do see one another out of 'uniform' upon coming and going and maybe lunch breaks so physical attributes may be more apparent.  However,  if someone was incredibly attractive I can't imagine it would take ten years for lust to bubble to the surface.  If she was dressing inappropriately, I'm sure the wife wouldn't have taken ten years to notice either.

The whole scenario seems ludicrous to me.  The dentist is a bit slow on the uptake here and so is his wife.

Even more ludicrous is the idea that a seven man panel of judges would side unanimously with the dentist, terming it "irresistible attraction".  Especially when no inappropriate behavior was ever displayed by the employee. Talk about arrested development on the part of the judicial! Spare me from patriarchal societies.  The Mideast is bad enough.  We don't need them here.

As for the horny dentist it might be time to grow up and curb his appetites.  Hanky panky in the work place is nothing new.  One usually has to engage in it, however, before being fired.  General Petraeus may be able to explain it better than I can.

For it to be legal to terminate someone for an unacted upon prurient dream is beyond my comprehension.  This in Iowa, a stronghold for Christian Conservatives yet a place where gay marriage is legal.  It's obviously also a place where "family values" can be shaped just about any way you want.

Except if your a good looking woman with a man child for a boss.

They Really Don't Get It!

I had mixed feelings when the Republicans balked at passing "Plan B".  On one hand, it was as close to hard ball as the Republicans have come by giving the President a tax increase even though it wasn't anywhere near what he wanted.

On the other hand I can't help but admire them for balking because they were to get nothing in the way of spending cuts in return.  Empty promises don't count.

So many are quick to blame the Republicans for all our financial woes, but it simply isn't true. When it comes to spending, both parties can't help but to go hog wild ~ with pork and bureaucracy.

Take the $60 billion aid bill promised by the President for victims of Hurricane Sandy.  Bear in mind, many are still without shelter.  Many are living in unheated and unsanitary shells of what used to be their homes.  FEMA funds for hotels are running out and people are being turned out.  Some are living in their cars while FEMA trailers remain undelivered.  It's winter.  It's cold and it's wet.

So where is that $60 million?  Apparently some is being held up until after Christmas so they can determine what spending is appropriate.  It's winter.  It's cold and it's wet. This, by the way, is the Republicans.

Then there is the pork.  Eight million has been tagged to buy cars for homeland security and justice department personnel.  While Sandy victims sleep in what's left of theirs.

Thirteen billion is slated for tree plantings and such in preparation for future storms.  While trees still remain protruding from crushed roofs.

One hundred fifty million has been slotted for NOAA to dole out to Alaskan fisheries. Let them eat fish?  Don't they wish! Untold millions are going to other government entities for sprucing up - like a new roof for the Smithsonian and spiffying up National Cemeteries.

Not that these projects don't have some merit, but they should be voted up or down on their own merit and not attached to an aid bill for people who can do little more than scratch their heads and wonder where their President's promised help is.

People are helping one another as best they can.  We have a friend who is a volunteer fireman whose home is in an involved community.  The firemen take turns taking one of their trucks to keep watch in communities which no longer have their own.  This is what we as Americans do.  We help each other, our neighbors, people in far reaches of the country from our own.

But what does our government do?  They posture.  They promise.  They preach.  Then they disappear.  Americans remind me of my Big Dog sweatshirt that reads "Lead, follow or get out of the way."

The government reminds me of another that reads, "If you aren't the lead dog, the view never changes."  No matter who is in charge, no matter who holds the houses of congress, the view never changes.  I'd wonder how they can live with themselves if I thought they were even aware, but I don't think they are.  They lose their sight and  their vision in the smog of deceit while the rest of us stand outside looking in.  And you wonder why Ron Paul and his Libertarians have such a foothold.

In The Spirit Of The Holiday - Congress Go Home

I've been thinking lately, I've never seen Harry Reid look like a nice man.  His usual countenance, frowning, colorless and cold seems to reflect his view of leadership. Oh, yeah, and doing nothing.  He's good at that.

Now if only the Republicans would learn how to capitalize on that.  But they won't.  They live in a bubble of their own making and don't see things that are obvious to those of us outside looking in.

One, the President does not want to avoid the fiscal cliff that really isn't a cliff.  Why?  Because he would have to give something and that is not in his nature.  He is Lucy to Boehner's Charlie Brown. And Charlie falls for the ploy every time.

It's time the Republicans realize some truths.  No matter how many promises are made to discuss spending cuts and tax reform down the road they are empty promises.  It won't happen, or if they do it will be the same football and the same game.

The President isn't all that unlike Egypt's Morsi.  He wants unprecedented and unfettered powers to tax, borrow and spend as he pleases.  Period.  Harry Reid is complicit in the scheme by refusing to bring anything to the floor that is sent up from the House.  I think it should be mandatory, actually, for the Senate to vote on legislation originated in the House and let the chips fall where they may.  I also think members of both Houses should not be intimidated by their leadership.  Committee assignments and chairmanships should not be the determining factor of their votes.  It should be what their constituents want.

The Republicans on the other hand want some balance and have actually come up with some feasible ideas on how to accomplish it.  Their problem is they don't know how to articulate it to the American people.  I've never seen politicians so tongue tied about important issues yet so verbose when it comes to accusations and name calling. The Republicans need a face and a voice.  If Jeb Bush wants to be President next go round then he should take the bull by the horns now and start talking.  Or any of the potential candidates.

If someone doesn't, we're doomed to more of the same game playing for the next four years.

For now, however, I hope what I read is correct. That Boehner is going to pass Plan B which at least makes the tax hikes eminently more fair by raising the level to earners of over $1 million.  Too much is still off the table but one thing else they need to learn is it's better to take small chunks as they can get them than to hold out and get nothing.

Well, I can dream can't I?  Realistically I know it's going to be more of the same and ugly.  I know our country is changing drastically.  I'm of the school that thinks it's for the worse and  do not see it changing for the better for a long time to come if ever.

But 'tis the season for dreams.  Maybe I can conjure up some sugar plum fairies.

The Wrath Of God

If there is anything that frightens me more than a wacked out person with guns, bullets and a rage, it's those who tell us 26 people in Connecticut were killed because we as a people have turned our back on God.

Everyone from James Dobson to Mike Huckabee have alluded to that idea.  We've rejected God so what do you expect?  We've accepted gay marriage.  We've accepted abortion.  We don't allow prayer in public schools.

According to Operation Save America, a fundamental Christian organization, the interfaith service was an "affront to almighty God." They go on to tell us the reason is that we have "violently removed the fear of almighty God from the hearts of our children."

So He sanctioned some nut case to go out and slaughter them?  Please.  Or maybe He didn't sanction it but just turned His back while it was happening.  After all, Bryan Fischer,  tells us He didn't intervene because He doesn't go where He's not wanted.  It might help if the children would start every day with a prayer.

You know, I think these people are terrorists in their own right.  They are so sanctimonious they actually believe this.  I have to ask, then, why would any one cater to God's teachings?  We question what kind of god Islamists believe in.  What kind of god calls for the extermination of all infidels and relegates women to being little more than property with which to propagate. Who will shoot innocent little girls because they want an education. In his name.

Is this God so different?  Is this what is meant when they claim we've removed the fear of almighty God? I didn't think that's what God-fearing meant.  I thought it meant being fervently religious.  Not being scared to death.

Scared to death indeed.  That God would reign such horror upon innocent children because some adults have snubbed Him or have dared question Him? No, that's no one that deserves a capital G in his name.  Whoever he is and those who would force his will upon us are monsters every bit as horrible as the shooter.  Conjecture tells me it's also blasphemy.  What happened to the loving and benevolent God who died for our sins? Is He really now killing our children for them?

It's So Much More Than Guns

When traveling the west there are places where, if you want to listen to the radio, there are few choices.  That is why we happened to be listening to Rush Limbaugh when the news broke about the shootings in Newtown, CT.

I give him credit.  He promised to update his listeners when there were substantiated facts.  Then Hannity came on already armed with Mark Furman who lives in Idaho and Ann Coulter who was already expressing the need for more people to have carry permits.  Okay, none of these people are reporters but they are forces in the media.

What could Mark Furman add to the dialog?  What could Ann Coulter add? Or any of the other talking heads that came in a steady stream throughout the day spewing misinformation.  The media did not and is still not doing itself proud.

It seems strange to me that this same media could not press our government to bring forth the facts regarding a terrorist attack in Benghazi where our ambassador and three other Americans were killed when the facts were right in front of their faces, yet rush to the fore with tons of misinformation and speculation about a devastating occurrence in small town America.  They couldn't even let the people involved have a chance to catch their breath.

We have friends in New York who had dinner with friends from Newtown Saturday evening and were told the media was even trying to get access to Facebook pages of the dead children to see what they might dig up.  I don't know how many 6 and 7 year olds actually have Facebook pages, but assuming they do, what could possibly be found?  Please!  Have they no decency?  No.

You see, it is about so much more than guns.  Today they are looking to see if they can criminalize the mother because she had guns.  Demonize everyone,  warranted or not, it sells.

When you come right down to it, there are more people who own guns than you can count.  Many own more than one.  In much of the west it's a way of life. Trying to deny them would be an exercise in futility just as trying to deny the gangs in Chicago that wage war on each other and the citizens on a daily basis.

What is there even more of than guns?  How about electronic devices loaded with violent games where young people in particular play them all day?  Does that contribute?  What about the mind bending drugs unruly kids are routinely put on because the parents can't or won't control them?  Could that be a contributing factor?  Or alcohol or other drugs the young people themselves may add to the mix?

We have a problem in this country.  Incidents like this most recent one brings it home in the most hideous of manners.  But rushing to judgement and blaming it all on guns is burying our head in the sand.  Let's look at our society as a whole.  We are polarized and filled with hate toward our fellow citizens.  Listen to the political dialog.  There is nothing uplifting to be heard.

There have been too many of these incidents over the past several years.  That is the truth.  We're being told to take a look at ourselves, not just guns.  Anyone with the intent to do mass damage to others will find a way without guns.  It's what drives them to it that matters.

It might be worth noting that a lot of these murderers we deem monsters turn their weapons on themselves.  Could it be that somewhere in the fog in which they live they realize what could have been an extreme scream for help was a step too far?

Let the media explore something other than the anguish of the families and the community.  They deserve the time and privacy they need to grieve.  Many may never heal and lives have been forever altered.  They don't need the media perpetuating it.