The Divorce (AND My Honorary Daughter's P.S.)

It saddens me that an honorary daughter of mine appears to be heading for divorce.

If we had only been in the loop, we would have told him "Don't come home after being gone for days, and plop down to play World of Warcraft for hours, virtually ignoring her."

We would have kept telling her "Communicate more with him. Tell him why you're unhappy and what you need to make this marriage work."

We would have told him "Stop trying to smother her and keep her locked up in the house. She's only 21! Encourage her to go to college or at least get a job. Stop making her feel like you disapprove of such things. You must allow her some freedom."

We would have kept telling her "Stop trying so hard to compromise your life doing only what HE wants to do. Start doing some things for yourself. With any luck, he'll join in."

We would have told him "Take her out on a date at least once a week. And stop drinking so much when you go out. Give up the gambling and save some money for the future."

We would have told her "Stop hanging out so much with his roommates. Don't spill your guts to them, or tell them the troubles in the marriage. Young men are predators, and they will happily take down a wounded deer."

We would have told them all this, but now it looks as if it's too late.

My Wonderful Honorary Daughter's Additional Notes:
(I know for a fact that everything she says here is true from all the things she's told me over the last year)

I am definitely on my way to a divorce. No question there. I haven't called I've been a lil stressed from being kicked out of my own home.

I have tried numerous times to talk to him...he will even admit it. The one thing he always says to me is "why are you getting angry?" I'm not! I'm trying to talk! Then he walks away and crawls into bed. So I go and pull down the covers and say "I was talking to you why do you always walk away?" He says "ok lets talk now then."

Well you know what - if he is not willing to take the time to talk to me...why should I make the time when ever he feels fit? Disrespecting me in public and in front of family...I will not stand for it...because I do NOT do it to him.

As for the roommate, he and I did not talk about my life with my husband. We talked about everything but. First it started with his girlfriend then he and I started to cook dinners together by using his cook book. The other roommate I hardly talk to.

My husband would encourage me to go to school and get a job but at the same time he put me down. Example: he suggested I go to school for nursing. I thought about it and it was a great suggestion so the next day I turn to him and say "I will go for nursing." He replies "Are you kidding? Do you realize how much you have to remember?" So what is that - all of a sudden I'm not good enough! WOW - it just doesn't end with him!

I have some graphic text on my phone to this roommate (friend) of mine about a kiss! A picture of a kiss and I told my husband yes there was a picture of a kiss and in it I kissed my roommates (friends) cheek. I admit there is a lot more to everything but at the same time for 1) I would NOT and will NOT ever cheat on my husband 2) I told him a few weeks ago I was leaving him because I can't make people change they have to be willing. and 3) I would never leave my marriage for another man. I am doing this for me and me only!

The Reclining Bike

As many of you know, I had neck surgery a couple of years ago. Once you've had your spine fused, it's not much fun to bicycle. The standard bike (I purchased a Trek last year) is the sort that you have to lean over, biking while you look up, torquing your neck out at a difficult angle. Needless to say, that isn't very comfortable.

Enter the reclining bike!

I just purchased a fabulous reclining bike, after taking one for a test ride at a local bike shop. These bikes are made for people who, for varying reasons, can't ride a standard bike. However, people that are perfectly healthy still enjoy reclining bikes because they're relaxing and afford a more scenic view to the biker, who can look upwards and outwards as they ride along.

My particular reclining bike is a hybrid: It's semi-upright and looks very much like a standard bike, but all the weight is thrust to the back, so the rider doesn't have to bend over and look upward to enjoy riding it.

WEDNESDAY MORNING NOTE: I wish I could devote myself more fully to this post, but when I think it over, there is truthfully little else to say. When I get a chance, I'll post a pic of the new bike. ;o)

Gainesville Campus Police Violate Student's Rights

Yesterday in our town of Gainesville, Florida, John Kerry made an appearance at the University of Florida. And Andrew Meyer decided to attend.

By now, many of you have seen the video. If you haven't, it's published below.

Meyer is apparently a very impassioned young liberal, who is quite taken with the views of the extreme left, and had just finished reading a book that had really inflamed him. He ran up to the microphone, cutting in front of everyone, and proceeded to both preach at Kerry and the audience and then attempted to ask three questions of Kerry. Incidentally, if you watch the video you can see he wasn't outrageously extreme, and was obviously a fan of Kerry's and not a heckler (as Glenn Beck has claimed).

At this point, campus police rushed him as if he were a dangerous criminal. Using excessive force, they subdued him. When he continued to demand to be released and asked why they were responding in such a manner, they tasered him.

During the entire incident, Kerry drones on limply in a monotone, quietly telling the police that he'll answer the questions. If it had been anyone else, they would have been screaming at the police to stop! Kerry apparently felt it best to quietly protest but not get deeply or passionately involved. Does the man take a stand in anything?!

What really alarms me (more than this obvious police brutality) was that almost all the conservative talk show hosts yesterday made fun of Meyer and laughed over the incident. The only one that saw it for what it truly was, was Michael Savage.

Say what you want about Michael Savage... and yes - he definately lacks the suave polish of most of the others... but Michael got it right, and the others were dead wrong.

And I remain alarmed.

Yes, Meyer was rude. And yes, he's gained the reputation of being the campus weirdo - the annoying gadfly that nobody really likes much. And yes, he's known as being a practical joker. But simply being weird or annoying doesn't constitute an offense worthy of this reaction! Such police behavior is reminiscent of the brutality seen in the early 1960s civil rights marches.

This is the danger of putting tasers in the hands of the police. Tasers were originally meant to be a humane substitute for a gun! Please tell me that no policeman in his right mind would consider shooting Meyer under the same circumstances!

Obviously many people will choose to enroll their children in other colleges instead of the University of Florida as long as such gestapo tactics are sanctioned there.

Also obvious is the whopper of a lawsuit that Meyer now has. Thank goodness he didn't have a medical condition, or it would be his parents suing for wrongful death, instead.

The Positively Negative Experience at Curves

I went to Curves this morning to work out. My friend loves working out, and we try to do it together, so she met me there and we began our routine.

For those of you not familiar with Curves, it's a club for women only, where we can get a 30-minute workout. There are 15 stations positioned in a circle: There are 8 workout machines and 7 platforms. You spend a minute at each station as you work your way around, either working out on the machines or doing whatever keeps you moving when you're on the platforms. The idea is to never stop moving, and do it vigorously, for 30 minutes. There is vibrant get-up-and-go music blaring loudly, and every minute, a woman's voice smoothly says "change stations."

But today something had changed.

At first we worked through the first two sets, not realizing that we hadn't heard "change stations" yet. Then we heard a new woman's voice chirp cheerily "Be positive!"

"What's going on here?" we asked the attendants. We were told that they were trying out a new style, where instead of hearing "change stations", we were to be spoon-fed bromides to help motivate us.

Oh puhleeze!

We protested loudly, not because we are negative people (as one of the attendants implied). If we were truly negative, neither of us would be the success that we've become. But we are both so very repulsed by this newest "quick fix" idea.

Although (obviously) most people have average IQs, are they really so gullible as to be easily influenced through not-so-subtle exortations? And must we all be put through a mindless series of messages, droning on repeatedly?

"Be beautiful!" "Be Dynamic!" "Be Happy!" was all we heard every minute during our tiresome 30-minute workout. The only way this new program will help as a weight loss is through the nausea that it induces. It also disrupts the concentration and is an irritant to the mind.

What was Curves thinking? Obviously someone in their marketing department has just bought into one of those newest, recycled management fads (as I wrote about here). Too bad the American consumer has grown resistant and resentful of such fads, overall.

I often quote my grandmother, who was the repository for pithy sayings. Here's yet another one that applies: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Parents Scramble to Remake Nick Hogan's Image

In an obvious attempt to remake Nick Hogan's image, Hulk Hogan's wife spoke out in a St. Pete Times article today.

Talk about shutting the barn door after the horse got out.

Not many people had heard of Hulk (Terry) Hogan's spoiled son until Nick Hogan's car crash on August 26. This crash sent Nick's friend John Graziano to the hospital (Graziano was completely non-responsive when we last heard of him at the vigil that I wrote about here). Stories came out shortly afterward indicating that Nick had been drag-racing regularly up and down the street he'd crashed on. Eye witnesses reported seeing Nick repeatedly racing another car which turned out also to be owned by Hulk Hogan.

Then a damning interview turned up.

The St. Pete Times unearthed an interview with Nick Hogan that had occurred shortly before the August 26 car crash. In the interview, Nick bragged about how he'd been pulled over 3 times within minutes of each occurrence, and had been warned each time by a cop that he needed to stop speeding. However, he was let go twice, since he was a celebrity's kid, even though (as he admitted) he was speeding drastically fast. Only on the third time did he receive a ticket.

Incidentally, these incidents occurred in the Miami-Dade area. I would hope our police aren't as influenced by celebrity status, although to the best of my knowlege they haven't charged him with anything yet.

Further in the interview, he talks about how the yellow color of his car makes girls want to drop their panties and calls his car "a pussy magnet".

Nice kid.

When John Graziano ended up in the hospital, the Hogans became that family's bestest friends. As Graziano's gullible mother defensively stated, the Hogans were immediately by John's bedside, helping out the Grazianos financially, and being generally supportive.

I'll bet!

With any luck, the Hogans will be able to make this all go away quietly. Meanwhile, they're hiring the best spin doctors and lawyers that money can buy (one of these lawyers is a specialist in DUI cases).

So in the paper today, Nick's mom (Linda) produces the usual baby snapshots and informs the incredulous reader that although Nick seems to be a brash, nasty boy he really is an adept businessman with a heart of gold. What's really incredible is that he's this marvellous and he's only 17. Wow! We have a child protege in our midst!

Linda also glosses over Nick's repeated speeding tickets by saying "What 17-year-old doesn't get tickets?" Ah, what an excellent point. Sure! We all know tons of teenagers who get speeding tickets for 106 mph in a 70 mph zone and 82 mph in a 45 mph zone, and then brag about how often they're able to speed and not get caught.

It's not an accident that Nick finally hurt someone. Why didn't his foolish parents take the measures that were needed? But the Hogans (a.k.a. Bolleas) luck is holding so far.

They were very lucky that Graziano was a friend, so that they could be allowed into the hospital to start their spin control. They're also lucky that Graziano's mother is willing to take money and expressions of sympathy over justice and a lawsuit.

Let's hope that their luck runs out.

Soon.

Our Kids Are in Danger

As I wrote here in May of 2006, terrorists did a dry-run on a local school bus in Hillsborough County, Florida. If you go to that link, you can read the details. Increasingly, authorities are admitting that such incidents as that one have been cropping up all over the country.

The terrorists are getting ready to hit our schools and our children, in a mass attack, and the government is very reluctant to let you know this for fear of wide-spread panic.

This week, Glenn Beck is beginning a series intent on proving that the terrorists are ready to strike.

Examples abound. A large number of school buses are missing in Texas. Middle Eastern men are trying to buy school buses. They've been seen outside of schools throughout the nation, taking pictures, watching and waiting, learning traffic patterns and more.

The real question is not if they are planning it. The real question is, how can we thwart it?

Some schools have been trained by the FBI in counter-terrorism. But will it be enough? And what about the schools that haven't been trained?

And what about the schools that are seemingly well-fortified, but could be breached by a car bomb or simply a determined group of Islamic terrorists with automatic weapons?

Parents are being encouraged to contact their schools and find out what's being done. But, will that be enough? Schools can make assurances of protection, but unless we've seen it with my own eyes, and we have everyone in those schools doing regular terrorism drills, we can't know how effective it all will be until it's too late.

The government needs to come out with some standards, and they need to move quickly. Schools need to be forced to at least meet or exceed those standards. These new standards need to take into consideration as many possible alternatives as they can.

The Islamic terrorists feel that if they kill, rape, and torture our children (as they did in the Russian middle school in Beslan), then they will be able to bring the nation to its knees. Additionally, if America's children are no more, there will be no future generations that can arise to fight these monsters.

We are overseas, fighting a war elsewhere, while our borders and schools remain relatively unprotected. It's like going on a lecture tour about preventing home robberies while leaving your front door unlocked.

We want to live in peace, but they want us to die in pieces.

If you are as concerned as we all should be, then write or call your congressional representatives today to ask that they make a concerted effort to protect the children of our nation.

To contact your Senators, go here.
To contact your Representative, go here.
Or, simply click on the envelope at the bottom of this post to forward this article to them instead.

Do it. Before it's too late.

Fred Thompson

I have been impressed with Fred Thompson since his early years in the senate (way before Law & Order). He was and is as close to a Reagan Republican as I've ever seen, and can be a very polarizing influence on the elections.

Right now we're dealing with candidates that are enough alike to be scary: The classic neocons (motivated by money) and the classic democrats (motivated by money). Their philosophies and views are very similar as well, with just enough variation to give them something to debate about, but do any of them take their beliefs seriously? It's hard to tell because most of them don't have a very extensive voting record in the public eye.

For instance, Hillary obviously only moved to New York in order to find a state that was sympathetic enough to her to elect her so that she could gain some "street creds" toward a run for the Presidency. After all, it wasn't enough to be the true (but officially unacknowleged) Vice President in her husband's Presidency. But, because it's obvious that everything Hillary's done has been for one calculating reason, we have to suspect it all. On the other hand, to her credit, Hillary is a poll watcher. I am sick and tired of Presidents who behave in a patriarchal manner, ignoring the will of the people.

Barack Obama is likely to become Hillary's Vice Presidential pick. Frankly, America is not ready yet for someone who has any Muslim ties whatsoever, and his attendance at a local muslim school as a child is of concern to many people. Additionally, he is young and inexperienced although he's charming. American had that once before in JFK.

If JFK hadn't been killed in a dramatic manner at an early age, many Americans would never have idolized him as they have. But JFK joins the ranks of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean: People who died young and pretty and therefore are easily memorialized. However, JFK was, in reality, a President with as many or more flaws than the current President. Many fiascos abounded and were partially covered up due to the desire to keep him a legend: The reality of JFK's presidency is kept among the scholars. Are we ready to allow yet another inexperienced President? Hasn't President Bush done enough damage to our country? So, if I had to choose between Barack and Hillary, I would vote for Hillary.

Then we have Rudy Giuliani who is another neo-con, like the current President, but with even less experience than Bush had when he entered office. Bush was Governor of Texas, and he still wasn't equipped to run the country. I would submit that a jump from a State Governor to President of the USA is a larger leap than from state Senator to President, because at least as a state Senator you know your way around the hallowed halls of Washington D.C.

Since Rudy is apparently the current front-runner, I won't bother with discussing his other opponents outside of Fred Thompson.

Fred Thompson is an interesting candidate. I've followed his career from when he was a U.S. Senator onward. I was very surprised to see Senator Thompson playing a part in Law & Order, as I had only known and admired him as the Senator from Tennessee (he made quite a reputation for himself while on Capital Hill).

Thompson has the charisma and proven track record to rise above the other Republican candidates. He has the best chance to carry the White House next year.

I spoke to someone who is organizing the local group of "Fred Heads". I mentioned a slightly unpleasant call I'd had with someone high-up in the local Republican party. When I'd asked for information on the group with Fred Thompson, he grew a little chilly, then recommended I go to the Guilianni dinner instead. "Yeah," the Fred Head said. "What's up with THAT? We're already the social outcasts!"

I am convinced that this is due to the length of time it took for Thompson to decide to run. Because of this, we are dealing with a large group of Republicans that are loyal to Guiliani simply because they cast their lots with him in the early stages of his campaign.

Our Trip to NASA

Over the Labor Day Weekend, we went daytripping. You already have seen the pictures taken at Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Florida. Now here are the photos from our trip to NASA.

One of the people that went with us is a young lady that I've helped raise for the last 7 years. She loves photography, so I gave her her first digital camera and this is the result.

Lowry Park Zoo

Over the Labor Day Weekend, we went to nearby Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Florida. One of the people that went with us is a young lady that I've helped raise for the last 7 years. She loves photography, so I gave her her first digital camera and this is the result. We had a wonderful time and I thought I'd share some of our photos with you!

Brigitte Gabriel: Modern Lebanese Holocaust Survivor

I recently discovered public speaker and former Anchorwoman and journalist Brigitte Gabriel. Since I'd never heard of her before, I'm betting neither have you. So I'm inserting a very powerful speech she made, in it's entirety, into this blog.

I almost never put a video into my blog, but I am so very impressed that I feel I must share this.

Please don't watch this only partially (or not at all) and leave me a comment. I ask you to watch it all the way through before you comment. This is on the honor system, so it's up to you and your conscience... but you'll find it's worthwhile and amazing. Perhaps after you see it, you may not wish to comment at all.

John Graziano's Candlelight Vigil

Well, I really thought I might be able to only blog every other day, but it seems there's always something that I feel I need to say, so this may be a failed experiment at it's birth.

Yesterday evening I attended the candlelight vigil of John Graziano. Graziano is the young man who was the passenger Hulk Hogan's son's car. You've probably heard of that terrible car crash in Clearwater, which resulted in Graziano's current state.

John Graziano is in critical condition, and there appears to be brain damage (although they're not saying the extent of it). Last night, I heard a self-styled "missionary" (who has been with the Graziano family for the last 72 hours) whisper that Graziano is currently completely and absolutely unresponsive.

It is obvious to most people that Hulk Hogan's son is going to turn out to be the "bad guy" in all this mess, and well he should be. After all, he has received numerous tickets for speeding, is into "drifting" and has been seen to try to antagonize other drivers on the street, attempting to get them to race him. Obviously he's a dangerous speed junkie and deserves to have the book thrown at him.

But he's not the only speed junkie. John Graziano has been reported to love the adrenaline rush. Friends recount that he would do anything for it: Skydiving, jet skiing, he lived for the thrill of the thrill.

So at the candlelight vigil last night, emotions were mixed and his family was defensive. Repeatedly, family members and friends spoke defiantly, demanding that others pray for and care about Graziano without taking into account any personal defects. They talked about his service as a Marine in combat, and his heroism overseas. They said he is more than "just a friend of so-and-so" and I can agree with all of that. But knowing Graziano's history, it seems more than possible that he knew what he was getting into. And whether it was for the rush or because he was basking in the glory of being part of the entourage, he went willingly.

During the vigil, there were wretched moments. It was stomach-turning to see some of the photographers get within inches of a knot of sobbing people, so that they could get the best shot of a tear-streaked face.

The man who pulled the vigil together (the self-styled "missionary" I'd mentioned before) was most obviously doing it for the press. He puffed himself out, spoke in stentorian tones, and did his best to show his plumage. This was his chance at fame, and he wasn't going to give away a moment of his 15 minutes. He brought along with him a guy who played keyboards, and a pretty blond singer who couldn't carry a tune and was obviously more concerned about where to set up and how to perform.

When someone from the press actually cared enough to ask him for his personal information, the "missionary" was happy to give his full title and claimed credentials, finally admitting that he was presently a missionary without a country to go to. He quickly added that he prays constantly, however: Apparently that's the current mission. Good thing the Grazianos came along with a personal tragedy he could attach himself to.

It was a sloppy mess of a vigil, with constant distractions. First the rains and lightning came, and everyone was forced to find shelter under a smallish, tin-roofed area. The sound system was quickly re-arranged and the entertainment commenced. It was appallingly false, and those people who had come willingly to genuinely pray for Graziano seemed baffled at the show-and-tell. A supposedly simple prayer vigil had moments of prayer interspersed with vast amounts of showboating and the whir and click of cameras.

Growing sick of it all, many made their escape before the candles were even lit. And as I left, I had the eerie impression that the focus had never once really been on the man we were praying for.

Senator Larry Craig

As most of you now know, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig was arrested for soliciting gay sex, pled guilty on a lesser charge, and the story didn't come out for three months. Now that it's come out, he's telling everyone that he's really not gay and, oh yeah, the only reason he kept it quiet is that it looked bad. He's really innocent: Yeah, that's it! Innocent!

Sure.

Does even Craig think anyone is buying this? Even his poor wife, who was standing next to him during his press conference, doesn't seem to buy it. There she stood, in the obligatory Supportive Wife role, hiding behind massive sunglasses and saying nothing.

Another one bites the dust.

Republican or Democrat: Most politicians are so sleezy that you want to take a shower after you've spoken with them. I should know: I've dealt with plenty. And the neocons are exactly that: New Cons.

Craig is just another bad apple. It's time to toss him out of the barrel. Too bad the barrel's getting mighty empty come election time.

Bad Ebay Pictures

The more I sell and buy on Ebay, the more I am astounded by how awful some of the pictures can be. Don't these people realized that "a picture is worth 1000 words"? Here's a recent sampling and what these photos say to me:

I live in a bordello and I'm using a cheap camera one of my customers left behind so that I can try to buy my way out:

BEETLEJUICE! BEETLEJUICE! BEETLEJUICE!

Seriously, why in the world didn't they crop this photo? On the left we see a space alien modelling the latest in wigs on Ebay. On the right: Beetlejuice as Beetlesnake (made famous in the original movie). Do we see a resemblance here!?

Go on and splurge on your woman a little. Show her you care as much as we did when we took this picture. Go ahead, you know you want it! That's right! It's a ... wait a minute, what is it again? A napkin ring?

Here we have a handbag that tempts the most discriminating of purse snatchers:

This is the wig that gives you that "Just woke up, had a cigarette, and am going shopping in a MuuMuu with bedroom slippers" look:

Finally, this is the famous photo that was taken in England years ago. It's a lesson to be learned. Apparently this isn't unusual! Who knew that people like to list their Ebay items when they're butt-nekkid?!

Lisey's Story by Stephen King

I just finished reading Lisey's Story by Stephen King. This is just another example of a book that should never have been published, and never would have been published, except for the fact that it's written by a famous author.

Lisey's Story is an interminably dull story about a tormented horror writer's wife who has been left behind to pick up the pieces after his death. Because she takes too long to sort through the papers he's left (and potentially unpublished manuscripts), a crazed fan decides to stalk her and kill her. Throughout the plot, she reminisces about her husband, who was apparently a very brutalized child who grew up into a disturbed (but relatively harmless) individual. Sound familiar?

If this is Stephen King's cry for help, it's pretty obvious. However, he takes 653 dull pages to do it in. It would have been sheer kindness to spare the reader such puerile and uninteresting (and at times downright disgusting) reading. In King's defense, this is the way most of his novels are written, and yet people still buy them.

However, I find this truly enheartening. If people will buy this crap, it's time for me to whip out a similar novel. I am currently mulling this over.

Driving

Yesterday I ran across the old video of Driving by Everything But the Girl. It's still such a lovely song and artistically the video is so very appealing, even after all these years.

Have a wonderful weekend! See you on Monday.

Clear the Building! It's Burnt Popcorn!

In Florida's city of Brooksville, over-eager Fire Chief Tim Mossgrove grandiously declared that City Hall had to be cleared out when he got a whiff of burning popcorn.

Our local paper, the St. Pete Times, thought it was somewhat comical. However, they also mentioned that Mossgrove was at City Hall to take part in budget negotiations with the Brooksville City Manager.

Brooksville is a strange little town. The only thing that it's known for is Roger's Christmas House & Village. Every fall, Brooksville attracts visitors who want to roam throughout a series of old, wooden houses that have been converted to sell Christmas items. Each house has a theme: Storybook, Tropical, Kitchen, etc. It's a charming way to spend an afternoon before you retire to a local teahouse for blueberry muffins and scones. However, it's the only thing to do in Brooksville unless you are a farmer.

So, it's understandable that Mossgrove (and Brooksville!) might want a little attention. After all, not much goes on out that way. But I find it a little ludicrous to believe that a bag of burning popcorn could clear an entire building.

Incidentally, no one has claimed responsibility.

The Claw

My brother and his son came through town unexpectedly last week. I got a call last minute asking when we could get together, so I suggested Rosie's for breakfast. Rosie's is the local hangout, famous for it's breakfasts and, of course, Rosie.

Rosie keeps her girlish figure through sheer perseverence, never tiring, always on the run. She keeps her customers through her constant, unflagging good spirits and fast service. When in doubt, breakfast at Rosie's is always a smart choice.

My nephew is now 7 years old and much better behaved than I remembered him, I'm happy to say. However, while we visited and ate breakfast, he kept his eye on The Claw.

The Claw is located within view of the entire dining room. It's a massive, glassed-in box filled with stuffed toys. At fifty cents a try, it's a child's dream and a parent's nightmare for, as most of you know, it's a rigged game. Although The Claw looks formidable, it's grasp is as weak as a dying woman with carpal tunnel syndrome. You can position it exactly over the item you want, and all it will usually do is slide limply over it, then return to it's original position, and you are out fifty cents.

My nephew wanted a particular hat desperately. He kept getting up to look at the machine, but had already been warned by his father not to ask for money. However, there is an old man there who is an expert at The Claw. When he came in for breakfast, I leaned over and asked The Regular if he'd be willing to try to get that hat. He happily agreed, I coughed up some quarters, and he and my nephew went to try their luck.

My brother sighed and said lightly "I am trying to teach him that gambling isn't good. I don't want a kid who dreams of Vegas and the slot machines. I really hope he doesn't get that hat!"

Shortly afterwards, my nephew was back. Still without the hat.

"See?" my brother asked him. "You just lost fifty cents of your allowance as well as Aunt Saur's money, and what did you get for it?"

"Nothing," his son replied reluctantly.

"Ahhh," said my brother, winking at him.

Meanwhile, Rosie was running to and fro in her usual state of harried cheerfulness, bringing us omelettes, grits, and chocolate chip pancakes. An omelette I created is now a featured item at Rosie's and my brother had to try it, and my nephew received the pancakes (loaded with chocolate chips) with great excitement. So, we tackled our breakfast and forgot about The Claw for a while.

However, after breakfast ended, The Regular called across a couple tables and asked my nephew if he was ready to try again. This was not in my brother's plans, but there was little we could do without seeming to be rude. My nephew scrambled out of the booth, I handed him a couple of dollar bills, and they went at it again, this time loudly encouraged by Rosie who kept assuring them that it was just a matter of skill.

Soon the money was exhausted and my nephew still had no hat. "Thank goodness," my brother mouthed to me. I grinned back at him. We thanked The Regular politely, waved goodbye to Rosie, and headed out the door into the Florida heat and sunshine.

Just as we reached our cars, I heard my name hollered and looked up to see Rosie racing toward us. She was waving the hat. "I told you that it was just a matter of skill," she said, laughing breathlessly, as she handed it to my nephew.

Karl Rove

Yeah, you guessed it. I'm going to address the Karl Rove situation, but briefly, because there's little to say.

Of course it's good that Rove's gone. In a news conference yesterday, President Bush still claims him as a very close friend. I believe that, if we judge people by their friends (as we should), this speaks for itself.

And, it's obviously quite silly to believe that Rove is leaving at this point in a desire to spend more time with his family. What no one is really asking, however, is why is he leaving now? Rove is, after all, a neocon and hardly a classic conservative. Therefore, his choices and policies always leave me a teeny bit confused. However, I can venture to guess (and I think I am correct).

Karl Rove is leaving now because it is simply getting too hot for him to hang on any longer without putting himself or the Republican party in further jeopardy.

The Bush administration is seeing an ever-increasing resentment concerning decisions and policies that Rove stands squarely behind. And, we are facing a Presidential election in the not-too-distant future. Since it doesn't benefit anyone to have Rove active in the current administration any more, he has been asked to step down. Asked, that is, not by President Bush (who doesn't have the sense) but by high-end Republicans who don't want any chance of losing the White House in the upcoming elections.

As Michelle Malkin said, it's a great pity Rove didn't step down a year ago (or more). However, it's better that he should step down now than not at all.

Konichewa!

Overall, I had a good time this weekened, as I was looking for merchandise to resell. Perhaps you have a stronger will than I do, but my biggest problem is looking without buying any for myself.

Now, if I were selling men's underwear, I'd have no problems restraining myself. However, I tend to sell what I like. You see, from the time I was a little girl, my mother always told me to give away gifts that I like so that if they come back to me, I can live with it. The only problem is that it makes it harder to give them away in the first place. The same applies to selling the stuff.

I got to go through Orlando, over to Daytona, and up the coast to Jacksonville in my quest. The days were lovely, the drive was easy enough, with all the stops and starts, and I enjoyed seeing new scenery along the way.

I stopped in a designer's shop at one point during my trip. She was a petite Asian woman, with a strong accentless voice. I asked her if she was from New York originally and, startled, she admitted she was.

"But you know how many people ask me what country I'm from, instead?" she asked.

She had a man who walked in recently, and said "Konichewa! Or, how do you say it where YOU'RE from?"

"I say 'Hi, howya doin,'" she said, "Cuz I'm American and I'm from New York."

The man's wife promptly hit him and apologized profusely to her.

"He had it coming," she said, philosophically.

Reading & Writing (No Arithmetic)

Another Close Family Member Publishes a Book

We now have four published authors in the family: Myself, and two other members. The fourth, my grandmother, was one of the few female journalists in the 1930s - 50s.

I'm very happy for this most recent author, and have been asked to oversee the marketing. She, on the other hand, is quite shy and doesn't like the necessary publicity she is going to have to go through in order to market the book. I will have to do a lot of cajoling and some bullying. :-P

The Art of Emails

Although emails have been decried as depersonalizing the workplace, I find that there's a great art to them. I often prefer them to speaking, as there are times it's better to say, or not to say, something in print than in person. I also find that they're a good way of keeping a distance, yet maintaining a kindly professional tone. And (admit it!), there are some people that are better kept at a distance.

One of the great bonuses of emails is The Caveat. You know - It's tacked onto the end of an email and reads something like this:

This email is intended for the intended recipient only. Should you not be the intended recipient, you will be sued or shot on sight: Whichever is easier. Should you be the intended recipient, you'd better read it and then destroy it. Whatever else you do, don't let it fall into the hands of the enemy. This message will self-destruct in 3.... 2.... 1....

I've decided to start sending out Caveats more often.

Cracking Down on Illegal Immigrants FINALLY

The New York Times mourns in it's editorial that finally we are coming to this. And yet anyone with common sense says YES! Finally! And it's about time.

Illegal immigrants do so much damage to us as a nation. Not only do they cost more than they put back into the country, but they also create a system in which higher wages are easily suppressed among legally working American adults. According to a study in 2004 by Professor Borjas of Harvard University:

• By increasing the supply of labor between 1980 and 2000, immigration reduced the average annual earnings of native-born men by an estimated $1,700 or roughly 4 percent.

• Among natives without a high school education, who roughly correspond to the poorest tenth of the workforce, the estimated impact was even larger, reducing their wages by 7.4 percent.

• The 10 million native-born workers without a high school degree face the most competition from immigrants, as do the eight million younger natives with only a high school education and 12 million younger college graduates.
When you think it about this, common sense tells us that this is true. Only in today's political climate do we need to fund a study to prove that 2+2=4.

Additionally, they drain our medical system by going to hospitals if they're suffering from even a cold, knowing that hospitals cannot turn anyone away and must treat patients even if there is no hope of payment. They don't pay, of course, and thus medical costs to legal Americans go up in order to cover this.

Crime is also increased through these illegal immigrants. Just as they choose to not obey US laws when they come into the country, most continue to disregard our laws once they're living here. In some areas, the majority of criminals wanted for violent crimes are illegal immigrants. Our jails are filled with many illegal immigrants, who will hopefully be deported once their sentences are served.

Now we are forcing employers to be responsible, for the first time in almost 30 years. I've heard it said that this will only force illegals to the welfare lines. However, welfare is NOT available to illegal immigrants. In fact, since the welfare crackdown in 1996, welfare is not easily available to many people who are legally here. And ultimately, that is why we need the illegal immigrants to leave. They're taking our jobs, driving our wages down, and yet we still are forced into lower-paying, low-end jobs because we no longer have the luxury to hold out for a good job.

It is time for illegal immigrants to leave, and it's about time that the government is cracking down on them.

Lunch at Wendy's

So over the weekend, three of us decide to go to Wendy's. Number One Son was dying to get his hands on some chicken nuggets, this is his equivalent to Mecca, and the rest of us were in rush to get to The Bourne Ultimatum, so everyone agreed on Wendy's.

We get into Wendy's, get up to the counter, and I say "I'd like a Spicy Wrap" (or whatever the heck it's called). I wait for a couple of seconds, the woman smiles back at me blankly, and I finally say "Er, is there anything that comes with that?"

"No," she says. "But you could get a fries and a drink for a dollar extra." The way she says it implies that this is a whole lotta money, and she's not sure if I can come up with that amount.

"OK," I say. "Let's do that and make it a diet Coke. Oh, and can you add a small vanilla Frosty with m&ms?" (livin' large!)

"Um," she says nervously. "You mean a... wait a minute...." she looks behind her, carefully scanning the menu. She really takes her time, and makes a big production of this. She's straining to read the board. "It's uh..." and she reads the "official" name of the treat off the lit menu board.

Yeah, thanks for reading that one off to me: Obviously it's made a great impression, as I can't think of that name for the life of me this morning.

"OK," I say. I don't really care if it's called dog vomit, but if it makes her happy to say it, fine with me.

"Er, do you want it vanilla or chocolate?" she asks.

"Vanilla," I say again.

"Anything else?" she says, seemingly oblivious to the other two people with me - the ones that I've been chatting with the entire time. I then look at her name tag, figuring I'll see the word "Rookie" on it, or "Mentally Handicapped: Be Patient", or something. Instead, it says "Manager."

"Yeah," I say. "He'll have..." and I jerk my thumb at my son.

"Number 9," says my son promptly. "With a coke. Oh, and a chocolate Frosty with m&ms, too." He looks at me and says "I don't know how you can stand vanilla."

She looks back over her shoulder again. "A whaaa...? Oh, a..." and she names the Frosty combo again. "And what flavor would you like that to be?"

"Chocolate," says my son. Again. We look at each other.

"Is that all for you, then?" she asks brightly.

"Er, no, I think he'd like to have something too," I say, pointing to the guy with us, who orders his meal.

She then goes into fully-spastic mode, getting us three drinks. It looks like a real production back there and I begin to wonder if Wendy's has some sort of special punishment for managers. Is that why she's so nervous? Maybe if she doesn't get everything perfect, a great pit in the floor will open up and shoot her straight into a large fry vat or something.

While she busies herself getting the rest of the food together, my son and I take the tray and get the condiments, etc., and set up camp in the dining area. The other guy stays behind to get the rest of the food. My son returns to wait with him, while I plant my butt in front of a large glass window overlooking a steady stream of cars: Ah, the view!

In a minute, both guys return, laughing. "What's up?" I ask.

Apparently the manager had been looking around in panic for the tray, and when Number One Son told her that it had already been delivered to the table, she nearly tore her hair out in frustration. "I don't know what I already served you," she said in great anguish. My son told her it was only three drinks. "I... oh, this is making it all so difficult," she chided them both as she scurried off to finish putting the order together.

I go up to watch this process. She finally hands over the trays with the food, and we see that one of our Frosties is only partially filled. We point it out to her. "That's as much [name of Frosty with m&ms] as we give," she says huffily. I point out that the Frosty next to it is full.

The guy with us turns to my son and says in mock seriousness, "Did you order only 3/4 of a Frosty?" I'm afraid that she's about to correct the name again, but instead she purses her lips into a fine white line, snatches the chocolate Frosty off the tray, and takes it off to another area outside of the range of our vision, where the Frosty machine isn't.

Shortly she returns with the Frosty. Now the mixed portion is below and there's a large dollop of plain chocolate Frosty on top. Since it didn't take that long to just add a little Frosty to the top, and the machine was in the other direction, I'm tempted to ask what she just did, but I say nothing. I only ask why she didn't add more m&ms and she says "Because that's the only way I can do that!" You'd think I'd asked her to build the Brooklyn Bridge out of matchsticks. My son thinks it's fine, and neither one of us would like to send the manager into the Fry Vat Beneath the Floor, so we say nothing else.

She takes her time going over everything on the tray, matching it to everything on the receipt. She's so earnest, her lips are moving slightly as she pores over it.

Finally, we all go sit down, start to eat, and the guy with us says "Oh NO!"

"What?!" we ask.

"She gave me fries when I ordered a baked potato!" he sighs.

Here we go again.

So he goes up to the Manager, who then demands the receipt, pores over it in obvious and growing frustration, and finally dramatically admits that she goofed and she owes him a potato. He gets the potato, and sits down again.

As he digs into the potato, I ask "How is it?"

"Good," he says. "But you know how much I like sour cream?"

I nod Yes.

"Well, you should've seen how she took it when I asked for some extra sour cream," he says.

Ebay Scammers & Buffoons

The more I sell on Ebay, the more disappointed I get with human nature. So far, I've had:

1. Someone try to blackmail me by threatening to return the item or give me bad feedback if I didn't send him something ELSE he wanted in addition to the item sold.

2. Someone who purchased a brand-new item, then returned a nasty, used version of the item so that he could both keep the item AND the money (I lost over $100 on that one).

3. Someone pretending to represent a major company and threaten to sue me or have my listing yanked because I was (accurately) describing the item and named the maker. When I finally realized this guy was just a scammer, and ignored him, he stopped writing. However, it took a lot of time, energy, and stress to deal with the troll.

4. Someone who left me poor (neutral - which isn't as bad as negative) feedback because an item I sold didn't come with extras.

5. Buyers who insist on having the item shipped out next day, despite my warning in the listing that it can't be (I DO have a real job, people!)

6. People who write to me, telling me what they'll give me for an item I've put on auction. Uh, hello? If I was open to suggestions, I'd add that to my listing. And no, you can't have it at a lower price: I don't care why you're specially deserving.

7. The buyers that ask questions, don't check their email, and then write increasingly hostile letters asking you why you haven't responded!

8. The sellers who sell fraudulent products and make the rest of US look suspect (most of these sellers are from asian countries, primarily China).

Needless to say, Ebay isn't what it used to be. I certainly wish there was a better auction service out there: One that would police everything, instead of allowing chaos to reign.

Poor Writing / Poor Delivery

Today I want to showcase a couple pet peeves of mine. I am feeling especially grumpy, as I've been battling a severe cold for a week. However, I suspect that when you read these, you'll be in hearty agreement:

1. Authors who poorly attempt to create a character that has unusual tastes.

For example, instead of making a particular detective merely human, he has to like obscure jazz. Now what REALLY bugs me is when they draw the other characters into the scenario. Here's an example:

Detective Snapes is listening to jazz in the dark. His boss calls and hears it in the background. His boss then asks Detective Snapes if it's the little-know tune "Jonquil" by the almost unknown band "Harry and the Hendersons". Almost unknown, that is, except to the author, who is trying to show off his impeccable taste. Snapes agrees that it is, in fact, the music that he (due to having a tortured soul and ecelectic tastes) is listening to.

OK: When have you ever liked something intellectual or obscure and found that your boss or even a colleague knows what the hell you're talking about? You'd be lucky if they knew who COLERIDGE was. And, in some instances, the name "Shakespeare" would bring blank stares. I am so sick of authors who employ this little tactic, and it's not simply one author that indulges in it - myriad authors are guilty of this easy and snobbish device.

2. Most Radio Talking Heads:
RUSH LIMBAUGH is a washed up has-been. I was a fan in the 80s, may I add hastily. However, he's been purchased by the Republican party and in a fawning attempt to please, will never go against the party line unless his listeners are so adamantly against it that he has no choice. The illegal immigration issue is one example: Rush was for them until he began to look as credible as Bill Clinton after Monica Lewinsky's blue dress came out of the freezer. What frightens me is that he still has an audience. This is, sadly, an example of how uneducated and gullible the blue collar workers are.

GLENN BECK started out as a perfect, independent moderate. But fame has turned his head. Because he is running with the Big Boys now, we are beginning to see their influence. Although there are times that he reasserts himself and will stand on his own, there are times that we see otherwise. Both sides are tugging at him, and I'm sorry to say that it appears that both are getting their hooks into him.

MICHAEL SAVAGE is often "right on" as a classic Reagan conservative (in other words, a moderate in today's political climate). But his caustic style and over-the-top viciousness at times dilutes his message. Are his advisors encouraging this? Let's all remember how Eddie Murphy's career died for a while after such blockbuster hits as "Beverly Hills Cop". Eddie began to listen more to his advisors than to his fans or his own common sense. He began to be so self-important that his career spiralled out of control until he got a grip on himself once more.

THE REST: The rest of the talk show hosts all fall roughly into the same pattern. I listened to one idiot yesterday ask sneeringly when we started calling vegetarians "vegans". Before *I* started spouting my ignorance to the world, I would grab a dictionary and look it up.

As most people know, a vegetarian eats no flesh but will eat animal by-products such as eggs and milk. A vegan will touch nothing that has come from an animal.

Then on top of that brillian rant, the moron proceeded to talk about how most vegetarians were hypocrites because they ate fish. I was ready to tear my hair out! That would make them...lessee here... NOT vegetarians! Of COURSE! And here's a tip for everyone: If you run across someone who tells you that they're a vegetarian but they eat fish, they're NOT a vegetarian. They're merely stupid. As stupid, that is, as this particular conservative talk show host.

I'm a moderate. That means that I come very close to what Glenn Beck once was (and perhaps still will be). As always, I find it hard to identify with either side, apparently because I'm educated.

Yesterday, a well-meaning friend listened to my rant and then said patronizingly that such talk shows were merely for entertainment, and the idiot anti-vegan was merely trying to stir things up for the fun of it. That's possibly a fair assessment. But, does that make it the right thing to do? And is it right that these men should be able to reach out to the mostly brainless, drooling blue-collar worker and plant ideas in his head that he will readily accept and absorb because he's too lazy to do the homework?

I am almost re-thinking The Fairness Doctrine.

The End of the Harry Potter Series?

(My apologies, in advance, to those of you who don't give a rat's behind about the Harry Potter series).

I finished reading the final Harry Potter book last week. I highly recommend it, but anyone who is interested enough to hear me highly recommend it has probably already bought and read through it.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows shows an improvement in the author's writing skills (which were woefully absent in the early books). However, one mistake is very apparent. While her young heroes go into hiding, she takes an interminably long time detailing it, boring the reader with small details which don't add to the plot, and taking up a vast number of pages to do it in. It's almost as if she felt that she needed to add a great number of pages in attempt to make the reader feel as if he's getting his money's worth.

Other than the rather dull middle, most of the book is an interesting read. When Rowling does crank it up, she can create an interesting environment worth reading about. And this particular book nicely ties up most of the loose ends. I guessed part of the outcome, and was pleasantly surprised by some things, too.

The ending is rather mundane, and is apparently Rowling's attempt to keep anyone from creating sequels involving a young Harry and his friends, but it leaves it wide open for so many spin-offs that I'm almost wondering if this is the point where Rowling will sit back on her laurels and allow ghost writers to take over.

Since the movies are two books behind, we have plenty of time to see what Hollywood and her publishers will cook up next. However, this brings me to a second point: Daniel Radcliff, the actor who's been playing Harry Potter, is really getting too old to continue to play him believably. The same can be said for the other actors who play his sidekicks. What will happen to the movies? Will new actors be chosen or are these actors so identifiable that we will have to suffer through the final two Harry Potters, watching adults pretend to be children?

And what will replace Harry Potter?

There is another magical children's book series by C.S. Lewis. The movie Narnia, which came out a couple of years ago, was an excellent summation of his first book. Perhaps it's time to dust off the other books and create a quality sequel.

Or how about the Oz series? There are oodles of books in that series, and plenty of room to create wonderful, magical worlds. One movie that was largely ignored was Return to Oz (1985). It's a pity that there weren't more movies to follow. Perhaps what killed that particular movie was the implication that Dorothy was insane and was being given shock treatments. I have to admit, it had a rather deadening effect on those of us who love fantasy.

Then there's the original Wizard of Earth series by Ursula Le Guin (Rowling came close to plagiarizing from her, and this was most apparently her source of inspiration). Le Guin did it better than Rowling, and won all sorts of awards and acclaim as a result of her efforts. I would dearly love to see such quality writing transformed onto the Big Screen. However, that would take Le Guin's agreement, and possibly she is careful about sharing such responsibility with others.

There are also other aspiring writers who are attempting to compete with the Harry Potter series. A relatively new Potter wannabe is Charlie Bone. Perhaps there's room for Charlie now that Harry has retired. The Lemony Snicket series seems to be rather prolific, as well.

One thing's for sure: Hollywood is always looking for new kid-themed material. I just hope they don't make us suffer with another version of the Care-Bears.

At Last

Today is a Saturday that I have all to myself. No garage sales, nowhere to go, nothing to do, no obligations whatsoever!

...and I'm sick.

The universe has conspired against me to create a vast injustice.

After a shot of cold medicine, I am returning to bed. However, I hope that YOU guys will have a wonderful weekend, wherever you are and whatever you're doing.

Happy Weekend!

Geico's Cavemen to Debut in TV Show

In an either brilliant or idiotic move (only time will tell), Geico has decided to turn their cavemen's appeal into big bucks on the TV screen.

Some reporters are getting their jollies tearing it apart before it's even debuted. One reporter remarked snidely that it was ironic that a bunch of white men are trying to write a TV show about discrimination and questioned their ability to do so since they may have never encountered it themselves.

It makes you wonder how they made the movie Alien. Perhaps there's more to Ridley Scott than we know.

I am SO very tired of hearing that we can't identify with persecution or racism. Stop the printing presses everyone! Let's remove every book written in the female perspective by a male author. If he hasn't menstruated, he can't possibly understand the female psyche!

Puhleeze.

I despise reverse discrimination as much as I despise discrimination itself. I don't want to hear one more self-serving whiny moron complain that you can only understand "it" if you've lived "it". That destroys the years of hard work, genuine ethics, and any intelligence that people have displayed when they rise above themselves to help others.

As for the Geico Cavemen show, I think it will rise or fall on it's own merits although I have a hard time believing there's that much material out there.

I prefer to think of the cavemen leading rather ordinary lives, with occasional disruptions that are showcased in the Geico commercials. I would like a little left to my own imagination, please. What I'm afraid of is that they will be reduced to something less brilliantly ironic than they currently are.

Just as Geico already destroyed their gecko by giving him a cockney accent, they are in jeapordy of destroying another brilliantly conceived marketing ploy. Sometimes too much of a thing is not a good thing. I suspect this is one of those instances.

Time to Move to Mexico

Click here for some helpful tips on moving to Mexico (a special "thank you" to Bryan for pointing me there).

Sex Abuser Ordered to Live With Victims

I want to say "Only in Florida." I want to, perhaps in the hopes that it's true. I certainly would hate to find that such miscarriages of justice and parenting couldn't exist in other parts of the country. However, I suspect that this is not the case, and what has happened in the Tampa Bay Area could and does happen elsewhere, too.

Recently, a 13 year old boy who sexually molested his 4 and 7-year-old brothers has been court-ordered to return home. As the St. Pete Times article stated:

When she balked, the mother said, protective investigators threatened to charge her with child abandonment if she didn't let him return.

Now her husband sleeps with the two younger children on a pallet of blankets in the living room to guard them at night.

How have we, as a society, come to THIS?

Now, I hasten to add that his mother is no angel. Both she and her ex-husband have abused and allowed abuse repeatedly in their home, as records show. As my grandmother always said, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Children are almost always a direct reflection of parenting.

However, we now have the opportunity to take the monster out of the home, or create even more victims. Why would we choose to put him back in that home?

The article also tells us that agencies are scrambling to find alternatives to get him out of there just as fast as he's been put back in. However, this should never have happened. There should have been an alternative from the beginning: No sane judge should have made such a ruling, and no well-structured, responsible society should tolerate it.

Interesting, Breaking Stories

By now you may have heard that the 6 medics have been freed from Libya due to an "arrangement" made between Libay and the EU, which includes rebuilding a hospital for Libya. The medics now say that they were forced to confess due to torture, which had been suspected all along. The EU is sending the message that they WILL negotiate with terrorists.

The Bush administration is instructing Harriet Meiers to defy Congress and refuse to testify in upcoming hearings. Congress is threatening to take that to court, but the Bush administration remains unfazed, announcing that they will instruct the Attorney General to disregard Congress on this matter.

Some people are incensed about this, but others (including the Clintons' former legal counsel) reluctantly admit that Bush is completely in the right. For an excellent story on this, go to Salon's article on the pros and cons of this brouhaha. For the record, it makes me very uneasy to see this continued interpretation of the Presidency which places the President above all the other branches of government.

New York State has an interesting and terrible scandal at this moment. Democratic Gov. Spitzer's aides conspired with the state police to gather evidence in an attempt to destroy a Republican politician. Spitzer is now doing damage control.

But, does any of this really surprise us? No matter what party these politicians are from, the majority of them appear to be either corrupt or corruptible. As for police, the same statement may apply. That isn't to say that all police or politicians fall under that category, but temptations abound when you are in absolute power and have the capacity to wield it. It takes a strong and stellar individual to rise above such behavior, and there aren't many of those.

Harry Potter

This was Harry Potter weekend for many of us. We went to see the newest Harry Potter movie, and I have to say that I think it was very good. The screen writers obviously took a very lonnnnng book and did their best to compile it in a short timespan of only a couple of hours. Given their limitations, they performed admirably.

Three of my favorite actors, Alan Rickman, Gary Oldman, and Emma Thompson, made a repeat performance but sadly none of them were given as much screen time as they should have been accorded. The newest addition to the ever-changing cast is Imelda Staunton, who also proves herself to be an adept actress. Bless her heart, she has taken on a formidable task and has now made enemies of every Harry Potter fan out there. However, she plays the character so beautifully, it is still a treat to watch.

Of course the latest (and supposedly last) book in the series came out this week, too. I have my copy and I'm faithfully tackling it, in between all the adult duties I must undertake. I wish I were simply a child out of school on summer break so that I could read it through in one sitting. And, ultimately, that is what Harry Potter is all about for those of us who are adults: We are recapturing our childhood throughout this wonderful series.

Garage Sale

I'm out in the muggy heat, battling mosquitoes and dealing with dumbasses for a measely 5 cents per item. See you guys later!

Florida's Car Insurance Crisis

On October 1st, Florida's requirement that all car drivers carry PIP (Personal Injury Protection) will expire. If that is allowed to happen, due to the way that Florida law is structured, NO driver will be required to own car insurance.

This will place us with only 2 other states who also don't require car insurance. However, we're not a little ma-and-pa state any more: We have the 3rd largest population of millionaires in the entire USA (most of them are on the east coast of Florida, which is opposite to the Tampa Bay Area).

We also have plenty of people who will quickly become uninsured motorists within a short amount of time. Currently, it is estimated that a full 1/3 of our population will abandon car insurance within 12-18 months after the requirements are dropped. (Many won't drop their insurance immediately because they won't realize that it's an option).

What does this mean?

Let's think this through logically: If 1/3 of the population won't have car insurance, how will this affect the remaining 2/3 that do?

1. Whenever an unisured motorist is involved in an accident, both parties will end up in court. The court system will be overwhelmed with accident claims, because there will no longer be insurance companies to work it out for us.

2. In order to protect themselves, the remaining 2/3 who own car insurance will now have to add an additional policy rider for uninsured motorists, thus raising their rates considerably.

3. Car insurance companies will be casting about for ways to save their profits. It will only make sense for them to raise the rates on the remaining 2/3 in order to make up for their loss of the 1/3. This will put an increasingly large financial burden on the majority of the drivers.

4. Uninsured motorists will not be required to have a certain amount of money tucked away if they drive without insurance. That means that when (not if) a poor, uninsured motorist causes a terrible accident, he will not be able to pay for the medical bills and damage to the other car. Who will pay? Well, you can't get blood out of a stone, as my mother always says. So, the victim will have to either attempt to get money from her own car or health insurance company. The problem is that her insurance companies may refuse to pay under such circumstances or they'll pay and her rates will skyrocket as a result of it!

Currently, Florida's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Alex Sink is begging the Governor and legislature to put a temporary halt on everything for two years, until they have time to educate themselves on the ramifications of this. Many insurance groups are doing the same, which may be self-serving but is still, in actuality, correct because it will affect us all. Terribly.

My Mosquito-Ridden Life

I just won a big argument on Ebay. Someone had stolen a couple of the pictures I'd taken (I do take excellent pics worthy of being stolen). I had a fit, contacted Ebay, and demanded that they be taken down. They agreed, and the pics were removed. I gather this happens all the time, so it's really not worthy of notice except to seque into the topic of mosquitoes in Florida.

I am outdoors often. Although I usually work from home, there are reasons to be out and about. For one thing, I am always taking those pictures that I mentioned. To take a really GREAT picture (not merely a good one), you need full-blown, high wattage sunlight.

So in the summer, the dedicated outdoor photographer has runnels of sweat cascading down her back and pooling in her bra, back cramps from bending over, and mosquito bites. Lots of them.

No matter how much insect repellant you've sprayed on yourself, or how many times you repeat it, some mosquitoes have apparently built up an immunity. These b*tches (the only mosquitoes that bite are female) seem to feel that it's worth biting you anyway, poison-be-damned. I can only hope that their offspring mutates in an undesirable way, but it's more likely that they're building up a tolerance and passing that on to the next generation.

Even worse, any trips in or outside will bring at least one mosquito indoors. They are prolific breeders, and this is the time of year when they're swarming. They swarm more than paparrazzi, and are more annoying than those horrid Las Vegas radio commercials that make you want to turn your engine off and use your keys to gouge your eardrums out. (What, they don't make you want to do that? Then I'm betting that you haven't heard Tanya Roberts' grating and patronizing tones).

This is why it's truly funny to see an article today giving us advice on how to minimize mosquito bites.

One suggestion is to wear light-colored clothing. Puhleeze! We've all tried that. This is supposed to alert you when there is a mosquito landing on you so that you have time enough to swat her. The problem is that the moment that you are out the door, you are set upon by so many mosquitos that you could potentially be carried off, as the little flying monkeys carried Dorothy off to visit with the Wicked Witch of the West.

Another suggestion mentions that we should use repellant that contains DEET. My mosquitoes aren't phased by DEET. They drink it as a shot, followed by a chaser of blood. In fact, I rather suspect they'd be sorely disappointed if I were missing the delightful tang of DEET.

I'll certainly agree that standing water needs to be eliminated, but what do we do when we have moronic neighbors who don't do it? I admit I've been tempted to lob bug bombs over the fence, but it certainly won't help neighborly relations, will it?

What happened to those good old-fashioned mosquito trucks that would silently travel through town in the middle of the night, spraying toxic fumes into the air? Is this just one more example of something that has died out due to political correctness? Were people complaining that it wasn't healthy? I'll tell you what isn't healthy: Mosquitoes. And right now, there are no good solutions to the problem.

Kibbles n' Bits

Brit Buys Pup

Today's title is in honor of Britney Spears, who recently walked into a pet store and plunked down $3K for a puppy. Some society representing pound dogs is having a fit, saying that pound dogs are every bit as good as any other dog. Well, no: They aren't. I own a purebred poodle and a malti-poo and I can actually breathe because I spent the extra money to get dogs I'm not allergic to. Yorkies are also hypoallergenic. So, although I'm not a Britney fan, I see this as a shameless publicity ploy on the part of [insert society name here].

SCHIP

Currently there is a Democratic attempt to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or Schip. Schip is a program that provides health insurance to children from families that are poor, but not so poor that they qualify for Medicaid. Republicans are scrambling to see if they can beat the Dems at their own game by devising their OWN version.

Although the Wall Street Journal calls this "stealthy, slow-motion socialism", I beg to differ. We became a socialistic nation many years ago, beginning with Roosevelt's New Deal.

This reminds me of the old joke from my grandparents' time: A wealthy man met a lovely young girl of loose morals during an elegant dinner party. She flirted with him wildly, encouraging his attentions, until he was emboldened enough to ask her if she'd sleep with him for a million dollars. She grinned and said that for such a sum of money, perhaps something could be arranged.

"Well then," asked the man, "Would you sleep with me for a dollar?"

The girl gasped. "What kind of a girl do you think I AM?" she demanded.

"We've already established THAT," replied her suitor. "NOW we're just haggling on the price."

The United States already IS a socialist nation. We're just trying to figure out how far we want to go.