ratman.com

excerpt:
 

Christina Turner feared that she might have been sexually assaulted
after two men slipped her a knockout drug. She thought she was taking
proper precautions when her doctor prescribed a month’s worth of
anti-AIDS medicine.

Only later did she learn that she had made herself all but uninsurable.

Turner had let the men buy her drinks at a bar in Fort Lauderdale.
The next thing she knew, she said, she was lying on a roadside with
cuts and bruises that indicated she had been raped. She never developed
an HIV infection. But months later, when she lost her health insurance
and sought new coverage, she ran into a problem.

rape victim’s choice: risk AIDS or health insurance?

what a week.

my wife and i hit our 16th year of marriage. we celebrated by taking in a show and then returning home for a meal that i cooked for the family. it’s a family affair, these anniversaries. there is nothing wrong with that. they all have been a part of the past years, so having the family celebrate is a good thing. i love my better half. she makes the ride most bearable!

my son jon spent most of the week enjoying his first homecoming week. bonfires, school color classes, a visit to the school from dan hampton with the week capped by the home coming dance.

for his birthday i got him a suit for the dance. i know. crappy present. but he liked it! here he is in all his glory…

homecoming 2009 oswego east high school

he went stag to the dance, not unlike his dad all those years ago. at around 10p, i received a text asking if i could drive his date home after the dance. date? he didn’t have one.

turns out that his dates, date, had some change of heart during the dance, and the next thing you know, he’s got a date. nice girl. hanna is her name. apparently they are boyfriend/girlfriend. we’ll see how long that lasts. he had a good time and looked good to.

then, on sunday, jon spent his 15th birthday just hanging out. he graciously helped me around the house, and we enjoyed a cake at the end of the night. i’m starting to feel really old.

my wife finally got her student teaching paperwork. she’ll be working in a school in plainfield. though she wanted to work in oswego, that was not to be. but knowing that she is placed, has lightened her load a bit. congrats michele. i am so very – very proud of you and the work that you are doing.

this week also included balloon boy. what a stunt. kid floats away in a helium filled balloon. uh. i don’t think so. but virtually every news organization on the planet followed this to it’s conclusion. this was such a non event. it was never even plausible to me as i have had a 6 year old. they are pretty heavy. the balloon wasn’t that well built to have carried him away. i just never believed it. today, it appears charges will be placed on the family and the costs of the search recouped. damn straight. what goofs.

health care seems to be moving along but not, as they say in poker, all in. it seems that the public option has been left somewhere, and not anyplace that seems useful. this troubles me. and, unlike any number of people, i blame the house and senate for this. the president did what he said he would do. let the folks that last time, during the clinton years, the house and senate wanted. to be involved. well. look where that put us. a watered down version of a public health reform bill. as to the media involvement, if you’re smart, you can simply go out and find the answers that you want on any of the governmental sites that are available. if you believe what you are told by the likes of beck, hannity, rush or the like, then you are simply not informed but rather entertained. but really folks. this isn’t a movie or a half hour entertainment show. this is our lives we are talking about here. there are very few things that are as important. so. go out and get your own answers. then make an informed decision. and stop listening to the entertainers.

afghanistan. lets take our time, and get it right. move the military that are in indefensible outposts in to more populous cities and regions. there has been a ton of talk about how many al qaeda are in the country. i keep asking myself how we, or anyone knows this. they don’t wear tags or name badges. so how do we know how many of any faction are in the country. i just don’t understand. and if we really do know how many there are, then this should be easier than it is. and since the election in country is so up in the air, we should probably wait until it is settled correctly, before we allow any more of our country men and women to serve in that country. so taking all the time required seems like the prudent thing to do. we can’t leave. pakistan is too close. anyone over running their country would be a blow to the entire middle east. so we must figure out a way to protect and server the region. but again, not until there is a government in place.

that’s about it. i’m done with the soap. i guess i just needed to vent.

sure. you can find the definition of indoctrinate in any dictionary. here is a link to m-w.com.

ok.

here is what it says:

1: to instruct in fundamentals or rudiments : teach
2: to imbue with a usually partisan or sectarian opinion, point of view, or principle

this definition can be placed with any number of people or groups, as it is expressed by the dictionary. my opinion on just a few of those, are listed below:

boy or girl scouts
church
the military
community groups
indian guides
anti-government groups
gangs

now. not all of these groups are bad. and, since we live in the united states, all of them have an equal right to exist.

however. to accuse the current administration of ‘indoctrinating’ our children to believe that they should help others and be involved in their community in a good way? nothing wrong with that.

the thought that the current administration is ‘indoctrinating’ any person within the united states to do anything other than what they might want to do, is ludicrous. in my mind, we have spent years, more than the 8 brought forth by the bush administration, spending time being self-centered and obsessed with our own personal world, that we have forgotten what made our country great all those years ago. the fact that we helped and supported each other.

the go west folks back in the day, helped others build lodging, fences, banding together in wagon trains across this great land. we did it together. we picked each other up and helped each other along.

for the administration to want to help us go forward and help each other is a bad thing, is just wrong. often, i will see stuff laying in the middle of the street. like a bag of someone trash. it only takes me a minute to stop and grab it. thus keeping it from further messing up my neighborhood. i have tried to teach my kids that same type of service. why? because it benefits us all.

so. indoctrinate me. make me think of all the things that i can do to help my neighbors. my fellow american citizens. i haven’t a problem with that at all.

not…

turtle wax has a product out called black box. it’s a 2 step black tinted wax for black cars. a while back, i had a go at it.

i spent 6 and a half hours putting it on. my arms were tired. it looked really nice in most places. but some of the places that i really wanted it to look nice in, well, not so much.

now. it’s been a  couple months, and really, not very good at all.

would i recommend it? nope. skip it and get something you trust.

back to meguiars and ice.

my kids go to school in oswego district 308. when i first heard about the speech that the president was going to give the school children of the united states a pep talk, be it on the first day of classes, or as in my kids case, a couple weeks into class, i was all for it. how cool to have the president tell my kids to work hard, set goals and get everything out of school that is possible so that their lives can improve to the fullest once they graduate. making what i have been telling them for years come from someone that should be honored and respected. i was looking forward to having a discussion when i got home with the kids to see what they thought. to see if they were impressed, bored, what exactly they thought about it.

sigh.

that was until friday, the 4th.

the oswego 308 district superintendent called with a robo call telling all us parents that they will record the speech, and after review, maybe show the kids later in the week, month, year. wait! what?

why this decision? is it because of all the hoopla brought forth from the right talking heads? those that choose to spew evil thoughts with everything that this president wants to do, no matter what it is?

the lack of respect for the current president of the united states of america is just mind boggling.

i liked bush senior. i thought that he was a pretty good president. he handled an awful lot of what happened during his presidency with the kind of urgency that all presidents should. i was a backer of the clinton administration. yes i thought that his monika moment was, well, about the stupidest thing that anyone one could do, but i still backed and respected him for he was the president.

bush junior, however, was, well, less impressive. though i was certainly hand in hand with him after the attacks of 9/11, it wasn’t long after that, that i began to see our personal liberties take a dramatic and painful hit. not that i really believe that he would have used all that power to listen to my phone calls to my wife, my friends, my clients. but the fact that i could have been included was perplexing.

however. when he started to change more of the rules, and not get the kind of blow-back that is happening now to our current president, i was amazed. thinking back, msm was, well, less than nice to the president bush junior, but not in the way that msm, or specifically fix network is now. certainly there were times, in fact funny times where president bush practically asked for some of the things that he received. it happens. we all make word or action mistakes, and the media has always been there to pounce on those actions and word gaffs. his administrations handling of katrina and other disasters that befell the people of the united states was not as appropriate as we the people should have expected.

but what is happening now, is, well shameful.

president obama is our president. he has the opportunity to serve as such for 4 to 8 years. the ability to start a socialist government, a fascist government or anything other than the democracy that we have now, in those 4 to 8 years, is, well, ludicrous. to think that talking to school kids is ‘indoctrination’ is just nuts. to believe that any of the other right wing spew is valid is also just crazy.

president obama is being blamed for bills that he didn’t even write. options that he didn’t even include, except for the idea that there were some things that he would very much like to see in the bill that hits his desk. but he has yet to put a pen to paper in writing any of this. it was to be left to the house and senate. the people that are the voice of the states and districts that they represent. yet. he is being blamed for things that, again, he hasn’t written. he simply asked for some things to be included. and there should be nothing, nothing wrong with that.

what will it take for the united states of america to become united? i think, for the moment, it won’t be. until people wake up and smell the coffee and realize that this country is so much greater than we are being led to believe, we’ll just keep fighting about the same old crap. there is nothing united about us now, in the least. we are 300 million individual colonies. that just makes no sense.

bottom line. i will find his speech online, and let my kids watch it at home.

end of line…

and we will be stuck with even higher costs to be covered, higher deductibles and preexisting condition refusal.

people that loose their jobs will be stuck with cobra prices and will then forfeit health care because they won’t be able to find the money to pay for it.

i hope that after this happens, that all the people that are denied coverage or can no longer pay their bills, take those bills and forward them off to those that spent so much time stopping this from bettering the country. including, but not limited to those that spent so much time protesting on tv and now, find themselves with big gaping holes in their ability to pay for the care that they need.

or…

people can go and read the bills that are, or have been, brought forth. They can actually see, for themselves, that noting they have been told by most of the people they have been listening to, that they have been lied to the whole time.

this is not the presidents fault. he is simply the person that started (well, really, thankfully, the clintons) this down the road again. what i truly enjoy are the numbers being bantered around that suggest that, say, 8 in 10 don’t want this. they haven’t called the people around me. not all of them agree, but the number isn’t 8 of 10.

dear president obama. don’t stop, and for americas sake, leave the public option in play. there is nothing wrong with wanting to make the country better, even when some can’t see the benefit. don’t show your cards yet. the flop hasn’t even finished being laid on the table yet!

please.

ps. and think further about this. what if this starts another campaign to remove, or worse, really privatize social security, a government run program? or what about medicare/medicaid? no wait? we still want those government run programs, because they work and help people in need. hmmmmm. then, as asked over and over and over again… what’s the problem???

pretty good listen. no kiddies. this isn’t for you, it’s for us adults…

It’s a little old, and NSFW, but still interesting…

there is some stompin’ going on with what secretary of state clinton said about the election in the year 2000. someone even offered that it was slanderous to make the statement. hmmm. how many slanderous statements have been made in the recent past? too many to count on ‘big blue’.

so. there are certainly people that believe the election(s) were both taken, and as opinions, as well as first amendant rights, to express them is totally ok by me. as long as there isn’t a threat of death (like the smart donkey with the sign), bodily injury or harm of another nature, if your in politics, you need to learn to have thick skin. if you don’t then you need a new job.