Nearest Distant Shore

Just Say No to Science

My anger at George W. Bush's latest idiocy has left me unable to put together any coherent post on the subject, but this issue is too important for me to just let it go by unremarked, so I decided to post links to some other folks' words on the subject:

Kerri at Six Until Me. is always thoughtful, reasoned and articulate, and her post on the veto is all of those things, as well as very personal:

And I don’t want to turn back.  I’m tired of the “Five More Years Promise.”  The possibility of a cure is a bitter taste I wake up with in my mouth.  I want my chance.  I am twenty-seven years old and I want my chance to experience my life without diabetes.  Diabetes will never quiet my ambition or temper my dreams, but it has the potential to shorten my life.  This September will mark my twentieth year with diabetes and I want nothing more than to feel strong and hopeful for my healthy future.

Several of the Diabetes OC bloggers wrote heartfelt, impassioned letters to Mr. Bush.  I hope that they'll send them to him; unfortunately, I know that even if they do, he doesn't give a damn.

Kassie at Noncompliant is brief and lethally on-point as she looks for an explanation:

Invade Iraq. Kill their soldiers and ours. Kill their civilians. All in the name of protecting us from a potential threat. This was, according to our 'leaders', the right thing to do.

Acquire and use the stem cells of embryos that will never be born. All in the name of saving lives and defending ourselves against actual illnesses. This is "crossing a line".

I just don't get it, (not my) President Bush.

Finally, Jon Stewart tries to make sense of the whole thing.

As one writer put it, Bush reserved his first veto as president for one of the only valuable things this do-almost-nothing Congress has managed to actually get done (source). 

I am continually astonished at the callousness and ignorance this administration proudly displays, and I'm counting the days until January 20th, 2009.

Thursday Thirteen: Brain Dump

1. It doesn't do for me to take any time off.  Even though I had worked straight through for more than three weeks, taking three days off has rendered me fairly useless since. 
2. The summer I was pregnant with Liam I practically lived on ice cream and Dole fruit-and-juice bars (raspberry or strawberry; I didn't like the grape ones).  This summer has been much the same, with heavy favoritism given to ice cream.
3. Next week I'm taking a class to learn some computer software that will allow me to expand my job responsibilities with one of my clients.  I'm very excited at the opportunity.  Plus, school, even if it's just one day.
4. Never going to college is one of my biggest regrets, and I'm so envious of Jen's new venture.  Once I'm able to move from survival mode and into actually living my life again, I swear I'm going to take some classes.  My head needs feeding.
5. Liam is spending the entire weekend with his daddy, and I feel the need to do something besides work and clean house.  Should I go see a movie?  Sit in a coffeehouse with a book?  Of course, you know where I really want to go, but saying it out loud is more effective than a rain dance in ensuring I won't be able to.
6. My life is a strange melange these days.  I swing between terror that I can't pay the bills and quiet satisfaction at my bank account, untouched by any hand but mine.  I'm often irritated with S for his frequent lack of dependability and relieved that for the most part, that's no longer my problem.  I'm enjoying my own company and the quiet solitude of an empty house, but beginning to see the holes where a social life of some sort should be.
7. Too much time for thinking is rarely a good thing for me.  And I think I'm getting to that place, if indeed I'm not there already.  It's too easy for me to focus on the might-have-beens and really difficult to see the good things all around me.
8. I need a laptop with a wireless connection.  Too often in these past crazy weeks I've wanted to read my favorite blogs and maybe even write something myself, but simply could not face another hour at my desk.  Maybe Santa will bring me one.
9. Yes, Santa.  When you live with a little boy, the letter-writing to Santa begins approximately December 26th.
10. Of all the changes I've made this spring and summer, the most unexpected one is that I've stopped drinking coffee.  It's not for health reasons or any other specific reasons that I could point to, but I just realized that making coffee of a morning was simply habit, and that I really didn't care all that much about the actual coffee, so I quit.  We'll see what happens when cool weather returns.
11. This doesn't mean I've quit caffeine, but my caffeine consumption is way down, too.  I might have a glass of Diet Sundrop mid-morning, but mostly it's water (6-8 liters a day) and lots of decaf iced tea.  And a beer or two when I'm making supper, of course. 
12. Of the seven books in my tote bag that I will return to the library today, I've only read three.  And I didn't love any of them.  That's dismal.
13. Clearly, I need some help getting out of this rut.  What should I do this weekend?  Read any good books lately?  Any new music you want to share?  Want to come whisk me away and take me on a road trip?  The weekend is filled with possibilities!

Just for Jen

...who nags because she loves.

Let's see, where to start?  The summer is half over and I've only been to the beach twice.  I'm terrified that I'll have a slow work month and be unable to pay the bills, so I've taken on more work than I can really handle.  S still doesn't have a job and apparently feels no obligation to find one or to pay child support.  To his credit, he did have Liam with him a lot while he was on summer break, and that was just about as good, but now that Liam is back to school, he'll be here with me during the week.  At some point I suppose S and I will have to hash all this out, but that requires more time that I've got and more mental energy than I've been able to summon.

Liam had a good summer break, spending lots of time being adored by his grandparents and lots of time being a couch potato video-game afficionado with his father.  He got the teacher he wanted for second grade and a lot of his friends are in his class.  I think there were only about five kids out of 24 that he didn't already know.  I know that year-round school isn't for everyone, but I really like it for our family, and honestly, aside from the nervousness that is natural on the first day of school, I think Liam was as ready to go back as I was to send him.  We do better with a routine, and any pretense of one went out the window during this break, so school starting today is a very good thing.

After spending the last several weeks chained to my desk (more than three weeks with no day off), I took three days off and I'm finding it very difficult to settle into work today, whch is why I was able to oblige Ms. Jennifer almost on demand, because today, to me, anything is better than working.  Not the healthiest of attitudes, and I'll pay for it later without a doubt, but there you have it.

I have lots of half-composed posts that will likely remain unfinished, mostly because lately I'm convinced that I have absolutely nothing to say of any interest to me or anyone else.  There's a lot of stuff in my head but I'm not able to put it in any remotely coherent form.  I'm sort of in survival mode, happy most of the time with the decision that I made, but still not sure how I'm going to keep the boat afloat.  Money is a constant worry, and when you are worried about money, it affects every aspect of how you move in the world.  We're actually mostly okay, but it's so tenuous that I don't know when-if-I'll ever be able to relax about it.

But there have been moments of lightness, moments of hope, even moments of what I suspect might be happiness (it's hard to recognize something you've not seen in awhile).  I'm aiming for serenity and joy as frequent companions, so if you see them, send them this way, okay?

Let Freedom Ring

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

(reposted from last year; more relevant than ever)