It's New Year's Eve

So, here we are. Another year gone. Older, maybe wiser? Here's something to chew on. If you hate your job, are you going to update your resume' and put out the word that you're looking to make a change? No? Then how will anything happen? You need to act, not talk about major changes. Like for instance, if you're in a bad relationship, now would be a good time to make the move to get out of it. The thing about relationships is that once they go bad, they don't turn good again. So what the hell are you waiting for, magic? This is a good time to formulate your plans to change the things about your life that you know need changing. Make a list of actions you will take and a timetable. Stick to it. Otherwise, before you know it, your ass will be dead and you will have left this world wondering what might have been.

Merry Christmas!
On this day, be thankful if you have your family around you. My friend has just found herself to be the mom to her nieces and nephew. She and her partner have been trying to conceive a child for a long while. It has been very difficult. A week ago, the mother of 3 children ages 5, 7 and 8 set her apartment on fire and then tried to kill herself. She is mentally ill and a drug addict. She was committed to the psychiatric ward for observation. When my friend went to the hospital to pick her up and take her to drug rehab, she was gone from the hospital. No one knows where she went. Meanwhile, my friend's brother, who has not had much contact with his kids and has his own problems, is willing to sign over guardianship to my friend. So, she now has the family she and her partner have been hoping for. They have already enrolled the kids in the local school. Next, they will try to find healthcare that they can afford. They don't have a lot of money. Despite everything that has gone on in their young lives, these are nice kids. They deserve a good home. Now they have one.

It's Christmas Eve. I think I'll take the day off from the antics of gwb and his cronies. Today, I wish everyone a peaceful Christmas. For some, that means that Dad won't yell at them for being loud, that Mom won't smack them for dropping cookies all over the carpet. For others, it means no argument with the spouse about whose family has more assholes per capita. I hope the guy across the street will give his teenage daughter a break and stop shouting at her for an hour or so. And I hope the other guy across the street will stop berating his little boy, just for the morning maybe. The meaning of Christmas is completely lost on some people. The guy across the street was yelling at his little boy about putting up the decorations on their balcony. Duh. To all of those people who have no clue I say...stop and think before you speak. You will never get these times with your kids back. There is no do-over for childhood. The memories your kids are forming now will be with them forever. Make some different memories this Christmas. Try speaking instead of shouting. Try doing what your kids want to do, for once. Try being nice.

Let's acknowledge what is happening to us. The Bush administration is discounting the significance of the constitution and running roughshod over the middle class, the poor and other outsiders. Citizens are being spied upon under the guise of homeland security. The hurricane disaster continues to ruin lives through the wholescale neglect of the victims. The United States military can no longer hold itself up as a civilized army since we now know that we have committed government- sanctioned torture of suspected enemies. The following quote was found on Huffingtonpost.com. I wish I had said it and I cannot find it again to give proper credit to its author.

On Bush...

"Will someone please give this man a blow job so that we can impeach him?"

I carry a digital camera in my car. The main reason is because I pass by Midway airport in Chicago every day. I go through the intersection that is at this moment occupied by a big jet. I don't feel freaked out or anything...no thoughts of "oh my god, that could have been me!" I don't know why.
It took me about 20 minutes to go half a mile after work today because the plane is still sitting in the middle of the street and there are network news trucks and gawkers all over the damn place. The morons who don't watch or read the news tried to go south on Central Avenue and then when they realized that they couldn't, they decided to make turns from whichever lane they happened to be in. It's days like this that I really wish I had a hood-mounted machine gun. Just kidding.
Considering the number of planes that go in and out of that airport every day, it is really very safe. That's cold comfort for the folks who experienced the crash, I know. But, it is not a reason to call for closing the airport or limiting the size or number of planes that can use it. The people who live close to the airport know the danger. They don't dwell on it, but they know.

I think it is good that the marshal shot the wack job who said he had a bomb. Maybe if the terrorists know that we have armed guards on the airplanes who aren't afraid to shoot, we can stop the silly screening process that is such a Bushian idea. Having little old ladies take off their shoes and submit to searches is about as stupid as Bush sending Brownie to handle the hurricane disaster. We can get rid of all of the screeners and just keep the metal detectors and get more bomb sniffing dogs. The money we used to spend on the screening people should be spent on armed guards for every flight. Shooting someone every so often should help keep the bad guys off our planes.
When are we going to let go of the "Pearl Harbor Day" wailing and gnashing of teeth that goes on every December 7th? Jesus, people. Hasn't anything else happened in the decades since? Let's see, there was the Viet Nam debacle, the assassinations, the Nixon era. I could go on and on, but you get the point. Why do we keep dredging all of that old hatred up again? The Japanese caught us with our pants down. They kicked our ass. We nuked their cities. I'm sure it was terrible for those who lived it, but we can't keep rekindling hatred for people in the nations we have had wars with. Soon there won't be anyone we don't hate! I mean the wars just keep on coming, folks. So how about let's not do the whole "Day of Infamy" next year, ok?