When we stop trusting the government

Does anyone trust our government process anymore?

74% of the American people want to end the war in Iraq.

Is government no longer us but lobbying interests and government officials?

Maybe it's time for a new party to emerge- A party which speaks for the people.

Sleep-where is it? Danger-Cat in Heat...

My male cat lies by the doorway sliding his paw under the bottom touching paws with his sister. She's spending time in the upstairs bedroom sending off every estrogen signal possible.

That's all he's going to get, let me tell ya.

I haven't slept for three nights.

The Vet told me to wait until she was six months old. That is this month. She is scheduled to be spayed next week. He is scheduled for his own surgery.

What I didn't know is how insistent she is and how excruciating her caterwauling can be. Sleep is not an option.

From everything I have read heat takes anywhere from three to seven days.

I'm tempted to just let her have him so I can get some sleep.

Mating for a purpose just seems so much more urgent than casual sex, huh?

Nevada-A Bastion of Loonies

Welcome to Nevada-and you thought Mississippi was bad..

Proud state of being last in just about everything:

-Last in education funding per student

Last in our willingness to advocate for the homeless

-Last in our ability to protect children's rights

-Last in our ability to protect women and children from domestic violence

We are however, FIRST in auto thefts in the nation!

First in the highest foreclosure rates in the nation

The above people are here to tell you the story of the latest Las Vegas debacle-this of course, after coming off a year of arresting , and placing three of our esteemed county commissioners in prison for accepting bribes from a strip club owner -who actually got the lightest sentence.

One of those commissioners was a 60 year old grandma who sent her grandson to an expensive ski camp with the bucks..but more on that later, as two more are in the process of investigation for stealing campaign money...news when it happens!!

The first photo is an outdated, (sad in any form actually) of the owner of the Las Vegas Review Journal-a better read than any National Enquirer you encounter-

he supported the little guy with the weak chin-above-our current governor extraordinaire-who needs to take his meds more often-more on that later.

Sherman Fredrick believes Child Protective Service workers -one of sorriest in the nation-should be required to pay for their own training. At first I thought he was jesting-then realized he is not only serious he eats cake while the poor starve...

He believes in the Iraq War and is still trying to convince the voters in Nevada that everyone else in the country does as well. Since the LVRJ is the largest newspaper in the state he writes his fairy tales leisurely and no one seems to take him seriously although no one seems to want to throw his ass out either. Such is apathy in a town of corruption.

He has spent the last year telling everyone the housing market in Las Vegas is fantastic while every other CREDIBLE news source writes about the overinflated housing prices and the rising default rate. (e.g. NY Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal...even the Iowa Times reports it- haha)He continues to write about a strong job market, people moving in droves to live in this overpriced town.

Actually, the Las Vegas housing market in currently the WORST in the nation.

Nothing like getting the real news to the people, eh?

Well, he supported Gov. Jim Gibbons-the guy above, with the weak chin? He was voted in last year amidst a scandal of attacking a woman in the parking garage in Las Vegas. Of course, in this town discrediting a woman is an easy thing to do-so that was no big deal-just call her a slut, put a few risque pictures in the Las Vegas Review Journal-courtesy of Sherman-and trash her daily until the election.

No problem. Jim Gibbon's problems didn't go away-the FBI is investigating him for accepting money while he was a Congressman-a perfectly acceptable illegal thing to do in the Republican Congress-as we all know-and so what does he do? Starts up a slush fund for his defense while Gov. without reporting any of the donations. Gov. Gibbons can't seem to quite grasp the concept of NOT TAKING freebies while in public office.

I suppose that is a difficult habit to get over after having served in the "What's in it for me" Congress of the early 2000 years...

Throw in a little amusement with Judge Halverson, currently feuding with the rest of the Family court. Her front yard is a garbage dump, cited numerous times, her husband is a felon with a notable record and she hires body guards to take her to court to protect her from the rest of the judges and demands foot massages from her bailiffs.

So far, four bailiffs have quit -I think she is using 1)Kelly temps or 2) Stopping by Bonanza Avenue to pick up an illegal immigrant to work for low pay(a common occurrence in Las Vegas).

There really isn't enough room to show all the incompetence in the state of Nevada-e.g. Bob Beers, State Rep who pushed a bill to have teachers carry guns in the classroom...

Mayor Oscar Goodman, former Mob lawyer orders the Las Vegas Police to round up the homeless on holiday weekends and put them in jail for three days. This keeps the tourists from seeing how awful our homeless problem actually is. He touts Gin for a national company and likes to be photographed with showgirls.

The ACLU has been to court with the Mayor many times-Mayor Goodman once wanted to make a homeless shelter out of a closed prison 40 miles from the city if Las Vegas-(how transparent)-has outlawed hanging out at parks so homeless people can be arrested-but if you remember-we are labeled as one of the meanest cities in the nation toward homeless people.

If Oscar had his way if we lost our house key we would be living in Jean, Nevada courtesy of the prison system.

Welcome to Nevada, folks-

if Rod Serling was still alive...he could meet the REAL Twilight Zone.

When all is in sync with the universe

Isn't it amazing when all is in sync with the universe? When I was a kid my grandmother used to warn me, "God'll getcha, God'll getcha eventually when you tell lies...lol

Oil Company Gluttony

All right you lazy complacent Americans, when are you gonna start yelling "Uncle" and show a little spine??? Oil prices are gonna drive me to look for a "carmate", yesterday my electric bill was raised 24.00 a month, and groceries required a small pay day loan...and where are you?

Charging everything as usual.....

The Hispanic Soldier in Iraq

A lesson in irony. Let's decide the fate of thousands of people in our country. While we are doing it, watch them fight and die in a war with no purpose, representing our country.

Last week my third grade class won a pizza party for donating the most cans to the food pantry. This from a one of the poorest neighborhood schools in the district.

We won because one of my students' older brother, (home for two weeks from Iraq) brought in a huge box of cans.

Yesterday when we talked about Memorial Day and what is means, she began to cry.
You see, she has TWO brothers in Iraq fighting this war. It's not about faceless men -in our classroom. It is about someone we love, her two brothers and her family.

Each day she carried this worry with her, when she hears about men dying in Iraq.
Her parents are US citizens. But barely.

They still have family and land in Mexico.
As our Congress takes up this immigration bill I want them to think about Gladys and her two brothers in Iraq, not some faceless, stereotypical image of Mexican immigrants they want to shoot down at the border.

Welcome Hispanics and thank-you for what you do for our country.

Tony Snow is the new Merlin??

Even Merlin had credibility with his homies.

How can Tony Snow say some of the things he does with a straight face?

He must live in some kind of fantasy land.

I am assuming he must be when he denies Bush ever made an Al Quaida-Iraq link to the American Public.

What a joke.

Perception is 9/10 of the law

It's hot this time of year. 96 degrees by 11am . Summertime in the desert is reliable that's for sure-the constancy of the unbearable heat. knowing each day endures-I wonder how our weather reporters keep a straight face???

It was in this environment last week that my third grade class had a bad day. They couldn't seem to line up for lunch and the new vice principal grew frustrated. Since then, the label of "difficult" has been their doom.

We talked about perception. We discussed how we had to be 110% based on that distinction. At this point, no matter what they do, they are now last in line for lunch, leaving them with the leftovers and ten minutes to gobble down their food.

What do we do to change that perception? Continue to do our 110% and take the lumps of distortion?

This happens in the adult world as well. There is no more dangerous profession than education when it comes to perception. I have seen it happen to many good teachers. Something gets into the bonnet of a new administrator about an event. Followed by constant visits and observations of the particular teacher's classroom, looking for evidence to reaffirm the perception, the road to dissidence begins. Until the teacher finds a job at another school, the constant stress of wondering begins to wear. Place that stress on top of the already stressful job of working in an at-risk school, with incredible demands from many levels, and the teacher either 1) transfers to another school, 2) moves to another state or 3) leaves the profession.

Our school district is short 1300 teachers for the 2007-2008 school year.

It's no wonder teachers leave the profession.

All it takes sometimes is one incident to incite the 9/10 rule.

For my kids, it is a tough lesson -unlikely to be forgotten. I am not sure if any good will come of it in their minds. I balance it with challenges that agree with their talents and skills.

They may not have been able to get it together to get in line one day but is that the sum of their behaviors? Like adults, I think not. They just don't have the choice of opting out like we do.

Government Statistics.? hahahahaha.

I'd have to mortgage my house for a cross country trip...lol Could someone tell me where these oil refinery outages are located??

Motorists Unfazed by Climbing Gas Prices

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 16, 2007
Filed at 7:42 a.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- The rising price of gasoline has certainly increased the amount of complaining from drivers paying $3 a gallon or more to fill up their cars, but it so far has done little to curtail how much people are driving.
That's the message from government statistics showing that demand for gasoline is only just starting to level off even as refinery outages and tight supplies have sent pump prices soaring by 43 percent since the end of January.

The pain in the ass in a group think...

Don't you just hate them? Just when everyone is getting along and agreeing on just about everything at work-and all goes smoothly-they have to jump in and say something totally not within the realm of all those who are working so harmoniously?? Major pain in the ass kind of people!

Who needs it! We work hard all day and they have the nerve to question -when we all AGREE that this is the best way...

They don't always get along with others. Don't eat lunch with us, don't meet after work for a drink...don't always stop by to chat ..they really don't belong-so why don't they just go somewhere where they can find their own kind??

What do they know? We are younger, fresher, have new ideas-we just came out of school-times are different....

So what if they believe they are effective? How can you be effective when you are questioning the status quo?

We don't need their bullshit. We wish they'd just go away....

..So said Enron to those who questioned their business practices...

So said the Bush administration to those who question leadership

So said the Republican Party who questioned Jeffers a few years ago when he followed his conscience..

So said the British monarchy when the loyal citizens of Britan began to question the King's rule...

So said...

So said...

To those with the courage to question, the fortitude to examine and speak another truth..

those with the willingness to speak despite the consequences of resisting group think...

Thank-You. I bow to you.

False accusations made of eight year old girls...

The health aide marched up to me during my lunch hour. She handed me a memo.

"student came to the nursing office before lunch crying, with her friend. Her friend stated during recess four eight year old girls(names listed) wrapped a rope around the girls necked and choked her.

Checked her neck and saw no marks. Asked student if she wanted to remain in the nurses office and she said she wanted to go to lunch."

Four of my third grade students were listed.

The Vice principal trailed behind her.

"Your kids are out of control, her tone accusingly dangerous.

"I read the statement", I replied.

"I don't believe this for a minute. I know these girls and they are some of my best kids. They would never do this."

"I don't want your kids outside for recess, they are out of control.", she stated.

"Not a problem, I told her, if you don't mind my not doing my duty outside I will keep them inside."

I asked the girls about it and they were mortified. In tears.

"That never happened, said one.

"We were playing jumprope and she fell", stated another.

"We would never hurt her", another tearfully replied.

Later in the day the child in question admitted that is exactly what happened and no one tried to choke her.

But it is in writing, in someone's file.

And this old lady does not like that one bit. Those kinds of dangerous accusations can follow a kid through all the years of school and it better not.

I sent an e-mail expressing my concerns that such an accusation was documented before the truth was even ferreted out. I want that memo trashed, and any one who has a copy to return it.

My girls are owed a big fat apology and this kind of garbage needs to stop.

Not one of my students have been written up or sent to the office this year. Not one.

This place needs to get it's act together. School records are dangerous weapons in the wrong hands.

And sadly, we have too many wrong hands in education administration.

Fate: When you draw the horrible mommy card...

We don't get to choose the women who give us birth. I am not so sure I would have done such a good job of that if I could have preplanned my own entry into this world..

Face it, not all moms can love their kids, and usually those same moms have difficulty loving any person. I've ruminated over this throughout my years-from various angles and come to some conclusions. We can't really see the entire picture until we are adults. Even then, sometimes the trauma is too much to dispel the longing and those rigidly held myths that "moms are supposed to"...to what?

Turning trauma into understanding is what prompted my desire to become a practicing therapist for the past twenty years. It takes work and courage to acknowledge pain and the aftermath. Which is for eternity-( don't kid yourself it never disappears-)and if you are lucky it settles into an understanding, tinged with sadness, hopefully compassion. If you are very lucky an integration into your soul and very fiber which allows for loving relationships in the future, healthy ones-well, sort of, for the most part.

This is for all of you (-birth to those final breathing moments) who wander( bewildered, with a swiss cheese like ego) the universe, celebrating Mother's Day in some form 0f bittersweet, sadly, still confused or just resigned state.

No one wrote a recipe for Motherhood. Most women do their best and with as little scarring as possible, send their kids off to adulthood with mostly healthy skills.

Somewhere between Sybil's mother and June Cleaver, we survive our mothers.

My mother sent me an e-mail today. We don't usually maintain contact. It wasn't an argument, or a final say on my part that led to this vague separation. It was easy to just kind of trail off because my mom spent her life allowing relationships to trail off. Nothing had to be said.

I think I first realized she had her own problems when she spent eight months in bed. My father was a brutal man to all of us and she must have been depressed. I grew up quickly. For whatever reasons she spent her lifetime trying to disengage from the six children she had. At age 8 she told me she didn't believe we needed her anymore. That to six children under the age of nine. She married four times. She left each child behind in a ritual of anger-at times leaving us to fend for ourselves for months on end while she paid the rent on the house and gave us money for groceries. Kicking us out long before age 16, she did it for her husbands. Until no child was left. She proceeded to have two more children while I was having my first and left them behind at ages seven and five.

The list in my head continues-she was a lousy cook! Terrible housekeeper! Her method of dealing with her kids? Denigrating, jeering and taunting. Conflict? Slapping, name calling and her famous, silent treatment for days on end-which resulted in everyone of us, I think, on our knees begging for acknowledgement, something carried into adulthood for many of my sisters and brothers.

How did we grow up? Almost all successful-lousy marriages-relating with intimacy was such a mystery-we didn't even know it existed. I think we all thought every relationship was adversarial-until most of us got it right or recognized it would never be that way .

The most important lesson I learned over the years?

Don't waste a minute of precious time on the past. Not that it isn't a part of us but the joy that is in the world if one chooses to find it, live it and celebrate it is free! We are only prisoners in our minds -if we choose it.

I once saw a cartoon showing a man with a huge sack over his shoulder stuck in a doorway. He couldn't fit the bag through the door. When asked were he was going he yelled, "The future!"

The label on the sack? "The past".

I remind myself of that cartoon when I find myself trying to drag that old stuff into the future with me.

The greatest beauty of adulthood??

You get to choose! Yes! You get to eat dessert first, put your feet on the coffee table-or dining room table if you want! Go for it! You get to decide where and how you want to live.

Most importantly-you get to decide your own fate-not your parents.

Lousy parents give us a precious gift. A window into what we do not want to be, live or become. Most people don't get that glimpse and those, I think, become most like their parents. And bless you if you had great parents-we need more of you!

But us? We get to be more!!

We get to be ourselves. Because we learned to become discernible at a young age. We get to pass on the importance of relationships to our children. We have the gift of knowing love is never something to be taken for granted. Knowing how precious love, support, approval and encouragement is for children, we have the honor of bestowing it all on our children.

Such richness is for sultans-and we have it!!

Most importantly?

We know better.

Appreciate your teachers, lunkheads...

It's teacher appreciation week you lazy, bland, uninterested adults. Try and show it.

Greedy old white men.....

Enron, payday loans, Bush administration, Halliburton, mortgage brokers, student loan corporations, credit card companies, oil companies, utility companies, Banks, ...see any correlations here?

Greed. Short term gains for long term falls.

Another permission slip from our current administration to rape the people who live here.

Have you noticed the more anonymous we become in this huge overpopulated world the less we count?

What do we do about it?

Ignore it.

Millions of people cannot collectively throw these assholes out the door .

Overpopulation should sure count for something.

Like rats in an overcrowded cage. Killing each other instead of solving the problem.

Tut Tut Tut

What math do you really need to know???

Does math really hurt?

I pondered this as I drove to work this morning. My students and I worked two weeks understanding and exploring equal and mixed fractions. One of my kids actually stated, "This hurts my brain!"

Understanding fractions is an important skill. We use fractions in all kinds of daily thought-money exchange-figuring out all those 10 for a dollar-figuring out how much your mortgage is in proportion to monthly income.

What do we really need, I asked myself? Do we need to know the standard two years of algebra now required of most freshmen? Do we need to understand geometry and calculus-to get by in daily life?

We used to offer courses in consumer math. We covered balancing a checkbook developing a budget, writing checks, figuring taxes, bookkeeping-understanding division and multiplication in the context of daily life.

I sure don't remember what algebra skills had to be used-although I can understand the importance of geometry, area and perimeter. How will understanding various angles help unless one is planning some kind of project?

It is those elite educated who develop a curriculum -needless and not essential for survival-we have too many computer skills and technologies available to do our work for us-teach students how to access those..

I remember studying for my private pilots license and without calculator, having to figure weight and balance of the aircraft, fuel projections based on mileage, wind speed and direction. Now computer models take care of all of it. I remember having to do the work of the now standard GPS .

Perhaps I might need to know some of this in an emergency-but that is what landings are for..

I believe high standards are important-I do-I also believe that elitist ideals do not help the average worker survive day to day life. Ask any English lit major who works at McDonald's or sells insurance how much that degree helped..

Spring-the fickle bitch

The desert doesn't hold a candle to the beauty and scent of the lilac. There is something heady about them. A scent creating a longing like vanilla, apples and cinnamon and fresh baked bread. If you are from the Midwest you know what ई'm saying. Spring is such a fickle visitor with a cruel sense of humor. No one in the Midwest should ever trust her. She breaks your heart every time...

Another Pissed Off Old Lady diatribe

I am going to start dressing my pissed off old lady self in commando garb. This sweet old lady shit is nauseous stereotypical bullshit that we should not have to resort to -to spend our money or receive the services anyone under the age of fifty easily receives as courtesy.

I do not believe sucking up is ever the way to accomplish anything interesting, unique or competent. Why, then, does this seem to be the natural inclination of those with little experience in the world?

Think about it. Our fears since 9-11 have transformed us into a bunch of "get by" cowards. We indoctrinate our children into a mode of never questioning authority and then we have blatant- absurdly blatant abuses of power by our own government. We are so afraid of the "public" meaning "us"such that our avoidance creates isolated, twisted individuals, who can exist in a void -a void we create by ignoring antisocial and bizarre behaviors. We tolerate mediocrity by accepting less than stellar services from our government and private enterprises. We give away our money to huge profiteer oil companies by keeping our mouths shut. We criticize those who question. Is this not one of the scariest times in our history aside from the paranoid Nixon administration?

Get a backbone, my beloved nation, get a backbone and stop this slide into the slimy abyss we have created , devoid of our Constitutional beliefs and all we have fought for.

"The Commander

What a foolish nation we have become.

What once was known as a democracy has become another autocracy, with an even greater disparity between the poor and middle class , and the ultra rich.

Our citizens believe they have no control or say in our country's future. I think I mourn the loss of this more than any other factor. To lose hope in our history, our philosophy and our dreams. How do we restore it?