On Gmos

I have considered going a year without GMOS. This may prove to be very difficult. First, I would not be able to eat out, second, I would have to question everything that I eat, third, even if I ate all organic, I still might be fooled by mislabeling. It could be an interesting trip. After a year and a half of being vegan, I have given up, for many of the reasons above. It became very hard on my family, who are all Not vegan. It was difficult to eat out, be invited for dinner(in fact, dinner invitations ceased all together upon my announcement of veganism), on holidays,and especially while traveling. I had to pack Clif bars in bulk to stay fed. Airport food is awful for vegans as are most chain restaurants. So, can it be done? Will I loose my family? Will I go broke buying only organic? These are questions that I must answer first.

Corporate takeover of our Government

After listening to many months of news from the so called Healthcare debate, I just can't believe that so many folks are blinded by the influence that Corporate America has over our government. We are supposed to be a government for the people and by the people. Instead our elected Representatives are bought and paid for by corporations, blinded by the green of the dollar. I understand that it is hard to get elected if you have no campaign money. That is why we need to end corporate sponsorship of politicians. If we had caps on how much a person could give to a campaign and made it illegal for corporations to contribute at all, we would see real change in Washington. We also need term limits. If we had 8 year limits in Congress we would see a more active government that is truely trying to accomplish what they campaigned on. If they only had 8 years and their campaign was funded only with individual contributions, you would see more change. Bringing back honesty and integrity in Washington. So how about it? Term limits and no corporate sponsorship. Now, if we can only get these yahoos to vote for it.

Corporate Culture and Healthcare

As the long, hot days of summer pass and the healthcare debate continues, more and more people get madder and madder spouting outright lies created by the insurance corporations themselves. Death panels, socialism, rationing of care.....all fear tactics. Why is the insurance industry spending 1.4 million dollars A DAY in Washington? Why has the healthcare INDUSTRY spent over 133million in the last 3 months on lobbying? Because they are fucking crooks, liars and scam artists. They are trying their best to scare American citizens into believing they will actually have worse healthcare than no healthcare. The insurance bastards are trying to protect their "death profits". I call them this because they make money off denying coverage to people who actually pay their fucking premiums. Their M.O. is to deny claims right off the bat and let you spend your time fighting them to pay. It takes hundreds of hours and tons of energy which wouldn't have to be spent if they just acted like decent human beings and not greedy little soulless fucks.

Today, I was out of ink and needed a file folder to store receipts for the house I am currently building. I went to Staples. The last several times I have been there I have been hassled about getting a Staples Reward Card. In fact the last time I was there making copies of a flyer for my missing 17 year old dog, the cashier just would not let up. I told him no and he kept insisting how much money that I would save. I kept saying no, politely. He just didn't get it. Finally I had to raise my voice and threaten that I wouldn't ever come back if he asked me again. He acted like I was the worst person in the world for not wanting to save money by letting this corporation have all of my personal information. It is none of their fucking business how much ink, paper and supplies I buy, where I live, my e-mail, my birth date, etc. I will pay the extra 10% for maintain my anonymity.

As I approached the checkout counter today, I politely told the assistant manager, that I didn't have a Staples reward card nor was I interested in one. She started ringing me up and couldn't fucking help herself. She just had to say, "Has anyone told you about the benefits of the Rewards card?" I said, "yes, and I am not interested." So she keeps on saying, "Well I hate to see you wasting money on your ink". It was all I could do to maintain control of myself. I told her that I was aware of the card because I mentioned it upfront and I don't appreciate being hassled about joining your mailing list/reward program every time I come in. She acted like I had slapped her baby.

Which leads me to this.... Is Obama gonna listen to all the "Staples Cashiers", be it Insurance salesmen, fear mongers, ignorant citizens, healthcare lobbyists, and sign up for the fucking card? And by doing so, sell out the American public to THE CORPORATION. Will will soon call our country the CORPORATION OF AMERICA. Will we sell stocks off of the suffering of our citizens? Why are our eyes closed to this?

Inspiration for this blog

So today, I went to see the movie, Julie and Julia. It was witty and smart and entertaining. I feel much like Julie. She is stuck in a job that she doesn't enjoy and feels like she has more to offer the world. She also feels like she never finishes anything. I have those same thoughts about myself. I am an idea person and have come up with so many ideas over the years but lack the gumption to start many of them and to finish some of them. I hope to use this blog as a way to express my ideas about many things. I have a Facebook page that I use to debate topics. I now have too many friends and business associates on Facebook that I can't truly say what I want to say without the risk of offending friends and clients. If what I say offends you, just don't read it anymore. Ok? Great.

Here we go:

I opened my 3rd grade son's book bag tonight to find a single slip of paper in his home work folder. The note was to let parents know that church choir was meeting on Tuesday. If we wanted our child to participate in this Methodist/Presbyterian youth choir, the church would have an adult walk our child to church.

I have a problem with this. Why is the school sending home notes inviting our children to participate in religious activities? Would they allow a Muslim or Islamic church to invite the children to participate in their activities? Hell no! Parents would be outraged.

When my son was in Kindergarten, the school put on a holiday program of music performed by the children. I was excited to see my little boy participate in his first school performance. First it was Away in a Manger, then more and more religious songs focused on Christ. I waited for a Jewish song, or Kwanzaa song or a song about Winter solstice. Nothing. Just Christ-based religious programming enjoyed by all. Now I admit that it was sweet seeing my little boy and his classmates singing, but left furious. My husband told me to leave it be, to not embarrass or alienate our son. I respected his wishes and would never do anything to hurt my son. I may be overeacting but I feel like pushing one religion in schools alienates others with diferent faiths and people who don't believe in organized religion.

What am I to do? I guess I can't do anything about it. Except get it off my chest.
There. I feel much better. Sort of.