Don't Close Your Blinds

Saw this over at The Gunn Nutt's. Read it. I have yet to see a better way to explain what is going on today with Iraq.

I was made aware of this piece on AnySoldier.com as part of a post by Maj. Mitchell "Taco" Bell, USMC. It has apparently been around for a while. I found a post here from Sept. 2004. So if you've already seen it, well ... read it again!

The other day, my nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war.....My husband and I were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend our Country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good explanation.

My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in our front living room window. He said "Son, stand there and tell me what you see."

"I see trees and cars and our neighbor's houses." he replied. "Ok, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the United States of America and that you are President Bush." Our son giggled and said "OK"

"Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house and yard on this block is a different country" my husband said.

"OK Dad, I'm pretending."

"Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and pretend you see Saddam come out of his house with his wife, he has her by the hair and is hitting her. You see her bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face, he throws her on the ground, then he starts to kick her to death. Their children run out and are afraid to stop him, they are screaming and crying, they are watching this but do nothing because they are kids and they are afraid of their father. You see all of this, son....what do you do?"

"Dad?"

"What do you do son?"

"I'd call the police, Dad."

"OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations. They take your call. They listen to what you know and saw but they refuse to help. What do you do then son?"

"Dad.....but the police are supposed to help!" My son starts to whine.

"They don't want to son, because they say that it is not their place or your place to get involved and that you should stay out of it," my husband says.

"But Dad...he killed her!!" my son exclaims.

"I know he did...but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want you to look out that window and pretend you see our neighbor who you're pretending is Saddam turn around and do the same thing to his children."

"Daddy...he kills them?"

"Yes son, he does. What do you do?"

"Well, if the police don't want to help, I will go and ask my next door neighbor to help me stop him." our son says.

"Son, our next door neighbor see's what is happening and refused to get involved as well. He refused to open the door and help you stop him." my husband says.

"But Dad, I NEED help!!! I can't stop him by myself !!"

"WHAT DO YOU DO SON?" our son starts to cry.

"OK, no one wants to help you, the man across the street saw you ask for help and saw that no one would help you stop him. He stands taller and puffs out his chest. Guess what he does next son?"

"What Daddy?"

"He walks across the street to the old ladies house and breaks down her door and drags her out, steals all her stuff and sets her house on fire and then ....he kills her. He turns around and see you standing in the window and laughs at you. WHAT DO YOU DO?"

"Daddy..."

'WHAT DO YOU DO?" Our son is crying and he looks down and he whispers, "I'd close the blinds, Daddy.
My husband looks at our son with tears in his eyes and asks him. "Why?"

"Because Daddy....the police are supposed to help people who need them...and they won't help.....You always say that neighbors are supposed to HELP neighbors, but they won't help either...they won't help me stop him....I'm afraid...I can't do it by myself Daddy....I can't look out my window and just watch him do all these terrible things and...and..do nothing ....so .... I'm just going to close the blinds...so I can't see what he's doing.....and I'm going to pretend that it is not happening."

I start to cry. My husband looks at our nine year old son standing in the window, looking pitiful and ashamed at his answers to my husband's questions and he says....

"Son"

"Yes, Daddy"

"Open the blinds because that man....he's at your front door...."WHAT DO YOU DO?"

My son looks at his father, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up his tiny fists and looks his father square in the eyes, without hesitation he says:

"I DEFEND MY FAMILY DAD!!! I'M NOT GONNA LET HIM HURT MOMMY OR MY SISTER,DAD!!! I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM, DAD, I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM!!.

I see a tear roll down my husband's cheek and he grabs our son to his chest and hugs him tight, and says..."It's too late to fight him, he's too strong and he's already at YOUR front door son...you should have stopped him BEFORE he killed his wife, and his children and the old lady across the way. You have to do what's right, even if you have to do it alone, before its too late." My husband whispers.

That scenario I just gave you is WHY we are at war with Iraq. When good men stand by and let evil happen son, THAT is the greatest atrocity in the world.

"YOU MUST NEVER BE AFRAID TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT !! EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO DO IT ALONE !" BE PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN! BE PROUD OF OUR TROOPS !! SUPPORT THEM!!! SUPPORT AMERICA SO THAT IN THE FUTURE OUR CHILDREN WILL NEVER HAVE TO CLOSE THEIR BLINDS..."

Ghosties & Things That Go Bump In The Night

The past several nights here at work some of the overnight and evening staff have been trading stories about the ghosts that supposedly haunt several of the cottages. One fella hears the hygiene boxes rattling around in the closet and the guy he works with says he has seen dark figures leaning over the railing watching the staff do room checks. This is in the cottage that was run by a supervisor that committed suicide some time ago. One chick said she was shut in the kitchen by Lady Ward, the ghost at the cottage we were in previously. I worked plenty of overnights by myself at both cottages and never heard or saw any sign of their ghosties.

Bridget got on a roll talking about the folks that call "spirits" up wanting to talk to them. Her opinion - "If you wanna talk to somebody on the other side, go ahead on and die already. You can talk to the other side all you want then."

Tornado In January

Here's a nice demonstration of our good ol' Kansas weather. Seems a landspout touched down in a car dealership and damaged a bunch of cars. The story on the web says 50 cars, but the fella on the 9 o'clock news said it messed up about 100, including customer's vehicles. My brother the electrician had to go out and help get their electric straightened out.

I always loved it out in western Kansas, in college, when a little dust devil would kick up on the college farm and spin the hay and straw around.

Remember, if you don't like the weather here, just wait 5 minutes.

Cat Blogging

Debuting today is the Mothership's little buddy Boo. Mom's had her ever since I brought her home from the horse barn I worked in. She was the runt of the litter and probably wouldn't have made it if it weren't for my otherwise gruff trainer, Howard, caring for her. Booie is very prim & proper & has the tiniest little hands & feet I've seen on a kitty. She also has an extremely loud motor.
And then we have Psycho-Sydney, who terrorized poor little Booie when we lived with the parental units. I got her over a year ago, in either October or November. We guess she was about a month old. At least she has good taste in vehicles - she was hiding in the engine of my Dodge truck. She smelled of engine oil even after a very thorough bathing. Syd hardly ever purrs and when she does it isn't very loud. She's more the search-and-destroy type.

Fight Crime...

Shoot Back.

Heh. Gotta love that guy.

Hat tip Tommy.

"Practice Date"

I have a confession to make.

I am 27 years old and have never been on a real date. But, last Saturday night, I got to go on a "practice date" with a good friend. This was with the understanding that it was just as friends.

We had a good time. Saw Hoodwinked - very cute - and then ate at the Macaroni Grill. I had been kinda worried that I would either clam up or get a little giggly & goofy, as I sometimes do when nervous. Neither happened. We talked most of the evening about showing animals in 4H, the AWANA camp it turns out we both went to growing up, what we always wanted to be/do when we grew up, his college room mate who had been charged with murder, etc.

It was a lot of fun and I got the opportunity to better know a friend that I've had for the last year.

More Useless Info

I am 189 in dog years.

Scot & Gary here at work are 343 in dog years.

Aren't you glad you know that?

Now Gary is wondering how old Kenny Rogers is in dog years...

Update: Turns out "Kenny Rogers" is a nickname for Keith here on campus and he is 308 in dog years.

Oops! Hee-hee

Fun Facts About Me!

Found this via Boudicca, one of the many places I often lurk.

Ten Top Trivia Tips about LadyGunn!

1. LadyGunn can drink over 25 gallons of water at a time.
2. The LadyGunn-fighting market in the Philippines is huge - several thousand LadyGunn-fights take place there every day.
3. In Ancient Egypt, people wore glittery eyeshadow made from the crushed shells of LadyGunn!
4. In Eastern Africa you can buy beer brewed from LadyGunn.
5. The first domain name ever registered was LadyGunn.com.
6. LadyGunn will always turn right when leaving a cave.
7. Donald Duck's middle name is LadyGunn.
8. On stone temples in southern India, there are more than 30 million carved images of LadyGunn.
9. In her entire life, LadyGunn will produce only a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey!
10. The first LadyGunn was made in 1853, and had no pedals.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

#6 is good - I always go right. Because ya' know, right is right and left is wrong...

Firefly Character

Which Firefly character are you?

You are Wash. Not only are you a great pilot, you are also the joker of the group. Your devotion to your wife is admirable, though you sometimes feel insecure. Thank god you shaved off your moustache.
Take this quiz!

I always kinda figured myself to be a mix of Kaylee & Zoe. Oh well, guess it's a good thing I shaved that mustache after all...

Goofy Stuff

Several years ago Mom & I were joking around and things got a little giddy as we came up with a mostly-joking list of the requirements for my future spouse. We both agreed that he must be a Christian. That is the only serious one on the list. I said he had to be a horseman and drive only Dodge vehicles. Mom said he had to be a carpenter, so he could build her stuff (including her dream house) and he had to have curly hair because she wants curly-haired grandbabies. We ended up with the following... thingy:

A Curly-haired
Christian
Cowboy
Carpenter who Cruises in a
Chrysler.

Oddly enough, Mom isn't the strangest of the two parental units. But hopefully, y'all can see where I get some it from.

Durn Insomnia

I have had, let's see... 8-ish hours of sleep since Wednesday evening. Started getting a sore throat on Tuesday and it got bad on Thursday. With the pounding headache and the dizziness, there was no way I'd have been able to do the stairs for room checks at work, so I called in sick for that night. The shift supervisor didn't sound very happy with me. Took an Ativan Thursday afternoon and got 2 - 3 hours of sleep, puttered around for a while and took a Flexeril to get another 2 - 3 hours of sleep that night. Spent Friday cleaning house with Mom's help and got another hour of sleep that afternoon before going to work and then sleeping for about an hour today. After I get off work, I'm going to go help in the 3-year-old Sunday School class, go to second service and eat with my friends. Then - hopefully - sleep, sweet sleep. That is, until I come back in at 11pm. Ugh. But, on Monday night I get Bridget back and having a great friend here always helps the night go a lot more quickly.

Maybe I'll have to go back to combining the two sleeping pills for them to do any good. Sometimes I start getting a little desperate when I can't sleep even though I'm exhausted. Perhaps someone out there would volunteer to whack me on the head? Maybe that would work...

Chocolate - The Food Of Champions

Go read about the wonder food/drug chocolate over at Miss Cellania's.
Be warned there is a section comparing chocolate to sex.

I decided to take the "What Kind of Candy Are You" test and I think all my friends will agree with the "Nutty" part.

Snickers

Nutty and gooey - you always satisfy.

What Kind of Candy Are You?

Birthday Loot

Stuff I got for my birthday yesterday - a voicemail from Grandma, lunch with my aunt, a Sister plaque & high-heel cell phone holder from Peanut, Everything I Need To Know I Learned From My Cat book from Mom (she said I have to let her borrow it when I've finished reading it) and cards from my aunt & older brother.

Oh yeah, Mom also got me a piece of pie. Mmmm, Tollhouse pie...

Lil'Un & Sydney

Awwww... Aren't they cute!

Crazy Little Brother & Wife

This is from my baby brother's wedding last spring. Guess he's not a baby anymore.

The ceremony was outside in Kat's parents' backyard and it was beautiful.

Nail Polish + Hardwood Floor = Not Good

Got home from work the other day to discover somebody had knocked all my nail polish off the end table. Thankfully only one bottle broke but it was already dry. The culprit...

Don't let that innocent look fool you. The cat's a maniac. I swear she has ADHD.

The broken polish was my Smokin' In Havana by OPI. Loved that color.

Scat

I had my cousin's 5-year-old with me last week and we were listening to Pure Ella in the car when I heard her singing nonsense along with Lady Be Good, which to my knowledge she has never heard before. Nothing quite like a little girl with a cute speech impediment trying to sing scat.

The Joys Of Raising Boys

Belle - You have so much to look forward to. Read about a bow-legged Hulk at Boudicca's & That 1 Guy's fun with rocks & knives.

Glad it's you and not me. Heh-heh.

Old Maid

I was looking at some scratches I got from the Psychokitty's back claws (she's declawed in the front) and commented to Dad that if I ever got married & had kids, she would need to be declawed in the back as well. (I get scratched a lot.) Dad said that if I plan on doing that I better hurry 'cause at the rate I'm going, the cat is going to be dead by that time as is he, which would make it difficult for him to walk me down the aisle.

I told him that's okay, I'll still have Uncle Mark, or my brothers, or my nephews...

:-D

I'm gonna be an auntie again!

My brother & his wife are expecting kiddo number three, due around September 10th. Another niece or nephew for this old auntie to spoil. Yippee!

Vintage-y Pictures

Anne & I had these done one year at the State Fair. We did the proper Victorian ladies look first and then we asked for a small costume change.

Anne is on the left & I'm the one on the right. Anne's brother-in-law said it's scary how natural I look with a gun in my hands.

Thru The Bible In Low German

In Bible study Tuesday night, we had the father of our senior pastor come and speak. He basically gave us a short version of his life story & told what he is doing ministry-wise now. It is an amzaing story. This is a much shorter version. I know I will not manage to be near as eloquent as he was. Anyway...

Mr. R grew up Mennonite, speaking both low & high German in northern Saskatchewan. He didn't learn any English until he entered the first grade at age 7. He didn't get to finish high school due to the family moving, but later got his GED. He pastored for 55 years and graduated from Bible college the day before his 70th birthday.

After taking 3 years to translate the New Testament into low German, he was asked to take on the full-time job of translating & recording Dr. J. Vernon McGee's Thru The Bible series into that language as well. It is a 5 year job that he began at the tender age of 81, a year and a half ago.

The translated series is broadcast in several countries but he mainly spoke about Bolivia. There are at least 37 Mennonite colonies down there who are in desperate need of the gospel. They speak low German at home and in business matters, it is the everyday language. The Bibles are all printed in high German and that is the language of the church, God's language. They are actually taught that God speaks high German. Problem is, the illiteracy rate is 87 percent. The children go to school from ages 7 to 12. After that, there is no further schooling to be had. They are taught the 3 Rs - reading, 'riting & 'rithmetic.

The colonies are run by bishops and they are basically dictators. The people are taught that the bishop holds the key to heaven and that if they go against the bishop, he can turn that key and lock them out of Heaven. Any that become Christians are excommunicated and the others aren't allowed to do business with them. The young men are sometimes whipped over a 5 hour time period. The gentleman told of a fellow that had a thriving business selling trees but once he converted, he didn't sell another tree.

Mr. R explained that since low German was not used to talk of spiritual matters, there are no words in that language to use for redemption, salvation, etc. As he translates, he has to come up with a way to explain these terms in a manner that will be clear to the listeners. He often has to substitute an entire sentence for one or two words.

He uses the notes from the broadcast in addition to transcripts that are typed up by several ladies here in the church. He then has to lengthen or shorten it to 22-23 minutes. He said that is approximately 3,220 words, give or take 5. After he has that perfected on several portions, he goes down to a local radio station that donates the use of a studio and records them. He edits them, makes several copies and finally emails them.

The series is broadcast 5 days each week so he has a lot to do simply to keep up. He originally had a 6 month headstart, but after his wife was sick recently, he's down to a 3 and a half month cushion.

I took a few notes of the Scriptures that he used, but I don't have my planner with me so I'll have to update when I get my hands on it.

And There Was Much Rejoicing

I have a four day weekend! *dancing in my chair* I have a four day weekend!

These ten day stretches get loooong. But...

I have a four day weekend!

Yahoo!

M&Ms

Bridget & I were discussing M&Ms. I mentioned that when eating them I sometimes sort them into color and make sure there is the same number of each. I then eat the greens first, followed by yellow, blue, orange, red & brown. The look I got from Bridget... ;D

I'm Going Into Withdrawal

Are the programming people at ABC crazy? Or are they just trying to drive us crazy(er)? The next episode of Alias isn't scheduled yet and right above that little announcement it says March 2006!

Feel The Love

Last night when I got in to work, two of the girls were still awake, talking & giggling rather loudly. After several warnings over the intercom I went up to tell them if they weren't quiet one was going to be moving to the time out room for the night. One girl popped up and said "I love you Miss W---. It is Miss W---, isn't it?" (Hello, I love you, Won't you tell me your name...)

After they continued to be loud, that girl moved her mattress down to the time out room. She kept asking if she could come out, get something to do, etc. I said no, it's almost midnight, she needed to go to bed. As I walked away she told me "You suck!"

What happened to the love?

New Linky Stuff

I added a link on the sidebar to Plugged-In Online. That is a great place to read reviews of movies, TV & music from a Christian perspective. Lets you weed out the junk that's not worth wasting your time & money on before you go to the theater, video store or whatever.

Speaking of wasting time... check out the Falling Sand Game under the Interesting section. It is a lot of fun. Take the link to Fark.com & read the comments for tips.

My Sydney

Got home from church on Sunday and opened the windows in the front room, which usually brings the psycho Sydney running. I looked in all her favorite spots - on top of the curio cabinet, in the bathroom sink, the box under the coffee table but couldn't find her. Went into the bedroom and there was a little black & white face peeking out from under the covers. She also crawled under the covers with me yesterday. My little cave kitty.

Oh Baby

Take a gander at this pretty little lady. I just love that curve right at the back of the window. Looks like a late 60's-early 70's E body, which is kinda the point. And since my dream car is a '70-'72 'Hemi 'Cuda in Lime Light, well...

Looks like I need to wipe the drool off the keyboard.

Ugh

*whine warning*

I think my fibromyalgia (or as Dad calls it - fibromy-algae) is flaring up again. I can't sleep much, even with the sleeping pills, and I'm exhausted. The dizziness isn't bad yet but this time the pain seems to be centered in my knees and, of course, my back. I've also got headaches again. It's bad enough that I called in sick to work Saturday night. And I never do that. Even my skin is sensitive and my limbs are tingly-numbish. Any chance I could get a full-body transplant?

*end of whine*

And no, I don't want any cheese with this... ;)

Yummy In My Tummy

Just made the girls' breakfast - french toast with vanilla, cinnamon & sugar - and snagged the heels of the loaf for myself. Smeared cream cheese in between and put sugar-free syrup on top...

Wow. That's good.

What In The Name Of Blue Smurf Pudding...

I was checking my sitemeter page & somehow clicked a link that switched my blogger account into Japanese.

Just for future reference, if you ever get Japanesed or anything, go to the Blogger home page and Languages are at the bottom.

I'm still a little weirded out.

SWEET!

I've been blogrolled by Tommy at Striving For Average! My first blogroll-age. *wipes a tear of joy*

It's a good thing I'm working alone tonight. No one saw me dancing around the office, giggling maniacally.

Italy Used Wiretaps To Uncover Terrorist Plots

From NewsMax.com: Major Terror Plot Against U.S. Ignored

Italian authorities recently announced that they had used wiretaps to uncover the conspiracy to conduct a series of major attacks inside the U.S.

Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said the planned attacks would have targeted stadiums, ships and railway stations, and the terrorists' goal, he said, was to exceed the devastation caused by 9/11.

...

The Associated Press version of the story did not disclose that the men planned to target the U.S. Nor did it report that the evidence against the suspects was gathered via a wiretapping surveillance operation.

Furthermore, only one American newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, is known to have published the story that the AP distributed. It ran on page A-6 under the headline "Italy Charges 3 Algerians.” The Inquirer report also made no mention of the plot to target the U.S. - although foreign publications included this information in the headlines and lead sentences of their stories. Nor did it advise readers that domestic wiretaps played a key role in nabbing the suspected terrorists.

Sad when the media in the targeted country will ignore a finding such as this for politics.

Nuke The Moon

For those of you who have seen my Nuke The Moon t-shirt - this is the essay that gave birth to the shirt. All from the genius that is FrankJ. Even my liberal friend Pookie thought it was hilarious (although I guess he is a wee bit twisted as well... j/k Pookie.)

Cat Versus Buttered Bread

I was reading through an old Frank Answers over at IMAO and came across this 'scientifical' bit of... umm... something-or-other.

Wacky Hermit from Undisclosed Mountain State

Bread always lands butter side down, and cats always land on their feet. So if you securely strap a piece of buttered bread, butter side up, to the back of a cat and drop the ensemble off the top of a building, what happens at the bottom?

The easiest way to find the answer to this would be to strap the said buttered bread to said cat and throw him off said building, but that's not scientifical. Science involves equations and theories.

Now, a cat lands on its feet because of an innate sense of equilibrium. Buttered bread lands butter side down for the sake of irony. The question is which force is more powerful? To me, the power of irony would only overpower the cat’s sense of equilibrium if someone really intended on eating that bread:

"Now, Mittens, I'm going to strap this piece of buttered bread to you for safe keeping as I'm really hungry... No stay away from the edge of the building, Mittens! Now land on your feet as always... Nooo! Not your back! My piece of bread is ruined! And Mittens had always landed on his feet before. Why, God, why?"

Big Brother?

Checked my SiteMeter page & noticed that someone from senate.gov looked at my A Good Democrat post. Funky. Hope I'm not in trouble. ;)

Crap - I Mean Oh, Snap!

Mom used to fuss at me for saying crap. More specifically for saying "crap in a hat" (which came from Twisted Toyfare Theater - a couple favourites are Spider Conga Line & The Great Jawa Hunt. Anyway...) Now that I broke myself of that habit and replaced it with "oh, snap", Mom has started saying crap. Yet another opportunity to laugh at - I mean with her. Hee hee.

Perfume & Gunpowder

I was getting ready to go out shooting with the guys on Saturday and put on my Givenchy perfume. Don't know why I did that.

Bridget said that's probably why I like Alias. I want to be pretty and kill people.

Hey, I thought it was funny, although Mom probably won't.

A Sobering Look At The Future

Go read It's The Demography, Stupid at The New Criterion. A couple of quotes from the article:

"Terror groups persist because of a lack of confidence on the part of their targets: the IRA, for example, calculated correctly that the British had the capability to smash them totally but not the will. So they knew that while they could never win militarily, they also could never be defeated. The Islamists have figured similarly. The only difference is that most terrorist wars are highly localized. We now have the first truly global terrorist insurgency because the Islamists view the whole world the way the IRA view the bogs of Fermanagh: they want it and they’ve calculated that our entire civilization lacks the will to see them off."

"What’s worrying is that we spend so much time worrying about things that
aren’t worth worrying about that we don’t worry about the things we should be
worrying about. For thirty years, we’ve had endless wake-up calls for things
that aren’t worth waking up for. But for the very real, remorseless shifts in
our society—the ones truly jeopardizing our future—we’re sound asleep."

Hat tip IMAO

Fun With Guns

Went out shooting with a bunch of the guys in the family today. Dad, 2 uncles, both brothers, my cousin, a friend of his and a guy from church plus his 2 oldest boys went out in the country and we had a lot of fun.

I'd only shot a gun about 4 times before - a shotgun twice growing up, Dad's .22 Smith & Wesson when he first got it years ago and my sister-in-law's .38 Special about 4 years ago. The boys had dibs on the guns growing up so I played with knives. Used to be able to throw pretty well, but I haven't done that for quite a while. Anyway, back to the good stuff...

Started out with my cousin's shotgun. It was a pump-action and held 8-9 shells. That was a blast - literally. Moved on to Dad's .22 - that was sweet and I really liked how it handled. Tried my brother's Colt M1991A1 .45 which was really cool. Unfortunately with carpal tunnel in both wrists I'm going to have to go with something a little smaller when I do get the money for one of my own. Then... :D ... I got to play with his Mini-14 rifle. Now that was fun. I spent most of the time with that. It had a scope, which was different but I really liked it a lot. I even managed to defeat my nemesis - the shampoo bottle set out in the field. I won't say how many shots it took to bring the sucker down.

The fella from church had brought several guns, including an AR-15 and an AK-47. Didn't try either of those but several of the guys did and thought they were great. My brother wants to trade his Mini-14 in on an AR-15.

Think I shot more than any of the guys did. Yee-haw!