Ours Is A Very Special Relationship

The Olympics is back again! And now over! That was fast. This time in the UK. Much to Mitt Romney's embarrassment, these Olympics seem to have run rather well. Not that I would want to be there. London is expensive even in the off-season. God knows how expensive it is there now. I bet the traffic is also rather a nightmare. It is sort of better to watch it tape-delayed (thanks, NBC) than dealing with driving in the UK. Think of it like driving in the US but reduce the size of the car and the road by 50%. Kind of scary.

How do I know all this? I am married to a Brit. It might have been nice to be there in the UK, with his family, and get to watch all the action live in Northampton on the BBC. It would be better than learning the result from the news or Twitter and then having to wait 8 hours to see it in “prime time.”

Trying to watch it online? Forget about it. My poor father was trying to watch sailing and he should be all set up to do. But when I checked up on him a few Sundays ago, he was patiently waiting as the circle was spinning to buffer the coverage. I think he saw more of that circle spinning than actual sailing, so thanks a lot NBC!

OK, enough of my complaining about the coverage. Wait... thanks a bundle for bumping The Who to show a crappy sitcom, real classy way to end things, grrr NBC...deep breath....now I am ready. I actually wanted to discuss the US and UK's “special relationship.” I see it like I see my marriage. We are two very different countries and people. But we speak the same language (sort-of) and we work and play well together.

It really is amazing that the US and UK have developed this relationship given the whole American Revolution. We could have a terrible long cold war but no, they let us go and grow (sometimes to our detriment) and now we have our “special relationship.”

So many countries that have had long standing issues that may help if the “Mother” or “Father” country would really just let go. Russia and all of it's former members of the USSR come to mind. The middle east is a quagmire. I am not sure if that would help, but is all the bloodshed in Syria necessary, if the current regime lets go, and retires to Russia (we know you will) then maybe more killing can be averted.

Could it be because Britain let go of our colonies after the war of 1812? If you do not remember your history lesson about the War of 1812, you are forgiven. This could be considered the last bit of the revolutionary war. With the US invading Canada and burning it's capitol, Britain then reciprocating by burning down many government buildings, including the White House, and a lot of Washington D.C. It really ended as a tie and the only real losers were the Native Americans.

Then the UK eventually had to let go of a lot of other colonies. Many have not done as well as the USA, one example is Zimbabwe. I would like to think that maybe if their dictator, Robert Mugabe would let it go, their country could possibly get away from the horrible economic situation it is in.

The UK sets an example for others as well, including us in the US who will not let go of the civil war. Every time I see a confederate flag I only think of a dead temporary country. But many won't let it go or also won't let go of their supremacist views.

There was (yet another) shooting recently. This time in a Sikh Temple. The person who then killed himself was a white supremacist. His views and his hate killed others. He then shot himself, maybe he suddenly had a moment of clarity about what he had really done.

The United States and Great Britain have a great relationship now. Britain is doing just fine, thank you very much. If you could think of the USA as it's child, then it did quite well in growing up. We still have our problems, but maybe the example of letting go, and moving on would be the best for all.

Chick-Fil-A and the Hypocrisy of Parenthood

First, I would like to apologize for not posting a blog last week. A perfect storm of computer problems (a virus killed our netbook hard drive grrr... :( ) along with me and my kids being out of town made it impossible. I will try not to make it a regular thing. Now onto the blog!

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I guess parenthood makes us idiots because as a parent, there is no way not to be a hypocrite. It just goes with the territory. Fathers tell their kids not to smoke as they light up. Tell your kids to eat their vegetables but you cannot stand raw tomatoes (I am guilty of that one, but I do love them in salsa). You want your kids to grow up healthy but you are tired, it has been a long day, and right there is Chick-Fil-A. It is an easy fix cause the kids like the food, they do have great customer service and a very nice kids play area. The food is not so healthy, but there are healthier options that I do see other kids eat, but I am not going to be a hypocrite here and will say that they would rather have the fries.

I have been avoiding Chick-Fil-A recently. Their CEO said they were “guilty as charged” about their stance on marriage saying it is only between a man and a woman. They feel that same-sex marriage that those who "have the audacity to define what marriage is about" were "inviting God's judgment on our nation."

I believe that if two (and only two) adult (18+) people love each other and want to commit their lives to each other then they should be able to get married. It is about equal rights. Now if a company wants to give a portion of their profits to whatever organization, as long as it is legal, that is also their right.

I did not take my kids to Chick-Fil-A on Wednesday August 1st (Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day) and we did not go on Friday August 3rd (Same-Sex Kiss Day) either. First, I do not try to go to crowded situations with my children. They would get incredibly cranky waiting in a two hour line for some chicken. Also, since I do not agree with their stance on marriage, why would I subject myself to that kind of situation? Second, we did not go on Friday not because I was worried about my kids seeing two people of the same gender kiss. They would just see two people kissing. I was worried there would be someone who would not agree with those actions and may do a violent act. I would not want my kids anywhere near that. Luckily, nothing like that happened on Friday, but you never know.

There are many biblical definitions of marriage. There are biblical definitions and rules about a lot of things. I think the best example is the ten commandments. Since the ten commandments only talks about marriage in not coveting thy neighbors wife (a true threat to marriage) I would like to discuss number 6: Thou shalt not kill. We seem to do a lot of killing now a days. The world is a violent place, and even the government sanctions killing from prisoners on death row to wars. If we call ourselves a Christian nation, and Christ commanded us to follow the ten commandments, is our government right to kill?

So, we don't take “thou shalt not kill” very seriously, for whatever reason. We could say we are preventing killing by killing but that is a legal argument that I do not think God would buy. There were also rules in the bible about slavery.

Should we make slavery legal again since it is sanctioned in the bible? If you do not think slavery still happens in this world or even in the United States, you are incredibly naive. I am sure Walmart would love it if we brought slavery back. The workforce, not so much.

Is God's judgment being invited on our world by slavery and killing more than by “wrong love?” I would say yes. Many of the anti-homosexual passages in the bible (especially in the new testament) were discouraging pedophilia and you would have to be a sicko not to agree with that. But when it is two adults, to me, love is love.

There are many that say we need to boycott this restaurant while others who agree with their views are buycotting them (buying their food, especially on August 1st). I am doing neither.  Our Rep. Raul Grijalva said to boycott Arizona about SB1070, but that only really hurts the small business owner here, many who are Hispanic. Large businesses will just lay people off. The CEO's will not get hurt.

One thing that has really bothered me about this whole thing is some people's reaction to bigotry or hatred with just more hatred. A CFO in Tucson recently got fired because he posted a rant he taped while getting a complimentary cup of water from a Chick-Fil-A drive-thru. He was a bully and stupidly posted this on youtube. Then he gets fired. Way to go, you showed them! Not really. Why meet hate with hate? It just makes things worse. I bet Adam Smith will attest to that now because he has since apologized for his rant. If you don't agree with them just don't go their establishment.

Any which way I will be a hypocrite, I don't agree with their stance on marriage, but we will still probably go to Chick-Fil-A sometime. I will try to go on days where they give us a free kids meal if we buy an adult meal. That will cut into their profits and show 'em! Yeah, not so much. Since the kids are going back to school, we would naturally not be eating there not as much but I am not going to say never. No matter what you do as a parent, you will probably be a hypocrite. I would rather have my kids occasionally happy then have to try to explain to them why we cannot go. They will understand, but probably not for ten years. Hopefully by then, they will not understand what the big deal was about the definition of marriage.

The Dark Knight Rises, Internet Trolls, And Then It Went All Pear Shaped...

[Please note, the paragraphs below were written before July 20^th and the Aurora, Colorado tragedy.]

Unless you have been living under a rock (or bridge) you may have heard of the controversy on Rotten Tomatoes about the reviews of “The Dark Knight Rises.” It seems that some super-fans got a bit peeved that a critic did not like the movie. They got so incensed that they threatened rape and murder. Over a movie. What? They had to even resort to the “nuclear option” of shutting down the comments section for this movie review. This also lead to Rotten Tomatoes Editor-in-Chief Matt Atchity to write a hilarious retort to the whole idiotic situation. He basically had to say something that might be kind of obvious: 

 “But if I could ask everyone for one thing, it's this: don't be a dick. Even if you think someone else is being a dick. Just take a deep breath, step away from the computer, and maybe go for a walk. Have a smoke if you need one. There are plenty of other things to get angry about, like war, famine, poverty and crime. But not movie reviews.”

That is great advice. I need to do this from time to time. Idiocy and cruelty abound on the internet and while you want to wail about being hurt, and get back at them, maybe you should just walk away.

Something about this did not smell right to me, though. Like a rotten tomato or even better a rotten egg, I think this was a manufactured controversy. What if you are a movie exec and know that your movie series peaked with the previous movie and the next one cannot possibly match the last one, especially because the Oscar winning actor who practically made that movie tragically died. How do you still get people to see this movie? Well, if there are any negative reviews (and there are always negative reviews) hire a few online thugs (or as they are called internet trolls) to say things that are so outrageous they have to go nuclear with the comments section.

If you have read “The Chronicles of IDIOT,” you know I am fascinated by conspiracy theories. I can't really call this a conspiracy, just what I would call market manipulation.

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That is what I wrote before Friday July 20^th. Then all of this went, as the British say “all pear shaped” because a psychopath did a horrific act of domestic terror. My husband and I do not want to watch this movie any more, we will watch it later at home on demand or on DVD.

There have been calls to not let this scumbag change our movie going habits, sorry but that cannot be helped. I cannot stop thinking that if our kids were ten years older, our whole family could have been in a theater just like that one. We live in Tucson, and we will never forget what happened there or what happened last Friday in Colorado. My heart goes out to the people who have been injured and to the families who have lost loved ones. I have been praying for all of you.

Something else that really bothers me is that this psychopath was a graduate student in Neuroscience. I am guessing that he is a paranoid schizophrenic, but was smart enough to be able to cover it up till then. He applied to the University of Arizona, but did not get accepted into the program. But if he had, it could have happened in Tucson all over again.

I know life must go on and am moving on. Luckily my kids have not asked about this and we are trying to keep it from them. Why let little children be scared of going to the movies?

The gun control debate does not continue. The politicians seem to think just saying how sorry they are is enough. I am not sure how I feel about gun control. It is in the constitution and I do think people should be able to defend themselves. But does a family need a machine gun to do so? Or to hunt? No wonder the politicians won't touch this with a ten foot pole.

And so, this takes me back to that original conspiracy theory that internet trolls were being hired to anti-plug the movie. What happened last Friday shows me, yet again, that those little distractions are not important. To some, these type of dramas or whatever manufactured drama they make a mountain out of a molehill, I quote Mr. Atchity again: “There are plenty of other things to get angry about, like war, famine, poverty and crime.”

What happened on Friday was such a serious crime that hopefully we will get angry about this and try to channel that anger into a constructive decisions about at least two things. 1. How to recognize a mental illness like paranoid schizophrenia, and get help for a person before they snap. 2. Decide that our constitutional right to arms does allow us to arm ourselves for defense, but not to the extent that a person could buy 7000 round of ammunition over the internet.

The University of Google, a.k.a. Idiot University

There seems to be a saying now that everyone with a smart phone is an expert on something in five minutes. That depends upon where they look and if they believe the information spurted out by Google, Bing, or Safari or whichever search engine they choose. I don't quite believe it, but I don't own a smart phone.

Believe me, their pull is intoxicating. To basically have the internet at hand anywhere sounds fantastic, but we do not have the money. There are several problems with being a five minute expert, are you really an expert or just someone who looks up the information and then promptly forgets the info after you did the “I'm right and you are wrong” dance. It is like a calculator. Many people think they do not need to know math because they will just use the calculator. But what if the calculator is wrong? This can happen due to transposed numbers and other snafus. Shouldn't you check the math in your head to make sure? There are still some things that we fundamentally need to know. With that we need critical thinking skills to assess the accuracy of what we are reading. Unfortunately, this does not happen enough, why do you think there are viral e-mails about the air movement from fans being able to kill you. By the way, that is a real urban legend from Korea. If it sounds true, why actually check the accuracy?

My favorite example of how dangerous the internet can be without using critical thinking skills is Jenny McCarthy. Her influence of the decision making skills of parents has been scary. If a parent looks into the science behind vaccines and still decides against vaccinating their children, fine. But if a parent just reads Ms. McCarthy's book and decides from her “analysis” and her internet search leading to a degree from “The University of Google,” to not vaccinate their children, I weep for the future.

The billionaires from Google must be pleased, because there is no vetting of the websites from where she got her information. Theirs is a university full of crap, but the tuition you pay is what you also pay for accessing porn (although I think they charge more for that) so there should really be no surprise. You get what you pay for.

There is one tiny shred of information that Ms. McCarthy could take as science. The completely inaccurate and fraudulent study sadly published in the journal Lancet by “Dr.” Andrew Wakefield linking vaccines to autism has been retracted and continually is shown to be wrong. But, boy has that study did open a Pandora's box of paranoia, and sadly, leading to the unnecessary deaths of many children.

The vetting process – is it accurate? Even the political vetters can get it wrong. If you go with a political outsider and do not vet them properly, you get Sarah Palin, 2008 Republican VP candidate. If they had only vetted her actual debating experience, they may have thought that she would be out of her league. It is just my opinion but John McCain would have had a much better chance with a seasoned female candidate, such as Christine Todd Whitman. As I have said before, there is a lot of crap out there on the internet, and any idiot can have a website, and one of those idiots got Sarah Palin on the ticket.

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia done by crowd-sourcing. They make no qualms about that. Fortunately, for every prankster and crank who wants to get a giggle by changing the information, there is usually someone out there on Wikipedia who will set it right. It is these people, the anal ones, who we need to keep things accurate. It is sad to say, but the “know it all's” will keep us honest because they actually know it or learn it and commit it to memory. A good dose of their education comes with skepticism and the critical thinking skills that let us find what is really correct.

Amazingly, many of these people are at or are from ACTUAL UNIVERSITIES! So the next time someone tells you a university education is a waste of money, wait for them to tell you how much they love “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” or “Keeping Up With The Kardashians.” I believe there is a correlation there, but that is definitely not scientifically proven.

This process takes time, you cannot be a five minute expert, because it will take much longer to verify things. Real experts take decades to educate themselves properly. That is the problem with accuracy, it takes too darn long for those those of us used to things on demand!

Next time you look up a piece of information to win an argument on your smart phone. Will you remember that little nugget of information? Or will you have to do the calculation again later? Also, where did you get that information? This critical thinking stuff is hard...

P.G. Wodehouse: The Anti-George R.R. Martin

I just finished George R.R. Martin's Book 5 of A Song of Fire and Ice: A Dance With Dragons. Yes, the summertime is the best time to read these novels because unless you have lived under a rock: WINTER IS COMING! I had to take a break after I finished book 2: A Clash of Kings, because it was November and that ending is just too depressing. In June, I picked up book 3: A Storm of Swords and the ending was so good that I then swept through Book 4: A Feast for Crows and got to book 5, whew!

So, now I need my antidote: P.G. Wodehouse. It is interesting because both writers are writing about Great Britain, Europe and America, just in what I would say would be opposite ways. A Song of Fire and Ice weaves a fantasy based on English and European mid-evil history with all of it's disgusting details, with some necessary supernatural elements. In contrast, the works of P.G. Wodehouse are gentle satire about the lovable but numb-sculled Aristocratic class in Britain, Europe and America, being served by their gentleman's gentleman, a.k.a a butler like Jeeves.

I am not saying that as a bad thing. Just different. It is nice to read that the only thing that Bertie Wooster has to worry about is to get his friend engaged or unengaged and all-knowing Jeeves will see it through. Especially after finding out that one of the major characters in A Song of Fire and Ice got stabbed not once, but four times. See the difference?

A friend of mine is reading (I found out through Goodreads) Pride and Prejudice before tapping into the Fire and Ice books again. That is another good choice. After reading about Dragon fire, incest, beheadings and such; digging into some first world problems sounds pretty good.

By the way, as most of you know, A Game of Thrones is on HBO and is an awesome if somewhat condensed version of the books with each season covering a book. Although I hear that they do change the script from the book, they have the permission of Mr. Martin, as he is a producer for the show. This show (like MANY from HBO) are NOT family friendly. You have been warned...

What you may not know is that there are great TV versions of P.G. Wodehouse's works. My favorite is Jeeves and Wooster, a show done in the 90's with two of England's great comedic actors, Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster, and Stephen Fry as Jeeves. I really cannot see anyone else doing these characters. Yes, Hugh Laurie can play idiotic quite well (but anyone who has seen The Black Adder knows that), and Stephen Fry is pitch perfect as Jeeves, with the only thing being out of whack is his famously broken nose. This show is absolutely family friendly, although the kids might not understand the accents, the 1930's slang and such, and will head into their rooms to play. Which is all the better for the adults!

Chronicles of Idiocy 6 - The Pathetic Story of John Edwards and Rielle Hunter

I read a rather sad puff piece in People magazine last week. I admit it, my Mom subscribes to People, and I read their puff pieces about celebrities and other feel good crappy stories. Totally easy reading. Is probably melting my brain, like watching Jersey Shore, but more slowly.

This puff piece was Rielle Hunter's excerpt from her explanation of what deep sixed Former Senator (and could have been President in a different universe) Edwards career. It is in her tell-all book called “What Really Happened.” Or as I call it, “What I Think Happened That Will Not Make Me Look Like Too Much Of A Scumbag.”

We are not French. I say this because the French are famous for their mistresses. They think it is OK, but they are even seeming squeamish about Dominique Strauss-Kahn who was the IMF Managing Director and might have been the next French president except for his downfall which started in New York City. He was accused of sexual assault by a hotel worker and was known to be a notorious womanizer. By the way, the newest French President François Hollande is not married but has a partner he has had for over 30 years. That sounds like a marriage to me, but to each their own. I digress, we are not French, and infidelity in the US is still infidelity. We are the country started by puritans and some things are still not OK. Unless you are a part of a break-off Mormon sect and marry multiple wives, then it is still not OK or legal.

Why does it seem that powerful (and often Democratic) men think that is OK to be womanizers? Republican men who stray from their marriage are often seem to with the same sex, but that is a different Chronicle of Idiocy. I think former President Bill Clinton would have a much better reputation and legacy if he could have just kept his pants zipped for eight years.

This leads me to another soap box: Gay marriage is not destroying marriage in this country. Two adults committed to each other for life is a marriage. It is scumbags like Mr. Edwards and Ms. Hunter who blatantly lie like this who are destroying the sanctity of marriage.

This book that Ms. Hunter “wrote” will only appeal to people like her, those who don't care about marriage or commitment and only care about themselves. Shockingly, Ms. Hunter and Mr. Edwards are no longer together. I hope they can find some class and try to raise their daughter in a decent manner. It seems to me that Ms. Hunter now has two options: 1. Move to France, or 2. Tom Cruise is now single! She may even get a five year deal like Katie Holmes.

The Faux Sweet Secret Invasion!

You may not have noticed this but artificial sweeteners are everywhere! I am fine with them being labeled and saying “No Added Sugar,” but they are being added to many more items and they are not letting us know. It is only on the label if you read the ingredients. If it is a primary ingredient they need to add extra labels, but if it is one of the last ingredients; I guess you need to just keep reading for those funny little words like aspartame and saccharine.

The first switch I noticed was Juicy Fruit and Wintergreen Wrigley Gum. They used to just use sugar for those gums and yes, the flavor was gone in 5 minutes. But what a fantastic 5 minutes it was! Now it has aspartame and the crappy flavor lasts much longer. Meh.

Yogurt is supposed to be healthy, right? It is, unless it is fat-free and sugar-free. Then, to me it is just a chemical factory with a possible addition of those healthy bacteria for your tummy. You have to read the labels very carefully when you buy yogurt now, unless you like the taste of a chemical factory and it seems many people do.

My last and most egregious example is hot chocolate. Nobody is probably thinking of the stuff right now because it is summer but I still am pissed about what happened last winter. I was at the local Target buying the hot chocolatey goodness for my kids. I saw a package of Swiss Miss Marshmallow Lovers Hot Cocoa. Perfect, right? I mean why would a box of “Marshmallow Lovers” Hot Cocoa need any artificial sweeteners, since you are asking to get sugared up with the extra marshmallows.

Well, I make cups for me and my kids and instantly tell that there is something wrong. It is subtle but still the sweetness tastes wrong. I check the ingredients and it has Sucralose. I then go back to see if there is a hot cocoa I can buy with just sugar. At Target in Tucson, the answer is no. ALL THEIR HOT CHOCOLATE PACKAGES HAVE ARTIFICAL SWEETENERS SOMEWHERE IN THEIR INGREDIENTS! I was only able to find the generic brand at Safeway only has sugar. For us, that is the only safe way or make our own, which is really not that difficult.

Why does this bother me so much? Well you can call me an artificial sweetener detector cause if there is even a 0.00001 of a gram in there I will taste it. It tastes wrong to me because those sweeteners have always given me headaches. If it gives me a headache, I avoid it, wouldn't you? It used to be much easier to avoid these things but now they are popping up where you would think regular sugar should be just fine. The reason? My guess is that the producers of these items think they are making it more healthy by reducing the overall carbohydrate amount. Sorry, but for me a headache is a headache, and it just tastes WRONG! And it does not matter what kind because to aspartame = sucralose = saccharin = any other artificial sweetener = tastes wrong = headache. Give me good old-fashioned sugar and I will adjust the amount I want of it to sweeten my tea.

There is another thing about one artificial sweetener, you can get aspartame poisoning. It is very difficult to detect and is often misdiagnosed as Multiple Sclerosis. There are many symptoms associated with aspartame toxicity reported by the FDA. No wonder I get headaches, it is the #1 neurological reaction. When my kids are older and can make the decisions for themselves they are allowed to eat all the artificial sweeteners they want, but for now we try to keep them out of our diets.  I also have type-2 diabetes running in my family. Instead of running to the artificially sweetened drinks and foods, we are just trying to monitor our real sugar levels, with the occasional hot chocolate with marshmallows as a wintertime treat. Then make sure that me, my hubby, and my kids exercise.