Laura, You took quite an odd hit today on Face Book.. as for me when you posted about deleting people.. had I known it was people for games only .. I'd have kept my mouth shut. But I know first hand that often I meander away due to work or illness, mostly family. I'd be very sad if I came back and couldn't find you!! So, I imagine those that are quiet would be the same way if they suddenly lost touch with you... and I didn't want you to ever delete someone and find out it was a mistake cause as you might have figured... people get their feelings hurt then ask questions later. And those questions are always asked of the wrong people.. I just didn't want you to do something you might regret..

In the end though, it is YOUR Face Book and YOUR friend list. I just was adding my own two cents worth! You can always take what I say or leave but really.. we all know if I speak it.. it must be gospel, right? (( Try not to choke on my exaggeration!!))

Your Obama thing.. it was a joke and should have been taken that way. But any time you post ANYTHING .. just know it has the potential to upset someone. But a joke you liked, your own thoughts, your plans.. anythng, .. it is what makes you.. special.

In fact, it's what makes us all special. We are all different and all think differently. We accept each other at face value. None of us filled out forms to pick and choose our friends.. we take them at face value and love them despite what we may or may not agree on. We agree to disagree cause we're friends.. cause we are tolerant of each other.

Anyway, don't let those that disagree with you get you down.. it would be a might boring world if we all agreed, wouldn't it?
Love ya.. and Friday too!

I pass this man every time we go to the grocery store. The first couple times I saw him there was a twinge of guilt because I wasn't stopping to hand him money. As of late we've managed to keep our business afloat even if we're not making money right now. However, surely I could come up with a buck or two right?

Then the guilt would worsen when I had a moment of honesty. I've known a person who wouldn't take what he said he would. He'd work, food but not money.. yet when someone saw this young man and tried to give him the hot dog they just bought out of the store, this person got upset because the person didn't give him money.

I've ridden by a man standing on the median with his sign of woe and collecting money but when he turns around you can see the hypodermic in his back pocket. Apparently he didn't keep the needle in it or it would have poked him in the arse with each step.

Even my husband knew a lady that panhandled and made a couple hundred bucks a day.. back in the 1980's. That's more than we make right now. That's more than we pay the kids. And we pay tax on our money she and those like her don't.

So, when I see that man sitting there and those twinges of guilt come fluttering by, as if to remind me I'm being selfish... I know it is not just because we aren't financially set but I think even if we were better off financially I wouldn't hand him money because of those that came before him.... "Ah come on," I tell myself, "He's not them.. he's hungry."

Then as weather warmed up I noticed he was sitting on a cooler with a soda in hand. I didn't have money for a soda. Still.. that guilt wouldn't go away. I mean, come on.. I do, even if less frequently get a Starbucks. He's entitled to a soda. Especially in the hot sun.

The last time I felt bad was when my husband said, "Look at him!!" and there the man sat atop his cooler, soda on the ground next to him and he was fanning a stack of bills. He was holding in his hand a bigger stack of money than I ever have in my own hands in a month.

Well, okay.. we get paid by check, I deposit it and then pay bills and pray I can pay our bills. But I never have money in my pocket anymore. My husband wants me to keep twenty dollars in my pocket for emergency but I don't have the twenty bucks for that and I'm feeling guilty because I keep passing this man and not helping him?

When I saw that money in this man's hands I decided once and for all that I would never feel guilty again. I would continue with my plan of sending what money or other donation I am able to to places that will help more than just one person. Cancer research, a homeless shelter.. anything but not the person on the corner. Not when it feels too much like a scam to take money from people and not all of them can afford to give a man money when he won't help himself.

Many years ago I had been reading the blog of a young man at the end of his college career and seemed to have the potential to become a promising attorney. The last post of his that I read, I believe was the topic of Fox News and how he had gone so far as to use parental controls on his MOTHER'S television to block all Fox News channels. The majority of his posters were in agreement while I was appalled and no longer read his blog. Or perhaps I stuck around long enough to see if there was an explination.

I didn't exactly delve into this Fox News controversy then. At the time I thought he didn't want his mom watching shows that were gossip shows about actors. I had never paid attention to it really but for a new attorney didn't he understand his mother PAID for her television viewing. How on earth was it hurting her to watch it? And just when did the children tell the parents what television programming they could watch? And somehow freedom of speech was involved... and probably a slew of other freedoms he was denying his mother. You get the idea.. Just who IS this young man to determine what his mother can watch?

And I left it alone. Fox News became little more than .. "huh?" You mean that channel Judge Judy is on? Fox News is again being talked about. Just what IS going on with this news channel? I must see.

One thing that came up was Glen Beck. I watched it. I sacrificed myself. Insert considerable coughing here. Oh, very interesting. He's speaking of a green czar that is communist? Oh puh-lease.. now I understand why people don't like Fox News. Look at the trash they are allowing to be spewed. So I looked it up and I found information on Wiki's and other sites and found out that there was truth behind what this Glen Beck person said. Does the President know this??

In short order this man stepped down from his position and I continued to watch Glenn Beck and Fox News. I found a place where Obama isn't God.. he's a person that isn't perfect. However, he is president and those imperfections have a way of touching us and those we love.

I don't get all of my news from Fox. To get your information from one place is getting a rather biased view. I do watch other news, I do read from news sites on the internet. I do try to verify what I find to be absurd. However, I find it rather interesting that I never actually watched the Fox News station until this administration started to speak negatively about it. In fact, I had always thought, as in that person's blog that the Fox News they spoke of was the news on the Fox station that also ran The Simpsons and Judge Judy.

Glenn Beck can't be said to be news. He speaks his opinion. That's what columnists do, that's what WE do! It is not wrong, it is not bad and one could say that Glenn Beck's opinions aren't wrong.. they're HIS opinion and nobody has to agree. You don't have to believe him, you don't have to listen to him. And in fact, that is the stance people always took with someone merely speaking their mind. Right?
...Unless ..of course...
What that person, in this case, Beck, is saying is hitting too close to home. Then every time I hear something come out of the current administration that is negative about Fox I think of that old saying.. Shakespear.. okay, I just realized I can't remember it verbatum.. but .. "me thinks thou dost protest too much."

I am traveling and other than at night I don't have internet access. Welcome the iPhone! I can't do everything on it but I can do enough. One such thing is I have the AP news on it. As we were riding I got that familiar dinging sound that said news was in and since I was bored I didn't wait.

Rio has been nominated to host the Olympics. I am glad too. We have hosted the Olympics eight times. Four for summer and four for winter. Japan hosted it in 1964 and Madrid has done so on several occasions. Rio.. none.

Our president and the first lady has taken not one but two jets to make this attempt. But still when all is said and done I'm still left with the question...


When will his job in the Capital of the United States be important enough to do that he is actually there?
I don't want to see him on television speaking about being a good dad while his children are at home and he's off... somewhere. This time Denmark. I don't want to see him giving speeches about health care reform but not really answering any questions. I am just.. tired of seeing the face of a man that I can't figure out what he's accomplished to warrant that. I just want to get that feeling that he's actually doing his job.

Or perhaps that said, what it really is..is the uncomfortable feeling that government is simply becoming too big and too involved and the only ones actually accomplishing anything will be us.. we the people of the United States because that's what we do. We take care of ourselves and hopefully can help take care of others.

But, on that.. we earn the money. We as citizens work hard for our money. We have what we have because we earned it. I do not believe in the redistribution of wealth. I do not believe in taxing me so that another may gain benefit in life too.

I DO see things in the world around me and I DO help when I can. Be it clothes for homeless Vets, or money and other supplies in the aftermath of Katrina, or breast cancer.. the point is my husband I determine what we can do and still eat and pay our bills. WE choose how WE feel our money will best be spent.

Our nation has such a huge deficit and it's only appearing to get bigger. We will be taxed to help pay for this. Money we wanted to CHOOSE how to spend will now be spent by the government as it sees fit.

Good going Obama.. I hope you enjoyed your trip to Denmark. Why ask us to go green when you take TWO jets not one.. to Denmark? Did you ask the citizens, the actual people of Chicago if they wanted the Olympics held there? Oh, guess I'll end it there... cause I forgot, I am starting to feel like really what we want doesn't matter unless it happens to jive with what the president wants.

Peace out..