Archive for rants
September 29, 2008 at 3:52 pm · Filed under rants
Seriously. Not to sound like a broken record, but you need to make sure you’re registered to vote! You also need to know that there are some things that may preclude you from voting - like a recent change of address - and there are apparently some folks who are actually trying to prohibit people from voting.
This is important. Take the time to make sure you’re registered!
Update: Inspired by Heather to add this link which brings the claim in the aforementioned link into question. Of course, now it’s clear as mud! 
August 26, 2008 at 6:28 am · Filed under rants
Doing laundry and then dumping it in a heap on the couch to wrinkle for a week is not doing anyone any favors. Seriously.
June 6, 2008 at 1:28 pm · Filed under rants
The American Family Association is worried that people don’t know about this bill:
“Congressman Paul Broun of Georgia has introduced the Marriage Protection Amendment of 2008 (H.J. RES. 89). This amendment to the U.S. Constitution would make marriage legal only between a man and a woman.
If you haven’t heard about this, it is because the liberal media opposes it. So if they simply refuse to report it, citizens will know nothing about it and will not act on it.”
So, I’m doing my duty and reporting about it. Based on their email alert, they’d also like you to know that:
The goal of homosexual activists is to see homosexual marriage legal in all 50 states.
and that:
Homosexual activists are determined to force homosexual marriage on America by using activist liberal judges, like those in Massachusetts and California.
Of course, the AFA would like you to let your representative know how you feel about this bill, but I daresay, only if you agree. I can’t find a link to the entire email appeal, but there are a number of other homophobic doozies, here and here.
And then, there’s me on my soapbox:
I have no trouble with people honoring their beliefs in their home, even if it includes bigoted behavior. But our tax dollars at work should not be dealing with who likes whom. How about focusing on lowering the %@#!*&! gas prices or ending this war?
Edited to add: Yes, this is a bit off topic and political for this space, but what made me want to share it here is that it came through a homeschooling list that I belong to, with the appearance that ALL homeschoolers must certainly be supportive of such legislation. Not so.
April 26, 2008 at 7:52 am · Filed under rants
Background: Monsanto, the company that brings us Roundup herbicide (weed-killer) decided it would be groovy to genetically modify soybean seeds to resist Roundup. This, so that entire crops of food we eat can be sprayed with poison and survive. These seeds were cleverly tagged “Roundup Ready”, and Monsanto now boasts a whole line of genetically modified seeds.
I’ve been a critic of Monsanto and its genetically modified seeds for years but people mostly just roll their eyes at me. Finally, Vanity Fair takes Monsanto to task. It’s a long article, but one that I think is very important to read, especially if this is the first you’ve heard of Monsanto’s atrocities. Here are just a few tidbits:
“Monsanto spends more than $2 million a day in research to identify, test, develop and bring to market innovative new seeds and technologies that benefit farmers,” Monsanto spokesman Darren Wallis [says].
Huh. Mother Nature does it for free. And do these seeds really benefit farmers? Or Monsanto? Monsanto’s seeds cannot be saved year to year and planted; rather, each year farmers must buy a new batch if they want to continue to be able to use Roundup Ready seeds (here, let me just say thank you to the farmers who opt out of Roundup Ready seeds). Monsanto has convinced growers that their product saves them time and money, and now holds a corner on that market.
And now they’re trying to mess with milk:
The company is also seeking to extend its reach into milk production by marketing an artificial growth hormone for cows that increases their output, and it is taking aggressive steps to put those who don’t want to use growth hormone at a commercial disadvantage.
The impact on the environment and our food supply is scary, but Monsanto - now the largest seed company in the world - is attacking small farmers and interfering with legislation that will require labeling of milk for growth hormone content. This company is nasty.
This whole scenario reminds me of A Wrinkle in Time. Remember IT? The brain that offeres security in exchange for compliance? Well, I want to be the kid who fights back.
**Note** The USA does not require the labeling of products grown from genetically modified seeds. The only way to avoid these products is to buy organic.
March 31, 2008 at 2:01 pm · Filed under publishing, rants
This just in:
“Perhaps we should explain what PVC pipe is.”
Dear person who is editing my book:
Are you serious?
###
Dear blog visitors:
If you do NOT know what PVC pipe is, would you please be brave enough to comment? If there truly is a lack of knowledge about PVC pipe in the world, by all means we need to explain it. But I’m thinking that wasting words on a description of PVC pipe would be as ridiculous as explaining what a tire is.
March 16, 2008 at 8:13 pm · Filed under rants
A desk situation that puts my back to the wall with me looking out into the room so that when people need to talk to me they can do so without first feeling like they need to read what I’m writing. THAT drives me batty.
February 19, 2008 at 1:22 pm · Filed under rants
An hour into a phone call to Mac tech support for a minor problem, I’m on hold with really bad music in my ear waiting for a product specialist to help me retrieve the entire list of 500+ email addresses that are now missing because the first tech had me do something that erased all of them.
Did I say Argh?
Update: Mr. Product Specialist cannot help me. They’re gone. I need to remember the seventeen step process that I used when I first did the import. You know. The one that took me a week and a half to figure out??
Did I say Argh?
January 11, 2008 at 9:16 am · Filed under kidlit, My Musings, rants
I read over at Farm School that BBC Films is acquiring options to all twelve of the Swallows and Amazons adventures. I love these books. If you haven’t read them out loud to your kids, I highly recommend them. I haven’t seen the older versions of the Swallows and Amazons movies, so I can’t speak to them. But I will say that I’m tired of people making movies or writing books “Inspired by the success of The Dangerous Book for Boys.”
The book is just not that fabulous, people. Don’t get me wrong; it’s good in the sense that apparently it has moved some kids from the couch to the out of doors. But it’s not a new concept. Kids - including mine - have been hammering and sawing and building and climbing and decoding long before they had a brick red handbook telling them how to do so. If parents want to encourage their kids to be “dangerous”, their money would be much better spent on a toolbox filled with a hammer and a screwdriver, along with a promise of some unscheduled time.
And seriously? If you’re looking for danger, you’re going to be MUCH better off with
this book
.
/rant (my, my, I got a little off track there, didn’t I?)
November 12, 2007 at 7:58 pm · Filed under My Musings, rants
Wow. My son and I just spent an hour reading through the posts at anysoldier.com. There is something seriously wrong when the men and women who have volunteered to be part of our military are sent halfway round the world and must ask donors for help in getting basic hygiene products, bedding, beef jerky, and socks. SOCKS!
Just about everyone posting at anysoldier requested books and magazines. I’ll be sorting through my stacks of books and ARCs to find suitable contributions, and my son - he who works at the library - plans to take on the task of collecting discarded books/music. We should have a nice collection gathered within a couple of weeks; hopefully we can send at least some stuff to arrive by Christmas/Hanukkah. But I daresay we’ll be sending more after that as well. It’s pretty compelling to take a look at the pictures some of these soldiers have posted and see just what they are lacking.
W hat say you? Anyone care to join us in this endeavor? One flat rate USPS box will hold a good amount of beef jerky and deodorant!
Update: Tim wrote about this in a much more organized fashion last year. His article first appeared in the Austin American-Statesman, and is worth a read.
October 16, 2007 at 12:23 pm · Filed under rants
I’m all for heightened security. But it is beyond frustrating when instead of picking up the small package I left in my mailbox, you leave a sticky note on it telling me that packages over 13 ounces must be personally handed to a postal worker. Especially when said package is only SIX ounces. Perhaps you ought to carry a scale in that truck of yours.
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