Wednesday, January 26, 2005

    Warning: Political ranting

 
I can’t believe that anyone could vote for George W. Bush and feel good about it. On my way to work this morning, I heard the president’s news conference. He was talking about the same crap that he talked about during his inaugural address – spreading freedom and asking the Congress to pass his Social Security legislation. I learned something very interesting on NPR last night. Part of the reason that the Bushies can say that Social Security is bankrupt is because they used the Social Security trust fund to take care of tax cuts and other crap that the president and the neo-cons wanted. When the government decides to cash in the government bonds that are the Social Security trust fund, the money won’t be there because it’s already been spent. Basically, they have created this problem. They’ve always hated government “entitlement” programs even though they have benefited from them and they probably decided that if they completely screw over Social Security now, it will give them the opportunity to privatize it later.

Oh, my favorite part of the news conference this morning was when someone asked him whether or not he's willing to admit mistakes now that he's in his second term and he REFUSED to answer the question. Once again, they don't make mistakes!

How anyone can believe a word that W. says and have confidence in him is beyond me. Sure there are those that think his idea of a “culture of life” is right on, but this guy does exactly the opposite. How can he support a “culture of life” when he started a war that has killed more than 1,500 US troops, countless Iraqi civilians and made our world so dangerous that we will be paying for generations. And he is talking about we will have to commit generations to advancing freedom around the world. He sounds like he’s found another country to invade and spread “freedom” and death. He is a sick man and I don’t understand how we can survive four more years of this guy and his sick policies.
Text of the president's press conference. Pages 2 & 3 are particularly irritating.

I found this website, I'm Blue today and it made me feel better. Others are just as frustrated and see that the Bushies live in their own fantasy world. Let's hope more people come to realize how horrible the Bushies have been for our world and get rid of the Republicans in 2006 and definitely in 2008, we'll really need some rehab by then.
posted by erica Wednesday, January 26, 2005 []

  Thursday, January 20, 2005

    Inauguration Day

 

It's a very sad day for the world. The inauguration (or better coronation) of George W. Bush is taking place. I just read that wearing a white ribbon today is a symbol of mourning for democracy, freedom, and all casualties of Iraq--including Iraqi civilians and American soldiers. United for Peace and Justice is encouraging people to wear the ribbons. Of course, I didn't know this until today, so I'm putting a white ribbon on my blogs for today.

We can only hope that the next four years are better than the last four years. We and the world can't afford to live with another four disastrous years of Bush policies. We are working our way backwards with the fundamentalist right working their agenda forwards. They talk about having to fight militant Islamic fundamentalists when they are militant religious fundamentalists.

In other news, I have been keeping myself busy with knitting and getting ready for my beginning class that starts tonight.
posted by erica Thursday, January 20, 2005 []

  Thursday, January 13, 2005

    Weather

 
"Snow? Ice? What's this, the middle of January?"- Bryan

Bryan seems as confused as I am. Tuesday was freezing rain and fog. Wednesday was 50 degrees and a thunderstorm. Today was rain as I walked out the door for work, by the time I got to my car it was freezing rain, shortly after I arrived at work it was snow. The high tomorrow is supposed to be 13 degrees.

The new year has started out well for us. I've managed to get a lot of knitting done in the last few weeks and we've also started to organize our apartment even more, it still has a ways to go. This past weekend was a four-day weekend for both of us. We both took Monday and Tuesday off. Saturday was spent cleaning up our office and filling our new filing cabinet. It got a ton of the papers and files I had piled up on the desk put away and filed. Now when I have something I need to file, I just put it away where it needs to go. I went through 3 years of knitting teaching materials and recycled a lot of paper. Sunday, we went to Unitarian services and I don't remember what else we did that day. Isn't it terrible what you did a few days ago? Monday was a day for us to take it easy and just enjoy our day off. And Tuesday, we went down to Champaign-Urbana to look at apartments for the fall. I had forgotten how terrible some student apartments can be. We did find one that we liked, it's about two miles from campus but it will be an easy bike ride to campus. We were talking and think that maybe being off campus will be better because we won't have to deal with the loud partying undergrads that we might have to deal with in the neighborhoods closer to campus.

I don't have much to report as far as the school application goes. The application is actually due this Friday, but mine was mailed a month ago so I got mine in early. I haven't heard anything yet and don't expect to hear anything until mid-March, I can only hope that they will send out letters sooner. :) In the meantime, I'm going to start on my ALA (American Library Association) scholarship applications.

Considering that I'm not teaching at the moment, I've managed to keep myself busy with knitting and other household projects, such as picking up the office. My classes start up again next week, I'll be teaching beginning knitting for six-weeks at Vernon Hills High School. Then February 1, I have another beginning knitting class starting at Buffalo Grove Park District. My Vernon Hills beginning class was so popular that it was full in about four days, they asked me if I could add another beginning class, so I added one that starts in April which is nearly full, too.

Lately, I've been reading three books - The Soul of Money by Lynn Twist, Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach and Our Sometime Sister by Norah Labiner. The Soul of Money and Simple Abundance seem to be good complimentary books. They are perfect for where I'm at in my life right now. And we went to Unitarian services on Sunday and the sermon seemed to fit in with those two books perfectly. I have been reading Simple Abundance to Bryan before we go to bed and that day's theme lately has been something we've talked about that day. I started to read Simple Abundance in 1998 and I don't think I was at a point in my life where I could read it and feel like it benefitted me or fit in with my life. Now is the perfect time. On Tuesday as we were driving to Champaign, I was reading The Soul of Money and Bryan asked if I would read to him. So I read an entire chapter to him. It was really fun to read to him while he was driving. The Soul of Money is a book that should be required reading for everyone. It's about exploring your relationship with money. It's definitely not about making more money, it's about making more of your life with what you have and how you see money.
posted by erica Thursday, January 13, 2005 []

  Monday, January 03, 2005

    Happy 2005

 
I hope everyone had a safe happy New Year's Eve and Day. Bryan and I had a quiet New Year's Eve, we went out to dinner and then came home and welcomed in the new year with a small toast in our lovely wedding toasting glasses. I love these glasses, they are Waterford Crystal's Celebration Dreams glasses. I thought they were appropriate for the wedding and are certainly appropriate for the new year because you always have a list of dreams for the year (aka goals). I don't do resolutions because then it's bad if I fail, if I set goals, then I consider them to a a short of path or journey that I am working towards.

New Year's Day, Bryan and I spent a fair amount of it on the couch. We decided we were going to be very lazy all day and we were! I made out my list of goals for the year. We also watched two movies - 21 Grams and Garden State. The most productive thing we did all day was balance our checkbook.

More later.
posted by erica Monday, January 03, 2005 []