Seven reasons why I won't vote for Sen. McCain in 2008
1. His foreign policy is beligerant and will continue to add mega-billions to the national debt through continued wars that are useless expenditures of money and lives.
2. McCain endorses economic policies that are destroying the middleclass, causing jobs to go overseas, and endangering the future of our offspring for decades to come. I don't believe that someone making millions is middle-class. I am middle-class.
3. McCain is America's "Number One Neocon" with direct ties to Bill Kristol's rightwing extremist oganization, Project for a New American Century (PNAC), I am not a raging liberal, but I detest the Neocon movement. I am pro-choice and while I don't think president's should be elected based on that particular ideal, I fear most the radical right wing Supreme Court justices that will be appointed during his reign. Oh, he's not a king, I forgot.
4. I have read long lists of repeated flip-flops in his voting record and his statements that go back a long way. He is changing all his stances based on his desire to appeal to the right wing movement and get elected. His maverick ways and attempts to work across the aisle are completely evaporating as he gets closer to the election.
5. He promised in February not run a negative campaign. Then, five months later, rather than discuss important issues like high energy prices and rising unemployment, McCain's advisors unleashed a scurrilous, Karl Rove-inspired attack on Barack Obama's character , such as calling him "arrogant" -- a substitute for "uppity" with racial overtones. Both candidates are getting more and more negative, so this one is a stand-off.
6. I have read several accounts from other POW's and military personnel that indicates that McCain is distoring his POW record and exploiting it for political gain. I don't believe being a POW is any particular skill needed to be President.
7. My biggest reason is my belief that if McCain wins in November, the neocons in Washington will increase their power, Bush's incompetent cronies will remain in office, our nation will become more divided, U.S. armed forces will attack Iran, and the Supreme Court will become completely corrupted by extreme right wing conservatives who will take away any rights I once thought I had.
I am saddened that at the early stages of this campaign I felt that there was hope for the future of my country, that we would become again a moral world leader and inspiration, that our economy would prosper, that maybe things would be different. Now it seems that it all is politics as usual, with both candidates doing whatever they need to do and say to try to appeal to the voters they are shooting for in order to win. No matter what kinds of ideals these politicians begin with, they end up prostituting themselves for power. Both of them.
I will no doubt vote Democrat, because of the reasons that I don't want to vote for McCain, but the whole thing just leaves a really bad taste in my mouth on this early Saturday morning.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Getting lost on google maps
This morning has been quiet, I am packing and cleaning and such, and decided to check out my google map. Time went by and before long I had found google street views of houses that I lived in long ago. It was fun making the map that you see in the post below this one. For my kids, you might like to check this out, because it's the chronological record of where we were when. I'll send an email to the family list for those who never get around to reading this blog.
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Yarn stories
Knitters may laugh at this photo, but somehow I just have to talk about this so that I remember my lessons. I have actually cried over this yarn, actually thrown the ball and needles across the room, but then stubbornly picked it up again.
It all started with a hair cut. In Sonora, the yarn shop is just a few doors down from the salon I frequent, so of course, I have to stop in and oggle and feel all the soft yarns. Seems as though these very fine sock yarns, called "fingering wool" are pretty popular right now with the yarn crowd, and there are lots of pretty socks in baskets to tempt me. Now I have made one pair of socks, with worsted weight wool, successfully. On Number 5 needles if I remember right, or some such big kind of thing. Yeah, sure, I can do number 2's. why not. Hmmm. I learned why not. My fingers can do lots of things, I play the piano, texture soils and type fast. On a side note, I just learned that those of us who have textured soils with our right thumb and forefinger have lost most of our fingerprints there. But anyway, fine detailed dexterity isn't on that list of things that I do well. Tiny screws and such make me crazy. Think I should have known, right?
Well, instead, I bought some fancy #2 double pointed needles and a skein of very expensive, very beautiful fingering weight sock yarn. Gee, maybe I can make a dozen or so pairs for Christmas presents. NOT! I think I spent a week or so trying to actually cast on 64 stitches on the double pointed needles before I finally managed to begin a round. After another week, some dropped stitches, and actually crying when I ripped it all out for the 40th time, I put it on the shelf. Another week passed and I took the whole mess to my camping trip and tried again, once more to rip it all out. I cried again. geez. Nothing like some skinny yarn and #2 needles to mess up my life. Maybe I should just knit big shawls and washcloths. Somewhere in this process I knitted up a very nice washcloth to feel better about myself.
I finally decided that I could possibly try using circular needles. Bought 2 of them, at something like $13 each, and proceeded to find a video on the internet of just how to knit in the round for soc
ks on 2 circular needles. Tried again. These socks are getting pretty expensive, and fairly precious. But I am beginning to see from all this that I am nothing else if not stubborn. So, once again, I attempt to actually cast on 64 stitches, hook them up, and start knitting in the round for a rib knit. Knit 2 purl 2 knit 2 purl 2. Uhoh. I have 63 stitches instead of 64. crap. rip it out. Only this time I didn't cry, I actually started laughing and started casting on again. I am not sure just how many times I did this, but I notice I am getting just a bit better at handling that finger weight yarn, and finally, finally, on a Saturday afternoon when I should be doing lots of other things, here is the proof that if I keep on keepin on, eventually I will get somewhere.
It's ribbing. It's tiny. It is the beginning of a real sock. Do you suppose I will have one pair by Christmas? Maybe if I give them to Mo I can wear them myself sometimes. No one else will get fingering weight fancy wool socks, at least not before I am retired.
It all started with a hair cut. In Sonora, the yarn shop is just a few doors down from the salon I frequent, so of course, I have to stop in and oggle and feel all the soft yarns. Seems as though these very fine sock yarns, called "fingering wool" are pretty popular right now with the yarn crowd, and there are lots of pretty socks in baskets to tempt me. Now I have made one pair of socks, with worsted weight wool, successfully. On Number 5 needles if I remember right, or some such big kind of thing. Yeah, sure, I can do number 2's. why not. Hmmm. I learned why not. My fingers can do lots of things, I play the piano, texture soils and type fast. On a side note, I just learned that those of us who have textured soils with our right thumb and forefinger have lost most of our fingerprints there. But anyway, fine detailed dexterity isn't on that list of things that I do well. Tiny screws and such make me crazy. Think I should have known, right?
Well, instead, I bought some fancy #2 double pointed needles and a skein of very expensive, very beautiful fingering weight sock yarn. Gee, maybe I can make a dozen or so pairs for Christmas presents. NOT! I think I spent a week or so trying to actually cast on 64 stitches on the double pointed needles before I finally managed to begin a round. After another week, some dropped stitches, and actually crying when I ripped it all out for the 40th time, I put it on the shelf. Another week passed and I took the whole mess to my camping trip and tried again, once more to rip it all out. I cried again. geez. Nothing like some skinny yarn and #2 needles to mess up my life. Maybe I should just knit big shawls and washcloths. Somewhere in this process I knitted up a very nice washcloth to feel better about myself.
I finally decided that I could possibly try using circular needles. Bought 2 of them, at something like $13 each, and proceeded to find a video on the internet of just how to knit in the round for soc
ks on 2 circular needles. Tried again. These socks are getting pretty expensive, and fairly precious. But I am beginning to see from all this that I am nothing else if not stubborn. So, once again, I attempt to actually cast on 64 stitches, hook them up, and start knitting in the round for a rib knit. Knit 2 purl 2 knit 2 purl 2. Uhoh. I have 63 stitches instead of 64. crap. rip it out. Only this time I didn't cry, I actually started laughing and started casting on again. I am not sure just how many times I did this, but I notice I am getting just a bit better at handling that finger weight yarn, and finally, finally, on a Saturday afternoon when I should be doing lots of other things, here is the proof that if I keep on keepin on, eventually I will get somewhere.It's ribbing. It's tiny. It is the beginning of a real sock. Do you suppose I will have one pair by Christmas? Maybe if I give them to Mo I can wear them myself sometimes. No one else will get fingering weight fancy wool socks, at least not before I am retired.
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