Local News Ragepost

Humble Independent School District Refuses to Bus Kids Nearly Two Miles From Elementary School.

I’m not even a parent, and I’m outraged at this.

Right now I’m watching a story about it on a different news channel; this one following the families who live in a subdivision 2 miles (a 45-minute walk) from Ridge Creek Elementary. Parents are worried about the dangers of traffic; worried that their young children will get lost on all the twisty turns in the 2-mile distance (we’re talking about kids as young as five, here). One father voiced his concern that once the children make it to school, they will be too tired to pay attention and learn (and learning is supposed to be the entire purpose of school…or so I thought).

Not all parents can drive their children to school, and not all parents can afford to hire a babysitter to take their kids to school. This is creates a dangerous situation for the parents of those kids.

(Tangent rant: Crap like this is another reason why I don’t like public schools: Even if they do manage to give you a decent education, some of them endanger you just trying to get there [this isn’t the first local news story about students having a dangerous or long walk to school]. Maybe if they cut the football coach’s pay they could afford more buses? Tangent over, now back to the main rant.)

And while I’m all about “exercise is important, rah rah rah, kids need exercise;” it’s entirely different when child safety is at risk. Yes, walking miles a day will make the kids fit and strong, but at what cost? Four miles a day is a bit much for a child (especially one as young as five or six). In addition to the safety concerns, there’s also the possibility that the students will be too worn out from the walk to concentrate on their studies.

And if the kids aren’t learning, then that long walk was for nothing.

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And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to do some yoga and calm down.

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I give up.

“I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God…and I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.” ~ Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock; October 23rd, 2012

Normally, when I catch wind of an outrageous statement like this, I immediately voice my dissent all over social media (as I did with Todd Akin and Rick Santorum). This time, though, I just can’t work up the required outrage. Instead, I feel defeated. Defeated and exhausted. Why? Because after all the stupid, offensive statements I’ve heard from the likes of Perry, Santorum, Akin, and now this clown; I’ve accepted that this level of gross ignorance is par for the course in American politics. It’s been that way as long as I can remember, and it’ll probably be that way until I die. For every bit of progress we make in other arenas, there are still going to be a bunch of chauvinists in suits who want to tell women what they can and can’t do with their bodies and with their families. And, sadly, people  are going to elect these men. The vicious cycle continues. We can try vote them out, but these politicians are worse then herpes– they always come back, worse than before.

I’m done. Peace out. Go Dems.

Courtesy of Daily Kos. This would be hilarious if it wasn’t actually happening.

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Innocent People

I know, I know… this is the second rage-y post in the space of a week. While I don’t want this little blog to be “all vitrol, all the time;” some of the reactions to the Penn State Sanctions have got my undies in a bunch.

(If you’re outside the U.S., here’s a quick two-paragraph explanation of what I’m talking about.) (Thank you, Wikipedia.)

I had the TV on at work this morning, and they showed some interviews with upset Penn State students/faculty. “I understand the sanctions were necessary, bu I don’t understand why they’re punishing innocent people.”

My initial reaction.

Punishing innocent people?

What about the innocent people– nay, innocent children— who were harmed by Sandusky’s perverse actions? What about the people who had their innocence stripped from them at a young age? What about the “innocent people” who are going to be paying therapy bills for the rest of their lives because Penn State Football was more important than child safety?

Punishing innocent people, my pants. Charging a fine and taking away a couple of ball games is barely even a punishment, it’s an inconvenience. An inconvenience that will never, ever undo what has been done to those kids at the hands of Jerry Sandusky.

I like the fact that they vacated all the wins from the last fourteen years. If you won a sporting event while you were covering up child abuse, you really didn’t win at all. I also like that they’re giving current players and opportunity to transfer without having to wait a year.

My advice to Penn State fans: Think of these next four years of sitting out post-season and bowl games as an important lesson–  child abuse hurts everyone.

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Personally, I thought the NCAA should’ve issued the death penalty.

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Rush Out Of Hell (Updated)

I’m sorry, but I don’t buy Rush Limbaugh’s “apology” for one second. Not only is it incredibly insincere; but it smacks of a child glumly apologizing to another child because “my mom made me say I’m sorry.” It’s screamingly obvious that the only reason for his “apology” was because he lost several sponsors as a result of his comments.

Actions speak louder than words. A real act of remorse, on his part, would be to temporarily pull his show off the airwaves. Not permanently– just announce a two or three-week hiatus “out of sensitivity to the situation;” then take those 2 to three weeks to stay silent and think about what he did.

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I must say that I’m happy about how President Obama handled the situation– he didn’t ignore it; he didn’t side with Limbaugh (not that he ever would in the first place), and he didn’t make a bland public statement about how we should all just be nice. Instead, he personally called Georgetown Student Sandra Fluke to expressed his disappointment over the tornado she’s been sucked into and thanked her for exercising her First-Amendment rights. What a guy! Thank you, President Obama.

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The sponsors that have since pulled their advertisements from Limbaugh’s show are LegalZoom, Quicken Loans, Citrix Systems, Sleep Number,The Sleep Train, and Carbonite. Sponsors that haven’t pulled away include e-Harmony, Domino’s Pizza, ProFlowers, On*Star, AutoZone, and Hotwire. If you are a regular patron of any of these companies, I encourage you to take your business elsewhere. Sign the CREDOaction petition; or write to individual comapnies to tell them you cannot support a company that supports misogyny on such a public level.

UPDATE: ProFlowers has suspended advertising on the Rish Limbaugh Show as of 4pm CST.

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You might say “but I don’t support contraception or birth control.” And that’s fine. But do support a public figure saying such horrible, hurtful– not to mention completely unfounded– things about another American citizen on the air? You can read (or hear) Limbaugh’s statements here.

No matter your politics, no matter your religion; I think we can all agree that his behavior is unacceptable.

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Stupid Questions People Have Asked Me About Being A Vegetarian

'Salad' by Till Nowak

“What do you eat?”

I would think that would be self-explanatory, seeing as I just told you I’m a VEGETarian.
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“Do you still eat chicken?”

Is the Pope Jewish?
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“What about beans?”

Seriously? You’re not clear on if a bean is vegetable or animal? You’ve got bigger concerns than my dietary preferences, my friend.
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” I know you’re a vegetarian, but would you like to try some cheesesteak/chicken/possum anyway? I won’t tell anyone!”

Yeah, okay. YOU may not tell anyone, but someone is going to know. And that someone is my stomach. And that stomach will punish me in Guantanamo-like ways for my transgression. Your pulled-pork sandwich just doesn’t look like it’s worth that price, sorry.

 

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Stay Tuned for Part II: Not-Stupid Questions People Have Asked Me About Being a Vegetarian!

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I Don’t Understand Celebrities

~ Why do Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have so many kids? It’s not like they actually parent them. The kids are cared for by Brangelina’s personal staff while Mom & Dad make movies and do fabulous famous-people things. It seems like the kids are living, breathing accessories that they whip out to look nice for magazine pictures (and then sell those pictures for eight figures. As you do).

Then again, this *is* America: If you have enough money, you can do whatever the fuck you want here.

At least they’ll have enough money for the therapy those six kids will surely need.

…

~ Speaking of Brangelina: I feel like him/her/Jennifer Aniston have been on the cover of at least one tabloid a week for the last ten years, regarding their little love triangle (Wikipedia tells me that Brad/Jen divorced in 2005… so it’s only been six years, but it FEELS like ten). Does ANYBODY care? Really? I don’t even want to hear about my neighbor’s marital problems, let alone some rich actor’s marital problems.

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~ Celebrity drug use is easy to understand:
Q: What do you do with unlimited money and freedom?
A:

Cocaine! Lots and lots of it!

(Ditto to hookers, heavy drinking, and anything else Charlie Sheen does.*)

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~ ‘Jersey Shore:’ I can’t even begin to get my head around it.
Is “stupid sells” the new “sex sells?” (If so, GOD HELP US)
Is Italian exploitation the new blaxploitation?
If so, couldn’t they have stuck with exploiting the rich probably-in-the-Mafia Italians? At least that’s interesting. Personally, I’d rather watch a bunch of hairy guys kick each other’s asses than a watch a bunch of drunk oily gym rats grinding on a fat girl; But that’s just me.

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~ Scientology seems to be the preferred belief system of celebrities. I think it’s because super rich people want their own God. Anybody else? (Granted, that’s an extremely simplified statement)

…

~ Don’t even get me started on THIS shit:

Yet gay people in meaningful relationships can’t get married because it ruins the holy institution.

Remember what I said earlier about how you can do anything you want in this country if you have enough money?

….

That’s all for now, folks. Rant over!

*When I did a google image search for “pile of cocaine,” Charlie Sheen’s picture turned up in the second row of results. Hee!

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Patio-plant Update: With photos!

Rest in Peace, sweet plant.

Our tabasco plant FINALLY started flowering last week. I was so excited! So proud! I had been watering and caring for it every day and it was finally making progress. Yay!

And then…on Saturday morning, while I was taking a modern class at Houston Dance Festival, my husband watered the plants. And when he watered the Tabasco plant…he gave it too much water. WAY too much water. When I returned home hours later, there was still water sitting ON TOP of the soil. I did everything I could to save it (with tears running down my face), but nothing doing. My little plant is gone.

It was so hard to not be furious with my husband, because I know he didn’t mean to kill the plant, but…how could he NOT see that there was too much water in the pot (HE was a farmer!)?  But, I digress. Rant over.

Picture taken on Friday, 8/4/11

After realizing that cats and indoor plants don’t bode well, last Saturday I moved the seed-starting system outside and planted some cucumber and pumpkin seeds. They’ve grown even taller since I took this picture– they’re going to need separating and re-potting sooner than I thought!

I planted some oregano seeds on Friday. They should start popping up at the beginning of next week. I gave up on the okra seeds (because we really don’t need any more okra. Really), and last night planted some more garlic in those rows instead.

And speaking of garlic…

Ta-da!

As you can tell, these have all been trimmed back quite a bit in favor of being eaten. We love us some green garlic! It’s got a lovely taste and it smells good, too.

Our basil plants are…a little past their prime, my husband thinks. Once we move the cucumber and pumpkin seedlings into bigger pots, I’m going to plant some basil seeds in those cells. Or I might just buy another basil plant. We might love basil a little too much to wait for it to grow from seeds. 🙂

More pictures to come, after I get my hands on a camera again.

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