Homeowner's Associations

If you've heard of them, then you know that they can be a pain in the ass. You grass can only get so tall, your house can only be certain colors, and god forbid you have too many vehicles for your garage. For some reason, the keep insisting that flag poles are against the rules.

Really? A flag pole? Apparently, they violate the asthetic guidelines. At least that is what one homeowner's association told a 90 year old war veteran. He's been in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. He has a Purple Heart and a Medal of Honor, plus others.

Mistake Number 1: telling people they may not have an American flag in their front yard. Last time I saw something like this in the news, the guy painted his house yellow with purple polka dots in protest.

Mistake Number 2: threatening to take a 90 year old to court over this. Did they want to look like bullies?

Mistake Number 3 (and possibly the biggest of them all): Medal of Honor. All veterans deserve respect, but those who get the Medal of Honor especially. You do not disrespect them. You do not threaten to take them to court over such a tiny thing. And you do not tell them they may not have a flag in their front yard.

It took two Senators, White House press secretaries, and a lot of press to convince the association to overlook this "transgression." People need to pull their head out of their asses. I am disgusted. Asthetic guidelines? This is too far. Someone in Virginia has their nose so high in the air that they would drown in a rainstorm. Retired Army Col. Van T. Barfoot, fly that flag high and proud.

Give The Attackers A Trial?

The latest and greatest controversy has been uttered by our great and powerful President. He wants to try those responsible for the 9/11 attacks in New York. And to this I say, seriously?

No judge or jury will ever utter the word innocent in this case. It's ridiculous. Is there even a single person in that area who would not be considered "prejudiced?"

This is ignorant and stupid and is just giving the evil men responsible a chance to rip open the barely healed wound.

Someone had turned on CNN in the chow hall the other morning when they were discussing this, and one of the anchors asked the question, "Would the prosecutors pursue the death penalty in this case?"

Do you actually need to ask that question? I wanted to smack her upside the head. Gee, let's think about this one. They only murdered 3,000 people. That number doesn't even take into account the amount of people who have fallen sick and died later because of what they inhaled while trying to save the poor souls who were trapped, and later, to recover bodies.

Now Congress is arguing over whether or not the trial should happen. Dems say yes, Republicans steadfastly dissagree.

Know what's even more ridiculous? The lawyer, and yes, the "main" man responsible has a lawyer, says that the confession should be thrown out because he was coerced. Documentation shows that he was waterboarded about 183 times. Now, I'm sorry, but he was put into Gitmo for a reason. And don't even get me started on waterboarding and why it should be continued. As a senior in high school, my AP English class did presentations on torture, modern and ancient. Waterboarding is ridiculously nice compared to what other countries have done, and, in some cases, still do.

Anyways, I want to hear what you have to say about this trial. Yea, or nay?

I'd Like to Give a Shout-Out

First of all, my thoughts and prayers are with those who have been affected by the Fort Hood shooting. This is a horrible attack, and those responsible will pay. I still have confidence in our military.

Now...

Never have I ever been more pissed off at a person.

You do not do what President Obama has done today, folks.

Missed it? Look up the Fort Hood shooting, and Obama's reaction to this horrible massacre. Make sure you get the entire clip. You'll be able to tell. The beginning has laughter and a light-hearted feel while Obama talks about a conference. He gives a shout-out. Seriously. Then, and only then, does he mention, almost as an afterthought, that twelve people who fight for us, including one policeman, have died. Another thirty-one have been wounded.

I'm sorry, but when something like this happens, you do not combine it with your thoughts about a conference that the Department of the Interior had earlier.

Never again do I want to hear about Bush finishing up reading a book to an elementary class on September 11th. He, at least, can respect the loss of lives.

There is no possible way to defend this. These were two separate issues that should have been addressed as such, and Fort Hood definitely should have been first.

At least on September 11th, no one was really sure if they were terrorist attacks in the beginning. There was too much chaos. A shooting, on the otherhand, is pretty obvious.

I am utterly disgusted. This was entirely inappropriate. I want to see someone defend this error. I actually dare them to try.

Update: As of November 6th at 9 a.m. EST there have been thirteen killed and thirty wounded.

It's the Tuesday After the First Monday In November!

Know what that means? I hope so. And I hope you voted as well. I wish I could say I did, but in the rush of preparing for college I neglected to register for an absentee ballot. This is, of course, being rectified as soon as I get back to the lovely state of Ohio. In the mean time, however, I am eager to see some of the results for some governor elections.

With the President and his Vice President on their seemingly never ending campaign trail, I want to see if they actually affected anything but the airspace restrictions that follow them everywhere they go. Will New Jersey stay blue? Or have the crazy right wing extremists (read: people who flat out disagree with liberals) gotten enough of the blue collar voters to come out today? Will the purple state of Virginia become more red?

To tell the truth, I kind of hope every election goes red right now. I want to see the reaction of Dems everywhere to see that as a warning. Unfortunately, I believe if the Republicans and conservatives rally too early, then the people of this country will have half-assed legislation forced down our throats. This is one of those times where we must tread carefully, at least until it is too late for the extremists in Congress to act.

I also want to see the outcome of the vote on gay marriage that is happening in Maine today. Will it become the first state that the voters choose to allow gay marriage? Or will they shoot it down, causing what would be a serious setback for the proponents of gay rights?

Questions, questions. Well? What do you think?

As always, I do not own the rights to the photo, and in no way intended to infringe on any copyright.

Priceless

This was sent to me via email. I do not know who took the picture, but I can only say, "wow."

Another Bystander Killed

Why is it these gang wars and fights can never happen in deserted areas? Why must they happen in areas full of people and children. The children. By my title you can probably tell this has happened once again. The title for the online article reads "Calif. Girl Killed After High School Football Game."

Melody Ross. Honor student. Track athlete. She was dressed as Supergirl. She was not the first to be lost to a nonsense war that she had nothing to do with, and depressingly enough, she will not be the last.

What is it that drove these imbeciles to use a high school football game as a a venue for their war? Do they honestly not realize that the death of an innocent bystander, the death of a young girl, will fuel the fires of police to search for the murderers?

I hope there is a special place in hell for monsters like these. The ones that have such a disregard for human life that they do not care who gets hurt in their quest for becoming king of the criminals.

And I hope that this family, and all others who have been victims of violence, find a peace. Melody Ross, find your peace.

The U.S. is Violating Human Rights?

This is what the United Nations is looking into. They have sent a representative to tour several U.S. cities to see if there is a lack of affordable housing. Of course, one of the cities this investigator will visit is The Big Apple. Really? Anyone with common sense can tell this woman that the prices in New York are outrageous. It's all about the location.

Personally, I believe that if you are homeless in New York because you cannot afford to live there, perhaps you should hitch it out of there. I can't afford to live off campus, so I don't. C'mon folks, use your noggin!

I know that there are others out there, others who cannot afford housing because they have no job. Well, no one is above asking the question, "would you like fries with that?" I've done it, and if you work full time, you can make a small, okay, absolutely pitiful, amount of money. But something is better than nothing. No one should ever look down on you because you did what you had to.

With massive amounts of forclosures going on across the States, I can see the United Nations point, sort of. But did we not discover that many of these forclosures were people buying what they could not afford, or worse, not reading their contracts? I say people should start taking responsibility for their actions.

This is not to say that I am not aware of the massive amounts of job loss. After all, I lived in the heart of the rust belt for the past 18 years of my life. I've seen job loss happen countless times. If this is the reason why someone you know lost their home, do not yell at me. I'm not counting those poor folks in my rant. Just the lazy and irresponsible.

But I digress. So, what are your thoughts? Do you believe the United States is violating human rights?

Today's Topic? Scary Business, My Friends

I'm talking serious scary here, folks. In fact, if you are weak in the stomach, you just might want to skip this little post altogether. Today's topic is child murderers. I'm talking about the barely-past-puberty-killers out there. Today I saw on the Fox website that a fifteen year old girl is the main suspect in the murder of another student at her school. She lead the police to the body, hidden in the woods.

Fifteen. At fifteen, I was finding out the joys of the oppsite sex. At fifteen I was a freshman in high school. At fifteen, I was attending my first dance. At fifteen, I had yet to be behind the wheel of a car.

At fifteen, this girl may very well go to jail, for a good portion of the rest of her life.

Right now, a judge is deciding whether or not to make a hearing for her public. This hearing will decide whether or not the young female is tried as an adult. And this hearing is the point at which I am torn into two.

On one hand, I was no where near mature enough at that age to be considered an adult, and I was pretty damn mature for fifteen. And I'm pretty sure this girl is just as average as thousands of other fifteen year old girls across this country.

On the other hand, if this girl did what the police are saying she did, and it doesn't seem as though there is much doubt, then, well, she needs to be tried as an adult. If you feel the need to take someone's life for reasons other than self-defense, then you deserve the full force of our laws. I do not want a twisted child released onto our streets at twenty-one because the courts have decided that the child has done their time for murder.

I wish I could say that this is an isolated incident. However, in Florida, another fifteen year old, a boy this time, will be faced with charges that he murdered his own fourteen year old brother for loud music.

Child killers, an appropriate title as any, are truly frightening. I get chills just thinking about something that should be innocent doing something so inherently evil. And this raises a question: is there something wrong with the killers, mentally? Are their hormonal levels completely out of wack? What on earth is it that drives these preteens and high schoolers to murder?

I think the tragedy is that, in this particular case, the death of this nine year old has driven the other students in school to pick sides. Fights are breaking out between the two groups. And isn't it just horrible?

Is society failing as a whole, that we must constantly watch our children, for fear of them getting hurt? Or is this nothing new? Why are there schools with metal detectors and security guards? These things should be reserved for airports and government buildings.

This is a heavy topic, and I feel as though that is enough for now. This is entirely too much to think about, and the fact that it must be thought about is both terrifying and depressing.

Be Afraid, Designers, Be Very Afraid

As I was exploring this blog-making site, I discovered the girl that everyone was talking about a while back. The thirteen year old fashion blogger, Tavi. When I first heard about her several months ago, I had the reaction of, "so what?" But after reading her blog, I have to say, she is a fearsome one. Don't believe me? check out her blog here: http://tavi-thenewgirlintown.blogspot.com/
She's good. She hands out criticism to fashion designers the same way I hand it out to the government: whenever she feels it is needed. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't be caught dead wearing newspaper as a hairpiece (at least not the way it looks in that picture), but I love her writings. I have to respect anyone willing to push the envelope of everyday fashion. And her habit of thrift store shopping? I adore it! I, myself frequent the Goodwills of the world looking for some fabulous treasures. This girl has the potential to become a veritable hurricane in the fashion industry. Normal, average people, as well as those higher in the food chain, seem to listen to what she has to say. For a teeny-bopper (don't ask), this is an awesome accomplishment. I can't wait to see what she does next!

To Keep Them Here, or to Send Them Back, That is the Question

Forgive me, but this is an irresistable topic for me. Illegal aliens. Or immigrants, or whatever politically correct term is being used nowadays. The truth is, if they are illegal, them I do not want them here. Any job they take is one that a poor American could have. I know they often take jobs that no one else wants, but this is my problem: illegal aliens did not come here by a legal process. The should not hold a job since they do not have a social security number. In my opinion, they should be sent back to wherever it is they came from and make an attempt to come back the same way all the legal immigrants did. Now there are those in San Francisco that want to protect underage illegal aliens after they have committed a crime? Seriously folks? Some of these kids are committing felonies! Felonies. This is not good. They cannot vote for you, so why do you want to keep them here? Excuse me for being Captain Obvious for a minute here, but felons are not good people. Felons are dangerous people. If we can remove a felon from this country, then why shouldn't we? Seems to me that in this age of overcrowded jails and high crime rates that keeping criminals here would be dumb. I'm sorry, but illegal aliens show a disregard for the laws of this country the moment they step foot on American soil. And now, lets move on to the controversial subject of Target's "Illegal Alien" Holloween costume. If you've been watching the national news, you've probably already heard about this. Personally, I thought it was pretty funny. And yet, there are those who find it offensive. I have to ask, why? Are you offended by those t-shirts that say "psych ward" on them? How about the striped Holloween costumes complete with ball and chain that are made to look like the jail cell outfits of the old days? I honestly do not get why this is offensive, unless you yourself are here illegally. And to that I say, get back to your own country! If you want in here, you need to do it the legal way.

Been Stocking Up on the Ammo Lately?

If not, you might want to consider it. The White House has been making attempts to block Fox News from interviews. Frankly, this frightens me. It sends a message, a message that says "Don't be critical of the current administration or we will stop giving you access to important stories." George Orwell's 1984 anyone? Control of the media. Why, I do believe that this infringes on the constitution. I can say I was very glad to see the other four news stations in the pool stood up for Fox. These are the things people need to pay attention to. Not subtle "f--- you" messages written in letters (look up Arnold Schwarzenegger for that one), not the extramarital affairs of our congressmen and -women (too many to even count anymore), and not, for goodness sakes, what outrageous outfit Lady Gaga has donned for the evening. No. We as citizens need to pay attention to those who would step on our freedoms, because it is these freedoms that separate us from those third world countries who desperately need help. I know there are those out there who would like to argue that President George W. Bush essentially did the same thing as he and his administration froze out MSNBC toward the end of his presidency. But what is it that our parents recited to us as children? I believe it goes, "two wrongs don't make a right." And how true that is. What the Bush administration did was no more or less wrong than what the current Obama administration is doing now. And frankly, I am much more concerned with the here and now than something that is in the past. And so ladies and gentlemen, arm and brace yourselves, because if this country continues to split in this fashion, we may need a revolution. We are separated now more than ever, at least since The War Between The States. People are clashing, and this will get even uglier before all is settled. I do not like where my thoughts go when I think of the future of this country, but still, they go there. I worry, and so should you.

Introduction

Blogging. I've heard about if for quite a while, but never really understood why people did it. Well, I'm starting now. I want my opinion heard, or, at least I want to think my opinion is being heard. It seems like I am writing a diary for the masses, and really, that is what it feels like. In truth, I am sick of spending time writing comments on news articles. I want more space, more freedom. I want the ability to state how I really feel. Now that I have discovered this newfound freedom, I feel as though I can speak about politics, religion, the economy, and no one will say, now is not the time or place for that discussion. Well, this is my time, my place, and I will say what I feel, when I feel it. I will not hide my opinions from friends or family or strangers. I have things I want to speak about, and I do not want to have to wait until others feel it is an appropriate time. I chose the appropriate time, and if you have chosen to read this, well, thanks. Thanks for reading my rants, even if you completely disagree. Thanks for following along, if only just for a minute. Just thanks.