Another March Madness

Check out my blog posting regarding March Madness in 2007. Well, it is that time again, and much like the 2007 version, this one is very much the same. However, this year I did play the "brackets". I picked the city in each division that I like or would like to live in and chose them. So in the final four I have Duke, Wake Forest, North Carolina and Memphis, which I narrowed down to Duke and Wake Forest with Wake Forest going all the way. I've been laughed at now for two days, but who cares, it was only 5$.

I hate March Madness for many of the same reasons I hated it in 2007, but another reason is DJ works double shifts throughout this entire fiasco. So for the next three weekends I will not see him at all. Yes, the money is good, and being a bartender during March Madness at a very well-known national sports bar chain, is financially profitable, but I miss my own private bartender!!

Another March will soon be over, and so too will the madness of it all.

Does She or Doesn't She?

Gosh Darn it I don't think she knows, or does she? Only her hairdresser knows for sure.

Time for a Change

Tomorrow is election day here in Ohio and over the entire state men, women and some new voters who have just turned 18 will be casting their votes tomorrow for a plethera of causes, levies, council members and yes even who they want to run for President of the United States come November.

Most of you that read my blog know I do not (or at least not very often) use my blog for a political stand, but I want you t listen to this video from Ellen Degeneres. Regardless of how you feel about her or her own political views, I think her point is clear and very important. Before you cast your vote tomorrow and if you feel that every person is entitled to the same rights as every other person in this wonderful country, which is to live without fear, make sure the person you are voting for truly has those same beliefs. Please. We should not lose anymore of our young boys or girls due to hate brought on by ignorance.

Traditions

Tonight we made the small trek over to DJ's aunt's home for her annual 4th of July Celebration. She lives very close to a park where they have an excellent firework show. We all sit out in her front yard sharing stories and the weeks events while we wait for the sun go down and the sky to light up. It's a night I truly enjoy because it reminds me of the old pictures I used to see of families out in their yards on the 4th of July watching the parades. We don't see that much anymore, whole neighborhoods getting together and celebrating our country and our freedoms.

Tonight I recalled my 10th year, when I was in cub scouts and I was in a 4th of July parade and I was chosen to carry the U.S. Flag the entire parade route. My parents were so proud, they walked along next to me taking pictures with their new Polaroid and dad filming on his old 35mm camera. True Americana.

I also thought of our soldiers that are in Iraq and how tonight the skies where they are will also be lit up, but not from fireworks celebrating independence. How they are away from their families and friends and neighbors, trying to do their jobs but probably deep in their hearts wanting so much to be in their front yards watching the fireworks.

I also thought about why they are there. I rarely comment in my blog regarding politics or religion. My father always has told me that those are two things you do not discuss in mixed company. But as I sat there tonight I thought about how most of the wars in the past were for a cause, and how Americans all over the country were proud of what we were doing by sending our servicemen and women to foreign fields. Today when you ask the response is almost always the same. "I support our troops, they are just doing their job, but they need to be back home."

The situation in Iraq continues to go on and on, with no end in sight and more and more of our men and women die every day.

My celebration tonight seemed a little melancholy as I thought on this. Yes, Americans are still proud if their son or daughter is chosen to carry the U.S. flag in the 4th of July parade. Yes, they are proud of their sons and daughters when they choose to enlist in the armed services and hang their pictures in their homes with honor and pride. But mention our President's name and the war in Iraq, then the tune changes. It's time for our troops to come home, with flags waving and the bands playing letting them know how proud were are of them. It's time for our President to get the message. It's time to restore honor in our White House and Capital Hill. 2008 can not get here soon enough.

Hope you and your family have a safe and Happy 4th, and as we celebrate let's remember those that are out there in the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan and pray that they soon come home alive and proud to be an American as they should be.

Frosty the Snowman Gets Whacked

This incident, which made National News on the Today Show happened just down the road from where I live... One of the assailants went to school with DJ's sister.

Long Time Coming

It has been a long time coming, and I'm not talking about my blog postings. I know it has been almost a week, but I have been busy working on some of my other blogs...go ahead take a look, they are all over there on my blog lists. See I have been busy. A gentleman posted a comment the other day on my blog Glance Back, about how neat it would be if I focused just on Presidential History, so a new blog was created this week, PresiTrivial. Go check it out, well not unless Presidential trivia would really excite you.

What I was referring to in it being a longtime coming, was the "thumpin" (George W.'s words not mine) the Republican party got this past week. Not only did the country finally change course, but my own home state of Ohio finally woke up and realized they needed a Democratic State House. Yes, I stayed up all night long watching the election results and still one hope has not manifested itself. That Jean Schmidt would be voted OUT of office. That is yet to be determined but the least would be that someone would take that damn ugly bow out of her hair!!!!

Doogie is GAY!

I'm not really sure about Doogie, but Neil Patrick Harris, the actor who currently is seen weekly on the CBS comedy, "How I Met Your Mother" and from Doogie Howser, M.D. fame, has announced to People magazine that...

"I am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love."

Speculation has been running rampant for sometime about Harris sexual orientation, and he states that he has never denied it, but had never had the need to discuss or verify it until recently.

So another entertainer comes out of the closet.

My question is, why do we make it such a big deal? We don't have websites devoted to outing heterosexuals, or having lists of all the actors and actresses that are hetero. What should it matter whom we have sex with? Then again here I am making a big deal about it by posting it on my blog with all the other thousands of bloggers, so who am I to question our motives? I know I am being naive, but someday...someday soon I hope, it will not matter.

But regardless, way to go Doogie!

Think About It

As most of us know by now a bill was passed on September 29...

The bill would set up rules for the military commissions that will allow the government to proceed with the prosecutions of high-level detainees .

It would make illegal several broadly defined abuses of detainees, while leaving it to the president to establish specific permissible interrogation techniques. And it would strip detainees of a habeas corpus right to challenge their detentions in court.


"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

Just think about it...

2008 Is Right Around the Corner

As most of you know, I try to limit my political views on my blog, posting as little as possible regarding that issue, but...

Over the last few days I've been hearing and seeing a lot of Barack Obama. If you have not heard of him, he is a first term Democratic Senator from Illinois. Before 2004 no one had ever heard of this passionate politician. His political promise has been evident since the moment he stunned the 2004 Democratic National Convention with a keynote speech emphasising all the things that bind, rather than divide, Americans.

Now he has stated that he may very well run for President... "Given the response I've been getting the past several months, I have thought about the possibility," Mr Obama told NBC's Meet The Press. After next month's mid-term elections, he continued, he would "sit down and consider it".

I have been following him for sometime and listened to him in speeches and most recently on Oprah, and he sounds and looks like someone I would support. Then this morning I read an article while surfing the "net" and was appalled at what I read. The person (and I use that term loosely) started his rant with..."Obama is Black"

That was just the beginning of what I would describe as one of the most racist articles I have read in quite sometime and I became enraged. To think that we still live in a country where we base someone's abilities on their race made me sick to my stomach. If he does decide to run, I pray this does not become a campaign issue. Personally I never even thought about him being black when I first heard him give the keynote speech in 2004, I was more amazed at his passion, intelligence and charisma.

Senator Obama carries some of the same sort of charisma that propelled John Kennedy into the Presidency in 1960. He has a natural appeal that is multicultural. He is the son of a Kenyan father and a Kansas mother, he has known both poverty and privilege.
He was one of the stars of his class at Harvard Law School, but he has also worked as a social worker and street organiser in Chicago's roughest neighbourhoods, and later practised as a civil rights lawyer.

It is way too early for me to make any decision on my presidential vote for 2008 ( as we really have no idea who is really going to run) but some things are certain, it is NOT going to be based on their gender or the color of his/her skin.

Could this be the beginning of an Obama/Clinton Democratic ticket? If so just remember you heard it hear first...(probably not the first, but one of the first.)

Memories

The weekend went off without any problems. My night of babysitting was good. Rylan decided to sleep until 4:00 a.m. and then woke ready to eat. He is definitely a morning baby. He woke up in a good mood, smiling and cooing. At 4:00 a.m.! He definitely doesn't take back after grandpa.

The rest of the weekend was kind of quiet. DJ worked Saturday and then we had a nice dinner and watched TV. Sunday was more of the same, watching TV, talking to my youngest brother who turned 37 on Sunday, and having a nice quiet dinner. We played some scrabble Sunday evening (I was beat twice, but only by one point the first game) and then some "Smallville" and off to bed.

Today being 9-11, I really don't want to watch the TV, and just don't want to relive all that horror, so I suppose I will clean house and job hunt.

I remember that day very vividly. I was at work and had went into the break room for some coffee and a couple of girls were in there saying that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. Of course we thought at first it was just an accident but then as the dram began to unfold we realized this was not an accident. Within 15 minutes the break room was at full capacity and work came to a halt throughout the office. It was just so surreal.

Isn't it amazing how our minds seem to store those kind of events in our minds with perfect clarity? I also remember the day Elvis died. I was at the Ohio State Fair for the week with the Ohio State Choir and heard it on the news. The first thing I did was call my mother. She was an avid Elvis fan. We cried together.

Or the day that Bobby Kennedy was shot? I was outside on our front porch talking with a neighbor kid and mom came out and told us to come inside. We sat in front of the TV watching the events unfold. Or the day Martin Luther King was killed? I was at school and we were sent home early. I remember teachers crying as they loaded us onto the buses. We had no idea what was happening until we got home. Of course I was really too young to understand who he was and the importance of his work, but I do remember mom saying that it would never be the same now.

Those days that mark history, mark our minds with memories of tragedy and horror. But then I think about those that were there. I was safe at work that day in September, miles away from ground zero. But those that were there that lived through it, that suffered a loss of dreams and hopes that day. There memories will be much more real than mine were that day. The effect of those days events will forever be part of their lives too, but in a much more horrific sense than I could even begin to imagine.

Memories.
My first weekend with my grandson. I prefer those kind of long lasting memories in my heart and mind. But we also have to remember those events in our lives that were not so pleasant to understand what life is all about.

Our heart goes out to those that lost loved ones that day. As all our lives changed after 9-11, their lives were shattered.

Lest We Forget

Matthew Shepard
Today marks the sixth anniversary of Matthew Shepard's brutal murder. Let's not forget the price some have paid, visit the Matthew Shepard Foundation