The “New” Seven Dirty Words

During a time when the majority of George Carlin’s Seven Dirty Words can be heard in everyday language as well as on basic cable, with the exception of the dreaded c-word, it is incumbent upon us to come up with a new standard of decency.  Leave it to those ever clever Republicans to do just that.

Below are the seven words that seem the most offensive to the GOP:

7. Liberal: has become such a dirty word that even liberals are backing away from it.  For example, the president has labeled himself a  “pragmatic progressive” and not a liberal.

6. Global Warming: “Drill, baby, drill!”  Of course, they don’t believe in global warming because if they did then they’d have to do something about their oil and gas campaign donors.    Besides that, regulation, whether it is for the environment, banking, or food and drugs, is probably dirty word #8 to the GOP. Read more »

Thank You Bobby Franklin

I’ve been away from my blog for eight months.  Since I haven’t written anything on it for such an extended time period, the pressure is on for my return to be something really worthwhile, something that really needs to be written about.  It couldn’t just be a random blog about how cute one of my kids is or some grammar or punctuation concern that frustrates my students.  It had to be big.  Well, some big things have happened recently, which I’ve wanted to write about and still may although the window of timeliness is passing.  However, yesterday something caught my attention that made me say, “Surely, there’s no credence to this accusation.”  So, being a responsible citizen of the world, not wanting to pass on unfounded crap, I did some research.  I couldn’t find anything but a highly biased source that could corroborate what I’d been seeing on Facebook and Twitter.  Therefore, I reached out to my friends for help, and one of them hooked me up with a news story that made my blood boil.  That’s how it came about that I’m thanking State Representative from Georgia Bobby Franklin.  Thank you for giving me something worthwhile enough to make my comeback to blogging. Read more »

This Blog was Written in the U.S.

There’s a question that has been bothering me for a while now:  Why are we still importing products from China considering how many product recalls there has been regarding Chinese made goods?  We’re not talking about recalls such as the one that Kellogg announced recently because the packaging caused the cereal to have a strange taste and smell.  We’re talking about recalls on products and foods because they can harm, maim, and kill.  Here’s a list of recalled goods from China that were conducted in the last year:

• Shrek glasses sold at McDonald’s because of cadmium, which is a carcinogen and can cause ??kidney, liver, and bone damage
• drywall installed in homes in Florida which emit hydrogen sulfide which can cause respiratory problems as well as cause metal corrosion
• honey because it contained chloramphenicol, an antibiotic, which causes cancer in humans, that was given to the bees because they were dying from that nasty bee virus.
• kids jewelry, zippers, toys, etc. because they contained lead and/or cadmium.

I’m sure if I did a google search, I could come up with even more products.  This list doesn’t even include the products from the past five years, such as dog food and crib recalls.  Here are just a few issues that our importing of goods from the Chinese causes for both our county and theirs. Read more »

Midwestern Me

I was born and raised in the great state of Illinois. I grew up in a small rural town, went to college in a larger rural town, and then moved to Chicago, the best city in the world. Midwesterners by breeding are modest, earnest, honest, and polite. We say “please” and “thank you,” we hold doors open for strangers, and we nod hello whether walking down a busy sidewalk or cruising down a country road in our pick up truck. We go to potlucks, we help our neighbors, we presume very little, and we’re grateful for what we have. I haven’t lived in the Midwest for ten years, and I miss it.

When I first moved to the East, I had a very difficult time. I was isolated at home with two small children. In an effort to meet other mom’s like myself, I went to a playgroup where none of the women would talk to me because I was an outsider. After a few very awkward and uncomfortable attempts to insert myself into this playgroup, I stopped attending. None of the women followed up to find out why I hadn’t continued. Not to say that there aren’t unfriendly Midwesterners, but we would at least have the good sense to feel bad about making someone else feel so uncomfortable. Read more »