Agatha the destroyer strikes again!
I bought her this toy - it’s called a “Tug a Jug” because there is a jug with a rope in it. There are treats inside that should be acquired when the rope is tugged on. Agatha gave that a try and then she chewed half the rope off. In about a half hour.
This is the NPR story I heard this morning, entitled “Flood of Immigrants to Long Island Sparks Tension” by Ari Shapiro. My fav.
Here is the important part, where someone with a brain makes a point:
“I don’t have anything against these people,” says Scarola. “They’re human beings like you and me. They’re not subhumans because they come over the border to make a better life and help their families.”
Scarola says that when people in her neighborhood do a home renovation, they don’t necessarily seek out a contractor who only uses documented workers. Instead, they go for the cheapest price they can find, regardless of who’s doing the work.
“Then these may be the same people that are out there screaming, ‘Deport them.’ So it gets to be hypocritical,” Scarola says. “I mean, obviously [immigrants] wouldn’t be here if there weren’t jobs for them.”
I cringe when people talk about the “illegals” invading our country and “taking our jobs.” Guess what? Someone, who is likely a legit American citizen, is GIVING THEM THOSE JOBS. Which is why they’re here. The solution is not going to be found in clamping down and building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. The solution is in not giving them jobs in the first place. You know, if you get mad about that kind of stuff, etc…
This video is fairly hilarious.
Equality March DC 2009 (via Paul Frederiksen)
Someone I went to highschool with posted the following as their facebook status. This individual still lives in my hometown and I noticed a few of my highschool classmates pressing the “like” button.
TODAYS PAPER HAS AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE H1N1 VACCINE… THINK TWICE BEFORE YOU GET THIS VACCINE… SAYS THERE IS A CHEMICAL CALLED SQUALENE ADDED TO THE H1N1 VACCINE IT CAUSES SEVER AUTO-IMMUNE CONDITIONS INCLUDING M.S. AND LUPUS… READ THE ARTICLE
Okay, I read the article. And guess what? It’s in the opinion section of the paper. The guy who wrote it has no medical background and is known for writing about conspiracy theories. I am seriously floored by the number of individuals that responded to this status like it was based in any factual world.
Here is the article: Stop Violating our Civil Liberties (by James Madsen).
I’m not going to lie, I like to read advice columns so I can suspend my belief system about the world. Case in point: I hope to never encounter a situations like these folks had to write in about.
Dear Prudence:
My wife and I have an almost 2-year-old daughter, and when she began talking she started calling my wife’s mother “Nana.” Shortly thereafter, my wife’s brother contacted us about our daughter’s use of “Nana” to refer to their mother. The problem was that his son, who is our daughter’s age, refers to his maternal grandmother as “Nana.” He and his wife want us to correct our daughter when she says “Nana” and make her say “Grandma,” because they insist it’s confusing to their son. My wife and I responded that the kids could decide to refer to their respective grandmothers as “Nana” or “Grandma” as they choose, and it was no big deal. Unfortunately, they recently brought it up again in a passionate phone call. Can someone lay claim to the relatively common grandmother nickname “Nana” and forbid all others from using it?
—Proud Papa
Can I just say- if you spend more than 10 minutes fretting about what someone else’s kid calls their loved ones (short of something srsly inappropriate) then you should probably reevaluate where you are going in life. There are people who have to sleep on the street, go to bed hungry every night and oh yeah, there are kids with cancer. Let Nanas be Nanas!
