Ode To The Garage Sale

For three weeks I have been getting ready for a garage sale. Yes, I said three weeks. I've you've put one together before, you know what I'm saying. So, Scott and I had to get the pole barn cleaned....it was a pit! Now, it's not!

So, lots of hours cleaning the pole barn and then the search for the things that I've desperately held on to for 20 years that I haven't used or taken from the boxes in almost as long. Things were different this time. After moving our shit four times in one year, I had a different attitude. I was boxing and pricing and showing no mercy. My mission, to make enough money to fill my truck with diesel!

For the last week I've been like a mad woman with my price stickers and black marker. Trying to decide if 50 cents was too much, or is 25 cents not enough???? My mom said the greatest thing to a lady who stopped. She made a comment on how great our prices were and asked how much something was. My mom says, "not coming back into my house price"! I LOVE IT!

You know, in our poor economy here in Michigan, garage sales are a great thing. There was a joke going around back when we were getting our stimulus checks about spending it at a garage sale and keeping the money in America. (I'll get to that point in a minute.) So I've come up with a few thoughts on garage sales:

GOOD: You can get a $50 item for 50 cents and you don't have to give any sales tax to Granholm to piss away on new toilets for our highway reststops.

BAD: You got a $50 item for 50 cents and spent $55 in gas driving all over town going to garage sales.

GOOD: You made $58 on your sale.

BAD: You spent $10 on signs, $16 for the ad in the paper, $10 on donuts, $20 on pizza, and $18 on stuff that your friends brought to sell that you can't live without, so you're $16 bucks in the hole.

GOOD: You're keeping your money in America by spending it at a yard sale.

BAD: If you spend it all on gas you're just buying another gold toilet seat for some sheik in a dessert country who has too many wives and too much money.

GOOD: You can donate whatever you don't seel to Goodwill for a tax write-off.

BAD: It'll cost you another day and $10 in gas to get it there.

Ok, those are just some thoughts on the whole garage sale process. It's not really all that bad. I had lots of help today. My mom, bless her heart, was here bright and early and stayed all day long. Janice was here and my sister Jamie too. We actually had a pretty good time and sold lots of stuff. We were wheeling and dealing from 8:30 am until 6pm.....gotta love that.

Deeper In Debt......Just To Fill My Truck

I went to Ionia yesterday, which I hardly ever do anymore, and had to get fuel in my truck. Well, it's bad enough that gas is over $4 a gallon but diesel is completely out of control. I paid $75 for 15 gallons of fuel. Of course, this makes me extremely angry because when I got in the truck I looked at my gas guage and it was between 1/4 and 1/2! For $75!

Think about how much you pay for gas each week. Then consider how many hours you have to work at your job to pay that amount. Now, understand that since the Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007 that gas prices gave gone UP $1.58! They won't let us drill for oil domestically. They want to continue giving our money to the foreigners. Do the Republican's have a better plan?

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R) explains that the Republicans have introduced 7 different bills on energy that Palosi refuses to bring to the floor for a vote. He says that we have to drill NOW!

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D) says that the Republicans are hypocrites because there is already land available for drilling. (We've discussed this before.) There is even land available in Alaska.

OK, the land that the Democrats are talking about is a 20 million acre piece that is 275 miles from the pipeline in Alaska, so it's not economically effective. I'm sure if they could get the oil they would, but this is far too remote. The Republicans want to drill on a 2000 acre piece of land 75 miles from the Alaskan pipeline.....it could bring oil in a year! Plus, the fact that we are drilling should bring prices down. That's the whole deal with speculators and how they predict that oil will be short....prices go up. Well, if we are drilling, oil will go down in price.

Don't the democrats think that if there was oil available in the land already set aside for drilling, they would be there? They want to make money. I always had the impression that all the oil was in the Middle East. Not true. I read somewhere that we are sitting on bigger reserves than when they have in the Middle East. I'll have to check on that, but I did read it somewhere along the way.

Putting pressure on Congress to lift the ban on offshore drilling is the only way that we're going to get prices down in the immediate future. To be perfectly honest, I can't believe that the democrats aren't more worried about this since its an election year. I'd love to see Palosi kicked out on her backside. According to a CNN opinion poll, 74% of Americans want offshore drilling. Well, I'm sure these 74% aren't all Republicans. And, why isn't this issue affecting Obama's campaign? He's against offshore drilling, he wants us to use less. Hmmm, should we not drive to work or the grocery store? He's so out of touch with reality on the average American family.

Men and women working in the Government should be the smartest people we've got. Why are they all so stupid? If they could set partisan politics aside for a minute or two and do what's best for the American people, well that would be historic, and it would get us going in the right direction.

BFF

Friendship is a crazy thing. I haven't spoken to my dearest friend Janice, in a week or two. Last night I resorted to sending her an email. This morning I had two emails back from her with pictures of her kids at the beach. It made me really miss her even more. I've been thinking about this lately and realized that married women, especially married with kids, just don't have the time for a best friend. After all, best friends talk every single day and see each other several times a week. With husbands, kids, laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, and even a job, when do we have time to be best friends with someone?

Well, that was a fleeting thought in my head. What I realized is that a best friend will be there for you even if you haven't spoken in a week. She'll be there when you need a last minute babysitter or need help with a family emergency. What's great about my friendship with Janice, if we don't speak for a week or two, we'll pick up right where we left off. We understand that both of us are busy. We'll say we're going to get together and sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't.....but we don't get mad. We understand that life happens and we try for another day. Well, it's been weeks since I've seen Janice and I really miss her. I realized we can be best friends even if we don't talk every single day. As a matter of fact I think this proves how good and strong a friendship can be.

Ok, that's my thought for the morning. Don't be too hard on your friends if they are busy. Doens't mean they don't care. Life get's busy and get's away from you so fast. You can be going along and not realize it's been weeks since you've hung out with your friend. Find an hour or two and reconnect and be understanding if it doesn't work out.

DOL Update

What on earth is happening on Days? Lucas slept with Cloe (yuck) and EJ slept with Nicole! Both of these guys should be checked for STD's! Plus, Lucas is gone. I don't know for how long, but I'm happy. I don't like his character and I don't like him. Of course, Sami had to call him the "love of her life" again yesterday. Ugh! Lucas has sex with Cloe and Sami really doesn't seem to notice that it happened. She isn't upset. She isn't really saying anything about it. Isn't that odd? Wouldn't you be upset if the "love of your life" had sex in an elevator with some skank?

Well, I guess some women don't mind it when their men do that.

I know that Days got some new writers a while back. I don't really care for whoever they have in there. All of the sudden they spend an awful lot of time showing "memories" of recent happenings. I should watch the clock and add up how much time they waste on that. And just when things were getting good they tore apart EJ and Sami and they changed Marlena's character. Then they put John with Ava. I really don't get it.

Blame It On Bush

Ann Coulter

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, or as she is called on the Big Dogs blog, "the worst speaker in the history of Congress," explained the cause of high oil prices back in 2006: "We have two oilmen in the White House. The logical follow-up from that is $3-a-gallon gasoline. It is no accident. It is a cause and effect. A cause and effect." Yes, that would explain why the price of oral sex, cigars and Hustler magazine skyrocketed during the Clinton years. Also, I note that Speaker Pelosi is a hotelier ... and the price of a hotel room in New York is $1,000 a night! I think she might be onto something. Is that why a barrel of oil costs mere pennies in all those other countries in the world that are not run by "oilmen"? Wait -- it doesn't cost pennies to them? That's weird.

In response to the 2003 blackout throughout the Northeast U.S. and parts of Canada, Pelosi blamed: "President Bush and Rep. Tom DeLay's oil-company interests." The blackout was a failure of humans operating electric power; it had nothing to do with oil. And I'm not even "an oilman."

But yes -- good point: What a disaster having people in government who haven't spent their entire lives in politics! That explains everything. A government official with relevant experience or knowledge about an issue is obviously a crisis of gargantuan proportions.

This must be why the Democrats are nominating B. Hussein Obama, who finished middle school three days ago and has less experience than a person one might choose at random from the audience of "American Idol."

Announcing the Democrats' bold new "plan" on energy last week, Pelosi said breaking into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve "is one alternative." That's not an energy plan. It's using what we already have -- much like "conservation," which is also part of the Democrats' plan.

Conservation, efficiency and using oil we hold in reserve for emergencies does not get us more energy. It's as if we were running out of food and the Democrats were telling us: "Just eat a little less every day." Great! We'll die a little more slowly. That's not what we call a "plan." We need more energy, not a plan for a slower death.

But there's more! Pelosi announced that the Democrats also plan to push for "an historic investment in biofuels, efficiency, conservation and the rest." The "rest" is apparently what she called our "important and essential" investment in alternative energy.

That certainly would be historic: We would make history by throwing our money away on unproven energy boondoggles that have eaten up untold billions since the 1960s without producing a single net kilowatt of power while we all starve to death.

The proposal to use energy sources that don't yet produce any energy is like the old New Yorker cartoon with Obama in Muslim garb -- no wait, that was a different cartoon. The cartoon is: A scientist has written out his extremely complicated theory on a blackboard and is showing it to another scientist. The theory consists of numbers and characters and takes up the entire blackboard. About two-thirds of the way across, reading left to right, appear the words, "then a miracle happens," followed by more numbers and characters.

That's the Democrats' plan to run cars on biofuels, solar and wind power: Then a miracle happens. The current Democratic mantra on energy is: "We can't drill our way out of this problem." Apparently their plan is to talk our way out of this problem.

Democrats are also alleging that the oil companies are sitting on millions of acres of oil but are refusing to drill -- presumably because oil company executives hate the American people and perversely don't want to make money. Manifestly, those acres are being explored for oil or have already come up dry.

If the Democrats really wanted oil companies to find more oil, they'd allow oil companies to drill offshore and to drill in ANWR, which we happen to know is bursting with oil.

But they don't. They don't want drilling. They don't want more oil. They want humans to ride bicycles and then to die. We deserve it: We were mean to the polar bears.

It's good to know that in the middle of a crisis, the Democrats are still liars. As long as we're fantasizing about "alternative" energy sources, what we really need is a car that runs on Democrats' lies.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=27572

Sleepless Sami Starfish

Good Morning!!!

Sam was up early today, 6:15am! Little stinker. She slept like crap again last night. The fourth or fifth time that I was out of bed I started thinking about what the pediatrician told me at her last visit. I have to let her cry so she can learn to fall back asleep by herself. I feel like that is so mean. She hardly ever cries, basically when she is tired. So, there have been a few times this week where she has been tired and I put her in bed....and she is crying. Then it escalates to screaming. I think I already talked about this. Well, she was screaming and Scott was the one who couldn't take listening to her.

I don't know what to do. I feel like I should feed her another meal right before bed and then if she cries at night, just because she wakes up, I should let her cry. Oh I'll be awake and it'll drive me crazy but she is 9 months old and not sleeping through the night. That is so beyond ridiculous. Through three other kids I've never experienced a baby who didn't sleep through the night after the first few weeks. I'm worried that it'll keep Scott up and he gets up so early. Guess I have to work on it when he doesn't have to go to work the next morning. In the meantime, I guess I won't sleep.

Scott and I did start walking again last week. I have not been that excited to go, but I have. I'm not sure what will happen the next couple of weeks because Scott has changed his work schedule and he's not getting home until close to 7pm. I don't know how much he'll want to walk after being in the hot shop for 12 hours. And speaking of that......was it frigging hot yesterday or what? (Wednesday). We were outside most of the day doing chores around the yard and cleaning out the pole barn. It was beyond hot! Our central air works great but it was so hot outside that it had a hard time keeping up. It was still only 70 in here, but the thermostat is always set on 68. This morning at 9:00 am our local weather said it was 83! That is just too damn hot!

It's this type of week that I miss our pool. We had a really nice pool at our house up north. I'd love to put in a big in-ground pool. Scott and I talked about it last week and we agreed that we don't have the prime spot for it here in town. Our back yard is big so we have room, but we have nasty Chinese Elm trees in the back yard, and so does the neighbor. They drop branches, nasty little leaves, and funk out of them all the time. Every time it rains we have a mess to clean up in the back yard. So, the pool would be so much work so we decided we'll put one in at our next house. That way Sami will be a little older too and can have some swimming lessons.

So, now you're up to date on the happenings at the Watkins house. It's pretty much business as usual.

Tell Congress To Pull Their Heads Out of Their Asses!

What the hell is wrong with our Democratic congress? They refuse to lift the ban on offshore drilling and here are people paying $4.25 a gallon for gas and $4.79 a gallon for diesel. President Bush has done his part in letting the oil companies explore for oil, now Congress should pull their heads out of their asses! What will make the democrats move? $6.00, $7.00, maybe $8.00 a gallon for gas? They want a complete colapse of the economy so they can blame Bush and the Republicans. When a Republican is in the White House they certainly don't want the economy to be good. They don't want gas prices to go down now....it much hurt Barack Hussein Obama! What a pinhead.



Now, I know that there are a bunch of tree-huggers out there crying about the environment. Do they think Cuba's not doing it? Let's just let the evil dictator tap the oil off the Florida coast....he needs more money and we don't need lower gas prices.



I love how each party plays the blame game. Instead of doing something about the price of gas it's better to bitch about the other party and blame them. They each make some good points, but why not act instead of blame? President Bush has lifted the ban on offshore drilling, so now we need the Democrats in congress to do the same. Quit talking about this 68 million acres the oil companies already have leased.....I've heard that 20 times from Democrats over the last few days. Do they consider that there may not be oil in those places? Here is a shot in the dark, don't they think that the oil companies would be drilling on those 68 million acres if there was actually oil there? Duh!



I have to be honest, I'm not thrilled with John McCain. He's not a full-conservative. He's more toward the middle. I read somewhere that he's around 80% Republican and somewhere around 20% democrat. Check out his voting record and you'll see. However, as voters we need to look at what is best for our families. At least McCain supports offshore drilling. We are spending $330 billion on foreign oil every single year. That's "B" for billion. Money that is going out to terrorists and other nations that do not like the United States. Drilling domestically would bring the price of oil down.

Just look at what happened yesterday when Bush announced he was lifting the ban....oil dropped something like $10 a barrel and the stock market was up 200 points when I looked earlier. It actually closed +276. I get so ticked every quarter when we get Scott's 401K statement and it's losing money. I mean, just take money out of our budget every week and just flush it down the toilet....that's what is happening. So, I was happy to see stocks go up! I don't want him to work for nothing and have no retirement down the road.

Back to what I was saying earlier, voting who's best for your family situation. I've been known to vote Repuplican just because I am Republican. This is really the wrong way to look at things. You need to see what the candidate stands for on important issues facing us today and then vote your conscience. To let everyone know....Obama doesn't support offshore drilling.

"Opponents of the president's plan, including Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama, deny that opening new areas for drilling can solve the energy crisis. While an estimated 18 million barrels of oil lie in the waters off our nation's coast, production cannot be increased immediately and the economic results could not be realized for more than 20 years, according to the Energy Information Administration. Additionally, as Democratic Party leaders note, oil companies already own leases to more than 60 million acres of federal land but have failed to utilize those resources."

I got this off MTV's website. Does he have his head up his ass? Opening new areas won't help us stop sending so much money overseas for domestic oil? And so what if it takes 5 years to get it out of the ground....it'll still bring the price of oil down. So, let me see if I understand Obama's position on this. "I deny that domestic drilling will lower gas prices and since it'll take a while to get it going....well, we should just ignore it some more". (My words, not Obama's.) He keeps telling us to cut back. We need to reduce our dependancy. Puuuleassse! Hasn't everyone does this already. I guess we should cut out driving to work and to the grocery store because that's about all I do. People are cutting back! It's not lowering the gas price because foreigners own it all! They own the oil and they control it and until we need less of it and we drill for our own...nothing will change.

(Did anyone notice that in the wake of lower crude oil prices the cost of gas actually went up...I think about 15 cents yesterday?)

So, that's my rant about politics today. Take it or leave it.

Mom's Are The Best

Why I love my MOM*

This was sent to me by my friend Kathy! I think it pretty much looks like every day of my life except it's missing a couple of things. I bet most women can relate to this list!

Mom and Dad were watching TV when Mom said,
'I'm tired, and it's getting late. I think I'll go to bed'
She went to the kitchen to make sandwiches for the next
day's lunches.

Rinsed out the popcorn bowls, took meat out of the freezer
for supper the following evening, checked the cereal box
levels, filled the sugar container, put spoons and bowls on
the table and started the coffee pot for brewing the next
morning.

She then put some wet clothes in the dryer, put a load of
clothes into the washer , ironed a shirt and secured a loose button
She picked up the game pieces left on the table, put the
phone back on the charger and put the telephone book into
the drawer.

She watered the plants, emptied a wastebasket and hung up a
towel to dry. She yawned and stretched and headed for the bedroom. She
stopped by the desk and wrote a note to the teacher,
counted out some cash for the field trip, and pulled a text
book out from hiding under the chair.

She signed a birthday card for a friend, addressed and
stamped the envelope and wrote a quick note for the grocery
store. She put both near her purse.

Mom then washed her face with 3 in 1 cleanser, put on her
Night solution & age fighting moisturizer,
brushed and flossed her teeth and filed her nails.
Dad called out, 'I thought you were going to bed.'
'I'm on my way,' she said.

She put some water into the dog's dish and put the cat
outside, then made sure the doors were locked and the patio
light was on.

She looked in on each of the kids and turned out their
bedside lamps and TV's, hung up a shirt, threw some
dirty socks into the hamper, and had a brief conversation
with the one up still doing homework.

In her own room, she set the alarm; laid out clothing for
the next day, straightened up the shoe rack. She added
three things to her 6 most important things to do list. She
said her prayers, and visualized the accomplishment of her
goals.

About that time, Dad turned off the TV and announced to no
one in particular. 'I'm going to bed.'
And he did...without another thought.

Anything extraordinary here? Wonder why women live
longer...?

CAUSE THEY ARE MADE FOR THE LONG HAUL..... (and they can't die sooner, they still have things to do!!!!)

Send this to five phenomenal women today...they'll love
you for it! THEN, GO TO BED! (Okay, maybe not yet)

Happy Happy Birthday!

Birthday Thanks
Another year has come and gone;

The sands of time keep trickling away.

Your birthday reminds me to let you know

I'm thankful for you each and every day.

By Karl Fuchs

Happy Birthday Sally!!!!

Tony Snow

I"m so sad because Tony Snow died yesterday from Colon cancer. I remember when he was diagnosed last year and he had surgery and chemo. I had no idea that he was still so sick. I was watching a tribute to him today on Fox News and....this is terrible....I can't remember who they were talking to. He was saying that on Thursday he'd taken Tony a voice recorder so he could start writing a book from the hospital bed. So, from that on Thursday to him being gone Saturday morning is just amazing to me. I'm thinking that on Thursday he probably felt like he had a lot of life left.

Well, to share a painful memory with my friends, I feel like the same thing happened with Scott's mom. We knew for two years that she had lung cancer, but she was still up and around and had even went to Vegas to see Scott's brother earlier in the spring. So, we had gone to visit in the fall and she had told us that if things didn't look that great after her current round of chemo was done she wasn't going to go forward with it. Well, that wasn't going to happen because Jan was so young and so strong and people like that don't die in their early 60's. So, we had talked about moving to Ohio and Jan wanted us to. We had already sold the store and we'd had our house up for sale for almost a year. As we got closer to Christmas in 2005 Jan's tone really changed. I remember talking to her on the phone and telling her that I thought we might have someone to rent the house because it hadn't sold. We were talking about how great it was going to be when we moved to Ohio and she started to cry and told me that she "really needed us" there.

When it finally came down to us having the permission from FOC to go and we got our house situated, Scott was offered a job at some big-wig machine shop, and we were packing....and it was just a couple of days before Christmas. I was talking to Jan and telling her we'd be on our way on the 28th of December. She said she was glad and that she hoped it wouldn't be too late. Too late? Too late for what?? She wasn't going to die...

So, we get through Christmas, we pack and pack and pack. We get moved and that weekend Jan was at our rental house. She got the grand tour and everything. They had gone to a movie in Findlay. And a week and a half later she was gone. How do you go from there to gone that fast? I still can't believe that she isn't in Ohio, sitting at her kitchen table, talking to her friends on the phone drinking a Bud Light. I miss her terribly, and she was too young to die. I think she was 64...I'm pretty sure. That is too young. Tony Snow was only 53 and it's so terribly sad!

Recipee For A Good Relationship

I feel like I have a great relationship with Scott. I've been really lucky because there aren't many nice men in this despicable world. The biggest thing I have learned is that you must pick your battles. It takes time to get to know the man in your life. It takes longer than a year or two. You have to take your time to get to know how he works. What makes him happy, what sets him off, how he responds to your happiness, sadness, anger.

The part about how he responds to your anger is really important. When I was married before if I got angry about something, even if it was justified, he got really mad at me....just for being mad. I wasn't allowed to be mad or question anything. So, when I met Scott this is how I was programmed. Only he didn't ever get mad at me for being mad. As a matter of fact, when I got upset about something he really didn't respond in a negative way and I didn't know what to do. So, I would pick and say things just to get a raise out of him. I would stab at the things that might stir him up and get a response out of him. Well, I learned that this isn't the way to handle being angry. I have said some pretty mean things that I didn't mean at all. Threatening to leave, what an ass! Things like that.

So, you have to take the time to get to know him and learn how to respond to him in these different situations. You have got to have trust. Oh everyone is probably jealous early in a relationship. Woman are programmed that way. We are very protective of what we consider to be ours. It's the same with our men and our children. We don't want anyone to overstep their boundaries with either because we turn into the mother lion! So, after you get through that new relationship feeling and you begin to feel comfortable and you know that you have trust, it's important not to break that trust.

I was thinking about an important part of my relationship with Scott the other day. We like each other. Well, we love each other but we also like each other. It doesn't matter where he is going he always wants me to go. He likes to spend time with me, and even though I don't always want to go with him, I enjoy being with him. (He always wants me to go to Menards with him....ugh). We decided that this was a really great thing because once the kids have grown and moved out, we will have all kinds of quality time together. My point, you have to like the man in your life. Oh, occasionally he makes me crazy (I'm sure I do the same for him) but you have to like each other and have things in common. Being able to enjoy each others company is a great thing for a relationship.

I know, you're looking at this thinking, who are you to talk about relationships? I'm nobody and I've made a ton of mistakes! I've just been thinking about relationships lately because I know so many people in different relationship situations. These aren't the magic answers but just my thoughts based on my own experiences. I feel so damn lucky to have the relationship with Scott that I have. There are nice guys out there, you just have to be picky and take your time to find him. In the meantime, don't be afraid to be alone. You'll find him. If you have found a good one, hang on to him because there are alot of women looking, lol.

Back On The Trail

Scott and I started walking again last night! I didn't want to, worse than bad. But, we did and I'm glad because it wasn't as bad as I thought. I haven't weighed myself in a while, so I broke down and did it yesterday morning. I've lost about 3 pounds so I was pleased. While we haven't been die-hard dieting I've tried not to overeat and go too crazy with junk food. I was saying to Scott that even though it hasn't been alot of weight, at least I'm going down instead of going up in pounds.

It was so nice out last night that we even took Sami. She really likes a ride in the stroller. She was all leaned back with her feet up on the tray....it was so cute. She was stylin.

Can you believe I'm actually at a loss for words. That tells me that this has been a boring week so far. I'm drowsy! But that's nothing new, is it? I was having such good luck with Sami sleeping at night, all of the sudden she doesn't want to sleep again. I don't know what to do with her and I'm not mean enough to do what the pediatrician says to do. It just makes me feel terrible to think of letting her cry and cry until she eventually falls back to sleep. What if she is hungry? Well, this is why I have a baby who is almost 9 months old who doesn't sleep through the night. C'est la vie!

McCain The Moderate

Well, I guess we're all pretty relieved we didn't drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge back in 2002. What a disaster that would have been. The vote on ANWR was almost entirely along partisan lines, with all Republicans, except a handful of "moderates," voting for drilling, and all Democrats, except a handful of sane Democrats like Zell Miller, voting against drilling. John McCain opposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because he polled soccer moms and found out they were against drilling. They thought it sounded too much like going to the dentist. McCain wanted to ensure that he remained beloved by the two pillars of his base: "centrists" and New York Times reporters.

Even Sen. Chuck Hagel voted for drilling in ANWR. But John McCain, "our" candidate, voted against it. I guess we're beginning to see the problem of basing a political platform on the passing fancies of "centrists."

These are people who have no opinions because they know nothing about national issues. They're the ones who check the "not sure/no opinion" box on polls regarding the legalization of cannibalism. You can't blame them: They're not being paid to know something about national issues. Those people we call "senators" and "representatives."

But now, astronomical gas prices have forced even soccer moms to spend 10 minutes looking at a problem that their leaders were supposed to be thinking about for years. And the soccer moms are saying: Drill! Drill! Drill! Bobby, come down off of there! Stop hitting your sister! Where was I? Oh, yeah ... Drill! Drill! Drill!

Consequently, McCain recently switched his position to go along with the centrists. See, that's the downside of having chosen all your political positions by polling centrists: The moment they acquire any knowledge, they'll realize you're an idiot.

It's always the same argument. Year after year, the "moderate Republicans" so respected at The New York Times harangue us to dump the Christians, the conservatives, the Swift Boat Veterans, the "right-wing extremists," the gun-and-God clingers and the fanatical pro-lifers from our party so we can repel every American who voted for Ronald Reagan in order to win the votes of people like Christine Todd Whitman.

Yes, by all means let's clear out all that deadwood and pave the way for a 49-state landslide! (For the Democrats.)

McCain followed the Times' strategy to a T. He called Jerry Falwell an "agent of intolerance." He called the Swift Boat Veterans "dishonest and dishonorable." He has denounced every Christian minister who tries to endorse him. Over the years, McCain has ostentatiously attacked every issue of importance to conservatives and embraced every crackpot liberal idea, including the left's latest plan to exterminate the human race, called "global warming."

Two weeks ago, McCain skipped the capitol prayer breakfast in California, instead appearing with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at an environmental event in nearby Santa Barbara. Schwarzenegger's absence marked the first time a governor skipped what has come to be known as "the governor's prayer breakfast." I guess in the world of moderate Republicans an environmental event qualifies as a religious observance.

The keynote speaker at the breakfast, Hollywood producer Mark Joseph, quoted a recent cover article in Christianity Today by professors Daniel Taylor and Mark McCloskey that said:

"In premodern times, the courage of a leader often had to be physical. In the last 500 years it is more often moral. Moral courage is the ability to do what's right even when it is deeply unpopular, even dangerous. Courage is only found where there is the genuine possibility of loss -- loss of friends, reputation, status, power, possessions or, at the extremes, freedom or life."

No wonder McCain and Schwarzenegger skipped it.

Moderate Republicans like McCain have taken to heart liberals' admonition that Ronald Reagan's appeal had absolutely nothing to do with his conservative philosophy. Don't be like him! You'll lose the soccer moms! Liberals assure us that Reagan won landslide elections because Americans were mesmerized by his sunny disposition and corny jokes. If that's true, why isn't Al Roker president?

The irony is, the only people McCain can count on to vote for him are the very Republicans he despises -- at least those of us who can get drunk enough on Election Day to pull the lever for him. In fact, we should organize parties around the country where Republicans can get drunk so they can vote for McCain. We can pass out clothespins with his name as a reminder and slogan-festooned vomit bags. The East Coast parties can post the number of drinks necessary for the task to help the West Coast parties. For more information, go to getdrunkandvote4mccain.com.

Not being ignorant "centrists," we know what a world-class disaster B. Hussein Obama will be. Meanwhile, the centrists McCain spent years impressing with his outraged denunciations of conservatives, Swift Boat Veterans and Christians will be voting for Obama. They think he's cute.

How many times do we have to run this experiment?

Taking the advice of Democrats, Republicans ran "moderates" for president in 1944, 1948, 1976, 1992 and 1996. All lost. Republicans also ran a "moderate" for president in 1988, but that was unwittingly -- both to us and, fortunately, to the voters. In other words, in the language of the market, the best tip on "moderate Republicans" is: SELL!

But now, apparently, we have to run the experiment again. This year, moderate Republicans have hit the jackpot. John McCain is the Platonic ideal of a "moderate Republican." To paraphrase Richard Nixon on George McGovern in 1972: Here we have a situation where moderate Republicans finally have a candidate who almost totally shares their views. Now we'll see what the country thinks.

Ann Coulter, July 2, 2008

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=27337

Dieting Hell, Take Two

Scott dragged me off on vacation again but here I am! Is anyone else in allergy hell right now? I was so good while we were camping last week, now I'm home and I'm friggin miserable! Must be the drywall dust. It's lovely. All the sneezing, coughing and hacking is realllly sexy!

So I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL July 4th holiday. Like I said, we were camping last week with our friends from Ohio. On Friday we took the kids to the Detroit Zoo. That was fun! I'm sunburnt, of course. I covered the kids with sunscreen, but didn't put a drop on myself. Even sunburnt the top of my head....add scratching my head to the sneezing, coughing and hacking....that's really appealing, I'm a real prize!

We topped off July 4th by going to a party then to fireworks at Murray Lake. We had a great time and the fireworks were fantastic! John didn't remember them from last year so he really enjoyed the festivities this year. Plus, he was with his two best friends, Aiden and Ben. They were so cute, they were all kicked back on a blanket watching the fireworks. They had a great time.

I know you are wondering about this, and I'm dreading the discussion! How's my diet? At a stand-still. I don't expect anything different from myself. I've been giving myself every single excuse I can think of for the last....I don't know....three weeks or so. Am I happy with just this 10 pounds? Hell no! Here's my line of thought:

• We've been on vacation and you can't diet on vacation.
• I've been too busy.
• The weather was too hot to walk (but not too hot to stuff my face).
• It rained some of the nights when we usually walk.
• I was too tired to walk (but not too tired to eat).
• I've had my period. (Yeah, right!)
• Scott hasn't been dieting so I haven't.
• I've been too tired to walk.
• We've had alot of company for dinner lately (and it's fun to have friends over for cookouts).
• We have a standing lunch date with Kathie and the kids at McDonalds one day a week.
• I've been too tired to walk.
• It's sooooo hard to diet during the summer (and it's easier in the winter when I can't get out and walk in the evening????)
• I hate dieting.
• I hate being hungry.
• I've been too tired to walk.

I think I've covered everything that I've told myself the last couple of weeks. Pathetic isn't it? It's so stupid when I sit here and think about how badly I want to look and feel better but I don't do anything about it. I'll always tell myself that I'll start tomorrow, or on Monday. Well, tomorrow is Monday dumb ass. (Me, not you!) I'm actually at the point of being tired of eating. I am actually tired of eating and I know that when I get to that point I'm usually ready to do something. Maybe I can stick to it for more than 10 pounds. I need to find another place for WW meetings because I just don't know that the Lowell meeting is right for me. It's expensive to go and if you don't get anything out of it, it's a waste of time.

I was talking to Sally on the phone tonight and we were talking about how tough it is to go through a divorce. I think that, for myself, I felt like a new person. After the dust settled and I got used to the idea of being on my own I actually felt pretty good. I'd lost almost 40 pounds, I was happy with the way I looked and I had this new found confidence. I think when a woman is comfortable with herself, she is a different person. At that time, I was comfortable with myself. This is when I met Scott and oh how I long for that body. I wasn't skinny, I was average. I remind myself that I have had four kids and I'm never going to be skinny. But I could be average and would feel really good about myself. I also want to look good for Scott. Don't get after me about that, he doesn't ever say anything to me about my weight and I know that my self-worth isn't tied to the way I look for a man. I just want to look good, and feel good, and feel attractive for my husband. He's the only one! For me, and for him...that's it!

Now that I have gone down the eating crap road again, I have to find a way to start over. To find a way to focus and get back into the exercise and eating healthier. We are planning another trip next month, that can't be an excuse to eat like a hog. When I shopped this week I did buy better foods. I bought chicken, turkey breast, squash, stuff like that. Things that are better than eating hotdogs and potato chips. My biggest weakness is pizza. It's crazy because we haven't had pizza in over a week, but sure as the sun will rise, as soon as I try to diet or start eating healthy....the only thing that will be on my mind is pizza. This weekend is Sally's birthday and she was telling me that she didn't want some extravagant thing, she wanted girls night and pizza. Done! MMMMMM pizza! My weakness.

Ok, so I have spilled my guts and you see where I am at with things. I desperately want to change my eating habits and get this weight off. It's so hard! Anyone who has ever had a weight problem knows what I am saying. It's on your mind 24/7 and it never leaves your thoughts. Food, the enemy, is always on your mind. I'm the only one who can do anything about it. If there was an easy and painless way to do it I would. If I could have a gastric bypass and have no pain, side effects, complications, and the money to do it, I would. But that just isn't the case and I know I can do it with the proper mental state. To diet, you have to be mentally ready. You have to be mentally strong because eating habits and hunger are pretty strong adversaries!

Well, we'll see how it goes and I'll report to you throughout the week. I promise that I am not going out of town again for a good long while. I hope to hear from my friends, I'm starting to wonder if anyone is out there again.