Okay girls.  Keep this in mind the next time you think it’s cute or appropriate to lie & manipulate a guy with purpose. 

Hubby’s best pal, who just got back from his 2nd tour in AFghanistan has been staying with us on the weekends for over a month now.  He’s had to deal with getting stationed back here, only to find out his “girlfriend” has been seeing someone else, (the dude stopped by while our pal was staying there…not a good way to find this out for either of them)and so broke up with her.

Than he went to “hang out” with another girl pal the weekend before last – originally to just have dinner & hang,  but it ended up with super drunk sex & finger pointing the next day. Her: “This is all your fault.”  Him: “OH no, I beg to differ…this was your fault and your friends fault and the Jager Bombs.  I totally blame you for this!”

This weekend, he comes over to hang…gets talked into driving to meet this gal again for dinner last night…no funny business, because they had talks the past two weeks.  He leaves at 8:30pm comes back here at something like 4:30am.  I leave for the day to go help stack 2 cords of wood for my dad…don’t get home until 6:30pm.  I go and grab myself dinner because the guys are going to be fine with beer, cheese & crackers.

I ask out pal how it went last night?  No craziness, because 2x in a row would just be TOO  CRAZY.  His response… a shrug with an impish grin and then “I guess I’m a Sociopath.”  To which I reply “Is this a known condition or a newly determined one?”

“The good thing is I won’t ever be seeing HER again.” He explained that basically, the night ended with him making sure she was even more shit-faced than she got herself LAST time, took her to a hotel 1/2 way between her folks house and the next big town.  She passed out on the bed, so he was able to take off all her clothes and leave here there with just her cell phone.

Her clothes went into a dumpster somewhere along the way and today he has had NO texts from her whatsoever.

His final comment to me, “I have NO TOLERANCE or PATIENCE for being lied to or manipulated by ANYONE.”

My hubby has known him for 14years..longer than we’ve known each other. His pal is an upstanding, good guy, who will do anything for friends and family. He’s very forgiving and will stand a lot of bullshit, so it takes the right kind of button pusher to illicit this type of response. 

From what I know about her…she’s in the middle of a divorce…moved from across the country with her small child to live with her parents back here.  I’m not sure what exactly she did, but I can guess.   

I’m amazed and somewhat impressed by our pal’s cojones…. and so thankful I never did ANYTHING to a friend or lover that would elicit such a response.  

All I can say is that I suggest you don’t either, because you never know if you may end up naked in a hotel room, having to call your folks and explain why you were left naked, 25 miles away from home while they were babysitting for you.

Hubby & I saw something on TV yesterday talking about Michael Vick and his playing football again. Both of us were outraged.  What message is being sent to the impressionable?

Some people mention that he’s spent 2 years in jail and went bankrupt so what more could we want? Some may feel that the message being sent is that if you do the time then you are given a second chance.

Well for one thing, we want him to be treated like all the other “regular” criminals in the system. Even though it’s now been proven that he’s not.

His case (like other sports figures) and the fact that the NFL has welcomed him back with “open arms”, even though he now has a felony conviction on his record, helps to strengthen the message already being sent by the professional sports  franchises – it’s okay to be a criminal, we’ll forgive you. You make us and sponsors lots of money, so what you did really wasn’t that bad.  We know it was all a misunderstanding.

How much time money was spent & wasted on his court case that should be repaid to us the taxpayers for getting him convicted?  If anything, it makes a mockery of our justice system.  If you fit into the special category (fame or fortune), you will be readily forgiven in our society and given the chance to get right back up to the fast track to regain your social status again. 

How many criminals that he spent time with will be allowed to walk out of prison and go back to their same job (if they had one to begin with)? How many potential employers will turn a blind eye to the box checked “Yes” on the application that asks if you have been convicted of a felony? How many of them will be given a contract and guaranteed money when they get out to get back on their feet?  How many of them will be given access to corporate sponsors and adulation by the general public once they get out?

Michael Vick “went” bankrupt…kind of.  More like he had to liquidate assets, pay a lot of money AND he could also protect himself by FILING bankruptcy, which could then protect some of his assets for him upon release.  How many of the criminals he did time with had that same access to professionals that could help him with that pre-planning?

I bet there’s a criminal that did time with him and now has found out that he was going back to the same shit… how pissed off do you think he ‘ll be  when he puts 2 and 2 together and realizes he isn’t going to get that same chance?  I bet he’d be planning on how to go and kill him when he got out. 

Maybe what Vick can do is become the ex-con sponsor.  When he makes his money back, he pays their salaries at the level they had when they went in to get them all back on their feet again.  Better yet, advocate for a new system of Pell grants for criminals sponsored by famous people everywhere. 

Just like when kids are looking to get into college and need grants & scholarships.  There are those special ones for “If you are Irish and your parents live in Bogata” you can get this grant, or “If you want to be an underwater basket weaver” you are eligible for this grant.  These would work the same way.  You as a criminal have to apply for them, but if you fit the criteria, you could get one of the following for example:

If you went to jail for illegal dog fighting/gambling, Michael Vick will have a grant that sponsors you.

If you went to jail for computer hacking, Bill Gates will have a grant that sponsors you.

If you went to jail for securities fraud, Donald Trump will have a grant that sponsors you.

If you went to jail for drug dealing, Merck or Pfizer will have a grant that sponsors you.

If you went to jail for drunk driving, Budweiser or Coors will have a grant that sponsors you.

If you went to jail for serial killings, Mac or Snap-on Tools will have a grant that sponsors you.

If you went to jail for vehicular manslaughter, Ford or Chevy will have a grant that sponsors you.

There isn’t a crime that can’t be sponsored under this new system, and if  you are a smart criminal, you get put away for a combination of offenses so you can apply for multiple grants and get that much more money.

They should also provide financial planning &  bankruptcy filing services upon in-processing to all inmates so that they will have an easier time of it when they get out of prison after doing their time.

So, if you were a criminal, we should all help you get back on your feet in the same way that Michael Vick and others like him have been helped back on theirs.   

Then we as a society can say with a clear conscience that crime really does pay.

If we as a society didn’t have such a limited social memory, then the two of us wouldn’t be so upset.  In a few years, no one will really remember or care about what he and other athletes did, and the severity will be reduced to some passing trivia question while watching a game, “Hey, didn’t Vick go to jail for something?”  “Yeah, I think it had to do with dogs, but I don’t remember.”  “Huh.  Well, he’s having a great season this year, I even got my kid a signed jersey of his for Christmas.”

If we as a society really DID forgive criminals after they did their time, then those above suggestions wouldn’t seem so ridiculous now would they?  But deep down, we really don’t.  We like to forget…conveniently.

They said today would be a good day for them to get me to take some outdoor pix…. I agreed.  We also discussed that it had to be after 3:30pm because the light is dead between 11-3:30pm up here in the Northern climes.

At least I got them this one a few months ago.

Ummm… still no call & the sun sets at 7pm now… goodbye summer, hello fall.

Yeah.  I know. It’s early, but some of you get started early as well. So, in an effort to aid your Halloween prep, I thought I’d share my own fav Halloween Playlist.

If you want me to make you a cd…. drop me a note.

1. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes – Lewis Lee

2. HAlloween – The Misfits

3. Halloween – Siouxsie & the Banshees

4. I Drink Blood – Rocket from the Crypt

5. Jack the Ripper – Screaming Lord Sutch & the Savages

6. Monster Mash – Bad Manners

7. Pet Semetary – The Ramones

8. Feed my Frankenstein – Alice Cooper

9. Graveyard Girlfriend – Groovy Ghoulies

10. Halloween – Dead Kennedys

11. Munsters Theme – Los Sraightjackets

12. Nobody Likes You (When You’re Dead) – Zombina & the Skeletones

13. Theme from the Addams Family – The Fiends

Hubby & I were discussing the news and this whole “book burning” mess.

His comment was this, ” No one seems to want to touch on the real issue.  The only reason people are freaking out and worried about all this Pastor & his book burning, is the fact that there’s only one major religion nowadays whose radical factions actually make a point of killing people.  Why won’t people admit that?”

What do you think about it?  Why should people be afraid for their safety in this day and age for something like that? 

Food for thought.

Speaking with someone online today, I got the typical “Aww…no kids?” response after I told them I was CHOOSING not to have them.  Not sure why that’s such a downer for the general population.  I’ve always leaned towards the “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” mentality, and this falls right into it.

The conversation actually started with a tweet about someone seeing an obviously pregnant woman smoking while taking a walk.  I responded with the obvious (to me anyway) response that it’s only been recently diagnosed as a health risk for babies, and that most of our parents and generations previously had smoking mothers.

My thoughts are that if you KNOW better and still choose to smoke, drink, take hardcore drugs etc while pregnant, then you REALLY shouldn’t come looking for handouts if the child you have birthed is now screwed up.

To me, that is the crime of selfishness, rudeness & a strange sense of entitlement that I don’t understand.  If I did that to my baby willingly & knowingly, then what gives ME the right to ask the REST of SOCIETY to pay for my screw up?  It’s not your problem, it’s mine and I did it intentionally through my own ignorance and lack of intestinal fortitude to not determine the bad habits should be stopped immediately.  If it happened thru no discernible fault of my own, or I adopted a child that developed issues, well then that’s another story entirely.

I also feel that as a responsible person, I do not need to pass on genetic defects that may increase the already fragile and distorted genetic pool that we are now living in.  I have poor eyesight, allergies and teeth that will get cavities if you look at them cross-eyed.  Those may seem trivial, but if you have enough people who aren’t in better genetic condition, breeding out of control, you run the risk of more genetic mutations and dilution of the genetic pool.

Anyone own a pet that is a specific “breed”?   Well, you know what I am talking about.  Look at the cows we eat or get milk from, the sheep we get wool from, the dogs & cats we breed as pets and the animals that run wild on earth. If you want to keep them strong and viable, then you breed the strongest, healthiest and most viable ones around to ensure that best genetic strength.  Poor Cheetah population is so interbred because we just about killed them off at one point, that their males now barley have any viable sperm with which to breed to keep the species viable.  How many people do you know who are trying in-vitro or other types of reproductive solutions because they are having breeding challenges?

Just because we, as the human species, are what we like to call sentient and at the top of the food  chain (not really, but whatever), and have some sort of faith system in place, doesn’t mean we aren’t also an animal that inhabits this planet.  It doesn’t mean we don’t all follow the same physiological rules as the rest of the species just because we can talk.  Some birds can talk.  Apes can use sign language.  Whales and dolphins use language and sentences.

Because I can doesn’t mean I will or even should.  As a sentient, intelligent being, I can make the choice to not pass on my defective physical genes if I so decide. Intellectually, as far as all the testing I have ever been subjected to has suggested, society may or may not lose out, but then, that’s not what it prizes anyway.  At least, not according to the media. Society wants either hot, sexy, somewhat vapid people to breed…nevermind if they can tie their own shoes.

There are enough people in society that probably shouldn’t be “Breeding” that are, so any population gap that I may leave will be filled.  I’m not worried.  Nor should you be….just don’t say “Awww… no kids?” when a person has told you they have CHOSEN not to have them.  

Thank goodness I can still make THAT CHOICE!