Atta Girl! - of the Week.

Julia Carson

Julia Carson lost her battle with lung cancer last Saturday.

She was the first woman and first African American ever elected to congress from Indiana.

She was a tireless supporter of the poor and the minorities and gave the Indianapolis political scene a show that it will likely never see again.

Known as much for her outrageous Hats, scarves and wigs as she was her politics she was always entertaining whether you agreed with her positions or not.

Despite their best efforts, the Republican Party could not defeat her. She would somehow manage to rally center township into showing up at the polls in numbers the republican party could only dream of.

She was always doing or saying something that was borderline crazy and the local media ate it up! (on a side note, i applaude the local media for the stories and tributes they ran following her death)

My philosophy has always been that her support by the people was due in large part to her willingness to "Show Up" whether it was a pancake breakfast at the first baptist church or a ribbon cutting ceremony at Sylvia's beauty shop. She put herself in places where she was accessible to her constituency. She also is the highest ranking elected official to ever participate in the Indianapolis Gay Pride parade back in 2006. You Go Gurl!

Considered a Saint by some and Satan by others she always stood up for those whom she felt needed a voice. The black, the gay, the poor, the Jews and the elderly all consider her a friend.

I'm sure that Heaven is a lovely place and that God treats everybody with love and respect. But imagine if you can if God accidentally forgot about somebody one day and the visit he would soon be paid by Ms. Julia Carson!

The Little Drummer Boy...

I was just out at the smoking lounge (aka - the loading dock at the south end of the building) and i overheard a gentleman discussing the electric guitar he bought his 7 year old son for Christmas.

It reminded me of a Christmas memory long, long ago...

Picture it: French Lick, 19 early 80 something...

My brother (who is 2 1/2 years older than me) unwrap our presents to find a brand new toy drum for each of us. They were pretty with red sparkly paint on the sides, gold accents and crisp papery white material making up the drum head. They were the best gifts in world until we opened the next gifts...

Anywho, The follow Saturday morning brother and i were up early around 7:00 am and decided we were going to be Peter Chris from the Rock Band KISS and play our drums as such. We beat and we banged with all our might not giving a care in the world to the fact that mother was asleep in the room across the hall from ours. When suddenly, our bedroom door flung open and there stood mother! Nightgown, beadhead and eyes half open, she grabbed one of the drumsticks and proceeded to punch holes into each of the papery white drum heads! (picture Joan Crawford with her wire hanger) Then without a word, she turned around and went back to bed. Brother and i were left staring at each other and our punctured paper drum heads not sure what had just happened. Needless to say, that was the last time we ever got a drum for Christmas.

As i grow older and work 40+ hours a week while not getting near enough sleep, I can appreciate and even laugh (now) at mothers reaction however, i can't help but wonder what i might be had i had a drum to practice on when i was younger... The next Phil Collins perhaps?

So, to the boy getting the electric guitar on Christmas morning, Enjoy it while you have it and if you like to play it real early in the morning... It's not your fault that it's lost when one day you can't seem to remember where you left it.

Stop the Press!

The other night I was flipping through the channels and paused on PBS just long enough to become interested in something. It was a news program of some sort and they were doing a story on an upcoming FCC vote to loosen media ownership laws. More specifically, this new rule will allow publishing companies to now be able to purchase broadcasting companies within the same market. Put simply, One person could control every local news source you have access to. Imagine if you were a Liberal and that person was Ann Coulter or if you are a Conservative and that person was Al Franken. The thought of Ann Coulter ruling over me made me shudder so I continued to watch.

The program focused on a member of the FCC (Martin I think was his last name) who traveled around the country to conduct public hearings in different cities to gauge citizens response to this proposal. The response was overwhelmingly NOT in favor of the proposal. Yet despite the outcry the FCC moved forward with it's plan.

All of this made me think:

This is kind of a Big Deal isn't it?
Isn't a monopoly of the News basically the same as Communism?
Why is nobody talking about this?

So I was relieved this morning when I had message in my inbox from Moveon.org. Now I don't endorse everything that Move on stands for and I sometimes feel they are a little too radical but when they asked me sign an on line petition to reverse the FCC decision, i clicked without hesitation.

Conservative News or Liberal News? Whatever your preference is, you have the choice.

They each provide the service of giving us the Other side of the story whether we agree with it or not.

If you feel the same as I do about this topic you can click here and sign the on-line petition. If you don't feel the same and want another side of the story, there is always another outlet or source for you to get the other side of the story from... For now anyway...

For more on this story from someone smarter than me, click here

Tuesday Ramblings

It's Tuesday Already!

Happy 60th Birthday Mother Blanche!

We all survived the Snow storm over the weekend (at least i think my friends survived anyway... all of their blogs have been updated)

Julia Carson lost her battle with lung cancer over the weekend. I'll talk more about her later in the week.

The fact that Maestro is knitting and baking cookies for children has really rocked my core belief system!

I still need to Christmas Shop.

BD is taking us all out to dinner tonight! Whoo Hoo!

Hillary Clinton rose from 39% to 45% in the latest USAToday Poll - You Go Gurl!

Whatever happened to Fred Thompson? Is he still running?

Hey Mean Gurls! - The Holiday Dom just arrived!

Talk to you all tomorrow!

Something Wicked This way Comes

There's a Snow Storm heading our way! We're All Doomed!

Not really but that is the way some people are caring on. Somebody posted on the IndyStar message board that this is Gods way of punishing us because we are a Red State so I guess the storm has now reached biblical proportions!

Depending on who you listen to, we are expecting anywhere from 3 to 10 inches which leads me to believe that nobody really knows. This Map justifies that theory.

The Gurls and I are planning on hitting yet another holiday party tomorrow night so a pile of snow on the ground should make that interesting. (note to gurls: wear good sock in case we are expected to leave shoes at the door)

I like the Snow. It's pretty when it falls and for some reason always seems to bring out the 3rd grader in me. That is until I have to get out and drive in it along with all the other lunatics.

That's it for now. Everybody be careful out there this weekend. I'm off to stock up on my bread, milk and Eggs!

Atta Girl! - of the Week

Adessah Reed!

For her ability to turn this:

Into This:

Merry Christmas from Dolly Clause!

Seriously Gurl...

http://www.dollypartonmusic.net/site.php?content=splash