I’m driven nearly to tears by how slowly my wordpress dashboard loads. Good Lord almighty…I’m aging here. So for any new brilliance - as if I’ll ever have the time - I’ve created a free blog to rant on. So you can catch up to me there.

I’ll leave this one up for now…it’s hard to take down.

Okay, I’m not willing to let go of all my brilliance just yet, but I cannot honestly imagine keeping up with this blog. I have taken on an MFA program with Wilkes University, which has me writing all sorts of things I don’t enjoy. I have three writing groups which have taken on lives of their own, which is a blessing and a curse to watch. And our current economic and political broohaha is enough to terrify me into speechlessness. Are we truly this gullible? Do we not see how our checkbooks in no way could stand up under the pressure of our economic stimulus packages? It’s as though they come with the disclaimer: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. No freakin’ kidding.

So when I can, I’ll check in. Thank you to those of you who still check in. I have gained lifelong friends I have never met, yet wouldn’t trade (you know who you are), and for that, I am forever thankful for this cyber-worded world. God bless, all, and keep fighting - free speech needs us all now.

Some people are idiots. This woman is a prime example.

I love children. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who is a bigger advocate for the well-being and importance of children. However, if you can’t afford one, you shouldn’t be having one - and that goes them same for having EIGHT of them. What moron thought this was a good idea? “I can’t work, pregnancy is miserable and painful, so now I’m going to have eight more of them.” Doesn’t she already have SIX children? When you can’t hold down a job, should you be considering having more??

This is why we have so much government. Because we have idiots who make idiotic decisions, and then are given excuses and government handouts in light of their idiocy. Which perpetuates idiots like this one.

I’m wondering if this type of logic would work for the rest of us. The last time your bank account looked a bit low, was that your cue to go out and spend more? For the Daniel Gross and the Democrats, that’s the way to go.

In Mr. Gross’s article “The GOP’s Nutso Claim That Government Spending Doesn’t Create Jobs,” he laments the close-minded view of Republicans over the current Obama stimulus plan. According to Mr. Gross, the government has long produced jobs for Americans, 16.6 per cent of jobs in the country today. During “every modern recession,” the United States government has borrowed and spent its way out. And during times such as these, when tax cuts appear to not work, “the highest priority is simply to stop the downward spiral.”

A few things I’d like to bring to Gross’s attention. First, stop talking about the federal government as though it’s some third party entity. WE ARE the federal government. It’s not some group of people that are working for our best interest. It’s you and me and Mr. Gross, and the staff at Slate, and your neighbors and friends and family. When in hell did we get the idea that those idiots we elected down in Washington were some elite posse designed to babysit us? They work for us.

Second, it is our spending and borrowing that have gotten us into this position. Both personally and in the government, we have borrowed and spent ourselves into such unmanageable debt, that we are left with a situation that we CAN’T spend our way out of. The world is laughing, China is refusing to buy any more of our bonds, and here we are: still trying to spend money. In whose budget does that work? When has that worked for you? It doesn’t. We need to react in our government the same we react in our checkbook. Stop spending, ride the downturn while saving as much as we possibly can, and realize that we’ll come out on the other side smarter and more fiscally responsible.

And no, Mr. Gross - our highest priority right now isn’t to “stop the downward spiral.” It’s to let the economy do what it does best - bounce back. And in the meantime, take the hand of our neighbors, family and friends, help each other through it, and learn our lesson.

A lesson that you apparently still have not learned.

According to this article in the New York Times, ADHD may not be the enemy to the male children of the world that we think it is. It may actually be a benefit for those who are afflicted with it.

I, for one, am shocked. Imagine that what all of us have been saying since this ridiculous brouhaha started, is actually true! That you can work with children with ADHD, that there are discplinary techniques, learning techniques, and parenting styles that work well with children with learning disabilities. As opposed to just popping pills at them, we might actually suggest that they can be taught and helped without drugs! What a concept.

Brilliance can be hidden in what we deem as a throwaway. In fact, it usually is.

Listening to the radio today, I had to wonder how people thought we got this country. The latest commercial for our largest health insurance provider in Central Pennsylvania, Capital Blue Cross, includes a female voiceover while their trademark music plays in the background. I tried to find the exact text, but unfortunately, they don’t list it online. The general gist was: can you imagine a world where there are no junk-food junkies? Can you imagine a world with no bullies or name-calling? Can you imagine a world with good self-confidence, etc. That is apparently what Capital Blue Cross wants to imagine.

You know something - I don’t want to. I don’t want to imagine a world where I can’t be a junk food junkie when I want to be. I don’t want to imagine a world where there are no bullies and tough times growing up. I don’t want to imagine a world that is superficially inflated with feel-good emotions that aren’t earned or built over time.

Adversity is what grows us. You can look back over the times in your life when things were hardest, and you can see how you learned, grew, and became a stronger person. My life frequently stunk growing up, but you know something - there is very little that I can’t handle now as an adult.

Recently my youngest slapped his brother. While his father came down on him, I stuck up for him. He takes all kinds of abuse from bullies at school, from his brother, and frequently those of us that are supposed to protect him let him down. He had taken everything he could take from his brother that day, and he’d had enough, so he hauled off and let his brother have it. You know what - his brother deserved it. I don’t want him to learn that you just keep lying down and taking it from people. I want him to know when you have to fight back. He is finally learning, from being bullied and controlled, that he doesn’t have to take it.

If his school didn’t have bullies, if his brother wasn’t a cretin at times, he’d never learn that. He’d grow up and think the world was perfect and easy, and then get slammed when he discovers that the real world has the IRS, mean people, and terrorists.

Peace and harmony are beautiful ideals, but that’s all they are. In the real world, times can be tough. But they are what make it all worth it in the end. You can never appreciate the gentle warmth of a summer morning without suffering through the harsh chill of a winter evening.

This last election and our current economic “plan” are seeing the world through rose-colored glasses. Economies need to fail. It’s how they rebuild. You can’t constantly bail-out everyone. Nothing is too big to fail. Things need to fail. Failure is how we learn what we screwed up, and then we get to fix it and try again. Yes, it means that people will lose their jobs. Yes, there could be more foreclosed mortgages and food lines. And yes, children will have to suffer without the latest game consoles and seeing the latest box-office hits. But that’s life, and it’s how you grow and develop character and staying-power.

I’m so glad that David Tanenhaus can remember Bill Ayers with such warmth and innocence. In his article, “Barack, Bill, and Me,” he recounts his own tender relationship with the Ayers and Dohrn, insisting they are much different people than the terrorists they once were. Why on earth would we be bothered that one of our presidential candidates maintains ties with unapologetic terrorists? That he announced his Senate campaign at the Ayers-Dohrn house? But this writer has seen the other side: “I know them better as the couple that invited me into their home in 2000 to meet their extended family, make gingerbread-cookie houses, and share Christmas dinner. Our conversation that night, as it almost always did, focused on the future, not the past.”

Of course - and in Putin’s eyes, Bush saw friendship.

Don’t want to be bothered with walking FiFi? Is cleaning up after Fido taking its toll? Are you too busy at work to have a dog and take care of it? Here’s the service for you: Rent-A-Dog. That’s right, folks! All the joys of dog ownership without any of the bonding and familiarity that can become so demanding.

And we wonder why our kids have issues. We can’t even take care of our pets anymore.

So as I’m slogging it out on my recumbent bike at the gym, I see the women on the Today Show (may I just add, that women like these set women’s causes for equal rights back decades) talking about whether or not Obama is too thin to be president. This is nearly as bad as discussing how good-looking a presidential candidate is. For goodness sakes, people, get a freakin’ clue!! Who cares what Obama weighs?! Did you listen to his socialist policies? His marxist social viewpoints? That is what matters, not whether he wears a 28 waist!

Chain me to the wall, here, or I might get loose!

Then I come home to enjoy my protein shake, and I read this article, describing how LA is going to prohibit the new constructions of fast food restaurants within 32 square miles of low-income areas. Excuse me? Now we are telling those with little money that they can’t buy cheap food? Oh, I’m sorry, it’s not healthy. Well, there’s news for ya! Really? Cheeseburgers from McDonald’s don’t make it on the healthy food scale? These people have no money! They eat what they can afford! That is why there is drive in the human spirit to do and be more! So you can eat at fancy restaurants, and buy a better quality of food. Why ever leave the slums otherwise? Besides that, don’t people have the right to care for their bodies in the way they choose? We were warned, and here we have it: the government is telling us how to eat. It will start with the poor, and it will make its way up the scale. Just watch.

I’m changing my political affiliation this year to independent, possibly libertarian. At least THAT makes sense.

Let me just tell you - we keep saying this will never happen to us. Ah-huh. All we need is to let the government into our personal health coverage, and here it comes, folks. Just wait.

I want to see the nursing assistant who has to tell a woman she is too fat for her government and now she has to get on a government-mandated diet. Yep - I can’t wait for that day.