Keith came hone the other day and declared, with fatalism heavy in his voice, "I am a hoarder!"
I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing.
"It's not funny!" he cried. "I'm serious. I'm storing a boat motor in my jeep. I have to sell some crap. Where the hell am I going to put my boat?"
We still haven't picked it up, though we got the process of switching the boat title over to his name started. Once we get the new title, we can sell it. In the meantime, Keith is thinking of storing it at the lemon lot on post.
We have the Can on Craig's list, but I really think Keith needs to drop the price more in order for it to sell. The problem is, he loves that truck and he put in a new crank shaft. Once he puts that much blood, sweat and toil in a vehicle, he doesn't really like to let it go.
"It's just a good runnin' little truck," he likes to fondly say, his hand slapping the hood.
Anyone else looking at will merely see its age, the broken window and the fact that it's only a two wheel drive.
We watched "Alice in Wonderland" last night and though we emphatically agreed that we would never, ever let our children watch it before the age of ten, it was still an excellent movie for adults.
I went back in my blog a year ago to see how I was chronicling the last few months of my husband's deployment and instead got a vivid reminder of my transformation from political apathy to passion. It's fascinating really. It's a small illustration of the country at large during that time.
There were many posts that I simply didn't publish, as I was struggling with the direction I wanted my blog to go in, the pros and cons of being political in a blogging community and this feeling of my own ignorance of subjects I was desperate to understand.
I feel so much more confident compared to last summer, though I still think very carefully about how I blog. Mainly I want to convey the feeling that though I may directly and passionately oppose liberal/progressive/collectivist ideas, I am not actually attacking any person who may hold them.
To the contrary as individuals they tend to be, in my experience, generally compassionate, intelligent people who want to make a difference in their community and feel that the government is the best venue for making that difference.
I hear a lot lately about the polarization of our society. I'm tempted to think that we are a lot less polarized than what we are given to believe, if we listen to the talking heads on TV. I think the majority of Americans actually agree with one another on the larger issues. What creates the feeling of polarization is that the current Administration and the media in general are promoting ideas and policies that are not held or supported by the general population. This creates friction and frustration.
Lately I have been following very closely this breaking story of the by now infamous Journolist. Growing up I was always aware that there was a liberal bias in the media. I attributed that to nothing more than an organic coincidence. I believed that because those working in the journalistic profession tended to tilt left, they tended to bias their stories in that direction, mostly unconsciously, in the same way that scientists tend to effect their own findings. This naturally and without any organisation resulted in a general, across the board leftward tilt.
The realization that there was a secret, exclusive list of liberal only journalists, bloggers, editors and opinion piece authors was stunning to me. It made me feel vaguely sick to my stomach to read about how they all worked and discussed together how to present stories or articles to discredit Palin and how to help candidate Obama get elected.
I was reading an article titled, "Confessions of a Journolister" by David Corn of Mother Jones. In it, he says:
"The latest Journolist piece hit close to home, for it features a headline based on a Journolist comment made by Nick Baumann, a reporter in Mother Jones' Washington, DC, bureau. (See Nick's take on the Journolist flap here.) The article zeroes in on the hours following John McCain's announcement that Sarah Palin would be his running mate. Journolist was exploding with comments from members wondering what was behind this odd selection and what was the best way to write about it—and to attack it. (Hey, they're liberals.) In years past, this sort of conversation would have happened in a restaurant or hotel lobby—presumably the bar next to the lobby—where reporters would gather. In this instance, it occurred electronically."
Granted, he's writing for Mother Jones. No one is going to expect any non biased piece to come out of this publication, no more than one would expect journalism from, say, American Thinker.
Still, it just blew my mind that he was actually justifying their actions. He appears to be saying that journalists deciding together on the best way to write about something is perfectly acceptable, natural. As though that's the way journalism is suppose to work.
Here is a link to where it all began, if you've missed this story at The Daily Caller.
This whole thing just illustrates for me how vitally important it is to do one's own research. I know it's said that knowledge is power, but what has been true for me is that knowledge is freedom, freedom from confusion, from some one else's worldview, from the pretty little story line, so lovingly presented to me by those with an agenda to promote.
