I never thought I would describe myself as Liberal......

I believe that women have the right to make their own choices regarding their bodies, health, and welfare. It's between a woman, her doctor, and her spouse or significant other, period.

I believe that everyone, regardless of race or gender, has the right to live their own lives and be happy. If two consenting adults want to marry, absolutely no one has the right to deny that. Just because you might not agree with it doesn't make it wrong.

I believe that everyone is valuable. I don't care what your occupation is, what your ethnicity is, what religion you follow, or where you live.

I believe that diplomacy trumps force. We absolutely should be trying to talk out differences of opinion before ever considering military action.

I believe in the Affordable Care Act. I have said many, many times that it's not perfect. But it's a good start. And with over 7 million people having signed up, it is absolutely working.

I believe in equal pay for equal work.

I unequivocally believe in the separation of church and state. Our judges and lawmakers put their hand on a bible and swear to uphold the Constitution, not the other way around.

I believe we should be doing everything we can to help those less fortunate, not persecuting them.

I believe that your religion should be between you, your family, your clergyman, and your God. If you feel the need to use your religion to hurt others you're using it wrong.

I believe that education in this country should be our NUMBER ONE priority.

I believe in practicing random acts of kindness.

I believe in common sense gun laws. Should you be able to "open carry" in a bar, a school, or a shopping mall? Absolutely not! Do I think anyone needs to own an AK47? Again, absolutely not. This idea that the second amendment gives you the freedom to own an arsenal is absurd.

I believe in working hard in order to improve your life. I do think there are those that need assistance at times, and most of them are hard working people who want to better their lives. I also know that there are many people who take advantage of the system and stay on welfare, having more kids, without any thought to working their way out of their situation. I don't know what the solution is, but I certainly don't think that cutting welfare benefits and ending unemployment benefits is it.

I believe that all drugs should be decriminalized and addictions should be treated as diseases. Before you get your knickers in a twist, look up the data on that and see what happens when other countries do it.

I believe that there is a large "good-ole boy" network working furiously to prevent any and all changes from happening in this country. These old white men are out of touch with reality and with the voters.

I believe that lobbying should be completely outlawed. There should be no lobbyists in Washington at all. Legislation should be made based on the will of the people, not based on money from corporations.

I believe that every single Congressman should have to hold a "town meeting" of sorts in their districts once a month. Anyone who has a question or comment should be heard.

I absolutely believe in supporting our military. Whether it's our troops overseas or those who have come home, we owe our respect and gratitude to each and every one of them. The idea that any military veteran goes without food, medical necessities, or much less a home is appalling.

I believe in working to make sure my two daughters have the freedom and the opportunity to be whomever they want to be. This includes making sure they have access to appropriate health care, they have the opportunity to attend college, and that their worth is NOT defined by their gender.

I believe that we have a responsibility to ourselves and the generations that come after us to take care of our planet. At what point do we decide to use common sense? Solar power and wind power come from infinite resources, not so much with fossil fuels. The first thing I would do if I were president would be to install solar panels on the White House.

I believe that the office of the President of the United States deserves respect. You might not agree with his policies, you might not even like him (which is funny, because I'll bet you've never met him in person). But this constant barrage of disparaging remarks, disrespectful memes, flat out lies, and smears upon his character is just embarrassing. The rest of the world is watching, people.

I believe that the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" applies to EVERYONE, not just a select few.

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If all of this makes me a liberal, so be it. I can live with that.

Mommas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Idiots

With all of the political, social, and general turmoil going on lately, it seems like the crazies are coming out of the woodwork. Seriously. 

First, you have the Republican party. I mean COME ON. I am not a hard line liberal, there are many things I agree with that would be considered conservative, and there are many things I agree with that would be considered liberal. I consider myself independent. But it really seems like every time a republican opens their mouth lately some moronic comment is said that just makes more and more people run for the hills. You have this Rep. Jodi Lautenberg (R-TX). Holy hell this woman is a joke. First of all, to look at her you wonder if she’s real or just a prop from Madame Tussaud’s. Then you hear her speak, and you wish she wasn’t real. She argued against prenatal care for women because, well, “they’re not born yet.” She said that rape kits could cause abortions in women. I’m sure she has said many other stupid things, but it hurts my head too much to read much of it. She was also a key author in this last Texas legislation restricting women’s rights. I want to punch her in her plastic face. She's not the only one that has made such ridiculous comments, but most of the others have come from men, and, well......they're men. She should bloody well know better. But alas, she's an idiot. No doubt raised by a God-fearing woman who cringed at the sight of her husband, acquiesced to his every demand, believed every single thing the Bible said (even though it contradicts itself throughout), and believed the only reason for sex was to create a baby. 

You have people like Ted Cruz (R-TX), another one from Texas - good grief - who said after Obama’s comments about Trayvon Martin, that Obama “just wants to take your guns.” I’m sorry, but, HUH?? Mr. Cruz admitted he hadn’t even heard the speech. But he took the opportunity to use those same old scare tactics all those good old boys like to use, and I am sure he got a big pat on the back from the NRA at some point, also. I am so SICK of this he said/she said crap going on in our government. There is so much back biting and mud slinging, it’s embarrassing. You want Obama to stop “apologizing” for America? Stop making him have to. Mr. Cruz, you are a narrow-minded hypocrite who talks and talks about liberty for all, and yet you just helped to further restrict the rights of women in Texas with this latest bill. You are male, and until you can become pregnant and find your life in danger due to that pregnancy, or you become pregnant by rape or molestation.....oh, WAIT! That can never happen! Idiot. Here is a fantastic article for you to read....

The Neverending Wisdom of Ted Cruz

I’ve got news for you, people. The government does NOT want to take your guns. The government does NOT want to strip the 2nd amendment from the Constitution. Stop the ridiculous paranoia. What reasonable people want is restrictions on gun ownership.....let’s not put military assault rifles in the hands of the mentally ill, mmmm-kay? And I don’t care how much you like them, no one needs to own a machine gun. You’re gonna hunt with it my ass.......unless you plan on obliterating whatever it is you’re hunting, you don’t need a fucking machine gun to hunt. I love the argument that the founding fathers gave us the right to bear arms. The founding fathers could never have imagined the level of weaponry available today. And their main reason for including such an amendment was so the citizens could protect their homes from invading soldiers and native americans. It seriously cracks me up that the most vociferous about keeping their guns also tend to be the most holier than thou. Please, someone show me where it says in the Bible that you have the right to own a gun. Stop being idiots. 

Moving away from politics, because we could be there all day, I’m gonna go after the moms at the playground. You know the ones, the moms who ignore their kids, the moms who sit and chat while sipping their grande lattes, all the while completely oblivious to the fact that their precious little cherubs are causing havoc on the monkey bars. These are the kids who grow up to be bullies, “mean girls”, and spoiled brats. The moms are convinced that their kids can do no wrong, but they never observe enough to see whether that’s true or not, and they’ll be the first ones to step up and tell their little offspring how amazingly perfect they are......that they can do no wrong, everything is everyone else’s fault, and so on and so on. They get in trouble at school? It must be the teacher. They get in trouble in sports? It must be the coach. They get in trouble at a friend's house? It must be the friend. In essence, they’re creating little monsters for the rest of us to deal with. Little monsters that grow up into big, pain in the ass adults who have no idea how to navigate socially. You didn’t think these people were born that way, did you? Children learn by what they see and hear every day. 

Which brings me to bigotry and racism. I just don’t get it. Growing up, my parents were divorced when I was very young and my mother remarried a man who was very bigoted, and he brought out that very ugly side of her that I hadn’t really seen before. My best friend in sixth grade was black, but she was never allowed at my house, we couldn’t have sleepovers, and it was all just kind of brushed under the rug as to why. I actually called both of them racists at one point. I never really forgave my mother for that. But by that point I had grown up quite a bit due to the divorce, and I knew what was right and what was wrong. 

What IS wrong is judging a person by the color of their skin. Black, white, asian, hispanic, or anything else, I don’t care. As long as you are nice to me I will be nice to you. Even if you’re wearing a hoodie. But open your mouth and start spouting some punk ass nonsense? Yep, I’m done. I don’t stereotype and I don’t make blanket statements about groups of people. I do get really frustrated with people who continually use events that happened over a hundred years ago to justify their struggles now. No, I do not know what it’s like to be judged by my race. I’m pretty white bread. But I also know that there are many people, of many different backgrounds, who have worked hard to pull themselves out of their situations and make their lives better. They didn’t sit around and complain, they DID something. I don’t think anyone would say it was easy. And it makes me ill that there are people out there like that Ann Coulter bitch (that’s just stupidity walkin’ right there, her momma must be so proud....). But my husband and I teach our girls at every opportunity that what a person looks like doesn’t matter one bit.....we are nice to people unless they give us a reason not to be. I’ve had people close to me try to argue that Obama should be impeached (give me one specific reason why), that he has disrespected his office (again, specifics), and so on. I know for a fact that the biggest problem these people have with him is that he is black. That is just insanity. 

This is a capitalist country, not a communistic or socialist one. That means that you work for what you want and you don’t sit around waiting for someone to hand you a million dollars. Publisher’s Clearing House is not going to come knocking on your door, I am pretty sure. I have the utmost respect for people who have worked their way to success, and especially for those who hit rock bottom and climbed back up, fighting all the way. I do not tolerate people who abuse the system, collecting their welfare checks while popping out more and more kids, and yet they seem to have brand new tattoos and cell phones every week. I have a problem with that. THOSE are the idiots. And they were more than likely raised by parents who did the exact same thing. People who sit around complaining about how others have more than they do, how it’s not fair, how it’s all Obama’s fault. Or Bush’s fault. Someone else’s fault, anyone’s fault except their own. Because it can’t be their responsibility that they are in the situation they are in, right? Idiots. Everyone has choices. Your situation is a direct result of choices you make. Now.....don’t go all apeshit on me. I am NOT talking about people who are in dire straits due to unfortunate circumstances......people who were laid off because the company closed, people who were injured and legitimately cannot work, people who have genuine reasons that have caused their situations. So get off your high horses. 

Ahhh, bigotry......such a vile word and such a hateful thing. I am very much for equal rights for everyone. Don’t agree? Get OVER IT! No one cares whether or not you agree, but you don’t have the right to tell other people how to live. I cannot understand people who think they have to right to judge how other people live their lives. If someone is happy, why does that make you angry? And furthermore, why in the hell do you care? Again, we have the bible thumpers screaming and hollering that it’s wrong, it’s against the Bible, blah blah blah. It's against  your religion? Who fucking cares? I’m sorry, but at what point did the Bible become the law of the land? This country was NOT founded on Christianity, contrary to what a lot of so-called Christians would have you believe. It was founded in part on the freedom of religion, which includes the freedom NOT to believe. This country is a melting pot......there are people here of all backgrounds, religions, beliefs, and cultures. The Christian “Right” are losing their ever-loving minds. 

Children are not born to hate, to be intolerant, to be bigots, to be hateful. Children learn racism from racist parents. Children learn bigotry from parents who are bigots. Children learn intolerance, hatred, fear, absolutism, nonchalance, and disregard for the feelings of others from parents who exhibit the same traits. Children repeat things they hear at home and they do it at school, at parties, at friend’s houses. And I guarantee you the adults in attendance know where it came from. 

Teach your children to appreciate the differences in each other and in the people around them. Teach them to be courteous. Teach them to accept people for who they are. Teach them that it’s ok to walk away from someone if that person is hateful, rude, intolerant, or bigoted....even if it’s a friend. Teach them to ask questions. Teach them that how other people live their lives is not their business, and it doesn’t affect them. Teach them to love. Teach all of this by doing it yourself. Every day. Teach them to stand up for what they believe in, but to do it with dignity, and that it’s not ok to degrade, humiliate, or insult others simply because their opinions differ.  

In other words, don’t let them grow up to be idiots. 

(Oh, and manners, PLEASE teach them manners.)

Got Religion? Great. Get It Out of My Face.

Greg Epstein is the humanist chaplain at Harvard University and the author of the New York Times bestseller “Good Without God.” In the introduction, he wrote: “This is not a book about whether one can be good without God, because that question does not need to be answered -- it needs to be rejected outright. To suggest that one can’t be good without belief in God is not just an opinion, a mere curious musing -- it is a prejudice.”

It's also complete crap.

I often say that people I have known that claim to be the most Christian -- "I go to church every Sunday, I've read the bible five times, I lead the prayer group, blah blah blah" -- are usually the least Christian in their actions. It's the ultimate in hypocrisy. These are the same people who are quick to quote the bible to prove their point, but they really dislike it when you either point out how they're using the scripture wrong or how they are completely misunderstanding it. These people will stab you in the back in a New York minute, they'll gossip about anyone and everyone whenever they get the chance, they're rude to customer service workers whenever anything doesn't go their way, you get the point. But try to argue your opinion, and they're the first to say, "But the bible says!!!"

I don't dislike religion. What I dislike is people who think that what they believe is what everyone around them should believe. Or in reality, what the whole world should believe. Take those who do missionary work, for example. If you're going to impoverished countries to actually help people, I think that is beyond commendable and I actually wish I had the opportunity to do that also. But if you're going there because you think that these impoverished people would be so much better off if they subscribed to your beliefs, that's just a kind of hubris I can't even wrap my head around. What's wrong with what they believe? Why is what you believe right, or so much better? What if THEY'RE right and you're wrong? 

Let's go back to the "civilization" of America. Funny term, that. We teach in history class that the first colonists were the ones to start civilizing the country. In my opinion, the country was already more civilized by the natives that were already here. You had people who respected the land, using only what was needed, took care of their own, established rules and governments within their own tribes and made treaties with other tribes, and established their own languages and means of communication. Yes, they fought with other tribes. They fought for land, they fought for supplies, they fought for many reasons. How, I ask, is that any different than any other civilization since time began?

And yet they were savages who needed to be taught.

So what did we bring them? The word of God. The bible. How to worship a book instead of the earth and everything she provided. And what else? Disease. Alcohol. And guns. Let's not forget the guns. Then we told them they couldn't stay on this land they had held for how many hundreds of years because we wanted it. So we made them move. But still told them God was good and would take care of them. Trail of Tears, anyone?

Then we have Catholicism. What a complete joke. That religion is so steeped in violence, murder, corruption and greed that I am absolutely amazed that anyone actually takes it seriously. The Pope is flawless and never has an impure thought? Seriously? He's MALE. I call complete BULLSHIT. And don't even get me started on the whole "priests raping little boys" scandal. That just makes me sick. So they're ok with covering that up, moving those priests around to keep it quiet.......but birth control is a sin, fertility assistance goes against the word of God, homosexuality is an abomination, and so on and so on. I've got news for you, Catholics....homosexuality has been observed in almost every animal species. You know what has never been observed in anything but humans? CELIBACY. Oh and then there's the problem I have with Catholicism and the ten commandments.....you know the one that says, "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me"?  Then there's the one that says you cannot create any image or any likeness of any heavenly being or object. Those would be the FIRST TWO commandments. Now, walk into any Catholic church. And there ya go. Absolute hypocrisy.

So now you have people arguing against abortion, even though Roe vs. Wade was passed almost forty years ago, and they're trying to use the bible to stand behind. You have people arguing against equal rights for homosexuals, trying to use the bible to stand behind. You have people arguing that the government (the GOVERNMENT) should be following the bible, using prayer in Congress, and so on. What in the hell is going on in this country? 

I love the people who try to argue that this country was founded on Christianity. Um, no it wasn't and some of you people seriously need to read up on your history. The Treaty of Tripoli, ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1797, states that "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." Furthermore, Article Six of the Constitution reads "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any 
office or public trust under the United States." In other words, a person does not have to 
subscribe to any particular religious faith in order to serve as President, as a member of 
Congress, as a federal judge, or in any other government position. The First Amendment 
prohibits the government from banning any religion, and also prohibits the government from 
setting up any religion as the nation's official faith, no matter what the zealots would like to 
have happen.


Oh, Westboro Baptist Church. What ammunition you provide. If ever there was an entity that 
claims to be doing the work of God and is, in actuality, doing the COMPLETE OPPOSITE, it 
would be you. You people are so ridiculously misled and brainwashed it's amazing any of 
you can go take a pee on your own. Oh wait, maybe you all do that together, too. Mr. Phelps, 
you are evil walking, and you can tell yourself whatever you want to help yourself sleep at 
night, but the ONLY people who think you have any sense in that peabrain of yours are the 
ones drinking your KoolAid on a daily basis. Freak.

I don't claim to be an atheist. I don't claim to be agnostic. I was raised and baptized Episcopalian, but then church became more of a social scene once I was in middle and high school. We'd go to church with my grandparents, sometimes this Baptist church, sometimes that one, sometimes a Methodist church. I guess the feeling was, as Dolly Parton said in "Steel Magnolias", that "God didn't care which church you went to as long as you showed up." 

I also don't claim to be religious. I believe in science, I believe in facts, and I sure as hell don't believe that the bible: a book written by men, a book that contradicts itself over and over, a book made of up stories passed down by how many generations with embellishments and additions made by how many people.....I just cannot believe that this is a book I am supposed to base my entire life around. 

Now here's where I will concede a few points. I do not argue that there are good points and morals in the bible that we should all strive to follow. I mean really, there's the Golden Rule, which SOOOO many people seem to have conveniently forgotten: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." Too bad more "Christians" don't follow that one.

My husband and I are kind, generous people. We teach our children to be kind and respectful, and we do not judge people by anything but by their deeds. We have the same struggles as everyone else. We give to charities, we volunteer our time in our community, we take care of our responsibilities and we don't expect anything from anyone. We open doors for people, we say please and thank you, we teach our children correct table manners and to be respectful of adults. We do our best to recycle and do what we can to help reduce our carbon footprint. I work in the garden, I teach my girls how to help me with that, and hopefully in the spring we're going to start a vegetable garden. We help when help is warranted, but we certainly balk at helping people who just want something for nothing. My husband and I love each other deeply, we are celebrating our tenth anniversary this year, we have a lot of fun together, and we make sure our children see us show affection toward each other just as much as we show affection towards them. There's not a day in this house that every single person isn't told how much they are loved. Again, we have the same struggles, the same frustrations, the same child-rearing woes as everyone else. We yell, we get angry. We also make up, laugh, giggle, cry and hug each other. 

Yep, we're total heathens.