Life's Little Pleasures

I have been so busy with the holidays, with birthdays, with all the excitement surrounding the inauguration, which was such an amazing piece of history to be a part of. I wanted to be there so badly. Plus, I have been mosying around on Facebook, and I've been neglecting my blog. Thanksgiving and Christmas were a blur. Over the years, I have really begun to resent the way that holidays are so commercialized that there is an intense pressure to meet expectations. People just go so over the top anymore, and it is not an enjoyable experience. So this year I decided to make gift baskets for all of my family outside of my husband and kids. It was actually nice. John and I baked breads and made homemade peanut brittle. I found a wonderful recipe and learned how to make jalapeno peanut brittle, too. It turned out wonderful! We bought small candles and olive oil and little things to fill the baskets and managed to get them all shipped out in time.

So, I'm back to blogging, and hopefully I'll be better about posting. I do have this to say.... I am very, very thankful for Obama to finally be in office. The man is on task, and I'm excited to see what he's going to do. Nothing can happen overnight, I realize, and I also realize that it will take more than just him to get these things done, so I'm ready to start helping where I can. Let's see what we can do!!!

Ok, so last week when Sen. McCain announced his running-mate, Sarah Palin, my immediate response was, "Never heard of her, but probably shrewd to choose a woman." Then I got to looking into Sarah Palin's background. You know, what is this woman about? What I discovered about Gov. Palin was really quite concerning. John McCain chose a woman who could feasibly end up in the position of President, and he seemed to have chosen her simply to try to lure Hillary supporters and men who like a pretty face with a total disregard for our best interest. Please! This was his attempt to win the votes of American women and the working class? We are smarter than that, aren't we??? What I was discovering, I was not liking much. She had a history of getting rid of anyone that didn't agree with her. I discovered that she is somewhat of a religious zealot, she is hardcare anti-choice, she has been almost a lifelong member of the NRA, she cares only solely about "drill, baby, drill"-ing throughout Alaska including the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. She has made many misleading claims including her statement about telling the federal goverment "Thanks, but no thanks to that Bridge to Nowhere". In reality, she supported that 'Bridge to Nowhere', took federal earmarks (oh, which she also claims to be highly against) to fund, and THEN said "Thanks, but no thanks to that Bridge to Nowhere" but kept the federal funds! She claimed to stand up to lobbyists and the oil companies, but there seems to be some very questionable behavior here, as well.

I did listen to Palin's speech, though, during the Republican Convention. Well, if I had my doubts before, her speech just made me more certain of my choice to support Obama. I found her speech to be sarcastic, condescending and, frankly, snarky. She seemed anything but genuine. I was put off, to say the least. To be fair, I have very democratic ideals, and I would probably never would have supported McCain, but it is offensive to me that anyone would think that we are so shallow that we would be swayed by this pathetic attempt. Apparently, even Republican strategists think Palin was a mistake, according to their "off the air" statements. Oops!

As far as the pregnant daughter goes... do I care that Bristol is pregnant? No, I don't. I DO care that Palin's political views regarding family values and sexual morality are very conservative, and she is an advocate against sex education in school and for teaching abstinence. Well, that apparently isn't working, right? I care that she is whining about people talking about her pregnant daughter! She is the one who chose to throw her into the limelight!! What did she expect??? What kind of mother does that, really?? I am career-oriented, but it is hard enough to be pregnant and unmarried at 17 and just have the people in your hometown know about it, but the whole world? And have it plastered all over every TV station, every blog, every magazine? In my opinion, that shows bad judgement.

I think the scariest thing about this woman is that she is a religious zealot who believes we should be teaching creationism in schools, and I believe that we need to move church and state so far from one another that they may never meet again.

The things that are important to me are the economy, the environment, the need for us to move towards alternative energy sources, revamping our country's healthcare system, preserving a woman's right to choose and cleaning up the politics as usual in Washington, and I honestly believe Obama has more of a chance of accomplishing these goals, or at least moving forward in that direction. I know with another Republican in office, we will have nothing but a bigger mess to clean up!!

I may be a little keyed up about this whole thing, so you may hear more on the subject of Election 2008 from me before it's all said and done, and if McCain wins, I'm seriously considering a move to Canada! Afterall, I did fall in love with Vancouver!

I would like to say to any Hillary Clinton supporters who may stumble across this blog... Please, please do not be fooled by this ridiculous ploy to get votes by the Repubs. It was never about Hillary being a woman. It was about Hillary's stance on the issues! Do some research. Find out what she is about, because it was never about putting a woman into office. The fact that Hillary Clinton is a woman was just icing on the cake for us!