People in this country - especially the liberal left - really puzzle me.  All the news shows are abuzz with the Michael Vick story.  And it IS a gruesome and horrifying story.  People were protesting outside the courthouse, people were strident in their belief that dogfighting (as a “sport” and as a gambling activity) is disgusting, inhumane and sick.

So where are all those protestors when the Islamic terrorists torture and behead people?  Where are all those protestors when the Islamic terrorists plant an IED that explodes and kills and maims dozens or hundreds of people.  Where are their protests when innocent men, women and children - going about their daily lives and trying to make a living are killed and injured by car bombs set to go off near a market?

Dogfighting is a despicable thing to do.  No dog deserves such treatment.  But it pales in comparison to what Islamic terrorists do every single day.  So how about some perspective and some acknowledgement of what is going on in Iraq?  I doubt it will happen.  As long as people can keep their thoughts firmly planted on issues such as a football player’s involvement in dogfighting,  outrage over adolescents slapping each other’s backsides, presidential candidates participating in a fake debate, movie stars arrested for drunk driving, and drunk astronauts, they can continue to pretend that our sons and daughters aren’t really sweltering in full combat gear in 100+ temperatures in a war against evil incarnate.  That every single day they face the possibility of much worse than any of the dogs at Michael Vick’s place ever faced.

I enjoy checking my site meter and finding out the search words that people have used that brought them to The Median Sib.   Here are thirteen recent searches:

(1) Jordin Sparks - If We Hold On Together or I Who Have Nothing - I wrote about Jordin Sparks during “American Idol” and LOVED the way she sang the song “I Who Have Nothing” and “If We Hold On Together.”  So I wrote out the lyrics.    Apparently lots of people still remember Jordan singing those songs want to know the lyrics!

(2) Kristine Lefebvre - Playboy - I wrote about how Kristine Lefebvre, a contestant on “The Apprentice” would be in Playboy.  A very popular topic, I found.

(3) Re-marrying your ex -  I remarried my ex-husband last year, and I wrote about it.   I regularly get hits from people interested in the topic.

(4) Mary Winkler - It’s been over a year since I originally wrote about the Mary Winkler murder case, but I still get at least a few hits every day about it.

(5) Tomato-Mozarella Salad - Great recipe and obviously a popular one, too.

(6) Kelly Pickler Haircut- I wrote about Kelly Pickler’s appearance on “American Idol” with a new hairdo and new boobs.  Months later, a couple dozen people each day are still interested.

(7)  Quotes about siblings - I neveer realized how often people look for quotes about brothers, sisters and family. 

(8)  Cucumber and Cream Cheese Sandwich - I wrote about my  mother’s delicious Cucumber and Cream Cheese Sandwiches that she makes for bridal showers and other events.  I posted the recipe and people regularly visit TMS to get the recipe.

(9)  Dreaming of loved ones who have died - I wrote about a vivid dream I had about my father after he died.  Apparently lots of people dream about loved ones who have passed on.

(10)  Children’s sermons - I wrote about a children’s sermon I was asked to do one week.  Every Saturday since then, without fail, I get a bunch of hits from people looking for a children’s sermon.

(11) What principals look for in teachers - I read an article that had a list of qualities that principals look for in teachers.  I felt the list was a bunch of hooey, and so I wrote what I felt were the REAL qualities of good teachers. 

(12)  Fever blister treatment - I get fever blisters occasionally, and I found that Valtrex, which is a medication for genital herpes, works great to get rid of a fever blister quickly.  I regularly get hits about that topic.

(13)  DRA testing - The DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) is a reading assessment I give very often.  I’ve written about it on TMS, and people look for information on the DRA quite frequently.

Last night I gave in to all the pre-debate hype - all the talk about how THIS debate would be so unique and driven by the common people.  So I watched it.  At least for awhile.  Once you’ve heard a politician give his/her talking points, there’s no need to hear it regurgitated again and again. 

CNN screened the questions and selected a few out of hundreds submitted.  So only the questions the powers-that-be at CNN deemed worthwhile were asked.   What a waste of time.  And what a bunch of crap that the slightly varied format was something unique.

My guess is that the candidates probably had at least an idea of what the questions were prior to the “debate.”  But whether or not they did isn’t important.  Nothing new was brought out.  No new questions were asked.  Nothing of substance was learned.  It was just another re-hashing of talking points. 

The one small benefit of the debate is that it clearly showed that Barack Obama has no business whatsoever being president.  He answered that yes, he WOULD meet with the leaders of Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea and Venezuela his first year as president.  YIKES!   I hope people aren’t stupid enough to elect him.

AOL had a recap of the debates and included these quotes that had me shaking my head with incredulity:

“The greatest innovation of this debate is that we’re seeing candidates respond to real voters instead of polished TV personalities,” said Michael Silberman of the online consulting firm EchoDitto. “It’s a win for the candidates who are at their best when addressing voters. It’s a win for democracy, since average Americans outside of the early primary states now have the opportunity to ask direct questions of candidates.”

Incredible!  Not even a minimally rational person could honestly believe that last night’s debate was different in any major way than any other debate by presidential candidates.  The only difference was that people other than news reporters/journalists were the ones that asked the usual questions that enabled the candidates to give their talking points to a national audience.  The average American citizen learned nothing and gained nothing.

Listening to the candidates’ responses reinforced my belief that voting Democratic means voting against what America stands for.  It means voting for punishing people for working hard (via higher taxes - the harder you work and the more successful you are - the higher your percentage of taxes), rewarding people for not working (welfare and subsidies) and rewarding people for breaking the law (assistance to illegal immigrants).  They couch their socialist leanings in very lofty phrasing, but it is still socialism - and socialism has never been successful for any length of time.

Let’s get back to the basic American principles of rewarding and encouraging hard work and self-sufficiency, helping people rise out of poverty and bad circumstances by giving them a hand UP and not a hand-out, and having enough patriotic pride that we insist that anyone who wants to move here follow the legal channels to do so.  All are welcome - just follow the rules to get here. 

Seems simple, but there isn’t a single Democratic candidate that supports those basic tenets of American citizenship. 

And how about standing by your country’s leaders instead of doing everything in your power to bring them down?  Sure, the Dems have the right to disagree and protest and be general asses about the war in Iraq.  No matter that their words and actions result in the deaths of our soldiers or the destroying of our reputation abroad - criticize, lie and generally make it impossible for policies to succeed.   To the dems, as long as their protests put THEM in a good light (in their own minds), it’s okay.   It’s hard for me to respect anyone who believes that the policies of the Democratic party are in line with what America is all about.  It takes someone who is easily swayed by lofty sounding rhetoric.

There’s only one thing to say about last night’s debate:  ZZZZzzzzzzzzz!

A week or so ago RT was using his bulldozer to clean up some of the large rocks between our house and the barn.  When he moved one rock, he found six white eggs under it.  We looked at the eggs - they were just a tad smaller than a hen’s egg - and figured they were probably turtle eggs.  In retrospect, I don’t know how a turtle would have dug underneath an enormous rock to lay the eggs, but who knows?

So RT put some dirt in a bucket, placed the eggs in there and then put more dirt on top.   Then he set the bucket next to the barn where it wouldn’t be disturbed.  We then promptly forgot about it.

Fast forward to Saturday.  The guys doing some trimwork in the house asked me, “Why do you have a bucket of snakes by the barn?”  (Now WHY they were snooping around by the barn is another matter.)

“A bucket of snakes?  What do you mean?”

They showed me, and it dawned on me what had happened.  We had helped a half dozen snakes hatch!  They had triangular patterns on their backs - and they were aggressive!  Of course we were using a stick to move them around to try to count how many there were.  So maybe they were just irritated about being poked.

I voted for killing them all.  But RT insisted on setting them free.  When he reached for the bucket, one of the snakes sprang up - trying to strike at him.  I mean it literally sprang straight upward.  Now these are BABY snakes - maybe 10 inches long.  However, they weren’t the least bit passive about being disturbed.

Over my protests, RT took the bucket and dumped it out over to the side of the barn.  One of the snakes coiled up, and I SWEAR its tail was vibrating up in the air like a rattler.  The tail was a blur from vibrating so fast.  Of course it was too young to have any rattles, BUT it sure looked like a rattler rattling its tail.   That, plus the one who sprang up at RT convinced me that we had just released six rattlesnakes in our yard.

Now RT says anytime we find a snake on the property, I’ll blame him.   Even without the 6 baby snakes, there would still be the mama and papa snake around.  I still say he should have killed them all.  I don’t know for sure, but what if they really ARE rattlers?  The eggs were found under a rock - and that’s the type of habitat for rattlers.

I’m sorry I didn’t take a picture of the bucket of snakes before RT set them free.  But just the ideas of so many venomous snakes roaming around my new yard.  YIKES! 

Beth over at Blue Star Chronicles has a post containing an email from an American soldier responding to allegations by a  New Republic reporter about supposed crimes.  The Army officer responds to each of the allegations to show just how ridiculous they are. 

Here’s a snippet from the email Beth received:

The U.S. Army today is the most disciplined and professional Army in the history of the United States. This is the only war in our nations history where we have not instituted the draft to fill our ranks. Every man in the service today is there because he volunteered. They stood up in the face of danger, knowing we were at war, and said “I’ll go”. Most of these men are on their second deployment in support of the War on Terrorism, some are on their fourth and fifth. After five years of war with an increasing number of casualties, longer and more frequent deployments, and no end in site, these brave young men continue to volunteer their services, many of them reenlisting. No other Army in our history has been able to do that without the draft. Our military men and women today are true professionals, they are truly America’s best and bravest. While there are some bad apples and non-conformist in our ranks, we are quick to identify them and remove them from the service. The author of this story is a bad apple. He is trying to get attention by telling wild stories. He too will be identified and removed from the service.

What saddens me is that so many of the anti-war crowd will believe the allegations - no matter how absurd - because they want to.  It won’t matter what is true.  It will be one more arrow of discredit grasped from thin air to try to harm and dishearten our honorable service men and women.

For those of you who have asked about new photos of our house in progress, here are some photos from the past week.  Every single day I thank God - not only for the new house but for the experience of building it.  There have been frustrations, but, for the most part, it has been an enjoyable process.  RT is THE hardest working person I have ever known.  There isn’t another MAJOR thing to be done - other than paving the driveway all the way to the road.  That will be done after we move in.  There is still at least 2-3 weeks left of painting.  And there is still another couple days left with the landscaping.  Then the plumbing has to be finished, the carpet and tile done.  The wood floors have to be sanded and two coats of finish done.  Then all the light fixtures and appliances have to be installed.  We figure probably the first of September will be the move-in date.  Maybe.  Everything takes longer than we anticipated.

The house is progressing nicely, though, and this past week saw some major work - and also a couple of touching (to me) moments.  Here are the pics:

(1) The paving crew put up the forms for the sidewalks and driveway.

(2) Our landscaper (who happens to be our son) sketched out his plan for the landscaping.  This is one of the touching photographs - because it is our son.  He owns his own landscaping company and is doing so well with it.  This past week he had ten of his employees here working on our yard.  I loved watching him design our landscaping and then implement that design.

(3) Here’s the same general area as the above photos - just three days later.  There is a crepe myrtle, a white dogwood, a tall holly and lot of lilies and daisies.  All the colors and shades of green are perfect.   The sod will be installed later.

(4) Here’s the back yard and porch.  Since it is shaded most of the day, there are azaleas in the foreground along the sidewalk, more lilies - and a green Japanese dwarf maple.  He didn’t plant a red Japanese maple because he felt it would be lost against the red brick.  Smart landscaper!

(5) One of the workers called RT to look at a place near the barn where a volunteer tomato plant was growing.  The plant was large with several blooms already on it.  No telling where it came from.  Maybe from a tomato from a sandwich that someone threw out long ago?  The worker put rocks around the plant to protect it.

(6)  This was the paving crew in the middle of paving the driveway.  Truck after truck of cement came up the long driveway and delivered its load of cement and the guys worked so hard spreading it, making sure the grade was right so water would drain correctly off the cement, and then smoothing it out.  It was fascinating to watch.  We only paved to about where the truck is parked in the picture.  The driveway is about 1/3 mile long.  So we will probably blacktop the rest of it - after the house is built.

(7) Here are our kitchen cabinets - not finished yet.  They’re waiting for some of the materials to come in.  The wood is cherry - like the floors, but darker.

(8)  This is the fireplace that RT built in the great room.  Since this picture was taken the other day, the painters have put the primer coat on the walls.  So it already looks different than this picture.

(9) This next photo is looking from the backyard towards the barn.  Our landscaper is standing in the background, watering a tree.  You have to look VERY closely to see him.  The little tree in the right foreground is a pink dogwood, and the bushes planted at the end of the parking area are forsythia - one of my favorite flowers!

For the week of July 8 - 14

This past week has been a big one is many ways in terms of the building of our new house - and in other areas, too.  Here are seven important events from last week:

(1) July 12th was RT’s 60th birthday. We celebrated with a dinner at our house for our two children, their spouses, and the two grandgirls.  We had a wonderful time together.   Sweet Stuff wrote a card for RT, and during dinner Sunshine got up and walked over to RT and just hugged him.  No prompting - just a spontaneous show of affection.

(2) The cabinets are almost finished in the house - may very well be finished before today (Saturday) is over.

(3)  I THINK we have finally found a satisfactory painter for our house - which means that our move-in date is getting closer.

(4) The flooring folks completely finished the hardwood floors two days ago.  RT and I have tentatively picked out the carpeting and tile for the rooms that won’t have hardwood floors.

(5) The paving company framed out the patio, sidewalks, parking area and driveway this past week.  They will pour the concrete on the patio and sidewalks on Monday.

(6) The landscaping will be done next week.  Once the landscaping is done, the driveway will be poured.  Our son’s landscaping company will do the landscaping - and he has some great plans for our yard.

(7) On Tuesday I went to my new school with Sweet Stuff to give her a reading assessment so a new teacher could learn how to do the assessment.  Afterwards Sweet Stuff and I had lunch together.  It was so much fun.  Then on Wednesday I had lunch with Sunshine.

All in all - it was a very good week.

I thought it was funny.  I saw this in my high school newsletter - sent in by one of my former classmates - A.S.    

To celebrate the 100th edition of the Thursday Thirteen meme - and my personal 67th edition - I am linking to my favorite Thursday Thirteens from THE MEDIAN SIB

1.  My 13 favorite hymns

2.  Thirteen things about summer that should be against the law

3.  Thirteen reason why I hate moving

4.  My thirteen favorite Bible verses

5.  Thirteen of my favorite photos

6.  Thirteen of my favorite quotes about reading

7.  Thirteen reasons I’m glad I remarried RT

8.  Thirteen reasons I love the USA

9.  Thirteen reasons I hate poison ivy

10.  Thirteen quotes from American history

11.  Thirteen things I’d like to write in the sand and a quotation for each

12.  My thirteen favorite education-related posts

13.  Thirteen words to make you sound smarter