Don’t ban it, burn it!

 

I tend to read, a lot! Like a crazy amount. So, today being Saturday and I feel horrible with a cold/flu death thing, my sister and I went to the local library here in Utica, NY.

The first thing I noticed when we entered the main floor of the library was a sign on the bulletin board regarding a forum. This forum is called Can a Book Go to Far? American Psycho: A literary classic or offensive trash?

I had a look at the poster and the display set up inside the library and I signed up receiving my free copy of this book to be sure I have read it before the forum. Here however is where my sanity starts to behave at least a little like the main character of the aforementioned book. In my head I am losing my mind.

I was brought up loving books, I could read before I started kindergarten. I knew the real story of Alice in Wonderland with all it’s satire and symbolism and knew what those words meant before ever leaving elementary school. I was reading at a college level in junior high and by the time I graduated from high school I had read so many classics by choice I easily passed my college lit classes without cracking a book. Books have been my best friends, my worst enemies and a place to escape anytime I wanted to be alone.

So when I saw this the first thing I thought was, have we gone back in time to the 1940’s when we saw communists around every corner and people were burning books in the town parks? I don’t even have to read this book, I haven’t even seen the movie based on the book. I still will be the first one to tell you banning books is ridiculous.  I won’t at least at this point go on and on about how it’s wrong for all books etc , let’s stick with the book the forum is about. American Psycho.

I have not at this point read this book, however that is beside the point. Let’s start with some quotes from those who feel the book is inappropriate

“American Psycho is the most misogynistic communication we have ever come across, the book is, in effect, a how-to on the torture and dismemberment of women” Tammy Bruce, L.A. coordinator of the National Organization for Women

“A contemptible piece of pornography…repulsive, a bloodbath serving no purpose save that of morbidity, titillation and sensation; American Psycho is a loathsome book…pure trash, as scummy and mean as anything it depicts, a dirty book by a dirty writer".” Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

This is just two of the horrible things a few people think about this book. While they are indeed entitled to their opinions this does not justify banning a book. I am so tired of everyone being so afraid of what their kids will read, watch on tv, play on video games that they want to ban things, or censor them beyond recognition including the classic Huckleberry Finn. Changing a book simply because you don’t like a word in it is insane. If people would teach their precious little snowflakes (delicate one of a kind) children what’s real, what’s appropriate and respect for EVERY human then this wouldn’t be an issue.

Books are there to entertain. They are written with an idea in mind, they may not be what you want them to be but that’s when you don’t crack open the spine and have a look. Keep your nose out of what the rest of us read. Banning American Psycho for being “repulsive” or claiming it’s a “how-to” is so far fetched it’s scary. If that’s the case we need to ban the Cat in the Hat because it teaches kids it’s ok to break the rules and do what you want as long as no one finds out about it. Or that Alice in Wonderland teaches kids to eat and drink random items simply because they say to.

Why stop at American Psycho? A Tale of Two Cities teaches the readers how to go about framing people so that they go to prison , The Red Badge of Courage because there are graphic depictions of war, this list could go on and on. What kind of “Free” country do we live in where banning books, changing words in books and even the discussion of these things is ok?

We should all be able to think for ourselves, and we should be teaching our children to think for themselves. Teach them that a book is just that, it’s educational tool, teaching what’s behind the words not the words themselves,  you take from it what you can and move on but it’s not a how to on anything and never is or was, except of course for a How-To book =S

 

Just who do you think you are?!?!?!?!?

Several weeks ago my sister and I were heading to Walmart for a few items we needed, like food and what not.
My Nephew "Ick" likes to walk between us while we swing him, much like just about every normal toddler who remotely likes to have fun (seriously I have never known one that didn't like to be lifted up and swung while you walk.)
So, there we were walking through the parking lot when some random walmart employee on break starts yelling like a Yankees fan at a Sox game "Hey, HEY, STOP THAT, THAT'S NOT GOOD FOR DA BABY. HEEEEYYYY STOP THAT"
At that point I wondered what the hell the woman's problem was until I listened to her scream at us again.
First of all....lady, you're at work, your job description says NOTHING about telling customers(strangers) how to raise their kids. While I can appreciate someone butting in when someone is abusing their child (again, we should all get involved) but umm yeah, this was a child having fun, begging us to do it and we were tightly holding his hand, he was clearly NOT in any danger and it was quite frankly who the hell does she think she is? I mean come on, let's get real here!
People ATTENTION!!!! MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS if it's not your child and there is no threat to the child and no abuse keep your ever loving mouth shut. That seems to be some problem the people from my generation have picked up along the way. As the song says "she's got enough of her own business why she got to be minding mine" While it takes a village we all can do without that village's idiot thank you very much!
This includes the idiot father who decided that because my sister was hold Ick while he stood on the trunk of the car that my nephew would be dead before he was 5 because his Mother clearly didn't know how to take care of him and matter-of-factly shared this nugget of knowledge with his 5-6 year old. Stop teaching your kids to be judgmental bastards and learn to keep your uninformed opinion to your self while you worry about how you're raising your own child.

Down With the Entertainment Industry!!

I am currently watching 20/20 on Hulu http://www.hulu.com/watch/225240/abc-2020-fri-mar-18-2011

This episode claims that real life murderers were inspired by the Showtime TV show Dexter which is about a serial killer if you don’t know it. The intro voice over says “Did a tv show Dexter inspire a real life copycat?”

At what point have we as a society stopped taking responsibility for our own actions? Did our parents raise us to be this way? Well, to be honest mine sure didn’t. So who are these parents who have raised this most recent generation to think that we are NEVER at fault for our own behavior.

Steal a car? Blame it on the video game Grand Theft Auto. Kill a guy it’s the writers and the network who airs the show.

We have lost our damned minds in this country! At some point we have all but blown off what it means to be human. We can’t think for ourselves, we can’t make our own choices and we can’t live with the consequences of those actions. To be perfectly honest, if you can’t do these things then maybe you should seek some help with a therapist.

Regardless of what you have been told as kids…Newton’s Law of Motion works with EVERYTHING! For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. There will always be choices and consequences in life it’s up to you to make the choice that’s right for you and then you need to be “man enough” to accept the outcome of those choices.

If you steal a car…that’s just you stealing a car, no one REALLY believes you did it because you play a video game. If you can’t control your child from eating a happy meal, that’s YOUR fault for not saying NO. I don’t want or need someone to control everything in my life, I LIKE having free will, but sadly at the rate we are going with blaming everyone but ourselves, and/or those who are responsible for their actions (yes even a teen is responsible for his own actions when he chooses to MURDER someone) I can assure you there will come a day where America is no different than China or any other communist country and it will be our own undoing because we can’t accept that the choices we make affect ourselves and those around us, or just don’t care. We are already well on our way to this outcome when we have allowed the government to tax refined sugars so we won’t eat them, tax cigarettes so we wont’ smoke them and create laws so we don’t have to look at things we think are offensive when it’s simple decoration.

Much like my other posts….MAN THE HELL UP. Take responsibility for yourself, and how you’ve raised your kids and stop blaming everyone but the person who’s made those choices!

It was 7 years ago on Feb 4

 

 

David and I met on a mobile chat site believe it or not, the name of the site was Upoc, and I couldn’t tell you what that means.

David says he loved me before we met but the night we met he knew there was no doubt. For myself? I wasn’t so sure, I doubted myself, I had been married before and that turned out to be a disaster but I kind of expected that when the first thing I thought after signing the marriage license was “OMG what have I done” I was pretty sure that wasn’t normal.

I have family who claim they knew I loved David even before I did. I refused to believe I was in love, it hadn’t been more than a year since I was left with no money and no home because my ex had pretty much disappeared.

The point of all this is just to give you all a little background for the whole point of this blog.

David and I have now been together for 7years, since Feb 2004. We argue and sometimes what seems like too often. We have money problems at times. I get upset, I get angry and sometimes I think that maybe we just aren’t meant to be together. I assume this is normal thinking since in the end I don’t really want to go anywhere and I even know that when I say it, but geez sometimes I feel at my wits end!

In my heart I know there is no doubt that I love David. When he’s away working my heart stays nearly broken until he comes home. No one has ever cared for me as much as he does, at least not since my Mother died in 1992.

Several times members of my family have urged me to leave him, claiming he isn’t stable because his job isn’t a 365 day a year kind of job and we have to save up for when he will inevitably be laid off and if some emergency comes up, like a broken washer and a car that needs several repairs all just before lay off so our money is gone and we can barely get by or can’t at all this is somehow his fault. I can at least say he has a job, he’s not a flake or a loser who sits around and expects someone to take care of him, the layoffs etc are not his choice and I will not demand that he leave the Union when it’s what helps him find jobs, get better pay and have a retirement.Frankly when it comes down to it, David loves me, he adores me, he would give me his last penny if I needed it. He takes care of me emotionally, he loves me beyond any doubt, this I never have doubted and to be honest, as important as money is I think love is more important. I wouldn’t want to be as rich as Bill Gates if it meant not having David in my life.

In my opinion, if anyone tells you that the only reason you shouldn’t be with someone is because they don’t make enough money, then that person needs to re-examine their life. How lonely would we all be if the only reason you were in a relationship with someone was for money? No, I am not rich and yes sometimes I have to do without but I am more rich in love than most people will ever dream of having.

Funny enough, at least one of those who likes to say these things…should take her own advice if that’s the only reason not to be with/married to someone. If what you have material wise is more important than your family(and David IS family to me and isn’t any different than your husband) then maybe it’s time that you yourself packed up and moved back home.  A marriage license doesn’t make someone family anymore than not having one. In this humble bloggers opinion you have enough of your own business why are you minding mine? You (the general you) need take care of your own family and your own family issues before you start telling me or anyone else how to live their lives.

Bullying, it's changed alot.

When I was little we had bullies, and yes I am also guilty of doing some bullying and I am not proud of it but let's be honest, bullies today aren't like when we were kids.
Any one who is telling their kids that bullies are a normal part of growing up and to deal with it has obviously never read some of the more recent news stories. While these are extreme cases bullies now seem to do more running in packs. It's a lot harder to fend off several bullies than just one. When a girl harasses your child to the point of suicide that's not a bully, that's a bitch and someone needs to be standing up for the other kids in that school. If you hear about it bullying at your kid's school is to this extreme or even more than just calling someone a few names, even if it's not YOUR child being put in that situation you should be contacting SOMEONE, you should be teaching your children to "stand up for the little guy" As much as I don't want to quote Hillary Clinton, it takes a village, it IS your place to protect the young and the vulnerable, would you stand by while the neighbor kids tied firecrackers to a dogs tail, "tagged" the fence of the little old lady down the street? Then why would you allow the extreme version of bullying going on in our schools today to continue just because "it's not MY kid" Much like my last post....MAN UP and BE a parent, and be someone your kids can look up to. It's ALWAYS right to do the right thing!

Parent Arrested for leaving their Kid in the car

From the Facebook page of the Utica Police Dept.

"

City of Utica, NY Police Department

On March 10, 2011 at about 2:51 p.m., Utica Police Officer Nicole LaSalle-Strife would received a call to respond at 1100 Mohawk Street to check the welfare of two small children left inside a motor vehicle, without any adult supervision.

Officer LaSalle-Strife would later arrest Michelle Feliciano (age 28, of Utica), the mother of th...e children and charge her with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child (class "A" misdemeamors), and resisting arrest.

The children were turned over to a relative and a referral was made to child protective services."


Ok, here's the thing, first of all it looks like she's been crying (I would venture a guess that the "resisting arrest, was her trying to explain what was going on), second of all they don't even say where she was (I googled it, it's the freaking BANK!) How old the kids are, or how long her kids were in the car, and granted it could have been hours but in the city of Utica? Unless it's a bar I highly doubt it!

Here's my take on this: Who cares? Unless you are leaving your kid in the car to hang out at a casino, drink in a bar etc what exactly is the issue? Since it's really cold outside here I can see not leaving them in the car while you go grocery shopping but quite frankly if you're running into the gas station to buy smokes, diapers pay for gas etc it's not a big deal. To be honest with you, your child and car could be snatched while you are pumping that gas so if you can see your car from the store and it's RIGHT by the door...leave them in there and pay for your damn gas!!
Anyone who says that you are a horrible parent for running in and paying gas is a fool. What they are saying is, take the 15 minutes it takes to get your unruly toddler out of their car seat, wrangle them in the store yelling no you can't have that, don't touch that etc so spending another 15-20 IN the store then adding another 15 minutes to get them back in the car. Let's be real here, who the hell wants a 5 minute stop for gas to turn into an all day affair!

That's my opinion and I stick to it! Like or lump it but MAN the HELL UP and stop being sissy's about your kids!