Tales of the Daughter: Sienna Goes Swimming

Sienna was grinning at me. The complete grin of a child having a fantastic time with complete commitment to being in the moment as, for her, Life doesn't get any better than this!

I felt really really bad when I dunked her under the water.

I blame my Mother really; she didn't now how to swim so I found no desire to learn.* I could dog paddle - though a dog would take umbrage at my flailing windmilling arms being compared to his fluid quad-pedal projection system.

For Sienna this would be the first time she would suffer the sins of her father. That is right, she would be introduced to something WAY before I was introduced to it. Hopefully she would learn to love it, or like it, or at least have a more positive reaction to it than I did.

I've known for years that babies love water. I remember some sort of PBS show where they showed six month old babies swimming through under water hoops. Among many children skills is a natural inclination to water and climbing. Or at least that is what TV has taught me.

Near our Virginia timeshare there is an Indoor Waterpark. The perfect place to introduce Sienna to swimming. A dual fact of (a) it's the South so you can do pretty much anything and (b) no one there knows us.

I didn't count on Danielle not knowing that children and swimming goes hand-in-hand. I had to show her on "reputable mothering website" where swimming with a less than one-year-old is okay. Let me interupt the thought process on "swimming" it is facing your child, sticking hands under the arm pits and towing the little one backward. At least that it the first lesson. I showed Danielle how to do it - it didn't take much as the physics is, Don't let go!

Within a short period Sienna (and her parents really) had mastered lesson one. Sienna giggled madly while scrunching up her face when she gulped in a mouthful of water. Danielle LOVES lesson one. Sienna LOVES lesson one. Daddy LOVES lesson one.

Lesson two. The child goes underwater.

There is a simple theory with human beings and going underwater. You naturally close your mouth and eyes when it happens. When you do this with a child there is the natural RESULT of said going underwater: screaming.

At least potentially and this is also where we began our story.

Want to eliminate a smiling face? Dunk the child for the first time. Sienna did close her mouth and eyes immediately and no I did not hold my child underwater it was a dunk. Two seconds.

Upon resurfacing her face turned to a mask of outrage. A bright red scrunchball of discontent that conveyed the ultimate betrayal in fatherhood and perhaps the universe. WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!

At least that it what I imagined Sienna was thinking. I didn't leave her time to cry in my arms, I handed her to Danielle. Sienna let out a plaintive yelp, a few tears**, jammed her thumb into, and gave me the stink-eye of betrayal.

You know what though? I'd do it again. Or at least have Danielle dunk her the first time. Sienna loves the water, evening being dunked a couple of more times. We'll figure out how to keep her in some sort of pool as it was a fun family event.

Wayne

* The fact that my mother had grown up in the city where there weren't exactly pools did not come into my thinking process.

** Sienna has crocodile tears. It isn't fair.

Ten Things I'll Tell My Daughter: Things said after being sent home from daycare

Actually this is the second time Sienna has been sent home sick. Since she is eight months into her daycare-hood this is actually a really small amount. Yesterday she was sent home with diarrhea though. Here are ten comments are related to it.

1. "I had to hose her down." Marcel the daycare giver on how bad Sienna's diarrhea was


2. "Evan threw up in the toys. Everyone is pretty sick." Marcel again, when I asked her if there is was something going around.


3. "If it is the middle of the night and she is covered in crap and throwup. DO NOT wake her up. I did that once and couldn't get Danielle back to sleep." Grandma Trudy upon hearing Sienna was sick


4. "Can I leave for work? You've got this, right?" My question to Danielle as she changed a Sienna covered diarrhea diaper


5. "I'll kill you." Danielle's look after I asked question 4


6. "Put her in a onsie. It's one extra layer between her ass and us having to clean the rug." Me as we dressed Sienna this morning


7. "I wouldn't drink that either." Me after I tried to get her the baby version of Gatorade


8. "You've now had three baths in 12 hours. I like your style." Me at Sienna's suddenly clean all the time


9. "We're watching cartoons together." Grandma Trudy on what she is doing while watching Sienna


10. "She ate a lot this morning. For a sick kid." Danielle on Sienna's appetite

We have to keep good humor about this. Otherwise we'll go crazy.

Wayne

Tales of the Daughter: Sienna pushes boundaries

Sienna is getting smarter every day. People have warned me how little kids get smart quickly, then push boundaries, then manipulate.

My glorious daughter of 11 months has shown herself to be quite independent. Though I'm sure that is what every parent tells him or her self. Sienna enjoys being picked up - really what child doesn't? - communicating by crawling over, sitting down in front of you and waving her arms like she is doing some sort of backstroke.

Since Danielle and I think this is the cutest thing ever Sienna gets picked up. We try to moderate it so it doesn't happen instantly, yet it happens pretty quickly.

This AM was a little hectic since Sienna had thrown up last night. After a morning bath she was sitting on the living room floor waving her arms to be picked up. No could do.

About 20 seconds later I heard a loud thumb followed by an angry scream. Sienna had thrown herself backward onto the back of her head! Now, she wasn't actually hurt - though she was certainly angry.

Danielle went over, stared down at her, then we looked at each other questioningly. We held out for a good minute before Danielle picked her up.

Still, Sienna is getting smarter every day. Pushing the boundaries. Finding Mommy & Daddy's limits. Smart kid though - faking an injury at such a young age. I really respect that.

Wayne

Lazy Man Review: Alcatraz

Disclaimer: The Lazy Man Review is the type of review you would give your buddy at a bar, wife over the dinner table, or mistress during pillow talk. More about what you remember, rather than looking back and proving your thesis with ground breaking research

I'm still angry at JJ Abrams for the ending of Lost. I can't help it. I know he wasn't actually responsible for it yet I still blame him. Hey, if you want to be called the Execute Producer you get the blame. I do know I haven't like a JJ Abrams ending since Regarding Henry. I do love his beginnings though and I own books on Alcatraz. Ergo, count me in.

Though after the two hour premiere I'm only giving the show three more episodes. I have high demands when it comes to the science fiction fantasy world. Heck it isn't even the science fiction it is quality writing I crave.

This is some pretty poor writing.

Madsen, the female lead appears to have been a color by number creation for female protagonist. She is the female rebel who just lost a partner - let me side step here for a moment- the following actually occurred (a) she snarls at a special agent upon meeting him - who turns out to be her new boss, Awkward - and the viewer saw coming about 10 million miles away since it is Sam Neill from Jurassic Park; (b) steals evidence from a crime scene; and (c) someone who drinks hard liquor. She has been solving cases since she was 14 while be raised by a not-actually-related-by-blood Uncle who used to be a guard at Alcatraz.

Combine Madsen with Cold Case level bad dialogue and your problems are just beginning.

We also have Hurley, oh sorry Soto. A really smart guy who Madsen finds via a website link. He has two ph.d's - one in Criminology and one in Civil War History. He also runs a comic book store and writes a comic called Alcatraz. He also appears to be the only person who is surprised by what is going on around him. He is actually bothered when people around him start getting shot. Which strikes me as a perfectly reasonable reaction. The main problem is that he has yet to have any additional information that could not be found from a simple database search. His parents were both professors - which has no bearing whatsoever on anything so far except the belief that children of parents are smart. Which is so not true. Just like children of a psychologist are well adjusted.

Hauser, Hello Mr Sam Neil! rounds out the triumvirate by being even more cliche ridden than Madsen. He is also the harbinger of hidden secrets. He has the most upside potential for vulnerability since he has shown no emotion so far. Such a low starting point gives you a chance! He stumbled into the missing people by accident, seems to have had a relationship 50+ years ago with the Dr. Lucy, played by the Indian chick from Bend it Like Beckham and (say it with me) Doesn't trust anyone!

The show already suffers from Lostism, which is when a character doesn't ask a simple question that would clarify, oh LOTS. Early in the episode Madsen's uncle is revealed to be a guard from Alcatraz who served with Madsen's grandfather. It is later revealed that Madsen's grandfather was actually a prisoner. She then...doesn't immediately go and ask, Why did you lie to me?

Soto is aware of the lie. I'm okay that he doesn't say anything. After all he doesn't actually KNOW these cops. Like I said before, Soto makes sense.

Prisoners Aren't Necessarily Love People...
Stop it right now Alcatraz. Are we going to have to spend every episode learning that SOMEHOW the convicts were misunderstood and then the prison people were MEAN to them. Kudos for the first episode being about a small crime that was a federal offense. However the second episode is about a sniper who really just wanted to be loved?! What the...

There is a Secret Installation Under Alcatraz...
Our heroes operate from a base on Alcatraz. Apparently it will be a long boat ride back whenever they figure out something. I hope there is nothing too time sensitive as they will be on a boat. I also wonder who the hell built it without anyone noticing.

Oh the music...
Danielle wasn't even watching the show yet due to the Lostesque music knew exactly what was happening.

Intriguing...Dr Lucy and Hauser having been an item back in the 60s. Lucy must have vanished then come back. How did Guards vanish from Alcatraz and no one notices? Okay you can hide a convict, not so much with a guard.

What I DID like
It really is a cool concept. The flashbacks are great for fleshing out the story. Though you end up caring more about the people with flashbacks than the main characters. Also Madsen didn't seem to wear a bra during the second episode. Always nice.

Think a procedural where we don't know anything that is going on. I'll give it three more episodes then quit.

Wayne

Lazy Man Review: Ghosts of Girlfriend's Past

Disclaimer: The Lazy Man Review is the type of review you would give your buddy at a bar, wife over the dinner table, or mistress during pillow talk. More about what you remember, rather than looking back and proving your thesis with ground breaking research.

Rankings: 3.5/5 - on the scale of 5 being When Harry Met Sally and 1 being anything involving Ashton Kutcher or Gigli.

I am a sucker for a good rom-com. That immediately strips me of my imaginary manhood badge - which long time friends nod and wonder if I had one in the first place. I can live with that. Why do I love rom-coms? A good rom-com increases the wife happiness, snuggleness, and the likeliness of [redacted in case Sienna reads this someday.] At worse I get to make snarky comments.

Ghosts of Girlfriend's Past is take off of a Christmas Carol. Though Matthew McConaughey doesn't have anything particularly scrooge-like about him so the comparison with a Christmas Carol begins with "there are ghosts" and ends with "there are three of them."

This movie has a who's who cast of awesomeness. Breckin Meyer as Matt's brother, including a bit of a southern accent; Michael Douglas doing a fantastic Jack Nicholson imitation, Jennifer Garner as herself, Emma Stone stealing every scene she is in, Party of Five's Lacey Chabert - which adds an automatic 1/2 star to any movie, and the sexy guy from Grey's Anatomy. Matt also adds another star to any movie since he really can sell any part he is in - see Sahara - to where you silently nod in agreement that you actually like him.

The writing of this movie is surprisingly plausible as the characters play (mostly) to the top of their intelligence (fixing the broken wedding cake is dumb) and actually have motivation. That is where most rom-coms fail - you wonder why ANYONE would like the main lead.

Matt isn't exactly like that - okay past the first five minutes where you wonder why no one has executed him yet - though the plot gets around to the point really fast that he and Garner have a past history. Yay! Always important. Matt has realistically been hurt by her, thusly making a lot of his behavior semi-justified.

Look, we know how the movie is going to end. It is the getting there that matters. The scenes with Douglas are brilliantly disturbing in that truths he extols on how to pick up women. It is like a thousand tiny truisms (maybe ten, give me a break) sprinkled into the film.

Well worth recording on cable - like I did - and watching it with a loved one. If for anything else for Matt as a 90s sex-symbol who Garner calls out.

Wayne

Sienna, object permanence & (apparently) a good memory

Once upon a time I asked my father a question.

When did he and my Mother went on vacation without my brother and me? He told me, "We went to Spain and it was fantastic. Your mother danced on tables, we drank wine, she sent you letters every day. We were gone two weeks. It was one of the best vacations we ever had."

After confirming that he said, "your mother danced on tables" I asked the natural follow up question, "when was the second time you went without us?"

"We didn't."

"Why not? Could you guys not afford it?"

"No, because of YOU," he actually pointed at me when he said it. "We left you with her friend. When we came home YOU" - he pointed again - "hid behind he friend's leg, burst into tears, and refused to go near your mother because you didn't recognize you."

My father gave me the fiercest dirty look at this point, got up from the table and opened himself a bottle of wine.

Fast forward to last night. I have been encouraging Danielle to spend more time with her friends during the week. She needs some solo time out, I have certainly watched Sienna more than enough and my child LOVES her alone time with Daddy. I have solo bathed her a few times and it is bath night. No big deal.

Well that was LAST MONTH she loved her alone time with Daddy. At 6:40 last night Sienna refused her dinner, looked at the door, and began a soulful wail. 6:40 is around the time Mommy comes home every night. Usually during the middle of Sienna's dinner Mommy joins in the for the second half the meal and the true start to the bed time ritual.

6:41 Sienna refused anymore food. She kept crying.

I picked her up. I am a MASTER at getting my child to stop crying. A MASTER.

6:44. Sienna is still crying. I offer her yogurt. She can't resist yogurt. Ever. It, along with smoked gouda and puffs is a top three food.

6:44:20 Sienna launches a spoonful of yogurt across the room. Scudder is thrilled by this as he almost got himself some free yogurt.

6:46 I'm holding her again me, which soothes her just enough where she puts her thumb in her mouth to stop her tears. Unfortunately her nose is now backed up from crying.

6:47 Sienna is still crying. Even her favorite song A-B-C has no effect. Putting her on the floor to crawl around is useless.

6:48 I change her. She usually cries if she is hungry, wet, or tired. She also loves her changing table. Not tonight. Somehow I squeeze her into her pajamas.

6:50 Sienna has just cried herself out of a bath. Well, I really decided that five minutes ago except I was hoping she would calm down.

6:51 I clean her nose. I'm pretty sure the neighbors can hear her cries, releasing a noise that even Scudder has an expression of "what was that?"

6:52 I take her to her bedroom along with a bottle. She has three sips - including a dirty look between each sip - before testing her arm strength.

6:53 I offer up her favorite book So Big. Even the awesome power of Elmo is useless at this point. She grabs the book long enough to deposit on the floor.

6:54 I put her down to bed. I sing her a lullaby. For the last two months she has pulled herself to a sitting position during the lullaby. Instead she jams her thumb into her mouth - whimpers, takes out the thumb, bellows, then puts in the other thumb. She repeats this process.

6:55 I am in the kitchen and I can clearly here her crying. I put on the timer for 15 minutes. If she is still crying at that time I am going back in.

6:59 She has cried herself to sleep.

Some place my father is laughing. I have just experienced my child taking recognition of another over a parent. Well, at least it was a missing Danielle she cried about. Unfortunately I was the one soothing her.

As a co-worker put it today. "Well, Sienna will be fine. The psychological damage to you will be on going."

I may encourage Danielle to go out with friends next week. Maybe.

Wayne

The Lazy Man Review: Top Chef & Who is going to win

Starter note: I used to write in-depth, time consuming, well thought out reviews for my previous blog. This will not be one of them. The Lazy Man Review is the type of review you would give your buddy at a bar, wife over the dinner table, or mistress during pillow talk: more about what you remember rather than looking back and proving your thesis with ground breaking research.

Top Chef: Texas. A season so confusing my DVR keeps forgetting to record it since the title is so wacky. Gotta love technology.

Danielle and I have been watching Top Chef since Season 3, which was memorable because Hung was one of the baddest ass chefs ever, annihilated a chicken during a butchering competition, built a candy land breakfast dish that seemed inspired by Alice in Wonderland, and made us fall in love with the show.

Like a professional sport Top Chef has advanced to such a state that there now seem to be some "unwritten rules" - including my favorite of, Do something traditional, except add your own spin; if tastes good then you will be complimented on adding the spin, if it tastes bad then you will be mocked.

Other unwritten rules include:

• A contestant will royally screw up yet manage to survive that episode. We are talking about an episode where you think, That person should be taken outside, executed, and fed to the crows. Yet the screw up is never mentioned. Lindsay, I'm looking at you.


• A contestant will be continuously awful, yet Top Chef states specifically you are only judged on this week's dish. Therefore the contestant skates past since there is always someone worse. Hello, Chris from Moto.


• Someone will grow on us. A person you think is terrible will exhibit enough personality and chef skills that you ignore the fact that you can't recall one dish he or she has cooked, yet you root for them. Tell tale word signals include, "Love in dish," that Padma likes them, or that you laugh with them not at them. Grayson, this is yours.


• People will complain someone is doing "Asian flavors" too much. For some reason people act like Asia is the size of Rhode Island when it comes to flavor profiles. People are fucking dumb.

There really is no point in watching Top Chef until you're down to the final 10 and no need to pay attention until it is the final eight since you can't remember people's names anyway. Top Chef also falls into one or two type of seasons: the chefs make interesting food, let us focus on that; or the chefs suck, let us discuss personalities.

This is the personality season. Let us talk about who is left.

Beverly, a fine Asian woman who appears to be emotional unstable. Okay, that is not unheard of for a chef. Her lack of stability seems to be from (a) she was in an emotionally abusive relationship once upon a time, (b) her lack of social graces due to her parents being over protective as a child. She brought both of these up in talking head interviews. I can't talk about anything she has actually cooked that had more complexity than shrimp. People do not want to work with her, though they are not as contemptuous of her as other contestants. Chance of winning: 4%

Lindsay could have been voted off earlier this season due to sabotage. Instead she has continued to cook away, be on a winning team, and be completely bland unless she is yelling at someone. I am having trouble forgiving Lindsay's sabotage. She seems to actually know how to play the game though: cook middling dishes, ignore everything else. I have a feeling she is going to bust out some badass dishes to make the finals. Chance of winning: 15%

Paul is quietly kicking the crap out of the competition while winning money challenges along the way. How good is he right now? Tom called him out at the last judge's table for winning 35K so far. If he survives kitchen wars then he might win this whole thing outright. Chance of winning: 46%

Ed, also Asian, is one of two people to have actually not be one of the original contestants. He won a cook off to stay on the show when his initial cooking on the bubble. His flavors as actually interesting, plus the backstory that he runs a mobile cooking unit. Unfortunately he seems to be a bit of whiner. On the other hand he once cut himself in the competition, yet kept cooking while blood went all over the place. Chance of winning: 10%

Sarah, speaking of whining. She is either from Chicago or Texas, depending on the day of the week, and is arguably the most irritating contestant left. Actually that isn't even arguable she is the most irritating. Chance of winning: 3%

Grayson, another survivor of the bubble cooking. She has two things going for her (1) she is not affiliated with the restaurant and (2) she is crazy. She compared a dish to sex, imitated a frog, and has been on the bottom numerous times. You have to love her though. Chance of winning: 6%

Chris of Moto, has made me never want to eat at Moto. He sure talks a lot. A lot. Did I mention a lot? He is all gimmick with no execution where even the gimmick makes you wonder what the hell he is thinking. He is getting by since someone else is sucking worse that episode. Even Tom has a look like, I'm going to end you right now. Chance of winning: 1%.

Ty also drew blood this season. On himself. He has also been in the bottom a couple of times, while also winning immunity too. He could easily have been voted off, yet he could still win this. He also has a weirdly stoic not throw anyone under the bus bit going. Chance of winning: 15%

With restaurant wars coming up that is really all you need to know about these contestants. I always judge the people on whether I would want to eat where they work. Right now only Paul, Ty, and Ed make me interested in the food. Everyone else? Feh.

That is all.

Wayne

Text Gloves

This Holiday Season fingerless glovers and fingerless mittens or the move impressive fingerless gloves or mittens that have some sort of extra fabric to act like a hood - are the vogue. They allow for easier smart phone and mobile device use.

Back in my day we called a fingerless gloves or fingerless mittens poorly constructed gloves or mittens. Just saying is all.

Wayne

I did that: Messed up Pulled Pork

I tend to celebrate my culinary successes when I write about them here. However, some wise monk-type once stated that you learn more from failure than success. I did happen to learn something from a recent endeavor with my pulled pork.

The two major changes were:

1. Cooking the pork longer since I didn't enjoy the thicker consistency when I had cook it the last two times


2. Doubling the amount of red wine vinegar since I had a larger piece of meat. Well, it was a 60% increase. Dumb move really. I saw that it was two high against the meat, yet I still cooked it anyway.
   

Change one was great as the my pork was fall apart in the fingers tender. Change two...not so good.

Danielle's face scrunched up upon tasty the tender-vinegar laden meat. My wife was polite enough to not spit out the food. Draining the liquid, adding barbeque sauce, slow cooking that; unfortunately there was not a perfect taste saving on this.

Danielle and I ate some of the meat before freezing the rest and promptly ignoring it. This was about a month ago.

I talk about this now as I am making pulled pork for Nerd Day II. You want to know if your meat holds up well? Feed it to hungry gamers. At least I learned something in here: mess something up, try it again; if I mess it up a second time, I quit.

Wayne

*Since it was a wise monk-type I'm not sure how much stock one should take in the particular statement

I guess I shouldn't have eaten that..or maybe I should eat more of it

Over the course of the last month my darling Sienna has watched her papa (also known as me) lose quite a bit of weight. Normally this would be a cause of celebration my ultimate in shape moment is now more than a 50% of my life ago, with only islands of exercise in a sea of laziness since. Some of the islands were larger than others, though in the end the ocean of apathy rose up to crush them all equally.

Apparently softball is not exercise - at least according to my Doctor who actually giggled at me when I told him that is what I do for exercise. I shall digress for a moment as I point out that living in Brooklyn while working in Manhattan forces a bit of pseudo-exercise that is of a higher level than suburbanites experience walking from the house to the car.

Anyway, Papa Me lost 12 pounds in a short period of time. I lost so much weight that my mother-in-law commented on it and co-workers commented on it. Unfortunately it wasn't a purposeful diet plan.

I had a lingering cough/cold/what-the-hell-is-this-thing for about a month. The type of cold that circumnavigates the globe known as the office, managing to ping you several times when you are juuuuust about to get completely healthy. My immune system was wrecked from long hours, holiday's, and Scudder-cat waking me up two to three times a night.

Which was when I got the stomach flu/gastroenteritis. That is what really annihilated me. For seven days I dined on a combination of toast, potatoes, rice, tea, and the finest New York tap water. The couch was my new BFF, while Danielle was a close second since she had to take care of Sienna and listen to me. Let us just say that I am not the best patient in the world.

Did you know that more people died from the flu during World War II than actual battles? That is a factoid I like to remind myself of whenever I am losing fluids on the couch. Remarkably enough I did not end up needing an IV, which is actually a step up over previous encounters with the bug.

Now, that is an awful lot of set-up to say that I now feel much better. Having spent an XMas vacation reading Game of Thrones, being a couch-lizard, relapsing and finally becoming healthy.

Until yesterday. My co-worker took me out to lunch as a thank you for doing some work while he was out. As people know, no good deed goes unpunished. Unfortunately the punishment was to my body after I ate a rather heavy meal including clam chowder, a French Dip sandwich, plus a few other snacks.

As I sat on my throne last night I pondered the words Danielle said (or some words to this affect) How did you not know that would be bad for you? My second thought was a much simpler one, most likely a reflection of the current mindset of having lost weight, If you get sick again you're going to be one skinny, sexy dude.

I hope Sienna gets her Mommy's common sense when it comes to eating, as Papa Me appears to be a moron sometimes.

Wayne

Ron Paul: Your President?

Depending on who is talking, Ron Paul is either the greatest invention since the bread slicer (or the Iphone for the youngsters of the world) or the man who will bring down the Republican Party. What exactly would Ron Paul do if he was president that has everyone in a hissy. Let me count the ways.

Isolationism
Ron would close up all United States foreign bases and bring home the troops. This flies in the face of the current convention that the United States deters aggressive nations by placing troops near them. A current convention that has been proven to work, well, I guess it would be never.
Isolationism actually has a long storied history in the United States. You know why the United States didn't get involved in World War II until Pearl Harbor was bombed? At the time most of the residents believed the world's problems were none-of-our business. With all the problems at home with joblessness, foreign aide to other countries, you can certainly understand why people harken back to a thought of not being involved in other people's business.

Speaking of other people's business.

Eliminating Foreign Aide
This confuses people on a fundamental level as the United States often speaks fondly of those we aide while sanctioning those who we dislike. The main issue has been that we change the rules of who we like - even sometimes threatening to withdraw money from those very people if they don't do what we say.

Ron Paul wants to end all the politics with this by cutting off everyone.

Very interesting thought. After all our currency is worth a lot. Hey, wait a second. What exactly is our currency worth these days? Wasn't it tied to gold once upon a time?

Returning to the Gold Standard
Once upon a time there was a direct connection between gold and the dollars in the bank account. In lay person terms you could trade your dollars for actual gold according to the exchange rate, the underlying principle being that there was a correlation. In 1971 Richard Nixon took the United States off the gold standard, keeping us off it ever since.

For the longest time Ron Paul wanted to return us to the gold standard, though he has now backed off. Mostly since nobody will know what would happen. Well, most likely combining the gold standard with Ron Paul's next idea would get him shot.

Ending the Federal Reserve Banking System
The fed reserve system is a bunch of private banks who control lending policies. Yes, it is odd that privateers control public policy except the initial reasoning made sense. Before federal taxes private companies could raise money faster than the U.S. Banking system. Why it was left this way is not all that complex: these banks help get politicians into office.

The last major player to try to eliminate the banking system was John F Kennedy. That didn't turn out so well for him.

Ron Paul is dancing with very powerful people with these last two ideas in conjunction with each other. These are the type of ideas that frighten the Republican party to no end. The fact that Paul has gotten traction with all of the ideas is what terrifies both political parties.

It is a world where money keeps its current value, money stays within the very country that created it, and where bankers can longer change the destiny of a country with a whim.

Is it likely to happen? No.

Congress would tie up any of these changes with forty pounds of red tape. It is the ideas that are enough though. Ideas of questioning the status quo while asking for explanations of the reasoning. Critical thinking that seems to have been missing for so long.

Sometimes it may be enough that Paul is putting out the ideas, knowing that there could be change. The idea of hope. The same ideas that got our current president elected.

We live in interesting times indeed.

Wayne

Back in 1845...

The wagon wheel was stuck in the mud.

Usually this would not be a major problem for Cecile B Cecile. It wasn't at the level of an early frost, or a waterless summer, or the scurvey his oldest child somehow contracted the previous summer.

Usually.

Except this was an election year and Cecile B Cecile wanted to vote. Even more than that he needed to vote. As a male land owner it was a God-given necessity. When he first purchased the farm it was one of the reasons he agreed to go into debt.

This was his country and his voice would be heard.

Eight hours later Cecile B Cecile sat beside his still stuck wagon, tears descending down his weather-beaten face. He couldn't make it to town to vote. He died two months later never having gotten the chance.

There is a moral in here somewhere.

Wayne

Legends of the Workpace...DRS

We've all had - and most likely been one at some point - insensitive co-workers. Talking loudly on on the phone, gossips, general-pain-in-the-assness.

Here is a new one that has been added to the list due to open environment. Disease-Ridden-Scum.

A crude non-de-plumbe to be sure, except hear me (read me?) out as DRS makes noises akin to a wounded water buffalo bellowing for help from the herd. DRS chooses to cough and sneeze into the hand directly and then touch the phone. The keyword. Or a piece of fruit in the kitchen.

DRS has the ego on the level of a CEO. The belief that one MUST come to work each day for the good of the company - even though there is an option to work from home. Why just today DRS stated, "I was sick for two weeks - got healthy - now I'm sick again."

Really? You are bragging about this? Please DRS do us all a favor and stay home, stopping only to expel your refuse into a tissue far away from me. You are not so important that you cannot be replaced, or miss a day, or generally take a miss manners.

No amount of pleading, politeness, rudeness, and even hiding your chair appears to deter you from spreading your germs.

I look forward to the next time I get sick, as I will I plead temporary insanity when I throttle you.

That is all.

Wayne