Dear America,

catch my tears somebody -- it's Maundy Thursday and how.

so the guy has since apologized, basically choosing to take full responsibility only as an afterthought; he regrets the post, but stands by his criticism anyway; he is only sorry if it offended, not so much that the deed was done.

All brought to you by Wonkette ...with no need to say more...but we will.


Please, read the Jack Stuef blog (don't be afraid, it's short and stupid):

Greatest Living American: 

A Children’s Treasury of Trig Crap On His Birthday

"What’s he dreaming about? Nothing. He’s retarded,"  

Jack Sprat spews from the recesses of idiocy...

"Is Palin his true mother? Or was Bristol? (And why is it that nobody questions who the father is? Because, either way, Todd definitely did it.) It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we are privileged to live in a time when we can witness the greatest prop in world political history." 

So we are back to questioning the true mother, are we?  While Jack Sprat takes it one step further, saying "either way, Todd definitely did it?"   that's so funny I forgot to laugh.  I mean, that was trying to be funny, right? you aren't really insinuating a case of incest with the Palin's, right?  oh well, either way, makes you look ridiculously stupider than any child with Down's.

Hey, Jack, do you know any family with a Down's child besides through the miracle of TV and the subsequent narrow minded lens of political posturing? Do you have any real sense of the power of the written word?  Even your half-heart'd apology with no regrets makes a continuing mockery of the whole charade.

You see, I can speak about this, because this thing called Down's I happen to know an awful lot about.; it is something I keep pretty close to my heart, along side a reality steeped and mellowed and warmed with nearly fifty years of intimate, family, brotherly experience.  This meaningless trash talk you just throw out on a blog on a whim on the fly without thinking -- using a Down's child as the worst prop in world blogosphere history, I might add -- is deplorable, a corruption of humanity.  Have you no soul?

And then, as if THAT isn't enough, the entire experience is rounded out (if you get the nerve to take a whiff, anyway) by reading the onslaught of Palin polluting commentary unfit to be seen or heard, let alone taking in with a long, deep breath...just where is the UN? I believe we have an epic human rights violation occurring upon the earth, the likes of which we have never seen before.  oh the sludge, the grime, the irreparable damage...I can't watch.

You know I make it a habit reading comments after articles just to get a read on where the nation sits on various subjects, through media left and right; it's kind of one of my favorite guilty pleasures -- it's like it's so bad, but it feels so good, and all the while, what comes out of it most days is a sense that most of us DO think before we speak.

Not always, of course; but generally, after well meaning articles pick apart the facts, separate the opinion, and keep to a line of respect and professionalism, the comments thereafter generally respect the contributor, writer, commentator right back.  There is divisiveness, at times; other times, opposing opinion cuts off any chance for understanding another person's view before it even has a chance to sink in; but more often than not, those who frequent the site on a regular basis, those who already align with the view before even popping open the home page, naturally concur with most everything said.

That being said, the comments following Jack Sprats juvenile rampage fit to a T.

from 'Barb' --

"...I've said it before and I will say it again, it has to suck for Trig to have a special needs mom.
Happy Birthday Trig! I hope your parents took you out of the 7-day diaper bag long enough to have some cake. I'm sure they will make you a baby bottle full of Triaminic, with its cool grape goodness, and you will go seepie-byes real soon."

from 'Downfist Troll'  --

Here's to Trig! May he be the first Palin to get a G.E.D.

from 'Gopherit'  --

"i can say, with zero snark, that Trig will likely be the most qualified Palin for the presidency. Sorry, Trig. Wish your family didn't suck."

from 'DustBowlBlues' --

"The look-I-didn't-abort-this-retard prop baby named after Roy Rogers' horse. Poor little Trigger got dragged to every possible campaign event in 2008, no matter whether it was time for him to be in bed or not."

every       single      one     of the comments.  all three hundred and thirteen and counting. Wonk on, Wonkette toads, wonk on.

catch my tears somebody.


these are the young, hip minds Obama wooed the first time, in order to get elected; they are all apart of the d-list crowd who watched his Town Hall meeting on Facebook, I'm sure; this, by example, is the kind of civility, generally and widely accepted, from the mouths of his faithful followers.  Stooping to the lowest of the low is part and parcel of the MO they keep and share and pass around like a virus -- taking Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals to heart and to market.


catch my tears somebody.

How in the world did we make people who no longer care about another person's feelings in this way?

Is it simply the unintended consequences tied up in the after-birth of the new age, living vicariously and recklessly and anonymously on the net with no strings attached?  As if it doesn't matter what we say or how we say it or who we talk about -- even if using a Down's baby as a visceral, provocative, prop?  Or is it we only ingenuously care when they are on the right side of our political ideology?  either way, this is as ugly as coyote ugly gets.

catch my tears somebody.


You know, the reality of living with a Down's baby -- for me, coming along a year after and teaching him how to walk...and on through the years...bearing witness to that same Down's baby who never failed to show up and be the brightest bulb on the block... no matter where we were -- is a reality I wish everyone could know.  In truth, everything I ever really needed to know, of the things that truly matter, I learned from him (not to mention his supernatural dry wit, the irreverent displays of all things silly, and the unbridled shaking of the family funny bone all the days of my life).  I love you so much kissy!

catch my tears somebody.

I weep for the world this morning; we seem to be continually losing something of ourselves in each new waking day.  Decency, civility, virtue, are things becoming all too often heavily disregarded and freely discarded, thrown by the wayside and left for dead -- aborted by popular belief and a general sense of selfish, narcissistic, invincibility that reigns superior over everything else. 

wonk on with your big bad self and let's just see where this leads the world, huh? 
are you proud of yourselves? 
does this make you feel good? 
all of you, not just Jack Sprat... all of you... every        single     one of you, huh?

for once, put yourself into somebody else' Tom's shoes, I beg of you.  What you all seem so-happy-go-lucky to throw around on a whim without a care, seemingly quite pleased with yourselves for doing so -- I would not wish this kind of hatred upon my worst enemy.  AND, having this kind of hatred paired with a subject matter so thoroughly and characteristically in-congruent -- the innocence of a Down's baby -- my heart is left stunned by the violation.

...oh my... what's this?  wonders never cease to amaze me.
I am not alone... what is it we have here... I do believe... heaven is crying along side me... hence the drizzle outside my window to the world.


For some of us, I question the probability on this one, but no matter, let's complete the day in our usual flare anyways...


Make it a Good Day, G

really good
as good as it gets even
well, as good as it can get for a Maundy Thursday, anyway.
bless us one and all.

Dear America,

First let's clean house a bit:

The opening page of yahoo, told of a different headline than what was really going on... declaring, oh my gosh... something that is terribly untrue -- oh, the shock, the horror, be still my broken heart.

Bristol Palin was not "out for revenge" on the "haters" -- and she did not think ill of Jennifer Grey winning the shiny sparkly globe of dancing jubilation, okay; when she said she had "the time of her life" it wasn't a dig, alright.  She was gracious and probably, very happy it was all finally over.

And you know, I really can't understand the controversy; when you have a show that allows voters to stem the tide, and sway a certain way, for whatever reason -- popularity or skill -- then you just have to two step with it; it's what it is.  You think Emmitt Smith got the big dancing ball by just his dancing shoes?   Against Mario Lopez? ...who were side by side with identical scores in the end? when it came down to "popularity" -- or who's got a bigger "fan base."  Pulleeze.

 America, we can't be a bunch of poor sports now, we've come too far, for too long, to have a bad attitude and snide comments get in our way.   Fair and balanced means anything goes, competition doesn't play  favorites, except sometimes, maybe it does!


Some could say, Jennifer Grey had a clear cut, pointy toe advantage  -- is that fair?  really? to have made history making the moves on our dear Patrick Swayze so long ago?  Who came from the family jewels of a rather famous father, a dancer and choreographer, Joel Grey, no less.  C'mon.

All is fair in love and dancing, especially when it is made for TV (and you know who really benefited, was ABC -- if anyone wants to get after somebody, how about we take a look see at the corporate media mogul over there sitting pretty on a table for what, five million, sipping champagne).  FYI, just guessing on how many people actually watched the series...I have NO idea, so don't quote me.

So, having said all that, I feel better; but let us move into other feats of journalistic wonderment, and review an article simply titled: FOUR IN 10 say MARRIAGE IS BECOMING OBSOLETE...November 18, by HOPE YEN, of the Associated Press.  Hmmm Hope, is that really what is happening?

Oh, and it's not just Hope who carried this drumbeat, much of the media picked this story up...kind of like a big mass of haters, sneering at the sacred tradition with contempt, as if marriage is soooooooo nineteen eighty-nine.

The article went on to note "in 1978, just 28 percent believed marriage was becoming obsolete..." after claiming it was "indeed, about 39 percent of Americans said...obsolete" only a sentence before. So in thirty two years, the idea that marriage is becoming obsolete is up by 11%.

after decades of divorce, Hollywood, and the ever so popular use of a cultural and relationship killing phenomenon -- none other than the arrow through the back by way of a sordid affair of the heart and soul, or after decades of children being raised with virtually one parent, trading weekends (myself included in this group) at about the rate of "29 percent of all children under the age of 18",  or after distancing ourselves from God, as a culture, slowly, recklessly, mindlessly, over the last several years to maybe an entire century -- the IDEA that MARRIAGE is becoming OBSOLETE is only up by about ten percent???  THAT IS AMAZING ...have God's grace on thee.

Personally, and being a half full kind a girl, I don't know how we did it.

I think that is remarkable, given where we have taken our culture, meandering the streets of dirty dancing, drugs, selfish ambitions, personal careers at the expense of family, greed, loss of spirituality and a connectedness to Something greater than ourselves, only to name a few.

Having said all that, Hope does make some alarming, but well thought out observations of the changes we are making, as a people: pointing out the effect of the "changing views of family are being driven largely by young adults 18-29, who are more like than older generations to have an unmarried or divorced parent...have more liberal attitudes when it comes to spousal roles and living together before marriage."

Hope also mentioned the number of people who would be sitting around the table this Thanksgiving could be in the range of about twenty people -- a family more than likely piecemeal-ed together with extended family, friends, step parents and siblings, and maybe even both parents -- but then again, maybe not (got about a fifty-fifty chance).

The thing is, not until you get about two-thirds of the way in do we discover a number that really counts:

"Still, the study indicates that marriage isn't going to disappear anytime soon. 

Despite a growing view that marriage may not be necessary, 67% of Americans were upbeat about the future of marriage and family. 

That's higher than their optimism for the nation's educational system (50%), economy (46%), or its morals and ethics (41%)...

about HALF of all currently unmarried adults, 46% say they want to get married. Among those unmarried who are living with a partner, the share rises to 64%."

You can read more at http://pewsocialtrends.org

Make no mistake, and let me be clear, now:  67% of Americans were upbeat about the future of marriage and family, according to the same survey, the same study, who declared Four in Ten say marriage is becoming OBSOLETE.  wow.

I guess it's all in how you look at it.

Funny could it be that the same haters of Bristol Palin (who really hate her mom) be in the same group as those declaring marriage as going away some time soon??  perhaps even, hoping and wishing and praying that marriage itself might meet it's ultimate fate, dancing off the stage, in a runaway bride sort of way, along with any and all family tradition whatsoever, in a warped Cinderella style Disney destiny...

Now, could it be that those who are upbeat about marriage and family --  the 67% crowd -- might actually be the ones who were voting for the underdog, in droves, that kept Bristol dancing, and smiling, all the way to the very end?  Just sayin'

And looky here, full circle, isn't this just a perfect week to give thanks and praise for what really works in society  (and what doesn't) in everything from marriage, to family, to faith, to humanity rising to the levels it really needs to be, in order to make a more perfect UNION...we can always strive AS A PEOPLE OF MANY OPINIONS and VIEWS to be better, in all we do, in all we say, in all we think about, as we go about dancing about in our own little world.

We can only hope, and give thanks,  and maybe even try a little harder from now on.

Make it a Good Day, G