Obama/Romney Debate

Why so much focus on who was the better debater? It was one night. Have we really become a nation so feeble minded that our vote is cast to the candidate that performs the best on television? Simple research will demonstrate where the candidates stand on the issues important to you plus you can view their accomplishments or failures in office. For me, this is the route I take prior to any election; it would be irresponsible if I allowed any news network, poll or pundit's comments to influence my decision. It is laughable that in this age of instant information how many prefer to be spoon fed and rely on surface observation to render such an important decision as who will lead us during the next four years.

Romney’s performance was definitely the stronger of the two but I’m not worried. It's the first one where you can lay out your plans. I think Obama was smart to let Romney play all his cards on purpose; it's also the best way to combat your opponent. Let them have the first round so that they will be over confident, then use the information you gather against them. It's smarter than giving away all of your information in the beginning for them to use against you. Debate "performance" doesn't mean squat unless you're not really interested in the issues. I'll take Obama's substance over Romney's "performance" any day of the week.

That being said, Mitt Romney should pick a lie and stick to it. Is he the guy who wants to end Medicare or the guy who wants to spend more money on Medicare? Is he the guy who wants to control my vagina or the one who believes that government shouldn’t be making healthcare decisions? Is he the guy who thinks that 47% of Americans are victims or the guy who thinks that tax cuts for the wealthy are a bad idea? Is he the guy who wants to work on day one with Democrats in Congress or the guy who on day one wants to reverse everything the Democrats accomplished? Is he the guy who likes Big Bird or the guy who will fire Big Bird?

Romney wins October 3rd
Obama wins November 6

Mary Jo

Someone I've never met but felt I got to know through her blog has passed away. I only know her first name, Mary Jo, and that when she began her blog she was 56 years old and had just been diagnosed with Stage 3 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. Mary Jo started her blog "Put on your big girl pants and just get on with it" on October 19, 2010 with the hope of sharing her journey and experiences while fighting the disease.

Her story touched me personally because my Mother was a two-time breast cancer survivor and that dark cloud of breast cancer now hovers over me and many of the young women in my family due to genetics. Reading about Mary Jo's treatment -the highs and the lows- was inspiring to me. The unending support she received from family and friends was touching and makes me wish I could tell her husband Ron, especially, how much Mary Jo's blog has meant to me. She put up a good fight.

Her blog is still there along with the comments from family, friends, and strangers like me. Mary Jo was a brave, brave soul, her last blog post was June 15, 2011, she passed away on March 17, 2012.

Thank you Mary Jo.

Ignorance or Hypocrisy?

A dear family member for whom I have enormous love and respect, posted an anti-Obama sentiment on her Facebook page recently - which is her right, it’s her Facebook page. Those of you who faithfully follow my blog (all 2 of you) know that I just cannot keep my mouth shut when it comes to politics, so I posted a comment wondering how any woman or person of color could ever vote for a Republican.

One of her “friends,” obviously a young and proud Republican woman, replied to my comment using the words from the Helen Ready song “I am Woman” to bash President Obama. I’m guessing this friend was born after the early 70’s and I’m sure thought she was being quite clever by quoting the words “I am woman, hear me roar…” from the song written for the early Women’s Liberation Movement, a movement I was very much a part of in 1972, at the impressionable age of 18.

The Women’s Liberation Movement challenged the prevailing notion that women were supposed to spend their entire lives engaged in housework and raising children. It demanded equal pay for women in the workplace, publicly funded child care, and the legalization of abortion. It challenged sexist stereotypes of women and the ideal of the traditional nuclear family, which often tied women to abusive or oppressive relationships. While the Ozzie and Harriet myth of the nuclear family—with a male breadwinner and stay-at-home mom—never really existed for many working-class Americans (certainly not in my home growing up), the women’s liberation movement forever altered people’s ideas about the role of women in society. Ironically, this same movement today has allowed many women the choice to be stay-at-home mothers (if they can afford it) without the stigma of being seen as lazy or leeching off their hard-working husbands.

It makes me angry that these young neo-conservative women are so ignorant of the fight that went on before they were born and the rights that they take for granted today. Do these young hypocrites really want to turn back the clock to reverse all of the gains that women have made in the past forty years? Would they truly be willing to give up what would be necessary to restore the so-called Republican “Family Values” agenda, because to accomplish that we’d have to restore the cult of virginity and the double standard, ban birth control, restrict divorce, kick women out of decent jobs, force unwed pregnant women to put their babies up for adoption, and make out-of-wedlock children legal nonpersons.

The Republican “War on Women” is very real, from wanting to cut nearly a billion dollars of food and other aid to low-income pregnant women, mothers, babies, and kids, to a spending bill that also takes aim at elderly poor women (two-thirds of the elderly poor are women) that cuts funding for employment services, meals, and housing for senior citizens. Is this what these young female neocons want?

Ignorance or hypocrisy: which is worse?

Picture of the Year

I was going to write something profound about this historical day but this picture says it ALL!

Marriage Equality

When President Obama says his position on gay marriage has evolved I understand what he is saying. I can think of at least a hundred issues over the past forty years or so where my views have “evolved” and I’ve come to think or believe differently about something, it’s called growth and maturity. Personally, I have gone from having a mild tolerance of gays & lesbians to where it is inconceivable to me that they are not afforded all of the rights reserved for human beings under our constitution. A marriage is a union between two consenting adults, period. Sexual preference, race, religion or anything else should not matter and no one has the right to say otherwise.

To anybody who says that the President will say or do anything to win the election, think about what you are saying. This announcement may ultimately cost him many more votes than he will gain from the gay and lesbian community and it puts him in danger of losing certain swing states that are socially conservative. Note: He did not come out and say he is going to push for a repeal of DOMA, he just said he "personally" supports gay marriage. He is taking a stand on an issue that divides our nation. This was a bold and courageous maneuver that may have negative repercussions – anybody against marriage equality isn’t going to vote for him anyway - but it was the right thing to do. Bravo President Obama!

Are You Missing Some Bunny?

This little cutie is not the Easter Bunny (I frisked him for the chocolate bunnies I didn't get for Easter) but found his way into our backyard yesterday morning. Mr. itsme has a soft spot for stray animals and was able to capture it in our kitty carrier by simply asking it to "please hop in." To his astonishment, it obeyed. I've posted this picture on our local paper's FB page hoping the owner recognizes him/her and claims ownership at the animal shelter -- it was either that or let a car run it down, or worse, being mauled by a pitbull. A rabbit rescue group here tries to find forever homes for stray rabbits brought to the shelter -we've captured three others before this- so this one is not in danger of being euthanized. Isn't it a sweetie-pie? Just had to share . . . .

Jim Mullen: My Thoughts Exactly!

This article appeared in my local paper this morning. I couldn't have said it better!!!

"Have you ever watched more than one television show about the making, eating or selling of cupcakes ? If your answer is "yes" and you're not in some way connected to the cupcake business, I'm worried about you. And not just about your adult-onset diabetes. I can't be the only person surprised to learn that there is a show on television devoted exclusively to cupcakes. To find out there are at least three of them is troubling. Normally I would say "to each his own," but "Cupcake Wars"? Really?

When the reality TV craze started years ago with "Survivor" and "Big Brother," I used to wonder what was wrong with television. It turns out that was the wrong question. Now, after the success of "Jersey Shore" and programs about multiple Kardashians, hoarding, pawning, extreme fishing , ice truck driving and very unreal housewives of Who-Cares , it seems the question should have been, "What is wrong with television viewers?"

Have you been following the MTV hit "Teen Mom" ? Neither have I, as I am older than 13 and no longer think turning 16 is the biggest thing that will ever happen in my entire life, the life that my parents are trying to wreck. "Teen Mom" is a spinoff of the previous MTV reality show "16 and Pregnant," and it "stars" the same cast of teens, celebrated for making poor life choices. I thought maybe it would be good for teens to see how hard it is to be a teenage parent, to learn that raising children isn't a cakewalk even for mature, well-adjusted women with responsible partners. Surely the 4.5 million teens who watched the first year's finale learned an important life lesson.

Then I looked at the Facebook comments for the show. Here's a typical comment (with the original spelling): "I'm 17 an preganat I would like to be apart of the show." Well, who hasn't misspelled things on Facebook? It's hard to type with your thumbs. More disturbing is that someone thinks being 17 and pregnant is the road to stardom. Why waste all that time and money on singing and dancing lessons if all it takes to get on TV is to be a baby mama? You'd think there was a national competition to be the first one in your high school class to have a baby shower.

If the teen mom could learn to make cupcakes, there's no telling how far she could go on reality television. Maybe she could get engaged. Planning a wedding is also a good way to become a reality TV star. Not planning any old wedding, but a huge, expensive wedding that will impress all your friends with how much money you've wasted. Because, as every teen bride knows, the more you spend on your wedding, the longer the marriage will last. Just ask the Kardashians, whichever one had the weeklong marriage. The good news is that it doesn't matter whom you marry. A reality TV bride will spend much more time picking a wedding dress than she will a groom. Practically any guy in a tux will do. What's really important is the cake, the paper the invitation is printed on and the DJ. The husband is just there for ceremonial purposes , like a ref at a hockey game. A husband is also a good thing to drag along when your friends start having over-the-top weddings.

What's odd is that there are 21 reality shows about weddings, but only 12 shows about being wives. It seems getting married is twice as popular as being married. Is it because the husband is always in one room watching "SportsCenter" and the wife is in the next room watching wedding-planning shows? Or vice versa? Well, I guess that's why we have Dr. Phil's reality show to sort it out when it all goes south."
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Jim Mullen can be reached at jimmullenbooks.com.

And the Winner Is . . . .

All the captions for my "Scary Picture of the Day" were great, Mr. itsme and I could not decide on just one, so, YOU ALL WIN!

Randy, Pam, AZ KD & lemming, if you want cookies, send me your address via email (see my profile) and specify chocolate chip (with or without nuts), oatmeal raisin or white chocolate chunk cranberry. I made a bunch of these (see picture) this past weekend and they were the first to go, so I KNOW they are good.

Or I can easily do a combination of each if you'd like all three kinds.

If you don't want to give your address then thanks for participating and I hope you keep visiting my blog.
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NOAH JAY

We also had a new addition to our growing family today, Noah Jay was born this morning at 2:33am. He weighed 8.2lbs and was 22.5 inches long. Can't wait to meet him! A mighty handsome boy, here's his picture:

KONY 2012

Please take 30 minutes out of your day and watch this video. Then join us on April 20, 2012.

An Evening With Rachel Maddow

This past Saturday evening, I had the supreme pleasure of watching Rachel Maddow walk onto the stage of the Morris Daily Auditorium at San Jose State University wearing black sneakers with bright blue stripes and pink socks. She was on the SJSU campus to receive the John Steinbeck Award. Presented by The Center for Steinbeck Studies, the award is given to “artists and activists whose work exemplifies values found in the writings of John Steinbeck: a concern for the natural environment, a commitment to the common people, and the courage to critique the contrasts between the powerful and the poor.”

Ms. Maddow is a local girl, having been born and raised in Castro Valley, California. She graduated from Castro Valley High School, received her bachelor’s degree in public policy from Stanford University in 1994, and her doctorate in political science from Oxford University, which she attended on a Rhodes Scholarship, as the first openly gay American to win a Rhodes Scholarship.

During the hour and a half interview with San Francisco KGO’s Pat Thurston, Maddow talked about her career in talk radio, hosting her own show on MSNBC, as well as a few political issues of the day like the Occupy movements, gay marriage, and the upcoming 2012 election. When asked what she thought made her successful as a radio host and personality, Maddow answered that it basically boiled down to her detail in explaining issues, rather than being the liberal activist many of her critics paint her as – but make no mistake, she is proud to be a Liberal.

My favorite quote was when she was asked what she thought of those who hate her and she said it comes from them not wanting to hear what’s wrong.

“I sometimes think that hate and that reactionary position comes from a love of country, you don’t want to be told that there is anything wrong…,” Maddow said.

The much too short evening was closed by the presentation of the John Steinbeck Award by John Steinbeck’s oldest son, Thomas, who said his father’s job was “to reconnect humans with their own humanity” and that his father would have been “absolutely fascinated and intrigued by Rachel Maddow and her role as a first-class observer and commentator of the political agendas that now embroil our country…”

Scary Picture of the Day

I don't need to say anything, you all know what I'm thinking already right?

OK, I can't help myself: he's giving up desserts (only for 40 days?) Having had three marriages and numerous affairs, this is going to be a real sacrifice for a man who likes having his cake and eating it too.

Calista says she's "giving up my opinion" (and blinking apparently). How about the account at Tiffany's and the Botox! Like all good submissive Republican women, first it's your opinion, then it's your shoes.

Of course, what else could they give up? I guess being truthful, having morals, intelligence, principles, etc., would just be too hard.

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CONTEST ALERT
Fresh baked cookies for the person to come up with the best caption for this picture (you'll have to give me your address)

Randomized Thoughts 2/20/12

I know it's been almost two months since I've written anything, I had grand plans, believe me. Since the beginning of the new year I've had a few changes in my life - some good, some not so much. For what it's worth, here's what I've got:

Had a sleep study done in late December and was diagnosed with Sleep Apnea. My new best friend is now my trusty CPAP machine. Didn't take long to fall in love with the little guy (Fred as he is known). Trouble is I don't snore anymore but I still lie awake in the middle of the night jousting those night demons. Mr. itsme has had his own "Fred" for almost a year but he hasn't named it. What a pair of old farts we've become!

Speaking of Mr. itsme, he retired at the end of September 2011. It's been great. For him. I still get up in the wee hours and drive the hour to work. Nice thing, I make my own coffee in the morning and we're savings thousands of dollars by giving up Starbucks. I'm not jealous or anything (I'm not, I'm not, I'm not!) but he's having far too much fun without me.

I lost my only living Aunt this past weekend, she was born and died on the same date (I always thought that would look cool on a headstone). My late Father's only sister, we were blessed to have her in our lives for 85 years. All 10 of my late Mother's brothers & sisters are gone too. I remarked to my youngest brother after hearing the news, that we are the "old folks" in the family now. It's OK, if I leave this earth loved as much as she it will all have been worth it.

Our family is eagerly awaiting the birth of a new addition to the family, sometime in mid-March is his or her arrival date. The parents-in-waiting opted out of knowing. In April a long awaited Wedding - 11 years in the making - will be performed by Mr. itsme. I have promised to wear a dress. This may be a promise I cannot keep however, as unlike the Bride-to-Be, I'm having second thoughts.

The last bit of disappointing news of the year (if I put it all in perspective) is that my beloved 49ers did not make it to the Super Bowl. I'm not one to hold a grudge and rooted for the Giants, even though they were the reason we didn't make it. Who can hate Eli Manning???

Happy New Year!

Didn't make it to midnight, rarely do. Looking forward to a new year of getting healthier (explanation coming), spending more time with family, and getting rid of "stuff," physically as well as mentally. Going to watch my 49ers win this morning and go on to the playoffs, maybe even the Superbowl. Then watching my adopted Oregon Ducks win the Rose Bowl.

This year we have another wonderful addition to the family due in March, a long awaited Wedding in April, Mr. itsme's retirement party in January (my own possibly in December). I'm expecting lots of changes -the good kind- this year also. Life is so short, I'm determined to make this the best year EVER.

Love & blessings to you and yours.