Another Day of Infamy

You would think that some of the pain and anger that I felt that day will lessen a bit after six years, but it hasn't.

The man that orchestrated this mass murder is still at large and he shouldn't be.  He needs to be hunted down like the dog that he.  Instead he has the umbrage to do more video tapes, more plotting - egging "his team" on so to say.

Instead we have a President who gives one of his underlings the go ahead to throw insults at Bin Laden, questioning his manhood.  Yeah, right that will work great.  Given his state of health I doubt that has worked right for over a dozen years anyway.  Hey, maybe that's what made this guy nuts?

I didn't lose anyone on that fateful day, thank God...just my conviction that the Big Apple could survive anything.  Bits and pieces of my childhood, my youth blown to smithereens.

Every anniversary I pray for the fallen hero's, the police and firemen who entered the buildings without regard to their lives.  I also pray for the regular person, who sat working quietly, minding their own business trying to make a living. And in a split second their world was destroyed by a maniac.

With my two grown children and their families living and working in New York, I tend to panic every time the red flag goes up on terrorists.  My first thought is of them.

Then across the pond, you have medical doctors planning awful plots to kill thousands without any remorse. These are people who took an oath to do no harm...what the hell is wrong with these people.  Yes, I used the "these people" statement, no I am not a bigot...just telling the truth. 

So when the authorities rush to judgement and arrest two seemingly innocent Arab youths I no longer say "hey, what did they do? Where is the evidence?" I now say, where there's smoke there is fire...better safe than sorry...wish we had questioned more before 9/11.

I guess the problem I am having is that I want my world back.  The one I grew up in, where the biggest worry was whether Russia would Nuke us and we had to hide under our little wooden desks for survival...how naive we were.

Grab someone close to you tomorrow, give them a hug and tell them you love them......

 

Family

We had a lovely visit. The girls are growing so fast and summertime has turned them all blonde.

I was so happy that my daughter and son in law were able to bring all the girls this time.  They stayed near Orlando so they could take the kids to Disney and Sea World.  They had a great time, but Sea World wasn't as good as they thought it would be.

They all drove over on Tuesday and spent the day at Grandma's house, Uncle Joey and Holly, Aunt Barbie, Uncle Larry, Cousin Laura and Grandpa Joe even showed up!

Both Alisa and I have decided that we definitly need a diet (after seeing these pictures LOl) If I could figure out Dorn's secret??

Lisa and John did a lovely thing, they catered in for dinner from a nice Italian deli.  Food was very good and of course, Alisa taking after her Greek great grandfather overloaded the table till it was groaning.  She ordered pastaprimavera, chicken parmageana,lasagna,veal scallapini,Ceasar Salad and fresh Italian bread. whew. Did I mention diet? Help me please.  All this was followed by two platters of biscotti and mini cream filled desserts. Oh I forgot the mash potatoes, only because the little ones love them.

A wonderful time was had by all.

The following Sunday Little Joe, Holly and I drove over to Orlando and spent the day with them at their condo pool.  I felt like a lady of leisure, you can actually have a frozen drink while you are in the pool that was cool. They had a small sixties band and singer who entertained for several hours. So you really get laid back listening to good music and all.. Had a lot of fun, towards the end of the day the twins actually accepted me a little.  We all went out to dinner at Outback Steak House and it was really good.

I've promised to go up for Thanksgiving and then the twins birthday is the 30th of November. Time is moving much too fast for me.

Not Bathroom Humour

You really have to wonder.  One senator after another seems to be falling by the wayside trapped within our nations moral demise.

Let's face it.  Sex is the biggest motivator in the entire universe, it outdoes love, greed and stupidity all in one shot.  But you have to ask yourself....just what the hell was he thinking?  Enquiring minds would also like to know...just how do you achieve anything vaguely resembling sex by reaching under a partion?  Is that the new "come up and see me sometime" come hither signal?

I've always thought of myself as a fair person, so with that in mind I listened to the tape of the officer as he was arresting Senator Craig.

Let me tell you that I found the officer to be a bully. He started out trying to be friendly (as long as the senator did not protest the arrest) but as soon as the senator spoke up for himself the office became more and more obnoxious in his manner.  I truly believe that the senator was lead to believe that everything would be swept under a rug and not come to light if he agreed with the office.  Isn't that a form of blackmail? Or at the very least intimidation?

Listen to the tape and make up your own mind.  I have never liked these traps that the cops spring...sometimes it's almost like pushing a person into the situation.

Bride vs. Swan

Bride vs. Swan

Wow, I saw this one and just had to laugh.  I had many a bride pose with our Black Swans in the background but I always warned them not to try to touch them cause they would attack.

Pity the poor photographer who suggested this shot.  Swans and ducks can be nasty, I took my kids when they were little ones to a side show farm thing.  They had geese, ducks, swans and little deer.  Well, one goose grabbed hold of my Kenji's bottom, thank goodness he got mostly diaper...but the creature would not turn lose.  What a picture we must of made, crazy lady Mommy chasing boy and goose.  I finally had to whack it with my pocketbook to make it let go of my two year old.  Then I figure okay let's go feed the deer, can't get in trouble there right? Wrong.  Innocents that we were...we entered the little compound, armed with little while bags purchased to feed the deers.  All hell broke loose. Two dozen little creatures came flying at us as if they had not had a meal in days! And they rose up on their hind legs, making them taller than my kids!  So I pushed my kids behind me, taking the hoof blows myself and threw all three bags as far from us as I could manage.  It worked, they ran for the food, I picked up both kids and got the hell out of Dodge!

Did I learn anything? Nope, years later I was still talked into holding an alligator...

Freedom

The following is a quote from ex-mayor Rudy Giuliani...

 

"Freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do."

Did any of you guys realize what freedom meant? This was sort of an eye opener for me regarding Rudy's way of thinking. 

We all come into this world and our parents hoped that it would be a better world for us and that WE COULD BE ALL THAT WE WANTED TO BE.  To dream, our ancestors had a dream...it was called FREEDOM.  They fought, they bled, they died...and freedom was born in this country...1776.

Now Rudy wants to change the meaning of the word? I think not.

 

So, in other words, our past and present soldiers fought and died for authority? Not the right to be free, wow, the Nazi's would have had a field day with this propaganda.

This definitely sounds like "Big Brother" and double think.  It seems that many of our contenders on both sides of the platform need to remove their feet from their mouths.  

In this day and age, I certainly don't want to even consider a person qualified for the Presidency - unless they have a considerable amount of control over their mouth and what comes out of it.   Just imagine...we have an ex-mayor of a city, that was a melting pot for refugees seeking freedom, a city that has a huge welcoming freedom statue in it's harbor...the Statue of Liberty.   Liberty means freedom...not render unto Caesar.

I also wouldn't want a president who proclaims to the world..."Hell, no I won't use nukes!"  No one wants that but we have really, really bad guys out there that have them and are not afraid to use them. So that was a really dumb thing to say.  I prefer to think of Roosevelt and his "carry a big stick policy".  Diplomacy has to be an avenue to peace, but done with a firm strength of conviction. 

Yes, we need laws and yes, we have a process to bring our laws into being.  But we are not to be blindly lead like sheep to the slaughter, that is why so many people are upset in this country.  

We were fooled by a wicked few who, evidently, have no concept of Freedom.

 

 

 

Mother Nature's Fury

Jeeze...the weather is weird this year.  A tornado in Brooklyn? Snow in South America? Lightening in St. Pete hitting houses, setting them on fire. Flooding in Texas, droughts out west. Now this morning I hear that a small earthquake hit right outside of Los Angeles.

Not to make light of anyone's poor fortunes but.....

Yep, it's as my hubby feared...hell has frozen over and we WILL have a woman president!  LOL....I just had to.

In Memory Of

There once was a lovely little girl, sweet by nature, beautiful to look at and a joy to be around. Lovely little Laura. An actual true blonde with deep blue eyes, peach skin - small as a child, growing into a gorgeous, petit teenager.

She became close friends with my own daughter and seemed to enjoy being at our house. I always believed in an open house, so that my children and their friends had a safe place to play, grow and learn. Kids gravitated to my house and I, in turn, felt like a second mother to many of them.  Laura had a special place in my heart.

She would always offer to help with whatever chore I was attempting to do.  As a single, working Mom of two...with a city job and a high mortgage...there was never enough time for chores.  I know my daughter has a different view of her, but what Laura showed me would have made any mother proud to call this girl daughter.

At the time, and I wish to God that I had known then, she was a very troubled child. Her home life was abysmal, something no child should go through. For all that she seemed to try to reach out to me, she could never tell me the truth of her life. You know when you think back about paths taken and wonder if you should of done this instead of that? Even though she was being hurt, she was protecting others and would not let anyone in to help her.

When we moved down here, my husband had to be here by a certain date for the union and we still had not closed on our house up north. So, myself and the baby, stayed up north and my daughter and Laura helped pack up the van and drove down with my hubby to our house in Florida.  Laura was terrific on the trip down, made sure Joe did not fall asleep. Lisa had gotten a terrible cold and was almost comatose the whole trip down.

That was the last time I saw Laura. Lovely Laura.

She went back up north, married someone, it didn't work out...she dropped out a bit, wouldn't return her friends phone calls.  They lost touch, didn't even know where she was. During the years, I asked about her, only to be told they didn't know.

My daughter learned yesterday that she died...two years ago.

She had wound up in a commune in Arizona. Death is attributed to a bacteria infection that went directly to her heart.

My heart hurts.