THE US CONSTITUTION

Article 1: Section 8

Clause 1: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

It turns out that the Supreme Court and I disagree on what it means to provide for the "general Welfare" of the citizens of the United States of America.  I believed that, in this case, the authors of the Constitution intended the use of the word to mean our general "good health, fortune, prosperity and well-being."  I guess the majority (5-4) of the Supreme Court Justices grew up believing the definition of the word to be "a governmental agency that provides fund and aid to people in need."

Brilliant. 

The medical insurance/pharmaceutical industries have been lining their pockets with the very lucrative consequences of fear for years.  Thanks to our government, none of them has to worry about one thing that is common to the general public -- the possibility of unemployment.

Apparently

ap·par·ent

   /əˈpærənt, əˈpɛər-/ Show Spelled[uh-par-uhnt, uh-pair-] 

adjective

1.readily seen; exposed to sight; open to view; visible: The crack in the wall was readily apparent.

2.capable of being easily perceived or understood; plain or clear; obvious: The solution to the problem was apparent to all.

3.according to appearances, initial evidence, incomplete results, etc.; ostensible rather than actual: He was the apparent winner of the election.

4.entitled to a right of inheritance by birth, indefeasible except by one's death before that of the ancestor, to an inherited throne, title, or other estate.

It turns out this is not a word that is intended to be inserted at the beginning of every sentence kids. 

Liar, Liar: Pants on Fire

These days, I feel like I'm hanging upside down from a telephone wire.  Recently, a girlfriend shared some information about one of our children's mutual friends.  It didn't feel like super hush-hush information, but I still didn't intend for it to fall out of my mouth the way it did to my daughter the next day in my just-waking-up-from-a-not-nearly-long-enough nap.  Crap. 

Of course, I pointed out that this information didn't need to be shared because it would just be hurtful, but, holy crap batman: do NOT tell me the directions to your batcave right now!

By the next day, I came home from church to find the 16 year old in crocodile sized tears, everyone (the son of the girlfriend, the girlfriend, the mutual friend who had negative things said about her AND the mutual friend's mom) were all calling my daughter a LIAR (and that is putting it mildly.) 

I couldn't reach anyone by phone and drove directly to Mom Y's house to confront her about calling my daughter a liar instead of calling and yelling at me for sharing the details of a "private" conversation (the comments had been made within earshot of most of our children).  Not understanding the hold that Mom X has on my girlfriend, Mom Y, I tried to call and smooth out all of the edges.  In a split second decision, I decided to go to the house of Mom X and make it my fault.  I alluded to the things that had come from my mouth but said that they had been "misunderstood."

I've never regretted covering the tail end of a friend as much as that moment of deception.  I wanted to protect my friend, who was (in my humble opinion) behaving irrationally based on some fear of knowing just how powerful Mom X is in that neighborhood.  But, what I ended up doing was to cause my daughter's friend to doubt her words and her motive. 

Her motive?  She wanted to put her friend on guard around Mom Y so that she wouldn't believe Mom Y is an ally when she is absolutely not.  Mom Y has some very unfriendly opinions about this girl that she doesn't want her to know about.

As for the backlash...

Mom X won't let daughter X come to my house anymore.  The reason?  Because I am a LIAR.  The awful part about is that for that one moment, I was.  I protected my friend...saved face for her.  In return, my daughter's integrity and my own are in question and this woman (and her son) had the gall to yell out, put down and use degrading language toward my little girl -- demanding an apology from her in the process.  Um...no.

Who needs enemies when you have friends like that?

Killing Facebook

Mums the word -- chrysanthemums on a headstone, that is.  Yes.  I murdered my facebook account.  I was sick of slipping on the soapboxes.  BONUS reason?  Working in an attorney's office I've learned that your very private facebook account is completely discoverable as evidence of just who you are (or who you show yourself to be) and I just don't have the energy for that.

Same Sex Marriage

This has been a hot topic of conversation even before California's Proposition 8 received so much attention.  My husband and I have wondered out loud at what is to be done and how, while remaining true to the Constitution, our government would respond to this issue.

My father-in-law is a Californian who read the document and said the reason it needed to be put down was not the issue of homosexual marriages, but some anti-discrimination wording that would force churches to perform gay marriages even if they felt it was immoral or against their religious beliefs. I haven't read it, but this post isn't exactly about that.

For me, I've wondered if the government would have to remove itself from the definition of "marriage" and only recognize "civil unions" whether they were of a hetero-, homo-, bi-, poly- or best friend sort of nature for tax, insurance and census purposes.  This would leave the definition of "marriage" up to religious groups who believe there are moral or eternal purposes and consequences to who we bind ourselves to (and how) in this life while equalizing the pursuit of life and liberty for all of America's citizens.

It really is a messy business and it is far from over.  But, I came across something I'd like to share with those willing to take the time to read it.  There is a gentlemen who is not only passionate about this topic, but he has some depth and logic in his viewpoint that may include some things you have not considered.  For me, the most interesting portion was his presentation of the history of same sex relationships and how they were not necessarily normal in that everyone was doing it, but accepted as a natural, loving bond instead of something, well, queer.  He goes on to give some analogies about marriage that I hadn't thought of -- perhaps because my family has a long history of NOT getting and/or staying married.  Please read with an open mind and share with me what you learn. It is the Mormon Midrashim's four part series on gay marriage.

Pictures of You Naked

Rocking out to the radio during my 45 minute commute before and after work is one way to prevent insanity.  However, the title of this blog is just one example of the in-your-face-sexual lyrics found in today's hip hop.  Skip the innuendo - the metaphor - the romance -- let's get to it!

Puh-lease tell me that this new version of "Welcome to the Jungle" is not working for all of the horny toad teenagers and boys-who-refuse-to-be-men and that the women of the world have not become walking pornography. Hold on, baby, while I jack off. 

Thank heaven for the seek button and an instantaneous switch to something sweeter.

This Book Will Save Your Life by a.m.homes

I purchased this book on tape from the All-a-Dollar Store near my house, desperate to have something to listen to during the commute and was pleasantly surprised.  Granted, there is language and if you have an issue with the "f-bomb" you should NOT read this book.  If you don't have a problem with it, hold your horses before you think I'm recommending this read.

You see, the first four chapters were intriguing and full of thought provoking quotes I just had to share with friends.  Each of these sparked fantastic conversations on the social media wall (don't we all wish we could be using spray paint to grafiti a wall?!)  However, several chapters later I realized that, while all of these interesting plot twists were occurring, the depth had gone right out of the novel and been replaced with a Shock and Awe Campaign to rival President Bush's onslaught on Iraq.

Let's just say there will be a movie and the movie will not have a hard time squeezing one breathing-taking conundrum in next to every other one. I'm pretty sure the part that will get lost will be the search for the perfect location for the doughnut shop. Horses rescued by helicopter, massages in places you dont' want to know about, surprise famous writers and musicians next door, and don't forget about the homosexual son coming out of the closet by getting drunk and telling dad he wants to %$*& him -- oh!  or the Los Angeles earthquake that let's loose a flood of ground water and the hero of the book riding the wave out to the sea by floating on a dining room table made of styrofoam (hollywood movie set furniture). 

Did I spoil it for you with the spoilers? 

The only thing that held my interest in this book was the narrative point of view.  It was completely limited to the main character.  People were "the guy", "the woman", etc. until he knew their names.  It was like having this man's life unfold in front of my eyes.  Too bad it wasn't worth the view after the author gave up depth for gimics.