Memorial Day

The leg
Originally uploaded by mmoster.

So, you bitches wondering how I celebrated memorials? Well, Lizzie and Jon came into town and we played like children. This particular photo was taken at an awesome antique shop, where we found an historic prosthetic leg. (It even came with a sock) Brent went on and on about the sweaty padding in it, which enticed Elizabeth and I honor it properly. (i.e. by memorialing all that was left of our departed fellow soldier, Archie...poor bastard, never had a chance. One legged soldiers got no place serving on the front lines.) For more adventures on the high seas, check out my flickr page . I love you all. (Yes, positive reinforcement keeps you coming back. You crave my attention, you know it!)

Indiana, you doth take sucking to new levels of suckiness.

Is this title full of hyperbole? You won't think so after reading this.

The headline on yesterday's Indy Star
Judge: Parents can't teach pagan beliefs

A judge has banned a couple from sharing their pagan religious beliefs with their 9 year old son. This came about during the divorce proceedings of the couple. No, this was not a case of one parent disagreeing with the other about their son's religion. Both parents are practicing Wiccans. In this case, the judge took it upon himself to prohibit the parents from exposing their child to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals." Did you catch that? NON-MAINSTREAM. Though, a definition of mainstream was not offered either, since the government is not allowed to regulate religion. Obviously, this judge has a pre-conceived notion of what Wicca is, and doesn't realize it is generally a peaceful worship of nature. (Sidenote, though some Wiccans do partake in rituals in the nude, this child's parents do not. Not that that should matter, since a child need not partake in anything inappropriate for children. Babysitters can work for pagans. But I just wanted to dispel any notion that this child would suffer as a Wiccan)

Assuredly his imagination has naked heathens dancing round a virgin sacrifice. He probably cried in his chambers while clutching the crucifix tightly in his fists, swearing he would save this child from the fires of hell.

So, people, now you know how low Indiana can go. I assume, as do many of the legal experts cited in the article, that this case will be overturned on appeal. For the sake of all Hoosiers, let us hope so.

Republicans stink

Republicans stink
Originally uploaded by mmoster.

An observation:

It might be true that Republicans are often wealthy, but let it be said that its easy to make fat cash when one has no morals or principles.

PS--I promise this isn't a random thought, but I'm legally bound not to discuss this issue any further.

Hawaii, I could handle

>

American Cities That Best Fit You:

55% Honolulu

55% Los Angeles

55% Miami

55% Washington, DC

50% Austin

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

For my entertainment

Via Bill
A book meme
May 18th, 2005


1) Total number of books I’ve owned?

If I go back and consider my childhood books, which I will since I'm no traitor to L.M. Montgomery, it must be around a thousand. Large thanks goes out to my Grandmother who enrolled me in some type of book club so I received new books monthly for a decade or so. Also, the one splurge I'm always willing to make is on books for 'the smarty pants library.' (i.e. books that make me look s-m-r-t, smart, simply by owning them)


2) The last book I bought?

As I lay Dying, by Faulkner.


3) The last book I read?


The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon


4)What book are you currently reading?

Three Junes by Julia Glass


5) Five books or series that mean a lot to me:


1. Pride and Prejudice, and every other book written by Jane Austen
2. I, Claudius by Robert Graves
3. Anne of Green Gables series, by L.M. Montgomery
4. Macbeth, because its randomly tied to lots of good memories (puppet show version, one armed teacher, etc)
5. Ulysses, by James Joyce, because the drunken discussion Brent and I had about it made me fall in love with him

Everything is coming up Brent

Brent adores someone
Originally uploaded by mmoster.

Send your congrats to my husband, he just got a 'grown up' job. Its such a grown up job, we're calling it a career. He got it all on his own, too, no nepotism or anything like that. (although the blow job I gave his future boss surely didn't hurt his chances, right?) Check out his blog for more details.

I call bullshit

Do YOU think this sounds like me in the least??? I mean, 'serious, hard working individual', come on. More like cool, sexy fun and smarter than the rest of the world. That's more like it.

Your Birthdate: October 13

Being born on the 13th day of the month should help make you a better manager and organizer, but it may also give you a tendency to dominate people a bit. You may be more responsible and self-disciplined than you realize. Sincere and honest, you are a serious, hard working individual. Your feeling are likely to seem somewhat repressed at times. You are apt to be much more practical, rational, and conscious of details. Your intolerance and insistence on complete accuracy can be irritating to some.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Party Pics

Here are some pictures from John Orr's birthday party Saturday night. We did karaoke, and drank lots and lots.
PS--For more of the same, check out my flickr page.

The birthday boy singing.


Me and Rob looking too sexy for our own good.


Continuing to look sexy.


Brent getting into it.


Cam appreciating John's melodious voice.


Crazy Phil.


Brent, John and Cam pretend they're businessmen who just sealed the deal. (I married a weirdo huh?)

Oh my!

Gay Bear


Which Dysfunctional Care Bear Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Child dies while parents pray.

I just finished reading about a terrible tragedy in the Indy Star. A baby girl died 31 hours after her birth from sepsis, an easily treatable infection of the blood. I know, its easily treatable, so why did she die? Because her parents are irresponsible and turned to prayer instead of doctors. The parents knew something was wrong because the baby stopped breathing THREE different times before she died. Every time that happened, they turned to their church elders and prayer. They are members of General Assembly and Church of the First Born, though interestingly, the church claims members are free to seek medical help.

I don't want you to think this is an isolated case either. In recent years, other children from the church have also died. The most egregious case involves the Hamm family. Their 12 year old son died from untreated pneumonia in 1999, in Indiana, and another child died in Arkansas. Neglect charges were not filed in either case. It took the death of their THIRD child for charges to be brought, and that happened in California. They are now both in prison.

If your religion prevents you from eating meat on Friday, or going out in public without covering your hair, that is fine. No one will DIE from those actions. Also, if you're a legal adult and YOU choose not to seek medical help, I'm also fine with that. I do, however, have a huge problem with forcing children down a path towards death simply because you think God will handle everything. Most people in the hospital assuredly pray for their recovery, or have others praying for them. The two need not be mutually exclusive. You will be happy to know, gentle readers, that the parents have been convicted of reckless homicide and face up to 8 yrs in prison. Pray for the maximum.

Eisenhower contemplates

Eisenhower contemplates
Originally uploaded by mmoster.

Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.


President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 11/8/54
via Brent

Do you speak Parlez-Vous Français?

So for all y'all who speak French, my husband--who does not speak French--said something funny while attempting a french phrase. His dad makes wine and the last batch he titled, 'La Petite Mouffette', or in English, 'The little skunk'. But when Brent said it--half in english, half french, he pronounced it like this: "My little petit mon fête." For those who don't speak french, that is roughly," My little little my party." Its a fun phrase, use it liberally. Say it out loud now, "My little little my party." Let the revolution begin!

**SAID husband will of course know that this post is done with much love and affection.

The wrath of Daylight Savings

Clock
Originally uploaded by mmoster.

For those of you not hip to the political happenings of Indiana, the unthinkable has happened: Indiana adopted Daylight Savings Time. Personally, I'm all for it, but there are many in this state who hate it with a passion. The area I'm from, east central Indiana, is home to one of the larger pockets of resistance. You would think that towns bordering a state that observes daylight savings would be in favor of this move and that their only concern would be to lobby to move to Eastern Standard Time. I know when I lived there it was a huge hassle. (Remember, Lizzie, all those times we drove to Cincinnati to go shopping only to find the mall closed already? Totally annoying.) But, Hoosiers surprise me all the time with their seemingly boundless ability for intolerance and irritation at silly things. (I didn't intend for this post to be an ethnography of rural folk...there is a point I'm working towards, promise! )

So I'm reading the hometown paper, The Liberty Herald, and I found an open letter to the local legislators co-written by the editor and owner of the esteemed journal. The letter isn't that interesting, but the salutation certainly is. Here it is, I hope you are as slightly amused as I was. ;-)

"Dear Johnny, Bob, Cleo, Bob and Bob."

PS--I know this post is kinda weak, but what can I say? My life? Not a rollercoaster.

Did I tell you?

Baby Mayberry
Originally uploaded by mmoster.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this on my blog, but I'm going to be an aunt! Brent's step-sister is having a baby. The latest intelligence seems to indicate that I will be getting a nephew sometime in late September. As Brent's mother would say, his little pee-pee was visible at the last ultra sound. This image is from February, but its the only pic I have, so I'm going with it.

Tit for tat, lets have us a chat.

Well, to update you on my life:
Brent and I are still moving shit up from Bloomington to Carmel. One U-haul load, 4 car trips and we're still not done. Did I mention we made two trips to Goodwill as well? Where is all this crap coming from??? (Side note, we dropped a few things off at Goodwill that we're not sure will make it to the floor, namely a beer bong and a pink doggy sweater.) So, yes, the move is progressing, but not finished. Sigh.

Had class on Saturday. My Jewish friend, Adam, asked the professor if she had ever had any non-Christian students. She said no. But also that we wouldn't be penalized gradewise, so thats good news. A couple of funny things happened in class that you all should know about. We start the day off with a half hour of devotion and any 'special prayers' from the class. One guy raises his hand and says, "You might know I'm a girls track coach over at Cathedral (high school). I'd just like to pray for, uh, the development of my girls." Then he had a long pause in which it might have occurred to him what he actually said, so he tried to fix it with this gem: "You know, just to continue to help them to grow...long pause...spiritually." He is studying to be a gym teacher. Adam thinks we should just start showing up to class a half hour late to miss the praying, and I can't say I would hate and extra 30 mins of sleep. Oh yeah! Nearly forgot this story. We were discussing the fact that you have to be aware of the movies you're showing in class, you know, for sex, drugs, etc. Fairly common sense. Then this one lady says, "I work at a Kindergarten and can you believe it? We're not even allowed to show VEGGIE TALES? I mean can you believe it?" She was seriously surprised that you can't show OVERTLY CHRISTIAN FILMS. I wonder what she would think if her kids watched a bunch of cartoon figs and olives singing about being Muslim? The naïveté that abounds in this classroom is, frankly, astonishing.

But after class we headed back to Bloomington to check out my favorite Bloomington female, Allison. She was having a graduation party with a bucketful of mojitos. The librarians were out in full force! A drinkin' and a cavortin' w/ they bad ass selves. The music was happening--she had 3 dj's. The booze was flowing. And I was having a kick ass time talking to her dad, a biologist, about dinosaurs. I'm such a smarty pants, no? Let me give a shout out here to Allison for having such a fabulous soirée, I hope you had a good time at your party and that the morning after wasn't too awful for you!

Not much else happened that weekend, other than more moving, so I shall bid you adieu! 

Blogging about blogs...

Blaise casual
Originally uploaded by mmoster.

Incestuous, I know, but this cannot go without comment. The gentleman whose picture appears here is the dean of the school of library and information science at IU. I tell you this not to fill up space, but because its relevant when you read his own bathetic analysis of blogs. Follow this link! All you bloggers will be suitably outraged I'm sure, since this comes from the dean of INFORMATION science. Then, follow this link to Allison's blog for her take on the whole thing. It will put the smile back on your face.

PS--BATHETIC means: effusively or insincerely emotional; "a bathetic novel"; "maudlin expressons of sympathy"; "mushy effusiveness"; "a schmaltzy song"; "sentimental soap operas"; "slushy poetry"
Add it to your vocab today!

PPS--I forgot to mention, dude wears a signet ring!

God Will Not Be Mocked...

God Will Not Be Mocked
Originally uploaded by mmoster.

OR will he?

Just to catch you all up, Brent and I are moved up to Carmel now. (Suburb of Indy, for all those outside of the area) Another post will soon follow about the evil things happening in this state, but it will take some time, so onto more recent happenings.

You might know that I am doing a Transition to Teaching program. I go to class on Saturdays, do 5 hrs of student teaching a week, and in one year I have a secondary ed. license to teach English. Yes, a very responsible, if somewhat boring move on Melissa's part. Wheee!

So, I go to my orientation last Saturday at Indiana Wesleyan conveniently located just 15 mins away from my apt. Because I applied at the very last minute, I didn't get all the brochures and literature that describes the school. But I thought I knew enough about it, like I knew it was a Christian school.

Unfortunately, I didn't know it was FUNDAMENTALIST Christian. Let me describe to you my first day:

We started with a prayer. Ok, I thought to myself, I can handle this. No one has to know I'm not religious. (I decided in order to protect my grades and safety, to lay low, fly under their wacko radar). Then, the prof. immediately partners us up to 'interview' a classmate. (Settle in folks, there's lots and lots to this story.) One of her first fucking questions was, "Are you religious?"

I panicked, so my immediate reaction? Lie. "Oh, yeah' I said, "Catholic." (But I forgot they hate Papists too!) "Where do you go to church?" "Ummm, we just moved and we're looking for a new one."

Then she gave me the proof that I would be the smartest one in the class. She was already a kindergarten teacher, and had been for 6 years, but the college she went to WASN'T ACCREDITED! So, thousands of dollars later and her love of Christ brought her nada. Turns out lots of people in the class also went to these non-accredited colleges.

So then we spend the next hour describing ways to 'bring religion into the classroom,' without getting caught that is. Of course the professor had to make some remark alluding to the fact that evolution isn't real, blah blah blah.

At this point, I was ready to cry. I don't hate Christians, I just find them to be mostly all hypocrites. I'm a better Christian than most Christians, and I don't believe in that god. But, I was really afraid they would kick me out or that this would affect my grades. Seriously feeling sick at this point.

Then, it happened. I met my non-Christian, TTT soulmate, Adam. I was pretty sure Adam wasn't as crazy as the rest of the class, but I was too nervous to just straight up ask him, so I did some slickret, spy work. We had to fill out an anonymous survey about ourselves. A series of questions asked why we chose Ind. Wes. and we had to rate them from Most to least important. One of the statements was "This is what Jesus called me to do" and I noticed Adam put Least Important. So I knew I could have one friend.

Then, we had to fill out a sheet with our names that also detailed our religious background. I was pissed. I was uncomfortable putting down on paper that I wasn't religious for fear of retribution. I mentioned it to Adam and he said they didn't even have his religion of choice on there. You see, Adam is Jewish. He had to mark other. I marked No affiliation.

Next week I get to meet our class spirit guide. Assuredly you will hear all about it.

**In case you're worried, Ind Wes IS accredited and I know several people who have gotten degrees there. This includes successful people with advanced degrees. I need to find out if they too were forced to wallow in Christianity.

Am I crazy or is this not normal? Catholics only do rituals, none of that witnessing bullshit, and thats the end of my experience. You tell me, what is your experience? Is this insane, or what?

So evil, so true...

Top Ten Signs You're a Fundamentalist Christian
 
10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.
 
9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.
 
8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.
 
7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees!
 
6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.
 
5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old.
 
4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs -- though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering.  And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving."


 
3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.
 
2 - You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers.  You consider that to be evidence that prayer works.  And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.
 
1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history - but still call yourself a Christian.