Thus Says Suzanne...

health care reform at any cost

When fewer than one in four Americans agrees with the health care reform the House passed last night, why are our elected representatives so determined to ram it down our throats?  

Has anyone looked at our government's checkbook lately?  It's seriously overdrawn.  This is not the solution to the problem.

 

Pat Robertson is an idiot

The earthquake in Haiti is apparently (according to this bonehead) because they made a deal with the devil.  

Oh hell to the no!

The ick factor here cannot be overstated.  

Update - The previously posted video became unavailable.  This is a fresh link and should work.

Awkward

Let me just preface this by saying I don't have any tattoos myself.  What's the protocol on how many tattoos of different men's names should one woman have on different parts of her body?  Let's say she has a tramp stamp on her lower back with one man's name, should she have another man's name on her neck, over her breast?  Awkward.

Team Kate

Have you been keeping up with the drama with Jon and Kate?  When I started watching the show I used to think Kate was pretty harsh with Jon.  Now I stand in awe of her ability to keep him in line for all these years. 

I've lost track of how many girlfriends he's had (or continues to have).  Apparently even his divorce attorney asked to be released from the case.  Today there is a story about how he sent the family dogs back to the breeder.  His apparent main girlfriend is reported to have called the mother of Jon's children "Katezilla."  Seems like every week there are new images floating around of him hosting some kind of party somewhere (as in a sponsored party in Vegas or some such nonsense).  Is this guy for real?  It's as if he's having some kind of paint-by-numbers midlife crisis.  I figure any day now the president will call him a "jackass."  

Is California a deadbeat parent?

For those not living in the Golden State it may come as a surprise to learn our folks at the capital have so jacked-up our budget that they have well and truly hosed us all.  Unless they reach a budget agreement - right, because that will happen - they plan to delay taxpayer refunds, send state workers on mandated furloughs, and withhold child support, among other things.

When I say they plan to withhold child support I mean that they intend not to provide financial support to the children they have taken into the foster care system.  Foster parents in San Diego County have already received notices that they can expect reimbursement payments (which the state is aware does not adequately the child's basic expenses) to be delayed, perhaps into September.  And, because Medi-Cal is also affected, the same children are going to have difficulty getting medical treatment. 

Social services is the first casualty of the budget crisis.  My adoption worker is among the first to be affected by the mandated furloughs.  How many other social workers will be affected by the soon-to-come layoffs?  How many children waiting to be matched with adoptive families will continue in foster care limbo before this is resolved?

Because soon there will be fewer social workers, there will be fewer people to check on children who are in reported to be in horrendous situations.  There will be no funds to help keep families together, and we already know there are no funds to care for children once they enter the foster care system.

Soon the children in foster care will not have social workers to check on them, foster parents paying their expenses out of pocket indefinitely, and children without access to health care or mental health services (or social workers to cut through the red tape). 

Foster families take on the task of caring for children who are profoundly damaged by their past, and they do it for free but the state is supposed to pay for their basic needs.  The State of California is the legal guardian of the children in the foster care system who have been separated from their biological families.  These children have no voice. 

It is obscene that the folks in Sacramento are looking to these children to bear the first crunch of the budget crisis.  A civilian who withholds child support can find themselves being labeled a deadbeat parent.   

painfully ignorant

Sometimes I come across something on the web that makes me stop and think.  I found this question posed on a question site, dated September of last year.  I don't know what happened to the girl (and I do mean girl) but I hope she chose a different path.

QUESTION: I'm 16 and I'm on Birth Control.
Me and my boyfriend thought I was pregnant about two months ago. But than we found out I was just really late.
But after all that thinking that I was; we've decided to try having a baby.
I know I'm young.
But I've thought EVERYTHING through.
And I really think I'm ready and that I can handle everything of having a baby.

And for the past month and a half, I've been skipping days on my pills and taking them at the wrong times.
And we've been trying to have a baby.
But every time we try and have a baby about two or three days in a row, and I've skipped my pills; I think that I'm pregnant. (because I start feeling sick and stuff and think I could be having symptoms of being pregnant.) But then the next day I end up starting my period.

And it's VERY disappointing.
I don't know what I'm doing wrong..!

I don't smoke or drink.
I've been eating healthy foods.
And I still can't figure out what is so wrong.

Could you PLEASE help me..? =[
I can't handle all this disappointment...
I'm so close to giving up, but.. I really don't want to give up.
I want this baby.

Please help me.
Thanks.

-Karissa
p.s.
I hope I didn't write too much and I hope it made sense. =]

And here is her follow-up response to the respondent's query:

Well I've thought about all the pain I'll have to go through, and I'm getting a job, and me and my boyfriend are going to save up money to support the baby, and no matter what, I'm going to stay in school and pass high school.
And I know for a fact that if I had a baby, my mom would be there to support me.
And I have a bunch of friends and family that will be there for me too. =]
And I don't really go out much with friends, so that doesn't bother me.
And me and my boyfriend have been together for half a year.
But I KNOW he loves me.
And I love him more than anything. =]
And to me, having a baby would mean I wouldn't ever be alone, and I'd have something that was ONLY me and my boyfriends and no one else's, and no one could take that away from us. =]
And also, having a baby would mean that me and my boyfriend would be together forever. =]

And I'm very responsible, so I'd be able to take care of the baby.
And I used to watch a bunch of babies, so I have experience with that also.
Hmm..
I'm sure theres more things I've thought about but I can't quite remember most of the things.
But I know I'm ready.

I'm also very shy, so I think that if I have a baby, then I'd be able to open up more. =] And just.. be myself.

Did I miss anything? =]

seriously?

I've been reading comments left on some news articles about the FLDS hearings.  I continue to be astonished by some of the comments.  Here's a sampling...

• What if the FLDS refuse to give up polygamy like you want ?.. even though it is none of your #@$% business to begin with.  What if the FLDS women refuse to sit around for FIVE years after puberty waiting until YOU give them permission to use THEIR uterus ?
• Where did you get the idea that the FLDS do "little girls?" I suppose you and I have a different definition of a "little girl." In my opinion, a "little girl" is a small child, not an adolescent. Lots of adolescents have sex in Texas. Some parents in Texas even let their teenaged daughters have sex with their boyfriends in their home. But those parents are not being persecuted like the FLDS.
• As for health benefits getting married at 14 also has its advantages FLDS women are healthy have ZERO incidence of venereal disease because of their strict life style. They don't go around fornicating and using abortions as a form of birth control either.
• I believe a parent should not have to be required to prove they are fit to be a parent to get their children back.

the other Spears girl

Britney's 16-year-old sister Jaime Lynn has done what might have seemed impossible...she took the spotlight off Britney by announcing she is pregnant.  I'm guessing Nickolodeon will not be asking her back next season.

Reportedly the release date of gramma Lynn Spears' parenting book has been pushed back indefinitely (duh).

How on earth is Britney going to top this?

a special kind of stupid

If you haven't yet heard, Britney Spears has lost custody of her two children to her ex-husband Kevin Federline.  The judge recently heard evidence about Britney's habits and declared her to be a frequent and habitual user of drugs and alcohol.  He ordered her to twice-weekly random drug tests, co-parenting classes, and to work one-on-one with a parenting coach for eight hours each week.  On the heels of that ruling the ever-so-stupid Britney loaded up her posse of enablers and lackeys and went out to get her party on.  Then she reportedly got into yet another fender bender (still reportedly not having a valid driver's license) and dragged her crying children though the gauntlet of paparazzi. 

It takes a special kind of stupid to screw up one's life like this.  The last time she had a meltdown she shaved her head for all the world to watch.  This time I would say the stakes are higher.  She's flushed her marriage down the toilet, her career, her health, and now her children.  It's hard to say how much further she has to go before she reaches rock bottom and what might happen when she gets there. 

It's hard to summon any sympathy for someone who works this hard to self-destruct.