It's to Be or Not to Be a Cryin' Shame Thing

Dear America,

"if we had had confidence

 that the president 

clearly did not 

commit a crime, 

we would have said so" 

said Bob

doink, dare it is.

doink, dare it is.

for the record, this girl purposely chose the CBS link, above, to double down on the level of bullshit of this portion of his full statement; you know, given that this is the part that everyone seems to be slicing and dicing in the media, social and otherwise, in the aftermath.

But let's be clear -- Bob purposely said it this way, when he could have said the exact opposite, going a little something like this:  if we had had confidence that the president clearly committed a crime, we would have said so. 

You see how different that sounds?

But no.

Bob knowingly calculated the kind of mileage a statement such as this might make, and he said it, doing a marvelous job masking the glee inside his heart, even with the bags under his eyes, looking completely exhausted, and all.  Bob basically, pointedly, strategically, dropped a bomb, taking no time for questions, and then dropped the mic.  End of story (for Bob, anyway).

Bob, knowingly, laid the groundwork to allow the media and the democrats to do the rest.  #fuel to the fire;  # unbiased special council, my ass; # how fast can we impeach the guy now....

boom

But don't take my word for it -- who am I, right? (right....I'm just a girl, an American girl, and this IS a day in the life of an American Girl....exactly)  But moving on dot org....Let's go to an op-ed from The Hill.  Alan Dershowitz, to be more precise.

HERE. Shame on Robert Mueller for exceeding his role....

Until today, I have defended Mueller against the accusations that he is a partisan. I did not believe that he personally favored either the Democrats or the Republicans, or had a point of view on whether President Trump should be impeached. But I have now changed my mind. By putting his thumb, indeed his elbow, on the scale of justice in favor of impeachment based on obstruction of justice, Mueller has revealed his partisan bias. He also has distorted the critical role of a prosecutor in our justice system.

indeed. indeed.

shame, shame.

Mueller's role is to protect truth and justice,  no matter what his personal beliefs.  

But Bob waited for the eleventh hour -- 

after refusing to meet with Congress, 

after making a point to say the report speaks for itself,

and he spoke.  

He spoke without any cross examination allowed.  

He spoke in order to plant the seed.

He spoke to irrigate the channel,  cross-pollinating media and the left, for the continuance of this nonsense --  this outrageous partisanship that all began at the dawn of a fake dossier (and paid for by the opposition party, namely,  The Clinton Campaign).

He spoke in order to germinate the seed to support a case for impeachment, even though there is no proof, no facts, no grounds, whatsoever. 

He spoke and then he promptly stopped speaking...like a big, fat, take that, MAGA nation.

He spoke and then walked off into the sunset -- and he may have well have been totally naked, for that matter, for his motives were that transparent.

what a shame, what a shame.

Here's a good read all about it; it comes from a place called  The Patriot Post.

Here's one more, from Mark Alexander of The Patriot Post, with an even better synopsis of the whole darned thing.

So as the world turns, as we go from days when there was no there there, to today's here here and the unconscionable staging of a phrase that most glaringly takes a side as to whether Trump committed or not committed a crime  -- it's to be or not to be a cryin' shame --  not sure where we go from here, America.  This ain't good.  

The only thing that has become startling clear, is that it's a sad sad day for America, for we the people. 

say your prayers, say your prayers.

dropping my mic for now.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's of Stories Consolidated Thing

Dear America,

“Heroic Americans have answered

 their nation’s call 

and paid the ultimate price 

for our freedom,” 

Pence said of those who died 

while serving in the military. 

“Their duty was to serve. 

Our duty is to remember.” 

indeed it is.

our duty is to remember, not just for today, but for every single day.

and how do we best do that?

Through stories.

Stories that we pass down -- through the family, through attendance at our holiday memorial celebrations (like that of Arlington) ... 

Stories that we pass down  -- from one generation to the next....

Stories that somehow convey the sense of courage, the sacrifice of self, that leads to a greater understanding of just how honored we are, as Americans, to pay our respect this very day -- this Memorial Day.  As Pence noted,  "this is the day that makes possible all other American days.” 

My father, of Navy rank with decades served, is famous for email blasts of war torn stories, woven and worn through the ages; being a great believer in context, an expert in military history and stories going back to the beginning of time, can this guy bring it when it comes to telling the story, the whole story.

Most of his content, shares of his own time in the theater, whether it be in the Mediterranean or in Vietnam; while many times he is sharing comparisons of international relations, of then and now.   But occasionally, it would be of short anecdotal accounts of his own father -- although a civilian and engineer for Consolidated, located in San Diego --  he, too, was called to duty; a "hanger pass," security authorization identification, gave him the same military honors, if he were ever captured.

Consolidated built airplanes -- B24s to B exact -- for the Allied Forces, @Headquarters of the Eighth Air Force, AAF Station 112.  "Pop" was in London from about February to August in the year 1944.  And, if you do the math, that would put him front and center for the day that would forever be engraved in our minds, D-Day, June 6, 1944.  Location:  Normandy, France.

From the post, linked above, "Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which, 'we will accept nothing less than full victory'.”   And eventually, we got that victory, didn't we.  Although lives were lost, many many lives were lost.

Which brings me to another story -- it's of the same caliber, but of a different view; and,as a point of reference, it was initially shared with me by my girl  (attesting to the rare occurrence that the generational story telling can flip once in awhile...teehee).  Quite honestly, she's always had a keen and discriminating eye for things like this, have no idea where she gets that from...but I digress.

This story comes out of our local Camp Pendleton, 1st Marine Division, and goes something like this:

Great Love Happens Once: The Enduring Story of John and Lena Basilone

By Cpl. Teagan Fredericks | 1st Marine Division | February 14, 2019

...so, about the time that "Pop" was returning from London, England, after D-Day, and the days that followed that, John Basilone was heading back out to the Pacific, to join the fight once more.  But, that really comes in the middle of Basilone's story....

And you'll just have to read all about it in Cpl. Fredericks short read.  (No spoiler alert needed)

Fredericks does a pretty darned good job telling the story and that's just how I wish for you to hear it.

America's first celebration of this day occurred in the year 1868, on May 30th  -- after the ugly and contentious Civil war; and it was called Decoration Day.   It was not until 1971, before it became a federal holiday, and was modified to be observed on the last Monday of May, giving all federal employees a three-day weekend and a good excuse to ring in summer and barbecues galore.  But we best all know by now, that it is so much more.

Here's good context from the first Decoration Day.

From President James Garfield -- May 30, 1868 -- at Arlington:  His-story begins like so:

"I am oppressed with a sense of the impropriety of uttering words on this occasion. If silence is ever golden, it must be here beside the graves of fifteen thousand men, whose lives were more significant than speech, and whose death was a poem, the music of which can never be sung...

...And now consider this silent assembly of the dead. What does it represent? Nay, rather, what does it not represent? It is an epitome of the war. Here are sheaves reaped in the harvest of death, from every battlefield of Virginia. If each grave had a voice to tell us what its silent tenant last saw and heard on earth, we might stand, with uncovered heads, and hear the whole story of the war...."

The thing is -- Garfield's inaugural Decoration Day address needs to be read in full, with a moment of silence immediately following, not kidding; so just stop what you are doing right now, and just do it already, k.  It's beautiful. [that guy was president not long enough, in my book, just sayin']

My flag is waving in the breeze...

The sun is shining bright...

And all I know is, I have a nation of honorable men and women to thank for this freedom and this liberty, in which I live all of my days; it is my duty and honor and promise to remember the whole story, forever and ever.

And so, as with all my days here, when things come to the end and when this girl has no more story to tell...I must bid you farewell.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's of Things Seen and Unseen

Dear America,

"There is a mysterious evil, 

which surely is not the work of God 

but penetrates silently 

into the folds of history...

at times it seems to take over 

and on certain days its presence 

seems even clearer than that of God's mercy."

Pope Francis, recently

-- and we begin again --

good day

this is blog one thousand and one -- 

but who's counting, right?

anywho, for one reason or another, this pope has annoyed me since day one; but no surprise there.

but this morning, as I read this, over and over....

It's like, seriously -- this is your wheel house, Francis.

Mysterious evil?

where's the mystery? Can't we just call a spade a spade?

This, not so mysterious evil, has a name (many, actually) -- Satan.  Lucifer.  Prince of Darkness. The Devil.  Beast.  And even...and one of my personal favorites, The Dickens.   just to name six.

What Mystery? There is no mystery; for God so loved the world, HE allowed this "mysterious evil" to live among us in perfect disharmony, allowing for the quintessential battle of wills, if you will, to have its day.   Good and evil -- living freely together, side by side, making way for mankind to live in free play, complete with plenty of free falling of our own undoing, while all the while, giving free will free reign to have its way with us.

The beauty of this, is that it gave mankind the freedom to grow in relationship with God on a daily basis, while giving the individual the freedom to make his or her own choices, whether morally, intellectually, physically, or what have you.

The world, as we know it, is not still; it is the conglomeration of all of its parts, in constant motion, constant flux, constant conflict, constant labor, all the live long day; even this thing called climate change isn't anything brand spanking new.  it's been around and around and around. but what ever.

Today's cultural unrest surrounding abortion is a perfect example of the quickening, the continuous reawakening, the re-birthing, of the incredible divide between us; as a number of states are beginning to address this unrest with astounding, even provocative, legislation.   With many authorizing new legislation respective of the first heart beat, which comes to life as early as six weeks,  the most recent move comes from the state of Alabama --  and makes abortion nearly entirely illegal.

Of course, the truth of the matter is, it is purely a gesture of political posturing; for at the end of the day, abortion is still legal and federally protected all the way to Planned Parenthood and back,  from sea to shining sea...even in Alabama.

But let's be clear, shall we: America continues to evolve on this issue, generation after generation.  

That is just a fact.  

While this girl might also add: liberal women do not have the authority to speak for all Americans, no matter the state they are in, physical and otherwise.

What gets me still, is how we ever got this embedded into this thing called abortion in the first place. 

Of course, we know how Planned Parenthood had its origins -- Margaret Sanger, it's creator, systematically set out to extinguish the less-than, and reshape society, being the racist that she was.

But now look at us; arguing over the claims that it's about a women's right to choose, to hold the power to do what she wants with her own body, when in fact,  it seems more about shushing the opposition, the conservative voice entirely.

Conservatives gain labels of being ignorant, backward thinking, and basically, some kind of merry band of un-actualized, half-baked twits.  All the while, liberals, who consider this new age of abortion-on-demand a sign of true progress, get to be the modern day, highly-evolved intellectuals on the side of advancement of women's rights, and perhaps the savior of the entire world -- if only in their own minds.  Speaking of Anne Hathaway which, read Kira Davis, here.  (For more about Kira, go here.)

Good and evil at play.

Abortion is not settled science  when it comes to morality; it's not even settled science when it comes to our culture...  of its clear and present danger in our midst, the damage it represents within our communities and relationships, and most especially, the utter destruction of the African-American population. 

What kind of advancement of colored people is it, when this miracle of modern medicine has desecrated the black community?

What kind of advancement is it, when we have reduced the unborn fetus to being less than human, just so the conversation can move away from the reality of abortion, for what it truly is --  glossing over the damages to women, to society, to the unborn life itself -- and arrive here, weaponizing abortion in reckless free abandon.

But no one wants to talk about the damages.

Candice Owens, a fiery and articulate conservative woman who happens to be African-American, clarified the numbers for us, as a guest on Fox News last Friday evening -- noting the sad truth, that African-American women, who presently comprise of only about 7% of the population, are responsible for nearly 40% of the abortions in this country; and it explains just how the Hispanic community has grown into being the largest minority in the country (aside from illegal population flooding over the border as we speak).

But no one wants to talk about the damages.

Showing in the state of Michigan, linked in the stats above, 60% of all abortions are to women over the age of 25!  (Only 8% are under the age of twenty.)   This is simply outrageous.

The other outrageous statistic -- 96% of the African-American women having abortions in Michigan are not married -- when you include the whole country, this number goes down to about 86%, but still, this is not good.

When looking at America, as a whole, about half of all abortions happen between the age of twenty and thirty; with less than 0.3% of all abortions nationwide, occurring under the age of fifteen (according to records from 2015).

The thing is, in this day, and in this age -- birth control is inexpensive and it's a far more responsible way of protecting the unborn.  And yet, what we have grown to demand, in America, it would seem -- is to use abortion as birth control, and that is simply wrong every which way to Sunday and back.

Speaking from one girl to another of a different mother:  just wondering, just where are the liberal women willing to effect real change, and be brave enough to step away from this abortion-on-demand mentality, and actually model a modicum of responsibility with our bodies?   This goes a whole lot deeper than just caring for the unborn -- but actually caring for the health and welfare and sanctity of our own lives, our own bodies.  With STD's in this country off the charts, with sexual relationships between men and women becoming so casual, disposable even, you would think one of these days, women on both sides of the aisle, would one day come together on this one, for the betterment of the whole.

Are we really that cool, as a culture, to let free love rule our world?

Good and evil at play.

It's all just a cryin' shame with what we have done with love and marriage and children. just a cryin' shame.

Back to Francis -- leader of the Catholic Church; there is no mystery, the mysterious evil in our midst is getting the upper hand all the way down to the baby toe, and if you sit real still, you can even hear the heartbeat of an entire culture in solid decline, beat by beat.

"I wish to restate as firmly as I can that abortion is a grave sin, since it puts an end to an innocent life," the pope wrote in the letter. "In the same way, however, I can and must state that there is no sin that God's mercy cannot reach and wipe away when it finds a repentant heart seeking to be reconciled with the Father. May every priest, therefore, be a guide, support and comfort to penitents on this journey of special reconciliation."

Penned by the Pope, in a letter, during the Year of Jubilee,  celebrated with a year of mercy; all in all, appearing more like the afterbirth of the sanctity of life meeting up with the new, highly evolved, age.

Are we an educated people?  Are we?
Are we an enlightened people? really?

The answer is educating our girls to live a life that not only protects against the possibility of an unwanted pregnancy, it secures the resources and tools to safeguard their own welfare and prognosis of living a full and healthy life, whether in terms of being in sound relationship with her own spirit, to the boy next door, or to God Itself.

The answer is educating our boys to honor girls in every way; it's as simple as that.

This is how we the people  protect people from the actions of other people, even when in the womb.

On a personal note -- this week has met me wrought with distraught; my mind as been all over the place; perhaps why it has taken me over of a week just to put something down on a page. 

Oh, there is no mystery as to where it comes; it's as clear as the blue sky outside my window, never you mind about a few passing, glorious clouds.

Yup. The girl who believes in embracing all of life with no regrets, seems to have found one along the way; and it's nobody's fault but my own.  It's just one of those things --

I guess, in the ramblings of today, about life itself -- this day in the life of an American girl is taking a sudden turn...winding down into a certain melancholy; perhaps its just a postpartum thing, surely to pass one day.

But woke this morning wishing I went to the funeral.
In tears with deep regret.

Instead, I did what was best for the whole family.   As it made sense, come to think of it, at the time.

But somehow, in the light of this new day, It feels like I just took a bullet.

Much like the angst that came when the decision was made, after the back and forth, it just dawned on me, now that its over,  that it will forever be me -- I will be the one to forever be remembered as the one who wasn't there. I will forever be the one... the sister who stayed behind, the auntie who didn't make the time, as the optics in the aftermath appear a whole lot different up close, in the rear view mirror, in the day after.  [It's so true, things are closer than they appear.]

My presence was not there with good reason, goes the mantra inside my head.

And it's true.  And I know it in my heart of hearts.  But why come it feels so bad?

Whatever opportunity there may have been for starting over, for me, seems to have evaporated into thin air.   Janet is gone -- never able to restore things there; and my brother, well, he doesn't speak to me.  And the kids, my brother's kids, will forever memorialize the broken relationships through their mother's tears -- my word against hers has no place, no purpose, no validity whatsoever.  And besides, it was neither time nor place to mend any of it.

The event became more about things seen and unseen.  And I -- I was not seen.

So, if doing the math,  it leaves me perpetually stuck until God knows when. 

I'm just stuck.

I'm stuck, deep inside the crevasse of a  decade or more, stuck between the crags of ridiculousness and senselessness, feeling no ability to crawl out of it to escape its wretched reality.  I was not graced with a new view of the world just yet, now stuck in this  melodramatic darkness of mine. 

It's just something  that I will carry with me now; reminding me of a great book to read, The Things They Carried.

And yet,  I could feel the joy in my mother's voice as she told of the gatherings, moments that hold the power to effect change, restoring memories and relationship that might one day prove to be long-lasting and permanent.  She was graced with the Holy Spirit of God, hearing that still small voice deep down --  moving mysteriously before her -- given her new life, new hope, and new beginnings a chance to have their day.   She got to witness her boy in a new light... and he, the same.   As exhausted as she was at the end the day, from her travels home, there was a sense of exuberance about her; so much goodness, so much goodness, spinning wildly madly deeply all around her. 

The bonds of motherhood never sleep.

And in spite of the loss I am feeling just now, this chance for more, for her, makes me giddy with happiness.     there is no other mother in the world who deserves it more.

I'm a big girl; all's well that ends.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's in the pursuit of one thousand days Thing

Dear America,

Happiness

   

Happiness is the realisation 

of God in the heart.  

Happiness is the result 

of praise and thanksgiving, 

of faith, of acceptance; 

a quiet, tranquil realisation

 of the love of God.  

This brings to the soul 

perfect and indescribable happiness.  

God is happiness.

The Quiet Mind

White Eagle

this morning begins with a quote from the last page of The Quiet Mind.

Happy Mother's Day

Being excited about the day itself -- reaching the pinnacle of one thousand blogs -- my deliriously happy heart went to bed marinating on this very thought...and was just hoping that the morning would find me in the very same place.   And it did.

and just as the universe works, in the natural -- while in my corner, in the company of my coffee and that strapping and ever faithful eucalyptus tree of mine -- I summoned my little book of days, the clever collection of questions, Q & A a Day.  Lo and behold, the question this morning was "What are you exploring?"  to which I happened to have replied, without skipping a beat: "Happiness in all forms."

It didn't occur to me, until the moment I sat at my desk, just how much impact the Happiness quote -- the one laid to rest in my mind the night before --  had made on my psyche.  But there it was, in pretty pink ink swirled across the page...the exploration of happiness front and center, as if coming from the wisdom of the heavens.

Happiness -- that thing in which I give this very day -- means something different in all of us.

The thing is -- all I can do is wonder, just why our founders spelled it out, just so specifically, almost categorically...

"We hold these truths 

to be self-evident, 

that all men are created equal, 

that they are endowed by their Creator 

with certain unalienable Rights,

 that among these are, 

Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

indeed --  endowed by their Creator

For it was, in fact, Nature's Law,
and Nature's God --
when in the course of human events -- 
that gave them license, the empowerment, to separate from the British Crown in the first place.

Happiness is capitalized, as if of principal importance.

And yet, as we've noted probably a thousand times before, this Happiness is neither guaranteed nor promised by way of this declaration, or by way of one's Life, or even one's Liberty -- it is the explicit fruit of one's pursuit.

The brilliance of this seems almost too impossible to put into words, really.

But, really, why did they even mention this Happiness at all?

What did they mean by it?

And given our opening quotation from White Eagle -- was this kind of Happiness echoing the same kind of Happiness as our founders, or vice versa?

With regard to this pursuit of Happiness, could the answer be so simple:  Happiness is the result of praise and thanksgiving, of faith, of acceptance; a quiet, tranquil realisation of the love of God. 

maybe...

Our founders' wisdom came from all points of Light, of Life, of History, of Civilization, of Religion, of Government.  That was the beauty of it.  America's very presence in the world came from the world itself, as if it were an act of God.  We were birthed into existence, with significance, for a reason, from men of reason and enlightenment of the ages.

Our founders recognized the dismal life, a life under the control of the Church of England, the British Crown.  And we, the people, were over it already.

So to how to phrase this mighty fight against the Brits, in a way that makes the common man want to jump in, risking life and limb and whatever liberty they were presently enjoying...and bear arms until the war was won.

Hey, guys, any of you wish to find any Happiness in Life, like, ever?  Anyone?

oh this thing called Happiness...
what a powerful force it is.

In some ways, there may be a pretty good argument on behalf of this pursuit thereof, getting the best of us these days.  am I right?  This thing called Happiness carries the power to destroy many a civilizations over the ages.  there is that.

there's even a Facebook page in its honor:  Happiness Is.


And not to be a debbie-downer, but perhaps we should all be a little more mindful when it comes to pursuing our Happiness, no?

so leading me into the end of this day, and to follow along on a theme of the last couple days, I must say that I am slowly discovering just how simple I am these days, when it comes to things that make me happy...

happiness is a hot bath with a spot of whisky on a Sunday afternoon

happiness is a jelly donut brought to me just this morning on what might as well have been a silver platter

happiness is giving back to the community, with my time, and attention, and through the amazing works of the Daughters of the American Revolution

happiness is having a beautiful relationship with both my mom and my girl, celebrating the uniqueness of our generations, personalities, and family ties, completely and unwavering

happiness is the wealth of manhood that surrounds me -- from my own father, to my man xx, to his boys -- and the sense of earthy security they give me, deep in my heart and soul; so much so, that I easily burst into tears at the very realisation of how lucky one girl can be.  like, right now.

happiness is being an American girl
happiness is writing this Day in the Life of an American Girl

but the highest of all Happiness-es is the knowing, the realisation,  from where it all comes.

This girl is a child of the Most High God, and from here all blessings and Happiness flow.

thank you, God,
and just like the last 999, this one's for YOU.

ONE THOUSAND B's to the G power.

Thank you, God
Thank you, God

this day, this Mother's Day, is in honor of our Creator, the same Creator our founders had in mind, so very long ago.  and may this kind of Happiness be with you, too.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's Nine Hundred and Ninety Nine Blogs on the Wall Thing

Dear America,

"I'm actually a pretty simple person 

as it turns out.  

I'm just doing my best 

to make beautiful memories 

and enjoy the gift of my time here."  

Anne Hathaway

in her own words, 

from inside the June issue of Shape 

(it's a magazine)

it's not like I'm not a fan of her movies, my favorite Hathaway era was found in The Devil Wears Prada, and, even earlier, in The Princess Diaries (but just the first one, mind you). my girl and I must have watched them, like, a million times.

having said that, there is just something about this interview that finds me, sort of, like,  wow.  so Hollywood got to you, too.  what a shame, what a shame.

what happens to these people...

her new persona reveals how she has come from being the fresh faced neophyte, to Hollywood stardom, to sudden delirious wealth, to plunging into full-blown activist now ----- she's figuratively gone, like, in sixty seconds, in every way.

@Shape ---

  

Right from the start -- from the cover to the inside spread -- it displays her in a couple of fabulous pant suits, like tuxedo style, and each amounting to a pretty penny, like a thousand bucks a pop, and with jewelry, add another grand. 

But the craziest thing is, it's unbuttoned....it's like, wide open across her cleavage. 

While the cover reads, "I'm all about the next challenge."   

Within, beginning @page 86, it reads: "ANNE    SOARS    ABOVE  (stately, across two pages) Fueled by the desire to stretch herself creatively and help women and girls around the world.  The Hustler star ANNE HATHAWAY opens up about tossing old insecurities and finding a new level of strength and purpose."  

But there she is.... chest nearly entirely revealed, her pensive gaze is leading outward, with plenty of blue sky and the sparkling Pacific Ocean as the perfect backdrop, ANNE takes her stand (in butt ugly sandals, I might add; but, you, too, can get a pair for $80.00 @Cougar shoes. Look for the Prato sandals, a total bargain if you ask me...if you are into what appears to be fancy Birkenstock knockoffs, in black.  yuck)

but let's not get hung up on what she's wearing, shall we?

She may very well be looking forward to her "next challenge," helping women and girls around the world, advocating for paid parental leave, yadi yadi yada...but let's get real -- even if Shape is making June its "SKIN issue" -- is this choice of hers to bear, not arms, but half her boobs and perfectly buff abs, really revealing a natural confidence, or does it continue to placate the expectations of her industry?  

I mean, c'mon ANNE, was your aim to titillate the Shape reader into joining forces with you -- banning the use of all plastic, making your own makeup remover with coconut oil and shea butter, and avoiding red meat and pork?  Is this really your way to prove to us, in fashion forward bravery, that you are truly satisfied with the mistakes...and...empowered to choose a different path, as you say???

Even your only other pictures include, a bustier and pants combo -- with the same darned butt ugly sandals; with the opposite page,  a beautiful brassier paired with high-waisted shorts and peeping out from under a $790.00 stretch cotton Poplin shirt, in white.  Of course, it caresses over the ensemble, but just barely.

Like, really?  After all we've been through of late, after all the Weinstein whining and hashtagging, of women, of all industries, wanting to be taken more seriously, and mostly, to be taken at their word --- you  -- the wholesome, pretty, Hollywood starlet, with even a smart little brain atop your shoulders, or so it seems, you do this?  This is your coming out party revealing your simple, sophisticated confidence?  Is this really a different path, a showcase of empowerment --  with you staring down the camera--  when all we really see is a certain co-dependency on using your sexuality to sell it?

Hollywood is as Hollywood does.  Stupid is as stupid does.

This is where, after nearly a thousand blogs -- and bear in mind, no private trainer, or even yoga three or four times a week --  that I, in the company of a twelve year old scotch perhaps (in step with Anne's 12 year old coat) -- should have its day to reign, just as the princess diaries queen herself.    

Perhaps I've been doing this all wrong all along.  If only I had shown more skin in this game, I'd be so rich.

Maybe, in honor of the thousand blogs that I will surely hit tomorrow, the next post should be posed to expose!  Yes, with some eye-popping caption declaring, that after all these years of finding myself,  after the near decade in the making of this day in the life of this American girl -- there comes a time to reveal myself to all the world, in ways that SOAR ABOVE and BELOW (teehee) the blogosphere.   

HERE I AM AMERICA.   ain't nothin' but a gthang, baby

Yeah yeah....tomorrow.  It will all be revealed, tomorrow. bare naked G in all her new found, and even some vintage, glory (that is, if you will allow your eyes to fall to my choice of shoes ;)  )

oh just stop, G

The thing is -- from one girl to another -- I am happy she is finding her way, and becoming confident in her own skin more and more.  Being twenty years her senior, I am quite familiar with the path she is traveling, and then some;  and besides, nothing would please me more if she uses her celebrity to make the world a better place.  I sincerely hope she continues down this path of becoming with great success and satisfaction in every way...  There is nothing wrong with that.

It's just hard to reconcile her choice of point of view, paired with the blunt absence of sensibility and even a soft touch of class.  She would have looked just as gorgeous and complete and solid with just one button done.  just sayin' 

"I'm actually a pretty simple person 

as it turns out.  

I'm just doing my best 

to make beautiful memories 

and enjoy the gift of my time here."

which is funny, as the article displays a lifestyle quite different from most of us simple folk. Her choice of how to exercise, what to eat, taking sabbaticals from work to recalibrate,  living sans plastic along with most red meat and pork, squeals of living with the means to support the higher conscience and satisfy the social, political, and cultural mandates that come with.  But right on cue, and in common with the rest of her Hollywood compatriots, there is a wisp of haughtiness in the air that leaves a slight stench. (And to think, they think of the right as being a little self-righteous. Really?)

sigh.  maybe it's just me.

It would have been totally cool if ANNE gave a little shout out to IVANKA for all her work in the family leave department in America.  There is that. 

sigh again.    never mind.

I, too, live a pretty simple life.  I clean my own toilet.  I take out my own trash.  I reuse the same coffee mug over and over again with just a quick rinse.  My favorite red meat comes packaged in an In N Out wrapper, made of paper (it's a good thing; and that goes, double double).

I, too, am just doing my best to make beautiful memories and enjoy the gift of my time here, thankya, Jesus.

So here you go, just for kicks and giggles down memory lane -- my first blog.  And my second.  And my third.  And my fourth.  Yes.  The first four to go along with the final four before this girls reaches her goal of ONE THOUSAND blogs! yippee skippy!  so excited.  [and mom thought i would run out of things to say.  siwwy wabbit.]

I, too, am all about the next challenge.  Oh boy, and suddenly, as if overnight, it feels as if ANNE and me have found so much in common....

ah yes....if not for Hathaway, what else would  I have to say about today?
who knows, right.
So big thanks for another muse to amuse me once more...
and of course, many thanks to Shape, that which I get in my mailbox for free each month and not even sure why...i didn't order it; don't need it.  not that I'm bragging or nothin'-- it's called walking and eating right, everything in moderation (thanks mom) ...and still, just like old times, like wearing my favorite pair of Guess sweats, I digress....it's one of my favorite things to do; as some things change, other things stay gloriously the same.

G is as G does.

this makes Nine Hundred and Ninety Nine Blogs on the wall... #MAGAGIRL

and in keeping with the theme of the week, so to speak, it is my industry, my enterprise, my record, that always speaks for itself.    << boobs>>

Make it a Good Day, G

It's About Leaving Room to Learn from our Mistakes Thing

Dear America,

"14th PRINCIPLE: 

Life and Liberty are Secure 

Only so Long as

 the Right to Property is Secure" 

from The 5000 Year Leap, 

by W. Cleon Skousen 

National Center for Constitutional Studies

from family, to the rooms we find shelter...

John Locke, an Englishman, great thinker, influenced America's founding without question -- which is kinda funny, cuz this rather not so attractive Englishman questioned everything.  But out of the many things our founding fathers appreciated, was Locke's understanding of human nature.  So much so, our founders shaped a system of government recognizing the importance of subduing our natural, less admirable, inclinations, to protect us from ourselves.

The basis for all of it came from our belief in God -- and to add a quote from Locke:

"God, who hath given the world to men in common, hath also given them reason to make use of it fro the best advantage of life and convenience."

If God gave man dominion over the earth, we best figure out how to care for it, and the very welfare of one another, in common.

And this led Locke on the path to understanding the value of property and subsequently, private property rights.

As Skousen points out in "The Leap"...."if property rights did not exist, four things would occur that would completely frustrate the Creator's command to multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and bring it under dominion." (See also the Book of Genesis)

continuing with Skousen's  four things:

1. One experience like the above (a story where a guy made improvements on his property and as soon as he was finished, his next door neighbor came rushing in to take it from him) would tend to completely destroy the incentive of an industrious person to develop and improve any more property
2. The industrious individual would also be deprived of the fruits of his labor
3. Marauding bands would even be tempted to go about the country confiscating by force and violence the good things which others had frugally and painstakingly provided
4. Mankind would be impelled to remain on a bare-subsistence level of hand-to-mouth survival because the accumulation of anything would invite attack

As Locke maintains, the actual fact of the matter is, property "is an extension of a person's life, energy, and ingenuity.  Therefore, to destroy or confiscate such property is, in reality, an attack on the essence of life itself."

And this is where the common man of modern day misses the mark, somewhat;  And Justice George Sutherland of the U.S. Supreme Court answers to just that, saying:

"It is not the right of property, which is protected, but the right to property. Property, per se, has no rights; but the individual -- the man -- has three great rights, equally sacred from arbitrary interference:  the right to his LIFE, the right to his LIBERTY, the right to his PROPERTY...The three rights are so bound together as to be essentially one right.  To give a man his life but deny him his liberty, is to take from him all that makes his life worth living.  To give him his liberty but take away from him the property which is the fruit and badge of his liberty, is to still leave him a slave."  Taken from Principle or Expedient?  Annual Address to the NY State Bar Association, 21 January 1921

And, just for the record, these three great rights, interwoven into the fabric of our lives, come from GOD, our Creator -- not government, not man.

It is mind-boggling, this absurd rise of attraction to socialism.  For its chief tenet is to allow government to have all the property, to equalize property ownership across the land, and keep everyone living in a uniformed, static state, continuously, from one generation to the next.

Where's the incentive in that?

Where's the enjoyment and satisfaction of the fruits of our labor?

Is this Bernie's answer to help the poor?

Let's keep quoting from "The Leap" shall we?

Abraham Lincoln once said this --

"Property is the fruit of labor.  Property is desirable, is a positive good in the world.  That some should be rich shows that others may become rich and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.  Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently to build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence....I take it that it is best for all to leave each man free to acquire property as fast as he can.  Some will get wealthy.  I don't believe in a law to prevent man from getting rich; it would do more harm than good."

Encouragement to individual industry and enterprise....

that is how America was designed and made.

If you really consider what kind of Constitutional crisis America has found herself, Nancy Pelosi -- then we must consider how the rights of man have been usurped and played with over time, through acts unbecoming of a republic, through the constant tweaking of the law of the land, through congress!  To which end, making a total mockery of America's Constitution!  

It is precisely this series of slow usurpation's that has destroyed us!   Everyone's life, everyone's liberty, everyone's property, everyone's happiness has been hacked by congressional hacks and administrations steeped in arrogance and misguided interpretations of the law.

And in proper turn, and over time, we have eventually arrived at our current government, that which freely gives the fruits of its industrious citizens away, every day -- supporting all kinds of programs on behalf of the concern for the general welfare. This practice changed only a few generations ago, late 1930's.  Up until then, it was unlawful to transfer property, fruits of any kind, from one to another.  Up until such time, it was up to the goodness of the people's hearts, of the community, of the church congregation, to support its poor and help provide for basic needs.   And it worked well.

Helping the poor, provided another reason for industry and enterprise to succeed -- thereby allowing for a growing, private wealth, a people blessed with so much, an opportunity to drive a compassionate spirit and give back, for the benefit of the whole community.

These are dangerous times, because the fundamental changes we are constantly making, in the ways we govern and live in this land, have the power to change everything, destroying the wealth and culture America is known for.  The stuff that made America pretty great, actually.

so there you go...

in my anticipation of reaching a thousand entries --
today's blog is a tribute to vintage G, blogs of yore --
for, in the beginning, this girl quoted The 5000 Year Leap a lot!
Love that leap, love that leap.

this is  #998 signing off; see you tomorrow -- no, like, really xoxo it's part of my latest, and most enterprising, goal of mine....to show up, like, four calendar days in a row!
ah yes -- the fruits of my labor --  is simply in the joy of being the keeper of the record for you all.
you're welcome. teehee  


The thing is,  at the end of any given day, there is always room to learn from our mistakes. 
It's how we all grow up, as a people.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's to the Rooms We Hold Dear Thing

Dear America,

"How to be happy when you are miserable.  

Plant Japanese poppies 

with cornflowers and mignonette, 

and bed out the petunias 

among the sweet-peas

 so that they shall scent each other.  

See the sweet-peas coming up.  

Drink very good tea 

out of a thin Worcester cup 

of a colour between 

apricot and pink." 

Rumer Godden, writer
#301 "Nothing is worth more than this day." By Katharine and Ross Petras

this is my mom, if she were living in a verse.

and in this morning, as I think mom thoughts, and wishing I could just beam myself over to see her, to drink very good tea, in a dainty Worcester cup. in the living room that shelters and safeguards nearly sixty years of marriage and family and seasons, and thinking she would be most happy to know, that at the ripe old age of fifty-something-something, that her girl has finally come upon a worthy goal to take her places unknown:  writing four blogs in the next four days!  teehee

I know!  Crazy, right! it's a sizable mission, considering my pace has been a wee bit non-existent of late.  

but i just got to thinking, given this will be blog #997 if it ever gets to print, i will have only a few more to go to reach the number i have waited for, for so long; and likewise, given that this blog's divine birth -- it's very intention from the beginning -- has rested in the hearts and minds and arms of our country's founders, it just seems natural for this momentous occasion to coincide with Mother's Day.

Bearing in mind the labor of love that this process has become, the idea of actually coming to the intersection of ten years and one thousand blogs is a longitude and latitude that simply takes my breath away.  

I love this Rumer Godden quote, above; it fits quite nicely with another favorite of mine, "Bread and water can so easily be toast and tea."  --  anonymous.

Rumer seems like a woman i would have loved to have known.  In the bio, linked above, it mentions:

One of her favourite axioms came from an Indian proverb that says - "everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person". She quotes this in her autobiography A House with Four Rooms.

and as I breathe in these words, on this rather atypical day in May -- with a light rain misting over the landscape outside my four walls, housing my four rooms,  I'm realizing that quite possibly, she, in accordance to the ancient Indian proverb, may have missed one;   considering the conversation we've been having here on the old G thing, what about the space we place for the fifth room, of the political realm?

and indeed, it is... just one more room to air out from time to time.

[and proving to be a perfect candidate for Marie Kondo every single day.... but i digress]

on this day, i love that a cup of tea can take me back to memories spanning my fifty-something years, to sitting across the room and seeing my mama in her favorite chair, drinking anything from a cup of jasmine tea to a Manhattan.  

in a sense, i can feel as if I'm living in the comfort of all four/five of my rooms, whenever in the company of her.

it's the same feeling i have when sitting in my corner window, under the shadow of a giant eucalyptus, watching the neighborhood come to life in the morning, drinking coffee. 

our rooms are defined by what we value, and expressed through our relationships; our rooms converge, and even overlap, by seasonal whims of life and times; but for the most part, our rooms are private, sacred to our own heart, our own mind, our own destiny, designed and divined by God.

...and right on cue and just as the day should have it-- my girl and i just finished a sweet conversation.  She often calls during her lunch time, my mid-morning...
....hanging up, my thoughts have spun into realizing my baby girl has her own rooms, and then some.  What an honor it is to be her mama.

Did she choose me? 
Did I choose mine? 

I would like to think it was a collaboration with God, as God awoke one day and decided to play in His Garden and...... Plant Japanese poppies 

with cornflowers and mignonette, 

and bed out the petunias 

among the sweet-peas

 so that they shall scent each other.  

See the sweet-peas coming up.  

Drink very good tea 

out of a thin Worcester cup 

of a colour between 

apricot and pink.

...and plant a consciousness within us all to know God
in relationship with the floor plan of our lives, our own rooms.

no four/five rooms are designed the same.

the thing is, i never know what the day will bring on this day in the life of an American Girl.

it's my diary and i can do what i want, say what i want, feel what i want -- and have! --  nearly a thousand times over.

America -- a mansion in many ways --  is a family-centered culture because family gives us a sense of security and wealth in ways unimaginable; a strong, healthy, loving, happy family is priceless, in terms of its possible return upon society.

to which, this day, i give my honor.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's a Little Miss Leading Thing

Dear America,

i love how, like, the big guys of social media decide for us -- hmmmm, um, like, which free speech is misleading, or racist, or inappropriate to share, or whatever, and which "free speech" is okay.

...you can play a little catch up with what happened on Facebook, here.

But just today, Twitter suspended the account that featured that darling eight year old girl, impersonating AOC: via @AOCPress; it's like, being more than a slap on the hand, the account was permanently suspended!  If you happened to have missed it, you can still catch it on Ben Shapiro's, The Daily Wire, here.  Better hurry.

like, has the Left no sense of humor?

Jeebus, like, every Saturday Night Live, every late night comedian, profits, nightly, and wildly, from poking fun at the Right -- with plenty of tweets, re-tweets, and Facebook postings, to follow...and you guys can't handle this little girl?

According to Fox News,

"The social media giant also suspended the account's creator, Michael Morrison. It said that while users could create parody accounts, they couldn't use 'misleading account information in order to engage in spamming, abusive, or disruptive behavior including attempts to manipulate the conversations on Twitter'."

"can't use misleading information, blah blah blah, to manipulate the conversations on Twitter."

Seriously?  Like, you can't be serious.

like, where do we begin?  

Twitter's success is based --  and is banking on, really --  a never ending flow of a leading and misleading  information, in order to create the very dynamic of non-stop virtual conversation from all over the globe, twenty-four, seven.  What they dislike, is the Right, using the platform for making any political gain.   

So what's the endgame, you bunch of twits?  Are you just going to find ways to delete us all, permanently suspending every conservative, every opposition post, every person, every organization, which pairs their humor and their views leaning to the right?

By definition, Twitter is all about communicating in pithy zingers back and forth, 140 characters or less, or whatever it is....(I'm not a user).  Am I missing something?  

Let's go bigger picture for a moment, using a different actor, paired with CNN along with its leftist audience --

“The political landscape is unrecognizable to me, and shame on us for being in that spot. That could change overnight, not because of a vote, but because people say, ‘I want to try to be more than about myself.’ That’s the definition of public service.”

Seems Kevin Costner is a wee bit frustrated with the caliber of America's civil servants, the selfish bastards that they are.  Or wait, maybe this is more about using his celebrity to make a point, landing a well-timed criticism about "the [current] political landscape' -- aka the Trump Administration --  to be tweeted and retweeted, posted and re-posted, all around the world?

he continues --

“This is the greatest experiment in humankind: America. This great idea about America still exists, it’s still here. People still want to come here, but we’re not first in hardly anything that matters and we have an inflated idea about how we are. We exaggerate about what we are. We are everything that’s great and we are everything that’s human. And our humanness and our level of selfishness is overtaking our chance to be great.”

Worthy of repeat:

"We're not first in hardly anything that matters and we have an inflated idea about how we are.  We exaggerate about what we are.  We are everything that's great and we are everything that's human." 

um, like, what is Kevin even saying?   

And besides, dude, even you just said that America is "the greatest experiment in humankind!!!!"   Talk about inflation...  You know, sounds to me, like, you are running the risk of shaming other countries who aren't doing so great, in the great department, with that kind of declaration.  

hmmmm and "not first in hardly anything,"  what, except perhaps for Social Media ??? -- we seem to be first in all the world in that, Americans having invented it, and all

 and just maybe it's Twitter's fault, or even Facebook's fault, or Instagram's -- of how much we are so full of ourselves, politicians and regular Joe's/Jane's alike

and, given their policies and level of concern, of late, is Trump's Twitter next in line to get the ax?

And repeat:

"And our humanness and our level of selfishness is overtaking our chance to be great."

First, like, you would think when a president donates all of his salary back to the country, that that would be pretty great, right?  Like, Trump is truly acting as a public servant, working without remuneration. Obama kept his salary.  What up with that, Costner, wasn't that a little selfish?  And for that matter, maybe you could begin by asking Congress to stop taking a salary, and just give back to America from the goodness of their hearts.

"This is the greatest experiment in humankind: America. This great idea about America still exists, it’s still here. People still want to come here, but..."

So, according to Costner, the greatest experiment in humankind is still here; the tell being, that people still want to come here,  BUT.

There is no BUT.

People still want to come here because we are still the greatest country in the world.

Our reputation, our label, our level of freedom to live any old way we please, [even our welfare system] attracts.

Our freedom to pursue happiness is written into our founding documents.  Notice that this happiness is not a guarantee,  but that it is the pursuit of this happiness, alongside this life and this liberty.

The ideals, the principles, the values that has inherently made America great throughout the generations is based upon individual participation, individual responsibility, individual duty, that all together combine in the manufacturing and production of individual results. 

Which is why, some people can come from nothing, and make something; while others, can come from a whole lot of something, and lose it all.

And we make America great, and continue to make America great, in the collective, when we individually cling to the virtues that are aligned with making ourselves, as humans, a decent and good people.  And from here, we multiply the good times 300 million, if we are so lucky.

Trump didn't do this to America.  Trump didn't invent the snarky, or sexism, misogyny, racism, bigotry, inequality, or the humanness of any such ugly kind.  We humans do it in the natural, if we are so inclined, all on our own, as everyone -- everyone --  is responsible for our own selves! 

If anything, our phones and tablets and life beginning to be ill-spent and all but consumed by social media did it to us --  captivated by, and through, the technology now made widely available, leaving us mesmerized by the lives of others, and feverishly in the selfish pursuit of happiness, fame and fortune.  THIS is what has really done us all in, in America.

If anything, Hollywood may be partially to blame right alongside the rise of social media...for how much skin is necessary to show?  how much violence in cinema influences the humanness of humans?  how much disrespect for our elders, authority, parents and children, can be witnessed without it affecting behavior? isn't there a responsibility to society somewhere, for Hollywood to clean up its act, whether in film, on stage, or on the casting couch?

  

Costner, you have been given a platform to speak because of your celebrity....and, that platform is amplified and multiplied because you fall in line with the left side of the cultural divide.  

IF you are Ben Shapiro, you get death threats.

Mike Morrison had his Twitter platform taken away, right out from under him, permanently  --  in the United States of America --  and for what?  Because of a parody poking fun at the left's new little darling, the AOC?    

That should be alarming not only to you, Kevin, but to all Americans. 

Truth is, you, Kevin, are misleading Americans -- and if you are using a Twitter account declaring such things, it should be shut down, permanently, and immediately. ;)    

The truth is -- the political landscape of America has been ugly, like, butt ugly, from its birth.  oh the shock, oh the horror.

By all means, though, don't take my word for it; read, and reread, this history of America and its leadership over the last couple of centuries, to get the whole picture.  And then! tweet about it, if you will be so kind.

But from the very beginning, before we even had a system of government in place, the political landscape of America has not been for the faint of heart. It never has been; and it never will. 

And you wanna know why?  It's because we are all human, making our own humanness the best, or the worst, way that we know how.  The whole world is guilty of it; it isn't just an American thing.  

We just so happen to be living in an age when news travels on social media faster than you can say tweet. and then it gets re-tweeted.  and sometimes, when it is really good, or funny, things go viral! like Morrison's @AOCPress....
shame on twitter, shame on twitter, for shutting it down.

this is #996, signing off. 

and with any luck, this girl will get a chance to sign on for another day... like, you know, when the moment is just right...

Make it a Good Day, G