Is it just me, or is the liberal media actually telling the truth for a change? I was shocked, SHOCKED, to see this article in yesterday’s NYT, titled “A War We Just Might Win.” I must be in some sort of alternate reality.

The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility. Yet now the administration’s critics, in part as a result, seem unaware of the significant changes taking place.

Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.

Now, that is not surprising to me at all. What is surprising is that it’s coming from the left! How badly did Nancy Pelosi want to crawl under a rock and die when she read that?? Especially when they say this:

But there is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008.

And what about the reports of troop morale being at an all-time low?

After the furnace-like heat, the first thing you notice when you land in Baghdad is the morale of our troops. In previous trips to Iraq we often found American troops angry and frustrated — many sensed they had the wrong strategy, were using the wrong tactics and were risking their lives in pursuit of an approach that could not work.

Today, morale is high. The soldiers and marines told us they feel that they now have a superb commander in Gen. David Petraeus; they are confident in his strategy, they see real results, and they feel now they have the numbers needed to make a real difference.

It was a very good article to read, and I usually don’t read anything from the NYT. It’s about time the truth about what’s really going on with the troop surge was reported. Maybe the Dems and libs will believe it this time, seeing as how it comes from two of their own party.

Media, National, News, Politics, newspaper/magazine | 1 Comment »

I have been busy scrappin’ and working on my Prematurity Awareness kit. Here are two more layouts for my Shutterfly book. It’s coming across very nicely. I’ll post all of the layouts again once I’m done with everything, including the front and back cover.

Digital LO's, Scrapping | 1 Comment »

It seems even new prime-time shows aren’t safe from piracy. Posted yesterday on TV Week’s website:

At least half a dozen highly anticipated broadcast network fall pilots have been leaked online.

Copies of NBC’s “Bionic Woman,” ABC’s “Pushing Daisies,” The CW’s “Reaper” and several other shows were available Friday for illegal download on sites such as Torrent Spy, The Pirate Bay and Mininova.

Most of the titles appear to have been uploaded within the past week. The first copy of “Bionic” was listed as uploaded two days ago, while the earliest “Reaper” file was date-marked seven days ago. Other leaked shows include Fox’s midseason “The Terminator” spin-off “The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” ABC’s “Cavemen,” and NBC’s “Chuck” and “Lipstick Jungle.”

Hmmm, somehow I’m not surprised by this. It was only a matter of time. And some of the network people even expressed that they thought the critic and screener copies would leak eventually. They were surprised, however, that the full-length copies were available. Did they really think that only the trailers were going to be available?? Some of those who viewed these pilots thought they came directly from the networks themselves:

Most of the leaked shows are among the more anticipated, buzz-heavy titles of the fall (there are many copies of “Bionic” and “Connor” online, for example, but no copies of ABC’s “Carpoolers” or The CW’s “Life is Wild” were found). Given the selection, some downloaders wondered if the networks and studios leaked the programs themselves. Network and studio representatives, however, denied uploading the shows.

My favorite line in the whole piece (emphasis mine):

“We’re doing everything we can to fight piracy,” said one major studio representative who declined to be identified. “Our piracy department is playing whack-a-mole with these things.”

As for me, I’m looking forward to getting a lot of reading done this fall. I am not at all impressed with any of the fall lineups. I’ll be waiting for spring when American Idol comes back on Fox, and when Monk and Psych return to USA. Ghost Hunters will also return sometime this winter, and I’ll be looking forward to that. I suppose it’s a good thing that I’m not into any of the shows in the fall lineup, with the exception of Thursday night on NBC, Law & Order SVU on Tuesday night, and CSI on CBS. I have about 2 shelves of books that need read!

Media, TV | No Comments »

I’ve been a busy beaver in the world of scrapbooking in the past couple of days. It appears I am out of my scrapping funk. *YAY*

Here are 2 new layouts, which will also (most likely) go into my Shutterfly book:

I’ve also been working hard on finishing my March Of Dimes Prematurity kit. I think I’m just about done, so when I am, I’ll upload it here for you all to download (if you’re interested). Cheers!

Charities, Digital LO's, Freebies, March Of Dimes, Prematurity Awareness, Scrapping | No Comments »

And got a tee shirt to prove it, lol. Ok, so the tee shirt was for having donated 4 times this year. I have a platelette donor tee shirt coming, too, since I’ve donated 3 times already this year, and have my 4th donation set for September. I’m not sure how many times I have to donate platelettes before I get the shirt, but it’s long sleeved, which means I can wear it all fall/winter long. I’m looking forward to that!

That’s right. I donated blood. But I’ll tell ya…it sure was difficult trying to get in there today. They are repaving the road in front of the blood bank. It was so bad that they had to open the gates into and out of the employee parking lot just so donors could leave! I saw some donors listed on the Erie Bloggers sheet from Erie Media Go Round, Cream of Potato Soup and Books, Toys and Games. Guess that didn’t really help the tie, huh?

Way to go Erie Bloggers! I’m glad we all got out to give blood, and encouraged others to do the same.

Charities, blogging | 1 Comment »

It has been forever since I have scrapped anything. I just haven’t had any motivation, i guess. not really sure why. When I found out that Yahoo was shutting down their photos capabilities and that Shutterfly was offering a free 20 page 8×8 book if you transferred your photos to them, I had all the motivation I needed! So, I finally started working on my book today. Here are the first two layouts for it, the cover and the first page:

You can find the credits for this lo here

You can find the credits for this lo here.

Digital LO's, Scrapping | No Comments »

Do the same things pass as “big” news stories today as they did 20 years ago?

HARRISBURG – Republican Party of Pennsylvania Chairman Robert A. Gleason, Jr. was disgusted to see that the national media chose to basically ignore President George W. Bush’s latest speech regarding the Iraq War and instead focused their coverage largely on Lindsey Lohan’s DUI arrest. This comes just months after the Anna Nicole Smith saga dominated television news coverage, even overshadowing a bomb that went off at a base the Vice President was visiting in Afghanistan.

“We are at war, and sadly today’s population seems far more interested in the shock and awe stories provided by today’s out-of-touch and out-of-control celebrities,” Gleason said.

How true this is. The news media spends much more time covering drunk and/or drugged celebrities that it does on anything pertinent today. We’ve become a country who cares more about gossip columns and Hollywood than about anything real. Who cares about whether Linsday Lohan was caught driving drunk? Why should she get more media attention than the rest of the people who drive drunk? This is the sort of thing we want our kids to see? “Sure, Bobby, go ahead and become famous. If you get into trouble, it won’t really matter because you’ll get special treatment.” That’s the sort of thing that bothered me about the whole Paris Hilton fiasco. What has Paris Hilton ever done, other than carry the name Hilton, to become as famous as the media has made her? Why did she deserve special treatment?

Wake up, news media! Start reporting about things that actually matter in the country and world today. Otherwise, you have become exactly like the people you report on…insignificant and out-of-touch.

Media, News, TV | No Comments »

I thought the headline was a gag, a joke. I was wrong.

When I started my browser, my homepage popped up with this story as one of the headlines:

Harry Potter Grief Counseling
Reported by: Dan Wells
Wednesday, Jul 25, 2007 @04:30pm EST

The Highmark Caring Place is offering grief counseling to children and parents regarding the latest Harry Potter book.

Organizers say this is a particularly timely issue with the release of the final Harry Potter book, “Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows.”

Articles have sparked rumors suggesting that one or more main characters could die. Professionals believe this could have a serious impact on children, millions of whom have grown up reading and watching the characters and story lines of the Harry Potter series.

The Highmark caring place says if needed, the organization has insights to help children and parents cope with some of life’s most difficult challenges.

Death is a difficult thing to understand at any age. Just recently we attended a family funeral where we had no choice but to allow our boys to be present because we were out-of-state and had no babysitter. I planned for about a week, preparing the boys for what they would see, trying to explain things in advance; what they’d see, how others might feel, how they might feel, what was going to happen. And, as I expected, I was flooded with questions before, during, and after the viewing and funeral. They were excellent questions, some suprising coming from six year olds. I explained things matter-of-factly and didn’t sugar coat them. I didn’t tell them that great-grandma was “sleeping,” but that she had left her old body behind for the new, young body she had now in Heaven. They were able to take comfort in the fact that she has gone to be with Jesus, amongst her family and friends who had already gone before her, and is now watching down over us all, keeping us safe.

All that said, it never occured to me that children might need grief counseling for deaths of main characters in a book. Or movie. Or anything other than real death. I’m not making light of it in any way. As I said before, death is hard to understand. But it’s stories like this that remind me we, as parents, need to be a little more vigilant about what we do or don’t allow our kids to read, watch, listen to, etc. If you think your kids are too young to understand or deal with things like what happens in the latest Harry Potter book, or any book for that matter, even if it’s just based on the rumors of the book/movie, etc., take the helm and read the book first, that way you and your kids can talk about what might happen, or what does happen. On the flip side, perhaps it’s a good thing when books like this come along. It gives parents and kids a chance to talk about things that may not be a normal topic of conversation, or may be hard for parents to talk about, like death.

Books, Erie, News, TV | No Comments »

Today’s second Hat Tip goes to Jay Johnson over at Brendan’s blog for this story out of the Knoxville News Sentinel. A letter to the editor stated:

Like millions across the world, I saw the new “Harry Potter,” movie, which was even better then I hoped, but I was also struck by a possible underlining message.

As most people know, the issue of the movie is He Who Should Not Be Named is back, and unless everyone starts working together, the world is doomed. But, though there is plenty of evidence to support the crisis, the Ministry of Magic — the government of the Magic world — is refusing to admit that there is a problem and is actually undertaking a media campaign to discredit Professor Dumbledore, Harry and others who are trying to warn the world of the coming danger.

As most people know, each book or movie starts with Harry living in London with his normal family and in a world that knows nothing of magic. The first couple of scenes in the movie take place in blazing hot heat with media reports of a record heat wave.

Is anyone else other than me seeing some similarities between the movie and our nation’s handling of the global-warming crisis?

Global Warming? Ok, I get the whole government bureaucracy message. But to take an opening paragraph in the book (I know he was talking about the movie) and say that that is an underlying message in the whole book is, in a word, absurd. If anything, it’s what one of Brendan’s commenters said:

When I read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, I did see a loose and probably-unintentional parallel to real-world events. But not to global warming — to terrorism. I wonder if the letter-writer is among those who are trying desperately to pretend that terrorism isn’t as much a danger to the real world as Voldemort was to the wizarding world.

That would be closer to an underlying message than global warming. It’s closer to the good vs. evil theme of the series. Besides, you can’t have an underlying message that doesn’t span beyond the first paragraph of the book!

Books, Movies, News | No Comments »

(Hat tip: Bismarck-Mandan blog)

So, the minimum wage hike goes into effect today, thanks to the passing of the war appropriations bill. The minimum wage hike would not have stood on its own, most likely, judging by its failure in the past. So, what does this mean for Americans?

Well, honestly, a pay cut. No, no, you may not see an actual pay cut. But when those Americans who aren’t making minimum wage see an increased price for goods and services while their pay does not go up, it is, in effect, a pay cut.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s website, only 2.2% of all hourly-paid workers make at or below the minimum wage. That seems like a lot, no? Well, when you figure that turns out to be 1.7 million workers, out of 300 million American’s, it’s not so much.

But more than that, lets look at who these minimum wage earners really are (according to the DOL’s website):

What do you expect business to do, since the minimum wage will continue to climb until it has made a 41% jump in two years? You certainly don’t expect that prices will stay the same, do you? And because that happens, won’t it be like the minimum wage wasn’t raise at all? They might be making more money, but they are spending more for the things they need, like food. The whole effort will be for naught. ANd we’ll be right back to square one, wanting to raise the minimum wage again.

All so that 2.2 % of Americans can appear to have a pay raise that won’t ever really matter.

National, News, Politics | 6 Comments »