Nearly two years later ....

What has happened in the last two years? Well, I conceived, got married, had my second son, and he's now a year old.

And now, a wonderfully random return to ranting.

Has anyone ever noticed that in the religious world NOTHING is ever your fault? If good things are manifesting in your life it's because you must have done something right, you prayed, you did something good, etc. But if things are all going wrong and nothing in your life seems to be going well at all, it's not your fault! It's not because you did something wrong. It's because "God gives the greatest challenges to the best people" and "God never gives you anything you can't make it through". Okay, fine, but maybe God also lets you suffer the consequences of your own choices.

I'm not anti-God. I'm not even Atheist, I'm Agnostic. I have a very difficult time believing that human religions can contain all of the truth. If you do believe in God, and believe that God is perfect and Humanity is flawed, then by their very nature as human-led organizations religions are flawed as well. All of them. I believe that each person on this earth has a right and a duty to discover the truth for themselves. This doesn't mean finding something that resonates with you and then blindly following anything the leaders of that religion say that's stupid. In my opinion especially if you broke away from a religion that you were raised in to find the 'truth' and decided a different religion held it for you, you should always be open to the possibility that the leaders there may have their own human flaws which may lead said religion in a direction that is not in line with your 'truth'.

Having faith in God, and even having faith in the tenants of a religion, doesn't necessarily mean that you have to follow everything the leaders of that religion say. The second you close your eyes to possible faults and flaws of that religion and its leadership is the second you become another mindless drone. I can't stand mindless drones.

I recently have seen a "like" going around Facebook. A "like" that states "If you think this country would be in better shape if we all started asking for God's help, press like". Okay, seriously? The country would be in better shape if we all closed our eyes and prayed. Forget about opening our eyes, getting off our asses, and doing something to make our world better! Forget about that, that's not necessary, just close your eyes, whisper a few words of "God protect those poor poor people" and you've done your civic duty. I call bullshit. Serious bullshit. If you have an issue with the way this country is moving get off your ass and do something about it.

If you're a strongly Religious Republican maybe you need to sort out your priorities. Maybe you need to really think, think about why there are so many Republican leaders, men who claim to be religious, who break every tenant there is to break of their religions. Maybe you should think about the theory that the government should only help people who "deserve to be helped" and how you don't want your "hard earned money" going to some "lazy slackers on welfare". Whatever happened to helping your neighbor, no matter what? What happened to that aspect of religion? Or is that only valid when you have money you want to give away? Or do people somehow have to earn the right to your charity. How much sense does that make?

And then this nonsense about how the government should leave charity up to churches, etc who are dependent upon donations. Okay so, the poor should only get help if people want to give it? That poor starving child on the street corner shouldn't get any assistance unless someone wants to provide it. If no one wants to share their money right then let him starve! Or then there's the fact that these same people argue that the government should stay out because there's so many "welfare moms" out there, people who get on welfare and stay on it who are "lazy bums". I'm not denying these people are out there, I was on welfare for a while and I saw my fair share of people who I felt didn't deserve it sitting in those lines. But think about what you're saying for a moment. You're saying that non profit organizations who don't have the funding to do any real research on people's backgrounds, let alone the access to their tax and employment information that the government has, can keep slackers from getting aid better than the government? You're saying that it's better for someone to take money from a church, from people who are giving charitably and where they can up and leave and just not come back if they're found out rather than from the government, who can garnish their wages and taxes to pay back any fraudulently gained aid. Yep, that makes a lot of sense (note the sarcasm).

I'm not speaking out my ass here either. I have a relative who shall remain un-named who is perfectly fine financially. I don't think you could argue this woman was starving if you tried, she's obese and suffering because of it. She regularly goes to Dunkin Donuts, she eats whatever she wants whenever she wants. And yet, this woman goes to a food bank twice a month and takes anything she can take. She feels entitled to it because she's older. And yet, half the stuff she gets from the food bank she can't even use. She then gives it away to other people who pretty much don't need it either, but who's going to argue free food? And anything she can't give to friends she "donates" to her church. Okay so, you go mooch food off of a food bank, probably run by a church, then "donate" it to your church. HA! I refuse to believe that's charitable! I refuse! My point is, this woman can't get on government aid, she doesn't qualify, but she can take food out of the mouths of truely destitute people right here in Detriot, Michigan in the good old United States of America. So, charities are the way to go right? Much better than welfare. Mhmmmmmmm.

So, back to the topic of my post, pray for things to get better, don't do anything about it! For heaven's sake don't give up any of your hard earned money! If you're Christian forget about the fact that Christ said "It's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a Rich Man to get into heaven." But don't give up that hard earned money, those other people don't deserve it. Heaven forbid you allow the government to tax you in order to provide a minimum standard of living for everyone in America.

Heaven forbid that we allow government to tax the rich in order to provide necessary health care for all. If a rich person's kid gets cancer they fight it to the death. If a poor person's kid gets cancer that's just too bad, they should have had insurance (which they couldn't afford dumbasses). Or they should have had a better insurance policy (which they also couldn't afford dumbasses). Heaven forbid you fall in that category where you make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but your child has a pre-existing condition, even something as simple as being born premature. You can have a perfectly healthy child born 4 weeks early, and have them denied health care coverage for life. But that's fine, they don't deserve health care coverage, they don't really need it if they pray enough they'll be miraculously cured!

Seriously, comments like that make me want to vomit. Prayer doesn't cure everything, even God requires effort. Get off your ass and stick your neck out, do some good in this world, then find my "like" on Facebook that says "If you think this Country would be in better shape if we all got off our asses and helped someone every day, press like"

Courtesy - or Discourtesy

Due to the home purchase I'm obviously moving out of my rental. Because the place I'm in now is in a better part of town and is a private condo the rental is actually posted with the real estate sites and is often shown by realtors. I arranged with the current landlord to be sure that they only show the rental on appointment, because between my fiance and I someone is always home, and with our large dog (and the fact that we're moving) we want to be able to prepare to show the rental.

Which leads me to my rant. Last weekend on Saturday morning we were out dropping our recycling off at the recycling center, which is a good 6+ miles from the rental, but much closer to our new place. We were on the way home when I got a phone call from the management company that handles the rental for the condo. A realtor wanted to show our condo in an hour. Due to the fact we were already on the way home and the house wasn't in bad condition I agreed, an hour should be enough time to get it ship-shape. We got home and promptly got to work cleaning up the bits that needed work, 30 minutes later the door buzzed, which drove my dog through the roof. We had been planning on having her out of the house at the time they were to arrive to limit disturbances, instead they showed half an hour early. The house was NOT in the best shape, I was fighting the dog to get her out of the way, and it was all a mess.

Fast forward to last night. We received a call yesterday evening requesting a showing this morning "between 11:30 and 12:00". I agreed because we could CERTAINLY have the house ready to show and the dog out of the way with that kind of warning. We got the house cleaned up (no small feat when you're moving, so much clutter) to where there are only a few understandable piles of boxes. The dog was taken out by my fiance to the new house to keep her out of the way during the showing. I stuck around and did some final touching up and to be prepared to let the realtor and whomever in to show the house. It is now 12:40 and NO ONE has showed, my fiance is on his way home with the dog.

When did it become acceptable to show up 30 minutes early for an appointment to view someone's HOME? And when the HELL did it become acceptable to just BLOW OFF a similar appointment? I wasn't looking forward to showing a place I'm trying to move out of to begin with, but with the only 2 experiences I've had so far being so inconsiderate as to NOT keep appointments it makes my discomfort with the thought that much more acute. Whatever happened to common courtesy, the obligation to call someone when plans change, and to be sure to do your best NOT to disrupt someone else's life just because you want to do something? There are lots of situations where people disregard common courtesy, but I feel that none is more RUDE than when you're viewing someone else's HOME. We still live here and are already disrupting our lives to show you the place. PLEASE do not put us out further by blowing off or changing your appointment without warning, it's incredibly inconsiderate. I can't wait until we get moved into our own place and don't have to worry about this shit any longer.

Semi-Personal Less Ranting Post

So this post isn't so much of a rant as a mental spill. I recently purchased a home with an FHA 203K rehab loan. This means that while the house is already mine and I have the keys I will not yet be able to move in for at least another month due to repairs and upgrades being made on the house.

The timing in buying a house might seem strange to some but my thoughts are as follows:

First (and foremost) I've been renting for years, giving my hard-earned money to someone else to pay their mortgage or line their pockets, and now that I'm fairly certain I've found a place I'll want to remain long term it just doesn't make sense (I had been moving frequently from community to community and even state to state over recent years).

Second, while some may argue the case that when my job is not 100% stable I shouldn't be investing in a home ... my counter is this: NO job is EVER 100% stable, no matter what it is something can go wrong. In addition, I will have to come up with the money to pay housing expenses somehow, whether it be rent or a mortgage it has to be paid (especially seeing as I have a child to support), so I may as well be building equity.

Thirdly, the housing market where I live has pretty much hit rock-bottom, mortgage rates are extremely low due to the hard economy, if you can qualify for a mortgage now's the time to get one.

And lastly, the market being as low as it is and the economy relying so excessively on the housing market right now is the PERFECT reason to buy now, I get the recently passed tax break for purchasing a home in the down economy and get the feel good of doing my small bit to help lift the flagging housing market by buying one of the millions of foreclosed homes on the market.

In addition to all of these perfectly viable and arguable reasons for buying now the most important is that I'm reaching the point in my life where I'd like to be able to do my own thing with my own place. I'm sick of white rental walls, give me some COLOR. I want to be able to HANG pictures on my wall and not worry about what the fucking landlord is going to say about the holes. I want to hang a fruit basket from my kitchen ceiling. I want to be able to get the most energy efficient appliances and be truly in control of my own utilities rather than doing my damnedest to lower my utilities despite the leaky windows and 20 year old appliances in the rental I'm in at any given time. And, as stupid as it may sound to some, if my fucking sink breaks I want to be able to dive under the cabinet and FIX it not call someone else and have to wait until they can send someone over.

So I guess this means I'm ready to own a home, and the private back yard will be wonderful for the kid and the dog, they can't get enough run-around time in the commons at a rental. And thus, I dive headfirst into the foray of home ownership in the middle of a period where so many people are losing that privilege, wish me luck.

Politics and more

Interesting that Fridays seem to be the days that I tend to post rants, some day I'll have to figure out why that is.

As for now, we had another round of job cuts at my office today, it's getting ridiculous at this point and the sad thing is, it's far from over. I know I'm not alone in this, lots of people are having jobs cut and layoffs and the like, with companies blaming it on the economy.

What I'd like to know is in the past, oh, dozen or more years of booming economy here in the US, where did all the money that the consumers threw into that economy go? Because it certainly didn't go back into our pockets, real wages haven't risen in years. Sure we were using credit to buy things (we being the collective whole, I'm not going into any arguments at this point about whether that was smart) but it still ended up being money into the pockets of companies. So what happened to all that?

It seems to me that all that money went overseas as they continually pushed our jobs out of the country to 'reduce overhead' and the like. So, our money goes into the pockets of foreigners and those who are already rich.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not the type of person who's a "true blue American" and hate anything made overseas or anyone who buys that stuff. However, I think that our corporations and big companies have not only brought this on themselves, but that they're practically being rewarded for doing so. Beyond the general feelings that are out there today that are voiced everywhere I feel that it was and remains incredibly short-sighted of American companies to 'offshore' jobs to save money. You're cutting US jobs because the economy is bad and people can't afford to buy your stuff. But by cutting jobs you're making the economy worse and taking money AWAY from the very people you are going to rely on to buy your stuff. It seems like the opposite of good business sense when you look at things from a long term perspective.

But I guess that's the problem isn't it? Companies DON'T think long term, and why should they? No one in charge of a company is invested in the company's actual success anymore. There's no reason to be, when you can make enough money in a year at the head of a company to live comfortably (though maybe not quite what you're used to) for a decade or more then you have no reason to worry about what happens the next year. You cut jobs, cut expenses, cut, cut, cut to make it LOOK like the company is making money, then when it becomes obvious it will all bottom out you pick up your cash (and your golden parachute) and walk away. And it's not just the CEOs that walk away, all board members and top-level management make enough money to essentially do the same. So the only people bearing the brunt of the collapse are the workers, or those few that are left after they've offshored everyone anyway.

So, while I believe in free market to a degree, I think this country has gotten to a point where government needs to step in to a level that perhaps has never been done before. It is my opinion that US based corporations need to have restrictions placed on how many jobs they can offshore (I.E. if you're a US based corporation and 25% of your company's income comes from purchases in the US you need to have a minimum of 20% of your workforce in the US). Or that we should give them a real incentive to keep jobs in the US, for every US based job that a company sends overseas they are then fined (or taxed somehow) the equivalent of the income taxes that the city, state, and federal government had been receiving from that employee before the job went overseas, on a yearly basis until the job is returned or completely eliminated (yes this would be hard to track). Even this method only replaces a small portion of what that job actually meant to the American economy, however it's a start to limiting the incentive companies have to ship jobs overseas.

I also think that we should restore a good portion of the tariffs that used to protect our country from this type of job loss. Free Trade is a very good idea, if it is fair and appropriate, however most trade now is not and if we institute even minor tariffs on goods and services coming into the US from overseas it will limit the incentive for companies to offshore our jobs. Or even forget about the tariffs for all and fine all goods and services incoming to the US from companies that cannot document a fair wage for their overseas employees, at least make competition between companies reasonable, not near slavery.

As scary as the thought is, I personally feel we'd be better off NOT stepping in and helping any of the companies that are failing. I do agree with helping homeowners refinance their mortgages, but send the aid directly to homeowners, not to the companies. As we saw with the banks that did fail, others will step in and either buy or replace. The same goes for 99% of companies that would fail, and if no one steps into the gap then probably it wasn't a truly essential service to begin with. Yes the stock market would crash, but the big investors in the stock market knew they were 'betting' when they put the money into the stock market. Yes people would lose retirement savings, etc. because our 'savings' systems in this country are so screwed up that they actually ENCOURAGE you to bet with your retirement money. In fact it's the only way to get help from your employer in most cases, "I'll only help you if you bet the money", sounds stupid doesn't it? So instead of spending $700,000,000,000 to bail out companies, put that money into expanding and fixing Social Security, Federal Health Care plans, and Federal Assistance. Oh, and while you're at it, pass legislation limiting US based companies from paying their CEOs and board members more than 50 times the average employee's wage at their company.

With the resilience of the American people and our ingenuity we can overcome nearly anything, entrepreneurs would step in to fill the gaps left by failing companies. You may get 10 to 100 smaller companies for every one large one that failed, and in my book that's a good thing as usually you end up with more jobs as a result. Life as we know it now would be over, but isn't that the case already? Can anyone honestly tell me that as a country we'll be living financially in 2009 the same way we did in 2006 or early 2007. Our recent way of living is already over. The real question is, what do we want to replace it with?

The joys of reusable Menstrual products

What a wonderful concept to start with right? Hey, this is what actually inspired the blog so I really do have to start with it.

I was thinking the other day while in a women's restroom how incredibly annoying it is when you're having to unwrap feminine products in a public restroom. It is the ultimate way to announce to the world that you're having your period. Not that there's anything to be embarrassed about in a women's restroom about having your period, however it is just annoying.

Amusingly enough these thoughts were not brought on by my own necessities (though it was that time of the month for me) but by listening to someone else unwrap feminine products. You see, I haven't had to deal with a noisy feminine product wrapper in over a year. I purchased Glad Rags reusable cotton menstrual pads over a year ago and have not looked back since.

I have saved not only the annoyance of unwrapping menstrual products in a public restroom, but also the annoyance of having to run to the store at the drop of a hat because I didn't realize I was out of products and started bleeding early. Or having to somehow discreetly pull the 'emergency' product out of my bags at someone else's home while the wrapping is making the same noises it does in the restroom. I have also not had to spend money on feminine products at all in over a year. Granted the money that was spent at the beginning took at least 9 months to recover, and I could still use a few extra pads, but just to know that I won't be spending $40-$80 every year for the next ten years on pads ... is comforting. I also have a Diva cup (silicone menstrual cup) which can be used for swimming or other activities where pads are not practical or possible, so no disposables for me.

So basically, I was thinking about it all, and all I have to do is toss the used pads in a specific bucket with cold water and a few drops of vinegar or vodka (for stain prevention) at home, then throw them in the laundry with my towels. No purchasing, hiding, disposing, or noisy wrappers. I have the peace of mind to know I'm saving a lot of money, minimizing obviousness of my time of the month, and reducing the amount of waste going to the landfill from myself.

If I'm on the go, I have a cute little cloth bag that I keep in my purse with either my Diva cup, or a pad, or both, and you'd never guess what's in it just by looking at it. As for soiled products ... if I'll be away from home for that long I tend to use the Diva cup, all you have to do is dump the contents in the toilet, rinse it off in the sink (or wipe it with toilet paper) and toss it back in the bag. But as an alternative you can easily keep a zip-lock bag in your cloth bag to contain used pads.

Oh, and as a mother, it's also nice to know that my 5 yr old won't be coming out of my restroom covered in soft squishy absorbent 'stickers'. Or that my into-everything lab-basenji mix puppy won't be digging around in my bathroom trash can for bloody goodness. I have a hard time understanding now why anyone would want to use disposable menstrual products.