Not paranoid enough?

Check out this website:

It is a map of the world called a "global incident map." There are pinpoints you can move your mouse over and see all the suspicious, possibly terrorist related activities happening in every city of the world. You can upload the entire stories of these stories if you'd like to. You can find out about bomb threats, wide-spread illnesses, and other major incidents that you probably won't hear about on the news. It updates every 300 seconds.

The Map

Wonderbread or Mini-Skanks?

I know this has been complained about before, but I can't understand - what is the deal with the whore costumes? What does that have to even do with Halloween? Why are they so popular even though I hear tons of women complaining about it? They're always the ones who win the costume contests. Can't they get their glory on wet t-shirt night at the bar or something? I think the awards should go to scary or elaborate costumes - not skanky!

Sexy El Vira - OK, a vampire w/ cleavage - eh, OK, just an every day ho? Not OK. I could not believe some of the trick-or-treaters!

There was a cute baby bundled up in a Wonderbread costume - not scary but adorable. There was a little Chicago Bears player and a princess - not scary but cute. At least they're imaginative, the little kids idolize sports players and princesses and want to play one for a day. That's good for kids!

But little girls who look up to skanky women and want to be them? Not OK! and very unhealthy.

I knew by looking for my own costume that morality is lacking these days, but I was shocked to see how young some kids are that think this whore image is cool, or just how grown-ups are. Two girls, approx. 10 years old came to the door dressed as skanks. Not a specific celebrity, just basically stripper clothes and wigs. Their parents were standing on the sidewalk and I just wondered what are you thinking letting them dress like this? Encouraging a ten year old is just wrong.

I remember when I was 16, I dressed as a sexy cop and looking at the pics I looked ridiculous but I was making my own decisions then and didn't show much skin anyways. Another Halloween I also gave into the skank vibe and was Captain hooker while the boyfriend was Tinkerbell. I couldn't find any normal ones! Though I looked sexy in a skanky sort of way, it was embarrassing having relatives takes pics in that! Not any more though. If I can't find any non-skank costumes, I'm not dressing up! I'm not giving into it anymore. Maybe if we quit buying them, they will start to make more modest costumes. Especially considering, it's in the 30 to 40 degree range most Halloweens here!

What did you/your kids dress up as this year? What do you think of the 'sexy' costumes? Try this, go to a major search engine, even with safe search on and type 'halloween costume' and see what comes up? My first page was all skanks!

I found this one on a halloween site under "teen/tween costumes."

Monkey Poop

Although I majored in business in college and understand the economical reasons for outsourcing, I have never liked the idea of it.

Of course most of you have probably heard about The Gap's sweatshop story. (They're also the same co. as the Banana Republic and Old Navy). A kid was sold into slavery by his own parents. The kids worked 16+ hours a day without pay. They were punished for whining or crying or getting sick. The hallways were "flowing with excretions from an overflowed toilet." This makes me sick!

There is a common misconception that paying more money for things means that their business is done in a moral way. Not true. Look at Nike, their workers are paid next to nothing. The materials for their shoes cost about $2 but we pay up to hundreds of dollars for them.


You would expect your $5 Wal-mart shirt to be made in some poor country by slaves or people paid so poorly, they might as well be slaves. But $40 shirts from The Gap? That is a surprise to me. Can the products really be guaranteed as quality? They contract these jobs to random places they don't even know much about, like whether it is ten-year-old kids making their clothes or semi-skilled people?

People say let them outsource these jobs, nobody in America wants them anyways. I would beg to differ on that - does everyone here even have a job? Unemployment rates point to NO.

There is more profit in it for businesses, which ends up helping our economy. I'm not convinced the profit of big companies helps us more than giving every American a job, but I'm no expert either.

We are an advanced, wealthy economy. We have the means to make the world a better place - by doing things properly, maybe not as cost-effectively as possible, but the right way. If we quit sending the jobs over there, won't there will be less demand for slave labor to make American products? Maybe they will put their manpower into something more productive and humane? Probably not. Why can't we at least set a standard for workplace environments and send the message these will not be tolerated? I really don't think most Americans care, they just buy what they like regardless of how it got there or what it means in the bigger scheme of things. And how are we as consumers supposed to know anyways? All we know is what the companies and the news tells us.

I think ignorance on The Gap's part, and other companies, too, is a choice. The average consumer has no way of knowing where their products come from but there is no reason for the big corporations/companies not be investigating who produces their products. Wait, yes there is, cost effectiveness. The almighty dollar. The older I get the more I learn that money is all the world is about. When will the world evolve into a caring, loving place? I think we're moving backwards instead of evolving.


It's like we're all a bunch of primates, slinging poop at each other, fighting over a banana tree to hoard them all for ourselves. How's that for a simile?

What do you think about outsourcing? Do you know of any other companies famous for this?

Garbage Filled Beauty - Smoking Bans

Smoking is kind of a sore subject for me because my father passed away at age 42 with lung cancer. So much for it only taking off the worst years of your life as many people think. I actually smoked myself for a few years before that (age 13 to around 16)- I was young and stupid and trying to be "grown-up."


One of my proudest moments was in college; I gave a speech about all of the negative aspects of smoking. I got a standing ovation and several kids told me they were going to quit. Whether or not they stuck with it, I'm not sure but I was happy to have influenced them if only for a little while.


I am so sick of seeing garbage everywhere. When people throw their cigarettes out the window and I just want to chase them down and shove an entire pack down their throats. A little extreme, I know, but it is so disrespectful. It's not bad enough that their smoking is affecting other people's health but they have to make an eye sore for everyone as well.


Pollution is getting bad - I walk outside in the morning, a half hour from 'the city' and it smells great because there is no smell. I get into town and have to turn my air off because of the nasty odors coming in through the vents. Go a little North into Wisconsin and you can tell how great their air is, it makes me jealous. It's almost a pleasure to breathe up there. So... why would you want to purposely inhale these awful poisons? It slowly kills you, makes you smell awful, and leaves nasty trails of butts everywhere.


There is going to be a smoking ban soon in Illinois and I can't wait. NBC reported that second hand smoke takes the lives of 2,900 people just in Illinois alone, the 19th state to pass this type of ban. Nobody will be allowed to smoke in bars. I will be able to go to my boyfriend's pool meets without having to go outside every hour because my eyes are burning. No one will be allowed to smoke in restaurants. I will be able to taste my food. No one will be able to smoke in public workplaces either. Smokers will have to be 15 feet away, so others can walk in freely without inhaling smoke. No more sidewalk cracks filled with cigarette butts.

I know a lot of people find it extremely difficult to quit, but if you're going to smoke - please at least put them in the trash. And please don't flick them out the window while driving!

What do you think of these bans being passed? I obviously am a fan of them; they will cut down on health care costs, stop unneccesary pollution, and protect innocent people. Do you think this is unconstitutional or correcting the previously unfair situation?

"Fairweather" Friends

I am one whom once I make a friend, I tend to keep them. My best friends from grade school and high school are still my friends. I stick by people. No matter how they have changed, I still love them the same. Isn't that how it should be? People have different views, that is a given. How boring would it be if we all agreed all of the time?

Why is that other people are not as loyal to their friends as others?

Why if I change my views, would a friend of a decade suddenly turn on me? I don't mind that other people aren't vegetarian, or even that they don't feel animals are important. That is their decision. I can live peacefully with them. So why, does it matter that I do care about those things?

I guess if a friend is repeatedly that close-minded and that judgmental towards me, maybe I should return that favor? Maybe it is me in the wrong and feel that people should grow apart because of their differences in opion. Why do I feel the need to hang onto people regardless of how they treat me?

Here are some quotes from the person I have stood by through many weird "phases" that I didn't agree with.

"This world is impermanant and "saving" it is pointless. Live now, stop f***ing worrying, it's worrying that somebody else may have a bigger army that makes you build yours and then absolute power corrupts. I don't know about you anymore. Your really f***ing pushing it. You had f***ing better (when you die) give yourself back to the world that born you. i.e. have yourself taken to the top of a mountain and have your body fed upon by vultures. You wanna give back... what better way? Don't f***ing hide in a casket so the bugs don't get ya."

There were some worse comments that refer to me being on a "high horse" but unfortunately installing HaloScan erases your old comments..? Didn't realize that or I wouldn't have installed it.

P.S. Profanity is the crutch of the inarticulate! Ha!

Driving Distractions

I keep hearing about all of these people who get in wrecks because they are texting while driving. A 38 year old man just hit a train while texting; but most of the cases seem to be teenagers. I have trouble talking on a cell phone while driving; I couldn't imagine sending a text message. There are even several people I know that do it though.

What can be that important that they risk that? It's almost as selfish as drunk driving. Cars are deadly weapons, especially when operated carelessly. Do you know anyone who does this? They are giving bad reps to young people, and they are starting to make it more and more difficult for them to maintain driving priveleges. I'm 24 so I wouldn't be affected by it, but what about responsible teenagers that need to drive to work to help out their families or to get to school? Pretty soon they won't be able to drive until they're out of high school if these things keep happening.

Enjoy this cute picture of a kid driving I found :) .

Preaching out of Shame

A hidden camera caught a Vatican official saying that "he didn't feel he was sinning by having sex with gay men and asking his visitor if he liked him." He has been suspended from his post because their teachings do view it as a sin.


Another story to add:
A Mexican priest briefly was arrested after punching a policemen who caught him driving drunkenly through the streets of Monterrey and was about to tow away his vehicle.


Is it me or do many religious people have something to hide? Do they feel the need to preach the word of God to make up for their own shameful actions? There have been tons of priests caught molesting boys. You can't even feel safe sending your child to church? It seems like most kids from religious schools turn out the worst, too.

If there is a God, do these people think that by putting on these masks of greatness, it will cancel out their sins? This isn't calculus, I don't think God will say okay one charity act gets rid of this instance of sex with a prostitute.


Although, it would be nice to believe in an afterlife and eventual justice, I have become very doubtful of any 'God' existence. I have always said I try to do good because I know I have to answer to myself; I have to live with myself. There are always consequences to your actions. Why not think about those before you act, not just for fear of eternal flames but because you actually care about other human beings and creatures? Why wouldn't a priest worry about killing an innocent person while driving drunk... because he thinks everything happens for a reason, it is God's plan for him kill someone if he ends up killing someone? That is extemely selfish.


I'm not saying that religion automatically equals bad people, that is an ignorant statement, but what do you think the correlation is between studying religion very deeply and these lifestyles? Does hearing that they can't do things make them want to do it more - rather than if the issue was not constantly preached at them and pounded into their brains?

No Fair!

Why is it that you can be completely discrete about your beliefs but people still single you out? Also why is it if they criticize you and you explain those beliefs - suddenly you're preaching to them? I feel like there's just no winning sometimes. People laugh at things because they don't understand them. They don't want to understand them. Out of sight, out of mind. Some people offer that as advice to not care. Isn't that what has made so many problems so bad in the first place? It is hilarious that someone actually cares about the reprocussions of their actions and isn't just a selfish person doing whatever they can to benefit their own interests???

Just wanted to get that off my chest.. I feel better now. Has anyone had a similar experience? How did you handle it?

If you want to know why I became a vegetarian - check out the video on this website: http://www.chooseveg.com/animal-cruelty.asp?gclid=CP3XsqfWgo8CFRqsOAodYHoI3A
There are just a few reasons that brought about this change in me. It's not just one place or one story - I have seen many similar videos about the meat industry in general. I will warn you it is hard to watch, especially if you're an animal lover!

Trying to Make a Difference!

I have been blogging on animal topics on my other blog and I'd like to do one on here to point out how important of a cause this is and different campaigns you can contribute to. I hate feeling helpless to things that upset me. I figured I would check out the PETA website and see if there's any way for me to get involved. I realize a lot of people think they are too 'exteme,' but their overall mission is a wonderful thing.


You don't have support everything they do but you will most likely agree with many of them. I have already found four causes I wrote letters for. Here are a few of the latest issues:


KFC (Kentucky Fried Cruelty) - They breed chickens and inject them with drugs so they grow so large they can't walk. "They break their legs and wings" and cram them into "waste-filled factories." Sign Pink's petition.


Iams - A PETA investigator found this, "dogs who had gone crazy from intense confinement in barren steel cages and cement cells, dogs who had been left on a filthy paint-chipped floor after chunks of muscle had been hacked from their thighs, dogs who had been surgically debarked, and horribly sick dogs and cats who were languishing in their cages, neglected and left to suffer without veterinary care."
Join the Boycott!


China's Skinning of Live Cats and Dogs -
The first time I came across this was on the "girl in short shorts" blog that I am sure everyone is familiar with, she posted a video of it that is absolutely heartbreaking. It's also on the PETA site. The e-mail address is not valid but I am sending a letter to this address:
His Excellency Zhou Wenzhong
Ambassador of the People's Republic of China
Embassy of the People's Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Ave. N.W.Washington, DC 20008


Ringling Brothers - Two workers "witnessed a violent beating of an elephant that lasted at least 30 minutes" which left the elephant "crying out in agony and was left bleeding profusely from severe wounds." I never liked the circus as kid! They have a long past of similar activities.
Get Active!


PetSmart! of all places! - "PETA documented more than 100 small animals—including hamsters, domestic rats, lizards, chinchillas, and birds—deprived of effective veterinary care and slowly dying, out of customers' sight."
Get Active!


CBS - on a recent episode of "Kid Nation" which apparently is like Survivor where young kids were left for 40 days. The kids had become close to the animals but a few of them convinced the rest to kill chickens for protein. Some of the kids were apparently traumatized. This is not the first time the network has killed animals for ratings!
Get Active!


If you want to help helpless animals, join the PETA site and become active today! It will tell you what brands/companies to avoid due to their lack of concern for animal welfare and who is animal-friendly. Most of them have forms with sample letters you can edit and personalize in minutes and many are signature petitions that have made major differences in the past! Once you sign up they will e-mail the new causes so you don't have to check the site very often. I also have quite a few other links, if you don't like PETA, on my Rainbows and Butterflies site that support animals!


Take a few minutes and help out some needy animals - you obviously have a little spare time if you're reading my blog :) lol.


Thanks for reading!

Gas Prices and Energy Independence

So it's obviously going to be a Democrat that wins the next election. As unsatisfied with how a Republican ran the country for the last two terms, it is almost a sure thing. Personally, I think that there should be an unlimited amount of terms that a President can serve. It would keep them on their toes. It seems like during the second terms, they get the attitude of 'well I can't get elected again anyways so who cares.' I also think we need to switch from Republican to Democrat EACH time because they keep the country balanced - which would be pretty unrealistic to require it, but still would probably work out better if it happened by chance.


But anyways, which Democrat will it be? Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton? Due to my current frustration with the current president, I decided to do some research and get educated on the subject. I am doing a separate blog for each issue, so it doesn't take me a month to do one post.

Gas Prices and Energy Independence - This caught my attention since I pay $200/mo. in gas just driving back and forth to work. The leaders of the oil companies are driving silver cars and living in ridiculous mansions but we just have to take money out of our grocery budgets to hand over to them.. We give the dictators 800 million dollars a day, twice what we paid before George W. Bush!

"The Obama plan to create an energy independent America will cut U.S. oil consumption by 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, take 50 million cars worth of pollution off the road, and save American consumers more than $50 billion at the gas pump." He also plans to increase federal investment in energy efficiency. He said he will lift the cap that is placed on tax credits for consumers buying energy efficient hybrid vehicles. He also claims that he will get 20% of our nation's power supply to be from renewable sources by the year 2020.

Hillary plans to put 50 billion into R & D for developing renewable energy - from which she claims will come from the oil companies, not our tax money. I have seen some claims though that say she is going to increase tax on gas prices for the research though. She also has a plan dedicated to achieving energy independence, but I did not find many details on how it would work. The economy was doing so well with Bill in office, and many people feel she probably ran most of his presidency anyways. I still don't think it's safe to assume we will have the same prosperity as we did with Bill's terms though.

Theses both sound pretty similar - they both realize there's a problem, that is a good start I guess. They both seem to have voted very similarly to each other in the past on energy related issues as well. I did like the concreteness of Obama's numbers, but I'm sure it's not anywhere near a guarantee. He seemed to address things more specifically than Hillary did. I'm curious how she plans to make big oil companies fund research; if we had that much power to control them, why haven't we used it yet? Am I missing something there? Does anyone have a more detailed explanation of her plans? I couldn't find many specifics online, not even her own campaign site. So if you understand this issue better, enlighten me!

What are some ways that you try to conserve gas? Are you trying to conserve at all? If you have some examples of things you do personally to cut down on gas, please share!

Parenting

I am kind of combining two past posts I have done on my blog 'Rainbows and Butterflies.' I wish I hadn't deleted them completely because I had a lot of good comments on them. Since new news has come up, I thought I'd address them both again but in different ways: Parenting and Britney Spears.

The previous blog on parenting, semi-jokingly, suggested an IQ test be given to kids at age 12 and if they didn't do at least above a slightly mentally handicapped level, they would be 'fixed.' Then for those who were smart enough and became pregnant another requirement: 8 months of parenting classes (with the baby's father!) and possibly occasional random drop-by visits to check on the condition of the baby.

The previous blog on Britney was kind of defending her. It gets harder and harder to though. Things are coming out about her being a terrible parent and now she's charged with hit-and-run..? The Internet news sources are saying she didn't feed her babies well, didn't let them sleep after she came home from partying, bathed them in designer lotions that irritated their skin, did drugs, and did inappropriate sexual things around the kids. I still stand by that she should not be called fat, she is gorgeous, and the media really should stay out of her life.. but is she a lost cause? She's been to rehab, but is seen doing drugs the day she got out. She temporarily loses custody of her kids, then goes out partying? I think she should do what she wants with her life, but not if it affects innocent children. I think she probably just needs somebody genuine to reach out to her and help her get back to being her old self. Perhaps show her she can enjoy life without drugs, alcohol, and partying - once the addictions are under control. The alternative, K-Fed, hardly seems like a great parent either. These kids don't seem to have much of a great future.

Is it really that absurd to suggest that parents/potential parents be given requirements? Getting a job or driving requires certifications, so why not parenting? Do you think parenting is really what goes wrong with people, or their own weaknesses, or is society in general to blame? I had horrible parenting but I didn't become a 'train wreck.'

The current system is failing America's children. If I was a member of DCFS, I wouldn't let half of things that go on, continue to happen. Besides myself, I knew several other kids that were abused/treated badly. DCFS investigated and found evidence and did nothing. What is wrong with that organization? People get their pets taken away for less serious abuse than it takes to get their children taken away.. why is this?

Please leave your thoughts/experiences on this topic!