GOODBYE GEORGE

 A whole lot of you have no idea who George Michaels is.



I've been in love with his voice for years.



He did a lot of very silly songs - and some absolute classics.



He died on Christmas Day at age 54.





I'm glad they will be playing a lot his songs for a while.



But he's gonna be missed by me.

THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMASES PAST

Everyone seems to have wonderful Christmas memories from their childhood.

I don't.

I hated Christmases growing up.



I hated them because my mom always went overboard.


She wanted a picture-perfect, Leave-It-To-Beaver happy-family postcard picture.

Never happened.

Not once.






Regardless of how much money she spent, how much time and energy on decorations, on planning, perfectly-planned meals and nicely coordinated family gatherings.

It was always tense - awkward - lots of anger and frustration and tears.

Always.



 I don't blame my mom - she wanted something for us kids that she  never had herself.

It just never worked.

ALL HAIL DICTATOR TRUMP

Wednesday, 9 November 2016

It’s 2:00 a.m., and I’m sitting here crying.

I honestly thought America was better than this.

I was so certain that the clear majority of the public would see how shallow and uninformed this man is.

But we have elected for president a bigoted, insecure, selfish and ignorant boor.

This man has insulted every single American woman, every minority, every veteran of war. He advocates violence, suppression, and pettiness.

He is only interested in his self-interests, his little empire, and his personal battles. He couldn’t care less about us as a nation or a world power. He now is going to be able to put his nasty supporters in positions of power, regardless of their background or experience, and will try to put all of us back in our proper places – underneath his feet.

I can’t believe we have done this.

Perhaps if I go back to bed, I’ll wake up and find this all a horrible nightmare.

I realize I have posted more political things this season than I ever have in the past.

I wish now somehow I had done more.

God bless American. We are certainly going to need it for the next four years.

POLITICAL IMAGES

This image upset me quite a bit.

And I know exactly why.

No one wants to view themselves as the woman on the left.

At least not with the kind of figure.

And we automatically WANT to relate to the woman on the right - pretty, long hair, great figure....

This has absolutely NOTHING to do with politics.

This is cheap, plain sexualization of women.

And it's wrong, in every way possible. 

THE RIGHT TO NOT STAND

There is a news story going around, that quite a few of my internet friends have posted.

How upsetting it is that a young man refused to stand for the national anthem.

"San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has willingly immersed himself into controversy by refusing to stand for the playing of the national anthem in protest of what he deems are wrongdoings against African Americans and minorities in the United States."

Comments like "Funny, he doesn't feel strongly enough to refuse to play in this country and accept his multi-million dollar paychecks. I guess it's selective"

"He is an idiot who doesn't even know the facts of what he claims to be in protest of."

"YOU THINK YOUR BEING BRAVE, WELL HERE WE PUT UP WITH THIS KIND OF THING, SORT OF GIVE YOU A PASS (NO PUN INTENDED ) YOU WANT TO PROVE HOW BAD YOU ARE, GO TO IRAN OR SOME OTHER COUNTRY THAT HATES YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE AMERICAN AND DISRESPECT THIER FLAG, I DON"T THINK THEY WILL BE SO KIND, PLEASE GO, GO NOW , BEFORE YOU LOOSE ANOTHER GAME. BIL"

(I especially enjoy the misspellings in this last one)

Gosh.

Maybe I look at this all wrong - but isn't one of the most important things in our United States of America culture FREEDOM OF SPEECH?

The right of FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION?

And THE RIGHT TO DISAGREE WITH... well, whatever you want to disagree with.

We have the right, and, dare I say it, the RESPONSIBILITY to speak out.

And if not standing for the National Anthem, or not saying the Pledge of Allegiance, or flipping off the Statue of Liberty, is something you do or do not do to DRAW ATTENTION TO YOUR POSITION....

.... that's the most American thing I can think of. 

BIG PHARMACY IS GIVING PHARMACY A BAD NAME

There's a lot of press right now about the inflated prices on Epi-pens.

And I just have to put in a few words of my own.

I know certain people have gotten wealthy beyond anyone's wildest dreams by taking advantage of sick, needy people by manipulating prices on medicines and prescriptions.


But I know how one, at least, research pharmaceutical company worked.

It began with an idea - say, focusing on finding a cure for brain cancer.

It was quite a few  people pooling their resources - begging for loans - mortgaging their homes sometimes.

And they begin with nothing.... other than that idea.

They work - build labs, find funding, sell stock, hire researcher - and hope.

And hope.

And hope.

And SOMETIMES this translates into something that WORKS - which can then go into clinical trials.

And hope it gets approved.


And hope.






And MAYBE, just MAYBE, then, you can begin to MAKE the medicine, and charge for it, and begin to actually MAKE SOME MONEY.

Don't make everyone the bad guy here.

PINK RAINFALL

We have incredible sunsets here in Arizona.

I suppose we have wonderful sunrises too, but they come too early in the day for me to appreciate.

But the cloud formations - the sun just sliding behind the mountains - the rays pouring up....

It's lovely.

Someday I may actually get a REAL camera and learn how to photograph more than pointing my iPhone towards the site.