I was just thinking...

Name:

I've become addicted to "A"s (I've gone back to college), love eating and cooking everything but goat cheese, I always try to please everyone and laugh without wetting myself or snorting. I love reading and keeping up with current events, I value my friends. And most especially, I'm a proud mother of four and an excessively proud grandmother of five.

Friday, June 19, 2009

...Something to Worry About...Holocaust Memorial shooting renews concern about military vets' ties to extremist violence...

I found this article in "Hatewatch," a newsletter from the Southern Poverty Law Center...
Experts say recent attacks back up the findings of a controversial Department of Homeland Security report.
By Patrik Jonsson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the June 12, 2009 edition

Atlanta - Three of the attackers in the recent spate of extremist violence across the United States, including Wednesday's shooting at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, had military experience, adding credence to a much-criticized Department of Homeland Security report earlier this year warning of radicalization and indoctrination of former US soldiers.

"The overall report was very prescient," says Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University in San Bernardino. "The military prides itself with protecting the finest of American traditions, and what the hate movement does as a really disingenuous recruiting tool is try and present themselves as folks who are protecting the real America."

James Von Brunn, the Holocaust Museum attacker alleged to have killed a security guard, was a former PT boat captain who had argued he fought for the wrong side in World War II; Joshua Cartwright, who killed two Florida sheriff's deputies earlier this year in part because of his frustration over the election of a black president, was a National Guardsman; and Richard Poplawksi, who spent a short time in the Marine Corps, killed three Pittsburgh police officers in April. He had been a regular contributor to white supremacist web sites.

What's more, several of America's worst domestic terrorists have had military experience, including Timothy McVeigh, convicted and executed for the Oklahoma City bombing; Eric Rudolph, the Atlanta Olympics bomber who hid out in the Smoky Mountains for five years before being captured in 2003; and John Allen Mohammed, the Washington sniper.

A 2008 FBI counter-terrorism report said that 203 veterans had joined white supremacist groups in the last decade, 19 of whom had served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

What's more, the Department of Homeland Security report ("Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment") warned that, though only a small number of military veterans join such groups, they often occupy new leadership positions in a white nationalist movement that had largely been defanged since its high point in the 1990s.

"Looking ahead ... the military training veterans bring to the movement and their potential to pass this training on to others can increase the ability of lone offenders to carry out violence from the movement's fringes," the report noted.

At the time of the DHS report's release, conservative politicians, media commentators, and veterans groups lambasted the report, calling it an insult to American veterans. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano retracted the report, acknowledging poor wording in tying radical right-wing groups to the trend.

But as an internal law enforcement tool, the report hit the right notes, some veteran groups say today.

"We felt the report read in full accurately described the threat or susceptibility of returning vets to be recruited by any extremist group," says Ray Kelley, legislative director of AMVETS.

"I think a lot of Americans got removed from that intent and pulled into the political mention of right-wing groups," says Mr. Kelley. "But it's not that. It identified a susceptibility ... that young vets, when they came back, are disenfranchised because they are twice as likely to be unemployed as their civilian counterparts and they have stress issues that all too often go untreated."

Some of the recruitment has even been in the open. The National Alliance, a white separatist group, once bought a billboard outside a North Carolina Army base, urging veterans to join.

Former FBI agent Todd Letcher, who led the Eric Rudolph investigation, says the threat of "lone wolf" extremists with military backgrounds may be greater than the spectre of veterans leading a resurging white nationalist movement. [Editor's note: The original version misspelled Mr. Letcher's surname.]

"When you're talking about lone wolves, they're not joiners and they're not going to be part of a group, even if you try to recruit them," says Mr. Letcher. But he adds: "Training with respect to firearms, evasion and hiding tactics, all that is taught in the military. And is that something that's helpful for a particular cause, for a lone wolf or a group? Yes, it is."

"The DHS was spot on," says former Marine T.J. Leyden, author of "Skinhead Confessions." "There’s guys who may have had three tours over there and they’re now coming back to a country where the economic outlook isn’t very bright. Plus, you’ve been over there fighting for your country and now you can’t get a job because we won’t stop illegal immigration, and they’ll bail out the Jews but not the hardworking man in Detroit. Some of these kids are going to eat that up."

...and I was thinking, my first immigrant ancestors arrived in this country on the Mayflower (Samuel Fuller) 1605, and the Griffin (Reverend John Lathrop) in 1635. What I want to know is why relative newcomers to this country (by my family standards) can feel so possessive of the U.S., to the point of wishing to disenfranchise others at best, and murder them at worst? If they are not happy here, why don't THEY go back to where they came from?

Monday, June 15, 2009

...who our next governor will be...



We just had a very exciting Democratic primary for Virginia governor. A three-way contest between three good candidates. The winner was State Senator Creigh Deeds. Although I was not familiar with Senator Deeds, since he comes from a different part of the state and we are in the far southeast corner, his record in all of the important areas is good, and he is a supporter of women's reproductive rights. He is endorsed by both Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro Choice. In a time when our rights are being eroded by conservative groups and lunatics who bomb women's clinics and murder doctors, it is important to see that we have a governor who recognizes and supports our legal rights to access to clinics. In September, the Democratic candidate will be running against Republican candidate Bob McDonnell. He is not supported by either of the above organizations. I think back to our previous Republican governors (Jim Gilmore and George "Macaca" Allen) and thank goodness that we have been fortunate enough to have elected Doug Wilder, Mark Warner, and Tim Kaine. Tim Kaine, our current governor will become head of the Democratic National Party.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

...she did it!!!!


My little princess finally graduated from Old Dominion University on May 9th, 2009, with a bachelors degree in biology, and a minor in biochemistry. She is in the process of applying to Eastern Virginia Medical School for their masters program in public health with a focus on epidemiology.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

...and before I forget, I need to make a couple of comments...

First, let's get rid of this ridiculous "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the military. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with the ability to defend our country. Further, it is discriminatory. What goes on in other people's personal lives, straight or gay, is none of anybody's business. I hope that the President uses his power to overturn this policy.

Second, "pro-life" is anti-choice...for everyone else. If a person doesn't want to have an abortion, then don't. But keep your nose out of everybody else's business. I am sickened by the murder of a physician who was dedicated enough to uphold the rights of women, in spite of the shrill rhetoric and vigilantism of those who would strip the rest of us of our legal rights. There is no compromise, apparently, for those who wish to inflict their views on the rest of the population.

The last thing that I want to get off my chest, is the depth of my disgust and revulsion at the likes of (and I gag when I even think of them): Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Valerie Pfotenhauer, Michele Bachmann, John Boehner, Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, Eric Cantor, George (Macaca) Allen, Jim Gilmore, and Dick Cheney. How did so many jerks rise to the top of the Republican party? I am sure I am leaving out a few. I'll add them later once my stomach settles.

Monday, June 01, 2009

...about my "report card"....

Just an update about my grades--since my dad died two years and one month ago, I haven't had anyone to brag to about my progress in school. He was very disappointed in me for many years because I did not complete college. I took college classes here and there over the years, but the courses were unrelated, and none lead to a degree. When Mallory began college in 2003, I also decided to begin taking classes at our local community college, expecting that I would end up eventually with a degree in something. I figured it would take me eight years going part-time. I started sending my grades to my dad and he posted them on his refrigerator out in Arizona. When he became too infirm to care for himself, and ended up in a nursing home in Illinois, I still sent him my grades, even though he didn't have a refrigerator to post them on.

My dad would be proud to know that I now have 93 credit hours, with As in all classes but one (that was a B, in "Introduction to Psychology," in the fall of 2005. I am not making excuses for the "B," but rather simply offering an explanation. We were tested each week on each chapter. One hundred questions, one hundred minutes. There was no study guide--each chapter had to be memorized word-for-word in order to get an "A" on the test. It was impossible to be able to think about an answer--if you did not know it, you had to leave it blank. It was nearly impossible to be able to go on and complete the rest of a test and then come back to go over questions that you were unsure of, because of the time. I was very disappointed in that grade, and it brought my GPA down from 4.0 to something miserable. My GPA, in spite of all of the rest of my As, is still only 3.968. That sucks. Just because of one lousy B.

My kids think I am over-reacting, and too focused on getting all As. I am overcoming my miserable performance in high school, and trying to redeem myself even though my parents are not here to witness that I am not the dumb f...-up they no doubt thought I was. But this is taking much longer than I anticipated. I found out last December that I had taken the wrong classes for the degree I am working toward. I went out to my car after leaving the guidance office, and had a good cry, and then signed up for some of the right classes.

A few months ago, I received a letter saying that I was no longer eligible for financial aid because I apparently was "milking" the system...taking more classes than I needed to, without graduating. I have been so busy with Butterbean that it has been nearly impossible to think about what I need to do to regain my aid.

We were late in filing our taxes this year, and consequently, I am late in applying for financial aid for the fall semester. I was preoccupied about my son's continuing dramas, my daughter's impending graduation and the trip to Europe that we promised her when we were in better financial standing (and when I was working...the company I worked for for the past 12 years folded, and the owner still hasn't bothered to contact us...our work just dried up). I haven't been able to consider working, since my little Schmoopie's parents haven't yet stepped up to the plate to care for him full-time. I enjoy every second of time I spend with the baby, but enjoying my time with him has come at the price of not being able to do those things I'd been accustomed to doing.

Meeghan and the girls will be arriving here this coming Saturday for the rest of the summer. On Tuesday, I will have all three granddaughters, plus my little Butterbean, of course, for a week or so, while Meeghan flies down to Peru to meet her husband's ship as it pulls into port. I am very excited for her, but nervous at the same time...especially after hearing about a plane crash this morning off the coast of Brazil.

Meeghan and Mallory were planning a two-week-long trip to London, Paris, and Rome, but sadly, due to our financial situation, have scaled the trip way back to Paris only.

I am catering an "event" this coming Friday, and have yet to begin preparing pastries, however, all seven of the floral arrangements are done and sitting on the dining room table, buffet, and lowboy, along with the serving pieces, and some of the paper goods. I will take pictures and see if I can download them here next week.

Well, Butterbean is waking up from his nap, so it is time for me to go.

CNN breaking news: All 228 passengers/crew on the Air France flight are presumed dead...the Brazilian air force is now out doing a search. How sad for these families.