Angelina Jolie

Bless her heart, she can’t even feed one of her new born babies without causing a stink.  Have you heard about it?  She is on the cover of W’s November magazine and is apparently breastfeeding one of the twins.  It’s not a full frontal picture of her breast or even the baby on her breast.  She’s sitting with the opposite shoulder facing the camera and part of her breast on the opposite side is visible.  SO?

Have celebrities not worn less on the red carpet?  Look at some old pictures of Cher is you don’t think so.  What Angelina is doing in this picture is the most beautiful thing a woman can do for her baby.  She’s breastfeeding and not just hanging her boob out for everyone to see.  It’s crap like this stink that drove women away from breastfeeding.  Sure there are some that for one reason or another can’t breastfeed their baby.  Then they have to give them a bottle and that’s okay but breastfeeding is the way nature intended for us to feed our babies.

I will admit I think there is a time and a place and also a way to breastfeed.  No woman should just whip her breast out and feed her baby where ever she is.  If she’s in public, you can very discretely place a baby blanket over your shoulder and cover the fact that you are breastfeeding and most people won’t know at all.  Or if she’s entertaining at home with both men and women, she should excuse herself and invite the women to join her in the other room if they would like while she feeds the baby but that’s my opinion.

There has been countless into the benefits of breastfeeding.  Breastfed babies usually score higher in math, they have stronger immune systems and therefore, don’t get sick nearly as often and have less severity to when they do get sick.  So what’s the big deal here?  I think Angelina should be commended – not chastised!!

Just messing around on the computer

I’ve been playing on the computer and found some really cute things.  I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, I was just looking.  I don’t spend a lot of time on the computer so there’s a lot about it I need to learn.  One cool site I found  was www.find.com.  I already knew about www.ask.com which most everyone knows about but I like find.com better.  I like the way it shows or points you to what ever it is you are looking for better.  Ask.com always gives me so many options that I end up losing what I was looking for in the first place.  Anyway, I didn’t know if you knew about them and I thought you might like it better too so give it a try and see what you think.  Like they say, seek and ye shall find.

hellow - animated

Religion

Religion to me is a personal thing.  The way I believe is my own personal business and should not be pushed on anyone else is the way I see it.  Nothing bothers me more than for someone to try and ‘convert’ me into thinking their way about a higher power or lack there of.  I do believe in a ‘higher power’ but if I call him God, Jehovah or whatever, that’s my choice and mine alone.

I do wish that everyone had some type of relationship with a ‘higher power’ that gives them a sense of peace and love instead of hate and fear but even then, I can not tell anyone else they are wrong for their beliefs, now can I?  Oh sure I could try but why?  All that would or could accomplish is to make them turn farther away from what I would be trying to pull them towards, now couldn’t it?

How can anyone look at a beautiful sunset, or see a baby being born and not believe in a higher power?  How can anyone see the fury of nature and the wonder of it and not believe in a higher power?  I don’t have the answer to either of those questions but then even with that, people have the right not to believe in anything except for the here and now.

I believe in the here and now and also in the there after.  Who ever and how ever you choose to worship, may it bless you as much as I have been blessed.  This I do pray.

Hurricane Ike

I can’t explain to you what has gone through my mind these past few days.  The sheer emotional roller coaster and memories of Hurricane Katrina have come flooding back (bad choice of words) since Hurricane Ike decided to hit Texas on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Oh how my heart goes out to all those people that have lost everything.  Oh how my blood boils when I think of all of our people left stranded for days on end with little or no relief from our own government but they are trying really hard to make sure the mistakes they made back then, aren’t made again.  I must commend them for seeing the error of their ways and honestly, I don’t think there really is a good way to prepare for the enormous amount of help people need after these types of storms.

How can anyone know where to be so that everyone can get to the fresh water, ice and food they are going to need.  They can’t exactly just drive in.  I guess they could ‘drop’ supplies in like they do for people stranded in mountainous territories but how do you know where you drop it is safe for the people to come to?  How do you know that most of the people will be able to make it to the supplies?

I’m so glad I’m not the one that has to figure that all out.  I’m just glad I left town and wish others would heed the warnings when a storm of this magnitude is headed their way.  You would think seeing what New Orleans went through would be enough to make them aware of the dangers of staying to protect your home.  You can’t protect it from winds and water like that but you can protect yourself and your family by leaving.  A life saved is worth far more than any worldly possession.  That’s just my opinion.

Help your local animal shelter

When Katrina hit, there were a lot of abandoned pets.  Animal shelters from all over the country took them in.  A small way to thank them for what they do is to volunteer to come and walk dogs and play with the animals for short periods to give them exercise and socialization skills.

Unfortunately many people are having to give up a pet with gas prices rising by the second almost, and sometimes it comes down to pet food or food for yourself.  Because of this, the animal shelters are being over run with pets that can no longer be cared for. If you have a shelter in your community, next time you have the urge to take on a pet, I hope you will go to the shelter and adopt an animal from the shelter. And if you have anything you can donate to the shelter, here’s a list of desired items that can be dropped off and will be put into good use:

  • Old but clean towels, sheets and blankets
  • Dog toys
  • Bags of dry dog food
  • Collars and leashes

Last state to ban Cock Fighting

I can not believe that my state of Louisiana is the last state in the country to ban Cock Fighting.  I hate fighting of any animals for human pleasure.  I believe that anyone caught even letting their dog fight another dog at all should be punished.  I do know that it is extremely hard sometimes to separate two dogs that are fighting but a good spray from a water hose goes a long way to breaking their concentration on getting at each other and turns it towards getting away from the water.  You may even have to spray them in the face to get their attention but do what ever it takes short of injuring either animal to break up the fight.  Blow your car horn, go get your vacuum cleaner and turn it on, most dogs hate those things anyway.  Use your head and you can figure out a way to stop it. 

We all make mistakes, just some bigger than others

I believe that people that have done stupid things in the past and then got their lives straightened out should be able to earn back the rights taken from them.  No one is perfect and we all make mistakes, just some make bigger ones than others but depending on the mistake, should it be something they are punished for the rest of their lives?   Some felonies are worse than others I totally agree but some thing that are a felony, are minor offenses and should that person turn their lives around, I think their felony conviction should be lessened to just that, a minor offense. 

It seems that there are some lawyers out there that are fighting to get some felons the right to vote again.  Reggie Mitchell is a civil rights lawyer who is doing just that.  Mitchell is the leader of a grass-roots Democrats and civil-rights activists that are trying to get these felons registered to vote.  This is not a party based civil-rights fight.  It’s a human rights civil-rights fight and I think it’s a great thing.  I’m sure everyone has an opinion on this issue but you should read http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26130901 so you can make an informed decision if this is something good or not.

Congress names names

How in the world did I miss this back in July?  I must have been really busy not to catch this but on July 9th the Congressional Democrats finally named names in the investigation of all those formaldehyde contaminated FEMA trailers they gave to Katrina and Rita survivors.  It’s about time Congress named names in something that has affected so many who were victims anyway and then victimized again by what appeared to be our own government.

These individuals should be sentenced to live in the same conditions they placed our good people in by having to move them into these trailors and forcing them to live there as long as the longest person had to stay in one of them.  An eye for an eye if you ask me.  Shame on them!!!!!

Gulf Stream Coach, Pilgrim International, Keystone RV and Forest River Inc. officials should all have to pay for any and all medical expenses for everyone that lived in one of their trailers.  These companies made a lot of money from the government and I hold them responsible for the whole situation as should the government but that my friends, is totally my opinion and mine alone.  Well that is unless some of you agree with me on this one.

Katrina Doctor cleared

I was just heart sick when I heard that Dr. Anna Pou had been charged with manslaughter.  This woman went above and beyond to keep her patients safe and to continue to care for them as did every single employee at the hospital.  They had to work under horrendous conditions and did what they could and had to do for these poor patients only to be accused of terrible wrong doing.

So where is the blame for the government officials that allowed these patients to remain in the hospital in the first place.  Our government mishandled most everything with Katrina.  Yet we are ready, willing, and able to send help to other countries that suffer from terrible tragedies similar to that of Katrina?  What is wrong with this picture?  We are still too busy trying to take care of the world at our own peoples expense.

 

Myanmar

Myanmar was hit by a horrific cyclone named Nargis, which is the equivalent to our hurricanes.  The loss of life was staggering.  An estimated 84,530 people died and there are over 53,856 still missing.  This is a poor country anyway and then something like this happens and the resources are not there to help these poor victims.  According to the United Nations, it will cost approximately a billion US dollars over the next three years for aide and to rebuild Myanmar.

We thought it was bad here when Katrina and Rita hit, well at least we did have someone come to help even if it wasn’t as fast as we thought it should.  These poor people have very little to begin with and very little that is available to help them.  I’m sure the world will rally around to help.  My heart goes out to them as I know in a very small way the devastation they feel.  God bless them.