Tax Day Tea Party

Are you Taxed Enough Already? Tired of the insane government spending while the rest of us struggle to make ends meet? "Tea'd off" at the government? Take back America. Stand up for the Constitution. See if there is a Tax Day Tea Party in your state.

Tax Day Tea Party

Are you Taxed Enough Already? Tired of the insane government spending while the rest of us struggle to make ends meet? "Tea'd off" at the government? Take back America. Stand up for the Constitution. See if there is a Tax Day Tea Party in your state.

One thing the president and I agree on:

I read this quote from Barack Obama today and realized that I heartily agree with him on this!

"There's one last thing that I should mention that I love about Great Britain, and that is the Queen, what the Queen stands for and her decency and her civility, what she represents, that's very important."

One thing the president and I agree on:

I read this quote from Barack Obama today and realized that I heartily agree with him on this!

"There's one last thing that I should mention that I love about Great Britain, and that is the Queen, what the Queen stands for and her decency and her civility, what she represents, that's very important."

Wednesday Outrageous Watch

Today's Wednesday outrageous watch features none other than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. CNA reports that Mrs. Clinton visited Mexico on March 27, 2009 to accept the Margaret Sanger award from Planned Parenthood. (Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was a eugenicist who believed that the handicapped, the poor and African Americans were "human waste" whose "stocks" needed to be "eliminated" and that charitable programs "tend(s) to render them to a menacing degree dominant".)

In what could be interpreted as a planned stop to quiet Catholics made uncomfortable by the raison d'etre of her Mexico visit, Clinton stopped by the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and left a bouquet of white flowers "on behalf of the American people" in front of the image of the Mother of Jesus that Catholics believe was created miraculously during an apparition of Mary to St. Juan Diego in 1531.

Mrs. Clinton turned to Msgr. Diego Monroy, the rector of the Basilica, and asked, "Who painted it?" Wisely, Msgr. Monroy replied, "God!"

The Secretary of State's question revealed a couple of possible things. It could have shown her lack of belief in the miraculous nature of the image. That's fine. She has every right not to believe. Even Catholics are not required to believe in apparitions--even Church approved ones, like this one is.

It also, however, could have shown her lack of knowledge about the story behind the Mexican apparition. This shows a deficit on the part of her staff. Apparently she wasn't briefed ahead of time on the background of the image in the Basilica and its importance to the Mexican people.

This puzzling deficiency in researching the background of a planned stop during a trip abroad for a sitting Secretary of State leads one to ponder the reason. Perhaps her staff is incompetent. That's hard to believe for someone who has been in circles of power for as long as Hillary Clinton has. If it is just a staff oversight, and I were her, heads would roll.

The other possibility could be that the long held beliefs of a predominantly Catholic country were just so unimportant as to be off the radar screen of Mrs. Clinton and her staff entirely. This is mind boggling given the fact that Hillary Clinton is Secretary of State of the United States--a position that requires diplomacy towards various cultures other than our own. The fact that Mrs. Clinton is, in all possibility a non-believer in Catholic apparitions, is, therefore, no excuse for her insensitive remarks given the fact that part of her job is to show respect for the cultures, traditions and beliefs of the countries she visits. Imagine making a similar statement to a member of the clergy of another religion (Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim...) in light of that religion's similar belief!

Even without my vehement disagreement on almost all positions taken by Hillary Clinton, this latest gaff leaves me concerned as to her personal qualifications to represent the United States abroad.

Wednesday Outrageous Watch

Today's Wednesday outrageous watch features none other than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. CNA reports that Mrs. Clinton visited Mexico on March 27, 2009 to accept the Margaret Sanger award from Planned Parenthood. (Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was a eugenicist who believed that the handicapped, the poor and African Americans were "human waste" whose "stocks" needed to be "eliminated" and that charitable programs "tend(s) to render them to a menacing degree dominant".)

In what could be interpreted as a planned stop to quiet Catholics made uncomfortable by the raison d'etre of her Mexico visit, Clinton stopped by the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and left a bouquet of white flowers "on behalf of the American people" in front of the image of the Mother of Jesus that Catholics believe was created miraculously during an apparition of Mary to St. Juan Diego in 1531.

Mrs. Clinton turned to Msgr. Diego Monroy, the rector of the Basilica, and asked, "Who painted it?" Wisely, Msgr. Monroy replied, "God!"

The Secretary of State's question revealed a couple of possible things. It could have shown her lack of belief in the miraculous nature of the image. That's fine. She has every right not to believe. Even Catholics are not required to believe in apparitions--even Church approved ones, like this one is.

It also, however, could have shown her lack of knowledge about the story behind the Mexican apparition. This shows a deficit on the part of her staff. Apparently she wasn't briefed ahead of time on the background of the image in the Basilica and its importance to the Mexican people.

This puzzling deficiency in researching the background of a planned stop during a trip abroad for a sitting Secretary of State leads one to ponder the reason. Perhaps her staff is incompetent. That's hard to believe for someone who has been in circles of power for as long as Hillary Clinton has. If it is just a staff oversight, and I were her, heads would roll.

The other possibility could be that the long held beliefs of a predominantly Catholic country were just so unimportant as to be off the radar screen of Mrs. Clinton and her staff entirely. This is mind boggling given the fact that Hillary Clinton is Secretary of State of the United States--a position that requires diplomacy towards various cultures other than our own. The fact that Mrs. Clinton is, in all possibility a non-believer in Catholic apparitions, is, therefore, no excuse for her insensitive remarks given the fact that part of her job is to show respect for the cultures, traditions and beliefs of the countries she visits. Imagine making a similar statement to a member of the clergy of another religion (Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim...) in light of that religion's similar belief!

Even without my vehement disagreement on almost all positions taken by Hillary Clinton, this latest gaff leaves me concerned as to her personal qualifications to represent the United States abroad.

The Emancipator's Wife

The Emancipator's Wife by Barbara Hambly

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Emancipator's Wife is a fictionalized biography of Mary Todd Lincoln. Rather than paint her as someone whose mental illness encompasses her entire personality, the book portrays Mrs. Lincoln as someone who is witty and intelligent and truly struggles with the way her mental illness impacts her life.

Author Barbara Hambly takes into account the many other factors that could have come into play to explain Mary Lincoln's unstable behavior, not the least of which were the drugs that were rampant in unregulated "women's cordials" that Mrs. Lincoln was known to have taken. Nineteenth century mental health care was as unscientific as much of the medical care of the time, for those who were well to do enough to afford any at all.

The privileged life led by Mary Todd Lincoln is juxtaposed with the life of another woman similarly affected by mental illness--a fictional black woman whose son's first hand experience in dealing with the behavior brought on by her mental illness leads him to work in Bellevue, the sanitarium that Mary is placed in after Robert Lincoln asks the court to declare her insane.

Hambly ends the book by pointing to sexism as a key reason for society's lack of tolerance of "eccentric" behavior in women, when men's place of power in the community protects them from similar isolating treatment.

In the Epilogue Hambly explains her research and authorship decisions in a broad but satisfying way.

Excellent book!




View all my reviews.