Friday Thoughts: Mandates

January 14, 2022January 14, 2022

Friday Thoughts: Mandates

The Biden/Xiden/FICUS administration issued an Executive Order (EO) a while back saying that OSHA would make a rule that required private businesses employing 100 or more people to require their employees get vaccinated or tested weekly and wear a mask. Another EO (or maybe the same one, they all run together at this point) additionally required all health care workers in hospitals and clinics accepting Medicare/Medicaid had to be vaccinated. These came in as two separate cases to the Court. Obviously, the genius club running the White House didn’t consider the constitutional issues accompanying such orders (I’m not even going to start on what I think about EOs). Plus, they’re still going off of the “everybody has to be vaccinated or the vaccine won’t work” fallacy.

January 12, 2022January 12, 2022

Voting Rights Hysteria

The right to vote is something that Americans consider almost sacred. We are a representative democracy, or a representative republic. We elect representatives to form a government on our behalf and as the principals, we give those representatives agency (permission) to act on our behalf. I am not going to go into whether those agents really do act on our behalf, or how to ensure that they do. What I want to talk about is who gets to vote for those representatives and how do those elections happen.

January 7, 2022January 7, 2022

Friday Thoughts: Normal Life

We’ve been living in Texas for just over a month now. And, for just over a month now, we’ve been living a normal life. Normal as in, the masks are no longer sitting in pockets, bags, or counters ready to be grabbed when leaving the house. Nope. They’ve been thrown away (except for the Mike Rowe ones). We don’t need them. They are not required anywhere. Going to the store? Just walk in. Restaurant? Walk in. It’s soooo refreshing.

January 5, 2022January 5, 2022

Insurrection or Astroturf?

Tomorrow I expect to hear and see much wailing, gnashing of teeth, sackcloth, ashes being strewn about, moaning about the “state of democracy”, calls for stronger gun control, calls for bringing back the “sedition” part of the Aliens and Seditions Act. All of which is designed to get the average “I just want to live my life” American to wring their hands, bemoan those awful racist Republican Trumpists, and vote straight Democrat tickets next election.

December 31, 2021December 31, 2021

Friday Thoughts: Leaving 2021

This is the last day of 2021. I am happy to see it in the rearview mirror, just as I was with 2020. On our walk today, I was talking with my husband about the last year. It did have its ups and downs. The biggest up being that we have moved to Texas. Met my own goal of moving before the end of the year. Barely. But we did it.

December 24, 2021December 24, 2021

A New Home for Christmas

Today is Christmas Eve and we’re in a new home for the first time in eighteen years. Not that we spent every Christmas there, not by a long shot. But this is the first time in eighteen years that our home base has changed. We got most of the boxes unpacked and as soon as things were looking settled, I pulled out the Christmas box and started in on the holiday decorating. And discovered I don’t have nearly enough stuff for this house!

December 20, 2021December 20, 2021

Striking Differences

We are settling in here in Texas and I am constantly struck by how different and yet similar our life here is, compared to our life in Philadelphia. The most obvious thing is the weather. I grew up in San Diego, so I’m familiar with warm winters. But it’s been twenty years since I lived in southern California. And, those twenty years have been filled with snow, freezing rain, sleet, ice storms, and just plain damn cold weather every winter.

December 10, 2021December 10, 2021

Real Grassroots Action

The left really has no idea what exactly is meant by grassroots activism and action. I was reading an opinion piece this morning from the Boston Herald’s Joe Battenfield titled “Biden tormented by Republican guerilla action and ‘I did it’ stickers.” It’s a short piece, but it’s highly illustrative of the monstrously large blind spot the left has for anybody who opposes their policies, and the definition of grassroots action.

December 5, 2021December 5, 2021

Settling In

Our stuff is arriving on Tuesday! Yay! The driver called this afternoon to give me the update. “Sounds like you’re in an empty house.” “Yes, I am. How’d you guess?” (said with slightly sarcastic tone as I listen to the echo). “I can hear the echo. How’d you like me to fix that for you on Tuesday morning?” “I’d love it! When?” “Between eight and nine.” “Great!” (while silently thinking, okay, gotta get up early on Tuesday!)

December 2, 2021December 2, 2021

Moving

Moving and job hunting are, according to what I’ve read, the two most stressful things you can do. I’ve done a lot of moving and job hunting over the years, and I have to say, I completely agree. We just landed after a two-state move, Pennsylvania to Texas. It’s been almost twenty years since we moved anywhere. We didn’t even move into different apartments in Philly. We stayed in the same city and same apartment for twenty years. Then we moved almost 2,000 miles away.