w e l l ~ B L O G ~ t o ~ y o u ~ t o o !

23 November 2004
Another thing to be sad about.  
Who Will Get Caught in the IRS's Sights? (washingtonpost.com) Registration required (but free).

Yes, so I was doing my work... actually doing proactive work looking out there for stuff on philanthropies. Lo and behold, I cam across a link to this article. It's old news, but still continuing. And it makes me sad that free speech is stifled under threats of revoking nonprofit status.

And now I shall descend into anothe rant here. One about the necessity of free speech. One about the necessity of having another viewpoint. It is an ideal of this country that if you have something to say, you can say it. True--in a perfect world--there shouldn't be abuse of power and having some CEO or someone tell everyone in the company who to vote for else they'll loose their jobs.

But to stifle the NAACP because of a few words that criticized the current administration after a long line of criticizing all the previous administrations? The article notes that the NAACP probably won't get its tax-exempt status revoked by the IRS, but there are smaller organizations which will have voices stifled because the current regime cannot stand facing the truth.

Really, is it that bad if its TRUE? Apparently so. Bush & Co. don't believe the American people deserve truth.

Liz the Mischievous renovated @ 10:20 (0) scribes commenting

22 November 2004
New additions  
That would be me being the cat lady. Because now I am possessing of Clorinda, a sweet little 8 week old kitten who is black and white in pretty much the same pattern Figaro is, only she's black where he is gray. She's got bright round eyes and a loud purr-motor that revs every so often. She nibbles my fingers and snuggles under the covers. Orpheus and Figaro are still not convinced that Clorinda is feline and therefore worthy of their attention. They give me looks like "WTF, Mommy?"

Liz the Mischievous renovated @ 11:02 (0) scribes commenting

17 November 2004
Getting Set Back Up  
So anyway, the temporary layout is still up--until I can get a bit of time to play in photoshop. Elf Addiction is going by a new name now (or it will be shortly) called Verbosity. As of right now, I haven't gotten to the page, so I'm not providing a link. I've got a little more content up, namely the Art page. Other content will be resuming soon.

NEW in the domain is my SCA page, with information and whatnot about my endeavors there being posted there. A lot of it will be links going in and out and if I get into teaching, any handouts I've made. I am rather excited about the page, if for no other reason than I figured out how to make multiple variables change when I want them to. BWA HA HA HA HA! er. sorry.

As far as life goes, the kittens are doing well. I'm busier than I've been in a long time and greatly enjoying it.

Liz the Mischievous renovated @ 07:15 (0) scribes commenting

15 November 2004
Back in Business  
Wee... getting the site put back together after a malicious attack. Bad malicious people. At least I can re-organize things. Yes, the layout is pretty bare, isn't it? It'll be that way until I get some time on photoshop ot make something pretty to put up.

Liz the Mischievous renovated @ 10:03 (0) scribes commenting

11 November 2004
Dinner Conversation  
Due to extenuating circumstances, there was a defrosting turkey and some defrosting ice cream cakes at a friends' house! oh no! What to do with this tragedy? Why have a dinner party, of course! And it was a very nice dinner party. The turkey was good, the squash was good, and the conversation was fantastic. :) There were a couple of people that I don't normally get to have dinner with, and it was fantastic. One of the people in particular has the most graphic and amusing rants ever, and though the group wasn't one that probaly on the outside looked to be the type that would gather, goodness, we were laughing and it was a wonderful time. It should be done more often!

These are people who normally don't go to the Wednesday Night dinners because of whatever reason, and it was very refreshing. It soothed the residual anger I had at the stupid drivers that made it take so long to get from the grocery store to my house. It was... good. It was very good.

And yes, the 7 of us are probably on whatever national watch list exists for people who really don't like the current President. Oh well.

Liz the Mischievous renovated @ 11:21 (0) scribes commenting

03 November 2004
To the President and the Country  
I may be young, but I am not uninformed. I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I do not choose to affiliate myself with any political party. I voted. I voted in the last Presidential election as well. I did not vote for George W. Bush either time. Back in November 2000, I was even younger than I am now (obviously)--it was the first presidential election I could vote in due to the timing of my birthday--and I was also informed then. I listened to Mr. Bush's speech on "No Child Left Behind" and I thought on my own childhood and the rural school district I grew up in and I knew it would not work. It hasn't worked. That was the main issue for me in the 2000 election.

All that changed for the 2004 election. No. Not because of the attacks on September 11, 2001. Yes, I was frightened then--mostly because of that missing plane over the Pittsburgh area, and I was frightened for people I knew there. I supported attacking the Taliban. I thought it was the right and proper thing to do.

And then came Iraq. And all the lies. The lies that Mr. Bush told the American people. The lies coupled with fear-mongering tactics that tried to keep America in that paranoid September 12, 2001 mindset. The vague warnings that served to highlight where the country was in it's "Terror Alert." Mr. Bush wrapped himself in the American Flag making it so any questioning of his policies was a direct insult to America--or at least phrasing it that way. Mr. Bush: it should be the other way around. You should be willing to take a bullet to shield the flag, not use the flag as a shield against your incompetency and delusions of grandeur.

Because of all the happeneings between 2000 and 2004... and YES, I do include September 11, 2001 in that estimate as it happened on the administration's watch--after they deliberately ignored missives that it might happen. But because of all the happenings, I was more determined than ever to push the lever down for anyone BUT Bush.

Well, America: you've elected him again. You've bought into his deliberate fear-mongering. You've given into his emotional terrorism. You've deliberately hoodwinked yourself that Iraq and Osama bin Laden are related depsite all evidence to the contrary. You've watched the balanced budged and fiscal responsibility of the Clinton era be thrown out the window and the economy go into a downward spiral. You've watched spending increase in funding for a hubris-induced war so over 1,000 American citizens could be killed after the mission was declared "accomplished" in Iraq. You didn't accomplish the mission. "Major military operations have ceased" which is why stays have been extended and people can't go home and they're dying.

Then again, Mr. Bush never did have any respect for the National Guard. It was a way for him to get out of serving.

Well, I can just see civil rights being revoked one by one. I can see bigotry being legislated in an attempt to keep homosexual people as a group of sub-citizens: that if they want equal rights under the law, they have to change something about themselves that is as impossible as changing the color of their skin. "Gay" is the new "Black".

Staying steadfastly on course isn't a good thing when the course is sent to take back freedoms and rights that people have fought and died for. Even when the plane was flying lost over the Pittsburgh area, I was't as frightened as I was the evening of November 2, 2004 and the morning of November 3, 2004.

You see, I'm not a Christian. I do not follow that faith. I do not follow that belief. I'm terrified that my fundamental right to follow my pagan ways will be stripped from me. I'm terrified that many of my close friends will either have to hide who they are or leave the country. I'm terrified that I won't be able to write something like this in a few years. I'm terrified that any voice that is dissenting from what Mr. Bush desires will be snuffed out. If there should be a war on terrorism, it should start here in America, and it should start in this regime that is becoming exactly what claims to want to destroy.

Some wise person noted that people who give up liberty for security get and deserve neither. Yeah, well our liberties are going down the drain. After all, what are Liberty and Justice but two women who go hand in hand in America... and we all know what Mr. Bush thinks about homosexuality.

Someone else noticed that no good leader wants to go to war. Well Mr. Bush did. He wanted to go to war. He wanted to right some imaginary slight on his father's honor. Even Bush Sr. knew enough to know that deposing Saddam Hussein would come with too high a price-tag.

I fear for America. I fear that this country will be standing as a beacon of Democracy like we delude ourselve to thinking it is. I can only hope that there are enough moderates like Sen. McCain who will know enough to temper Mr. Bush's delusions. This is what I am terrified of: not Iraq; not the Middle east. I am terrified of America's President.

Liz the Mischievous renovated @ 14:21 (0) scribes commenting