A new focus

I have been very wishy-washy about the direction of my blog or even if I wanted to write one at all. I mean really is anyone actually interested in what I have to say? Am I clever and witty enough to keep readers coming back for more? Honestly, I don' t know the answer to that, but if I don't try I'll never know.

Okay, I'm moving forward, I'm going to write a blog, but what about? 

Some of my friends thought I should be writing about politics since it is one of my passions, but there are so many political blogs written by people who are so much smarter and more articulate than I am that I decided to try and focus on something else. I tried to think about what else I was passionate about? Food, I love food. I'm a foodie, and a terrific cook by the way. But, I just found out that my body was riddled with candida, and I can't eat anything worth discussing. Eating for sustenance only is what I'll be doing for the next few months so the last thing I want to do is blog about all the glorious food out there in the world that I can't engage with. So ix-nay on the food-ay.

Then today someone told me that you can make a blog private. Wow, that's great news for me because now I can write about something I've only been able to write about in script form, my life, or really this latest phase of my life. Getting married, becoming a step-parent, and living through a hideous custody battle.  Now you may wonder what does keeping a blog private and being a step parent living through a custody battle have to do with a blog being private? Well, if I write about my life, and my experience, and I'm totally honest, it could be hurtful to my step-daughter. Although she is coming discover on her own the extent of her mother's insanity she is still, at 16, too young to hear it from me. 

So, now I begin to take you on a journey that has been absolutely harrowing, and alternately blissful all at the same time........  

Our Dysfunctional Military

There are many more facts that need to come out and probably will, but here is one thing we know.....the shooter at Fort Hood was a man who was obviously unstable, and was actually trying desperately hard to get out of the military. 

Hassan battled harassment based on his "Middle Eastern ethnicity", according to his cousin Nader Hasan, and was seeking to leave the military.

"He hired a military attorney to try to have the issue resolved, pay back the government, to get out of the military. He was at the end of trying everything," Hasan told Fox News. 

There is something SERIOUSLY wrong with a system that does not allow for any individuality, that does not recognize that there are some, regardless of their desire to serve, that are just not capable of going to battle. This is a man who was obviously coming undone over his imminent deployment. A man who was desperate to get out of the military and not only wouldn't they let him, they were harassing him. The mentality of the military is so backward that it frightens me, it always has. Considering that I have two family members, whom I love dearly, that are now a part of this antiquated pathology frightens me even more. Our troops are actually being taught to hate, it is unavoidable considering the circumstances we are putting them under. 

Can you imagine how hard it must be for good Muslim Americans to serve in the military? It is about to get so much worse for them. This shooting was a real game changer and not in a good way. There is no doubt that we need to support our troops no matter what, but there needs to be some kind of populist backlash against a military who does not know how to protect their own. There have been 117 troops who have committed suicide just this year. These are war causalities and yet aren't being treated as such. Let there be no doubt that this shooting at Fort Hood and these suicides are due to a failure of the rigid mindset of that institution, nothing more, nothing less. It has to change and it has to change fast before more lives are needlessly lost.

RIP - Teddie

Ted Kennedy was a deeply flawed man, but he always brought the best of himself to the American people. As Joe Biden said so eloquently today, "It was never about him, it was always about you." What inspired me about Teddy (and all the Kennedy brothers) was that despite his incredible wealth and status, his life mired in tragedy, he dedicated his life to those less fortunate. He worked tirelessly, and tenaciously for what he believed to be the greater good of this country. Whether you agreed with him or not, this man dedicated his life to public service and we are all the better for that. He has fought for universal health care his entire life, let's pick up his fight and not allow him to die in vain.

I'm Just Asking.......

How is it that the same people who bitch and moan about our government, it can't be trusted, it's inept, it's trying to take over our lives, it's taxing us to death, it's trying to take away our guns, etc., etc., and on, and on 

ad nauseam, are also the SAME people who are saying that we have the best government in the world, we are the home of the free and brave, and they support us going to war in order to push our form of government on other countries? They 're also saying that with health care reform the government is trying to take their choices away. These are the same people who demand, sometimes violently, that CHOICE be taken away from women. What the hell is wrong with this picture? The hypocrisy is overwhelming.

Why

I've been threatening to start this blog for months now. I needed to have something else to distract me from work besides Facebook, Huffington Post, Firedoglake, email rants on health care, blah, blah, blah......you get the picture. 

Now I have my appropriately titled Play For Time blog spot which is exactly what I'll be doing here....playing for time. So, now that I've been working on these two sentences for an hour I have to bounce and get to work.