Uncle Art passes away

I just found out that my uncle Art died. That is sad. I didn't really know him though so it's not as sad as one might think. But still, flesh and blood has passed on over to the other side. I feel sad to that. He was my father's only brother and was older than my dad so he must have been at least 75 or so. My dad's sister, my aunt, is still alive and doing well as far as I know. My dad passed away when I was little and I really didn't have much contact with that side of the family. Actually, we moved out of Ohio when I was like 6 so I don't have much contact with any of my family, other than the occasional phone call with my brothers and my sister. It's really a drag, I love my family, I miss them. Whenever we get together (it's rare, due to the distance), I am in awe of them. After living almost my entire life without anyone really like me (I'm a pretty odd duck), other than my crazy ass mother, I get giddy spending time with my siblings. They crack me up. The laugh like me and have the same sense of humor. It's really weird. My brother and I are 7 years apart and we actually grew up in the same house so I know him better than my oldest brother and sister. He was a total asshole to me when I was growing up and I stop resenting him for that recently when he "found Jesus"... that's a total different post (see "conversations with crazy" from 2008 postings). I am glad that he finally sees me as someone with a bit of intelligence and a real idea of how life works. He must have finally accepted the fact that I'm smarter than him... bitter much? I'm working on it. Any way, my oldest brother and sister are the ones that I have spent the least amount of time with and considering they are 14 and 17 years older than I, they are more like parents than siblings. They are really cool people and when the four of us are in a room together, I am happier than I ever thought I could be. I really wish that we lived closer or that I could take a trip to see them every other year or so. I want to have my kids grow up around them and spend Thanksgiving and Christmas at their house and them at mine. I have a family where I live now, my wife and her parents, brother and sister in law... even her grandma is like family, but that doesn't stop me missing my own flesh and blood. So, even though Uncle Art wasn't in my address book or even knew where I live or who I am (he did know who I am I think), it's still a relative and a part of my family and he will be missed. I wish his immediate family well and I hope he died peacefully. I think when my dad was around him and their sister, he was really happy too. There truly is nothing like your brothers and sisters keeping you reminded of who you are and where you came from, (especially when you occasionally can't remember where you came from or how in the hell you got to where you are). So long Uncle Art... see ya on the other side... have Thanksgiving dinner ready for me would ya?

Keeping kids dumb and republican... just how we like 'em

Hello all!
Pathetic... that's what I will use to describe the Right at this moment. I use that a lot to characterize the Rights but this one has it pinned for them. Obama's speech tomorrow. It's directed toward school age children and it's intent is to motivate and stimulate children about education. To give children thoughts about how important it is to stay in school and how a good education can help them have a better future. I mean I probably shouldn't assume so much. Maybe he plans on hypnotizing American children and turning them into future socialists. He's probably got some subliminal messages he's planning to throw in there and splash millisecond photos of Sponge Bob Square Pants smoking crack on the street corner and then standing in line to get free health care to get himself off drugs. I mean it's ridiculous to think and hear that some parents are considering to not allow their children to go to school because the schools plan on playing the speech in class. My daughter's middle school called with a message tonight stating if we didn't want our child to listen to the speech, to send a note and she could sit in a room where the speech won't be on. I wonder how many kids will be in that room, more than we think I'm sure. That's really friggin horrible in my opinion. If Bush or Reagan gave a speech about how important school is I wouldn't deny my child the right to hear them out. If Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck gave a speech, I might question the content, but I still would allow them to listen, while I sat beside them and taught them how to heckle appropriately. It's wrong and silly and crazy. He's not a bad guy, he's not any sort of crazy speech giver. He's not a socialist either.
Rushy pants really started a little "war" when he said he wanted Obama to fail. I mean, I really feel like he started the ball rolling and no matter what Obama wants, the right will put every effort into fighting against it. And... ooh this really pisses me off... "we want our America back!"... that is truly pathetic. Obama, as far as I know, hasn't tried to change the constitution, hasn't tried to turn all of America against each other by stating: "your either with us or against us", he hasn't started a stupid war that we can't possibly win, he didn't try to run the country using Jesus as his main adviser and he hasn't taken the country away from Americans. The town hall meetings are more proof of how ignorant people are about this administration. I thought "tea-bagging" was nutty... these town hall meetings are insane. Whose the guy that said he was going to take his gun to Washington. Did anyone else hear about that? Isn't that like a threat and illegal or no? I mean come on! Then a few days ago I hear some clown say a handicapped person should not be allowed to speak before him. Am I just hearing bits and pieces? Am I being told only sound bytes from the media. Is this a "liberal media" doing it's job at only showing the crazy people or is this shit really happening?
Now, shouldn't we be happy about this health care thing? Especially the poor people right? I understand Glenn and Rush not wanting it, they probably have really good insurance for themselves and their family and could care less but some of these toothless people in the town hall meetings that are screaming out about how wrong this health care thing is just baffles me. It's a little confusing. It's not as if no other country has done this. It's not like we haven't seen universal health care actually work. I mean WTF? I guess we will have to see what happens.
I really hate to say this, and maybe I'm way off base but when I see some of these people who are so adamantly against Obama, I have to wonder if it's because he's black. I really hope that's not the case but so many people call him "our Kenyan President" and so many tweets read "show me the birth certificate". I even saw a bumper sticker here in my town asking for a birth certificate. It's sad and scary but I think that might be a lot of it. I mean, obviously I love Obama but I don't agree with everything. I mean I am concerned about some things going on in Washington, I don't think the man is perfect, but really, not letting your children hear his speech, wishing he would fail, questioning his citizenship and comparing him to Hitler. That's hateful. As much as a fuck up as I think George W. Bush was, I never compared him to Hitler (Dick Cheney to Satan but not Hitler), but maybe it's not a racist thing. Some racists think Hitler is a hero so, maybe I'm wrong. I don't know, I don't want to go there, too touchy just yet. In any event I am appalled that some parents are so ignorant they actually think that Obama is some crazy communist and plans on brainwashing our children to become black or Kenyan or socialists. If my kid wants to be black, more power to him...