I had the strangest thing happen today. Let me start by explaining how my house is set up. Behind my house, there is an alley. There is grass that most of the people don’t mow, and it’s more of an easement for the utilities than anything. I also have an alley on the side of my home too. That alley has gravel on it. My garage faces this alley (no I don’t have a driveway) and so does the neighbor behind us.

So Will and I get home from school today, and we were in the backyard admiring my handwork of putting up an American flag (by myself). Then I hear “click, click, click”. I turn around and there is a guy in the back alley holding a gun (a gun that looks like a riffle). I’m like okay Will let’s get in the house. The guy never said anything to me nor did he even look at me. So I called Bill. My first thought was to call the police, but Bill figured if he was up to no good that he wouldn’t be so open in the alley back there. So his vote was to do nothing and if I felt nervous to look the door. So I called my mom. She’s like hang up with me and call the police! I was about to do that and looked out the window again. Guess what I saw.

Now, I still see the guy with the gun. But now I notice that there is guy standing on the garage that is not directly behind me, but the next one over. The guy on the roof has a pitchfork looking rake and is hitting the roof of the garage with it. At that point, I figured I was safe. I thought it was strange but still not sure what the heck was going on.

So when I took Will to the doctor today, I back out of my garage and go past the alley. Then I realized what they were doing. There was a hole in the fascia (which is just below the roof). It was about 6 inches longs and 3 inches wide. I’m guessing some animal got in there. The guy on the roof was pounding trying to get whatever creature in there out. The guy with the gun was going to shoot said animal? That’s my best guess. I’m still not sure if it was a real gun, a dart gun, or just a BB Gun.

So if you saw a guy in the alley with a gun, what would you do?

Copyright © 2011 My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact mythoughtsideasandramblings.com @ gmail.com so we can take legal action immediately.

One of my Facebook “friends” (it’s actually somebody I went to high school with) posted this statement as her status:

In the face and grieving of tragedy we preach and praise God’s word, yet come election time we leave it aside. Please help me understand this?!

Now, if she was a blogger, this is clearly link bait to me. What surprised me was that she was oblivious to the argument that ensued in the comments after she typed this. She was surprised that people were offended.  Now, I want to hear your thoughts, but I want to offer mine first.

I don’t talk about religion or politics on here too often.  What you believe is what you believe.  What I believe is what I believe.  What I say isn’t going to change your mind.  That’s is why I don’t talk about it.  However, this is something I do think needs to be addressed.

The part the author seems to miss is that not everybody believes in God.  Will goes to a public preschool — he has kids of every shape, color, and kind.  Some celebrate Christmas.  Some celebrate the Muslim holidays.  And some don’t celebrate at all.  Madison attends a small Catholic school.   (Had to get my disclosures out of the way)

However, I do think that the conservative “right” has hijacked God for (and I’m quoting another friends comment here that was on this post) cheap political points, furthering an agenda of bigotry against homosexuals, and legislating a woman’s body.

I’ll be honest — I don’t vote for who my Church tells me to vote for.  I look at the issues that are important to me.  I vote on that — not whether or not somebody is Catholic or Christian.  I don’t want people voting for somebody because their priest told them too.  I don’t want religion in my government — I really don’t.  Just think if you aren’t the majority religion and what life would be like.  I also don’t need a MAN in Washington deciding what I can and can’t do with my body.  Plus, I know plenty of atheists that are moral, loving, and kind.  You don’t need religion to have those qualities.  I love my country too much to want the founding father’s vision — that is keeping religion out of government — destroyed.  They came here to get out of the reach of the Church.

Though I think I get some of what she was saying — that in tragedy everybody seems to “find God”.  I didn’t watch the speech last night, but I’ve heard about it.  If everybody on BOTH sides of the table, did what “God” wanted — we wouldn’t be fighting on social programs (like the healthcare bill since I think have a doctor care should be a right not just a privilege for those who can afford it).  We would take care of the old, the sick, and the poor and NOT fight over who is paying for it.

Okay, off my soap box, and I think I’ve talked in circles.  What are your thoughts?  (And feel free to disagree with me).

Copyright © 2011 My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact mythoughtsideasandramblings.com @ gmail.com so we can take legal action immediately.

I actually got this in an email. However, it is so very true. I have not missed an election since I was 18. I always figured that I couldn’t complain if I didn’t take part in the very process that picks our leaders.  Here is a few things that the history books didn’t teach us –

This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.

Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.

The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.

And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden’s blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of ‘obstructing sidewalk traffic.’ They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cell mate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the ‘Night of Terror’ on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson’s White House for the right to vote.

For weeks, the women’s only water came from an open pail. Their food–all of it colorless slop–was infested with worms.

When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks
until word was smuggled out to the press. Here is more information about these coragieous women:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf

So, refresh my memory. Some women won’t vote this year because–why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn’t matter? It’s raining?

HBO recently put out a movie called Iron Jawed Angels. It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane, so that she could be permanently institutionalized. It is also inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn’t make her crazy.

The doctor admonished the men: ‘Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.’

Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know.

We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party – remember to vote.

History is being made.

Copyright © 2011 My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact mythoughtsideasandramblings.com @ gmail.com so we can take legal action immediately.

Cpl. Lance M. Thompson
21 years old from Upland, Indiana
2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force
November 15, 2004

The father of Cpl. Lance Thompson said his son would be proud knowing he fought and died to help Iraqis vote in an election.

Cpl. Lance Thompson died in during fighting in Ramadi by a truck bomb. His father, Greg Thompson, said his son sent him a letter in September of ’04 which said, “Freedom is not free. It requires sacrifice.”

Greg Thompson said the millions turning out to vote in Iraq was “fantastic” and said it was a “momentous day in the Middle East.”

“Are you asking me was it worth Lance losing his life?” he asked a reporter. “Being the gung-ho Marine that he was, he would say yes. So I’ll say yes. That is a tough, bitter pill to swallow. It hurts. God, I didn’t want to give up my son.”

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Copyright © 2011 My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact mythoughtsideasandramblings.com @ gmail.com so we can take legal action immediately.

As most of you know, Bill and I have been looking for a vehicle that gets better gas mileage. Our Jeep Liberty, well, it stinks on gas mileage. We are averaging around 20 mpg, and Bill drives a minimum of 70 miles a day. Needless to say, with gas prices as high as they are, Bill alone spends over $500 a month in just gas for his car. I recently came across a site that I could have used before we put out name on the waiting list for a Prius. vLane allows you to research and compare vehicles with just a few clicks. You are able to even research different options on the vehicle that you want. If that isn’t enough, you can run a poll like the one below.

Powered by vLane.com See more | Create your own!

Now, since we are on a waiting list for a Prius, I thought I’d ask everyone their opinion on getting extra options on our Prius. If you have a question you’d like other opinion on like my Prius question, you can create your own poll. It can be listed only on their site, or you can even embed it on your blog like I have done. You can also search for a vehicle based on total price, monthly price, fuel type, fuel economy, performance, and manufacturers.  You can also see (by stars and reviews) what other reviewers of the site think of each vehicle.  If you can’t find your dream vehicle on vLane, I would be seriously surprised.

Let me know if you make any of your own polls, so I can go vote for you (either on your blog or vLane)!  Also, don’t forgot to vote on my poll!

Copyright © 2011 My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact mythoughtsideasandramblings.com @ gmail.com so we can take legal action immediately.