House Health Care Reform Bill Pelosi-edition

The U.S. House of Representatives has just posted a copy of the 1,990 page health care bill.

Here is the link -- http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf

Download and read it. We don't have much time to provide feedback to Washington on this.

My Shirt, My Life, My Spider(bite)

　
Maybe the red stiletto boots hooked me. Maybe the twinkling stars and commanding strips did. Or maybe, just maybe, the gold wrist cuffs were what won my heart.

Forget Indiana Jones. The first person to popularize rope wearing was the ultimate heroine: Wonder Woman. And her rope didn’t whip the baddies; it seduced them into speaking the truth.

Gotta love Wonder Woman!

Yes, I have to admit I have a Wonder Woman tee-shirt. One Person Who Won’t Be Named thought I was loony to wear it to the opening night of the RWA STAR conference. Oh, but that feline lover was so wrong. I’m not a bit loony. I proudly wore the red shirt with Wonder Woman emblazoned across my chest. In fact, I even wore it to church upon more than one occasion.

Although I love Wonder Woman, she’s really not my favorite superhero. Neither are Superman, Supergirl, Aquaman, or the Wonder Twins. (Yes, I am anxiously awaiting the Wonder Twins arrival in Smallville.) Probably my fav is Spiderman. Why? Because he wasn’t born Spiderman. His powers weren’t innate.

One day he was happily walking along in geekdom when a spider bit him. In that nanosecond, his life changed.

Every person who has ever lived has had at least one spider-biting moment.

Huh? you may be thinking.

Well, that’s okay.

Think away.

Every person who has ever lived has a story. They were born, they lived, and they died. Some stories are exciting.

William Wallace. Ghandi. Genghis Khan. Joan of Arc.

Anne Boleyn.

Martin Luther. Thomas Jefferson.

Rosa Parks.

Jesse Owens. Mozart. Liberace.


But some stories aren’t as exciting and no one will find them in any book.

Of course, most of us will never James Frey our lives for recognition, but that doesn’t mean our stories aren’t as valuable or significant.

What is your spider-biting moment? What is that moment in time when your life hit a huge turning point?

For me, it was June 8, 1992.

I’d just graduated with a degree in Communications with an emphasis in Radio/Television and was working at a news radio station. My fiancé was a DJ at a local top-forty radio station. Life was good. Yet, I was miserable. My life had had a small turning point during my senior year of high school. My church youth pastor did something stupid (nothing immoral or anything, just stupid), which ticked me off so I slowly got less and less involved in church.

So by 1992, I had pretty much walked away from practicing my faith, from believing in the significance of being a part of a body of belivers. The guy I was marrying claimed to be a Christian so I justified that as him being a good guy to marry, yet I couldn’t understand why I was so miserable...until I realized that a relationship with a guy wasn’t going to fill the ache in my heart. No man, woman, or child could offer me lasting significance. I need God on a daily basis. I needed to be following His will, His word.

I'd never stopped believing in God. I'd merely sat down in the middle of the race.

After my realization, I ended the engagement and returned to the One True God who could heal my hurts and give me value. The joy that I had been missing consumed me. My life hasn’t been the same since because no matter what struggles, frustrations, or hell that arises, I have a peace and hope in my soul that defies human understanding.

That’s what I call a life-defining moment.

I remember when I was thirteen

I saw a picture on my T.V. screen

The Reverend Billy Graham and the people singing Just As I Am

And it felt like You were talking to me

And the whole world seemed to fade away

Until I heard my mother say "Son, are you okay? Do you wanna pray?"

And that became the hour I first believed

Next thing you know I'm high and flyin'

Next thing you know My heart is in your hands

Next thing you know There's no denyin'

Next thing you know I'm a brand new man

Well, I wish I could say I always stayed right there

And I did until my freshman year

But the world was pulling me a long way from thirteen

And you were calling but I didn't hear

Still I knew there was something more

So, one day my knees hit the dorm room floor

I said, "If you're there, and if you really care,

Come and talk to me like I was thirteen."

Got a picture in my head today of how heaven might look someday

I see the people there, so I pull up a chair

And their stories, they blow me away

'Cause I can see it on every face The evidence of grace

And as I listen it occurs to me

Everybody's got their own thirteen

So, what's your story about His glory?

You gotta find your place in the history of grace

Yeah, what's your story about His glory?

Come on and find your place

~Matthew West, What's Your Story

Every person who has lived as had a life-defining moment, although not all of those moments are personal encounters with God.

When a couple marries, their lives take a new course. Even if they divorce, their lives are forever changed. Having children is a turning point. Losing a parent or loved one and realizing that life is about more than chasing wealth and 15 minutes of fame is a defining moment.

As writers, as women, we all need to examine our lives for spider-bites. What happened that changed you from a self-absorbed person to a giving person? What changed you from loving the man you vowed to love-until-death-do-you-part into wondering what a relationship with that other guy would be like? What changed you from working in a 6-digit job to becoming a stay-at-home mommy? What made you leave Podunkville, USA for a life in the big city? What changed you from being a joyful person to a cynic or a cynic into a joyful person?

Remember those experiences and use them when you write.

Now think about your characters. Do they have life-defining moments? Or are they the same people at the end of the novel as they were at the beginning?

In his book Writing the Breakout Novel, Donald Maass writes, "[A] novel, uniquely among art forms, presents powerful points of view, strong conflicts and a helping of human life that affirms a higher truth. Characters in breakout fiction may seem realistic, even average, but they are bigger than their circumstances. They do not just suffer, but strive. The do not practice patience, but act. They do not merely strive, but endure."

Later in the chapter, he uses the word "rebirth."

I love that word choice. If you’ve ever read The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler, you saw a comedic and earnest rebirth of a character. If you haven’t read it, then read it.

Take a really really good look at your manuscript. Is there a rebirth? If there isn’t, then maybe you need to take your manuscript on a tour of a laboratory that specializes in genetically enhanced spiders.

Make your characters stop being victims of life and start being students of their experiences.

And while they’re at it, why don’t we join them?

Swine Flu Paranoia is Everywhere!

Free Speech: the newest endangered species

I'm deeply concerned about the attack the White House is engaging in against Glenn Beck. The fascinating part is they aren't countering his message, only attacking the messanger. That alone should send a red flag. If what Glenn is reporting ISN'T TRUE, then the content of his reporting is what they need to be talking about. And denying. Only they aren't.

Why not?

Could it be because what Glenn is reporting is TRUE?

In related news, the Federal Trade Commission is doing a side-ways attack on the First Amendment by putting limits on bloggers. Of course we can say "well, it makes sense for bloggers to have to disclose that the product(s) they're promoting are ones they're getting paid to promote."

When we open the door to any restriction on free speech, then that makes the next restriction easier to accomplish.

What's next?

How about forcing bloggers to admit "I'm friends with this writer so I'm giving her new release a good review because 1) she gave me a free book to read, 2) writers support other writers, and/or 3) I'm hoping one day she'll return the favor by giving my book a good review."

I've long past the point of naively trusting the government. What I want to know is why the skeptics of the Bush Administration are so readily willing to leave their skepticism at the door when evaluating the Obama Administration. What makes Obama supporters think they can trust him? How many campaign promises has he broken? How high do your taxes have to increase before you realize more than just those who make over $250,000 (or is it $200,000 or is it $150,000) are gonna have to pay their fair share?

What about the White House's attempts to ressurect the Fairness Doctrine? One of the reasons convervative talk radio is so dominant over liberal talk radio is because the listeners for the latter just aren't there. A business will advertise where the listeners are. Just one reason why Rush Limbaugh can charge such outrageous fees for advertising on his program. He doesn't have to seek advertisers. They're on a waiting list. I doubt the salesteam for Rachel Maddow's show ever turn advertisers away.

Click on this link to read why Conservative talk radio and liberal doesn't.

Anyhoo, back to the Fairness Doctrine. The Heritage Foundation wrote a great article on why the Fairness Doctrine isn't fair.http://www.heritage.org/Research/Regulation/EM368.cfm

We are living in "such a time as this" that we need to educate ourselves in the truth of what the White House and Congress is trying to change about our country. Sadly, like how the foundation of the church has been destroyed by Evolution (http://www.answersingenesis.org/) so to is "I didn't want to do it, but ____ was just too big to fail" is wittling away at our country's foundation--the Constition.

What's even worse is that this attack isn't new.

It's been happening for the last 100 years by members of both political parties. Only difference is this administration interjected steroids into the attack.

Despite everything that's happening, I stand on one truth: In God I Trust.

Whether you agree or disagree with anything I've blogged, I urge you to EDUCATE yourself and INVESTIGATE the truth.

Writing, Chocolate, and Hobbies

Today's recycling day, so in honor of Henrico Waste Management emptying my bins of recyclables, here's a recycled blog post. The toddler mentioned is now 6 1/2.

~*~*~

HANDS DIRTY, HANDS DIRTY

My two-year-old loves to get into everything. And she does get into everything. A carton of eggs. The litter box. The trashcan. My china hutch. Her brother’s backpack. The new box of, umm, let's call "girl stuff" that I accidentally left sitting on the kitchen table.

Today it was the bag of melting chocolates I had purchased to make Scooby Doo suckers.

Like normal, Rhyinn came running to me, holding her hands up and saying "hands dirty." If she doesn’t want to get her hands dirty, then why does she smear her pudding all over the kitchen table or take off her diaper and mess in her poop? I just don’t understand her toddler thinking process.

Uggh. Children.

Must be the paternal DNA taking over.

(Please ignore any pictures my mother sends of me making mud pies. The faded photo has been digitally altered.)

Rhyinn’s action makes me wonder something. Give me a second to get to it.

I've often heard unpubbie writers say they would write even if they knew they would never get published. They would write for the fun of it. Quite admirable, don’t you think?

When I hear that, I think, "So writing is their hobby." A hobby. Isn’t that a reasonable assessment?

Scrapbooking for me is something I do for the fun of it. Creating something out of funky triangular-cut paper, adorable stickers, and silly photos of my kids with snakes wrapped around their shoulders provides me a momentary amusement. A sedative. A time for me to relish the memory of that particular minute when all the stresses of life were an eternity away. I enjoy scrapbooking enough to do it even if I knew I'd never reap monetary benefits.

And so you don’t think I’m an amazingly organized person, I have at least two years’ worth of pictures I haven’t scrapbooked. I won’t even mention I don’t have a single picture of my younger sister’s New Year’s Day wedding.

Scrapbooking is my hobby. I really wish cleaning house were too.

Writing is NOT a hobby for me. Yes, it is a sedative at times, but I don't write for my own personal amusement or to distract myself from life's chaos. It’s not an escape. I don't write to live out my fantasies in a book because I'm too afraid to take a real-life risk.

I write because I have a story to tell. I can’t NOT tell it.

And because I want to tell that story well, I work at writing. I refuse to settle for "good enough to make me feel like I’m a real writer."

The other day one of my writer friends was struggling with her level of writing and another writer’s condemnation of her quality standard. She wrote this in response:
"To me, no matter how talented you are, you still have to work hard. Does Tiger Woods, the God of golf, just screw around ALL year long, show up at some golf tournaments and win? Do the Olympian swimmers sleep all year long and then win their gold medals? No. I grant that these people are talented. But without their sweat and blood, they wouldn't have been able to achieve the pinnacle of their careers."

Writing for your own personal pleasure is fine. It’s honorable. In fact, I think writing is a wonderful way to deal with personal frustrations, struggles, temptations, and failures. Journaling is the cheapest form of counseling. I should journal—umm, blog—more.

Not everyone who wants to be a writer will succeed as a writer. (I’ll leave the discussion of success for another time.) Of all those who consider themselves writers, only a portion will achieve published success. I don’t say that to be a downer but as a realist.

For some writers, writing will merely be a hobby—something to play with for a time. They will never let their hands stay dirty because they have other things to do. And there is nothing wrong with that decision. I have lots of things I like to dabble in for pleasure—things that are fun to do—but I will never get serious about them because I don’t have a passion for them. Sewing. Crafting. Floral design. Keeping my house clean.

Another group of writers will see their writing as something more than a hobby, but because they aren’t willing to dedicate themselves to learning the craft of writing, they will live frustrated with constant rejections.

If I knew I would never be published in fiction or non-fiction, then I wouldn’t strive to be the best writer I could be. I would re-examine my heart to see if my passion for writing is misplaced passion. Is there something I’m better at, something that I have a greater chance of succeeding in? Fortunately, though, my future is unknown. So I will strive. I will educate my mind. I will relish the editing stage as much as the drafting stage. I will push myself to learn.

What about you?

No matter which path to publication you take (print or e-pub), don’t be afraid to sink your hands into the muddy soil of creativity and learn to be the best writer you can. Don’t just assume you know how to write because you’ve been reading since you were two. Master the art of punctuation. Become a virtuoso in the sonata of concrete word choices, literary imagery, and paragraphing. Deepen your knowledge of what makes compelling writing.

By golly, get your hands dirty. It’s a whole lotta fun.

Just ask my daughter. And my son. And my other daughter. And my other son.

Okay, and me, too.

September 12 March on Washington

How big was the crowd in Washington?

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/more-912-crowd-data-yeah-it-was-big/

Tens of Thousands or a Million Plus?

http://moderateinthemiddle.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/update-contract-from-america-attn-obots-i-own-the-world-has-the-pic-we-need-to-get-a-real-countupdate-how-big-was-the-crowd-media-credibility-plunges-to-new-low-aerial-views-added-d-c-police-close-r/

So I can't help thinking "What does it matter how many people were there?"

Good question, Gina.

See, here's the thing: If it doesn't matter, then why did the media downplay the numbers? Were there 75,000 people or a 100,000,000+? The answer is simple.

Because the government needs to know that Patriotic anti-big-government taxpayers have had ENOUGH of the cancer consuming Washington.

Or as one journalist wrote:

"This is the first great conservative anti-statist manifestation in American history. Theconservative movement, which developed in the post-WWII, Cold War environment has now fully matured into the most significant political movement of the 21st century. I believe that this day could be referred to in the not too distant future as the day that changed America. This was the day the great silent conservative majority finally found its voice.

Many of the attendees were quite meek and timid and were unsure of exactly what to expect, this being the first time in their lives they'd been involved in a protest movement. Their fears evaporated early in the day and I saw people reveling in the camaraderie , the joy and sheer civility that was exhibited at the entire event. Chants of "Freedom, freedom, freedom", "No more czars! No more czars!" carried through the air without the slightest hint of rancor or incivility which is the norm at the leftist rallies I have photographed over the years."


Mike Pence (R-Indiana) was one of the speakers who addressed thecrowd: "After years of fighting runaway government on this hill, you people look like the cavalry to me. I believe we are on the verge of a great American awakening."

San Diego radio host Mason Weaver said from the podium: "I came here because I thought you might want to hear a black man speak withouta teleprompter...This government is trying to make a nation of dependent people. Americans have always been independent people...This is not a Republican thing, it's not a Democrat thing. It's not a black thing or a white thing. It's an American thing...We the people are telling them 'No more! We've had enough!"

Lloyd Marcus performs - Proud Black Conservative

~ PICTURES ARE WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS~

Washington Mall after Obama Inauguration, JANUARY 20, 2009:

Washington Mall after 9/12 protest, SEPTEMBER 12, 2009