Should people who qualify for government assistance sign up just because they qualify? This question has been on our minds for a  few weeks now because we qualify for basically every program out there you can think of. Signing up for WIC or medicaid would definitely make our lives easier. But would it be right? I believe that those programs are out there for a reason. There are people that truly need assistance and I want them to get the help that they need. There are also the people out there that milk the system just because they can. People out there who are taking advantage of a program that was not meant for them.

If my husband and I budget our money correctly not only can we pay for food, shelter, and health insurance, but we can also go out to eat and do other frivolous things we enjoy. What really makes us mad are the people who have things that they could give up in order to pay bills, but choose not to instead opting to use government assistance so they don’t have to give up their cable or new(er) car. I will never understand that mindset. If you feel you need extra money, why not first cancel your cable? or trade your car down so you don’t have a car payment? I have heard all sorts of ridiculous arguments as to why somebody who actually has the money to buy there own food would be on government assistance.  All of them come down to wanting more money for something else. Greed. They want the government to pay for their food and health care so that they can spend their money on “more important things”.  Is that really taking responsibility for yourself and your family? No. It is expecting someone else to do it for you.

Maybe our country is in so much trouble because instead of taking responsible for ourselves and our own bills, we take state and federal funding. Funding that could be going to something that is actually helpful. Not funding to people who make $35K+ so they can keep their cable while we buy their milk.

I came across this article a little while ago and have to say I am a little disturbed. The article feature’s a family who named their child Adolf Hitler Campbell. The family was trying to purchase a birthday cake for their son and was denied because of his name.

Why in the world would you name a child Adolf Hitler, other than to make some sort of political/social statement?! This poor child is going to go through life with a terrible crutch just because his parents are too wrapped up in their egos to see the effects this could have on a kid’s life. I realize that as Americans we have the freedom to name our children what we want,  but we shouldn’t do it just to make a point. We can’t just “forget the past” as this father would have us do. Adolf Hitler was a terrible man and now this poor kid is going to be associated with him his whole life. All because his parents want to make a statement. It’s almost like they are asking for people to be critical of them, just to be able to pitch a fit and say we need to be more tolerant.

The father of 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell, denied a birthday cake with the child’s full name on it by one New Jersey supermarket, is asking for a little tolerance. Heath Campbell and his wife, Deborah, are upset not only with the decision made by the Greenwich ShopRite, but with an outpouring of angry Internet postings in response to a local newspaper article over the weekend on their flare-up over frosting.

“I think people need to take their heads out of the cloud they’ve been in and start focusing on the future and not on the past,” Heath Campbell said Tuesday in an interview conducted in Easton, on the other side of the Delaware River from where the family lives in Hunterdon County, N.J.

“There’s a new president and he says it’s time for a change; well, then it’s time for a change,” the 35-year-old continued. “They need to accept a name. A name’s a name. The kid isn’t going to grow up and do what (Hitler) did.”

Deborah Campbell, 25, said she phoned in her order last week to the ShopRite. When she told the bakery department she wanted her son’s name spelled out, she was told to talk to a supervisor, who denied the request.

Karen Meleta, a spokeswoman for ShopRite, said the Campbells had similar requests denied at the same store the last two years and said Heath Campbell previously had asked for a swastika to be included in the decoration.

“We reserve the right not to print anything on the cake that we deem to be inappropriate,” Meleta said. “We considered this inappropriate.”

The Campbells ultimately got their cake decorated at a Wal-Mart in Pennsylvania, Deborah Campbell said. About 12 people attended the birthday party on Sunday, including several children who were of mixed race, according to Heath Campbell.

“If we’re so racist, then why would I have them come into my home?” he asked.

The Campbells’ other two children also have unusual names: JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell turns 2 in a few months and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell will be 1 in April.

Heath Campbell said he named his son after Adolf Hitler because he liked the name and because “no one else in the world would have that name.” He sounded surprised by all the controversy the dispute had generated.

Campbell said his ancestors are German and that he has lived his entire life in Hunterdon County. On Tuesday he wore a pair of black boots he said were worn by a German soldier during World War II.

He said he was raised not to avoid people of other races but not to mix with them socially or romantically. But he said he would try to raise his children differently.

“Say he grows up and hangs out with black people. That’s fine, I don’t really care,” he said. “That’s his choice.”

Today I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Mommy Life, and she posted this video. Basically some Obama voters were asked the same 12 questions about election/government. Here is the breakdown of the answers from http://howobamagotelected.com:

512 Obama Voters 11/13/08-11/15/08

97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates

Results to 12 simple Multiple Choice Questions

57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)

71.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)

82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)

88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)

56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).

And yet…..

Only 13.7% failed to identify Sarah Palin as the person on which their party spent $150,000 in clothes

Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter

And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her “house,” even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!

Only 2.4% got at least 11 correct.

Only .5% got all of them correct. (And we “gave” one answer that was technically not Palin, but actually Tina Fey)

Here are my thoughts:

I am not huge into politics. However, when election time comes around I find it important to research a candidate and make an educated decision. This survey just goes to show you that most people out there make uneducated decisions at the polls. It is so frustrating! The fact that most of those people didn’t even know that their own party controls congress is just plain sad. Most of them seemed to answer that the Republicans were in control of congress because they needed someone to blame and they sure weren’t going to blame their own party.

In spite of all that, I don’t even really blame the voters. I blame the media. Lots of people pick up the newspaper every morning expecting to read something resembling the truth. While the paper may even state the truth, the will somehow twist it to their own liking. It is so obvious that all the good things about Obama/BIden and none of the bad were pounded into their heads, while all of the bad and none of the good was reported about McCain/Palin.

I just wonder if the media had reported fairly if the outcome would have been different. Even if it was same at least it would have been fair.

I have a confession to make. This is the first election I have ever cared enough about to vote. I have never actually voted before this election. And yes, I did vote. By mail actually. Which was quite nice. No waiting in long lines or having to deal with people yelling in my face about who to vote for.

Anyways, my reasons for voting this election may surprise some. I didn’t vote because this election has a black candidate or woman VP candidate. As long as the candidate can do the job I could care less what they look like. I didn’t vote to get my free Starbucks coffee. I mean come on, if that is why you vote then I really don’t think you should get the free coffee. I didn’t vote for me.

I voted for this little man right here:

My whole world was changed when he was born. Things that I had never even considered or things I even laughed at became important to me. I am voting for his future. I don’t really care about what happens to me. I can take care of myself. But he is depending on me to make this place better for him. He is what gets me out of bed every morning wanting to make the world a better place.

Right now public schools are a mess. They are pretty much not an option at all. The Earth is falling apart, and it’s more than global warming. Our country has gone from hating one type of person to another. People say that we are moving forward, but is that really true? I don’t think so. People are encouraged to live off the government and nobody wants to take responsibility for their own actions. I voted so my son can hopefully grow up in a country that he can love and be proud of. I voted so that hopefully my son will see that the government does not solve our problems and we need to be responsible for ourselves. I want somebody in office who shows who they are through their actions, not just their talk. I want our country to be a better place for my son.

This morning I was signing onto my yahoo account to check my email and noticed a new headline about Sarah Palin. It read “Goalie Injured After Tripping on Palin Carpet”. Naturally I was curious so I clicked on the article. It turns out that the goalie tripped on the carpet that was put out for the person that was to drop the first puck. A carpet that is put out before every game. It just so happened that Palin was that person for that game.

It really rubs me the wrong way that the media can spin a story to make Palin look like a terrible person. A lot of people will just read the title of the article and get it in their heads that Palin is bad because of this. This was an event that happens all the time at hockey games and the media has somehow been able to blame Sarah Palin for it. Ridiculous! The media could have just told us that the player tripped on the carpet that was put out for the dropping of the puck, but no. They had to blame Sarah Palin. Why? Because to get Obama elected they have to make everyone else look bad.

It doesn’t matter that this incident really had nothing to do with her or that the carpet was the same carpet they lay out at every game. They just want her to look bad. I can’t even begin to say how much stuff like this makes me mad. Whatever happened to reporting the truth? Whatever happened to a candidate getting elected because they are qualified? It is a terrible thing that it has come down to the media spinning stories to make others look bad. At this point, we can’t believe anything that is written about anybody.

And whatever happened to people being responsible for themselves? The goalie knew the carpet was there. Just like it is at all the other games. What would have been wrong with saying the goalie accidentally tripped and injured himself? Oh…because we must blame someone. And who better than Sarah Palin?

These are the people that are going to be voting for our next president. They have no idea what is going on!!! This is what is frustrating about politics.

So a lot has happened the past few days/weeks and it is all just sitting up in my head collecting dust so I am going to write it all out in one post. So just bear with me for a few moments.

A few weeks ago my hubby applied for a job in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. He didn’t really think to much of the application. He is always finding fun jobs and sending in his resume so he didn’t think too much of it. Well he got a call the next day, interviewed the next week, and got the job the week after that. It is an awesome job at a school that comes with tuition credit so he will be able to go to grad school for free! yeah! That is a huge relief. We have been praying for quite some time about how to go to grad school and then this opportunity just fell into our laps. The frustrating part is now we have to pack up and get out of town in a few weeks. AHH! Talk about stressful. We were not prepared at all for having to pack up our entire condo, be out in a few weeks, find another place to live hundreds of miles away, and move.

That brings me to finding a new place to live. We are thinking about buying a house instead of renting because we know we will be in the area for awhile. We have been avoiding buying where we are now because we haven’t been sure if we were going to stay here or leave. Now that we know we will be living in a place for a long period of time we would like to buy. We have just become so tired of renting. The past couple of years we have been living on someone else’s terms and have had to move often because rent always goes up after the lease is expired. It would be nice to have the same house payment for more than a year at a time. We went down to Dallas this past weekend to look at houses and it was frustrating. We want to be close to the school so that Elmo doesn’t have to much of a commute. The problem with that is the area close to the school is expensive. If we move away from the school to get in a better price range we get into some shady areas. AHHH!! Frustrating! So we are just going to keep looking the next couple of weeks and try to find someplace to live. We may just end up renting to get into a nicer area closer to the school. I will keep you posted on what happens with our search.

Also, since we don’t yet have a place to live and we couldn’t get out of our lease here until the 31st Sweet Pea and I will be here while Elmo goes to Dallas without us for a few weeks.

The next thing in my head this week is politics. I hate election season. People get so wrapped up in it and forget about everything else. They also get so wrapped up in their own candidate that they become blind to everything else. Both Obama and McCain followers become so blind to their own candidate’s flaws. It’s very annoying. I like talking to people who are willing to admit that maybe, just maybe, their candidate may have some policies that aren’t going to be good for America. Let’s talk about the good and the bad side of both candidates. Don’t become so involved with your own candidate that you can’t see their flaws.

Sweet Pea and I are on our way to West Virginia tomorrow to visit my grandparents. I am very much looking forward to this visit. It has been a while since we have seen them and we are also going to drive to see my great-grandmother (Sweet Pea’s great-great-grandmother)! We love going to see her and all the other family that lives in the area. This visit is going to be a nice escape from the past couple of stressful weeks. It seems like a weird time to be leaving town since we are in the middle of a move, but the visit has been planned for quite some time. The only sad part about it is that since Elmo starts his job on Monday he will already be gone to Dallas by the time we get home. Sad day.

I think that is it for now. The hubby and I are going to go get some popcorn and watch a movie on the couch for our last night together before we head to West Virginia and he heads for Dallas.

Most people just assume that because I tend to be on the conservative side that I am always going to vote Republican. This annoys me because it assumes that I am going to blindly follow someone specifically because of their party. In any election, I will always look at both parties’ candidate equally and then decide which one I think will be best for our country.

That being said, I have read both candidate’s websites, researched their careers, and listened to their speeches (as well as the VPs). I have tried to avoid the media, because we all know that they pick a candidate prematurely and then spin stories in their favor.

Tonight I watched the speech made by John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin. She was confident, well-spoken, and knowledgeable. While she may not have quite the same amount of experience as other politicians, she has accomplished a lot in her two years as governor (much more than Obama has). It makes me confident that if she makes it to Washington, she will get right down to business and make stuff happen. Our country doesn’t need somebody that will promise us change and then not be able to deliver. If I am going to vote for you, I need to know that once you get to the White House you will begin to implement the changes you have promised. Obama just hasn’t shown that he can do this. I think that Obama is appealing in some ways, but let him be in the Senate a little longer to prove to us that he has what it takes to be president. McCain has shown us that, as has Palin. I may not agree with McCain about everything, but at least I know he has a strong background and will be able to lead this country with honor.

So come November 4, 2008, I will proudly vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin. They are the team that can provide the real change that we need.

So we are sitting here watching the DNC, and right now they are having regular Americans tell their story and why they are going to vote for Barack Obama. Some of them are good and legitimate reasons. But the ones that get under my skin are the ones who blame the government, Bush, and McCain for things that really are their own fault.

Yes, lots of people are losing their houses right now. But could that be because they were not ready for the responsibly of a mortgage? People need to start taking responsibility for their own actions, instead of leaning on the government for help when they mess up.

That’s all. I should probably stop watching the DNC because it is just making me angry.

I’m glad for two reasons that Barack Obama suggested that we keep our tires inflated.

First, I’ve known for several years that proper tire inflation will increase gas mileage. I’ve also known that about oil changes, replacing air filters, cleaning fuel lines, and driving with the A/C off.  All these things are good.  I do most of them – I even decided not to get my A/C fixed when it died a few years ago.

We like to conserve and use environmentally friendly products when we can; it’s the responsible thing to do.  I’ve been really interested in alternative fuels, particularly biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol.

The second reason is that it shows that he’s flailing about for something to hold on to.  Tire inflation is not an energy plan.  Yes, it would marginally increase efficiency and lower demand a bit.  But maintaining our cars while we wait for alternative fuels is not going to solve our problems.

It doesn’t really reduce our consumption – we’ll be driving the same number of miles in the same vehicles.  We’ll just be 2-3% more efficient while doing it.  As far as I know he has no plans to pursue cellulosic ethanol, which, while still a long shot, can greatly increase our fuel supply without having the same effect on food supply and food cost that corn and sugar based ethanol has worldwide.  It doesn’t address the fact that most diesel engines don’t need to be altered to run on biodiesel, meaning that engines like VW’s TDI have great ‘green potential’.

It doesn’t address the fact that driving only accounts for half of US oil consumption.  If each car saves 3%, that means 1.5% of overall demand.  The rest is in plastics and rubber and a whole host of other things.

Also, why shouldn’t we drill?  I’ve seen estimates that say it will increase supply by 2% in 20 years, or by 5% in five years…it doesn’t really matter.  If oil companies are willing to pay for it, why not let them?  If they’re willing to put their own money up to give it a shot, I say we let them. They wouldn’t do it if they didn’t think there was a real shot at some profits. And while they’re drilling we can push alternative fuels, hybrids and fuel cells. They aren’t mutually exclusive.

I want a real plan, and Obama doesn’t seem to have one.