Had a wonderful afternoon yesterday hosting Sharon's 75th Birthday Party!
Loretta and I, Judy, John, Bill and Eric...and Sharon, of course! Coffee and High Tea and Ice Cream Cake and listening to her detail 3/4 of a Century of Living. Luxury gifts from all of us...because when you reach 75 it isn't as though you really NEED anything...lol! But there ARE a number of things you really really want!
It made me happy to see her so happy!
So...I think I am slipping a bit. Stayed up all evening on Saturday to watch the 2nd of the Democratic Debates...and then didn't bother to mention a word about them. Twenty years ago I would never have been so remiss. Mea Culpa.
The Debate
Well...the field of five has quickly narrowed to three.
They still have Hillary Center Stage.
And some of the answers to Saturday's debate questions bordered on bizarre. Seriously. Completely Random. "WTH" Moments. O'Malley found his groove for a while...but then lost it again, so most of the rest of his time was pretty much
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"
However, Bernie and O'Malley did do a nice tag-team effort on Hillary when the conversation turned to Wall Street and Economics.
" Wall Street gives you Millions of Dollars for Campaign Funds...and YOU don't think they WANT something in return?" (Bernie)
A Grilling to which Clinton eventually lost her cool and evoked 9/11 and played the "...But I'm a GIRL" card.
And I have to think that I am not the only one who is getting really really sick of the
"...but I have a vagina"
defense.
"Honey, in case you didn't know...those come STOCK."
(...this should be on a tee-shirt...)
Just sayin'
And bringing up 9/11 was just wrong on so many levels.
So Bernie shone, O'Malley showed he could be a Scrapper, and Hillary played Defense a lot of the evening. Great earrings and strand of Bab's pearls, though...and I admit...$600.00 or not...loved the new hair!
Note to Hillary...a several thousand dollar pants suit, pearls the size of birds eggs, a great hair make-over, Botox, and a vagina do not a President make. Polished up by The Capitol. For a moment I got this ghastly vision of her as "Effie" telling the others
"And May the Odds be EVER in your Favor."
Another one bites the dust, as Bobby Jindal has announced dropping out of the GOP contenders this morning. Which leaves how many now.
Eight.
Ten?
I'm afraid I've lost count.
Anyway, thinning the herd just a little more.
and as Martha Stewart would remind us
"That's a GOOD thing."
So doing a lot more research on the screening procedure for entry into the US for these people.
And out of 9 million displaced people thusfar only one individual (Paris) was found with a forged Syrian passport.
And of the thousands already given sanctuary no reported problems.
I think I feel a bit better about this.
The Governors meeting with the President soon to discuss their fears, concerns...and hopefully learn a bit about what powers they do and do not have under the Constitution.
After reading some of the hate-filled horrible rhetoric on the Newsfeed and Internet I have a few observations of my own I want to make.
If you profess to follow This Guy
but don't give a damn about these guys
then you're DOING it WRONG.
And if you will fight for the Rights of This
but not for this
Don't bother to get in my face and spout Anti-Abortion Propaganda...your argument is invalid.
And TEXAS states it is now afraid that Syrian Refugees might get GUNS easily in Texas.
Imagine.
Which rather surprised me...since they seem hell-bent on arming pretty much EVERYONE.
Remember Texans...your battle cry
"Guns don't kill people!"
Still FEEL that way?
And THIS Guy
Our State Governor who immediately jumped on the bandwagon to stop Refugees from coming to his State...and let's put THAT in perspective. Promising we will be SAFER.
On Friday night in Paris some 130+ people lost their lives in a terrorist attack. Since January of 2015 there have been 135 homicides in the city of Indianapolis alone. In fact, Indy ranks in the top 10 cities now for Homicides. Even without terrorists.
Right Mike. Bang up job so far.
And, The Donald, who has started saying he will make Mosques and the Muslim Religion Illegal.
(...just shaking my head...)
A guy running for President who appears to know nothing about the Preamble to the Constitution.
Go Figure.
Anyway...I have no answers...only observations. But after familiarizing myself with the screening/vetting of the small number of refugees we have already taken into the United States (2000 people last count with 0 incidents since 2011) and those to come...I feel much less anxious about it. Our vetting process alone takes almost 2 years. Sometimes more. They learned a valuable lesson from the 1980 fiasco; part of which gave rise to the 1980 Refugee Act.
I feel better about that.
Since I am running this whole Virtual France Adventure up to include a French Christmas...thought I would take what is left of November and explore Normandy.
And looking forward to the ROCK that Lillian has promised to bring me back from their "real time" adventure in France!
Collecting the World. One Stone at a Time!
More anon...
