This is clearly a prank at the expense of the NH legislators who approved the project, but it's pretty funny.
For those who don't know the story, New Hampshire spent $72,000 to renovate a women's bathroom on the third floor of the state house. Granted, the renovations were necessary in order to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. But $72,000 for a bathroom that probably isn't used as much as the ones on the first floor? Maybe a WEE bit excessive.
Well, someone stuck a sign on the third floor bathroom from the "State House Office of Restroom and Tourism" offering paid tours of the new bathroom.
I really haven't been around to comment on the recent controversy involving snarky celebrity blogger Perez Hilton and his question to Miss California, but from watching it constantly on the news this kept coming up when I was discussing it with my mother.
Actually, there are two questions in here, of which one I already know the answer to. But I wanted to lede off with the main question that kept getting brought up over and over again.
Question One: Should Gay Men Be Judging Beauty Pageants?
I don't know what got in to my mother's head on this one, but this kept coming up everytime they mentioned the story. She didn't think that Hilton should have been a judge because he's gay and he "only likes men." I don't think that the fact that he's gay is an issue at all in this case -- gay men can still determine what an attractive woman looks like. Just because they're gay doesn't mean they are completely dead, or else there wouldn't be so many gay male fashion designers for women.
My problem is not with the fact that they had a gay male on the panel, but that the particular person was Perez Hilton. One, to me he's not really a "celebrity," he's a blogger. Two, he's a bully on his blog -- when talking about the whole incident on his blog he made sure he did what he did to every other celebrity that he features on there -- childishly drew a penis leading up to Miss California. So he has a bit of a reputation. Three, he's an activist -- what's an activist with a particular agenda doing as a judge? I had an issue when Hilton "judged" one of the tasks on Celebrity Apprentice this season, also, because he was not the target audience of the product that the company was going for.
Question Two: Can Miss California Sue Hilton for "Libel" for calling her a "Dumb Bitch?"
This one I also went around and around with my mother about, trying to explain to her that there's a difference between libel and expressing an opinion. Calling someone a "bitch" is not libel. If HIlton said something about her that was patently false, like telling America that she ate babies for dinner or something along those lines, then yes, she can sue for libel. I tried telling my mother that calling someone a "bitch" is not grounds for libel, because if it was I could get sued for everytime I've called someone an "asshole."
But if you venture on to this blog, put your comments below. I'd be happy to get an opinion from people out there.
The thousands of taxpayers who gathered in several locations around the Granite State on Tax Day “didn’t even know what they were protesting,” according to the state’s top Democratic Party official.
“They looked like they lost their minds,” said Ray Buckley, Chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party of the protesters.
Buckley’s comments came during a debate against Republican State Chairman and former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu last night. The debate was hosted by the Manchester Chamber of Commerce.
Buckley seemed unwilling to acknowledge tax increases that recently passed the state House of Representatives during the debate. Instead he threw personal barbs at Sununu and protesting taxpayers.
The New Hampshire Advantage Coalition has asked Buckley to apologize.
“It’s unfortunate that Chairman Buckley chooses to make this a republican versus democrat issue, these Tea Parties were in fact about New Hampshire and American issues, issues that the people are yearning for this Congress and our elected leaders to address. Chairman Buckley has blindly followed the lead of other tax and spend politicians, claiming that these participants are ignorant of why they attended these Tea Parties. The message from April 15th couldn’t be clearer, this is our country, this our state, and we are willing to work together to take it back.”
Buckley is...well, Buckley.
Well this is interesting…
It appears our wackadoo friends don’t visit here as often as I has thought…
After my comments about the teabaggers last night made it to the Concord Monitor today suddenly the wackadoo websites are bursting with faux outrage.
My google alerts let me know they are writing about me, but I don’t want their egos enlarged by giving them a “hit” so I only get a line or two of what they are saying but it seems they don’t like my mild description of the teabaggers. So it appears they didn’t read the more colorful characterizations here and elsewhere.
Doing my best to elect NH Democrats since 1968 and getting better at it every year! ________________________________________ by: Ray Buckley @ Tue Apr 21, 2009 at 11:02:28 AM CDT
I will laugh so hard if the reason his candidates lose in New Hampshire this year is because of his actions.
Over the past year, I've been confused about what it truly means to be racist in America today. This country elected the first African-American president in our history, yet we are labeled as a "racist" nation.
So, what classifies someone as "racist" in our society?
Here's the definition from dictionary.com:
–noun
1.
a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
2.
a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3.
hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.
Seems pretty straightforward to me. Someone should give this definition to the people who are calling me "racist."
It seems in the past few years, the definition of racism has fallen into this category:
1. Someone who is a Conservative 2. Someone who disagrees with a minority on any issue 3. Any word that uses the color word "black" in it. 4. Someone who is white 5. Any one who would dare criticize Barack Obama
This sounds like someone who's trying to defend themselves would say, but I do have black friends online and off. Most disagree with me, but none would say that I was "racist." So why am I being called one?
According to this new definition, I'm racist for wanting minorities to achieve their goals on their own and not rely so much on the government. I'm racist for wanting minorities to succeed without any help and on their own merits. I'm racist because I believe everyone can achieve their dream if they just work hard enough at it. I don't want to keep anyone down. I want everyone to do well, I don't want to see anyone rely on the government for any extended period of time.
From what I've seen, Republicans want to genuinely help minorities be the best they can be. It's the Democrats that use minorities as political pawns. Their goal is to keep them in the fold, while at the same distance keeping them at arm's length. If you were to listen carefully at the things that Democrats say, you can hear where the real racism comes from.
Take Janeane Garofalo's comments last week on the Tea Parties. Because she didn't see a single minority in the crowds (or just simply ignored the fact that the New York City gathering had three black speakers), she told Keith Olbermann, "This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up. That is nothing but a bunch of teabagging red necks."
Now I'll admit, at the one I went to there weren't any minorities that I saw in the time I was there. But then again I live in New Hampshire, which doesn't have a huge minority population, so seeing a lot of white faces at an event is not unusual. But Garafalo got on her high horse to tell you and me that we were racist because blacks chose not to go to the tea parties. We didn't hold a gun to them and say, "Stay home or else." But her comments themselves reek of racism, and this isn't the first time she's expressed a similar thought about race -- in February, also talking to Keith Olbermann (who didn't challenge her ridiculous notions), Garafalo had the following conversation that, to me, just screams both racism AND sexism from the rooftops.
JANEANE GAROFALO: But the type of female that does like Rush is the same type of woman that falls in love with prisoners.[KEITH OLBERMANN LAUGHS] You know what I mean? They – like Richard Ramirez or Squeaky Fromme is a good example. I think Charles Manson’s – Eva Braun, Hitler’s girlfriend. That is exactly the type of woman that responds really well to Rush. And there will be some Eva Brauns, Squeaky Frommes out there that will respond really well to this cattle call right now.
************
GAROFALO, REFERRING TO DARYN KAGAN: She dated him, so either she suffers from Stockholm Syndrome – a lot like Michael Steele, who’s the black guy in the Republican party who suffers from Stockholm Syndrome, which means you try and curry favor with the oppressor.
OLBERMANN: Yes, you talk about self-loathing.
GAROFALO: Yeah, and there’s, any female or person of color in the Republican party is struggling with Stockholm Syndrome.
Isn't this conversation racist? Isn't Garafolo suggesting that all blacks must think the same way? Maybe the reason why there aren't as many minorities in the Republican party or in the conservative movement is because the Democrats don't want to let any go.
But according to the new definition of racism, this is not racist because Garafalo is not conservative, but we are because we dare to criticize President Obama's administration.
Obama's former pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright has said some things in his sermon that just call racism to the rooftops. But the left wouldn't denounce him. According to the new definition, Wright isn't racist because he is not white.
Commissioner John Wiley Price of Dallas got offended when a colleague used the term "black hole" to refer to how paperwork has become lost in the office. Same guy claimed that "black sheep" was racist as well as "angel's food cake" and "devil's food cake." This falls completely in line with the new definition of racism.
So with all this, where do I fall in this? Am I racist or not? I don't hate anyone, and some of my closest friends are different from me in any number of ways. But according to what people tell me, just by my very skin color and political beliefs, I'm a racist.
But what do I think? The people who dare to call me racist are racist themselves. They assume that minorities want "handouts." By victimizing them, they are keeping them down. And that, to me, is the true definition of racism.
With all the craziness of whether the TEA Parties were a good thing or not, I tried to find a clip on YouTube to illustrate my point on why constant taxation without representation was not a good thing, but they didn't have one. (if someone else can find a clip, let me know)
I'm sure many of you remember the movie Popeye with Robin Williams. Throughout the movie, there's this greedy tax collector that is trying to tax everything. Arriving in town? Arriving in town tax. Eating a hamburger? Hamburger tax. Leaving town? Leaving town tax. You get the picture. The residents of Sweethaven were taxed to death, and this was illustrated with the fact that the Oyls were behind in their taxes when the movie starts.
By the end of the movie, Popeye has had enough of the greedy tax collector, and dumps him in the water to the cheers of the townspeople.
Now that we've had our revolt, the greedy tax collectors are still trying to get money out of us. They're already talking about collecting sales tax from online retailers (I don't know how this would affect me since I live in New Hampshire, which has no sales tax). Oregon is currently proposing a 1900% increase in their current beer tax, which is poised to destroy the brewery industry in that area. Congress is talking about raising taxes on the "wealthiest" of people, but you know that it's eventually going to affect us in the middle and lower classes.
We have to be Popeye and get the word out that "Enough is Enough!" Congress is already the greedy tax collector -- we have to replace them at the voting booth and make sure that they get dumped in the drink in November.
In response to [GamePolitics'] speculation that "the... decision almost certainly ends Thompson's fight to have his permanent disbarment overturned," - Not at all. I have four more options, all better than this one. This was the longest of shots. All four of the others are much, much shorter shots. Stay tuned. As Winston Churchill implored: "Never give in. Never, never, never, never, never."
Why didn't he take those options first?
By the way, if you're new to this site and want some history on this, check out the video games tag for some of the history behind this story.
I don't know if I will be able to make this post short, but anything I have to say will be relevant to what's been happening this past week.
In the past few months, I have seen a real positive change going on in this country. But unlike some people (**cough** Kool-Aid **cough**), I don't attribute this to our Fearless Leader. This change has been caused by the winds of ordinary citizens finally fed up with what's going on with our tax money, and a real threat to the politicians that if they don't fix this and continue to ignore the average person, they will no longer have a job.
I was one at Plymouth, NH on Wednesday. As I walked around with my son and his stroller (which carried one of the most photographed signs at the protest), what I saw was ordinary people who were fed up with what the government was doing on both the national and local levels, and wanted a real change in government.
So, how did the Mainstream Media portray this great movement?
How do you think they protrayed it?
Here are the more egregious examples.
"It's Anti Government, Anti-CNN."
Hey, did you know that the Tea Parties were all about "White Power?"
The mainstream media is so elitist, biased and liberal that when a true movement is underway that is not coming from the left, they feel the need to attack it. Did you notice that in the couple of days before the tea party protests and on the day of, they felt the need to bring up this study over and over again that said a majority of the Americans didn't feel they were overtaxed? Of course, if you look at this same study, you would see that the percentage of people who don't pay taxes is the same number.
The numbers of people who were out there aren't clear, but it was a lot. The media wanted to portray these protests as a strictly conservative idea, but it's not just conservatives that are angry about the spending -- independents showed up as well as blue dog Democrats.
What's so hard about the concept of lower taxes and less spending? In our home budgets, we have to do the same thing. What's wrong with the government following this example? Apparently, the mainstream media doesn't understand that most of America doesn't want to pay other people's mortgages or bailouts. If you notice in the CNN clip, the reporter is baffled by the idea that the person she's "interviewing" (I use the term VERY loosely -- it's more like an ambush) who would be eligible for the $400 tax credit would be out there protesting higher taxes when he personally isn't affected. She doesn't seem to understand that it's the principle of the thing, because the way things are going, the government may decide that they do need to tax the middle class in order to pay for their spending. It's about the future, and this fiscal irresponsibility has to stop.
But at least she got her comeuppance after the segment. Founding Bloggers posted the following video that happened AFTER it aired. (Update: Founding Bloggers had their version of the video taken down due to a "copyright claim" from CNN. However, others have since uploaded their versions to YouTube. This version is the one I put on my channel with annotations commentary.)
I'm sick of people trying to paint me as one thing just because I happen to be conservative. I'm sick of people trying to tell me what they think I think. If you really want to know what I think, ASK me. Don't just assume.
If this keeps going, you'll probably start seeing more posts from me here. I am just fed up, mad as hell, and ready to kick ass and chew gum -- and I just ran out of gum.
All the pictures from the Plymouth Tea Party are up at my Facebook page, but here are a few of my favorites.
I printed the signs from the official Tax Day Tea Party website. As soon as I walked in the town square everyone wanted to take a picture of the signs on Christopher's stroller. The sign on the right reads, "I Voted For Palin. I'm a 'Right Wing Extremist.'" The one on the left has a picture of a tea bag and a pitcher of Kool Aid with the words, "Which One Are You Drinking?"
It is going to depend in a few factors -- I probably won't make the one in Concord at noon, but I might be able to attend the one in Plymouth later this afternoon. It's going to depend on when my husband gets home.
I'm a fan of anime, so I'm kind of mixed as to how filmmakers are going to make "Akira" into a live action film. It's kind of a weird, bizarre, surreal little story. They are seriously talking about doing this as a live action remake for tentative release in 2011. But what would an American version of "Akira" offer to an audience.
This is just one of the many, many reasons why I am dreading the idea of sending Christopher to a school in my city.
The Franklin School Board, which covers both Franklin and Hill, is talking about changing graduation requirements. Being proposed: getting rid of the block scheduling they have now to convert it into a more traditional 8 periods a day schedule, having the classes all be taught the same subject in the same period (sophomores would all be taught English in period C, Juniors in Period D, etc.), and increasing the amount of required community service to 60 hours by the time they graduate.
Needless to say, no one is happy with the lack of information on these changes. Or the fact that it is really, really confusing.
Some parents and teachers as well as students are concerned that there are not enough teachers to handle all the classes.
School Board member Courtney Eldridge asked whether teachers would have to teach outside of their certification because there wouldn't be enough of them to teach all the classes required by the new schedule.
Some teachers, like David Shorey and Jule Finley, have worked very hard for many years to develop the curriculum in the classes they teach now and, while none of the teachers said they would mind having to teach something else, they were worried that others might not be able to teach their classes as well and vice versa. They all seemed to be uncomfortable with the proposal as it stood because of this.
Shorey said he felt the students would not be able to get the best education they deserve with teachers teaching classes they weren't exactly meant to teach, or certified to teach for that matter.
Finley said, "It's a general concern for all of our departments." She heard from the foreign language department that they are concerned how they will be able to teach each other's classes. Science teacher Kristen Lombard was concerned about the science department because this department, she said, is subject certified, which means a teacher certified in biology is only certified in that subject and cannot teach chemistry or the other way around.
Student Kaylah Barton was also concerned that there are not enough teachers and also not enough time in the day for the proposed plan.
"How are we going to fit this all in one day?" she asked.
Student representative to the school board Ashley Briggs is concerned that the students themselves are not being asked their opinions.
"It's their education," she said.
Some even had an issue with the community service requirement, saying that it was hard now for students to fulfill the requirement because no one wants to have the students there.
Many parents, teachers and students said they heard from local businesses that not only are disappointed in their students but refuse to take student volunteers now because they have had so many bad experiences.
Some were also concerned about forcing a student to do something they didn't want to do, especially community service. They fear this will not teach the students anything, it will only make them hate it that much more.
Currently Franklin is a District in Need of Improvement under the No Child Left Behind act. As far as I can tell, they're clueless in this district on how to improve things, and think this is going to help. One more year, and the state has to step in.
Unfortunately I haven't been following as close as I should have on what's going on in each town, but I think the backlash of Obama's budget is coming in to play in a lot of decisions. And SB2 (for those outside the state, this is a measure that was passed for towns to adopt individually where towns can vote on going from a town meeting format to a deliberative session format) seems to be a debated topic again this year in many towns voting it down or not getting enough votes to allow it to pass.
I got so busy with taking care of my son today as well as school tonight that I forgot that, not only would today have been my late father's birthday, but it is also the one year anniversary of this blog.
So....Happy Birthday to ConChrist!
So, what's coming up in the new year? Hopefully more entries than there have been recently, which I continue to apologize for.
Sometime this week I'm going to try to give a rundown of the upcoming Town Meetings here in New Hampshire. There are a few scheduled tonight, but more will be coming down the pike over the next few weeks. It will depend on how quickly I can do research before I can start reading my books for this class.
