The crazy lady strikes again

This morning (10/11/2006), I was watching something on one of the news programs on women and their financial health after retirement. One of the things that stood out for me is that we start out better economically than we end up during retirement, because some of our post-retirement financial needs are met by such things as our husbands' Social Security and work-related retirement benefits. Once their husbands die, we end up impoverished because so many of us do not have money in our own names.... Sign in to see full entry.

I spent a good-sized portion of the morning feeling mildly depressed. When I feel like this, the best thing in the world for me is activity - cleaning the house, walking Garfield's idiot brother Michael through the house, and so forth. Just getting a group of muscles working is enough to get me feeling better. I know Garfield has been worried about me all morning, and she has been expressing that concern by pawing at me regularly, demanding attention. Although I was only mildly concerned, I... Sign in to see full entry.

The title just popped into my head as I was thinking about some problems I'm having in my life. I can't talk about those problems right now - they're too painful, and I'm afraid that the paranoia with which I'm afflicted will flare up - but I was depressed about them, and I found myself unable to think of topics to write about. Then, it occurred to me that I derive a great deal of joy from the simple act of writing. That alone made me feel better, and that's why I decided to write this post.... Sign in to see full entry.

Today's Columbus Day in America, and Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Yes, there are a lot of people in Canada pigging out on turkey today (pardon the unintentional mixing of metaphors). The point of this entry is that no matter where I would live - here or Canada - my schedule would be thrown off, big time. My husband works for a bank, and he gets all these federal holidays (Columbus Day, Veterans' Day, and so forth) off. Yes, it does come in handy sometimes, but when everyone's home under one roof,... Sign in to see full entry.

How many of you remember that line from that Crosby, Stills & Nash song? I chose the title deliberately because so many of us fail to teach our children well. The inspiration for this entry comes from yet another Oprah show. This morning - 10/6/2006 - she talked about how this is the most overindulged generation in human history. Although this is her opinion, and she did not present any evidence to buttress this opinion, she had one legitimate point: More children than ever are being given... Sign in to see full entry.

As I write this, it's 10:15 AM on October 6, 2006. (That's Central Daylight Time.) I'm watching The View right now on ABC, and they just finished a conversation on Halloween. One of the features of this show is a segment in which the women hosting the show discuss various issues of the day. One of the women - I didn't catch her name - talked about the fact that her parents did not allow her to celebrate Halloween as other children did, due to their religious beliefs. For most children, it's just... Sign in to see full entry.

This link was provided to me by Ariel70 in one of the comments on my entry on parents who will literally go to any length to prevent their adult offspring from making choices unacceptable to the parent. In the article to which I linked, Mary Ann Sieghart (who works for The Times of London) starts out by writing about honor killings, and goes on from there to discuss the attitudes Muslims and non-Muslims have toward each other. I would advise readers of this entry to go to that link. Sieghart... Sign in to see full entry.

The shooting at the Amish school made me think of an issue I haven't really covered in depth in my various Blogit blogs. Just how far are we willing to go to accept a given behavior or pattern of behavior? Coverage of the shooting portrays the Amish very sympathetically, which, in my opinion, is a good thing. The coverage of the man committing the murder-suicide portrays him in a less sympathetic light, which is also a good thing, in my opinion. Murder should never be acceptable, particularly if... Sign in to see full entry.

This has to be at least the second story I've heard about parents who take seemingly insane measures to force their adult offspring to bend to their will. Apparently, this particular mother and father disapproved of their daughter's choice of spouse so strongly that they were willing to kidnap her to forestall a wedding. The parents are currently facing kidnapping charges, and their daughter married her intended, anyway. The other story I'd heard recently - I wish I could provide a link to it -... Sign in to see full entry.

The latest in a plethora of school shootings occurred in an Amish school in Pennsylvania. The emphasis in the news has been on the Amish principles of nonviolence and forgiveness (in this instance, of the perpetrator of the Pennsylvania school shooting). Admiration for their forgiveness of the perpetrator is seemingly everywhere in the media. But only one interview I've seen posed the big question that probably bothers a lot of people: Doesn't forgiveness mean that the perpetrator is allowed to... Sign in to see full entry.