Tornadoes

Tornadoes touched down pretty close to home yesterday - too close for my friend Kyle. Here are some pictures from the local news station. Crazy stuff - Kyle's house is about a block from the historic houses in Driver that were demolished. I have not heard from him - hope he is OK. His house was under contract to be sold, hopefully everything is intact. From the pics I saw it didn't go directly into his neighborhood.

Invasion

My house is being invaded by eleven little screaming girls right now, ages range from 7-9. My daughter is having a sleepover party. The only one more scared than me at the moment is the dog.

Some of these kids need a smack on the ass, and some of these parents need a punch in the mouth. I don't feel I need to elaborate, but suffice to say that a kid of this age should know how to act in public and as a guest in someone's house. Yes, I know how rambunctious kids can get, but damn, how about some basic manners?

I have holed up in my bedroom, watching my Philadelphia Flyers whoop up on some Habs ass! LET'S GO FLYERS!!!

Cookie

Yesterday, we mourned the untimely demise of my youngest daughter's hamster. Little bugger lasted just short of a year. Broke her little 7 year old heart. I told her the story of how I had a similar situation when I was her age and my pet mouse died, but it didn't help too much, so I reverted to an old standby - heaven. Got me thinking (as many fairly mundane life events are wont to do...)

I'm a cultural Roman Catholic / agnostic. What the hell does that mean? Well, I'm agnostic in regards to the existence of a creator, but culturally I was raised Roman Catholic and abide by most of it's traditional celebrations. Mocking those with faith seems to be acceptable these days - wether it be a Muslim or a Christian or Jew or what have you. Religious whack jobs and rich televangelist shills have sullied the reputation of the multitude of faith based organizations and the good work they do, from the "evil terroristic Muslims" to the "pedophile priests". I can understand some of the mockery, but to slam an entire group for the acts of a small number of members is simply not fair.

I personally don't care what a person believes, if it somehow makes them a better person (and/or keeps them from killing me) then I'm all for it. Worship a flying marmot with a rainbow mohawk for all I care, if that gets you through the day. As long as your beliefs aren't causing others harm, do it up.

Anyway, I was really torn - should I pitch the idea of heaven, something I don't completely believe in, to my child?

Yes. I did it, and I don't regret it. Why? Because the concept gave her comfort. I feel the same way about anyone who is faced with death (their own impending demise or someone they care about). If it brings comfort, why not? It would really take a cold hearted soul to look a terminal cancer patient in the eye and mock them for believing in an afterlife - even if they thought they would be meeting the aforementioned marmot there. Besides, how the hell would you know?

Subprime woes

So, according to our friends at CNN, more than 70% of subprime borrowers are not getting the "help" they need. I'm trying REALLY hard to care. Really.

This bailout thing has me pretty steamed. So we, as taxpayers, get to foot not only the bill for the crooked corporations that designed these little money mill loans destined for failure by milking people who they knew were a poor financial risk, we also get to "help" the poor, hapless borrower who knowingly accepted the terms of a crazy, too good to be true loan they knew they couldn't afford in the first place.

What puts the icing on the cake for me is that the bulk of the nation - those of us who are responsible people who work every day and pay our bills on time, and live reasonable lives within our means - we're the ones who pay AND get nothing in return. Many of these loans will go into default, then the owners will declare bankruptcy and dance away from their financial responsibilities. What is the repercussion for their poor behavior? Pretty much nothing. They get a "do-over", and, with good behavior, in a few years they will have the same, clean credit report (possibly better) that the people who end up paying for their mess. It's grasshopper/ant in real life, only the humorous "reverse" story so popular in e-mail chains...

Yes, I know, declaring bankruptcy can be painful - but it SHOULD be painful. Most stupidity should be.

Me? Blogging?

Well, I went and did it. I said I wouldn't, but I did - a blog. Why? No idea, really. My friend Aaron somehow inspired me, and I have no idea how. He directed me to his blog, and the next thing you know I'm writing this.

Whatever. So I guess I'm going to poke around this thing and get a feel, start filling in the blanks, so to speak. Cheers!

Immy