Hazel’s teacher, a few of the parents, and Robert all found the suggestion quite humorous.

Nothing blew up, nothing blew up, nothing blew up, it’s all still heeerrrrre!

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So I managed to pass Statistics with a C. I had a C, then a D, and then brought it back up. That’s what I get for taking it eight years after Intermediate Algebra.  My final history paper I got an A, and pulled a B in the class. I had gotten a D on the first one because my instructor was brutal and expected something completely different from me when writing essays. It was a good learning experience. I had to write three major essay midterms. I got a B on the second one, and he was impressed with my consistent improvement. I also was smart and took advantage of his office hours.  In Child Health, Safety & Nutrition, I got an A, of course. It’s Early Childhood Education! I can do that stuff, and dude, because of the specific nature of this class most of the info I already knew. I got my First Aid/CPR for adults and children cards renewed. Except for the ECE class it was all high stress.

Christmas was great. We opened gifts at my father in laws in the morning, later Hazel and I went to my sister’s house (Kenlon went to work), and the day before on Christmas Eve we went to Xarph’s parent’s house which was awesome. I got a new digital camera courtesy of in laws and Hazel got three new leapster games and whole bunch of other fat loots courtesy of everyone.

I had a migraine for four days straight, which included New Years. That was fun. 

My left knee has been killing me. Seriously. Parts of it are soft that shouldn’t be soft. When I demonstrated how to gallop my knee HURT. It NEVER hurts when I gallop or skip or do any of that stuff! What the heck? I have no idea what I did to it. Now I have to walk up the stairs like an old woman. . . 

Good stuff has happened too, like playing some Final Fantasy 12, I’ve been writing a novel, and working on some other projects. I owe Kenlon two art pieces. I was asked to write a tune to the Relief Society Declaration which is a challenge, and I’ve been doing a lot of reading.

School starts on the second of next month.

If you want to support Prop 8 then you need to go to ProtectMarriage.org and if you’re Mormon talk to your leaders before you sign up on any supposedly Mormon specific site supporting prop 8. If you do not support Prop 8 then go to noonprop8.com. Please be careful who you give your information to. When in doubt, don’t do it, and find out more information before signing up for anything.

Great, he’s just made a hit list for hate crimes against those who support Prop 8. If you don’t think such exists think again. Jose Nunez was beaten for supporting Prop 8.

Here’s a true story not in the news because nothing actually happened. A friend of mine who supports Prop 8 was knocking on doors. One woman got upset with her, and so my friend left. This woman followed her and very nearly seized her person. My friend thankfully at the time was speaking with this woman’s neighbor who was very calm throughout the whole thing. The woman threatened my friend and even threatened her neighbor (who was on the fence regarding Prop 8). My friend told me how disturbing and frightening the experience was.

I understand how my gay friend is frustrated with those who support Prop 8. I know he wants to stay married to his husband and is deeply concerned that is in jeopardy. But to go so far as to provide names and work places and the city his neighborhood Prop 8 supporters live in? Why? Revenge? Spite? Hate? How does hating the people who disagree with you help you? It doesn’t. It really doesn’t. It just makes things worse for everyone involved.

So, my friend, my friend, I implore you, please, do not facilitate such hate and intolerance. Practice what you preach. Your friend always, Ruth.

Since when have homosexuals been singled out, bound, shackled and forced to do back breaking labor? Hm, let me think here. . . . Oh wait, they haven’t! Never as a group have homosexuals been enslaved! There might have been a gay black man that was a slave but he was a slave because he was black not because he was gay. He was beaten, tortured, and abused. He watched his sisters be raped and have mulatto babies. He was sold and separated from his family. He was property, a slave, with no rights, none whatsoever simply because he was black. This was justified because after all, no sane man would purposely destroy his own property, thereby giving permission to the white slave owner to treat their African slaves in any way they wish, including rape, torture, and murder.

Sorry homosexuals, you are full of lies when you compare your plight to that of African American racism. They are not the same. You’re ancestors were not horrifically abused in such a fashion, nor were you ever abused in such a fashion. You’ve pretty much always had the right to vote, to mingle with other people, to be literate, you were treated as respectfully as the next person and had the opportunity to have good high paying jobs; you know, unless you were black, but hm, that had to do with the color of your skin not who you want to have sex with.

Any discrimination homosexuals have faced is no where near the level of discrimination that African Americans have faced. So yes, I take exception to the idea that homosexuals are being discriminated against like the blacks were. It’s apples and oranges. Both fruit, but very very different fruit.

The Americans attempted to stay neutral during the French Revolution. Britain did not honor this and barred American shipping from the West Indian trade routes. Hamilton felt that since Great Britain had such a strong navy that we should appease the “mother country” instead of forcing them to accept America’s neutrality in their war with the French. He secretly let Britain know that America would agree to just about anything so when Jay attempted to bring about a treaty with Britain it was not as successful as it might have been. He was only able to “persuade the British to abandon their frontier posts and to allow small American ships to trade in the British West Indies, but they rejected out of hand the U.S. position on neutral rights (Divine p. 207).”

Jay’s Treaty was not a popular result with the American people after it was ratified by Washington and caused even more in the way of political strife. Whether you were a Federalist or a Republican it was felt that these separate parties were a very serious threat to national stability and showed a lack of unity, or common purpose between the peoples of the USA that was felt during the American Revolution. As such the popular writers of the day equated these parties with factions and a “conspiracy to overthrow legitimate authority (Divine p. 211).”

Political clubs arose which were modeled after the clubs in France in the early years of the French Revolution. There were at least twenty four of them holding regular meetings by 1794. The Republican’s and the Federalist’s each thought the other were conspiring against the U.S. Government during the Whiskey Rebellion. Today a tax on whiskey might be met with minor grumblings, but at the time it was just another confirmation of a conspiracy against our independent status. “The clubs and newspapers … fanned these anxieties (Divine p. 211) ” felt among the American peoples.

Such political strife was also prevalent throughout John Adams’ presidency. Fear, paranoia, suspicion, and conspiracy theories abounded during this decade. You were either attempting to appease the mother country or in league with the French. Such fear led to the very unconstitutional Sedition Acts in the summer of 1798 where one could not question or criticize the U.S. government without fear of fines or imprisonment. If you said anything negative about the government you were likely a “traitor” looking to overthrow the government.

Just from these few events we see that while we were an independent country we were not isolated. The French copied us, we copied them, we were horrified by their extreme violence, they were upset with Jay’s Treaty at least just as much as we were. We influenced each other. That in itself is such an amazing thing since information was not so readily available and communication took so much time before the twentieth century. I’ve heard people today say that what happens in another country does not effect us or our freedoms. Just from this snippet of history I beg to differ. In fact, because we have so much more in the way of available information and fast communication I’d say that we (America, France, Canada, Great Britain and other countries), for good or ill, influence each other far more than ever before.

*Divine = America: Past & Present Vol. 1 8th Edition

And it’s due in just a few short hours. *cries*

I like writing, I’m fairly good at it, but I’m sick, again (though nothing like last time), and that just makes it harder. Plus, when I tried to get started early on this I had the worst time focusing and reading. Talk about inopportune writer’s block. Oy.

Yesterday I finally managed to write paragraphs! Huzzah! I was listening to the Halo and Halo 2 soundtracks at the time, and it was like BOOM, I could write. Why ruin a good thing? So that’s all I’ve been listening to while writing this stuff over and over in the background. I tried listening to something else, but nothing was working out so I went back to Halo. And no, silence doesn’t work either. The only time Halo became an issue was when I had to do some extensive reading and, after fumbling around a bit trying to find appropriate reading music, I switched it to Dirk Freymuth’s Celtic Music for Stress Relief (I am suddenly seeing the ironic pun in that). Then I was able to concentrate on reading. Yeah, I know, I’m weird, but we all knew that already didn’t we?

Okay, back to work for me; but hey, I’ve got Halo backing me up yo.

(Quick FYI: Halo is a science fiction first person shooter game. Apparently it’s a good game. Either way the music is freakin’ awesome and totally worth owning.)