Pushers (used to) Get Pushed

The bully epidemic of recent years is being handled so poorly it makes me wish stupidity was a crime. Misdemeanor at the very least.

I was watching a Stephen King movie, "Storm of the Century", one day and a line in a scene early in the movie really screams -this movie was made in the 1990's. The way the world works now is very different, you'd never see a scene like this in real life past 1999.

It went like this; a little boy pushed another kid, and the adult grabs hold of the little brat, looks him in the eye and tells him don't push people because "pushers get pushed back," and you wouldn't like that, would you?

That's the difference. Back then we weren't afraid to push back.

Seems to me like society is demonizing the pusher and victimizing the pushed and taking these roles way too far. When you're talking about kids, that's really horrifying!

Schools boast zero tolerance on bullies, throwing kids out of school over simple altercations, even filing criminal charges, against kids. A bully is still a kid! Why is nobody offering these kids some counseling?  A happy, well cared for child doesn't go to school and mistreat their peers.

If a child is being abused at home then goes to school and pushes other kids, most likely not knowing it's unacceptable because their life at home is violent, they don't know any different. And if the police are involved, what happens to this kid? Their outlook on life changes, they're a criminal now.

Forget an education, son, it's more important that you're locked away so those "good" kids can get the education they deserve.

And so much WORSE, is how we treat the kid who got pushed. You're coddling the kid now, but who will take care of the mess of an adult you've created after school is over? A kid needs to know how to take care of themselves!!! THAT is your job as a parent, to teach this tiny person you made how to survive in this life.

If you always feed him fish, he will starve when you can no longer do the fishing. But if you teach him to fish, he can feed you both when you are too old to fish. A child is a blank canvas. They only learn what you teach them.

You poor darling little victim, please, please don't kill yourself because you had a bad day.

My son was bullied for years. One day on the playground a kid walked up and kicked my baby boy right in the eye, for digging in the sand. I, of course, was feeling murderous. The school promised to separate the two. But they didn't. The little monster was not switched to another class, was not moved to the other side of the playground, or the lunch table. The only action the school took was sending both my son and his bully home for the remainder of that day. Zero tolerance, my ass.

I told my son the same I tell all of my kids; don't ever start a fight, but if someone else does, you better finish it. Mama's always got your back, my boy.

Stop victimizing your kids, people. It's not okay to be mean, but it's not okay to accept others being mean to you either. It's sickening that so many kids are taking their lives so young these days. To think they really have nothing important enough in their lives to keep them out of that dark place in their minds. Don't teach your kids to be weak!

My suggestion for both bullies and bullied is find them a hobby. Something they enjoy, that will engage their minds and satisfy their human need for social interaction. Something they can take pride in, make friends with similar interests, and make them feel they are a part of something. Be it sports, art, music, anything to occupy the time they may otherwise use trolling the internet or cutting their wrists for lack of better things to do with their day.

And for fuck sake, tell your kids to stop taking everything so damn personally. Not everybody is going to like you, not everyone will want to be your friend, and that's okay! Teach your kids they don't NEED the approval of absolutely everyone they meet. A few good friends is all a person needs. Quality over quantity!

Don't turn them into attention seeking little snots who can't handle criticism. (Think about an adult with this quality, because someday your kid will be one). Show them that yes, words can hurt, but only if you let them! And there's a big difference between hearing unkind words from a loved one and from someone whose opinion just shouldn't matter to you.

So what if you don't like me? I don't need you to,
and frankly, I don't like you either.

 We weren't built to get along with everyone. Some personalities just clash, no matter what kind of effort you put into getting along, it's never going to work. And that's okay!

No reason to make a big deal of it.

Malone man's crazy opinion on welfare

I just found this opinion piece published on a local news site that made me shake my head. "Put me in charge of welfare", says Malone man. Already I'm chuckling because Malone is like the Detroit of Upstate New York. Main street is dotted with rows of dark, abandoned shops. Many locals travel on foot for lack of faster transportation and jobs are scarce down town.

Detroit Suburb

Most of these buildings on Main St are empty

More folks in prison than in church

Thank heavens we have a man with all the answers though! John Crump of Malone urges the Editor of North Country Now to appoint him the king of welfare.

Friday, April 1, 2016 - 6:22 am 

To the Editor:

Put me in charge of food stamps.

First thing I'd do is get rid of SNAP cards. No cash for Ding Dongs, Ho Ho's or snickety snacks of any kind. Just vouchers for 50-pound bags of rice or beans, blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you could haul away.

If you want steak and pizza, then get a job.

 Well there's your first mistake, Crump. I don't believe the editor of the local rag has that power.

Bravo on the well planned food rations. A person can't survive forever on government issue bulk processed cheese flavored food dried beans and powdered milk. That's just begging for a weekly trip to the doctor. But the poor will probably die off pretty quickly on this diet anyway, so .

But Crump goes on...

Put me in charge of Medicaid.

The first thing I'd do is to get women Norplant birth control implants or tubal legations. Then test all the recipients in the family for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine.
If you want to reproduce, use drugs, swill alcohol, or smoke then get a job.

 Oh how perfect; he's got the medicaid angle covered too. So when Crump is king of welfare the poor will all be sterilized by force and sober as a priest. The confusing part of his rules is that the majority of those on welfare do have jobs, often more than one. Employers just don't pay enough to survive on.

Most employers around here will hire their entire staff as part time to avoid paying for insurance and pay minimum wage, cutting hours as low as four hours a week. So those with jobs often can't afford medical insurance either let alone pizza and steak.

Crump goes on;

You will either present a check stub from a job each week or you will report to a government job. This job may be cleaning the roadways of trash, painting and repairing public housing, working on a farm to provide food for welfare recipients or whatever else we find for you.

Welfare recipients already have to do mandatory volunteer work or similar activities like skills training. They volunteer at the local food pantries or clean public buildings.

He also wants to sell off the poor's posessions. Apparently all us poor folks own fancy tires and loud stereos. Well, we do have a loud stereo, but I'll tell you what, Crump, that stereo was a gift (and about 30 years old) and the speakers were mostly salvaged from scrap yards. Go ahead and try to sell it, and enjoy your hard earned $5.

Crump wants to punish the poor for their terrible life mistakes and try to teach them a concentration camp style lesson. Work hard for your slave rations or starve.

His last two points really concern me. "...while you are on government assistance, you cannot receive an income tax return."

Um, excuse me? If I worked within the last fiscal year you bet your ass I'm claiming my return. Like I said, the majority of welfare recipients actually HAVE A JOB. And with all the lay-offs, a lot of people recently had jobs.

And his final royal decree being that while receiving government assistance you, American citizen, voluntarily renounce your right to vote.

"Yes, that is correct. For you to vote would be a conflict of interest."

Oh, wow.

However, nowhere in his letter has Mr. Crump shared his qualifications for the job of being in charge of welfare.

Gotta love people who believe every meme they find on Facebook. LOL

Marijuana Activists Toke up at White House

A group of activists gathered outside the White House Saturday afternoon. Armed with lighters and bongs and sweet ganja, they packed their pipes, rolled their doobies, and sparked up in protest of Obama's slack-offery on ending the prohibition of marijuana. (See here for story).

Angry pot heads march on Washington D.C.

Protesters want President Obama to reclassify marijuana, to which Obama responds; go ask congress. Protesters response: we're going to get baked in your front yard. na-na-na-boo-boo. (Not a verbatim quote)

The event, dubbed #Reschedule4/20, was aimed at pushing President Obama and Congress to reclassify marijuana by proving that using it is not dangerous. Organized by D.C. Cannabis Campaign (DCMJ), using a group on Facebook, invited folks to show up and spark up in unison at 4:20 pm on April 2nd. On their Facebook page the group challenges Presidential candidates as well as our current commander in chief to step up and do away with the failed prohibition on a federal level.

Legalizing cannabis has been a hot topic in recent years as science has been repeatedly proving the plant's usefulness in medicine and disproving fears of addiction, insanity and lawlessness stemming from the Reefer Madness smear campaign of the 1930's.

A little dramatic, don't ya think?

As of February last year it is lawful to possess up to two ounces of weed in our nation's capitol, but it's still illegal to smoke it in public. The local police were there, catching a free buzz, but no arrests were made. Although present, police "were very respectful," says protest organizer Adam Eidinger. However, the secret service put out their giant inflatable joint idea due to security concerns. (Bummer, man).

But will it work? One concern is the affect a park full of stoners emitting a hot cloud of smoky happiness will have on the sober folks walking by, sober folks who may vote against the cause after catching an unsolicited contact high.

Tom Angell, founder of Marijuana Majority, another marijuana advocacy group, feels filling the park with marijuana smoke sends the wrong message to voters. “Smoking in a public park where families and children are vacationing is not going to be the way to encourage the president or member of Congress to do what we need them to do,” said Angell. 

 If the road to change is paved with paperwork, perhaps these well-meaning activists just rolled up their reputation and smoked it. On the other hand though, maybe a few of those men with the pens caught a whiff of it in the air that day. And maybe they relaxed just a little and enjoyed it.

#GetInOnThis - Look up your local representative and give them a call. They will listen and every voice counts.

How To Contact Your Elected Officials Searchable and easy to use. Can search by issue, keyword, name, zip code, branch.

Aussie Eats - sausage rolls

If you've ever traveled to another country, you'll know how I felt when I first got to Australia years ago and looked in my Mom's fridge for a snack and didn't recognize a damn thing as food. The packaging was all different. I really took for granted that all the food in my fridge back home were things I've grown up with and recognize at a glance.

I don't know what I expected, really, but everything in my mom's fridge was so weird. I had to actually read the labels of everything to figure out what it was I was looking for. Like, is this butter? What's a TimTam? Where's the peanut butter? You don't have kool-aid? wtf is cordial? Vegemite? Why would anyone eat this? Never mind, I'll just live off this amazing chocolate that doesn't melt.

Of course Mom thought it was all too hilarious, giggle-snorting at me as I struggle to figure out how to flush the toilet. (A button for number 1, another button for number 2).

I got used to the foreign food eventually. Some of it I really liked. Aussie chocolate is like a candy orgasm. My family sends me some for Christmas sometimes. The meat there is so much better than here. It's fresh, no fillers or bullshit. I recommend if you have the option in your area, buy straight from your local butcher. The difference will amaze you.

One of my favorite aussie foods is sausage rolls. So I found a recipe online a couple years ago, converted it to American, dropped the undesirables (carrots, yuck!) , changed some stuff a little and hocus pocus, perfect sausage rolls at home.

Everybody loves them, so try them yourself before you share haha
I like them with mustard :)

I borrowed this pic from Google.
I don't cut mine before I cook.
 Makes a mess.

Sausage Rolls

   Ingredients

1-2 lb sweet sausage mince (or country style. hot not recommended)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and shredded (Optional. Yuck)
2 eggs
1 cup bread crumbs
 2 TBS barbecue sauce
 4 cans crescent rolls (the pop-open tube can kind)

    Prepare

-Mix all but the crescent rolls together in a large bowl. 
-Open up the crescent rolls and tear them apart into rectangles. You can do triangles if you prefer, just roll the meat inside the crescent and pinch the ends shut to make a little sausage roll ball. Bakes the same either way.
-Gently pinch together the triangle perforations that you didn't separate to make the rectangles whole, for the most part. 
-Roll the meat mixture into your crescent rolls, lengthwise. 
-Gently pinch the edges shut. It's ok if a little meat is exposed, it won't hurt anything, just shut them enough to keep the things together. 
-Place on a baking sheet, about 1-2" apart. If not a shiny new pan, grease lightly.

      Bake

At 350F for 30 minutes, or until browned. 

     Serve

Hot, with ketchup or mustard for dipping. Can be cut into squares for the kids, the center will be hot. Make some potato wedges and gravy to go with them. 

      Store 

left overs in the fridge in an air tight container up to a week. To reheat place on a microwave safe plate and heat on high for at least 25 seconds on each side.     

There's my sausage rolls. One of my family's favorite meals! Save this recipe and subscribe for more. =)

Happy Birthday Nanna and Rian <3 amp="" back.="" both="" end="" i="" infinti="" love="" of="" p="" the="" to="" you="">

Who is God?

One of the biggest questions there is; who is God? I don't know about you, but I could have a conversation that lasts for weeks on those three words alone. Nat Geo asked this question of people from all over the world in their new show The Story of God. Hosted by everyone's favorite Hollywood version of God; Morgan Freeman.

 I can't wait!

I think "God" is, more than anything else, an idea. It's motivation to do the right thing, hope when you're feeling weak, strength when times are hard, grace when life is good, humility when you get out of check. God, whether you believe in one or not, is a necessity for humans. The notion of a divine creator has shown up in every culture since the beginning of humanity.

The mystery of God and creation and why we are here keeps us humble. If we thought we had everything figured out imagine how chaotic the world would be. (We're getting to that point quickly. Look at how much has been replaced by technology already). I think some mystery in life reminds us that there are things bigger and badder than we are that can just never be explained.

I'm not exactly religious, myself. I'm not an atheist either. My beliefs are more like theories. I've got a hybrid jumble of ideas in my brain about where we came from, why we're here, where we're going, what matters and what doesn't. I pretty much just pick out ideas I think make sense and say, "Yeah, that could happen". 

Ghosts for instance. Maybe it is just my complex human brain playing tricks on me, and my boyfriend, and my friends when they visit and the cat and the dog and the kids... maybe not. I believe it's ghosts. 

Things like de'ja vous and past life memories can be explained by my theory that the sequence of everything is repeated over and over for eternity. Also black holes and big bangs. See, I figure if the universe was created by this big bang, all the matter in the whole universe squashed into a tiny speck until the pressure of it all can't hold it in anymore then BAM! All matter that ever existed, all energy of every kind, explodes all over the universe.

And a black hole is just the opposite of the "Bam", all that energy and matter sucked in and squeezed into a space the size of a marble. It makes sense to me that the two phenomena go together. Folding in on itself and exploding again over and over for the rest of forever. In a universe full of strange things, it seems too far fetched to call it coincidence that black holes and big bangs involve stuff being sucked into and exploding from a tiny space.

So eventually all that is, will be sucked into one big black hole and squashed so tight it eventually explodes back out again. And again and again. The universe is just an extremely slowly moving thing, a giant Mobius loop, endlessly swallowing and regurgitating itself in ripples of time. 

I believe a soul is a tangible thing. Like trees, rocks, people. It's real. It's energy. Even if you burn a tree, it's matter still exists, just now it's charcoal and ash. A soul may not stay in your body when it dies but it has to go somewhere. These things won't disappear in the black hole, they will still be there, even when the next big bang vomits everything back out those souls have to go somewhere. They can't just disappear. 

Maybe everything will happen in the same way it did before. Like the entire universe is basically reduced to binary, everything either is or it isn't, and it will keep running those same "codes" each time it cycles through. So maybe I vaguely remember meeting someone somewhere before because I have, so long ago that time becomes meaningless. I've done all of this before. Maybe that's how the fortune teller sees your future in your palm, she has some vague memory of the previous cycle. 

Reincarnation fascinates me too. I'd love to meet the Dalai Lama, before and after he dies and comes back. What I wouldn't give to sit in on the selection process on the new one. It's a very curious notion, that a soul could pop in and out of a body as it pleases. 

So who is God if all this crazy stuff is true? Everything. That's my answer. There is a living spirit in everything. The universe itself is a moving, changing, living thing. I just plain don't buy the Catholic story I grew up with of some great big guy floating in the clouds who gets lonely and decides to clap his hands and up springs the Earth and all the little fluffy creatures on it. It makes zero sense to me. 

I believe science and spirituality are in harmony with each other. Just because one is right doesn't mean the other is wrong. A monkey with a soul can still evolve into a man. 

What are your thoughts? Who is YOUR God?

Comment below! I absolutely love hearing others beliefs or theories. Don't be shy. What could possibly be crazier than Scientology? And that's a thing, so...

Why Green Beer???

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Wear green, or orange if you want to get pinched, find a four leafed clover, catch a leprechaun and get totally shit faced. Unless you're actually Irish...

Actual Irish on St. Pat's day

In Ireland today is more of a religious thing. Traditionally a day of feasting in celebration of the guy who brought Christianity to pagan Ireland. Turns out he wasn't even Irish, but English. He was kidnapped by Irish pirates when he was a kid and kept as a slave to tend livestock for six years before he escaped and hopped a ship back home to England. He joined the church when he got home then later returned to Ireland as a missionary. March 17th is celebrated in remembrance of the day he died.

St. Patrick's tomb

In Ireland, Lent is lifted for the day, so everyone feasts, eating meat and drinking booze just because they're allowed to. I suppose this is where the tradition of getting hammered while bathed in green glitter comes from.

The green probably comes from the clover, associated with Saint Patrick after he used one to explain the Holy Trinity to his followers. Pictures of the guy usually show him holding some of the weeds in one hand and his "growing" stick in the other. (Not THAT stick, pervert)

See the stick

They say he plopped his walking stick into the ground when he got to town and left it there until the people were converted to Christianity then he'd retrieve it and head off to the next town. And some wise ass said that it took so long to convert them that his stick took root and grew into a tree.

As for the leprechaun, he's an interesting little character. He's been around since before paganism. He's actually a fairy. A shoe making fairy, but only ever seen working with one shoe. Originally he wore red and gold, with seven rows of seven buttons on his jacket. (He has more patience than most for buttons I guess) He does have a stash of gold and if you keep your eye on him and question him, he'll give up the location of his stash. Take your eye off him though and he's gone.

The leprechaun's cousin sounds fun too. The clurichaun is thought to be either another type of fairy or a night version of the leprechaun that goes out and gets drunk after a day's work. Folklore tells that if you're nice to him he'll guard your wine, if you're not, he'll steal it. He sounds fun.

A Clurichaun swiping your booze

 So now that you know why you're celebrating, and why Saint Patrick's day is a traditional excuse to get absolutely wasted, go get your green glitter out and have a green pint for me.

Cheers!

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick%27s_Day, http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Leprechaun, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick

Angel Cookies - So innocently delicious

A couple Christmases ago my family members each received a batch of cookies. They weren't that impressed lol. The problem with cookies is, if they're any good they get eaten. Delicious cookies or slim waist? (#LadyProblems)

So the next Christmas I spent a whole week baking, everyone got cookies or fudge, personalized with their own recipe. The fellas got a lot of sugar, I'll admit. Just as they like their desserts. But for the ladies, I looked for other options and after some tweaking, came up with some instant hits.

Here's the one I made with my step mother in mind; Grandma Kathy's Angel Cookies. They're vegan, they're light, and they're delicious. Enjoy, and keep reading, I'll share more. =)

Grandma Kathy's Angel Cookies
   Ingredients
1 cup almond butter/margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar 
1 tsp vanilla extract 
      - Mix these first

      - Add these and mix well
1/2 cup coconut milk (find it next to the soy milk)
 i cup oats

       - Mix these in another bowl, then add to first bowl
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt

       - Stir these babies in
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/8 cup sliced almonds

And bake on a lightly greased cookie sheet at 375 F for about 12 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on the pan. 

There's something about cranberries and white chocolate that inspires love. <3 Share these with your favorite people. And hit subscribe and follow me. There's more of this to come.