Hutaree, Atari, whatever

Everyone, of course, is talking about these loony tunes. I really don't have too much to add, outside of, when I first heard them being talked about I thought the newscasters were saying Atari, and I could not figure out why someone would name a milita that. Not that Hutaree is much better.
The name even looks goofy.
Anyway, if you would like to see something really freaking disturbing, go again and make with the clicky here. That's going to take you to TPM, and their article on the Facebook pictures of a Hutaree wedding. I really shouldn't have looked at it this early in the morning. But I'm sure most of you have thicker skin that I do.
This whole thing makes me wonder how many more of these fringe militas are out there. I don't mean the mainstream militas (wow, never thought I'd say that), but people like these guys that are so crazy that even the big guys don't want them. Two of the members of this milita were kicked out of one of the bigger Michigan militas. That says a lot to me about the whole thing.

In which I complain about the misuse of poetry

Many things have irritated me today, but only one has actually pissed me off. It involves this poem...

Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley

This is a favorite poem of mine (a reminder here that I follow Norse Gods, this poem is very much their speed). I was already irritated when Timothy McVeigh quoted it. But now the crazy ass, anti-health care, kill Obama, we must all go to war people are quoting it too.
Now, I'm all about poetry meaning different things to different people, and so like all art it is the impression the words make on your soul that counts. I would just prefer that these Tea Partiers stick to stuff they actually understand. What speaks of war to some people speaks of courage in the face of the struggles in life to others.
However, thanks again Tea Baggers for a chance to use my Tea Baggings tag. Yay!

It may not be perfect, but by the end of this week we will finally have healthcare reform. I'm one of the people who believe that we can do this piece by piece the way we did Medicare, so I'm not too terribly worried about this being "it".
It's damn good to finally have it started.

Sláinte

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone.
Faol saol agat, gob fliuch, agus bás in Éirinn.*

If I hear that anyone has sung Danny Boy today I swear to you, as a proud Irish woman, that I will hurt you for it. There are better songs to sing today.

* This should translate as "Long life to you, a wet mouth, and death in Ireland".

Visiting what?

I read a wonder post over at Slacktivist today, and while reading the comments I came across something I read about a lot over there. Visiting pastors. People who's whole job is to visit people who need comfort in the parish (church? whatever, you know what I mean).
This is so strange to me. I remember when I was growing up my brother was in an accident and had to be hospitalized for months. My grandmother had the minister of our family church drive from New Jersey to sit with my mother in the hospital. Talk about a sucky job. But he did it. Not some other guy either, the minister I saw on the big holidays when we drove to Jersey (Easter and Christmas).
If some random dude had showed up Mom would have sent him back to Jersey. No offense to him. But that's just not how our church worked.
Some random dude showed up after Lil was born. I guess maybe he was a visiting pastor or something. A hospital pastor, maybe. But it's a strange concept. You have one guy who isn't the big guy who's supposed to come out and give you comfort. Most people have friends for that. With the added bonus that you actually know your friends.
Am I missing something here? Do you actually know the visiting pastor well before he shows up when you need someones shoulder to cry on? Are they better at giving comfort than the regular guy? Anyone have any ideas? Because I'm at a loss.

I really can't think of a witty title for this...

So, TLC has decided to just on the success that A&E is having with their show on hoarders. They aired a show last night on extreme hoarders.*
The first person on the show is an ex-military guy, which was kind of weird and just goes to show you that anyone can have this disorder. The second person was a woman who has Fibromyalgia.
My heart sank a bit when she said that, because I'm reasonably sure I can see where this is going to head in the Fibro communities.
OCD's are a touchy subject in the Fibro community. A large amount of the people with Fibro have an anxiety disorder of some kind. Sometimes they are generalized anxiety disorders, sometimes they even manifest as eating disorders, but most of the time they are OCD disorders. Mild ones, but still there.
People with Fibro often have so many other problems that the anxiety disorders go untreated. Sometimes you get a doctor that will give you a drug that will combat it, but not always. Assuming you found a doctor that believes you in the first place. We try hard to appear normal, and act normal, because for years we have been known as crazy women (and men). Fibro isn't real, you're faking, it's not that bad, and so on.
For years we have been fighting that label of "crazy women". This program really didn't help. Look at the crazy hoarder woman, she has Fibro. I wonder if my co-worker/friend/sibling/etc. is crazy too. So thanks TLC, for both giving us more exposure and putting the cause back. I'm not sure if I'm happy about it or sad, that now if I tell someone I have Fibro they will think of a crazy hoarder woman down south who hid stuff she picked up in the trash in her bushes so her husband didn't know she had it.


*Hoarders are people with a complex OCD that manifests itself in them buying and then keeping objects that they do not need but retain a connection to. Because of the connection they often times can not let go of their collections. Extreme hoarders are just that, they have so many things in their houses and on their property that it is no longer safe. Just an FYI.

This weekend I built an ark...

So, I live in the southeast corner of PA. And we've been having some intense weather. Over the last three months we have had 4 nor'easters. 4. I do not ever remember a time when we have had that much snow (I missed the winter of '96, I was down south at the time. So I missed the closest to this winter).
So when it started raining we all knew it was going to suck. What with all the snow melting and the ground saturated.
It has been raining steadily for three days. At times quite heavy. On Saturday it flooded in spots I haven't seen flood before. And the wind! That brought down trees everywhere and knocked out power all over.
This winter has been awful. We've been looking forward to spring, but if this is spring, dude, I'll skip to summer, thank you very much.
Stupid weather.

So yeah...

Hi. It's been a while. I know. It's not you, it's me. Things have been hectic and I haven't had the togetherness to sit down and write an entire post.
In the last month, my brother has moved to Florida (we live in the Northeast, so it's a bit of a move), my cousin has been committed twice, the whole family has been in an uproar and dealing with the aftermath of that, my car started to literally fall apart, and at some point in all that I started to flare. It's been an awesome year so far.
I have a couple of posts coming up though. Bear with me. Things are slowing getting back to normal and I'll be able to annoy more people with my random randomness. Heh.
In the meantime, read Forever in Hell, because she has been awesome. Just sayin'