No more Made in China for me........

So here we are, about 8 months since we had the tainted pet food scandal, and we're discovering the Chinese have once again deliberately substituted an ingredient in a drug that has now caused countless deaths. If you're living under a rock and haven't yet heard, the Chinese produce some of the ingredients used in the drug Heparin, which is used to treat people who have thin blood or trouble clotting. This includes people who receive kidney dialysis, as well as some heart patients, who an experience thinning blood due to heart medications. The picture to the left is how heparin is produced. As you can see, it doesn't exactly look like a sanity factory.

Congress currently is conducting hearings on this mess, and so far, we've been told it looks like the Chinese company that produces these ingredients deliberately used a substitute so they could save money on production. You can't tell me they didn't know what would happen. And because of this, I think it ought to be considered a deliberate act of terrorism on our country. Does this mean I think we should bomb China? Um, no. Don't give Mr. Bush any ideas. But I do think we should stop buying Chinese garbage. This is the same nonsense they pulled with the pet food, adding melamine because it was cheaper. That little short cut cost many animals their lives, including the cat of a friend of ours who was only a year old.

And prior to this, we had the lead paint in toys recall. Again, our "friends" in China are responsible for that one, too.

When is this country going to wake up and realize we are jeopardizing our very lives by continuing to buy products from China? Sure, they are cheaper. But is that really worth it in the end? Our own government is to blame as well, because they continue to turn a blind eye to this stuff in order to get cheaper products. All the while, Americans are losing their jobs----and now their lives----to save a few bucks.

I personally will no longer buy anything that says "Made in China." If that means we have to go naked and my son has no toys to play with, then so be it. If everyone took this stance, maybe something would change.

In honor of my husband.......

I know, I know. Two posts in one day. I'm becoming annoying. But I came across this cartoon while I was mindlessly searching the internet. I love Get Fuzzy and I haven't read it in awhile. If you've never read it, you should, especially if you have pets. It's about a neurotic cat and his canine roommate. It's never let me down in the laughs department.

At any rate, when I saw this one, I thought of my hubby, since he's a Canuck. This one is almost as funny as the series when their owner, Rob, ran away to Canada to escape his depression over his team's loss of the the World Series a few years ago. It was calamity at the U.S.-Canadian border in that one, and it was great. If I can find it, I may post it too, just for your viewing pleasure.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. I won't tell you how old she is, because she might send me to my room for the rest of my life if I divulge that tidbit of information! Let's just say she's 39 infinity, OK? :)

But seriously, no matter how old my mom gets, she is still one of the most beautiful women I know, inside and out. I can only hope that as I grow older, I am as blessed.

Happy Birthday, MOM!

The Relentless tour was AWESOME!

We had the chance to go see Natalie Grant, Jimmy Needham and a new group called Ashmont Hill last night at the Bethel Park Church in Bethel Park. It was a totally awesome concert.

Ashmont Hill is a new group out of Boston. They are made up of 4 family members (2 sisters, a brother and the husband of one of the sisters). They were awesome. They have a new album coming out next month. If you want to check them out, go to http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=248808378

Jimmy Needham has been around for a long time. He is awesome. I love this guy. He can play with just the guitar and totally please the crowd. His songs are written from the heart and they are powerful. He has a new album coming out in August. I put a link to his MySpace page in the link under my title. But here it is again: http://www.myspace.com/jimmyneedham
The thing that most impressed me about both Jimmy and Ashmont Hill is they took the time to personally greet their fans, sign autographs and talk to you after their performances. They were all very down to earth and wonderful Christian people. I hope God continues to bless their music ministries.

I was a little annoyed with Natalie Grant, though. She wasn't nearly as interested in greeting her fans and when I asked about it, was told I could sign up on her fan page and they'd send me an impersonal, mass-produced autographed photo. While I'm sure Natalie is a wonderful person (because she was very down to earth while on stage), it speaks volumes to me when artists don't take time for their fans. We are, after all, the reason they are where they are in life. I could see if there were thousands of people there. But there was at most 600 people there, and probably not all of them would have stood in line to say hi to her or ask for an autograph. She could have made the effort. It might do her some good to look at her tour mates and follow their leads a bit.

But overall, the show was awesome and we had a great time. If you know nothing about these artists, check them all out. They are worth a listen.

Is there a doctor in the house?

So, my computer is dying. Literally. I think it may only have hours left.

On Monday, some kind of fun virus (or malware, we're not sure which) got downloaded. I find it funny this even happened since I have anti-virus, anti-spyware and a firewall all installed on my computer. But it happened. And I have been trying for 3 days to get the darn thing working right again. So far, I've lost my entire registry (which means I can't add or remove any programs or even find them for that matter!). Then, something (probably the unwanted program on my computer) started systematically deleting important things, like my spyware and virus software. And when I tried to do a system restore, I discovered that was no longer an option on my computer---again, thanks to whatever malicious program is now running on it.

The only thing I haven't tried is reformatting the hard drive. I was really hoping to avoid doing that, as it means I will lose everything I have on there and have not yet backed up (which is about 2 weeks of my freelancing work and the financial records for my church where I am treasurer---sorry church family). But it's looking like it may come to that. :(

I think the only people in this world I detest more than murderers and pedophiles are the ones who clearly have nothing better to do with their lives than create malicious computer viruses and spyware and then go and infect innocent computers with them.

Guns, God and being bitter..........

"And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

I don't know about anyone else, but I have been fuming ever since I heard Barack Obama speak these words over the weekend. In case you've been under a rock and missed this whole brouhaha, Mr. Obama was answering a question while at a private fund-raising event about issues he sees with the working class. He answered by expressing his frustration over a lack of support from the working class and this was his reason why. As someone who was raised as part of the working class, I am here to tell you his comments couldn't be more wrong. And way to shoot yourself in the foot, Mr. Obama. If this "bitter" group of people had any plans of voting for you this election, I think you just sent them screaming toward Hillary Clinton or John McCain.

I'm not saying people aren't bitter. Hell, yeah, we're bitter. Our economy sucks, we spend $14 million dollars AN HOUR on the war in Iraq, all the good jobs are going overseas where the labor is cheap and our dollar isn't worth the paper it's written on. But to reduce that bitterness to one social class and say that is the reason they "cling" to guns and religion is absurd. I am personally offended that Mr. Obama thinks my only reason for turning to God is because I'm bitter. I've known people who have turned away from God because they were bitter, but never anyone who clung to Him because they were unhappy with their government. But to reduce my faith to something that trivial is maddening and offensive.

And what's this stuff with calling me anti-immigrant? Mr. Obama, I have to tell you, my husband is offended by that one. You see, he's Canadian. He came here on a work visa and we met a year later. Then we got married. So you see, I'm not anti-immigrant. If I was, I wouldn't be married to my husband. What I am is anti-illegal immigrant. My husband had to work hard (and spend a ton of money) to get his greencard. So I tend to get a little testy when I hear politicians talking about awarding citizenship and healthcare benefits to illegal immigrants. But am I anti-immigrant? Um, no. And believe it or not, there is a difference.

And for the record, I don't own a gun, Mr. Obama. I guess I'm just not bitter enough yet.

Put 'em up, Put 'em up!

So I think my child is trying to kill me. OK, maybe not kill me, but man does he have a mean left hook! In the course of 24 hours, I've been punched in the nose and knocked into our solid oak rocking chair (where I cracked the back of my head)!

Now, he's not doing these things on purpose. The nose was entirely my fault. Because I'm an idiot who will generally do anything to keep my child entertained so I don't have to hear him whine every 5 minutes, I was letting him jump on my bed. I know, I know. Mistake number one. My second mistake----which got me a bruised and swollen nose----was trying to grab him before he fell off the bed during one of his flopping backwards stunts. For my efforts, I caught a foot in my nose. It's been two days, and the swelling is just now starting to go down. But I still can't touch my nose. Thankfully, it's not broken.

Fast forward to less than 24 hours later, and my bruiser of a kid was wrestling with me because he didn't want to leave his room to go sit on the potty. As I was bent over trying to pick him up, he knocked me off balance and I fell backward into the sold oak rocking chair in his room. Luckily, my head broke my fall. I say this with the utmost sarcasm, in case you were wondering. And yes, I have a slight concussion.

So if you see me anytime soon, do not even think about touching my nose or my head. If you do, I might cry----or kick you. :)