Taking the Bait

I immersed myself in kid lit. I had to see what the fuss was over, and now I see. I finished Eclipse late last night and am now reading Breaking Dawn of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. This is the last book, then I can go back to big-girl books.

What if Atlas Shrugged?

Considering what is going on in our world, I have been pondering this question. In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand tells the story of the "Producers" of society, and the world that saps the life out of them.

Who are the producers? We are. The people who go to work every day and perform a function from which society can derive some benefit. This could be in the form of a beautiful opus that we all enjoy, a knowledge of medicine and the power to heal that comes with it, or a delicious meal that we can cook for others. Whatever the contribution, we make one. What is our thanks? We get taxed. We pay through the nose. If we put our foot down, we are "selfish". Don't we want to help our fellow man? When is enough enough?

I want to put my foot down. I want to say "No more!". I am sorry that the Jones' next door do not have health coverage. I truly am. But since when is it my responsibility to pay their bills? Did they lose their job do to the collapse of out auto industry? Well, I tried to help. They were selling their ability to make cars and I contributed to their cause by purchasing a new vehicle.

Now Obama is wanting to tax our health benefits. My gut reaction, in the face of even more taxes, is to quit. I obviously will not be doing that, but I want to. If we all did, the powers that be would have to find another way other than taking it out on the hard-working people who break their backs to make this world go round.

I think I need to revisit my old dog-eared copy.

We are Learning!

Evan brought home a new school library book the other day because he thought his father would approve. It was called "Alpha Bravo Charlie" and it went through the letters of the military alphabet, using examples from each branch of the service as examples. For example, Lima is for "Leathernecks", which got a hearty "Oorah" from my husband. But the moral of the story is that Evan and I now know the military alphabet!

Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec,Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-Ray, Yankee, Zulu......Hahahahahaha

Successful?????

In case you can't tell, because of the recent events, I have been doubting myself. It's really hard not too when a string of misfortune comes your way, and you are a student of logic. One has to ponder whether the events are a result of one's own actions. Surely it can't all just be bad luck. But I found this Emerson piece, and since I am an idiot, and cannot figure a way to format this where it will stay that way when I publish this post to the blog, I am going to put it in the sidebar. I will sum it all up with this statement: yes, I am successful. Read: I am not such a failure after all.

Just Something I Read

Awesome read. Awesome. It isn't something I would normally choose, but the preview for the film looked interesting, and since the book is always better, I rushed to read it so I could see the film without guilt. Of course all hell broke loose (see last post) and the movie was never to be for me.

But I loved it. Now I have this fixation with the Tudors....NO--not the cable show. And John hates it because this is so different from the things in which he is interested!

So anyhow....read The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory. In the meantime, I will finish The Fountainhead then I plan to read it again.

Slow Starter

I have had this book for ages. I have heard all of these reviews that the book was so awesome, but everytime I would sit down and attempt to read it, I would get bored with the first chapter, and never finish.
Well, I finally forced myself to push through my initial boredom and finish the book. I only had to push so far when I fell into it. The author, Hosseini, truly has a gift, and the story was very moving.
Up until I read the book, I had a vague idea about the turmoil that has been plaguing Afghanistan. After reading the story, I had this thirst for more information, and it prompted me to do some digging on Shi'a and Sunni muslims. And I am more against the Taliban than I was before. I used to just think "Yeah, they are the $%^& 's behind 9/11." And so, as an American, I wanted us to hit them hard. But now more than ever, I have a renewed sense of the purpose behind Operation Enduring Freedom. We truly should be there. I still am not sure about Iraq, but Afghanistan? Definitely.
So if you have not read The Kite Runner, do so immediately. I rank it up there with The Namesake and The Time Traveler's Wife as one of the greatest books I have read.