Friday, March 28, 2008

Are YOU aware of autism?

Ok- I admit it, the whole "awareness" thing baffles me- what exactly are we after? Legislation to require insurance companies to cover therapy? That bill died in the legislature.

That there are autistic kids in the state, country, world? Check- what are we supposed to be aware of. . .how about this;

http://www.autismspeaks.org/inthenews/autism_the_musical.php

Thursday, March 27, 2008

I dedicate my 100th post to YOU ALL







YOU ALL make everything worth it!

Love from Ema

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

And then you go check your e mail. . .

Dear Michele

Congratulations! Your paper, We Built it, Why didn't They Come? Mount Sinai 1903-1987, has been accepted into the ASA Student Forum Advisory Board's roundtable sessions in Boston this August.

There will be eight concurrent roundtable sessions with three to five presenters, a discussant, and a presider at each table.Please see the ASA website for information on the time, date, and location of your roundtable session. We look forward to seeing you in Boston!

Thank you for your submission; we look forward to hearing more about your work in August.

Regards

My thoughts exactly!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20164519/displaymode/1107/s/2/framenumber/6/

Strange, I do not feel "tardy"

All day, behind schedule. . .all day one step forward and 2 steps bacl- All the kids are over the ick. . .BUT Cocoa has seemed to gotten an allergic reaction to something, the allergist at the clinic passed away a few months ago, quite unexpectedly, and the only thing to do is take her in tomorrow and hope they do not have 7 opinions about what is wrong.

late to class, late getting home, they are tearing the store apart, and the milk section, still way in the back, was/is almost blocked off-

paper due for class tomorrow, kids JUST got to bed, thank goodness for spring break time!

sigh, off I go

Monday, March 24, 2008

To Obama

Can the people who work for this person direct me to a site that would answer the following questions about this man's positions?

His speech, and the recent, today, (3-24-08) need for him to address pro Hamas literature reprinted verbatim in a Trinity congregation wide mailing, which I assume he received and read along with his fellow congregants in July, means I still am very concerned by his reluctance to emphatically state that he is against antisemitism and that he supports the existance of Israel, and their right to secure borders.

So these are the questions I have;

Where do you stand on Israel, let me know, in a public way, during one of your great speeches, could you say, in so many words, Israel has the right to exist, and could you comment on the history of antisemitism in the Black community and do you think that it should be part of that race debate you asked for on Tuesday.

Why do you continue to soft pedal your "critical" and "renouncing" way when it comes to radical palestinians and their terrorist orgainzations? Who are you hoping to appease?

I am really interested in finding out the answers to these questions- his recent actions and is past inaction on issue of Jewish concerns make it crucial to have the answes to these questions


Thanks

We will see what I get. . .last I heard, he, well his people, we not getting back to anyone much, guess he feels it is a lock- the nomination, maybe, but if he really thinks this is going away, along with all the OTHER things he believes are "gone" the GOP will bring them back. . .in a BIG way!

See this just unhinges me. . .

The newsletter came out in JULY, and he continues to WAIT until someone CATCHES him at something and THEN he makes a speech, and all is forgiven?

This man is losing so much credibility- the curtain is being ravaged. . .come on out Obama, and tell us who you really are. . .in 100 words or less and avoid telling me about your "understanding me" I just want to know the answers to your following questions;

1, Why do you meet "in secret" with Jewish leaders in order to calm their fears (see previous post)
2. Where do you stand on Israel, let me know, in a public way, during one of your great speeches, could you say, in so many words, Israel has the right to exist, and could you comment on the history of anitsemitism in the Black community and do you think that it should be part of that race debate you asked for on Tuesday.
3. Why do you CONTINUE to soft pedal your "critical" and "renouncing" way when it comes to radical palestinians and their terrorist orgainzations? Who are you hoping to appease?

I'll be waiting. . . .

Um, Jesus was a Jew. . .in Israel. . .hello. . .


Barack Obama blasts pro-Hamas Op-Ed
Ron Kampeas/ JTA , THE JERUSALEM POST
Mar. 23, 2008
Sen. Barack Obama says that a pro-Hamas op-ed printed in his church's bulletin was "outrageously wrong."

In an issue dated July 22, 2007, in a section titled "Pastor's Page," the Trinity United Church in Chicago reprinted an article by Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzook. The article, which originally appeared as an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, justifies the Palestinian terrorist group's denial of Israel's right to exist.

The church's pastor, Jeremiah Wright Jr., who retired this year, has stirred controversy for Obama's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination with statements likening Israel to colonialists and blaming attacks on the United States in part on its support for Israel.
In slamming the Hamas piece, Obama noted that he strongly rejects some of his longtime pastor's views.

"I have already condemned my former pastor's views on Israel in the strongest possible terms, and I certainly wasn't in church when that outrageously wrong Los Angeles Times piece was re-printed in the bulletin," Obama said in a statement e-mailed to JTA late Thursday.
"Hamas is a terrorist organization, responsible for the deaths of many innocents, and dedicated to Israel's destruction, as evidenced by their bombarding of Sderot in recent months. I support requiring Hamas to meet the international community's conditions of recognizing Israel, renouncing violence, and abiding by past agreements before they are treated as a legitimate actor."

Obama has consistently condemned Hamas and defended Israel's military responses to rock\et attacks. The reports about the church bulletin and Obama's response come just days after intensifying focus on Wright's controversial anti-American statements prompted the Democratic candidate to deliver a major speech on race relations in America. In the speech, Obama, a senator from Illinois, condemned Wright's most inflammatory comments but said he would not "disown" the man who inspired him to embrace Jesus.

In a short introduction to the reprinted piece, Wright wrote, "Islam has as many manifestations as Christianity and Judaism, but most Americans are only fed a media diet on Islam as it relates to the 'war on terror' and the Palestinian muslim problem in the 'state' of Israel."
The newsletter was posted by BizzyBlog and reported by WorldNetDaily, a right-wing Web site that has played a key role in advancing the idea that Obama and his advisers are not supportive of Israel.

The WorldNetDaily report ran under the headline "Obama church published Hamas terror manifesto." One line in the op-ed directly defended strikes against Israeli targets: "Hamas," Marzook wrote, "has never supported attacks on Westerners, as even our harshest critics will concede; our struggle has always been focused on the occupier and our legal resistance to it - a right of occupied people that is explicitly supported by the Fourth Geneva Convention."
Dov Hikind, a New York state assemblyman, issued a news release condemning Wright and calling on Obama to sever his pastor and his church.

The New York lawmaker, who is in Sderot for Purim, urged Obama to visit the town "to see what support for Hamas terror looks like, and he will see why he must sever his ties to Wright and his church."

Hikind has his own ties to a controversial religious figure. Before being elected, he was an adviser to the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, a leading advocate for the mass transfer of Israeli and Palestinian Arabs out of Israel. Kahane founded the Jewish Defense League and Kach, a group that has been banned in Israel and classified as a terrorist organization by the US State Department.
In addition to his statement on the Hamas article, Obama issued a separate statement timed for Purim - a holiday rarely remarked upon by candidates or congressmen.
Obama's statement spoke of "the story of Queen Esther and her uncle Mordechai saving the Jews of ancient Persia from destruction."

"Even as the parties are held, the songs are sung, and the noisemakers are rattled, the history of a people that has had to fight for its survival, remains at the heart of the Purim story," the statement said. "In our day, the celebration is mingled with a determination to ensure that Israel remains safe and strong, that we fight anti-Semitism wherever it occurs, and that the American Jewish community continues to play such an active and vital role in the life of our nation."

This week, the Obama campaign circulated a photograph of former president Bill Clinton shaking hands with Wright at a September 1998 event for religious clerics, which was held the same day the Starr Report on Monica Lewinsky was made public.

The Obama campaign's move prompted a series of name-calling back-and-forths between it and the Clinton campaign, underscoring how potent the Wright issue has become.
"A picture - oooooooo!" was the mocking response of Howard Wolfson, a top Clinton campaign official, to the New York Times.

Jay Carson, another Clinton spokesman, told Politico that the Obama campaign was "pathetic" to peddle the photo. "Less than 48 hours after calling for a high-minded conversation on race, the Obama campaign is peddling photos of an occasion when President Clinton shook hands with Rev. Wright," he said. "To be clear, President Clinton took tens of thousands of photos during his eight years as president."

The Obama campaign countered, "After their top surrogates pushed this story line and Senator Clinton's campaign outlined this as a central strategy in her plan to overturn the will of Democratic voters, I can see why they wouldn't want a photo out there that shows the kind of hypocrisy we've all come to expect from their campaign."

It's hard to say who is peddling the Wright narrative at any given time, but those pushing the story to JTA, at least, are not part of the Clinton campaign. In any case, there may be a positive Jewish spin: At the White House breakfast for clerics, Clinton drew on a number of writings on repentance - particularly Yom Kippur.


This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1205420759325&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Monsters, race and questions

And Monsters, so Hil is a "monster" and the ’Bama pol who called her that is history. . .and Ferarro says ’Bama is getting press and votes cause he is of color, and SHE is gone, both are spending A LOT of time sniping. . .through their aides.

Is anyone really ready to say that this race is over? Nope, me neither, but train wreck a coming. . .

Gee, guess I am a sight better as a "sad attempt from the Right" than a moronic attempt from the Left to elevate status through dirt slinging.

McCain’s people have to just be DROOLING-who will they get? Truth challenged Hil and her hack husband, or the one with unbelievable spiritual baggage?? Either way, and throwing in what they are saying about one another?

Sheesh!

The minister question gets more and more troublesome- why is Obama bringing his kids to hear this pastor speak in ways that he, their father, renounces? Why is he STILL with the guy who printed, word for word, the Hamas screed in his news letter in June 2007? Why is the Farakhan issue deemed "non" and the whole thing still bug me?

Maybe because when puch came to shove, Obama became like any other politician, cut and run, threw down another "speech" with grand words and NO PLANS- and somehow managed to offend a segment of everybody in the process.

He is business as usual, even worse, he is do as I say, not as I do, wink wink, nod nod, and that, to me, is the shame of it all.

Grrrrrrr-can you hear the train???

Friday, March 21, 2008

"Spring" Break- Complete with snow

Ok, we had a blast at Family Fun Night last night, and went to Coldstone for ice cream, got home and the younger ones collapsed after their showers- ran for about 3 hours straight!

So, we wake up today, and hey, a snow storm! I will be unable to get to school, Milwaukee is going to get anywhere from 10-12 inches of new snow, and we are watching the snow fall.

I will post the pictures as soon as I figure out how to get my computer to see the card!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

So it begins. . .

Spring break 2008- We will see what happens. Something tells me that the kids have been feeling the strain of their lives- Butter wants to "not have to go ANYWHERE in the morning" for break. . . poor kid- the morning rush is pretty hectic, and that is with bare bones for primp, posh, and pomp! Showers the night before, if it is really bad, like I have an early meeting, they wear their clothes for the next day. . .as jammies. . .I know bad bad me, but that way I can still do the hot breakfast that I HAVE to give them, it is my own private neurotic hell, hot breakfast=good mom, yep, sometimes even clean socks will be sacrficed in the name of oatmeal!

So, school- last semester of course work, tooo cool, and yes, I will be having libations to celebrate! Cannot wait to put this semester to bed and get going on prelims (check back in the fall, I will most likely be saying I miss classes. . .)

So Boston- my paper was accepted for a student roundtable session in Boston- I am already daydreaming about my museum visits while there, and of course, the Salem Witch tour will be on tap. I am already giddy at the thought of mass transit. . .heaven!

So, off we go to have some fun, we are going to a local fun park, cannot wait!

Pictures if possible:)

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Of G-ds and Monsters


Whew, so the political wheel turns. . .and KIA and I are all over the place with our "debates" which is really just him trying to articulate the unarticulated. . .WWOD. . .What will Obama Do to bring about the change? KIA has been looking all OVER the place, cannot really nail down a foundation of a plan, beyond the fact that Obama wants a 'change" what that will look like, how it will be accomplished, details, where the devil lives, are few and far between.
So, of G-ds- the uproar over the whole Wright stuff, what he said, what Obama heard and when, and the brass tacks of the schism between being American proud, and at the same time being Black in America and all the rest was packaged up in a neat little race bundle by Obama this morning- watched every bit of it here is the reaction;
1. I do not think his grandmother and his pastor are on the same level with their comments, there is a HUGE difference between ignorance and incitement, his white grandma did not repeat over and over the cry to damn America, and did not offer screed after screed at whites and Jews, his pastor did. These are NOT the same, neither in their intent or delivery.
2.The continued downplaying of the distinct anitsemitism in this church and with this presidential wannabe's 'spiritual advisor" is a huge waving red flag. He mentioned Israel as a "stalwart ally" but did not really put to rest the overt antisemetic rhetoric about "bloodsucking Jews" and "gutter religion"from Farrakhan and Wright. This cannot be ignored given his stance on Iraq.
3. Slavery as "original sin"? We, as a nation, did not allow women to vote until 1920- and there is continued gender discrimination as well, domestic chores and the lack of legal rights for women in this nation was also a part of the problem.
4. The acknowledgement that whites who embraced the "assimulation" model and became part of the melting pot cannot understand the relationship between their lives and the hands up given to people of color under affirmative action was a start, as well as the statement about the more radical liberals assuming that all whites are racists, with such a default assumption, resentment was almost certain. He did not speak as strongly about this, prefering to stay safe, but it was a start.
5. This should be interesting, the reaction and the fallout. . .hmmmm
Something tells me that KIA may be voting differently in November. . .

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Thanks so much, Butter!

From the archive-Thanks for pushing for getting Casey, the amazing pound puppy!!!

Dearest Butter,
Yes, I know your birthday is coming up, and I know how badly you want a puppy, really really bad. I have been listening to you drop hints the size of the droppings I will be forced to pick up when you get over being a puppy owner, about July, I am guessing, as you continue the full court press for your newest "best friend."
Someday, when you are as old as I am, you will understand why I, even though I love you more and more everyday, have no intention of getting you this puppy this year.
No, not because Precious is "not unautistic yet", but we do have to make sure that any dog we get had good mommies and daddies (cha CHING, purebred with established verified bloodlines and temperment), not because I am an evil dog hater, you remember how hard it was for Ema to bury Ladyhawke last year, not because I want to keep the house free of dogs either.
Butter, when we get a puppy, he/she will be like a baby brother or sister here. We will have to take care of this puppy like any human baby. Spend time with the puppy, walk the puppy, and take the puppy to the doctor for check ups, shots, and if they get sick. We have to make sure the puppy is fed, has time to play with us, and gets plenty of attention.
While a puppy is a great thing, it is a LIVING thing, Bibi, and once you are "over" having one, that puppy will still need all of those things I said before. SOMEONE will have to feed the puppy, walk the puppy, pay attention to the puppy, and like it or not, that someone will end up being me.Now, I know that I will probably lose this battle, and your dad will bring that pricey pootch into this house to make your 8th birthday great.
So, I make the following promises:
1. I will not tell you "I told you so" when the puppy chews up your toys because you left them for her to get at.
2. I will try not to laugh too much when you make faces as you "clean up after" your puppy takes care of business. I will just think about the YEARS that this duty will be mine, that will make that smile turn upside down.
3. I will remember how much you can learn from being even an occasional pet owner, and hope for the best.
Love you kiddo!
Ema

Monday, March 10, 2008

So

finally turned down the internship officially. . .sigh

Things here are going slowly toward spring. . .the kids are soooooo sick of the cold, the dog is soooooo sick of the cold, I am really sick of their sickness! Cannot wait until they can play in the yard in the sun!

School is. . .well. . .yeah, like that.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

My son, John Proctor

KIA was AMAZING as the lead in the school play "the Crucible" He was just riveting- he was mobbed afterwards, so many people were shaking his hand, and giving him props.

I was content to just watch him soak up the praise when he noticed me off to the side. . .and said, "hey MOM, come here." He held out his hand, and had me stand next to him, telling everyone, thanks for the comments, and then he would say "this is my mom"

I was so into that whole scene!!

The play was exceptional, the kids did an incredible job, but my son was the BEST, his perfomance was just heartstopping, and the whole production was very well done!

Props Y'all!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Say it AIN'T SOOOOOOOO!!!!



It was a great time for Packer Fans during the Favre Years. . . .

Dude, I will SO miss you. Out of respect, I will hold my tongue. . . but "tired"????????

Thanks for the memories! Enjoy your life after the NFL!

Monday, March 3, 2008

So it goes

An also ran on the old C.V.- I could have, should have, but will not- my family life will not stand the strain, and it is always hard to walk that 'family first" walk. . .but I do, and I will. So, I will stay here, begin my prelims, and get this degree DONE!

Coursework conclusion is sooooooo close, G-d willing!