Hell In A Handbasket

This is pretty much just a rant on my part. I won't apologise. I am not sorry. I vehemently disagree with my President on every global initiative he's poked his incompetent fingers into.  From Egypt and Libya to Syria and Ukraine. He is the President of this wonderful country in which I live, but he does NOT speak for ME! The man has been on the wrong side of every geopolitical crisis since the day he took office! Oh, I know he ran (and subsequently won the election) on his promise to get our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. However, his withdrawal of our military, the only stabilizing force in the country of Iraq, resulted in a vacuum. In the subsequent aftermath, the withdrawal of American military forces did nothing more than to pave the way for someone far worse than Saddam Hussein. In this respect, former President George W. Bush was chillingly prophetic in his July 12, 2007 press conference when he said, "It would mean increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous." President Obama's inaction since January makes him culpable for the atrocities now being committed by ISIS. The mere fact that he referred to the al Qaeda spin-off as "JV" (aka Junior Varsity) shows his absolute ignorance and disengagement from the world and it's issues.

Yes, yes. I know, I know. We, as a nation are war-weary. I admit it. The very thought of sending America's sons, daughters, brothers, fathers to a country far away to fight in a war not our own is heartbreaking and gut-wrenching.  Yet, I support them for doing so. I know that the reason we have sacrificed blood, bone, sweat, tears, time, and treasure in foreign lands is so that the homeland remain the land of the free and the home of the brave. There is no greater sacrifice. I Stand with Mothers of young men who have sworn the Oath and signed the blank check "Up To and Including Their Lives" to keep America free and to prevent the devastation of war from coming to our homeland, I am not only proud, but humbled.

The more I see/hear the news the more I feel my head is about to explode or blood will soon shoot out of my eyes. I am convinced that the President and his minions are deliberately orchestrating the downfall of America. They are implementing Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" as well as the Cloward-Piven Strategy to fundamentally transform this great nation into a place that is getting harder to recognize. To put it simply, "We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto!"

Progressivism began under President Woodrow Wilson. His policies were detrimental to America and eventually led to the Great Depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt's policies exacerbated and prolonged the Great Depression. If you research the Fabian Society, you will discover that many of the progressive policies stem from the ideal that the world, as we know it, has to be remade. 

Not only has President Obama and his Administration orchestrated the radical transformation of America, they have also been working diligently to transform the entire world order. Consider the recent events in the Middle East. From the Arab Spring to the civil wars in Syria and Ukraine, President Obama has been on the wrong side.  He supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia, even going so far as to send our own military personnel to take part in the ousting of the Egyptian President Mubarak and Libyan dictator Qaddafi. Mubarak was exiled and Qaddafi was brutally sodomized and executed. When the insanity spread to Syria, he supported the rebels against Syrian President Assad. The President even drew a "red line in the sand" and, of course Syria crossed it, and Obama erased his line. Admittedly those three guys were tyrants but the world wasn't burning and the people there had some modicum of peace and freedom, or the illusion thereof. 

Following September 11, 2012 when our own Ambassador, Christopher Stevens, along with three Navy Seals at the consulate in Benghazi, Libya, were killed by Ansar al Sharia, the world situation has degraded exponentially. We now have ISIS invading both Syria and Iraq. ISIS calls itself "freedom" fighters, but they aren't fighting for freedom. They are fighting to eradicate and enslave other people groups, religions, and anyone who isn't Muslim from those lands. They wish to impose Sharia Law in those lands they are fighting in. With Sharia Law, ISIS is ordering fatwas for all women and young girls to undergo  Female Genital Mutilation, which at the time of this writing, 130 Million women and girls have been subjected to it in 29 countries, worldwide. If you would like more information on FGM, please see The Honor Diaries, a movie that has been banned from several college and university campuses when the Islamic group CAIR protested it's viewing.

#ISIS or the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant #ISIL has now beheaded two American journalists a week apart. The first was James Foley on August 19, 2014.  He was 40 years old. The second journalist was Steven Sotloff on September 2, 2014. He was 31 years old. Sotloff was Jewish and also an Israeli citizen. This was not made public until after his decapitation as he worked primarily in Muslim countries. Both were kidnapped while covering the Syrian Civil War. The US has carried out more than 120 air strikes against ISIS. On Wednesday, September 2, 2014, following the beheading of Steven Sotloff, President Obama admitted on national tv that he did not have a "strategy for dealing with ISIS." The next day on September 3, 2014 he came out and said that the objective was to "shrink" ISIS to a "manageable problem." He cannot make himself say the word "Islam" in reverence to the terrorists who are now targeting Americans. They are holding at least two other American and one British journalist. PM David Cameron said that the UK was gearing up to challenge ISIS on the same day that 82 year old Palmira Silva was beheaded in a garden district in London yesterday. Eyewitnesses claim that the man, a Muslim convert, was yelling about cats while waving a machete around. The woman went out to intervene and save the cat(s) and ended up being decapitated. This is the third woman to be decapitated in the past 6 months in London.

I've seen reports where ISIS has been burying women, children and teenagers alive. It is horrifying. I cannot fathom the barbarism and depravity of these groups. Every where they invade, blood, mayhem and violence follows them. We see them in Syria, and now Iraq. Hamas is flooding Israel with rockets, yet the world sides with Palestine and the terrorists who use women, children, schools and hospitals as shields. Russian troops amass on the border with Ukraine as the fighting there escalates since Russia's invasion of the Crimea. The fighting there is also horrific. The world burns and where did President Obama go? On a 16 day vacation. He made the presser for James Foley and within an hour he was teeing off on the golf green, and attending a fundraiser after Steven Sotloff was beheaded. Obama is now in the UK to discuss a "coalition" with Prime Minister David Cameron and NATO for dealing with ISIS.

I. Swear. It is enough to drive me clinically insane.

Laterz,
~Starr

The Purrfect Wee Beastie

Sophie Rose Hall

She graced my life from May 2003 - August 21, 2014

Age 16

1998 - 2014

My purrfect wee beastie crossed the rainbow bridge today.

I held her most of the day. Cuddled in my arms she never stopped purring. I brushed her fur and gave her "pink belly rubs" all day long.  She ate well: two Meow Mix cups, still drinking water, and she used the litterbox. She had peed on me twice yesterday. 

Her feline progressive histiocytosis had progressed so fast in this last month. She looked like a gremlin: had lost all of the fur on her face and all four of her paws. The lesions on her face and feet had begun to rupture and I could no longer keep them clean. She had nipped at me as I washed them and  put peroxide on them. Dr. Bo said that with her condition that she may have lesions internally and that if they ruptured she could bleed to death. The thought of seeing my cat bleed to death in front of my eyes was too horrific to contemplate.   Since her diagnosis in 2012, it became all about maintaining her quality of life. FPH is very rare. Only 75-80 cases worldwide. Dr. Bo said most cats were euthanized for cosmetic reasons. Sophie's treatment was mostly a success in that area. With the monthly Depo-Medrol injection and the synotic drops applied twice a day, it was only within the last month that she had lost her fur. 

Dr. Bo was awesome. He gave me time with her, before and afterwards, complete with a big hug. He and Kim, the assistant, were helpful with the information on cremation and pet urns. I've never had a pet cremated before. But I've never had a cat like Sophie before either. She was the best cat ever and had been with me through so many milestones and life events it seemed wrong to just bury her. 

Sophie was a rescue cat. I adopted her from the Humane Shelter in 2003. According to the shelter she was 5 years old. I think she had been abused. She never liked men, especially my ex-husband, and loud noises frightened her. Jacob is the only guy she ever tolerated and I think that was just because he loved her so and made her accept him. He was the first to discover that she like what he called her  "pink belly rubs." Jacob still scared her occasionally....like the Halloween he came in dressed as the Wolverine. Sophie jumped off the bed to hide under it.  

It's really hard to say goodbye to a friend who has been with you so very many years and seen you through so many tumultuous life events. Sophie was the one I could always cry with and never feel judged for the overwhelming emotion. She was the epitome of unconditional love. 

Sophie saw me through a nasty divorce,   a couple of boyfriends, children growing up, and the loss of my Mama. She endured every trip to the State All-Star tournaments, Youth America Grand Prix Dance Competition, and the road trip to Cape May, NJ for Josiah's USCG graduation. Not to mention the many trips to north Alabama with me as I cared for my Mom while she was undergoing cancer treatments. She was a well traveled kitty who thought nothing of being sneaked in to whatever hotel we were staying in and she never got car sick. I'm going to miss her. 

I already do. No jingly bell sound from her collar or her little cooing sound, a trill really, that she would make to acknowledge my presence. I lost it when I got home and saw her little bowls, her bed, her mousie, her brush with her fur still in it. I haven't put those away yet. Maybe tomorrow. 

I popped open a cold one with Rob who had lost his cat Perky earlier this week. We drank a beer and exchanged cat stories. He says he will probably get another cat. I most likely will too, but not until after I get Sophie home and finish mourning. 

Mama-isms: Things My Mama Said

I awakened this morning, remembering and thinking about my Mama and some of the words and phrases she used on a regular basis. She was a lot like Uncle Si of Duck Dynasty in that respect. Here's a short list of a few phrases that my Mama used that are my favorites:

1.  pasture giants (legs, as in use yours and don't be lazy)

2.  sanko across (as in leisurely walk or skulk)

3.  have a conniption (panic attack)

4.  smells like kyarn (not even sure how to spell this one, but she meant smells like carrion: something dead)

5.  ridikilus (ridiculous)

6. heifer (applied to any woman she didn't like)

7. floozy (loose woman, i.e. skank, ho)

8. corker (She's a corker, as in her cat, Lucy. Incorrigible or astonishing)
 
9. greedy-gut (applied to anyone who wouldn't share or hogged all the food)

10. grouch-box (someone in a bad mood or ill-tempered)

11. two wrongs don't make a right (revenge is never right)

12. I've already forgotten more than you know (because she lived in the 30s, 40s, 50s. She experienced things I'll never know and she's right.)

13. that scrapper! (anyone who tried to take advantage of her)

14. that scroungeball (same as above)

15. turd-head (my dad)

16. dumb-bunny (not the brightest crayon in the box, stupid)

17. tetched in the head (touched in the head, crazy)

18. pasquale (vagina....yeah, imagine my surprise when the pizza place opened!)

19. tallywhacher (penis....I lie not!)

20. always wear clean underwear (her talisman against accidents #nojoke)

21. don't make me come in there! (when my siblings and I were fighting/arguing)

22. shut your mouth and eat (still haven't figured out how this is accomplished!)

23. just wait until you have kids (proved prophetic....#justsaying)

24. I'm gonna pull you bald-headed (if she ever thought I or my sister were lying to her)

25. swear on the Bible (and she'd make us stand on the Bible and swear....#true!)

26. you can't fix stupid (an immutable truth!)

27. when I was a kid.... (followed by a very long, long, long story)

28. I'm going to jump on your bed when you grow up! (she never did, but she threatened)

29. olive oil is good for everything (from moisturizer to ear aches)

30. don't ask me "Why?"

Later dayz,

Starla