Lura Thoughts

No Palinphobia Here

While I've been not blogging, but instead running with my dogs, playing with the kids, and vacationing, the world just gets more and more interesting.  SC governor Mark Sanford went missing for a while, President Obama went to Russia, and, while I was at the Broadmoor competing in the rubber duck races, Governor Palin announced that she was quitting.  When I first heard about her quitting, I thought she meant that she simply wasn't running for re-election.  Of course she wasn't, I thought, she'll be running for President.  But then I found out that by quitting, she meant she was really quitting.  As in, done.  No more governor.  And she somehow insinuated that she was doing so because she isn't a quitter.

But the really interesting thing about all of this is what I've been listening to on the radio and reading on RealClearPolitics; it seems that democrats are SCARED of Sarah Palin.  It must be true because Dan Caplis says it all the time.  The right-wing commentary boards proclaim it loudly.

I just want to clear the air here.  Sarah Palin holds no fear for me.

As a matter of fact, I wouldn't mind having her over for tea.  I'd even cook up some scones for her, and I bet we'd have a nice time chatting about parenting.

I also wouldn't mind seeing her run for some more elected offices.  I'd even welcome it, because I'm pretty sure my yellow labs have a better chance of getting elected than she does.  I mean, come on, my labs are seriously cute.

And, if it really came to it, I'm pretty sure I could take Sarah in a fair fight.  I couldn't beat her in a marathon, and I think she'd actually be tough, but I could take her.

But scared of her?  Hardly.

Pirates!

I've been following the whole Pirates in Somalia event with a lot of interest.  Who isn't?  Just the term "pirates" makes it fascinating.  Nobody really thought of pirates as something that is still around today; the term evokes swashbucklers and Johnny Depp, not really anything serious.

Unfortunately, what happened off the coast of Somalia was deadly serious, and I don't mean to make light of that, or of the incredible heroism that was shown by everybody involved in rescuing Captain Richard Phillips.  But still, I couldn't help but see that the correlation, first documented by the Pastafarians, was no doubt once again validated:

 

The recent events support this data.  First, three pirates were shot, quite efficiently, in the head by Navy Seal sharpshooters this Sunday.  Notice that here in Denver, the weather went from cold and rainy to warm and 70's with three pirates less.  Then, as the week went on, the pirates regrouped, and no doubt were able to recruit more to join their forces.  What is the result?  Colder weather, with storms and 40's tomorrow; 30's and snow on Saturday. 

Coincidence?  I think not.

Is it letter-worthy?

I love living in Boulder.

I also love writing letters to the editor.  It's a good way to get an opinion across that you feel is meaningful.  I don't want to brag or anything, but I was once told by the BVSD Communications Director that she had copied one of my letters and distributed it at one of their meetings.  Hey!  My opinions were heard!  Thank you, Daily Camera.  It's a great way to express important opinions about very important world or local events.

One time, I remember reading a letter to the editor of the Boulder Daily Camera by a person who was complaining about the really very rude people who would go to a restaurant, I think it might have been Noodles and Company, and actually get their seats before they go through the line!  Now that's letter-worthy!

Today's selection of opinions ran the gamut: http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2007/dec/19/no-headline---19elet/ The first letter was an endorsement of Dennis Kucinich, which I find to be a worthy cause.  I don't particularly support Kucinich, I actually saw the photo that the author refers to in the letter, in which Dennis Kucinich's wife's head is cut off.  It was a pretty strange photo.  Probably not a bad idea to call out the Camera on this particular choice of photo. 

The next letter was a little more bizarre, but probably still letter-worthy.  He ranted about how Boulder claims to be green but really isn't.  He seems to go off the deep end a bit, but he's very passionate. 

It was the last two letters that cracked me up, though.  One person ranted that her darling under-5-year-old child was denied access to the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.  Apparently this person has a perfect child that will sit still for the presumably 2 or more hours of the play, or whatever this event was, and was angry that parents can't judge that for themselves.  This person has obviously had limited exposure to most kids 4 and under!  And you have to ask:  Is that really letter-worthy?  Do you really have that much time on your hands to write to the Daily Camera about this?

The last letter was even better, mostly because, after reading it twice, I couldn't for the life of me figure out what point the writer was trying to make.  It had something to do with a tenor and not smoking and drinking.  This person refers to feeling the same hurt, the hurt of rejection.  Huh?  Rejection because you don't smoke and drink?  Yeah, I feel that one daily, especially in smoke-free Boulder.  Letter-to-the-Editor worthy?  Apparently it was to the author.

I wish I had as much time on my hands as these people have.  I wish that my worst problem in life was worrying about not getting a table at Noodles & Co., or not getting my small child into a play, or feeling the rejection that all of the non-smoker and drinkers feel. 

Of course, I seem to have plenty of time to rant about their rants, so I'm not sure where that leaves me.

It's War!

I've heard that there's a war on Christmas going on.

And, seemingly, Colorado is on the front lines of this war, as I heard there was something going on in Fort Collins.  Apparently their city council wanted to get rid of Christmas on public property, but the Sheriff had other ideas, and actually made a public display out of decorating his tree.  I didn't really follow the story too closely, but now I'm wondering if I should have plugged in a little more.

So now I'm feeling quite lucky.  We put up lights this week, and, thank God, not a shot was fired at us in this horrendous war.  We even put up BLUE lights out back.

The way I understand it from listening to the radio talk show hosts, department stores are even instructing their cashiers to say, "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."  How awful!  I don't know about you, but I dont' really care what they say.  I'd much rather have an enthusiastic, look-me-straight-in-the-eye, meaningful "Happy Holidays" than have some slack-jawed, vacant-eyed teenager mumble "Merry Christmas."  Isn't it more about the sentiment behind then words than the actual words themselves?

They're also saying that stores are using "Happy Holidays" and putting up white lights. and that this is somehow a concerted effort to be politically correct and to take Christmas out of the holiday.  Yet I chose, all on my own about 10 years ago before there was political correctness about it, to say "Happy Holidays" on my Christmas cards.  Now let's be clear about this:  these were definitely Christmas cards, but I chose "Happy Holidays" because my cards go out all of my friends, several of whom are Jewish.  This wasn't being PC and it had nothing to do with getting Christmas out of my life, I was simply trying to be thoughtful.

I'm not sure how much this war is having an effect on the community, though.  Everywhere I go, Christmas lights and decorations are everywhere.  Even the department stores started putting up Christmas trees as long ago as October.  That's some war!

Of course, my analytical self has to wonder what in the world is going on.  Certainly John Gibson and Bill O'Reilly can come up with all of these examples of how people are trying to get rid of Christmas.  There was some example about a school in Texas mandating only white paper plates for their Holiday party, and of course the city council in Fort Collins, as I already mentioned, has brought the war back into the spotlight.

I think what this is about is a phenomenon where somebody, like an O'Reilly, takes several examples of something that is out of the ordinary.  These data points, rather than creating a trend, are actually outliers, or data that don't fit the norm.  While millions of people around America are celebrating Christmas just like they normally would, some people or groups of people make news because they try to get rid of the tree in the public square or mandate white paper plates.  O'Reilly takes these few outliers, ignores the hundreds of million of people who are quietly going about their business singing Christmas carols and putting up Christmas trees, and he draws a trend line through the bad data.  The conclusion?  War on Christmas!

I'd write some more thoughts about this, but I need to go bake some Christmas cookies and finish all of my Christmas shopping.  Happy Holidays, everybody!