A Cartoonish Life

"God sent Hurricane Irene."

Hurricane Irene and the recent East coast earthquake were directed at America's politicians, according to a statement from Michele Bachmann.

The Minnesota congresswoman and presidential candidate told an audience gathered at a Shriner's temple in Sarasota, Fla., Sunday that God was trying to communicate a message about fiscal responsibility via the two recent natural disasters. From the St. Petersburg Times:

"I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?' Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the spending."

Bachmann's comments immediately stoked a firestorm of media attention. In a follow-up statement, Bachmann's campaign said Monday the candidate's observations were merely a joke, according to Talking Points Memo.

"Obviously she was saying it in jest," spokeswoman Alice Stewart told TPM in a statement.

Stewart did not immediately respond Monday to The Ticket's request for comment.

A clip circulated Monday of Bachmann's comments shows the lawmaker clearly smiling and nearly laughing as she delivers a similar message about "God's wrath" during that speech.

Bachmann is an evangelical Lutheran who has long stressed her personal relationship with God in public forums. She previously revealed that while serving as a state senator, she asked God for guidance "and just through prayer I knew that I was to introduce the marriage amendment in Minnesota" that defined marriage as between one man and one woman. She also has said that God gave her and her husband visions of marrying one another prior to their first meeting, and that God called her to run for Congress.

For some, Bachmann's comment this weekend immediately brought to mind televangelist Pat Robertson, who infamously claimed Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for legalized abortion.

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For crying out loud, I can't stand this woman. She makes Sarah Palin look sane.

For the record....if she had actually studied in her school science classes (it's easy to blame God when you flat-out didn't pay attention to your Geology classes in school), here's how hurricanes are formed.

( Ahhhhh, today is a fine day for science! )

And you know, if I had a bigger paycheck, I think I could definitely hack the "on my own" thing whenever I'm able to move out. Then again, I'm due for another measley raise next month when I hit my two-year anniversary.

That's crazy to think I've been working at SVT for two years. Really, it's crazy to think I've been away from the big blue 'Buster for that long and haven't stepped foot in since I quit. But you know, I do like it better at SVT. I get along with management pretty well, the hours are better (if not consistent...my only real gripe), it's a union job, and because of that, I'm guaranteed to a raise every six months per my contract. No stinking "pay freezes" here. I just don't want to be a "lifer."

Kevin's coming to terms with this at his job. He's seen what perks he can get if he works his way up to a management position, and I will support him in this if he chooses to really go for it.


But alas, I've went on a tangent. Dad and Mom have been in Alabama for the last week or so, taking care of loose ends with Grandma Cozie's affairs. I've been talking to Mom every day, and the reason it's taken then longer than they originally anticipated is because she had a lot of money--and Mom emphasized the words "a lot" over the phone--wrapped up in her banking accounts and in life insurance and investments and stuff. If we play our cards right (and since we have a pretty good family lawyer on our side with Joan's husband), we should be very well taken care of.

They're supposed to be home by tonight. Since they've been gone the last week and Hunter and I have been home, I've noticed this is what's been taking up a lot of my time:

--cleaning around the house
--cooking
--working
--playing with Bo

What's been bothering me is the fact that I've dropped a small fortune on food, but I haven't eaten much of it. Why? Because Hunter's been pigging out on it. A bag of SunChips--I got maybe a handful. A container of strawberries--Hunter tore through it. A box of Chex cereal--all consumed by Hunter. A gallon of milk--because you can't eat cereal without it. A whole bowlful of leftover spaghetti--Hunter ate it. Nearly an entire loaf of bread and a package of lunchmeat--he ate a crapload of sandwiches. A 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke--guess who? You know, if he's going to tear through all of the food, the least he could do is maybe foot part of the grocery bill.

*tangent* Happy Cinco de Mayo everybody! (Although el 16 de septiembre is the real Mexican Independence Day....why do we in America make more of a big deal over cinco de mayo? Probably because it's easier for us Americans to say "Cinco de Mayo.") Have a few tacos and crack open a Corona with me, mis amigos.








*tangent* ........FOUR MORE DAYS!!!!

In an effort to expand my vocabulary (and yours, too---you people who read this blog), and because of something Matt said at work....Word of the Day.

elucidate \ih-LOO-si-dayt\, transitive verb:

To make clear or manifest; to render more intelligible; to illustrate; as, an example will elucidate the subject.

Beginning our journey into the past, we will now examine plant and animal clues in amber to elucidate the mysteries of the forest that was the home of our bee.
-- George Poinar Jr. and Roberta Poinar, The Amber Forest :A Reconstruction of a Vanished World

Elucidate comes from Late Latin elucidare, to clear up, from ex-, e-, out of + lucidus, bright, from lux, luc- light. Hence to elucidate is to bring the inner light out of an obscure subject. One who elucidates is an elucidator; that which tends to elucidate is elucidative; the act of elucidating, or that which elucidates, is an elucidation.

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In other news....okay, I set my alarm clock to 5 AM this morning with the intent of waking up and getting ready for work because I was opening the service center again this morning. HA! Good one! My alarm clock didn't go off, and I was damn lucky I woke up at 6:20 AM, leaving me only ten minutes to get up, get some clothes on, wash my face/brush my teeth, brush hair and throw back in a ponytail and get on the road to work. (It takes about a half hour for me to get to work.) NO breakfast, NO makeup....just had to hustle. Ugh.

The rest of the day wasn't so bad, really. No problem customers. Leslie's back (YAY!). After work, I stopped by WalMart to see Kevin, but he was nowhere to be found! Left him little love note in his car windshield anyway.

*tangent* I'm coming down with a cold. Hopefully it won't be as bad by tomorrow. It's my day off, and Kevin and I might do something. If anything, we'll just hang out, if this hasn't developed into a full-blown cold. UGH.

Okay...last week when I was in my crazy rush to inform people I'd be away for a while, I posted my message not only here on my LiveJournal, but on my MySpace account as well. Because, you know, more people jumped over to that retarded vehicle and didn't stay over here like I did, and my message would reach more people that way. I put it up as a blog, and to inform the people who don't regularly keep up with my MySpace blog (since I don't use it that often), I even put up a bulletin informing people "GO READ MY BLOG NOW!"

Not too hard, right?

I did the same thing when I got home. I copied and pasted what I posted yesterday here to my MySpace blog. Doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out what's going on. Hell, on MySpace, there are alerts when someone on your friends' list has updated their personal information or their blog. Like I said, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out what's going on.

I'm checking my comments today on MySpace, and I have one from Doug that says, "Where have you been? Haven't seen you at work this week."

...."Yeah, I just decided to up and quit." (Which wouldn't have been so much of a shock, really. How many cashiers and UCs quit in the last month?)

Word of the Day for Wednesday March 29, 2006

invidious \in-VID-ee-uhs\, adjective:
1. Tending to provoke envy, resentment, or ill will.
2. Containing or implying a slight.
3. Envious.

But to the human hordes of Amorites--Semitic nomads wandering the mountains and deserts just beyond the pale of Sumer--the tiered and clustered cities, strung out along the green banks of the meandering Euphrates like a giant's necklace of polished stone, seemed shining things, each surmounted by a wondrous temple and ziggurat dedicated to the city's god-protector, each city noted for some specialty--all invidious reminders of what the nomads did not possess.
-- Thomas Cahill, [1]The Gifts of the Jews

The lover's obsessiveness may also take the form of invidious comparisons between himself, or herself, and the rival.
-- Ethel S. Person, "Love Triangles," [3]The Atlantic,
February 1988

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Invidious is from Latin invidiosus, "envious, hateful, causing hate or ill-feeling," from invidia, "envy," from invidere, "to look upon with the evil eye, to look maliciously upon, to envy," from in-, "upon" + videre, "to look at, to see."