November 2006

Newt Gingrich has gone done the path of suggesting that we must take away the definition of what it means to be free in America. I think he’s completely wrong. We cannot save America by destroying it.

This is one of the things he said at a speech Gingrich gave at the Nackey S. Loeb First Amendment Award dinner in New Hampshire on Monday.

He suggested that due to the ongoing war on terror, we might need some new rules for our Freedom of Speech right.

“I want to suggest to you that we right now should be impaneling people to look seriously at a level of supervision that we would never dream of, if it were not for the scale of this threat.” That`s one quote. “This is a serious, long-term war,” Gingrich added, “and it will inevitably lead us to want to know what is said in every suspect place in the country. It will lead us to learn how to close down every Web site that is dangerous.”

This has been tried before Mr. Gingrich. It is not patriotic to take away freedom. And the First Ammendment at that. Good luck because suppression is validation. Tell the people no and they will do anything to get around you. It doesn’t matter the quality, it’s the idea that someone has deemed some kind of content as ‘wrong’. Censorship has never worked here.

I have so many things to be thankful for this year. I love my work and home lives. I have a happy and healthy family. I’m well into my 30’s and have kept health issues to a minimum. The one I’ve been thinking about lately is how lucky I was to have been born in the middle of the heartland in this country. I have had so many opportunities because I am American and was born this way.

This holiday let’s us step back and think about why we are thankful. How lucky we are to be able to even think about such a thing.

Today is my 2nd anniversary at my job. I like milestones like these as they give us a way to quantify/measure and a way to look back. In many ways I can’t believe it’s already been two years. I also feel as if I’ve been at this job much longer than that. The thing is, it keeps getting better. Many of the jobs I’ve had in the past have either bored me or worn me down at this point at the 2 year mark, but not this job. I am continually challenged and engaged. That’s the secret to low turnover, keep people interested.

So on to my third year I go. Wish me luck.

I wrote this part before the November 7th, 2006 election:
I was born in South Dakota. I lived there until it was time to go to college in 1988 which is when I came to Minnesota which is where I have lived ever since. As a former South Dakota resident and someone that still has significant family there, I have something to say about all these laws.

The situation regarding a woman’s right to choose in South Dakota was fairly abysmal before the recent law. No resident doctors performed abortions in the state, doctors from Minnesota had to fly in.

Now, there is a law. According to State Senator Bill Napoli, “A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.”

Wait. Did I wake up somewhere else? I thought I lived in America. I thought we had this thing called freedom. I thought we had a separation of church and state. This is about a small minority of very dedicated (one might call them zealots) individuals that want to be involved in every woman’s life. In intimate, painful, personal, and frightening decisions. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want these people making rules for me.

———————

I am writing this part today, November 14th, 2006

One week after the election. It turns out I still do live in a democracy. WOOHOO. And the best part is that the people of South Dakota actually got to vote on that law. And guess what…..

They overturned that law.

Now the situation is still abysmal. You can’t get this done anywhere except Sioux Falls. All the people interviewed that were in support of keeping the law pointed this out in their sour grapes mode.

But the people have spoken.

The CEO of my company, Sun Microsystems has been asked to speak to the SEC.

It’s happening because he asked a question on his blog. Why couldn’t companies use blogs to disseminate information. “The Commission should make clear that options such as adequately noticed website postings, fully accessible webcasts and electronic mail alerts would satisfy Regulation FD.”

The chairman of the SEC responded to the blog post in a comment (and by mail). Important and amazing conversations are happening out here, right in public.

I feel lucky work for someone like that. He asked a question and he’s changing things-pushing evolution in communication because of our new tools.

The American people don’t like an imbalance. One party (no matter which one) with all the power messes things up too much. Yesterday we got to speak up and I’m proud of what we said. The Diebold machines did not steal our votes. I’m breathing a little more freely today.

New York Times - QUOTATION OF THE DAY -

“I was tempted, I bought it, but I never used it.”
- THE REV. TED HAGGARD, a leading evangelical, on the methamphetamine he bought
from a male escort.

———–

Question: Has anyone ever sought out meth and thrown it away? Me thinks this is a suspicious claim…….

I’m on vacation. It’s one of those stay at home vacations and do what you feel like doing kind of weeks. It’s been crammed with activity and non-activity. One thing I’m finding is that my darn Catholic guilt from childhood keeps creeping in making it hard to relax. I think I managed to finally feel relaxed mid yesterday. I know-it’s really sad. We all have our burdens, this one isn’t the worst I can think of……but it can be really annoying to feel that you must be productive at all times. I’m working on getting over that.

Now for the activity part.

I did get out this weekend. Went to see the Skullcranes on Saturday night at the NE Minneapolis venue Club Underground in the basement of the Spring Street Tavern. The Skullcranes have an album coming out soon. I’ll make sure to announce it here on the blog as it will have a photo or two of mine in it. I also checked out the first NorthStar Roller Girls match. Two of my friends are in it and they kicked some A**. Saturday night was full.

Sunday began with a family brunch. After brunch and gift opening (our anniversary is on Halloween) we went home and continuted on our journey of watching all the Battlestar Galactica’s. It’s in season three and we’d only watched the mini series so we still have catching up to do. The evening plans included a night of music as we headed to the Bob Dylan concert with acoustic Foo Fighters opening. Oh the Foo Fighters. Even in acoustic mode they ROCK HARD. I love you Dave Grohl. He’s so funny, talented, confident and relaxed. It was an incredibly intimate show even though it was at the xCel energy center in St. Paul, MN. It was my first Bob Dylan show and I wasn’t so sure about Bob and his band until about 6 or 7 songs in. They were really stiff at first and of course there was the annoying crowd surrounding me which didn’t help. After that 6th or 7th song though, they relaxed and actually looked like they were having a little fun and then it got much better.

Monday was a day of sloth and watching an awful MN Vikings game. That darn Tom Brady always seems to smush us hard. Of course I felt guilty but I did accomplish some sloth.

Tuesday, Halloween, was our 9th anniversary. We had a slow, restful day. We had two meals out. Salad for lunch and the fancy and wonderful Ruth’s Chris steakhouse for dinner. This year the service lacked punctuality. It felt like the meal was in slow motion. I tried to not let it get to me, but alas, I think I was a little too affected by the lack of perfection. I’ve been so impressed every time I’ve dined there, this time they didn’t live up to those past expectations they had set. And there were lots of old people there in sweats. That didn’t help the ambience.

And Wednesday, yesterday, was another day of relative sloth. My husband accomplished ethernet connection in our sun room, but I didn’t do as much. Oh well, gotta get over that guilt for not getting anything done. I’m always getting stuff done. Sometimes it’s ok to be a slacker.

On that note, I’m headed off to enjoying the rest of my vacation and hopefully not accomplishing much more except relaxing and playing.