LMBO!! Seriously the STUPIDEST man on the planet.

About a week and half ago I wrote a blog entry that was called Anchorage Steamer 2. I posted Glenn Beck's interview with Meridith Vieira where she calls him out on his inflammatory speech. He said that when he rails on people saying he'd like to kill them in various ways that only an insane person could come up with, he's just kidding. It's comedy. Also he's pimping his new book: The 7 Wonders That Will Change Your Life. He about releasing the anger you have built up inside of you and all that jazz that is complete BS. We know it's BS because of this:



Now angry people are unhappy people. I know because I am angry. Thus I vent on a blog that is for the most part ignored. I recognize the places that are negative and the people who bring me unhappiness and I am trying to improve by avoiding them. There's no secret in that.

Anywho, he's defending Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin because they are being picked on by the men in the media. I think that's a bit sexist on Beck's part. If you can't handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen or in this case get an education. Chris Matthews is correct about Michelle Bachmann defending the Constitution as if the Founding Fathers were deity or even decent enough to not OWN people. Thomas Jefferson impregnated his slaves and George Washington freed his in his will. He wasn't going to pay to have the work done around him but he had the good grace to free them AFTER he was dead. Please. I hate history and I know this stuff.

Michelle Bachmann was an odd choice for the Tea Party to choose to rebut the State of the Union because she was elected as a Republican. Why not Rand Paul? He won on the Tea Party votes. Everyone knows that come election time the GOP will be fractured and Palin, Beck, Bachmann, and all the other crazy freak show people will have their own party while the normal conservatives are dazed and confused as to what happened. After I left the town I grew up in, a large group of people moved in or around the area. Following THEIR visionary Glenn Beck alike. Constitutionalists. John Birchers, etc. Some of the townfolk got caught up in it. Quoting Cleon Skousen in church as if he were a prophet. Eventually it faded away but it makes you wonder what people will buy into. As a Mormon I know who I'm supposed to listen to and follow. It's scary to watch people get so distracted by this insanity. Glenn Beck has become a crazed televangelist and he reflects poorly on my faith. AND he just said what I said in the Anchorage Steamer posts and what I've been saying all along. It only takes one crazy person listening to things like beating someone over the head with a shovel, or calling Obama a terrorist at a rally and allowing people to yell "kill him", or making a map with cross hairs and a list of names of people who need to be "scrubbed out." You are calling upon your followers to murder for you. Chris Matthews in his rant (and it WAS a rant) called upon Michelle Bachmann to look back at the historical facts rather than spouting ignorance.

Glenn Beck as the voice of love and forgiveness is like Bristol Palin being the voice of abstinence or Sarah Palin being the voice of finishing something you started. Hypocrisy.

And for your viewing pleasure I give you the fun Beck Crazy montage:

Please. Tell me how the Patch makes YOU feel.

(Click on form to see in it's own window then click on it again to magnify.)

My Virtual Life..

So we've established that I don't get out much and if I do, I have to REALLLLLLY love you! A friend of mine sent me a message the other day telling me that I should do this with my girls (Thank you awesome friend!!!). I love doing Messiah but honestly, I can't read music, so it's memorized. The more I watch this, though, the more I think I'd like to at least try. How amazing would it be to be a part of this.

There are no words to describe the amazing thing that Eric Whitacre has created.

Hmmm... I may just give it a try when he starts the next project. Enjoy :)

Broken...

Broken dreams

Broken Faith

Broken Home

Broken lives

Broken Melody

Broken and no one cares...

(All of these places are in Detroit.

Slide show in it's entirety can be viewed here

)

SLAMMIN!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not telling any of this in order and I've been really sick but I just got the email back that I've been waiting for.

Before we went to lunch on Saturday we went to a Magic Show that was great too (I'll find links later). Near the end this guy was introduced as a Slam Poet. (He has the link to my blog so let's hope he stays with me on this one). My daughter and I exchanged looks like "Ummm random white rapper without a beat box in the middle of the magic show.. Yeah, okay.." But I listened to his words and would have said he was reading my every thought except when HE said it, it didn't sound insane. I looked at my daughter and asked if she minded if we went to his workshop. This experience wasn't about me and I gave her advice on classes for things she is currently doing in improv and drama but there was no question in her mind that she was going to indulge me, because I was so moved. We went to lunch and talked to her drama teacher who had just been to the workshop and said it was amazing. THAT was an understatement...

Sean Critchfield:
By the time we got across the campus we were a tiny bit late but he welcomed us in anyway. Not that every moment of this workshop isn't worth relating I'm going to hit highlights for me. We began with something much like a pranayama exercise. We began bonding with the large number of people in this classroom with nothing more than Sean's urging and trust exercises. A couple of teens stood up and gave monologues. Both were amazing but he taught them how to tweak them with even better results. The last girl rang every amount of emotion out of hers by personalizing it, again with Sean's help. But we were with her. I was the first person she looked at and she saw support from me, some people were sobbing and they'd never met her in their lives. We had another mad dash afterwards but I managed to get his email address and a request for that first poem but he's proven to have a treasure trove of work.

Having left with the weight of the outside family behind, this felt like a life boat to me. I keep thinking that I need to fix this. I need to be the bigger person, but Sean spoke of our flaws and how he wasn't asking for us to leave them behind because they are a part of who we are. They are our story. I don't need acceptance. I don't need sympathy. Understanding would have been nice but I'm not going to get that either and that is what defines them as well. I can live with some angry moments but I can't beg for acceptance. Especially when I already have it in my own little world. I came home to my family a new person determined that what I do here may be worth something to someone, if only it's for me. I'll keep blogging. Sean told me to :)
Here is the poem that changed my world:

I am words. I am a gift. I am the voice of the artisans of this age. I am slam. I am beat. I am rhyme and meter, sometimes sloppy, sometimes neat. I am in San Diego trying to learn to teach Yoga and struggling to cope with the rage. I am the writing on the wall as well as on the page. I am torn into trying to figure out what to do with what I am learning and what I know. I am an ex-pastor named Joe, who wants to stand up and be seen. Who loves the machine, and the lights, and the stage. But loves the truth more than his own video age. I am an edge-walker. One who sees the buildings as just another wilderness. One who sees the trees as part of a concrete forest. As the cities dumbs down, his awareness is heightening. A modern day primitive, as rare as autumn lightning. Or maybe I’m an English American but mostly Mexican sociologist who is also a Kung-fu master. Like some kind of twisted Shao-lin burrito in a fortune cookie made of plaster, served up in a vegan restaurant smack dab in the middle of the ghetto. With a fortune in the cookie made up of a cynicism sometimes so brilliant, it blows my mind. Or maybe I’m a sniper one who still doesn’t know what he’s trying to find in making that shot.
What did you feel?
The recoil of my rifle.
What did you feel?
The light they were trying to stifle.
What do you feel?
Hope. Love. Peace. Beyond anything you can dream. Picking his shots on the battlefield, only now it’s with his soccer team. Only “dead” he had to learn was the lyrics to the dead head songs he learned on tour. As he finds that it’s up to his head if his heart is pure. Or maybe, maybe I’m fighting the good fight and feeling like I fail most of the time. As I watch the world around me that covers up the crime and I won’t take it. Maybe I’ll carry the child in my womb to the prisons I teach in and write the words on the walls of the tomb they keep free speech in. And I will fight for the strong women who haven’t found their strength yet until they do. Because it is far too long that the world goes barefoot when I can give them shoes. Or maybe I’ll see the day coming when one to many of my friends are dead or in jail and I realize it’s time to say what the hell and cut my losses. Realize that maybe I wasn’t supposed to be all that I could be in the mind numbing prison of the U.S. Army, but maybe I’m a little more blue than I deserve so I find a reason to protect and serve. And maybe I’m a brother, taking one more shot to the chin of that white boy who thinks he can spit, cause his pad and pen and race don’t fit and his words won’t ever amount to shit. What if I’m a poet laureate with just enough slam to make her tough, who fights disease, and family, and ghosts, like she just can’t get enough. And maybe she doesn’t pray to above, but her prayers got answered when she fell in love. And maybe she’s a single letter of the alphabet at the top of a letter that just runs on and on but hey, Mmmm. It sure is good. Or maybe you had to push the pause button on the tape recorder of the music of your life to learn the words to the song of your daughter and wife, learning once and for all that, that is true music. And maybe you’re a bum just looking for a meal. Or maybe you’re a dealer, trying to make that deal. Or maybe you’ll shackle me happily, grinning in your power. But you can’t cage my tongue and you can’t stop the hour. And we all got time. We’ve all been around the block. And maybe we’ll laugh it, or cry it, or bleed it. But get to it. Now. Write your story down. The rest of us need it.

In the email he said that my email came at a crucial time for him. If my little speck of near nothingness means something to this Wordmaster, how can I not keep writing what is in my head and my heart? He moves people in incredible ways. I watched it happen. Sean Critchfield changed more lives than just mine that day. I hope he can keep doing it.

He's the secret to world peace.

My weekend was AMAZING!!!!

Sooo, I've mentioned a few (hundred) times how much I love my kids. I love leaving my unpleasant headquarters of darkness and hatred, that my house has become. The anger in me at my EX-family members, is not cool. I don't see how my EX-sister does it. WOW! My oldest daughter has found an interest and talent in drama. Her drama teacher has found an AWESOME chaperone for trips.. ME!!!! We were invited to a Utah Theater Association conference.

We started Friday morning at a show with a guy that was a master of pantomime. Cary Trivanovich. I've never been a fan of the "mime thing" but this guy was so great. Very funny but he did a couple routines that were very serious and touching. My daughter is doing a pantomime for her next monologue so we chose to go to his workshop soon after. It was great!

We went to one on sound effects that wasn't very good but the guy was unprepared. Then we went to one on accents that was WAY too full and it was SUPPOSED to be Irish and Scottish accents but we got a few English ones and Scottish insults. Not cool! But the class was good, neither of us can do accents very well. I'll stop at this point because I want to talk longer on some of the things we did. So this is the end of part one.

Anchorage Steamer Part два

That's Russian for two, for you non-Russian monitoring places on our globe.

First, wow! Thank you for your interest in my REAL blog posts. Anchorage Steamer has been my hardest hit blog entry in quite some time. I will not take the credit as it's purely the genius of Jon Stewart. I'll post his clip on his reaction on and invitation to Glenn Beck to come on his show. I actually watched Glenn Beck and his wing man real time this morning with Meridith Vieira. I'll tell you what I was laughing openly at when I post the clip. You'll see what I mean. Dear lord! Shouldn't the Bobsey Twits lay low for a while until this whole "Briar's obscure blog totally predicted someone was going to actually act on your bats#it rantings and people will die" thing blows over?

I'll add on the clip to this post tomorrow. Anyone think they will actually have the courage to take Jon up on the invite? He said he'd do it on Sarah's turf... Stay tuned :)

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When Vieira asked Beck about the things he's said on his shows, mentioning specifically the time he did the whole bit on poisoning Nancy Pelosi and beating Charlie Rangle to death with a shovel, he turns to Ablow (his wingman) and said that was 8 years ago. She was kind because the beating to death by shovel is one of his favorite things he's said he'd like to do to various people. I believe he said he could kill Michael Moore with his bare hands. Off the top of my head I can't remember how he wanted to 9/11 victims to die. He just wanted them to shut up. Trying to say he was joking and telling her to ask Jon Stewart (or the Simpsons; he knows they aren't real, right?)She said she was asking him. Okay 2 things:
1. Glenn Beck isn't a comedian. He has a radio show and a tv show on Fox NEWS. You can't all of a sudden claim that everything you ever said was a stand up routine.
2. When people have a public platform and they say things that inspire feelings in people. Some people don't know how to process these things because they are fundamentally broken. If you inspire the wrong person then you can't be certain of the results.
Example: Charles Manson believed that the Beatles were speaking to him through their lyrics. He, in turn, convinced people he had adopted as his "family" to murder innocent people for him.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Anchorage Steamer

Or Palindrome. Definition?

"There must to be a word for complaining vociferously about a wrong being done to you whilst casually committing said wrong without even realizing it. For now let's call it an 'Anchorage Steamer.'"

~Jon Stewart.

My advice? Take him up on his offer Sarah. Complaining on Fox news isn't too effective. Jon even said you could bring Glenn Beck. He gave you permission to gang up on him. Do it!! Put up or shut up.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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Fascinating!

Not ME, my blog!!! Check out the traffic!!!! It's become so fascinating to the denizens of Utah, Vegas, and Alaska (dare I hope that's you Sarah?? Something happened around the 10th that coincided with a random visit from Elko, NV and >BAM< My traffic soared from my average of 2 people a day to looking like the Swiss Alps!! Now one would think traffic would slow up. Perhaps someone is spending the weekend in a cabin or something... Oh the wonders of technology!!! I-PHONE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep up the good work ladies :)

Genealogy, I am doing it.

I'm Mormon. It's my divine duty to do genealogy. On my dad's side, the info is harder to come by. In fact my dad's paternal line was literally dead to me. A while back I had a break through and I made my way back to the early 1700's. I was SOOOO excited that I found this but my hands were tied so I broke down and paid for a month of Ancestry.com. Actually it was after that I finished the work that I could do. It's such a massive undertaking. At first I tried to print everything up but it would fill a small room so I'll save as much as I can. It's a little horrifying how much time I spend on it, but while the family is gone it actually makes my days fly by. So now I bore anyone who will listen to tears with my ancestry. Yeah.. I'm one of THOSE people. The stories are amazing. I've even been doing some of my husband's too and I've done some searching for other people as well. It's really interesting to see where I came from. Who I inherited the bits and pieces of that makes me.. ME :) I'm trying to get my girls involved, but so far no go. They could at LEAST help me search cemeteries. There's a bazillion of them in PA!!! This is yet another reason that I am being cremated. Perhaps my family could swing by PA on the ash scattering vacation and throw me into some cemeteries.

I went to my daughter's improv show last night. Not her best night but she's good. She's so much like me. Both are. Just the conflicting sides of me, like my bipolar halves. Yet they are themselves and they amaze me with the things they do and say. What they are like. They are both SOOO opinionated, just like me! The other day my younger daughter started telling me and my oldest some of her opinions on things. I had to break it to her that she was a republican. She looked horrified and denied it. It was so funny. I said you really are sweetie, but that's okay. Just be a good person and I'll teach you how to be a republican. We're okay with that, lol. My husband came in the other night because my youngest and I were singing karaoke. Probably he got a call from the neighbors, complaining. We're trying to perfect Bohemian Rhapsody. I lost my voice but it was worth it. From the moment they were born they became my life. Their birthdays have been a celebration of that and I've always done it up in grand style because they are THAT important to this world. We still laugh and play. They still tell me their secrets and cry in my lap. They will never wish they had been born to anyone else. My life is all about them so long as I am here on this earth.

*Sigh*

For the love of all that is good and holy would someone who actually CARES about Sarah Palin SHUT HER UP??? At least give her a dictionary or NOT give her a forum to make a damn fool of herself. Just let the President do the talking, that's HE'S the President. So mama moose's newest faux pas:
Sarah Palin said that those who have called out her inflammatory speech and graphic hot list are guilty of spreading a blood libel. That, "Journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn." I'm not Jewish she's not a Gentile child: "What's a blood libel?"
Perhaps she can stuff envelopes in a closet.

I've always thought that we take a tragedy and we look at who was shot and why? Columbine and the other school shootings have given us insight into the fact that people who are made to feel worthless, bullied, and called names can be deadly. We need to take a look at how we teach our children to treat others. Teach them empathy.

When Matthew Shepherd was beaten, tortured, and left to die hanging on a fence in rural Wyoming. The impetus for such hatred was the fact that he was gay. His family fought for an act against hate crimes. James Byrd Jr. is attached to that bill. His crime? He was black. Three men put a logging chain around his feet and for the first two miles he was alive and conscious, until his body hit a culvert that severed his arm and head. The families of these two men fought together to have a hate crime bill passed which it was by President Barack Obama on October 28, 2009. Not counting the crazy amount of suicides caused by bullying, most notably in gay young people but just flat out bullying. Before I took a crazy interest in politics (yeah I admit it's crazy but I truly mean well and all of this is important to me) it was important to me that my children not discriminate against race, religion, beliefs, or anything that makes people different. Shouldn't we all look at the people we know and love that are ignorant to the hatred they share?

The fact is, congresswoman Giffords was a target. Number 4 on a list of politicians that "needed to be taken out" was shot at a political event that was announced ahead of time. By a man who was radical. There were warning signs around him as is often the case, that were ignored. But to say we can't assign blame isn't true. The media personalities, individuals who take the vitriol so lightly need to take a look at themselves and what they've said. They need to think about the fanaticism they see at their rallies and what they've done to tone it down. I've seen some pundits apologize for things they've said that crossed the line and apologize again in light of this tragedy. They've made it a goal to change their rhetoric. Good for them. I continue pray for the victims and their families in this time of tragedy.

Crazies

I was reading today about the parents of AZ shooter Jared Lee Loughner. They are truly a mess. I can't imagine the horror of having your child do something like that. It would hurt me so much more, to be one of them than it would to be as parent of a victim. How could you not blame yourself? I'm sure their parenting skills will be scrutinized but we know that even a perfectly normal upbringing can breed a nightmare: Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, one or two of my siblings :) LOL! Good thing I don't name names, huh? Someone might send me a strongly worded message!! Anyway they are apparently extremely distraught. My heart goes out to them. As I mentioned in a previous blog, the rhetoric of people running for office or just running their mouths has a huge impact on people. I get so angry at the sheer ignorance around me. I can't even tell you how many times I've heard my kids say that one of their friends say they want to kill our president or that their parents do. I wonder if they pause to think that THAT could be planting a seed. When I was a little girl I had a primary teacher tell us that the word "kill" hurt her ears. That it wasn't appropriate to say "I'm going to kill you" even in fun. I actually have stuck to that one and though I haven't inspired my kids to never say it as well as my old primary teacher did, I still call them on it if I hear it. It hurts my ears too.
Many people, including myself, was eager to hear what Jon Stewart would say on the matter. His first show to air following 9-11 was one of the most moving things I've seen in my life. One of the first time I realized the depth there. He's a comedian but he's extraordinarily intelligent and adept at what he does. Last nights show was sincere and concerned with just the right amount of levity. The man who has become the voice of sanity in an insane world said:

"I do think it’s important for us to watch our rhetoric. I do think it’s a worthwhile goal not to conflate our political opponents with enemies. If for no other reason, than to draw a better distinction between the manifestos of paranoid mad men and what passes for acceptable political and pundit speech.
It would be really nice if the ramblings of crazy people didn’t in any way resemble how we actually talk to each other on TV.
Let’s make troubled individuals easier to spot."

The stories of the people who rushed in to help are so moving. They are a reminder that the world isn't completely lost in the shuffle of madness. That the crazies are fewer than the normal, good people. We'll see tragedy again but despite the way it seems on TV, any neighborhood Tea Party, and some people's family reunions, sanity will always prevail.

A shout out to my NEW dedicated readers :) If you have known me for any amount of time you will know this. The people who love me are very important to me. I would do nothing to harm them in any way. Sometimes the truth is painful and I do my best to be truthful.

Oh the irony...

As my mostly anonymous readers especially my regulars that are here for the politics knows, I haven't really done a lot of blogging lately. I think that the reason I've said less about politics is because the things I've observed are coming true and I don't need to tell any of you guys that. Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are floundering in their popularity but the most tenacious and unbalanced still flock to the nonsensical meetings, websites, and television and radio shows. It's bothered me from the beginning that the rhetoric is so dangerous. Most people don't engage in it or support it but the more radical groups thrive on it. They live for it and unfortunately they act on it. We saw it in the election as people screamed their hatred for then presidential hopeful, Barack Obama. Screaming "Kill him!" and calling him a terrorist and many other things that Palin should have put a stop to. McCain as well. But Sarah thrives on it. The horrific shooting in Arizona has underscored that what I've been saying all along is true. Be careful what you wish for some lunatic may follow through. Basically the Arizona shooter was a hit man and he acted on what Sarah Palin has been telling her sycophants that needed to be done.

Notice that #4 on the list is Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords had even called Palin out on her dangerous quotes.

"Get in their face and argue with them.No matter how tough it gets, never retreat, instead RELOAD!"~ Palin

Giffords won the election against Republican Marty Kaplan who was creative in his fundraisers ""Get on Target for Victory" - "Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly"

Sooooooo basically, this is all about STUPID people. Perhaps irony part 2 will address the REALLY stupid people. You know who you are. Losers!

Once again..

I would like to point out that my blog is MINE and I can say what I want on it. IF you have troubles with that, STAY THE HELL AWAY!!!! Seriously, get a life. The fact that I blog about what irritates me is only slightly less pathetic than the people who watch obsessively for something to take offense to. If you post on it and include your name, my name, or anyone around me then YOU are taking away your anonymity.

Nothing that I said in my previous post isn't common knowledge all the way around us. Nothing I said measures up to what's being said by other people. It's all fine and good to talk about me to people, but when the tables are turned. Ooooo. What exactly do you think set me off? Some crap that my "beloved" family said about me but not to me. I heard it from someone else. But that's nothing new.