One of my favorite shows is Wait Wait Don’t Tell me on NPR hosted by Peter Segal.  If you haven’t heard it, it’s an enjoyable way to spend an hour on an Saturday, or anytime actually with the invention of the miraculous interweb… thank you Al Gore… (snicker)

Peter Segal has a new book out called The Book of Vice, I can’t wait to read it. I was listening to Talk of The Nation the other day and they were discussing the Eliot Spitzer scandal… and Peter’s book fit right in there… At the time I thought nothing of it I was just enjoying the show.

As Ben and I were hustling out the door this morning, I was letting my mind wander, always a dangerous thing. I was taking in the mess on the porch and  thinking about a bill that needed to be paid and a call to the  insurance office, I was thinking about a  a new Ipod touch 80gb that I’d like to get for Ben but we just don’t have the money… So I looked at Ben and said… “I’m sorry that we take all of your money. If you didn’t have us you would have a clean house and lots of expendable cash, I’m sorry.” 

To which he gave me a DON’T BE AN IDIOT look  and said he would never want that. He never thought that way. He loved having us and wouldn’t have  it any other way…

AWWW… I know… right?

I was still feeling a little bad about being the black hole of money… and then I remembered the NPR interview…

Hmmm Here is  Spitzer, a brilliant, powerful, goal oriented man,  his future wide open before him and instead of turning to his lovely wife he spends 1000 to 5000 dollars for one time with a hooker…

Not to disparage the hooker, she could be  lovely girl, but 1000 to 5000 dollars!?!

Okay… so I am a good looking, funny, entertaining, educated, creative woman…

How much am I worth?  I have done the figuring in my head and  Ben is getting a massive deal!

I am going to stop worrying about all of the things he could have without me and start concentrating on the things he has with me… all in all I am quite sure we are lucky to have each other…

Now I need to go read that book. 

What about it?

Do you think Eliot Spitzer was insane to pay 1000 to 5000 for a poke?

What would you charge for the pleasure of your company?  I’m not encouraging it or soliciting!  Just curious…

Could you put a price on yourself? 

*******EDIT****************************

Guys… you can answer this too.

When did we start thinking that we need someone to make laws to tell us how to behave? When did we stop taking responsibility for ourselves?

A while ago when we were having a rash of school shootings, again. Around the time where the wacko killed the Amish girls, I made a comment about gun control…I had people randomly cruising by my site for a week after that one. I’m sure they’ll all search GUN CONTROL and be back now but oh well.  Alright back on the subject. the comment I made was something to the effect of I thought we need a uniform gun control law on the sale of fire arms with a mandatory waiting period in all fifty states…

Alright here’s where I, the fence sitter, actually picks a side. I WAS WRONG… I was speaking from emotion and not careful consideration. I think that each state should regulate their gun control and sales. Smaller government is better and I’m thinking fewer laws are better too. In the same post I said I think helmet laws and seat belt laws are stupid…

I did not! I repeat DID NOT say I thought wearing a helmet or a seat belt is stupid…I don’t…I think the fact that people need laws to tell them to do it is STUPID… I mean if you want to smear your brains on the pavement that is your business.When we were in Kansas I was informed that they had just passed a law saying that every child in a car under the age of eight has to have a booster seat. SAY WHAT! You try fitting three kids in an automobile, under the age of eight, into a car capable of only transporting five people. Why isn’t a seat belt enough? Because someone came out with a study saying the belts fit differently on children and could I repeat COULD hurt them in an accident.

Here’s  another thing, Why have we allowed ourselves to become a society that lives in fear? That is motivated by FEAR?

We are trying to compensate by passing laws and thinking that they will keep us safe instead of raising our children with values and spending time with our families…eating dinner at the table, all at the same time, without a television blaring or a media item on. Spending time with each other. Teaching things instead of just saying it’s the law DO IT.

We’re afraid of guns. But Guns don’t kill people…it’s the person pulling the trigger that kills someone. Why not teach healthy respect and understanding of firearms. Telling your child to not touch something or to be scared of it is not going to keep them from touching it or being curious and possibly hurting themselves or others with it. They need to know what things are and how to handle them or not to and that an adult should be present…Because I don’t care what anyone says. I have children and they will pick up a stick and pretend it’s a gun or a sword.  I don’t ever want them to hide the fact that they might have found a gun and they think Mommy would freak if they told her so they’ll just play with it without telling her. I know I hope that nothing like that ever happens but ugh…Now I’m just babbling.

Alright, really this isn’t all about guns although that is an obvious issue that is in constant media and on most peoples minds.  It’s about STUPID LAWS and why we think we need them. People use common sense. I know there are a few people who don’t have the benefit of common sense but I don’t want to think about them.

Michigan has a law about not swearing in front of woman and children. For heavens sake people…why would you swear in front of a child…why would you swear in public?

Here’s a fun site on what I think are called Bathtub laws they just call them stupid laws… In Traverse City we have a law on the books that no one can take a bath on Sunday. This law stems from the fact that the fire department didn’t work on Sundays back in the day and so if you bumped your head or fell…no one would be there to fix you. Go figure.

Alright. So where does all this righteous (or so I like to think) indignation stem from. Why am I all worked up over laws and peoples stupidity and lack of responsibility?

So I watched An Inconvenient Truth. NO I AM NOT A DEMOCRATE…I vote people not parties…I am a tree hugger though. And why not they smell good and look pretty. The point isn’t that this is an AL Gore thing. This is a global issue. At first I was like oh yeah one more thing to try and make me feel afraid, to motivate me by fear… And yup it’s in there.All of it is, but at the same time there is also the message that what we have done is not      un-fixable…not un-reversable. That there is technology today that exists to help eliminate the problem or at least not contribute to it. We can all be doing things to help and why aren’t we? Why do we need a clean air act to tell us to clean our air? Why do we need emission standards to tell us that our cars should run more fuel efficiently. Why are these things not made available to us because they are there?

This wasn’t mentioned in the video but I was listening to NPR…Yes, NPR, the other day about Texas building power plants or rather making plans to build, and the technology is available to make them almost completely clean…but because of the cost they aren’t going to use the technology. Why isn’t the Government (YES I know that means us) funding the difference? Why should anyone tell the people building the plants that they should be built efficiently. OKAY blah blah blah…

I’m even confusing myself now. I don’t know why I’m addressing these things I’ve been thinking about today, when I’ve just come from dealing with Brownies, not the chocolate kind, and I’m battling hormone surges… I just have a bug up my butt lately and I needed to let it out. For crying out loud I get annoyed when I go to the Boy Scout meeting lately and their using styrofoam cups…what are they stupid?! See maybe I’m just a bit sensitive.

Okay, I didn’t want to offend anyone, but I know you all, and if I did, I know you’ll tell me. Really feel free I won’t have my feelings hurt if you disagree. Let me have it people…If I cry, tears are only salt water.. lol

Oh one thing that did bug me about the video is that it didn’t address any of the fixes… but if you have questions about what you can do here’s the Global Warming forum. 

I know…I’m a tree hugger. I never used to be, but hey, the trees need someone too.

Our city reads book this year is Barefoot Heart. The author was being interviewed on NPR tonight. Yes, I was listening to NPR surprise, surprise… She was talking about her father, who is a large part of the book, her mother, who apparently looms in the foreground and how in life she was much closer to her mother then her father. This surprised the interviewer. When asked why the book then included more of her father she gave a response that just made me sit up and say I so get that!

She said something like this. The feelings that she had for her mother were the easy feelings, Love and comfort, the feelings she had for her father were ones of fear and respect.

Okay, I realize that these feelings aren’t easy for everyone. Some people do have to work at love, comfort, and trust. But to me these thing have always come easy. How lucky am I. Pretty darn I’d say.

I’m not sure fear is ever hard, but how to handle it now that’s another thing all together. Respect for me is hard and even though I said it, trust isn’t something I’m always great at either. I wasn’t born in Missouri but I’m definitely all about the show me or prove it state of mind. That’s me. 

Feelings that come easy to us aren’t always that memorable, sometimes its the ones we have to really work at that stand out. Yes we all remember love, how it feels from someone in our life. As children we love our parents and it is character forming, But isn’t it the love you have to work at the one that sticks with you and sees you through life or changes you.

The love of a parent or spouse now that’s hard. To allow your heart to walk around all day. To wonder if it’s eating enough, is it learning a lot, are the other kids playing nice with it.  Or in the case of a spouse… Is it being true, is it thinking of me, does it love me too… 

Now no one get their panties in a bunch. I love my parents. My respect and appreciation for them and what they have done for me grows daily. I’m just saying that children have an innocence that allows them to love without considering consequence that makes it easy.

I’m looking forward to this book. I’m done with my DEEP THOUGHTS BY ISN”T SHE HANDY…

Yeah right… Hey I’m posting, what do you want from me.  Ang

EDIT*********************************************************

Okay, this is my pathetic attempt at purging. I must not have been pleased with the first part of this post, because it is now 3:00 in the morning and I have been dreaming about posting since 1:30.

I believe this is all the direct result of my weak attempt at a joke. Earlier as I went to bed I left my computer on the kitchen counter downstairs and pointed out to my husband that “See, I’m not that bad. I’ll leave my computer down here on the counter tonight, I don’t need it.”

 Now it is three in the morning and he was laughing at me when I asked him to bring it up to me when he was  making a trip downstairs. So I have my appendage with me again. If you would all kindly get out of my head I would like to resume my sleep. I’m snug as a bug in my nice cozy bed and I like you people but I do not want you in bed with me so GET OUT!!!     

ANG

I was on my way home from errands when I turned on NPR and the first word I heard was SPERM, well of course my mind started to fly to Bad places then the next words from the gentlemen’s mouth were count and motility and I was pulled back to Earth, it all went down hill from there. The final nail in the coffin was when Diane Ream started asking questions and those of you who are familiar with NPR know exactly where I’m coming from.  I love listening to the woman talk about anything else, anything. She truly is a brilliant interviewer but don’t go near the swimming fellows. Diane, don’t do it, walk away from the microphone…awww she did it. My ears may never be the same 

Yesterday I was listening to NPR, which I do whenever I’m in the car. Unfortunately I can’t always hear everything because the kids are playing screaming or making general kids noise and occasionally they want my attention, go figure.  So I don’t know what this show was or what it was about but I did hear this short part.

They did a study asking people these questions…

You see a street car carrying five people on it towards a certain death.  You have an opportunity to switch the tracks but there is one person on the new track that cannot move so he would be killed instead of the five on the trolley. Would you do it?

Apparently the majority of the people said yes they would.The line of thinking being that one life is worth less then five. Then they asked…

Imagine the same scenario but now instead of switching the tracks you are standing next to someone that if pushed in front of the car would stop it. Of course that person would then be dead. Would you push the one to save the five?

The majority of people said no. I don’t know why that’s where my attention was dragged to something else but I have to wonder now what is the difference? One you have to actually have your hands on the person your going to kill and the other you just pull a stick?

So in evening chatter with my husband I ask him what he would do. I was expecting the stock answer but he surprised me,after eleven years of marriage I don’t know why it did because his answer was so him.

He said no, he wouldn’t switch the tracks. So I said in a bit of shock “You would let five people die instead of one.”

“Sure who am I to say that the life of that one person is less valuable then the life of those five.”

“So your going the fate avenue on this one?”

“I guess you could say that.”

Then thinking I was being clever I asked:  if he could throw himself in front of the trolley would he? To which his response was: No, because even though he didn’t know the value of the lives on the trolley he did know he highly valued his.  I have to say here that I value him too.  I’d probably be  pissed if he did kill himself, even if it was to help others. I guess I’ll have to think about what kind of person that makes me.

As for myself…I’m not sure what I would do. We’d probably all like to think we would be heroic or even self sacrificing but that’s the problem with hypothetical situations, their hypothetical. It’s probably a good thing too since they are mostly horrific or strange situations. I mean really have you ever had a hypothetical situation put to you that wasn’t?

And that being said. What would you do? Just curious.