Hello everyone!

I want to apologize for the light blogging this week, and caution you that it will likely continue!

I am very happy to announce that Michael is finally coming home from Iraq after a fifteen-month deployment. I am flying out to Colorado Monday morning to be with him for the holidays. It is a huge relief knowing that this is finally over!! I can’t tell you how excited and happy I am that we will actually get to be together for the holidays.

The one sore spot is that this makes things very, very, very hectic. Besides working six days a week, I have to pack, go Christmas shopping, buy winter clothes, get travel necessities, figure out who will watch my kitten while I’m gone, who will take me to the airport… my head’s practically spinning! This has been the reason blogging’s been lighter this past week.

I will leave this post at the top of the page (please scroll down for new posts). When I get to Colorado, I don’t know how much internet access I’ll have, or even how much time I will have for blogging, either. So in all honesty, blogging may take a drop-off in the next few weeks. I hope to be able to keep things as regular and steady as possible here, but some things are actually more important than blogging (shocking, I know!). In any case, in January (mid-January to be specific) I will be back home and back on a regular schedule. So I may be gone for a little while, but not for good!

So, again, I’m sorry for the light blogging, but I’m sure you will all understand. Please continue to check back, because even if blogging is light I will be sure to update occasionally to let y’all know I haven’t forgotten you. I’ll probably be posting a lot of pictures — I’m a Florida girl, and this will be my first time ever in snow, let alone having a white Christmas. So y’all can at least look forward to lots of pictures the next few weeks!

Thank you guys so much for sticking with me this year! I look very forward to being able to spend Christmas and New Year’s with Michael, and I hope you all have a safe, happy, and wonderful holiday as well.

- Cas

Maybe Markos Moulitsas and the Kwazy Kos Kids aren’t as influential as they think.

We’ve bitched and moan and pleaded and begged and threatened and cried — and none of that mattered.

We really can’t hold up money, since quite frankly we don’t have that much, and the lobbyists will always have more.

Votes? We’re an important part of the party’s ground game, but the most entrenched of our ineffective Democrats have been in office 250 years and in safe districts, and have little to fear from you and me staying home, too disillusioned to participate.

He then goes on to explain that the way to get their candidates in is by winning at the primaries. No, really?! I don’t think anyone would have guessed that. Insert eye-rolling now.

But hey, Kos, here’s a thought. Maybe there’s this gap between what far left loons like DailyKos, the DU, MoveOn.org and so on and so forth advocate and what mainstream Americans want. In fact, I’d venture a guess that it’s a pretty sizeable gap. The Democratic Party does not need to get any more to the Left, unless of course you’re trying to bring about the total destruction of the United States. So let’s celebrate the fact that apparently (according to you anyways) regular, every day Democrats aren’t drinking the DailyKos Kool-Aid.

And please, keep up the pity parties. It’s rather entertaining.

Blackfive asked bloggers to send in videos for a Christmas tribute for our troops overseas to say thank you. Here is the end result:

I do not have a digital camcorder, and therefore could not send in a video. However, I would still like to say a huge THANK YOU to the men and women serving overseas right now. There are not words for what your sacrifice means to us and how proud we are of all of you. I hope you have a wonderful, safe Christmas, happy holidays, and a great New Year. Come home safe — you’ll be in our thoughts and prayers.

Remember the Sorry Everybody campaign? It was a pathetic attempt for moonbats to deal with their BDS and PEST by sending in pictures of themselves holding signs “apologizing” to the world for the 2004 election.

Well, NARAL’s jumped onto that bandwagon to show us that they are NOT backing down, damn it. They’ve started a photo petition:

Despite all our hard work, the Global Gag Rule won’t be repealed this year. But we’re not giving up.

Join us in sending a photo message to international women’s health providers, telling them that we stand with them in their work, and – more importantly – that we’re not backing down.

I think I’m a-tremblin’ now. I didn’t realize that they weren’t going to just give up! And those pictures… man, they just strike deep into my soul. Now that I know that they won’t back down, maybe I should just be all for killing babies too, since it’s a useless fight, with the NARAL advocates proudly saying they won’t back down.

Did they really think they were sending some kind of meaningful message? Yeah, we get it, you want to keep on killing babies so that you can be free to have sex without consequences, and you won’t quit fighting for that “right”. Trust me, none of us ever thought you would.

Anyways, here are some of the pictures — there are just over 100 total in the album, so these are just my personal favorites:

What I really love is the looks on their faces. Most of them have this smirk that I think is supposed to come off as tough and defiant. But mainly, it just makes them look like snobby, stuck-up, and kind of constipated high school students protesting something they don’t really understand because they have nothing better to do and want to feel important.

I especially love the people who brought their babies into the pictures with them, as if that’s supposed to prove something. “Look, I didn’t kill my babies! I just want it to be OK for other women to!” Wow, congratulations. How about you buy ‘em a shirt that sums up their position in this debate perfectly?

Anyways, I guess there’s something we should let them know. Something that might be kind of important for them to understand. We’re fighting for life. They’re fighting for death. And if pictures are how they need to communicate, then fine. Here’s a picture for them.

Hat Tip: Free Republic

There is apparently something wrong with me. Unlike 99.9% of women on the face of the planet, I abhor shopping. I don’t have millions of pairs of shoes (I think I have four that I wear on a regular basis — black sneakers, a pair of flip-flops, and then brown or black heels for dressier outfits). I have two pairs of jeans and I almost never wear jewelry. My bathroom’s linen closet practically has the entire shampoo, conditioner, and body wash aisle from Walgreen’s in it — albeit in half-full bottles, because I almost never throw them away. I don’t even like shopping for food, and tend to put it off until I absolutely have to. I get furious at food that spoils quickly, like milk, because then I have to go to the store and buy more.

I hate the mall all year. I don’t understand how women can go into shoe stores and look at seemingly every single pair of shoes in the entire place. Do they not have any idea of what they’re looking for? I also can’t understand the clothing thing. I don’t go shopping with my girlfriends because I just can’t do it. I don’t spend more than ten minutes in a store. I walk in, look around for a few minutes, and if I don’t see anything I like, I walk out.

If I go shopping with my girlfriends, I get impatient and slightly crazy. They’ll look through every. single. rack. They shift through outfit after outfit, humming and hawing over them when really, they all look pretty much exactly the same (at least to me). After over an hour of this (in one store!), during which I’m contemplating which object in the store can be best served with which to kill myself and be put out of my misery (a scarf? a coat hanger? what?!?), they finally pick out approximately 37 items and have to try each and every one on. And when they try them on, they have to waltz out of the dressing room for each and every item, preen in front of the mirror, turn around and say, “Cassy, how does this look?”, preen in front of the mirror some more, ask me if they look fat in it, preen in front of the mirror some more again, and then finally decide they can’t get it because it’s too big/too small/makes them look fat/makes their boobs look too small/too expensive/the wrong fabric/the wrong cut/whatever other reason they can come up with. After another hour and a half of this routine for all 37 items, they’ll then exit the dressing room with possibly 2 shirts and say they’re ready to go the next store. At this point, I’m shooting them the death ray eyes. After repeating this routine in the next fifteen clothing stores, not to mention all the lingerie stores, every shoe store, and the various perfume and makeup stores, anger and impatience have abated. I’m practically in a catatonic state by then, just going through the motions and praying God, please, let lightning strike me right now and put me out of my misery.

This is why I almost always go shopping alone.

Combine that hatred for shopping with Christmas shopping (and shoppers!), and it’s a deadly combination. I dread it every year.

The problem is that I genuinely enjoy giving gifts to people. I love picking something out, and I love giving it to them. I get more excited about giving the gifts than I am about receiving my own. When I know it’s something that they really want, or will really enjoy, I get even more excited. So going Christmas shopping is just something I really can’t avoid. And if you think that the hatred for regular shopping is bad, shopping during the holidays always leaves me with the feeling later that it’s a miracle I didn’t suffer a heart attack from the elevated stress levels and blood pressure, even at 23. I never say anything to anyone — I don’t get rude or mean or anything. But pretty much as soon as I get in my car, I explode. I want to get as far away from a mall as is humanly possible and sit by myself, with no other people around, and just unwind.

One major problem is that Christmas shopping seems to bring out the absolute worst in people. They’re rude. They’re pushy. They’re oblivious that there are other people anywhere within a ten-mile vicinity. They are the only people in this mall with family and friends to buy gifts for, and therefore, are entitled to behave any way they choose, no matter how horrible. It’s like the area of your brain that controls common sense, courtesy, and decency towards others automatically shuts down when you enter a mall during the Christmas season. Then there are the employees. I’ve worked retail, and during the holiday season too, so I can understand. And of course, there are some really great, charming, helpful people. But there are also those salespeople who quite obviously hate their job, and do nothing to hide it.

There’s also the driving — it’s as if every single person in the mall parking lot fancies themselves a NASCAR driver, and everything they learned in Driver’s Ed gets thrown out the window.

And the various people you encounter while shopping at the mall during the Christmas season make me want to beat my head against a wall.

There are the grazers: the people who slowly meander their way throughout the entire store with no purpose whatsoever, usually bringing with them a shopping cart and/or an entourage of every single person they’ve ever known in their entire life, making sure to get in the way as much as humanly possible. They block aisles, stand right in front of whatever product you just happen to need at that moment, and pretend not to notice you politely saying “Excuse me?”. You end up having to contort yourself into some strange and uncomfortable position to reach around them, and when you do, they’ll shoot you a dirty look, mutter something about how rude people are, and then slowly graze onto the next display or shelf.

There are the deal-chasers: the people who think that the most important thing in the world is getting the best possible deal on the planet. They’ll trample you, cut you off mid-aisle, bumrush the shelf, and possibly take the merchandise right out of your hand — all to save a lousy $0.30 on an item that’s probably somewhere around $89.99. They’re willing to fight for that deal, too. They’ll get in your face; they’ll push and they’ll shove. They have no dignity and no shame, and they don’t care about how rude they have to be to save that $0.30.

There are the social shoppers: the people who take an entire group of friends shopping just “for fun” on the busiest time of the year, and seem to enjoy walking five or six people deep, all the way across the walkway, as slowly as possible as to block the way of everyone else in the mall and force them to walk as slowly and leisurely as they are. They seem to have no concern for the fact that not everyone in the mall has no schedule to follow whatsoever, and usually have things to do and places to be. They probably won’t do anything but window-shop, either.

Then you’ve got the people like me — people who just want to get in and out as quickly as possible, and hopefully unscathed, as well. I don’t want to get in anyone’s way. I’m not necessarily looking to get a hot deal (although I don’t want to overpay, either). I just want to get my presents and go home. Newscasters are bemoaning how shopping rates are down this holiday season, but perhaps it’s because there’s a lot of people like me who simply hate having to deal with the hassle. It’s why I never go shopping unless I absolutely have to.

Is Christmas supposed to be like this? People flocking to area malls, forgetting all commom decency and dignity in order to get the best deal, or make sure they’ve seen every trinket on every shelf of every store? Would it be so hard for us to show some courtesy to each other during the holidays? Why don’t we try that one out — actually remembering there are other people that want to buy presents for their loved ones as well, and trying to be courteous and polite to each other as we navigate economically dangerous terrain?

I was browsing along this morning, when I came across this story linked at Ace of Spades. It’s about a man — Fernando Orozco-Trevizo — who kept his girlfriend chained to an engine inside their trailer. He also beat her and strangled her. The desperate woman was able to escape by drawing “Call 911″ in the condensation on the window, catching the attention of a neighbor who called police.

Investigators believe the woman was held captive in her apartment, near 2900 West and 3500 South, for several days, possibly a week or more. When her boyfriend was home, she was allowed to roam freely in the apartment. But when he left, a chain was tied around her ankles, said West Valley police Capt. Tom McLachlan. The other end of the 20-foot dog chain was tied to a 6-cylinder engine in the closet, he said.

The chain was long enough for her to reach a restroom, but she could not leave the room. The door leading into the room had deadbolts on both sides, McLachlan said, and both were locked. The windows in the room were screwed shut so they couldn’t be opened. Additionally, the apartment had no phone.

Last Friday morning, the desperate woman wrote “call 911″ in the condensation on her window. The first floor window, which was in the back of the building, faced a neighboring trailer court. The nearest trailer was about 20 yards away.

Peter Erkelens, 32, who lives in that trailer, was just getting home from work when he saw the woman writing on her window with her finger, he said. He saw the message and was able to talk to the chained woman through the glass. He then called 911 using his mobile phone.

…

The woman talked to the man while her boyfriend was still in the house, McLachlan said. She barricaded the door with a dresser so he could not get in, he said.

When police arrived, they kicked in the front door of the apartment and broke out the glass from the back room. They found “a frantic woman crying,” according to a Salt Lake County Jail report.

“After police told me she was chained to an engine block, I was kinda shocked and disgusted,” Erkelens said. “Who does that?”

The woman told officers that her boyfriend, “beats her regularly, strangles her and doesn’t let her leave.” In addition to the engine block and chain, police also found padlocks and the two-way deadbolt lock “that was secured with a key from the inside and outside.”

“The victim had injuries from being beaten, strangled and there were scratches on her lower legs where the chain had been attached,” the jail report stated.

Here is the mugshot of Orozco-Trevizo:

Orozco-Trevizo was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of aggravated kidnapping and assault. He also had an immigration detainer put on him for aggravated re-entry into the United States. Orozco-Trevizo told police if he got deported again, “he will come back for the victim,” according to jail records.

So if he gets deported again, he’ll come back for the girlfriend — meaning he’s been deported before. And he doesn’t care at all about breaking our laws again to come back to try to beat, strangle, and imprison this girl again (if not worse).

So… why has he not already been kicked out? He’ll probably serve out his jail sentence, to then be freed with a deportation order that no one bothers to follow through with so he can continue with his vile ways here in the United States, free to continue on breaking our laws and exploiting our generosity. Isn’t that how it normally works?

But hey, he’s just doing the imprisoning and girlfriend-beating that regular Americans won’t do, right? We should respect that. I’m just being a xenophobic bigot. My bad.

Here’s a better plan: Deport. Them. NOW.

One hundred scientists from around the globe aren’t drinking the Goracle’s Kool-Aid, and have petitioned the UN to stop pushing the global warming hoax, and the hysteria associated with it.

It is not possible to stop climate change, a natural phenomenon that has affected humanity through the ages. Geological, archaeological, oral and written histories all attest to the dramatic challenges posed to past societies from unanticipated changes in temperature, precipitation, winds and other climatic variables. We therefore need to equip nations to become resilient to the full range of these natural phenomena by promoting economic growth and wealth generation.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued increasingly alarming conclusions about the climatic influences of human-produced carbon dioxide (CO2), a non-polluting gas that is essential to plant photosynthesis. While we understand the evidence that has led them to view CO2 emissions as harmful, the IPCC’s conclusions are quite inadequate as justification for implementing policies that will markedly diminish future prosperity. In particular, it is not established that it is possible to significantly alter global climate through cuts in human greenhouse gas emissions. On top of which, because attempts to cut emissions will slow development, the current UN approach of CO2 reduction is likely to increase human suffering from future climate change rather than to decrease it.

The IPCC Summaries for Policy Makers are the most widely read IPCC reports amongst politicians and non-scientists and are the basis for most climate change policy formulation. Yet these Summaries are prepared by a relatively small core writing team with the final drafts approved line-by-line by ­government ­representatives. The great ­majority of IPCC contributors and ­reviewers, and the tens of thousands of other scientists who are qualified to comment on these matters, are not involved in the preparation of these documents. The summaries therefore cannot properly be represented as a consensus view among experts.

…

The current UN focus on “fighting climate change,” as illustrated in the Nov. 27 UN Development Programme’s Human Development Report, is distracting governments from adapting to the threat of inevitable natural climate changes, whatever forms they may take. National and international planning for such changes is needed, with a focus on helping our most vulnerable citizens adapt to conditions that lie ahead. Attempts to prevent global climate change from occurring are ultimately futile, and constitute a tragic misallocation of resources that would be better spent on humanity’s real and pressing problems.

The list of signatories is impressive. But what would they know compared to the Goracle, a politician who was a C student in science? Besides, abandoning the global warming hoax means abandoning the perfect excuse to inflict socialism and economic ruin on Western Civilization — and of course, blame the United States for yet another catastrophe. Why would the Goracle and the bureaucrats at the UN possibly give that up, no matter how much the science disagrees with their agenda?

Hat Tip: Moonbattery

New Jersey, like a good liberal state, has decided that mercy is more important than justice, and has killed the death penalty.

The measure would spare eight men on the state’s death row, including Jesse Timmendequas, a sex offender convicted of murdering 7-year-old Megan Kanka in 1994. That case sparked a Megan’s Law, which requires law enforcement agencies to notify the public about convicted sex offenders living in their communities.

Marilyn Flax, whose husband Irving was kidnapped and murdered in 1989 by death row inmate John Martini Sr., said she seethes at the thought Martini will remain alive “while my innocent, loving, adoring husband lies in a grave.”

“I feel the system has spit on me, has slapped me and I am fuming,” Flax said.

Republicans said that’s why they would vote against the bill.

Assemblyman Richard Merkt said the bill was “a victory for murderers and rapists.”

“It does not benefit families. It does not benefit New Jersey society. It does not benefit justice,” he said.

Senate Republicans had sought to retain the death penalty for those who murder law enforcement officials, rape and murder children, and terrorists, but the Senate rejected the idea.

Democrats control the Legislature.

The death penalty is not there for us Republicans to get a kick out of our twisted, macabre sense of humor. The death penalty is there as punishment. You kill someone, then this is what you have to look forward to. It’s called justice, but to the liberals running the Democratic Party today, that’s one value that they don’t hold too dear.

A Quinnipiac Poll showed that 53% of New Jersey residents opposed abolishing the death penalty while only 39% supported it (residents were apparently not given the opportunity to vote on the issue).

Doing the “nice” thing is more important than doing the right thing, apparently. These are not petty criminals we’re talking about — these are murderers, one of them of a child. Justice, respecting the victims’ families wishes, the wishes of their constituents — all irrelevant to New Jersey lawmakers. Nope, they had an agenda to push, and they accomplished what they wanted to see accomplished.

Way to go, New Jersey Democrats. Way to go. Would you consider this a victory?

This video is making the rounds, and I honestly don’t know what to make of it. Some have suggested a panic attack, some have suggested drugs, and one of Michelle’s readers is swearing they spotted Michael Moore in the video (about halfway through, there’s a very large man who stops by). Whatever it is, something just doesn’t sit right with this. The other passengers seem to be showing a complete lack of concern for what is going on. Flight attendants seem to be paying little to no attention to the man, and it seems to be left up to passengers to restrain him. Air marshalls, perhaps? In any case, something doesn’t seem quite right.

The man cursed a lot, yelled out “Allahu Akhbar!” and screamed for them to shoot him repeatedly, saying he wasn’t afraid to die. The whole situation is very odd.

Britney Spears has released a preview of her new music video for the single Pieces of Me — you know, the one where she had to use a body double, showed up hours late, and only stayed for a fraction of the time she was supposed to.

She looks about as good as she did at the VMAs.