No News Is Good News

Matt has the misfortune to be working for a television company.  I don’t watch television, so sometimes he brings up things that I had no idea were even news.  Who the hell is Anna Nicole Smith, and why the hell do I care what happened to her and her son and baby?  Were they in my hospital?  No.  Then, I don’t care.

People die every day.  Why do I care what one woman died of versus any other?  Especially when I have no idea who she is!

Then he tells me about Warren Beatty and how he yelled at his daughter.  This is news?  A father yells at his daughter?  Did she end up in my hospital?  No?  Then, I don’t care.

Perhaps I’m becoming a poor conversationalist, by not knowing all the latest juicy gossip of all these people whom I don’t even know.  Why is this gossip about Anna Nicole Smith considered “news” and not a HIPAA violation?  If someone is so concerned about Warren Beatty’s daughter, why didn’t they call CPS?  (Failure to report child abuse is a Class B Misdemeanor, you know.)  This is not news.  This is tabloid fodder.  But Matt tells me this is “news.”

The lazy and irresponsible reporting of tabloid-quality “news” reminds me much of the late 1990′s during the Clinton administration, when embassies were getting bombed in Africa and ships were getting blown up in the Gulf, and yet no one reported more than a blurb in the newspaper in the back page.  Nope, because everyone was so busy talking about the “blue dress with the sperm” on it.  Oral sex is not news.

Cake and circuses to amuse the masses.

If Michael Moore was right about anything, he was right that Americans are far too concerned about stupid things that have no meaning instead of educating themselves about the things that really affect them.  And unfortunately, that’s about all he was right about.

And these people vote?  I think the worst thing about reality television and letting people vote for American Idol winners (and whatever else it is that people watch) is that this is precisely how they end up voting for government officials.

Cake and circuses, so that people don’t have to be reminded that they are rugs.

The Difference is Texas

Matt and I have been really frustrated about buying a home in Texas.  Realtors keep showing us 4-bedroom houses with itty-bitty yards, and/or houses whose entire backyard is taken up by a useless pool.  Pools are a liability.  I don’t want one.  Not only that, they’re a big pain in the @$$ to clean.  I’d rather go swimming at the YMCA, and let someone else clean the pool I peed in.

But I saw this interesting story on the Web about an eco-friendly house.  Snopes.com investigated the story, and they also give the name of the engineer.  I wonder
if he’d be willing to make a house for us!  (Matt would be happy
because if we have underground heating, I could never turn up the
thermostat above 67 F.  I’d be just as happy because he could never turn it
below 67 F.)

One of my biggest peeves in this house-hunt is that houses are getting bigger, and yards are getting smaller.  I want a yard.  If I wanted a “garden home,” I’d move to Newport Beach.

As it is, I’ve been xeroscaping our lawn for some time now.  We’ve kind of let the weeds overtake it, because they use up so much less water, and the lawn stays green with weeds!  Bermuda grass just shrivels up and dies here, unless we water daily, which we are both too busy to do!  So now, our backyard is full of purple daisies, yellow primroses, and I even found a wild onion!  I also saved some seeds from last year’s wild greenthread.  Maybe I’ll have my own homemade greenthread tea this year.

On the other side of things, I passed the Texas Jurisprudence exam yesterday.  So now, I know that if I don’t report elderly abuse, I’ll be convicted of a Class A Misdemeanor, whereas if I don’t report child abuse, I’ll get a Class B Misdemeanor.  Frankly, I don’t care what the hell I’ll be charged with.  I’m not a judge or a lawyer.  Just tell me what you want me to report, so I don’t have to memorize what I’ll be charged with!!!!  I have enough to deal with re-memorizing the latest changes they’ve made in ACLS and PALS.

Politicians.

Meanwhile, I don’t feel too badly that I’ve had no time to sail.  50-60 mph winds and some tornados whipped through here last night.

TWO HOUSES IN AMERICA. . . . HOUSE # 1: A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern “snow belt,” either. It’s in the South. HOUSE # 2: Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every “green” feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape. HOUSE #1 (20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of Nashville, Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and film maker) Al Gore. HOUSE #2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as “the Texas White House,” it is the private residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush. ————————————— References: 1.  http://www.xanga.com/TXMom2Jami/584920438/can-anyone-confirm-this-is-true–if-it-is-its-very-interesting—.html 2.  http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp 3.  http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/gorehome.asp

Shields Racing

It’s irritating to me that although the weather here is conducive to sailing, I’ve chosen a profession that allows me very little time for such a hobby. The weather up in the Great Lakes is starting to warm up (sort of), and people are talking of sailing already.

Ah well. . . perhaps after this June I can think of sailing again.

If one is in the Chicago area, I recommend taking these guys up on their offer:

http://www.shieldsfleet3.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=78

Damned If You Do, and Damned If You Don’t

I read a leftover newspaper at Whataburger tonight, and in it was an article about our neighbor New Mexico. We get all sorts of weird illnesses transferred in from that part of the country. But that aside, this article was talking about how residents of a certain New Mexico town are objecting to the building of an ethanol plant.

“What’s wrong with that?” my husband asked. After all, New Mexico is predominantly Democratic, and don’t Democrats (*unlike Republicans, eh?) support the renewable biofuel rush? Apparently not. One man was quoted as saying that he would move away, if the ethanol plant were built. What is he worried about? “Emissions.”

Everyone wants to get away from fossil fuel use, but no one wants to put ideas into action. Why? Because they’re worried about “emissions.”  (If you don’t breathe out, you can reduce the CO₂-emissions in the environment even more, you know.)  So, frozen between continuing to use fossil fuels, and sparing the environment from “emissions,” environmentally-conscious citizens choose to not do anything. 

Deer in headlights.

I’m glad I don’t live in eastern New Mexico, because apparently the only acceptable way to make a living is to open a casino.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/renewable/ethanol.html