After reading the wikipedia entry on Mandy Patinkin, I thought I’d mention famous people doing cool things. Reasons why MP is my new hero…

1. He’s been married once, to the same person, since 1980
2. He learned to sing in temple choir, and still performs in Yiddish to celebrate Jewish culture
3. He celebrated his one year of cancer-free life by taking his son on a 280-mile charity bike ride for The Arava Institute Hazon Israel Ride: Cycling for Peace, Partnership & Environmental Protection
4. He studied at Julliard with Kelsey Grammer and recommend him for the role of Frasier.
5. He won an Emmy award for Chicago Hope and then quit… so he could spend more time with his wife
6. He quit Criminal Minds because, “I loathe those violent images and I want no part of that type of violence. I work with the writers and producers constantly to try and tamper that violence down…I want to see more humor coming to television… I want to live long enough to see the appetite for comedy become greater than the appetite for violence.”
7. He still says “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die,” at the end of his concerts (I know this… because I was at one and saw it and it was awesome.)
8. Have you heard him sing? Yeah… wow.

So. The world has good people in it, too. Just thought we could all use the occasional reminder. Thank you Mandy Patinkin, for living a life that gives hope.

Go Texas Board of Education. Seriously. Can I run for this? I would do a better job. Maybe I should.

In other news of the weird, I took a phone poll today presented by Ronald Reagan’s grandson. The questions could only be answered yes and no, and ranged from the leading, “Do you want your taxes cut?” to the downright confusing (this is a paraphrase that is far less confusing that what was asked on the phone – I can’t remember the whole questions because it was long) “Obama’s health care plan would allow for abortions to be paid for through government sponsored health care. Do you think it’s fair to force taxpayers and businesses to pay for abortions?”

The whole survey was, in my opinion, a study in how you ask questions.

“Do you want your taxes cut?” Well… who doesn’t? But I said “no”  because that’s a stupid question. If there were zero consequences to having my taxes cut, sure I’d love that. But there are consequences to every action. What am I trading for my taxes? National debt? Social services? Which ones? Are we going to quit funding Title I schools? Environmental research? To ask a question without considering the consequences is misleading and creates false data.

As for the second one, I wanted to say “No… of course taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay for abortions.” But then I had to think about that one. It’s too broad. Example: a teenager gets napolied by a relative… can taxes pay for that abortion? I have no problem with that. So… to broadly answer “no” to the question is wrong. In most cases am I OK with my taxes paying for abortion? No. But the survey didn’t specify under what conditions the health care bill would allow them (I’m gonna  go out on a limb and say it likely specifies at least SOME conditions), but in answering “no”, I would be disagreeing with the bill – when I don’t know what the bill actually says. But the way the question was worded (and it was hecka-more confusing than I worded it) it begged the answer “no”.

The whole thing was a very frustrating and misleading study in how to ask questions in a survey and get the answers you want instead of the answers that people really think.

Two questions in the last set were “Are you male?” and “Are you over 50?” And all I could think was “Wow… you have a very narrow view of your constituency.” I used to be a Republican, but I feel like the party has completely given up on listening to any issues that are important to my generation. Segments of the Republican party seem to have ceased listening to anyone who isn’t Evangelical Protestant. Unfortunately the Texas Board of Education seems to be part of that group, and is doing its best to ignore my generation (and everybody else who isn’t on the extreme right) and indoctrinate the one after me.

Sorry for the political rant. I just get so frustrated sometimes. I know there are people who completely disagree with me, and your opinions are valid and I respect you as a human being even if you think separation of church and state means “teach any branch of Protestantism you want in the classroom”.

On a happy note, Go  New Jersey, the first state board of education to approve pagan holidays for a religious excused absence! See. The world may be crazy, my own SBOE may be FUBAR, but there is always light shining somewhere!

Try one of these for size. Sure, some of them aren’t paid (or aren’t paid great)… but the benefits package? Can’t be beat.

It is time once again for the annual “No, really, I can garden” attempt. This year it’s lettuce lining the sidewalk leading up to our house and flowers in the main bed in front of the windows. The lettuce that I planted a week and a half ago has started sprouting! Yay! The lettuce I planted two days ago has not, but then I hadn’t expected it to yet.

In other news, this might be the most awesomest video ever. OK Go and Syyn Labs rules. (And yeah, it’s real).

I’m trying to be a better housekeeper, and so like normal, I’m turning to a variety of sources to see what works.  So far I have further proof that my husband is particularly attuned to all things Eastern. After learning about how to feng shui the “traveling” bagua of my home, I noted how we were sending energy into Venice and then went outside and stuck a stick in the ground to finish a missing energy line (or something like that). This afternoon my husband hops online to tell me that the “pie-in-the-sky” business trip to Italy (to the Veneto even) suddenly sounds really likely and he’s looking up plane tickets. The sad part about this is that the only plane tickets he could currently locate were $2000, which means I can’t afford to join him.  So… I research, clean, energize, and put a stick in the ground, and my husband goes to Italy without me. FML.

I’ve also been continuing my love-affair with all things Norse, and I’m learning to read runes. They told me that in order to keep my house clean, I have to make a plan and stick to it with the strength of a wild ox, and then I will  find joy and success. Go figure.

Finally, I had to laugh at how my research for housekeeping has kept me almost constantly on house-keeping for Jesus sites. I didn’t know JC was so big into hearth and home, but apparently he is. And I’m never going to be a true success because I refuse to get up fifteen minutes earlier than my husband (according to an astonishing number of websites, the Bible says I have to be an early riser, regardless of what God and nature instilled into my constitution)  who gets up at 5:30 in the morning so that he can wander around the house in his underwear for 2 hours (you didn’t need that visual, did you >:) – would it help if I said he’s got muscles on top of muscles, ’cause he does. Re-visualize. Looks better now, eh?) . But other than that, I have gotten the most use out of a site created by a woman who homeschools her children because…. public school encourages Satan or something. I’m not sure whether to be slightly appalled that I am being electronically mentored by this woman or to remind myself that we can all learn from each other if we just open our ears and get past our prejudices. I think I’ll do both.