Some of my bleeding heart liberal friends might find my stance on Muslim Syrian refugees to be a bit harsh. But I probably know more about true refugees than most of them, especially those that are DAR and Mayflower descendants. See, my family has been in the U.S. less than 100 years. My grandparents married in Germany and immediately came to America to forge a new life. They were sponsored, educated, healthy, and my grandfather had a trade. They came here and my grandfather NEVER looked back. My grandmother, admittedly, was a bit more homesick. Yet, she took night classes to learn English because she didn't want to look like an idiot out in public. My grandfather worked with another German and an Italian immigrant. None of them really spoke English, yet they managed to communicate quite well nonetheless. My grandfather didn't speak much English but he totally understood it when spoken to and read an English newspaper cover to cover everyday. They assimilated.
They also left their families behind. With the exception of my grandmother's younger brother, all of their family members remained behind in Germany. This was in the 1920s, between the wars. My grandfather had served in the German army in China during WWI. He was done. All he wanted was some land and to live his life in peace. His family and my grandmother's family, however, stayed behind. Some were members of the German army during WWII. (Call them Nazis if you want, but most of the German army and citizens had no idea what Hitler was up to.) Several male family members were KIA or MIA during the war: killed in a sunken U-boat, MIA in Siberia, etc. Some, miraculously made it back. My great uncle, who my family had presumed dead, took years to WALK BACK from the prison camp where he was held in Russia after he was released at the end of the war.
But the soldiers and sailors weren't the only ones to suffer. When WWII ended, the Russian army basically shoved Poland to the west and, in doing so, displaced thousands of Germans who lived along the eastern border with Poland. My family was from Bauerwitz, now known as Baborów in the Opole Voivodeship of Poland. When the war ended, my family members were thrown out of their homes and displaced Polish families were moved in. The Germans of Bauerwitz were moved into the brick factory in town while they waited for the Poles to be resettled so that they may move back into their homes. That never happened and to this day Bauerwitz remains in Polish territory.
While in the brick factory, both of my grandmother's sisters died from typhus. One left behind 8 motherless children. When it became clear that they would not be returning to their homes any time soon, my great uncle took his 8 children and in similar, but less romanticized style, escaped into the hills with them a la The Sound of Music. They tried several times to enter Czechoslovakia as a way to reach the new West German but were turned away at the border several times. They eventually made it through and, literally, walked from easternmost Germany (now Poland) to the British Zone of Occupation in West Germany. THEY WALKED. A war veteran and his EIGHT CHILDREN, the oldest of whom was only 13, WALKED OVER 600 MILES to freedom. They walked what is now an 8 hour car drive. He kept 8 children alive and together all that time and distance. And they were trying to get to another portion of the country they belonged to! They weren't trying to infiltrate another nation. They just wanted to get where it was safe in what was left of their own country.
I never met my grandmother's siblings or siblings-in-law but I have met the cousins that were those children trekking through the countryside to freedom. So, PARDON ME when I don't have much sympathy for military-age males alleging to be refugees who are DEMANDING fast and easy transportation to countries where they DON'T BELONG! If they were really who they claim to be, they would stand up and fight against the tyranny in their homelands. Instead they run from it? No, I don't think so. I think these men (seriously, where are the women and children?) are not refugees at all but invaders. Invaders who play on bleeding heart liberal sympathy and the coddled snowflake mentality of millennials by demanding entry, demanding train transport, demanding rights that they have no right to.
I know what real refugees are all about. These Syrians are not refugees.
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
"Thank You" Governor Christie
I'll write a rant to accompany this some other time. Bottom line: Chris Christie is a liar and a swindler just like every other politician. Do not vote for him president if, God forbid, he decides to run and wins the Republican primaries.
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Thoughts while watching Outlander episode 116: To Ransom a Man's Soul
- Heed the viewer discretion warning, pearl clutchers.
- I never want to see Tobias Menzies below the neck again.
- Murtagh should've stabbed him for good measure.
- Don't shoot the cows!!
- Murtagh... carrying Jamie like a baby <3
- Bowl cut = bad idea
- Espiritu vomitus
- I expected even BJR to not want to kiss a pukey mouth. Does nothing gross him out?
- Jamie's been beaten, mangled, nailed, and molested and STILL spits in the guy's face. Daaaamn!
- Hand surgery. Fascinating.
- Puking again. Girlfriend, you preggers!
- Seriously, you dudes need a new barber at the monestary.
- The gray haired monk looks like he walked right out of a medieval painting.
- lol Angus popping Willie in the head.
- Subtitles! Come on, Ron! Throw us a bone.
- Blech! Could Tobias have a whiter, blander torso?
- Oh fuck. The brand.
- Ah, young Willie, how I love ye.
- And Rupert's voice. Luurrrrrvvvvve...
- Pfft. Wee Willie, he's never gonna forget.
- Oh, Murtagh, you are so wise. And foul-mouthed. And blessed with dancing eyebrows.
- Way to go, Claire. Fight an injured man. Make him support his weight on his broken hand. Some healer you are.
- Omg Sam Heughan does haunted eyes so convincingly.
- BJR, you twisted son of a maggot.
- And put some clothes on. You're icky.
- Oh goddamn he's so gross.
- The mind fuck is far worse than the butt fuck.
- Holy shit Sam/Jamie is a big man.
- Screw all the "fans" who think Claire doesn't love him enough.
- Third nipple!
- This is like Dorothy saying good bye to the Lion (Willie), the Tin Man (Angus), and the Scarecrow (Rupert).
- Jamie looks so weeeeird in a tricorn hat!
- Play your part, indeed.
- Awwww. He called her Sassenach.
- Cue the Claire and Jamie theme music.
- The closing credits music is breathtaking. The violins playing counter to Raya's singing. Gorgeous.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
I saved someone's life today
It's been 12 hours and it's still very much at the forefront of my mind.
At about 10 a.m., I was leaving my office to go to a meeting when I passed my coworker Joe* who said, "I can't find Al. He's not here. He didn't call out and he's not answering calls or texts." Joe is Al's supervisor and the three of us have worked together for about 18 years. Al has never not shown up for work without checking in. Not once. Never. Al also lives alone. His only family is out west. And his father died 8 months ago. Al's been depressed and visibly losing weight since then. My mind zoomed through possible scenarios but one featured prominently at the top: suicide.
I had to get to my meeting so I told Joe to keep trying to get a hold of him and keep me posted. At about 11:30, I was still in the meeting when Joe texted me.
Joe: Still nothing. Sally has old contact numbers. Tim worried also. Do u remember how to get there? (Sally is our group's secretary and Tim is our director. We'd been to Al's house 8 months ago for his father's shiva.)
Joe: (gives me the address)
Me: OK I can get there with address. Still in mtg. Is Tim OK with us going? I'm not going alone. Should we call police to check on him?
Joe: Yes. We should probably go there.
Me: Can u wait for my mtg to finish? (I feel so bad about this now.)
Joe: Waiting is fine. Give me heads up when done. Trying to get in his computer.
Me: Can IT "break into" it or do u have his password?
Joe: In checking around computer Tim said u and I go. Don't cause alarm and call cops yet.
Me: We're almost done. I'll text u when I'm in parking deck.
I picked up Joe and we drove about 45 minutes to Al's place. Joe knocked on the door and got no answer at first, then he heard a thump. He knocked more and yelled Al's name and said, "Open up! It's Joe." More noises from inside. More knocking and yelling through the door from Joe. Finally, the door opened and there was Al, looking "like a zombie" (Joe's words) and a terrible odor was coming from inside. Joe went in and tried opening the backdoor to let in fresh air while Al shuffled back to the couch and sat down. Joe came back out front to get air and told me to call 911. I looked inside and saw what looked like propane tanks for a gas grill, but they were red instead of the usual white. Joe ducked back inside and opened a window, came back out and confirmed what I thought: Al was trying to kill himself.
I called 911 and gave them the address and what little I knew of the situation and then gave the phone to Joe. Within a couple minutes, one police officer after another showed up, then the ambulance, and then the fire department. Joe had gotten Al out of the house and he was now standing outside looking dazed, fully dressed like he was going to work but with a big bathrobe over it all. His skin was a strange color and Joe said his eyes weren't really focusing. I walked down the sidewalk and called Sally and Tim to fill them in.
We were there for the next hour or two, talking to the cops and lying to the neighbors that it must've been some sort of gas leak. The firemen had gone inside and determined it was helium in the tanks and therefore, not explosive and not a danger to the other residents in the area. Two detectives eventually arrived about when the police officers finally convinced Al to get on the stretcher to be taken to the hospital. They almost had to handcuff him and force him to go. One of the detectives went inside to take photos, while the other talked to us.
We told him that it was highly unusual for Al not to call and given that he'd been depressed, had been losing weight, lived alone, and we had no contact info for anyone nearby, we decided to drive out to check on him. Although a suicide attempt was first on my list of possibilities, all kinds of thoughts had gone through my mind: car accident, heart attack or other sudden illness, a drop in blood sugar while on the stairs resulting in a fall and unconsciousness. I kept trying to convince myself that something beyond his control had happened to Al, but my #1 guess was, unfortunately, correct.
Joe offered to go to the hospital with them but was told they'd be busy checking Al out physically and then waiting for his head to clear enough to talk to him. We should just go home. The detective took our names and numbers and gave his business card to Joe but we don't know what, if anything, they'll tell us. We're not next of kin. We're just coworkers. We don't know if he contacted his mom before he did this. She's also been depressed. Did she do something to herself that prompted this? The questions keep spinning through my head. And the most important: What happens next? What happens after he's released from acute care? Even if they can convince him to go to a mental health facility (or send him there against his will because of the suicide attempt??), what happens when he's released from there and has to go home alone to his empty house? Who will look out for him? He's not married, doesn't have a girlfriend, and all his buddies are married with families of their own. He has no family close by that we know of, just the mother and sibling 2,500 miles away. What happens to someone in this situation?
So now we wait. And worry. And wonder what we could've done to prevent this.
*All names have been changed.
At about 10 a.m., I was leaving my office to go to a meeting when I passed my coworker Joe* who said, "I can't find Al. He's not here. He didn't call out and he's not answering calls or texts." Joe is Al's supervisor and the three of us have worked together for about 18 years. Al has never not shown up for work without checking in. Not once. Never. Al also lives alone. His only family is out west. And his father died 8 months ago. Al's been depressed and visibly losing weight since then. My mind zoomed through possible scenarios but one featured prominently at the top: suicide.
I had to get to my meeting so I told Joe to keep trying to get a hold of him and keep me posted. At about 11:30, I was still in the meeting when Joe texted me.
Joe: Still nothing. Sally has old contact numbers. Tim worried also. Do u remember how to get there? (Sally is our group's secretary and Tim is our director. We'd been to Al's house 8 months ago for his father's shiva.)
Joe: (gives me the address)
Me: OK I can get there with address. Still in mtg. Is Tim OK with us going? I'm not going alone. Should we call police to check on him?
Joe: Yes. We should probably go there.
Me: Can u wait for my mtg to finish? (I feel so bad about this now.)
Joe: Waiting is fine. Give me heads up when done. Trying to get in his computer.
Me: Can IT "break into" it or do u have his password?
Joe: In checking around computer Tim said u and I go. Don't cause alarm and call cops yet.
Me: We're almost done. I'll text u when I'm in parking deck.
I picked up Joe and we drove about 45 minutes to Al's place. Joe knocked on the door and got no answer at first, then he heard a thump. He knocked more and yelled Al's name and said, "Open up! It's Joe." More noises from inside. More knocking and yelling through the door from Joe. Finally, the door opened and there was Al, looking "like a zombie" (Joe's words) and a terrible odor was coming from inside. Joe went in and tried opening the backdoor to let in fresh air while Al shuffled back to the couch and sat down. Joe came back out front to get air and told me to call 911. I looked inside and saw what looked like propane tanks for a gas grill, but they were red instead of the usual white. Joe ducked back inside and opened a window, came back out and confirmed what I thought: Al was trying to kill himself.
I called 911 and gave them the address and what little I knew of the situation and then gave the phone to Joe. Within a couple minutes, one police officer after another showed up, then the ambulance, and then the fire department. Joe had gotten Al out of the house and he was now standing outside looking dazed, fully dressed like he was going to work but with a big bathrobe over it all. His skin was a strange color and Joe said his eyes weren't really focusing. I walked down the sidewalk and called Sally and Tim to fill them in.
We were there for the next hour or two, talking to the cops and lying to the neighbors that it must've been some sort of gas leak. The firemen had gone inside and determined it was helium in the tanks and therefore, not explosive and not a danger to the other residents in the area. Two detectives eventually arrived about when the police officers finally convinced Al to get on the stretcher to be taken to the hospital. They almost had to handcuff him and force him to go. One of the detectives went inside to take photos, while the other talked to us.
We told him that it was highly unusual for Al not to call and given that he'd been depressed, had been losing weight, lived alone, and we had no contact info for anyone nearby, we decided to drive out to check on him. Although a suicide attempt was first on my list of possibilities, all kinds of thoughts had gone through my mind: car accident, heart attack or other sudden illness, a drop in blood sugar while on the stairs resulting in a fall and unconsciousness. I kept trying to convince myself that something beyond his control had happened to Al, but my #1 guess was, unfortunately, correct.
Joe offered to go to the hospital with them but was told they'd be busy checking Al out physically and then waiting for his head to clear enough to talk to him. We should just go home. The detective took our names and numbers and gave his business card to Joe but we don't know what, if anything, they'll tell us. We're not next of kin. We're just coworkers. We don't know if he contacted his mom before he did this. She's also been depressed. Did she do something to herself that prompted this? The questions keep spinning through my head. And the most important: What happens next? What happens after he's released from acute care? Even if they can convince him to go to a mental health facility (or send him there against his will because of the suicide attempt??), what happens when he's released from there and has to go home alone to his empty house? Who will look out for him? He's not married, doesn't have a girlfriend, and all his buddies are married with families of their own. He has no family close by that we know of, just the mother and sibling 2,500 miles away. What happens to someone in this situation?
So now we wait. And worry. And wonder what we could've done to prevent this.
*All names have been changed.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Outlander's Outsider: Laoghaire
What can I say about Laoghaire MacKenzie, the resident wannabe slut of Castle Leoch? Well, I don't like her one bit. I can certainly say that. She bugged me from the moment she came on screen in Episode 102 and that was before I read the books. During the hiatus known as Droughtlander, I read the first five books in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series and boy do I hate Laoghaire now!
I watched the much anticipated Episode 109 - The Reckoning - and while everyone else is freaking out about how Jamie handled (both figuratively and literally) Laoghaire at the brook, I'm salivating over Jamie's final word of the episode: "Laoghaire." One thing that REALLY BUGGED me in Voyager and beyond was that Diana had Jamie marry Laoghaire. Maybe there's some purpose to this in book 6 or beyond, but so far, as of the end of The Fiery Cross, I see no real reason for Diana to have thrown this wrench in the story line. It is my greatest wish that Ronald D. Moore takes liberties with this story line and has Jamie learn in Season 1 that Laoghaire is a vindictive little bitch who tries to have Claire executed and that that is the end of Laoghaire in Jamie's life. Maybe we can get a glimpse of her sad, fat self in Season 3 but not as she's screeching at and shooting her sort-of-husband.
The Jamie-Laoghaire marriage serves no purpose.
1. It makes Jenny into an unlikable character due to her meddling. I want to like Jenny. She's Jamie's beloved sister who helped raise him and loves him to pieces. So, why, if she felt that she needed to meddle and find him a new wife, couldn't she have picked ANY other woman in the Scottish Highlands??? Are you telling me that Laoghaire was the only woman available?!
2. If it's to put another chink in the perfection of Jamie, it could've been done with someone else. He's already been with Mary McNab and Geneva Dunsany. Both of those liaisons bugged me but seemed to serve a purpose in the story. Jenny could've married him off to someone else, for pete's sake.
3. If it's to eventually get Fergus and Marsali together, that could've been achieved in any number of ways. Honestly, she doesn't even need to be Laoghaire's daughter. Once they leave Scotland, her parentage is only used as a device to insert conflict between her and Claire on the ship to America and for Claire to get satisfaction every time she's called Mother Claire by her enemy's offspring. Neither of these are necessary plot points.
4. If it's so Jamie and Claire can struggle with money (because Jamie feels obligated to continue paying alimony from across the Atlantic), they could've struggled financially anyway!
I just don't see the point! It's as if Diana put the marriage in there intending to do something more with it and then changed her mind.
So, given that, as far as I can see, there is no point to this plot line, I would LOVE for Ron Moore to changes things up and have Jamie realize that Laoghaire is no good right now starting with the ill wish. Then I'd like him to know during or immediately afterward that Laoghaire was responsible for Claire being with Geillis at that fateful moment in Craigsmuir. I don't want him to find out 20+ years later in an anti-climactic "oh, by the way" statement years after the Frasers have left Scotland and set up in North Carolina. Seriously, why does Diana even bother bringing it up at that point?
Ron Moore, Starz, Outlander's writing team, Maril Davis, Matt B. Roberts, and anyone else with pull, PLEASE depart from the books when it comes to Laoghaire! Let Jamie see the evil soul that lives behind those sad blue eyes now. Please, please, please, please, PLEASE!
(I tried to find the original source of the photo but couldn't. All I can tell you is that it's not my work.)
I watched the much anticipated Episode 109 - The Reckoning - and while everyone else is freaking out about how Jamie handled (both figuratively and literally) Laoghaire at the brook, I'm salivating over Jamie's final word of the episode: "Laoghaire." One thing that REALLY BUGGED me in Voyager and beyond was that Diana had Jamie marry Laoghaire. Maybe there's some purpose to this in book 6 or beyond, but so far, as of the end of The Fiery Cross, I see no real reason for Diana to have thrown this wrench in the story line. It is my greatest wish that Ronald D. Moore takes liberties with this story line and has Jamie learn in Season 1 that Laoghaire is a vindictive little bitch who tries to have Claire executed and that that is the end of Laoghaire in Jamie's life. Maybe we can get a glimpse of her sad, fat self in Season 3 but not as she's screeching at and shooting her sort-of-husband.
The Jamie-Laoghaire marriage serves no purpose.
1. It makes Jenny into an unlikable character due to her meddling. I want to like Jenny. She's Jamie's beloved sister who helped raise him and loves him to pieces. So, why, if she felt that she needed to meddle and find him a new wife, couldn't she have picked ANY other woman in the Scottish Highlands??? Are you telling me that Laoghaire was the only woman available?!
2. If it's to put another chink in the perfection of Jamie, it could've been done with someone else. He's already been with Mary McNab and Geneva Dunsany. Both of those liaisons bugged me but seemed to serve a purpose in the story. Jenny could've married him off to someone else, for pete's sake.
3. If it's to eventually get Fergus and Marsali together, that could've been achieved in any number of ways. Honestly, she doesn't even need to be Laoghaire's daughter. Once they leave Scotland, her parentage is only used as a device to insert conflict between her and Claire on the ship to America and for Claire to get satisfaction every time she's called Mother Claire by her enemy's offspring. Neither of these are necessary plot points.
4. If it's so Jamie and Claire can struggle with money (because Jamie feels obligated to continue paying alimony from across the Atlantic), they could've struggled financially anyway!
I just don't see the point! It's as if Diana put the marriage in there intending to do something more with it and then changed her mind.
So, given that, as far as I can see, there is no point to this plot line, I would LOVE for Ron Moore to changes things up and have Jamie realize that Laoghaire is no good right now starting with the ill wish. Then I'd like him to know during or immediately afterward that Laoghaire was responsible for Claire being with Geillis at that fateful moment in Craigsmuir. I don't want him to find out 20+ years later in an anti-climactic "oh, by the way" statement years after the Frasers have left Scotland and set up in North Carolina. Seriously, why does Diana even bother bringing it up at that point?
Ron Moore, Starz, Outlander's writing team, Maril Davis, Matt B. Roberts, and anyone else with pull, PLEASE depart from the books when it comes to Laoghaire! Let Jamie see the evil soul that lives behind those sad blue eyes now. Please, please, please, please, PLEASE!
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Scottish Gaelic - English Dictionary online
It doesn’t have translations for a lot of Diana Gabaldon’s Gaelic words and phrases but it does help quite a bit, nonetheless.
https://en.glosbe.com/gd/en/
https://en.glosbe.com/gd/en/
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Beans, beans, they’re good for your heart
My son is 11 years old and thinks my obsession with Outlander is pretty stupid. Today I came across a passage in the fifth Outlander novel, The Fiery Cross, that may have changed his mind just a wee bit. He gave me a knowing grin when I showed it to him. It happens to be one of his favorite sayings. ;)
From page 120 of Diana Gabaldon's The Fiery Cross:
From page 120 of Diana Gabaldon's The Fiery Cross:
"I met a man from Boston, last time I went to Charlotteville," Ronnie said, his foxy brows drawn down in disapproval. He tugged, trying to free his arm from Jamie’s grip, but to no avail. "He said to me as it was his custom to have beans at his breakfast, and oysters to his supper, and so he’d done every day since he was a wean. A wonder he hadna blown up like a pig’s bladder, filled wi’ such wretched stuff as that!"
"Beans, beans, they’re good for your heart," I said cheerily, seizing the opening. "The more you eat, the more you fart. The more you fart, the better you feel -- so let’s have beans for every meal!"
Ronnie’s mouth dropped open, as did Mrs. Lindsay’s. Jamie whooped with laughter, and Mrs. Lindsay’s look of astonishment dissolved into a booming laugh. After a moment, Ronnie rather reluctantly joined in, a small grin twisting up the corner of his mouth.
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