Extreme Happiness

This clip just made me extremely happy and filled me with warmth knowing that sometimes, extremely great decisions are made and people who can create great positive change get placed in the right positions. Lets hope this nomination is received with open arms.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Impromptu Book Club

I have never been in a book club. I’ve never had the urge and just plainly feel that I will enjoy a book by myself. Yes, there have been a-good plenty books that I absolutely loved discussing with people but still, that never induced a yearning for me to get together with a group of people and discuss the readings from a list of books. I do love the movie, “Jane Austin Book Club” but yet, that hasn’t set me a fire to seek out these like-minded people. Well, two of my friends recently have encouraged me to read The Hunger Games and this has spread across the restaurant I work at. We have now turned our job into an impromptu book club.

In this impromptu book club, we are all at different points in the three books, reading at our own speeds and it is working out completely functional. We talk about the books in and out of our shift and get excited about parts, discuss the change in character development and try to dissect what we may have missed. For the first time I actually see the benefit of having a book club.

Really, at the heart of it, it is to just have a communion with other people who are going through similar emotions while bringing in their different thoughts and backgrounds to the situation. Book clubs are a great way to find some spirituality without being spiritual or making a deal of it.

With the Hunger Games specifically, it works out well because it is a three book series that is so interlocked with each other that the moment you put down the one you’re reading, you’re picking up the next one. For work, it gives us something to get going about besides work. For anybody who has worked in a restaurant, you know how the drama is quick to come around and this impromptu book club has helped by offering something else to focus on.

All I really have to say is, “Book clubs! Who knew?” I may think twice the next time I am asked to join one. I guess Oprah had a hidden agenda with hers. I now see why.

Some Music for Monday

It saddens me every day to think that the idea of the music video is on it's way down. Even though we still have MTV and VH1 and many other outlets for music videos, they still do not come across our viewing eyes as often as they once did. On this random Monday, I thought I would throw some out there for you. New and old, these are a couple that I had to watch today. Enjoy!

Roads and Bridges and Construction: Oh My

This is a clip from the Rachel Maddow Show last night. Just a little schnibbit to remind people what is happening on Capitol Hill and how John Boehner continues to set us back. This video though makes me happy that I voted for Barbara Boxer.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Jodi Picoult's Rules For Life

My friend sent me this link from Oprah's website and I just loved it and thought that I would share it. It is Jodi Picoult's Rules for Life and everyone can get at least something out of it.

Here is the first one to entice you:

1. There's always someone better than you. My mom always used to say this, and I've always lived it, because I think it keeps me really humble. No matter how much success you've had, it makes you remember that you didn't always start there at the point of glory—and you might not always end up there.

Just in case you need something else today, here is a song. It isn't really a motivational video, but its fun.

What is Your Life Without Relationships?

I entered by birthday this last week with one of the greatest conversations I've had in a while. Me and one of my closest friends were talking and among all of the remarkable things that we spoke about, this question really resonated the most...

What is your life without relationships?

I ask this and really want everyone reading this to think about that. As I have been responding to my birthday massages, I have no clue what my life would be without relationships. That is my love, my support and everything that I identify with as a human being. So, think about it and I invite you to share if you feel compelled.

Kirk Cameron and His Voice

This morning on the View, the girls were all in a dither about Kirk Cameron on Peirce Morgan last week. Of course Kirk Cameron was asked about his views on homosexuality and we knew what his response was going to be. It hasn't changed and it will never change; that is his issue. I do want to point out there though that as long as we don't have equal vocalization and commitment to holding our ground for what we want, we, as citizens of this country will not get the opportunity to have those rights. This isn't to slam it down anyone's throat, it's just to remind us all that we need to keep in check what we believe in, why we believe that and the integrity that goes along with our beliefs, morals and what we hold to be good.

Here is the video if you missed it. It is still worth looking at to get anyone motivated and thinking about what they believe in. Also, thank you to the women of the View to loving and supporting us as we continue our struggle for equal rights.

Mommy is Single; Blame Her

I quickly think back to Murphy Brown being criticized by Vice President Dan Quayle when he said that it was wrong to have a television character portrayed as a single mother. Did everyone forget about Kate and Ally? Two strong willed women raising their children together in the same house? Just because there were two parents doesn’t mean that they weren’t single.

My generation grew up with the great emergence of the single parent. It came with divorce and the casual social affair that we still call marriage. In my home state of Wisconsin last week, State Senator Glen Grothman introduced State Senate Bill 507. This bill would put direct blame of child abuse on being the cause from single parents. This is all placed to amend the current law that allows many grants to be provided by the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board (CANPB). Grothman, according to the Huffington Post, has already been displayed as an opponent of the social welfare establishment that he believes encourages women to have children out of wedlock. With this bill, he would be able to redirect the money that CANPB grants social welfare programs and use it to assist in placing abuse and neglect charges on the single parents. This is how the first part of the bill reads:

Section 1. 48.982 (2) (g) 2. of the statutes is amended to read:
SB507,2,648.982 (2) (g) 2. Promote statewide educational and public awareness campaigns and materials for the purpose of developing public awareness of the problems of child abuse and neglect. In promoting those campaigns and materials, the board shall emphasize nonmarital parenthood as a contributing factor to child abuse and neglect.

When read in entirety, which is quick on how short it is, you see that there are no further actions that would be taken on the confronted single parents once they have been singled out. With this open ending, and it being without precedent, the outcome would be in the hands of the court. That is not something I cannot say the outcome because I neither know it nor want to imagine it: Especially with so many people who we see are prime example citizens raised by only one parent.

I do know though that as contraception is the main conversation that is on the campaign trail of our republican candidates, as this new bill in Wisconsin gets more attention, it will begin to come up in the larger view of those candidates and both sides of the media. I hope though, as popularity with this subject grows, that some actual statistics will be introduced. It would be great to see the actual numbers to reported abuse and neglect cases and in the cases of single parents, what was that cause? What position were these parents in that they “turned a blind eye” to their child being abused or neglected?

Over all, I get that this bill is yet another attack on women, like the contraception and ultrasound bills happening in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and a number of other states. As stated in the article from Shine Yahoo!, this bill helps to underscore "the role of fathers in the primary prevention of child abuse and neglect." A direct hit on single mothers! Where is Murphy Brown when we need her? Unfortunately on the occasional Nick at Night list of late night reruns. My belief is that we will get pass this absent mindedness and soon, very soon, begin to start looking at a root cause analysis of all of these social issues. I’m pretty sure that they are more related than anyone could have thought.