Flaming Free Speech Fridays....

Yeah, I got flamed. Having been reading and writing on political blogs for several years, I found the anonymous flame rather tame and amusing. Last year on one political blog I was called

1. fascist
2. deluded
3. naive
4. conservative
5. a fool
6. a bunch of other stuff

simply because I disagreed with various opinions. People who know me find this pretty humorous, because I am a bleeding heart liberal from way back. That's life on the political blogs. But it must be good practice for not letting stuff bother you, because the flamish comment on my blog didn't really bother me.

I mean, I was sitting at home eating pretzels and surfing the net when I read that I must be hedonistic. Every single time I think about it I laugh, it just completely cracks me up. I guess pretzels are the new cocaine.

But it showed me that I have made some real friends here on the blogosphere, since several jumped to my defense. Defended me really well, to boot. (Thanks, guys!) And Tasina made a really excellent point -- the anonymous flamer criticized me well, anonymously. This person wasn't brave enough to even leave their first name when they were being so rude about me. I have no problem with free speech -- the only comments I will delete are spam or extraordinarily rude, vulgar or foul ones. Even ones that disagree with me, like this one:

How sad for you, that you find sex cheap, when it is beautiful and should be kept sacred. This attitude is why we have unwed mothers and gangs. The children have no fathers, because people do as they please there are no rules. It's all about feeling good with reckless abandon to what is right. You must be a complete hedonist.

which was a response to my anger at the people -- I believe I may have called them nutcase fundies -- who forced a message of abstinence to replace the message "use condoms" in Africa, and which has resulted in the HIV infection rate to rise again, and my complete bewilderment at the fact that these people think they have the right and responsibility to be the moral compass for the world, and asked why anyone cares what other people, people wholly unconnected and unknown to them, what those people do. Of course I must admit I was not all that polite about them:

If my neighbor chooses to marry his dog and have an affair with the pool boy, the only way it affects me is if he leaves his wife out in the backyard all night and her barking keeps me up. But some yahoo in Alabama apparently thinks that what I do or my neighbor does (actually, I have very nice neighbors, I think) is the yahoo's business. Idiot.

Perhaps I struck too close to home. Perhaps this person really thinks sex is sacred and wants others to experience it in the same way. Perhaps this person just really really thinks sex belongs in whispers and darkened bedrooms and is not to be discussed in polite company. I don't know, and we may never know.

What I haven't said up to this point, and what I would like to say to anonymous, is that my attitude about sex -- which you have completely misinterpreted, by the way -- is much healthier than yours. My attitude about sex and nudity and my neighbor's sexuality is not harmful to others, but your judgmental and condemnatory attitude certainly can be.

Here's the big point you just don't seem to understand: I am not advocating teen sex, or gay sex, or bestiality, or adultery, or any other deviance you seem to have attributed to me. I simply and strongly believe that it is not my right nor my responsibility to decide how my neighbor should behave, when that behavior has no impact on me. That my neighbor chooses an abortion cannot in any way impact my life. Nor can it impact yours. The fact that someone chooses to end a pregnancy cannot materially impact you. It may make your heart hurt, it may be against your interpretation of God's will, it may make you very unhappy, but that is not enough to allow you to force the rest of us to follow your belief system.

See, I realize that my life is not perfect. I have many flaws, and make mistakes, and do the best I can. I try to follow my own moral compass and walk my talk. I feel no need to wonder if I am walking your talk. I don't care if you think me hedonistic because I don't subscribe to the same narrow world view that you do.

Psycho Bitch Neighbor

And, yes, by bitch I mean female dog...A couple of days ago, Mark and I were running a couple errands when my cell phone rang. It was Thor, very upset. It took several scary moments before he could tell me what was going on (in the meantime I was running worst case scenarios involving bleeding, choking, tooth damage, knife wounds, broken bones, and so on. All you moms know what I am talking about here...)

Apparently, the psycho bitch next door jumped over her gate and then jumped into our yard. Abe ran up to her, and then Mojo went all protective and Mojo and the next door dog started fighting. Zach had seen the psycho bitch run past his window, and ran out there to break it up. He got Mojo dragged off the neighbor, and then spent another minute trying to get Abe away from her. Abe is really reeeaaallllly ssssllllooooowwwww about figuring out when another dog wants to play and when that dog wants to rip his spleen out...

Mojo has a big scratch across his nose,
but otherwise he's okay. The neighbor's psycho bitch also seems to be okay. The neighbor is disgusted with his beast, and is considering getting rid of her, because she's a big pain in the butt regularly.

Also, this really is not a good photo of Mojo. He really doesn't look this moronic in real life, but the dogs were so worked up at midnight New Year's Eve and I couldn't get any good photos of them...

I am the meanest person ever.

Abe and Mojo wanted to play, and were starting to wrestle around a little bit. I immediately dropped the laundry I was folding, rushed over to them, and hurled Abe into his cage.

The top item on my to-do list is to get Abe's Valium prescription filled. This is making me so sad. He is such a sweet dog, and so happy and full of energy.

And I am the mean ogre who is going to drug him into insensibility and lock him in the cage any time he moves. This is going to be a very very very long two months...and I am worried about how Abe will be affected by this.

When he can finally run free again, will he be scared to? Will being leashed and caged for two months -- even though it is for his own good -- change him? Will he lose that happy hyper attitude?

It's affecting Mojo as well -- he didn't eat all his breakfast this morning. That never happens. Never. Mojo is food-obsessed.

It would be so much easier if Mark was not in the Persian Gulf region (hi, honey!). He could wrestle with Mojo while I walk Abe...right now, Mojo is not getting the exercise he needs, so I am going to have to start walking the dogs. But separately, at least at first, since I like my shoulders in their sockets. I am crazy that way, I know.

And perhaps the kidlets can walk Abe while I play with Mojo. Now if I can just figure out how to encourage the dogs to do that play thing where they are both laying on the floor biting each other's heads, instead of the usual clash of the titans fighting they do...

I will need Valium before this is all over....I guess I will just have to settle for Tequila and beer.

Although I keep forgetting to buy the good stuff...all we have in the fridge right now is Miller Lite. That is not beer. That is a bubbly water and alcohol poseur. Tecate, Fat Tire, Dos X's, Belgian, Mexican, microbrews. That's beer. American mass market beers are not worthy.