April 2011
All reports from Tuscaloosa are that it is a war zone. We went through today and dropped off toiletries, clothes, snacks and water and picked up my sister and Annalee. Friends are tweeting and tumbling the most horrific accounts I’ve ever seen. Friends have lost absolutely everything and almost lost their lives. Shit is real there. More and more reports of student deaths are rolling in. Some of the poorest housing projects in town are just destroyed to the foundation. The death numbers will rise. I don’t even know where they’ll start to rebuild.
But I do know they’ll rebuild. Tuscaloosa has pulled together like nothing I’ve ever seen. Volunteer lines over a quarter mile long. If you can help, please please please do. Donate to the West Alabama Red Cross. I’m begging you. This is my hometown and my heart is breaking over and over again with every text and TwitPic of damage and status update from friends.
I need to get to bed. I had work I had to do tonight. I leave for vacation tomorrow. But I can’t tear myself away from the photos, videos, stories and tweets coming out of my hometown. I pray they get rest tonight.
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Please be safe tonight... I'll be thinking about you!!!
Your TB
Thank you for checking! We are safe, but reports from Tuscaloosa and north of Birmingham are horrible.
Peachtree Keen: Comments from Fox News that show you can't quell crazy (or stupid) →
peachtreekeen.tumblr.com
NEVER PROMISE CRAZY A BABY(’s long form birth certificate):
It’s a Certificate of birth… Not a Birth Certificate which has the seal, mothers finger print and baby’s feet prints… Certificate of birth, easily forged… Birth Certificate, cannot be forged…I hope they do a chemical analysis on the paper and ink
- heydad614
NO forensic analysis. No independent analysis. Robert Gibbs has been working on the WH computer; it took him this long to photo-shop this thing… Oh, BTW, this sideshow will not stop the TEA Party fervor; WE are ready & willing to form the next political battle in 2012. Bye, bye Barry; enjoy a deserved vacation starting January 2013….
- coffeeforclosers
His mother’s mother, his grandmother stated that she went to Kenya for his birth. Remember, you don’t have to be born in the USA to be an Illinois State Senator. Just so happens she didn’t live long enough to see the election and explain why she could possibily be mistaken as to where her grandson was born. Yup, people forge documents all the time and money and power get really good documents. This isn’t over. Where did he say he was born on the college forms that he filed. That is where the investigation should go. If he falsified the forms to get Federal Grant or Scholarahip monies then he would be guilty of Fraud. Trump must go after those forms next. “A person who has nothing to hide hides nothing”.
- sunkgleska
You people are so freakin stupid it is unbelievable. This is not a birth certificate. By Hawaiis definition, it is a certificate that says the birth took place signed and dated after the birthdate. No footprint…not a hospital document. Do the research. It is a red herring…I can’t believe Fox News put this on the web. This was known about before the 2008 election. Nothing new, just a propagation of the same old lie. Why doesn’t the news media show a copy of his application to Occidental College where he applied as Barry Soetero, and Indonesian with his signature on it. That in itself proves Obama is a liar one way or another.
- stephenrt3
I’d be more incline to believe that paper if it had Mickey Mouse’s name as a LIVE BIRTHER. What name did he get his foreign papers in to travel to countries that American’s were not allow to travel too in the ‘70’s and 80’s huh? This is a joke. If the paper were that easy to find and release why did he spend millions to avoid court cases on it. Cause he didn’t have one produced yet!! That is why. What a shame it didn’t read: Still Birth.
- Mike Morton
I’m sorry, and I try to keep my dirty language (hi, Mom!) and political rants as brief as possible here on the blog, but all I can think when I read things like this is WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE? WHEN DID AMERICA TURN INTO FUCKING FUCKTARDS? I am disgusted by these people, and hope someone finds Mike Morton in particular and makes him sorry he ever even THOUGHT what he wrote. And a member of the Tea Party is calling ME stupid? Is this real life? And Robert Gibbs took this long to PhotoShop this? I’m dying. Don’t you think if he was gonna take all that time, he’d at least add in some Barack baby footprints?
As for the argument of “no footprint…not a hospital document” and the claim that a birth certificate is only a real birth certificate if it has the mother’s fingerprint and footprints, that is known as a souvenir birth certificate, and you better not try and take your pretty little birth certificate with your precious baby feet on the back to try and get a passport or license, because they will send your ass home. (Just FYI, the document Trump released as his “birth certificate” last week was one of these souvenir documents.) Travel.state.gov lists the following as requirements for a birth certificate to be considered a primary record of citizenship:
- Full name of the applicant
- Date of birth
- Place of birth
- Raised, embossed, impressed or multicolored seal of issuing authority
- Registrar’s signature
- The date the certificate was filed with the registrar’s office (must be within one year)
Looks like he checks out. But I’m sure some will continue to claim this is a fake. There could be a video of his bloody head coming down the birth canal next to a Welcome to Honolulu billboard with the then-Governor of Hawaii, William F. Quinn, catching his little baby self with Honolulu’s Diamond Head volcano in the background while his mother waves little American flags, and people still wouldn’t believe him.
Disagree with me all you want on fiscal and social issues, but nothing makes me angrier than ignorance from people who are blatantly twisting every issue into what they think benefits them. This issue is RACIST, no matter what you say. This is also a complete and total waste of our government and our President’s time. If you are a member of the Tea Party, and more specifically a member of the Birther movement, I have just one thing to say to you.
Get. the. fuck. out.
“We do not have time for this silliness. We have better stuff to do. I have better stuff to do.”
—
President Barack Obama on birthers.
Move it along, people.
(via luciwithani)
“every widow wakes one morning, perhaps after years of pure and unwavering grieving, to realize she slept a good night’s sleep, and will be able to eat breakfast, and doesn’t hear her husband’s ghost all the time, but only some of the time. her grief is replaced with a useful sadness. every parent who loses a child finds a way to laugh again. the timbre begins to fade. the edge dulls. the hurt lessens. every love is carved from loss. mine was. yours is. your great-great-great-grandchildren’s will be. but we learn to live in that love.”
—jonathan safran foer via familiarplaces (via loveyourcrookedneighbor)
Happy Birthday, Katie! I hope you're having a marvelous day, and that you get the packages from me... There should be 2 for a total of 4 items. :) Continue to have an awesome day!
Thank you so much! I picked up package number two at the post office yesterday and loved both of them! I’ll share the details with you guys when I get home, but suffice it to say that my TB nailed my birthday package!
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I want to do a happy jig any time that I remember that I'll be in New Orleans in four days.
Cosigned.
Amazon to Launch Library Lending for Kindle Books →
money.msn.com
Today in huge, life changing news.
I had been thinking about asking for a Kindle for my birthday since, oh, Christmas, and finally decided this week to go for it. I was just on the phone with my sister yesterday and I was like, “I mean, surely they will figure out how to lend books from libraries all over the country soon.” And here it is! Done and done!
“I love you also means I love you more than anyone loves you, or has loved you, or will love you, and also, I love you in a way that no one loves you, or has loved you, or will love you, and also, I love you in a way that I love no one else, and never have loved anyone else, and never will love anyone else.”
—Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer (via kari-shma)
High school boyfriend's fiance won't quit posting Glenn Beck quotes on her Facebook page
So. Much. Rage.
PRETTY IN PINK
Our boy can paint his toenails whatever color he likes.
Had a rull surious convo with Blake about this this morning. We clearly differ in opinions, though I maintain that if the story was about a parent having their little girl participate in a typical male activity like playing with trucks in the dirt while wearing a newsboy cap, he wouldn’t care at all.
You to Thank
Ben Folds
“You to Thank” - Ben Folds
I know everyone says this, but I really have an amazing Tumblr Buddy. I haven’t documented my last package from her very well on here because I immediately started using everything in different parts of my life. She sent an awesome set of three notepads that are each for different parts of your life. She also sent a cookbook full of cookie recipes that I will be trying out soon. I also got some chocolatey treats that I may or may not have eaten within a day of getting my package, and some amazing photos that they took on their spring break and printed out copies for me. Wherever she went (I’m going to assume it’s a she, because they used a pink pen to write my note) makes me extremely jealous as the pictures are gorgeous.
One of my favorite parts of my last package has been the mixed CD she sent me. She said she used her iTunes to create a genius playlist using Mumford & Sons “Dust Bowl Dance” and it is the tits. In addition to some new to me but great songs, there are also quite a few songs that I used to adore but had forgotten about, and this one is one of those. I have been jamming to it pretty hard at work. Here’s a playlist if you’re curious:
- “Dust Bowl Dance” - Mumford and Sons
- “Hallelujah” - Rufus Wainwright
- “Dancing in the Moonlight” - Toploader
- “Honey and the Moon” - Joseph Arthur
- “Cannonball” - Damien Rice
- “You to Thank” - Ben Folds
- “All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye” - John Mayer
- “Whistle for the Choir” - The Fratellis
- “Under the Influence” - James Morrison
- “Timshel” - Mumford and Sons
- “Blessed to Be a Witness” - Ben Harper
- “Say When” - The Fray
- “Closer” - Joshua Radin
- “For the Girl” - The Fratellis
- “You Don’t Know Me” - Ben Folds
- “I Gave You All” - Mumford and Sons
- “War of My Life” - John Mayer
- “We Build Then We Break” - The Fray
addictions
I’ve always had a problem with drinking way too much soda, but lately I have felt bloated and like crap and am starting to think it may be connected to the 6 Diet Cokes I drink every day. (Cue my family and Blake screaming DUH!) I always think that it will taste so delicious when I’m thirsty, but 9 times out of 10 it tastes like sludge at this point. Yet I keep drinking it.
Postcards from the edge
My dearest son:
I try hard not to dwell on today. It just seems to devalue the cherished moments of your life. I’d prefer to just remember the birthdays and Christmas’s of your life…but this day is the one that haunts me. The one day a year that I despise and wish so badly that I could take back…or skip. The one day that should have come with a big red redo button so that we could have held you a bit longer. Unfortunately, it only came with a bag of sorrows and now…when this day rolls around each year…I find myself writing you and sending postcards from the edge. Mom and Dad went here or there…wish you were here! Oh God, how I wish you were here! It’s really just selfishness on my part. The fact of the matter is, you’re the one that got it right. You’ve moved on to paradise and left the rest of us here…stuck in traffic….so to speak. I know you’re up there watching and don’t need updates…but it helps me to send them. It’s the collection of small moments in life that make life worth living. Like that really good shot in golf that brings you back to try again…or that day you make two unassisted triple plays in the same ball game…or the three quarter court shot you make to win the game at the end…you’re first kiss…the days your children were born. These are the moments we need to remember and cherish…so here are a few things that you can put in your tucker box for rainy days and whenever it’s snowing on your French toast.
….
Mom is still working at the University, still going to the games and still missing her best boy. I’m sure you’ve heard…the Tide is really rolling this year…might be a banner year for the Tide faithful.
….
Things are moving along down here…just not quite as I would have expected. I would have expected you to be in the mix…leading the way forward…still dazzling us. I suppose you still are…we’re just still down here stuck in traffic and can’t see you and Dad and Benny and Dakota and Holly and Mac up there having a grand ol’ time.
I hope this day finds you happy and having a game of toss.
All My Love,
DAD
This post from Foster’s dad on his CaringBridge page on the 2 year anniversary of his death never fails to make me a little choked up. Yesterday morning I saw the link to a little boy from Tuscaloosa’s CaringBridge on Facebook. I remembered his battle with leukemia a year or two ago. He was 3 1/2 when he was diagnosed and the last I’d heard in January, he was in remission after a long hard fight. I clicked on the link on Facebook only to find that his leukemia had returned in his bone marrow. I wanted to cry for this sweet little boy that I don’t even know. I am so sick of cancer affecting and taking the best people in our lives. I’m tired of the heartsickness that it causes. It’s not been that long since Foster’s friends and family’s lives revolved around visits to Children’s, reloading CaringBridge pages 15 times a day, and wondering what we could do for our friend.
If you can, please consider donating here to help me help fund the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s research to find a cure for blood cancers. If you can’t donate, that is okay. Just please be sure to send a few extra nice thoughts towards Birmingham today, where another sweet boy is fighting this horrible disease for a second time.
Morning rant
I wish I could respond to every dumb post my Facebook “friends” made last night about the potential government shutdown without getting blasted by tea party supporters. They all just seem so uninformed. These are the times being in Alabama is the worst.
One post calling our president an asshole who is blowing smoke, another who “thinks saying our government is messed up barely scratches the surface,” and one who was worried ab the shutdown because they are going to the Grand Canyon next week and don’t want it to close. Seriously.
If anyone could see my Grooveshark playlist right now, they'd die.
Whatever, it’s getting me through this heinous day.
Couponing
We will eat out of a fucking dumpster before I lower myself to clipping coupons. (I know the value of a dollar, but I also know the value my dignity and my time.)
Fine, more deals for me. I will sacrifice my dignity and time any day of the week, apparently.
