Get that stainless steel look...

I fell in love with some of the metal tile designs I looked at on this website. I could spend hours dreaming about which type of tile, a stainless steel look or a copper look I'd love to have in the kitchen that exists in my mind. I wonder what mixing and matching stainless steel look appliances and one of the copper designs would look like, that way giving me both looks...

Or using one of the aluminum tiles that mixes the look of silver and copper...

AZ Libertarian Barry Hess on Immigration Law: a Step toward a “Police State”

Another recommended article on what's taking place in Arizona from - IndependentPoliticalReport. Part of:

All of us now face the inevitable circumstance where, just as in 1940s Germany, supposedly ‘free’ people can be stopped, detained without arrest and ordered by anyone with an official badge to produce their “papers” and ‘prove’ their citizenship, no matter where they are. The very idea runs afoul of the anonymity and the freedom to travel unimpeded in a society that claims to be ‘free’. The Governor has just given her approval to Arizona becoming a police state, claiming the legislation will somehow make ‘us’ safer—by putting all of us in a nice cozy cell.

Left & Libertarians uniting...

L.A. residents travel to Phoenix to protest Arizona’s controversial immigrant law. It has united left-leaning Angelenos with libertarian Arizonans under a tent of pro-civil rights, populist anger.

That's the intro part of an LA Times article I recommend, A journey into fear and racism. Part of the recommended article:

For a lot of Latino people, SB 1070 is a slap in the face, a cheapening of their citizenship. Teresa Muñoz felt such a strong sense of injustice that she brought her 7-year-old, U.S.-born son Edgar to the Phoenix rally. She had him carry a U.S. flag, while she held a sign over his head featuring an arrow and the question "Illegal?"

Believe it or not, a lot of people think they know what an illegal immigrant looks like. They write to me all the time. They see "illegals" everywhere, on their front lawns and in their hospital clinics. A few seem to think every Latino voice in my column belongs to an "illegal," even such unlikely suspects as kids in South-Central mastering Shakespeare.

If they could cross the cultural divide that separates them from their neighbors, they'd see how short-sighted they are. But now their paranoid vision of life has been codified into law in Arizona — and that's scaring their opponents into action.

Adventures in vitamins...

As I ponder on my families personal product habits, vitamins are also a category where no one can agree. I have to take something without iron, David doesn't believe in vitamins, Miguel takes a regular multivitamin, Aubrey only likes chew-able vitamins though she most prefers the gummy ones and when Erin was here she was a fan of chew-ables but would never eat the orange. Meaning you'd have almost a whole bottle full of orange flavored ones that no one would eat. When I cleaned out the medicine cabinet I even found a bottle of prenatal vitamins, which I have no idea how that ended up here. One of the girls must have decided that particular brand met their vitamin needs at the moment...I also found several bottles of expired vitamins from when some member of the household had started a particular brand/formulation then forgot about it...

Adventures in shampoo...

One of the things I find funny is no one in my house will use the same shampoo, unless of course their particular brand is gone and they are forced to use mine. My husband prefers a shampoo/conditioner that is also a body wash for men, David prefers a similar product but a different scent, Aubrey has to have special shampoo for hair that has been colored, and I alternate. Right now I'm using a rosemary/mint shampoo and conditioner since it was on sale. Even when it comes to our dogs I have shampoo for thinning hair for the one dog and regular doggy shampoo for the other.

Strangely enough, everyone does agree on a toothpaste, though the same can not be said for mouthwash...

:-)

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter

Temporarily caught up in the freedom concept, that quote caught my attention.

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter

"The Yale book of quotations" by Fred R. Shapiro lists this quote as coming from "Harry's game" by Gerald Seymour in 1975 as opposed to some of those who have used the quote later without attribution. "Harry's Game" is described as "A British cabinet minister is gunned down by an IRA assassin, leaving an undercover agent to track down the killer before he himself is killed." To put the quote more in context.

This has become a topic of discussion and even research papers.

Political freedom

A recommended wiki piece on the topic of freedom, this time Political Freedom. I don't think many at times realize what is considered to be civil liberties:

Freedom of assembly
Freedom of association
Freedom of movement
Freedom of religion
Freedom of speech
Freedom of the press
Freedom of thought
Freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, which is related to freedom of privacy
Freedom to bear arms
Suffrage
Scientific freedom
Academic freedom

The free in freedom...

From Merriam Webster Dictionary:

Main Entry: free·dom
Pronunciation: \ˈfrē-dəm\
Function: noun
Date: before 12th century
1 : the quality or state of being free: as a : the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action b : liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another : independence c : the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous d : ease, facility e : the quality of being frank, open, or outspoken f : improper familiarity g : boldness of conception or execution h : unrestricted use

Which is interesting to think about with all of the uses of the word "free" in the market place. Fat-free, worry-free, risk-free, acnefree, freehand, freeloader, freestyle, freewheeler, and I could continue.

All using one quality of the word "free" -- yet it can mean so much more...

Reed: Should Libertarians take their crumpets and go home?

Garry Reed is a writer that I've highlighted here before, his recent piece on Tea Parties – should libertarians take their crumpets and go home? is a recommended read.

Reed reports some interesting points, one I found especially noteworthy:

"Going to the Tea Parties, is much akin to punching myself in the face," laments Myers. "It's hard to keep going sometimes. But we must. There are some really good people involved in the Tea Parties who honestly do care about America."
The problem, he notes, is that too many Republicans think they're the good guys while only the Democrats are the bad guys.
But at least one conservative (presumably a Ron Paul supporter since his comment appeared in a Texas Liberty Campaign Meetup email, also gets it:
"Movements like the Tea party won't be very successful and will be subject to being bought off and preempted by bad people until the average sheep quits listening to Sean Hannity and Fox News and starts figuring out what is really going on."

Attorney General Eric Holder at the Constitution Project's awards dinner

Highly recommended blog post over on the American Prospect on the recent speech given by Holder. It makes some thought provoking points, one:

Following a surprisingly good showing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee this week in which he managed to parry one baseless Republican criticism after another, Attorney General Eric Holder, delivered a speech before a civil libertarian crowd at the Constitution Project's awards dinner. What transpired as Spencer Ackerman writes, was pretty much a political science textbook definition of a Sistah Soulja moment:

Like every person sitting in this room, like the President and those who serve this Administration, and like every Member serving in our Congress, I am determined to win this war. I know we can, and I am certain we will. But victory and security will not come easily. And they won’t come at all if we approach this work by adhering to a rigid ideology or narrow methodology.

The civil libertarian community is basically the only constituency Holder has had at his side since he announced the decision to try the 9/11 defendants in civilian courts. The GOP has continually smeared him as a weakling whose commitment to this sissy "rule of law" stuff prevents him from doing what it takes to Keep Us Safe. With his speech, Holder implicitly compared the people in the audience -- the people who have supported him through his extended media flogging -- to the very "rigid ideologues" whose attacks they have defended him from.

Another recommended blog post on this speech is from FireDogLake.

Small businesses still alive...

Some of those I know who have lost their jobs have turned to home based businesses or small businesses as a way to survive economically. Whether you are looking for a franchise or a merchant account reseller opportunity, the internet can be a great place to start. You can not only find places to get you started, but lots of tips and information to help you be successful. I highly recommend checking out the Small Business Association and see if they have a chapter in your area...

Spring break in Florida...

My youngest daughter is on Spring break this week which makes me yearn for a vacation in Orlando not with my family but by myself. Sound selfish? Probably, but the constant interruption from teenagers at times can surpass the interruptions that used to exist when they were so much smaller. Back then, you could entertain them with a movie or a cartoon. Part of the problem is my own increased work load and my unrealistic expectation that I could complete some of the tasks I had planned for this week.

Yes, I should have known better...