Dear Mr. Obama,

Your adoring fans aren't doing you any favors in my neighborhood of Northern Virginia. Please let them know that while graffiti as an art form may be an acceptable means of expressing oneself in Chicago or some other big city, it's usually NOT acceptable in the suburbs.

The Obamessiahmaniacs who are spray-painting your name all over the trees and lightpoles around here are vandalizing and defacing public property. They're not doing you any favors either in that people like me see what they've done and think not fondly about the message but rather annoyedly.

I'm not at all surprised given their obvious lack of judgment in the first place.

What the hell...

Why is it that there are so many morons on the road? You know the ones - they are the ones who aren't as good a driver as YOU are. The other day, I was patiently waiting to turn right, in order to exit a shopping center parking lot. I had to wait for someone approaching who A) did not have their turn signal on to alert the surrounding drivers as to their destination (not that I would have pulled out in front even if they had the appropriate turn signal on, I wait til I see the tires moving, thank you Drivers' Ed); B) was experiencing technical difficulties in executing said turn because they were doing it one-handed due to their other hand holding their CELL PHONE up to their ear; and C) they were not wearing their seat belt.

The train crash in Los Angeles was due in large part to the driver using his cell phone to TEXT someone and didn't see the red light.

A teenager was hit and killed because he was texting and walked out in the road in front of a moving car. Not a driving incident, but still a moron on the road incident.

Can't you wait til you stop the car to have your conversation? Is the world going to end if you wait until it's safe in order to text someone? Lastly, HOW THE FUCK did you get a driver's license anyway?

That part scares the crap out of me. I took my teenager to take the written portion of the road test, and the DMV here in Virginia actually allows translators in order for someone to take the written test. Not sure about where you all live, but the ROAD SIGNS here are in English. You moved to this country; learn the fucking language. My great-grandparents came here in the early 1900's. You think they had a translator to help them with anything? HELL NO. They learned to speak and read ENGLISH. There were neither street nor store signs in Ukrainian.

That was a tangent rant.

Please take a few safe driver's tips from someone who has gotten into one single accident in the 26 years that I've been driving (and that wasn't even my fault - someone walked out in the road in front of the car in front of me, that driver stopped short and I rear-ended them; no ticket was issued).

1. Don't talk or text on your phone - pay attention to driving. You're operating a several-hundred-pound-possible-death machine - respect that.
2. Use your FUCKING turn signal - let other people know where you're going; we don't read minds. Plus, it's the LAW in Virginia: Section 46.2-860 of article 6 which describes this form of reckless driving:
   Failing to give proper signals - A person shall be guilty of reckless driving who fails to give adequate and timely signals of intention to turn, partly turn, slow down, or stop, as required by Article 6 (§ 46.2-848 et seq.) of this chapter.
3. Show some courtesy; if you have to merge into traffic, take turns. I know, so easy when you're spouting off to your kids about taking turns, but no, don't take your own advice.
4. Save your personal hygiene routines (makeup or shaving) for before or after you get in the car. No one cares how you look while you're driving. I do care that you're swerving into MY LANE.
5. Speaking of my lane - those solid white lines - you're not supposed to change lanes while in those. Nor are you supposed to change lanes in the middle of an intersection.
6. Finally, riding my ass is not going to make me go faster. I try very hard to keep a few car-lengths of space in between me and the person I'm following as to avoid problems; something else I learned in Driver's Education way back in the day. Don't ride my ass. I have a tendency to slam on my brakes when someone is riding on my ass. Did you know that for the most part, any rear-end collision is the fault of the person hitting the rear? I may have slammed on my brakes, but if you weren't so intent on performing an anal exam on me, that wouldn't have happened.

I probably have more, but this is sufficient for now.

More amusement

The Democrats latest ad compaign is all about making sure Americans know that John McCain is old. The latest ad points out that McCain went to Washington in 1982. Doesn't point out that in 1982, Obama was snorting coke. Hmmmm....


Former cokehead or old dude?

Last Night's Speech

Sarah Palin impressed me. I like her a lot. She comes across as a normal, average person with a good head on her shoulders. In reaction to all the media attacks, she went right after all of them one by one. Someone commented that her speech was "negative" but given that she's gotten tons of negative press in the past three days, I think she had every right!

What's starting to piss me off about the media is that they are all going after her as a mom as in "Can she be a parent and vice-president at the same time" kind of attacks. No one, however is questioning the fact that Mr. Obama too has two young daughters and is also a parent. It's almost like they (the media) are really giving every mother who works outside the house bullshit; I'm wondering what the end-result backlash will be.

Sorry to jump on the bandwagon (sort of....)

but really, does the world need this much fucking discussion on the pregnancy of the Republican VP candidate's daughter? Why have they spent three days pretty much non-stop talking about this non-issue at the Republican National Convention? I know they have - my husband is there, they are talking about it. She's not on the ticket, people. She's not the nominee - she's the nominee's unfortunate kid.

Feeling superior

So, I'm in turns amused and appalled by the attitude of the VP candidate, Sarah Palin, about her impending grandmother-hood. First off, what the fuck? Their evangelical christian way is obviously not working. Preach abstinence and neglect to teach about birth control options and look what happens: pregnant teenager. However, as an athiest, my way has worked. My daughter is 21 and hasn't gotten pregnant.

Part of the reason why it worked is that my daughter was smart enough to realize that babies are a shitload of work, time, and a lifetime commitment when she became a big sister at age fourteen and then again at eighteen. Not sure how smart Palin's kid is that she didn't figure that one out. She got a baby sister when she was about ten and then the littlest was born within the past six months (before she got preggers); did no one give her any responsibility at that time so she'd learn a thing or two? Apparently not.

I feel sorry for all of them. I feel sorry that Governor Palin has to put up with having her dirty laundry aired all over and I feel sorry that the kids are being forced to marry while still children. Like THAT ever works well. If the daughter has to be something, let her just be a MOMMY. She has to do that; she doesn't have to get married. That's just a recipe for disaster.