Meet Molly

Meet Molly. She's a grey speckled pony who was abandoned by her owners when Hurricane Katrina hit southern Louisiana . She spent weeks on her own before finally being rescued and taken to a farm where abandoned animals were stockpiled.While there, she was attacked by a pit bull terrier and almost died. Her gnawed right front leg became infected, and her vet went to LSU for help, but LSU was overwhelmed, and this pony was a welfare case. You know how that goes.

But after surgeon Rustin Moore met Molly, he changed his mind. He saw how the pony was careful to lie down on different sides so she didn't seem to get sores, and how she allowed people to handle her. She protected her injured leg. She constantly shifted her weight and didn't overload her good leg. She was a smart pony with a serious survival ethic.

Moore agreed to remove her leg below the knee, and a temporary artificial limb was built. Molly walked out of the clinic and her story really begins there.

'This was the right horse and the right owner,' Moore insists. Molly happened to be a one-in-a-million patient. She's tough as nails, but sweet, and she was willing to cope with pain. She made it obvious she understood that she was in trouble. The other important factor, according to Moore , is having a truly committed and compliantowner who is dedicated to providing the daily carerequired over the lifetime of the horse.

Molly's story is a parable for life in post-Katrina Louisiana . The little pony gained weight, and her mane finally felt a comb. A human prosthesis designer built her a leg.

The prosthetic has given Molly a whole new life, Allison Barca DVM, Molly's regular vet, reports.And she asks for it. She will put her little limb out, and come to you and let you know that she wants you to put it on. Sometimes she wants you to take it off too. And sometimes, Molly gets away from Barca. 'It can be pretty bad when you can't catch a three-legged horse,' she laughs.

Most important of all, Molly has a job now. Kay, the rescue farm owner, started taking Molly to shelters, hospitals, nursing homes, and rehabilitation centers. Anywhere she thought that people needed hope. Wherever Molly went, she showed people herpluck. She inspired people, and she had a good time doing it.

'It's obvious to me that Molly had a bigger role to play in life,? Moore said. 'She survived the hurricane, she survived a horrible injury, and now she is giving hope to others.'

Barca concluded, 'She's not back to normal, but she'sgoing to be better. To me, she could be a symbolfor New Orleans itself.'

This is a true story.

Landslide?

The Obama I Didn’t Know

My husband is an ardent independent who has, or wanted to (there was a mix up with his SS# in Fairfax County), vote republican in the last two elections. I’ve voted democrat. This year Shane has decided it’s going to be Obama and tonight we will send in our absentee ballots. I have strong feelings about Obama and his campaign is the first ever that I’ve contributed to. For the first time in my life I care about the outcome of the election and I believe I found a candidate who will not only act on my behalf, but force real and progressive change in Washington.

About a week ago Shane and I were talking about our favorite candidate and he said something that the only way I knew how to respond was, “I find that hard to believe.” Let me tell you, it worried me so much that I did the research, I even watched the documentary, and finding the “dirt” on Obama wasn’t hard, but it’s something the press has only recently started to report. That would be the “liberal” press as they are often called, and while I feel like a traitor to my party and my cause, I think it’s important to know the facts before I cast my ballot.

Fact: Bill Ayers helped found the radical Weathermen in the 1960s, an anti-Vietnam group that launched a campaign of bombing that would target the Pentagon and the Capitol building in Washington and claim 25 bombings in the US. Later married to a fellow Weather Underground member, Bernardine Dohrn, both were once on America’s Most Wanted list. They were never prosecuted for their involvement with the 25 bombings; charges were dropped because of improper FBI surveillance.

Fact: Obama met Bill Ayers at a meeting about school reform in Chicago more than 20 years later. Ayers and his wife Dohrn hosted Obama at their home for a fundraiser during his first run for office.

Fact: In this 2002 PBS (KQED) documentary Ayers and Dohrn are not apologetic of their “freedom fighter” tactics. They were a part of a “global trend of revolution” that sprang from the belief that not acting against violence IS violence.

Fact: “Sen. Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence,” said Obama’s press secretary, Bill Burton. “But he was an 8-year-old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost 40 years ago is ridiculous.” (Politico.com)

Fact: Obama is a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ congregation. The pastor of this church for 20 years was Rev. Jeremiah Wright (recently retired). Wright married Obama and his wife Michelle and baptized their two daughters. According to ABC news, Wright “… has a long history of what even Obama’s campaign aides concede is ‘inflammatory rhetoric,’ including the asserting that the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own ‘terrorism’.” Obama has, however, praised Rev. Wright’s “social gospel” approach and focus on Africa.

What is “social gospel?”

Shane thinks Obama is so far left he doesn’t even know he’s left. Personally, I’ve decided he’s a radical who will do everything he can to force change in Washington. Then again, I worry that once he’s in office he’ll discover it’s hard to accomplish much without the support of all these PACs (political action committees) on the Hill. These are the very same groups he refuses to gain funding from in his presidential campaign, presumably under the impression that if he doesn’t take money from them, he won’t be beholden to their causes. We’ll see. All I know, is that even with Obama’s admitted ties to known terrorists and a pastor who spews “inflammatory rhetoric” I’m voting for Barak Hussein Obama! Are you radical enough to do the same?

More information (oddly enough, many are opinion pieces):
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/opinion/12rich.html?hp
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120968398096261113.html
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8630.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=4443788
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,256078,00.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24371827/

John McCain & The Making of a Financial Crisis

Hey Sarah Palin

Even better!

Sarah Palin Debate Flow Chart

From Adennak:

Activity at the Apartment

I spend a lot of time at the apartment working hard at my job. My desk is situated right next to the window facing the front of the apartment. Here are some of the things I experience every week I'm here.

Monday: Trash day. That’s also my wakeup call. No alarm needed on Mondays.

Tuesday: Nothing special to report though last week they installed new flooring in the apartment above us. Pound, bang, bang, pound, all day long!

Wednesday: Wash the outdoor stairwell with a very loud power washer.

Thursday: Another trash day and it’s yard day as well. Yard day takes ALL day. First they mow, then they edge, finally they use the leaf blower. Yet somehow the grounds here still look crappy. They don’t water when it gets hot and doesn’t rain.

Friday: Nothing special but for the last two weeks they’ve been installing statues around the grounds. Luckily, this isn’t a very noisy operation.

Weekend at the Redneck Riviera

View pictures of our trip to Gulf Shores, AL, last weekend.

Nice things about small towns

• The nice part about living in a small town: When you don’t know what you’re doing someone else does.
• I can drive anywhere in less than 20 min. (as long as I’m not on the road between 5 and 6 p.m., rush HOUR, not hours) and can get to the grocery store and back in less than 15.
• I can leave my car and house unlocked and not worry.
• I can walk to the vet, nail salon, movie theater, bar, dry cleaner, and gamer’s haven (where Shane keeps threatening to join the D&D club).
• WalMart stock is full and not picked over.
• People are sincerely friendly and friends jump in to lend a helping hand anytime you need it.
• Friends live down the street, not 1 hour around the Beltway, or in a different state.
• The FedEx delivery and pickup guy is the same person and he knows me by name! He is always on schedule and arrives between 11 a.m. and noon CT.
• The mailman comes at the same time every day and also knows me by name.
• Better housing prices.
• Less stress.
• Trust.
• Clean air!

Don’t trust people who:

(Borrowed from David Murray’s list.)

• Attribute their every f-up to “a perfect storm.”
• Respond to criticism by saying they’ve been “thrown under the bus.” (What bus?)
• Describe their strategy (or their coffee or wine or anything else) as “robust.”
• Tell you, “I’m being perfectly transparent with you.”
• Tell you how “passionate” they are about branding, roofing tile or whatever else it is they’re selling.
• Say they want your feedback and thank you for your input.
• People who start something with: "As I'm sure you know..." If you're sure I know, then why do you feel the need to tell me again???
• People who say: "We need to make this a 'win-win' situation." Translation: "You need to do what I want even though it isn't what YOU want."
• People who respond to anything negative by saying "It's all good."
• People who remind you of a difficult time by responding “Good times, good times.”
• When someone tells you, "Leave me alone: I just don't have the bandwidth to handle that;"
• Responds with "That place would be a stretch target for me. Is there any low-hanging fruit closer?"

It might go something like this.

Hey Windi, I’d like to get your feedback. As I'm sure you know, so and so threw me under the bus. It really was a perfect storm that caused the problem. I’m being perfectly transparent with you and I’m passionate about making this a win-win situation. I know it’s all good, but I just don’t have the bandwidth to handle it. I think I have a robust strategy to get us through this but, this is a stretch target for me. Is there any low-hanging fruit closer?

Thank you for your input! Good times, good times.