Taking the Scenic Route

My mother’s post on Facebook: My brother, Bob died peacefully at home on Sunday afternoon of lung cancer. God bless Hospice! At Bob’s specific request, there will be no obituary, no memorial service and no memorials. His ashes will be scattered at his favorite fishing spot along the Missouri river in Montana. Thanks to each of you for your support and prayers.

Zane quickly finds the codes to enter into the website.

Zora wants to look at the books too, but without much pictures, she is left with her sense of smell.  She determines the books smell like bananas.  

First snow of the year.  Zora told us “The cars need to be shaved” before driving.

Mom’s post on Facebook today: I’ll bet Zora had ‘cabin fever’ within 15 minutes of being up for the day. She always tells me ‘I HAVE to go out every day…I just HAVE to!!!’ You have my sympathy!

As usual, mom was right.

It is time we hold politicians & pundits responsible when they put crosshairs on people they don’t agree with, state “don’t retreat, reload” and a child born on 9-11 dies in the crossfire. It is reprehensible to promote violence instead of peaceful conflict resolution. You should encourage voting and petitions, not assassination.

Exhibit 1:  From Sarah Palin

Exhibit 2:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/08/us-usa-shooting-congresswoman-idUSTRE7071IA20110108

(Reuters) – A congresswoman was shot in the head and seriously wounded and at least five other people were killed by a man who opened fire at a meeting the politician was holding in Tucson on Saturday, officials said.

Gabrielle Giffords, a 40-year-old Democrat in her third term in the House of Representatives, was airlifted to a hospital in Tucson after being shot at close range outside a grocery store in the Arizona city.

Giffords underwent surgery and one of the doctors who treated her said he was very optimistic about her recovery.

President Barack Obama said five people had been killed in the attack, including federal judge John Roll and a 9-year-old girl. Obama said Giffords was battling for her life.

“We don’t yet know what provoked this unspeakable act,” Obama told reporters at the White House after dispatching FBI Director Robert Mueller to Arizona to oversee the investigation.

A federal law enforcement official identified the suspected gunman as Jared Loughner, 22, of Tucson. The official said the suspect was tackled after the shooting and was in custody.

Rick Kastigar, an official from the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, told CNN that six people were killed among the 18 people shot.

Gun violence is common in the United States, which is periodically rocked by mass shootings, but political shootings are rare, although not unheard of.

The shooting followed contentious congressional elections in November marked by heated rhetoric over issues such as the Democratic party-led drive to overhaul the healthcare system and immigration reform.

A window in Giffords’ office was smashed last March, after Congress passed the healthcare overhaul that had been opposed by Republicans.

“The rhetoric is really heated. Not just the calls but the e-mails, the slurs,” Giffords told MSNBC at the time.

In several YouTube videos, a person who posted under the name Jared Lee Loughner criticizes the government and religion and calls for a new currency.

“The government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar. No! I won’t pay debt with a currency that’s not backed by gold and silver! No! I won’t trust in God!”

OPTIMISTIC ABOUT RECOVERY

Doctors said Giffords was in a critical condition but they were optimistic about her recovery.

“The neurosurgeons have finished operating on her and I can tell you that in the current time period I am very optimistic about recovery… she was following commands,” Dr. Peter Rhee told a news conference at Tucson University Medical Center.

Nine other shooting victims were being treated for wounds at the hospital, Rhee said.

Giffords was hosting a “Congress on Your Corner” event — public gatherings to give her constituents a chance to talk directly with her — when the gunman attacked from about 4 feet away, National Public Radio said.

The suspect used a pistol with an extended magazine and approached Giffords from behind, firing at least 20 shots at her and others in the crowd, television network MSNBC said, citing law enforcement officials and witnesses.

Giffords, whose district stretches from Tucson to the Mexican border, an area at the center of the debate on U.S. immigration, advocates a compromise policy of tough border security combined with a long-term path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

She criticized Arizona’s tough anti-immigration law passed last year, saying it would do nothing to secure the border or stop drug smuggling and gun running. Her Tucson office was vandalized due to her opposition to the law.

Regarded as a rising star in the Democratic Party, she narrowly defeated a conservative opponent and was one of the few Democrats to survive the Republican sweep in swing districts in the November elections.

A gun owner, Giffords differed with many Democrats on gun control and supported the Second Amendment to the Constitution on Americans’ right to bear arms.

Obama called the shooting a “senseless and terrible act of violence.”

The Washington Post said it was not the first time someone brought a gun to a Giffords event. A protester in August took a gun to a similar event in Douglas, Arizona. Police were alerted after he dropped the firearm, the newspaper said.

WARNING TO LAWMAKERS

House Speaker John Boehner, whose Republican Party won control of the House of Representatives in the November 2 elections, said in statement he was horrified by the attack on Giffords and members of her staff.

“An attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve. Acts and threats of violence against public officials have no place in our society,” he said.

U.S. Capitol Police, charged with protecting U.S. lawmakers and the Capitol complex, said in a statement it had advised House lawmakers to “take reasonable and prudent precautions regarding their personal safety and security.”

The shooting could affect the immediate congressional agenda, a senior Republican lawmaker said.

The House is scheduled to vote next week on a repeal of Obama’s healthcare overhaul, which Giffords backed despite angry opposition from conservative activists in her district.

House Republican Leader Eric Cantor, who is in charge of the House floor schedule, suggested the timing of the healthcare vote might change.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton, Andy Sullivan and Anthony Boadle in Washington and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Frances Kerry and Ross Colvin, Editing by Peter Cooney)

SNOW! Big, beautiful, peaceful flakes. Happy & Cozy.

The kids went to respite care and we headed to the mall. In the parking lot I told Zach to stop, took a picture, then told him he might want to take the sparkly rainbow pony stickers off of his shirt. I’m nice like that.

Me: So, where are we parked?
Dh: (in the white SUV) in front of Barnes & Noble
Me: Not helping.

It is nice to be looking forward to the weekend instead of dreading it. When you are unemployed, the weekends stink because you have no hope of being called for an interview, and no money to do anything.

I am SO SO VERY ready for respite care to resume tonight. I really missed it over the holidays.

http://www.juancole.com/2011/01/egyptian-muslims-throng-in-thousands-to-protect-christians.html

Thousands of Muslims honored a promise made by their leaders and showed up at Christmas Mass or at candlelight vigils outside Egyptian churches on Friday, offering their bodies as human shields against any acts of terrorists. The observances were tense, in view of the New Year’s Day bombing of a cathedral in Alexandria, which killed 21. The Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on January 7. Among those Muslims making this statement was beloved comedian Adil Imam. Since the 1990s Imam has been active in combating radicalism, memorably in his film “Kebab and Terrorism” (Kebab wa Irhab).

Father Marqus, the Bishop of Alexandria, said that in his entire life he had never seen the degree of solidarity of Muslims with Coptic Christians that he has witnessed in recent days. He said that Muslims attending the funeral of the Christian victims of the New Year’s Day bombing had treated them like Muslim martyrs, pronouncing ‘God is Great!’ in mourning, and had erupted in applause at the condemnation of the terrorists. He said that the bombing was like an aqua regia solution that would assay the metal of the Egyptian people and reveal their golden nature. The act of terror, he said, will have the opposite effect of the one intended, and will instead increase the love of Christians and Muslims for one another.

This report from Aljazeera English also shows the solidarity demonstrations and the extensive security protection offered the Christians by the Egyptian police and security forces: