Things I Learned This Week

Here are a few things that tweaked my interest this week, some newsy...some not so much; some surprising, some not so much:

It is possible to host Thanksgiving without cooking ANYTHING. I did it, successfully, with the help of Mamma G, the honey baked ham store in Valley Junction and the liquor department at Costco.

Angelina Jolie "hates" Obama. Conservative men (and women): add brains to the long list of reasons that you lurve Angelina. Now you can say that the two of you actually have something in common.

Hot Swedish, model wives are just as crazy as regular ones. As much as I believe that public figures should be allowed a certain amount of privacy, it can be argued that once the cops are involved...you become fair game. But don't worry, Tiger...if this ends up being true, it won't be the weirdest super-sports-celebrity news of late...Agassi's admissions are going to be pretty tough to beat.

And...the one thing that should be getting a LOT more press time, that isn't...Human contribution to Climate Change is a bunch of bullshitery. Hey liberals: ya'll went crazy when no weapons of mass destruction turned up in Iraq, where's your outrage over this news...huh? Looks like you've been sitting next to that smelly guy on the bus for no good reason. An inconvenient truth, indeed.

Glenn Beck: Morale Buster

I wasn't going to blog this week, because I'm hosting Thanksgiving or something like that. Which means I'm very busy and stuff. In addition to readying my home for the comfort of family and friends, there's always time to tweet...today, while taking a break from playing Susie homemaker...I read this tweet from one Twitter friend to another, after clicking the link I watched this clip:



In the clip, Glenn Beck advises his nephew not to reenlist in the military. I don't have a problem with a caring uncle, offering sincere, candid advice to his nephew. What I do have a problem with, is Beck's use of his very popular television show to do so. I can only think of one reason why he would decide to speak to his nephew through the camera...Glenn Beck was advising ALL men and women serving their country: If you're thinking about reenlisting, DON'T...period. I mean, really...why else would Beck want to give intimate, life changing advice to his sister's son on television?

Glenn Beck is a fraud. The man preaches daily about the importance of being a patriot and then...this? I'm confused. What does something like this do for the morale of our troops? What good can come of it? I'm sure this is all very helpful to the boots on the ground and those that have lost a father, husband, brother, son, nephew, sister, wife, mother, daughter, niece or grandchild in Iraq or Afghanistan. On behalf of those: I would like to say: thank-you, Glenn Beck.

As I tweeted early today:

I liked him better when he was just kooky crazeeepants...The serious side of Beck is as appealing as the softer side of Sears

Sexy, Defined

So you've all heard about the Levi Johnston Ricky Hollywood Playgirl spread by now...first it was wenis out, then wenis in, we are back to wenis out status. I s'pose every man(hood) has his price, $100k didn't cover the cost of admission to the peep show.

Personally, even if he hadn't turned out to be a total shitstain, I find Mr. Hollywood about as sexy as a dead fly. In fact I can think of a lot of gents I'd rather chat...ahem...look at. Here are eight:

Tom Ford
Yeah, I know he's gayyy...I'm married...so what...everyone likes to cuddle

Russell Crowe
Fit or fat, he is a stud.

Jason Statham
YUM.

Johnny Depp
He's got that thang...y'know? I thought so.

Brady Anderson
My first love.

Daniel Craig
If you don't understand, then you haven't seen Casino Royale.

Christian Bale
The. Perfect. Specimen.

David Beckham
I struggle with Becks. He is sooooo hot, until he opens his mouth. I would have to put something in his mouth for our cuddle session *big grin*.

Thoughts on Sarah Palin

Palin on Oprah

The long speculated (and hyped) interview between the Queen of Daytime and Caribou Barbie finally aired today. I am not a fan of Oprah nor am I a supporter of Palin, but I tuned in, mostly out of curiosity.

The questions and tone were predictable. It is a well known fact that Oprah is an enormous (pardon the pun) Obama supporter. In fact, I wonder what would have happened if Oprah had been on Team Hillary, different outcome? Hmmmm...anyway...back to the big sit-down. It was lame, as most Oprah interviews are. Palin didn't screw anything up, she loves her family and her country. Oprah was less than warm, but, like Martha Stewart, I believe Oprah is more affectionate to her dogs than she is any other human being.

Me on Palin

Sarah Palin is very likable. She comes across as genuine and cheerful. She is good looking. Her closets are free of skeletons. She is unapologetic for her point of view, without being judgmental of others. A recipe for the perfect Republican nominee for POTUS? Not so much.

Female (and black) conservatives are treated like factory irregulars that should be discounted or tossed away. They are subject to more scrutiny and attacks. I'm not sure if Palin can handle this without coming across as whiny or small town. She has to accept that men and women are critiqued differently. Fair or not, it is a fact. She has to master the art of entering every situation as if it is hostile, without looking bitchy or annoyed. She has to artfully kill with kindness, all who cross her, without appearing clueless or naive. And, Todd is going to have to embrace the idea of being called, Mr. Mom...albeit, the badass, outdoorsy, hunting and fishing, snow machine racing kind.

A friend (and DC insider) and I chatted the other day about Palin. He likes her, but would like for her to improve. I asked him why she uses Facebook as her primary source of communication. His take: most likely, she likes Facebook and since she was able to make the jump from Mayor to Governor, doing things her way, she is reluctant to change.

Palin needs a bit of coaching, not to change 'who she is' but to change *how she does things*. Using Facebook as an outlet to reach supporters, is fine, but she has to use other avenues as well. There is a huge conservative movement on Twitter, Palin's tweets are less than few and far between. Twitter and Facebook can be used in conjunction with one another, she should know this and utilize. Also, Palin has an official PAC, its website was last updated, this summer to announce that she was not seeking a second term as Governor of Alaska. You can't raise money on Facebook. You can, however, raise money, send out emails and update supporters through a PAC, in fact that is exactly why they exist.

I wish Sarah Palin all the best, as a private citizen. There has been chatter of a talk show. I would lurve to see Hillary Clinton as her first guest. Maybe that could top Naomi Campbell's appearance on The Tyra Show...a girl can dream, can't she?

A Crazy Controversy

It's controversy time, ya'll...religion-style (sort of).

A couple of weeks ago, while watching Glenn Beck, I tweeted that if he was such a fan of the founding fathers, perhaps he should hold a seance to freshen up his message. A Twitter friend (one who actually follows me, and I follow back) informed me that Mormons are not permitted to hold seances. This was news to me, as I was unaware that Beck is a Mormon. I replied that Beck was more crazy than I thought. Learning (Wikipedia shoutout) that Beck is a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reaffirmed my feelings. That's when I became aware of some background chatter regarding my tweets. I do not like to be misrepresented, who does? My final tweet on the subject (or so, I thought):

Yes, I think converting to a somewhat controversial religion in order to stop drinking/love your family makes you crazy, unstable and weak.

Maybe, Glenn Beck who is a recovering alcoholic, needed a restrictive religion to keep him on the wagon or maybe not. I suspect he does need it. I haven't read any of Beck's books. I watch his show a couple of times a week, sometimes more. I only know what he tells me about himself in his live broadcast. Based solely on this information, I believe Beck to be within the realm of crazy, unstable and weak.

Controversial Religion

The skinny on my relationship with the Mormons: My best friend, my sophomore year of high school was Mormon. That spring, I spent nearly every Saturday night at her house and therefore attended church with her on Sundays. When I showed no interest in converting, her church suggested that I stop coming, our friendship did not survive. And I will say, it did have a cultish feel to it (as the elders and mission dudes did not care what my parents thought). And...not to mention, the whole Baptizing the dead thing...yeesh...spooky. So much for my naive notion that her and I shared not only the same God, but Savior as well. Silly me.

Are Mormons Christians? Yes. The crazy kind. I can say this because I am a Baptist. I was raised just outside of Washington, DC, where I attended church regularly. I had no idea that my religion was weird/crazy until I moved to the Midwest. The first couple of churches my live-in fiance *gasp* and I attempted to go to were all about fire and brimstone, no dancing, drinking, smoking, cursing and o'course premarital sex, EEK...all very Footloose. Instead of converting or denouncing my faith, I turned to our President at the time...I now consider myself a Bill Clinton Baptist...usually, this needs no explanation.

I am a fan of freedom; freedom of speech and freedom of religion. You are free to practice your crazypants religion and I am free to call it crazy...and you don't have to kill anyone in the name of religion to be called a crazie!

Updates!!!

Updates! Dontcha just love em? O'course you do...soooo, here you go:

1) It's been six months since my in-laws house fire. They are still in their temporary home, a new construction one-story house that wasn't sold, and therefore offered by the builders for rent. It's a lot smaller than what they are used to, but it is conveniently located and close to their house that is being rebuilt. My mother-in-law, Mamma G, is having fun with her friend (and professional decorator) picking out all of the furniture and fixings for her home, as she did twenty years ago.

Listening to her talk excitedly about the 'new house' is wonderful. Issues like the new twin Sub-Zs are bigger than the old ones and where to put the new hooded range are good problems to have. They are doing very well. We are all going to Costa Rica for Christmas and they should be moving in their freshly restored and updated, old house sometime after that.

2) We FINALLY bought a new mattress. After two years of looking...the purchase has been made. Inspired by Mamma G to stop procrastinating and make a decision, I did (sort of).

We bought it at a mattress outlet place called Midwest Mattress, which sounded kinda shady to me...but we saved almost $1000 and I honestly couldn't tell the difference between the one with a fancy name brand and the one we bought. It's a king with a pillow top that has *some* memory foam. I did NOT want a memory foam mattress, no matter what Al Pacino thinks. The husband wanted this mattress, I didn't love or hate it. After laying on 949 different mattresses, they all started to feel the same, I was hungry and defeated. We bought the one he wanted, it will be here on Saturday.

3) Over two months ago, the husband and I purchased a new oversized chair and ottoman for our bedroom. We tried to bring the chair upstairs, by ourselves. We were unsuccessful.

Yesterday...again, OVER two months later...the chair was relocated from its temporary home (laying on its side in the living room) to our bedroom. I was not home, while the move was taking place...Fergie and I ran some errands...so in addition to the cost of the chair and the cost of having some random dudes from Craigslist to move the chair upstairs, there was an additional cost: running errands = new shoes (almost always). A win-win situation...providing that the Craigslist mover dudes don't return to jack, rape or murder me.

Twitter's Response to Me

Some of you asked me about Twitter's response to my suspension, here it is:

ginger, Nov 02 10:43 am (PST):

Hello,

This is an email about the Twitter Support ticket you recently filed. Please be sure to read this, as you may need to take further action based on this ticket.

We mistakenly suspended a set of accounts in the evening of 10/31; accounts affected by this mistake were automatically un-suspended by 1:30PM PST on 11/1. Based on the time you filed your ticket, we think it's possible you were a part of this group.

Could you please log in to your account and see if you're currently un-suspended? If you are still suspended, you'll see a red notice announcing your suspension on your account. If we've already un-suspended your account, you don't need to do anything. We will close this ticket as solved.

If you're still suspended, please reply to this email letting us know. Responding to this email will reopen this ticket and put your ticket in queue for support, but you need to reply from the address this mail was sent to. If you use an alias (such as username+alias@gmail.com), ensure that your reply comes from the alias address or your ticket may not be seen by our support staff.

We're really sorry for the extra effort. We have a large amount of requests and really want everyone to receive help so they can continue to happily use Twitter! If this did not answer your inquiry, responding to this email will reopen this ticket.

Thanks,

Twitter Support

***

I am more than satisfied with their explanation. Twitter has a response team of, according to their site, seven people. Their prompt attention to my 'ticket' was impressive as my account was restored within about two hours of the error...which made me very, very happy!

I'm glad my suspension was an error and not the result of my account being hacked or 'blocked and flagged' by another user for abuse (aka spam...I am a lot of things, but a spammer, ain't one of'em). Anyway...everything is right in the Twitterverse and I can go back to saving the world...one tweet at a time.

BREAKING NEWS: Twitter Account Suspended | Updated

BREAKING NEWS: My Twitter account has been suspended. I honestly have no clue why. Sure...I'm not always PC, in fact, I suppose some would consider me to be downright offensive...and yes, I even use profanity. But none of those things are reasons for a suspended account...therefore, I am contesting the forced Twittercation.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I tweet a lot...this time-out is making me...let's just say...slightly unstable. I use the site, not just for socializing but also to stay informed on up to the minute, breaking news and commentary on sports, politics and other current events.

Right now, I'm hoping my Twitter account has been hacked...this happened to me once on eBay. The fake *me* listed penis pumps and Kama Sutra books for sale...mortifying...yes...but remedied, almost immediately. Twitter's remedy process is...slowwwwer.

I am uncertain why this happened to me...it has happened to others, including Karl Rove. Like Karl, I too will most likely experience Twitter withdrawals (in fact, they've already started). I miss you all and hope to be back soon.

xoxo
@duchess_rebecca

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UPDATE I: While my Twitter account was suspended, my Broncos were handed their first loss/beatdown of the season...by the Baltimore Ravens.

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UPDATE II: I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!! Thanks, Twitter for reinstating me after only two hours. I didn't get an explanation as to why my account was suspended...but maybe that comes later.