Lately on Facebook, several versions of what it means to be a little boy’s mama have been circulating. They are touching, and bring a smile to your face, a touch of nostalgia, and perhaps even a tear to your eye. You are exhorted to have lots of energy, be ready to put up with bloody noses and reptiles in the house, see movies you don’t like, and various other true things.
We mamas of little boys have a tough job. We deserve a little smile as we ponder our muddy offspring. As I type this, my just recently de-mudded grandson is graciously allowing me a few minutes to recoup from a busy day of swimming, mud bogging, dump trucking, and hugging stinky dogs. His sister hung right in there with him. So, yes, we even need these moments that tell our hearts that our efforts are special moments that will unfold in a story book life for our beloved sons.
However, we also need some harder truths, and now is a good time to take a look at that. So, here’s my version, for what it’s worth.
You might think, because I write this, that I am an expert and my sons are jet setting billionaires who are in a third world country fixing the unfixable problems. Nope, they are just normal guys, who have normal lives with some really wonderful successes like those grandkids temporarily being angels, and great jobs, fun hobbies, or devotion to family and friends. Being there when family needs help, rooting for the right football team (Go Irish!), sitting by hospital beds, listening to troubles. They have tried and failed, tried and succeeded, fallen and got back up too many times to count. (more…)

The admins here at the Treehouse were chit-chatting yesterday (as we often do), and Menagerie called our attention to an article, Seven Signs You’re Too Smart For Your Job.

Menagerie said she noticed it because it was linked to by a former employee of hers.  This person (who apparently thinks that he/she is too smart for the job) failed to exhibit proficiency at either of the two jobs that were assigned, and refused to come to work if it snowed.
(more…)

Thirty-five of us, give or take a few. Standing in front of the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco, on an overcast evening in June. Holding signs, protesting the woman who was scheduled to speak inside the theater that night: Hillary Clinton.

Not a large crowd of protesters, but it didn’t matter. The area in front of the Orpheum is not spacious, and we had a perfect position: every single person waiting in line had to pass by within ten feet of every one of us. They couldn’t help but see that we were there.
The ticket holders made a long line, a large group. Most of them looked like progressives. If that’s a “classist” statement, so be it. Not many under the age of twenty. Gays, “intellectuals”, people dressed casual-chic for a night with their current political lodestar. “I’m Ready for Hillary”signs, stickers, and buttons. Stray comments of “Grow up!”, “Where did you go to school?”, etc., but on the whole they were quiet. Likely they didn’t expect us to be there, so they didn’t come prepared with snippy remarks.
This one was different than most of the protests I’d attended in the past; different largely because of the intimacy of confrontation. Other times we’d been on roadsides waiting for Obama’s motorcade, or counter-protesting with Obama supporters, facing-off across Market Street as he fundraised with the Bay Area elite. This was like gathering around a crowd waiting in line to see a movie. (more…)

Now that we have spent a couple of months years analyzing Middle East and North Africa events, here is the geography quiz again. Let’s see if we remember what we have previously learned.

Here is a little fun site lesson in pertinent geography that I think you will enjoy. Either that or it’ll frustrate the dickens out of you. But don’t be embarrassed or shy. Give it a try and see how much you have captured from following news events. 🙂

Click Here to start.

Then share how you did. There are no scores or grades just the sheer fun of knowledge. Everyone is an honor student here.

( ps.  ZurichMike usually gets all the high scores – Him haz large brain noodles )

Here’s another quiz you might enjoy (this other site has multiple tests of this type):

http://www.lizardpoint.com/geography/mideast-quiz.php

LOOK UP !

There is a specific reason why we draw bold attention to the ignored events the media are paralyzed to present around controversial issues.

To say that all blacks are inherently predisposed to violence, mayhem or {fill in the blank} is patently absurd.   Nor is such a foundational principle for us discussing or outlining events which circulate the ignored media narratives of the day.

Yet it is impossible to remove the racial componentry from some issues as they present themselves to be.   It is exactly because the Main Stream Media believe you must separate out the racial or Islamic ideological componentry they are forced to ignore many of the issues and events which surround modern society.    It’s called “willful blindness’.

The media end up having to ignore stories because their inherent predisposition precludes them from discussing *any* event which draws along racial or ideological boundaries.  Unless those events surround common Fabian antagonistic issues such as: Free Markets, Individual Liberty, and Christianity.

This willful blindness or  misplaced “ignoring” is exactly the source of the reason why we do not differentiate in stories we present.

However, that’s not to say we don’t differentiate between the larger group who behave in an appropriate manner, and the sub-set which take full advantage of the forced silence and hide within the majority.    We most certainly do.

CAIR is to radical Islam what the NAACP is to unlawful black violence.   Both groups hide behind advocacy while creating an environment without accountability for the radical element within their association. (more…)

With a news week like this in the rear view one could hardly blame anyone for feeling an inability to breathe.

Then again, such emotional exhaustion is what’s often counted upon by the ideological opposition.   When they talk of “overwhelming the system”, they are not just talking about societal constructs – they’re also talking about overwhelming your mind, or more specifically your sense of peace.

That way when they create only a half-dozen or so progressively created crisis’s at a time there is a tendency to feel relief.   Until they are stopped, progressives will always find a way to push the envelope still further:

To borrow from Chip Bennett:

This is the treehouse. We engage in conversation.  [Stories] such as [these] represent, to many of us, an example of how our society continues to decline. We discuss it for catharsis; we discuss it to consider strategy to change the societal decline we observe; we discuss it because we are humans, who are wired to process information through such means.

And the people having the discussion – each of whom has found his or her own branch in the tree? They’re my neighbors, too. Just like Charlie Mayes is my neighbor.

(more…)

An odd story about a guy who bought a house where a grisly murder took place makes me ponder the question.

Seriously speaking – would it matter to you ?

…”They claim both victimhood and moral superiority. If they’re so superior why are they repeatedly victimized?   Of course, it’s past the point where the answer to that rhetorical question matters”…
-Sharon

Boundless Joy !

Full Story Here