Day: November 16, 2014

Political Bashing

Published on by Sandie DLeave a comment

ba9d8653b148197f6b33999a290dcfcfFacebook drives me nuts at times. It isn’t really Facebook, but it’s some of the people or the things they post. Granted, not everyone may like what I post or care about what I think. But, I try to be respectful when it comes to what people feel about faith and politics. There are times when lines are crossed and hate seems to be spewed from the fingertips and minds of the person posting.

It seems like politics and religion brings out the worse in people. You would think that friends should be able to discuss politics and religion in a calm manner, but that is very far from reality. Many like to hide behind their computers and post just about anything they wouldn’t want to discuss if they were face to face with a person.

There has been more than enough discussions when it comes to Obama-care, medicare, the deficit and so on. There are always going to be those who are diehard Republicans, Democrats, Independents and so What-is-truthon. I’m not diehard anything. I vote for the person. I would say that I am about 70% Republican and 25% Democrat and the other 5% is none of the above. I am a registered Democrat though. However I never vote a straight party.  When it comes to voting, I read up on things they have voted on in the past and I make sure to make informed decisions. I never use Facebook as a tool to decide on who I am voting for.  It drives me crazy when people don’t take the time to make sure a story is truth or fiction. Most of the time, it is fiction or half truths. For those who want to know the truth before sharing, I will post some links at the bottom of the page.

For some off the wall reason, I guess people have this thought that if it is on the internet or if it shows up on Facebook, it must be true. Well, here is a wake up call. The internet lies and so do many on Facebook. When it comes to politicians, I think they all lie.

There’s enough politics on the news. Turn on MSN, CNN, Fox News and so on and you will see for yourself. There are times it is OK to share information on Facebook and other social media sites and if one must, make sure it is true and not from sites that is only out to bash political parties.

I was reading on a CNN Website and it stated that Nearly one-fifth of people admit to blocking, un-friending or hiding someone on social media over political postings. The biggest gripes: The offending person posted too often about politics, disagreed with others’ updates, or bothered mutual friends with partisan political postings. When it comes to the debates and such I always have to block people. That’s because they have nothing good to say, they only bash whatever party they aren’t a part of. It can get down riracismght ugly and makes me question who they are as a person if they would say such horrible demeaning things.

Just last week, I deleted or blocked a few friends because their posts weren’t just hateful towards Obama, but they were hateful to specific faiths also. I have no problem blocking someone if they are full of hate and racism. While I don’t agree with what Obama is doing and his choices. I’m not going to bash anyone. I have chosen to pray for our country and our leaders. Our country was founded on freedom of religion and I will not listen to people who have a hatred towards anyone. To me it shows how small minded a person is. I am thankful that there is a way to block some of the peoples racist tirades.

I don’t care what people post on Facebook and I’m guessing many don’t like what I post and I am OK with that. I am not going to un-friend someone just because I do not agree with their opinions or viewpoints. However, it is very difficult to have political discussions on social media sites because of the number people that like to get into heated discussions. I will occasionally discuss politics with some friends and family. I also make sure that they can have a calm and reasonable conversation. If someone wants to un-friend me because I am a registered Democrat, that is OK. I have no issue with that.

Links to Fact Check what you are posting…

snopeslogoSnopes.com is one of the best online resources that debunks Urban Legends and Rumors on a huge number of topics. Its run by by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson, who established this website in 1995.

  • Fact Check – http://www.factcheck.org/
    The Updates come quite frequently since Politics and Government Policies is a subject rife with rumors. They also present evidence about why a particular story is true or false, so they are quite good at what they do.
  • Politic Fact – http://www.politifact.com/
    PolitiFact.com is a project of the St. Petersburg Times to help you find the truth in American politics. Reporters and editors from the Timesfact-check statements by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups and rate them on our Truth-O-Meter.
  • Open Secrets – http://www.opensecrets.org/index.php
    OpenSecrets.org is your nonpartisan guide to money’s influence on U.S. elections and public policy. Whether you’re a voter, journalist, activist, student or interested citizen, use this free site to shine light on the government. Count cash and make change
  • Truth or Fiction – http://www.truthorfiction.com/
    TruthOrFiction.com is your Email Reality Check. Get the truth about rumors, inspirational stories, virus warnings, hoaxes, scams, humorous tales, pleas for help, urban legends, prayer requests, calls to action, and other forwarded emails. So basically it covers almost every hoax that lands in your Email Inbox.
  • Hoax Slayer – http://www.hoax-slayer.com/
    Hoax-Slayer is dedicated to debunking email hoaxes, thwarting Internet scammers, combating spam, and educating web users about email and Internet security issues.

Little Black Salamanders

Published on by Sandie D2 Comments
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Grandma Grace and Grandpa Harry

I’m originally from a small town in Indiana called Knox. We would spend a great deal of time at my grandma and grandpas house in Grovertown. Which is just over a bridge from Knox.

We didn’t have power or indoor plumbing. My grandma and grandpa lived in a one room small house. There was a lot going on with my parents, so we were there most of the time. There was nothing fancy about the house. We had a wood burning stove and we cooked on a wood burning oven and stove top. Since there was no indoor plumbing we had an outhouse.

Since I grew up in that kind of atmosphere, we had to entertain ourselves. I was always getting myself into some kind of trouble. I did have an awesome sidekick though. My cousin lived just around the corner and we hung out most of the time.

223a80d03d07307b737a01e1542903bbThere are a couple things I remember as if it was yesterday. Here are just a couple of adventures we had. Salamanders were pretty cool. There were these little black slimy kind of Salamanders. My cousin and I would see who could catch the most. I had them in pockets, shirts and just about anyplace I could hide them at so they didn’t get away from me.

One day I got the bright idea to store my salamanders in a horse trough. My grandma Grace had horses, pigs, goats, chickens and just about any other kind of farm animal. Instead of holding onto all my salamanders and risk squishing them. I would fill my pockets and such and then take them to the horse trough and put them in there for safe hiding. Little did I know that the salamanders would go hiding in there. I would say I had about 50 of them. I couldn’t count them, but I knew I had a lot of them.

My grandma went out to get some grain for the animals and out popped these little heads. She screamed and was not impressed. My grandma knew it was me and I got into trouble. Grandma Grace was German and she had a temper. You knew you were in trouble if she starting yelling in German and her boots in hand, lol. She wasn’t seeing these salamanders the same way I was. I had to go get all of them out, and that was not an easy task since they would sink into the grain. I never did that again. Well, I caught them, but didn’t put them in the grain, lol.

Then, there was this legend. Not sure if it was true or not. Just down the street there was a small bridge that I would have to walk over to go see Raelene. The legend was that someone was shot and they buried his body under the bridge. In June of each year, the man buried there would come back and walk up and down the street. Many said they seen him, but I never did.

My cousin and I decided one day that we were going to go try to find the bones of who was buried there. I would never dream of doing that now, but it was an adventure and we went and looked. We never did find anything there though. It was kinda freaky. Every-time we heard something, it would scare us. Imaginations run wild when you are trying to dig up dead peoples bones, lol.

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Grandma’s house. There were 7 people at times sleeping in this little house, depending on if we all were there or just some of us kids. I have 3 sisters and 1 brother.

My fondest memories are from Indiana and living at my grandparents house. To most people we must have been like little mopy kids. We didn’t have the best cloths. We dug around in mud and played with whatever we could. We made swords out of sticks and would see if we could find bad guys in the forests. We took baths in the middle of the living room in big steel buckets. In the summer we took our baths outside with someone holding something up so others couldn’t see us taking a bath.

I can honestly say, i can understand how people lived back in the western days. That’s how my grandparents lived and that’s how we did. When I watch Little House on the Prairie, that is a reminder of how I grew up. Or at least lived until I was 10 yrs old and we moved to Arizona after my grandma died. My parents had all the luxuries of electricity, indoor plumbing and so on. But my grandparents never did. I think I prefer the way my grandparents lived. It was simple and we weren’t so caught up in worldly things. There isn’t much from my childhood that I remember, I have blocked most of it out because of how my life was as a child. Grandma made life better. She let us be kids. She had no money, but she still made sure we had what we needed.

Even though I only lived in Indiana as a child. I was born there and I will always think of Indiana as home. I think that is because most of the good memories as a child was from there. My grandma was a Sunday School teacher and she is the one who began to lay the foundation of my belief in Christ. She was a giving person and never expected anything in return. As long as you keep salamanders out of the grain bins, life was good, lol.