Link I am sure everyone is hearing about this....but for some reason today it just struck a chord with me. Whenever I see something like this on the news I immediately try to figure out what happened, based on the facts the news agency gives.  Maybe its my way of digesting it, I dunno. Here is my theory. I think she met a guy, went to a hotel with him, and he ended up tying her up, putting some tape over her mouth after shoving a sock in her throat and raped her.  T...

Yesterday, I was listening to talk radio, Glenn Beck, in the van.   Link   First, I am not a huge fan of Mr. Beck’s alarmist tendencies.   He is also way too sarcastic for my taste.   Sarcasm is ok peppered in with witty banter.   What Mr. Beck doesn’t seem to understand …..sarcasm ISN’T witty banner.   He was going off on how fat Brittany Spears looked at the MTV awards.   Personally, I didn’t think she looked bad, especially po...

In September, Greenville Ohio, a ten year old boy started a fire in his family's duplex. The fire killed his mom and little sister.  Not content with two lives, the fire leeched into the neighbors home and devoured the life of three little souls.  Their mom escaped. The ten year old pyromaniac lost his step-dad to AIDS last summer.  There is no mention of his biological dad. The single mother next door, who lost her three children, mov...

We are getting some serious snow fall right now.  The most we've gotten all season. The weather channel says we are supposed to get between 13-15" by tomorrow afternoon.  I woke up this morning, no snow. Now there is almost three inches.  Schools are supposed to get out 2 hours early. They need to get the kids home now.  I went to the grocery store earlier and there was about an inch on the ground.  The roads were horrible. ...

Sunday was Gavin’s 5th Birthday.   He wanted to have a party at Chuckee Cheese, so Chuckee Cheese it was. Five of his friends joined him for pizza, brownies, soda, games, and playing.   There was a plethora of screaming little voices in different pitches and tones, my twelve year old left with a headache.   (Though I think it was more from all the ‘rolling of the eyes’ he did than the actual noise.) It was the longest hour and a half of my life. &...

I heard a recovering alcoholic/drug addict complaining about school nurses yesterday. He has a “young teenage” daughter who is having problems getting Tylenol from the school nurse for hangovers Was he complaining about the underage drinking? Nope. Know why? BECAUSE HE BUYS IT FOR HER!!!! He says, “I’m a realist.   Teens are gonna drink.   I’d rather she do it in the safety of my home than out on the street.” Even though he is a...

Merry Christmas JoeUsers!  Hope it is a wonderful holiday for each of you.  And the new year brings peace, love, and prosperity!! Much love, Tova

Don't know if you've seen the news, but in Panama City, Florida at a school board meeting, a man pulls a gun.  He ends up firing it at the Superintendent, and eventually dies on scene. He lets people leave.  It's all on video. My question is ..WHERE ARE THE MEN ?  Oh yeah, they're sitting RIGHT THERE letting a pitiful old woman defend them !!!!  In this video you see a big black man is one of the first to leave.  Women are the last to leave, and the ...

THAT NIGHT…I went home and did a little research.  I researched the school and district policies on “threats.” Not surprisingly, there wasn’t anything about threatening the President of the U.S.  However, there were some criteria for what constituted a viable “threat” made by a student while on campus.  This situation did not meet any of that criteria.  Not a single iota.  In fact, the policy goes out of its way to say words have to be weighed with intent...

A couple weeks ago I sat down to help my 6 year old with his homework. The phone rang. “Ms. Tova, this is Mr. A, the Vice Principal from the middle school?” Me:  “ Yes.” VP:  “ I just wanted to let you know, H won’t be on the bus today.  It seems there was a bit of talking in study hall today, some inappropriate conversation within a group of boys.  There were some threats made toward the president, so I have the City Police Department coming by to ...

I am so sick. I shoulda known. Yesterday I was feeling kinda warbly.  It's a feeling somewhere between a brain fog and shaking uncontrollably.  I thought it was too much caffeine.  I don't get sick very often. The crud is going around.  No, not that crud.  Just a cold/flu/upper respiratory thing.  I couldn't sleep last night, my mind spinning off in a thousand directions.  It's hard to sleep when you can't breath through your nose. ...

I have a confession to make. I'm cheating. But it's not just me!  Dynamaso is doing it too! We are posting various and sundry writings at abctales.com. This is a British writer's site, so lots of "pissing myself" and other expressions I have to research to understand.  Heh. BUT...generally t his is how it works. You sign up for an account.  It's free. Then you post your stories, poems, whatever. The editors choose the best selections of ...

"The French parliament's lower house adopted a groundbreaking bill Tuesday that would make it illegal for anyone _ including fashion magazines, advertisers and Web sites _ to publicly incite extreme thinness." Story Here   2007 Spain banned the ultra thin models from cat walks.   I read this yesterday and couldn't get it out of my head.  I don't know how any legislation might be enforced...one woman's skinny is another woman's fat. The picture associa...

Feminist writer Jennifer Baumgardener has created a T-shirt that reads "I was raped" as part of multimedia rape awareness project. Baumgardener aims to force the taboo issue of rape into everyday conversation. Not surprisingly, the T-shirt is causing a fair amount controversy.--Buzzfeed.com This t-shirt was created by the same woman who made one which said "I had an abortion." She says it to create awareness... What do you think? Would you wear it?  Think its...

Many years ago, I came to Joeuser out of loneliness. My husband was on yet another deployment and I was in a strange new city with two young children. I needed adult interaction online while building RL relationships in our new community. I stayed for the varied viewpoints, interesting topics and people. I don’t know if it is just me, but I tend to associate in real life with people who share the same values I do. We don’t agree on everything. Who does? But, there are fundament...