Kristy's Blog

Since I’m an Arizona resident, thought I’d give this a shot.

Mexicans don’t get any free benefits unless they have green cards. If you think they do, you are wrong. Free lunches at school is the only thing you got right (regarding benefits), and that’s only because you don’t have to show ID to get them. Contrary to popular myth, the majority of people taking advantage of the ER are Americans with no healthcare benefits, another reason we need to make healthcare a right and not a business.

FYI, most children of illegals are born in the US, giving them automatic US citizenship, so even the free lunch thing is right only part of the time. I don’t have a problem with the automatic citizenship thing – this country is so great because we are a nation of immigrants. We didn’t have strict illegal immigration policies on the books until the late 1930’s.

If only we would do what the Mexicans do when anyone applies for their green card (BTW, I have a Mexican green card, so I have this info firsthand) is run a background check and charge $200. The process took me 3 weeks. If we did the same and charged what the smugglers charged ($5000), we get a lot of money coming in PLUS the taxes they would pay.

Another thing, illegals being here is our fault. And not because of lax “border security”, which is laughable considering there is no border security on our Pacific and Atlantic coasts, nor on the Canadian board. We hire them. We hire them to build homes, clean homes, pick crops, wash dishes, etc. If we enforced laws punishing people who hire them, they would all go home. Better yet, why not slap a $10K fine on anyone hiring them (including private citizens that pick them up at Home Depot).

When Einstein was about age 3, his parents brought him to a pediatrician because he was not yet talking. Researchers have learned that Einstein had developmental dyslexia. More than a century ago, it was found that lesions of the left angular gyrus—ie, Brodmann’s area 39—induce acquired alexia. Therefore, it is possible that people with developmental dyslexia may also have abnormalities in this region, Kenneth M. Heilman, MD, suggested in his lecture at the 17th Annual Meeting of the American Neuropsychiatric Association. In his view, however, the high ratio of glial cells to neurons that was reported by Diamond et al was less a sign of Einstein’s dyslexia than an indication of the high degree of what Dr. Heilman refers to as “connectivity.”

After viewing photographs taken of Einstein’s brain before its dissection in 1955, Witelson and colleagues noted that Einstein had an enlarged left inferior and—unlike most human beings—undivided parietal lobe, suggesting that this bigger and more highly connected supramodal cortex gave Einstein an advantage in doing mathematics and spatial computations. In 1985, Geschwind and Galaburda posited that delay in the development of the left hemisphere of the brain may allow the right hemisphere, which mediates spatial computations, to become highly specialized. It was Einstein’s view that his own creativity was heavily dependent on spatial reasoning. Thus, the abnormal development of his left hemisphere may have led to the right hemisphere becoming highly specialized for spatial computations, Dr. Heilman theorized.

Read more: http://www.neuropsychiatryreviews.com/may06/einstein.html

Just Released! All 'Bout Credit – Episode 2 – What is a Credit Report?

You can send a $10 donation to the Red Cross by texting “Haiti” to 90999. You will be billed an extra $10 on your phone bill.

By giving up a one entertainment activity, you can save a life in Haiti.

$10 = one bottle of wine
$10 = 2 six packs of beer
$10 = a cover charge to your favorite music venue
$10 = 2 DVD rentals
$10 = one cocktail in a Scottsdale bar
$10 = 1 Pizza from Pizza Hut
$10 = one movie ticket
$10 = one snack and one beverage at the movies
$10 = 3 gallons of gas
$10 = one (modest) home cooked meal for two

You know you can afford it!

This is an effort backed by the U.S. State Department. Funds will go to support American Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.

This is not a hoax – here’s the press release from the redcross website:

http://www.redcross.org

Love this post. Finally someone talking some sense.

Read whole article.

The world’s greatest nation seems bent on subjecting itself to a similarly humiliating defeat, by playing a game that could be called Terrorball. The first two rules of Terrorball are:

(1) The game lasts as long as there are terrorists who want to harm Americans; and

(2) If terrorists should manage to kill or injure or seriously frighten any of us, they win.

These rules help explain the otherwise inexplicable wave of hysteria that has swept over our government in the wake of the failed attempt by a rather pathetic aspiring terrorist to blow up a plane on Christmas Day. For two weeks now, this mildly troubling but essentially minor incident has dominated headlines and airwaves, and sent politicians from the president on down scurrying to outdo each other with statements that such incidents are “unacceptable,” and that all sorts of new and better procedures will be implemented to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.

Another application from Facebook which is actually pretty cool…

In response to this story: WSJ article:

People are screaming about TSA, but the guy boarded in Amsterdam – not the U.S., where the TSA has complete control. The TSA works with all foreign airport securities to make sure they are TSA compliant, but we can’t control other governments.

Since there’s no proof positive that there is any link between this bomber, Mr. Abdulmutallab and Al Qaeda, I find it ridiculous that we would just take them at their word backed merely by circumstantial evidence. C’mon, let’s do some investigation before stating there is clearly a connection.

It certainly would be cost effective for Al Qaeda to take responsibility for this attack if there is no connection,taking all the glory without having to lift a finger. Maybe the bomber studied Al Qaeda’s methods and copied them. If his father was as wealthy as purported, he would have access to funds to purchase this explosive on the black market.

As for the investigation into whether detainees “had a role in the Christmas bombing plot”, I find this laughable as the detainees are not even given access to lawyers. How are they communicating with the outside world, let alone a recent convert?

The steps to prevent further bombings on planes are ridiculous. Nothing on your lap for the last hour? What about the first hour? You mean the terrorists are going to always wait until the end of the flight?

If you don’t want to get blown up in a plane, don’t fly. There is no way to prevent every attack. I will continue to fly and feel safe. The odds, even before 9/11 safety measures were taken, are extremely small that anything will happen during air travel.

I’m sorry, but kids do not require cell phones. Classrooms at all schools have phones in each room, so messages can be taken and relayed to kids in emergencies.

How about forcing kids to take responsibility for being where they say they will be and being on time. I think it’s ridiculous that any kid under the age of 13 has a cell phone. (Actually I think it’s ridiculous for any kid under the age of 15, but no doubt I will get rocks thrown at me for saying that.)

I didn’t have a cell phone and my mom knew where I was, or if I was out riding my bike with friends I was to be home at a certain time. I was required to tell her which friend’s house I was at and my mom could call if she needed to reach me (which honestly, was never – I knew when dinner was, that I needed to do my homework before playing, etc.)

My mom was not shy about taking away my allowance, TV watching privileges, or grounding me if I didn’t follow the rules.

I think it’s incredibly amazing how cell phones have changed society. Look at any street corner, and half the people are on their phone or using their phone to text. They don’t even talk to their friends at dinner.

I’m not technology adverse at all – I’ve had the same cell phone number since 1989 – I had one of the first cell phones you installed in your car, and just kept it all these years. I had one of the first small handsets became available, first Palm Pilot, first iPod, though I have to say, I’ll never own a DVD blu-ray, I’m going all-internet TV shortly and disconnecting my cable.

I can’t believe the number of times people scold me for not answering my cell phone, or not carrying it around (yes I can LIVE THROUGH THAT). I don’t have to be wired 24 hrs/day, fer Chrissakes. I almost never answer my cell phone – I don’t like being interrupted. What’s happened to private time?? I prefer texting and emailing. You can answer back at your time.

Rant, rant, rant. Thanks for listening.

http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/

My favorite passage:

Numbers 31:7, 16-17
And they warred against the Midianites, as the LORD commanded Moses; and they slew all the males.
…
Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

Nice.

For teenagers, the world is their social peers; they live and die on popularity. As adults, we never quite escape this – you never really leave high school emotionally. When agonizing over the angst of high school, I wish I had gotten this advice, as it still applies:

1. You’re not responsible for what other people believe.
2. Most people don’t notice what’s going on in your life – they’re busy with theirs.
3. If you don’t learn to deal with rejection, you are doomed to live an unhappy life.
4. In 10 years, you will have long ago lost track of most of the people you know now.
5. The people who are left after 10 years love you for who you are. You don’t need to seek their approval – you obviously already have it.

So feel free! Do what you love and ignore other people’s disapproval. By the way, I came up with this list myself. It’s all part of the growing cycle.