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Mulling the motivations of Republican voters... an intro to the REAL America...

This is an essay that has been brewing in my thoughts for some time.  First I introduce myself... then I introduce three separate, but intertwined concepts that seem to have brought us to where we are...

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Don't Confuse Me With Facts!!

I have been getting increasingly frustrated with people in this country... people who cannot accept or believe in the truth, even if they get the documentation they want, in black and white, and placed...

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ding dong, the witch is dead... or not

Make no mistake, I am glad bin Laden is dead, it was necessary.  But I have conflicting thoughts as well.

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"Don't Be That Guy" Week...

This has been one of the oddest weeks I've had in a long time... It's kind of hard to explain, but I had so many examples of how NOT to act in regard to others it was rather mind boggling. I don't...

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Pedicures are like pap smears? Why we need the ERA.

I read this article, Fox ‘Expert’ Blasts Expanding Access To Birth Control: ‘Are We Going To Do Pedicures And Manicures As Well?’ on ThinkProgress today and I thought my head was going to explode.

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The Invisible Battlefront...

I am a public health nurse in a rural county in Missouri. My job duties are varied... tracking & investigating communicable disease, giving vaccinations, assessing children in WIC clinic and...

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If you want to know why women don't speak up about sexual harassment and...

Women don't come forward so often in cases of sexual harassment or abuse seen through several stories and venues, starting with Herman Cain...

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Real Patriotism

On this Memorial Day 2012, I offer up something I wrote 4 days after raising my hand and taking the oath to become an officer in the United States Army.I mainly joined to help soldiers.  I hope I am...

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My Independence Day Thoughts…

A reflection on what America and being American means to me... with a huge homage to my wonderful parents.

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Fighting for those who fight for us… an Army Nurse Case Manager story...

I joined the US Army as a nurse in 2009.  I am currently mobilized to Texas.

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Insane dreams and unsettled sleep

I started this as a Facebook status and it just kept going, so I moved the frustrated ramblings over here when they started become more coherent.

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My #1 Reason for Being Unable to Vote Romney

If I listed out the reasons why I could never vote have voted for Mitt Romney, I would be here for quite a long time. There never was any question as to who I was going to vote for this year, anyway,...

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Emotional Numbness after Sandy Hook & Moving Forward

In the aftermath of yet another tragic shooting in which a (most likely) mentally ill individual got ahold of weapons and took the lives of innocent people, this time mostly young children.  I am dully...

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NO! Pandering to the Rape Culture.

This morning while watching the Today show, they began talking about the Steubenville, Ohio rape case. They did an overview of the story and kept repeating how the accused kept saying it was...

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Going Full-Goose-Biblical in New Mexico

WARNING: I write in a hyperbolic style.  Please take that into account when reading and understand that when I leap to what appear to patently ridiculous conclusions, my tongue is firmly planted in my...

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Low Level Right Wing Buyer's Remorse

There may be some hope for a backlash against the Right Wing's grip on the redder parts of the map.  

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A Fundamental betrayal of women’s empowerment

Yesterday was International Women’s day (…yay… we get a day…) and a birth story I read online triggered my 2 a.m. brain squirrels into frantic activity.  The birth story was very typical, induction of...

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An amateur runner who will NOT be afraid.

I am a runner, coming to the sport relatively late in life. I love running because it's a very pure sport, no matter how many cool gadgets I use to measure my times or distances, or  play music to keep...

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The Background Music driving the Hobby Lobby decision & the War on Women

Apparently, corporations are people and women are not. That was my first thought upon hearing the Hobby Lobby Birth Control decision. There are many subtexts that bother me in this whole decision,...

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A worthy history lesson

In a recent blogspot post (oakborn.blogspot.com/...), I touched on the deliberate hollowing out of our educational system with the downfall of critical thinking and civics education in our schools. The...

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Trumpmerica Day 5: The Bill of Goods with a “special secret” menu

I think the time for recriminations, finger-pointing, division and blame re. “why Hillary lost” needs to stop at least yesterday. With enough blame to go around, we don’t need a circular firing squad;...

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Drowning the part of government they don't like (and us lowlife losers) in...

For 50+ years, Republicans have actively worked to erode public trust & faith in our democratic institutions purely for political power. St. Ronald the Reagan accelerated the process with his...

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Meryl Streep's Uncomfortable Mirror

Guess what kids!? It’s blog time again. Enough has boiled up and converged in my brain & life, that I gotta’“write it out”! This one has mostly been spurred a friend’s post on Facebook regarding...

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hook, line & sinker...

I went to the Women’s March on Washington-Portland this morning to volunteer, but everything was done, so I was vaguely waiting around for friends, but there was nowhere to sit and standing around...

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Divided We Fall

I took part in the preliminaries, sort of, at the Women’s March on Washington-Portland. I came home early for various reasons, but have been watching the pictures and messaging flow across the Portland...

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Peaceful Unified Resistance to the Angry Bullies

I got fired 3 years ago yesterday from a job. The firing was exceedingly personal and I just spent some time re-reading my personal blog posts written in the immediate aftermath… there was a lot of...

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Watch What You Wish For

First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a CommunistThen they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a SocialistThen they came for the...

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200,000 & Inconvenient Truths

200,000. Dead. Small by percentages as far as total US population goes, but huge to those who have lost loved ones… in some cases, almost entire families wiped out… only kids left behind… and the...

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Cheeto Mussolini & the Magic Sharpie vs. the Notorious RBG

I woke up before the alarm this morning, wracked with anxiety. RBG’s passing last Friday, may her memory always be a blessing, has thrown so much more doubt into an already doubtful time. I don’t think...

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America is an Abuse Victim Fighting For Survival

I watched as much of the first Trump/Biden debate as I could stomach, honestly I have a headache and feel queasy. I saw a man standing at a podium, but I FELT a man stalking the stage, raging like a...

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Elephants

We, as Americans, have certain things we like to believe about ourselves… about how we have continually improved ourselves and shed the negative aspects of our past, like racism & misogyny, when we...

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Defiant Joy, Creativity, and Curiosity

I just spent a week house-sitting for friends, and had some delightful alone time, which is a real gift. I took my cat, Mayhem, and we just chilled out and enjoyed each other’s company. I have returned...

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Public Health, Science, and the 100% Solution

In a former life, I was a Public Health Nurse, dealing most specifically with Communicable Disease in a small rural county in Missouri. I held that job for 7 years and I loved my work, but time and...

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Donald the Destructor

7/18/2020I felt it in the water in the 90sThe great unrest roilingBeneath a pretty plastic surfaceA counterfeit world, eggshell fragileWe have continued ondoing our best to ignore the noise &...

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The Fight REALLY Begins

I breathed a little easier yesterday. I took the day and spun a lot of wool for yarn. This is one of my favorite hobbies and keeps me from going over the edge. I’ve spun a LOT of yarn over the last...

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72 days & Afraid

I was feeling so good on Saturday. But I really wasn’t prepared for the events of today, November 9th. I really just want to crawl into the drawer our cat Penny lives in. It’s safe and dark, she has...

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Refuse to be the Shit Their Money Grows In

Unpacking this last week… and it seems like months.Seditious white supremacist fascists attacked our capitol building, I was trying to work while it was all happening… needless to say, I couldn’t get...

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Family Stories

Family stories make us laugh, make us cry, they can teach or often serve as cautionary tales. In 1902, only 119 years ago, 3 of my great uncles died. One of malnutrition, and 2 of diphtheria, only 6...

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