September 26, 2007

If an Atheist testifies in court, do they still swear on the Bible?

Gay Vegans Need Not Apply
I do not normally use this space to snark on other mothers. Or I try not to, at least. Sometimes, the temptation overtakes me and then, well I am wont to get snarky. Sue me. I think what bothered me most was the homophobic sentiment expressed by those mothers. I have been an advocate for gays ever since I met my first one at the tender age of 14 and realized "Whoa. Like, um.... they are human, too??" The guy was a step-uncle and I had heard furtive whispers about him on the part of my die-hard Catholic step-father (my mom did not care and does not care - she is very open-minded and taught me likewise). Anyway, to meet this step-uncle and see that he was a really cool guy went a long way in expanding my tiny little existence. Then, when I had a child myself that made me even more livid at homophobic tendencies. The thought that my own child could not live the life he wanted to if he turns out to be gay was enough to change my mind once and for all. Besides, if two humans love each other, whose business is it anyway? And vegans? Um, well - I do not really understand that lifestyle either because I prefer my food to have the potential to haunt me from their graves, but hey - why would I care if someone prefers their food to have no eternal soul? So, yeah - I did not hang out with those mothers after that. They were actually nice gals, but I realized very quickly that we did not have much in common and I moved onto another mommy group where I felt more comfortable.

Soooooo.......fast forward to today. We went to visit Arun's preschool again in preparation for our schedule next week. Wednesday's class is a different set of kids than Monday's class. And those two moms? Yep. You guessed it - their daughters are in Arun's Wednesday section. I think it is hilarious, more than anything. What were the odds? Olathe is not a small town.

Speaking of pre-school, Mamma Sarah asked me how I picked the day school. It is the Mother's Day Out program at my grandma's church and so it was a no-brainer to send him there. In fact, on Monday when we went, the church secretary kept an eye Anjali while I hung out with Arun. The very same secretary who babysat my dad when he was a kid.

Mamma Sarah.....if I were to give advice, I would say first and foremost you have to trust your Mommy Gut. I read your post about the place you visited and I think you know the answer about that one. While I had my misgivings about sending Arun to day school, I knew immediately when we visited the school part of the church that I had no doubts about the place itself. Also, ask all of your own friends, co-workers, acquaintances - I did ask around and we do have friends that had sent their son to same school as Arun's. If Arun were going to this school full-time, I would definitely have more questions such as discipline styles and curriculum. However, he is only going for 9 hours a week, so I still feel okay that I will have the greater influence over him for the time being.

My Friend Flickr
I am sure many of you have read about the Orkut/Flickr thing going on. I read about it last night at Babes in Blogland and was just sick to my stomach over it. I live in a little fantasy world over here, folks. As I am an Itty Bitty Blogger, I tend to think that since no one reads me, I am safe. However, my stuff is on Flickr like everyone else. Then, I read today about Zoot's solution for it:
If you have a flickr account will you leave your profile URL here so I can make sure you are marked as a “friend” on flickr? I’m kinda lazy about doing that and I need to be better about it. For those of you in my family who are reading this, I created a login for you all a long time ago. Email me if you need it so you can see the pictures of your grandkids/niece/nephew whenever you choose. Like I said, I’ll still post pictures here, but I’d love to let those of you who use flickr regularly see when I add new ones easily. And I’d like to be able to see your photos as well. If you don’t want to leave your flickr ID or URL here, email them to me. Thanks.
I will be going that route and will be changing my Flickr photos to be viewable by Friends/Family only. If you would like to be My Friend Flickr, please leave your Flickr ID/URL here or email it to me at cagey333ATgmailDOTcom. I will still post snaps here at Rancid Raves, they just will not be public on Flickr any longer. It will take a few days to get to this. I am also really upset about this - I was having SO much fun creating sets and such.

However, last night I was MORE upset at the thought of someone twisted saving a copy of my kid's snap for their own fake profile. So, the decision was not that difficult.

6 comments:

Monkey McWearingChaps said...

If you need to be any more upset, I was pointed over to what happened to Sweet Juniper (offender, Babble). The Flickr page offered some good tips on how to protect the picture.

He's somewhat bombastic and I really don't agree with everything he writes but he was FULLY in the right on that one and I actually clicked over to his blog to tell him so. That a company like Nerve Media pulls the same lie out 3, 4 times on the same issue of theft is hysterical. And the first two times were with small business owners/artists. Well, they stole from the wrong person the last time...I always say it just takes messing with one a*shole lawyer to get the issue taken care of...

Monkey McWearingChaps said...

Also on veganism...

I truly don't care if someone wants to eat entirely plant based products, but as a group of eaters they tend to be way more evangelical than vegetarians and so I take every opportunity to mock the ones that ARE like that (granted not all of them are, I knew a totally loveable vegan in ls, still one of my fave classmates ever). And, I have a hard time accepting that it's a healthier lifestyle, like some of them maintain. Tell me it's an ethical issue and I'll shut up, but acting like you're going to live longer? Not a chance.

-qir said...

Just to address the header, atheists do NOT swear on the bible. They do something known as "affirming" which does not entail a reference to G-d that their testimony is the truth.

meno said...

I hate homophobia.

On the other hand, i do not understand why anyone would CHOOSE to be a vegan. It's unnatural.

:)

Kelly Sime said...

I'd like to be your flickr friend. Well, I was. I'm kellysime and circumstancedesign. My blog is circumstancedesign.blogspot.com

Mamma Sarah said...

Thanks for the info on daycare. Your weigh-in is much appreciated. :-D