Are We Surrounded by Idiots?

A couple of recent news stories gives a big resounding "Yes!"

#1 -- The Creek County Sheriff's Department did a training exercise this week wherein deputies had to be tazed so they could learn to use a Tazer properly. The logic behind this (even though there IS no logic behind it) is that if you know what it feels like to be tazed, then you'll be better able to taze others.

Uh . . . NO. What are these idiots going to suggest next? That you have to get shot before you're allowed to carry a gun?

#2 -- The Oklahoma Department of Corrections opened up a pardon and parole office in Claremore, just the other side of Tulsa, where sex offenders have to go to check in. The office is across the street from an elementary school. By law, sex offenders aren't allowed to go within 300 feet of an elementary school. This particular school is only 70 feet away.

"Idiotic" doesn't even begin to cover this. In most cases, pedophiles can't be reformed. Why in the world REQUIRE them to go to an area where their prime targets are in abundance?

#3 -- A few months back, a middle school teacher -- a man -- got into a scuffle with a 13-year-old girl. Predictably, he came out the winner. She wound up in the hospital with a skull fracture. Seeing that this was his second offense (!!), he was suspended and later fired. But now Tulsa County's illustrious district attorney, Tim Harris, (I hope you can read the sarcasm in my voice!) has decided to not bring charges against the man.

I know kids today are very different from when I was a kid. I know there's been a huge increase in violence in schools. But this jerk was bigger than the girl, older, stronger. Unless she was armed and he was in fear for his life, he had no right to lay a hand on her -- much less to do so so violently that he cracked her skull. He should have been fired and jailed after the first incident. And now the DA chooses to not charge him with a crime?

Holy crap! Rachel9:07 AM

Today's election day!

And we won't have to hear anymore campaign commercials for a while! Yea!

I don't live in Tulsa so I don't get to vote -- something of a relief since the ballot this year is kind of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" sort of choice. We know both of the major candidates have a tendency to "misspeak." We know they're both experts at talking without saying anything, twisting words, and giving what sounds like actual answers but really aren't. We know they've both done things that are, at best, unethical and, at worst, illegal. How do you choose between two people like that?

Actually I could make a decision if I got to vote. We know what kind of mayor the incumbent has been. Why would we choose another term of that?

The best part of any election to me is the end of the campaigning. I hate the commercials and the ads and the debates and the blasted signs pasted all over creation. Politicians always make me think of that old joke -- How can you tell So-and-so is lying? His mouth is moving. And it seems the campaigns start earlier with each election. I just want to puke when they start showing up on my TV.

Now we'll be campaign-free for a while. Wow -- just think of it: the Olympics are over, the basketball tournament is over or almost so, and the election will very soon be history. I feel a great peace descending over me even as I type. Rachel2:43 PM

Wedding news

Yesterday was the kiddo's wedding shower. DIL2B's aunts and cousin hosted it in Skiatook, her hometown and about 50 miles from our house. I know that because one of our favorite barbecue places, Mac's, is a mile or so down the road from where the shower was held. We have been known to make that 100-mile round-trip for a plate of Mac's pork and a dish of their campfire potatoes. Well worth the drive, especially if it's a nice day and we can take the T-tops off the Camaro.

Anyway, they got lots of cool kitchen stuff, plus the usual other things (and a china cabinet!). The kiddo's going to be the cook in the family. DIL2B doesn't cook, but she's an excellent cleaner, so that'll work out well for them. It's the opposite in our house -- I'm the cook, and Robert's the Dish Boy. Personally, I think the kiddo and I have the better part of the deal. We get to kick back after dinner while they're going to work.

It's less than three weeks now to the wedding, and everything seems to be under control. Still no shoes for moi . . . well, actually, I've bought three pairs but none of them to go with The Dress. Frankly, I don't see why I really need shoes. We'll be indoors, and if I stand fairly still, probably no one would notice bare tootsies under there.

Still no groom here, either, but at least he's safely out of Afghanistan, thank you, God. He'll be back in Oklahoma in plenty of time for the wedding, and with everything taken care of for him, so all he has to do is relax and enjoy.

So the countdown's started. One shower down, another shower, a homecoming, and a wedding to go. And then I can heave a big sigh of relief. Rachel11:19 AM