So I saw the corpse flower is blooming in Houston. I'm kind of sad I am nowhere near there, I have always wanted to smell a corpse flower, because I'm a masochist. They do have a live web cam though.

http://www.hmnsmedia.org/CorpseFlower/

And this is pretty interesting:

http://graphjam.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/34fa433d-a6cd-4aad-b4f9-a04d2edc4178.png

It is a mood map of the US based on tweets from around the US. People in the northeast are always pissed off People on the west coast, not so angry.

So I live in AZ, ground zero for SB1070. I have to say I'm a little perturbed by what is amounting to one sided attention the national media is giving to the situation.

I want to start off by saying, I LOVE living in Arizona. I moved here by choice and every time I leave I am happy to come back. This does not mean I agree with all of the politics to come out of this state but overall, it is a great place to live. Part of what there is to love here is the rich Native American and Mexican culture. The architecture, the amazing foods and a certain level of casual, family focused living are all things I attribute to this state's Latino heritage.

Historically, the United States won the northern part of Arizona from Mexico in 1848 after the Mexican/American war. In 1853, the United States bought the rest of AZ from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase. Arizona became a territory in 1863 and became a US state in 1912.
Here is a news clip about the newest challenge filed to the SB1070 law.

This is another example of what I believe is overreaction and more racist than anything the SB1070 is going to do.

Because of the state's Mexican heritage, we have a very rich Latino culture here. We also have a HUGE population of people whose ancestry here, in this state, predates the United States entirely. We have a massive Latino population of US citizens and of Native Americans some of whom are similar in appearance to or related to Mexican and other Latin American peoples. There are SO MANY people who are culturally Hispanic US Citizens, it would be nearly impossible to racially profile anyone with any level of success. The other issue of course is the varied appearance of Latino people. My husband has an intern from Mexico, who is a Mexican citizen here legally on a student visa. The guy has blond hair, blue eyes and pale skin. If he were to over stay his visa, racially profiling him would miss the fact that he would be here illegally. I know a few European people who are here illegally and should go home and get in line with everyone else who has waited in line and jumped through the hoops to find legal ways to be here too. This isn't about heritage, this is about obeying the law.

The moment they begin truly racially profiling people or violating the rights of US citizens with this law is the moment I will be out there with my protest sign and say enough is enough. Until then, since the law is pretty much identical to the federal law we all accept as just and justly enforced, I don't really see the issue. Yes, it will be sad when the neighbors gardener gets busted because I know they are not here legally (I interviewed them and didn't hire them because I don't hire illegal workers) and their vehicle is a moving cop magnet because it is in terrible shape, held together with duct tape and bailing wire. They are a nice family, I don't dislike them as people and they have a little dog who looks identical to one of mine. Their kids sometimes come work with them and the kids are nice enough kids too. However, I'm sure there are nice families in Somalia, other countries in Africa, parts of Asia, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union who have life WAY worse than the Hernandez family had it in Mexico. It is tragic for people in other countries too, why do the Hernandez's deserve to cut in line?

What I find rather disturbing about the protests and many news stories is how racist they seem to be. The bolded quote up there for example. When a Latino rights group claims that wording racially profiles them, isn't that assuming a stereotype about all Latino's? Because honestly, I know a LOT of Latino's and most of the ones I know speak English well, are not nervous or shifty and per the law do not overcrowd their vehicles. At the work corners, in front of the Home Depot the people who do not have proper documentation to get a regular day labor or other work, they would fit that description. And really, all you have to do is present your drives license or border crosser card or visa or passport and you have proved you are here legally and you go on your way. I have been stopped and detained a few times by the Border Patrol (federal). They have random checkpoints and I go to Mexico sometimes. I have brown eyes and being a first generation US citizen born to legal immigrant parents, I have a slight accent. This has gotten me stopped and questioned on quite a few occasions. It is annoying, but I get it, and as soon as they verify that I am not an identity thief and my ID is legit, they send me on my way. It isn't really anything. No more annoying than any other traffic stop and less bad overall because I don't get ticketed or anything.

I don't know, the whole thing is just getting really stupid. Not so much here, but the weirdly slanted national attention is just off base. I think if people lived here they would understand HOW huge our citizen Latino population is and understand how impractical racial profiling really would be in this case. I keep wanting to shout WHAT PART OF ILLEGAL DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND!!! Get in line with everyone else, like my family from Germany and China did. If we had the space and resources to save the world then I'm sure we would, but we don't so since there is a limit and rules in place which filter people, everyone needs to follow those rules and go through the same filtering as everyone else has to. It isn't fair to the people who follow the law when other people break it and then get rewarded for it.

And it isn't just Mexican's and people from other Latin American Nations who come here illegally, it's lots of people. Again, I feel making this a Mexican/Latino thing is perpetuating a stereotype more than anything else.

I think overall whenever a group identifies by race and someone of that race speaks for their race it kind of is annoying. It creates that us/them mentality among people. It is so easy when a "Latino leader" says "Latino's feel bla bla bla..." to then respond with "I disagree with Latino's" when really it isn't Latino's, it is that one person and however many people actually share that person's mindset. Aside from some heritage, what does that leader really have in common with another Latino person? Probably about as much as I have in common with "White leaders" like David Duke, and that fucker doesn't speak for me, I can speak for myself. I feel these leaders are often more divisive than helpful. This is not to say I disagree with the civil rights movement, or with people's rights to protest or ask for rights, as US citizens, we do have that right as part of the first amendment. I disagree with the labeling of each group as a whole united front based on race or gender. It strips the individual of their own opinion and person. It seems counterproductive at this point when we have made such great strides at integrating people.

I have written on this before, so before flaming me, if you stumbled onto my blog, read back a few entries to get the rest of the story before you hate on me.

Wow, I just turned 34! My birthday was nothing special. It is my last week before summer classes start up. I'm a big fan of True Blood, so I decided while I had some time when I can read for fun rather than feeling guilty like I should be studying, I would read the Sookie Stackhouse series. I bought all 10 books and the between short story book and I read all of them over the last few days. Yesterday, for my birthday, I was just finishing the last book. A quiet day reading, while not exactly as much fun as the sexy, insane, orgy of a party I had for my 30th, was actually remarkably relaxing. My husband came home from work early and did some chores around the house and I fixed a computer for one of my son's friends.

My in-laws sent me a card. I threw it away. My husband retrieved it from the trash and opened it and read it. I was a bit miffed that he did that. I honestly was not interested. I walked outside to look at the baby humming bird who just hatched outside my house while he was reading it. Later he assaulted me with the card again and read it to me. I was really upset. I'm not sure what he thinks he is going to accomplish by forcing this on me. I spent 6 moths being insulted, and insulted and insulted by these people. I am still living out of boxes and in a house which is not really decorated or set up to my taste because we moved to help them out. I tried and I tried to make things work with them, nothing I did was right. There has to come a time when you give up on people and decide they are just toxic to you and need to become invisible to you. I wrote them out of my life when I left Florida. I'm just annoyed that my husband wants to force them on me again. They had many chances, they are old, not like kids who grow up, I am done with them. I'm not stopping him from talking to them (though he hits ignore quite a bit) or visiting them (he doesn't want to do that either) if he would want to, but I'm just not willing to have any more to do with them, so his reading the card to me was definitely the low point of my day.

Is "Big Red" soda a regional thing or is it available in other parts of the US/world? I have never tried it before, but my husband, who is an avid player of "Kitchen Chicken" (a horrifying game where he eats the most repulsive combinations of foods. He is also the trier of all things suspect of having been in the fridge too long ), brought some home along with the root beer and ice cream I requested after a particularly strong craving for a root beer float. After the root beer ran out, he coaxed me into trying this strange red soda. It is BUBBLE GUM flavored!!! Upon smelling it I was utterly repulsed, but after a couple sips I found I kind of liked it. It makes a very tasty float too.

My son just tried it, and tried it with the vanilla ice cream and he said something rather interesting. He said I think this tastes like the 1980's. If I was going to assign a smell and taste to the 80's, this would be it. He was born in 1993, so I find it kind of awesome that he was perceptive enough to think of this, because thinking back on the 1980's, totally, bubblegum. Bubblegum ice cream at the roller rink with bad hair, a bare midriff, huge ear rings and a deep hope some boy who looked something like Corey Haim would come over and ask for a slow skate. LOL. OMG, I feel old. (Yes, even a girl with parents attempting to raise her Amish still had those moments, usually when some friend or cousin or aunt took pity on me, but yeah.)

I have the best cared for ants in the neighborhood. When we moved into this house, we noticed these GIANT black ants had an interesting nest in the back yard. I was a bit freaked out after my and my very allergic dogs terrible experience with ants in Florida. I soon discovered these ants to be totally docile and unobtrusive. I decided I like them to the point when we had the house termited I specifically requested they not use anything which could harm the ants.

These ants are so fucking cool. They are a seed gathering species so they don't bite (they will sting if you step on them or hold them), you can walk right up to their nest and stick your finger into it and they will check you out but won't sting or bite. They are super busy from May through October and they are then dormant for the winter. In the summer they only come out in the early morning and the evening. They totally keep my yard clean. They collect every seed and grass particle and haul it away. They have ant freeways and paths across the yard which are very clearly defined. Totally cool.

My husband loves them as much as I do, maybe more. He spends lots of time out with them. Today, because it was hot, he built them a little ant shade tent above their nest and he has been misting them with our terrarium pump mister thing. He noticed they all came out to drink from it so he put out some cricket water jello stuff and then he put some flax and sunflower seeds out for them which they are carrying away now. I swear we really do have the most loved ants on the block. I guess if everyone had ants as cool as these more people would like them. They never come into my house and they really do a great job of cleaning.

In other news, we ended up having some friends over yesterday. Not quite as lame as I thought we were going to be. Today, I installed a drip system in my garden. It was 100 degrees today. Supposed to be 110 by Thursday. I LOVE Arizona, LOL. Ok, not really.

So if I wanted to get out of the heat, stay in the USA and go someplace a little off the beaten path (not like out in no place, just not the first place you would think of), where should I go? I've done everything in California, from Truckee to San Diego. I've done most of what there is to do in Arizona, from ice hole spelunking to shopping in Mexico. I have not done a lot in Utah or Colorado or New Mexico. I hate Las Vegas. Any ideas? We like nature, zoos, botanical gardens, art, historically significant places, water, interesting shows. We don't like insane crowds, eating out or bars (we eat but our whole reason for going someplace can't be the food, food is secondary), or gratuitous shopping (will shop but, like food, it can't be the main point). And we would like to take our dogs with us but would put them in day care if there was something we wanted to do for the day. Anyone have any ideas where we could go for like a week or so? Someplace cool to rent a cabin maybe?

Well, I guess I got a B in that class. She docked me the exact number of points on my final to fall into a B instead of an A. That kind of pisses me off, because I put forth the same effort I always do and this was a pretty severe docking of points and for nothing, like because she didn't like my opinion. I'm a little bit pissed, but I'll accept a B+ I suppose. Pleh, broke my straight A's streak though.

My dogs have made a full recovery thankfully. I'm very happy about that.

My husband took the week off because we were going to go to San Diego or Rocky Point (Mexico) for a week, but because of the San Diego boycott on AZ we have decided to avoid it. We have AZ plates on our cars and from what we hear about half of the protesters we get here in AZ are busing in from San Diego and somewhat hostile so I really just want no part of any of them. They are pissing me off. So conveniently leaving the words ILLEGAL from infront of the words immigration. No one is against immigrants, they are against the illegal part of the whole situation. Because of all of the drug wars and cartel activity they have advised Americans to avoid Mexico this year and I am abiding by the warning so no Rocky Point. So we are not sure what we are going to do. I'm not in the mood to go camping and I don't really want to drive super far like up to northern California even though I kind of wouldn't mind visiting my cousin who lives in the bay area. I travel with my dogs so I always have to plan ahead a little more than if I was traveling without pets and now here it is Sunday and we have no idea what we want to do. So lame. We might just stay home and enjoy a week of not having anything to do. It's too hot out already to really enjoy 4x4ing or shooting anymore. The water holes are no fun because they are super crowded and the Salt River tubing thing bores the shit out of me since I don't enjoy getting drunk off my ass on a tube while sunburning down a slow river with 100's of other drunk lobster red assholes.

We are not even grilling today or going to our friends house. I went to the Mexican store yesterday and got a bunch of stuff and made freshMex taco's and Fajitas and we have a ton of leftovers. We are so lame.....

Ok, well I'm done being political for a while now. Today I will just report that yesterday sucked. I have an outdoor smoker and it has a drip pan in it. Last time I smoked some meat I had lot going on and I forgot to clean out the drip pan as soon as the thing cooled enough to handle it. I ended up forgetting for a whole week. So it got pretty rancid. Holding back the vomit, I took the main part to the alley and dumped the grease/rotten liquid/ maggots etc into the dumpster and then brought the rest of the drip pan to the corner of the yard and hosed it out in some rocks for a while before bringing it inside for a proper bleaching and washing. Apparently, my dogs thought licking the rocks was a good idea. I guess I should have figured dogs will always seek out the grossest and most awful thing and have an unyielding drive to consume it. I totally didn't think about it.

Sunday my dogs seemed a bit off. I almost took them to the emergency vet but I figured I couldn't even put a finger on what was off about them, by morning they seemed better or at least no worse. Monday afternoon the one started vomiting. He vomited and dry heaved and had the most pathetic look on his face ever. I had been up for 26 hours studying for finals and then with the dogs. I checked their lips for dehydration and they were not dehydrated so since my husband would be home in an hour I asked him to take them to the vet and I went to sleep. He didn't take them. I was pretty mad when I woke up.

Around 3 in the morning the real fun started. 2 out of 3 dogs with full blown food poisoning Their regular vet opens at 7. I took them in first thing and they had to be hospitalized. They got X-Rayed (in case they ate any of the rocks) and drugged and given subcutaneous fluids. I felt so bad for them. They were so incredibly sick and looked so sad. Their blood tests and other tests all came back good, so at least they were not suffering anything more than a bacterial intestinal upset but still. I feel really really bad for them. And it was so expensive.

I shoveled up all of the rocks and threw them away and I will have to be more vigilant about emptying that drip tray in the future.

I took my final final and I should finish out the semester with all A's again. Unless the essay part of the final is graded really unfairly I think I will be ok, I added up my points and I can have a whole 16 points taken off my essay and will still have an A. I had 2 points taken off my midterm. It was still stressful and I really was worried about my dogs. I missed them so much being in the hospital all day.

I wanna talk about the term "Racist", I also want to talk about the new AZ immigration law SB1070. Bring your hate.

I am so fucking sick to death of the word racist being thrown around like candy. Words like cunt, fuck, tits and even racial slurs say more about the person using the words than they say about the person the word is used on. If someone calls someone a slur, no one is going to fire the person the slur was used against. No one will even think less of that person. If anything that person can capitalize on the sympathy and outrage of others if they are of the attention whoring persuasion. Now I am not saying this was historically the case, or devaluing the suffering of minorities and the fight for equal rights. However, living in the now, I can't think of anyplace where if person A calls person B a racial slur, person B comes out of the situation worse than person A will end up coming out of the situation. Person A will be labeled a racist. They could be fired, disciplined and socially ostracised. The label of "Racist" is a powerful word, much more powerful than any slur out there. It bothers me when the label is applied indiscriminately.

Adolf Hitler was a Racist. People in Florida who trapped, castrated and set on a fire a black doctor for voting in the early part of the 20th century are racists. Those same Floridians who then set an entire black community on fire and trapped men women and children in burning houses because of the man voting, they are racists. The KKK are racists. I will not lump a guy like Don Imus for example into that category, he said something stupid. From all accounts I have seen and heard, he is not racist. I would say Mel Gibson is racist, because while he has not committed mass genocide, he has aligned his thinking with those groups and said some pretty definitely racist things. However, it is a free country and he has a right to say those things and make himself look as much like an ass as he wants to. Case in point, the term racist applies, Jewish people come out of his little rant looking like victims, we all think Mel is an asshole.

When things which are culturally insensitive or stupid at best are labeled as "racist", it pisses me off. It devalues true racism. It makes people stop caring. It's the boy who cried wolf.

It pisses me off about as much as when people of various races are lumped into broad categories. Like "the Black community" or "Hispanic community". As if all people of whatever race or group have some form of hive mindset especially based on the opinion or speaking of a single individual.

An ethnic or other group doesn't have an opinion until that group has voted and all voiced their opinion. I will agree to being lumped into "The American people" with regard to overall laws and actions, though as an individual I have often voted against or disagreed with many of those actions and I would take offense to someone holding me personally accountable, while I will accept a broad statement lumped onto the nation if it is accurate as in "The Arizona voters wanted the tax hike", I will accept that statement but I actually voted against the tax increase as an individual. If this makes sense.

So, on to SB1070. It is the new Arizona illegal immigration law getting so much attention.
The law states that immigrants, and really everyone must carry proper documentation of their legal status and present it to law enforcement if requested. It requires law enforcement to request proof of legal status (your state issued ID) if there is reasonable suspicion the people are here illegally.

This sounds a bit scary, even Nazi, when you hear it, until you realize it is ALREADY A FEDERAL LAW!!! This law has been in place for ages. The only thing SB1070 does is allow local law enforcement to enforce a federal law already in place. If we are going to label the state of Arizona "Racist" because it expanded on the ability to enforce an existing law, then we better label the United States as a whole as racist.

Right now, pre SB1070 being in effect, if an illegal immigrant is caught driving drunk, there is SO much paperwork for the cops that they usually simply tell the guys to park the car and get a cab or walk home. They have no drivers license, no state ID, nothing so the police officer can't arrest them the way they would arrest and charge someone like me if I were to be caught driving drunk. This law allows the officer to arrest them and have them deported. If nothing else, it is a deterrent for breaking American laws.

Right now, illegal immigrants are being smuggled here, held as prisoners and made into slaves. Something needs to be done to stop this. Quite honestly, changing our national policy with regard to Mexico is what is in order, but I think too many people are benefiting from keeping Mexico a poor country. Mexico is an amazingly beautiful, fertile and culturally spectacular place with resources and amazing climate. Mexico should be rich, but then who would we farm our cheap labor off to? If we want to throw big words like "Racist" around, maybe we should look at the economic hardship faced by so many of the lower classes of citizens in Mexico so we can have non-union labor assemble our Ford's in Mexico and sew our cheap clothes we like to buy and pick our cheap peppers and cucumbers. It's not quite genocide, but it's pretty bad. Certainly worse than enforcing existing federal laws and returning people to their country of origin and telling them to get in line.

My family immigrated here, legally, except for my grandfather who jumped off the boat and swam ashore because he didn't like paperwork (and he was a serious asshole and a criminal who should have been sent back to China). His presence here did not make America a better place. My mother became a citizen shortly before she got married to my father and gave birth to me. She had to wait, she had to take classes and she had to spend money becoming a US citizen, and while I disagree with her on many issues, you have never met a more patriotic person than she. We all speak with accents. I took classes to speak American. We could be asked for papers. Thankfully, because I'm a citizen and federal law requires it already, I do carry my ID with me pretty much at all times.

It bothers me when illegal immigration and immigration are lumped into the same category. I don't think too many people are anti immigration. I got misty eyed yesterday when we voted because a man who was just recently naturalized was voting for the first time. He immigrated from Iraq and he was SO happy. There was a single measure in the ballot, a tax hike, so voting took all of about 2 seconds. We went to vote at the busy time, right after work, and there were 4 polling workers and about 10 people there to vote. When he voted, we applauded for him. You would have though he just won Miss America the way he beamed. Out of the 14 people there, we all applauded and were truly moved by his experience. No one there was anti immigration. I'm sure at least some of us were anti illegal immigration.

While I'm sure the plight of the impoverished Mexican citizen is great and tragic, is it any worse than the hardships this Iraqi man came from? Worse than someone from many places on the African continent? I think not. Just because it is geographically easier for people to sneak in here doesn't give them the right to do it. Everyone who wants to come here has a reason.

I think of it like a concert. I spent $300 on pit tickets for my favorite band. The arena is sold out. I've paid my money, discarded my key-chain and had my purse searched and been frisked by a humorless old woman who looks like humpty dumpty. I then got in line to have my ID checked so I could get a bar bracelet. Then, after paying $20 for beer I get in line by the pit area where a security guard is checking my tickets to make sure I am sitting/standing in the area I paid for. This is me, jumping through the hoops, following due process. How would I feel if some people found a hole in the arena fence and just started flooding into the pit area? They paid nothing, have not been searched by security. Now the pit which was fire rated for 300 people is flooded with 500 people. Now, I'm not up close and personal with the band, I'm being trampled and I can't see. How would I feel? Would I expect security to come and start checking ticket stubs and throwing motherfuckers out or would I think it was cool to just let them all in? Personally, I would be pissed. I would expect security to throw them out.

Arizona is not actually a racist state at all. It is a republican state, it is not perfect, but places like Georgia and Florida you can FEEL the racial tension. In Arizona this is not the case. There are so many US citizens with Latino heritage that while occasionally some little race skirmish will happen between individuals, overall, I don't feel it or see it regularly. It is not the same as the feelings in the south. I have lived both places, it is not the same.

It really pisses me off that nationally the state is being called racist and places are boycotting. Los Angeles wants to boycott and end lots of contracts with AZ. Oddly they are not targeting our nuclear power plant they happily get 25% of their power from and more power from the coal and other plants owned by the same Arizona based power company. Thinking about that concert analogy, kind of like if the band tells security to let all of the crashers stay or threatens to stop the concert for everyone. Cool for the crashers, but since the band only gets a small portion of the overall ticket prices and consumers would be demanding a full refund, the venue owners and shirt vendors and everyone else would be getting screwed. It would be cool like it's cool to be the last person at the table when the bill comes. That's what boycotting AZ is like. Stupid and misguided.

The moment this law causes racial profiling and round ups or begins to resemble Nazi Germany, I will be the first one protesting and calling for the heads of politicians. As of now, the term racist is more damaging than the term Mexican, so I highly doubt too many police officers or law enforcement officials are going to risk their jobs, friendships and standing in the community to misuse SB1070.

Let's be more judicious with term racist, lest no one care anymore when something really racist happens. Honestly, assuming all illegal immigrants are Mexican seems more racially inappropriate than anything else.
/ end rant

I think my little dog Billybob must be one of the cutest dogs I have ever seen. I present proof.

And it isn't just his looks, his whole being is cute, the way he eats is cute, the way he brings me his leash when he wants a walk, his food bowl when he is hungry, my shoes it's all SUPER cute when he does it. He was carrying my panties around today and gave them to my husband when he got home from work, not sure what that was about, but he is so cute about everything he does and he never destroys anything. When my husband got home Bill just had to bring him a present, so he ran into the laundry room, hopped into the basket of clean folded laundry I had on the floor and grabbed the panty and then ran up to my husband showing it to him. It was seriously adorable.

He is the result of my breeding my female with a stud I selected. I'm pretty proud of him. I have never had a better all around dog. His mom and siblings (I have them too) are super awesome too, but I play favorites and this one is my favorite. For all the grief I got when I decided to breed (fuck you, you know who you are ) I have 0 regrets. My dogs are awesome. I'm a little bit sorry I neutered him, but he would probably be less cute with a giant dog schlong and humping everything.

............. This place..........