Suppose you knew of someone that had recently been diagnosed with an incurable, potentially fatal disease.  Even though you don’t personally know this person, being the kind-hearted, gentle soul you are, you send a note of encouragement anyway.  Then suppose your note of support was acknowledged by a request for money.  Wouldn’t you think that’s tacky?

How is this any different?

This came in my e-mail bag today:

LOOK OVER THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FOLLOWING
TWO HOUSES AND SEE IF YOU CAN TELL WHICH
BELONGS TO AN ENVIRONMENTALIST.

HOUSE # 1:

A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern “snow belt,” either. It’s in the South.

HOUSE # 2:

Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every “green” feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on the arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.

HOUSE # 1 (20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of Nashville,
Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and
filmmaker) Al Gore.

HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as “the Texas White House,” it is the private residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.

So whose house is gentler on the environment? Yet another story you WON’T hear on CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC or read about in the New York Times or the Washington Post. Indeed, for Mr. Gore, it’s truly “an inconvenient truth.”

I’ve already verified this at Snopes.  It is TRUE!

NOW I think I’ve truly seen it all. E-cards for women who’ve had an abortion.

Normally I stay far away from any discussions regarding abortion. Not because I’m hoping to avoid a controversial subject but because I think the vocal opponents, proponents, pro-choicers, pro-lifers, pro-abortioners, anti-abortioners, anti-choicers, anti-lifers (I feel like maybe I left someone out) are all so damned obnoxious that deciding which side I’m on is akin to deciding between Fred Goldman and O.J. Simpson. While both sides of the argument are making so much money off of the long-running debate, I suppose it’s here to stay.

With me, I can argue both sides of the issue strongly. It comes down to a “Head vs Heart.” My head sees the rationale but it doesn’t sit well in my heart. At 41 years of age, I’ve witnessed a large random sampling of women (and men) who’ve had to make the life or death decision. The ones that chose death now regret it. The ones that chose life, don’t.

But an e-card? For abortion? My brain’s splitting in at least four different directions with this. First off, when I receive an e-card, regardless of the sentiment it extends, I read, “I’m too busy and self-absorbed right now to waste my time choosing the right REAL card to give to you.” When I SEND someone an e-card, I’m saying, “None of the cards at CVS adequately expressed my sentiments so I spent hours browsing the internet to send you the perfect message.” But an e-card for abortion? This just doesn’t sit right with me.

According to exhale, the site that came up with the e-card concept, women often feel isolated with no one to talk to after having an abortion. If they’re isolated, how’d they get pregnant and how do people know to send an e-card if the post-abortion women don’t talk to anyone? If someone feels comfortable enough to confide in you, is an e-card the appropriate response? I’d think a trip to the drugstore for a real card, or better yet, some condoms while you’re there would be more practical.

But what do YOU think?

While we’re at it, what should we do with the e-cards (iCards for MacPeople) we receive?  Should we create a desktop folder called “Shoebox” and save them in there for the days we feel lonely?

Apparently not! Just when I thought we had all the social networking opportunities we needed, I discovered: Flirting in traffic dot com!

This could really come in handy for those of you living in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. Now when you get in the car for that forty-five minute drive to the 7-11 (that’s 2 miles from your house!) you can bat your eyes and unbutton your shirt and . . . well, you know.

Viva la transportation crisis!

The censorship police are live and well and at it again:

“The Higher Power of Lucky” by Susan Patron, winner of this year’s prestigious Newbery Medal for children’s literature, has been removed from several libraries and schools because some parents and librarians were alarmed to find that its text includes the word “scrotum.”

The “Lucky” book has hit the shelves in Gloucester, where so far, there have been no complaints

“At least they’re using the biologically correct word,” said Mary Rainier, librarian at T.C. Walker Elementary School in Gloucester, where the book was just catalogued last week. “I don’t take a book out because it has a word. I would take it out if it has objectionable or age-inappropriate content.”

“Seldom is a book challenged on content,” she said. “It’s almost always challenged on a single word.”

Once again I pause to pose the question: Why do we give certain words so much power?  I hope our good neighbors to the East will keep their heads and let their children read this book.  I might buy it for my kids as I find the plot intriguing: seems a dog (NOT lucky) gets bitten by a rattlesnake . . . on the scrotum.

I go to Wikipedia to GET information, certainly not because I think I have some knowledge to impart. This is why I’ve never hit the edit link under an entry. According to General G. Dog, others in the Virginia Blogosphere are hitting that edit key.

Go on over and learn how to do it. I don’t know if I’ll ever need this information . . . especially now that I know that if I try to pull a sneaky edit that my ISP might show up as proof that I was the dirty dog . . . but it’s still interesting . . . unless, of course, the photos on GGD’s site are the products of his Photoshopping skills . . .

Better hurry before it disappears . . .