By Anthony Faiola and Lori MontgomeryWashington Post Staff Writers Friday, May 15, 2009

Outrage spread in Canada, with the Toronto Star last week bemoaning "a plague of protectionist measures in the U.S." and Canadian companies openly fretting about having to shift jobs to the United States to meet made-in-the-USA requirements. This week, the Canadians fired back. A number of Ontario towns, with a collective population of nearly 500,000, retaliated with measures effectively barring U.S. companies from their municipal contracts

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By Roger Runningen and Hans Nichols
May 14 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama , calling current deficit spending “unsustainable,” warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries.
“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”

REALLY?!?!?!?


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Dead People Get StimulusChecks
From DICK BRENNAN MYFOXNY.COM - This week, thousands of people are getting stimulus checks in the mail... Antoniette Santopadre of Valley Stream was expecting a $250 stimulus check. But when her son finally opened it, they saw that the check was made out to her father, Romolo Romonini, who died in Italy 34 years ago...

The Santopadres are not alone. The Social Security Administration, which sent out 52 million checks, says that some of those checks mistakenly went to dead people because the agency had no record of their death.

-If they had no record of the deaths, have these same dead people been getting social security checks all along?

That amounts to between 8,000 and 10,000 checks for millions of dollars.

- Just in NY or nation wide? I'm sure just NYC - if it is just in the city then how many of these checks to dead people are going out nation wide? and even if it is not just in the city, still, What The Heck? !?!?!

The feds blame a rushed schedule, because all the checks have to be cut by June. The strange this is, some of the checks were made out to people -- like Romonini -- who were never even part of the Social Security system.

-Wanna bet these dead people voted? Democrat? and THAT is why they are getting checks!!!!!!

So, unknown woman calls here asking for _______ (son's first name, he goes by shortened middle name)________(first four letters of our last name). I ask whom is calling and of course she refuses to say but insists it is personal and would I please bring him to the phone. I say no he is not available, she asks if there is another number where he can be reached. I say look lady I am his mother, who are you and why do you want to talk to him. Again with the "personal" line. Look lady, he is 11 yrs old ---- silence---- I must have the wrong person (you bet your sweet ass you do lady), and I reply you are close enough to the name and you have my phone number, who are you and what do you want. Really, I've got to get caller ID. Now the question is this "telemarketer" or "bill collector" from somebody stealing the boy's ID?

Truly this lady does not want to mess with us. Not going to say just what, but believe me I have resources if I feel the need to find out who she was or more importantly who she was calling for. I've done it before and you can bet that is one young man who will never again pick a random number from the phone book to make a prank call in the wee hours of the morning. Not so funny when a US marshal hauls your ass out of class to question you about your wee hour reaching out and touching of people. No sir, don't mess with this mama.

heeheehee

I am in the midst of another day of parental anxiousness. D3 is in the final leg of her long awaited trip to China. Problem is, she is flying there on a Chinese airline. Arggg, like I want my kid taking part in the miracle of human flight, sitting in a chair....in the SKY, on a plane maintained by Chinese workers. Scaring the bat crap out of me right now. I know the long flight has landed safely but I can't track the shorter, 2 hour, hop from Beijing to Shanghai which should be taking off in just a few min. now. I will be ever so glad to get about 4 hours from now without any terrifying news. At least the first plane was a Boeing 747, so I know it was built here. Have no idea what the next plane is, and either way they are maintained by Chinese Air - and I sure don't trust the quality of their work!

Update: I assume they are safely at their hotel now, sleeping off a 36 hour day. The orchestra has a designated blogger so hopefully I'll be getting updates every couple days. As soon as she wakes up, anyway.

Update #2: Got an email from D3. This is the email in its entirety:
"all in china now :)
Internet cafe is huge and super cheap"
No need to waste words or anything.....

Well, almost through all the trips back and forth to get college girls squared away. D2 is home for the next few weeks. D3 is leaving for China early Wed morning and the only trip I have left to make is to ASU to pick up the cello. So maybe by Wed I'll have something worth blogging about.

Have several ideas, but each will take a bit of time to do research to back up my points. I'm leaning toward a socialised medicine rant...

Still raining here day after day. Yard is way out of control. My horse is still not responding to treatment, that makes me sad and nervous. More x-rays tomorrow. Hope hope hope it shows some improvement. D2 just informed me her windshield is cracked.

Mother's Day was rather nice. Kids made breakfast, then himself volunteered to run D3 back to Boone so I wouldn't have to (he had to drive up to Richmond for the week anyway). Got some nice smelly bath stuff from the kids. Then himself and D3 left and D2 took S1 to the barn leaving me in a quiet house for 3 hours. The barn kids returned for about 1 hour then left again giving me another 4 1/2 hours to myself and peace. Now I know full well in 10 years my idea of a great mother's day will be having them all in the house, but for now - a day with them all out of the house and me in it is just lovely.

How was that for a bunch of nothing?

Blogging this week is probably going to be a hit or miss thing round here. The schedule is crazy - crazier than normal.

Monday- work at barn AM and PM - school boy between, run errands between.

Tues - work at barn AM - school boy, grocery store, get a bit of house cleaning done. Get the boy's vergies planted. Organize his school work for the rest of the week so he can carry it with him to his Daddy's office and work on his own because...

NOW is WHEN it GETS NUTS!

Wed morning drive 2 hours to D3's ASU and load all her dorm room stuff into my car, do the year end dorm room cleaning, take her for a quick lunch then bring all her stuff home - but not her yet, she'll be living with a friend in friend's apartment for the next few days as they have several orchestra rehearsals in preparation for China trip. Unload all D3's stuff and get it more or less out of the way because...

Thurs morning drive 4 hours to D2's UNC and load all her dorm stuff into my car, do the year end dorm room cleaning thing - not feeding this one - drive the 4 hours back with D3's stuff but not D3 herself. She wants to stay in Chapel Hill to attend midnight showing of Star Trek movie with her girl friends so she'll bring herself home sometime Fri. Once I am home with D3's stuff, unload and get it more or less out of the way because...

Fri drive back to Boone (2 hours each way) to pick up D3 after her orchestra rehearsal so she can have a day and a half to pull herself together for trip.

Sat lots of laundry and organizing of D2/D3 school stuff and get D3 all packed and ready for China trip

Sun drive back to Boone again to return D3 for final rehearsals.

Mon Barn work X2 again

Tues drive back to Boone one last time to pick up cello. D3 will be using a borrowed cello in China but I must go pick hers up as she cannot leave it in her music locker over the summer.

somewhere in there I need to mow, the rain has kept me from it the last few days, but the rain is also making grass grow like crazy out there. On the upside, it keeps the rest of the neighbors from mowing too so they can't come after me with pitchforks!

arggg Wed I'm gonna be tired!

D3 has now explained it all to me:

On the first day, God created the dog and said: "Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years."
The dog said: "That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?"

So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said: "Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span."
The monkey said: "Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the dog did?"

And God agreed.

On the third day, God created the cow and said:"You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family For this, I will give you a life span of sixty Years."
The cow said: "That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?"

And God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created man and said: "Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years."
But man said: "Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?"

"Okay," said God, "You asked for it."

So that i s why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Life has now been explained to you. At least that is what D3 has told me!

Tomorrow morning the boy has his state level bible drill. This is the third level, first church competition, then associational, now state. The young man is pretty darn good, I couldn't do it, believe you me. Not only can he name all the books, but he can find any given book in less than 10 seconds. Having done this for several years now he can find something like 30 key passages in less than 10 seconds each, and recite 75 verses and their citations. Wowy! Fingers crossed, prayers, think good thoughts - all those things. Good luck bubby boo, Mommy loves you the mostest...but don't tell your sisters.

Update: State Champion! woohoo, good job!

I took this passage to heart back in the first couple years of my 30 plus year marriage. It is what I have striven (? is that a word?) to live my life by. Try to be content with what I have, where I am, who I am - not so good with the last one sometimes, but I try. The things we need to live we most always have (that is why we are still alive maybe?), the things we need to be happy are usually there too, so long as we have eyes to see and hearts to understand and/or appreciate.

Like many of you, I grew up poor - and I mean poor, seriously. But we always had food, a roof, and clothes - not fancy clothes but clothes. I too hit the door and played outside all day, though I didn't always check in, we lived in a small town and folks always let my folks know where they had seen me so, ya know, can't get away with too much. If I couldn't get a ride the 5-6 miles to where my horse was or to a friend's house, I walked. Once I was in the saddle I could go anywhere. Rode that mare all over that county. Things were not always good, I was not always happy, but I managed. (man I could tell some stories Pete :)

Then when I got married he was in college so we lived off what I made as a waitress. Poor! Had to sell the horse, newlyweds can't afford horses! But we got by (good thing he is crazy smart and had a full scholarship!) and when he graduated we had no debt - that was all the way through a post graduate degree. We lived on $50 a week in grocery money while he was in school, long time. Not fancy food, but we managed.

Lots of people are struggling now, including members of my own family and some very dear friends. I'm not a preachy sort, get the log out of my own eye first, for goodness sakes, I hate preachy. But these words have been something I have clung to, and I'm hoping they may help some of the people I care about. Unlike most folks who know the last verse, I find the first 3 the most inspiring. Maybe some of you can find help and encouragement here too. Don't have to be joyful, content will do, at least for me. In fact I can't really remember the last time I was "joyful" or even particularly excited about anything, but I feel comfortable with content - joyful and excited both take too much energy! Love you guys. And I hope each of us find ourselves in better days soon.

Philippians 4:11-13

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.