Couponing Pays Off

I had a blast yesterday shopping at my local haunts - Walgreens, Rite Aid, Fred Meyer, and Target.

Target had all their Christmas goodies at 90% off! I got labels for $0.09, gift bags for $0.04, and ornaments for $0.20! I was giddy. :) Then with my coupons and other purchases I saved over $30.

Because I coupon and do rebates with Rite Aid I had a $20 gift certificate, which I used to get a FREE rice cooker. I paid $0.41 in tax for the Rice Cooker, a can of soup, Maalox, and three packs of gum. Hard to beat that.

Hubby has been bugging me to get a rice cooker so now he can stop nagging. It's an adorable little one too - makes 3 cups. Which is perfect for two people. Now I need to learn a few more recipes to make with rice.

And rice is expensive! I had no idea it would be over $5 for a 5 pound bag. Sheesh. What's up with that?

I think our grocery bill has definitely gone down since I started couponing. I did hit two different grocery stores this weekend but in total only spent $80 - and that includes spending a ridiculous $4 on Kashi cookies for hubby. $4! But I got my favorite chips for less than $2 a bag and my organic milk for $2.29 for a half gallon (I can't drink regular milk anymore...blech!).

My best score though - $0.25 a bag for Fresh Express Salad kit!!!! I'm going to go back and get a few more if they haven't already sold out. Hubby promised to eat them and he is trying to eat healther so it's a bonus to get them for so cheap. They're normally $4 a piece.

I love coupons. They are my own personal stimulus package.

Help Prevent More Nanny State-ism

Please head on over to my other blog to read more about the over reaching and badly thought out new law that requires testing of all items intended for children under 12.

I can't imagine that the government will actually change the law but I can always pray and do my best to spread the word.

I've written a letter to my local news paper, sent e-mails to my congress folks, and sent my comments to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

You can find out more about how this law affects small and independent businesses at the Save Handmade Toys website or their Facebook page.

This law really is government overreach to solve a problem created by greed - large manufacturers who just didn't care and didn't bother making sure their products were safe. It is an overreaction and an overreach into our lives - all in the name of "the children" and making us safer. No thought about how it affects our economy or the livelihood of thousands of Indie people like me who sell on Etsy. First they came for the children's toys and clothing ... what's next?

Fox News - Useful Idiots

I get up this morning, flip on the news, and what do I see? A Fox news correspondent in the Gaza area ... with their cameras pointing at the Israeli tanks pulling into position.

Since when did it become okay to broadcast military actions to the enemy? Does Israel have any control over where the news crews set up?

Not that the bad guys in Gaza don't know that Israel is coming. But Fox's "exclusive video" I'm sure is giving them a little extra intel. Jeez. I know Israel gives advanced warning, but does Fox need to help?

I also was a little sick at the "poor Gaza" rhetoric spewing from the correspondent. Yeah, we know. War is hell. Hospitals are short staffed. Boo Hoo. Hamas purposely positions themselves in and around civilians - some of those civilians would probably love to leave but can't - but some of those civilians support and approve of Hamas' actions.

OH and interviewing Hamas/Palestinians. WTF?!? "Hamas is trying to defend its own" ... BARF! "Irael is killing our children." Good Lord. "Mass killings in the streets of Gaza." "What is being committed is a war crime." Yeah, right.

Would we have interviewed Nazis in WWII to get their view? I'm sure the German citizens would have had a lot of complaining to do about the allied bombing. And I'm sure that a German spokesperson would have said that all they want is peace.

War brings casualties. I've been watching Ken Burns' The War series ... last night I was bawling. I've gotten through three episodes. It's an incredible series and it does not pull any punches showing our bravery and our faults. War is truly hell. But war becomes necessary when an enemy is brutal, determined, and deadly.

The U.S. and allies did not allow the media to broadcast their positions in WWII. They did the right thing by carefully controlling the information that went out to the general population.

I guess Fox never heard the saying "Loose lips Sink ships."

Are You Smarter Than the President?

I doubt that I am. And I am referring to the CURRENT president, George W. Bush. Not the President-Elect. I doubt that I'm technically book-smarter than him either. [I certainly knew that there aren't 58 states.] Nor would I want to speak in public or run for public office the way candidates must.

However, I bet that if the media had played some of these clips of Obama over and over and over again the way they do with W's gaffes we may have had a different outcome in the election.



I love this clip with Christopher Hitchens. I don't agree with him on everything (he's a rabid atheist for one thing) but he does unfailing work smacking down Maher's audience and Maher himself. Maher is a loon.



H/T - Two Nervous Dogs who led me to Primordial Slack

Ignorance Combined with Arrogance and Hatred

It truly does amaze me that anyone can blame Israel for the current crisis in Gaza. Stuns and amazes. What frightens me even more is that there are teachers out there, teaching our children in schools across the nation, who think that Che was a freedom fighter and that America is the evil empire - that the world will never be Utopia until Israel and America are socialist or communist countries.

I watched this video on YouTube and waded into the comments ... first mistake. My jaw dropped a lot. First, of course, from the hideous behavior of the pro Palestine protesters - including the classy lady yelling that the pro Israel side needed to get into the ovens. Nice.

The assertion of some of the comments from the YouTube video is that Israel is evil and if they could they will slaughter every so called Palestinian. There are words like Holocaust and genocide thrown at Israel with what appears to be no hint of irony.

"the Israelis with their blockade starved the population of food, medication, power for hospitals and supplies all these years. now they have bombed the tunnels to Egypt restricting food and supplies.

children and innocents are dying everyday of Israeli bombs...

they have made villans out the palastinans, they brainwash americans.

the world is watching helplessly as this evil is taking place."

Yeah...I'm the brainwashed one.

I remember all the stories of Nazi Germans giving the Jews plenty of warning to get out of their homes before being rounded up into trains and hauled to the gas chambers. Yet the Israelis are calling ENEMY combatants in Gaza to tell them to get the hell out before the bombs come. Should they even bother? It doesn't seem to matter what they do - Israel will be blamed for everything regardless. Even as they pause their bombing campaign to send in humanitarian aid.

"Israel is so scrupulous about civilian life that, risking the element of surprise, it contacts enemy noncombatants in advance to warn them of approaching danger."

Any argument that Israel is in the right is shouted down and called propaganda on behalf of the Zionists.

You know there never was an ancient independent country of Palestine right? The Romans named part of the land under their empire Palestine in an attempt to get rid of the independent Jewish state. It was never an independent state with leadership or governance. Medved does an excellent job going over the entire history of this conflict and I highly recommend his CD series. He goes through the history of so called "Palestine" and how it did not existed historically until the partition created by the British - it isn't even mentioned in the Koran! Those who lived in this area were simply called Arabs and were part of whichever government was in charge at the time...Rome, Syria, Turkey, etc.

Before Israel was officially created there were Jews working the land, purchasing (at a fair and then some price) desolate land from owners who were glad to get rid of it (many who were absent land owners). It's not like there was a Jewish Army in the late 1800s into the early 1900s. How were they supposedly to kick off the Palestinians off their land exactly? There was no theft of land. Much of the land they purchased as unused, uncultivated swamp land, with few inhabitants if any.

King Abdullah even wrote in his private diary about how the Arabs SOLD their land, that it was not stolen. The Turks at the time initially liked the fact that the Jews were buying up the arid land. They were creating a higher standard of living for the area - and improved the health of both the Jews and the Muslim arabs. Between 1925 and 1945, the infant mortality rate for Muslims in the area went down by half! In 1926 the life expectancy for arabs in the area was 37 years ... by 1945 it was up to 49 years! Damn those Jews!

History repeats itself ... the Jews do the right thing and are blamed and castigated. They have had nothing but misery and death heeped upon them by their surrounding neighbors. And yet they are to blame. Attacked in 1948 by Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Trans Jordan, and Lybia all at one time during the war for independence, even while they had no real organized military, Israel lost a lot in lives (as well as half of Jerusalem) but in the end they won against all odds and even increased the lines of the country.

But they have never truly lived in peace and probably won't ever. As long as I live, though, I will speak out against those who hate and try to deny the true history of Israel and the Jews.

End of a Chocolate Era

I od'd on chocolate last night. *sniff* I'm not craving anything right now, but my cravings usually start in the late afternoon and evening.

But I really do want to eat better this year. Fewer frozen meals for dinner. More veggies and fruit. Eventually less soda. Dr Pepper is really bad for your teeth. :)

For now, the dogs are all sleeping. Hubby is sleeping. I'm watching TV and will probably play some video games. It's raining and windy. The perfect day to stay inside with the fire blazing. But no hot cocoa. =)

Happy 2009!

"You Need a Bigger Oven"

Oh my God. My dear God in Heaven. What is WRONG with these people? And why are they even allowed to stay in the United States. They are as bad or worse than the Nazis. Just frightening!!!

The lady who sent chills down my spine actually said that they need to go into the ovens. *eyes open wide in shock - chin to floor* HORROR!!!!



And apparently I'm supposed to have "no choice but to accept" Islam because it's in my nature. *snort*

I will slit my own throat before I bow down to any asshole in a mosque. Nor will I ever wear any sort of hijab. Although I do think some of the scarves are pretty - it sure beats a bad hair day.

Notice that it isn't the Israel supporters getting violent. Good grief...this is Fort Lauderdale FLORIDA...the United STATES!

This makes me seriously ill.

LONG LIVE ISRAEL!!! God Bless the Jews!