I live, work and love wherever I hang my hat, which at present is in the U.S. I am a mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, friend, and Choctaw. I have lived on three continents (North America, Europe, and Asia) and love to travel and meet interesting people. No matter how much success I have achieved, I still feel the need to help those stuck in the mire of poverty and ignorance. I am an advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves, whether from ignorance, from lack of eloquence or simple lack of opportunity. My ‘logo’ picture is Bear Butte (It is Sioux holy land. Some of my fondest memories are climbing that mountain and seeing all the prayer material tied to the trees). You can write to me directly at chimeechukmas@hotmail.com
A Jesuit college in St. Louis just won a Missouri Supreme Court case allowing them to get public money, $8 million of it, for their college. Not being one that believes public money should be spent in support of religion, I was aghast.
“How could that possibly happen?” you might say. The answer is rather interesting. The Jesuits claimed [...]
Move on is giving away a great bumper sticker.
I’m not much for bumper stickers, I’ve only ever had three on my car. My first was years ago, it said, “Indians had bad immigration laws.” My next was during the last presidential election. I can’t remember exactly what it said, but it wasn’t flattering to Bush. [...]
Sometimes I wish I believed in prayer. I wish that I could plead, I wish that I could sacrifice, I wish that I could count beads or light a flame and a great omnipotent being would be coerced or convinced to grant my desire. Some people think that you can pray for anything and that [...]
Financial news is hot right now, what with the stock market plummeting, or ‘correcting itself’ as the more bold would proclaim. You may have heard that Freddie Mac has decided they will not purchase certain subprime mortgages. They have a proper position paper, the normal “we’re doing this to look after you,” B.S., but more honest [...]
“Payday” lending has been big in the news lately. Payday lending is where you go to a licensed loan shark to borrow money at interest rates in the hundreds (450% is not unusual), generally give the shark a post dated check, and 2 weeks later, end up having to renew the loan so the shark doesn’t [...]
Sometimes I have only questions, and few answers. I feel that way about Iraq. I have not heard any really good proposals for what to do now in Iraq. Maybe it is because I start with the belief that we caused this problem by our war-mongering. I find it hard to think it is responsible [...]
I’ve written before about how banking laws are for sale (some would say I’ve ranted before). In that post I discussed payday lending. I often hear that payday lending is not predatory and that such lenders must be offering a service, else why would people borrow money at 300%, 400%, 500% or even more?
I also hear people blame [...]
I think I’ve seen one of the top ten stupidest headlines ever created (although I probably should reserve judgment, no doubt humans have not yet reached the zenith of stupidity). It is authored by someone named Charles Murray and in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.
The headline that caught my eye:
Intelligence in the Classroom: Half of all [...]
Friday evening, I did something I rarely do: I watched one of those pseudo-news shows, the kind that generally focus on soft news that everybody but me seems to be interested in. Generally it is some kind of pop culture junk like Brittany’s latest antic (WHO is Brittany anyway and why does everyone but me know her [...]
Sometimes I see signs in front of churches and wish I could change the message. Here’s a location where you can make your own sign. The site includes many actual signs, at least that is the claim, because some are just too ironic (or honest) to be real signs. For example:
Is it any wonder, with credos like [...]
As I have mentioned a time or two before, I used to be Christian. I wasn’t just Christian, I was a fundamentalist. I spoke in tongues (”praying in the spirit” we called it), I attended services 4-5 times a week and sometimes entire weekends were spent in services. I’ve helped paint the church, I’ve joined [...]
When we were teenagers, my sister and I used to discuss how the people around you affect how you look. She was very short, and a little ‘plump’ and seemed to have girlfriends that were tall and skinny. I pointed out (just being argumentative, I was the older sister by a couple of years), that instead [...]
I have a friend that is sometimes frustrating to converse with, because he always wants me to define the terms I use. Our conversation is filled with his requests to explain just what I mean. He says, with justification, that people may use the same word but often have different meanings for it and he [...]
