Halloween

I cannot believe how fast this month has flown by. Halloween is tomorrow and the girls have their costumes laid out and ready for any trick-or-treating emergency. They love dressing up any time, but dressing up and visiting people, plus candy - its like they died and went to heaven. Emily is going to be a cat. Aleah is donning her princess clothes, so normal day. Leila is going to be a witch. I am going to make a cardboard sword and shield and be a knight.

I never liked trick-or-treating as a kid much. I don't know why but it never seemed that fun. I preferred to hand out candy and see everyone's costumes. When I was older, I always went to Jennifer Drury's house for halloween. They made a haunted house maze out of their basement and had boxes of costumes and make-up. We would get all ghouled up and then try to scare the trick-or-treaters till about 9 or 10 O'clock. I was typecast as the mad scientist, but after all the beakers were filled with dry ice and colored water, the skulls were piled on the table, and Jennifer's brother was in his Frankenstein costume it was a good schtick. After that we would shed our costumes and watch scary movies - usually old black and white classics like "The Haunting".



Our friend Becca goes all out for Halloween and her party each year in Texas was always a highlight of the year. This year we carved pumpkins for the Asay's Halloween party. Aleah liked hers so much she carries it around with her and takes it to bed with her. We will have to sneak it out sometime before it rots.

Pictures I keep meaning to write something about

The Iraq War

The Iraq War - I am against it. I was from the beginning. As soon as I heard that we were going to bomb Afghanistan to start a global "War on Terror." I felt my stomach drop. These terrorist groups are essentially Gadianton Robbers, it doesn't help to punish the innocent people that surround them. At least in Afghanistan there was a resistant movement to replace the Taliban, which did have direct links to terrorist groups. Every speech about Iraq seemed like such double-speak. Their justifications about weapons of mass destruction were based on a house of cards that I have a hard time believing could have been true.

I hate though hearing from anti-war groups that we need to pull out because of the loss of American Soldier's lives. Their lives are Precious, but the casualty rates are so low compared to World War II, Vietnam. I have been watching Ken Burn's WW II documentary on PBS and the Iraq war is a skirmish compared to WWII.

The biggest argument against the war is not our loss of life, but what we have done to destroy the country of Iraq and its people. The number of civilian casualties is huge. Refugees are fleeing to neighboring countries. And it is our fault. These are people who should be our friends and allies and we have allowed the insurgency to rage so high they have no choice but to escape. Yet we are not bringing them here.

We operate huge prisons where American G.I.s torture civilians. We hold enemy combatants for indeterminate periods of time in foreign countries like Cuba and in secret CIA prisons with no possibility for review, trial or defense. What limits does this war have? We are supposed to be the good guys and we are acting like thugs.

I am in favor of us spreading freedom around the world, as our commander in chief is found of saying, but we are not doing that. We are not living up to the ideals set forward in our own constitution and how can we succeed if we do that?

Fresh chicken eggs

 

Our hens are finally producing eggs. We get about two a day, grandma and I built a nesting box, which is used most of the time. Once and a while there are eggs under the roost or hidden in the corners of the barn.

Sleep Hat

 

Aleah has decided that a sleeping hat is necessary for proper sleep comfort.