Almost Speechless

Edited, to quote thomryng:

"It's official. We're beating our ploughshares into swords."

I don't usually post about politics since I have an aversion to expressing opinions regarding complicated subjects on which I don't have all the facts. But the first thing I read this morning was an AP article with the headline "Congress Mulls Cutting Food Aid to the Poor."

The article reads, in part (and I'm pulling from the middle): Bush is proposing to withdraw food stamps for certain families already receiving other government assistance. The administration estimates that plan would remove more than 300,000 people from the rolls and save $113 million annually.

Chambliss said minimal changes in all three areas of agriculture spending — nutrition, farm supports and conservation — could save what's needed. "I want this to be as painless to every farmer in America as we can make it," he said.

As opposed to the money they could save and the "pain reduction" they could achieve by pulling troops out of Iraq??

Let's rob from the poor and give to the war.
Let's consume more of our dwindling natural resources so we continue to kill more human beings.

What in the hell are these people thinkig?

I may not have all the facts, but I can't consider it anything less than criminal that congress is talking about cutting aid to our own people and our natural resources while continuing to throw money into the war in Iraq. How many millions could they save by bringing just one company of soldiers home?

Weekend Plans

Saturday morning: get off LJ, do laundry, cook chicken for potluck, record country music for queenofhalves and toesontheground, and put copy of my unfinished novel onto CD for queenofhalves, clear space in office so I can work there, go to Mystery School session with royalbananafish, queenofhalves, and lexicat, potluck and socialize. Depending on how long the socializing goes, maybe/maybe not work on paper some more. Go to bed.

Sunday: attend an unprogrammed (silent) Quaker worship service, work on paper, work on paper, work on paper. Do something low-key and fun with my daughter. Work on paper. (Paper is due Tuesday.)

Last night the daughter and I watched a charming and fun film called St. Ives, based on a Robert Louis Stevenson novel I had never heard of before. The cast includes Anna Friel, Miranda Richardson, Jason Isaacs, Richard E. Grant, Jean-Marc Barr and Michael Gough, who bring more substance to their characters than other actors might have been able to find, given the lightness of the script. If you enjoy a romantic romp, some humor, and all the set pieces of Swashbuckler-Lite, this would be worth renting.

Oh, one more thing for the weekend plans: keep the previous entry in my mind, and do some serious thinking about what I can do about our national situation besides rant occasionally in my LJ. Even a commitment to pray about it every day would be a step forward from what I'm doing now, which is Nothing. It's so easy to feel helpless, but that's exactly what contributes to the downward spiral: people accepting their feelings of disempowerment. I can't bloody well adopt a title like "Queen of Swords" and then mope about my supposed lack of ability to have an impact.

Visiting Meme

This is based loosely on shellefly's meme of "Do you want to know what I would want to do with you?" and on queenofhalves's visit and our conversation about visiting other LJ friends.

Two questions:
1. Can I come visit you?
2. What would you want to do with me if I did?

I assume that since we're reading each other's journals we would spend time together talking about a variety of subjects we have in common -- or which we don't have in common and like learning about from the other.

Extra points for creativity beyond that obvious response.
:-)