I want to see a truly progressive campaign run in Texas!

Tohi

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Friday August 14, 2009 · 11:49 AM PDT

2009/08/14 · 11:49

And I want this woman to run it!

Jennifer Giles

Tohi

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Wednesday May 13, 2009 · 11:12 AM PDT

2009/05/13 · 11:12

I recently attended the "Aim For Success" parent preview held at one of our local middle schools and found the Plano based "abstinence-only" program to be very seductive. There is probably not a single parent that doesn’t want their teen to abstain from sex. The thought that you can simply tell them to not have sex until they are married and have that be the end of it is very appealing. But at some point, I would bet that most parents would like for their children to have happy, fulfilling sex lives with committed partners and I’m not sure that "Aim For Success" really prepares them for such an eventuality. As the parent of two teenaged boys and a six-year-old daughter, I want more for my kids.

Tohi

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Friday May 01, 2009 · 11:22 AM PDT

2009/05/01 · 11:22

Enjoy that 8-hour a day work week? Celebrate May Day!

I remember celebrating May Day as a kid. We would make construction paper cones with a pipe cleaner hanger and decorate it with ribbons. Then we would go to a field and pick wild flowers (I even remember doing some with flower out of the yard), wrap them in wet newspaper and wax paper and then put them in the cone. We hung them on the doors of neighbors, rang the bell and then ran to hide. It seems so simple, but we had so much fun with it! I don’t know how we came to celebrate May Day so much since most of the US doesn’t (the Puritans were NOT amused by it) but perhaps it was because Garden City, KS had a rather large German population.

May Day was originally a fertility celebration of the pagans that was around long before Christianity. It was an important holiday for the Romans who dedicated the day to ‘Flora’, the goddess of flowers. During the reign of the Puritans, the celebration was discouraged, but it was still an important holiday in Europe when they fell out of power.

Tohi

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Tuesday April 28, 2009 · 1:16 PM PDT

2009/04/28 · 13:16

I attended the Denton Master Gardener’s Association series on "Attracting Colorful Backyard Birds" prepared by Carolyn and David Oldham and delivered by Carolyn. There was a lot of information! Texas is the number one birding state in the nation because we are under the central flyway from North America to South America.

There is no way I can boil down all the information here, but I will try to give you the highlights.

I know gardening posts are usually on Saturday, but since this has some information relevant for tonight, I'm going to put it up now.

Tohi

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Saturday April 25, 2009 · 11:05 AM PDT

2009/04/25 · 11:05

I went to high school in a suburb of Tulsa - yes, Tulsa is big enough to have several suburbs. We still get back there a couple of times a year. They have a non-profit organization there that has been promoting the preservation of Tulsa’s urban forests since 1976. There are signs everywhere that say "Up With Trees." I love that about Tulsa.

Trees are absolutely incredible. They completely amaze me. Did you realize that trees make "stuff" (wood) out of thin air? All the carbon that they "breath" in becomes sugars and cellulose. Stuff. From thin air. How is that for incredible? How can anyone not be amazed?

Tohi

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Sunday April 19, 2009 · 8:02 AM PDT

2009/04/19 · 08:02

I know that this is not a gardening forum, but now that George is no longer a main priority, I'm back in my garden a little more. I blame George (and Dick)for all of the weeds and overgrowth there.

I have also started a new blog about my garden and gardening in Texas. I would love to have you come visit! You can find it at http://garden.fierke.net

Enjoy!

Let's talk about sex! Updated 4X

Tohi

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Thursday February 26, 2009 · 6:20 PM PST

2009/02/26 · 18:20

Texas schools certainly aren't doing it. I have just read the first of six findings from the new report on sex education in Texas school put out by the Texas Freedom Network. You can find the full report here.

As a parent of three kids in Texas schools (two of them teens) I find the report to be very disturbing (already!). I have had my head in the sand a bit here. Living in a rather affluent suburb and one of the higher rated school districts, I assumed that my kids were getting a slightly better education (including sex ed) than the average Texas student. Boy was I wrong! Here is a bit of what I have gleaned so far...

Tohi

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Saturday February 14, 2009 · 10:55 AM PST

2009/02/14 · 10:55

I have been thinking long and hard about this the past couple of days and while I think it's admirable of President Obama to strive for bipartisanship, I just don't think it's possible. And I don't think i want it - at all. I can think of only a very few exceptions... oddly enough, those exceptions include Schwarzenegger - how weird is that?

There was a time WAY back in the 50's when Eisenhower was President that there really wasn't much difference between a Republican and a Democrat. They aligned pretty close together. Republicans all the way up to Nixon/Ford led as moderates or even progressives. Think of all of Nixon's environmental achievements. But today... the story is so much different. The Republican party has been taken over by a movement that won't tolerate moderation or straying from the party line even if it is in the best interest of the country. They are controlled by a very small elite minority that are holding us all captive to their personal interests and greed. I don't want to reach across the aisle to that.

Tohi

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Thursday October 30, 2008 · 10:03 PM PDT

2008/10/30 · 22:03

I spent several days in an email battle with my sister after my dad copied the entire (Republican) family on an email after I asked him to stop sending hateful chain emails and sent him the facts to prove the email wrong.

Here is the exchange...

Tohi

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Thursday October 30, 2008 · 5:11 PM PDT

2008/10/30 · 17:11

I just wanted to bid a fond farewell to all that is the GOP...

Tohi

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Wednesday October 29, 2008 · 5:21 PM PDT

2008/10/29 · 17:21

I first have to begin with why I’m not a Republican. By all reason, I should be. My entire family is Republican from deep in the heart of Texas for four generations. I don’t hate Republicans and have voted Republican in the past (which, in hindsight, I have come to regret.) I think there are a lot of things that the Republicans get right: reward should be tied to work; punishment should be tied to the crime; there should be real consequences for bad behavior and a real line between right and wrong; patriotism is important - but more in the vain of "ask not what you can do for your country" rather than "we’re #1".

Tohi

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Saturday October 25, 2008 · 7:19 AM PDT

2008/10/25 · 07:19

All the ridiculous talk lately about whether Obama’s tax plan constitutes socialism has me on a quest. But first, I need to define socialism because far too many people are confusing socialism with totalitarianism (which we have come dangerously close to under George W. Bush), fasism and communism. So here are some definitions. Socialism is defined by the Miriam Webster dictionary as: 1. any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods; 2. 2 a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state; and 3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.

Looking at the first definition, does Obama’s tax plan fit the model? No. The tax plan does not advocate the ownership or administration of production and/or distribution, whether by co-op or directly by the government.

RSS

I want to see a truly progressive campaign run in Texas!

"Aim For Success" - Sex Ed?

Happy May Day!

Attracting Colorful Backyard Birds

"Up With Trees"

A Fierke Garden

Let's talk about sex! Updated 4X

Do we really want bipartisanship? Really?

My family makes me crazy!

Remembering the GOP - R.I.P.

Why I’m a Democrat (or why I’m NOT a Republican)

Obama's tax plan and Socialism