Change of Detergent

So I have this friend. He moved to a new home a few months back. He told me the other day that he received a change of address form from his bank. It came in the mail. To his new address. It had the new address on the envelope,

How did they know where to send it?

How am i supposed to do an entire article on something that silly yet so simple? Never mind. Change topics.

We ran out of dishwasher detergent a week or so back. So I go to the nearby "discount" store. Remember? The one that keeps their box fans in the women's undergarments section? Yeah, that's the place. I was looking through the options and pondering the "deals" and thinking that somehow spending a few more dimes for "the same" product might somehow mean less money for books, Disney trips, exploration of distant cemeteries, National Geographic magazines (I read them for the articles), Robert Toombs trading cards (I've never seen any before but you gotta be ready just in case you do stumble across something like that) or, of course, a 12-pound Napoleon field cannon for the front yard. So I got a bargain. A pack of the little pre-measured pouches that dissolve in water.

Those little pouches that are supposed to dissolve in water. The engineering marvel of our time, the magic packages made of cellulose or whatever that know the magic time to release their payload and overwhelm the forces of spaghetti sauce, coffee and bread crumbs leaving your dishes sparkling clean and spot-free. 

Those aren't the the pouches on special in the land of breezy lingerie. When you check the dishwasher and find the little pouch looking up from its designated bomb bay and seemingly laughing hysterically as you hope that the dry cycle didn't eternally bake the spaghetti sauce onto the wine glasses - because dishwasher collateral damage is a very real first-world problem.

So I'm looking back at the maniacal pouch while the terrible visions of toddlers in Southeast Asian sweatshops packing washing powders into those little ziplock baggies that cocaine dealers use and shrink wrapping them closed dance in my head. 

Poor kids. And I'm at fault for their misery all because I want a period-authentic artillery piece next to the holly bush when I could settle for a garden gnome like a normal person. Wait...do they make fair-trade garden gnomes?

And there is still spaghetti sauce on my coffee mugs.

Lesson learned. The sweatshop variety pouches are not that great of a bargain.

So your homework is to find fair-trade garden gnomes. I'm going to run the dishwasher again and see if I can figure out how that change of address form made it to my friend's mailbox. Well, that and track down some Robert Toombs trading cards.

Belles.

There's no place for trashy women on this blog. Period.

So let's talk about some real women.

Rosalind Burns Gammon- Mother of University of Georgia fullback Von Gammon. Von was killed in a tragic accident in the game versus the University of Virginia in 1897. Mrs. Gammon petitioned Governor William Atkinson to veto a rapidly passed bill that would have banned the sport from all publicly funded schools in Georgia. Not only did she lobby her congressman and the governor, she successfully stopped the law and encouraged reforms that would make football safer for the players. This was 24 years before women could legally vote in Georgia.

Martha McChesney Berry - The founder of the Berry Schools (Berry College). She started a school for mountain children that grew into one of the finest educational institutions in the United States. She drew in donations from businessmen, presidents, celebrities and even the Queen of England so that poor children could have an opportunity to get an education they otherwise could never afford.

Harper Lee-  Born in Monroeville, Alabama (just trust me, there really is a Monroeville and no, you don't know where it is.) In 1926, she is known for writing what is quite possibly the greatest book in all of American Literature. This lady has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her book is also one of the most frequently banned books in the country - which, of course, means it is really good.

Nancy Morgan Hart - Affectionately known as "The Warwoman", this smallpox survivor was a resident of northeast Georgia during the Revolutionary War. The legend, which seems to have been since confirmed, states that she killed two British soldiers after they demanded that she prepare them a meal. She held their four companions at gunpoint until her husband and his friends arrived and hung the remaining redcoats. Many other legends about Hart are told to this day.

I could keep going, telling stories of Margaret Mitchell, Juliette Gordon Low, Emma Sansom, Helen Keller, and on and on and on. Women that write, think, act, defend, read, create, succeed, excel and provide. They do this because of something inside them. They have value that they add to the world and we are all better for it. Here's an opportunity to shine a spotlight on women and some encouragement to encourage girls to do something significant and meaningful with their life.

The magnificent thing about this is that I have only mentioned Southern women in this post. There are women like this all over this nation, even all over the world. Where is the spotlight? Where is the attention? Where are the parents pointing their daughters toward these women as role models? Where are the parents showing their sons "real women" and encouraging them to seek out these types - the women who can be meaningful mates, friends, life-long companions, mothers? Where?

I, for one, am encouraging my sons, teaching them how to recognize a lady and how to be a gentleman. My wife is right there with me. She is not only telling them but is also providing an example for them to follow.

So females, get out of the bathroom, tuck in those duck lips and quit "twerking". It isn't unique, it isn't significant and it sure isn't new. They don't call it the "world's oldest profession" for nothing. Yes, you're grown and can do what you want. I just hope that sometime soon you'll want to do something that matters.

Ugly (Redux)

I've decided that, in the wake of current events, it is appropriate to revisit an old topic again. I think that it is important in these times to really connect with what is happening in Syria, Egypt and other nations (including Libya) and our role in the turmoil that is growing rampant in our world.

A few years ago, I wrote about a book that really impacted me and opened my eyes in many ways. http://allthebiscuitsingeorgia.blogspot.com/2010/06/ugly.html I want to re share some of my previous thoughts and reflect on where our nation has arrived since then.

After the assault on our embassy in Libya and the subsequent actions in other nations in that region, I thought about how ugly things were growing and about the ugliness that was at least partially to blame. The book I'm referencing was published in 1958 and since that date we have learned almost nothing about foreign policy in this nation. In fact, we might be more incompetent than we were then.

There is plenty of blame to go around. The current administration has done an abysmal job in this area. Hillary Clinton was a nightmare as secretary of state and will only be worse if elected president. In her defense, she was trying to manage to operate in a climate that was bitter from decades of mismanagement of US foreign policy.

As I recall my reading of "The Ugly American" and the uphill battle that so many characters in that book had to fight to try to enact the types of policies that would make our international efforts effective and endear people to our nation I wonder what similar attempts are being thwarted by incompetence back home today. 

US response to their attempts not only undermined their efforts but also assisted the efforts of our rivals. The book was written by former members of the foreign service and was based on actual events. It was written as a warning of what could happen if we did not change our course. That was pre-Viet Nam. Reading this book helped me see just how preventable that war could have been.

When I hear the stories about Chris Stevens, the ambassador that the Obama Administration abandoned in the Benghazi attack, it reminds me of Gilbert MacWhite. His approach and the relationship he was establishing with the people of Libya held so much promise for our future relations with that nation. At least MacWhite was only fired.

The issue that I'm writing about is not a Republican problem and it is not a Democrat problem. It is an American problem as both parties have done terrible in foreign policy planning, organization and implementation. And it is a problem that is not going to change so long as people are not moved by dead people in the streets of Damascus or Cairo. When we realize that our shortcomings overseas are a direct consequence to our failure to realize that "all men are created equal" and that the founding axiom of our nation is true worldwide. We need some serious attention placed on what is going on. We don't need to get a bunch of our folks killed but we need to find ways to put an end to the killing that is going on and we need a course of action that will actually be effective overseas.

It's time to seriously ponder these issues and the effects they have on us all.