Thank You, I Wouldn’t Be This Relaxed Without You

I want to thank all of the great guest bloggers that pitched in and helped in my absence. Betty Cracker is a woman after my own heart, she writes like a dream and I love the way she thinks, it’s why I read her blog and why I was so honored to have her words grace the pages of mine.

Fellow American J did a nice job of widening the scope, looking on the bright side for a change and drawing attention to some great voices from around the world. It’s easy to lose perspective when you live in America.

Will’s post on the Nazi rally sparked an interesting discussion about whether the skinhead youth are the “Nazis” we should be concerned with. I especially like the title of his post “Please, Folks, Make Fun Of The Nazis.” Ridicule is exactly what fascists of all stripes deserve, including the ones in the White House.

My dad’s story of the zoo had me rolling, but it was also nice to see his real voice come through in his last post about holidays. His satire is great but even his “straight” posts are funny as hell.

And my husband, Man of American Dissent, cut his teeth on blogging and I think he may be hooked. Although while we were on vacation, he was sitting on our friend’s deck finishing up his post and asked if I could take the kids swimming “because I just have to get this done.” The tables had turned, but since he always comes through for me, I packed up the kids and took them to the lake. It’s hard to say who had more fun.

It was interesting being away. I ended up taking a trip with my family to California, lots of swimming, a little skiing, perhaps a bit too much beer and sunshine but no news whatsoever. I turned off televisions, skipped talk radio, passed on newspapers and didn’t have Internet access for the entire last week. It was strange, but also kind of nice in a quiet sort of way.

We drove home yesterday and when we couldn’t take listening to another country song (which is all you can get through large swaths of Northern California and Oregon) my husband and I decided to turn on the Portland Air America station and listen to Randi Rhodes. It was nice to hear her voice but I half expected to not understand what she was talking about, yet sadly it seems that not much has changed. The scandals keep coming, Republicans are still less popular than a herpes outbreak and the Bush administration is busy peddling their special brand of fear coupled with the assurance that only they know how to protect us. I guess I’d have to be away for longer than two weeks for any of that to change.

I think I’ll take the day to catch up on what’s happening in the world and start fresh tomorrow. I’m so uninformed at the moment that I could easily be mistaken for your average Bush voter. Thanks again to my guest bloggers. They did such a fantastic job, I feel like I’ll have to work extra hard now to live up to the new standard they’ve set.