Amanda Hussein Carroll

I just came across something on Mike’s blog that made this sociologist all giddy. As I’m sure you’re all aware, Senator Obama’s middle name is Hussein. His father was a Kenyan Muslim and Hussein is a family name. Many ultra conservative windbags in the media get a kick out of referring to Senator Obama by his full name in an ill disguised attempt to play on the public’s irrational fear of anyone who is different from the cultural norm. (To Senator McCain’s credit he has said repeatedly that he finds this practice unacceptable).

Apparently a movement to adopt the middle name Hussein has begun among some Obama supporters in an effort to make Americans more familiar with the name, and to expose both the silliness of not voting for someone because of their given name and the underhanded sleaziness of the fear and hate mongers. I won’t bore you with the various sociological theories that help explain the fear of a different sounding name or why this protest was a predictable outcome of the exploitation of that fear. I just love a good example of sociological theory in everyday life!

Here is a link to the NY Times Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/us/politics/29hussein.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1214867440-s763gzjPTZr679fJcZAlkg

You can join the facebook group (started by a political science prof at Harding) here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=52566360200&ref=mf

Unity

Senators Clinton and Obama held a rally in Unity, New Hampshire today to try and unite the party behind Obama. I was a big Hillary Clinton supporter, but I also really like Obama. Personally, I would love to see her on the ticket. (I think they look really good together, although the fact that his tie matches her suit makes it look like they are at a high school dance). Of course, I want Obama to choose a running mate that will help him win, and I just don’t know if she would be an asset or a liability. What do you think?

Silly pet pictures volume I

Here are some funny pics of our pets, past and present.

Scout, who now lives with my parents, is just taking a nap.

Bailey was not happy about the cone.

Can you find the pet in this picture?

Marcus' stupid cat Madison, who we lost in Little Elm, asleep in a trash can.

Gus hanging out in a computer.

One small step for woman....

So far, this has been a pretty good year to be a feminist. Although Senator Clinton didn’t win the democratic nomination, everyone took her campaign seriously, Danica Patrick became the first woman to win an Indie race, and now Ann Dunwoody has become the first female four star general in the U.S. Army. Hopefully this is one more step towards greater gender equality in the military.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25339768

mmm...choices

It's always a treat to visit Jonathan and Shannon, for so many reasons, but this morning I was reminded of a Bath-Time treat. Whenever I take a shower here, I get to make the choice of using a shampoo that will give me 10x stronger hair or one that will give me hair that's 35% fuller. I don't really need either one, but hey, it's nice to have a choice. Maybe I'll talk to them about adding the choice of one that will protect my color.

-Marcus, SGB

No urninals.....

So earlier tonight, Jonathan, Shannon, baby Christopher, Marcus, and I went to Red Hot and Blue for dinner (RHB is Marcus’ favorite restaurant in Dallas). As soon as we got there I headed to the restroom. As I turned down the hallway I saw a man out of the corner of my eye go into one of the bathrooms, so I went straight ahead to the other restroom. I was almost to the door when I realized the sign said Men. I stopped for a second and thought, “well I must have just thought I saw a man go into the other bathroom”. I turned, walked back to the other restroom, which was labeled Women, opened the door, and there in an open stall right across from the door was someone peeing while standing up. Eww! (I don't even let Marcus pee with the door open, so I surely don't want to see some random guy peeing!) I slowly backed out of the bathroom and waited for the confused and perhaps drunk guy to get out of there. You would think the lack of urinals would have been a major clue that he was in the wrong place!

Hair!!

This weekend Marcus and I are headed to Dallas for our nephew’s 2nd birthday party. We’ll stay with Jonathan and Shannon, so we’ll get to see baby Christopher again. But what I’m really excited about (no offense to Caleb and Christopher) is getting my hair cut on Friday! Right before we moved away from Dallas I found a hair salon that specializes in naturally curly hair, so now I actually travel 140 plus miles for a haircut. Let me tell you, finding someone who knows how to cut curly hair properly is a real challenge. I won’t tell you how much I pay for this haircut, because, well, I am embarrassed by the amount. I justify it because I only get two haircuts a year, I don’t get manicures and pedicures, I don’t color my hair, and well, just take a look at these pictures from my childhood.

I told you it’s hard to find someone who knows what they're doing. Don’t tell the Styling Hutch, but I’d totally pay double.

Silly husband

Marcus is really wonderful, but man does he have sleep issues. He has night terrors once in a while that are pretty serious. He even went sleep walking on the cruise ship. (Thankfully, our floor didn't have access to the deck). He suddenly sits up in bed and starts talking several times a week. Often he says something really funny. Last night he sat up in bed, looked at me and said, “By the way it’s me, Marcus.” To which I replied (while laughing at him) “Thanks for letting me know who is in my bed!” He went right back to sleep. Silly husband.

One irritated feminist

I found out something this evening that got my feminist sensibilities all riled, former Texas gubernatorial candidate, and all around good ole' boy misogynist, Clayton Williams, has been fundraising for Senator McCain. Williams ran against Ann Richards in 1990 and was sure to win until he demonstrated his incredible sleaziness and stupidity with his now infamous statement comparing rape with the weather "As long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it." It made national news, and of course Richards won the election.

McCain's campaign said they were unaware of Mr. Williams' comments in 1990. Today, McCain's campaign cancelled a scheduled fundraiser with Williams but they plan to keep the $300,000 Williams already raised for the campaign.

Here is a link to the article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25166151/

I am once again very disappointed in Senator McCain. You would think a man who has experienced being held against his will and tortured would be more sensitive to any “joke” belittling violence, and would not want any connection to Williams. Not to mention this association is not going to help him win over women voters, which his campaign is very eager to do. I also find it very hard to believe that his campaign staff did not know about this incident. (Although it's possible McCain himself did not know about it). I was 12 years old in 1990 and I remember it very well.

I'll definitely be buying that anti McCain sticker now. (Assuming he wins the election and doesn't do the right thing and return the money).

Smart people own dogs before becoming parents

As you all know, Marcus and I don’t have any kids yet. What we do have are pets, two dogs and two cats. Poor Bailey has taken the brunt of most of our “parenting” mistakes.

We got Bailey shortly after we got married. One day, about a month or so after we got her, we all went outside so she could go to the bathroom. Then we went inside, watched some TV and decided to go see a movie. We changed clothes, got ready to go and then called Bailey so we could put her in her crate. We called and called, but she didn’t come. We looked all over the house. Finally, we opened the front door and there was poor Bailey. She was sitting right up against the door and when we opened it she peed all over out of happiness to see us and anxiety for being left outside all alone for about 30 minutes.

A few years later Bailey started getting into the bathroom trash while we were at work. Now Bailey is a very obedient dog, so when she does something wrong she knows full well that it’s wrong and just does it anyway. After several days of her doing this, we started taking her to the bathroom, showing her the trash, and saying “bad dog” as soon as we got home. Well, that didn’t stop her. Then we added spanking her to the routine. It got to the point that she would greet us at the door cowering and whimpering knowing she was about to get a whoopin’. One day we were telling our friends Amanda and Raymond about the problem and before we could share our spanking solution Amanda said “Did you just start closing the bathroom door when you leave?” Marcus and I looked at each other dumbfounded. It never even occurred to us! That finally worked. (To make it even worse we now kind of suspect that one of the cats was actually responsible for the trash thing)

Things will probably just get worse for Bailey once we do have kids. They’ll probably pull on her ears and stuff. She’ll just let them because that is the kind of dog she is. On the other hand, the kids will probably be sticky and lickable most of the time and drop food for her to eat. Maybe it won’t be all bad.

Brace yourselves......

Here comes my first post about politics. Before I begin I would like everyone to take note of the fact that it took me 11 posts to get around to politics. :)

So, I mostly identify with the Democratic Party. Actually my only significant disagreement with the party platform is that I am pro-life. I really hope Senator Obama becomes our next president.

With that said, I have been very impressed with Senator McCain. I agree with him politically on very little, but I respect his military service and I really admired it when he stood up to President Bush on torture and then again on global warming. I’ve always thought of him, as many others do, as someone who has a lot of integrity. That perception made me feel ok about the possibility of him becoming our next president. (As I told my friend Amanda, I don’t think I’ll be buying an anti McCain bumper sticker).

Well, my perception of his integrity changed drastically this week. First I came across a random interview with Ross Perot in Newsweek. One of the many reasons Perot hates McCain is because of how McCain’s first marriage ended. I didn’t think too much of it because in the same interview, Perot was relieved when the reporter told him Obama was not Muslim. Didn’t really seem like he’d been paying all that much attention! Then a day later I was on an ebay discussion thread that somehow turned to politics and someone said something similar in regards to McCain’s first marriage.

I googled the information because honestly I thought it was one of those ridiculous rumors/lies that are spread in countless ignorant fear-mongering emails. That’s how unlike my perception of McCain this story was. Plus, I follow politics and I found it suspicious that I was just now hearing about this. Well, it turns out Ross Perot knew what he was talking about. Here is one of the articles I found that probably has the most information for your time:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1024927/The-wife-John-McCain-callously-left-behind.html

You can find others by googling McCain first wife or first marriage

I’m not posting this to try and change your vote. I know many of my friends and family prefer the policies of the republicans and that’s fine. I mean I think you're wrong and all...... :)

I’m actually really dismayed by this information, because for me the main thing McCain had going for him was his integrity. If he wins I may have to buy an anti McCain bumper sticker after all. :(

Weird side effects

So I’ve been taking Zoloft since January, and it has been really good about doing what it is supposed to do, but in the last few months I’ve experienced a weird new side effect. You know that panicky feeling you get that wakes you up when you have a bad dream? Well, I no longer get that feeling (Zoloft has an anti anxiety component), so I don’t wake up from a bad dream anymore. It’s really weird. The bad dream just continues on and on and eventually morphs into some other kind of dream like all dreams do. On the plus side bad dreams aren’t as scary as they usually are, but they still aren’t pleasant enough for me to be happy about not waking up.

Story Time

Greetings again. It's me, Marcus.

I come from a family of story tellers. My brothers like to tell them (check out my brother's latest blog posting), my dad had some really good ones, and you might have even heard me tell a few...all true of course. But there's a story that my Grandpa would tell that is absolutly great. I had never heard the story until just a few years back, and I probably can't tell it as well as he could, but here's how I remember it.

My great grandfather (Grandpa's dad) and his brother were out one day on the farm, and the brother was chopping wood. My Great-Grandpa came up to him in true brotherly fashion and proceeded to annoy the axe-weilder. by sticking his foot up on the chopping block. Well, the axeman tells him to move his foot or he'll chop it off; and of course Great-Grandpa didn't belive him, and so he left his foot there. As you can imagine, the brother with the axe refuses to be beaten by his sibling, so he takes a swing at Great-Grandpa's foot and manages to whack off a toe. That's right, he chops his toe right off!

Now, that's a fantastic, yet true, story in and of it's own accord. Two brothers out on the farm with an axe and a newly severed toe. You think that's the end of the story; but this is where Grandpa would surprise you. Because lo and behold, after the toe is chopped off, nothing shocks you more than to hear that a rooster runs up, picks up the fallen toe, and eats it!

Like I said, this is how I remember the story. I'd be interested to hear how other members of the family remember it.


Marcus, Special Guest Blogger

Hot Tubbin'

I’m not normally a fan of hot tubs. I find them to be way too hot and kind of sleazy, but the hot tub at the bed and breakfast Marcus and I stayed at in Fredericksburg was AWESOME! It had fancy lights, quick temperature adjustment, and lots of different kinds of jets. My favorite part was the set of jets that moved up and down, they felt almost like a deep tissue massage on my lower back. Luckily we were the only people staying at the B and B, so we got to use the hot tub despite forgetting to bring bathing suits. (I know, TMI) So, if you want to go to Fredericksburg I can recommend The Queen Anne Bed and Breakfast, and don't forget your swim suit!! http://www.absolutecharm.com/queen-anne.html

Our room at the B & B

Happy anniversary to us!!

Marcus and I got married seven years ago today. I don’t remember very much about the ceremony or the reception. It’s all kind of a blur, but I do remember the moment when I knew that I wanted to marry him. It was early in the afternoon on May 17th, 2000.

On May 17th I went with my aunt and grandmother to buy my first car. Buying a car is such a big boring hassle! While waiting around for the salesman, I realized that buying a car would be a much better experience if Marcus were there. Then I thought “I really like having Marcus around. It would be great if he were around all the time. If I married him he would be around all the time. I should marry him!”

So…...after seven years of having Marcus around pretty much all of the time I still think he makes everything better just by being there.