United We Stand, Divided We Fall

Obama could still get re-elected in 2012, in spite of his low ratings. You can either take hope in this, or like me, you could view it as a warning that the US could soon be re-electing for a second term a president that views the constitution as a roadblock. That is why he wears that smug look – because he knows this and he is counting on it – in fact, I would say that it is a big part of his re-election strategy.

How could this happen when we have so many good presidential candidates springing up lately? Well, look at the European Election results from 2009 – the socialist party walked away with a large chunk of the parliament seats, just like Obama may be able to do with the presidency if conservatives don’t get their act together. A multi-party system sounds like a good idea in theory, but look how the system breaks

down:

In fact, Obama is encouraging this division. The more conservative parties we have with candidates running for office, the better chances Obama has at a second term. We saw this happen in 1992 with the Bush/Clinton/Perot split. Clinton won the election with only 43% of the popular vote. Perot drew away almost 20% of the conservative vote, allowing a win by a liberal president when almost 60% of voters chose conservative candidates. I personally believe that Ross Perot was a good candidate for the office of president, but without the GOP nomination, his run split the vote and allowed Clinton to take the presidency. A similar thing happened in 1996 with the ticket divided 3 ways between Bill Clinton, Ross Perot, and Bob Dole. Of course it didn’t help that the GOP  did a lousy job picking a Republican nominee that year – Dole was not a candidate who could win an election that year, and I am not sure I would have wanted him to. However, had they chosen better, there is a good chance that  Clinton might not ever have served a second term. On the same token, if Nadar hadn’t drawn away 2,000,000 votes in 2000 Gore would never have had to demand a recount. The point is that in 2012, conservatives have more to lose than ever before in the history of the US.  We have

conservative and moderate parties blossoming up like tulips on the tail end of a wet winter. Not only do we have the Libertarian candidate Ron Paul vying for the Republican nomination,  there are several other parties gaining momentum in the wake of conservative disenfranchisement. Republican politicians have churned out a slew of liberal

double speaking frauds who have used the republican ticket to get elected before showing their true colors, or

moderates and conservatives who are too limp spined to even hold up to white house

socialists like Nancy Pelosi and Bernie Sanders, let alone sit up straight on their own. Since 1992,

there have been 25 new political parties founded in the United States, and with conservatives’ inability to come together on a few key issues, we continue to become more and more fragmented. If Ron Paul doesn’t win the republican nomination and he decides to continue running on a Libertarian ticket, the 2012 election results could very easily look something like this:

Well, I am not sure if the green party still has quite that much support, but the point is that the fragmentation between several good candidates can actually work more in favor of the minority party than for the good of the country. In a time when so many liberties that we have long taken for granted are at stake, we can’t afford to continue like this, or we may well be at the end of an era – and looking into an uncertain future, where freedom is sacrificed for social programs and security. Let’s hope I’m wrong.

Gum + Kids Doesn’t Have to = Disaster

I had a moment of panic today when my husband came home with my 5 year old in the middle of church with gum all over his clothes AND all over her brand new Christmas dress. Ok, maybe the word panic is a bit strong, but I was mad, because I had told my kids ‘NO MORE GUM!’ after my 7 year old spit out gum at church a few weeks ago and got it all over one of the  upholstered folding chairs in the overflow. I was fortunate at the time – or should I say I was blessed – to be able to get it all off.

This worked for a while, but today while I was home sick, my 13 year old

gave Bee a piece of gum again during the sacrament meeting. The result was gum all over a brand new dress, my husbands pants, and a fairly new white church shirt. The total of which to replace all of these would have been close to $100 dollars. For some people, that isn’t much, but for us that is a lot of money. Sure, I bought those clothes on sale, and I didn’t pay nearly that much, BUT those sales are not going on right now, and not having those clothes available for use would definitely be felt.

So, I went online and looked for ways to get gum off of clothes. Gasoline, Goo Gone, nail polish remover, and lighter fluid were not things I keep on hand, and besides I hesitate to use them on clothes since they are highly toxic and could possibly destroy the clothes anyway. One suggestion was to heat apple cider vinegar and then dip the gum in it and use a toothbrush to brush it off. What the heck! It was worth a shot.

The results were FANTASTIC! I LOVE apple cider vinegar. Now I LOVE it even more!

To remove gum from clothes, heat the apple cider vinegar, dip the cloth with the gum on it into the hot vinegar, and then brush it gently with a toothbrush. The gum sticks to the toothbrush, which will be ruined afterward, so use an old toothbrush that you are going to toss out anyway.  Also, the gum loosens from the cloth and can be picked off, or you can pick off a bigger piece of gum and dab it on the other gum bits and they will stick to the gum in your hand and leave the fabric unscathed.

So, that is my derailed disaster of the day :) and I hope this story helps someone else avoid the unnecessary cost of replacing gummed up clothing.