Almost Done

I've been updating the look and feel of my blog over the past 24 hours and it's getting there, but not quite where I want it. I promise this tedious process will be done soon.

Deliverance

Operation Overlord.

That was the code name for the allied invasion on France - one of the the largest amphibious military assaults in history. It began on June 6th and wasn't an overnight victory. The battle lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, but in the end the Allies were liberated from Western Europe and Nazi Germany's control.

It's been almost 70 years ago since some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five different beaches on the heavily fortified coast of France's Normandy region.  Just before the assault, the Allied forces conducted a huge deception campaign to mislead the Nazi forces about the intended invasion target. They called it Operation Bodyguard. Months of planning went into this. It worked.

President Dwight Eisenhower was only a U.S. Army General at the time of the Normandy Invasion, but Supreme Commander over the Allied Forces. Think about it. Wow. He rallied his troops and spoke with members of the 101st Airborne paratroopers before the planes and gliders left. (Great photo of this moment btw.)  Paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines during the night when their friends and fellow soldiers assaulted the beaches at dawn. Soldiers braved the pounding surf, crossed the beaches and moved over the seawalls to face the enemy.  Finally the beachhead was secured and they continued on. Men were wounded. Men lost their lives. All in the name of Freedom.

Freedom. Seven letters with a meaning more powerful than most other words known to man.

June 6th, 1944.

As the greatest generation becomes fewer in number and history books become filled with "more important" things, this and future generations don't /won't understand the breadth and depth of this date in history.

It's a date that NEEDS to be remembered.

Without this combined military effort, the world would be a different place.

It was a day of deliverance.

Cure this...

There's Gotta Be an App for That...

I have friends who are gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgendered or what have you. For the record, I don't care. While I am a Christian, my religious beliefs tell me to love my neighbor and God is the ultimate judge - it's not my job. So that's how I conduct my business, whether right or wrong. So now that I've laid my cards on the table, I wanted to address something that caught my eye the other day... 

"The Cure for Gay"

As quoted from MSN: "Depending on your point of view, the notion of a "cure" for homosexuality is utterly laughable or a serious possibility. In the latter category, a site called Setting Captives Free offers a new app somewhat curiously titled "Door of Hope" that will allow you to "find freedom from homosexuality." Oh, and that'll allegedly happen in 60 days. It's reportedly available via Apple iTunes and Google Play, along with a number of other apps tailored for your specific sins. "New Wine" will get you off the booze, "In His Image" will free you from anorexia and bulimia, "Higher Stakes" eliminates your gambling jones, and "By His Wounds" will give you "freedom from self-injury." Now if they could just come up with one that would clean your oven."

Now, 24 hours after appearing on the Apple store, it was pulled and an online petition was put in place to pull it from google apps. It has over 70K signatures.  I'm sure the whole topic offends a wide variety of people ranging from homophobes to homosexuals.  

I read one of the possible reasons this app was pulled from Apple iTunes app store was because the mental health practices associated with 'curing' homosexuality are illegal in many places in the US, and have been condemned by the US mental health community. Apps that encourage or assist in illegal activities are disallowed in at least the Apple App store contract. Interesting perspective. However, I think we are probably past the draconian days, or are we? 

I honestly don't know. 

It's an interesting question and some food for thought. But would the same brouhaha be happening if someone launched a "Cure Heterosexuality" app? What about an app to turn straight people gay?  Would anyone who complained in any of the aforementioned instances be labeled bigots or haters? Probably. 

For me though, this whole ordeal is kind of about censorship. Frankly, I don't want to go there. It reminds me of Tipper Gore and the beginning of the music ratings in the 80's. Censorship is a slippery slope to tread down and once down, there's not a way to climb back up.  Rather like Alice and the rabbit hole.

No Pain, No Gain?

I'm pretty sure that when whoever coined the phrase, "No pain, no gain," they were referring to getting in shape. However, tonight I'm pretty sure that applies to cleaning house today for approximately 11 hours. 

My accomplishment - a deep clean on the kitchen and I'm not even done yet. 

I'd like to say this was just a moseying around the kitchen and doing some dishes, taking a break then playing around on Facebook. Not. So. Much. 

For whatever reason under the sun, no one had done dishes all week. I got pissed. And when I reach a certain level of pissed, I clean. I've been that way my entire adult life. 

So the dishes got done, the counters were all scrubbed down, the outside of the cabinets were all scrubbed down and then were taken care of with Old English Oil, the walls were scrubbed down... well... I think you get the picture. 

There is; however, one thing that vexed me beyond belief I was trying to take care of and didn't manage - replacing the lightbulbs in the fridge. 

Son of a purple dragon. 

My darling hubby went out and bought me 3 new bulbs. Three. Because THREE of the four are out. 

I put one in. No workie. I checked the filaments. They're all good. Perplexed, I tried the bulb in the socket in the freezer. No workie. I left that bulb there and went to pull the other burned out bulb (#3) from  the fridge side and found someone spilled something down the back of the fridge that has hardened like cement. 

For all that is holy... really? Can you not clean up the mess you spill? Is it that freakin' difficult? 

I slammed the fridge door shut; I got out the parsley cleaner,  Windex (TM), Lysol (TM), etc... and started scrubbing the bathroom which too disgusted me. 

I'm sitting here writing now at 0101 because after the long, long day, I took a hot shower in the somewhat cleaner bathroom and I'm having to let my hair dry a bit before I get in bed. (Plus no other guild members are on Warcraft right now and that's kind of a bummer.)

Why?

Unexpectedly, the fruits of my womb had my "other daughter from another mother" spend the night and I can't run the hair dryer. That and if I wake darling hubby, I will probably regret it more than I do trying to move my back or legs at the moment. 

So yes. This is not my usual post. I'll be back to my regularly scheduled programming a bit later. (After I get some sleep and finish cleaning the bathroom if I can actually move...tomorrow.)