All the News You Might Have Missed...

... if you weren't tuned into Miss Ginger!  She scours the news- so you can leave yours dirty!

First, you may remember Miss Ginger posting in the past about Phyllis Randolph Frye, a local Houston attorney and activist who is transgendered.  Well, today, the Houston Chronicle reported that Mayor Annise Parker has appointed Phyllis to be Houston's first transgender municipal court judge.  It's a good article, and my favorite part is this quote from Phyllis:


"I almost started crying, because I remember 31 years ago, in that very same chamber, I was subject to arrest," Frye said.


Yes, at one point Houston was backward enough to have a law on the books that said men could not dress as women, and women could not wear button-fly jeans!  Worse yet, it was sometimes enforced!! Can you believe it!  Today proves that even in this Republican hellhole, we can at times move forward!!  Baby steps. I'll take 'em!!


Also in today's Chronicle, their MomHouston Blog asks the question: would you support a ban on circumcision? Apparently there is an initiative brewing in San Francisco to try to get a vote on the ballot to illegalize any such "genital mutilation."  One thing's for sure:  there's no going back!  So, GingerSnaps:  what's your preference-  cut or au naturel? Leave a comment and let us know what you think?

You're going to do WHAT to my WHAT?!!

And finally,  their "Advertising vs. Reality" pictorial gives a visual comparison of the picture on the menu to what is actually served.  Fair warning:  your McRib may never look so delicious again!

So, go ahead and let the dog shit on that old fashioned newspaper!  You already know all the good stuff!!

Faith vs. Religion

Wow!  What a debate Miss Ginger sparked up on facebook when she reposted David's cute little joke about religion!

Right off the bat, my best childhood friend's older sister, an evangelical christian (my description, not hers) chastised me and unfriended me!

Evangelical Sister: Really? That's crude and rude. Not going to have to worry about any of this any more. It's all pretty bad, but the last line is pretty disgusting. I guess that's your point. I'm signing off and you will not have to see my post, which are a love for God and Jesus and a conservative person. All the best.

Next, my dear, dear Nutwood Beth came to my protection (as she is wont to do!) with an extremely supportive, heartfelt, and appreciated comment:

Nutwood Beth: I posted this a while back here on FB, and I stand by my posting of it, and I stand by David's posting of it, and I stand by YOUR posting of it. When the Catholic church continues to cover up the abuse of children, all bets are off. They apparently have no mercy for the children who are abused at the hands of some of their priests; why in holy hell should I show any mercy to the abusive priests or the church that allows them to get away with it?

Now, an old friend from high school chimes in, and kind of skirts around my whole appreciation of the issue,  meanwhile stepping in a big pile of dog doo:

Kitten: Sounds like maybe you've had some run-ins with "religious" folks, George. There's a BiG difference between religion and FAITH--I suggest, for your eternal soul's sake, that you investigate the difference! To borrow a phrase from the Bible "we are but a vapor", here today and gone tomorrow--eternity is FOREVER!! Try to look at it this way: sometimes those who talk "religion" to you do it because they love you--and I do love you, George--always have and always will. I will continue to pray for you, too! And to your friend who posted the above response--a lot of people in this country feel the exact same way about the gay lifestyle---don't force it on our kids or down our throats!!!

Kitten's always had my back, God wise, and I've always loved her for it.  The gay thing kinda stung, though, but I'm gonna just say she was jabbing back.

Then, another high school friend, who happens to be lesbian, came in with her strong support of Christianity, and all hell broke loose, so to speak!  Miss Ginger LOVED it!!  To have her little post spark such heartfelt debate made her appreciate the electronic social venues more than she already did!

And it really got Miss Ginger thinking about the point of the whole issue:  "faith" vs. "religion". So, she did one of her favorite things when she wants to research a concept:  she went to ask.com images and asked for images of "faith" and "religion".  Miss G had an angle for this article,  so she selected the following image to represent "faith", although she must admit she sifted through a lot before she came upon it:

She chose this image to represent faith, because the sun and star seem to represent diverse ideologies, and the open hand symbolized an open mind, and an acceptance of all. A "faith" in Miss G's mind is quite personal-  each individuals "faith" defines their personal spirituality, and it is as unique as their fingerprint or their DNA!  To Miss Ginger, any faith worth following should hold those ideals to be important! Truth be told, most of the images that Miss G had to sift through represented "faith" as christianity, with images of churches, praying hands, nuns, doves, and crosses.

"Religion", on the other hand, means a "ritual observance of faith", or "a set of beliefs governed by a moral code of human affairs".  So, religion is godsreich, so to speak. Does anyone appreciate it expressed that way? Miss Ginger thinks not! So, she was quite surprised when she asked for images of "religion" and got many images that in her mind represent "faith"!

To Miss Ginger,  this image represent the diversity of faith that makes the world a better place!  Yasee, Miss Ginger's primary problem with christianity is it's belief that it is the only true faith, and that all others are blasphemous, unworthy, and hell-bound.  Certainly Miss Ginger is no student of theology, but the fact that her christian friends all insist that she must accept christ as her savior or burn in a lake of eternal fire just make her mad!!  Miss Ginger simply refuses to worship a "deity" who is so self-centered that all other points of view are considered blasphemous!  Miss G knows many Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and others,  and they are lovely people who will follow their faith to an afterlife of their desire and belief!  While Miss Ginger certainly hopes to spend her afterlife with her family and loved ones who came before her, she hopes it will be in a place of love and acceptance of all people!  Even if the streets are paved in gold and it rains Absolut every day, Miss Ginger simply cannot imagine spending her eternity in a place that only allows people of one specific belief!

What do you think, GingerSnaps?  Are you "faithful", "religious", or "none of the above"?  Where do you expect to spend YOUR eternity?

Miss Ginger Finds Nirvana!!

And it is located on a tiny touch-screen!

Harrah's Casino in New Orleans has installed a new system on all of their slot machines that is nothing short of BRAZZILLIANT!!!

As you know,  the only thing Miss G likes to do more than gamble is to drink,  and now Harrah's has made it easier than ever for Miss G to keep herself entertained for hours on end!

Harrah's New Orleans, like most casinos, gives free drinks to their players.  In Miss Ginger's opinion, it's a pretty good deal,  because on most nights she spends about the same at the casino that she would spend at a bar, and is actually much more likely to get lucky.  In the past, however,  getting your drink on at a casino could be difficult,  as the cocktail waitresses were usually overworked, and on a busy night quite difficult to find.  But Harrah's to the rescue with "Total Touch",  which allows you to order your drink on a touch screen right from the slot machine!!  Man, I wish I'd thought of that!!

It is that perfect combination of easy and effective!  Touch the button that says "Order Beverage" and you navigate through the simple menu to your selection- for Miss G:  Light Beers > Bud Light.  Once your selection is comfirmed, you get a message that your order is processing. Once the bartender has pulled the beverage,  you get a message letting you know it's on it's way.  Shortly thereafter, a cheerful cocktail waitress,  who is happy that people have not been yelling "Miss!  Miss!!" at her all night,  brings your beverage to you.  FLAWLESS!!

The system does several other neat things, like show your rewards balance, contact a slot attendant, and track your rewards progress, but really,  if it only ordered the drinks that would be enough!!

Great job, Harrah's!! 

You'll Never Blue Ball in This Town Again!

How could you not love a woman whose nickname is "Longboobs"?!

Don't forget to:

It's time to FALL BACK!!

The 40's!!!

Houston is supposed to be in the 40's tonight, and Miss G is SOOOOO excited-  she just LOVES the 40's!

Really, it's the TEMPERATURE that's going to be in the 40's, and Miss G loves that-  it's the most comfortable time of year in South Texas!  But it got her thinking about how much she loves the era of the 40's as well- I guess because Momma G always made it seem so gosh darn FABULOUS!!

And it's really no wonder:  the 40's is when Momma G married the Handsomest Soldier EVAH and began to create the family that created yours truly!    It's kinda funny, really, the way Momma G used to talk about "the War", years after the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam had ended.  When Momma G said "the War", she always meant WWII, and she truly believed it was the worst and best thing that ever happened to this country.  It always seemed so strange to me that she seemed so enamored of war, and she would always hasten to add "oh, I hated the war, but I loved what it did for this country!"  It didn't make a lick of sense to me as a child, but I kind of think I get it now!

Momma G was a republican at heart, I'm afraid, and I don't think she had a lot of faith in FDR's "New Deal".  When FDR proposed a "New Deal" for the American people, she, like many others, thought it smacked of socialism, and while she liked the idea of putting Americans to work, she was dubious that the government spending at that level would resurrect the American economy.  How her tune changed after the bombing of Pearl Harbor!  Now, instead of spending to build roads and dams and ditches,  we are going to spend to defend our country- our homeland- our way of life!  Momma G, like so many other Americans,  saved the money she made working at the drugstore to buy war bonds. She used ration coupons. She rolled rags into bandages. And she never felt like the government was "making" her do it- she did it because she felt it needed to be done!

For Miss Ginger, the turning point in her "thought process" about America was her visit to the World War II Museum in her beloved New Orleans,  and a diorama they have at the very beginning that depicts the relative size of armies at the beginning of WWII.

Growing up in post-war, atomic age America,  Miss G just sort of assumed that the US had always been a superpower of the world, but those 5 piddly rows of plastic soldiers made her realize that it was not always the case!  The mobilization of America in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, as taught by Momma Ginger, and the WW2 Museum, was what rescued America from the depths of the great depression.

It makes sense when one thinks about the cause of the depression: excess manufacturing capacity.  After the industrial revolution, with modern processes and equipment,  factories could crank out products at unprecedented speed.  They were so efficient at meeting the demand for manufactured products that, before they knew it, the demand was fulfilled, and the products they created were no longer needed! With the demand for goods met,  factories were shuttered,  workers were laid off,  and entire towns went dark as the industries that provided their existence shrank to meet the satiated demand! Sound familiar, Detroit?

So, Miss G, what does all of your babble have to do with me, today?  Well, let me tell you, fellow revolutionaries!  We are experiencing a revolution not at all unlike the industrial revolution our forefathers faced!  Today's computer revolution has enabled single workers in one day to generate individualized letters that would have taken a pool of typists days to complete!  Spreadsheet programs allow one person to sift through piles of data that would have taken a team of analysts weeks to interpret.  Wired and wireless networks allow instant transmission of reams of information that would have once taken months of time and countless people to generate, print, collate, bind, and deliver. Our computer revolution has created the exact same "excess capacity" problem that caused the great depression, and just like that catastrophe, it is only going to get worse!

Now, don't think Miss G has gone all "warmonger" on you, and has decided that a war is the only way to end this terrible economy! That's not where she's going with this, at all! Because if you go back to the WW2 situation, it WASN'T the war that ended the great depression! What ended the great depression was the coming together of the American people, to face a common enemy, and to reach a common goal! The sad truth of the situation is that the human suffering of depression, hunger, starvation, and death was not enough to invoke the spirit and compassion of the American people to set aside their differences and fight for the right of every American to live with food, health, and a hopeful outlook!  It took the drama of bombs on American soil to get Americans to come together, prioritize the survival of our democracy above all else, and commit as individuals to doing the things that need to be done to ensure the survival of our precious way of life!

What's it going to take this time, America?  Who will have to bomb us this time in order for us to get our shit together?

Tweet Me!

Miss Ginger has added a cool new gadget to her blog that you are sure to enjoy!  Check out the "tweet" button at the top of the sidebar!  Now you can tweet Miss G directly from her blog, without even leaving the page! Just click the button adn tweet away!! Tell her what you think, share her posts with your friends on twitter, or just drop her a note to say hello! 

Pretty cool, huh?  Click here if you want to set one up for your own blog!  Just use this code generator and paste it as an HTML gadget on your blogger design page!

Try it!  Right now!  Miss G is eagerly waiting to hear from you!