The Catholic Cricket

I haven’t updated Lily’s status in ages (partially due to the splitting of www.siekierski.com and catholic.siekierski.com), but since I’m messing around with things, and testing out the gallery plugin, I thought I’d toss in an update.

Lily is now 2.  Wow!  She’s a big sister, although I think her little sister is going to pass her up in size soon.  Her hearing, which was previously determined to be in the “mild hearing loss” range, is in the normal range now, so she’s been trying things without hearing aids for the past month, and will continue to do so for the rest of the year.  After that, they’ll evaluate her speech development and make sure it’s not stagnant (it’s definitely lagging).

She is receiving help through the Macomb ISD, where she has classes, and physical and occupational therapy.

Lily is on absolutely no medication now.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  She hasn’t needed a breathing treatment in months, either.  She’s come a long way.

Anyhow, a picture, if it’ll work.

So say some.

I think there are good reasons to argue so, and they’re listed at the above link.

I’ve heard various people make the claim that McCain lost the election, in part, because of voters’ dislike of what Bush did in office, and then go on a tear about how bad Bush has been.  The same people frequently, in nearly the same breath, complain about the bias in media reporting and how that bias incorrectly shifts peoples’ perception about the economy, the war, and pretty much everything else.

I wonder.  Do the people saying this realize that the same applies to Bush as applies to the reporting on the economy?  For years, the media has been talking down the economy.  Everything is doom and gloom, and so people come to think it’s doom and gloom, even if they personally are doing fine.  In the same vein, the media has spent the past 8 years talking down everything the President has done.  No news story about the President comes out that doesn’t have a negative spin.  And so people become very negative about what the President has done.  Said long enough, and loud enough, it became accepted as fact.

People didn’t vote against the Republican candidate because they were voting against the “failed policies” of 8 years of Bush.  They voted against the negative media-made image of Bush.

If people fail to recognize that, then the MSM will be able to continue misinforming us while influencing our decisions.

I expect that the next four years will be a riot of worshipful articles about Obama, where everything will be spun to put him in the best possible light, just as Bush was always shown in the worst possible.  It is no more true that Obama will have done no wrong than it is that Bush did no right.

Keep that in mind, and remember that your perceptions can be deceived, tricked, if you’re not vigilant.  It’s easy to miss something like this.

I’d like to see the phrase “thrown under the bus” get thrown under the bus.

The bus should then be backed up and run forward a few times, and then the driver can get out and kick the phrase a few times just to make sure it’s dead before pouring gasoline on it and tossing on a lit match, basking in the warmth provided on a cold autumn day.

Please?  I’m really tired of hearing it.  Find some new phrases, everyone.  Expand your vocabulary.