Uncle Sherrod?

Senator Sherrod Brown is someone I've had the pleasure of meeting a couple of times - both at my place of employment (all too briefly) and at Congress in Washington, DC, where we had a quick chance to speak Russian / Bulgarian to each other.  He's a hardworking, yet super nice guy who happens to not be related to me, I promise, though do you think he'd mind if I started calling him "Uncle Sherrod?!"  :-)

He's a great senator - my senator (OUR senator) - who champions the people of Ohio rather than their companies' CEOs who send our jobs out of state and out of country.  Since both he - and President Obama - have been in office, Ohio's unemployment rate has fallen to 7.4% (April 2012), well below the national average of over 8%.

The challenge?  Fallout from the Citizen's United Supreme Court decision.  He's being ridiculously outspent in his current re-election campaign by nearly 5-1.  He's being outspent by people who will never vote for him - not because they oppose him (which they do) - but instead because they are not even from Ohio and are therefore ineligible to vote for him.  Karl Rove and his SuperPac are spending millions of dollars here in Ohio to campaign against him simply because they can.  Citizen's United.

Here's a clip of a recent interview Senator Brown gave on The Rachel Maddow Show.

Do we really want our elections to be controlled by people who will not even vote in them?  Do we want people who don't even have to live in this country to have such a huge say in the outcome of this country's elections?  I thought we were a republic where each person had a voice.  Well now, the voice is centering around the small handful of people who have not been hurt by this current - great - recession.  It is centering around those who have already recovered because they were bailed out by our tax dollars.

Remember Democrats - remember what we as a party did in 2010?  We pouted and a lot of you (yes YOU - since *I* made it a point to show up at the polls) stayed home and didn't bother to vote.  We do that again and the Republicans won't HAVE to legislate more disenfranchisement around the country because we'll do the work FOR them.

Sure, President Obama may not be the most liberal president in the world that you HOPED he would be, but he's a damn fine president who's getting a lot accomplished in SPITE of Republican obstructionism - primarily in the form of filibustering every piece of legislation presented - more than in any - other - president's - term - of - office.  Ever.  Think of what he'll be able to accomplish in a second term.  

Of course, he won't have a second term if you stay home pouting again.  

Do you really want to give the victory to Mitt Romney?  I don't think you do, but stay home again and you will.  

So - make sure you get off your butt and vote this time around!  If the Republicans get back in the White House, everything that led to this great recession will happen all over again.  Despite the fact that the Republican Saboteurs are putting the fate of this nation second to their own political agenda, what we progressives are accomplishing now is far, far better than what would ever happen under a Romney administration.  

You voted for President Obama because you didn't like the "all or nothing" attitude of former President George W. Bush, yet you expect that very same "all" from President Obama?  And we call Republicans hypocrites?

While I don't think that example of hypocrisy can even begin to compare to that of the Republicans, I do think that we should all start right here in Ohio and make sure we help re-elect Senator Sherrod Brown so he doesn't lose to a guy who doesn't even show up to his current job.  I'd already be fired if I had that kind of attendance record, so let's not reward Mr. Josh Mandel by promoting him.  Let's instead reward Senator Brown for doing the great job he's been doing by giving him another six years to do even more.  

Do you really want your senator to miss votes?  No - you want a senator who's going to show up to work every day and fight for you - a citizen of Ohio - and for the entire nation - not just for the small handful who bought the election.

Senator Sherrod Brown is that kind of senator.  Don't let his job be bought and paid for by those who can't even vote in this senatorial election.  

Vote.

Stats, Stats and More Stats

While I'm working on my book that's about travel and knitting, I found myself looking up a variety of stats for the countries that will be profiled.  Basically, I'm writing a book filled with knitting designs, so I'm writing about the countries that inspired the designs.

Though it's going to be a fairly light book - nothing controversial, only fun - I did find some interesting stats and thought I'd share them with you here.   The countries that are highlighted, or profiled, in my book are:

• Austria
• Bulgaria
• France
• Greece
• Spain
• Turkey
• United Kingdom
• United States of America

The reason these countries were chosen is solely because I had knitting designs already completed (or well on their way) that could easily be applied to these particular places.  The stats I'm about to post are per the CIA Factbook.  Hey - I'm not an economist, nor am I a business writer or anything, so I went to an easily accessible source.  So while my friends on Facebook were letting me know what they knew about all these countries (Thanks for that, friends!), I was gathering some statistical information.

OK, let's start with some basics.  Each group of stats will include each country's individual ranking.

Population (July 2012 est.)

USA (#3) 313,847,465

Turkey (#17) 79,749,461

France (#21) 65,630,692

UK (#22) 63,047,162

Spain (#27) 47,042,984

Greece (#78) 10,767,827

Austria (#94) 8,219,743

Bulgaria (#100) 7,037,935

Size (Area)

USA - #3

Turkey - #37

France - #43

Spain - #52

UK - #80

Greece - #97

Bulgaria - #105

Austria - #114

Moving on to some financials, I looked up the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. The Factbook defined this as "Purchasing Power Parity."  I didn't really know what that was either.  It went on to say the GDP at Purchasing Power Parity exchange rate is the sum value of all goods and services produced in the country valued at prices prevailing in the United States. 

GDP

USA - #2

UK - #9

France - #10

Spain - #14

Turkey - #17

Austria - #36

Greece - #41

Bulgaria - #71

Interesting that USA is #2, but listed as #1 Is the European Union.

Per Capita GDP

USA (#12) $48,100

Austria (#18) $41,700

UK (#34) $35,900

France (#35) $35,000

Spain (#43) $30,600

Greece (#49) $27,600

Turkey (#86) $14,600

Bulgaria (#90) $13,500



What I was happy to see was the rather high literacy rate in all the countries.  Sadly, I was a bit surprised at Turkey because I thought it would actually be lower.  Perhaps I shouldn't have thought that.

Literacy Rate

France, UK, US - 99%

Bulgaria - 98.2%

Austria - 98%

Spain - 97%

Greece - 96%

Turkey - 87.5%

Finally for tonight, I'm going to add in Life Expectancy. 

Life Expectancy (At birth)

France (14) 81.46 years

Spain (15) 81.27 years

UK (30) 80.17 years

Greece (31) 80.05 years

Austria (33) 79.91 years

USA (50) 78.49 years

Bulgaria (112) 73.84 years

Turkey (124) 72.77 years

I'm surprised that the U.S. isn't ranked higher than it is.  But I also read today that over 1/3 of adults are considered obese - nearly 40% of all women.  YIKES!  Need to work on that healthier lifestyle.  Maybe we should all move to France and drink more wine?  (I love France!) I have more stats to share later on, but in the meantime, I think this is all pretty interesting.  What do you think?



The Itinerant Knitter

So yesterday, I finally got around to deciding on what my New Year's resolution is going to be.  Clearly, I don't believe in rushing these things as it's now February.  Sure the losing weight thing is there, but that's an annual renewal of sorts, so it doesn't really count as a resolution in the new year if it's just being carried over from last year, right?

For those of you who have read my blog before, it's probably rather obvious that I love to travel.  Probably rather obvious that I love my Indiana Hoosiers, too, and that I occasionally like to dabble in politics.  While I haven't written too much about it here, I also love to knit and never go anywhere without at least one or two (or often three) knitting projects within reach.  When I'm deciding what to write here, I usually have some needles and yarn in my hands to keep me busy since I'm lousy at not being fidgety.

When I knit, I like to knit two things in particular: lace and socks.  Sure I knit other things - like sweaters for other people, hats, cowls, wall hangings, etc.  But I mostly knit socks and lace projects.  Sometimes I knit socks with a lace pattern on them, but thanks to access to wonderful books and a desire to knit something potentially complicated and challenging, lace usually wins out.  Of course, as any knitter knows, it takes a heck of a lot less time to knit a small project than it does to knit a huge lace shawl, so the smaller projects often win out.  The former can be done watching a good football or basketball game on TV.  The latter requires actual concentration that jumping up and down while my Hoosiers defeat #1 and #2 ranked teams simply doesn't allow.

With knitting, I've also begun to dabble in designing.  I'll admit, I'm horrible at making fitted garments, so I don't touch those, but with lace - and no true need to stick to a particular gauge - I like to make up my own stuff, such as this stole, the design for which was borrowed from a kilim I saw while in Istanbul.

Istanbul Stole - Ravelry pattern link

Or even with other projects, such as this pair of fingerless mitts that actually keep your wrist warm, I tend to create my own pattern if I can't find another pattern that I like.  Thus far, I've published everything on Ravelry which is amazingly knitter and designer-friendly.

Buckeye Braided Fingerless Mitts - Ravelry pattern link

The last year or two, I've been toying around with the idea of writing a book.  I love to travel.  I love to knit.  I love to knit while traveling.  Heck - I almost knit an entire sock on the flight back from Madrid a couple of weeks ago.  Why not combine my two loves into one big project?  Why not create a collection of designs inspired by the places I've traveled?  After my recent trip to Spain and Morocco, I certainly have plenty of inspiration and am already working on my third design from the Alhambra alone!

Since I didn't already have anything more than just a recycled "lose weight" New Year's resolution, I've decided to make this project my slightly-belated resolution.  Maybe it can be a "before my next birthday" goal since I just turned (cough) 29 (cough) again last week.  That would give me an extra month, anyway.  I already have it all outlined with a whole list of possible designs, though last month's trip to Iberia and Northern Africa would probably yield enough ideas for a stand-alone book.  So much beauty there.

I already have an appropriate name picked out:  The Itinerant Knitter.   It's under that name that I already publish my patterns despite the fact that my Ravelry ID is "DizzySpinster," a name borrowed from my time in the Peachtree Handspinners Guild in Atlanta - a fabulous group of ladies who originally taught me how to knit back in 1999.

My goal is this:  Organize the book, getting the written parts done and have most if not all of my projects knit up for pictures so that it's ready to be submitted for publication - all by this time next year. 

Hopefully while all this is going on, I'll find a publisher willing to take a chance on a new author / designer.  My hope on the book as well is for it to be appealing to knitters and non-knitters alike since I plan to write about the various places I've visited.  Maybe it'll turn out to be a lovely coffee table book...that just happens to be used by knitters all.

So there you have it: My (slightly belated) New Year's Resolution.

I'm really looking forward to this!

Quiet on the Homefront

I know I've been quiet the last couple of weeks. Well, it really doesn't have anything to do with Indiana's recent losses to Minnesota and Ohio State. Sigh. I've just been busy. Of course, I've been busy at work as well as with planning a trip to Spain and Morocco! I've never been to either so this trip will add two new countries to my list. I love going someplace new. With a few of my friends, I'll be able to see new places, meet new and exciting people and try out lots of new foods. In addition, I'll have an opportunity to see just how rusty my haggling abilities have become! In Spain, we're going to visit Madrid and Toledo (the original). Plus, I'll spend a couple of days at Grenada to see the Alhambra. So cool!

In Morocco, we are going to spend a few days in Marrakesh, staying not too far off Jemaa al Fna, the main square. I'm so very much looking forward to returning to Northern Africa. Though a world away, I had the good fortune of visiting Egypt while living in Bulgaria. What a wondrous and enchanting place it was. So easy to fall in love with the region when you have places such as Turkey and Egypt, the two countries there I've seen. Morocco will be different. One - it has couscous. Enough said. All joking aside, though one should never really joke about couscous, I have wanted to go to Morocco ever since I was 16 years old and visited Epcot Center for the first time. I fell in love with the country even then and am now so incredibly excited to finally be able to see it with my own eyes. I will probably cry when I get there. Wow!

While I won't be able to post pictures during my trip, I promise that I will definitely share them with you upon my return! I also hope you'll please forgive the temporary lack of decent formatting as I can only control so much while typing this on my phone!!

Until then, now that they're calling my flight to Madrid, I wish you all the best. Safe travels, friends!

2012 Iowa Caucus

Did you know the Republican Iowa caucus is set for tomorrow?

Actually, the Democratic Iowa caucus is also set for tomorrow, but President Barack Obama is running an uncontested race there, so he's using the evening to have an online Q&A session with constituents.

Since May however, there have been at least six different Republican front runners so it should be pretty interesting to see who wins since it's still anyone's game.  According to the Des Moines Register's latest poll, a full 41% of likely Republican voters are still undecided as of the weekend before tomorrow's caucus.  That is unheard of!

It really is rather unusual that the field is still so varied this late in the game.  Editor-at-large for Salon.com, Joan Walsh, once likened the Republican race for a presidential candidate to a game of T-ball - where it's cute that everyone gets to play and everyone is a winner just for playing.  

As a Democrat, I rather hope a different person wins every single week so the race can go on and on, thus forcing the candidates to spend all the money in their coffers against each other, rather than against the re-election of President Barack Obama.

Some interesting things to think about if you're considering voting Republican:

Did you know that the Dream Act was originally proposed (during Pres. George W. Bush's first term) by - and championed by Republicans like Senators Dick Lugar, John McCain and Orrin Hatch?

In 2012, all Republican candidates are now campaigning against this.

Did you know that Cap and Trade was originally proposed by Republicans? And did you know that it was a major part of the McCain / Palin 2008 Republican Presidential Platform?

In 2012, all Republican candidates are now campaigning against this.

Did you know that it is the party that determines the rules of the caucuses in Iowa and that the Republican party is allowing both same-day registration AND voting WITHOUT having to show any form of I.D.?

In 2012, all Republican candidates are now campaigning against this. Several Republican-led state legislatures are also working on legislation against same-day registration and in favor of requiring photo ID to be shown at all elections.  Their argument?  That ID is required to do things such as going through security at airports.

Of course, travel on airplanes isn't enshrined in the constitution as a right of all American citizens.  Voting is.

The Iowa caucuses are interesting in part because they get a lot of attention, presumably because they're first in the primary schedule and we tend like all things shiny.  But after a while, many Americans will be sick of hearing about the election of the week and well - it'll be overshadowed by things such as the Superbowl or March Madness.  That said, they will go on.  They will continue and eventually, our incumbent president will have a challenger from the Republican party - the nominee for which will most likely be the lesser of two evils for most voting Republicans.  

In the long run, and if we're lucky, we'll probably have a third party candidate - either thrown out there by the Tea Party or the Libertarians.  Either one will cause the same kind of split brought on by Ross Perot's candidacy back in 1992.  After two terms by the guy who won that particular election, we had a booming economy and a budget surplus.  

Maybe if the Republican candidates can start working for the American people rather than their corporate campaign financiers, we can achieve that level of prosperity again.

It all starts tomorrow.  In Iowa.  Let the games begin!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas!

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Joyeux Noël!

Весела коледа!

Feliz Navidad!

:-)

Sign My Yearbook?

I'm doing a little tech check on my comments section for my blog, so would you please help me out and leave a comment below? Just think of it as a high school yearbook, but of the virtual variety. Hey - maybe somebody famous will sign! Maybe a lot of my twitter followers and facebook friends will sign. Maybe, if I'm really lucky, Richard Engel (someone I truly admire and would love to someday meet) will sign - though he is in Baghdad at the moment. Hmm. Wishful thinking, I suppose. :-)

Anyway, sign away, friends. If you want - and just for fun - let me know where you are!

Languages other than English are all welcome!

Thank you! Merci beaucoup! Благодария! Gracias! Grazie! !شكران Danke schön!