Intro

I finally had to start a blog because my family is sick of listening to me and I think my Facebook friends are seriously rolling their eyes and skipping my posts out of sheer boredom.

Let me introduce myself.....I am Karen and I am a political junkie.  I read so many newspapers and blogs that my husband routinely makes fun of me.  Yes, I have been this way since I was a teenager.  I am also just an ordinary citizen.  No fancy schmancy college education and I was born and raised a comfortable suburbanite.  My daddy was a salesman for twenty years, my mom was an office worker until she got laid off in the Great Depression Recession of 2008.  She rode out a couple of years on unemployment (who's going to hire an over-sixty worker?) until she reached full retirement.  Oh, and she got to be with my dad while he died of Congestive Heart Failure (thankfully, he went quickly....within six months of serious decline after suffering with heart disease for over twenty years).  We were not rolling in dough but we weren't in poverty.  The same thing with my husband and I.  Two children, both of whom are high functioning autistics (like mama), who are in public junior high and high school.  My husband works in aerospace.  I, myself , have been a stay-at-home mother since our oldest child was eight months old.  Yes, we are lucky that my husband makes a good living that allowed me to stay home with our kids, especially since our kids are special needs.  My husband was raised by a single mother.  His parents were divorced when he was three.  So we have both ends of the spectrum when it comes to family experience.  My husband and I are also mix ethnic children of the eighties.  We both have one Latino parent (his mom is Puerto Rican, my dad is Mexican) and one white parent (his dad, a native New Yorker, my mom, a native Michigander).  My husband and I are also Native Californians, both born in Los Angeles County.

My point of my long-winded description is that we are Mr. & Mrs. Ordinary from Whitebread, California.  We aren't the "born on third, think we hit a triple" people.  And I figured that the opinions from a real middle American needs to be voiced. Frankly, I am getting tired of reading only from professional wonks, talking heads and people who live in the Beltway, which, frankly, is the true LaLa Land.  Hollywood has NOTHING on DC.

Oh, and yes, I am a bleeding heart liberal.  But, I am also a total wonk (though not a paid professional) who lives, eats and breathes research.  I keep reference links and have been called a "link queen" for posting links to facts when involved in debate.  I am so not a fan of the land of right-wing crazy.  I don't use "think tank" facts, either.

I am fine with debate and with having my opinion challenged, as long as it's done respectfully.  You respect me, I respect you.  If you devolve into name calling, personal attacks or anything along those lines, I won't play.  You get scary, stalkery or anything of the sort, you get reported.  It's just that simple.

So, that's it.  Hopefully, I get some readers.