I am now officially registered to vote in the state of Iowa. I registered today at the local driver’s license station - and I will be receiving my precinct information just in time for the election. I’m voting Obama/Biden, but it would seem that my friends here that I hang out with are voting McCain/Palin. I’m sincerely hoping that McCain/Palin does not get into office - but of course, if I don’t vote, I don’t have a right to complain about it.

If you came here to drop an Entrecard I’m sorry, but it’s gone. After having a blog deleted for supposedly being a duplicate blog - the blog had a couple of entries linking to other blogs, yet had mostly it’s OWN content, it was deleted. Entrecard refuses to reinstate the blog, even after those posts were deleted(which honestly, I was using Ping.fm to post those blurbs and had been under the impression it was a sidebar include, not an actually blog post), and so I have decided that Entrecard is not worth my time. Besides, very few of the blogs that tried to advertise here were actually aligned with my content - the same on all my other blogs - so I have decided it’s not worth it.

If you’re looking for another reason not to allow Sarah Palin near the White House, here’s an extremely good one. It would seem that as Alaska’s Governor, Ms Palin unlawfully abused her power to have people removed from office. So, now, do we honestly want her to be in a position of power over the whole country? Let me think about that for a second - NO!

She should NOT be permitted to have the potential to get enough power to make decisions about our country. End of story. I for one, am going to make sure I vote for anyone but McCain/Palin!

Ok, so I got bored and I discovered that I could do podcasts by phone through GCast.com. So, I’ve taken to podcasting. Now I have to say, my podcasts are going to be a bit of a rambling rant. I will get off on a subject and then switch subjects faster than you can sneeze. My first podcasts were for my book review blog, but I’ve recorded a podcast for this blog, in fact it has it’s own podcast channel.

The podcasts will be in my sidebar - a little widget that will give you the option to listen to the podcast. There are no transcriptions, and I also am not editing it, so you’ll get to hear me in all my weird speech pattern glory. The first podcast is up now, so enjoy!

I am hard at work on my new venture, but I am taking time out to post here for a bit. I have the bare bones of the site up, and I am working on the current line up of products. There won’t be much at first - but I plan to have more up as soon as I can. Right now it’s an Air Freshener doll and a couple of baby blankets. Hopefully I can get the Christmas/Yule coasters up, and a few other items as well. Of course, I have a lot of Yule crafting to do for friends, so my start up items may very well be limited for a while.

But rest assured, I am hard at work and will hopefully be unveiling the site soon!

A while ago, a friend of mine and I had embarked on a business venture. Unfortunately, I was much more interested in said venture and it never really took off. I had purchased a domain name, paid for hosting, designed beautiful pages, complete with photos of our wares, and never sold a single item because she didn’t want to give out the business cards or help in any way with the site and it’s promotion. However, it was her idea for us to have the site in the first place.

Our site was mostly candles, bath salts, sachets, and glycerine soaps. I wanted to list the properties of the scents we used, but my “partner” stated that adding those descriptions would be certain to drive our non-magical and non-herbal loving customers away. I didn’t think so but she acted like she knew so much about it and was so insistent that I just gave up. It was supposed to be “our” site, but anything that didn’t meet up with her approval couldn’t go on the site. It didn’t matter what I thought or what I wanted.

Now the site will be back - hopefully in time for a Samhain opening. Right now, it will be a showcase and selling platform for crocheted and knitted items - perhaps I will see if my best friend and her mom would like to sell anything on the site or not. If they do, we’ll have to work out a few of the logistics, such as how they get their money, etc. However, I’m sure that stuff can be easily worked out and everything will end up just fine.

And to top it all off - my PayPal account is still under the name “The Candlelight Boutique!” I never changed it and I don’t plan on changing it. It’s my business and I plan on resurrecting it. Watch here for further news such as when the store’s grand opening will be.

A friend of mine, Jenn and her family are going through what can only be called a tragic travesty of injustice. The story is hers and her mother’s to tell, and so I am not going to tell it here. However, you can be assured that there is much wrong with the situation on so many levels, and I can tell you for a fact that this type of thing does not just happen where they are, it happens all over. You might even know someone who was a victim of this type of thing - I know that I happen to know at least two people who have been in this situation. And sadly, the situation did not go in their favor. Please visit Save My Boys to learn more about this and to learn what you can do to help them bring this injustice to light and hopefully get this resolved.

One of the things I usually stay as far away from as possible is politics. I despise politicians. I think they’re all nothing more than a bunch of liars and when we vote, we vote for the best liar. The upcoming presidential election is no different. The American people decide who to vote for based more on mudslinging campaigns and who manages to come out looking better after the mud fight is over, than on the real issues and what the candidates are going to do about them.

That being said, I’ve heard some very bad things about both candidates. But what I’ve been hearing about McCain’s running partner, Sarah Palin, is just too crazy for words. The woman was actually blessed by a pastor who is a “witch hunter.” The man has actually blessed her and she believes that his blessing her and praying for her is how she got her spot as Governor of Alaska. Sorry Sarah, the VOTERS put you there, not that pastor’s prayer! YOU and the VOTERS had to do the work. The only thing Deity did was watch over you, and perhaps give you a bit of guidance as to what you should do next. But YOU had to do the work to convince the voters to vote for you. The VOTERS had to believe what you said and feel you were the best candidate for the job. Deity didn’t just give you that spot.

I can’t help but get the eerie feeling that giving Sarah Palin a place in our US Federal Government, especially one of such high responsibility as the Vice President, is a bad idea. Who is to say that she won’t convince McCain to get rid of programs such as Planned Parenthood - whose mission is not only to prevent unplanned pregnancies, but to provide much needed women’s health care to women who can’t afford it - or convince McCain to start pushing laws through Congress that will make it illegal to practice any faith other than Christianity?

Already I am hearing Christians in my area talking about how they don’t want anti-hate crime laws passed because they’re afraid that if their pastor is preaching, someone in the congregation might take offense or think the pastor was singling them out and have the pastor arrested for a hate crime. Yet not passing those laws would mean that those “good Christians” would be allowed to do anything they wanted to Wiccans, Pagans, Gays, Lesbians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, etc. They could commit acts of hatred against us and we wouldn’t have a leg to stand on legally. But do the people crying out against those anti-hate crime laws think of that? No. Because they only care that THEIR “rights” are being trampled on. We have no rights apparently.

How much do you want to bet that Sarah Palin could have a great hand in keeping those anti-hate crime laws from being passed? I’m betting she could have a great hand in it. She might not have the power to veto the laws, but McCain would, and she’d have to have some sway with him, or else why would he pick her as a running mate?

I’m not particularly scared of what might happen if McCain/Palin get into office, but I am annoyed by the backwards attitudes they represent. Their getting into office is going to set us back years, decades, or even centuries as far as civil rights and freedom of religion are concerned. I guess we’ll all have to watch and see what happens. I’m not particularly for Obama, but I’m thinking I’ll be voting for him, as I don’t want Palin or McCain near the White House.