Though her video response is intended to just be a hilarious video on FunnyOrDie.com, her energy plan is actually - REASONABLE! Check it out:

First, Mad Men. I had watched it once before, but it seemed to be all about sex. And not in a Sex and the City kind of way where the real story was about relationships and life - and not really sex.

This time it was different, but it still didn’t catch my fancy. They have a political element to it now, and it has the feel of West Wing, which was a great show during its time. But no need to revisit that style in my book.

Then I decided to check out In Treatment on HBO. WOW! I had kind of been interested in watching this show based on the commercials I’d seen, but never made time for it. Man, this is one of the best shows I have ever seen.

I will warn you that the content is adult and very explicit. But, for the most part, I don’t think it is done gratuitously.

The show is about a therapist and 4 of his patient appointments during the week. At the end of the week, the therapist, played by Gabriel Byrne, goes to see a former colleague of his (which he has a very dramatic background with). Each appointment/session gets its own episode.

Each episode is one conversation. For a long time, I’ve been intrigued by that concept - long scenes, dramatic dialog. It’s amazing how much story is there when there’s one scene, one location.

The acting on this show is phenomenal. Even though most of the actors are very recognizable (Dianne Weist, Blair Underwood, Embeth Davidtz, Josh Charles), you totally lose yourself in their characters.

The first session features Laura who has an erotic transference (i.e. she’s in love with the therapist). I didn’t realize it the whole first episode, but she is played by Melissa George. I was floored to see the credits. She had been on Alias near the end of the series, but whether it was the storyline or the evilness of her character, I just didn’t like her. But WOW she won me over in this role. She is truly amazing.

Session three is about a teenage gymnast, played by Mia Wasikowska. The ability to play such depth at the age of 18 is stunning. It’s no wonder that Tim Burton has tapped her to star in his upcoming rendition of Alice in Wonderland.

Anyway, I recommend you check out In Treatment. But the downside is, if you want to start at the beginning - and I highly suggest you start at the beginning - you’ll have to wait. HBO on Demand only shows certain episodes at a time, and you can’t buy them from iTunes or anything (right now - you used to be able to). The DVD comes out September 9.

If you’re like me, then you loved the recent home mortgage bail out bill that the President just passed!

I am SOOOO glad that President Bush caved in to the massive amounts of idiots…um…constituents…in the United States and passed a bill to bail out idiots by giving away money to them (i.e. your and my money–what?  Did you think it grew on government trees?  Newsflash…our government is like our parents…NOT MADE OF MONEY).

What bill?   What bail out?   The bill that President Bush just passed to help bail out people struggling with foreclosures and bad home mortgages.  Basically, there are a bunch of stupid people that decided you CAN get a free lunch in this country, so our hard earned taxes are going to help these stupid people out of the stupid situation THEY got THEMSELVES into by signing stupid mortgages. 

I am 34…not 74.  I am not at the age to start claiming to the grandkids that I walked 8 miles in the snow uphill both ways to Elementary school.  BUT, I do still remember catchy phrases like “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”  For those of you who are idiots and don’t understand what this phrase means, let me enlighten you.  It means that every time you think you’re getting a spectacular deal–one that seems to good to be true–then it IS too good to be true and only stupid people would make such a deal. 

Am I a stupid person?  Yes, I have made stupid people mistakes.  But I decided I wasn’t going to be a stupid person for life.  And the only way out of being a stupid person for life, is to live with the consequences you make for yourself and get your own butt out of them.  Does this mean you can’t ask for help?  By no means!  Ask for friends to give you guidance, read books on people who have been successful, pray, think, work hard….anything that means you aren’t looking to someone else to bail you out. 

Becoming a stupid person is like being a member of a gang…you have to do stupid shit to get into the gang and the only way out, is a complete beat down.  There isn’t an easy way out.  But there are those who have gotten out.  And they chose the hard way out…because the easy way does not lead out of the gang–ONLY the hard way out does.

For any of you not recognizing the significance of a government bail out yet, let me enlighten you–it’s like the sentence handed down to Paris Hilton for her DUI situation (i.e. how are stupid people ever going to learn to take care of themselves if someone is always there covering up or bailing them out). 

For any of you reading this and thinking “Hey now…the economy is rough…banks are big meanies…foreclosures are rough,” please put down your bag of name brand Oreo cookies and your Playstation PS2 and try to think that perhaps the economy isn’t so rough if you’re still gaining weight and playing video games (some starving African children might agree with me here).  And for those of you considering foreclosure, bankruptcy, stealing, robbing, etc…remember, YOU got YOU into the situation–YOU should get YOU out of the situation or else you’ll just do it again. Do you really want to be Stupid For Life? (insert stupid gang symbol)

And for those of you who enjoy handing out your money to stupid people…keep on doing it.  I, for one, have decided that I would rather learn from my stupid mistakes by getting my own butt up and out of the situation I built for myself.  I don’t want to be Stupid for Life.  Nor am I going to enable others to be Stupid for Life by giving out handout’s.

Ok…seriously…put the Oreos down. Nuf said.

Below are the categories (that I care about) along with who I would vote to win and who I think will win. Not always the same thing, ya know.

Casting for a Comedy Series

My Pick: Pushing Daisies

Who Will Win: 30 Rock

Casting for a Mini-Series

My Pick: John Adams

Who Will Win: John Adams

Children’s Program:
My Pick: High School Musical 2

Who Will Win: Hannah Montana

Comedy Series

My Pick: The Office

Who Will Win: 30 Rock

Drama Series

My Pick: House (wow, it was an AWESOME season)

Who Will Win: Mad Men

Host for Reality or Reality-Competition Program

My Pick: Ryan Seacrest

Who Will Win:  Ryan Seacrest (my second guess is Howie Mandel)

Lead Actor in Comedy Series

My Pick: Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies)

Who Will Win: Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)

Lead Actor in a Drama Series

My Pick: Hugh Laurie (House) - changed my mind - Gabriel Byrne (In Treatment)

Who Will Win: Jon Hamm (Mad  Men)

Lead Actor in Miniseries

My Pick: Paul Giamatti (John Adams)

Who Will Win: Paul Giamatti (John Adams)

Lead Actress Comedy Series

My Pick: America Ferrera (Ugly Betty)

Who Will Win: Tina Fey (30 Rock)

Lead Actress Drama Series

My Pick: Mariska Hargitay (Law and Order SVU)

Who Will Win: Sally Field (Brothers & Sisters)

Lead Actress Miniseries

My Pick: Laura Linney (John Adams)

Who Will Win: Laura Linney (John Adams)

Made for Television Movie

My Pick: A Raisin in the Sun

Who Will Win: Recount

Outstanding Miniseries

My Pick: John Adams

Who Will Win: John Adams

Reality Competition Program

My Pick: Project Runway

Who Will Win: The Amazing Race

Reality Program

My Pick: Intervention

Who Will Win: Dirty Jobs

Supporting Actor Comedy Series

My Pick: Rainn Wilson (The Office)

Who Will Win: Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother)

Supporting Actor Drama Series

My Pick: William Shatner (Boston Legal)

Who Will Win: John Slattery (Mad Men)

Supporting Actor Miniseries

My Pick: Stephan Dillane (John Adams)

Who Will Win: Dennis Leary (Recount)

Supporting Actress Comedy Series

My Pick: Kristen Chenoweth (Pushing Daisies)

Who Will Win: Kristen Chenoweth (Pushing Daisies)

Supporting Actress Drama Series

My Pick: Dianne Wiest (In Treatment)

Who Will Win: Dianne Wiest (In Treatment)

Supporting Actress in Miniseries/Movie

My Pick: Audra Macdonald (A Raisin in the Sun)

Who Will Win: Laura Dern (Recount)

Writing for Comedy Series

My Pick: The Office, Dinner Party (oh my goodness, that was such a hilarious episode!)

Who Will Win: One of the two 30 Rock episodes nominated

Writing for Miniseries/Movie

My Pick: John Adams

Who Will Win: John Adams

Random Thoughts:

I still do not get the appeal of 30 Rock. I gave it a chance. I gave it another chance. It’s just not that funny.

MTV’s 2007 Video Music Awards were nominated for Art Direction. Does anyone else remember the jumbled up Las Vegas show as a complete fiasco????

Drake and Josh should have been nominated for Children’s show. So should Wizards of Waverly Place, iCarly, and Phineas and Ferb. All are better than Hannah Montana and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.

My husband was using a Wii Finder - and finally, one day, they were in stock on Best Buy online. So we got one. Three days later it arrived.

We had played the Wii during Christmas/New Year’s vacation when we went up to Ohio. We loved it immediately.

I’m not a huge fan of video games, but the Wii is different. It’s not all about Super Mario or Grand Theft auto. I like Wii Sports, a few of the Wii Play games, and My Word Coach.

But life got EVEN BETTER last Thursday, when my husband was in store at Best Buy and they had the Wii FIT!

The Wii Fit is a board you stand on and you can do a bunch of fun exercises to get in shape. Some have claimed it doesn’t work, but I’ve already lost 1.3 lbs. I’m sure it varies from person to person.

Some other games also work with the Wii balance board (as its called). I rented Wii Ski from Blockbuster and it works with the Wii board. Newsflash: I’m no better skiier on the Wii than I am in real life - which is to say, I suck at skiing.

Anyway, of course the kids love it too. They mostly love Super Mario Galaxy. I guess I’m just a Wii nerd. That’s ok.

Today, I reluctantly visited the Social Security Administration (SSA). Reluctant is an understatement. I’ve been married for a year and a half now and I finally decided to brave the bureacracy to change my name. I’ve been going by my husband’s last name since day one. Now I’m making it legal.

While I was waiting, I decided to pull out my iPhone and Twitter, read Fox News, check my email, etc. After about 5-10 minutes a security guard came up to me.

Security Guard: You can’t use your phone.

Me: Why?

Security Guard: Homeland security. You can’t use iPhones or Blackberries because you can use them to set off a bomb.

Me (sarcastically): Yeah, that’s what I bought it for.

Security Guard: laughs

I’m sure it sucks for the Security Guard to have to tell people to put away their cell phones, insinuating they might be terrorists. At least he had a sense of humor about it. You can get arrested for making the sarcastic comment that I did.

Here’s why the rule is so stupid:

1. No bags are checked entering the building.
2. There are no metal detectors.
3. Parking spots line the front of the building.
4. You don’t need to be inside the SSA to detonate a bomb - even with a cell phone.

What pisses me off most is that this stupid rule came from Republicans. I’ve been a Republican for years b/c I’m a conservative. But recently, with Republican politicians all over the place on their platform, it’s made little sense to keep the “R” on my voter registration card.

But switching to Democrat is not the answer either. While Republicans are overprotective, Democrats are not protective enough when it comes to national security. But they flip the switch and become overprotective when it comes to private property, education, taxation, etc.

No, I’m unequivocally independent.

And I invite you to join me - even my liberal cohorts. Because I know you, too, have been disappointed in your party. We need to free ourselves of platforms. We need better debates in this country. We need better candidates.

Let’s make the politicians work harder for our vote. Let’s not make up our minds so hastily - and for crying out loud - let’s get the donkeys and elephants out of Washington and put some humans there instead!

But she maintained her other lady parts in order to have birth, which supposedly was a dream of hers.

• Men don’t dream of giving birth.
• Men don’t have uteri (yes, that’s plural for uterus).
• Men don’t have vaginas.
• Men don’t have ovaries.

Thomas Beatie, you’re not a man. I don’t care what the state of Oregon says.

Anyway, my son’s brain just processes things so differently from the majority of people and it takes a toll on him. Think of it this way. Everything you smell is 10 times stronger to his nose. Everything you touch, he feels the sensation 10 times more. You get the idea.

Often, he overloads and this can digress into a meltdown.

And we finally think we know what is causing it. Asperger’s Syndrome (AS).

AS is basically high-functioning autism. I’ve been spending alot of time lately learning about AS and autism.

They say autism is like a spectrum - on one end are the “normal” people and on the other end are the extremely autistic people who can’t speak or hardly function in mainstream society. Asperger’s is kind of like being between the extremes. As one teen on YouTube explains, it’s like being half-autistic and half-”normal”.

As I’ve learned, I’ve become pretty pissed at the way society sets things up. I hate the word “normal” and “disorder.” People only want to think about the things that are “wrong” with autistic kids. But my kid has so many amazing strengths. He’s awesome at math and wants to be a robotics engineer.

And did you know that people like Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton (among many others) were likely autistic or Asperger’s?

The thing about autistic kids is that they can be obsessed with one particular thing and become masters at it. That’s why autistic people can go on to do amazing things. So why are people trying to “cure” it and make them have a variety of interests?

The funny thing is that we get mixed messages from society. We’re told to have a passion, but there’s a mysterious line where passion becomes an obsession. And they tell us all obsession is BAD.

So we cultivate interests in a variety of things. Then we have such a tough time figuring out how to do it all. We spread ourselves thin and wish we knew that “one thing” we should be doing with our lives.

There’s so much to learn from kids with autism and Asperger’s about how to really live life. If only we figure out how to drown out the noise from people who should know better.

Fake apology…you’re a child and your mom forced you to apologize and hug your sibling/friend/etc even though under your breath, you were cursing said sibling/friend/etc. (see also: media-pressured and/or special interest-pressured apology followed quickly by “I’m going into rehab.”)

Which would you rather have?  First off, I’m not sure why people make fake apologies since that means they’re dumbing themselves down to the level of a child for a group of people who are mainly faceless and they don’t even know.  And secondly, I’d rather see someones true colors even if I don’t agree with them. 

I went on a date with someone who was relaxed enough around me (apparently) to state some pretty racist statements (in modern standards).  I stated that I vehemently disagreed and why.  And then I didn’t waste any more dating time on him.  It would have sucked for him to hide that side and/or make fake apologies for it.  If we got married, it would have made the reception with my family and friends rather awkward.  So although I think this person is rather uneducated on certain groups of people (and that’s a pity) and clearly didn’t exhibit the Christian value I strive for–love (and tolerate) one another, I say “Thank you, racist boy, for showing your true colors so I could get the heck outta Dodge.”

Nuf said.

And please, don’t give me the obvious–such as the lack of conspiracy theories (or did the Bush Administration break these too so that he could get rid of some white farmers as well?), the lack of media, the lack of reported looting, the lack of finger pointing, the lack of funding to bus flood victims into paid for hotels, the lack of Hollywood attention, the lack of city mayors stating they’re going to rebuild a city back into a chocolate/white chocolate/marshmallow city (I’m starting to get hungry), blah, blah, blah….

Give me something less obvious.