The Numbers Say It All

**I would like to start this post by saying that this is not a "gay bashing" post. I don't consider myself homophobic or anything. I've had friends who are gay and have had the nicest neighbors that are trans-gendered, but that doesn't mean that I think what they are doing is right. BUT, I do believe that they deserve all the same rights that other Americans have. I strongly believe that we need to add "sexual orientation" to that long list of people and things that we can not discriminate against.**

So I saw this article today on Google news and I found it very interesting. It's basically citing this study that says that only 3.5% of the American population identifies themselves as being homosexual. The reason this is a big deal is because that the homosexual community has been saying that 10% of the population was homosexual, when it's actually been only 3.5%. That's a pretty big difference. I find this to be very interesting for a couple reasons.

I, like many others, have seen the show Glee on Fox. I have a love/hate relationship with this show. I like the music and the dancing, but I've found the story and the characters to be a little much. I know TV

exaggerates real life, but they seemed to be stretching it too far. And the one thing I thought was odd was the "token" gay character. And if you know the show it feels like all the students in the show are "token" characters in some way. They have the "token" black girl, the "token" disabled kid and so on.

And to be fair, you have to have African-American and Disabled-Americans in these shows. I found this article that says, "In 2009, 19.5 million people, or 9.9 percent of the civilian non-institutionalized population age 16 to 64, had a disability." And this Wikipedia article about the 2010 census states that 12.6% of the US population is black.

But, the big but, only 3.5% of the US population is homosexual. So why do we feel that we have to have them in every show? Why do we have to make it seem that every other person you meet on the street is gay, lesbian, etc.?

And really, I find it interesting that the homosexual community is always trying to pump their numbers and make it look like they're a stronger force to be reckoned with than they really are.

Those are my thoughts, what are yours? What do you think of the sudden surge in homosexual characters in TV and movies? And what do statistics like this make you think?

The Bird Incident

So some of you might know some of this story already since I posted this video on Facebook on Saturday, but I thought I should give a fuller written account as well.

So Saturday morning, at about 10am, Daniel comes into our bedroom and wakes me from sleeping in to say that he thinks there is a mouse in the dryer vent hose. So of course I get up and come with him into the kitchen. Daniel pulls the dryer away from the wall and I hear and see the creature moving inside.

"That's too big to be a mouse. It has to be a rat," I say.

Daniel agrees with me and then we begin to discuss what to do. We have seen rats around the dumpster that sits in the parking lot and those suckers are a foot long, at least, not counting the tail. We didn't have any rat poison or traps or anything. So in the end we got a deep box and our fire bat. We figured that if we opened up the hose on the end that was connected to the dryer, we could coax the rat into the box and then take it out side or something. And we had the bat just in case it got out and we needed to beat it.

Neither one of us wanted to beat a rat, that would just be too gross. But we couldn't have a rat loose in our apartment. At the time we had Will in his crib, and he was not happy about it. But we knew that we had to get the creature out of the apartment.

So, as Daniel is unhooking the hose, I grab my camera and start recording. As you see in the video we put the loose end of the hose in the box and soon enough the creature began to come down. I was hovering right over the box so that I could get a good shot of it. And the first thing we see is this very pointy head and my first thought is, "That's an awfully pointy head for a rat."

And then a bird came flying up into my face! I scream and run into the living and end up curled up in a ball on the couch. I had totally forgotten about the camera at this point.

Daniel screams, "It's a bird!"

And my intelligent response is, "It's a F*ing bird!"

So the bird is flying around in a panic and all I can think is, "Oh no, it's going to land on me. Or worse, it's going to poop on everything."

So then I scream to Daniel, "Open the door! Open the door!" Of course forgetting that I'm closer to the door than he is. So he comes dashing through the living room, knocking over the baby gate that's in the kitchen doorway in the process and opens the door. The bird shot out the door and Daniel and I fell into a laughing fit.

And all the while, poor little Will is screaming and crying in his crib.

After we had calmed down and gotten Will is settle down as well, I jumped on my computer and posted the video. I just thought the whole thing was too funny not to share. I just wish I had actually gotten a shot of the bird flying around in a panic, but I was freaking out too much. Either way, it was a very exciting morning here in the Siemens's household.

As an ending note, I have created a You Tube Channel where you can view the bird video as well as the last couple videos I've posted on my blog. You should totally subscribe! :) And don't forget to check out my writing blog and read my latest post about my current Work in Progress (WIP).

Thanks for reading and please leave a comment, especially if you have any funny Wild Animal in the House stories.