Musings on Three Totally Unrelated Matters

New Forum
After my post yesterday about my Internet addiction, two things happened. My connection went down for two hours. I have never felt so lost. Instead of sitting down and *writing,* I made phone calls to close friends and did some housework.

When it came back up, I discovered that RECON Magazine's forum has launched!

I can't help but think it's neat to have a forum for the magazine I edit, sort of another step on this path to success.

New World Views
I had a conversation yesterday that caused me to re-think my views on charity. Someone I know (well) is turning to a charity organization to make Christmas a little better this year. As a Libertarian, I believe 100 percent that charity should be handled in the private sector, not by the government. People should have a choice of whether to contribute or not. So I support, in theory, these types of private charity organizations.

I like to think I am extremely charitable to people I *know*, but when it comes to organizations, etc., I consider very carefully. Do the recipients really *deserve* it. *Why* do they need help?

With inside information about one particular case, an old lesson hits home for me. You can't judge someone until you've walked in their shoes (or at least know their circumstances.) And if one person is truly deserving, probably countless others are as well. Who am I to judge without knowing?

I'd like to send you to Mysti's blog. Mysti is a kind, generous individual who doesn't have these misgivings (or maybe it's sheer selfishness?) about charity that I had. For every link back to her blog and every comment posted there, she will donate $.01 to Habitat for Humanity.

My Journey

Go there. Make a comment. I'll wait.

Back? If you have a blog, please link back to Mysti's site.

Thank you.

New Cat Story
To end this blog on a lighter note, I have to share a story about my 1 1/2 year old cat, Panzer. Panzer is completely fearless, 14 lbs. of pure muscle, and just about the largest housecat I've seen.

Well, he's not *completely* fearless. Panzer is afraid of the front door. Maybe it's because he was born outside, adopted by us at four days old, and used as bait to lure his mother into a Have-a-Heart trap so she could nurse Panzer and his three siblings. I guess that could have been traumatic.

All four of our cats are indoor cats. None of them try to get out. But whenever the door opens, Panzer runs away. Yesterday, he was perched on his cat tree near the closed front door, when my husband opened the door to take out the garbage. Panzer leaped off the platform and into the kitchen (going the long way to avoid getting any closer to the front door) ran down the steps and into the bedroom. Not only does he not want to be *near* the door when it's opened, he doesn't even want to *see* it. He wants to be in a completely different room. It's like he thinks the open door will suck him out into the great wild.

It was actually quite funny to watch.