Greensboro blogger FunkyLoona over at ::Living Out Loud:: broke my heart this morning.  She's going through some tough times trying to get away from an abusive husband with three small children in the mix.

I know she will be OK, though... she has retained the finest divorce lawyer North Carolina has to offer.  Attorney Kitty Hatfield despises men like what Loona is getting away from.

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I got slammed pretty hard by conservative commenter 'phred' over my call last week for the ouster of Guilford GOP Chairman Marcus Kindley.  'Phred' took my tirade against Kindley to mean that I am disgusted with everyone who volunteers time for the local party - I am not - I am just sick and tired of the far right (which Kindley epitomizes IMHO) acting as if they are God's gift to Republicanism.

Today, the N&R's chief editorialist Allen Johnson amplified my post on Kindley by citing it in his weekly column which outlines the recent political balance-of-power shift here in Guilford County. 

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I read, with great interest and understanding, Ed Cone's N&R column this morning.  As a moderate Republican I am hopeful, but not expectant, that my party will rediscover the basic tenants of why I switched parties several years ago: Government is best that governs least, taxes are too high, enabling people to help themselves is far superior to doing it for them and people have the right to be left alone in their personal and religious lives.

On the other hand, I have my 'leftist' beliefs, too.  Because I strongly believe that government should keep its nose out people's private lives I am pro-choice and pro-gay marriage.  I am also somewhat "green" in that I am convinced the current administration has a serious vendetta against the air we breath and the land that sustains us.  In addition. if you think about it, the 'big brother' provisions found in The Patriot Act would have been seen as 'a Commie plot' a generation ago - now the far political right thinks it is just peachy to limit American freedoms with such legislation

So, despite N&R columnist Charles Davenport Jr.'s assinine assertion last week that "...the political 'moderate' who, by definition, believes deeply in nothing.", this Republican 'moderate' holds some very strong beliefs.  Highly ranked of those is my crystal clear understanding of the role religion should play in governance - that is to say... none.  Which brings me back to what Cone writes... "Americans have civil rights - some of us might say God-given rights - to live according to their own beliefs and values."

Indeed we do and that was my understanding of what a "real" Republican was when I signed up... the party of individual liberty and the one that is supposed to loathe the ever expanding role government plays in our everyday lives.  But somehow all of those quaint notions are being pushed off to the left.  

All of this talk of the Republican spending of political capital needs to be directed to further the more traditional and long-held GOP ends.   To do otherwise will risk the alienation of the Lincolnesque wing of the Republican Party of which I, and millions of others like me, are card carrying members.

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In case you're wondering, Jinni still has breast cancer.  I just have given the subject a rest for two reasons.

First, her MRI comes up on Monday and her initial oncology appointment won't happen until this coming Friday so there has been no new news on the medical front...  so we won't know much more until then.

Second, we are just now settling into what the next several months will hold and we are simply trying to fathom it all.  It's a pretty big thing to get your arms around but we are still very positive, expecially with all of the words of support and encouragement we continue to recieve from far flung, and close-in, family and friends and strangers. 

A couple of things, though....

Jinni is more concered about losing her hair than anything else about what we are getting into - and with good reason - because she does have beautiful hair.  If it comes to pass that she starts losing her mane, she has decided to get it cut and donate the locks to one of those outfits that makes wigs for children who need them. 

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Tonight, at the football game, Jinni and 13 year-old daughter Josie were scheduling and planning, as they are wont to do. 

Jinnii: "... so, if I get a chemo treatment on November 19th or so, I'll probably be feeling pretty good by Thanksgiving so all of the cooking and stuff will get done."

Josie: "You think the heavy down time will only be three or four days after each treatment?"

Jinni: "That's what I'm hearing.  So... I 'll probably get my second treatment around mid-December, so I'll be up to getting Christmas stuff finalized.

Josie: "Wouldn't it have been better to get cancer in the summer?"

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