You can't imagine what I'd do to them if I got my hands on them

So I'm taking a hiatus from my unannounced bloggy break to rant a bit. Y'all don't mind, do you?

Lately down here in South Florida we've had a bit of a problem with horse killers. These are cold-blooded murderers sneaking into barns and stables, mostly in Miami-Dade County, and butchering PETS to sell their meat on the black market.

Did you know that horse meat can go for as much as $20 a pound?

And I thought rib-eye was getting pricey.

The latest was a mare, named Bonita, who was likely alive when they sliced off a portion of her chest and her legs and then burned her next to her stable. Her foal was found alive, lying next to her charred body.

Infuriated doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about this. I've been a horse lover all my life and though I understand that horse meat is commonly eaten in many other countries, I can't wrap my head around someone slaughtering an animal, a beloved PET, so inhumanely.

I hope these madmen have night terrors for the rest of their lives. I hope they wake up in cold sweats and hear the screams of their victims in their heads until they die.

Unfortunately, I doubt anyone who could bring themselves to be so cruel has the conscious to feel anything like remorse.

We'll be back to our regularly scheduled happy family blogging soon. Just had to get that out.

Southern Pride or Hate?

There's a community of eBay sellers that I frequent that is currently having a gigantic discussion about whether the Confederate Flag is offensive or not. Many posters are offended, many understand why others are offended but do not look at the flag as anything more than a symbol, and many have a "get over it" attitude that no one should be offended by a flag. The discussion goes on and on, being dropped and rehashed time and time again - because obviously, it's important to some of those posters.

I live in a rural community and it is a normal occurrence to see a huge rebel flag being flown off the back of a pick up truck around here. When I see one of these flags I can't help but feel sorry for anyone who sees the flag and feels pain from it.

Whether or not it means "Southern" to the guy with the flag on his 4x4, it means "Hate" to a huge population of people. Knowing this, it seems ignorant to me for someone to spread such a message. It makes me sad to think that these people think someone else should just "get over" their pain just because it didn't directly happen to them or it happened so long ago or "we're all equal now"... the ignorant viewpoints expressed as to why no one should be offended by such a thing is mind boggling to me.

Racism is alive and well in America today and anyone who thinks otherwise is just walking around with blinders on. I'm happy that my children grow up in a part of the country that is a cultural melting pot. I'm glad they don't blink an eye when they see a mixed couple or a child that looks different than they do. I love that my 5 year old describes people as brown, tan, and peach - but those distinctions mean nothing to him other than a way to describe how someone looks.

It's not easy to protect my children from the hate. I just hope I can educate them enough on how wonderful and special every person is and how deep we all are beneath our skin, that when they finally do realize how much prejudice and hate there is in this world they'll be prepared to speak out against it.