Slow Saturday Morning

Should I stay or should I go? To see Sex and the City. I only saw a few episodes and they were certainly funny and all I want to do today is laugh since next week I'll probably be on my way to being homeless and six dollars won't change that, but endorphins always help with stress.

I am such a geek. What a great way to start a Saturday morning. I totally understood this comment from Dunny0 on the J.J. Abrams new version of Star Trek and got a good giggle out of it.

One of these days someone is gonna travel back once to many times and rip a hole in space/time that no amount of reversed polarity inverted neutrino bursts can fix.

Even *if* they are routed through the Heisenberg Compensators first.

But then there was this response.

@Dunny0 Of course that will never work. You will need to re-route the pulse through the plasma phase converters before channeling it through the warp core and then through the impulse engine baffles before you discharge the pulse out of the deflector dish. DUH!

Much better than what passes for discussion of opposing views on political blogs recently.

I'm going. It starts in 35 minutes. I should be able to hit the rain locker and be out the door in 15. I really need to laugh so it better be funny.

BBB

Hedley Lamarr Is Gone

Rest in peace Harvey, you will be missed.

Buy A Dog

This local SF band has one of my favorite (thank you KFOG!) songs. It never fails to bring a smile to my face (which was desperately needed today and bam! there it was on the shuffle while I was working out) and always reminds me of my favorite black dog hanging her head out the window and smiling like the world is perfect.

As long as I don't go over 35 mph.


3Bs

Just A Little Disgusted

For some odd reason I thought that paying taxes and being a veteran entitled me to vote or not vote for the candidate of my choice. I was told differently. I was told that my opinions (not even actions yet) were stupid. I ws told that I was foolish. I was told I was completely wrong and that everything was done in a fair manner. Now I see why less and less people vote. I'm so glad that I (Ft. Lewis, 9th Infantry ), my father (USAF 26 years) and my brother (Lt. USN) were all willing to die to defend the country so people can have their opinions and feel free to express them. As opinionated as I am, I never told anyone who voted for Nader that they were stupid, but that the only way their vote was ever going to count was by screwing over a worthier candidate. People are more concerned with who wins than who is actually qualified to run the country into something other than the ground. Whatever, this is the last time I am going to make that mistake. And if my earlier post didn't make it clear, I am not going to vote for Obama. Period. Change is just another word for "elect me".

Now on to more interesting things. The Republican wagons are circling (Newt, do you mean Bush "allowed" 9/11?) and people are trying to defend their actions or lack thereof. Press included. Lil Scotty is now saying that the press didn't do its job by asking the hard questions (no surprise there) and that the Plame leak was the turning point for him. Great words now, but they would have been so much more helpful while Libby was on trial or when Fitzgerald was originally investigating the crime and the cover-up.

However, McClellan said that it wasn't until he realized that he may have been led to deliver false information to the media about two senior administration officials’ roles in outing Valerie Plame as a CIA operative that he knew he would someday have to tell his story.

Disgruntled, I do not think that word means what the White House thinks it means. Lil Scotty isn't in a bad mood, he is publicly displaying the crisis of conscience that the rest of them should be having. If logic, fair play and compassion had been in their rule book. It's in the Bible, but it's obvious they have as much respect for its principles as they did for the Constitution.

Find the billions that were lost to fraud, then China or the EU might bail Iraq out of the mess that the US put you in. We can't do it, we don't have any money of our own. Anymore.

It's a male dominated world in which only the way women look and act subservient is important. Get a little older or show a few brains and it's war. And if a guy attacks and rapes you, it's up to the woman to prove she didn't do anything wrong. Even if she was asleep in her own home, she must have had provocative bed covers and the perpetrator may have been affected by a "sleep disorder" that made him act the way he did. And if she was only ten or fifteen, she must have been asking for it in some way that doesn't seem to qualify the perpetrator as a child molester. The man is never responsible for keeping his zipper zipped. Unless he's Clinton and a 24 year old innocent intern was involved. Then the fate of the US is affected. Double standards indeed.

I'm sure it has a lot to do with the light and dark sections of D.C. The rich don't seem to have as much trouble getting to the hospital with a pulse when they have a heart attack.

Suggestible and can't resist a dare. Just what we need in another president. A McCain tour of Iraq is like driving through the ghetto in an armored limo with tinted windows. How unprepared do you think the terrorists are going to be this time?

3Bs

Random Thoughts

Who cares? That's not the point. We were promised dead or alive and so far we have neither. Which is typical of the crew without a clue, never finish a job while you can make excuses for why it doesn't need to be done. They must think we are stupid as they are deceitful.

Haloscan is having issues. Or maybe it's Blogger. Methinks it's Haloscan.

No kidding. Military tribunals aren't working? JAG has only been off the air for a few years, but these show trials have never been about justice, they've been about revenge. Against people who have already met their maker so there must be someone who pays.

Like this guy. Poor schmuck might as well be at Gitmo for all the justice he isn't getting. Wow, prosecutors can openly defy the Supreme Court and that bastion of conservatism seems to think he's innocent. The prosecutors are determined to have him die in jail, that way they won't have to find the real killer.

Waterpipe tobacco smoking isn't safer than smoking cigarettes. Are they sure the kids were smoking tobacco? That isn't the usual drug of choice for a bong waterpipe. Or at least it wasn't when I was that age.

Oh boy, another smoking gun. Too bad it isn't on an episode of CSI or Law and Order because someone would be going to jail. A lot of someones. I guess the big house is only for the little people.

Gee, I'm not alone. Being multi-racial is the way of the future, only designer babies will have all the recessive genes. While the almost never right worries about illegal immigrants, the natives are changing the landscape to a more colorful version.

Et Tu, Brute?

The WaPo had so much going on this morning I barely knew where to start. Lil Scotty Mclelland's article had 812 975 comments when I looked at it and I'm willing to bet that lots of **##'s got removed. A quick impression of the article reminds me of the story of Aron Ralston, the climber who cut off his own arm with a pocketknife to survive. Somebody's figured out there were war crimes and is doing their best to avoid being charged with one while at the same time trying to provide imaginary cover for those left behind. And Katrina was a costly blunder. No kidding.

While still smiling at the image of Lil Scotty realizing he had been had and hoping that he has a loyal security detail, I moved on to the right whining about how MSNBC is too left leaning and how they don't like Lil John McCain as much as they like Lil Obama, knowing full well that they had to turn their attention somewhere as soon as they got rid of Lil Hillary. Now that was a hatchet job, with several people wielding the hatchets. Sort of like the stories on John Edwards haircut. Designed to do nothing to further policy or decent political discussions and quite a lot to do with making sure that the candidate they were in love with had no viable competition. After enduring all these years of Fox News I have little to no sympathy for people who whine about the press.

But the Meyerson article, oh Mr. Meyerson, you raised my blood pressure so high, the first thing that I did was reach for my Fosinopril. Let me state first that Hillary was neither my first or second choice in the California primary, but neither one of them were still running, but their names were still on the ballot by the time it was our turn to vote. So, as is usual out here in California, we had to pick the lesser of two evils and it wasn't Obama. Sigh, I'm really tired non-choices like that. Anyway, back to your article.

Hillary's campaign ruined democracy and feminism? Are you serious?Blow it out your ass. Oops, I see you already did. The Democratic Party (they're in the Constitution where?) had no right to exclude the votes of the people of Florida and Michigan, no matter what time frame they held their election in, because they are citizens of the United States and deserve to have their votes counted. Period. And if Obama had won those states he wouldn't want those delegates seated? Get real.

The hypocrisy of anyone talking about Indiana's photo ID requirement in order to vote and then disregarding the votes of thousands of people in two other states is mind boggling. Not quite as mind boggling as accusing women of ruining democracy while you briefly mention the rampant sexism in the united campaign against Hillary and then you attack her supporters for complaining about it, but it's darned close. From start to finish, this race hasn't been about policy issues, it's been about hair, clothes and makeup. Throw in a little bowling and a shot of whiskey (if I was her I would have been so grateful to have had an excuse for a drink since the press hounded her almost as much as they do Paris or Britney neither one of which are anywhere near the same intelligence or contributions to society) with the guys and you have a campaign.

I'm a feminist because I'm a woman. I consider myself the equal of any man under normal circumstances. And the abnormal ones would be so abnormal that whatever sex you are will be one of the last things on your mind. While I may not be able to heave boulders due to brute strength (is that needed anymore?), I am quite capable of using a lever and gravity to accomplish the same task. The odds are that a man invented the hammer, the javelin and the sword, but a woman invented the wheel, pulley, lever and pivot. You develop what you need to survive. Or conquer, as the case may be.

Now that we're supposedly in the 21st century, the skills needed to survive are quite different since we don't have anything left to conquer except each other. And what a shame that is. Nowadays this can be done way too efficiently and requires no brute strength (and judging by reduced requirements to join the military, a minimum of intelligence) at all. Just because one is tall, short, white, brown, black, blue eyed, brown eyed, male, female, rich, poor, right handed, left handed, religious or nonreligious, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Hindi, Muslim, skinny, fat, young or old does not automatically infer competency, incompetency, superiority, stupidity or a tendency towards evil. To say that the women who support Clinton and want the delegates seated is to make a mockery of both democracy and feminism while showing a complete disregard for the people of the two states not being represented and a whopping display of misogyny because women are being so vocal about how their candidate got marginalized, all under the cloak of rules instead of common sense and compassion. But those are traits that come to people who think and who have spent more than enough time clinging to the bottom rung of the ladder to recognize when someone is stamping on their fingers and trying to make them fall off into nonexistence.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the only way we are ever going to have fair elections in this country is if we have a national primary, followed by the national elections thirty days later. Between television, radio and the internet people will have plenty of opportunity to explore their candidate and the press will have less of an opportunity to choose our candidates for us.

And that's what most of the press and Mr. Meyerson are really afraid of.

3Bs and IIRTZ

Bush, Follies And Foibles

Vincent Bugliosi (the District Attorney who successfully prosecuted Charles Manson) has a new book entitled The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder. And like any good prosecutor, he makes a good case. Even if he does have the usual tendency to overlook the deaths and contributions of the women in our military in the botched attempt at bringing democracy to a country that doesn't really want it. Or whatever the current excuse is, I lost track long ago.

Perhaps the most amazing thing to me about the belief of many that George Bush lied to the American public in starting his war with Iraq is that the liberal columnists who have accused him of doing this merely make this point, and then go on to the next paragraph in their columns. Only very infrequently does a columnist add that because of it Bush should be impeached. If the charges are true, of course Bush should have been impeached, convicted, and removed from office. That's almost too self-evident to state. But he deserves much more than impeachment. I mean, in America, we apparently impeach presidents for having consensual sex outside of marriage and trying to cover it up. If we impeach presidents for that, then if the president takes the country to war on a lie where thousands of American soldiers die horrible, violent deaths and over 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians, including women and children, even babies are killed, the punishment obviously has to be much, much more severe. That's just common sense. If Bush were impeached, convicted in the Senate, and removed from office, he'd still be a free man, still be able to wake up in the morning with his cup of coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice and read the morning paper, still travel widely and lead a life of privilege, still belong to his country club and get standing ovations whenever he chose to speak to the Republican faithful. This, for being responsible for over 100,000 horrible deaths?* For anyone interested in true justice, impeachment alone would be a joke for what Bush did.

So true about the mainstream media, but they do tend to get distracted by shiny things meant to direct their attention away from reporting the news. Look! Over there! Has worked almost perfectly for the last twelve years. The press spent more time on a spot on a blue dress than they have reporting on the atrocities done in our name by the crew without a clue.

Secret to who?. I didn't even work in Hollywood at the time and I had heard that Raymond Burr was gay. So what and who cares? He was an entertaining actor, has been dead for almost fifteen years and it definitely won't change the price of tomatoes. Some closets don't need to be opened because unimportant stuff has a tendency to fall out.

The car doesn't go anywhere unless I have several errands to run, which I map out to save time and gas. I used to fill up almost every week, now it's maybe once a month. I'm growing my own vegetables (tomatoes, beets, peas, chard, green beans, serranos) and herbs (parsley, basil, cilantro, rosemary, sage) and I try to lay in a store of frozen chicken, pork and fish at the beginning of the month. When we have it, I prefer to buy my beef fresh along with other greens and squashes that are too big for me to grow in the little area I have. Now if I could only acquire a taste for tofu and ride a bike without pain.

Some punishments are so severe that if a mistake has been made, it can't be undone. Being pardoned for a murder you didn't commit is nice but it isn't very helpful 86 years after you've been hanged.

Gee, with stories like Walter Reed and Ft. Bragg, why would anyone not think that military healthcare sucks? With the Bushmaster-in-charge bloviating about supporting the troops out of one side of his mouth and vetoing benefits out the other, why would anyone believe that our troops were getting anything but the best? Other than Bush, anyone with half a brain.


3Bs

Sweetest Line Of The Morning

Not because of what he did but because now almost every news story can start in much the same way.

"Bush will lay the wreath at Arlington National Cemetary for the last time."

May there be more last times for Bush, he's caused enough of them for everybody else. 4082 families from the useless war in Iraq. So far. And how the heck can Americans remember their war dead if he keeps hiding them from public view? Bush only trots out the proper sentiment on holidays, the rest of the year he is too busy making sure that the survivors have no benefits when they get out, that they can't afford college or a home, and that they have no other choice but to stay in until they die.

Then while they are out doing their duty, Bush cuts food stamps for their families, closes hospitals near their homes, refuses to help with the foreclosures caused by severe decrease in income for the Reserves and the National Guard, and at the same time eviscerates the education system for young people in the hope that they will have no other choice but to be the next sacrificial victims veterans in the "war on terror".

Bush is a president that has ignored the will of the people; let a major U.S. city drown while he vacationed and that was after he let New York and Washington D.C., the supposed seat of our government, be attacked; regards the Constitution as "a piece of paper"; illegally spies on American citizens; flaunts his stupidity on a daily basis as he condones torture and asks people to go shopping instead of rebuilding our country's infrastructure and reclaiming our place in the world by fixing ourselves first before trying to remove a perceived splinter from countries who haven't asked for our "help". He's a colossal failure who continues to make things worse in an effort to leave behind a legacy without realizing he has already done so.

It's Memorial Day and the only person I want to be remembering is Osama bin Laden, swinging from a gallows pole.


He should have some company, like those who could be convicted of war crimes but will likely escape any earthly penance and continually wonder why history (if we have one) is so unkind to them.

So please, let's start as many stories about Bush as we can with for the last time.

BBB

More Than A Little Tired Of All The Nonsense

I used to think that I despised Bush more than any other person on the planet. Just looking at him or worse yet, listening to him butcher the English language and I would invariably say "Gawd, I can't stand that man." Then Obama came along and while he may be articulate, my reaction is exactly the same. Now, ungrateful and extremely forgetful black leaders (or as they are known in my house, Phyllis Schafly in black drag) are threatening Clinton (wasn't my favorite candidate) with her Senatorial position (a job she has done most excellently) by saying she will need to heal racial wounds. Wounds that have been there for hundreds of years and are likely to remain for hundreds more. Eff you. How about all the sexist wounds Obama and his supporters have inflicted in their zeal to get an untried, and more than likely unqualified, black man elected to the highest office? All he has done is run for office, he hasn't served either his country (has McCain beat that horse to death yet?) or his constituency. The majority of people in this country are women and if you think that women will forgive and foret the crap that has been pulled, the 30 second sound bites pulled out of context, the focus on her hair, clothes or voice, or just the the sheer arrogance of men patting us on the head and telling us that things will be alright as soon as their candidate is elected, you are sadly mistaken. Since Obama is all rhetoric and no substance that I have ever seen demonstrated, he's the perfect replacement for Bush. Does he even vote unless it's something that might help him in the polls or does just being present count? And his wife's expressions are making the Klingon Representative look positively serene. Gawd, I honestly and truly can't stand the man. And nobody could have foreseen that, but only an idiot would think that there isn't a crazed assassin out there. One who doesn't like black people or women. People need to get a grip.

The crybaby party wails again. Once more Democrats are falsely (now there's a surprise) accused of encouraging big government. When Gray Davis was forced out of office there were only eight people on the government's dime that were making over 200,000 a year. Now there are over a 1000. And the number of people collecting over $100,000 has doubled. Everybody got a raise except for the people who needed it. But we must cut back on services, education and anything else that might help the poor. And in true Republican tradition, all the problems are being blamed on the Democrat before them, even though Schwarzenegger has been in power for over six years. Good grief, Republicans can't take responsibility for wetting their pants. They hold up the budget every year with ridiculous demands, mostly involving cuts to poor, sick or elderly people, and then blame it on the Democrats.

I wonder if he'll get a mention in Funk and Wagnall's. Rest in peace Mr. Martin, you brought me many hours of laughter when I was a kid. The news of the future is much bleaker.

I saw Indy and I liked it. Except for the running commentary on other subjects provided by the two year old behind me. I have to admit the audience was a little older than I'm used to seeing but that is no excuse to bring a young child and disturb everyone around you. I know I missed some of the best lines because of the chattering and the lady beside me would have gotten an usher if the movie hadn't been rocking and rolling from one adventure to the next. I might go see it again this morning. I prefer to pay $6 for the matinee as opposed to $10.25 for an evening show.

BBB

Momentary Lapse Of Reason

If only it was momentary, but this is more like falling into the event horizon of a black hole. It keeps going on and on, like a really bad dream. A moment of remembrance to pay tribute to our veterans. Could this President (and I use that term extremely loosely) blow it out his ass any more? No raises, no G.I. Bill, limited benefits that the injured have to beg for, stop-loss as a way of life, inadequate armor, a Green Zone that isn't safe and all they get is a moment of remembrance for their sacrifice? With a little luck nobody will remember this schmuck except as a monument to the stupidity of the crew without a clue. That is either swept up in an monstrous twister or disappears when another levee breaks.

Bush had several suggestions for how to honor the sacrifices of those who have fought for the United States — place a flag at a veteran's grave, go to a battlefield or say a prayer. He said the moment of remembrance would be marked Monday at 3 p.m. local time.

"At that moment, Major League Baseball games will pause, the National Memorial Day parade will halt, Amtrak trains will blow their whistles and buglers in military cemeteries will play taps," he said Saturday in his weekly radio address.

If only our long national nightmare was over. That would be a great headline for January 20,2009, wouldn't it? Somehow I just don't see Bubble Boy following the Constitution then since he hasn't followed it for the last eight years.

Oops! Famous people and lawmakers are being caught up in the foreclosure crisis. Another one of things that the crew without a clue couldn't have foreseen.

Double oops! Racism in Alabama, now who would have ever thought that was still happening. I'm sure Harper Lee is just thrilled. Empty minds indeed.

From racism to sexism. Girl does better than boys, parents demand she not be allowed to play with the boys. The boys didn't mind having her in the league. Oh yeah, this country is advanced alright. Into the Dark Ages.

Pot has been back in the news with the typical governmental scare tactics and I've tried to ignore the stories, but when the truly uninformed write an article and say things like

One thing has changed: Pot packs a bigger wallop now than it did in the '70s. Today's leaves are up to five times as potent. So, says Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, still-developing brains, which are "more plastic, more sensitive to being modified," are exposed to higher doses of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

Two things spring immediately to mind. One, they know nothing about pot, people don't smoke the leaves, they smoke the buds. And two, why don't they worry about all the prescription drugs they pump into these developing brains to make them conform to a societal standard of behavior? Oh that's right, they were prescribed and it's okay if kids are turned into unthinking automatons that do everything they are told without questioning.

Clinton must stop campaigning, according to all the pundits and people who don't believe in a true democratic process, you know the one where everyone gets a nominal say in the process. Meanwhile, Ron Paul and his supporters haven't given up running against a stumbling McCain campaign and the NY Times has an article up today that might as well be a love letter. Granted it was in the Fashion & Style section, but it's still better treatment than Hillary has gotten.

Big Brass Blog

A Kinder, Gentler America

Exists in our imagination, not in reality. In reality, we treat people who need help as a disgusting drain on the system. No matter what the circumstances or how innocent they may be. And if they aren't from this country, we won't and don't give them the care and consideration that an American would expect to receive in a foreign country under the same circumstances. And we call ourselves civilized. There is going to come a time, most likely in the near future, when we will need the type of help that China or Burma currently need and the world will turn its back on us. And we will complain mightily, totally forgetting all of the cruel, insensitive and depraved actions we have taken against those who we have determined are less than human. White American humans that is.

And then there are the Israelis. The usual bullets against stones, with the normal result. I know my position isn't popular, Ireland has been one of the safest places in the world recently and who would have predicted that back in the 70s?

While I empathize with Damien Cave, imagine being an Iraqi veteran and trying to readjust to society in an America that doesn't care. Without the job, the money, or the contacts.

No, they didn't. The trauma and drama is something that will affect ALL those kids for many years to come. While there is something definitely wrong with the way the elders practice their lifestyle, the kids did not deserve to have their lives totally destroyed. 400 kids, forcibly separated from the only love they had ever known. You bet it was wrong. But then, this is the state that also contains Waco. And Crawford.

Do you like oral sex? How about some velvet handcuffs, feathers and a major tickle session before getting down to those three minutes that are supposed to satisfy? Do you like the lights on? Do you prefer to physically be with someone of your own sex? Do you like to do it in the shower? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you might be a deviant. At least according to the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders that is currently being worked on. By appointees of the current Bush administration. The definition of normal sex (according to the American Psychiatric Association, that bastion of people who determine what is normal and what isn't) is being worked on once again. I think they discovered that some people don't even do it under the covers. Oh, the horror.

Okay, enough funning around, back to the world we live in now. Only in America can one lose one's home for a $68 dental bill. My potted tomatoes (if the wind doesn't blow them away today) are worth more than that bill. In what world do you take someone's place of residence in lieu of smaller items? There are people who have larger outstanding phone or cable bills and they are still living in their homes, but with satellite and cell phones instead. Can indentured servitude for parking tickets be far behind?

3Bsand IIRTZ.

Thank You

For all the best wishes on that day of days. Let me say that things did not turn out well (the car developed engine problems ) and the end result was just like the song says, another day older and deeper in debt. But I have to admit those were some of the nicest compliments I've ever received. :)

On the bright side, I've decided on the one instance in which I can vote for Obama. If John Edwards is his Veep choice. Because sooner or later, and probably sooner than people expect, some melanin impaired, deranged, and totally believing that he is righting a wrong done to the country, some fool will outwit the SS, I mean the Secret Service, and the Veep will become POTUS. Why isn't Hillary a part of the dream ticket? Because some other deranged person will decide that isn't a good idea and arrange another unelected Veep of their persuasion and then we'll be back to the original problem. There is no Quayle that will serve as insurance this time around. Now wasn't that cheerful?

On the gardening front, Shadow dug up and ate most of the pea shoots while I was gone and chewed the buttons off of Mom's sweater. Bad doggie! With a temper.

I'm extremely sorry about Ted Kennedy. It isn't like that family hasn't had more than its share of angst and tragedy. For some reason, the men in that family seem to have been doomed to traumatic fates that are statistically out of proportion to the population at large, if you discount those that aren't melanin impaired.

Why does every current generation believe that an older generation didn't know how to have fun? We could ask McCain if it was fun dancing around on the hot earth until someone invented shoes, but I'd rather watch and listen to one of my favorite songs.



It never fails to get me moving and those guys looked like they were having fun, especially when the trombones were being tossed into the air. They didn't destroy their instruments back then.



My musical tastes seem to be a little varied, something I'm very proud of as I age. I try not to be a musical stick in the mud, but rap and opera still grate on the same nerve. Country used to do that but you can hardly tell it from 80s big hair rock nowadays. Every thing is the same, the makeup, the hair, glitzy outfits, only the twang is new. Wait, Bon Jovi is now a country star? What's up with that?

Again, thanks for all the best wishes. They made my day when I got back. :)

Big Brass Blog

BFD, Guess Whose Birthday It Is

If you guessed mine, you're right. Big whoop, I'm 52, though I'm pretty sure the rest of me would prefer 25. I had a really good time that year. I went to Vegas on the train for the first time. This year, not much is going to happen.

I'm one of those practical girls, in case you couldn't tell. While I don't want a refrigerator or vacuum for a gift, geek stuff is always welcome. Things that make my life safer or more convenient are also a good bet. One year my baby brother gave me a Fry's gift card for Christmas and was worried that he had offended me until he saw me squealing and running around the house. I spent that sucker the next day. Now that was one of my favorite gifts of all time. On the other hand, Mother Nature has presented me with a few really good looking tomato babies. Little green nuggets that will hopefully turn into ripe green tomatoes.

It never ceases to amaze me how people think of themselves first when they are buying you a gift. It was so hot in my car the other day that some of the speaker wires on my iPod melted in certain spots. Since I'm never without the thing, don't you think headphones would have made a great gift? I have music in my life everyday (courtesy of the radio or the iPod, I can't play a note) and I'm disappointed that something so simple escaped my friends. Especially today. Or, how about having my knives professionally sharpened, that would have been both cool and useful. A Costco cash card so I can buy gas would have changed the whole direction of my birthday, and the rest of the week. Instead, I received an expensive gift certificate to a shop I go to once every couple of years. I'll use it eventually, but at the moment I have no use for it. Unless I throw a temper tantrum and break something. :)

Birthday music for all!

My pug is cuter and would have a deeper voice.


And just because I never hear this on the radio on my birthday, it's either the day before or after, ladies and gentlemen I present to you, THE BEATLES! It may not be the greatest video but it's still the Beatles and they are singing the Birthday song.


Waah, waah, waah.

3Bs

Let's All Wring Our Hands

The world is worried about Burma. Again. Just as it was obvious that the Bush administration had no intention of helping the drowning people of New Orleans, it's obvious that the junta in Burma is hoping, and actively preventing assistance, so that most of their citizens troublemakers perish in the aftermath also. While the world waits and discusses what to do, innocent men, women and children are dying by the minute. Like the crisis a few months ago didn't give everyone a clue as to how the junta would respond.

People are talking all kinds of smack because the Democratic Convention isn't locked up tighter than a black person with a stick up his ass months before the actual convention. Heaven forbid that every citizen have an opportunity to express their vote. Since I didn't really start paying attention to the conventions until Shirley Chisholm received 152 delegates in 1972 "in spite of hopeless odds", I am having a difficult time understanding why it is so important that Hillary drop out, we present a united front, yada, yada, yada. James Polk (POTUS #11) wasn't added until the eighth ballot. What are we? Sheep or Republicans? Ron Paul hasn't given up and the Republicans don't have their panties in a bunch. Whatever we are, we aren't being democratic, we are being autocratic. At the rate our democratic process is disappearing we might as well be Russia and let the Chimmpleton become Prime Minister. Oh, we don't have one of those in our Constitution? Well, we didn't have illegal search and seizures, ridiculous (unless you're a corporation) interpretations of eminent domain, torture or poll taxes before 2001 either. Speaking of traitors, NARAL can kiss my black ass. In Macy's window. At lunchtime.

I never thought I would dislike a candidate more than Bush, but Obama finds the one nerve that Bush missed. He can claim all the victory he wants, he will never be able to claim my vote. McCain will also never get my vote but I absolutely will not vote against my conscience just so a "Democrat" can win. Over 300 million people in America and we get these two boobs as a choice for president. I'd rather have a president with real ones. And we all know that isn't going to happen in my lifetime. According to the Death Clock that's at least seven more presidential elections. Isn't it odd how many female leaders there are in the world and we think their countries are backwards? Even the Vatican has an assistant Vice Minister. We're lucky we have female Governors. Equality is not a way of life in America. Sexually, racially, economically or representatively.

In a further continuation of Support The Troops, but only in your dreams, Bush will be the first President in history to veto benefits. This isn't really a surprise since he went to war with the military we had and not the one he wanted. But Blackwater is coming along and I'm sure things will work out the way he wants. Too bad about all those dead soldiers, their sad families and the all the brain injured vets who will be left as roadkill. Not in the country they were injured in, but in the country that supposedly supports them. How are the sales of those car magnets doing these days?

I haven't posted a joke in so long, so here is a clean one. What do you find on the inside of a clean nose?

Fingerprints.

People forget that Barry Cowsill was one of the victims of Bush's determination to let New Orleans drown.


Dangerous wasn't he?

BBB

An Open Letter To Work Comp

This is a personal rant and if one of the Barbarians could bring a printed copy to our next outing, I would greatly appreciate it. I don't have a printer and need a copy for my records. Plus, I need to vent.

My worker's comp representative never returns my phone calls and after leaving her a message last week about the latest refusal to hire me for a job that I really wanted, and which could have substantially improved the quality of my life, I finally received the doctor's determination yesterday and I have to say that I disagree. Not only did it not address my issues, but after two years and a private investigator, they are still trying to blame it on a previous injury. One I have never had. And just for the record, I have never complained about my ankle. It has never been twisted or strained, was never mentioned as part of the work comp injury and I really don't understand why it was included in the QME report. I read for a hobby, I don't ski, play tennis or basketball, jog or do any type of high impact sports. I have never had a broken bone.

Work comp believes that my toe (the one that's fused with two screws in it) is only 5% disabled. The toe itself may be only 5%, but it affects the quality of my life every day, both waking and sleeping. The weight of the covers on the toe wakes me up at least five times a night. And heaven forbid that I get twisted under the covers. That pain is a real eye opener, complete with stars.

Previous to the injury I walked my dog daily, could move quickly through Costco at least 25 times a shift and had successfully taken off 50 pounds. Just by walking daily. Since the accident I have been unable to walk my dog around the park without my knee swelling and my toe becoming numb, red and I am unable to stand in an anatomically correct manner. I have always had good posture (courtesy of the Army) until recently but now I find that I balance most of the weight on my left leg and hip which is causing its own little problems with my back. I am constantly shifting my weight from side to side and if forced to stand more than a few minutes (like in a grocery line) I look for ways to prop my right foot higher than the left.

I have also regained 45 of the 50 pounds (and my dog has gained five), can no longer walk more than a mile without pain and have to use a step stool to get things off the back of my kitchen shelves since I can't stand on my toes. It's a good think I'm not a ballerina. It's a bad thing that I am 5'1".

My work and everything that I have been trained to do requires that I stand for 8 to 9 hours with constant walking in between, so saying that I am fully able to return to work is a crock and is a decision made by someone who thinks that walking to their car constitutes getting around. Who cares if I can't and could never do squats? As I told Dr. B, this was first noticed at fourteen (not 17) when my dad came back from Korea and was showing us how the natives sat. I now walk on the outside of my foot because my big toe only contacts the ground if I deliberately force it by rolling my foot to the inside with every step and then my knee has sharp lances of pain horizontally across the kneecap. In what way am I capable of working a 10 hour shift on my feet, carrying an average of 40 pounds at the same time and then do it all over again the next day? And the day after that.

Previous to the injury I wore a size 6 shoe, a 6 1/2 if they were of the skinny variety. Now I require a 7 to 7 1/2. They must be completely flat with a hard sole, a rounded toe and a large toe box to accommodate the angle the toe is fused at. For some reason, the scar from the fusion is exactly where the edge of the top flap of the shoe presses on the foot and the pain located on the ball of the foot, where most people put pressure while walking or running. Any type of heel is totally out of the question. I have taken witnesses (you should try shopping for these requirements if you don't believe me) to show the difficulty of buying shoes. I usually spend about three hours, seven or eight stores and end up with a pair of sneakers or sandals with an adjustable strap across the top of the foot. The sneakers have soft tops and don't put pressure on the fusion. Sandals are for casual summer wear.

The shoes the doctors recommend start at $250 a pair and are not covered by work comp, (but work comp is willing to pay me $230 a week, which I use for rent, food and gas. All my other bills obviously fell by the wayside and I'm still trying to get the money together to declare bankruptcy), they still look like sneakers and none of them are appropriate for dress wear. You know, the stuff you are supposed to wear when you go to an important function or, in my case, job interviews. I have been told to my face that my footwear is not appropriate for work. Or interviews. Isn't that special, to say nothing of embarrassing. When I was in the Army, my platoon sergeant used to try and match the shine on his jump boots with mine. Now I wish long dresses were in again so I can hide my shoes.

Previous to this injury I had my own personal chef business. I was only doing the weekend work for Aidell's to try and get my foot in the door (Rachael Ray and Martha Stewart started somewhere) and to earn a little extra money for my 50th birthday. Well, my personal chef business is history, all the money I spent training, buying extra equipment, designing and running my own web page has been wasted. For my birthday I was poor and in pain and the birthday this coming Monday doesn't look much better and in many ways worse because now I have no savings at all. Cooking holiday dinners (something I've done for most of my life) for family and friends practically destroys me. I have to take way too many breaks which makes dinner later than usual and the next two days I lay around taking aspirin, icing the knee and toe and moaning in pain.

Speaking of pain, let me reiterate this one more time since the doctors seem to have a hard time reading a chart or listening when they ask you what your allergies are. I am ALLERGIC to NSAIDS (they affect my breathing adversely), I am also ALLERGIC to morphine codeine, tylenol, hydrocodone, oxycodone, fentanyl, tramadol (Ultram), talwin, and amesec, to name a few. I don't make a big fuss about my pain because there isn't anything other than demerol that works on me and I would prefer to save that for something like a car accident or other major trauma. So no, low dose NSAIDs and opioids aren't an option.

After the tsunami in the Indian Ocean I wondered if I would be able to run fast in an emergency. Due to the size of my breasts, this was impossible so I opted to have them reduced. While now it doesn't hurt my chest to run, I still can't move in a hurry because I can no longer push off with the injured foot. As a matter of fact, anything that requires stretching the leg and pointing the toe causes painful cramps and spasms in the calf and directly behind the knee. None of this was an issue before my accident. By the way, have you spoken with my former supervisor who saw me within 30 minutes of the accident and can testify that the knee was swollen, purple and immobile? Or that I used to move quite quickly while at work?

When work comp decided not to approve acupuncture as a modality, it put me out of business. Yes, I am an Acupuncturist and used to be licensed by the State of California. At one time it was determined that acupuncturists weren't capable of running a case appropriately. Well, I was the primary care on a few cases and believe me, I ran a much tighter ship than the one I've been sinking on for the last two years. Pain was assessed every time, you guys didn't do that for me for six months and then again briefly during the QME. My "treatment" consisted of being told to go home and stay off it to see if it would get better. Period. Well, it didn't and it got progressively worse. If proper procedures had been followed there would have been a record of my pain, what made it worse, what made it better. But none of those questions were asked of me. Six months after the accident the foot was authorized for surgery and Dr. N and I discussed that wearing the walking boot while healing from the foot surgery would aggravate my knee but it had to be done. From that point on, the knee became worse and nothing was done until the following May, nine months later. When I asked for physical therapy to help rebuild the calf muscle after being in a cast for several months, Dr. J wasn't that helpful, didn't think I needed it even though the right calf was just a stick and the left calf was muscular. I finally got physical therapy which consisted of telling me to ride a bike, spread my toes and lift my heel off the floor ten times a day. Whoop de doo.

I finally saved up enough money to buy a bike and rode it faithfully because Dr. P said it would help build up my quads and that would take pressure off my knee. The knee felt pretty good (I was up to almost 20 miles a day), but I started to develop problems with the foot. I told Dr. P in August that I was having trouble and he told me to continue riding and to come back in a month. By the end of September the toe was constantly swollen. The beginning of October he expressed surprise that I had a fusion and told me to quit riding the bike because how one puts pressure on the pedal was exactly where the fusion was and that I should take up the elliptical machine instead. I joined the YMCA at the cost of $52 per month, had a personal trainer work out a program to strengthen my legs as Dr. P suggested and I still have pain. But now I can no longer afford to attend the gym and buying a home system is completely out of the question.

I quit riding the bike but the toe was still swollen and numb. On October 10, 2007 my foot slipped off the brake and back onto the accelerator while I was parking and the police determined the swelling in my right foot to be the cause of the car accident. This accident totaled my car and caused me to jump through several hoops for the Department of Motor Vehicles in order to get my license back. It took almost three weeks to get an appointment with my work comp doctor and by then I had been taking aspirin four times a day and icing the foot to get the swelling down. It looked pretty normal by then, but the damage to my life and my car was done. Now instead of driving the just paid off car that got 35mpg, I drive an eight year older car that gets 18 mpg and my car insurance has doubled.

I used to make several thousand dollars a month, now I make less than one. Instead of giving me a lump sum, you want to stretch it out so that it is basically useless to me, other than to keep my head barely above water, until I have used up the $3K that you think destroying my life was worth. Then I am on my own, for the rest of my life. In pain and with difficulty walking. Problems I did not have before the accident. I can't go back to being a massage therapist because I can't push off with my right foot, it's painful and then my knee buckles. I can't go back to practicing acupuncture because I don't have the money for the license fees (now that acupuncture is accepted by work comp again) or the continuing education credits that are required.

This small, part-time job and the ensuing accident have had seriously negative consequences for my life. Everything that I have been trained to do ($100K for the AP degree), my hobby of cooking that I was turning into a profession and now the ability to find a job that will allow me to survive in today's economy, are further out of reach than they were when I was twelve. I'd like to say thank you, but I usually require a kiss when I'm being... shafted.

Oh, and by the way, Dr. B spent 19 minutes with me as actual face time, not the hour that he says. It took me longer to get back and forth to the X-Ray place than he spent talking, or more importantly, listening to me. If I could afford a lawyer, they would be the one writing this letter and handling this case from this point on.

3Bs and IIRTZ.

I Won't Back Down

The never ending election disgusts and disheartens me. The news is pitiful, just pitiful. And depressing. Thousands of people have died in the last few weeks from Mother Nature's influence and they barely get air time, but some candidate stubbed a toe and our nation needs to kiss the boo boo or the world as we know it will come to an end. Now, if someone could prove that it was a terrorist plot for all those poor people who weren't contributing anything to the US economy to die, that would be front page news. With its own catchy phrase. And whatever happened to missing blond women? They must be with Osama been Forgotten since we haven't heard from any in a while.

My birthday is coming up next week and I have no way to celebrate and nothing to really celebrate. I'm usually happy that of all the people born on the same day, I'm still here. Now all I can think is BFD. I've given up so much to take care of my mom, that I never had a life and by the time she's gone, I won't have the energy to start one of my own.

I joke about how other people's grandkids are going to be responsible for paying off our generation's debt, but it really isn't funny, it's pathetic. I'm in pain, have no money for groceries (the garden won't be producing for a few more weeks) and I'm pretty sure that E does not mean enough on the gas gauge. I try to keep this song in the back of my head but it's getting harder every day.


Plus, they canceled New Amsterdam and a few other shows I enjoyed watching. The replacements look really boring. I am so tired.

3Bs

How Much Lower Can We Go?

Are there any depths to which this current administration will not sink? I know it seems like a stupid question considering everything they've screwed up over the last seven years, but even this one boggles what little mind I have left. It seems that those who have served faithfully in this misbegotten war, are not eligible for the tax stimulus checks that the country really can't afford. Yes, I know people have conveniently ignored the fact that quite a few military families are forced to used food stamps to survive, but how anyone in their right mind would think that the troops don't deserve the maximum amount of the stimulus package totally baffles me.

Every morning I'm greeted with some stupid ass story about how the troops are being supported. But not by the government that sends them into harm's way time after time without adequate armor, decent food or water, poor housing when they get back and an atrocious medical system that punishes them for being injured on the field of battle. If they were in the Reserves or the National Guard, even though it's against the law, their jobs aren't waiting for them when they get back and due to the high rate of PTSD that everyone except the government recognizes, our military veterans can't find decent employment while they wait for the next time they are called up. Even if it's three years after their last tour.

What kind of country are we that we can obsess about flag pins and not worry about those who have been injured or killed supposedly defending this nation from terrorists from without while the terrorists from within destroy everything this country used to stand for?

Our troops passed fucked up without collecting $300 and the rest of us are on our way to cultural armageddon. The rich continue to get richer, the poor continue to get poorer and our troops continued to get screwed.

3Bs

Happy Mother's Day

BBB

Kaboom!

It's the fifteenth annual KFOG Kaboom in San Francisco. This year's line up includes Matt Nathanson, Collective Soul and Los Lobos. It's all wrapped up at the end with the most spectacular fireworks display on the west coast.

Last year we felt like we were freezing to death, the temperature on the bay had dropped into the thirties, so this year we're bringing a sleeping bag in addition to the coats, blankets and sweats. Meanwhile, for those of you who can't get to SF today (the fun starts at four), here's a little SF feeling for you.



It never ceases to amaze me how the lyrics from the 60s are still topical today. I really do hope that it is a warm San Franciscan night.

BBB

I Wouldn't Vote For Obama

If he was the only candidate running. Change. That's the biggest joke since the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner. This election cycle has been a mainstream farce, specializing in marginalizing the candidates that the people were interested in and forcing us to decide between three of the worst choices since the last two bad options in 2004. Does this mean I'm not voting? No, I'm just not voting for President. It isn't going to make a positive difference to this country no matter who we get stuck with. We moved from being a republic to a corporatacracy a long time ago. And for those who think the United States was or is a democracy, you need to take American Government 101 again.

But I doubt if they still offer it.

BBB

Matrix And The Family Guy

Go Figure

Baby boomers are leaving California because it's too expensive to retire here and Hispanics prefer Texas to California because it's too expensive to live here. Proving that other regions of the country don't have a lock on prejudice, the commenters want to blame the Hispanics for the state's financial woes. Oh, and the taxes that they have to pay. I remember the seventies and the taxes were higher. Of course we had good roads and even better schools. Hmm, do you suppose there's a connection?

While people are enamored with the Time 100 Most Influential People (Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Oprah, Peter Gabriel, Mia Farrow and Andrea Agassi are listed under Heroes and Pioneers, not entertainers. Weird.), Electronic House has its Home Of The Year and the runners up available for viewing. They look a little different from my castle. To say the least.

This is so not right. Seven tours to Afghanistan and Iraq, two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart but he's still dead. No Osama in return. No mission accomplished either in Iraq or Afghanistan and our military is so stretched we have to send our troops seven times in seven years. My condolences to Sgt. 1st Class David L. McDowell's family, may he rest in peace.

Considering the trillion dollars that have been wasted in Iraq, the six billion wasted on a stupid educational program that didn't work doesn't sound like much. Unless the goal is to turn teachers and students into unthinking automatons. Reading may be fundamental but math basics seem to escape this administration.

BBB