Stoking The Wingnut Ire And Other Interests

Yippee!  Greasemonkey has finally been updated to work with FF 3.5b4 and a few other extensions I like to use have been updated as well.  I really missed Colorful List View for Google Reader, it makes it much easier on the eyes when you have a 166 feeds.  And now that Google Reader Subscriber Count is working again, I find that I have more readers than a few months ago.  Thanks guys, I really appreciate it.  I may not be one of the big boys in the blogging world but at least I don't feel like I'm yelling into a void.

Folk hero? Umm, no.  He's a cold blooded murderer.  I think I'm safe when a guy is lying on the ground bleeding from a bullet wound to the head.  I wouldn't find it necessary to get another gun a minute or two later and fire five more bullets into him.  But then, I don't scare easily.  And since it's Oklahoma if it had been a black guy who shot and deliberately killed a white thief, he would be in jail and no anonymous donor would have posted bail, as if bail would have been an option.

Box said that another person might have reacted differently, but he asked: "When do you turn off that adrenaline switch? When do you think you're safe? I think that's going to be the ultimate issue."

As much as I dislike the man this is ridiculous.  Obama has a date night on Broadway with the wife and the GOP goes nuts (rapidly becoming their default state) because the country is in economic freefall and Le Prez shouldn't be relaxing.  Meanwhile Bush spent 487 days at Camp David and 490 day in Crawford, several of them while the Gulf Coast was drowning during Katrina, and not a peep was heard.  Two and a half years on vacation in an eight year term is okay but a night on the town is a no no.  And let's not forget that Condi was buying shoes and enjoying a Broadway show while a major city was underwater and the GOP said...nothing.  IOKIYAR applies to more than sex crimes, wow what a concept.

If you are homeless you shouldn't have computer access because you should be focused on getting a job according to a good proportion of the commenters at the WSJ.  Totally missing from these holier than thou people is the fact that most jobs are posted online and that if you submit an application for a job and don't have a home address or phone number that if you have an email address you can be reached for a job interview.  And that out of a 24 hour day only eight to ten hours are good for job hunting and the weekends are useless.  But they must suffer because they are homeless, they shouldn't be watching movies or enjoying music.  Personally, if I was an employer (not that there are many nowadays) I would look for enterprising people like these who are determined to stay connected and have figured out a way to do it without a permanent roof over their heads or a reliable source of electricity.

Since arriving in Reno I sneeze every day, at least twenty times and usually more.  When I first got here I had to take Benadryl constantly but the last week has been a little better.  I'm still sniffly and my eyes itch but my asthma is back under control and I can breathe through my nose most of the time.  Although I'm not the only one suffering I wish I knew what it was I'm allergic to.  Or it could be that my body is reacting to breathing air instead of San Jose smog.  Whatever it is I hope it goes away soon, I've blown thru several boxes of Kleenex  and I haven't had an uninterrupted nights sleep in a long time.  Supposedly the pollen count is on its way down.

The suffering, the trauma. It seems that the Chosen don't like it when they don't get everything they want and the world doesn't bow to their wishes.  Their idea of construction is we take what you had, you go live in a ghetto that we won't let you leave so we can bomb you at will.  When I was growing up I was told you could catch more bees with honey than you could with vinegar, nowadays it's all about killing the bees instead.  And as we are now finding out bees are important to survival, maybe the Palestinians are too.

Will The Democrats Screw Up?

Wow, how clueless do you have to be?  Of course the Dumocrats are going to screw up.  Unfortunately for the Repubs it won't be as bad as they themselves have done in the last eight years.  William Jacobson. a law professor from Cornell (I thought you had to be smart to attend there much less teach) sets out his reasons why the Specter defection will turn out to have a silver lining for the GOP.

So I'm not depressed about the long-term future of the country, although the next few years will be tough politically. The Democrats will screw up big time, as they did during the Carter years, and the damage they cause will be generational. But the clean-up is worth looking forward to, even if the mess is not.

How...kind of him.  As if the problems created by the last eight years aren't going to be generational.

His first argument is no surprise because I've been saying the same thing for years. The first duty of a politician is to get themselves reelected, preferably to higher office but staying in the Senate is a no brainer if you can't be President.  And just like any other party, if your date gets obnoxiously drunk it is better to go home with someone else.  Especially if you plan on getting there in one piece.

Now, in regard to the torture hearings, if America sits on its ass and does nothing to rectify or show shame about the situation, it will give those who hate us even more ammunition, not less.  As my father pointed out to me in 1967, the people in America have short memories and the people in the Middle East have extremely long ones.  The Turkish-Armenian situation is but one sad example.  Plus, and this is a big one, they are willing to die for their beliefs.  The majority of Americans aren't and our recent behavior more than makes this clear.

To accuse the Democrats of being the isolationist party is one of the most laughable arguments I've heard in years.  I was a Republican because I was an isolationist and a fiscal conservative until they lost their freaking minds.  Republicans ran up the national debt, like they always do, and went nuts on immigration.  If you were born brown and out of town you became the reason that everything went wrong in America.  Sheesh, get a grip.

Last time I checked we were a Republic, not a dynasty.  As history (there's that word again) has shown many times, the balance of power shifts across the globe pretty frequently.  Maybe if we hadn't spent all our resources, wasted our good will and destroyed our military in two useless wars we wouldn't be in the position of having to watch other countries pick up where we left off before we had our mental breakdown.  America is no longer a free society.  Our phones are tapped, there are surveillance cameras in almost every town, the police become more like the military every day and while the Second Amendment is in no danger, the First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth definitely are.

The national debt was way out of control before the Democrats were elected to power.  It got that way while the Republicans held sway and decided that the rich needed to be richer at the expense of everyone else.  Young people aren't stupid and since recent studies show that math scores are increasing they will be able to do the arithmetic.  A simple math problem might consist of something like this.  In 2000 there was a surplus and in 2008 there wasn't.  By a wide margin.  Yes, the deficit is going to be bigger for the next couple of years but that wouldn't have happened if the GOP hadn't engaged in a reverse Robin Hood scheme for the last eight years while at the same time increasing the size of government with duplicate agencies that contained their unqualified cronies.

Human rights, that's rich.  And who says it's only three members of al-Qaeda that were tortured?  It's much more widespread than that and everyone knows it.   Pregnant women wouldn't have joined the cause to blow themselves up if they and their baby had something to live for.  They don't.  We have turned their homes, fields and farms into one gigantic war zone in an effort to get revenge on people who are already dead.  Human rights belong to everyone, even if you're brown from out of town.  Other countries, who are much smaller than us geographically, have survived terrorism for years.  We have one instance of terrorism and now the nation wears diapers and cries for mommy.  They aren't destroying us, we are doing it ourselves.

I've been buying foreign cars for years and Detroit has been the reason.  As a woman I require that my car be dependable and affordable.  As an example in 1987 my brother and I got new cars at the same time.  I got a Honda CRX and my brother got a Pontiac Fiero.  He sold his car at the end of six months because it had spent three of those months in the shop and still didn't run right.  I drove the Honda for fourteen years and was grateful every day that I got over 40 mpg.  Detroit's solution was to build bigger and more unstable gas guzzlers.  And now there's no more Pontiac.  The government certainly can't do any worse than the auto execs did.  Unless it's run by people who say their goal is to drown it in a bathtub.

Health care.  Don't make me puke.  I grew up on Air Force bases using military healthcare.  It was nowhere near as bad as going to the doctor today.  Oops, I don't go to the doctor, I can't afford it and I don't qualify for health insurance because I have a preexisting condition called asthma.  The emergency room is my fallback for when it gets out of control and I think I'm going to suffocate.  We won't even go into that dental and vision thing, they don't seem to be on the radar of the entitled so why bring up another problem that those who have everything they need would like to ignore.  Oh yeah, that argument about waiting months for a surgical procedure?  Maybe you should talk to all the people who have health insurance and been denied procedures so the insurance companies can give their executives and shareholders enormous bonuses and dividends.

I'm black, there is racism, get over it.  When you have black communities in states where local governments have built services around them and they didn't have running water like their neighbors did for the last fifty years, that's racism.  When things like education and skills are equal and blacks and Latinos are earning less (provided they got hired) than their melanin impaired compatriots, that's racism.  When you cut essential school programs in poorer districts that are predominately black and politically mrginalized, that's racism.  When prisons are filled to the brim with people of color who have committed petty crimes against themselves while rich melanin impaired executives who destroyed the lives of millions go free, that's racism.  Those are facts and they aren't going away.

The GOP is in trouble for a reason and the reason is this.  They are out of touch with the average American.  Their base consists of angry people who vote on single issues by claiming that the Bible disapproves of certain behaviors they deem immoral while ignoring the rest of the Bible teachings that encourage them to take care of their fellow man and to have compassion and pity for those who are suffering.  The elite of the party are just that.  Elite and as far removed from their base as they can get in their personal lives as they can manage and not get outed.

The party of Lincoln is falling apart and the more they scream about how unfair it is and the more rabid they are to return to a time that only exists in their imaginations, the further from the mainstream they will be.  As so many other Republicans have said before me, I didn't leave the party the party left me.

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Worse Than Hitler

After reading the post titled "How to kill a Palestinian" that was recommended by the Dark Wraith,  the only thing I can say is that the world would benefit from a radioactive lake located where the state of Israel currently is.  What a bunch of insufferably arrogant assholes with a megalomaniac complex, they make Kim Jong Il look sane. 

The state of Israel is the definition of entitlement.  They think they are entitled to kill anyone they want, including babies, by the most horrendous means possible.  White phosphorous, are you serious?  Their mindset is perfectly clear to anyone who is paying attention and it isn't pretty. As bad as the destruction of Gaza is that the author describes, it is nothing compared to the sentiments of the rabbis and the rabid people they lead.

The Israeli spokesman, Nachman Abramovic demonized Palestinian children stating "They may look young to you, but these people are terrorists at heart. Don’t look at their deceptively innocent faces, try to think of the demons inside each of them … I am absolutely certain these people would grow to be evil terrorists if we allowed them to grow… would you allow them to grow to kill your children or finish them off right now? … honost and moral people ought to differentiate between true humans and human animals. We do kill human animals and we do so unapologetically. Besides who in the West is in a position to lecture us on killing human animals. After all, whose hands are clean?"

Human animal mentioned by Abramovic refers to the Judaic religious belief that Jews are Gods chosen people; the elite and the pure-blooded, while all others (non-Jews, Goyims, gentiles) are animal souls incarnated into human bodies to serve the Jews. Killing a human animal is just a sport like hunting deer or birds.

Another Israeli spokeswoman, Tzipora Menache, stated that she was not worried about negative ramifications the Israeli onslaught on Gaza might have on the way the Obama administration would view Israel. She said "You know very well, and the stupid Americans know equally well, that we control their government, irrespective of who sits in the White House. You see, I know it and you know it that no American president can be in a position to challenge us even if we do the unthinkable. What can they (Americans) do to us? We control congress, we control the media, we control show biz, and we control everything in America. In America you can criticize God, but you can’t criticize Israel"

Four things.  One, my hands are clean.  Two, I am not an animal soul put here to serve the Jews nor am I to be hunted for sport like a deer.  Three, I will criticize Israel all I want.  Whatever sympathy I used to have for them has been erased over the last thirty years and replaced  with a contempt I had no idea I was capable of.  As my ex used to say "If they were burning to a crisp, I wouldn't piss on them to put them out." And last but certainly not least, children become what you make them.  They start out innocent but if you bomb their homes, families, schools and hospitals you are only creating the problem that you say you are trying to solve.

I have no sympathy, zero, nada, zilch for ANY country or people that think they can treat other human beings as if they were so much trash that needs to be disposed of.  Get out of our country, get out of our politics and if there is a God, I hope he teaches you the humility that you so richly deserve and have never learned no matter how many times you think he has abandoned you.

As a bad a man as Hitler was, as bad as the people were that followed his insane directives, they were novices compared to the Israelis.  The Israelis DO NOT have right on their side and with every new article I find, every election they have that elects more and more people driven by hatred and a false sense of revenge, the more certain I am that they bring persecution on themselves and eventually no one will support them or their belief that they can do no wrong.

Israel needs to be taught a lesson.  Quickly.  They should be thrown out of the UN, embargos should be enacted and no weapons whatsoever should be sold to them.  Let them fight their neighbors by themselves, that should unite the area and eliminate the whining.  And under no circumstances let them immigrate to the US, we don't need any more insane people runnning our country into the ground.  Especially since it is more than obvious that they don't respect us.

If there are aliens and they're watching us, there's probably a No Trespassing sign around the solar system that says something like "Please observe the Prime Directive. Beware!   This planet has been contaminated with unreasoning hatred for those not like themselves.  This is considered an Infectious Disease and is carried by most humans.  There is no known cure at this time and results are predicted to be fatal to the planet's inhabitants.   Please do not feed the animals."

Rich, Bitch And Snitch

Now even the rich are whining.  Three pages worth and it's hard to read without realizing how clueless some people are.  I understand the principle, but it's hard for me to feel much sympathy since even they admit that they can afford to live there.

That's tough to do when you live in a place where the board of the country club recently approved a plan to spend $60 million in upgrades. That has caused some tenants, like Goodwin, whose annual expenses run to $80,000 for a 720-square-foot, or 67-square-meter, home, to put his property up for sale.

"It was a grandiose program that went directly into the eye of the storm," he said. "I used to be rich and by American standards, I still am. But now it is a time for people like me to hunker down."

I can almost hear tiny violins in the background.

Is Gaza like the Warsaw ghetto during the Nazi occupation?  Professor Levine offers a multitude of reasons why they are similar and one on why they are not and determines that they are not the same because not a high percentage of enough Palestinians have been killed.  Not that Mr. Levine cared when the 200,000 Rwandans were dying but they are useful now.  And here all this time I thought I was good at rationalizing anything.  Politicide, genocide, they're two sides of the same coin.  Either way it falls the Palestinians will never have anything but a below third rate status and the world will continue to watch and do nothing except say "stop that." Until it's too late.

Speaking of rationalizing, Kathleen Pender thinks the job cuts announced this month should be put into perspective.  That it isn't really that bad when you look at the percentages.  Maybe she should sit outside some of the major retailers and see how full the parking lots and the baskets that come out of them, aren't.

Two weeks after a fellow officer shot an unarmed, handcuffed, lying face down on the cement, man in the back the story is that the victim was trying to kick him in the nuts so that's why he hit him in the head and then had him in the position so his fellow officer could use what he now swears he thought was his taser to shoot a man who was already subdued.   They are trying this case in the media and just like with rape victims they are trying to use the victim's past against them.  And the cop who did the shooting has been granted bail.  It might be $3 million but it still brings to mind an interesting question.  Why do cops get granted bail at all?  If I committed murder I wouldn't be granted bail and neither would anyone else I know.  Being rich has its advantages also, just ask Phil Spector.  Yup, she walked in the door of his mansion where she had never been before, grabbed his gun and committed suicide.  Next thing you know I'll be believing in fairy godmothers.

So Michael Phelps likes to get stoned when he isn't competing.  There is nothing wrong with that since in no way is pot a performance enhancing drug, but you shouldn't let people take photos of you hitting the bong.  And to the person who did it for the money, shame on you!

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Well, Isn't That Special?

So far my student loan for my Master's in Chinese Medicine is $99,515 and I can't afford to either practice, set up an office or get any small business loans to help me out.  After four years of school that was located nowhere near where I was living before I realized that acupuncture worked and that I didn't have to go all the way to China to learn it, it's nice to know that the military thinks acupuncture is beneficial.

Ultimately, Niemtzow would like troops to learn acupuncture so they can treat each other while out on missions. For now, the Air Force program is limited to training physicians.

He says it's "remarkable" for the military, a "conservative institution," to incorporate acupuncture.

"The history of military medicine is rich in development," he said, "and a lot of people say that if the military is using it, then it must be good for the civilian world."

Nope, I can't practice my profession without a license but some doctor who thinks he's found a new technique in a medicine that is thousands of years old and is going to teach his version to troops who can do more damage with a little training of one minor form of acupuncture than the benefit is going to be worth.   Or as the saying goes, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

Why not get them battle armor that does the job correctly (Newsflash:  money doesn't help dead people) instead and leave the administering of acupuncture to people who have had more training in both theory and practice?

No wonder I'm depressed.

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Religion, Threats, Stupidity And Sadness

I am not disputing that there is a a God or higher authority.  I hope and pray there is, because if we are the top of the food chain we are in a world of trouble.  What gets my knickers in a knot are people that think that the brains we were given (or developed) are to immediately switch off whenever there is a crisis and that God will handle it for us.  Jeepers creepers.  How arrogant do you have to be to believe that a being could create the universe and then spend their time listening for your piddling little problems.  Those problems might seem world changing to you, but not to the big guy, he's off building other universes.  Hopefully filled with beings that use all of the attributes given us to make our lives better.   God didn't mention guns or cars in the Bible but somehow people still manage to justify using them.  Medicine is the same way.  We were given brains to think our way out of problems, not pray that someone really busy would solve them.   Sort of like taste buds, more than for just oatmeal.

The Taliban are wasting no time trying to order the new President around.  I guess you can do than in a country that has never been successfully invaded.  We were so unsuccessful in Afghanistan that now the Taliban is forcing Pakistani bus drivers to remove music and entertainment devices from public buses or be blown up.  When the 1700 year old Buddhist statues were blown up, the world should have gotten a clue then, but no, the Taliban are no less religious fanatics than the Puritans were.  The only difference is that there isn't another world these fanatics can be sent to explore and get them out of our hair.

No shit!  This is a pet peeve of mine and one of the reasons I don't practice anymore.   Acupuncture is sort of like real estate.  Location, location, location.  But most important of all is an accurate diagnosis.  If migraines are caused by blood deficiency (pale lips, skin, conjunctiva, dull hair and nails, scanty or irregular periods) they are best treated by a combination of nutrition, herbs and acupuncture.  If they are caused by too much yang (always angry or frustrated, road rage, very heavy periods with clotting), you can stick the needle anywhere and there is going to be some type of relief because you have essentially let some of the steam out of the system.  If the migraines are aggravated before the period begins then it really helps if you regulate the menstrual cycle and work on the person's unhappiness factors.  If they hate their lives and won't admit it, then you can expect a recurrence at the first missed treatment.  It also helps if you know whether the migraine is liver, gallbladder or heart related but that is too technical and time consuming to sort people correctly for the studies.  Therefore, for most migraines and headaches acupuncture will work no matter where you stick the needle.  If you want to improve the quality of the person's life, you have to do a little more work.  Acupuncture is the least (Nutrition, herbs, exercise, environment, moxa, cupping, etc) of what is known as Chinese Medicine. Very few western experiments are ever going to prove its efficacy so quit treating it like it is the be all and end all of Chinese Medicine because the studies aren't designed correctly which makes the whole system suspect. Like arthroscopic surgery for arthritis of the knee.

Hanging by a thread, and a frozen one at that.


I would like to think that it wasn't going to let go in my lifetime, but something tells me it's history as of the summer.

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Is It Over Yet?

The coronation I mean inauguration, feels like it's taking as long as the election did.  Isn't there anything else going on in the world besides what's happening in the US?  Real science instead of infotainment.  Cool.

Must have only asked the rich ones because the majority are in no way, shape or form living the dream or have any possibility of achieving it on an individual level.  Especially in a country where you can be handcuffed, lying face down and still get shot in the back.  Breathing while black is still dangerous and will remain so for many more years.

Shades of the Iran hostage release.  Of course they do.  There is no guarantee that Obama might find the use of phosphorus bombs and blowing up schools and UN buildings to be the proper way to force one's enemies back to the stone age they've never had a chance to leave.

And if you don't want to join the military because it's the only "job" in town, if you wait just a little while there should be an explosion in prison guard jobs.  This country will not go peacefully into its economic ice age.

Meetings are a waste of time.  Gee, anyone (except the bosses) having suffered through more than one  could have told them that.  I wonder what the next news to anybody with a functioning brain blurb will be.

There's a plot on Lost and it makes sense?  Wow.  The Smoke Monster wasn't just a stray plot device?  I quit watching halfway through the second season, the Tailies drove me nuts.  Specifically that Rodriguez woman.  Her character didn't die soon enough to make me continue watching.

I can go along with that.  Unfortunately what's been lost over the years has been giving people the skills to do for the country.  If schools aren't getting through to kids by teaching them to read, write, color, lay music, do simple math and learn to think for themselves, then the likelihood of being able to do good for your country drops proportionally (hopefully not geometrically) and since you can't contribute, you are reduced to taking.  Whether it be soup lines, welfare or the recent latest craze, stealing from your investors, the same lack of civil charity is not on their radar. 

I'm still fighting to stay on the bottom rung of the greased ladder because if I get knocked off the down becomes an abyss.   Trying to work my way back up means that I leave mom alone for too long and all kinds of weird things happen, such as things important to me go missing and are sometimes never found.  This friend of mine with a psych background finds mom's behaviors and answers to be quite humorous but admits it isn't humorous to be living through it. Maybe in a few years.

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1055 Dead, The Majority Were Not Soldiers

I am not an anti-Semite.  Some of my best friends are Jewish, (I've always wanted to use some line just like that), but what I am is anti war.  I don't care  how you dress it up, when you invade another country and the kill rate is 40% women and children as collateral damage, that's not antisemitism and it certainly isn't pikuach nefesh, that's an attempt at genocide.  White phosphorus bombs?  After the napalm photo from Vietnam there is no excuse for using such weapons.  Against any one, including the UN.  But the part in the Bible about turning the other cheek must be in the New Testament and only apply to people who really believe in Jesus' teachings.  Wars don't demonstrate who's right or wrong, but who's left standing.  In other words, history is written by the winners.

Palestine had democratic elections as the world demanded and they mistakenly elected a party the powers that rule the world didn't approve of, therefore that party isn't legitimate and it's okay to indiscriminately kill people until they change their evil ways.  Too bad the world didn't use that same logic against, Bush, Mugabe or Chavez. Chavez at the moment is relatively insulated against being invaded by the US in its pursuit for oil so the rich don't have to change their lifestyle.  And to Elizabeth Wurtzel, all I have to say is waah, waah, waah.  You can't dress up killing civilians on a regular basis and not be compared to a regime that did the same.  Behave like an advanced human instead of an angry monkey and maybe "normal" people might think you have a valid point.

But to communicate with anyone I think of as right-minded (and left-leaning) in any other part of the world is to experience the purest antisemitism since the Nazi era. In fact, in Europe right now, it is de rigueur to liken the current regime in Israel with the Nazi party, and to view the experience of the Palestinians as a form of ethnic cleansing. Hamas and Hezbollah are thought by the French and British to be social welfare organizations, and Israel is viewed as a terrorist state. Here, we honor the linguistic discoveries of Noam Chomsky and otherwise experience him as a quaintly brilliant crank, but in the bookstores in London there are entire sections devoted to his political thought – and he is read as if the distinctions between Leninist and Trotskyite philosophy had genuine consequence in today's world.

And if you don't want to go to Europe because of the negative feelings towards Americans since the Iraq war, imagine how angry Europeans are right now with this even larger injustice building in their back yard.  Perhaps, just maybe, God should have chosen the Jewish homeland and not some politicians from Great Britain and the United States who didn't think about the results of displacing the Palestinians who had lived there for thousands of years since God kicked the Jewish people out the last time for disrespecting his rules. Or whatever reason God determined they should wander homeless.

Any way you look at it, killing children only breeds more generational hatred and hasn't there been enough of that in the world?  And please tell me that the goal was not to have Osama been Forgotten to declare a holy war over Gaza.  2012 will be here soon enough.

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Stories Sinking Like The Edmund Fitzerald

Bush is still a dickhead.  Espousing stupidity at every opportunity.  Torture is okay in his book, although I admit I haven't read My Pet Goat.  With just a few more weeks left for him to do damage, he still babbles on about the benefits of waterboarding.  Too bad it isn't with him as the number one candidate followed by Cheney and then Rumsfeld.   Of course, that's assuming there is justice in the world and that Americans don't do what they always do.  Forget about it unless it's a Democratic sex scandal or somebody who used to work for a Democratic administration now is running for office.  It's too bad that what I really think would get me investigated more than I already am if I said it out loud or put it in print.  As far as I know, thoughts could be illegal at this point.

Liar, liar, his pants are almost on fire.  Please don't tell me that Obama thinks Gitmo is a spa facility.  Or that the innocent (women, children, families in the way) Gaza dead are going to come back to life.  If you can't do the difficult things, then why the hell did you want to be President?  We've already had eight years of do nothing but harm, the nation can't take much more of this incompetence.  New king, just like the old king.   Or as they used to say in countries with royalty  "the King is dead, long live the King!"  It's obvious that Obama has an addiction.   It's called the Crackberry (I didn't know the President could be bought with fancy swag and cutesy toys) and it isn't even made in the states.  

Once, twice, twelve times in the back.  Yes, the police have established quite a nice record of civil rights for black men since Obama has been elected.   Aren't you glad the race wars are over?  Happy frickin' New Year.

Gee, who didn't see that coming?  The states with the highest unemployment rates also have the highest home foreclosure rates.  By the time we get to hell there won't even be a hand basket will be so burnt we'll have to crawl the rest of the way.

If I can't do it, then neither can you.  But do what you want with Gaza, people with complain but nobody will do anything to stop the destruction.  Besides, it isn't like they are real people like the rest of the world.

Didn't you think that Ponzi schemes were illegal?  I guess, like most of what passes for government and business today, rules don't apply to them.

And just because I hate to the song so much you can hve the link, I refuse to embed it.  The song never ends.

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We're Not Worthy

How come they never share the good drugs with us, the common people?  The economist's version of Mother's Little Helper must pack quite a punch in order to come to the conclusions they did.  How in the hell is the economy going to get better since we don't make anything and most importantly of all, we don't make anything that anyone wants to buy?  Including us.

If the dominoes fall the right way, the economy should bottom out and start growing again in small steps by July, according to the December survey of 50 professional forecasters by Blue Chip Economic Indicators. Investors seemed to be in a similarly optimistic mood on Friday, bidding up stocks by about 3 percent.

If is an awfully big word to have only two letters.  Or as my ex used to say, "if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle."  Or as the rest of us put it, "if I only had a job I could pay my bills (on time even!), keep my house and be able to send my children to a good college."  Oh well, they have those professional degrees and they've been right so far,  haven't they?   Plus, is there a domino competition we don't know about?

Why is this being allowed to continue?  The Middle East will never settle down, certain parties in all countries are making sure of that.  Why is it that the US invaded a sovereign state, deposed its ruler for crimes against humanity (since there weren't any WMDs) and yet continues to ignore tragedies such as Darfur (is it because we got our butts kicked in Somalia?) and the innocent people of Gaza.  Could it be that the truth is unimportant in the grand scheme of things?

Bushisms over the years.  If they weren't so stupid they would be even harder to read.  No wonder Gerald Ford (and not his Chevy Chase impressionist) thought that Bush was on the wrong track.  Actually Bush was in the caboose they left at some station no one has ever heard of.  Unless you believe in unreality.

Yup, as Americans go, we just don't get it.

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It's Monday

Dolly Madison would have been my choice.  Besides being the wife of the fourth President and hostess for Thomas Jefferson during his White House years, she was a personality in her own right.  Most people remember that she saved the portrait of George Washington when the British invaded Washington D.C and burnt the White House, I remember her for saving the original draft of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.  It's amazing what people think is important.

20 healthy foods for under a dollar.  Unless you live in California, then they are a little more expensive.

Hello?  This is what happens when you are wasting your military in a differnt country that had nothing to do with September 11 and everything to do with oil and daddy issues.  Nothing like having others pay for your mistakes.  Why did we think we would be the ones who could successfully invade Afghanistan when nobody else has managed this feat?

Trials, Tribulations and Flat Out Bull Excrement

The only other thing I have to say about the FISA frakking is that everyone who voted for it should be replaced by whatever challenger they're facing in the next election.  Whether they are Humpty Dumpty or Freddy Krueger, they have to be a better representative of the people than the bought and paid for "representatives" we have now.  That is if we ever have another election, they might decide we don't need those either.  And the really sad part of the current crop of of highly paid deceivers on the public dole is that more than a few of them are lawyers and have no excuse for the way they voted except that they don't care about the American people or the Constitution.  What they seem to care about is not looking weak on whatever issue they are confronted with.  Instead of standing up for themselves and their country, they represent the interests of the corporations that donate to them in lieu of the people who voted for them and have proved they aren't fit to lead a horse to water.  Or, as my dad used to put it, if your friends jump off a cliff are you going to jump to?   The Congressional response was "hell yeah!"  But they did manage to pass these important resolutions.

How...white of them.

The great scam continues.  Foreclosures are up 53% over a year ago,  rivaling the Great Depression.   And bank seizures have tripled.  The much vaunted home ownership society continues to destroy the lives of innocent people.  People who bought into the dream that obscured reality.  Unfortunately reality will follow these people for the rest of their lives, continually holding them and their children back.  On the other hand, it makes for a ready made supply of indentured servants.  Just like in days of yore. Under the last King George.

Cops covering for one another, say it isn't so.  Good thing she didn't kill anybody.

Snicker.

With what?  Our good looks?

I'm pretty sure that the economy will take care of this problem, most people will have no choice except to work until they either die or become so feeble that they are put on the street to die.  That and the fact that the younger generation have had individuality and independent thought trained out of them.

BBB

Obama Ranks Ninth

At least in this post.  I wonder if it will get me locked out of my Blogger account like others who didn't show the proper appreciation of the new boy wonder.

Yippee!  100 members of the California National Guard return to San Jose from a yearlong tour in Iraq.  Unfortunately they won't be able to enjoy their time at home because there are so many fires that firefighters are having to let some fires rage in an effort to save communities.  So they can flood if we get any rain this coming winter.

He could be looking for Larry and Curly or he could be looking for a member of the opposite sex. 

When I was a teenager one of my chores was to take the cars to the gas station and wait in line to fill them up.  Both of our cars had odd numbered plates and I would waste a whole afternoon filling up the '63 Galaxy 500 and then the '69 Mustang.  I'd take a book, crank up the AM radio and off to wait in line I went.  I didn't mind because it gave me a real excuse to be out of the house and Dad didn't know how long the lines were.  Or weren't.  At no time did I have to dodge bullets or push my car towards a station I couldn't see and then when I got there find out it wasn't working because there wasn't any electricity.  For the Iraqis it's like the old saying, "water, water everywhere, nor a drop to drink."

I'm so happy that troop deaths are down in Iraq.  Too bad the same can't be said for Afghanistan.

Coming soon to a home near you.  And if you complain about the government, it will probably be sooner rather than later.

We don't take care of our own veterans, we certainly aren't going to take care of Iraq's.     Out of sight and out of mind.  Just the way America likes all of its problems.  That way we can pretend we had nothing to do with destroying their lives.

Meryl Streep is not the reason I want to see Mamma Mia!  Nor is it Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skaarsgard or Colin Firth and it's definitely not the ABBA music.   My reason is Amanda Seyfried, who's character's untimely death was the reason for Veronica Mars first season.

This reminds me of  In The Year 2525 except the that we won't have to wait until the year 6565 to pick our kids from the bottom of a long glass tube.

Last, and most certainly not least, Obama wants to not only continue a Bush plan, he wants to expand it.  Even if it doesn't work and encourages religious discrimination.  He will do anything and say anything to get elected.  Next thing you know, he'll be encouraging the citizenry to believe we want to stay in Iraq and bomb Iran.   Politicians may look different, but they all want the same thing.  Power, fame and fortune.  And they don't care who they have to step on to get it.

Supremes, Crime, Terrorism And Stupidity

Given their rulings over the last few years, this can't possibly be good. Aquatic life doesn't stand a chance. If mining companies can't take care of the workers, the odds of them protecting marine life are pretty small. Couple that with the Supremes belief corporations über alles, toss in a little gold and the fish are going to, as they used to say "swim with the fishes." Plus, the Supremes don't believe in states rights. Or citizens for that matter.

What is wrong with this story? Thirty six years in solitary for a murder he probably didn't commit and the prosecutors suppressed information that might have helped him, but was found guilty because a guy who had been on death row says he saw him do it. Guy formerly on death row gets a pardon and the former member of the Black Panthers who was serving time for armed robbery, gets solitary becomes one of the Angola Three.

Oh yeah, the Taleban are running for their lives. Not. It seems they feel so comfortable with the non results produced by Operation Enduring Freedom that they can execute those they call American spies in broad daylight. Isn't is wonderful what great allies the Pakistanis make? Unfortunately, it's to the Taleban. Which is probably why CBS has kicked Lara Logan upstairs and the smearing of her reputation by Murdoch owned entities has begun. Can't afford to have the truth on the nightly news at this point.

You know Peggy is desperate when she starts stealing phrases from Aaron Sorkin. Let McCain by McCain? Which one? He's been a major flip-flopper for the last year. He was against torture before he was for it, etc. It sounded better when it was let Bartlett by Bartlett, which was used not because he was trying to cover his mistakes, but because he was timid in implementing his policies. Lil Peggy's excuse is her misconception that poor widdle McCain isn't getting enough positive press as Obama. Give me a break, he's had many years of press and if you feet that sorry for him you should have said something eight years ago when Rove and Bush were savaging him.

They can hope all they want, I'm not holding anyone's jockstrap in this election. And as to Obama's "I had to bite my tongue", he could have bitten it clean off and it would have been an improvement. The more he opens his mouth, the more he shows me the arrogance and disdain for women that turned me off twenty years ago.

Not according to John Adams, but Cheney has increased the power of the position way past what the forefathers had planned. Dan Quayle was important because he made George Bush the First look smarter than a stump and the Secret Service didn't have to worry as much about a wackjob trying to kill the president.

What Drugs Is This Guy On?

You have got to be kidding me! George Bush will be remembered like Truman instead of Harding? Give me a flipping break! First of all, Hoover was the President who ushered in the Great Depression, Harding had been dead for years with another president (that would be Coolidge) in between. All of them were Republicans. Second of all, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and we had NO REASON TO ATTACK A SOVEREIGN NATION halfway across the world. He lied to get us into the Iraq war, he lied to keep us there, he abandoned the troops in Afghanistan to run to Iraq, and if it takes twenty-five years until Iraq is safe for us to leave, it shows that we, with the most expensive army in the world, had no business being there. Period.

George W Bush will be remembered for his responses to 9/11 in Afghanistan and Iraq, but since neither of those conflicts has yet ended in victory or defeat, it is far too early categorically to assume - as left-wingers, anti-war campaigners and almost all media commentators already do - that his historical reputation will be permanently down in the doldrums next to poor old Warren Harding's.

I suspect that historians of the future will instead see Bush's decision to insist upon a "surge" of reinforcements being sent into Iraq, combined with a complete change of anti-insurgency tactics as configured by General Petraeus, as the moment when the conflict was turned around there, in the West's favour.

Snip

The number of American troops killed and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan is equivalent to the losses they endured - for a nation only a little over half the size in the mid-Forties - capturing a single island from the Japanese in the Pacific War.

British losses of 103 killed over seven years in Afghanistan bears comparison to a quiet weekend on the Western Front in the Great War, or the numbers the Army loses in traffic accidents in peacetime. History can lend a wider overall perspective to what are nonetheless, of course, immeasurably sad events.

History will also shine an unforgiving light on those ludicrous conspiracy theories that claim that the Iraq War was fought for any other reason than to implement the 14 UN resolutions that Saddam that had been flouting for 13 years.

You can suspect all you want, it won't change the facts. Traffic accidents? Is he serious? Most traffic accidents are because someone wasn't paying attention and made the wrong decision, which is comparable to the decision to invade Iraq, not the equivalent of being a member of the Reserves or National Guard and being forced to go to Iraq. Multiple times. And once again it's the old standby excuse, it's all Clinton's fault. Too bad he was busy fighting impeachment over a blowjob and had a Congress that spent most of its time trying to distract him from doing his job with their petty antics.

Bush has shredded the meaning of the Constitution, he has let the citizens of a major city suffer for years, as if the initial suffering of Katrina wasn't enough, he has presided over the greatest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in generations and this "columnist" thinks he's going to be remembered as a great President. Thank goodness this crap is in a U.K paper. Nobody but bloggers read foreign papers, but I'm sure that Faux News will highlight this line of bull dung. I agree with the commenter Doug Smith who states it very eloquently.

Truman - The Marshall Plan
Bush - Katrina

Truman - Pro Civil Rights and integration of the armed forces.
Bush - Anti-Gay Rights

Truman - Proposed Universal Health Insurance.
Bush - Against covering more children under the children's health insurance program (CHIP). No support for stem cell research.

Truman - Helped create NATO
Bush - Couldn't put together a significant coalition to occupy Iraq.

Truman - Recognized Israel
Bush - The first President in modern history to make no viable effort to help resolve the mideast conflict between Israel and her neighbors.

Truman - Nuremberg War Crimes Trials
Bush - Torture, Guantanamo Bay

Any comparison with Truman is ridiculous and insulting to Truman's legacy and American history.

What is so doggone difficult about doing research before they write articles like these? I have a headache.

3Bs

Saturday Link Fest

If the reaction of some of the blogs on the left to Obama's failure of leadership and willingness to compromise the gutting of the Fourth Amendment is any indication, McCain will come closer than $400,000 in funds raised. I feel sorry for some of them, they feel so betrayed. A politician is a politician, it doesn't matter what party they belong to. In one fell swoop, and a little early at that, he revealed that his true intentions are to get elected, not represent the people who enabled him to be in a position to run for president in the fist place. And Pelosi can kiss her constituency goodbye.

Every day that goes by, every action of the Demowienies for the last two years, reinforces my opinion that this election isn't going to change a darn thing. I'm still seriously doubting that we will have an election, but even if we do, the destruction of the Constitution and our economy will continue. It seems to be in Congress' best interests to ignore the wishes of the people and go their own merry way.

Now I'm really awake. Weren't they cute? I know the early bird is supposed to get the worm, but do all the birds have to wake up and sing at the same time? Every morning around 5:10 it goes from quiet to noisy all at once. It's pretty. And when I'm sleepy, it's pretty annoying. And then a half hour later they suddenly stop. All at once. Very weird.

Hmm, this will be as popular as a fart in church. Somebody besides me thinks that we should face reality and do the right thing. If it isn't too late already. Sooner or later, someone is going to have to pay for us breaking the law and I would prefer if it was the people who authorized it and sent down the orders.

A peaceful camping trip with the family turns into dodging bullets and hiding behind trees and cars. What a nightmare. I believe in the right to bear arms, but do they really need all those bullets?

Why the Santa Clara police would believe that a 75 year old veteran was trying to mix it up with a guy many years younger than him totally baffles me. Knowing the manners of the two generations and not the color of their skin tells me who I am more likely to believe. Even if you thought the 75 year old guy was being offensive, it's no reason to cold-cock him.

Our favorite Klingon representative is going to Asia. I wonder if she's going to buy shoes while she's there. For someone who was constantly in the news, Condi has been really quiet for the last year.

Umm, the only way it would be impossible is if you don't have any nuclear facilities. Audacity is something Israel has in spades. Heck, they spy on us and we're their allies.

It's supposed to be 102 degrees today in San Jose. I like the heat but that's a little extreme so early in the summer. Mom doesn't do well in the heat and yesterday while I was at the store she decided (after I told her not to) to go for a ten minute walk at 3 o'clock. No hat and wearing her bedroom slippers, I thought I was going to have a stroke when my neighbor told me. She was overheated for the rest of the day and now I'm scared to leave her alone. If I take her with me she won't leave the car and that isn't a good idea. I guess I'll go to the store when it opens at 9 and that way I'll be able to keep watch.

I think I'll brine some pork chops and then barbecue them later. Since I have all the ingredients (courtesy of Grocery Outlet), I'm looking forward to making these Blue Cheese Crusted Tomatoes. I'll be really glad when my tomatoes are ready, then I bet the recipe will really rock. If there is any corn at the store I'll grill that too. Add a salad and we're good to go. I can't decide between the Spicy Orange Salad with Green Onions or the Watermelon, Green Onion, and Mint Salad. The watermelon would be a better choice for mom since it's so cooling and mint helps to release heat.

BBB

Meanwhile, We Watch And Do Nothing

It is past time for Mugabe to go. Preferably to hell. He and his supporters make Saddam Hussein look like a school boy and considering how he was demonized... Cutting off an opponents wife's feet and a hand and then burning her alive is so far past cruel that I can't believe it really happened. But it did and it wasn't the first time. The week before they burnt a 21 year old pregnant woman to death because her husband dared to stand up to the regime. Harassment by the police is making it difficult for anyone to oppose Mugabe's government, especially if you keep getting arrested for running.

Our lovely Pakistani allies executed a woman they accused of being both a US spy and a prostitute. They say it was the Taliban but after seven years why are there any still around, much less in another country that is supposed to be on our side?

The envy, oh the envy. Other countries get to execute minors and you know the death penalty proponents are jealous. Albeit too soon to use it for the election and won't be considered the least bit hypocritical. If McCain, Kristol, Bush and Cheney have their way, all of Iran will pay for their crimes. As if the crew without a clue needed an excuse to step in and bomb Iran back to the Stone Age. I thought that was what was supposed to happen in Afghanistan, but it got forgotten along with Osama bin Laden. Not enough oil.

Laura Bush is pledging $10.2B for Afghanistan. Was this at the behest of the House of Representatives or has something else been changed in our Constitution without the hassle of being amended? I guess the people of New Orleans should move to Afghanistan if they expect to get any help instead of living under a bridge while supplies get stored in a warehouse at the cost of $1 million a year. And are then given away to states other than Louisiana. Because FEMA didn't think that New Orleans needed any more help. I guess selling one's home at a loss because you can't get back is standard operating procedure. So much for an ownership society. Or a Christian nation.

3Bs

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.

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

Wednesday Wanderings

Gas is $4 a gallon in San Jose and I can't afford to fill up my car. In 1987 I owned a Honda Civc CRX that got 44 mpg in the city and almost 50 mpg on the highway. I drove that car into the ground and when I got my next Civic in 2001 it got 34 mpg in the city and 38 mpg on the highway. The car I have now is from 1994 and only gets 18 mpg no matter where I drive it, so it sits a lot. Why is 31 mpg in 2015 considered to be such a great thing by the federal government that they feel that they can sneakily try to eliminate California's more stringent rules? Cars should be getting over 50 mpg by that time because it already takes seven hours of work at minimum wage (leaving twenty three hours a week from your part time job at Wal-Mart to pay the rent, utilities and food) to fill up a fifteen gallon gas tank. Since gas is likely to be $5 a gallon by the end of the summer the only conclusion I can draw is that the profits of the automobile and oil companies are more important than breathing clean air or the welfare of the lowly citizen.

I made Emeril's Chicken Sauce Piquante last night. It was easy and it rocked. Good eats.

The Brandywine and Green Zebras have flowering buds but the Early Girls, Ace and Jetsetter varieties seem to be lagging. I love heirloom tomatoes. The grape tomatoes are just starting to peek their leaves above ground. I still need to get a Purple Cherokee and some type of green beans into the ground to go along with the early cabbage and serrano peppers. Whatever I grow I don't have to buy.

The sky is falling. On homeowners. And she who voted for the draconian bankruptcy bill has just noticed. Over 47 thousand foreclosures in California in the first quarter of the year with no end in sight. Wheee! Fun times ahead.

No wonder they're known as the fly over states. It's too dangerous to drive through them.

Today's version of thirty pieces of silver.

Of course it is, that's why I call them the crew without a clue. If they can botch something by not planning, they do.

Yes, it will. Couch potatoes are not the way of the future, at least not for long.

BBB