Saturday Morning Observations

Supposedly the first thing you should do when you find yourself in a hole is to quit digging.  Unfortunately for the Republican party, their goal seems to be China.  Not content to be the minority party they are now trying to be the minuscule party.  The dittoheads and Palinites want to purge the party of those who don't believe exactly as they do.  If this means getting rid of people who are already serving in office, well, so be it.  To the teabaggers it is better to have nothing than it is to appeal to more citizens or to be relevant.

Josef Stalin was also extremely fond of purging and millions of people died because of it.  Funny thing is he started with his own party and as his paranoia grew, so did the circle of people he considered to be disloyal.  Eventually generals and peasants alike were purged and Big Brother was officially born.

But the impetus to "cleanse" the social body rapidly spilled beyond these elite boundaries, and the greatest impact of the Purge was felt in the wider society -- where millions of ordinary Soviet citizens assisted in "unmasking" their compatriots. Frank Smitha describes this mass hysteria well, writing that

A society that is intense in its struggle for change has a flip side to its idealism: intolerance. People saw enemies everywhere, enemies who wanted to destroy the revolution and diminish the results of their hard work and accomplishments, enemies who wanted to restore capitalism for selfish reasons against the collective interests of the nation. If those at the top of the Communist Party and an old revolutionary like Trotsky could join the enemy, what about lesser people? In factories and offices, mass meetings were held in which people were urged to be vigilant against sabotage. It was up to common folks to make the distinction between incompetence and intentional wrecking [i.e., sabotage], and any mishap might be blamed on wrecking. Denunciations became common. Neighbors denounced neighbors. Denunciations were a good way of striking against people one did not like, including one's parents, a way of eliminating people blocking one's promotion, and ... a means of proving one's patriotism. Many realized that some innocent people were being victimized, and the saying went around that "when you chop wood the chips fly." As with Lenin, it was believed that some who were innocent would have to be victimized if all of the guilty were to be apprehended.

History is a pesky thing and while some might say that today's political purges aren't violent, calling for a revolution is one step in that direction.  Eventually an innocent person is going to die due to the intolerance now making its way through the country, but the teabaggers are so far gone that they will consider it a step in the right direction.  Returning this country to a McCarthy like existence with a 1984 mindset and 2009 technology enforcement capabilities.  Does anybody think this will end well?

Better late than never. Now that female Vietnam War veterans are in their sixties, it's time to investigate how the war affected their health.  As with men, a good guess would be, poorly.

Well, that was depressing.  Hopefully this should bring a smile to almost anyone's face.

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Boobs And Boobies

Don't make me puke.  The twit is going to be signing her book at Costco, down the street from my house.  She will probably get a great reception since this is a conservative area, but it didn't look like her book was selling as well as the Star Trek video.  I was at another store yesterday and some guy in line brought up her name and asked wouldn't it be funny if she was elected in 2012.  I said it would be a disaster and the woman directly behind the man looked extremely offended.  I then proceeded to list a few logical reasons why Palin isn't qualified and caught the woman nodding her head over two of them.  It looks like people are going to have be deprogrammed on an individual basis as the media is too busy basking in its own reflection to do its job.   That would be to report the news, not try and make it.

But the past week's media Palin-palooza has been more than a little over the top, even for a news corps that devotes wall-to-wall coverage to a helium balloon that isn't carrying a small child.

The diaper man doesn't know if Loving v. Virginia was correctly decided.  Methinks he's been pampered a little too long.

Running for office after office.  Whatever happened to serving the people and doing the job you were elected for?  It's all about them and their authoritarian dreams.  If we invaded from another solar system it would only be a matter of weeks before they started running for President of the Universe.

The new breast cancer guidelines have quite a few people with their knickers in a knot.  I've been getting squished every year since I was 35 because of a false positive.  Every year I step up to a machine, flop one on the freezer plate, stand at an anatomically inconvenient angle and have a truck run over it while I hold my breath.  Then I change sides.  Digital mammography is more accurate for women in their forties but insurance companies prefer the cheaper avenue.  That is true health care rationing, changing the guideline isn't.  And at exactly what age should men get screened for breast cancer?  My issue with the new guidelines is that self exam shouldn't be taught by doctors.  What will the immature male do for a Halloween costume if that's eliminated? 

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There Will Be A Republican President In 2012

And why? Because there are few true Democrats in office and those of us who have regularly voted Democrat are going to vote with our butts. As in not voting, donating or participating in a political process that consistently discriminates against a majority of the population and tells us that it will be for the best to take the least troublesome road.  Taking one for the team.  What a joke.  It's more like spreading your legs and pretending to enjoy being raped.  

Having met Obama when he was at Occidental College, I knew from experience that he was not going to be the best president for the women of the party.  He was insufferably arrogant, had no respect for women and nothing has changed since then.  It was always about him and never about the people who supported him or what they needed.  Talk is cheap and gays, women and other disenfranchised Americans are finally seeing the true man behind the curtain.  He has always been the embodiment of "enough about me, what do you think about me?"

Imitation health care reform is a good case in point.  What kind of "reform" excludes women?  How are women who have jobs that consistently pay them less than men doing the same work with the same education so they are dependent on the crumbs that men leave for them, feed the unwanted children they are forced to have and satisfy their Viagra charged husbands ever going to have equality?

While I am past the age of worrying about getting pregnant, it disturbs me that young women are being forced back into the Donna Reed era.  It boggles my mind that I had sex education classes in the fourth grade in the sixties but today's girls are taught abstinence instead.  I'm willing to bet that none of my classmates in fourth, fifth and sixth grade had unwanted children because we all knew the consequences of sex on the stick figures used in the class.  Birth control was explained to us, in detail, in the seventh grade.  Who knew that schools located on military bases during the cold war would turn out to be so progressive in comparison to today's education system?

When I joined the Army I met women who didn't know that sex was the cause of pregnancy.  IVF hadn't been invented then so there really wasn't any other way but that's beside the point.  High school graduates who didn't have a clue as to how their body worked.  While I may have found it hysterically funny that someone would think that because I was biracial that one breast would give white milk and the other chocolate, I also found it terribly sad.  Granted I was in Alabama and the other girl was from Tennessee, but that is no excuse.

Women are not playthings, we are not baby factories, we are not sex toys, we are equal human beings.  We have thoughts, feelings and dreams just like the boys and men around us and deserve to be treated like the intelligent persons we can be when we are given the same opportunities.  We want to be doctors, lawyers, scientists, astronauts, accountants and parents, not gestational vehicles for men who need pharmaceutical help to recapture the glory days of their youth.  But thanks to the Stupak amendment that is the role young women will be forced to play.

My own attitude toward paying for abortions has always been the same.  Everyone is entitled to one mistake and one that affects the lifetimes of the people involved almost always requires a little outside help.  That being said, while I'm willing to have my tax dollars pay for one abortion, I am not willing for it to be on a repetitive basis.  Sex education and birth control should be one of the requirements for any type of government help.  Then you are on your own.  Except in unusual circumstances such as the life or health of the mother and the viability of the fetus.  Would the fetus be able to survive if the parents are unable to provide for it without government help?  I've worked with developmentally delayed adults and know how devastated and lost they become when their parents die and their siblings move on.

Conservatives always want it both ways.  All children should be born in every circumstance and then no matter how impaired the child is, they are to survive without government help.  Poor women shouldn't have abortions or convenient access to birth control, while at the same time their husbands are getting free samples and subsidized prescriptions for "erectile dysfunction" so they can have sex everyday.  No matter what the consequences.

With the mindset described above it won't be long before spousal rape is a thing of the past, every woman should be providing for her husband's sexual needs whenever he desires.  As women lose control over their own bodies, their lives are sure to follow.  When my ex and I bought a house in 1978 my income wasn't included because I might have a baby and be unable to work, can those days be far behind?

Historically Democrats have been the party of women, but women's votes are no longer treated with respect and since we won't have candidates that represent our views it doesn't really matter who runs the country.  It won't be us or anyone sympathetic to our wishes.

Democrats may have won this battle for false health care reform, but they have lost the war.  Which wouldn't surprise me as being their goal all along.  There are very few other conclusions that can be drawn from their willingness to do nothing that the people who voted them into office have asked for and everything to do with who bankrolled their campaigns.  If Democrats won't represent women when they have a majority in Congress as well as a Democratic president, what good are they?

Any way you look at it, women are going to be worse off in 2012 than they are today and the eighties and nineties really will have been the golden years for women.  The young women of today are in for a rude surprise if they think they can rest on the laurels of those who protested before them.  They've been braless for so long they can't conceive of an age where it was a requirement.  If they aren't willing to fight for their rights why would those of us who blazed the way want to revisit an issue that we thought was resolved, for a generation that takes so many rights for granted that they are willing to stand by and return to second class status?  If Democrats don't start changing their attitude toward women most of us won't support the party in 2012 unless the opposing candidate is the equivalent of Osama bin Laden.  And that should frighten someone.

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No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Two weeks ago my upstairs neighbor knocked on my door and asked me to call an ambulance.  He looked awful, was having trouble breathing and in my professional medical opinion he needed emergency help.

I called 911 and they started asking questions.  I answered some and got his input on the others.  When they asked how long he had been in distress he said about six hours, since his roommate shoved him, but he didn't want his roommate arrested.  Well, next thing you know the police were there and then the ambulance arrived.  He was admitted to the hospital with six broken ribs and a fractured sternum. 

To paraphrase Ron White, "you have the right to remain silent, unfortunately his roommate didn't have the ability."  This tends to happen when you've been drinking Black Velvet all night long.  They took the roommate away for a mandatory twelve hour lockup and guess who he blamed?  Me.  The alcohol and his violent behavior had nothing to do his being arrested in his mind.  I would call 911 again in the same circumstances.

I'm the type of person that if you indicate you need help, I'll move heaven and earth to get there and help you.  Time of day, any illness that doesn't prevent me from driving, nor distance will stop me and I have friends who will testify to that.  I can even be persuaded to fly, which I won't do for me, but I will do for my friends or family.

Lucinda Rosenfeld (supposed advice columnist) is not that type of person.  Her response if you ever have the misfortune to need her help and you aren't a blood relative or swapping bodily fluids, is that you deserve whatever happens and that there is no need for a friend to pick you up at the hospital at 4 am in the morning after deserting you at the bar and the police have found you unconscious on the sidewalk after someone slipped you a mickey.  She has absolutely no compassion and has no business giving advice, even if it is not to read her column if you don't like her attitude.

I've had the unfortunate experience of being "mickeyed". My roommate took me to a local bar, had one drink and left.  It was happy hour so I ordered another one and went to the bathroom.  I do not remember leaving the bathroom, the bar, or any other part of that night though I seem to function pretty well in blackout mode.  I caught the 5:20 pm bus home, washed and folded four loads of laundry, cooked dinner for my roommates and their dates and critiqued one of their sexual encounters.  In person.  I was also sick behind a plant in the bedroom.  I woke up in the morning very disoriented, shaky and disturbed that I couldn't recall anything except entering the bathroom.  Not everyone is that lucky.

Several years ago I had what I thought was a friend.  It was right after I my accident and after the doctor did some research he called in a pain prescription that there was a good chance I wasn't allergic to.  I raced to the Kaiser pharmacy only to find that they had closed ten minutes early.  I was beside myself with pain.  I was crying on the phone that I couldn't take the pain anymore.  I got home, took Shai out to do her business and started to cook dinner.  I had the television on and was icing my knee when there was a knock at the door.  I limped over and there were two policemen.  They came into my house, turned off the television and stove, cuffed me, put me in the back of a patrol car in front of my neighbors and took me to the mental wing of the hospital. I was absolutely livid, almost shaking with anger but I knew that if I displayed even one adverse emotion I would be stuck there the whole time.  It took me three hours to convince the doctors to let me out, it's normally a mandatory 72 hour stay. 

My so-called friend had called the police and reported that I was going to kill myself without ever calling me again to see if I had been able to find an alternative to the missing pain medication.  I had.  I remembered I had a Valium somewhere and I found it in an unpacked box.  While most people know it as an anti-anxiety medication, it also works on pain.  Besides, I've had kidney stones which hurt a lot more and didn't try to kill myself though I did want someone to put me out of my misery.  Which the nurse did when she gave me a shot of Demerol.

Soon after I met this woman she had her knee replaced.  I showed up at the hospital, which was nowhere near my home, to keep her company.  I visited her in her home while she was recovering and was willing to help her out no matter what she needed.  When I looked like I needed help, instead of helping me herself, her response was to send the cops, give me a record that would prevent me from obtaining either life insurance or any type of job that required a thorough background check and have me incur a medical expense that I couldn't afford.  Nice "friend", wasn't she?  We haven't spoken since that day.

Ms. Rosenfeld also doesn't have the vaguest notion of what being a good friend is, even one of the editors was disturbed by her response.  Ms. Rosenfeld seems to be the type of person that if a criminal broke into your home and raped you, she would wonder whether or not you were wearing flannel pajamas and curlers to bed and that if you had, the criminal wouldn't have had the urge to rape you.  She is not an advice columnist, she's a female Limbaugh and should find, or be forced, to find another line of work.  Perhaps NAMBLA needs a spokesperson, she seems to be able to rationalize anything.

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What Are They Thinking?

The absolute cluelessness of the GOP continues to either reach new heights or plumb deeper depths, I can't decide which.  Rep. Sue Myrick of North Carolina used the GOP radio address to tar and feather government run health care by claiming that it would cause delays in treatment that would threaten our health.  Using her own breast cancer as an example she complains that it took "took six doctors, three mammograms and one ultrasound before they finally they found my cancer. This process took only a few weeks."  Most citizens only have one doctor and the uninsured have none.  Crystal Lee Sutton, also from North Carolina and known to the rest of the world as Norma Rae, had health insurance and died of brain cancer.  Her insurance company withheld authorization for chemotherapy medication for two months and the normally slow growing cancer spread at a rapid pace.  I'm sure she would have rather had Rep. Myrick's government run access to treatment, but I'm not so sure Ms. Sutton would complain about it saving her life on national radio.

With the right determined to occupy the outer fringe, the center has become the new right.  Obama was already right of center and that he is acquiescing to pressure and moving further right is not much of a surprise.  It's tough to balance when everything is on one end, eventually things tip over.  At what point will the issues of the people who elected him be addressed?

According to a gentleman on the Texas Board of Education, that august body responsible for influencing what's in the textbooks of tomorrow, as a minority female I should be grateful to white men for the rights I currently have.  Wow, it's nice to know that being human isn't enough to qualify for basic civil rights.  No wonder we can't have a rational discussion on health care.

But here we run into a terrible problem.  The health care debate cannot be understood in historic context because many Americans have never heard of Thomas Jefferson.  Extrapolating from state surveys, only 14% of American high school students can name who wrote the Declaration of Independence.   Nearly 75% do not know that George Washington was our first president.  More than 90% could not pass the exam given to immigrants who wish to become citizens.   No wonder that Jay Leno has so much material for his Jay Walking segment.  We can say that our educational system has failed when the vast majority of American students do not know enough to pass an exam to qualify as American citizens

On my last few trips to California I had the misfortune to eat at both a Denny's and a Marie Callender's.  They both had a laminated sheet with the nutritional information of the menu and they are going to have to change their menus if people start reading them on a regular basis.  While Marie's had a more appetizing breakfast menu, you know you're in trouble when the healthiest item on the menu are in the pancake section.  I settled on the breakfast quiche special because it had less sodium and that was still one third of my daily requirement.  Healthy options?  It would take more time to find the one or two relatively healthy items than the server is likely to give you.

The GOP can't really be this clueless, can they? 

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Please Clarify

Why do Republicans feel that our current so-called liberal President should only appoint conservatives to posts while a conservative president does not need to appoint any liberals while in office.  Why is their point of view so much more important than mine?  I'm an American citizen and I deserve representation also.  Why does it always have to be a one way street with these guys?

Stand and deliver?  From the Democrats?  Have you started inhaling?  I love ya Bill, but the spineless toads we have as representatives are more like run and hide.  The Republicans may be the party of no, but the Democrats have become the party of no balls.  Except for that Barney Frank guy.

And while I am also loathe to have a discussion with a dining room table, to Saxby Chambliss I say "Fuck you!"  I hardly ever cuss on my blog and I'm not an Obama supporter per se, but Mr. Chambliss really has gone one step over the line.  Whether you like it or not, Obama is the president and deserves the respect due that office.  The President doesn't have to express humility any more than Mr. Chambliss has to express intelligence.  And since Chambliss hasn't expressed any intelligence (but his racist freak flag is flying), I hope Obama doesn't express any humility during his speech to those who are supposedly our elected representatives but in actuality are highly paid goons sponsored by so many lobbyists and special interest groups that they have become the death panels that some nitwitted politician has so helpfully brought to our attention.

The American people have become expendable and it is the corporations über alles.  The minute healthcare reform became about health insurance reform the battle was lost.  Debtor's prisons are going to have to be built for the people who won't be able to pay for the mandates or the thirty five percent of their medical costs that won't be covered because they can't afford the top tier plan.  I want Medicare and I don't want to wait until I'm sixty five.  Medical care is a right, not a privilege.  The emergency room isn't treatment, it's a fall back position.  Oh yeah, when people can't afford car insurance or a car, they take public transportation.

Farrah Fawcett dies and Schwarzenegger cuts spending for victims of domestic violence.  The two probably have nothing to do with each other but the timing worked so I threw it in there.  Whatever the reason, domestic violence shelters are beginning to close their doors  during an economic downturn when violence typically increases.  It takes real arrogance for an overbuilt man to think that women and children who are beaten and abused will be able to change their situation without help and a safe place to stay.  Even in this day and age the police are not always willing to help victims of domestic violence, otherwise they would enforce protective orders a little more vigilantly.

It's interesting how the right wing thinks that every life is sacred.  At least until it's born, then it's every man for themselves.  Women are only supposed to do what they're told and have lots of babies that neither they or the planet can afford.  And if kids reach eighteen in one piece the right wing is all too willing to send them off to war or put them to death for an increasing number of crimes.  Education, housing, food, economic security and health care are for the peasants to provide for themselves.  If the kids do make it to old age the right wing is suddenly interested in them all over again to ensure that the elderly suffer until their last painful breath because nobody should interfere with God's will.  The right wing call themselves Christians because they say they believe in Jesus but they want the world to operate by way of the Old Testament.  What's up with that?

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Of Men And Dogs

I've tried to resist writing about George Sodini because just like the man who shot John Lennon (and yes I know his name but refuse to use it) he shouldn't be glorified and he shouldn't receive in death what he couldn't achieve in life.  I feel no sympathy for the man or his dating issues and it most certainly isn't my fault or any other woman on the planet that he didn't have dates or get laid.  Because one has outdoor plumbing doesn't automatically entitle one to be a success with the opposite sex and it certainly doesn't mean women are emasculating, dominating or contemptuous if they aren't interested in you (beware, the link belongs to an angry wackjob site that hates women, which is obvious by the language they use to describe us).  It could mean that you are a little weird and women feel uncomfortable around you.  Which is more your problem than theirs.  And hating women because you feel rejected is not likely to increase your chances of dating success.

In my own life I learned many years ago that men were interested in me for mainly one reason and it was located south of their belt buckle.  A girl can get tired of that sort of thing, which I did, and take herself off the market.  Which I also did.  I wasn't put here to make men happy just as men weren't put here to make me happy but that doesn't give me the right to blame the opposite sex for their lack of interest in me as a person.  And it most certainly doesn't give me the right to take someone else's life out of frustration.

Speaking of dogs, they might not be as smart as a fifth grader but they can be pretty darn smart when they need to be.  When Shai was a puppy she knew all her toys by name and would bring the proper one when asked.  She also has emotions that are easily recognizable, the two most prominent being happiness and disgust. She's really good at letting me know when I don't live up to her expectations or aren't reading her mind correctly.  What I want to know is how my dogs know I've decided to take them to the park while I'm typing at the computer.  Without moving or stopping my typing they all of a sudden start running back and forth, barking at their leash, looking at the doggie bags and pawing at the front door.  Very strange.

And in the interest of being fair, since I picked on cats last week, here is how to take a puppy picture.

1. Remove film from box and load camera.
2. Remove film box from puppy's mouth and throw in trash.
3. Remove puppy from trash and brush coffee grounds from muzzle.
4. Choose a suitable background for photo.
5. Mount camera on tripod and focus.
6. Find puppy and take dirty sock from mouth.
7. Place puppy in pre-focused spot and return to camera.
8. Forget about spot and crawl after puppy on knees.
9. Focus with one hand and fend off puppy with other hand.
10. Get tissue and clean nose print from lens.
11. Take flash cube from puppy's mouth and throw in trash.
12. Put cat outside and put peroxide on the scratch on puppy's nose.
13. Put magazines back on coffee table.
14. Try to get puppy's attention by squeaking toy over your head.
15. Replace your glasses and check camera for damage.
16. Jump up in time to grab puppy by scruff of neck and say, "No, outside! No, outside!"
17. Clean up mess.
18. Fix a drink.
19. Sit back in Lazy Boy with drink and resolve to teach puppy "sit" and "stay" the first thing in the morning.

My dogs don't present with these issues, they are hams of the first order and as soon as they see a camera they stop doing whatever cute thing it was that made me find the camera and start posing.

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Justice? I Don't Think That Word Means What You Think It Means

This absolutely takes the cake for judicial stupidity.  My blood pressure is so high I think I'm going to have a stroke.  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, what the hell is wrong with the state of Oklahoma?  Are the people in this state out of what little minds they have?  It's okay to shoot a perpetrator in the head, get another gun a few moments later and pump five more bullets into a motionless body but repeatedly raping a four year old girl and forcing her five year old brother to watch it is only worth one year in jail and he gets credit for nine months already served?  Are you effing kidding me?

She was raped, she was sodomized and she most certainly didn't ask for it, dress provocatively or use suggestive language to lure this pervert on.  As if that would ever be an excuse for rape under any circumstances.  The child advocate and her supervisor should lose their jobs due to gross incompetence since they obviously have not a clue as to what advocating for the defenseless means.  The prosecutor should be fired for stupidity and an inability to punish real criminals which just so happens to be his job and for not investigating the past history, and this guy definitely had a criminal history, of this cretin because perverts don't start at 64, they've been at it most of their lives.  And the judge, well he should be recalled.  If there ever was a time for an "activist" judge, this was it.  He could have used common sense and said no, this creep belongs in jail for twenty years no matter what kind of plea bargain was arranged and let the inmates take care of him, ala Jeffrey Dahmer.  Or maybe the trial should have taken place in Ohio, their prosecutors seem to have a handle on ensuring that creeps get appropriate sentences for raping a child.

So what if the perp gets labeled a sexual predator and has to pay a $1000 fine, is that going to make the rest of this girl's life any easier?  How about when she is an adult and realizes that what he did to her was determined to be worth a tiny slap on the wrist?  Now is the time for the Michelle Malkins, Laura Ingrahams, Nancy Graces and Ann Coulters of this world to get up and scream their tiny little heads off about the injustice that was committed here instead of the made up stuff that babbles brainlessly from their talking heads.

Oh yeah, and the state of Oklahoma should be boycotted, not a dime of tourist money should they get until this situation is rectified. Heck, the Interstate shouldn't even travel through it.

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Debating The Issues. Not.

So, the political discourse in this country has devolved into equating the Speaker of the House with the second most disgusting term for a woman's anatomy.  While I thought Sarah Palin was a moron, I would never have referred to her using nasty nicknames because there were too many other terms that were appropriate.  Idiot, clueless and inciter of hatred being among them, the mini me version of Limbaugh.  Palin was picked as a VP candidate only because she was a woman not because she was competent or had skills and knowledge that the position needed.  The woman, and I use that term loosely, I would describe using the "C" word would be Ann Coulter and only because she invites vulgarity as she drips vitriol and reeks of self importance when she attacks the 9/11 families.  Coulter isn't an elected official, she is a tacky pundit and a fear monger in her own right.

But when you see Nancy Pelosi, the Republican National Committee wants you to think “Pussy Galore.”

At least that’s the takeaway from a video released by the committee this week – a video that puts Pelosi side-by-side with the aforementioned villainess from the 1964 James Bond film “Goldfinger.”

The RNC video, which begins with the speaker’s head in the iconic spy-series gun sight, implies that Pelosi has used her feminine wiles to dodge the truth about whether or not she was briefed by the CIA on the use of waterboarding in 2002. While the P-word is never mentioned directly, in one section the speaker appears in a split screen alongside the Bond nemesis – and the video’s tagline is “Democrats Galore.”

The wisdom of equating the first woman speaker of the House with a character whose first name also happens to be among the most vulgar terms for a part of the female anatomy might be debated – if the RNC were willing to do so, which it was not. An RNC spokesperson refused repeated requests by POLITICO to explain the point of the video, or the intended connection between Pelosi and Galore.

I don't like Pelosi because I feel she is ineffectual, she protested too much and then folded, giving the Bush administration more than they wanted. Every time.  Yet Republicans maintain that she's incompetent when it should be the Democrats who should be yelling at the top of their lungs. Do I think she lied? You betcha! But probably not about the briefing since the Bush administration wasn't well known for openness. Besides, the important question here is whether or not torture occurred, not when she knew about it.

The Republicans are trying to have it both ways, they want to have their cake and eat it too. If Ms. Pelosi was briefed in 2002 then that means the Bush administration was torturing people and all those involved should be punished. Then, and only then, Ms. Pelosi should be investigated and censured, not the other way around. The Republicans want Pelosi penalized for a crime they swear was never committed and if it was then it was justified but she should be punished for not letting anyone know about it. That only makes sense to anyone who isn't capable of stringing two related thoughts together. Or hasn't taken a logic class.

And what do Ms. Pelosi's looks have to do with job performance, such as it is? Tip O'Neill wasn't that great looking and that was never an issue while he was Speaker. And don't even get me started on Dennis Hastert. Besides, Honor Blackman was quite attractive. In true Republican fashion they really wanted to equate Pelosi's looks with Irma Bunt or Rosa Klebb but their names weren't offensive enough.

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Union Of The Snake

Have you ever noticed that no matter how much we interfere in other country's dealings that within a short amount of time they revert to their old ways?  We went to war with Afghanistan to eliminate the Taliban and to capture Osama bin Laden.  Seven years later and the Taliban are back in power and threatening us without impunity.  And that crap about improving the lives of women?  It was just that.  Crap.  Afghanistan's freely elected President, Hamid Karzai, rushed a bill through Parliament whose only goal was to keep him in office until they have their next election.  Most world leaders wouldn't put pen to paper and legalise the rape of women, restrict their access to courts, and approve child marriage in this day and age but that didn't stop Mr. Karzai.  Oh no, he rushed the bill through without it being read out loud or debated by the Parliament.  And we keep supporting this guy. You know it's bad when Saddam Hussein had more respect for women.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  We get the picture, things haven't changed much since the last Depression.  Corporations, banks and Wall Street are the winners and their employees are the losers.  And will stay that way.  In the waiting line. 

For a country that revolves around its citizens buying things we aren't going to last very long if a majority of the people are unemployed and stuck in places that don't have enough jobs for the amount of people who would like one and therefore can't afford to buy anything.  If people can't afford housing, food or clothes, how can they afford a new car or a refrigerator for the house they no longer have?  The recovery needs to start at the bottom, the top has had help for years and look at the mess they made.  Not that they're suffering.  Yet.

This is my issue with working for a corporate employer.  They require that you be at work at a certain time, eat and sleep at a certain time, dress a certain way, behave according to their rules and that if you break them, you can be dismissed.  For complying they promise to pay you a certain wage on a predetermined schedule and years ago they offered benefits such as a steady job, health insurance, vacation and sick pay and a pension after committing a large percentage of your life to the company.

In the eighties they started spending company money to move production to another country to save costs and increase profits.  When they figured out that the people they laid off could no longer afford their products they didn't discipline the people who had exhibited faulty judgment by eliminating the consumer base, they laid off more people in the States and moved production to even poorer countries where they wouldn't have to pay benefits or worry about workplace conditions and could still give the almighty shareholders their precious dividends and executives received bonuses.  Then they set about systematically dismantling the pension and health insurance for the people who had already fulfilled their end of the bargain and worked faithfully for them for years by claiming that they couldn't afford to keep the deals they made with the employees.  And then the Bush administration shifted large sums of money from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to the already unstable stock market.  End result?  The elderly will eat dog food and ketchup or die of starvation or they can hang on until winter when they can freeze to death.  The middle aged live in their cars and earn just enough to eat a mini meal at Mickey D's once a day and the youth wander the streets aimlessly with no hope for the future and see crime as their only way of getting ahead.  I know I'm a cynic but what's next?  Lining the homeless up against a wall and shooting them so the rich aren't offended by all those lazy people?

At one time we were the greatest country in the world and now all we have is faded glory.  The rich don't notice, they are too busy vacationing or buying homes in other countries while ensuring that they pay less and less to the country that made it possible for them to be a success.  Heck, they even adopt kids from poor countries while forgetting about the ones in the land of their birth. The sad part is that those who aren't rich don't mind getting help to cut their own throat because they no longer have the skills to think critically, question authority before it goes too far and are willing to be spoon fed economic pablum by the pundits instead of looking at their own circumstances and seeing how screwed they are.

We may not be watching Rollerball but American Idol, Survivor and Dancing With The Stars make a nice substitute, don't they?

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Is Racism Dead In America?

Not if yesterday was any indication. I told my mom a story about two kids where the melanin impaired had stolen from the melanin enriched child. The melanin enriched child doesn't get a public apology for her privacy being invaded or that her money was stolen. All of the adults are to get one and the melanin impaired child must work off chores in her own home to repay the melanin enriched child. Mom, who is very melanin impaired, agreed with me and thought that it was poorly handled and sends the wrong signal to the girl whose money was stolen.

I pointed this out to my friend that this wasnt exactly fair and that the melanin enriched child who was the one who suffered the invasion of privacy was being shown that she didnt matter as an individual. And that's when my friend snapped my head off and said she was tired of hearing me talk about racism and that everything is racist to me. I was also told that since the melanin enriched child's other home was full of melanin enriched people that it wasn't like she was isolated or anything. Heaven forbid that it should have crossed someone's mind that when you are the only melanin enriched person in a room and that when harm is done to you that you should have to swallow it until surrounded by other melanin enriched people because it is more important that the other child learn a lesson than for you to get a public apology for being wronged. What a fucking crock of shit that was. Yes, I cussed.

If it had been the other way around, it would have been determined that the melanin enriched child would have had to make a public apology so that she would be so embarrassed that she wouldn't do it again. You know, to teach her a valuable lesson.

I have spent my life ignoring racism (and manage the first 18 years of my life without every uttering the word) but over the last few years I've noticed that people indulge in it much more often and in very subtle ways. Yes, all of the elders have psychology degrees of some type but none of them understands what it's like to be all alone in a room full of people that don't look like you and that you only see on a monthly basis. And pointing it out doesn't mean than I look for racist actions, it means that I with 52 years of experience living thourgh the same situations, know what it feels like inside and that maybe someone should have considered the victim's feelings. If a child of eight can be charged with murder then a child of nine should have to understand and publicly apologize for stealing from your friend and that you knew it was wrong and shouldn't be tolerated under any circumstances. Most kids learn not to take other people's toys by the time they hit kindergarten.

Then today I learned that the Supreme Court has determined that there has to be at least 51% of a minority in order to help elet minorities that reflect their point of view. So, all it takes is for a few brave souls to move into poor neighborhoods and all of a sudden...less minority candidates.

Thank goodness women make up 51% of the population or we would never get to vote and it certainly would make it harder for women to be elected to national office. Not that it's happened yet.

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People Are Weird

How do I get a job working for a company that will secretly pay me an early million dollar bonus for helping them lose money all year long?  Merrill Lynch had to be taken over by Bank of America and the executives were duly rewarded at the American taxpayer's expense.  Must have been nice to know that you can screw up, get rewarded handsomely and still have a job when your company has to be sold due to fiscal mismanagement.

Yes, their image is offensive.  As is their behavior and attitude of entitlement.  No amount of regulation at this point is going to change the fact that they took what they wanted and now that their house of cards has fallen down, they want to be chief architect on the next one.  Probably so that they can make sure to build a jacuzzi on the ground floor.  And a train ride will not make you look like a common man.  Even if it does take eight hours.  We know you have private and corporate jets available, you just don't want to be pilloried for flaunting the wealth.  As soon as the hearings are over, the bankers will return to their indulgences.

Oh yeah, that southern route looks safe.  Not.

For some reason I thought I was fairly liberal, open minded and tolerant.  Then I heard about a paraphilia that involves cannibalism and that put an end to my open mindedness.  And zoophilia?  I'm pretty sure that Lady Heather wouldn't approve.  Leave those animals alone.

"You slice off a piece of somebody and together you fry it and cook it and eat it," she said. "There's a Web site for almost anything."

In 2003, a computer technician advertised on the Internet for a well-built male prepared to be slaughtered and then consumed. His willing victim agreed to have his penis cut off, which was flambéed and served up to eat together before the victim died, according to the BBC. The courts debated whether the act constituted murder, because the victim had solicited the act.

That was more than I needed to know. Living frugally should not include cleaning your plate.  If your are full, you are full and eating what's left will only make you fat.  Either try cooking less or cook extra and put it away before you make your plate and you can save money and lose weight at the same time.

Better late than never.  And for the people of Washington, DC, it's about flipping time.  They've been the poster child for taxation without representation for far too long.

Should a woman be on the Stimulus Conference Committee?  Well, let's see.  Women are 51% of the population, the are not getting laid off as quickly as the men (the bright side of earning 77% of what a man did), increasingly the head of household, two women were responsible for amending the senate version of the stimulus package...hmm, I don't know. I guess all those old guys who haven't had to look for a job in years might think about provisions that protect women and children, but I doubt it.

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They Can't Be Serious

Honestly, every time I think the Bush regime has done as much damage as it's going to, more atrocities are revealed.  As a veteran myself, I have taken special interest in how active military and veterans are being treated by the crew without a clue.  When I first read the story of soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan being denied benefits because their injuries were determined not to be combat related, I had to hold my head tight to keep it from exploding.  Since when is being injured in a land mine explosion or mortars pelting the area you are stationed in, considered not to be combat related?  This last March would be the answer.  Because everybody knows those kinds of injuries happen at home all the time.  Once again the people who have paid the the most are the ones that are getting screwed.

And if that wasn't enough to raise my blood pressure, the GAO has found that Bush loyalists were once again cooking the books to make themselves look better.  Competitive outsourcing is a bad policy that has had real world ramifications and demeans the people who have done the job successfully for many years.  What's really interesting is that all of the people let go were African American.  Color me not surprised.

Good grief!  Let the kids have a little fun, they're in kindergarten and this is their introduction to US history.  They will grow up soon enough and discover that most o fwhat they have been taught is a lie, why hurry the process?  If they can't dress up as Pilgrims and Indians, dressing up as angels and a little drummer boy next month are going to be out of the question.

Did you know that women are allowed to drive in Iran?  They can even have their own business as taxi drivers.  Now that Iraq has been reduced to a fundamentalist prison, at least it is from a woman's point of view,  Iran has more democratic freedoms than other Muslim countries.  Imagine that.

More banks are failing and the ranks of the destitute are growing quickly.  Destitute is worse than poor. You can be poor and still have a leaky roof over your head, when you are destitute you have nothing.  Which is what happens when you lose your job, house and self respect.  Food stamps only help if you have a place to store and cook the food and while a family of four making less than $21,000 is considered to be below the poverty level, it's still more money than being unemployed and homeless.

Unfortunately, I know the problem a little too well.  Fortunately, my landlord has relented for the moment and has agreed to let us stay until February.  Work Comp has made me an offer, albeit a very small one, so mom and I will have a roof over our heads for a few more months and I'm trying to find a regular job.  Mom really can't be left alone for very long, she does weird things and doesn't remember doing them and now adult protective services wants her watched at all times, so I would prefer to work from home.  Unfortunately all those offers have turned out to be scams. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

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Tales Of Woe

My sentiments exactly.  When I saw the article yesterday about Michelle Obama being only interested in getting her kids settled and that she isn't going to have a seat at the decision table, I thought, "wow, she has had to give up everything that made her who she is and settle for picking the drapes."  She isn't an extension of her husband, she is a person in her own right.  If she had wanted to be a stay at home mom, she would have done it earlier in her career.  And as one commenter pointed out, if Hillary had been elected what role would Bill be playing right now?  It certainly wouldn't be as the interior decorator, clothes horse or chief babysitter.  America is so far behind the times when it comes to gender equality that I doubt we will ever catch up to the rest of the world.

Dumb-dee-dumb dumb.   To say they weren't the sharpest knives in the drawer is putting it mildly.  I'm sure the KKK would like to disavow all knowledge.

I'm desperately looking for a place I can afford here in San Jose and having no luck at all.  99% of the ads for places under a thousand dollars have been either preforeclosure homes or a variation of this letter.

It is a great pleasure that to you are interested in my Place.Thanks for your email and it is my gladness to hearing you I am a Single Christain Father, With no kid, My Wife, Pass by Last 4 Month  (got dead). Due to the Fatal Accident we Had she got Dead, and I got Dislocation on my Legs and Hand, My name is Pastor Rev Benard Glott The Owner of the 2 bedroom home and its located @ 3665 Benton Street, Santa Clara, CA 95051 I am presently in West Africa due to my transfer that makes me leave the house and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a responsible person that can take very good care of it as I am not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean at the time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own. So for now, i am here in west Africa, My new house and put all my worries off concerning the maintenance of the apartment  for, since i am not residing there for now.I left behind some Facilities and electonics which include the rent, and a DVD player, air conditioning, alarm system. The kitchen is fully equipped with all necessary cooking utensils, arefrigerator-freezer, four-hob and oven, microwave,dishwasher and washing machine, My Computer Connected with Internet Acess Also the keys to the House are right here with me, and the lease document. Which i can send to you after all necessary agreement has be accepted. Also i will like you to know that the rent charges is not really the issue ,but your absolute maintenance of my apartment is most important thing so will want you to get back to me with the Application form below.

And here is one of the many variations.

We are so much excited. My name is Jeff Garza the owner of the apartment and also want you to know that it was due to my transfer that makes me and my wife and little daughter to leave the apartment and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a responsible person that can take very good care of it while we are not at the state as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean at the time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own. So for now, we are here in West Africa, our new house and put all my worries off concerning the maintenance of the apartment for, since i am not residing there for now. I left behind some Facilities and electonics which include the rent, DVD player, air conditioning, alarm system. The kitchen is fully equipped with all necessary cooking utensils, refrigerator-freezer, four-hob and oven, microwave, dishwasher and washing machine, my computer connected with Internet access also the keys and document of the apartment are right here with us in West Africa, and the lease document. Which i can send to you after all necessary agreement has been accepted. Also i will like you to know that the rent charges is not really the issue, hope you are okay with the price of $699 per month including utilities like water, gas, heat laundry facilities, air condition and so on, but your absolute maintenance of my apartment is most important thing, if you are really interested in renting this apartment get back to me so that i can forward you an application form for you to fill so that i can start all necesary arrangement asap.  Here is the apartment address :   347 Massol Ave, Los Gatos, CA 95030, USA   ..... Pls note that you will be viewing the apartment from outside and won't be able to inspect because the keys and document to the apartment are with me here in africa and. It is located on a cool, quiet and safe neighbourhood.

I've received about fifteen of these responses so far.  Meanwhile, my landlord is taking me to court and that will prevent me from renting anywhere else in the future.  I don't have a clue as to what to do.  The effects of moving on mom will be bad enough, moving her to another state would be disastrous besides being fiscally impossible  Her doctor doesn't think she should go into a care facility yet and adult protective services told me not to move her until we have a solid place to stay.  For the first time in my life I am having anxiety attacks and they are as far from fun as you can get.  I know that I'm hyperventilating and that lack of oxygen is what causes my vision to go dark, but it is really hard to get my breathing to slow down when my heart is beating abnormally fast.  All I can say is that this situation sucks and I need help.

Oh yeah, and now my internet connection is slower than dial up (ten minutes to load a page, the signal keeps dropping) and I can't get anything done.  I can hardly wait for the next shoe to drop.

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Update:  The manager came over and made me an offer to extend the time until February 15th, as long as I can come up with a $1000 in three days.  I'm thinking of selling my car, but then I wouldn't be able to get to work at all the places I have to be since the bus service isn't all that great.  And certainly not within the time frame that my job requires.  But I'll do it in order to stay here for a few more months and keep a roof over mom's head.  They say that when one door closes another opens.  Unfortunately I think I'm stuck in a real world variation of Cube.

Wake And Bake

Perhaps the police and the District Attorney's office should spend more time and effort on capturing thieves, rapists and murderers instead of potheads, prostitutes and protesters.  Wasting time and dwindling resources to prosecute victimless crimes trivializes the justice system and lets criminals of greater crimes remain at large because they have better legal representation.  Sentencing a person to jail for three to five years for possession of pot while allowing white collar criminals who bilked millions out of their savings to go free is stupid at best and criminal at worst.  Prisons are so overcrowded that rapists and murderers are allowed to go free so there can be room for people convicted of possession is a miscarriage of justice and shows a disturbing sense of priorities.  One is not soft on crime if a pot smoker is left alone, one is soft on crime when a rapist is allowed to go free so you can incarcerate the pot smoker.

Hung out with the BARBarians on Thursday night for a post victory celebration and several thoughts struck me.  First of all, very few people showed up.  I guess everyone thinks their job is done.  It isn't.  Obama deserves the same scrutiny that we gave Bush, otherwise we are the hypocrites that we accused the hardly ever right of being.

Second, Generik was surprised that I wasn't as emotionally affected by Obama's win and I never got a chance to tell him why.  Yes I'm black, but I'm also a woman and I can honestly say that being female has held me back more often than my skin color.  If Obama had been a woman, I would still be walking around with a smile and my head held high.  As it is, I don't see that things are going to change much under an Obama administration since he has very few women in his inner circle and doesn't seem inclined to step out of his comfort zone.  Unfortunately this is typical of many black men.  Women are rarely seen as equals and society will continue to reflect that unless Obama makes the same effort that Bill Clinton did to put women into decision making roles in his cabinet.  Hopefully I'm wrong but past experience has shown that politics at the top is a major boy's club.

It's rained a little bit and the weather is chilly (for California), so tonight's dinner is going to be Chicken and Dumplings with carrots, onions, rutabaga and turnip.  I can hardly wait.  And since I just typed that, the sun has decided to make a brief appearance and play peekaboo with the clouds.  Not changing my mind, my taste buds are all set for the dumplings and gravy.  Yum!

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McCain, Put A Sock In It

There seems to be some sort of brouhaha over Obama using the line "lipstick on a pig" and that it's a sexist remark.  Since when?  I myself have used it several times, one of which was as a title to a post.  Of course I was talking about the forgotten war in Iraq.  Then there are these photos that have been floating around the web for years and nobody complained that they were sexist when Hillary was the target.  .

 Or how about this one of our ignominious President?

Why do Republicans always want things both ways?  Oh yeah, I forgot.  It's okay if you are a Republican.  Otherwise known as IOKIYAR for short.  What a bunch of crybabies.  And McCain is way too old to be playing these infantile games. 

On the other hand, people do regress into childhood as their brains deteriorate and dementia sets in.

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It's Finally A Horse Race

Ever since I realized we were once again going to get stuck with choosing the lesser of two evils, I've been saying that if McCain picked a woman it would do serious damage to the Democratic platform.  Since everyone decided that McCain was too old and might not be able to serve his term completely if he picks who I think he might, the Democrats will have a much harder slog uphill.  With a lot of unhappy women leaving the party in droves.  Bet the powers that be wish they had listened a little harder to the discontent of Hillary's supporters.

McCain and his advisers were smart, they picked exactly who I thought they would.  Sarah Palin.

So much for the convention bump.  We're gonna have fun now.  Yup, the Demowienies have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

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Too Funny

Today's chuckle is provided by a commenter at HuffPo on a Max Blumenthal article about Toby Keith's lynching song and his follow up remarks on the Glenn Beck show about Obama acting white, as if Obama isn't half white and educated, but all black and a thug rapper.  Take it away Intruder.

Political commentary from Toby Keith is about as meaningful as a music critique from Helen Keller.

The bras aren't really bulletproof, but they will prevent the dreaded underwire poking or even better, being injured by little pieces of metal if policwomen are shot at while wearing a vest.  And there's more than one model.  Though I doubt if they will make Avedon's bra of the week list.

All is clear now.  The Pentagon studied ancient empires to find out how to rule the world.  I guess they missed the part about all the empires weren't all that successful.  Otherwise they would still be ruling the world and the United States wouldn't exist.

Jaw Dropping Crap

Asking if  Congress deserves a vacation is like waking up and smoking a joint to decide if you want to smoke a joint.  Shouldn't they have to do some work first?  At least occasionally?  In the never ending run for the White House, how many votes have McCain and Obama missed while they were running for another office because the one they're in isn't good enough?  And please, using the example that the Demowienies don't want to cave in to the Republicans is foolish since there are more than enough examples to go around.  Fortunately 472 of them are up for reelection this year, maybe they'll get a surprise at the polls.

Things are getting better all the time.  Pretty soon the only people employed in America will be those who provide personal luxury services to our overlords.

The police are sticking with their story that the kid with the broken back and foot tried to get up and walk into traffic so that's why they had to taser him 19 times.  Do they drug test cops?  Because if they don't, they should.  On a daily basis.  Especially hallucinogens.

Hmm, I see the cojone missing stormtroopers have struck again.  What possible excuse (other than revenge) could there be for placing a compromising package (you know they did it), bursting into the mayor's home and then shooting his two Labrador Retrievers, one of whom was hunted while running away, to death?  No arrests were made.

I joined the Army in 1974 and I can honestly say that other than a few bawdy jokes (that I enjoyed because they were funny) and the occasional "accidental" brush against my tits, only one person ever harassed me and he ended up at Leavenworth doing hard time for a few years. Hhis conviction ostensibly had nothing to do with me since my First Sergeant wouldn't take me seriously, but I knew something else that caused his incarceration and had no hesitation about making sure the MPs found out about it.   Other than that, my troop mates were my friends and they treated me just like the other guys.  Now it seems that a woman serving in the military is as likely to be assaulted by the people who are supposed to be watching her back as she is to be killed or wounded by a terrorist.  I thought it was supposed to be you were more likely to be killed by a terrorist as to get married after forty?  Methinks that order in the military isn't what it used to be.

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Exercises In Futility

Priceless.  My favorite quote of the week comes from Spencer Ackerman in Sam Stein's article about why Obama is more popular  with Jewish people than Joe Lieberman and Republicans in general.  I love how he sums it up in a nutshell.  And these are numbers that rarely get mentioned on television.

"Seventy-four percent of us view Bush unfavorably and 83 percent of us disapprove of his job performance," Ackerman wrote. "While 76 percent of the country as a whole says the U.S. is on the wrong track, an astonishing 90 percent of American Jews say the same. Only 21 percent of us approve of the Iraq war and only 29 percent think Bush is good for Israel, and those are clearly the shmucks that kissed ass in Hebrew school and snitched when the rest of us used the synagogue phone booth and cloakroom to make out."

Somebody isn't going to be in the will.  Stories like this happen all the time, it's just that when you belong to Hollywood, you have no privacy.

Unless you have money, you aren't "in" the party.  Therefore the powers that be only pay attention when they need your vote.   That is how the older generation has always treated the younger generation.

Sounds like a Lee Iacocca moment.  More symbolic than helpful and the people on the bottom who need the help are still ignored.

Of course they are.  Haven't you seen them sweating?  Arms and legs moving all the time and some drummers even sing.  It's the partying after performing that seems to kill them.

And it won't be worth a dime when the big one hits.  Some people really do have too much money.

One can only hope.  That they catch more war criminals.  Especially ones that can only speak English, mangled though it may be, and think they are above the law.

I have two and after fourteen years, I'm still very happy with them.  But then I waited twenty years after I decided I wanted one so I knew I wasn't going to regret my decision.  Plus, I'm not really prone to peer pressure.

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