A quote I really like

I saw this in the NY Times and said to myself...this guy needs to be in charge of his party. Get rid of the 'No' guy and put this man in charge. The country needs responsible politics.

"We can’t be just about saying no. But we have not completed the transition yet from defeated incumbent party. We have to position ourselves as an alternative and create enthusiasm for our positions."
CHRISTOPHER C. HEALY, the chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party.

Tom said what?

Getting better. I know it's weird, but I only had two Norco yesterday and the same with Dilaudid and Zanaflex. That's worth a celebration and I may do that! I'm not counting the Neurontin and Ibuprofen I take because those are prescribed and mandatory, the others, the narcotics, are only to be taken when needed. And I didn't need!

I received the second seed catalog of the season yesterday and I was impressed. I mean really impressed! It came from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds of Bakersville Missour-uh. The photography was exceptional and the variety of seeds is overwhelming. My son-in-law and daughter have an old greenhouse and it would be a great place to do 'starts'. Hmmm? I wonder if the grandkids would be my helpers? Anyway, back to the catalog; throughout the catalog, quotes that are relevant to the food supply and the pressures of our present day are sprinkled here and there. I found one that I really liked beneath a photo of a Moon and Stars Melon; Thomas Jefferson said "The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government." Did you catch that? 'The care of human life and happiness…the first and only…'. Why that sounds like 'socialism' to me, or 'socialism' as Republicans like to define it. Apparently, Thomas Jefferson was a closet socialist and even then, over 200 years ago, was certainly scheming to ruin the good life that we know today. As the Tea Baggers say, 'the only good socialist is a dead one…' and Thomas is certainly that; dead. Yes, even among the fruits and flowers, there are bits of wisdom.

I'm not a paid representative of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds – honest, I'm not! But they are certainly worth looking at on the web. And for the two of us to enjoy, they have just opened their second store in Petaluma and that's a day trip for us. (Maybe two days if we feel like it.) They bought an old bank in downtown Petaluma and barely remodeled it. All of the marble and stone of an old bank are still there and look great now that all the grime has been cleaned away. Of course I'm only seeing photos of it and really need to see it up close. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the catalog and taking notes.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

News from me

An update on my surgery…

 And many thanks to all for your concerns!

Surgery!

Up to date info on my other life…

A Quest

to End Spending Rules for Campaigns - NYTimes.com

I'm absolutely shocked...this man is insane. Really...

This is the man that just sold the United States to corporations.

From Liberal Values

» South Carolina Lt. Governor Says Needy Children Are Like Stray Animals And Should Not Be Fed

Is it the water in South Carolina or the schools?

I just wish his grandmother had been a little more careful about that 'breeding' thing he spouts about.

Tom Tomorrow

and This Modern World »

Blog Archive » TMW2010-01-06colorlowres

More comics and this one is a classic Tom Tomorrow

Tom Tomorrow

and This Modern World » Comics!

Parallel Earth & Pat Robertson

Red State?

Socialism?

Funny how those 'Red Stater's' who complain about Obama's so-called socialism are the the first to take the Federal aid. Have they no pride? Of course not.

Funny thing about socialism and how the Wingnuts define it. They completely ignore the fact that all nations are socialistic at their core. Without socialism we would have no armies and no postmen. No policemen and no firemen. No one to pave the streets. No parks and no libraries. I could go on but why bother? The Wingnuts are simply silly...but sadly dangerous because of their ignorance. Yet 'socialism' gave them schools to attend; perhaps they played hooky a lot?

Another from the CN&R

From the Edge

Mr. Porter, as always, does a great job with a very small space.

From the Chico News and Review

Guest Comment: The U.S. and Haiti

The Chico News and Review, though quite small, is the best newspaper in the North state. It comes out once a week and on Fridays I go to Cal Java to enjoy a small latte while reading. I'm rarely disappointed in the content and this guest commentary got my attention this week as I knew a little something of the sad history of Haiti.

I think I was 12 when I read about the rebellion that was led by Toussaint L'Ouverture and Henri Christophe. It was a tale of carnage and just what a 12 year old would enjoy. I hadn't made the connection in my mind that these were real people and they were spilling real blood; not yet.

And it was 5 years later, during the time of 'Papa Doc', that I read some more and learned the history of our invasion and occupation of the island...20 years! can you believe it? Terribly true. As was 'Papa Doc' himself. His son, 'Baby Doc' carried on the family tradition of theft and terror while we continued to support them.

And after all those years of our repressing the citizens of Haiti and aiding the dictators, for someone like Pat Robertson or Rush Limbaugh to criticize that nation...well, it should be criminal for people that stupid to express an opinion of any kind.

Winners and Whiners

Everyone is upset about the SCOTUS decision to hand over the keys to the nation to corporations. Okay, not everyone is unhappy. The US Chamber of Commerce, traitors all…they welcomed the decision. Also your Senator and mine are quite happy with the deal as all they have to do now is please the right corporation and the campaign for election/reelection will be handled for them. The same will apply to our Congresspersons. In fact all law making will become a slam dunk. Who's going to complain to the guy operating the steamroller? And it won't just be a national issue, bad enough that that is, but corporations will take on the state and local governments as well. Why not? The money is unlimited as over 70% of all corporations pay no taxes at all. And with corporations owning the lawmakers, that will soon be 100%. You might also want to remember that majority of the largest corporations are multinationals with their interests and stockholders from nations other than ours and with different agendas. Think about it.

But there is a way out of this…if every American will give $10 to a fund to fight this, we can do battle against the corporations. What do you mean you don't have $10 to spare? Sigh…

Wondering

Money can extinguish intrinsic motivation, diminish performance, crush creativity, encourage unethical behavior, foster short-term thinking, and become addictive. (Daniel H. Pink)

 

How much $$$ was given to the majority of the black robed crooks? Given the unreal decision by SCOTUS, shouldn't someone be looking at their bank accounts or real estate holdings? The FBI? Just wondering.

From MadMikesAmerica:

Politics - America: No Longer the Greatest Nation in the World

Well written and sadly true...

And now with the Supreme Court decision to allow corporations unlimited campaign spending, the nation will belong to them. To milk dry. Doesn't the court understand that corporations do not have any interest in the well being of the citizens? They only love our wallets. Plus, most of the larger corporations are multinational which means they have no interest whatsoever in our nation. With Americans being the sheep that they are, the corporate political ads will lead them right where the corporations want them. Voting for their interests, their candidates and their legislation. No, I haven't offended any 'sheep'...they rarely read.

From Citizen K.

What They Think It Means

You have to read this and then take the link over to William Greider's piece from the The Nation.

What?

Headline this morning…G.O.P. Senate Victory Stuns Democrats

 

It didn't take me more than a few seconds to process that and then say to myself. 'You have to be kidding! Stunned? If the Democrats didn't see this coming when they allowed Martha to be the candidate they are dumber than a sack full of hammers. They are dumber than…than…Sarah Palin!" Further processing, maybe a full ten seconds worth, and I came up with the realization that we are really in trouble if Martha is a sample of how smart the Democrats are and if John McCain and Gidget von Braun Quittypants represent the best the Republicans can come up with. Intelligence, folks! We want intelligence. We need intelligence and not cunning. I still believe we have an intelligent President, which is really a relief, but I do believe he needs to have some intelligent aides. He really isn't supposed to do it all, that's a myth. But he is responsible for it all and that why he needs intelligent people on his side. He obviously doesn't.

Here’s to your Health

Is the health care bill dead? Will the Republicans come up with one of their own? Who knows and at this point I frankly don't give a damn. Our law makers have made fools of us once more. The Democrats never did care if it passed. I just want to hear the lame excuses from both sides in a few years when medical bankruptcies and deaths from lack of care make it into the headlines. "Sorry ma'am, your baby died."

But, in the meantime, being a concerned citizen, I found a way to have health care for all citizens and money enough to give us schools we can be proud of. It didn't take me long. I found the following statistics in the latest edition of Dissent, a very interesting news magazine.

"The United States accounts for nearly half of all the military expenditures of all countries in the world—41.5 percent as of 2008, according to the Stockholm International Peace Institute. China and Russia follow, with 5.8 percent and 4 percent, respectively. By some estimates, the United States spends more on its military than the next twelve nations combined. America devotes some 4 percent of its GDP to military expenditures, proportionally a bit more than Russia and a bit less than China—but far more than France or the United Kingdom, both of which devote around 2.5 percent. We are, in short, at the head of the pack in our contribution to worldwide military activity.

At the same time the United States stands virtually alone among wealthy democracies in not ensuring universal health care for its people. Its health outcomes, in matters like infant mortality and life expectancy, are mediocre to poor for any industrialized country—inferior in some respects to much poorer countries like Cuba, Greece, and Jordan. Its rate of high school completion is a lackluster nineteenth among countries of the world, with similarly undistinguished levels of academic achievement among schoolchildren. But when it comes to domestic mayhem and incarceration, America excels. It has astonishingly high rates of violent crime and the world's largest prison population—2.3 million. In the words of British criminologist Vivien Stern, the United States has become "a rogue state, a country that has made a decision not to follow what is a normal Western approach" to crime control. It sounds like a reverberation of this country's military stance."

The author of this article, James Rule, then proposes that we cut the military spending in half, leaving us far and away the largest armed force in the world. That would give us $300 billion to spend on something other than bombs and bullets. "…make vast resources available for more constructive purposes, ranging from universal medical coverage for Americans to investment in renewable energy to support of global initiatives to control of curable diseases in the world's poorest countries." And the list could go on and on and on. $300 billion is a lot of money. Just ask a defense contractor how much it is.

I know what I'm going to do and that is to write to my two Senators, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, and to the incomparable Wally Buffoon, my representative in Congress. And I'm going to ask them how it happened that this much pork could be allowed into our defense budgets and I'm going to ask them, what are they going to do about it? I know I will receive a form letter in response…"blah, blah, blah…thank you very much for writing to me. Blah, blah, blah." But I will feel better. At least I did something positive.

From Time Goes By

Saul Friedman: Press Conferences

An excellent article by Mr. Friedman who explains exactly why the press is not to be trusted, especially television news. He ought to know, as he is a respected journalist. And while it is a revealing article it is also a sad commentary. Why does our nation allow this pablum to be fed to us? How can a reporter be called a reporter if he or she won't ask the questions?

Reboot

The storm is raging and I have a feeling that more than a few trees will be down before it's over. The previous two days had plenty of rain to soak the ground and now with 40 to 50 mph gusts the trees will be popping out of the ground. Luckily, we have a snug and tight home and the fire is blazing, keeping us warm as the wind batters us. Speaking of the wind, the power went out earlier but only for a few seconds, just enough to get the clocks flashing and to shut down the computers – except for the fact that we finally have a UPS for each computer. And they worked perfectly; no blank screens and then rebooting and hoping that the computer wasn't damaged. I had a bad UPS experience many years ago with an expensive and faulty one; I wasn't eager to do that again so for years I have simply plugged the power cords into the wall sockets and prayed, but the price for a UPS is finally down to a level where ordinary people can afford them. I paid $39 each at Amazon and that was for one in the middle of the price ranges; I could have had a cheaper one.

Our weather: http://www.wunderground.com/US/CA/Orland.html

From the Redneck Liberal:

Wealth Distribution for the Rich and Famous: Part II.:

"It is sobering to realize that over 14 million American households live on $15,000 or less per year."

Very sobering indeed. But, I'm certain that a Conservative Wingnut can explain to me how it's all the fault of those 14 million. They just weren't trying hard enough.

(How times have changed. To show you how old I am, when I was 14 I was helping my aunt and uncle landscape their new house in the upscale part of the San Fernando Valley; Tarzana. And during the time I was there, I found out that my uncle, who was head of advertising for US Steel, was making $12,000 a year. From that date on, that $12,000 number became my goal; I was going to make that amount, maybe even more once I grew up and had a career.)

Dissent

The Magazine:

"...in important ways most people in other wealthy, industrialized countries have a better chance of flourishing than Americans do. I’m thinking of universal health care; good schools; access to social services; much lower rates of violence, especially murder; much less poverty, child poverty, and homelessness; safe jobs at decent wages; dignified support for single mothers; more leisure time; less unwanted pregnancy and childbearing; and less religious folderol."

Great article on how "Patriotism' blinds us to the facts.

From Fox Home:

Why No Aid Distribution in Haiti

More on Haiti.

"Remember people, so called primary media reporting by U.S. A. sorts for U.S.A. outlets must be regarded as extremely unreliable sources for providing your information needs -- until proven otherwise."

Of course they are. If you want to know what's really going on in the world you must look to something other than 'talking head' news - film at eleven' types. Main stream media is the propaganda arm of the government and must always be viewed with suspicion.

Table for Two

I was reading the headlines and the thought struck me – once again, that it's Party politics that are to blame for all of our woes. If Brown wins in Massachusetts and goes on to be the Senate vote that kills the health bill, he will also be ignoring the somewhat less than the majority of the voters in that state. Yet he will claim to be representing all of the voters when he casts that vote. As do all Senators and Congresspersons. None, on either side, have a 99.9% majority. And none represent all of the voters in their state or district. But they all claim that to be true. Their only loyalty is to the 'Party'. I guess that's why I'm an independent voter. Nobody represents me. Now isn't that great? Not. But…if we were all independent voters, they would have to listen to us. Try it; unburden yourself from Party membership and set yourself free!

But first, before we destroy the Party system and liberate our votes, we have to destroy the lobbying industry. I read that lobbyists are now refusing to register as lobbyists because of the rules that restrict them and they are going underground. This means that the FBI will have to hire an army of new agents just to police the lawmakers and their new 'friends'. All the restaurants in DC will have to remodel so that they have private 'dining booths' to surround the lawmakers and their 'friends'. Is this a great country or what?

Haitians Pray

Cry for Help | theledger.com | The Ledger | Lakeland, FL:

"The Geneva-based aid group Doctors Without Borders put it bluntly: "There is little sign of significant aid distribution."The 'major difficulty,' it said, was the bottleneck at the airport, under U.S. military control. It said a flight carrying its own inflatable hospital was denied landing clearance and was being trucked overland from Santo Domingo, almost 200 miles away in the Dominican Republic, delaying its arrival by 24 hours.

French, Brazilian and other officials had earlier complained about the U.S.-run airport's refusal to allow their supply planes to land. A World Food Program official told The New York Times that the Americans' priorities were out of sync, allowing too many U.S. military flights and too few aid deliveries."

Why?

Polls

Why don't we spread these numbers around more often? Or, maybe we should hide them and not let anyone ever see them.

 

Job Approval Approve Disapprove Spread

Obama 47.6% 45.8% +1.8%

Congress 27.3% 66.8% -39.5%

 

Does anyone else think we spend way too much time on polls? Why are we governing by polls? It's really dangerous and I don't think enough research has been done on it. But it seems simple enough; if you have enough sheep, they will see the numbers above for the first time and then a day or so later, they are quizzed. Will they buck the trend? Of course not! Sheep don't like to be alone and so the numbers will drop for that poll. And then again and again.

Not to mention that polls are notorious for leading the sheep to the answer that the pollster wants. This makes all polls suspicious. And dangerous.

We've got weather...

It looks like we have a whole week of wet weather...which means nothing at all in some parts of the US. 'So what?' they say. But we're still looking at another year of drought so this is very nice.

And then this from a Special Weather Statement...

Significant snow is likely in the mountains with several feet of snow around the 5000 foot
elevation... and 10 feet or more over the higher Sierra Nevada by next Saturday. The combination of heavy snow and very windy conditions will impact travel into the high country.

Doctor

With all of the medical problems and the surgeries I've had the fun of attending, it's only logical that I would spend a lot of time researching these things. And in my search, I've run across a few forums dedicated to the medical problems that interest me. Wow! The problems that people have are simply staggering at times and make for difficult reading. Even when I discount the stories by 10% for exaggeration, the medical problems are immense. And what's worse, so many of the problems tell stories of doctors refusing to treat and of hospitals letting patients wait for 10 hours or more in the emergency rooms. The forums are the only place where most can tell their stories; where they vent. The medical establishment doesn't want to hear it.

Of course I had to wonder how many of those complainers voted for republicans? Republicans who can't even suggest a health plan because they like it the way it is.

Cuppa Tea

On my third cup of tea now and struggling a little with the pain as I sit here. I’m not sure, but I think a few minutes in the recliner will help. Isn’t that a shame? 69 years old and I’m using a recliner more often than ever. I’m disgusting. But…did I mention that I recently sold an art piece? That makes me an artist – officially! One of the gourds that I had displayed at the Plant Barn finally sold. And Denise says that there is a ‘looker’ at another one of my pieces. If I sold two, there would be no doubt as to my second career; I’m an artist! I can’t make a living from it, but it is fun. And rewarding.Alas, I can’t do any gourd art right now because of the ‘standing and sitting’ issue in a cold garage studio and so I have moved inside with my acrylics and watercolors. I now have a cramped little studio in our family room, close to the woodstove, and that’s a bonus, plus I can get up and move around every five or ten minutes and that works out fine as I need to let things dry. Acrylic dries fast and after a brief time away for pain relief I can get right back to my work. Right now I’m painting on everything; I’m using 140# CP watercolor paper, Masonite, canvas, Yupo and 300# CP illustration board. Since the ‘studio’ consists of a round dining room table with no leaves in it, I’m forced into the smaller sizes for my work. But that’s good. I’m always tempted to do art on a grand scale and these tiny surfaces make you think a lot about the details. There was a sale the other day on 8”x10” canvas frames, 10 of them for $15 and I grabbed them. There’s a project waiting to happen! And then I received some art materials from Cheap Joe’s and ended up with a problem; I had ordered 5 pieces of illustration board and they had sent me 25 and they all have a ‘ding’ and a wrinkle on one corner where the box was dropped. Anyway, Cheap Joe’s was notified and now I wait for an answer. I’m not in a hurry as the illustration board is 22”x30” and overwhelms my workspace. I’ll be glad when the surgery and recuperation are over with and I can get back to my real studio.
The pain I’m dealing with was aggravated the other day when I went out to the garden to harvest this year’s gourd crop which will become art projects this summer. After ten minutes of harvesting I was done! But it was almost worth it as it was a sunny day and I hadn’t been outside in the garden for such a long time! I can hardly wait for summer.

Quotes

I keep a list of quotes I like and for some reason these three showed up at the top of the list…random.

 

"The two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a big fat white guy who is threatened by change.  - Seth MacFarlane

 

"I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., May 12, 2008

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It's just a god-damned piece of paper!" — President George W. Bush

10 Convicts

Presumed Innocent After Execution

Notice how Texas leads the nation in this category.

Execution is vengeance and is never punishment. It never deters crime and only dehumanizes those who practice it. Civilized nations never use it.

Why ?

Israel humiliated Turkey in response to a TV show

I can see why there won't be peace in the Middle East...they've run out of adults to manage things.

A lower chair? Oh my! And they don't like criticism either? So, despite their rhetoric, Israel must not be a free country where people are allowed to have opinions. I'm surprised that the Turkish ambassador didn't turn around and walk out.

Darn Facts!

Once again I was browsing and found this little gem. It's from the CIA World Fact Book

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html

Top countries in per person income:

1 Liechtenstein $ 118,000

2 Qatar $ 111,000

3 Luxembourg $ 81,200

4 Bermuda $ 69,900

5 Norway $ 59,500

6 Kuwait $ 57,500

7 Jersey $ 57,000

8 Singapore $ 51,600

9 Brunei $ 51,300

10 United States $ 47,500

11 Ireland $ 45,500

From Beat the Press Archive

The American Prospect

I am always a fan of NPR and so I was very upset to read this. The Peterson Foundation is pure evil and to give them any air time to talk about the economy is like giving the Hell's Angels air time to comment on law enforcement.

Why?

The health care fight goes on and once again I'm simply baffled by the Republicans. Didn't they go to the same schools as the rest of us? Didn't they have to study the Constitution as the rest of us did? Were they asleep during that part of class? Or, perhaps it's a genetic thing; they're missing a vital gene, the one that would allow them to care for their fellow Americans. Here we are, down to the wire on the health care and there is still no alternate health care bill from the Republican side. They simply want to defeat this bill and then go back to sleeping or whatever they do instead of working for you and me. So, that tells me that they think the status quo is just fine. Why would they think that being in last place in health care among the wealthy nations is OK? Why would they think that it's OK for hundreds of thousands of American citizens to go bankrupt because of medical bills? Why is it OK for this nation to pay the very most for health care (and drugs) and still be in last place among the wealthy nations? Why Why? Why?

Funny; they have never answered those questions. Never. Ever. It's really simple…ANSWER THE QUESTIONS!

Breezy?

I keep an eye on the Lake Tahoe weather. Not because we live there or are planning to visit soon. The lake is just an icon in this part of California and we have lots of great memories from times past at the lake. So when I heard that we were going to get some rain tomorrow I decided to check the Tahoe weather.

 

Tonight

Breezy. Cloudy with a slight chance of rain and snow. Snow level 7000 feet. Lows 21 to 31. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 30 mph. Ridge gusts up to 75 mph increasing to 95 mph after midnight.

Tuesday

Very windy. Snow and rain likely in the morning...then snow and rain in the afternoon. Snow level 6500 feet lowering to lake level. Snow accumulation 1 to 3 inches at lake level. Highs 34 to 44. Southwest winds 20 to 35 mph with gusts up to 45 mph. Ridge gusts up to 115 mph.

Tuesday Night

Windy with snow. Lows 18 to 28. Southwest winds 20 to 30 mph decreasing to 10 to 20 mph after midnight. Gusts up to 45 mph. Ridge gusts up to 100 mph decreasing to 55 mph after midnight.

Yikes!

Spring, anyone?

It's time. I've put it off and I shouldn't have. I need to order this year's tomato seeds. Just doing that will erase the winter fog from my brain and make spring a reality and not just a distant hope. I'm using the Tomato Growers Supply catalog this year and although I've been warned, I may try to grow just a couple more tomato types than last year. Maybe some bush tomatoes as they don't take up the space that the big caged tomatoes do. Not that space is really a problem, the garden is potentially 100'x30' and I'm only growing gourds on the majority of that space. They don't mind a little company. The problem is the harvest. We love tomatoes, but last year we were overwhelmed at times. There were tomatoes on the sink, on the counter, in baskets and more on the vine. The freezer still has a good number of sauces and whole tomatoes in it. We don't want to repeat that experience and since this is tomato growing country, it's hard to find someone to give them to.

So space isn't a problem and I've identified the harvest as one problem; it's also ambition, and these darn catalogs feed the fire of that ambition. But I may have a solution; my son-in-law had a large garden last year and I heard that he wanted to increase the size of it this year. Plus, he has a greenhouse. I may be able to talk him into growing a few of the more spectacular tomatoes from the catalog. Good idea! I can even get the grandkids to help me…

Back to the gourds…I have a pile of gourd seed packets here on the table and I'm already anxious to get them into the ground. The catalog made me do it. Crazy. I haven't even harvested last year's crop. They have to stay out in the garden to dry and to acquire the fantastic patina that only weather and mould will give them.

I'm an artist and gourds are a part of that. No, I don't do painted gourd birdhouses or other gourd craft. They're fine for some people and I'm not that good of an artist to say that my work is any better than that; my art is simply different. As are my watercolors and acrylics. Different.

Mr. Tapscott

Back in the days of old, when I was thirteen, all of the children in Jr. High School had to pass what was known as the Constitution Test. I don't know about the other states, but in California, you did NOT pass on to high school until you had successfully completed this exam. We all feared this exam as we couldn't imagine not going to High School and the subject was difficult enough to make that a distinct possibility. One part, in fact it was Part One, was the memorization of the Preamble. (Yes, I had passed. But barely…I don't do 'memorization'.) That all said, you would think that fifty plus years later I would still have some memory of that traumatic event in my life. But no, I had forgotten all about the Preamble, which really is the backbone, the foundation for all that follows. Without the Preamble, the rest of the words are just words.

Then I read the editorial in our local alternative press. It was good. Very good. And all of the Preamble memories came back to me – minus the sweating of course. In this editorial he uses the great essay of a Mr. Bangs Tapscott for the foundation of his writing. Of course I wanted to know more about Mr. Tapscott and so I did a Google search, hoping that he might have time for blogging in his retirement. No luck, but I did find a letter that I think he wrote back in 2003. Even if it wasn't the same Tapscott, it's a great letter and applicable today, seven years later.

 

Here's the links…

 

http://www.newsreview.com/chico/content?oid=1349722

 

http://brendancalling.com/2003/04/14/92581427/

Quoted

School days, I believe, are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence. They are full of dull, unintelligible tasks, new and unpleasant ordinances, brutal violations of common sense
and common decency. (H. L. Mencken)

Amazing

Every once in awhile I allow myself some wonder…so I was browsing the internet as usual and going from one good link to the next, adding RSS feeds to my already overburdened Sage Reader when I suddenly realized…Wow! This is fantastic! There is so much information available here that it's enough to stagger you. Me. Sure, a lot of it is useless and plenty of it is deceitful, but it's all so very darn entertaining! For hours, I can enjoy my quest for entertainment while at the same time I am being educated. Don't laugh, there's plenty of education here and if you can't see it, you need to rethink your focus on life. Not a day should go by where you don't learn something and the internet delivers more than enough. What a wonderful time to be alive...it really is.

From Brain Rage

Brain Rage

A most enjoyable blog...

From The Washington Monthly

The Washington Monthly:

"She noted, for example, that Republicans are 'lying in a way that can be obviously, demonstrably, embarrassingly proven by anyone who has a spare 45 seconds and the Google.'"

This is what I don't understand. These Senators, these Congresspersons...from both parties embarrassingly enough, continue to lie at every opportunity and in an era where facts can be checked in a matter of seconds. How stupid are they? Or better yet, how stupid do they think we are? I'm insulted!

I could see it happening thirty years ago when it took a trip to the library and hours of research to discover that Congressman Jones was blowing smoke, but now it takes just a few seconds to discover his lies. And yet we continue to elect them. How stupid are we? Now I'm embarrassed as well as insulted.

All that aside, this is a good read.

News

With the New Year comes some boredom. Yes, I'm tired of the same old news and then the same old manipulation of the facts to suit whichever interest is paying for the news. Sir Rupert Murdoch pays for an awful lot of the news these days and he's never been shy about what his plans are when it comes to sharing his vision of how his adopted country should be run. Fair and unbiased? Not!

 

I found this little of bit of news about the meeting that Sir Rupert held with President Obama and Roger Ailes, the head of Fox News.

"…Obama resented Fox News's portrayal of him "as suspicious, foreign, fearsome – just short of a terrorist," while Ailes said "it might not have been this way if Obama had more willingly come on the air instead of so often giving Fox the back of his hand."

 

So, if the President behaved as they wanted him to, then they would stop portraying him in a bad light. Amazing! Sure sounds like blackmail to me, but if I were a Fox viewer I suppose I would think of it as ferreting out the truth. That's what they would tell me to think.

 

In 1999, The Economist reported that Newscorp Investments had made £11.4 billion ($20.1 billion) in profits over the previous 11 years but had not paid net corporation tax. It also reported that after an examination of the available accounts, Newscorp could normally have been expected to pay corporate tax of approximately $350 million. The article explained that in practice the corporation's complex structure, international scope and use of offshore tax havens allowed News Corporation to pay minimal taxes.

 

Well, if he didn't pay the $350 million, I wonder who did?

 

http://mediamatters.org/research/200912220030

From - Just my little piece of the world

10 Lessons for Tea Baggers, Hey Wing Nuts.. That Means YOU!:

"Conservative Republicans failed America over the past 30 years and did so without shame or apology using hypocrisy and false equivalency as tools of deciet and revisionist history."

A good article and filled with truth as opposed to the usual from the WingNuts. How do I know it's the truth? Because it comes with verifiable facts instead of loud and cheap rhetoric.

Embarrassing

I hope everyone gets to read the NY Times article about the rapid growth of food stamp use. Some headlines from that article…

 

About one in 50 Americans now lives in a household with a reported income that consists of nothing but a food-stamp card.

 

One in eight Americans now receives food stamps, including one in four children.

 

Such sad statistics, yet I'm really glad to see them in the news. World's greatest nation? No, simply an embarrassment. Superpower? I don't think so. How can you legitimize your power when more than 10% of your adult citizens are using food stamps and 25% of your children?

I wish the report had given us the number of service families that are on food stamps. Yes, those service men and women we claim to support have money problems just like the rest of us. Wearing a uniform and going to places like Afghanistan or Iraq does not mean that bills don't need to be paid. And yes, theses soldiers receive food stamps when needed and some need it right now. Shameful.

 

The article? I could have linked to it but didn't get around to it…you know how to find it.

From MadMikesAmerica

Dumb and Dumber

As I was wandering I came upon this cartoon and I enjoyed it...

Maybe I should keep a copy in my wallet for my republican friends to read anytime they spout off...

From Bob Cesca

McInerney Wants to Strip Search Muslims (Blacks)

Amazing! If this guy was able to fool the Air Force for as many years as it takes to become a general and then retire..how many others are just like him and are not retired? Now that is what would scare me! In fact it does...

(Strip search Muslims? The only religion you could identify with a strip search would be Mormons - you bozo!)

Evil

I was doing the usual thing I do at this hour, looking though the flotsam and jetsam that makes up the internet. And I ran across an AlterNet article, The Most Outrageous Media Comments of 2009 -- Glenn Beck Takes the Cake. I'm not going to link it here because I was nauseated by the content; if you want to read it, you know how to find it. I'm sure you already know what kinds of statements were made. Anyway, what I don't understand is this compulsion by those of the rightwing persuasion, the Republicans and other conservatives, to lash out in the most vile and ugly way. If I were a Republican, which I could have been back in the days of Eisenhower, I would be thoroughly ashamed of these people. Why aren't they being repudiated at the highest levels of the Republican Party? By Mr. Steele and others? Don't they have a responsibility to do that? Or is their silence a sign that they actually believe these ugly words? I know that the Left is not comprised of choirboys, but I don't remember any prominent Democrats making these kinds of statements. And I'm right. This is solely a problem of the Republicans and one that they should be ashamed of.

Just an idea

I was reading the headlines and noted that Elbo (as in 'doesn't know his...from his elbow') was in the hospital in Hawai'i and then I though some more...what if President Obama ordered up some flowers and then showed up at his bedside? Cool? I'm sure others have thought of it already, but it needs to happen...can you imagine the turmoil that would cause in that bloated windbags mind? He'd have to accept the flowers and the visit of course. But then, how would he explain it to his dittoheads? I guess he could tell them anything...they aren't bothered by facts or lack thereof.

New

A new post on my Short Laps blog

Resolutions?

I've wandered around the internet for a little while this morning and I noticed one thing missing; New Year's Resolutions. Oh, I'm sure they are out there, it's just that I didn't spot any in my first ten minutes of surfing. I think it's a good sign. The Resolutions just filled up space that could have been put to better use. But…I must offer one up, a sincere one. I resolve to be less of a curmudgeon this coming year. Despite the fact that I displayed some of that trait just a few sentences back. There's nothing wrong with being a grouch…it has its place. I just have to curb myself and enjoy others doing the griping. If I can.