no comment

D.C. shooting leaves 4 dead, 5 wounded

notes from the home front

1. I went to the shed and dragged out the deck furniture and put it on the deck. I know, She Who Must Be Heard will insist that it has to be cleaned, but I went ahead and sat on the resurrected deck swing and had 2 gin and tonics without first cleaning the cushions.

2. The neighbor man came out into his yard today and I noticed that he's walking more slowly and more decrepitly than last fall. I have to remember to practice not being decrepit or I'll be stumbling around half bent over, too.

3. We have a solitary Junco under our bird feeders right now. Doesn't she know it's still a long,long way to the Arctic? If she doesn't get a move on, she'll miss the mating season up there.

4. We hired someone to come this summer and fertilize our lawn and apply the weed control chemicals. I know this isn't hard work, but I don't want to do it anymore. I was never good at it anyway. I suppose the time will come when it's all outlawed in the name of ecology, and I won't care.

For reasons known only to the Masters of the Universe, the pictures I post on the blog keep disappearing. I will try to reload them later on and see if they can stay put.

For Sale

Lots of people have found pictures on their food: Jesus on French toast, the Madonna on a pancake, George Washington on a tree stump --- things like that. Then they sell them. What do you think I could earn on Ebay for this apple depiction of Eve's anatomy?

little quiz

who is this?

Once upon a time I had a high regard for John McCain. No longer.

opinion?

some questions: (sarcastic and creative answers are welcome, naturally.)

1. The local occasionally published newspaper in this community tells about a grandmother who allegedly swapped sexual favors with her sub-teen granddaughter for cocaine. Could you suggest an appropriate punishment for grannie, if guilty?

2. IRENE our correspondent in Australia, wonders if things are as bad as the press indicates in our country, with threats and hatred seeming to abound in our government over the health care law. What should we tell her?

She said:

What is going on? It all this being sensationalised – or are there really that many scary people (with guns probably) over there? If anything bad happens – will any of the people whipping up this ridiculous frenzy feel any remorse? I’m afraid not.

It's Caturday!

Some cool kitties in Kilronan

(and one of them is Amy)

Thursday Morning Smile-Maker

a glorious tradition

As you all know, both of the past two distinguished Vice Presidents are known to have dropped the "F-word" in a fairly public way. I got to wondering if other Vice Presidents were also known for using such f---ing language, and I found this:

=======

V.P. John Adams (yes, our very first V.P.): "My f---ing country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant f---ing office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived."

V.P. Thomas Marshall: "What this f---ing country needs is a good f---ing five-cent cigar."

V.P. John Nance Garner: "The Vice Presidency isn't worth a bucket of warm f---ing piss."

V.P. Richard Nixon: " ... the kids, like all kids, love the f---ing dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we're gonna f---ing keep it."

V.P. Al Gore: "I took the f---ing initiative in creating the Internet."

What Brenda says...

... and I believe all my children would agree with her. Makes a father proud!

:)

ramming

The comment I hate most to hear is the Republican refrain that "They rammed this health care bill down the throats of America."

It was in Congress for more than a year. Nothing has been more thoroughly debated. It has been proposed for a hundred years. So, the next time I hear "they rammed it down our throats," I may do just that, if the person is smaller and weaker than I am.

Bag it!

I was having a discussion with friends over coffee this morning, and I expressed this opinion:

If not for the Tea-baggers or the Tea Party people, the Health Care Reform Bill would not have been passed. They were as outrageous, noisy, and dishonest as they could be, they were all over the media, especially on Fox News, and their confusing message reached the majority of Americans just fine! We could all see what they were up to, and most of us hated them for their idiotic radicalism.

Let's see, what was that expression from the valley girl subculture? BAG YOUR FACE!

The Loyal Opposition

How the wacky opposition sees Obama.

Q: Do any of you folks who look at BIRCHES

worry about Socialism?

Australia, duck!

This morning, EST, a cyclone moved into Queensland, Australia, including the city of Brisbane.

This is where our friend and correspondent IRENE and her FAMILY live. Everyone keep them in your thoughts until next we hear from them!

Goodbye Stewart Udall

A great man.

Friend of JFK.

Friend of clean water, national parks, clean air, conservation.

"Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife are in fact plans to protect man."

corrections from JERRY

JERRY -

wishes to remind the gentlemen out there that you do not have a "beer gut" you have a LIQUID GRAIN STORAGE FACILITY.

---and that is not a "butt crack" it is a TROUSER CLEAVAGE.

Let's be careful, there, about our use of politically incorrect verbiology

Friends

some snapshots

fair punishment

Comment: no true Irishman would be robbing anyone on St. Pat's day. Anyone masquerading as a leprechaun or an irishman trying to rob a bank on Mar. 17, deserves harsh treatment, wouldn't you agree?

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Leprechaun-Garbed Holdup Suspect Among 2 Shot Dead

Updated: Wednesday, 17 Mar 2010, 5:33 PM PDT
Published : Wednesday, 17 Mar 2010, 5:33 PM PDT

GALLATIN, Tenn. (AP) - Police say two bank robbery suspects, including one dressed in a green leprechaun costume, have been shot dead after a St. Patrick's Day chase and shootout with police in Tennessee.

democracy in the balance

I believe that the health care bill will pass. Maybe I'll be eating my words in few days, but that's OK, I'm wrong a lot and am happy in the role of simpleton.

But, assuming I'm accidentally guessing correctly, how will this new expensive program be paid for?

There is plenty of money in this country to pay for social programs which are fair, democratic, and christian. But, many of those in government in the past couple of decades have assumed that because Reagan with his charming personality won two presidencies, therefore, his policies were popular. In hindsight, we should know better than this, but most people in the country are not versed in politics and policy anymore and are willing to settle for societal programs that are simple and designed to the specifications of money interests.

Thus, following Reagan, we find all the money we need to keep afloat large businesses who avoid taking the risks that capitalism requires, and instead dip into the public treasury whenever they've screwed up. (They dip in during good times as well.) We have any amount of money to encourage our businesses to right-size by moving their production facilities to other countries. Society provides all the money needed to pay CEO's, and their staffs and boards of directors, hellaciously exorbitant incomes.

But, when it comes to things like Medicare, we like to wring our hands and cry: "It's gonna go broke!" Blah-bah-blah. There is no need for these programs to go broke, it's a question of allocating society's resources to help care for "the least among us."

Such a large step in the adjustment of our thought processes would require a greater degree of christianity than most "Christians" can tolerate, and a greater level of democratic consciousness than most people with any money are willing to abide.

So, health care reform may pass the Congress and then fail for lack of funding just as Medicare is apparently going to be allowed to die, and Social Security as well. The future of social benefits will require a level of tolerance and sharing that "high society" has not lately been willing to face. As the middle class shrinks and the poorer class grows, and the upper class rakes it in, maybe we will reach a point where voters will decide to make a revolution.

Maybe.