Has It Come to This Again?

Tags

basketball, economy, Election 2012, health, liberalism, NCAA, packing, pornography, racism, Rick Santorum, women's rights

Friday.

I meant Friday.

My sweet brain cells are under extreme tension and stress.

I have lots of teams in the NCAA that I have to root for.

Sometimes, well that brings me into conflict.

I used to live in Connecticut. You know. Connecticut. Where basketball is akin to the Mayflower and that great experiment? It’s like the MOST important thing.

So, I’m a Huskies fan.

But I live in Iowa. So it would be ungracious of me not to support Iowa teams.

And when Connecticut plays Iowa. . . sigh. . . well you see my dilemma.

And then of course I support MSU, because that is my alma mater. So I get all twisted when MSU plays either Connecticut or either of the Iowa teams.

And NOW there is my about to be state: New Mexico. So there are two teams there. And I want to be a good New Mexican.

So. . .the potential for conflict is growing, well, exponentially.

¶

What kind of packer are you?

No, not football. Geesh. You and my husband!

No, I mean packing as in boxing up all your crap to move it to another location, packing.

I like to think I’m a pristine packer. Nice sleek boxes, nice tape. Packing carefully, lots of bubble wrap and peanuts, and very clean items, carefully chosen as necessary to my new about-to-be life.

At least throw out the crap you haven’t seen since the last time you unpacked, thirteen years ago.

S I G H

Instead, I’m dumping it in, and sealing it up, and thinkin’, “I’ll sort through that when we unpack.” or “I wash all that when I have a dishwasher again.”  I suck. I know it, and I keep on suckin’ at packing.

Speaking of which. Guess who has not placed one single item in one single box so far?

Guess.

You women know of what I speak.

¶

The noodle heads of course claim that racism exited stage left when MLK was declared the new human shield used by racists to declare their lack of racism. Ain’t no racism no mo’, I only judge by the content of the character!

Bully-crap.

As Juanita Jean so perfectly points out. There is nothing left to the imagination with this little bumper sticker coming to a car near you.

The new hate.

Is there anything but hate and “otherness” to these people?

At long last, have they no shame?

When they are not wrapping themselves in the American flag and proclaiming their way is  “the way” they are slipping on the white robe of morality and telling everyone else how to live righteously.

All the while they are doing the nasty and lookin’ at the porn quicker than anyone else.

Speaking of which, Squatlo Rant has a link to the story of a woman and what it means to be subject to the Texas sonograms law from a real life example.

¶

Meanwhile Ragin’ Rick is busy telling Puerto Ricans that they gotta learn to speak English and promising the rest of us, or them too, that he will spare no expense in having the Justice Department devote it’s time to eradicate pornography. He said he would personally look at it all, cuz he sure does know it when he sees it. Look out BARBIE, no more chest bumps for YOU.

This comes as great news to Americans who are looking for work. Perhaps they can be English teachers or porn identifiers in the new Santorum regime. Probably only a minimum wage job. . .oh I think Santorum is probably against minimum wage. . .makes ya dependent ya know.

¶

Constant Weader points us to this older Vanity Fair article to understand the awful state that Republican policies have put this economy in. It’s a valuable read. Joseph Stiglitz is the author.

Did you know that “performance bonuses” were changed to “retention bonuses” to reflect that there was little performance but they sure wanted to pay themselves that money anyway.

It’s about greed. I bet that comes as a surprise.

¶

This one just gave me a giggle. Written by a “purported” liberal turned conservative, it suggests all sorts of things that are patently untrue on the surface and beneath. This guy is about my age, maybe a bit younger. I did not grow up thinking capitalism was somehow bad. And duh, you might want to look at the numbers. Americans are far from the happiest people on the planet. They regularly fall far below most Europeans in life satisfaction. That darned anecdotal evidence thing again. An anecdote does not make a generalization dude.

 

I Learnt It, So You Doh’nt Halve Ta

Tags

basketball, blogging, contraception, GOP, humjor, Mitt Romney, search terms, Women's reproductive rights

Wanna go ride on my yacht?

Well, I do try.

I got to thinking this morning, “Sherry, old girl, just what have you learned this week?” And I said, wow, when you think about it, I learned a real lot.

And it would be simply wrong if you wasted your time searching out all this stuff on your own. We should work together, you know what I mean? So, here, nice and suck-cint, you can get all my know-it-all-ledge fer free.

So, without further ado (whatever ado is–a challenge for you!), let me get right to it.

First of all, I was pissed. I was really p.o.’d to learn that I was wasting all my youthful years counting pills and trying to remember to take one every day, except the seven days I wasn’t supposed to, and screwin’ it up half the time and then worryin’ about whether I was gonna get “that time of the month” or not. ‘

All I had to do, was get some damn aspirin.

I am thinkin’ about suing my gynecologist, if he is still alive.

Second, I learned (I’m slow, what can I say) that the Republican party is pretty much criminally perverted. Those white boys (most of  ’em are you know) have an inordinate interest in my ‘gina. The Virginie (Virgin get it? how freakin’ ironic is that?) Governor, whom some say wants to be Willard’s VEEP, should Willard EEP over Rut-roh Ricky, is poised to sign a bill that REQUIRES any “with child” female to have her lady parts probed by some instrument just to remind her that indeed she is preggers.

Now, besides being a sick invasion of my right to keep my legs together when I want to, it’s all the more evidence that these loonies don’t get any (men call it nookie) at home, or what they do get is of such poor quality that they obsess about it 24/7.

If you didn’t hear, Mr. Issa, (a busybody if there ever was one) had a hearing yesterday about ladies SEX-UAL rights, and the whole discussion was between a bunch of guys (what’s new about that I ask ya), and some of ’em even swear (which is only a promise to do their very best after all) off wimmen all together, but seem to know best what we should or shouldn’t do with our junk, if women’s ladies parts can be called junk, like guys boy parts are now called junk. Or is women’s junk only in the trunk? I get confused.

And I guess that when you swear to be a Republican, you are injected with some stupid ink, because even Scott Brown, the upset Massachewwww-sets Senator, who is trying to stave off that nice Elizabeth Warren, signed on to a  bill that would allow any business owner of ANYTHING the right to deny contraceptive coverage or any other health coverage that “violated his religious beliefs.”  Has he lost his mind?

I mean, there are some freakin’ idiotic religions out there, (and I don’t judge mind ya) but I sure don’t like the idea that some person can decide not to fund cancer care because God punishes people for not trusting in prayer and braying at the moon at 11 pm each night for a fortnight, all the while flipping a cold pancake in a skillet. (Trust me, if you look hard enough you will find such a religion.)

Well, are we only at three? Thirdly I learned that Neil Degrasse Tyson has gotta resign as a astrophysicist. This according to the Daily Show’s, Larry Wilmore. You see, Dr. Tyson is an African-American, and in a field of endeavor that is usually reserved for Asians (Michio Kaku, duh). By entering said field, he has upset the balance of the universe, which is why this kid Jeremy Lin has become this phenom in basketball, the unquestioned domain of the African-American world. So the universe demands a-righting. Certainly this makes sense.

Fourthly, I learned that a ton of folks who come to this blog come looking for themselves. This is proven by the following search terms that continue to lead:

• Your an idiot
• evolution jokes
• I’m stupid
• Elmer fudd

Now, I’m also, apparently a good place to learn about monkeys. Search terms “funny monkey weed in mouth,” and “monkeys having sex” are big here as well.

I am not sure what is going on with “vineyard bible” but I guess a lot of people find God in by imbibing wine.

I’m similarly confused about what “picture drowning in paper” is all about, but I suppose it relates to the fact that I continue to attract people not quite right in the head. Either that or Salvador Dali is alive and seeking inspiration.

Johnny Depp continues to be the most sought after search term. That just makes me smile. I wonder if he reads this. If so, I love you Mr. Depp, most respectfully of course. Of course.

Fifthly, or thereabouts, Willard said that the trees in Michigan are “just right”, as in height. I didn’t know that Michigan’s trees were different in height than say those in Maine or New Jersey, or even in tight-assed South Carolina. But he said he liked the height of the trees, and then went on to say that he loved the “lakes”. Not just the “great lakes” he assured, but all the other little lakes all over. And the cars, by God he loves the cars. He mentions Mustang a lot. If he can mention ten “facts” about Michigan, it means he’s connected to the state and you should vote for him. I guess that’s what it means.

Willard has an ad of him and his papa lookin’ out over something, except that it is not a scene from Michigan at all, but of some world’s fair, somewhere else. And the car that is featured is a Chrysler, and his dad ran GM which is not the same.

Willard is mixed up–a lot. I learned that real good. And he is trying to hard. It’s embarrassing. Really.

I’m wondering. Does the Mormon church teach that anyone who is President of the US get some special job in heaven? Willard seems so desperate.

Just sayin’.

Who Popped All My Balloons?

Tags

African Americans, basketball, Bryan Fischer, Butler, class, economy, elections, judges, racism, right-wing crazies, UConn, Wisconsin

It was a yawner, a dud, it was Much Ado About Nothing. Close your eyes, and miss nothing. You might have confused it for a high school state championship game.

About the best you can say, is that UConn played good defense. Butler? Where they even there?

Two jokes I came across. One is a WordPress blog post entitled:

“They should have shown Hawaii-5-0. There was better shooting.”

or this one:

‘If you compared Butler’s shooting percentage against the sobriety meter, you could have legally driven.”

After all the great games leading up to the final, this just didn’t deliver. UConn “won” mostly because they were there, occasionally putting the ball into the hoop. It won’t be one people “talk about” in future decades.

Wonder what’s happening in hockey? Are my Redwings doing anything?

♦

It comes as no surprise that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Vanity Fair puts it in some perspective with a nice piece. Our lopsided rich/middle/working/poor scale is akin to that of Russia and Iran, while Western Europe is much healthier. Yeah, lets keep gutting programs for the poor, and keep reducing taxes on the rich. That’s the ticket.

♦

Today is a biggie in Wisconsin. They are voting on judges. Self-defined conservative David Prosser is trying to keep his seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where he can “maintain the conservative” control and be a “complement to Governor Walker and the GOP controlled legislature”. Prosser called the Chief Judge a “bitch” and explains why that was not really his fault to Fox, you know, the place all the GOP comes to pitch their “fairness.” A left-leaning assistant attorney general is running against him. Apparently as of now, the numbers voting are extremely high. We are keeping our fingers and toes crossed.

♦

It always seems to me that the Uber Right hate just about everyone. Everyone that is except whites and the right kind of Christians. Super hater, Bryan Fischer is at it again. Now he wants the entire welfare system ended. In him pea brain, the increase in poverty is because we have welfare. And get this, it just encourages those people to “rut like rabbits.” Yeah, he actually said that. Read the full remarks at Right Wing Watch.

♦

Here’s an interesting question. If you  could  “be” someone else for a day or so, who are some folks you’d like to see from the inside out? Angry Black Lady Chronicles has some interesting choices. For me, Cleopatra, Hypatia, Mary Magdalene, Katherine Hepburn, Socrates, Einstein come to mind.

♦

I’ve said it a dozen times here at least. The extremist right-wing Christians are no different from radical Islam. Both want to force their religious views on everyone else. Br. Dan at Dating God, makes precisely this argument about Terry Jones, the moron who burned a Qur’an and undid a whole lot of progress in Afghanistan in one moment of madness. When hate is your mantra, you simply have turned your back on God.

♦

Chauncey DeVega poses a very interesting question about black pride and white prejudice. In a new world where Fox and tea parties turn racism on its head accusing blacks of being racist and portraying whites as the new black, how do we judge these terms. What do they mean? Are they different for blacks and whites? It has been the contention of most African-Americans I know, and something deeply instilled in my from years of working for African-Americans, that only white people can be racist. As DeVega says, blacks can be mean and awful in every prejudiced way, but never racist. Read and see what you think.

Carry on!

Related Articles

• Honorary Co-Chairman Of David Prosser’s Campaign Resigns (dekerivers.wordpress.com)
• Sarah Palin endorses hard-right Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate David Prosser (americablog.com)

I’M CONFLICTED!!!!

Tags

basketball, Butler, Donald Trump, GOP, UConn, wacko media

I’m seldom conflicted about sports. I like some, don’t like others, and am ambivalent about a few. Usually when I am watching an event, I either don’t have a horse in the race, or I do.

It definitely pays not to move around the country. I’m on my third state of residence, and nearing a fourth. The price I pay is conflict. And it is a heavy price indeed.

Having attended MSU, I’m naturally a Spartan, which causes conflict when MSU plays UConn or U of Iowa. This pertains to basketball only as to UConn, (they don’t typically field a decent football team) but pertains to football as well as regards MSU and U of Iowa.

Getting confused?

Well then, add in a generous love for USC and Notre Dame, and more conflict is possible.

I don’t like conflict. It makes me itchy and bitchy, and I start wringing my hands. Worst of all is a conflict that is a nail biter. Then I’m near frantic.

I don’t like my favorite teams to be in nail-biters. My very LIFE depends on them winning. If they knew that they would no doubt try even harder. I’ve thought perhaps I should drop them a line and tell them, but no doubt I’m not alone in this, so I figure they get the drift.

I cannot bear a three-hour period of ups and downs, a rolling stomach, taken to the heights of ecstasy and to utter despair. I’m worn to a frazzle by the end, and need a vacation.

I had to go through that on Saturday. Butler and VCU, both Cinderella teams, went down to the wire for the most part. Butler is not really a Cinderella team, but close enough as an 8 seed. VCU was the phenom team coming in at #11. I wanted both to win. I couldn’t take sides. This was a fairly difficult emotional ladder to climb.

As to the other game, UConn played Kentucky. At #3 and #4, it figured to be close, and did not disappoint in that regard. Well, it disappointed me, because I was a basket case by the end, with a one point win by UConn.

Tonight is the championship game, and Butler, the little engine that could is up against an always perennial favorite UConn. My old and hole-ridden UConn t-shirt is still buried deep in the drawer. I, who normally functions on the theory of “haven’t used it in three years, throw it out” can’t bear to part with my cute Huskies Tee.

Sigh. I don’t know what to do tonight. Truly I don’t. My heart is torn in two. It is what the Manning’s must feel like when Eli and Peyton face off in football. I can’t bear to think of either of them losing, though one must. If you have a remedy for what will surely be an awful tomorrow, please send it along!

♦

I’m in love with the Republican party. It just gets wackier and wackier and there is no end in sight. Sadly, at least for people like me, Sarah’s star seems to be turning into a white dwarf. Does anybody even mention her much any more? But Michele is babbling faster and more often, and everyone is listening to her, if only for the giggle factor. She is simply a walking joke.

So is Mikey, as his remarks get more outlandish by the minute. And Herman Cain is simply a hoot as “step and fetch it”. But the new butt-funny on stage is none other than one Donald Trump, the man with a head of “hair” one would just like to dissect to see how he grows it in a circle. (I actually saw a man when I was teenage who grew the fringe at the back of his head, and then wound it around in a bizarre configuration so that it covered his nearly bald head.)

Anyway, Trumpy has resurrected the “birther” issue, which makes us all happy, since that turns off virtually anyone with any claim to sanity. Now he is joined by Hannity and supported by Limbaugh and Beck in thinking that we need to retake Iraq and seize the oil and get our “damned money back.” I mean, it’s all their fault that we invaded in the first place, and they were supposed to fund our mess there.

This all leads to one very serious conclusion. Trumpy may  be a good businessman, and that’s a mighty big may,  but he’s nuttier than aunt Bonnie’s choke-on-it fruit cake on matters outside business. Given that the world is facing a corporate take-over, we must conclude that lunacy is coming our way.

Meanwhile across the land, the GOP will reap the whirlwind for its attempt to destroy its opposition by union busting and voter suppression. Traditionally conservative and GOP supporting Firefighters and Police unions are joining up against the GOP as a result of their sordid attempts to hurt workers in America.

I’m reasonably sure that what sane heads remain in the GOP see all this as a necessary cleansing. A serious drubbing in the 2012 cycle should help to purge them of the Teabugger element, allow them to continue to court, without doing a damn thing, the religious right, and recapture some sanity within their ranks.

We shall see.

♦

What’s on the stove? Homemade sub sandwiches and homemade potato salad. It’s spring after all!

The Day the Earth Stood Still. . . Really!

Tags

basketball, Humor, Iowa, JayHawks, Kansas, March Madness, NCAA, UNI

People all over America ran out and stood on their porches. They listened, and faintly at first, then reaching a bellowing crescendo, a hue and cry of agony was heard emanating from the Midwest, Kansas to be specific. The death knell of a Jay Hawk rendering it’s last lamentable screech, as it plummeted to earth with a thud.

Meanwhile, mathematicians across the world threw aside all interest in string theories and unified universes and multiple ones, to concentrate on the singularly most important question the world needed to know: How did they do it?

Formulae was expounded, tested, as slide rules slid, and computers byted, and super minds twirled out the numbers. It was declared an impossibility. No, this could not be. In fact, so great was the unlikelihood of such a thing happening, that all manner of other phenomenon was reported across the globe.

Reports from Damascus declared that clocks ran backwards, while astronomers at Palomar noted an axial shift, where North became South. Coffee cups fell off counters as the earth’s rotation came to a halt and began the laborious effort to move in reverse. There were selected reports of hell freezing over, mostly at luaus in Hawaii.  Movie rentals phoned in that there were astronomically enlarged sales of Charlton Heston movies, especially Soylent Green and Planet of the Apes.

We cannot report the news from the super secret doomsday computer model shifts, buried deep in the belly of Cheyenne Mountain. But rumors suggest that projections have caused workers there to scurry home to drink lots of Bosco and put on their footed jammies.

The unthinkable happened, and I’m still reeling, and wondering of course if it all wasn’t just a big hoax. Reports are circulating throughout Hollywood, which is poised to make a movie, due out Tuesday, about the occurrence that may not actually have happened. Jay Hawk fans still hold out the hope that it was just a massive hypnotic delusion from which we all will awaken on Monday.

But, still, one cannot deny the rumors. Was this all a massive hoax? I mean really really massive. Like in the entire NCAA? It is claimed that a number of the bracket makers (all now in hiding) were heard grumping that they had never actually every pulled off a great April Fools Day prank. So there is some evidence that, yes, we have all been taken for a ride.

It would seem that the NCAA agreed to have the teams change places in the game. Thus the Jay Hawks were actually the UNI Panthers and vice versa. This has been played out in all the tournament games so far. It worked to a limited degree, however, the very rarefied air of pretending to be the better team seems to have enlivened some teams to play out of their collective behinds and actually win as “expected.”

Still, there has been what the Foolers planned–a ginormous number of “Cinderella” wins. For years, the brackets have been done so professionally that there was seldom even one. In fact, there was often no legitimate Cinderella  contender at all. At best, we got Harriet, her sister, who is more akin to Ugly Betty than a beautiful princess.  This year, there are so many that it’s getting embarrassing. So many man-boys all sweaty and big footed, struggling to squeeze size 11 feet into glassine pumps of a size 4.

Indeed, we  the loyal college B-Ball contingent, would admit, the Cinderella phenomenon is essential to a “good” tournament. We love the upset about as much as the NASCAR beer swilling trailer home crowd enjoys wrecks at the oval. I mean what other point is there?

In Beckian logic, this probably can be interpreted as proof that there is a massive gay agenda being played out in the March Madness arenas. And doesn’t this stand to reason, since there is something pretty darn gay about March Madness when you think about it. I’ll be interested to get Glenn’s take on Monday, assuming he’s not still in his bunker.

I’ve heard that there were huge gigantic “tournaments” on line where people registered their bracket choices. I’m told there were more than half a million at one site. I’m told that all but twelve have now lost. Wall Street stands poised for a run on the banks, as they sweat out the opening of overseas markets tomorrow.

Oh, the inhumanity! Forget the health care vote, forget global warming, the chitty job market, and the slow slogging of the economy–this is Armageddon folks. If I should stop typing suddenly, you will know that the Raptu……………………………………………………….

No U-Turns, Follow the Map

Tags

basketball, blogs, Books, Contrarian, crafting, health care reform, Hollywood, life in the meadow, March Madness, pedophilia, right wing, Roman Catholic Church, Sandra Bullock, snow, spring

Oh, excuse me. Don’t mind me. I’m just dribbling. A little idea here, a little factoid there. Nothing much to alert the press about. Surely no need to take to the bomb shelter. Just the sleepy weekend fare.

The Contrarian is cooking today. “Stay out of the kitchen, woman–I’m in charge!” Okay, as I creep away, hiding behind a computer. Forewarned is forearmed. Naw. Actually he produces a great meal sometimes, and an edible one at all times. It’s safe to continue.

We got a couple of inches of snow last night. I did not explode in expletives however. I took it in “stride” as my new found peace dictates. I’m embracing the beauty, smiling at the bright blue sky, and recalling the three fat robins perched outside the bedroom window on the lilac bushes. “Agnes, I said we should wait a week. Now we have to get all wet in this mess!”

We are up to our eyeballs in March Madness. It’s the year of the upset. They predicted there wouldn’t be any or darn few. They were wrong. So were  those folks who created the brackets this year. So wrong. Being right, means four one’s end up in the final four. Not this year. Prince charming is gonna have his choice of Cinderellas this year.

The Roman Catholic church continues to grapple for a hold on sanity as it spirals into hell for it’s treatment of pedophile priests. The cover up seems to still be uncovering and it’s dirtying more and more of the higher ups. It’s sad, pathetic, horrific. The harm that they have done is so far reaching as to be nearly incalculable. All Christendom is tainted. I cannot not imagine how this was reconciled as somehow being Christ-like by offending clergy and superiors.

The health care reform bill seems poised to pass amidst all the hoopla. Everyone is counting heads, trying to maintain the suspense. There is no end to the lies and silly walks the opposition seems ready to pull. Now it’s some vast mean offense against God to vote on Sunday. I think Jesus actually spoke to that–the sabbath being created for man and not man for the sabbath? Something like that. But Monday should be interesting. If it passes (as I suspect it will), we shall wait and see if the earth still spins on Monday, or if it is burnt to a cinder by Satan’s minions. Cast your bets.

Sandra Bullock, after making all kinds of speeches about her wonderful husband, Jesse James (the name should have alerted the girl no?), has left him for his years long infidelity. Some people care, and I wonder why. I mean as a human, I am sad she is sad, but beyond that? Doesn’t cross my radar. Yet, we, the great egalitarian society (so we protest against clear evidence to the contrary) continue to place people on pedestals and expect them not to be like “us.” Go figure that one out.

I’ve bogged down in my knitting, which always happens. Remember, I am not addicted to any craft–no passion. So, after a few weeks, I get tired of purling and knitting and yarn overing and all that. I’m poised to return to crochet, some lacy edgings that I can sew together for a spring shawl? I’ll get a quarter or so done, before that wanes too. It’s me, and I’ve come to accept it. Somehow, they all get done, over time.

I’m about to finish a book on Christian women in the fourth century. It’s not as good as I expected. Next on the agenda is a tome on the Reformation. It’s a subject I’m woefully not well versed in. I’m interested in reading some Camus and some Philo as well. I’m itching for a trip to the bookstore next week, if the weather allows it.

I’ve spent some hours this morning reading blogs. It’s so refreshing to do. I learn a lot, am uplifted. I laugh, I nod in agreement, and once or twice, I yelped in horror. Thanks Randal, I really really needed that pic seared into my skull! I try always to spend some time with cheeseburger and hotdog pics. They always make me happy. Jan always has words of wisdom. Madpriest takes us to task on things we should be taken to task for. Dave reminds us of things that fully sensory folks take for granted. Blisterina takes awesome photos that just make the spirit soar. I could go on, but you probably read them all too, and more than me.

So, have yourselves a pleasant Saturday. Remember to take some time to have fun, relax and stop to smell a rose or two along the way.