Can You Stand the Excitement?

Tags

Congress, gay rights, genetically modified foods, GOP, life in the foothills, New Mexico, North Korea, racism

It’s been another long week. It’s been a productive one. All the usual stuff and lots of home improvement stuff going on.

We have the fence around the front nearly done. The guy will be back this weekend to finish off the last side with the gate. He’ll weld on site. And then paint and we will be done.

Ernest, our great handy man is going to tile the “front porch”. He’s looking for some tiling to make some patterns with. Turquoise is our favorite color, or mine at least.

The Contrarian finished two L-shaped flower boxes to rim the walk leading to the front door. And he plans two more, a long box underneath the bedroom window which will be a about 6 feet in length and a triangle one that will sit in the corner of the fencing. It’s a nice beginning to our jazzing up the front. We actually like to sit out there, and Diego will soon be able to keep track of everyone in the neighborhood without wandering down to see “how everybody’s doing.”

In the back, I have a few more planters to do. The flowers are lined up and ready to go. We’ve got our vegetables and plenty of top soil to fill the planters. That’s tomorrow’s job. We’re planning one more long planter for the back south wall yet.

All in all, we’ve been adding a lot to the place. Ernest has another couple french doors that we may just cut down and install as long windows to frame out the patio area. That would leave it enclosed on three sides and open just at the end. That makes at very cozy, while we can open two of the french doors and get additional breezes when needed. A flat screen will be put in the corner, and we should be having ourselves basically another room to enjoy.

I signed up at Santa Rosa yesterday. Such a forlorn little church, but the new one, should it ever be finished, will be wonderful. It’s styled as an old adobe mission church. They were well on the way to finishing when the economic bottom fell out of the economy, and bank loans dried up. It’s been on hold for a few years now. Hopefully our new bishop will see fit to steer some funding toward finishing the building. I don’t know a lot about parish financing, but I think each is required to stand on its own feet financially. The people there are so warm and loving, that I cannot but think that good things will happen.

Just to keep you up on things. The 5/2 “diet” plan, of fasting two days and eating normally is working very well. I barely notice the fasting days, starting and ending at 1 pm on Tuesday-Wednesday, an Thursday-Friday. I’ve lost five pounds over the first month, which is slow, but steady, and like I said, I barely notice I’m “dieting”. I’m looking at this as the normal way for me to eat and live from now on. I know Larry had done fabulously well on his vegetarian diet. I salute his bravery and commitment.

Hey if you see that little twit, Kim Jong Un around anywhere, grab him. What that kid needs is a good spanking. Did anybody ever tell him that you can’t sabre rattle without a sabre? Or is he simply seeking to declare war on American for the foreign aid once defeated? 🙂

If you want to know what is so very wrong with Congress, you need look no further than Senator Roy Blunt. He’s the (in the hip pocket of agribusiness) jackass who with the help of Monsanto, added a rider to an unrelated bill, which protects Monsanto from being sued over it’s genetically altered foods. Monsanto of course contributes big to Blunt’s war chest. The rider is specific to Monsanto. Blunt added it “anonymously” as Senators are allowed to do, but word finally got out that he was the culprit. Blunt is known as one of the worst “bought and paid for” politicians around and was a favorite of criminal Tom DeLay during his House years.

You know, I sometimes wonder if Republicans think of anything else but butt sex and bestiality. I mean Louis Gollllly Gohmert said that opening the door to marriage equality would lead to “animal love.” As Jon Stewart put it, “do they really think that people are going around thinking. . . .”God that goat looks good, but dang, it’s illegal!”. Now the Attorney General of Virginia and probably candidate for governor, Ken Cuccinelli,  is just not gonna let the state sodomy law go down the tubes without a fight. He’s petitioning the Federal court to reconsider its conclusion that the law was unconstitutional on its face. I mean dude, do you have nothing better to do? I’m beginning to think that Republicans are some sick mothers.

If any of you have ever heard of Wilcox County High School, well you are doing better than me. You have no doubt heard of those Japanese soldiers who have lived for 60 years on South Pacific islands, never knowing that WWII ended? Well, At Wilcox County High, they never heard of the civil rights movement. That’s in Georgia of you weren’t aware?

Seems that the school holds and HAS ALWAYS held two proms. . . .one integrated, and the other “whites only”. And it’s just not in name only either. In 2012, a biracial student was turned away by police for trying to attend the Whitie prom. The school has no intention of changing things either.

There is no longer any racism in America. Let’s make that very clear.

See ya Saturday–It’s the FINAL FOUR! GO ANYBODY BUT MICHIGAN CUZ I HATE THAT SCHOOL!

Related articles

• Sen. Roy Blunt: Monsanto’s Congressional Judas (amresolution.com)
• Surprised? Monsanto Openly Wrote Own Monsanto Protection Act (12160.info)
• Top Senator Apologizes for Monsanto Protection Act (blacklistednews.com)

Yeah It’s Good For Some

Tags

corporations, drones, economy, Individual Rights, North Korea, Scalia, SCOTUS, wealthy

The Stock Market hit a new high.

Corporate profits are probably at all-time highs as well.

The people who do the work? Not so much.

Between 1979 and 2007 59.9% of gains in income went to the top 1%, 36.7% alone going to the top 0.1%. During that period, gains by the 90%? A mere 8.6%.

Productivity has increased since 1950 by 254%. During that same period, wages went up 113%, and most of that increase occurred by 1975. Productivity, on the other hand, has risen steadily and continues to rise.

The response of the corporate board room to the recession has been to find more efficient ways to accomplish their target goals. They devote their R and D to the purpose of creating a cheaper way to make their product. Cheaper never involves hiring workers. They would make their products devoid of human workers if that were possible. Machines don’t require health care benefits and pensions. They don’t need money devoted to safe working conditions and lunch breaks.

Don’t tell me, please that corporations are job creators. They are profit creators, and hiring is now the last resort to accomplishing that goal. That’s why Wall Street is doing so well, and yet the unemployment figures are still so high. It’s got zero to do with regulations or very little. It’s got very little to do with “uncertainty” about what the buffoons in Congress are going to do. It’s got to do with profit. There is no morality here. It’s not part of the capitalistic model.

Meanwhile, there was this farcical drama in North Korea.

The pity is that the media thought any of this worthy to report upon. Dennis Rodman is a delightful entertainer. As an intellectual, well, he leaves a great deal to be desired.

His “opinion” is about as useful as that of a three-year-old. And I like the dude. He’s had a tough life as a kid, and he’s managed to make a good life for himself. I give him credit.

Kim? Oh good lord, he never got spanked as a child, that is certain. And I’m not much for corporal punishment either.

But he definitely needed spanking. In fact he needs spanking now. He’s always in the middle of a tantrum.

And dude, find a new barber. That haircut is silly. Seriously.

It’s hard to judge this Supreme Court. I’m not sure if we haven’t had this kind of horror before, when the Court was filled with really nutty people who make a mockery of the Constitution.

The Dred Scot Court comes to mind. That must have been an awful one.

But it would be hard to argue that this one is close to the top of the list of really awful benches.

Scalia is an intellectual joke, playing word games about original intent of the Framers, when all it comes down to is his personal disgusting beliefs.

Calling the right to vote a “racial entitlement”. And then suggesting that instead of testing a law against the Constitution, he has a new job–doing the dirty work for Congress, meaning that Congress is too beholden to special interests and can’t do the “right” thing because it might cost them an election.

So Scalia to the rescue. Doing the “right” thing. What a douche.

Let me get this straight.

Some Republicans are all upset at the use of drones against US citizens.

Got that.

No Republicans ever raised this issue when Bush starting using them.

Don’t get that.

In American courts, EVERYone, citizen or not, is gets the same rights.

Got that.

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith is arrested in Turkey. He is moved from Turkey to Jordan (Turkey prohibits the extradition of prisoners to those few countries that still practice the use of the death penalty and we are one of THOSE countries) and then transported from Jordan to the US for trial.

Got that.

Republicans are incensed because he can’t be interrogated properly except at Guantanamo (he was interrogated by an elite force of experts in Turkey and talked to the tune of some 20 pages), and because he is a bad dude and has no right to the rights granted him in our civilian courts.

Don’t get that.

Morality sure winds a crooked course in the Republican mind. And incidentally, in a good many Democratic ones as well.

Just a word about something I care about.

I am now the Sunday morning cat adoption “cleaner” for Pet Smart. I do this through a local adoption group in my area called A.W.A.R.E. What I learned is that Pet Smart joins with local animal groups across the country to adopt out animals. That’s a good thing.

My job is to clean the cages, feed and water where these cats live, and to play with them as much as I wish while I’m there. This is done twice a day, seven days a week, all serviced by volunteers.

My only point here, is that if you are interested in adopting a kitten, think of them as a source. You are not getting a “kitten” mill animal, but one that has been rescued and needs a good home. Prices are typically $50, and all animals are already spayed or neutered and have all their shots. In some cases the animals may come from the local shelter. You will probably get a bit better animal, since these kittens get more socialization than those typically housed in shelters.

I have no agreements of any kind with Pet Smart or A.W.A.R.E. in return for these statements. It’s only because I care about the animals. Perhaps other pet stores do the same. I haven’t inquired.

 

Related articles

• Scalia Calls Voting Rights Act ‘Perpetual Racial Entitlement’ (crooksandliars.com)
• Why Scalia’s ‘Racial Entitlement’ Quote Is Even Scarier Than You Think (thinkprogress.org)
• Voting is no ‘racial entitlement,’ Justice Scalia (tv.msnbc.com)
• Dennis Rodman Puts The New Abnormal Into Absurd Perspective (zerohedge.com)

 

It’s All in How You Look at It

Tags

Ann Romney, GOP nuts, Humor, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, North Korea, NRA, nuclear weapons, Second Amendment, sexism, Wisconsin, Women's issues

On the one hand, we can breathe a sigh of relief that the North Koreans remind us more of a group of Keystone Kops than they do a serious nuclear threat.

Li’l Kim Jr. seems about as silly as Li’l Kim Sr.

Both employ the world’s most awful barber, and both look like munchkins from the Wizard of Oz.

But there is a human side to all this too.

How would you like to be the group of “scientists” who Li’l Kim will call to his throne to ” ‘splain exactly how it was you made me look like a fool in front of the rest of the world?”

I mean, Gulag time in North Korea must be rather unpleasant given that most North Koreans would welcome transfer to the old Russian Gulag as a step up in living standards.

The GOP acted like a dog with a new bone, and since it’s been so long since they had a bone of any kind, they gnawed the hell out of it.

First of all, Ms. Rosen has zero connection to the Obama re-election campaign. She is a paid pundit for CNN and lobbyist for a whole array of companies.

Second, what we said here yesterday.

But the GOP will beat the heck out of this until it no longer resembles anything that anyone can even remember any more. When you are that short on actual policy, well, that’s what ya gotta do.

Back in Wisconsin, the GOP is busy making mischief in the upcoming primary for a Democratic candidate to replace the Koch-backed Scott Walker.

It seems to them a good idea to create “temporary Democrats” from their own ranks to “enter” the Democratic primary and run against real Democrats.

Why they think that is smart, moral, logical, or American I do not know.

But then I never claimed to understand the mush that passes for Republican brains these days. And given the scary stuff we see from them, I don’t think I’m going to start any time soon.

Is this what they assume is a wise use of tax dollars? Running faux candidates? Do they actually have any real policies that help people? I mean people in the sense of real working folks instead of the people in the sense that Willard means when he says, “corporations are people too my friend!” ?

Well, never let it be said in AmeriKA that elections can be bought! No sirreee!

Remember in AmeriKA we say, “any boy, err (politically correct correction) child, can grow up to be president.”

Yes they can.

As long as daddy was the president of a car company, and you made millions as a venture capitalist and you married a rich girl.  Not much more than your average kid has growing up.

Nope, not much more.

+++

Yesterday we learned that Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, saved a woman in a burning building. All manner of humor on Twitter then ensued. My favorite?

Chris Christie raced into a burning bakery and saved a pan of cinnamon buns.

I am mean aren’t I?

+++

Speaking of corporations.

Yes, I think this says it.

Which reminds me that Connecticut is gonna end the death penalty in that state.

For people who place such an emphasis on protecting life, I expect the TeaNutz are ecstatic.

Ya think?

Oh yeah, logic, logic, logic. They missed it at the brain deli. Should have labeled it pink slime. Then they might have dug in.

+++

It’s good to know that high-powered business men no longer are sexists. I know that’s the case when I read about Roger Ailes remarks at a talk he was giving to journalist students the other day. He was referring to Soledad O’Brien, journalist for CNN. (my paraphrase)

She’s that girl that’s named after a prison.

Yeah, I guess that was really funny Roger, and so appropriate for JOURNALISM students, you freakin’ idiot.

 I know little guy. I feel the same way.

I’m praying that old Newtie sticks around a while longer.

What with bouncing a $500 check, and selling his donor list to raise some cash, the poor guy must be staying at Best Westerns now.

No?

Oh, he and Callista are still using the private jet? And still demanding security? And she requires two assistants still? And one dresses in a rabbit suit to promote her book at all times? Wow.

Are we really sure that they are NOT on a book tour instead of running for office?

And we hear Newt said that he wants a UN resolution that every person on the planet should have a gun. For protection ya know.

He said that at the NRA, “love your gun, and hate that Kenyan President” fest just yesterday.

Newtster just wants a bit of extra cash to flow his way, even if it is stuck on the end of a bayonet–the latest in home security. Damn that Russian caviar is sooo expensive.

You do not want me to get started on the NRA and that LaPierre poop jackass, idiot, hate-mongering, death applauding, single good reason to maintain a death penalty, miserable grifter, president of the Guns R Us fanatic brigade. No you do not.

 

 

 

Which Scares You Most?

Tags

advertizing, bill of rights, Constitution, Election 2012, freedom, God, GOP, heaven and hell, Humor, Newt Gingrich, non-citizens, North Korea, religious fundamentalists

I have to tell you, I’m pretty much stumped here.

Both send shivers down my spine I tell ya.

If you knocked on your neighbor’s door and looked upon either of these alternatives, I think you might start digging that bunker about now.

While I applaud devices that tend to bring families together, I kinda draw the line at footed jammies complete with hoodies and fingerless mittens, all to enjoy the frigid environs of one’s own family room.

Oh, and you can get your name on yours so you never have to be concerned about getting into somebody else’s stinky jammie.

I understand that next year’s fashion mavens are already calling for an embedded microwave and poo bag attachment, all to eliminate those troublesome trots to the pee-room.

On the other hand, nukes in the hands of the spawn of an idiot is not a pleasant thought either.

I hear tell the spawn-apparent, Kim Jong-un has already set off a couple of missiles that fell into the ocean, in celebration of his ascension to the top of the nut-tree.

So, it’s a toss-up in my view.

♦

Meanwhile, back in our own circus tent, Newty seems to have begun to fall already. Paul is now in the lead in Iowa, which proves something, I’m just not sure what. Mostly I think it means that Iowan’s are just bored as hell this time of year. Fallow fields, and a general color of grey-brown, is after all, boring.

But don’t get your hopes up Ricky S., the bell tolls, but not for thee. See, Ricky, we here in Iowa, just dad-gum-it, don’t like you. It’s just that simple. Go home.

Newty, ya barely kept the lead for two weeks! We thought you had better staying power than that. But you just can’t do it can ya? You just can’t keep your mouth in check. Talking about having judges arrested to justify decisions you don’t like, well, good grief Oh Slimy One, that was just not gonna catch on. Not even here in Iowa. And we like to punish judges here as good as the next guy. But REALLY.

You did not think that one through Gangsta Gingrich. You can’t ignore and intimidate judges and then talk about how you’re a constitutionalist. See they have courts in Iran my grifter friend, and they do quality stamp the state’s decision there. And if we do that here, well, it really screws up the argument that we gotta get ready to force  regime change there, cuz of their Mullah-dictatorships.

Getting my drift, NG? Well, it’s probably too late now. So it’s probably best you high tail it down to Callista’s next kiddie book signing, cuz my buddy, that is your future.

We could have had lots more fun, but your mouth got in the way. I guess we always knew it would.

♦

Well, we understand that the President (whom we rather like most all of the time) has agreed to sign a bill that allows for the detention of enemy combatants arrested on American soil, for virtually as long as forever given that a war on a thing, (terrorism) is not likely to ever end.

Now we understand that the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed with the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals that “undocumented aliens” are not entitled provisions under our Constitution, such as freedom from search and seizure and so forth. Such provisions are, in the Constitution, “reserved to the people.” Both courts now claim that “people” refer to “political community” and that “illegals” are not part of that.

My question, (or comment) is this: If we think these concepts are “human rights” and we are always trying to export them, sometimes with force, around the world, then how do we justify in not applying them to what I would term “inconvenient” subsets of humanity in our own land?

I just don’t get that. Not at all. Maybe this scares me more than hoodie-footies.

♦

If you go grocery shopping this week, don’t expect to find any cayenne powder around. It’s all be sold out. I gigantic order was placed by North Korea, and sprayed liberally over crowds ordered to appear in the streets to show their sorrow at the passing of Kim Jong-il. If you hadn’t noticed, people are crying all over the place there.  And they have the pictures to prove it.

♦

The Contrarian argues that God was too busy weeping over the Packer loss yesterday to pay his customary attention to Tim Tebow’s Denver Broncos. Well, he can’t be everywhere!

♦

Bryan Fischer, all around equal-opportunity hater of huge chunks of humanity, just had to speak up on the death of Christopher Hitchens. In a brilliant tour-de-force of logic, Fischer assures us all that Hitchens is in hell.

Now you might say, well, what would you expect Fischer to say? And I agree, but his logic, now that’s the real sweet spot here. He claims that God sent him there out of His perfect love. Hitchens asks for it, and he got it.

So, God, hey, I would like to move to New Mexico, and find a $5 million dollar house, on a foreclosure sale for only $25,000. It’s what I am really asking for.

♦

Is it just me, or didn’t the GOP jackasses in Congress swear that with their ascendency in the House there would be no more bills with riders that have zero to do with the major portion of the bill? Okay, leaving that aside, once again The House GOP has found itself caught between its own stupidity and the TeaNutz®. Or in other words, it’s caught between itself and itself.

They have, in their infinite dumbness, stopped the implementation of regulations designed to put in place the energy-efficient light bulbs. Now they have done this for a couple of reasons. First, their insane drooling miniscule crazies in the trailer-parks they pander to, think having “light bulbs of choice” is a “freedom” that must be fought to be retained. And second, the word “regulation” makes then salivate and lose their ability to hear.

Well, industry folks, you know, GE, Phillips, Osram Sylvania, you know, the JOB CREATORS WHO MAKE BULBS, are livid. Since they have all retooled and are busy about the business of making the new bulbs, they WANT THE FREAKIN’ RULES TO CHANGE. The  moronic TeaNutz® sit and scratch their nether regions, all the while shrugging and wondering what they did wrong.

♦

Okay. Now get the shovel and start digging that bunker.

 

 

 

Related articles

• American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer: God Sent Hitchens to Hell Because He Loved Him (littlegreenfootballs.com)
• God Sent Christopher Hitchens to Hell Because He Loved Him – Bryan Fischer – Focal Point (richarddawkins.net)

Just a Little Off the Top?

Tags

DADT, foreign policy, GOP, John McCain, North Korea, religious right, Sarah Palin, sex, STD's, wikileaks, Women's issues

I stopped after church yesterday to get my hair cut. It’s a fancy place, La Cost Cutters. French I think. They are intent on bringing high coiffure to the average jane, so they locate in Wal-Mart.

Now let me explain that my hair grows like the worst weed you’ve ever encountered. I imagine zillions of little guys on bicycles pedaling away, spinning out my hair.

For years I solved this problem by not getting it cut and wearing it loooooong. This finally grew tiresome and I started whacking it off around the shoulders and then just twisting it up and clipping it. I am tres chic.

Finally I grew tired of this, so I decided to get ‘er done in a short style, something most old women (which I’m now approaching) finally do. I wanted it short. The first stylist did a great job. That was several months ago. Since then, I’ve had a line of stylists who seem to have difficulty with the word “cut.” They nibble around at the edges.

“Go ahead and cut it. It grows so fast that no ‘to short’ will last more than two weeks,” I encourage.

But they don’t get it. They are afraid. Or, it’s a conspiracy to get more money out of me by getting me there more often.

But what gets me is the strange questions. “Cut it about one inch,” I order, while showing them with my fingers.

They cut the crown, and then ask, “Do you want any taken off the sides?”

“I dunno,” I want to say, “does it not all grow at the same time?”

I mean if it needs an inch cut off, wouldn’t that mean all over? Or from their perch above me, are they seeing something up there that I don’t? Am I a genetic abnormal?

I probably could solve all this by requesting the same stylist. But I go on Sunday after all, and they rotate those schedules. And further more, I really don’t give a flying floozy much about my hair, just want it presentable. I like the convenience of “walking in” and have no desire to make stupid appointments.

Perhaps I have the wrong insider language. You know, hair lingo. Help me here. Am I somehow saying things wrong?

Anyway, mostly I like my hair. A quick wash, a little “do” and let it dry, and brush it. And, well, it’s good to go. All this because the Contrarian assured me that he never was with a group of men who saw a great looking woman go by where anyone exclaimed, “look at that hair-do! wow, isn’t it great?” They seemed, he noted, to be more enamored of certain other features, mostly on the front end above the waist, if ya get my drift.

My hair thanks them for this.

***

I don’t have links to this but I read it over the weekend. Someone reported that John McCain is talking about “regime change” in North Korea. Now that sends a major chill down the spine doesn’t it? Thank God he is not the CIC.  And on the DADT front, John, who cannot get anyone in the military to agree with him, came out with this nasty mean remark:

There was never anything wrong with DADT. It was working fine, until an inexperienced” candidate for President decided to mess with it. (paraphrased)

John is just the worst sort of sore loser I’ve come across.

***

I’m not sure how I feel about the “wikileaks” thing. I guess my government is more incompetent than I thought. Generally I’m not in favor of secrets. But I recognize that sometimes very sensitive negotiations require it. In the end, I guess openness all the way around works best. But I’m persuadable on this issue. What say you?

***
Another thing I noted in reading over the weekend. STD’s are way up in Southern Alaska, home of “just say no” abstinence. HIV infection is up in the South where states embrace abstinence only and other tactics to make it difficult for people to get HIV inhibitor drugs. Doncha just love the compassion of the religious right? How’s that abstinency thing workin’ for ya Sarah, as someone noted.

***

A new Palinism:

I want to help clean up the state that is so sorry today of journalism. And I have a communications degree.”—To Sean Hannity, in a Fox News interview, Nov. 22, 2010.

***

Palin continues to demonstrate her complete lack of comprehension about much of anything. She apparently recently tweeted that since she was able to stop publication of parts of her latest ghostly written book, the government should be able to stop the wikileaks. To equate her silly book and government secrets in the same breath is breathtakingly stupid. The laws and court cases governing are NOT remotely the same. But of course, she doesn’t read so we can’t expect her to know that.

Okay, so my fascination with this train wreck continues. I find her laughable, but I also find her dangerous should she continue to manipulate the public for her own personal aggrandizement. AlterNet provides you with some provocative reactions to Sarah’s testing of the waters.

***

If it comes as a surprise that the GOP has so many women in the mix these days, think again. This doesn’t mean that women are finding their voice in the GOP. They are there because they assist in the Repucklian plan to reduce women to the stay at home little non-entities they think they really are. Read the Republican War Against Women.

Related Articles

• Conservatives comment on WikiLeaks release (riehlworldview.com)
• John McCain Compares Sarah Palin To Ronald Reagan (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
• GOP Senator Graham Asserts Not Enough DADT VOTES; (lezgetreal.com)