oldsea, i hope the great editor in the sky did a final merge of it. be great to have a compilation of all the tm poetry and song in our season of discombobulation.
Here's our new stove and mantel (still under construction), it will be great to able to use that room comfortably year round. But more than that , it was fun to all take turns stripping and to work at something as a family again. That was all I wanted for Christmas.Merry Christmas! http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1315243533&ref=profile
Dang Patsi, my kids tell me that you have to join facebook to see it. Sign up when you have the time, then we could see a picture of your granddaughter too. Hope you are having a great Christmas!
Merry Christmas boys and girls.
Thought for the day :
" The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. "
0004 -BC- Jesus of Nazareth religious leader/philosopher (estimated date)
1899 Humphrey Bogart New York NY, actor, Here's looking at you, kid (Casablanca)
0337 Earliest possible date that Christmas was celebrated on Dec 25th
1492 Columbus' ship Santa Maria docks at Dominican Republic
1621 Governor William Bradford of Plymouth forbids game playing on Christmas day
1741 Astronomer Anders Celcius introduces Centigrade temperature scale
1758 Halley's comet 1st sighted by Johann Georg Palitzsch during return
1776 Washington crosses Delaware & surprises & defeats 1,400 Hessians
1818 1st known Christmas carol ("Silent Night, Holy Night" by Franz Joseph Gruber & Joseph Mohr) sung (Austria)
1868 Despite bitter opposition, President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all persons involved in the Southern rebellion (the Civil War)
1914 Legendary/unofficial "Christmas Truce" takes place (British & Germans)
1922 Lenin dictates his "Political testament"
1938 George Cukor announces Vivien Leigh will play Scarlett O'Hara
1959 Richard Starkey [Ringo Starr] receives his 1st drum set
1964 "Goldfinger" premieres in US
Today's Broadway flop -
1994 "Comedy Tonight" closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theater NYC after 8 performances
Another twist in the Greek Drama of this year.
Worst headline of 2008 -
I haven't read this guy's stuff in a long time, but he's British (?), and I came across him a couple of years ago. His stories are wonderful, could be the best blog about Southeast Asia in those years.
Anyway here's the link :
VIETNAM. vnrozier's photos & notes of a very personal war.
SOUTH VIETNAM 1965-1975. vnrozier's photos and notes of the Vietnam War. Stories about the soldiers and people I met, the girls I loved and the roads I travelled.
1723 The Dunkards (Baptists from Germany) held their first immersion service in America at Germantown (near Philadelphia), Pennsylvania.
The Dunkard Church at the Antietam battlefield is right up there with Ft. Benton, Montana. I went on a cloudy / misty Thanksgiving day, saw 4 other people in the whole park.
Forty years ago, the biggest TV audience in history tuned in to watch humankind's first close encounter with another world, as the crew of Apollo 8 reached lunar orbit. Here, the Apollo historian and film-maker Dr Christopher Riley gives his perspective on the mission and how that Christmas Eve of 1968 changed the world.
Of all the hundred and hundreds of posts we've published this year at TalkingPointsMemo, TPM Election Central, and TPMmuckraker, these are the Top 10 traffic-getters. It's a mix of straight news, off-beat observations, trenchant commentary, and just plain fun. We couldn't have done it without you, so thanks for a great year.
Further to the Rockefeller Center Tree New York Times' article link posted earlier:
This year's tree was planted (a second time) in 1931, the same year the first "unofficial tree" was erected by workers at the Rockefeller Center construction site. (There was also an unofficial tree there in 1932.)
This year's tree was given to Mary Varanyak, a Hungarian immigrant, from her boss as a Christmas present in 1931. She decorated the tree and displayed it inside her home that year, then planted it in her yard, where it grew until this November 13th. It required five minutes to chop it down.
I went to see the tree this morning (a Christmas tradition, along with beer for breakfast) and can report that in person it was a lovely sight, shorter than last year's but just as beautiful.
more christmas cheers.......Doc Severinson with the majestic Ed Shaughnessy (sp?) "Jumpin' at the Woodside" another version of which (Milton DeLug's....lol) Chuckie Barris used as a theme for Gene, Gene, the Dancing Machine.........and his own post introduction chuck barris's signature shuffle to the side.........
if you should watch that whole severinson clip, check out the face on that kid bass player at the end of that piece.........dont know how that kid got there but he was big time making the grade........that was a pure workout..........
if you should watch that whole severinson clip, check out the face on that kid bass player at the end of that piece.........dont know how that kid got there but he was big time making the grade........that was a pure workout..........
eddie shaughnessy and buddy rich blow the roof off the dump.......In former lives i bet these two were pure killer in front of the cave with hollow logs........
Speaking of weather, it was 75 degrees in my back yard today. Tomorrow, another copy of today ............. very warm air south of the jet stream now. Last week it was 16. Some extreme weather coming, tornado conditions ripe.
ScienceDaily (Dec. 24, 2008) — On the ground and in the water, an international team of researchers has been collecting imaging data on the Soufriere Hills Volcano in Montserrat to understand the internal structure of the volcano and how and when it erupts.
WASILLA, Alaska -- The mother of Bristol Palin's boyfriend sent text messages to two police informants discussing drug transactions before her arrest on felony drug charges, authorities say.
The untold story on the coast, pumping all that oil and gas is causing the land to sink. No one has ever studied the problem, never any funds for it.
But it's happening, see the salt dome collapse in Houston, some months ago. The folks at Louisiana State think it's part of story on why the wetlands are going so fast.
If you love Dave Berry, don't miss this on C-SPAN 2. It's damn funny stuff.
2008 Miami Book Fair: Dave Barry and Frank McCourt
[Watch Now!]
Watch now!
Authors: Dave Barry; Frank McCourt
Upcoming Schedule
Friday, December 26, at 12:00 PM
Saturday, December 27, at 12:00 AM
About the Program
From the 2008 Miami Book Fair, Dave Barry author of "Dave Barry's History of the Millennium" and Frank McCourt author of "Angela's Ashes" discuss their books.
I never thought of the deflation of the domes adding to the problem, but it makes perfect sense. I've seen dry places that subsided when they were pumped out. So, why not the wet places too ?
Louziann's choice ( you can pick only one) :
A. A paycheck.
B. A place to sleep above water.
"And hey Wasilly is apparently is the meth capitol of the state, so what's your problem?"
Well, here's a hint.
While we're over here gleefully dancing a jig because more scandal has touched a former candidate, George Bush is undermining women's rights even on his way out the door. It's not quite as sexy a story as the Wasilla Hillbilly meme.....but might be worthy of at least some interest....and discussion.
And while we are on the subject of women, let's give a hat tip to Eartha Kitt -- not merely for her music -- but for the courage to speak out against the Vietnam war at the Johnson White House. Her career took a hit because of it, and her life was turned upside down -- the FBI and CIA went full steam head after her -- and she stood up to it all defiantly. She was a role model for women and men alike.
Good morning all! Hello Patsi, hope you had a fine Christmas!
CBob- always wondered about the effects of emptying the earth's interior liquid and it s effect on rotation.
"might be worthy of at least some interest....and discussion"
patsi, no apologies for the shrubies (they don't deserve any), but it's as hard to write laws and rules as to be a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. no matter where you are, your tail's going to get mashed. i am a firm believer in choice and that includes considering another person's right to choose. should an individual healthcare person who feels strongly about abortion be forced by the law to put an end to a living organism (in her mind to kill) or should she also be allowed a choice? the legislator and the rule maker have to walk a perilous path thru emotional as well as legal mine fields.
this dilemma of weighing rights and the right words is an interesting puzzle worthy of discussion.... but let's not limit it to abortion as that is too hot a topic this early in the morning. how about should a bartendar be free from suit for refusing to sell a drink or cigarettes to a very pregnant lady?
Thought for the day :
" Statistics are often used as a drunk uses a light pole: For support rather than illumination. "
1792 Charles Babbage English inventor (calculating machine)
1837 Admiral George Dewey American naval hero of Manila
1891 Henry Miller author (Tropic of Capricorn, Tropic of Cancer, Sexus)
1914 Richard Widmark Sunrise MN, actor (Madigan, Judgement at Nuremberg)
1492 1st Spanish settlement in New World founded, by Columbus
1773 Expulsion of tea ships from Philadelphia
1799 George Washington is eulogized by Colonel Henry Lee as "1st in war, 1st in peace & 1st in the hearts of his countrymen"
1825 Erie Canal opens
1848 1st gold seekers arrive in Panama en route to San Francisco
1862 38 Santee Sioux Indians hanged in Mankato MN, due to their uprising
1865 James H Mason (Massachusetts) patents 1st US coffee percolator
1917 Federal government took over operation of American RR for duration of WWI
1955 RKO is 1st to announce sale of its film library to TV
1963 Beatles release "I Want To Hold Your Hand"/"I Saw Her Standing There"
1964 Beatles' "I Feel Fine" single goes #1 & stays #1 for 3 weeks
1967 The BBC broadcasts "The Magical Mystery Tour"
1967 Dave Brubeck Quartet formally disbands
1968 Led Zeppelin's concert debut in Boston as opener for Vanilla Fudge
1982 TIME's Man of the Year is a computer
Well here's hoping that we're done with our yearly cycle of middle aged white men , spinning out of control, and murdering their former loved ones, or complete strangers on the LBJ freeway.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan began moving thousands of troops away from the Afghan border toward India on Friday amid tensions following the Mumbai attacks, intelligence officials said.
The move represents a sharp escalation in the stand off between the nuclear-armed neighbors and stands to weaken Pakistan's U.S.-backed campaign against al-Qaida and Taliban close to Afghanistan.
from today's wapo story on white house elect press corps in hawaii:
Henry says that when he calls his colleagues in Atlanta, New York or Washington, "they start cursing at me. I called one of our producers and I said, 'Aloha!,' and she said, 'Bleep you! Don't 'aloha' me.' "
# "Star Trek," the long-running TV show. According to actor Leonard Nimoy, who played Mr. Spock in the series, Obama flashed him the split four-fingered Vulcan salute when the two crossed paths last year.
In May in Des Moines, Iowa, Newsweek caught Obama teasing his wife, Michelle, about her belt buckle, saying it was studded with Star Trek-powering dilithium crystals and adding, "Beam me up, Scotty!" As he laughed at his own joke, Michelle Obama rolled her eyes, as geek wives often do.
Japan industrial output logs record fall
"Production is falling like Niagara Falls. What's going on now is beyond what Toyota and Sony ever imagined. They just can't have a plan for the future now," said Mitsuru Saito, chief economist at Tokai Tokyo Securities.
............ a webcam located inside the Mount Washington Observatory at the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire, the highest point in New England. It's looking ENE out of a window in the Observatory tower.
Good morning and Happy post Christmas. Whew, I am glad it is over and I still have three days left off to just relax.
Last night I watched the special on CNN about Obama. It was the very first time I watched anything on Obama with a completely open mind and heart. I have been biased for Hillary since the campaign began. I did end up voting Obama but not with a happy heart.
I now see that Obama had the right life experiences, he has the innate talents and abilities, he had lots of lucky breaks and becoming POTUS was his destiny.
I do think Hillary had much of the above but no lucky breaks and years of a anti-Hillary campaign that was impossible to overcome. Her being SOS will probably present more of a challenge than her being president.
Amazon pollution case could cost Chevron
Billions at stake as Ecuadorean judge weighs class-action lawsuit
The plaintiffs say Texaco saved $8-$10 a barrel by dumping some 18 billion gallons of the wastewater from drilling and extraction into waste pits instead of re-injecting it back deep into the ground. The more than 1,000 waste pits were not lined, so the toxins seeped into the groundwater, they say.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28352583/
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No environmental wackos in Ecuador back when Texaco was sucking nearly 1.5 billion barrels of oil from more than 350 wells.
Read the story I linked about Spock crossing paths with Obama.
" And his old college friends give the geek idea a split vote.
While Margot Mifflin, now a journalism professor in New York, said she saw no geeky signs in Obama as a freshman at Occidental College in California, Amiekoleh Kimbrew Usafi recalled it differently, despite the lack of technology back in 1979.
"He's a geek because he was smart," Usafi said, noting that Occidental was a geeky school to start with, billing itself as the Yale of the West.
"I remember he would be hitting his books. I would see him in the library. ... There were a lot of girls that liked him because he was cute, but he kept his head in the direction he was going in. I would see him studying all the time."
-----------------
Barack Obama doesn't let his little head do his big head's thinking.
Enjoyed both your Spock and Louisiana Blues links. I am here to tell you that the rivers aren't whiskey here but at my camp on the river I have seen a couple of empty whiskey bottles float by especially after a hurricane or flood.
From the photo link :
"
From June 15 (top) to July 27 (bottom), sea ice in the East Siberian Sea declined by as much as 81,081 square miles (210,000 square kilometers) a day, a rapid dip attributed to global warming.
The sea is also bubbling with methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, being released from underwater reserves, a Russian team announced during a December 2008 meeting. '
Widespread flooding forces state of emergency in Marshall Islands
The islands have been pounded three times in the past two weeks by powerful waves caused by storm surges that coincided with high tides, swamping the main urban centres of Majuro and Ebeye that are less than a metre above sea level.
Electrical Gridlock
Steps to Avert the Looming Power Crisis
Our political leaders must develop a national energy policy that funds development of new technologies to keep electricity affordable while meeting climate change goals. Otherwise, a growing number of Americans won't be able to pay for power, and many will be at risk of rolling blackouts and brownouts.
C-Bob looks like you got the floor to yourself this morning. I guess you will have to keep us entertained.
I just arrived at my camp with my wireless net. It is nice to sit on the couch and through the Spanish moss hanging from the cypress trees watch the river run by. Wish you could be here. Very peaceful and quiet and a soupy 74 degrees outside.
ct, "watching the river run by" made brought to mind debbie reynold's tammy dipping her toes in the river from her houseboat deck. then these songs from o brother where art thou popped into my head. so which of the three visions is it carol?
Jamie--I absolutely depend on my two credit cards. I seldom pay cash for anything except groceries. I never use a check in the store except at the commissary. I've never used a debit card--so far as I know, they just don't provide the same purchase protection as credit cards do.
My two cards have sizable credit limits and carry interest rates just over 7-pct.
So, I think the problem isn't credit cards, but usurious lenders that charge unconscionable interest rates resulting from borrowers' transgressions the nature or existence of which are often not disclosed until after the naive borrower has sinned.
Was the one upset over the Credit Cards. I use a combination credit/debit card. IOW no interest and it doesn't work unless I actually have money. :-)
About ten years ago, I had a run in with a card company that upped rates and fees every time you turned around courtesy of fine print not visible to the normal human eye. Took me ages to get out from under that one with interest and charges more than what I owed in purchases.
One of the guys that my brother-in-law used to work got busted a few years ago for running a meth lab out of his house. He was the head of the township or something like that. Allegan County is pretty famous for it's meth labs. For quite awhile they were busting all kinds of people down there for that. It helps that they have a drug company in town that makes cold medicine. I watched that "Celebrity Rehab" last weekend. All the people on their were having a fit because Gary Busey didn't seem to wanna admit that he was an addict. They said, "Gary wakes and bakes every morning! He's an addict!" Gary finally did admit that he was an addict. He was gonna catch hell from the others, if he didn't admit that.
When a company sends a credit card to you, all you have to do is shred it. Nobody is required to use it.
Granted people should be educated enough so that they can figure out that they will be required to pay their credit card bills, and if they do not, they will have to pay interest and possibly other fees. Elementary math education covers percentages so people should be at least able to figure out that interest charges will be a function of how much unpaid balance they carry.
The problem is that people act as if credit cards are free money, they should not. If they can't afford it, perhaps they shouldn't but it.
Next question is, what do they do if they can't afford it? Necessities are one catagory, stuff we want is in another catagory.
Of course, if you use a debit card, you can only purchase items up to your available balance, anything over that is overdraft, available if you have it. Also subject to extra charges.
While I am sympathetic for people that have spent beyond their means with credit cards, why is it the provider of the credit card's fault? Where is the personal accountability?
Try traveling without C Cards. It's a pill. Car rentals, hotel rms and/or anything unexpected like a change in air travel almost require the use of CCs . Even debit cards in these instances are sometimes frowned upon. Cash too is discouraged!
Bow, You're right, of course.
I especially agree with what you said about educating people enough so they will know what will be required of them to pay back that money (after interest and fees).
But, Doesn't the credit card company have a personal responsibility too? They've ended up in a lot of trouble also because of misjudgments and overqualifying. And they need to help come up with better solutions to give people more choices in ways to pay back those loans once they've gotten out of hand. Like canceling the card, freezing the build up of fees and giving borrowers a usable plan to pay them back. The way it is now, it's almost impossible for some people to ever catch up.
This problem belongs to both sides.
(29.9 percent interest plus fees? puleeze)
Gee, what could make the happy dance even more riotous? A snow mobile accident? A teenage miscarriage? I know there must be any number of misfortunes to add to your amusement.
8,500 banks in this country, only 158 took the TARP money. They're the ones who screwed to pooch , and they're the one's Paulson gave the money to. He didn't send that money to the winners, he gave it to the losers.
Here's the thing about all this glee over family misfortunes: people doing it are the same types who have been screaming "Chappaquiddick" all these years.
Hint: Find a new way to make yourself feel superior.
Chloe
You are the voice of reason!! I hate paying interest,its like throwing money out a window but I've had times in my life where i had to and I was damn glad for that credit card. I think though it should be against the law to charge 29% interest. It serves no one to have rates that high because defaults must be through the roof and the chances of ever paying it off well...Maybe thats the point they never want you to pay it off?
Sorry guys I had to run off because I got my nephew a Play Station game at Target and his mom got him the same one. Target was only going to give him only $30 without a receipt when it cost me over twice that. They had no good excuse because it had never been on sale. I guess that is how they plan to improve their profit margin. I had to go take care of it.
Yes I do have a camp out here up on stilts overlooking the river and my very own wharf. I got the camp three years ago, a couple of months before hurricane Rita hit us, unfortunately.
For 30 years I dreamed of having one out here and it is true what they say, if you wish hard enough your wishes will come true. It is your typical Louisiana river. Lots of trees, moss, birds, squirrels and an occasional alligator.
I do believe that Tom and Huck would love the place and as a child I would row my pirogue down the waterways around here and pretend to be Tom, or at least his female counterpart.
Normal interest is fine. Normal profit is fine. Banks did just fine on the profit side for over 70 years. They knew their clients and the percentage of people over drafting etc. was manageable.
Unfortunately, the banks spread a whole lot of money around and got a lot of state laws and regs cancelled. End result usorious rates and a huge amount of fees for darn breathing.
Banks have cut way back on staff saving billions and then turned around and hit their clientele with fees, fees and more fees for cards, accounts, ATM ... you name it. This is a greedy development over the last 20 years and it is the greed that made the current financial collapse possible with all the slicing, dicing, and packaging.
GREED is NOT good no matter what you may have heard from Gordon Gecko
Execution Of Search Warrant Delayed: Search warrent was delayed until this month, when Johnson was no longer under protection. Does that mean had McCain and Palin won, she would not have been arrested?
I guess Caroline Kennedy, was one of those people, who really never cared enough to vote before. According to her voting record, in New York,she only voted a few times and she is 51 years old.
I would think Tom's movie would suffer because people realize the entire plot of the movie failed, unless they re-wrote history and had Tom kill Hitler.
Hey Chloe
It was a good one,simple.I had my aunt and uncle over.We did the hot tub and pool area thing along with Christmas music and Chardonnay.I did all the cooking,turkey,ham roll ups,stuffing. sweet potatoes,pies, choc.cake,oh and my grandmothers cranberry dish.I sent all the food home with them except some turkey and Pumpkin pie(they love me).Vince was in Atlanta so we did Christmas Tue. I hope your Christmas was good,I know the grand baby's coming soon and you all must be excited! I said the other day,there's nothing like Christmas through the eyes of a child and boy do i ever miss having kids around!! I did however get to enjoy the little neighbor girl Tanisha 3,she received from Santa a beautiful new pink Barbie car that she can drive herself (battery permitting) it was great seeing her go up and down the sidewalks jumping up and down in the seat of her new car....
Well, 66 years ago today, no one heard Sgt Pepper's band play, but they surely heard me as I was brought into this world at war. 66 years! How is it possible?
My mom lived to 76 years and my dad to 84, and I can't comprehend such. I have no idea how they felt at 66 - never thought to ask!
I'll be going to my sister's shortly for sloppy joes and french fries and whatever, with only two kids now. One went home to Berkely last night and one went to Canada to play in the snow and fill his poppa's eyes, nose, mouth, and ears with snow, and scream his head off with delight! He didn't even get to wake me up singing happy birthday!
Some of you seem to have been granted some relief from the weather, but apparently not RR! I wonder if Tylenol is suffering from too much weather.
Poor KGC - did you have a cooolllllllddddd time of it last night? The frost stayed on the roof tops here until 11 am this morning even with the sun beating down on it. It seems the clouds split and let the heat get away - not as forcast!
Enough jabber! Hope you are recovering from too much fun.
Wonderful Chloe!
Emma Nicole what a beautiful name! In 2 weeks! Exciting.I did enjoy my Christmas with Vince the most! He's simply amazing and so filled with passion for me and I for him,well life is good! I am missing him now so I will send him a silly gushing text message!
Chloe
I really hope to meet you someday at a TM gathering,I remember all through the primaries feeling so much of a kinship with you.I'm so thankful for you and TM.I would have felt totally all alone with my feelings regarding Hillary and the Dem's had it not have been for you and the many folks here! Thank you
CT, I'm the same way. I didn't know the ending going in. But it's a wonderful movie. You'll really be cheating yourself out of something if you don't see it. It's a very happy movie.
Tony, I am thankful too, and would love to meet you. I've felt that same kinship thing with you too. Like I always told you, I adore you. Don't change.
You can catch just a little glimse of my river in Craig's Anima video. I am labeled as Maggie. Actually Maggie is the name of my dog sitting next to me in the life jacket. When I sent the pic I said it was Maggie and me and I guess Craig just caught the Maggie part. We are sitting in the porta-bote I had just purchased in a little cove off the river. We were tied up to one of my friend's houseboats and he took the picture.
CT,
I'll drop this whole movie thing after this, but I was so impressed with it, that I just have to say this. I can't even begin to tell you how many things that movie was about. Relationships, careers, compromise, families, changes, growth, independence, love. It spans over a 10 or 12 year time span. The dog grows older as they're family grows. It's a long, good dog life. And Marley represents everything that's happened in that whole 'family building' time span. It's done beautifully.
Thanks Chloe. I may wait until it comes out in video so I can hold my dog and cry while watching it. When I see sad dog things I do that. In fact just thinking about it my Maggie has crawled behind me on the couch and is hiding her head under a blanket. She has the ESP thing and seems to always know what I am thinking. Weird.
Shop at Sears. I tried to shop at Sears, my favorite place to stock up on turtle neck shirts to hide my chicken neck. They had nada a turtle neck. Are chicken necks in this year?
All the years I was growing up, Sears was the only store in the mall that my Dad ever shopped in. Mainly, to look at the tools department. When the Sears store was at the Holland Mall, they didn't sell clothes. They closed that store in the mall about 4-5 years ago. That always irked my Dad. Now, they have a Sears that is a block from the mall and it only sells appliances.
I know that other people from other places can just as well be cool.......but affinity I feel for eartha kitt because she was a SC girl......and she told lyndon what she thought about it........and she could sing.......and dance.....and when they shut off her water in the usa she went abroad and made a liviing......she was a sweetheart......well.......she was a damn sweetheart......
Yes and No Flatus... it is also the "insatiable wants" that is drilled into our heads from youth onwards. We are bombarded with Madison Avenue marketing tricks that push us to believe that "YOU can have it all. Why Wait? The American Dream is for YOU"... Speaking personally, I felt like a failure if I was not able to spend easily and show that I was some sort of success by "conspicuous consumption" (lavish or wasteful spending thought to enhance social prestige). I totally agree with you on the interest rates, and the fact that Reagan and his cronies allowed the national credit cards to ignore usury rate laws when credit was readily expanded in the early 1980's.!!
we Americans have held the attitude that the world is ours and we can have anything we want. It can't hold out forever. At some point we have to learn to live within our means, start saving again, prepare for our old age, and BUDGET...
DON'T BE A SLAVE TO YOUR FRICKEN MASTERCARD !!! These credit card companies are evil incarnate!
Bow, typical Republican ideology. "We can charge you anything we want, but you said yes so it's your fault"...
How I ever ended up with one parent who is a Republican I will never understand. Of course he never finished the 8th grade, so that might explain a lot.
Tony of course they don't ever want you to pay it off.... Minimum payments are just another trick to keep us spend happy people in heavy debt.
Below is a link on how you can determine the effects of paying minimum payments on credit
The true cost of paying the minimum
Calculate your payment and more
Is your money being sucked into a compound interest sinkhole? If you're not paying off your credit cards every month, that's just what can happen. It depends on the interest rate charged by the credit card company and whether you pay as much as you can, or just the minimum amount due.
In the years I have been writing about the antics of the political classes of this country, I have labored under the impression that these are people who believe – or at least want us to believe – that we are in their debt. Little did I realize how true that was until I received last Saturday’s mail.
Included among the bills and letters were three (that is correct) "exclusive offers" to have my very own Democratic Party Visa Platinum Card, which Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe assures me will "help return Democratic values to Washington." Being that I was under the impression those "values" never have left that God-forsaken city, this was a surprise to me...
So, I guess credit card debt isn't just being promoted by Republicans.
bow, do you or anyone have any idea what's the breakdown of return for sponsors of those cards? how much goes to visa, mc or ax and how much to the org, charity or univ? and is the cut different for a corporation or business like macys, lowes etc? that tiny sliver of earnings might be a nice bundle if returned to the consumer instead.
Not a clue how much goes to any of them. The point is that to blame massive consumer debt on republicans is absurd. It is the user of the credit card, and if they wanted to, they could find a card with a better rate.
with stories like these, this decade will not go down as i first predicted to be called the "oughty oughts" but it instead will be known as the "naughty noughties"
"I guess credit card debt isn't just being promoted by Republicans."
I can't believe anyone would blame the credit card problem on one political party or the other. The problem has to do with special interests promoting things to 'their' advantage, to the detriment of everyone else. We need to keep special interests OUT of our government. And get rid of the 'bought off' politicians.
People talk about responsibility and accountability, then go on to blame the other party for all their problems. That's just a way of passing the buck, and never solves the problem. These is both parties problems, and if neither side takes responsibility, then we have the answer as to why very little ever gets done. I hate the idea that they always know how every vote will come out, before they even take the vote. It's all so preplanned. LONG LIVE THE PARTY. Jeezus.
Speaking of credit cards, I have only one and I have a little once a month bill that goes on that card just to use it. I live in a rural area and my mail often ends up in someone else's mailbox in the neighborhood for a week or so. If that doesn't happen it may also get lost in the pile of junk mail I leave in my vehicle to keep it from junking up the house.
To keep from being late, every six months or so I put enough money on the card to cover that charge for those months. I always have a credit balance on the card.
I guess my card co didn't like that because when cleaning out my junk mail the other day, months before I should have needed to worry about the bill, I found where they sent me a refund for the credit on my card then I got a late charge of $15 for a $9 charge for the next month. My bank found one more way to screw me. Arrrrrrrrh.
Carol -- was the card a Citibank? That's what they did to me when they took over Sears....I had paid months ahead because all I do with the Sears card is have a life insurance policy. All of a sudden I find that they rejected the advance payment!
No smoke without ire
"It is less than self-evident why Mr Obama’s forgoing the cigarette he sneaks every few weeks should be a matter of national importance. There is no consistent relationship between smoking and performance of official duties. It is true, according to the historian Michael Oren, that Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli chief of staff, was taken to hospital with nicotine poisoning at the height of the six-day war, but he was on 100 a day. Cigars buoyed Churchill in the second world war. Whether or not smoking makes you think more clearly, the former German chancellor, Helmut Schmidt, who celebrated his 90th birthday last week, must count as one of the sharpest thinkers and heaviest smokers among world leaders of the last half-century." http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/858d3146-d34f-11dd-989e-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
I found out about another nasty the banks use and as far as I know Nevada is the only state that has made it illegal. Unfortunately, the ones it hurts most are those on fixed incomes.
If the bank receives a deposit on the same day that it receives withdrawals, the withdrawals are all processed first and the deposit last. If this results in an overdraft too darn bad, they will hit you with a $25 or more fee for ever check processed after the "overdraft", despite the fact that the deposit may have arrived first.
It amounts to legalized theft. Various senior and disabled groups have tried to get it changed but the banks have spent a great deal of money on politicians, something that may explain the no questions asked bailout.
Not Citibank. It was Chase. There are enough people these banks can harass in these tough times that you would think they wouldn't pick on those of us who really try to do right. I guess they feel that if we can afford to pay early we can also afford a late charge and they find a way to sneak it in.
Hate to mention the opposition but I do remember McCain saying during the campaign that those in Congress who head commitees overseeing financial instutions should have no conflicts of interest by recieving financing from those institutions.
I don't believe only Republicans create the credit card mess, though Reagan's administration did open the credit card industry with very few consumer protection rules. What I mean is, the Republicans seem to think that anytime someone hits hard times or messes up, whatever, it totally falls on personal responsibility. Not everyone can handle money the same way; I used to be dreadful at it but learned my lesson. What I don't like about the Republican ideology is the "free market" approach of letting credit card companies charge whatever they want, change terms whenever it suits them, and create an economic dependency on debt that enslaves people. It is never the fault of the credit card companies, but of the individual. I just totally disagree.
There must be strict laws concerning credit cards, how they are offered, how people are determined to be credit worthy, what interest rates can be charged, and what limitations the credit card companies will have placed on them regarding changing of interest rate terms and how repayments are calculated. The Republican party stands as a party for the monied people and the credit card industry is helping to make rich people more rich, while creating and maintaining a debtor underclass that is unable to break free of their unpaid balances.
The Republicans opened up the national credit cards in the early 80s with minimal rules and this is why I place the fingers largely at them. Time and again we see them want unfettered, and unregulated markets which help the top time and again suck up more money while the poor and middle classes drown further in debt.
I agree to the extent that people should not use credit cards if they cannot afford them. But the "lenders" need to clearly examine the applicants' credit history, income levels, employment and debt load, and credit card companies should not be allowed to make unheard of profits off of those who use their cards. It's scandalous and indefensible...
Hey Tom
There have been a few instances where having a credit card has worked out for me financially,2 years ago Bank of America offered me 0% for a year on my $33,000 Visa card.I deposited it in my money manager acct. which was I think paying 5% at the time and drew the interest for the whole year and then I payed it off! I actually came out on top for once with a bank.....
Bethy
I'm a little late but HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You are a joy to so many!OMG even after all the Holiday food those sloppy Joe's and fries sound good...Sounds good for New Years Eve....
"Good for you Tony... you were/are one of the smart/lucky ones"
Agreed.I know many would not be able to resist spending that money and that's what they count on.Its almost like being in Las Vegas and not gambling.Teaser rates equals the flash of the slot machines....
Thought for the day :
" The plural of spouse is spice. "
1571 Johann Kepler Wurttemberg Germany, astronomer (elliptical orbits)
1822 Louis Pasteur Dole France, bacteriologist (pasteurization)
1879 Sydney Greenstreet Sandwich England, actor (Maltese Falcon)
1943 Cokie Roberts newscaster (ABC-TV)
1944 Mick Jones rock guitarist (Foreigner-I Want to Know What Love is)
1825 1st public railroad using steam locomotive completed in England
1831 Darwin begins his voyage to South America on board the HMS Beagle
1871 World's 1st cat show (Crystal Palace, London)
1904 Duke of York Theatre opens in London (1st musical Peter Pan)
1927 Stalin's faction wins All-Union Congress in USSR, Trotsky expelled
1932 Radio City Music Hall opens (New York NY)
1947 1st "Howdy Doody Show" (Puppet Playhouse), telecast on NBC
1979 Soviet troops invade Afghanistan, President Hafizullah Amin overthrown
Nuclear tests on this date -
1960 France performs nuclear test
1968 China People's Republic performs nuclear test at Lop Nor People's Rebublic of China
1974 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1981 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1987 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
Today's Broadway flop -
1993 "Candles, Snow, & Mistletoe" opens at Palace Theater NYC for 7 performances
Israeli Air Raids in Gaza Kill as Many as 200 People (Update1)
By Calev Ben-David and Saud Abu Ramadan
Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli aircraft attacked police and security installations across the Gaza Strip, killing scores of people in the deadliest raid in the coastal region since the 1967 War, security and medical officials said.
As many as 200 people were killed and 750 injured, including women and children, Mu’awia Hassanein, a Palestinian medical-services official in Gaza, said today. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, called the air strike a massacre and said it would retaliate.
At least 54 rockets were fired from Gaza today after the air strikes began, killing a man in Netivot, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in a telephone interview.
In Berthold Kaufmann’s home, there is, to be fair, one radiator for emergency backup in the living room — but it is not in use. Even on the coldest nights in central Germany, Mr. Kaufmann’s new “passive house” and others of this design get all the heat and hot water they need from the amount of energy that would be needed to run a hair dryer.
“You don’t think about temperature — the house just adjusts,” said Mr. Kaufmann,
cbob, i like your garden. and the music. but where is strobe station ky (mentioned when talking about geneology)? there are lots of stations in ky like valley. florence and reynolds etc. but no listing of strobe. must be my western accent ear is out of tune and you said something else...... anyway, i like your garden.
Thanks for all the kind greetings.....but I've been on the move a lot, which is why I missed the meeting in San Francisco, that CBob spoke of, on Global Warming.
Chloe: 9:00 am ................. "Long live the Party", you go girl - you are so very right about that. Although, the myopia is pretty obvious around here sometimes.
Lampe: 7:31 pm................ "Obama's Aunt", now you know that no one's even going to look at that, they're going to have enough trouble staying OUT of Blagoevich's problems. One thing about Fitzgerald, he's an equal opportunity prosecutor.
Bethyboo: .................... Belated Happy Bitrthday to you.
Just remember that Christmas is for everybody, birthdays are just for you - hope it was wonderful.
I missed someone else's as well (Tony ?)hope it was one of the best ever.
Hey Tony, Best Buy Has a lot of computers on sale too. The store always have a lot of good buys. It's a good place to sample everything that is available, and they're always very helpful there. Computers have changed a lot in the last 5 years. I think you'll be surprised.
Rita, Thanks for the support. It's so good to see you back here.
Solar,
Tony and I will be coming after you if you're not back soon. Hope you didn't suffer too many aches and pains from your snow fight, etc. Take care.
and it is frickin cold and wet out here...thank goodness I joined an association with a group rate for propane...so I can have heat and not feel like it's heat or eat! Last year I paid over 3.75 a gal and I also think the company ripped me off so I was pleased when my first bill with the new company was $1.61 a gal. No natural gas lines out here.
Bow I see no reason to engage with your Republican ideals because we will never meet on middle ground... I will say this on the credit issue, people used to live within their means before the Reagan Administration's hard work to make sure we could all get credit easily and probably not much credit worthiness, and we are paying the price and will be for generations to come.
I believe we should go back to the simple 30 - 60 - 90 day credit cards with VERY limited interest rates allowed.
And one more thought. The USA has the lowest level of savings in the entire Western civilization. That should say SOMETHING about how addicted we've become to spend, spend, spend....
Chloe I agree with your comment on the special interests. Sadly though, high powered banks and corporations have been hand in hand with the Executive branch for a long time... corporate welfare, unfettered roadblocks to making money for the top tiers... etc... That to me is the most dangerous of the special interests and it is, whether we want to admit it or not, the Republicans who are the most receptive to their desires... This is not to say that the Dems are so good at holding corporate masters at bay...
Yes, ET, I love being a slave to my republican overlords. BTW I have zero credit card debt. Haven't for twenty years.
But now, there is a chance to prove how liberal ideals will make life better for one and all. But I kind of doubt that there is going to be a bailout for the debt of credit card holders.
By CHRISTOPHER DREW and MIKE McINTIRE
Published: August 24, 2008
During the years that Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. was helping the credit card industry win passage of a law making it harder for consumers to file for bankruptcy protection, his son had a consulting agreement that lasted five years with one of the largest companies pushing for the changes, aides to Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign acknowledged Sunday.
Hunter Biden was a consultant for the financial company MBNA from 2001 to 2005.
Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter, received consulting fees from the MBNA Corporation from 2001 to 2005 for work on online banking issues. Aides to Mr. Obama, who chose Mr. Biden as his vice-presidential running mate on Saturday, would not say how much the younger Mr. Biden, who works as both a lawyer and lobbyist in Washington, had received, though a company official had once described him as having a $100,000 a year retainer.
I wonder if The Obamas, are using credit cards to pay for the rental of the 9 million dollar 5 bedroom oceanfront home? Or, maybe they are using some left over campaign money,or maybe they are not paying at all. With the economy being as bad as it is, looks like The Obamas don't have any money worries.
I'm at my in-laws..... we got power back on Tuesday..... 12 days without power..... I'll tell you all about it when I get back internet access.....
we still have no internet.... tv.... or phone service....
thank god for cell phones!
Comcast came today and reconnected the wire to our house..... but they have to rewire our entire road before they can bring us back up.... hopefully it'll be by next week.....
Sorry Patd -
It's Strode Station, Ky. Bad spot during the Indian Wars there. My mother told me several great stories from Kentucky. One about the Battle of Blue Licks. The last battle of the Revolution. Another time for that one.
What ever brain I have left, comes entirely from my mother's side of the family . I used to give her postage for Christmas, She loved it. My mother had a bad postage habit, before Senator Stevens installed all his tubes.
The great camp out with lots of reading. We have about a 60 days supply of canned foods in pantries. If it happened in the winter, we could bury the frozen food in the snow. Have a two burner sterno cook stove and two fire places. We would have to give up bathing but there are 30 gal of water in bottles for cooking and drinking and we do have a hand pump. Lots of lanterns both oil and battery.
There are advantages to living with a scout troop leader, though I'm not quite sure what he has planned for toilet facilities. It exists, but I probably don't want to know the details unless absolutely necessary. :-)
Jamie -
I found a rabbit farmer.
It's 5 X 60 feet strip. The lot had been part of the Greer Iron Works yard for 60 years. I had them haul in bunny pills, and we roto-tilled them in, along with bone meal, and wood ashes. Then we spread 2 kinds of wild flower mix, and vegetables here and there.
I planted a bunch of gourds in deep holes filled with rabbit pellets. They grew ever where. We got 77 gourds or so from the season, off 14 plants.
Gourds are cool in their flowering, they flower every night at sunset, all summer long. They are pollinated by moths at night, or by you if you wish. each day brings a new wave flowers. the size of a silver dollar, snowy white. All coming off a vine that makes bamboo seem like a slow grower. They hide a lot of sins, and they make a fruit you can make stuff out of.
I was pretty happy, it was like I was back being that granola cruncher at the hot springs, again. I love people who grow rabbits. If you want meat that isn't " industrialized " find a local rabbit farmer. And if you're a gardener, it'll be your secret weapon. Rabbit farmers love it when you clean their piles.
Fresh rabbit manure has been measured as having 14 % Nitrogen.
Nothing in the gardener's world comes close to that number. It's like rocket fuel for plants. Even when those plants, are growing in a grave yard of iron & steel.
Everyone was really happy with what came up. It was touch and go here last spring. The weather was mean, hot winds, with sand blowing day after day. Nothing is worse than Lubbock in sand season, and that can happen any time of the year.
Jamie -
It was a treat to see your street view with the snow. The Northwest always had a pull in me . But it was a hardy place to live, my skin freaked out when I took it there.
My scout training was the best education I ever got.
Mr. Brown was my scout leader, he had a great effect on me. He was like Maj. Winters in Band of Bothers. A really good American. He took us to amazing places, and showed us where the last crowd there was all Comanches. It was great.
Thousands of British security contractors in Iraq will have their immunity from prosecution under local laws lifted on 1 January, exposing them to a flawed criminal justice system widely regarded as unlikely to offer a fair trial.
Their new legal status is a consequence of the troop withdrawal agreement reached between the US and Iraqi governments. Since 2004, all foreign contractors working for the coalition that toppled Saddam have had immunity from Iraqi laws, and few have been prosecuted in their own countries.
But after months of negotiations the Americans have ceded judicial rights to the Iraqi government over all contractors and their companies working for the US armed forces.
Thank you. Disgusting isn't it? And good for you for not being swamped in credit card debt. I have been in the past and won't be in the future. And before we all start worrying about the economy tanking because credit cards are not tossed at every high school kid anymore, or marginal-income individuals, why can't we go back to the days of layaway? Make a down-payment at the store, then your installments... Once paid for, the article is yours, interest free...
I’ve got a new year’s resolution and a new slogan for the country.
34The resolution may be difficult, but it’s essential. Americans must resolve to be smarter going forward than we have been for the past several years.
Look around you. We have behaved in ways that were incredibly, astonishingly and embarrassingly stupid for much too long. We’ve wrecked the economy and mortgaged the future of generations yet unborn. We don’t even know if we’ll have an automobile industry in the coming years. It’s time to stop the self-destruction.
(CNN) -- A man angry that a family was talking during a movie threw popcorn at the son and then shot the father in the arm, according to police in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
This was an extreme reaction to discourteous movie goers, but I can understand the frustration. Time and again, I have gone to movies only to be bombarded by rude louts who talk through the movie, make comments, even use their cell phones... Maybe now they can put an opening message in the theatre that talking during the movie can cause you to get shot.. :-) Seriously though, the shooter has some psychological issues. Along with our lust for spending money we don't have, we seem to have lost basic civility and kindness. And our reliance on guns to win the "argument" is a true sad commentary on how far we have fallen.
"Calling all angels, this is Starseed Command,
We've misused our freewill and we messed with The Plan;
We are falling ... lost in the garden.
Falling like gold leaves in autumn,
Falling with hardly a sound;
Oh, sorrow and sickness are upon us,
The darkness is pulling us down
... Won't you save us?"
STEPHANIE TUBBS JONES | B. 1949
A Clinton Loyalist
For many in Washington’s black elite, a year that ended with tears of pride in Grant Park began with agony and self-doubt. As the first Democratic primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire approached, African-American officials in the capital were almost evenly split between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and some of the most influential black leaders in Congress vacillated publicly. James Clyburn, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, later admitted to me that his heart was with Obama but his head was with the former first lady. John Lewis, who endured the blows of billy clubs while marching through Selma with Martin Luther King Jr., switched his endorsement from Clinton to Obama only after his constituents in Georgia voted overwhelmingly for the young senator.
Amid all this emotional writhing, Stephanie Tubbs Jones stood out. She did not waver. She did not recede into the background. She stood with Clinton, and that was that.
Well most people know that I am crazy about Christmas ... I have once again done some MODEST decorating in the apartment.. I have my photos on Facebook but am not sure if everyone can access this... If you can, please feel free to glance around. If not, well I also have it on MySpace...
Colorado Bob said, "The weather was mean, hot winds, with sand blowing day after day. Nothing is worse than Lubbock in sand season, and that can happen any time of the year."
It has been said that Lubbock is one of the few places in the world where you can be up to your ass in mud and have sand blowing in your eyes.
Tom, I loved using layaway. And when you used it (when you were young), it taught you something. The concept of paying for something BEFORE you got it. It was a form of saving, anticipation, working toward getting things you couldn't have otherwise afforded, and therefore gave you a sense of accomplishment when you made your final payment. Then you got your reward.
Now you get the reward, then pay the price after the fact.
Poor Jake, it isn't bad enough that he's the B-list host, but he gets C-list guests, Senators Sherrod Brown and Bob Corker, and a roundtable of people who've never met George Stephanopoulos.
Hey CBob
I lived this here in Florida a few years ago with the 3 Hurricanes.I was without power that summer a total of 29 days,miserable! It humbles you.I could not believe how quiet things get without the hum of all the Air-conditioners.The only thing nice about the experience was the low low Florida Power and Light bill......
one o' these days, I'm gonna make that trip back to denver to see some folks and stuff like that.......and when I do, along the way I'm going to stop by and see Peggy's Garden and maybe catch a music show......
Thought for the day :
" The only rose without thorns is friendship. "
1822 William Booth Taliaferro Brigadier-General (Confederate Army), died in 1898
1921 Johnny Otis R&B singer
1933 Nichelle Nichols Robbins IL, actress (Uhura-Star Trek)
1946 Edgar Winter Beaumont TX, rocker (They Only Come Out at Night)
1732 1st known ad for "Poor Richard's Almanack" (Pennsylvania Gazette)
1849 M Jolly-Bellin discovers dry-cleaning, he accidentally upset lamp containing turpentine & oil on his clothing & sees cleaning effect
1869 William Finley Semple of Mount Vernon OH, patents chewing gum
1895 World's 1st movie theater opens in Paris
1928 Last recording of Ma Rainey, "Mother of the Blues" is made
1928 Louis Armstrong makes 78rpm recording of "West End Blues"
1948 US announced a study to launch an Earth satellite
1956 Dr. Frances Horwich [Miss Frances], Ding Dong School on NBC-TV
1981 Warner-Elektra-Atlantic raises price of 45 records from $1.68 to $1.98
Today's Broadway flop -
1963 "Double Dublin" closes at Little Theater NYC after 4 performances
The hardest part of being without power, is that time late in the afternoon, when you realize, that what ever you're doing you better finish, because it's about to be dark.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the Republican National Committee said Saturday he was "shocked and appalled" that one of his potential successors had sent committee members a CD this Christmas featuring a 2007 parody song called "Barack the Magic Negro."
In spite of RNC Chairman Robert M. "Mike" Duncan's sharply negative reaction, former Tennessee GOP leader Chip Saltsman said that party leaders should stand up to criticism over distributing a CD with the song. He earlier defended the tune as one of several "lighthearted political parodies" that have aired on Rush Limbaugh's radio show.
"They give us their heroin; we give them our viagra"
Ivy
Isn't it just sad.What a lopsided exchange, heroin destroys lives and viagra enhances lives for some!! Everything for us in the middle east seems as lopsided.....
Patsi
Please feel free to let loose on Corker! He's lower than pond scum,those ad's against H.Ford stick out most in my mind and now his anti-union, anti-American worker crap..Fire away......
Current Summit Conditions
Temperature 39.5°F
Wind 55.2 mph
Direction 244° (SW)
Gust
Wind Chill 24.5°F
Sunday 9:45 AM
----------------
It should not be 39.5°F on the top of Mt. Washington on the last Sunday of the year.
HONOLULU -- The Navy has settled a lawsuit filed by environmentalists challenging its use of sonar in hundreds of submarine-hunting exercises around the world.
The Navy said Saturday the deal reached with the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups requires it to continue to research how sonar affects whales and other marine mammals.
"They give us their heroin; we give them our viagra"
What good will Viagra do? I have always felt that some of the terrorism coming from that part of the world was caused by the lack of an acceptable outlet for pent up sexual tension. They substitute one explosion for another.
The racist ads aside, Bob Corker won Tennessee in part because too many progressives disliked his Blue Dog status. I argued until I was "blue" in the face with a few of my friends who said they were staying home from the election. They honestly believed Harold was the same as Corker. Well, that reminds me of some of the people who said Gore and Bush were the "same."
It takes you right back to a day being sun up to sun down. We were without power last year for a couple of days and it really brought home that I read myself to sleep. It's darn hard to read in the dark.
Not to worry, just aches and pains for a few hours, that is one of the advantages of exercising every other day---or at least 2-3 times a week, that makes it possible for me to act like a little kid sometimes-------no so much anymore but some of the kids used to knock on the door to see if I had some time to play basket ball with them, I extended (widened ) my drive way and installed in a pole with a backboard,hoop,and park my cars out in the st. so the kids can play---some times a lot of noise,,,but when there is none, I kinda miss it,,,,just like here some t imes there is a lot of noise but I missed the kids that come here to play, on TM
Chloe ---a special Grammy C. hug for you ---congrats--- on the new and improved family member( its been a few wks that I saw name , but hope that at least the first name is correct) Emma_________ that is the last time that I call you Grammy ----to me you r Chloe,,or Chlo,,,or Hey you , but no Grammy----and don't over spoil her like Patsi does,,,,that might be alright in TN,,I bet she over did it for Christmas-----so if she gets time outs in the corner---she can blame some of them on Gammy Patsi (no r's in TN--just the way it is t here :-)) Nichole ( just came to me) yeah thats it I hope, I love it. If I made mistakes on the names,,,correct m but give these to the next one---love them.
Bethyboo---Happy birthday---sorry I am a little late on this,,,,but been away ( at another time,,and dimension ) and just got back--was looking at how it is going to be in our new home on Mars---I think it was mars----I was gone away for 10,000 years---so I thought,,,but earth time, for only a few days----and than to find out that you chickened out on me, you don't want to go now------gonna have to freeze someone else ----thats ok for now---cos you have a lot of Birth days coming up :-)))---but don't expect me to give up on you----never gonna happened.
Oh---- another thing I am not allowed to wrap anymore Christ mas presents, --never????--damn Im sneaky---I will never have to do it again,, hahaha
Maybe there is a rationale in the Viagra plan, to redirect the explosions to a safer pipe bomb. Well I guess it is not so safe for the women in the area.
Thanks Solar. I found my pal while 4 wheeling in the woods several years back. Someone had dumped this poor little puppy out in the middle of nowhere. She has turned out to be one of the best and healthiest pups I have ever had.
I heard on our local newscast last night that more people kiss their dogs than people on New Years Eve. It is nice to know I am not the only one.
this is the kind I have.....I lived in a 30 foot camper on the creek for 4 years without power.....had a generator if I really needed something powerful.........but these were the main lighting solution.....
wow, we get an extra second this year! how to use it wisely? heck, that problem is applicable to any old second, not just an extra one.... actually they're all extra in a way. and just when you make plans to use one well, it's gone and you're caught up making plans for the next one and the next... pretty soon you've used up all your seconds in plan making instead of enjoying them when you had them. http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4BR1DC20081228
Those are the best pups to have( lost ones)------Our Lucky has been gone for a few years now,,,but when my wife was looking for a new puppy that would have cost me around $600.00 my next door neighbor told me about some pup that was lost and almost killed by traffic-------Luck was a mix of German Shepard and collie----a beuty----so I went and brought her home---put her out in the back yard---called my wife out and told her the pups story,,,well my wife just melted and loved that pup from the start ( and saved me a lot of cash)HA,,,,when she was dying she took her to the rectory and had the priest bless her,,,,she had a good life with us, have not had another one for years,,,my wife says that is too hard for her ---she really loved that little dog---we had her cremated and have not buried her, yet,,,,and I don't talk about it----I put my foot down when she wants to but dog food.:-)
I think it has been proven with research that having a dog improves your health and well being. It is the only source of truely unconditional love and I don't think it is a coincidence that when you spell dog backwards you get God.
Sturge -- those are what most of ours looked like too. We had several really beautiful ones that my grandmother had used....but most of them were those utilitarian ones...
Patsi---did they go home yet ---or do you come together for New Year's Eve also,,,either way keep posting those pics. Some of my family won't let me get near the kids for too long----they kind of develop an entirely new language ----like when Little Maria shows in that pic of her---her little but cleavage ---I would say nice pooper, when they tell this to their parents --I deny that I tought them anything,,and that is normal growing up vocabulary ---like when I say t hat you have a nice ass-----I get slapped a lot--but not hard...Ha
Jeezus! Only creepy to perverts. Just funny baby stuff to normal people. Since I know of the perversion, Big B...I will take Maria's Joe the Plumber shot down. Bet you just LOVE those babies on bear rugs...
Hey Solar, That's it. Emma Nicole. She'll be born before the 8th of January, but I think it's going to be soon. Any day now. Glad to see you back here.
I do care if you stay or go---but I will go back to ignoring you-----and to all that talks to you,,,,,again I don't understand it---if I wanted to be here so much,,,,and no one talked to me I would leave, and go to some other blog,,,I believe that it is that easy----he sure found out how easy it is to run people off,,,,,since I don't plan to ever answer him again----if he does comment on one of my post's----and there is something questionable about it ---please take the time to ask me what my intent might have been,,,,as I will any of yours-----this is what a decent human being does---NO????
Solar, I'm sorry to see that a completely innocent conversation had to be turn into something other than that. Please don't let it ruin your day. I keep telling you to not read those posts. Nothing good can come of it. Those who know you understand exactly what you were saying. You said nothing wrong and you have nothing to explain.
We built my daughter a little (emphasis on little) house on our property here. So I'll have full access, I'm glad to say. :)
We're on 5 very wooded acres and we don't have a lot of rules as far as building. And a lot of privacy. We're away from things, but at the same time close enough to everything. If that makes sense. Neighbors are acres apart.
You have him call you a (child) pervert and see how you might react?? but thats ok ---what he says with out swearing is much more offensive than that ---but I understand---and you don't have to respond
That is nice,,,you will have full access when you want,,,,,and still they get to go home, and have their privacy ---a very nice arrangement all around.,,and five acres sounds nice also>
Solar, When I agreed in that post to Craig, I want to make sure you know I was agreeing with what you said. That what he says is much more offensive than swearing.
It is sometimes so hard to communicate like this, in writing. Patsi is good at it, because she's a writer, a good one. But for me, so many things seem to get misinterpreted, at least it often feels like that to me. It can be a lot of work, and there are many times I just about given up on it.
Solar, I hope you won't let all of this get you down. Just keep on saying what you want to say and keep being yourself.
I do---- Chloe----there is absolutely nothing that you can ever say that will make me think badly of you----nothing ever!! don't worry about anything---not upset or nothing any more.
What I told Craig is the truth_______Craig I won't apologize about my language this t ime----but I will promise you that it won't happen again...thanks
Just thinking--little Emma will be growing up with all the animals on your place,,,,she will be unique in that sense. when she goes to school(can't be that many kids that grow up with animals---well maybe --that is texas?) but there won't be a lot of them.
Don't worry about me getting down ---that is pretty hard to do--and for any period of time----my workers say that's one of the things that hey like about me---I can get mad for something ...but get over it in short time----be back in a little while
"I decided to continue posting and call BS when I saw it."
In doing so Patsi, you've made this a better place. And because of it, I think a lot of other people have started speaking up too. I definitely can't sit back and watch an innocent be attacked either. There are a lot worse things than cussing, imo.
By the way, I sure hope Jack hasn't given up on us. Haven't seen him around in a while. (maybe just on Christmas vacation?)
Jack, Hope you're doing well and that you'll be back soon.
Also, Renee, if you around, I was glad to hear that you and Rick are doing fine, in spite of the many inconveniences. Looking forward to hearing from you again.
I was the Santa Rosa Farmers Market yesterday and it is citrus time in Northern Cal...one of the vendors at Budda's Hand..and I found one good recipe although more people seemed to think it is good for decoration and scent...not so much for cooking.
Glad to see you------My son thinks that Im the go to guy,,,that is what he tells his friends ,,,I mind my own business --unless Im asked, I have always have had the same rule with him that is the same with all my family----and anyone that I have come across in my whole life------I will treat you as if you are made out of gold,,,,,but if and when you start treating me like crap...that will only happen a cpl of times,,,than I will treat you like crap---the t rouble with most people ,., is that they think it is weakness t o be kind,,,until they see the diff....but t hen its too late ----so I was voted the favorite Uncle by (my son told me) all the nieces and nephews----and there is a lot of uncles and aunts----just cos I treat them like people,,,not like a pushy uncle,,or aunt---have a few of them----Tony thanks for your effort----I would not accept an apology from him now-,,,but I might have overreacted to Mqw so if he/she did not read all of my post's than to he/she I apologize,,,,and if he/she stills feels that way,,,than that is fine too,,
Since this is a political blog----I guess I should have something political to say---so here goes,,,,,,,,,on your remark this morning about the G. S. I would normally agree,,,but I actually found todays panel a refreshing change,,,from the regulars,,,Geroge Will,, Donna B. etc,,,I have to admit that I do like Allyson Stewart,,,from NPR---she had her own show on msnbc, and did well,,,showed a lot of range when she also hosted for K.O. when he was on vacation---she was very good in that format also..thanks
Tony -- hi! I continue to have YOU in my "favorites" among people -- and one of the reasons is all you did for Ashley. All kids should have an Uncle Tony!
Hey Jamie, You're kittens are beautiful! Thanks for linking the pictures. That's a very nice blog site you keep there too.
Obama bristles as the bubble closes in
"...the president-elect appears increasingly conscious of the confines of his new position, bristling at the routine demands of press coverage and beginning to chafe at boundaries that are only going to get smaller.
Obama even took the unusual step Friday morning of leaving behind the pool of reporters assigned to follow him, taking his daughters to a nearby water park without them. It was a breach of longstanding protocol between presidents (or presidents-elect) and the media, that a gaggle of reporters representing television, print and wire services is with his motorcade at all times.
All presidents and would-be presidents struggle with “the bubble” – the security detail and the always-there reporters that impose barriers to any spontaneous interaction with the outside world.
And you have learned that huh, Patsi? We river rats are a tough breed. Actually I am still a river mouse, haven't been there long enough to get my rat status.
I packed up my pup and bags and came home from the camp. It wasn't a long drive since the camp is only 1.7 miles from my house. It makes it convenient when I forget to bring something I need from home, which I often do.
You bettcha, Carol. When I was visiting Doug Kershaw and his family, they introduced me to an old guy named Little Russell Gary, the extraordinary gator hunter. He christened me an honorary "coonass" and told me many swamp stories. He was only about five feet two but he once wrestled down the biggest gator in South Louisiana. I wouldn't have messed with him!!! ha!
That was also the trip where I learned that in some parts of South Louisiana you could get a scotch and water at a drive through!
I have met some pretty interesting river rats also. There is this rat who lives in a houseboat tied up to this swampy island not too far from my camp. He stayed on his houseboat while hurricane Rita was tearing through our area back in 2005. His girl friend and dog slept through the entire thing.
I had to stay at the prison, surrounded by concrete and steel and I was shaking in my boots.
Drive thru booze shacks are to La. what those coffee places are to everywhere else.
Caroline Kennedy: When asked, "Will you run for the Senate in 2010, if you are not given the seat now?" She answered "NO." I guess she doesn't want to have to work for it. In response to questions asked her favorite response was "You Know."
We had to put my beloved Rory to sleep due to cancer. My son decided that a house without a black and white cat was seriously deprived and went to the humane society and found out that they had a sudden population explosion and were offering a 2 for 1 offer that he couldn't refuse.
End result: Litter mates officially named Mefis and Sakura and affectionately Mister and Sister
When all the surrounding countries keep attacking you off and on for the past 60 years, you tend to get really, really touchy about it, particularly since none of them ever died due to a suicide bomber taking out buses of civilians and kids out dancing on a Saturday night.
Jamie -- about bringing in the two kittens after Rory...we had the same experience after our Sweet Sue waved goodbye at age 19....it took three little kittens to start to fill the hole.
I still miss having Rory sing me to sleep but the kitten races that use me for a pit stop in the nightly two story romp tends to take my mind off things.
Entering our house can be hazardous as they are both spring loaded and people have been known to shriek when hit with unexpected flying feline,
So tired I don't know if I can make it
So wasted I don't know if I can take it
So tired I don't know if I can make it, no
So tired I don't know if I can take it
So wasted I don't know if I can make it
So tired I don't know if I can make it, no
But I'm gonna try
Spirits all tell me gotta keep driving on
And my Mothers all tell me
I can't do no wrong
But the universe tell me
I can't live myself alone, alone, alone
I'm so tired I don't know if I can take it
So wasted I don't know if I can make it
So tired I don't know if I can take it, no
Let's go, I say, come on, baby
Let's try to make it
I know that if we really try
We can take it
wonder if craig got stuck at the airport with all the other holiday travellers. lot of people will look back with less than nostalgia on the 2008 season.
One more thought. Does anyone else thinkit particularly hilarious that the preacher trying to prove the Obama birth certificate BS is named "Wiley Drake"? If a novelist used that scenario and name, the editor say the writer had jumped the shark.
"Wiley Drake and his trusted sidekick Hippe Mallard......two ducks who know the score......trapped, like Howard, in a world they never made............"
"From this research we can infer that humans who have a few heavy drinking sessions in a row may sometimes undergo subtle brain changes which make it harder to learn from mistakes and to learn new ways of tackling problems because their brain function has been subtly impaired." http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/dec/29/binge-drinking-brain-damage-study
harder to learn from mistakes and to learn new ways of tackling problems? hmmm anyone we know in d.c.
A wonderful bird is a pelican,
His bill will hold more than his belican.
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week;
But I'm damned if I see how the helican.
▪"The Pelican" (1910) by Dixon Lanire Merrith
Rita, Once again, it is so nice to have you back here. Thanks for the congrats and congratulations to you for being just about ready to become a great grandma! Please let us know when he/she arrives.
Patsi, Thanks to you too...and you know I'll be screaming it out when she gets here. Can't wait. :)
Thanks everyone for entertaining me during my peek-in this morning. Flatus, I particulary like your ""Polly wants a quacker!". And Patd, I'm going to read that binge-drinking brain damage study when I get back here a little later. Thanks.
Hope all had a Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas, whatever else any of you celebrate.
So sorry to hear about Delaney Bramlett. His contributions to the world of rock music are measurable as much by the influence he had on Clapton to get right and get back to making music as by any personal musical success he had. Let it Rain.
Thought for the day :
" The minute a man is convinced that he is interesting, he isn`t. "
1721 Madame De Pompadour mistress of French King Louis the 15th
1776 Charles Macintosh Scotland, patented waterproof fabric
1800 Charles Goodyear inventor (vulcanization process for rubber)
1879 Billy Mitchell aviation hero general (WWI)
1778 English troops occupy Savannah, Georgia
1782 1st nautical almanac in US published by Samuel Stearns, Boston
1813 British burn Buffalo New York during the War of 1812
1848 Gas lights 1st installed at White House (Polk's administration)
1852 Emma Snodgrass arrested in Boston for wearing pants
1885 Gottlieb Daimler patents 1st bike (Germany)
1890 US 7th Cavalry massacre 200+ captive Sioux at Wounded Knee SD; Indian "war" in the west
1891 Edison patents "transmission of signals electrically" (radio)
1952 1st transistorized hearing aid offered for sale (Elmsford NY)
1967 Star Trek's "The Trouble With Tribbles" 1st airs
1972 Life magazine ceases publication
1989 Jane Pauley says goodbye to NBC's "Today" show
1997 Hong Kong begins slaughtering all its chickens to prevent bird flu
1997 Russia signs agreement to build a $3B nuclear power plant in China
Today's Broadway flop -
1948 "Rape of Lucretia" opens at Ziegfeld Theater NYC for 23 performances
Yet another story coming out of the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, 2 weeks ago.
NASA Study Links Severe Storm Increases, Global Warming
ScienceDaily (Dec. 28, 2008) — The frequency of extremely high clouds in Earth's tropics -- the type associated with severe storms and rainfall -- is increasing as a result of global warming, according to a study by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
_____________
An op-ed written by some wag named Christopher Booker.
This is what passes for the denier science these days.
This op-ed will be used as though it has the same weight as a report from JPL about the data coming from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft, telling us , as the earth heats up more water vapor is entering the system.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc's ...... emergency bankruptcy filing wiped out as much as $75 billion of potential value for creditors, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing an analysis by the bank's restructuring advisers.
Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC still haven’t figured out how to close thousands of dealerships, a promise in the plan they presented to Congress to win loans, starting with $4 billion that each is due to receive today.
DOES ANYONE ELSE FIND THIS NOT ONLY DISGUSTING, BUT ALSO IMMORAL GIVEN THAT SO MANY HAVE LOST SO MUCH??? IS THERE NO MORALITY IN CAPITALISM???? OR AM I MISUNDERSTANDING SOMETHING HERE???
Veterans of ’90s Bailout Hope for Profit in New One
By ERIC LIPTON and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: December 28, 2008
WASHINGTON — A tight-knit group of former senior government officials who were central players in the savings and loan bailout of the 1990s are seeking to capitalize on the latest economic meltdown, enjoying a surge in new business in their work now as private lawyers, investors and lobbyists.
With $700 billion in bailout money up for grabs, and billions of dollars worth of bad debt or failed bank assets most likely headed for sale or auction, these former officials are helping their clients get a piece of the bailout money or the chance to buy, at fire-sale prices, some of the bank assets taken over by the federal government.
I thought Caroline Kennedy's response (that she would not run for the Senate in 2010 if not selected now) demonstrated solidarity, rather than laziness.
If the person who is named feels that he or she will be challenged by a popular Democrat, as well as by a Republican, in two years, the person might feel disinclined to try all that hard now, feeling that there would be no reason to get engaged in an endeavor that would last for only a short period.
By stating that she would not challenge a sitting Democrat, Ms. Kennedy is giving that other potential Senator more incentive to take the two-year term more seriously, to make the necessary long-term a partisan and bipartisan relationships so crucial in getting legislation passed.
Interesting comment benjamin, but I really see no reason why Caroline Kennedy should even be considered for the Senate seat, much less chosen for it....
Always somewhat amused by the "more likely to get hit by lightening" stat when it comes to shark attack. Lightening strikes on land. There aren't a lot of sharks on the back nine at the golf course.
If you don't want to end up as dinner, don't serve yourself up on a platter.
Still wonder if frequency of attacks is increasing and if so, does it have anything to do with available fish supplies or just more people swimming.
i can't see where princess caroline has any special
abilities or attributes to be a senator''
so that would make her just as qualified as the rest
yahoos we have up there
First Laura Bush now the office wife defends Shrub
WASHINGTON – The two most influential women in President George W. Bush's White House — first lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — are strongly defending the president's legacy against critics who are calling his administration one of the worst in history.
"I know it's not, and so I don't really feel like I need to respond to people that view it that way," Mrs. Bush said in an interview that aired Sunday. "I think history will judge and we'll see later."
" Munich Re quoted World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) figures showing that 2008 was the 10th warmest year since reliable records began, meaning that the 10 warmest years on record all occurred in the past 12 years. " ...................... " "The logic is clear: when temperatures increase there is more evaporation and the atmosphere has a greater capacity to absorb water vapour, with the result that its energy content is higher.
"The weather machine runs into top gear, bringing more intense severe weather events with corresponding effects in terms of losses."
Leaving a wave of controversy in its wake, one of the most visible reminders of the Bush administration's ties to big oil - the 129,000-ton Chevron tanker Condoleezza Rice - has quietly been renamed, Chevron officials acknowledged yesterday.
"We made the change to eliminate the unnecessary attention caused by the vessel's original name," said Chevron spokesman Fred Gorell.
ET---You are right---that article that you posted is absolutely disgusting and immoral,,,,and it is being done by people in both party's -----on one can take the high road---saying that one party does it more than the other......GREED on both partys like this should convince someone , that it makes no sense to have total party loyalty,,,,,ET don't you think that it is time for people to start voting third party. there seems to be a lot of proof that both party's are GREEDY,
Israel has the right to defend itself----but to what degree,,2-3 hundred innocents killed every time it flexes it' s biceps ????---does Israel have a right to occupy other country's and not expect that country to fight with what ever means possible--if they killed my own just to take my land--farm---house like they did to some---I would become an instant terrorist---what would you do??? If you go back in history to defend Israel"s right to defend it's self from terrorists ----go all the way back----King David was the very first terrorists --no? or that far back is not convenient in today's world thinking??
I do think that Israel is important t o the U.S.,,,,,I hope that it remains a standoff for ever,,or until the end of Religon,,,,end Religion and you will end Terrorists ----and so much more---another reason to vote third party.
The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season was the third most costly on record in current dollars, after 2005 and 2004, and the fourth most active year since 1944. This was the first season with a major hurricane (Category 3 or above) each month from July through November.
NOAA: Global Temperature for November Fourth Warmest on Record
Hamas puts its military installations under civilian housing, schools, and hospitals on purpose. Israel always issues warnings as to the area they will be bombing in order to allow evacuation. This is often prevented by Hamas who want the civilian deaths.
This started because Hamas specifically targeted a civilian area of housing not an Israeli base or military installation. They killed 17 people just to be killing them not for any military purpose.
Yes there have been injustices committed on all sides, but it has NEVER been Israel that violated a formal cease fire or peace agreement often despite horrific bombings of civilians by suicide bombers.
Caroline Kennedy has no political experience or background except that her father was a U.S. President. I don't admire people who think because they come from a rich political dynasty that they should have to go to the front of the line. I don't dislike her... I very much admired her mother, but I think Sarah Palin is far more qualified in terms of experience, and frankly, that ain't saying much.
No more outburst like that any more----I can't fight the Granny Brigade,,,,,,they all told me to ignore,,ignore..ignore.,,,Chole , and Rita are right,..that is what I plan to do ----have been in a very bad mood(very unusual for me) for a week----bout getting over it now-----I had a nice size check bounce on me that was paid by a client---client is going to file for bankruptcy protection---I have done the research on the property that we worked on and liened ,,but ---my Atty is on it now...thanks again
Flatus--and Sturg made me laugh off a lot of things this morn...thank for that..Flatus,,more of that----u had me fooled, not so military like I thought-with only a little sense of hahahaha's,,,now it is expected from you HA
:-))
Carolyn Kennedy is a Constitutional lawyer and scholar, he has run a major foundation, and raised millions upon millions of dollars for charity and a lifelong New Yorker. No she isn't a traditional candidate in the sense of someone who came up fromt he city council in public offices, but then neither was Hillary Clinton.
Even if you think of her only as a place holder in the same sense as some widow being appointed to fill out a deceased senator's term, she will either do a good or a bad job for two years. By that time, other possible candidates will arise or she will campaign to retain the seat.
If nothing else, she is much better educated than Palin and has a family dedication to liberal political philosophy as well as a sense of nobless oblige to do good in the world because of the blessings she has received without effort.
mqw - What would you have them do instead? How many times do you allow a cease fire or a treaty be violated. How many hundreds of people have to leave their limbs scattered all over abombed buses on Israeli streets? How many kids have to be slaughtered for the sin of dancing in the wrong place at the wrong time?
They let people work come through the baricades to actually work and worship among them. They clear off land to allow people to return to homes. They back up and back up and still the attacks continue. Well, enough is enough.
About that Granny Brigade---I had one of the best ,,,right there front and center---thanks Grammy Patsi,,,and that is the last time I call you grammy also---every time I say grammy IM reminded of my own----loved her ---but she was always in black----she walked me to school every day , ,,liked to play practical jokes on her,,just to make her late for morning mass----she solved that problem by making me go with her,,and make me late for school,,,,Sister Mary Adrianne would get on her broom and fly around me head looking for a spot that she might have not hit me (there was none) on and crack----try blaming your sweet grammy (she knew my gram---and liked her) for being late---no way Jose.
Caroline - she's no more or less "qualified" to be a senator than literally hundreds of senators who came before her and were elected or appointed with little or no prior elective office experience, except that elected thing, but in my book, being elected to a different office don't mean much other than the person has figured out how to get elected. Of course, it's Patterson's decision to make, and she certainly wouldn't get it if she didn't ask. By all accounts, she seems to be very bright, personally persuasive and a hard worker - New York could do worse. LP asked me this weekend about whether she should be Senator (only because he misunderstood the issue - he really doesn't have a half a clue about it) and I told him that I don't know much about her, but she strikes me as capable of doing the job well, and she's qualified according to the CotUS.
Jamie it is a very complicated problem,,,and one that we helped create ---by supporting anything that Israel does-----do you think that we should be giving so much money to them ----specially now that we don't have it? and shouldn't we stop arming them,,,and any one that we don't agree with---I think that it is too late for that any way-----we already have influenced that part of the world way too much----like C.P. if you brake it you own it---little Israel (the lobbyist ) here in our country will make sure of that?
If yellow stone---goes off ---it will destroy anything in its path,,all the way to NY......I read,,saw (science channel?) that --La--will be under water in about 50 years....mother nature will never be conquered now matter how many bulldozers we use on her.....
The science channel has some interesting programs on what the future will look like---------there will be cities within cites, that go hundreds of feet in the air---never have to leave for noting,,,,,stores, doctors,,work all gonna be under one roof-----series running now superb.
You make a good point about JFK, Jr., who most likely would have been given different treatment by the New York press and probably nationally as well.
I've said most of this here before, but as a New Yorker, who became a Hillary supporter, I'll have no problem if Governor Paterson names Caroline. Timing is everything. Yes, Hillary worked to earn the support of New York's voters, but this two year gig is an appointment by the Governor. There's no need to change that, Governor Blagojevich notwithstanding.
President and Mrs. Clinton were smart enough to move to a "Blue" state in which an open Senate seat was ripe for the taking. Hillary worked for the seat and worked hard after she won it. If Caroline really wants the job, I expect she'll do the same thing. If she's just pursuing the job to please her Uncle Ted, she probably won't stay.
Keep in mind, those other experienced Democrats, who have been "toiling in the vineyard," are in jobs they chose to pursue. Yes, one way or another they've paid their dues, but if they were the shining stars many have made them out to be, Caroline would probably not have this opening.
yes jamie
kill'em ' kill them all 'men ' women ' children'' infants
grandmothers''it don't matter they're just palestinians.
line a bunch of bulldozers and tanks up and push
all the miserable bastards into the sea
that'll show'em '''that will fix everything
There should be someone on the news that give the other side of the Israel---Hamas argument----print Hamas and you pc tells you that it is not spelled right------big deal for me cos I can spell it------I am all for Israel ---but would like to know both sides other than repeated one sided history, I don't care if the truth comes out on Hama's side---still in favor of Israel ,,,but I don't like being told a one sided story.,,,,sometime you get CNN's Wolf Blitzer on an Interview with some one from the other side ...but I would like to see the faces that are being killed -it's too guilt free like this?? same goes for those sneaky Hamas strikes.
Well, the government keeps records of hese things.
"Country Summaries
"The following section provides funding details on the largest regular aid recipients in the Middle East: Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinians. Each
country section features a table with a more elaborate breakdown of aid by foreign aid account. For information on U.S. assistance for Iraqi reconstruction, see CRS Report RL31833, Iraq: Reconstruction Assistance, by Curt Tarnoff.
Israel Overview.
"Since 1976, Israel has been the largest annual recipient of U.S. foreign assistance and is the largest cumulative recipient since World War II. Strong
congressional support for Israel has resulted in Israel’s receiving benefits that may not be available to other countries. For example, Israel can use U.S. military assistance for research and development in the United States and for military purchases in Israel. In addition, all U.S. foreign assistance earmarked for Israel is delivered in the first 30 days of the fiscal year. Other recipients normally receive their aid in staggered installments at varying times. The United States gives all Economic Support Funds (ESF) directly to the government of Israel as a grant cash transfer rather than allocating funds for specific development projects."
And you can read government reports and such and decide who gets the most aid.
www.usembassy.it/pdf/other/RL32260.pdf
Yhe link may not work - it's a cached page, but theinfois easy to search in the Google.
I didn't forget about you---thanks pal---listen I did forget about you asking for my E Mail, was not ignoring,,if you can post yours,,,,great than I will E Mail you with all my info if not I will get it to you.----but here is a piece of info that you will have to guess at----your Birthday is on July 18th,,,,mine is only a few days from yours,,a few less --or a few more.hahaha---that should drive Rosie crazy Huh----no for her it's just a short walk,,,haha
Pogo--good post---some group together all the Arab countries into one,,,,aren't they all individual ----that is one problem that I have with the Israel Hamas Argument ----and they are a democracy aren't they,,,that should (Hamas) should be looked at other than some kind of nuts---and they are nuts imo-but look more so than the other side cos they can't take the high road---like----hey u over there we are going to bomb the shit out of you--on 3 oclock Sunday,,,that makes it ok for me to kill 2- 3 hundred ---why can't we stop giving any money to anyone over there ---it just goes into the pockets of the war machines???
There never was a country called "Palestine" or a people called Palestinians until modern history.
What was it called before modern (money-greed) called it Palestine,,,the land wasn't baron,,there were people on the land-----Canan?? I think---but it was Palestine---the bible says so.
If you are told that houses that have been used to store weapons, house terrorists, and send rockets into an area are going to be bulldozed to create a space that can be guarded, and you stand in front of the bulldozer ... stuff happens.
Quite a while back a man lost an arm because he laid it across a track coming out of the nuclear storage site. The train ran over him.
Anyone who wants to protest should be free to do so, but there are consequences to actions. You take your chances. Some people will think you are a saint and others will think you suffer from rampant stupidity.
That is exactly what happened. The surrounding countries could have ended this decades ago by simply absorbing the "Palestinians" into their populations, but they wanted the cause and they didn't want the people.
Many many "Palestinians" returned to Israel a long time ago. They live there, work there, vote in elections. They are Israeli citizens. They complain a lot about being second class citizens which may be true, but they are in their own homes not behind barbed wire.
"why can't we stop giving any money to anyone over there ---it just goes into the pockets of the war machines???"
I agree, Solar. Wars and rumors of wars. And some die and some profit in the name of religion. (They can say it's about borders. But it's a religious war.)
Solar, it's just data. I am apparently of the same mind as you - it ain't (a) Israel and (b) the rest of the 6 mideast countries who receive aid from us with respect to foreign aid. I don't have a dog in the hunt - Israel was created by the UN, which may or may not ultimately do the same for the Palestinians in Gaza. IMHO, the likelihood that will happen sooner rather than later was lessened when the Gazans chose Hamas to run the joint in 2005. Hey, ya pays your money and ya takes your chances, right?
If Yellowstone blows it will be a natural event. And we are all for nature, right?
A study of earth science educates us that there are powerful sources of energy working beneath the crust of the earth and they are not any thing humans can control. If it blows and wipes out a couple million people or a major portion of our agriculture & energy infrastructure, then we can discuss how poorly or how well the Obama administration deals with the problem. (if we have internet)
It could be pretty ugly for the survivors, hell one week without electricity here in NH had people getting very antsy. In my opinion, city dwellers would be the worst off, if the transport and supply of food is interrupted, there will be problems.
How much food and water do you have stored in case of an environmental catastrophe?
Palestine is a huge geographical area that at the time of the bible was comprised of several different countries. Here's a map from the time of Saul that you can view and see some of the places that existed in addition to Israel
Since that time, it has been carved up, juggled and renamed several times over, but again there is no country named Palestine or people called Palestinians until modern times.
We were actually discussing this in passing yesterday. Presuming I'm not buried under a Pyroclastic flow from Mt. Ranier, we could last about 60 days. Not well, but we could last.
Safest place to be for survival of the citizens no matter how beat up: Utah. They plan for six months minimum and have it all stored in warehouses as well as private homes.
Solar
Hey, glad you didn't forget.Oh your a July guy,were good people! HA ,Here's my E-mail...... (tbassham@cfl.rr.com) Rosie whats your guess on Solars B-day July16th or the 20th?
The history of that area is interesting, but it future is tied to oil IMHO. Once the world turns its energy appetite away from a global resource the area has a major controlloing interest in, its "stability" will cease to be as important to the big, strong countries of the world who currently depend upon it to satisfy our appetites for stuff to run our cars and power plants. Religion's nice, and friends in an otherwise relatively unimportant area are nice, but if you're talking oil, now you're talking.
Almost--sold my Mother to an older gentleman once in a restaurant mall ll,,only a few years back---I get bored easy, sometimes and get a little stupid-----saw this guy ( older gent) just look at my moms way(my dad was dead for a few years---that wouldn't have made a diff---nah ),and tried to sell her---- could have made 5 hundred bucks---moms are not cheap you know----well a big time out for that one,,haha no sense of humor in my family I guess :-)
Here is info on the demographic make up of Israel. Down at the bottom of the page it gives all the ethnic groups. I was surprised that more than 19% of Israeli citizens are Arabs
It's like saying "The Americas". We are all North Americans, Central Americans, or South Americans, but some are Canadian, and some are Americans, and some are Mexicans, and then there are that whole slew of countries in Central and South America many of which have changed their names over the years and then you can break it out into ethic groups such as Navaho are Argentinian.
Pogo---again imo correct---Except one thing,,we will have left behind a lot of pissed of people,,,that won't get over anything soon,,,specially due to the screw up of Bush 43,,,,El Salvador is still smarting a little after what we did over there no?? it is going to be 2009---but in that part of the world,,,it might as well be during the time of Jesus,,,and I don't mean as in Jose';s bro. You know some times I wish that it would be all out war,,and get it over with---so things could be rebuilt ??? but it will never end for us now---we back certain countries for good reasons ,,,some not so good? Panama sounds good about no
Utah? I can just see all the people from California that are pissed off at the Mormons for their stance on Prop 8 begging for help and sustenance if they need food or medical care. And the Mormons would not be stingy. Ironic indeed.
The people count and the whole "Two State Solution" is based on the idea of establishing a peaceful area of two countries Israel and Palestine.
I didn't say the people didn't count. They were living in a piece of the Ottoman Empire whose government had passed to the British following WW I. This old empire was broken up into countries such as Iraq and a huge chunk remained under British control in the Mandate.
Both Jews and Arabs lived within that Mandate. The British has promised the Jews (Zionists) residing there a homeland in a "White Paper" of intent, but that hadn't been done by the time WW II took place. in 1948 the UN did it for them by creating the country of Israel in order to give the displaced Jews who had survived the holocaust a place to go.
The British pulled out leaving all their military installations in the hands of the Arabs and the 1948 Israeli Arab happened. The Israeli's one and those people who chose to leave Israel before the war ended up in the camps rather than being absorbed by the other Arab countries that had fought against Israel. They came to be known as Palestinians.
The Arabs have attacked Israel in other wars since and lost every time. Every time the Israelis have agreed to cease fires and treaties and every time terrorist groups such as Hamas using the Palestinians for their own purpose have broken those treaties.
If Anwar Sadat and Itzak Rabin hadn't been assassinated we might have had a peaceful solution, but they were and we don't.
We were actually discussing this in passing yesterday. Presuming I'm not buried under a Pyroclastic flow from Mt. Ranier, we could last about 60 days. Not well, but we could last.
Safest place to be for survival of the citizens no matter how beat up: Utah. They plan for six months minimum and have it all stored in warehouses as well as private homes.
OK, weird it is. Apparent chaffing, that is your interpretation, not mine. People can be pissed at he Mormons, as a matter of fact there has been prejudiced against the Mormons for a hundred years or so. I would argue that the Mormons have had as rough a time as gays have in so far as their acceptance into American society. In fact they actually made some pretty big concessions with respect to their faith in order to have Utah become a state.
Bow
I was baptized Mormon and I know Mormons.I think there stingy with what counts and thats equal rights for all!!Not just us gays either,woman are the worst offended by there organization. Stingy,yes indeed........IMO
Equal rights for all, which implies acceptance and tolerance of all. That also includes acceptance and tolerance of Mormons.
What if one of our friends on this site is a Mormon. Do we really want to attack any group so generally? Condemn any groups beliefs? Why is one ok and another not? Why not just accept that others believe what they believe, they have a reason for believing whatever it is, and leave them alone. Are any of us so perfect, that we can sit here in judgment of everyone else?
Even before 3000 B.C.E., West Semitic tribal groups speaking variations of the Canaanite tongue inhabited much of what is now the modern Middle East. Many settled in the Syria-Canaan lands of Ancient Palestine. Early Mesopotamian documents refer to both nomadic shepherds and to traders. One such group, the Habiru {or Hapiru} migrated into Palestine perhaps as early as 2000 B.C.E. from northern Mesopotamia; later elements from among them formed the ancient Hebrews. As they entered Ancient Palestine, the Phoenicians in the north and the Philistines in the south occupied definite areas. "Phoenicia" is the Greek translation of "Canaan,"--the land of purple merchants," referring perhaps to the dye they used to colour cloth. Indeed, it is from the time of Canaan that Bethlehem is believed to have derived its name, Bethlehem - Beit Lahem in Arabic ("The house of Lahman - a Canaanite God").
The Canaanites, were a Semitic people speaking a language remarkably close to Hebrew. They were farmers, some were nomads, but they were also civilized. They used the great Mesopotamian cities as their model and had built modest imitations of them. They had also learned military technology and tactics from the Mesopotamians, as well as law. Thus when the Hebrews arrived at Canaan, they began the long, painful, and disappointing process of settling the land, but being uncivilized, tribal, and nomadic, they faced a formidable enemy. Even the accounts of this period in the Hebrew bible, the books of Joshua and Judges paint a pretty dreary picture of the occupation. They are eventually driven from the coastal plains and forced to settle in the central hill country and a few places in the Jordan River valley. They also faced another looming enemy, the Philistines, who overwhelmed everyone in their path. They had chariots and iron weapons and few could stand against these new technologies.
Thus it was that the Hebrews found themselves living in the worst areas of Canaan, spread thinly across the entire region, with the balance of power constantly shifting as local kingdoms would grab and then lose territory, finding themselves first under one and then another master
"in 1948 the UN did it for them by creating the country of Israel in order to give the displaced Jews who had survived the holocaust a place to go. "
The UN created Israel for one reason: guilt. The West had the opportunity in 1938 to save the Jewish refugees (as well as many other refugees) and the West took a pass at the Evian Conference.
Arthur James BalfourThe British Mandate, 1917-1948 CE
In December 1917, Jerusalem surrendered to British forces, bringing four centuries of Ottoman-Turk rule to a close. It was through the proclamation of the Balfour Declaration two months earlier on November 2, 1917, that gave the Zionist movement its long-sought legal status. The qualification that: nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine seemed a relatively insignificant obstacle to the Zionists, especially since it referred only to those communities': civil and religious rights, not to political or national rights. The subsequent British occupation gave Britain the ability to carry out that pledge and provide the protection necessary for the Zionists to realize their aims.
In fact, the British had contracted three mutually contradictory promises for the future of Palestine. The Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 with the French and Russian governments proposed that Palestine be placed under international administration. The Husayn-McMohan Correspondence, 1915-1916, on whose basis the Arab revolt was launched, implied that Palestine would be included in the zone of Arab independence. In contrast, the Balfour Declaration encouraged the colonization of Palestine by Jews, under British protection. British officials recognized the irreconcilability of these pledges but hoped that a modus vivendi could be achieved, both between the competing imperial powers, France and Britain, and between the Palestinians and the Jews. Instead, these contradictions set the stage for the three decades of conflict-ridden British rule in Palestine.
Initially, many British politicians shared the Zionists' assumption that gradual, regulated Jewish immigration and settlement would lead to a Jewish majority in Palestine, whereupon it would become independent, with legal protection for the Arab minority .The assumption that this could be accomplished without serious resistance was shattered at the outset of British rule. Britain thereafter was caught in an increasingly untenable position, unable to persuade either Palestinians or Zionists to alter their demands and forced to station substantial military forces in Palestine to maintain security.
The Palestinians had assumed that they would gain some form of independence when Ottoman rule disintegrated; whether through a separate state or integration with neighbouring Arab lands. These hopes were bolstered by the Arab revolt, the entry of Faysal Ibn Husayn into Damascus in 1918, and the proclamation of Syrian independence in 1920. Their hopes were dashed, however, when Britain imposed direct colonial rule and elevated the yishuv to a special status. Moreover, the French ousted Faysal from Damascus in July 1920, and British compensation-in the form of thrones in Transjordan and Iraq for Abdullah and Faysal, respectively-had no positive impact on the Arabs in Palestine. In fact, the action underlined the different treatment accorded Palestine and its disadvantageous political situation. These concerns were exacerbated by Jewish immigration: the yishuv comprised 28 percent of the population by 1936 and reached 32 percent by 1947 (click here for Palestine's population distribution per district in 1946). The British umbrella was critically important to the growth and consolidation of the yishuv, enabling it to root itself firmly despite Palestinian opposition. Although British support diminished in the late 1930s, the yishuv was strong enough by then to withstand the Palestinians on its own. After World War II, the Zionist movement also was able to turn to the emerging superpower, the United States, for diplomatic support and legitimisation.
It is unanimous---Emma Nichole is a pretty cool name....we have 2 Nichole's,,,but no Emma's in the family-----there are a cple of new born' s that I haven't met and forgot their names already,,,I'll get to know them at some point in the future,,,they are healthy so that is what matters,for right now.,,,,Ill make fun of their names later.
Chloe
Your absolutely correct. I amend my previous post to read I know some Mormons.. Generally in my life I've Mormons to be real nice folks,I believe its the organization thats at fault in this instance.I also agree there entitled to there beliefs and thats just fine by me ,I want no part of them....I think what makes some people angry is there support of prop 8 to deny people there rights and those people are also entitled to there feelings and dislike of the Mormon organization..IMO
I was just asking the questions. I don't even particularly disagree with what you said. And I have lots of opinions, and condemn lot's of beliefs. But I guess I feel maybe it's fairer to attack ideas and beliefs on an individual basis, rather than condemning a whole group. But that doesn't keep me from disagreeing with them.
I feel the whole equality thing goes for everyone. Either you believe it or you don't. I guess I should have kept this to myself, as it is more my problem than anything else. I've struggled for years to learn not to be so judgmental of others.
Thanks though Tony. You are ALWAYS so open minded. :)
Chloe
I further would add that I have friends in California ,Ismael and Clinton and I think there negative attitude regarding some Mormons providing funding to have there marriage from last year nullified very just and I'm very much with them in solidarity and spirit...But again its not to say that all Mormans are doing these terrible things.IMO
"I feel the whole equality thing goes for everyone. Either you believe it or you don't. I guess I should have kept this to myself, as it is more my problem than anything else. I've struggled for years to learn not to be so judgmental of others."
Chloe
Wonderful Post!! I think your correct then.I'm glad you asked the question because it isn't good for myself or others to paint with a broad brush.I also agree the "whole equality thing goes for everyone".I guess through my experience as a gay man i just have not felt this 2 way street of equality from some religious organizations and I find it very hard to ignore personal experience here but i do not treat people who I know condemn me terrible I leave be...
Tony---just my little say,,,all religions, as a group denied you, and others that right,(to marry),,,to me even saying that someone doesn't mind that others practice what ever religion (trying to be moderate about it)they want to say ok as long as I get to practice mine--- ---,,some say that while all the t ime thinking that --that other religion is false---and anyone practicing it will go straight to hell,,,,IMO is that they are all bad for us.....in other words saying that its ok for everyone to practice what they want,,,makes them all enablers of the Extreme Religious,around the world,( my religion is not a bad one--they say),,just what I think ---hope I made a little sense,,,,but all religions kinda had a hand in it since they all drive the same b.s.ideas??
Chole---really just wanted to say hello----but yes very large family,,and a league of nations-----and like all large family's,,,some not so wonderful---but the vast majority are
Guilt was part of it, but only incidentally since they were simply creating the agreed upon Jewish portion of Israel that had been promised in the Balfour Declaration letter written on November 2, 1917, by Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, one of the leaders of British Jewry.
It was later endorsed by the Allies at the San Remo Conference (1920) and incorporated into the Palestine Mandate given to Britain and approved by the Council of the League of Nations on July 24, 1922.
It just took them until 1948 to get it done by the United Nations.
thanks forgot about that song---yes I can Imagine ---but that is all---I can not for the life on me ---understand how very intelligent people still believe in them---One of the people that I admire very much---Mario Coumo comes to mind,,,I don't think that people like him fake it like some do??
Solar,
I think they need something to hang on to. They NEED to believe. They need to belong. They need to be directed. I think the world scares them without those boundaries.
Chloe
Right on with that comment!! This is why I love this place because you and so many here make me think.I come away from this place smarter and more passionate about the issues of the day.Today I had Middle East history lessons and civil rights talk..Where else could this happen,well some of my friends would say this is what happens when I'm at my local gym..HA
Solar
I agree, its not one religious organization its a broad based assault by many if not all of them!! You always make sense to me and like I told Chloe you make me think..I got to check out that science channel.Thankyou..
You know, I don't think that Caroline Kennedy has, you know, come across as very articulate, you know, in her recent interviews. That doesn't mean that she wouldn't be any good, you know, as a senator. She just doesn't come across, you know, as qualified.
I think that you will like it,,,plus the other ones available--I still like to read,,,but there is too many that are mentioned here and other places,,,,for example---on these long holiday's Book tv on C-span will start on wed,,or Thur. and go all the way into early Monday morn----lots of books to read if one is the sponge type,,,I like to tape those and with all the channels that are on satellite tv....tapes have become more and more the way for me to go-----and there are also the DYI channels that teach all about building,,,,history,,,much more than than time---than you I can come here and learn more,,,Just no excuse for anyone not to get informed it they want to --also if they can afford a pc and internet.
Caroline Kennedy, said "You Know" 138 times in her interview. And,some people still have the nerve to call Gov. Palin stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She talks like some sixteen year old. You Know, You Know. She's just another politician, who thinks she can buy her way to the top. But, I guess she has learned from the best. Uncle Teddy and Obama, just to name a few.
That is nothing more than another pay off deal between politicians. Kennedy supported Obama, Obama picked HRC, as SOS, freeing up her Senate Seat. So, now it's time for Obama, to pay Teddy Back. And the final bill is The Senate Seat for Caroline.
Jamie; 6:23 pm................ I don't believe the 19% of the Israeli population that is Arabic is the problem, I think it's the other 81% that are not allowed to return, to their homeland because it would upset the balance of voting power and oh-oh the Israeli Knesset would become an Arabic government.
Like someone else said I don't have a dog in this fight but I get really tired if hearing, media wise, how over 300 people died in Mumbai, but all the info we get is on six, I repeat 6, jews.
It's all manipulation anyway, if you go back far enough, they are brothers under the skin..........Abraham had 2 sons, Ishmael, son of the Handmaiden Hagar, who was driven into the desert, and Issac, son of his 79 year old wife Sarah who became his heir.
After World War II, the head count was 6 million Jews,
also, over 20 million Russians, and over 20 million Germans, and God knows how many British , French, Canadian, and Americans, as well as whatever other Allied countries there were, but only the Jews came out of it with a hunting license and ever since, the Mossad has been running around the world killing with impunity. I may have missed something but I don't recall ever hearing about a Mossad agent being prosecuted. I am as disgusted as anyone else would be by something as horrific as the Holocaust, but firing into refugee camps with gunships is a bit over the line, as were the phosphorus bombs used in the destruction of Beirut a couple of years ago. Not the way to win hearts and minds and isn't that always the objective.
Patsi; ......... By the way, I think you are totally right about the "Good Old Boys Club", existing. I mean really, Chili, Phillipines,Britain, Canada, and even Israel had women Prime Ministers and Presidents, but the Good Ol' Boys here just couldn't see their way clear.
It doesn't matter whether Obama is black, or white or green, he's a man, and all cats are grey in the dark, aren't they.
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Comments
Ho Ho Ho,
May the Spirit of Christmas come to all.....
God Bless...
Posted by: Ping Pong
| December 25, 2008 7:07 AM
"Is there a finished version to the TM Carol?"
oldsea, i hope the great editor in the sky did a final merge of it. be great to have a compilation of all the tm poetry and song in our season of discombobulation.
btw,
(((((((((((((((( MERRY CHRISTMAS)))))))))))))))
Posted by: patd | December 25, 2008 7:14 AM
Merry Christmas and all other appropriate greetings to the TrailMix crew.
Mild temperatures, melting snow, and high winds here in upstate NY this morning.
Posted by: EdVB
| December 25, 2008 7:16 AM
I really like the message in this song....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZa5wTgnTOI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K2ocj4BvUQ
Posted by: Ping Pong
| December 25, 2008 7:26 AM
Merry Christmas to all -- and to Ping -- great song pick!
Posted by: Patsi
| December 25, 2008 7:55 AM
If you can't dance, clap along
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZdWrfDX2pQ
Posted by: Jamie
| December 25, 2008 8:57 AM
Thanks for that link, Jamie! Fezziwig is one of my favorite characters....
My son and I are lazily putting together this afternoon's dinner, while my daughter and family celebrate out at the lake with his folks.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 25, 2008 9:56 AM
It was a foggy, rainy Christmas Eve in CT which has turned into a bright, sunny Christmas Day.
To all who congregate at Trailmix a Merry Christmas, and a Happy Holiday season.
Posted by: Coreen | December 25, 2008 10:12 AM
Today's NYT---a history of the celebrated Rockefeller Christmas tree enjoyed by so many.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/a-history-of-the-rockefeller-christmas-tree/
Posted by: Coreen | December 25, 2008 10:23 AM
and I heard craig exclaim as he wrote, out of sight,
happy christmas to y'all, but my deadline's in sight......
Posted by: sturgeone | December 25, 2008 10:29 AM
"was a foggy, rainy Christmas Eve in CT which has turned into a bright, sunny Christmas Day."
Same here in West Tennessee, Coreen. It looks like a beautiful day!
Posted by: Patsi
| December 25, 2008 11:22 AM
Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukah
Festive Festivus
Kickin' Kwaanza
Historic Human Light
If you celebrate have a great one.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 25, 2008 11:38 AM
Here's our new stove and mantel (still under construction), it will be great to able to use that room comfortably year round. But more than that , it was fun to all take turns stripping and to work at something as a family again. That was all I wanted for Christmas.Merry Christmas!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1315243533&ref=profile
Posted by: oldseahag
| December 25, 2008 11:46 AM
Merry Christmas, everyone.
To quote the great Cal Naughton Jr.: "I like to think of Jesus in a tuxedo T-shirt, because it says 'I can be formal, but I'm here to party too'."
And Sturge, this one is for you...from today's NYT feature obit on Harold Pinter:
"Mr. Pinter said he thought of theater as essentially exploratory. 'Even old Sophocles didn’t know what was going to happen next,' he said."
Harold Pinter is dead at 78
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/theater/26pinter.html?hp
Posted by: LardassLiberal
| December 25, 2008 12:00 PM
Kathleen -- I can't get anything but the "front page" -- so can't see your new mantle....rats!
Posted by: Patsi
| December 25, 2008 12:18 PM
Dang Patsi, my kids tell me that you have to join facebook to see it. Sign up when you have the time, then we could see a picture of your granddaughter too. Hope you are having a great Christmas!
Posted by: oldseahag
| December 25, 2008 12:20 PM
Patsi, forgot I have your email- you've got mail.
Posted by: oldseahag
| December 25, 2008 12:24 PM
Saw it, Kathleen! Looks wonderful.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 25, 2008 12:51 PM
Hello Everyone! I wish you all a happy holiday today.
We're enjoying some really nice weather in VA -- last night it was 58 degrees and we could comfortably sit outside and enjoy the burning Yule Log.
Now I'm off to the Eastern Shore and other adventures await. Will check in when I can find some free WiFi.
Cheers!
~Alicia
Posted by: Divalicias
| December 25, 2008 1:47 PM
Merry Christmas boys and girls.
Thought for the day :
" The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. "
0004 -BC- Jesus of Nazareth religious leader/philosopher (estimated date)
1899 Humphrey Bogart New York NY, actor, Here's looking at you, kid (Casablanca)
0337 Earliest possible date that Christmas was celebrated on Dec 25th
1492 Columbus' ship Santa Maria docks at Dominican Republic
1621 Governor William Bradford of Plymouth forbids game playing on Christmas day
1741 Astronomer Anders Celcius introduces Centigrade temperature scale
1758 Halley's comet 1st sighted by Johann Georg Palitzsch during return
1776 Washington crosses Delaware & surprises & defeats 1,400 Hessians
1818 1st known Christmas carol ("Silent Night, Holy Night" by Franz Joseph Gruber & Joseph Mohr) sung (Austria)
1868 Despite bitter opposition, President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all persons involved in the Southern rebellion (the Civil War)
1914 Legendary/unofficial "Christmas Truce" takes place (British & Germans)
1922 Lenin dictates his "Political testament"
1938 George Cukor announces Vivien Leigh will play Scarlett O'Hara
1959 Richard Starkey [Ringo Starr] receives his 1st drum set
1964 "Goldfinger" premieres in US
Today's Broadway flop -
1994 "Comedy Tonight" closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theater NYC after 8 performances
Another twist in the Greek Drama of this year.
Worst headline of 2008 -
Man in Santa Suit Slays at Least 5 at Holiday Party
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/us/26Santa.html?hp
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 25, 2008 1:58 PM
Okie dokie... Faith Hope and Charity.. & other songs.... keeping up with the Dale Evans and Roy Rogers music theme.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNs3ur52mcM&
I am going into diabetic shock now, because this album is SOOOO sweet.
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 25, 2008 2:05 PM
Flatus -
I haven't read this guy's stuff in a long time, but he's British (?), and I came across him a couple of years ago. His stories are wonderful, could be the best blog about Southeast Asia in those years.
Anyway here's the link :
VIETNAM. vnrozier's photos & notes of a very personal war.
SOUTH VIETNAM 1965-1975. vnrozier's photos and notes of the Vietnam War. Stories about the soldiers and people I met, the girls I loved and the roads I travelled.
http://vnpersonalwar.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 25, 2008 2:07 PM
In the spirit of the Christmas season, I find this song so beautiful...
Calling All Angels by Eliza Gilkyson
Take a moment to enjoy this !!!
http://www.inspirationline.com/EZINE/12NOV2007.htm
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 25, 2008 2:09 PM
1723 The Dunkards (Baptists from Germany) held their first immersion service in America at Germantown (near Philadelphia), Pennsylvania.
The Dunkard Church at the Antietam battlefield is right up there with Ft. Benton, Montana. I went on a cloudy / misty Thanksgiving day, saw 4 other people in the whole park.
The Dunker Church - Battlefield Shrine
http://www.nps.gov/archive/anti/dunker.htm
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 25, 2008 2:30 PM
Forty years ago, the biggest TV audience in history tuned in to watch humankind's first close encounter with another world, as the crew of Apollo 8 reached lunar orbit. Here, the Apollo historian and film-maker Dr Christopher Riley gives his perspective on the mission and how that Christmas Eve of 1968 changed the world.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7797439.stm
2 Billion people were watching.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 25, 2008 2:42 PM
It never occurred to the NASA people that " earth rise over the moon " would be one of the most iconic images in the history of the world.
" Oh, my God! Look at that picture over there! Isn't that something… "
Frank Borman
Apollo 8 crew member
See, it never even came up in a briefing , Borman had no clue it was coming.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 25, 2008 2:49 PM
MERRY CHRISTMAS TRAIL MIXERS
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Posted by: Ree | December 25, 2008 3:31 PM
MERRY CHRISTMAS TRAIL MIXERS
I believe in Santa Claus...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QrdgQAUnKc
Kenny and Dolly : A Christmas to Remember
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 25, 2008 3:34 PM
More lists come marching in -
2008: The Political Year in Quotes
FOXNews.com runs down the most memorable lines of the 2008 political year.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/24/year-quotes/
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 25, 2008 5:14 PM
TPM's list -
Top Posts
Of all the hundred and hundreds of posts we've published this year at TalkingPointsMemo, TPM Election Central, and TPMmuckraker, these are the Top 10 traffic-getters. It's a mix of straight news, off-beat observations, trenchant commentary, and just plain fun. We couldn't have done it without you, so thanks for a great year.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/12/tpm_best_of_2008.php
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 25, 2008 5:20 PM
So sorry to hear about Eartha, she sings one of my most favorite Christmas song which never fails to give me a chuckle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOMmSbxB_Sg
Posted by: oldseahag
| December 25, 2008 5:32 PM
Eartha Kitt - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oipCyU5HYgU
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 25, 2008 5:39 PM
The Joke's On Catwoman Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VMn4ens6jA
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 25, 2008 5:42 PM
Goldfinger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7leX_BBcOA
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 25, 2008 5:47 PM
it's the singer not the song
this joke stands a chance of being the longest period of sustained laughter from the audience for Karnak, the mysterious visitor from the East......
Karnak [holding envelope to forehead]: Sis Boom Bah
Ed McMahon: SIS Boom Bah.....
Karnak [annoyed] Sis Boom BAH
trouble opening the envelope......
Karnak, reading: Name the sound of an exploding sheep.
Posted by: sturgeone | December 25, 2008 6:31 PM
Further to the Rockefeller Center Tree New York Times' article link posted earlier:
This year's tree was planted (a second time) in 1931, the same year the first "unofficial tree" was erected by workers at the Rockefeller Center construction site. (There was also an unofficial tree there in 1932.)
This year's tree was given to Mary Varanyak, a Hungarian immigrant, from her boss as a Christmas present in 1931. She decorated the tree and displayed it inside her home that year, then planted it in her yard, where it grew until this November 13th. It required five minutes to chop it down.
I went to see the tree this morning (a Christmas tradition, along with beer for breakfast) and can report that in person it was a lovely sight, shorter than last year's but just as beautiful.
Posted by: benjaminblue | December 25, 2008 6:51 PM
Just heard about Eartha Kitt. Considering the song that made her famous. Christmas Day at the age of 81 seems very fitting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOMmSbxB_Sg
Posted by: Jamie
| December 25, 2008 7:04 PM
more christmas cheers.......Doc Severinson with the majestic Ed Shaughnessy (sp?) "Jumpin' at the Woodside" another version of which (Milton DeLug's....lol) Chuckie Barris used as a theme for Gene, Gene, the Dancing Machine.........and his own post introduction chuck barris's signature shuffle to the side.........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuQSIHVJ56A
Posted by: sturgeone | December 25, 2008 7:07 PM
wc fields also died on christmas day, I think 1946
Posted by: sturgeone | December 25, 2008 7:08 PM
if you should watch that whole severinson clip, check out the face on that kid bass player at the end of that piece.........dont know how that kid got there but he was big time making the grade........that was a pure workout..........
Posted by: sturgeone | December 25, 2008 7:13 PM
So that any secularists don't feel left out in the midst of all the celebrating.
http://www.humanlight.org/
Posted by: Jamie
| December 25, 2008 7:14 PM
if you should watch that whole severinson clip, check out the face on that kid bass player at the end of that piece.........dont know how that kid got there but he was big time making the grade........that was a pure workout..........
Posted by: sturgeone | December 25, 2008 7:15 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNhnioNNIPI&feature=PlayList&p=91BEA25509D09B9C&playnext=1&index=4
eddie shaughnessy and buddy rich blow the roof off the dump.......In former lives i bet these two were pure killer in front of the cave with hollow logs........
Posted by: sturgeone | December 25, 2008 7:26 PM
Famous People who died on Christmas
http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/xmastrivia3.html
Posted by: Jamie
| December 25, 2008 7:49 PM
Humphrey Bogart's birthday
Casablanca on TCM
Posted by: Jamie
| December 25, 2008 8:03 PM
Cyclone Billy NW of Australia
95 kt winds
Gusts to 115 kt ( 133 m.p.h. )
https://metocph.nmci.navy.mil/jtwc/satshots/05S_251130sair.jpg
Joint Typhoon Warning Center Products
https://metocph.nmci.navy.mil/jtwc.php
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 25, 2008 8:50 PM
Typhoon season in the southern tropics.
Speaking of weather, it was 75 degrees in my back yard today. Tomorrow, another copy of today ............. very warm air south of the jet stream now. Last week it was 16. Some extreme weather coming, tornado conditions ripe.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 25, 2008 9:02 PM
Strange ... news from Jimmy Buffet's volcano .
CAT Scan Reveals Inner Workings Of Volcano Island
ScienceDaily (Dec. 24, 2008) — On the ground and in the water, an international team of researchers has been collecting imaging data on the Soufriere Hills Volcano in Montserrat to understand the internal structure of the volcano and how and when it erupts.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081219092044.htm
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 25, 2008 9:34 PM
WASILLA, Alaska -- The mother of Bristol Palin's boyfriend sent text messages to two police informants discussing drug transactions before her arrest on felony drug charges, authorities say.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_palin_johnston_arrest.html
------------
She's so screwed.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 25, 2008 9:40 PM
I thought OxyContin was declared an over-the-counter light weight drug after Rush was found with suitcases of it.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 25, 2008 10:01 PM
I nearly forgot -
XRep -
The untold story on the coast, pumping all that oil and gas is causing the land to sink. No one has ever studied the problem, never any funds for it.
But it's happening, see the salt dome collapse in Houston, some months ago. The folks at Louisiana State think it's part of story on why the wetlands are going so fast.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 25, 2008 10:01 PM
There are many others as well. All of them our fault.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 25, 2008 10:06 PM
I'm afraid the Louisiana coast as we knew it is gone. The ocean is coming to get it no matter what we do.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 25, 2008 10:11 PM
If you love Dave Berry, don't miss this on C-SPAN 2. It's damn funny stuff.
2008 Miami Book Fair: Dave Barry and Frank McCourt
[Watch Now!]
Watch now!
Authors: Dave Barry; Frank McCourt
Upcoming Schedule
Friday, December 26, at 12:00 PM
Saturday, December 27, at 12:00 AM
About the Program
From the 2008 Miami Book Fair, Dave Barry author of "Dave Barry's History of the Millennium" and Frank McCourt author of "Angela's Ashes" discuss their books.
http://www.booktv.org/program.aspx?ProgramId=10010&SectionName=&PlayMedia=No
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 25, 2008 10:44 PM
One of the best "comebacks" in the music industry. Eartha Kitt singing "Where is my Man"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYjF6IUB0PE
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 25, 2008 11:39 PM
Is Alaska more known for meth than, say, Nebraska, Ohio, Kansas, etc, etc?
What are the real drug centers of the country?
And should we bomb them?
Posted by: Patsi
| December 25, 2008 11:41 PM
Happy Trails sounds so final.
OK, Happy Trails until next year.
tt
Posted by: tiptoe
| December 26, 2008 12:37 AM
Colorado Bob,
I never thought of the deflation of the domes adding to the problem, but it makes perfect sense. I've seen dry places that subsided when they were pumped out. So, why not the wet places too ?
Louziann's choice ( you can pick only one) :
A. A paycheck.
B. A place to sleep above water.
Posted by: xrepublican
| December 26, 2008 2:04 AM
Defoliate Wasilla ! Send in the death squads !
Freeze their bank accounts, and if that doesn't work, seize their banks. Set up a puppet government.
Posted by: xrepublican
| December 26, 2008 2:27 AM
"And hey Wasilly is apparently is the meth capitol of the state, so what's your problem?"
Well, here's a hint.
While we're over here gleefully dancing a jig because more scandal has touched a former candidate, George Bush is undermining women's rights even on his way out the door. It's not quite as sexy a story as the Wasilla Hillbilly meme.....but might be worthy of at least some interest....and discussion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/opinion/26fri2.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
Posted by: Patsi
| December 26, 2008 5:48 AM
And while we are on the subject of women, let's give a hat tip to Eartha Kitt -- not merely for her music -- but for the courage to speak out against the Vietnam war at the Johnson White House. Her career took a hit because of it, and her life was turned upside down -- the FBI and CIA went full steam head after her -- and she stood up to it all defiantly. She was a role model for women and men alike.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 26, 2008 6:07 AM
Good morning all! Hello Patsi, hope you had a fine Christmas!
CBob- always wondered about the effects of emptying the earth's interior liquid and it s effect on rotation.
Posted by: oldseahag
| December 26, 2008 6:40 AM
Last week of the year, let the autopsies, and soul searching begin.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 6:40 AM
"might be worthy of at least some interest....and discussion"
patsi, no apologies for the shrubies (they don't deserve any), but it's as hard to write laws and rules as to be a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. no matter where you are, your tail's going to get mashed. i am a firm believer in choice and that includes considering another person's right to choose. should an individual healthcare person who feels strongly about abortion be forced by the law to put an end to a living organism (in her mind to kill) or should she also be allowed a choice? the legislator and the rule maker have to walk a perilous path thru emotional as well as legal mine fields.
this dilemma of weighing rights and the right words is an interesting puzzle worthy of discussion.... but let's not limit it to abortion as that is too hot a topic this early in the morning. how about should a bartendar be free from suit for refusing to sell a drink or cigarettes to a very pregnant lady?
Posted by: patd | December 26, 2008 6:50 AM
Thought for the day :
" Statistics are often used as a drunk uses a light pole: For support rather than illumination. "
1792 Charles Babbage English inventor (calculating machine)
1837 Admiral George Dewey American naval hero of Manila
1891 Henry Miller author (Tropic of Capricorn, Tropic of Cancer, Sexus)
1914 Richard Widmark Sunrise MN, actor (Madigan, Judgement at Nuremberg)
1492 1st Spanish settlement in New World founded, by Columbus
1773 Expulsion of tea ships from Philadelphia
1799 George Washington is eulogized by Colonel Henry Lee as "1st in war, 1st in peace & 1st in the hearts of his countrymen"
1825 Erie Canal opens
1848 1st gold seekers arrive in Panama en route to San Francisco
1862 38 Santee Sioux Indians hanged in Mankato MN, due to their uprising
1865 James H Mason (Massachusetts) patents 1st US coffee percolator
1917 Federal government took over operation of American RR for duration of WWI
1955 RKO is 1st to announce sale of its film library to TV
1963 Beatles release "I Want To Hold Your Hand"/"I Saw Her Standing There"
1964 Beatles' "I Feel Fine" single goes #1 & stays #1 for 3 weeks
1967 The BBC broadcasts "The Magical Mystery Tour"
1967 Dave Brubeck Quartet formally disbands
1968 Led Zeppelin's concert debut in Boston as opener for Vanilla Fudge
1982 TIME's Man of the Year is a computer
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 7:00 AM
Beatles - I Feel Fine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PykzyxWYS3Y
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 7:04 AM
The Beatles - In My Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym0x3vTw6yc
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 7:07 AM
" abortion as that is too hot a topic this early in the morning."
Probably true, patd!!!
Posted by: Patsi
| December 26, 2008 7:07 AM
"1865 James H Mason (Massachusetts) patents 1st US coffee percolator "
I'll give a big hat tip to this guy on an early post-Christmas morning!
Posted by: Patsi
| December 26, 2008 7:11 AM
the beatles norwegian wood
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaNQjhXhfVs
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 7:13 AM
I bet Mason hated Hazelnut coffee too.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 7:14 AM
Beatles - Rain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTLJMSbEnn0
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 7:16 AM
The Beatles - Paperback Writer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXOsi6gPvDs
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 7:18 AM
The Beatles-Baby you can drive my car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvFG0VnIurM
---------------
More cowbell.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 7:22 AM
The Beatles "I'm Looking Through You"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiRbZ5R1q2M
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 7:24 AM
The Beatles - Do You Want to Know a Secret?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktzdpK8Ryk0
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 7:27 AM
The Beatles-"Things We Said Today"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9e4kmX_aW0
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 7:30 AM
"I bet Mason hated Hazelnut coffee too."
Good bet!
Posted by: Patsi
| December 26, 2008 7:30 AM
Today's Broadway flop -
1988 "Legs Diamond" starring Peter Allen prenieres at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC for 64 performances
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 7:32 AM
Well here's hoping that we're done with our yearly cycle of middle aged white men , spinning out of control, and murdering their former loved ones, or complete strangers on the LBJ freeway.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 7:42 AM
xrepub -
It's not so much the physical removal of the gas or oil, it's the de-pressurization of the formations where hydrocarbons get trapped.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 7:48 AM
For every barrel of oil produced in the lower 48 , 9 barrels of water are pumped up with it.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 7:51 AM
Pakistan moves troops toward Indian border
By SEBASTIAN ABBOT – 40 minutes ago
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan began moving thousands of troops away from the Afghan border toward India on Friday amid tensions following the Mumbai attacks, intelligence officials said.
The move represents a sharp escalation in the stand off between the nuclear-armed neighbors and stands to weaken Pakistan's U.S.-backed campaign against al-Qaida and Taliban close to Afghanistan.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hkiMxbHNH0BqgpWA2ZG6VD6wVTmAD95ACMEO0
---------------
Hello Hillary
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 7:56 AM
from today's wapo story on white house elect press corps in hawaii:
Henry says that when he calls his colleagues in Atlanta, New York or Washington, "they start cursing at me. I called one of our producers and I said, 'Aloha!,' and she said, 'Bleep you! Don't 'aloha' me.' "
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/25/AR2008122501171.html?hpid=topnews
Posted by: patd | December 26, 2008 7:59 AM
On the crawl this morning -
Taiwan is going to bail out their flat screen TV makers.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 8:01 AM
bet chuck todd feels better now about getting that gig and not getting mtp.
Posted by: patd | December 26, 2008 8:01 AM
# "Star Trek," the long-running TV show. According to actor Leonard Nimoy, who played Mr. Spock in the series, Obama flashed him the split four-fingered Vulcan salute when the two crossed paths last year.
In May in Des Moines, Iowa, Newsweek caught Obama teasing his wife, Michelle, about her belt buckle, saying it was studded with Star Trek-powering dilithium crystals and adding, "Beam me up, Scotty!" As he laughed at his own joke, Michelle Obama rolled her eyes, as geek wives often do.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/393627_obamageek25.html?source=mypi
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 8:07 AM
Chuck got a ring side seat.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 8:09 AM
Japan industrial output logs record fall
"Production is falling like Niagara Falls. What's going on now is beyond what Toyota and Sony ever imagined. They just can't have a plan for the future now," said Mitsuru Saito, chief economist at Tokai Tokyo Securities.
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre4b70me-us-financial/
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 8:18 AM
WSI Energycast Outlook Calls for Very Mild January, Cold February/March in the Eastern US; Very Cold January-March Period in Western US
http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20081223/bs_prweb/prweb1788224
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 8:21 AM
............ a webcam located inside the Mount Washington Observatory at the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire, the highest point in New England. It's looking ENE out of a window in the Observatory tower.
http://www.mountwashington.org/weather/cam/deck/
-----------------
Sunrise in New Hampshire.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 8:26 AM
Good morning and Happy post Christmas. Whew, I am glad it is over and I still have three days left off to just relax.
Last night I watched the special on CNN about Obama. It was the very first time I watched anything on Obama with a completely open mind and heart. I have been biased for Hillary since the campaign began. I did end up voting Obama but not with a happy heart.
I now see that Obama had the right life experiences, he has the innate talents and abilities, he had lots of lucky breaks and becoming POTUS was his destiny.
I do think Hillary had much of the above but no lucky breaks and years of a anti-Hillary campaign that was impossible to overcome. Her being SOS will probably present more of a challenge than her being president.
Posted by: ct | December 26, 2008 8:31 AM
Amazon pollution case could cost Chevron
Billions at stake as Ecuadorean judge weighs class-action lawsuit
The plaintiffs say Texaco saved $8-$10 a barrel by dumping some 18 billion gallons of the wastewater from drilling and extraction into waste pits instead of re-injecting it back deep into the ground. The more than 1,000 waste pits were not lined, so the toxins seeped into the groundwater, they say.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28352583/
---------------------
No environmental wackos in Ecuador back when Texaco was sucking nearly 1.5 billion barrels of oil from more than 350 wells.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 8:39 AM
Good morning all and happy holidays....before I head to work....
Savoy Brown...Hellbound Train
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VVXKnT__3hk
I was inspired by the early morning news and we are all on the hellbound train!
Posted by: Blonde wino
| December 26, 2008 8:48 AM
ct -
Read the story I linked about Spock crossing paths with Obama.
" And his old college friends give the geek idea a split vote.
While Margot Mifflin, now a journalism professor in New York, said she saw no geeky signs in Obama as a freshman at Occidental College in California, Amiekoleh Kimbrew Usafi recalled it differently, despite the lack of technology back in 1979.
"He's a geek because he was smart," Usafi said, noting that Occidental was a geeky school to start with, billing itself as the Yale of the West.
"I remember he would be hitting his books. I would see him in the library. ... There were a lot of girls that liked him because he was cute, but he kept his head in the direction he was going in. I would see him studying all the time."
-----------------
Barack Obama doesn't let his little head do his big head's thinking.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 8:54 AM
Savoy Brown
Yes yes yes
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 8:58 AM
That's the one -
Savoy Brown - Louisiana Blues
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zEAkK6sQgQo
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 9:01 AM
If the river was whiskey and I was a diving duck
If the river was whiskey and I was a diving duck
I would swim to the bottom
Drink myself back up
Going to Louisiana baby behind the sun
Going to Louisiana baby behind the sun
You know I just found out
My trouble's just begun
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 9:04 AM
Molly Hatchet: Flirtin With Disaster
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rhhtRxqSrys
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 9:09 AM
Molly Hatchet Gator Country
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kSa8IWWXX5k
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 9:13 AM
C-Bob,
Enjoyed both your Spock and Louisiana Blues links. I am here to tell you that the rivers aren't whiskey here but at my camp on the river I have seen a couple of empty whiskey bottles float by especially after a hurricane or flood.
Posted by: ct | December 26, 2008 9:17 AM
Leon Russell-"Stranger In A Strange Land"
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QgTNjdPjubE
------
The last time I saw Leon Russell he was riding one of those 3 wheeled "Larks" on Buddy Holly Ave.
God I loved Leon Russell.
"Roll Away the Stone" -- Leon Russell
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1XJaDzI_wVg
-------------------------
This is music to put on ...... and step on down the boulevard .
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 9:28 AM
Stop the money chase
Lay back, relax
Get back on the human track
Stop racing toward oblivion
Oh, such a sad, sad state we're in
And that's a thing
Do you recognize the bells of truth
When you hear them ring
Won't you stop and listen
To the children sing
Won't you come on and sing it children
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 9:34 AM
More lists, ....... this one's good.
The year 2008 in photographs (part 1 of 3)
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/the_year_2008_in_photographs_p.html
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 9:42 AM
Another list -
TOP TEN ARCHAEOLOGY FINDS: Most Read of 2008
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/12/081219-top-ten-archaeology.html
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 10:07 AM
Another story from the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco last week. This is a Russian scientist studying the permafrost in Siberia.
------------
The East Siberian Sea is bubbling with methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, being released from underwater reserves, according to a recent expedition.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/12/081219-methane-siberia.html
From the photo link :
"
From June 15 (top) to July 27 (bottom), sea ice in the East Siberian Sea declined by as much as 81,081 square miles (210,000 square kilometers) a day, a rapid dip attributed to global warming.
The sea is also bubbling with methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, being released from underwater reserves, a Russian team announced during a December 2008 meeting. '
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/bigphotos/82433329.html
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 10:27 AM
A park in the Canadian Arctic had the same type of heat event at the same time, large areas of the permafrost just turned to mud and water.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 10:34 AM
The ash sludge flood in Tenn. was 5.4 million cubic yards.
First reported number was 1.8 million yards.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 10:38 AM
Widespread flooding forces state of emergency in Marshall Islands
The islands have been pounded three times in the past two weeks by powerful waves caused by storm surges that coincided with high tides, swamping the main urban centres of Majuro and Ebeye that are less than a metre above sea level.
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Widespread_flooding_forces_state_of_emergency_in_Marshall_Islands_999.html
"At the global level, we're trying to explain that the smallest change in sea levels will have a big impact on our islands."
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 10:46 AM
The Dutch government on Thursday unveiled a multi-billion dollar plan to reinforce dykes and the coastline and augment fresh water supplies in the face of rising sea levels due to global warming
.
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Netherlands_to_strengthen_flood_fortifications_999.html
----------------
143 billion dollars over the next 100 years.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 10:52 AM
Electrical Gridlock
Steps to Avert the Looming Power Crisis
Our political leaders must develop a national energy policy that funds development of new technologies to keep electricity affordable while meeting climate change goals. Otherwise, a growing number of Americans won't be able to pay for power, and many will be at risk of rolling blackouts and brownouts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/25/AR2008122500662.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 11:04 AM
73F in Fort Worth today so far... Colorado Bob
Posted by: yo soy Horsedooty!
| December 26, 2008 11:41 AM
73F today so far Colorado Bob!
Posted by: yo soy Horsedooty!
| December 26, 2008 11:42 AM
sorry for the double message
Posted by: yo soy Horsedooty!
| December 26, 2008 11:50 AM
C-Bob looks like you got the floor to yourself this morning. I guess you will have to keep us entertained.
I just arrived at my camp with my wireless net. It is nice to sit on the couch and through the Spanish moss hanging from the cypress trees watch the river run by. Wish you could be here. Very peaceful and quiet and a soupy 74 degrees outside.
Posted by: ct | December 26, 2008 12:29 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185017
Carol,
That sounds heavenly. Do you have a cabin there?
(it's warm here too. 77)
Posted by: chloe
| December 26, 2008 2:22 PM
Barack Obama doesn't let his little head do his big head's thinking.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 8:54 AM
I wonder which head is bigger?
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 26, 2008 2:41 PM
ct, "watching the river run by" made brought to mind debbie reynold's tammy dipping her toes in the river from her houseboat deck. then these songs from o brother where art thou popped into my head. so which of the three visions is it carol?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1FQqSGxBso&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxlyKA9O9LA&feature=related
Posted by: patd | December 26, 2008 3:02 PM
or this one, ct, the river of no return
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHa2tS09Dy8&feature=related
Posted by: patd | December 26, 2008 3:13 PM
ct -
Sounds like the boon docks. Better than here, sand blowing today & 69.
Humidity: 29 %
Wind Speed: SW 24 G 36 MPH
Barometer: 29.67" (1001.3 mb)
Dewpoint: 35°F (2°C)
Visibility: 10.00 mi.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 3:37 PM
It's a balmy 67 degrees in Nashville...thank-you-Jesus!
Posted by: Patsi
| December 26, 2008 3:51 PM
BTW, I liked CT's post !!!!
Very tired here... Happy New Year a bit early.
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 26, 2008 3:53 PM
This is disgusting...
When will we ever learn?
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/polltracker/2008/12/credit-cards-just-gotta-have-t.html
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 26, 2008 3:55 PM
ct
In honor of the cypress and spanish moss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzGx_XzxDeM
Posted by: Jamie
| December 26, 2008 3:58 PM
Food to fuel. More information than I needed:
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/12/21/fat-fuel-biodiesel-tech-sciences-cz_pcb_1222fatfuel.html?feed=rss_technology
Posted by: Flatus
| December 26, 2008 4:29 PM
"This is disgusting...
When will we ever learn?"
Jamie--I absolutely depend on my two credit cards. I seldom pay cash for anything except groceries. I never use a check in the store except at the commissary. I've never used a debit card--so far as I know, they just don't provide the same purchase protection as credit cards do.
My two cards have sizable credit limits and carry interest rates just over 7-pct.
So, I think the problem isn't credit cards, but usurious lenders that charge unconscionable interest rates resulting from borrowers' transgressions the nature or existence of which are often not disclosed until after the naive borrower has sinned.
Posted by: Flatus
| December 26, 2008 4:42 PM
Carol, as soon as I started reading the description of your camp, thoughts of Mark Twain started jumping around in my mind.
Posted by: Flatus
| December 26, 2008 4:44 PM
ET
Was the one upset over the Credit Cards. I use a combination credit/debit card. IOW no interest and it doesn't work unless I actually have money. :-)
About ten years ago, I had a run in with a card company that upped rates and fees every time you turned around courtesy of fine print not visible to the normal human eye. Took me ages to get out from under that one with interest and charges more than what I owed in purchases.
NEVER AGAIN
Posted by: Jamie
| December 26, 2008 5:13 PM
One of the guys that my brother-in-law used to work got busted a few years ago for running a meth lab out of his house. He was the head of the township or something like that. Allegan County is pretty famous for it's meth labs. For quite awhile they were busting all kinds of people down there for that. It helps that they have a drug company in town that makes cold medicine. I watched that "Celebrity Rehab" last weekend. All the people on their were having a fit because Gary Busey didn't seem to wanna admit that he was an addict. They said, "Gary wakes and bakes every morning! He's an addict!" Gary finally did admit that he was an addict. He was gonna catch hell from the others, if he didn't admit that.
Posted by: Corey
| December 26, 2008 6:22 PM
ET,
When a company sends a credit card to you, all you have to do is shred it. Nobody is required to use it.
Granted people should be educated enough so that they can figure out that they will be required to pay their credit card bills, and if they do not, they will have to pay interest and possibly other fees. Elementary math education covers percentages so people should be at least able to figure out that interest charges will be a function of how much unpaid balance they carry.
The problem is that people act as if credit cards are free money, they should not. If they can't afford it, perhaps they shouldn't but it.
Next question is, what do they do if they can't afford it? Necessities are one catagory, stuff we want is in another catagory.
Of course, if you use a debit card, you can only purchase items up to your available balance, anything over that is overdraft, available if you have it. Also subject to extra charges.
While I am sympathetic for people that have spent beyond their means with credit cards, why is it the provider of the credit card's fault? Where is the personal accountability?
Posted by: Bowmanc
| December 26, 2008 6:43 PM
Try traveling without C Cards. It's a pill. Car rentals, hotel rms and/or anything unexpected like a change in air travel almost require the use of CCs . Even debit cards in these instances are sometimes frowned upon. Cash too is discouraged!
Posted by: Rezdog
| December 26, 2008 7:07 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185037
Bow, You're right, of course.
I especially agree with what you said about educating people enough so they will know what will be required of them to pay back that money (after interest and fees).
But, Doesn't the credit card company have a personal responsibility too? They've ended up in a lot of trouble also because of misjudgments and overqualifying. And they need to help come up with better solutions to give people more choices in ways to pay back those loans once they've gotten out of hand. Like canceling the card, freezing the build up of fees and giving borrowers a usable plan to pay them back. The way it is now, it's almost impossible for some people to ever catch up.
This problem belongs to both sides.
(29.9 percent interest plus fees? puleeze)
Posted by: chloe
| December 26, 2008 7:13 PM
"This story just gets better and better. "
Gee, what could make the happy dance even more riotous? A snow mobile accident? A teenage miscarriage? I know there must be any number of misfortunes to add to your amusement.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 26, 2008 7:21 PM
8,500 banks in this country, only 158 took the TARP money. They're the ones who screwed to pooch , and they're the one's Paulson gave the money to. He didn't send that money to the winners, he gave it to the losers.
Glad I'm not one of those 8342 good bankers.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 7:35 PM
Here's the thing about all this glee over family misfortunes: people doing it are the same types who have been screaming "Chappaquiddick" all these years.
Hint: Find a new way to make yourself feel superior.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 26, 2008 7:37 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185039
Chloe
You are the voice of reason!! I hate paying interest,its like throwing money out a window but I've had times in my life where i had to and I was damn glad for that credit card. I think though it should be against the law to charge 29% interest. It serves no one to have rates that high because defaults must be through the roof and the chances of ever paying it off well...Maybe thats the point they never want you to pay it off?
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 26, 2008 7:39 PM
Sorry guys I had to run off because I got my nephew a Play Station game at Target and his mom got him the same one. Target was only going to give him only $30 without a receipt when it cost me over twice that. They had no good excuse because it had never been on sale. I guess that is how they plan to improve their profit margin. I had to go take care of it.
Yes I do have a camp out here up on stilts overlooking the river and my very own wharf. I got the camp three years ago, a couple of months before hurricane Rita hit us, unfortunately.
For 30 years I dreamed of having one out here and it is true what they say, if you wish hard enough your wishes will come true. It is your typical Louisiana river. Lots of trees, moss, birds, squirrels and an occasional alligator.
I do believe that Tom and Huck would love the place and as a child I would row my pirogue down the waterways around here and pretend to be Tom, or at least his female counterpart.
Carol
Posted by: ct | December 26, 2008 7:45 PM
Hi Tony! How was your Christmas.
(I'm glad it's over) :)
Posted by: chloe
| December 26, 2008 7:47 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185037
Bowman,
Normal interest is fine. Normal profit is fine. Banks did just fine on the profit side for over 70 years. They knew their clients and the percentage of people over drafting etc. was manageable.
Unfortunately, the banks spread a whole lot of money around and got a lot of state laws and regs cancelled. End result usorious rates and a huge amount of fees for darn breathing.
Banks have cut way back on staff saving billions and then turned around and hit their clientele with fees, fees and more fees for cards, accounts, ATM ... you name it. This is a greedy development over the last 20 years and it is the greed that made the current financial collapse possible with all the slicing, dicing, and packaging.
GREED is NOT good no matter what you may have heard from Gordon Gecko
Posted by: Jamie
| December 26, 2008 7:55 PM
Caroline Kennedy says 9/11, Obama led her to public service:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081227/ap_on_el_ge/caroline_kennedy
I thought only Republicans brought up 9/11?
Posted by: Corey
| December 26, 2008 7:58 PM
Execution Of Search Warrant Delayed: Search warrent was delayed until this month, when Johnson was no longer under protection. Does that mean had McCain and Palin won, she would not have been arrested?
Posted by: Lampe | December 26, 2008 8:02 PM
I guess Caroline Kennedy, was one of those people, who really never cared enough to vote before. According to her voting record, in New York,she only voted a few times and she is 51 years old.
Posted by: Lampe | December 26, 2008 8:04 PM
Brad Pitt & Jennifer Aniston Set Box Office Records
Valkyrie lays an egg.
Tom comes in 4th place
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20249135,00.html
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 8:06 PM
Who knew a feel good movie with Hitler in it would do badly at Christmas ?
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 26, 2008 8:09 PM
I would think Tom's movie would suffer because people realize the entire plot of the movie failed, unless they re-wrote history and had Tom kill Hitler.
Posted by: Corey
| December 26, 2008 8:09 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185046
Hey Chloe
It was a good one,simple.I had my aunt and uncle over.We did the hot tub and pool area thing along with Christmas music and Chardonnay.I did all the cooking,turkey,ham roll ups,stuffing. sweet potatoes,pies, choc.cake,oh and my grandmothers cranberry dish.I sent all the food home with them except some turkey and Pumpkin pie(they love me).Vince was in Atlanta so we did Christmas Tue. I hope your Christmas was good,I know the grand baby's coming soon and you all must be excited! I said the other day,there's nothing like Christmas through the eyes of a child and boy do i ever miss having kids around!! I did however get to enjoy the little neighbor girl Tanisha 3,she received from Santa a beautiful new pink Barbie car that she can drive herself (battery permitting) it was great seeing her go up and down the sidewalks jumping up and down in the seat of her new car....
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 26, 2008 8:12 PM
Who knew a feel good movie with Hitler in it would do badly at Christmas ?
Surprisingly, imo the best Christmas movie out is Marley and Me. I was expecting a kids movie, but it was so touching (and funny of course).
Posted by: chloe
| December 26, 2008 8:17 PM
Tony,
To me, your Christmas sounds perfect. I can't believe you did all that cooking. (I bet you enjoyed your celebration with Vince the most though) :)
Yes, I should be a gramma within two weeks, a little girl. Emma Nicole. And I am excited.
Posted by: chloe
| December 26, 2008 8:28 PM
Well, 66 years ago today, no one heard Sgt Pepper's band play, but they surely heard me as I was brought into this world at war. 66 years! How is it possible?
My mom lived to 76 years and my dad to 84, and I can't comprehend such. I have no idea how they felt at 66 - never thought to ask!
I'll be going to my sister's shortly for sloppy joes and french fries and whatever, with only two kids now. One went home to Berkely last night and one went to Canada to play in the snow and fill his poppa's eyes, nose, mouth, and ears with snow, and scream his head off with delight! He didn't even get to wake me up singing happy birthday!
Some of you seem to have been granted some relief from the weather, but apparently not RR! I wonder if Tylenol is suffering from too much weather.
Poor KGC - did you have a cooolllllllddddd time of it last night? The frost stayed on the roof tops here until 11 am this morning even with the sun beating down on it. It seems the clouds split and let the heat get away - not as forcast!
Enough jabber! Hope you are recovering from too much fun.
Posted by: bethyboo
| December 26, 2008 8:35 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185058
Wonderful Chloe!
Emma Nicole what a beautiful name! In 2 weeks! Exciting.I did enjoy my Christmas with Vince the most! He's simply amazing and so filled with passion for me and I for him,well life is good! I am missing him now so I will send him a silly gushing text message!
Chloe
I really hope to meet you someday at a TM gathering,I remember all through the primaries feeling so much of a kinship with you.I'm so thankful for you and TM.I would have felt totally all alone with my feelings regarding Hillary and the Dem's had it not have been for you and the many folks here! Thank you
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 26, 2008 8:43 PM
Chloe you did see Marley and Me? Knowing how it is going to end will keep me away. I can't handle sad dog movies even if it has a lot of laughs.
Posted by: ct | December 26, 2008 8:45 PM
CT, I'm the same way. I didn't know the ending going in. But it's a wonderful movie. You'll really be cheating yourself out of something if you don't see it. It's a very happy movie.
Posted by: chloe
| December 26, 2008 8:47 PM
Tony, I am thankful too, and would love to meet you. I've felt that same kinship thing with you too. Like I always told you, I adore you. Don't change.
Posted by: chloe
| December 26, 2008 8:49 PM
".I did enjoy my Christmas with Vince the most!"
Oh, and Tony, I'm so glad you found something important with Vince. He's lucky to have you.
Posted by: chloe
| December 26, 2008 8:53 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185064
Thanks! I feel lucky too..........
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 26, 2008 8:56 PM
You can catch just a little glimse of my river in Craig's Anima video. I am labeled as Maggie. Actually Maggie is the name of my dog sitting next to me in the life jacket. When I sent the pic I said it was Maggie and me and I guess Craig just caught the Maggie part. We are sitting in the porta-bote I had just purchased in a little cove off the river. We were tied up to one of my friend's houseboats and he took the picture.
Posted by: ct | December 26, 2008 9:06 PM
CT,
I'll drop this whole movie thing after this, but I was so impressed with it, that I just have to say this. I can't even begin to tell you how many things that movie was about. Relationships, careers, compromise, families, changes, growth, independence, love. It spans over a 10 or 12 year time span. The dog grows older as they're family grows. It's a long, good dog life. And Marley represents everything that's happened in that whole 'family building' time span. It's done beautifully.
Posted by: chloe
| December 26, 2008 9:12 PM
Happy Birthday Bethy. A birthday the day after Christmas, what a rip off.
Posted by: ct | December 26, 2008 9:17 PM
Happy Birthday Bethy! I didn't see that.
Carol, How do we get to that TM video with you and your dog in it?
Posted by: chloe
| December 26, 2008 9:22 PM
Thanks Chloe. I may wait until it comes out in video so I can hold my dog and cry while watching it. When I see sad dog things I do that. In fact just thinking about it my Maggie has crawled behind me on the couch and is hiding her head under a blanket. She has the ESP thing and seems to always know what I am thinking. Weird.
Posted by: ct | December 26, 2008 9:23 PM
Chloe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hQLI5nkHFI
Posted by: ct | December 26, 2008 9:25 PM
Thanks Carol! That river is perfect. Your dog is so great sitting right there next to you. A good life!
Posted by: chloe
| December 26, 2008 9:34 PM
PBS's McLaughlin Group good tonight. Listing the Best and Worst of everything.
Posted by: ct | December 26, 2008 9:47 PM
Shop at Sears. I tried to shop at Sears, my favorite place to stock up on turtle neck shirts to hide my chicken neck. They had nada a turtle neck. Are chicken necks in this year?
Posted by: ct | December 26, 2008 9:57 PM
All the years I was growing up, Sears was the only store in the mall that my Dad ever shopped in. Mainly, to look at the tools department. When the Sears store was at the Holland Mall, they didn't sell clothes. They closed that store in the mall about 4-5 years ago. That always irked my Dad. Now, they have a Sears that is a block from the mall and it only sells appliances.
Posted by: Corey
| December 26, 2008 10:10 PM
Happy Birthday, Bethy!!!
Posted by: Flatus
| December 26, 2008 10:21 PM
The ultimate in recycling. Yuk. Running vehicles on liposuctioned fat.
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/12/21/fat-fuel-biodiesel-tech-sciences-cz_pcb_1222fatfuel.html?feed=rss_technology
Posted by: ct | December 26, 2008 10:57 PM
Happy Birthday Bethy .......
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 27, 2008 1:55 AM
Jusst peeking in to see what's happening here, and I see that Bethy is having a birthday...
Happy Birthday, Bethy! And many more!
Posted by: harborwoman
| December 27, 2008 2:12 AM
"Last week of the year, let the autopsies, and soul searching begin."
C-Bob, : - )
Who knows where the bodies are buried?
tt
Posted by: tiptoe
| December 27, 2008 2:25 AM
the mujicians play and the caravan moves on...........
Posted by: sturgeone | December 27, 2008 3:34 AM
mr ellington does some "duke".........with a caravan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqXAnG82IC4&feature=PlayList&p=F102744E29FEDE29&playnext=1&index=2
I wouldnt shit-ya.........
Posted by: sturgeone | December 27, 2008 3:45 AM
Im pretty sure that first one was a fake ellington........this is the real oscar peterson version of duke's piece
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZdKsJfZyws&feature=PlayList&p=F102744E29FEDE29&index=3
Posted by: sturgeone | December 27, 2008 3:48 AM
the real duke in later years plays a medlo-scadderomo of his favorite tunes..........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w6sm0LfkAc&feature=related'
Posted by: sturgeone | December 27, 2008 3:58 AM
vintage duke......vintage ella......the "A" Train to Harlem.......yah, git on bord, by golly................
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhK-zYfFsIY&NR=1
Posted by: sturgeone | December 27, 2008 4:07 AM
I know that other people from other places can just as well be cool.......but affinity I feel for eartha kitt because she was a SC girl......and she told lyndon what she thought about it........and she could sing.......and dance.....and when they shut off her water in the usa she went abroad and made a liviing......she was a sweetheart......well.......she was a damn sweetheart......
Posted by: sturgeone | December 27, 2008 4:18 AM
Hear, hear, Sturge! Yes, Eartha was the Ritz!
Posted by: Patsi
| December 27, 2008 5:14 AM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185030
Yes and No Flatus... it is also the "insatiable wants" that is drilled into our heads from youth onwards. We are bombarded with Madison Avenue marketing tricks that push us to believe that "YOU can have it all. Why Wait? The American Dream is for YOU"... Speaking personally, I felt like a failure if I was not able to spend easily and show that I was some sort of success by "conspicuous consumption" (lavish or wasteful spending thought to enhance social prestige). I totally agree with you on the interest rates, and the fact that Reagan and his cronies allowed the national credit cards to ignore usury rate laws when credit was readily expanded in the early 1980's.!!
we Americans have held the attitude that the world is ours and we can have anything we want. It can't hold out forever. At some point we have to learn to live within our means, start saving again, prepare for our old age, and BUDGET...
DON'T BE A SLAVE TO YOUR FRICKEN MASTERCARD !!! These credit card companies are evil incarnate!
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 27, 2008 6:30 AM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185037
Bow, typical Republican ideology. "We can charge you anything we want, but you said yes so it's your fault"...
How I ever ended up with one parent who is a Republican I will never understand. Of course he never finished the 8th grade, so that might explain a lot.
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 27, 2008 6:34 AM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185044
Tony of course they don't ever want you to pay it off.... Minimum payments are just another trick to keep us spend happy people in heavy debt.
Below is a link on how you can determine the effects of paying minimum payments on credit
The true cost of paying the minimum
Calculate your payment and more
Is your money being sucked into a compound interest sinkhole? If you're not paying off your credit cards every month, that's just what can happen. It depends on the interest rate charged by the credit card company and whether you pay as much as you can, or just the minimum amount due.
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/calc/minpayment.asp
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 27, 2008 6:43 AM
bethy, hope you enjoyed your special bethday.
guess the secret service didn't enjoy their day...seems the power went out in hawaii. bet that was a mad scramble around the peotus.
Posted by: patd | December 27, 2008 7:11 AM
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i9FDPGgvyGS4DODxg2G1cLHkP_5gD95AVL980
such an outage would make good beginning for an agatha christi story
Posted by: patd | December 27, 2008 7:23 AM
Bethy -- Happy Birthday (late!)
patd -- I love Agatha Christie mysteries....one of my old favorites: Cat Among the Pigeons.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 27, 2008 7:31 AM
ET,
So you agree with me, don't charge what you can't afford to payoff when your statement arrives. Then you don't pay interest.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/anderson/anderson92.html
In Debt to the Democrats
by William L. Anderson
In the years I have been writing about the antics of the political classes of this country, I have labored under the impression that these are people who believe – or at least want us to believe – that we are in their debt. Little did I realize how true that was until I received last Saturday’s mail.
Included among the bills and letters were three (that is correct) "exclusive offers" to have my very own Democratic Party Visa Platinum Card, which Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe assures me will "help return Democratic values to Washington." Being that I was under the impression those "values" never have left that God-forsaken city, this was a surprise to me...
So, I guess credit card debt isn't just being promoted by Republicans.
Posted by: Bowmanc
| December 27, 2008 7:47 AM
bow, do you or anyone have any idea what's the breakdown of return for sponsors of those cards? how much goes to visa, mc or ax and how much to the org, charity or univ? and is the cut different for a corporation or business like macys, lowes etc? that tiny sliver of earnings might be a nice bundle if returned to the consumer instead.
Posted by: patd | December 27, 2008 8:24 AM
Not a clue how much goes to any of them. The point is that to blame massive consumer debt on republicans is absurd. It is the user of the credit card, and if they wanted to, they could find a card with a better rate.
Posted by: Bowmanc
| December 27, 2008 8:37 AM
with stories like these, this decade will not go down as i first predicted to be called the "oughty oughts" but it instead will be known as the "naughty noughties"
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1338053/rod_blagojevich_eliot_spitzer_john.html?cat=62
Posted by: patd | December 27, 2008 8:37 AM
"I guess credit card debt isn't just being promoted by Republicans."
I can't believe anyone would blame the credit card problem on one political party or the other. The problem has to do with special interests promoting things to 'their' advantage, to the detriment of everyone else. We need to keep special interests OUT of our government. And get rid of the 'bought off' politicians.
Posted by: chloe
| December 27, 2008 8:54 AM
chloe,
This is about as close as you can get.
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185093
Posted by: Bowmanc
| December 27, 2008 8:57 AM
People talk about responsibility and accountability, then go on to blame the other party for all their problems. That's just a way of passing the buck, and never solves the problem. These is both parties problems, and if neither side takes responsibility, then we have the answer as to why very little ever gets done. I hate the idea that they always know how every vote will come out, before they even take the vote. It's all so preplanned. LONG LIVE THE PARTY. Jeezus.
Posted by: chloe
| December 27, 2008 9:00 AM
Speaking of credit cards, I have only one and I have a little once a month bill that goes on that card just to use it. I live in a rural area and my mail often ends up in someone else's mailbox in the neighborhood for a week or so. If that doesn't happen it may also get lost in the pile of junk mail I leave in my vehicle to keep it from junking up the house.
To keep from being late, every six months or so I put enough money on the card to cover that charge for those months. I always have a credit balance on the card.
I guess my card co didn't like that because when cleaning out my junk mail the other day, months before I should have needed to worry about the bill, I found where they sent me a refund for the credit on my card then I got a late charge of $15 for a $9 charge for the next month. My bank found one more way to screw me. Arrrrrrrrh.
Posted by: ct | December 27, 2008 9:01 AM
Carol -- was the card a Citibank? That's what they did to me when they took over Sears....I had paid months ahead because all I do with the Sears card is have a life insurance policy. All of a sudden I find that they rejected the advance payment!
Posted by: Patsi
| December 27, 2008 9:16 AM
ROFL! Kansas church confuses Christmas and Easter....
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/12/26/video-kansas-churchgoers-not-messing-around/
Posted by: Patsi
| December 27, 2008 9:22 AM
No smoke without ire
"It is less than self-evident why Mr Obama’s forgoing the cigarette he sneaks every few weeks should be a matter of national importance. There is no consistent relationship between smoking and performance of official duties. It is true, according to the historian Michael Oren, that Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli chief of staff, was taken to hospital with nicotine poisoning at the height of the six-day war, but he was on 100 a day. Cigars buoyed Churchill in the second world war. Whether or not smoking makes you think more clearly, the former German chancellor, Helmut Schmidt, who celebrated his 90th birthday last week, must count as one of the sharpest thinkers and heaviest smokers among world leaders of the last half-century."
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/858d3146-d34f-11dd-989e-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
Posted by: chloe
| December 27, 2008 9:26 AM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185105
ct
I found out about another nasty the banks use and as far as I know Nevada is the only state that has made it illegal. Unfortunately, the ones it hurts most are those on fixed incomes.
If the bank receives a deposit on the same day that it receives withdrawals, the withdrawals are all processed first and the deposit last. If this results in an overdraft too darn bad, they will hit you with a $25 or more fee for ever check processed after the "overdraft", despite the fact that the deposit may have arrived first.
It amounts to legalized theft. Various senior and disabled groups have tried to get it changed but the banks have spent a great deal of money on politicians, something that may explain the no questions asked bailout.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 27, 2008 9:27 AM
And yet another ROFL in the news...
"What are you doing here?"
"Oh, yeah? What are YOU doing here?"
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL0910395120080109
Posted by: Patsi
| December 27, 2008 9:28 AM
Not Citibank. It was Chase. There are enough people these banks can harass in these tough times that you would think they wouldn't pick on those of us who really try to do right. I guess they feel that if we can afford to pay early we can also afford a late charge and they find a way to sneak it in.
Hate to mention the opposition but I do remember McCain saying during the campaign that those in Congress who head commitees overseeing financial instutions should have no conflicts of interest by recieving financing from those institutions.
Posted by: ct | December 27, 2008 9:50 AM
I don't believe only Republicans create the credit card mess, though Reagan's administration did open the credit card industry with very few consumer protection rules. What I mean is, the Republicans seem to think that anytime someone hits hard times or messes up, whatever, it totally falls on personal responsibility. Not everyone can handle money the same way; I used to be dreadful at it but learned my lesson. What I don't like about the Republican ideology is the "free market" approach of letting credit card companies charge whatever they want, change terms whenever it suits them, and create an economic dependency on debt that enslaves people. It is never the fault of the credit card companies, but of the individual. I just totally disagree.
There must be strict laws concerning credit cards, how they are offered, how people are determined to be credit worthy, what interest rates can be charged, and what limitations the credit card companies will have placed on them regarding changing of interest rate terms and how repayments are calculated. The Republican party stands as a party for the monied people and the credit card industry is helping to make rich people more rich, while creating and maintaining a debtor underclass that is unable to break free of their unpaid balances.
The Republicans opened up the national credit cards in the early 80s with minimal rules and this is why I place the fingers largely at them. Time and again we see them want unfettered, and unregulated markets which help the top time and again suck up more money while the poor and middle classes drown further in debt.
I agree to the extent that people should not use credit cards if they cannot afford them. But the "lenders" need to clearly examine the applicants' credit history, income levels, employment and debt load, and credit card companies should not be allowed to make unheard of profits off of those who use their cards. It's scandalous and indefensible...
I am for a regulated economy...
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 27, 2008 10:04 AM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185094
Hey Tom
There have been a few instances where having a credit card has worked out for me financially,2 years ago Bank of America offered me 0% for a year on my $33,000 Visa card.I deposited it in my money manager acct. which was I think paying 5% at the time and drew the interest for the whole year and then I payed it off! I actually came out on top for once with a bank.....
Bethy
I'm a little late but HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You are a joy to so many!OMG even after all the Holiday food those sloppy Joe's and fries sound good...Sounds good for New Years Eve....
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 27, 2008 10:16 AM
Good for you Tony... you were/are one of the smart/lucky ones.
Happy Birthday to Bethy!
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 27, 2008 10:31 AM
"Good for you Tony... you were/are one of the smart/lucky ones"
Agreed.I know many would not be able to resist spending that money and that's what they count on.Its almost like being in Las Vegas and not gambling.Teaser rates equals the flash of the slot machines....
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 27, 2008 10:46 AM
Where oh where is Solar?I bet exercising away all those holiday goodies..HA, Snow shoveling,not me..Snow? HA HA..........
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 27, 2008 10:51 AM
So you want to limit people's access to credit, by restricting banks ability to offer cards?
Posted by: Bowmanc
| December 27, 2008 11:12 AM
From what I've read this is retaliation for repeated missle and mortar attacks from the Gaza strip.
Posted by: Bowmanc
| December 27, 2008 11:59 AM
Thought for the day :
" The plural of spouse is spice. "
1571 Johann Kepler Wurttemberg Germany, astronomer (elliptical orbits)
1822 Louis Pasteur Dole France, bacteriologist (pasteurization)
1879 Sydney Greenstreet Sandwich England, actor (Maltese Falcon)
1943 Cokie Roberts newscaster (ABC-TV)
1944 Mick Jones rock guitarist (Foreigner-I Want to Know What Love is)
1825 1st public railroad using steam locomotive completed in England
1831 Darwin begins his voyage to South America on board the HMS Beagle
1871 World's 1st cat show (Crystal Palace, London)
1904 Duke of York Theatre opens in London (1st musical Peter Pan)
1927 Stalin's faction wins All-Union Congress in USSR, Trotsky expelled
1932 Radio City Music Hall opens (New York NY)
1947 1st "Howdy Doody Show" (Puppet Playhouse), telecast on NBC
1979 Soviet troops invade Afghanistan, President Hafizullah Amin overthrown
Nuclear tests on this date -
1960 France performs nuclear test
1968 China People's Republic performs nuclear test at Lop Nor People's Rebublic of China
1974 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1981 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1987 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
Today's Broadway flop -
1993 "Candles, Snow, & Mistletoe" opens at Palace Theater NYC for 7 performances
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 27, 2008 1:15 PM
A little story my mother told me, made into a movie -
Peggy Chapman's Garden
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLAFeNPu8vU
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 27, 2008 1:54 PM
Israeli Air Raids in Gaza Kill as Many as 200 People (Update1)
By Calev Ben-David and Saud Abu Ramadan
Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli aircraft attacked police and security installations across the Gaza Strip, killing scores of people in the deadliest raid in the coastal region since the 1967 War, security and medical officials said.
As many as 200 people were killed and 750 injured, including women and children, Mu’awia Hassanein, a Palestinian medical-services official in Gaza, said today. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, called the air strike a massacre and said it would retaliate.
At least 54 rockets were fired from Gaza today after the air strikes began, killing a man in Netivot, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in a telephone interview.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aj7RvdbJIeDY&refer=home
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 27, 2008 2:06 PM
No Furnaces but Heat Aplenty in ‘Passive Houses’
In Berthold Kaufmann’s home, there is, to be fair, one radiator for emergency backup in the living room — but it is not in use. Even on the coldest nights in central Germany, Mr. Kaufmann’s new “passive house” and others of this design get all the heat and hot water they need from the amount of energy that would be needed to run a hair dryer.
“You don’t think about temperature — the house just adjusts,” said Mr. Kaufmann,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/world/europe/27house.html?_r=1&hp
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 27, 2008 2:13 PM
Whale Wars -
Activists throw rotten butter at Japanese whalers
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1106ap_as_antarctica_whaling.html
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 27, 2008 2:33 PM
cbob, i like your garden. and the music. but where is strobe station ky (mentioned when talking about geneology)? there are lots of stations in ky like valley. florence and reynolds etc. but no listing of strobe. must be my western accent ear is out of tune and you said something else...... anyway, i like your garden.
Posted by: patd | December 27, 2008 2:40 PM
Thanks for all the kind greetings.....but I've been on the move a lot, which is why I missed the meeting in San Francisco, that CBob spoke of, on Global Warming.
Chloe: 9:00 am ................. "Long live the Party", you go girl - you are so very right about that. Although, the myopia is pretty obvious around here sometimes.
Lampe: 7:31 pm................ "Obama's Aunt", now you know that no one's even going to look at that, they're going to have enough trouble staying OUT of Blagoevich's problems. One thing about Fitzgerald, he's an equal opportunity prosecutor.
Bethyboo: .................... Belated Happy Bitrthday to you.
Just remember that Christmas is for everybody, birthdays are just for you - hope it was wonderful.
I missed someone else's as well (Tony ?)hope it was one of the best ever.
Rita
Posted by: politicallypissed
| December 27, 2008 2:52 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185132
Hi Rita
Nope,my birthdays July 18th.I'm glad your back posting! I like reading your thoughts and I love your writing style.Happy Holidays
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 27, 2008 2:57 PM
Colorado Bob,
viewed the video you made. Very lovely tribute to your mom. Am a new subscriber thanks
Posted by: yo soy Horsedooty!
| December 27, 2008 3:46 PM
CBob
Peggy Chapman's Garden is fabulous and you too!
Posted by: Katherine Graham Cracker
| December 27, 2008 3:56 PM
Really cool video C-Bob.
Posted by: ct | December 27, 2008 4:10 PM
Hey Tony, Best Buy Has a lot of computers on sale too. The store always have a lot of good buys. It's a good place to sample everything that is available, and they're always very helpful there. Computers have changed a lot in the last 5 years. I think you'll be surprised.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&id=pcat17071&type=page&ks=960&st=towers&sc=Global&cp=1&sp=&qp=crootcategoryid%23%23-1%23%23-1~~q746f77657273~~ncabcat0500000%23%238%23%234y&list=y&usc=All+Categories&nrp=15&iht=n
Posted by: chloe
| December 27, 2008 4:10 PM
Rita, Thanks for the support. It's so good to see you back here.
Solar,
Tony and I will be coming after you if you're not back soon. Hope you didn't suffer too many aches and pains from your snow fight, etc. Take care.
Posted by: chloe
| December 27, 2008 4:13 PM
Really enjoyed the video C-Bob. Nice tribute to your mother. What did you plant?
Posted by: Jamie
| December 27, 2008 4:17 PM
Happy Birthday Bethy
and it is frickin cold and wet out here...thank goodness I joined an association with a group rate for propane...so I can have heat and not feel like it's heat or eat! Last year I paid over 3.75 a gal and I also think the company ripped me off so I was pleased when my first bill with the new company was $1.61 a gal. No natural gas lines out here.
Posted by: Katherine Graham Cracker
| December 27, 2008 4:22 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185117
of course, and the richer the people, the higher the interest rates they should pay. so simple is it.
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 27, 2008 4:47 PM
Bow I see no reason to engage with your Republican ideals because we will never meet on middle ground... I will say this on the credit issue, people used to live within their means before the Reagan Administration's hard work to make sure we could all get credit easily and probably not much credit worthiness, and we are paying the price and will be for generations to come.
I believe we should go back to the simple 30 - 60 - 90 day credit cards with VERY limited interest rates allowed.
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 27, 2008 4:51 PM
And one more thought. The USA has the lowest level of savings in the entire Western civilization. That should say SOMETHING about how addicted we've become to spend, spend, spend....
Sad, but some things never change.
DON'T BE A SLAVE TO YOUR MASTERCARD.
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 27, 2008 4:54 PM
Chloe I agree with your comment on the special interests. Sadly though, high powered banks and corporations have been hand in hand with the Executive branch for a long time... corporate welfare, unfettered roadblocks to making money for the top tiers... etc... That to me is the most dangerous of the special interests and it is, whether we want to admit it or not, the Republicans who are the most receptive to their desires... This is not to say that the Dems are so good at holding corporate masters at bay...
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 27, 2008 4:57 PM
Yes, ET, I love being a slave to my republican overlords. BTW I have zero credit card debt. Haven't for twenty years.
But now, there is a chance to prove how liberal ideals will make life better for one and all. But I kind of doubt that there is going to be a bailout for the debt of credit card holders.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/25/us/politics/25biden.html
By CHRISTOPHER DREW and MIKE McINTIRE
Published: August 24, 2008
During the years that Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. was helping the credit card industry win passage of a law making it harder for consumers to file for bankruptcy protection, his son had a consulting agreement that lasted five years with one of the largest companies pushing for the changes, aides to Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign acknowledged Sunday.
Hunter Biden was a consultant for the financial company MBNA from 2001 to 2005.
Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter, received consulting fees from the MBNA Corporation from 2001 to 2005 for work on online banking issues. Aides to Mr. Obama, who chose Mr. Biden as his vice-presidential running mate on Saturday, would not say how much the younger Mr. Biden, who works as both a lawyer and lobbyist in Washington, had received, though a company official had once described him as having a $100,000 a year retainer.
Posted by: Bowmanc
| December 27, 2008 7:04 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185141
Thanks Chloe for the Best Buy link
I've been checking it out.I think its time for a new computer,my X-mas gift to myself! HA
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 27, 2008 7:17 PM
Ya know, Israel has a very long fuse. It did finally what it needed to do.
With 22 Arabic countries and the Holy land of Mecca, they don't need Israel!
tt
Posted by: tiptoe
| December 27, 2008 8:01 PM
I wonder if The Obamas, are using credit cards to pay for the rental of the 9 million dollar 5 bedroom oceanfront home? Or, maybe they are using some left over campaign money,or maybe they are not paying at all. With the economy being as bad as it is, looks like The Obamas don't have any money worries.
Posted by: Lampe | December 27, 2008 8:38 PM
Hey gang....
I'm at my in-laws..... we got power back on Tuesday..... 12 days without power..... I'll tell you all about it when I get back internet access.....
we still have no internet.... tv.... or phone service....
thank god for cell phones!
Comcast came today and reconnected the wire to our house..... but they have to rewire our entire road before they can bring us back up.... hopefully it'll be by next week.....
belated Merry Christmas!....
belated Happy Birthday, Bethy,... Rick's was Christmas Eve....
Happy New Year.... hope to be back with you all soon...... until then...... take care....
Posted by: RebelliousRenee | December 27, 2008 9:00 PM
Slackers of the world Unite!
Maybe sometime tomorrow.
Posted by: sturgeone | December 27, 2008 10:01 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/25/AR2008122500931.html
"Little Blue Pills Among the Ways CIA Wins Friends in Afghanistan"
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 27, 2008 10:21 PM
http://www.gallup.com/poll/113572/Obama-Hillary-Clinton-Share-Most-Admired-Billing.aspx
"Obama, Hillary Clinton Share “Most Admired” Billing"
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 27, 2008 10:25 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185160
Tony,
I saw that story on the tube! Made me think: Does that make us even-steven? They give us their heroin; we give them our viagra.
Posted by: Ivy Green
| December 27, 2008 10:35 PM
To Bad, we don't have a government with just one party. A party of women, would be my first choice. President HRC\V.P. Sarah Palin.
Posted by: Lampe | December 27, 2008 10:45 PM
Sorry Patd -
It's Strode Station, Ky. Bad spot during the Indian Wars there. My mother told me several great stories from Kentucky. One about the Battle of Blue Licks. The last battle of the Revolution. Another time for that one.
What ever brain I have left, comes entirely from my mother's side of the family . I used to give her postage for Christmas, She loved it. My mother had a bad postage habit, before Senator Stevens installed all his tubes.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 27, 2008 11:16 PM
RR @ 9:00 P.M.
"Atta Girl !"
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 27, 2008 11:21 PM
Thought experiment -
What would your world be like without power for 12 days ?
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 27, 2008 11:28 PM
CBob
The great camp out with lots of reading. We have about a 60 days supply of canned foods in pantries. If it happened in the winter, we could bury the frozen food in the snow. Have a two burner sterno cook stove and two fire places. We would have to give up bathing but there are 30 gal of water in bottles for cooking and drinking and we do have a hand pump. Lots of lanterns both oil and battery.
There are advantages to living with a scout troop leader, though I'm not quite sure what he has planned for toilet facilities. It exists, but I probably don't want to know the details unless absolutely necessary. :-)
Posted by: Jamie
| December 28, 2008 12:06 AM
Jamie -
I found a rabbit farmer.
It's 5 X 60 feet strip. The lot had been part of the Greer Iron Works yard for 60 years. I had them haul in bunny pills, and we roto-tilled them in, along with bone meal, and wood ashes. Then we spread 2 kinds of wild flower mix, and vegetables here and there.
I planted a bunch of gourds in deep holes filled with rabbit pellets. They grew ever where. We got 77 gourds or so from the season, off 14 plants.
Gourds are cool in their flowering, they flower every night at sunset, all summer long. They are pollinated by moths at night, or by you if you wish. each day brings a new wave flowers. the size of a silver dollar, snowy white. All coming off a vine that makes bamboo seem like a slow grower. They hide a lot of sins, and they make a fruit you can make stuff out of.
I was pretty happy, it was like I was back being that granola cruncher at the hot springs, again. I love people who grow rabbits. If you want meat that isn't " industrialized " find a local rabbit farmer. And if you're a gardener, it'll be your secret weapon. Rabbit farmers love it when you clean their piles.
Fresh rabbit manure has been measured as having 14 % Nitrogen.
Nothing in the gardener's world comes close to that number. It's like rocket fuel for plants. Even when those plants, are growing in a grave yard of iron & steel.
Everyone was really happy with what came up. It was touch and go here last spring. The weather was mean, hot winds, with sand blowing day after day. Nothing is worse than Lubbock in sand season, and that can happen any time of the year.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 28, 2008 12:21 AM
Jamie -
It was a treat to see your street view with the snow. The Northwest always had a pull in me . But it was a hardy place to live, my skin freaked out when I took it there.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 28, 2008 12:33 AM
Jamie-
My scout training was the best education I ever got.
Mr. Brown was my scout leader, he had a great effect on me. He was like Maj. Winters in Band of Bothers. A really good American. He took us to amazing places, and showed us where the last crowd there was all Comanches. It was great.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 28, 2008 12:46 AM
Read this one folks -
Thousands of British security contractors in Iraq will have their immunity from prosecution under local laws lifted on 1 January, exposing them to a flawed criminal justice system widely regarded as unlikely to offer a fair trial.
Their new legal status is a consequence of the troop withdrawal agreement reached between the US and Iraqi governments. Since 2004, all foreign contractors working for the coalition that toppled Saddam have had immunity from Iraqi laws, and few have been prosecuted in their own countries.
But after months of negotiations the Americans have ceded judicial rights to the Iraqi government over all contractors and their companies working for the US armed forces.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/dec/27/military-iraq
----------------------
Look out, it's a mad dash for the border.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 28, 2008 12:53 AM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185149
Thank you. Disgusting isn't it? And good for you for not being swamped in credit card debt. I have been in the past and won't be in the future. And before we all start worrying about the economy tanking because credit cards are not tossed at every high school kid anymore, or marginal-income individuals, why can't we go back to the days of layaway? Make a down-payment at the store, then your installments... Once paid for, the article is yours, interest free...
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 28, 2008 1:25 AM
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Stop Being Stupid
By BOB HERBERT
Published: December 26, 2008
I’ve got a new year’s resolution and a new slogan for the country.
34The resolution may be difficult, but it’s essential. Americans must resolve to be smarter going forward than we have been for the past several years.
Look around you. We have behaved in ways that were incredibly, astonishingly and embarrassingly stupid for much too long. We’ve wrecked the economy and mortgaged the future of generations yet unborn. We don’t even know if we’ll have an automobile industry in the coming years. It’s time to stop the self-destruction.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/opinion/27herbert.html?em
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 28, 2008 1:34 AM
Man shoots talker at movies, police say
(CNN) -- A man angry that a family was talking during a movie threw popcorn at the son and then shot the father in the arm, according to police in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/12/27/movie.shooting/index.html
This was an extreme reaction to discourteous movie goers, but I can understand the frustration. Time and again, I have gone to movies only to be bombarded by rude louts who talk through the movie, make comments, even use their cell phones... Maybe now they can put an opening message in the theatre that talking during the movie can cause you to get shot.. :-) Seriously though, the shooter has some psychological issues. Along with our lust for spending money we don't have, we seem to have lost basic civility and kindness. And our reliance on guns to win the "argument" is a true sad commentary on how far we have fallen.
"Calling all angels, this is Starseed Command,
We've misused our freewill and we messed with The Plan;
We are falling ... lost in the garden.
Falling like gold leaves in autumn,
Falling with hardly a sound;
Oh, sorrow and sickness are upon us,
The darkness is pulling us down
... Won't you save us?"
http://www.inspirationline.com/EZINE/12NOV2007.htm
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 28, 2008 1:41 AM
STEPHANIE TUBBS JONES | B. 1949
A Clinton Loyalist
For many in Washington’s black elite, a year that ended with tears of pride in Grant Park began with agony and self-doubt. As the first Democratic primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire approached, African-American officials in the capital were almost evenly split between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and some of the most influential black leaders in Congress vacillated publicly. James Clyburn, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, later admitted to me that his heart was with Obama but his head was with the former first lady. John Lewis, who endured the blows of billy clubs while marching through Selma with Martin Luther King Jr., switched his endorsement from Clinton to Obama only after his constituents in Georgia voted overwhelmingly for the young senator.
Amid all this emotional writhing, Stephanie Tubbs Jones stood out. She did not waver. She did not recede into the background. She stood with Clinton, and that was that.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/magazine/28tubbsjones-t.html?ref=politics
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/magazine/28tubbsjones-t.html?ref=politics
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 28, 2008 1:52 AM
Well most people know that I am crazy about Christmas ... I have once again done some MODEST decorating in the apartment.. I have my photos on Facebook but am not sure if everyone can access this... If you can, please feel free to glance around. If not, well I also have it on MySpace...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10749&id=1441770734
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=40810809&albumId=2509538
and if THAT doesn't work... well I don't know... :)
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 28, 2008 4:07 AM
Tom -- Thanks for the salute to Stephanie Tubbs Jones...we certainly lost one of the great ones this year.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 8:33 AM
Colorado Bob said, "The weather was mean, hot winds, with sand blowing day after day. Nothing is worse than Lubbock in sand season, and that can happen any time of the year."
It has been said that Lubbock is one of the few places in the world where you can be up to your ass in mud and have sand blowing in your eyes.
Posted by: yo soy Horsedooty!
| December 28, 2008 8:34 AM
" why can't we go back to the days of layaway?"
Tom, I loved using layaway. And when you used it (when you were young), it taught you something. The concept of paying for something BEFORE you got it. It was a form of saving, anticipation, working toward getting things you couldn't have otherwise afforded, and therefore gave you a sense of accomplishment when you made your final payment. Then you got your reward.
Now you get the reward, then pay the price after the fact.
Posted by: chloe
| December 28, 2008 8:56 AM
CBob,
I love reading that 'Rabbit' post you wrote. Thanks.
Posted by: chloe
| December 28, 2008 9:07 AM
Dooty -
"Where the earth is in the sky, and the fire is in the water"
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 28, 2008 9:17 AM
ABC's This Week with Jake Tapper filling in.
Poor Jake, it isn't bad enough that he's the B-list host, but he gets C-list guests, Senators Sherrod Brown and Bob Corker, and a roundtable of people who've never met George Stephanopoulos.
Posted by: EdVB
| December 28, 2008 9:20 AM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185168
Hey CBob
I lived this here in Florida a few years ago with the 3 Hurricanes.I was without power that summer a total of 29 days,miserable! It humbles you.I could not believe how quiet things get without the hum of all the Air-conditioners.The only thing nice about the experience was the low low Florida Power and Light bill......
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 28, 2008 9:21 AM
" Bob Corker"
Whatta phoney little rat bastard.
(Sorry for the profanity, Ed...couldn't stop myself.)
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 9:23 AM
one o' these days, I'm gonna make that trip back to denver to see some folks and stuff like that.......and when I do, along the way I'm going to stop by and see Peggy's Garden and maybe catch a music show......
Posted by: sturgeone | December 28, 2008 9:30 AM
Thought for the day :
" The only rose without thorns is friendship. "
1822 William Booth Taliaferro Brigadier-General (Confederate Army), died in 1898
1921 Johnny Otis R&B singer
1933 Nichelle Nichols Robbins IL, actress (Uhura-Star Trek)
1946 Edgar Winter Beaumont TX, rocker (They Only Come Out at Night)
1732 1st known ad for "Poor Richard's Almanack" (Pennsylvania Gazette)
1849 M Jolly-Bellin discovers dry-cleaning, he accidentally upset lamp containing turpentine & oil on his clothing & sees cleaning effect
1869 William Finley Semple of Mount Vernon OH, patents chewing gum
1895 World's 1st movie theater opens in Paris
1928 Last recording of Ma Rainey, "Mother of the Blues" is made
1928 Louis Armstrong makes 78rpm recording of "West End Blues"
1948 US announced a study to launch an Earth satellite
1956 Dr. Frances Horwich [Miss Frances], Ding Dong School on NBC-TV
1981 Warner-Elektra-Atlantic raises price of 45 records from $1.68 to $1.98
Today's Broadway flop -
1963 "Double Dublin" closes at Little Theater NYC after 4 performances
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 28, 2008 9:31 AM
Who knew dry cleaning was a 159 years old ?
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 28, 2008 9:34 AM
" The only rose without thorns is friendship. "
I don't know about that one. I have had some pretty 'thorny' relationships. Maybe something more like, Not all friendships are thorn free?
off to do my work.....
Posted by: chloe
| December 28, 2008 9:37 AM
The hardest part of being without power, is that time late in the afternoon, when you realize, that what ever you're doing you better finish, because it's about to be dark.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 28, 2008 9:38 AM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185142
Chloe
I think you and I are in for some cold weather! Solar where did you go?Your fan club here awaits your arrival back home..HA
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 28, 2008 9:39 AM
Ha..Yes!
Quick, get the candles!
Posted by: chloe
| December 28, 2008 9:40 AM
Tony, our idea of cold weather and cold weather other places are two different things. :)
Solar wasn't feeling that great after his snow escapade. Hopes he's better.
ugh.. I am looking for excuses not to work, but I must.
Posted by: chloe
| December 28, 2008 9:41 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the Republican National Committee said Saturday he was "shocked and appalled" that one of his potential successors had sent committee members a CD this Christmas featuring a 2007 parody song called "Barack the Magic Negro."
In spite of RNC Chairman Robert M. "Mike" Duncan's sharply negative reaction, former Tennessee GOP leader Chip Saltsman said that party leaders should stand up to criticism over distributing a CD with the song. He earlier defended the tune as one of several "lighthearted political parodies" that have aired on Rush Limbaugh's radio show.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gdJx1CceOBh-iERx-3TL1pXDri3wD95BFB8O3
-----------------
"lighthearted political parodies" that have aired on Rush Limbaugh's radio show.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 28, 2008 9:45 AM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185163
"They give us their heroin; we give them our viagra"
Ivy
Isn't it just sad.What a lopsided exchange, heroin destroys lives and viagra enhances lives for some!! Everything for us in the middle east seems as lopsided.....
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 28, 2008 9:47 AM
Patsi,
No problem on that one, unless Corker is also a TrailMix regular.
Posted by: EdVB
| December 28, 2008 9:55 AM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185186
Patsi
Please feel free to let loose on Corker! He's lower than pond scum,those ad's against H.Ford stick out most in my mind and now his anti-union, anti-American worker crap..Fire away......
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 28, 2008 10:02 AM
Mount Washington -
Current Summit Conditions
Temperature 39.5°F
Wind 55.2 mph
Direction 244° (SW)
Gust
Wind Chill 24.5°F
Sunday 9:45 AM
----------------
It should not be 39.5°F on the top of Mt. Washington on the last Sunday of the year.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 28, 2008 10:04 AM
Navy, environmentalists settle sonar lawsuit
By AUDREY MCAVOY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
HONOLULU -- The Navy has settled a lawsuit filed by environmentalists challenging its use of sonar in hundreds of submarine-hunting exercises around the world.
The Navy said Saturday the deal reached with the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups requires it to continue to research how sonar affects whales and other marine mammals.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_navy_sonar_whales.html
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 28, 2008 10:13 AM
"They give us their heroin; we give them our viagra"
What good will Viagra do? I have always felt that some of the terrorism coming from that part of the world was caused by the lack of an acceptable outlet for pent up sexual tension. They substitute one explosion for another.
Posted by: ct | December 28, 2008 10:18 AM
The racist ads aside, Bob Corker won Tennessee in part because too many progressives disliked his Blue Dog status. I argued until I was "blue" in the face with a few of my friends who said they were staying home from the election. They honestly believed Harold was the same as Corker. Well, that reminds me of some of the people who said Gore and Bush were the "same."
We saw how wrong THAT BS thinking was....
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 10:38 AM
"What good will Viagra do? "
More old men will be buying 12 year old wives.
Send a bunch of old warlords guns and Viagra. God a'mighty.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 10:44 AM
Illegal logging in Mexico is threatening a butterfly sanctuary that has been declared a Unesco world heritage site.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7802080.stm
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 28, 2008 10:48 AM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185191
It takes you right back to a day being sun up to sun down. We were without power last year for a couple of days and it really brought home that I read myself to sleep. It's darn hard to read in the dark.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 28, 2008 11:08 AM
Jamie -- remember these? When I was growing up, we probably had twenty of them in the house...and used them everytime the wind blew the power out...
http://www.antiquelampsupply.com/product/1874
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 11:24 AM
Chloe----Tony---Just hanging back a little.
Not to worry, just aches and pains for a few hours, that is one of the advantages of exercising every other day---or at least 2-3 times a week, that makes it possible for me to act like a little kid sometimes-------no so much anymore but some of the kids used to knock on the door to see if I had some time to play basket ball with them, I extended (widened ) my drive way and installed in a pole with a backboard,hoop,and park my cars out in the st. so the kids can play---some times a lot of noise,,,but when there is none, I kinda miss it,,,,just like here some t imes there is a lot of noise but I missed the kids that come here to play, on TM
Chloe ---a special Grammy C. hug for you ---congrats--- on the new and improved family member( its been a few wks that I saw name , but hope that at least the first name is correct) Emma_________ that is the last time that I call you Grammy ----to me you r Chloe,,or Chlo,,,or Hey you , but no Grammy----and don't over spoil her like Patsi does,,,,that might be alright in TN,,I bet she over did it for Christmas-----so if she gets time outs in the corner---she can blame some of them on Gammy Patsi (no r's in TN--just the way it is t here :-)) Nichole ( just came to me) yeah thats it I hope, I love it. If I made mistakes on the names,,,correct m but give these to the next one---love them.
Bethyboo---Happy birthday---sorry I am a little late on this,,,,but been away ( at another time,,and dimension ) and just got back--was looking at how it is going to be in our new home on Mars---I think it was mars----I was gone away for 10,000 years---so I thought,,,but earth time, for only a few days----and than to find out that you chickened out on me, you don't want to go now------gonna have to freeze someone else ----thats ok for now---cos you have a lot of Birth days coming up :-)))---but don't expect me to give up on you----never gonna happened.
Oh---- another thing I am not allowed to wrap anymore Christ mas presents, --never????--damn Im sneaky---I will never have to do it again,, hahaha
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/6812/36135038vl8santapaperit8.th.png
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 28, 2008 11:37 AM
CT-----like that pic, of you and your pal in the boat, looks like a nice place,,
I t hink that Religion has about 99.9 % to do with this more than sexual tension
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185201
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 28, 2008 11:42 AM
Maybe there is a rationale in the Viagra plan, to redirect the explosions to a safer pipe bomb. Well I guess it is not so safe for the women in the area.
Thanks Solar. I found my pal while 4 wheeling in the woods several years back. Someone had dumped this poor little puppy out in the middle of nowhere. She has turned out to be one of the best and healthiest pups I have ever had.
I heard on our local newscast last night that more people kiss their dogs than people on New Years Eve. It is nice to know I am not the only one.
Posted by: ct | December 28, 2008 12:17 PM
sometimes it pays to have a few of these around.....
http://nashville.classicpartyrentals.com/assets/3862/classic_oil_lamp_MEM.jpg
Posted by: sturgeone | December 28, 2008 12:21 PM
Patsi
Our kerosene lamps are utilitarian not pretty, but I won't fall asleep with one burning. Now I have used the battery lamps to read
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31k%2B55ChovL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
Posted by: Jamie
| December 28, 2008 12:22 PM
this is the kind I have.....I lived in a 30 foot camper on the creek for 4 years without power.....had a generator if I really needed something powerful.........but these were the main lighting solution.....
http://images-cdn01.associatedcontent.com/image/A5350/53504/300_53504.jpg
Posted by: sturgeone | December 28, 2008 12:28 PM
Bess Truman...errr Laura Bush speaks
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/12/28/national/w062245S97.DTL&tsp=1
got news for you Laura...he will still be a failure in forty years
Posted by: Katherine Graham Cracker
| December 28, 2008 12:38 PM
wow, we get an extra second this year! how to use it wisely? heck, that problem is applicable to any old second, not just an extra one.... actually they're all extra in a way. and just when you make plans to use one well, it's gone and you're caught up making plans for the next one and the next... pretty soon you've used up all your seconds in plan making instead of enjoying them when you had them.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4BR1DC20081228
Posted by: patd | December 28, 2008 12:42 PM
Ct
Those are the best pups to have( lost ones)------Our Lucky has been gone for a few years now,,,but when my wife was looking for a new puppy that would have cost me around $600.00 my next door neighbor told me about some pup that was lost and almost killed by traffic-------Luck was a mix of German Shepard and collie----a beuty----so I went and brought her home---put her out in the back yard---called my wife out and told her the pups story,,,well my wife just melted and loved that pup from the start ( and saved me a lot of cash)HA,,,,when she was dying she took her to the rectory and had the priest bless her,,,,she had a good life with us, have not had another one for years,,,my wife says that is too hard for her ---she really loved that little dog---we had her cremated and have not buried her, yet,,,,and I don't talk about it----I put my foot down when she wants to but dog food.:-)
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 28, 2008 12:50 PM
but=buy
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 28, 2008 12:52 PM
I think it has been proven with research that having a dog improves your health and well being. It is the only source of truely unconditional love and I don't think it is a coincidence that when you spell dog backwards you get God.
Posted by: ct | December 28, 2008 1:02 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185181
Hi Chloe, that is exactly my point. We have come to believe we can have it all up front and worrying about paying for it later. It isn't healthy!
Did I read correctly that you are about to be a Grandma? If so, congratulations! I loved my Gram and still miss her daily.
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 28, 2008 1:05 PM
"-----so if she gets time outs in the corner---she can blame some of them on Gammy Patsi "
Solar -- Miss Maria gave Granny a time out for saying "damn." Ha...
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 1:11 PM
" to redirect the explosions to a safer pipe bomb"
ROFL, Carol!!!!
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 1:15 PM
Sturge -- those are what most of ours looked like too. We had several really beautiful ones that my grandmother had used....but most of them were those utilitarian ones...
http://images-cdn01.associatedcontent.com/image/A5350/53504/300_53504.jpg
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 1:17 PM
Patsi---did they go home yet ---or do you come together for New Year's Eve also,,,either way keep posting those pics. Some of my family won't let me get near the kids for too long----they kind of develop an entirely new language ----like when Little Maria shows in that pic of her---her little but cleavage ---I would say nice pooper, when they tell this to their parents --I deny that I tought them anything,,and that is normal growing up vocabulary ---like when I say t hat you have a nice ass-----I get slapped a lot--but not hard...Ha
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 28, 2008 1:22 PM
have a joyous kwanzaa
day 3
ujima (collective work and responsibility)
Posted by: patd | December 28, 2008 1:36 PM
"----like when Little Maria shows in that pic of her---her little but cleavage ---I"
Ha -- Solar -- our joke about that pic was that she was competing for airtime with Joe the Plumber.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 1:47 PM
Jeezus! Only creepy to perverts. Just funny baby stuff to normal people. Since I know of the perversion, Big B...I will take Maria's Joe the Plumber shot down. Bet you just LOVE those babies on bear rugs...
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 2:17 PM
Solar -- I forgot to post the link...
http://practicallyperfectpatsi.wordpress.com/
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 2:35 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185207
Hey Solar, That's it. Emma Nicole. She'll be born before the 8th of January, but I think it's going to be soon. Any day now. Glad to see you back here.
Posted by: chloe
| December 28, 2008 2:40 PM
I do care if you stay or go---but I will go back to ignoring you-----and to all that talks to you,,,,,again I don't understand it---if I wanted to be here so much,,,,and no one talked to me I would leave, and go to some other blog,,,I believe that it is that easy----he sure found out how easy it is to run people off,,,,,since I don't plan to ever answer him again----if he does comment on one of my post's----and there is something questionable about it ---please take the time to ask me what my intent might have been,,,,as I will any of yours-----this is what a decent human being does---NO????
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 28, 2008 2:40 PM
Solar, I'm sorry to see that a completely innocent conversation had to be turn into something other than that. Please don't let it ruin your day. I keep telling you to not read those posts. Nothing good can come of it. Those who know you understand exactly what you were saying. You said nothing wrong and you have nothing to explain.
Posted by: chloe
| December 28, 2008 2:47 PM
Patsi----another nice picture,,,,but what with the rabbit---that is the third time I have seen you with him-:-))
Chole---that is only a few days away---does your daughter ( I think daughter) live near you? or by her mother in law-----gonna need a little help??
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 28, 2008 2:50 PM
We built my daughter a little (emphasis on little) house on our property here. So I'll have full access, I'm glad to say. :)
We're on 5 very wooded acres and we don't have a lot of rules as far as building. And a lot of privacy. We're away from things, but at the same time close enough to everything. If that makes sense. Neighbors are acres apart.
Posted by: chloe
| December 28, 2008 2:55 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185229
totally over the line language there, Solar -- please make your points without curse words in all caps
Posted by: Craig Crawford
| December 28, 2008 2:57 PM
the boss is back
Posted by: mqw | December 28, 2008 3:03 PM
Craig
You have him call you a (child) pervert and see how you might react?? but thats ok ---what he says with out swearing is much more offensive than that ---but I understand---and you don't have to respond
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 28, 2008 3:03 PM
"Patsi----another nice picture,,,,but what with the rabbit---that is the third time I have seen you with him-:-))"
Ha -- that's no rabbit -- that's Bugs...
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 3:03 PM
Mqw
Now you feeling a little more secure ---now that the boss is back---coward!
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 28, 2008 3:05 PM
"what he says with out swearing is much more offensive than that"
I know it's not worth much, but I agree Craig.
Posted by: chloe
| December 28, 2008 3:05 PM
Solar -- Craig sometimes stops by and chastises someone without reading what led to it.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 3:05 PM
Chole
That is nice,,,you will have full access when you want,,,,,and still they get to go home, and have their privacy ---a very nice arrangement all around.,,and five acres sounds nice also>
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 28, 2008 3:12 PM
Solar, When I agreed in that post to Craig, I want to make sure you know I was agreeing with what you said. That what he says is much more offensive than swearing.
Posted by: chloe
| December 28, 2008 3:13 PM
I know Patsi---and he is awful busy right now with his book---that is why I told him.
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 28, 2008 3:15 PM
It is sometimes so hard to communicate like this, in writing. Patsi is good at it, because she's a writer, a good one. But for me, so many things seem to get misinterpreted, at least it often feels like that to me. It can be a lot of work, and there are many times I just about given up on it.
Solar, I hope you won't let all of this get you down. Just keep on saying what you want to say and keep being yourself.
Posted by: chloe
| December 28, 2008 3:17 PM
I do---- Chloe----there is absolutely nothing that you can ever say that will make me think badly of you----nothing ever!! don't worry about anything---not upset or nothing any more.
What I told Craig is the truth_______Craig I won't apologize about my language this t ime----but I will promise you that it won't happen again...thanks
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 28, 2008 3:27 PM
Ut Oh, Daddy's back
Posted by: ct | December 28, 2008 3:30 PM
Chole----
Just thinking--little Emma will be growing up with all the animals on your place,,,,she will be unique in that sense. when she goes to school(can't be that many kids that grow up with animals---well maybe --that is texas?) but there won't be a lot of them.
Don't worry about me getting down ---that is pretty hard to do--and for any period of time----my workers say that's one of the things that hey like about me---I can get mad for something ...but get over it in short time----be back in a little while
Patsi ---thank you for trying to help.
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 28, 2008 3:46 PM
"I decided to continue posting and call BS when I saw it."
In doing so Patsi, you've made this a better place. And because of it, I think a lot of other people have started speaking up too. I definitely can't sit back and watch an innocent be attacked either. There are a lot worse things than cussing, imo.
Posted by: chloe
| December 28, 2008 3:54 PM
By the way, I sure hope Jack hasn't given up on us. Haven't seen him around in a while. (maybe just on Christmas vacation?)
Jack, Hope you're doing well and that you'll be back soon.
Also, Renee, if you around, I was glad to hear that you and Rick are doing fine, in spite of the many inconveniences. Looking forward to hearing from you again.
Posted by: chloe
| December 28, 2008 4:01 PM
Did everyone take their toys and leave?
Renee mentioned that she has no internet until next week, maybe.
Posted by: ct | December 28, 2008 4:16 PM
If anyone wants to look at them, you will see that the kittens have gotten too large to wear as hats. They have now opted for shoulder transport
http://jdurward.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Jamie
| December 28, 2008 4:18 PM
I was the Santa Rosa Farmers Market yesterday and it is citrus time in Northern Cal...one of the vendors at Budda's Hand..and I found one good recipe although more people seemed to think it is good for decoration and scent...not so much for cooking.
http://seasonalpantry.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Katherine Graham Cracker
| December 28, 2008 4:18 PM
Chole
was thinking the same thing about Jack--
Patsi---well now there are a lot of people that will say something ,,,and Im' one of them.
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 28, 2008 4:19 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185240
Patsi
Thanks for the picture link,i now have it in my favorites.Beautiful and so sweet! I tell you this often but Maria so reminds me of Ashley at that age and every time you post pictures of her it brings back such great memories.Thankyou...
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 28, 2008 4:35 PM
Tony
Glad to see you------My son thinks that Im the go to guy,,,that is what he tells his friends ,,,I mind my own business --unless Im asked, I have always have had the same rule with him that is the same with all my family----and anyone that I have come across in my whole life------I will treat you as if you are made out of gold,,,,,but if and when you start treating me like crap...that will only happen a cpl of times,,,than I will treat you like crap---the t rouble with most people ,., is that they think it is weakness t o be kind,,,until they see the diff....but t hen its too late ----so I was voted the favorite Uncle by (my son told me) all the nieces and nephews----and there is a lot of uncles and aunts----just cos I treat them like people,,,not like a pushy uncle,,or aunt---have a few of them----Tony thanks for your effort----I would not accept an apology from him now-,,,but I might have overreacted to Mqw so if he/she did not read all of my post's than to he/she I apologize,,,,and if he/she stills feels that way,,,than that is fine too,,
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 28, 2008 4:49 PM
Jamie -- the kitties are wonderful!
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 5:02 PM
CT
Since this is a political blog----I guess I should have something political to say---so here goes,,,,,,,,,on your remark this morning about the G. S. I would normally agree,,,but I actually found todays panel a refreshing change,,,from the regulars,,,Geroge Will,, Donna B. etc,,,I have to admit that I do like Allyson Stewart,,,from NPR---she had her own show on msnbc, and did well,,,showed a lot of range when she also hosted for K.O. when he was on vacation---she was very good in that format also..thanks
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 28, 2008 5:05 PM
Jamie, all the fly. look wonderful and enjoyed your Christmas Carol stuff. Lots of work you did.
Posted by: ct | December 28, 2008 5:06 PM
Tony -- hi! I continue to have YOU in my "favorites" among people -- and one of the reasons is all you did for Ashley. All kids should have an Uncle Tony!
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 5:06 PM
KGC -- love that farmer's market....makes me want some veggies.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 5:06 PM
25 stories that were all but ignoredthis year:
http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/category/y-2009
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 5:08 PM
CT ---ok t ought it was you---thanks,,,stay well
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 28, 2008 5:17 PM
Ha -- Carol -- he surely knows better than to mess with anyone from South Louisiana.....
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 5:22 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185264
Hey Jamie, You're kittens are beautiful! Thanks for linking the pictures. That's a very nice blog site you keep there too.
Obama bristles as the bubble closes in
"...the president-elect appears increasingly conscious of the confines of his new position, bristling at the routine demands of press coverage and beginning to chafe at boundaries that are only going to get smaller.
Obama even took the unusual step Friday morning of leaving behind the pool of reporters assigned to follow him, taking his daughters to a nearby water park without them. It was a breach of longstanding protocol between presidents (or presidents-elect) and the media, that a gaggle of reporters representing television, print and wire services is with his motorcade at all times.
All presidents and would-be presidents struggle with “the bubble” – the security detail and the always-there reporters that impose barriers to any spontaneous interaction with the outside world.
But Obama seems to be struggling particularly hard, particularly early."
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16882.html
Posted by: chloe
| December 28, 2008 5:28 PM
And you have learned that huh, Patsi? We river rats are a tough breed. Actually I am still a river mouse, haven't been there long enough to get my rat status.
I packed up my pup and bags and came home from the camp. It wasn't a long drive since the camp is only 1.7 miles from my house. It makes it convenient when I forget to bring something I need from home, which I often do.
Posted by: ct | December 28, 2008 5:33 PM
"And you have learned that huh, Patsi? "
You bettcha, Carol. When I was visiting Doug Kershaw and his family, they introduced me to an old guy named Little Russell Gary, the extraordinary gator hunter. He christened me an honorary "coonass" and told me many swamp stories. He was only about five feet two but he once wrestled down the biggest gator in South Louisiana. I wouldn't have messed with him!!! ha!
That was also the trip where I learned that in some parts of South Louisiana you could get a scotch and water at a drive through!
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 5:56 PM
I have met some pretty interesting river rats also. There is this rat who lives in a houseboat tied up to this swampy island not too far from my camp. He stayed on his houseboat while hurricane Rita was tearing through our area back in 2005. His girl friend and dog slept through the entire thing.
I had to stay at the prison, surrounded by concrete and steel and I was shaking in my boots.
Drive thru booze shacks are to La. what those coffee places are to everywhere else.
Posted by: ct | December 28, 2008 6:15 PM
Wars and rumors of wars....and the beat goes on....
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 7:20 PM
Jamie -- I may have missed a post where you told how you became "mom" to the kittens.....I'd love to know that story.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 7:21 PM
Caroline Kennedy: When asked, "Will you run for the Senate in 2010, if you are not given the seat now?" She answered "NO." I guess she doesn't want to have to work for it. In response to questions asked her favorite response was "You Know."
Posted by: Lampe | December 28, 2008 7:38 PM
Israel attacks gaza''' american made jets
american made bombs'' american made tanks
your foreign aid tax dollars at work
Posted by: mqw | December 28, 2008 7:39 PM
Patsi,
We had to put my beloved Rory to sleep due to cancer. My son decided that a house without a black and white cat was seriously deprived and went to the humane society and found out that they had a sudden population explosion and were offering a 2 for 1 offer that he couldn't refuse.
End result: Litter mates officially named Mefis and Sakura and affectionately Mister and Sister
Posted by: Jamie
| December 28, 2008 7:45 PM
Jamie
Love the kitties.I also enjoyed seeing some of your family photo's,very nice looking family...
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 28, 2008 7:46 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185290
When all the surrounding countries keep attacking you off and on for the past 60 years, you tend to get really, really touchy about it, particularly since none of them ever died due to a suicide bomber taking out buses of civilians and kids out dancing on a Saturday night.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 28, 2008 7:48 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185273
Thanks Patsi.
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 28, 2008 7:50 PM
"Mister and Sister"
Fantastic!
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 7:50 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185290
mqw
I don't get your comment? Do you not want the U.S. to assist Israel with aid?I think there really the only true friend we have in the region...
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 28, 2008 7:58 PM
Lampe, I heard that CK answer on tv as well. Don't think that was the best answer to give to that question.
Posted by: Corey
| December 28, 2008 8:04 PM
Remember when people threw shoes at others to show their anger? I miss those days.
Posted by: Corey
| December 28, 2008 8:18 PM
Jamie -- about bringing in the two kittens after Rory...we had the same experience after our Sweet Sue waved goodbye at age 19....it took three little kittens to start to fill the hole.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 28, 2008 8:20 PM
I still miss having Rory sing me to sleep but the kitten races that use me for a pit stop in the nightly two story romp tends to take my mind off things.
Entering our house can be hazardous as they are both spring loaded and people have been known to shriek when hit with unexpected flying feline,
Posted by: Jamie
| December 28, 2008 9:21 PM
Love - She Comes In Colors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp5s846Daqk
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 1:22 AM
Heart - Even It Up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U1qSKyTogw
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 1:38 AM
Wasted Union Blues - It's a Beautiful Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKxexSSszS4
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 1:42 AM
Wasted Union Blues
- It's A Beautiful Day -
So tired and wasted
So tired I don't know if I can make it
So wasted I don't know if I can take it
So tired I don't know if I can make it, no
So tired I don't know if I can take it
So wasted I don't know if I can make it
So tired I don't know if I can make it, no
But I'm gonna try
Spirits all tell me gotta keep driving on
And my Mothers all tell me
I can't do no wrong
But the universe tell me
I can't live myself alone, alone, alone
I'm so tired I don't know if I can take it
So wasted I don't know if I can make it
So tired I don't know if I can take it, no
Let's go, I say, come on, baby
Let's try to make it
I know that if we really try
We can take it
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 1:52 AM
"Emma Nicole, very elegant, congrats"
I was thinking the same when I read that name, Rita. Chloe -- be sure and let us know when little Emma Nicole makes her grand entrance!
Posted by: Patsi
| December 29, 2008 4:31 AM
wonder if craig got stuck at the airport with all the other holiday travellers. lot of people will look back with less than nostalgia on the 2008 season.
Posted by: patd | December 29, 2008 6:31 AM
less than nostalgia......and there you have it.........lol
Posted by: sturgeone | December 29, 2008 6:53 AM
RIP. Delaney Bramlett has died.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 29, 2008 6:56 AM
One more thought. Does anyone else thinkit particularly hilarious that the preacher trying to prove the Obama birth certificate BS is named "Wiley Drake"? If a novelist used that scenario and name, the editor say the writer had jumped the shark.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 29, 2008 7:03 AM
or ......uh........"jumped the duck"?
Posted by: sturgeone | December 29, 2008 7:11 AM
Ha....I like it, sturge....
Posted by: Patsi
| December 29, 2008 7:23 AM
Wiley Drake and his trusted sidekick Hippe Mallard......two ducks who know the score......trapped, like Howard, in a world they never made............
Posted by: sturgeone | December 29, 2008 7:32 AM
They sound loony to me.
Posted by: Flatus
| December 29, 2008 7:46 AM
"Wiley Drake and his trusted sidekick Hippe Mallard......two ducks who know the score......trapped, like Howard, in a world they never made............"
loony, maybe; but with no egrets.
Posted by: patd | December 29, 2008 7:50 AM
They sound loony to me.
Posted by: Flatus | December 29, 2008 7:46 AM
That, sir, is a despicable canard............
Posted by: sturgeone | December 29, 2008 7:59 AM
a despicable canard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3Z2MP8vMWU&feature=related
Posted by: patd | December 29, 2008 8:05 AM
And then there was the parrot that had a thing for ducks. Only thing she'd say was, "Polly wants a quacker!"
Posted by: Flatus
| December 29, 2008 8:15 AM
"From this research we can infer that humans who have a few heavy drinking sessions in a row may sometimes undergo subtle brain changes which make it harder to learn from mistakes and to learn new ways of tackling problems because their brain function has been subtly impaired."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/dec/29/binge-drinking-brain-damage-study
harder to learn from mistakes and to learn new ways of tackling problems? hmmm anyone we know in d.c.
Posted by: patd | December 29, 2008 8:16 AM
The Duck
Ogden Nash
Behold the duck
It does not cluck.
A cluck it lacks.
It quacks.
It is special fond
Of a puddle or a pond.
When it dines or sups,
It bottoms ups.
Posted by: patd | December 29, 2008 8:22 AM
fabulous bird the pelican
it's beak can hold more than it's belly can
like helican
well....it can......
Posted by: sturgeone | December 29, 2008 8:27 AM
A wonderful bird is a pelican,
His bill will hold more than his belican.
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week;
But I'm damned if I see how the helican.
▪"The Pelican" (1910) by Dixon Lanire Merrith
ha.....i wasnt even close.......
Posted by: sturgeone | December 29, 2008 8:30 AM
Stinky wants to go shopping. So, I'll make this my swan song.
Posted by: Flatus
| December 29, 2008 8:40 AM
You jaybirds are killin' me! HA!
Posted by: Patsi
| December 29, 2008 8:47 AM
swan song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph3h2IJAsgk&feature=related
Posted by: patd | December 29, 2008 8:52 AM
Excelsior!
Posted by: sturgeone | December 29, 2008 8:57 AM
Rita, Once again, it is so nice to have you back here. Thanks for the congrats and congratulations to you for being just about ready to become a great grandma! Please let us know when he/she arrives.
Patsi, Thanks to you too...and you know I'll be screaming it out when she gets here. Can't wait. :)
Thanks everyone for entertaining me during my peek-in this morning. Flatus, I particulary like your ""Polly wants a quacker!". And Patd, I'm going to read that binge-drinking brain damage study when I get back here a little later. Thanks.
Posted by: chloe
| December 29, 2008 9:15 AM
Happy Holidays to everyone.
Hope all had a Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas, whatever else any of you celebrate.
So sorry to hear about Delaney Bramlett. His contributions to the world of rock music are measurable as much by the influence he had on Clapton to get right and get back to making music as by any personal musical success he had. Let it Rain.
Oh, and duck - I love it - roasted.
Posted by: pogo | December 29, 2008 10:01 AM
Another three day week for most poor souls. In case of intense boredom, take up popping of bubble wrap
http://www.urban75.com/Mag/bubble.html
or watching very silly people microwaving non edible items.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FZ66OmGrVg
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 10:16 AM
pat, read the Guardian report of thaqt binge drinking study. OOOOPS - Might explain a alot about me and those rats I used to hang with.
Posted by: pogo | December 29, 2008 10:18 AM
jamie, LOL @ "poor souls" - wish I was one (4 day week here).
Posted by: pogo | December 29, 2008 11:10 AM
Proving that no good deed goes unpunished:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/28/australia-sharks-attacks
Posted by: Patsi
| December 29, 2008 11:47 AM
Delaney, Bonnie & Friends - Comin' Home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EOxy3TF3OY
Hitch hikin' on the turnpike
Nobody seems to know me
They just pass me by
Delaney, Bonnie & Friends - Poor Elijah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKippOfBkxA
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 12:32 PM
Thought for the day :
" The minute a man is convinced that he is interesting, he isn`t. "
1721 Madame De Pompadour mistress of French King Louis the 15th
1776 Charles Macintosh Scotland, patented waterproof fabric
1800 Charles Goodyear inventor (vulcanization process for rubber)
1879 Billy Mitchell aviation hero general (WWI)
1778 English troops occupy Savannah, Georgia
1782 1st nautical almanac in US published by Samuel Stearns, Boston
1813 British burn Buffalo New York during the War of 1812
1848 Gas lights 1st installed at White House (Polk's administration)
1852 Emma Snodgrass arrested in Boston for wearing pants
1885 Gottlieb Daimler patents 1st bike (Germany)
1890 US 7th Cavalry massacre 200+ captive Sioux at Wounded Knee SD; Indian "war" in the west
1891 Edison patents "transmission of signals electrically" (radio)
1952 1st transistorized hearing aid offered for sale (Elmsford NY)
1967 Star Trek's "The Trouble With Tribbles" 1st airs
1972 Life magazine ceases publication
1989 Jane Pauley says goodbye to NBC's "Today" show
1997 Hong Kong begins slaughtering all its chickens to prevent bird flu
1997 Russia signs agreement to build a $3B nuclear power plant in China
Today's Broadway flop -
1948 "Rape of Lucretia" opens at Ziegfeld Theater NYC for 23 performances
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 12:52 PM
Yet another story coming out of the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, 2 weeks ago.
NASA Study Links Severe Storm Increases, Global Warming
ScienceDaily (Dec. 28, 2008) — The frequency of extremely high clouds in Earth's tropics -- the type associated with severe storms and rainfall -- is increasing as a result of global warming, according to a study by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081227214927.htm
------------------------
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 1:09 PM
I didn't find that story on the Drudge report.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 1:15 PM
Here's what Matt linked to :
2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/3982101/2008-was-the-year-man-made-global-warming-was-disproved.html
_____________
An op-ed written by some wag named Christopher Booker.
This is what passes for the denier science these days.
This op-ed will be used as though it has the same weight as a report from JPL about the data coming from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft, telling us , as the earth heats up more water vapor is entering the system.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 1:28 PM
"4. "The market is in the process of correcting itself." -- President George W. Bush, in a Mar. 14, 2008 speech
For the rest of the year, the market kept correcting and correcting and correcting."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20081229/bs_bw/dec2008db20081224028134
Some guy in W's new area selling welcome to the neighborhood signs. Yep, they're actually selling.
Posted by: blueINdallas | December 29, 2008 1:29 PM
My ode to ee cummings:
sparrow
eating a cheeto
junk food
bad bird
junk food
bad bird
junk
junk
food food bird
bird bad
bad
Posted by: blueINdallas | December 29, 2008 1:38 PM
Earth quake swarm under Yellow Stone Park -
http://www.seis.utah.edu/req2webdir/recenteqs/Maps/Yellowstone.html
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 1:44 PM
Well, darn. It re-aligned all of my text.
Posted by: blueINdallas | December 29, 2008 1:48 PM
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc's ...... emergency bankruptcy filing wiped out as much as $75 billion of potential value for creditors, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing an analysis by the bank's restructuring advisers.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Lehman-bankruptcy-filing-rb-13926030.html
---------
$75 billion - Poof !
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 1:54 PM
CBob,
That tidbit about the raincoat always reminds me of
"Wha's Like Us? Damn Few And They're A' Died"
http://thecapitalscot.com/pastfeatures/likeus.html
about Scottish inventors.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 1:56 PM
Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC still haven’t figured out how to close thousands of dealerships, a promise in the plan they presented to Congress to win loans, starting with $4 billion that each is due to receive today.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aG8fuBmOF0AY
------------
Dealerships employ -
" ....... more than 1.1 million salespeople, accountants and mechanics, "
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 2:01 PM
DOES ANYONE ELSE FIND THIS NOT ONLY DISGUSTING, BUT ALSO IMMORAL GIVEN THAT SO MANY HAVE LOST SO MUCH??? IS THERE NO MORALITY IN CAPITALISM???? OR AM I MISUNDERSTANDING SOMETHING HERE???
Veterans of ’90s Bailout Hope for Profit in New One
By ERIC LIPTON and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: December 28, 2008
WASHINGTON — A tight-knit group of former senior government officials who were central players in the savings and loan bailout of the 1990s are seeking to capitalize on the latest economic meltdown, enjoying a surge in new business in their work now as private lawyers, investors and lobbyists.
With $700 billion in bailout money up for grabs, and billions of dollars worth of bad debt or failed bank assets most likely headed for sale or auction, these former officials are helping their clients get a piece of the bailout money or the chance to buy, at fire-sale prices, some of the bank assets taken over by the federal government.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/29/us/29bank.html?ref=business
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 29, 2008 2:08 PM
Jamie from your link -
Kirkpatrick Macmillan, Blacksmith of Thornhill, Dumfriesshire, Scotland invented the pedal powered bike.
But he didn't file a patent. In today's "This day" list :
1885 Gottlieb Daimler patents 1st bike (Germany)
I got think Daimler's patent is for the Safety Bicycle. (Chain drive.)
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 2:13 PM
Lampe:
I thought Caroline Kennedy's response (that she would not run for the Senate in 2010 if not selected now) demonstrated solidarity, rather than laziness.
If the person who is named feels that he or she will be challenged by a popular Democrat, as well as by a Republican, in two years, the person might feel disinclined to try all that hard now, feeling that there would be no reason to get engaged in an endeavor that would last for only a short period.
By stating that she would not challenge a sitting Democrat, Ms. Kennedy is giving that other potential Senator more incentive to take the two-year term more seriously, to make the necessary long-term a partisan and bipartisan relationships so crucial in getting legislation passed.
Posted by: benjaminblue | December 29, 2008 2:14 PM
Interesting comment benjamin, but I really see no reason why Caroline Kennedy should even be considered for the Senate seat, much less chosen for it....
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 29, 2008 2:25 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185335
Always somewhat amused by the "more likely to get hit by lightening" stat when it comes to shark attack. Lightening strikes on land. There aren't a lot of sharks on the back nine at the golf course.
If you don't want to end up as dinner, don't serve yourself up on a platter.
Still wonder if frequency of attacks is increasing and if so, does it have anything to do with available fish supplies or just more people swimming.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 2:26 PM
"Still wonder if frequency of attacks is increasing and if so, does it have anything to do with available fish supplies or just more people swimming."
Excellent question....
Posted by: Patsi
| December 29, 2008 2:31 PM
Here is the full story on Kirkpatrick
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/macmillan_kirkpatrick.shtml
Apparently his design was spread all over by others but it is an entirely different design than the Daimler invention.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 2:47 PM
i can't see where princess caroline has any special
abilities or attributes to be a senator''
so that would make her just as qualified as the rest
yahoos we have up there
Posted by: mqw | December 29, 2008 2:53 PM
"Looks like we need to sacrifice a bunch of virgins again. Thank god for the Internet though, as they are so much easier to locate nowadays."
cbob, above blogger comment in response to the earthquake swarm announcement yesterday.
this by a science-wonk?
Posted by: patd | December 29, 2008 3:00 PM
'Huge year for natural disasters'
The past year has been one of the most devastating ever in terms of natural disasters, one of the world's biggest re-insurance companies has said.
Munich Re said the impact of the disasters was greater than in 2007 in both human and economic terms.
The company suggested climate change was boosting the destructive power of disasters like hurricanes and flooding.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7803624.stm
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 3:04 PM
Caroline Kennedy Asks to be Time’s Person of the Year
Places Phone Call to Magazine’s Editor
http://borowitzreport.com/article.aspx?ID=6970
Posted by: Bowmanc
| December 29, 2008 3:05 PM
First Laura Bush now the office wife defends Shrub
WASHINGTON – The two most influential women in President George W. Bush's White House — first lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — are strongly defending the president's legacy against critics who are calling his administration one of the worst in history.
"I know it's not, and so I don't really feel like I need to respond to people that view it that way," Mrs. Bush said in an interview that aired Sunday. "I think history will judge and we'll see later."
Rice took a similar view in a separate interview, saying that claims that the Bush administration has been one of the worst ever are "ridiculous."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081228/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_legacy
that Condiliar...just doesn't stop spinning
Posted by: Katherine Graham Cracker
| December 29, 2008 3:06 PM
KGC -
But they named a super tanker after her, she has to be good.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 3:15 PM
" Munich Re quoted World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) figures showing that 2008 was the 10th warmest year since reliable records began, meaning that the 10 warmest years on record all occurred in the past 12 years. " ...................... " "The logic is clear: when temperatures increase there is more evaporation and the atmosphere has a greater capacity to absorb water vapour, with the result that its energy content is higher.
"The weather machine runs into top gear, bringing more intense severe weather events with corresponding effects in terms of losses."
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 3:18 PM
Peruvian Shamans Give Obama Optimistic Predictions For New Year
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/29/peruvian-shamans-give-oba_n_153953.html
------------
But we all know how left wing the shaman vote can be.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 3:23 PM
"...claims that the Bush administration has been one of the worst ever are "ridiculous."
next to worst then? come on condi, who was worster?
Posted by: patd | December 29, 2008 3:24 PM
what's with the quakes? first new zealand, then yellowstone (cbob link), then china
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j7YcYHg4OOSSrR4kmBu-IACNyGUQ
and now afghanistan
http://uk.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUKSP21690._CH_.2420
Posted by: patd | December 29, 2008 3:35 PM
CBob
Leaving a wave of controversy in its wake, one of the most visible reminders of the Bush administration's ties to big oil - the 129,000-ton Chevron tanker Condoleezza Rice - has quietly been renamed, Chevron officials acknowledged yesterday.
"We made the change to eliminate the unnecessary attention caused by the vessel's original name," said Chevron spokesman Fred Gorell.
The double-hulled, Bahamian-registered oil tanker carrying the moniker of Bush's national security adviser was renamed the Altair Voyager, after a star, Gorell said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2001/05/05/MN223743.DTL&type=printa
Posted by: Katherine Graham Cracker
| December 29, 2008 3:42 PM
all shook up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ0K_DC9rUg
Posted by: patd | December 29, 2008 3:42 PM
ET---You are right---that article that you posted is absolutely disgusting and immoral,,,,and it is being done by people in both party's -----on one can take the high road---saying that one party does it more than the other......GREED on both partys like this should convince someone , that it makes no sense to have total party loyalty,,,,,ET don't you think that it is time for people to start voting third party. there seems to be a lot of proof that both party's are GREEDY,
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185348
Israel has the right to defend itself----but to what degree,,2-3 hundred innocents killed every time it flexes it' s biceps ????---does Israel have a right to occupy other country's and not expect that country to fight with what ever means possible--if they killed my own just to take my land--farm---house like they did to some---I would become an instant terrorist---what would you do??? If you go back in history to defend Israel"s right to defend it's self from terrorists ----go all the way back----King David was the very first terrorists --no? or that far back is not convenient in today's world thinking??
I do think that Israel is important t o the U.S.,,,,,I hope that it remains a standoff for ever,,or until the end of Religon,,,,end Religion and you will end Terrorists ----and so much more---another reason to vote third party.
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 3:45 PM
The United States recorded a preliminary total of just under 1,700 tornadoes from January - November. This ranks 2008 second behind 2004 for the most tornadoes in a year, since reliable records began in 1953.
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/extreme-weather-20081217
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 3:47 PM
Sturg ---thank you.
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 3:50 PM
Shark attacks - up & down, up & down.
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/statistics/2007attacksummary.htm
More cable news, more need to fill time, more reporting.
Posted by: pogo | December 29, 2008 3:55 PM
Solar - I echo sturg's thoughts on yesterday's discussion. You were right - Craig just likes civility in language, if not thought.
Posted by: pogo | December 29, 2008 4:00 PM
The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season was the third most costly on record in current dollars, after 2005 and 2004, and the fourth most active year since 1944. This was the first season with a major hurricane (Category 3 or above) each month from July through November.
NOAA: Global Temperature for November Fourth Warmest on Record
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20081216_climatestats.html
-------------
Christopher Booker didn't get the memo.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 4:00 PM
one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter
how many more terrorist and suicide bombers did
Israel create by this latest wave of attacks
Posted by: mqw | December 29, 2008 4:02 PM
Bush is hoping for the "Stalin Effect" to kick in. -
" Former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was beaten by medieval prince Alexander Nevsky in a poll held by a TV station to find the greatest Russian. "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7802485.stm
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 4:04 PM
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/statistics/Trends2.htm
More shark attack data. Trend definitely up since mid 80s. Better tasting sunscreen perhaps?
Posted by: pogo | December 29, 2008 4:05 PM
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/isaf/isafhistory.htm
AHA! mid 60s to 88 data is incomplete. Better reporting (and tastier sunscreen).
Posted by: pogo | December 29, 2008 4:09 PM
Solar,
Hamas puts its military installations under civilian housing, schools, and hospitals on purpose. Israel always issues warnings as to the area they will be bombing in order to allow evacuation. This is often prevented by Hamas who want the civilian deaths.
This started because Hamas specifically targeted a civilian area of housing not an Israeli base or military installation. They killed 17 people just to be killing them not for any military purpose.
Yes there have been injustices committed on all sides, but it has NEVER been Israel that violated a formal cease fire or peace agreement often despite horrific bombings of civilians by suicide bombers.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 4:10 PM
Patd -
It's the earth quake swarms under volcanoes that bother me, especially under Yellowstone. We really want that one to stay a sleep.
Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2008 4:12 PM
"- the 129,000-ton Chevron tanker Condoleezza Rice - has quietly been renamed, Chevron officials acknowledged yesterday."
KGC -- That decision stuns me -- what a slap in the face! Guess they won't be trying to rename the world for Bush, like they did for Reagan....
Posted by: Patsi
| December 29, 2008 4:14 PM
Caroline Kennedy has no political experience or background except that her father was a U.S. President. I don't admire people who think because they come from a rich political dynasty that they should have to go to the front of the line. I don't dislike her... I very much admired her mother, but I think Sarah Palin is far more qualified in terms of experience, and frankly, that ain't saying much.
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 29, 2008 4:15 PM
Pogo---thanks---over it now...means a lot to me.
No more outburst like that any more----I can't fight the Granny Brigade,,,,,,they all told me to ignore,,ignore..ignore.,,,Chole , and Rita are right,..that is what I plan to do ----have been in a very bad mood(very unusual for me) for a week----bout getting over it now-----I had a nice size check bounce on me that was paid by a client---client is going to file for bankruptcy protection---I have done the research on the property that we worked on and liened ,,but ---my Atty is on it now...thanks again
Flatus--and Sturg made me laugh off a lot of things this morn...thank for that..Flatus,,more of that----u had me fooled, not so military like I thought-with only a little sense of hahahaha's,,,now it is expected from you HA
:-))
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 4:15 PM
If you would like to practice your Russian, you can see the 50 finalists in the famous Russian poll
http://www.nameofrussia.ru/
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 4:20 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185379
If that baby blows, a large number of us here won't be posting anywhere ever again.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 4:22 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185381
ET,
Carolyn Kennedy is a Constitutional lawyer and scholar, he has run a major foundation, and raised millions upon millions of dollars for charity and a lifelong New Yorker. No she isn't a traditional candidate in the sense of someone who came up fromt he city council in public offices, but then neither was Hillary Clinton.
Even if you think of her only as a place holder in the same sense as some widow being appointed to fill out a deceased senator's term, she will either do a good or a bad job for two years. By that time, other possible candidates will arise or she will campaign to retain the seat.
If nothing else, she is much better educated than Palin and has a family dedication to liberal political philosophy as well as a sense of nobless oblige to do good in the world because of the blessings she has received without effort.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 4:28 PM
Good point Patsi...
I am bowing out of this discussion. I don't care if Donald Duck is named the Senator... I got my own problems to deal with and it's not pretty.
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 29, 2008 4:35 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185374
mqw - What would you have them do instead? How many times do you allow a cease fire or a treaty be violated. How many hundreds of people have to leave their limbs scattered all over abombed buses on Israeli streets? How many kids have to be slaughtered for the sin of dancing in the wrong place at the wrong time?
They let people work come through the baricades to actually work and worship among them. They clear off land to allow people to return to homes. They back up and back up and still the attacks continue. Well, enough is enough.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 4:37 PM
About that Granny Brigade---I had one of the best ,,,right there front and center---thanks Grammy Patsi,,,and that is the last time I call you grammy also---every time I say grammy IM reminded of my own----loved her ---but she was always in black----she walked me to school every day , ,,liked to play practical jokes on her,,just to make her late for morning mass----she solved that problem by making me go with her,,and make me late for school,,,,Sister Mary Adrianne would get on her broom and fly around me head looking for a spot that she might have not hit me (there was none) on and crack----try blaming your sweet grammy (she knew my gram---and liked her) for being late---no way Jose.
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 4:39 PM
Caroline - she's no more or less "qualified" to be a senator than literally hundreds of senators who came before her and were elected or appointed with little or no prior elective office experience, except that elected thing, but in my book, being elected to a different office don't mean much other than the person has figured out how to get elected. Of course, it's Patterson's decision to make, and she certainly wouldn't get it if she didn't ask. By all accounts, she seems to be very bright, personally persuasive and a hard worker - New York could do worse. LP asked me this weekend about whether she should be Senator (only because he misunderstood the issue - he really doesn't have a half a clue about it) and I told him that I don't know much about her, but she strikes me as capable of doing the job well, and she's qualified according to the CotUS.
Posted by: Pogo | December 29, 2008 4:41 PM
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/29/kerik-pleads-not-guilty-to-new-charges/?hp
Part of Rudy's legacy. Nice goin', Bernie.
Posted by: pogo | December 29, 2008 4:47 PM
Jamie it is a very complicated problem,,,and one that we helped create ---by supporting anything that Israel does-----do you think that we should be giving so much money to them ----specially now that we don't have it? and shouldn't we stop arming them,,,and any one that we don't agree with---I think that it is too late for that any way-----we already have influenced that part of the world way too much----like C.P. if you brake it you own it---little Israel (the lobbyist ) here in our country will make sure of that?
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 4:48 PM
If yellow stone---goes off ---it will destroy anything in its path,,all the way to NY......I read,,saw (science channel?) that --La--will be under water in about 50 years....mother nature will never be conquered now matter how many bulldozers we use on her.....
The science channel has some interesting programs on what the future will look like---------there will be cities within cites, that go hundreds of feet in the air---never have to leave for noting,,,,,stores, doctors,,work all gonna be under one roof-----series running now superb.
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 4:57 PM
Patsi,
You make a good point about JFK, Jr., who most likely would have been given different treatment by the New York press and probably nationally as well.
I've said most of this here before, but as a New Yorker, who became a Hillary supporter, I'll have no problem if Governor Paterson names Caroline. Timing is everything. Yes, Hillary worked to earn the support of New York's voters, but this two year gig is an appointment by the Governor. There's no need to change that, Governor Blagojevich notwithstanding.
President and Mrs. Clinton were smart enough to move to a "Blue" state in which an open Senate seat was ripe for the taking. Hillary worked for the seat and worked hard after she won it. If Caroline really wants the job, I expect she'll do the same thing. If she's just pursuing the job to please her Uncle Ted, she probably won't stay.
Keep in mind, those other experienced Democrats, who have been "toiling in the vineyard," are in jobs they chose to pursue. Yes, one way or another they've paid their dues, but if they were the shining stars many have made them out to be, Caroline would probably not have this opening.
Posted by: EdVB
| December 29, 2008 4:57 PM
yes jamie
kill'em ' kill them all 'men ' women ' children'' infants
grandmothers''it don't matter they're just palestinians.
line a bunch of bulldozers and tanks up and push
all the miserable bastards into the sea
that'll show'em '''that will fix everything
Posted by: mqw | December 29, 2008 5:01 PM
And now for the other side of the story...
Rachel Corrie, Evergreen student, killed by Israeli bulldozers destroying palestinian homes...
http://www.rachelcorrie.org/
I am off to bed... if I can sleep.
Posted by: EuroTom
| December 29, 2008 5:06 PM
There should be someone on the news that give the other side of the Israel---Hamas argument----print Hamas and you pc tells you that it is not spelled right------big deal for me cos I can spell it------I am all for Israel ---but would like to know both sides other than repeated one sided history, I don't care if the truth comes out on Hama's side---still in favor of Israel ,,,but I don't like being told a one sided story.,,,,sometime you get CNN's Wolf Blitzer on an Interview with some one from the other side ...but I would like to see the faces that are being killed -it's too guilt free like this?? same goes for those sneaky Hamas strikes.
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 5:19 PM
Well, the government keeps records of hese things.
"Country Summaries
"The following section provides funding details on the largest regular aid recipients in the Middle East: Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinians. Each
country section features a table with a more elaborate breakdown of aid by foreign aid account. For information on U.S. assistance for Iraqi reconstruction, see CRS Report RL31833, Iraq: Reconstruction Assistance, by Curt Tarnoff.
Israel Overview.
"Since 1976, Israel has been the largest annual recipient of U.S. foreign assistance and is the largest cumulative recipient since World War II. Strong
congressional support for Israel has resulted in Israel’s receiving benefits that may not be available to other countries. For example, Israel can use U.S. military assistance for research and development in the United States and for military purchases in Israel. In addition, all U.S. foreign assistance earmarked for Israel is delivered in the first 30 days of the fiscal year. Other recipients normally receive their aid in staggered installments at varying times. The United States gives all Economic Support Funds (ESF) directly to the government of Israel as a grant cash transfer rather than allocating funds for specific development projects."
And you can read government reports and such and decide who gets the most aid.
www.usembassy.it/pdf/other/RL32260.pdf
Yhe link may not work - it's a cached page, but theinfois easy to search in the Google.
Posted by: pogo | December 29, 2008 5:28 PM
Tony
I didn't forget about you---thanks pal---listen I did forget about you asking for my E Mail, was not ignoring,,if you can post yours,,,,great than I will E Mail you with all my info if not I will get it to you.----but here is a piece of info that you will have to guess at----your Birthday is on July 18th,,,,mine is only a few days from yours,,a few less --or a few more.hahaha---that should drive Rosie crazy Huh----no for her it's just a short walk,,,haha
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 5:29 PM
Pogo--good post---some group together all the Arab countries into one,,,,aren't they all individual ----that is one problem that I have with the Israel Hamas Argument ----and they are a democracy aren't they,,,that should (Hamas) should be looked at other than some kind of nuts---and they are nuts imo-but look more so than the other side cos they can't take the high road---like----hey u over there we are going to bomb the shit out of you--on 3 oclock Sunday,,,that makes it ok for me to kill 2- 3 hundred ---why can't we stop giving any money to anyone over there ---it just goes into the pockets of the war machines???
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 5:41 PM
so the palestinians ''voluntarily''fled their own homeland to live in refugee camps'
Posted by: mqw | December 29, 2008 5:46 PM
Tom -- I didn't think you were meanspirited at all -- just questioning. There'sa big difference.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 29, 2008 5:48 PM
Solar -- I so sincerely HOPE that my granddaughter grows to love playing practical jokes on me! That would be fun.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 29, 2008 5:50 PM
There never was a country called "Palestine" or a people called Palestinians until modern history.
What was it called before modern (money-greed) called it Palestine,,,the land wasn't baron,,there were people on the land-----Canan?? I think---but it was Palestine---the bible says so.
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 5:53 PM
ET
If you are told that houses that have been used to store weapons, house terrorists, and send rockets into an area are going to be bulldozed to create a space that can be guarded, and you stand in front of the bulldozer ... stuff happens.
Quite a while back a man lost an arm because he laid it across a track coming out of the nuclear storage site. The train ran over him.
Anyone who wants to protest should be free to do so, but there are consequences to actions. You take your chances. Some people will think you are a saint and others will think you suffer from rampant stupidity.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 5:54 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185410
mqw
That is exactly what happened. The surrounding countries could have ended this decades ago by simply absorbing the "Palestinians" into their populations, but they wanted the cause and they didn't want the people.
Many many "Palestinians" returned to Israel a long time ago. They live there, work there, vote in elections. They are Israeli citizens. They complain a lot about being second class citizens which may be true, but they are in their own homes not behind barbed wire.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 5:57 PM
"why can't we stop giving any money to anyone over there ---it just goes into the pockets of the war machines???"
I agree, Solar. Wars and rumors of wars. And some die and some profit in the name of religion. (They can say it's about borders. But it's a religious war.)
Posted by: Patsi
| December 29, 2008 5:58 PM
I wonder how many experts on this issue have been to Israel and seen what is happening first hand....neither faction is innocent.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 29, 2008 6:00 PM
Solar, it's just data. I am apparently of the same mind as you - it ain't (a) Israel and (b) the rest of the 6 mideast countries who receive aid from us with respect to foreign aid. I don't have a dog in the hunt - Israel was created by the UN, which may or may not ultimately do the same for the Palestinians in Gaza. IMHO, the likelihood that will happen sooner rather than later was lessened when the Gazans chose Hamas to run the joint in 2005. Hey, ya pays your money and ya takes your chances, right?
Posted by: pogo | December 29, 2008 6:00 PM
If Yellowstone blows it will be a natural event. And we are all for nature, right?
A study of earth science educates us that there are powerful sources of energy working beneath the crust of the earth and they are not any thing humans can control. If it blows and wipes out a couple million people or a major portion of our agriculture & energy infrastructure, then we can discuss how poorly or how well the Obama administration deals with the problem. (if we have internet)
It could be pretty ugly for the survivors, hell one week without electricity here in NH had people getting very antsy. In my opinion, city dwellers would be the worst off, if the transport and supply of food is interrupted, there will be problems.
How much food and water do you have stored in case of an environmental catastrophe?
Posted by: Bowmanc
| December 29, 2008 6:06 PM
Solar
Palestine is a huge geographical area that at the time of the bible was comprised of several different countries. Here's a map from the time of Saul that you can view and see some of the places that existed in addition to Israel
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/palestine_1020bc.jpg
Just click on it and it will enlarge
Since that time, it has been carved up, juggled and renamed several times over, but again there is no country named Palestine or people called Palestinians until modern times.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 6:07 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185421
Bowman,
We were actually discussing this in passing yesterday. Presuming I'm not buried under a Pyroclastic flow from Mt. Ranier, we could last about 60 days. Not well, but we could last.
Safest place to be for survival of the citizens no matter how beat up: Utah. They plan for six months minimum and have it all stored in warehouses as well as private homes.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 6:14 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185406
Solar
Hey, glad you didn't forget.Oh your a July guy,were good people! HA ,Here's my E-mail...... (tbassham@cfl.rr.com) Rosie whats your guess on Solars B-day July16th or the 20th?
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 29, 2008 6:16 PM
The history of that area is interesting, but it future is tied to oil IMHO. Once the world turns its energy appetite away from a global resource the area has a major controlloing interest in, its "stability" will cease to be as important to the big, strong countries of the world who currently depend upon it to satisfy our appetites for stuff to run our cars and power plants. Religion's nice, and friends in an otherwise relatively unimportant area are nice, but if you're talking oil, now you're talking.
Posted by: pogo | December 29, 2008 6:18 PM
Patsi
Almost--sold my Mother to an older gentleman once in a restaurant mall ll,,only a few years back---I get bored easy, sometimes and get a little stupid-----saw this guy ( older gent) just look at my moms way(my dad was dead for a few years---that wouldn't have made a diff---nah ),and tried to sell her---- could have made 5 hundred bucks---moms are not cheap you know----well a big time out for that one,,haha no sense of humor in my family I guess :-)
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 6:18 PM
Jamie -- if there was never a "Palestine" why is that map called a map of Palestine in the time of Saul?
Posted by: Patsi
| December 29, 2008 6:23 PM
Here is info on the demographic make up of Israel. Down at the bottom of the page it gives all the ethnic groups. I was surprised that more than 19% of Israeli citizens are Arabs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Israel
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 6:23 PM
Patsi
Huge geographic REGION not a country. Lots of countries and peoples made up the region called Palestine.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 6:25 PM
It's like saying "The Americas". We are all North Americans, Central Americans, or South Americans, but some are Canadian, and some are Americans, and some are Mexicans, and then there are that whole slew of countries in Central and South America many of which have changed their names over the years and then you can break it out into ethic groups such as Navaho are Argentinian.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 6:28 PM
Trip Palin has been born. Congratulations to mom and family.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 6:31 PM
I understand that it was a region, but I think to say it doesn't "count" because it was not called a "country" is parsing terms.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 29, 2008 6:31 PM
Pogo---again imo correct---Except one thing,,we will have left behind a lot of pissed of people,,,that won't get over anything soon,,,specially due to the screw up of Bush 43,,,,El Salvador is still smarting a little after what we did over there no?? it is going to be 2009---but in that part of the world,,,it might as well be during the time of Jesus,,,and I don't mean as in Jose';s bro. You know some times I wish that it would be all out war,,and get it over with---so things could be rebuilt ??? but it will never end for us now---we back certain countries for good reasons ,,,some not so good? Panama sounds good about no
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 6:37 PM
no=now
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 6:39 PM
Utah? I can just see all the people from California that are pissed off at the Mormons for their stance on Prop 8 begging for help and sustenance if they need food or medical care. And the Mormons would not be stingy. Ironic indeed.
Posted by: Bowmanc
| December 29, 2008 6:40 PM
The people count and the whole "Two State Solution" is based on the idea of establishing a peaceful area of two countries Israel and Palestine.
I didn't say the people didn't count. They were living in a piece of the Ottoman Empire whose government had passed to the British following WW I. This old empire was broken up into countries such as Iraq and a huge chunk remained under British control in the Mandate.
Both Jews and Arabs lived within that Mandate. The British has promised the Jews (Zionists) residing there a homeland in a "White Paper" of intent, but that hadn't been done by the time WW II took place. in 1948 the UN did it for them by creating the country of Israel in order to give the displaced Jews who had survived the holocaust a place to go.
The British pulled out leaving all their military installations in the hands of the Arabs and the 1948 Israeli Arab happened. The Israeli's one and those people who chose to leave Israel before the war ended up in the camps rather than being absorbed by the other Arab countries that had fought against Israel. They came to be known as Palestinians.
The Arabs have attacked Israel in other wars since and lost every time. Every time the Israelis have agreed to cease fires and treaties and every time terrorist groups such as Hamas using the Palestinians for their own purpose have broken those treaties.
If Anwar Sadat and Itzak Rabin hadn't been assassinated we might have had a peaceful solution, but they were and we don't.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 6:46 PM
one = won
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 6:48 PM
Haven't been paying much attention---but I bet that Crude is up--cos of the fight in Gaza--yep 40.60 per..----Hey Jack that is your department!!
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 6:50 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185438
Not weird if you are aware of the context.
Bowman,
We were actually discussing this in passing yesterday. Presuming I'm not buried under a Pyroclastic flow from Mt. Ranier, we could last about 60 days. Not well, but we could last.
Safest place to be for survival of the citizens no matter how beat up: Utah. They plan for six months minimum and have it all stored in warehouses as well as private homes.
Posted by: Bowmanc
| December 29, 2008 7:00 PM
OK, weird it is. Apparent chaffing, that is your interpretation, not mine. People can be pissed at he Mormons, as a matter of fact there has been prejudiced against the Mormons for a hundred years or so. I would argue that the Mormons have had as rough a time as gays have in so far as their acceptance into American society. In fact they actually made some pretty big concessions with respect to their faith in order to have Utah become a state.
Posted by: Bowmanc
| December 29, 2008 7:13 PM
The 2009 stamps are going to be fun: Lucy and Ethel, Groucho Marx, Joe FRiday
http://www.comcast.net/articles/tv/20081229/Lucy.and.Ethel.Stamps/
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 7:36 PM
Here are the images
http://www.comcast.net/tv/slideshow/view/tv-20081229-Lucy.and.Ethel.Stamps/
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 7:36 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185436
Bow
I was baptized Mormon and I know Mormons.I think there stingy with what counts and thats equal rights for all!!Not just us gays either,woman are the worst offended by there organization. Stingy,yes indeed........IMO
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 29, 2008 7:37 PM
"equal rights for all"
Equal rights for all, which implies acceptance and tolerance of all. That also includes acceptance and tolerance of Mormons.
What if one of our friends on this site is a Mormon. Do we really want to attack any group so generally? Condemn any groups beliefs? Why is one ok and another not? Why not just accept that others believe what they believe, they have a reason for believing whatever it is, and leave them alone. Are any of us so perfect, that we can sit here in judgment of everyone else?
Posted by: chloe
| December 29, 2008 7:59 PM
Land of Canaan, 2000 B.C.E.--
Even before 3000 B.C.E., West Semitic tribal groups speaking variations of the Canaanite tongue inhabited much of what is now the modern Middle East. Many settled in the Syria-Canaan lands of Ancient Palestine. Early Mesopotamian documents refer to both nomadic shepherds and to traders. One such group, the Habiru {or Hapiru} migrated into Palestine perhaps as early as 2000 B.C.E. from northern Mesopotamia; later elements from among them formed the ancient Hebrews. As they entered Ancient Palestine, the Phoenicians in the north and the Philistines in the south occupied definite areas. "Phoenicia" is the Greek translation of "Canaan,"--the land of purple merchants," referring perhaps to the dye they used to colour cloth. Indeed, it is from the time of Canaan that Bethlehem is believed to have derived its name, Bethlehem - Beit Lahem in Arabic ("The house of Lahman - a Canaanite God").
The Canaanites, were a Semitic people speaking a language remarkably close to Hebrew. They were farmers, some were nomads, but they were also civilized. They used the great Mesopotamian cities as their model and had built modest imitations of them. They had also learned military technology and tactics from the Mesopotamians, as well as law. Thus when the Hebrews arrived at Canaan, they began the long, painful, and disappointing process of settling the land, but being uncivilized, tribal, and nomadic, they faced a formidable enemy. Even the accounts of this period in the Hebrew bible, the books of Joshua and Judges paint a pretty dreary picture of the occupation. They are eventually driven from the coastal plains and forced to settle in the central hill country and a few places in the Jordan River valley. They also faced another looming enemy, the Philistines, who overwhelmed everyone in their path. They had chariots and iron weapons and few could stand against these new technologies.
Thus it was that the Hebrews found themselves living in the worst areas of Canaan, spread thinly across the entire region, with the balance of power constantly shifting as local kingdoms would grab and then lose territory, finding themselves first under one and then another master
http://www.salaam.co.uk/themeofthemonth/may02/images/topmenu_theme.gif
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 8:08 PM
"in 1948 the UN did it for them by creating the country of Israel in order to give the displaced Jews who had survived the holocaust a place to go. "
The UN created Israel for one reason: guilt. The West had the opportunity in 1938 to save the Jewish refugees (as well as many other refugees) and the West took a pass at the Evian Conference.
Posted by: Patsi
| December 29, 2008 8:15 PM
hard to find a link on that page,,,maybe this one
http://www.salaam.co.uk/index.php
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 8:16 PM
Same site---lot of history to compare ?
Arthur James BalfourThe British Mandate, 1917-1948 CE
In December 1917, Jerusalem surrendered to British forces, bringing four centuries of Ottoman-Turk rule to a close. It was through the proclamation of the Balfour Declaration two months earlier on November 2, 1917, that gave the Zionist movement its long-sought legal status. The qualification that: nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine seemed a relatively insignificant obstacle to the Zionists, especially since it referred only to those communities': civil and religious rights, not to political or national rights. The subsequent British occupation gave Britain the ability to carry out that pledge and provide the protection necessary for the Zionists to realize their aims.
In fact, the British had contracted three mutually contradictory promises for the future of Palestine. The Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 with the French and Russian governments proposed that Palestine be placed under international administration. The Husayn-McMohan Correspondence, 1915-1916, on whose basis the Arab revolt was launched, implied that Palestine would be included in the zone of Arab independence. In contrast, the Balfour Declaration encouraged the colonization of Palestine by Jews, under British protection. British officials recognized the irreconcilability of these pledges but hoped that a modus vivendi could be achieved, both between the competing imperial powers, France and Britain, and between the Palestinians and the Jews. Instead, these contradictions set the stage for the three decades of conflict-ridden British rule in Palestine.
Initially, many British politicians shared the Zionists' assumption that gradual, regulated Jewish immigration and settlement would lead to a Jewish majority in Palestine, whereupon it would become independent, with legal protection for the Arab minority .The assumption that this could be accomplished without serious resistance was shattered at the outset of British rule. Britain thereafter was caught in an increasingly untenable position, unable to persuade either Palestinians or Zionists to alter their demands and forced to station substantial military forces in Palestine to maintain security.
The Palestinians had assumed that they would gain some form of independence when Ottoman rule disintegrated; whether through a separate state or integration with neighbouring Arab lands. These hopes were bolstered by the Arab revolt, the entry of Faysal Ibn Husayn into Damascus in 1918, and the proclamation of Syrian independence in 1920. Their hopes were dashed, however, when Britain imposed direct colonial rule and elevated the yishuv to a special status. Moreover, the French ousted Faysal from Damascus in July 1920, and British compensation-in the form of thrones in Transjordan and Iraq for Abdullah and Faysal, respectively-had no positive impact on the Arabs in Palestine. In fact, the action underlined the different treatment accorded Palestine and its disadvantageous political situation. These concerns were exacerbated by Jewish immigration: the yishuv comprised 28 percent of the population by 1936 and reached 32 percent by 1947 (click here for Palestine's population distribution per district in 1946). The British umbrella was critically important to the growth and consolidation of the yishuv, enabling it to root itself firmly despite Palestinian opposition. Although British support diminished in the late 1930s, the yishuv was strong enough by then to withstand the Palestinians on its own. After World War II, the Zionist movement also was able to turn to the emerging superpower, the United States, for diplomatic support and legitimisation.
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 8:25 PM
Most literate cities:
http://www.livescience.com/culture/081229-literacy-cities.html
Posted by: Patsi
| December 29, 2008 8:28 PM
Chloe
It is unanimous---Emma Nichole is a pretty cool name....we have 2 Nichole's,,,but no Emma's in the family-----there are a cple of new born' s that I haven't met and forgot their names already,,,I'll get to know them at some point in the future,,,they are healthy so that is what matters,for right now.,,,,Ill make fun of their names later.
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 8:34 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185454
Chloe
Your absolutely correct. I amend my previous post to read I know some Mormons.. Generally in my life I've Mormons to be real nice folks,I believe its the organization thats at fault in this instance.I also agree there entitled to there beliefs and thats just fine by me ,I want no part of them....I think what makes some people angry is there support of prop 8 to deny people there rights and those people are also entitled to there feelings and dislike of the Mormon organization..IMO
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 29, 2008 8:38 PM
No Tony, I am NOT absolutely correct. Ever.
I was just asking the questions. I don't even particularly disagree with what you said. And I have lots of opinions, and condemn lot's of beliefs. But I guess I feel maybe it's fairer to attack ideas and beliefs on an individual basis, rather than condemning a whole group. But that doesn't keep me from disagreeing with them.
I feel the whole equality thing goes for everyone. Either you believe it or you don't. I guess I should have kept this to myself, as it is more my problem than anything else. I've struggled for years to learn not to be so judgmental of others.
Thanks though Tony. You are ALWAYS so open minded. :)
Posted by: chloe
| December 29, 2008 8:43 PM
Solar,
It sounds like you have a really big, really wonderful family. :)
Posted by: chloe
| December 29, 2008 8:49 PM
Chloe
I further would add that I have friends in California ,Ismael and Clinton and I think there negative attitude regarding some Mormons providing funding to have there marriage from last year nullified very just and I'm very much with them in solidarity and spirit...But again its not to say that all Mormans are doing these terrible things.IMO
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 29, 2008 8:49 PM
I don't know the geography or the history on that 1938 conference, but it strikes me that Evian spelled backwards is naive.
Totally useless, but I couldn't resist.
Posted by: EdVB
| December 29, 2008 8:53 PM
"I'm very much with them in solidarity and spirit.."
As you should be Tony. And I agree with you.
Posted by: chloe
| December 29, 2008 8:54 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185462
Patsi, For some reason that list surprised me.
Posted by: chloe
| December 29, 2008 8:59 PM
"I feel the whole equality thing goes for everyone. Either you believe it or you don't. I guess I should have kept this to myself, as it is more my problem than anything else. I've struggled for years to learn not to be so judgmental of others."
Chloe
Wonderful Post!! I think your correct then.I'm glad you asked the question because it isn't good for myself or others to paint with a broad brush.I also agree the "whole equality thing goes for everyone".I guess through my experience as a gay man i just have not felt this 2 way street of equality from some religious organizations and I find it very hard to ignore personal experience here but i do not treat people who I know condemn me terrible I leave be...
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 29, 2008 9:02 PM
Tony---just my little say,,,all religions, as a group denied you, and others that right,(to marry),,,to me even saying that someone doesn't mind that others practice what ever religion (trying to be moderate about it)they want to say ok as long as I get to practice mine--- ---,,some say that while all the t ime thinking that --that other religion is false---and anyone practicing it will go straight to hell,,,,IMO is that they are all bad for us.....in other words saying that its ok for everyone to practice what they want,,,makes them all enablers of the Extreme Religious,around the world,( my religion is not a bad one--they say),,just what I think ---hope I made a little sense,,,,but all religions kinda had a hand in it since they all drive the same b.s.ideas??
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 9:04 PM
"religious organizations "
Truth be known, I don't like them either.
Posted by: chloe
| December 29, 2008 9:06 PM
Hey Solar. In a perfect world, no organized political parties and no organized religions.
'Imagine' that!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEOkxRLzBf0
Posted by: chloe
| December 29, 2008 9:11 PM
Chole---really just wanted to say hello----but yes very large family,,and a league of nations-----and like all large family's,,,some not so wonderful---but the vast majority are
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 9:13 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185457
Guilt was part of it, but only incidentally since they were simply creating the agreed upon Jewish portion of Israel that had been promised in the Balfour Declaration letter written on November 2, 1917, by Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, one of the leaders of British Jewry.
It was later endorsed by the Allies at the San Remo Conference (1920) and incorporated into the Palestine Mandate given to Britain and approved by the Council of the League of Nations on July 24, 1922.
It just took them until 1948 to get it done by the United Nations.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 9:17 PM
thanks forgot about that song---yes I can Imagine ---but that is all---I can not for the life on me ---understand how very intelligent people still believe in them---One of the people that I admire very much---Mario Coumo comes to mind,,,I don't think that people like him fake it like some do??
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 9:20 PM
Good night all. Have a nice evening.
Posted by: Jamie
| December 29, 2008 9:23 PM
Solar,
I think they need something to hang on to. They NEED to believe. They need to belong. They need to be directed. I think the world scares them without those boundaries.
Posted by: chloe
| December 29, 2008 9:24 PM
Night Jamie.
Me too, I NEED to go. :)
Posted by: chloe
| December 29, 2008 9:26 PM
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185476
Chloe
Right on with that comment!! This is why I love this place because you and so many here make me think.I come away from this place smarter and more passionate about the issues of the day.Today I had Middle East history lessons and civil rights talk..Where else could this happen,well some of my friends would say this is what happens when I'm at my local gym..HA
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/12/happy-trails-for-the-holidays.html#comment-185474
Solar
I agree, its not one religious organization its a broad based assault by many if not all of them!! You always make sense to me and like I told Chloe you make me think..I got to check out that science channel.Thankyou..
Posted by: tonyb39
| December 29, 2008 9:28 PM
Nite
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 9:28 PM
Nite Solar. See you tomorrow. :)
Posted by: chloe
| December 29, 2008 9:31 PM
and Tony! Nite.
Posted by: chloe
| December 29, 2008 9:32 PM
You know, I don't think that Caroline Kennedy has, you know, come across as very articulate, you know, in her recent interviews. That doesn't mean that she wouldn't be any good, you know, as a senator. She just doesn't come across, you know, as qualified.
Posted by: Corey
| December 29, 2008 9:37 PM
If we're gonna be sacrificing virgins, how about we start with Whopper virgins?
Posted by: Corey
| December 29, 2008 9:42 PM
Tony
I think that you will like it,,,plus the other ones available--I still like to read,,,but there is too many that are mentioned here and other places,,,,for example---on these long holiday's Book tv on C-span will start on wed,,or Thur. and go all the way into early Monday morn----lots of books to read if one is the sponge type,,,I like to tape those and with all the channels that are on satellite tv....tapes have become more and more the way for me to go-----and there are also the DYI channels that teach all about building,,,,history,,,much more than than time---than you I can come here and learn more,,,Just no excuse for anyone not to get informed it they want to --also if they can afford a pc and internet.
Posted by: SolarCrete
| December 29, 2008 9:44 PM
Caroline Kennedy, said "You Know" 138 times in her interview. And,some people still have the nerve to call Gov. Palin stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Lampe | December 29, 2008 10:19 PM
She talks like some sixteen year old. You Know, You Know. She's just another politician, who thinks she can buy her way to the top. But, I guess she has learned from the best. Uncle Teddy and Obama, just to name a few.
Posted by: Lampe | December 29, 2008 10:55 PM
That is nothing more than another pay off deal between politicians. Kennedy supported Obama, Obama picked HRC, as SOS, freeing up her Senate Seat. So, now it's time for Obama, to pay Teddy Back. And the final bill is The Senate Seat for Caroline.
Posted by: Lampe | December 29, 2008 11:00 PM
I just don't think anybody should be able to take someone else's life, and not have to pay for it. Does that answer your question?
Posted by: Lampe | December 29, 2008 11:02 PM
Jamie; 6:23 pm................ I don't believe the 19% of the Israeli population that is Arabic is the problem, I think it's the other 81% that are not allowed to return, to their homeland because it would upset the balance of voting power and oh-oh the Israeli Knesset would become an Arabic government.
Like someone else said I don't have a dog in this fight but I get really tired if hearing, media wise, how over 300 people died in Mumbai, but all the info we get is on six, I repeat 6, jews.
It's all manipulation anyway, if you go back far enough, they are brothers under the skin..........Abraham had 2 sons, Ishmael, son of the Handmaiden Hagar, who was driven into the desert, and Issac, son of his 79 year old wife Sarah who became his heir.
After World War II, the head count was 6 million Jews,
also, over 20 million Russians, and over 20 million Germans, and God knows how many British , French, Canadian, and Americans, as well as whatever other Allied countries there were, but only the Jews came out of it with a hunting license and ever since, the Mossad has been running around the world killing with impunity. I may have missed something but I don't recall ever hearing about a Mossad agent being prosecuted. I am as disgusted as anyone else would be by something as horrific as the Holocaust, but firing into refugee camps with gunships is a bit over the line, as were the phosphorus bombs used in the destruction of Beirut a couple of years ago. Not the way to win hearts and minds and isn't that always the objective.
Just MHO.
Rita
Posted by: politicallypissed
| December 30, 2008 12:32 AM
Patsi; ......... By the way, I think you are totally right about the "Good Old Boys Club", existing. I mean really, Chili, Phillipines,Britain, Canada, and even Israel had women Prime Ministers and Presidents, but the Good Ol' Boys here just couldn't see their way clear.
It doesn't matter whether Obama is black, or white or green, he's a man, and all cats are grey in the dark, aren't they.
Rita
Posted by: politicallypissed
| December 30, 2008 12:51 AM
Ping Pong's been #1 for a long time. :-)
Hey, how about those Detroit Lions??
tt
Posted by: tiptoe
| December 30, 2008 3:23 AM
Actually, it's "How about them Cowboys?!"
Posted by: Corey
| December 30, 2008 3:37 AM
Actually, whatever it is, it's Tony Romo's fault.
tt
Posted by: tiptoe
| December 30, 2008 4:03 AM
yeah, but......
Posted by: sturgeone | December 30, 2008 5:01 AM
happy penultimate day!
wonder if anyone ever has a penultimate party and do they just shake hands at midnight?
Posted by: patd | December 30, 2008 6:11 AM
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