HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR SON!

Today is Greg's birthday. He is now 34, with a wonderful wife and two kids of his own, one of whom is starting kindergarten today.

How did this happen? Greg was just starting kindergarten himself, and now his daughter is? Where did all the time go?

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"Isn't it a violation of the Georgia sodomy law for the Supreme Court to have its head up its ass?"

~Letter to Playboy magazine, February 1987

THE SECOND "I DON'T WANT TO COUNSEL GAYS" LAWSUIT STRUCK DOWN

Via: Pam's House Blend:

Augusta State University's requirement that a graduate student read material about counseling gays and increase her exposure to that community after she objected to counseling homosexual clients was "academically legitimate," a federal court judge ruled Friday.

U.S. District Judge Randal Hall's decision enables university officials to expel Jennifer Keeton if she does not follow the remediation plan, which professors designed to "address issues of multicultural competence and develop understanding and empathy."

Hall said the case is not about "pitting Christianity against homosexuality," but rather the constitutionality of the school's requirement.

This denunciation comes at the heels of another case in which a student claimed that she was "forced" to choose between her religious beliefs and her vocation. Last month, the courts ruled against Julea Ward, a student at Eastern Michigan University who claimed that she was removed from the school's counseling program because of her strong religious views against homosexuality.

THE GREAT RIVER TRAIL

Residents of an area often take for granted local wonders that outsiders treasure. One of our local wonders is The Great River Trail, a 60-mile trail that is always within the site and sound of the Mississippi River.

The paved bike/walk path runs along the east bank of the Mississippi River. The south end of the 60-mile trail is located in George Skafidas Parkway, near Sunset Marina, in Rock Island, IL. The path runs through the park and along the river, through downtown Rock Island, and in to Moline, where the trail is part of the Ben Butterworth Parkway. The path continues north through Rock Island, Whiteside , and Carroll Counties.

Each community along the trail offers an invitation to pause for a moment on the route, to explore the diversity that each community respresents.

The Great River Trail is part of a larger regional trail network, including the 500-mile Grand Illinois Trail and proposed 10-state Mississippi River Trail. There are plans to connect the Great River Trail to the nearby Hennepin Canal Parkway.

THE GIVING PLEDGE

Via Investopedia:

"The Giving Pledge is the brainchild of billionaire businessmen Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. The two of them have teamed up to ask the world's wealthiest people to donate at least 50% of their fortunes to charities. They believe that the richest people in the world can eradicate many of the world's problems through philanthropy. The pledge is not a binding contract but more of a "moral commitment". Individuals are free to donate money to whatever cause they would like. So, far about 40 billionaires have accepted the giving pledge challenge. That's not a large number when you consider that there are nearly 1,000 billionaires in the world, according to Forbes....

"Bill Gates and Warren Buffett should be commended for coming up with the giving pledge idea. They have convinced 40 of the world's wealthiest individuals and families to give back to society. If they want to convince the other 900 or so billionaires however, they have a whole lot more schmoozing to do."

ONE IN FIVE AMERICANS THINKS OBAMA IS A MUSLIM

Via: Alam Colmes Presesnts Liberalland

"Believe it or not, this is not a joke.

"The Washington Post reports on a new Pew Research Center survey.

"The number of Americans who believe — wrongly — that President Obama is a Muslim has increased significantly since his inauguration and now account for nearly 20 percent of the nation’s population… The number of people who now correctly identify Obama as a Christian has dropped to 34 percent, down from nearly half when he took office.

"Perhaps not surprisingly, right-wingers are the most likely to believe false information about the president’s faith.

"More than a third of conservative Republicans now say Obama is a Muslim, nearly double the percentage saying so early last year."


Zztopdog notes:  This is a sad commentary on the intelligence level of the US population.

CLEESE CROSSING

Via The Daily Dish:

LIBERAL GROUPS PUSH TO EXPLOIT TARGET BACKLASH

From the AP:

"Protesters have been rallying outside Target Corp. or its stores almost daily since the retailer angered gay rights supporters and progressives by giving money to help a conservative Republican gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota. Liberal groups are pushing to make an example of the company, hoping its woes will deter other businesses from putting their corporate funds into elections.

"A national gay rights group is negotiating with Target officials, demanding that the firm balance the scale by making comparable donations to benefit candidates it favors. Meanwhile, the controversy is threatening to complicate Target's business plans in other urban markets. Several city officials in San Francisco, one of the cities where Target hopes to expand, have begun criticizing the company.
 
" 'Target is receiving criticism and frustration from their customers because they are doing something wrong, and that should serve absolutely as an example for other companies,' said Ilyse Hogue, director of political advocacy for the liberal group MoveOn.org, which is pressing Target to formally renounce involvement in election campaigns.

"The Minneapolis-based chain has gone from defending the donation as a business decision to apologizing and saying it would carefully review its future giving. But the protests have continued."


Zztopdog notes: Target has consistantly stated that it is a diversity-friendly employer, a gay-friendly employer. This contribution flies in the face of that stated corporate policy. That's the problem.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"Healing rain is a real touch from God. It could be physical healing or emotional or whatever."

~~MICAHEL

INCONTINENCE IS REARING ITS UGLY HEAD

Zorro has been having little leaks occaisionally. These often occur when he is barking about something -- wanting breakfast, wanting to go outside, etc. Today, he has had four accidents already, and it is only 10:00 am.

Incontinence is part of the pattern for what we suspect is Degenerative Myelopathy (or DM), a non-treatable, non-reversable disease that attacks the sheath surrounding the spinal cord in long-backed dogs. It is a sign that the disease is progressing upward, although Zorro still has some use of his rear right leg.

The first sign was the turning under of his rear left paw, which eventually became totally useless. His right rear paw is still able to help him scoot around as he drags his left.

I have added "doggie diapers" to my shopping list....

THE CART IS READY, BUT IS ZORRO?

The cart was nearly completely put together when it arrived. When I finally sat down with the instructions, and laid out the remaining parts, it all made sense.

The cart is really an amazing little feat of engineering and design. The length and height can be adjusted to a certain extent. The piece that fits over the shoulders, to contain the corgi, lifts up to allow easy access.

Zorro needs to be in the cart in order to determine the necessary adjustments. So far, though, he isn't having any part of it.

Tomorrow, we'll see what food and treats will do to change his stuborn Corgi mind!

THE CART HAS ARRIVED!

Zorro's cart arrived today, via FedEx. The body of the cart is assembled, but the wheels and some other part (not sure yet what it is) need to be attached. The nuts/bolts are included; but there are no instructions. Not even a good picture or diagram. Just a small picture of a corgi in a cart on the CorgiAid brochure.

From reading the posts on the WheelCorgis Yahoo Group, all carts are not the same.

This should be interesting!

ZORRO HAS BEEN APPROVED FOR A CART

We recently sent an application to CorgiAid, requesting a cart for Zorro, We have heard that he has been approved for a loaner cart, and that they have one that should fit him quite well. We sent a check and the contract, and have now received a copy of the completed contract - which means we should be receiving the cart soon. He is very excited! He is so looking forward to walking up the street with the other kids.

Below is a photo of corgis using cart for mobility....

JAZZ ALWAYS PUTS ME TO SLEEP

Via: Stuff on My Cat:

IT'S TIME FOR WHITE PEOPLE TO TAKE A STAND

Via: Alan Colmes' Liberaland:

Ryan Murdough, a Republican candidate for State House in New Hampshire, says he “stands for the interest of white Americans.”

For far too long white Americans have been told that diversity is something beneficial to their existence. Statistics prove that the opposite is true. New Hampshire residents must seek to preserve their racial identity if we want future generations to have to possibility to live in such a great state. Affirmative action, illegal and legal non-white immigration, anti-white public school systems, and an anti-white media have done much damage to the United States of America and especially New Hampshire. It is time for white people in New Hampshire and across the country to take a stand. We are only 8 percent of the world’s population and we need our own homeland, just like any other non-white group of people deserve their own homeland.

Murdough is running as a Republican, only because it’s easier to get on the ballot that way, but has been disowned by the Republican Party. However, he says “the tea party movement is doing great things.”

MORE STUFFS ON MY HEAD

Via: Kagonekoshiro.blog

STUFFS ON MY HEAD

Via LOLCATS: Picture by: shironeko

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"I think it's time we started putting the health of our families before the profits of our insurance companies."

~~Barack Obama, October 5, 2008

BEET SALAD

From Martha Rose Schulman, for The New York Times:

People who swear they hate beets love this salad. It’s a North African-inspired mixture of grated, uncooked beets dressed with orange and lemon juices and a small amount of olive oil. It makes a great starter when you’re serving something robust as a main course, like a couscous.

1/2 pound beets
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoon minced chives, mint or parsley (or a combination)
Salt to taste
Leaves of 1 romaine heart

1. Peel the beets with a vegetable peeler, and grate in a food processor fitted with the shredding blade.

2. Combine the orange juice, lemon juice and olive oil. Toss with the beets and herbs. Season to taste with salt. Line a salad bowl or platter with romaine lettuce leaves, top with the grated beets and serve.

Yield: Serves four.

Advance preparation: The grated beets can be dressed and kept in the refrigerator, covered well, for a couple of days. They become more tender but don’t lose their texture, and the mixture becomes even sweeter as the beet juices mingle with the citrus. Toss again before serving.

Nutritional information per serving: 58 calories; 3 grams fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 0 milligrams cholesterol; 6 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 32 milligrams sodium (does not include salt added during cooking); 1 gram protein

THE FECKLESS FED

By Paul Krugman (my hero!):

"Back in 2002, a professor turned Federal Reserve official by the name of Ben Bernanke gave a widely quoted speech titled “Deflation: Making Sure ‘It’ Doesn’t Happen Here.” Like other economists, myself included, Mr. Bernanke was deeply disturbed by Japan’s stubborn, seemingly incurable deflation, which in turn was “associated with years of painfully slow growth, rising joblessness, and apparently intractable financial problems.” This sort of thing wasn’t supposed to happen to an advanced nation with sophisticated policy makers. Could something similar happen to the United States?

"Not to worry, said Mr. Bernanke: the Fed had the tools required to head off an American version of the Japan syndrome, and it would use them if necessary.


"Today, Mr. Bernanke is the Fed’s chairman — and his 2002 speech reads like famous last words. We aren’t literally suffering deflation (yet). But inflation is far below the Fed’s preferred rate of 1.7 to 2 percent, and trending steadily lower; it’s a good bet that by some measures we’ll be seeing deflation by sometime next year. Meanwhile, we already have painfully slow growth, very high joblessness, and intractable financial problems. And what is the Fed’s response? It’s debating — with ponderous slowness — whether maybe, possibly, it should consider trying to do something about the situation, one of these days.

"The Fed’s fecklessness is, to be sure, not unique. It has been astonishing and infuriating, as the economic crisis has unfolded, to watch America’s political class defining normalcy down. As recently as two years ago, anyone predicting the current state of affairs (not only is unemployment disastrously high, but most forecasts say that it will stay very high for years) would have been dismissed as a crazy alarmist. Now that the nightmare has become reality, however — and yes, it is a nightmare for millions of Americans — Washington seems to feel absolutely no sense of urgency. Are hopes being destroyed, small businesses being driven into bankruptcy, lives being blighted? Never mind, let’s talk about the evils of budget deficits.


"Still, one might have hoped that the Fed would be different. For one thing, the Fed, unlike the Obama administration, retains considerable freedom of action. It doesn’t need 60 votes in the Senate; the outer limits of its policies aren’t determined by the views of senators from Nebraska and Maine. Beyond that, the Fed was supposed to be intellectually prepared for this situation. Mr. Bernanke has thought long and hard about how to avoid a Japanese-style economic trap, and the Fed’s researchers have been obsessed for years with the same question.

"But here we are, visibly sliding toward deflation — and the Fed is standing pat.

"What should it be doing? Conventional monetary policy, in which the Fed drives down short-term interest rates by buying short-term U.S. government debt, has reached its limit: those short-term rates are already near zero, and can’t go significantly lower. (Investors won’t buy bonds that yield negative interest, since they can always hoard cash instead.) But the message of Mr. Bernanke’s 2002 speech was that there are other things the Fed can do. It can buy longer-term government debt. It can buy private-sector debt. It can try to move expectations by announcing that it will keep short-term rates low for a long time. It can raise its long-run inflation target, to help convince the private sector that borrowing is a good idea and hoarding cash a mistake.


"Nobody knows how well any one of these actions would work. The point, however, is that there are things the Fed could and should be doing, but isn’t. Why not?

"After all, Fed officials, like most observers, have a fairly grim view of the economy’s prospects. Not grim enough, in my view: Fed presidents, who make forecasts every time the committee that sets interest rates meets, aren’t taking the trend toward deflation sufficiently seriously. Nonetheless, even their projections show high unemployment and below-target inflation persisting at least through late 2012.

"So why not try to do something about it? The closest thing I’ve seen to an explanation is a recent speech by Kevin Warsh of the Fed’s Board of Governors, in which he declared that doing what Mr. Bernanke recommended back in 2002 risked undermining the Fed’s “institutional credibility.” But how, exactly, does it serve the Fed’s credibility when it fails to confront high unemployment, while consistently missing its own inflation targets? How credible is the Bank of Japan after presiding over 15 years of deflation?

"Whatever is going on, the Fed needs to rethink its priorities, fast. Mr. Bernanke’s “it” isn’t a hypothetical possibility, it’s on the verge of happening. And the Fed should be doing all it can to stop it."



 

LIBERALS

Via: Simply Left Behind: The Non-rapturists Guide to the Galaxy

"Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things...every one! So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor." -- Matt Santos, The West Wing

CAT CAUGHT ON TAPE

Via: Bad Attitudes

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

This is where I wish I were today....

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"The most important lesson of American history is the promise of the unexpected. None of our ancestors would have imagined settling way over here on this unknown continent. So we must continue to have a society that is hospitable to the unexpected, which allows possibilities to develope beyond our imaginings."

~~Daniel J. Boorstin


Zztopdog notes: Take that, Teabag scum!

ECONOMIC MELTDOWN CAUSED BY OVERPAID WAITRESSES AND BARTENDERS

Via: Who Hijacked Our Country

Tom Emmer, Republican candidate for governor of Minnesota, wants to reduce the minimum wage for service workers who receive tips. He says some of these overpaid pampered bartenders and waiters make over $100,000 a year when their tips are included.

First Michele Bachmann, and now this dickwad. I thought Minnesota was a blue state. Where the fuck are all these inbreds coming from?

Meanwhile in California, tens of thousands of state employees are “temporarily” reduced to the minimum wage. I might be in favor of austerity measures like this, IF the higher-ups were willing to make a sacrifice themselves. I’ve gone over this linked article closely, but I can seem to find the part where Schwarzenegger and the California legislature are taking a pay cut. I’ll look again…

What do you call a highly paid elected official who thinks somebody else is making too much money? We all have plenty of names for people who are champing at the bit for America to go to war, as long as they themselves don't have to go — chicken hawks, keyboard warriors, the chairborne division, and a few less printable names.

So what do you call an elected official who gets a huge salary — courtesy of YOUR tax dollars — and wants somebody else to get a pay cut?

And speaking of overpaid legislators: Keep Congress in session this August. Yes I know, August is their chance to go home, put their ear to the ground, get back in touch with their constituents lobbyists, corporate donors; and go on those crucial fact-finding missions to Ibiza and Monte Carlo.

In this article, Robert Shrum says working through August would be a good campaign plan for the Democrats. They can highlight their differences with Republicans on, well, you name it.



As Robert Shrum says: “Keep Congress there in a drama that plays out on center stage — in front of the cameras — with the president calling a special session of Congress to deal with too-long delayed issues of urgent national necessity.”



Labels: bartenders waiters $100K a year, Michele Bachman, Robert Shrum, Tom Emmer

WHO KNEW???

Maria asked me to pick up a new crossword puzzle book. I didn't really want to spend $15-20; so I found a cool, less-expensive book from TCM - "Classic Movie Crossword Puzzles."
Hmmm! Turns out that she doesn't know (or care) squat about Classic Movies.

I guess I'll have to get her a new crossword puzzle book today....

CANINE DEGENERATIVE MYELOPATHY

From: Wikipedia:

Canine degenerative myelopathy (also known as chronic degenerative radiculomyelopathy) is a progressive disease of the spinal cord in older dogs. The disease has an insidious onset typically between 7 and 14 years of age. It begins with a loss of coordination (ataxia) in the hind limbs. As of July 15, 2008 the mutated gene responsible for DM has been found present in 43 breeds including German Shepherds, Boxers, Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, Rhodesian Ridgebacks, and both breeds of Welsh Corgis. The disease is chronic and progressive, and resulting in paralysis.


The myelin is an insulating sheath around neurons in the spinal cord. One proposed cause of degenerative myelopathy is that the immune system attacks this sheath, breaking it down. This results in a loss of communication between nerves in lower body of the animal and the brain.

Degenerative myelopathy initially affects the back legs and causes muscle weakness and loss, and lack of coordination. These cause a staggering effect that may appear to be arthritis. The dog may drag one or both rear paws when it walks. This dragging can cause the nails of one foot to be worn down. The condition may lead to extensive paralysis of the back legs. As the disease progresses, the animal may display symptoms such as incontinence and has considerable difficulties with both balance and walking. If allowed to progress, the animal will show front limb involvement and extensive muscle atrophy. Eventually cranial nerve or respiratory muscle involvement necessitates euthanasia.


Progression of the disease is generally slow but highly variable. The animal could be crippled within a few months, or may survive up to three years.

Degenerative myelopathy is a non-reversible, progressive disease that cannot be cured. There are no treatments that have been clearly shown to stop or slow progression of DM.

CHINA REACTIONS TO HOW GUNS ARE SOLD IN US WALMARTS

Via Cynical-C:

ChinaSmack posts reaction from a BB where chinese users throw out theories as to why guns can be sold in the US at a Walmart. 2nd Amendment Fuck Yeah!:

I’d like to ask the lou zhu a question. It may be very naive but please be so kind as to give me an answer. Since guns are sold like this in America, is their government not afraid of social problems? Right now in Shanghai, the supermarkets selling cooking knives have also locked them inside glass display cases like this.

I think the American Constitution has a part that says the citizens have the right to overthrow an authoritarian government…it is what I have heard, not sure if it is true or not. But in China, that is not possible, and the key is that the character of the people [on average] is not there yet. If firearms were available for sale in China, then we’d probably have to wear bullet-proof vests in order to go out.

Only with citizens who have high restraint and a society with relatively few injustices would [a country] dare be like this.

Imagine for a moment, if we were to sell guns in this manner, I think those domestic tigers, birds, bears, these animals basically could no longer survive.

If this were China, the number of crime-related deaths would increase ten times. Therefore, America’s gun deaths is still very little. In the future [if guns were allowed in China], those who are involved in forced demolitions and chengguan would not be so niubi anymore. Pressure us and they’ll just shoot you a few times.

40 YEARS LATER: A LOOK BACK AT THE TURNING POINT FOR GAY RIGHTS

From AARP:

For gay and lesbian Americans, June 28, 1969, was the day that changed everything.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, law enforcement officials kept track of suspected homosexuals and places that catered to them. Police regularly raided gay bars, seizing alcohol, shutting down establishments and arresting patrons. It wasn’t uncommon for gay men and lesbians to be exposed in newspapers, fired from their jobs, jailed or sent to mental institutions.

Homosexuality was then considered to be such subversive behavior that it was listed in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders I as a “sociopathic personality disturbance.”

On that June night, police entered the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village, at 1:20 a.m. and launched a raid.

While the police waited for patrol wagons to cart away the arrested suspects and the seized alcohol, the bar’s patrons began to resist. They refused to follow police orders. Men refused to show their IDs, and men dressed as women refused to accompany female officers to the bathroom to have their gender confirmed.

Those who weren’t arrested exited through the front door, but they didn’t go far. Within a short time, the crowd swelled to an estimated 2,000. As police put the arrested into the wagons that were now on the scene, the crowd threw what they had—pennies, beer bottles, trash cans—at the police and shouted, “Gay power!”

Thirteen people were arrested, and four police officers were injured at Stonewall.

The riots continued for six nights.

The resistance wasn’t planned, nor were the riots that followed.

“Every movement arrives at a moment when people say, ‘Enough is enough,’ ” says Michael Adams, executive director of Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Elders, or SAGE. “That was the Stonewall riots for the gay rights movement.”

Martin Boyce, a participant in the riots, shares this sentiment.

“We were feeling anger and resentment, but the big thing was that we had a chance to do something now,” Boyce says. “People got hurt. I got hit in the back with a club. But you could see and feel the person next to you wasn’t going to run.”

“People will point out there were acts of resistance before Stonewall. But those acts of resistance were on a smaller scale,” says David Carter, author of Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution. “This was an act of resistance that was a mass movement. It was mass crowds. These other events were smaller, they weren’t sustained, and they didn’t get in the media. Plus, the Stonewall riots sparked the gay liberation movement, by the founding of the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activist Alliance.”

Frank Kameny, a leader in the gay rights movement, estimates that there were 1,000 organizations formed within a year after Stonewall. After two years, 2,500. After three years, he stopped counting.

“Progress has been enormous,” Kameny says. “Sodomy laws were repealed, so we’re no longer criminals. Mental health classification changed, so we’re no longer loonies. The government is finally recognizing and respecting us. Just this year, an openly gay man [John Berry] was appointed head of the Office of Personnel Management, the group [then called the Civil Service Commission] that fired me over 50 years ago in 1957, and I was acknowledged at his swearing-in ceremony. That is deeply satisfying. It’s a storybook ending. At age 84, I am not sure that I will see full equality in my lifetime, but I have no doubt that we’re heading toward it.”

The meaning of Stonewall to me is that we now have personal freedom and liberation, and that means a lot,” says Ellen Ratner, bureau chief for the Talk Radio News Service and an openly gay White House correspondent since 1993. “We’re not ‘less thans’ in society anymore. We have the freedom to marry … in several states. We have freedom to work and can’t be fired because we’re gay … in several states. To me, that means we’re equal members of society.”

"It’s been 40 years since Stonewall, and systemic persecution of gay men and lesbians has given way to justifiable concerns of aging and care. Ratner wonders what will happen to gay and lesbian boomers as they age.

“Who’s going to take care of us?” Ratner asks. “Aging and caregiving is a huge issue for us. We are more likely to be caregivers, but what support systems will we have in place? What about our benefits? If I want to transfer my apartment to my partner, it’s OK with a state like Massachusetts, but it’s not OK with the feds. Why should I have to pay a 45 percent gift tax when [heterosexual married couples] don’t? We face housing issues if there are no specific laws to protect us.”

“This is a tipping point,” says Bob Witeck, coauthor of Business Inside and Out and CEO and cofounder of Witeck-Combs, a strategic communications firm that’s been instrumental in giving voice to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. “On the heels of Barack Obama, anything seems possible. The ‘what ifs’ become ‘why nots.’ The next 10 years will be dramatic ones. We will see resolutions to what we’ve started. By the time our community turns 50, we will be able to report that a lot of our biggest struggles are behind us.”

The memory of the Stonewall riots is kept alive through annual gay pride parades that are held in June around the country. During this 40th anniversary year, you can participate in celebrations in major cities such as Boston, Miami, Philadelphia, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas or Chicago. Or visit the Stonewall Inn and New York-based events.


Dave Singleton is the director of planning and promotion with AARP publications.

HAPPY PRIDE, EVERYONE!

ZOMBIES HAVE ALREADY KILLED THE DEFICIT COMMISSION

By Paul Krugman (my HERO):

"It must have sounded like a good idea (although not to me): establish a bipartisan commission of Serious People to develop plans to bring the federal budget under control.

"But the commission is already dead — and zombies did it.

"OK, the immediate problem is the statements of Alan Simpson, the commission’s co-chairman. And what got reporters’ attention was the combination of incredible insensitivity – the “lesser people”??? — and flat errors of fact.

"But it’s actually much worse than that. On Social Security, Simpson is repeating a zombie lie — that is, one of those misstatements that keeps being debunked, but keeps coming back.

"Specifically, Simpson has resurrected the old nonsense about how Social Security will be bankrupt as soon as payroll tax revenues fall short of benefit payments, never mind the quarter century of surpluses that came first.

"We went through all this at length back in 2005, but let me do this yet again.

"Social Security is a government program funded by a dedicated tax. There are two ways to look at this. First, you can simply view the program as part of the general federal budget, with the the dedicated tax bit just a formality. And there’s a lot to be said for that point of view; if you take it, benefits are a federal cost, payroll taxes a source of revenue, and they don’t really have anything to do with each other.

"Alternatively, you can look at Social Security on its own. And as a practical matter, this has considerable significance too; as long as Social Security still has funds in its trust fund, it doesn’t need new legislation to keep paying promised benefits.

"OK, so two views, both of some use. But here’s what you can’t do: you can’t have it both ways. You can’t say that for the last 25 years, when Social Security ran surpluses, well, that didn’t mean anything, because it’s just part of the federal government — but when payroll taxes fall short of benefits, even though there’s lots of money in the trust fund, Social Security is broke.

"And bear in mind what happens when payroll receipts fall short of benefits: NOTHING. No new action is required; the checks just keep going out.

"So what does it mean that the co-chair of the commission is resurrecting this zombie lie? It means that at even the most basic level of discussion, either (a) he isn’t willing to deal in good faith or (b) the zombies have eaten his brain. And in either case, there’s no point going on with this farce."

THE BP SHAKE-UP THAT ISN'T

From Robert Reich:

"One day after he was blasted on Capitol Hill, BP CEO Tony Hayward has been removed from day-to-day management of the oil spill. BP’s chairman has turned it over to a BP managing director, Bob Dudley.

"That makes sense from a PR standpoint. Before the congressional hearings, Hayward seemed merely overwhelmed. After yesterday, the mere thought of Hapless Hayward in charge of plugging the hole strikes most people as ludicrous. Hayward told Congress he knew nothing, took no responsibility, and wasn’t able to comment on a thing.

"Yet Dudley’s only apparent qualification is he’s an American. Dudley still reports to the same BP board of directors. They are responsible to the same BP shareholders. Those shareholders still, naturally, want BP to maximize share values and not spend a dollar (or pound) more than necessary."

Read the rest here.

MICKEY MOUSE AS A SPEED PUSHER???

Via Cynical-C:

"The following comic book ‘Mickey Mouse and the Medicine Man’ was released by Disney in 1951. In the strip, Mickey and Goofy discover a new medicine called ‘Peppo’ that represents amphetamine (speed). Their enthusiasm for the chemical pick-me-up leads them to become salesman for the product in Africa."

Check out the full strip at All That's Interesting.

JOSE SARAMAGO, WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE, DIES AT AGE 87

From NPR News:

Jose Saramago, the first Portuguese writer awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, died at his home in the Canary Islands on Friday. He was honored in his homeland as a major cultural figure, but as a committed Communist, he attracted his share of controversy as well. Saramago moved to the Canary Islands in 1998 after a very public dispute with the Portuguese government.

Saramago was born into poverty in 1922 in a small village outside Lisbon. His parents were landless peasants who later moved to the city, where Saramago had the opportunity to go to school. Money troubles eventually forced him to drop out, but he never stopped educating himself.

"He was an avid reader," says Helder Macedo, emeritus professor of Portuguese literature at Kings College London. Saramago was "indeed a voracious intellectual ... acquiring information as much as he could."

Saramago wrote his first novel when he was in his 20s, but he hated it and abandoned fiction for many years — he said he had nothing to write. Saramago became a journalist and, in 1969, joined the Communist Party.

In 1974, his party membership cost him his job as editor of a small Lisbon newspaper. It was then, says Macedo, that Saramago returned to fiction as a "belated writer."

"It was the best thing that could ever happen to him," Macedo says. "If he hadn't written the books that he wrote well into his 50s, we wouldn't be talking about him today."

Saramago's 1982 novel, Baltasar and Blimunda, was the first to be widely translated, and his work began attracting international attention. In 1998, he became the first Portuguese writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. At a banquet in Oslo celebrating the award, Saramago said he owed a great debt to all those who had written in Portuguese.

"The ones of the past and of today, I am but one of them," he said.

Saramago is known for his imaginative blend of fantasy, fact and folklore. He takes on big subjects and big themes: In The Stone Raft he envisions a world in which Spain and Portugal are literally cut off from the rest of Europe. In Blindness, which was also made into a movie, the entire population of a city loses its sight.

"It's not a 'Once upon a time,' but 'What if?' " Macedo says. "What if suddenly the world became blind? What if the Iberian Peninsula was geographically separated from Europe? He writes fables in a sense."

Not surprisingly, Saramago attracted his share of controversy. In 1991, his novel The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, which depicts a very flawed, human Jesus, was condemned by the Catholic Church. The next year, the Portuguese government withdrew it from competition for a literary prize. Saramago accused the government of censorship and moved to the Canary Islands.

"He is a writer who divides people," says Margaret Jull Costa, who has translated many of Saramago's novels. "I think people either love him or hate him. ... He liked argument and he did antagonize people ... and he liked to be polemical."

Controversies and all, Saramago left a profound mark on his homeland. Speaking today about Saramago's death, Prime Minster of Portugal Jose Socrates said: "His disappearance has left our culture poorer."

GOP DEFENDING BP: Cutting Off Their Heads To Spite Their Necks

By William K. Wolfrum, via Liberaland:

"A couple months ago, it was a political certainty that Republicans would make strong gains in both the House and Senate in the November elections. Today, however, the GOP and entire conservative movement is working on perhaps the most incredible bit of mass political suicide this side of Gary Hart.


"Since the British Petroleum Deep Horizon oil well exploded – taking the lives of 11 BP workers and leveling mass destruction on the Gulf of Mexico – Republicans have been unable to contain themselves. Even as oil destroys wildlife, jobs, lives and the Gulf, Republicans have been doing back flips to come up with anything to pin the blame on President Barack Obama. Facts, logic, or even thought of any kind has flown from the minds of those making attacks.


The end result? The GOP has now become BP’s champion. Simply put, Republicans would rather defend BP and its interests than the interests of the American people. Their efforts to destroy Obama have put them solidly on the wrong side of the argument. Basically, the Republican Party has gone far beyond noses – they are now cutting off their heads to spite their necks.

"It has been one of the most ridiculous, anti-American displays one could imagine. And it keeps getting crazier. Today, as Congress drilled BP CEO Tony Hayward, Rep. Joe Barton took his turn and used it to apologize to Hayward, stating, 'It is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, in this case a $20 billion shakedown.'

"Add this to Rep. Michele Bachmann stating that the $20-billion escrow account secured by Obama is “redistribution of wealth,” and Sarah Palin falsely claiming that Obama has avoided getting the help of the dike-fixing Dutch. One day a Republican calls Obama a weakling for his handling of the spill. The next day he’s a bully for making BP face it’s financial obligations to the U.S. And every day, Republicans have defended BP’s right to destroy the Gulf of Mexico and ruin the lives of Americans.

"To make matters even worse for Republicans, the Tea Party movement has been completely shut down because of the spill. Shouting slogans at the gulf of Mexico and screaming about how the free market will fix the problem has no place in such a monumental catastrophe. And the Tea Party has nothing more than slogans and copies of “Atlas Shrugged” to handle oil spills or any other issue. The movement – such that it is – has been muted.

"It’s easy enough to say that Republicans are only protecting their corporate sponsors. But that can’t explain their reactions fully. After all, the entirety of the American political system, on both sides of the aisle, is literally awash in oil company money. No, it’s more than that. It is Obama Derangement Syndrome to the nth degree.

"In desperately trying to paint Obama as incompetent in the face of the oil disaster, Republicans have made one thing very clear, whether they intended to or not – they are on the side of British Petroleum. They are more interested in the profit margin and stock price of a foreign corporation than they are in American citizens. And come November, it will be Republican necks on the line, as Democrats around the nation will make sure every last registered voter and “small person” knows that when all hell broke loose in the Gulf of Mexico, Republicans were too busy playing politics and holding BP’s hand to give a whit about the American public."


 

THIS FELLOW REALLY SPEAKS HIS MIND

Via Cynical-C:

EVERYBODY LOVES A LESBIAN

From Joe.My.God:

MOVING TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE READING

More than 30 million trees are being cut down every year to produce the books sold in the U.S. alone. Balance out your books now! Learn more...

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"For that is our unyielding faith - that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it."

~~Barack Obama

CALL TO ACTION

From Glaad.org:

CALL TO ACTION UPDATE: GLAAD Calls on Advertisers to Explain Support for Fox’s “The O’Reilly Factor”

During June 2 Broadcast Host Bill O’Reilly Compares Gay People To al Qaeda

Today GLAAD released a list of advertisers that supported the June 2 broadcast of Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor.” During that broadcast, host Bill O’Reilly likened gay people to the international terrorist organization, al Qaeda.

After playing a gay-friendly McDonald’s commercial from France, O’Reilly asked commentator Jane Skinner to weigh in on the content. Skinner pointed out that the ad campaign is “part of an overreaching campaign called ‘come as you are,’ which you saw at the end there. So they show people in different walks of life.” O’Reilly then asked, “Do they have an al Qaeda ad, you know, come as you are? You know?”

Following GLAAD’s June 3 Call to Action that urged Fox News and Bill O’Reilly to apologize for the defamatory remarks, nearly three thousand people sent letters to FOX News executives and producers of “The O’Reilly Factor” to voice their concerns.

Today we are contacting the 35 companies that advertised during the broadcast to ask how they justify supporting this type of defamation.

Please see a complete list of advertisers below. GLAAD will keep you updated on any responses we receive.

• Farmers Insurance Group
• Porsche
• Broadview Security
• Atlantis Resort
• EHarmony.com
• Infiniti (NISSAN),
• Amway Global
• Accu-Chek Aviva (ROCHE)
• NHTSA
• Activision
• AT&T
• Carbonite (CarboniteTV.com)
• Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
• Smart Balance Milk
• Starbucks
• Pulaski & Middleman LLC
• Foundation for a Better Life
• Merit Financial
• Kelloggs
• Lending Tree
• AARP
• Terminix
• Mayflower
• Holiday Inn
• Skip Gambert & Associates
• AmazonKindle
• Geico
• Lexus
• Peachtree Settlement
• Vonage
• Citracal
• T. Rowe Price
• Dr. Scholls
• Mercedes
• Jack Victor

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Rain, rain, go away; come again another day..., when I don't have so many things I want to do in the yard!

A POT, SOME BRICKS, SOME WATER, AND SOME PLANTS

I'm going to try some water plants in a large pot again this year. Of course, I missed the local landscape firm's class about it. But I think that as long as I'm not planning on having any fish in it, it will be OK. Maybe a snail or two - once the water settles down....
Wish me luck!

LIVI UPDATE

Myownsister Livi wented to the vet yesterday. He said she gots a berry thick cataract on her right eyeball! He said he doubts that she can see anyfingy wif that eye. He said she is berry lucky to wiv wif a family who doesn't let her run and is so good to her. He said she is also berry lucky to have such a hamsome older brudder (me!). (My Momma says I shouldn't tell stories....)

So, my momma just has to keeps an EYE (Hahahaha!) on Livi's eyes to make sure the Glaucoma doesn't start to develope!

Later,
ZZ

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

~~Martin Luther King, Jr.

BLINDNESS IN DOGS

Zztopdog notes: My sister Livi may be blind, or going blind. My momma made an appointment wif da vet for today, to finds out for sure. Livi will just turn 4 years old this summber; but blindness is common in diabetic doggies.

Dats all for now.

ZZ

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

“How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?”

~~Dr. Suess

SPENDING THE DAY READING

I stayed up too late reading "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest." I'm sitting down to read some more before I go to work, but I'm afraid that a nap will overtake me before I finish....

THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS' NEST

The final book of Stieg Larsson's trilogy comes out today! I can't wait to get my hands on it! I know I'll start reading it as soon as I get home from work; so it's good that I'm just about finished with "In the Woods."

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race."


~~H. G. Wells

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends -- honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history."

~~Barack Obama, January 20, 2009, Inaugural Address

SARAH PALIN KEEPS ON LYING

From Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog:

"She tweeted today that the Obama administration wants a "soldier pay decrease."

The more elegant word choice would be 'pay reduction,' but whatever. This is a complete lie regardless of her remedial writing skills.
"FACT: The Pentagon proposed a 1.4 percent pay increase, while Congress proposed a 1.9 percent increase.
"No one's decreasing anything. Except for Sarah Palin whose limited intelligence seems to be decreasing by the day."

HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY

"Mothers are a biological necessity; fathers are a social invention."

~~Margaret Mead

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"What I've realized is that life doesn't count for much unless you're willing to do your small part to leave our children -- all of our children -- a better world. Even if it's difficult. Even if the work seems great. Even if we don't get very far in our lifetime. That is our ultimate responsibility as fathers and parents. We try."

~~Barack Obama, June 15, 2008

AND SHE WAS ALMOST VICE PRESIDENT...

From Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! Go!:

"The level of stupid in the following remark by Sarah Palin on last night's O'Reilly Factor is immeasurable.

'[O]ur Constitution, of course, essentially acknowledging that our unalienable rights don't come from man; they come from God. So this document is set up to protect us from a government that would ever infringe upon our rights to have freedom of religion and to be able to express our faith freely.'

"Steve Benen points out the obvious problem here: the line 'that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights' comes from the Declaration of Independence. Not the Constitution, which contains no mention whatsoever of any variety of 'God' or 'Creator.'

"And while we're here, I should point out that the Declaration didn't just declare that all American men are created equal and 'are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.' The Declaration stated that these human rights were endowed to all people -- regardless of religion, race, nationality or ethnicity. The Palins of this world tend to conveniently forget these details when it comes to topics like immigration and war.

"Back to Palin. So not only was she incapable of accurately describing the role of the vice president -- the job for which she was running -- but she's also incapable to telling the difference between two very different and distinct founding documents. Holy crap -- imagine the smoke billowing from her ears if someone were to ask her about the Articles of Confederation. My guess is her answer would involve Jefferson Davis and secession."

And finally, if any wingnut can show me a document written by either James Madison or any other participant in the Constitutional Convention that indicates the borrowing of Christian dogma for use in the Constitution, I will retract all of this and, I don't know, follow Sarah Palin on Twitter.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"Just by being out you`re doing your part. It`s like recycling. You`re doing your part for the environment if you recycle; you`re doing your part for the gay movement if you`re out."

~~Martina Navratilova

IF YOU ARE AN ANTI-HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVIST...

From Badtux, the Snarky Penquin:

New rule: If you're an anti-homosexual activist...


"... you're gayer than the gay mayor of gaytown. Bwahahaha! I love it. George Alan Rekers, a Baptist minister who wrote a book about how to raise your boy to be a manly boy instead of a gay boy (some sample advice: Force your child to excel in athletics, and forbid him from arts and crafts, because otherwise he'll grow up to be gay), was caught with a boy toy on a cruise ship. Just an innocent encounter, right? Right?!"

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"To read a great novel is to lay yourself open for a conversion experience."


~~Katherine Paterson

WELCOME TO ARIZONA

Via Cynical-C, from Dangerous Minds

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"Growth takes place whenever a challenge evokes a successful response that, in turn, evokes a further and different challenge. We have not found any intrinsic reason why this process should not repeat itself indefinitely, even though a majority of civilizations have failed, as a matter or historical fact."

~~Arnold B. Toynbee, A Study of History

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"This is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without nuclear weapons."

~~Barack Obama, July 24, 2008

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"The world has changed, and we must change along with it."

~~Barack Obama, January 21, 2009

TEA PARTY ACTIVISTS - DO THEY HATE LIBERALS MORE THAN THEY LOVE LIBERTY?

A recent ‘Tea Party’ rally showed lots of anger toward President Obama, but little consistent support for liberty in America...

An Opinion piece from the Christian Science Monitor:

"Many 'tea party' activists staunchly oppose big government, except when it is warring, wiretapping, or waterboarding. A movement that started out denouncing government power apparently has no beef with some of the worst abuses of modern times.

"Unfortunately, there is scant evidence that most tea partyers have studied the copies of the Constitution they generously hand out to bystanders.


"At a Tax Day tea party in Rockville, Md., the speaking venue was draped with a huge banner: 'Tired of Big Government?' Members of the 'Tyranny Response Team' stood near the front of the rally with their official blue T-shirts. Giant American flags and ones with 'Don’t Tread on Me' (with a coiled rattlesnake) were carried around by men with tri-corn hats. Political campaigns busily sold '9/11 Remembrance' bracelets.

"And yet, the crowd of 300 seemed most outraged that the US government is not being sufficiently aggressive in using its power."

Click here for the rest of the article.

WHAT IF THE TEA PARTY WERE BLACK?

From Cynical-C:

Tim Wise:  And this, my friends, is what white privilege is all about. The ability to threaten others, to engage in violent and incendiary rhetoric without consequence, to be viewed as patriotic and normal no matter what you do, and never to be feared and despised as people of color would be, if they tried to get away with half the shit we do, on a daily basis.

Zztopdog notes: Amen!

DOGS & DEVOTION

That is the name of a wonderful book about the celebration of our relationship and bond with dogs. By the Monks of New Skete, the book celebrates our dogs and the better person that they help us to become.

"Dogs & Devotion" is $16.99, at a bookstore near you.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"If we are to make progress, we must not repeat history, but make a new history. We must add to the inheritance left by our ancestors."

~~Mahatma Gandhi

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"Don't ever let anyone tell you that change isn't possible. Don't let them tell you that speaking out and standing up against injustice is too risky. What's too risky is keeping quiet. What's too risky is looking the other way."

~~Barack Obama, 9/28/2007

WORD FOR THE DAY: SOCIALISM

From Badtux, the Snarky Penguin:

"So what is Socialism?


"Well, you listen to today's right-wing blogosphere, and it becomes clear that they haven't a clue. They appear to believe that 'Socialism' is the same thing as redistribution of wealth. By that standard, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a socialist -- he had no problem with a 90% income tax rate on the top bracket in order to redistribute wealth downward.

"The problem is, that's not what Socialist means. Socialist means that the government owns the means of production of wealth. Like when the UK nationalized Leyland Motors and called it British Leyland, or when France nationalized Citroen and Renault and made them state-owned, or when Britain nationalized the hospitals in 1948 and made them state-owned, or when Sweden nationalized its banks in 1992. That's Socialism -- the State owning major industries. Redistribution of wealth -- such as, say, taxing the rich in order to provide subsidies to the poor so that they can buy health insurance -- is plain old liberalism, which is not the same thing as socialism at all, let alone Communism, which outright outlaws private property beyond anything you can carry upon your own person.

"Words have meaning. Using words in ways that aren't applicable makes you look like an idiot to anybody who is intelligent. Which, I realize, is the minority of Americans, since 50% of Americans are below average; and average ain't so smart anymore, but still.... This ain't Freeperville, and we're a bit brighter 'round these parts :)."

-- Badtux the Liberal Penguin

HAPPY EASTER

The Chocolate Rabbit 
"I got a chocolate rabbit
For an Easter treat,
A great big chocolate rabbit
Good enough to eat.


"So I ate his ears on Sunday,
His nose I finished Monday.
Tuesday I nibbled on his feet.
I ate his tail on Wednesday
Thursday I kept on,
By Friday he was going,
Saturday he was gone.

"Oh, I loved my chocolate rabbit
From the moment that he came,
And if I get another one,
I'll love him just the same."

~~Author Unknown

FILE UNDER VILE

By Paul Krugman (my hero!), on his blog, The Conscience of a Liberal:

"OK, I finally got around to reading Douglas Holtz-Eakin’s op-ed on health care reform. It’s much worse than I thought; time to scratch Holtz-Eakin off my shrinking list of reasonable, reasonably honest conservatives.


"How bad is it? Holtz-Eakin declares that:

Gimmick No. 1 is the way the bill front-loads revenues and backloads spending. That is, the taxes and fees it calls for are set to begin immediately, but its new subsidies would be deferred so that the first 10 years of revenue would be used to pay for only 6 years of spending.

"I think that’s what is technically known as a 'lie." Holtz-Eakin, of all people, knows how to read a CBO report. So he’s perfectly capable of looking at the actual report (pdf) and seeing that the revenues, like the costs, are minimal for the first four years. Here’s the chart:

"His implication that there’s funny business going on is totally false, and he knows it.

"Wait, it gets worse: Holtz-Eakin implies that there are hidden, delayed costs:

Consider, too, the fate of the $70 billion in premiums expected to be raised in the first 10 years for the legislation’s new long-term health care insurance program. This money is counted as deficit reduction, but the benefits it is intended to finance are assumed not to materialize in the first 10 years, so they appear nowhere in the cost of the legislation.

"Claims that the plan is window-dressed to look good in its first decade only to go sour later might sound plausible – except for the fact that the CBO projects bigger deficit-reduction in the second decade of the reform than in the first decade, something that wouldn’t happen if lots of costs were being hidden by being pushed off into the future.

"That said, we do learn something important from Holtz-Eakin’s article. If this is the best critique a conservative budget wonk can come up with – if deliberately misrepresenting how the legislation works is the only way to make it seem irresponsible – then the bill must be pretty sound in fiscal terms."

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"If we have no charity and no tolerance,
we shall never settle our differences."

~~Mahatma Gandhi

WOMEN'S RIGHTS AS A SECURITY ISSUE

From On the Ground, by Nicholas Kristof:

"Hillary Clinton has been pushing hard to reframe women’s rights from 'soft issue' to 'security issue.' Obviously that’s partly because soft issues are shunted aside, while the security issues are discussed in the Situation Room and get billions of dollars thrown at them. In an interview with Andrea Mitchell released today, Clinton put it this way:


" 'I think that if you look at this century and you look at the instability, the conflicts that we have in so many places in the world, there’s a direct relationship between the subjugation and oppression of women and extremism. It is therefore in our interest to stand up for the rights of women. Because by doing so, we enhance our own security.'
"I think she’s dead right on that, of course. It’s a point that Sheryl and I made in Half the Sky, citing a fair amount of research. Indeed, I think a pretty good argument can be made that the reason the Islamic world is disproportionately turbulent and has 'bloody fringes,' as Samuel Huntington put it, doesn’t have to do with the Koran or religion in any direct way. Rather, it has to do with the fact that women are more likely to be marginalized in such countries. And when women are repressed, you have high birth rates — and hence a destabilizing youth bulge — and the country takes on the atmosphere of a boy’s locker room or an armed camp. Some American sociologists have argued that the American West was so violent in the 19th century precisely because there were so many young men and so few women.

"In the last few days, Hillary Clinton has been making these arguments right and left (although she has also made them in past years; this isn’t new for her). This is her most coherent speech on the topic; it’s very good and powerful, delivered to the U.N. I just wish that Bob Gates and David Petraeus were giving the same speech. When the Pentagon lists women’s rights as a security issue, that’s the historic milestone we need!"

A CHOICE OF HEADLINES

From Paul Krugman's Blog: Conscience of a Liberal:

"By this time next week we’ll have seen huge headlines about health care. These headlines will either read 'Democrats do it!', followed by various Republicans and their apologists complaining that what the Dems did wasn’t nice, or 'Democrats — losers again', followed by Republicans going bwahahaha.

"And it’s up to a handful of Democrats to decide which headlines we get. They’re out of their minds if they don’t choose door #1."

TEXTING

Thanks to tywkiwdbi  for spotting this from The New Yorker:

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

"May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow, and may troubles avoid you wherever you go."

~~An Irish Blessing

HOW LITTLE THEY KNOW THE WORLD

By Paul Krugman, on his blog, The Concience of a Liberal:

"Well, it seems that Republicans are going all in on the idea that a big reason we have high unemployment is that unemployment benefits reduce the incentive to seek work. Aside from the sheer cruelty, it’s really bad economics, but whatever.


"And I found myself remembering a passage near the beginning of 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre':

" 'Anyone who is willing to work and is serious about it will certainly find a job. Only you must not go to the man who tells you this, for he has no job to offer and doesn’t know anyone who knows of a vacancy. This is exactly the reason why he gives you such generous advice, out of brotherly love, and to demonstrate how little he knows the world.' "

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"An ideal is one thing; living up to it is quite another.... We may be said to have an ideal only when we put forth an effort to realize it."

~~Mahatma Gandi

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"In the places I have gone and the people I have met, I have been struck again and again by the fundamental decency and generosity of men and women who work hard without complaint, to meet their responsibilities every day."

~~Barack Obama, November 2008

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civiliztion."

~~Mahatma Gandhi

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"We know the difference we can make when we work together to open the doors of opportunity wide enough for everyone to walk through."

~~Barack Obama, August 2008

THE BIGGEST LOSERS - ILLINOIS VS NEW YORK

By Gail Collins, Op-Ed Columnist for The New York Times:

"Our question for today is, who has the most awful political culture, Illinois or New York?
"Already, I have offended many, many readers who believe their state is being unfairly overlooked. I see you waving your hands, New Jersey.

"Excuse me. I was just distracted by the new 66-page federal indictment of Larry Seabrook, a New York City councilman who, along with multitudinous other charges, is accused of altering a receipt from a deli so he could get a $177 reimbursement for a bagel and diet soda.

"One point for New York.

"I was thinking about the dreadful similarities between the two states while listening to the New York State Senate conduct its business this week. First, there was a resolution demanding that the 9/11 terrorist trial not be held in New York.
“We can’t regurgitate that,” said one senator. Another claimed that America’s greatness was demonstrated by the fact that no other country had ever sent rescue missions to Haiti.
Except Costa Rica and Canada and Cuba and ... Stop. When you start having a mental debate with a state senator from Long Island, it’s time to move on.

So, who’s worse? Both states lost their governors to scandal. But Eliot Spitzer is not about to make his debut on “Celebrity Apprentice.” Point Illinois.

"After his sudden elevation, Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois attempted to save money by giving early release to 1,700 nonviolent state prisoners, some of whom unfortunately turned out to be violent after all. He also gave a State of the State speech in which he boasted about having been named “Mr. Soybean” by the Illinois Soybean Association.

"Meanwhile, Gov. David Paterson of New York, who is mired in a controversy over a racetrack casino contract, demanded that The New York Times produce a list of all the things that are not going to be in a Paterson profile being prepared by the paper so people in Albany will stop speculating that there will be sex in it.

"I am going to call this one a draw.

"In their recent primary, Illinois Democrats — who should know the importance of a lieutenant governor — voted to give their nomination for the No. 2 job to Scott Lee Cohen, an excitable pawnbroker.
Cohen spent millions on campaign ads. Which apparently interfered with his ability to make regular child support payments. Also, he seems to have underestimated the chances that a run for statewide office would draw attention to the fact that he was once charged with holding a knife to his girlfriend’s throat.
So he withdrew from the race in a tearful press conference. At the Hop Haus Tavern. During the halftime of the Super Bowl.

"Illinois inches ahead.

"New York had an incident related to domestic violence this week, too, when the State Senate voted to expel Hiram Monserrate, who had been convicted of assaulting his girlfriend. A special bipartisan committee went to great lengths to produce a complete report. It said that the 29-year-old woman in question, who wound up at a hospital with deep lacerations on her face, was quoted by the medical staff as saying that Monserrate had sliced her with a piece of broken glass.
"Hours later she signed a statement supporting the senator’s convoluted explanation that she got her injuries when he tripped while bringing her a glass of water. The deposition was in English, which she barely speaks. It was written by a Monserrate staff member and notarized by another. She was escorted to the trial by a third. In her testimony, she stood by her senator and insisted that they were in love.
"As the legislators argued about the case, some wanted to know why Monserrate’s crime was any worse than that of another state senator who has been charged with assaulting a photographer.
"O.K., ideally we would not be having our elected officials do either.
"But it was apparent that although these people had passed trillions of bills, resolutions and budget appropriations on the subject of domestic violence, many of them had no clue about what made it a peculiarly corrosive crime.
“A huge number of my male colleagues still don’t have any idea what domestic violence is about — the use of intimacy to manipulate, the power and control,” said Senator Eric Schneiderman, who led the committee.
"During a five-hour, closed-door meeting, Monserrate’s fellow Democrats yelled, threatened and occasionally appeared ready to throttle each other. “It was everyone hashing it out, making every possible argument, the living, breathing essence of democracy,” said Schneiderman.

"Well, actually it would have been slightly more democratic if they had done it on the floor of the Senate.

"Instead, after Monserrate read a statement pointing out that lots of other people in the Legislature get convicted of things, the chamber silently voted 53 to 8 for expulsion.

"It was not exactly the founding fathers at Philadelphia. But, for now, Illinois wins. "

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"That is the beauty of all literature.
You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone.
You belong."

~~F. Scott Fitzgerald

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
Let us move forward with strong and active faith."

~~Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States

Women's and Men's Heart Attack Symptoms: What's the Difference?

February is Heart Month!
From WebMD:
Women's and Men's Heart Attack Symptoms: What's the Difference?

AMERICA IS NOT YET LOST

By Paul Krugman, Op-Ed Columnist for The New York Times:

"We’ve always known that America’s reign as the world’s greatest nation would eventually end. But most of us imagined that our downfall, when it came, would be something grand and tragic.
"What we’re getting instead is less a tragedy than a deadly farce. Instead of fraying under the strain of imperial overstretch, we’re paralyzed by procedure. Instead of re-enacting the decline and fall of Rome, we’re re-enacting the dissolution of 18th-century Poland.

"A brief history lesson: In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Polish legislature, the Sejm, operated on the unanimity principle: any member could nullify legislation by shouting 'I do not allow!' This made the nation largely ungovernable, and neighboring regimes began hacking off pieces of its territory. By 1795 Poland had disappeared, not to re-emerge for more than a century.
"Today, the U.S. Senate seems determined to make the Sejm look good by comparison.
"Last week, after nine months, the Senate finally approved Martha Johnson to head the General Services Administration, which runs government buildings and purchases supplies. It’s an essentially nonpolitical position, and nobody questioned Ms. Johnson’s qualifications: she was approved by a vote of 94 to 2. But Senator Christopher Bond, Republican of Missouri, had put a 'hold' on her appointment to pressure the government into approving a building project in Kansas City.
"This dubious achievement may have inspired Senator Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama. In any case, Mr. Shelby has now placed a hold on all outstanding Obama administration nominations — about 70 high-level government positions — until his state gets a tanker contract and a counterterrorism center.
"What gives individual senators this kind of power? Much of the Senate’s business relies on unanimous consent: it’s difficult to get anything done unless everyone agrees on procedure. And a tradition has grown up under which senators, in return for not gumming up everything, get the right to block nominees they don’t like.
"In the past, holds were used sparingly. That’s because, as a Congressional Research Service report on the practice says, the Senate used to be ruled by 'traditions of comity, courtesy, reciprocity, and accommodation.' But that was then. Rules that used to be workable have become crippling now that one of the nation’s major political parties has descended into nihilism, seeing no harm — in fact, political dividends — in making the nation ungovernable.
"How bad is it? It’s so bad that I miss Newt Gingrich.
"Readers may recall that in 1995 Mr. Gingrich, then speaker of the House, cut off the federal government’s funding and forced a temporary government shutdown. It was ugly and extreme, but at least Mr. Gingrich had specific demands: he wanted Bill Clinton to agree to sharp cuts in Medicare.
"Today, by contrast, the Republican leaders refuse to offer any specific proposals. They inveigh against the deficit — and last month their senators voted in lockstep against any increase in the federal debt limit, a move that would have precipitated another government shutdown if Democrats hadn’t had 60 votes. But they also denounce anything that might actually reduce the deficit, including, ironically, any effort to spend Medicare funds more wisely.
"And with the national G.O.P. having abdicated any responsibility for making things work, it’s only natural that individual senators should feel free to take the nation hostage until they get their pet projects funded.
"The truth is that given the state of American politics, the way the Senate works is no longer consistent with a functioning government. Senators themselves should recognize this fact and push through changes in those rules, including eliminating or at least limiting the filibuster. This is something they could and should do, by majority vote, on the first day of the next Senate session.
"Don’t hold your breath. As it is, Democrats don’t even seem able to score political points by highlighting their opponents’ obstructionism.
"It should be a simple message (and it should have been the central message in Massachusetts): a vote for a Republican, no matter what you think of him as a person, is a vote for paralysis. But by now, we know how the Obama administration deals with those who would destroy it: it goes straight for the capillaries. Sure enough, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, accused Mr. Shelby of 'silliness.' Yep, that will really resonate with voters.
"After the dissolution of Poland, a Polish officer serving under Napoleon penned a song that eventually — after the country’s post-World War I resurrection — became the country’s national anthem. It begins, 'Poland is not yet lost.'
"Well, America is not yet lost. But the Senate is working on it."






 

 

 

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake."
~~Barack Obama, Inaugural Address

WANT? WANT NOT? WASTE? NOT!

From Mothering Magazine, January 2005:

"Get a leg up on recycling by going directly to the source, and freecycling. Based on the maxim that
'one persons trash is another persons treasure,' www.freecycle.org utilizes the enormous networking
capacity of the internet to link givers and takers. Completely and adamantly outside of the cash
economy, the non-profi t site is a clearinghouse forYahoo! Groups across the globe, that function locally
to connect nearby residents to exchange free items. Following detailed instructions provided by the site, volunteer moderators oversee and monitor
the postings in each area group.
"Created in May, 2003, to divert items from the Tucson, Arizona waste stream, the grassroots organization has grown to serve over 1,700 communities, with over half a million freecyclers.
"Logon and join an existing group, or start one, in your community. Help your family and your neighbors
to live more simply by de-cluttering and sharing your abundance, and also by seeing what free options are  out there before you open your wallet and buy more stuff."

Zztopdog notes: Want to know more or to find a Freecycle group in your area? Check out http://www.freecycle.org/.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everyone would do it. But it's not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won't. It's whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere."

~~Barack Obama, Southern New Hampshire University Commencement