WISHING EVERYONE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND SAFE TRAVELS

DECORATING FOR DAX

From CNN.com:

"On a crisp Halloween night, icicle lights and Santa Clauses mingled with ghosts and jack-o'-lanterns in a Washington, Illinois, neighborhood.
"The community is helping a family squeeze in a little extra holiday cheer with their young son.
Doctors say 2-year-old Dax Locke is losing his fight with acute myeloid leukemia and may only have weeks to live, so parents Julie and Austin Locke put Christmas lights up outside their home for the little boy, who loves glowing things. Dax opens presents each day under a tree that's already been up for several weeks.
" 'We don't have much time left with Dax, don't know if he will make it to Christmas, so we wanted to have Christmas early,' Julie Locke told local news station WMBD.

"Neighbor and friend Trish Hurtgen says she and her husband were inspired by the family's efforts, so they put up their own lights and encouraged neighbors to do the same. Soon, the entire block was lit up with Christmas lights. They also planned a special surprise for the family.
"While the Lockes traveled to Chicago's Shedd Aquarium for a special trip with Dax, the neighborhood banded together to decorate a huge tree in the family's yard so the Lockes could be delighted when they returned just after Halloween.
"From there, she and other neighbors have helped encourage people to show silent support for the family by putting up Christmas lights at home and around the community. The effort, called Decorate for Dax, has its own Web site with space for people everywhere to send pictures and see others' displays.

"Perhaps, she said, people will see this odd display of early lights and wonder what is going on. Maybe they'll also pause for a moment to think about Dax and about what they can do to help. The family is asking people to make donations to St. Jude.
" 'That's what Christmas is about, giving and not needing to get in return.'
" 'Everyone is holding out hopes Dax will make it to Christmas.'
" 'Christmas would be a miracle. We're praying for a big miracle."

SEXIEST MAN ALIVE

From People.com:

"The 2009 Sexiest Man Alive party is officially under way.
"Say hello, once again, to Johnny Depp.
"Bringing the fun with him wherever he goes -- whether it's onscreen in fizzy roles like Captain Jack Sparrow in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise or at home with his family on their private Bahamian island -- is just one reason why Depp, who also scored the honor in 2003, has joined an elite club of two-time SMA title holders (only Brad Pitt and George Clooney have matched the feat)."

Zztopdog's mom notes: They'll get no argument from me!

MORE IDIOCY

Zztopdog notes: OK, I admit I can't help myself....

From How Stupid Blog:
Josh Marshall at TPM:
"Public Policy Polling has a new poll out on the national 'birther' movement. And it turns out to be another fascinating look at the mystic overlap between ideological and simple ignorance.
Of the 24% of the population in the 'birther' category, one interesting thing to note is that more Americans seem to think Obama was born in Indonesia (10%) than Kenya (7%), which suggests not only that a frighteningly large number of Americans are birthers but that they have a shockingly low level of basic 'birther' literacy. As you know, according to orthodox 'birther' theory, Obama was born in Kenya.
"Even better, 6% fully concede that Obama was born in Hawaii. They just don't believe Hawaii is part of the United States."

ONLY 45% OF ARKANSANS THINK OBAMA IS A CITIZEN

From the very cool blog, How Stupid Blog:
"A new Public Policy Polling survey in Arkansas shows that only 45% of voters in the state say they believe President Obama was born in this country, while 31% say they think he was not and 24% are unsure.
"Arkansas is the first of four states where we've polled the birther issue (Virginia, North Carolina, and Colorado were the others) and found less than half of respondents confident that the President is a natural born citizen. The numbers are particularly dramatic among Republicans with 49% saying Obama was not born here to just 23% who grant that he was."

Zztopdog notes: This is not a surprise.

TODAY IS MY BIRFDAY!

I am ten years old today, and just as handsome as ever.
My mommas bought me a present (I can't open it until my party later). And we will have Frosty Paws and chicken sticks. Yummy! I can't wait till my other momma comes home so we can start the party! YIPPY!!!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"God, our Creator, help us to love all creatures as our kin, all animals as our partners on Earth, all birds as messengers of praise, all frogs as voices of hope, and all insects and spiders as expressions of your mysterious design."
~~The Reverend Lisa Hadler, Annual Blessing of the Animals, First Congregational United Church of Christ, Ottawa, IL.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Catholic Church Spends $550000 to Repeal Gay Marriage Law in Maine

Don't they have anything better to do with their money???

FREE MARKET SNAKE OIL

Thanks to our friend, Badtux, the Snarky Penguin:
"The right-wingers claim that they actually DO have a plan for health care: Simply remove all government regulation of healthcare altogether, and the Magic Free Market Fairy will wave her magic wand and magically provide health care for all Americans. I have just one question for these folks: Can they point to one nation, any nation, anywhere on this planet, where this in fact actually works?"

i'M A PEOPLE PERSON

"If I hate 99.9% of the population, then that leaves about 6 million people who I like or at least can stand. Which makes me a people person."

Thanks to Chris at Cynical-C!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"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

Thanks to Simply Left Behind for the great quote!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

TWO ACTORS

Found this terrific photo today on TYWKIDBI.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter."

~~Carol Bishop Hipps, In a Southern Garden, 1995

THE LAPTOP RETURNS

The laptop is back and working like a dream. Have to reinstall some things, but it's so worth it to have the little guy back.

LAPTOP HOMECOMING?

Today, the laptop may be coming home after an extended stay in the Tech Support ward.... We're keeping our fingers crossed.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find that more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion."
~~C P Snow, English novelist and scientist

MISSING MY LAPTOP

It's been about two weeks since my laptop went on sick leave. It just did not want to get up one morning. I ran diagnostics, tried starting it from the disc, but with no success. It has been in the hands of Maru's school tech guys for about 2 weeks. The one tech assures her that he can get it up and working again.... We'll see.... In the meantime, we're not on the computer much; just posting emails and twitters from my phone.

THOUGHT FOR A MONDAY

"Our lives are a flood of images and we are collectors who keep a strange assortment of images: moments of extreme emotion, pain, beauty, and fear stand out. Events we're taught to remember: weddings, graduations, births, deaths. Then there are the millions of images that we can't shake out of our heads, that come to us at strange times - things we can't remember why we remember: the gold threads in an old stereo speaker, the way the light hit a thousand cars in a parking lot by the water, the face of a stranger in a restaurant, a friend standing in a pool - you can't remember where, slapping the water with the flat of her hand. Memory is a sieve that holds curious things. A life is a trail of strange, colorful memories."
~~Risa Mickenberg

TOWN HALLS AND PUPPETEERS

By Keith Olbermann on the Daily KOS
Mon Aug 10, 2009 at 04:25:13 PM PDT
"Have you perchance seen this? Here is where the slasher-film-politics of euthanasia replaces the reality of getting insurance to cover the conversation in which you tell your doctor to keep you alive no matter what; where Obama can wire money out of Grandma's checking account supplants authorization of electronic payment to and from the banks of insurers; where ACORN and union thugs replace input from Health Care advocates and where getting an insurer to pay for family counseling morphs into "They will insert government into your marriage." Here is where Sarah Palin did her research. Well, here is where whoever mentioned it to Sarah Palin did her research. If I didn't know better, and I read that handy "line by line analysis" by the same people who brought you "The War On Christmas," I might be at one of those Town Halls, screaming my head off too. Tonight: a Special Comment on the disruption of the Town Halls, the people behind these disruptions, and the urgency of common sense.