Freaky Friday

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Toonlet

To My Youngest

Happy birthday little girl, here is a picture from your birth year.

Saturday Thoughts

Wordless Wednesday

Found - A long lost friend

I have been searching for years without any luck. I tried to find him when I visited Washington D.C. and I have searched and searched the internet. My real problem was I that I did not know his hometown only that he was from the Seattle area and really only knew him as Mac.

Today, because a friend sent me a link, I was able to find him. His name was Timothy James McMahon, born March 7, 1946, died September 18, 1966. He died because the human body is not built to withstand the intensity of a hand grenade exploding underneath it.

You see, Mac was a Navy Corpsman, his job was to save lives, patch a person up to give them a chance to make it to a hospital. This time he saved lives by giving his own.

It's been a long time my friend, I'm glad I finally found you.

Police Order - No Parking

As some of you already know, we live near a high school. Most of the time this is not a problem but because the school does not allow Freshman to park in the school parking lot, we sometimes have a problem with cars parked in our neighborhood, not to mention the trash they throw out on the street, especially when there is snow on the ground.


This past week, I called the school twice to complain about the parking situation. There is a police officer on duty at the school (it is his full time assignment, sad as it is). The first time I called he said he was aware of the problem and had already driven through the neighborhood....although nothing was done and it was just the same the next day. So, I waited a couple of days and after I saw the garbage truck (it was trash day) stop at the beginning of our street and then drive on I called again. All I got was "are they illegally parked"?

I asked the officer if it was legal to block a mailbox with a parked vehicle or if was legal to park in such a way that an emergency vehicle like a fire truck or ambulance could not get through....no response. He suggested I call the city to have them do a better job of cleaning up the snow and I hung up.


Yesterday, when NK when out to get the mail, she saw the sign, actually there were many signs,



up and down the street. No Parking signs.....on the opposite side of the street from our house.



Now I hope we won't see this anymore:

Avoiding Embarassment

In the late 60's and through the 70's there was a daytime game show called "The Newlywed Game". If you have never seen it, the show had couples that had been married a year or less on and asked them questions about their mate and /or their life together. These questions often provoked a funny, provocative response. Questions like where was the weirdest place you have ever gotten the urge to make whoopee? The response from one newlywed was: "in the ass". She was bleeped of course and her husbands response was "in the car", but none the less her embarrassment has been recorded for posterity:



via videosift.com


Somewhere between July 1979 and December 1970, my love and I decided that it would be fun to try out for the show so we sent in an application and received an invitation for a try out. They sent us the address in Hollywood, we lived in the L.A. area at the time, and the time for the interview, so off we went.

Now, my one true love has never been very good with a map, and being a guy, I never was real big on asking for directions so after driving around for some time, we never were able to find the place so we gave up and went home.

Today we both feel fortunate that we did not have a GPS unit then. If we had we might not be married today.

Defining a Decade

After contemplating my navel for the past few weeks I have decided that I needed to come up with a word to describe this decade. One word, a single utterance that defines the raison d'etre for those controlling our lives.

I know, it's early yet but I have really been formulating this opinion for some years. Current events have allowed me to finally propose that poliunicorps be added to our vocabulary. While it rolls off the tongue easily, it has a tendency to leave a bad taste in my mouth as it spills into the atmosphere.

Poliunicorps, a combination of three words that have fostered disrespect throughout their existence must now be merged to form one.

The first part, poli, comes from politician which is defined by dictionary.com as "a seeker or holder of public office, who is more concerned about winning favor or retaining power than about maintaining principles."

Next comes uni, from the word union. Like politician there are many ways to describe union but for my purpose it will simply be a group of individuals joined together for a common purpose.

Finally comes corps, from corporation. A corporation, again according to dictionary.com is an "organization enjoying legal personality for the purpose of carrying on certain activities.". Of course those "activities" are only for the good of the corporation.

There you have it, the make up of poliunicorps which I will now define as an entity that exists only to perpetuate itself with no regard for the well being of those outside of its body.

Wordless Wednesday

Why

We have listened
but we have not heard
We have looked
But we have not seen
For you have not said
What we must hear
And you have not done
What we need see

You may have listened
But you do not hear
The screams in the night
Or the anguish of those
That have lost

You say you have looked
But you cannot see
The emptiness in the hearts
Or the vacant stare
Of those that do not understand
Why death has visited their home

Wordless Wednesday

All We Get Is Coal

The Senate was finally able to gather up 60 votes to bring what they call health care reform to a vote. So what will it provide?

1. Access to coverage for 31 million Americans that are or may be currently without health insurance.

Depending on the source, there are anywhere between that 31 million figure and up to 86 million over that last 2 years. That leaves 55 million still without insurance if you believe that there are 86 million uninsured. And the bill only provides for access, with fines up to $2,250.00 per family by 2016.

2. Single people with an income of less than $43,320.00 will qualify for a sliding subsidy scale and families of 3 (and I assume or more) will qualify for the subsidy with an income of $73,240.00 or less.

According to the U. S. Census 32.6% of the households in America are 2 person households. That equals 68,836,092 million people in 2 person households. I can't tell from these figures how many 2 person married couples there are, but I'm sure it is a significant amount and they will not be qualified for the subsidies.

3, There will be no Public Option. There will be 2 nations insurance plans, 1 non-profit and 1 for-profit. The plans will only be offered to those without employer sponsored health insurance.

So, if you currently have employer provided insurance that you can no longer afford either you don't qualify or you would have to give up your current plan to qualify for something that may not provide the same type of coverage (that is if you can qualify by giving up your present plan).

4. There is an "age rating" provision that will allow private insurers to price premiums up to THREE TIMES HIGHER for older people.

According to the 2000 census there were 35 million people age 65 & up, living on retirement income that has dwindled significantly that will be forced to pay higher premiums for any Medicare supplement plan.

So, back to my original question, what will the Senate bill provide? Not much beyond adding a new segment of poverty and possibly and increase in the divorce rate (you see, single people qualify for the subsidy).

Public Screwing

Short and sweet, if the bill presented today by Sen. Reid is the best our leaders in Washington can provide, we are all screwed. Those of us that have insurance should just drop it and do the same as those without insurance today, don't get sick or die quickly.

Thanks alot Harry.

Wordless Wednesday

Letterman Wanabe

The Most Violent Element

"The most violent element is society is ignorance". One more time, "The most violent element in society is ignorance". This is a quote from Emma Goldman (1869 - 1940) in response to an objection about anarchism that stated "anarchism is violent and destructive".

My son had this quote on a bumper sticker on his car. Before the car was traded in, I removed the sticker and put it on my truck. Eventually it faded to nothing so I no longer have it but I have not forgotten.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not an anarchist, an advocate of anarchy, nor do believe that anarchy is a solution for what ails any country. I do believe that the quote above is true however and is relevant in today's world just as it was when she penned the thought in 1910.

Why do I believe this? I believe it because every day television brings vivid images of ignorant people into my home. People that believe in "death panels", people that believe that the correct way to engage in a discussion is to keep the discussion from taking place. There are also those that believe that they will no longer have access to their current private insurance, and that 120 million people will be deprived of health care.

What leads someone that would normally behave in a rational manner, why are all these people so worked up? Some say race is involved, that the realization that this country has elected a black President has hit home. Others believe that the President is leading the country down a path toward total socialism. Why to they believe this?

Because they are ignorant! They do not know the truth, don't want to know the truth and I'm sorry MSNBC no matter what Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann says, they remain ignorant because they aren't watching you.

The fact of the matter is that ignorance causes fear and those listening to the corporations and causes that wish to derail heath care reform have played their cards well. I just wish some good investigative journalism would come out of this. These poor ignorant souls that are on our TV screens every night would make wonderful candidates for an in depth expose. Do they have health care, how much do they pay for it, if they do not want any government sponsored health care plan are those on medicare willing to give that up? They should not be that hard to find, just go to a town hall meeting somewhere, pick them out and when it is over and their emotions have subsided interview them.

In the early 1980's I told a person he was ignorant, he never spoke to me again. You see, he thought I called him stupid even after I explained the difference between the two words. Maybe I was wrong then, perhaps he was stupid and perhaps all of these people aren't ignorant, just stupid but it would be nice to find out.

Tuesday Toonlet

Chicken Not Tuna