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Copyright 2010 by Jane Reinheimer. All rights reserved.
May the warm winds of heaven blow softly on your home, and the Great Spirit
bless all who enter. May your moccasins make happy tracks in many snows, and may the rainbow always touch your shoulder. --
Cherokee Blessing
These Bible Studies (New Testament) are filed in the archives (in alphabetical
order): Acts (10/2207); Colossians (3/17/08); 1st and 2nd Corinthians (1/3/08); Deuteronomy (8/2/07); Ephesians (3/24/08);
Galatians (12/24/07); Hebrews (10/1/07); James (4/23/08); John (Gospel of)(5/27/08); Jude (5/21/08); Philemon (3/14/08);
Philippians (3/10/08); Romans (2/13/08); 1st and 2nd Thessalonians (12/10/07); 1 Timothy (4/7/08); 2 Timothy (4/17/08); Titus
(4/13/08);
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Tuesday, July 31, 2007
MY LIFE IN INK --
I want you to know that the ceiling fan
is up and running in the kitchen. It took us between four and five hours. For someone who may be used to putting those things
up, it probably wouldn't take but a couple of hours at the most.
The problem is we keep dropping those tiny
little screws. And the screws have locknuts that have to be put on too. They're even tinier. So we spent a good extra
hour down on our hands and knees looking for little pieces of metal.
But it's up and we are enjoying the cool
breezes in the kitchen.
The repair is coming along great with the carport. But that's being done by a pro who
knows what he's doing. We're just watching. In amazement.
Quint and I have determined that we should just
stick with what we're good at and not even try to become something else.
Quint spent his career years as a
research chemist. I have been a legal secretary, then got my paralegal certificate, then went back to school to get a masters
in psychology. Then I became a mental health counselor. Now I am doing some counseling/coaching over the phone.
Eventually
the insurance companies will realize that we have changed our address and that will be the end of our retirement. But that's
okay. It's what I love doing. That, and writing. And Quint will continue his accounting for the practice -- something
he picked up after he retired from chemistry.
Today I'm going to make sugar free frozen peach preserves. That's
a good project for an afternoon that threatens to be 90 degrees outside.
##
SORRY TO
HEAR THAT ROBIN ROBERTS HAS BREAST CANCER
She just announced the cancer on this morning's show with
Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America. Early detection counts very much with breast cancer, so let's pray that
she did, indeed, catch the cancer/lump early enough to treat the cancer aggressively.
Read here: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3430554
In the meantime, we can all keep Robin in our prayers for a healthy, speedy recovery.
If you'd
like to send her a message, you can do so at the link provided above.
##
WOW! CBS REALLY
ON THE DOWNWARD SLIDE
A year ago the net income was $781 million.
This year, in the second
quarter, a comparable figure is $404 million.
So what's going on, do you suppose?
Maybe -- just
maybe -- thinking people don't like to be spoonfed opinions from reporters and/or anchors.
Whatever happened
to the days when journalists would just report what was going on instead of delivering an editorial and calling it news.
Big surprise that people get turned off and then turn off their sets.
And then the liberals say the news
isn't fair and balanced. What are they saying? That the audience is not being fair because we don't listen to the
garbage that the liberal media warlords are putting out there?
And now, the liberals are saying they're going
to launch a campaign to write letters to the advertisers on Fox News and try to get them to withdrawn their advertising money
from Fox News shows.
Well, I say that can work both ways. It's possible that a whole bunch of people will
start writing the sponsors and advertisers on Fox News and thank them for supporting the shows we watch.
That seems
fair.
##
LOVE STORY: PETER AND EDNA -- from Alice Stubbe
Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't
love you with all they have.
Ralph and Edna were both patients in a mental hospital. One day while they were
walking past the hospital swimming pool, Ralph suddenly jumped into the deep end. He sank to the bottom of the pool
and stayed there.
Edna promptly jumped in to save him. She swam to the bottom and pulled him out.
When
the Head Nurse Director became aware of Edna's heroic act she immediately ordered her to be discharged from the hospital,
as she now considered her to be
mentally stable.
When she went to tell Edna the news she said, "Edna,
I have good news and bad news. The good news is you're being discharged, since you were able to rationally respond to
a crisis by jumping in and saving the life of the person you love. I have concluded that your act
displays sound mindlessness.
The bad news is, Ralph, hung himself in the bathroom with his bathrobe belt right after you saved him. I am so sorry, but
he's dead."
Edna replied, "He didn't hang himself, I put him there to dry. How soon can I go
home ?"
##
HANDY
LITTLE CHART -- from Brenda Moore
God has a positive
answer to your questions: | | | You say: "It's impossible" | God says: All things are possible | | | God says: I will give you rest | | You say: "Nobody really loves me" | | (John 3:1 6 & John 3:34 ) | | God says: My grace is sufficient | (II
Corinthians 12:9 & Psalm 91:15) | You say: "I can't figure things out" | God says: I will direct your steps | | | God says: You can do all things | | | | | You say: "It's not worth it" | God says: It will be worth it | | You say: "I can't forgive myself" | | (I John 1:9 & Romans
8:1)
| You say: "I can't manage" | God says: I will supply all your needs | | | God says: I have not given you a spirit of fear | | You say: "I'm always worried and frustrated" | God says: Cast all your cares on ME | | You say: "I'm not smart enough" | God says: I give you wisdom | | You say: "I feel all alone" | God
says:
I will never leave you or forsake you | |
7:18 am
Monday, July 30, 2007
MY LIFE IN INK --
It's been a busy weekend. On
Saturday I made sugar-free freezer strawberry jam. And picked up 15 ears of corn which I made into niblets for the deep freeze.
Then I made some sugar-free corn relish, a favorite of Quint's and me. And since Quint is diabetic, I make a lot of sugar-free
food for us.
Actually I'm very proud of Quint. He's one of the 15% of the diabetic population who is compliant
with medical advice. Can you believe that 85% of diabetics do not comply with their doctors' advice?
We went
to our new church home on Sunday morning. It's not the same as the church we had really really liked in Tinley Park. But
change is inevitable in life and I have no doubt that this new church will be just fine once we get to know the folks.
Today the carpenter is coming over to begin repairs on the carport. It appears that someone, probably the former owner,
kind of ran into the back wall of the carport. Didn't do a great deal of damage -- just nudged the wall out a bit. So
the carpenter is going to replace that wall, and make a 4' closet in that will go the entire width of the carport. That
will give us room to put all our lawn toys, bikes and golf clubs. He's also going to put a nice big door on the closet
with a lock on it.
This afternoon we are going to put in a ceiling fan in the kitchen. I had one in the condo and
miss not having one here. That's especially true now that the summer harvests are coming in. I made a sauna in my kitchen
on Saturday.
Just wait until I start making tomato sauce and get my 21-quart canner bubbling.
But for
now, let's see what's going on in the world.
##
CONGRESS
RAISES FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE TO $7.25/HOUR -- NOW WANTS TO RAISE CONGRESSIONAL PAY TO $170,000
Let's
see now -- there are 2,000 work hours in a year.
So the $7.25 per hour comes to $14,500 a year. But that won't
happen until 2009.
Right now, the new hike went from $5.15 to $5.85 an hour. That's a raise of $.70 an hour.
Congress wants to give itself a raise of $4,400 a year. That's a $2.20 per hour raise.
I guess Congress
figures it needs the raise all at once. Right now.
What you're going to hear them say is that the American
worker got a raise from $5.85 an hour to $7.25. That's a raise of $1.40 an hour. But average ordinary workers have to
wait until 2009 to get it all. That's two more years.
That is, if my math is correct.
So not only
is Congress arrogant, but they're greedy too.
I knew that.
But there are some congressionals who
think this whole raise deal for them is "ill-timed." (http://www.miamiherald.com/884/story/186647.html)
Opponents said a raise for Congress would be ill-timed. ''According
to the recent polls, Americans don't like the Congress,'' said Rep. Howard Coble, a North Carolina Republican.
"Our numbers, lower than President Bush's numbers, are in the tank. To enact this [cost-of-living increase] will
do nothing, in my opinion, to improve our already diminished reputation.'' (from the Miami Herald article
above)
Well at least some of the congressionals are thinking about the fact that new polls show only a 14% approval
rating. This is definitely not a time to think of congratulating themselves by giving themselves a big raise.
##
THIS IS HARD TO BELIEVE BUT CONRAD HILTON IS DERAILING
HIS GRANDDAUGHTER PARIS' INHERITANCE
I wasn't sure that Conrad Hilton was still around, but apparently
he's a 79-year-old with some pretty strong opinions about how Paris has sullied the family name.
So he's
disinheriting her.
Poor little rich girl may jus have to get a real job. Doing real work. Getting paid real money.
It's in an article posted today on NineMSN: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=281722
The elder Hilton says he's going to make sure that Little Miss SansiePantsies won't see
a dime of her $59 million inheritance. He's going to give the money that she would have gotten to charities instead. Same
is true of all his other grandchildren. They aren't getting any money either.
Guess they're just going
to have to polish up the old resumes and get to work. That is, get real jobs.
Hilton just sold a big part of his
assets to Blackstone. Like $2.4 billion worth.
Wasn't Conrad married to Zsa Zsa Gabor at one time? I think
I read that somewhere.
##
CONGRESS GOES OUT FOR AUGUST RECESS
It used to be in days of long ago that the lawmakers headed out of a hot, steamy city to bask in the cool
shady breezes of somewhere else.
Probably wherever there was a good bunch of fans and servants to fan them.
They were the wealthy upper crust. They just could not abide the horrors of physical discomfort. And, well, sweat.
It's just not polite.
So the lawmakers did what every good old person could do, of course. They left town.
The beachfront properties of New England beckoned. Or maybe something more forested would be better. Anything but the steambath
of a city along the Potomac.
They still do it. Come August, they can't get out of town fast enough.
Problem is, we now have this amazing invention. It's called air conditioning. A person does not even have to
leave the steambath of a city and be inconvenienced by all that packing up and dragging a person's body over to a private
jet sitting on a runway that you could fry an egg on.
Nope. If a person were really diligent and serious about
doing the job that the taxpayers paid him or her to do, why they'd just stay put and crank up the air conditioner, roll
up their cute little designer sleeves and get to work.
Maybe then their approval rating would start to improve.
Instead, it appears to be in a free fall on its way to zero.
##
FRIENDS
vs. SOUTHERN FRIENDS -- from Brenda Moore
FRIENDS:
Never ask for food.
SOUTHERN FRIENDS: Always bring the food.
FRIENDS: Will say "hello".
SOUTHERN
FRIENDS: Will give you a big hug and a kiss.
FRIENDS: Call your parents Mr. and Mrs.
SOUTHERN FRIENDS: Call
your parents Mom and Dad
FRIENDS: Have never seen you cry.
SOUTHERN FRIENDS: Cry with you.
FRIENDS:
Will eat at your dinner table and leave.
SOUTHERN FRIENDS: Will spend hours there, talking, laughing, and just
being
together.
FRIENDS: Know a few things about you.
SOUTHERN FRIENDS: Could write a book with direct quotes from
you.
FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that's what the crowd is doing.
SOUTHERN FRIENDS: Will kick the
whole crowds' back-ends that left you.
FRIENDS: Would knock on your door.
SOUTHERN FRIENDS: Walk right
in and say, " I'm home!"
FRIENDS: Are for a while.
SOUTHERN FRIENDS: Are for life.
##
NANCY PELOSI IS A POST TURTLE -- from Alice Stubbe
While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old California rancher, whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle,
the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man.
Eventually the topic got around to Nancy Pelosi and her elevation
to speaker of the house. The old rancher said, "Well,
ya know, Nancy is a post turtle."
Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a 'post
turtle' was. The old rancher said, "When you're
driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle."
The old man saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain.
"You know
she didn't get there by herself, she doesn't belong there, she doesn't know what to do while she's up there,
and you just want to help the dumb thing get down."
##
NEW
PREAMBLE TO THE CONSTITUTION -- from Mark Stubbe
This is probably the best
e-mail I've seen in a long, long time. The following has been attributed to State Representative Mitchell Kaye from GA.
This guy should run for President one day...
"We the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance
of justice, avoid more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt-free liberty
to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines
for the terminally whiny, guilt ridden, delusional, and other liberal bed-wetter's. We hold these truths to be self evident:
that a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim they require a Bill of NON-Rights."
ARTICLE I: You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV, or any other form of wealth. More power to you
if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.
ARTICLE II: You do not
have the right to never be offended This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone -- not just you!
You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc.; but the world is full of idiots, and probably
always will be.
ARTICLE III: You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver
in your eye, learn to be more careful; do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently
wealthy.
ARTICLE IV: You
do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help
anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes
who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes. (This one is my pet peeve...get an education and go to work....don't
expect everyone else to take care of you!)
You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the
most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation
after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional
couch potatoes. (This one is my pet peeve...get
an education and go to work....don't expect everyone else to take care of you!)
ARTICLE V: You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing,
we're just not interested in public health care.
ARTICLE VI: You do not have the
right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don't be surprised if
the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.
ARTICLE VII: You do not
have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat, or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't
be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big
screen color TV or a life of leisure.
ARTICLE VIII: You do not have the right to a job. All of us sure want
you to have a job, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities
of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful. (AMEN!)
ARTICLE IX: You do not
have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to PURSUE happiness, which by the way, is a lot
easier if you are unencumbered by an over abundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill
of Rights.
ARTICLE X: This is an English speaking country. We don't care where you are from, English is our language. Learn it or go
back to wherever you came from! (Lastly....)
This is an English speaking country. We don't care where you are from, English is our language. Learn it or go
back to wherever you came from! (Lastly....)
ARTICLE XI: You do not have the right to change our country's
history or heritage. This country was founded on the belief in one true God. And yes, you are given the freedom to believe
in any religion, any faith, or no faith at all; with no fear of persecution. The phrase IN GOD WE TRUST is part of our
heritage and history, and if you are uncomfortable with it, TOUGH!
8:13 am
Friday, July 27, 2007
MY LIFE IN INK --
We went to Bloomington, IL, yesterday for
an all-day workshop. The topic had to do with growing up in a dysfunctional family. It's part of Cross Country University's
offerings for this year and I got 6 of the 18 continuing education credits that I need for my license. The bonus was that
this was a very informative workshop and I got a lot of information that I will be able to integrate into my own practice.
I'm really enjoying the telephone therapy sessions. It's very convenient -- both for me and for the clients.
They don't have to spend 20-30 minutes to get to the office and I commute to my upstairs office. It's a win-win for
everybody. Then they just click on their Pay Pal account -- don't even have to bother with writing a check.
Oh
the wonders of modern technology.
And now I'm going back to the low tech environment in a few minutes. We are
heading out to the country to see if we can find some produce. The sweet corn is coming in and so are the beans. Time to start
filling up the deep freeze for winter. I'm can tomato sauce later.
On Wednesday morning Quint put up a pole
in a storage area. It's actually part of what has become a utility room with floor to ceiling shelves for a variety of
things like pots and pans that I don't use with any great frequency. Some had belonged to my mom and perfect for cooking
one particular dish, like her chicken frying skillet. Quint has his Dad's fudge pot. Etc etc etc.
Anyway, this
pole is floor to ceiling. I then painted it and put hooks on it. Now about twenty coffee mugs have a permanent home. We do
not ever ever ever need any coffee mugs. From anybody.
##
THE NORTH VS. THE SOUTH -- thank
you Mark Stubbe
The North has Bloomingdales,
The South has Dollar General
The North
has coffee houses,
The South has Waffle Houses.
The North has switchblade knives,
The South has Lee Press-on
Nails.
The North has double last names,
The South has double first names.
The North has Indy car
races,
The South has stock car races.
North has Cream of Wheat,
The South has grits.
The North
has green salads,
The South has collard greens.
The North has lobsters,
The South has crawdads.
The North has the rust belt,
The South has the Bible Belt.
FOR NORTHERNERS MOVING SOUTH . .
In the South: --If you run your car into a ditch, don't panic. Four men in a four-wheel drive pickup truck with a tow
chain will be along shortly. Don't try to help them, just stay out of their way. This is what they live for.
Don't be surprised to find movie rentals and bait in the same store....do not buy food at this store.
Remember, "y'all" is singular, "all y'all" is plural, and "all y'all's"
is plural possessive.
Get used to hearing "You ain't from round here, are ya?"
Save
all manner of bacon grease. You will be instructed later on how to use it.
Don't be worried at not understanding what
people are saying. They can't understand you either.
The first Southern statement to creep into a transplanted
Northerner's vocabulary is the adjective "big'ol," truck or big'ol" boy. Most
Northerners
begin their Southern-influenced dialect this way. All of them
are in denial about it.
The proper
pronunciation you learned in school is no longer proper.
Be advised that "He needed killin." is
a valid legal defense here.
If you hear a Southerner exclaim, "Hey, y'all, watch this,"
you should stay out of the way. These are likely to be the last words he'll ever utter.
If there is the
prediction of the slightest chance of even the smallest accumulation of snow, your presence is required at the local
grocery store. It doesn't matter whether you need anything or not. You just have to go there.
Do not be
surprised to find that 10-year olds own their own shotguns, they are proficient marksmen, and their mammas taught
them how to shoot.
In the South, we have found that the best way to grow a lush green lawn is to pour gravel
on it and call it a driveway.
AND REMEMBER: If you do settle in the South and bear children,
don't think we will accept them as Southerners. After all, if the cat had kittens in the oven, we
wouldn't
call 'em biscuits.
Send this to four people that ai n't related to you, and I reckon your life
will turn into a country music song 'fore you know it.
Your kin would get a kick out of it too!
##
THE DEMOCRATS ARE AT IT AGAIN -- THIS TIME THEY WANT A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR TO INVESTIGATE GONZALES
Alberto Gonzales, as Attorney General, can fire any prosecutor he deems inadquate or incapable of doing the
job that Gonzales wants from a prosecutor.
Gonzales fired eight.
Now the senators want an investigation
to look into whether or not Gonzales lied.
Well, let's back up for a minute, folks.
If the senators
are so anxious to root out liar-liars, how about Hillar's denial that she knew anything about Peter Paul's giant,
hard-money election fund-raiser. She says "Peter who?" Or "Don't know anything about it." Or "My
campaign people handled all those details."
Like we're supposed to believe that she didn't hire a
whole bunch of lawyers who are financial compliace experts. As the moderator on this tape points out, this Hillary mess is
the biggest election lawbreaking in history. These aren't soft money donations, like getting a corporate jet to fly you
around from campaign stop to campaign stop. Or hosting a little dinner for your entourage of 50 or so who get soooo hungry
and thirsty while out there on the old dusty trail.
Nope. This is hard cash. More than a million. And it didn't
just trickle in. It was kind of like "Hand it over time. My campaign is broke and I need money."
But take a few moments to listen to this tape and make up your own mind: http://youtube.com/watch?v=qcbg72tK_ks
What surprises me is that she hasn't been able to get this tape pulled from You Tube. Maybe there is such
a thing as freedom of expression/speech in this country after all, and maybe those expressions transcend political power.
I sure hope so.
##
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THERE WERE NO MORE EARMARKS?
Earmarks used to be called pork projects. Then the taxpayers caught on and pork got re-named into something that congress
hoped we wouldn't recognize.
As if we couldn't read.
As if we couldn't figure really simple
things like that out.
Now that the taxpayers have caught on to, and are following the list of earmarks, congress
wants to re-name it again. They want to call it something like "congressional discretional funding."
As
if taxpayers aren't watching what congress is doing with this one.
So it goes like this. If a representative
from Alabama gets a request for $300,000 from a medical clinic in his district for a new wing, the rep can stick on an earmark
of $300,000 to any old appropriations bill that comes along. He doesn't have to say what it's for. He (or she) doesn't
have to say the $300,000 is his earmark. He just sticks in onto the bill.
An appropriations bill that starts out
as a $10 billion package might grow into something bloated by earmarks adding up to another $20 billion. Next thing you know,
the congressionals have sent over a $30 billion appropriations bill to the White House.
As if President Bush is
going to sign it. Nope -- here comes the veto pen.
Then there's a signing memo. The congressionals really yammer
about that one. "It's not fair," they say.
"He's abusing power. We're going to investigate.
He can't do that. It's unconstitutional."
Blah blah blah.
Nobody whines better than congressionals.
They're like three year olds begging to cookies about a half hour before suppertime.
So President Bush vetoes
the spending package and sends it back with a veto and a signing memo that says, "Look, I told you guys that I wasn't
going to stand for this. Now send me an appropriations bill that doesn't have all this bloat in it."
As
if congress ever learns.
"That old mean President Bush," they say. "We're going to get even.
We'll just show him who's boss around this town."
Remember what President Jefferson said? Thomas Jefferson
wrote that “just” government rests on “the consent of the governed.”
We, the taxpayers,
are the governed. We, the governed, do not want earmarks or pork projects or whatever else congress wants to call it.
Here's an idea: If the congressionals want money for a pet project for their district, they should identify the project
and request the money. Be up front about it. Make the request subject to a debate on the floor of congress.
None
of this back room smoke and mirros stuff anymore.
But oh the squealing I've heard about. "These are very
good projects."
Nobody said they weren't. Most hospitals can always use a new wing. But is that a federal
government project? Wouldn't a local hospital do better to get funding from its state legislature?
Maybe
that's too close to home. Maybe if a state legislature got involved with the hospital request, they'd say something
like, "We just gave you $300,000 last year and you haven't even broken ground yet."
Maybe it's
too hard to be scrutinized if a hospital's budget request gets lost in a federal appropriations bill that the president
doesn't even have a line item veto for.
Maybe a whole bunch of congressionals wouldn't automatically get
re-elected if they couldn't bring home the bacon to their districts.
##
10:09 am
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
MY LIFE IN INK (used to be "From the Paw Paw Patch") --
We
are headed to Bloomington, Illinois, later this afternoon for an all-day conference tomorrow about surviving the trauma of
dysfunctional families.
It ought to be very interesting.
I think one of the really big blessings of
having grown up in a dysfunctional family is learning how to forgive. If you have not forgiven family members for their dysfunctionalities,
then you aren't a survivor yet.
If you have forgiven dysfunctional members of the family you grew up in, then
the blessings are yours to enjoy.
Those blessings include, among other things, peace and joy and the enormous capacity
to love with depth all the way down to your squiggly little toes. Growing up in a dysfunctional family required you to swim
upstream to get those blessings. They're yours to keep and share.
Congratulations.
##
ELIZABETH EDWARDS SAYS SHE'S GIVING UP TANGERINES
At first I read the headline and thought
"who cares what the wife of a no-shot at the White House" thinks.
The idea is that she's giving
up something that's grown and shipped from many miles away, thereby using up precious fuels for those big trucks to haul
the crates of tangerines to her supermarket in wherever her mansion now is.
But why tangerines? Will she also give
up coffee and/or tea? How about bananas and avocados. Coconuts? Cheeses? No more parmesan on her spaghetti? No more corn-fed
beef from the great midwest, as in steaks?
You mean she's going to have to give up her Vidalia onions and eat
just plain old regular onions like the rest of us?
What exactly do the farmers raise in North Carolina that she
can eat?
This is another one of those out-of-touch, you should have thought before you opened your mouth tricks.
I'll tell you, folks, the Democrats started their campaigns ways too early. We don't need a two-year dog-and-pony-show
from these yokels. By the time the election rolls around, they're gonna be cannabalizing each other. You just wait and
see.
It's just starting to get interesting -- as in the You Tube debate the other night. And they actually
call that a debate.
Not.
It was a simultaneous set of monologues. All the candidates had their little
talking points. You'd get the same information if you wrote, called, or e-mailed their mighty offices on Capitol Hill.
##
WARD CHURCHILL GETS FIRED
First he said he was an Indian. A Cherokee.
Why is he picking on my people? Then the Indians said he wasn't one of them.
Then he tried to pass
off someone's copyrighted works as his own.
And then the University of Colorado at Boulder fired him.
The Board of Regents vote was 8-1.
Today he's going to sue. For what? Wrongful termination? I'm not a lawyer
but it seems to me that if what you said about yourself was a pack of lies, then there's probably some probably cause
underneath that mountain of hokey.
But we shall see. If you want to read more, it's here: http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=74224
##
9:09 am
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
MY LIFE IN INK -- used to be "From the Paw Paw Patch"
But
just to be sure I'm not infringing on someone's copyright, I changed the name. Used to be called "My Moment of
Zen" but then I realized that Jon Stewart closes his show with "Here's your moment of zen" -- Surely "My
Life in Ink" will be safe and I won't step on anyone's toes.
Didn't get around to deadheading
my Petunias yesterday. We went to the bank instead to activate our new ATM cards. The ATM machine was being worked on, so
we drove to another ATM. That worked even if they did charge $2 for the transaction. The debit card/ATM card didn't activate
by calling a number like a credit card -- you just have to use the card at an ATM machine.
That took the best part
of an hour because the password for the bank account doesn't work for the ATM card. So we had to go into the bank lobby
to get a new password for the ATM set up.
Today we are going to burn some of the huge pile of yard trash that
we inherited with the property. The pile is a mixture of limbs that have fallen during many old storms and smaller limbs
that were pruned probably. So we'll sit in the shade by the fire pit at the back of the property while we sip iced
tea and poke at the fire.
Quint spent the best part of a half hour yesterday getting my new stove level. The
guy who had installed the range had leveled it. At least, his level on the oven shelf was level. But when I was cooking yesterday,
all the cooking oil went to one side of the skillet. Turns out that the burners were just a tad off. Putting the level on
the skillet when it was sitting on the burner produced a different, very unlevel result.
##
IF
YOU'RE A PATTON (GEORGE C. SCOTT) FAN, LISTEN TO AN IMPERSONATION OF HIM TELLING YOU WHAT HE'D DO ABOUT THE WAR ON
TERROR IF HE WERE ALIVE TODAY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyUX6wV1lBQ&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fhotair%2Ecom%2Farchives%2F2007%2F07%2F22%2Fvideo%2Dgen%2Dpatton%2Don%2Dthe%2Dwar%2Don%2Dterror%2Dharry%2Dreid%2F
##
BOTULISM SCARE NOW SPREADS WORLDWIDE
It started at Castleberry Food
Co. -- a division of Bumble Bee Foods -- in Georgia.
Mostly involved not dog chili sauce at first but has since
been expanded to other products like stews, chili, hash and even pet foods distributed under various names.
Botulism
is potentially deadly. So far only a couple of people in Texas are in the hospital and they are in serious condition.
Symptoms include dizziness, double vision, difficulty in breathing and abdominal problems.
Reuters
broke the story this morning: http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN2337595620070723?feedType=RSS&rpc=22&sp=true
##
MISSIONARIES STILL LIVE IN HARM'S WAY
They go to the farest
reaches of the world -- putting their lives in peril as they make their way to the spiritually hungry.
Tu Thanh
Ha wrote an article in The Globe and Mail that describes the adversities that these marvelous warriors for Christ
live with every day. (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070723.AFGHANSIDE23/TPStory/TPInternational/Asia/)
The missionaries set up a kind of underground railroad to help people who want assylum and freedom from persecution.
The missionaries run the risk of deportation from the host country, capture, prison, even beheading.
The article
details ..."South Korean Christians have been warned by their government that they run the risk of provoking Muslims
when they venture into volatile, unstable areas, especially after the killing in June of 2004 of Kim Sun-Il, a South Korean
translator who had planned to do missionary work. Islamic militants in Iraq linked to al-Qaeda adducted and beheaded him."
Satan does not like warriors for Christ.
Pray for the missionaries around the globe who are doing God's
work wherever they go.
##
THE DEMOCRATS HOST SOMETHING THEY CALL A DEBATE
Franklin
I'd rather watch the Three Stooges than this herd of clowns.
Instead, Quint and I watched an old Die Hard
movie.
The Democrats' simultaneous monologues get rehashed and respunt out anyway just in time for the morning
news.
For instance, one questioner on You Tube asked Obama about meeting with "...the leaders of Iran, Syria,
Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries..."
Obama said, "I
would..."
And then his spin doctor, David Axelrod, got ahold of Obama's statement and has this
to add: "... Obama didn’t mean any such meetings would actually take place..."
And there you have
a big reason why the congressional approval rating is in a free fall -- not at 14%.
Politicians just talk. That's
all they do. Apparently they don't mean what they say.
Byron York filed this story today for National Review:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OGQzODcyNWE1OTU0YWIxYzRiNDhiNTIzZTk2MmMxYjg=
Another good recap of the debates was filed by Wesley Prudent for the Jewish World Review. Prudent is
Editor in Chief for the Washington Times. You can read his recount of the "debate" at: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/pruden072407.php3
Pruden called the "debate" the Democrats' gong show.
They're not just tired, and
stretching all their etiquette muscles to just be in the same room together.
I think they're about ready to
start cannibalizing each other.
In a way it's already started. Hillary and Edwards have pretty much decided
that they ought to be the only real recognized candidates who have these debates. Get rid of all those "little guys"
who don't matter so much.
"It'll just be you and me, babe," they whisper to each other.
But wait, they haven't even had the primaries yet. Isn't that what the primaries are supposed to do? Narrow the
field down to the most viable candidate.
Who told Hillary and Edwards they could do that way on the outskirts of
voter intent?
Their arrogance will get them in the end.
##
9:56 am
Monday, July 23, 2007
FROM THE PAW PAW PATCH --
I'm not sure if using paw
paw patch is a copyright infringement, so if it does, I'll switch this news piece to my family and friends to My
Life in Ink.
There -- fixed it.
More and more publishers are really sticking to their copyright.
I don't blame them. There are people who really take advantage of the "fair use rule" which limits quoting something
that's copyright to about 150 words. The work still has to be cited which some people don't want to take the time
or give the credit for doing.
Since I also write, you can bet I fully support the publishers' and authors'
positions.
Well, here we are sitting in our house. Not having to worry about the three hour dash back to the Chicago
area this fine Monday morning. It's about 73 degrees here and the humidity is 49%. Is that about a perfect day or what?
I mowed the grass yesterday. We have a new electric lawnmower. It took a bit of time and practice before I finally
got the hang of it without running over the power cord. I was getting more than a little frustrated at first because my electric
orange power cord kept getting tangled up in my feet.
I must have looked like a big tall meatball with bright
orange spaghetti wrapped around my legs. After I figured out how to whip the cord over to where I had just mowed -- when I
turned to head back -- it worked out much better.
Quint came to my rescue -- from myself -- and helped me get untangled. At
least he was a gentleman and didn't roll on the ground laughing. But then again, maybe that's why he headed back to
the house so fast. Did he have a giggle fest without inviting me? Not that he'd ever tell me.
Today I'm
going to mow the front yard. Glad I got that cord thing figured out. Then I'm going to deadhead the Petunias, and
my neighbor across the street -- Rosemary -- said she'd gladly share some of her Honeysuckle with me. Must be like
my Trumpet Vine -- goes everywhere.
I was mowing Trumpet Vine sticker uppers in the backyard for a good ten
feet out from the mother vine. No wonder those things want to take over the world, one backyard at a time. I remember
Honeysuckle being like that. I'm going to transplant the Honeysuckle not too far from the Jasmine which already has
little white blooms on it. Smells delicious too.
Sure is nice to have our own dirt.
##
CONGRESS CAN'T/WON'T PASS ANY LEGISLATION -- SO NOW THEY'RE GOING TO PUNISH/CENSURE BUSH OR YAMMER ABOUT
IMPEACHMENT -- IT'S ALL A WASTE OF TAXPAYERS' DOLLARS
In the words of an old folk sonk, ...when
will they ever learn?
Russ Feingold (D-Wisc) wants to censure President Bush because he disagrees with how
Bush is handling the war in Iraq. Apparently his party leaders back home aren't all that interested in what their congressional
has in mind.
This isn't the first time Feingold has tried to censure Bush. Last time was in 2006. Had something
to do with warrantless spying on suspected terrorists. That attempt to censure didn't go anywhere either.
Read
more at http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070722/D8QHQTJG0.html
Censuring a president is a kind of do-nothing condemnation. It's no surprise that both the Democrats in the
Senate, under the leadership of Hisness Harry Reid, have done nothing but condemn the president since Bush's inauguration.
Censureship doesn't have any legal consequences, nor does it have any constitutional basis. It's what
blow-hards do when they lose the did so/did not battle.
And now the city of West Hollywood joins some
80 other municipalities around the country to join the impeach Bush garbage pickers. They seem to think that because
of Bush, the U.S. Constitution is in peril because of warrantless spying on terrorists. The municipalities also say that Bush
is guilty of torturing prisoners.
Actually, the call for impeachment from these 80 some municipalities have
bundled Bush and Cheney together. So what exactly is their goal? To get Bush and Cheney out of the way so that America's
Surrogate Queen of Mean Nancy Pelosi could then succeed to what she perceives is a throne over there in the White House.
I'm just curious as to whether all those 80 municipalities are in California where Pelosi is from. Or are they
kind of peppered about on the east coast and west coast.
They can't bring charges of high crimes and misdemeanors
against either Bush or Cheney so they sit around and waste taxpayers' money by making a lot of noise and getting their
names in the national press.
This was a story that broke today in United Press International: http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/07/22/west_hollywood_joins_call_for_impeachment/4685/
I'm just curious, though. Bush has 18 months to go before his second term is up. I wonder if he's counting
the days until he can get back to his Texas ranch and just plain old relax on his own dirt. Maybe go out back after breakfast
and kick a few Sidewinders around. Wonder if he's named any of them.
##
BATTING COACH
MIKE COOLBAUGH KILLED BY HARD FOUL BALL
Coolbaugh played for the St. Louis Cardinals until 2002.
On July 3 he started his new coaching job for the Tulsa Drillers.
Not even a month later, he was killed
by a hard-hit foul ball in a game in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
What a tragedy. Prayers lifted for Coolbaugh
and all his family and friends who will mourn his death.
Photo and article are at Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,290335,00.html
While he played for the major leagues -- first the Milwaukee Brewers, then the St. Louis Cardinals, he made 44
professional appearances, either as a third base coach or a pinch hitter.
The Tulsa Drillers are affiliated with
the Colorado Rockies.
##
ONE STEP CLOSER TO HELPING ALZHEIMER PATIENTS GET BETTER
Great news for victims of Alzheimers -- biologists at the University of St. Andrews, working with scientists from
the United States, have developed a medicine that "...has successfully prevented the disease killing brain cells, improving
memory and learning ability that was already damaged..."
That's about the best news I've read so far
about Alzheimers. Around the world, population is getting older. Finding this kind of solution to the ravages of Alzheimers
is like finding the holy grail, the article says.
Read more about what these medicial geniuses have discovered
at: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23405457-details/Scientists+'step+closer+to+Alzheimer's+cure'/article.do
##
I ALWAYS WONDERED IF THE SHOES WERE GUARDED DURING PRAYERS
It's
kind of like checking your coat at one of those fancy schmancy restaurants. The coat room is kind of guarded by a coatroom
hostess who makes sure that non one gets your coat by mistake.
And that's how you can always tell that my fur
is faux. They won't check real fur. Besides, it would take hundreds of those poor little creatures to make a full length
coat. I'd much rather have them frolicking about -- or whatever it is that minks do when they're happy.
But
when Muslims go into their mosques for prayers or sermons, who watches the pile of shoes at the door?
Enquiring
minds want to know.
Apparently the shoes are not always guarded.
That's what happened to Hamas Prime
Minister Ismail Haniyeh while he was attending Friday prayers in Gaza City (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1870278/posts).
But it's all better now because the shoes were discovered later. A kid admitted he stole the shoes.
##
WHO ARE THEY KIDDING? IT'S A GREAT SCHEME TO LAUNDER THEIR MILLIONS
Nelson
Mandela is forming a new club. And he's invited some roving nitwits to join him.
It was the occasion of Manela's
89th birthday. He's calling his group "The Elders."
They include Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, and
Mary Robinson so far. They're going to be bankrolled by Ted Turner's piggy bank as well as British tycoon Richard
Branson's.
Jimmy Carter says they're going to fill vacuums, not deliver bedpans to malaria patients.
Just a thought, but how can vacuums fill vacuums?
With that, I'd better quit while I'm ahead. You
can tell I'm no fan of Jimmy Carter.
But you can read the entire article in Front Page Magazine article that's
excerpted on Free Republic at: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1870240/posts
##
9:29 am
Saturday, July 21, 2007
FROM THE PAW PAW PATCH --
I usually don't post on Saturday,
but am anyway because I didn't get a chance to last Monday -- which was moving day.
Besides, I try to remain
flexible.
We're still looking for lots of things. I found all the books but not the bookends. Now why would
I pack them in different places?
Who knows what I was thinking that day.
So Quint was registering my
new range online. He had the nerve to ask me what the brand was. To which I responded: it's white with black trim, has
a turbocharged burner that gets really really hot, and a self-cleaning oven. What brand? I do not know. But it works really
good. Does it matter that it's a GE or a Hotpoint. Only sales people at those stores would make those claims. I like what
I got. It's sitting in my kitchen/food lab.
Today I'm going to mow some more grass, deadhead the petunias,
weed the rose garden, dig up and transplant some honeysuckle from my neighbor, Rosemary, across the street, and take brick
clips down to Camilla, my other neighbor. That way, she can hang bags of flowers or whatever on her bricks.
I
had used them in the office to hang pictures on. Can't use them now because we have a sided house which my next door neighbor,
Mr. Grumpy, says is ugly. What the heck -- there's a grump in every neighborhood.
I remember a little poem
I learned in fourth grade that goes like this:
Heretic, rebel -- a thing to flaut
He drew a circle that
shut me out.
But love and I had the wit to win,
We drew a circle that took him in.
So much for Mr.
Grumpy.
##
HOW TO MANAGE ANGER BEFORE IT GETS OUT OF CONTROL
As a
nation of hurried, harried people, we really ought to relax and learn to be nice to others, for goodness sake.
For
instance, out in California, the construction season is in full commuter grip. There's not much worse than having a daily,
one-way commute of 45 minutes to an hour. But when the freeway gets minimized during rush hour traffic, someone is going to
pay!
One commuter got so frustrated that he threw a burrito at a construction worker! Yes, folks, a burrito.
Okay for you, says the state. The burrito was the final straw. We tolerated the death threats. And construction workers
put up with your BB guns. But when you start throwing burritos at our workers, that's just too much abuse.
"What
are you going to do about it?" you ask.
"Simple, we're going to close the whole thing down until
the work is finished. Now you'll have to go down those windy bendy roads like you used to and it'll take you at least
another half hour each way."
But there's more in this Associated Press article that appeared in today's
Breitbart.com: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8QGFIG00&show_article=1
Then there was this guy in New York who ran over a 72 year-old woman with his shopping cart, continued to push
her out of the store, then ran off without paying for his groceries.
Guess she was taking too long to process her
debit card -- he bumped her and there were words spoken. Then he got really upset, I guess, because he knocked her down with
his cart and ran over her.
What a chump. Don't ever hit somebody's grandma, much less run over her with
your shopping cart.
Well, the workers ran out of the store to help Grandma, and they got his license number and
make of the car. Duh.
Police didn't have a great deal of trouble solving that one.
Read more at:
http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070719/NEWS01/707190440
If you're going to manage anger, you have to first realize that there are specific stages that trigger anger,
keep it going, and accelerate to violence.
The stages are:
1. You frustrated me from getting what I
want.
2. You have no right to frustrate me.
3. People who frustrate me are mean.
4. Mean people deserve to
be punished.
Civilized, well-mannered people are able to calm themselves down, divert their anger before it builds
at eight Steps 1 or 2.
If you let it go on to Step 3, you're already building a rationale that you think justifies
retaliation.
If you get to Step 4, you're planning ways to get even.
Not nice!
Just get
a grip on your psyche and realize that you can't have everything you want all the time. That's for babies who are
still learning the way the world works. Hopefully somewhere along the way toward maturing to adulthood, babies learn that
when you do something to someone, something gets done to you.
##
THIS MIGHT HELP WITH
GLOBAL WARMING -- DUMPING SPACE JUNK
It isn't just any bit of space junk, mind.
It's
a 1,400 pount tank the size of a refrigerator that was used to store a coolant at the International Space Station.
Hmmmm. If the spacemen dump it into the earth's atmosphere where they're hoping the whole package will burn
up on its way to earth, is it possible that it could be the trigger to start the earth to cool?
Just asking.
On the other hand, maybe it will be the tipping point that will start the next mini-ice age.
It's going
to take the spacemen about six hours to take out the trash. And the kids used to complain about this task taking them only
a few minutes.
But six hours? Exactly how much trash are they talking about here?
The first person
who starts singing, "Raindrops keep falling on your head," is going to get some of my very practiced ugly,
meany faces that I learned in first grade. And I may just sue you for $10 million dollars if any of that stuff hits me or
falls through the roof of my house or creates a crater in my backyard that later becomes a national park with one of
those little tourist attraction brass plates out front that says "Here lies the first official piece of space junk that was
jettisoned from the International Space Station."
Read more at: http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN1942489120070720?feedType=RSS&rpc=22&sp=true
There, I feel better. And I'm not even at the Meany First Step.
##
AL
GORE III CAUGHT WITH 140 VICODIN PILLS
Wow! That's a felony.
See, it wasn't the 100
MPH traffic ticket that you had to worry about, so much as the possibility of doing hard time to two felony counts of drug
possession, some soft time for misdemeanor counts of having drugs without a prescription and I don't know how much marijuana
he had with him. Plus Xanax, Valium, Soma, Adderal. Adderal? But that's for ADHD.
He is scheduled for
arraignment in Laguna Niguel on August 1st.
That ought to be interesting. Let's see, drug counseling? Did that
already. But that was in Virginia. He was a student at Harvard then. Maybe the California counseling will be better for him.
After all, the California version cures all those Hollywood types in just a few days. But then, they go partying again
on their way from rehab, so there's a real question about efficacy in my mind.
##
11:42 am
Friday, July 20, 2007
FROM THE PAW PAW PATCH --
Yesterday was a lazy, lazy day.
From the looks of things, today is not going to be much different.
Yep --we're liking retirement a lot.
When (and if) the time comes that we get bored, we will take short road trips to visit friends who are nearby. Or
just go for a drive in the country.
I'll be looking for freshly harvested produce. My little container garden
did very well. We're having tomatoes for salads that are very ripe and yummy. But we're just about able to stay caught
up with salads using our own tomatoes. We like tomatoes-provolone-basil salads. I have my own tomatoes and basil. Not going
to make my own cheese, though.
I remember milking a cow (only once) when I was a kid. I can tell you that grabbing
onto those little dangly things on the cow is not a bit thrilling -- or interesting -- not even if you're a very bored
little kid.
So I'll leave cheese-making to those other people who do cow things to make cheese.
I'm
getting a late start today, so I'd best get at it and see what the weird world of headlines looks like.
##
SNIPS AND SNAILS AND...
A few little headling blips that caught my eye --
In a Fox News release this morning, sources close to bin Laden are now saying that their leader died from an untreated
lung infection. Supposedly these people attended his funeral. Read the article at: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,41576,00.html.
Hmmm, untreated lung infection -- buried somewhere in the Tora Bora Mountain region.
Then
there's that "won't go away" story about Natalee Hollaway. Now there's a story about her dying
because of a cardiac arrest as a result of cocaine overdose. How can Fox News make that claim? There isn't a body to autopsy.
But supposedly there are some very reliable sources close to the investigation that have revealed what they know to Fox. Here's
the link in case you want to read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,290093,00.html
And what else. Oh yeah, the Tamme Faye story. This one came and went off the radar screen before
I could get back to the link where I read the story. Tammy is supposed to be weighing in about 65 pounds now. She started
out with colon cancer that has since spread to her lungs. I believe the article says that she is not being medically treated
at this point and has turned her life and death over to the Lord.
###
NEW ZOGBY POLL SAYS
CONGRESSIONALS HAVE SUNK TO A 14% APPROVAL RATING
And who in the world could be surprised?
Harry
Reid is rude -- even by a fellow senator's opinion. Arlen Specter, for one, was mighty unpleased with Reid's pushy
attitude when he said in a Desert News article, "The leadership is setting a dictatorial tone," Specter,
R-Pa., said Thursday, still furious over his treatment the day before. "Senators didn't get here to be pushed around."
-- read more at: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,695193497,00.html
You tell him, Mr. Specter, although rude is not exactly the word I would use to describe the senate these days,
especially the so-called Majority Something Or Other. Sorry, but "leader" is not a word I would ever use to describe
Reid the Democrat from Nevada.
Same goes for Her Speakerness Pelosi over in the House. She's supposedly writing
her memoirs. As if she has done anything worth mentioning. Continuously getting yourself re-elected just means you've
learned how to play the game. Looks like the only ones who are better off with your terms are you and your husband Paul.
Mother Teresa she is not. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a picture of her walking through a homeless
shelter, or trying to get underage prostitutes off the streets of San Francisco. And even if she did go through shelters,
they'd have to make disruptive room for her entourage of 25 or so people. She never goes anywhere without them, I'll
bet.
##
OBAMA SAYS PREVENTING GENOCIDE IS NOT A GOOD REASON TO STAY IN IRAQ
I
think he ought to go over to Baghdad and ask the Iraqis what they think about that.
In an Associated Press article
that published on Breitbart, Obama says "United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that
preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn't a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there."
(read article
at: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8QGF5700&show_article=1)
It's a good thing Obama wasn't around when the U.S. forces went into the death camps in Germany and Poland
and stopped the genocide there. To have it Obama's way, the Jews probably would all have been murdered instead of just
six million.
That's okay. Keep on talking Mr. Obama. The more you talk, the more the voters of this country
will see you as the uncaring, sinister fake that you truly are.
You'll never get my vote. And hopefully the
thousands who read this column will agree with me, not you.
##
11:50 am
Thursday, July 19, 2007
FROM THE PAW PAW PATCH --
This morning I hear thunder rumbling
off in the distance. Maybe a good summer shower would cool things down a bit.
It's hot and sticky. Kind of
a Tennessee Williams "long hot summer" heat where the air sticks to the skin and holds it captive until you get
underneath a fan.
I remember when I was a kid that was one of the main advertising sources for the local funeral
home -- supplying hand fans for churches. And calendars for the new year. But how many times did I cool off with a funeral
home fan while sitting in pews that way back then were not padded like they are today.
Those were not the good
old days. In fact, whenever I think how romantic it would be to have lived back in the good old days of Elizabeth I of England,
I remind myself that they didn't have automatic washing machines -- rather, the clothes were washed by hand, then laid
out on the grasses in the meadows to sun dry.
Just a weird thought came into my head. What did they do about birds
having "accidents" when they flew around over the meadows? Did they have to haul the now soiled clothes back to
the castle washroom for a new sudsing?
Nope. This is better. These are the good days. I have a microwave, even
a turbo-charged gas ranged that was installed yesterday. My new range even has a furnace blaster on one of the burners for
big jobs -- like my water bath which is a 21-quart pot for canning tomato sauce. It even has a little simmering burner. I
guess that's in case I forget how to turn the other burners down.
My food lab is nearly complete. We have yet
to install a ceiling fan. That will, for sure, be one of our next projects. That project is high on our priority list, believe
me. Manana. It's not that much of a big hurry project.
So now let's see how the congressionals are doing.
Somehow I don't think Harry Reid's pajama party in the senate worked out quite the way he envisioned.
##
REID PULLS DEPT. OF DEFENSE SPENDING BILL
That's the pajama party agenda item.
We saw pictures in the news and blasted across the TV screens showing workers hauling rollaway beds into the crooks
and crannies of the Lyndon B. Johnson Room in the senate area. My question is: if it was supposed to be an all-night debate,
why did they need beds in the first place.
Guess those beds were for the senators who don't have a "home
away from home" retreat.
If you're a senator with lots of clout, you have one of those rooms.
It's like a little hideaway that the senators can go to when they needs to have some kind of a getaway from the clammering
noise of their constituents who keep calling office switchboards and filling up voice mails with messages like, "What
do you mean you're going to vote for this bill -- or that bill? You just wait 'til election day and you'll find
out that you're supposed to be up there representing us, your constituents."
Well, senators, who are all
little miniature presidential wannabees, just don't like to hear all that clammering noise, so they have little hidey
holes somewhere in the building where they can go and contemplate what they're going to do next.
And just how
dare the little voters back home think they can call up here and try to intimidate me. After all, I am a United States Senator
and will not be intimidated, as Trent Lott from Mississippi might say.
Well, voters aren't trying to intimidate
anybody. We just want our voice to be heard and the time is now -- not fifteen days before the next election when you bring
your greasy little hand out to your district and beg for money and votes and try to make us believe promises that you never
intend to keep.
We, the voters, have something else in mind. We'll do what we do best. It's called an election.
But this latest attempt by the senators to pass a Department of Defense Appropriations bill was dirty politics at
its worst. It would have put President Bush into quite a dilemma because the bill, most likely, would have been vetoed.
Why, you may ask.
Because the DoD bill also included a troop withdrawal deadline date. That's something
that congress does not have the authority to do. If, in fact, the Senate wants this war to end, they can de-fund it. But they
can't impose deadlines. That's something that the Commander in Chief decides, along with the best advice of his military
out in the field.
But then, as I said, the senators think they're miniature presidents.
Not!
And what was Billy Bass Big-Mouth Reid's reaction to his loss of a cloture vote (for the 44th time in this congress)?
Reid said, "“At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is extraordinarily discouraging.”
Read more in the article published this morning in The Hill: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/reid-pulls-the-dod-bill-2007-07-19.html
Well, Mr. Reid, consider it a learning experience. Intelligent people do not continue to do things the same way if
the first way didn't work. They change tactics. You, on the other hand, keep bringing up these motions for cloture that
don't get passed.
If I may be so bold as to explain something to you, you ought to pull out all the amendments that
have nothing to do with the topic of the bill itself.
Take for instance the tag on amendment about the deadline
for pulling the troops out of Iraq. Whose idea was that?
This bill was supposed to be about a Department of Defense
spending package. You know, bullets for the guns and body armor for our soldiers and anything else they need to get their
job done so that they can come home safely when the generals say we're done in Iraq.
The bill looked
pretty bloated out with amendments that you thought you could sneak in under the radar.
Just remember, you
have one job and one job only. That job is to run the country for the taxpayers. We, the taxpayers, are your boss,
not the other way around. So get back to work and pass a spending bill that will give our military all the tools they need
to get the job done and quit politicizing the war in Iraq.
##
RUSSIA KICKS OUT BRITISH
AMBASSADORS
Is a cold war looming over the horizon again?
Moscow says the British started it.
In an article on My Way.com, the Russians say it has to do with "...a confrontation mounted between Moscow and
London over the murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko."
Uh oh. We'll want to keep our eyes peeled
on this one, folks. Read more at: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070719/D8QFLO701.html
Litvinenko, if you may recall, was the spy who died of some kind of poison in his system that was discovered in
a British hospital where he went and died. Russia refused to extradite a named poisoner back to London to stand trial in Litvinenko's
death.
##
8:31 am
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
FROM THE PAW PAW PATCH --
I love summer. Next to spring and
winter and autumn, it's my favorite season.
Our house has central air conditioning but we seldom use it. Quint
and I both would rather have the windows open with curtains billowing in the summer breezes, and sounds of summer like lawn
mowers running off in the distance, and birds chirping and other blended sounds that make up the summer din.
We
only turn on the air conditioning when the humidity gets too too high. I doubt if we save any money by not using the air because
we have electric fans turned on to move the air around. Then we can sit around sipping our iced tea saying "I love summer."
Today's agenda includes welcoming the plumber. We learned that our hot water heater is not in code. We have to
fix that.
And we're going to have a gas line run from the meter to the kitchen so that when my new range arrives
in the next day or so, it can be right properly installed. The electric range is gone. History. Out of here.
We'll
empty out some more boxes, eat lunch and take a nap. Maybe I'll paint some more later this afternoon. There's still
walls in the basement as well as 3/4 of the basement floor to paint yet. Then I'll go outside and paint lattice and trellises.
I like to paint. It's good therapy.
Quint has to put the new electric lawnmower together. One of our neighbors
mowed the front yard yesterday afternoon. At least we don't look so overgrown.
##
SENATORS
HAVING A PAJAMA PARTY -- STARTED TUESDAY NIGHT AND KEEPS ON GOING ...
It'll be an all-nighter at
the senate end of The Dome.
Workers have been hauling in cots so they can catch a snooze if they need to.
Hmmmm. Wonder if they are all parked in one long hallway or do they separate the men from the un-men.
Interestingly
enough, it's the anniversary of another all-nighter that Senator Ted Kennedy ran through in 1969. Up to that point in
time, his biggest traffic violation had been running red lights. (See: http://www.ytedk.com/drivingrecord.htm).
After that infamous day when he drove into the drink and killed Mary Jo Kopechne, running red lights must have
seemed a bit minor.
A week after the incident, Kennedy actually pled not guilty to leaving the scene of an
accident.
But what's tonight all about in the senate.
Well, Himself, The Mr. Reid from Nevada, announced
the pajama party, or all-nighter because they're doing it again -- filibustering that is. They'll all be blabbering
about anything they want to say and nobody can stop them because, at least so far, there aren't enough votes to block
the filibuster.
And what's the point of the filibuster?
Who knows? They're senators and they
think they can do anything they want to and they keep getting re-elected, so they must look at that as an approval of
what they're doing.
Wrong!!
In case the senators haven't looked recently, the congressionals'
approval rating has sunk to an all-time low of 24%. And it looks like the approval rating is in a free fall. Pretty soon
it will hit single digits and they'll probably just think the American taxpayers are joking around.
Then there'll
be the elections. They actually believe they cannot ever be kicked out from under The Dome.
Like it's
never happened before!
##
POLITICAL DONATIONS AREN'T VOTES
At
least not among the Hollywood types.
For instance, Barbara Streisand donated the maximum $2,300 each to Hillary,
Edwards and Obama.
Indecision is such a curse, don't you think?
If you want to see what some of
the other biggies are doing with their campaign donations, read this article: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,289718,00.html
Another really good web site, if you're following the money, is http://www.opensecrets.org/
I'll tell you -- what with the Freedom of Information Act, these congressionals have a lot more transparency
than they probably would like. At the Open Secrets site, you can go all the way down to your local congressman in Washington
and see who's sending him/her money.
Actually, the donations add up to more than the maximum allowed by law
so these companies set up political action committees (PACs) and employees donate money through this cute little political
vehicle.
##
NEW STUDY: IT'S NOT THE MEGA VEGGIES DIET THAT PREVENT BREAST CANCER
A new study just completed looked at some 3,000 breast cancer survivors who had been concentrating on getting those
five servings a day of fruits and vegetables and really really curtailing fats in the diet, especially fats from meat products.
And you know what? These fastidious dieters didn't do any better than the rest of us who really have to work hard
to get our five or seven recommended servings a day.
Actually I shouldn't be so hard on myself because one
of my salads is probably three servings of lettuce all by itself. I did take a cue from the French women, though, and now
get my salad dressing on the side, dip my fork into the dressing then spear my lettuce or tomato or cucumber or mushrooms.
The first time I did this, I will admit, was for a lark.
Kind of like one of those "yeah, right" responses
that my mother used to say was smart alecky.
Well, you know what? I had almost all of the salad dressing left in
the side dish and was perfectly happy with the way my salad tasted.
So I don't dump all that salad dressing
on the greens anymore.
Truthfully, I probably get five servings of fruits and vegetables in every day. But it has
taken some doing. But it's not that hard to put a half cup of blueberries onto cottage cheese, or roll strawberries around
in Splenda if they aren't sweet enough.
This particular study, published at CNN's web site this morning,
was talking about a breast cancer study:(http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/07/17/diet.breast.cancer.ap/index.html)
I still think it's a good idea to eat all those veggies and fruit. After all, that's why God made them.
There's still colon cancer to worry about, and the roughage is good for that, I'm sure.
So keep eating
your veggies.
And your fruit.
I've tried all the diets -- Atkins, Mediterranean, South Beach, low
fat, low carb, high protein, etc.
I find that the best diet for me is the Garden of Eden diet. What would Adam
and Eve eat? Fruit, nuts and veggies. Do you suppose they ate chicken with their Waldorf Salad? Would they even be able to
get their hands on tuna for tuna salad? Or steak.
Can't you just see Adam at the grill now, yelling to Eve
who's whipping up a batch of potato salad, "Hey, Eve, how do you want your steak?"
Speaking of which,
did they have supermarkets back then to do all that butchering, or do you suppose they just skipped over the meat and went
straight to the dessert course, which might have been a plate of fruit and cheeses?
##
HILLARY'S
INFO AND DOCS SUBJECT OF LAWSUIT
Okay, so the records go back to the time when she was First Lady.
Things like daily office diary, schedule, day planner, telephone log book, and chronological file.
Judicial
Watch filed suit July 16, 2007, in a federal district court for all those pages and pages and pages of records. Fifteen months
ago Judicial Watch requested the same documents under the Freedom of Information Act but Hillary's office hasn't gotten
around to satisfying the request, so the lawsuit was filed requiring her to hand the stuff over.
Judicial Watch
is a group that investigates corruption and prosecutes government officials for not doing everything on the up and up.
I'll just bet we'll be hearing more about this.
Not that I really know, but I'll just
bet they're looking for any kind of information that would indicate that Hillary did, in fact, know all about the money
she picked up in California for her re-election campaign as a senator from New York. So far she's said her finance campaign
chairman was at fault.
And we're supposed to believe that she was too busy or too "somewhere else"
to have any cares or concerns about how the money collections were going.
We haven't heard the last of this
story, I'd wager.
##
8:13 am
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
FROM THE PAW PAW PATCH --
And finally moving day arrived.
Our great anticipation woke us up at 5:30 a.m. Eyes wide open. We woke up staring at each other like a couple
of pre-schoolers who were greeting the first day of vacation.
"I'm too excited to sleep," I sounded
like the kids in the Disney ad.
So we got out of bed and jumped into our clothes. We didn't even make coffee
at home -- stopped at White Castle for coffee and one of their great breakfast sandwiches (egg, sausage and cheese).
It felt really weird turning the locking the door behind us after nearly 29 years of wedded bliss at the same address. Oh
the fun we've had. It's the only place we've ever lived since we got married.
We have continued to
be amazed at how much stuff we've accumulated. We definitely have too much stuff.
And that was at the condo.
Then we went to the office. Too much stuff there too.
Now all our stuff is in one place. Our poor little Cape Cod
in Effingham is bulging at the seams. Clearly we need to divest some of our belongings. But first we have to find everything.
Our belongings are hiding under cover in boxes or plastic bags.
Quint says it will be a great winter time project.
He doesn't know it yet, but the great discoveries are going to happen way before winter.
To celebrate
our first day on the job of being retired persons, we took a nap after lunch. Then I got caught up on Free Republic to see
what I'd missed yesterday when we were busy with Two Men and a Truck, which, by the way, we highly recommend if you're
moving anywhere.
We checked Two Men and a Truck with the Illinois Department of Transportation and three other
movers that we found on the internet. You should always check to see if there are complaints against movers' licenses.
Two Men and a Truck was the only mover that did not have any complaints.
The other movers had complaints
for various things like unresolved complaints and/or low balling estimates.
None of that happens with Two Men
and a Truck. They're honest, efficient and oh so helpful and accommodating.
What worried me was the desk Quint
made for me. It came with a 29-page instruction booklet. It was in a box about eight inches thick and was the exact dimension
of the top of the desk.
After Quint put that thing together I promised him I'd never ask him to make anything
from one of the "some assembly required" kits again. In my entire life. Never.
And I haven't. But
I cherish the desk he made for me. He has already made a lateral file that matched.
So the movers went to pick
it up. From the expression on their faces, you'd have thought it was nailed to the floor, or sitting in concrete that
had set up years ago.
"Oh we'll get it on the truck," Mark the Mover said. "We've moved
heavier things."
Then I shared with him that the desk was going in a office on the second floor. "Then
we'll rest up for that one," he said.
"Resting up" meant moving Quint's rolltop desk to his
basement office. I have a desk down there too. In case I get lonely and want to go down there and keep him company.
This retirement thing may turn out to be a hoot. And then the phone rang. Turns out Quint gave our new phone number to all
the insurance companies that had credentialed me as a provider.
Am I accepting new patients? the caller asked.
Yikes. Now we've really got to get serious about getting all those canyons of boxes unpacked and off the first
floor.
##
REMEMBER JOHN KERRY? HE BELIEVES THERE ARE 60 SENATORS WHO WOULD VOTE FOR A
CHANGE IN STRATEGY IN IRAQ
And so?
There are 76% of the American voters who disapprove of how
Congress is handling the business of the American people.
In an article in The Hill today, Kerry -- of
presidential-loss-fame from 2004 -- hinted that his senatorial colleagues are whispering in hallways about what they'd
like to do about Iraq.
Kerry says it's time for these -- supposedly 60 -- to kind of step up to the plate.
Yeah, right, John boy. Maybe they're just telling you that because (a) it's what they think you want to hear,
and/or (b) it will make you go away and quit bugging them about anti-Bush stuff.
The world knows that if Bush said
the sky was blue, you'd argue that it was Miss Pickle Green.
Read more at: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/kerry-more-than-60-senators-support-change-of-course-in-iraq-2007-07-17.html
##
THE DOW CROSSED THE $14,000 MARK THIS MORNING
True, it didn't
stay there for very long, but in less than two months -- 58 days to be exact -- the Dow went from $13,000 to $14,000+.
However, with crude hitting a $75+ mark, it's not exactly "Happy Days Are Here Again." And if you live
in Chicago, you pay more for gasoline than anywhere else in the country. It's at least twenty cents more a gallon than
we have here in Effingham.
We're so glad we don't live in Cook County, Illinois, anymore. That's where
the greenbacks only flow one way.
##
SEE, TAXPAYERS' NOISE DOES WORK!
After all the noise and angst about earmarks, you'll be happy to know, Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer, that there are a whole
bunch of earmarks that have not been claimed. $7.5 billion, in fact. Senators just haven't gotten around to claiming all
those earmarks.
Like they don't have time to go pick up the money!! Problem is, the moment they do, someone
over at the Taxpayers for Common Sense will make a note of it and put them in a report.
I just love accountability,
don't you?
One of my favorite watchdog groups, the Taxpayers for Common Sense, keeps a close eye on the congressionals.
It isn't so much that the projects may or may not have validity. That's not the point.
The point is that
money that is request for projects that are included in the appropriations bill should be named -- both by project and by
congressional lawmaker sponsor. None of this backroom politics stuff that's been going on for centuries.
It's
a new deal, so to speak.
No longer "I'll vote for your bill or amendment if you make sure my earmark
gets your vote."
Nope. Instead, it's a question of getting the projects out there on the floor where they
can be looked at, scrutinized, and debated. It's not about passing pet projects that will guarantee that a politician
will be elected if he brings home the back (pork/earmark) for his district.
“Part of the whole effort
of transparency is to move the budget out of the shadows and into the light,” said Steve Ellis, the group’s [Taxpayers
for Common Sense] vice president for programs. “The public deserves to know what Congress and the administration
are doing with their tax dollars.”
Hear hear.
Maybe, just maybe, if Congress started playing by
a new set of ethical rules, their approval rating would start to rise. As it is, the approval rating is now down around 24%
and still descending as if it were in a freefall.
Gee, do you think they'll finally get the message when it
hits single digits. It will probably be in the single digits by the time the old election rolls around.
Just keep
in mind that most of the liberals who are running for office are current office holders. That does not say "good presidential
material" to me.
Think of it: if they are members of the same congress (110th) that has 76% of the American
taxpayers disapproving of their antics, why would anyone want them to be president?
Clearly, a non-incumbent would
have a better chance. Especially if it were someone who is ethical and Christian. And that's my take on that.
Read more from The Hill: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/7.5b-earmarks-unclaimed-2007-07-17.html
##
MOTHER EARTH IS SHAKING AGAIN
This time it's a 6.8 quake in
Japan. Problem is, the epicenter is near a 7 tower nuclear power facility.
Ooops. Some water leakage. Some busted
pipes. Whole lot of shaking going on.
Are we worried?
I would be, and I don't care who told me
there was nothing to be concerned about. They aren't the ones who would be glowing in the dark in the aftermath of all
that damage. There were some 1,200 gallons of radioactive water "inadvertently" dumped into the Sea of Japan.
Didn't they say the same thing about Chernobyl at first?
So do you think there will be new species
discovered, like super giant squids in non-squid colors?
I like to get out the globe and figure where, if I could
extend a line through the globe, where it would come out on the other side. True, there are some scientists who poo-poo that
idea, but you just watch. Somewhere off the eastern coast of northern Brazil? We'll see.
In fact, there's
a specific theory, the name of which I no longer remember, that purports that this exact thing happens. Listen, I can't
remember everything.
Read the Associated Press release picked up by Fox News at: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,289549,00.html
According to the International Herald Tribune, Japan has closed the nuclear facility in question. http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/17/news/japan.php
And a whole bunch of drums that contained radioactive stuff fell over and the disgorged its contents. That's
definitely not a good thing.
Here's a list of other earthquakes, just for today!
For other earthquakes, go to the USGS
site at: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php
##
4:27 pm
Saturday, July 14, 2007
FROM THE PAW PAW PATCH --
We're almost absolute "stick
a fork in me" done packing up the condo.
Quint is getting pretty keen on saying "this is the last time
that..." -- I have no doubt that come Monday morning I will be hearing things like "last time to shave in this bathroom,"
and "last time we make coffee here," etc. etc.
Moving is hard. Oh, not the packing up stuff. It's
the years of joy we've had in our home. Not that we won't have joy and happiness and contentment in our new home.
In fact, we are very comfortable and contented when we're there on weekends.
But we'll leave one place
to go to another. And truthfully, as long as we're together we'll be happy anywhere.
Today and tomorrow
will be gathering up the odds and ends, and, as Quint says, the last time to do a lot of things.
So Monday morning,
the movers arrive. Not sure if I'll be able to get a blog posted. But I'll bet I manage to squeeze that in.
##
9:03 am
Friday, July 13, 2007
FROM THE PAW PAW PATCH --
This has been a weird week. It
started on Monday when we arrived in Tinley Park about noon only to discover that our DSL had been deactivated.
About
ten days ago, Quint called AT&T to let them know that our moving day would be July 16th and at that time, to disconnect
the telephone service and the DSL (the two were bundled together).
Well, the phone worked but the DSL had been
deactivated on the day Quint called. Except that we didn't know about it because we spent the week in Effingham.
Oh they were chagrined. And they were embarrassed. And they were apologetic. And they promised to have us up and running
by Wednesday. That hardly seems logical for a company that prides itself on being ultra-high tech! You need 48 hours to reactivate
us?
Well, sorry, sir. It's the best we can do.
And here we are on Friday, at noon, and we're
reactivated. Thank you very much. Now don't forget to turn the thing off on 7/16. We aren't going to pay an extra
day and if you don't quit harrassing me, I'll sue you for $10 million dollars for all the angst you've put me
through.
Right? Well, maybe not. So now, where to begin. So much news. So little time.
##
THE STOCK MARKET IS POSTURING ITSELF TO GO OVER THE $14,000 MARK
It might not be today, but
it will be soon.
The Dow hit $13,910 in trading. Remember that number because you're going to hear a lot of
political rhetoric from the politicians on the left side of the mark telling would be voters that the American economy has
gone you know where in a hand basket.
Don't believe them, folks. That new high water mark is a non-inflationary
number too.
That's what tax cuts do to an economy. Remember a few years ago when the economy was dragging its
heels and Bush proposed a tax cut? The theory was that tax cuts would trigger new growth in the economy. It always works that
way. Less tax money going out the door means companies have more money to put back into their businesses.
And that's
exactly what they do. New desks for workers. New forklifts for workers. New tools. New new new new new. There are workers
manufacturing all that new factory stuff, and then it gets shipped and delivered.
I have no idea how the liberals
will be able to paint a gloom and doom picture of the economy since it's chugging along rather robustly. But one thing
I know for sure -- they'll figure out a way to twist things around.
But listen, folks. A $14,000 Dow is awesome.
Especially when it's coupled with full employment. And it's also coupled with a high percentage of folks who own their
own homes.
Oh, for sure, bankruptcies are on the rise too. And home foreclosures. So what's that all about?
Well, maybe it means people are living just a bit too high on the hog. Just because the economy is rolling along in record
territory does not mean you can go out and buy a $500,000 house if you can't afford it.
But a $14,000
Dow? Wow!
##
NEW AP POLL SAYS THAT CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL RATING IS AT 24%
That's
a new low.
To put it another way, 76% of Americans disapprove of the way the congressionals are handling the affairs
of our government!
For one thing, Senator Barbara Boxer is running around saying things like "impeachment
for George Bush should be on the table."
That is total nonsense. Impeachment is reserved for elected officials
who commit crimes. -- You know, "high crimes and misdemeanors." And just because Bill Clinton was impeached does
not give Barbara Boxer the right to threaten a Republican president. It's not the same as "do unto others."
Bill Clinton was impeached because of high crimes and misdemeanors -- what crime, you may ask? Lying under oath for
starters.
That's a crime.
And he was disbarred in the State of Arkansas. I think for a period
of five years. He has since been reinstated, but he was, in fact disbarred.
So what do we call "lying under
oath?"
Perjury, that's what. Perjury is a crime.
And just what crimes would Barbara Boxer bring
against Bush? Let's hear it, Boxer. It's time for you and your ilk to put up or shut up.
Impeach Bush?
Indeed! It's a lot easier to sit on the sidelines and yammer away with idle little threats than to come forward with a
charge. Mainly because there is no charge that you could bring against this president.
So just go away.
##
OPEN MIKES -- NOW THEY'VE CAUGHT HILLARY AND EDWARDS
A Fox News reporter
captured these two actually talking about how to get the numbers of the Democratic presidential down to a smaller, more serious
number.
Guess they don't like the whole field hogging all that air time in debates. Better to just have the
two of them with mikes.
How arrogant can you be, Hillary and Edwards.
Don't forget Obama. Are you
classifying him as someone not so serious. I'd be careful about that, if I were you. He outfunded his campaign in the
2nd quarter, way past either one of you.
Actually, all that hot air going into the open mikes from the likes of
you two will make it just that much easier for the conservatives to make a good commercial about how arrogant you both
are.
So in that regard, I say keep it up!
See you at the polls, oh buffoony ones.
That was
a stupid stunt. And arrogant. You're going to find out what the American people do to arrogant politicians.
Next
thing I know your public relations mouthpieces are going to try to explain everything away and try to make it sound like you
meant something else.
Yeah, right!
(Read more at: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1865498/posts)
##
1:08 pm
Sunday, July 8, 2007
FROM THE PAW PAW PATCH --
I am happy to say that the ant
problem is no more. And the snails have moved to other places -- except the ones that hung around for happy hour and beer,
then fell into the butter tub.
We head back north tomorrow morning. We'll probably leave about eight
in the morning. That would be right after the garbage collectors make their weekly visit and Quint gets our garbage can back
where it belongs. Three hours later, we will be back in the office for our last week, then Monday, the 16th the movers show
up to cart up, lock stock and barrel back down here to stay.
Oh, we'll make trips north again -- we have a
daughter and her family in New Lenox, and my sister in Evergreen Park. All good reasons to make the trip north.
We
watched The Illusionist on TV last night. It's a really good story. If you haven't seen it yet, it's
on On Demand -- Starz, I think. I love a good mystery. And there's a twist at the end that you probably would never expect.
And now for some headlines. Yesterday was the big deal Concert Earth or something like that. So we'll see. That,
and other stories before we get a shelf put up in Quint's hardware store area of the basement. I say that because he has
the world's largest screwdriver collection.
##
MADONNA SHOULD LIVE WHAT SHE PREACHES
But then, that's the hypocrisy of all the Hollywood types. And you can still call her a Hollywood type
even if she does live in Britain. "Save the planet?" Indeed. She's reportedly using 100x the carbon footprint
as ordinary Brits and she wants to haul her you know what in front of a live audience and preach about saving the planet.
Read the Reuters article at: http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2007-07-08T112412Z_01_L06597373_RTRIDST_0_ENTERTAINMENT-CONCERT-COL.XML
This entire Live Earth concert was a bust pretty much around the world.
Hmmmm. I wonder why.
Do you think it could be that logical, well-meaning people are siding with the scientific community that is saying that
the global warming is part of a climate chance cycle that is not caused by us humans who live here on Earth?
A
really interesting video produced by Australians is hot-linked on my home page. It's 51 minutes long and it refutes the
people-caused phenomenon of global warming.
But in the meantime, Al Gore will be taking potshots at all
who disagree with his point of view.
Hang it up, Al. You are not the center of the universe. And neither
is the earth. Copernicus refuted that claim years ago.
We are all at the mercy of the solar cycles, specially,
Coronal Mass Ejections.
If you want to get some pretty basic information about how solar activities, and CMEs,
affect the earth, go to this NOAA article: http://www.sec.noaa.gov/primer/primer.html -- there's also some awesome photos of CMEs at the site also.
##
THE VOTES HAVE
BEEN COUNTED -- NEW LIST OF 7 WONDERS OF THE WORLD
First on the list is the 4,500 mile Great Wall of China.
I guess I'm surprised that the Great Pyramid at Giza didn't make the cut.
Nothing in the United
States made the list of 7.
South America has Rio with the 125 foot statue of Christ. But we have a 198 foot cross
in Effingham. That ought to be worth at least an honorable mention.
The list also includes:
•
Petra in Jordan • Brazil's statue of Christ the Redeemer • Peru's Machu Picchu •
Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid • The Colosseum in Rome • India's Taj Maha
If you
want to refresh your memory as to what these wonders are and they look like, there's a photo gallery at: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/07/06/seven.wonders/index.html
##
AND HERE COMES THE CARBON TAX
Congress proposes a 50 cent per
gallon tax. The new tax is being proposed by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.).
In an article pubished in The Hill, Dingell says he doesn't think the American taxpayers will be willing to
bear the cost of the carbon tax but he's just kind of trying to see how it will fly.
Excuse me?
Doesn't
he remember all those e-mails and telephone calls that jammed switchboards and voice mails a week or so ago about the immigration
bill that the senate tried to shimmy through and get past the voters?
Read more at: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/dingell-to-propose-50-cent-gasoline-tax-increase-2007-07-07.html
##
THE HOUSE RECONVENES ON TUESDAY AT 2 PM
Ah yes, they'll be
hurrying back to Washington from their rubber chicken circuit riding in their districts, and all those golf outings, and kissing
babies, etc.
The House starts back to work on Tuesday afternoon. That's in keeping with Nancy Pelosi's
promise to get a 5-day work week out of the congressionals. But that promise went the way of all the other political promises
-- into the "dead promise file."
The House is taking a long weekend because of their Independence Day
retreat/vacation/work-in-the-district stuff.
And they don't have anything scheduled by way of committee meetings
on Tuesday either. So just exactly what will our most august congressionals be doing? Who knows?
Probably won't
be taking any phone calls from taxpayers, though. They don't like to do that anymore. We ask too many snoopy questions
about what they're up to.
The senate will convene on Monday, July 9, even if it's at 2 pm. Is that the
beginning of the workday for congressionals?
Has anybody ever heard of starting the workday at 9 am? Who said
they could work the afternoon shift? We don't have flex time under the Dome.
On second thought, I guess we
do. At least they seem to think so. But then, our congressionals have somehow gotten the misguided notion that they are the
ruling royal class in America.
I can't wait for November 2008.
##
JANEREINHEIMER.COM
IS A 24-HOUR SITE NOW, AND AD CLICKS ARE INCREASING
Apparently, five o'clock in the morning is when
all you readers are getting some shut-eye. At least for now, that's the only hour of the day that we're not getting
readers to the site. No doubt that will change as the month progresses.
But what really surprises me is the number
of clicks on the ads. I don't pick the ads so I'm always curious about the topics of the ads. Somehow I think they're
related to the blogs posted for the day because the ad topics change as the blog topics change.
I'm not quite
sure how the ads work but I can get a report every day of how many clicks were made on how many ads and it gets re-translated
into pennies per click. I don't think clickers have to actually buy anything, just click. Actual purchases probably get
more than pennies, I'd imagine.
But at any rate, I'd like to thank all of you for continuing to read the
blogs every day. And thank you, too, for your e-mails. Just remember, though, when you send me an e-mail to put some kind
of tie to the blogs in the subject line. I do not open e-mails unless I know who you are.
##
AND
LAST, BUT NOT LEAST, THERE'S FRED THOMPSON
Not yet an official candidate, but sounding more like it
everyday, Fred Thompson is out there making speeches and wowing audiences.
Fox News says he energized a group of
young people who had gathered to listen to him in Hollywood, Florida. He was speaking before the Young Repubicans National
Convention.
While it may be true that young people generally don't go to the polls on election day, this group
of Young Republicans is one group that will.
And they like what they hear from Fred Thompson.
Actually,
I do too. The more I hear, the more I'd like to see him in the White House.
##
9:43 am
Friday, July 6, 2007
FROM THE PAW PAW PATCH --
Now that the snails are under control,
we are besieged with ants.
The little critters remind me of anxieties -- if you don't get all the way to the
root cause of the hidden fears, anxieties will attach to something else. Fear or tornados can shift to fear of spiders, or
ants, or whatever. All the while, that fearful little shadow lives hidden in the cave of our psyche. That is, unless you figure
out just exactly where the fear is coming from.
But back to the ants. We've lived on the second floor in the
condominium for so many years -- nearly thirty -- that we've forgotten what it's like to live on the ground floor
so close to Mother Nature.
So I sprinkled some Tide -- my grandma's trick -- onto the counter tops and let
them run around in it, get it all over their little feet, and track it back to their nest. That is, those that made it out
of the Tide.
This morning was a mop-up. Haven't seen a single ant yet today.
The Eagles Nest is
really shaping up. Quint has pulled out the carpet and I washed and waxed the floor. It has a gorgeous shine to it. Today
I'm going to paint the part of the window sill between the window and the storm window. Then I'll wash the curtains
and sheers and rehang them. Then, voila, we're ready for the furniture on the 16th.
We planted two more rose
bushes by the front door. That gives us four out there. Then we mulched them and hosed everything down. I use newspapers for
the underlayment before the mulch goes on. It works like a charm. If you use about four or five sheets thick, then put the
mulch on top of that, it really keeps the weeds out.
We're going to town to pay the water bill, mail a couple
of thank you notes for people who remembered my birthday, run by the police department to see what the burning rules are.
Then we're going to have lunch at one of the restaurants in town. Nice buffet.
Then I'll come back and
post a few blogs after I have a chance to read some of the headline stories.
##
AL GORE'S
LIVE AID CONCERTS OUGHT TO RAKE IN ZILLIONS FOR HIS NONPROFIT "SAVE THE PLANET AWARENESS" ORGANIZATION
Call me a sourpuss if you want to, but the big superstars flying around the world have flown over 222,000 miles
-- in the aggregate -- to get to their song stages.
That's nearly nine times the circumference of the earth.
How many carbon footprints do you think they are using up to bring Gore's music of planetary disaster set
to music?
Well, according to the London Daily Mail, that number would be 31,500 tons of carbon emissions
if you count in all the performers and the audience members.
Am I missing something here or is Al Gore just being
an attention-getting media hog again?
Read the entire store in this article, if you want more noteworthy details
-- tra la la -- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1861989/posts
##
UH OH, HILLARY'S CAMPAIGN FINANCE CHAIRMAN FORGOT TO FILL OUT THE FORMS PROPERLY
-- HE'S INDICTED -- DO YOU THINK SHE'LL BE INDICTED TOO?
Let's see now. I have a business
administration undergrad too. Let's pretend that I applied for the job of Campaign Manager for Hillary's reelection
as New York's senator. It might go something like this:
Hillary: How well do you know campaign finance laws?
Me: Oh, I'm very familiar with them.
Hillary: Can I trust you to keep my campaigns absolutely pristine
with no hanky panky at all? You know those other guys are always looking for the slightest little bitty infraction of even
the most mundane breach of ethics and campaign laws.
Me: I certainly understand that. I certainly agree with both
the letter and the spirit of the campaign laws in the United States. Your campaign finances will be absolutely in order.
Hillary: What if I want to look at the records at any time?
Me: They're your records and they will
always be available to you at any time.
Hillary: What about all those high flying high rolling Hollywood types?
Will you keep me posted especially about how those donations are coming in?
Me: Absolutely.
Hillary:
Well, I certainly don't want to be embarrassed by asking the same people to donate more than once, especially if they've
reached their annual cap-off.
Me: I'll give you a weekly list of donations as they're coming in, if you
like.
Hillary: I'd defintely like that. But I think I'd prefer having that list every day. I like to keep
track of how the money is flowing in.
Me: Of course. Not a problem.
Hillary: You don't get
creative with records, do you? You know, it's my neck, not yours that will be in the indictment noose.
Me:
Oh, I understand completely. I keep a perfectly honest and accurate set of records. You'll never have to worry about an
indictment with me at the cash register.
Hillary: That sounds great. It sounds like we are going to work together
as long as you promise to be perfectly honest with me. All the time.
Me: Of course.
And that's how
campaign workers are hired.
Now Hillary is going to break press with an absolute denial of any of the wrongdoings
and goings-on by her former campaign finance chairman.
Tsk tsk tsk. Let the little employee be the fall guy.
He goes to jail, and Hillary actually believes that she's going to the White House.
NBC broke the story
with all the little details at this site: http://www.wnbc.com/politics/4063107/detail.html
##
11:21 am
Thursday, July 5, 2007
FROM THE PAW PAW PATCH --
We installed the ceiling fan in
the Eagles Nest without mishap. I probably shouldn't say this for fear of jinxing future installations, but we're
getting pretty good at such installations.
Quint got me a handy-dandy power screwdriver (pretty orange Black &
Decker) for Christmas last year. And for Mothers Day, he got me a battery powered Dremmel. It has a zillion attachments, although
we did have to go back to the hardware store for a drill bit set so I could make pilot holes for the shelf brackets.
We have put up -- and are continuing to put up -- lots of shelves in basement areas. My power tools come in really
handy for that. Quint still uses his tried and true electric drill and electric screwdriver.
Later this afternoon
I'm going to get some kitty litter and use as a mulch around my Asiatic lilies. I read in another gardening magazine "tip
column" that snails do not like bumpy terrain to crawl over. So between the kitty litter and the beer in the evening,
I ought to get them under control pretty quick here.
Since I can't get my hands on crushed seashells, the kitty
litter is the second choice.
I continue to declare war on Japanese Beetles. I saw one on the wing yesterday before
the rains started. It landed on a most beautiful white, fully blooming rose. I ran for the Sevin and gave him a quick little
squirt. He rolled off the rose and landed in the mulch, kicking little feet in the air. Then he was no more. Now he's
part of the mulch and will become fertilizer. The rose can now feed on him/her. Waste nothing in nature.
My big
project today is to wash and wax the hardwood floor in the Eagles Nest. Carpeting had hidden the beautiful reddish honey-colored
hardwood. Then the Eagles Nest will be ready to receive my desk, lateral file and a couple of side chairs when the movers
bring all the rest of our stuff down from the office in Tinley Park on the 16th.
The place is shaping up. We have
truly enjoyed a week's "vacation" down here. So this is what retirement is going to be like. For a couple of
"oldies," this is going to be just great.
##
45 MUSLIM DOCTORS COOKED UP TERROR
PLOT IN U.S.
In an article released by the Telegraph in the U.K., the terrorists had this to say about
this monstrous plan: "...We are 45 doctors and we are determined to undertake jihad and take the battle inside America...."
The terrorists went on to say that one of their initial sites would be the home port of the Kennedy. No doubt, they
are talking about the USS John F. Kennedy in Jacksonville, Florida.
The article goes on to describe the
activities three of the terrorists who were recruiting other terrorists over the internet. They've been busy cooking up
their demonic little plans for some time, apparently.
And yes, they espouse some kind of allegiance to bin-Laden's
jihadist ideals of blowing up the entire western civilization, it appears.
Read the chilling account from the Telegraph
at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/05/nterror405.xml
##
GORE'S SON LIKES TO GO FAST
If he likes to go so fast, maybe
he should consider flying. Oh, wait, he was flying. Kind of close to the bottom edge of the air, though.
Even on Orange
County (California) freeways, you can't drive 100 mph. Even if your father is named Al Gore. Even if you're a Prius.
None of that will get you any speeding credits from the California Highway Patrol.
So he got pulled over for speeding.
What was he thinking when he floored his little toot-toot mobile? A free pass because his name was Gore?
But wait!
The officer smelled the wafting aroma of marijuana. That gave him probable cause for a search.
Then, lo and behold,
guess what else was in the car? Prescription drugs including Valium, Xanax, Vicodin, Adderall and Soma. There were no prescriptions
found... http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0428148420070705?feedType=RSS&rpc=22&sp=true
So let's see, why would a person need two different anti-anxieties like Valium and Xanax, a pretty potent
pain killer like Vicodin, and an ADD/ADHD medication like Adderal, and Soma -- a muscle relaxant. Hmmmm.
He managed
to post his $20,000 bond at 2:15 a.m. and is now on his way to rehab.
Now, I'm no fan of Al Gore's, but
for his son's sake, I hope he can get his mess worked out. That is a lot of drugs to have in your going-to-a-party bag.
Someone should say a big prayer of thanks to God Almighty that this 24 year-old didn't go home and down those drugs with
Absolut.
##
AND JUST WHO IS CRITICIZING THE BUSH WHITE HOUSE FOR MAKING ONE PARDON FOR
SCOOTER LIBBY?
None other than former president, Bill Clinton. In an Associated Press release from Iowa,
the Bill said, "You've got to understand, this is consistent with their philosophy; they believe that they should
be able to do what they want to do, and that the law is a minor obstacle."
Read article at: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288194,00.html
Don't these people realize that making such a ridiculous statement will end up as a sound byte?
It
could something like this: Follow the quote from the paragraph above, then another sound byte of Clinton saying, "I did
not have sex with that woman." Then go to another clip showing the vote for Clinton's impeachment for lying under
oath to prosecutors.
Well, friends, George W. Bush may not be "Washington chic," like the Clintons and
he'd never get on Pelosi's A-list, but you can sure that there are no little interns running around bragging that
they bedded down the Chief Executive in the Oval Office, or anywhere else for that matter.
##
12:32 pm
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY TO ALL AMERICANS -- AND TO ALL WHO ARE WAITING TO GET
ON THE FREEDOM TRAIN!
FROM THE PAW PAW PATCH --
I am happy to report that beer does work
for the snail pestilence. One of the three containers that were filled is covered on the bottom with former snails. The other
two containers are turned over and emptied out.
What that means, I'm not sure of.
Maybe there's
a besotted skunk roaming around. We did become aware late last night that there was a skunk in the neighborhood. Maybe he
drank all the beer in the two containers and wandered off to the woods at the back of the property. And then attacked the
air with his don't-mess-with-me-fragrance.
I thought Japanese beetles and those ugly little green worms on
tomatoes would be the worst of things for my backyard gardening experience. Snails never entered into my compute.
It does appear, though, that Quint has won the battle with the squirrels. He upended a plastic wastebasket on the pole of
the shepherd's hook just underneath the bird feeding station.
On the first day, a couple of the squirrels
did try to climb the pole and they got up the wastebasket and couldn't maneuver around it. It has been four days now and
the squirrels have relegated themselves to eating on the ground with whatever generosities the little birds throw out of the
feeder to the ground below.
Feeding birds is one of Quint's joys. We couldn't feed wild animals when we
lived in the condominium. Rules said "no no." And it made sense because birds weren't the only wild things that
got into the bird chow. Raccoons were in abundant supply and they would somehow get into the attics of the buildings and make
very expensive nests. Did a lot of damage.
So much for the report from the wild side of Illinois. Now I'll
take a look at other wild things -- like politicians and terrorists. Actually not all politicians are wild. Some have rather
genteel, statesmanlike qualities, but they are few and far between.
##
LIVE EARTH CONCERT
ONLY SOLD HALF THE TICKETS IN HAMBURG
Just 22,000 concert tickets have been gobbled up -- and most of
those are being given away to tourists as a way of hyping good old Al Gore's panic stream about global warming's man-made
causes.
Scientists especially are weighing in on the side of scientific inquiry, not political rhetoric.
Global warming, yes. Man-made, no.
Get real. The sun goes through these cycles. Has been doing so for eons. Will
continue to do so by all calculations.
So who's going to volunteer to take a giant water hose on a space ship
to the sun to cool it down. I think we ought to send Al Gore. But where would he stand? And how much water would he need?
Probably all of the Atlantic Ocean, for starters.
Read this articlel published by the National Association of Manufacturers:
http://blog.nam.org/archives/2007/07/live_earth_in_h.php
##
GORDON BROWN WANTS ALL DOCTORS CHECKED OUT
And that's what
the MI5 (Britain's equivalent to the FBI) is doing right now.
It seems that 40% of the medical doctors in the
National Health Service are foreign born.
Then there were those failed bomb attempts in London. And a car bomb
at the airport in Glasgow. All the people rounded up in connection with those events were doctors, or people with medical
training of some sort.
Hmmmm. Don't foreign doctors also have to take a Hippocratic Oath before they can start
practicing medicine? Wouldn't being a part of a terrorist cell that was cooking up a bomb with the plan to kill hundreds
of people violate that oath?
And what about the foreign born doctors here in the United States? Has anybody checked
them out?
I think we ought to follow Britain's lead and start asking really snoopy questions of any and all
foreigners who want into this country for any reason.
News article was published in www.news.scotsman.com. Here's the link for this particular story: http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1042682007
##
5.1 EARTHQUAKE IN IRAN SHAKES THINGS UP A BIT
So far just
a bunch of rattling roofs in Behabad, a town of about 10,000 people. It follows another quake of 4.7.
No casualties.
Not much damage unless, of course, it's your house that's got big cracks in it.
In that event, it's
a major problem.
Iran has several fault lines running through it. Makes for a wiggly land mass.
Article
reported in the Scotsman: http://news.scotsman.com/latest_international.cfm?id=1042692007
##
AND THIS JUST IN FROM COUSIN ALICE STUBBE:
A NEW DOCTOR...WHO DOESN'T RUN A BUNCH OF EXPENSIVE TESTS..
A
woman went to the GP's group, where she was seen by a young, new doctor.
After about 3 minutes in the
examination room, the doctor told her she was
pregnant. She burst out of the room and ran down the corridor
screaming.
An older doctor stopped her and asked what the problem was; after listening
to her story,
he calmed her down and sat her down in another room.
Then the doctor marched down the hallway to the
first doctor's room.
"What's wrong with you?" he demanded. "This woman is 63 years
old , she has
two grown children and several grandchildren, and you told her she was
pregnant?!!"
The new doctor continued to write on his clipboard and without looking up
said:
"Does she
still have the hiccups?"
##
AND THIS JUST IN FROM COUSIN MARK STUBBE:
UNITED STATES MAP - Short But Good! A father wanted to read a magazine but
was being bothered by His little girl, Shelby. She wanted to know what the United States looked like.
Finally, he tore a sheet out
of his new magazine on which was printed the map of the country. Tearing it into small pieces, he gave it To Shelby and said,
"Go into the other room and see if you can put this Together. This will show you our whole country today."
After a few minutes, Shelby
returned and handed him the map, correctly fitted and taped together. The father was surprised and asked how she had finished
so quickly. "Oh," she said, "on the other side of the Paper is a picture of Jesus. When I got all of Jesus
back where He belonged, then our country just came together." ##
And I'll leave you with this YouTube funny to make your day. It's a song performed by Aaron Wilburn entitled If
My Nose Was Running Money. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egCeIwjIuZM
##
9:14 am
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
FROM THE PAW PAW PATCH --
Imagine my grrrrr when I found
that my Asiatic Lilies are infested with either snails or slugs. Don't know which. They're little black things and
they are ugly. My handy dandy book called Garden Essentials says that snails love beer. In fact, they'll drink
themselves to death.
The recommendation is to take a butter tub and dig a little hole at the base of the infested
plant just so that the plastic "dish" has only about a half an inch exposed above ground, then fill it with beer.
Since snails are night wanderers, it's apparently better to do this at the end of the day. Guess you could call it the
snail's version of happy hour.
We're off today to get a six-pack for the little slime balls that are living
on my yet-to-bloom lilies.
I need some beer anyway for Italian Beef that I'm cooking up tomorrow. If you have
a crock pot, you have to try this recipe.
ITALIAN BEEF
Pour 2 12-ounce cans of beer into a crock pot. Dissolve
two Italian Seasonings envelopes and stir to make sure all the spices and flavorings are dissolved nicely. Then put in a 4
pound roast and let it cook for about 5 hours. It is absolutely delicious. Pulls apart with a fork. And you have a nice, sturdy
au jus for dipping. Pick up some sturdy rolls at the store and pile the beef on.
##
BUSH
GRANTS EXECUTE CLEMENCY TO SCOOTER LIBBY
Oh the firestorm of outrage from Hillary. She said, "In
this [Bush's] administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice."
In an article
released today by the Associated Press, http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CIA_LEAK_QUOTES?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-07-02-20-24-17 a lot of presidential contenders were quoted. They were predominantly from Democratic politicians with the exception
of Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliana and Roy Blunt from Missouri.
Hillary didn't say much, though, about her husband's
list of pardons. It forgives everything from "knowingly making under oath a false declaration regarding a material fact
before a Grand Jury (Joseph A. Yasack, 1988)," to lots of drug distribution charges, mail fraud, bank fraud, assault
with a dangerous weapon, and a long list of other convicted felons that were sentenced to prison.
Clinton
even pardoned someone all the way back to a sentencing date of 1891 for a court martial (Henry Flipper) for conduct
unbecoming an officer.
To read the entire list of Clinton's pardons, go to this Department of Justice file
at http://www.usdoj.gov/pardon/clintonpardon_grants.htm. I didn't count them but it looks like hundreds of individual pardons.
Now, what was it that Hillary said
about cronyism?
You can read her comment and those of all her presidential wannabee buddies at this AP site: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CIA_LEAK_QUOTES?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-07-02-20-24-17
So just how is executive clemency different from a presidential pardon? Keep in mind that Bush did not pardon
Libby.
Granting Libby clemency will allow him to proceed with his appeal. It just isn't all that unusual for
a person to be out of jail while a case in going through the appeals process.
Like, for instance, Kenneth Lay.
Lay eventually had a heart attack and died before his appeal was finished, but he definitely was not in jail or under house
arrest or anything like that. In fact, he was in some nice resort in Colorado.
##
WOW!
THE SAUDIS HAVE BEEN BUSY ROUNDING UP TERRORISTS
While presidential wannabee Jonathan Edwards says there
is no such thing as global terrorism, the Saudis -- on the other hand -- have rounded up about 9,000 terrorists linked to
al-Quaeda since 2003. They still have over 3,000 in custody.
Breitbart ran the article at http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070702091224.1misxgx2&show_article=1.
The Saudis figure they were successful in frustrating some 180 terrorist plots.
You can be sure
they are going to continue to beef up their security. The terrorists would just love to do anything they can to disrupt the
oil supply going to all parts of the world.
##
IS THAT A SOUR NOTE OR IS THE FAT LADY
JUST SINGING?
Ron Goldman's family just won a stupendous battle in Miami courts. They bought the rights
to O.J. Simpson's failed publication If I Did It.
Goldman's father plans to re-release the book
and call it Confessions of a Double Murderer.
Goldman also won own the copyright, media rights and movie
rights. They also acquired Simpson's name, likeness, life story and right of publicity in connection with the book, according
to court documents.
The story was run on CNN.com. You can read the details, if you're interested, at http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/07/03/simpson.suit.ap/index.html.
If you recall, Simpson was acquitted of the murders of his wife, Nicole, and Ron Goldman. Goldman's father
went into civil court and got a $33 million judgment against Simpson that has yet to be satisfied.
##
NOW CHINESE BABY FOOD AND FAKE BLOOD SHIPMENTS SEIZED
40% of 100 children's snacks
-- including soft drinks, candied fruits, gelatin desserts and some types of crackers have too many additives in them. And
some of the sweet little goodies have too much artificial sweeteners in them.
As if that weren't bad enough,
some 420 bottles of fake blood protein were also seized.
So far it doesn't look like any of these items have
gotten into the U.S. market, but how would you know? China sells to U.S. distributors and that's the address information
that's on the food labels. Nowhere on the label does it say anything about whether an item is actually manufactured
in China.
I'm limited by how much I can quote under the fair use doctrine of copyright laws, but you can take
a look at the entire article on Fox News at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287868,00.html.
If you have any questions as to whether any items you may be purchasing are coming from China or not, I would
go to the company's web site. I am especially leery of food items, especially baby foods.
##
9:30 am
Monday, July 2, 2007
FROM THE PAW PAW PATCH -- We are 99.5% moved to our little Shangrila
in central Illinois. We're spending the 4th of July week here in our new home getting things ready for the final surge
which will be July 16th when the office furniture gets moved here. At the end of this week, we'll head back to Tinley
Park for the last week of client sessions.
So this week our things to do list includes -- you guessed it -- painting
one of the bedrooms upstairs where my desk and a couple of bookcases are moving to. Then a ceiling fan is going to be installed
up there. And a ceiling fan will be installed in the laundry area. And about 25 other smaller tasks that we'll get done,
hopefully, this week.
Then we'll be southerners, as Brian Drees, the plumbing contractor says. Except that
I grew up in Paducah, Kentucky, so I was already a southerner -- and proud of it, I'll have you know.
And so
for that. Now let's see what the congressionals are up to.
##
McDERMOTT (D-Wash) WANTS
TO IMPEACH VP CHENEY
Impeachment. That's allowed when an elected official is guilty of "high
crimes and misdemeanors."
In an article written by Chris Good in The Hill this morning, "McDermott
cited Cheney’s refusal to cooperate with the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), which, pursuant to an order
signed by President Clinton, oversees the handling of classified documents by executive agencies. McDermott denounced a 2004
claim that Cheney’s office is not part of the executive branch."
Sounds to me like there's a challenge
to a constitutional definition to determine duties of office. Is that a high crime or misdemeanor? Doesn't sound like
it to me.
What do you think?
Read the entire article at: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/mcdermott-to-cheney-resign-or-face-impeachment-2007-06-29.html
##
OBAMA SAYS HE'S COLLECTED $32 MILLION IN 2ND QUARTER
And that's
$5 million more than Hillary.
So what's he saying? Because he got more money, he's gonna be president?
Does more money really mean more voters?
It seems to me like all these candidates are out there just
raising money. I have yet to hear any one of them come up with a plan that they, as a potential president, would have the
authority to bring to fruition.
Everything that comes out of their mouths falls into either one of two categories:
1) It's all George Bush's fault, including global warming which the scientific community is leaning toward solar activity
as the cause, or 2) they are going to lower taxes, "fix" the mean old conservative domination of talk
radio, and a zillion other things that they would not, as president, have the constitutional authority to do.
Oh,
for sure, they will tell you that they plan to put all these fixes in because they are going to work "hand in hand"
with their colleagues across the aisle.
But wait. That's what they said in 2006. It's not happening.
Since all the Democratic candidates are part of the house and senate majority party, don't you think that if they
could get anything done, it would be now when they have the majority?
If they can't do it now, they sure as
heck aren't going to be able to do it after the Republicans take back the house and the senate and keep the White House
in 2008.
That's my prediction. I believe that the conservatives are going to get the voter support they need
because people are getting pretty sick and tired of a bunch of politicians who can do little else but blame somebody else
if something doesn't suit them.
Hey, that's what adolescents do. If something goes wrong, the first tactic
is to look around for someone to blame.
But a mature adult sees a problem and sets about trying to find a solution.
The congressionals -- especially the presidential wannabees -- fall into the blame category.
They're
a bunch of big whiny babies. And they want your vote. But if they can't get your vote, they'll be perfectly happy
to take your money.
Read more: http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/obamas-32.5-million-beat-clinton-in-second-quarter-2007-07-01.html
##
CONGRESSIONALS SAY: THERE IS NO GLOBAL TERRORISM. WELL, SAYING IT DOESN'T MAKE
IT SO
I guess the congressionals are just so filled with themselves that they actually believe saying
something makes it a fact.
Like when they said not too long ago that there just isn't a global war on terror.
How grossly unfortunate that these nitwits would put an entire culture of our United States at risk. And what a shame
that they think -- in their delusion -- that they are representing the people of the United States.
Well, after
fire-bomb car at the Glasgow Airport in Scotland and the two foiled, but connected car bombs in London, a great big huge connection
to a global war on terror and fanatical Islamic terrorists exist.
In an article by Hassan Butt in today's London
Daily Mail, comments as a former Islamic radical. He explained it this way:
"For centuries, the reasoning
of Islamic jurists has set down rules of interaction between Dar ul-Islam (the Land of Islam) and Dar ul-Kufr (the Land of
Unbelief) to cover almost every matter of trade, peace and war.
"But what radicals and extremists
do is to take this two steps further. Their first step has been to argue that, since there is no pure Islamic state, the whole
world must be Dar ul-Kufr (The Land of Unbelief).
"Step two: since Islam must declare war on unbelief,
they have declared war upon the whole world."
Doesn't that say global to you?
Think about
that when you hear all the politicos running around saying there is no global war on terror.
Let's make sure
we get someone in the White House who takes all this terrorist stuff very seriously. I want to be safe and I want my children
and grandchildren to be safe. And I want everyone I love to be safe.
And I especially want Christians everywhere
to be safe in the practice of their Christian faith without having to worry about some radical Islamic saying we are "unbelievers."
There's a lot more information at this web site:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=465570&in_page_id=1770
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