Debsweb

It's Snowing!

2009-12-07T11:53:00.000-08:00

And the dogs are not happy about it. It's about 6-8 inches, all white, soft and fluffy. Sounds are muffled and the place looks like a postcard. I haven't lived in a snow area for almost thirty years and while I may think it's pretty now, that will quickly change. The roads will be plowed and salted, the snow will pile up by the curb and turn brown and slushy from car exhaust. At least is isn't going to be like when I lived in Germany. I would drive the ex to work, passing by numerous fields covered with pure driven snow and come back less than an hour later and those pristine fields would now be covered with neat rows of manure spread by the honeywagons. The offal fragrance would travel on the crisp air and overwhelm the senses until you were back home and safely indoors.

Several years later we lived off Route 209, between Kerhonkson and Kingston, NY, in a small one bedroom house that was heated by oil. If you had the money. During the winter heating oil was our most important bill. We were as frugal as possible, but when your pipes freeze for eight days and you're boiling snow to flush the toilet and taking ho baths in the restroom at work, one tends to think that the term "winter wonderland" is a tad overrated.

I loved snow when dad was stationed in Spokane. There was this marvelous thing called snow day and you didn't have to go to school, but then we were transferred to Puerto Rico and its beach weather and I've been a tropical girl ever since. Rarely do I think that it's too warm. Last night as I was shivering in bed I wondered where those personal summers were that some women complain about and then I covered my head with the covers and I warmed up enough to go to sleep.

Thermal underwear, gloves and a winter hat have greatly increased my tolerance to the cold, I wish I could say the same for the car. It sounds like a belt is being tortured and the sound goes away after it warms up, I hope nothing breaks. I bought a snow brush ice scraper thingy and some window de-icer but I'm not happy about my tires. One shouldn't slide when accelerating at 2 mph, I'm so glad they're new. It doesn't really matter since the car is snowed in and the maintenance guy locked up the shovels.

Meanwhile, back in the somewhat real world.

Off the deep end. While I may not like Obama, every little farting thing that goes wrong is not his fault and blaming him because regulations that have been in place for many years prohibiting animals from food establishments is a little over the top. As was banning the dog in the first place.

Why is everyone so surprised that there isn't going to be a public option? Congress has done very little over the last thirty years to help those people who don't put massive amounts of campaign cash in their pockets and everything that the corporations who do contribute have asked for. Making it harder and more expensive to file bankruptcy when all indicators showed that out of pocket expenses for health care were increasing and that a majority of bankruptcies were related to medical issues should have been a glaring warning sign. So of course it makes sense to add another mandatory expense to shrinking household budgets and babble about health care gulags or the wonders of employer based insurance when people don't have jobs and companies are eliminating benefits faster than the road runner evading a falling anvil.

BBB

Friday Afternoon Rants

2009-12-04T12:08:00.000-08:00

The FDA is still trying to intimidate doctors into not prescribing strong pain medication for their patients by having drugmakers create risk management plans. Since I'm allergic to all of the drugs mentioned in the article I won't be affected, but many people who are in chronic pain will. I know what it's like to be in constant pain with no relief in sight and it isn't pretty. Too bad the FDA wasn't interfering when Rush Limbaugh was scoring oxycontin with his secretary's help. It might have saved him a few brain cells and then he wouldn't run around making stupid statements like the poor have no right to health care because they can't afford it.

We don't want them either.

I was thinking the same thing. It was okay for them to sleep with a married man, accept his gifts and travel on his dime but now they want money to keep quiet. Prostitutes have more class.

Oreo. He certainly made sure bankers can afford to live on their segregated estates while the help live under the bridge.

Aetna only made a 7% profit this year so they are going to raise their rates and eliminate about 600,000 people from their health insurance plans. What will it take for teabaggers to wake up and realize that the only death panels are located in insurance companies and while teabaggers are purportedly worrying about single payer health care killing grandma that corporations have been robbing the taxpayers blind? Or as commenter Chernynkaya so artfully put it:

I am so s!ck of hearing from the Right how we liberals are always looking for a government “handout.” Here’s what the government has the money to do for CORPORATIONS:
-- subsidies and other direct grants;

-- tax breaks, reductions, deductions, exclusions, write-offs, exemptions, credits, loopholes, shelters, and rebates even for profitable companies;

-- letting corporations be headquartered off-shore and pay no federal income taxes;

-- large government contracts of every imaginable kind; some on a cost-plus basis with every incentive to cheat and get more;

-- discounted user fees or subsidized use of public resources (land, water, airwaves,e¬tc.);

-- free government-funded R & D;

-- every program from the Department of Commerce, Agriculture and others underwrites it; the FDA for Big Pharma; the FCC for media and telecommunications firms; the FAA for the airlines, the Treasury and Fed for Wall Street;

-- individual tax breaks for the rich; billions offshored to tax havens; allowing corporate fraud and abuse

-- privatizing more - schools, highways, bridges, airports, prisons, public lands, utilities, parts of the military, mercenaries, and thus far a failed attempt to privatise the most important program for seniors and the disabled - Social Security;

But nothing for the basic right of LIFE (unless you haven’t yet had the nerve to be born).

Let the good times roll.

BBB

For My Baby Brother

2009-12-04T10:26:00.000-08:00

Mom misses you and I'm worried about you. You have my email, please use it. You can come visit us in Reno, mom and I would love to see you. If you give me a chance you'll see that I really do have your back. Plus, I would love to see Xeek again.

Please?

Lowering The Bar

2009-12-02T12:01:00.000-08:00

What kind of creep do you have to be to break in to a family's home three days after they were killed in a car crash? It's bad enough that the parents and two kids were broadsided by a drunk driver who ran a red light at seventy miles an hour as they were returning from a family vacation in Hawaii, but it takes a real lowlife to break into their home and steal their possessions and their car before their bodies have been buried. Hopefully these morons will plead guilty because it's going to be difficult to find an impartial jury.

Protecting the institution of marriage by banning gays from being married is better than banning divorce, because it would be "impractical" according to the California Family Council. Two people of the same sex pledging their lives to one another is wrong but it's okay for people to get married in a drunken stupor and get divorced three days later. On the other hand, some people try marriage (and divorce) three times before realizing that they are gay. How is marriage protected when it can be undone at will? Maybe the 47.9% of heterosexual marriages that end in divorce should have been prevented?

As if stealing from dead people wasn't bad enough, stealing $100,000 worth of toys and food from an agency that helps the poor is worse. Scumbags.

I don't accept his apology either. I'm not his wife or child and it isn't any of my business so I don't need an apology. He deserves the apology for people intruding on his life. Everyone is entitled to privacy, even if they are in the public spotlight. It isn't like he's a Lohan, Hilton or Salahi who seeks fame for fame's sake or someone who sees an opportunity to grub for money. And since it didn't happen on the golf course, why should it affect his career? My senator was fooling around with his best friend's wife and he still has a job.

How can a female soldier die from being shot in the back of the head and it not be considered murder? That is happened on a "secure" base in Iraq is even more mystifying and why is it taking the military so long to solve the case? Don't they watch NCIS?

If it wasn't for mom's social security deposit, we would be unbanked also. Three weeks after B of A raided my account for the California government and charged me $100 for the privilege in addition to $105 for not paying my bills, I have yet to receive notification or any official paperwork. California isn't getting the disputed tax money and my bills aren't paid, but B of A made a couple of hundred dollars at everyone's expense. I'd rather pay three dollars to Wal-Mart to cash a check and then run around town and pay my bills in cash. I wonder if Arnold is going to have his bank account raided for his back taxes? Somehow, I doubt it.

Speaking of the IRS, they are trying to auction off lands that belong to the Crow Creek Indian Reservation using the pretext of back taxes. There must be undiscovered oil or gold. Considering that the land originally belonged to them before they were hunted down and forced to exist on land that barely supports insects, this is some real chutzpah.

BBB

Tuesday Quickies

2009-12-01T11:44:00.000-08:00

I voted no. On what grounds is Tiger Woods' accident any of my business? Or yours? When, where, how or who applies only to the parties involved. It is none of my business if he was leaving the house at 2:25 am, nor is it any of my business where he was going. How the accident happened may be of interest but it isn't critical to our existence on the planet. No alcohol was involved and Tiger was the only one who was injured and if he doesn't want to speak about the accident, that is his business. Because he is a celebrity does not make his personal life my business. Honestly, with every day that goes by reality appears to drift further away from the news media as they get closer to the twilight zone. From balloon boy to gate crashers to single car accidents, infotainment (I can't believe the spell checker thinks that's a real word!) rules the news cycle. ABC wasn't content with gossiping about Tiger, they added another star and an ambulance chaser to make the story even more titillating.

I've tried reading Little Green Footballs off and on for the past five years but the vitriol and hatred for anyone who disagreed with their view was too much for me. I guess it was also too much for Charles Johnson. Over the last few months he has been bemused by the invective coming from the right and he has officially decided to part company. I'm adding him to my blogroll, some of his stuff is pretty interesting.

Wow, just wow. How can people live with themselves having that level of hatred? Somewhere between my teens and my forties the definition of Christian behavior changed. And not for the better.

BBB

Saturday Morning Observations

2009-11-28T13:24:00.000-08:00

Supposedly the first thing you should do when you find yourself in a hole is to quit digging. Unfortunately for the Republican party, their goal seems to be China. Not content to be the minority party they are now trying to be the minuscule party. The dittoheads and Palinites want to purge the party of those who don't believe exactly as they do. If this means getting rid of people who are already serving in office, well, so be it. To the teabaggers it is better to have nothing than it is to appeal to more citizens or to be relevant.

Josef Stalin was also extremely fond of purging and millions of people died because of it. Funny thing is he started with his own party and as his paranoia grew, so did the circle of people he considered to be disloyal. Eventually generals and peasants alike were purged and Big Brother was officially born.

But the impetus to "cleanse" the social body rapidly spilled beyond these elite boundaries, and the greatest impact of the Purge was felt in the wider society -- where millions of ordinary Soviet citizens assisted in "unmasking" their compatriots. Frank Smitha describes this mass hysteria well, writing that

A society that is intense in its struggle for change has a flip side to its idealism: intolerance. People saw enemies everywhere, enemies who wanted to destroy the revolution and diminish the results of their hard work and accomplishments, enemies who wanted to restore capitalism for selfish reasons against the collective interests of the nation. If those at the top of the Communist Party and an old revolutionary like Trotsky could join the enemy, what about lesser people? In factories and offices, mass meetings were held in which people were urged to be vigilant against sabotage. It was up to common folks to make the distinction between incompetence and intentional wrecking [i.e., sabotage], and any mishap might be blamed on wrecking. Denunciations became common. Neighbors denounced neighbors. Denunciations were a good way of striking against people one did not like, including one's parents, a way of eliminating people blocking one's promotion, and ... a means of proving one's patriotism. Many realized that some innocent people were being victimized, and the saying went around that "when you chop wood the chips fly." As with Lenin, it was believed that some who were innocent would have to be victimized if all of the guilty were to be apprehended.

History is a pesky thing and while some might say that today's political purges aren't violent, calling for a revolution is one step in that direction. Eventually an innocent person is going to die due to the intolerance now making its way through the country, but the teabaggers are so far gone that they will consider it a step in the right direction. Returning this country to a McCarthy like existence with a 1984 mindset and 2009 technology enforcement capabilities. Does anybody think this will end well?

Better late than never. Now that female Vietnam War veterans are in their sixties, it's time to investigate how the war affected their health. As with men, a good guess would be, poorly.

Well, that was depressing. Hopefully this should bring a smile to almost anyone's face.

BBB

It's Traditional!

2009-11-25T23:18:00.000-08:00

Every year for the last twenty, this has been playing on the radio while the turkey was cooking. There's no turkey this year (Baked Ham w/ Marmalade Horseradish Glaze, homemade scalloped potatoes, brussels sprouts w/ marjoram and the Pink Teacup's sweet potato pie), but there will be Arlo and Alice's Restaurant.

It isn't the original but the important points are there.

You'd think that we would have evolved past waging war on undeveloped countries by now, but since those on the almost never right don't believe in evolution, that would be too much to hope for.

Happy Thanksgiving! Don't eat too much and if you do, go for a walk afterward.

Big Brass Blog

This 'N That

2009-11-24T13:01:00.000-08:00

Remember the riddle "who's buried in Grant's tomb?" Technically the answer is no one since Ulysses and his wife are entombed, but at least people know where they are. The same can't be said for some of those who are buried at Arlington. Like the atrocious conditions at Walter Reed revealed a few years ago, this is also a national disgrace. Why is it so difficult to treat our soldiers with the respect they deserve? After suffering the ultimate sacrifice how can they be treated so poorly by those who were entrusted to preserve their remains? It used to be an honor to be buried at Arlington, now it's where's Waldo.

Jeff Huber (wish he'd been my CO but the Navy didn't take me seriously when I tried to enlist in 1974) has his usual insightful observations on the fallacy of thinking we can win the debacle in Afghanistan. The original mission was never accomplished and has been lost to the caskets of history, so of course we must continue to involve ourselves in another fruitless and never ending land war in Asia. Is it because the Afghans don't look like the Japanese, Vietnamese or Koreans that people don't realize that Afghanistan is in Asia as are Iraq, Iran and Israel? What the heck are we fighting for?

Regime change in Iraq was discussed before 9/11. Then why didn't the troops have all the equipment they needed? Probably for the same reason that they aren't receiving all the help they need once they are injured or discharged. Because the goal was to topple Saddam and consequences were never considered. Not to the troops, their families, innocent civilians or the stability of the country.

The phrases "there's nothing new under the sun" and "what's old is new again" have been around for a long time...because they're true. In If A Man Answers (1962) Sandra Dee's character trains her new husband (Bobby Darin) to be more attentive by using the techniques from a book on dog training. Today's parents are discovering the Dog Whisperer's techniques also work well on children. Or, as my baby brother said after a few months of training his dog, "I should have had a dog before I had children." As is pointed out in the movie and in this article, it's really the trainer who is being trained. Consistency is the key and my parents excelled at that. If it was no when I was two, it was no when I was eighteen unless it had been due to a height or age requirement. I really miss my dad.

Adopted children should be able to find their biological parents after they are old enough to understand the consequences. For Matthew Roberts those were definitely more than he planned on. It isn't every day that one discovers that their father is one of the most hated murderers on the planet. That's really sad.

BBB

Things I Don't Understand

2009-11-23T11:22:00.000-08:00

Why should I, or anyone else, care that Nidal Hasan is paralyzed from the nipples down? There are thirteen people who would be more than happy to trade places with him but they can't because they're dead. By his hand. If there was any justice he would have CRPS instead.

The new Air Force commercial. The tag line is that "it's not science fiction, it's what we do every day". On what planet? At approximately 11 seconds in there are two moons on the horizon, how is this not science fiction? Or a video game?

Why do more Americans attribute a bible saying to Obama than to the Bible?

The Plan. Mao would be so...honored. Statistically speaking, Glenn Beck's attempt at destroying America is doomed to fail. Melanin impaired Americans are becoming a minority and all the ranting, raving, bigotry and hatred are not going to change that. He can try to co-opt as many national holidays as he wants, he will never be the equal of Martin Luther King. And so-called "voter education events" are laughable. Self reliance and community organizing. I thought he hated ACORN, now I see he's just jealous.

Hypocrisy. Has the definition changed? Inconceivable! What I want to know is, how many Republicans used the abortion benefit before the cat was out of the bag?

Purity oaths? The Republicans might find candidates who fulfill the requirements, but they won't find a majority of voters who agree with them. Sometimes young people are a little savvier than they are given credit for and more than likely won't vote against their own best interests. They'll leave that job to the old people.

BBB

Marvin, I Love You

2009-11-20T10:43:00.000-08:00

This kid did a pretty good job, considering he wasn't around when the song originally came out.

BBB

Boobs And Boobies

2009-11-19T12:14:00.000-08:00

Don't make me puke. The twit is going to be signing her book at Costco, down the street from my house. She will probably get a great reception since this is a conservative area, but it didn't look like her book was selling as well as the Star Trek video. I was at another store yesterday and some guy in line brought up her name and asked wouldn't it be funny if she was elected in 2012. I said it would be a disaster and the woman directly behind the man looked extremely offended. I then proceeded to list a few logical reasons why Palin isn't qualified and caught the woman nodding her head over two of them. It looks like people are going to have be deprogrammed on an individual basis as the media is too busy basking in its own reflection to do its job. That would be to report the news, not try and make it.

But the past week's media Palin-palooza has been more than a little over the top, even for a news corps that devotes wall-to-wall coverage to a helium balloon that isn't carrying a small child.

The diaper man doesn't know if Loving v. Virginia was correctly decided. Methinks he's been pampered a little too long.

Running for office after office. Whatever happened to serving the people and doing the job you were elected for? It's all about them and their authoritarian dreams. If we invaded from another solar system it would only be a matter of weeks before they started running for President of the Universe.

The new breast cancer guidelines have quite a few people with their knickers in a knot. I've been getting squished every year since I was 35 because of a false positive. Every year I step up to a machine, flop one on the freezer plate, stand at an anatomically inconvenient angle and have a truck run over it while I hold my breath. Then I change sides. Digital mammography is more accurate for women in their forties but insurance companies prefer the cheaper avenue. That is true health care rationing, changing the guideline isn't. And at exactly what age should men get screened for breast cancer? My issue with the new guidelines is that self exam shouldn't be taught by doctors. What will the immature male do for a Halloween costume if that's eliminated?

BBB

Tuesday Morning Rant

2009-11-17T12:38:00.000-08:00

Has anybody considered the idea that if Democrats and Republicans had to vote in each others primaries instead of their own, that we might have better candidates to choose from? Both sides could run their own candidates but then the voters could decide who they hated least in the primaries and the general elections could be reserved for who they liked more. We might end up with politicians who appeal to the majority instead of the wingnuts. As a plus, people might start thinking their vote really mattered.

Steve Doocy believes that the Stupak Amendment will "make it very clear that federal money will not be used to end a life." I guess it's magic fairy dust that pays for executions. Or that once a child is born, it isn't a life.

This is so wrong. One of the commenters at CBS Political Hotsheet compared Palin to Jesus on the cross. It's a good thing the Bible says he rose from the dead otherwise he would be spinning in his grave. Like a nuclear powered top.

by 50BMS13 November 17, 2009 3:20 AM EST

This article is nonsense. SARAH PALIN WILL BE THE 45TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! She is Beautiful, Bright, and has Braun. She FAR MORE QUALIFIED than Obama to run this country. As Lou Dobbs said today,"Obama is mis-managing the USA" All the hate I see posted here makes me think of what Jesus said when he was dying. Jesus said "Forgive them Father for they do not know what they are doing". A lot of posters here don't realize it now, but you will love Sarah Palin when she puts our great country back on track. She will know how to deal with Ahmadinejad and Kim Il Jong. She won't kiss muslim a** and "waiter bow" to foreign heads of state. She won't apologize for the American way to the world. You will all see this soon enough. Please keep an open mind my friends and don't listen to all the poison posts of hate people put up. She never lies. She knows lots of stuff. She can kill a moose, gut it, and cook it. She has been Mayor, Governor, and VP candidate. Great days are ahead of us. The future is bright!

On track to where? Due to the great corporate policies of off-shoring jobs and manufacturing, we don't make anything here anymore and until we do, we are not going to recover. I'm sorry, but the woman isn't qualified to be a dog catcher much less President of the United States. I realize that Bush set the bar pretty low but politics isn't the limbo, it's more like the high jump. The idea is to step over the bar, not under it. At least it used to be. Going Rogue or Going Rouge, it really doesn't matter. She's had more fame and shame than she deserves and it's time for the country to find a different American Idiot.

As the country recovered from World War II, the unions prospered. And when the unions prospered, everyone else did also. Men made a wage that enabled them to pay for the roof over their families heads, put food on the table, take a vacation once in a while, save for retirement and put at least one of their children through college. All without government help.

Medical care wasn't an issue if you had a job and most schools not only taught reading, writing and arithmetic, they also had chemistry and biology labs, sports, art, wood shop, choir, band classes, automotive shops, drama classes and field trips. Quite a few people were happy. My, how times have changed.

At the Division of Family and Children Services, Keasha Taylor, 36 and black, helped explain the system recently to a white mother. Ms. Taylor, who was there because her family had been evicted, told the mother, who was in line for food stamps, that a child with acute asthma might be eligible for Social Security.

“Right now, a lot of white people are in this situation,” Ms. Taylor said, recalling the conversation later. “We’re already used to poverty; they’re really not.”

In the eighties, corporations and politicians began accusing the unions of ruining the country. They decimated whole towns by shipping work off to the other side of the world in order to avoid paying union wages and to increase corporate and shareholder profits. They were extremely successful. They no longer provide jobs here in America and Americans can no longer afford to buy their products. Heck, they can't even afford to keep their homes.

Meanwhile, cities and towns lost their tax base, hospitals closed and schools became rundown and all but a few classes were eliminated. This is now the fault of the SEIU (why is it that I specifically searched for news stories and the majority of the stories were from blogs?) and teacher's unions, with the reasoning being that the unions are thugs, they are protecting incompetent people and if the unions didn't exist everything would be better. Taxes would go down, even thought they are much less than in the sixties, and everyone would have a job due to the trickle down effect.

The only thing trickling down is brown, stinky and increasing. There will be no pony and there will be no freedom. During the last Depression, people were able to grow some of their food and barter for other necessities. How can you barter when your neighbor has less than you do? How is the next generation going to compete on the global stage when they don't have the tools they need to compete or the critical thinking to tell the difference?

Today's politicians are proud that they believe that evolution and climate change are a crock of bull, right up until they get a disease that can only be cured by more research or their waterfront property washes away, and don't mind eliminating funding for science and education as if the future is less important than a past that existed three hundred years ago. Then they screech about the Taliban (not too fond of people committing crimes in their name) and how they must be stopped in order to preserve American freedoms.

What freedoms would those be? Other than the right to bear arms and put people to death at will, not many spring to mind. Freedom of speech only applies if you aren't disagreeing with the uber right's point of view. Freedom of religion only applies if you're Christian. And you had better be the right type of Christian. It's hard to have freedom of the press when they bought and sold their own soul. The freedom to be secure in your own home or person hasn't existed in years. Amendments Five through Eight only apply if you are rich and powerful and the Ninth and Tenth are only used when politicians can't get around the first eight. The only one that hasn't been abridged in the last few years is the Third and they got around that in New Orleans by sending in Blackwater.

How can we return to a time when America was great if we don't have anything to build on except hate and fear? How is voting for any politician going to do anything except rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic? The American people fell for empty hope and change promises last year and all they got was Bush not white.

Putting an idiot in office won't fix the problems we have as a nation. Investing in our people will. We need jobs and in order to have jobs we need to make something and make it well. Americans need jobs that will pay their bills, not put money into executive pockets that are already so full that they don't have a concept of how the majority of Americans are suffering and have the balls to say that it's God's will.

Codswallop is more like it.

BBB

Sunday Morning Threesome

2009-11-15T11:30:00.000-08:00

The Frisco Kid was always a favorite movie. Harrison Ford and Gene Wilder were great together and it isn't every day a movie comes along with Yiddish humor. Oy gevalt! That being said, it seems that Yiddish have a few pithy sayings and truisms that weren't discussed in polite company and now they are about to be printed. Again. "Yiddish Sayings Mama Never Taught You". I'll bet she didn't.

Der pelts unter dem vaybershn boykh iz dos tayerste futerl.

The pelt under a woman's belly is the world's most expensive furpiece.

Who knew?

The only thing I'm going to say about China's attitude toward black people is this. I got more respect in Alabama in the seventies. When I was in acupuncture school I asked one of my Chinese teachers a question and his response was this, "I'm not going to explain it to you, you wouldn't understand." Not one of those (I can do it to!) teachers gave me anything higher than a B- despite being one of only seven people to pass the intern exams and finishing my patient requirements in six clinic shifts instead of the nine it took most people. Patients and clinic staff loved me, my Chinese teachers not so much. I especially liked the way they held their breath when I walked by. Some of my teachers wanted me to file a complaint but you know what they call the guy who graduates last in medical school? Doctor. My 3.69 was good enough for me.

Do you read the People of WalMart? I have it on the reader and sometimes the pictures make me close my eyes in embarrassment. For the people in the pictures. And sometimes I just laugh.

BBB

Can't They Find Anything Else To Obsess On?

2009-11-15T00:13:00.000-08:00

Heaven forbid an American president should show some respect for other cultures and customs instead of arrogantly expecting the world to bow to him. When in Rome and all that. The almost never right wing are losing their lunch over Obama bowing to the emperor of Japan. Interesting how they conveniently forget a former president puking on the Prime Minister during a state dinner. No bad judgment there. But they'll keep worrying about the bowing, that way they won't have to contribute anything constructive to the conversation.

When most people have an upset tummy they have the sense not to go out in public and they certainly don't eat anything they can't see through.

BBB

This 'N That

2009-11-14T11:36:00.000-08:00

OMG! People have lost their freakin' minds. Funny how the right likes to quote the Founding Fathers as gospel whenever the subject of gun ownership comes up, but not for anything else. John Adams, the Founding Father most likely to be ignored by those ruled by their reptilian brain, once said "we are a government of laws, not of men". And two even more appropriate quotes to the discussion of whether or not terrorists should be tried in New York, which directly suffered from the crimes of the accused, are also from Mr. Adams

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

And, even more importantly:

The law no passion can disturb. 'Tis void of desire and fear, lust and anger. 'Tis mens sine affectu, written reason, retaining some measure of the divine perfection. It does not enjoin that which pleases a weak, frail man, but, without any regard to persons, commands that which is good and punishes evil in all, whether rich or poor, high or low. 'Tis deaf, inexorable, inflexible. On the one hand it is inexorable to the cries and lamentations of the prisoners; on the other it is deaf, deaf as an adder, to the clamors of the populace.

Both of those statements were made while defending the British soldiers after the Boston Massacre. Inconvenient truths, indeed. But not nearly as inconvenient as old Ben.

Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety.

The Republicans wetting their pants are determined we shall have neither. Honestly, why are they so scared? Timothy McVeigh was tried, convicted and executed by the same justice system, why isn't it good enough for foreign terrorists? What do we stand to lose by showing the world, and ourselves, that we apply the law equally (sort of) to every accused criminal? Or is it that New York isn't Texas and Republicans are afraid that the state can't meet the burden of proof? New York has plenty of experience, they paid the highest price and they deserve to prosecute the offenders. Or at least the ones hat are still living.

My pug is cuter than a French bulldog. Of course that is my biased opinion, but Shai always gets attention when we go out, as do most brachycephalic breeds. One of the reasons I got her was to meet people and she definitely accomplishes that, but all they want to do is talk about how cute she is. It's amazing how everyone knows the names of the dogs at the park and who they belong to but not the owners names. And sometimes we talk to each other for hours. About our dogs.

The health care debate rages on, with nothing useful being accomplished. I will probably never leave Reno, the VA facilities are too good. I had another asthma incident this week but they nipped that sucker in the bud. My doctor had switched me from Flovent to Asmanex, it got a little colder one morning and even though I stayed two aisles away from the soap aisle in the grocery store, wham! Three hours after I arrived at the urgent care clinic I was out the door with an antibiotic because I was at risk for pneumonia, tapered doses of methylprednisone to reduce the inflammation in my lungs (and as a side effect my joints feel better) and Tessalon Pearls for the coughing since I'm allergic to codeine. This is in addition to the blood pressure med and the synthroid I just started because my thyroid is giving up the ghost according to the doctor. Mom is 79 and only takes two meds, this does not bode well for my old age.

When I worked at Universal Studios the secretaries were unionized and when our contract came up for renewal several things happened. The first time they initiated a two tier wage system and then got rid of everyone on the top tier. You get what you pay for and at $7 an hour in Hollywood all you get are bimbos who want to meet a movie star. It took about six months and 90 percent of us had our jobs back. I was working in the black tower, which happens to be a closed environment, during the second set of negotiations. This time Universal got the bright idea to eliminate sick days because they said the secretaries were using them for personal business. Flu season came around and within days half the building (executives) were out sick because the secretaries worked while ill and recirculated air contaminated with viruses was distributed around the building. Sick days mysteriously showed up again.

I'm glad I renewed my library card. Friday night television is just like Saturday night. Useless for entertainment. CBS, which doesn't have very many successful new shows, has cut the amount of episodes of Numb3rs to 16 from 22 as it prepares to cancel it. Not for lack of viewers, but because they say it's too expensive since it's been on so long. Fox canceled Dollhouse after completely botching the timing, audience and advertising. What do those two shows have in common? You have to pay attention.

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There Will Be A Republican President In 2012

2009-11-13T13:25:00.000-08:00

And why? Because there are few true Democrats in office and those of us who have regularly voted Democrat are going to vote with our butts. As in not voting, donating or participating in a political process that consistently discriminates against a majority of the population and tells us that it will be for the best to take the least troublesome road. Taking one for the team. What a joke. It's more like spreading your legs and pretending to enjoy being raped.

Having met Obama when he was at Occidental College, I knew from experience that he was not going to be the best president for the women of the party. He was insufferably arrogant, had no respect for women and nothing has changed since then. It was always about him and never about the people who supported him or what they needed. Talk is cheap and gays, women and other disenfranchised Americans are finally seeing the true man behind the curtain. He has always been the embodiment of "enough about me, what do you think about me?"

Imitation health care reform is a good case in point. What kind of "reform" excludes women? How are women who have jobs that consistently pay them less than men doing the same work with the same education so they are dependent on the crumbs that men leave for them, feed the unwanted children they are forced to have and satisfy their Viagra charged husbands ever going to have equality?

While I am past the age of worrying about getting pregnant, it disturbs me that young women are being forced back into the Donna Reed era. It boggles my mind that I had sex education classes in the fourth grade in the sixties but today's girls are taught abstinence instead. I'm willing to bet that none of my classmates in fourth, fifth and sixth grade had unwanted children because we all knew the consequences of sex on the stick figures used in the class. Birth control was explained to us, in detail, in the seventh grade. Who knew that schools located on military bases during the cold war would turn out to be so progressive in comparison to today's education system?

When I joined the Army I met women who didn't know that sex was the cause of pregnancy. IVF hadn't been invented then so there really wasn't any other way but that's beside the point. High school graduates who didn't have a clue as to how their body worked. While I may have found it hysterically funny that someone would think that because I was biracial that one breast would give white milk and the other chocolate, I also found it terribly sad. Granted I was in Alabama and the other girl was from Tennessee, but that is no excuse.

Women are not playthings, we are not baby factories, we are not sex toys, we are equal human beings. We have thoughts, feelings and dreams just like the boys and men around us and deserve to be treated like the intelligent persons we can be when we are given the same opportunities. We want to be doctors, lawyers, scientists, astronauts, accountants and parents, not gestational vehicles for men who need pharmaceutical help to recapture the glory days of their youth. But thanks to the Stupak amendment that is the role young women will be forced to play.

My own attitude toward paying for abortions has always been the same. Everyone is entitled to one mistake and one that affects the lifetimes of the people involved almost always requires a little outside help. That being said, while I'm willing to have my tax dollars pay for one abortion, I am not willing for it to be on a repetitive basis. Sex education and birth control should be one of the requirements for any type of government help. Then you are on your own. Except in unusual circumstances such as the life or health of the mother and the viability of the fetus. Would the fetus be able to survive if the parents are unable to provide for it without government help? I've worked with developmentally delayed adults and know how devastated and lost they become when their parents die and their siblings move on.

Conservatives always want it both ways. All children should be born in every circumstance and then no matter how impaired the child is, they are to survive without government help. Poor women shouldn't have abortions or convenient access to birth control, while at the same time their husbands are getting free samples and subsidized prescriptions for "erectile dysfunction" so they can have sex everyday. No matter what the consequences.

With the mindset described above it won't be long before spousal rape is a thing of the past, every woman should be providing for her husband's sexual needs whenever he desires. As women lose control over their own bodies, their lives are sure to follow. When my ex and I bought a house in 1978 my income wasn't included because I might have a baby and be unable to work, can those days be far behind?

Historically Democrats have been the party of women, but women's votes are no longer treated with respect and since we won't have candidates that represent our views it doesn't really matter who runs the country. It won't be us or anyone sympathetic to our wishes.

Democrats may have won this battle for false health care reform, but they have lost the war. Which wouldn't surprise me as being their goal all along. There are very few other conclusions that can be drawn from their willingness to do nothing that the people who voted them into office have asked for and everything to do with who bankrolled their campaigns. If Democrats won't represent women when they have a majority in Congress as well as a Democratic president, what good are they?

Any way you look at it, women are going to be worse off in 2012 than they are today and the eighties and nineties really will have been the golden years for women. The young women of today are in for a rude surprise if they think they can rest on the laurels of those who protested before them. They've been braless for so long they can't conceive of an age where it was a requirement. If they aren't willing to fight for their rights why would those of us who blazed the way want to revisit an issue that we thought was resolved, for a generation that takes so many rights for granted that they are willing to stand by and return to second class status? If Democrats don't start changing their attitude toward women most of us won't support the party in 2012 unless the opposing candidate is the equivalent of Osama bin Laden. And that should frighten someone.

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Sunday Morning Musings

2009-11-08T12:07:00.000-08:00

The commentators at Faux News want the military to screen Muslims and thinks that they should be treated as potential threats. How 1940s. And just a few days after running the story of the 442nd Regiment and the 65thh anniversary of their rescue of a Texas infantry regiment during WWII. Crazy people are just that, crazy. It doesn't mean that everyone who is Muslim is crazy. Or a terrorist.

Emphasizing the three Rs means that other courses get lost, such as history. A survey in Britain revealed that kids between 9 and 15 have a rather inaccurate view of the past, such as Hitler was a soccer coach and Auschwitz was a WWII amusement park. The Holocaust was the celebration of the end of the war and that America entered the war because a nuclear bomb was dropped on Pearl Harbor.

Twelve percent of respondents said the symbol of Britain's Remembrance Day is the golden arches of McDonald's, rather than the poppy.

I wonder how American kids would have answered the questions.

The insurance company rescue bill has passed. Thank goodness I have VA health care. My doctor actually listens to me, explains his reasoning and follows up to make sure he covered all the bases. Everyone should be so lucky. The minute health care reform became about insurance reform the battle was lost. Money talked and reform walked. Health care will not become less expensive and as more companies move their jobs overseas there will be fewer jobs that provide health insurance benefits. Soon the only people who will have coverage will be the Congress critters, their constituents can only hope that Doctors Without Borders will provide services to Americans in addition to serving other Third World countries.

Sacramento politicians are whining again. The poor widdle babies. Making $116,000 a year and they're protesting a cut to their additional $35,000 a year per diem rate, a $400 month car allowance and free health care. Their constituents are unemployed or work for companies who have cut benefits and increased premiums and the state lawmakers don't think it's fair for them to have to do the same. An 18 percent cut in benefits has them up in arms while other state employees who actually provide services to the public and make much less have had their salaries cut by 18 percent by eliminating their work days and calling it a furlough. It must be nice to have a job where the first requirement is that you are clueless. Marie Antoinette would be so proud.

Yes, the Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms, but why does someone who isn't a member of a "well regulated militia" have the right to deprive innocent bystanders of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? The last few days the news has been filled with the unfortunate shootings at Ft. Hood, Orlando and now Amarillo. It's pretty sad when a tourist can't stop in a bar without being shot for no reason. How many dead people will it take before American society realizes that not everyone can or should have a gun? Charles Whitman shocked the nation in 1966 and forty three years later nuts are still running around with guns and a willingness to use them.

Diarrhea of the mouth? You betcha! Someone as ethically and morally challenged as the quitbull should keep her mouth shut and attend to the problems in her own family before telling other people what they can, cannot or might do.

I want a cloaking device. Not to hide me, just my fat. I'm more into the Eureka personal model than the Star Trek battleship model.

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Pet Centricity

2009-11-05T10:17:00.000-08:00

While Shadow might sit through a church service because she likes being with me, Shai Shai never would. Her need to get love and attention from humans is pretty strong and with her friendly face and wiggling butt (her tail is curled against her back, so her butt moves when she wags her tail) most people can't resist her. On the other hand she seems to make the people who pet her feel better and they smile more.

Which is why I would never consider eating her. For any reason, even if I was starving to death. Robert and Brenda Vale can take their idea and shove it where the sun doesn't shine. For most people that would be their ass but for them it seems to be the place where their heart should be located. My dogs don't eat beef, chicken, wheat, corn or soy and the companionship they provide is worth more than gold. It's one thing to be green and another to be viciously stupid. Using the argument that dogs are eaten in other countries isn't a good reason, didn't their parents teach them that if your friends jump off a cliff you don't have to follow them?

Not only can a cat has cheeseburger, it can also have H1N1, which directly contradicts the email alert I received two days ago. There is no reason to panic, the cat caught it from its humans and is recovering nicely. To prevent your pet from contracting it wash your hands, cover your coughs and don't play with them if you feel like you have the flu. Duh.

BadTux must be so proud that one of his own has had a thirteen year relationship with a human. Isn't that sweet?

World of Warcraft has virtual pets for sale. What the heck is a lich? And why would you want an imitation pet when you can have the real thing?

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Insanity And Heartlessness

2009-11-04T10:46:00.000-08:00

I'd say that Malkin is out of her mind, but that assumes she has one and you know what they say about assuming. She does have an extremely fertile imagination and an inability to face reality which is reminiscent of most people who are off their rockers. The never right wing of the GOP would like to blame the loss of NY-23 on Dede Scozzafava when it was themselves who engineered the defeat of their party in a district that hadn't voted for a Democratic representative in 138 years. They sabotaged the original candidate and totally forgot about the people who actually live in the district while engaging in their hate filled campaign to purge the party. Bloodletting isn't a viable option in medicine and it doesn't look like it's that good for politics either.

Ever since Reagan broke PATCO the average joe in this country has been headed down the path to financial ruin. Jobs have disappeared at a phenomenal rate, only to reappear in another country done by workers who are paid as little as possible. Levis are no longer manufactured in America along with many other products that kept the American worker employed and able to purchase those same products. Meanwhile in the lala land that exists in corporate boardrooms, much joy was to be found in their ever expanding bottom line. Until so many Americans were out of work that products couldn't be sold and more layoffs ensued. Homes were lost, families uprooted and gypsies were created. Can serfdom be far behind? 40 acres and a mule sounds pretty good in comparison to what some people have now, which is nothing.

Balancing the budget on the backs of the people who can least afford it. Then they die. And not one Republican complained about that death panel.

Had my first appointment at the VA hospital yesterday and was more than pleasantly surprised. I got my seasonal flu shot, had my blood work done and the longest visit I have ever had with a doctor. I feel like I was listened to, viable suggestions were made and it didn't cost me a thing. Except for the time I spent in the military. My prescriptions are being mailed to me and outreach programs to increase my quality of life are available. If I was homeless there would be even more help to get me back on my feet. And they have an emergency room.

Speaking of emergency rooms, I had to take mom in on Sunday. It looked like she had broken her wrist but after taking her blood pressure she was moved directly into a room. Her EKG shows that her heartbeat is irregularly irregular and that isn't a good thing. When she sleeps she isn't getting enough oxygen and her heartbeat goes haywire. Her COPD is getting worse and that is accelerating her dementia. I feel sorry for her but now it's all about the waiting. Not a peep from either brother, am I obligated to let them know when she passes?

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Going To The Dogs

2009-10-27T11:46:00.000-07:00

Wow! Republicans really are willing to cut off their nose to spite their face. The comments are fascinating. No matter how the NY-23 race turns out the GOP is dissolving from within. I almost feel sorry for the them but it's their own fault. They embraced the wackos last year, they tolerated and encouraged the fringe to express their anger, rage and hatred during the campaign and as with any rabid animal, it's biting the hand that feeds them.

They don't need another job, they need to live within their means. I'm sorry that one can't live comfortably on $93K a year and while I admire the work ethic of getting another job to support your lifestyle instead of doing what the rest of us do which is to cut back or eliminate expenses, taking a minimum wage job that might keep a family on the lower end of the economic spectrum from becoming homeless, is part of why we are in the economic mess we are all suffering through. Those that have always think they deserve more or that they shouldn't have to sacrifice. Marie Antoinette would be so impressed.

The kerfuffle about the Obama boy's club amuses me. I tried warning people that he had little to no respect for women and their opinions, so it doesn't surprise me at all that women are being cockblocked while decisions are being made in circumstances that have no official record.

Somebody has been watching a little too much television. The story never says why the owner had to steal his dog from the pound under the cover of night instead of picking him up during normal business hours. It doesn't sound like the dog's behavior was a problem since the animal society released the dog to a friend of the owner.

Speaking of dogs, is this normal sleeping behavior?

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Sunday Morning Geek Out

2009-10-25T14:06:00.000-07:00

Zombies. I wonder how much alcohol was involved. Ooh, ooh, more zombies. Why the heck are they so popular? Piers Anthony at least made them funny.

In I Will Fear No Evil Robert Heinlein envisioned a world in 2015 where people lived in gated communities patrolled by private security forces to keep the riffraff out and the rich used their hovercraft to travel safely between them. It's 2009 and hovercars are nowhere in sight, but gated communities patrolled by private security are here and being embraced by what's left of the middle class. Mr. Heinlein grokked (spell check didn't even blink) the future pretty well. The personal computer, the internet, Wikipedia and YouTube all appeared in his books long before they became reality.

The Dyson Sphere inspired some interesting science fiction, Larry Niven's Ringworld springs to mind as well as a plot device on Star Trek, and has always fascinated me, but not as much as the new Dyson fan. No moving parts on the outside. Just air in a cool rushing stream. The price tag is a little steep, okay, it's way steep but if you have kids you don't have to worry about them sticking there hands between the blades.

If health insurers are operating with less than a five percent profit margin, why are the executives so handsomely overcompensated?

Aspirin for dandruff, who knew?

Don't know what costume to wear for Halloween? How about using your 42" flat screen and going as a working iPhone? The whole getup weighs 85 pounds, but isn't worth it to win best costume? Or maybe sushi is more your style.

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Twilight Zone

2009-10-25T02:46:00.000-07:00

I always wanted a leather teddy.

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This 'N That

2009-10-22T10:49:00.000-07:00

No wonder people have given up looking for work. They did everything they were supposed to, they got more education so they could get ahead and now their resumes are the first ones discarded by employers looking to hire. Because they might leave for a better job when times get better. Like that's going to happen anytime in the near future.

The overwhelming response astonished him. He asked Cheree Seawood, one of his current assistants, to go through the résumés and help pick out several to interview. To make the task easier, he decided they should be even more rigorous in ruling out anyone who appeared even slightly overqualified (emphasis mine).

Key senators are not thwarting President Obama on healthcare, they are thwarting the will of the American people. And it should be reported that way. If the senators are worried about survival, perhaps they should vote the way their constituents want instead of pandering to the insurance industry.

Newsday is going to put its content behind a paywall, with access limited to people who subscribe to the print edition, pay for local cable, or you can pony up $5 a week, which is $260 a year. If people wouldn't pay $50 a year for the NYTimes a few years ago, very few people are going to find Newsday to be worthy of $260 a year or $5 an article when they accidentally print something interesting.

What drugs are these people on? For eight of the twelve years the Republicans controlled Congress they had a Republican president who claimed he was the Decider and they rammed bills, useless proclamations and tax cuts through to the detriment of the country. And the spineless Democrats not only helped them, sometimes they gave them more than they asked for.

“We need more voices,” said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, one of the party’s up-and-coming leaders. “Our party’s challenge has been that we need to be more inclusive — we need to attract the middle again. ... When one party controls all the levers of power in Washington, they’re going to try and villainize whoever they can on our side. It gives us an opportunity now to try and harness the energy and point it in a positive direction, so that we can attract the middle of the country to the common-sense conservative views that we have been about as a party.”

As the Bible states (Job 4:8), those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it, and by pandering to the lowest common denominator the Republicans coddled a section of society which attacks its own instead of working together. 80 percent of voters do not identify with the Republican party or its ideals and unless there are some major changes in attitude those in the middle will run even further away.

Cheney wants Obama to quit "dithering" on sending more troops to Afghanistan. Meanwhile, back in the real world, a majority oppose sending more troops off to die in another useless land war in Asia.

Singing for her supper. Or not.The Performance Royal Society caused itself a little bad publicity by telling a woman who sings while she stocks shelves in a grocery store that she needs a performance license. Meanwhile musicians also don't approve of the government using their songs for torture. Britney Spears and Eminem qualify, but the Bee Gees?

Someone is begging for a Darwin Award. Dennis LeRoy Anderson outfitted is La-Z-Boy with a lawnmower engine, a cup holder and what every pimped out ride needs, a stereo. One day he rode it to the bar and had eight or nine beers. He tried to ride it home but a parked vehicle jumped in his way and with a blood alcohol level of .029, besides wrecking his ride, he received a DWI.

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They Say

2009-10-19T10:24:00.000-07:00

What I don't understand about Republicants is that they say human life is sacred. Until it's born. Or in a country they believe should be bombed because they don't like its leader.

They say every child has a right to life and then do everything in their power to make life harder for the child to succeed after it's had its first breath. They say the poor and minorities have too many children as they restrict access to birth control and abortion. Viagra, on the other hand, will probably be available over the counter in a few years.

They wail and gnash their teeth about sixteen year olds having sex because they don't know the consequences of their actions, yet are perfectly comfortable sending thirteen year olds to prison for life. And are sad that the Supreme Court won't let them put them to death.

They talk about supporting the troops, which really means sending them into as many armed conflicts as possible so they can use as much replaceable killing equipment as possible, but don't want to do anything to support those same troops once they have been injured or have returned home to families that don't know them anymore and to jobs that no longer exist.

They say people should find jobs to support their families instead of using welfare and food stamps and then continue to make it easier for corporations to send their operations overseas leaving whole neighborhoods and towns to be decimated by unemployment. Then they give the corporations an even bigger tax break saying it will encourage companies to create more jobs. Overseas.

They say people should get an education to get ahead and then cut or eliminate programs designed to do just that. They say they want children to learn, as long as it doesn't involve free thinking, history, civics, biology or the arts.

They say you should support the president under any and all circumstances, until it's a president they didn't elect.

They say they believe in freedom of religion, as long as it's Christianity. They say they believe in freedom of speech, yet object when it's anybody but them speaking. They say they believe in freedom of the press, as long as it's printing their point of view. They say they believe in freedom of assembly, as long as you are a teabagger, birther or watch Fox New on a daily basis, not if you are against the war, oil corporations or the police killing unarmed civilians.

They say they have the right to bear arms while totally ignoring the well regulated militia requirement.

They say America is the land of the free, yet we have the highest rate of incarceration in the world. They say America is the home of the brave, yet most decisions made since 9/11 have been based on fear.

They say...a lot of things I don't believe in.

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Saturday Morning Observations

2009-10-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

Hmm, Byron York in the Washington Examiner has an article about how lefty anger could sink the Demowienies in 2010. As if the Republicants are happy with their choices for candidates. Perhaps the problem is that all of the choices suck, it doesn't matter if you're Republicans or Democrats. Maybe the reason why the congressional approval ratings are so low is because the majority of them are useless sycophants out to line their own pockets and don't represent the interests of the people who voted for them. It's just a thought.

The H1N1 virus is killing people who are obese or morbidly obese more frequently than in the past and the doctors seem mystified. Did they pay attention in medical school? Earlier in the article it's stated that for the people at risk the H1N1 virus affects the lower lungs as opposed to the usual invasion of the upper respiratory tract. As an asthma patient I can tell you that my lung function tests reflected an almost twenty percent increase when I lost fifty pounds. With less fat in the way, my lungs had more room to expand and at the same time more carbon dioxide was expelled, which increased the amount of oxygen my lungs were able to take in. One of the things I noticed during an asthma attack is that I tend to try and suck more air in without trying to exhale which means that the only the upper lungs are working. The lower lungs are congested and when I focus on exhaling forcefully, I tend to get a deeper, more satisfying breath. Being fat makes this more difficult. Duh.

I'm confused. Does the NY Times have a time machine? Today is October 17, 2009 and at the moment it is 11:44 am. How do they know for sure that the article on the overreaction to the H1N1 virus is going to appear tomorrow?

A version of this article appeared in print on October 18, 2009, on page A1 of the New York edition

It's written in the past tense. Writing it today is one thing but a lot can happen in the next twelve hours as I'm sure Thomas Dewey would have explained to them. Or if this asteroid had come a little closer.

It's not that I think the H1N1 virus isn't a problem that might become worse, at least some lessons were learned from SARS, but a better focus might be how the many people who don't have health insurance are going to receive adequate treatment and if hospitals are strained already why isn't something being done to change that? Eight months into the pandemic and still not enough ventilators. That's like eight years into the Afghanistan debacle and the troops still don't have dependable weapons. Too bad we don't manufacture things in this country anymore, these problems would have been nipped in the bud thirty years ago. Viva la corporations! There bottom line is everything and now Americans are at the bottom of the line.

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