Sooner Blue

Yep, bet Paul Simon never thought his lyrics would come true. And now what are you gonna do with all those rolls of film in your freezer? Yesterday the last place it could be developed - Dwayne’s Photo, in Parsons, Kansas - shut down. The last film processing machine will be sold for scrap.

A sad sign of the times .. but photography buffs stopped buying Kodachrome as they switched to digital memory cards .. so the company also stopped making the chemicals needed to develop the film.

Yes, digital is fun .. but it just doesn't have the same quality of real film .. it lacks warmth and depth. Sometimes technology outsmarts itself .. digital photographs have numerical codes that represent light .. film is a surface that actually records how the light hits.

I'm old school .. learned photography using a Pentax SLR and 35mm film. Another thing about Kodak film was that you had real life photos kicking around the house .. you could sit with family and look at albums, and the rich color held up for 50 years.

How many digital images will be treasured even 10 years from now .. without constant updating and re-saving?

And digital fills up your hardrive and rarely gets printed .. and if you have a system crash ...

A photography geek told me that to preserve those color slides in your freezer, scan them to Kodak Photo CD (high res.) or, for those who can afford it, Pro Photo CD (ultra high res.).

And if you really do have rolls of Kodachrome in your freezer, all is not lost .. there are a couple of overseas developers you could try:

http://www.kodachromeprocessing.com/

Read more about this sad milestone in photographic history here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/us/30film.html?_r=3

"... a railroad worker who had driven from Arkansas to pick up 1,580 rolls of film that he had just paid $15,798 to develop. ...[..]"

Christine O’Donnell is my favorite Tea Partyer .. as I watched her speeches, and various TV appearances, I just never felt she was secretly mean, greedy and conniving like the Grizzly Mama Grifter (who knows how to rake in the loot simply by teasing about her plans).

Christine seems like a sincere person, full of Jesus love, and confident that she's doing the Lord's work. She knows how to parrot talking points, yet when asked an out-of-the-box question, her smile would blind you, but the blank look in her eyes just made you feel that she's .. well, sort of dumb.

So, I can understand completely why Christine would feel that the people who donated money to her campaign wouldn't mind if she used some of it for personal expenses.

Can't a pretty girl just pay her rent? I mean, she was doing God's work, and her contributors knew that she would fight the Righteous fight for them.

Truth is, her Tea Party fans probably wouldn't care .. but those dang lamestream Feds want to know what she did with that $7 million .. want to nose around about financial fraud .. want to find out why a person who has earned no income for several years is not living on the streets.

Read more here: "Federal authorities have opened a criminal investigation of Delaware Republican Christine O’Donnell to determine if the former Senate candidate broke the law by using campaign money to pay personal expenses ...

The case, which has been assigned to two federal prosecutors and two FBI agents in Delaware, has not been brought before a grand jury.

Matt Moran, O’Donnell’s former campaign manager ... criticized what he called "lies and false-attack rumors." ......[..]"

In other words, a witch hunt ...

Sorry, fellas .. a new study shows that it's more likely your sweetie is thinking about gettin' some chocolate cupcakes than about gettin' .. well, some.

Time.com reports on a Shape Smart diet survey, and it seems that 25 percent of women think about food every half hour, compared to the 10 percent of women who think about sex in the same time span.

Hmm .. maybe it makes sense from an evolutionary point of view .. women are traditionally providers of food for her nest of offspring .. which the men think about procreating every 10 minutes.

So, while men are thinking about sex, women are thinking about how they need to go grocery shopping .. what food they need to buy and prepare for their family .. messing with food takes up a lot of a woman's time.

There were other interesting findings about women and how they feel about their bodies.

Read more here: "...Shape Smart interviewed some 5000 men and women and have revealed different attitudes towards sex and food ...

60% of women in relationships are not happy eating in front of their partner

50% of women in relationships are shy undressing in front of their partner

40% of women feel as though they are constantly dieting

13% of women choose low-calorie meals instead of what they would actually like when eating out ..." [..]"

Somebody get me a cheeseburger!

Just making fun of the latest rightwing crazy - that President Obama will soon hand New York back to Native Americans. No, really.

Geez, why couldn't he start with the Deep South?

Ah well, soon there will be only casinos, teepees and fry bread stands where New Yawk City should be!

Tune in to Glenn Beck tomorrow for the details.

Maybe you didn't know this, but I have American Indian blood coursing through my veins, so this proposed redistribution of wealth is welcome news for me.

And let me be the first to salute our new "Indigenous Overlords."

Read about it here: "[T]he outrage began after the President announced on December 16 that the U.S. would reverse course and support the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. The Declaration was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 2007, but the U.S., under President Bush, opposed it. ...

Obama was adopted as an honorary member of the Crow tribe during the 2008 campaign, and was even given the name "One who helps people throughout the land." Most of the outrage lobbed at the President in the wake of the announcement, naturally, references that fact.

Last week, the "Director of Issues Analysis" for the Christian conservative American Family Association, Brian Fischer, wrote a blog post claiming that "President Obama wants to give the entire land mass of the United States of America back to the Indians. He wants Indian tribes to be our new overlords."[..]"

Obama’s adopted Crow name is Barack Black Eagle .. sooo cool.

Dang! We finally get a president who gives a crap about treating American Indians with a shred of fairness and decency, and deranged righties see this as making them our overlords?!

Talk about yer rightwing projection run amok .. this must be how they really view White/Indian relations .. we can't live side by side peacefully, one has to Lord It over the other.

Righties still must be pissed because it was one year ago that Obama signed an Apology to Native Americans, which was passed by the 111th Congress.

But seriously .. we don’t want the land back. You keep the land, we’ll keep the casino money. We'll take the country back from within .. one casino at a time.

Now, if White Eyes wants to renegotiate the terms by which some of that land was "bought" - with interest from the date of purchase of course - then we can talk.

Quit gazing at yer navels long enough to see this - more evidence that the rumors of Obama's demise are vastly exaggerated.

George Clooney and Google are teaming up to keep satellite watch on Sudan's borders to keep everyone safe during their coming elections. It could prevent another genocide like Rwanda.

Maybe this is how the future could become more peaceful for all of us, and less profitable for some.

Anyway, it's great that Clooney cares .. I like how he uses his wealth and celebrity to try to do some good .. may he be successful in his efforts.

(CNN) --A satellite surveillance project spearheaded by actor George Clooney's organization will monitor violence in Sudan during a January vote that could split the country into two.

The program will use satellite images to assess the situation on the ground for any signs of conflict, monitor hotspots in real time, and post the findings online, organizers said.

Humanitarian agencies hope the alert system will prevent human rights violations in a country where attacks in the western Darfur region have killed hundreds of thousands in the past seven years.

Not On Our Watch, an organization co-founded by Clooney that focuses on Darfur, is funding the satellite effort. It is collaborating with other groups, including the United Nations, Google and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, organizers said. [..]"

Hmm .. maybe it's time for George Clooney to run for office .. not in 2012, but soon. He has some good ideas and actually tries to do something useful. Maybe he could do some good in Congress .. but, then again, being in Congress would inhibit him.

.. runnin' around wearin' flip flops and eatin' cherry "Shave Ice" ...

We would like to point out that this presidential vacation trip certainly isn’t free .. it has to cost an exorbitant amount of taxpayer money to make sure this guy stays safe. We heard that 34 aircraft carriers and warships were sent to guard him.

Previous presidents never had to spend a penny to go on vacation .. they all just went home and relaxed .. clearing brush, riding horses and stuff.

But this guy’s holidays, in foreign lands no less (Hawaii can't be a state), cost like a gazillion dollars a day for him and his eleventy thousand friends to party down .. instead of working like real Americans do.

How dare he?

Love, The Tea Party

HONOLULU – For Ronald Reagan it was riding horses on his California ranch. For George W. Bush it was clearing brush and biking around his Crawford, Texas, estate. For Barack Obama, the signature image of his presidential vacationing, so far, is him eating shave ice, the Hawaiian version of a snow cone. [..]"

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46735.html

You gotta laugh instead of cry ...

KAILUA, HAWAII (The Borowitz Report) - Leaders of the so-called Birther movement followed President Obama on his Hawaiian vacation today to demand that Hawaii prove it is actually a U.S. state.

Mr. Obama's claim to American citizenship has rested on his birthplace being Hawaii, but the Birthers argued today that Hawaii's claim to being part of America is far from a foregone conclusion.

Speaking to reporters in Kailua, Birther leader Orly Taitz said that Hawaii cannot be considered part of the United States "unless it can produce an authentic statehood certificate."

Ms. Taitz said that she did a thorough title search on the islands and has concluded that rather than being a U.S. state, "the islands of Hawaii appear to be colonies of Kenya."

"That means that everyone born in Hawaii is legally not an American but a Kenyan," she said, "which I find ironic."

The Birthers' contention that Hawaii is not a state promptly drew support from one leading Republican politician, former Governor Sarah Palin.

"To be honest, it's something I've always kind of wondered about," Gov. Palin said. "Hawaii just isn't an American-sounding name, like Alaska."

by Andy Borowitz

PS - Tea Partyers, don't get your hopes up, this is satire.

First they come for your guns .. then they come for your Cheez Whiz and Ding Dongs. They can have our Twinkies when they pry them from our cold, dead, fat fingers. (satire)

I overheard a Republican bad-mouthing First Lady Michelle Obama's plan to get America's children to eat a healthier diet .. he said that liberal vegetarians wanted to pass laws to ban the sale of meat. No really.

He's just another ardent viewer of the "professional liars" of Fox News .. who have done a pretty good job brainwashing people who tune in to have their own fears and suspicions confirmed by the likes of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.

How dare that liberal fascist Michelle Obama try and cram green vegetables down our children's throats! Some dang pointy-headed intellectual tryin' to tell us what to eat .. when we know all too well that fried sugar lard Pop Tarts is good for us!

Seriously, you sure have to give Republicans credit for consistency .. if a Democrat has a plan for something that has any positive merit to help people, they're agin it.

Hey, maybe the big backlash against anyone who advocates being healthier only makes GOP rock stars look, well, fat and unhealthy. I mean Rush Limbaugh is several cases of Twinkies above his ideal fighting weight.

Read more in The Hill: "Sarah Palin has come under fire from the right for her attacks on the first lady's anti-obesity campaign.

The conservative opinion page of The Wall Street Journal, which frequently criticizes the White House, on Monday hit Palin over her attacks on the first lady....

In an editorial (subscription only) the Journal pointed out that the first lady’s efforts to date are in keeping with what Palin herself has supported in the past.

" 'Health-care reform on an individual basis is often just this simple: we could save a lot of money and a lot of grief by making smarter choices,' " Palin said in her 2009 State of the State address, according to the Journal. " 'It starts by ending destructive habits and beginning healthy habits in eating and exercise.'

"Mrs. Obama's campaign is grounded in similar sentiments, and in that sense is unusual for this White House in emphasizing personal responsibility," the editorial continues. "Mrs. Palin would be more effective if she made some distinctions among the Obama policies that really are worth opposing." [..]"

Dang, where am I gonna get my cheap drugs, free sex, and unbelievable vacations now?

"SAN FRANCISCO -- Daniel Balsam hates spam. Most everybody does, of course. But he has acted on his hate as few have, going far beyond simply hitting the delete button. He sues them.

Eight years ago, Balsam was working as a marketer when he received one too many e-mail pitches to enlarge his breasts.

Enraged, he launched a Web site called Danhatesspam.com, quit a career in marketing to go to law school and is making a decent living suing companies who flood his e-mail inboxes with offers of cheap drugs, free sex and unbelievable vacations.

"I feel like I'm doing a little bit of good cleaning up the Internet," Balsam said.[..]"

Boy, do we ever need this guy at BlogHi!

And I'm on his side too .. the guy apparently thought he was protecting a kid from domestic violence. He used a shared laptop and used her password .. he didn't hack into it, but the prosecutor decided to say he was a hacker anyway.

What he did wasn't "right" or "legal" .. but if he can show that his reasoning justified his actions, that's a different story.

In any case, it seems that five years is excessive .. this isn't a case of a hacker stealing someone's identity and costing them monetarily.

It's always a grayer area when spouses are involved, and I could see a short sentence and/or fine involved, but that's it.

Read about it here:

"A Rochester Hills man faces up to 5 years in prison -- for reading his wife's e-mail.

Oakland County prosecutors, relying on a Michigan statute typically used to prosecute crimes such as identity theft or stealing trade secrets, have charged Leon Walker, 33, with a felony after he logged onto a laptop in the home he shared with his wife, Clara Walker.

Using her password, he accessed her Gmail account and learned she was having an affair. He now is facing a Feb. 7 trial. She filed for divorce, which was finalized earlier this month.[..]"

http://www.freep.com/article/20101226/NEWS03/12260530/1318

The Decider and The Quitta .. not so good ...

For the third year in a row a USA Today/Gallup poll found that President Obama is by far the most admired man in America .. and for the ninth straight year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continued to rank as the most admired woman in America.

When only Republicans are polled, George W. Bush is the most admired man and Sarah Palin is the most-admired woman. Boy, Palin and Bush .. what a combination.

Think about it .. we have two major political parties in this country and the members of one of them choose two incompetent, intellectually challenged, witless goofballs to admire the most.
Wow.

"WASHINGTON — His party may have suffered a shellacking in November's elections, but President Barack Obama remains the unchallenged champion on another front: For the third year in a row, he is by far the most admired man in America.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues an even longer run, ranked in the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll as the most admired woman for the ninth straight year. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is second, as she was in 2009.[..]"

Of course, righties are going crazy saying it's a liberal plot and Gallup is a left-winger .. until he has a poll they like .. then he is great.

Sure they do .. especially after they eat their magic mushrooms. No really, here's an article about how reindeer like to eat "mind-bending fly agaric fungi" .. then stagger around making odd noises.

Dude .. do you hear jingling bells?

"Scientist Andrew Haynes believes reindeer deliberately seek out the mushrooms to escape the monotony of dreary long winters.

Writing in the respected Pharmaceutical Journal, Mr Haynes said: "They have a desire to experience altered states of consciousness.

"For humans a common side-effect of mushrooms is the feeling of flying, so it's interesting the legend about Santa's reindeer is they can fly."

He also said herdsmen drink the reindeer's URINE to get high themselves."

Well .. maybe I'd go for some magic mushrooms if it would make this ol' gray day less dreary .. but I'm sure as hell not going to try the drink mentioned at the end of the article .. ewwww .. I say it again in Capital letters - EWWWW!

Hmm, how exactly does one collect reindeer urine? No no, don't tell me ...

.. disappointed inmates continue to practice bareback riding.

"MCALESTER, Okla., Dec. 26 (UPI) -- Community leaders in McAlester, Okla., say they may have found a way to revive the Oklahoma State Penitentiary Rodeo.

The rodeo was canceled this year, which would have been its 70th anniversary, because of funding shortfalls at the prison, The Oklahoma reported.[..]"

Dang, visions of the movie "Stir Crazy" in my head .. loved Richard pryor and Gene Wilder in that one.

Seriously .. American rodeo is one of the most hardcore sports you can imagine.

.. it's probably not a good idea to pass out in a cab with $450,000 worth of drugs in your bag.

"A frustrated cabdriver unwittingly delivered a man carrying a bag that was allegedly filled with nearly a half-million dollars in drugs to officers at the Rogers Park District police station over the weekend.

The driver, who asked not to be named, said he picked up a fare in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on Saturday afternoon and took the man to an address in Rogers Park.

The passenger, later identified by police as Joseph Andrew Hoffman, 25, chatted on his phone for about half the trip but was unconscious by the time they arrived at the destination, the cabdriver said.

The cabdriver said he tried to rouse the man for about 10 minutes before driving to the police station. Police searched the man's bag and found bottles of a "clear, crystalline substance" connected by wires to a "power source," which together apparently amounted to a miniature methamphetamine lab, according to a police report.

The street value of the drugs in the man's bag was nearly $450,000, the police report said.[..]"

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-meth-cab-passenger-20101226,0,7404452.story

I don't know from meth .. but dang, how big was that bag.

I had to travel a short way this Christmas, but thank goodness on good roads. I feel sorry for all those poor people trying to get home in snow storms .. especially those who are driving on icy interstates. Reminds me of something George Carlin once said - "Have you ever noticed that when any one is driving faster than you they are a maniac. If they're driving slower than you they are an idiot. If they're driving the same speed as you they are suspicious."

Just cleaning out my inbox and found this from a friend - 24's Jack Bauer interrogating Santa Claus .. Christmas is over, but it's still worth a smile .. especially for "24" fans.

Poor Jack .. now he'll never get that Russian GSh-18 pistol he asked for. You don't mess with the fat bearded guy in the red suit .. I mean, a knife to the eye, Jack?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp19qiash2U

.. not that there's anything wrong with a nicely shaped naked noggin, many women prefer them. I even heard a woman say that bald men seem more evolved, more brainy.

Anyway, German scientists at Berlin Technical University think they are close to creating a cure for baldness .. they've grown the world's first artificial hair follicles from stem cells. The follicles were created from animal cells, but the team is optimistic they could grow human hairs from stem cells within a year.

So, that's good news for animals too ..

It was the most wonderful Christmas with my family, who had the most beautiful tree, decorated with ornaments collected through the years, I liked the kid-made clothespin reindeer the best.

The kids looked puzzled as we reminisced about "ol' timey" candle bubble lights .. which were electric and clipped on the branches, had liquid inside that made tiny bubbles.

There was much singing, laughing and teasing .. catching up on everybody's news .. soooo much good food and sooooo much good cheer.. and Santa was very good to me this year. I got some new techie stuff that causes my poor lil' ol brow to furrow .. but I'll figure it out.

Now, on to the fresh promise of the new year .. and losing 10 lbs. .. as soon as all this ham, cornbread dressing and pecan pie is gone.

Guess what I'm having for brekkie?

"A lot of companies had their Christmas parties tonight. A lot of people couldn't make it because their company is in India." –Jay Leno

"A new poll shows President Obama ahead of Sarah Palin 54 percent to 39 percent in a potential match up. You know what that means? John McCain could get Barack Obama elected twice." –Jay Leno

"Security officials say that al-Qaida once considered spreading poison through salad bars across the U.S. But they abandoned the plan after Sizzler beat them to it." –Jimmy Fallon

"Vice President Joe Biden said there has been no 'substantive damage' to the United States by Julian Assange in the whole WikiLeaks scandal. He says it has been embarrassing, but you can't prosecute people for embarrassing the United States. If that were true, Joe Biden would be serving life in prison." –Jay Leno

"It was so cold in Washington, President Obama got into bed with the Republicans just for the warmth." –Jay Leno

"A group of TSA workers at LAX airport have formed a choir to sing to passengers. That's just what you want, a guy with his hands down your pants going, 'Do you feel what I feel?'" –Jay Leno

"On a flight from Cuba to Canada, a man threatened to shoot flight attendants after they stopped serving him drinks. He has been charged with making death threats and if convicted, he could lose his pilot's license." –Jay Leno

"Sarah Palin is angry that Michelle Obama is suggesting that parents encourage their kids to eat healthy. Palin thinks that if we have healthy children, the terrorists have won." –David Letterman

"WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is out on bail and under house arrest at a 600-acre estate. That'll teach him." –David Letterman

"The Senate voted to allow gay soldiers to serve in the military. This is good news for gay soldiers, but bad news for straight soldiers who were going to say they were gay to get out of the Army." –Conan O'Brien

"Levi Johnston reportedly has a new girlfriend in Alaska named Sunny Oglesby. Which raises an interesting question: Is there anyone in Alaska with a normal human name?" –Jimmy Fallon

"This weekend there were big Christmas sales, Congress repealed Don't Ask Don't Tell and the President signed the tax-cut extension bill. So if you're a gay soldier who's also a millionaire, looking for tax-refund money to go Christmas shopping, this was the time of your life." –Jay Leno

"Congress has voted to extend the Bush tax cuts. Is it me, or is George W. Bush getting more done now than when he was in office?" –Jay Leno

"President Obama met with leaders of 60 American Indian tribes. I don't want to say the country's in bad shape, but he offered to give it back to them." –Jay Leno

"The president was honored by the Indians with his own Indian name. They now call him, 'Dances With Republicans.'" –Jay Leno

"On his last show, Larry King told Bill Clinton they were both members of the Zipper Club because they both had open heart surgery. Clinton was, "Uh, yeah, that's why I'm a member of the Zipper Club..." –Jimmy Fallon

"The EPA just announced that the artificial sweetener saccharin is not a cancer threat after all. Or as I'll be reporting the story 10 years from now, 'The EPA just announced that the artificial sweetener saccharin is definitely a cancer threat after all.'" –Jimmy Fallon

"Last night was Larry King's final show. Should we tell him?" –David Letterman

[a tip of the hat to Daniel Kurtzman, NYT-laughlines, and newsmax.com]

Conservative televangelist Pat Robertson is in favor of legalizing marijuana .. came right out and said so on "The 700 Club" .. no really.

Ah, so that's what "holy roller" means ...

Wonder how this will go over with the born-again blue-haired Reefer Madness crowd.

"Television evangelist Pat Robertson has made inflammatory remarks in recent years that offend gays, Muslims and others, but a recent comment he made on his Christian Broadcasting Network was more notable for whom it pleased: people who want to see marijuana legalized.

"We're locking up people that take a couple of puffs of marijuana, and the next thing you know they've got 10 years," the controversial pastor said on "The 700 Club" on Dec. 16, in a clip unearthed by bloggers this week. "I'm not exactly for the use of drugs - don't get me wrong - but I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot and that kind of thing, I mean, it's just, it's costing us a fortune and it's ruining young people." [..]"

Finally, something Pat and I agree on .. now if only he'd admit that he's been full of crap about everything else for decades. Crap like blaming that devastating earthquake on Haitians because they "make a pact with the Devil" .. and hurricane Katrina on all the sin in New Orleans .. and 9/11 on abortion and taking prayer out of schools ...

I read somewhere that during the past 20 years almost 6 million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges.

When pot is legalized .. yes 'when' .. whatever will police departments do? Go after dangerous criminals? And whatever will happen to the prison economy?

If people can start growing their own it will take the profit out of selling it, and the Mexican drug cartels will fall off .. and we can divert the drug war cost of the pot faction to border security.

That's what Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said about how the Senate Majority Leader handled this lame duck session - "When all is said and done, Harry Reid has eaten our lunch."

Yesterday morning I was all over the Republicans for blocking 9/11 first responders healthcare, angry because they had exploited our firefighters and police officers for all they were worth, and always praising Ground Zero workers as heroes .. then didn't want to help them deal with the health consequences of their heroism.

But something happened and they passed it .. unanimously .. and the New START treaty too.

Made my day it did.

It really makes you wonder just what the hell goes on behind the scenes. I mean, the Republicans could've continued dragging their feet and let things expire, then come back to it all in 2011, when they'd have more allies in the Senate and control of the House.

Why didn't they? Like Jon Stewart said - "When a party stands together like that, there is nothing that they can't prevent from getting done."

Maybe the Republicans didn't want to face their constituents back home (the majority of whom supported these bills, especially the one helping 9/11 first responders) .. or maybe some of the more moderate Republicans simply got fed up with being shoved around by the Tea Party bunch .. the ones who paint Hitler mustaches on Obama.

Maybe saner Republicans broke ranks because the bills that had piled up were, in many cases, good bills, and if they didn't pass now, the Tea Partyers would kill them later.

Ah, but that is my fantasy world .. where sane Republicans find their backbone and act against the Tea Party craziness ...

Maybe Republicans simply remembered the message from the voters last month - "Go to work, or go home."

Anyway .. I'll bet that from now on, all lame-duck sessions will be compared to the 2010 lame-duck session .. how productive and how effective it was .. how President Obama and this Democratic Congress, with the help of a few Republicans, managed to pass historic legislation during a very short period of time.

This lame-duck session managed to pass an $850 billion tax-cuts-and-stimulus deal, the Defense Authorization bill, a provision to keep funding the federal government, the repeal of DADT, the New START treaty, the food-safety bill, 9/11 first responders healthcare ..and some that I'm forgetting. I was disappointed that the DREAM act failed .. but more was accomplished than anyone expected.

Ah well, with the new class of zealots coming in next month, we'll probably go back to square one with all the name calling and no work.

In the end, I liked the way Obama handled everything. He was wise not to go ballistic on Republican loudmouths .. wise to encourage long-term Republicans and Democrats to be partners in governing. Because, let's face it, the lame duck session wouldn't have had all those victories without the Republicans who voted with the Democrats.

So, despite the bleating from the pundits on the Right and on the Left, the country is moving forward .. and Obama's calm demeanor is exactly what we need to lead us right now.

It is true love because
I put on eyeliner and a concerto and make pungent observations about the great issues of the day
Even when there's no one here but him,
And because
I do not resent watching the Green Bay Packers
Even though I am philosophically opposed to football,
And because
When he is late for dinner and I know he must be either having an affair or lying dead in the middle of the street,
I always hope he's dead.

It's true love because
If he said quit drinking martinis but I kept drinking them and the next morning I couldn't get out of bed,
He wouldn't tell me he told me,
And because
He is willing to wear unironed undershorts
Out of respect for the fact that I am philosophically opposed to ironing,
And because
If his mother was drowning and I was drowning and he had to choose one of us to save,
He says he'd save me.

It's true love because
When he went to San Francisco on business while I had to stay home with the painters and the exterminator and the baby who was getting the chicken pox,
He understood why I hated him,
And because
When I said that playing the stock market was juvenile and irresponsible and then the stock I wouldn't let him buy went up twenty-six points,
I understood why he hated me,
And because
Despite cigarette cough, tooth decay, acid indigestion, dandruff, and other features of married life that tend to dampen the fires of passion,
We still feel something
We can call
True love.

by Judith Viorst, author of "Yes, Married: A Saga of Love and Complaint" and "Love and Guilt and the Meaning of Life, Etc." Reprinted with permission

In a new Gallup poll, 40 percent of Americans say they believe in strict creationism, that humans were created by God within the last 10,000 years, like the Bible story. Well, how do they explain all those big ol' dinosaur bones?

Oh, they probably think Satan put those dinosaur bones there to trick us ...

Is it shallow to laugh at the misfortunes of others .. sort of like laughing at someone who's handicapped?

And no surprise, that poll number is higher among Republicans. How high? 52 percent, a majority of Republicans, more than half of all Republicans, reject the science behind evolution.

Just the kind of people you want to lead us forward into the 21st century to compete in a global economy. How can any nation build a first-world workforce out of a primitive third-world mentality?

You have to wonder - what are the Republicans thinking? I mean, when both Jon Stewart and Fox News' Shep Smith say Republicans should be ashamed for passing tax cuts for billionaires while opposing money for 9/11 first responders and clean-up people .. you gotta know you're on the wrong side of history.

Didn't the GOP always consider police and firefighters their kind of people, their constituents? And now they block a bill that would help with medical costs as the other insurance runs out?

A bill that's not going to cost taxpayers any money .. because it's already paid for by cutting a corporate tax loophole.

Boy, the R's shouldn't count on their votes come 2012 .. police and firefighters have long memories.

President Obama admits that he was shellacked last election day, but let‘s just make a list of what all he has accomplished during this so-called lame duck session. He oversaw the historic repeal of "Don‘t ask, don‘t tell" .. he got the country behind him on the new START treaty and the 9/11 first responders healthcare bill .. he prevented the Republicans from marching in next January to take credit for that tax cut deal.

BTW - If Obama cuts taxes is he still a socialist?

Just from a purely political viewpoint during this lame duck, President Obama looked strong and in control .. even while House liberal Democrats bitched and moaned about the tax cut compromise. He looked bigger than his detractors, sort of above things .. he looked like the level-headed voice, the guy who was looking at the big picture, thinking, "Let‘s do what‘s good for America."

Maybe that's why we've started to see his approval ratings tick up a little bit.

In a new CNN poll, 55 percent of the public now think the Obama‘s policies will move the country in the right direction .. while only 44 percent say Republican policies will move the country in the right direction.

Wow .. that's 11 percent difference .. where were those guys on election day?

Republicans want to block a bill that would help Ground Zero first responders pay medical bills .. heroes who gave their lives (as it turns out), breathing in toxic soup (pulverized glass, cement, etc.) as they sifted through debris to hunt for body parts, bone pieces, teeth and identifiable jewelry, to bring closure to thousands of families. No, they were not just clearing rubble ...

This lame-duck session of Congress has brought out the worst of the Republican party. Democrats are trying to get important work done, work that R's have stalled and blocked for months, but right-wing leaders - Kyl, McConnell - can only run to the microphones and whine that they shouldn't have to work this close to Christmas. Kyl said Dems are "disrespecting" Christians.

Shame on you, Jon Kyl, to say that Christian holidays were more important than bringing relief to these workers and their families. First responders who have worked on many a Christmas ...

It's not like the first responders healthcare bill will cost any money - it's already paid for by closing a corporate tax loophole.

It is truly shameful that Republicans are more concerned about providing tax cuts for the richest in America .. and can't find the time or desire to provide help to those who risked their lives in service to our nation at one of its greatest times of need.

This is not just New York's concern, it's America's concern. Ground Zero workers came to help from all across this land .. many from Oklahoma.

Republicans also want to defeat the New START treaty (will help keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists) .. a treaty that has the support of the chairman of the joint Chiefs of Staff and ALL the top military brass, and ALL six living secretaries of state (who served under Republicans).

We all know the real reason Republicans are dragging their feet. Mitch McConnell came right out and said it on the Senate floor - that Republicans' single most important goal is the defeat of President Obama.

It's pretty pathetic when the leader of the opposition believes that the single most important thing is to prevent a second term for Obama. What about getting people back to work, or resolving our position in Afghanistan, etc. .. what about moving this country forward and improving the lives of we the people, instead of playing these petty political games?

And they're just getting started, this week McConnell told Politico: "If they think it's bad now, wait 'til next year."

Today's Republican party has turned out to be one of the most rotten, empty and demagogic in US history.

And that's saying a lot.

I just blogged about how the Birchers trumped up the "War on Christmas" back in the 50's. They're a radical racist political group founded to fight Communism .. they looked for Commies under everybody's bed, and ran around calling all the members of Congress who didn't agree with them a Commie.

I just remembered a trick they used to use.

Here's how the Birchers worked .. maybe still do. They would attend sessions in Congress, sitting in the public seats. One of them would stand and shout that so-and-so was a Communist (usually a politician) and would be hustled out for causing a disturbance. BUT, the stenographer has to record every utterance .. and later the Birchers would bolster their slander with "It's true, it's in the Congressional Record!"

First of all, Americans have been saying "Happy Holidays" for almost 100 years .. it was a hit song in 1912, and a way to combine "Merry Christmas" and "Happy New Year."

Did people forget that "holidays" has been used since the 12th century, and comes from an Old English word meaning "holy days" .. how can that be anti-Christian?

I certainly don't see any war on Christmas .. every time I turn the TV on I see Christmas stories and movies on almost every channel. Every time I leave the house I see houses everywhere covered with Christmas from top to bottom. As I drive downtown I see Christmas hanging from the light poles, draped across the streets, and in every store window. The mall is festooned with giant You Know What wreaths and decorations.

I already blogged about being an atheist who loves Christmas .. and I don’t know one single person who hates Christmas. Oh, sure, some people complain about the commercialism, the crowds, etc., but they love the holiday.

A little history lesson - This phony war on Christmas was born out of paranoia about Communists .. it was started back in the '50's by the far-right John Birch Society, who saw Commies under every bed, not to mention in the US government.

The Birchers circulated a pamphlet called "There Goes Christmas!" .. which claimed that Commies were trying to weaken religion in our country by taking "Christ out of Christmas."

Next thing you know, if you didn't say "Merry Christmas" you were a Jew, Commie or Atheist who's out to destroy the holiday. We couldn't even shorten it to "Xmas" without offending the fundies.

But it took a long time for some people to buy into this idea of a "war on Christmas" .. probably because the Birchers didn't yet have the lightning speed of the Internet.

So, decades later something much better than a pamphlet comes along - Fox News fear-mongering. The war on Christmas banner was taken up by the sly ratings-hungry Bill O'Reilly. The idea fed in so well to Republican religious bigotry .. and Bill brought an ugly, bullying aspect to it all .. asking for people to boycott Target stores because he didn't like their decorations, etc.

Soon O'Reilly was joined in the Fox-hole by other zealots out to sell books and grab TV ratings .. Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, etc., started railing against the so-called War On Christmas .. keeping the fundies frothed up, because the more scared and angry Fox viewers are, the more books and CDs they buy.

This year Fox has been ranting about a story that turned out to be not true - about how a school had banned the colors red and green. Apparently a parent was mistaken, but the story was not updated until school officials came out and said no such policy existed.

But, don't get me started .. ;D ...

I already posted Jon Stewart's humorous take in the War on Christmas, here's how PBS would do it.

We are going to the same place
but we take two cars. Sunday morning
and there's not much traffic
so I pull up beside him at the light.
The sun is shining on the road.
Here he is in his car

beside my car,
the curve of his shoulder
through the glass, his face
fresh from a shave, his hair
against the brown of his neck.
He turns and blows me a kiss.
I watch it float on by. I ask
for another. I think of him
coming into the dark bedroom

in the mornings,
the sound of his workboots
across the carpet,
the scent of his face
when he finds me in the covers,
pulls the blanket away and
kisses my eyebrow,
the corner of my mouth,
tells me the weather report
and the precise time of day.
I roll down the window,

whistle in my throat,
pull my glasses crooked on my face,
do my best baboon snorting,
pound the horn
as if it were bread dough.
There's only the lady in the white Taurus
but he is embarrassed, glad to see the green.
I'm stepping on the gas,
catching up, wondering
what I can do at 56th and Calvert.

by Marjorie Saiser

"Pulling Up Beside My Husband at the Stoplight" by Marjorie Saiser from Bones of a Very Fine Hand. © The Backwaters Press, Omaha. Reprinted with permission.

Could President Obama end up having one of his most productive months in office? He's certainly prevailed through several cliffhangers in this soon-to-expire Democratic majority in the House. Some people are calling him the "Comeback Kid."

He won passage of most everything he wanted .. several rightie pundits say the $858 billion tax deal that Obama reached with Republicans was only a gigantic stimulus package for the president.

Yes, the DREAM Act failed .. but there's still hope that he'll get new healthcare legislation for 9/11 responders.

Republicans say they won't vote for the New START treaty, but Reid might call their bluff and ask for a vote on it by tomorrow morning. He says, "You either want to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists, or you don't."

The most historic thing was the repeal of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" .. I'm glad that it will forever be linked to President Obama's name.

Obama will be a historical president for many reasons. He tackled and achieved controversial things that Clinton, Bush and others shied away from - HCR, DADT, etc. He seems to act with his values and his heart and not with the next re-election in mind.

Read more here at USA Today.

One odd thing - the Tea Party has sure been quiet during this session. They might be waiting for their supporters to be sworn in .. or maybe they really don't have a leader and aren't organized, which means they might have less impact in 2011.

OR - they're speechless because after all that whining for two years about all of Obama's spending and debt, their newly elected Republicans added almost another trillion overnight.

Here it is, the latest animated video from the Jib Jab brothers .. they've turned Obama and foul-mouthed Biden into puppets singing a sad duet about everything from the Tea Party, banks crashing, getting shellacked in the midterm elections, to oil spills and WikiLeaks, etc. .. they gladly kick 2010 out the door.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCuoLd0K4lY

I'm glad to see it gone too .. may 2011 be a better year not only for the White House, but for us all.

Sunday evening, in these waning days of the 111th Congress, the Senate approved a sweeping bill to make our food safer - more inspections, tougher standards on imported foods, etc. - passed it unanimously too.

Gee, this Lame Duck session has wings.

See, that's all you have to do to get stuff done in Congress - just lock 'em all up and make 'em work until the last minute before Christmas.

Oh sure, some of them - Kyl and DeMint - run to the microphones and complain that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is "disrespecting" Christians for keeping Congress in session through the holidays .. calling it "sacrilegious" and even questioning Reid's faith.

I guess they forgot about that time in '98 when Republican Christians were all too happy staying to vote for President Clinton's impeachment on Dec 22 ...

First Jon Stewart, now Shep Smith.

The day after Stewart aired his program sticking up for Ground Zero workers, Fox News’ Shep Smith took up the banner and blasted the Senators who fought for bills giving "tax cuts for billionaires who don’t need them" .. but couldn’t get healthcare relief passed for 9/11 first responders .. and Fox's Chris Wallace appeared to agree with him. What a sight to see ...

You can see the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixsv9P3UvOw

"How do they sleep at night after this vote on Ground Zero first responders from 9/11? Are they going to get that done, or are we going to leave these American heroes out there to twist in the wind? [...]

Who’s going to hold these people’s feet to the fire? We’re able to put a 52 story building so far down there at Ground Zero, we’re able to pay for tax cuts for billionaires who don’t need them and it’s not going to stimulate the economy. But we can’t give health care to Ground Zero first responders who ran right into the fire? Went down there to save people? Do people know what this city was like that day? People were walking over bridges they were covered in ash they were running for their lives they were crying their family members were dead. And these people ran to Ground Zero to save people’s lives. And we’re not going to even give them medicine for the illnesses they got down there? It’s disgusting, it’s a national disgrace, it’s a shame and everybody who voted against should have to stand up and account for himself or herself."

Good job Shep, you are the only true newsman that Fox has .. but I realize that you still have to be careful .. like not mentioning that it was Republicans who were blocking the bill.

This isn't a joke, it's true - Fox wants to add background music to NFL games. Football fans say it's a terrible idea and are freaking out .. they don't want any cheesy "mood" setting music. They say it's hard enough with all the commercial breaks as it is.

How long before they’ll start sneaking commercials in between plays, and then during plays .. and before you know it there'll be Coca-Cola logos on players jerseys ...

Read about it here in USA Today.

No jump-starting the day,
no bare feet slapping the floor
to bath and breakfast.

Dozing instead
in the nest
like, I suppose,
a pair of gophers

underground
in fuzz and wood shavings.
One jostles the other
in closed-eye luxury.

We are at last
perhaps
what we are:
uncombed,
unclothed,
mortal.

Pulse
and breath
and dream.

by Marjorie Saiser

"Weekends, Sleeping In" by Marjorie Saiser, from Beside You at the Stoplight. © The Backwaters Press, 2010. Reprinted with permission.

"Michelle Obama said that obesity is a national security threat because 1 in 4 young people are too overweight to join the military. Couldn't we just have a separate fat army to fight in countries that don't have hills?" –Jimmy Kimmel

"It was so cold in Minneapolis, Brett Favre was texting pictures of his chestnuts roasting over an open fire." –Jay Leno

"Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been named Time magazine's Person of the Year. They said he has single-handedly changed the way we waste time at work." –Jay Leno

"Larry King has been married more times than Henry the Eighth. We used to have that rhyme to keep track of them. 'Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived.' With Larry I think it goes, 'Divorced, beheaded, divorced, escaped. Zombie, lesbian, disappeared, inflatable.'" –Craig Ferguson

"Mark Zuckerberg was named Time's Person of the Year. I'm sorry if you don't recognize the name. A magazine is something people used to read." –Craig Ferguson

"Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks guy, is out on bail and everybody wants to interview him. Barbara Walters wants to know if he’s a lesbian. Today in the holiday spirit he leaked 200 letters to Santa." –David Letterman

"Chernobyl is being opened to tourists. I guess for people who feel they’re not getting enough radiation from the body scanners. It’s the perfect destination for people who like to experience toxic wastelands and have already been to New Jersey." –Jay Leno

"Today President Obama met with a group of top CEOs to discuss creating new jobs. They said they'd see what they could do and then all went back to China." –Conan O'Brien

"The Marine Corps’ top general suggested allowing gay soldiers on the battlefield would pose a distraction. Especially the really hot ones." –Conan O'Brien

"According to new census data, Falls Church, Va. is the best-educated area in the U.S. Least educated? Sarah Palin's Alaska. " –Jimmy Fallon

"The Golden Globes will have an unusual category this year: 'Outstanding Performance by an Animal Killed by Sarah Palin.'" –David Letterman

"Someone apparently found an old Internet dating profile posted by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and it has been posted online. Assange was furious, saying 'Some things are supposed to be private.'" –Conan O'Brien

[a tip of the hat to Daniel Kurtzman, NYT-laughlines, and newsmax.com]

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart held a panel discussion with four 9/11 first responders, asking their views on Republican obstruction of a bill that would provide healthcare for Ground Zero workers who got sick. Legislation that would be paid for by simply closing a corporate tax loophole.

Let me repeat that - Legislation that would be paid for by simply closing a corporate tax loophole.

All four of these poor guys are very sick .. it breaks your heart to see them tossed aside. Everyone thinks their union takes care of their healthcare, but they are dropped from the insurance after a certain time.

Not one dang Republican came to the senate floor to explain why the desperately needed, fully paid-for compensation didn’t deserve to pass. Are they really that desperate to stall and "run out the clock" on any bill that Democrats champion?

These Senators receive government healthcare, and have the audacity to kill a bill that would help the dying 911 responders .. the same Senators who have repeatedly exploited 911 in their speeches.

Stewart talks about Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) silence on the plight of the first responders .. then he plays a video of McConnell’s emotional teary-eyed farewell to a senator friend who is retiring.

You don't want to miss this. It's one of the best segments I've ever seen on Stewart's show. He has taken the moral high ground above ALL the mainstream media .. who haven't given this story proper attention.

"I respect John Boehner because he has worn his feelings on his sleeve on things that are so important to him." - Sarah Palin, on Rep. John Boehner's penchant for crying.

Yeahbut, just imagine what she'd say if it was Pelosi or Reid who got choked up and blubbered everytime they turned around ...

The comedians are sure happy about Boo-Hoo Boehner:

"It is freezing on the East Coast. It was so cold, John Boehner had to use antifreeze before his morning cry." - from NBC's Jimmy Fallon.

My family and friends will get a kick out of this .. especially the techies. It's a technological twist on the Christmas story .. showing how it would have been influenced by Google, Wikipedia, Google Maps, GMail, iPhone 4, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Amazon, YouTube, etc. It's interesting to see how the digital world would have recorded such an event.

In case you missed it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkHNNPM7pJA

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" - the policy that allowed gays to serve in the military only if they kept their sexual orientation a secret - was repealed yesterday.

But not before 12,500 service members had been discharged .. many with highly specialized skills.

This historic victory for American civil rights has been too long in coming. But hey, we're here now .. and it's such a good feeling to do the right thing

This touches all of us. Not just because the strength of our military affects us all .. but because when one group of Americans is denied full equality, all of us are diminished.

I'm proud of the American people who showed compassion and good sense. Poll after poll showed the majority on board no matter their age, race, gender, education, income, or region. Without them, this victory wouldn't have happened.

President Obama irritated many people with his cautious, reaching-out, building support approach .. but he was right to allow public opinion and moderate senators to pull together to get this done. This is much better than some court ruling that Republicans would be bitching about forever.

The 111th Congress is turning out to be a remarkable and historic congress. Democrats kept fighting day after day trying to do the right thing, only to be met with obstructionism .. but they carried on. The repeal of DADT is a major victory for them.

BTW-To call a cloture vote with 57 Democrats and 6 Republicans "bipartisan" just shows you how far off track the party of intolerance has pushed us.

When you stop and think about it, two wars had a lot to do with it .. nothing like war to advance social change .. the Civil Rights movement (military integration), Women's Rights (Rosie the Riveter), and now the Homosexual Rights movement ...

My congratulations and gratitude to gay Americans, past and present, who served bravely in the face of institutional hatred. We will never go back to the dark days before 12/18/10.

Read about the repeal here.

Now can we haz atheists in the foxhole too?

My father, in middle age, falls in love with a dog.
He who kicked dogs in anger when I was a child,
who liked his comb always on the same shelf,
who drank martinis to make his mind quiet.

He who worked and worked-his shirts
wrapped in plastic, his heart ironed
like a collar. He who-like so many men-
loved his children but thought the money

he made for them was more important
than the rough tweed of his presence.
The love of my father's later years is
a Golden Retriever-more red

than yellow-a nervous dog who knows
his work clothes from his casual ones,
can read his creased face, who waits for
him at the front door-her paws crossed

like a child's arms. She doesn't berate him
for being late, doesn't need new shoes
or college. There is no pressure to raise her
right, which is why she chews the furniture,

pees on rugs, barks at strangers who
cross the lawn. She is his responsible soul
broken free. She is the children he couldn't
come home to made young again.

She is like my mother but never angry,
always devoted. He cooks for his dog-
my father who raised us in restaurants-
and takes her on business trips like

a wife. Sometimes, sitting beside her
in the hair-filled van he drives to make
her more comfortable, my father's dog
turns her head to one side as if

thinking and, in this pose, more than
one of us has mistaken her for a person.
We would be jealous if she didn't make
him so happy-he who never took

more than one trip on his expensive
sailboat, whose Mercedes was wrecked
by a valet. My mother saw him behind
the counter of a now-fallen fast food

restaurant when she was nineteen.
They kissed beside a river where fish
no longer swim. My father who was
always serious has fallen in love with

a dog. What can I do but be happy for him?

by Faith Shearin

"Retriever" by Faith Shearin, from "The Owl Question" Reprinted
with permission

(Warning: naughty)

I'll bet you thought you'd heard every last rendition of the old song, "Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer" .. but never say never. Here's a recent entry to the favorite Christmas song list. A sign of the times which will sit well with righties and lefties alike .. and will soon become a season favorite, what with all of the recent and explicit talk about TSA groping and patting down procedures.

Here's a smile for you today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qdb6wC0Iz4

The University of Maryland just did a new study which found that the more Fox News people watched the more misinformed they were .. the more mistakes they made answering questions about US and world issues, they didn't know critical facts about major issues.

Hey, Democrats were also included .. *anybody* who watched Fox News did not get real facts about important issues.

Too much spin, not enough facts. Example: GOP voters didn't even know that George W. Bush also had an auto bailout program, not just President Obama.

Fox just repeats GOP talking points over and over .. this so called "News" network is a mouthpiece for the GOP, pure and simple.

The study is called "Misinformation and the 2010 Election" .. it analyzed levels of misinformation among viewers of TV news broadcasts and other media:

"[T]hose who watched Fox News almost daily were significantly more likely than those who never watched it to believe that:

most economists estimate the stimulus caused job losses (12 points more likely)

most economists have estimated the health care law will worsen the deficit (31 points)

the economy is getting worse (26 points)

most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring (30 points)

the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts (14 points)

their own income taxes have gone up (14 points)

the auto bailout only occurred under Obama (13 points)

when TARP came up for a vote most Republicans opposed it (12 points)

and that it is not clear that Obama was born in the United States (31 points) ..[..]"

One could also ask - does Fox News make people dumb, or do dumb people just gravitate toward Fox?

Rush Limbaugh says that 'dingy' Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are calling him names, and compared them to terrorists on his radio show last week.

A multi-millionaire who uses public airwaves to constantly spew lies and propaganda that seek to undermine the President of the United States is much closer to a terrorist than a duly elected representative of the people.

Anyway, it's pretty funny coming from someone who tries his best to scare the daylights out of his audience every day .. if terrorism is using fear to further political goals, then the GOP, Fox "News" and all right-wing hate radio pundits are terrorists.

Also seems that the more popular the new stars of the wingnuts are - Palin, Beck, etc., - the more outrageous Rush becomes. He must be jealous .. and has to say these types of things to keep his name in the headlines.

And, yes, Rush, I'm sure that you are terrified by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid .. I mean, look how successful they've been.

He was a big man, says the size of his shoes
on a pile of broken dishes by the house;
a tall man too, says the length of the bed
in an upstairs room; and a good, God-fearing man,
says the Bible with a broken back
on the floor below the window, dusty with sun;
but not a man for farming, say the fields
cluttered with boulders and the leaky barn.

A woman lived with him, says the bedroom wall
papered with lilacs and the kitchen shelves
covered with oilcloth, and they had a child,
says the sandbox made from a tractor tire.
Money was scarce, say the jars of plum preserves
and canned tomatoes sealed in the cellar hole.
And the winters cold, say the rags in the window frames.
It was lonely here, says the narrow country road.

Something went wrong, says the empty house
in the weed-choked yard. Stones in the fields
say he was not a farmer; the still-sealed jars
in the cellar say she left in a nervous haste.
And the child? Its toys are strewn in the yard
like branches after a storm-a rubber cow,
a rusty tractor with a broken plow,
a doll in overalls. Something went wrong, they say.

by Ted Kooser

"Abandoned Farmhouse" from Flying at Night: Poems 1965-1985. © University of Pittsburgh Press. Reprinted with permission.

Yep, right in the middle of the big to-do about DADT, we have right-wing, anti-gay activists wanting to reclaim the rainbow flag from "Rainbow Coalition" gay rights activists.

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse of the anti-gay-marriage Ruth Institute, says:

"[..] "the rainbow is a sign of God's covenant with man." Morse told ONN: "Proposition 8 was passed by a great grassroots coalition that included people from all across the religious traditions, and also people of every race and color. We are the real rainbow coalition. The gay lobby does not own the rainbow."

Morse continued: "We can't simply let that go by. Families put rainbows in their children's nurseries. Little Christian preschools will have rainbows...Noah's Ark and all the animals.... Those are great Christian symbols, great Jewish symbols." [..]"

Well okay, go ahead and hang giant rainbow flags all around your house .. just don't be surprised when all those people show up for the parade ...

SAN LUIS - Customs and Border Protection says border agents seized 141 cartons of fake Barbie and Moxie Girlz dolls headed for the U.S. from Mexico.

The boxes of fake dolls were found inside a truck Nov. 29 at the San Luis port of entry in southwestern Arizona.

Border agents were conducting a shipment inspection of a container of various dolls from China when they discovered items resembling Barbie and Moxie Girlz dolls.[..]"

Dang those anchor Barbies!

And while they were busy searching the truck, 2,000 pregnant Mexican women fell over the fence and were taken to Arizona hospitals to deliver their spawn as American citizens.

"A BRITISH department store unveiled a hi-tech line of lingerie today that stays on thanks to magnets.

The underwear, about to go on sale at high-end department store Selfridges, features tiny invisible magnets instead of fastenings to overcome the problem of tricky bra hooks.

The bra comes with a matching pair of "clip-on, clip-off" panties, which have magnetic side strips.

Created by French designer Laetitia Schlumberger, and named "Dement" - the French word for 'insane" - the underwear costs upwards of £165 ($US256) for a bra and panties set.[..]"

Yeah, "it would save valuable time" .. but seriously, if you can't figure out how to open a bra, you probably shouldn't be procreating anyway.

Not to mention that women will never be able to get them off the inside of the washer and dryer.

Remember that birther* Army doctor who refused to obey orders to deploy to Afghanistan until/unless the President "proved" that he is a natural born citizen?

Well, his Court-Martial ended yesterday .. Lt. Col. Terry Lakin was convicted of all Charges and Specifications and sentenced to 6 months in prison and dismissal (an officer's dishonorable discharge) .. lost his pension too.

It should be noted that Lakin pled guilty to 3 of the 4 specifications .. and admitted on the record that all of the orders he received were, in fact, lawful orders.

In other words, he gave up on the whole birther thing.

Birthers came from all over the country to attend his court-martial .. they're calling the outcome a conspiracy and Lakin is still their hero. What do you wanna bet that he runs for public office?

What gets me is that an irrational fool like Lakin could achieve the rank of Lt. Colonel in the US military ...

* Birthers are right-wing loonies who suffer racist anxiety and hate that a Black Man is in the White House .. but they can't say that out loud, so they bleat that a foreigner has seized control of the Oval Office.

Not everyone has TiVo you know, and as one who likes to drift off to sleep with the TV on, it has long pissed me off that my soothing documentary about mountain streams suddenly turns into an ear-shattering commercial with gun shots and screaming .. so I'm happy that something is finally being done about it.

President Obama just signed a new law:

"S. 2847, the "Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation or the "CALM Act," which requires the Federal Communications Commission to prescribe a regulation limiting the volume of audio on commercials transmitted by television broadcast stations, cable operators, and other multichannel video programming distributors."

It only took 40 years .. and half that time we didn't even have remotes.

Commercials blast you even when you're awake, sitting in a chair .. funny thing is, if they weren't so loud maybe we wouldn't mute them, you'd think advertisers would prefer that we didn't do that.

I love her .. she’s the only effective politician on my side of the aisle who has 'vertebrae' .. bar none.

Talking about the House vote to repeal DADT. It was passed yesterday 250-175 (surprise, a party-line vote) .. and it was LARGER than the vote held in May (234-194). The American public is coming around, and probably writing to their congress critters.

DADT is a matter of civil rights .. period. Soon, even Republicans will have to acknowledge that the public opinion tide has turned.

It was what they call a "standalone" bill .. no amendments added .. and now it goes to the Senate.

"Now is the time for us to act," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California. "We should honor the service of all who want to contribute" to America’s security. "Repealing ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ makes for good public policy."

Now we get to sit around and wait to see what kind of BS excuses Republican moderates like Scott Brown, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe come up with to block the bill. Snowe has pledged her support .. but we won't fall for Lucy's move-the-football-at-the-last-second trick again.

It tickles me when Republicans keep saying, with a straight face, that gays were trying to ram the bill down Congress’ throat.

Could they really be so un-hip, so oblivious ...

I am non-religious, but I celebrate Christmas with a kid's heart .. it's tied in with so many happy memories from my childhood. I adore all the festive music, decorations and good cheer .. especially the spirit of sharing and giving.

This year we have a sad sign of these hard times - children's letters to Santa are different. US postal workers who handle Santa letters say "more letters ask for basics — coats, socks and shoes — rather than Barbie dolls, video games and computers ... One little girl didn't want anything for herself. She wanted a winter coat for her mother."

You know, all of us can do something, no matter how small. Add a few more dollars to the Salvation Army kettle .. or write a check to your local food bank, they're really hurting and every little bit helps.

Or choose a needy child's name from the "Secret Santa" tree in a dept. store .. it's so easy. An 8 y/o boy only asked for one thing, an OU Sooners jacket, which I could buy in the store ($19.95) and they take care of the rest. We can also gather out-grown warm coats from family and friends and donate them to a local church .. I chose one in the poor part of town.

Or if you're bold, you can do something like this. Last Xmas I was behind a young mother in a K-Mart checkout line. It was almost Xmas and she told her friend that she had to wait for her paycheck to shop for her kids. Her purchases were for a little boy and girl, nothing elaborate, just books, puzzles, small games, socks, gloves, pajamas, jeans and winter shirts. The clerk rang it up and it was more money than the mother had, so she started to put some things back. Without really thinking, I stepped up and told the clerk to put it all on my credit card, it was only $50. I told the mother Merry Christmas honey, I've been where you are. She cried, I cried, the clerk cried .. my heart swelled, it was wonderful.

.. but I still plowed through a lot of reading about it, trying to figure out healthcare's Individual Mandate .. why the Republicans hate it .. why the VA federal district judge ruled it unconstitutional, and if that will even stick because two other district courts already upheld the mandate.

First thing I discovered - the mandate that Republicans hate was their idea in the first place. Nixon loved it in the '70s, George H.W. Bush championed it in the '80s, and Bob Dole had it as part of his presidential campaign platform in the 90s.

From the Washington Monthly: "For years, it was touted by the likes of John McCain, Mitt Romney, Scott Brown, Chuck Grassley, Bob Bennett, Tommy Thompson, Lamar Alexander, Lindsey Graham, John Thune, Judd Gregg, and many others all notable GOP officials.

My personal favorite is Grassley, who proclaimed on Fox News last year, during the fight over Obama's plan, "I believe that there is a bipartisan consensus to have an individual mandate." (A year later, Grassley signed onto a legal brief insisting that the mandate is unconstitutional.)"

Then there's this: "Sen. Hatch Calls Ruling Against Mandate He Once Sponsored "A Great Day For Liberty"

Yep, seems Hatch forgot that he was for the mandate before he was against it .. and co-sponsored a healthcare bill that had an individual mandate.

And this time around the Republicans originally wanted to insert it in Obama's Affordable Care Act .. just so they could vote against it? ...

This whole silliness is politics pure and simple - the Republicans don't have a problem with the mandate, or probably even with the Affordable Care Act itself .. they just have a problem with President Obama passing historic legislation .. they don't want that feather in his cap.

Anyway, if it goes to the Supreme Court, some Democrats hope that the individual mandate will be found unconstitutional .. which would force Congress to adopt a constitutional alternative .. like the public option or Medicare for all.

"Ukraine announced plans to open Chernobyl, their nuclear disaster site, to tourists. They say it's just like Disneyland, except the 6-foot mouse is real." –Conan O'Brien

"Part-time Governor Sarah Palin' shot and killed a reindeer on her TV show. And that was her Christmas special. Took her several shots. Well, she’s rusty. Last thing she brought down was John McCain." –David Letterman

"Sarah Palin shot a reindeer on the last episode of her show. You don't typically see politicians shooting reindeer to death two weeks before Christmas." –Jimmy Kimmel

"Sarah Palin went camping with Kate Gosselin on her TV show. What a pair. You have a vapid media star desperate for attention — and then there's Kate Gosselin." –David Letterman

"According to a report, the worst drivers in the country are in Washington, D.C. Republicans can only turn right, Democrats can only turn left, and Obama is weaving all over the place." –Jay Leno

"FedEx said that it shipped 16 million packages today on its busiest day of the year. That's right, they handled 16 million packages. Or as the TSA calls that, 'kind of a slow day.'" –Jimmy Fallon

"Time magazine is now ranking the best tweets of the year and, according to Time, the best tweet for 2010 was written by John McCain. Experts say it's even more impressive because McCain thought he was opening his garage door." –Conan O'Brien

"George W. Bush's daughter, Jenna, just put her home in Baltimore on the market for $500,000. The real estate agent said, 'I just want to warn you that offers have gone way down ever since the economy was ruined by . . . someone.'" –Jimmy Fallon

"President Obama lit the national Christmas tree, a 40-foot Colorado Spruce. Republicans don't believe it's really from Colorado, and they want to see a birth certificate." –Jay Leno

"Nigeria has issued an arrest warrant for Dick Cheney. Good luck serving that this time of year. Cheney’s up in Whoville, stealing Christmas." –Jay Leno

"According to WikiLeaks, the airing of American TV shows in the Middle East is helping to stop Islamic extremism. Would-be terrorists watch our reality shows and realize they've already won." –Conan O'Brien

"WikiLeaks supporters hacked into Sarah Palin's credit card information after she criticized Julian Assange. Sarah said she's very upset, and hopes all suspicious charges to her account can be refundiated." –Jimmy Fallon

"Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have been targeting Sarah Palin's accounts. They figured out her password, which was 'Palin2012.' They got it on the first guess." –Jimmy Kimmel

"On Sarah Palin’s next show she gets together with Kate Gosselin and her kids. This may be the biggest meeting of media whores since Michael and Dina Lohan got together to conceive Lindsay." –Jimmy Kimmel

"WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was in court today, and when the judge asked for his address he said he didn’t want to give out that information. Well, everyone has a right to privacy." –Jay Leno

"Because of a printing error nearly a billion $100 bills will have to be destroyed. Hey, if these bills are worthless, don’t destroy them. Use them to pay off the Chinese." –Jay Leno

"It's so cold that the security guys at the airports are putting their hands in their own pants." –David Letterman

"'A Charlie Brown Christmas' was just on. According to a recent poll, most Americans think Charlie Brown is a Muslim." –David Letterman

"The Republicans might be willing to allow homosexual men and women to die for their country, once anyone earning over $500,000 a year is allowed to park in handicapped spaces and be addressed as 'Guvner' in an English accent." –Daily Show correspondent John Oliver on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

[a tip of the hat to Daniel Kurtzman, NYT-laughlines, and newsmax.com]

(Happy to say that my blog got fixed)

While millions of Americans are struggling to make house payments and car payments and put food on the table, looks like Wall Street bankers are going to have a very very merry Christmas .. they're looking at their best two years since we the taxpayers generously bailed their butts out back in the Fall of 2008 (Bush's TARP).

But that's not the only reason they're dancing with glee -- Wall Street executives are set to receive $144 billion in bonuses this year, breaking the record for a second year.

Wasn't it just 3 years ago when these same banks destroyed the American economy?

Who says crime doesn't pay ...

Yep, $144 billion to those greedy bastards who destroyed the middle class through 401Ks .. who manipulated the market through mortgages guaranteed to fail .. who are quicker to pull in loans than make new ones, etc., etc.

What good do they do? They used to raise capital to fuel the economy .. now they just move it from side to side.

Wait a minute, seeing as how we bailed out their butts, and now are on the hook to pay for it in the form of taxes, wouldn't that technically make us employees?

So where's my bonus?

Sooner Be Blue, that's who. Took 'em 2 weeks but my blog is working again. I'll see you lovely people in the morning.

"Good times and bum times,
I've seen them all and, my dear,
I'm still here.
Plush velvet sometimes,
Sometimes just pretzels and beer,
But I'm here.

I've run the gamut.
A to Z.
Three cheers and dammit,
C'est la vie.
I got through all of last year
And I'm here.

Look who's here!
I'm still here!"

(from Stephen Sondheim's "Follies")

I love "The Simpsons" .. especially when they mock Fox News - "#1 With Racists," "Unsuitable For Viewers Under 75," and holiday message on Fox News helicopter: "Merry Christmas From Fox News...But No Other Holidays."

Turns out in his private moments on tape Richard Nixon was a raging bigot, lashing out at Jews (aggressive), blacks (stupid), Italian-Americans (crazy), and Irish-Americans (mean drunks). 

A federal district judge in VA, who owns part of a GOP consulting firm, has declared Obamacare's individual mandate to be unconstitutional. It'll end up in the Supreme Court, and be a crapshoot, hope Dems don't get snake-eyes.

Christine O’Donnell’s, "I’m not a witch" was chosen by the Yale Book of Quotations as the quote of the year. Also ran: BP CEO Tony Hayward's "I’d like my life back" & "If you touch my junk, I’m gonna have you arrested."

Someone found the '06 online dating profile of that head WikiLeaker guy .. says he’s into dangerous exotic women from politically torn countries .. rather than "valueless and inane" Western women.

Tiger Woods just wrapped up the golfing season with one of his best finishes since he fell from grace. Yes, he was replaced by Lee Westwood as #1, but golf TV ratings continue to tank if Tiger's not in the game. So PGA and I have our fingers crossed.

Just 2 months after her divorce from Tiger Woods was final, Elin Noregren has found a new love and talks about having more children. I'd advise her to hold tight to that $110 million ..

"Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes."
— Jack Handy (SNL)

Whenever you try to shout down a moron, it just turns you into a moron. I once heard someone say that silence has the loudest voice .. I agree.

Today's reporters write stories about barn doors left open and horses gone, and how that happened .. after the fact, after the damage was done, after the money was wasted and/or stolen, after people had already been killed.

The electromagnetic railgun is for ships, and uses a huge pulse of electricity to shoot a 20-pound slug of aluminum out of the barrel, reaching a range of 100 miles at such high speeds that every shot makes a small sonic boom.

Dang, 20 inches of snow wreaks havoc for much of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, and Michigan. Hang tough, stay warm, hope you don't have to drive in it. SW OK is freezing, but dry.

A record-setting $4 billion was spent on the midterm elections .. obscene, just obscene .. but we ain't seen nothin' yet, just wait 'til 2012.

When VP Joe Biden tried to convince House Dems to vote for Obama's tax deal, one called Obama "negotiator in chief" .. Biden said: "There's no goddamned way I'm going to stand here and talk about the president like that."

"Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the
politicians as a joke." —Will Rogers (good Okie guy)

"I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself." —Ronald Reagan

While the vast majority of our military men and women are comfortable with the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" .. evangelical Christian military chaplains are having hissy fits about it.

The Cherokees were a rich nation before the Civil War, they had plantations and even black slaves. President Andrew Jackson used States' Rights to evict the Cherokee from Georgia.

The South is partying like it was 1861, men in militia uniforms, women in hoopskirts, sippin' mint juleps, bands playing "Dixie", a mock swearing-in of Confederate Pres. Jefferson Davis. Missin' the good ol' days.

How long before the Nat Turner Rebellion Jubilation Reenactment Celebration?

Sarah Palin's reality TV show has dipped in ratings so she's bringing Kate Plus Eight little Gosselins on the show to go hunting and camping. I might even tune in for that

"There they are. See no evil, hear no evil, and...evil." - Bob Dole, watching former presidents Carter, Ford and Nixon standing by each other at a White House event.

Very conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer says Obama beat the GOP with this tax cut deal, that he ended up getting "the biggest stimulus in American history."

.. "in four part harmony" (yes, I'm an Arlo fan). Anyway, latest news is that the head WikiLeaker guy will soon be indicted by the United States for spying.

.. that President Clinton fought his own party about the Internet? Yep, some Democrats wanted to tax and regulate the hell out of it .. Clinton put his foot down, said no! Sure was good to see the Big Dog yestiddy, but he dwarfed Obama.

John Edwards will not speak at Elizabeth Edwards' funeral .. I'm glad that family pressure won out over his ego. Too bad the phony creep has to be there at all .. but I guess the kids need him.

Bernie Sanders is sure angry at how the GOP is the Party of the Rich Screwing Over America, he railed about it on the Senate floor for 8 hrs, yestiddy .. but Sen. Byrd has the record, 14 hrs. for the 1964 Civil Rights Act

"The female caribou could easily have escaped, since it took the Wasilla huntress six shots, two rifles and some help from her dad to bag her prey. (.. she isn’t all that proficient with guns.)" http://tinyurl.com/29kpwul

Soon we'll read stories about the pain of Florida's Gulf Coast billionaires who are unable to take their yachts to sea because they can't afford the extra millions a year in gas and maintenance if their tax cuts expire.

If the Bush tax cuts had been allowed to expire, we'd have hundreds of billions of dollars in new revenue to pay our bills and repair our crumbling infrastructure, but instead we have hundreds of billions more in debt.

If we keep improving our drones and robot technology, soon the rich won't need as many of us for cannon fodder .. or even domestic crowd control. Imagine robots with advanced tasers breaking up protest rallies!

Yes, yes .. by all means, we must pursue George W. Bush's tax policy instead of Bill Clinton's .. because Bush's tax rate created 3 million jobs, and Clinton's tax rate created 23 million jobs. Uh-huh...

Prince Charles and Camilla's car was attacked yesterday because college fees have tripled .. we'd have to take Dancing With the Stars and American Idol off the air to get Americans out protesting anything besides the McRib farewell.

On sale 25 cents a lb.! I bought a big sack and baked 'em plain. Ain't nothin' better than slathering them with butter, salt and pepper, or sometimes sugar and spices. Delish, full of cancer-fightin' goodies and they freeze well.

I actually got a raise yesterday! That's pretty rare, so something must be going better .. in time for Christmas too .. and a cousin got a job, he'd been out of work for almost a year. Things are lookin' up!

Yesterday, House Democrats tried to give Social Security seniors a $250 cost-of-living check - this is their 2nd year without one - but House Republicans killed it. http://tinyurl.com/29hd5wt

It's what those wacky Swedes call the charge against that head Wikileaker guy .. it seems he, uh, leaked. Read about it here: http://tinyurl.com/2dzrr2q

Hey, those Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires have been in effect since 2001 .. so why hasn't the wealth trickled down? Where are the jobs?

I reported it, but won't hold my breath until they read their mail. The problem might be tied in with them censoring the bloghi troll from using the word "sooner" .. but in the meantime I'll post under SoonerBlue. And if I disappear completely, my back-up blog is at:

http://soonerblue2.wordpress.com/