An old man was walking along a country path when he heard a strange voice calling to him. He tracked down the voice to a big frog sitting by the side of a pond. The frog said, "Pick me up and give me a kiss, and I will turn into a beautiful princess who will cater to your every whim and fancy!" The old man picked up the frog and put it in his knapsack to which the frog cried out in surprise, "Hey, What are you doing!?" The old man replied, "At this age I have more use for a talking frog!" 

I'm so completely beside myself right now... it's affecting my day.

 

I was just listening to a left wing radio show where a man being interviewed called for a suit against oil industry execs for "Crimes Against Humanity". The topic was in regard to an actual suit where some Natives in AK are suing a of businesses because the ocean is taking back their barrier island and they need to move....   There's SO much wrong with this... but I want to focus on one little aspect.

 

The suit alleges collusion and conspiracy to defraud the US Citizens by funding research that states humans are not responsible for Global Warming, or denying it's existance altogether.

 

Wow! Let's go back to the dark ages and jail people who say the world is round, or that the Earth revolves around the Sun!!

 

Whether you agree or disagree with the Global Warming camp, this flagrant attempt to stifle dialogue and research is the more accurate "crime against humanity"!

Cullan inturrupts a conversation about soccer:

"Is Italy winning? What happens when someone beats one of your friends and it's not your team?

(??) "Well, Cullan, our team isn't in this competition. It's only teams from Europe. I root for teams that I have ancestry in, like Scotland and France. Caleb roots for Italy because he's a little bit Italian and he's the only one in the family that's part Italian."

"Did you know that fruit flies have a little sucker that they use to eat your food?"

"Cullan you're not paying attention are you? What team does Caleb root for?"

"Um... Fruit Flies?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_M61Jjm6jU

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Last night Emily completely shocked me!  It all started when....

I'd decided that for my birthday I wanted to go to Oi!Fest. Em said I could and I began making plans. THEN, the oil prices went through the roof and it was hard to get by, let alone pay for extra entertainment. Then, Emily had her photo show which cost a bit to frame evrything and all that. But that was such a big deal that it really took precedence over going to a show. So, I'd resigned myself to not going.

Last night, I took Emily to dinner for her belated birthday dinner, and she handed me a card that told me to enjoy my trip to Oi!Fest!.  She'd contacted a friend and bought an extra ticket and arranged for me to ride down with them. Wow!

Thank you Emily! And thank you John and Whitney!

p.s. This was so hard to write!!!!!  Benjamin was in a great mood, so I thought I could bang out a quick blog......... He's so obsessed with throwing a fit if I (noone else) go near a computer! The second he heard me typing he came up, crawled behind me on the seat and proceeded to scream and kick his way through this post!! KIDS! Gotta love 'em, right? RIGHT?

Now comes the tough part... It’s over.   When someone’s died, people give you extra space, they help you, they care about how your feeling over themselves. But then that ends. There’s a point when that is done and it’s time to move on. It’s time to go to work and be there on time. It’s time to have gotten enough sleep. It’s time to remember your manners and be nice. It’s time to change diapers and carry screaming babies. It’s time to call the electric company and to pay bills.

This is the hardest part. This is the hardest part because the world is ready for you to be okay, whether you’re ready or not. 

So, Left Wing media was going nuts about the State Dept. asking Peace Corps Volunteers and Fullbright Scholars to spy on Cubans and Venezuelans in Bolivia. Wow! This is terrible! Wait, that's not exactly the whole story. When this one Fullbright Student was going through his security briefing - y'know the one where they tell you not to ride in strangers' cars and all - they told him if he saw any Cubans or Venezuelans working in the field to let the Embassy know who and where. Ooookay. That's "spying"? And this is supposed to be a big deal.... why? I just don't see the big effen deal!!!!  The Bolivian Pres. is off making speaches about sovereignty.... and I'm thinking some Left Wing Whacko has wasted a half-hour of my time.

Hugo Chavez has said that if a European court sides with Exxon and awards Exxon money for the nationalization of a project, that Chavez will cut off oil supplies to the US as part of his "Economic War". So, let's break this down. For starters, Exxon is probably the ONE company I'd put down in the "evil" column over any others. Skipping the Valdez fall-out and heading straight into high oil prices. The high prices have given Exxon record-breaking profits year after year. While the US Govt is thinking about drilling in National Parks, Exxon is hauling in hand over fist.... Cutting the profit margin is just not acceptable. The court hearings are being held in Europe. Well, the oil corp.s aren't gonna get a fair shake in a country that's nationalizing things. That being said, it does raise the question of sovereignty. I wouldn't expect the US to abide by an adjudication made about us in a place friendly to the other side. So, what to do.... Tell Chavez to stick his oil up his ass!!!! The sneaky bastard has been diverting cheap oil to poorer Americans in a bid to win them over, yet he wants to wage economic war with us? Let him. It'll hurt, BUT it'll hurt him MORE! The US is the principle buyer of Venezuelan oil. We're their biggest customer! I say, cut 'em off before he gets a chance to do it to us! We'll deal. We'll get by. They'll starve. Chavez would be single-handedly destroying his country. Let him.

 The US needs to cut food stamp benefits. We know no politician's gonna wanna do it, but... there needs to be change to protect the help given to the poor. We need to loosen up money somewhere and the FS program is bursting with extra money. See, one can buy soda, candy, chips and all that with food stamps! One can go in and buy the most expensive meat and cheeses. But there's a program that shows restraint! WIC (Women, Infants, Children). WIC provides voucher checks for healthy staple foods. One can only buy approved foods. Now, the WIC program would be a little sparse for a person to rely on for their sustenance, but it's a step in the right direction! If the State of Maine can tax "snacks" then there is a definition and protocol for identifying unnecessary foods already in place. Think of the money that could be saved or turned into other projects to help the poor get over it!

I don't think healthy people should be able to live in Public Housing their whole lives. Right now, the system ensures that once you're in, you're not getting out. The rent is a third of your pay, and you're not allowed substantial savings - which makes sense until one tries to get out! So, the solution is that a person should have a portion of their paid rent go to an account in escrow. After the allotted time allowed in the system, you get booted, but that cash in escrow would be paid toward a downpayment on a home, or significant rent reduction for the first year or two.

It's time for the US to significantly cut foreign aid. We shouldn't be giving the milk away for free; we should be selling the cow. The proper course for American Democracy is expansion. Not through interference in the internal affairs of other nations, but by offering it to all states that wish to join our Union - one at a time. The Fed would have to be severely reduced - as was the intentions of the framers - to allow for the flexibility needed to accommodate an expanding nation. Savings on foreign aid would be used to help upgrade the systems of the joining states.
 On that thought, Puerto Rice needs to shit or get off the pot. join or leave. And that goes for the rest of the US territories. AND (here comes trouble) the Native American Reservations. It's time to renegotiate those treaties! It's been long enough... Either join the Union or be independent Nations. The reservation system has been unfair to natives. Pushing them off into corners, maintaining US Govt control. Their best bet would be to dissolve the Res's, but if they wanted to give it a go as independent nations, I'd support that.

Why do they keep talking about universal or single payer health systems? Doesn't the answer seem obvious? Expand and improve Medicare. A Universal system would be a hell of a shock to the system. If that's the dirction they wanna go, they should take baby steps. Expand Medicare to more people and adjust, repeat. That way, if you like your insurance, you'd never HAVE to leave it.

  So, there's this one guy that I see out and about at shows. I only know him from now, as a grown-up. But he's a few years younger than me and knows me and all the people I hung out with way "back in the day". We invariably talk about the old days, which means we talk about the blockbuster battles. It's a strange place for me. I wouldn't know how my toughness stacks up to others in our time, because when the shit went down I was usually the guy trying to keep people from getting hurt. The only thing was... once it got turned onto me or people I cared about, I'd go apeshit and take some fuckers out. I had friends who were always out there seeking and starting the trouble. I got a reputation for starting stuff, but really, back then  never liked starting it. One of my great weaknesses (from a fighting standpoint) was that I didn't believe in throwing the first punch.  But, once it happened, it was some of the greatest stuff in the world!
  In a sense, I sometimes feel like my "Glory Days" were cut short. Bri got pregnant while I was still 21, and Caleb was born when I was only 22. I tried very hard to back out of the scene. At that time it was getting so much more violent. There was only two ways for someone like me to go. Deeper, or out. I backed out. There were people calling me out, and I didn't go, because I was a Daddy now. Sometimes it's hard for me to think of all the "fun" I missed by backing out when I did. Of course, I could only back away so far. Shit still found me. There were times when it seemed I was a magnet for some youngsters of a certain gang to try to prove themselves on me. At the time I hated it, because I was trying to be a Daddy. Looking back, I relished those times, appreciative of still being relevant, and just plain enjoying the "contact sport" of it all.
   So, my friend talks of the old days when I took on a guy who had a hundred pounds on me and was built like a brick shithouse. I put him in a chokehold and chewed on his head, knowing that if he ever connected a shot, I'd be in the hospital! lol We talk of the time that I stood up to 15-17 of a local gang and called them all out. They half surrounded me, but the only one with the gumption to throw a punch that day was a girl. She was tough, a lobsterman who lifted 70 lb traps for a living, but I took her punches and didn't hit her back. Or the time, my friend and I fought two bigger guys for a full, literal 45 minutes. There were weapons, mace, and one dude got his nose nearly all the way bitten off.
  All the talk makes me uneasy.... I enjoy it... but, it makes me want to play the game again. Now, that's pretty tough for someone like me. I AM a Daddy. And, I'm getting old... I haven't "worked out" in probably a decade, at least. It's pretty stupid business on my part.
  Then again, there I was a few weeks ago, someone jumped on another guy so I pulled him off. That guy's friend took about seven punches to my jaw and I didn't see who'd done it. So, when it was broken up I was looking for the little fella. (I knew he was little because he hit me so many times without actually hurting me, lol) But, I never got a chance.... someone had told him who he'd hit, and that he should probably leave quickly....  guess those Glory Days'll have to wait...