THE IRISH - SUCH CLEAR THINKERS
Thoughts from across the pond
An email from Ireland to the brethren in the States...a point to ponder despite your political affiliation:
'We, in Ireland , can't figure out why people are even bothering to hold an election in the United States .
On one side, you have a pants wearing lawyer, married to a lawyer who can't keep his pants on, who just lost a long and heated primary against a lawyer who goes to the wrong church who is married to yet another lawyer who doesn't even like the country her husband wants to run.
Now...On the other side, you have a nice old war hero whose name starts with the appropriate Mc terminology, married to a good looking younger woman who owns a beer distributorship.
What in Lords name are ye lads thinking over there in the colonies??
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Ice Road Truckers and Bridezillas
Last night as I about punched the fat witch on Bridezillas I thought why not send them to the Ice Road Trucker show and make them spend a week with those guys especially Hugh who this year is hauling frozen human waste at 22 tons a haul.
I dont watch Bridezillas often but last night this fat ass really pissed me off. She constantly belittled her fiance, I would have left her fat ass a long time ago. She ated a dozen donuts while she made him exercise so he could get in his tux. She was a trip. I would make her go with Rick cos he would have stopped the truck and put her fat ass out on the ice.
In case you dont watch Ice Road Truckers (it comes on Sunday evenings) these are guys who are driving semi's fully loaded with anywhere from 20-100 tons of stuff so they can drill at the top of the world. This season they are driving across the Artic Ocean which has 36-51" of ice. I would have a panic attack the whole way and totally freak out. My prayers go to ALex and his family cos ALex has a blood clot in his lung. His daughter said at the beginning of the season her dad was going to die, I hope not. Alex is the only one I like on the show. There are 5 shows left and it looks like the ice is melting even though it is -50 for the day, yes that is a MINUS 50 degrees, so the show is bout to get real dicey. If you decide to watch be prepared to sit for the entire hour because the commercials are always about how they film the show and I think BUd is the sponsor so will the show still exist after Belgium takes over?
I dont watch Bridezillas often but last night this fat ass really pissed me off. She constantly belittled her fiance, I would have left her fat ass a long time ago. She ated a dozen donuts while she made him exercise so he could get in his tux. She was a trip. I would make her go with Rick cos he would have stopped the truck and put her fat ass out on the ice.
In case you dont watch Ice Road Truckers (it comes on Sunday evenings) these are guys who are driving semi's fully loaded with anywhere from 20-100 tons of stuff so they can drill at the top of the world. This season they are driving across the Artic Ocean which has 36-51" of ice. I would have a panic attack the whole way and totally freak out. My prayers go to ALex and his family cos ALex has a blood clot in his lung. His daughter said at the beginning of the season her dad was going to die, I hope not. Alex is the only one I like on the show. There are 5 shows left and it looks like the ice is melting even though it is -50 for the day, yes that is a MINUS 50 degrees, so the show is bout to get real dicey. If you decide to watch be prepared to sit for the entire hour because the commercials are always about how they film the show and I think BUd is the sponsor so will the show still exist after Belgium takes over?
Crayons On a Plane
There was an article in the paper yesterday about a Delta Flight Attendant who passed out crayons along with the paper placemat on her flights. Jewel Van Valin decided after the attacks of 9/11 she needed to ease the tensions on the flights, so while she passed out the paper placemats (wow was it just a few years ago we were actually fed on airplanes) and crayons. For the past six years she has kept every drawing and now is looking for a home for them. She often taped the better pictures to the overhead bins so everyone could see them. She displayed them inthe LAX Airport in Delta's employee lounge but wants the world to see them.
I dont know about you but maybe we all need to go back to a day of a box of 64 crayons and Big Chief Tablets with chunky pencils. I know I miss those days.
I dont know about you but maybe we all need to go back to a day of a box of 64 crayons and Big Chief Tablets with chunky pencils. I know I miss those days.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Mamma Mia! and Car Tags
I saw the movie on Saturday. WHile I did not dislike it, I thought it was very cheesy. I am also not a Meryl Streep fan. I do not like movies that are musicals. However, I did like a lot of Abba's music, it still was just ok. I give it 2 out of 5 popcorn bags.
Why do we have car tags? Is it so each state can bilk more money out of us? And I have noticed some of them are changing. WHY? If we need car tags, can't we just have a tag that says USA and we each get a number, if we want a personalized one, we can still get it but our plate looks like everyone else's. It makes no sense to me whatsoever as to why we need car tags, just seems like a big waste to me. THey should never change, we should not need a new one unless ours gets all beat up and worn and falls off our car. ANd what is with the little tags we have to buy as well to put on them that people are now stealing. Just seems to me like a huge nuisance we should not have to deal with. Write your congresspeople and tell them just say no to car tags.
Why do we have car tags? Is it so each state can bilk more money out of us? And I have noticed some of them are changing. WHY? If we need car tags, can't we just have a tag that says USA and we each get a number, if we want a personalized one, we can still get it but our plate looks like everyone else's. It makes no sense to me whatsoever as to why we need car tags, just seems like a big waste to me. THey should never change, we should not need a new one unless ours gets all beat up and worn and falls off our car. ANd what is with the little tags we have to buy as well to put on them that people are now stealing. Just seems to me like a huge nuisance we should not have to deal with. Write your congresspeople and tell them just say no to car tags.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Sox On The Beach
In honor of the yarn harlot i knit my sock at my niece's graduation and of course I had to take it to the beach so here is mom holding my sock.
The car was in the parking lot for the graduation ceremony. I had to take a picture, how many purple cars do you see everyday? Her high school football field is next to a cemetary, not a good choice.
My yard
I have various animals, racoons, possums, birds, squirrels, and feral cats. As you know I lost Skittles not long ago and I told God no more stray cats please, my heart can't take it, then along comes this little sweetheart, so I had to name her Smudgey. I also have Oookie the possum and the red birds--he feeds her so sweet. I have no idea what is growing in my rain gutters but i do hope they bloom.
This Morning's Sunrise and Lunch
Well this morning as I said earlier it was too beautiful of a sunrise not to get some pictures so here they are. Also they finally opened the Chick Fil A close to my work and so here it is as well. My day was complete. Also pictures of the gift for the birthday girl today.
Who Wrote The Serenity Prayer
Serenity Prayer Stirs Up Doubt: Who Wrote It?
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: July 11, 2008
Generations of recovering alcoholics, soldiers, weary parents, exploited workers and just about anybody feeling beaten down by life have found solace in a short prayer that begins, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.”
Questioning a Prayer’s Origin Now the Serenity Prayer is about to endure a controversy over its authorship that is likely to be anything but serene.
For more than 70 years, the composer of the prayer was thought to be the Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, one of modern Christianity’s towering figures. Niebuhr, who died in 1971, said he was quite sure he had written it, and his wife, Ursula, also a prominent theologian, dated its composition to the early 1940s.
His daughter Elisabeth Sifton, a book editor and publisher, wrote a book about the prayer in 2003 in which she described her father first using it in 1943 in an “ordinary Sunday service” at a church in the bucolic Massachusetts town of Heath, where the Niebuhr family spent summers.
Now, a law librarian at Yale, using new databases of archival documents, has found newspaper clippings and a book from as far back as 1936 that quote close versions of the prayer. The quotations are from civic leaders all over the United States — a Y.W.C.A. leader in Syracuse, a public school counselor in Oklahoma City — and are always, interestingly, by women.
Some refer to the prayer as if it were a proverb, while others appear to claim it as their own poetry. None attribute the prayer to a particular source. And they never mention Reinhold Niebuhr.
An article about the mystery of the prayer, by Fred R. Shapiro, associate library director and lecturer at Yale Law School, will be published next week in the Yale Alumni Magazine, an independent bimonthly publication. It will be followed by a rebuttal from Ms. Sifton.
Mr. Shapiro, who edited “The Yale Book of Quotations,” said in an interview, “Reinhold Niebuhr was a very honest person who was very forthright and modest about his role in the Serenity Prayer. My interpretation would be that he probably unconsciously adapted it from something that he had heard or read.”
In his quotation avocation, Mr. Shapiro says he has debunked claims about the provenance of other famous sayings, including Murphy’s Law (“Anything that can go wrong will”) and P. T. Barnum’s (“There’s a sucker born every minute”).
Ms. Sifton faults Mr. Shapiro’s approach as computer-driven and deprived of historical and theological context. In an interview, she said her father traveled widely in the 1930s, preaching in college chapels and to church groups — especially Y.M.C.A.’s and Y.W.C.A.’s — and could have used the prayer then. She said she fixed the date of its composition to 1943 in her book, “The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Times of Peace and War” (W. W. Norton, 2003), because she had relied on her parents’ recollections.
Ms. Sifton said the newly unearthed quotations were merely evidence that her father’s spellbinding preaching had had a broad impact. And she said she took greatest umbrage at Mr. Shapiro’s notion that the prayer was so simple that it could have been written by almost anyone in any era.
“There is a kind of austerity and humility about this prayer,” Ms. Sifton said, “that is very characteristic of him and was in striking contrast to the conventional sound of the American pastorate in the 1930s, who were by and large optimistic, affirmative, hopeful.”
The precise origins of the Serenity Prayer have always been wrapped in a fog. Even in Niebuhr’s lifetime, his authorship was challenged. His response was typically modest. He was quoted in a magazine article in 1950 as saying: “Of course, it may have been spooking around for years, even centuries, but I don’t think so. I honestly do believe that I wrote it myself.”
The version of events most often cited in biographies of the theologian is that after Niebuhr used the prayer in a sermon in rural Massachusetts, a neighbor who was an Episcopal priest asked for permission to print it in a booklet for the armed forces in 1944. The U.S.O. distributed it widely.
Alcoholics Anonymous also embraced it and circulated it widely as a motto for its 12-step program.
The prayer is now ubiquitous, on mugs and greeting cards and embroidered pillows, sometimes with Niebuhr’s name attached. But it is possible to find attributions ranging from Aristotle to St. Augustine to Francis of Assisi.
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations attributed it to Niebuhr but gave the date as 1934, perhaps citing an erroneous reference in an article in the magazine of Alcoholics Anonymous, Mr. Shapiro said. But Ursula Niebuhr, who died in 1997, wrote in a memorandum (which an assistant for Mr. Shapiro saw in the Library of Congress) that her husband “may have used it in his prayers” by 1934, but “it certainly was not then in circulation.”
A Niebuhr biographer, Charles C. Brown, said he was surprised to hear of the early references. “It is now well established beyond the shadow of any doubt among knowledgeable and fair-minded people,” Mr. Brown said, “that Niebuhr did compose it, probably in 1941 or ’43.”
Mr. Brown said that perhaps Ms. Sifton’s theory was right, that the newspaper quotations were from people who heard Niebuhr speak the prayer years before he wrote it down.
“His name was very much before the more theologically literate public” by the early 1930s, said Mr. Brown, author of “Niebuhr and His Age: Reinhold Niebuhr’s Prophetic Role and Legacy” (Trinity Press International, 1992).
But, Mr. Shapiro argued, knowing that Niebuhr was so famous by then, why did none of the people who cited the prayer in the clippings also cite him?
The artifacts that Mr. Shapiro unearthed dismayed the Rev. Gary Dorrien, the Reinhold Niebuhr professor of social ethics at Union Theological Seminary, which was Niebuhr’s scholarly home for many years.
Professor Dorrien said, “What has the ring of truth to me is that some of the phrases in it, the gist of it, he heard or came into contact with in some way that he wouldn’t have remembered, since he’s not a scholarly, bookwormish person with habits of scholarly exactitude anyway.”
“He is a preacher. He is coming into contact with things and blending them,” Professor Dorrien said, adding that for preachers, “it’s an occupational hazard.”
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: July 11, 2008
Generations of recovering alcoholics, soldiers, weary parents, exploited workers and just about anybody feeling beaten down by life have found solace in a short prayer that begins, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.”
Questioning a Prayer’s Origin Now the Serenity Prayer is about to endure a controversy over its authorship that is likely to be anything but serene.
For more than 70 years, the composer of the prayer was thought to be the Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, one of modern Christianity’s towering figures. Niebuhr, who died in 1971, said he was quite sure he had written it, and his wife, Ursula, also a prominent theologian, dated its composition to the early 1940s.
His daughter Elisabeth Sifton, a book editor and publisher, wrote a book about the prayer in 2003 in which she described her father first using it in 1943 in an “ordinary Sunday service” at a church in the bucolic Massachusetts town of Heath, where the Niebuhr family spent summers.
Now, a law librarian at Yale, using new databases of archival documents, has found newspaper clippings and a book from as far back as 1936 that quote close versions of the prayer. The quotations are from civic leaders all over the United States — a Y.W.C.A. leader in Syracuse, a public school counselor in Oklahoma City — and are always, interestingly, by women.
Some refer to the prayer as if it were a proverb, while others appear to claim it as their own poetry. None attribute the prayer to a particular source. And they never mention Reinhold Niebuhr.
An article about the mystery of the prayer, by Fred R. Shapiro, associate library director and lecturer at Yale Law School, will be published next week in the Yale Alumni Magazine, an independent bimonthly publication. It will be followed by a rebuttal from Ms. Sifton.
Mr. Shapiro, who edited “The Yale Book of Quotations,” said in an interview, “Reinhold Niebuhr was a very honest person who was very forthright and modest about his role in the Serenity Prayer. My interpretation would be that he probably unconsciously adapted it from something that he had heard or read.”
In his quotation avocation, Mr. Shapiro says he has debunked claims about the provenance of other famous sayings, including Murphy’s Law (“Anything that can go wrong will”) and P. T. Barnum’s (“There’s a sucker born every minute”).
Ms. Sifton faults Mr. Shapiro’s approach as computer-driven and deprived of historical and theological context. In an interview, she said her father traveled widely in the 1930s, preaching in college chapels and to church groups — especially Y.M.C.A.’s and Y.W.C.A.’s — and could have used the prayer then. She said she fixed the date of its composition to 1943 in her book, “The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Times of Peace and War” (W. W. Norton, 2003), because she had relied on her parents’ recollections.
Ms. Sifton said the newly unearthed quotations were merely evidence that her father’s spellbinding preaching had had a broad impact. And she said she took greatest umbrage at Mr. Shapiro’s notion that the prayer was so simple that it could have been written by almost anyone in any era.
“There is a kind of austerity and humility about this prayer,” Ms. Sifton said, “that is very characteristic of him and was in striking contrast to the conventional sound of the American pastorate in the 1930s, who were by and large optimistic, affirmative, hopeful.”
The precise origins of the Serenity Prayer have always been wrapped in a fog. Even in Niebuhr’s lifetime, his authorship was challenged. His response was typically modest. He was quoted in a magazine article in 1950 as saying: “Of course, it may have been spooking around for years, even centuries, but I don’t think so. I honestly do believe that I wrote it myself.”
The version of events most often cited in biographies of the theologian is that after Niebuhr used the prayer in a sermon in rural Massachusetts, a neighbor who was an Episcopal priest asked for permission to print it in a booklet for the armed forces in 1944. The U.S.O. distributed it widely.
Alcoholics Anonymous also embraced it and circulated it widely as a motto for its 12-step program.
The prayer is now ubiquitous, on mugs and greeting cards and embroidered pillows, sometimes with Niebuhr’s name attached. But it is possible to find attributions ranging from Aristotle to St. Augustine to Francis of Assisi.
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations attributed it to Niebuhr but gave the date as 1934, perhaps citing an erroneous reference in an article in the magazine of Alcoholics Anonymous, Mr. Shapiro said. But Ursula Niebuhr, who died in 1997, wrote in a memorandum (which an assistant for Mr. Shapiro saw in the Library of Congress) that her husband “may have used it in his prayers” by 1934, but “it certainly was not then in circulation.”
A Niebuhr biographer, Charles C. Brown, said he was surprised to hear of the early references. “It is now well established beyond the shadow of any doubt among knowledgeable and fair-minded people,” Mr. Brown said, “that Niebuhr did compose it, probably in 1941 or ’43.”
Mr. Brown said that perhaps Ms. Sifton’s theory was right, that the newspaper quotations were from people who heard Niebuhr speak the prayer years before he wrote it down.
“His name was very much before the more theologically literate public” by the early 1930s, said Mr. Brown, author of “Niebuhr and His Age: Reinhold Niebuhr’s Prophetic Role and Legacy” (Trinity Press International, 1992).
But, Mr. Shapiro argued, knowing that Niebuhr was so famous by then, why did none of the people who cited the prayer in the clippings also cite him?
The artifacts that Mr. Shapiro unearthed dismayed the Rev. Gary Dorrien, the Reinhold Niebuhr professor of social ethics at Union Theological Seminary, which was Niebuhr’s scholarly home for many years.
Professor Dorrien said, “What has the ring of truth to me is that some of the phrases in it, the gist of it, he heard or came into contact with in some way that he wouldn’t have remembered, since he’s not a scholarly, bookwormish person with habits of scholarly exactitude anyway.”
“He is a preacher. He is coming into contact with things and blending them,” Professor Dorrien said, adding that for preachers, “it’s an occupational hazard.”
Happy Birthday Aunt Jessie
Today is my fav aunt's birthday. So Happy Birthday. I sent her gift over the weekend and decided not to post the gift I made her til she saw it.
I hope you have a great day.
Yesterday on Martha her housekeeper was on showing how to take photos, cool ways to mount them, etc. She said to always take your camera with you cos you never know. This morning as I was getting the paper I noticed the oranges and purples in the sky, so I went back in and grabbed my camera. While I got a couple pics I am not sure they did the beauty in the sky justice. Thanks God for a beautiful sunrise.
I hope you have a great day.
Yesterday on Martha her housekeeper was on showing how to take photos, cool ways to mount them, etc. She said to always take your camera with you cos you never know. This morning as I was getting the paper I noticed the oranges and purples in the sky, so I went back in and grabbed my camera. While I got a couple pics I am not sure they did the beauty in the sky justice. Thanks God for a beautiful sunrise.
Be Careful Out There
This has gone around before, but it bears repeating.
WARNING FROM POLICE
BEWARE OF PAPER ON THE BACK WINDOW OF YOUR VEHICLE--NEW WAY TO DO CAR-JACKINGS (NOT A JOKE)'
Heads up everyone! Please, keep this circulating... You walk across the parking lot, unlock your car and get inside. You start the engine and shift into Reverse. When you look into the rearview mirror to back out of your parking space, you notice a piece of paper stuck to the middle of the rear window.
So, you shift into Park, unlock your doors, and jump out of your car to remove that paper (or whatever it is) that is obstructing your view. When you reach the back of your car, that is when the carjackers appear out of nowhere, jump into your car and take off. They practically mow you down as they speed off in your car.
And guess what, ladies? I bet your purse is still in the car. So now the carjacker has your car, your home address, your money, and your keys. Your home and your whole identity are now compromised!
BEWARE OF THIS NEW SCHEME THAT IS NOW BEING USED.
If you see a piece of paper stuck to your back window, just leave it and drive away.
WARNING FROM POLICE
BEWARE OF PAPER ON THE BACK WINDOW OF YOUR VEHICLE--NEW WAY TO DO CAR-JACKINGS (NOT A JOKE)'
Heads up everyone! Please, keep this circulating... You walk across the parking lot, unlock your car and get inside. You start the engine and shift into Reverse. When you look into the rearview mirror to back out of your parking space, you notice a piece of paper stuck to the middle of the rear window.
So, you shift into Park, unlock your doors, and jump out of your car to remove that paper (or whatever it is) that is obstructing your view. When you reach the back of your car, that is when the carjackers appear out of nowhere, jump into your car and take off. They practically mow you down as they speed off in your car.
And guess what, ladies? I bet your purse is still in the car. So now the carjacker has your car, your home address, your money, and your keys. Your home and your whole identity are now compromised!
BEWARE OF THIS NEW SCHEME THAT IS NOW BEING USED.
If you see a piece of paper stuck to your back window, just leave it and drive away.
545
Everyone should read this. And MOST everyone should go back to school and take a government class since no one seems to be aware of how it is run and who is ultimately in charge!
Worthy of your time and attention, regardless of your Party affiliation. This surely gives you some food for thought. 545 PEOPLE By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices 545 human beings out of the 300 million are
directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The
politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how
he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common
con regardless of party. What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you
fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they
want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.
If the Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They, and they alone, have the power.
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses provided the voters have the gumption to manage
their own employees.
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.
What you do with this article now that you have read it is up to you, though you appear to have several choices.
1. You can send this to everyone in your address book, and hope they do something about it.
2. You can agree to vote against everyone that is currently in office, knowing that the process will take several years.
3. You can decide to run for office yourself and agree to do the job properly.
4. Lastly, you can sit back and do nothing, or re-elect the current bunch.
YOU DECIDE, BUT AT LEAST SEND IT TO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK, MAYBE SOMEONE IN THERE WILL DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
Worthy of your time and attention, regardless of your Party affiliation. This surely gives you some food for thought. 545 PEOPLE By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices 545 human beings out of the 300 million are
directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The
politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how
he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common
con regardless of party. What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you
fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they
want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.
If the Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They, and they alone, have the power.
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses provided the voters have the gumption to manage
their own employees.
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.
What you do with this article now that you have read it is up to you, though you appear to have several choices.
1. You can send this to everyone in your address book, and hope they do something about it.
2. You can agree to vote against everyone that is currently in office, knowing that the process will take several years.
3. You can decide to run for office yourself and agree to do the job properly.
4. Lastly, you can sit back and do nothing, or re-elect the current bunch.
YOU DECIDE, BUT AT LEAST SEND IT TO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK, MAYBE SOMEONE IN THERE WILL DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Freedoms
Thursdays are a good day for many reasons, it is my Friday at work cos I work Mon-Thurs 10 hour days. It is also the day I get my weekly neighborhood newspaper. It is a warm fuzzy that I get every week, and one of the articles was "Death of comedian should remind us of our freedoms." George Carlin championed one of the greatest gifts this country has to offer, the gift our founding fathers gave us more than 200 years ago, free speech. Through his own brand of comedic shock and awe, George pushed the boundaries at every chance he got and did his best to bring every taboo into the light and question the ideas of censorship and repression.
From behind the flag, we as a people have the right to speak openly to each other about any topic we choose, even if it means denigrating the powers that be or questioning mainstream thought just as George was famous for. In a lot of places outside of the western world, something as simple as our First Amendment is still a distant dream.
So if you think we are in a bad way here in America,remember how incredibly privileged you are to live in a society that sees freedom of speech as an inalienable right granted to evey resident regardless of their race, creed or religion and regardless of what they have to say and whether it might offend someone.
Remember that men and women shed their blood so people like George Carlin could get on stage and say whatever they wanted, free from persecution or retribution and so people like you and I could voice your opinions and criticize freely without fear of retribution.
From behind the flag, we as a people have the right to speak openly to each other about any topic we choose, even if it means denigrating the powers that be or questioning mainstream thought just as George was famous for. In a lot of places outside of the western world, something as simple as our First Amendment is still a distant dream.
So if you think we are in a bad way here in America,remember how incredibly privileged you are to live in a society that sees freedom of speech as an inalienable right granted to evey resident regardless of their race, creed or religion and regardless of what they have to say and whether it might offend someone.
Remember that men and women shed their blood so people like George Carlin could get on stage and say whatever they wanted, free from persecution or retribution and so people like you and I could voice your opinions and criticize freely without fear of retribution.
Pet Owners Prefer McCain
Pet owners prefer McCain over Obama
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — If the presidential election goes to the dogs, John McCain is looking like best in show.
From George Washington's foxhound "Drunkard" to George W. Bush's terriers "Barney" and "Miss Beazley," pets are a longtime presidential tradition for which the presumed Republican nominee seems well prepared, with more than a dozen.
The apparent Democratic nominee Barack Obama, on the other hand, doesn't have a pet at home.
The pet-owning public seems to have noticed the difference.
An AP-Yahoo! News poll found that pet owners favor McCain over Obama 42 percent to 37 percent, with dog owners particularly in McCain's corner.
"I think a person who owns a pet is a more compassionate person — caring, giving, trustworthy. I like pet owners," said Janet Taylor of Plymouth, Mass.
Taylor, who described herself as a retired stay-at-home wife, owns two cats, Lady Jane Taylor and Mr. Tommy Katz.
Richard Powell, 79, of Spokane, Wash., whose dog passed away last fall, said if a person owns a pet that "tells you that they're responsible at least for something, for the care of something."
He said pet ownership wouldn't make a difference in his vote, but if a president owns a pet, then "I'm glad to know they like animals."
Christina Duffney, a spokeswoman for the American Kennel Club, said "you usually connect with things that you're familiar with, so that could be a part of" why pet owners lean toward McCain.
Well, if voters identify with a guy who owns pets, it's easy to see why they'd like the Arizona senator.
He has a veritable menagerie, including Sam the English springer spaniel, Coco the mutt, turtles Cuff and Link, Oreo the black and white cat, a ferret, three parakeets and a bunch of saltwater fish.
On the other hand, the poll found that among people who don't have pets, Obama leads McCain 48 percent to 34 percent.
But that still leaves McCain looking strong, since the majority of homes have a pet.
The American Pet Product Manufacturers Association estimates that 63 percent of American homes include a pet, including 88 million cats and 75 million dogs.
Both of those groups lean toward McCain: 43 percent to 34 percent for dog owners and 41 percent to 38 percent for cat owners.
While he doesn't currently have a pet, Obama has reportedly promised his daughters a dog once the campaign is over.
In a spirit of helpfulness, the American Kennel Club is collecting opinions as to what kind of dog Obama should get.
There are more than 150 breeds available, but not every one is suitable for every family because of exercise needs, allergies, personalities and other reasons.
So the AKC has narrowed the choices down to five breeds and is asking the public to vote at www.presidentialpup.com with voting to continue until mid-August.
Their suggestions: Bichon Frise, Chinese crested, poodle, soft coated Wheaten Terrier or miniature Schnauzer.
According to the Presidential Pets Museum there are no records of family pets in the administrations of James K. Polk, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and Chester Arthur. Fillmore, however, was a founding member of the Buffalo, N.Y., chapter of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
President Andrew Johnson reportedly left flour out at night for a family of mice living in the White House, though it's not clear if that counts as having a pet.
Here's a look at the poll results:
— All pet owners: McCain, 42 percent; Obama 37 percent; Nader, 3 percent; other, 3 percent; undecided, 14 percent. Margin of error, plus or minus 2.9 points.
— Do not own a pet: Obama, 48 percent; McCain, 34 percent; Nader, 3 percent; other, 3 percent; undecided, 12 percent. Margin of error, 4.1 points.
— Dog owners: McCain, 43 percent; Obama, 34 percent; Nader, 3 percent; other, 3 percent, undecided, 12 percent. Margin of error, 3.6 points.
— Cat owners: McCain, 41 percent; Obama, 38 percent; Nader, 3 percent; other, 4 percent; undecided, 14 percent. Margin of error 3.9 points.
The population breakdown of who has pets and who doesn't also may be a factor.
For example, the poll found 47 percent of whites own dogs, compared with just 24 percent of blacks. Whites tend to favor McCain, while blacks overwhelmingly favor Obama.
Some 64 percent of dog owners are married, slightly higher than the overall population. The poll found 47 percent of married people own dogs, compared with 39 percent of non-married people. Married people tend to favor McCain.
The AP-Yahoo! News poll is part of an ongoing study that tracks the attitudes and opinions of a group of more than 2,000 Americans to see how their political views evolve over the course of the election campaign.
The AP-Yahoo! News survey of 1,759 adults was conducted from June 13-23 and had an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. The margin of sampling error for population subgroups is larger.
The poll was conducted over the Internet by Knowledge Networks, which initially contacted people using traditional telephone polling methods and followed with online interviews. People chosen for the study who had no Internet access were given it free.
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — If the presidential election goes to the dogs, John McCain is looking like best in show.
From George Washington's foxhound "Drunkard" to George W. Bush's terriers "Barney" and "Miss Beazley," pets are a longtime presidential tradition for which the presumed Republican nominee seems well prepared, with more than a dozen.
The apparent Democratic nominee Barack Obama, on the other hand, doesn't have a pet at home.
The pet-owning public seems to have noticed the difference.
An AP-Yahoo! News poll found that pet owners favor McCain over Obama 42 percent to 37 percent, with dog owners particularly in McCain's corner.
"I think a person who owns a pet is a more compassionate person — caring, giving, trustworthy. I like pet owners," said Janet Taylor of Plymouth, Mass.
Taylor, who described herself as a retired stay-at-home wife, owns two cats, Lady Jane Taylor and Mr. Tommy Katz.
Richard Powell, 79, of Spokane, Wash., whose dog passed away last fall, said if a person owns a pet that "tells you that they're responsible at least for something, for the care of something."
He said pet ownership wouldn't make a difference in his vote, but if a president owns a pet, then "I'm glad to know they like animals."
Christina Duffney, a spokeswoman for the American Kennel Club, said "you usually connect with things that you're familiar with, so that could be a part of" why pet owners lean toward McCain.
Well, if voters identify with a guy who owns pets, it's easy to see why they'd like the Arizona senator.
He has a veritable menagerie, including Sam the English springer spaniel, Coco the mutt, turtles Cuff and Link, Oreo the black and white cat, a ferret, three parakeets and a bunch of saltwater fish.
On the other hand, the poll found that among people who don't have pets, Obama leads McCain 48 percent to 34 percent.
But that still leaves McCain looking strong, since the majority of homes have a pet.
The American Pet Product Manufacturers Association estimates that 63 percent of American homes include a pet, including 88 million cats and 75 million dogs.
Both of those groups lean toward McCain: 43 percent to 34 percent for dog owners and 41 percent to 38 percent for cat owners.
While he doesn't currently have a pet, Obama has reportedly promised his daughters a dog once the campaign is over.
In a spirit of helpfulness, the American Kennel Club is collecting opinions as to what kind of dog Obama should get.
There are more than 150 breeds available, but not every one is suitable for every family because of exercise needs, allergies, personalities and other reasons.
So the AKC has narrowed the choices down to five breeds and is asking the public to vote at www.presidentialpup.com with voting to continue until mid-August.
Their suggestions: Bichon Frise, Chinese crested, poodle, soft coated Wheaten Terrier or miniature Schnauzer.
According to the Presidential Pets Museum there are no records of family pets in the administrations of James K. Polk, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and Chester Arthur. Fillmore, however, was a founding member of the Buffalo, N.Y., chapter of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
President Andrew Johnson reportedly left flour out at night for a family of mice living in the White House, though it's not clear if that counts as having a pet.
Here's a look at the poll results:
— All pet owners: McCain, 42 percent; Obama 37 percent; Nader, 3 percent; other, 3 percent; undecided, 14 percent. Margin of error, plus or minus 2.9 points.
— Do not own a pet: Obama, 48 percent; McCain, 34 percent; Nader, 3 percent; other, 3 percent; undecided, 12 percent. Margin of error, 4.1 points.
— Dog owners: McCain, 43 percent; Obama, 34 percent; Nader, 3 percent; other, 3 percent, undecided, 12 percent. Margin of error, 3.6 points.
— Cat owners: McCain, 41 percent; Obama, 38 percent; Nader, 3 percent; other, 4 percent; undecided, 14 percent. Margin of error 3.9 points.
The population breakdown of who has pets and who doesn't also may be a factor.
For example, the poll found 47 percent of whites own dogs, compared with just 24 percent of blacks. Whites tend to favor McCain, while blacks overwhelmingly favor Obama.
Some 64 percent of dog owners are married, slightly higher than the overall population. The poll found 47 percent of married people own dogs, compared with 39 percent of non-married people. Married people tend to favor McCain.
The AP-Yahoo! News poll is part of an ongoing study that tracks the attitudes and opinions of a group of more than 2,000 Americans to see how their political views evolve over the course of the election campaign.
The AP-Yahoo! News survey of 1,759 adults was conducted from June 13-23 and had an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. The margin of sampling error for population subgroups is larger.
The poll was conducted over the Internet by Knowledge Networks, which initially contacted people using traditional telephone polling methods and followed with online interviews. People chosen for the study who had no Internet access were given it free.
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