Random Thoughts

I realized that I was talking to someone on her cell while she was in the office bathroom.  I heard people talking and flushing.  I need to sterilize my ear.

I am for universal health care coverage, but I will not pay for hearing aids or ocular implants for people who blast music in their ears.  Especially on my subway car.

I saw a man standing just outside the employees entrance at a funeral home looking at the traffic going by.  Was he waiting for something to happen?

My partner promised to handle a matter but left my cell phone number.  Lesbian merger or dumping it back into my court?

How nice do I really have to be?

Would I get away with driving a person off a bridge if I promise to devote my life to public service (even though that wasn’t the quid pro quo for Teddy)?

If a bald, portly nerdy guy doesn’t see that he is lucky to have the girlfriend he has, will a baseball bat knock sense into him?

How come men think they are way better looking and way more desirable than they really are?

If you are blasting Karla Bonoff or The Pousette Dart Band and dancing around thinking you are cool, should you be entitled to social security benefits out of pity?

Did Sarah Palin drop off the face of the earth or was that just a fantasy I had?

Does Dick Cheney sometimes crawl back into his secret bunker for old time’s sake?

Do I have to go to the gym or can I imagine just how gross it is?

Ooh la la la, GOP Hammer Goes Dancing

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Some of us may remember former Representative Tom Delay, affectionately known as “The Hammer” for his role as GOP whip in the Congress, as an aggressive, partisan operator.

In a move the proves that politics and game shows are alteregos, The Hammer has announced that he is auditioning for a place on TV’s “Dancing With the Stars”.  I haven’t decided whether I am more embarassed for him or the show.

This raises some very complex issues:thumbnail[2]

  1. Will he be paired with a dancer of little fame or a Democrat with star power?
  2. Will he make suggestive dance moves that would alienate the conservative right and delight the left leaning tangoistas? images[1]
  3. Will we be able to read into his dance what he thinks of health care reform by just how much he struts his 60+ year-old body around?
  4. What if he is voted off? Will the right wing picket the show and accuse it of being un-American, commie and pro-health care reform?
  5. Will sitting members of Congress be in the audience wildly cheering him on?  Will they neck dance?
  6. Will Sarah Palin draw an example from this and audition to be a contestant on the Amazing Race?  I just realized how ironic that would be.
  7. Will the GOP release a statement that The Hammer was in no way following the example of disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich?
  8. Will The Hammer wear effete dancing shoes and tight sequined clothes, signalling a softening on gay issues?  Will John Ashcroft, our former US Attorney General and lounge lizard,  join him behind the piano with a Liberace candelabra on it?tdy_nod_bush_041110.300w[1]
  9. Will Delay appear with Donny Osmond, a famous Mormon, and will that give Mitt Romney the needed boost to go for the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination?ss-090817-dancing-2009-tease.vsmall[1]

(P.S.: 40andYoungerForNow — is this less depressing?  Tom Delay today was a gift.)

Reckless Indifference to the Truth

If Sarah Palin believed what she says, then, ok, people can disagree on things. 

End of life issues are difficult, emotionally, culturally, religiously and not for the undecisive. 

But unless Sarah Palin wants to explain in Kerry-like fashion how she was for it before she was against it, I think she is just using anything to burnish her image as the true neo-con leader for 2012.

Why? because a Google search shows the text of her proclamation supporting end of life and quality of life decision-making:

spacerState of Alaska > Governor > Proclamations > Proclamations Archive

Healthcare Decisions Day  Print Now Printer Friendly

WHEREAS, Healthcare Decisions Day is designed to raise public awareness of the need to plan ahead for healthcare decisions, related to end of life care and medical decision-making whenever patients are unable to speak for themselves and to encourage the specific use of advance directives to communicate these important healthcare decisions.

WHEREAS, in Alaska, Alaska Statute 13.52 provides the specifics of the advance directives law and offers a model form for patient use.  

WHEREAS, it is estimated that only about 20 percent of people in Alaska have executed an advance directive. Moreover, it is estimated that less than 50 percent of severely or terminally ill patients have an advance directive.

WHEREAS, it is likely that a significant reason for these low percentages is that there is both a lack of knowledge and considerable confusion in the public about Advance Directives.

WHEREAS, one of the principal goals of Healthcare Decisions Day is to encourage hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, continuing care retirement communities, and hospices to participate in a statewide effort to provide clear and consistent information to the public about advance directives, as well as to encourage medical professionals and lawyers to volunteer their time and efforts to improve public knowledge and increase the number of Alaska’s citizens with advance directives.

WHEREAS, the Foundation for End of Life Care in Juneau, Alaska, and other organizations throughout the United States have endorsed this event and are committed to educating the public about the importance of discussing healthcare choices and executing advance directives.

WHEREAS, as a result of April 16, 2008, being recognized as Healthcare Decisions Day in Alaska, more citizens will have conversations about their healthcare decisions; more citizens will execute advance directives to make their wishes known; and fewer families and healthcare providers will have to struggle with making difficult healthcare decisions in the absence of guidance from the patient.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Sarah Palin, Governor of the state of Alaska, do hereby proclaim April 16, 2008, as:

Healthcare Decisions Day in Alaska, and I call this observance to the attention of all our citizens.

Dated: April 16, 2008

The only thing being murdered is the truth.

Protected Speech or Tyranny?

There are groups of “protesters” at town hall meetings to discuss health care reform.  These protesters are paid by organizations that wish to defeat health care reform and shout lies and half-truths intending that those who hear these sounds bites or see the “groundswell of opposition” will be swayed. 

These are not grass roots organizations but a roving pack of operatives paid to invade local areas to cast doubt and sow seeds of fear.  This is not democracy as some in the GOP claim.  This is tyranny by big corporations and those politicians supported by big corporations.  This is paid-for speech.

What is astounding to me is that the news organizations are staying away from the story.  This is reminiscent of the passivity of the press in the run up to the Iraq War.  Maybe those in the news corps are too busy digging deeper into Michael Jackson drug dependencies.  Ah, journalism at its best.

I’ll wait until 11pm to get my news from ComedyCentral.  G-d bless you, Jon Stewart.  And you, too, Rachel Maddow (although I am usually putting my son to bed or eating dinner when your show is on).

Glenn Beck — the unhinging of the right

Arguing with Idiots by Glenn Beck: Book Cover

Ok, this is apparently a real book.  It is so ironic since Mr. Beck is one of the biggest idiots ever and you can’t argue with him because he will scream you down.  He looks like Nazi-esque on the cover, which I am sure is intentional and intentionally offensive.

Glenn Beck called President Obama a racist, Sarah Palin calls his health care initiatives evil, Lou Dobbs stokes the birther conspiracy and Rush Limbaugh, well, he just stirs the pot.  This is the Republican think tank.  Septic tank, more precisely.

But, Glenn, you are leading the pack with this book.  You are the star of the septic tank.

Did anyone understand what she said?

On Sunday, Sarah Palin gave another speech, this time, REALLY stepping down.  As a parting gesture of kindness, I will assume that her unintelligible press conferences of last month were the result of a hastily-made decision to quit.  (Because we she says she is not a quitter and yet she is quitting in the middle of her term, there she goes again speaking English words strung together in a most fascinating way.  Maybe it is Palinese.)

She had over a month to prepare her REAL good-bye speech and calibrate her parting impression on her former constituency and the nation.  Hmmm.  She did not put that time to good use.  I wonder what her high school English teachers think?  Are they cowering in a corner?  Is this the product of a public school education in one of the richest countries in the world?  If so, G-d help us.

Sarah, dear, get a speech writer and stick to the teleprompters.

Sarah, Sarah, Sarah

I am trying a new approach to life: hypnosis. Wow, is hypnosis is strong. Under it, I like Sarah Palin.

That picture on the front page of the commie, elitist and effete New York Times showing her signing the tummy of a baby didn’t look anything like a human sacrifice offering. I thought her point guard allusions were cogent, poignant and presidential. Also, I am glad she is working for the underdog and taking up the cause of the oil companies. Her op-ed showed that she understood cap and trade and its effects on the average Joe, and Joe the Nazi Plumber in particular. And I agree with her that having a “b” in plumber is a trap for hard-working Americans and therefore un-American. So, I support her drive to require Webster’s Dictionary and Oxford English Dictionary to publish “American” language books which, among other things, will include the spelling, “plummer”.

Ok, even under hypnosis, my body and mind rebelled. This blog was written while I was suffering mental defect. – a brain fart, if you will.

Thought for the day, July 9, 2009

Obama is back on the hot seat now that Jacko is dead, Sarah Palin is the Political Undead and Gov. Sanford got a “get out of jail free” card.  Now the pundits are focused on the economy and why Obama hasn’t produced miracles yet. 

If I were Obama, I would hope that another pop icon or political enigma hogs the airwaves for at least 6 months.

Thought for today, July 8, 2009

Gov. Sanford is really lucky.

Just when it looked like he could never recover, Michael Jackson died and Sarah Palin resigned.

And Michael Jackson is still dead (as is Generalissimo Francisco Franco) and will presumably stop making news some time soon.

But Sarah Palin will forever make headlines and late night joke lines and blogoshpere fodder. She is the Political Undead.

Sanford owes her big.