NEW YEAR THOUGHTS

99% Choir visits Bank of America

It's a ............

The oldest son & his wife are expecting.. our first grandchild! He wanted to know the gender, but the wife did not, so the compromise was, she would tell him on Christmas. She had her fun stringing it out in a few different gift boxes & finally gave him the envelope that said..

The baby is due in April... tax day in fact- but we all know babies are born when they are darned good & ready & not a moment sooner!
The daughter-in-law, Jessica, aka the Mom-to-be had some rough times with severe morning sickness, but that has subsided, and she is feeling better. It has been many many years since I have perused the baby aisles, but it is fun to go there & see all the cool and tiny things they have for babies.
Although twins run strongly in her family, they were happy & relieved to know it is a singular baby, not twins. Whew!

Looking forward to meeting the little darlin'

Winter memories

As a kid, one of my favorite things to do in the winter was to wait until everyone went to bed, turn off the lights,  sit on the covered radiator in the front room & look out the windows at the falling snow silhouetted by the streetlights. It was the perfect juxtaposition-- watching the cold winter scene in living motion while being warm & cozy indoors. Something mesmerizing about watching falling snow. It could be a gentle sprinkling, or  big flakes coming down sideways in a strong gusting wind. Just so enjoyable to watch. Somehow I was the designated snow shoveler, and it was all manual labor. Only one neighbor down the street had a mechanical snow blower, and he was nice enough to zip down the block of the main sidewalks. I did not mind the task of snow shoveling-- it gave me an excuse to get out of the house in the white stuff.  Being out in the snow sometimes felt like you were inside a snow globe, with the flurries swirling all around you.  My Mom used to implore me to "bundle up" because it was cold out there, but hefting shovels full of wet & heavy snow is downright aerobic & I could work up a sweat in no time. Bundling up made no sense.

Of course it is always different from a kids perspective. My focus was on the hope of a no school snow day. Growing up in Chicago, they did not declare snow days unless it was a serious storm-- many FEET of snow & drifting. But those were the glory days of winter. We would bring out the old classic Radio flyer sled & take turns pulling each other around in the snow. If you ever rode one of those sleds, you know the steering mechanism was junk. If you really were heading towards crashing into something, your best bet was to bail & throw yourself off the sled. We lived in the flatlands though, and nothing in the way of hills was available, except on those rare occasions, when there was so much snow it formed it's own "hills".  One year was a kid's dream come true- the Blizzard of 1967.

The Chicago Tribune reported:
"At 5:02 a.m. on this date, it began to snow. Nothing remarkable about that. It was January in Chicago, and, besides, 4 inches of snow had been predicted. But it kept snowing, all through this miserable Thursday and into early Friday morning, until it finally stopped at 10:10 a.m. By the end, 23 inches covered Chicago and the suburbs, the largest single snowfall in the city's history.

Still, it was great to be a child during the Blizzard of '67. There were mountains of snow to play in, and plenty of time to play in them: Schools were closed for several days."

That year I remember we were thrilled to have so much snow AND school shut down. I recall being outside basking in the glory of the Blizzard, and my parents said they would need to borrow the sled. 

No way to drive a car & plows were not able to keep up, so they would need to walk a mile to the grocery store & haul groceries home via sled! Who knew the radio flyer sled would become a lifeline of sorts?

Another winter joy was the park district- when they knew a freeze was expected, they would flood the baseball field w water and create a rough hewn ice staking rink.  Wow! Playing crack the whip- that is creating a chain of ice skaters holding hands, building up collective speed & being on the end of the chain was waay fun. If you are not familiar, this is a demo:

Found this gallery of photos of the blizzard.
Footnote: All that snow was a blast as a kid, but when you are an adult & required to function- ie work & drive, not so much fun. I now live in the Pacific NW, where winter generally comes in the form of Raindrops. No shoveling required!

Happy Holidays to all. Hope to relax, drink some hot cider, spend quality time with your people.

Twas the night before Christmas

Carlin on Advertising

* I apologize for the use of the "N" word in this rant.
Carlin was making a point-- All (white) MEN are created equal- to the exclusion
of people of color, Native Americans & Women.
Clearly Carlin embraced sarcasm as his art form.

Slightly Irreverent

I don't know about you, but I'm struggling with the holiday season this year.
Monty Python's Eric Idle sums up the BS parts of  X mas. Oh! Here's a
Gingerbread Crack House to go along with the song:

Newt GinGRINCH

War is over

The Iraq war has been declared officially over- except for the remaining 4000 troops they hope/intend to remove by the end of the year.

MSNBC reports:
"Almost 4,500 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis lost their lives in the war that began with a "Shock and Awe" (Shockingly awful?) campaign of missiles pounding Baghdad and descended into sectarian strife and a surge in U.S. troop numbers.

U.S. soldiers lowered the flag of American forces in Iraq and slipped it into a camouflage-colored sleeve in a brief outdoor ceremony, symbolically ending the most unpopular U.S. military venture since the Vietnam War of the 1960s and 70s.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani were invited to the ceremony but did not attend.

Bombings are still common. Experts are also concerned about the Iraqi security force's ability to defend the nation against foreign threats.  

After nearly nine years, 4,500 American dead, 32,000 wounded and more than $800 billion, U.S. officials prepared Thursday to formally shut down the war in Iraq — a conflict that

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said "it was worth the price in blood and money, as it set Iraq on a path to democracy.

Panetta has echoed President Barack Obama's promise that the U.S. plans to keep a robust diplomatic presence in Iraq, foster a deep and lasting relationship with the nation and maintain a strong military force in the region."

Well which one is it? Because the war is either over, or we maintain a strong military force in the region-
you cant really have both. The fact that the President & Prime Minister of Iraq did not attend the close of war ceremony, makes you wonder- were they not feeling celebratory, or did they think it was unsafe?

Democracy at gunpoint, was never going to work, I have stated all along. At some point, the alleged success of this war was the use of the surge of troops. Flood a region with more troops than citizens & achieve order. The declaration of success was premature. If you can only stabilize a place by vastly outnumbering the population with troops, then success can only be gauged when the troops are gone.

Already, the experts are saying they fear the forced stability will crumble.

One more question, if the war is over, than we should no longer be holding prisoners in Guantanamo, right?


The very first executive order President Obama signed, was to shut down Gitmo prison within the year. That was 2008. 

I'm not ready to celebrate until Gitmo prison  is shut down & all the troops are home meaning ending the Afghanistan war as well. War is over does not equal leaving thousands of troops in the region either.

"Some Iraqi citizens offered a more pessimistic assessment. "The Americans are leaving behind them a destroyed country," said Mariam Khazim of Sadr City. "The Americans did not leave modern schools or big factories behind them. Instead, they left thousands of widows and orphans."


I can't help but feel the end of this war is more about the 2012 election- as a checklist of accomplishments.  Why didn't Obama  end the war in the first year of his presidency, as opposed to his last year, pre-election?


Some of the many traumatic stories of this war include the death of Casey Sheehan, and Lt. Ehren Watada. Sheehan's Mother, Cindy Sheehan became a pioneer in occupying the George Bush ranch area in Texas- asking what is the noble cause?
Lt. Watada refused to go to Iraq, in defense of the constitution. He did jail time, and was held by the military for years after the military botched his trial & created a legal "double jeopardy" situation & the case was thrown out,  yet the military still kept him, even after his term of service had expired. 


Melissa Etheridge wrote a song about the two, titled Imagine That

Gingrich Holiday tune~ LOL

$15 Trillion.... yawn

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK
The Outstanding Public Debt as of 09 Dec 2011 at 06:53:53 PM GMT is:


The estimated population of the United States is 311,822,174
so each citizen's share of this debt is $48,276.80.
The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$3.94 billion per day since September 28, 2007!

Yes we hit the $15 trillion mark in debt, but hardly newsworthy, Eh?

Yawn.....


Click here to see the National Priorities project running count of tax cuts for the rich.

Occupy Melbourne tent monsters

Hats off to their creative, playful approach

The Brotha is a Mutha....

Herman Cain has suspended his campaign. One headline read:

"Candidate was dogged by allegations of sexual harassment and an affair"


More like candidate is a dog when it comes to sexual harassment & a 13 year affair.

The brotha said it's all about  assessing the impact that the allegations were having on his wife, his family and his supporters.


That & the fact he probably can't raise another dime for his campaign!


Rather than thinking he is a lowlife sex hound, Cain says " his wife, knew nothing about Ginger White nor his financial support for her until the mother of two came forward last week.


"My wife now knows My wife & I have talked about it, & I have explained it to her. My wife understands that I'm a soft-hearted, giving person."

It seems pretty clear what Cain was "giving", but now he will be giving his endorsement to another candidate. Let's not get all weepy though... it appears by suspending his candidacy, rather than officially dropping out, he can still spend & raise campaign funds 

Creative Lawyers

Thank you for calling XXX Law firm.

 I'm either away from my desk, or out chasing ambulances right now. 

Please leave a message & I'll return your call so we can sue the bastards!