Ammunition

This just gets funnier every time I see it!

[AFP Caption:] An elderly Iraqi woman shows

two bullets which she says hit her house following

an early coalition forces raidin the predominantly

Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City.

This picture has shown up on every blog I read. Most of the bloggers have pointed out the obvious: the bullets have not been fired. They are still in their casings and in pristine condition.

So, we’re now throwing ammunition at old Iraqi women? For shame! *snicker*

She seems to be the same woman who was all over the ‘net a while back, shown ‘mourning’ for various houses that had been destroyed in various places.

07/26/2006:

08/05/2006:

If both her houses have been bombed into rubble, where did she get another one for ammunition to be tossed at?? This is some rich lady!!

Karl Rove

Karl Rove has resigned his position as advisor to President Bush.

*yawn*

The President’s deputy chief of staff decides not to ride out the rest of his lame-duck term and both side of the political blogosphere get their panties in a twist.

What I’ve never been able to figure out is how this guy got his reputation! He gets the “credit” for all Bush’s ideas from both the right and left. If this is true and Bush’s ideas do in fact originate with Rove, he has to be the most inept politician I have ever heard of!

Where to start?

Harriet Meyers

Medicare Drug Plan

Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

No Child Left Behind

Those are merely the highlights (lowlights?) of his 6 years of horrible proposals. One of the few good ideas was the revision of Social Security to something other than a Ponsi scheme but he left it twisting in the wind, undefined and undefended until the Left and its handmaidens in the media killed it.

And that is my biggest problem with Karl Rove and the advice he has been giving President Bush. Whoever decided that allowing your opponents and enemies to endlessly attack you without ever defending yourself or your policies is a complete and total idiot. A lie repeated often enough and loudly enough without refutation enters the general consciousness. Soon, ‘everybody knows…” and it becomes the truth.

I know that I am not alone in my frustration with Bush and his unwillingness to communicate with the American people. Who told him that his silence was a good idea? Maybe his ‘closest advisor’? The man who gets all the credit for being so wily and conniving by the Left? Talk about an undeserved reputation!!

The Bush Administration is so inept at dealing the media attacks that most of the country still thinks Algore won Florida in 2000! And every lie told since then as been allowed to stand, unchallenged, until the lies are all most people know about their president.

I hope that the right-wing in this country can get it collective head out of its collective ass long enough to find a conservative candidate to run against Hillary/Obama. Much as I like Giuliani on defense, he’s not a conservative on social issues. Romney seems to have flip-flopped around too much for my taste. I like Fred! but he’s still not in the race. What’s he waiting for?

Whoever runs, may he PLEASE be able to utilize the press in an effective way to communicate! The presidency is the ultimate bully pulpit. For gods’ sake, USE IT!!

Cissy 1989 - 2007

I miss my kitty.

One month ago today, my 18-year-old cat, Cissy, lost her battle with lymphoma.

She was diagnosed June 16th. She had been losing weight again. I had been afraid going in that it would be bad news. Weight loss in an elderly cat is never a good thing.

We went to see our vet and I got the bad news: cancer. Non-operable cancer. Well, I wouldn’t have put her through surgery in any case. Getting her teeth taken care of had been traumatic enough. Chemotherapy might help but it’s very expensive and there’s no way to explain to a cat why she feels so bad. So, I won’t torture her with that, either. I decide to simply take her home and enjoy that remaining time we have together.

I spend most of my time at my kitchen table. Cissy started out on my lap, lying across my legs while I watched TV and read blogs on my computer. I think she got tired of my leaning over her and eventually migrated to the end of the table between my elbows where I would type around her. She would purr and butt her head against my face or doze quietly.

I figured that as long as she was strong enough to jump into my lap, she was well enough to keep going. I didn’t want her to suffer unnecessarily but neither did I want to cut her life short.

Thursday morning, she wasn’t asleep in the living room. I looked around for her a bit but it wasn’t unusual for her to be elsewhere at that hour.

About 15 minutes later, she staggered into the kitchen from the dining room. She could barely walk. I picked her up. She was so little!! It really struck me just how much weight she had lost. Even her feet looked smaller. I gave her a snuggle and noticed that she had even stopped shedding.

That afternoon, I made her a vet appointment on the following Saturday. I knew this was probably it.

Normally, I put cats into a carrier for vet trips. This time, my SO drove and I carried her in my arms. She perked up a bit at the strange surroundings but didn’t meow as she normally does.

The vet confirmed my suspicions. She was down to only 4 pounds! I made the hardest decision in my life.

I’ve never seen any one die before and to watch someone I loved dearly go was very hard. She stopped purring only when she stopped breathing. She went very peacefully, giving no indication that she felt that last shot.

She had a very long, full life. Other cats, friends and men have come and gone but Cissy had been the one constant for a very long time. She was the only one who met all the players in my life. In fact, if I’d listened to my cat, my life would have been a lot happier. She was a terrific judge of character. She was terrified of almost all the men in my life except for my current SO. Him, she liked. We’ve been together over 8 years and he’s been very good both for and to me.

I have her picture in my mouse pad; paws tucked under, curled up in the SO’s rocking chair, looking at the camera. She had the prettiest cat-face and the softest fur I’d ever felt. She was the best mannered cat I’ve ever lived with. I never had to reprimand her for doing anything, even when she was young. She never climbed curtains or sank her claws into anything but her scratching post.

I miss her terribly. I have two other cats but neither of them is a ‘snuggler’. I’ve thought about getting a kitten but I don’t want another cat; I want Cissy back. Besides, my SO, who is not a ‘cat person’, is happy to finally be down to only two cats!

Cissy started life as a stray. Maybe the same fates that brought the two of us together will bring me another friend as well.

Advertising

I know every market has local businesses that do their own advertising. Quite frankly, I TIVO most of the TV I watch and thus do not watch many ads. However, I do watch Indians games live and am thus exposed to local advertising.

I know Cleveland is not unique but there are several local advertisers that simply annoy the hell out of me.

First off, we have Ron Trzcinski of the Original Mattress Factory. Ron, for Pete’s sake, hire an actor! You have a lousy voice and sound like a second-grader reading out-loud in reading group. And he’s everywhere: radio, television, cable. I can’t even get away from this guy by leaving town as he has stores all over the region.

Second up is a local car dealer. I know most cities have local car dealers who make their own commercials and Cleveland is no different. I’d lived here for over 3 years before I noticed that here we have the opportunity to buy a car from a snake (Serpentini), who is “American and Proud Of It!”

Another local car dealer whom I can’t stand and immediate mute whenever he comes on is Eric Sonnie. Sr. He doesn’t content himself with simply extolling the virtues of the cars he sells; he does so AT THE TOP OF HIS VOICE! I was in the market for a new car for about 2 weeks last year. Having some guy yelling at me on television guaranteed that I would NEVER go to his dealership to shop.

And last but not least, we have Fish Furniture. Owner Dan Geller does the voice for his animated self in their ads with two talking fish. I always thought he was putting on the odd, high-pitched, nasally voice I heard in the ads until I saw him in an ad promoting advertising on one of the local cable companies. He really talks like that! How funny!!

All of these local businesses would be better off hiring talent for their ads. Annoying potential buyers is not a great way to increase sales.

Of course, all advertisers would do well to take that advice!

Global Warming

I did the research and wrote this in 2000. It still is relevant so I post it here:

Global warming is a theory that gets a lot of attention from the national media. It is poorly reported, with theories represented as facts and facts that do not support the theories not reported at all. Thanks to the internet, much of these ignored facts are available if you care to look. The following is what I found.

The current crisis-inducing number being reported is a rise in global temperatures of less than 1 degree Fahrenheit. What you are not told is that half of this rise occurred in the first half of the century when CO2 levels were rising very slowly. Since the 1950’s there has been a rapid rise in CO2 amounts with no corresponding rapid rise in surface temperatures. These temperature readings also do not take into account the Urban Heat Island phenomenon. This is caused by many weather stations now being located at large urban airports surrounded by acres and acres of heat-retaining tarmac. Temperature readings taken from within these Islands can be 10 degrees higher that the surrounding countryside.

In addition, the earth is a big place. Using widely separated point sources of data to determine a global average is not accurate. In the 1980’s satellite data showed no net cooling or warming. The 1990’s show a similar trend. Weather data have been kept for only the past 100 years or so. Climate happens over thousands of years. We have not collected enough data to accurately predict next Wednesday’s weather much less what the weather will be like in 50 or 100 years.

Climatologists use models to predict weather. The models used are by necessity much more simple than the actual weather systems. The mathematics are not available to represent all of the many, many variables. These predictions, especially for the long term, amount to little more than guesses.

There is also no data to support the hypothesis that CO2 causes warming. Data has been obtained from Antarctic ice core samples that go back 180,000 years and suggests that temperatures cause CO2 levels to change, not the reverse. The samples show that CO2 levels 120,000 years ago were the same as they are now. We can safely assume that it was not warm enough to melt the Antarctic ice sheets since we can take samples of ice that existed that long ago. The presence and effects of water vapor and ozone on possible temperature change far outweighs that of the much-maligned CO2. Also left out of the theories are the effects of solar activity on the earth as a whole. When solar activity goes up, the temperature of the earth increases. Solar activity has been increasing for the past 300 years from a low that caused a mini ice-age in the 1700’s. Geological findings indicate that the Earth’s temperatures are finally approaching levels believed to have been the norm prior to the unusual lows of the 1700’s.

Finally, remember that it was as recently as 1974 that these same climatologists were telling us that we were headed for another ice-age and we were all going to freeze to death!!

References:

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/Members/ad.johnson/text/grnhscon.htm

http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/climate/

Immigration

I know this is a divisive issue. Please remember that Americans are not against immigration. We’re all descended from immigrants. What we are against is the flouting of the rule of law.

We are a nation of laws and all persons are to be treated the same before the law. I realize this doesn’t happen 100% of the time but it is the ideal for which we should strive. Giving 12 million law-breakers a pass would set a horrible precedent.

Immigrants are welcome. Enforce our present immigration laws. Enforce our borders.

No, I am not advocating mass deportations of the illegal aliens already here, however, if you enforce the laws currently on the books and make it impossible for them to get jobs, they will self-deport. Make it unattractive to come here illegally.

Too many municipalities have declared that they will not enforce federal immigration laws. Who gave them permission to pick and chose which laws to follow and which laws to ignore? The whole premise is ridiculous! Suppose they just decided to ignore, oh, say, the first amendment. The mayor and city council doesn’t like what is being printed about them in the local paper so they shut it down. Same for the local TV stations. Think Chaves of Venezuela here. Think that would get some people excited? You bet it would! Why do these cities get a pass for ignoring immigration laws?

Congress has the authority to insist that the laws be followed. Any city that refuses loses all federal money. Simple as that. And not just disaster aide, although that is a good start. All federal money: education, Medicare, welfare, food stamps, Section 8 housing assistance, etc. You get the idea. Think they’d still ignore the laws? I’m guessing not.

Prepositions

Am I the only person in America who understands the correct usage of prepositions??

Here in Ohio, we were bombarded by a radio commercial enjoining us to contact our state legislature in support of legislation to give a choice in cable TV service. Only problem was, this commercial drove me absolutely nuts! It phrased it as a “choice to cable TV”. Arrgh!!

I was reading a financial advise website when I came upon this phrase: “Although the spouse with the bad credit may be resentful for this kind of treatment,…” No, the spouse may by resentful _of_ this kind of treatment.

One of my favorite books is “Eats, Shoots and Leaves” by Lynn Truss, a Brit, with a no-nonsense yet hysterically funny take on punctuation. I highly recommend it!

Wimpy Allah

This god, “Allah”, has to be wimpiest god ever to spring from the mind of Man.

Most gods are attributed with Omniscience, Omnipotence and Omnipresence. This guy can’t take care of himself at all, requiring gangs of murderous thugs to do his dirty work.

In addition, he’s obviously very shallow-minded and petty, spending enormous amounts of time worrying about what people are wearing, especially women. He seems particularly afraid of women. Or maybe that’s just his insecure male followers.

In any case, I prefer my gods to be secure enough in their own Omniscience, Omnipotence and Omnipresence that my manner of dress or dietary habits don’t impact upon their behavior.

Eco-Nazis

PROUD NON-RECYCLER

Fighting

ECO-NAZIS

One can at a time.