Dingy Harry

Harry Reid and his accomplices in the Senate have come up with a horrible, very expensive government budget bill for 2011. One that included loads of money for ObamaCare. By adopting this in the lame duck session, they can prevent the incoming Republicans from defunding ObamaCare, amongst other things. Reid is telling his fellow budget-criminals that they need to vote approval on this or he will keep them in Washington through Christmas.


If no budget (or Continuing Resolution. They haven’t come up with an actual budget) is passed before they adjourn for the holidays, the government will run out of money and shut down. Now, this sounds like a wonderful thing to me.


Upon hearing of Dingy Harry’s threats to shut down the government, my SO and I started singing this:


(to the tune of Let It Snow)


Oh, the spending out there is frightful

But it would be so delightful

To let ‘em run out of dough

Let it close!

Let it close!

Let it close!


:-D

To any advertizing people:

If you are currently in production with or even considering using any traditional Christmas song in your commercial, stop. You will not be heard. Your target audience, upon hearing the first few bars of your commercial the second time, will reach for their mute button. You might get one listen-through but from that point on, your annoying bastardization of a traditional Christmas favorite will be on the mute button from the second it is recognized.

We don’t like songs that have been beaten to death and then made to serve your purposes. It’s very annoying to hear a familiar song that has been re-purposed to something as useless as a commercial jingle.

And we won’t listen to things that annoy us when we have the option not to do so. Every TV/radio remote I’ve ever seen has a mute button it. We use them to battle the constant stupidity that you fling at us. However, occasionally, and very rarely, you come up with something that can be heard without gagging. You might want to do whatever it is that you do to figure out what those rarities are and make more of them.

But, leave Christmas carols alone!!

I know what a divorced father feels like.

Those poor guys who lose their families to the capriciousness of shallow young women, I feel their pain. One day, you’re living your life, things are rough but you think you’re working on the problems and everything will be Ok. The next, she’s taken your kids and you have to petition a court to see them or you get only 1 afternoon a week, if you’re lucky and she doesn’t decide she has better things to do than bring them over.

I have lived with my grandson, my only grandchild, for over 14 months. I’m retired on disability and am home all day, every day. He and I are used to being together on a daily basis. My daughter, for reasons unknown to me, has decided to take him away to her on-again, off-again boyfriend’s grandmother’s house. I’ve asked and asked why and gotten only a litany of the bad things I did as a mother when she was eleven. She has said nothing on any current reasons why I am so impossible to live with now.

I’m not saying she didn’t have reasons. I know I’m an opinionated, crotchety old woman. I’d just like to know what I actually did wrong. If she won’t tell me what bothered her enough to take her son and run away, how am I supposed to do better in the future?

I had asked for every other weekend visitation with my grandson. She has countered with every Saturday afternoon when she comes over to take care of her cats that are still a part of my household. Since the boyfriend and his family are Jewish, I’ve also asked for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. No answer on that as yet. They are invited for Christmas Eve dinner and dinner on Christmas Day as well. (I do a lot of cooking and baking in December!)

I miss him terribly! My house is still full of his toys, furniture, clothes, and just stuff in general. So, there is a constant reminder of who is not here. My house is still majorly disrupted by being “baby-proofed” by my daughter. I’m reluctant to put everything back if he’s really going to be here every week. She still has my sewing room full of her stuff and one other bedroom is still dedicated to him. So, they are gone but their stuff and her cats remain. I’m very lonely without him. I had such plans for Christmas together.

I’d like to have my house back if they’re not going to live here. I’d have her remove her stuff from my garage, basement, living room, family room and my sewing room but I’m afraid, if I push the matter, she will retaliate by withholding my grandson from me.

So, I know the pain, uncertainty, confusion and fear that fathers go through. Maybe we should form a support group.

All About Eve

The hubby and I watched a great movie recently: All About Eve. Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Gary Merrill. Written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. TCM’s Robert Osborne says it’s one of the greatest movies ever made and we would have to agree. He also stated that it will never be remade, the way too many older movies are these days. I hope he’s right.


However, for a laugh, Hubby and I decided to take a try at casting an “All About Eve 2010”. Here’s what we came up with:



Character           1950                  2010

Margo Channing Bette Davis         Meryl Streep (badly aging star)

Eve Harrington   Anne Baxter        Cameron Diaz (scheming younger woman)

Max Fabian       Gregory Ratoff     Antonio Bandaras (foreign twit producer)

Addison DeWitt George Sanders   Johnny Depp (scheming cynical critic)

Lloyd Richards   Hugh Marlowe     Leonardo DiCaprio (pretty-boy playwrite)

Bill Simpson       Gary Merrill          Keanu Reeves (director and boyfriend of aging star)

Karen Richards  Celeste Holmes     Susan Sarandon (aging star’s best friend)

Miss Casswell     Marilyn Monroe    Renee Zellweger (empty-headed protégé of cynical critic)

Bertie                 Thelma Ritter          Shirley MacLaine (down-to-earth maid of aging star)

Phoebe               Barbara Bates        Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan (even younger scheming woman)



Wouldn’t that be simply awful?

The original is fantastic. There is no reason to ever remake this movie and, yet, I’m sure that the idea is percolating through some movie-maker’s head.
Most remakes of classic movies are dreadful and this one would be no exception.

If you haven’t seen this movie, you should make time to do so. It’s so worth it!!

Ted Strickland

I just saw a campaign ad for Ted Strickland, the current governor of our fair state of Ohio. He is running for reelection. He has promised to lower taxes on small businesses. Ha!

Not only did Strickland not lower taxes on small businesses, he doubled them instead. My SO is a part owner of a small business in downtown Cleveland. He pays personal income taxes on his share of the profits and also subject to the Commercial Activity tax on the gross sales of the company. This was enacted by Strickland after he came into office 2 years ago.

According to the Ohio Department of Taxation website, the tax is described thusly:
“The commercial activity tax (CAT) is an annual tax imposed on the privilege of doing business in Ohio, measured by gross receipts from business activities in Ohio.”

“…the privilege of doing business in Ohio…”?!?

Ohio is losing businesses right and left due to its high taxes and this is the arrogant tone they take about it?? It’s no wonder the state is in trouble and tax revenues are falling!!

He’s had 2 years in office. Ohio is in much financial trouble and unemployment is still over 10.1% in Cuyahoga County as of August, 2010. The state unemployment rate is 9.7%. He claims he is going to ‘create jobs’. He’s had 2 years. When was he planning on starting?

His opponent is John Kasich. His experience is as a congressional representative with a solid conservative record. He, at least, won’t be supporting Obama’s destructive policies.

As a Democrat, you know Strickland will be.

I think the choice is crystal clear.

LOL

Literally!

I 'waste' several hours a day on the Cheezburger network of sites.  It's a fun place to go!

FOOTBALL!!

The first game of the Colts' season starts today!!  Against Houston.  They are favored by only a single, lousy point in the line on the games.  It looks like they split the pre-season games.  They usually lose all 4 and then go on to set wins-per-regular-season records so I don't know what the bookies are seeing right now.  The first string has only played about the equivalent of 4 quarters at the most. 

So, here I am, in my favorite booth at the Rusty Barrel in Westlake, waiting for the games to start.  I have a private TV turned to the Colts' game but the Browns call will be on the room speakers very loudly all throughout my game.  Fortunately, I can turn up my TV as much as I need to.

If you're in Westlake, OH, I'm in the front booth with the TVs.  Stop by and say hello!!

GO COLTS!!!

Criss Angel

Criss Angel has some new TV programs out soon. I’m here to tell you not to bother with them.
While my SO and I were in Vegas getting married last November, a total stranger came up to him and gave him 2 tickets to the Criss Angel, Mindfreak show at our hotel. Just gave them to him. We decided to see the show since it didn’t cost us anything. And it was worth every penny!
This guy is supposedly a magician. In the 90-minute show, he did 5 tricks. Entirely predictable, you-gotta-be-kidding-me easy ‘tricks’. One involved supposedly electrocuting himself with 100 million volts or some such. Lots of sparks and screaming and bright lights. From my third row seat, I really wanted to shout, “How many amps you pushing there, Criss?” but I resisted heckling him.
Most of the show consisted of a bunch of people wandering around in rabbit costumes. Never made much sense to me. Not very entertaining, either. More magic might have been but there was very, very little of that.
I don’t know what he does for his TV extravaganzas but it can’t be any better than his live show and will prolly be worse.

Don’t waste your time!!

Obambi and the Yentas

If still had any doubts that Obambi was a light-weight media-whore, he has put your doubts to rest:  Obambi will be appearing on The View on Thursday, July 29th.  The taping is on Wednesday. 

Do ya think any one in the audience will have the balls to question why he is there??

I don't.

He clearly has no respect for the office he holds.

Yech!

Old 'Net Funny

I stole this from the Internet years ago:

A study by Lifestyles Condom shows that the average length


of a male sex organ is 5.877 inches. At 5.877 inches, the

average penis is about the size of an unwrapped Nestle

Butterfinger candy bar or a medium cup of coffee at

Starbucks with the sip lid. Most men vary in size between a

Twix bar and a Peter Paul Mounds with the wrapper extended...



... Hey - I just figured out how Eminem got his name!

LOL!!

Political Quiz

I'm apparently more politically informed than 95% of my fellow Citizens:

Now, that's a scary thought!!  Take the Quiz here:   Political IQ Quiz

Hattip: Grouchy Old Cripple

LOL

This made me laugh out loud:

via Graphjam.com. 

Gushers

Well, it looks like they might have finally capped the oil gusher at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.  After 84 days of fumbling around, they might have finally made some progress.

Now, imagine that W. is still president.  Can you hear the LSM screeching?  There would be new programs devoted to counting the number of days of the crisis and lambasting the tepid response from the Fed.  Imagine W. taking 3 vacations and playing 12 rounds of golf during the crisis!  That's what Obambi has done and the only place I've heard about it is on Hannity.  Thanks, Sean, for keeping us informed!!

The media giving Obambi the pass it has given him is simply a disgrace.  None of them are worth listening to.  I haven't watched a major network news broadcast in decades.  The ONLY reason my TV is ever tuned to CNN is because my daughter, the Obambi voter, tunes in to catch her daily dose of liberal spin and misinformation.  I don't know where I went wrong with her.  I consider myself a total failure as a parent. 

Now that we've got the gusher in the Gulf capped, think we can cap the one spewing taxpayers' money in Washington???

Al and Tipper

Al and Tipper are splitting up, probably getting divorced.


As a 3-time loser myself, I know the pain that goes along with admitting defeat and getting divorced.
However, I have never blamed my divorces on anyone other then my then-spouse and myself. The media has seen fit to blame the Gore’s divorce on, of all people, George W. Bush.
The ‘reasoning’ goes thusly: Bush stole the election in 2000 from Al. He and Tipper were so unhappy about that that they took it out on each other. Apparently, acquiring a 10,000% increase in one’s personal wealth isn’t enough to guarantee marital happiness.
In 2001, when he left public office, Gore’s family fortune was estimated by the Washington Examiner to be in the range of a million dollars. Six years later, it had grown to over $100 million dollars. They own 5 rather posh places of residence:
1. 6,500-square-foot villa in Montecito, CA

2. the mansion in Nashville everyone talks about due to its excessive electricity usage.

3. a Tudor-style house in Arlington, VA

4. the Gore family farm in Carthage, TN

5. a condo in San Francisco

6. 100-foot houseboat
All in all, it’s estimated that the empty-nester Gores have over 20,000 square feet of living space at their disposal.
You would think that that would be enough living area, spaced widely enough apart, that they would have to make an appointment just to be in the same state together. Surely, that’s enough space to get far enough away from each other not to fight over whatever is driving them apart!

How much space does he need, anyway? I know he’s put on some weight since leaving office. Apparently, he’s a ‘worry eater’ and worrying night and day about the fate of the planet has resulted in a few too many late-night trips to Taco Bell. But, my rather large husband and I manage to get along in only 1,975 square feet just fine. He channel surfs (which drives me batty!) down in the Family Room and I watch my DVRed shows up in the kitchen. Everybody gets what they want.
Compromise is a part of marriage. I guess that’s just something Al is not too good at.

I’m Such a Stickler

Does anyone besides me find the language used to refer to our military annoying?

Today, on Fox News, it was reported that “five troops died today in a road side bombing.”

Um, five individuals lost their lives, correct? Is not ‘troops’ used to refer to a plural? “Troops of Soldiers’. Like ‘Flock of Birds’. You would never say, “Five flocks died today in a tragic power line incident,” meaning that 5 birds were dead.

Please don’t misinterpret my meaning here. I think that the loss of even one soldier is a tragedy. They are so brave and I respect them for being so. I would just like them to have the proper references in our media, who so often get the basics about the military wrong.

So, tragically, five soldiers lost their lives today in Afghanistan. My heart and prayers go out to their families.

Just get it right, media. It’s the least they deserve.

Sheesh!

Abuse

I am an abused child.




I used to say I ‘was’ an abused child until it occurred to me that it never ends.



I just want it to END. I have always looked forward to the deaths of my parents. I figured that was the only way the abuse would end. Boy, did I get that wrong.



Really abusive parents find a way to continue abusing from beyond the grave. I suffered for years at their hands. For my trouble, I got cut out of their estate. My brother and sister assisted them in this. They are accomplices in the continuing abuse, whether they realize it or not.



My sister denies that any abuse took place since she wasn’t on the receiving end of any. Just because she didn’t see or experience it, it didn’t happen. Or I’m just exaggerating or being overly ‘melodramatic’, our mother’s favorite way of invalidating a complaint. She had a childhood because I didn’t and she refuses to recognize this.



My husband and children have heard me tell stories from my childhood over and over. The stories never change. I don’t need to elaborate or exaggerate; the truth is bad enough. In addition, they have each witnessed the continuing abuse at the hands of my mother and sister. My younger daughter isn’t speaking to either of them at the present although they are invited to her wedding, pending their good behavior. My older daughter discounts my accounts of my abuse because she likes her grandmother. The older daughter is my mother’s favorite so she has always received special attention, like my sister did before her. My husband has actually come to my defense against my mother’s abuse. That was a special moment!! Even thinking of it now gives me a warm feeling.



Years ago, I tried to distance myself from my parents in the hope that the abuse would fade off. Hah! They got at me through my siblings and kids. Abusers always find a way. Even moving over 300 miles away wasn’t far enough.



For my attempts at self preservation I was branded an ‘ungrateful daughter’. I still haven’t been able to figure out what I’m supposed to be grateful for: the childhood that ended suddenly at 9 years of age, the beatings, the lack of medical care that almost killed me and contributed to the terminal heart condition I live with today or the physiological abuse that still prevents me from fulfilling my potential. (When you live with constant, harsh criticism, it’s hard to ever find the courage to do anything.) Therapy helped keep me from suicide.



So, not only did my father not love me, but my brother and sister were content to assist him in hurting me from beyond death.



I don’t know which hurts more.

LOL For the Day

In reference to a black man at a TEA party rally via Jin Treacher at DC Trawler:

John Hinderaker at Powerline to ask, “The real question is not, of course, whether this gentleman ever feels uncomfortable. The real question is, don’t liberal reporters ever feel stupid?”

Which is kind of like asking if fish ever feel wet. They have no frame of reference.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/dc-trawler#ixzz0m4ETyKIg

Yet another Obama flunky lies his face off

Ed Whitacre is a liar



GM is currently running a commercial featuring their CEO, the aforementioned Mr. Whitacre, claiming that they have repaid their loan from the taxpayers, including interest 5 years early.



What he fails to mention is that they have actually returned only 13% of the loan as cash. The remainder is to be in stock. So, the taxpayers are now going to be the proud owners of a sizable portion of GM stock.

GM got a total of $52 billion from the U.S. government and $9.5 billion from the Canadian and Ontario governments as it went through bankruptcy protection last year. At first the entire amount of U.S. aid was considered a loan as the government tried to keep GM from going under and pulling the fragile economy into a depression.



But during bankruptcy, the U.S. government reduced the loan portion to $6.7 billion and converted the rest to company stock, while the Canadian governments held $1.4 billion in loans.



The automaker hopes to repay the remaining $45.3 billion to the U.S. government and $8.1 billion to Canada via a public stock offering, perhaps later this year. The U.S. government now owns 61 percent of the company and Canada owns roughly 12 percent.

They got cash, they should return cash!!



And the stock it to be in a future offering. It’s not even currently existing stock. The more shares that are issued, the less any individual share is worth. A company is worth only so much. You keep dividing that pie into more and more pieces, the pieces start getting awfully small.



Where did they get the money for this?

During the financial crisis that led to GM filing for bankruptcy protection last year, the automaker closed 14 factories and shed more than 65,000 blue-collar jobs in the U.S. through buyouts, early retirement offers and layoffs.

This article doesn’t say this but Rush said these 65,000 workers also lost their pensions. Rush is not often wrong. No one in America is as fact-checked as Rush. He works hard to get it right so as to not give his detractors any ammunition to use against him. Thus, if he says it, it’s probably true.



According to Rush:

RUSH: There's a story out there, the automobile salesmen at General Motors, automobile salesmen at AP, an excited headline, breathlessly so: "GM Pays Back Government Loans from US, Canada." No, they didn't. Here, listen to the lede: "General Motors Co. has repaid $8.1 billion in loans it got from the U.S. and Canadian governments, a move its CEO says is a sign automaker is on the road to recovery." Now, if you only read the headline and the lead paragraph, you'd get the distinct impression that what? They paid it all back, right. You get the distinct impression that GM has fully repaid all the money they've gotten from the US and Canadian governments. Why would the AP want to mislead its readers like this? In fact, the General Motors outfit got a total of $61.5 billion from the US and Canada, but now it's shouted from the rooftop when they paid back a mere eight billion. That's what they've paid back. They have paid back a total of 13% of the government loan, and here the car salesman from the Associated Press report says they fully paid it back, which they have not. One thing that they don't point out here very stridently -- of course, leaving it to me who can read the stitches on the fastball -- they had the money to do this. Where did they get some of the eight billion to pay back? They did it by jettisoning 65,000 jobs, and the pensions that go with them, so they fired 65,000 people, got rid of their pensions and they said that they are paying it back. They haven't earned it. They're cutting and it's only because Obama owns the car companies along with the UAW that you can fire 65,000 union people.

GM Cuts 65,000 Jobs, Pretends to Pay Gov't Back





And don’t forget, Ed Whitacre was picked by Obama to run GM. He’s a government and Obama stooge through and through.



We hope to buy a car next year. It won’t be from GM, of that you can be sure!!

Obama Health Care Bill

Every time I think of this, I grin:

The law apparently bars members of Congress from the federal employees health program, on the assumption that lawmakers should join many of their constituents in getting coverage through new state-based markets known as insurance exchanges.

But the research service found that this provision was written in an imprecise, confusing way, so it is not clear when it takes effect.

The new exchanges do not have to be in operation until 2014. But because of a possible “drafting error,” the report says, Congress did not specify an effective date for the section excluding lawmakers from the existing program.

Under well-established canons of statutory interpretation, the report said, “a law takes effect on the date of its enactment” unless Congress clearly specifies otherwise. And Congress did not specify any other effective date for this part of the health care law. The law was enacted when President Obama signed it three weeks ago.

They couldn’t take the time to actually READ the bill and now it’s gonna come back on ‘em and bite ‘em on the ass.

At least, I hope it does.
My SO doesn’t think that they will allow this to happen to themselves. They will find some weasel way out of it.
He’s probably correct but it is a delightful prospect in the meantime.



(Quote from the New Yolk Slimes, to which I will not link.)

Earth Hour

Did you participate in Earth Hour last night? I did.

I turned on every light in the house for at least an hour. Many of my neighbors were totally dark, including the guy behind me who illuminates his American flag 24/7. He turned off that light, too. My house shone like a beacon of sanity in a sea of stupidity.

Personally, I refuse to cooperate in anything that perpetuates a hoax. Anthropogenic Global Warming had been proved to be a hoax months ago. That anyone would still think they needed to go along with anything to do with it astounds me.

I hate to think of my fellow Americans as gullible boobs but there's just so much evidence that they are, beyond AGW. They elected Bill Clinton twice and then fell for the sham that is Barack Obama.

I really hate the idea that people are that stupid but they apparently are.

Found On Road, Dead

Yet another Japanese car manufacturer has had to issue a massive recall of their cars. Nissan has recalled 540,000 cars and trucks for break pin and gas gauge problems.

And Toyotas recent problems were so bad they shut down their production plants until they could get them sorted out. This has been all over the news for weeks.

Consumer Reports, the premier consumer product rating source, has been in love with Japanese cars for many, many years. They finally seem to have noticed the problems, suspending recommendations on eight Toyota models. Despite all its problems, Toyota is still fifth on the Consumer Reports list of recommended cars. Ford is 15th.

I purchased my first-ever new car in August of 2006. I bought a kiwi green Ford Focus with just about every option available except a sunroof. Having a 6’ 6” fiancée precluded getting a car with a sunroof. I refuse to have a car he can’t at least back out of the driveway if necessary. Because of the sunroof issue, they had to special order my car. That was the longest month of my life! I took delivery the end of August. My car was perfect.

My pretty, little car now has just over 20,000 miles on it. Since I got laid off in 2008 and subsequently obtained my disability benefits, I don’t drive much. It has, however, been back and forth to Indianapolis a few times. It has never needed any repair, maintenance only (oil changes).

The car is now over 3 ½ years old. It has never had a recall of anything. I checked with Ford just prior to writing this article.

My family mocked me for buying a Ford. “Found On Road, Dead.” “Fixed Or Repaired Daily.” Nonsense like that. My daughter bought a Prius a few years ago.

It has been recalled.

They bought that car because Toyota had such a good reputation for quality.

Ha!

Maybe next time they will consider an American car company.

I realize the lots of Japanese cars are made here these days. While I applaud their efforts to employ Americans, the profits still go overseas. My Focus was made in Wayne, Michigan. Employing Americans and profiting Americans.

Buy American. The job you save may be your own!!

Cats

How many cats does it take to go to the bathroom?

Four:

Garfield
Puff
Klein
Trusty Sidekick

Garfield is my orange boy. He follows me around and is a great bed kitty.

Klein is my little odd one. Rag doll Siamese with blue eyes. And really just a strange cat

Puff is black with a white chest patch and belongs to my daughter. Sweet kitty but really, really dumb.

Trusty Sidekick belongs to the daughter’s boyfriend. He's staying with us until the boyfriend gets a full-time job and an apartment of his own. Isn't that a great name for a cat??

Pix:



Garflied, being silly in front of the kitchen heating vent



Klein, looking nice and fat before he got sick. He has a thyroid condition that made him too skinny for a while. He's getting better, though.



Trusty Sidekick. He has long hair and a very sweet personality. He's only been here a couple of days and is still feels a bit insecure.




Puff. I call him Puff-in-Stuff after that awful children's show from my childhood.

Cowbell

Many things could benefit from more cowbell. Bobsled racing is not one of them.

The clanging gets so loud you can't hear the cheers!

Snow

In my opinion, Washington D.C. getting 2 FEET of snow recently is God's way of telling Congress that Globull Warming is a hoax.

Think they're listening??

Probably not. Throw more snow on 'em!!!

:-)

Anthropomorphic Global Warming is a HOAX

Don’t fall for it. I make it a policy not to do business, if I can help it, with companies that tout how ‘green’ they are. They are only contributing to the scare-mongering and I won’t abet this behavior.

Lord Monckton’s letter to the PM of Australia is particularly illuminating. Read the whole thing:

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/01/03/climate-change-proposed-personal-briefing/#more-14778

Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT has published a peer-reviewed paper that, if anyone was paying attention to science, would end the entire debate.

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/originals/co2_report_july_09.pdf

Takes a bit to load but it is devastating to the ‘settled science’ of AGW. Guaranteed to make Algore cry! :-)

In addition, food prices have doubled in the past 2 years, according to Lord Monckton. Poor people in the third world are dying so that rich people in first world countries can feel better about themselves because they drive cars with ethanol in the tank. I’m sure they don’t mind dying so some do-gooders can feel better about their life-styles. It’s for a good cause, after all!

Ray Stevens, "We The People"

I saw a bit of this the other night on Glenn Beck and just now found the whole song on You Tube:



It's by the same guy who gave us The Streak, amongst other memorable, culture-changing songs.

And to Mr. Stevens I say, "Amen!"

DO NOT VOTE FOR ANY INCUMBENTS THIS YEAR!

SEND 'EM ALL HOME!