Things Fall Apart

Cisco is better.  He’s worth the $1400.00 to get him back to normal.  It made me wonder how people with sick pets deal with it now.  Fortunately, we could afford it, but what would someone who couldn’t do?

I’m thinking that Murphy should go in with Tammy next time.  They are so close.  Last night I thought Murph had accidentally hurt Tammy, but it turned out to be the other way around — she nipped him — and then when I called them down, Tammy went to Murph and gave him kisses. 

The dryer finally died.  I bought a new one online.  That’s $500 that I didn’t expect to spend.  The hose to one of the toilettes busted and almost flooded the bathroom, but I was here for it and saved the day.

The DVD player doesn’t work anymore.  I’ve tried everything, but at most it will play for about 20 minutes and then nothing.  I don’t think I will replace it.  I bought my TV just in time for it to be HD ready, but it won’t work without a converter box.

My troubles are small compared to people living in Gaza.  It looks like the Iraeli government has learned how to better sell its bombing — through youtube and emails — I wonder why they didn’t use Twitter. 

Things Fall Apart all over the world.  The clock is ticking and George Bush is on vacation — as is Obama.  The one difference is that George Bush is still president, and he made a promise about that problem he helped creat by forcing elections and ignoring the facts on the ground.  What seemed to start on Saturday has been brewing since the election of Hamas.  That’s on Bush’s and Rice’s heads.

Things Fall Apart in Africa as well.  Look to Somalia, the Congo.  I’ll write about them in more depth later.

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Tracking Santa etc.

I asked my nieces if they tracked Santa online and they said yes.  I always do, too.   I will see them tomorrow, and I hope that they all got what they asked for.  One probably won’t, but that’s the pet dilemma that I just don’t want to get into.  All of my shopping is done, including buying sweet potatoes.  The fried slices were such a hit at Thanksgiving, I decided to do it again.  I spent less this year due more to a lack of imagination and the vet bill than anything else.

I know this is nothing new, but I am amazed at the brazenness of right wing radio.  Dennis Praeger has  — wait!! this just in —

I was going to write about this, but now it’s just funny.  Earlier today, Bush pardoned a guy who — wait for it — had enticed poor people of color into buying money-trap homes in New York.  His penalty was pretty light — 5 months — and he was young enough to start over (30 something) but his dad made a contribution to the RNC this past April and voila!  The boy is cleared.  But NOW, Bush has “rescinded” that there pardon.  Dumbass.

Back to Praeger, he’s gone all Dr. Laura, e.i. women should just do what their husbands want, blah blah blah.

Michael Medved does to Christmas what he did to Saint Ronnie’s biography, and then Hugh Hewitt brings on Mark Steyn to trash Obama, but it’s the HOLIDAYS!!!! No matter, the current scandal is worse than Whitewater and a BIG DEAL.

One last thing — Twitter — it’s just ink and if the Republicans think they can save the part by knowing when someone is in the bathroom, that’s just sad — which is what I had intended to  to title this post when it started out.  But it got better.

Cisco is home

Last Thurdays morning at about 3:oo a.m., Cisco had a problem.  After taking him to the emergency clinic and then a stay at our regular vet, he’s finally back home tonight.  Tammy was paticularly watchful, and now Dora is sleeeping with him.

He’s got to eat and pee.  So far he’s done both tonight.  I thought I might lose him.  He’s a really cool cat.

The Resistance

Grassfire.org is advertising on wingnut radio, hoping to get 1 million signatures on its petition to “resist” the Obama administration before the inauguration.  They have been advertising since the election but haven’t made much progress.  So far, with two different websites, they have gotten 296,127 signatures.  The comercials run throughout the day, presumably nationally, and this is all they get?  It makes me wonder just how many people fall for the work at home schemes, PC add-ons or debt reduction companies  that dominate the station’s ad time.  (Local advertisers are different — two local furniture companies advertise everywhere, one local advertiser is “going green” and none of the scrp metal businesses have had ads on for a while.)

I think it reflects on the audiences.  In Houston alone, their are millions of people and Grassfiresupposedly sponsors the studio that Mike Gallagher broadcasts from in Dallas, which means even more millions.

It’s mostly sad.  Perhaps their audience isn’t very internet saavy, or they would sign up.

Two things — Mike Gallagher helped kill a business in Farmers Branch during the immigration debate and Hugh Hewitt and Kathleen think Twitter is the answer to Republican/Conservative success at the ballot box.  Poison doesn’t grow fruit.

Obama has been deliberate and steady so far and has handled the transition in a pragmatic way.  I was particularly happy with the Salazar pick today for the Interior.  Everything is all good.  Hopefully, Rasmussen won’t get more play than deserved, given how they slanted Bush’s approval ratings for so long — until it got so bad that they just stopped.

Obscene

Tonight on Now on PBS, they explored the Pacific nation of Kiribati and the threat it faces from global warming.  Many other nations like Niue and Tuvalu are facing the same fate: the ocean is swallowing them.

Then there’s Dubai’s  obscene project.

There’s no way that Dubai would help little countries — democracies — survive the effects of what gave them the resources to build artificial islands.  Nope.  Not a chance.

Formerly Self-reliant Texans

ZOMG it snowed on Houston and Harris County.  Why wasn’t Harris County pre-emptive in their dealing with the snow?  Everyone helped themselves and didn’t need the government with a hurricane, but dealing with snow and ice for three or four hours?  Where’s the government???!?!?!?

That Writing Class

There were troubles, oh so many troubles, but in the end, the majority of my students actually came back to my office time and again to tell me how much they learned from and enjoyed it.  I think they would have enjoyed it more had I not had to deal with the cheating.  It’s more and more difficult to stop cheating these days, but those students who desire to learn — the majority — are the ones I aimed for. 

The student who proclaimed that all of her teachers should be fired for incompetence emailed me the final draft of her research paper 12 hours after the due date.

Pobrecita.  She failed.

Why didn’t I Think of That?

Given my years long association with musicians and my nearly as long concern about torture, I don’t know why I didn’t think about musicians demanding that their music not be used to psychologically torture people.

Sure, any number of people can say that Barney or Metallica makes them crazy, but that is just a form of speech.

If I were a musician or a composer, I would loath having my music used to torture anyone, no matter who they were.

By using the music they did, the Defense Department and the CIA have little respect for our culture.  I don’t see any Country & Western songs on that line up.  Does that mean that listening to Toby Keith or any other C&W “artists” might not supply the ‘punch’ the torturers were looking for, unlike BARNEY songs (i.e. they are too wimpy)?

Our Newest Local Radio Winger

Lores is riffing off of Barbara Walters’ most fascinating people list.  She’s not very well prepared or knowledgable.  When a caller suggested that Amy Winehouse should have had a spot on the list, Lores wasn’t really sure what she might have done that was fascinating, and went one step further to state that Winehouse was an example of the bad influences of, get this, HOLLYWOOD. 

On top of that, she doesn’t know who Frank Langella is.  My goodness, that’s just being deliberately ignorant.

She also has a link to a blogger’s list of 10, which includes Jeremiah Wright.  She disagrees with the blogger, J.D. Dunn, about why Wright is fascinating, which is:

Wright is a symbol of a bygone era, and nothing makes for a greater contrast than his former disciple, Barack Obama. Wright came from an era when the police used fire hoses and dogs on you when you tried to vote. Obama comes from an era where the biggest problem with voting is getting people to turn out if it snows. While Obama has moved on to what social scientists call a “post-racial” environment, Rev. Wright is still fighting the battles of the 1960s. If anything, the Wright controversy shows us just how far the rest of us have come.

She says Wright is on her list, but is using her reason for putting him there are a teaser.  Her show is halfway over, so we’ll see soon enough.  I predict that she will call him racist at the very least, and possibly un-American.  I can’t wait!!!!!!!

Ok, so here’s her list (or the first five – “not in any particular order”).  Obama – because she is fascinated that someone could speak so much with so little substance and still get elected.  Okey dokey.  Jeremiah Wright – fascinating because he could spew so much hatred and still call himself a Christian — and got a pass from the media.  (Sme old same old)  Then there’s Jesse Jackson.  She perpetuates a rumor (it’s just what wingers like her do) about Jackson calling Obama the n-word.  Oh and that he got a pass from the media. 

Her next three are groups of people.  Two of them she calls out for their silence: NOW and the majority of peace loving muslims.  The other is Islamic Terrorists because the media won’t call them that and instead labels them as gunmen and militants.  I’m puzzled at her reasoning on that one.

She gets a dig in at Al Franke, calling him desperate and corrupt and complaining that he’s trying to steal an election.  (Lores is just so original!)  Then there’s some actor from The Office and Britney Spears.  But the one that I think tops them all is her reason for putting Sarah Palin on her list:  Palin won the election for Saxby Chamblis in Georgia this week! YaY! 

One last funny:  a listener informed her about who Frank Langella is but Lores doesn’t care because she’s not into Hollywood and doesn’t pay attention to it . . . . but she put Britney on her list.

Twitter is the Answer!

Your answer to John McCain’s downfall:  he didn’t twitter with Kathleen.

I understand that she has come under an undue amount of criticism, but I will pile on.