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bito
Member

Happy New Year, K’es ❗ ❗ ❗

kesmarn
Admin

Happy New Year!!! And now…light that candle, ’cause I’m about to drive home with all the drunks on the highway!!

bito
Member

Be safe, k’es, and the candle is always lit for you.

bito
Member

No kidding, Khirad, I can think of a bunch more before I would come up with Krugman and Rich!!

edit: how did I put this here, and where does it belong? 🙂

bito
Member

May this be a good sign for the New Year

Reuters
January 1, 2011 03:49 GMT

North Korea calls for end to hostility with South

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea on Saturday called for an end to confrontation with the South, urging dialogue after one of the most violent years on the divided peninsula since the 1950-53 Korean War. Tension between the rival Koreas has risen sharply after the North shelled an island in the South near their disputed sea border, killing four including two civilian residents.

The rest, not so good.
http://www.globalpost.com/breaking-news/global/us-international-summary-96

bito
Member

Got a chuckle from this Matt Yglesias tweet:

Not sure why House GOP is bothering with constitution, when everyone knows Sotomayor & Kagan base their rulings on sharia.

😆

kesmarn
Admin

We women might stand a better chance under sharia law than with being left to the tender mercies of the GOP RW Constitutionalists, b’ito! 🙂

And — yes — I did miraculously get sprung, after we sent a few folks home to celebrate. I’m on a borrowed computer with a crushingly slow connection, though… 🙁

bito
Member

k’es, Did you hand out extra ‘meds’ tonight for the New Year, ya know, some of the good stuff? 😆

kesmarn
Admin

b’ito, we just un-wrapped ’em all and put ’em in a big candy dish on the table in the nurse’s station.

Grab a handful and see what happens! 😀

bito
Member

MMMM, Just like M&M’s!!
Who ate more, the RN’s or the patients? 🙄

kesmarn
Admin

Or those pretty, pastel-colored after-dinner mints…

bito
Member

Oh, fond memories of my month in ICU…. wait a sec…. maybe, they weren’t so fond. 😆

Khirad
Member

Oh no, not these, I hope.

[img]http://www.thechocolatestore.com/images/product-pictures/27_L_melty-mints.jpg[/img]

I can get sick gorging myself on these in no time.

bito
Member

No Khirad,

[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Four_colors_of_pills.jpg[/img]

😆

Khirad
Member

I do hope they’re fortified with real Vicodin flavor. 😆

bito
Member

Happy New Year, Khirad, I won’t see midnight. It is 31 in town right now.

Khirad
Member

Well, an early New Year’s to you then, as well bito!

kesmarn
Admin

We wish! Unfortunately that “hypocritical”-sorta nursing oath demands that someone must be more or less sober at all times. Florence Spoilsport Nightengale!!

Oh — and you may have deduced, correctly, that I made it home with nary a scrape.

And — to Khirad — yes, our meds are indeed chock full o’ vitamin V goodness! Makes ’em wanta/hafta come back for more.

Now — I really must shower off and hop to bed…wabbity fast. (The sound of the pounding rain in these 50 degree temps will lull me to sleep.) Happy New Year once again!

javaz
Member

Here’s a feel good true story.

My husband’s family hated me,

Now imagine me – being me – and the family hating me.

It was when my husband’s daughter died, and she was mine, that’s when everything changed.

I still cry – I miss my step-daughter, and especially remember when she called me mom for the first time.

Questinia
Member

A) Can’t imagine it.

B) They probably didn’t hate “you”, just the idea of you.

javaz
Member

Wow.

You got it and I thank you.

javaz
Member

LOL

You must play your guitars and sing!

Happy New Year!

javaz
Member
Chernynkaya
Member

A good column today from Frank Schaeffer:

Obama’s Critics Owe Him a New Years (Fact-Based) Apology
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/obamas-lefty-critics-owe-_b_802911.html

We find ourselves in the position of survivors of a shipwreck clinging to a life raft. President Obama is that “life raft.” Our young president is leading us at a time of extraordinary peril. He and we face overwhelming challenges including two wars and a financial crisis he had dumped into his lap by fools….

Be patient, realizing that the challenge facing our country is unprecedented because it combines economic, social and military problems coalescing into one of the most toxic periods of history any president has faced. And President Obama is facing this moment well.

bito
Member

While I support his POV, I can think of better examples than Krugman and Rich to pick as major critics of the President, perhaps the owner of the site he posted this on might be a good start.
I don’t read Krugman daily, perhaps I have missed something, many economists feel a need to put more money into the economy and Krugman has often listed the limitations placed on the President from doing so.

Khirad
Member

No kidding, Krugman and Rich are who he went after?

Then again, maybe the others would have hit too close to home on HP?

Khirad
Member

“President Obama’s Lefty critics look more and more like petulant teenagers who are too small to admit that they are wrong.”

*applause*

And, I see those very people came out to protest his article! 😆

Questinia
Member

A wife sleeping with her husband

[img]http://planetpov.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/164112_478728635813_583505813_5895966_119073_n.jpg[/img]

javaz
Member

Q, such a sad photograph, but something everyone should view as a reminder of war.
We’re so insulated from the wars and the military and their families.
I think it’s less than 1% of the population that serves and the MSM rarely covers the war or the cost of war on the troops and their families.
Very sad.

Questinia
Member

The above picture was from the NYT, javaz. We are instead deluged with the horrors of weather by the MSM. Why is weather all of a sudden always so disastrous?

Khirad
Member

Powerful.

Khirad
Member

In Their Boots – No Religious Preference

It’s super good. I can’t believe Huffington Post recommended it.

This Afghanistan veteran confronts his own prejudice against Muslims by talking to Muslim veterans.

It was pretty moving. The triumph of the human spirit and self-reflection, plus the courage to confront that which makes you uncomfortable.

http://www.intheirboots.com/itb/shows/operation-in-their-boots/no-religious-preference.html

Questinia
Member

Yet in the military overall Catholics, Jews, Protestants, Buddhists are prejudiced against. Why? Because the military is evangelical.

Khirad
Member

Their blood will never be worth as much as those “clean” and “purified” by the Holy Spirit. Didn’t you know the Prince of Peace makes the best soldiers. Screw this guy and his mom:

[img]http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv156/NavyBlueWife/080929_slideshowplaton16_p465.jpg[/img]

bito
Member

I bring this short blog post up not so much for it but the comment
Fortunately, making a statistical error on live TV is not a capital offense

Political pundits do this way too much. They look around at their immediate surroundings and assume it is an accurate reflection of society. I mean Jesus, how many David Brooks columns were launched from a five minute conversation he had with a Home Depot employee while he waited for his lawn mower to be brought up front?

😆 ain’t it the truth?

kesmarn
Admin

It don’t doubt it a bit, b’ito. But I suspect Brooks probably wouldn’t even bother to talk to the Home Depot employee, don’t you?
Would he even go into a Home Depot? Purchase his own lawn mower? Wouldn’t he be likely to have a lawn service (staffed by “invisible” Mexican immigrants)?

Am I getting too cynical?

Maybe his columns are more likely to be launched by a five minute conversation with Tucker Carlson while waiting for the elevator?

Maybe I should go to bed and take my crankiness with me? 😀

Either way, he and his fellow pundits are out of touch, to say the least!

Khirad
Member

I’ve been without the MSNBC for a month now. So, forgive me in asking: what’ did Tucker do (this time)?

I thought he was banished to Hasbeenistan, or whatever he calls that thing — the Daily Crapper, or whatever.

That comment was too funny, and too true. They do tend to – I don’t know a better way to say this – circle jerk it.

They never really get out there. That’s what I think Joe Klein tried to do. I still don’t know how much he really succeeded or not. One person I do know that cuts through the glass cage, is Matt Taibbi.

kesmarn
Admin

Truthout has an interesting review of Jeff Sharlet’s latest book: “C Street: the Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy.”

(C’lady has mentioned his 2008 book, “The Family” as a great source of info on the religious right.)

http://www.truth-out.org/c-street-review-is-fact-power-its-justification66406

Though a review in The Washington Post calls Sharlet’s thesis of an America without contraception or public schools “almost unhinged,” the recent rise of the Tea Party since “C Street’s” publication and legislation such as unemployment benefits held hostage to tax cuts for the wealthiest American cast doubt on whether we can dismiss the threat posed by the actions of the Family to positions such as gay rights, religious freedom or the separation between church and state.

This brings us to one of Sharlet’s central points in the book: how do we hold lawmakers accountable who believe they have a divine right to rule?

bito
Member

Hey, k’es, That is a good quote from the review from a great site. It used to be my go-to-site. Their outrage at the Iraq war by Scott Ritter opened my eyes wide to the lies of the Bush administration before the invasion.
The perversion and depth of C-Street in governance is a tad scary. Why did Mr. Ensign escape his escapades within the GOP with nary a scratch??
Their gospel reminds me of what your son said about the money changers in the temple.

kesmarn
Admin

I’ve been tempted to sketch my son’s comment into an editorial cartoon and send it off to a couple of the local newspapers, b’ito. (Does anyone read newspapers any more, though?)

Was that AlterNet that you cited yesterday with the list of ten things on the RW agenda for the near future? I was looking for that comment, but it might have gone into lalaland when the “misfortune” struck with the incredible shrinking comments… 😆

bito
Member
kesmarn
Admin

Yaaaay! Let’s hear it for keeping 45,367,231 tabs available! 😆

Thank you!

bito
Member

Guilty as charged, if I put it in bookmarks it would really get lost. 😆

kesmarn
Admin

I must have 300 items in bookmarks. It’s hopeless… 🙄

Your way works better.

Khirad
Member

Ugh, don’t get me started on my untidy bookmarks. I’m always putting off organizing them.

They’re sorta haphazardly organized, but when I’m thinking of just the right article to vanquish a troll, wouldn’t you know it, I can’t find it.

javaz
Member
bito
Member

Way Cool, j’avaz, I love TED. They do some great things.

javaz
Member

The fungi/husk compound is also a fire retardant.
Besides being better for the environment and not using oil, the fungi/compound doesn’t burn like Styrofoam.

It burns slowly, very, very slowly, so imagine the possibilities and lives saved if it is used as insulation in planes, homes, mobile homes and trailers, and maybe even vehicles and perhaps someday on future space stations.

People would have a much better rate of survival during crashes, or electrical fires, if the insulation didn’t ignite and people were given the time to flee.

American ingenuity on display and I do believe the two men responsible for developing the fungi/husk replacement for Styrofoam are only 26 years old!

bito
Member

j’avaz, this gives me a chance to post this link

http://challenge.gov/

You too could be a winner!! Put you thinking cap on!!

Chernynkaya
Member

Bito– awesome site! bookmarked that!

bito
Member

Cher, Now, if only I was smart enough to think of something. 😀

kesmarn
Admin

OK. Now they need to come up with a durable, edible form of this stuff. A nice mushroom omelet made from packing material…yummmmm.

boomer1949
Member

Sorry I’m a little late, but speaking of the weather here in the Buckeye State…

Right Now Next 36 Hours
Fair Tonight Tomorrow Tomorrow Night
Cloudy Cloudy T-Showers
Fair Cloudy Cloudy T-Showers
44°F 37° 53° 44°
Feels Like: 41° Low High Low
Past 24-hr:
Precip: 0.21 in (est.)
Snow: 0 in Chance of Precip:
20% Chance of Precip:
20% Chance of Precip:
80%
Wind:
From SE at 5mph Wind:
SSE at 11 mph Wind:
S at 14 mph Wind:
SSE at 12 mph
Humidity: 85% 80% 78% 82%
Dew Point:40°
Pressure: 29.96 in Steady Pressure
Visibility: 10.0 mi
UV Index: 0 – Low — 1 – Low —
Time Until Sunrise: 13 hrs 30 min Sunset: 5:16 pm Sunrise: 7:54 am Sunset: 5:17 pm
Through 12am: Mostly cloudy with temperatures steady in the low 40s. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Overcast. Low 37F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Overcast. High 53F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Rain showers in the evening then thundershowers overnight. Low 44F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.

***Edit*** Out and about this afternoon sans coat!

escribacat
Member

We are having our first snowstorm of the season down here in Denver/Boulder. Hooray!! It’s been dry as a bone for months, and warm too.

bito
Member

I posted about Rep. Ryan and the new “cut-go” but here is a couple of new twists to the budget from ThinkProgress.

Proposed House GOP Rules Give Rep. Ryan ‘Stunning And Unprecedented’ Power To Shape Budget

That’s not all, however. As National Journal reported today, “a little-noticed detail in the new rules proposed by House GOP leaders would greatly increase the power of Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the incoming chairman of the House Budget Committee.” Indeed, under the proposed rules, if the House and Senate do not agree on a budget resolution (a distinct possibility with a divided Congress), Ryan will be able to unilaterally set spending levels that are binding on the House, and any attempt to lessen the impact of these cuts can be ruled out of order.[….]
Once Rep. Ryan places in the Congressional Record discretionary funding limits set at the [2008] level, they will become binding on the House, and any attempt to provide funding levels that allow for less severe cuts will be out of order.

Not sure if the T-Partiers will go along with this, some want to go back to 2000 spending levels.

H/T The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Chernynkaya
Member

…in the new rules proposed by House GOP leaders…

Well, that would certainly be troubling! I wonder if the GOBP is floating that idea in response to the Senate considering reforming the filibuster rules? Separate branch, true, but the Repubs stick together, whichever house of Congress. I can see them doing that not only for power, but to take revenge on the Dem Senate. Do you know if the House rules allow that sort of change?

bito
Member

Cher, it may have some to do with the senate, but it has more with their hypocritical “austerity/deficit” rant. The cut-go anly applies to deficit spending on social programs but not deficit ballooning tax cuts or military.
Yes the house convenes every 2 years as a “new body” (all reps having just stood for election) and can write new rules. The senate is usually convened as a “continuing body” (only 1/3 are new members) and keep the old rules. This may be different this year because of the filibuster reform and they may also convene as a “new body.”
Back to the new house rules, these rules are quite draconian and are the wet dreams of Reagan/Stockman idolizers. “Starve the beast” and trickled on. They seem to, conveniently, forget that under Reagan taxes were raised 3 times and the deficit and debt exploded.

Chernynkaya
Member

That’s depressing, bito. Thanks for the explanation about the rules though.

bito
Member
Haruko Haruhara
Member