Displaying 4,351 To 4,380 Of 5,146 Comments Vox Populi AfterChat – 4-30-2010 Sorry all – I’m heading to bed. I’ve had two days off since they were painting our office, and it took all the starch out of me not to have any deadlines, things to write, crises, fires to put out, or people to placate. Who knew relaxation would make you MORE tired? Talk to y’all soon! Sleep well! » Posted By choicelady On April 30, 2010 @ 9:49 pm Well YEAH! Amazed you even KNOW Preston Sturges! That’s pretty cool just in and of itself! » Posted By choicelady On April 30, 2010 @ 9:44 pm kes – you BEAT him! Wooo hooo! I stumped him only because I was thinking of a friend so how could he have known? Said mother in law, then my mother – but nope. A friend. » Posted By choicelady On April 30, 2010 @ 9:42 pm No, no kes – we’re HERE with you, really! Like it or not, we’re here! » Posted By choicelady On April 30, 2010 @ 9:41 pm Isn’t this the Second Law of Thermodynamics? Or something? » Posted By choicelady On April 30, 2010 @ 9:40 pm LOL!!! You know – it might really catch on! Never underestimate the capacity of Americans to overlook good taste in the pursuit of both cheap energy AND good looks. Not to mention an endless banquet. Hoo boy – I think we’re ON to something! Talk about renewable energy! » Posted By choicelady On April 30, 2010 @ 9:23 pm Friday Music Thread – Fight The Power! LOL!!! My brother used to eat them when he was little. He’s now 60. I think you’re safe! » Posted By choicelady On April 30, 2010 @ 7:08 pm boomer dear – I’m older than you. So thanks for remembering how to provide the “universal sign of disrespect” to those who earned it. Better to get it off your heart. You know the definition of STRESS? “The inability to choke the living shit out of someone who righteously deserves it.” Stress relief lives on. You’re my kind of woman! » Posted By choicelady On April 30, 2010 @ 6:53 pm Fave! Fanned! (Not that we do that here, but still…) I LOVE this song! I taught union folks for 15 years, turning their individual understanding of capital’s gross screwing of America into ideas that they could use. We once stood off Henry Kravis and KKR-Reynolds-NAbisco and kept the Milk Bone Dog Biscuit plant OPEN that they were doing to sell or ditch. How? Got the union that worked there to offer a buy out by the workers. Terrified ol’ Henry into settling, and, 20 years later, the plant is still working including the men and women I led into battle over it. We did not take ownership, but we beat Henry. Which side are you on? That of men and women who work for a living, that’s whose side I’m on. LOVE this and thank you! » Posted By choicelady On April 30, 2010 @ 6:50 pm Just an Email from Move To Amend Corporations as “fictitious persons” is not a constitutional issue, and it might be faster to overturn it in Congress. Constitutional Amendments, however, are more durable. We should probably do both. I understand there IS legislation to deny corporations the same rights as human beings since the SCOTUS ruling in 1886 was based on the most profoundly absurd piece of judicial activistm ever – it was taking the 14th Amendment that palably involved freed slaves and their civil right and applying it to corporations (in this case, Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railroad). That is not a constitutional RIGHT, it is a SCOTUS interpretation subject to legal challenge by statute. Let’s do it both ways. » Posted By choicelady On April 30, 2010 @ 3:32 pm Chuck E. Cheese Meets Huffington Post AdLib – that’s what she is NOW, but she started as a clump of curds. Have to EARN the Big Cheese position – or buy it. Did you see the print news item that she’s moving AWAY from any image as a left-liberal blog to be more “mainstream” news oriented? Since mainstream today is capitulating to the corporate and conservative mind set, we now have our answer to why HuffPo is no longer very useful to us. And I agree with boomer et al. that I am an adult and do not need or want “badges”. Gave up Girl Scouts quite a long time ago. Never HAVE been to a Chuck E. Cheese. » Posted By choicelady On April 30, 2010 @ 9:11 am FWIW – those of you in AZ, I mentioned the Ex. Dir. of the Arizona Council of Churches, Jan Flaaten. He has come out in STRONG opposition to this disgusting law, and is mobilizing clergy and lay people in protest. Jan is a wonderful guy, and the Council is based in Phoenix if you want to talk to him. The law affects those of us in the progressive faith movement who care about human life because the foundational principles of that care – driving people to doctors appointments, feeding the hungry, caring for the sick – are now FREAKING CRIMINALIZED. So much for $#%*& “Christian values”. Only Bible verse I ever memorized is “Jesus wept.” Gets more and more handy the longer I live. » Posted By choicelady On April 28, 2010 @ 2:42 pm Yup. Forward to the past. That’s Arizona. » Posted By choicelady On April 28, 2010 @ 2:37 pm LOL!!!!! Yeah – tract housing is sooooo much the base of archeology in AZ! AdLib – I think the proper saying is “Civil Rights? We don’t need no STINKING Civil Rights.” Just to stay in sync… I cannot believe that a state with 90% in-migration, all johnny-come-lately sun bunnies, has the effrontery to decide people who were there FIRST have NO rights, but they have ALL rights including packing heat at Starbucks. I have friends who migrated there, one of whom is a documented immigrant – from IRELAND. Bet they don’t pick HIM up. Fortunately, they are people in opposition to this dastardly law. They understand America. Too bad most Americans don’t seem to. » Posted By choicelady On April 28, 2010 @ 2:37 pm Very interesting, KQ. It’s 7:20 a.m., and I don’t think my brain is “up” yet, but I wonder at the contradictions of how we view government given the purported attitudes towards people. If liberals think people are energetic and creative, why are they assailed with the “Big Government” tag? It’s the cranky conservatives who distrust people, so wouldn’t they want Big Government? Oh – they DO. Just different values of where we spend – prisons instead of schools. Patrolling your bedroom instead of the corporate Board room. I think liberal progressives, centrist or left, should begin discussing the hypocrisy of Bush’s government expansion, much of which had to do with social control – spying, war, torture, education for testing not learning, etc. The Reeps want Big Government to control all of us and free the few. Obama’s government expansion is largely monetary to free people to lead more independent lives by removing want in this time of crisis. I vacillate about being center or sometimes radical; I do see some of historical past as intensely valuable but as a means to a better future, not an idyl to which we should repair without reflection. There is evidence that Liberal-Center-Progressive works the best for society. It was the force behind the Great Society programs, and was the force behind our best accomplishments – clean water, air, food, drugs; worker safety and rights; child protection laws; women’s rights,etc. etc. etc. It today impels the movement toward greater self-sufficiency and sustainability in agriculture and production with everything from microfinance to worker ownership/management. I think even Kucinich is actually Liberal-Center-Progressive on most issues. I have small patience with those who wish to blow up society, left or right, because it sacrifices others, not oneself. One cannot control the ultimate outcomes, and history has shown that violent social revolution often results in unintended consequences far worse than expected – or what has gone before. So thank you for helping to shape our understanding, KQ. I find this very helpful in trying to put some form and substance to the words and practices of our public figures. And possibly myself! » Posted By choicelady On April 29, 2010 @ 7:35 am “Rin Tin Tin’s back! Dog leads trooper to fire” I saw this, too, and it was amazing! Most of all, the TROOPER was amazing to trust this dog was leading him where he needed to go! How many times on “Lassie” did the humans screw up and not believe the dog? So a little credit to the trooper, too. But this is not an uncommon story. Even my cat intervened to protect me twice against “trouble” as she perceived it. It was very meaningful to see her defend me against what she thought was going to harm me, including the cable repair guy who had the NERVE to touch our house before being introduced! I had to hold her back from attacking him! The loyalty between animals and humans is just amazing. And humanity too often repays it with abuse and cruelty. Caring for them, rescuing them, is a life goal for me. All animals deserve that – they have given us so much, even if it’s just licks and comfort. » Posted By choicelady On April 27, 2010 @ 11:22 am And Now for Something Completely Different MTW – that has certainly been my experience in Canada, though they have an OLD legacy of anti-Asian and anti- » Posted By choicelady On April 27, 2010 @ 11:17 am Thanks, KQ – I think with the individualistic zero-sum thinking, those that have access fear that giving everyone access means they “lose” something. Precisely what is not at all clear, but they KNOW they will get inferior care or have to associate with – them. Something unpalatable. Fear is far more potent than reality, as we have seen so overwhelmingly with the tea bag folks. » Posted By choicelady On April 27, 2010 @ 11:11 am Marion – WOW! This is so insightful, coming from someone who actually understands a system and culture that is not the US. Thank you for your insights. This certainly confirms my suspicions, born mostly of limited time in the UK and once having dated a Brit. In the mid 90s I stayed at a B&B the owner of which confided that it would have been “better” if the “Pakis” et al. had been ghettoized rather than left to infiltrate the whole of Britain. I was floored by that. Aware of Oswald Mosley’s appeal to British fascism, the original skinheads, etc., I was not actually surprised that English people could have these sentiments, but I was shocked they were so freely given to a comparative stranger. I work to obtain single payer health care in CA or at least a public option nationally, but when the devoted single payer people say that the current plan is beneath their contempt because it 1. involves the insurance industry and 2. will cost too much for individuals and families, I have to tell them it currently will cost LESS as a part of income than you’d pay in the UK or anywhere else in Europe and LESS than is projected to be paid if we were to get single payer in CA. What it would do is save the NATION some money – but we’d individually pay more. And, I would ask, why should we NOT? What IS stupid is the US assumption that you can get everything for nothing. That is the logical offshoot of the “Great Risk Shift” mentality of US corporate elites who DO get everything for nothing (by shifting costs down onto us), and we all want to live “the lifestyles of the rich and famous”. Is this better than existing in a society where some have all and others have nothing? Yes. But as you so brilliantly point out, it is NOT free for all of you in the UK – it costs all of you in the UK a healthy chunk of your income. Canada finances it out of a 17%VAT tax which is certainly regressive, and the fact the Canadians understand how important this is for the general good goes a long way to the support the system has, but as you note – health care is NOT free. There is no Eden, no Shangri-La, no Utopia. Our insistence that there is, if we were only not so stupid, means that if we get what we want, we won’t be happy when we get it. Maybe the problem lies with our taking our political lead from a comic? Maybe that’s why we’re stupid. » Posted By choicelady On April 26, 2010 @ 8:57 am AdLib – this is spectacular analysis, thank you! To all of us, it is clear that remedies for the past 34 years of erosion of both capitalism and democracy will take time. But I read with dismay that we may lose control of the House and that people who voted for both Dems and Obama now have “more confidence” in the Republicans! What can we do to stop this insanity? I liken it to embrace of the arsonist who burned down your house because the fire deparment is having a hard time putting out the gasoline-soaked fire. “Support the Arsonists! Vote Republican!” I no longer am content to say we get the democracy we deserve because we do NOT deserve another siege from the Reeps! Whatever can be done to make people see sense, and, precisely, where IS the source of the problem? HuffPo cited a Virginia teacher who is still teaching because of the federal help – and has lost confidence in the Dems who kept her employed. She is going to vote for the Republicans. What????? Is this all about message? Have we lost the battle there? I simply don’t understand the loss of confidence in the party that has rapidly undone so much of the harm that the Reeps did over the last three decades. I DO understand that Dems from Carter to Clinto and members of Congress bear some of the blame, but the REAL disaster came with the Reeps 2000-2008 – why would any working person vote for them? I am so depressed by this turn of events because the things you have written seem to me to be self-evident but are not. Joe the Plumber is met by my postman who calls himself “a recovering Democrat” and blames unions for ruining CA. When I pointed out to him that Californians blame HIM, a union member, for ruining the post office, he bristled. I noted that we’re all pointing fingers at each other rather than at the policies and practices of corporations and the last 8 (if not longer) years. He could not “hear” me. What can we do? It’s just not clear at all. How can we live with another incarnation of Reeps running and ruining America? » Posted By choicelady On April 26, 2010 @ 1:58 pm Dear SueinCA – you obviously have a wit and sense of the offbeat or you’d not like these posts! Where would humor be without an appreciative audience? Don’t beat yourself up because writing that way does not flow for you – look what you gave all of us! The history of Religious Zealotry and Rightwing Bigotry in many parts! What a gift! So see yourself as the essential part of humor – the receiver. Can’t get a laugh without you! » Posted By choicelady On April 22, 2010 @ 9:09 pm Wonderful interview AdLib! Please think about a Part II to get Mom Earth to say what she thinks we all need to DO to keep her cool and habitable? Say hi to her from all of us, too. We love her as well. » Posted By choicelady On April 22, 2010 @ 9:07 pm Oh – sorry you’re homesick! For the UK or for Earth? If it’s for Earth – where the hell ARE you? You certainly do have great WiFi. I spent some time in England and miss it even though I’m not born and raised. What an amazing place. I understand some of the gripes – dated a guy from there once and got an earful – but overall, beautiful. From whence do you hail? I know mostly the industrial areas, historical all, and a little of London. LOVE London! So you have my sympathy Kalima! I’d be homesick, too. » Posted By choicelady On April 22, 2010 @ 9:05 pm Cher – that happened with the photo of the Dems walking to the Capitol to vote for health reform – the tea baggers were all shown, but there was a large crowd of people including clergy standing on the other side. The Dems shook hands and talked as they walked – all carefully cut out of EVERY photo I saw. The ONLY photo of the pro-reform people was one of a large guy with a mohawk meaning, IMHO, the people supporting reform were wackos. And the teabaggers weren’t???? As for the Magli shoes – the ‘expert’ on the altered photo did not do well on the stand so the testimony was largely ignored. But I saw the photo myself, and it WAS SHOPPED! And the guy who did it was smirking proud of it! » Posted By choicelady On April 20, 2010 @ 3:55 pm Hi Cher – very informative and kind of scary! I have yet to recover from the “photo” of John Kerry with Jane Fonda – totally photoshopped since the original photographer had the negative that was “Fondaless”. The capacity for deception became evident to me one time when I was testifying against some very prominent clergymen who had obstructed a women’s clinic entrance in violation of a federal court order. The video (their side’s) had been altered to the point WE had to get a video expert to testify about incompatible something-or-others. One of the men went to federal prison for that. But it was heavy lifting on our part! I will say that my first STILL camera photoshop experience was also scary awful – do you remember the famous photo of OJ supposedly wearing the Bruno Magli (sp?) shoes? It secured his civil conviction. Well, it was phony. There was no such photo. It was done in a photo studio by someone I know who’d done the “makeover” who was SO proud of falsifying the evidence he had it displayed, and it frankly scared me that someone would do that to the point I said nothing. It was months after the verdict in civil court, I could not prove it, and I had no idea whom to tell. I was and am horrified at it all. If photographic “evidence” cannot any longer be trusted, then whatever we admit in court must itself be on trial. It’s one thing to smooth skin tones and improve hair – it’s quite another to “prove” one thing or another in court – or the court of public opinion – with phony, doctored materials. Brave, new world… » Posted By choicelady On April 20, 2010 @ 2:59 pm It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want To Ah yes – I’d forgotten that part of her make up. She and Boxer both are not good on this. I’d hate to lose Boxer though – she’s so good on other issues! » Posted By choicelady On April 19, 2010 @ 12:52 pm Hi nellie – I used to live in the 36th when it was the 31st (years ago!) and all I can say is that you may face the first ever win-win situation! Either way, you’d have a good candidate in a heavily Dem. district. In 2008 Harman got 69% of the vote, so I’d think either woman would win handily. What a nice dilemma to have! » Posted By choicelady On April 19, 2010 @ 12:51 pm Hi Cher – I discovered that TR was rabidly opposed to all forms of family planning! He wrote a rebuttal to Margaret Sanger who had a very daring article in an early 20thC. Harper’s Magazine on birth control, and he went ballistic about it and wrote a thundering rebuttal – thought you should have as many kids as possible. Product of an upper class unlimited financial mentality. Other than that and his US imperialism, both of which would make him square with the Reeps, he’d definitely NOT fit in today. » Posted By choicelady On April 19, 2010 @ 12:47 pm Hey BT – we LOVE people from OK! KQ is our resident “in the know” science guy, so we do rely on him for details. He’s cleared up my misunderstandings more than once. We don’t always agree, but he’s not asserting things at you personally. Honest! » Posted By choicelady On April 20, 2010 @ 7:21 am Hi BT – wow, I surely don’t see it that way. I am very uncomfortable at the idea of “colonizing” the moon, and his emphasis is on real science rather than applications that may have huge negative consequences. I don’t see his cooperation with those invested in application the issue but whether we should be doing that at ALL. I also don’t see the issue as competitive with other nations rather than calling on us to be very careful collectively about pillaging resources in space when we have no idea what the short or long-term consequences will be. One has only to visit the Owen’s Valley in CA to see what massive destruction was wrought with short-term vision, and I’d rather see us weigh in on the side of care vs. exploitation. With the moon controlling tides, it’s pretty clear we could in fact do damage. No one thought in the early 20thC you could destroy an entire region with water diversion, but we did it. We are not yet so well developed in terms of engineering that we can alter our own world without impact, so it’s pretty irresponsible to go haring off into outer space to start raping and pillaging the moon. We have lots left to learn first. I would like to see Obama convene an international panel to make coherent and wise decisions about all the technical applications before we move individually or collectively to do anything irreparable! » Posted By choicelady On April 19, 2010 @ 1:00 pmComments Posted By choicelady
aboriginal (their term) biases. They just never rose to the manifest awfulness of the US. I was in Ottawa in 1974 when the first overt demand for restitution was made by native Canadians – Richard Cardinal, the leader, had his room next to mine. I will never forget his awesome presence! From then on, Canada has made HUGE gains as a nation of multi-racial, multi-ethnic existence. I love it, them, and might well think about retiring there. Love Obama, but am finding the persistence of hate just more than I can handle. I’ve been fighting it since I was 12 years old, and enough already. I’m ready for a little peace. Can I move next door? At least on your block? I’m pretty quiet and don’t make a mess.
«« Back To Stats Page
Home Stats