Margaret please tell Howard that 100,000 people will show up to a tractor pull if the entry fee is cheap enough. Big deal. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to ignore them and have some pie.
As I see it dear, if more than a hundred thousand dead civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan can be dismissed, so can slightly less than a hundred thousand peckerwoods at a Beck rally.
If the civil rights of millions of gay and lesbian Americans are not important, then neither are the pathetic rants of almost a hundred thousand Palin addicts.
If millions of children without healthcare are inconsequential then why should I give a rat’s ass about a hundred thousand shitheads who actually think Beck and Palin have something worthwhile to say?
As long as millions of American Muslims don’t have religious freedom, a hundred thousand Tea Party yahoos shouldn’t be allowed to have cable television. It only seems fair…
I just can’t believe 87,000 people are dumb enough to buy that crap. If Beck and Palin want a government so focused on one God and one religion, they should visit the Middle East and see how that concept is working out. It’s gotten to the point where you can’t distinguish Fox News from the Christian Broadcasting Network. It’s nauseating.
Palin and Beck don’t care about you, me or anyone except themselves. They are getting filthy rich pandering to angry white mobs so transparent in their racist feelings toward the President that a sheet of Saran Wrap would cast a darker shadow.
The greatest threat against America is not terrorism. It’s not a mosque in Manhattan. It’s not gay marriage. It’s not healthcare reform. And, believe it or not, it’s not even Beck or Palin. The greatest threat against America are the tens of millions of Americans who won’t turn out to vote this November effectively giving power to 87,000 angry assholes.
Sarah Palin is an idiot. Glenn Beck is a moron. And I am sick of Fox News. I mean it. Really.
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By: vitalik06047913 on January 15, 2012
at 3:32 PM
Good to know. Excellent website especially on topics like birds control.
By: Anonymous on December 5, 2011
at 7:18 AM
Got this in an e-mail yesterday and just had to share….
George W. Bush speech after capture of Saddam Hussein:
The success of yesterday’s mission is a tribute to our men and women now serving in Iraq.
The operation was based on the superb work of intelligence analysts who found the dictator’s footprints in a vast country. The operation was carried out with skill and precision by a brave fighting force.
Our servicemen and women and our coalition allies have faced many dangers in the hunt for members of the fallen regime, and in their effort to bring hope and freedom to the Iraqi people.
Their work continues, and so do the risks. Today, on behalf of the nation, I thank the members of our Armed Forces and I congratulate ‘them’.
**************************************************
Malignant Narcissism
Barack Hussein Obama speech, Sunday, May 1, 2011:
And so shortly after taking office, “I” directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda, even as “I” continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network.
Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by “MY” intelligence community, “I” was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground.
“I” met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan.
And finally, last week, “I” determined that “I” had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.
Today, at “MY” direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Can’t find a better example than OBAMA
Hubris(/ˈhjuːbrɪs/), also hybris, means extreme haughtiness, pride, or arrogance. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one’s own competence or capabilities, especially when the person exhibiting it is in a position of power.
By: Craig on September 1, 2011
at 8:46 AM
I have a good life. Answer my question if you can Anonymous. “WHERE ARE THE PROTESTERS AND WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?”
By: James on April 26, 2011
at 3:17 PM
Sad story! GET A LIFE!
By: Anonymous on April 26, 2011
at 12:02 PM
That is a nice rough draft, Jean, and it would surely appeal to some of my wife’s eighth grade students. Your transitions could be smoother and your descriptions ought to be more subtle. The last part departs too abruptly from the rest and gives a bit of a jolt.
Perhaps you can tell us why when Bush was president, some people were protesting our two wars, and national news anchors listed the number of American dead at every opportunity.
Now, more warriors have died in Afghanistan than during Bush’s time in office, and we are involved in a third war. Where are the protesters, and where is the outrage?
By: James on April 26, 2011
at 6:37 AM
LOve love love love it Jean! LOL LOL
By: lori on April 25, 2011
at 4:32 AM
Dear Helen and Margaret and the Congenial Gang too!
Your posts are missed ever so much! Helen, you are the VERY BEST at political satire so we have had to stumble on as best we can. I do sincerely hope that you both, your spouses and families are fine and just too preoccupied for now to bother with a silly blog. Maybe later?????
Something really awful happened Saturday in the parking lot at Wal-Mart. A person ran around, threatening everybody, jumped into a car and careened recklessly out of the lot, almost running down a rooster. The wild chickens are a protected species. I wasn’t there personally but witnesses took down the license plate number and told me about it. The question now is should the FBI, CIA and/or INTERPOL be notified to launch a thorough investigation. Obviously, that person should be apprehended.
I await breathlessly the number of responses received from this breaking news. I will be keeping a tally and let you know so we can follow up on it. Just so you’ll know, I am definitely NOT a lonely old woman desperately in need of attention. I just feel it is my duty to keep you informed.
I do have a small confession to make though, after all this time. I really don’t live in Hawaii. I live in East Armpit, NJ. But I have read a lot about Hawaii. I Googled it. Also I have watched each and every one of the old and new “Hawaii Five-0” episodes on TV, many of them in re-runs. I go around humming the theme song. Therefore I feel well qualified with the authority to instruct everyone on this blog about what has and is going on out there.
Uh, as long as I am ‘fessing’ up, well, I did embellish the incident in the parking lot at Wal-Mart a little bit. Actually I made the whole thing up. But hey! it could happen!!!
Aloha!
Namaste. Shalom.
Auntie Jean
By: Jean on April 25, 2011
at 1:01 AM
Hi Congenial Gang,
My best wishes go out for a lovely spring weekend to all of you who celebrate Easter or otherwise. I hope you have a peaceful and joy filled time with your families and friends.
While you are dining tomorrow you might like to contemplate this quick quiz on International Eating Etiquette. I was cleaning out my e mail in box this afternoon and we had received this one. I thought I would share it with you. Try Googling “Dining Out In The World Quiz”. It’s kinda fun.
Aloha!
Namaste. Shalom.
Auntie Jean
By: Jean on April 24, 2011
at 1:14 AM
Hi Congenial Gang,
For any of you who have been flying around lately or planning summer vacations, here is some info you might be interested in, specifically relating to jet lag. It has to do with Circadian Rhythms also known as the Biological Clock. The physiology of all organisms is tuned into a 24-hour cycle relating to the solar and lunar cycles.
Bear with me. Back in my salad days of LGGGW I studied this extensively. There was an interesting experiment about bunch of clams from the East Coast. They had the curious characteristic of turning pink with the lunar tides. Some of them were bundled up in a dark box, flown to the West Coast, across the time zones and placed on a beach there. Sure enough, within 24 hours, they were turning pink with the West Coast lunar tides. This is only one of a number of experiments that have been done along those lines.
That brings us to the Endocrine System. You know, the Pituitary Gland in the brain, the so-called “Master Gland” as well as the Pineal Body, Thyroid, Parathyroid, Adrenals, Ovaries and Testes. All of them secrete hormones directly into the bloodstream to help regulate everything that is going on in the organism.
Now, I’m a little fuzzy about this paragraph on evolution, but jsri knows more about this part than I so he can correct me where I am wrong. I understand that the Endocrine System predates even the Nervous, Skeletal and Muscular Systems on the Phylogenetic Scale. So the Endocrine System is very, very old.
The Pineal Body, technically known also as the Epiphysis (in the brain, not the bone) secretes only one hormone. (That I know of so far.) This seems odd since most of the other endocrine glands secrete multiple hormones. Still, since they are dumped into the bloodstream, it has been and is very difficult to isolate and identify where they come from. There is an incredible amount of debris floating around in the bloodstream.
The Pineal body hormone is Melanin and is concerned with pigmentation such as skin, eyes, hair, and such. All humans have a Pineal Body so that shoots down any theories about origins of race. There are some indications that Melanin interacts with other hormones in sexual maturation. Another curiosity about the Pineal body is that it is photosensitive, that is, it responds to light. It is interesting that light reaches a tiny little gland deeply embedded in the brain.
Anyway, we do know that when we go flying around the world through a number of time zones, we upset our Circadian Rhythms, which in turn, messes up our sleep patterns. Working the Graveyard Shift can do that too! It takes time for the body to reset its Biological Clock.
Melatonin, derived from Melanin, is the commercial sleep aid to help restore the Circadian Rhythms. I am not into pharmaceuticals and how they are manufactured, whether they are synthetic or natural. But I presume, since it is a non-prescription medication, it is reasonably safe. But of course, it is always a good idea to check with your doctor before taking any OTC’s.
It could help offset the befuddlement of jet lag.
Aloha!
Namaste. Shalom.
Auntie Jean
By: Jean on April 23, 2011
at 12:28 AM
Auntie,
We just learned recently that those paragon’s of virtue the Koch brother’s told over 50,000 of their employee’s in Washington State who to vote for in the last election!
Is there no end to the control of these power hungry mad men! Washington is 3/4 Dem, so it didn’t help them to much, but it is just a matter of time before they buy enough votes to swing us Repug.
I would bet you a buck that the Koch’s are behind the “slave” labor in Hawaii. Oh, certainly not directly, they are not that dumb. You will have to peel back a few layers to find them, hiding from the sunlight like the vampires they are!
By: Mikat on April 22, 2011
at 8:07 AM
Aunt Jean, it’s amazing how ignorant we are of the vast numbers of slaves in the world today. So many buy their way across the borders into this country with “coyotes”, or fall for the promise of good work here or anywhere, and then, on arrival, have their passports taken away as they forced to work for no money and with no possibility of paying off their “debts”.
I think most of Dubai is being built by foreign laborers housed in shanty towns with no air in the stifling heat of the desert, whose passports were stolen by their keepers. And the foreign consulates can do little to help them.
By: elsie09 on April 22, 2011
at 7:46 AM
Hi Congenial Gang,
I am ashamed to report that my state, Hawaii, has just joined the infamous ranks of Arizona, Wisconsin and to a certain extent, Texas. Slavery is alive and well in Hawaii and apparently has been since at least 2003. This is probably only the tip of the iceberg. For eight long years we had an ineffectual Republican governor Linda Lingle and a wimpy Democratic legislature. At last, the Federal Government has stepped in.
The headlines in two of the papers today are:
“Kauai Coffee named in human trafficking lawsuit” in THEGARDENISLAND.COM.
“6 isle farms sued for labor practices” in the Honolulu STARADVERTISER.COM.
The Companies named are “Del Monte Fresh Produce” and “Kelena Farms” on Oahu: “Kauai Coffee Co.” on Kauai; “Maui Pineapple” on Maui; “Captain Cook Coffee Co.” and “Mac Farms of Hawaii” on the Big Island. Also named are two in Washington State and California based “Global Horizons Manpower”.
(Source: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.)
The accusations are:
Global Horizons lured hundreds of Thai workers between 2003 and 2007, promising steady, high-paying agricultural work.
Global Horizons charged high recruiting fees [up to $26,500] not allowed under federal worker visa programs, confiscated the worker’s passports, threatened deportation and placed workers in substandard living conditions infested with rats and without beds.
The farms are accused of either turning a blind eye to what occurred, or being unaware of the conditions when they should have monitored their contractors.
Both articles are much too long for me to summarize but I recommend reading them if you can find them. I do hope this story makes it into the National News, not that it makes me very proud of my state. I feel the problem needs to be addressed and rectified immediately.
Shades of slaves brought to the South. Then the Chinese, Japanese and Philippine people brought to Hawaii to work on sugar plantations. Did you know the origin of the word “Shanghaied” is from the ‘contract labor’ practices of those days?
Aloha!
Namaste. Shalom.
Auntie Jean
By: Jean on April 22, 2011
at 12:47 AM
Ohhh now you’re being silly Elsie… a PA-er from a MI- er is Ezie P -zie!
Now, Im gonna go red up my room all yinzes.
xo
By: lori on April 19, 2011
at 10:33 AM
Aunt Jean, you hit upon a subject dear to my heart. My basic little degree is a bachelor’s in education, but I majored in “speech therapy”. That’s what my university called it back in the dark ages. If I’d continued on for a master’s, it would have been in “speech pathology”.
ANYWAY, I grew up in southeastern Texas where we had our own Gulf Coast accent.
I dated, then married, a young man from West Texas, who definitely came equipped with his own accent from out there.
A lot of Dallas-area students attended my university in East Texas, and, of course, they had THEIR own North Texas accents.
One of my required university classes was the subject of “phonetics”. That turned out to be an absolute hoot for me. I learned correct English ONLY inside the four walls of that classroom, before returning to the real world everywhere else.
Like you, my avocation became detecting where people came from by their speech patterns. Heck, I got so good at it, for a while there, I could tell a Pennsylvanian from a Michigander!
Now, I just try to understand the speech of fellow Texans and marvel, occasionally, at the hard “r” in the speech of some Southerners.
You just have to take your fun where you can find it. And pegging regional dialects is neither immoral, illegal or fattening.
Go, Nerds!
By: Elsie on April 19, 2011
at 10:12 AM
LOL LOL Auntie Jean, very true!
By: lori on April 19, 2011
at 4:23 AM
Hi Congenial Gang,
We miss you terriably, Helen and Margaret. I sincerely wish you could return with your wisdom and humor. In the meantime we try to plod along……..
The ways we communicate with each other has always been a fascination for me. The last I heard, there are well over 6000 languages spoken around the world to say nothing of dialects and regional accents.
Phonetics is the science having to do with speech sounds, the art of pronunciation. There is an International Phonetics Alphabet (IPA) that looks somewhat similar to many letters. The phonetic letters are symbols for sounds that all humans are capable of making in any language. Before a child learns to talk, he can babble away making all these sounds. He learns a specific language by stringing these sounds together in the same way he hears them spoken by those around him. He merely imitates what he has heard.
If the words to a song are written in phonetics, on paper they look like nonsensical scribbling. Yet to singers who have learned the IPA, the words make sense just as written words do in any language. This is a good way for a singer to learn a foreign song without having to study that language. The music of all great choruses and choirs is often written in phonetics. In this way, the diction is perfectly in unison. No foreign or even regional accents allowed!
Of course, language is only one form of communication. Each of us has an individual and unique style of expressing ourselves. Choice of words of course but also facial expressions; smiles, frowns and lifted eyebrows as well as tone of voice, pitch, volume and inflection often convey more than words can. Body language is another; posture, shrugs, outstretched hands or fists are a few in that category. And the all time best linguistic is that the eyes are the windows to the soul.
If anyone has or ever has had a pet, you know that language is not necessary for the pet to let you know in no uncertain terms what it is feeling!
Here in the U. S. we have become accustomed to the generic English used by people on TV and radio. Most of the successful professionals have been trained in diction. In regional areas however that is not necessarily the case. Idioms, colloquialisms and accents add to the mix.
We had some very dear friends from Mississippi for over 40 years. We couples often visited back and forth, especially when we lived in Pennsylvania. (We four played cards till 4:00AM.) We had known each other for so long we understood each other perfectly. If she and I went shopping, I had to try and ‘translate’ between her thick Southern accent and the North Philly accent we often ran into. They were unintelligible directly to each other! Then there is the New England accent, the Southern accent and many others. But these are misnomers. A Florida accent is just as different from a Texas accent as a South Carolina accent is from any other so-called accent. It is the same for a Vermont accent and a Massachusetts one.
Once after I had been away for many years from my hometown, I had to travel there alone and spent some time waiting at the airport in Denver. All around me, for the first time in my life I heard a definite Western twang accent. I grew up with it and never even noticed it until that visit!
Out here we meet tourists from all over. Whenever we begin talking with them we play a little game with ourselves, trying to figure out where they are from. More often than not we have a pretty good general idea by the time we get around to asking them.
Pidgin is widely spoken here in Hawaii. It is a “lingua franca”, a combination of words borrowed from Hawaiian, English, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Tagalog and any number of other languages brought to these beautiful islands. Pidgin works! We all understand each other and get along famously!
Put all these concepts together when you carefully read, listen or see the different means of communication and it doesn’t take long to understand genuine thought from aped bullshit.
Aloha!
Namaste. Shalom.
Auntie Jean
By: Jean on April 19, 2011
at 1:54 AM
Are you thinking of Hee haw, Jean? They kind of remind me of Junior Samples and Grandpa ???
By: No one's puppet on April 15, 2011
at 10:38 PM
Hi Kitchen Crowd,
If any of you are feeling a little frazzled I have a recommendation or two for you. I have been painting all afternoon while I had the light and listening to some of my favorite music on the stereo. It was a very soothing time.
I found some of them on YouTube you might like to check out. Try Richard Wagner’s “O du mein holder Abendstern”, (the “Song to the Evening Star”) from “Tannehaüser”. I especially like Bryn Terfel’s with the graphics. (Unless you are turned off by feminine nudity.) But that of Thomas Quasthoff with just the music is fine too. Of course, my all time favorite is that of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, or anything he sang for that matter.
Enjoy!
Aloha!
Namaste. Shalom.
Auntie Jean
By: Jean on April 15, 2011
at 9:58 PM
Hi Congenial Gang,
Thank you!!! Thank you!!! Thank you!!! Elsie and NOP, those links are Priceless!!! The faces of the GOP/Teapartiers. Do the two guys remind you of anybody?
Aloha!
Namaste. Shalom.
Auntie Jean
By: Jean on April 15, 2011
at 1:59 PM
Without our humorist n chief, Helen, we forget the funny side of politics, at least I do.
By: No one's puppet on April 15, 2011
at 12:51 PM
LOL LOL I love it NOP and Els! Tickled me!
You’re right NOP I need to visit that site more often!
By: lori on April 15, 2011
at 12:01 PM
Here is the latest red state update, be forwarned, they use words best described as Adult language, so if you are offended by such language, you best not watch. For the rest of you, this funny.
http://www.redstateupdate.com/video/government-shutdown-crisis
By: No one's puppet on April 15, 2011
at 9:36 AM
That was fun Elsie, and it reminds me, I haven’t look at the Red State Update site in like a year, I loved their spoofs and parodies throughout the entire election cycle in 2008.
By: No one's puppet on April 15, 2011
at 9:16 AM
Aunt Jean, I loved your comments about gestalt and zeitgeist, as well as boy toy’s reflections of his camp-building days in New England.
I want to share a funny video with you and our other progressive, aka “librul”, friends. Hopefully, you can just click on this link. Warning…it’s a bit salty, but not too much for you to handle today!
“Musical Political Parody. 2012 Republican Presidential Candidates?”
By: Elsie on April 15, 2011
at 7:02 AM
From Auntie jean !!!!!
http://blog.cagle.com/2011/04/its-time-to-play-ball/
By: lori on April 15, 2011
at 5:30 AM