Three Pages of My Blog Posts...

revealed this.

Cool. Just cool. Try it with anything you write.

HT: Ann Althouse

Wonder How Hardcore Dopers...

will explain this away?

Barak Obama's Church

Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Since it is still April you can get to the Church's April Devotion Guide here.

The love of my life's daddy is a retired UCC minister. She was his preacher's kid.

"A Candidate, His Minister and the Search for Faith" A New York Time Article

The Downside of Blogging

As Stanley Bing sees it:

"The downside: You need a full, daily dose of imagination, guile, bile, and people pouring nonsense into your head that you can repeat."

Blogging is one of Bing's "Bullshit Jobs." I simply must interpret this as Bing discussing corporate or professional bloggers.

So... does it still hold true for one who blogs for fun?

Of course it does!

HT: Michael Wade at Execupundit poured this nonsense into my head today.

American Slave House

Washington, GA. Brought to the property of The Washington Plantation, a wonderful Bed and Breakfast that we had the pleasure of staying in on Saturday night. The innkeepers, Tom and Barbara Chase, were gracious hosts and give special attention to every little detail of your stay. You would do well to pay them a visit.

Hillary Lindsey - Grammy Award Winner

I had the pleasure of attending a benefit concert in Washington, GA this weekend. Hillary Lindsey and a great band from Nashville performed with all proceeds going to the local middle school to purchase new band instruments. Washington is her hometown so the whole evening was a special tribute to her coming home to her small town roots. She is an awesome performer but I've heard that she would rather be writing songs than on the road performing them. She invited her two sisters on up to sing background for her. She was overwhelmed by her reception and you could tell that she came from a family that she loves and loves her. Lindsey co-wrote "Jesus Take The Wheel" which won her a Grammy. She is currently cranking out songs/hits for the biggest stars in country music these day, Martina McBride, Tim McGraw, and of course, Carrie Underwood. The little concert was a treat.

Here's one of the songs that she sang Saturday night: I'll Be Your Whiskey

How It Works (PPD)

The Politics of Personal Destruction in fifty words or less.

"DNC Dean Says Giuliani's 'Personal Life Is A Serious Problem'

Fri Apr 27 2007 09:37:49 ET

Democratic party chairman Howard Dean said on Thursday that Rudy Giuliani's "personal life is a serious problem."

Dean sent the warning on CNN's SITUATION ROOM with host Wolf Blitzer.

Chariman Dean said the former New York City Mayor "has a lot of character issues that he has to answer for. And overwhelmingly, Americans are going to vote on honesty and integrity.... We've begun to reach out to evangelical Christians, and that's a real problem for him. His personal life is a serious problem for him."

BLITZER: Well, describe those character issues...

DEAN: No, I'm not going to get into that stuff. I don't like attacking people on their personal lives, but..."

From Drudge.

Chairman Dean knows how it works. He's as dumb as a fox. Let's get the Repub front runner running.

Repubs do this very well themselves. It's the way of Washington.

Southern Home Security

HOW TO INSTALL A HOME SECURITY SYSTEM IN THE SOUTH

1. Go to the second-hand store and buy a pair of used, men's size 14 - 16 work boots.

2. Place them on your porch along with a copy of Gun & Ammo magazine and a few NRA magazines.

3. Put a couple of very large dog dishes next to the boots and magazines.

4. Leave a note on the door that reads: Hey Bubba, Big Jim, Duke and Slim, I went for some more ammunition. Be back in an hour. Don't mess with the Pit Bulls. They attacked the mail man this morning and messed him up real bad. I don't think Killer took part in it but it was hard to tell from all the blood. Anyway, I locked all four of them in the house. Better wait outside.

Uncle Joe

(And while we're at it, it's the beginning of bar-bee-q season!)

HT: Two separate emails

Gere Offends Bollywood Actress's Modesty

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hollywood star Richard Gere downplayed on Thursday the fact that an Indian court has ordered his arrest for committing an obscene act in public when he kissed Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty on the cheek.

"Gere swooped Shetty up in his arms, dipped her and kissed her several times on the cheek at an event in New Delhi last week to promote AIDS awareness among Indian truck drivers.

'This sparked protests in some parts of India, mostly by Hindu vigilante groups, who saw it as an outrage against Shetty's modesty and an affront to Indian culture. A court in the northern city of Jaipur ordered Gere's arrest in response to a complaint by a local lawyer.

Gere, a devout Buddhist who visits India frequently to meet the Dalai Lama, said the event was a success at the time but blew up later. "

Pix are of the ever-so-modest Shetty.

Full Story Here.

Were I Advising Jordin: Sing This!

Baby Baby, originally sung by Amy Grant. Jordin could kill this song, show herself to be poppy and fresh. She has sung awesomely thus far but her songs have been grown up. She needs to go pop at this point. I have no idea what the theme will be next week, but she should find a way to get this song in.

People get paid to give this kind of advice!

The Four Stages of Life

From an email today.

Reminder...

We're eclectic here.



Leaping Shampoo

HT: Reality Carnival

McCain's Declared

This man has a complexity about him that is appealing to me. He appears not to cow-tow or exist to be popular. He is a politician and he has overpaid his dues to our country as a P.O.W. and it's a helluva good pix of him. It's way too early for me to even care what he is all about. All these people are out of the chute entirely too soon, but I guess they need the bucks.

I've Declared

Jordin Sparks is my American Idol. And I vote.

Creepy Cho Hired An Escort Before Rampage

Chastity (I bet!) Frye was hired by Cho to dance for him. The FBI tracked her down via the killer's credit card... and inquired of her:

"Well, they asked me what happened, and then they asked me if anything stuck out."

That's what she said. Story here.

Flat Daddies

Flat Daddies are full-size printed posters of parents who are serving overseas in the military. Flat Daddies were created by Sergeant First Class Barbara Claudel, of the Maine National Guard, as a way to help families stay connected to their loved ones serving in Iraq. Flatdaddies.com was created by SFC Graphics and Sergeant Claudel to help meet the demands of families outside of her home state of Maine.

Their website. Tell your friends. Send them ten bucks.

HT: Guy Kawasaki

Colorful Tombs

Colorful tombs in cemetery of Chichicastenango, Guatemala
Uploaded on April 23, 2007 by Zé Eduardo

From Flickr.

My Bike

Nostalgic today for some reason.

My bike as a kid was very similar to these. My parents could not afford the upscale Shwinn Sting-Ray, but mine was a very good knock-off that I was very happy with. It was a purple Columbia "Playboy." They quickly changed the name for obvious reasons and my brother ended up with a gold "Playbike." My bike was like a friend. Yours was too, wasn't it?

Station 7

It was cool growing up 3 houses from a fire station. The guys were always very nice to us kids. My brother and I spent countless hours playing basketball in their yard. We climbed up their hose-drying ramp and eventually were brave enough to jump off the upper end into the Eaton's yard.

Vagina Power With Alexyss Tylor !

Ok, everyone has their own understanding of the term "sex crazy." But this video takes the term to a whole other level: Certifiably sex C-R-A-Z-Y!!!!

Taken from PeopleTV in Atlanta Ga, this snippet of educational goodness is a must. Lots more education with Dr Tylor where this came from on YouTube. That's her mama there with her. Enjoy!



HT: Change Is Good

Hillbilly's Plans

If elected our Prez, Hillary plans to make her husband an "roaming ambassador to the world." She plans to send him to far corners of the globe, as far away from her as possible, ya think?

Bill's got the roaming part down already.

Story here.

Fuck The Kremlin, Fuck Putin, Fuck Russia

"Censorship" by Elizabeth Granton

From a NYT story about new dark days in Russia.

MOSCOW, April 21 — At their first meeting with journalists since taking over Russia’s largest independent radio news network, the managers had startling news of their own: from now on, they said, at least 50 percent of the reports about Russia must be “positive.”

In addition, opposition leaders could not be mentioned on the air and the United States was to be portrayed as an enemy, journalists employed by the network, Russian News Service, say they were told by the new managers, who are allies of the Kremlin.

How would they know what constituted positive news?

“When we talk of death, violence or poverty, for example, this is not positive,” said one editor at the station who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution. “If the stock market is up, that is positive. The weather can also be positive..."

"The three national television networks are already state controlled, though small-circulation newspapers generally remain independent.

"This month alone, a bank loyal to President Vladimir V. Putin tightened its control of an independent television station, Parliament passed a measure banning “extremism” in politics and prosecutors have gone after individuals who post critical comments on Web chat rooms.

"Parliament is also considering extending state control to Internet sites that report news, reflecting the growing importance of Web news as the country becomes more affluent and growing numbers of middle-class Russians acquire computers."

And while we're at it, fuck our IRS. I'm for the Fair Tax.

Beach Boys - Good Timin'

(Mating Ritual of the Palm Tree from Flickr)

From their 1979's "L.A. (Light Album)"

"The word 'Light' refers to the awareness of, and the presence of God, here in this world as an ongoing, loving reality."

The late great Carl Wilson sang like an angel.

Good Timin'

Good good timin'

Good good timin'

Ahhhh Ahhhh

You need good timin'

Good good timin'

All us people

Now we're just livin'

The world keeps turnin'

And we're all learnin'

About

Good good timin'

Good good timin'

Ahhhh Ahhhh

You need good timin'

It takes good timin'

You need good timin'

Good good timin'

We're all goin' places

Sharin' each other

A celebration

Of being together

I love

Good good timin'

Good good timin'

Ahhhh Ahhhh

You need good timin'

It takes good timin'

You need good timin'

Yeah

Good good timin'

Dow dow

Dow dow dow

Dow dow

Dow dow dow dow

You need good timin'

It takes good timin'

You need good timin'

Yeah

Good good timin'

(Brian Wilson/Carl Wilson)

Catholic Church Proclaims Limbo Is Out

Article here. So what will we do on Saturday nights from now on? And what next? Will they tell us that there was no such things as Pagan Babies too?

My Sister's Letter To The Fresno Bee

The country mourns for all the victims, families and friends of the recent senseless tragedy at Virginia Tech. In his proclamation Tuesday morning, President Bush ordered that the flag be flown at half staff until sunset on April 22 "as a mark of respect."

I would ask that the flag continue to be flown at half staff beyond April 22, as a "mark of respect" to all the victims in this senseless war, the innocent soldiers and civilians, both American and Iraqi, who have given their lives for the past four years.

Why shouldn't it fly at half staff until the end of this war? I know when I see a flag at half staff I will be reminded of the tragedy at Virginia Tech and the daily tragedies in Iraq.

Maureen M.

Clovis, CA

4/20/07

Update: At least one soldier feels the same way... and writing about it also. See here.

The Hair Again

That's who he will be for me from now on, until he's out, "The Hair."

Anyway, about his $400 cut. The Hair says this:

“It doesn’t change who I am, what I believe in,” Edwards said. “My whole life has been spent standing up for people who have no voice, and I’ll do that as long as I’m alive.”

How does one say hyperbole?

Monks Amok

Story here.

Peace man, brothers man, brothers.

Noonan on Cho

Great reflections from Peggy Noonan today. The whole piece is worth reading.

"The most common-sensical thing I heard said came Thursday morning, in a hospital interview with a student who'd been shot and was recovering. Garrett Evans said of the man who'd shot him, "An evil spirit was going through that boy, I could feel it." It was one of the few things I heard the past few days that sounded completely true. Whatever else Cho was, he was also a walking infestation of evil. Too bad nobody stopped him. Too bad nobody moved."

I agree. As I said yesterday: "He was in the grip of evil and he did evil so well."

The Family Agrees With Me

THE grandfather of Cho Seung-Hui said yesterday: "Son of a bitch. It serves him right he died with his victims."

Kim Hyang-Sik, 82, said he had a doom-laden dream of Cho's parents the night of his murderous rampage - and woke to hear the news of the massacre and his grandson's death.

He watched Cho's sick video of himself holding a gun to his head.

His sister Kim Yang-Sun, 85, who also saw it, told the Mirror that afterwards her brother was so distraught he had "gone away for a few days to calm himself down and avoid more questions".

She too repeatedly referred to the killer as "son of a bitch" or "a***hole" and said his mother Kim Hyang-Yim had problems with him from infancy.

Read about all the love here.

How's This Sound To You

From an NPR report yesterday:

"At this point a critical question, regardless of the facts of the controversy, is whether Paul Wolfowitz is so weakened that he can no longer be an effective leader at the bank."

Ah, so that's how smear campaigns work!

It appears that Wolfowitz has been ground down by international bureaucratic smoke rather than any real fire.

It also appears that he had admitted being involved in negotiations regarding his "companion."

Wolfie will land on his feet if they toss him. He's in with the Bigs.

I've posted here and here before on this.

"Little Sweetie" Leaves Billions to Feng-Shui Master

Human interest story to be sure. Never heard of this rich eccentric gal, Nina Wang, before today, but the recipient of her fortune must have rearranged her furniture in a very special way.

Little Sweetie's obit here.

I Robot - The Alan Parsons Project

From the same titled album. Prog-rock that was ahead of it's time for 30 years ago - 1977. Time flies.

Lacking Leadership

I just had a scary glimpse of the obvious in watching AG Gonzales tussle with Arlen Spector.

There are many people in high high and even higher places who have no idea of what leadership with integrity means. It's not even on their radar.

People end up in positions of tremendous privilege and power who got there because they knew the right people, did the dirty work for their bosses, kissed all the right asses upwards without concerning themselves in the least with stepping on others on the way up. They are great at ruthlessness but short on leadership. Yet these are our leaders!

Gonzales is attempting to wiggle his way out of a situation that he believes should not even be questioned. He's attempting to deny that he was involved with the little lists of men and women that he was (supposed to?) going to fire. He said he couldn't have been greatly involved in something as minor as this because of all his other "supervisory" duties he had to perform.

But get this: I think its this kind of stuff that people in high places take pleasure in doing so they DO devote the time to it that they say they don't. It's about power. It's about nailing others. It's about taking away the livelihood of other people, disrupting their and their family's lives without a second thought.

Firing others for political reasons, arbitrary reasons, and not performance reasons is done in government and business ALL THE TIME. Fairness and fair hearings, democracy and due process typically ends at the door of corporate and government enterprises. Get rid of your enemies or perceived enemies, or even people doing a good job, because they are perceived to be "not on the team" or failing to do your own personal bidding because they might have qualms about how you operate.

Many "leaders" "leading" today have made it to the top of their game not by leading well but by all other means necessary.

I know that many of my non-readers are saying "duh, he didn't know that?"

But I am a slow learner.

Enabling

Red Meat. Click on cartoon to enjoy more better.

Gore "Get's It?"

Or better even... "Gore Gets Caught."

St. Alfred is now attempting to install solar panels for power on his new mansion after taking flak about how much power his house uses.

"For all the grief - deserved, I believe - that I and others have given Gore for his use of “carbon offsets” to pretend to be “carbon neutral” rather than actually personally living the way he wants others to live (while some people actually do the hard work to live green), it’s good to see him trying to “walk the walk” with solar panels."

This quote from an ecofriendly site.

Edwards' Hair (Again)

What was once thought an asset, has turned into his downfall. And his campaign is clueless about the real issue at hand. Here's what they say:

"The bill was sent to the campaign. It was inadvertently paid," Schultz said. "John Edwards will be reimbursing the campaign."

That is entirely NOT the point. The point is the good ol' boy populist paying in the hundreds of dollars for his hair styling.

Read about it here.

Edwards has a thing about his hair and it will do him in. The video of all videos for the record is here.