Who's Next Fox? The Dalai Lama?

Fox: Full Of Xenophobia

No one is above their simpleminded attacks.

Last night we caught a snippet of a video segment by Fox's Greg Gutfield attacking physician, philanthropist, philosopher and all around gentle, non-combatant Dr. Deepak Chopra for his recent HuffPost article, "Can We Stop Being a Superpower, Please".

While I don't agree with everything espoused by Dr. Chopra, he is a leader in world AIDS treatment and awareness and peace efforts across the globe.

What assholes.

The video of Gutfield's small-minded and pathetic rant is not available for embedding from Fox, but check it out here:
http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m/25455023/greg-alogue-7-24.htm#q=deepak+chopra

Fox News: the network with no recourse other than to call anyone remotely critical of our government "anti-American".

Isn't being able to criticize the government among the many reasons the founding fathers et. al. decided to protect that right in our federal legislation?

My apologies again to my hard drive.

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Nostradamus and A Cosie

Apparently, the babble, tripe, and general frivolity that have become my blog of late has garnered another Cosie from Cosa Nostradamus at Blog Me No Blogs. He is among those I count as a lifeline of support when I am feeling overwhelmed and uninspired and want to chuck the whole effing blog thing.

Again, I am honored, as Cosa is witty, informed, and at times absolutely irreverent.

Most of all, I appreciate his humor and ability to use his keen sense of irony to discuss topics as varied as the alien invasion of our solar system, healthcare, the celebrity machine, and a recent post on war.

If you haven't checked out his blog, you should.

The blogging world needs more bloggers like Cosa. He is a loyal and cool dude who in a pinch can wax hysterical on zombies, Michael Jackson, and all things in which we take ourselves *way* too seriously.

His best quality as a blogger, however, is his determination to expose morons, baffoons and boobs (not in a literal sense, Cosa :) for the detritus that they are.

Thanks, Cosa. Your humor and support have kept me bouyant in many times of near-fatal-bloggaphobotitus.*

* The recurrent fear that your blog is suffering because of an inability to make sense, to have a cohesive purpose, and a general ennui with the blathering idiots we suffer daily.

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The Rorschach Test

One easy way to know if you are a crazy person: ask yourself if you buy into the clinically delusional claim that President Obama is not an American born citizen, in the face of all of the evidence to the contrary.

If you answer "no" return to your normal, rational concerns over the state of our economy, health care and our foreign affairs.

Have a great weekend and enjoy this Rorschach of a chubby catter:


If you answer "yes" please keep reading.

Examine whose company you keep, go buy some tea bags, continue to use the word "fascist" as an adjective for "socialist" and hang onto the belief you know what you are talking about.

If you missed it, this was priceless on Hardball last night:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

So, if these fellow-Americans are right (oh god, I am related by my country of birth to these people), the USCIS needs to get involved and start working to deport our president.

Good luck with that.

Really.

After all, what's one more nail?









(I don't see a wedding band, Governor. And gay people are a threat to traditional marriage?)

(Nice caption, too.)


I'm off to apologize to my "C" drive for violating it with the code for these jpegs. I hope it will forgive me.

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Just What I Needed

Tom just sent me this video as a PS to an email a few moments ago.

I am the luckiest woman on the planet...



Reminded me of this post that I wrote a while ago.

On the heels of that first email another email with the subject "for giggles" that read (copied and pasted verbatim):

"This band has it all,
3 mullets,
1 handlebar mustache,
bell bottoms,
big fuzzy boots,
and totally inappropriate chest hair."

With a link to this video:



I hope you are all having great hump days.

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Mettle

Life seems a perpetual liminal state where we hover amidst many changes.

The key, and something I constantly strive for, is to remain still and not let the maelstrom engulf me.

I have been lingering in reminiscence in recent days. Looking back over my life. Seeing forgotten faces and remembering times of joy and abundance, sorrow and loss.

I'm not sure where *I* am.

I can't quite put my finger on it either.

It's not letting Emma go; it's not moving; it's some kind of unsettledness that flitters at the edge of my mind. Just beyond my ability to grasp it.

I am grateful for it, though, and I know how odd that must seem.

But the hope that is the future has always been a strong presence in my life... and I am, at most times, in it's unwavering company.

I've never been a planner. Never had a road map. Not aimless or goalless, however.

To borrow a phrase from an Indigo Girls song: I missed ten million miles of road I should have seen.

Life is going to bring many changes in the next few years.

We may move to Scotland. Or New Zealand.

Regardless, I always sense I am in the right place, heading the right way, doing the best I can at any given moment.

Walking in the direction life compels me and trying to feel safe knowing that the less I struggle against that pull, the simpler my travels will be.

Iron, left in the rain
And fog and dew,
With rust is covered-- pain
Rusts into beauty too.
-- Mary Carolyn Davis

Happy Tuesday, all.

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Dazed and More Than Confused

It wouldn't be exaggerating to write that it has been one of the worst and weirdest weeks ever.

This morning I woke up on the couch in the living room. Despite my protests, my husband and a few friends took me out last night for my birthday. Tom assured me I did not make an idiot out of myself... I had a few G & Ts and a few shots (ew... I can't believe I used to drink like that in college). Apparently, I got up at some point last night and went to the living room. Odd.

My world seems to be moving in slow motion.

I am looking forward to getting out of town for a few days to go to a conference this weekend; stay at a nice hotel and order room service; catch up with old friends and colleagues who are scattered to the winds.

We will move in a few weeks.

A change of scenery will be good for us both. Too many memories here.

Thank you all for your condolences and kind words of support.

Hanging in like I always do...

I may not be back for a while. I don't feel like I have anything to say at the moment.

But I will check into your blogs and try to keep up with what's going on...

My very best to you all.

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Saying Goodbye

Yesterday afternoon, we said our last good byes to Emma after a horrible five days of fluid drips, blood transfusions and hardly any eating (despite medication).

Our veterinarian, a 35 year veteran and no-nonsense kind of guy, cried afterward with us as he hugged first Tom and then me. We thanked him for helping us keep her for the two years we did after her first diagnosis.


We love you, Em. We always will. May there be endless dishes of catnip where you are headed and a birdie to watch whenever you wish... and all the tuna your little sweet heart desires.


We miss you.

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Baby Steps

Emma is slowly climbing out of a hard crash right now.

At her vet appointment Monday her blood-work showed she is severely anemic. After an iron injection and several hours with the vet, he sent her home and was cautiously hopeful about the chances she will respond to the new medication we are going to be injecting her with three days a week for the foreseeable future (the same stuff I used when I had cancer a number of years ago, oddly) to help boost her red blood cell count.

She could barely walk Monday... Tom and I are both taking this very hard.

I "slept" out near the closet where she has been staying for the last several days.

She was better Tuesday AM and this morning we woke to find she made it to the litter box by herself overnight at some point. And she is eating dry food this morning.

She moved into the closet in our room, which is a regular hangout for her.

When I opened the door all the way her head popped up and she meowed at me.

She hasn't done that for a few days.

She keeps scarfing down teeny saucers of low-sodium tuna water with a tiny bit of tuna flakes when I put it in front of her.

We are hopeful.

Baby steps.

We are definitely at a cross-roads.

Tom and I agreed that if she doesn't continue to show gradual improvement by week's end, we are going to take her back to the vet.

I knew it was going to be hard.

I didn't think it would be this hard.

Never did I think it could hurt so much...

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Just Kill Me Now

A few gems from found.com that pretty much summarize my attitude toward the non-stop, eye-poking-inducing coverage of either Palin or Jacko.



If only every single steekin' journalist and media outlet in the country would read this...

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Palin Quitting Governorship

It's breaking news.

Sarah Palin is leaving her position as Alaska's governor by the end of the month. Here's the LA Times take on this story. The Times mentions an upcoming Vanity Fair article on Palin that paints a not-so-pretty picture of her.

Quitting.

Leaving in the middle of her first term.

Hmmm...

She wants to "keep progressing" the state. [sic]

One reason: lame duck politicians travel and accept their status as lame ducks.

What does being a lame duck have to do with being a mid-first-term governor?

Let the feeding frenzy begin.

The DC GOP reaction to this will be interesting.

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HELP: A Potential Solution to Health Care Reform?

According to an item on yesterday's Huff Post, the Democrats have come up with a new HC reform bill that would cover 97% of Americans and cost $400 million less than the previously proposed plan.

From the article:

"Additionally, the revised proposal calls for a $750 annual fee on employers for each full-time worker not offered coverage through their job. The fee would be set at $375 for part-time workers. Companies with fewer than 25 employees would be exempt. The fee was forecast to generate $52 billion over 10 years, money the government would use to help provide subsidies to those who cannot afford insurance. The same provision is also estimated to greatly reduce the number of workers whose employers would drop coverage, thus addressing a major concern noted by CBO when it reviewed the earlier proposals."

[...]

"In their letter, Kennedy and Dodd said the Congressional Budget Office 'has carefully reviewed our complete bill, and we are pleased to report that CBO has scored it at $611.4 billion over 10 years, with the new coverage provisions scored at $597 billion. ...The completed bill virtually eliminates the dropping of currently covered employees from employer-sponsored health plans.

'In addition, our bill, combined with the work being done by our colleagues in the Finance Committee, will dramatically reduce the number of uninsured _ fully 97 percent of Americans will have coverage, a major achievement.' "

Guess we'll see if the majority in both houses has the cojones to act on this change so many Americans desperately need.

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