Nobody 827

Sunday, August 1, 2010
Nobody # 827

Nobody Asked Me But:


Pictured above is my first computer (along with my first and last red sweat outfit). And while on the subject of computers, my iMac has a sleep disorder. Periodically when I put it to sleep at night it refuses to keep its eye closed, and I have to get up and shut the damn thing down. It will do this for a couple of weeks and then revert back to normal. Go figure?<<<

During the Civil War it was called irritable heart. In WW I it was shell shock By WW II they were calling it battle fatigue or war neurosis and in Vietnam we named it Post-Vietnam Syndrome. Perhaps Homer even details it in Achilles grief during and after the Trojan War. And now with Iraq I and II and Afghanistan we call it PTSD - Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

By whatever name, it is the terrible price of war that America does not want to acknowledge. It is a war wound for which we do not give Purple Hearts nor provide adequate treatment. We spend hundreds of billions on killing and a pittance on those whose minds and spirits are wounded by the carnage and chaos they participate in or witness. We send moral men and women to do what is too often an immoral job and close our eyes to the price they pay. What a disgrace.<<<

Announcement: I’m through with capital letters, at least as far as e-mail is concerned. By my count I have wasted 11 months, 13 days, 9 hours, 6 minutes and 35 seconds replacing small with capital simply because I lift my hand from the caps lock too quickly. So I will be writing my e-letters all small from now on. I hope that none of you see this as a capital offense.<<<

I am going to have an engraver change the inscription on my glass plaque that now reads “Life is too short to drink cheap wine.” I want it to read “Life is too short to drink cheap wine – except for Two-Buck Chuck,” which is better than many more expensive varieties.<<<

And while on the subject of the grape, I had an excellent Louie Martini 2006 cabernet with my pan-fried steak at Taylor’s last week, where one of the dinner songs was Doris Day singing “Secret Love.” Talk about nostalgic:

Once I had a secret love
That lived within the heart of me All too soon my secret love
Became impatient to be free

If life gives you lemons…. Cut them in eighths, and sell to restaurants to put in glasses of water.<<<

Last restaurant add-on: I would rather be thought a fool by tipping too much than cheap by tipping too little.<<<

TURNERCOURT: In the case of The President of the United States vs. WikiLeaks.com, this court finds that transparency trumps the ambiguity of “national interest” and rules for WikiLeaks.

And isn’t it past time that we stop shipping money to our phony ally (Pakistan) and wind down a war in Afghanistan that has always been unwinnable? Or do we continue to buy pseudo-safety with the deaths and ruined lives of our young men and women?<<<

This week I am initiating the Willie Nelson Crazy Award (you know, the song he wrote – “Crazy, crazy for feeling this lonely”)

For this award, it’s Crazy, crazy for being this stupid – and for the first week we have three winners:

1. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R- Texas) for speculating that U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants actually are terrorist moles planted here to grow up as U.S. citizens as part of a long-range plot.

2. Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, who argues that the 1st Amendment’s freedom of religion clauses do not apply to Muslims.

3. The conservative church in Florida (Dove World Outreach Center) that is organizing "Burn a Qu'ran Day."<<<

Headline: Bush's unpopularity among voters starts to fade.

Jimline: Time has a way of doing this – of turning bad into mediocre.<<

I can believe Kim Jong-Il when he says he invented an invisible telephone so that he could counsel North Korea’s soccer coach at the World Cup. After all, the man’s both a genius and a sensitive human being who didn’t want to publically embarrass the coach. But when he claims that he shot -38 the first time he ever played around, I confess that I have some doubt.<<<

Tell me why…. No one has ever been elected to baseball’s Hall Of fame by a unanimous vote? – Tom Seaver has the all time high with 98.84% of the votes, with Babe Ruth 95.13%, Willie Mays 94.67%, with Reggie Jackson and Ted Williams at 93.62% and 93.37% respectively. Reggie Jackson above Ted Williams??<<<

DEPARTMENT OF I KNOW AIRLINES ARE RIPPING ME OFF A PIECE AT A TIME, BUT THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS: When a Mr. Smith was buying his ticket to fly American, he was asked if he and his wife would like to sit together. Of course he answered yes and was charged a $48 seat selection fee.

Then there is Allegiant Airlines that charges you a nuisance fee for booking a ticket by phone and a convenience fee for booking on line. Apparently their wish is for you to show up on flight day and bribe your way aboard.<<<

Action: Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a vote on a bill that would force special interest groups to disclose their donors when purchasing political ads, defeating an effort to impose new campaign finance regulations before the November congressional election.

Reaction: How do you spell transparency in Republican? You can’t. It is not in their dictionary.<<<

It seems to me that a little s can make a huge difference: Is the word illegal a pejorative? Of course not. But add an s at the end and it often is – especially in Arizona.<<<

When I read on the Kaiser website that I have Presbyopia I thought my early church membership had cursed me. But then I found out that it is just the normal worsening of vision with age, especially near vision.

I also have Cataract Nuclear. Does this mean I bombed out on my test?<<<

Don’t always believe what you read. It said in Time On Line the other day that Kangaroos may have originated in South America.

If this is true, mate, why are they always singing “Waltzing Matilda?”<<<

Isn’t it going to be tough in November for Republicans who ran up huge budget deficits under Bush to campaign for fiscal responsibility? Actually no, that would only be difficult for someone who minded being a hypocrite.<<<

Truth and lies - Rule 1a: When someone says, “just kidding,” they are almost certainly not.<<<

Truth and lies - Rule 1b: When a politician ridicules another race and then says he was misunderstood, he wasn’t.<<<

HIGHER MATH – Q: What is addition by subtraction?

A: Addition by subtraction is what would have happened if the Dodgers had been able to trade Manny yesterday.<<<

I was a little disappointed in episode one of “Mad Men’s” Season 4. There were too many personal problems and too few professional struggles. However, a smash ending saved the day and pushed me eagerly towards tonight.<<<

DYK: In the early 60s, in his eternal vigilance against subversives, J. Edgar Hoover assigned an agent to read every page of Playboy. From what I understand, the agent took a pay cut to get the assignment.<<<

(This logo chart is taken from a recent Newsweek.)