Minnesota Senate Race

The Minnesota Senate race may be approaching something of an end, or at least a new beginning. We're hoping the wind is finally let out of Norm Coleman's sails. And that Al Franken can at long last take his place as the next senator from Minnesota.

It's been ridiculous. Remember Coleman said he would drop out if he found himself behind. But he didn't. He's a liar.

It's also been ridiculous for the length of time it's been stretched out thus far. I've love to visit a parallel world where Al Franken had been behind and had been drawing it out so long. The Republicans would have been raising the biggest stink you can imagine. But, of course, when the situation is reversed, they've got all the time in the world.

We can well remember their hypocrisy when Al Gore wanted to get all the votes counted in Florida. Then he was called a sore loser. The Republicans (cretins) change their "principles" depending on what helps them most.

In Minnesota it got so complicated I wouldn't know which votes were counted and which weren't. But one thing isn't complicated, the Republicans' fun and games stretching it out. These guys don't deserve a place in governing us. They're corrupt, out for their own crass interests only.

Wingnut Hate Storm

There's a big diary at Daily Kos on "The Impending Perfect Wingnut Hate Storm." This is very distressing stuff.

Why can't these people settle down and be governed by our elected officials in a calm, rational, patriotic way? The rest of us had to suffer in the Bush years. And I wasn't calling for revolution, armed struggle, whatever else may be a part of their imagination these days.

Rally your people for electoral victory. I mean, God forbid it should happen, but to do things within the law is going to get the majority on your side more than ranting and raving, hating people, taking up arms, and acting like vigilantes.

I didn't read the diary. It's too distressing. But know that it's apparently out there.

Who Knew Touching Could Lead To Troubles?

Here's one of those insane stories to file in the "Killing A Fly With A Shotgun" file.

A Connecticut middle school principal has laid down the law: You put your hands on someone -- anyone -- in any way, you're going to pay.

Principal Catherine Williams sent out a letter earlier in the week telling parents recent behavior has seriously impacted the safety and learning at the school.

"Observed behaviors of concern recently exhibited include kicking others in the groin area, grabbing and touching of others in personal areas, hugging and horseplay. Physical contact is prohibited to keep all students safe in the learning environment," Williams wrote.

Let's review this idiotic idea: "Physical contact is prohibited." As in any kind of touching, anything. Impossible! And clearly moronic. It'd be interesting to see everyone passing in the hall, arms down at their side, scooting along the walls to stay far enough way from everyone so that no contact happens by accident.

We could ask the question, how come you didn't think of this to begin with? Who knew touching could lead to troubles? Maybe every single person who's ever attended school. Try your own experience for a guide. Of course there's going to be problems once in a while, but you're not going to solve the problem with a moronic response like this. Brainiac.

It kind of reminds me of what happens when there's trouble. Shut it down. Like if a kid drowns in a pond somewhere. Close and drain the pond. After all, who knew beforehand that people will drown if they're underwater for a prolonged period of time? Or a city that doesn't have adequate warnings at the railroad tracks. Then someone gets run over by a train and they automatically put up warnings and stop sights. After all, who knew beforehand that occasionally you're going to have a car get hit by a train? We can't foresee these things, it appears.

KFC

It's weird. I have a craving for KFC chicken. I don't usually eat there. I have various things against the place when I eat there. But I might get some to go.

The thing is, I went to a wedding yesterday. I was there for the ceremony, the bride and groom dancing, the time of visitation afterwards. But I had to leave before they got to the cake and anything else they might do. Then right before I left, someone opened the door and came in with six or seven (maybe more) buckets of KFC chicken.

I didn't actually see the chicken inside, but the sight of all those buckets made me feel hungry for some. So I hope it's good!

Maury Lost Out On This One

The British lad who was dubbed Britain's youngest dad is now out, thanks to a DNA test.

It turns out Chantelle, Alfie's girlfriend and the new mother of Maisie, appears to have not been entirely faithful to him. Other boys stepped forward claiming they also slept with her.

I love the thing, then, young Alfie (13) says about getting a DNA test: "I didn't know about DNA tests before but mum explained it's when they do a swab in your mouth and it tells if you're the dad. So if I have it, they can all shut up."

His mum said, "It had not even crossed Alfie's mind whether Chantelle had not been faithful to him. He's absolutely devastated that these lads say they slept with her."

He's a kid himself. He's not supposed to know about DNA tests. He's not supposed to be worrying whether the mother of his alleged baby was faithful. I can imagine myself at 12, which was his age when this all started. I was daydreaming about maybe someday holding hands.

The Republicans' Budget

I'm tempted to leave a big empty spot here, to faithfully convey what the Republican alternative is to President Obama's budget.

That's what they offered today. I haven't seen a copy of the budget, but according to Robert Gibbs, it takes a few minutes to read it. I did see one very interesting chart. I believe I can still picture it in my mind. It had three circles and one rectangle. The rectangle was the title and the circles specified the principles of the budget. And I believe reduced government spending was one of the circles. So ... there ...

The Republicans are simply the Party of No. They have nothing to offer except to nay say and gainsay the President's thoughtful plans. It's time to run these cretins out of Washington. They're not doing the people's business. They in it to please lobbyists and probably to line their own pockets. Empty, empty. Shameful. But kind of funny.

Operation Repo

I had a comment by someone on my post about the TV show "Operation Repo."

I've seen several episodes since then and I really like the show. I like Matt, too, and it appears the commenter doesn't like him a bit. I like him, you know, for the entertainment value. Plus, he does seem like a nice guy. Only he is hotheaded and doesn't seem to think strategically around people very well. He's either off or on.

I would hate to be a repo guy -- watching this show, I've come to that decision -- but were I a repo guy I would try to avoid blowing up at people like these guys do. Such as doing a lot more commiserating rather than just confrontation. They try to do that a little but never get very far.

Something about this show that is curious is how they're ever going to be repo guys after people know about the show. People will know they're doing a show. Now they say the cameras are for their protection, but that's not quite true. They're making a show. Sooner or later it'll be, "Hey, you're the guys from Operation Repo. Can I have your autograph?"

As for the confrontations they have, I wonder if it's all that way, or they just show the ones that are exciting. Doesn't it seem like the odds have to be that occasionally there's a repo where the person isn't there, nothing really happens, or the person simply gives them the keys because he knows that he hasn't made the payments?

It's a thought-provoking show.

Dream Away All My Troubles

I've been having a nice time sleeping lately. I mean the normal sleep a guy gets at night. I haven't been sleeping through the day, anything unusual, an occasional nap on Sunday afternoon.

But as for sleeping at night, I finally decided I need a pretty solid eight hours. I feel spacey and weird after too many days cutting it short. So I've reconciled myself to the idea that this has to be done, even though at certain times in my life it has seemed like a waste. I'm envious of people who say they sleep five-six hours a day and feel fine. If only ...

OK, but since I get up at 5:30 a.m., that means going to bed at 9:30 at night. Meaning I'm missing a lot of interesting stuff on TV that I used to watch. 9:30 is almost there and I'm hustling around doing all the stuff I need to get done so I can be in bed more or less at that time. Usually I fall asleep very quickly, generally by 9:45 or 10:00 at the latest; it all depends.

The nice time I mentioned is this, that I wake up numerous times throughout the night, look at the clock, and fall back to sleep immediately. I like doing that, because sometimes I'll feel like the whole night is gone, then I'll look at the clock and only a couple hours has passed. Meaning I still have lots to go. I did that last night. I woke up at 1:30 or 2:30 and thought hmmm. Then right back to sleep. Then when my alarm was about to go off I woke up again and it was 5:26, and I thought well, it doesn't work every time. Eventually your bonus rounds run out!

But I'm very faithful at getting up, since I can objectively say to myself, it was eight hours!

Obama Does It Again!

Did President Obama do that? Make the stock market go up another 6.8%?

I guess he did, because people were willing to blame him when it went down. So he must be working some of his own Obamagic to get things done.

I hope things keep improving, but who knows? It seems like if everything's as bad as they say that we'll have downs as well as ups. Even if we have lots of downs in addition to the ups, we can be extra thankful that we have Obama and not Bush in office. The fragrance of honesty as opposed to Bush's stench of corruption is a major up all by itself.

As for everyone picking at Obama, criticizing everything he does, there's not one of them could do it any better. The Republicans? Please. They had eight years and gave us pure misery every single day. Obama's got it going on. He's the only president we have. We want him to succeed! If Obama succeeds we all win.

In other news, it's reported, through Oprah, that Michelle Obama is not pregnant.

Kelly Clarkson

I read a good article about Kelly Clarkson in Blender magazine today. She's the cover girl, actually, so that was nice.

In the article she said she always tells the truth. About whether or not she pees in the shower. And her opinion on what friends need to hear, like whether they're too fat. But she doesn't really have very many friends because of all her traveling, recording, and other activities.

I was interested in what was said about her new CD, "All I Ever Wanted," which I definitely like. I've heard it enough that I'm able to hear the songs for what they are. It takes me a few times to distinguish things and tell whether I like it, as with other CDs. She said she had some suggestions for the song, "My Life Would Suck Without You," to make the dysfunctional aspects of the relationship more mutual rather than one sided, her side. So that comes through.

It sounds like an interesting process, all they go through to put together an album. I wish I had "My December" now, since there's no reason not to have it. But I never did, except for a Napster download for a while. I heard it, but like I said above, I need to go through it a few times and that didn't happen in that case.

Sex In The News

I thought this one would be interesting. But then when I got there it made me sick so I didn't actually get the article read. Florida and Alaska Consider Bans on Bestiality. Eww. Why did I have to see that?

I can't think of what the circumstances were exactly, but two of the incidences are now emblazoned on my mind. I can't even write it out. Except that a blind guy had sex with his guide dog. Please!

What else did I see? A Rhode Island strip club is holding a job fair. I was going to get the link but for some reason Firefox crashed when I went there.

A Follower

I hate to be too self referential but I have a follower. I'm full of questions, such as "What now?" Should I be serving tea and cookies?

Maybe I was an idiot for putting the follower widget on there. I figured it'd be something I'd wonder about if anyone ever clicked it.

I go to random blogs frequently and notice they have 10-20 followers and I wonder how that ever happened. Maybe they're like friends at Facebook or Scribd, nobody really, or relatives. Or people are exchanging followers like this, I'll be yours if you'll be mine.

It gives me something to think about, though. Such as if I make this guy mad will he leave? If I fail to write something for a week will that be it? Many other questions arise in my (usually) tormented mind, but I don't want to state them, because it might tick him off.

Sometimes I have the thought that just shouting in a vacant building is preferable to a stadium full of people.

American Idol Last Night

Well, Alexis Grace had to be the one last night with the lowest number of votes. I really really liked here there for a while. But I don't know, the song "Jolene" is a little wimpy. Instead of showing her "softer side" she probably should have kept up the pace and let the softer side come in later.

I always liked the song. I used to hear Dolly doing it years ago and I believe I have the record somewhere. But I've never been that interested in hearing cover versions of it. After a certain amount of hearing it, there's not much there. There's definitely not enough to it to make it an interesting American Idol pick. So I was bored by it when she did it.

Last night she made it slightly more interesting but Simon Cowell said it wasn't enough to get the judges' save. I didn't expect them to use the judge's save -- since they only get it once. I think this early you just let things thin out as nature dictates. Unless the person getting the lowest amount of votes is really someone with killer talent, like Adam or Danny or Lil. Some of the others have great talent too but I still find them boring.

Adam's the only one I really care about. I was hoping he'd make it OK and he did. Any of the others get voted out I won't be too heartbroken.

Beer Barrel Polecats

I got the new volume, Vol. 5, of the Three Stooges collected episodes yesterday. This will be the last one with Curly, since he retired after "Half-Wits' Holiday," except for a brief appearance in "Hold That Lion."

According to a book I've got, "The Three Stooges Scrapbook," Curly wasn't feeling up to the full film shooting schedule. His health was failing. So with the first episode on this set, "Beer Barrel Polecats," they made extensive use of footage from previous films. That's annoying.

One of the sections was from the episode "So Long, Mr. Chumps," in which they have to find a guy and they find him in prison. His name is Pomeroy. The footage makes perfect sense in the context of "Chumps," but it's quite incongruous in "Beer Barrel Polecats." Finding Pomeroy is just a weird, odd, inexplicable juxtaposed bit of nonsense in "Polecats." So Curly must have been feeling terrible!

Another way of looking at it is they weren't really making these films for us, for posterity, to be watched at home over and over. That's my guess. They were just showing them before the main feature and nobody really cared. So we ought to be glad they're as good as they are.

There's another section from an earlier film as well, as involving being in prison. That section ends with big rocks being broken over Curly's head. But he objects to the final rock, because it's a real rock. The earlier film had the theme music come in there and that was the hilarious conclusion. They definitely fade it out quicker than most cuts, making the earlier film's conclusion just a conclusion to a scene later. Very weird.

One Hit Wonders

The question at Pop Answers (Facebook) today was "One hit wonders of the '80s."

I'm no expert on music of the '80s. But I definitely remember watching a lot of MTV at the time, the videos they had. At some point, mid-'80s, I more or less tuned out, so I know less about that period than any. Well, the '90s is about the same.

As for the answers, I only got a few. The biggest one I could think of was Dexy's Midnight Runners. They had the song "Come On, Eileen," a big favorite at the time. At the time I had their album on cassette, so I was familiar with all the songs. There were some good things on there. I might still have it somewhere. And it seems like they had another album, one from before that, that was available for a time at the record store I went to. But I didn't have it.

Having one hit is a weird thing. It always seems like if you can have one, you could somehow squeeze out another. But like I always say, at least they had one, and what do most of us have? None. I'm not much of a musician myself. So I think I can safely say I'm never going to have one hit. So I don't chuckle, make fun of, any of that, the "one hit wonders." I always wonder why it's so funny. Basically it's tough and unpredictable to come up with a big song, unless you have a natural platform, like you have a national TV show.

I'm listening to the debut album of Lady Gaga. And she already has at least two hits. I've heard them on the radio several times, "Poker Face" and "Just Dance." Just like that!

Operation Repo - Matt Flips The Car

That was a crazy episode of Operation Repo tonight. It's a half hour show and it seems like the entire show was devoted to one repo. They got a BMW without any problem. The alarm, a honking horn, is going off and no one comes out. They hook up the car and get going.

But for some reason one of the cameramen gets in the car and refuses to get out when the repo guys tell him to. Stupid. I thought that was illegal. I remember them saying it was illegal when I was a kid, to be in a trailer, whatever is being pulled.

Then as they're going along this one repo guy, Matt, who's a real hothead anyway, has to go to the bathroom desperately, No. 2. So he's driving fast. The other guy is telling him to slow down. He runs a stop sign and about wipes out in cross traffic. Pretty soon they go around a corner pretty fast and the BMW flips over. It's crazy. The camera guy is still in there. They're not referring to him by any name, just the camera guy.

They got him out OK. And I don't know if Matt still had to go to the bathroom, because he wasn't saying anymore. By now he's concerned about the camera guy. The other repo guy is frantic. They have to call in to headquarters, and the owner of the repo place, Lou, comes over. He fires the camera guy and fires Matt.

I haven't been watching this show very long, but they said Matt has been fired before, but not for anything quite this bad.

Funny show. On Tru TV channel.

Happy Julius Caesar Day

Beware the Ides of March. Et tu Brute? Everyone should get out their Shakespeare Julius Caesar book from high school and read it. It's short, a very small book.

A big coincidence -- I'm very much into noting every coincidence that ever occurs -- is that I'm watching again some of the old "Adventures of Superman" episodes, and the one I started on this morning is called "Great Caesar's Ghost." I'm up to the point where Perry White is in the plane. Jarvis has just covered his legs. And the voice of "Julius Caesar" is calling out to him.

If you've never seen this episode, it's not bad, it's pretty good. Maybe you've seen it and will agree that it's got some really good bits. It's a good set-up. I don't remember everything about it. But I like anything that delves a little further into the psychology of the characters. Perry is supposed to be testifying against a gang and these are the guys who are trying to confuse him, as I recall it, and mess up his testimony. He uses the expression "Great Caesar's Ghost!" all the time, so it's a natural that maybe Caesar would actually show up!

Today's Julius Caesar's big day! So get out your Shakespeare -- or Superman -- and render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.

John, Paul, George, Ringo, and Bozo

The former president of Capitol Records, Alan W. Livingston, died at the age of 91.

I didn't really know about him. But it turns out he was the creator of Bozo. Now, we just had Larry Harmon die in the last year, the guy who played Bozo and owned the rights. But the whole Bozo thing started with records on Capitol, songs and stories.

This article says he initially rejected the Beatles' singles as not being right for the U.S. market, but that he finally agreed to release "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and bring them to the States in '64. So that must be part of the story how they ended up on Vee-Jay Records and Swan and Capitol later had all the grief of getting the rights back. Kind of a boneheaded move, but the guy couldn't know everything.

It also says Livingston got his older brother, Jay Livingston, to write the memorable theme music for the show "Bonanza." That's a real coincidence, because I was just three hours reading the liner notes to a Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney album, "That Travelin' Two-Beat," which was written, music and lyrics, by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. And as things turn out, wouldn't you know, it was on Capitol Records!

The B Flat Chord On The Guitar

I've been playing guitar for 40 years. I haven't improved much in all that time. That's an exaggeration because I do know how to do it better now than I did when I first started. But I'm still not very good. I know how to hit the right bass string when doing chords, but my whole manner is pretty boring.

Essentially I'm stuck at the few chords I've known all these years. And I have a hard time branching out to learn anything different.

One of the chords -- chord groups? -- that I don't know how to do very well is the whole bunch with B flat, E flat, those. I was just trying them again on a song I need to do. I look at chords for a song online and -- Doh! -- it's one of those chords! To me they don't sound good at all, so I'm always wondering if it's just me.

Grieving No More

I mentioned Paul Harvey to someone the other day. I asked, "Did you ever listen to Paul Harvey?" And she said, and this is an exact quote, "Yeah, whenever I couldn't help it."

I have to confess, I laughed. Except it seemed like a very weird thing to say since he just died. We try to hold off on humor till the body is at least cold.

In someone case like Paul, though, we're not that emotionally attached. One, he was an older gentleman, 90, I believe. Two, we only heard him on the radio, and really not always by choice. You go to businesses, gas stations, whatever, and they have the radio on, so you hear whatever crap they happen to be playing. In his case, it was meant to be an entertaining spin on the news, which wasn't necessarily very entertaining.

He sounded like someone reading "Grit" outloud. Like an old guy who maybe had too tight underpants. Not exactly footloose. It didn't appeal to me, but when you heard it it was like something distinctive.

Anyway, all the best to his memory. I wanted to use that line she said. Cute.

Ari Fleisher - The Deception Is Mind Boggling

At some point in their lives, do the clowns from the Bush administration ever have to face the facts? Are they so beyond truth that they just don't know the difference?

You would think that these people -- presumably having some intelligence, at least enough intelligence to get these fancy jobs -- would have at least two brain cells to call their own.

But Ari Fleischer is still giving out the discredited Bush propaganda that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11. Incredible! Here is a snippet from his interview with Chris Matthews:

Fleischer: "After September 11th having been hit once how could we take a chance that Saddam might strike again? And that's the threat that has been removed and I think we are all safer with that threat removed."

How could we take a chance that Saddam might strike again? Wouldn't he have to have struck the first time to do so again? It's like Ari is the last person in the world to have heard otherwise, that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11.

Chris Matthews, to his credit, had a great comeback to that blather:

Matthews: "I'm proud that we no longer have an administration that uses that kind argument...and the American people are too."

Lincoln's Watch

Here's an interesting story combining history, trivia, family legends, and fun.

An Irish immigrant and watchmaker, Jonathan Dillon, called on to fix Abraham Lincoln's watch in 1861, opened it up and put a secret message in it. Lincoln never knew.

The story was passed down within the family. Over the years the message that was supposed to be in it became different from what it turned out to be. But it turned out that indeed there was a message from the watchmaker.

They opened it recently -- today, I guess -- and found this message: "Jonathan Dillon April 13, 1861. Fort Sumter was attacked by the rebels on the above date. Thank God we have a government."

Douglas Stiles, the great-great grandson of Dillon, the same guy who alerted the Smithsonian to this legend, was happy, saying, "That's Lincoln's watch, and my ancestor wrote graffiti on it!"

Pretty cool.

Make Bush Disappear

President Obama has sent out a memo telling whoever, the government to ignore George Bush's signing statements. These were Bush's excessive end runs around whatever law it was he wished to violate on a particular day. So, we're making progress!

Obama also lifted Bush's ban on stem cell research, and in general Bush's war on science. Again, more progress.

Now, if somehow Obama can just wipe history clean and make it so Bush's criminal presidency never happened, then we'll be happy. But I don't think he's going to be able to accomplish that trick.

What we're just going to have to settle for is undoing as much damage as possible. And maybe if Bush ever has to answer for his crimes, throw in vandalism while we're at it. The man was a vandal.

My Dog Sinned Today

My dog is as faithful a dog as any I've ever seen. If I'm asleep she's right there sleeping, if not at my side, at my back, then at least in the same room, over on the futon or on the floor. Somewhere!

Today I woke up from a nap, looked on the bed and she wasn't there. On the futon, on the floor, no dog. I called a few times. No dog. My first thought is she's locked in a room by accident, or, worse, she's dead. Maybe sick and dying. Maybe actually dead.

Again, this is a constant companion. She's nowhere except nearby. Like right now, as I type this, she's less than five feet away.

I went downstairs, fearing the worst, and there was a mess. The garbage was strewn all over the kitchen. I'm sure the cat knocked it over, since this is what he's known for. But the dog had been busy picking through it. I cook microwave bacon with lots of paper towels, and these were chewed up, in smaller pieces, strewn about. She had doubtless been enjoying the bacon grease taste of all this garbage.

I wasn't mad, since I'm never mad at her. I want her to have the best life every second. But she looked like she knew there was something wrong with the whole scene. She went in the other room and was on the couch, not right there at my side.

Actual ... sinning.

You Don't Need It

You don't need it.

I'm sitting amongst piles of stuff. There's two courses -- and I suppose each one is good for the economy in its own way. One is to spend, the other to save.

The fact is I've done both, but spending comes more naturally. Not because I really think I need stuff, but it's more natural (to me) to accumulate and surround myself with stuff than not. I see the Simple Living magazines at the store and figure it's just another fad to make money off of.

I've saved money a little bit. It's hard to do, not just because of imagined needs but because of actual needs, like paying the bills and extraordinary expenses that come along. Rainy day stuff. Some of this is also paying for other people's rainy day stuff. Altruism when you can't avoid it.

The big thing about having so much stuff -- and here I'm talking library types of stuff, videos, DVDs, CDs, books, etc. -- is that there's not really any time to enjoy it to the max. Time is what it is. There's all the time spent in sleep, then in work, then in family duties, then in eating, then in watching American Idol. And after you get all that done, you've got about two hours left. Music, as an example, involves real time. You don't listen to 10 minutes worth of stuff in three minutes. So whatever you happen to have, there's no time to enjoy it.

Leading to my main point: You don't need it. It's piled up. And that's where it shall stay.

Saving money is the way to go, which of course can also be detrimental to the economy. It's the way to go because rainy day disasters -- needing a place to live, for example -- is a lot more important than the junk you surround yourself with.

There's an old thing, a saying I either made up or heard somewhere; it's from years ago. Which is, If you can't have everything there's no point in having anything. I don't agree with that in absolute terms, but it definitely pops the balloon of collecting.

Slumdog Millionaire

I finally saw Slumdog Millionaire. And it was amazing, more than I thought it'd be. I can't believe someone could write a movie like that, and then actually make it on what seemed to be such a massive scale.

For all the violence and bitterness of the people's experiences, it's still a very sentimental movie. I liked that, more than the violence. It had a certain rightness to it in spite of all the wrongness.

I like the theme of destiny, of things being written, even if I don't think that way on a day to day basis.

Shingles

A close personal acquaintance -- my spouse, I should say -- has something called shingles.

Shingles? That's a terrible word for a disease. I never know which diseases are the ones that are so embarrassing that you don't talk about them. But I would think shingles sounds weird enough that you wouldn't say it. Maybe go to "stay with your aunt" for six months, then come back when you're better. But she's telling everyone she has shingles, like there's no shame in it at all, so I guess there isn't.

I've known quite a few people who've had shingles. It's a disease related to chicken pox. Like actual chickens, it's roosting quietly in your system. Then you get too much stress -- that's what they say -- and it decides to wake up. It wakes up and you have these sores and itching and pain. That's shingles.

I'm guessing it's called shingles because in some classic case that I've never seen, probably the sores are lined up and overlapping like shingles on a house. It's a disease that is with you for a long time too.

My Pets Live

Everyday I suspect my pets are going to die. But somehow they keep living.

The cats are going to be 14 this summer. The dog will be 10. The dog's in better shape than the cats, but the cats don't seem terrible. Sometimes I have to help one of the cats get up on a particular thing, where he eats. And he doesn't seem to go upstairs as much as he used to. They're moving slower and acting like their young days are past.

The dog is closer to me, like a constant physical presence. So it's easy to see she's always alive. The cats have their own privacy issues -- I suppose I could say it that way -- so there's pronounced gaps between the times I saw them last and the times I see them next.

If they lie still too long, I'm thinking they're dead.

One of these days it's got to happen. It'll be sad when they die -- which will likely be one only and not together -- but it's not going to be unexpected.

Michael Steele

How would you like to be Michael Steele on a day like this? The guy is getting virtually nothing but ridicule for kowtowing to Rush Limbaugh. There's a lot of laughter today, a lot!

Oh, that has to be embarrassing. I know for myself alone, any little headache is magnified, like if someone looks at you funny, you think the whole town's in on it ... when they're not. But what if not just the whole town was in on it but the whole country and world? That would make for a very bad day! Steele;s not just incompetent, he's gutless, servile.

Bobby Jindal seems to have weathered his days of ridicule and scorn recently. All you have to do is drop out of sight for a few days till it essentially blows over. Try to say little about it. But even he was back in the news today, saying he thought it was a good thing that Steele apologized. A good thing? Give me a break. Apologies like this are never a good thing. It shows he's weak and spineless. If that's a good thing, may we have plenty more of it!

If I'm Rush Limbaugh I'm also embarrassed about it, but the actual Rush probably isn't. This is something I would think through were I him. Yes, Steele apologized. Yes, Jindal is cooing in your ear. Yes, Eric Cantor has his mouth shut for now. But Rush has got to know these people actually hate his guts. You can't convince me they respect him or enjoy kissing his ass. No one wants to be in that position.

So Rush has a lot fewer friends than it may appear. If he were to stumble and fall, that'd be better news for the Republicans than it is for the Democrats! Basically everyone hates him.

Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Something

I saw the story early today about Rush Limbaugh saying the preamble of the Constitution said certain things about "life, liberty, whatever, whatever, and the pursuit of happiness." I'm no constitutional scholar but my first thought was that is from the Declaration of Independence.

It's good to see everyone jumping on that. Not that the guy can't make a mistake, but I don't believe he's real forgiving when other people say and do things, especially guys on the other side of the aisle. Although he's getting pretty dicey with his fellow Republicans, any who aren't sufficiently fast enough to bow to him. Personally, I don't listen to him. I couldn't stomach that voluntarily. The only time I hear him is like if I'm somewhere and they have him on. But I get out as fast as possible.

The same thing with Bill O'Reilly. I flipped over to his show tonight while commercials were on everything else. But he was doing the usual blowhard routine, "I'm right, everyone else is wrong" thing he's known for. So I went back to the commercials. How can anyone stand nothing but ranting? It's bizarre. He was bellyaching that Obama picked Sebelius for HHS, that she supports abortion rights. Now that's bizarre. He does know about the Democrats' constituencies? He does know they're generally pro-choice? He does know that elections have consequences?

Did he similarly lambast Bush if Bush didn't do just the opposite of what the Republicans stood for?

It's Almost Your Time To Shine!

I was in a meeting one time where someone read the very touching story of "The Fall of Freddie the Leaf" by Leo Buscaglia. Freddie's a leaf, it's fall, and his life span is over. Down he goes. It's a story that illustrates what it is to die. Counselors go nuts with this kind of stuff. You're in grief, they read you this story and cry. Then you pass the counselors' lounge on the way out and you hear them laughing it up, "Yeah, I read him the leaf story. Easiest 50 bucks I made all week!"

Ever since hearing the leaf story I've been on the lookout for every other possible inanimate thing's story. Today's picture, the shopping carts lined up outside, ready to do their job when the time comes, surely has something of this in it. "Your time hasn't come yet, baby, you got a few dreams to go," as an Elvis song says it. "But when it comes your heart will know."

The downfall to my story, though, has to be the very cyclical nature of the shopping cart's life. A leaf sprouts out once, then falls to be replaced with different leaves. But shopping carts are used over and over. A better fable would be on the aging process, more apt really than lining up to do a task, then to be retired. Every cart is new at some point but they don't last forever.

OK, there they are. It's your time to shine, brother! The customer is getting ready to choose you! Carry her groceries and other items with pride. Don't wobble. Look out for children. The best report a shopping cart can get is no report, because that means everything went well. The only time people mention a shopping cart is when there's a complaint.