Ganging Up to Repeal Health Reform
Republican Senators McCain and DaMint were among the senators who according to theONION announced the joining of the GOP with the disease Leukemia in a joint effort to bring down President Obama’s Health Care Reform legislation.
Speaking Truth to Politics
Republicans, Leukemia Join Forces to Defeat Obama’s Health Care
From the irrepressible theONION comes news that Republicans and the disease Leukemia have joined forces to team up to seek the repeal Obama’s Health Care Law.
WASHINGTON—Citing a mutually shared vision of health care in America, congressional Republicans and the deadly bone-marrow cancer Leukemia announced a joint effort Wednesday to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the historic new bill that extends health benefits to 32 million Americans nationwide.
"Republicans have no greater ally in this fight than Leukemia," said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who was flanked by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), and the abnormal increase in White Blood Cells.
"Denying insurance to Americans with preexisting conditions and ensuring that low-income Americans stand no chance of receiving quality health care are just a few of the core beliefs that the GOP and Leukemia share,” the disease’s spokesperson announced.
"And believe me, if anyone is angrier than the Republican Party that children can no longer be denied coverage for having preexisting conditions, it's Leukemia," DeMint countered. "We're a match made in heaven."
It is no secret these days that parody news sites like Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert’s the Colbert Report, are looked upon by the younger generation as being more to the core of truth than news reported by legitimate news sources like NBC News or CNN. They dare to say out loud what legitimate news sites withhold as not provable fact.
For instance, the line of exaggeration between the truth and theONION’s account of the Republican battle to undo Obama’s Health Care Reform, is small indeed. In real life a disease like cancer can’t join forces with Republican lawmakers to fight Obama’s Health Care Reform, but we all know if it could, it would. To read theONION’s entire article go here! §
While dissing Republican attempts to undo some of the good of the Obama administration, we would like to take this opportunity to commend Senator Lindsey Graham, who stands five foot 7 with his shoes on, but who stood tall as the only Republican on the Judiciary Committee to vote for the confirmation of Elena Kagan, President Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court. Graham not only voted for the nomination, but he gave his fellow Republicans a lecture as to why.
"I think there's a good reason for a conservative to vote yes, and that's provided in the Constitution itself," Graham told his peers before reading to them from Federalist No. 6, by Alexander Hamilton. "The Senate should have a special and strong reason for the denial of confirmation," he read, such as "to prevent the appointment of unfit characters from family connection, from personal attachment and from a view to popularity."
Graham said Kagan "has passed all those tests" envisioned by the Framers, then he challenged his colleagues: "Are we taking the language of the Constitution that stood the test of time and basically putting a political standard in the place of a constitutional standard? That's for each senator to ask and answer themselves."
According to Dana Milbank in his Washington Post column, Senator Cornyn (he was still in the room) studied his cuticles. Senator Coburn stroked his chin. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) raised a hand to cover a yawn. And no other Republican stepped up to Graham’s challenge. §
Kibibi (above) was born in January 2009 to 26-year-old female gorilla Mandara and 16-year-old Baraka. Kibibi, a female, represents the seventh successful gorilla birth for the zoo since 1991. Photo: Murphy-Smithsonian Institution
GOP’s Politics “as clear as mud”
Republican reasoning, as we used to say as kids, is “as clear as mud.” Workers unemployment insurance is about to expire and the President and the Democrats want to extend it to keep America’s jobless workers afloat for the time being. Republicans refuse to go along, in spite of the fact that unemployment insurance is paid out of a fund that workers pay into. And without one or two GOP votes the Dems do not have the necessary majority to bring the bill to the floor for a vote.
Republican reasoning? Well our debt is a few trillion too large, and a line must be drawn somewhere to keep our economy from going “belly up.” This sounds all nice and good, with Republicans drawing the line to help our grandkids and theirs from being taxed to death.
But then the Republicans talk about extending George W.’s tax cuts to the ultra wealthy, tax cuts which are about to run out, and which many see as having driven us off the economic cliffs in the first place. But won’t extending the Bush tax cuts add to the deficit, you might ask a Republican? What about all that high minded talk about protecting our grandchildren from endless debt? In short, in spite of their high sounding talk Republicans never saw a tax cut they didn’t like, even if it bankrupts our children and theirs.
Although inheriting a surplus from President Clinton, the Bush administration managed to outspend all of the administrations which preceded it combined, handing over a sky high national debt to go along with a broken economy to the Obama administration.
Bush’s tax cuts were one of the major reasons the nation is up to its ears in debt at this time, and that added to the Bush administration’s starting two wars, giving the elderly medication relief (without leveraging lower prices from drug companies), and the cleanup connected with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, none of these major programs being paid for, each and every one of them adding to our mountainous national debt. And the Republicans continue to shamelessly cast votes for Obama’s failure by opposing every policy he proffers to try and jump start the economy.
All of this while trying to cajole Democrats into extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, which will continue to significantly boost the deficit, while the GOP continues to oppose extending help to those who have lost their jobs and whose unemployment insurance has run out.
Why should Democrats care about and support the unemployed? Because if they can be tided over until the economy improves, they will become tax paying members of our society once again. Look at it as an investment in our work force.
Renewing Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy makes the rich richer, but does nothing for the economy in spite of Republican claims to the contrary. For none know better than the rich as to the tricks for holding onto their money. Extending unemployment benefits for the unemployed, however, directly helps the economy as it gives unemployed workers a lifeline which allows them to buy food and otherwise support the economy. §
Two newborn Przewalski's foals explore their pasture at the Conservation and Research Center. Both foals were sired by a 9-year-old stallion named Frog, the most genetically valuable Przewalski's horse in the North American breeding program. The Przewalski's horse is native to China and Mongolia; the species was declared extinct in the wild in 1970. Photo: Mehgan Murphy-Smithsonian Institution
Is There a Jobs’ “Reality Distortion” field?
A lot has been written about Steve Jobs’ and his famous “reality distortion field,” that mysterious malady which hovers over Apple and “twists its victims’ perceptions beyond recognition.”
This is pure bullshit, of course. There is no reality distortion field. There is simply Steve Jobs’ unmatched enthusiasm combined with an unparalleled degree of persuasion. But the reason that the “distortion field” is bullshit is that the products that Apple’ manufactures are every bit as good as their hype would indicate. And more so. (Mac computers, iPods, iPhones, and the newly hatched iPad.) There are Apple products. And then there are the products of every other vendor. Do Apple’s measure up? That’s the question each purchaser must ask him or herself.
But what is perfectly clear is the amount of skill and care Apple puts into their products. And as a result, Apple products “just work.” Seamlessly, out the the box, and not only with one another, but with virtually every other manufacturers products. Not everyone is likely to prefer Apple products. People have different tastes after all. Some people might actually prefer an OS that makes them constantly aware of it, and makes them fight their way through their computing experience every step of the way. It appeals to their Geekiness.
Then there is the matter of taste in design. Apple’s products are organically designed by arguably the most talented industrial design artist in the business, Jonathan Ive. However, there may be some out there who don’t respect lean, organically designed products. That’s fine, we all come with different tastes.
What is silly is having the blog Gizmodo beating the “antenna-gate” drum on the iPhone 4, sounding the beat for much of the blogsphere in revenge for Apple raising hell about that test model iPhone 4 which they reportedly paid $5,000 for, and which they subsequently returned to Apple at Steve Jobs’ request.
As a side effect of the sideshow the spectacle showed how truly irrelevant Consumer’s Reports really is. In spite of CR’s announcing that iPhone 4 is a truly exceptional smartphone which excelled in virtually every smartphone category, and admitting there was no other smartphone that could touch it in many areas, C.R. could not bring itself to recommend the phone unless and until Apple admitted some kind of antenna problem, and fixed same.
Really? iPhone 4 has flown off of the shelves in numbers like none of its previous incarnations, 3 million in 22 days. And its return rate is also lower by far than all of its predecessors. So just where is all that that consumer discontent the Consumer Reports is so diligently guarding its readers from? Don’t the other smartphone companies just wish they had a return record of 0.55 per hundred on a supposedly flawed product.
So who gives a tinkers damn about whether or not Consumer Reports can recommend what they themselves admit is far and away the best smartphone money can buy? Obviously consumers at large aren’t listening to them or reading their recommendations. Sorry fellas, good try, but marching to Gizmodo’s drum does not make you relevant. And uncompromisingly holding onto a fiction like “antenna gate” only leaves you with egg on your face. Being uncompromising will work only when you are uncompromising about reality.
Dilbert creator on his Scott Adams Blog, appreciates the true heights Jobs reached in his non apology. Adams quotes Jobs famous nineteen words.
In a press conference on the subject, Steve Jobs said, "We're not perfect. Phones are not perfect. We all know that. But we want to make our users happy."
Jobs got a lot of heat about his response. Where was the apology? Where was the part where he acknowledged that the buck stops with him, and that Apple made a big mistake that never should have happened? That's public relations 101, right?
I'm a student of how language influences people. Apple's response to the iPhone 4 problem didn't follow the public relations playbook because Jobs decided to rewrite the playbook. (I pause now to insert the necessary phrase Magnificent Bastard.) If you want to know what genius looks like, study Jobs' words: "We're not perfect. Phones are not perfect. We all know that. But we want to make our users happy."
Jobs changed the entire argument with nineteen words. He was brief. He spoke indisputable truth. And later in his press conference, he offered clear fixes.
Scott Adams’ complete blog post makes fascinating reading, and can be accessed here! §
A tammar wallaby joey peeks out from its mother's pouch. The marsupial baby will nurse and develop in the pouch for several months. Photo: Mehgan Murphy-Smithsonian Institution
Borowitz Again on Out Radar
It has been awhile since we have brought you an Andy Borowitz
Report. We will endeavor to make amends now:
WASILLA (The Borowitz Report) – Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin today defended her use of the word “refudiate,” telling her critics, “Look it up in the fictionary.”
While claiming that “refudiate” is a real word, she reserved her right to make up new words in the future.
Sarah Palin “Everyone makes up words – Shakespeare, George W. Bush, Levi Johnston,” she said. “The only person I know who doesn’t do it is my husband Todd, who doesn’t sp
eak.”Gov. Palin also lashed out at those who criticized her use the word “refudiate,” calling them “incohecent.”
In a related story, Gov. Palin would defeat President Barack Obama if she ran in 2012, according to a poll published in Mayan Prophecy Weekly.
The L.A. Times recommends Andy’s Twitter feed. A few of its recent entries are: “When the Incredible Hulk gets even angrier, he turns into Mel Gibson.” “I'm nostalgic for the days when Mel Gibson was just an alcoholic anti-Semite.” “BP denies involvement in Lockerbie bomber's release: "We release oil, not people." To access the Borowitz Twitter feed yourself go here!"a>! §
It was the experience of my year getting to watch the PBS Masters program on Pete Seeger last Wednesday night. I had missed it in its original incarnation, but the nice thing about PBS is that most things float by again and again. It was a real experience to see his children, Dan, Mika, and Tinya, who I knew as children, in their grown up personas. And of course, Pete and Toshi looked great (if forty years older), as did Pete’s brother John Seeger, who I worked for for six summers at his children’s camp in Vermont, Camp Killooleet, and who unfortunately passed away in January of this year.
Pete is the most extraordinary individual I have ever had the honor of knowing, his wife Toshi I think of as equally extraordinary, and I really believe (as brother John expressed on the program) that Toshi was the reason Pete has been able to achieve all he has. And seeing his three children all grown up was a mind altering experience. By program’s end neither of my eyes was dry, and I must check out Amazon to see if the DVD is available, and if so, for how much.
Friday, August 23 was D Day (Dread Day) when I was due to get my cml (chronic myeloid leukemia)
scorecard, and guess what? I do not have cml.
I do have something, a malady that is causing my white corpuscles to try overrunning my red cells. My oncologist says is a dna mutation, or that’s how I understood him. Shades of the Cold War, take that you commie red cells.
Dr. Rakkhit said he would give me no medication for the condition at the present time. He did say he wanted to do an ultrasound on my, I think he said my spleen, but my heart was beating so loudly as those magic words, no cml reverberated through the room, that I couldn’t hear straight. He also said he wanted to write a paper on my case.
And so I guess when is all said and done we will see what we will see. Of course, this brings up another problem, which I am going to have to put my nose to the proverbial grindstone with in the immediate future, but that is yet another story, one which I will share with you at a later date. Meantime no cml is good news. Let Heavens’ bells ring from the mountains to the prairies, and from sea to shining sea.
And so we have reluctantly swum to the end of another stream of real sense and nonsense, a blend we attempt to brew each week on our Little Eddy Blog. We would like to thank son Daniel Badeaux of Seattle, WA. for sending us the link to theONION article which once and for all nailed the GOP’s Health Care Repeal campaign to a tee.
We offer our vision of the world each Saturday morning, uploading our weekly missive as we are having our breakfast coffee. Each day of the week brings me a different flavored coffee. On Saturday mornings we grind a flavor called Dark Chocolate Almodine, a twitteresque bit of information which I’m sure you were just dying to know.
At any rate this week seemed to fly by somewhat faster than previous weeks. My teeth and jaw are still not without problems, but have improved by leaps and bounds since my tooth abscess experience of a few weeks back. During the coming week we’ll do more of this rooting around for things that are interesting, and we do hope you’ll drop by again sometime next week to find out just what we’ve come up with.
Meantime, take our Republican friends with a gigantic grain of salt, or whatever you favorite credibility seasoning may be. A group that has so consistently voted against everything the President has tried to do for us does not deserve the time of day, much less our precious vote. They are not to be trusted, much less voted for. And have yourself the very best kind of a good week. Bye now.
Blog # 151:
Ganging Up to Repeal Health Reform
Republican Senators McCain and DaMint were among the senators who according to theONION announced the joining of the GOP with the disease Leukemia in a joint effort to bring down President Obama’s Health Care Reform legislation.
Speaking Truth to Politics
Republicans, Leukemia Join Forces to Defeat Obama’s Health Care
From the irrepressible theONION comes news that Republicans and the disease Leukemia have joined forces to team up to seek the repeal Obama’s Health Care Law.
WASHINGTON—Citing a mutually shared vision of health care in America, congressional Republicans and the deadly bone-marrow cancer Leukemia announced a joint effort Wednesday to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the historic new bill that extends health benefits to 32 million Americans nationwide.
"Republicans have no greater ally in this fight than Leukemia," said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who was flanked by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), and the abnormal increase in White Blood Cells.
"Denying insurance to Americans with preexisting conditions and ensuring that low-income Americans stand no chance of receiving quality health care are just a few of the core beliefs that the GOP and Leukemia share,” the disease’s spokesperson announced.
"And believe me, if anyone is angrier than the Republican Party that children can no longer be denied coverage for having preexisting conditions, it's Leukemia," DeMint countered. "We're a match made in heaven."
It is no secret these days that parody news sites like Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert’s the Colbert Report, are looked upon by the younger generation as being more to the core of truth than news reported by legitimate news sources like NBC News or CNN. They dare to say out loud what legitimate news sites withhold as not provable fact.
For instance, the line of exaggeration between the truth and theONION’s account of the Republican battle to undo Obama’s Health Care Reform, is small indeed. In real life a disease like cancer can’t join forces with Republican lawmakers to fight Obama’s Health Care Reform, but we all know if it could, it would. To read theONION’s entire article go here! §
While dissing Republican attempts to undo some of the good of the Obama administration, we would like to take this opportunity to commend Senator Lindsey Graham, who stands five foot 7 with his shoes on, but who stood tall as the only Republican on the Judiciary Committee to vote for the confirmation of Elena Kagan, President Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court. Graham not only voted for the nomination, but he gave his fellow Republicans a lecture as to why.
"I think there's a good reason for a conservative to vote yes, and that's provided in the Constitution itself," Graham told his peers before reading to them from Federalist No. 6, by Alexander Hamilton. "The Senate should have a special and strong reason for the denial of confirmation," he read, such as "to prevent the appointment of unfit characters from family connection, from personal attachment and from a view to popularity."
Graham said Kagan "has passed all those tests" envisioned by the Framers, then he challenged his colleagues: "Are we taking the language of the Constitution that stood the test of time and basically putting a political standard in the place of a constitutional standard? That's for each senator to ask and answer themselves."
According to Dana Milbank in his Washington Post column, Senator Cornyn (he was still in the room) studied his cuticles. Senator Coburn stroked his chin. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) raised a hand to cover a yawn. And no other Republican stepped up to Graham’s challenge. §
Kibibi (above) was born in January 2009 to 26-year-old female gorilla Mandara and 16-year-old Baraka. Kibibi, a female, represents the seventh successful gorilla birth for the zoo since 1991. Photo: Murphy-Smithsonian Institution
GOP’s Politics “as clear as mud”
Republican reasoning, as we used to say as kids, is “as clear as mud.” Workers unemployment insurance is about to expire and the President and the Democrats want to extend it to keep America’s jobless workers afloat for the time being. Republicans refuse to go along, in spite of the fact that unemployment insurance is paid out of a fund that workers pay into. And without one or two GOP votes the Dems do not have the necessary majority to bring the bill to the floor for a vote.
Republican reasoning? Well our debt is a few trillion too large, and a line must be drawn somewhere to keep our economy from going “belly up.” This sounds all nice and good, with Republicans drawing the line to help our grandkids and theirs from being taxed to death.
But then the Republicans talk about extending George W.’s tax cuts to the ultra wealthy, tax cuts which are about to run out, and which many see as having driven us off the economic cliffs in the first place. But won’t extending the Bush tax cuts add to the deficit, you might ask a Republican? What about all that high minded talk about protecting our grandchildren from endless debt? In short, in spite of their high sounding talk Republicans never saw a tax cut they didn’t like, even if it bankrupts our children and theirs.
Although inheriting a surplus from President Clinton, the Bush administration managed to outspend all of the administrations which preceded it combined, handing over a sky high national debt to go along with a broken economy to the Obama administration.
Bush’s tax cuts were one of the major reasons the nation is up to its ears in debt at this time, and that added to the Bush administration’s starting two wars, giving the elderly medication relief (without leveraging lower prices from drug companies), and the cleanup connected with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, none of these major programs being paid for, each and every one of them adding to our mountainous national debt. And the Republicans continue to shamelessly cast votes for Obama’s failure by opposing every policy he proffers to try and jump start the economy.
All of this while trying to cajole Democrats into extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, which will continue to significantly boost the deficit, while the GOP continues to oppose extending help to those who have lost their jobs and whose unemployment insurance has run out.
Why should Democrats care about and support the unemployed? Because if they can be tided over until the economy improves, they will become tax paying members of our society once again. Look at it as an investment in our work force.
Renewing Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy makes the rich richer, but does nothing for the economy in spite of Republican claims to the contrary. For none know better than the rich as to the tricks for holding onto their money. Extending unemployment benefits for the unemployed, however, directly helps the economy as it gives unemployed workers a lifeline which allows them to buy food and otherwise support the economy. §
Two newborn Przewalski's foals explore their pasture at the Conservation and Research Center. Both foals were sired by a 9-year-old stallion named Frog, the most genetically valuable Przewalski's horse in the North American breeding program. The Przewalski's horse is native to China and Mongolia; the species was declared extinct in the wild in 1970. Photo: Mehgan Murphy-Smithsonian Institution
Is There a Jobs’ “Reality Distortion” field?
A lot has been written about Steve Jobs’ and his famous “reality distortion field,” that mysterious malady which hovers over Apple and “twists its victims’ perceptions beyond recognition.”
This is pure bullshit, of course. There is no reality distortion field. There is simply Steve Jobs’ unmatched enthusiasm combined with an unparalleled degree of persuasion. But the reason that the “distortion field” is bullshit is that the products that Apple’ manufactures are every bit as good as their hype would indicate. And more so. (Mac computers, iPods, iPhones, and the newly hatched iPad.) There are Apple products. And then there are the products of every other vendor. Do Apple’s measure up? That’s the question each purchaser must ask him or herself.
But what is perfectly clear is the amount of skill and care Apple puts into their products. And as a result, Apple products “just work.” Seamlessly, out the the box, and not only with one another, but with virtually every other manufacturers products. Not everyone is likely to prefer Apple products. People have different tastes after all. Some people might actually prefer an OS that makes them constantly aware of it, and makes them fight their way through their computing experience every step of the way. It appeals to their Geekiness.
Then there is the matter of taste in design. Apple’s products are organically designed by arguably the most talented industrial design artist in the business, Jonathan Ive. However, there may be some out there who don’t respect lean, organically designed products. That’s fine, we all come with different tastes.
What is silly is having the blog Gizmodo beating the “antenna-gate” drum on the iPhone 4, sounding the beat for much of the blogsphere in revenge for Apple raising hell about that test model iPhone 4 which they reportedly paid $5,000 for, and which they subsequently returned to Apple at Steve Jobs’ request.
As a side effect of the sideshow the spectacle showed how truly irrelevant Consumer’s Reports really is. In spite of CR’s announcing that iPhone 4 is a truly exceptional smartphone which excelled in virtually every smartphone category, and admitting there was no other smartphone that could touch it in many areas, C.R. could not bring itself to recommend the phone unless and until Apple admitted some kind of antenna problem, and fixed same.
Really? iPhone 4 has flown off of the shelves in numbers like none of its previous incarnations, 3 million in 22 days. And its return rate is also lower by far than all of its predecessors. So just where is all that that consumer discontent the Consumer Reports is so diligently guarding its readers from? Don’t the other smartphone companies just wish they had a return record of 0.55 per hundred on a supposedly flawed product.
So who gives a tinkers damn about whether or not Consumer Reports can recommend what they themselves admit is far and away the best smartphone money can buy? Obviously consumers at large aren’t listening to them or reading their recommendations. Sorry fellas, good try, but marching to Gizmodo’s drum does not make you relevant. And uncompromisingly holding onto a fiction like “antenna gate” only leaves you with egg on your face. Being uncompromising will work only when you are uncompromising about reality.
Dilbert creator on his Scott Adams Blog, appreciates the true heights Jobs reached in his non apology. Adams quotes Jobs famous nineteen words.
In a press conference on the subject, Steve Jobs said, "We're not perfect. Phones are not perfect. We all know that. But we want to make our users happy."
Jobs got a lot of heat about his response. Where was the apology? Where was the part where he acknowledged that the buck stops with him, and that Apple made a big mistake that never should have happened? That's public relations 101, right?
I'm a student of how language influences people. Apple's response to the iPhone 4 problem didn't follow the public relations playbook because Jobs decided to rewrite the playbook. (I pause now to insert the necessary phrase Magnificent Bastard.) If you want to know what genius looks like, study Jobs' words: "We're not perfect. Phones are not perfect. We all know that. But we want to make our users happy."
Jobs changed the entire argument with nineteen words. He was brief. He spoke indisputable truth. And later in his press conference, he offered clear fixes.
Scott Adams’ complete blog post makes fascinating reading, and can be accessed here! §
A tammar wallaby joey peeks out from its mother's pouch. The marsupial baby will nurse and develop in the pouch for several months. Photo: Mehgan Murphy-Smithsonian Institution
Borowitz Again on Out Radar
It has been awhile since we have brought you an Andy Borowitz
Report. We will endeavor to make amends now:
WASILLA (The Borowitz Report) – Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin today defended her use of the word “refudiate,” telling her critics, “Look it up in the fictionary.”
While claiming that “refudiate” is a real word, she reserved her right to make up new words in the future.
Sarah Palin, Shakespeare Reincarnated? “Everyone makes up words – Shakespeare, George W. Bush, Levi Johnston,” she said. “The only person I know who doesn’t do it is my husband Todd, who doesn’t speak.”
Gov. Palin also lashed out at those who criticized her use the word “refudiate,” calling them “incohecent.”
In a related story, Gov. Palin would defeat President Barack Obama if she ran in 2012, according to a poll published in Mayan Prophecy Weekly.
The L.A. Times recommends Andy’s Twitter feed. A few of its recent entries are: “When the Incredible Hulk gets even angrier, he turns into Mel Gibson.” “I'm nostalgic for the days when Mel Gibson was just an alcoholic anti-Semite.” “BP denies involvement in Lockerbie bomber's release: "We release oil, not people." To access the Borowitz Twitter feed yourself go here!"a>! §
It was the experience of my year getting to watch the PBS Masters program on Pete Seeger last Wednesday night. I had missed it in its original incarnation, but the nice thing about PBS is that most things float by again and again. It was a real experience to see his children, Dan, Mika, and Tinya, who I knew as children, in their grown up personas. And of course, Pete and Toshi looked great (if forty years older), as did Pete’s brother John Seeger, who I worked for for six summers at his children’s camp in Vermont, Camp Killooleet, and who unfortunately passed away in January of this year.
Pete is the most extraordinary individual I have ever had the honor of knowing, his wife Toshi I think of as equally extraordinary, and I really believe (as brother John expressed on the program) that Toshi was the reason Pete has been able to achieve all he has. And seeing his three children all grown up was a mind altering experience. By program’s end neither of my eyes was dry, and I must check out Amazon to see if the DVD is available, and if so, for how much.
Friday, August 23 was D Day (Dread Day) when I was due to get my cml (chronic myeloid leukemia)
scorecard, and guess what? I do not have cml. I do have something, a malady that is causing my white corpuscles to try overrunning my red cells. My oncologist says is a dna mutation, or that’s how I understood him. Shades of the Cold War, take that you commie red cells.
Dr. Rakkhit said he would give me no medication for the condition at the present time. He did say he wanted to do an ultrasound on my, I think he said my spleen, but my heart was beating so loudly as those magic words, no cml
reverberated through the room, that I couldn’t hear straight. He also said he wanted to write a paper on my case.
And so I guess when is all said and done we will see what we will see. Of course, this brings up another problem, which I am going to have to put my nose to the proverbial grindstone with in the immediate future, but that is yet another story, one which I will share with you at a later date. Meantime no cml is good news. Let Heavens’ bells ring from the mountains to the prairies, and from sea to shining sea.
And so we have reluctantly swum to the end of another stream of real sense and nonsense, a blend we attempt to brew each week on our Little Eddy Blog. We would like to thank son Daniel Badeaux of Seattle, WA. for sending us the link to theONION article which once and for all nailed the GOP’s Health Care Repeal campaign to a tee.
We offer our vision of the world each Saturday morning, uploading our weekly missive as we are having our breakfast coffee. Each day of the week brings me a different flavored coffee. On Saturday mornings we grind a flavor called Dark Chocolate Almodine, a twitteresque bit of information which I’m sure you were just dying to know.
At any rate this week seemed to fly by somewhat faster than previous weeks. My teeth and jaw are still not without problems, but have improved by leaps and bounds since my tooth abscess experience of a few weeks back. During the coming week we’ll do more of this rooting around for things that are interesting, and we do hope you’ll drop by again sometime next week to find out just what we’ve come up with.
Meantime, take our Republican friends with a gigantic grain of salt, or whatever you favorite credibility seasoning may be. A group that has so consistently voted against everything the President has tried to do for us does not deserve the time of day, much less our precious vote. They are not to be trusted, much less voted for. And have yourself the very best kind of a good week. Bye now.
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