Liberals' Palin Erotomania

They still talk about her even though she's in a kind of semi-retired mode and not running for anything. Liberals get all stalkery about her when her biggest political aspiration these days is to take to Twitter. The Obsession even led Martin Bashir off the deep end who wanted to go all Gothic on her. It's a political psycho/sexual mystery far surpassing their Bachmann fetish.

& then there's this

The lust is clearly off the apple. A notable quotable from Barbara Walters on the Piers Morgan show. Even our Earth Goddess Oprah has cooled towards Obama who's lately been reduced to becoming a running infomercial for the ACA and taking selfies at important occasions like Nelson Mandela's memorial service. Oh well he still has BB, Saty and Chris Matthews but as for me with every passing day he's going more and more into the Jimmy Carter category. Maybe he can pick up a hammer and bucket of nails with Bob Vila and do some Habitat for Humanity after his second term runs out.

How reliable a source of knowledge is Wikipedia?

What's missing in this picture is the laptopper on the park bench, they're all at the public library. Do a typical google search on any subject under the sun, say twerking or the Skunkape, and wiki is ALWAYS the first or second entry. Is this scholastically justified though? It's like the Amazon.com of Knowledge, links leading to hyperlinks, a veritable feast for the mind but is the whole enterprise shaky?

The 50th Anniversary of the JFK Assassination

While I wasn't even born during this tragic and historic event I was born on 3/14/64 which would make me well along in my mother's womb on that fateful day of 11/22/63. The specials are starting to churn out with PBS leading the way. Watched NOVA's "Cold Case JFK" episode last night and just as I suspected all the more mainstream and respected programs are gonna go all establishmentarian on us, not really gonna give serious fodder to any conspiracy theories. On the show after that narrator George Clooney intoned "when Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed John Kennedy from the Texas School Book Depository" and I got to thinking but that was never exactly proven in a court of law now was it because nightclub owner Jack Ruby wasted no time in gunning him down. While growing up I had a slim purple bound volume of the famous Warren Commission Report on my bookshelf and was weeding out books one day and it was such an easy decision to just chuck the thing out. The House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1978 went with it was probably a conspiracy and I'll go along with that but I haven't decided on which theory yet. I'm kind of guessing BB's establishmentarian POV here but let's open it up for debate anyway.

Turns out all that Rt-Wing Propaganda was right

Hundreds of thousands of Americans have now gotten cancellation notices from their health insurance companies in the mail. The Obama M.O. - get people off insurance to get them back on again, the running carousel. Presidential flackey Jay Carney has said they were substandard policies anyway. The NYT has opined in one of their trademark by now way out there editorials that Obama didn't outright lie when he said oh about a hundred times you'll be able to keep your doctor and your health-care policy, he simply misspoke. The happy and breezy young girl of the government website is no longer there either. Maybe that's because she too has recognized that ObamaCare is going down as one of the biggert clusterfucks in American history. When Biebs finally comes down with the Brazilian clap he doesn't have to worry but the rest of us as the song says don't come from money, we're not royals. Dems are stuck with this and it'll be real interesting how all this plays out in the 014 midterms.

Obama's continuing war on Privacy

The NSA, the Atlas Shrugged of spying - bulk is better. There's intelligent spying and then there's the indiscriminate, haphazard, random and promiscuous spying as practiced by the NSA...now it's tapping into Yahoo and Google links overseas. Just what in hell were we supposed to learn from Angela Merkel and the Pope anyway? Welcome to President Obama's dystopia.

ObamaPetCare

I don't think people should talk about pet health insurance yet when we can't even get human insurance off the ground. 5 million lines of code......

I need another TMI closet

Robin Thicke told Howard Stern he and his wife Paula Patton have done nearly everything. I know all about Sandra Fluke's monthly birth control expenses and how Michael Douglas got his cancer. Katie Couric once had her colonoscopy filmed and John Mayer has had coitus with Jennifer Aniston. There's older stuff like Bob Dole's erections, Bill Clinton's crooked member. Some quite dated Johnny Carson stuff and Frank Gifford has a thing for smelly women. I don't know where to keep all this stuff. Maybe I'll go to Home Depot and get one of them sheds.

Have YouTube and Twitter gotten out of control?

Al-Shabab the Somali offshoot of al-Qaeda has or had an actual, authentic and official Twitter feed and boasted online of the horrific massacre they pulled off at the upscale Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Now one of the most viral videos out there is the one on YouTube involving the hordes of psycho motorcyclists on the West Side Highway in NYC and the only way it got on YouTube was one of the moto-psychos was wearing a helmet cam at the time and recorded the whole thing from before up to and including the motorist who ran over one of his fellow bikers and then the biker gang chasing him down for miles and beating him up in front of his wife and young daughter. Facebook isn't much better with gangbangers having profiles and regularly boasting of their day-to-day and I got to thinking these three major and popular sites have TOS sections that you have to agree to when you first sign up right? A key section usually involves not breaking the laws and not inciting to violence and threatening and harassing people and similar caveats no? From terrorists to common thugs and garden-variety criminals it seems everyone has a site or linkup or feed these days and they're so teched up to the gills that even during the commission of their diverse crimes and atrocities and general social mayhem one of the things foremost on their minds seems to be going online later. Is the omnipresence of Technology doing something to the Brain? or to put it another way does the mixture of criminals and technology make things worse? call it Techno-Porn:)

A part-time nation with health insurance

This is pretty much what the social/economic landscape is gonna look like when ObamaCare gets fully rolled out. Gold, silver or bronze plan your choice. On the plus side you'll be covered you just might not be able to afford the latest smartphone or HDTV. Look full-time work can exacerbate your illnesses and ailments, better to Kindle with a mug of hot cocoa and rest your back. I've been wondering of late though if HillaryCare would've been any better or maybe they're the same thing. Happy exchange shopping - is there an app for that?

The liberal(?) Pope Francis

He gets around town in an older Renault with 190,000 miles on it. Asked on a plane about gay priests and he says "who am I to judge?" Now he says clerical celibacy is not a dogma of the Church and says it can be discussed. Unlike the more foreboding and stern ex-Benedict he's the softie in the Entenmann's box, friendlier and more personal around the edges. I got no problem but if the liberal media starts to like you then there is a problem. I think you have to balance your softness though so as to appear you stand for something, you're not throwing out doctrines and morals. Coolness though cool is not a teaching. My view on priestly celibacy is it may be a blessing in disguise, you never experience having your heart broken but I also think it should be an option. All things considered though I'm getting the faintest whiff, just the wisp of a curl of a liberal pope with more liberal things to say in the near future, dribs and drabs stuff on planes in cars on sidewalks and in interviews. Is he down with Pro-Choice? he might vague the issue. On the Syrian question he's not even discussing the Church's time-honored since Aquinas just-war doctrine he's just tweeting the typical pacifist platitudes. The point's been made the Church needs to eventually move with the times, the Zeitgeist but is the times always worth moving towards? I don't have a firm impression of this pope yet and some feel Jesuits are a problem. I'm trepidatious and hopeful at the same time. As an interesting aside what's in some of those Vatican archives? Keep the theological sleuths busy.

Bush put boots on the ground in two wars...

...and conservatives by and large eagerly supported him. Obama wants a limited strike on Syria and he's a weak and confusing leader. Is there a Tea Party Spark Notes to explain all this?

Ronald McDonald vs. Cheech & Chong

Some issues have come up in a couple of recent posts namely that eating at McDonald's is extremely bad for your health but pot is somehow ok. In the following 3 month experiment which group do you think will come out on top in terms of general overall health? The first group will eat what they consider to be a healthy diet, work out at the gym and all that good stuff but they'll smoke a couple of joints a day 'cause that's what they do. The second group will eat at McDonald's everyday, just once daily is enough and it doesn't have to be a hamburger and a soda. They can go for the healthier options on the menu like the salads, the wraps, the yogurt parfaits and a bottle of spring. I believe they even have some apple thing. So this group does that but they're not into pot and won't smoke it and they can jog too just like the first group. OK so at the end of the 3 month period who has damaged their health more and who will be happier? I once knew a guy who was really into his health, kept detailed charts of his cholesterol levels, plotted this and plotted that on graphs and reports but was a real pothead and was always devising new ways of toking like making a funnel out of Reynold's aluminum foil which I would think your fingers would get hot. He also unplugged all his appliances like the tv before leaving home for the day because he explained there's the trickle-suck effect of the plug simply being in the outlet and even that uses juice. What I want to know is at what point in time do you turn into Howard Hughes?

The very liberal NYC Mayoral race

The very not-afraid-to-say-it liberal Bill de Blasio is leading the Democratic pack to replace Bloomberg. You'd think Stop 'n' Frisk were the most important issue facing NYers as they're all running ads against the practice but de Blasio is also touting in commercials he's gonna tax the rich more in order to pay for after-school programs. The thought occured though doesn't he need the rich vote too as there's quite a few of them on the upper sides of the Island? Christine Quinn the Speaker of the NYC Council is second or third in the polling I've seen and Bill Thompson is right there with her and because he's black he's gotten certain major endorsements from other key blacks like the Rev. Calvin Butts. Anthony Weiner is one of them lower-tier candidates always around 8% although he has interesting positions like stop the ban on gay men donating blood at the same time touting the conservative position of more discipline in the public schools. I really don't think NYers are all that jazzed up about the Republican side with Catsimitidis of Gristedes fame and former MTA Chairman Joe Lhota who said he wouldn't hold up the subway lines for a couple of damn kittens. For Comptroller all Scott Stringer has to do is put ads against Spitzer saying "I'm the normal guy." Oh God though am I glad to see Bloomberg go! can't you just picture him on one of them court shows?

Today's fast food protests and why I plan to eat at all three

Growing up I never went to work at a McDonald's, it just wasn't for me and I knew going in the pay was low. The pay is still rather low because Mickie D's is basically an entry-level job for teens and other young people first entering the job market. Other people however don't see it that way. The federal minimum wage is now at $7.25/hour and I've never made the case you could survive on the minimum but if you're 42 years old with or without kids why are you even working at a Wendy's or Burger King? Of course many people who have started at a McDonald's are now managing at a McDonald's but all this socialist unrest is not gonna cause me to eat less at any of the Big Three, in fact I think I'll go out later. Everybody has a political statement to make these days it seems and personally I much prefer to work it out through blogging rather than hitting the pavement and causing social disruptions. I'm not the bumper sticker type but I do break for animals.

Here's what I don't get about ObamaCare

I'm on record as being against it but having said that it seems to me ObamaCare has no teeth, no nails and so companies are being allowed to evade the Law. More and more businesses have decided to cut back on part-timers' hours to under 30/wk. so as to avoid the delayed but inevitable employer mandate. The year 2013 is a kind of lookback period after the mandate finally becomes fully implemented. Now it's obvious why these companies are doing this and the reason solely has to do with evading the employer mandate of ObamaCare. I haven't read the whole thing but seems to me this shouldn't be allowed, it should be illegal. Gov't auditors should then be able to look back at the corporate history of those companies now only recently cutting part-timers' hours to under 30/wk. and so there should be another penalty, a kind of backup penalty that kicks in if it is determined after a gov't investigation that the corporate motive at play here is to avoid having to provide health insurance to their employees working over 30 hours/wk. A Law has to be serious, just sayin'

Eclectic News of the Day

Culled from different sources I thought these two items were interesting. Are you a sleep texter and in cryptozoological news there's this.

Chris Christie, gay politics and 016

I've heard of gay conversion therapy and feel folks should be legally able to freely choose it as their therapy of choice.  In NJ Gov. Chris Christie just signed a law banning the practice and the focus seemed to be parents choosing it for their children.  By my math Christie doesn't go very far in the Republican primaries in 016.  We already know he's not appealing to the more socially conservative base but he's also gonna turn off the more libertarian element in the party who'll see his actions as increasing the power of the State to direct parents re the moral and social upbringing of their children.  As usual Saty and BB will completely miss the point on this one and my smartphone should be burning up later.  Oh btw I had to abort Publius last night.

Obama, Egypt and what's a coup?

I'm confused about Egypt, they protested en masse against Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood and got rid of him, now that they got rid of him with the help of the Egyptian military others are now protesting en masse in support of Morsi. Of course before that everyone protested against Mubarak but seems they can't settle on a permanent leader over there. As everyone knows the Obama Administration esp. Sec'y of State John Kerry won't label it a coup as that would automatically cut off about $1.3B in foreign aid we give Egypt every year. As an aside where in hell does that money come from since we're in perpetual debt and deficit mode these days? Anyway the death toll continues to rise in the Arab Spring turned Red Summer with 275 dead a few days ago although the Brotherhood wrongly claims around 2,000. Mohammad Morsi was destroying basic freedoms like freedom of the press and dealt harshly with political protestors and yet a good slice of the right-wing commentariat seemed to want him to stay even though it was obvious he was turning this North African nation and pivot in the Middle East into an Islamist state. Well if you go back to the days of right-wing Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet many on the Right sometimes have a habit of turning the other way, he was a right-wing kind of dictator so I really don't take right-wing commentary on foreign policy all that seriously to begin with. Remember back in the day when Egypt was a fun topic and gave rise to a song by The Bangles and a skit by Steve Martin?

Stop 'n' Frisk put on hold in NYC

My liberal gut instinct tells me Stop 'n' Frisk is wrong but my practical side sees it's also a highly effective police tool for reducing crime rates and getting guns off the streets. As you know Manhattan federal judge Shira Sheindlin has basically invalidated the NYPD's well-known and highly practiced stop and frisk program which has led to at least twenty years of markedly lower crime rates than under the David Dinkins administration. Judge Sheindlin also ordered a court-appointed monitor or overseer of the NYPD program and there's also to be a pilot program involving copcams worn on cops in one precinct in areas in every borough with the highest stop rates is my understanding although the PBA is gonna fight this rightfully saying imo that cops already have alot of gear on like mace and flashlights and this is only an extra and unnecessary encumbrance. Here's a complaint I hear alot about gangbangers in general, what's the deal with them and why do they have such notoriously bad aim? it'd be like the Mob going after Castellano outside the steakhouse but instead shooting an innocent grandmother in her rocking chair across the street. Anyway here's my overall view of these matters, when liberalism holds sway the crime rate goes up, way up. In short PC kills, think ChicagoLand.

The Big Business Blog

Soapie has a problem with Big Government or maybe it's just government. BB has a problem with Big Business. I have a problem with Both. Where to begin?

Our technologically disoriented society

ABC News had an interesting segment a few nights back about the recent spike in pedestrians being killed by drivers. We usually blame the motorist but according to the report there are two primary reasons for more pedestrians getting killed. One is many of them the walkers that is are drunk and these fatalities often occur at night (Lindsay Lohan is ambidextrous in this regard, she's driven drunk and walked drunk). The other main reason is folks are walking while texting and not watching where they're going. I see this on a daily basis and not only that you're more likely to become a victim of crime imo while doing this. You're far less aware of your surroundings, your environment which is the first thing they teach you in self-defense courses. Say two black guys are following you, say two guys are following you they may want your wallet or they may even be after your smartphone. Anthony Weiner, alot of people miss the point here. It's not so much that he'd have sex with these women he's just addicted to the tweeting, the texting, the technology of it all. You know when you take a picture of something, say your cat or a birthday cake and you send it off into the wireless ether to wind up on Facebook or Twitter or even your blog? You're amazed at the technology of it all (I did that?) and you feel like you have some magical powers that folks 30 years ago didn't even have and so in some cases images of peckers are happily bouncing around between the cell phone towers. I also think people are paying far too much for their technological needs and not only that all this technology is making them exercise less, I mean how many things can you watch on your tablet? So that's it we're a nation of zombies:)

Reflections on the 2016 GOP field

Chris Christie the apparent frontrunner - I'm not a fan as most conservatives are but there's a concern about his famous personality. It may work well in Jersey but I don't think he has the presidential temperament for the world stage. What is he gonna do tell foreign leaders off? Then there's the latest idea being bounced around of LI Rep. Peter King running. To me he has a touch of the opinionated loudmouth and imo he's not libertarian enough. He'll explain to you why we need the NSA looking through your tv screen into your living room let's say and if somebody leaks this much-needed gov't program they're a traitor and should have their balls deep-fried. Rand Paul the well-known KY libertarian - a longshot but the fave of one person around here. Isolationist foreign policy, would not try to stop most, make that all of the world's current genocides. Then there's the youngish and photogenic Sen. from FL Marco Rubio, would tap into the much-coveted Goya voting bloc but buena suerte in the primaries young man going up against all those GOP hardliners on immigration. Dunno, I'm not all that jazzed up about it all.

The narrow political focus of Obama Sucks

Some folks want me to narrow the focus of my blog down to Obama and the Scumbags. It is indeed a fucked up world but I don't know how to unfuck it. Dunno, what do you want to talk about? Snarky is good but don't just be a drive-by, stay awhile.

The Ole Gray Lady, for my money the most biased paper in America

Media bias is often in the eye of the beholder but I think it's getting harder to deny. The homepage of my mobile browser has been revamped nicely and so I clicked on the NY Times mobile site and read this and there seemed a most definite skewing. The debate is not a new one and it's not really like I mind media bias just be upfront about it. If FOX swings to the Right and provides a kind of counterweight to the predominant leftward tilt of the press it would seem to be a good thing like a menu.  Media bias, why care?

Anthony Weiner aka "Carlos Danger"

It's a real Weiner roast here in NYC with three of the current candidates for Mayor telling him to as the Daily News put it BEAT IT (that's so clever).  Then there's former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer running for Comptroller and if I had to choose between the lesser of two pervs I'd go with Weiner since with Weiner it's just the compulsive addictive sexting but with Spitz in addition to the 'hos you also got steamrolling over political enemies, overinflating charges against Wall Street etc. or maybe that was just his way of celebrating.  I'm actually not joining the swelling Chorus telling Weiner to drop out of the Mayor's race and the way I see it he actually didn't have sex with anyone.  It'd be like going to Hell over masturbation, looking at dirty pictures, subscribing to Penthouse.  Clinton had actual sex in the Oval Office while President and Dems pretty much backed him to the hilt whereas more and more Dems are telling Weiner to drop off the radar so what gives?  I mean the guy never even got a handjob.  It is shocking though that these latest sexting revelations are about new sexts after Weiner's resignation from Congress in 2011 even a year later, maybe he was depressed or as Devo has said "when a problem comes along you must whip it."  His most recent sexting partner though, this 20-something woman/progressive activist seemed pretty willing at first at least from what I've read, what'd she re-envirginate herself? so aside from being a problem for his marriage it doesn't seem to be a crime.  Huma Abedin, I kinda liked it that she spoke at that press conference the other day, broke the mold and speaking as a conservative don't we have too many divorces in this country anyway?  Aren't they being more faithful to their marriage vows than, oh I don't know Rush Limbaugh?  According to the most recent polling data half of NYC voters seem willing to give Weiner a pass and he is leading or at the top of all the polls and I think this has to do with they do similar stuff too, it's a different age after all.  I mean how do you get on Weiner's case when you're downloading porn yourself?  You know I was reading the other day about Blogger's Content Policy and this really surprised me but Blogger allows you to use sexually explicit content in your blog if you so wish but they'd appreciate it if you'd label it Adult.  I just hope Weiner doesn't take up blogging.  

No, Obama was not Trayvon 35 yrs. ago just a budding lefty

So if I understand Obama's racial speech the other day if I'm driving along and decide it would be a good idea to lock my doors, after all white guys do alot of carjackings, but just then a black guy is crossing the street I should not lock my doors so as to not offend the black man or something like that. Our frank national conversation on race continues.

Are we a nation permanently divided?

and it seems to have gotten worse under President Obama.  This blog is a good example, the fault lines on so many moral, social and political issues run deep especially lately.  There's no sincere search for common ground or if there is one it goes along the liberal lines of agreeing to force religious employers to provide birth control since hey pro-lifer you want to reduce the number of abortions right?  Gay marriage - Obama could have simply let the issue play out in the states during his second term instead of issuing his now famous evolved statement on the issue.  It may not be most conservatives' cup of tea but many of them seem happy enough it does play out in the states, things were going slowly but surely steadily Gay anyway and yet the liberal pressure groups always want to short-circuit the whole traditional democratic process and take it all to the SCOTUS.  They want a permanent Roe vs. Wade re gay marriage and on other issues like Race there's Obama's "if I had a son he'd look like Trayvon" remark and it's out in the open now but the Justice Dept. early on spent money and sent some of their own people down there to organize rallies and such and these protests weren't in favor of Mr. Zimmerman needless to say.  ObamaCare which is actually aggravating our country's underemployment problem as more places of business with over fifty workers cut hours under the 30 hr./week threshold but not to worry because there are now free meetings at public libraries to explain the nuts and bolts of the Affordable Care Act but despite no amount of education and enlightenment most of the public still seems to be against it, the ignorant masses.  Drone strikes in foreign lands, NSA surveillance of your phone records and e-mails here at home (a great big liberal yawn), immigration, guns/gun control.  We didn't start the fire but we are a nation permanently divided, we take our sides and rock the blogs and social media networks and on it goes.  It wasn't a requirement that you like Bush, why is it a requirement that we like Obama?

The George Zimmerman Verdict and Al Sharpton in all his glory

So I go to work this morning and a black co-worker is carrying around The Daily News and you're like I heard that Jeter got hurt again. NOT GUILTY, look I'd have more respect for the Black View in this case if they didn't cheer when OJ got acquitted. The circular reasoning of pro-choicers like BB and Saty - if Barack Obama were aborted we wouldn't have one of the greatest presidents of modern times (in their view). Discuss all this and more.

A random thought on my walk today

I don't know why the White Rhino in Mozambique has to become extinct just so a Chinese businessman can have an erection.

A kind of off-the-cuff remark about Egypt & America (but don't quote me)

Big difference between how Egyptians handle things these days and over here in America.  Ordinary Egyptians have now within the span of a mere two years overthrown two official Egyptian leaders, longtime dictator but pro-American Hosni Mubarak of course and now Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood who was nevertheless perfectly duly elected by the Egyptian people once upon a time.  Now the modern Egyptian trend seems to be "hey buddy you suck, gotta go."  Here in America on the other hand a duly elected president can suck all he wants and unless he commits an impeachable offense he stays in office.  It's the American way, he can practically run the country into the ground over the course of even two long terms and basically we bitch and moan about it, get angst over it, write columns and negative blogposts galore, work ourselves up into a fine dander whereas the Egyptians don't have time for this.  OK so that's the don't quote me part, Janet Napolitano may be reading this right now and homing in.

OK so since I don't advocate the Egyptian way of handling leaders who suck and who otherwise disrespect the people there HAS TO be another way whereby, how shall we say we can speed up the process and get the country on the right course again.  Recently WI Governor Scott Walker was subject to a recall vote and I've been thinking if we tweak a little here and maybe work in another Amendment over there and this would apply to Republican or Democratic presidents btw but let's say we built into the system that you're really making a mess of things and to be fair this has to be proven over a lengthy time, for example certain negative economic and even social indicators have to reach a certain low first and stay there but under this new way of thinking, our new system Obama would be subject to a recall vote right about now or certainly midway through his second term.  Ditto retroactively would have been done to Bush Jr. I think it fair to say.  Liberals positively couldn't stand Bush for eight long years, we can't stand Obama so this would cut across party lines and benefit folks of all political stripes and an important side benefit is it would be cathartic.

There has to be a better way:)

Does the Democratic Party want to be known as the party of late-term abortion?

There's been a kind of polling consensus out there for years now that even your average pro-choicer at large opposes or feels squeamish about certain things like later-term abortions besides sharing a couple of other points with the pro-lifers.  I've often wondered myself from a philosophical POV how does a doctor perform such a procedure and go home and sleep at night? and if you track historically the narrative arc of the whole pro-abortion movement there was in the past a definite trend to emphasive earlier term abortions and not to be seen as too keen defenders of this whole other ghastly business, indeed they've accused the lifers of purposely harping on it.  Recently however there's been Gov. Cuomo's now stalled push in NYS to allow very late-term abortions for reasons other than the mother's life and now there's this story and it just leaves me scratching my head over why liberals/progressives/Democrats would even go this route.  There's been a kind of latent creepiness/weirdness which has come to the fore these days in the whole pro-abort movement, a kind of Newtowning of Choice, a sort of philosophical monsterism and would Wendy Davis personally herself we willing to stand in the same room and witness such an existentially depressing procedure from start to finish?  Is the average pro-choicer that you work with demanding this?  Extremism by any other name......

SCOTUS/DOMA

Why have legislators?

The Next Generation

When I was a kid I was out there collecting snakes, with today's kids it's the iPad. Playing on Mom's smartphone the next gen is gonna be more techno-literate than I was. Having this discussion here recently should the Gov't teach kids about sex or Mom and Dad? Well today there's a third option - Siri.

Amateur Herpetology

During the warm summer months along the Saw Mill River in Westchester County NY you should always look towards the edge of the bike path while walking. Just sayin'.

The Government/Verizon data-mining I was going to say scandal

But it's clear that many don't even see it as a scandal and I'm even reading those on the Right like John Podhoretz who actually seem to support it.  OK so millions of Verizon customers have had the duration but not the content of their phone calls tracked, the numbers of both parties are even on the record and the times of day but ultimately there is just too much to sift through so some pretty advanced NSA computers analyze the metadata to look for what are called "suspicious patterns" and then if that turns up then the feds can go further in their pursuits.  Didn't prevent Boston but I'd like to know what a suspicious pattern is and as for the millions of other customers of the other major carriers they're probably in the Database too but the government hasn't said so yet.  Simple rule here though - if Obama does it it must be good but if Bush did it then it's bad.  The major players like Microsoft and Google are fully cooperating of course, it's yet another corporate/government Leviathan monster arising out of the ocean and as for myself as regards my phone I just do what I gotta do the government be damned.  Life's too short and the government bureaucracy being what it is they're gonna fuck it up anyway.

I don't care what you do (but I also don't wanna know)

Call it libertarian respect, a kind of social compact/truce that has worked down through the years.  A few famous people these days seem to be applying the Angelina Jolie Template customized of course to their respective diseases/ailments (mainly cancer though) and we hear all about the nexus of their disease and their lifestyle choices.  Let's say in an interview a well-known person, some household name says "every time I hang upside down and someone sticks a thumb up my ass I get cancer,"  don't wanna know, not a public service imo.  Don't wanna hear PSAs about every sex act known to man.  IF Celebrity Q a woman likes to guzzle it down like a milkshake but then it gives her problems down the road, cancer of the stomach kind of deal DON'T WANNA KNOW.  Bob Dole was brave on the battlefield but I don't think he was brave about ED, he was just TMIing.  So I walk in the supermarket the other day and the newsstand is right there and I'm just standing there for about 15 or 20 seconds looking at the cover of one of the papers and the produce guy and I are talking about IT.  People call it heroic I call it TMI.  The Angelina Jolie Thing stands on its own don't try to use it, that's her you just like to share.  The orals the anals don't need it on the cover of TIME or Newsweek when I'm checking out.  Let's nip this one in the bud before it pops up all over the place.  Look I don't care but I also don't wanna know ok?

St. Francis with an iPad

The Backlash Against Technology -- Lately in conversating with some old-timers there seems to be an anti-technology feel out there, a kind of anti-modernist vibe.  It irritates me at first, can't these codgers get it that you can't have the '50s forever but then I ponder for awhile and there's a point to be had also.  Some are fond of saying we were better off before the TV but as a device the TV is neither good nor bad.  It's not the TV's fault that most of what's on is pure crap, it's not the apparatus that's evil.  Texting and driving and cyberbullying, it's not the technology that is good or evil in itself it's how you use it.  Just 'cause your relatives or friends come over with their iPads and smartphones and start using them instead of honing their social skills well that's just incivility plain and simple and in the right hands tablets and Androids are wonderful devices.  There's Internet porn and bomb-making recipes on the 'Net of course but for every negative on the Web I can point to a positive, it's a yin/yang thing.  I recently learned some online groin pull/sciatica stretching exercises that I'm convinced fast-tracked my road to recovery so for every old-timer who says technology, the Web/smartphones, whatever is not good for your mind I would point out the ability to increase knowledge in a good way is right now at your fingertips.  I also had this thought today, I think we're in for another bubble bursting down the road, the smartphone bubble.  Half the population has these gizmos it seems and it no longer seems to depend if you've been wise with your money throughout your life and have made responsible decisions to allow you the finer luxuries.  I had to wait for my prescription yesterday in a lower-income part of Yonkers and you get to observing.  You got teens coming out of rather seedy apartment complexes with smartphones, not cells but smartphones and I'm thinking besides the cost of the device itself there's coverage right so how can these young'ens afford it?  I think something has to give down the road, it's natural economics but for now at least everyone's a technodude.  The new Pope even has an iPad and the other day I saw a photo in Catholic New York of some prelate showing him how to use the new Vatican app.  Point in closing -- if the dark side of Technology bothers you so much make the decision to use it for Good.

Rumblings that Big Labor is going against Obama

Voting for Obama is like having bought a smartphone that you're disappointed in.

Why conservatives should be against the death penalty (but they aren't)

The perverse Jodi Arias jury, deadlocked now and can't decide whether she lives or dies.  Lost track of how many days they've been deliberating her fate, there's been a devastating supercell tornado in an Oklahoma suburb and the blanket media coverage of the aftermath days after and they STILL haven't arrived at a decision.  I was pondering all this on my walk today and I think it's a fair guess to say most conservatives these days like to be known as libertarian to varying degrees, to different shades and their animating principle is of course they're against increasing the Power of the State and don't even like the power it already has.  The State however has the power and authority to imprison you, that's a major power but they also in some cases, in many cases have the power to also put a person to death.  That's an awesome power, a disturbing power.  For me my personal opposition to the death penalty has nothing to do with sympathy for the criminal in most cases but more a disturbing sense of the Power of the State, it bothers and nags for some reason.  Dunno what the official libertarian position on capital punishment is, I mean I know their position on that other kind of capital punishment (ka-ching ka-ching) that Obama represents but where they come down on putting a criminal to death I really don't know or haven't gotten the memo yet.  Yeah you'll say but it's in the Constitution and that's true but I've been wondering too of late should the Constitution be the be-all and the end-all? our Bible especially when it kinda contradicts libertarian tenets at times and while we all revere the wisdom of the Founding Fathers but being human and all and not the demigods we make them out to be they could've been assholes on occasion (see eminent domain).  Yeah I haven't talked about the death penalty all that much here down through the years primarily because people's minds are mostly made up and what's the point but have finally crystallized at least why it bothers me so much.  IMHO it should also bother your average conservative.  Maybe Rand Paul can tweet it:) 

When government turns on itself

This is interesting, the FBI may investigate the IRS over its targeting of conservative political groups filing for tax-exempt status but then who then investigates the FBI, the CIA?  Obama has recently castigated the IRS for the scandal, will the IRS then audit Mr. Obama?  I must've missed the smoking gun where the President ordered the IRS to go after the Tea Party movement but conservative commentators are acting like this is so.  I'm sorry m'am, just the facts.  AG Eric Holder didn't know his deputy authorized subpoenas for all those AP reporter and editors' phone and interview records, that's interesting an underling having more power than the boss.  Of course there's still Benghazi but allow me to say something about Brooklyn Federal Judge Edward Korman.  I've been reading about him in the paper of late and he's the one who struck down all age restrictions and prescription requirements for the Plan B morning-after pill.  It's not really his decision that struck me, it's to be expected but his reaction to those dissenting parties including the Obama Administration that gets me.  He's one of the most hubristic judges I've ever heard about acting like he's the final arbiter on a contentious social issue and doesn't seem particularly keen on the right to appeal (his decisions that is) which is a cornerstone of our democracy blasting HHS Sec'y Sebelius and anyone really who disagrees with him and he just seems to me to be off the rails, off-center from a judicial temperament pov.  Did you hear Chris Matthews' latest rant about conservative criticism of his beloved president? he's still pushing the racism angle that old yellowed dog-eared card and it's funny but people like him never seem to get laryngitis.  Tawana Brawley had a fundraiser the other day, did you give?  Lingering question though, will the IRS audit those rogue FBI agents?

Another medical thread - Angelina Jolie

There's been an outpouring of public and celebrity support for her and the Twitterverse really cares.  Hollywood is really patting itself on the back but let's get one thing straight, Angelina Jolie is not coming across as your typical Hollywood airhead and not too many celebrities can even write a decent Op-Ed piece in the Ole Gray Lady.  Writing about her recent decision to get a preventative double mastectomy she's definitely adding substance to the discussion and I find her much more useful than K-Dash or even Madonna.  She's also hopefully helping us move past our national Hefnerized adolescence, a culture obsessed with boob jobs and longtime love interest Brad Pitt is coming across as noble, as being a good character.  I don't have a good knowledge of this area, BRCA 1&2 and the 87% chance of breast cancer and 50% chance for ovarian and all that so I'm rendering a nondecision here.  IMO breast cancer gets far more press and attention than say prostate cancer, that's another issue but having said that I find her quite articulate in her cause.  This ain't a case of Sean Penn writing down his deepest thoughts with crayons or Rodman palling around with the North Korean Psycho and so since we've been covering alot of medical ground here lately I've been thinking of starting the Z-man Foundation for the Research and Cure of Tinnitus.  I also never got the whole current conservative fixation with reading NY Times editorials, as an old Times ad used to say read what you like.

Facebook Follies

Let's face it Mark Zuckerberg was a genius and social-networking trailblazer but lately there was the FB IPO which sucked and now in business news AT&T has decided to sell the brand new Facebook Smartphone for just 99cents since that turned out to be a flop on all fronts including even the software and apps.  Facebook has also had troubles and controversy of late with some pedophiliac-themed pages which have popped up every now and then and well anyway now the next big kid on the block is Pinterest and while I don't think Facebook is gonna go the way of MySpace (MyWho?) anytime soon I really think he needs to give the big Ralph Kramden brainstorms a rest for now.  In other news Ariel Castro he of the infamous and bizarre Ohio kidnapping case now says he should have just stopped at two women as sex slaves.  Yeah you got greedy bro!  Also some big ABC News producer, the he became a she and walked on the wild side and the marriage is kaput with two kids in the mix.  Used to be you could practically go days on end in the news cycle and it was boring now it's offensive, strange for some reason but in an interesting way.  I used to like Pink but her songs are now like crabgrass on the radio, new songs every week and I've kinda had my fill and who is this Phillip Phillips guy?  They made a big deal over what Justin Bieber wrote in that Anne Frank guestbook over in the Netherlands but I categorize it probably as a brainfart, basically an expression of a thought you can't even explain or express properly and I thought what people write in the logs at museums and galleries is kinda private anyway.  Got a buck? I wanna go get me a new smartphone, maybe ten.

Thoughts on NJ Gov. Chris Christie's lap-band surgery?

How ironic that he chose to do this and now the nearly extinct TWINKIE is about to make a big comeback. Has the hallmark of a classic Twilight Zone, Burgess Meredith on the steps of that post-apocalyptic public library after having just broken his only pair of glasses with which he loved to read - It just isn't fair!

The moral puzzlement of ObamaCare

Company XYZ, a major business makes the deliberate decision to cut all part-timers' hours to under 30 per week so as not comply with the federal ObamaCare mandate. Is moral blame to be placed squarely on the company or instead on the President? Union ABC has always supported Obama and his policies but why if in this case it will make the country's underemployment situation worse? Great free-market questions.

Smartphone techno-geek support forums

Since I still have some technical questions/issues with smartphones in general I've been browsing some of the more popular online tech-support forums of late.  They're a real hoot to read, basically the geeks are having nervous breakdowns 'cause they don't understand their smartphones.  Look it takes time and one of the more common complaints you'll see is when they use their WAP browsers to roam the mobile web they hit on a site they really like and up pops the ever-annoying "Page too large - open mobile site."  I'm kinda resigned to this by now and am still playing around with my own mobile settings but have come to the conclusion for serious computer work you probably shouldn't even be using a cell in the first place, at least get yourself a tablet.  The other day another common complaint I saw was some folks were having trouble connecting to WiFi using a certain product although it could be any product it's just a general techno-geek angst out there and when somebody does answer their technical questions or tries what's funny is nobody really has any answers or real solutions it's just moral support from fellow geeks-in-suffering.  Guy was having trouble logging onto Wayport at Mickie D's or something and I'm thinking are you just gonna sit there at that table and hog up the space for an hour or more after eating your cheap burger that you didn't really want anyway but it was just an excuse to go to a local hotspot and some family wants to sit down and enjoy their value meals but Dorkman is still experiencing technical difficulties.  When I encounter problems I don't understand more likely it's something I don't get yet rather than it being the smartphone company's fault and there's just the hint, the merest whiff of a Corporate Conspiracy at work among some of these posters like they're deliberately programming cells to give you a hard time so you'll buy more Airtime cards or something.  I just came up with a good expression though - My brain is experiencing technical problems, please stand by. 

I'm now in favor of medical marijuana

...provided you put it in pill or capsule form.  Isolate the main medicinal analgesic element in pot and put it in a tablet and folks will quickly lose interest in it as an issue.  You'd think we didn't have good pain management until weed came along.  What's Oxycontin anyway a pussy drug? it's good and all but you can't smoke it.  It's all about getting in touch with your inner Munchhausen, your purported bad back now gives you an excuse to go to the medical dispensary in states where this is legal.  Help your cancer management and alter your mind at the same time, the two work in tandem and that's the whole point.  Smoking medical weed as opposed to taking a pot pill is kinda like seeing a sex surrogate instead of consulting a textbook to work out your sexual problems and save your marriage - "I'm doing this for us honey."

Bitcoin - techno-libertarianism?

Digital currency with no fixed rate, no real value. One business in NYC is starting to accept Bitcoin payments. So maybe after your next night on the town you can scan your restaurant bill with your brand new RandPhone.

The McBlog - a couple of thoughts on the go

Is it a sign of age when you spend most of your time on the computer looking up medical ailments? The failure of gun control - conservatives would rather you have a nuclear shoulder launchpad than risk a government takeover. Lovingly from my mobile device.

The Boston Marathon Bombings

One of my first and earliest thoughts in the tragic wake yesterday was Mayor Bloomberg needs to stop worrying about stupid stuff.  My other feeling was we've been lulled of late, no major domestic terror since 9/11 really and the few thwarted plans within the last few years were obviously concocted by amateurs (e.g. shoe bombers, undie bombers) and so there probably wasn't that heightened security at such a major event as there should have been not that there wasn't any security but you know what I'm sayin'.  Learned from some of the experts interviewed on the news yesterday that just like in the movies it is possible to detonate a bomb using a cell phone so maybe you can chalk up another negative into the cell phone/techno-addiction corner ("today's mayhem brought to you by Droid").  John Miller I like and will always stop while channel-surfing at such a time and see what he has to say, insightful and well worth listening to.  During his first address on the subject President Obama it was said made a deliberate decision to not yet use the word Terror even though CBS's Scott Pelley and some others were freely using the word so that seems to be some kind of early initial reflex on the part of the president following such events so make of that what you will.  Lastly Mayor Bloomberg needs to stop worrying about Stupid Stuff and if God forbid something like this should happen in NYC again many folks are gonna look back and say too much time spent on the Big Gulp:) 

Pro-abortionism, the quicksilver in the debate

Trying to nail down what exactly is pro-abortionism since everyone denies it so I've come up with this by way of example.  Let's say I'm against affirmative action or "reverse discrimination" as it's been called, now I think I can come up with a fairly respectable and intellectually legitimate defense of my position but let's say to make my case I then relied almost exclusively on the arguments made by avowed white male racists would it be a fair assessment among the folks-at-large to say I'm a racist or bigot, that the reason I'm against a quota system is because I hate blacks?  In the same way if I say I'm not pro-abortion but pro-choice but rely almost exclusively on pro-abortion argumentation, the pro-abortion worldview re the fetus in making my case then I think it not a far-fetched conclusion to say I'm also pro-abortion in addition to being pro-choice, nay probably pro-abortion first and foremost.  It's not really just another abortion thread just a caveat regarding semantics that when making your case be careful whose arguments you choose to use.  IF a pro-choicer uses the same material that a hardcore pro-abortionist uses and does this time and again know what I'm sayin'? 

Some more post-Newtown thoughts,

since it's still percolating out there and the state of CT has just passed some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation.  I only thought I'd do another Newtown thread if I have any fresh insights and so let's begin with the mathematics of Newtown.  Now all these massacres of late within the last several years are being lumped together somehow but in the vast majority of shooting massacres grown adults are the victims.  That's tragic enough but what happened at Sandy Hook is on another level totally IMO, a kind of existential quirk.  In fact it's bizarre and I don't think there's a snapshot anywhere of Adam Lanza where he's not a bug-eyed bastard, such a joyless individual.  Now the math angle, if you gun-controllers want to prevent another gun massacre ok but if your goal here is to prevent another Sandy Hook you're trying to prevent something that may not happen in another 150 years or ever for that matter.  Another point - how did the post-Newtown debate/discussion somehow evolve into ONLY talking about guns and gun control with a healthy side of mental health and no mention of DRUGS whatsoever?  meds, PCP, bath salts, prescription abuse, airplane glue, whatever but it's high past time authorities lay it all on the table so maybe we can have that other discussion.  One senses just another generic post-gun massacre political debate with an angle or two being deliberately suppressed and I've been wondering why.  Lastly since I'm trying to be fresh in this blog, to look at these things from another angle when you post comments I'd like some fresh and original thoughts too, maybe give yourself an aerial view of the issues instead of same-old same-old, left/right-wing talking points.  NRA Bad, ok we get that but how can you legislate exactly against or to prevent the tragically bizarre which is what Newtown was?  Conclusion: I'm not disagreeing with you about gun control per se but could Sandy Hook have been prevented?  I'm gonna go with a no:)  

The Mobile Web

My cell has the WAP browser deal where you can roam the Internet and it's real cool and addictive.  For instance when word first came out that we have a new Pope Francis I went on and found out within literally two minutes he had one lung since his teen days.  Just the other day I was doing the Sunday crossword and couldn't get the drug used in the movie Awakenings so again I went on the mobile web and within not even five minutes had my answer: L-Dopa.  Of course for real serious computer work you should have at least an iPad but it is fascinating just the same to have such information while on the go but there does seem to be limitations.  Newsmax.com itself has a nice mobile site, that's a conservative newssite but I find with Drudge the page is just too vast and sometimes you'll get a message that says "Page too large - open mobile site."  Browsing through some 'droid forums and other cyberdiscussions the other day and the things people get frustrated about like one guy wants to get the mobile version of a certain site on his laptop and it's really bothering him and I'm like why in hell would you even want to do that, are you that bored?  Anyway for those with Blackberrys or any other kind of smartphone device ya got any technical advice or pointers?

Workplace malaise

I think it's time for a fresh blog.  Politically I can't latch onto anything at the moment and so I figured I'd do another work blog.  The workplace, it's been said companies and corporations have become more impersonal over the years.  Now I've had many jobs in my life, a quite varied resume but back in the day you were more like Family.  Most recently I've been getting over a severe groin pull and told my boss about it and even called out sick one day.  This is really a weird ailment because the pain is worse at night and in the morning but when you're active during the day you kinda forget it even exists.  Mild activity is better than staring out your bedroom window all day but anyway I took the one day and when I got back nobody really asked me how I was.  While everyone knew what the problem was because I told them and it's kind of awkward talking about your nether regions but no person in authority came up to me and said do you need some time off? not that I would've used it but it's nice to ask.  You know, concern.  Then there's the winter weather.  You could have 1 1/2-2 feet of snow and the place is still open and if you do call in there's a kind of weird silence on the other end of the line ("you mean you're not coming?").  Minor criticisms -- now I'm of the opinion that let's say you've put in 20 years at a place, they know your work product and on balance you're damn good and so one day some boss levels a mild criticism at you for whatever.  Nothing earth-shattering mind you but imo it shouldn't be brought up as the bulk of your work production over the years really outshines the minor bad and you do work through various ailments which people tend to forget so what's the purpose of the nitpicking point?  Oh yeah they're cutting back the hours on alot of people because of ObamaCare which I'm sure it's not Obama's fault and I ain't understanding the problem correctly.  I've got some years to go but I'm retiring the first day:)

Pope Francis I

Argentinian Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio is the first pope from the Americas.  One news station treated him as a political candidate and flashed on the screen "opposes abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriage."  Well every pope in modern times has opposed those things, it's part of official church teaching if you haven't heard but then again the msm is so used to covering politics maybe it's hard to switch gears.  This was a great day for the Spanish news stations like Univision.  When I first heard the news that we have a Pope Francis I went on my mobile web and found out he has only one lung because of a lung infection he had as a teen, he has prefered humble living quarters and public transportation and has a special concern for the poor.  I have a good feeling about him.  At 76 he defied conventional conclave wisdom that held the 115 cardinals were gonna go with somebody younger and so as one commentator put it maybe they prefer shorter-term papacies now, God knows that would be a good idea for politics.  It's said he supports many social programs for the poor so we'll see how the National Review crowd reacts as they've been critical of popes in the past who have seemed to veer to the Left in their eyes.  Oh yes he chose Francis which is my middle name, Francis of Assisi one of my favorite saints:)

OK so Florence Nightingale she's not

I found this item on the website of the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network.  Since the TS Life & Hope Network is obviously an anti-euthanasia organization I just had to read about this incident but after reading it at least two times I came to the conclusion there was no pro-euthanasia motivation that I could detect on the part of the nurse involved or her place of work although I do think she and her facility were tragically mistaken.  I blame the lawyers.  At my workplace for instance one of the co-managers came over one day and we had a kind of impromptu meeting and the gist of it was if a customer is in need of some type of urgent medical attention just call 911 and leave it at that.  Attend the person in need but that's it, don't try to help them yourself so I politely said what if someone is choking on a chicken bone can't you perform the Heimlich?  I mean by the time the paramedics arrive and he said well ok but you have to be properly trained and certified in these life-saving procedures.  Well the reason he gave that you're not supposed to help the person in need besides calling 911 is your workplace can be sued later, YOU could even be sued if something goes wrong.  Better to sit back and do nothing and wait for the ambulance to arrive and just hope they're not navigating heavy traffic.  Again I blame the lawyers.  Interesting scenario though, a lawyer is choking on a chicken bone......

Rand Paul's filibuster on drones

By all accounts he got rave reviews from across the political spectrum and well deserved I may add.  The only sourpusses in his own party were John McCain and Lindsey Graham.  McCain's probably just jealous he couldn't do such a thing without making periodic trips to the bathroom or else wear a catheter.  Look it doesn't matter that Paul was discussing a hypothetical, it's valid anyway and today's hypothetical may be tomorrow's reality.  He finally got his answer from AG Holder stating that no Obama does not have the constitutional authority as president to use a weaponized drone on a US citizen on American soil who's a noncombatant or something like that and I think we all agree Jane Fonda is safe in her cafe.  Rand Paul is fresh, McCain and Graham by contrast are old and stale and represent the old guard.  So John Brennan was confirmed as new head of the CIA but that's not the point and that point is that drones are now a valid part of our national political discussion.  It's not so much an attack on Obama but do you want to live in a world where politics and sci-fi eventually meet?  So hear hear to Rand Paul libertarian Senator from Kentucky and he somehow pulled it off without sounding like Alex Jones:)

Obama Fatigue

You had it with Bill Clinton and George W. Bush now I think it's beginning to settle in especially with the sequestration.  Obama is slowly but surely going down in History as The President of Bad Times.  It's as if he doesn't mind so long as he doesn't get blamed for it, so long as he can blame them Republicans.  Also you have to ask yourself how stupid was it to pick a fight with Bob Woodward, I mean he's not some new squirrel in the park.  At least with Clinton he felt our pain, Obama abstracts it always into some political issue that throws him in the best light.  Drama Queen-in-Chief, our existential leader and now I get this on my Mobile Web day in and f'ing day out.  QUESTION: does the IRS get sequestered?   Followup Question: can Woodward deepthroat Obama?

Will they sequester Planned Parenthood?

I mean it's a meat cleaver approach as Obama has said and so it has to fall on everyone......

right?

Oscar thoughts

It dawned on me that I haven't even seen any of the big movies nominated here.  I thought Argo was some sort of update of Jason and the Argonauts until some woman at work explained to me it had something to do with Iran or Iraq and the war.  Lincoln I'd have to be in the proper frame of mind first to sit through and even then I might find it boring.  Silver Linings Playbook, chick flick.  Of the current crop I'd opt for Django.  Zero Dark Thirty is the type of movie I'd definitely watch but it's not so pressing that it can't wait 'til the DVD comes out which is my way of doing things lately that is if all the FYE stores don't close down in the meantime.  I was in a DVD store just last week on my day off and it must be slow there and/or they're overly concerned about shoplifting or something but no sooner did I enter the store than the young female clerk practically accosted me, handed me a bag for my goodies, asked me if this is my first time here and then when I started to browse kept following me and asking me if I'm finding everything ok and things like that and I found the whole experience supremely distracting.  My whole shopping concentration was thrown off and I have to say I made some poor selections.  Look I get it about customer focus and all that but sometimes us browsers just want to be left alone.  I mean I don't know what I want, I'll know it when I see it.  Don't go to the movies, can't shop - anybody got a bootleg copy of Django?

Pope Benedict resigns

His was a kind of quiet papacy in the eclipse you could say of the charismatic and saintly John Paul II and his grand and long mark on history.  I was not really surprised to learn of Benedict's leaving the papal office at the end of this month, he's up there in years and has had health issues so now the attention turns to possible successors, papabile.  Former Vatican Secretary of State Angelo Cardinal Sodano is no good, he suppressed alot of stuff on Fatima.  Same with the current Sec'y of State Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone.  Re the Third Prophecy the BVM had said to Lucia: "Look my child don't be surprised if, at a certain moment, a certain diabolical disorientation affects the best of minds, a disequilibrium so that they no longer judge according to the voice of my Son and of Peter."  Dolan is a long shot for the job but I think he would enjoy it for no other reason than that fine Vatican cuisine and impressive team of professional chefs.  I picture him for starters with a nice draught of abbey ale in the papal den perusing the New York sports pages and that husky laugh of his when he gets a visitor.  Incidentally if you're ever on Jeopardy and get asked this question they do have a team of what are called tastetesters whose sole job is to sample the food cooked for the pope on the offchance it may be poisoned, a kind of gustatory secret service.  Betcha didn't know that, you get the occasional nugget here.  My personal favorite is the Cardinal from Nigeria Francis Arinze who's been around the Vatican for awhile most lately as Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.  He was a chief advisor to JP2, he knows the players, he's conservative and we've already had a Pole to break the long line of Italian popes and so I think for many different reasons one from Africa would be ideal.  Benedict, now Ratzinger again? will probably go back to writing books, tweeting and playing with his mobile device.  My favorite newspaper headline is from today's New York Post, "Pope Gives God 2 Weeks Notice."

Free cell phones as a gov't bennie - Gov't stroking the sweet spot

Got a thing in the mail yesterday from a place called Safelink which is a service of Lifeline which is actually something to do with the Federal Government.  Note the key words here - Safelink, Lifeline, Federal Government.  Apparently and I've heard about this but if you're poor enough, if you're under a certain predetermined income level and already partake of certain government programs like food stamps and SSI you're ELIGIBLE, entitled to a free cell phone with 250 free minutes!!!  Text your heart out.  So of course they have some kind of positive blurb at the bottom of the letter from some older disabled woman saying the cell phone practically saved her life butcha just know most folks are just gonna be gabbing and blabbing and yakking on the things.  Bishop Sheen warned about this way back in the day, they're gonna try to make you dependent on the federal government.  Free cells and having your job be forced to cover your birth control, it's all of a thread.  Maybe they should call it Flukelink (pronunciation fluck).  The Obama Motto - don't let your boss decide if you can have bc or not.  To me that's irrelevant, your boss has nothing to do with your personal life.  During my last job interview it never dawned on me to ask in closing are you gonna cover my sex'chal needs?  The ONLY thing that matters is getting paid for services rendered, that's it!  You know it's become kind of gauche to point this out lately but these are the type of people who voted for Obama and yes he won the election fair and square but when his second term is up that's when we have to have The Great Rollback, the massive scaling back of liberalism and at the top of my list will be the free cell phone.  Conservative post-election analysis greatly missed the point.  Generally speaking Mitt Romney really did nothing wrong, the country's changed is all.  BTW BB's probably entitled to a free cell:)

Obama's very liberal 2nd Inaugural Address

The Leftward Tsunami is coming, conservatives better head for the hills.  Obama riding the back of Leviathan, there's a Dali painting in there somewhere and at long last his speech finally dispelled the myth of his centrism.  The NY Times proudly used the term "liberal" on its front page and it's pretty clear he's gonna do what he wants in his second term and why not? the American people gave it to him.  The msm will have his back of course, well maybe not Jake Tapper but he's gone rogue.  Obama has this very annoying but shrewd polemical habit I've noted, if you don't agree with him or otherwise want to work with him you're an extremist, an absolutist, bad for the Republic and in this way he casts himself as the reasoned and civil moderate when in reality what people are really against is his liberalism.  This is defining the terms of the debate from the getgo (what debate?) and in psychological terms is called invalidation ("you're irrational").  There've been a few liberal invalidating comments posted of late on this very blogpage.  For instance if you don't agree with me you're incapable of processing my opinion i.e. reason.  It's clear Obama doesn't want to work with conservatives, he is divisive and polarizing as usual and he'll never change.  The speech covered the usual liberal gamut from gay rights to gun control, immigration reform and entitlements to climate change and it's clear LI Rep. Peter King was starstruck by the Beyonce/Jay-Z couple as he eagerly whipped out his picture phone like any stalkerazzi approaching deadline.  OK OK so perhaps BB and Saty can explain to me AND the Ole Gray Lady why his very well-received second inaugural address wasn't liberal:)

Advanced Obamanomics - the payroll tax

We just got a memo from Human Resources, the federal payroll tax holiday is expiring and they just went up 2%.  To use an example someone pulling in $300/wk. would have six extra dollars taken out.  Of course I'm not a member of the evil 2% and I know Obama is looking out for my middle-class interests.  Then there's the new health-care tax:)

Here's hoping that 2013 sucks less than 2012

The Fiscal Cliff - what I want to know is why did everyone wait until the last minute to resolve the Crisis?  The only explanation I can get out of it is like the teen who deliberately masturbates right before his parents come home from food shopping.  The metal gate's clanging, oh here we go...must be the excitement of it all, some just like to look over the precipice.
Hillary has a blood clot near the brain - and no she didn't fake it to get out of Benghazi.
Can we go a whole year without a mass shooting?  I don't know, is that asking too much? maybe it is.  We just got these new uniforms at work, nice new black aprons with a big red bullseye-type dot with the company logo smack dab in the middle and the produce guy and I both agreed, with all the violence in society our new dress code is making us somewhat uncomfortable.
Which celebrities will be arrested in 2013? the same ones or some new surprises?  Why is Jessica Simpson famous?  Judge Judy annoys me.
50 Shades of Grey the Movie - at least Hunger Games had something to say, a point.  So the movie will come out and eventually the DVD version with 10 minutes or so of extra uncensored director's cut footage and you go out to the nearest FYE store and buy it 'cause you think someone's gonna be trussed up like a turkey with an apple in the mouth or someone goes to the bathroom in a litter box.  I mean you don't have to be psychic.
How many days out of the new year am I not going to get any? (get the marker out).  While we're on the subject Jefferson Valley Mall in Yorktown Hgts. has these new massage chairs with a whole anal routine.  Bad day at the office, hit the mall.  I'm just sayin'
Subway pushers - the new normal.  A-Train's a-comin'
A whole entire new year of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh complaining about Barack Obama, God help us!