Wednesday, February 27, 2013

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?

Monday, February 25, 2013

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?

Friday, February 15, 2013

Stranded in our high-tech civilization

Guy and I were talking at work today and we both said within the course of a normal week we really don't use our cell phones that much.  OK an occasional text message here, a semi-important call there ("hey honey do we have enough milk and bread?").  It's good to have, it's an amazing piece of technology but on my day off yesterday I was waiting for the library to open at 10AM and mostly everyone waiting was either talking or looking at their cells.  The elderly, kids, it runs the gamut makes no difference.  Hey maybe your manager can text you throughout the day even though everybody is working side by side ("put up more chickens" -  "take your lunch at 1:15").  Would make for a quieter workplace.  Now even when I relied only on a landline phone at home I really didn't talk all that much, maybe two or three good conversations per week.  Banking by phone, I prefer to do my banking in person thank you.  There are people who don't own a car or who don't drive who have cells.  I'm more from the old school and for most of my adult life I kinda went with a car is more a necessity at least at first.  About our low-information, ignorant society-at-large we were having an interesting discussion here about do we blame homeschooling or the public educational system in general and BB said maybe it's the cell phone.  I'm inclined to agree and I don't think it always facilitates rational decision-making like maybe some people are rapping so much because they have all these minutes, no other reason ("yeah Larry I'm calling you right now 'cause I have all these minutes I have to use no other reason.  So how have you been?").  Not that long ago some purported medical study came out of the World Health Organization (the WHO) maybe linking cell phone use to brain cancer.  I will say this though, those most at risk of getting Cancer of the Head from cells if there is such a thing are probably those who are constantly on them, who feel it's as integral to their day-to-day as having a penis or a vagina which leads me into the wonderful world of sexting which is what highschoolers are doing more and more of these days.  With the phone-cammed bj's you always get that poor porno angle from straight above, it's not so much erotic but annoying to have Jimbo your co-worker say "hey come here a minute, look at this!"  Again it's a technological marvel but still, I mean what is everyone talking about?  Is it gonna stop the next asteroid from hitting the Earth or even deflect the bullets from a Bladerunner?

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

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."

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

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:)