Hopeline Video

1(800) Suicide needs your help.

Nod to Frank at

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

It's updated every Sunday and it's something I always look forward to - I suggest you check it out. It always makes me feel better in a group therapy/"hey, you're not as effed up as you think you are" kind of way. And, I think everyone can use a little of that these days, because we all have enough of ...

• 2nd graders being suspended for wearing an anti-"N"-word t-shirt to school
• Lesbian couple celebrating 18 years together on their way to a cruise and one woman suffering a stroke rushed to the hospital and her partner is denied by the Miami hospital to see her dying partner and told she was in a "anti-gay city and state"
• Of course, among heterosexual couples, women are most often the trailing spouse and their careers suffer, as a result
• David Addington under subpoena; not happy about it. Could the president ever be justified in breaking the law? "I'm not going to answer a legal opinion on every imaginable set of facts any human being could think of," Addington growled. Did he consult Congress when interpreting torture laws? "That's irrelevant," he barked. Would it be legal to torture a detainee's child? "I'm not here to render legal advice to your committee," he snarled. "You do have attorneys of your own."
• And ... y'know that John "At least I don't plaster on makeup like a trollop, you cunt." McCain guy that seems to have a really special relationship with women? He's got a wicked sense of humor too! Because it's probably not funny when you're laid up as a prisoner of war but beating your wife - that's hilarious!

So, watch the clip, help support the suicide hotline. Send in a postcard.

Tom Togs Out for Hurling Team at Age 71.

". . . when the local team were down a man, he didn't dither when asked to tog out. Kerryman and grand-father Tom Randles played the full 60 minutes of a recent Junior A Duhallow League game against Co Cork side Tullylease . . . 'I always loved a puck around. I don't think that will ever change,' he said." From Mature talent: Tom, 71, togs out for hurling team in the Irish Examiner.

Honest as the Day is Long Junior's Used Car Lot BR-549

If You Meet The Buddha On The Road . . .

Betty Bowers Explains "Prayer" to Everyone Else

The Fascist Follies

Some women may be disappointed but thinking women will not disappoint.

There is a view about that a certain demographic in the Democratic party (“older women”) maybe…well, emotionally upset over Hillary’s loss—sufficiently that they can’t be enthusiastic for Obama.

It is easy to understand how demographic alignments in this campaign hardened along lines of gender, ethnicity and age. This was not (for the most part) in a negative way but in a positive way, with individuals naturally seeing the candidate they most identify with, a woman or relatively young black man, as best reflecting their own image of the party’s consensus for change. Physiological differences between the final two candidates became so important because, outside of arguments about judgment/experience on the one hand and electability on the other (highly dubious issues to resolve with confidence), the only clear objective difference between the candidates was gender, ethnicity and age. Debates between them were like watching the tedious separation of thin layers of an onion, as semantic wars strained the natural limits of words to parse, often to the point of becoming humorous.

While everyone could, of course, articulate an intellectual, philosophical or practical reason for supporting their candidate, it cannot be doubted that choice in both camps was often influenced by simple identification—the human mind, male or female, being a powerful engine for rationalization. It is easy to understand how supporters on both sides became so emotionally invested. Real bitterness in a close defeat was inevitable for someone.
In switching from nomination to election, however, the terms of the debate are completely altered and a new mindset required. The policy differences between the two candidates now at issue are a chasm requiring no parsing and would not be materially different were Hillary the Democratic candidate. At stake is the integrity of our Constitution, health care, national competitiveness, energy security and independence, education, the global environment, and how we conduct ourselves in the world as a nation (cooperative consensus building partner of other nations or go-it-alone gun slinging superpower). Our freedoms, prosperity and security are very much in issue. Failure to reject recent foreign policy is to ratify that policy and project it to the world as a credible representation of this nation’s character, form and values. Nothing could be more damaging at this juncture.

But there is something else at stake here that goes to the heart of the disappointment many women are feeling. The party chose with great difficult between two different personas projecting essentially the same message of change. Even in their differences though, they are the same, both being nontraditional leadership figures. The fact that the final contest was between these two candidates is momentous and evidence that we are making progress as a nation or at least as a party toward fulfilling our Nation’s founding values; toward reason and away from prejudice. But either nomination would represent a great gamble. We can debate whether Obama’s color was positive or a negative in the primary but there can be little doubt that if he were white, this race would essentially be over now. If he loses, it will be in part because he is black. Certainly it will be seen that way and therefore a consequence of nominating a nontraditional candidate, as it would also be if Hillary had been the nominee and were to fail. If that is the outcome how long will it be before any party repeats the experiment?

Thinking women are not going to overlook this. If the right black man can be elected President of the United States, then so can the right woman. You can’t pop just one part of a flawed mindset, it either all explodes or none of it does. “Electability” need never again be a magic word for instantly erasing otherwise qualified candidacies on account of ethnicity or gender. The party has chosen between two leaders whose very physiology symbolizes change, in order to better make change in policy. Electing a black man (or a woman) President of the United States stamps “CHANGE” as a mandate with a force and clarity that cannot be ignored. The closeness of the nomination makes it clear that the Democratic Party is now willing to nominate women as well as people of color to any office in the land. Winning this race is necessary to validate that decision.

We (you) need to win this, gals. While women are not monolithic in their politics, within the various segments of the gender there is a certain sisterhood. If thinking women decide they really want Obama to win, he will win. Women are going to prove more than enthusiastic, not only because of the criticality of the issues but also because another glass ceilings is about to be broken and thinking women love hearing glass ceilings breaking. I certainly hope so because I have a new granddaughter. Maggee will make a great President but it would be a shame if she is the first of her gender and that might be about the right timing for another try if we don’t win this race.

P.S. Please forward this to any thinking women you know and if you click on the photo above Maggee's qualification for office will become more apparent.

July 4th is "Free to Believe Day"

Below is from John M. Buchanan, editor at Christian Century magazine. He quotes Steve Waldman (co-founder of beliefnet) in Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in American.
"Some of the founders were orthodox Christians, some were closer to Unitarianism, some were Deists. Whatever their beliefs, they knew that for their experiment in nation-building to work, it could not have a state church, state support for religion, or state interference in the sacred territory that was each individual's conscience. "The Founding Faith," Waldman says, "was not Christianity, and it was not secularism. It was religious liberty—a revolutionary formula for promoting faith by leaving it alone."

Sixty-eight Years Ago The Battle of Britain Was About to Start and Sgt Józef František Was About To Become the RAF's Ace of Aces.

A Pole who had fought with the RAF in WWII gave a radio interview about his war experiences. He relived a dogfight in which he had shot down three German planes. He said "three fokkers appeared out of nowhere, one fokker was at 12 o’clock, one fokker was on my tail, and one fokker was diving on me." The moderator quickly intervened and explained that a Fokker was a type of German aircraft. The pilot said “yes, but these fokkers were in Messerschmidts!"
Some say that the pilot was Sgt Józef Frantisek, a Czech fighting with Poland's Kosciuszko Squadron. However, Sgt Frantisek never got the chance to do any post war interviews. He was was killed in an accident on October 8, 1940. Before he died, he became the "Ace of aces" of all the RAF squadrons. He had "escaped to Poland and fought against Germans in September 1939. Then he went to France together with the Polish pilots and shot 10 Luftwaffe aircraft. After coming to Great Britain he was persuaded to join one of the Czech squadrons to be formed. Yet, he wanted to fly with the Polish 303 squadron. During the Battle of Britain he invented his own method of 'hunting' the enemy aircraft and achieved 17 kills." He said that the only time he was not terrified was when he was flying. Sgt Frantisek, you were a real patriot who would not have joined the Texas Air National Guard even if you'd had the connections. Your war was a war of necessity-not choice. You fought it your self. Thanks for your sacrifice.

All God's Creatures Got A Place In The Choir by Tommy Makem & the Clancy Brothers

Did McCain's Temper Get The Better of His Economic & Political Sense By Letting the C-Word Slip?

" . . . one of the gentlemen running for president has been accused of dropping the c-bomb, while engaged in a heated debate on the floor of the living room of his own house. According to a new unauthorized biography, The Real McCain, one time after his wife Cindy told him his hair didn’t look good, Senator McCain responded, ‘At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt.’ . . . OK, seems a little harsh, but in his defense, Sen. McCain’s a Navy man, that’s just salty Navy talk. He’s not trying to hide it, you’ve seen his campaign slogan: John McCain, Experience You Cunts Can Count On. You know you can’t spell Count On without c-u-… ahem.
Is this story true? Who knows. But the important thing is, it’s out there, signaling that we have officially moved into the character assassination portion of our presidential campaign."JON STEWART Daily Show: McCain’s c*nt tirade just his ’salty Navy talk’ By David Edwards and Nick Juliano
WARNING: SOME MAY FIND THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA REPORT BELOW DISTURBING, OFFENSIVE OR TASTELESS:


Thanks, I think, to B.M.

So Now There Are Four Sexes. Marry One Of The Other Three To Avoid Same Sex Marriage.

"Researchers" (what a vague term) claim to have demonstrated some structural similarities, crosswise between the four sexes (Don't you think it is time to acknowledge that there are four sexes?) Which is to say that the similarities are between gay men and straight women on the one hand and straight men and lesbians on the other. Gay Brain Structure Similar to Straight Opposite Sex (Update1) By Elizabeth Lopatto

Nice to have these things confirmed but any open eyed/open minded observer would have predicted this. We see this more and more, people quantifying realities that we have known about ourselves all along.
From James T. Bruce.
Quiz:

1) To which of the four sexes does the person pictured here belong?
2) To which of the four sexes does the person pictured here think he/she belongs?

For All the Right Reasons, I'm Voting Republican

Thanks to Steve, Robert & Nancy.
And thanks to K.C. for sending I'm Goin' Republican by Bob Forrest.

See Your Sheba Shimmy Shake And All That Jazz.

Attack on Afghanistan Prison Frees Captured Taliban Militants. What Will W. Do?

See, Hundreds of Taliban escape in Afghan prison bombing
What will President Bush's strategery for dealing with this disaster be? Will he:
a) Step up the "Surge" in Iraq.
b) Bomb Iran.
c) Increase his campaigning for McCain because the current strategery is working.
d) All of the above.

Professor SHE for a day: Is this a teachable moment?

The SockObamaCo., which appears to be an extremely ignorant, offensive, neo-nazi, race-baiting company, stated in response to inquiries about the marketing of its Obama-monkey product:

We simply made a casual and affectionate observation one night, and a charming association between a candidate and a toy we had when we were little. We wonder now if this might be a great opportunity to take this moment to really try and transcend still existing racial biases. We think that if we can do this together, maybe it will behoove us a nation and maybe we'll even begin to truly communicate with one another more tenderly, more real even.

(emphasis added)

Seriously?

"opportunity to take this moment to really try and transcend still existing racial biases"?

Maybe.

Let's get Homeland Security in on it.

Provide SHE a list with all those that make a charming purchase of the "Obama-monkey," and I'll follow up with some truly tender communication.

Or, I can go with my first instinct, which was my stilleto in someone's neck.

Denny Crane for President? At Least He Admits That He Has Mad Cow.

Cucumber Sandwiches

Thanks to Stan

Amen

“Please do not send me any more ‘trashings of Bill Clinton’ until the Accountability group does something about Tim,” she said in the e-mail. “We are beating sinners over the heads with the ten commandments and ignore our leaders that are arrogantly breaking them. Sure, drooling over Clinton’s sin may stir the troops to political action, but that is not what the Holy Spirit wants from his church.” Donna Hutchinson on Former Republican Senator Tim Hutchinson
See, also He Did Not Have Sex with that Woman by Jonah

Sleep Well Tonight. Your Commanders in Chief and Your Air Force Are Awake.

"In a long-awaited report, the Senate Intelligence Committee rebuked President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney today for making prewar claims -- particularly that Iraq had close ties to Al Qaeda -- that were not backed by available intelligence. The report . . . accuses the president and other members of his administration of repeatedly exaggerating the evidence of an Al Qaeda connection to take advantage of the charged climate after the Sept. 11 attacks. "In making the case for war, the administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even nonexistent," said Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "Sadly, the Bush administration led the nation into war under false pretenses.'" Senate panel rebukes Bush, Cheney on prewar Iraq claims By Greg Miller
"In August, a B-52 bomber flew from North Dakota to Louisiana with the crew unaware that six nuclear-tipped missiles were on board." Air Force officials ousted over nuclear gaffes
I miss Slim Pickens.

Safe Abortion Whether Morally Wrong or Not Should Not Be Criminalized

Criminalizing safe abortion leads to criminal results. For example, " . . . a nurse who was admitted with what looked like a partly delivered umbilical cord. Yet as soon as we examined her, we realized that what we thought was the cord was in fact part of her intestine, which had been hooked and torn by whatever implement had been used in the abortion. It took six hours of surgery to remove the infected uterus and ovaries and repair the part of the bowel that was still functional."The Coat Hanger "May Be The Symbol, But Is In No Way A Myth," Says Pre-Roe OB-GYN
Thanks to SHE

Elmo & DeNiro Audition For Casino

Frank Sanford Has Been Gone for 30 Years. We Miss You Frank.

On June 3, 1978, the Arkansas poet Frank Stanford committed suicide by shooting himself three times with a .22 caliber pistol. Only 29 years old, he had already been hailed as a great new voice on the American scene, likened to Rimbaud and Ginsburg. Read from a large archive of Stanford's poems, essays and letters, and the first 30 lines of his epic, 15,000 line poem "The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You." A fledgling Arkansas Times was one of the publications which marked Stanford's loss back in 1978 . See, Death of a Major Voice in Arkansas.
Thanks to Judge C.

19th. Amendment to the U.S. Constitution Was Proposed on June 4, 1919 and ratified on August 18, 1920.

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
We might be a hell of a lot better off if only women could vote.

Bo Diddley December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008

The Bible Means Just What It Says Except That Wine Means Grape Juice.

As you may know, I have sworn off booze until at least October 4, 2008. (Probably longer should I die before then) See, Away With Rum By Gum (Until October 4) I feel better, during the day, at least. I also sleep better and enjoy feeling morally superior to those who do imbibe as Young Art does driving his low carbon footprint car. Still, I do miss it. My views on strong drink are eloquently expressed in the passage below which is shamelessly copied verbatim from Lowell’s The Whiskey Speech. Click here to read the whole post.
My friends,
I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, here is how I feel about whiskey.
If when you say whiskey you mean the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.
But;
If when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman's step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life's great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.
This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise.

1952, Noah. S. "Soggy Sweat (1923-1996)
Thanks to Vince for the tip.
I also share the views expressed by Alonzo Garbanzo in Away With Rum:


Willie Nelson in That Good Old Mountain Dew:

The Clancy brothers in Whiskey You're the Devil:

Tom Paxton - Bottle Of Wine

TEX RITTER-RYE WHISKEY

Tom T Hall in I Like Beer

and Shelly West in Jose Cuervo

The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder by Vincent Bugliosi