monday morning mayhem - on Wednesday...

i couldn't wait for a weekender with this one and i didn't really post a real monday morning mayhem..., so i thought this would really break up the week.



don't honk at old people...






you knew Maxx loved this one...

REAL monday morning mayhem...

well, this one has no jokes. it really has turned out to be a mayhem day right from the start.

i had to get up early to get the car to Infiniti because there was recall on the fuel pump. turned out to be a false alarm. it was okay. they did do a couple of things for free for my coming in.

then i had to run to a friend's house to bring her some papers in PDF that she couldn't open on her computer. i tried everything i could to open them on her machine. it worked fine on mine. seems her email server thought it was spam/virus because it came from a Xerox scanning device. it erased all contents.

over the weekend i had a problem start up in my mouth and when i called the doctor, they said, "come in NOW." about three weeks ago i was having a problem breathing because of one of the medications from the surgery i had. they increased my Advair; actually, they more than doubled the dose from 100mcg twice/day to 250mcg twice/day!

seems that oral corticosteroids like Advair are known to produce yeast fungal infections in the mouth [Thrush]. though i have been on the 100mcg dose for years, the higher dose, even though i was rinsing out my mouth per instructions, it was too high and caused the fungal infection.

not a happy camper.

my biggest worry was that the Advair has been so effective that it has really been years since i've had a full-blown asthma attack. now i have to stop using it at least for the next couple of weeks. this during one of the worst times of the allergy season. the doc gave me a script for a rescue inhaler in case i need it. i do not like those things, but if i have to the alternative is not pleasant, if any of you with asthma well know.

so, i went from my house that is at 8700 south to 15900 south to 12000 west back to 5500 south, east to 1100 west and then to 2200 north. if you are familiar with Chicago at all, it was a giant circle of about 90 miles.

well, it will all work out. it always does, but it does remind me of what retirement may really be all about:

Wisdom Of A Retiree!

I've often been asked, 'What do you old folks do now that you're retired?'

Well..., I'm fortunate to have a chemical engineering background, and one of the things I enjoy most is turning beer, wine, gin, Scotch, and margaritas into urine.

if only you all knew how true that is in what all i've been going through. though it hasn't been through the gin...


shut up, Maxx...


sometimes he drives me bonkers!

weekender...

i almost forgot i've been so busy the last couple of days, but this is just in time for cocktail hour on a friday...


To my friends who enjoy a glass of wine... and those who don't.

As Ben Franklin said:

'In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.'

In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink one liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. coli) - bacteria found in feces.

In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop.

However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer (or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.

Remember
Water = Poop
Wine = Health

Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water and be full of shit.


There is no need to thank me for this valuable information:

I'm doing it as a public service.



Maxx & i will stick to gin...

come on baby...

shake your tail feather...




watch it until the end. he gets better and better...

i love Ray Charles, too.

Earth Day...

some believe the earth is a fragile thing, but it has lasted through some of the most disastrous things. we, on the other hand, are fragile. our actions, or inactions, show just how much as we create machines that can destroy the balance we need to maintain with the place in which we live.

obfuscating obfuscations: turn the other cheek - your ass or mine...?

christians consider themselves under attack today. they believe that they are the ones against whom persecution is aimed. they think that the secularism in the world is crushing them out of existence.

well, they forget how they used persecution throughout their history right from the beginning to foist their beliefs on everyone else.

from a book by James J. O'Donnell, The Ruin of the Roman Empire -

"Christians resisted persecution well--both the ordinary spasmodic kind and the infrequent broader campaign--because their communities were many-headed, did not have substantial real property, and lived so fully intermingled with Roman society that they could not simply be carved out and attacked. A century after Galerius, when Christian emperors set out to--we might as well use the word--persecute 'pagan' communities and practices, they were far more devastatingly effective. They halted the supply of state funds for traditional practices, crippling much of what had been long familiar. Then they seized buildings and banned ritual in them, sweeping the landscape nearly clean of the old ways. What survived--and much did--was personal, small-scale, or highly localized. Over a relatively short time, the new bludgeoned the old into submission and eventually supplanted it. That's what real persecution could do, unafraid to use violence but not needing to use very much of it. But Christianity never faced anything like what it would later visit on the traditional cults."

they were the real experts at persecution. we see this all the way down to the present day. there is no hesitancy on the part of christianists in trying to bat the world into submission to their way.

sadly, they set the example. we see in the world of Islam the same type of fringe groups, eg. Al Quaeda, who adopted this christian view to their own imagined advantages.

like i said, turn the other cheek...

plain words...

i found this on one of the French blogsites i haunt - L'homme est un concept - Man is a concept.


Comme ca c'est clair*



this makes me very sad. there is absolutely no excuse for this. it is tragic that people who say that their very core beliefs are based on love but deny love as they pigeon-hole it based on a narrow minded interpretation of a three word sentence they hold sacred - god is love.

Nietschze said that God is dead. i think what he really meant is that mankind killed god by its hypocrisy and self-righteousness.

if there was an original sin that would be it...



*literal translation is "Like that, it's clear"; idiomatically, i'd translate it as "How stupid"

brush up your Shakespeare...

Mayor Richard J. Daley has announced that this Thursday, April 23, 2009, is 'Talk Like Shakespeare Day' in Chicago.

April 20, 2009 (CHICAGO) -- In honor of William Shakespeare's upcoming birthday, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has proclaimed "Talk Like Shakespeare Day" in the city.

Although Shakespeare's actual birth date is not known, many scholars believe it to have been on April 23, 1564, since the poet and playwright is known to have been baptized three days later.

This year, April 23 is Thursday.

In his recent proclamation, Daley urged Chicagoans to celebrate the occasion by bringing the spoken words of Shakespeare into their daily lives.

ABC7 Chicago News via the AP

so what's the big deal?

i tried to find a video of how Da Mayor normally speaks, but couldn't. he speaks soutside. that's not a typo. there is no /sh/ sound in soutside English. i should know; i speak it fluently.

well, not on a regular basis. with education you learn to speak differently, but i can slip right into it when i'm with friends or family. as a matter of fact, i just got of the phone with my cousin. "i's speakin' soutside wid'im" the entire time.

so, for Mayor Daley to proclaim this Thursday "Talk Like Shakespeare Day" is wonnerfull.

actually, it's also in conjunction with the Chicago Shakespeare Theater that is one of the greatest in the country. it won a national Tony Award a number of years ago for top regional theater. i've seen many incredible performances there over the years.

so, thou may speaketh on Thursday yon as if thy were with the Bard


but you may need to "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" first...






this may help also...





crossposted at macarthur park

this is America? - pure obfuscation...

land of the free? home of the brave? a christian nation?

Waterboarding Used 266 Times on 2 Suspects

Mr. Hayden [CIA Director for the last two years of the Bush Administration] said he had opposed the release of the memos, even though President Obama has said the techniques will never be used again, because they would tell Al Qaeda “the outer limits that any American would ever go in terms of interrogating an Al Qaeda terrorist.”

NYT, April 20, 2009

i don't remember what show i was watching this weekend but one of the guests speculated on what the reaction would be not if but when a former detainee perpetrated an act of terrorism against the U.S.

both sides will say, "See! I told you so."

and it will fly into the face of the men who fought for the freedom...

“Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any [prisoner]... I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it will not be disproportional to its guilt at such a time and in such a cause… for by such conduct they bring shame, disgrace and ruin to themselves and their country.”

- George Washington charge to the
Northern Expeditionary Force,
Sept. 14, 1775

i am sad...

monday morning mayhem...

school days

Early one morning, a mother went in to wake up her son. "Wake up, son. It's time to go to school!"

"But why, Mom? I don't want to go."

"Give me two reasons why you don't want to go."

"Well, the kids hate me for one, and the teachers hate me, too!"

"Oh, that's no reason not to go to school. Come on now and get ready."

"Give me two reasons why I should go to school."

"Well, for one, you're 52 years old. And for another, you're the Principal!"


there were some days that i felt that way. not because of the kids. the adults drove me nuts. kids are much, much smarter and a lot more fun...



teed off...





Below is an actual sign posted at a golf club in California :


1. BACK STRAIGHT, KNEES BENT, FEET SHOULDER WIDTH APART.
2. FORM A LOOSE GRIP.
3. KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN.
4. AVOID A QUICK BACKSWING.
5. STAY OUT OF THE WATER.
6. TRY NOT TO HIT ANYONE.
7. IF YOU ARE TAKING TOO LONG, LET OTHERS GO AHEAD OF YOU.
8. DON'T STAND DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF OTHERS.
9. QUIET PLEASE WHILE OTHERS ARE PREPARING.
10. DON'T TAKE EXTRA STROKES.


WELL DONE.

NOW, FLUSH THE URINAL,
GO OUTSIDE & TEE OFF!


i golfed through college. one morning i was standing with my friends at 6:30 in the morning after drinking with them late the night before, standing in wet grass, and shivering. i said, "what the f*** am i doing? this is the stupidest game in the world, hitting a little ball hundreds of yards to get it into a little hole in the grass."

never played again and i don't think i'm missing much...


it is better to be pissed off...


than pissed on.







of course Chester is Maxx's hero...
what else would you expect?
and Maxx wishes he could hold his gin that well.
so do i...
my gin that is.
[Maxx has his own stash.]



now, Chester should have been the First dog, not that water dog that Sasha said can't swim!

de-obfuscating an obfuscation: Frank Rich in NYT on NOM"s "Gathering Storm" video ad...

The Bigots’ Last Hurrah

Yet easy to mock as “Gathering Storm” may be, it nonetheless bookmarks a historic turning point in the demise of America’s anti-gay movement.

What gives the ad its symbolic significance is not just that it’s idiotic but that its release was the only loud protest anywhere in America to the news that same-sex marriage had been legalized in Iowa and Vermont. If it advances any message, it’s mainly that homophobic activism is ever more depopulated and isolated as well as brain-dead.

NYT, Sunday, April 19, 2009

there is a lot more to his argument and i recommend everyone read Rich's entire OpEd. i only hope that it as easy as he seems to portray it. my reliance on hope says, "YES", but my cynicism says, "I have to wait and see...

at any rate, this is one of the more logical and calming statements and stands i've seen over the years. it says that people might be beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, there really is very little difference.

i am reminded of Mr. Spock's IDIC - infinite diversity in infinite combinations...

obfuscations in the news: the pope needs a psychiatrist - desperately...

from the Panzerpapa

Vatican accuses AIDS groups of intimidation

(Vatican City) The Vatican on Friday denounced the criticisms of the pope’s comments about condoms and AIDS during his trip to Africa, saying they marked an unprecedented attempt to intimidate him into silence.

Pope Benedict XVI said last month that condoms weren’t the answer to Africa’s AIDS epidemic and could make the problem worse.

France, Germany, the U.N. AIDS-fighting agency as well as the British medical journal The Lancet criticized the comments as irresponsible and dangerous. The Belgian parliament passed a resolution calling them “unacceptable” and demanding that the government officially protest.

365Gay.com & The Associated Press

intimidation?

INTIMIDATION?


how about The Inquisition? the Knights Templar? Galileo? The Holocaust? the...

why mention more? the catholic church has killed more people than all wars put together over the centuries. all in the name of their god.

these bear repeating again and again and again...

as i've quoted Henry II before, "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"

and

If Jesus were alive today, the last thing he would be is a christian.

i have never said anything like this in my life before... but the best thing that could happen for the world would be the death of benedict xvi. the only problem is that whoever the hierarchy of the church [the oldest, most inflexible, and basest men in the world] might be worse! he along with them continue advocating the deaths of people around the world. not just through statements on AIDS but in forcing women to have children they don't want - among other things.

he is a deceiver out of touch with the world around him; and he makes me see red.

more and more, he is looking like the anti-christ the believers preach of...

the score seems to be adding up...

the more i've been reading about Obama's release of the torture memos and his decision not to pursue any legal maneuvers the more it seems that most people do not like his stand.

i don't either.

with all the talk during the campaign with emphasis on the Rule of Law, as a lawyer he is shirking his legal and ethical standards as an officer of the courts.

the best argument i've heard was Keith Olbermann's Special Comment last night. Olbermann lays out the argument succinctly bringing in historical reference that is quire indisputable, going all the way back to the Civil War.

you can watch and read Olbermann's Special Comment over at Crooks and Liars. it's really to the point.

Countdown Special Comment: Future of US Depends on Torture Accountability

one of the better round-ups of the flurry of pundits, newspeople and other media is over at Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish.

he has links to Greenwald, Coles, and others in a lot of posts he's done. one of the more telling post's title is We Are Now Indonesia.

IMO, Obama has surpassed all of the obfuscations over the last eight years in one fell swoop...

weekender...

the importance of walking for your well-being...




1. Walking 20 minutes can add to your life. This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $7000 per month.

2. My grandpa started walking five miles a day when he was 60.... Now he's 97 years old..., and we haven't a clue where the hell he is.

3. I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

4. The only reason I would take up walking is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.

5. I have to walk early in the morning, before my brain figures out what I'm doing.

6. I joined a health club last year, spent about 400 bucks. Haven't lost a pound.
..., apparently you have to actually go there and use the treadmill.

7. Every time I hear the dirty word 'exercise', I wash my mouth out with chocolate.

8. I do have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.

9. The advantage of walking every day is so when you die, they'll say, 'Well, he looks good doesn't he.'

10. If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country.

11. I know I got a lot of exercise the last few years..., just getting over the hill was enough.

12. We all get heavier as we get older, because there's a lot more information in our skulls. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

AND

13. Every time I start thinking too much about how I look, I just find a Happy Hour and by the time I leave, I look just fine.


keep these in mind if you go walking for exercise this weekend...

i'll keep thinking about the gin.



Maxx has a thing about walking too.
he does it only when he has to go.
if you know what i mean...

used car sales...

well, it was bound to happen. i've posted about the Bugatti Veyron a number of times in the past. it makes me moist.

as a refresher, it is a model limited to 300 with various incarnations. the original price was $1.1 Million on the base model. the special models like the Sang Noir went for up to $1.6 million.

one of the more coveted models is the Pur Sang (Pure Blood) that has no paint on it but is polished metal. there were only 5 made.

well, the economic downturn has forced one of the lucky five to sell his prized Veyron. below is a picture of it in the used car salesroom in Dubai!



now, remember, when you drove your new car directly off the dealer's lot it decreased in value around $5,000-$10,000 dollars, depending on model.

this little gem is being sold - used - for $5,801,687.50!

without sales tax. if you lived in Illinois there is only one Bugatti dealer in Chicago, and the sales tax is 11.25%! yeah, we have the highest in the nation.

so the sales tax would be $290,084.375. don't forget that you would also have to then pay for transfers and other documents, and we have a mandatory law for auto insurance.

hmmmmm? i wonder if a person who can afford a car worth that much money is required to have insurance? i mean, if they can afford the car, they can afford to have it fixed and also the person's car if they hit someone. dontcha think?


interesting....




Maxx really loved that one...