I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

YramAL

Here's one that I like:

Mary

Wabbit

CherrylH

Thanks, Wabbit!

1Athena1

Great pictures/posts. I am not an Oscar or celebrity watcher, so nice to know that Michelle went to them and looked gorgeous. More's the jealously and racism from the trailer trash -excuse me- haters, of course.

HL - Great rant!

1Athena1

alexandria58

My MIL is back in the hospital.  Has peneumonia and her lungs are too weak to expell the CO2.  She did not want to be on a respirator, and we are respecting that, but she could go at any minute.  Will keep everyone posted.

bluedahlia

So sorry to hear that A.  Keeping you both in my thoughts.

bluedahlia

RetiredLibby

Oh, Alexandria, I am so sorry to read this about your MIL. So much heartache for you in so short a time. Keeping you close in my thoughts.



L

IllinoisLady

Alexandria....I'm sorry to hear this as well.  My feeling is, by not wanting the respirator your MIL is just following her 'deepest' instincts and it is wonderful you are not challenging her on this.  We all know what is right for us.  What is difficult for you is peaceful for her.  Thoughts for strength.

Jackie

IllinoisLady

I found this quote this morning and thought about everything here.  HL, I did forget to say how much I enjoyed your rant.  It was good to be reminded of all the things I did not agree with about most of the younger Bush years.  It has no factual basis, and had less back then but I do recall thinking upon his taking the oath of office the first time, with this rather strange smirky grin that he tried to hold back and couldn't.......none of this is going to be good.  Sometimes you don't need facts --- that inner knowingness we all have just puts it out there, and then as time goes by all the blanks are filled it.

So here is what I read:

My pacificism is an instinctive feeling, a feeling that possesses me because the murder of people is disgusting. My attitude is not derived from any intellectual theory but is based on my deepest antipathy to every kind of cruelty and hatred. - Albert Einstein

GatorGal

Such emotions this morning reading all your posts. Michelle looked beautiful though I fell asleep before she came on. I am proud of her in so many ways. Blue, your link made me sick ... So sad that there are so many people like that in our country. It just seems we should've come further than that. My mom's husband, unfortunately, would agree with those comments. One of the reasons it is so hard for me to visit my mom for any length if time.



Alexandria, sorry your MIL is back in the hospital. Praying for peace for her and all who love her.



YramAl, loved your poster. It's how I try to live my life, unfortunately there are a couple of people in my life that can bring me down to their level within seconds .... LOL



DH and I will watch Argo tonight on PPV. Our thanks to our Canadian friends for a job well done. HappyLibby, so cool that you were a part of that part of our history! You have some great stories to tell and I love when you share with us!

1Athena1

((((Sandy)))) Hope it's quick and peaceful. I was going to showcase Giorgio Armani's collection this week in Milan, but out of respect for you I'll wait.

bluedahlia

I was raised in a totally tolerant environment so was lucky in that regard.  Only problem I had was my father was very strict with me.  No dating whatsoever until I was 20.  Guess that's why I married at 21 to a seemingly nice guy until I got PD 27 yrs. later.  He couldn't handle it but I forgive him and my kids still have a great relationship with both of us.  They were raised in a tolerant environment too.

They are hard working forgiving liberals just like their mom!

pip57

First, thank you for your kind words about my Mom.  She is settling in well, all things considered.  She is a very independent and grateful person which helps.  Alexandria, I am thinking of you and your MIL.

I thought Michelle looked beautiful. The first thing I said to my husband was that their would be some negative comments from some...like she should be out feeding the hungry instead of spending money on appearing on the Oscars. 

RetiredLibby

Thanks, all. Glad you enjoyed my rant. I still remain deeply angry (as I suspect all of us here to, and many people around the world) at the wanton squandering of lives in the Iraq debacle -- not only Americans and coalition troops but hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and those in other nations destabilized by the war. Not to mention the thousands of American and coalition soldiers wounded and traumatized by a war that should never have happened, and again the hundreds of thousands of people living with the trauma of that useless war and its continuing aftermath. If I could see back in 2002 what was going to happen if they invaded Iraq, I know the policy-makers could, too. And the White House simply didn't care about the irreparable damage they would cause -- because Halliburton needed more ways to squeeze money from the U.S. taxpayer.



Here is an article I ran across in my FB newsfeed about the lengths to which desperate people in the United States will go for medical care. It makes me ashamed that we allow this. Pass single payer health care now.



http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/02/on-purposely-getting-arrested-to-get-life-saving-surgery/273282/



Sorry for the link - I am on my iPad and can't paste the whole article. It is terribly sad that people must resort to this or die.



L

1Athena1

Pip - the people who might complain about Michelle 'not feeding the hungry' on Oscar night are probably the same ones that oppose healthcare for all and food stamps for the needy.

HL - I blame the beltway media for helping the White House to sell the lie of Iraq. The media was complicit in Dumbya and Cheney, and I have lost respect for the Washington press corps ever since. It was taboo to ask about dead American soldiers - let alone dead Iraqis. What a horrendous 8 years we went through.

crazy4carrots

I remember almost the entire debate about going into Iraq.  Those of us in the GWN saw it as W trying to finish the job his Pa started.  Our Prime Minister refused to join the so-called "coalition of the willing", which made me very happy.  He knew the actual results of the search for WMDs and would have no part of what he believed was an illegal war.  Of course, he has since been vindicated.

As for W himself:  Once we learned quite a bit about his and his family's history, it was pretty obvious he never deserved to be even considered for the Presidency.  The guy failed at everything he undertook, for pete's sake.  I'm wondering which is preferable: to become the President of the United States, or to go down in the history books as one of the WORST Presidents?

Alex:  Thinking about you and your MIL, and hoping for comfort and peace for you all.

CherrylH

Alexandria, praying for peace and strength for your family.

crazy4carrots

Something to bring a smile to your faces:

HOSPITAL BILL

You don't have to be Catholic to appreciate this one!!  

Description:

A man suffered a serious heart attack while shopping in a store.

The store clerk   called 911 when they saw him collapse to the floor.

The paramedics rushed the man to the nearest hospital where he had emergency open heart bypass surgery.

He awakened from the surgery to find himself in the care of nuns at the Catholic Hospital . A nun was seated next to his bed holding a clipboard loaded with several forms, and a pen. She asked him how he was going to   pay for his treatment.

"Do you have health insurance?" she asked.

He replied in a raspy voice, "No health insurance."

The nun asked, "Do you have money in the bank?"

He replied, "No money in the bank."

Do you have a relative who could help you with the payments?"

asked the irritated nun.

He said, "I only have a spinster sister, and she is a nun."

The nun became agitated and announced loudly, "Nuns are not spinsters!

Nuns are married to God."

The patient replied, "Perfect. Send the bill to my brother-in-law."

Wabbit

Waving at our bartender and Libby!  Been missing you both around here.

Alexandria ... so sorry that your MIL is not doing well.  She must feel really blessed to have such loving and caring family with her.  Wishing you all strength and peace. 

Blue's link made me want to puke.  Unfortunately I've seen some of the same in our local media comments.  The good is that other people do tend to appear to call them out on their evil.  The hateful bigots badly need to be pushed back under the rock they crawled out from.  They are destroyers of civil society. 

I was raised in a military family and racism was not tolerated at our house.  It bubbled to the surface in our tiny midwestern town when a black family tried to rent a house there.  A military family, the house they were considering renting was right behind us and my father knew them ... nice young couple with a couple of kids.  It was really my first look at the open ugliness of it all.  And the fear was that they would bring their friends and 'they' would take over the town.  It all seemed so paranoid and stupid to me even at 13.  I never felt the same about the town after that and left when I was 18.

I see the same thought pattern on a larger scale with some Obama haters.  He's going to grab all power and turn 'us' into either white slaves or Muslims or whatever they can conjure up in their minds.  I'm a moderate ... not a liberal.  So I don't feel obligated to be tolerant of some stuff .  And when people start in with the 'they' and 'them' stuff my spidey sense pulls up those memories. 

1Athena1

Blue's link made me puke. Incredible to see someone in that forum posting as "whitesupremacist123456" and another saying that "blacks" were "useless." I wonder what those animals do when not foraging in hate dirt.

There are people like that in most any country - Canada too, I'm sure. Unfortunately in ours the world gets to know about it because we are so open. There are some skeletons I wish we'd keep in the closet.

bluedahlia

I worked in one of the Catholic School Board's neediest area schools, and never saw any bigotry there.  But you are right Athena, unfortunately.

1Athena1

Yes. There are things that exist everywhere - racist bigots, heroes, martyrs, idiots and psychopaths. But America is the land of the large, and when we have these animals, everyone knows about them. We have large cars, large houses, large people, a large economy (even with GOP sabotage)....large everything.

Chickadee

Not in the closet, the more they are exposed, the weaker they become. Shine the light of day on them.

bluedahlia

When I found that link yesterday, I couldn't believe my eyes.  I couldn't resist and commented.

QuinnCat

It's quite amazing to me the other thread is either not aware of or discard the word racism (or action of by implication) as a tired bromide.

I view a web page/forum, do not participate in though, that discusses my 401k, investing, etc.  The Moderator is definitely a Conservative and that racist crap directed at the Obamas that is allowed to be posted there is unbelievable.  These are Air Traffic Controllers, Firefighters, Tax Accountants, every version of federal employee, i.e. theoretically educated (most federal jobs require a Bachelor's Degree, at the least)....these are Voters, and they are not voting for Obama.  To deny racism exists on the Conservative side is putting one's head in the sand and just too convenient.

1Athena1

Sometimes social (not legal) repression can serve the general good by effectively making certain sentiments taboo and therefore making them less likely to spread. The same applies psychologically. Fortunately, the bookstore psychobabble about how you ALWAYS have to "let everything out" when you feel it has been debunked by studies long ago. Some people can have "a good cry." Others feel worse after it. Similarly, I don't want to know what some trailer park bigot thinks - he doesn't care if he is exposed, and I was not the "richer" for seeing ugliness rear its head.

But, interestingly, I would die protecting his right to say it if it came to legal or military suppression.

crazy4carrots

Just to change the topic a wee bit:  Is anyone besides me getting really, really tired of politicians reducing every government process to the simplest, common denominator that they think everyone will understand?  A perfect example is those who promote free-market healthcare, without understanding how/why/when/where individuals actually seek their healthcare.  It's not as though you can shop around when you're having a cardiac arrest or acute appendicitis, or that hospitals and docs  post their prices for services (aspirin, CT scans, prescriptions, full physical) for comparison purposes.  You either pay up front (without knowing what you're paying for) or you end up fighting your insurance company for the itemized bill which you no doubt find outlandish.  Would you buy a car that way?  Would you buy a pair of shoes that way?

Here's another example of more moronic reductionism, courtesy of Think Progress:

CNN business correspondent Ali Velshi slammedGov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) for likening the federal budget to family spending and suggesting that the Obama administration should not spend more than the government takes in.

“Every family has to balance their budget, isn’t allowed to spend more than they need, every business is more efficient, tighten their belt. The reality is it can be done,” Jindal said in remarks outside of the White House on Monday, following a meeting between the National Governor’s Association and President Obama. He added that the administration can implement the automatic across-the-borad sequestration cuts that are likely to go into effect on March 1 “without jeopardizing the economy” or “critical services” by focusing on “wasteful spending.”

Velshi rejected Jindal’s comparison as “misleading” “nonsense” and pointed out that businesses and families routinely borrow money to invest in their futures, reasoning that an investment made today in college education or a new equipment can lead to greater returns down the road:

VELSHI: It’s 3% of a small part of the federal budget which makes it a very big part of some major agencies. It’s misleading stuff Bobby Jindal is saying, number one. Number two when he says families understand they have to live within their budget. I don’t know a lot of families who buy a house with cash. Buying a house on a mortgage, is that living within your budget or not living within your budget? You would have to be 80 years old to be able to buy a house with cash. We have an understanding in our society, it may be flawed, that we borrow money based on our future earnings potential. All people do that, companies do that and governments do that. There’s a point at which you can say, we’ve gone too far with that or we’re too much of a risk of not paying back so we’ll end up paying a higher interest rate. When you borrow too much money, your personal interest rate goes up, credit cards go up. But to suggest within your means and balanced budget nonsense is just misleading. That is not how families live. It’s not how businesses conduct themselves. It is certainly not since the history of time the way governments run themselves.

1Athena1

Blue, I think we should change the saying. How about: "there's someone home but the bulb is too dim" (not enough energy for synaptic connections).