What was once a kitchen is now just empty space, waiting for the electrician, the HVAC man, and the guys to install the flooring, the cabinets, the counters, the appliances . . . not to mention the ceiling . . .
Friday, November 21, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
it's time for a new kitchen
Our kitchen is just plain worn out. Time for a new one! Here, the demolition crew merrily attacks the shelving.
Monday, November 17, 2008
well, one more
I know I said I'd stop writing political entries for the rest of this year, but I can't help myself.
Senator John McCain, appearing on Jay Leno's show, said he has been "sleeping like a baby" since the election: " . . . out for two hours . . . wake up, cry . . . out for two hours . . . wake up, cry . . ."
Memo to the Republican Party: Fire the vicious meatheads who have been orchestrating your campaigns lately, and let your candidates be themselves. With a little more humor like Senator McCain is capable of demonstrating, and with the kind of class and dignity he exhibited in his concession speech, he could be the President-Elect today.
I know you won't do that, and as a Democrat it pleases me to know you will continue to run the sort of no-class hatchet jobs you've been running, but as an American I deplore the divisive, cutthroat campaigns that play into the hands of certain talk show hosts but otherwise prevent us from uniting to solve problems.
Speaking of divisiveness, consider this: A Catholic priest in South Carolina has told his parishioners that, if they voted for Obama, they should repent or stay away from communion. Do we need any more evidence as to why certain branches of organized religion, and in particular the Roman Catholic Church, have become not only irrelevant but counterproductive to the needs of the world?
Senator John McCain, appearing on Jay Leno's show, said he has been "sleeping like a baby" since the election: " . . . out for two hours . . . wake up, cry . . . out for two hours . . . wake up, cry . . ."
Memo to the Republican Party: Fire the vicious meatheads who have been orchestrating your campaigns lately, and let your candidates be themselves. With a little more humor like Senator McCain is capable of demonstrating, and with the kind of class and dignity he exhibited in his concession speech, he could be the President-Elect today.
I know you won't do that, and as a Democrat it pleases me to know you will continue to run the sort of no-class hatchet jobs you've been running, but as an American I deplore the divisive, cutthroat campaigns that play into the hands of certain talk show hosts but otherwise prevent us from uniting to solve problems.
Speaking of divisiveness, consider this: A Catholic priest in South Carolina has told his parishioners that, if they voted for Obama, they should repent or stay away from communion. Do we need any more evidence as to why certain branches of organized religion, and in particular the Roman Catholic Church, have become not only irrelevant but counterproductive to the needs of the world?
Monday, November 10, 2008
notice to all you Red states
This will probably be my last political entry for the remainder of the year. It is not original with me but, now that I live in a Blue state, I just had to "borrow" it. This required some major modifications, notably because it was written before the election and the author expected another Republican victory. (Note to the humor-impaired: The statistics are probably flawed but they illustrate the point pretty well.)
Dear Red States:
We were afraid you would steal this election, too, and we seriously considered forming our own country. It still seems like a good idea now, particularly in view of the ugliness and hatred expressed during the long and nasty campaign.
We intend to form our own country, to be known as Neuvo California, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation.
To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and all the slave states. We get stem cell research, the best beaches, and most of the good ski resorts. We get the Statue of Liberty and the Golden Gate Bridge; you get Dollywood. We get M.I.T. and Harvard; you get Ole' Miss. We get 85% of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs; you get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenues; you get to make the Red states pay their fair share. Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22% lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals and your hockey moms. They have kids they're apparently willing to send overseas for no good purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq , and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend any more of our resources in what began as a hunt for Osama bin Laden. (Whatever happened to him? How can a 6'4" man with poor health be hiding in the mountains for so long?)
With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80% of the country's fresh water, 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 90% of the nation's fresh fruit, 95% of America's quality wines, 90% of all cheese, 90% of the high tech industry, 95% of the corn and soybeans (thanks Iowa!), most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford and Cal Tech, and all of the service academies. With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 65% of all old and obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 80% of hurricanes that make landfall, and 65% of all the alligators and mosquitos. You get 80% of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
Additionally, 38% of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale; 62% believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the war, the death penalty, or gun laws; 44% say that evolution is only a theory; 53% that Saddam was involved in 9/11; and 61% of you crazy nuts believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.
Finally, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico
Peace out,
Blue States
Dear Red States:
We were afraid you would steal this election, too, and we seriously considered forming our own country. It still seems like a good idea now, particularly in view of the ugliness and hatred expressed during the long and nasty campaign.
We intend to form our own country, to be known as Neuvo California, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation.
To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and all the slave states. We get stem cell research, the best beaches, and most of the good ski resorts. We get the Statue of Liberty and the Golden Gate Bridge; you get Dollywood. We get M.I.T. and Harvard; you get Ole' Miss. We get 85% of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs; you get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenues; you get to make the Red states pay their fair share. Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22% lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals and your hockey moms. They have kids they're apparently willing to send overseas for no good purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq , and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend any more of our resources in what began as a hunt for Osama bin Laden. (Whatever happened to him? How can a 6'4" man with poor health be hiding in the mountains for so long?)
With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80% of the country's fresh water, 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 90% of the nation's fresh fruit, 95% of America's quality wines, 90% of all cheese, 90% of the high tech industry, 95% of the corn and soybeans (thanks Iowa!), most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford and Cal Tech, and all of the service academies. With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 65% of all old and obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 80% of hurricanes that make landfall, and 65% of all the alligators and mosquitos. You get 80% of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
Additionally, 38% of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale; 62% believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the war, the death penalty, or gun laws; 44% say that evolution is only a theory; 53% that Saddam was involved in 9/11; and 61% of you crazy nuts believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.
Finally, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico
Peace out,
Blue States
Friday, November 07, 2008
a new day, for better or for worse
The election of the first black President this week is historic for many reasons, not the least of which is that the occupant of the White House will be an articulate man of substantial intelligence who wants to do right by the American people.
I commend Senator McCain for his classy, dignified concession speech. I wish his followers would pay heed to it.
I would like to say I am disheartened that so many of his followers, in venting their outrage at the results of the election, are demonstrating that their hostility towards Barack Obama is due to the color of his skin. I would like to say I am disheartened, but frankly I expected it. Their bigoted motives are illustrated by the first "joke" I heard after the results were announced. I won't repeat it, but the punch line included a reference to watermelons and collard greens. This came from someone I respected, and my wife heard the same "joke" from a woman who thought it was the "Christian thing to do" to oppose Obama.
I expected this reaction for several reasons, one of which is that racism is very much alive in this country. It is alive in the older generation more so than the younger generation, which is an optimistic sign, but it is alive. I can now say that racism was a huge factor among the McCain supporters without being accused of playing the race card. I have seen the race card, and it is the joker.
Another reason has less to due with Obama than it does with the history of the Democratic Party in the civil rights movement of the 1960's. It was President Eisenhower who federalized the National Guard in Arkansas in 1957, but it was JFK and LBJ who put the weight of the federal government behind the civil rights movement. It was LBJ who pushed the the Civil Rights Act through Congress in 1964. The Democratic Party has been at the forefront on human rights issues. This has alienated Republicans and Southern Democrats, who drifted away from the party. When I registered to vote in Tallahassee, you either registered Democratic or you had no party primary to vote in. Now the South is a two-party system, and Democratic candidates for every office have to defend themselves against negative campaigns from people opposed to the human rights positions that the Democratic Party is identified with.
Barack Obama represents one of the ultimate objectives of the civil rights movement, and he embodies a core belief of Democrats that a man, or woman, should be elected based upon merit and not race or religion. To illustrate how far we've come, remember that people died during the civil rights movement. Now we have the son of a black father and a white mother preparing to move into the White House.
The man has a daunting challenge ahead of him. He will be hounded every step of the way by the naysayers. I have confidence in him. To the McCain supporters who didn't hear the Senator's concession speech, I'll just paraphrase what the Republicans have been saying for eight years: Obama won. Get over it.
I commend Senator McCain for his classy, dignified concession speech. I wish his followers would pay heed to it.
I would like to say I am disheartened that so many of his followers, in venting their outrage at the results of the election, are demonstrating that their hostility towards Barack Obama is due to the color of his skin. I would like to say I am disheartened, but frankly I expected it. Their bigoted motives are illustrated by the first "joke" I heard after the results were announced. I won't repeat it, but the punch line included a reference to watermelons and collard greens. This came from someone I respected, and my wife heard the same "joke" from a woman who thought it was the "Christian thing to do" to oppose Obama.
I expected this reaction for several reasons, one of which is that racism is very much alive in this country. It is alive in the older generation more so than the younger generation, which is an optimistic sign, but it is alive. I can now say that racism was a huge factor among the McCain supporters without being accused of playing the race card. I have seen the race card, and it is the joker.
Another reason has less to due with Obama than it does with the history of the Democratic Party in the civil rights movement of the 1960's. It was President Eisenhower who federalized the National Guard in Arkansas in 1957, but it was JFK and LBJ who put the weight of the federal government behind the civil rights movement. It was LBJ who pushed the the Civil Rights Act through Congress in 1964. The Democratic Party has been at the forefront on human rights issues. This has alienated Republicans and Southern Democrats, who drifted away from the party. When I registered to vote in Tallahassee, you either registered Democratic or you had no party primary to vote in. Now the South is a two-party system, and Democratic candidates for every office have to defend themselves against negative campaigns from people opposed to the human rights positions that the Democratic Party is identified with.
Barack Obama represents one of the ultimate objectives of the civil rights movement, and he embodies a core belief of Democrats that a man, or woman, should be elected based upon merit and not race or religion. To illustrate how far we've come, remember that people died during the civil rights movement. Now we have the son of a black father and a white mother preparing to move into the White House.
The man has a daunting challenge ahead of him. He will be hounded every step of the way by the naysayers. I have confidence in him. To the McCain supporters who didn't hear the Senator's concession speech, I'll just paraphrase what the Republicans have been saying for eight years: Obama won. Get over it.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
election night lunacy
And now . . . the envelope, please.
No, before that, we have sit through several hours of blathering and lunacy by the talking heads. My regular readers should know I have an extraordinarily low opinion of talking heads.
It is a few minutes after 8 p.m. Eastern time as I begin typing this, and CNN insists that Florida is one of the states whose polls just closed. Wrong. Except for a few counties in the Panhandle, which are on Central time, they closed at 7 p.m., the ballots are being fed through the computers, and ABC and other networks are carrying the early results.
Carl Rove, pontificating about politics in Florida, just told us that St. Petersburg is in Hillsborough County. Wrong. He must have been watching Rays baseball all summer. St. Petersburg is in Pinellas County. Tampa is in Hillsborough County. There are huge differences between the counties, politically. Pinellas has always been a Republican stronghold. Hillsborough County always seems like it should be the subject of a grand jury investigation.
Some of the networks are predicting outcomes in states based on exit polls. At least one network tells us righteously that they won't do that if the outcome appears close. Meanwhile, voters in the Pacific time zone have until 8 p.m., Pacific time, to go to the polls and vote. How are those predictions affecting those voters?
I think I'll pop open a Sam Adams beer (made in Massachussets, which this year is Obama country), get out the peanuts, and see what happens next. I may update this later in the evening as the frivolity unfolds.
UPDATE: After switching back and forth among the networks, I give CBS the "Hurl" Award. The visual appearance of CBS, with flashing graphics and a swirling background, is the one most likely to cause viewers to lose their dinner. I like ABC's appearance. I think I would like Fox's, but the local affiliate keeps hogging about 50 percent of the screen with an update of local races that dominates the bottom and right side of the picture.
Of all the graphics they can show us, give me the old map of the U.S. with the states color coded. Everything else requires the eye to move all around the screen and then the data changes before you get a chance to take it all in.
I'm hearing a discussion of the Pennsylvania results to the effect that Sarah Palin made a difference for John McCain, but a negative difference. She apparently didn't hurt him in the states he was expected to win but, in the "battleground" states, her initial attractiveness lasted maybe two weeks and then she lost it.
SECOND UPDATE: At almost the precise moment the polls closed in the Pacific time zone states, CNN projected Obama the winner. You folks out West could have just gone out for dinner, saving yourselves the trouble of voting. Meanwhile, the CBS web page was showing only 206 Electoral College votes for Obama, 64 short of the number needed to win. Ooops, it just changed. With 0 percent of the votes counted in California and Washington and 6 percent counted in Oregon, CBS is projecting all three states as Obama states.
FINAL UPDATE FOR THE NIGHT: No network has called Florida, which is still close. At 10:57 p.m., the state's web site is reporting the vote count as pro-Obama by a difference of 143,383 votes out of a total of 7,296,451 votes cast (not counting a few votes for 12, yes 12, third-party candidates). However, this year, it makes absolutely no difference which way Florida goes. There will be no disputed ballots worth the trouble of fighting for. I could have stayed away from the polls, gone out for a dinner, gone to a movie, and come home in time to see the outcome.
I was about to turn the TV off and hit the sack when I heard John McCain's concession speech. I believe his speech is the classiest speech I've heard from any politician. I wish his campaign had been run by the people who helped write that speech. If you missed it, you should find the full text of it and read it, and send it on to people you know who have been feeding you a continuous line of lies and baloney about Barack Obama all summer long.
p.s.: They just called Florida for Obama, but at this point, who cares?
No, before that, we have sit through several hours of blathering and lunacy by the talking heads. My regular readers should know I have an extraordinarily low opinion of talking heads.
It is a few minutes after 8 p.m. Eastern time as I begin typing this, and CNN insists that Florida is one of the states whose polls just closed. Wrong. Except for a few counties in the Panhandle, which are on Central time, they closed at 7 p.m., the ballots are being fed through the computers, and ABC and other networks are carrying the early results.
Carl Rove, pontificating about politics in Florida, just told us that St. Petersburg is in Hillsborough County. Wrong. He must have been watching Rays baseball all summer. St. Petersburg is in Pinellas County. Tampa is in Hillsborough County. There are huge differences between the counties, politically. Pinellas has always been a Republican stronghold. Hillsborough County always seems like it should be the subject of a grand jury investigation.
Some of the networks are predicting outcomes in states based on exit polls. At least one network tells us righteously that they won't do that if the outcome appears close. Meanwhile, voters in the Pacific time zone have until 8 p.m., Pacific time, to go to the polls and vote. How are those predictions affecting those voters?
I think I'll pop open a Sam Adams beer (made in Massachussets, which this year is Obama country), get out the peanuts, and see what happens next. I may update this later in the evening as the frivolity unfolds.
UPDATE: After switching back and forth among the networks, I give CBS the "Hurl" Award. The visual appearance of CBS, with flashing graphics and a swirling background, is the one most likely to cause viewers to lose their dinner. I like ABC's appearance. I think I would like Fox's, but the local affiliate keeps hogging about 50 percent of the screen with an update of local races that dominates the bottom and right side of the picture.
Of all the graphics they can show us, give me the old map of the U.S. with the states color coded. Everything else requires the eye to move all around the screen and then the data changes before you get a chance to take it all in.
I'm hearing a discussion of the Pennsylvania results to the effect that Sarah Palin made a difference for John McCain, but a negative difference. She apparently didn't hurt him in the states he was expected to win but, in the "battleground" states, her initial attractiveness lasted maybe two weeks and then she lost it.
SECOND UPDATE: At almost the precise moment the polls closed in the Pacific time zone states, CNN projected Obama the winner. You folks out West could have just gone out for dinner, saving yourselves the trouble of voting. Meanwhile, the CBS web page was showing only 206 Electoral College votes for Obama, 64 short of the number needed to win. Ooops, it just changed. With 0 percent of the votes counted in California and Washington and 6 percent counted in Oregon, CBS is projecting all three states as Obama states.
FINAL UPDATE FOR THE NIGHT: No network has called Florida, which is still close. At 10:57 p.m., the state's web site is reporting the vote count as pro-Obama by a difference of 143,383 votes out of a total of 7,296,451 votes cast (not counting a few votes for 12, yes 12, third-party candidates). However, this year, it makes absolutely no difference which way Florida goes. There will be no disputed ballots worth the trouble of fighting for. I could have stayed away from the polls, gone out for a dinner, gone to a movie, and come home in time to see the outcome.
I was about to turn the TV off and hit the sack when I heard John McCain's concession speech. I believe his speech is the classiest speech I've heard from any politician. I wish his campaign had been run by the people who helped write that speech. If you missed it, you should find the full text of it and read it, and send it on to people you know who have been feeding you a continuous line of lies and baloney about Barack Obama all summer long.
p.s.: They just called Florida for Obama, but at this point, who cares?
Monday, November 03, 2008
thank God it's almost over
After 20-plus months of campaigning, the presidential election will be over and done with tomorrow, thank God.
I know why so many Americans voted early. After voting, they can believe that the campaigns are finished and they can turn their attention elsewhere, immune from all of the lies and bull manure that has been slung during the campaign. I didn't vote early. I didn't want to allow them more time to lose my ballot. I'll be in line tomorrow morning, and it should be a short line. But as far as I'm concerned, the campaign ended weeks ago. It's all over but the shouting.
No matter who wins, here's the best part: George W. Bush has 77 days left in office. That's eleven weeks. I think he should pack up and move back to Texas the day after the election.
And here's another good part: No matter who wins, the winner will be able to move into the White House on schedule. Unlike other parts of the world, we don't have armies staging coups.
My wish is this, and I know my four regular readers don't need to be told this because their mother taught them better: I wish all Americans would accept the results of the election and move on, vowing to try again in four years if their candidate lost, and not engage in the acidic, venomous, hateful criticism that has passed for political discussion in the post-Reagan era.
That's my wish, for whatever it's worth.
I know why so many Americans voted early. After voting, they can believe that the campaigns are finished and they can turn their attention elsewhere, immune from all of the lies and bull manure that has been slung during the campaign. I didn't vote early. I didn't want to allow them more time to lose my ballot. I'll be in line tomorrow morning, and it should be a short line. But as far as I'm concerned, the campaign ended weeks ago. It's all over but the shouting.
No matter who wins, here's the best part: George W. Bush has 77 days left in office. That's eleven weeks. I think he should pack up and move back to Texas the day after the election.
And here's another good part: No matter who wins, the winner will be able to move into the White House on schedule. Unlike other parts of the world, we don't have armies staging coups.
My wish is this, and I know my four regular readers don't need to be told this because their mother taught them better: I wish all Americans would accept the results of the election and move on, vowing to try again in four years if their candidate lost, and not engage in the acidic, venomous, hateful criticism that has passed for political discussion in the post-Reagan era.
That's my wish, for whatever it's worth.
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