Boring
February 13th, 2009 by Matthew_site admin
>столовеonline casino net blog is boring. I think I will stop writing in it for the forseeable future.
I have two others that I update periodically but they are not related to librarianship. Actually librarianship is boring to me now.
Obama… the senator from ACORN, the activist leader for risky “affirmative action” loans.
September 30th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
The Investors’ Business Daily has a wonderful piece about how Obama took money not just from Freddie and Fannie was paid by ACORN to train community organizers.
So that is what a community organizer does, forces banks to make bad loans.
Who do Americans think won the debate?
September 29th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
If you go by online polls you may be surprised to see that Drudge had 94% US IP addresses and show McCain winning, and MSNBC had 79% non-US IP addresses and shows Obama taking the debate.
From the Deaf Republicans (odd name but it is by and for deaf Republicans) blog.
Rome (Fannie & Freddie) burns while Nero (Democrats) Fiddle
September 28th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
If you think that the Democrats are not the root cause of the failure Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the GSEs that were bailed out last week, then you are drinking the Democrat’s Kool-Aid.
Watch this video as Waters, Frank and other Democrats contradict factual reports from OFHEO, who investigated Freddie and Fannie about the cooking of their books. The CBC came out to support Raines and simply made things up.
Putin in nuclear talks with Chavez
September 28th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
That bastion of journalistic excellence Al Jazeera tells us that Putin is talking nuclear cooperation with Venezuela’s Chavez.
Obama has said:
I mean, think about it. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela — these countries are tiny, compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us
If you won’t vote your conscience, vote for safety. Do you want someone who dismisses threats so easily in the Oval Office? I don’t.
Vote your conscience
September 27th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
I am a Roman Catholic, but all voters should vote their conscience. Vote not what is best for you, but what is best for all Americans.
I want a mom for VP.
September 10th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
Sarah Palin didn’t ban any book from any library, an issue important to me as a librarian. The scandal made up by the left is simply not true. It makes them look like they are grasping at straws, and truly they are.
I think that it is great that a mom from outside the beltway – very far outside the beltway – is going to be our vice president. I can hardly wait until she runs for president in 2016.
My mom would make a great president, she is frugal, compassionate, tough but caring, and loves children. My mom has made many unpopular decisions – well if you ask my dad and my brothers, and we are better off for them.
Obama could have all the experience in the world, and he couldn’t compare to a mom. Sarah Palin joined the PTA because she wanted make a difference in her kids lives, she became Mayor because she wanted to help the people of Wasilla, she became governor because she wanted to help the people of Alaska, and now as vice president she will bring a mom’s wonderful non-nonsense tough love perspective to the executive office.
I’d vote for my mom, she would never run but if she did I would vote for her. I’ll vote for McCain Palin because among other things my mom, a Democrat, is voting for her. Mother knows best.
I can’t wait
September 7th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
I can’t wait to get Obama’s socialized medicine.
It will be as good as our government run schools.
Will my doctor be a union man?
Boy Scouts save American flags… from Obama’s trash
September 6th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
It seems that the fine folks who brought us the Democratic National Convention and all its marble columned goodness think that the American flag is not worth saving.
It is reported that the aftermath of the DNC convention – you know the one with no roll call vote that would have let people express their desire to nominate Senator Clinton- resulted in thousands and thousands of American flags being relegated to the trash.
Democrats seem to think it is fine to toss away an enduring symbol of the freedoms and opportunities our great nation provides. They discard the flag after being led in the pledge of allegiance by the wife of a Marine. Apparently Democrats say one thing and do another – as evidenced by the comments to high society friends about Pennsylvanians clinging to their religion and guns- is alive and well.
They pledge allegiance until the cameras are turned off.
If I were given a flag when I attended the Republican convention I would take it home and proudly display it recalling each time I saw it that our democracy is alive and well and knowing that we are the most free nation on the globe.
I would not toss it out like yesterday’s news.
Would you want your president to toss the flag and the Republic for which it stands in the bin?
John McCain is distributing the flags delivered by the Boy Scouts to patriotic Americans.
Does Obama value libraries?
September 5th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
From the website Obama writes:
Promote College Serve-Study: Obama will ensure that at least 25 percent of College Work-Study funds are used to support public service opportunities instead of jobs in dining halls and libraries.
While I certainly value the dining halls of my various almae matres and have had many an enjoyable meal and conversation in the refectories of my scholastic days, it appears Obama holds them in no such regard. I would think the meals and conversation at the Ivy Leagues would be second to none, but perhaps not having graced those hallowed halls I know not of what I speak.
More curious is the candidate’s disdain for libraries. One can only imagine that as an undergraduate, and graduate student in the honorable study of Law, he would have found libraries most valuable.
Perhaps that is why we see not journal articles, no brilliant legal treatise, not one authored piece during his tenure as Editor of the venerable Harvard Law Review. It is indeed unusual for a professor of Law to not have published one article, written one single chapter, or even given a presentation of note at a learned society during their teaching career.
Indeed Professor Obama, well OK senior lecturer was his official title at University of Chicago School of Law – but he was teaching Constitutional Law an important class in any Law student’s formation, indeed he knows of the fine library facilities at the schools at which he taught and which he attended.. Of course Con Law is a basic building block – akin to the freshman English of undergraduate school – and all law students must churn through it as the begin their studies. To suggest that the learned Obama who in his Senior Lecturer position (a part time non-tenure track position, but much more important than that of a Lecturer who is simply an adjunct instructor) could not publish something of substance is unkind. Perhaps he was working on his fictionalized autobiography.
I wonder if had Obama spent more time in the libraries he so clearly disdains would his scholarly publication record be remarkable. Or would it still have been non-existent?
Candidates kids not off limits ….. OK then
September 4th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
If we can talk about candidate’s kids lets talk about Bridget McCain, a 16 year old high school student.
The young Ms. McCain was once claimed to the the illegitimate child of the union of Senator McCain and a prostitute of a different race. Of course this is completely absurd, as Bridget is Senator and Mrs. McCain’s daughter adopted from an orphanage run by Mother Theresa’s order.
Cindy McCain assissted the child in obtaining proper surgical care for a disfiguring congenital disorder, and as these things happen, fell in love with the child and wanted to adopt her. John and Cindy McCain were properly vetted by state adoption authorities before being allowed to adopt the young Bengali girl.
“We are a normal family just like everyone else,” said the lovely young woman when she granted an interview to Scholastic, the classroom magazine many of us grew up reading.
Which whould you prefer as a parent, the man that said (in the above linked Dadmag article)
There is nothing in life like a child that you can nurture and love. The reciprocation of that love and nurturing is a thousand times more beneficial to you than it is to the child.
Or the man that thinks a baby is a punishment?
Which would you prefer as your president.
My choice is clear on both counts, the man who demonstrates through his actions his honor, rather than the one that wishes we would honor his actions.
Punishment or blessing
September 3rd, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
Obama does not want his daughters to be “Punished with a baby.”
Governor Palin is going to be blessed with a grandchild.
Who would you prefer as a parent?
As the left’s bloggers attack a VP kid they ignore another
September 2nd, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
Joe Biden’s son Hunter is not having a child, but he is in his thirties and a successful lawyer.
What do I mean by successful?
Well Hunter Biden and his firm are registered lobbyists and they have pulled down some hefty fees in issues that relate directly to legislation in which Obama and Joe Biden have been involved.
Now Hunter did not lobby his father – well not directly but the law firm in which he is a partner certainly did.
Hunter’s law firm lobbied Senator Obama and got $192 for a nursing school in Chicago, great news for the school – except they paid the firm $320K for their lobbying efforts.
Biden’s law firm has pushed for 2 million dollars and Obama requested that big earmark for the Thorek Memorial Hospital so they could open a cancer research center. They didn’t get it, but Hunter Biden’s firm got $120,000 for helping them ask for it.
I know what grant writers do, having been a librarian, but I am not really sure what a lobbyist does. I get the general idea they help persuade elected officials to vote one way or the other – seems one would not need to hire a lawyer to talk to your elected officials.
So in order to encourage our elected officials to vote for earmarks lobbyists are paid by the people who want the money. Wouldn’t it just be cheaper to keep the money you already have?
This from the candidate who says he abhors lobbying and the VP candidate who is supposed to help bring change. Change? Seems like he has the whole family working inside the beltway and has had for years.
Not much mention of the VP candidate’s son who is required to file federal disclosure forms about his lobbying activities, but a private family matter of a young woman and her fiancé makes the front page of the NYT in 3 articles today.
I don’t know which you would rather have in your family, but I love children and I am not a big fan of lawyers or lobbyists.
Former DNC chair happy Gustav aimed an NOLA
September 1st, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
The former chair of the Democratic National Committee joked with a Democratic Congressman from South Carolina that the hurricane was coming just at the right time and that God was on their side.
You can see it from the horse’s … well you can decide from which end of the horse, but it is here.
Of course it gets worse, Fowler, who runs a communications and PR firm and is widely known for what appear to be prevarications, blames the person who recorded his conversation calling him a ‘right-wing nutcase” and notes “that’s what we are dealing with.”
Fowler has apologized, you know Democrates are good at apologizing, for wishing harm on New Orleans, for cheating on their cancer striken wives, for adultery in the Oval Office – apologizing is something they sure know how to do. They still keep breaking the rules, but they darn sure feel bad about it after the fact.
What we are dealing with Fowler wonders. I know what we are dealing with, people like Fowler.
Would your mother tolerate that behavior from you? No of course not. Perhaps this country does need a mom in the Oval Office to remind people like Fowler how to behave. Governor Palin can fill that role quite well.
Governor Sarah Palin
August 29th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
>h Palin is the next vice president of the United States.
I think it is wonderful. Gov. Palin is a no-nonsense woman who does not take any junk from anyone.
She values the sanctity of life, she knows the strengths, talents, and gifts of women are extrordinary, complimentary, and in many cases superior to those of men.
An independent thinker who works tirelessly to achieve her clearly stated goals, who is so ethical she dropped a dime on her fellow Republicans shenanigans when she was on the State Gas and Oil Conservation Commission.
She said not to the bridge to nowhere pork project handed to her on a silver platter by Republicans. She told Ted Stevens to be forthcoming about the investigation into his Senate financial disclosure forms.
She sold the previous administrations waste of taxpayer money state jet on eBay keeping a campaign promise and bringing 2.1 million dollars back to the taxpayers.
While not a supporter of gay marriage, she vetoed a law that would keep domestic partners of state employees from signing up for their insurance benefits.
She is a member of the PTA, a union family as her husband works for BP when not fishing during the summer, she is a mom with five children – one of whom is soon to be deployed to Iraq.
Fiscally responsible
Blue star mother
Oil and Gas Conservation Commissioner
Proponent of ethical government
Wife, parent, and responsible executive experience
What better candidate can there be to help guide our nation for the next 8 years.
McCain/ Palin 08
Palin for President 2016
Infanticide scares me. Obama scares me
August 23rd, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
As told by a nurse, Obama supports infanticide.
He may think that defining when life begins is above his pay grade, but he certainly considers it his job to decide when it can be ended.
Why is this man so attached to the culture of death, why does he support the murder of babies in a country where a black child is more likely to be killed than born alive? What exactly is his agenda?
South American dog has more respect for life than Obama
August 22nd, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
A dog in Argentina found an abandonded newborn and took the infant into her nest with her puppies to protect its young life. The dog’s owner discovered that his pet had found and cared for the child and called emergency workers who transported the infant to the hospital.
On the other hand Obama, the apparent Democratic presidential candidate supported by voting against bills that would preserve the life of babies who had lived through an abortion.
We know your candidate is a real whackjob when he values human life less than a dog. You know your candidate is morally bankrupt when he thinks a child is a punishment.
Too bad the Democrats can’t nominate the dog.
I love Obama’s other brother, the one pushing Chinese junk on us.
July 27th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
I love how the Obama family gets bigger every day. Now Obama has another brother who has a business in China helping to sell their goods over here.
You know the kind of Chinese products that killed thousands of pets.
However that business is not registered with the proper authorities and is apparently not paying taxes according to the article.
What a great family, a wife that is now finally proud of America, a brother who lives with his mom in government subsidized housing, and a non-tax paying shill for crappy Chinese products foisted upon US consumers.
No wonder his is campaigning in the traditionally blue states of France, Israel and Germany.
I also love Obama’s brother
July 25th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
I think Obama’s Muslim brother who is in London with his mom in government supported housing is great too.
I know if I had millions of dollars I would let my brother’s mother live in a council house. That is the way to go, let the government take care of you.
I still love Obama, the Germans- sorta, Ugandans- no way
July 25th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
It was predicted that one million people would pack the streets in Berlin to see Obama on his Magical Mystery Tour. OK, so it turned out to be about 20K, but what is 980,000 between friends.
I wonder how many of those 20K went to see Patrice or Reamonn, the musical acts that played the same location leading up to the second coming arrival of Obama.
Obama, is indeed the first black -well OK mulatto- but he refers to himself as black so who am I to argue – presidential (assumptive) nominee. Remember the Super Delegates who helped the Democrats that were too stupid to vote for the right person pick Obama over Senator Clinton, so that you can have the right nominee. Thank goodness for the good thinking of the DNC who came up with rules that make the rules on the inside of a Japanses Monopoly box look like light reading. Everyone should be happy about that – well except for half of the Democrats that voted in Florida because they didn’t count, and all of Michigan – who didn’t get dinner and drinks when they got screwed. So being the first black presidential nominee one would think that all the black voters (and non-voters) would like him. As we can see the Reverend Jackson wants to emasculate him (again? the guy is a metrosexual as it is.). So it seems at least some black voters don’t like him.
How it plays in Berlin is oddly much different than Obama would play in … Uganda, you know Uganda, that county in Africa. They have a lot of black people in Uganda. One would think Obama would be a big hit there – a possible black leader of the free world. Well he is not.
If fact as Owen Kibenge from New Vision press in Kampala, Uganda says that Obama would lose if Ugandans voted, even if they had to vote for someone other than a fellow black man.
Obama is a candidate for the abortion lobby that advocates a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy, even a month before the baby is born.
The second reason why Ugandans would not vote Obama is that he supports legalising homosexuality through same sex marriage, same sex adoption rights, propaganda in public schools and legislation declaring same sex relationships a civil right.
Obama’s tenure as US president would see the appointment of pro-gay Supreme Court judges who make gay marriages constitutional and recognised by the state as a holy union. Whereas there is a growing movement of recognising minority rights globally, which includes recognising same sex relationships, I am certain that the majority of Ugandans would not subscribe to this, even if it meant not voting for a fellow black man.
If Obama wants to play on the world stage then he might want to visit Uganda.
I still love Obama, even if I didn’t get to the rock concerts in Berlin. Of which country is he running for president? Germany, France, oh, the United States….you think he might be talking to people here rather than having photo ops in front of old statues in Germany.
Why I still love Obama
July 22nd, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
The Senator in response to a question abou his earlier that the troop surge in Iraq will not work and in fact will be harmful replied while on the Magical Mystery Tour this week:
Here is what I will say. I think that, I did not anticipate, and I think that this is a fair characterization, the convergence of not only the surge but the Sunni awakening in which a whole host of Sunni tribal leaders decided that they had had enough with Al Qaeda, in the Shii’a community the militias standing down to some degrees. So what you had is a combination of political factors inside of Iraq that then came right at the same time as terrific work by our troops. Had those political factors not occurred, I think that my assessment would have been correct.
If I were not wrong, I would be right.
This is the reason I don’t vote for lawyers if at all possible. Remember the last one who could not remember the meaning of the word is.
For the full story see ABC News.
“Black hole” commissioner is an anti-Semite
July 20th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
The Dallas commissioner with absolutely no grasp of grade school science including the term black hole (named because no light escapes from it) thinks that bartering with someone and the phrase “Jew you down” are synonymous. I know what bartering is, I know what that repugnant phrase means, to suggest that a vile phrase like that can be equated to an accepted scientific term that describes an observed area in space where the gravitational pull is so great that not even light escapes is absurd.
After making himself look like an idiot, with able assistance from a local judge, the wise commissioner went on to complain about devil’s food cake being pejorative and then using the ill advised phrase about getting a good deal.
The reverend Jackson uses a word he gets all upset about people using, Whoopi Goldberg says that black people can use the word because they own it, but that there is no double standard.
Marshall Brown a DC employee complained because a co-worker properly used the term niggardly (a word of Norwegian derivation meaning stingy)
Now we have to be careful not to use words in their proper context in order that we not offend people.
I can tell you the term black hole certainly describes something in Dallas, but I think they left the bit where the synonym for donkey is used.
Why I don’t ride MARTA
July 18th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
I seldom go to Atlanta. Last time I was there I stayed at the Hyatt Buckhead. There was a hip-hop concert (I guess that is what one calls them). Someone said he would kill me if I used a side entrance.
I don’t go to Atlanta anymore. When I did go to Atlanta I stopped riding MARTA a decade ago. It is not safe (or sane).
I love Obama
July 9th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
He provides me with much amusement.
He wants your child to learn to speak Spanish and he is embarrased that we speak English. Catch this video here.
Now Jesse Jackson want to cut off his testes because of the way he speaks to young men of color. Of course the Reverend Jackson supports Senator Obama. Have a look at the reverend apologizing for his mistake here. You think the reverend Jackson (you know the guy – yeah the one with the $3000 month child support payments for the daughter he fathered while married to another woman) would have wised up about his off the cuff remarks after the Hymietown remark.
Obama wants to give a speech and found a flamboyant gay mayor with a wonderful backdrop for a photo opportunity and speech. Of course this is in Berlin, not Berlin, Ohio but Germany. (I don’t think the mayor of Berlin, Ohio is gay.) He is running for president of the United States, right?
Why I carry a gun
June 15th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
A man in California beat a baby to death in the roadway. Several passersby tried to stop him as he kicked and stomped the child to death but he pushed them away and continued to batter the child’s body against the pavement.
People called 911 and the first officers to arrive were in a helicopter. They had to land the helicopter and run across a field. The police ordered the man to stop and when the murderer refused to do so the officer shot and killed him.
California is not a shall issue state for concealed weapons. Where I live, if you wish to carry a concealed weapon, can pass a criminal background check including a complete vetting by the FBI including a fingerprint check, have completed firearms training including demonstrating proficiency with a firearm, and a state mandated day long class, and send in the required forms and a check you must be given a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
California requires that you prove a need before you may be allowed to apply for the permit. The Mountain View Police Department website says that concealed weapons permits are for security guards, celebrities, and diamond merchants.
Too bad no one there could defend this angel. Too bad there was not a celebrity or diamond merchant nearby.
I would have killed him before I let him hurt the child any more.
I carry a gun because I can’t carry a cop.
Safety nets turn into hammocks
June 6th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
Some people provided with housing, then trailers, and now a motel room and three square meals a day on the taxpayers’ tab are too lazy to get up and find a job.
A story from Mobile, Alabama by NBC 15 tells of two fine citizens who are still living off our tax money after the Katrina natural disaster. One woman who even gets all her meals on our tax dollars keeps the thermostat at sixty degrees because she is warm.
This fine upstanding warm woman says she does not have the pep she used to have to get up and look for a job. She notes that it is too hot to walk to find work.
It is terrible there is not some public support that could give them free bus rides to work, how tragic their lives must be after a natural disaster three years ago destroyed their houses.
I really have little sympathy for people who don’t prepare for the worst, people who don’t get insurance and then complain when something bad happens to their house, or when they have a car accdent, or some other accident. Buy insurance before you buy that TV or xBox or Wii. If you can’t afford to insure your stuff you can’t afford to buy it in the first place.
Of course I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that Ms. Malone lived on our tax dollars before Katrina. Heck a hotel with no electric bill and the hots a day is an upgrade to first class without using any of her frequent flyer miles.
She will be in that hotel until we wise up and stop footing the bill. Sure, help people after a natural disaster but there must be some reasonableness.
People wonder why I get annoyed at paying so much federal tax. It is because I can see the money is not used wisely.
Put this bloodsucker on the curb today.
Too frugal?
May 28th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
I may be taking my frugality???????? ????? ???????? a bit too far.
I just spent 10 minutes suturing a cat toy.
I didn’t buy sutures, I had some expired ones sitting around so I used some 2-O nylon to close a traumatic injury to a stuffed mouse. I stuffed the guts back in and closed the wound with a nice running mattress stitch.
I’ll see it back in about a week to see how the wound is healing 
Memorial Day
May 25th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
IN FLANDERS FIELDS
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
-John McCrae
We remember these honorable men and women not because of how they died, but because of how they lived.
Nancy Pelosi is an antiwar caricature
May 18th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
Oh, that is not me that said that it is the Iraqis.
I agree, perhaps I am more Iraqi that I know.
Oakland cops stationed at schools to keep crimimals and Federal Agents away
May 7th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
Federal agents have been making routine arrests of criminal aliens (just being undocumented is not a crime but a civil violation) in the Oakland area.
They made an arrest at a business near a school. The local elected and school officials panicked and sent parents a voice mail message assuring that no child would be taken from the schools. Of course ICE had no intention of taking school children out of school – unless the child is a fugitive and most students don’t have time to become fugitives with all that homework they give these days.
So the mayor Ron Dellums met with some school board members and decided to place local police at schools to make sure federal agents don’t come to the school. While I am sure federal agents have real criminals to arrest, it is nice to know that Oakland police can hang around schools all day looking for those nasty federal agents who want to jail second graders. (If you will recall it was Bill Clinton’s AG Janet Reno who ordered a small child taken into custody by Fedral SWAT team members, perhaps Elian Gonzalez has transferred from Havana public school #1 to the Oakland School District.)
Mayor Dellums said “In my view, that is the ugly side of government. No way children should ever be treated to that kind of harassment and fear.” Of course there was no harassment nor fear except perhaps that caused by over-reacting nincompoops at the school board and city government.
Not content to keep this a local problem a California state senator (not a US Senator from California mind you, but I am certain they would have similar sentiments), Don Perata said “There should be an immediate freeze on ICE raids directed at schoolchildren while legislation aiming to fix immigration is considered.”
Yes, I have to agree with the Honorable Mr. Perata there should be an immediate cessation of all the Federal raids on elementary schoo…. wait there are no ICE raids directed at schoolchildren.
You can read the whole thing in the here. Or more paranoia from the local CBS affiliate
.
Is California even part of this world, much less this country?
An armed society is a polite society
April 29th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
Some wingnut in Florida decided to pull a gun in a grocery store after he didn’t get his way. Since this is Florida, if you are not a felon and can safely use a gun and drag yourself to the required class and practice and send in a check and some fingerprints for the background investigation you can legally carry a concealed weapon. (See, they really don’t give them out at the state line.)
So the criminal pulled his gun in the store, the manager and assistant manager pulled theirs and the criminal backed out of the store, of course being the idiot criminal he is he tossed off a few shots wounding a door, a wall and the ceiling. The two legally armed men followed the shooting felon outside, away from customers while holding him at gunpoint. The law abiding citizens did not fire their weapons, as they felt the criminal was just too poor of a shot to be a continuing danger. They disarmed the criminal through persuasion – not violence and held him until police arrived to arrest him and charge him with several felonies including attempted murder.
Stupid angry criminal 0, law abiding armed citizens 1 at the IGA in WPB (if it were closer I would shop there).
Read the news account.
Cat litter and starving people
April 19th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
I am frugal, or if you prefer cheap.
I have 2 cats, one of which I adoped from the Suncoast Animal League about two weeks ago.
Cat litter is expensive and heavy. I don’t like either one of those so I decided to see what alternatives there were to cat litter that were cheaper, lighter, or both.
I found two, the first being horse bedding -wood shavings actually, and the second a green, organic, and natural product: chicken feed. In case you did not know chicken feed, at least the kind you use for cat litter is made from corn. It is also sold as a cat litter as the world’s best cat litter or something similar for about a dollar per pound. I looked at layer crumbles – the type of chicken food suggested – it is about seven bucks a fifty pound bag and essentially the same stuff.
I cannot bring myself to use food for something into which my cat will relieve himself. This brings me to my point, stop using food for anything but food until there are no hungry people left in the world.
Americans are attempting, because of the luncay of Al Gore and the religion of global warming, to use renewable crops as fuel. That is all well and good, but those renewable crops are food people need to eat, we don’t need to burn corn or ethanol derived from corn as fuel.
“When millions of people are going hungry, it’s a crime against humanity that food should be diverted to biofuels,” said Palaniappan Chidambaram, India’s finance minister in a WSJ interview.
The use of food for biofuels is appaling to Mehmet Simsek, Turkey’s finance minister. The full “Time Magazine” article that includes both of these quotes may be found at Royal Dutch Shell’s site.
We can’t use crude oil as food, but we are certainly depriving starving people of food when we use corn as fuel. We (as in the world) allow < a hre="http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10979890"> flaring of gas from oil wells in developing nations rather than capturing and consuming it. It is burned off because it is easy and cheap to do so. Even if used locally it would bring great benefit to the Nigerian people.
So you selfish SOBs, if you don’t want to quit using food for fuel, if you insist on belonging to the cult of green, if you must use plants for fuel try switch grass as President Bush suggested a couple of years ago. Even NPR the closest thing to Radio Havana thinks it is a good idea.
Failing that look at the energy density of ethanol vs. gasoline. If you are using 10% ethanol so prevalent at the pumps you are getting measurably fewer miles per gallon than if you stuck with cheaper, reliable, gasoline.
If you can’t have any sense, at least be frugal.
I went with the Suncoast horse bedding it was $7.50 for a bag that should last a few months, if the cats will use it. So far they don’t mind it, but it is mixed with clay to help them adjust gradually. I don’t need freaked out cats. It smells like a forest in here.
Bills in the Florida legislature that could impact libraries:
April 17th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
Senate 0082: House 0021
Revises eligibility criteria for multicounty library grants. Revises the determination for and the amount of base grants. Revises eligibility criteria, calculation, and determination for equalization grants. Limits equalization grants and amounts under specified conditions. Removes a requirement for the issuance of warrants to political subdivisions eligible for certain funding, etc.
Librarian commentary:
There is less money so they are dividing it up differently from last FY.
The state aid to libraries grant program is comprised of three interrelated grants
programs: (1) multicounty grants; (2) equalization grants; and (3) operating grants.
Requires that multicounty grant recipients include one county that gets an equalization grant (a poor county) This has no immediate impact because all multicounty grants recipients now include at least one.
If passed this will establish a multicounty base grant of $50,000 for systems serving two counties, effective July 1, 2008. No additional funds are requested for this purpose; this base grant would come from the state aid program.
This is just a reshuffling so no major impact as far as I can tell.
If passed this bill will increase the multicounty base grant for systems serving three or more counties from$250,000 to $350,000. No additional funds are requested for this purpose; this base grant would come from the state aid appropriation.
Again more reshuffling
This appears to be just fiddling with the formulas used to distribute the state money to local libraries. Either way it is taxpayer money and we should make sure it is applied the way we want.
S0474 (and plenty of others)
This is the junk drawer of bills. It is about Growth Management, which of course is not something a State government can properly do. The portion related to libraries is:
(line numbers)
447 The future land use
448 element shall include criteria that encourage the location of
449 schools proximate to urban residential areas to the extent
450 possible and shall require that the local government seek to
451 collocate public facilities, such as parks, libraries, and
452 community centers, with schools to the extent possible and to
453 encourage the use of elementary schools as focal points for
454 neighborhoods.
Librarian commentary:
Two schools of thought on this one. Libraries at elementary schools cannot be accessed during the day by non-students. I tried to use an in house only database at the library closest to my office. It was a co-located library at an elementary school and I could not get in until after 3PM.
On the other hand the two birds one stone theory applies and it would save money if only on using an existing physical plant for two purposes.
Since this is such as small part of the bill and it only encourages and does not mandate the above it is fairly benign, probably a good idea, but really toothless.
0696 (and others)
This bill allows school boards and community college boards to set library fines and keep the money that they generate. They may not exceed the cost of the service.
Librarian commentary:
This is a housekeeping bill. Meh, it beats giving them to a state general revenue fund, but I don’t think the school libraries get to keep the fines; they probably go to some school general fund.
0700
This is a juvenile justice bill, but it has a provision to allow counties to tack a surcharge onto fines and costs of people who have to pay them in connection with criminal offenses. This surcharge will fund law libraries (amongst other things).
93 Assessment of additional court costs and surcharges.–
94 (1)(a) The board of county commissioners may adopt by
95 ordinance an additional court cost, not to exceed $65, to be
96 imposed by the court when a person pleads guilty or nolo
97 contendere to, or is found guilty of, or adjudicated delinquent
98 for, any felony, misdemeanor, delinquent act, or criminal traffic
99 offense under the laws of this state. Such additional assessment
100 shall be accounted for separately by the county in which the
101 offense occurred and be used only in the county imposing this
102 cost, to be allocated as follows:
[non-library part removed]
3. Twenty-five percent of the amount collected shall be
111 allocated to fund personnel and legal materials for the public as
112 part of a law library.
Librarian commentary:
This is simply a tax on criminals (or at least people who plead out). It is only sixty five bucks. $16.25 from each defendant that is found guilty or pleads out goes to law libraries.
I can’t really find anything wrong with this. More money for law libraries – public libraries of a sort, but I seldom see the public in them and I know several of the librarians in the local law libraries and they are happy to help people research their legal issues (although they do not offer legal advice) they also have many self help publications, but many are a bit outdated. If this would give them some more money to buy legal materials for the non-lawyer I am all for it.
1210 H0795
This bill codifies the charters of special districts. Libraries in unincorporated areas or across cities may be established under such a special district. This law is a housekeeping bill.
Librarian commentary:
Housekeeping requires review of such special district charters every ten years.
Benign and probably a good idea
1368
This bill recognized Don Daly for his community Service work:
Don has received multiple awards for his outstanding community service, including the Broward County Board of Commissioners Library Division “Unsung Hero” award for his
selfless giving of time, resources, and talent;
Librarian Commentary:
Way to go Don.
1370
An act relating to the Florida Patient Safety Corporation; amending s. 381.0271, F.S.; deleting provisions requiring that the corporation establish specific advisory committees; authorizing the corporation to create and dissolve advisory committees upon a majority vote of the board of directors; deleting obsolete organizational provisions; requiring that the corporation’s board of directors conduct quarterly meetings; requiring the Agency for Health Care Administration to make available adverse incident reports to designated agents of the Florida Patient Safety Corporation; requiring the corporation to evaluate the effects of the sharing of electronic records on patient safety; deleting responsibilities related to the provision of access to a library of evidence-based medicine and patient safety practices; requiring a plan for the implementation of patient safety technologies; deleting obsolete provisions and reporting requirements; providing an effective date.
[portion specific to libraries to be stricken from the Statute]
(line numbers)
151 Provide for access to an active library of evidence-
152 based medicine and patient safety practices, together with the
153 emerging evidence supporting their retention or modification, and
154 make this information available to health care practitioners,
155 health care facilities, and the public.
Librarian commentary:
The law apparently created a library (or provided access to a library) of evidence-based medicine and patient safety practices. If any such library was created it should be transferred to one of the State Medical School so it can be managed by a librarian, and perhaps a medical librarian at that. The bill makes no provision for such transfer.
1430 (and others)
A bill relating to sexual predators
… requiring that the sheriff or chief of police notify any library within a 1-mile radius of the residence of a sexual predator; prohibiting a sexual predator from working or volunteering at a library
Librarian commentary:
This bill adds libraries to the places the police must notify when a sexual predator moves into the neighborhood.
This bill places no burden on libraries to screen their employees and volunteers against a list of sexual predators, nor does it restrict them from doing so. The burden is on the sexual predator not to work or volunteer at a library. It is a crime if he or she does so.
A provision protecting libraries from liability for employing or allowing sexual predators to volunteer would be nice, but since similar provisions apply to schools it may not be necessary, nice but not necessary.
1614
This bill is another junk drawer bill relating to the Department of Corrections. It requires among panoply of other things that the Department of Corrections provide library service.
Librarian Commentary:
Libraries are good. If I were in prison I would want to be able to use the library for recreational reading as well as legal research.
One can only assume the library services the DOC will be required to provide be provided to those persons in custody of the DOC, as opposed to by those in custody of the DOC. (However that might stop people from asking for change for the copy machine from someone with an MLS.)
1628
A bill relating to early voting locations.
This bill allows county Supervisors of Elections to designate community colleges as early voting locations.
(line numbers)
19 The supervisor may also designate any
20 city hall, public community college facility, or permanent public
21 library facility as early voting sites; however, if so
22 designated, the sites must be geographically located so as to
23 provide all voters in the county an equal opportunity to cast a
24 ballot, insofar as is practicable.
Librarian commentary:
Cast a ballot insofar as practicable? Do we need this many places to vote. Early voting is a pain in the neck for library staff. Vote on voting day, or by absentee ballot. How hard can it be?
When they provide money for the extra staff required to answer every 3rd person who comes to the reference desk –past a half dozen signs pointing to the polling place- to ask where to vote, or how to register or any other question the SOE staff should answer then I’ll rethink my position on early voting in libraries.
1678 H7011
This War and Peace sized bill is housekeeping. The only mention of libraries is that the Agency that inspects Nursing Homes and ACLFs must send a copy of the reports to the local public library. This has been the law for quite some time, but this housekeeping bill just shuffles it around, no change to the requirement that the reports be sent to the library.
Librarian commentary:
These are a pain to catalog, valuable, but a pain to catalog.
1712
Ethics in education
Requires that library media supplies spending be reported as the total expenditures per unweighted full-time equivalent student at the school level and the average expenditures per full-time equivalent student at the district and state levels
Librarian commentary:
More statistics to toss around.
They have enough trouble keeping the teachers from sleeping with the middle school students around here, they don’t need more pointless statistics. Teach the rug rats to read, write and utter an understandable sentence and I’ll be happy. Leave the bean counting to the CPAs.
One room school houses could produce better prepared graduates; let’s stop kidding ourselves that more metrics and regulations will help. Let the teachers teach, don’t make the school library media specialists spend time screwing around with budgets and per unweighted full-time equivalent student materials expenditures. Why could this metric possibly be needed? Get rid of the people who calculate these things and buy a few more books.
1996 H0411
Encourages all public libraries to implement an Internet safety education program for children and adults for the purpose of promoting the use of prudent online deportment and broadening awareness of online predators. Requires libraries to annually report to the Division of Library and Information
Services of the Department of State the number of users who complete the program, requiring that the division adopt rules to award additional points to grant applicants implementing such a
program; providing an effective date.
Librarian commentary:
How nice to be encouraged. Nice of you not to pay for it. I see the carrot and stick approach is being used to encourage libraries to comply with this program – of course that means you must comply with this or risk losing grant money.
Most libraries already have an internet safety class, but now it must be certified by a government agency or other reputable organization (whatever that vague statement means). Librarians will have to pressure 1% of the patrons to take it to get grant money.
I think we should start a reputable organization and make a desktop learning application and farm it out to libraries at cost.
Thanks for the unfunded mandate… well unfunded encouragement really.
2144
An act relating to trust funds. Does away with the Division of Library and Information Services Trust Fund. Puts that money, and other money earned from rental of facilities at the DLIS be deposited in the Grants and Donations Trust Fund.
Librarian commentary:
All of these trust funds are under the Department of State so it is simply restructuring of those trusts. All of the funds in the new trust fund will be to further the goals of the DOS so the bill seems benign.
2448
A bill relating to sex offenders:
(line numbers)
149 7. If the victim was under the age of 18, a prohibition
150 against entering a public library without immediately notifying
151 an employee of the library of the sex offender’s presence and
152 intent to use the resources of the library. As used in this
153 subparagraph, the term “immediately” means moving from the
154 entrance of the public library in a straight line to the nearest
155 work station occupied by an employee of the public library. The
156 sex offender may not move from that work station until the
157 employee acknowledges the presence of the sex offender. Any sex
158 offender who violates this subparagraph commits a felony of the
159 third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083,
160 or s. 775.084.
Librarian commentary:
Fantastic, what are we supposed to do when the perverts come in and announce themselves? How are librarians supposed to acknowledge the presence of the sex offender?
This is complete nonsense. If they want people to watch the sex offenders in the library send their probation or parole officers along with them. If they insist that I keep tabs on the convicted sex offenders in the library I want a gun and a big raise.
Can I refuse to acknowledge the presence of the sex offender?
If someone walks up to me and announces they are a sex offender can I simply ignore them?
If I do will they simply have to go away since they cannot go past the work station of the nearest employee?
If we put a hallway with a 90 degree angle will that keep them out because they can’t go in a straight line?
Can a volunteer acknowledge the sex offender?
This bill is filled with a whole bunch of bad.
I am a librarian not a lawyer in Florida. If you want legal advice find a good lawyer. If you want reference services find a good librarian.
Obama is right!
April 13th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
This weekend I went to the shooting range to practice. I do that every few months. As a responsible gun owner it is important that I be able to use the guns I carry with me daily with skill and accuracy.
I also went to church on Sunday, as I do every Sunday.
Obama is right I rely on guns and religion,
Now Obama says he didn’t mean what he said, or he didn’t say what he meant, or some such nonsense. He made the remarks about guns and religion and xenophobia (which were made to supporters on the left coast about voters in Pennsylvania.)
Here is what the wise Senator said:
“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them…And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.
“And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
So let’s have a look at this. Does the Senator think Pennsylvania is in the Midwest? Well I would hate to be the one to tell the Senator that it is not. Chicago is in the Midwest and the chances of getting a handgun to cling to there are as good as Mitt Romney’s winning this election. Michigan is in the Midwest, they sure cling to religion there. Look at the University of Michigan in Dearborn where they have used taxpayer money to install footbaths so that Islamic students can wash their feet before they pray, Yes those Midwesterners are clingy.
The Senator says the jobs have been gone for 25 years, that infers that he has a plan to bring them back. I wonder what that might be. Pray tell Senator what is your plan.
So Senator Obama wants you to not rely on your rights to worship, your right to have a gun, your right to your thoughts and feelings – rights guaranteed by the Constitution and then there will be full employment in Pennsylvania.
N.B. The unemployment rate in Pennsylvania is 4.8 percent according to the most recent DOL statistics, the same as it was a decade ago. It is 5.7% in California where the Barak Obama made his ill-informed remarks. Check the DOL BLS here. Perhaps they should get some guns and religion out there.
Great speaker, no I don’t thinks so. Great prevaricator perhaps?
Quit lying Hillary
April 6th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
Here is another lie told by Senator Clinton.
A pregnant woman was refused emergency care by a hospital because she was uninsured and could not pay a $100 payment up front. The woman and the baby both die.
The story is not true, but that didn’t stop the Senator from lying about it.
I spent more than a decade in an ER and I know that this does not happen. If you need emergency treatment you get it. They never even ask for your insurance before you are treated in an emergency. Sure the COBRA Act makes this law, but the moral and professional obligations of the medical and nursing staff were putting the patient’s health first long before some elected officials decided to require them to.
Thank you for helping me die…
March 30th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
Today I helped a man die.
My neighbor who is in his late 80’s died today. He was a nice man and I have known him for about 10 years. His wife died about a month ago and he had come back down south from NYC where they had met, married, raised their family and made their living.
Their kids got jobs and got married and moved away but always kept in touch with their parents. There were always big family get-togethers, birthdays, holidays and such. The kids came down and ‘took care’ of their parents who quite good naturedly let the kids think they were doing something that needed to be done, but frankly Mr. & Mrs. were quite happy with the paint in the kitchen and breakfast nook not quite matching, and the small hole in the linoleum under the trash can, but they really didn’t need anything and they knew their kids wanted to feel they were doing something for their parents.
Three kids, two daughters and a son, four really but one died in infancy, his name was Francis Xavier. The daughters have husbands and careers and there are a half dozen grandchildren, and a million pictures. I’ve met some of the grandkids and they are truthfully nice kids. They help their grandparents bring in the groceries, they have washed my car for two dollars (it was a $5 job so I paid accordingly).
The son had a wife, but he divorced her – or more correctly she divorced him. The parents knew the girl was just not ‘right’; but they let their kids live their own lives, and they knew that making one’s own mistakes was as important – if not more important- than celebrating one’s successes. He has no children, a fact for which they are thankful. He is still young they said – in his 40’s- he will find a good wife and start a family soon, perhaps after he leaves the service. He could meet a girl in the service- a girl with her head on straight.
They owned a store, and then a bakery, until he landed a job with the city. She worked at a nut counter in a department store before she started her permanent career as she called it of being a wife and mother. They were an average family in an average neighborhood raising a family as best they could. They did what everyone else was doing at the time. When he retired from the city he worked part time with a construction firm and then about 20 years ago they retired.
They kept their home in NYC and bought a condo in my building half a decade before I did. I remember when I moved in 13 years ago they welcomed me to the condos and brought me a coffee cake (a Kuchen I think). They were a very nice couple. We even car pooled to Mass a few times. They did not live here full time, but they came down to avoid the harsh winters in the city.
I remember when I got my cat, Baxter a few years ago. Baxter liked to go for walks and Baxter had a habit of riding on me curled around my neck. Baxter and I were out for a walk a few months after she moved in and we met Mr. as they had just driven down for the winter. Baxter promptly jumped up onto his shoulder and then curled around his neck. I’ve never seen someone so pleased to have a cat leap up on them. Mr. said that animals take people just the way they are and if animals think you are good enough to be friends with then you must be a good person.
I’d seen them age, just as I’d seen signs of myself aging. They went up and down the stairs a bit more slowly, as did I. Last year when they were down for the winter they told me this would be their last year coming down. There were many reasons, but their health was not as good as it once was. They wanted to go back up north where there was a store, a bakery, a butcher all on the block. They wanted to spend time with their friends from when they were newlyweds. They wanted to be in the old neighborhood where their children were raised. It was also closer to the kids, all being within a few hours’ drive. They were going to rent the condo, and perhaps one day sell the condo.
Shortly before they left the Mrs. got some bad news. She had cancer and she was going to need an operation. She had part of her colon removed and in a few weeks was up and about, but she was not as spry anymore and now walked with a cane. It was obvious that this would indeed be their last snowbird trip south. They had the priest over for dinner one night, they asked me to join them a few days before, but I had to go out of town for work.
When they packed up the car for their drive north I offered to help drive, but their son was in town for just that purpose. He and I talked for a bit and it seems all adult children have the same concerns.
I had not expected to see them back in Florida. A few weeks ago Mr. came down. I had heard that Mrs. had died and I of course stopped to express my sympathy. He told me he was glad that Mrs. was not having any more pain and he knew the cancer took a lot out of her and she put on a brave face for him. He was genuinely pleased that she was free from the pain, and he knew that a wonderful wife and mother must be with God in Heaven.
A few weeks had passed and I had seen Mr. from time to time and I stopped up every day, he was my next door neighbor, just to see how things were going. He was tying up loose ends and preparing to sell the condo. He also told me that he had some heart problems and was not going to be around much longer. I’ve been stopping by almost every day for the last couple of weeks and we had some wonderful talks. It is amazing how someone with such life experience can be so right about so many things.
A few weeks ago he told me he was dying. He had been to the doctor and there was the heart problem and some cancer. He was not too specific and I didn’t pry. We had had some more chats and I stopped by every day for the past few days. He talked earnestly about his wife, and his children and what a good life he had. He had enjoyed every minute of it, even the difficult times as it made his family stronger.
He also told me he was looking forward to seeing his wife again. Of course as a nurse I had to find out if he was suicidal but he didn’t seem to be. He had no plan to kill himself, no means, method or opportunity. He simply knew that we were all guaranteed a happy death. He knew there was more beyond that which we knew.
Last week he had the priest over for the sacrament of the sick. He was still up and about the house, but with a walker. His family was rotating through-they had set up a schedule- and all of his needs were met. He had a nurse from Hospice, an aide and friends and family.
I went over this morning and we had a chat. He told no matter what be the person you think you should be, do the right thing, and if you have any question ask the priest. He told me he had wanted to be a priest, but he met such a beautiful girl he couldn’t possibly not know his vocation was to marry and raise a family. He also said “Thank you for helping me die.”
After that I was planning to go to my mother’s house and fix a few things. I went to Home Depot and picked up some supplies. I went to my mother’s and we ran some errands. I replaced a light fixture, replaced a smoke detector, installed an emergency power outage light and fixed her vacuum cleaner. Then I dropped her off at her condo’s welcome cocktail party for new residents.
I came home took a quick shower and ran off to 6PM Mass. It is in Spanish but since I understand it I sometimes fit it in when my schedule on Sunday morning is too busy to permit morning Mass attendance.
I came home shortly after seven to find out that my neighbor had died and the funeral home was on its way. One of his daughters had called and not receiving an answer had called another neighbor to check on him and they found he had died during his afternoon nap. The ambulance and the police had been there and the family was on the way.
Thank you for helping me die.
What a wonderful idea. As we all go through life we meet people that help us die. Our husbands and wives, our children, our extended families they help us live and as such they help us die. We meet friends and co-workers who help us live full and interesting lives; they help us die.
Mr. knew what death brings. Death brings us one step closer to eternal life. Death brings us one step closer to those who died before us. We certainly cannot hasten our own death; it was planned long before we knew of it.
A full natural life is a wonderful gift from God. A happy death is its reward. I’m looking forward to my own happy death.
Just not for 40 or 50 years OK?
Back to normal
March 17th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
There will be no Democratic re-vote in Florida so I can go back to normal.
As of the morning I will no longer be a Democrat. I feel much cleaner. descarga juego pokersimple three player poker gamejugar seven card stud gratispoquer online gratisjuegos de poker on linepai gow poker portal internetpoker comjugar poker on line gratisdescarga gratis de pokerstreap pokeromaha high pokergame pokerstrip poker pcjuegos poker texasjugar poker on lineholdem poker descargarjuegos de polly pokerpoker omaha,omaha poker,jugar poker omaha gratisjuego al instante pagina webjuegos poker,juegos eroticos poker,juegos online gratis pokerjuego de cartascartas onlinecartas en el pokerjuego al instante portal webstrip poker onlinelos mejores poker promocionesno deposit bonus pokerjuego de poker onlinepoker descarga gratispoker flashpoquer poquerbonus pokerjuegos de poker para pcdescargar pokerjugar poker omaha gratistexas holdem gratispoker en internetfichas pokerpoly poquerjuego de poker gratuitojuegos de poker online gratis,juegos de poker gratis,descarga de juegos de poker gratispoker texas holdem gratis,poker gratis,juego poker gratisjugar poker lineapoquer gratisjuego de poker en lineacard gamestreep poker gratislos mejores cuartos del pokermejor juego pokerholdem poker gratis
Murdering babies and throwing them in the trash will get you a stern warning
March 14th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
Murdering babies and throwing them in the trash will get you a stern warning, but tossing out paperwork is a crime.
Some scumbag physician in the Detroit area has been performing abortions and throwing the murdered babies in the dumpster. That could result in a stern warning, or perhaps even a fine.
However to make matters worse the doctor could face criminal charges for throwing medical records away with the murdered babies.
You can read more about this disgusting story here.
As if there is a need for us to wonder why Spitzer and the like feel their actions are acceptable.
Democrat
March 12th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
I am now officially a Democrat. If they are having a re-vote in Florida I want a ballot.
I wonder, Obama or Richard Milhouse Nixon?
Oh, and I am changing back the day after; it kind of make me feel dirty to check the D box on the form.
I am enjoying watching the implosion.
What is it with politicians, can’t they keep it holstered?
March 10th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
Elliot Spitzer the Democratic Governor of NY has apparently used some high priced whores. What is it with these people.
Hakinah hakavod v’hataiva motzein es haAdom min haolam
HRC helped bring peace to NI
March 9th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
HRC, self-apponted democratic presedential nominee, has declared that she helped bring peace to Northern Ireland.
Yeah, and I discovered cold fusion in my bathtub, right after Al Gore invented the internet.
The Florida legislative session has begun.
March 5th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
Just days into it and they are sponsoring nonsense legislation . One Republican state senator has sponsored a bill to with the name of a man whose daughter was murdered by a convicted sex offender. The senator wants this man to respect law enforcement. This was in response to the man’s notifying the sheriff that he may file litigation regarding the thoroughness of the investigation.
Below is my letter to Senator Bennett:
****************************
Dear Senator Bennett,
While I do not support Mr. Lunsford’s pending litigation against the sheriff, I hold you in even greater contempt for sponsoring legislation designed solely to belittle Mr. Lunsford. Your entitlement of the bill shows exactly how petty and small minded you are.
While I am in favor of reigning in the plaintiff’s bar your bill is simply not needed. There are adequate safeguards to prevent the filing of frivolous suits, and failing that I trust the Courts and juries of Florida to properly address pointless litigation.
As Floridians we elect you to do the important business of the state. The Senate and House failed time and time again in the last session to do our business in a timely and effective manner, and you bear part of that responsibility. Starting off the legislative session with nonsense bills such as these does not bode well for this year.
Stop wasting our time, stop wasting our money, and get the work done in the allotted time. There is no need for the PIP debacle, the property tax debacle, or any of the special sessions to repeat themselves this year.
Stop your political posturing, it is not appreciated. Do the work for which we sent you to Tallahassee, and stop looking for the limelight.
I am a conservative Republican because I want less government interference and more fiscal responsibility. Wasting the time of staff and the Senate with your ill advised bill disgusts me.
Should any of your esteemed colleagues join you in sponsoring this bill I shall not withhold my contempt for them as well.
********************
Way to stay classy Senator.
Just because you’re a Republican does not mean your not an idiot in my opinion.
The lawyers win
March 4th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
The Democratic primary vote in Texas is split almost evenly, only several hundred votes between the two completely inexperienced, unsuitable candidates.
While Texas has some odd election/caucus Democratic primary and the delegates are split I can see the lawsuits coming.
So the lawyers make money, the whacky primary system means the people have already lost since one vote is not the same as any other vote.
Duped, disenfranchised and soon to be sued. Texas Democratic voters you guys are getting a bigger shaft than any oil well in the state.
Even the WSJ realizes the EU is impotent
February 24th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
A unified Europe could have helped stop the recent nonsense after Kosovo’s independence. It could have, but it didn’t because there is no such thing as a unified Europe. They have no common foreign policy. The Spainish Socialists are mad, the Greeks are upset about a name, these people are about as unified as the Democrats.
Read all about it from our friends at the WSJ-E
My mom is such a card
January 15th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
I told my mom the tale of pushing the lady out of traffic (below). She asked me what the big strong Republicans did after we pushed the Hillary supporter… did we ever move car.
That woman is a scream. I must be adopted
Pushy
January 13th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
On the way home from the office Friday I stopped behind a young woman with a broken down car in the center lane of a very busy road at rush hour. (Gulf-to-Bay @ Bayside Bridge) She could not get her car to move, or even in neutral to push it. There was a Hillary sticker on the car. (I didn’t stop because of that, I can’t leave someone in the road without help)
I put on my flashers chatted with her to see what the problem was and if I could help and called the police to come and sit with her until her tow truck arrived (she had AAA) and I waited behind her with my flashers and seat belt on in case someone hit our cars (My car is bigger than hers and I can’t leave somebody stalled in a tiny little Japanese car in rush hour traffic.)
Within in two minutes a guy on a motorcycle with a Crist sticker on his helmet (our Republican Governor) stopped in front of the car and had vastly superior mechnical knowledge as he was able to get the car into neutral. A pickup with a Confederate flag decal and a lift kit – the truck’s doors were as tall as I am stopped too. Another guy in a blue SUV with a W- The President sticker stopped to help as well.
The lady steered, we all pushed and got her out of traffic in a few seconds before anyone could run us over (that oddly happens to me all too often).
I am not certain that there is any deeper meaning in this spontaneous meeting of a politically divergent ad hoc problem solving group but if a librarian, a biker, a redneck, a soccer dad, and a hemp skirt wearing Hillary supporter can solve a problem in 45 seconds, I would expect our elected officials to demonstrate a little initiative.
Oh, the cops never showed up we finished so quickly so they were just as happy when I called them back to cancel the call for service.
Carbon offset my eye
January 11th, 2008 by Matthew_site admin
I have to go to London next week so I booked a flight on Silverjet. I had the option of paying an extra fee to offset the carbon footprint of the flight. What a crock of crap. I wonder how many people pay it.
Sure it goes to some charity that plants trees in the rainforest of some such ecological nicety, but please lets not be absurd.
I’ll water the begonias before I leave and since I won’t be driving my car around for a week but using public transport that is going to run if I am on it or not I think we can just call it even.
In the toilet
December 10th, 2007 by Matthew_site admin
Well the country is officially in the toilet. The news are discussing which idiot will join what candidate since Oprah Winfrey joined Obama screaming “Its Obama time.”
Oprah picks crappy books by lying authors, now she thinks anyone cares about her political choices.
Unfortunately I am sure millions of people do.
This country is full of morons. There really should be some test to vote, if you are not smart enough you don’t get to vote.
Pearl Harbor rememberance
December 7th, 2007 by Matthew_site admin
I subscribe to a email sent periodically and today the AGO sent this:
Message from Attorney General Bill McCollumToday, as our nation remembers the 66th anniversary of the horrific attacks on Pearl Harbor, we are also reminded of the very real and continued threat our country faces on a daily basis from other dangerous and equally insidious enemies. September 11th was this generation’s Pearl Harbor. Many of us can recall exactly where we were when we heard the news of the terrorist attacks on September 11th, much like those who remember that terrible day in December of 1941.
Even six years after the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and United Flight 93, the threat of terrorism remains a daily concern. This weekend, a vote to install Hugo Chavez as the permanent leader of Venezuela was narrowly defeated. Chavez, as an ally of Cuba and Iran, is exporting anti-Americanism throughout South America and the Middle East,
threatening his neighbors, harboring known terrorist groups, and spending billions to bolster his offensive and defensive military capabilities. The 69 amendments that Hugo Chavez sought for Venezuela’s constitution included provisions to nationalize private property and give Chavez
control of the central bank, foreign currency reserves and the military and the ability to suspend civil rights in emergencies. Venezuelan voters must remain ever vigilant to avoid alternate measures to achieve
Chavez’s socialist design.Another incident, which began unfolding last month and continues to develop at the University of Florida, involves concerns about the right to free speech about terrorism. Groups of university students were called to task for advertising a movie that highlights the true intentions of radical Islamic groups. I have conveyed my concern about this situation to the President of the University, and I am confident that my alma mater will make the appropriate decisions about the necessary resolution. I believe it is essential to continue educating our citizens about the very dangerous threat that terrorist-oriented groups pose toward our country and the rest of the free world, and that it is also important to preserve the right to free speech on our university campuses.
Our nation, our freedom, and the beliefs we hold precious are still under attack, just as they were on September 11, 2001 and December 7, 1941. We must continue to stand strong in the face of these attacks and to honor those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect the American way of life.
Can’t argue with that.
Veterans’ Day
November 11th, 2007 by Matthew_site admin
Today is Veterans’ Day in the States. I know that many of us are related to veterans. My father, Dr. de la Pena McCook’s father as well. Sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, friends and co-workers we all know a veteran.
Today we should, even if for only a moment, thank them in some way. Say a prayer, tell a veteran thanks, visit the graves of those veterans lost to war or lost simply lost to time.
Our veterans answered the call of a nation to do what was needed of them. Our veterans didn’t serve to advance thier personal agendas , they served – and our troops now continue to serve- because they saw a job that had to be done. The joined the service to help others knowing it meant defending others, putting themselves in danger, and risking their lives. They joined to bring a better life, a life endowed with the freedoms we as Americans hold sacrosanct, to those from whom it had been denied.
What makes a veteran different from those of us who did not serve? It is not simply that they served; it is not the uniform, nor the crisp salute, it is not the camaraderie that develops among troops. It is something more important than that. It is something that they carry with them when they deploy far away from home, or when they help at home after disaster strikes. Active duty, national guard, reserve all of those who serve carry it with them every moment. It is not issued when they enlist, nor is it given back when they retire. It is visible, yet intangible; a great burden, yet carried easily by those who posess it.
Honor, is what sets our troops apart from the rest of us. A sense of honor is so obviously lacking among many of us when we blame others for our faults, foibles, and failures. Should I, should we all be so imbued with this sense of honor we would be a much better people, and a much better nation.
We honor our veterans with a day, they honor us with their service.
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