News and Current Events - 2012

[Marge_Innavera]

Thank you, bbt.   It was so kind of you to post this, since certain Reagan haters are deliberately targeting my prior post. 
I have no intention to lower myself to swearing or insults online in my posts, in contrast to theirs. 

kathy     

Do you have anything to say about Michael's post, including any factual challenges?

[Marge_Innavera]

Sad news for the US though - there is still no available punishment for stupidity.

A friend of The Husband is fond of saying that "stupidity is the only form of natural selection left."

[fofol]

A friend of The Husband is fond of saying that "stupidity is the only form of natural selection left."

R O F L M A O

[fofol]

Postings in this thread over the last few days have made me realize something I'd not considered before.  Ennis more likely than not would not find love in his life after Jack died for a very simple reason: so many gay men of his generation had died of AIDS that it was like living through the bad old days when it was fear and lack of communication that kept us from talking with one another.  With HIV taking so many men, there were literally no men around: the fearless ones were dead, the fearful were in hiding, so he would have had a huge problem finding an available man in his age group.  Since he was nineteen in 1963, gay men his age would have been in the prime of their lives when the HIV/AIDS epidemic began killing them off in droves.  Not only did gay men who were sexually active die off in huge numbers, no one knew why, and as far as Ronald Reagan was concerned, no one was interested in finding out why...  Some people blamed gay men for getting AIDS, so not only were they outcast for being gay - Ennis and Jack's lifelong problem - but they were outcast for having a scary disease - not much is scarier than the unknown, and the only thing know about AIDS was that everybody died.  I'd been an activist for seven or eight years before AIDS, and for the longest time thought that the difficulty getting gay men to participate at the time was the disease itself - whether a man was stricken with what was a death sentence, or was taking care of friends who were dying - but finally realized that some men were going back underground, back in the closet due to societal pressures against them.  Poor Ennis - one more reason for a solitary life after Jack, one reason that he was unable to affect in any way.

[Marge_Innavera]

It's official: Anne Romney really does know how life is for the average American woman.  The tax returns released in January tell a story of a family that needs everybody pulling together just to survive (bold fonts added):

"IRS forms released Tuesday by Mitt Romney's presidential campaign show that despite reporting income of $21.7 million, the couple paid only $20,603 in taxable wages for household help in 2010. This figure was divided among four women: Rosania Costa ($4,808), Kelli Harrison ($8,667), Susan Moore ($2,238) and Valerie Cravens Anae ($4,890).

"According to a number of Boston-based domestic staffing agencies, the salary range for a housekeeper is between $20 and $30 an hour, which adds up to an annual salary of $40,000 to $50,000 based on forty-hour weeks and two weeks of paid vacation a year.

"But this number is only for one house, and the Romneys have three houses -- a 2,000 sq. ft. townhouse in Belmont, Mass., a 5,400 sq. ft. lake house on 11 acres in Wolfeboro, N.H., and a beach house in La Jolla, Calif., that is undergoing renovations to double its size."


What American working woman can't identify with that?


http://www.datalounge.com/cgi-bin/iowa/ajax.html?t=11235592#page:showThread,11235592  (January 24, 2012)

[fofol]

What is truly annoying is the way some speech is taken out of context: the comment about Anne Romney never having 'worked' was independent of the results of her sex life (children), or housework. (If you think 'housework' is demeaning, work on yourself.  The only people I've heard make dispiriting comments about 'housewives' were a couple of hyper-active business women who both compared themselves favorably to the women on Sex in the City.) The speaker was referring to Big Mitt's butt-covering comment about turning to his wife for business advice because of her experience.  Problem is the truth: Anne Romney has not held job outside house for pay, ever.  And inside the Romney households, she has 'people' to do what she doesn't.  Even this doesn't demean whatever she did for her family - if she ever raised a finger in the house, servants and all: we will never know the truth of that.  So her paid-for 'work' experience in the business world doesn't exist...or at least she's not owning up to it.

[Marge_Innavera]

Judging from the tax returns, their spending habits don't extend to paying their 'people' decent wages.

[doodler]

Totally agree with both of you.

[huntinbuddy]

Viewed a clip from a St. Louis affiliate station yesterday where a journalist actually stood up and asked what needed to be asked rather than pussy-footin around the issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHr7758u_lc&feature=player_embedded

Unfortunately, I suspect he was looking for a new job today. 

[killersmom]

This was the storm that passed though the area last night. We got an 1.5" in about 2 hours, and about 3' of lightening.


Phil McGrew (Flickr)

You may not think this is news, but there are almost never thunder and lightening storms in the immediate San Francisco area.
Since moving here from Texas in 2007, this is my third storm thunderstorm.
It was an amazing sight, and I felt like I was in Texas again for a little while!

[brokebacktom]

This was the storm that passed though the area last night. We got an 1.5" in about 2 hours, and about 3' of lightening.


Phil McGrew (Flickr)

You may not think this is news, but there are almost never thunder and lightening storms in the immediate San Francisco area.
Since moving here from Texas in 2007, this is my third storm thunderstorm.
It was an amazing sight, and I felt like I was in Texas again for a little while!

Great shot. When My aunt from Vancouver comes home to Minnesota, she actually hopes for a Thunder storm. I guess people miss them.

[CellarDweller115]

Wow!  What a shot!

[fritzkep]

Yeah, incredible!

[brokebacktom]

Viewed a clip from a St. Louis affiliate station yesterday where a journalist actually stood up and asked what needed to be asked rather than pussy-footin around the issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHr7758u_lc&feature=player_embedded

Unfortunately, I suspect he was looking for a new job today. 

Where was he when Bush was in office? Did he question Bush about ALL of his trips, his attack on the middle class, wasting money and lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. Finally, how the Bush/Chaney crime family evaded laws and crapped on he Constitution. If so please post them too. I would love to see them as well.   

[kathy]

No problem. But I am sill NOT a fan of Reagan. I thought he was a fraud after I donated my time to his election campaign in 1984. After, I thought the whole GOP as frauds. But Reagan could not have done what he done without some help from the Dems. They controlled the house and enough of them voted for his tax cuts and his tax increases, which most hit the working class more. And after Tip O'Neil leaving, the Dems lost their backbone.

I understand.  Yeah -  the Dems did have control of the House.  

I liked Tip O'Neil.  He always reminded me of the JFK years; he knew him and always kept close to JFK's Irish Mafia.  What good yrs. they were; I was young and happy then too!  He also reminded me of former Mayor Curley of Boston who was before my time but I remember folks talking about him when I was little and seeing the shamrocks on his house when daddy drove into Boston.  Just like The Last Hurrah; I liked that book and film very much.  Spencer Tracy played Mayor 'Skeffington' so well.  

kathy
p.s.  I still send the 'thank you' to you.