News and a Plea

Today is another of those August news days.. some good stuff, some bad stuff, some ridiculous stuff.. but all of it interesting, at least to me. Let's see:

01. Bill Clinton brokered some kind of deal to get the two lady journalists released in North Korea. I never thought that I would ever see "five foot nothing" Kim Jong-Il in the same picture with "six foot five" Bill Clinton. Regardless of his short stature, Kim has made himself a very tall pain in the butt to the whole world. Whether or not he set the Clinton visit in motion, I am very glad that the ladies have been released and are at home with their families again.

02. That snake, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has just been sworn in as Iran's President for a second 4-year term. He will now have to form an acceptable government. The opposition candidates, Mir Hossein Mousave and Mehdi Karroubi, continue to contest the results. Unfortunately, this reminds me of the Arab saying: The dogs bark, but the caravan continues on.

03. Brazilians are being urged to conserve water by urinating in their showers.

04. A U-tube video of a seven year old driving a car at speeds from 25 to 40 mph is causing a stir in Canadian police circles. The main problem seems to be that the child is not wearing his seat belt! A short time ago another seven year old drove off in his father's car to avoid having to go to church.

05. Al Franken is about to give his "maiden" Senate speech. I hope he does "schtick".

06. A waddling Eastern European man was found to be trying to smuggle 22 pairs of pants by customs. He was wearing them.

07. The Postal Service is losing money again.. even after raising the price of stamps. So, it is about to close a lot of Post Offices, including possibly five in the Baltimore, Maryland area. Online bill paying is a problem now. Also, advertisers have cut down on junk mail because of the expense. (That is sad for me, because I love junk mail, and look forward to it each day. Recently, very little enters my home mail box, and the junk mail entering my Post Office Box has dwindled to a trickle.)

Can anyone remember when we had twice a day delivery? I do.

08. Listen to this one: A drunken 36-year old New York mother, smoking marijuana, caused a wrong-way crash that killed her, her 2-year old daughter and six others. Her blood-alcohol level was .17 at the time of the crash.

09. The "cash for clunkers" program will probably get another boost this week. My 2002 Toyota Camry is about to fall apart, but I could not qualify because it doesn't technically fit the description of a "clunker".. that is, if I want to spend two grand, I could proabably get it fixed like new.

In a few weeks, we leave for three weeks at the ocean and Elaine, being a woman, needs to take half of the household items, plus food and clothes for six months. To say that it does not fit easily into my Camry, is a great understatement. And yet, somehow, we manage to squeeze it all in.

The problem comes when it's time to come home. Somehow, we always manage to accumulate new items. Once again, it all gets squeezed in.. but it sure is not fun driving a car as though you are in an army tank with a very small opening for the eyes... also, it is not as safe as it should be. So, this is the problem.. to get a car that is not an SUV, yet is big enough to carry all this stuff with room left over, and still maintain the low gas usage that my Toyota enjoys.

10. The Senate is about to vote on Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. Some of the "big hitter" lobbyists are pushing for a "no" vote and most of the Republicans say they will not vote for her because "empathy is not wanted in a Supreme Court Justice"... huh? I realize that the main function of a Supreme Court Justice is to interpret the case in terms of the Constitution, and I am convinced that she would do what she has to do. Her record shows that.

As an Independent voter, I get to pick on Senators on both sides of the aisle. Today I am picking on a Republican. I was amazed to read that Arizona Senator John McCain said that he would not vote for her. Doesn't his state have lots of people whose mothers were "Latinas"? Doesn't he want to get reelected?

I expect that Judge Sotomayor will be easily confirmed and then it should be a lot of fun watching the Court in action during their next term.

And now, my plea to any of my EMAIL senders who might be reading this. I've said this many times before: Because much of the email messages that are forwarded to me recently have not been subjected to the "truth test".. I am no longer going to open any email message that has "fwd" in the subject line.

I love you all, but it causes me to have a knot in my stomach to read the garbage that is being forwarded all over the Internet by people who think that a lie, if told over and over and spread about, will become the truth. Look at what happened during the Nazi regime. Herr Hitler and Herr Goebbles believed that if you tell a big enough lie, most people will believe it. Amazingly, in spite of the usual intelligence of the German people, that worked for a few years.. and look at what happened to the Nazi regime.

I like to think that such a situation would not happen in the U.S., but these messages worry me.

Thanks for listening.