Nice sunny Fourth of July .. our flag is proudly flowing .. we each just got through eating three jumbo crabs washed down with a couple of beers... we can see flowers everywhere outside our windows and doors.. green tomatoes are growing on our plants .. the cat is contentedly snoring.. all is right with the world... at least here... however, around the U.S. people are shooting each other.. Chicago especially. What a way to celebrate the fourth. It's supposed to be fireworks not gun fire. (When.. when.. when.. when will they ever learn?)
01. Finding bodies
Another dead body has been found in Westminster, Maryland, our home town. Second in a week. But this one might just be from acute alcoholism.. maybe. (Time will tell.)
02. With Friends like that...
Two 18 year olds have been arrested after they beat and robbed their "friend" of money from an automobile sale. According to the report, two other teen agers may have also been in on the beating and robbery. The victim had $1,000 hidden in his socks, but his "friends" found it and took it away.
Sounds like more drug-related crime. (Time will tell.)
03. The Great Karnak Questions Answers
Answer: The Fifth of July
Question: What do you drink on the Fourth of July?
04. Happy Stock Market
The Dow Jones Average was able to close over 17,000 yesterday and the unemployment rate of 6.1% is almost back down to what it was before the Recession. Will economic conditions continue to improve? (Time will tell.)
05. Is this an evil manifestation?
Was it murder when a father in Georgia allowed his 22 month old child to die in an overheated car? Circumstantial evidence points that way. (Time will tell.)
06. I'm looking for Clarity
A critic of the IRS reported on NPR that the IRS publishes what is called a simplified guide to features of the Internal Revenue Code. It is 94 pages long! And a document written with suggestions to make the Code easier to understand is 794 pages long!
07. No Clarity here
Maybe I'm just too old to understand some things. An article from the Tribune Washington Bureau seemed to say that the Administration offered some kind of position for religiously affiliated nonprofit employers who would not have to pay directly for contraceptives, but the Supreme Court granted Wheaton College permission to not comply. Wheaton says its religion precepts forebid it from paying for the Morning After Pill, so they will not sign a form. Huh! What the hell does that mean?
It seems to me that the person who wrote the article could have maybe been a little clearer on this. I also heard an NPR newsperson attempt to talk about this so that it could be understood.. with no success. So.. I'll just have to wait and read about it in The Week magazine or The Nation.
08. Lock your damn car doors!
Once again, car thieves are targeting cars with unlocked doors in the Sykesville, Maryland area. (When.. when.. when will they ever learn.)
09. Andy, Andy! Give it up!
As I mentioned before, Maryland's only Republican Representative Andy Harris is amending House Bills to try to sabotage DC's attempts to decriminalize Marijuana. DC folks are calling for a boycott of Ocean City, which is in his gerrymandered legislative district. To fuel the fire, Representative Harris says: "We don't have the crime problem that DC has." Harris wants to head the Republican Study Committee and I feel he is now trying to show just how Conservative one can be, even when one lives in a Democratic State.
10. Give up Caffeine?
The current Vermont Country Store catalog announces: "Postum Lovers, Rejoice! Your beloved Healthful Coffee Alternative is Back."
Years ago, coffee was making me shaky, so I switched to Postum, a drink that I remembered from Summers at my Aunt Ella's home in the Country. That's all they drank, and it tasted a little like coffee. It was a grain drink developed by Mr. Post (Post Cereals) and advertised as a vibrant health drink.
When I bought it, the price was about 59 cents, a lot less than for an equivalent amount of coffee. At some point, the coffee growers decided that they were not making enough money and suddenly coffee became scarce and the price went sky-high. Guess what.. even though Postum was not even coffee, and even though it had always cost less than coffee.. it's price shot up too and became the same price as coffee. I thought that this was "dirty pool" and gave the drink up.
The Vermont store ad says that Postum died in 2007. But now its back! They say: "You're sure to perk (!) up now that its original formula is available again." And the price now: Almost ten dollars for 8 ounces of non-coffee. Forget it!
11. Never Trust a Millionaire
Nick Paumgaten writes in the New Yorker about a Chinese millionaire who staged a lavish self-promotion at the Boathouse in Central Park for 200 homeless New Yorkers and then failed to fulfill a promise he had made to give each of them $300 in cash.
12. Never Trust a Lover
When confronted with the finding of the bodies of two women in his suitcases, a former policeman said that he accidentally killed them during sexual activity.
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