MarianJack
MarianJack's JournalAs the husband of a Puerto Rican wife,...
...AND as a big tennis fan, I'd like to give a well deserved shout out to Monica Puig, the 2016 Olympic Gold Medalist in Women's Singles in Tennis. She played WAY above her world ranking this week and beat many players who are ranked higher than she, including #2 Angelique Kerber in yesterday's Gold Medal match, to join the ranks of Steffi Graf and both of the Williams sisters as an Olympic champion.
Even if she never wins another title, she will now and forever be a Gold Medalist.
BTW, I've long expected her to have a NICE tennis future!
Boricua power!!!
PEACE! 
I'm a 61 year old white guy, and tonight,...
...my heart is FULL!
I remember back in September of 2001, just about a week before the 9/11 attacks, I was teaching 8th grade in a small Catholic school in Southwest Philadelphia. It Was one of the first couple of days back to school and I was establishing my bona fides as a Social Studies/History teacher to my kids. The way I did this was by having the students clear their desks except for the kid who was physically most far away from me with their book open to the appendix listing all of the presidents. I sat in the front of the room on a stool with empty hands and went through each president in order and the years they served. When I finished and the kid with the book told me I was correct, the kids asked questions about the presidents.
One child asked if I thought that there'd ever be an African American president and, in those days 3 years before anyone ever heard of Obama, I said that I thought that I'd live to see a woman president but not a black president, but that I thought that THEY would.
Given what we were offered by the Republicans in 2008/12, THANK GOD I was wrong.
In 2008 my wife and I supported Hillary in the primaries then, when Obama won fair and square, my wife and I supported him with NO hesitation.
This year, I was with Hillary from the word go. Tonight, I am very emotional and joyous to know that on January 20 of next year, I will have seen both a woman and a black president.
There is a part of me that believes, while we know that Hillary has always had big goals and ambitions, that some of the credit should go back to a September night in 1973 and to Billie Jean King, who opened the door to the dreams and ambitions of so many young women when she handed Bobby Riggs's ass to him in the "battle of the sexes" tennis match and made tens of thousands of young girls and women ask "why not?" about their own dreams.
Tonight the reality of a woman PRESIDENT is one step closer. While we still have to break our asses to make it happen, I know that this country will NEVER elect something like Donald Rump to be our president.
"Madam President"...it has a pretty nice ring to it, doesn't it?
PEACE!
Today I'm very proud of myself...VERY unusual for me!
As I mentioned in a previous post, I spent 17 long and awful days in the hospital this past February with a BASTARD of a case of Cellulites. Speaking as a 28 year cancer survivor and a recovering alcoholic of 26+ years, I can honestly say that I'd never felt sicker than those 27 horrendous days.
The day I went into the hospital, I weighed 378 pounds. I was put on a special diet and after 4 days I weighed 391 pounds. That was the closest that I came to signing out AMA because I remember snapping to the nutritionist that I could fail on a diet all by myself! F course, if I HAD signed out AMA, my wife would have kicked my ass until my nose bled!
The long and short of this is that while I was told that I had Cellulites, I looked at it as a case of "scare the hell out of Jackites", and knew that it was time to stop playing with myself and get serious about my weight. I've made the adjustments that I've known that I needed to make for years and got determined to make a permanent change.
As of this morning, I weigh 314 pounds. I know that I still have a long way to go to reach my initial goals, but I now see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. 77 pounds is a big deal and I'm determined to reach 100 pounds off and decide where to go from there. Once I get OUT of the 300s, I'm determined to never be back IN them again
Anyway, I just wanted to share this with you. Thank you for reading!
PEACE!
I had a close encounter with a Donald Rump supporter about an hour ago
I was in Cumby here in Winthrop, Maine getting my wife a coffee and a couple of muffins for us. I saw an old guy, maybe early 70s, wearing a "Trump...Make America Great Again" Tshirt and one of those stupid red hats. I told him that they were the funniest damn tshirt & hat I'd seen in a long time. 
The asshole THANKED me! 
I wonder when, or IF, he'll figure out that I had just insulted him! 
PEACE!
I speak for my wife and I and...
...nobody e!se when I say what I'm about to say. I am also saying this in a protected group in case any Sanders supporters want to alert me for not confirming to the "BernieUnderground" litmus test of blind and unquestioning devotion and loyalty to the non Democrat seeking the DEMOCRATIC nomination.
My wife and I are DONE with Back Bench Bernie. To steal the title of the last episode of MASH, Goodbye, Farewell, Amen. If, by some political nightmare, he does become our nominee, I will pinch my nose and vote for the mean old tax hider, but I will not contribute one red cent nor advocate for him at all. I will watch in horror as he takes a beating from, of all people, Donald Rump, who would hand Sanders a coast to coast thumping that would make Nixon/McGovern '72 look like Kennedy/Nixon '60! The horror will be because we had passed on the most qualified presidential candidate of my (by then) 61 years in favor of HIM...YUCK!!!
The lied about endorsements, stolen data, crybaby tantrums, wholesale embrace of many times debunked rightist talking points, phoney Vatican trip among many other things made me lose all respect I ever had for him. Up until a week or so ago, I was willing to possibly choose to regain some of that respect back.
No more!
The conduct of his supporters in the Nevada fiasco and his condoning it as he asserts his victim hood, as well as their intent to turn Philadelphia into a replay of 1968 Chicago has been the final straw. I hope that Howard Dean, Maggie Kunin or some other real Democrat challenges him for his Senate seat in 2018. My wife and I would certainly actively contribute to his well earned defeat.
At the beginning of this campaign I considered him to be a great man and wouldn't say a negative thing about him, only positives about Hillary. Unfortunately, Back Bench Bernie has proven himself to be the bitter, petty little person he is, and I am sick of him, and I will deal no more with him or his fanatical backers who think that name calling and threatening women and children is an appropriate way to politically debate.
Once again, I am DONE with Bernard Sanders!
PEACE!
I saw something else today that nauseated me.
In a story in yesterday's Morning Sentinal, the newspaper in Waterville, Maine, our spine of oatmeal senior senator, Susan Collins, referenced a Boston Globe story that stated that she may be being vetted as a potential VP nominee for Hillary Clinton...Yikes!
Now, Hillary has done JUST FINE in the course of her campaign without any advice from me, but if I were to say anything to her about the possibility of taking Collins as her running mate, it would be "Hell F*** NO!"
Please Hillary, do NOT even give one nanosecond's thought to naming Susan Collins as your running mate. There are too damned many good Democrats out there!
PEACE!
I just threw up a little bit in my mouth a few minutes ago!
While I was dropping my son off at school, I heard on the radio that there is talk of a Donald Rump/Back Bench Bernie ticket! 
Hopefully, Sanders has too much integrity for THAT...ooops, never mind! 
Yuck! 
PEACE!
After Back Bench Bernie's Indiana win last night,...
...which netted him about 5-7 net delegates and about a 40,000 vote gain on the 3+ million vote margin that Hillary has over him, I'm reminded a quote from Macbeth. To me, it not only symbolizes the Indiana win, but the more I think of it, the entire Sanders campaign!
"...a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
This is what Sanders has allowed his campaign to become. When he finally DOES face reality, I expect that his most rabid supporters will turn on him. He will get no sympathy from me, and the likely hood of my choosing to ever respect him again shrinks with each passing moment.
Wouldn't Howard Dean make a GREAT senator from Vermont?
PEACE!
I've reached a mini milestone!
On 2/11/16, I was hospitalized for a case of Cellulites. It was pretty bad and I was in the hospital until 2/27/16. While I wasn't in danger of dying, I think that my actual condition was "ScarethecrapoutofJackites!". 
Would we all agree that 17 days in a hospital SUCKS 100% of the time? Although I have nothing but the most positive things to say about all of the doctors, nurses and CNAs that I worked with in that time. 
I certainly learned that at just short of 61 years old, I can't screw around with my health anymore. I have a goal for 2016 to lose about 80 pounds...just like I did for 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012... Do we see a pattern here? 
However, as of today, I am down 30 pounds since entering the hospital. I've embraced the changes I needed to make and am determined to reach my goal and maybe then some! 
I'm going to celebrate by eating a HUGE hot fudge sundae...just kidding! 
Thanks for reading! 
PEACE!
I predict that Sanders will win EVERY primary & caucus from here on out IF...
...the networks hire Steve Harvey to announce the results!
PEACE!
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Delaware County, PA
Home country: USA
Current location: Winthrop, Maine
Member since: Tue Jul 8, 2003, 05:38 PM
Number of posts: 10,237
