It was extraordinary in its oddness...I can't quite describe how I felt after watching it. It was positively weird...I would suppose that they'll post it on their website. It seemed to go on forever and was vaguely mesmerizing.

So of course, CNN is running their 2013 Retrospectives and one of them was the 10 greatest meteorological disasters of 2013. Of course, they didn't call it that exactly, but close enough. So the meteorologist - you know- the guy who uses his hands WAY too much for TeeVee -at the end of the 10 nightmares actually states that this may be the new normal AND that it is due to climate change. Even more amazingly, the anchor didn't disavow the meteorologist's statements as they usually do.

I guess, if every two weeks you have a once-in-a-thousand-year catastrophe, then something may well be going on...even if Joe Scarborough, that great scientist and intellect, doesn't think so.

Since these occurrences seem to be costing many billions of dollars, then the Establishment is now ready to accept that they exist and are destroying whole segments of the globe and the populations which reside in dangerous areas. Dangerous being defined as anywhere on land or sea and at almost any altitude. Other than that, everyone is perfectly safe.

Oh and also, don't forget that eating bananas is just like living downwind from TMI, Chernobyl, or the aptly-named Fukushima. So far...at least.

And a Merry Christmas to all!

1. I just wrote the check for January's premium for what is essentially the SAME PLAN for my family and single coverage of two employees and it is $1500.00 less MONTHLY. So there.

2. When this starts to really take hold nationally, the RW will come out and bash Obama for having the temerity to name the plan after himself, when everyone "knows" that it was conceived as a Republican Plan and given full support by the Rethug-friendly insurance industry.

here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/12/17/president-obama-loves-house-of-cards-i-hate-it-it-heres-why/

...and it completely reinforced my impression that he's a pompous snob with that holier-than-thou mentality which is "just right" for Morning Joe and that ilk.

He doesn't much like the show, and he underlines the fact that President Obama does: if you read his reasons and rationale, it just isn't realistic. I like that fact that he's personally offended that a female journalist uses her feminine wiles to manipulate people. He states that that is "far-fetched" and "frankly offensive to female reporters everywhere". It's a generally stupid review and he confesses to have watched only three episodes (!) which makes him qualified to have an opinion.

In my less-than-humble opinion, Mr. Cillizza, since I know that you're going to read this since you Google yourself routinely, this is EXACTLY what is wrong with you, your colleagues, and what's left of your profession. You short-cut everything to make it easier upon yourselves, you have no sense of drama, of literature, of historical context. You have no sense of humor, you don't understand literary caricature, you fail to comprehend what others might find fascinating and you rubber-stamp everything with the remarkably small collection which resides upon your desk.

So you stated that it lacked verisimilitude - you didn't bother to use that word but I will - why don't you, then, research and write an article profiling your co-worker Andrea Mitchell, whom I knew from Philadelphia, and discuss how fascinating it must be to be a national reporter...nay, an international reporter whose job it is to find the soft underbelly of the Establishment and discuss it in public, BUT who is incidentally married to the man who controlled the money supply of the Nation and thus the entire economy of the globe. Can you imagine what she knows and when she learned about it? Now there would be some REAL reporting. But no,you spend your time horsing around with Joe and Mika, criticizing the President, forecasting doom when the wind seems to be blowing in that direction, and not recanting when the breeze shifts 180 degrees. In addition you lambaste fictional characters for not being realistic enough - well, they're fictional, sort of like your friend Mitt Romney's Corporate Person-hood folk.

Oh, and one more thing: (many of us can write in conversational tone as you do, we just aren't paid a salary to do so) before you review and compose an opinion piece why don't you watch the entire show, read the entire book, stay for the end of the film? Lazy "journalism" is unbecoming.

he's not around to slap L'il Luke Russert around anymore. Lukie, that entitled member of The Lucky Sperm Club is getting a bit too big for his britches, what with him lecturing us on "Poli-Sci" between his "brewskis" and reminiscences of his attempted "bangings of co-eds" back in his heyday!

Bashir used to beat him up verbally, at least, pretty well. I'm gonna have to find other amusement for my afternoons...

I mean, who the heck else is going to work that late on Christmas Eve??

(AP Yellow): Just hours after shaking the hand of President of The United States Barack Obama, the leader of Cuba addressed his nation and stated that he was instructing his government to resume full trade and normalize relationships with The United States. He invited the leaders of the American economic community to a summit to be held in Havana on February 1st in order to reestablish a full and fair capitalist economy. A rough translation of his speech included the phrase: "...you can keep your Marxist ways, 'cause it's only just a phase, for it's money money money makes the world go 'round."


$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Just kidding, of course but wotta a burner that would be on those Rethuglicans...I can hear Rush and Hannity sputtering now...

Really...the media here in Philly has been working this latest "Snowmegeddon" for all it was worth: Live Reports!, Breaking News!, Storm Headed Our Way!, and MORE!!!!!

It's good business for the bread, eggs, and milk companies, since much French Toast will be made in the ensuing days when these folks have four loaves, three dozen eggs, and gallons of milk. People pushing and shoving to get into the cashier's line so's they don't get stuck in the snarling traffic and become part of the tens of thousands of dead in the charnel house that would become the streets near the shopping centers.

...and SHOVELS! (What happened to last year's shovel? Do people throw it out in the spring?) and SALT or HALIDE! for the sidewalks and driveways which will be covered by meters of snow!

...but...not a flake on the major thoroughfares and while the side streets are slippery, I doubt if this is going to be the next Pompeii here.

and were greeted at the door...at the frigging DOOR, with a "joke", if you want to call it that, about President Obama. I'm not gonna relate the joke here since I don't post that which I can't stand hearing and it isn't funny on any level, really.

So he prefaces the joke by saying that his son had called him and told him this - as though that somehow validates the material and exonerates him in case it doesn't go over well. At the end of the joke, neither Mrs. Intern nor I smile and I count to three to myself and say:

"That is a recycled joke from the George W. Bush Presidency, or whatever you want to call that hot mess."

That was the last mention of politics for the (mercifully short) evening.

I am tired of being randomly shot at, so I pack my own brand of heat.

As an aside, we don't get as many of those "You wouldn't believe what my brother-in-law told me about the Democrats/President/Liberals/Hillary" posts which then told the story in exquisite detail as we used to. I think. Maybe I'm wrong.

at the home of some wonderful people I know.

He's a progressive businessman from York, PA who served in the Rendell Administration - because, he likes to say, that he's the only Democrat from York county who owns a tie. Pretty good line...

I won't bother you with the details of his speech BUT I will tell you that for my (substantial (for me)) check which I handed his aide personally, I gave him two pieces of advice:

1. Under no circumstances denigrate the political machinations of Pennsylvania in the manner in which he did: it will become his 47% moment. All someone has to do is record him saying that with an iPhone and it's all over.

2. He went into the Peace Corps when he was 19, putting his studies at Dartmouth on hiatus. He accentuated this aspect of his life and how he worked in India assisting them in increasing their rice production. Of course, in that era, Peace Corps and Draft Dodging were synonymous and he should never forget what state he's campaigning in. In addition, many minority voters or their brothers or sons or cousins would have had to have been drafted because they weren't in college and they might not be so interested or appreciative of his duty assignment, so to speak. I mentioned that he probably needs to frame his experience in a context which would prevent "misinterpretation" (read: Rethug smear tactics) He started explaining the complex nature of his draft status and we are contemporaries and I just held up my hand and said, "I believe you. But as they say, if you have to explain, it means you're losing. No one is going to listen to this - the Republicans will tar and feather you if you don't present this well.

Surprisingly, he actually took me seriously and lost that "Campaigning Look" that these guys and gals have and you could tell that he was concerned. He's probably a good guy as far as this stuff goes and I will continue to work for him. You can expect a big advertising blitz coming soon - he's self-funded to the tune of about 2/3 of his initial budget.