grantcart
grantcart's JournalDamn Christians!
I also found these thoughtful comments by Peter O'Toole which only endeared him more to me than before:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/arts/television/26tudo.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1388517722-0FqqzS/MYVTopGNbCQMByQ
“I am a retired Christian,” he announced playfully, relaxing in his trailer at the end of a hard workday. His costume had been replaced by sweater, jacket, pants and an ascot.
Six decades after his altar-boy childhood and subsequent loss of faith, Mr. O’Toole said he looked elsewhere for life guidance. “I suggest that an education and reading and facts aren’t bad things on which to ponder a few notions,” he said. But he acknowledged a “very strong and very real” spiritual side to his nature.
“No one can take Jesus away from me,” he said, having just expressed an affection for the Sermon on the Mount (“Blessed are the meek,” etc.). “There’s no doubt there was a historical figure of tremendous importance, with enormous notions. Such as peace.”
Reminds me somewhat of the thoughts of the great Albert Schweitzer
Fox News was right there are cases of serious voter fraud that need investigation.
Or at least one:
Liz Cheney’s husband has been registered to vote in both Virginia and Wyoming for the past nine months, even though he signed a document in Wyoming saying he was not registered elsewhere.
Responding to questions from POLITICO, a spokeswoman for the Republican Senate candidate said Phil Perry has notified Virginia authorities to take his name off the rolls but would not say when.
Perry, who continues to practice law in Washington while his wife challenges Sen. Mike Enzi in a Republican primary 2,000 miles west, registered as a Wyoming voter with the Teton County clerk’s office in March.
The county clerk, Sherry Daigle, said new voters are asked if they are registered elsewhere so the office can send a withdrawal request to the other jurisdiction.
“He signed an oath saying he was not currently registered anywhere else,” Daigle told POLITICO.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/wyoming-senate-race-2014-liz-cheney-husband-phil-perry-vote-registration-101298.html#ixzz2ntyma6Fr
Find something to be happy about today (Monday December 16th, 2013)
Whose birthday are we celebrating today?
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Hint #1
Hint #2
Did you guess Ludwig van Beethoven?
Well he was born on December 16, 1770 and would be a good candidate for us "Good Newsers" to remember. We often find good news in the midst of tragedy, people overcoming terrible circumstances to rediscover the joy of life and Beethoven suffered terrible tinnitus (something that I am an expert at, unfortunately) which creates sounds in the ear sometimes called "ringing in the ear" but would be better understood as "train whistle in the ear" making it impossible to hear his own music and driving him to consider suicide:
Around 1796, by the age of 26, Beethoven began to lose his hearing.[47] He suffered from a severe form of tinnitus, a "ringing" in his ears that made it hard for him to hear music; he also tried to avoid conversations. The cause of Beethoven's deafness is unknown, but it has variously been attributed to typhus, auto-immune disorders (such as systemic lupus erythematosus), and even his habit of immersing his head in cold water to stay awake. The explanation from Beethoven's autopsy was that he had a "distended inner ear," which developed lesions over time.
As early as 1801, Beethoven wrote to friends describing his symptoms and the difficulties they caused in both professional and social settings (although it is likely some of his close friends were already aware of the problems).[48] Beethoven, on the advice of his doctor, lived in the small Austrian town of Heiligenstadt, just outside Vienna, from April to October 1802 in an attempt to come to terms with his condition. There he wrote his Heiligenstadt Testament, a letter to his brothers which records his thoughts of suicide due to his growing deafness and records his resolution to continue living for and through his art.[49] Over time, his hearing loss became profound: there is a well-attested story that, at the end of the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, he had to be turned around to see the tumultuous applause of the audience; hearing nothing, he wept
Beethoven would be an apt poster child for those of us who struggle against tedium, banality, pain and angst to find the joy of the day because he fought back from all of that to create music that still grabs your emotions today.
But no silly rabbit today we celebrate the birth of my oldest daughter whose middle name is Hataichanok which in Thai is translated as "heart of the father". I always look up Beethoven's birthday at the beginning of December to make sure I don't muff the day.
Find some joy in your life today, friend.
Find something to be happy about today (Tuesday Dec 3, 2013)
Waiting for the big guy to go to rehab
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feeling old? We can still make a difference by teaching a skill.
Or just providing a challenging highway for play.
We all got something that will help some one else, have a great day.
Find something to be happy about today (Monday Dec 2, 2013)
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Siblings helping siblings
Sometimes when we need someone to help us walk down the road
Sometimes when we grow old with special challenges
And all of the other times that life makes us stand alone feeling stupid. Party (Left) has a rare disease that causes regularly vomiting and his sister Fiesta helps clean it up.
Have a great day and if you want to really confuse someone treat them like a long lost sibling and watch how it confounds and confuses them!!!!
And remember this tip from our favorite Dane:
"Above all do not forget your duty to love yourself."
Soren Kierkegaard
Find something to be happy about today (Sunday Dec 1, 2013)
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Today feast on these beautiful paintings
Now meet the artists:
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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/18/books/review/18grandin.html?_r=0
This is a wonderful book for parents to read to young children. It tells the true story of elephants trained to make paintings. "I teach in two schools," Katya Arnold writes. "One is in the city. The other is in the jungle. Some of my students have hands. Others have trunks."
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Many of the elephants make aimless drawings, but it seemed to me that a few are creating real patterns. Not only that - an elephant named Gongkam had painted highly realistic pictures of various flowers; one bunch with long stems looked like irises. Another elephant, Larnkam, had made both flowers and swirling abstract designs; several looked a bit like intertwined double helixes. These were in contrast to the art I saw on a couple of other Web sites, done by elephants in zoos, where almost all the work looked like scribbling. It is interesting that the best elephant artists seem to be young, only 4 or 5 years old; it's likely that many zoo animals are much older and it may be more difficult for them to learn.
Still skeptical? Watch this video:
http://www.elephantart.com/catalog/
Have a great day, let your inner elephant out and do something no one expects you will be able to do!!
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
Søren Kierkegaard
Find something to be happy about today ( Sat, 30th 2013)
Filling in for the big guy
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You have a great day today.
Jeb Bush rumors pick up
I predicted here that Christie will be shown not to have enough national appeal among the base and is a stand in for Jeb. Here are the first rumors for Jeb in the post Christie re-election.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251336883
http://www.politico.com/morningmoney/
THE JEB BUSH BOOMLET — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gets all the love as the current GOP front-runner for 2016 (to the extent there can even be a front runner three years out.) But there is growing chatter in elite New York financial circles that former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is giving more serious consideration to getting in the race, especially if it appears at any point that Christie is not drawing big national appeal beyond the northeast. Several plugged in GOP sources said Bush has moved from almost certainly staying out to a 30 percent chance of getting in. The “70/30” odds pop up in so many conversations they almost seem like circulated talking points.
“I think he could run,” said one senior Republican who now works in the financial industry. “The environment is shaping up well for him. Republicans want someone who is competent and who can win and that’s Jeb.” Of course it could also be Christie. Some of the chatter ratcheted up because Bush was in NYC on Tuesday and spoke at the SIFMA conference and took some hard shots at President Obama for taking “victory dances” after fiscal fights and not building relationships with Republicans that could help on tax reform, immigration and other issues. Bush also slammed Obamacare saying it would collapse of its own weight and the GOP should be “ready with an alternative.”
Bush billed his remarks and his conversation with CNBC’s Becky Quick as “non-partisan” but he sure seemed to lay out a center-right campaign vision (education reform, immigration reform, tax reform to boost GDP) while also taking harder partisan jabs. It seemed to many in the Wall Street crowd like Bush was gearing up for a run. And people who know the governor say that if he does decide to run he will drop everything else he is doing (working for Barclays, among things) and go all in. Lots of questions remain (including how he deals with fellow Floridian Marco Rubio’s ambitions; what about Bush fatigue etc.) but don’t count out a Bush bid just yet.
The big winner tonight for the Republicans?
Jeb Bush.
The fundamental difference in the sociology of the two parties is that the Democrats consist of various groups that have high overlapping areas of interests: minorities, anti-war, woman's rights, economic justice, sexual orientation civil rights. There really is no antagonism between the group and virtually every Democrat sees themselves as being a part of several groups.
Republicans are a collection of fundamentally antagonistic groups: defense hawks, corporate establishment, evangelical, pro life, tea bag, racist, John Birch, and they really don't like each other. The fact that it was so close in VA will give the TeaParty hope, they just need to 'tweak' their message, not overhaul it.
They are now polarized into the Cruz vs Christie factions. Both will be able to mobilize money and people. There is no real room for compromise and they will battle it to the end.
The reality is that Republicans must take Ohio, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia to get close to the electoral college. Cruz can't do it. Christie can't even deliver NJ. The Republican who has the best chance with those states will be Jeb Bush.
Over the next 3 years Christie and Cruz will be involved in inter party and partisan fights that will leave them both bloodied and diminished. Jeb Bush can remain quiet on the sidelines and float above it all and in 2015 enter the primaries a fresh face that unifies a bloodied party and reaches out to Hispanics.
Ironically we just moved closer to a Bush/Clinton race in 2016.
McConnell drops behind Grimes (D)// McConnell says he will prevent next shutdown
[font color="blue" size="6" face="face"]Grimes leads McConnell by 2[/font]
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2013/10/grimes-leads-mcconnell-by-2.html
PPP’s newest Kentucky poll finds voters in the state extremely unhappy about the government shutdown, and taking it out on Mitch McConnell. The Republican Senator Minority Leader now trails Alison Lundergan Grimes 45/43 for reelection.
60% of Kentucky voters opposed the shutdown, compared to only 32% who supported it. Those numbers are in line with what we’ve found in other red states- it doesn’t matter if a place went for Obama by 20 points or Romney by 20 points last fall, the shutdown is a huge problem for Republican politicians everywhere.
48% of voters in the state say they’re less likely to support McConnell for reelection next year because he supported the shutdown, compared to only 34% who say they’re now more likely to support him.
and no surprise:
[font color="blue" size="6" face="face"]GOP’s McConnell promises no more shutdowns over ObamaCare
[/font]
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/329145-leader-mcconnell-no-more-shutdowns-over-obamacare
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell says he will not allow another government shutdown as part of a strategy to repeal ObamaCare.
McConnell (Ky.) told The Hill in an interview Thursday afternoon that his party learned a painful political lesson over the past 16 days, as its approval rating dropped while the government was shuttered.
He said there’s no reason to go through the political wringer again in January, when the stopgap Congress passed late Wednesday expires.
“One of my favorite old Kentucky sayings is there’s no education in the second kick of a mule. The first kick of a mule was when we shut the government down in the mid 1990s and the second kick was over the last 16 days,” he said. “There is no education in the second kick of a mule. There will not be a government shutdown.
“I think we have fully now acquainted our new members with what a losing strategy that is,” he added.
Thank you Senator Cruz.
This is what winning looks like.
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