OK, They're Going To Get It Done

I like the sound of things. It sounds and looks like the Democrats have the 216 (plus) votes to pass the health care bill.

I also like the sound of what that means for the future, that the Democrats will get the credit for actually getting something done that will do America some good. The Republicans, on the other hand, will get no credit, only the blame for doing nothing and voting no.

It's a terrible scene, what the Republicans have encouraged in all these Tea Party wackos, where every third person to them is Hitler, LOL, or someone out to end their "way of life." As to what "way of life" that is precisely, they seem fairly miserable, so maybe good riddance to it!

I'll tell you, if we end the "way of life" of pre-existing conditions, the "way of life" of being canceled when you get sick, the "way of life" of endless premium increases, and the "way of life" of no insurance and people dying early because of it ... then certainly good riddance to it!

This stuff ought to be a no-brainer. Except it was the Republicans who were the ones who had no brain. Maybe something in the bill will provide a way for them to get a brain transplant. We know they have a major pre-existing condition, since you'd like to have something to work with. But, hey, even Dr. Frankenstein had to start somewhere.

The rabble is threatening violence, they're calling out the N word, calling people faggots, and they've probably got the kerosene on their brooms by now. They want us to think they're the true American people. Ha, that's a laugh. If anything, they're traitors to this country. They don't embody our values and aren't seeking what the Constitution calls a "more perfect union."

The Tea Party Wackos

How is it all these deadbeat Tea Party wackos have all the time in the world to always be in Washington, D.C., waving their flags (they want to secede, you know), and shouting insults at everyone?

Now we have reports that they've been spitting on people, shouting the N word, calling people "faggots," and who knows what all else?! And they have Republican members of Congress right there supporting them. Is it any wonder the Republicans in Congress can't legitimately be called the "loyal opposition" any more. They're traitors to our country's great heritage and values ... is what they are.

What is it these cretins want? We're not sure, but we know that if President Obama supports it, they're automatically against it. It seems like they're very PRO Constitution, except in the sense that the Constitution allows those in the majority to vote by majority vote to get certain things done. They're very ANTI the idea that anyone who disagrees with them would also have an agenda that they would like to enact.

And by the way, how is it these crazy people have free run of the Capitol building? I thought there was some kind of security system there to protect our representatives. If they're just congregating, wandering the hall, shouting down the representatives, calling names, spitting, etc., isn't there any penalty for that sort of thing? You mean anyone can just go in the Capitol and make a public nuisance of themselves?

These people are terrible. I believe this is the same bunch of idiots who don't want government health care: "Just keep your hands off our Medicare!" LOL.

Kansas Vs. Northern Iowan

Oh, that was a tough game for KU. I watched the whole thing and was for them, but, hey, you can't play like Grandma and hope to win. Still, it turned out close. If they would've played with some of that intensity the whole time, they could've done it.

It was tough that so many of the three pointers wouldn't go through. And the front end of free throw shots. You add up a few of those, like 2 (as it turned out) and it would've made a big difference.

I had the sense all the way through that something would kick into gear for them. That at some point they'd turn it and end up winning by 9 or 10 points. But it wasn't to be.

I was talking to someone a couple hours before the game that this could happen, since anyone can have a bad day ... and anyone can have a great day, like UNI had. They were a very impressive team, with some real standout players. I was impressed. While disappointed in the Jayhawks.

Wingnuts Weigh In Against Healing On Sabbath

Glenn Beck and Rep. Steve King, of course among the worst of the worst Republican crazies, have objected to the congressional vote on Sunday as being "an affront to God."

Because it is Sunday and all, and apparently no one's supposed to do anything on Sundays. Nothing, let's say, that would do anyone any good, like health care reform. These guys' version of God would have God sitting on the sidelines while people suffer.

Hmm, where have I heard that philosophy before? Oh yeah, the Bible!

Matthew 12 from the NIV:

1At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath."

9Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"

11He said to them, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

13Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

So Glenn Beck and Steve King have aligned themselves against Jesus and with the Pharisees! Nice.

Dare We Hope? Health Care Reform

It sounds like everything is starting to align so that the Congress will actually get something accomplished as far as health care reform goes. But it's still being presented as a nail biter, like the votes aren't quite there yet. That sucks. I want a slam dunk.

Our health care system in America is a disgrace. The premiums go up incessantly and the benefits go down at the same time. You're forever dealing with the concept of "pre-existing conditions" and wondering if you'd be accepted or rejected. It's a system, that if it had any actual design behind it, you'd say was designed by sadists. Or Republicans, not trying to be redundant.

Speaking of Republicans, if we ever find out what planet these aliens came from, I'm all for an embargo on immigration between there and here. Their idea of the common good is no idea. If I had the opinions the Republicans in Congress (and Fox News and talk radio) have, I would immediately seek psychiatric help, if I weren't committed by someone before I got there. How it is they're able to walk around freely without some kind of mandatory meds check, I don't know.

Certainly the ones in Congress are a pack of wolves or a brood of vipers, whichever predatory nuisance you're most uncomfortable with. The idea that they're going to use every underhanded trick to demagogue this thing and obstruct it is sickening to me. It'd be great, if they're so against health care coverage for everyone else, if they voluntarily gave up their own and that of their children. But of course that would require principles.

The Republicans' big idea is to "promise" to repeal health care reform after the next election. We would greet this with several hoots, since the idea of someone not wanting affordable health care seems unbelievable to me. It's like if the cost of gas went down and the Republicans "promised" to raise it again as soon as they got back in office. We would say ... "Huh?"

I'm all for rewarding the Democrats if they are somehow able to get their act together and get this done. Why it took them so long, and why it's not already a done deal, is beyond me. But the ways of corporate pigs at the trough are not my ways.

In A Perfect World

In a perfect world...

I'm trying to think of what it'd be like in a perfect world, with all the annoyances of life dealt with, because it'd be a perfect world.

Right off the bat, though, it seems like what would be perfect for me wouldn't necessarily be perfect for someone else, so it wouldn't be a perfect world. OK, I will pronounce it, that in a perfect world, what would be perfect for me would be perfect for everyone else too.

In a perfect world there'd be no suffering. How exactly this would work out, we'd have to examine it. Because it might mess up the food supply, since a lot of the stuff I eat suffers somewhere along the way.

In a perfect world there wouldn't be any snow, except a light dusting on Christmas Day, all melted the next day.

We wouldn't have partisan hacks, Republican obstructionism and lying. That really would have to be a quality of a perfect world, since they've got this one so messed up it's basically unbelievable.

In a perfect world, the anxiety I feel on a minute to minute basis would be wrapped up as maybe one minute's worth of anxiety in a year. I would go from 100% content to 100% anxious for one minute a year. If that. Then back to completely content.

In a perfect world, I wouldn't cut myself shaving. It's so unpredictable. I shaved today and it went well. Then later in the day I noticed a little spot I missed, I got the razor and went over that little spot, and somehow cut myself. Crazy. Nothing that would happen in a perfect world!

In a perfect world I'd be making a couple thousand a day and my expenses would be about a hundred bucks. So there'd be lots left over.

This Might Be Mission Impossible For Me

I was reading a little bit about "Mission Impossible," the TV show yesterday, for reasons that had nothing to do with Peter Graves dying the other day. It was strictly a coincidence.

I was with a guy who was showing me some of the TV shows he has downloads of, and he happened to have a number of episodes of "MI." The natural question came up, how many episodes were made, as we wanted to determine how many he'd need to have them all. He had around 20 and at first thought maybe that's all they were. I had no idea how many there were, but I knew it had to be more than 20 some.

It turns out -- a big thanks goes out to the bean counters at Wikipedia -- that there were 171 episodes and the pilot episode. And that the show went on for seven seasons, at 20 some per. So this guy had the first season out of what was virtually an endless run. 171 missions that seemed impossible but turned out not to live up to their billing, actually being not only possible but done.

I was thinking, What if I had the entire series? There's so many of them that it might turn out to be Mission Impossible for me to watch them all.

OK, there's no commercials. That knocks them down to about 46-48 minutes each. Still, even if I watched one a day, that's virtually an hour for 171 days. That's a pretty good chunk of time, not even counting whether I'd be interested in one impossible adventure after another for that long. I'd probably lose interest and it'd all fizzle out.

That was a great show. But who knows if it'd be great enough to watch the whole thing now?

He and I watched part of the pilot episode. They had a phonograph record instead of the little tape recorder. And it decomposed after the guy listened to it. Then Martin Landau, the man of a thousand faces, was going to have the mission of disguising himself to impersonate a guy he himself was playing as a second character! Looking at the guy's picture, then seeing Martin Landau, it didn't look all that hard, frankly.

Manxman's Morality

I wrote about the film "The Manxman" yesterday, a film by Alfred Hitchcock, a silent film from the '20s.

Yesterday it was in honor of the beauty of the leading lady, who played Kate, the love interest of ... the two leading men. Yes, the two.

First, the fisherman loved her. Then his lawyer friend. The fisherman entrusted her to his friend's care while he was away making his fortune in Africa. His friend promptly fell in love with her ... and apparently went all the way at some point afterward.

I'm thinking this is a very mature themed movie, and risque. Not having lived through the '20s, I'm no expert in the mores of those times, especially overseas, England in this case.

She doesn't love the fisherman, but because she promised herself to him she married him anyway. But it all turned out badly for them, with justice finally prevailing to establish certain things about the other relationship. Folks in the crowd were heaping scorn on them.

It was a very good movie. I might want to see it again someday. I recommend it.

The Manxman Beauty

I'm watching this Alfred Hitchcock silent film from 1929, "The Manxman." These scenes are from the beginning. I'm looking at Kate Cregeen played by Anny Ondra and thinking, Wow, she's great looking! She doesn't have that weirded out old fashioned look at you see in lots of 1920s pictures. Instead very fresh and natural.

But let's say I was an eligible bachelor and she wouldn't be around 100 years old now, I still wouldn't want to face her gruff old dad, Caesar Cregeen played by Randle Ayrton. That's Pete Quilliam played by Carl Brisson getting the evil eye for his efforts, and looking like he's about to blow a gasket.

I'm just a little farther than this watching the film. Pete's getting ready to go to Africa to make his fortune, with the idea of coming back to reclaim Kate. Unfortunately, there's others around who happen to notice some of her obvious virtues as well.

Health Care Reform This Week (?)

Supposedly we are going to have the health care reform bill done by the end of next week. Good, great, get it done.

The Republicans are out, in full throat, stirring up their usual amount of discord and vandalism. But it is my hope that we (our slow moving beloved leaders) won't be swayed by them. This after all was one of the promises of an Obama presidency when we voted in 2008. And there's no reason whatsoever that we shouldn't have it. In fact there's more of a reason, because the problem with health care has only gotten worse in the meantime.

To leave it to the private insurers to do the right thing, which is the Republicans' plan, would be a disaster. The same as leaving wolves in charge of the hen house. If you really like your morning egg, don't be surprised if your layers come up missing.

Now the Republicans are looking for this to be the killer platform for them, to repeal health care reform. To take us back to those glory days of endless, unregulated insurance increases, etc. Of course I don't think we're going to have it so much better afterward, because the insurance companies were part of the buy off process in Congress. But anything has to be better than nothing. And to think I would leave myself to the tender mercies of the Republicans? Yeah, that would be smart.

How's this for a quote:

Karl Rove warned on Fox News: "If they pass this thing, I think they lose the House of Representatives this fall".

The "concern" is duly noted. Karl is always looking our for our electoral best interests!

To which I would say, "If that's what it takes." There's no good reason to have power if you're never going to use it for the public good. If we get involved in a campaign that has in it a key promise to get health care reform, then if we can never get health care reform because someone might lose a future election, what was the point of the first campaign? To win elections just to win more elections is pointless.

And as for Karl seeing a one-to-one action and consequence here, look at his boss's administration. They misgoverned this country (like skunks) for years in my opinion, and they got reelected.

Pizza Hut $10 Deal Small Print

There must be some small print on the Pizza Hut TV ad that I didn't notice.

I thought I heard them unambiguously say words to the effect of Any pizza, any crust, any toppings, $10. No nothing about any kind of exclusions.

But like I say, there could've been some small print to tamp down the deal so you couldn't go hog wild. I know when I first heard it on TV, I was saying, What if a guy ordered 100 toppings? Because it definitely sounded unambiguously like there were no limits.

Well, what something sounds like on TV (a $10 pizza, any pizza, any crust, any toppings) ended up being a $12 pizza and would've been a $14 pizza except we canceled the last $2 topping.

Because somewhere in the small print, which we didn't see, must be a clause that says it's only good for three toppings. Because that's what the phone person at Pizza Hut said, After that it's $2 per topping.

I really can see why they wouldn't want it to be unlimited. But what I can't see is how they can make an ad like that that makes it sound so unambiguous. Then they spring it on you when you call or when you show up.

I've never understood why a big corporate place, Pizza Hut or anyone, wants to make their customers mad by seeming to over promise, then when it comes time to deliver, it's just a disappointment. So I'm sitting there saying, No more "$10" pizzas!

Conductor Bert Haid -- Random News

This news is from The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Fort Wayne, IN, Jan. 24, 1913, p. 15, in a column called "Wawaka News":

Conductor Bert Haid, who has been off duty several weeks on account of illness, resumed his run on the plug this morning.

What else happened in the life of Bert Haid that made the news?

1913 -- G.C. Griffith of Toledo is relief conductor for Bert Haid, while the latter is at Grand Rapids on a visit. (Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, July 25, 1913, p. 6).

1914 -- Bert Haid is visiting friends in Wawaka. (Fort Wayne News, April 29, 1914, p. 4).

1917 -- (Bert is a conductor with the New York Central lines.) Two men stole some clothes from him. One of the men, Joseph Rogers, later in custody, tried to escape, but after a ten-minute tussle was overpowered, double handcuffed and taken to jail. (Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, March 13, 1917, p. 3).

Joseph Rogers, who stole Bert Haid's clothes, was given a sentence to the reformatory at Jeffersonville this afternoon by Judge Wrigley. (Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, March 29, 1917, p. 8).

Bert has been compelled to be off duty several days on account of illness, but is now up and about again. (Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, April 17, 1917, p. 2).

Mrs. Bert Haid was the guest of Ligonier relatives today. (Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Dec. 7, 1917, p. 27).

1919 -- Bert Haid was among that big crowd at Toledo yesterday. (Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, July 5, 1919, p. 2).

What big crowd? In Toledo, Ohio, July 4, Jack Dempsey defeated Jess Willard in three rounds to become the world's champion heavyweight boxer. It was a very hot Fourth of July, with the thermometer at 110 degrees. How big was the crowd at Toledo? There was a Methodist conference in Columbus, at which officials estimated there were more than 110,000 persons. This was said to nearly triple the number who witnessed the Willard-Dempsey fight at Toledo. (Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, July 5, 1919, p. 1).

John Haid celebrated his eighty-sixth birthday last Friday at the home of his niece, Mrs. Beanda Hall, at Chicago. A roasted pig was served and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Among the guests were Mrs. and Mrs. Lou Haid, of Wawaka; Mr. and Mrs. Bert Haid, of Kendallville, and Mr. and Mrs. H.G. Williams and son, Clarence, and wife, of Toledo. (Fort Wayne News and Sentinel, Dec. 16, 1919, p. 27).

Mrs. Bert Haid is the guest of friends at Elkhart. (Fort Wayne News and Sentinel, Dec. 22, 1919, p. 33).

These items were found at newspaperarchive.com. It's not necessarily exhaustive, since I only searched for "Bert Haid." But the top entry (pictured above, from Jan. 24, 1913) didn't show up on the search. The print is fairly broken up. So it's likely that there's other Bert Haid news out there.

The Republicans And Massa

It's not just on the issue of Congressman Eric Massa, former Congressman, that the Republicans are troublemakers, it's every issue. But this is their latest thing, probing for some damaging information about Nancy Pelosi over this idiot Massa's troubles.

Of course the Republicans don't care anything about it per se, but only how they can gum up things for the Democrats. Meaning it's part and parcel of their entire legislative strategy, which is to stir up trouble ... constant and non-stop.

What does this make the Republicans? They're really nothing but vandals. Civic vandalism, that's what the Republicans engage in. No wonder we have so many troubles in this country.

Honk If You've Been Groped By Eric Massa

Honestly, I can't believe people go around groping one another. Isn't there a first date rule on stuff like this, dining, dancing, flowers, groping?

I don't want to say too much about myself, but I never liked the idea of showering with others in P.E. Speaking for myself, the chances of anything happening there were zero or less. But I'm not a Congressman, I don't have that immediate thought that I'm God's gift to other nude people.

It's my opinion that if you're going to be in Congress, you really have to watch your reputation. The amount of stuff that these guys get away with before they get caught boggles the mind.