Saturday, May 5, 2012

How Many Times . . .

. . . have you, when determining where to store a valuable, semi-valuable, helpful, pragmatic, useful . . .
. . . item, you finally - VOILA - arrive at just the absolute best place for that particular item?

A GOOD PLACE!

We all know them.  We all have them.  We have all placed these  valuable, semi-valuable, helpful, pragmatic, useful items in A GOOD PLACE at one time or another.   And it truly, without-a-shadow-of-a doubt as good a good place as a good place can be.  But of course, when the time comes that you must find that item, you can't for the life of you remember where in the world you put it until you finally remember that you actually put it in. . .

A GOOD PLACE.                  


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

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Bumper . . .

. . . stickers of note . . .

My top four Bumper stickers of note:

4.  Pray for our Priests

3.  On what day did God create fossils?

2.  What would Scooby Do?

1.  Tits on a Ritz.  Good Cracker!





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Friday, May 4, 2012

More, More, More . . .

. . . it's never enough. . .

 (from NPR http://www.npr.org/2012/04/27/151456319/is-moderate-growth-good-for-the-economy)
'The U.S. economy hit the recession exit ramp nearly three years ago, but it's been lost on the back roads somewhere near Recoveryville ever since. Growth rates have been modest at best compared with the 4-plus percent growth in the years well before the U.S. began slouching toward its worst post-World War II recession. On Friday, the government reported that the economy grew at a 2.2 percent pace in the first quarter, down from the 3 percent rate at the end of 2011. The Federal Reserve this week said it expects growth to "remain moderate over coming quarters and then to pick up gradually. "Common sense says high growth rates are good and slower, more modest ones are not so good. But is that always the case? After all, the "irrational exuberance" of the early 2000s helped bring on the recession as people borrowed and spent their way to prosperity. Economists say growth will remain low and consumers will be cautious as long as unemployment stays high. Last month, the jobless rate stood at 8.2 percent. We asked four economists for their take on the growth rate and whether it has triggered any permanent change in consumer behavior. They are Chris Christopher, a senior principal economist at IHS Global Insight; William Dickens, an economist at the Brookings Institution; Gary Hufbauer, a senior researcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics; and Ken Matheny, senior economist at Macroeconomic Advisers. . ."

It's time we re-examine our expectations and our standards.  Let us redefine 'growth' and calibrate our expectations to a more realistic and natural level. Paraphrasing Dylan Ratigan in "Greedy Bastards",  short term greed is practiced by greedy bastards;  the largest  payback as quickly as possible.  Long-term greed is what capitalism is all about.  Provide a good or service of value and reap a profit over a number of years . . . yes YEARS;  a concept quite foreign to U.S. business.



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Thursday, May 3, 2012

Who knew . . .

there was any such thing as DNA when the constitution was written?  U.S. or state!

Maryland's Attorney General has filed a motion asking the state’s highest court to reconsider its ruling that it is unconstitutional to collect DNA samples from those arrested for crimes of violence. Also requested was a stay of its order until the Attorney General's office can appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Supporters of the DNA law have urged the Attorney General’s Office to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

Federal courts, and nearly every state court considering the issue of collecting DNA samples from those arrested for crimes, have ruled the practice constitutional. Collecting the DNA of an arrested person is similar to fingerprinting suspects when they are arrested for crimes and then running the prints through a database.

(thanks to Gazette.net)



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Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Insurgent outlier . . .

. . . sticks and stones? . . .  don't think so . . .


Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, two D.C. journalists for more than 40 years known for their carefully nonpartisan positions are saying that Congress is more dysfunctional than it has been since the Civil War.  They also name drop saying ". . . the Republican Party, has become an insurgent outlier — ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition," they write in their new book, It's Even Worse Than It Looks. . . "

They also say, ". . . the media and elsewhere sometimes do a disservice to the reality. . . It disarms the electorate in a democracy when you really need an ideological outlier to be reined in by an active, informed public. . . "

This one'll be a must-read for me.




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Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Control . . .

. . . in the name of WHAT? . . .

 Susan Reimer, columnist of the Baltimore Sun wrote the other day about the Catholic church. She wrote about birth control pills being forbidden, opposition to any legal standing for gay people, even opposition to their own nuns' spending too much time on social justice issues and not enough time pounding home the message about birth control and abortion.

And now, the case of Amanda Dougherty.  Anna, a student at a Catholic high school outside Philadelphia, had the dress, the shoes, the ticket and the guy for her junior prom. Until the guy backed out. She was determined to pin a smile on her face and go anyway, to have fun with her friends. Healthy attitude right?  Wrong!  The school and the archdiocese told her that she couldn't go without a date. "For them to say that we're not good enough to go unless we have a guy standing next to us, it's just kind of sickening," Amanda told a CBS reporter. In a statement, Catholic school officials said there were plenty of high school events a student could attend without a date, "but we view the prom as a special social event where a date is required to attend."

And an Indiana teacher at a Catholic school found that her contract had not been renewed after she asked for some time off to pursue a second in vitro fertilization. When Emily Herx of Fort Wayne pointed out that her supervisor not only knew of her first attempt but was praying for its success, and that no embryos were destroyed or frozen, the monsignor in the parish told her she was a "grave, immoral sinner" anyway.

Why is the Catholic Church increasing their stress of doctrine in a world already full of religious extremists of all stripes? Why would it stifle it's own inner circle which serves the weak and defends their rights? Why would it wound the faithful at their most vulnerable moments? Why does it exclude, when it could embrace?

According to their own scripture, Jesus said,  "I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly."  He also said: "By this shall men know that you are my disciples; not that you pass the test of traditional orthodoxy, but that you love; and in loving bear witness that you can give of the life that you have received."  Personally, I like that.



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Monday, April 30, 2012

Two . . .

. . . of my best musical friends  at Joe Squared in Baltimore Saturday night. . . 

(Photo by Lisa Phillips)
Damn.  I sure to love music!!!!






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