An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for 4 December 2007
Happy Hanukkah!
A Public Letter to Senator Fred Thompson
Dear Senator Thompson,
Thank you for your most recent invitation. However, I must, once again, decline your kind invitation.
You see, when the only invitations to events in your name come with a $2300, or $1000, price tag, I am less likely to donate more of my husband’s funds to your campaign. If, perchance, I was inclined to part with such a large sum of money, I would be in violation of campaign finance laws. You see, we have already donated quite a tidy little sum, and in order to get my picture taken with you, or sit down to strictly a plate of grits, ham, eggs, and a speech, I could possibly be arrested.
While I was originally quite enthusiastic about your campaign for President of the United States, my enthusiasm has waned, due in great part to the persistent invitations to events I can’t possibly afford. Perhaps, if your supporters held events with reasonable price tags, say, $250 for a photo op, and $100 for a meal of rubber chicken, I’d be much more inclined to participate. Even an event with a $50 price tag would bring in much more of the needed funds for your campaign than the outrageously expensive ones.
I’d like to remind you, and your wealthy sponsors, that even though rich donors are quite necessary, it’s the little guy (like me) who would actually get you nominated and elected.
Thank you again for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Kate
cc: The Blogosphere
LOVE It!
As we head into this Christmas season, we all might want to remember exactly WHY we celebrate!
Some things just can’t be heard enough.
Thanks, Real Debate Wisconsin.
Pfft!
Report: Santa lives in Kyrgyzstan, can spend just 34 µs at each house
Swedish engineers have concluded that Santa Claus lives in Kyrgyzstan and must spend no more than 34 microseconds (µs) delivering Christmas presents to each of the world’s 2.5 billion homes with children.
“We estimated that there are 48 people per square kilometer on Earth, and 20 meters between each home. So if Santa leaves from Kyrgyzstan and travels against the Earth’s rotation he has 48 hours to deliver all the presents,” Anders Larsson of Sweco tells AFP.
That’s assuming Rudolph and the other reindeer hurtle through the air at 3,604 miles per second, or 13 million mph.
Guess those Swedish engineers have never heard of the “magic of Christmas”. 
Divorce: Ecologically Unfriendly
Family that stays together saves planet
“Save water, shower together,” young folks once proclaimed. They were right.
Americans spend an extra $3.6 billion annually on water as a result of extra households created when people divorce, Jianguo Liu, an ecologist at Michigan State University, estimated.
Each time a family dissolves the result usually is two households, explained Liu, whose analysis of the environmental impact of divorce appears in this week’s online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“A married household actually uses resources more efficiently than a divorced household,” said Liu.
More households means more use of land, water and energy, three critical resources, Liu explained in a telephone interview.
Households with fewer people are simply not as efficient as those with more people sharing, he explained. A household uses the same amount of heat or air conditioning whether there are two or four people living there. A refrigerator uses the same power whether there is one person home or several. Two people living apart run two dishwashers, instead of just one.
Liu, who researches the relationship of ecology with social sciences, said people seem surprised by his findings at first, and then consider it simple.
“A lot of things become simple after the research is done,” he said.
Hmmm….. Seems to me there was a bit of ‘research’ about “a family that prays together, stays together”. Can we bring back THAT idea….just to save the planet and all, don’cha know? (a bit of sarcasm?)
An Apology
Baby Boomers Owe America’s Young People an Apology
Dennis Prager
We live in the age of group apologies. I would like to add one. The baby boomer generation needs to apologize to America, especially its young generation, for many sins. Here is a partial list:
First and perhaps foremost, we apologize for robbing many of you of a childhood.
We baby boomers were allowed perhaps the most innocent childhoods known to history. We grew up without material want, in one of the most decent places in world history, with media that preserved our sexual and other innocence, in schools that generally taught us well, and we were allowed childhood play from boy-girl play to rough and tumble boy-boy play to monkey bars and ringalievio. Our generation has deprived you of all these things. And while we were aware of the threat of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, few of us believed that we were threatened with death anywhere near the amount we have scared you about death from secondhand smoke, global warming and heterosexual AIDS, to mention just a few of the exaggerated death scares we have inflicted on you.
Our generation came up with two truly foolish slogans that also ended up robbing you of childhood.
Morning Coffee 12/04/07
Ill couple seek recourse after police killed marijuana plants
More than three dozen marijuana plants seized by authorities from a Fort Collins couple were returned to them dead Monday by police.
The couple, James and Lisa Masters, along with their attorneys, said they will take legal action against the Fort Collins police and the Larimer County district attorney’s office, who they said by law had to return the plants undamaged.
Rita Davis, spokesperson for the Fort Collins Police Department, said that police were under no obligation to preserve the marijuana.
“The normal process of confiscating contraband does not require jurisdictions to keep it alive,” Davis said.
I think the D.A. was smoking some of his own home grown herb. Do they have to have pot cultivators working for the police department now? Maybe the air is just too thin in Colorado. 
Congress Probes Credit Card Industry
Congress is renewing its scrutiny of the credit card industry, as some lawmakers denounce the practice of raising customers’ interest rates when their credit scores decline, even if they make their card payments on time.
Industry critics say it’s another example of abusive, confusing credit card practices that can push consumers deeper into debt.
While, Americans digging themselves deeper into the black hole of debt IS an important issue, I’m fairly sure Congress has a few other seriously pressing issues that need to be dealt with like say…….FUNDING OUR TROOPS!? How ’bout SECURING OUR BORDERS!? Just to name two. But that’s just me.
Iran: Female race car driver barred from competition
Iran’s top female race car driver, Laleh Seddigh, has been banned from competing in Iran for one year by the Iranian racing federation.
Seddigh, who is known as the “Schumacher of the East” after the German Formula One champion, was accused of having tampered with her car’s engine during her last race in Iran.
“It’s a conspiracy,” said Seddigh in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI). “I did not commit any irregularities. They simply want to exclude me from racing because I’m a woman,” she said.
I guess the ‘boys’ just can’t stand the idea of having their collective butts kicked by a lowly woman.
Bush, Congressional Democrats Locked in Battle Over Iraq Funding
President Bush and congressional Democrats are locked in a struggle over Iraq spending, with neither side budging and each calculating that their argument will be the one to resonate with voters.
For both sides, this rhetorical tug-of-war has become a question of leadership on national security issues and who is more committed to the troops.
“It’s unconscionable to deny funds to our troops in harm’s way because some in Congress want to force a self-defeating policy, especially when we’re seeing the benefits of success,” Bush said in a Rose Garden speech on Monday.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wasted no time in responding.
“We could have already given our troops what they need in Iraq and funded our critical needs at home if not for the stubborn refusal of President Bush and his Republican enablers to work with us,” he told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference.
Harry learned a new word! “Enablers”. I guess when a person prefers victory to defeat like Harry does, that means they are enablers. What a pathetic excuse for a human being!
Hillary slams Obama ‘present’ votes on abortion, gun laws
White House hopeful Hillary Clinton sharpened her attacks on Democratic rival Barack Obama on Monday, criticizing him for failing to vote yes or no on a series of abortion and gun-control measures when he was in the Illinois Senate.
Speaking in Iowa, Clinton singled out nine roll calls in which Obama voted “present.” The votes dealt with abortion and gun-control initiatives.
“A president can’t vote ‘present.’ A president can’t pick and choose which challenges he or she will face,” Clinton said.
B. Hussein seems to be scaring the pantsuit off the Hildebeast!
Woman in Pakistan suicide bombing
Police in Pakistan say a woman suicide bomber in a burka has blown herself up near an army checkpoint in Peshawar.
Islamist radicals have carried out a wave of suicide attacks in Pakistan in recent months, but this is thought to be the first by a woman since 9/11.
The attack happened in a neighbourhood which is home to senior retired and serving army officers.
Police say the bomber – thought to be an Afghan woman in her 40s – was the only casualty.
What happened to the idea that women are nurturers? Now, there is one real good reason burkas should be outlawed, world wide. 
Michael Savage sues Muslim group campaigning for ad boycott
Conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage sued an Islamic rights group today for rebroadcasting on its Web site several excerpts from his show in which he called the Quran a “book of hate” and said Muslims “need deportation.”
Savage, in a suit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, said the Council on American-Islamic Relations had violated copyright law by using the excepts in a campaign to persuade advertisers to stop sponsoring his show.
While I’m not a major fan of Savage, I do listen to him occasionally. Where’s the list of companies CAIR (who can’t stand the truth being put out there) wants to boycott? I’ll be sure to spend as much money as possible at those places. 
Hamas: Sign of life from Shalit in exchange for hundreds of prisoners
Hamas leaders denied Tuesday reports saying there was progress concerning a possible prisoner swap deal that would include Gilad Shalit, adding that it also did not agree to relay messages between the kidnapped soldier and his family in Israel.
Red Cross representatives in Gaza said the Islamist group agreed to pass on a letter from Shalit, but a senior member of the organization told Ynet, “There is no concrete discussion on anything, but if a fair and worthy exchange is put on the table, we will be willing to consider any offer.”
According to him, Hamas would agree to show signs of life from Shalit or discuss the possibility of a meeting between the kidnapped soldier and neutral party in return for the release of “hundreds of prisoners – not just one or two.
So, Hamas is saying that the life of one Jew is worth more than hundreds of Palestinian criminals and terrorists? Hmmm…. I’d have to agree.
Off With Their Heads
Prayers Needed for WI Blogger
triticale – the wheat guy is in need of all our prayers!
From Badger Blogger:
Tom is in St. Joe’s ICU with acute leukemia. Wed AM he appeared
fine, he picked me up after work & ran several errands. 7:30 PM Wed
night his legs collapsed. We thought he had a stroke. He was
admitted to St. Joe’’s with a white blood cell count of 300,000
(normal is 8,000). Thursday AM he couldn’t talk, he is currently
heavily, heavily sedated (only being able to move his right thumb
every now & then just to let me know he’s in there somewhere). We
have had some good news, but the bad news is they can’t stabilize his
red blood cells & he’s bleeding in his stomach.I tell folks that except for the leukemia he’s healthy as a horse –
which is to say, that if they can get him stabilized his strong
constitution will kick in & pull him through.
Tom isn’t an obsessive blogger like some of us, but I do stop by there from time to time, to see what new recipes and insights he has. We’ve even emailed a time or two. Very nice guy!! Please keep him, and his family, in your prayers.
