Living In the World, Not on It

I saw this government ditty on one of my friend's comments on Facebook and I just really liked the way this sounded: I do not like this Uncle Sam, I do not like his health care scam. I do not like these dirty crooks, or how they lie and cook the books. I do not like when Congress steals, I do not like their secret deals. I do not like ex-speaker Nan, I do not like this 'YES WE CAN'. I do not like this spending spree, I'm smart, I know that nothing's free. I do not like their smug replies, when I complain about their lies. I do not like this kind of hope. I do not like it. nope, nope, nope. I don't know where he found this but it certainly sums up a lot of the high feelings going around where this whole monetary fiasco has been and where it is heading. It's hard to have any hope or faith in this new plan, in the government, or in politicians, who really only think about their jobs and how to line their pockets. It's tough to know how the public perc...

There is a lot of fun, weird and interesting facts in this book. Some of it gives me the willies, some of it is fascinating, and some just funny. But as long as I'm learning something, then it is doing what I really want. So here are some interesting facts for you. The Top Third Common Misconception: 'Hitler was an Atheist "We were convinced that the people need and require this faith. W have, therefore, undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out." --Adolf Hitler, Berlin, 1933 Christianity--a religion of peace and tolerance that preaches moral values and love for one's enemies. Well, clearly from a historical perspective, this has certainly not always been the case although it's not so much the religion's fault as the people who attempt to follow it. With over a billion worldwide adherents, is it really probable that everyone who considers themself a Christian is piou...

A friend of mine celebrated 20 years of working in television by posting "5 Things I Learned From 20 Years in TV" - he has five parts to this. I can list five items that I learned and any Human Resources Manager will understand this. The rest of what I learned is really too much to post on a forum as easily accessible as this is. Even I recognise what NOT to say about my 15 years in the trenches... most of it is too private and too case-by-case to keep it generic. So here are the five things that I learned: 1. All employees are innocent. It doesn't matter that I had several different infractions on video; paperwork statements from six managers and 25 coworkers; it makes no difference if the offending party's hands are covered with dye that traces the missing items. They all look me in the eye and say with great confidence, " I didn't do it." Hence, they are all innocent. 2. No one has been overpaid. Now, you know that if I don't find the error, s...

Ah-ha, are you thinking PETA, the crazy terrorist group that throws paint on people wearing fur coats? No. I am not a supporter of that. I love my cats and they live in the lap of luxury, as cats do. However, I eat meat and have no intention of stopping. And since all life lives at the expense of other life... No, I'm talking about People Eating Tasty Animals. That's the PETA to which I belong. I don't care for beef particularly - I just don't like the taste and I don't feel it is healthy. But I love chicken, shrimp and veal. And I hate to tell you vegans who will eat plants without giving it a second thought, don't you think that if a plant could scream when you yank it from the ground or pull off its fruit or leaves, that it wouldn't yell? Do you think it would just sit there if it were like the apples trees in The Wizard of Oz ? No. It would pelt you with its loose apples and branches and tell you to get lost. Now, eating vegetarian for strictly health re...

I hate flip-flops. I didn't wear them when I was a kid and I don't wear them now. I do wear sandals and open-toe footwear, but never, ever, will you find the evil and heinous flip-flops on my feet. We'll shelve the "cheap, crappy footwear will never be on my feet" argument, since it's long since been established that I am a snob. I'm not a Wal-Mart shopper, I don't price shop at the grocery store. I get what I want and hang the cost. It's a foregone conclusion that I would not consider putting cheap plastic on my feet! There may be sandals out there that look like flip-flops that are acceptable footwear - but they won't cost $2.99 at the local whatever crap-shop. How about there is no support? How about kids running in them who trip, fall and break their arms (yes, waaaaaay more than one emergency call for that)? How about these are not real footwear? Just another bad fad with a low price tag. And here is the supporting argument: "At last...

I'm watching "America: The Story of Us" - an episode called "Rebels". It is nearing the end with the battle of Lexington. Early they talked about Paul Revere's famous ride, where he stopped at several towns to announce... the British are coming! WRONG! We were all British back then! He would have sounded like an idiot if he stopped at houses to announce, yell or whisper, "The British are coming!" He did tell everyone that the Redcoats were coming. That makes a lot more sense and also is historically accurate. But think back to all the things we were told in history. How many fallacies were we told as kids? When I went to school in the 1970s, they were still telling the story about George Washington cutting down a cherry tree as a suck to promote honesty - as history - when it was total fiction. The American Revolution never mentioned that we were terrorists; by definition, the rebels were just that. People love to whitewash history when really hone...

I have two cats, Siobhan and Sorcha. Both are classified as American short-hair cats, although given Sorcha's size, I'm guessing there is some Mainecoon in her. She's a huge cat. She's also the most fur-producing cat in the history of fuzzy animals. Siobhan sheds to some degree - at least I think so, only because most cats with some fur do shed. Both Ariel and Chelsea shed fur; my grandmother's crazy Siamese cat Fuji shed; my father's cats including Figaro, Callie and Carlton shed; every cat I've known has shed. But then there is Sorcha - who sheds by the pound! My laptop was covered with fur! I found Luis' can of air and cleaned it all off the screen, out of the keyboard and off the screen area where I can move my finger around as the mouse. There was tons - measurable amounts of fur! This cat is shedding more fur in a day than all three other cats I've had as an adult did! Where does it all come from? Usually shedding is a response to warm tempera...

Always... I should say my best thinking is done anywhere I can't write it down. The shower? That is easily the highest qualifier... At least when I'm driving I can call the house number and leave myself a message with bulletpoints of what I'd like to write. So here I am, witting in front of the home computer, which underscores the fact that I need to purchase another new monitor, wrapped in a towel with wet legs, not getting ready to go visit my parents... But if I don't do this now, I won't remember later. I should move some money around and buy another monitor... But I will instead wait for Luis to return from far-away Omaha (he'll be on the 1400 flight out of Omaha to Houston, then wait a bit for his next flight out of Houston to arrive in New Jersey around 2200). Then he can come with me to Staples to select a new monitor that won't be broken. Back to what I was thinking about in the shower... I was shaving something, and thinking about the social graces...

From the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into the Presidency : "Guess who's the highest paid president. You might be surprised. Congress has been given the president a raise only five times in history, but some presidents have made a lot more than others--thanks to inflation. We've done the math to find out what their yearly salaries would be worth, on average, in twenty-first century dollars. Here's the list of the well paid and the not-so-well paid presidents. THE TEN HIGHEST PAID President Salary in His Day What's It Worth Now? 1. William Taft $75,000 $1,445,454 2. William McKinley $50,000 $1,106,719 3. Richard Nixon $200,000 $1,084,831 ...

by Stephanie Davis, Esq., SPHR EPS Senior Consultant • New York/Tri-State Area sdavis@EPSpros.com Employers can dictate how we perform our jobs, insist we look professional, and ban us from engaging in certain activities at work. How far into our personal lives are employers legally permitted to go? Can an employer tell us how much we should weigh? Can an employer give preferential treatment to thin employees? This newsletter explores the legal questions surrounding the issue of weight discrimination.[1] I. The Backdrop Statistics reflect that Americans are continuing to gain weight. According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, the past 20 years have brought a dramatic increase in obesity, which is typically defined by the medical community to mean greater than 30% body fat for women and more than 25% body fat for men.[2] “Morbid obesity” occurs when a person is 50-100% or 100 pounds above his or her ideal body weight or has more than 39% body fat.[3] To put it a diff...

Every time a season of any show ends, I have my concerns about the upcoming season. There have been shows were a whole season was bad news. Other seasons may have one or two weak shows but the rest are great and I love them. Most of the time, it is an interesting mix of strong and weak episodes and I hope that they don't begin a severe downhill slide. The first episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit was about orgasms. I'm not sure how you can debunk orgasms... they are (for most of us) a normal physiological reaction to sexual stimulus. But for whatever reason they decided that this would be the opening episode for this season (I think this is Season 6, but it may be 7). Luis, David and Donna thought it was weak, too - no their best effort. However, episode number 2 was on Friday night and was Astrology. I have some friends who are really into astrology and I am all about astronomy. I love astronomy and can spout all kinds of facts about the planets and the Sun and Moon, b...

Spying on someone by hacking into his webcam is disturbingly easy. Why don't more people do it? By Christopher Beam Posted Monday, April 6, 2009, at 5:09 PM ET The China-based cyber-spy network known as "GhostNet" is a sophisticated group of hackers capable of logging its victims' keystrokes, stealing their documents, capturing images from their screens—and staring creepily at them through their webcams. In a report released last month, Canadian researchers concluded that GhostNet has cracked at least 1,295 computers in 103 different countries, specifically targeting the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan activists and officials. Stealing documents and logging keystrokes—that I understand. You can get all sorts of useful information reading someone's e-mail or looking at their bank records. But peeking at them through their Web cameras? That seems creepy even by the standards of shady cyber-spying rings. It's one thing to read the Dalai Lama's IM conversations...

This was passed to me from Renee Camus. She added a few categories of her own. I added #7, there were just too many that I had to read and really couldn't stand. The original suggested tagging only read, love, and plan on reading. Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. Sadly, they are likely to be correct. I love to read, but there are too many people who don't. Instructions: 1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read most or all of. 2) Put a 'y' after those you've read only pieces of 3) Add a '#' to those you were supposed to have read in school, but didn't 4) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE. 5) Star (*) those you plan on reading. 6) Add '!' to those you did not read, but saw the movie! 7) Add an 'h' to those you really didn't like. 8) Tally your total at the bottom. 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen ! 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien X h 3 Jane Ey...

You [very few] who read my blog every so often may have seen a posting I had put up last year about the adverts on Facebook. I don't think much of them. I am thinking even less of them now: Advertise How I Reduced My Debt Read how a busy mom erased over $20,000 of debt in 3 easy steps! No, I did not keep the links active. I'm not going to contribute to the idea that cash is this easy to make without doing something illegal. The second I saw this, I thought, "By selling drugs?" How else would you make money like this, in a big wad of cash? Most of us pay taxes. If I was getting paid this way, I'd worry that something really sleazy was going on! But look at how many "legitimate" businesses are sleazy enterprises. Amway, of course, comes screaming to mind. The group with the pink cadillac is the same. They've probably done some slight revisions to not be as obvious a pyramid scheme. But they are still the bottom of the barrel and attract all the people ...

I couldn't think how else to word this one. So here is the explanation. Do you remember when Big Tobacco lost that lawsuit? Billions in reparations (that, naturally, will never get paid), sanctions and of course, the false advertising campaigns by the tobacco companies to tout how bad smoking really is for anyone. Uh- huh . Do you believe for a moment that Philip Morris actually gave up its dream of tobacco-use world domination? Don't bet on it. I certainly wouldn't place that bet. I know how corporations think all too well - get 'em hooked, and do it while they are young to make it all the harder to stop later. Now bring in the sugar/corn refinement companies. I was leafing through People Magazine , my guilty pleasure. (I gravitate to National Geographic and Discover , so admitting to reading People seems rather plebian... but I can honestly say I read it for the valuable articles, not the "dirt" on famous and/or rich people.) While looking through the one ...

Posted Tue, Dec 23, 2008, 3:33 pm PST We talk a lot about ''watching what we eat,'' but if you never gave a thought to what you ate and instead watched only what you drank, you could probably cut 450 calories a day out of your life. (Yes, nearly a pound of fat loss a week!) That's what a study from the University of North Carolina found. Americans today drink about 192 gallons of liquid a year—or about 2 liters a day. To put it into perspective, this is nearly twice as many calories as we did 30 years ago. When confronted with the growing tide of calories from sweetened beverages, the first response is, “Why not just drink diet soda?” Well, for a few reasons: Just because diet soda is low in calories doesn't mean it can't lead to weight gain. It may have only 5 or fewer calories per serving, but emerging research suggests that consuming sugary-tasting beverages--even if they're artificially sweetened--may lead to a high preference for sweetness overall....

MAN OWES CITY $81G FOR 415 PARKING TICKETS By KYLE MURPHY and CHUCK BENNETT The city's No. 1 parking-ticket scofflaw is a 30-year-old insurance broker from Long Island, records show. Alexander Khamish earned the dubious distinction of wracking up an $81,039 debt, according to the city's Department of Finance. But despite amassing 415 tickets since 2004, the Merrick man claims they've got the wrong guy. "Basically, someone registered [the offending] vehicles under my name," Khamish said. "I knew about this a couple years ago, but I didn't know it [involved an] $80,000 [debt]. Someone did register vehicles under my name before I found out, but I was going back and forth with the DMV, and from the last I heard, I thought everything was OK." Khamish said he had no idea of the debt until contacted by The Post. Ken Brown, a spokesman for the state Department of Motor Vehicles, said it received no paperwork regarding Khamish's claim. But Khamish denied ...

Apparently... Your Result: Wesley from "The Princess Bride" He is my movie soulmate. I have to admit I am amused by that. I always did love that movie and especially his character. So I think, for once, one of these weird little things got the right answer! Just another interesting facet of Facebook. Facebook is a strange thing. It works, and I have found people from the far reaches of the past... mostly, I must say, in good ways. I hear from people that I hadn't thought of in years, that I had forgotten where I knew them from (isn't that awful? It is - but my memory is pretty awful), that I never thought I would find or hear from. Wow! And while I have some really heinous, terrible memories of school in general and the eighth grade in particular, I have become "friends" with many more people than I'd've thought possible. Who knew? Admittedly, few of them actually have anything to say to me specifically. I'm surprised at how few people really use...