Wolraich: Obama at the Gates of... Gates
Dr. C: In Praise of Writing Binges
Maiello: Gatsby Doesn't Grate
|
Wolraich: Obama at the Gates of... Gates Dr. C: In Praise of Writing Binges Maiello: Gatsby Doesn't Grate |
Blowing |



By Judith Durbin via vocativ.com 5/20
Syrian rebels under siege in a strategic city on the Lebanese border are increasingly turning to social media to wage psychological warfare, according to Vocativ analysts monitoring the region.
The town of Al Qusayr has become ground zero in the war between rebel fighters on the one side and the joint forces of President Bashar Al Assad and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on the other. Some of the most intense fighting has taken place there over the last few days. The New York Times reports both sides consider this battle a turning point in the larger civil war that has been raging for more than two years.
With so...
A collection of links and comments dealing with government spying and intimidation of journalists
By Juan Nagel, Transitions blog @ ForeignPolicy.com, May 16, 2013
[....] The consensus is that Venezuela needs high oil prices just to stay afloat. But if the fracking oil boom results in low oil prices, what does the future hold for the South American country?
Sadly, Venezuelans have nothing else to fall back on. Its private industry is a shambles, and the country is even importing toilet paper. Years of populism have left the state crippled and heavily in debt. The public deficit...
By Aidan Foster-Carter, ForeignPolicy.com Op-Ed, May 20, 2013
[....] Pyongyang's faux rage at Security Council Resolutions 2087 of Jan. 22, and 2095 of March 7, which condemned its rocket launch and nuclear test respectively, recycled similar ludicrous canards it hurled at similar resolutions in 2006 and 2009, calling the Security Council, a "marionette of the U.S." A U.S. plot, and puppet? Hardly: Every resolution has been unanimous. China and Russia water down the wording, but they're on board. It's North Korea versus the world.
And that's just the way they like it. Some believe that all their banging and shouting is just a...
Oh good, you showed up.
I actually have a story.
OH AND HAPPY FRICKIN BIRTHDAY SMITH! HA
Anyway....I went to the grocers and when I came back there was this rather tall and old (I mean old compared to me which is really old) all covered in winter clothing with a scarf! I mean it was 21 degrees F and I had my eskimo outfit on) woman and she always screams at me. I mean she is most probably hard of hearing. hahahaha
So I always stop to greet her and she tells me something that is not 'reognizable' ha.
We exchange pleasantries anyway cause I always pretend to understand what in the hell she is talking about. hhahahaha
I take another walk later on and here she comes. She is 'disabled' and she has been walking around the entire pond evidently. And she uses this 'walker' with wheels.
It is kind of a neat contraption because is also serves as a chair if and when she becomes tired.
Anyway...She calls me over once again and she whispers in my ear:
YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT I FOUND!
Oh well that is interesting, I responded!
And she lifts up the 'seat' which is able to contain an object or two.
I FOUND A DEAD MUSKRAT!
And sure enough, she picks up the seat and there is a frozen baby muskrat.
What she is going to do with that frozen baby muskrat...well I really do not wish to know.
BUT...
There are omens in this universe. At least that is what I have been taught through tomes thousands of years older than me.
So my question to my favorite poet is....
WHAT THE HELL DOES A DEAD FROZEN BABY MUSKRAT HAVE to do with me?
hahahahahah
Frozen muskrats mean
one thing, I feel, Bad news for
Captain and Tennille.
I totally forgot about this song.
I still needed Mustang Sally of course to enhance my silly story. hahaha
Momoe never got over here and gave me Muskrat Love at my post later in the night.
To this day I am not sure who made 'him' CAPTAIN!
So I was feeling pretty blue today, what with my Michigan, the state where modern collective bargaining was born, now most surely about to become that most odious of states--the Right-to-Work--but you and Dick have cheered me up considerably, at least for the moment.
I want to wish you a happy birthday, Mr. Smith1. (Is there a Mr. Smith2?) You are a very clever man and I'm in awe of your haiku skills. I don't even dare try, unimaginative as I am. But that doesn't stop me from appreciating yours.
Thank you, Ramona. As for there being a MrSmith2 ... I come from a long line of Smiths. Actually, two long lines of Smiths; one completely unrelated Smith line is on my mother's side of the family tree, so don't get me started counting Mr Smiths.
.
And here I thought "MrSmith1" was a pen name. I guess when you're a Smith there's no danger of anyone guessing who you really are!
I was thinking of writing on blog on this. I have two of the commonest names in America. Do you know that there are 88 different people with my exact same first and last names listed on Wikipedia? EIGHTY-EIGHT!! And that's just the ones famous enough to be put on Wikipedia!! (Sigh.)
P.S. As for the pen name, it's the old hide in plain sight trick. ;-)
Well, Happy
BeleagueredBelated Birthday, Mr. Smith.Thanks Flower.
Beleaguered birthdays
better be belated by
busty, bawdy broads.
Happy Birthday. Is that little child in the picture you? It looks like a 1950 picture because of the sun suit the child has on.
Thanks. Yup, that's me, circa 1953.