Donal: Is Occupy Over?
Ramona: Hatred in a Lovely Church
A-man on www.krxa540.com, Wed 805 am PDT/1105 am EDT, Talking Politics
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Donal: Is Occupy Over? Ramona: Hatred in a Lovely Church A-man on www.krxa540.com, Wed 805 am PDT/1105 am EDT, Talking Politics |
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How jealous are we of that lavish, over-the-top Royal Wedding the Brits got to celebrate this year? So pathetically jealous we had to pretend we're capable of having one of our own by latching onto the lavish, over-the-top Kim Kardashian-Kris Humphries wedding. (Whoever the hell they are.) The Big Event took place last weekend and every station in the nation went all barmy over it. The name "Kardashian" was out there so often, I figure it's just a matter of time before it appears in dictionaries all over the world as another striking example of "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"
[Celebrity] is but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing." — With apologies to Macbeth
But my favorite part was a moment just before the nuptials when a CNN reporter was outside the compound talking about things most shallow and decidedly icky, like the fact that People Magazine paid more than a million dollars for the exclusive rights to the wedding photos, and a kid (looking and behaving like a certain grandson) gives the performance of his life on national TV. Watch it here.
Love Story #2: Moammar loves Condi. Who knew? The Libyan Rebels have taken over Gadhafi's (Kaddafi. Khadafy. Qaddafi. etc.) .compound and of course the first thing they did was to dig through the junk to find the juicy stuff. Imagine their joy when they found a photo album entirely devoted to portraits of Condoleeza Rice.
One might guess from the evidence that Moammar had a certain obsession with Condi, but all guessing ends with the heretofore ignored interview the smitten one gave to al Jazeera way back in 2007, in which he gushed:
"I support my darling black African woman [...] I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders. ... Leezza, Leezza, Leezza. ... I love her very much. I admire her, and I'm proud of her, because she's a black woman of African origin."
Well, yes, it's very bizarre, very creepy, but what I can't figure out is 2007? How did we miss this for so long??
Love Story #3:
Newlyweds Arthur Phillips and Brittany Lurch wanted very much to have a nice reception where their many friends could join them in celebrating their nuptials. Money was apparently tight (neither of them were Kardashians, you see) so it took the Centre Hall, PA couple a few days to figure out how they were going to do it, but when the plan finally took shape it was a doozy.
They headed to the local Wegmans and loaded up a cart with over $1,000 worth of reception-type food and then walked out the door without paying. Brilliant. It worked! The problem was, they had invited so many people to their special soiree one cart-load of hors d'oeuvres just wasn't going to do it. They had to go back and load up again. They were so tickled over the success of their first heist, they ordered a huge batch of seafood from the deli. But something felt amiss, apparently, because they left the deli counter without the goods and tried to get outside, landing smack into the arms of the police.
They will be spending their honeymoon in jail. No immediate plans for an actual marriage.
(That's Bonnie and Clyde. Click here for Arthur and Brittany's wedding portrait. The Centre Daily wants me to pay for the photo but I don't want to.)
That moment sublime: The flying scene from "Out of Africa". Pure romance:

Cartoon of the Week
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Joe Heller - Green Bay Press Gazette |
(Cross-posted at Ramona's Voices)
By Sergei L. Loiko, Los Angeles Times, May 23, 2012
MOSCOW — Stiff new penalties aimed at opposition protesters were given preliminary approval Tuesday by Russian lawmakers loyal to President Vladimir Putin, the target of mass rallies and demonstrations before his March election victory.
The bill, which opposition parliament members termed draconian and protested by threatening to file out of a legislative session, calls for fines of up to $50,000 and up to 200 hours of community service for organizers of rallies and demonstrations that grow violent or exceed the approved number of participants.
The sanctions were approved on first reading by parliament's lower house, which is controlled by Putin's United Russia party. They mark a return by the Kremlin to a tough stance against critics after concessions during the recent election campaign [...]
Also see:
Russians back Putin, strong leadership
Washington Post, May 22, 2012
A Pew survey of 1,000 Russians found that President Vladimir Putin is well-liked by more than 70 percent of citizens, especially older adults.
Associated Press, May 21, 2012
HAVANA — It was all sunshine, smiles and celebratory speeches as officials marked the arrival of an undersea fiber-optic cable they promised would end Cuba's Internet isolation and boost web capacity 3,000-fold. Even a retired Fidel Castro had hailed the dawn of a new cyber-age on the island.
More than a year after the February 2011 ceremony on Siboney Beach in eastern Cuba, and 10 months after the system was supposed to have gone online, the government never mentions the cable anymore, and Internet here remains the slowest in the hemisphere. People talk quietly about embezzlement torpedoing the project and the arrest of more than a half-dozen senior telecom officials.
Perhaps most maddening, nobody has explained what happened to the much-ballyhooed $70 million project....
By Tamasin Ford in Monrovia, Guardian.co.uk, May 22, 2012
Husbands, not strangers or men with guns, are now the biggest threat to women in post-conflict west Africa, according to a report by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) released on Tuesday.
The IRC report, Let Me Not Die Before My Time: Domestic Violence in West Africa, based on data collected over 10 years by the IRC in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast, said domestic violence is the "most urgent, pervasive and significant protection issue for women in west Africa" [.....]
By Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press, May 22, 2012
WASHINGTON -- Uncle Sam may not want you after all.
In sharp contrast to the peak years of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Army last year took in no recruits with misconduct convictions or drug or alcohol issues, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press. And soldiers already serving on active duty now must meet tougher standards to stay on for further tours in uniform.
The Army is also spending hundreds of thousands of dollars less in bonuses to attract recruits or entice soldiers to remain.
It's all part of an effort to slash the size of the active duty Army from about 570,000 at the height of the Iraq war to 490,000 by 2017. The cutbacks began last year, and as of the end of March, the Army was down to less than 558,000 troops.
For a time during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army lowered its recruiting standards [....]
Nasa's administrator Charles Bolden said: "Today marks the beginning of a new era in exploration... The significance of this day cannot be overstated; a private company has launched a spacecraft to the International Space Station that will attempt to dock there for the first time.
…
The carriage of freight will be the first service to be bought in from external suppliers; the transport of astronauts to and from the station will be the second, later this decade.
I am not sure where Moammar fits into the Hitler ratings relative to fellows like Amin; but I have been watching this batshite crazy guy for decades.
Did not Clinton come within meters of bombing him into kingdom come?
And like Sadaam, depending of course on who sat in our Oval Office, were not we giving Moammar weapons during some intervals in his reign?
America kind of loves and hates these villains who seem to come right out of a Batman comic book.
Every day it was Halloween for this mofo! I do not think that anyone in the history of mankind had so many costumes.
Absolute power seems to really have an effect upon the ego and certain areas of the brain.
Absolute power means they don't have to feign sanity. They can be as crazy as it comes and still be the leader of an entire country. That guy in North Korea probably had the most fun being nuts while 3/4 of the country starved. Chairman Mao was loony enough to think his country would do just fine if everyone just kept their noses to the grindstone and pretended the human spirit didn't need no damned culture.
Let's face it; most dictators are nuts. And we'll all be in the same boat if we don't stop having fun with the up and coming tea party wackos and begin to see them for the dangerous despots they want to -- and could -- become.
Be kind to
yourparentsQuaddafiThough
theyhe don't deserve itRemember
they're grownupshe's a dictatorA difficult stage of life.
They're apt to be nervous
And overexcited
Confused from the daily storm and strife
Just keep in mind (just keep in mind)
Though it sounds odd, I know
Those
parentstea partiers once werechildrensanelong ago
Incredible!
So treat them with patience
And sweet understanding
Some day you may wake up, and find you're a
parenttea partier too!.................................................................................
If you can't carry a tune you can hum along
Absolute power can and frequently does yield decisions which appear as qualitatively nuts.
When there are no constraints on behavior, morality and ethics are stricken from the human formula.
Conservative and progressive relaxation on various standards of conduct extend the range of permissible conduct into regions once thought to be outside the norm. Common to both is a granting of largesse to a unique constituency within either camp. We call this political cronyism or more precisely, corruption.