I've Got Good News, Bad News, Good News

First, the good news- women (like me) who suffer from migraines are at a lower risk of getting breast cancer than women who do not suffer from these excruciating headaches.

Now the bad news- women who suffer from migraines with auras (like me) are at a greater risk of having a stroke, well sort of.

Now the good news-women who exercise (like me) lower their chances of having a stoke in the first place.

What does all this mean? That I should stop reading these reports and just get on with my life.

And in other news, I want to let you know I will be taking a Thanksgiving blog break until Monday. So, until then, wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Blue On Blue

I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals: I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population which appropriates them as a purely magical object.
-Roland Barthes in The New Citroën (1957).

The Aptly Named ZERO'S

Front




Back

What Part Of The Word Arrogant Do You Guys Not Understand?

(Gary Markstein, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)


1. Story here.

2. Outcome here.

Down At The COOP

The Wire That Fenced Kansas

(Coils of it sitting behind the COOP.)

A little history here.

I'm A Day Late But Not A Dollar Short

Kate's problem turned out to be a urinary infection and took a bit longer that expected to resolve itself. She was pretty miserable all weekend which means so was I. At one point I actually thought it might be better for us all if she died. I quickly realized that this thought came from stress and lack of sleep.

Today she felt well enough to walk to the post office with me. On the way home we had just started across the street at the intersection just to the south of our house when I heard the sound of a truck traveling fast. About a half-a-block away and to my right I saw a large pick-up moving in my direction. This didn't worry me since I was half-way across the street and knew he would stop when he got to the intersection.

Wrong.

When he got there he kept coming and then swerved to the opposite side of the street passing behind me. When I realized just what he was doing my heart clutched. I had Kate on a leash but she was walking behind me. When I looked back I saw the truck pass about a dog's body length away from Kate's tail. The driver did not even look at me as he went by.

The sad thing is this is not that unusual. I've had butt heads in trucks and cars take my right-of-way many times before when I'm walking or riding my bike around town. These drivers act as if the only reason I am in the street is to get in their way. They don't seem to understand that I have as much right to be in the street as they do. I tell you, I'm ready to start filling my pockets with rocks to use as ammunition the next time, and I know there will be many next times, this happens.

TGIF

I was up and down all night with my older dog Kate. She wanted in and out and at around 12:30 PM threw-up. I got her outside in time and then spent the next 20 minutes slowing walking her around the house. At about 3:45 AM the sound of her pacing woke me up again and I took her back outside. We spent another 20 minutes walking around the house. At 6:00 AM she woke me up one more time and we did another 20 minute walk around. At this point I was just waiting for the vet clinic to open so I could take her in. I got there at 7:49 AM and the did an exam and some blood work. She was running a temperature and seemed to be dehydrated so the vet gave her antibiotics and an under the skin saline drip.

Both my husband and I were worried that her kidneys were shutting down so we drove her to the vet together; just in case we might not be bringing her home. When we got there my husband carried her into vet office since she could not stand on her own. When we left she walked out on her own four feet. On the drive home my husband said, "It is almost like Kate has nine lives."

If this is true then Kate has used up at least two of them at this point. Right now she is sleeping and hopefully she will feel well enough to eat when she wakes.

I Love Mike Luckovich Of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

(via Shameless Agitator)

Another Luckovich cartoon printed soon after Jesse Jackson was overheard saying he wanted to cut off a couple of Barack Obama's body parts.

And an interview with Mike Luckovich from Nov. 2001 here.

One More Thing About Sarah Palin

She may have been a bad choice for vice-president but the Republican Party's behavior now is even more shameful.


(Campbell Brown of CNN.)

1. Some of the allegations here.

2. Africa one here.

I Almost Forgot

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy




(Poster via the United States Department of Veterans Affairs)

Blog Maintenance Note

I added a Now Reading list which shows the last ten books I have or am reading. The one I am currently reading will be at the top of the list. When I start a new book I will add it to the list and at the same time remove the book in the tenth position. Each title is linked to a website that will give you more information about the book listed.

Don't You Hate It When The Seasons Overlap?

Me neither.

For All You Kitty Lovers Out There

Let's Get Ready To Rumble!

Technology Vs. Sylvester "Boom Boom" Cat


Judge's scores:

1. Judge "Printer" Toner
Technology- 32
Sylvester Cat- 18

2. Judge Top Cat
Sylvester Cat- 32
Technology- 18

Outcome of bout, a tie.



Correction- The information about the Kansas election results in my November 6th post was wrong. Instead of:

State of Kansas- Obama 57% McCain 41%

It should be:

State of Kansas- Obama 41% McCain 57%

I accidently flipped the numbers but corrected this error yesterday.

Yes, I'm Prejudice...

I started out election evening watching Saved (Side note- Susan Sarandon's daughter, Eva Amurri, definitely has her mother's charisma.) since I did not want to participate in television's over the top news frenzy known as Election Night!

At around 8:00 PM my brother called and urgently asked me if I was watching television. I ask why in reply and he said one word, "Obama."

My heart clutched as I asked, "What about Obama?"

"He just won Ohio."

I had been dropping in to watch the election results at MSNBC off and on up to that point so I knew this, along with the outcome in Pennsylvania, meant Barack Obama was going to become the next president of the United States. My brother and I then talked about how our mother would have been delighted by this news.

After that phone call I kept the television tuned to the news and later, when it was announced that Obama now had enough electoral votes to win the election, I started silently crying. Names and images that had been on television during my childhood flashed across my brain: Megar Evans body laying in his driveway ; Bull Connor turning fire hoses and police dogs on children; the march to Selma; Dr. King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial; James E. Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner's bodies discovered in the dirt of Mississippi; Greyhound buses full of Freedom Riders; George Wallace standing in a doorway at the University of Alabama trying to keep two black students from enrolling in the school;

"Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!"

and two mules pulling a wooden cart carrying the body of Martin Luther King through the streets of Atlanta.

This election was history in the making. Forty-five years ago the thought of a black man being president of the United States for most Americans was as improbable as the thought of a man walking on the moon. Five years later man did walk on the moon- unbelievable can be done in less time that impossible, I guess.

All though the night I thought of my mother. And of all the images playing across my mind one stood out. Some man asking my mother, in a tone of voice that said he would not believe her if she said no, if she was prejudice. My mother stared at him for a moment before replying.

"Yes, I'm prejudice, but not here," she answered, pointing to the skin on the back of her hand. "Here," pointing to her head. "I hate ignorant people."

On Tuesday a large majority of the American people demonstrated that they too thought the same way.

Mom, I wish you had been here to see it.

The Morning After The Morning After

As you can tell from the two post below I was missing in action for most of the day blog wise. That is because yesterday was emotionally strange for me. I started out feeling giddy and then spent the rest of the day feeling as if I had drunk 20 cups of coffee every hour on the hour. The energy storm sitting over this country was heady.

Interesting election percentages:

Country- Obama 53% McCain 46%

State of Kansas- Obama 41% McCain 57% (Note: I had these numbers flipped and corrected them on Sunday Nov. 9th.)

My county- Obama 25% McCain 73%

I am proud to say that I was one of the 25% who voted for Obama.

The reason why Obama did so badly here in my little part of the world? The majority of the population believes with all their heart that Barack Obama is a Muslim and that as a Muslim his swore duty is to kill all non-Muslims. I don't know what the Koran teaches since I have never read it but the bible tells its followers the same thing:

Whoever sacrifices to any god, except the Lord alone, shall be doomed. (Exodus 22:19)

If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or you intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods, whom you and your fathers have not known, gods of any other nations, near at hand or far away, from one end of the earth to the other: do not yield to him or listen to him, nor look with pity upon him, to spare or shield him, but kill him. Your hand shall be the first raised to slay him; the rest of the people shall join in with you. You shall stone him to death, because he sought to lead you astray from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. And all Israel, hearing of this, shall fear and never do such evil as this in your midst. (Deuteronomy 13:7-12)

Cursed be he who does the Lords work remissly, cursed he who holds back his sword from blood. (Jeremiah 48:10)

Anyway, it really doesn't matter what the Koran says since Obama is not a Muslim but, hey, since when did the truth get in the way of anyone's religious bigotry?

Hope Floats

I've always thought of myself as an American with all the promise that America holds but suddenly last night I felt like I can put my suitcase down, finally...This is the moment when you realize you have become the fabric of America.
-Whoopi Goldberg on The View this morning

America Has Spoken

Wild In The Streets (1968)


There's a new sun
Risin' up angry in the sky
And there's a new voice
Cryin', "We're not afraid to die"
Let the old world make believe they're blind and deaf and dumb
But nothing can change the shape of things to come

There are changes
Lyin' ahead in every road
And there are new thoughts
Ready and waiting to explode
When tomorrow is today, the bells may toll for some
But nothing can change the shape of things to come

The future's comin' in now, sweet and strong
Ain't no one gonna hold it back for long

There are new dreams
Crowdin' out old realities
There's revolution
Sweepin' in like a fresh new breeze
Let the old world make believe they're blind and deaf and dumb
But nothing can change the shape of things
Nothing can change the shape of things
Nothing can change the shape of things
Nothing can change the shape of things to come

A Voter's Lament

I thought once all the hype and hoopla was over and today finally here that I would feel a sense of relief but, no, that hasn't happened.

I've been watching CNN as they report on voting all over the country and instead of relief I feel uneasiness. I'm thinking about the intense attention the candidates gave us voters during the last 12 months and, as I watch images of the candidates casting their own votes, a question pops up in my thoughts, "But...



Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?

This Is It

Please let me know
If this ain't love you'd better let me know
If this is it
I want to know
If this ain't love baby, just say so
-If This Is It by Huey Lewis And The News

Tick, Tick, Tick

Only one more day to go, thank God.