Weekend Frenzy

Wonderful house guests in town, and Zurich Classic PGA tournament plus Weekend 1 of Jazzfest are going on this weekend, so there's little blog time. But, be prepared and forewarned -- a food porn post is coming that will knock your socks off!

Venezuela Kills Off Its Next-to-Last Functioning Brain Cell

Today I have offered up a genuine prayer of thanksgiving.  I am truly thankful that I do not live in Venezuela.

What are they thinking?!?!  Who among the Venezuelan citizenry cannot appreciate that by giving him another decree power the Congress has set Chavez up as a despot -- a dictator with royalty envy -- before the opposition gains a foothold in January.  And who in his right mind could possibly want to achieve such a thing?!?! 

Next they'll change his title to Emperor.  We'll just have to call him Napoleon "Dynamite" Chavez.

Seriously.  He has declared the banking industry to be a "public service," has expropriated private property without compensation, and is now turning his eye toward regulation of the internet.  AP reports:

The law to grant Chavez decree powers, the fourth such legislation of his nearly 12-year presidenccy [sic], also will allow him to unilaterally enact measures involving telecommunications, the banking system, information technology, the military, rural and urban land use, and the country's "socio-economic system."




Among the planned decrees already announced, Chavez intends to increase the value-added tax, now 12 percent, to raise funds for coping with the disaster caused by weeks of heavy rains. The government is erecting tents to house thousands left homeless and is accelerating public housing construction.

But, NappyDyn doesn't view this latest power grab as setting himself up as a Cuban-style dictator.  He just wants benevolent control of Venezuela's entire "socio-economic system."  More details at Fausta's Blog.

I guess the denizens of the Star Wars saga didn't see it that way at first, either.

We'd better watch our backs until 2012.  I can think of someone else who might like to add a laurel wreath headpiece to his Nobel medal via appropriation of the banking industry, the energy industry, the healthcare system, the . . . .

Oops.

Thieves Who Aren't Tooo Greedy and, at Long Last, a Nobel for China

Quote of the Day -- U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, in response to an observation by defense counsel that the defendant stole only close to $1M from the Housing Authority of New Orleans (where he was CFO for three years) when he had the opportunity to abscond with so much more, remarked:

"I'm not ready to pin any medals on anyone for stealing less than he could have."

The judge was also less than impressed by the defendant's restraint of his larcenous tendencies.  Let's keep that in mind when Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters come up for trial in the House next month.

Nobel Peace Prize -- and the winner is . . . Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident and campaigner for democracy imprisoned for the crime of subversion! 

The Chinese government was not pleased.  The AP reported:

"Anticipating the award, Chinese circumvented Internet controls and called friends overseas to learn the news. Supporters and friends gathered outside Liu's central Beijing apartment, where his wife was kept inside by police. At a park, a civil rights lawyer, a retired official-turned-blogger and a dozen other people cheered and waved placards saying "Long Live Freedom of Speech." The demonstrators were later taken away by police."

President Obama observed:

"Last year, I noted that so many others who have received the award had sacrificed so much more than I."

Well, that's a big ol' Duh.

The young president also:

"[P]raised China for its stunning 30 years of transformative economic growth. 'But this award reminds us that political reform has not kept pace, and that the basic human rights of every man, woman and child must be respected,' Obama said. [emphasis mine]

Hmmm. Political reform.  Isn't that essentially the same thing as fundamental transformation? Maybe the young president's gentle chiding was simply a wink-wink, nudge-nudge, high-five between comrades. 

When the young president has accomplished his transformative policies and commandeered all facets of the economy, maybe we here in the good ol' U. S. of A. can see our internet shut down, spouses put under house arrest, and demonstrators for Freedom of Speech hauled off by the police, too!

At least the Nobel judges bestowed the award this year to someone who had actually done something to promote peaceful existence instead of to someone who could maybe do something in the future.

Reputations and Inaction

The Start Page for my internet browser has a gadget that displays a different quote each day by somebody famous or inspiring or smart. They're usually pretty accurate, or at least instructional. But today . . . . ?

Here's the quote:

"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do."

--Henry Ford



WRONG, Mr. Ford!

Saturday's Stolen Video, Part Deux

I've noticed a trend in my postings lately -- lots of thievery involved!

Just call me malleable -- the government's example must be getting to me: ask, and if you don't receive, take!

Herewith, today's second (and I'm not promising it's the last!) pilfering from Moonbattery --



Heh. Don't you just love the little jig with Ellen?

Wait -- was that a racist comment?!?!

A Reminiscent Saturday Giggle

I've been reminiscing about our Wendy Girl and reading old posts this afternoon. Since it's so danged HOT today, and since I had to get up so danged early this morning to make it to the change of command at Belle Chasse in time (who holds a change of command at 0900 on a Saturday?!?!), I think I'll indulge myself with a little re-post from October of last year. It made me laugh, so maybe it will tickle your funny bone, too.

Kinda Like What the Mainstream Media Spoon-feeds Us


I overheated my brain over the weekend, so today's post will be fluffish. Plus, my future son-in-law just cracks up every time he sees this box -- he even took a picture of it once so he can crack himself up at home -- so I thought the photo on the box might crack up other folks, too.

We have a geriatric beagle who, despite her age, is constantly on the hunt. The hunt is for food. "Food," in Wendy Whiner's mind, needn't necessarily be edible, and she'll take it where she can get it.

Hence, she is known, for polite discourse, as a poop eater. That is not precisely the phrase my husband uses, but you get the general idea.

Yes, you read that correctly -- she eats poop. Often. With gusto.

Since the consumption of one's own -- or someone else's -- poop can be detrimental to one's health (and, observing the process can be detrimental to the observer's gag reflex), the practice is one that is to be discouraged. "Scooping" is not the answer -- a wily beagle can always find a way to beat the scoop.

So, the product pictured above has been stocked in our house for some time and used according to package instructions to try to break Wendy of her between-meal snacking habits. It claims to "help stop your ... dog from consuming its own feces." How is this miracle product supposed to work, you may wonder? Once consumed, it moves through the digestive system and discourages the dog from wanting to re-eat the by-product because it makes the poop taste bad.

Yep -- it makes the poop taste bad.

Foolish me -- it never occurred to me that poop could taste any way but bad.

For all the unpleasant imagery that it evokes, does the product work well?

Not when one lives with a determined beagle who has a poop monkey on her back.

I'm with the chihuahua on the box, however. Is that a great face, or what! Kinda the same expression I had on my face last week when the Nobel Peace Prize was announced.

Aw, come on -- you knew I had to get in at least one political dig, didn't you? And the dig is pretty much about the same subject matter as the rest of this post -- the knee-jerk reaction to both is "Ewwwww."

Kinda Like What the Mainstream Media Spoon-feeds Us

I overheated my brain over the weekend, so today's post will be fluffish. Plus, my future son-in-law just cracks up every time he sees this box -- he even took a picture of it once so he can crack himself up at home -- so I thought the photo on the box might crack up other folks, too.

We have a geriatric beagle who, despite her age, is constantly on the hunt. The hunt is for food. "Food," in Wendy Whiner's mind, needn't necessarily be edible, and she'll take it where she can get it.

Hence, she is known, for polite discourse, as a poop eater. That is not precisely the phrase my husband uses, but you get the general idea.

Yes, you read that correctly -- she eats poop. Often. With gusto.

Since the consumption of one's own -- or someone else's -- poop can be detrimental to one's health (and, observing the process can be detrimental to the observer's gag reflex), the practice is one that is to be discouraged. "Scooping" is not the answer -- a wily beagle can always find a way to beat the scoop.

So, the product pictured above has been stocked in our house for some time and used according to package instructions to try to break Wendy of her between-meal snacking habits. It claims to "help stop your ... dog from consuming its own feces." How is this miracle product supposed to work, you may wonder? Once consumed, it moves through the digestive system and discourages the dog from wanting to re-eat the by-product because it makes the poop taste bad.

Yep -- it makes the poop taste bad.

Foolish me -- it never occurred to me that poop could taste any way but bad.

For all the unpleasant imagery that it evokes, does the product work well?

Not when one lives with a determined beagle who has a poop monkey on her back.

I'm with the chihuahua on the box, however. Is that a great face, or what! Kinda the same expression I had on my face last week when the Nobel Peace Prize was announced.

Aw, come on -- you knew I had to get in at least one political dig, didn't you? And the dig is pretty much about the same subject matter as the rest of this post -- the knee-jerk reaction to both is "Ewwwww."

THE Nobel Prize: Descendants of Vikings Heave a Collective Sigh

I am so embarrassed by the Young President's decision to accept the Nobel Peace Prize that I may just have to throw up.

The whole mess reminds me of the state of children's sports, which I deplore, because the practice fails to teach kids how to be either good winners or good losers. We can't make anyone feel bad because he isn't on the top rung of the competitive ladder -- everyone gets a trophy for "participating." You don't really have to do anything, or excel at anything, or even "pay your dues" to get the chance to excel.

That about sums up the YP's contribution to world peace at the time his nomination was submitted -- he had expressed his deep desire to reach out for hands that had unclenched their fists. He delivered an inaugural speech that offered an olive branch, together with nuclear disarmament/non-proliferation, through very pretty words.

Oslo may have intended to encourage the YP and his America-Can-Be-Your-BFF mission, (whatever that may really be), but in the process it slapped many other legitimate nominees in their collective faces and colored their meager efforts as less than worthwhile. Just a few of those nominees, as posted at Moonbattery, include:

"Chinese Human Rights Activist Hu Jia - imprisoned for campaigning for human rights in the PRC, not as worthy as Barack Hussein Obama.

Wei Jingsheng, who spent 17 years in Chinese prisons for urging reforms of China's communist system. -- not as worthy as Barack Hussein Obama. (Not to mention the symbolic value of awarding a Chinese dissident on the 20th Anniversary of the Tianenmen Square Massacre.)

Greg Mortenson, founder of the Central Asia Institute has built nearly 80 schools, especially for girls, in remote areas of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past 15 years - not as worthy as Barack Hussein Obama.

Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, a philosophy professor in Jordan who risks his life by advocating interfaith dialogue between Jews and Muslims, also not as worthy as Barack Hussein Obama.

Afghan human rights activist Sima Samar. She currently leads the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and serves as the U.N. special envoy to Darfur and is apparently also not as worthy as Barack Hussein Obama."

Now, those folks have paid some dues.

I'm thinking about renouncing my husband's Scandinavian heritage as a solitary, but stalwart, protest to the Nobel Committee's decision. Unless, of course, the YP decides to donate his big, fat check to my newly-founded charity that will award cash dollars, as reparation for their mistreatment, to all Viking descendants who didn't receive a Nobel medal, even though they like peace and think about it a lot. In that case, "Ahoy, Valhalla!"** will be my cry, cause we won't be getting anything else from the White House any time soon.

Somewhere, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, and the scorned Dalai Lama must be so -- um -- thrilled. But, you know who has to be really miffed? Bill Clinton.

Heh.

** "Ahoy. A nautical hail, once the dreaded war cry of the Vikings."