Transformation! Well ... transforming anyway ...

From this (the angry puss is mine, of course) ...

To this!

It's taking some getting used to, but "The Odd Couple" is making it in Ocean Shores.

The dog (Sweetheart) is truly a miracle ... and having Richard here is a completely separate miracle. Life is a twirly merry-go-round, but definitely an improvement for the old man.

With my brother, Richard, and his pooch, Sweetheart, it's best to have a drink first ... then steady yourself a bit!

After one vodka/water "cocktail"! Can you imagine two?
Click on picture to focus better!

By six months from next Sunday, I'll be able to focus on Richard more clearly ...

Two weeks ago, how could I have imagined ... ???

Richard's Sweetheart

My brother, Richard from Connecticut called to tell me that he was planning on taking a trip to Florida--planning further to sort of "camp out" in his li'l Rav-4. With some coaxing I talked him into taking up residence in my loft here in Ocean Shores.

Now, two weeks later--and after a seven-day trip across country (for Richard) and a trip to the local animal shelter (PAWS), we have Richard and his pooch upstairs and the seven cats and me downstairs ... sort of.

Life for the both of us is ... well, different.

I love my brother Richard and his Corgi-Terrier animal.

President Bush in his weekly radio address to the nation assures us all that we are in a solid financial recovery!

Newsflash!!

President Bush earlier today (Saturday, October 18, 2008) sought to reassure Americans about the cost and scope of the nation's financial bailout plan and said that in the long run "our economy will bounce back." Bush, in his weekly radio address, acknowledged that people are concerned about their finances, but he offered assurances about an eventual recovery.

Mediawingnuts suggests that, before it's too late, Mr. George W. Bush should nominate Mr. George W. Bush for both the Medal of Freedom and the "Mission Accomplished" shoulder patch.

Both John McCain and Barack Obama owe this poor soul an apology, I believe ...

Samuel Joe Wurzelbacher (a.k.a. "Joe the Plumber")

Neither John McCain nor Barack Obama did this poor soul any favors. As it turns out, he is neither a licensed plumber nor did he earn $250,000 so as to be earning too much to be eligible for Barack Obama's "tax cut for the middle class." And the company that he wishes to buy is owned by a person who is also not a licensed plumber--although that is among the services performed by the company.

To add fire to the storm swirling about this (until the last debate) anonymous soul, he also owes back taxes and is having his wages garnished for not having paid a hospital bill--obviously not covered by insurance that is included in both McCain's and Obama's proposed health plans.

And to add to his woes, he compared Barack Obama to Sammy Davis Jr. as a "tap dancer" when providing CBS Evening News with his views of Barack's tax plan as "Socialistic."

If I looked even vaguely like a bigoted skinhead, I would have made sure I was aware of a couple of tap dancers such as Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly--or even Richard Gere--before popping Sammy Davis Jr.'s name onto CBS Evening News.

I suspect that the McCain campaign (and Barack's too, for that matter) will hide "Joe" and this entire event until after November 5, 2008.

Do I really hate/love John McCain but love/hate Barack Obama?

I hate/love John McCain, but I love/hate Barack Obama!

This is what being spectator of a war between nations or religious factions might be about--loving your own nation or religious faction/denomination and hating the enemy (a.k.a. any other). Recently though, I find myself seeing people rooting for Barack Obama and others rooting for John McCain in the same way Sunni and Shiite Muslims have been going about their business in the Middle East for as long as I can remember.

And yes, I lived there for almost a decade and see the similarities all too well!

We have allowed America to be divided into two opposing hate-factions.

Jesus Christ taught us differently. He said that we are to

Love John McCain!

and

Love Barack Obama!

Perhaps I am naïve, but I think we should be more Christlike when discussing politics.

John McCain is an honorable American who served his country as a Naval Airman and has since served his country in the US Senate; he would make a great president.

Barack Obama is an honorable American who rose up on his own and achieved the American Dream, making his way through Harvard returning to his community and becoming a US Senator. He too would make a great president.

I'm sure people will not agree with both of those statements, however, these are two good men who I think deep in their hearts want the best for this country.

We (not those of us on TV, but regular voters) need to sit down and talk about candidates and issues. It's not always fun, but it is important.

When we divide ourselves into Republican and Democratic camps we lose what we need to have and that is a middle ground and a true discussion of the issues and the candidates.

Last night's debate and (even more so) this evening's Alfred E. Smith Dinner in New York during which both John McCain and Barack Obama joked with and jibed one another in good-natured humor was what I needed.

Yeh, I'll still have a favorite on November 4th, but I'll also congratulate the winner on November 5th.

A vote for Palin-McCain next month is a vote against sad, empty cribs ...

A typical piece of so-called spam in my e-mail box ...
Or was it simply "spam"?

I was very much looking forward to my life in this world. I wanted to have dolls, ride a bike, go to the circus, and see the zoo.

I looked forward to celebrating Christmas and receiving Jesus in Holy Communion. I'm very sad I never got to do any of these things. My parents did not let me be born.

But I just don't understand one thing -- why didn't any of you help me? I wish you had.

Nobody heard my crying voice.

... the unborn child ...


Vote for Sarah Palin and John McCain on November 4, 2008!!

Sometimes, one picture says it all ...

Mr. Obama ... You could still get my vote if you adjusted your position on only a couple of vital issues!

Besides not encouraging the stock market to dive any further with foolish votes for additional handouts like bank bailouts/buyouts and give-away "incentive packages," you might also reverse your support for federal financing of abortions, coupled with the passage of FOCA (the Freedom of Choice [sic ... no choice for the fetus, of course!] Act), which will repeal all barely existing common sense abortion restriction in the land. Best estimate on that little matter would be 125,000 more abortions a year--roughly thirty times the total number deaths of US Servicemen in Iraq since Bush's ill-conceived war which has allowed Osama bin Laden to more easily lead his terrorist bands from Afghanistan.

If you are to win in November (a likely possibility as I see it today), during the first four years of your Presidency, half a million unborn children will die that would have lived otherwise. I don't even like to think ahead to a second term.

We often hear talk of acceptable losses in our War on Terror. Well I in good conscience cannot consider a half million unborn Americans as "acceptable" losses!

Please reconsider your stance on abortion and your thoughts on the judiciary! A few words from you in repentance for your past mistaken notions--I too was there with similar mistaken thinking only a few months ago--would go a long way towards grabbing my vote and the votes of many of us who both see you as a decent, intelligent, concerned American and as a symbol of America moving forward in areas of tolerance and the decline--almost total absence--of bigotry in our wonderful country.

Please consider a change of heart! For me, it only took a whispered prayer and the erasure of some cockeyed "reasoning."

Somewhere over the Rainbow ...

A Judy Garland look-alike sings the blues
Click on picture for full effect ...

Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high

There's a land that I heard of, once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue

And the dreams that you dare to dream, really do come true

Someday I'll wish upon a star, and wake up where the clouds are far behind me

Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops

That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly

Birds fly over the rainbow, why then, oh why can't I?

Reason #1: My 401-K
Reason #2: The mortgage (gaaah!) on my house
Reason #3: The balance on my car loan
Reason #4: Catfood
.
.
.
And the reasons go on and on and on ...

She winked my way ... and now I know!

Sarah Palin Winks at Mediawingnuts

Last night's debate [sic] between Mr. McCain (yawn) and Mr. O. (yeeps!) took me back to the good ol' days ... like last week when Ms. Palin turned flat-ass towards me and winked at me with the most beguiling smile any Presidential (okay ... Vice-presidential) candidate has ever given an old fart like me.

But it was beguiling and more authentic than anything said or implied by the Boopsie Brothers last night in Tennessee. I even allowed my students (a community college evening class) watch the travesty of the second McCain-Obama debate [sic] from a television monitor attached to the ceiling of the classroom. Whatta waste!

But each of our votes are not wasted and we should all at least "protest" the ongoing coronation of Mr. O. with a vote for Palin (and McCain, of course). The polls show that it won't matter, but even Serenissima would agree that the election would best not be an entire landslide (I suppose).

(For the record, I don't share Sarah's love of moose-hunting and snow-machining (Alaskan term) isn't really one of my favorite spectator sports.)

Basically, the map below says that if we voted today, it'd be Obama 329, McCain 194 and 15 electoral votes up for grabs. Yeeps!

Besides all of that bad news, we also seem to be looking at a 58-42 Senate and a 241-193-1 House of Representatives, according to Electoral Vote's (generally accurate) website.

Where we go from here is anyone's guess. The October Surprise had better be something exponentially greater than any of the September Surprises (plural--beginning with surprise VEEP selections and hurricanes ... and ending with a credit freeze and bailout.

Even were Palin to drop McCain from the ticket and Barack to pull out in favor of the more qualified Hillary, it looks like a Democratic sweep in November.

What, oh what ... will be the October Surprise ... and when?

U.S. Congress Buys $700 Billion Fixer-Upper Package with $150 Billion Sugar Coating Added

a couple of the better fixer-uppers you and I bought earlier today!

The Consumerist and (I suppose, if credit is needing, Marketplace) did their best to explain to the rest of us exactly what the $850 billion bailout is/was ... in layman's terms, I suppose.

Marketplace's one-act play (sort of) summarized the Congressional "Rescue Plan" as a

"reverse sub-micro-standard mortgage shadow security purchase that gives us all part ownership of semi-insured debts that've been sold to us from inelastic bubble markets so that we can vertically resell, then unbundle the revenues according to Moody's astro-logarithm which gives a monetized valuation that has itself been subdivided into A-3 and G-minus pumpkin patches. Simply stated, the Q-grades are dumped and leveraged upwards across 25 underplummeries and our unicorn (don't ask!) gives it a kick, and presto: you've got 300 percent annual growth."

Of course, what all of the garble-de-dook our crooked Congress-persons and their media bedfellows dumped on us in seemingly politically correct catch phrases and sound bites means is that we bought nearly all of the bad mortgage debt of the unscrupulous lenders and uncareful borrowers of mortgage assets (and other even more specious debt) from Wall Street to Beijing and from Alaska to the southern tip of South America--all sugar coated with some out-and-out pork (rum, wooden arrows and wool for starters) to reign in the votes needed to slide it smoothly through both Houses of Congress despite 75% of all Americans hating every spoonful.

Sorry, Mary Poppins, but a spoonful of sugar most assuredly DOES NOT help this bitter pill go down!

If heroes in this debacle exist, they surely include both Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul who stood their ground (and votes) with customary honesty and (ultimately, as the week closes) sadness.

Of the four front-running candidates for President and Vice-president, only Sarah Palin did not vote for the $850 billion (actually more like two-trillion-dollars-plus within two years) bailout. Apparently, Alaskan governors are not permitted to vote in either House of Congress, gender notwithstanding. Maybe Sarah can break a tie in the Senate sometime after January 20, 2009.

Will any of us be able to ask ourselves, "Did we really watch a Palin - Biden Vice-Presidential debate?"

Will I even remember having seen it ... come November ... or January?

Someone said that there will be more than fifty-five million of us tuned in tomorrow night. That's more than have ever even watched a Presidential candidate debate, for the love of a duck.

Then, ninety or so minutes later, we might ask ourselves, "What exactly did we watch?" ... Or more accurately, "What were we expecting anyway?" ... A killer sighting of a UFO maybe ... or a head-on collision of two protons traveling at somewhat beneath the speed of light? Make that at 186,000 miles per second beneath the speed of light.

Some collision!

It may be the ugly side of our addiction to chaos and the American mindset of late with these inane "bailout votes" in Congress, but "regular" Joes like you and me ... along with the talking heads on television and the screwballs on talk radio ... can hardly wait.

Will Sarah Palin's total inexperience and innocent authenticity underwhelm Joe Biden's expertness at coming up with the multi-dimensional gaffe?

We may all witness the creation of a black hole after all. Sorry CERN; we beat you to the punch with a helium leak of our own on this side of the Atlantic.