No Caption Necessary. (or, How to make a Mad Macedonian Madder.)

A Thought For The Day.

A woman calls her boss one morning and tells him that she is staying
home because she is not feeling well.

"What's the matter?" he asks

"I have a case of rectal glaucoma," she says in a weak voice.

"What the hell is rectal glaucoma?"

"I can't see my ass coming into work today."

Running In The Shadows. (Or, What I Did This Summer--At Least Since The Last Time I Posted.)

Very busy.....getting drunk in several locations, with several groups of people. Let me explain....

Monday (Labor Day, September 5th) was my 43rd birthday....or as i like to think of it, the third day of my 'end of being 42' party.....since we started Saturday night at O's, headed to Buckets, and finished up the evening at the basement, where Stiller, Elvis, MJ and many more ended up fully dressed in the swimming pool. My present was that I got to refuse to be tossed into the water. A good time was had by all.

Sunday (day 2 of festivities) was spent at O's with JQP and lovely bride, Sky Captain and his wife, Amy and (briefly) Gleason, and many drinks. Another good time was had by all, if the receipts from the evening are any indication.

Monday I was awakened at 8:30am by my grandmother, who was feeling a little lonely, but was otherwise in good spirits. I chatted with her for about an hour, sitting in the altogether (don't wake me up and expect me to be dressed and chipper.)

If only Elvis had heeded that piece of advice. He called at 9:45, and asked me to go into work immediately to rectify a problem. That put me at the station for a couple hours. SO, Cliff the new guy, Elvis and I decided to invade O's for a THIRD day of drinking. We opened that bar....

And then headed to Kaysan's out north....where I proceeded to close THAT bar. A co-worker described me as 'annhilated.' Got home with help....

Tuesday started the new airshift. Had to be up at 4:15am. Bad decision.

The rest of the week will be described in the next post. Hint: I survived.

A Thought For The Day. (Or, Michael Moore's Next Movie Outline.)

Let me just point out that if you're right-wing, you'll think this is nothing but liberal Bush-bashing; and if you're left-wing, you may think it's not nearly harsh enough. But it DOES bring up the same kinds of questions that I keep asking: namely, are we prepared in the event of an actual emergency? (thanks, EBS test) And if we're not, who's to blame?

I pick d: Republicans, Democrats, AND apathetic voters and non-voters.

Anyway, here's one take on all the hoopla.

Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2005 2:36 AM
Subject: A Letter to All Who Voted for George W. Bush from Michael Moore

To All My Fellow Americans Who Voted for George W. Bush:

On this, the fourth anniversary of 9/11, I'm just curious, how does it feel?
How does it feel to know that the man you elected to lead us after we were attacked went ahead and put a guy in charge of FEMA whose main qualification was that he ran horse shows?
That's right. Horse shows.
I really want to know -- and I ask you this in all sincerity and with all due respect -- how do you feel about the utter contempt Mr. Bush has shown for your safety? C'mon, give me just a moment of honesty. Don't start ranting on about how this disaster in New Orleans was the fault of one of the poorest cities in America. Put aside your hatred of Democrats and liberals and anyone with the last name of Clinton. Just look me in the eye and tell me our President did the right thing after 9/11 by naming a horse show runner as the top man to protect us in case of an emergency or catastrophe.
I want you to put aside your self-affixed label of Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-winger and just talk to me as an American, on the common ground we both call America.
Are we safer now than before 9/11? When you learn that behind the horse show runner, the #2 and #3 men in charge of emergency preparedness have zero experience in emergency preparedness, do you think we are safer?
When you look at Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, a man with little experience in national security, do you feel secure?
When men who never served in the military and have never seen young men die in battle send our young people off to war, do you think they know how to conduct a war? Do they know what it means to have your legs blown off for a threat that was never there?
Do you really believe that turning over important government services to private corporations has resulted in better services for the people?
Why do you hate our federal government so much? You have voted for politicians for the past 25 years whose main goal has been to de-fund the federal government. Do you think that cutting federal programs like FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers has been good or bad for America? GOOD OR BAD?
With the nation's debt at an all-time high, do you think tax cuts for the rich are still a good idea? Will you give yours back so hundreds of thousands of homeless in New Orleans can have a home?
Do you believe in Jesus? Really? Didn't he say that we would be judged by how we treat the least among us? Hurricane Katrina came in and blew off the facade that we were a nation with liberty and justice for all. The wind howled and the water rose and what was revealed was that the poor in America shall be left to suffer and die while the President of the United States fiddles and tells them to eat cake.
That's not a joke. The day the hurricane hit and the levees broke, Mr. Bush, John McCain and their rich pals were stuffing themselves with cake. A full day after the levees broke (the same levees whose repair funding he had cut), Mr. Bush was playing a guitar some country singer gave him. All this while New Orleans sank under water.
It would take ANOTHER day before the President would do a flyover in his jumbo jet, peeking out the window at the misery 2500 feet below him as he flew back to his second home in DC. It would then be TWO MORE DAYS before a trickle of federal aid and troops would arrive. This was no seven minutes in a sitting trance while children read "My Pet Goat" to him. This was FOUR DAYS of doing nothing other than saying "Brownie (FEMA director Michael Brown), you're doing a heck of a job!"
My Republican friends, does it bother you that we are the laughing stock of the world?
And on this sacred day of remembrance, do you think we honor or shame those who died on 9/11/01? If we learned nothing and find ourselves today every bit as vulnerable and unprepared as we were on that bright sunny morning, then did the 3,000 die in vain?
Our vulnerability is not just about dealing with terrorists or natural disasters. We are vulnerable and unsafe because we allow one in eight Americans to live in horrible poverty. We accept an education system where one in six children never graduate and most of those who do can't string a coherent sentence together. The middle class can't pay the mortgage or the hospital bills and 45 million have no health coverage whatsoever.
Are we safe? Do you really feel safe? You can only move so far out and build so many gated communities before the fruit of what you've sown will be crashing through your walls and demanding retribution. Do you really want to wait until that happens? Or is it your hope that if they are left alone long enough to soil themselves and shoot themselves and drown in the filth that fills the street that maybe the problem will somehow go away?
I know you know better. You gave the country and the world a man who wasn't up for the job and all he does is hire people who aren't up for the job. You did this to us, to the world, to the people of New Orleans. Please fix it. Bush is yours. And you know, for our peace and safety and security, this has to be fixed. What do you propose?
I have an idea, and it isn't a horse show.

Yours,Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com