I’m actually starting to feel a bit better, but my chest is still sufficiently congested, that I don’t want to come back too soon and knock myself back. I’m current with replies. I’m still shooting for 2/1. I’m uploading it a day late, because I thought I had done so yesterday.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:29 (average 4:41). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: When It's Easy For Anyone And Everyone To Get A Gun, This Happens
To operate a car, you have to prove that you know the law and safety procedures in a written test in addition to proving that you can physically operate the vehicle safely. This vid’s Republican InsaniTEA is the best evidence that the same standard ought to apply to firearms?
From Dotti: STRESS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUE
Just in case you are having a rough day here's a stress management technique recommended in all the latest psychological journals.
The funny thing is that it really does work and will make you smile.
1. Picture yourself lying on your belly on a warm rock that hangs out over a crystal clear stream.
2. Picture yourself with both your hands dangling in the cool running water.
3. Birds are sweetly singing in the cool mountain air.
4. No one knows your secret place.
5. You are in total seclusion from that hectic place called the world.
6. The soothing sound of a gentle waterfall fills the air with a cascade of serenity.
7. The water is so clear that you can make out the face of the republican you're holding underwater.
See it worked. You're smiling already.
Dang!! It DOES work!! 😉
From Alternet: Conservatives are not happy. Despite their best efforts, the public continues to give Social Security a big thumbs up, and the President has just launched his second term with a speech hailing the program as a force that strengthens America.
You can understand their frustration. They’ve tried so very hard to make Americans think that we cannot afford to treat sick, disabled and elderly people with dignity while we subsidize the rich and fight unnecessary wars. But the public hasn't bought their solvency fabrications. And we haven’t been fooled by various pretenses for cutting, from the “chained CPI” adjustment to extending the retirement age again. Even the means-testing ruse, cloaked as sensitivity to the poor but intended to drain public support for the program, hasn’t worked out for them so far.
Conservatives still hate Social Security. Since the day the program was passed under Franklin Roosevelt, the greedy rich who don’t want to pay taxes and the financiers who want to stick Americans with private retirement accounts on which they can charge fees continue to invent new ways to attack and discredit the country's best-loved program. The think-tank minions and PR units attached to these Scrooges keep themselves up at night imagining new ways to dupe the public into accepting grotesque economic inequality as the norm and a downgraded future as the price we must pay for Wall Street greed.
Now the Social Security haters are taking a page from the Welfare Queen smear campaign book of the ‘90s to conjure a new scapegoat for all that is wrong with America: the Disability King. According to this meme, the problem with America’s economy and society is vast numbers of lazy, lying, good-for-nothing loafers cheating the American taxpayer through disability fraud.
Click through for the rest. It's worth it. This Republican claim is pure garbage. When I applied for Social Security disability, winning my case took over three years, during which I often had to choose between medicine and food. I pulled two of my own teeth, because my county allows only one emergency dental visit per year. When my case finally came to trial, the judge took one look at my records and said that my benefits should have been approved on day one. The point is, that getting approval is so difficult, and the waiting for approval is so demeaning, that the very notion of widespread disability fraud is patently absurd.
Cartoon:
14 Responses to “Open Thread–1/29/2013”
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WRT the "Stress Management" entry – I chuckled.
I'm not proud of myself about that … but I did chuckle.
You're human.
3:24 I barely made it over that drawbridge you put down for us.
2:55 Over the drawbridge and through the front door!
3:26 I missed the drawbridge and got left behind.
Swim Jerry, swim! You're carrying TC too because most cats are not especially fond of swimming!
Even though I was 4th, this cat used to train lifeguards.
MoveOn ~ Imagine how many more idiots never made it on camera.
Stress Management ~ I'm not proud of myself either because I'm still laughing.
Alternet ~ Yes, Tom. I remember my almost 3 year fight to get SS disability also. I had pneumonia and could not afford to see a doctor. They had approved SS for me and awarded me a total of $9.00 per month. That's right
9 dollars! Then they sent me a bill for Medicare tfor a grand total of over 500 dollars. I had been living on my VISA card for almost 3 years. I finally after all this time of fighting with the local office, reached a sympathetic woman in Baltimore, MD who could barely understand me. I was coughing up a storm with my pneumonia. She straightened the whole mess out and I was paid retroatively for a little over 2 years. Thankfully, since I lived so austerely, I was able to pay my debts without a problem.
Slackers on SS disability! I'd like to see them live how I did for 3 months let alone 3 years.
Cartoon ~ Wipe that silly smirk off your face, you bought bitch!
Imagining infinuity is difficult.
You're human too.
And our experiences are typical, not at all unuaual.
I'd ne happy toi see it wiped off when voters fire him.
Puzzle — 2:55 Over the drawbridge and through the front door!
MoveOn — Any wonder why I favour no guns, or at the very least strict gun control? However at least I got my morning chuckle at the absolute stupidity of these morons. I particularly liked the idiot that decided it is ok to look down the barrel of a loaded weapon.
Speaking of gun control, or in the case of the NRA, politician control, here's what Andy Borowitz has to say about it. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/01/nra-defends-right-to-own-politicians.html?mbid=nl_Borowitz%20(75)
Dotti's Stress Management Technique — You're right, it really works well! What I also like is that it works on Conservatives like PM Harper and his harlots. Very functional!
Alternet — There are always going to be scammers in the system — just look at the Congress, it's full of them. To deny legitimate claims is criminal.
Cartoon — There is something about that picture that makes me want to hurl. I think I'll print it out and put it on my dart board! Another use, I'll use it to line the litter box. With 3 cats, that's one way to wipe that smile off of McTurtle's face!
Thanks for the link, Lynn. I enjoyed Andy Borowicz's take on gun control. So true about politicians being owned.
You's unless you get monster mashed.
OOPS! That Borowitz piece is also today's 3rd Short Take.
For Harper, you need a Canadian version. A beautiful winter day with your arms in an ice fishing hole. 😉
Sure there are some, but not the preponderence Republicans make it out to be., Few things are more thoroughly investigated.
How about on paper that will float in the toilet. Target practice.
I forgot to tell you that on 27/01/13 (last Sunday), I participated for the first time in the BC Alzheimer's Society's Walk for Memories and raised $665.00. I was part of the New Vista Striders composed mainly of nurses and care aids at the facility where my mother lives. In total, we raised over $7,600. I was hoping that there would be pictures on the web site as I know I am in a few but they haven't been posted yet — then you'd see what a buzz-cut billiard ball looks like!. It is a 5 km walk on the Stanley Park Seawall. Unfortunately, due to my back, I could only do about 2.5 km, but then I initially thought I would not be able to do it at all. By the time I got home, I crawled into bed to lie flat. I have done many walks of 5 to 10 km before and when my back was not an issue, did 6 km in about 65 minutes.
Good you you. If you find one, I'll post it here.