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I cannot imagine what made this pop up at the top of my Google Mail inbox. Last email I read was my friend Joanne telling me she was going to take her dad on a "duck tour" when he comes to visit her in Seattle. Does that go with bed-wetting?

I Need To...

I need to register to vote, I've changed districts with the move. I am now represented by the dreamy and well-spoken Rush Holt. I'm particularly glad about this because I've never forgiven Pallone for the time that his staff sent a form letter in reply to one of my missives. That's to be expected, sure, but despite the fact that I signed my letter pretty clearly, they sent the response to my parents. One of my parents is dead, but she got an answer from Pallone's office. That still pisses me off.

I know, I know, get a hobby.

George Carlin

What can I say, I loved him as much as everyone else did.
Should I even link to something about him. Yeah, I guess I should.

Football and baseball were never the same for me after I heard his bit comparing them.

Headline Re-write

They say:

Israel appears to rehearse Iran attack: report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials say Israel carried out a large military exercise this month that appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, The New York Times reported on Friday.

Citing unidentified American officials, the newspaper said more than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters took part in the maneuvers over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece in the first week of June.

It said the exercise appeared to be an effort to focus on long-range strikes and illustrates the seriousness with which Israel views Iran's nuclear program.

Know how I would have titled that article? "Israel Develops Problematic Security Leak".

Entitlement - You Don't Have One

Today's headlines from MSNBC tell me that McCain is accusing Obama as being a "typical tax-and-spend Democrat". The article goes on to refute the claim, talking about how Obama's plans may actually save the middle class tax money... whatever.

Do people not understand that in order to spend money, you really should HAVE it first? I ask again the question that I've asked a million times - if we don't tax, where does the money come from?

"Oh, Tami," you whine at me, "I can't afford any more taxes! The world is bleeding me dry!". Well guess what? The world is bleeding me dry, too. I have the strictest budget of my life, now that I have a house, and it's all gone to hell since my gas budget went from $250 a month in March to FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS in June. That's a serious adjustment to make. I did it, but I'm not happy about curbing my very spoiled spending habits.

Still, curb them I have. Do you know why? Because when you don't have the money to pay for things, the responsible thing to do is not to buy them. You can't go without necessities, but maybe we can all take a step back and consider what's a necessity and what's not these days. For example, I do not have movie channels on my cable TV subscription to save a few bucks. Guess what? Even the cable is a luxury. I want social programs, and art grants, and beautiful public parks as much as the next person, maybe more, but someone has to pay for them. Seriously.

The thing that kills me most about the idea of "tax and spend" as an insult, is of course the fact that the other side of the coin isn't "not spend". Oh, no. All the talk of smaller government is bull, we don't have smaller government, we just have a less efficient government who can't help the people. In this age of Republican rule, are we spending less to go with our shiny lower taxes and economic stimulus checks? No, sir, our debt levels are just going up. What am I going to say now, can you guess? I bet you can! The other side of "tax and spend", my friends, is "borrow and spend".

Guess which one I think is worse.

Who Knows One?

OK, so Lautenberg won the NJ Democratic primary yesterday. Good enough, I do like him as a lawmaker, and as long as he remains alert and, um, alive, he's OK with me.

That's the sticky part, though. Last time I checked, the average life expectancy for a male in the US was somewhere around 77 or 78, depending where you look. Also, last time I checked, Lautenberg was 84. His life expectancy is now, um... 0. At that age, and I know I'm being indelicate here, but please forgive me, because I'm just trying to be practical, you can just suddenly die for no reason whatsoever, no warning. You just wear out. I am not wishing this on the Senator, I am just stating what I believe to be true.

So, if the Senator should pass away before the actual election, who gets to be on the ballot? I'll start looking, but if any of you know, please pipe up.