9/11

Firemen

September 11, 2001... FDNY's Mike Kehoe was captured in this cellphone picture from Tower One's stairwell printed in the NY Daily News... He survived.

Star Wars Gone Gangsta

Fruits & Nuts

From Big Brother 11



Despite her lack of knowledge about stone fruit, Jordan's memory of events within the house is excellent and she's is still in the game.

Chris Cornell – You Know My Name

Flash Forward

Will this be the next "Lost?"



Premieres Tursday, September 24 at 8pm

Schoolhouse Crock

With its themes of individual effort and responsibility, it would have been easy to imagine the speech Barack Obama gave to America's school children coming across the airways in the voice of the "Great Communicator" himself...

Well, at least the scripted version of the "Great Communicator"... When ad libbing Ronald Reagan could be far more awkward and antiquated than his current-day devotees would like to remember...

On Sunday's "Meet The Press" Tom Friedman characterized the whole prejudged controversy "flat out stupid," while fellow New York Times columnist, Bob Herbert suggested "it's time to get help" on Monday.

Faced with the actual event, those agitated with anticipatory angst were forced to seek a different target for their obsessions.

Bottom line: The speech was filled with conservative values... The fear mongers seemed to demonstrate serious pathology... I'm not a pro, but paranoid schizophrenia sounds about right to me.

Round Two

While the school speech was free of politics, the night before Obama's address to Congress on healthcare, that speech promised more than its share of political and policy points of contention...

While every political pundit will voice an opinion or try to set expectations in line with their own agendas, Lawrence O'Donnell, former chief of staff to the key Senate Finance Committee, assessed the viability of "the public option" in trying to craft a bill this year...

Doctors' Opinions of Universal Health Care

When a panel of doctors was asked their opinion, here's what they had to say:

The Allergists voted to scratch it, and the Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.

The Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but the Neurologists thought the Administration had a lot of nerve, and the Obstetricians felt they were all laboring under a misconception.

The Ophthalmologists considered the idea shortsighted.

The Pathologists yelled, 'Over my dead body!' while the Pediatricians said, 'Oh, Grow up!'

The Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness.

The Radiologists could see right through it.

The Surgeons decided the plan just didn't cut it.

The Internists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow.

The Plastic Surgeons said, 'This puts a whole new face on the matter.'

The Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, and the Anesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas, but the Urologists felt the scheme wouldn't hold water.

The Cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no.

Finally, the Proctologists calmed everyone down, promising it would all turn out fine in the end.

As relayed from contributor Ken Morgan

Proctologists won out, leaving the entire decision up to the A** holes in Washington.

Huffington Post variation

Looking For An Argument

No, not a knock down drag out screaming match with a threat of violence, but a well-reasoned & persuasive presentation of facts in support of an opposing position:

Joseph Henke is co-creator of The Next Right blog, in which he quoted "Jane's Law" ('The devotees of the party in power are smug and arrogant. The devotees of the party out of power are insane.') in his September 7th post.

Poly Sci

Words of wisdom from Gerry & Joe Stuck in the Middle with You By: Stealers Wheel LP: Stuck in the Middle with You Year: 1978 Good Tunes are timeless

Skank Suit

The very public court case between an NY Model and an attacking Blogger seemed absurd at first, in part because it rested on the definition of the word "skank." But along the way, it questioned whether an anonymous personal attack on the Internet would fall within protected areas of free speech. The ruling set a legal precedent in New York about what constitutes defamation online. The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Matt Zimmerman explains.

Audio: WNYC's On The Media Host: Bob Garfield.

30 Years of Change

For the 30th anniversary of the show, CBS Sunday Morning featured this package on February 1, 2009:


Watch CBS Videos Online

Some people have a very low tolerance for change, they're the ones with gas.

Rationale, Reaction & Voice of Reason

Obama's back-to-school message is responsibility
By LIBBY QUAID (AP) – September 5, 2009

WASHINGTON — Classrooms are filling up as kids head back to school, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan's two children are among them.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Duncan said students should take more responsibility for doing well in school, and he called on their parents to step up, too.

Duncan said that is the message of President Barack Obama's address to students on Tuesday. He also thanked teachers for being "unsung heroes."

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Today's Lesson: Undermining A Black Man's Authority in 2009
Huffington Post



To some extent every national campaign is about establishing a cult of personality. Had the McCain/Palin ticket won, they'd be the beneficiaries of the White House "Communications" Department, which as far back as the Nixon Administration had a higher budget than all three commercial broadcast news divisions combined.

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Reaction to Obama’s school speech is tragic, sinister and sickening

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Saturday, September 5, 2009
By BOB RAY SANDERS

Parents are talking about keeping their kids home from school this week.

Some so-called leaders are expressing grave concern "for the children" in fear of an impending disaster.

And the provocateurs who commandeer broadcast microphones on a daily basis continue to warn of a serious contagion that the nation must fight "by any means necessary."

I could understand it if these folk were worried about the H1N1 ("swine flu") virus, but that’s not their concern.

The infection they are afraid of is the president of the United States and his possible influence on America’s children.

In an age when schools are wired with the latest technology, and a young, confident president knows how to use it, the White House thought it a good idea for Barack Obama to address the nation’s youth. His Tuesday speech can be viewed live in the classroom or recorded and used later.

Many parents have balked at that idea and have put pressure on school administrators not to show the speech or use its proposed accompanying lesson plans. Area districts are handling the matter in different ways: some leaving it up to individual teachers, some taping it to be used on request by students or instructors and at least one that will make it available for parents’ use to decide if their youngsters should view it.

It wouldn’t be the first time a president has tried to inspire young people to think, to talk and to act. John Kennedy did it, as did Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Who can be a more persuasive role model for students to stay in school or commit to serving their country than the person who holds the highest office in the land?

Unfortunately for a growing number of frightened, misguided and hate-filled Americans, this president should not and must not be a role model for their children. Therefore, their young sons and daughters should not be in class — or perhaps even in school — if there’s a remote possibility that the plague-spreading left-wing devil called Obama will speak to them.

They’ve labeled him the Antichrist who is set on desecrating the Constitution, destroying the country and annihilating their children’s futures.

It is theater of the absurd, being played out in exaggerated dramatic fashion on stages large and small — in offices, backrooms, broadcast studios and on the World Wide Web.

I would find it laughable if it were not so tragic, so sinister and so sickening.

People who consider themselves intelligent, patriotic and religious have bought into this pathetic self-serving campaign to oppose Obama at every turn by plotting against any initiative he offers and continuously praying for his failure even if it would mean the downfall of their own country.

While I understand mean-spirited, partisan adults exhibiting such behavior, I can’t comprehend why anyone would want to pass along such disrespectful and vitriolic traits to their children.

In an opinion column submitted to various media last week, a former Reagan administration official found it ridiculous that the lesson plan submitted for use by teachers with the Obama speech suggested discussing things like, "Why is it important that we listen to the President and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of Congress or the governor? Why is what they say important?"

Peggy Venable, now Texas director for a group called Americans for Prosperity, said, "That’s enough to send chills down my spine. Schoolchildren should not be indoctrinated in obedience to and service in support of the president of the United States."

The former White House liaison for the U.S. Department of Education went on to object to an earlier plan that students be encouraged to write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.

"It appears to be nothing short of training our children to support Obama policies," she said. "When the recruits are children, doesn’t that constitute indoctrination, even brainwashing?"

Such critics give teachers and students, including their own, very little credit for being able to think and intelligently debate the issues of the day.

Students throughout the nation have been writing the White House for months in efforts to express their concerns to Obama. Hundreds of thousands of them already are engaged in communication with the president. That is a very healthy and encouraging sign — and a great educational experience.

It is too bad that those caught up in what they regard as a socialist conspiracy to destroy our democratic society are infecting their children with the disease of intolerance.

And believe me, just like the swine flu, intolerance is contagious.

Change In Your Pocket

Happiness 101

Harvard Prof. teaches a more optimistic outlook on life:

Lesson plan from May 31, 2006: Positive Psychology 450.

Al Cattah

Whiskers blew himself up in a crowded dog park. 5/08

Coming Attractions

'CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY' - In Theaters October 2nd

"It's a crime story. But it's also a war story about class warfare. And a vampire movie, with the upper 1 percent feeding off the rest of us. And, of course, it's also a love story. Only it's about an abusive relationship.

"It's not about an individual, like Roger Smith, or a corporation, or even an issue, like health care. This is the big enchilada. This is about the thing that dominates all our lives — the economy. I made this movie as if it was going to be the last movie I was allowed to make.

"It's a comedy." -- Michael Moore

Summing Up Summer

Labor Day

Working Class Hero by Green Day cd: Instant Karma from: 2007

Working Class Heroines

Giselle & Tom

Giselle's cover was shot prior to her currently visible baby bump. Tom Brady & the Patriots return to action September 14 on Monday Night Football with the Buffalo Bills as their first opponents.

Right To Be Stupid

Unfor-WET-able

Just Stay Home

Cooking Up The Incredible

George Will: 'Time to leave Iraq'

Days after urging the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Afghanistan, one of the nation’s best-known conservative columnists, George F. Will, is calling on the administration to speed up the planned draw down in Iraq. He concludes that America’s work is done... After more than 6 years and 4,300 American dead.

“If … the surge permanently dampened sectarian violence, all U.S. forces can come home sooner than the end of 2011. If, however, the surge did not so succeed, U.S. forces must come home sooner.”

Will maintains that the U.S. combat units serving as advisers to the Iraqis are already irrelevant to the rising chaos. “If there is worse use of the U.S. military than ‘nation-building,’ it is adult supervision and behavior modification of other peoples' politicians.”

In Saturday's edition of the Washington Post, Will's positions were attacked as a "Double Surrender Policy," echoing conservative "cut and run" rhetoric from the 2008 campaign.

Telling Time

Big Bother 11's Jordan Lloyd shares a blonde moment with alliance/showmance partner Jeff Schroder:



In a head to head elimination Jeff was evicted Thursday, Sept. 3.

Paperwork

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