Big and Beautiful Invitation

Well, I guess I'm offended.  I got an e-mail invitation to join other Big And Beautiful people in their quest for a date.

Gees.  Who would think ten pounds would catapult me into this category?  I'm a little offended.  I'm also married and my husband frowns on me dating other men.  Maybe that's why he asked me for a date last night and took me out to hear some fine blues performed by masterful local musicians.  It was fun to go out on a date at the age of 61.  We need to do this more often.  We have movie dates and dinner dates once in awhile, but really good music in a club that served Dreamsicle cocktails using their own brewed orange soda was a little bit more fun.  I can't remember the last time my husband and I danced, so another wrong righted.  I even wore a dress.

I digress. 

Big and Beautiful dating website.  I didn't click on it, somewhat afraid of what I might see.  I'm thinking though that what the world needs is a little more honesty, so how about I create a dating web site called Aging, Annoyed and Argumentative looking for similarly Disgruntled.  I'm sure there are people out there my age who have lost their spouses and just can't seem to meet someone fun to hang with. 

Then again, there is a quiet dignity in solitude and memory. 

Still, New Year's Eve, it would be fun to kick up our aching heels a little and get a midnight kiss.    Aging, Annoyed and Argumentative people everywhere, send me your profile information and I will try to match you with a compatible curmudgeon.  Note:  I have the world's worst track record in setting people up so this disclaimer absolves me from all hook up disasters.  I think I'm using that hook up phrase wrongly.  Or maybe not.  How feisty are the Aged, Annoyed and Argumentative?

What Are You Doing?

I just made a pan of lasagna, and no skimping on the ingredients, for the homeless shelter for this evening's meal.  My husband and I do this regularly, and I started wondering what, if anything, others are doing to make this world a little less traumatic for someone.

What did you do this year to help take the terror out of Planet Earth?

Maybe you gave away your old clothes.  That is always good, people need clothes, even clothes that belonged to someone with no fashion sense whatsoever. 

Maybe you dropped some change into the Salvation Army's red bucket outside of Pick 'N Save. 

Maybe you donated your time and/or money to an organization in need.

Maybe you did just one little thing that didn't matter much, except to the one person for whom it mattered greatly.

Or maybe, like a lot of people out there, you did nothing.  Maybe you have the mindset of the 1%, that anyone can make it in this country and if you can't, well, you're not my problem, you're a victim of your own inertia.

I wonder if we ever stop to think about how one act of kindness or charity costs us very little, so why don't we do it more often? 

The holidays tend to bring out a more generous side to most people, but there are 51 other weeks out there when generosity stays at home.

I propose every "have" on the planet do one little thing, one small thing, each day to ease the suffering of less fortunate fellow earthlings.  I bet if we did, the world would be a brighter place, not only for the downtrodden, but for ourselves, as well.

Wonder what the Koch Brothers are doing tonight?  I'm sure they're on the phone to Washington screaming about tax hikes.  Don't be a Koch.  Make this your motto for 2013.

New Years Resolutions I'd Like to See

1.  Scott Walker.  I will stop pretending I know anything about anything.

2.  Mitt Romney.  I will pay 47% in taxes on my offshore illegal investments.

3.  Barack Obama.  I will kick John Boerner's a$$ from here to Kenya.

4.  Anne Coulter.  I will dress up in leather and bop a liberal, all while keeping my eyes open.

5.  Ron Johnson.  I do solemnly swear to lose reelection by doing what I do best.  Nothing.

6.  Donald Trump.  I will shave my head.

7.  Paul Ryan.  I will lose my schoolboy charm and have an affair with a Catholic woman who has had an abortion.

8.  George Bush, Sr.  I will die.

9.  George Dubya Bush.  I will stand trial in The Hague for war crimes.

10.  Chris Abele.  I will stop sticking it to Milwaukee County employees/retirees and commit Sheriff Clarke to the Behavioral Health Division for observation.

11.  Sheriff Clarke.  I will stop making a horse's a$$ out of myself at every opportunity.  I will also buy a portable electro-convulsive therapy machine and hook myself up whenever I start to feel tea-partyish.

12.  Lindsey Lohan.  I will give up on the craft and become a full-fledged junkie, once and for all.  I will also buy burglarly tools; shoplifting is too hard.

Merry Christmas!

It is a day of feasting, joy and peace. 

It is also a day of cleaning up wrapping paper, dishes, and trying to get jello stains off cashmere sweaters.

It is a day of cookies, roast anything, and mulled wine.

It is a good day to reflect on the past year.......or forget it; your choice.

So don your gay apparel, and head off to your Christmas reunions.

Eat, drink and be merry. 

This little light of mine; I'm gonna let it shine!

Anarchy Anyone?

Well, let's see.  The NRA came out with quite possibly the most moronic answer to curb gun violence; arm more people.  Put more guns out there.  Arm everyone.  Anyone or anything that thinks like Sheriff Clarkes does is in serious trouble.

Yep, it's a shoot out at the not so okay corral, otherwise known as the good old United States of Armed (and Dangerous Idiots).

When a person is sick, you don't give him a hundred times the prescribed dose of medicine in hopes that it will cure him.

More guns is about as intelligent an answer as the NRA and the GOP could come up with.  How did these intellectually compromised people come to power?  Oh yeah, I forgot.  They're leading mostly intellectually compromised individuals.  Right to the slaughter.

How do I despise this country?  Let me count the ways.

If any mad scientists out there have developed a truly smart water, nows the time to market it.  Make mine alcoholic, please.

SHERIFF CLARKE NUTTIER THAN A CHRISTMAS FRUITCAKE

In the wake of yet another tragedy perpetrated by a mentally ill person with assault weapons, Sheriff Clarke is calling for armed officers and guards in every public place.

Uh huh......funded by whom?

Not that funding is the issue. 

The issue is the fact that guns are legal and people don't want the right to bear arms taken from them.  Well, it's time to abolish this right, has been for a long time in an ever-increasingly violent and mentally ill United States.  Sheriff Clarke is the poster boy for Tea Party Politics; how does this dude get elected as a democrat?  Hopefully, he's made a big enough horse's a$$ of himself in the past year that we won't have to deal with his particular brand of crazy much longer.

Sheriff Clarke likens the suggestion of gun control as  the "mind-set of sheep".  I'm proud to be a peaceful lamb.  Why is gun control so abhorrent to Sheriff Clarke?  Is it his wolf mind-set?  Does he like to put his deputies in danger everyday while people ride around with semi-automatic guns under their driver's seat?  Does he think more guns make a safer society, because really, if that's his mind-set than he has either flipped his holster or he can't see the forest for the trees.

Comparing gun control as a knee jerk reaction and something that should be resisted with the ferociousness of a junk yard dog is typical Clarke - laughable and ridiculous.  Seriously, a mental status exam needs to be ordered for this guy.  His lunatic is really showing.

Ban all guns.  Hunting will be allowed, but hunters will have to store their guns at a government warehouse and sign them in and out per hunting season.  Hand guns should be completely illegal, and anyone caught with a hand gun should serve five years in prison, mandatory.

And just so you know, Mr. Clarke, none of we "liberals" are exploiting what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School to further gun control legislation.  We're appalled at what happened.  We're appalled at the number of weapons available in our society, and we're appalled at the lack of mental health treatment available to those members of our society who desperately need it.  Like you.

Mr. Clarke further expresses the need to fund his crazy solution by cutting green programs and social safety nets.  This guy is a disaster, and he's being paid for it by Milwaukee County.  He posted all these comments on a Tea Party website, and now won't comment to the Journal/Sentinel reporter who is questioning his stand. 

My question is, did Sheriff Clarke post these comments, which are anti-humane, on County time?

The NRA Has A Plan For Your Family

The NRA announced today that automatic weapons training classes will be held every Saturday at your local library for ages 4 to 6 at 10:00 a.m.  Classes will be one half hour long.  Register early and avoid the rush.  Call 1-800-BLASTEM to reserve your seat today.

Don't send your child to school without proper armament.  For the registration fee of $1900, your child will get a specially scaled Glock 9mm that will fit into his/her hand, a bullet proof vest, and proper and thorough education in the variables of when to shoot and when to play on the monkey bars.

Local sporting goods stores, in conjunction with NRA training, will have a 50% off sale on all holsters, boots, straps and shooter paraphernalia, so you never have to send your child out on the playground defenseless.

Support your local NRA chapter, and let's get guns into the hands of potential victims as soon as possible.  Learn to be a Shooter TODAY!

Remember, a gun can be your most steadfast friend, no matter how old you are.  It's never too early to start learning how to be a completely paranoid person.  The NRA wants YOU!

Tonette Walker Wants a New Kitchen

For what?

Does she cook a lot of state dinners?

Does the governor entertain anyone......besides wiener roasts on the back lawn?

Give me a break. 

What Tonette Walker, and all Stepford Wives, really need is a new life, not the Maple Grove Kitchen Project.

Has Tonette Walker confused herself with Jackie Kennedy, who redecorated the White House?  Here's a clue; Jackie probably never saw the inside of a kitchen in her life.

Wisconsin's first lady keeps trying to find causes that will give her some sort of credibility.......but this idea is pretty far off the radar when it comes to meaningful.  Let's see; Jackie had the White House redo and the Rose Garden, Rosalyn Carter had quality mental health treatment, Mrs. Obama has childhood obesity in her sights with the get up and move program, and here comes Tonette Walker with plans for a new (taxpayer funded) kitchen.

Sheesh.  What a hick town the whole State of Wisconsin has become.

Behavioral Health Division Turned Over to State?

I agree that things aren't working well at the Behavioral Health Division.  This is what happens when administrations are in power too long; they become stagnant and mired in their own dysfunction.  The administration at BHD seems overly concerned with their own bull$hit behaviors and not at all engaged in patient well-being.  Hopefully, an investigation will uncover all of the ridiculous activities BHD administration has enmeshed itself in, to the detriment of patient care.  I can only hope the investigators know exactly where to look for evidence.

But to let Dennis Smith and the Department of Health and Human Services take over; well, we might as well just put in the order for leg and neck irons now and start building the snake pit.  Dust off the lobotomy tools and start spreading straw on the floors of the locked wards to soak up the urine. 

Dennis Smith is a uncompassionate, over-employed crony of Scott Walker.  Birds of a feather; in this case, cuckoos, stick together.    Sufferers of mental illness deserve compassionate care; which is not likely to be granted at the state level in its current incarnation.  What is sad is that the poor people who end up at BHD can't count on any real support at the local level, either.   I can't remember the last compassionate act performed by the State of Wisconsin; possibly a supreme court justice merely choke holding a fellow jurist rather than killing her, but that is truly all that comes to mind.

I digress.  BHD is a mess and its long overdue that someone looks long and hard at the institution and proposed significant changes to its operation. What has happened at BHD in the past few years is a tragedy, and a travesty of justice for the many people who just can't get help anywhere else.

The Mall At Christmas

Well, maybe because its pouring rain here in Milwaukee, but Mayfair Mall was relatively dead today, so I was able to breeze in and out and buy the last of my Xmas presents.  For a Unitarian, I don't even know why I celebrate Xmas.....oh that's right; I like to get presents.

The sermon at church today was The Addams Family Christmas, which was meant to look at how people survive the holidays with today's dysfunctional families.  It was the most entertaining sermon I've heard in awhile......and there certainly was a great deal of truth in it, i.e., warm and fuzzy families seem to only happy in the movies.  Genuine peace and joy only exist on Christmas cards.  Well, at least those things happen somewhere, right!

I guess I just have this bit of advice for people who dread their relatives.  Keep it simple.  Go in knowing what you're going into, in many cases, a mine field of emotional explosions.  Refuse to engage.  Probably the only thing worse than a Christmas Scrooge is a Christmas Hypocrite with their fake smile and phony warmth that chills to the bone.  Just remember, anything is tolerable for a few hours, even torture.  Eat cookies; this makes anything better!

And find someplace to enjoy the seasonal peace and joy.  For me, it's drinking 100% Kona coffee on Christmas morning, with my husband, opening our gifts to each other and preparing for an afternoon with his family; which is something I actually look forward to after years of dread and sadness with my own.

It is what it is. 

Christmas.

Enjoy it!

Personally, I like Festivus for the Rest of Us.  Especially the Airing of Grievances.  My biggest grievance will always be why do the unholy celebrate the holy days? 

Sheriff Clarke Should Go Hat Shopping

Back in the news, Sheriff Clarke has now declared he will sue Milwaukee County if they take oversight of a correctional facility in Franklin away from him.

Huh?  Arm chair lawyering again.  Clarke has elevated himself to a position of power that clearly only exists in his own mind.

Sheriff Clark has enough troubles getting it right at the Milwaukee County Jail, i.e., prisoners are in serious danger because the medical staff there is inadequate.  And he's worried that some work will be taken away from him?  He ought to be relieved; but his narcissism doesn't allow for rational thought processes.

Sue Milwaukee County?  Of course, he'd be suing himself, which might not be a bad idea.

It is time for Sheriff Clarke to go.  Hat shopping seems to be his only functional behavior.  Sheriff Clarke should not only not be reelected, he should be summarily dismissed because the job is simply too much for him.  He has no leadership ability in that the entire Sheriff's Department lacks respect for him.  In fact, Sheriff Clarke has no respect from anyone.  Clarke's answer:  demand respect.  Respect cannot be demanded, it must be earned.

Sheriff Clarke is costing the taxpayers money.  Let's not pay anymore cash for a person who is clearly incompetent to perform the duties of his job.

Police State

I think it's appalling that the Police and Fire Commission reinstated a Milwaukee police officer who was videotaped slugging a handcuffed woman in the back of a squad car.

I find most life in America these days simply appalling.

The Wisconsin Public Service Commission gives WE Energies, the greediest whores on the planet, the right to raise rates to private citizens so they can give energy cost breaks to corporate customers.....and pay their executives huge bonuses.

What this country really needs is a watch dog group that really does watch these dogs.  Our country has certainly gone to the maniacal curs.  I'd like to take a big bite out of these A$$holes who threaten the safety and security of average citizens, just trying to get fed and stay warm. 

In my idealized view of things, on December 21st, when the Mayan calendar says the world will end, I'd like all cheats and liars to wake up with a huge, hairy black wart on the tip of their noses.  That way, we can steer clear of these human tragedies because you can finally recognize them.

I'd like a huge banking computer failure, that will render billionaires penniless, and put money into hard working people's accounts.

I'd like to see politicians forced to live as their constituency lives; without a whole lot of hope for the future, shabby clothing and cheap cuts of tough mutton for dinner.

No, that's not true.  I'd like politicians to live in nuclear waste dumps until they pee fluorescent green liquid and their mouths cave in.

I'd like to see all fast food restaurants swallowed by mother earth and tomato patches planted in their wake.

I'd like to see Donald Trump's hotels infested with super bed bugs.

I'd like to see the Koch Brothers disappear in quicksand.

I'd like to see BP Oil at the bottom of the sea, in concrete containment, of course.

I'd like a lot of things for Christmas, but here's the biggest thing I'd like; that human beings stop slaughtering each other, be it with guns, or laws, or apathy.

I'm Happy

Obama is standing firm; no more tax breaks for the rich. 

But the greed force won't go down without a fight.  The repetitive cry is that the 1% are the job creators.

Well......they've had quite a few years to create all these supposed jobs since they were given the tax cuts; where are they?

Oh yeah.  China.  India.  Anywhere but here. 

The rich need to pay a hugely increased tax rate.  Plain and simple.  They don't create jobs.  They suck the life out of this country to feed their greed. 

The 1% must pay more in taxes.  This is the kindest thing that can happen to them. 

Same old same old

The GOP opposing tax increases for the rich and demanding we cut social programs and safety nets for the rest of us.

You have to say this for the GOP, they never learn.  Can't teach a sneak.

Humble Pie

It must have been extremely difficult for Mitt Romney to walk into the White House, the prize he so doggedly and underhandedly tried to buy for himself, and have to be cordial to Barack Obama.

Chili and chicken salad aside, I believe Mitt ate huge bits of humble pie at that luncheon.  I think this is the answer for America.  Let's feed the rich magnificent servings of humble pie.  Mitt must have been psychologically devastated as he looked around the White House surroundings and then had to sit down to lunch with the current owner, a black man .  Barack is a very smart man.  Knowing when to twist the knife is an important skill.  A good president embodies diplomacy as well as a thorough understanding of psychological warfare.

Speaking of great statesmen, I saw the movie "Lincoln" last night.  This movie is so far beyond great and Oscar material, it's hard to find the right descriptors.  I can only say this, if you have half a brain, go see this as it is fascinating, even for non-history buffs like me.   Alas, for most Americans, this movie is going to be way over their red neck balanced heads.

One final note, actually, a word of warning to Scott Walker.  When you meet with the President next Tuesday, please keep your mouth shut.  You're an idiot and everytime you say something, that fact is verified.  So please shut up and let someone else do the talking.  Try not to pee on the rug, neither.