If You Even Think About Driving Drunk

I was a medic for a whole lot of years - both on an ambulance and in a moderately busy ER. I've seen things and cleaned things that are, basically, untellable and unimaginable.

And yet, reading
this story sent chills through my spine. I've seen decapitations - they're not pretty. In fact, they're probably the single most horrible sight in the world - and the thought of some mother, someone like me, someone like you, someone like us - sitting by the side of some dark road holding her baby's severed head in her lap - and then refusing to give it up - and then finally handing it to the baby's uncle so she can tend to her remaining family members, each of whom was also terribly injured - my mind just shuts down.

What this woman will relive - what her family will relive - what the medics and firefighters and police officers will relive each and every day of their lives is almost more than I can bear to even imagine.

And all because some 24 year old man got drunk and got into his car and turned the key and drove away.

Two of his victims lost their lives instantly.

One man lost a leg.

One man broke his back.

Several others suffered numerous and severe injuries.

And one young mother, sitting in the dirt on the side of a road, got to kiss the severed head of her 7 year old daughter good-bye.

He got 18 years in jail.

He's appealing his sentence.

They're stuck with theirs.

Don't drive drunk.

Please don't drive drunk.

What the World Needs Now Is One Less Teacher

Christ on a crutch - what the hell was this woman thinking???

I'd vote her off the payroll.

Cover-Up Clinton

(CNN) -- Former President Bill Clinton said that Democrats were more likely to lose in November if Hillary Clinton is not the nominee, and suggested some were trying to "push and pressure and bully" superdelegates to make up their minds prematurely.


Bill Clinton did not explain who he was accusing of "covering up" Sen. Clinton's chances.

"I can't believe it. It is just frantic the way they are trying to push and pressure and bully all these superdelegates to come out," Clinton said at a South Dakota campaign stop Sunday, in remarks first reported by ABC News.

Clinton also suggested some were trying to "cover up" Sen. Clinton's chances of winning in key states that Democrats will have to win in the general election.


"She is winning the general election today and he is not, according to all the evidence," Clinton said. "And I have never seen anything like it. I have never seen a candidate treated so disrespectfully just for running."

Bill Clinton Cries Cover-Up

Opps, Bill, wrong election. You're jumping the gun and there is no such thing as future evidence. It's the primary election your wife is in right now. And she's not winning. There's nothing to cover up. Not only is there's no evidence she's winning the general election in November, there's no evidence she's winning the primary one in May or June either. And just who is "they" anyhow?

You've lost your shit - or you're getting ready for a future whine just in case "something happens" between now and November.

Making Friends With Liver Sausage

Hillary Misspeaks - Again

One more reason Hillary Clinton does not speak for me.

She speaks the unspeakable....and not just once - but twice.

Kinda makes you wonder if it's accidental phrasing - or wishful thinking.

Either way - not a person I'd want speaking for me - or my country.

Meet Ms. PMS

This is PMS. She's 10 weeks old and weighs about 12 ounces.



Our older cats, ADD and OCT, who are 3 year old brothers and are approximately 19 and 17 pounds respectively, are not pleased with the latest addition.

They are so displeased that each of them has bitten me at least once after merely smelling my hands after holding her. I never realized how many teeth an adult cat has - nor how sharp and pointed they are. I also never realized that cats could make such strange noises.

This is going to be a LONG Memorial Day weekend - in more ways than one.

WOMENCOUNT

While we're on the topic of disgusting:





This is a full page ad which recently appeared in several newspapers around the country. It was paid for by a group called WOMENCOUNT

Since the text is hard to read here I'll quote the major portions for ya:



HILLARY'S VOICE IS OUR VOICE AND SHE'S SPEAKING FOR ALL OF US:

We are the women of this nation. We Love our country. We raise our voices in one glorious defiant chorus.
We stand united in in our unwarvering support for Hillary Clinton.




There's a whole lotta "we" in there, isn't there?

Well, I've got news for you, WOMENCOUNT, "we" is not whom you are speaking for. You do not speak for the 53% of the women who are registered Republicans or Independents - you do not speak for the 85% of black women who have consistantly supported Obama's campaign - you do not speak for the women of every race, creed and color who support Senator Obama or Senator McCain - you do not speak for ME.

Our mothers and our grandmothers and our great-great grandmothers spent their whole lives trying to establish the right to their own voices, to make their own choices, to be their own person - they did not do so in order to have their female descendants follow blanket directives from anyone - and anyone includes other women. They did not labor hard and long in order to be lumped in with "all women" like so much meek meat hanging by a hook on a common wall.

You do not speak for me, WOMANCOUNT, nor do you speak for all women.

I resent your attempt to portray that you do. I resent it on behalf of myself and on behalf of women everywhere who do not blindly follow the crowd, who do not willingly wear blinders which tell them all things female are good and all things male are bad. I resent it on behalf of my daughter-in-laws who deserve to be treated as individuals, on behalf of my sons who do not need old stereotypes of women as a collective entity revisited and reinforced every time they open a newspaper or a magazine. I resent it on behalf of my mother and my grandmothers and my aunts and my great-aunts who made it a point to raise me to understand that I had a mind of my own and that it was trustworthy and solid and that no one would ever be able to take that away from me. I resent that the only group left that seems to be unable to accept that reality are other women.

On my own behalf, and on behalf of all the women who do not support Hillary or WOMANCOUNT, I'd like to say this much - you do not speak for us. Hillary does not speak for us. Other women do not speak for us.

We speak for ourselves.

What's Really Disgusting at Countrywide

The other day Angelo Mozilo, who happens to be the CEO of Countrywide Mortgage Company, received a letter from a homeowner asking for some help in avoiding foreclosure on his home of 16 years. Mr. Mozilo accidently hit "reply to sender" instead of e-mailing the following response to his staff, thus sending the following "here's what we can do to help our customers" message directly to the homeowner:

"This is unbelievable. Most of these letters now have the same wording. Obviously they are being counseled by some other person or by the Internet. Disgusting."

You think that's disgusting, Mr. Mozilo? I'll tell you what's disgusting:

According to congressional figures, in the third quarter of 2007 and in the fourth quarter of the same year, Mr. Mozilo received a $1.9 million salary. He also received $20 million in performance-based stock awards and sold $121 million in stock.

Now that's disgusting.

Entire article here

The Eratosphere Is Melting - Alternate Universe Address Here

Last time it was hackers who took the whole damn thing down - this time it's just slowly disappearing - one board at a time.

Global warming.

For those of you who need the alternate site address - here it is once again:

Eratosphere In Exile

Why I Miss Indiana

You'd never read anything like this in The Washington Post.

Trees - Trees Never Reject You

This is one of my favorite trees here in Virginia. I have no idea what it is - only that it lives outside the entrance to work, it flowers in the spring and it has absolutely no bark whatsoever. What kind of tree has no bark?

Poetry Rejections

Poetry Magazine doesn't want me. The New Yorker doesn't want me. Extremely curt rejections from both. Neither of them seem interested in having me submit again, either.

On the other hand, Bumbershoot, the light annual edition of Umbrella, DOES want me. They think I'm funny even though I totally misread the call for submissions and sent them a parody rather than a witty encapsulation.

The editor took it anyhow.

I'm good with that.

(New England) FANS FOR ACCURATE MEDIA

Otherwise known as F.R.A.M.e

Want the truth? Check it out!!!

What Black Cats Do

"What did I do to the chair? What chair? Wasn't me - I've been laying here all day. I didn't touch your stinkin' chair. I'm pretty sure the bird did it."

I've spent the day playing in my head with a haiku translation.

Blame Eratosphere and their attempt to revitalize their Translation Board.

This is what I came up with. Poor poor offering that it is.

Original Basho
Frog Haiku

Furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto

Literal translation

Fu-ru (old) i-ke (pond) ya,
ka-wa-zu (frog) to-bi-ko-mu (jumping into)
mi-zu (water) no o-to (sound)

My version

millennial pond
silent shore - back-flipping frogs
piano water

Many more famous (and accurate) translations here.

Very interesting "stuff."

To Workshop or Not To Workshop

Go here Young Poet, Young Workshopper, Young Crit, go here.

And what a blast-from-the-past for this ole workshopper!!