At a time when our own congresscritters take the floor to lament about the Social Security Trust Fund going bankrupt, we learn after a FOIA request battle that lasted 3 and 1/2 years that The Totalization Agreement is set to allow illegal Mexican workers to draw billions, yes, that's right - bazillions - of dollars from our U.S. Social Security Trust Fund.
The U.S. and Mexico signed this agreement in June 2004 and awaits President Bush's signature. Our President can approve, yes, that's right - approve - the agreement without Congressional vote - and then either House in Congress has 60 days in which to disapprove this agreement by voting to reject it.
Twas the day after Christmas, and all through the house, Every creature was hurtin' even the mouse. The toys were all broken, their batteries dead; Santa passed out, with some ice on his head.
Wrapping and ribbons just covered the floor, While upstairs the family continued to snore.
And I in my T-shirt, new Reeboks and jeans, I went into the kitchen and started to clean.
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the sink to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the curtains, and threw up the sash.
When what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a little white truck, with an oversized mirror.
The driver was smiling, so lively and grand; The patch on his jacket said "U.S. POSTMAN."
With a handful of bills, he grinned like a fox. Then quickly he stuffed them into our mailbox.
Bill after bill, after bill, they still came. Whistling and shouting he called them by name: "Now Dillard's, now Broadway's, now Penny's and Sears Here's Robinson's, Levitz's and Target's and Mervyn's. To the tip or your limit, every store, every mall, Now chargeaway-chargeaway-cha rgeaway all!"
He whooped and he whistled as he finished his work. He filled up the box, and then turned with a jerk. He sprang to his truck and he drove down the road, Driving much faster with just half a load.
Then I heard him exclaim with great holiday cheer, "ENJOY WHAT YOU BOUGHT.......
'Twas the day after Christmas and all through the house Children sat slack-jawed, bored on the couch.
Wrappings and toys littered the floor, An incredible mess that I did abhor.
With Mom in her robe and I in my jeans, We waded in to get the place clean.
When suddenly the doorbell: it started to clatter, I sprang to the Security-View to check out the matter.
The new-fallen snow, now blackened with soot, Was trampled and icy and treacherous to foot.
But suddenly in view, did I gasp and pant: An unhappy bill collector and eight tiny accountants.
The door flew open and in they came, Stern-looking men with bills in my name.
On Discover, on Visa, on American Express, On Mastercard too, I sadly confess, Right to my limits, then beyond my net worth, OUer the top I had charged, in a frenzy of mirth.
The black-suited men, so somber, so strict, I wondered why me that they had first picked.
They stared at me with a look I couldn't miss, That said "Buddy, when are you for paying for this?"
I shrugged my shoulders, but then I grew bolder, Went to the cabinet and pulled out a folder.
"As you can see," I said with a smile, "It's bankruptcy that I'll have to file!" And with a swoop of my arm, my middle digit extended I threw the bills in the fire: the matter had ended.
The scent of burnt ash came to my nose, As up the chimney my credit-worthiness rose.
Without another word they turned and walked out, Got into their limos, but one gave a shout: "You may think that's the answer to all of your fears, But it's nothing you'll charge for at least seven years!
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank koolade made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because .....
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day.
And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound, CD's or Ipods, no cell! phones!, no personal computers , no Internet or chat rooms..... WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law!
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned
The heart of America is broken. Or, there's a hole where the heart used to reside. Once upon a time, America had a heart the size of Texas. All moved to the same beat with our finger on the pulse of all good things and goodwill towards Man. We had the world wrapped around that finger. We let that finger do the walking for us, remember? We left our heart in San Francisco as our finger did the walking for us. Sometimes I wonder which finger it was. Somewhere down the line a generation or two ago, America stuck its foot in its mouth diplomatically, or so it's been said. But, quite frankly, what really happened is America shot itself in the foot. While our finger did the walking. And walk it did. All over the world, America walked. Along the way, we became heavy-hearted. We started to walk on the world. Trampled across continents, heavy-footed, and trigger-happy. We dropped the heavy heart, or lost it. Someone reported it found and locked away for safe-keeping. Recently those nations gave us the finger. They put their whole heart into it, too. So, to have heart can be rather complicated. To be half-hearted is at least beating. Do we know if a broken heart even beats? Some Americans whole-heartedly want to know. While there's no sense to beating a dead horse or a dead heart, there are Americans who would like the chance to resuscitate our American heart to see if it will once again beat on its own and not be rejected by our foreign bodies.
..when it comes to holding elected officials accountable for betraying the public trust. One wrong-doing after another is superceded by the next one, we lose interest in the older crime that gives the criminal some cover to weasel out of their predicament and go undetected back into the crime pool. America has some unfinished business in this regard. Namely,
ENRON - what's happening here? Anyone sent to prison yet? Who and How Many of the AmericanDreamBusters who pillaged the savings and pension plans of ENRON's decent, law-abiding employees?
9/11 Commission - Will the Commission re-seat to bring forward newly discovered info that was previously withheld from them?
Congressman Foley and the other Congressional For-Shame! members who have broken the laws?
The follow-up on these issues remain to be seen and reported on. .Government accountability is the only way to attain public trust nowadays.
After visiting Akiane's website and looking at her phenomonal talent, my first thought was to close down my poetry website, trash all my years of work, and go find a place to mope. Then I realized I could be of service here! Compared to her work, I can be an example of what is "bad" poetry, so people can discern for themselves the difference between her gi-mongous skill and talent with my pitiful serving. Heh heh heh
In other words, I've accepted the fact that Akiane has a brain the size of a planet, and I have one the size of a, er, marble.
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...at least I have something small enough to play with <groan> & nbsp; ........|\........|\.........|\..
Not everyone looks forward to Holidays with excitement and glee. As a matter of fact, numerous people dread holidays because they stir up memories and emotions best left undisturbed. Holidays can bring back feelings of intense disappointment and promises unfulfilled. A family dinner that turns ugly after all the guests have left. Feelings of loneliness in a room full of people. Great expectations can result in big disappointments. Love can be lost with thoughtless gifts as much as not receiving any from someone you love. It hurts when you fall down from euphoria.
It wouldn't hurt to extend your hand towards the one not smiling.
According to Science Blog, female birds choose the male with the most complex song to have smarter offspring. Find out which birds have the most complex songs and a whole lot more!
"..Cornell University neurobiologists are showing why females of some avian species choose suitors with the most elaborate courtship songs: Fancy singers have more elaborate brain structures (to learn singing and other life skills), brains that the females hope their offspring will inherit."
I came across a fantastic article, Bird Songs, by Gareth Huw Davies, on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) website while doing some research. The article appears to be lifted from "The Life of Birds" by David Attenborough, an absolutely stunning presentation on the, well... the life of birds. Imagine that! What caught my eye on the PBS website, in the Gareth Huw Davies article, is the following:
"..British musician David Hindley slowed bird song down and discovered parallels between the skylark's blizzard of notes and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony; between the woodlark's mind-numbingly complex song and J.S. Bach's 48 Preludes and and Fugues. It changes its tune according to the rules of classical sonata form.
"The vocal skill of birds derive from the unusual structure of their powerful vocal equipment. The syrinx is the sound-producing orgain in birds. It is the equivalent of the human sound box. The syrinx contains membranes which vibrate and generate sound waves when air from the lungs is passed over them. The muscles of the syrinx control the details of song production; birds with more elaborate system of vocal muscles produce more complex songs. But unlike our soundbox, which is situated at the top of the trachea, the bird's syrinx is set much lower down, at the junction of the two bronchi or air tubes leading to the lungs. This means that the syrinx has two potential sound sources, one in each bronchus. The separate membranes on each bronchus produce separate sounds, which are then mixed when fed into the higher vocal tract. This complex design means that birds can produce a far greater variety of sounds than humans can.
"The kakapo has one of the most far-carrying songs of any bird. It sings from an amplification bowl that it tramples into the ground. The bird sits inside this bowl, slowly inflating its two enormous air sacs, sucking the air in with a whistling sound, until it is almost double its normal size, as big as a football." Read more here.
And the following astonished me.
The most renowned vocal mimics in the bird world include mockingbirds, starlings, mynahs, marsh warbler, lyrebirds, bowerbirds, scrub-birds and African robin-chats. Starlings in the Shetland islands in Scotland have been known to mimic sheep; in Oxford, England, they mimic buses. The lyrebird, which Sir David Attenborough meets on a log in a dense forest in Australia, is the bird world's best mimic. It can imitate 12 other birds. It does the whirring of a camera's motor drive and the click of a shutter. It repeats the engine of a car, and the din of a car alarm. It can even imitate the screech of the chainsaw wielded by the loggers coming to cut down its habitat.
Hmmm.. ah, yes, that's all very nice, chap. But I wonder if the old lyrebird can imitate the sound of a tree falling in the forest when no one is around, hmmmmMMMM?! *snort*
In an attempt to catch up with some of the news items which caught my eye lately, this presentation will probably become known as CommontaterTattles or Meatia-Lite, but the thought counts, right? <grins> In other words, no one is allowed to bark back "Where's the BEEF?!?" until I say "GO" heh heh
Starting from the most recent and most disturbing news today, is the status of our Department of Homeland Security. You know, the agency, the monolithic agency, charged with the responsibilities of guarding against and prevention of tterrorism, securing (ha!) our borders, along with ferreting out smugglers, fraud abuse, bribery & theft by American citizens. My bet is the majority of Americans believe the DHS is largely charged with all things having to do with tterrorism, mainly in-coming. Instead, one gets the impression the agency is busy ferreting out all law-breakers, great and small, culled from massive databases that have been lost, stolen and/or hijacked from our own .government agencies! Tell me one sane person who doesn't wonder about the legitimacy of all the stolen databases from our federal .gov over the years since 2001. Statiticians will tell you the odds that those agencies databases were lost, stolen, compromised, whatEVer, by corporate thieves, or national/international organized crime, is virtually nil. However, we don't hear much about the massive theft of our personal information from our media guardians. charged with. reporting to. American citizens. the comings & goings. of our Illustrious Leaders. IOW. speaking truth to power. period. Anyhoo, the idea that DHS employees have been charged with a litany of illegal activities such as "immigration officials demanding sex in exchange for visas, airport screeners stealing money from tourists' luggage, federal air marshalls smuggling drugs, and employees from various DHS agencies committing sex crimes - including indecent exposure and distributing child pornography" goes beyond reprehensible and raises a GIANT RED FLAG about the sensibility of such a large, concentrated agency overseeing every minor detail of Americans lives - with the authority to sweep anyone out of sight of judicial review - if caught or entrapped - by rogue employees! GET IT!? Americans should be screaming their indignation and shock into every Congressman's office message machine! (Since they rarely answer their phones anymore, harumph!) We Americans, all of us, need to let TPTB know this is unacceptable. We have a dog in this race <grin> Insist on Either disbanding this band of illegitimate overseers or provide more excellent oversight of the agency - such as hiring decent, trustworthy, and honest people. (And this just for giggles, hee hee)
Here's my latest WTF?!? item: UN Study on Violence Against Women; solution - global .government! Now, that makes sense, doesn't it!?
Does anyone remember the Democrats trumpeting their intent, if they won majority, to put into effect all the 9-11 Commission's recommendations? During the first 100 hours of the next Congress, no less? Me, too. Now, just like the Repugs after gaining majority, they're backing down from their promise. I'm shocked! I tell you, shocked!! NOT. <growl> According to Rep. Bill Young (R-FL), the chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee offers that it's "not going to be their party position." What?! Ha ha, little stupid American me, in the land of the brave, heard this with my own 2 big flapping ears, and believed it! Ha ha, joke on me, hee hee. NOT.
To pee, or not to pee? That is the question. Put to Chinese airline travelers. What can I say to that? Except maybe, buy your catheter bag paraphenalia NOW before they're sold out!! *snort* Goodie dawg, what next?!
