KO'd off the island...

I could never be accused of being a fan of MSNBC anymore. Although, prior to the eve of the 2008 NH primary I was one of the cable channel's biggest and most loyal fans. Up until that fateful night, MSNBC was my tv's de facto channel and you could win a little fast cash by betting that it was on at my house unless they were airing those docu-dramas like "To Catch a Predator"...remember those? Ugh, not even I could stomach them.

I practically worshipped at the Altar of KO, aka Keith Olbermann, and was known far and wide as actually being able to pay attention through an entire Special Comment (which in those days were always about The Evil Dubya and lasted upwards of an hour). I even enjoyed most of them and could and did quote entire paragraphs as friends and family rolled their eyes...a lot.

The way that KO and most of MSNBC reacted to Hilary's tears that night (and in the process shed their objective facade in favor of outright salivating over Obama) just made me ill, a reaction that continues to this day whenever I'm forced to watch more than 15 minutes of their tripe. So, it gave me a bit of joy to hear that Keith was fired finally, although I did experience a dejavu-ey sentimental moment remembering the good old days before Olbermann went insane/was abducted by aliens/sold his soul to Chris Matthews. Good Night and Good Luck to you, KO, as lon g as I don't have to see you anymore or hear your name...how about giving radio a try this time? winkwink

Speaking of cable show hosts, I cannot believe someone posted this shot comparing Rachel Maddow to Ralph Macchio...yet the resemblance is a little eery, eegads. Ralphie's almost unrecognizable from his former youthful personna, but he's become a handsome man, hasn't he? I enjoyed seeing him, his wife of 23 years and his two cute kids in Funny or Die's video spoof of his, well, niceness:

Wax On, F*ck Off with Ralph Macchio from Ralph Macchio

I think my favorite part was in the driveway when Ralph's {really cute and hip} son counselled him, "You know he wasn't being nice, right?" after some guy drive-by insulted him and Ralph smiled and waved. My second fave part was the 'I'm not Chachi!!!" bar incident scene. But then, there's also the hooker who told him to come back when he was 18 ("Damnit, I'm 48 years old!"). It's all too dangggg funny!

Let's hope wholesome makes a comeback so we can see him in something besides men's face cream commercials, lol (you have to watch the video to get that joke).

Speaking of MSNBC and their general survival, I enjoyed reading various comments around the blogosphere. The gang at the Activity Pit (late night FNC show Red Eye's fan site) had me in stitches with their idea that MSNBC should rev up their stinking ratings by adopting a "Survivor" type of format.
Here's some snippets:
"Every week, someone gets voted off the island. It will be a lot of fun coming up with what sort of immunity challenges you could put their "personalities" through - and how each would fare in them."
And:
"I have an idea for one of the Immunity Challenges. How about a group stroll thru the south side of Chicago at midnight? Good thing the city has strict gun control laws, eh?"



I find myself really wanting to see this played out (is that wrong of me? lol) and I especially would love to see both Chris Matthews and Andrea Mitchell humiliated beyond words and voted off the island, followed close behind by that chubby little idiot Ed Schultz. It would definitely tempt me into watching again to see all that!

Are you listening, Comcast? winkwink

Updates on the updates

I realized today that it has been awhile since I updated the blog on the various personal projects ongoing here at Casa Winans, so without further ado...

Somehow, don't ask me how, I managed to get through the holidays only gaining 2 pounds, which were quickly shed once I got back on my plan. And I've managed to continue to maintain and lose a little more. My adventure with Nutrisystems ended right before Thanksgiving when I cancelled the December food shipment. At that time, I had quite a lot of their food left, which I began integrating into a loose diet regime of mostly lower fat and lower calorie grocery store foods.

My recently re-organized pantry, above, shows the last remains of my Nutrisystems inventory and the addition on the bottom shelf of our new inside toolbag that was one of Hubster's Christmas presents. Since this pantry sits right next to our laundry room, it's a great place to keep frequently-used tools that are too nice to get gunked up or lost in our garage. And since it's a bag, we can just throw the tools in after using and every so often straighten up the bag's contents. Workable. Do-able.

Hubster finished my bathroom project right after the holidays, and I've been enjoying my like-new bathing place. It's the first time since I was single and living alone that I've had a bathroom to myself, and I do love it.

This is the new Peerless showerhead I chose. The big circular head looked like a great idea, but it's not really all that. The removeable handheld head is all that, though. So, overall, glad I chose it.

Along with the regrout and caulking, the new shower door enclosure, showerhead and faucet fixtures make a huge difference. Here's hoping I can keep it this fresh and clean!

We did have one little plumbing problemo a few weeks ago. Our house is built right on a concrete slab, meaning there is no wood subfloor. Over time when the house and foundation settles, the pipes can break and this has been happening to us. First was the kitchen plumbing a few years ago which we had redirected around the house. Now, the washing machine has followed suit. So, we had to move the washer and dry out the wall. Hubster preferred replacing the drywall with some leftover panelling he had. It was quicker and he didn't have to drywall (always a plus, as he hates doing that).

Then the plumbers dug the trench connecting this cleanout to the kitchen sink cleanout further down the wall.

And by the end of the day, the job was finished.

Hubster didn't pay much attention when the kitchen sink drain was re-directed, so he asked our plumber to find where it intersects our front walk. This time we took photos with a measuring tape to remind us where it lay, just in case. Not a bad idea for putting in the old This Old House book if you have one.

Now we know exactly how many inches from the front porch the pipe is buried. Would be nice if it was buried treasure, but oh well.

A pox on both houses

No, you don't have to change your astrology sign...here is a great explanation why. I'm still a Pisces, Phew!

***

On the First Lady's open letter to parents...Mrs. Obama, since you brought up tolerance, I expect you and those you influence to demonstrate this by being more tolerant towards Sarah Palin. Oh-oh, better have a talk with your bud James Clyburn, aka The Race Baiter. He just made a no-no comment. Not that I'm surprised.

***

Not that I'm entirely happy with Sarah's video remarks. Yes, she has been horridly maligned. Being wrongfully accused of accessory to murder does demand a rebuttal and defense. She was 100% within her rights to reply.

***

I just think that her timing was off...late...I suspect there might have been a lot of debating within her ranks whether to rebut and what to say. She must have read Glenn Reynold's reference to "blood libel" in his Wall Street Journal piece on Monday (see, she reads WSJ, take that, Couric! winkwink). What he can reference about Sarah, apparently she can't?

***

Reynold's piece is quite good and I think we all should read it, because it reminds us that this current blame game against anyone on the Right (ie, anyone not on the Left, and that's where they include me, as I am in the middle) is just the latest in a long string of accusations that ended up being wrong wrong wrong.

***

Remember the guy who flew the plane into an Austin IRS building? Remember the Army psychiatrist who shot up Fort Hood? Remember the Times Square bomber? All were accused at the get-go of being Tea Partiers. Now Jared Loughner receives the same fate.

***

You'd think this would embarrass our public voiceboxes after awhile but it doesn't and I think it is time to call this what it is: a political tactic. A sad one, especially used repeatedly without conscience and without intelligence (take that, Clyburn! Me thinks you cannot handle it intellilectually, plus you are pretty butt-ugly if you ask me. Just sayin').

***

Let us remember that Loughner did not vote in 2010. He did vote in 2006 and 2008. Now, if you were an angry Tea Partier, would that be your voting track record? Since the Tea Party did not even form until 2009, I think not!

***

My real and sincere kudos go to President Obama for his speech Wednesday evening at that pep rally at the U of Arizona. Yes, he had to have known it was going to be a receptive audience to whatever he said, being that it was a liberal venue filled mostly with his supporters. But compared to his track record of uber-partisan speech audiences, how is that shocking? I was very happy that his speech did not further inflame the situation. And more importantly, in his own way, he did speak to his supporters and told them enough. He told them that the verbal vitriol did not cause the Az. shootings...to quote his ad-lib in his speech: "It did not." ***

I suspect that was a bold and rebellious thing for him to say, given how his minions are still spewing partisan crap against the other side and refusing to apologize for their knee-jerk conclusions. Anyway, I appreciated it. And may I say that most of the GOP voices are saying the same thing, and I appreciate that. If only the Lefties would calm down and quit positioning for political advantage over this, maybe we could move on. I'm not holding my breath, though.

It Takes Two

Okay, I got something unpleasant to talk about and I'm just gonna get it out and over with.

First, concerning the horrible, horrible tragedy in Tuscon, AZ on Saturday, I'm incredibly sad. Apart from being devestated at the death of a little girl born on 9/11 for godssake, and a federal judge and Congresswoman and many others shot, some killed...apart from all of that senseless misery, it should be no surprise that Gabby Gifords was my kind of legislator, even if she was a Dem and voted for some bills I wouldn't have. She believed in compromise and centrism, and she believed in helping Arizona, not boycotting and suing it. Had AG Holder felt likewise, I very much believe there might not have been a massacre on Saturday.

And that brings me to the other thing. Listen, no matter how much the Far Left tries to blame the Far Right for Laugher's actions, until they acknowledge their mistakes that directly led to this as well (AG Holder suing AZ instead of trying to help them out, Pelosi's and Obama's inciteful speech, the Leftwing bloggers causing as much evil as Talk Radio, just to name a few), bad things are going to continue to happen and it's only gonna get worse.

You might be asking, what mistakes? 

As I said before...

AG Holder suing Arizona instead of figuring out a compromise way to help them deal with the border violence and infiltration/invasions. Arizonans didn't ask for any of it and they've been suffering in silence with it for years now. Nobody on the Leftie Blogs shed a tear for the border rancher, a US citizen, when he was murdered, now did they? To them, the state was only a place to travel to for protests and then to tell what to do otherwise. A place to be against. Certainly living with that kind of stigma (ask any resident of Dallas or even Texas in the 1960's and 1970's, believe me!) will bring out stressful emotions on both sides of the aisle.

And that brings me to President Obama. America elected a president who is comfortable with unleashing CHAOS, let's face it. And inciteful words? Remember these?

•“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.”  Barack Obama in July 2008•“I want you to argue with them and get in their face!” Barack Obama, September 2008


•“Here’s the problem: It’s almost like they’ve got — they’ve got a bomb strapped to them and they’ve got their hand on the trigger. You don’t want them to blow up. But you’ve got to kind of talk them, ease that finger off the trigger.” Barack Obama on banks, March 2009

•“I don’t want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry! I’m angry!” Barack Obama on ACORN Mobs, March 2010

•“We talk to these folks… so I know whose ass to kick.” Barack Obama on the private sector, June 2010

•“A Republican majority in Congress would mean ‘hand-to-hand combat’ on Capitol Hill for the next two years, threatening policies Democrats have enacted to stabilize the economy.” Barack Obama, October 6, 2010

•“We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us.” Barack Obama to Latinos, October 2010

(Many thanks to the BlogProf for gathering these quotes.)
 
And here's another very long list of violence against Republicans...not just words...actual deeds.
 
Now, when you read or hear that Sarah Palin caused the 22-yr. old Jared Loughner to unleash his violence Saturday because of her Facebook crosshairs map graphic , just remember, as I've shown you, BOTH sides have used violent metaphors, phrases, and images.
 
I could go on (Pelosi and Reid both have a list of quotes as well, but thinking of them gives me indigestion. And that Sheriff Dupenik aka Dopenik even has some partisan choice quotes). I don't listen to right wing talk radio or read their blogs, but I'm sure they have their quotes, too. The whole thing makes me angry, sad, sick, and more convinced than ever that moderate centrist compromise is the only thing that will save us. But the possibility of that happening gets more and more remote by the day.
 
Gabby Gifford is what you would call a moderate centrist. She's a Blue Dog Democrat who is pro-Second Amendment and pro-border security. I don't pretend to know if Jared Loughner had a political agenda that fit into any of the little square or round pegs we use, or if he just operated by the Wild Hair Rule. And, I don't think even the FBI's gonna be able to find a clear path to either political extreme. But both sides will use him against the other, sure enough, even if it's not accurate.
 
I have more to say, but not today. I need to get John Brown out of my head....