Right now, I’m sick. Fever, cough, scratchy throat, chills. Last night I slept mostly upright sitting in a great chair. Mother says I’m just like my father and that he did not “do” being sick very well.

My mother’s contention is that women “do” sick better then men “do”.

What do you think? Agree or disagree?

Last week, Senator Al Franken proposed an amendment that would prohibit the Pentagon from contracting with firms that force women employees to agree not to sue companies if they are raped as a result of their employment.

Thirty Republican senators voted against this amendment.

See http://current.com/items/91120110_senate-passes-amendment-to-prevent-kbr-halliburton-from-covering-up-raping-employees-literally.htm and http://www.alternet.org/blogs/healthwellness/143164/30_gop_senators_vote_to_defend_gang_rape/.

Her are those senators:

 Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Gregg (R-NH)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kyl (R-AZ)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)

No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick.

Sometimes I wonder if home builders have ever arranged furniture.

It seems they try to save a dollar or two by putting electrical outlets smack dab in the middle of a wall right where you will put the sofa, bookcase or bed.

Not only that, they are still installing duplex outlets.

Look at your house. How many duplex outlets do you have with more than two plugs plugged in through a cascade of outlet expanders and extension cords?

And I’ve yet to see a modern kitchen built with enough outlets!

Somehow, even as Reddy Kilowatt (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddy_Kilowatt and http://www.toonopedia.com/reddy_k.htm) was promoting electricity in homes, no one bothered to mandate the use of more outlets.

Even today, I’ve yet to see any builder put in enough electrical outlets.

(PS: the number mandated by the building code is not enough.)

A while back while talking to The Phone Company (ATT) about a problem, I agreed to let them talk to me about other services I could buy.

One of those seemed good: unlimited long distance for a fixed rate each month.

The rate is $20.00 and even using my great cheap long distance service (http://www.OneSuite.com, which I still recommend), it was a good deal given the volume of my calls). So I said yes.

Then last month I got an email. I emailed back to ask if I could call. The reply said yes and sent the number. So the bill comes with almost $200.00 in long distance charges. (For several calls like that.)

So why is the bill hundreds of dollars if I am getting unlimited calls? Because the unlimited calls are US Only and these calls were to CANADA at a rate of almost $1.00 per minute.

I Hate The Phone Company.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_President%27s_Analyst and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUa3np4CKC4 and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062153/.

If you happen to watch network TV, you are likely to be subjected to the audiovisual creation Comcast is attempting to use for advertisements. 

Video #1

(Depending on your browser security settings, may need to click twice to start the video. If you are receiving this via email, or want to open the YouTube page with the video, just click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGflGJ8nuW8)

For me, these ads are incredibly wasteful and wrong.

I believe they are wasteful because I believe that the overwhelming majority of people don’t choose Comcast because they are best, but because they have almost no choice.

I believe they are wrong because they are attempting to confuse the benefits of roads with the benefits of destinations.

One of the wonderful distinctions of the internet is that people recognize that getting your internet service is the road; it isn’t where the stuff is … it is just how you get your stuff.

Alas, the cable companies don’t want to be “how you get your stuff”. They also want to be the provider of the stuff itself.

Sorry. I don’t want Comcast to be affiliated with the destinations on the internet in any way shape or form. I just want them to give me a functional road to get there.

Things will be a lot better when this finally ends.

If you don’t recognize the title of this post, it is a quote by President Nixon from his interview with David Frost. I was reminded of it by an article in The Guardian UK. If you haven’t read it, I encourage you to.

Think Nixon was the only one who believes that?

Note this breathtaking exchange [between Vice President Dick Cheney and] Fox News at the weekend. He was asked: “If the president during war decides to do something to protect the country, is it legal?” Cheney’s answer: “General proposition, I’d say yes.”

If you would like to know more …

here is another editorial by the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/opinion/18thu1.html

And here is the abbreviated Senate Armed Services Committee Report:
http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/supporting/2008/
Detainees.121108.pdf

I’ll quote from that Senate Report:

On February 7, 2002, President George W. Bush made a written determination that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which would have afforded minimum standards for humane treatment, did not apply to al Qaeda or Taliban detainees. Following the President’s determination, techniques such as waterboarding, nudity, and stress positions, used in SERE training to simulate tactics used by enemies that refuse to follow the Geneva Conventions, were authorized for use in interrogations of detainees in U.S. custody.

In other words, we get to ignore the Geneva Conventions when we want to.

I wonder if President Bush will pardon both his buddies and also himself as he leaves office.

In my prior post on Chili’s at http://www.myephemerae.com/chilis-how-not-to-close-for-thanksgiving I noted my love of the Awesome Blossom. Having missed it on Thanksgiving, mother and I put Chili’s on the list. This past weekend we went, walked in, sat down and ordered the Awesome Blossom I mentioned in the prior post.

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG. The Awesome Blossom is GONE. They took it away. I am devastated.

I’m not the only one. See http://www.petitiononline.com/blossom/petition.html and http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080707124923AAOUiep 

Yes, I know it is a nutritional nightmare. See http://www.menshealth.com/20worst/worststarter.html. But so what. I wanted an Awesome Blossom.

Thank goodness for the internet. I did find a recipe I might try here http://www.recipezaar.com/Chilis-Awesome-Blossom-59628.

Also, it seems Outback has one, called Bloomin Onion. Go here http://outback.com/foodandmenus/index.aspx and then look on the page at the bottom where it says “Why the bloom has never left the onion.” Click there. I’m gonna have to go to Outback now.

What was Chili’s thinking? Just goes to show that even high priced corporate types can make mistakes.

I encountered an editorial in the NY Times that I believe everyone, without exception, should send to all their doctors (many people have several doctors you know). Here it is http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/health/02etiq.html. Entitled “The Six Habits of Highly Respectful Physicians” the article notes that “medical schools may be underemphasizing a much simpler virtue: good manners.” Ya think? Anyone here disagree?

I loved this line

My doctor may be tired, preoccupied or not that interested in me as a person; but I should still expect him or her to treat me with the kind of attentiveness and respect I recently received from a “genius” at the local Apple store.

Got that? The author is notes that we are getting more “attentiveness and respect” from young cyberdweebs than we routinely gets from the well educated professionals we call doctors. What is wrong with that picture?

So go ahead. Send a link to this article to your doctor … if you can find the email address of your doctor. HA!

Earlier today I received a terrible email from one of my best friends in Australia:

Hardened police officers have been shocked by the horrifying torture, mutilation and brutal slaying of a seven month old fox terrier puppy near Mackay at the weekend.

If found guilty, they could face up to two years in prison. Police have obtained video footage from a mobile phone which shows graphic images of the puppy yelping and howling in terrible pain as it [was] hacked to pieces with garden shears and a [pocket] knife.

They said the owners were too distressed to talk to anyone about it.

The pups nose was cut off, its front right leg and rear left leg were cut off and it was decapitated. A three-part video series on a mobile phone shows the dog being tortured.

The maximum penalty under the Animal Care and Protection Act for such an offence is $75,000 or two years in jail; however the maximum penalty ever handed out has been a four month jail term.

WE BELIEVE THESE MEN SHOULD RECIEVE THE MAXIMUN PENALTY AVAILABLE IN AUSTRALIA FOR THIS SADISTIC, DISGUSTING ACT.  

You can verify this from these news articles:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=australia+puppy+torture

I want to personally encourage you to sign the petition, by going here:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/maximum-penalty-for-the-men-who-hacked-up-a-puppy