As most Americans know, John McCain is visiting some countries in the Middle East. Although he claims that the trip has nothing to do with politics, we all know that he is using the trip as a means to showcase his statesmanship and his so-called foreign policy expertise in dealing with world leaders, especially in Iraq.
On more than one occasion during the trip, McCain claimed that Iran was training members of Al Qaeda in Iraq. On the face of it, that hardly seems possible because Iran, as a nation controlled by Shiites friendly with the Shiites in Iraq, would certainly not be involved in financing and training Al Qaeda, a Sunni group of insurgents. McCain obviously was confused. The United States, however, does believe that Iran, a Shiite country, has been training and financing Shiite extremists in Iraq, but not Al Qaeda, the Sunni insurgent group.
A funny thing happened to McCain in Amman, Jordan on his way to the Presidency as evidenced in this video.
Video 2. Earlier this month, Hillary Clinton ran this political ad pointing out how important it is to decide who will be in the White House to pick up the phone when it rings at 3 AM:
QUESTION: Would you want John McCain to be the one to pick up that phone?
Today’s Americans daily face more jargon than has ever been used in the history of humankind. Jargon is defined as “the technical terminology or characteristic vocabulary of a special activity or group.” Jargon also may be described as "a highly specialized sort of shorthand used to discuss things that apply to the followers of a particular trade or hobby, using terms which are unfamiliar to most people." Speakers of jargon may also use common words in unusual ways, reflecting common usage among their group. Essentially, since jargon is a language of technical terms, it can be incomprehensible to people who are not familiar with the topic under discussion. Jargon is useful when it is shared by doctors, lawyers, teachers, plumbers, and others who have a defined skill or expertise.
In the beginning, when one of my friends became the guru who taught me how to use a computer, the technobabble he used reminded me of that in these videos. He had been using computers, he said, from the beginning when one had to throw switches to make them work. I told him that I understood what most of the words he was using meant individually, but when he put them all together they made absolutely no sense to me. Later, after much use of a glossary and considerable reading about computers, I eventually gained a reasonable degree of competency in the use of computers.
Now let us consider a well-known nursery rhyme as described by a geologist:
A research team proceeded toward the apex of a natural geologic protuberance, the purpose of their expedition being the procurement of a sample of fluid hydride of oxygen in a large vessel, the exact size of which was unspecified. One member of the team precipitantly descended, sustaining severe fractural damage to the upper cranial portion of his anatomical structure. Subsequently, the second member of the team performed a self-rotational translation oriented in the direction taken by the first member.
Translation:
Jack and Jill went up the hill, To fetch a pail of water, Jack fell down and broke his crown, And Jill came tumbling after.
Video 1. Turbo Encabulator. Problems with side fumbling? Make sure your hydrocoptic marsel veins are properly fitted to the ambifacient lunar wane shaft.
Video 2. Technobabble Compaq-style 1988. Here's some of Compaq's top brass (at the time) spouting a bit of technodrivel for a bewildered marketeer.
Video 3. Technobabble. Clips accompanied by the Oscar Peterson Trio playing "Mumbles".
How is it that the United States, the richest nation in the history of the world, has nearly 1.5 million children under the age of 18 who are homeless? And that number is growing because of layoffs due to the outsourcing of American jobs, a slowdown in the economy, natural disasters, and other reasons. One can find more homeless children in America than at any time since the Great Depression, with about 40% of America's homeless consisting of women and their children - the fastest growing homeless group. Since homeless men, women, and children don’t have homes to sleep in, they can be found sleeping under bridges, on public beaches, in public parks, and in their vehicles. They can be seen packing their few possessions with them all the time.
At the present time, San Diego has almost 10,000 homeless people, including over 1600 children and adolescents. Last week, San Diego closed its winter shelter for the homeless. Last night a cold, wet storm moved through the area, and I wondered where the homeless were finding shelter.
While our nation spreads freedom and liberty across the Middle East, any foreigners dreaming of an easy life in the United States should listen up to how some children live in the land of the free. While the United States has squandered what ultimately could be two to three trillion dollars on an unnecessary and useless war, we have millions of people suffering in our own nation, many of them innocent children.
In La Jolla, a wealthy area near San Diego, the residents are trying to discourage the homeless from loitering in their city by taking three-hour shifts of sitting on the city’s street benches (bench sitting) to prevent the homeless from sitting down. In a letter to the editor of the San Diego Union-Tribune, a wealthy homeowner in La Jolla said that people are not doing the homeless a favor by making it easier for them to stay on the streets. She further claimed that the homeless living on the streets and in our parks are there because they made a choice of that as their lifestyle in order to continue their drug and alcohol abuse.
The fact is that homelessness is most of the time not by choice, with many of the homeless adults working full time. Probably the majority of people on the streets any given winter night are at least high school educated. Most of them had houses and jobs and cars, and even bank accounts before their jobs were sent overseas. Others, actually a large number of the homeless are veterans of wars and skirmishes America has fought, going back in some cases to WWII. They are suffering from PTSD and can't hold a job. But they get no help from the government that put them in harm's way in the first place. Many soldiers are routinely dismissed from service on general discharges related to their behavior problems while in the service, without addressing the cause of those problems or allowing for their treatment by the VA. Then there are mothers with children on the street. Was that their own fault, too?
It is estimated that a typical one-bedroom apartment in San Diego rents for over $1200 a month. Even if a man and his wife with two children both work full time at minimum wage, they have difficulty paying all the expenses for food, shelter, and clothing, the basic necessities of life. When one combines the growing shortage of affordable rental housing with a simultaneous increase in poverty, the result is homelessness.
According to the Homeless People website, “Homelessness and poverty are inextricably linked. Poor people are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, childcare, health care, and education. Difficult choices must be made when limited resources cover only some of these necessities. Often it is housing, which absorbs a high proportion of income that must be dropped. Being poor means being an illness, an accident, or a paycheck away from living on the streets.” Hence, these people end up living in their cars, vans, motor homes, or on the street.
Continuing from the same website: “In 2005, 13.3% of the U.S. population, or 38,231,521 million people, lived in poverty. Both the poverty rate and the number of poor people have increased in recent years, up from 12.5% or 1.1million in 2003 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2005). 36% of persons living in poverty are children; in fact, the 2004 poverty rate of 17.6% for children under 18 years old is significantly higher than the poverty rate for any other age group.”
Obviously, that woman writing from La Jolla doesn’t know what she is talking about, but I am sure she makes herself feel better about the situation by believing as she does.
Video 1. Homeless Children in America. Photo Documentary of the 1.5 Million Homeless Children’s Plight in America.
Video 2. The American Dream. The face of homelessness has drastically changed throughout the years. In the 1980s, thousands of individuals from the nation's public psychiatric hospitals were discharged, leaving many of the country's mentally ill without homes. This gave rise to a popular misconception, however, that led many to think all homeless people were mentally ill or suffered from drug or alcohol abuse problems. Oftentimes, homeless people were portrayed as lazy and unclean.
But today, more working and middle class families face the prospect of living on the streets. The federal agency in charge of housing issues, released the most complete report on homelessness in the U.S. The report, "The Forgotten Americans - Homelessness: Programs and the People They Serve," revealed that some 11 million Americans have "worst case" housing needs, putting them at a high risk of homelessness. Many are either spending over half of their paycheck on housing -- often doubled up with others in overcrowded conditions -- or live in houses that are falling apart.
The Irish have produced so many prominent Americans in all fields of endeavor that they are too numerous to mention here. Among their other admirable traits, the Irish are noted for their sense of humor. The best Irish humor respects the Irish culture and character of the people even while poking fun at them. So much of the humor deals in a stereotype of Irishmen who are fond of the drink; but if the truth be known, they probably have not produced any more drunkards than any other group. Nevertheless, the best Irish humor usually involves drinking. Here are some of my favorite Irish jokes for St. Patrick’s Day. Incidentally, my heritage is Scotch-Irish and English.
1.Two Irishmen are sitting in a pub having beer and watching the brothel across the street. They see a Baptist minister walk into the brothel, and one of them says to the other, "Aye, 'tis a shame to see a man of the cloth goin' bad."
Then they see a rabbi enter the brothel, and the other Irishman says, "Aye, 'tis a shame to see that the Jews are fallin' victim to temptation."
Then they see a Catholic priest enter the brothel, and one of the Irishmen says, "What a terrible pity ... one of the girls must be quite ill."
2. An Irish priest is driving down to New York and gets stopped for speeding in Connecticut. The state trooper smells alcohol on the priest's breath and then sees an empty wine bottle on the floor of the car.
He says, "Sir, have you been drinking?
Just water," says the priest.
The trooper says, "Then why do I smell wine?"
The priest looks at the bottle and says, "Good Lord! He's done it again!"
3. Paddy was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking place. Looking up to heaven he said, "Lord, take pity on me. If you find me a parking place I will go to Mass every Sunday for the rest of me life and give up Irish Whiskey"
Miraculously, a parking place appeared. Paddy looked up again and said, "Never mind, I found one."
4. Two Irishmen met and one said to the other, "Have ye seen Mulligan lately,Pat?" Pat said, "Well, I have and I haven't." His friend asked, "Shure, and what d'ye mean by that?" Pat said, "It's like this, y'see...I saw a chap who I thought was Mulligan, and he saw a chap that he thought was me. And when we got up to one another...it was neither of us."
5. Two Irishmen were walking home after a night on the beer when a severed head rolled along the ground. Mick picked it up to his face and said to Paddy "Jez, that looks like Sean" to which Paddy replied "No, Sean was taller than that."
6. Paddy was tooling along the road one fine day when the local policeman, a friend of his, pulled him over. "What's wrong, Seamus?" Paddy asked. "Well didn't ya know, Paddy, that your wife fell out of the car about five miles back?" said Seamus. "Ah, praise the Almighty!" Paddy replied with relief. "I thought I'd gone deaf!"
7. A drunk staggers into a Catholic Church, enters a confessional booth, sits down but says nothing. The Priest coughs a few times to get his attention but the drunk just sits there. Finally, the Priest pounds three times on the wall. The drunk mumbles, "Ain't no use knockin', there's no paper on this side either".
8. Patrick O'Reilly wasn't feeling too good so he went to see his doctor. The doctor ran some tests and came back to tell O'Reilly, "I can't find anything wrong with you, Patrick. It must be the drink." O'Reilly shrugged and answered, "Don't worry about it, Doc. I'll come back when you're sober."
Do you have any favorite Irish humor to share with us today?
May the leprechauns be near you, To spread luck along your way And may all the Irish angels Smile upon you this St. Patrick's Day.
Video: Andrew Maxwell's Irish Adventures - Dublin. Comedian Andrew Maxwell proudly presents his home town of Dublin, with an alternative tour of this famous city for visitors who want to stray beyond Temple Bar. He starts with a refreshing dip in the Irish Sea at Sandycove and a visit to the James Joyce museum. (
Video 2. Dubliners - The Wild Rover (No Nay Never)
“AP) The head of the slaughterhouse at the center of the largest beef recall in U.S. history acknowledged Wednesday that cattle were illegally slaughtered at his plant and that cows too sick to stand were forced into the food supply.
Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. President Steve Mendell made the admissions after a congressional panel forced him to watch undercover video of abuses of cattle at his plant. Mendell watched head-in-hand as cows were dragged by chains, jabbed by forklifts and shocked to get them into the box where they'd be slaughtered.
Afterward he briefly bowed his head, then backed away from claims he made in his written testimony that no ill cows from his California plant entered the food supply.
So-called downer cattle are mostly barred by federal regulations from entering the food supply because they have a higher risk of infection. “ (Excerpt from CBS News, March 12, 2008)
Video 1. Disturbing footage of sick cows being abused by employees. Very disgusting and undeniably inhumane. (Feb. 3, 2008)
Video 2. Westland Meat Co. and Hallmark Meat Packing Co. California Slaughterhouse Videotapes that showed workers mistreating sick dairy cows. Aired on January 30, 2008. USDA investigated. Please note these type of abuses are not uncommon.
Over a hundred years ago, in 1906, Upton Sinclair published a novel titled “The Jungle” in which he filled eight pages with nauseating detail about the sickening standards of the meatpacking industry in Chicago at that time. He told how dead rats were shoveled into sausage-grinding machines; how bribed inspectors looked the other way when diseased cows were slaughtered for beef, and how filth and guts were swept off the floor and packaged as "potted ham."
Sinclair has one of the characters in the novel describe how various kinds of “potted meat” were made:
…the things that went into the mixture were tripe, and the fat of pork, and beef suet, and hearts of beef, and finally the waste ends of veal, when they had any. They put these up in several grades, and sold them at several prices; but the contents of the cans all came out of the same hopper. And then there was “potted game” and “potted grouse,” "potted ham,“ and ”devilled ham“—de-vyled, as the men called it. ”De-vyled“ ham was made out of the waste ends of smoked beef that were too small to be sliced by the machines; and also tripe, dyed with chemicals so that it would not show white; and trimmings of hams and corned beef; and potatoes, skins and all; and finally the hard cartilaginous gullets of beef, after the tongues had been cut out. All this ingenious mixture was ground up and flavored with spices to make it taste like something. Anybody who could invent a new imitation had been sure of a fortune from old Durham, said Jurgis’s informant; but it was hard to think of anything new in a place where so many sharp wits had been at work for so long; where men welcomed tuberculosis in the cattle they were feeding, because it made them fatten more quickly…
After reading an advance copy of the novel sent to him by Sinclair, President Theodore Roosevelt was so sickened that he called upon Congress to pass a law establishing the Food and Drug Administration and setting new federal inspection standards for meat. He had eaten tainted meat when he served in the military during the Spanish-American War and was ready to do something about the grotesque conditions found in The Jungle.
One U.S. Army general later estimated that spoiled meat, first treated with dangerous chemicals and then canned, had killed three thousand U.S. soldiers during the Spanish-American War in 1898. More American soldiers died from eating tainted meat than were killed by enemy bullets. I might mention here that the reforms sought by Roosevelt in 1906 were opposed by the meatpacking industry, but the outcry from American consumers was so great that Congress acted in their interest rather than that of the industry.
Well, here we are, still in the jungle over a hundred years later, trying to catch those in the meatpacking industry who still place a higher priority on profit than the health of the consumer.
Video 3. Oversight Hearing on the FDA's Mission: Waxman's Opening. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) plays a large and influential role in the health and safety of the American people. FDA is responsible for ensuring that drugs and devices are safe and effective, and that food is uncontaminated and properly labeled.
Video 4. Fight Back Against the FDA and Big Pharma. This segment from the documentary film All Jacked Up features Mike Adams (the Health Ranger) talking with Bobby Rice about how We the People can defend ourselves against the marketing lies, junk science and massive chemical onslaught dumped onto consumers by Big Pharma and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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