Archive for January, 2008

        In true Barnum and Bailey fashion, the Bush administration has used the hucksters’ credo, you can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, to sell an illegal and immoral war in Iraq.
        According to Bill Moyer’s Journal, the Bush foreign policy camp was investigated by two independent groups, The Senate For Public Integrity and The Fund For Independence In Journalism, to determine how many false statements were made prior to the invasion of Iraq.  They concluded that the top seven officials, including the President, the Vice President and the Secretary of State, gave false or misleading statements at least 935 times.  On at least 532 separate occasions, Saddam Hussein was said to have links to Al Qaeda and weapons of mass destruction; statements later proven to be false.  In his words, Bill Moyer states “the war in Iraq was a public relations propaganda campaign based on one big lie”.  Nevertheless, we are still in Iraq for an indeterminate length of time and at a continuing cost in both lives and billions of dollars.
          We the taxpayers are spending millions of dollars annually for junkets by congressmen and senators to the Middle East to keep our lawmakers informed, but we should wonder why. Congressmen and senators are the most highly paid and pampered public servants in our nation.  However, only a few voices seem willing to speak out against “the lie” and to vote against funding a clearly illegal, immoral, and unpopular war. It would seem to be clear that laws need to be passed providing penalties for those lying to the American public while in the publics’ employ.  How this can be done is hard to imagine.  After all, this group has been responsible for approving massive pay raises and perks for themselves while working Americans’ paychecks have remained flat over the past seven years.  For a group which considers themselves above taxation (that’s right folks, congressional and senatorial salaries are not subject to federal taxes) it would be completely unrealistic to expect self-censure.  Although they make a huge deal out of consensual oral sex, oral obfuscation and outright lying are under their radar.
          Somewhere along the line the reason to become a public servant and to put the public interest first has become an ideal whose time has passed.  With big government in bed with big business, the resulting bastard child is the sellout of America.  The poor boy from the backwoods of Illinois has no chance of moving up the political ladder while keeping integrity and honor intact.
         People who keep score have determined a  presidential candidate needs a war chest of upwards of $100 million to win an election.  If you think anyone stands a chance of raising that kind of money on principles, think again.  Every politician begins his career (one would hope) as an idealist.  After a few backroom compromises are made to get the support of special interest groups, idealism is replaced with pragmatism.  The reasoning is simple.  With ideals, I don’t get elected; with compromises I do.  By the time anyone reaches a high public office, he (she) has compromised their soul.  To paraphrase an old adage: Once you have them by their purse strings, their principles and politics will follow.

 Bob Parmelee    Parmsplace

This is tooooo good not to share. I don’t know ANYONE that hasn’t felt this way at some point. It’s too bad this isn’t a working model. The first company to come up with one will make a fortune. Who knows, maybe it will be a tax deductible gift!

THE HORMONE HOSTAGE KNOWS THAT THERE ARE DAYS IN THE MONTH WHEN ALL A MAN HAS TO DO IS OPEN HIS MOUTH & HE TAKES HIS LIFE INTO HIS OWN HANDS!  THIS IS A HANDY GUIDE THAT SHOULD BE AS COMMON AS A DRIVER’S LICENSE IN THE WALLET OF EVERY HUSBAND, BOYFRIEND, CO-WORKER, OR SIGNIFICANT OTHER! 

 13 THINGS PMS STANDS FOR:

1. PASS MY SHOTGUN

2. PSYCHOTIC MOOD SWING

3. PERPETUAL MUNCHING SPREE

4. PUFFY MID-SECTION

5. PEOPLE MAKE me SICK

6. PROVIDE ME with SWEETS

7. PARDON MY SOBBING

8. PIMPLES MAY SURFACE

9. PASS MY SWEATS

10. PISSY MOOD SYNDROME

11. POOR MEN SUCK

12. PACK MY STUFF

AND MY FAVORITE ONE

13. POTENTIAL MURDER SUSPECT

 Enjoy with caution!

   Dan was a single guy living at home with his father and working in the family business. When he found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, he decided he needed a wife with which to share his fortune.

One evening at an investment meeting he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.  Her natural beauty took his breath away. “I may look like just an ordinary man,’ he said to her, ‘but in just a few months, my father will die, and I’ll inherit 20 million dollars.” 

Impressed, the woman obtained his business card, and three days later she became his stepmother. 

Women are so much better at estate planning than men.

      No, for a change, I am not referring to Hillary Clinton. I am talking about “medical” recommendations by America’s leading physicians and pharmacies. Let’s look at the cholesterol  flip flop for example. At first cholesterol was clogging arteries and killing people. A campaign was initiated against the “wrong” kind. Hundreds of diets were spawned to help us from becoming victims to the cholesterol assault on our arteries and veins. Millions of people were encouraged, myself included, to begin taking cholesterol reducing pill supplements like lipitor. The next news we hear is that cholesterol is a life giving nutrient (see Dr. Douglass on nagging health advice) which the body makes for itself when our diet doesn’t provide enough of it. Estimates of acceptable levels are now two to three times the earlier levels.    

     How about the incredible edible egg? For awhile eggs held the spotlight among finger pointing physicians looking for causes of heart disease. It wasn’t until a massive 800,000 strong study showed egg eaters to have a much lower rate of heart attacks and strokes than egg avoiders before the onus on eggs was removed. And to think I almost gave up eggs! 

      What is happening is the intellectual integrity of our doctors has been corrupted by the drug and pharmacy companies. The truth is we can no longer trust the advice we get from our own health care professionals. It now seems they will push whatever these suppliers tell them to; of course these drug companies are strictly profit driven. Furthermore, studies show that over half of the authors writing clinical guidelines receive financial support from the companies whose drugs they are reviewing. Talk about the fox guarding the hen house.    

     Here is another example of drug company muscle flexing. We all must hear at least ten ads for sexual performance enhancing drugs daily. As a male I am offended by the constant innuendo by drug companies about my inability to perform adequately in the sack. It is my lifelong experience that no woman has ever had a sexual desire anywhere close to mine. I have never met a male who has uttered the words “I can’t keep up with her in bed”. If I continue to hear these ads I will eventually assume I have a problem and will probably buy some pills just to see if I can do better. Before that happens, I hope they find a pill for women so the drug companies can dog them for awhile.     

     The point is, to sell a product to a few needy, they are guilting the many. Drug companies will promote whatever makes them money, whether we need it or not. So beware. If you can’t trust your doctor or druggist, who can you trust? Yourself, of course. No one knows you better than yourself.