Privacy Shattered Sharon sends this along

The thing to remember is that the six million Jews who were murdered would, today, be the parents and grandparents of 20 million.

     IN MEMORIAM – The event that cannot ever be erased!

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain. It was launched during Passover 2005 “The Jewish Holiday of Freedom” until Holocaust Memorial Day, in memory of the six million Jews who were massacred during the Holocaust.
This e-mail is intended to reach six million people around the world!Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help us distribute it around the world.

Please send this e-mail to 10 people you know and ask them to continue the memorial chain.Please don’t just delete it. It will only take you a minute to pass this along – Thanks!

Gifts, cards, food, MySpace greetings, phone calls …

It is a happy and wealthy man who has so many friends still willing to notice a birthday when you’ve had so many already.  Uh, had so many birthdays, not had so many friends.  Well, I’ve had a few of those friends.  This isn’t going the way I thought it would.

So, anyway, I’m a happy guy on my 57th birthday.  I’m three years younger than President W, who also celebrates his birthday today.  Looking at the polls, I think I may be slightly more popular than he is.  Of course, my mistakes haven’t caused the deaths of thousands, so I’ve got that going for me.

Just as when I was a child, I don’t feel a year older.  In fact, I feel like a child.  Maybe a child of about 30.  I wonder who she might be?  Uhm, this also isn’t going as planned.

So, anyway, here I am at this advanced age and still I’m being photographed as a model and the doctors tell me I’m in remarkably good shape FOR MY AGE (I still don’t like that prepositional phrase.  Why wouldn’t we say that so and so looks good for their age when they are 25?  It’s because it’s unnecessary, right?  So, I can’t be healthy, I have to be healthy FOR MY AGE.  It’s a bitch.  Getting older is not for sissies.)

I wish I had a wealth of wisdom to pass along.  You know, those verities of life like:

          1.     Don’t spit into the wind.

          2.     It’s always a bad idea to pee on an electrified cattle fence.

          3.     Buy low, sell high.

However, I’m a few verities short these days.  I think I would be rather surprised to find my blog entries collected into a Tao de Ching.  It’s barely possible, given a 3 year old grand-daughter, that I’ll be remembered a century from now.  I’m comfortable knowing that 200 years from now, my existence will be entirely erased with the exception of the odd bit of DNA.

I suppose if I have any wisdom, it begins there — with trying to remember than most of the small stuff I sweat is small stuff and that it will hardly matter at all a year from now, much less 5 years or 50 years or 500 years from now.

That, and that I’m fairly sure that men are not supposed to understand women and vice versa.  To understand would erase the mystery and destroy the balance of the universe.

So, I’m along my merry way, trying to do the best I can from day to day, comfortable with growing older and not up.

Thank you, my friends and family.  You are all that my life is worth and more than I can otherwise aspire to.

Happy Birthday to me.

North Korea, a furtive and Stalinist country, launched six missles today.  At least one of the missles was designed to be long range, capable of reaching the United States, but that one failed about a minute after launch.  The others flew into the Sea of Japan, making our major Asian partner very nervous — Tokyo will take the matter to the U.N. Security Council.

Since we are in Iraq, have 200,000 troops and civilians there, and are spending $200 billion a year there and for the foreseeable future, there is no military response available to either intimidate the former playboy and dissociated dictator, Kim Jung Il.  Nor could the United States contain, short of an atomic bomb response, aggressive moves by the North against South Korea.

North Korea, as you may know, is following/leading/going parallel to Iran in developing nuclear capability.  They were a client of the Pakistani scientist who peddled atomic knowledge and equipment across the world to rogue states.

It’s not really changing the subject when I note that in Afghanistan, the Taliban are killing a few Afghans that are associated with Western forces.  The ones they are killing are ALL translators.  The Taliban has recently launched attacks with as many as 400 troops massed into one operation.  It’s a much higher level of insurgency than we see in Iraq.

Also today, the United States military announced that the special team formed to take out Osama bin Laudin has been disbanded.  Did someone say “dead or alive”?  Excuse me, that was “bring it on”.  No, it was “Mission Accomplished”. 

I agree that they should disband it.  After all, Pakistan is not in control of the so-called “Tribal Areas” along the Afghan border if for no other reason than Musharreff is hardly in control of the rest of Pakistan.  In all events, the idea that someone will give up Osama and/or that the United States will be able to go in there in force or in stealth is not probable at this time.

The military is doing it for the reason that it’s several thousand GIs short of Special Forces, Seals, and the like. 

Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Pakistan, Iran and the list goes on when you remind yourself that Israel is in a shooting war with Gaza again.  Tel Aviv has taken a large number of the Hamas parliamentary leaders into custody and is occupying ground in the north end of the Gaza Strip.  Tanks and men are on the ground and there are missle and artillary strikes against Hamas offices and HQ. 

I do not think it imprudent to say that American foreign policy has seen better days, even recently.  I do not think it unfair to say that America is rather quickly showing itself to be an inept hegemon.  I also think it is fair to say that this president has nothing to offer but a record of foreign policy failure and poor judgment.

You and I will pay the price for his bungling. 

John with Giovanny between shots

tiny john and ashton

People in Britain view the United States as a vulgar, crime-ridden society obsessed with money and led by an incompetent president whose Iraq policy is failing, according to a newspaper poll.

The United States is no longer a symbol of hope to Britain and the British no longer have confidence in their transatlantic cousins to lead global affairs, according to the poll published in The Daily Telegraph.

The YouGov poll found that 77 percent of respondents disagreed with the statement that the US is “a beacon of hope for the world”.

As Americans prepared to celebrate the 230th anniversary of their independence on Tuesday, the poll found that only 12 percent of Britons trust them to act wisely on the global stage. This is half the number who had faith in the Vietnam-scarred White House of 1975.

A massive 83 percent of those questioned said that the United States doesn’t care what the rest of the world thinks.

With much of the worst criticism aimed at the US adminstration, the poll showed that 70 percent of Britons like Americans a lot or a little.

US President George W. Bush fared significantly worse, with just one percent rating him a “great leader” against 77 percent who deemed him a “pretty poor” or “terrible” leader.

More than two-thirds who offered an opinion said America is essentially an imperial power seeking world domination. And 81 per cent of those who took a view said President George W Bush hypocritically championed democracy as a cover for the pursuit of American self-interests.

US policy in Iraq was similarly derided, with only 24 percent saying they felt that the US military action there was helping to bring democracy to the country.

A spokesman for the American embassy said that the poll’s findings were contradicted by its own surveys.

“We question the judgment of anyone who asserts the world would be a better place with Saddam still terrorizing his own nation and threatening people well beyond Iraq’s borders,” the paper quoted the unnamed spokesman as saying.

“With respect to the poll’s assertions about American society, we bear some of the blame for not successfully communicating America’s extraordinary dynamism.

“But frankly, so do you (the British press).”

In answer to other questions, a majority of the Britons questions described Americans as uncaring, divided by class, awash in violent crime, vulgar, preoccupied with money, ignorant of the outside world, racially divided, uncultured and in the most overwhelming result (90 percent of respondents) dominated by big business.

Baby sis sent me this just to taunt me:

A physician claimed that the following are actual comments made by his patients (predominately male) while he was performing their
colonoscopies:

13. “Could you write a note for my wife saying that my head is not up here?”

I’m having a “running away” fantasy.

I take bankruptcy, erase a lot of debt, and then sell my house and pay off the remaining debt plus have some money.

I sell all my stuff except for a couple suitcases of clothes and other personalty that can fit in the trunk of my car.

I take off and go live in S.C. where my sister who recently visited lives and start and brand new life.

It’s a geographic cure.  The downside is that I’ll be taking myself with me.

What I won’t be taking with me is a lifetime of memories about this town and a lifetime of friends and lovers I care about deeply.

That doesn’t necessarily fit into a dufflebag of clothes.

So the second big idea I have is one that was handed to me last night.

I listened to a woman who is being assaulted and doesn’t know how to escape her situation.

I would solve that problem — if I could — not only for one woman but for all of them.

I have enough co-dependency, knight in shining armor stuff going on that I could devote my life to that cause.  And feel good about myself if I only “saved” one life. 

The downside:  it would kill me.  Such women have a tendency to go back to their abusive men.  It makes my soul shrivel when that happens.  Too many of those women and I would be suicidal.  About the second or third time I heard “He’s sorry and says he will never do that again”, I would put a gun in my mouth because I know they will be back with another broken nose or worse.

So my third big idea is to be a fashion model and write a book about something inconsequential, because those are the books that really sell and make money, not good books as one might think.

Salmon Rushdie’s Satanic Verses sold only a tiny fraction of Stephen King’s any book you can name but certainly The Stand.

The downside:  I wouldn’t make a living modeling and writing is a constant, word by word struggle between my gigantic ego and microscopic self esteem that always leaves me vibrating like a quartz crystal in between.

So my final big idea is to do what I’ve been doing — the best I can from day to day — and try to have a better attitude about it, which is totally an inside job — inside my head.  To simply accept that to live is to have problems and to seek solutions, knowing that solving some problems will simply mean that others will appear.  To live knowing that the best I can hope for is to raise the level of my problems:  it’s better to have money problems than physical security problems, for example, and it’s better to have relationship problems than money problems and it’s better to have to decide between a mountain vacation and beach getaway than to have to decide between buying medicine and buying food.

It seems to me that most of our “problems” are merely choices.  We make our choices the best we can and then judge our choice by the outcome.  Odd, since most often we are not capable to determining the outcome by our choice and we have no certain way to compare the outcome with the outcome that might have come from a different choice.

Now that we’re past my AA “re-birth day”, the anniversary of my birth comes around next week.  I’m still a bubble off plumb, I can tell.  This weekend, I may well go to Dallas on a modeling excursion for Elastic Cafe and the lovely Juliet.  In all events, I know myself and I’ll spend some time reviewing the past year and being hypercritical of my choices.  It feels so good to make myself feel bad.  YUMMY!

   There’s No Way I’m Saving THAT Guy

By Jesus Christ

 All right. I realize I am supposed to be all-merciful, universally loving, the Light and the Way and everything, but even a divine avatar of the Supreme Being’s loving grace has His limits. I know I’ve said many times that there is always room for one more—even the lowliest—at the table of the Lord, but even so, there is just no freaking way I’m redeeming this S.O.B.

I don’t want to name names, but his initials are Gus Feigert, owner-operator of Fei   gert Automotive down on Seybold Road, by the gas station. There, I said it. And you know what? I don’t care. I’m glad I said his name. If he’s going to suffer damnation for all eternity—which, I assure you, he most certainly is—then I don’t see how much more damage revealing his identity during his brief time on Earth is going to cause the bastard in the long run.

The guy is a jerk.

First of all, he overcharges everyone who sets foot in his shop. That’s a given. I’m omniscient, I see what’s going on. He completely doctors the books and hasn’t filed a legit tax return since he opened that damn place. Plus, he’s a tyrant to his employees, slaps waitresses on the ass, and he cheats at cards. Come on. And then, after being a complete boner all week, he still shows up at church every Sunday like clockwork, with that stupid yellow tie he always wears, all smug-looking with that phony-ass grin on his face, and bows his head to “humbly” ask My forgiveness.

Well, not anymore!

He just has this way of getting under My skin, and I have had about enough of it. For years now he’s been pulling this crap, and what do I do? I keep forgiving the ungrateful bastard, every Sunday, like some kind of chump. But does it make any difference? No sir. Come Monday morning he’s back to his old tricks.

Find a new Messianic redeemer, Gus F&#khead Feigert, because I’m not taking your shit anymore. Ask the Holy Ghost for help next time, or maybe try intercessionary prayer to My mom. Maybe she’ll listen to you. But not Me.

Don’t get Me wrong. I’m extremely forgiving—to a fault, maybe. I’ve absolved some of the worst people you can imagine. We’ve got thieves, adulterers, murderers, even Romans sent to persecute my followers out the wazoo up here. In fact, if you ask Biblical scholars or learned clergy, they’ll go so far as to tell you My capacity for forgiveness is infinite. Well, that’s usually true. But not with this a-hole.

Yeah, I know I’m supposed to forgive everybody, and all can find refuge in Me blah blah blah. Fine. Fair enough. But not that prick. No f’ing way.

I don’t have to tell you that I was sent down to Earth by God Almighty the Father in Heaven for a reason. I know that. Forgiving people is kind of My whole thing. So as long as someone comes to Me in full and honest supplication and asks Me to be their personal Savior, I’m pretty much obligated to do it. But come on, this guy? I have suffered on the cross and died for the sins of humanity, but I sure as hell didn’t die for the sins of that ball-buster Gus Feigert, nor was I sent down to this Earth to suffer the agonies of the Passion just to be that obnoxious know-it-all’s personal doormat.

He can go rot in Hell for all I care.

Rush Limbaugh is an overweight

 deaf, Oxycontin addicted,

 draft dodging right wing

blowhard with a flaccid penis.

Story from Forbes.com.

Once more, with feeling?

Rush Limbaugh, who once called himself “the most dangerous man in America,” nowadays seems mostly a danger to himself.

First there was the 2003 incident on the Walt Disney Co.‘s ESPN, where Limbaugh declared that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb enjoyed racial “social concern” from the ostensibly bleeding-heart National Football League.

Then, the radio star was accused of alleged “doctor shopping,” supposedly deceiving physicians to get overlapping controlled-substance prescriptions. Limbaugh, 55, denied the charges, but reportedly admitted a painkiller addiction. In a deal reached last month with prosecutors, the “doctor shopping” charge will be dismissed if Limbaugh doesn’t get arrested for 18 months.

Here’s hoping Oscar Wilde was right when he mused, “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” Because on Tuesday, Limbaugh–ranked No. 32 on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list–made the news again. And again, it was a pharmaceutical controversy. But this time, the substance in question is not meant to dull and numb. Quite the opposite: it was Pfizer‘s blockbuster Viagra.

The Associated Press reported that Limbaugh was detained Monday for more than three hours at Palm Beach International Airport, upon returning from some R&R in the Dominican Republic. Customs officials reportedly found a bottle of the erectile-dysfunction drug in his bag–but his name wasn’t on the prescription, according to Palm Beach County sheriff’s spokesman Paul Miller.

The political shock-jock’s lawyer, Roy Black, said the prescription was written in Limbaugh’s doctor’s name “for privacy purposes.” The radio host was released without being charged and investigators confiscated the little blue pills.

Mike Edmondson, a spokesman for the state attorney in Palm Beach County, said it’s often legal under Florida law for a doc to prescribe medication in a third party’s name, if all parties are aware and the medic documents it correctly. The sheriff’s office is continuing its investigation.

Kendall Coffey, a former U.S. attorney in the Sunshine State, told the AP that this latest case may be dismissed if lawmen can confirm with Limbaugh’s doctor that the Viagra was indeed prescribed for the celebrity. Coffey said, “It’s perhaps a little embarrassing, but not highly incriminating.” Blasted media.