Feeling Republican

So I guess I'm feeling a little Republican these days.  First, poor old Rick Waggoner of GM losing his job because he couldn't get restructuring right on his salary of $1.00 a year.   Wonder if that mean old socialist Democrat, President Obama, would have insisted on sacking him if he took a few million in bonus payments....?????

But really, there are good things about the Republicans.  I mean, their first president was a master politician, especially beating out senators and governors for that first presidential nomination when he couldn't even beat a two-faced Democratic senator from Illinois for the senate seat.  Yep, an old rail-splitter became the nominee in 1860 and came from nowhere to win the presidency.  I'm reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's excellent book, Team of Rivals.  It hearkens back to the founding of the Republican Party.  They were pretty smart men---watching the Michael Steele follies leaves me aghast!!!  And did you see McCain throw Sarah under the bus??  She would have been a heartbeat away if he'd won and now he needs to see who'll be competing..........

But the best part about my new found republicanism is (are you ready for this?????)-----

totally enjoying Stephen Colbert's Ameri-cone Dream ice cream from Ben & Jerry's.  I wonder if Obama Wham-a will be forthcoming, or maybe Jon Stewart's Cramer-Creamed Hash??? 

A Bonus

I've been having an email discussion with a person close to me about teachers and their compensation.  I pretty much espoused the same positions I took over my 10 years on a school board, negotiating several collective bargaining agreements.  They had a lot to say about the unfairness of merit pay systems and the poor preparation of many children who do not come into the classroom ready to learn.

So I think the government has provided an answer----massive money for education as part of the stimulus and retention bonuses for teachers.  If AIG is too big and too important to fail, and we, the taxpayer/owners of the corporation have no say in compensation, how much more important is the huge education industry??  And surely no one would argue that we should ever, in any way, short-change the children.  So my solution is to get back all the AIG bonuses, or at least the half of them that their C E O requested they repay, and divide that money among all the teachers----no questions asked, just like in the financial sector's compensation where performance apparently does not matter.  And if the government wants to be really generous to these people who make such a difference, they'd make these bonuses exempt from income tax as well!!

How the Mighty Have Fallen

I have always loved San Francisco.  To me, a perfect evening is dinner at The Stinking Rose, then browsing through Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights bookstore.  Those were days.......

I remember after one visit I came home and we tried to duplicate the ravioli, stuffed with potato, garlic, and cheese I'd enjoyed at The Stinking Rose.  We made the dough from scratch, rolled it out, formed and cut the ravioli.  There were three batches of dough--one had carrots added, one spinach, to give it color and texture as well as the plain white flour ravioli.  We used to make linguine and spaghetti from scratch, as well as gnocchi, redoing whole batches if the fork marks in the dough weren't just so.

Then, last Saturday, there was an end cap display at Albertson's---3 for $5.00 Hamburger Helper, lasagna-, beef stroganoff-, and salisbury- flavored mixes.  Don't know why but we bought some.  The stroganoff wasn't bad, the lasagna was awful.  We might try the last flavor this weekend.  I think it's time for a trip to the Bay Area or at least The Owl.  

  Be still, my taste buds........................

Onto the Bandwagon

I've been refraining from putting my (last) two-cents into the latest blathering about bail-outs because I'm trying to see how they work---whether the economy starts to show some signs of positive movement or not.  But the latest bonuses at AIG really take the cake.  How do people who ran a company into the ground so far that it has required not 1 but 3 bailouts deserve jobs, let alone bonuses??  Since the US now owns something like 80% of AIG, maybe we ought to VOTE on bonuses and who should be running the company.  Isn't that what stockholders do?  AIG management says these are "retention" bonuses, necessary so they can retain the "best and brightest" people.  I wonder how the company would have fared with someone a little dumber---maybe they wouldn't have made such poor bets and lost so much money.  After all, wasn't it written about Enron that they were "the smartest guys in the room?"   So how do AIG and Enron compare?  Wonder where we'd be if they had bailed out Enron................Yeah, I'm more than a little afraid.  Aren't you???  

And we call our dogs "pirates".......

It's So Nifty Look Who's 50

So my Dad told me that Barbie Doll turns 50 in 2009!!!!!!  I've no idea what a Barbie is so he found me some pictures on the Internet and told me stories about them.

This first picture is from when Barbie and Ken went to Hawaii.  The official version of the doll in stores had them wearing flowered clothes and being accessorized with surfboards.  But at night, in the 70's, after Barbie ditched Ken and went partying on her own, well, she looked like this picture:

Stoned Barbie-----She got a little of that Maui Wowie and turned into Barbie Corbett, Spaced Cadette!!!!

Now Dad says Barbie wasn't always up with her contemporaries.  We can't find any Free-Love Barbie or Hippie Barbie pictures.  But apparently someone found out about Barbie and her bag that she got from some terror cell:

Yup, that's sticks of explosive in the bag and a detonator in her right hand---this is Hamas Barbie, the suicide bomber.  Obviously the photo is before she dons her Burka.  Took her 50 years to get with it and she sure did so with a bang.

But this last Barbie is the favorite of the Pirate Dogs.  Would you believe a Barbie doll performing a useful function???  But the picture is proof--I give you Pooper-Scooper Barbie:

What else can I say, other than Happy Birthday, Barbie????

Love and Bone Turks to all,

Leny

First-Mate of the CPS Nargle

Did You Miss This?

It's been a long week.  The Pirate Dogs have been doing a lot of sleeping.  They have been conserving their energy.  This will be a big weekend---Netflix sent Beverly Hills Chihuahua.  

So a couple of news items-----

The newest ads on MSNBC for Keith Olbermann's Countdown program have a "book of scoundrels" theme.  Too bad all he can think of as "worst person in the world" are lightweights like Sean Hannity, Rupert Murdoch, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O'Reilly.  Not that there are any great intellects here, but being on the opposite side of K.O. doesn't by definition entitle one to such an epithet.  Now, Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, here's a worthy "Worst Person" candidate.  He was indicted for genocide and war crimes by the International Criminal Court this week for actively pursuing, aiding, and abetting the killings and rapes in Darfur.  If he travels to the country of a signatory to the treaty that established this Court, he can be jailed and sent to the Hague for trial.  YAY!!!!

Next nominee--Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.  On Friday the news reports were of the death of the wife of opposition leader and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in an accident involving the P.M.'s SUV and a tractor-trailer that pulled out in front of it, hitting the passenger side, ejecting Mrs. T and killing her, and injuring Morgan.  He went to hospital ignorant of his wife's death.  The "official" press releases from Mugabe's party Zanu-PF hinted at the possibility of "rumors of treachery."  DUH---this tactic has been used several times in the past to get rid of opponents of Mugabe and Tsvangirai himself has been beaten and imprisoned and tortured numerous times over the last ten years or so.  Hello, Keith??  You listening???

Finally, Rush Limbaugh's comment that the proposed health care bill presently being discussed in Washington D C would be called the "Teddy Kennedy Memorial Health Care Bill" is in such poor taste I can't even begin to express my outrage.  Of course, as I said above, ain't no great intellects there and that kind of comment proves my point.  There are limits, even in the mud pits of partisan politics and right-wing talk radio.  Rush, you deserved whatever Keith said about you tonight.

Enough for a Friday night.  Enjoy the weekend. I hope we get good pix of the Pirate Dogs enjoying their movie!!!!  I promise to post them if we do.