Ramona's picture

    It's 2012 and the nuts just keep on coming.

     

    Good morning and Happy New Year!  (The exclamation point is always required after "Happy New Year", if I'm remembering my Strunk and White correctly.  Also, "Happy New Years" is incorrect.  So is "Happy New Year's.")

    Ramona's picture

    Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. (And I mean that sincerely)

     

    On Christmas Day, 1914, only four months into the brutality of World War I, a spontaneous miracle happened on the Western Front.  On that day German and British soldiers laid down their arms and gathered together in No Man's Land to share food and cigarettes, sing Christmas carols, and play a few games of football.
     

    Ramona's picture

    Attention: The job opening is for POTUS. Dilettantes need not apply.

     

    When I was a little girl during FDR's time, I remember people in my family talking in hushed, reverent tones about the President of the United States --  as if he were someone so special you mustn't use your normal, everyday voice.  I grew up thinking there was no one in our beloved country who could top the President when it came to being all-wise and all-caring.  I believed that there was something other-worldly, even God-like about Presidents, and I felt safe.

    Topics: 
    Ramona's picture

    Just because I call myself a Journo doesn't mean I are one

     

    This morning blogger John Aravosis, over at AMERICAblog, wrote about blogging vs. journalism after finding an article from AP about a ruling against a Montana blogger who claimed protections as a journalist while fighting a defamation suit brought by a lawyer she called "a thug and a thief".

    Topics: 
    Ramona's picture

    Newt to 'Really Poor Children': Buy Your Own Damn Ice Cream

     

    Newt Gingrich is obsessed with the plight of poor kids these days. He's been all over the place talking about them, and I have to confess, the jollier he gets about his remedies for their plight, the more nervous I become.  It's an odd turn of events and one rife with suspicion.  It's Newt we're talking about.  Newt, who eats mean for breakfast and swallows the seeds.

    Topics: 
    Ramona's picture

    Black Friday as Myth-Buster

     

    After the Thanksgiving Day gluttony is over and after our teams have either won or lost (Our biggie between the Lions and the Packers went horribly awry for my loved ones, poor dears.) and after we've taken our tryptophan-induced naps, the next fun thing to think about, talk about or plan for is Black Friday, our annual Big Huge Shopping Extravaganza.  It's the day when primitive survival skills kick in and the absolutely-must-haves traditionally

    Ramona's picture

    Feeling Guilty about Giving Thanks. It's a Liberal Thing

     

    This year we've decided to stay home for Thanksgiving.  Our nearest family is 350 miles away but every year but one (and now this one) we've managed to be together for this holiday.  We'll be seeing them all in three weeks or so for the Christmas holidays, but I'm missing them acutely today. 

    Ramona's picture

    Eyes on the Prize, Occupiers. The 99-Percenters are counting on you.

     

     For a couple of months now, we on the left have been marking the heady, exhilarating, organic spread of the Occupy Wall Street Movement and getting it that something unstoppable seems to be happening.  Think of it: The dedication, the precision, the impossible successes coming from a movement organized by ordinary hoi polloi.  No backing by agenda-driven billionaires, no pseudo-intellectual input from think-tanks, no take-over by shady cabals.  It's the stuff of miracles.  

    Ramona's picture

    A Simple Plea: Do Not Lay Hands Upon Our Children

     

    Every hour of every day, children in our keep are being harmed.  Throughout the history of the world, adults have used their size and their physical and psychological power as weapons against our most precious assets--our children.

    Hurting them is not accidental, it's the goal, but all it takes to muddy the waters is the argument about degree.  Is spanking abuse?  Is yelling?  Is fondling?  If there are no cuts and bruises how bad is it, really?

    In the past few weeks the stories have been coming at us, fast and furious.

    Ramona's picture

    FRIDAY FOLLIES: On Limousine Meals, the Crush of Wine, Absurdity, and Occupation

     

    I'm not one to laugh at the plight of others, especially at elderly ladies whose family makes a request for meals on wheels, and I'm certainly not going to do it now, but can I at least laugh at the picture in my mind of people delivering those charity meals to limousines that will then whisk them off to a millionaire's mansion?

    Ramona's picture

    Herman Cain is a goofball who thinks he's sexy. Who cares?

    Herman Cain is in the news again, this time for allegedly sexually harassing a couple of his female employees some time in the way back.
     
    From
    Topics: 
    Ramona's picture

    Why Junk Insurance deserves an Occupy Movement


    Things are heating up in Chicago and I don't know a soul who is surprised by that.  It's Chicago and it's Emanuel Land.  Last week the Occupy Wall Street Windy City branch decided to occupy Grant Park past the posted 11 PM closing time.  The police, never ones to miss even vague radical clues, guessed correctly that these folks had other things on their minds and weren't going to be ready to leave just because a simple sign said they should.

    Ramona's picture

    In 21st Century America: It's still okay to beat up on women.

     
    TOPEKA | The Topeka City Council on Tuesday [10/11/11] voted to repeal the city’s law against misdemeanor domestic battery, the latest in a budget battle that has freed about 30 abuse suspects from charges.
    One of the offenders was even arrested and released twice since the brouhaha broke out Sept. 8.
    Topics: 
    Ramona's picture

    FRIDAY FOLLIES: Wagons and Trailers and Planes! Oh My!

     

    Bob Dalrymple and his girlfriend, Kathy Neal, are leaving Michigan and heading for Colorado, because, Bob says, the economy's suffering, the winters in Michigan are too cold and it's time for adventure.  He wants to go someplace warm.  That's what he says.  His two kids live in Colorado, but apparently they've neglected to tell him there's a reason crowds of retired Snowbirds aren't descending on the Centennial State.  It's snowy and blu

    Ramona's picture

    It all comes down to this, America: Don't be Cruel

    Another 2.6 million people slipped into poverty in the United States last year, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, and the number of Americans living below the official poverty line, 46.2 million people, was the highest number in the 52 years the bureau has been publishing figures on it.
    And in new signs of distress among the middle class, median household incomes fell last year to levels last seen in 1997. 
    Topics: 
    Ramona's picture

    No Surprise: Erin Burnett doesn't get the Wall Street Protesters.

    For her CNN "Out Front" debut on Monday, Erin Burnett went to the Occupy Wall Street protesters to see for her corporate-shilling self what the heck all the fuss was about.  She couldn't find a single person who knew why they were protesting.  Imagine that.
     

    Topics: 
    Ramona's picture

    FRIDAY FOLLIES: On Jesus toasters, Gray Panthers, Raging Grannies, and Fun with Medicare

     

    WARNING:  Hot graven images ahead.  Turn back if you believe Jesus' image on toast should remain a miracle and not be used as a promotion by clever, sacrilegious Vermonters for a Made in China toaster.  (It's International Blasphemy Rights Day today but I swear I didn't know that when I chose this segment.  Not that I'm not okay with it.  I am.)

    Ramona's picture

    Happy Third Birthday, dagblog

    Just wanted to give a shout-out here to Genghis for creating a great site and for keeping the lights on. 

    Kudos! Good Job! Congratulations!

     

     

    Topics: 
    Ramona's picture

    The Religious Test is Alive and Kicking in American Politics. Again.

     

    As a non-religious person I have faith that religion will always be with us.  It's the way of the world, and if I'm baffled by its constancy, by its influence, by the sheer numbers of people involved, I'm even more befuddled watching the successful move away from any pretense at goodness and mercy by the Religious Right in favor of a peculiar form of public, political bullying.

    Ramona's picture

    FRIDAY FOLLIES: On Butter, Blankets, and Beauty. Then There's That Cartoon.

     

    I can't believe it's not butter!  In Wisconsin there is a law on the books that forbids restaurants, schools, hospitals and prisons from serving margarine instead of butter.  This weaker version of a 1897 law has been on the dairy state's books for 44 years but most restaurants can get around it, since the interpretation of the law these days is that if a customer asks for margarine it's okay to give it to them.  No mention of how the margarine is delivered to table -- in plain sight or disguised as something else.  (The bovine version of "Don't ask

    Pages

    Latest Comments