Monday, August 29, 2011

George W. Bush

I watched a special broadcast on National Geographic last night in which George W. Bush was interviewed about his feelings of the events as they unfolded before the nation on September 11, 2001.  As I watched this distinguished, intelligent man talk about his what he and the whole country went through after the terrifying events that day and in the following days, I couldn’t help but compare his calm dignity and presence of mind with our present president.  I shudder to think where the United States would be today if Urkel Obama had been president on 9/11.  We’d probably all be under Sharia law, wearing burkas and studying the Qur’an today.

Football anyone?

BLASPHEMY?  No doubt some will think so.

I just can’t get too excited about pro football.  Actually, I eschew ALL pro sports.  Grown up men playing little boy games.  And “grown up” men (and women) watching and getting all hot and bothered about them.  Wow.   I just don’t get it.  The thing is, I don’t believe the outcome of the games is left in the hands of the players.  I find it impossible to believe that with all the money involved in betting, graft, scams, corruption, payoffs, etc. that is controlled by the managers, owners, and bookies that they would put 22 Neanderthals hyped up on steroids and other drugs out on a field, give them a football and let them bash each other into oblivion without some control over the final outcome.   So, let’s see if I have this right---they’re going to let these 22 troglodytes with a collective I.Q. of maybe 150 and not one of them with more than a 15-word vocabulary at the most, (and that’s if you count motherfucker as 2 words) –they’re going to turn that group loose and let them be the deciding factor in who wins and who loses a football game?  I don’t think so. Waaaay too much money involved!   Just ain’t gonna’ happen.  I know I’ll get a lot of flack about this.  But, if anyone with half a brain thought about it for half a second or two, they’d have to agree. 

Statins

My doctor called today to tell me the results of my recent blood test.  My cholesterol is high – a little over 200.  My triglycerides are high.  It’s been that way as long as I can remember.  I was given a cholesterol medication (a statin) once, and a month later I couldn’t walk.  A couple of years after that I had to have knee replacement surgery.  The doctors all claimed the cholesterol medication was not to blame.  I have since refused any and all medications currently on the market for treatment of high cholesterol.  They all have the same disclaimer – inflammation, impaired ability to walk, joint paint, etc.  They want me to take that stuff?  Really?  I don’t think so.  The last time my doctor tried to put me on some pill, I told her I thought the experts were wrong about having a score of 245 being a bad thing.  Every day new research debunks old research and the medical community completely reverses their previous findings.  If we just wait long enough, research will show that having cholesterol at less than 200 is really, really bad for you. 

Cats

I don’t trust people who don’t like cats.  There is always something a little weird about the person who says “I hate cats”.  I have found that when a person doesn’t like cats, they are always a little “off” in their personalities to my way of thinking.  I love cats.  All cats.  I enjoy their personalities, their coats, their voices. I have always had a cat for as long as I remember.  Some I liked better than others.  Some I have loved so intensely that when they died, I mourned them as I would any family member.  One of the cats I now have – a rescue from my vet – has been with me for 13 years.  He’s spoiled beyond any normal way of thinking.  He sleeps with me, of course, and snores all night long.  He sleeps right by my head and if I turn over in bed, he changes sides, too, so that we’re always face to face.  I find this oddly comforting.  He snores whenever he’s asleep.  As I work in my office, he sleeps behind the desk and I always know when he’s there because I can hear him snoring away.  He likes ice water and whenever I have a glass of ice water on the end table next to my easy chair, he drinks from it.    He likes to lick the ice.  However, he has a peculiar way of drinking water.  He dips his paw in the water and licks the water from his paw.  This is how he drinks outside whenever he finds a puddle of water or from his water bowl in the house.  If I keep the glass full, he drinks normally, but if the glass is three-quarters or half full, he uses his paw.  I don’t mind sharing my water with him as long as he doesn’t dip his paw into the glass.  Maybe it’s me that’s weird?  Nah.  Not possible.  I also love dogs.

Less or fewer?

Lots of confusion about these two words.  Most of us learned the basics of grammar in “grammar” school back when we were young and impressionable.  So why do most people misuse these two words?  I can see how a lot of people, ordinary folks, can be confused by them.  But, when I hear a commercial substituting less for fewer it really bugs me.  I won’t buy a product from a company who hires an ad agency who, when writing copy, mis-uses less for fewer.  Or when a news reader on TV uses less when they really mean fewer, it grates on my nerves.  It also bugs me when people use “badly” when they really mean “bad”.  I understand that saying “He/she feels badly” about something, they think it sounds more elegant than saying it properly, i.e. “He/she feels bad.” I guess I’m just a fucking purist. There are fewer and fewer (or less and less) of us around and I feel badly about it.  Poor grammar is commonplace and becoming more and more acceptable.  Just not to me