Samuel Jackson..."Wake the F*ck Up" for President Obama!

Below is Jackson’s original full 3+ minute “Wake the F*ck Up” Obama video ad.

The ad, sponsored by the Jewish Council for Education and Research, is a play on the reading Jackson did last year of the satirical "children's book" Go the F*ck* to Sleep”.

I thought I had posted this elsewhere on zerosixnine...but I couldn’t find it?   Time to get my labels updated!   If you have a toddler...you need to buy that book!   I did!   It’s a hoot!

RNC tells Floridians that Obama is a Muslim and will kill Medicare!

People...you can't make this stuff up!

Taylor Morris...A quadrapalegic and a feel good story!

Never heard of this dude before...but Taylor Morris and his high school sweetheart, Danielle Kelly, were on the “Today Show” this morning.   His/their story is quite moving.   Buzzfeed’s “22 pictures” has gone viral.   I was moved by his story and equally moved by the Buzzfeed photos.   This one is my favorite!

It’s a great story.   It’s really a feel good one!   I wish them the best.   Taylor’s sacrifice supports my position on the insanity of war!   I would have signed up for WWII…but that would have been the end of it!   Korea?   Viet Nam?   Iraq (hello WMD)?   Afghanistan?   War?

Do whatever you can to donate to Taylor's cause.   I did!   It’s worthwhile.   Make a difference!

Friendship - Blessed? Fortunate? Lucky?

bless•ed [blest] adjective
divinely or supremely favored; fortunate:

• to be blessed with a strong, healthy body; blessed with an ability to find friends.
• blissfully happy or contented.

for•tu•nate [fawr-chuh-nit] adjective
having good fortune; receiving good from uncertain or unexpected sources; lucky: a fortunate young actor who got the lead in the play.
bringing or indicating good fortune; resulting favorably; auspicious: She made a fortunate decision to go on to medical school.

luck•y [luhk-ee adjective
having or marked by good luck; fortunate: That was my lucky day. happening fortunately: a lucky accident.

Friendship!
How would you describe it?   You decide.   Blessed?   Fortunate?   Lucky?   I won’t go there.   The few of you who follow this blog can guess which one to discard/eliminate.

Why this subject?
It was a great weekend with lifelong friends...that’s why!

For starters, it began early Friday morning.   I picked up my best friend and his bride as they disembarked from the QM2 (yes...I have friends that can do the QM2!) at the Clinton piers in Brooklyn and dropped them off at LGA.   It was a short but sweet visit...and the sweet outweighed the short!   They are the best.   I would do anything for them!

Then there are more life-long friends.   One flew in from Cincinnati and another recently lost his life-long partner of 38 years.   Another is going through a “Jerry Springer like” divorce.   We’ve all known each other for over 5 decades.   We grew up together...children of the South Bronx!

This weekend...we...the children of the South Bronx...we were all together again.   We ate my wife’s awesome sausage & peppers.   (She grew up with them too!)   We played bid whist...as we always did years and years ago.

We drank.   We laughed...no...we cracked up!   We reminisced.   We talked about Reverend Edler G. Hawkins and how he affected/influenced our lives.   It was awesome!

We are fortunate.   We are lucky.   We are friends!

Ralph Reed, the Evangelicals & Mitt Romney?

From the New York Times:
"Just six years ago, the man who turned the Christian Coalition into such a powerful political force that he was called “God’s right-hand man” was all but written off, tarnished by his ties to the disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, then trounced in his campaign to become Georgia’s lieutenant governor.

But after several years in political purgatory, Mr. Reed has found his way back.   At the Republican convention in Tampa, Fla., he was sought after by party luminaries and afforded the ultimate status accommodation, a room in the same hotel as Mitt Romney.   And soon he plans to unleash a sophisticated, micro-targeted get-out-the-evangelical-vote operation that he believes could nudge open a margin of victory if Mr. Romney can keep the race close."

More from the Times article:
"White evangelicals are a crucial voting constituency, 26 percent of the 2008 electorate and overwhelmingly Republican in recent presidential cycles, exit polls show.   With so few truly undecided voters left, bumping up evangelical turnout in swing states like Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio would almost certainly help Mr. Romney."

Homer Simpson Votes in the 2012 Election!

Mitt 47%? Here’s the math!

• 53.6% - pay federal taxes
• 28.3% - are working, no federal tax, but do pay payroll taxes
• 10.3% - are the elderly living on Social Security
• 7% - have income under $20K and pay no federal taxes
• < 1% - students and high income folks (that would include folks like YOU!)

My mistake…you’re not in the 1%.   You say you did pay 13% last year!   By the way...how much did you pay in 2010?   Just curious?

Cartoon source here

Economy will improve when we love Jesus!

God help us!

Mrs. Jesus Christ

From the New York Times:

A historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School has identified a scrap of papyrus that she says was written in Coptic in the fourth century and contains a phrase never seen in any piece of Scripture: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …'”   The faded papyrus fragment is smaller than a business card, with eight lines on one side, in black ink legible under a magnifying glass.   Just below the line about Jesus having a wife, the papyrus includes a second provocative clause that purportedly says, “she will be able to be my disciple.”

Thunder on the Sound!

The daughter makes the front page of the Stamford Advocate! That's her on the right!   The colorful one!   Why front page news?   Check out the Brian Bill Memorial Fund website she designed.   Awesome!

Universal Healthcare for All Citizens

Romney & the 47%

A dear friend sent me this e-mail yesterday...
Saw today the secret videotape that Romney made to a group of wealthy investors describing the 47% that will not vote for him who are "victims" & need the government to take care of them.   Also they never pay any federal taxes so why should they want better healthcare, housing, food & other 'entitlements'.

WELL..... I guess I am proud to say that I am one of the 47% that maybe don't consider themselves a "victim" but want what any other industrial nation provide for their citizens.   Since Romney's wealthy don't want to take care of anyone else except their own pockets, I think that everyone should be able to receive those benefits that will make strong healthy citizens & house them in good housing rather than the streets.   I do vote in every national & local elections to candidate that speak to my philosophies as well as to the issues.   Mr. Romney is misguided in that he doesn't know that this person & others like me pay federal taxes every year & as well as every tax imposed to me by laws.

And here's what my daughter tweeted!

Change...

"Religion is the Opiate of the Masses"

The above quote is one of the most frequently paraphrased statements of   Karl Marx.

Wacko Terry Jones and the extremists in Egypt and Libya proves the point!   Over what?   A very amateur 13 minute video produced by an Israeli-American in California and promoted by wacko Jones.   (The English version of the youTube video is now private).

This is not Jones’ 1st time at this craziness!   I've written about him before.   The result, Ambassador Christopher Stevens and 3 aids are killed in the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya...

...and an Islamist mob storms the US Embassy in Cairo, Egypt to tear down the US flag.

Swing States or the Supreme Court?

5% of the population in these "swing states" are undecided voters and they will decide who will occupy the Oval Office next year.   And if they can't decide...the the Supreme Court will!

Inspite of the above numbers, I really believe it's going to be a incredibly close race!
Source: Politco

Rituxan and the "redo" of my lymphoma treatment!

I thought it was over...but it wasn't.   So here we go again.

There worst part of the 8 hour ordeal is sticking the IV tubes into the top side of my hand!   These are NOT thin needles folks!

It takes about seven to eight hours to infuse all the rituxan and other chemicals/liquids into the bod.   Good news...they do have WIFI so I wasn't cut off from the world!

Check out this contraption...it holds all the "liquid drips".

Below is a close-up of the rituxan bottle.   If you look closely...you may see the bubbles at the bottom of the bottle.   Bubbles are a good sign because you then realize that you are close to leaving this 8 hour ordeal...in the next half hour or so!

But...I can't complain.   I'm alive.   Yesterday, we learned that someone we know...and occasionally party with, every now and then...lost their 15 year old daughter to cancer!   15 years old!   It sucks and it brought tears to my eyes.   Like I said...it sucks!

September 11th...again.

I left my house at about 8:30AM today…on my way to my 1st lymphoma treatment.   As I stepped out my front door, I was amazed at how beautiful a day it was...crystal clear, with ice blue and skies devoid of any clouds...a pleasant temperature in the high 60s.   It was absolutely beautiful!   The first thing that came to my mind was how the beauty of this morning was EXACTLY the same as September 11th, 2001.   Not even Photoshop could have improved on the cloudless, bluest of skies.   Absolutely beautiful!   Perhaps the photo below was enhanced with Photoshop…but this morning’s sky looked damn close to the sky depicted in this image!

• 8:46AM - American flight #11 crashes into the World Trade Center north tower (1 WTC)
• 9:03AM - United flight #175 crashes in the south tower (2 WTC)
• 9:37AM - American flight #77 crashes in to the Pentagon
• 9:58AM - the south tower collapses
• 10:03AM - United flight #93 crashes in Pennsylvania
• 10:28AM - the north tower collapses
• 11:45AM - my daughter www.studio162.com calls from a payphone (cell phones didn’t work and she didn’t own one at the time!) in the basement of Cooper Union (located less that 3 miles from the World Trade Center) to tell us she’s okay.

Epilogue:
Here’s where we are today!   Still quibbling over finances…of the yet-to-be-completed Memorial Musuem.

And although the new “Freedom Tower”reaches 1776 feet…I’m not impressed by the overall design and I think it looks really bland.   IMHO, from an architectural perspective, I had hoped the decision would have been to go with the original Daniel Libeskind design!   I thought it was awesome!

Bill Maher...Where's George Bush & his buddies?

Istanbul! It's on my bucket list!

Nancy, a dear, lifelong friend...and her best friend decided to go to Istanbul!   Why?   I don't know the details...but I'll find out.   This place is definitely on my bucket list!   Awesome photos!

The Bosphosus Waterfront!
The spice market!

In her own words...
"That's all the pictures for today.   Istanbul is very crowded with lovely people speaking many languages.   We have been to old city yesterday and today and are going again tomorrow.   We get there by taking the metro then a funicular and then a tram.   It takes about 30 minutes and is very fun with all the people.   Reverse at the end of the day and then we get home to a fabulous hotel.   Lovely...simply lovely"

What's the heck is a funicular anyway?

p.s.   Got another BFF visiting extended family in Sweden!   Expect to post his pictures here too!   Another bucket list addition?   We'll see!

First Senior Moment on Record...

...and that's what happened to the dinosaurs!

GOP's Anti-Obama Campaign Started Night of the Inauguration!

On January 20, 2009 Republican Leaders in Congress literally plotted to sabotage and undermine U.S. Economy during President Obama's Inauguration.   During their four hour meeting, these senior GOP members plotted to bring Congress to a standstill regardless how much it would hurt the American Economy by pledging to obstruct and block President Obama on all legislation.

In Robert Draper's book, "Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives" Draper wrote that during this four hour, "invitation only" meeting with GOP Hate-Propaganda Minister, Frank Luntz, the below listed Senior GOP Law Writers literally plotted to sabotage, undermine and destroy America's Economy.

The Guest List:

• Frank Luntz - GOP Minister of Propaganda
• Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) Vice Presidential candidiate
• Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) House Majority Leader
• Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) House Majority Whip
• Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX)
• Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)
• Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI)
• Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA)
• Sen. Jim DeMint (R- SC) Teabagger!
• Sen. Jon Kyl (R- AZ) Senate Minority Whip
• Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)
• Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) resigned over an ethics violation!
• Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN)

Non-lawmakers present...Newt Gingrich!

These Republican members of Congress were not simply airing their complaints regarding the other party's political platform for four long hours.   No, these Republican Congressional Policymakers, who were elected to do 'the People's work' were literally plotting to sabotage, undermine and destroy the U.S. Economy.

Newt Gingrich proclaimed, “You will remember this day.  You’ll remember this as the day the seeds of 2012 were sown.”   Remember...Mr. Gingrich proclaimed this on the eve of President Obama’s inauguration and these same Republican members of Congress supported the very Bush/Cheney policies that caused America to teeter on the brink of the 2nd Great Depression and caused the 2007 US Economic Meltdown.

Here's how they all voted:

• "Yes" to Bush/Cheney January 2008 Stimulus
• "Yes" to Bush/Cheney bailing out Bear Stern
• "Yes" to Bush/Cheney bailing out AIG
• "Yes" to Bush/Cheney TARP (Sept 2008)
• "Yes" to Bush/Cheney TARP (Oct 2008)

And these same Republican members of Congress:

• Supported Bush/Cheney keeping cost of two wars out of the Budget and on credit cards!
• Supported Bush/Cheney spending $4 trillion while giving Top 1% Tax Cuts; ignoring the fact that taxes pay for wars.

Not only did these Senior members of Congress plot to destroy the American Economy more than it already was destroyed…they actually carried out their mission.   Every one of these senior members of Congress have threatened Government Shutdown over things like:

• Funding planned parenthood
• Raising the Debt Ceiling which, in-and-of-itself, would cause US Economic turmoil
• still threatening a Government Shutdown over the Debt Ceiling.

Last year, during the Debt Ceiling negotiations, Eric Cantor and Sen. Jon Kyl abruptly walked out of negotiations and refused to renew discussions with Democrats.   As a result, America's credit rating was lowered which put a smile on Republican's faces.

Senators: Jim DeMint, Jon Kyl, Tom Coburn, John Ensign, and Bob Corker have:
Filibustered more Bills (over 300) than any Congress combined in US History.
Voted NO on every single piece of Legislation brought to the Floor including:
        - NO on Al Franken's Anti-Rape Amendment,
        - NO on Lilly Ledbetter,
        - NO on Fair Pay Act,
        - NO on Anti-Outsourcing Bill (2010)

IKEA made my Labor Day!

Hey, the Mrs. and I have been searching for quite some time on the right desk/sewing table for her quilting compassion/endeavors.   Last weekend, after months and months of searching, we stumbled across these beauties from IKEA.

The MALM Desk:

The MALM desk with a pullout extension!   Right width, right length, and almost the perfect height!   Grab it!

As we continued to stumble through the IKEA maze...we also found another beauty...the Alex!

Great for storing quilting rulers, needles, spools of threads and all the other quilting paraphernalia.   So as the rest of you ventured to the beach or a backyard BBQ...I grabbed the hammer and a phillips head screw driver and went to work!

First...the MALM desk...lay out the parts...

So grab the tools...and let's try to put this together...

Viola!   Just under an hour and a half and it's already quilt ready!   Perhaps using my power drill would have cut this down by a half hour or more?

Now on to the Alex drawers!

Rule # 1 with IKEA...lay out all the parts 1st!   Just my 2 cents!   So here are the Alex parts!

This Time...I had enough smarts to use my power drill!   Proably cut the "assembly time" in half!   DUH!   Why didn't I think of the power drill back at the MALM stage???

And so here is the completed "Alex" abutting the aforementioned MALM.   I'm happy with the results...but more importantly...so is the Mrs!

Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children

According to Bill Nye, “The Science Guy”, creationism is like teaching that the world is flat.   This doesn’t sit well with The Creationists.   Of course, I have my own views.

Desmond Tutu: Put Blair And Bush On Trial!

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu called Sunday for Tony Blair and George Bush to face prosecution at the International Criminal Court for their role in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Tutu wrote in The Observer that the Iraq war "has destabilized and polarized the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history”!