Morning Andi - evening keres.

"Don't waste your time on the clowns, watch the real show"

We're off to get the CB's hair cut for back-to-school.  They are SO happy about it.  Not.

Hope everyone is having a good day-

Still thrilled over Keith Olbermann's rant last night on Countdown...and absolutely disgusted with the freepers attacking him (as Steven D reports). As I said in Steven's thread, for all the boasting about "bringing democracy to Iraq", the right wing sure seems to hate it when we have democracy in America.

Enough political pondering in the Cafe...time to see if the spouse is up and stirring...

-- Walking In Darkness --

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930s '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright- colored,
lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread ! and real butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were okay.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes! After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendos, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video-tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS, and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
!
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts, and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk takers, problem solvers, and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned
HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with oth! ers who have had the luck to grow up as kids before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our "own" good. And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.  

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

The difference between theists and atheists is that the atheists don't set the theists on fire for refusing to agree with them.

Today's tea: Jungpana Estate Darjeeling, 1st Flush. Dark, strong, sweet, and just full of caffeine.

Kelly McCullough - author of WebMage, Cybermancy, and CodeSpell - ACE (Penguin)

Tomorrow it's supposed to get up to 83° again. It might be time for another round of swimming.

The avalanche has started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote. -- Ambassador Kosh