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31 July 2010

WikiLeaks, America, Tea Party, World Politics Cartoons - 31 July 2010

*** Check out the latest cartoon responses to the world news, especially the WikiLeaks fiasco.





House Speaker Pelosi's ethics problem with Rangel of New York. It's past high time the House also take the dirty politicians to task from the Republican side of the aisle. Of course, there may be no one left to represent the Republicans once she does that. And people complain politics in Louisiana are dirty...


Gary Varvel




Lisa Benson




Scott Stantis




Nick Anderson




Nick Anderson



The economy is ever present on every one's minds:


Moderately Confused




Lisa Benson




Moderately Confused




Moderately Confused




Moderately Confused




Bruce Beattie




Rob Rogers




Scott Stantis




... said the consumer to the Big Banker in their bed, living in their house...


Moderately Confused





Republicans and their precious Tea Party fanatics:



Bill Day




Jerry Holbert




Scott Stantis




Bruce Beattie




Rob Rogers




Ed Stein





Somehow BP CEO Hayward fits right in...


Steve Benson




Democrats in November... maybe, maybe not if they light a fire under their butts...



Jerry Holbert




Arizona's Immigration Law and the federal government challenge


Steve Benson




Jerry Holbert




Nick Anderson




Scott Stantis




Steve Benson




Nick Anderson




Gary Varvel




Lisa Benson





Scumbag yellow journalism from WikiLeaks that the fallout is killing people, especially Afghans who helped America, Britain and other countries. The Afghans are trying to survive every day and help their country. Along come the WikiLeaks creeps who thinks it's OK to publish their names, pointing a finger and giving their locations to the Taliban to come maim, torture and kill them, rape their wives and their daughters and kill both their immediate and extended families. Yeah, WikiLeak founder Assange and his team deserve the same fate they doled out to these folks:


Steve Benson




Jerry Holbert




Nick Anderson




Bill Day




Bruce Beattie




Rob Rogers




Signe Wilkinson




Ed Stein




Lisa Benson




The Chelsea Clinton wedding


Jeff Stahler


*** Check out more funnies from favorite cartoonists this week:

Funny Hunh?! Cartoons - 31 July 2010

BP Oil Spill Cartoons - 31 July 2010


*** THANKS for visiting, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, enjoy bookmarking this post on your favorite social site, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers – and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!

*** Come by for a visit and check out my other blogs:

The Social Poets - news, politics
The Soul Calendar - science, astronomy, psychology
Visual Insights - photos, art, music
Beautiful Illustrated Quotations - spiritual quotes, philosophy
Poems From A Spiritual Heart - poetry
The Healing Waters - health news
Dennys People Watching - people in the news
Dennys Food and Recipes
Dennys Funny Quotes - humor

30 July 2010

Walk The World poem - Libations Friday 30 July 2010

*** A poem about sharing our life with others - when we are both in need - to receive the greatest gift.






Walk The World


The young ones were curious about life that was.
The grandmother began the remembering of a long life.
She told them stories of how sweet life can be.
She told them stories of how tough times were too.

The old woman leaned back in her comfortable chair,
Closed her eyes for a moment and her face grew sad.
She remembered the jobs disappearing and the fear.
She told how her neighbors worked fewer and fewer hours,
Worrying about how they would feed their children.







The old woman opened her eyes and spoke softly,
“I remember friends moving away because times were tough.
They couldn’t afford their homes anymore and they cried.
The sheriff and the bankers threw them out on the street.
It was a terrible sight to see, wondering too if it would happen to me.”

“Back then life was so grim, people everywhere living in fear.
It got to the point that every single penny was far too dear.
The bills kept piling up high in tall stacks. We didn’t know what to do.
We quit spending on anything, nothing misspent, but for food and rent.”







The old woman was remembering their grandfather, her husband.
She smiled fondly, feeling his warm heart touch, hugging herself.
She leaned forward to continue her story as the children sat at her feet.
“There was this one birthday of mine when times were tough.
Your grandfather always liked to buy grand gifts for me and celebrate.
I told him not this time but to save our little money for important things.
He said he agreed and I went to sleep reassured and not expecting anything.”

“I was happy just being able to pay our bills back then and nothing else mattered.
When I woke up on my birthday morning and went into the kitchen there it was.
There was a packaged gift with a birthday card sticking out of the top.
I remembered thinking about trying not to worry about what he spent.
It was a beautiful card with a bear and a honey bee that meant so much to me.
I smiled and we enjoyed his excitement at giving. Then I peered inside the gift bag.
I never laughed so loud in my life. He bought me the gift of my favorite cookies!
Cookies! Imagine that as a birthday gift? Cookies! I was so relieved he kept his word.”







The children asked her why grandfather gave her cookies and she replied,
“Why, it’s because our love was sweet no matter how tough the financial times.
Your grandfather was an optimist who loved life and loved being in love.
I thought it was a perfect morning on a perfect day and that was enough for me.
The mail arrived and there was this wonderful birthday card from someone
I had not heard from in many long years, a childhood close friend I enjoyed.
How unexpected and delightful it was to hear from them after such a long time.
It brought me great joy at being remembered at this especially tough time.”

“Then your grandfather decided to take me out to a small lunch but I hesitated.
He knew what I was thinking. He reminded me there are others in need besides us.
He reminded me the only way to know the need of another was for us to walk the world.
At the humble restaurant we shared a meal between us so we could tip the server.
As I looked about me I could see the need of others and knew what to pray.
One lady was trying hard not to have a panic attack while with her family in public.
Most of the people in the room did not look healthy and I realized they were getting sick.
But did you know the prayer of a stranger can prevent serious illness for you?”







The children were amazed that one person could have that much power if they prayed.
The old woman talked on about how the perfect day was not yet finished for her.
“When we were about to leave the restaurant another waiter arrived with a dessert.
In all the times I had been at this restaurant, no one had ever done this on my birthday.
Our waiter knew it was my birthday and it was a special sweet gift from him at no cost!
It’s like he knew we were there to pray for him and the others to gain back their health.
He was saying thank you when we expected no thanks or recognition for our deeds.
We smiled and enjoyed our gift and, oh, it tasted so very good with that whipped cream.”







“Your grandfather and I returned home to marvel at our day of unexpected surprises.
We talked about how we received more than we gave and it didn’t cost much either.
Suddenly, there was this sense of Peace all around us and inside our hearts too.
We realized we didn’t need to worry any more about losing our home or job.
We now knew it was more important to walk the world and give to the need of others.
All that we were, and all that we were to become, crystallized on that one perfect day.
Little did we know God was training us to handle great wealth to give to others.
That’s when we began planning for our future foundation for charities.
We lived the life of the needy and now truly understood the needs of others.
The birthday celebration was a perfect day because we chose to walk the world.
Now it’s your generation’s turn to walk the world, pray powerfully for others and give.”



Denny Lyon
Copyright 30 July 2010
All Rights Reserved


*** Also to enjoy: 17 Short Beautiful Love Poems


*** THANKS for visiting, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, enjoy bookmarking this post on your favorite social site, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers – and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!

*** Come by for a visit and check out my other blogs:

The Social Poets - news, politics
The Soul Calendar - science, astronomy, psychology
Visual Insights - photos, art, music
Beautiful Illustrated Quotations - spiritual quotes, philosophy
Poems From A Spiritual Heart - poetry
The Healing Waters - health news
Dennys People Watching - people in the news
Dennys Food and Recipes
Dennys Funny Quotes - humor



Photo Credits


Child walking in the grass by Victor Bezrukov @ flickr

Grandparents out in the boat by Let Ideas Compete @ flickr

Closeup child's face by Pink Sherbet Photography @ flickr

White doves flying by Muffet @ flickr

Grandma's hands by hweiling @ flickr

Old woman's hand by Ricky @ flickr

29 July 2010

Is The Middle Class Almost Extinct in America?

*** How long was today's chaotic economy in the making and how is it destroying the American middle class wealth?





From Denny: The Republicans and Big Business keep gambling with the lives of middle class people. It is no longer any big secret that Big Business, and business in general, need to hire people back to do the work. What business is doing is playing an ugly game of delay with the American middle class worker, wearing them down until they will accept half their original pay for the same work because they are so desperate to survive in this chaotic economy.

In other words, if the actual living wage was say $60,000 a year that same job is now only paying a mere $30,000. It isn't possible for people to survive on less when housing prices are still high, food prices are high, gasoline prices are insane and the list goes on that the pricing structure has not lowered to meet the salary structure.

But the corporate fat cats just don't care they have bankrupted the middle class. That's their point: they want to reduce the prosperous middle class back down into the working class model where they could be as cavalier as they want with wages, health care benefits, retirement benefits and job security. The Republicans have virtually succeeded at breaking the unions that once fought for middle class wages.

Foolishly, many middle class voted against themselves on a wide range of issues, bringing this down onto the heads of everyone. They fed the Greed Beast without realizing that one day that Greed Beast would get so big there would no longer be any way to contain him. We are here at that day. Just take a look at the statistics for the quickly evaporating middle class:


From 2001 to 2007 (President Bush years): 66 percent of income growth went to the top 1 percent

Among income earners: bottom 50 percent owns less than 1 percent of the wealth

Minimum wage comparisons:

Chinese garment worker makes 86 cents per hour
Cambodia garment worker makes 22 cents per hour
United States minimum wage earner makes $7.25 per hour

Source: Business Insider

Joan Walsh, editor in chief of Salon.com, discusses the war on the middle class in America:

The top 1 percent in America grabbed two thirds of the income. They own 83 percent of all stock owned by Americans. These trends began under Republican President Ronald Reagan, beginning the erosion of the middle class. It was under Reagan that the idea began of hiring workers for only 32 hours a week so business did not have to pay benefits. Now, that idea is the corporate work model: denying a living wage to workers, denying retirement and health care benefits.

She also said that 1981 is the beginning of tax cuts for the rich and record high debt, family income drops, income inequality soars, household incomes drop down steeply and the resulting household debt goes way up. All of these scenarios happened and continued under every Republican president. They improved somewhat under President Bill Clinton yet drove the middle class off the edge of the cliff when President Bush came into office.

The middle class worker is up against job outsourcing and political parties pitting the public against each other so they never find out the historical truth that continues in our lives today.




Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy





*** Photo by Beverly and Pack @ flickr


*** THANKS for visiting, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, enjoy bookmarking this post on your favorite social site, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers – and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!

*** Come by for a visit and check out my other blogs:

The Social Poets - news, politics
The Soul Calendar - science, astronomy, psychology
Visual Insights - photos, art, music
Beautiful Illustrated Quotations - spiritual quotes, philosophy
Poems From A Spiritual Heart - poetry
The Healing Waters - health news
Dennys People Watching - people in the news
Dennys Food and Recipes
Dennys Funny Quotes - humor

28 July 2010

Funny Brain Quotes - Cheeky Quote Day - 28 July 2010

*** Enjoy some funny brain quotes, funny jokes about brain power, funny brain photos and interesting real facts about our amazing brains!




From Denny: I had a lot of fun putting together this post. The things you learn while writing... :)


Quotes


The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public. — George Jessel

I believe in an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out. — Arthur Hays Sulzberger

See, the problem is that God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time. — Robin Williams

Knowledge fills a large brain; it merely inflates a small one. - Sydney Harris

God gave women intuition and femininity. Used properly, the combination easily jumbles the brain of any man I've ever met. — Farrah Fawcett

If little else, the brain is an educational toy. - Tom Robbins

Books: the children of the brain. - Jonathan Swift




Sculpture outside a psychiatrist's office - psych joke?


I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words bother me. — Pooh (A. A. Milne), from Winnie-the-Pooh

The way I see it... If you need both of your hands for whatever it is you're doing, then your brain should probably be in on it too. — Ellen DeGeneres, on cell phones and driving

Brain: An apparatus with which we think we think. — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

Aristotle was famous for knowing everything. He taught that the brain exists merely to cool the blood and is not involved in the process of thinking. This is true only of certain persons. — Will Cuppy





Estimated amount of glucose used by an adult human brain each day, expressed in M&Ms: 250 — Harper's Index

I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this. — Emo Phillips

I've got the brain of a four year old. I'll bet he was glad to be rid of it. — Groucho Marx

Homer Simpson: "How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home wine making course, and I forgot how to drive? - From The Simpsons

From The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show

Bullwinkle: "You just leave that to my pal. He's the brains of the outfit."

General: "What does that make you?"

Bullwinkle: "What else? An executive..."

Arthur Weasley: "Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain. - From Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets

Cliff Clavin: "Interesting little article here. It says that the average human being only uses 17% of his brain. Boy, you realize what that means? We don't use a full, uh... 64%. - From Cheers

Roz Doyle: "And as for my hangover, it was worth it. I partied my ass off like a brain-damaged test monkey! - From Frasier

Michael Scott: This website is the brainchild of my brainchild, Ryan. It is my brain-grandchild. - From The Office

The Ultimate Brain Teaser: If one in every four Americans has some form of mental illness, then think of your three best friends. If they're okay, than its you. - Anonymous






Some Brain Facts

It is not possible to tickle yourself. The cerebellum, a part of the brain, warns the rest of the brain that you are about to tickle yourself. Since your brain knows this, it ignores the resulting sensation.

The human brain has about 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) neurons. That's about 166 times the number of people on the planet.
Number of neurons in octopus brain = 300 million
Number of neurons in honey bee brain = 950,000

From all the oxygen that a human breathes, twenty percent goes to the brain.

Your brain uses approximately 20% of the total oxygen pumping around your body and about 750 ml of blood pumps through your brain every minute.

Unconsciousness will occur after 8-10 seconds after loss of blood supply to the brain.

Your brain consists of 60 percent white matter and 40 percent gray matter.

People who ride on roller coasters have a higher chance of having a blood clot in the brain.

Your brain is 75 percent water.

Your brain is move active and thinks more at night than during the day.

Information travels at different speeds within different types of neurons. Transmission can be as slow as 0.5 meters/sec or as fast as 120 meters/sec. Traveling at 120 meters/sec is the same as going 268 miles/hour.

The weight of an average human brain is about 1300-1400g - @ 3lbs i.e., almost one bag of sugar and about the size of a cantaloupe and wrinkled like a walnut.

The brain feels like a ripe avocado and looks pink because of the blood flowing through it.

Think positive because when you do, you’ll keep the doctor away: Studies show that 50-70% of visits to the doctor for physical ailments can be traced to psychological reasons.

Eat well, and it’ll have positive effects on your brain, because a study of one million New York students showed that those who ate lunches without additives such as artificial flavours, preservatives and dyes performed 14% better in IQ tests.
That being said, your brain is the most fatty organ in your body.

Your brain generates 25 watts of power while you're awake - enough to illuminate a light bulb.

A newborn baby's brain grows almost 3 times in course of first year.

Humans have the most complex brain of any animal on earth.

Your brain is divided into two sides. The left side of your brain controls the right side of your body; and, the right side of your brain controls the left side of your body.

Toxins in commonplace items such as carpeting and shower curtains may be contributing to memory loss over time?

Overexposure to aluminum compounds—in foil, cookware, deodorants, antacids, toothpaste—can affect brain function.

Lavender can help you sleep.

A cooked potato can jump-start your brain when you're feeling foggy.

The essential oil of jasmine can quickly restore mental alertness.

Eating foods rich in vitamin E, beta-carotene, and vitamin C may help lower your risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Certain prescription and nonprescription drugs may dramatically affect your ability to concentrate.

The number of internal thought pathways that your brain is capable of producing is: one followed by 10.5 million kilometers of standard typewritten zero's.

Your skin weighs twice as much as your brain.

Your cerebral cortex is about as thick as a tongue depressor. It grows thicker as you learn and use it.

The world record for time without sleep is 264 hours (11 days) by Randy Gardner in 1965







Funny Brain Jokes


"He who laughs last, thinks slowest."

An old couple was watching TV one evening, and the husband got up to go to the kitchen. His wife told him to get her some iced tea, and knowing that the years had taken their toll on his memory, she told him to write it down.

"I can remember iced tea," he protested.

"But I want sugar in my tea too," she told him, "so write it down."

He told her he could remember iced tea with sugar.

"I want a slice of lemon too." she said, "Just write it down."

He left the room grumbling to himself. A few minutes later he came back with a plate full of mashed potatoes for her.

"Now look what you've done!" she yelled at him, "You forgot my gravy!"




Three Old Men

Three old men were sitting on a park bench comparing notes on the problems of growing old. The first said he couldn't remember the last time he had a good bowel movement. The second one said his problem was more with his bladder and prostate. The third old man laughed and said he must be the lucky one.

"Every morning at seven I pee, and then at eight I have a good dump," he told them. "I just wish I could wake up before nine."




Brain Teaser One-Liners


- On the other hand, you have different fingers.

- He was lost in thought because it was unfamiliar territory.

- Nothing is really foolproof for a sufficiently talented fool.

- The latest poll finds that 3 out of 4 people make up 75% of the world's population.

- "Nobody goes where the crowds are any more. It's too crowded." - Yogi Berra

- "Why is it when we talk to God we're praying, but when God talks to us, we're schizophrenic?" - Lily Tomlin

- "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve it by not dying." - Woody Allen

- He started out with nothing, and he still has most of it.

- It was decided that his sole purpose in life was to serve as a bad example.

- If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you.

- If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

- Do you have trouble making up your mind? Well, yes or no?

- Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won't expect it back.

- The philosopher was laying in bed one night, looking up at the moon, and he thought to himself, "Where the heck is my ceiling?"

- He doesn't suffer from stress - he's a carrier.

- And if I was getting smart with you, how would you know?

- How can there be self-help "groups"?

- Is there another word for 'synonym'?


*** For more grins be sure to check out this post:

Monday Morning Brain Owners Manual


*** THANKS for visiting, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, enjoy bookmarking this post on your favorite social site, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers – and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!

*** Come by for a visit and check out my other blogs:

The Social Poets - news, politics
The Soul Calendar - science, astronomy, psychology
Visual Insights - photos, art, music
Beautiful Illustrated Quotations - spiritual quotes, philosophy
Poems From A Spiritual Heart - poetry
The Healing Waters - health news
Dennys People Watching - people in the news
Dennys Food and Recipes
Dennys Funny Quotes - humor
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