Roundup of Late Night Funnies - 12 July 2010

*** Check out irreverent Colbert and his take on Glenn Beck, the latest funny cartoons, the late night comics who were not in reruns.




From Denny: Most of the late night shows were in reruns this week. The jokes still go on and the cartoonists still are lampooning life, the Republicans and the world. Enjoy your work week!



Funny Videos this week:


Funny Video: Colbert Mocks Republican Men Hairstyles

Colbert: Rent a White Guy in China For Business Meeting Prestige

Funny Video: Colbert Rips Glenn Beck For His "Wildly Important" Work















From Jay Leno:


You people are so lucky you live in California. This heat wave back east is just unbelievable. … It was so hot in Washington, Nancy Pelosi skipped the Botox, had her face injected with frozen yogurt.

Vice President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Iraq on July 4. It was a surprise because Biden thought he was going to Des Moines for a fund-raiser.

While Vice President Biden was away, Republican Chairman Michael Steele was forced to take over the job of saying embarrassing things you have to apologize for later.

You hear about this? Michael Steele said that — well, he's in trouble, actually — for saying the war in Afghanistan was Obama's war, and it was unwinnable. In fact, Steele felt so sorry for it, he said today he went to his favorite bondage nightclub, demanded to be spanked.

Well, there was talk the Democrats are going to try and pass an immigration bill this year, but it looks like that's not going to happen. It's kind of ironic. The only place that has an immigration plan is Mexico, and their plan is to immigrate here.

The East Coast is suffering from a terrible heat wave. Wall Street bankers are jumping out of windows just for the cool breeze on the way down.







Queen Elizabeth is visiting New York City for the first time since 1976. I understand she's trying to help them recruit LeBron James.

Back in 1776, Americans were fighting to escape British rule, these days we're fighting to escape British oil.

They say traces of BP's oil has started turning up in disturbing places, like congressmen's pockets.

Iran has banned the mullet. Today, the state of Kentucky broke off all diplomatic relations with Iran.











From David Letterman:


Sunday is July 4, when America combines our two favorite pastimes: alcohol and explosives.

The fireworks are beautiful to look at, but more importantly, they drown out the gunfire.

You know what is in the theaters right now is another movie in the 'Twilight' saga. Everybody has got 'Twilight' fever. Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska, was in a helicopter, shooting werewolves.

But all across the country, it was iPhone mania. Thousands and thousands of people lined up for the new iPhone. Meanwhile, out in Arizona, John McCain was on line for a pay phone."





















From Jimmy Kimmel:


July 4 is my favorite holiday. No presents, no church, just a lighter and a trunk full of explosives.

Here's a fireworks safety tip. Don't get drunk and leave bottle rockets on the grill unless you want to see your hot dogs fly, which is fun too.

For the second day, there were no World Cup games. I missed the sound of vuvuzelas so much that I taped a beehive to my head.

Larry King is leaving 'Larry King Live' this fall and the truth is, no one can really fill his shoes — if he even wears shoes. I've never seen his feet, I don't know.




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Stepping Through Life poem - Libations Friday 18 June 2010

*** Thinking about how a long list of small decisions can create our lives.








Stepping Through Life






It starts with one small step
One inch over the line, to the line.
People think it’s one defining decision.
It isn’t; it’s one small step for each decision.







It can go both ways.
Those that turn back and
Look upon their lives with remorse
See where they went wrong.







Those that reflect upon time and
Look back at their decisions
Know how their lives developed and
Rejoice where they went right.







People can delude themselves easily.
Politicians think they will delay
What the people need until they get
The money they need to stay in office.







Leaders forget to lead while
They take care of themselves first.
The people suffer needlessly and
Lose hope while forced to wait endlessly.







It’s human nature to put off today
What we could maybe do tomorrow.
It’s what we promise ourselves,
Thinking we will finally do better.







But when the day arrives to do better
We have taken so many steps over the line
We become hard-hearted and uncaring
And so it becomes our legacy.







Why not look at your today to decide
What you can do today for today?
Why wait until you think circumstances are better?
Choose the best of your life today and make it your legacy.



Denny Lyon
Copyright 21 June 2010
All Rights Reserved




Photo Credits


Spiral stairs photo by Eustaquio Santimano @ flickr - light house, Amédée Island, New Caledonia. Originally built in France by Napoleon III, but was later transported to New Caledonia.

Castle steps by stevoarnold @ flickr - Framlingham Castle, Suffolk, England, UK

Wheel of life photo by Tim PopUp @ flickr - Sheffield, England, UK

Stepping out of darkness by pigliapost @ flickr - Aurora, Turin, Italy

Stepping stone reflections photo by raggio(ALL4HIM)productions - Fort Worth, Texas, USA

Ocean steps by soupboy @ flickr - Gandy, Florida, USA

Otley Steps by Tim Green aka atoach @ flickr - Otley, England, UK

Bridge steps by Jan Tik @ flickr - Portland, Oregon, USA

One giant step out into the ocean of Life by notsogoodphotography @ flickr - Maldives



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Good News: Child Abuse Drops Dramatically

From Denny: This is good news! A 38% drop in sexually abused children occurred from a high of 217,700 in 1993 - dropping down to 135,300 in 2006. What about physical abuse during this period? Dropped by 15%. What about emotional abuse during this period? Dropped by 27%.

Experts in the area of child abuse are heralding this finding as proof that public awareness campaigns have made great headway along with judicial crackdowns.

When you combine all the areas of abuse - physical, emotional and sexual - it averages out to being down by 26% since 1993. In this study there were 553,000 children studied as opposed to 743,200 children studied in 1993.

This is a 455-page government mandated study called the National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect is conducted periodically by the Department of Health and Human Services.

What is so encouraging is that this is the first time there has been such a dramatic decrease over a long period of study since we began collecting data. "It does suggest that the mobilization around this issue is helping and it's a problem that is amenable to solutions," said professor David Finkelhor of the University of New Hampshire, a leading researcher in the field of child abuse. "It does suggest that the mobilization around this issue is helping and it's a problem that is amenable to solutions."

Where did they collect this much information? The detailed data was produced by 10,700 "sentinels" - child welfare workers, police officers, teachers, health care professionals and day care workers - that helped create national estimates.

"There's much more public awareness and public intolerance around child abuse now," said Linda Spears who is the Child Welfare League of America's Vice President for public policy. "It was a hidden concern before — people were afraid to talk about it if it was in their family." Spears also commented there is now an abundance of programs to help abusers overcome their destructive behavior.

Professor Finkelhor, who has also conducted similar research and found a drop in abuse rates, believes the study depicts "real, substantial declines." Nor can this decrease be attributed to changing the definition of abuse.

Finkelhor speculated there may be several reasons such as in the 1990s more people were deployed in child protection services and the criminal justice system strongly focused its efforts on more arrests and prison sentences for abusers. Since then more child abusers had available to them medications to help them cope, therefore preventing molesting or mistreating a child.

"There's also been a general change in perceptions and norms about what one can get away with, so much more publicity about these things," he said.




Socio-economic factors were considered. As expected from previous studies, poverty played a starring role as three times more likely for children to be abused than other children. The rates in African-American households were also much higher than in Hispanic and Caucasian homes.

They even took a look at the family structure. It's a bit chilling about what was found here: a single parent, with a live-in partner, might abuse children at 10 times the rate of a two parent household.

The main author of the study is Andrea Sedlak, Westat, Inc. in Maryland. She was concerned over their finding that more than half of the child maltreatment incidents are not actually investigated by a child-protection agency. "Is the system still so strapped?" she asked. "There's still a lot of material here saying the system has a long way to go."

Of course, this study is now almost four years old upon its release this week. Since 2006, this country has sunk down into a deep recession or a depression with over 20% of America out of work like in the 1930s. With all the job loss and family financial pressures and home foreclosures there have been reports of domestic violence on the rise.

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Loving You - Libations Friday! 20 Nov 2009

From Denny: Sometimes, it’s a good idea to think back on a relationship to see how it began and what makes it work well. There are a lot of opinions about what it takes to have a great marriage as there are different styles of marriage. Somehow, as lately I've been hearing about various friends and work acquaintances divorcing because of life's stresses, it caused me to reflect upon my own relationship.



Loving You

When we first married you nurtured me back to trusting
You held me, comforted me and restored my confidence in others.
You helped me heal deep soul wounds so I could truly live again.

You were patient loving me when you were not a patient man.
You were obvious about loving when you were a shy introspective man.
You supported and encouraged though you had never known abuse.

Over the years we saw changes around us in the world and inside us.
We continued to laugh a lot and often; we kissed daily our morning hello.
When we parted for work, we blew kisses at each other and “I love you too.”



As I strengthened I became your anchor in the storms of Life, returning your Love.
Job loss was greeted as “So, who cares? We will carve out another."
Financial dips of income from one year to the next was met with “We will rebuild.”

When severe illness visited our doorstep we pulled together and survived.
When disappointments harangued us we swept them away with the wind.
No matter what came at us, we pulled together and solved the problem.



Best friends and lovers, wife and husband, we have built a life time.
We have more than memories after decades of partnership and marriage.
We fell in Love at first sight as two old souls who suddenly recognized each other.

We fell in Love, stayed in Love - even through disagreements and misunderstandings.
We live in Love with a deepening relationship worth more than anything we could want.
What we want, we have: loving you…


Denny Lyon
Copyright 19 November 2009
All Rights Reserved


*** Thanks for visiting and come back often! Have a great weekend! :)



Photo Credits

Heart Photo by suchitra prints @ flickr

Wedding Ring Photo by Hammer51012 @ flickr

Bride descending the staircase photo by tostadophoto.com @ flickr

Bridal couple in the ocean photo by millzero @ flickr

Life Advice Poem by Rudyard Kipling

From Denny: It's Sunday and the weather is cooling for the coming winter. This time of year our thoughts often turn inward, introspective. Who better than Rudyard Kipling to help us ask the questions and give us some benchmarks to exceed our grasp? :) He was always a thorough thinker to help you to consider your way in Life.

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

by Rudyard Kipling


*** Thanks for visiting and come back often! :)

They Pull at Your Heartstrings Poem - Libations Friday! 6 Nov 2009

*** Is the News really Art? What pulls at your emotions when you watch a news story on television?

From Denny: As I've been catching up posting on all my blogs (too many interests) it struck me as a poem idea to take a look at the News - and if it could actually be classified as a kind of Art.

That's what you get for saturating yourself sifting through and reading too much content as a blogger I guess... :) Your mind goes off onto the weirdest tangents.

And that's why God invented poetry. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. He knew writers needed a condensed form to get out those burning life questions. :)

What's your take on the News as Art?



They Pull at Your Heartstrings

At the end of the day you sit down to watch the news.
There are stories to make you squeamish and uncomfortable.
Stories to horrify, displaying mankind’s depravity…

You sit there watching the world in chaos or harmony.
There are stories to make you feel sad and still more
Stories to make you feel angry with outrage.



You watch the day’s news, wondering if it’s called Art.
All the stories evoke a full range of emotions in a swirl.
There are stories of compassion and charity to make you glad.

You watch from a culture away as girl brides light themselves
Afire to escape abuse from the hands of their loving husbands.
You watch from your comfortable home as your countrymen and women
Give of their hearts and wallets to help children on the other side of the world.



You watch as another culture of women struggles against severe abuse and crimes
To grow strong with confidence, education and smart with new life options
So, one day they are the ones sitting in a comfortable home watching the news,
Waiting for their chance to help someone else a world away, suffering and in need,
Cheering them on to success, praying they experience a long, fruitful life.


Denny Lyon
Copyright 5 November 2009
All Rights Reserved


Abused Girl brides in Afghanistan:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

NBC News viewers rush donations to Afghanistan orphanage:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Young Afghani girl at the orphanage interviewed about her future and her dreams:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

*** Thanks for visiting, everyone, and have a great weekend!

*** Thanks to everyone on StumbleUpon who gave reviews and thumbs up on this poem, thank you!

Photo Credits

Afghani schoolgirl with book photo by The Advocacy Project @ flickr

Afghani schoolgirl at chalkboard photo by The Advocacy Project @ flickr

Soldier holding Iraqi baby photo, no attribution available

Blue ice heart melting photoshop photo, no attribution available

Angel Diaries: Samuel - Libations Friday! 30 Oct 2009

*** How do you recognize when an angel has truly come into your life? Do you remember your angel sightings or did the moment pass you by?

From Denny: This is a little story poem to be included in a developing book, written from the perspective of the child.





Angel Diaries: Samuel

This new house was different to her and so were the new people.
Everything was different; everything had suddenly changed.
The little girl was now three years old and studying all around her.

When the family first arrived, mysterious people from their old house visited.
Before talking to the parents, one man bent down to reassure the little girl.
He told her she was safe now as the bad woman who tried to harm her had an accident.
He said he and his friends made sure she was dead and wouldn’t harm anyone ever again.

The little girl was relieved, knowing he spoke the truth to her.
The same man repeated the story to the parents and they too were relieved.
The little girl knew powerful people were watching over her.

After the mysterious men left the little girl felt uneasy, sensing other problems to come.
For the first few months, the little girl watched as her parents invited new people into the new house.
She lingered near doorways straining to hear their conversation without entering the room since she was not allowed to participate.

The number of new friends grew and the parties grew louder so she couldn’t sleep.
The next morning, after those parties, her father was grouchy, grumpy and cross from too much drinking.
She had to step on egg shells around his meanness as he didn’t like children.



In the new house, everything seemed to change; the parents were no longer happy.
The father’s new job was difficult and stressful, making him angry all the time.
The mother was nervous and fearful around the father, especially when he yelled a lot.

Then, one Sunday afternoon, when the father was screaming and the mother, the older brother and the little girl were afraid, a very tall man knocked on the door.
His name was Samuel; he lived just across the street in this sleepy small town.
He was so tall he had to stoop low to fit through the house’s doorway as it was a 100 year old house in New England.

Later, the little girl learned he was almost seven feet tall. Samuel was in his 80’s now and had shrunk to six feet 10 inches. He said he was seven feet tall when he was young.
The family and the little girl had met Samuel when they first moved in and when Grand Dad was visiting for the summer. Grand Dad and Samuel became fast friends as they were close in age.

Grand Dad and Samuel were both mellow sociable men, always in a good mood.
Both Grand Dad and Samuel took a special interest in the little girl and took time to teach.
They told her stories about life, stories from their youth, people they knew and the future. They were amazed she listened to them which only caused them to teach her more.

One day when the father was angry and abusive again, the little girl remembered Samuel’s visits.
She prayed and asked God to send Samuel to stop her father from being so angry.
She knew her father was so tall he didn’t fear anyone but she knew he would fear Samuel who was the only person she knew who was taller.



As soon as the little girl finished her prayer, there was a knock at the front door.
The father went to answer the knock and was shocked to see Samuel standing there.
Samuel said, “I hear someone asked for my assistance.”

The father turned red with embarrassment and stammered his hello, not knowing what to say. He sensed someone told Samuel about his bad temper.
When Samuel came into the living room, the mother breathed a visible sigh of relief.
Samuel came over to sit down on the largest couch, sprawling his long legs out in front of him.

The little girl greeted Samuel as she climbed up onto the brown couch to snuggle up to him. Samuel grinned, winked and whispered low, “I hear you requested me; things will be fine now.”
The little girl was so excited Samuel could hear her in the spiritual silence that she beamed!

The father was annoyed and told the little girl to get off the couch. Samuel insisted she remained to complete her visit.
At that the little girl tried to stand next to the sitting Samuel to prop her arm and lean on Samuel’s shoulder like she did with other loving adults who liked kids. He was so tall and long that his shoulder was way above her head.



So, the little girl decided she would do what she used to do when she was two years old: stand on the lap of the adult to get to their neck to hug them. She couldn’t reach Samuel.
Well, Samuel was not the kind of guy who would scoop up a child to pull them up. He expected her to figure it out and smiled at her to try again another way.
The little girl was drawn into the moment and started to crawl up his chest, digging her knees into his slouched reclined body to gain traction. It seemed to her like a mountain to climb.

The little girl kept sliding down his chest and then had to retrace her knee-steps over and over again. Finally, on the third try she made it all the way up his chest and grabbed so wildly on to his neck she practically seized it. Samuel only laughed as the father looked on in horror.
Samuel winked at the little girl as her legs dangled down his chest without support as she clung to his neck. She pulled herself up to his huge long face that was almost as big as her entire body. Then the little girl claimed her prize and smothered him with cheek kisses and neck hugs as gratitude for showing up for a visit. At that success, he gathered her up with one giant hand and held her up against his neck like a small tiny kitten in need of a cuddle. The two were wrapped in this glowing energy.

The father kept complaining about the little girl being a nuisance but the mother pulled him away. The mother sensed there was something more here than just a child on a visit as she saw the glowing light. The father never did understand because he could not see what the others saw. He could not understand because he could not feel what the others felt.



Samuel visited the little girl for a few years more and then moved away. He came often when the little girl prayed he would visit. The father changed a little each time Samuel appeared, more fearful he would be held accountable of his own misbehavior though Samuel never directly challenged him.

Samuel became known as the little girl’s godfather as Grand Dad used to label him. But Grand Dad knew all along who Samuel really was; so did the little girl and her mother. Before Samuel left, he kneeled down to the little girl and told her not to worry about what life would bring, no matter how bad it seemed.



He said that he was sent from Heaven to help her and the family, now his assignment was done. He instructed her that if she first invited them how other people would come into her life to teach and protect her. And the last thing Samuel promised her was this as he smiled down at her, “One day it will be you doing the teaching and the protecting and you are going to be very good at it.”


Denny Lyon
Copyright 30 Oct 2009
All Rights Reserved

*** Thanks for visiting, everyone, have a great weekend!




Photo Credits

Little girl with red roses Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography @ flickr

Little girl with teal tights holding shoes Photo by randyloodle @ flickr

Little girl with fistful of flowers Photo by mollypop @ flickr

Little girl sitting on outdoor bench Photo by somma1977 @ flickr

Shy little girl Photo by tibchris @ flickr

Beautiful dancer Photo by tibchris @ flickr

Angel and Bird Post Dividers by Sandychosen @ Photobucket

Floral Post Dividers by Shabby Blogs

35 Jay Leno Quotes for Cheeky Quote Day 21 October 2009

*** Comedians like Jay Leno keep us laughing with a ready quip!

From Denny: Comedians like Jay Leno continue to entertain for a lifetime. With all the high stress in America these days we are seeking more and more laughter as good medicine. After all, with the climbing costs of maintenance health care and the crazy costs of catastrophic health care, then the caustic politics, well, you really have to spend as much time as possible laughing your head off just to give balance to your life!

Jay Leno comes blasting into our lives and to our grinning rescue. Take a merry stroll through a bonanza of his quotes and short jokes, enjoy! He is certainly never short of an opinion or two, especially when it comes to lampooning politicians, Democrat or Republican.

Quotes

President Bush appeared with Arnold Schwarzenegger at a huge campaign event. Only in California can a governor who speaks German and a president who can barely speak English try to make themselves clear to an audience that's primarily Spanish.

There was one embarrassing moment for President Bush. When he heard there were forged documents that had been discovered he said: 'What? You mean they found my diploma from Yale?'

President Bush spoke with the Amish. He didn't want to, but it was the only group he could find that wasn't upset about the high price of gas.

Now there are more overweight people in America than average-weight people. So overweight people are now average. Which means you've met your New Year's resolution.

A new medical study reports that men who eat ten pizzas a week are less likely to develop prostate problems at age 50. That`s because they are usually dead by age 40.

McDonalds announced it’s considering a more humane way of slaughtering its animals. You know they fatten them up and then kill them. You know the same thing they do to their customers, isn’t it?

In Huntington Beach, California, three police instructors lost their jobs after ordering two cadets who were caught smoking to eat cigarette sandwiches as punishment. And of course the tobacco companies are thinking, `Cigarette sandwiches - what a great idea!’

A Minneapolis company has come out with a credit card size shotgun that fits in your wallet. The inventor says he invented it to give people a sense of security. Oh yeah, what makes you feel more secure than sitting on a shotgun? Now how does this work? What's the first thing a thief steals? Your wallet, oh, now he's got your gun too!

I saw something stupid in the paper today - a new alarm clock that makes no noise. It`s for people who don`t like loud noises. Instead, it slowly hits you with light and gets brighter and brighter until you wake up. I already have one of those...it`s called a window.

According to the L.A. Times, Attorney General John Ashcroft wants to take "a harder stance" on the death penalty. What's a harder stance on the death penalty? We're already killing the guy? How do you take a harder stance on the death penalty? What, are you going to tickle him first? Give him itching powder? Put a thumbtack on the electric chair.

This year there are 50 women on the Forbes richest list, or as John Kerry calls that, his little black book.

The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C. This wasn`t for any religious reasons. They couldn`t find three wise men and a virgin.

In California, 50 women protested the impending war with Iraq by lying on the ground naked and spelling out the word 'peace.' Right idea, wrong president. (George Bush was in office, not Bill Clinton.)

A Canadian psychologist is selling a video that teaches you how to test your dog's IQ. Here's how it works: if you spend $12.99 for the video, your dog is smarter than you.

According to a new geographic literacy study 4 out of 10 American students couldn't find Iraq on a map. However 10 out of 10 Mexicans could find the U.S. without a map.

The Catholic Church is still very angry about "The Da Vinci Code” - they don’t like anything that makes more money in a weekend than they do.

Wait till these Enron guys find out that in prison, the term "Insider trading" has a whole new meaning.

The New England Journal of Medicine reports that 9 out of 10 doctors agree that 1 out of 10 doctors is an idiot.

Disneyland celebrated its 40th anniversary by burying a time capsule. They say it will be dug up in 50 years - or when the last person in line at Space Mountain gets to the front, whichever comes first.



You're not famous - until my mother has heard of you.

Bush said today he is being stalked. He said wherever he goes, people are following him. Finally, someone told him, 'Psst. That's the Secret Service.'

Al Gore has found a new job. He is going to teach journalism at Columbia University, which is ironic isn't it? The guy who did all the coke winds up going to the White House, the guy who didn't do coke goes to Columbia.

Bush reiterated his stand to conservatives opposing his decision on stem cell research. He said today he believes life begins at conception and ends at execution.

Go through your phone book, call people and ask them to drive you to the airport. The ones who will drive you are your true friends. The rest aren't bad people they're just acquaintances.

And since I currently live in Louisiana and everyone here was shocked at the idiot Justice of the Peace who stupidly refused to marry an interracial couple, we really enjoyed this quip: Yesterday in Louisiana, a judge denied an interracial couple a marriage license because he felt, I quote, their children would later suffer in life from being interracial. Like when they become president or win the Masters or get an Oscar.

The reason there are two senators for each state is so that one can be the designated driver.

How would it be if we discovered that aliens only stopped by earth to let their kids take a leak?

Well, in sports news, the big story is the NFL now stands for 'Not For Limbaugh.’

Hey, some good news for Rush. The Oakland Raiders are offering to give him the team for free.

What's going on with the Oakland Raiders? You know, I don't want to say the Raiders are bad, but you know, now, a lot of fans are painting their faces just so they won't be recognized.

You know, it's probably best for Limbaugh because he would have been a minority owner. And once he became a minority, he would have to become a liberal and then he would have hated himself.

A historic operation occurred over in Boston. Doctors successfully transplanted tissue from a pig`s brain to a man`s brain -- and the man`s brain did not reject it. That pretty much confirms what women have been saying about men.

Here's something to think about How come you never see a headline like 'Psychic Wins Lottery.'

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. Teach a man to create an artificial shortage of fish and he will eat steak.

If God had wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.

*** Thanks for visiting, everyone, and keep laughing through your work week!

Video: Children Who Are Spanked Have Lower IQs

From Denny: This is an interesting study to back up other studies about the brain and development. From other posts I've done on the brain and children - and what is not mentioned here - is that when experiencing stress the brain is bathed in stress chemicals. Those stress chemicals inhibit the brain from learning. Abused children experience long term stress, long term batheing the brain in stress chemicals and so do not easily experience success in the world as adults.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Libations Friday! 25 September 2009

From Denny: Lately, the news coverage has been about so much misfortune for humanity worldwide. Mother Nature - and we - are out of balance. So goes humanity, so goes the natural world...

There are raging floods, raging fires, loss of jobs and fortunes, divorces, so much negativity. These are the times and the cycle of life tests. Some folks have never been tested so harshly and are worrying how long they can figuratively tread water. That's when it's a good idea to get back to basics and do a refocus upon inner spirituality no matter what the religion of choice.

When blogging about the 50 inches of rain that fell on Atlanta, a place I had lived for many years, I was reminded of shock, sorrow and sadness visited upon so many. When you first get tested like this it is difficult to adjust. Adapt you must as that is the only way to balance, through the gauntlet of change.

While thinking about all the excessive rain and flooding, I was also reminded of the Native American thoughts about rain. They divide rain into Mother Rains and Father Rains. The Mother Rains are soft and nurturing, helping growth and beginning a life anew. The Father Rains are destructive, destroying all that was built because it was shown to be upon a false foundation or it was time to tear it down to build something better.

We all love the nurturing easy soft rains but are in fear of the harsh loud severe storms. The Native Americans lived in Nature, observed Nature and learned from Nature. Today we are too removed from Nature and have forgotten so many of our ancestors' wisdom about balance and harmony. This poem is to bring back our ancient memories we all own so we can live fuller happier lives.


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Rain Blessings





Life encircles, waits and teaches
Gently offering Mother Rain
Nurturing, healing and growing





Life surrounds, exploits and disciplines
Harshly demanding Father Rain
Judging, crashing and destroying





The Rain of Sorrows weighs heavy
Loading our hearts’ pockets like stones
May the Sun of Love slip safely into your heart





Drying up brimming waters of gloomy sorrows
Transforming sorrow stones to nothing dust
Blown away easily in one quick strong breath





The Rain of Troubles appear unexpectedly
Cramming our minds with screaming worry rats
May the Sun of Wisdom sit down on your doorstep





Lighting your inner lantern onto a new inspiring path
Dissolving lack of harmony with one powerful thought





The Rain of Worries and Fears hover overhead stagnant
Soaking our valley of desires like a rushing flash flood





May the Sun of Understanding speak words of calm
Welcoming the rational return of wordless balance
Banishing like a wizard what lingers as unimportant





When the Rains come welcome them all in your Life
Mother Rain as nurturing, Father Rain as destroying
Purpose, understanding, growth through trial they bring





From the Rain of Sorrows we leave behind the past
From the Rain of Troubles we leave behind resentment
From the Rain of Worries and Fears we leave behind mistrust





Heal your disappointments and come back into harmony





Nurture your happiness and create your inner peace





Grow your courage to reach out beyond yourself to Love



Denny Lyon
Copyright 24 September 2009
All Rights Reserved

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Photo Credits

Sunset photo by anirbanbiswas_c8 @ flickr

Lightning Photo by phatman @ flickr

Red rain photo by tourist_on_earth @ flickr

Storm clouds Photo by muha… @ flickr

Hand in water Photo by h.koppdelaney @ flickr

Into the sun path photo by James Jordan @ flickr

Clouds photo by luc.viatour @ flickr

Go with the flow Photo by muha… @ flickr

New day Photo by h.koppdelaney @ flickr

Reflection Photo by muha… @ flickr

Heart bridge Photo by h.koppdelaney @ flickr

Inner peace photo by Jeff Kubina @ flickr

Peacemaker Photo by muha... @ flickr