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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Silence ~ an open thread

I guess every Moose thread is an “open” thread where we toss off whatever is on our minds.  In that vein, this is going to be a bit of “stream of consciousness” because, well, I can.

The title of my piece (not that piece, fog) comes from two things, the first being the lack of cable television in my house.  The cable company and I disagreed on the frequency of my payments (quarterly didn’t seem to cut it with them) so they cut me off.  Not a loss really; I was going to cut them off at some point.  I watch about six channels and it didn’t seem prudent to pay as much as I was to watch so very few channels.  Plus, I was one of those people who turned the TV on first thing in the morning and the damned thing was on as long as I was home.  Even when I was sleeping ~ background noise, you know.  But amazingly, I’ve been without cable for a month now and I haven’t gone stark raving mad … yet (or more, depending on your opinion of me).  But, do not despair for I have discovered Netflix ~ the greatest thing EVER.  Sure, I’d heard of it but never bothered to investigate.  But it’s great!  I get to watch the movies I want to watch when I want them.  When I get my Internet back (yeah, they took that, too, but I’m going to get that back) I can stream stuff.  Is this country great or what?!

Silence, though, is turning the TV (or the radio, or whatever) off.  I usually watch about a half hour of whatever DVD is in the player when I get up and then I turn the TV off.  And, guess what!  There are all kinds of sounds to be heard.  The gentle snore of Fran or Sam (hopefully that was just a snore and not some other bodily function).  The lawnmowers or kids outside.  The sound of the audible crosswalk signals (we have those in soon-to-have-single-payerish-healthcare Vermont).

I can also hear myself think.

The title also comes from:

The dude just cracks me up:  “Silence, I’ll kill you!”  Maybe Achmed should change his name to “Osama.”  Not too soon, I hope.

Of course, the downside to all this is that my poor pay-as-you-go phone cannot handle much in the way of the Internet which is why I’m MIA on Fridays and Sundays (’cause I know y’all were wondering!).  But I get my new 21st Century phone Tuesday-ish which means I’ll be pestering my IT folks and friends to show me how the Hell it works because I’m old-fashioned and much prefer the old days when the phone was attached to the wall and was just a phone.

The upside to all of this is that I cannot get my full dose of the insanity that is the current GOP presidential race every single day of the week.  Palin and Bachmann may both be in (or both be out or one be in and the other be out or vice versa).  Guiliani leads in the latest CNN poll while Herman Cain leads in some other poll.  Trump may be back in while Gingrich may wish he’d never gotten in.  And, “my” guy Pawlenty can’t break out past the 5% mark no matter what stupid (think “pub crawl”) comment he makes.

Meanwhile, the President goes to Europe (y’all can send him [and his Patriot Act extension signing self] back anytime now) and wows the masses.  He is off to Missouri on Sunday to attend a memorial service and fill in for his crappy FEMA director (oh wait! that was the last guy).  Then the President will be in Toledo on the 3rd, I believe, to tout (and taunt Gov. Kasich with) the thus-far successful auto industry bail-out.  Lord, I hope Kasich is standing on that stage with the President (I doubt he will be).  Kasich’s approval ratings are in the crapper so I’m sure he’ll be somewhere nursing his pride and wondering why he left FNC.

Anyway, I guess I’ve rambled on enough.  Your turn!


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 54 Comments

54 comments

  1. HappyinVT

    I watched The King’s Speech about eight times via Netflix.  Still loooove it.  Watched Black Swan, too.  Loved the last 1/2 hour or so.

    Saw Man in the Glass Booth.  meh.  Loved the idea of the movie just not so much the execution.

  2. spacemanspiff

    I came here to post this video of a teacher keeping her kindergarden class calm while drug cartels have a shootout just outside the window. It brought tears to my eyes (and a stupid smile) and I still get goosebumps when I see it. This happened in La Estanzuela sector of Monterrey, Mexico. The teacher asks her children to sing a song with her. You can clearly here the sound of automatic rifles going off.

    I put the teachers words in parenthesis.

    Si las gotas de lluvia fueran de chocolate

    Me encantaria estar ahi

    (Quien quiere chocolates?)

    Abriendo la boca para saborear

    (pongan la cabeza en el piso. Asi van abrir la boca)

    A! A! A! A! A! A!

    (ustedes tienen la boquita hacia arriba. Para que caigan las gotitas de lluvia)

    If raindrops were made of chocolate

    I would love to be there

    (who wants chocolate?)

    Open your mouth so you can savor it

    (put your heads on the floor. Open your mouths like this)

    A! A! A! A! A! A!

    (do you have your mouths open facing upward? So the raindrops can drop inside)

    Teachers are awesome.  

  3. canadian gal

    took me to see a jeff dunham show last year. it was a bit creepy how many fans this guy has – like deadheads. i have a slight phobia of ventriloquists, just so.

    anyway – RIP to the great gil scott-heron…  “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”

  4. virginislandsguy

    I will bring you this from the future:

    Romney/Ryan 2012

    Rep. Paul Ryan would be the best fit for Romney. I wrote earlier that he would choose someone with fundie or TP cred. I will amend that to eliminate the fundie side. The last thing Romney wants is to open the religion issue in his campaign. A fundie VP pick would do just that. So TP it is and Ryan fits to a T. Romney’s no spring chicken (64) and Ryan gives him some youth and sex appeal.

    The weird thing is this would be similar to the Dole/Kemp ticket of ’96 (although Kemp wasn’t young). Get this, Ryan was a speechwriter for Kemp back in the ’90s. That’s spooky.

  5. hubiestubert

    Living essentially on my phone, and making a conscious choice to NOT get cable has been a boon. Plenty of time to read. Plenty of time to catch up on movies. Plenty of time to work, and reconnect with folks. Explore the new town.

    I can’t say that I don’t sometimes miss plopping down on the couch with a beer and popping the boob tube on, but for the last few months, that has become more a distant memory. No set time to check out the latest episode of whatever has meant a lot more perceived “free” time. Now that the Mac is up, I’ve caught up on episodes of shows I actually want to watch, and I don’t think I’ll be hooking up the cable any time soon…

  6. HappyinVT

    One can’t help but wonder how that little hamster whirling that little wheel in Eric Cantor’s little head tolerates all the resulting, homespun humbug. Even hamsters know better, not to mention that anyone who’s passed so much as Econ 101 is a veritable Joseph Stiglitz compared to Cantor.

    http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/

  10. DTOzone

    by my colleagues in the New York media.

    Meanwhile, I get a press release from his office in my email this morning about him meeting with Netanyahu after the joint sessions last week, where the golden child of the left did this

    Following President Obama’s speech on the Middle East, Weiner was one of the leading critics of the Administration call for Israel to withdraw to the 1967 lines with mutually agreed upon swaps.

    Citing the ill-fated US demand for a total “settlement” freeze, which brought peace talks to a halt when the Palestinians refused to negotiate unless this unreasonable condition was met, Weiner noted that President Obama again repeated his mistake by giving the Palestinians yet another American-created precondition – the 1967 borders.

    At the meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Weiner reiterated his support for Israel at a time when the both the merger of Hamas and Fatah and the Palestinian Authority’s refusal to return to the negotiating table pose serious challenges to the ongoing peace process.

    “Israel remains our nation’s strongest ally in the Middle East, and I made it clear to the Prime Minister we will continue to offer our steadfast support to the one true democracy in that region of the world,” Weiner said. “Time after time, Israel has made its intention for peace clear, and setting unnecessary preconditions for negotiations will not lead us towards peace in the region. We’ve been down this road before.”

    There it is, America’s progressive champion, bashing his President behind his back while he’s overseas to a foreign leader.

    But at least he voted for the public option

  11. spacemanspiff

    Ministry of Truth. Dude asks for donations in all his diaries. He’s broke.

    I’ve seen donation drives and stuff. 1 or 2 diaries. But this dude has done it a lot of times now and I find it strange (and kind of weaksauce if you ask me). Just proves how easy it is to get a sob story going in order to con people into giving you money. Not that I’m saying he’s doing that. There is just no way to prove he isn’t. The first time I saw him asking for money was a couple of months ago. Guess it’s the cynic in me. Don’t want to sound like a complete dbag but it bothered me the 3 or 4th time I read it and seeing it again just seems tacky. I had never seen anybody do that for such an extended period of time.

  12. fogiv

    the other day I was watching the news for a l’il bit, and I see some footage of Sarah Palin wearing a big Star of David pendant thing.  What’s that all about?

    I think it was right about the time (same day maybe?) she had a slice with teh Donald. Speaking of which, how does that idiot get away with eating a slice of classic NYC with a goddamned plastic fork? Isn’t that grounds for banishment in Gotham?

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