Wow! Such a busy day! TGIF! This week’s creature (finally!) is a black-breasted leaf turtle, (another photo from my many recent trips to the Tennessee Aquarium). It’s not technically one of my better photos, but I like the way he’s turning to look at the camera, as if to say “hi!”
It’s been a long day, so I’ll just wish you a great weekend, remind you to check out this week’s creatures, and leave it at that. Be safe and happy!
I know everyone is freaking out because of the New Hampshire Hillary headquarters hostage havoc (sorry, I had to do it — I loves me some alliteration!), so this might get lost in the news cycle, but anyone who is anywhere near my age will be devastated to hear that apparently Evel Knievel died today, according to EvelKnievel.com. Wow — what a pop icon (in a very circuitous way, he’s responsible for JumpTheShark.com).
You need to be aware of this news, and then check out this opinion.
It will be a sad day for MLK and Chattanooga politics once this project reaches fruition because there is very little you or I can do to stop it. The lines have already been drawn and the majority of the City Council doesn’t care because it’s not in their Districts. If this agenda was pushed onto Brainerd or Hixson, the whole city would be up in arms, shouting “Not in my backyard.” But as it stands, no one has come to MLK’s rescue. They are our neighbors and deserve a stronger vote in the process. I spend a great deal of time in MLK and as far as I’m concerned, it is my backyard.
At the center of this issue lies Ron Littlefield’s self-proclaimed “legacy project” – a narcissistic desire to paint himself as the great mayor with a heart of gold. It’s no secret that the Farmer’s Market campus is his pet project. This is intended to be his one great contribution to the Chattanooga narrative.
Ron Littlefield is going down in history as Chattanooga’s Worst Mayor Ever. And this disaster of a project will only add to that legacy, while it tears down a great up-and-coming neighborhood. That is, unless we can figure out a way to stop it. Does anyone have any ideas?
I’m watching the Republican YouTube/CNN debate at the moment, and I can’t believe my ears. When Giuliani was asked about the possibility that he let New Yorkers foot the bill for his adulterous trysts, he seemed to blame the police — that it’s their fault, because they were the ones who decided how to report (or hide?) the expenses involved in following Rudy around the state every time he got randy and snuck out to spend the weekend with his mistress. Did I hear that right?
Also, did Duncan Hunter just say that gays shouldn’t be allowed to serve in the military because most Americans who join the military are homophobes? Yikes! By that logic, segregation was ok as long as most Americans were racists. And this guy wants to be president?
[The only other candidates to answer the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" question were Huckabee, Romney and McCain. Huckabee just agreed with Hunter. Romney tore a page from Hillary's book by awkwardly trying to triangulate on the issue. And McCain just said that "Don't Ask Don't Tell" is working (don't tell the people trying to cope with the shortage of translators in the Middle East) and that everyone in the military agrees with him -- almost unanimously. By the way, the homosexual 43-year Brigadier General who asked the question was in the audience and he was heckled by the crowd (who were those people?).]
No one answered the question about how Jesus would feel about the death penalty. Huckabee got a laugh for his evasion (”Jesus was too smart to run for public office”), but no one was able to deal with it directly. How sad. Republicans claim to be the party of Jesus, but they really can’t seem to talk about him intelligently (and don’t get me started on the Democrats all trying to out-Jesus each other!). Maybe we need to just admit that religion has no place in politics and put us all out of our misery.
Really, I honestly tried to find something positive in tonight’s debate. But this selection of white men all seemed either really mean, crooked, or simply insane (what’s the deal with Ron Paul’s secret NAFTA superhighway?).
If this is true, his campaign is over.
This really is the worst administration ever. I keep thinking that they’ve plumbed the depths of their incompetence, but every time, I am wrong.
It doesn’t matter what claims they make in their commercials. Actions speak louder than words, and Wal-Mart is still a bully.
The company, which earned $2.9 billion last quarter, sued a former employee who suffered permanent brain damage in a car accident to get back $470,000 it spent on her medical bills.
They’re not so reformed as their commercials would have you believe.
Deborah Shank, who receives Medicaid, is not the only Wal-Mart employee receiving public health care. More than 60 percent of Wal-Mart employees – 600,000 people – are forced to get health insurance coverage from the government or through spouses’ plans or live without any health insurance. Last year, the AFL-CIO released a report showing how Wal-Mart shifts health care costs to consumers and a bunch of studies showing how Wal-Mart profits from taxpayers.
And let’s not even get started on how they are the top seller of the toxic toys that are currently sickening our children.
Sometimes low prices do have a high cost. Where are you doing your holiday shopping this year?
UPDATE: Did you notice who carried the story about Wal-Mart going after the brain-damaged employee? It sure as hell wasn’t Reuters, which is too busy sucking up to Wal-Mart to be bothered with actual journalism. Props to these guys (along with the Wall Street Journal and LA Times — apparently they have both featured the story) — which as of this morning, includes exactly four hits: 1, 2, 3, 4 — the latter of which carries this gem:
As Wal-Mart touts its new health care plan and launches public relations campaigns to repair its damaged reputation, this story once again exposes the company’s poor business practices and total disregard for the health and welfare of its employees.
“Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott’s decision to take away the money that Mrs. Shank would use for her medical expenses represents the kind of failure of moral leadership that we have sadly come to expect from him,” said David Nassar, Wal-Mart Watch Executive Director. “The Shanks are a hard-working American family – the kind that Lee Scott currently claims Wal-Mart helps to ’save money and live better.’ Unfortunately, the Shank family is doing neither.”
Wal-Mart Watch will raise funds for the Shank family and tell their story to remind consumers this holiday season that the low costs Wal-Mart provide come with a very high price paid by American families like the Shanks every day.
“Lee Scott will bring home more than $400,000 this week alone,” Nassar added.
Oh, this is just too good. Tucker Carlson, who like our feeble White House occupant, rode into town on his family connections (but UNlike Georgie Awol McFlightsuit, there’s some question as to whether or not Tucker finished college), is maybe falling out of favor in his current position on MSNBC.
Why this took so long, I have no idea (though his ratings are terrible, his friends are in high places — maybe that helps). I sometimes keep MSNBC on all day — except when Tucker Carlson is on, at which point, I switch the TV to another channel (or switch it off — unfortunately, he comes on at the same time as the droning Wolf Blitzer over on CNN, so I pretty much just have to take a break from the news for that hour). I just can’t stand to listen to the guy. First of all, he can be shrill in a way that I thought was only possible in a woman. Then there’s the fact that he can be quite the disingenuous (or just plain ignorant) snot. And, of course, he sometimes can’t even manage to conceal his mission: to read the talking points fed to him by the conservatives who have been propping him up his whole career. He’s a whining drama queen who thinks feigned stupidity is enough to give his leading questions some sort of legitimacy. He needed a chair for his (lap?) dance on Dancing with the Stars, has been humiliated on his own show, and has been spotted getting some poor video store clerk fired when faced with one of the byproducts of the celebrity he shamelessly courts.
So, guess what he’s planning on doing once he finally gets kicked off the news? Heh. This is where it gets funny.
He wants to be the next Richard Dawson. Or Gene Rayburn. Or — dare I say it? — Bob Eubanks. He wants to be a game show host! Could it be true? Tucker will be perfect! He’s smarmy, can certainly pull off the empty-headed part, and he loves wearing bow ties!
Hello! I'm Alice, which is my real name (most of the other names here have been changed, though, to protect the innocent). I live in an almost-100-year-old house in downtown Chattanooga, TN with my first husband, G-Dog (who is from New Canaan, CT), and a cockapoo named Nonnie (the moniker comes from a Laurens van der Post book). We have one kid (that we know of) -- a daughter, Emmie, who plays a supporting role on the blog. She's off being a student, but she pops in often enough to keep things interesting.
I originally hale from Batavia, NY, a quiet little town in rural western New York. G-Dog and I met while attending college in Carlisle, PA, and then moved on to Chapel Hill, NC together before finally settling in Tennessee. Other places we've lived in long enough to have a mailing address include London and San Francisco.
This blog is about a lot of things -- the places I visit, things I cook, people I meet, photos I take, things I read, and -- of course, politics. I'm an unrepentant, arugula-eating, progressive, liberal, lefty, euro-loving, educated elitist and I'm looking forward to an administration that doesn't raise my blood pressure quite as often as the outgoing one did...
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