HALLOWEEN'S SCARIEST PICTURE

Here it is.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Marriage is not a word; it is a sentence. - Anonymous

(I don't necessarily agree with this.)

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Second place is the first loser. -- Emoxer

ANDY ROONEY AND IRAQ

(sigh)

There are tons of people smarter than I in the world, but I sometimes wonder if they see the lint when they contemplate their navels.

I listened to Andy Rooney talk about Iraq on "60 Minutes" the other night and couldn't help but wonder if his eyebrows have wormed their way into his brain through his ears and short circuited his thinking. The bottom line to his recent commentary is that while we did the right thing in getting rid of Saddam that we are now in a war that is wrong...that Bush should address the people of this country and tell them that he thought we were doing the right thing by going into Iraq but that he made a mistake and that we should now pull out.

This isn't going to happen, and it shouldn't. We can't leave the people of Iraq in the throes of civil war, created (much to my chagrin) by our actions over there. We need to finish what we went there to do.

But
this
isn't
going
to
happen
either.

I don't think we'll be able to win this war because the religious hostilities bear such a close resemblance to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict of decades. It's not about oil, it's about religious intolerance. Add the terrorist element into the mix, with their own religious agenda, and what stacks up is a situation not resolvable. I feel sorry for President Bush. And what I'd like to ask him is why we just didn't arrange for Saddam to meet with an "accident" and then sit back and let the Iraqis try to right themselves once he was gone. We could have watched from the sidelines and hoped for the best.

(sigh)

MORE IDIOCY

(sigh)

OK...a while back I wrote about cosmetic surgery's newest fad -- labiaplasty. This just blew my mind. Today I read about yet ANOTHER of medical science's fad in the Make-Yourself-Beautiful-At-All-Cost effort ------- eyelash transplants. Is this because the nip-and-tuck docs have enhanced, reduced, re-shaped or suctioned every available part of the anatomy and are looking for something new?
We'd better be careful. Next thing you know we'll all look like Michael Jackson.

(sigh)

PINK FLAMINGOS, REVISITED

(sigh)

Last Saturday I was at a nursery shopping for hay for a hayride and pumpkins to paint when I came across -- guess what! Several pink flamingos, one of which was a "spinner!" They all had Don Featherstone's signature molded into their pink plastic behinds, so I was ecstatic to find that I was truly looking at originals! Made my day, it did!

(LOL)

THE BEST OF THE CHESTS

(LOL)

Somewhere recently on line I stumbled across a website called “Rate My Rack,” which elicited a raucous guffaw from me. God, I love the internet! Anyway, since I’m not about to let you rate MY rack, I thought a variation on it might make an interesting post.

(FEMALE – REAL OR FAKE CATEGORY, PAST OR PRESENT)

5. Britney Spears (pre-pregnancy)
4. Halle Berry
3. Scarlett Johannson
2. Elizabeth Taylor (in "Cleopatra")
1. Maxine (She is forever queen!)

THE BEST OF THE CHESTS (MALE - PAST OR PRESENT)

5. John F. Kennedy, Jr. (from age 18 – demise)
4. Jake Gyllenhaal
3. Mel Gibson (in “Lethal Weapon” series)
2. Matthew McConaughey
1. Patrick Swayze (in “Dirty Dancing”). (He is forever king!)

(LOL)

WHY I LOVE FALL

(sigh)

This gorgeous fall specimen is one of the reasons I so love the fall. This tree takes my breath away every single October.

(Is this a sign of getting older? LOL)

BILL AND ME

(lol)

And it's not even Halloween!
(Only one of us is normal! )

(lol again)

300,000,000 AND COUNTING

(sigh)

Once again, we have lost our collective minds in this country. While watching the news last night I viewed a clip from the Census Bureau from yesterday morning celebrating with loud applause the turning of the population board to 300 million of us Americans (well, it's most likely 200 million actual Americans and 100 million illegals). They even had refreshments to celebrate the occasion.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE???????????????????

Yeah, yeah....I heard all the "positives" and I don't buy into a single one of them. The key argument for celebrating our population increase is that we need babies to continue to be born so they may support the elder population down the road. Pffffffft! All we need is adequate tax reform so we keep more of our earnings to save and/or invest for our retirements, and some restraint on fiscal spending.

Hmmm....maybe we DO need more babies. We're never gonna get either tax reform or fiscal responsibility.

(sigh)

CLASSMATES

(sigh)

I have no idea what has possessed me to think about high school classmates recently. I left the small town I grew up in for good in 1964 and didn't look back. I visit family there from time to time but don't feel any roots to that place. Sad, I suppose. Must be a character flaw since there are many still there with whom I grew up who love the town and the way of life it offers. It just wasn't for me. Or, maybe I just wasn't for IT.

I have warm and fuzzy memories as a young child growing up there, as evidenced by several blog posts along those lines. But as I grew older I found the small town to be stifling, and I looked forward to leaving it behind. I don't regret doing so. The south is a wonderful place overall -- full of history and steeped in memorable traditions. I love it all. I just didn't care for the ennui-producing facets of life in a mill town. Again, probably a character flaw of mine.

At any rate, I was thinking about those who were friends -- Linda D., Linda P., Mike, Tom, Jim, Eddie, Pixie, Whit, Gloria, Billy, Barry, Kitsie, Carolyn, Susan, Jeannette, Tres, Lynn, Andy, Anne, Barbara, Flo, Bobby, Earving, Wayne, Cindy, etc., etc. -- and wondering what they made of their lives and if they're happy. Some of them I know about; others, I don't. But they'll always be in my memories, and pleasant ones at that.

(sigh)

IMMIGRATION LIMITATION

(sigh)

OK, here I go gettin’ up on my high horse again about immigrants – both illegal AND legal! It rankles me that we are undisciplined in our thinking about the huge issues surrounding allowing unlimited numbers of folks into this country every year. While we have our problems, we are nonetheless a thriving, prosperous country; however, our resources – both natural and otherwise – know some bounds. I’m certain my liberal friends out there think I’m heartless, but I’m not actually. It’s just that I have grave concerns about our ability as a nation to provide for the numbers of people who want access to America’s riches and opportunities.

When one contemplates what overpopulation has done to countries like China and India, one has to wonder if we may not be in similar circumstances 50 years from now if we allow immigration to remain unchecked. Granted, we are more advanced in many ways than India and we most likely would fare better in the long run than they; but the Chinese are in dire straits and they are quite industrious. Over-population is doom to an economy and a country's ability to prosper.

Over seventy percent of growth in this country is a result of immigration -- immigrants who tax our system in every way imaginable: overcrowded schools and prisons, traffic, energy shortages, water shortages, pollution of all kinds. Does it sound harsh to blame an influx of immigrants for these things? Not at all. With U.S. birth rates having fallen to record lows, the strains on our resources is from unchecked immigration rather than Americans' mommy track. Of course we need to attend to our "Give us your tired, your poor" philosophy, but we need to do it in a more level-headed way. We need to define what numbers we can realistically accommodate yearly and find a way to seal the borders. Maybe even a moratorium is in order until we can catch our breath and work through the problems associated with this mass of humanity flowing (legally and illegally) into our midst.

(sigh)

IS THIS WHO I AM?

I'm not really quite sure this is who I am, but I suppose it's as close to ringing true as anything else, especially the "Go, Duke" sweatshirt and the "southernsighs1" blog up on the computer!

(LOL)

BLOG ANNIVERSARY

(sigh)

This blog is a year old today.

Last year when I was trying to decide if I wanted to do this, I couldn't imagine that I had anything to say of interest to anyone. But it was a time in my life when I needed an outlet, and this was as good as any.

I get up in the morning, put on the coffee and sit here enjoying the solitude and write whatever's on my mind. It's not rocket science, but I'm flattered when folks read me and take the time to email or comment.

The friend who encouraged me to start this blog has commented many times, has provided topics for posts, has just generally been there to spur me on. He has an amazing blog of his own. It's serious, funny, insightful, inspirational. I'm very grateful to him, and he knows who he is.

So, I'll keep writing silly stuff, keep ranting about serious (and trivial) stuff, so long as you keep reading. And maybe even if you don't.

(sigh)

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Why do we press harder on the remote control when we know the battery is dead? -- Anonymous