skippy the bush kangaroo

Labels: fiscal bluff

Labels: agriculture, california, climate change, drought, environment, epa, fires, global warming, infrastructure, mississippi, obama, pollution, public health, water, weather

Labels: daily kos, gop, social darwinism, social security

I support the change [from CPI-W to Chained CPI]—it’s a more accurate measure of price growth (though a chained index for the elderly would be better)

If the true CPI-E increases faster than CPI, then chained-CPI is worse, not better.

Labels: cat blogging friday, humour

Labels: fiscal bluff

Labels: romney

I arrived, headed for my favorite barbecue stand and, en route, noticed that Mel Tormé was seated at one of the tables.

Mel Tormé. My favorite singer. Just sitting there, sipping a cup of coffee, munching on an English Muffin, reading The New York Times. Mel Tormé.

I had never met Mel Tormé. Alas, I still haven't and now I never will. He looked like he was engrossed in the paper that day so I didn't stop and say, "Excuse me, I just wanted to tell you how much I've enjoyed all your records." I wish I had....

I waved the leader of the chorale over and directed his attention to Mr. Tormé, seated about twenty yards from me.

"That's Mel Tormé down there. Do you know who he is?"

The singer was about 25 so it didn't horrify me that he said, "No."

I asked, "Do you know 'The Christmas Song?'"

Again, a "No."

I said, "That's the one that starts, 'Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...'"

"Oh, yes," the caroler chirped. "Is that what it's called? 'The Christmas Song?'


"That's the name," I explained. "And that man wrote it." The singer thanked me, returned to his group for a brief huddle...and then they strolled down towards Mel Tormé. I ditched the rest of my sandwich and followed, a few steps behind. As they reached their quarry, they began singing, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." directly to him.

A big smile formed on Mel Tormé's face — and it wasn't the only one around. Most of those sitting at nearby tables knew who he was and many seemed aware of the significance of singing that song to him. For those who didn't, there was a sudden flurry of whispers: "That's Mel Tormé...he wrote that..."

As the choir reached the last chorus or two of the song, Mel got to his feet and made a little gesture that meant, "Let me sing one chorus solo." The carolers — all still apparently unaware they were in the presence of one of the world's great singers — looked a bit uncomfortable. I'd bet at least a couple were thinking, "Oh, no...the little fat guy wants to sing."

But they stopped and the little fat guy started to sing...and, of course, out came this beautiful, melodic, perfectly-on-pitch voice. The look on the face of the singer I'd briefed was amazed at first...then properly impressed.

On Mr. Tormé's signal, they all joined in on the final lines: "Although it's been said, many times, many ways...Merry Christmas to you..." Big smiles all around.

And not just from them. I looked and at all the tables surrounding the impromptu performance, I saw huge grins of delight...which segued, as the song ended, into a huge burst of applause. The whole tune only lasted about two minutes but I doubt anyone who was there will ever forget it.

Labels: aWol, budget, taxes

Labels: breitbart, cnn, gop, tea baggers

Labels: 2012 elections, multi-millionaire media, romney

Labels: christmas, music, skippy's music club

Labels: nra

Labels: congress, farm bill, farmers, farms, gop, milk

christmas version

Labels: cat blogging friday

Labels: christmas, music, skippy's music club, youtube

Labels: christmas, elvis, music, skippy's music club

Labels: florida, insanity

Dear big-boned young men: in addition to everything else, you are now the meatshields for school shootings
— @jesseltaylor via Twitter

Labels: tweet of the day, twitter

president obama

Labels: magazine, obama, time

Labels: banksters, criminal, economy, liars, wall street

Labels: music, skippy's music club, youtube

Labels: obama, republicans, social security

those kids weren't killed.
they were slaughtered.

do we want to live in a country that allows continued slaughter of our citizens?

i don't have children. i can't pretend that i know the grief the parents are going through. i just want to make sure that no more parents have to grieve.

i also can't believe the level of racist hate exists in this country shown when monday night football was pre-empted.

this stirring up the hate pot has got to stop. this telling of blatant lies has got to stop.
the killing has got to stop.

now.

Labels: connecticut, mass murder

Labels: music, skippy's music club, youtube

Labels: music, skippy's music club, youtube

Labels: football, michigan, music, skippy's music club

Labels: alec, gop, governor, lobbyists, michigan, union, workers

Labels: fcc, multi-millionaire media, radio, senate, tv

Theoreticians of “just war” say that in order for war to be justifiable, two tests must be met. You have to have a legitimate cause for war (self defense, for example, rather than grabbing land from a weaker neighbor) and you must fight the war in the right way. You must fight fair (that is, fight a just war), and you must fight nice.
One of the criteria for jus in bello (fighting nice as opposed to jus ad bellum which is about whether it is just ) is proportionality....

[lengthy bucketing of shades of 'just war' omitted]

[M]ore moderate critics of Israel (including many Israelis) focus on jus in bello, and in particular they look at the question of proportionality. When the Palestinians flick a handful of fairly crude rockets at random across Israel, these critics say, Israel has a right to a kind of pinprick response: tit for tat. But it isn’t entitled to bring the full power of its industrial grade air force and its mighty ground forces into an operation designed to crush Hamas at the cost of hundreds of civilian casualties. You can’t fight slingshots with tanks.

For many people around the world, this seems patently obvious: Israel has a right to respond to attacks from Hamas but it doesn't have an unlimited right to respond to limited attacks with unlimited force. Israeli blindness to this obvious moral principle strikes many observers as evidence of hardheartedness and national moral decline, and colors their perceptions of many other Israeli policies.

Ariel Sharon withdrew from Gaza as a dry-run for withdrawal from the West Bank…

And Gaza was taken over by crazies who want to destroy Israel and launch rockets over the border to try to kill civilians whenever they can.

Don’t demand that Jews publicly repudiate the actions of settlers and extremists. People who make this demand are assuming that Jews are terrible people or undeserving of being heard out unless they “prove” themselves acceptable by non-Jews’ standards. (It’s not okay to demand Palestinians publicly repudiate the actions of Hamas in order to be accepted/trusted, either.)

Yeah, Sharon was gonna bulldoze all the settlements and hundreds of thousands of Israelis were gonna walk hand in hand singing kumbaya to their new lives in small, overpriced Tel Aviv flats.

Labels: books, education, literature

Labels: michigan, music, skippy's music club, youtube

 

nfl players union opposes michigan's right to work push.

george atallah, the association’s assistant executive director for external affairs, told thinkprogress in a phone interview. “our leadership and players are always proud to stand with workers in michigan and everywhere else. we don’t think voters chose this, and we don’t think workers deserve this.” - think progress

Labels: detroit, football, gop, governor, michigan, union

Labels: hawaii, infamy, war

Labels: jazz, music, passings, skippy's music club, youtube

Labels: cookie monster, cookies, holiday, youtube

wonder how he feels knowing the current crop of gop could really care less about the rights of the disabled.

the senate has failed to ratify an international treaty intended to protect the rights of those with disabilities, as a bloc of conservatives opposed the treaty believing it could interfere with u.s. law. - wapo

originally signed by then-president george w. bush in 2006 and re-signed by president barack obama in 2009 shortly after he took office, the treaty has been championed by former sen. bob dole (r-ks), the one-time gop presidential nominee who suffered a disability while serving in the army in world war II. dole was on the senate floor tuesday ahead of the ratification vote, in a wheelchair, accompanied by his wife, former sen. elizabeth dole (r-nc). - talking points memo

Labels: disabled, gop, right hypocrisy

now...this is a holiday i can really sink my teeth into.

Labels: cookies, holiday

corporations are currently making more as a percentage of the economy than they ever have since such records were kept. but at the same time, wages as a percentage of the economy are at an all-time low - think progress

Labels: corporations, economy, obama, two americas, workers

Labels: brush fires, climate change, drugs, energy, epa, fire, florida, food, fracking, global warming, missouri, ocean, pollution, solar, sweden, thanksgiving, water

Labels: christmas, comedy, snl

Labels: infrastructure, new jersey