The World of Firsts: Yummy Edition

I am weary of the world so I turn to something that is all good.

Hope had her first bit of "real" food this week.



She seemed to enjoy it, there were lots of yummy sounds.

Her Daddy is #1 burper in all the land.



She was a happy girl and wore her oatmeal proudly.

Veterans For Peace

In honor of this day I thought I would let people who know what they're talking about share their voice.

You can read more at VETERANS FOR PEACE

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
October 27, 2009

Dear President Obama,

As veterans of our nation’s wars, we insist you hear our call.

British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin spoke an unassailable truth when he said, “War would end if the dead could return.” If you believe that is true, Mr. President and Members of the House, you must heed our counsel well: we are the closest anyone can come to that truth the dead would speak. Stop the killing!

Because we personally understand what war truly means, we have written, called and demonstrated repeatedly for an end to the killing in Afghanistan and Iraq. We have protested at and have been arrested in House Office Buildings, the House Gallery, the White House and Congressional offices across the nation. We have pleaded, then demanded, that you stop the suffering in these countries. Although promised prior to the election, no combat brigades have returned from Iraq. And now we can smell the mire of escalation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Nevertheless, we cannot cease to appeal to that spark of humanity in your hearts. We know wealthy, powerful interests such as weapons contractors, lobbyists and right-wing broadcasters daily make a deafening noise, trying to drown out the voice that insists, “Stop the killing.” We also know that no matter how quiet the voice of humanity might become, it can never be silenced.

So we lift up to you voices much more eloquent than our own, voices of soldiers who survived the worst fighting human beings have ever experienced, World War One. For nearly 100 years, the wisdom and compassion of their poetry has endured. Their words now stand as one of the world’s most powerful witnesses to the madness of war.

You must hear them.

…And you yourself would mutter when You took the things that once were men, And sped them through that zone of hate To where the dripping surgeons wait; And wonder too if in God's sight War ever, ever can be right.
– From “Foreword” by British ambulance driver, Robert Service

And

…If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori.
– From “Dulce et Decorum est” (It is Sweet and Right to Die for Your Country) by British Army Lt. Wilfred Owen, killed a week before the 1918 Armistice.

More than that we cannot say to you, so we will address our former brothers and sisters in arms who are now our brothers and sisters in peace.

Most Sincerely,
Mike Ferner
National President
Veterans For Peace

cc: Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House
Steny H. Hoyer, Majority Leader of the House
John Boehner, Republican Leader of the House
James E. Clyburn, House Majority Whip
Eric Cantor, Republican Whip

Thoughts of Bonnie and Clyde

I pass this car a lot. It's always there.



It sits on the edge of a gas station at a really busy intersection. The kind of intersection that backs up and you have to wait for the light to cycle through at least twice before you get anywhere.

I have made up a million stories about this car. From the mundane - owner needs to sell it to save the gas station. To the sublime - it is the get away car of old time gangsters.

Bonnie and Clyde the next generation.

The other day I noticed ...



... what I decided were bullet holes.

A whole new set of stories to get me through traffic.

A REMAKE of the Bonnie and Clyde story is planned for next year.

The 1967 CLASSIC is one of my favorite movies.

it is official - new jersey IS run by thugs

Imagine Tony Soprano without the good looks, the charm, the humor.

Meet NJ’s new governor. The (not so) honorable Chris Christie.



Here he is with his future defense attorney. Considering that our new governor likes to drive recklessly and then threaten the police Rudy should come in handy.



And here he is looking for his brains.



I can’t say I’m surprised by what the news is calling an “upset”. I am disappointed. My fears about my fellow citizens have come to light – when push comes to shove they only care about their little tiny patch of toxic land.

And there are those intellectual giants who probably thought they were voting for Christ. Or maybe they liked how CC looked on the shiny magical voting box. I met these folks at healthcare town meetings.

Homer Simpson could have won this election – all you had to do was bark as loud as possible about property taxes.

And pander to those who have never lived anywhere but here and never read a newspaper – convince them that NJ has it worse than any other state (not true) and blame it all on a one term governor. It didn’t help that Corzine has the personality of mulch. He couldn’t excite a room full of imprisoned women if he had a vibrator stapled to his head.

Our new governor thinks women do not have the right to chose. He thinks gay people should not be allowed to marry. His children all attend parochial schools and he thinks early childhood education is “babysitting”. He loves insurance companies. He adores big corporations.

He is a match made in the hell that I fear we are all sliding toward.

And the funniest thing of all is that most economists say his proposals to lower taxes won’t work anyway. Most say that Corzine would have kept taxes stable while continuing to save basic services.

I know this because I did my homework. I read both websites and then I checked their claims with third party sources.

My fellow NJ’ers apparently didn’t have the time – they were far too busy screaming at town hall meetings and setting up their little anti-Obama tables outside the post office. Hell, it takes time to draw in the Hitler mustache.

This very same “upset” happened in Virginia. Be proud all ye Christie-ites – you’re slipping closer and closer to the Mason-Dixon Line.

Yo Democrats! Wise up. If your party doesn’t start fighting back the only blue you’ll have is the balls you sadly lack.

As for me and my new governor. I will bestow upon him the same respect Fox News gives the President. I hope he fails. I think he’s a racist. He is absolutely part of a conspiracy to destroy American ideals.

Christie challenged Corzine to “man up and just call me fat” – Corzine didn’t. I will.

You’re fat Chris. A fat liar. A fat bully. A big fat slug in the Garden of this State.

Pet Pride: Oy! My Nerves

Hi everybody - Siren here.

Mom person made up the title. I don't really say Oy!, it's more like OEEEOW!! but, like most humans, she hears what she wants to hear.

I am so grateful to BOZO for hosting Pet Pride. It's the only place where I can share my troubles.

It has been a rough few days.

First of all Mia (ugh!) has taken up all of Mom persons time. She is on new meds and she is acting odd - as if one could tell the difference - so she is getting a lot of attention.

She puts on her pathetic face ...



and gets everything she wants. I know she's like a million years old but come on already, enough!

The latest thing is that she can't reach everywhere to bathe so she's been getting matty hair and overall funkiness. So now there are more accessories just for her ...



Mom person runs around here wiping and brushing and clipping and serving. It's like a freakin' day at the spa with Mariah Carey.

I feel bad for Mia now and then. I guess I'll get old and feeble one day (NOT) and Mom person will take care of me too.

I try to help. Just last night Mia did a little upchucking and I ran right over to paw at it and move it under the bed. I was even careful to wipe my paws on the bed when I was finished cleaning up. I get the feeling I wasn't appreciated.

Makes me want to ...



Yesterday was some sort of people holiday. It required the persons dressing up like animals and beasts and ringing doorbells. Every time I got settled in for my nap more of them showed up.

Even the "infiltrator" was in on it. She dressed up like a bee and hung out with MY friend Anthony. Anthony is the first child person I ever liked and the first not family person I ever didn't bite - why is the furless wonder hogging in on him?



I was so upset that I needed to cuddle with Mom person's shoes.



I survived the dress up doorbell ringing day and thought that was it. BUT NOOOOO!

Today the uninvited creature with no fur sits center stage with all the goodies Mom person bought her and gets to watch the Jets. She sits there drooling and babbling while her Dad - MY brother - yells at the TV. More commotion ...



She does smell and lick everything in sight. That I can relate to.

Well my nerves are shot. Where are my shoes?



Thanks for listening everybody. It's Jenna's birthday so go on over to PET PRIDE and say Hi.

Happy Halloween

Hope will be a bumble bee for Halloween. She will be attending a 'It's My First Halloween' party in Brooklyn with her cousins. Her Mom's family is very large and there are many, many cousins for Hope to share the day with.

We've been celebrating all week.

First we played 'Nana don't let me slide off the sofa' ...



We played twice with a costume change in between ...



Here we see Hope considering who she will give all her candy to ...



And day dreaming about pumpkins ...



Earlier today Hope traveled to the pumpkin patch in search of the perfect pumpkin ...




Have a wonderful Halloween!



May the Great Pumpkin Shine For You

The Turnpike Series. You Can't Be Torn If You Just Don't Care.

Most of the news outlets are calling the World Series between the NY Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies The Turnpike Series. I’m not sure where or how they drive but I don’t think you can get to the Bronx from the Turnpike.

As a resident of the lovely Garden State of New Jersey (Lord save me) I’m supposed to be torn about who to root for. Northern NJ is being called Yankee country while Southern NJ is allegedly devoted to Philly. I live in Central NJ – what the hell do I do?

Lucky for me I don’t give a rat’s ass.

I saw an interview today with a man who lives in Princeton. He called his town “the Mason Dixon Line” and went on and on – and on and on – about how “torn” they were over this series. He even claimed that “living through” this series would give people a feeling for how it was to live along the Mason Dixon Line. God Bless America – we don’t know our own geography or history and can turn any horror into trivia.



I used to be a baseball fan. A devoted Yankees fan. I would take my son to dozens of games every season. When money was tight we would sit in the bleachers and get a good (cancer causing) sunburn. My son wouldn’t even blink at the rough language and rowdy ways of the bleacher creatures – he’d seen it all at home.



In richer days we enjoyed box seats and extra hot dogs.

We’d get there as soon as the stadium opened. My son loved batting practice. Dave Winfield once hit a wild one that landed in Jeffrey’s soda cup. Reggie Jackson tipped his hat to Jeff. Goose Gossage kissed my hand. I told him he had beautiful eyes. He asked if I’d like to see what they looked like after a night of drinking and … Goose stopped dead in his tracks when Jeff said “hey, she’s my mother!”

Damn kid always cramped my style …

Now tickets to a game are absurdly expensive. The new stadium feels like a gourmet food court where a ball game just happened to break out. The Yankees annoy the crap out of me – I’m so sick of whiny multi-millionaires who play a kid’s game for a living and take themselves too seriously.

I really don’t know much about the Phillies other than they have Pedro Martinez on their roster so they must suck. I despise Pedro. Ever since he grabbed Don Zimmer’s head in his meaty hands and threw an old man to the ground I have despised Pedro. I never bought into all the Yankee/Red Sox stupidity. People who beat the crap out of each other over a game are just plain asshats but the sight of Pedro can make my blood boil.




I might tune into the games to see what Kate Hudson is wearing.



Or maybe, in a moment of nostalgia, I’ll watch just to hope Pedro gets his ass handed to him.



Plus it’s always entertaining to see them put Mayor Bloomberg into his booster seat.