Teacher Hidden As Sudan Mob Urges Death!...

I don't usually post about anything serious on this blog but I believe this is important enough to post.

Folks, this is Islam, pure and simple! This represents ALL MUSLIMS! Those Muslims you know and like ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS! They're all happy about 9/11! You need to realize this before too many of them get into this country!

Teacher Hidden As Sudan Mob Urges Death

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and swords and beating drums, burned pictures of a British teacher Friday and demanded her execution for insulting Islam by letting her students name a teddy bear, Muhammad.

Saudi Rape Victim Gets 200 Lashes

CBS/AP) A Saudi court sentenced a woman who had been gang raped to six months in jail and 200 lashes - more than doubling her initial penalty for being in the car of a man who was not a relative, a newspaper reported Thursday.

Cleric Announces $1M Bounty on Cartoonist

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - A Pakistani cleric announced a $1 million bounty for killing a cartoonist who drew the Prophet Muhammad as thousands joined street protests after Friday prayers.

If you care about your Nation and freedom, you'll call the white house and demand President Bush stop the Muslim immigration into this country! There is already one in the House of Representatives and now one is running for the White house. Let's stop this while there is time!
Later...

Another Day-Another Gig..

It's time once again to entertain the 'oldsters'. La Donna, Mi Espousa (a little Mex lingo there) and I have learnt a couple of new songs and we're gonna try them out on the elderly. Two are Everly Brothers songs, one is a Louvin Brothers song and one is a George Jones 'slash' Tammy Wynet song. They all are duets.

Now, to make a short story even shorter, I will retire to perform my toilette,-i.e., scrape my face, brush my snags and mop under my arms and re-apply deodorant and talcum power to smell. Until the next time, Aw Reservoir! (Make that' Adios')

Later...

THE N---- BEFORE CHRISTMAS ...

The Christmas season has started and what better way to usher it in than a favorite Christmas Poem. I decided to post one of the most beloved poems on my blog.

However, after the fiasco with Dog, the bounty hunter's choice of words, I think discretion is the better part of valor so I have edited it a bit so it will be politically correct and can be accepted by everyone and fully enjoyed.

Like every report on TV and in the printed word about Dog's language, I have omitted all n words. And to be on the safe side, I also omitted all the H words,(h-----rhymes with donkey) all K words (K--- rhymes with hike) and all W words. (W-- rhymes with top)

I considered omitting all G words,(God) C words (Christ) and Q words(Queer or the equivalent) but, what the hey, we need to have a little leeway, don't we?

Anyhow, here is the poem. Enjoy!

THE N---- BEFORE CHRISTMAS
'Twas the n---- before Christmas, w--- all through the h----
N-- a creature w-- stirring, n-- even a mouse;
The stockings w--- h--- by the chimney w--- care,
In h---- that St. N------- soon w---- be there;

The children w--- n------ all snug in their beds,
W---- visions of sugar-plums danced in their h----;
And mamma in her 'k-------, and I in my cap,
H-- just settled down for a long w-----‘- n--,

W--- out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see w--- w-- the matter.
Away to the w----- I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the n---fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
W---, w--- to my w-------- eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

W--- a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I k--- in a moment it must be St. N---.
More rapid than eagles h-- coursers they came,
And h- w-------, and shouted, and called them by n---;

"N--, Dasher! N--, Dancer! N--, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the w---!
N-- dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the w--- h-------- fly,
W--- they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the h-----top the coursers they flew,
W--- the sleigh full of toys, and St. N------- too.

And then, in a twinkling, I h---- on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little h---.
As I drew in my h---, and w-- turning around,
Down the chimney St. N------- came w--- a bound.

H- w-- dressed all in fur, from h-- h--- to h-- foot,
And h-- clothes w--- all tarnished w--- ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys h- h-- flung on h-- back,
And h- looked like a peddler just opening h-- pack.


H-- eyes – h-- they twinkled! H-- dimples h-- merry!
H-- cheeks w--- like roses, h-- n--- like a cherry!
H-- droll little mouth w-- drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of h-- chin w-- as w---- as the snow;

The stump of a pipe h- h--- tight in h-- teeth,
And the smoke it encircled h—h--- like a w-----;
H- h-- a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, w--- h- laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

H- was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed w--- I saw h--, in spite of myself;
A w--- of h-- eye and a twist of h-- h---,
Soon gave me to k--- I h-- n------ to dread;

H- spoke not a w---, but went straight to h—w---,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying h-- finger aside of h-- nose,
And giving a n--, up the chimney h- rose;

H- sprang to his sleigh, to h-- team gave a w------,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I h---- h-- exclaim, ere h- drove out of sight,
"H---- Christmas to all, and to all a good-n----."

Later...

You Just Never Know...

I hate to admit it, but I have been having trouble with my internet connection. It's an ATT,-sbc,_yahoo (etc) dsl line and is supposed to give me 512 kbps upload and 3 mbps download and it did pretty close to that until a short while back.

I got up one morning and, as usual, turned on my pc and proceeded to 'surf the net.' At least, I tried to. My connection was so slow it was like having a 33 modem again. (or is that a 36k?)I didn't get to the first wave of the net, much less, surf it! Bummer!

Anyhow, I knew something was wrong so, like any good pc person, I reset my modem and tried again. Still no go, so I disconnected my entire network,(2 pcs and a laptop) and reset everything. Nothing!

Well, that did it! Now I had only one alternative and that was what I did! I saved everything of any worth to my external hard drive and re-did my entire computer-made it just like it came from the factory! Now my dsl would take off like a jet plane! 'oops' I know you're not going to believe this but, that didn't help a bit!

Now this was a quandary. I had never failed before. (Not in a while, anyhow) Now there were only two more options. I could call a technician or kill myself.What a choice to have to make. After mulling this over for some time (three seconds is 'some' time)I decided on the former rather than the latter.

When I reached the technician, we went through every conceivable option with my pc and dsl connection and nothing made things any better. I assured her that everything was all right in my connection setup and it had to be in the outside line. Then she said there was only one thing left to do and that was to send a technician to my home to check everything out. I said OK and thought we were set to go. Then she said something that caused my blood to run cold.

She said if the problem was with the outside line, there would be no charge but if it turned out to be inside the house, something wrong with the pc, modem hookup, or etc, it would cost me 60 bucks an hour!

I explained to her that I was old and sickly and barely squeaked by on a paltry social security income and could never afford 60 dollars. She assured me it would probably be from something outside and wouldn't cost me anything. I reluctantly gave in and agreed to a technician in my home.

As I sat in my computer chair, stunned by the idea that I might have to pay out money that I really needed for really important things (you know; guitar strings, polish breakfast sausage, and stuff like that) a weird thing happened. I felt myself grow spacey, as if going into a
stuporus trance. Then my spirit came to my assistance. I guess it was my spirit.

Out of my existence, something axed me if I could have made a mistake about everything being all right with my hookup. My existence assured me that this is what Chico the Wonder Dog would ax (look at me, you know, 'cause dogs can't talk) Now, if I hadn't already been in a stupor, I'da gone into one at this suggestion. Then I thought, what the hey; if this is what Chico the Wonder Dog would have axed me, maybe there is something to it.

To make a long story short, I took a brand new telephone line I had and hooked it up direct from the phone outlet to my modem and this son of a gun'in modem and pc almost jumped off the desk! What a dog! Even dead he's smarter than some people!

Well, there it is, for the long and the short of it. You just never know when you might not know everything! Yes, it's hard to conceive of or believe. That's the way it happened and you can do with it what you will!

Later...

Happy Thanksgiving!!...

According to official reports, there could be as many as 38 million people living below the poverty level in the United States of America alone! According to the official report, I am one of them! Bummer!

It's not too bad, though, I guess. The average African family sometimes has a car and a milk goat or two and maybe a couple of cows and a few chickens and a dog. And that's the average income folks. The below the poverty line Africans have even less.
All Donna and I have are a 1360 square foot mobile home with central heat and air conditioning, a car, a pickup, four TV's, three computers, a stereo, refrigerator, gas range with oven, two inside toilets, two guitars, two amplifiers, a PA set that has a power head and two 12 inch speakers, microphones, recorder console, two pantries filled with canned goods and other kinds of food, three telephones, social security and Medicare and...we are below the income poverty level.
Thank You, God, for allowing us the blessing of being a below the poverty level American instead of an average income African!

Here is a picture of some African women who are coming back from the store with beer for their husbands who are getting ready to listen to the football game on a crystal radio they built from plans they got from a grandfather who fought in WWII.

Thank God for all our blessings and, to all of our family and friends, "Have a Happy Thanksgiving!"

Later...

A Haunting...

I saw a TV program called, "A Haunting," a story of a Corpus Christi, Texas family who moved into their new house and discovered it was occupied by a ghost. A year ago I would have chuckled and turned the channel but now I don't chuckle, I only turn the channel.

Why, you ax me? It's easy. Today I realized that Chico the Wonder Dog is finally gone. At least, I think so.

For a while after his death, on occasion I would see a small shadow move across the floor where none should be and, every now and then, would hear a low, "wuff", the sound Chico the Wonder Dog used to make when he wanted to go outside or get on the bed with me. It occurred to me today that neither of those things have happened for quite some time now. I guess Chico the Wonder Dog finally understands he cannot ever come back for real. I guess he is gone for good now.

Maybe, like us, he has accepted that and will get on with whatever kind of life he now has in Doggie Heaven.

Later...

"If"...

I was over at 'Frankly Opinionated's' place and was reminded of a poem I have always liked so I decided to post the poem today. It's worth reading, I think.

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

Later...

Something Old-Something New...

Well, It's time once again to entertain the old folks! La Donna, Mi Espousa (a little Mex lingo there) and I will go to Frontier Hall, the Anderson Senior Nutrition Center, today and play some musica (a little more Mex lingo) for the old people.

Actually, I should say, "older", people, rather than old people. We ain't no spring chickens! I've been 71 for eleven days short of ten months now and Donna just turned..'oops'..I won't go there but, as of the thirteenth of this month, she's older than some people I know.

But, thank the Good Lord, we still have our health and a desire for recognition,-er,- that is, "A desire to help other people in whatever way we are capable of," he said, ending a sentence with a preposition. (Anybody knows it's not right to use a preposition to end a sentence with.) 'oops'..Done it agin!

Anyhoo, we have a surprise for the elderly today. That's the, "Something new." Using our handy dandy harmonizer, we have practized (with a long i)a couple of songs with background music. One is, "Sh-Boom," and it has some really neat background noises in it. One line goes,
"Hey, nonny ding dong, a-lang a-lang a-lang,
Boom ba-doh, ba-doo ba-doo bee-ay."
Now ain't that neat?

Another is, Only the Lonely," a Roy Orbison song. It's a bit more tricky. (or is that,'Trickier'? Oh, well) A line in that one goes,
"Dum-dum-dum-dumdy-doo-wah; Ooh-yay-yay-yay-yeah; Oh-oh-oh-oh-wah;Only the lonely, Only the lonely."

Now once again I ax you, ain't that neat?

I can only pray that those old folks don't think we are really the Crew Cuts or Roy Orbison and mob us!(I couldn't be a 'crew Cut as my hair is too long but Donna could almost make it)

Well, it's 7:43 am and Donna just came in from the twilight zone so I'd best wrap this up. I'll let you know what, if anything interesting, happens!

Later...

Next To The Last....

My step sister, Betty Jo, died last week from cancer. She was 75 years young. She was a very good person and I always felt like she was really my sister. If I could have picked out another real sister, it would have been Betty Jo.

She had an AOL blog. It tells a lot about her. It's at this link. And maybe tells it better than I can.

I'll tell more about her later. She is the next to last of her siblings. She had three brothers and a sister and the oldest brother is the only one left. He suffers from Alzheimer's disease and is in a nursing home in Oregon.

Below is a post from her blog I enjoyed reading. She calls it, "Growing Up."

"I have been asked to write in my journal again. I just read a story that my stepsister, Mickey wrote. I don't remember things quite like she does.

My first memories are of living in and around Chowchilla. My grandfather raised cotton. To the best of my knowledge, he leased other farms, besides the one they lived on, and my dad would work the leased farms. I guess in the South they would call this share cropping. When I was about eight or nine years old, my Mom and Dad separated. We lived with my Dad for awhile. I know it had to be hard for him, with five kids. I don't think any of the relatives offered to help. I can remember my grandmother saying, I am not going to raise these kids. I guess she loved us, but didn't want that responsibility. I don't remember what happened, but my next memory is being with our mom again living in a motel in Merced. My mom was with a man , named Paul Pierce. I thought he was the greatest guy ever. He probably wasn't worth anything, because they drank and partied all the time. I don't know if he was in the service already, or had to go, but I remember him leaving, which was very sad. I thought of him for a long time after that. Our mother drank a lot at that time and left me, Joyce and Floyd alone a lot.

Somehow we got back with our Dad, and lived in Modesto. There was a store and gas station on the corner of Hatch and Crowslanding called Pates Store. Next to the store was a little cabin, if I remember right, it was one room, and on the other side of a wall was another room. Georgia Alexander and her children lived in the room on the other side. I only remember living there for a short time and then , we all, our family and Georgia's moved to what was then called Ingles Camp. It was near seventh street bridge on the river. We lived in tents.

I remember one day I decided to swim across the river to an island. The water was so swift I almost got swept down stream. I made it to the Island, but was afraid to swim back. I was about ten years old then. Finally a teenage boy who had a boat, came over and brought me back in the boat.

I don't remember having any bad times there, there was always a lot of kids to play with, but I was always trying to find out where my Mother was. By the way, when we lived at Ingles camp was where I first saw the guy who was years later to become my husband. He was a friend of my two older brothers."

I might have my memories mixed up, but I think we moved to Triangle Ranch near Empire next. We had a house to live in there, and there was ten kids. The grownups worked on the ranch doing fruit work, and we kids worked in the summer in the cutting sheds. Behind the house there was a cliff, and we would sometimes climb down this cliff to play in what seemed like a forest near the river.

One day we were playing down there and my sister, Joyce fell in the river. I jumped in to get her out, and the water again was very swift. I tried to grab tree limbs to help us to get out while holding on to her, and the limbs kept breaking off. We were screaming help, and out of nowhere came a man, and helped us out of the river. I never saw him before or again. I am sure it was an angel.

Later...

Another Place, An Earlier Time...

I wrote all of my life story, as much as I now have written, but I enjoy reading it I call it, "Jim’s Journal.” Here is a small piece of my life.

I started talking at a very early age and, also, learned to sing early in my life. When I was about three or four years old, Dad or one of the kids would take me to a park and I would sing,” I Don’t Want Your Greenback Dollar,” and people would say what a good singer I was and give me pocket change. I gave it to Dad and he used it to buy food for the family.

Another thing I remember is, one time the girls didn't show up at school. They climbed some giant Mulberry trees and ate mulberries all day and just played. They could see the bus stop from where they were and when the bus came from school, they went home as if they had gone to school. Mother gave Mickey and Eva a whipping but not Joan because she was the littlest. They wanted to know how she knew they hadn’t gone to school and she told them, “A little bird told me.” We were pretty big kids before we figured that there was no,“Little Bird," and the mulberry stains on their hands probably gave her a hint.”

We used to have to walk a long ways across the desert to get water in gallon jugs for cooking and drinking because we had no water at our tent. On the way we passed a large house that had a swimming pool. Sometimes on the way back the folks at the house would let us swim in their pool. First we had to go on and ask Mother if we could then walk back across the hot desert sand to get back. Except for our burning feet, it was great.

…Gone to California…

We lived in Glendale, Arizona and Phoenix just before we moved to California. Mother and Daddy talked about going to California and who would go first and who would stay. Daddy had tuberculosis and so mother decided she would go. She took my brother and me and we caught a freight train. Later, down the line somewhere, we hitchhiked. We made it to Planada, California where Vernon Bue and his family lived.

Later Daddy and the girls caught a ride to Bakersfield. On the way they got a ride in a large, fine car. My sister, Mickey, had to ride in the back seat and got carsick so she was given crackers to settle her stomach a little and was put in the front floorboard of the car and stood up between the seat and the dashboard the rest of the way.

Daddy was sick with TB and broke when they got to Bakersfield. The Bakersfield police saw him and the girls and their situation and put Daddy in a sanitarium and the girls in an orphanage. As it turned out, my Cousin, L B Johnson, lived in Bakersfield and when he found out what had happened, he had the police let Daddy and the girls go to his house. Later the whole family got together again.

This is just another episode in my life. I really enjoy reading about it and I hope you do, too.

Later…