I am still reeling from this news, which I heard in the car on the radio earlier today. I still haven’t recovered, and with this pick (Sanjay Gupta of CNN for Surgeon General), I’m more than disappointed. I’m pissed, I’m sick and I’m all WTF????

I’ve been too busy to read anything all evening, or watch any news, any talking heads. Nothing. This is the first chance I’ve had to sit down, and I’m simply too disturbed by it to even go read. I’m HEARTSICK. It’s not an overreaction.

Medical journalists, even when they have an MD, are rarely anything more than mouthpieces for big pharma. Sanjay Gupta has reported on ECT before, and if it’s possible, his reports were even worse than the norm. That’s pretty f-ing bad.

Most medical journalists are spoonfed information from university researchers (lookie what we’re doing…we’re gonna find a cure for this or that, and we’re so great), from the drug companies and from PR releases. It pains me to say this, but MEDICAL JOURNALISM IS the worst journalism of all.

They can’t criticize anyone or anything, because their sources are those university researchers and drug companies. That’s it, people. If they burn a source, their news dries up. They just rewrite press releases.

The only thing good I can say about Sanjay Gupta is that he’s hot looking. But who cares? I’d rather have an old fat guy with real credentials. The Surgeon General is such an important position, and this is just awful. AWFUL.

Too bad Hillary has already accepted Secretary of State. Katie Couric would have been GREAAAAAATTTT! She’s talked to King Hussein, has traveled all around, and knows how to wear a cute haircut. It makes as much sense.

WTF, OBAMA, WTF?????

I’m ready to just shoot myself. Not really, but I can’t express how horribly disturbed I am. I’ve lost all faith in the president elect. He’s a fucking idiot.

So Al Franken wins the election in Minnesohhhhtah, home of 10,000 lakes. (That’s only funny to me and my former bestest friend, because she had an Internet New Years date from Minnesota and he talked like that plus continued to tell us about the lakes. Then he ate a box of donuts while pretending to share them with my dog.)

Payback is probably a bitch, dear Minnesotans. For the last eight years, the nation had to hear an awful lot of whining about “Bush stole the election.” Now Minnesota is gonna hear it for at least four more. Enjoy! (For the record, I voted for Gore myself, but it was the most unenthusiastic vote of my life.)

Get ready for years of “Al Franken stole that election.” And people think Illinois is a crazyhead state!

We may continually vote in criminals and then send them to prison, and we have a governor with a really funky hairdo, but c’mon. We didn’t have this:

And we don’t have this for senator, whether or not the election was stolen.

So let’s move over, Illinois, and welcome Minnesota to the official States of Crazy Club. Welcome! The secret code will be “10,000 lakes.”

Boo Hoo, our beloved governor is sad our state is a laughing stock. It has been for a long time, but nobody outside the state knew and the rest of us knew, but what are you gonna do?

Why, we’ll keep electing crooks, that’s what! (And I confess I’m as guilty as the next - I voted Blago first time around.) If HRH Obama couldn’t fix it, then NO WE CAN’T.

Here’s a great ad (looks legit and probably is) from a furniture store, saying “We sell more seats than the governor.”

ROFLMAO! C’mon, some copywriter needs a prize.

I woke up with the sniffles, and that sucks. Don’t know if it’s a cold or allergy (my nose doctor, after allergy testing, said I have NO allergies - I’m not even allergic to poison ivy), but I’m probably going to have to make a kleenex run to the store.

Anyhoo, just some super fun stuff from a couple of the blogs I read regularly. These made me smile.

1) Dana’s letter awards. My favorite is the threat to turn her into the FCC, FEC, ADL and Southern Poverty Law Center. I LOVE THAT! You don’t like a radio show, so threaten to turn the host in to all these places. I get crazy letters on the ect.org site - I should post my favorites. My favorite of all time was a psychiatrist’s son writing “Any crazy bitch can get a web site.” hahahaha

YES WE CAN!

2. On Debbie Schlussel’s site, she’s got a FABULOUS picture of Islamic modesty. This picture ought to win some kind of national award. The Muslim woman is wearing her hijab, and sitting in a chair. She has on jeans, and they’re um…..low. HER THONG PANTIES ARE HANGING OUT!

It’s days like this when I want to scream “I LOVE LIFE!”

Speaking of hate mail, Debbie Schlussel gets a ton of it and posts some goodies. Those are just plain crazyheaded. Fortunately, Debbie has a sense of humor and enjoys mocking them.

OMG, I love life, part dva. I was just getting the link for the thong panty pic and now she’s got an article from a magazine, about the Obamas and keeping their marriage fresh.

I was just plain groaning when I read Michelle Obama’s list - can we say TRITE? Dude, these are in every magazine every month. But it’s got the Obama spin, so that makes it fresh and new! (Hope and change…it’s coming!)

Then I scrolled down to the music to accompany the piece, clicked play and I nearly needed a fresh pair of Islamic thong panties. That song is actually kind of nice, because I like listening to her incredible range. But in this case, it caused me to start screaming laughing.

Debbie’s snarky commentary: “Up next, genius fitness advice from the First Missus: Eat Less, Work Out.”

I’d like to add: Our next First Lady on smoking: Don’t start, and if you started, just stop it!

Oh, guess that didn’t work with hubby, did it?

It’s a glorious day in the neighborhood!

When the dead bodies of Saddam Hussein’s sons were broadcast around the world, the Muslim world condemned it, saying it was disrespectful to the dead.

Fair enough. But then why does the same crowd take delight in holding children’s bodies to the cameras (to show how evil Israel is)? It’s got to be one or the other: either showing dead bodies for political purposes is disrespectful, or it’s not. You can’t have it both ways.

So should we assume that the Palestinians approved of showing the Hussein boys’ corpses on TV to be a legitimate political maneuver? I guess the answer must be yes.

I notice that when Israelis die by Hamas rockets or homicide bombers, the families don’t parade the bodies for the television cameras. Their children aren’t props.

When the Hamas rockets are detected, the Israelis have 15 seconds to get to a shelter. They run for their lives and do everything they can to keep their children safe. During this last round of rockets, they closed down some schools to keep the kids at home. One of those bombs landed in a school, which would have killed a lot of children had they not taken precautions.

On the other hand, you have the Palestinians and the culture of glorified death. They don’t build shelters. Instead, they round up the women and children and fill the buildings they know will be targeted. They might as well have a bomb grabber and divert it directly into a school.

Is it necessary to make it clearer? Apparently so, as people are predictably jumping on the “Israel is evil” bandwagon and condemning Israel’s right to self defense.

Someone sets a building on fire and it’s exploding all around. The Israelis take cover and send their kids into the shelters or safe rooms. The Palestinians lead the women and children directly into the burning buildings, then cry foul when they’re burned alive.

If the Palestinians truly cared about these children, they would take care of them and send them to a safe place and not into the line of fire.

It’s obvious that children aren’t special to Palestinians. They’re nothing more than tools to be used. There’s really very little difference between them and the folks that breed cuddly gerbils and bunnies to feed to their pet snakes.

I’ve ranted about these torturous things a number of times, but this time, not a rant. Instead, a ROFL.

I read a number of blogs, and like to read blogs that span the political spectrums. One blog in particular is populated by people that are practically militant in their left-wing philosophy. Recently they were talking about the curly bulbs, or more correctly, the CFL bulbs.

It seems I’m not the only person who hates them. But person after person said “I’m not buying them until they improve them. Until then, I’m stocking up on incandescent bulbs.”

This is hilarious! This is a group of people who (seriously) want to take away SUVs from people, force them to drive whatever vehicle is on the approved list, or worse, force people to take public transport. They want hunters to stop (with government force) hunting, people to get windmills and solar panels, and so on. They’re part of the DO SOMETHING crowd. They insist that the government DO SOMETHING to stop the madness of environmental homicide/suicide/destruction/whatever.

And apparently they’re also part of Al Gore’s “Do As I Say, But Screw You, I’m Keeping My House Warm and Taking My Private Plane” club.

This makes my day. It’s just so kooky and fun and made me laugh.

I really love all this nonsense that some people tell the rest of us how we’re supposed to live our lives, then turns out they’re humping the pooch while telling everyone to avoid bestiality. Or in this case, ruining the environment with evil bulbs because NOBODY LIKES THE CURLY ONES!

Here’s a little something along the same lines, but I’m not commenting. Just linking.

Happy New Year to me! Now all I need is a moose to cross my path, and if it looks like dinner, I’m shooting.

When I lived in the USSR, there was a government paper called Pravda, which meant Truth. It was the truth as the old Politburo guys saw it, and that’s what you got. The government’s involvement in media is never a good thing.

I hope this talk of bailing out any media doesn’t pan out. The media wrecked itself, and the people have turned to other sources of news. That’s called the free market, and if the masses aren’t interested in your product, why should taxpayers fund a losing venture? Government funding of media is the start of something bad. Government meddles in our lives enough as it is. Do the people *really* want the government getting its hands on any media?

Imagine newspapers having to turn in quarterly reports to the government. (When you get any kind of funding, you have to do a lot of reports to justify the funding, and add to the paper trail so the government can pretend to show the program works. The economic bailout not included..that sounds like they just get big boxes of money with no strings attached.)

If a newspaper or any other media cannot make it financially, there’s a reason. Readership, viewership, listenership. The numbers are down, there aren’t enough people interested in the product. If the government gives them some money, it’s not going to change the bottom line: the people have lost interest or lost faith. Is the government going to put a newspaper on everyone’s front porch and tell them they have to read it?

Even the Soviets didn’t do that.

That Burris is the man. They quoted the Trib, which gives it more credibility than if it were just Reuters.

If it were a reporter from Reuters with a source, I’d say about two percent chance of truth. The Trib isn’t all that great itself, although I’ve given it an extra point because the governor tried to extort them, too. (According to the federal prosecutor - this is all turning into a big old yahoo of yes he did, no he didn’t, let’s release some recordings. So TYPICAL of Illinois fiascoes. Geesh.)

Roland isn’t going to clean up this cesspool, but he has always done a smashing good job for Illinois, I was DISAPPOINTED when Blagojevich beat him in the primary for governor - I wanted a Gov. Burris. But he’ll do the best job anyone can in such a pit of muck and mud. And hopefully he’ll wear a hazmat suit.

I thought, when this all started, that Roland would be a great choice. But it never dawned on me that he’d really be the It Man. I thought he was so far out of the loop these days.

Blagojevich probably did it just to show everyone how this is all a big mistake. ROFL. “See, I’m appointing the nicest, smartest man in Illinois…AND he’s not part of the Chicago dirtbag machine! I’m the KING OF ILLINOIS! Now give me some money, damn you. And f**k you all.”

There are so many stories from my family, oral history that I fear will be lost. I’ve started writing some of them down (or typing them into a file, to be more precise), because I don’t want them to fade away. Some are funny, some kind of tragic, and others, like this one, very poignant. And illustrative of American life.

I thought of it when it was announced that Roland Burris has likely been chosen to fill Obama’s seat. I don’t know if this story is about Mom and Burris’ sister or another friend of my mom’s, who was black. Mom didn’t know what “coloreds,” as they were called back then, had to go through. She just didn’t know, and her friends didn’t complain.

They were at Centralia Junior College together, where my mom went before transferring upstate to Bradley U. Mom and her friend were working on the yearbook together (or some kind of project). One day, instead of bringing their lunch or eating in the school cafeteria, they decided to go to a little cafe for a burger.

They walked in and sat down, and the man walked up and said “I’m sorry, I can serve you,” speaking to my mom. “But I cannot serve you, and you’ll have to leave.” Mom didn’t get it.

She says now that she had always seen the signs that said “We reserve the right to seat our customers,” but she had no idea what it meant. It never occurred to her that it held any real meaning. But it meant “We only serve white people.”

Mom asked why her friend couldn’t stay. Her friend had to spell it out, and mom was furious and started to raise hell. (Yes, I inherited that gene.) Her friend, who was used to it and didn’t want any trouble, said “It’s okay, let’s just leave.” So they did, but Mom never got over that event. When she tells the story, she still gets pissed off, yet she’s mortified that she had no clue her friends had to put up with that kind of shit. They never told her, and she just never knew.

Sometimes things are as is and everyone just expects the rest of the world to know it. But how can they, if nobody said it out loud? Mom was a white farm girl, living kind of a Walton-ish life. I’ll bet the Waltons didn’t know these things either, until John Boy went off into the world and learned it firsthand.

I first heard the story when we were in town one day and I wanted to go into that little cafe. I thought they probably had cherry cokes, the old-fashioned kind. Those were hard to find when I was a kid, and worth the effort. But mom refused to patronize that place, even though it likely had changed hands. And she explained why.

To a child who only knew of the civil rights movement from history books, it was quite the story to me, and it’s always stayed with me.

I got my cherry coke at the Woolworth store.

That’s the word right now. If this turns out to be true, there’s no better choice. I’ve always held him in the league of the late, great Sen. Paul Simon. Very few politicians in Illinois are clean, but I believe with everything I have that Roland Burris is. I would drop dead if it turned out he were ever involved in any of that crap.

And what’s more - he’s from the HOMELAND! This is no filthy Chicago skank. He is a SOUTHERN Illinoisan, from my mother’s town. (Though she didn’t grow up *in* town; she grew up on the farm.) In fact his sister and my mom were friends in junior college. I don’t know them, but their family was always considered to be a good family. And mom always had nice things to say about Gloria.

This totally makes my day. There is absolutely no better choice than Roland Burris. He is one fine man and will do the state proud.