Random Stuff: Water, a controversial Indian film about Hindu widows, is opening the Toronto Int’l Film Festival. My daughter recommends this Seattle Times story about the bride who called off her wedding but gave a big party for homeless people.
I just heard on the local news that the video the Taliban took of the Chinook helicopter hit also shows seven U.S. servicemen being executed. Which means, I guess, that seven of them survived the crash. God.
I’m picking my daughter up from work a bit late today. A man jumped out the window on the third floor above her office. (She doesn’t know the people upstairs.) He lived despite many broken bones and a skull fracture, but the police cordoned off the area for over an hour, and also cleaned up the blood. It’s a strange world sometimes.
called it a:
Big Old Goofy World
Up in the morning
Work like a dog
Is better than sitting
Like a bump on a log
Mind all your manners
Be quiet as a mouse
Some day you’ll own a home
That’s as big as a house
I know a fella
He eats like a horse
Knocks his old balls
Round the old golf course
You oughta see his wife
She’s a cute little dish
She smokes like a chimney
And drinks like a fish
There’s a big old goofy man
Dancing with a big old goofy girl
Ooh baby
It’s a big old goofy world
Now elvis had a woman
With a head like a rock
I wished I had a woman
That made my knees knock
She’d sing like an angel
And eat like a bird
And if I wrote a song
She’d know ever single word
Kiss a little baby
Give the world a smile
If you take an inch
Give ’em back a mile
Cause if you lie like a rug
And you don’t give a damn
You’re never gonna be
As happy as a clam
So I’m sitting in a hotel
Trying to write a song
My head is just as empty
As the day is long
Why it’s clear as a bell
I should have gone to school
I’d be wise as an owl
Stead of stubborn as a mule.
That’s completely wonderful, Boo.
He was in town last week-did you see him?
but Prine means a lot to me, and has since I was a child. Here’s one of his great pieces of wisdom, about that organ where supposedly harbor our pain as well as our love:
Bruised Orange
My heart’s in the ice house come hill or come valley
Like a long ago sunday when I walked through the alley
On a cold winter’s morning to a church house
Just to shovel some snow.
I heard sirens on the train track howl naked gettin’ nuder,
An altar boy’s been hit by a local commuter
Just from walking with his back turned
To the train that was coming so slow.
You can gaze out the window get mad and get madder,
Throw your hands in the air, say what does it matter?
But it don’t do no good to get angry,
So help me I know
For a heart stained in anger grows weak and grows bitter.
You become your own prisoner as you watch yourself sit there
Wrapped up in a trap of your very own
Chain of sorrow.
I been brought down to zero, pulled out and put back there.
I sat on a park bench, kissed the girl with the black hair
And my head shouted down to my heart
You better look out below!
Hey, it ain’t such a long drop don’t stammer don’t stutter
From the diamonds in the sidewalk to the dirt in the gutter
And you carry those bruises to remind you wherever you go.
I’ve seen him a few times…he’s great! Reminds me of when my travels took me to Berzerkley a few years back!
I’ve always been partial to “Hello in There”:
We had an apartment in the city,
Me and loretta liked living there.
Well, it’d been years since the kids had grown,
A life of their own left us alone.
John and linda live in omaha,
And joe is somewhere on the road.
We lost davy in the korean war,
And I still don’t know what for, don’t matter anymore.
Ya’ know that old trees just grow stronger,
And old rivers grow wilder ev’ry day.
Old people just grow lonesome
Waiting for someone to say, hello in there, hello.
Me and loretta, we don’t talk much more,
She sits and stares through the back door screen.
And all the news just repeats itself
Like some forgotten dream that we’ve both seen.
Someday I’ll go and call up rudy,
We worked together at the factory.
But what could I say if asks what’s new?
Nothing, what’s with you? nothing much to do.
So if you’re walking down the street sometime
And spot some hollow ancient eyes,
Please don’t just pass ’em by and stare
As if you didn’t care, say, hello in there, hello.
and a classic. I can’t wait to get his new album. He still is a master.
I LOVE John Prine!
For the past four years, I’ve had “your flag decal won’t get in you into heaven anymore, it’s already overcrowded from your dirty little war, and jesus don’t like killing no matter waht the reason for….”
running through my head like the soundtrack to my life….
At this moment, Senate Democrats are preparing to take a dive on the issue they have righteously hammered for four years–repeal of the estate tax–and they intend to call this “victory.” The Dems want to negotiate a “compromise” with Senate Republicans that will restore the inheritance tax while reducing the rate at which estates are taxed and exempting many more families who are rich but not extremely rich. Yet the outlines of what Democrats are pursuing looks like a monstrous giveaway. It would yield roughly $420 billion in tax relief for the very wealthiest families. …
William Greider, The Nation
has a bad cold and can’t stop coughing. She’s taken the suppressants. Anyone have a home remedy?
Best: Call the doctor and get a prescription for cough syrup with Codeine.
have to dash … more later
Of course, if you have anything similar from, say, previous dental experiences (ie, tylenol 3, darvocet, or the like), she could just take that and it will work just as well as the cough syrup.
she does have some darvocet. Maybe she’ll take one later if she can’t sleep.
Thanks all, for your advice. She made a face when I mentioned munching raw garlic 🙂
A little saline gargle can really help with a chronically scratchy throat.
I’ve always sworn by Sucrets Lozenges, as well.
Best of luck
Lots of it. It won’t necessarily get rid of the cough, but it is a good expectorant and will make the coughing more productive by clearing the lungs. It’s also a natural antibiotic. It’s one of the best correctives for bronchial congestion I know of and most of us have it on hand. I also recommend chickweed, which is great for the lungs, but few people have it in their kitchens.
Especially raw honey, if you have it.
A friend of mine tells me that hot black tea is good for coughs. Besides the warmth of the tea help loosening up gunk, there is some sort of phytochemical in black tea that helps soothes coughs.
Hope your wife feels better soon. Summer colds suck and are a bitch to get rid of.
I dont know but this might be of some interest to everyone out there. A volunteer at the hospital I work at was telling me the other day her husband had whooping cough. The dr. told him it was coming back with all the ppl from overseas. must be careful of sars still. so many diseases areo here an dfrom all the ppl from different countries….also TB is coming back ya all…so be very careful…..get checked out…it is truly a shame that they took ETH with codiene away from us..it sure did work.
Pentagon defends, lawmakers praise ‘world class’ Guantanamo prison
LINK
AMAZING: “And Hood added that far from torturing prisoners, ice cream and candy bars are sometimes used to induce them to give up information, as “part of a rapport-building effort on the part of interrogators.””
Next they will have the prisoners cruising tthe Carribean on a yacht, sipping ccktails, while deep-sea fishing….
Monty Python and the Spanish Inquisition comes to mind here.
Hah-ha! You didn’t expect the Spanish inquisiton, did you?
<enter John Cleese in funny red costume>
Is there film of the Chinook incident in Afghanistan? Is it confirmed Taliban?
Don’t know, Andrew … I just got back from my errands and taking people around. Will look.
Detroit Free Press is reporting it but they are also questioning the sources reliability.
And I have been checking around a lot from time to time today, says that the Taliban spokesman has a habit of exaggerating and being inaccurate. The one thing though that give him a hint of credibility in this particular instant was that he called the media and claimed Taliban credit for the shootdown before the shootdown was even reported. Something tells me he must have had a friend or something in the area.
There’s this too from the China Daily, and I wonder if these executions got mixed up with the U.S. soldiers being killed:
“Among the seven, one of them managed to get the message out to the Americans, who came with helicopters,” Taliban spokesman Mullah Abdul Latif Hakimi told AFP by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.
The earlist I remember reading of possible executions was through the ‘information clearing house’ web site linking to a Nasdaq story posted Tuesday at 1943ET.
(Sorry, when checking the Nasdeq link above, it won’t open the proper page so here it is below:
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Sources at the U.S. Defense Department said Tuesday that the CH-47 Chinook military transport helicopter that crashed in a mountainous region in eastern Afghanistan was part of a two-helicopter formation, NBC News reported Tuesday.
Information of the helicopter crash was relayed by the crew of the second helicopter, who reported seeing the helicopter tumbling down the mountain, NBC said. There was some ground activity reported by the crew of the second helicopter around the crashed aircraft, NBC reported.
The NBC report could give credence to the Taliban’s claims – yet unconfirmed – that they shot down the helicopter and executed some U.S. personnel aboard the aircraft. The helicopter was said to be carrying at least 16 U.S. military personnel.
Provincial Gov. Asadullah Wafa told The Associated Press that the Taliban downed the aircraft with a rocket, although he gave no other details.
Purported Taliban spokesman Mullah Latif Hakimi telephoned the AP before news of the crash was released and said the rebels shot the helicopter down.
Hakimi often calls news organizations to claim responsibility for attacks on behalf of the Taliban. His information has sometimes proven untrue or exaggerated, and his exact tie to the group’s leadership is unclear.
Earlier Tuesday, the military said that the fate of those on board the helicopter, which crashed near Asadabad in Kunar province, wasn’t immediately known. The statement also said the cause of the crash was unclear.
Other helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft were sent to the crash site, the military said. Other details weren’t available, according to U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O’Hara.
NBC reported that U.S. has been intensifying the search for high-value al- Qaida and Taliban targets near the eastern Afghanistan border.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-28-051943ET
Here is a link to an AMAZING website:
http://www.newseum.org/
Click around and you will find a map where your cursor will illuminate the front pages of hundreds of newspapers all over the world.
This is the big picture that will disable the media monopolies.
Today’s nationwide message? The sacrifice in Iraq is worth it.
Who buys this from the one who has profitted astronomically from these calamities and made NO SACRIFICE?
The other nationwide message, Bush asks the American people to be PATIENT while their children die for NO REASON based on LIES and a BOGUS link to the events that occured on 9/11.
You must be an asshole if you aren’t patient enough to put vanity stickers on your car while other people risk life and limb and make sacrifices that liar and warmonger Bush can pass on as BIG PROFITS to his corporate buddies.
seven Afghan spies were executed and they had maps and satellite phones. One of them was able to make a final call for help that brought the Chinook in with the troops…….link
AP reporting, via Houston Chronicle article here that MBNA is being bought out by Bank of America which plans to cut some 6000 jobs.
No word yet on whether this includes Biden’s Senatorial seat.