Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.....
1/ A good column from Paul Krugman commenting on why the Republicans have become the party of pollution.....and you can't argue with his reasoning either.....totally logical.
Earlier this week, the Environmental Protection Agency announced proposed regulations to curb emissions of ozone, which causes smog, not to mention asthma, heart disease and premature death. And you know what happened: Republicans went on the attack, claiming that the new rules would impose enormous costs.
There’s no reason to take these complaints seriously, at least in terms of substance. Polluters and their political friends have a track record of crying wolf. Again and again, they have insisted that American business — which they usually portray as endlessly innovative, able to overcome any obstacle — would curl into a quivering ball if asked to limit emissions. Again and again, the actual costs have been far lower than they predicted. In fact, almost always below the E.P.A.’s predictions.
So it’s the same old story. But why, exactly, does it always play this way? Of course, polluters will defend their right to pollute, but why can they count on Republican support? When and why did the Republican Party become the party of pollution?
For it wasn’t always thus. The Clean Air Act of 1970, the legal basis for the Obama administration’s environmental actions, passed the Senate on a bipartisan vote of 73 to 0, and was signed into law by Richard Nixon. (I’ve heard veterans of the E.P.A. describe the Nixon years as a golden age.) A major amendment of the law, which among other things made possible the cap-and-trade system that limits acid rain, was signed in 1990 by former President George H.W. Bush.
2/ Most interesting video from the Discovery Channel about how arctic foxes feed themselves during the winter.........two minutes of nature at it's finest....and the scenery is beautiful......
A red fox pinpoints field mice buried deep beneath the snow, using his sensitive hearing and the magnetic field of the North Pole to plot his trajectory
3/ Thomas Edsall is one of the better columnists in the Times, and in this story he analyses why the Democratic Party has lost the white vote, and why it's going to get worse unless something changes......
If you are interested in politics, this is a fascinating read.....
It has not escaped the notice of political analysts that 72 percent of whites without college degrees — a rough proxy for what we used to call the white working class — believe that “the U.S. economic system generally favors the wealthy.” Or that on Nov. 4, these same men and women voted for Republican House candidates 64-34.
Similarly, the overwhelmingly white electorates of Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota voted decisively in referendums to raise the minimum wage while simultaneously voting for Republicans, whose party has adamantly rejected legislation to raise the minimum wage.
There is an ongoing debate among politicians, political scientists and partisans of both parties over the dismal support of Democratic candidates among whites. Does it result from ideological differences, racial animosity or a perception among many whites that they are excluded from a coalition of minorities, the poor, single women of all races, gays and other previously marginalized constituencies?
Arguably, the poor Democratic showing among whites does not represent naked race prejudice, as Obama’s election and re-election attest. But it can be seen as a reflection of substantial material interests that affect the very voters who carry greater weight in low turnout midterm Congressional elections.
Whites as a whole, who made up 75 percent of this year’s electorate, voted for Republican House candidates by a 24-point margin, 62-38, the exact same margin by which they supported Republican candidates in the 2010 midterms. In 2006, when opposition to President George W. Bush was intense, Republicans won white voters by eight points, 52-44.
The opposition of whites to the Democratic Party is visible not only in voting behavior, but in general opposition to key Democratic policy initiatives, most tellingly in hostility toward the Affordable Care Act. A November 2013 National Journal poll found, for example, that 58 percent of whites said Obamacare would make things worse for “people like you and your family,” more than double the 25 percent that said that Obamacare would make things better.
Asked whether the Affordable Care Act would make things better or worse for the country at large, 60 percent of whites said worse and 35 percent of whites said better.
4/ We've all seen the videos where the faces morph into different people - this is one of those, but much more surreal......it's a little strange in parts, but also very clever - 2 minutes......Mr. Bean into a Klingon is my favourite.....
5/ A very apropos story this week, with the "Hunger Games" movie packing them in - the story compares US society to the one in the movie, and it's pretty similar.....
The Hunger Games Economy
Katniss Everdeen has broken the Hunger Games and entered open war against the Capitol. But from Ferguson to Washington to Wall Street, we are still playing our own Hunger Games. We are still playing by rules that divide us.
At the start of the YA series, no one really questions that each of Panem’s twelve districts will send two of its young people to fight to the death in a landscape-scale arena that is part haunted forest, part Tough Mudder course. The audience wants its favorites to win. The participants want to win—or at least they want to survive, and when losing means dying, winning is the only way to survive.
The story’s moral core is solidarity: the Gamers start caring about one another and resisting the rule that only one contestant can survive the Hunger Games. The political pivot comes when they realize that there could be a world without Hunger Games at all. The rules of this game are man-made. They benefit some people and hurt many others—even the so-called winners, who survive by becoming killers, then become the celebrity playthings of Capitol elites. With this insight, the fight against the other contestants and the other districts can become a united rebellion against the Capitol.
6/ "Stay Awhile" by She and Him [Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward]......a takeoff of Dusty Springfield's old hit song from the 60's.......a clever and inventive video, using invisible props and all 60's decor, including a poodle dress.....
Update: They've shared the cover, which you can see above, along with a tracklist and a streaming version of "Stay Awhile", which you can see below.
She & Him, aka Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, have announced their new album Classics, the follow-up to 2013's Volume 3
7/ A somber and unsettling "60 Minutes" segment called "Depleting The Water", which shows how California and other parts of the world are pumping our the aquifers at an unsustainable rate, and setting us up for water wars within a decade.
A very interesting 14 minutes, and enjoy your Central Valley produce because it won't be here in a few years....
Water has been taken from much of the world. And as more and more is being pumped out of the ground and never replenished, are we depleting our water?
8/ A pretty good Jon Stewart coming back from a holiday week, and he shows how Fox News manipulates and twists it's audience into a frenzy.....the examples he shows are about race and Ferguson, and they're disgusting. You can tell Stewart is going through the motions on this one.....9 depressing minutes, and you will see why the relatives you argued with over Thanksgiving are brainwashed.....
Jon Stewart returned from break tonight to tackle the response to Ferguson, and dwelled not on the grand jury decision itself, but on the reaction to the decision, especially on Fox News. Stewart thought non-violence protesters were just “speaking out against systemic injustice,” but didn’t get that listening to a lot of the TV news commentary.
Stewart argued Michael Brown is more than an isolated incident and all these people wouldn’t be wasting time “protesting a non-existent problem.” He mocked the idea that these people were egged on by “racial arsonists.” Sean Hannity in particular invoked President Obama, Eric Holder, and Al Sharpton.
Stewart asked, “Are those the three people responsible or did you just name the only three black guys you could think of?”
But what really got to Stewart was Fox blaming a victim mentality when, as he pointed out, Fox creates a mentality of persecution and victimization aimed at its conservative audience on a daily basis. And so, he concluded, maybe the crime isn’t “race pimping or race arson, it’s race plagiarism.”
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/
9/ Great story from the New Yorker about how Republicans and the oligarch's puppet Supreme Court may be laying a trap for themselves......
A few days after the midterm elections, the Supreme Court announced that it would hear King v. Burwell, a challenge to the Affordable Care Act in which the plaintiffs are arguing that people who live in states which have not set up their own health-insurance exchanges—and who therefore find their insurance through the federal exchange, Healthcare.gov—are not eligible for tax credits that the law provides. These people are currently receiving subsidies, but if the plaintiffs win those subsidies will disappear. While victory for the plaintiffs once seemed utterly improbable—it was generally accepted that Congress intended for the subsidies to be available, and the entire suit is based on a phrase that’s often described as a typo—getting a hearing before the Court suggests that, at the very least, they now have a chance. Republican politicians are, as of now, gleeful at the prospect of the Court delivering a blow to Obamacare. But, once the economic and political consequences of those disappearing subsidies kick in, Republicans could well end up wishing King v. Burwell had never seen the light of day.
The lazy description of King is that if the plaintiffs win it could “scuttle” Obamacare. It can’t. Even if the Court finds for the plaintiffs, the rules and regulations that Obamacare put in place will remain intact—insurance companies will still have to accept all applicants, without regard for preëxisting conditions, and they’ll still be prohibited from charging people with those conditions higher prices. And the tax increases that fund the subsidies and the cost-saving initiatives in the law won’t go away, either.
What a victory for the plaintiffs in King would do is create two classes of citizens when it comes to Obamacare. For people who live in one of the fourteen states that have set up their own exchanges, like California and New York, things will remain as they are now. Residents of those states will continue to be eligible for those federal health-insurance subsidies, depending on their income, which means, for most of them, that insurance will be quite affordable. And, because the subsidies make insurance so affordable, lots of healthy people (meaning mainly young people) in these states will continue to buy insurance, with the result that the risk pools in these states will be more balanced and not overloaded with people who are older or who are sick. That will help to hold down price increases in those states in the years ahead.
By contrast, life is going to get much harder for people who live in states that have not yet set up their own exchanges.
10/ Upcoming movies
Coming in December 2015 - "Star Wars - The Force Awakens"........the first teaser trailer [90 seconds] for this movie is amazing.....wow......
And in June 2015 - "Jurassic World", a pretty good full length trailer.......
11/ Wow. An essay in the Times from a retired general who tells it like it is about Afghanistan, Iraq and ISIS, and how everything you read in the mainstream media about the Middle East is bullshit......
AS a senior commander in Iraq and Afghanistan, I lost 80 soldiers. Despite their sacrifices, and those of thousands more, all we have to show for it are two failed wars. This fact eats at me every day, andVeterans Day is tougher than most.
As veterans, we tell ourselves it was all worth it. The grim butchery of war hovers out of sight and out of mind, an unwelcome guest at the dignified ceremonies. Instead, we talk of devotion to duty and noble sacrifice. We salute the soldiers at Omaha Beach, the sailors at Leyte Gulf, the airmen in the skies over Berlin and the Marines at the Chosin Reservoir, and we’re not wrong to do so. The military thrives on tales of valor. In our volunteer armed forces, such stirring examples keep bringing young men and women through the recruiters’ door. As we used to say in the First Cavalry Division, they want to “live the legend.” In the military, we love our legends.
Here’s a legend that’s going around these days. In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq and toppled a dictator. We botched the follow-through, and a vicious insurgency erupted. Four years later, we surged in fresh troops, adopted improved counterinsurgency tactics and won the war. And then dithering American politicians squandered the gains. It’s a compelling story. But it’s just that — a story.
The surge in Iraq did not “win” anything. It bought time. It allowed us to kill some more bad guys and feel better about ourselves. But in the end, shackled to a corrupt, sectarian government in Baghdad and hobbled by our fellow Americans’ unwillingness to commit to a fight lasting decades, the surge just forestalled today’s stalemate. Like a handful of aspirin gobbled by a fevered patient, the surge cooled the symptoms. But the underlying disease didn’t go away. The remnants of Al Qaeda in Iraq and the Sunni insurgents we battled for more than eight years simply re-emerged this year as the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.
12/ A Christmas ad from Sainsburys UK..... three minutes, and although it's set in WW1 it's got a great message......Mary I need some tissues.....
13/ This is a scary time to be living in the US - a bi-partisan plan to clean up Chesapeake Bay is in trouble because of protests by corporate lobbyists from states which have nothing to do with the body of water involved, including our own disgusting and corrupt Pam Bondi.
The scary bit is that because the plan was put together by the EPA right wingers want it to fail.....can't have the gub'ment doing something useful......
The EPA has worked with states to devise a plan to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, America’s largest estuary. But guess who's suing to stop the EPA's plan from moving forward?
14/ And the George Carlin award this week ["nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care"] goes to Montana, where Glacier National Park will have no glaciers in twenty or thirty years..........
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, Mont. — What will they call this place once the glaciers are gone?
A century ago, this sweep of mountains on the Canadian border boasted some 150 ice sheets, many of them scores of feet thick, plastered across summits and tucked into rocky fissures high above parabolic valleys. Today, perhaps 25 survive.
In 30 years, there may be none.
A warming climate is melting Glacier’s glaciers, an icy retreat that promises to change not just tourists’ vistas, but also the mountains and everything around them.
Streams fed by snowmelt are reaching peak spring flows weeks earlier than in the past, and low summer flows weeks before they used to. Some farmers who depend on irrigation in the parched days of late summer are no longer sure that enough water will be there. Bull trout, once pan-fried over anglers’ campfires, are now caught and released to protect a population that is shrinking as water temperatures rise.
“Glaciers are essentially a reservoir of water held back for decades, and they’re releasing that water in August when it’s hot, and streams otherwise might have low flows or no flows,” Daniel B. Fagre, aUnited States Geological Survey research ecologist, said in an interview. “As glaciers disappear, there will be a reduction in the water at the same time that demand is going up. I think we’re on the cusp of bigger changes.
15/ Just when you think Floriduh can't get any stupider, more corrupt or backward the Rick Scott administration manages to outdo itself. This is a state with sunshine all year round, that could generate all the power it needs from solar, but we have a Governor and Legislature that are owned by the utilities......oh and by the way, the southern half of the state won't be here in 50 years but according to the Republicans YOU elected, climate change doesn't exist....
Read this story, and weep, because we are toast.........
Florida abandons clean energy: State votes to gut efficiency goals and end rooftop solar rebates
Regulators gave traditional utilities "virtually everything they wanted"
(Credit: Katherine Welles/Shutterstock)
While the world moves forward in negotiations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Florida just made an outrageous leap backwards. Regulators voted last week to nearly entirely gut the state’s energy efficiency goals — by over 90 percent — and to allow its solar rebate program to expire.
The proposals to roll back these rules were backed by three of the state’s four major utilities – Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Electric and Florida Power & Light — which, according to the Tampa Tribune, argued that programs offering rebates for things like rooftop solar panels or energy efficient water heaters were costing them millions, forcing them to increase energy rates for everyone while only a few benefitted.
But the 3-2 decision by the state Public Service Commission to approve those proposals,notes the Tampa Bay Times, gave the investor-owned companies, which are increasinglythreatened by renewables, “virtually everything they wanted.”
16/ Opening this week is "The Babadook", an Australian horror movie directed by Jennifer Kent.....this Times review is glowing, and Rotten Tomatoes gives it 97%......
I was an easily frightened child, and nothing scared me more than certain picture books. Something about the static images, the simple words and the unseen menaces hidden between pages made books much more sinister than, say, movies, and quite a few volumes that now seem perfectly innocuous were banished from my bedroom shelves. I had forgotten about this youthful phobia until I saw “The Babadook,” the debut feature by the Australian director Jennifer Kent. Or rather, until I came home from the screening, went to bed and woke up in the throes of the kind of nightmare that was the reason I had shunned those books in the first place.
The Babadook is a black-hatted, long-taloned, snaggletoothed figure — a sort of monochrome, pen-and-ink Freddy Krueger — who lives between the bright red covers of a story that shows up in the house of Amelia (Essie Davis) and her 6-year-old son, Sam (Noah Wiseman). Their household is a creepy place, even before the visitor arrives. Amelia, who works in a nursing home, is a sad, frazzled woman, still reeling from the death of her husband some years earlier and increasingly distraught by Sam’s erratic behavior. Looking a little like a kindergartner dressed up for Halloween as AC/DC’s Angus Young, Sam swerves from cowering terror to uncontrollable rage. He causes trouble in school, attacks his cousin and turns his mother’s days and nights into a gantlet of anxiety, embarrassment and worry.
Or so it seems. The brilliance of “The Babadook,” beyond Ms. Kent’s skillful deployment of the tried-and-true visual and aural techniques of movie horror, lies in its interlocking ambiguities. For a long time, you’re not sure if the Babadook is a supernatural or a psychological phenomenon. Once you’ve started to figure that out — or to decide that you’re too freaked out for it to matter — another, more disturbing question starts to arise. Maybe the monster is all in someone’s head, but if so, whose? Sam’s? Amelia’s? Yours?
Ms. Kent twists the possible answers around, scrambling your sense of standard horror-movie rhythm. Nighttime brings the usual terrors — noises just out of frame, shadowy corridors, flickering lights — but daylight offers no particular comfort. When Amelia and Sam leave home, bad things happen, and their fear is compounded by humiliation. When they return, traumatized and tired, their unwelcome guest is lying in wait. The world outside is a cold, grotesque place, especially when Amelia has to endure the pitying, judgmental company of her sister and other moms. Home is haunted by the memory and the apparent threat of death.
"The Babadook" trailer......holy shit! A scary movie indeed!
Todays video - Mrs Brown and the Dog.....
Todays Minnesoooota joke
It was a hot day in Minnesota. Helga hung the wash out to dry and then went into town to pick up her dry cleaning."Gootness, its hotter den hell today," she mused to herself as she walked down Main Street.She passed a tavern and thought to herself, "Vy nodt."She walked in and quietly took a seat at the end of the bar.The bartender walked up to her and said, "And what would you like to drink today?"“Vell, Ya know," Helga said in a timid voice, "I don't usually go into da bars, but today I vill make an exception. It iss zo hot, I tink I vill have myself a beer."The bartender smiled at Helga and asked,"Anheuser Busch?"Helga blushed and said; "Vell, it's fine tanks, und how's yur viener?"
Todays cop jokes
Police officer pulls over a speeding car. The Officer says, " I clocked you at 80 mph. sir."
The driver says, "Gee, officer, I had it on cruise control at 60, perhaps your radar needs calibrating."
Not looking up from her knitting the wife says sweetly, "Now don't be silly dear, you know that this car doesn't have cruise control."
As the officer writes out the ticket, the driver looks over at his wife and growls, "Can't you keep your mouth shut for once?"
The wife smiles demurely and says, "You should be thankful your radar detector went off when it did."
As the officer makes out the second ticket for the illegal radar detector unit, the man glowers at his wife and says through clenched teeth, "Dammit, woman, can't you keep your mouth shut."
The officer frowns and says, "And I notice that you're not wearing your seat belt, sir. That's an automatic $75 fine."
The driver says, "Yeah, well you see officer, I had it on, but took it off when you pulled me over so that I could get my license out of my back pocket."
The wife says," Now dear you know very well that you didn't have your seat belt on. You never wear your seat belt when you're driving."
And as the police officer is writing out the third ticket the driver turns to his wife and barks, "WHY DON'T YOU SHUT THE HELL UP??"
The officer looks over at the woman and asks, "Does your husband always talk to you this way, Ma'am?"
"Oh heavens no, officer. Only when he's been drinking."
A veteran officer with 18 years is running radar on a main street of a rural town. Along comes a young driver in a brand new sports car going 48 mph in a 30 mph zone.
The driver says, "Gee, officer, I had it on cruise control at 60, perhaps your radar needs calibrating."
Not looking up from her knitting the wife says sweetly, "Now don't be silly dear, you know that this car doesn't have cruise control."
As the officer writes out the ticket, the driver looks over at his wife and growls, "Can't you keep your mouth shut for once?"
The wife smiles demurely and says, "You should be thankful your radar detector went off when it did."
As the officer makes out the second ticket for the illegal radar detector unit, the man glowers at his wife and says through clenched teeth, "Dammit, woman, can't you keep your mouth shut."
The officer frowns and says, "And I notice that you're not wearing your seat belt, sir. That's an automatic $75 fine."
The driver says, "Yeah, well you see officer, I had it on, but took it off when you pulled me over so that I could get my license out of my back pocket."
The wife says," Now dear you know very well that you didn't have your seat belt on. You never wear your seat belt when you're driving."
And as the police officer is writing out the third ticket the driver turns to his wife and barks, "WHY DON'T YOU SHUT THE HELL UP??"
The officer looks over at the woman and asks, "Does your husband always talk to you this way, Ma'am?"
"Oh heavens no, officer. Only when he's been drinking."
A veteran officer with 18 years is running radar on a main street of a rural town. Along comes a young driver in a brand new sports car going 48 mph in a 30 mph zone.
The officer stops the young man and explains the violation.
The driver becomes beligerant telling the officer his badge did not mean a thing. The young driver tells the officer to go ahead and write the ticket because his father knows people that will make the ticket "go away".
While the officer completes the ticket the young driver continues his barrage of insults.
Without flinching the officer completes the ticket and hands the young driver his copies.
The driver looks at his copies and becomes very agitated. The driver said, "What the #$@%& do you think you are doing!?! I thought you said I was doing 48 in a 30. You wrote 88 in a 30?"
The officer, without hesitating said, "48, 88, whats the difference. Your dad is going to make it go away anyway."
On what seemed a particularly long day, a patrolman sat concealed behind a billboard waiting for anyone to cruise through his speed trap.
While the officer completes the ticket the young driver continues his barrage of insults.
Without flinching the officer completes the ticket and hands the young driver his copies.
The driver looks at his copies and becomes very agitated. The driver said, "What the #$@%& do you think you are doing!?! I thought you said I was doing 48 in a 30. You wrote 88 in a 30?"
The officer, without hesitating said, "48, 88, whats the difference. Your dad is going to make it go away anyway."
On what seemed a particularly long day, a patrolman sat concealed behind a billboard waiting for anyone to cruise through his speed trap.
A gentleman headed home to visit family and making way better time that he should have, cruised right into the sights of the patrolman's radar gun.
Not wanting to miss the opportunity, the patrolman jumped right out there and stopped the gentleman at which time the patrolman stated; "boy, I've been waiting for you here all day long".
The gentleman without missing a beat replied; "yes sir I know and I got here just as fast as I could". The patrolman was laughing so hard, the gentleman was released with a warning.
Charged for speeding A man was speeding down a Alabama highway, feeling secure in a gaggle of cars all traveling at the same speed. However, as they passed a speed trap, he got nailed with an infrared speed detector and was pulled over.
The officer handed him the citation, received his signature and was about to walk away when the man asked, "Officer, I know I was speeding, but I don't think it's fair - there were plenty of other cars around me who were going just as fast, so why did I get the ticket?"
"Ever go a fishin'?" the policeman suddenly asked the man.
"Ummm, yeah..." the startled man replied.
The officer grinned and added, "Did you ever catch 'em all?"
Sitting on the side of the highway waiting to catch speeding drivers, a State Police Officer see's a car puttering along at 22 MPH.
He thinks to himself, "This driver is just as dangerous as a speeder!"So he turns on his lights and pulls the driver over.
Approaching the car, he notices that there are five old ladies, two in the front seat and three in the back, wide eyed and white as ghosts.
The driver, obviously confused, says to him, "Officer, I don't understand, I was doing exactly the speed limit! What seems to be the problem?"
"Ma'am," the officer replies, "You weren't speeding, but you should know that driving slower than the speed limit can also be a danger to other drivers."
"Slower than the speed limit? No sir, I was doing the speed limit exactly twenty-two miles an hour!" the old woman says a bit proudly.
The State Police officer, trying to contain a chuckle explains to her that "22" was the route number, not the speed limit.
A bit embarrassed, the woman grinned and thanked the officer for pointing out her error.
"But before I let you go, Ma'am, I have to ask... Is everyone in this car OK? These women seem awfully shaken and they haven't muttered a single peep this whole time," the officer asks.
"Oh, they'll be all right in a minute officer. We just got off Route 105."
Charged for speeding A man was speeding down a Alabama highway, feeling secure in a gaggle of cars all traveling at the same speed. However, as they passed a speed trap, he got nailed with an infrared speed detector and was pulled over.
The officer handed him the citation, received his signature and was about to walk away when the man asked, "Officer, I know I was speeding, but I don't think it's fair - there were plenty of other cars around me who were going just as fast, so why did I get the ticket?"
"Ever go a fishin'?" the policeman suddenly asked the man.
"Ummm, yeah..." the startled man replied.
The officer grinned and added, "Did you ever catch 'em all?"
Sitting on the side of the highway waiting to catch speeding drivers, a State Police Officer see's a car puttering along at 22 MPH.
He thinks to himself, "This driver is just as dangerous as a speeder!"So he turns on his lights and pulls the driver over.
Approaching the car, he notices that there are five old ladies, two in the front seat and three in the back, wide eyed and white as ghosts.
The driver, obviously confused, says to him, "Officer, I don't understand, I was doing exactly the speed limit! What seems to be the problem?"
"Ma'am," the officer replies, "You weren't speeding, but you should know that driving slower than the speed limit can also be a danger to other drivers."
"Slower than the speed limit? No sir, I was doing the speed limit exactly twenty-two miles an hour!" the old woman says a bit proudly.
The State Police officer, trying to contain a chuckle explains to her that "22" was the route number, not the speed limit.
A bit embarrassed, the woman grinned and thanked the officer for pointing out her error.
"But before I let you go, Ma'am, I have to ask... Is everyone in this car OK? These women seem awfully shaken and they haven't muttered a single peep this whole time," the officer asks.
"Oh, they'll be all right in a minute officer. We just got off Route 105."
Todays kiddie joke
Here's a truly heartwarming story about the bond formed between a little 5-year-old girl and some construction workers that will make you believe that we all can make a difference when we give a child the gift of our time.
A young family moved into a house, next to a vacant lot. One day, a construction crew began to build a house on the empty lot. The family's 5-year-old daughter naturally took an interest in the goings-on and spent much of each day observing the workers.
Eventually the construction crew, all of them 'gems-in-the-rough,' more or less, adopted her as a kind of project mascot. They chatted with her during coffee and lunch breaks and gave her little jobs to do here and there to make her feel important. At the end of the first week, they even presented her with a pay envelope containing ten dollars. The little girl took this home to her mother who suggested that she take her ten dollars 'pay' she'd received to the bank the next day to start a savings account.
When the girl and her mom got to the bank, the teller was equally impressed and asked the little girl how she had come by her very own pay check at such a young age. The little girl proudly replied, "I worked last week with a real construction crew building the new house next door to us."
"Oh my goodness gracious," said the teller, "and will you be working on the house again this week, too?"
The little girl replied, "I will, if those assholes at Home Depot ever deliver the fuckin' sheet rock."
Kind of brings a tear to the eye - doesn't it?
A young family moved into a house, next to a vacant lot. One day, a construction crew began to build a house on the empty lot. The family's 5-year-old daughter naturally took an interest in the goings-on and spent much of each day observing the workers.
Eventually the construction crew, all of them 'gems-in-the-rough,' more or less, adopted her as a kind of project mascot. They chatted with her during coffee and lunch breaks and gave her little jobs to do here and there to make her feel important. At the end of the first week, they even presented her with a pay envelope containing ten dollars. The little girl took this home to her mother who suggested that she take her ten dollars 'pay' she'd received to the bank the next day to start a savings account.
When the girl and her mom got to the bank, the teller was equally impressed and asked the little girl how she had come by her very own pay check at such a young age. The little girl proudly replied, "I worked last week with a real construction crew building the new house next door to us."
"Oh my goodness gracious," said the teller, "and will you be working on the house again this week, too?"
The little girl replied, "I will, if those assholes at Home Depot ever deliver the fuckin' sheet rock."
Kind of brings a tear to the eye - doesn't it?
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