Rox said:

 

And happy Turdsday to you, too, Tracy!

 

Rox said:

 

I thought this, from John Kerry, was interesting:

"...yesterday the Republicans broke the record for filibusters in a Congress, in just the first year of this Congress!"

Amazing.

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

If I could just feel mediocre.....

 

Rox said:

 

The first couple of days are the pits, VT. If you can survive them, it gets better. Not much better, but a little.

I usually swear by echinacea, but this time it didn't help me. That could be because I didn't take them religiously for the first couple of days. I paid the price. I've been told by someone who does this that taking two astragalus capsules a day can help ward off winter ailments. Astragalus, unlike echinacea, can be taken long term and helps your body build its immune system so you either don't catch "stuff" or are over anything quickly.

And if you're an elderberry lover, elderberry juice or concentrate added to your favorite juice is a good immune builder, too. I heard the winery in Mulvane (Wildwoode?) cells lots and lots of it during the fall and winter. Not sure where else it's available, but my daughter found some at Whole Foods, Central and Woodlawn.

Here's hoping you can get some rest, VT. I'm sure with all the worrying about Mrs. VT, end-of-the-year work related things, the joy of having your younger home for a visit and all the normal holiday stress, your immune system is at a low point.

And buy TWO boxes of tissues. You'll need them. :)

 

lindainks55 said:

 

Yeah, it's amazing, Rox. But anything in order to have the opportunity to blame the other side. We need to get rid of the whole bunch of children! Sadly, few of the WE THE PEOPLE are even paying attention and the Republicans are screaming about the do nothing Democratic majority loudly -- seems their strategy of blame is working. Will we ever get back to the business of running this country? The Republicans hate clinton and can't get past it; the Democrats hate bush and can't get past it. If everyone would stop, take a deep breath and realize everyone feels exactly the same way maybe they could come to some understanding. Is there someone in the field of wannabees who may be able to get us as a nation past this hate?

 

ksgrm said:

 

Sign of a really bad day. Flushing your cell phone.

Word of advise: Don't carry your cell phone in the front pouch of your sweatshirt. Just told my granddaughter this a few weeks ago when she did just that - dropped the phone in stool BEFORE flushing. I dropped my in just as I flushed and it went on down. Hubbie is pulling the stool because even though it is ruined he doesn't want it to stop up the stool as some hot wheel cars did a few Christmas's ago. None of the grandbabies would take credit for that one.

Oh well it can only get better from here.

 

ksgrm said:

 

Linda and Rox I am reminded of the originators of the constitution thinking that congressmen and senators needed to only be in Washington a few weeks of the year. Other than that they needed to be home to get the crops planted/reaped.

We have too many career politicians.

 

Rox said:

 

Oh, ksgrm, I definitely feel your pain. My grandson did that a year ago. The problem was, we didn't know about it until we started wondering why we were having flushing problems and the granddaughter (his cousin) mentioned the cell phone. Luckily, it was an old phone of daughter #3's and only had her address book on it and wasn't working. Yes, complete removal of said toilet was what it took. That became my job, with the help of #1 daughter.

Prior to the cell phone, we had to retrieve a small cup belonging to a plastic tea set. The aformentioned grandson also added a dozen or pens and pencils one day, but they don't flush well. :)

Have I mentioned that said grandson (3 1/2 years old) has been diagnosed with ADHD? I kept telling them...

 

Rox said:

 

Yes, congress is for congress, not for WE THE PEOPLE. We elect them, and they go off to screw it all up, never listening to our wants and needs. Especially those needs. Wouldn't you think with the HUGE advances in technology we'd be heard louder and sooner? Oh, that's right, we are, but then ignored.

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Thank you, Dr. Rox; I'll try to adhere to your professional opinion.

Talk about a bad day, ksgrm; hope your hubby has success.

Yes, the framers had "citizen legislators" in mind, and for a while, the Senate and House were populated by "wealthy" white males, who were the farmers and the businessmen who had to get back home to take care of things. Today, this seems at best exclusionary to many. One does wonder whether the creation of career politicians has been a good thing; I think not personally.

Given the costs associated with running for office in these times, are we destined to a return to the "wealthy only need to apply", whose wealth, if you will, not connected to a career in politics, make up of the Congress? Would these folks be any less immune to the big dollar campaign contributors? I've no answer to these questions, but suggest that we need to think about these, together with many other issues, in our deliberations about what kind of folks we want to elect as our Senators, Representatives, and yes, our President.

 

lindainks55 said:

 

With today's technology I wish they would stay in their home states most of the time! They could teleconference easily and I think save taxpayers lots of money over the staffed offices in expensive DC. We could buy them all spiffy 'puters, they could use Internet II which is much more secure... And an added benefit is the lobbyists wouldn't be able to find them so readily in one place and would need to work much harder to buy their votes. WE THE PEOPLE could keep better track of them too! We could set a schedule among us making sure one of us would visit or call regularly so we knew they were on the job. They might even be able to "keep their finger" on the pulse of their respective state's needs.

Sorry about the phone, ksgrm! I like your attitude 'cause you're right "it" will probably get better.

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Linda, I'll take the contrarian view on that; it is better that they (Congress and the lobbyists) are all in one place, so they may be watched more easily. It seems to me that with all 535 of them scattered around the country, it would be much easier for the influence peddlers to meet with various folks "unseen".

 

lindainks55 said:

 

Well (bottom lip sticking out in a pout) what about all those other reasons to get them home? I'm looking at this as I would getting a group of children together. They seem better behaved one at a time but get them together and what one doesn't think of the other will. They do behave like children!

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Linda, I fear that the Senators and Congresspersons would get into as much if not more mischief (thanks to modern technology) at "home" as they do gathered together in DC. I base this upon my observations of middle schoolers with cell phones, computer access, etc., who seem to be able to do more not so good stuff using these tools than they can when gathered together at school; kind of the same rationale, while at school, there is at least some supervision by adults; at home, "safely" in their room, there is no supervision often (adult or otherwise).

Concerning other "reasons" to get them home; other than posing for photo-ops, making statements that neatly fit into sound bites, it seems to me most of them aren't all that concerned with the constituency. Sure, there are the occasional "town meetings", but cynical me, I see these as campaign appearances.

Would but they get their jobs done in D.C. in a timely and efficient fashion, I'd maybe feel a bit different; but it all boils down, IMHO, to doing whatever is needed to try to ensure their reelections. So long as the money folks are there to pull the strings, that's where the professional politicians are. So, again, would it be better to have all of them in one spot so there can (at least theoretically) be a better chance of supervision by those in the media, rather than the puppet masters being able to pull the strings in disparate places. In other words, is it more likely the DC media will be paying attention to meetings than, e.g., the Wellington Daily News, the latter likely to be more impressed by some visitor to town, regardless of who the visitor is or why the visitor is there than trying to digging out any potential mischief that might be occurring.

 

Rox said:

 

Off the current topic, but this is worth watching. Just watch the video and listen.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2228690,00.html

 

Rox said:

 

Sorry, try this: http://tinyurl.com/2fwbqn

I was being lazy. :(

 

lindainks55 said:

 

Incredibly sad.

 

lindainks55 said:

 

OK Vaughn. I've decided to defer to your superior knowledge and quit pouting about my ideas not being praised. I do, however, have experience dealing with children. Usually when their behavior is habitually unacceptable, one needs to find out what the underlying problems might be. And, I would really like to see the money and prestige of a political career knocked down several levels on the food chain. I hope my garbage collector is well paid because his job is done efficiently and I can count on him too.

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Linda, Plato observed something similar about garbage collectors and others a long time ago. :-)

 

lindainks55 said:

 

And that quote would be?

 

lindainks55 said:

 

I just had a call from Chad. He was scheduled to leave Boston at 9:55 (ET) but said he is sitting in the airport waiting for enough people to "volunteer" to take another flight before they begin boarding (imagine the flight being oversold!). His connection in Houston was a tight one so guess he won't arrive Wichita on time. Hopefully TODAY tho. ;-(

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Linda, not so much a quote, but a general thought running through "The Republic". Plato proposed many things that we would consider antithetical to our sense of things, such as the rulers would come from an elite class; but, of direct import to your thought, he said essentially that all citizens contribute something of value to the society, and their contributions should be appreciated and rewarded appropriately, and there should not be any demeaning of those who, although not "fit" to rule, performed good services to the society, regardless of what the same were.

Thus, applying these thoughts to your example, the garbage collector does good in collecting and disposing of the garbage, as that is helpful to us as a society from many perspectives, such as public health. The good that is done, therefore, should be recognized and rewarded, and the garbage collector should be allowed to hold his head high without being subject to ridicule due to his "low station" in life.

Any of you classicists out there, feel free to amplify/correct my recollections of something I read some 39 years ago.

 

lindainks55 said:

 

I love it here in my classroom! Pluto was absolutely right on! But I've always been of the opinion humans all deserve dignity and are of value. Could I be a philosopher? (giggle)

I have the little window where you watch the tiny planes progress open. Their reason given for the delay in departure is, "Status: Estimated Departure Late (Delayed - Awaiting inbound aircraft)"

Yeah, right. Then why are they asking for volunteers due to being oversold?    

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Linda, it is my understanding that airlines routinely oversell seats on flights, knowing that normally there will be a certain number of "no shows". Of course, during the holidays, there aren't nearly as many who don't show for the flight. Thus, the request for "volunteers" to take later, more lightly booked flights. I believe, but am not sure, that there are some financial incentives that begin to be offered once insufficient volunteers are had, including, I sm told, free upgrades to first class or reduced fares (that is, a credit is given on the fare already paid) for later flights or a reduced fare on a flight to be taken later. Of course, if one volunteers, it may be late tonight before s/he leaves Boston, or the volunteer may get "stuck" in an intermediate airport waiting for the next flight out to Wichita. Such is traveling in the deregulated airline environment.