Opinions in the Shorts: Vol. 203

On Politics
Last week, Sarah Palin spoke about Pope Francis, “He’s had some statements that to me sound kind of liberal, has taken me aback, has kind of surprised me,” Newsflash to the Nincompoop – Jesus was one of the most liberal people ever! However, she did justify her comment with “… unless I really dig deep into what his messaging is, and do my own homework, I’m not going to just trust what I hear in the media.”

Martin Brashir’s (MSNBC) comments regarding Nincompoop were not only unprofessional and unnecessary, they weren’t worth his time.

Whereas Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) isn’t sure Gov. Chris Christie’s (R-NJ) GOP brand will sell across America, I don’t believe Gov. Perry’s brand will sell.

Even though Republicans currently have some momentum, I don’t think they can handle it. Here’s columnist Kathleen Parker’s take.

With the Senate changing a rule, the fact that not that long ago roles were reversed, which means what each party says is also reversed. That probably means they did the right thing.

Hmmmm … Senators Graham (R-SC) and McCain (R-AZ) were against Susan Rice becoming Secretary of State, but favor her stance regarding Egypt over Secretary of State John Kerry’s, who they supported for the cabinet post.  (A read here)

Sorry, Mr. President, I disagree. You say the healthcare rollout mess is not about politics, but I say Washington is about politics 99% of the time, and your comment does not fall within the 1 percent.

Although I continue to separate issues regarding healthcare.gov and the law itself, I did notice a spin change from the website will be fixed by November 30th to the website will be working much better by then. To me, the spin is reminiscent of Baghdad Bob’s clueless rhetoric.

Cheers to The Onion for discovering President Obama’s plans for fixing the Affordable Care Act.

On This Week’s Headlines from The Onion

• Scientists theorize sun could support fire-based life
• Store manager impressed by new trainee’s ability to ignore customers
• Man who drinks 5 Diet Cokes per day hoping doctors working on cure for whatever he’s getting
• Siblings patiently waiting for day they’ll be close to each other
• Area woman thinking about doing that thin where she’s mean to other women she meets for no reason
• Mariana Trench once again voted worst place to raise a child

Interesting Reads
A view about moderate Islam
Fish and oral sex
Famines and gender ratios
How superstitions work
Images of insects covered in dew
Images of if they were alive today (Thanks Elyse)

On Potpourri
Given the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, information about November 22, 1963 has been more than bountiful. Interestingly, overshadowed in the news that day was the death of two other famous people: Aldous Huxley (author, Brave New World) and C.S. Lewis (intellectual writer of Christianity)

Here is my 2008 reflection about the Kennedy assassination.

A potential holiday gift for the hard-to-buy person – a WTF stamp (courtesy of The Onion Store)

Say it ain’t so, but someone wants to remake It’s a Wonderful Life.

Super Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Filipino people. If you can, support relief efforts through the agency of your choice

Dancing with the Stars has been a good season. I always enjoy seeing non-dancers progress, but I don’t like seeing the audience vote causing better dancers to leave.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford should resign and start a consultant agency specializing in damage control for celebrities.

Here are your weekend celebrations

• (Fri) Start Your Own Country Day, Cranberry Relish Day
• (Sat) Fibonacci Day (past post), Family Volunteer Day, Aura Awareness Day, Cashew Day, Jukebox Day, Eat a Cranberry Day, You’re Welcome-giving Day
• (Sun) Brownielocks Day, Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day, DB Cooper Day, Mother Goose Day, Espresso Day

Sorry, no Saturday Morning Cartoon post this weekend, but there will be a post – a new, occasional series called Take 5. Stop by this weekend for the inaugural post.

Let’s celebrate going into a weekend with a song from my youth. Warning: the ending is a bit monotonous. Have a safe weekend and in the words of Garrison Keillor, Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

On Time: The Musical – Act 9

The Story
Time – The Musical is an original A Frank Angle production featuring songs about time.

Program (Past posts)
Act 1: Time
Act 2: Specific
Act 3: Years
Act 4: Months
Act 5: Days and Weekdays
Act 6: Weekends
Act 7: Hour(s)
Act 8: Brevity

Act 9
Act 9 focuses on songs about extended time … long time. Examples of words in the title include decade(s), century(s), era, epoch(s), and potentially others. “Years” can be used if and only if the number is at least 100. Future dates as 2525 are not acceptable. Besides pleasing the producer, an additional challenge for attendees is no duplicates.

Production Note
It has come to my attention that past acts have crashed browsers. Please 1) include the song title and artist in your text, and 2) paste the URL as part of your last line (not a new line). The latter will provide a link, thus not embed the actual video … but I don’t mind unembedding, so apologies are not necessary.

Announcement
Ladies and gentlemen, to kickoff Act 9, a grand AFA welcome to Sting with A Thousand Years.

On Satire Bits: Vol. 77

Uh oh! Guess what today is? Hey Elyse – Do you know what today is? Come on Rich, just say it. Carrie, guess what today is? Lame, Lame, Lame – I know you can hear me! What day is it? Woo hoo!!!!! …. (I couldn’t resist)

No change with my mother-in-law – not better, not worse – but it still weighs on our minds.

Act 9 of Time: The Musical returns with the next post. Theme is extended time featuring songs with words in the title as decade(s), century(s), era(s), and others. Years is acceptable if and only if number is at least 100, but a specific year in the future is unacceptable.  Curtain time is 9:30 pm (Eastern US).

I plan to announce a new occasional feature in the next Opinions in the Shorts. Sorry, but it has nothing to do with The Nincompoop.

Time for your midweek dose of satire courtesy of The Onion. Any of the below tickle your funny bone? For those who enjoy the extra challenge, make a new headline from the words below. My combo is at the end. Have a good rest of the week.

Unpaid internship a really great experience for local company

Group of friends engage in passionate, incoherent discussion about current events

Report: There are only 17 total square miles on Earth where gays are not discriminated against

Father teaches son how to fly into rage over inconsequential bullshit

Lady doesn’t know how she does it, but she just came up with another strong password

Weird black dot actually part of bowl

Area teen running out of chances to be first openly gay anything

Last night was beginning of the end as pillow folded in half for first time

Terrified laptop wakes up inside case

Amusement park employee sick of talking down visitors from bad acid trips

My Combo: Incoherent friends engage in passionate experience with black dot on pillow

On a Speech

One hundred fifty years ago today gave America one of its most famous speeches. Today, it’s 13,607 characters would fit on 11 Twitter messages. Then, even the writer didn’t think much of it in saying “the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here.”

The setting was war and the dedication of a cemetery for fallen soldiers. Sadly, some people (and I believe the minority) can’t watch the video absent of political bias. A special thanks to Ken Burns, a director and producer of documentaries, for getting all of these people involved.

Because the video is now marked private,

1. Click here to visit Learn the Address
2. In the upper right corner, click the video The Address Mashup that displays President Obama.

Here’s also a quick visit to the cemetery.

On Update Monday

How was your weekend?

Ours was suppose to close with a blast of fierce weather, which (in some ways) is fitting for what is currently happening within our family. For for our location, the storm whimpered by.

Many thanks for the well-wishes regarding my in-laws. When I read the locations of the comments to my MIL, she commented, All for us?  – To which, I smiled and delivered a Yes.

Thankfully, my wife’s sister and our nieces came to town. The hospital released my FIL Saturday afternoon. As my MIL continues to struggle, the family also had a chance to talk.

I’m hoping to return to normal posting this week. To help with my time management, my visiting elsewhere will most likely be limited, but I’ll may try.

This week marks the return of Time: The Musical, with Act 9 featuring  extended time. Examples of words in the title include decade(s), century(ies), era(s), epoch(s), and potentially others. “Years” can be used if and only if the number is at least 100. A future date as 2525 is not acceptable. Get your songs ready! Curtain time is Wednesday, 9:30 pm (Eastern US).

Here are some upcoming celebrations for your calendar

• (Week) Book Awareness Week
• (Mon) Married-to-a-Scorpio Support Day, Mickey Mouse Day, Push-Button Phone Day, Vichyssoise Day, William Tell Day
• (Tues) Equal Opportunity Day, Have-a-Bad-Day Day, World Toilet Day, Rocky & Bullwinkle Day, Men’s Day, Carbonated Beverage with Caffeine Day
• (Wed) Name Your PC Day, Peanut Butter Fudge Day, Absurdity Day, Universal Children’s Day, G.O.H.A.R.D, My dad would be 88 today
• (Thurs) Alascattalo Day, Beaujolais Nouveau Day, Hello Day, Use Less Stuff Day, False Confessions Day, Stuffing Day

To start your week with a chuckle, here’s what happens when prepared man meets determined goose. Have a good week.