Opinions in the Shorts: Vol. 221

On Politics
For those you think the Tea Party is dead because of its unsuccessful showing in Tuesday’s primary, think again because if nothing else, it has shifted the party to the right.

As Washington examines issues at the Veterans Administration (VA), comments by members of Congress demonstrate to me that they are more interested in political gain than solving the problem.

Speaker Boehner’s (R-OH) new conference came on the radio as I was listening today, and I changed the channel. Later, I returned to find Minority Leader Pelosi’s (D-CA) new conference, so I changed the channel again.

On This Week’s Headlines from The Onion

• Congress reluctant to cut funding for tank that just spins around and self destructs
• Revealing spring attire reminds man he’s nothing more than weak, hormonal ogre
• High school student, teacher applying for same summer waitressing job
• Paleontologists unearth earliest known dinosaur stickers
• Experts recommend breaking down crushing defeats into smaller, more manageable failures
• Ohio replaces lethal injection with human new head-ripping-off machine

Interesting Reads
Leadership lessons from Dancing with the Stars
Columnist Ruth Marcus on politics and money
Interesting interactive sorting state (US) data
Learn to love your doppelgänger
The real Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Interesting infographic on man-made structures
Nutella in America

On Potpourri
Meryl and Maks were very deserving champions of Dancing with the Stars. Although some complained about co-host Erin Andrews in her debut season, but I say bring her back.

Taken April 22, 2014

I took this picture about a month ago after getting some gas.

Thanks for the wonderful music in Act 4 of Life: The Musical. I love getting different genres of music!

With Monday being a national holiday (Memorial Day) in the USA, I will not have a Saturday Morning Cartoon Classic post this weekend. I know … this pattern is too frequent, but I’m still digging out of my hole from the move.

Your weekend celebrations

• (Weekend) Mudbug Madness, Polka Weekend, Old-Time Player Piano Weekend
• (Fri) Taffy Day, Wig Out Day, Turtle Day, Don’t Fry Day, Crohn’s Disease and Colitis Day, Heat Awareness Day, Polka Day, Lucky Penny Day
• (Sat) Military Appreciation Day, Brother’s Day, Jazz Day, Morse Code Day, Escargot Day, Scavenger Hunt Day, Mary had a Little Lamb Day
• (Sun) Cookie Monster’s Birthday, Something Day, Wine Day, Tap Dance Day, Towel Day, Nerd Pride-Geek Pride Day

With Saturday being Lucky Penny Day, here’s a question to answer. If you see a penny on the ground with the tails side up, do you pick it up?

To send you into the weekend, let’s celebrate Morse Code Day (Saturday) with this hit from 1967 … Western Union by the Five Americans. (The song starts 1 minute in.) Have a safe weekend and in the words of Garrison Keillor, Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

Life: The Musical – Act 4: Young

The Story
Life: The Musical is an original aFa production is a journey featuring songs of about life. Each act features an aspect of life as a theme with music supplied around that theme.

Program (Past Posts)
Act 1: Life
Act 2: Born
Act 3: Names

Act 4
Life is a process, so this act is about being young, so all song titles must include any of these keywords: Young, Youth, Kids, Child, or Children. First come, first serve on the songs, so no duplicates.

Production Note
To prevent browsers crashing from loading too many videos, 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, three of the biggest names in the music industry are taking the stage, so lets give a rousing A Frank Angle welcome to David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash singing Teach Your Children!

On Satire Bits: Vol. 95

In the words of Fat Albert, “Hey, Hey, Hey … It’s Hump Day!”

Hope your week is off to a good start. I just returned from golf league, where I had my steady game tonight – so it’s always good to score well.

Reminder, that the next post is Act 4, Life: The Musical featuring song titles that include young, youth, kids, child, or children. Curtain time is Wednesday, 9:30 pm (Eastern, US) … so get your songs ready.

Below is your mid-week dose of satire courtesy of The Onion. As always, those desiring a challenge can develop a new headline by using the words in the headlines below. My “combo’ is at the end.

Enjoy and have a good rest of the week.

Embed from Getty Images

Nation’s limo drivers spend magical prom night playing scratch-off lottery tickets in parking lot

Activists release horrifying video showing how meat products are eaten

Poll finds only 83% of New Yorkers visit Statue of Liberty every day

Food Network star realizes police immediately look for body in giant pile of mashed potatoes

Small business still manages to mistreat workers like large corporate chain

Fan on jumbotron waits until last second to wave

Take-out bag feels light

Mom packs encouraging note in own lunch

Unemployed man vows to get up early, finish watching movie

Carlos Santana surprises wife with coupon for free 45-minute guitar solo

My Combo: For magical night, Carlos Santana vows guitar solo on jumbotron to wife for encouraging unemployed small man to spend night in giant pile of take-out mash potatoes

On Peace

Embed from Getty Images

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. (Mahatma Gandhi, Indian)

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner. (Nelson Mandela, South African)

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. (John F. Kennedy, American)

A peace is of the nature of a conquest; for then both parties nobly are subdued, and neither party loser. (William Shakespeare, British)

We make war that we may live in peace. (Aristotle, Greek)

If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies. (Desmond Tutu, South African)

The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned. (Dag Hammarskjold, Swede)

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding. (Ralph Waldo Emerson, American)

To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order; we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right. (Confucius, Chinese)
Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. (Albert Einstein, German American)

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood. (Martin Luther King, Jr., American)

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war. (Winston Churchill, British)

Peace is a state of quiet and tranquility. Peace is a harmony between people. Peace is mutual concordance between governments.

Some of us see humans as one, thus see everlasting peace as desirable quest, which is much more than a point in time, but a desirable end point. But history has countless reminders of tranquility followed by violence, and the cycle repeats … peace follows war, thus leading to another war.

Serenity to turmoil, quiet to loud, calm to tumult are only a few of the terms describing human events. Arnold Sherman wrote Song of Peace for handbells memorializing another event – the Oklahoma City bombing of April 19, 1995. As you listen, the harsh discord of violence is evident – as is the calmness of peace. Coincidentally, I finalized this post while watching the moving dedication of the 9/11 Memorial Museum. Peace to you.

On a Froggy Monday

Hopefully your weekend was a good one. So what did you do?

We had one of those full weekends. My sister-in-law and niece visiting meant no ballroom time for us … but we stayed busy. We hosted the family Friday afternoon and evening. All five us on Saturday afternoon went to a painting outing at a business called Painting with a Twist. Oh what fun! I’m not a painter or at all artistic, but Marina wants to transform my work into t-shirts, pillows, posters, and more.

I started with a blank canvas and the process did not involve tracing

After the painting session, we went to my father-in-law’s for pizza. From there, we went to a church wine tasting for wine and fellowship … and it was a wonderful event!

Sunday afternoon we attended a car show in our neighborhood that one of our new neighbors organized.

I drove my friend’s white 1984 Jaguar XJ6 to the event … then after the event, I drove the 1979 MG Midget back to his house

This 1957 Jaguar XK140 was a huge hit with attendees

1970 Jaguar XKE

Curtain time for Act 4 of Life: The Musical is Wednesday at 9:30 PM (US Eastern). Act 4 is about Youth … so get your song ready featuring young, youth, children, or kids in the title.

Celebrations for your week

• (Week) Safe Boating Week, Emergency Medical Services Week, World Trade Week, New Friends – Old Friends Week, Backyard Games Week, Medical Transcription Week, Recreational Water Illness & Injury Prevention Week, Stationary Week, Pickles Week Astronomy Week, Buckle Up Week, Hurricane Awareness Week, Medic Alert Awareness Week, Running & Fitness Week, Police Week
• (Mon) Frog Jump Day, Ride Bike to Work Day, Accountant’s Day, Boys Club May, May Ray Day, Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, Autoimmune Arthritis Day, Devil’s Food Cake Day, Bake Sale Day, Send an E-Card Day
• (Tues) Eliza Doolittle Day, Weights & Measurement Day, Quiche Lorraine Day, Pick Strawberries Day
• (Wed) I Need a Patch for That Day, Employee Health & Fitness Day, American Red Cross Founder’s Day, Turn Beauty Inside Out Day, Strawberries & Cream Day, Victoria Day, Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue & Development Day
• (Thurs) Toothpaste Tube Day, Immigrants Day, Day for Biological Diversity Day, Museum Day, Maritime Day, Harvey Milk Day, Vanilla Pudding Day, Goth Day, Buy a Musical Instrument Day

With Monday being Frog Jump Day, here’s one of the all-time great frogs to lead us into the week. Have a good week!