Friday, October 30, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
viral emails?
With that said, one of these viral emails recently came across my desk, and I actually had time to read it. And, ... it's pretty funny. With that said, ... it's pretty political too, ... which is why it's funny.
Check it out and tell me what you think. Do you think it's funny? Is it funny because it's true? Or, am I just another jerk passing along a viral political email?
THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER
This one is a little different.... Two Different Versions................. Two Different Morals
OLD VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away..
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.
CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'
Acorn stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.' Rev. Jeremiah Wright then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.
President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.
Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood.
The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Nobel Fodder?
"Maurice McCrackin (1905-1997) was an American civil rights and peace activist, tax resister and Presbyterian minister. McCrackin started a community church in Cincinnati after gaining notoriety for refusing to pay federal taxes. Many of his former parishioners followed him to the small building on Dayton Street in Cincinnati where he preached, ran services, baptized babies, and performed weddings and funerals.
He was a principled pacifist all of his life. He was active in the struggle for racial equality and an end to militarism in the United States. McCrackin was well known to the state's attorneys office as he was arrested over and over again in protests. Rev. McCrackin was also active in the fight for prisoner's rights and spent much time visiting convicts. Once, he was abducted by a man that he had visited in jail and rather than see him incarcerated again, refused to testify against him. The district attorney in Cincinnati jailed McCrackin for weeks because of this incident."
Friday, October 9, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
sleepless in cincinnati
It's almost 12:00-noon on Thursday. I've already sucked down about four cups of coffee, but I am exhausted.
My wife has been taking "night-duty" with our baby-girl this first six weeks of her little life because she, my wife Jen, is still on maternity leave. I've gone back to work, so Jen is allowing me to sleep when Riley wakes up throughout the night ... to eat ... or because she has a dirty diaper ... or because she just wants to be held for a while.
And then last night happened.
Riley just wouldn't sleep, ... at all ... which is unusual. Jen typically sneaks in two or three hours in between waking-sessions, but last night was different. The little girl just wouldn't sleep, and she wouldn't stop crying unless she was being held. Her crying woke me up several times, so I decided to get out of bed to see what was happening in the nursery. I walked in the door, and Jen looked at me as if was on the verge of collapse. It was around 2:00 and she had been up all night, unable to even put the baby down for more than a few minutes.
She insisted I go back to bed. But I knew better.
So, I took baby-Riley out to the family room, and Jen went to bed to get at least a few hours of sleep. I laid back in the chair, Riley on my chest, and tried to get some sleep too, which worked "sort of." I'm still not sure why, but the little girl was just restless. She never really fell into a deep, consistent sleep, and neither did I.
(Now, please don't applaud me. Quite literally, I've been feeling sorry for myself all stinking day because I had to stay up ...just one night out of, ... hmmm, ... six weeks worth of nights! Save your applause for the worthy.)
Morning came. I went to the gym, then to work. And now I'm exhausted. But as I'm sitting here at my desk, working while listening to background music, ... a particular song, ... one that I've heard many, many times, ... comes on. It's the one in the video above.
And for the first time in my hearing it many, many times, ... I get it. I understand it.
And even though I'm still very tired, I wouldn't trade sleepless moments with my little girl snuggled on my chest for anything in the world.
Thanks, God.