The "A little better all the time (It can't get no worse)" Edition
How would you rate the particulars of your personal financial/material situation compared to 6 months ago?
1.) Better
2.) Worse
3.) About the same
1.) Better
rdmcd (with no comments)
The Chief reports...
As a Washington State government employee, six months ago I learned that our Democratic Governor canceled our just signed union contract that would have given us less than 2% pay raise this year and in 2010 because of the budget crisis's. So I would have voted 2.) Worse, but I am a retired Chief Petty Officer in the Navy Reserves who just turned sixty and received my first Navy retirement check along with the military medical called Tricare. So now I would have to say "Better".
If you ask this question six months from now or a year from now I might answer different. I keep getting emails from officer friends, most officers have swallowed the Republican Kool Aid poison, saying that Obama and congress are out to destroy Tricare to help pay for National Health care for all. We will see.
2.) Worse
joe laments...
It just seems to get worse my lousy health ins. is going up again, even though I have never used it. No raises since the stolen 2000 election and my dental ended plus my benevolent boss quit contributing to my 401K when Bush took over, plus my life ins. policy. The misery index just gets worse and I feel that all the crap the repubs. are pulling is not going to work, we are the majority now!!!
SallyP(al) does too...
I will have to check off the second box, as my particulars are in decline, thank you very much :)
But, like most older folks, I live on a semi fixed income, and the cost-of-living is certainly on the rise. Ever the entrepreneur, I do some sewing alterations, and work at the local garden nursery for holidays now and again. That used to support my ventures with the grandkids, but not so anymore. And, I also suspect that I am cutting back in anticipation of ever harder times to come. I think that is just human nature. I have two friends coming to visit this fall, and will be taking some short vacation-type trips in lieu of longer ones because they too are cutting back expenses. I also took any investment monies out of funds, and bought an FDIC-insured CD so that I don't have to watch the debacle in the market. Less interest by far, but the bucks are insured - for now...
Of course, if we have to listen to the Obama hate mongers filling to airways, screaming about how bad EVERYTHING is going for the Obama administration, and how he is making the sky fall - and the sheep continue to scream down everything they attempt, and DEMAND instance prosperity (even though they willingly gave Bush carte blanche) we may soon become the Third World country they all fear... Now THAT'S depressing!
And that's all she wrote, but thanks for asking,
3.) About the same
Adam in NoHo said...
It's 3/2 compared to 2008, and 2 compared to 2007. Despite 2009 being similar work-wise for me to 2008, I still feel like I'm only just keeping my head above water. I'm not sure what's going on.
postlwkr (wit no comments)
4.) Other
That Mad Cat, JD considers the 'Big Picture'...
I'M NOT DEAD AND I'M NOT IN JAIL SO I GUESS I'M DOING OK.
As for me, well, Poll-fans, I abstain. I don't have to compete in the commercial world and am compensated extremely well as a DAV. My health is problematic, but I receive all the best the VA has to give. The VA hospital I go to is rated in the top ten of all VA facilities and is superb. I am very grateful and humbled by it all. Sometimes, I feel guilty when I read about people that lack health care and what they have to needlessly endure. The same when I read about the long lines at food give-aways. That's not a world I have to live in, but it is a world that saddens and angers me because there is no excuse for it other than the avarice of a few. I support BHO and his efforts and hold out hope for a better future for everyone... Hang in there, ya hear?
Thanks and never forget, Yer the Best!
Manson Family member Leslie Van Houten, sentenced to Life in prison for her role in the LaBianca murders, is eligible to apply for parole later this month. She has been denied parole 17 times. Many people, including film maker John Waters (
John Waters: Leslie Van Houten: A Friendship, Part 1 of 5 ), are advocating for her release. She reportedly has been a model prisoner completing all available prison programs and assisting other inmates with these programs. She has earned two college degrees and has maintained a clean disciplinary record. She has accepted full responsibility for her actions...
Paul Krugman: Averting the Worst (nytimes.com)
The economy has backed up from the edge of the abyss, with the government's stabilizing role preventing a replay of the Great Depression.
Susan Estrich: Chief Bratton (creators.com)
Last month, when reports surfaced that Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton and his wife, Rikki Klieman, were putting their house on the market, people in L.A. started getting nervous. The chief is in the second year of his second five-year term. It is the first time in the 20-plus years I've lived here that no one was trying to show him the door.
Moose was the youngest of a litter of 4, yet was also the biggest, hence his name. Hyper and destructive as a pup, he eventually found his way to Birds & Animals Unlimited, where he got his job playing Eddie on Frasier.
Moose received more fan mail than any of the other 'Frasier' cast members.
He was 15-and-a-half years old in human years when he died. He was 78 in dog years.
Source
Alan J was first, and correct, with:
Moose
Sally wrote:
Don't you just love those media weather people? All weekend long they have been threatening this area of the country with "97+ degree temps plus a, 'Heat Index' of over 100o and 'strong' thunder storms!" Well, we hit a high of 89o today, with the high humidity that we have become a custom to and it was NOT "OVER 100!" And the freaking a SUN is shining!! What Idiots! Anything for some drama...
That being said: In the TV series, "Frasier," "Eddie" was played by a dog who's real name is Moose."
Why make it so complicated, just change "Moose's" name to "Eddie?" He's a DOG! Do they think he'll turn into a, "Sybil" with multiple personalities or something? Jeeze, stop with the various canine names already - case closed!!
Here is a site listing doggy pseudonyms... Famous Dogs and Famous Dog Names
PS: I KNOW all you dog-lovers are rolling your eyes here!! :)
Charlie responded:
Though I am a lifelong cat lover, I am sorry to note that "Eddie," whose real name was Moose, has died.
Jon from Prescott Valley replied:
Marty: I believe that dog's real name was either Rush Limbark or Moose. Leigh from Arizona--don't tease me.
MAM wrote:
Moose' was the real name of the original dog that portrayed 'Eddie' on the TV series Frasier. He was a long-haired Jack Russell terrier.
'Moose' aka 'Eddie'
The American Time Use Survey asks thousands of American residents to recall every minute of a day. Here is how people over age 15 spent their time in 2008.
The kid is sick and the ftp/computer is still acting up.
Tonight, Tuesday:
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'NCIS', followed by a FRESH'Big Brother 11', then a RERUN'Medium'.
On a RERUNDave (from 6/4/09) are Paula Abdul, Elvis Costello, and a Top Ten List presented by Neil Patrick Harris.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig are Mitch Albom and Bonnie Raitt & Taj Mahal.
NBC starts the night with a RERUN'America's Got Talent', followed by a FRESH'America's Got Talent'.
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are Freestyle Motocross athletes, Jon Hamm, and Cobra Starship with Estelle
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Ashton Kutcher, Triple H, and Bat For Lashes.
On a RERUNCarson 'The Scab' Daly (from 6/9/09) is Green Day.
ABC opens the night with a FRESH'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?', followed by a FRESH'Better Off Ted', then another FRESH'Better Off Ted', followed by 'Primetime: The Outsiders'.
On a RERUNJimmy Kimmel (from 6/16/09) are Ty Pennington, David Sedaris, and the Jonas Brothers.
The CW offers a RERUN'90210', followed by another RERUN'90210'.
Faux has a FRESH'Hell's Kitchen', followed by a FRESH'More To Love'.
MY has 'Street Patrol', another 'Street Patrol', 'Jail', and another 'Jail'.
A&E has 'The First 48', another 'The First 48', followed by a FRESH'The First 48', and a FRESH'The Closer'.
AMC offers the movie 'Message In A Bottle', followed by the movie 'Get Shorty', then the movie 'Be Cool'.
BBC -
[12:00 PM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 13
[12:30 PM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 16
[1:00 PM] How Clean Is Your House? US - Episode 5
[1:30 PM] How Clean Is Your House? - Episode 2
[2:00 PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares Revisited - Ep 1 Glasshouse
[3:00 PM] Gordon Ramsay's F Word - Episode 2
[4:00 PM] The Hotel Inspector - Episode 4
[5:00 PM] Gordon Ramsay's F Word - Episode 3
[6:00 PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - Ep 7 Campania
[7:00 PM] BBC World News America
[8:00 PM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 5
[9:00 PM] Dragons' Den - Episode 3
[10:00 PM] BBC World News America
[11:00 PM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 5
[12:00 AM] Dragons' Den - Episode 3
[1:00 AM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 5
[2:00 AM] Dragons' Den - Episode 3
[3:00 AM] The Graham Norton Show - Ep 12 James Nesbitt, Catherine Tate and The Kooks
[4:00 AM] How Clean Is Your House? US - Episode 5
[4:30 AM] How Clean Is Your House? - Episode 2
[5:00 AM] BBC World News
[6:00 AM] BBC World News (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives Of Atlanta', another 'Real Housewives Of Atlanta', followed by a FRESH'NYC Prep', then a FRESH'Miami Social'.
Comedy Central has 'Scrubs', another 'Scrubs', last night's 'Jon Stewart', last night's 'Colbert Report', 'South Park', another 'South Park', still another 'South Park', and yet another 'South Park'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJon Stewart is Austan Goolsbee.
Scheduled on a FRESHColbert Report is Jonathan Cohn.
FX has the movie 'White Chicks', followed by the movie 'Epic Movie', then a FRESH'Rescue Me'.
History has 'Modern Marvels', another 'Modern Marvels', 'The Universe', followed by a FRESH'That's Impossible'.
IFC -
[6:05 AM] Starstruck
[7:45 AM] Reefer Madness
[9:00 AM] No Such Thing
[10:45 AM] IFC Short Film Showcase
[11:45 AM] Starstruck
[1:30 PM] Reefer Madness
[2:45 PM] No Such Thing
[4:35 PM] Starstruck
[6:15 PM] Last Days
[8:00 PM] The Minus Man
[10:00 PM] Z Rock
[10:30 PM] Ideal
[11:00 PM] B-Live Music Blast
[11:15 PM] Food Party
[11:30 PM] Basilisk
[12:00 AM] Making of Inglourious Basterds
[12:15 AM] The Grey Zone
[2:05 AM] The Whitest Kids U'Know
[2:20 AM] Food Party
[2:35 AM] Basilisk
[3:00 AM] Z Rock
[3:30 AM] Ideal
[4:00 AM] The Grey Zone
[5:50 AM] The Minus Man (ALL TIMES EDT)
SyFy has 'Warehouse 13', another 'Warehouse 13', followed by a FRESH'Warehouse 13', and 'ECW'.
Sundance -
[04:35 AM] Alice Neel
[06:05 AM] Zebraman
[08:00 AM] Colma: The Musical
[09:45 AM] The American Astronaut
[12:15 PM] A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
[02:00 PM] Zebraman
[04:00 PM] Colma: The Musical
[05:45 PM] Be Quiet
[06:05 PM] Comedy Of Power
[08:00 PM] Big Ideas for a Small Planet - Season 3: Design
[08:30 PM] Eco Trip: Episode 4
[09:00 PM] Waterlife
[10:50 PM] songbird
[11:00 PM] Drama/mex
[12:35 AM] A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
[02:15 AM] Big Ideas for a Small Planet - Season 3: Design
[02:45 AM] Eco Trip: Episode 4
[03:15 AM] Waterlife
[05:05 AM] A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (ALL TIMES EDT)
Terry Lickona, left, executive producer of Austin City Limits, and Terry Stewart, right, president and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum are shown before a news conference, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009, in Austin, Texas. They announced that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum will designate Public Television's Austin City Limits as an historic rock and roll site.
Photo by Harry Cabluck
Johnny Cash, B.B. King, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello - they're among the legions of music legends who have graced the stage of the famed Austin City Limits television music show.
That storied history and the show's lengthy run of 35 years propelled the program to a new honor Monday as an official historic site designated by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
"It just seemed natural that we try to do something down here in Austin around the longest-running musical series in the history of television. What this program has done in trying to create this incredible archive of material of both iconic and emerging, cutting-edge artists is remarkable," said Terry Stewart, president and chief executive of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland.
The Texas-based music show studio will join nine other designated rock and roll landmarks across the country. Among them are the Whisky a-Go-Go in Los Angeles where the Doors were regulars; Brooklyn High School in the Cleveland area, where Elvis Presley played his first concert north of the Mason-Dixon line; and WJW Radio also in Cleveland, where disc jockey Alan Freed is credited with popularizing the term "rock and roll."
Frank Lloyd Wright enthusiasts are claiming victory in their effort to restore the architect's last standing hotel, a northern Iowa landmark that has fallen apart over the past few decades.
The Park Inn Hotel in Mason City, designed by Wright and completed in 1910, has been used as a hotel, apartments and even a strip club. It fell further into neglect while city officials searched unsuccessfully for a way to maintain the historic structure. Now, a private group has taken over the effort.
"It certainly has been an eyesore, it has had a very, very checkered history over past 40 to 50 years," said Ann MacGregor, executive director of Wright on the Park Inc., the group behind a planned $18 million restoration.
The hotel is last remaining of six designed by Wright after the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo was demolished in 1968. The Park Inn Hotel will have 20 suites when it reopens to the public in early 2011, MacGregor said.
Argentine-born Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim speaks during a press conference for 'Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra', in Salzburg, Austria, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009.
Photo by Kerstin Joensson
The Fox network said Monday it will air a two-hour special on the life of "Octomom" Nadya Suleman, based on footage bought from an online company that paid for access to her life.
Called "Octomom: The Incredible Unseen Footage," Fox has scheduled the show for Aug. 19.
Suleman, already a single mother of six, gave birth to octuplets Jan. 26. Curiosity about Suleman turned to some outrage after it became clear that the single, unemployed mother had been using student loans and Social Security disability payments to help pay for her children's care.
U.S. regulators have launched an inquiry into whether certain broadcasters are refusing to air the music of artists who demand to be paid when their songs are played on the radio.
The Federal Communications Commission reviewed a June petition by a music coalition that accuses radio stations of skipping songs of artists who support legislation aimed at paying royalties to artists.
According to an official notice dated on Friday, the agency is seeking public comment on the petition until September 23. The FCC customarily seeks comment on proposals for new or amended rules, but petitions received on a wide variety of subjects are also published for public comment.
The coalition, called musicFIRST, also said in the petition that some broadcasters are refusing to run advertisements that support the legislation.
Mariam Said, the widow of Edward Said, speaks during a press conference for 'Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra', in Salzburg, Austria, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009.
Photo by Kerstin Joensson
About 200 women marched through the Nepali capital Monday to denounce a government scheme to pay cash incentives to men for marrying widows, witnesses said.
Nepal's center-left coalition announced a plan last month to pay men the equivalent of $650 for marrying widows, angering the widows.
The government says the scheme seeks to help widows who face social and cultural barriers in a majority-Hindu society.
But Durga Neupane, an organizer and a widow, said it would only add to their woes as men would marry widows for money and later abandon them. Widows, she said, should instead be given jobs, better health care and education.
In a celestial feat any magician would appreciate, Saturn will make its wide but thin ring system disappear from our view Aug. 11.
Saturn's rings, loaded with ice and mud, boulders and tiny moons, is 170,000 miles wide. But the shimmering setup is only about 30 feet thick. The rings harbor 35 trillion-trillion tons of ice, dust and rock, scientists estimate.
The rings shine because they reflect sunlight. But every 15 years, the rings turn edge-on to the sun and reflect almost no sunlight.
While Earth goes around the sun once every 365 days or so, Saturn's annual orbit takes 29.7 years. So every 15 years, the attitude shift puts the gas giant planet's equator, and its ring plane, directly in line with sunlight. Scientists call it an equinox, and this one marks the arrival of spring to the giant planet's northern hemisphere. (On Earth, equinoxes occur in March and September.)
Mike Seeger, who helped revive traditional American folk music, has died at age 75.
Seeger's wife, Alexia Smith, said Monday that Seeger died of cancer Friday night at their home in Lexington, Va.
Seeger was born in New York City and raised near Washington, D.C., in a musical family. Two of his siblings became key figures in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s: his half brother, Pete, and sister Peggy.
Mike Seeger associated with traditional musicians such as Maybelle Carter and Dock Boggs.
He sang and played a number of instruments, including banjo, fiddle and guitar, and helped form the traditional music group The New Lost City Ramblers in 1958. He recorded more than 40 albums solo and with others, and received six Grammy Award nominations.
This undated photo released by The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) shows a flying frog or Rhacophorus suffry, in Assam, India. Over 350 species including the bright green, flying frog and the world's smallest deer have been discovered over the past decade in the Himalayas, making it one of the world's most biological rich regions, an environmental group said Monday, Aug. 10, 2009.
Photo by Totul Bortamuli
You have reached the Home page of BartCop Entertainment.
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amused or entertained?
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How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
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