The Watering Hole. Wednesday. December 19, 2012

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A man dutifully placed his groceries on the conveyer belt Tuesday night. Next in line, a little girl held up three small yogurt containers, not sure if she could put them on the belt. “Go ahead.” the man said. She smiled…one of those child-smiles that can lighten up the whole night. “She’s cute.” The man said to the girl’s mother. “How old is she? 5? 6?”

She’s 5, the mother replied as she and her husband continued emptying their cart. The man paid for his groceries and started to leave, then turned around and tapped the father on the arm. “I have an unusual request” the man said. “Sure,” replied the father.

“I used to be a teacher. And, with what happened last Friday…would you give her a hug for me?” Without saying a thing, the father turned and picked up his daughter, hugging her and turning so they could both see the man, who nodded at them, then headed out of the store, tears flowing from his eyes. He cried most of the way home…for the children…for the parents…for the smiles forever extinguished….

This story is not a parable…not made up…for I am that man.

Peace. Love. & Blessings.

Briseadh na Faire

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119 thoughts on “The Watering Hole. Wednesday. December 19, 2012”

    • You’re welcome. Suffice to say I was/am profoundly impacted by Friday’s mass murder of small children – and the typical response of “evangelical christians” who seem to think that one cannot be both moral and secular.

    • I had tears rolling down my cheeks at A Christmas Carol last night for the Cratchetts and their ‘empty chair and a crutch, carefully preserved’. The theatre was a bowl and we sat in the second row, the action took place some 10 feet from us – that kind of theatre can be intense.

    • *channeling haters*

      Obummer’s been named Time’s person of the year? What has he ever done, except spend our money, raise our taxes, and kill our ambassador in Libya!!?? He’s not even an Amurkan!

    • Bye-bye Bork.
      (People for the American Way had this to say when Romney chose Bork for his re-election team)

      Surely Romney must be assuming that it is safe to accede and pander to the Right because we have all forgotten about Bork’s anti-consumer, anti-environmental and anti-worker record as a judge, not to mention his snarling opposition to women’s rights, civil rights and civil liberties — the hard-core positions that moved the Senate to reject his nomination by President Ronald Reagan to the United States Supreme Court on a bipartisan vote of 58-42.

    • The drone operators are hardhearted.
      Why else would one murder from a control box? Not having to face ‘the enemy/collateral damage’ as you annihilate won’t play on their conscience as having murdered children.

      • Hey they learned to not give-a-shit playing ‘Call of Duty’ …. the online high scores are piped right into to the USAF recruiting division dontchaknow….

      • And they punch out at 5 and drive home to a homecooked meal with their families …..

    • My mother died when my daughters were ages 7 and 6. They both wrote notes and placed them under her pillow in the coffin. I believe it was their way of dealing with the loss and their way of saying good bye. They also wrote notes and left them on the kitchen counter when our cat Bili died. Children are so innocent.

  12. Thomas Jefferson (yes, THAT one) certainly saw the need to change the Constitution over time:

    “I am certainly not an advocate for for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors,” – Thomas Jefferson.

  13. Knock knock knock
    Delivery for Sweaty Ted
    (Ted answers door)
    Wow, such lovely gift wrapping!
    Who sent it and what is it?
    “It’s from the executives at the Discovey Channel”
    (Ted) It looks like two hams but it smells awful.
    The guys at the top said to make sure I hand this to you personally.
    (Ted) That’s nice of them, what is it?
    It’s your ass Mr. Nugent.
    They wanted to be sure that you got handed your ass with no possibilty of misunderstanding.

    http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/12/18/discovery-cancels-american-guns-what-about-nuge/191898

  14. Film review from Badmooddaughter on The Hobbit:

    BMD: Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro (et al), SHAME ON YOU. You go to your rooms and think about what you did. Tsk.

    BMM: Oh, but weren’t you dazzled by the 48fps film? … Nauseated?

    BMD: It was just all around awful. We’ll talk in person this weekend when I can wildly gesticulate with my crazy Italian hands so you’ll know exactly how I felt about it. But I will say, I debated walking out.

    • Ooooo, the Republicans will love getting a supply of crawly brain squigs. Cheaper than funding Fox. ;)

  20. So in the case of domestic terrorism, such as Sandy Hook, we mustn’t blame the guns. We dare not blame the school. All blames goes to the shooter.

    In the case of the attack on Bengahzi, apparently it’s okay to blame everyone in the administration but lay no blame on the terrorists who killed our people.

  22. Sigh…

    I took a look to see what the Raptards are up to and it proved more depressing than amusing. It seems that the consensus is that America needs more guns, more Buybulls, and more home “schooling”. Apparently, the facts of the most recent horrific mass killing haven’t penetrated their bubble of delusion.

    While I have not heard about the specific religious and political beliefs of the perpetrator and his mother we do know that he was home “schooled”, which no doubt played a part in his inability to live within a society, and the gun or guns used were all legally purchased “for protection” from a coming collapse of civilization.

    Hmmmm. Kinda sounds like Nancy Lanza was preparing for the Tribulation much like the freaks at Rapture Ready. Perhaps she and the victims would still be alive if she had taught her kid to embrace society instead of fear it?

  23. Midweek Musical Mental Health Break…

    Korn & Taylor Swift are a better match that you might think:

  24. Piers Morgan encountered the gun nuts’ gun nut, Larry Pratt of the Gun Owners of America, on his CNN show last night, and blew apart when he realized his guest was certifiable. (If only he had asked Pratt his views about public schools to boot.)

    The result, anyway, was highly amusing, producing entertaining exchanges such as this:

    PRATT: I honestly don’t understand why you would rather have people be victims of a crime than be able to defend themselves. It’s incomprehensible.

    MORGAN: You’re an unbelievably stupid man, aren’t you?

    PRATT: It seems to me that you’re morally obtuse. You seem to prefer being a victim to being able to prevail over the criminal element. And I don’t know why you want to be the criminal’s friend.

    MORGAN: What a ridiculous argument. You have absolutely no coherent argument whatsoever.

    And then there was the way it all wrapped up:

    MORGAN: Yes, I know — I know why sales of these weapons have been soaring in the last few days. It’s down to idiots like you.

    Mr. Pratt, thank you for joining me.

    When we come back –

    PRATT: Thank you for your high-level argument, Mr. Morgan. It’s really good.

    MORGAN: You know what, you wouldn’t understand the meaning of the phrase high-level argument. You are a dangerous man espousing dangerous nonsense. You shame your country.

    PRATT: Disarmament is dangerous. (INAUDIBLE) into role model.

    MORGAN: Yes. Sure. I know all about role models and you’re not one of them.

    Over at the wingnut media-watch outfit Newsbusters, the piteous wailing was tremendous:

    It’s one thing for an anchor or host to disagree with his guest, but to attack them for a differing view is not what journalism is supposed to be about. Or is that no longer important to CNN as it struggles to get viewers as well as its relevancy back?

    The reality is that there are many in this nation that believe that the current gun laws promote violence rather than reduce it, and that if there had been someone armed at Sandy Hook Elementary School as well as the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, the shootings either wouldn’t have taken place at all or would have resulted in less loss of life.

    Irrespective of what the anti-gun left represented by folks such as Morgan think, this is a position that has its place in this debate even after this most recent event.

    Yes, that’s a position, all right. We would call that the “incredibly stupid and morally disgusting” position. And Morgan has every right to be disgusted. Something would be wrong with him if he weren’t.

    And something is wrong with Pratt and his defenders.

  27. I find myself clenching and grinding my teeth whenever this ass talks now:

    “Tomorrow the House will pass legislation to make permanent tax relief for nearly every American — 99.81 percent of the American people. Then the President will have a decision to make. He can call on Senate Democrats to pass that bill, or he can be responsible for the largest tax increase in American history,” – John Boehner, today.

    Actually, the largest tax increase in American history was written by the GOP into the tax cuts themselves, if they failed to produce enough revenue to finance the government. Which they didn’t. The reason we may go over the cliff is entirely because the GOP is more ideological than it is responsible.

    • I just heard that on the teevee. 4% is the largest tax increase in history? I highly doubt that.

      I imagine Obama kicked the Weepy Orange Boner out of his office for bad faith dealings.

      • Here’s a frightening and sobering thought: Imagine Eric Cantor third in succession to the presidency.

        If Boner fooks this up you can easily see that happening.

      • Why does Boner hate Ike?
        During the administration of Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a 92 percent marginal income tax rate for top earners in the United States remained from the previous administration of Harry S. Truman. At the time, the highest tax bracket was for income over $400,000.

        This was nearly the highest tax rate for top earners in the century, just under the 94 percent rate for income over $200,000 instated during World War II under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency.

        In 1954, the 92 percent marginal rate decreased to 91 percent under Eisenhower. The maximum tax on long-term capital gains was 25 percent — a rate that remained in place for a decade.

  30. Sandy Hook happened because schools are feminine…or something:

    “There was not a single adult male on the school premises when the shooting occurred. In this school of 450 students, a sizeable number of whom were undoubtedly 11- and 12-year-old boys (it was a K–6 school), all the personnel — the teachers, the principal, the assistant principal, the school psychologist, the “reading specialist” — were female. There didn’t even seem to be a male janitor to heave his bucket at Adam Lanza’s knees. Women and small children are sitting ducks for mass-murderers. The principal, Dawn Hochsprung, seemed to have performed bravely. According to reports, she activated the school’s public-address system and also lunged at Lanza, before he shot her to death. Some of the teachers managed to save all or some of their charges by rushing them into closets or bathrooms. But in general, a feminized setting is a setting in which helpless passivity is the norm. Male aggression can be a good thing, as in protecting the weak — but it has been forced out of the culture of elementary schools and the education schools that train their personnel. Think of what Sandy Hook might have been like if a couple of male teachers who had played high-school football, or even some of the huskier 12-year-old boys, had converged on Lanza,” – Charlotte Allen, NRO.

    • That is disgusting and STUPID.

      An adult male was on the premises — he was doing the shooting.

      This shit for brains twunt thinks a male janitor throwing his bucket at the shooter is manly and would save those children? The female principal of Sandy Hook threw her BODY at the shooter, for fuck’s sake.

      Bullets don’t discriminate. What a fucked up bitch.

    • Here’s a better idea, you stupid cow (Meaning Ms. Allen). How about we make it illegal for freaks and charlatans to tell their worshipers that the “other people” are coming to kill them? How about we make it illegal for the disturbed parents of disturbed children to take them out of society and home “school” them rather than teaching them to live with others? How about we make it illegal for common citizens to own military grade firearms?

  31. A little tidbit that has absolutely nothing to do with gun control. I have managed to rediscover my mother’s recipe for making the best potato pancakes on the planet. My 3 sisters have also been searching but as a poor, aggressive male, I found it. And not a single gun was involved.

      • I’ve spent 20 years trying to make my Mom’s World’s Best potato pancakes and now that I have figured it out I’m supposed to just hand it over? If I do that everyone will know just how simple it is. And how dumb I am for taking 20 years to figure it out. Even with Mom’s help.

        Mom used to tell me it is no big secret and she was right.

      • Mom’s Potato Pancakes

        Finely shred about 4 or 5 potatoes. Not the monster Russet bakers but basic taters.
        Do the same to a couple of onions.
        Crack an egg or two, depending on how many taters are in the bowl.
        Shake in about a half cup of flour, sifted.
        Glug a half cup of beer in.
        Mix well. What you get won’t look like batter but it should have some random juice and you should stir well before before putting it in the pan.

        Heat a cast iron skillet and splash enough oil ( I used a mix of corn oil and other tree hugger friendly stuff) over medium heat. Part of the magic is enough oil to crisp the edges. These pancakes aren’t exactly deep fried but they are close.

        The end result should be a pancake that is browned crispy on the edges.

      • A co-worker was showing me the blizzard warning areas on his I-Phone, and it looked like about half the Zoosters could expect some. I’m expecting T-Storms before I leave for work.

        • Oh!
          No snow here – our storm door will be opening up, again, come late Thursday all the way through Monday. At the moment, the prediction is Tuesday will be dry – which is a plus as we’ll be doing beach clean up and it’s a bugger in the rain.

  33. “This is the fourth mass shooting since you’ve been president. Where have you been?”

    Jake Tapper is a stinky ass.

    • The President had a good retort

      Well, here’s where I’ve been, Jake. I’ve been president of the United States, dealing with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, an auto industry on the verge of collapse, two wars. I don’t think I’ve been on vacation.
      And so, you know, I think all of us have to do some reflection on how we prioritize what we do here in Washington. And as I said on Sunday, you know, this should be a wake-up call for all of us to say that if we are not getting right the need to keep our children safe, then nothing else matters. And it’s my commitment to make sure that, that we do everything we can to keep our children safe. A lot of things go — are involved in that, Jake. So making sure they’ve got decent health care and making sure they’ve got a good education, making sure that their parents have jobs — those are all relevant as well. Those aren’t just sort of side issues.

    • An imbecile to the nth degree.
      They never, ever think anything through before spouting/spewing idiocy.

      • I become more convinced with each passing day that they do think this crap through. I can’t decide whether it’s insanity or pure evil but there’s too much information to deny that it’s calculated rather than a series of blunders. They are doing all they can to build the world they want and it will require all of us doing everything we can to stop them.

    • The bill would require teachers to be armed with a gun? So if a teacher doesn’t want to own a gun, she will still be required to have one in order to keep her job? VA has just as many dumbf**ks as PA.

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