Heaven to murgatroy!

I hate pomegranate juice.
Pomegranate juice makes me gag and I feel the ends of my hair follicles when I drink it.
It makes me shudder and shiver.
I will not drink pomegranate juice.
Don't make me drink pomegranate juice.
Or else I will spit out out in your face and it will stain your white shirt.
Everybody will laugh at you with a red stain on your white shirt.
I warned you.
I hate pomegranate juice.
Don't make me drink pomegranate juice.
I hate pomegranate juice.

Maybe that's why I am strange.

CHICAGO (AFP) - Drinking pomegranate juice during pregnancy may help reduce the risk of brain injuries in babies.

Decreased blood flow and oxygen to an infant's developing brain during pregnancy, birth and early development is linked to premature birth and can lead to brain tissue loss, seizures and mobility impairments such as cerebral palsy.

The phenomenon, which is called hypoxia ischemia, causes brain injury in approximately two of every 1,000 full-term human births and in a very high percentage of babies born before 34 weeks of gestation.

But researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that newborn mice whose mothers drank water mixed with pomegranate concentrate lost 60 percent less brain tissue than mice whose mothers drank sugar water or other fluids.

I'm going through a lot of heartache and worry these days about a personal situation bigger way than I am.

A special old friend wrote me a comforting e-mail. He had read my blog item about hearing the song "Downtown" and the special meaning it had for me. While I put a negative spin on my feelings when I heard the song, he reminded me to make sure to see that the glass is always 3/4 full than being 3/4 empty in the most beautiful way possible.

He wrote, "I saw your blog mention of "Downtown" by Petula Clark. It is an upbeat song, full of promise and hope. Please hold onto both at all times."

Being a man of many, many words, all I can say is, "wow." Petula Clark rules! And my super wonderful friend S. in Portland, OR rules, too....along with those who are holding up this oak tree who is swaying in every direction in this storm.



Downtown

When you're alone and life is making you lonely
You can always go-downtown
WHen you're got worries all the noise and the hurry
Seems to help I know-downtown

Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city
Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty
How can you lose?

The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles forget all your cares
So go downtown
Things'll be great when your-downtown
No finer place for sure-downtown
Everything's waiting for you
Downtown

Don't hang around and let your problems surround you
There are movie shows-downtown
Maybe you know some little places to go
To where they never close-downtown

Just listen to the rhythm of a gentle bossa nova
You'll be dancing with 'em too before the night is over
Happy again

The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles forget all your cares

So go downtown
Where all the lights are bright-downtown
Waiting for you tonight-downtown
You're gonna be alright now
Downtown

And you may find somebody kind to help and understand you
SOmeone who is just like you and needs a gentle hand to guide them along

So maybe I'll see you there
We can forget all our troubles forget all our cares
So go downtown
Things'll be great when you're-downtown
Don't wait a minute more
Downtown-everything's waiting for you
Downtown (everything's waiting for you)
Downtown etc., etc.

"My face is red and black, the top of my head is tiger spots, my hair are black feathers."

Something has really been bugging me ever since I heard Gwen Stefani's song, "Hollaback Girl."

Her music video by the same name featuring her in a cheerleader's outfit and a marching band makes no sense. A whole in the back? Perhaps until now.

The lyrics in question are, "I heard that you were talking sh** And you didn't think that I would hear it. People hear you talking like that, getting everybody fired up So I'm ready to attack, gonna lead the pack. . . . 'Cause I ain't no hollaback girl,I ain't no hollaback girl"

According to the Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com/) there seems to be an argument as to the real meaning...which means others have just been as confused. The one entry which ties it up perhaps somewhat neatly...

"A holla back girl is a member of a cheerleading squad who repeats – hollers back - words that the squad leader shouts out to them. For example at a Pep Rally, cheerleaders might shout out “S-P-I-R-I-T” and the squad leader asks “What does that spell?” and the holla back girls respond – hollering back “SPIRIT”. In the context of Gwen Stefani’s song “Hollaback Girl”, the term also refers to a girl who has heard about some guy talking bad about her and she isn’t just going to take it – she is going to be the leader, take charge and put an end to his verbal “cheerleading”.

Gwen Stefani lyrics - "I heard that you were talking sh** And you didn't think that I would hear it. People hear you talking like that, getting everybody fired up So I'm ready to attack, gonna lead the pack. . . . 'Cause I ain't no hollaback girl,I ain't no hollaback girl."

The definition which seems to be the one most others agree with (724 to 84)...

A girl that is willing to be treated like a doormat or booty call. She is a girl that will allow guys to do whatever they want with her and will just wait for them to 'holla back' at them.

I definitely will be sleeping more easily now that I know this.

I've been dealing with a VERY stressful situation for the past week. Of all people I figured out the powerful medicine of music when I walked into my local post office and heard one of my all time favorite songs, "Downtown" as sung by Petula Clark. I've always loved the words, the melody, and the wonderful memories of a time when I lived in Portland, OR and life was a lot simpler and the future seemed to be paved only with happy times, etc.

Damn it felt good...

Sigh....

Isn't that special...on the surface an article in the Washington Post reports about a breach of security at a nuclear power plant in Tennessee. Buried in the article is one line that should send shiver up the spine of every American and should make everyone realize that President Bush is Mexico President Vincente Fox's puppy dog. Shame, President Bush!

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Sixteen foreign-born construction workers with phony immigration documents were able to enter a nuclear weapons plant in eastern Tennessee because of lax security controls, a federal report said Monday.

Controls at the Y-12 weapons plant have since been tightened and there was no evidence the workers had access to any sensitive documents, said the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees nuclear weapons facilities for the Department of Energy. However, the DOE inspector general's office said in the report issued Monday that its field agents found "official use only" documents "lying unprotected in a construction trailer which was accessed by the foreign construction workers" at the plant.

"Thus, these individuals were afforded opportunities to access ... (this) information," the inspector general wrote. "We concluded that this situation represented a potentially serious access control and security problem." The report, initiated by a tip in 2004, said the workers had fake green cards that certified them to work in the United States. Their cases were turned over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency for deportation.

THis is how I'm feeling right now....

JOURNEY - TRIAL BY FIRE

treasures in the jars of clay

let the light shine out of darkness

fallen down but not destroyed

it's just another trial by fire

in my song i'll send a prayer

do you know me, do you hear me

where's the will to face this shame

it's just another trial by fire

hello mr moon

can i have some time with you?

trouble keeps me runnin'

you can see it comin'

i know who shines down on you

hello mr moon

i've come back to talk to you

all my life i'm runnin'

from a love that's comin'

saving grace please pull me through

in my doubt i can't believe

like a wave tossed where the wind blows

tears of faith temper my soul

just another trial by fire

just another trial by fire

I support the US invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein.
I support the Middle East finally getting through its head that we are not a country to be f**ked with....and we are not going to tolerate radical whacked out Muslims to bomb our countries and kill some three thousand of our citizens.

But what about the invasion of US by Mexicans and other societal miscreants on our porous southern (and northern) borders? I want to be calmed about that...not necessarily about a justified war.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Facing growing pressure to bring troops home from Iraq, President Bush is launching a public relations campaign to try to calm anxieties about the war.
Bush scheduled a major address for June 28, the one-year anniversary of the transfer of sovereignty from the U.S.-led coalition to Iraqis. Four days before that, he will meet at the White House with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who heads the transitional government chosen after January elections. The president also plans a series of radio addresses and appearances outside Washington. He will emphasize the importance of democracy in Iraq and elsewhere when he meets with fellow world leaders in Gleneagles, Scotland, in July, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. The president's campaign comes as the U.S. death toll in Iraq has climbed above 1,700. A relentless wave of suicide bombings, kidnappings and beheadings has killed at least 1,070 just since al-Jaafari's government was announced April 28.

Former Texas Governor Anne King said many years ago about Dubya's dad, "Poor George, he keeps putting his foot in his mouth." It would seem that Dubya has the same hoof-and-mouth affliction when he goes around complaining about the Democratic party so-called obstructionist ways. What about Dubya's obstructionist ways on not dealing with the ballooning health care crisis, the lack of border security where millions of Mexicans are illegally coming into the United States? Huh?

(Washington Times) President Bush last night ripped the Democratic Party as do-nothing obstructionists bent on derailing his reform agenda, saying that on issue after issue, Democratic leaders in Congress 'stand for nothing except obstruction, and this is not leadership.'
At an evening congressional gala at the Washington Convention Center -- which drew $23 million for House and Senate Republican candidates and amounted to the kickoff of the 2006 political campaign season -- the president drew standing ovations from Republican faithful as he hammered Democrats for offering no solutions to the nation's most pressing problems.
'If leaders of the other party have innovative ideas, let's hear them. But if they have no ideas or policies except obstruction, they should step aside and let others lead,' Mr. Bush said to thunderous applause from more than 5,000 supporters.
The president, who has spent the past several months seeking consensus on his Social Security reform package and reaching out to Democrats with nonconfrontational rhetoric, said opposition party leaders are pursuing 'the philosophy of the stop sign, the agenda of the roadblock, and our country and our children deserve better.'
'Political parties that choose the path of obstruction will not gain the trust of the American people,' he said at the event dubbed 'the 2005 President's Dinner.'
Mr. Bush said political parties can take one of two approaches: 'One approach is to lead, to focus on the people's business, to take on the tough problems, and that is exactly what our party is doing.

Well, it looks like old presidents don't fade away....they go senile...

Former President Carter, the one president who should keep on doing his good works by building houses for the downtrodden and writes books about fishing, thinks that the Guantanamo Bay detention center should be closed "to show that the US has a committment to human rights." Well, Pres. Peanut Brain, do the enemy combatants who are being detained there have a similar committment to human rights? The answer is no. These detainees are people who have no regard for human rights when they bomb and kill all in the name of Allah. Perhaps we should then empty the zoos and wild animal parks to show our committment to the rights of animals. Perhaps we should stop spraying for mosquitos who are carriers of the West Nile disease because we are not being kind enough to animal and plant life.

When President Carter was being so totally ignored by Presidents Clinton and Bush during their campaign for tsunami relief tells me that the old peanut farmer is trying to get back into the news headlines.

ATLANTA (AP) - Former President Carter on Tuesday called for the United States to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison to demonstrate its commitment to human rights. "The U.S. continues to suffer terrible embarrassment and a blow to our reputation ... because of reports concerning abuses of prisoners in "bold reminder that America is determined to promote freedom and democracy around the world," Carter said.

About 540 detainees are being held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Some have been there more than three years without being charged with a crime. Most were captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 and were sent to Guantanamo Bay in hope of extracting useful intelligence about the al-Qaida terrorist network.