Amici:
Once more once … how can I not keep this video up top? It was too much fun, amici.
Hugo … we're dog sitting the next 8 days or so … and last night, after trying to sleep on a single mattress on the floor because my back has now joined in providing the same kind of pain my knee so willingly offers, little Hugo proceeded to yelp until the cows came home. Tim was put on Hugo duty (keeping the bichon running on pure adrenalin occupado while the ugly one made believe he could sleep) … then this morning Hugo and I had a discussion (while he tried to make love to my right arm while simultaneously biting my hand) …
“This, Hugo, is a valium,” I said. “You will take one of these every time I see you from now until your mommy and daddy pick you up. You won’t give me a hard time taking it either because a) I outweigh you by 323 pounds (at least); b) I have a carnivorous mouse (Spartacus) who outweighs you by 10 pounds (at least) and c) because right now you’d make a perfect slipper for the Principessa Ann Marie and it’s her birthday next week. Capisco?”
Actually, the wife slipped me the valium before bedtime for bonzo last night but Hugo did his best to overwhelm the drug with his tiny but very loud yelps.
Vey iz mir …
With Malice Toward None … by Stephen B. Oates. A GREAT Lincoln bio showing the 16th President in the most human possible manner (insecurities and ambitions included) … his attempts to deal with the slavery issue while holding the union together perhaps offer a reminder about perspectives/circumstances … and his having to deal with several generals content to watch and wait make it easy to understand just how badly Lincoln was tarnished in the press of his day (for being “an ignorant hillbilly”, “weak”, “slow to grasp circumstances” and my favorite, “an ignoramus”, etc.). Yeah, right. Frankly, the mudslinging back then makes today’s nonsense look weak. This bio will move you (if your heart beats) and you will get teary eyed at its conclusion. What Lincoln could do with pen and paper (he was also castigated for not being able to speak well without a script) remains astounding and is as literary as it gets.
The civil war and all that happened around it continues to fascinate the ugly Knuckster and it’s never long before I’m looking for another book about the history of that bit of Americana.
Cheaterface Nation … say it ain’t so … not Big Poppi! Boy that town of Boston sure knows how to cheat … almost as well as the Skankies … although Knucksline suspects there were/are far more baseball players doing juice than football coaches filming other teams hand signals, so while we think baseball has kind of gone the route of the NBA (what with all that wild card crap; inter league play, designated hitters, moved in fences, etc.,), we figure we can ignore what MLB does … but the sacred NF of L … where my beloved New York State Buffalo Bills are forced to play against the likes of cheaterfaces like the Patriations and the Y-E-T-S, Yets, Yets, Yets? We say strip them of all their titles and wins and replay the super bowls with whomever faced them in the AFC championship game (if they won) … as for the ONE they LOST, well, there’s no punishment better fitting to the cheaterface Belichick than 18-1 …
Questions for President Obama … we don’t hear asked (it seems to Knucksline) by the media (whatever its slant). Some of them might sound familiar (i.e., like those asked of George W. Bush).
1. Is there an exit strategy for the war in Afghanistan you insisted was the right war during the presidential campaign?
2. Are we there to spread democracy?
3. Are we there to find Osama Bin Laden?
4. If so (to find Bin Laden), didn’t you say (or isn’t he believed to be) in Pakistan?
5. If it is to punish those who attacked us, why aren’t we at war with Saudi Arabia (since most of the hijackers were born there)?
6. If it is to punish states that sponsored Al Qaeda, at what point do we stop punishing them (and put an end to the cost in American & Afghani {and Iraqi} lives)?
7. You spoke of changing Washington and bringing about an inclusive political environment during the campaign. What happened (referring to the Democrats within your party who aren’t playing ball)?
8. Current plans call for a 2011 withdrawal from Iraq. Why 2011 if it was the wrong war in the wrong place? Why not yesterday?
9. Outsourcing … you’ve already given away OUR money to corporate America. At what point do you do something for US … say, like, require corporations who borrowed OUR money to end outsourcing? Goldman just posted record profits after paying back their TARP loans with money WE gave to AIG. You think maybe they could stop sending OUR jobs overseas?
10. Or how about deferring penalties for borrowing from 401K’s (what the market has left us with after destroying most of them)?
11. When are you going to grow a pair of balls regarding “ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL” and promote a constitutional amendment that guarantees the rights of gays to marry?
And FINALLY …
12. Since people like Ralph Nader already support equal rights, getting out of Iraq & Afghanistan, wouldn’t have paid the extortion Wall Street demanded, why should anyone supporting those policies vote for you in the next presidential election … or do you intend to actually CHANGE something in Washington before 2012?
—Knucks
