Eat more cookies

Thank God somebody finally stood up to this ridiculous conservative media machine that spews out nonsense claiming that only “Republicans” can keep us safe from “terror.” Why the Democrats just rolled over and conceded this rhetoric in the 2004 elections, I’ll never know. Bill Clinton did something I haven’t seen a Democrat do since before 2001: he fought back.

The Republican party does NOT have a monopoly on ‘homeland security’, and we are NOT safer now thanks to the policies of Bush/Cheney. This $%^$ Iraq war probably cost us the chance to get bin Laden and really defeat the Taliban, and it definitely has stirred a hornet’s nest of anti-western religious fanaticism through the muslim world. If I had a blog back in 2003, this is what I would have been writing about in those weeks leading up to the war. Now if a pencil-neck like me was able to predict this outcome, why couldn’t our “elected” leaders do the same?

Because they’re famous idiots, of course.

Unless the Bush plan is to annihilate all followers of Mohammed, how can repeated military invasions of primarily muslim countries lead to anything but generations of bloodshed?

~tjo

This was last week’s news story, but we don’t have time to be real bloggers:

Used to eat spinach:

antioxidants galore!

Big Mac now safer.

The Pope says that some of Muhammed’s teachings inspire violence.

Angry Muslims claim that’s not the case, so they respond by burning the Pope in effigy, torching churches, and murdering a nun.

Got it.

The Sunday School blues

sacrament preparation

Church takes longer now

Congratulations to organizers of Madrid’s “Pasarela Cibiela” fashion show who have banned participation from models with a Body Mass Index less than 18: http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0908thinmodels08-ON.html! For how long have you complained to your family or friends that models were “too skinny?” It’s been about as long as I can remember. I am so sick and tired of fashion designers sending starving women with strung out make-up down the catwalks to look sickly in their latest creations. I want to see women’s fashions on women that look like women - not women that look like adolescent boys in high heels. Most of them are just plain creepy.

~tjo

Mr. President,

On the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America, I’ve been doing my best to participate in solemn observances of that tragic day. I am also trying to muster hope for a brighter future. Every time, however, you go on the air and say the word “nuclear”, you crush that hope in me because you sound like a total moron and make us a laughing stock for nations around the world. Maybe when you start pronouncing the word correctly, the Iranians will begin to listen to what you have to say.

~tjo

As a new installment here at Eat more cookies, we’re going to try to compose a weekly haiku reflecting on the events of the previous week. Here’s our first, for the week ending September 9th:

Lions beat badly.

Wide receivers pass no more.

Long season ahead.

~tjo

I know this can be a very touchy subject, but I have a couple of comments I just have to make.

First of all, what is this “House of Yahweh” newsletter we found in our driveway last weekend?  They say that a nuclear war will start on September 12th (that’s right, this coming Tuesday) and we must warn the world.  Then they give you a toll free number to call to get a free subscription to the newsletter.  Personally, I think that if they ARE right then I won’t have time to receive one before this war destroys everything, and if they’re wrong then I don’t need it all!

Another thing about many ‘Christians’ that makes me crazy is their obsession with the Old Testament ban on homosexuality.  I’m not going to get into a whole lot of biblical quotes here, nor will I get into all the discussions about translations and the fact that the word ‘homosexual’ wasn’t used until the late 19th century.  My main beef is when people quote Leviticus as the proof that God is anti-homosexual. Have they read the rest of Leviticus? If we are supposed to believe that the laws in Leviticus are still enforced, then we have to ban tattoos, cheeseburgers, bacon, shellfish, and so much more.  Why is this one piece of Leviticus the only thing these people care about?  I could say some things about them, but I think it would be more Christ-like to leave it. (tdo)

Let’s Go State! Blue . . . White! When I say “Joe Pa” you say “Terno”: “Joe Pa!” “Terno!” “Joe Pa!” “Terno!”

Big game tomorrow, folks. The Nittany Lions travel to South Bend to take on the Fighting Irish. Now as a fighting Irishman myself, I could certainly never root against Notre Dame, so I’ll stick to rooting FOR the Lions! Best wishes to both teams for a good, safe, exciting game.

Now, to get totally ready, you’ll need to learn the Penn State fight song, to which I may have taken some liberties with the lyrics, but I think it still works:

Fight on State!
Fight on State!
Fight on State, and win!

Victory we predict for thee,
we’re ever true to you, dear old White and Blue!

Fight on State!
Fight on State!
Roar Lions, Roar!

The victory is all but sealed as soon as our team hits the field!
Fight on Penn State!
Fight on Penn State!!

We are . . .

PENN STATE!!!

~tjo

Now that calls about bald cardinals have dried up, I’m starting to get “when should I take my hummingbird feeder down” calls. Somehow it got into the American psyche that if we leave our hummingbird feeders up too long in the fall, then the little birds won’t fly south, and they’ll freeze to death in our backyards.

Nonsense!

Hummers are long distance migrants, so they respond more to changes in daylength than anything else. They’ll leave when they’ve put on enough fat to make the next leg of their journey. If anything, taking feeders down at this time of year will encourage them to stay longer in an area as they try to find enough food to get in shape for that next leg!

In recent years, some folks have noticed that when their feeders are still up late in the fall, rare hummingbirds from out West show up. In the olden days before hummingbird feeders became commonplace, these birds that were straggling behind and off course (migrated east when they thought they were going south, or something like that) would have just died once it got cold and their natural food sources were used up. But hummingbird feeders kept running right through the winter have kept a lot of these birds alive ’til the following spring, even in places far to the north like New York!

So you may, if so inclined, keep your feeders going year ’round, with no risk of detriment (in fact, just the opposite) to the birds.

My motto is “hummers ’til Halloween,” so I keep feeding ’til at least the end of October. This could be a month or more past when I see my last one of the season. Then, if I’m feeling especially gracious, I’ll try to keep ‘em going ’til Thanksgiving.

For more info, check here:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/News/HummingbirdsInWinter.htm

http://www.trochilids.com/

~tjo