RIP: My Favorite Teacup!

Tragedy has struck my household!! My favorite teacup, a limited-edition Roy Kirkham 1992 Iris cup(#54!) which had a small chip (my doing), cracked irreparably when I poured in the water for my first cup of tea yesterday morning.

Thankfully, I have a number of other ones but #54! Such a low number! I am going to at least glue it and plant something in it but it will never be the same. I've had that cup for 17 years - since it came out. I thought I would have that cup forever!

Superiority

There should be an 'ALMOST' inserted in there.

Leave my Obama alone, you bastards!

Why is it that Obama is expected to fix our economy in 30 seconds, when the disaster was building over 8 years? Were a Republifucker in office, the press wouldn't dare expect any immediate results, let alone a time-table!

My Republifucker "acquaintences" have been just blasting Obama's budget and basically everything he's tried to do to fix this mess we are in that THEY created! Granted, some Democrats had a hand in this mess, but let's lay the blame where it belongs.

National Debt - beginning of GW Bush's first stolen term: $5.8 Trillon
National Debt - end of GW Bush's second stolen term: $10.7 Trillion (10,700,000,000,000), that amounts to $51 billion PER MONTH!


GWBUSH & Republifucker-controlled Congress:

Budget Deficits by Year:
2001 128 B
2002 158 B
2003 378 B
2004 413 B
2005 318 B
2006 248 B
2007 162 B

And let's not forget the reason why we got into this mess. De-regulation. An SEC with no teeth. Oversight? Regulations? Chimpy didn't know what those words meant, Darth Cheney knew, so he squelched it all.

Enron(Lay was one of GW's buds), Worldcom.

And how about those tax cuts? I do taxes for a living, and I can tell you who saved the most - those who MADE the most. You, me, the average taxpayer, saw our marginal tax rate decrease from 25% to, hmm, 25%, or, say 15% to 15%. Granted, we all saved about $350 in savings from the 10% bracket those tax cuts created. Big deal. The top earners, with taxable income over about $370,000, their rate went from 39.6% to 35%, a savings of 4.6%. So, at the very least, say they had $400,000 in taxable income, on just the $30,000 alone, they saved $1,380, and that's a tiny example.

Then the capital gain rate of 15% on dividends. I get a few on my mutual funds, but nothing substantial. They went from being taxed at a maximum of 39.6% to no more than 15%. Who rakes in the most dividends? Not the average, middle-class family. Not those who WORK for a living! Example: Darth Cheney's EFFECTIVE tax rate on his 2007 tax return - 19.1% - on income of just over $3M! He should be in the 35% bracket, but his qualified dividends of $233,000 saved him $69,000 using the qualified dividend rate. And I just can imagine that he is letting his income stimulate our economy, since he had a foreign tax credit of $11,000, he's obviously not investing here much!

Enough ranting. At least one good thing came out of that assinine email - this darling picture I didn't have before. It's Obama point to those bastards who made the mess (in my mind). Now tell me, did Bush EVER look "Presidential?"

Happy February 14th

IDIOCY

I bought a new phone cord and THIS was on the back of the package. Logic would seem to dictate that if you were buying a phone cord you might have an inkling as to what in hell to do with it. It's not like you have five or six choices when hooking the thing up!

People who need this image should really be employed cleaning up nuclear waste.

Support the cause and sign the petition, damn it!!

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

Click HERE to sign the petition.

Irritating Commericals

Perhaps I've been watching a bit too much TV lately. I have not added new shows to those I watch, but the ones I am hooked on, I just can't quit. I mainly watch three channels - LifeTime, USA Network and TNT. These channels seem to play nearly the same commercials with infuriating regularity. Normally, I don't mind commercials but there have been several lately that are like fingernails on a blackboard.

1. Viva Viagra. Shows a bunch of silver-haired couples running around god-knows-where. Who the fuck cares? I don't want to even live to be that old. Take me God, I'm ready! And the song they rip-off - Viva Las Vegas (I fucking HATE Las Vegas, but that's another post altogether). That's all I need - 'VIVA VIAGRA!' in my head all day!


2. Kleenex. Touch. Touch. Touch. Touch. Touch. Touch. Touch. Touch. Touch. Touch. Touch. Touch. Enough fucking touching! I can't stand it! What the fuck does touching all that shit have to do with touching a kleenex? And that whisper-like sound of that voice....don't get me started. Yes, they are soft. DUH! Why in hell else would anyone buy them? Jesus. I'd like to hunt down the smarmy-bastard ad exec who created this moronic idea and castrate him (it has to be a man, women aren't that stupid) and castrate him because his stupidity should not be allowed to procreate. And the REAL moral of the commerical? Don't actually BUY the kleenex, just steal as many as you can when you come across a box somewhere else!


3. H&R Block/TurboTax - the whole lot of those type of commercials. H&R Block is the biggest rip-off I've seen in the tax prep world. I should disclose that I am a CPA so I may be a bit biased, but I've not seen an H&R Block return that I didn't amend to fix something they fucked up. "You've got people." I hate those mother-fucking people. Two weeks of training and they are suddenly pros? Pah-fucking-lease! And these latest commercials are with the dead presidents. Hasn't that been done to death? I know I recently ranted about the Blockheads but it wasn't sufficient to express my ire!


4. Burger King - I don't eat at BK, and their commercials couldn't sway me further away. That weird King suit with the built-in pedo-smile? Creepy! And the whole Whopper family - just disgusting. The one where the father is giving advice to his son about dating, and gives him an extra napkin - reminds me of my bulimia days.


5. "He went to Jared!" Materialistic bitch! What you mean is that he is in hock up to his ears to buy you a fucking blood diamond. A smart guy would buy a cheap Wal-Mart ring (don't forget to coat the inside with clear fingernail polish to avoid the green marks) and then put it in a Jared box.

What ones am I missing? I'm sure there are more.

A LEADER OF INTEGRITY

For the past 8 years, our nation has been on a downward slide. That time has finally ended. I am not sure which moment was the best for me, whether it was the goosebumps I felt as I watched Obama take the oath, or if it was the helicopter taking W away!

We have a leader of integrity. We have a leader who actually knows what it is like to WORK! He's a human; fully-evolved, even! And doesn't the First Lady look SMASHING? I'm still mesmerized by it all.

Assorted Rants

1. H&R Block Commercials - "We Got People." Sure, when you are staffed by idiots who have about 10 days of training it is certain to take "people" to get the returns done right! As a CPA who has worked my ass off for almost 11 years, I find these commercials about as offensive as so-called "professional wrestling." The number of returns of these "people" that I have had to amend to correct them is staggering. It's all about numbers -getting people in and out, customer service be damned. And the products they sell: rapid refund, loans, etc., sound so good until you realize you are paying nearly 22% interest, or even higher! And after all the money they spend on advertising, you would think they could afford a decent printer that actually prints things aligned on the damned pages.
2. It's Fucking Cold! It is -16.9°F (-27.2°C) outside. The projected high today is -5­°F (-20.5°C). Our normal high is 22­°F (-5.6°C). At least we have a substantial blanket of snow to protect my plants. I always worry about my roses, between those bastard rabbits eating them, this extreme cold does not bode well for them, either. And the cost! I can just hear the money being sucked out of my bank account!
3. Idiots. I seem to be exposed to an above average array of idiots: people who cannot manage their money by spending it frivilously and then complain they cannot pay their bills, automotons who use computers for work on a daily basis but still flip out when they get a message box, morons who supposedly graduated from college but can't apply their knowledge to routine and recurring items that should be a no-brainer for anyone who graduated high school!
4. Banks. Bail them out so they can hoard the money to buy up more failed lenders. And WE get to pay for it. They charge outrageous fees for simple, automated transactions that now make up almost more of their revenue than what is supposed to: interest! And the interest rates. They sure know how to charge it but don't know how to pay it. My local bank pays me .15% (that is about 1/7 of a percent) PER YEAR! The rates for mortgages - from 5-7% in my area, at least, and operating notes for business? Around 8-11%. Something doesn't add up. I opened an Orange Savings Account that pays 2.5% APY. If they can pay it, I don't doubt the local banks can as well! Rich bastards!

I think that's enough for today. I could probably list a zillion rants but I do not wish to sound too bitter. I'll save that for another day!

To end on a somewhat positive note, I did post new pictures of the kids on my Flickr page.

Some of my flowers

There is enough political blogging for the moment. I thought I would retreat to a subject I know well. My flowers. Most of these pictures are of dayliles that I have bred and grown from tiny little shiny black seed and then waiting the two or three (or sometimes four) years it takes to bloom from planting. You never know what you are going to get. My method is just to cross the ones with colors I love with shapes, textures and other form traits that I like to hopefully produce an offsping wiht all of those qualities. I'm not a professional breeder. I've no formal training other than reading up on the subject.

Some of the flowers are not mine but I used them in the creation of my babies. In the first picture, there are a few lilies other than day lilies - a tigrinum and an oriental. My favorites are daylilies but I love ALL lilies.

PROGRESS!

Republifuckers

FUCK YOU, BUSH, AND YOUR REPUBLIFUCKING SCHIP YES-MEN

I am just so angry at Bush's veto of SCHIP. Ted Kennedy said it exactly - the government employees are on a form of socialized medicine. Not that it is really an issue, since even old Grassley says clearly that SCHIP is NOT socialized medicine, and hell, even HE voted for it!

Steve King (R-IA-pigfucker) is the ONLY Congress member in Iowa to vote against it. His office should be buried with emails and letters and phone calls should clog the phone lines. Email the pigfucker here or call or fax his DC office: Phone: 202.225.4426 Fax: 202.225.3193

I am not a recipient under this program, but I do know people who depend upon it and it is vitally important. Remember Bush's comment about healthcare - just go to the Emergency Room. Sure! I'm sure people that can't afford health insurance have at least $500 for each doctor's visit saved up.

Thoughts on this?

Someone posted this as a response to why the Dems shouldn't work on impeahchment right now. I have removed references to the group, and the individual. I respect that he has a different opinion, but, I must say I am not even sure how to react to this. I wasn't alive when Nixon was President (or was maybe 9 months old), and I remember the shock and disappointment I felt when reading about the internment camps for Japanese-Americans. This fifty-year test seems to me a cop-out in a sense - "Let's let someone else worry about this."

What about the oath of office?

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

If I recall, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, and the SCOTUS later shot it down. And the Japanese-American internment camps, FDR rescinded his order and Congress awarded payments for loss of property and formal apologies were issued (too little, too late, I say).

If we were to follow this questionable logic; that extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary measures, it still doesn't pass the test. Are we safer now than we were pre-9/11? NO!

We're already going to be passing a disaster off to many generations, so we should dd more to it? Bush has already packed the court with conservatives. I don't see Thomas, Scalia, Scalito, none of them leaving anytime soon.

So, here it is:

"I am one of the few who agree with you on this ....xxxxx. In my mind the acid test for action is the question, "What action will best protect our constitution fifty years out?" In other words, what should progressive people be pushing for now that will result in the preservation of the U.S. Constittution in, say 2060? Historically, Presidents from Adams to Lincoln to Wilson to FDR to Nixon have stretched the constitution in times of stress (Alien and Sedition Acts; suspension of Habeas Corpus; Supression of speech deemed "Bolshevik"; internment of Japanese citizens; Watergate). In only one case was impeachment the remedy. In all other cases, patient use of the political process produced courts that restored the constitutional protections. The way to "protect and defend" the Constitution is to reelect Democrats in Congress and elect a Democratic President who will appoint intellectually honest justices and judges to the Supreme Court and lower federal courts."

Thoughts?

And some more daylilies

The first flower of the second row is not my own hybrid. It is Moonlit Masquerade.

Some more daylilies

These are all my hybrids.

One of my faves

This is just one of my absolute favorite daylilies to date. It bloomed for the first time this year. I know that one of the parents was the sweetly-scented Hyperion(not one of mine, but a favorite, for sure).

It's hard to tell from the image, but, it had a pretty decent bud count, particularly since this was it's first time blooming. And, of course, it has Hyperion's intoxicating scent. If only that came in a candle! The flowers were also fairly large, at least 5 inches across, and it bloomed in pairs, too.

To the asshole.........

1. Anthony is not my child. Have issues reading? He's my godchild.
2. It's obvious you are ugly, as is your progeny. And I have no doubt you are a Bush-loving Repugnican living with blinders on to the whole world. What a sad and pathetic existence you must lead. Kevorkian is out of prison now. Contact him.
3. You're a coward for posting a rude comment but not leaving your name.
4. I can use words with more than two syllables AND spell them correctly. That pretty much negates your idiot theory.

More daylilies

A few of these might be duplicates from the prior post. The rose/mauve/magenta ones look MUCH better in person. And a number of these are fragrant. I use Hyperion heavily as a parent, which has those gorgeous lemon-yellow flowers and intoxicating scent. The light yellow one is definitely a descendent of hyperion, because it has a very strong fragrance.

2007 Daylilies

Just a few of my babies - my own hybrids.  I'll update this page later.  I have to go through and crop and rename and then upload another 15 pictures or so.



I made them small and may be a bit distorted; however, if you are using FireFox or Opera, they will open if you right-click on them and choose VIEW IMAGE or OPEN(in new tab for those of you using tabbed browsing).