Remember Vernon Robinson's
Twilight Zone commercial that almost everyone who watched it thought it was a parody?

Well, he's back with an interesting mailing to local (NC) Republicans, like my husband.  Disclaimer: I long ago educated him and he votes Democrat now.

But guess who Vernon says is in bed with democratic rival Brad Miller (D-NC)?  Our own Markos.

<follow me>

A Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer is seeking letters from men and women who are currently serving, or who have returned from active duty in Iraq.  

"I love Jesus Christ!...so FUCK YOU!"

These ridiculously ironic words were just screamed, no SCREAMED at me by a young man just before he floored the gas and cut me off, causing me to slam on the brakes to avoid a crash.

What caused this hostile act of aggression?

More below.

This young woman and her little boy just never had a real chance to make it.  Read this article from the Raleigh News and Observer and weep.

Boy dies in trunk of car

More below.

Ah, fellow Kossacks, you never cease to amaze me with your brilliance, and I call upon you now to help me appear far more intelligent and politically knowledgeable than I actually am.

In response to this column in my local paper, entitled (prepare to vomit)Spreading the Fruits of Freedom, I have entered into a correspondence with the journalist and that's where I need your help.

Follow me.

In the "Duh" category this week comes this story off the AP, and covered on Good Morning America this morning, that there "seems to be" some biological involvement in sexual orientation.

In an exquisite fit of boredom, I have spent the afternoon perusing the Focus on the Family website.  Seriously you guys, if life's got you down and you need a good chuckle, please do visit it....and be sure to sign their guestbook to receive their free newsletter.

Being a reader I was drawn to their resource section, and, to save you the trouble, I have compiled a list of my favorite books and such that Dr. Dobson recommends.

FOF website more

In response to this column in the Raleigh (NC) News and Observer last week, I wrote a Letter to the Editor which they published yesterday and I somehow missed.  My son's high school journalism class read and discussed it this morning or I never would have known they printed it.

Note to self: read online edition more carefully.

Letter below.

I received the following "Living Will" from a family member via email this morning.  I don't know where it came from or who to attribute it to...but it's funny and encapsulates what many of us here are feeling after this whole Schiavo mess.

more below.

I'm in the midst of a real dilemma here and don't know what to do.  The other day I wrote a diary about body image and the response was overwhelming.  Many women wrote about their feelings of never being good enough; never quite living up to the expectations that society has imposed upon them.  The comments were tragic, inspiring, heartfelt, and most of all, supportive of one another.

Then it got ugly.  

More below.

After reading Meteor Blades poignant diary about how much our world has changed since September 11, 2001, I have been remembering a lot of what I was feeling on that day.

dKos has been here a long time, and I'm sure it's been covered before, but there are many new faces here and I am one of them.  I am curious about where all of you were on that day, what your initial reactions were, and especially, how your life and your little corner of the world have changed since then.

more below

The already heartbreaking story of Terri Schiavo's short life and slow, embattled death has just taken on new significance for me after reading this column by Connie Schultz in today's Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Apparently, Terri had grown up as a chubby kid and became bulimic as a way to control her weight.  On the night of her heart attack, at age 26, she and her husband, Michael, had had a big meal and Terri went into the bathroom and made herself vomit.  An electrolyte imbalance caused a massive heart attack and led to her being in a persistant vegetative state, from which most doctors agree she will never recover.

more below

When you go out to eat, you are probably aware that the server makes little more than $2.00 an hour.  She/he is often a struggling single parent, a cash-strapped student, or someone working a second or even third job to make ends meet.  I know many servers and not one of them works at Applebees or IHOP because they feel called to serve people.

So you, being the compassionate liberal that you are, try to help out by tipping generously, providing the service was acceptable.  You assume that the server keeps all of her/his tips.  

Wrong.

More below.

This

is without a doubt the closest I personally will ever get to George W. Bush.  But I still feel like I need to sanitize myself after this encounter.

I'll tell you why after the fold.

Women that I know either love her or hate her, but here she is on a show watched my millions of presumably stay-at-home moms.  And some dads.

How is she doing?

This bulge story is definitely in the mainstream now.  This morning on "The View" the ladies were talking about it.  Barbara Walters showed off the earpiece she wears on the show, as well as the rectangular lump it made under her jacket.  Star Jones said that she wouldn't put it past him because "Cheney's been telling him what to do for four years."

This show is watched by millions of women, presumably the "security moms" and today was a good dose of reality.  They take Barbara Walters deadly seriously, and while she didn't come out and say he was wearing a wire, she did say that a professional tailor said it couldn't be a rumple in the fabric, and that if he was wearing something it was definitely against the rules.

The young one (Elisabeth) is a blind Bush supporter, but the other three women, Joy, Meredith, and Star definitely lean Kerry and it showed.