paul newman passed away last night. 

i am devastated.  he was a personal hero of mine.

not only did he devote his time and energy to helping ailing children, but his company Newman's Own has donated over $250 million to charities. 

his was a life that was put to good use.   he fulfilled the human capacity:  to take what you are passionate about in life, and use those talents for the benefit of others.  his humbleness and generosity of spirit is unmatched in today's society. 

IF there is a heaven, paul newman is undoubtedly in it.   

the gordon gekko complex

did everyone else hear that wall street is basically on the verge of collapse?!

the fed forced the brokers & floor monkeys to work through the weekend to avert a major crisis, after numbers fell dramatically on friday.  and they should work through their weekend, considering it's their greed, and the greed of the CEOs, that got us into this trouble to begin with.

merrill lynch just sold itself (out) to bank of america for a small percentage of their former value.  AIG insurance has hit up the fed for $40 billion by midweek to keep that company afloat.  rumor is that GM, ford, chrysler, united airlines and american airlines are all preparing to ask the fed for financial support, to avoid bankruptcy.  fannie mae & freddie mac are at the knees of the fed, begging the government to bail them out. -- and in that bail out, the CEOs of fannie & freddie are not only asking to keep their whopping multi-million dollar pensions, but are requesting to stay on as CEOs, so they can "help" the fed "rebuild" the companies.  my god, they're shameless.  the government should start by firing those CEOs, then taking away their whopping pensions in order to pay back their debt. 

i say, let these companies collapse.  let the CEOs choke on it.  the only help the fed needs to provide is to assist these companies' employees to find work elsewhere.  otherwise, shut them down.  make room for newer, better, more progressive companies to take their places.  that's the way capitalism works.

exactly where does the fed think it's going to get the money to support these companies?  we are in an economic recession & people can hardly afford their cost of living, the unemployment rate is through the roof, there is a massive mortgage crisis with near a million home foreclosures nationwide, gas prices continue to balloon, and the iraq war is sucking every last penny we used to have.  cripes, the fed had to borrow money from japan and china for our tax refund checks!  and now they want to absorb the cost to save all these companies from financial ruin?  where will all of this money continue to come from?  do they think it grows on trees?   i'll tell you where it's going to come from:  our taxes.  no matter how much obama or mccain promises  not to raise taxes, it's unavoidable, considering how treacherous our economic situation is.  raising taxes will make it even harder for americans to pay their bills and get by, but,  hey, the national bills have to get paid too.  only the dumbest president in our history would start a war and cut taxes!   

and people out there actually plan to vote for john mccain.....

i wish someone would implement my idea to legalize prostitution and make it a government job.  ya' know, kinda' like working at the post office.  build clean, safe brothels nationwide.  give 'the girls' health insurance and benefits.  then tax the hell out of every trick that's turned in order to pay down the deficit.  even with the war and the financial ruin our country is in, i bet we'd have a surplus of cash in five years. 

i need to find a lobbyist....   

what a glorious weekend!  friday and saturday started off a little bumpy, and it rained here from thursday through sunday night, but the weekend was terrific even with the lousy weather.

saturday night i crashed my friend wendy's high school reunion.  wendy lives in downtown chicago, and i live out beyond the 'burbs, so we don't get to see each other that often.  her reunion was in my neck of the woods.  i felt sick earlier that day, but i pushed myself to take a shower, put on my face & a cute costume, and go meet her.  and, of course, i was so glad i did!  we had a chance to catch up for a couple of hours.  it was great.

then on sunday my BFF/HLP, marissa, came over around 11am, and even we were impressed at everything we did!  we drove out to the apple orchard & got fresh apples for our baking extravaganza.  then we went to this fabulous garden store called blumen gardens for their first annual blumenfest.  the fest had a german theme (which i loved!), so we munched on brats & sauerkraut & german chocolate cupcakes.  we also listened to some master gardeners speak on various plants and general gardening tips, and we perused all the lovely fall flowers. 

then we went to see BURN AFTER READING, which was funny but twisted....   i love my man george clooney the most when he plays the buffoon, and he definitely did in this film (a horny, perverted buffoon, at that).  but the highlight was brad pitt:  marissa & i nearly fell out of our seats from laughter at every scene he was in.   beyond that, i would say the film was so-so.   the cohens keep trying, but FARGO, O'BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU & THE BIG LEBOWSKI were simply their best comedies. 

after that, marissa and i came back to my house, made taco salad for dinner, then started our baking extravaganza:  she made an apple pie (the most delicious i have ever had!), and i made my pal lisa's apple crisp recipe.  we listened to music and danced around the kitchen while we baked.  then we closed out the night by watching my fave TV show MAD MEN.  marissa slept over, and we had breakfast this morning before she left.

(we giggled all day at the fact that we both wore basically the same zip-up hoodie.  bopsy twins!  and can you tell i was trying to control my laughter in this photo?  i can't believe she made me pose for a picture with baked goods!)

now i'm back to the reality of monday, including cleaning my house, doing laundry, grocery shopping, doing my bookkeeping for the spa, and paying my quarterly income taxes.  bleh.

let me think, what do i have planned for next weekend.....  keep my thoughts on something positive.

oh, good lord.  literally.

sarah palin is a pentecostal.

my ex is a pentecostal  (yes, i dated someone who is a of the religious reich.  no question why THAT didn't work out).

pentecostals are the biggest freaks of all the christian freaks.  they believe that they can speak directly to god, and they speak to him in tongues.  they prefer women not to wear makeup, to grow their hair long, to wear only skirts, and to be subservient to their husbands (which does  not explain why sarah palin wears twenty pounds of makeup and also wears the pants in her marriage). 

i saw a speech of sarah palin's from june of last year when she spoke to her church congregation, and she stated that god wants a natural gas pipeline to be built in alaska.  she also said that as long as our troops are fighting under god's principles that we will succeed in iraq (because, ya' know, god is totally pro-war).   her church also offers a class to "rehabilitate" gay people, promoting that if a gay person accepts jesus as his/her savior, god will relinquish him/her from being gay.  then they could be 'cured,' become a 'normal' heterosexual, join the military, go kill iraqis in the name of god and make the republicans proud!!!!

if americans can't see what kind of NUT this woman is, then i give up.

oh, and if you haven't seen this BRAZILLIANT clip from jon stewart, please, please check it out:

ahh, crap.

early polling results after sarah "barracuda" palin's speech are overwhelmingly positive.  why, i don't know.  that voice of hers makes my ears bleed, and i heard NO substance to her speech at all. 

i do, however, understand now where she got her 'pitbull' reputation:  she's a f*cking bully.  i guarantee she was the girl in high school who was in all the sports, the leader of the popular crowd, and the one who bullied & beat-up the soft-spoken and intelligent girls in her class.  in other words, she's a woman's worst nightmare.  she is vicious. 

unfortunately, your lesser educated americans (the gist of the population) love the 'attack dog' approach.  it appeals to their caveman mentality.  so perhaps that's why early polling results are showing support for her.

i just can't stand the same old republican tactics:  sarcasm, punch lines and fear-mongering.  that's all they know how to do.  there's nothing at all positive or uplifting about that entire party. 

plus they're all fat, homely and tacky.

that's me acting like a republican.   

but fear not, my fellow obama supporters!   barack's poll numbers are far ahead of mccain's, and even IF they take a dip this week because of the RNC, they will rise again, and for one reason:  the upcoming debates.  that stumbling, drooling, crotchety, old mccain won't hold a candle to our articulate and inspirational barack.  it'll be reminiscent of john kennedy and richard nixon's first televised debate:  JFK was strapping and handsome, while nixon was a fumbling nincompoop who was sweating all over the place.  and we all remember who won that election:  the handsome, articulate and inspirational guy.

p.s.   i do have to say that i am LIVID that the republicans are now jumping on barack's campaign strategy for change.  clearly their crappy strategies weren't working, so now they're copying the man who is in the lead.  pathetic.  and i really hope the media will point that out.  repeatedly.

p.s.s.  i signed up online today to volunteer for barack's campaign!  since i live in illinois, my state is clearly going to obama, so a group of us are going to the battleground state of iowa the weekend of september 26th and from november 1st through the 3rd to win those iowa votes!   YAY!