Department of Homeland Security "oversight". I think that explains it all.
Imagine being an employee of DHS and trying to explain to someone on the street who your boss is. That’s nuts, folks.
29
Dec
As usual, even in the midst of one of the greatest disasters to befall modern man, some people will politicize it: Per Jan Egeland, UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator:
"It is beyond me why are we so stingy, really," the Norwegian-born U.N. official told reporters. "Christmastime should remind many Western countries at least, [of] how rich we have become."
"There are several donors who are less generous than before in a growing world economy," he said, adding that politicians in the United States and Europe "believe that they are really burdening the taxpayers too much, and the taxpayers want to give less. It’s not true. They want to give more."
Per Reuters Foundatrion Alertnet:
AUSTRALIA: Increased its aid to $27 million and said it, the United States, Japan and India were considering setting up a group to coordinate help. Also sent five air force transport planes with supplies and medical specialists to Sumatra, and two 15-member emergency medical teams and 12 police to Phuket.
AUSTRIA: Pledged 1 million euros ($1.4 million) in aid to the countries hit.
BELGIUM: Military plane due to stop at Dubai to load most of its cargo — UNICEF aid such as tents, vaccines.
BRITAIN: Pledged 15 million pounds ($28.9 million) to the devastated area and has sent plastic sheets and tents worth 250,000 pounds to Sri Lanka. Contributing 370,000 pounds to EU aid and $100,000 to World Health Organisation.
CANADA: Initial contribution of $C1 million ($814,000) to appeal for $6.5 million by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
CHINA: Offering 21.6 million yuan ($2.6 million) of aid to India, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Maldives.
CZECH REPUBLIC: Sent planes to Sri Lanka and Thailand with drinking water and medicine, part of pledge of aid worth 10 million crowns ($446,000).
DENMARK: Increased aid pledge by maximum 85 million Danish crowns ($15.6 million) after spending almost all initial 10 million crowns pledged. Aid will cover immediate needs — medical supplies, food, water, shelter — and reconstruction.
UNICEF flight from its Copenhagen depot taking 45 tonnes of supplies to the area, including oral rehydration salts and medical supplies for 150,000 people for three months.
EGYPT: Egyptian Red Crescent Society sending a plane with 500,000 Egyptian pounds ($81,000) worth of medicine and other aid as initial step.
EUROPEAN UNION: Ready to release up to 30 million euros on top of 3 million euros already allocated to IFRC.
FINLAND: Pledged 2.5 million euros spread among World Food Programme, UNICEF, WHO and IFRC. Local aid groups contributed further 75,000 euros. Finnish Red Cross has sent a field hospital with 15 staff to Sri Lanka and 31 aid workers to Thailand.
FRANCE: Foreign Minister Michel Barnier in Sri Lanka, then Thailand. Has earmarked 100,000 euros for relief, sent 16 rescuers to Thailand, 10 tonnes aid to Sri Lanka.
GERMANY: Doubling emergency aid to 2 million euros. Air force medical evacuation plane to set off for Phuket, two more planes chartered to take disaster relief teams, medicines and consular officials there. Germany’s largest utility E.ON to donate 1 million euros.
GREECE: Sending C-130 transport aircraft carrying 25 rescue workers to Phuket on Thursday to help with rescue operations.
Has sent plane to Sri Lanka carrying five tonnes of food and clothing, and offered 150,000 euros in aid to each of the two countries.
ISRAEL: Sent one medical team to Sri Lanka, one to Thailand. Military search and rescue team due in Sri Lanka, held up by coordination problems.
ITALY: Will send 2 Hercules aircraft, one to Sri Lanka, one to Thailand.
JAPAN: Pledged $30 million in aid, sent three navy vessels to Thailand to help rescue survivors.
KUWAIT: Pledged aid supplies worth $2 million, sent $100,000 immediate aid.
NETHERLANDS: Contributing 2 million euros to Red Cross-Red Crescent appeal, plus participating in EU aid programme.
NORWAY: Preliminary contribution of 50 million Norwegian crowns ($8.2 million) for emergency relief, including basic necessities, medicines, food, clean water and shelter.
POLAND: Earmarked 1 million zlotys ($336,000) for Polish NGOs involved in relief.
SAUDI ARABIA: Pledged $10 million aid package — $5 million of food, tents and medicine to be distributed via Saudi Red Crescent, $5 million for international aid groups such as the Red Cross and U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
SINGAPORE: Contributing some $1.2 million to global effort, military medical teams and supplies ready to fly to Indonesia.
SOUTH KOREA: Raises aid to $2 million, may send military cargo plane to move aid workers and supplies.
SPAIN: Sent aircraft to Sri Lanka with first aid, sanitary equipment and 19 volunteers, promised 1 million euros.
SWEDEN: Sent 2 communications specialists to help U.N. relief efforts in Sri Lanka. Sending tents and communications equipment to the Maldives. Swedish Red Cross to contribute $750,000 to IFRC appeal.
TAIWAN: Pledged additional $5 million to South and Southeast Asian countries, after giving $100,000 to Indonesia, $50,000 each to Thailand, India and Sri Lanka. Sends more than 100 relief workers.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Pledged $2 million in aid and its Red Crescent society will donate 30 tonnes of food, blankets and clothing to earthquake victims to be transported over this week.
UNITED STATES: Pledged initial $35 million. Pentagon ordered 12 vessels to region, though no decision taken on their role.
INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS: Cargo plane flying from Kenya to Sri Lanka carrying 105 tonnes of supplies, provide aid to 150,000 people in north and east. Trying to raise more than 50 million Swiss francs ($44 million).
IMF: Intends to provide assistance, no specific pledges.
UNHCR: Initially distributing $380,000 of non-food relief items, including 23,500 plastic sheets for shelter, 24,500 plastic mats, clothing, towels and 20,000 kitchen sets.
UNICEF: Delivered 50 water tanks to southern India, 45-tonne shipment of water purification tablets and water systems due to reach Sri Lanka on Thursday. WHO and UNICEF said they were providing four emergency kits to Indonesia to cover 40,000 people for three months, providing shelter, food and clothing.
U.N. WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: Sends 168 tonnes of commodities to Sri Lanka, plus more than 4,000 tonnes of rice, wheatflour, lentils and sugar, enough to provide 500,000 people with emergency rations for two weeks.
U.N. DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME: Provided $100,000 each to Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, the Maldives and Thailand to help assess damage and coordinate emergency needs.
U.N. POPULATION FUND: Earmarked up to $1 million and extra staff to help health needs of pregnant and nursing women.
Do the math. Not only is the US contributing more than Europe and China combined, but we fund a disproportionate amount of the UN as well. Give us credit for about 50% of the the UN humanitarian aid as well. Secondly, $35 million is not a stop-gap figure, it’s just an estimated guess. As big as this thing has gotten, I KNOW the US will be cotnributing more. If Mr. Egeland didn’t have such a chip on his shoulder, he’d be looking at the math as well and be wondering why the fastest growing economy in the world, and a neighbor of the affected area, has only committed $2.5 million.
The UN has got to go.
Read the content here. It’s so important of an issue to me I want everyone to see it.
Foxnews sets the tone with this opening salvo:
The Hippocratic Oath doctors swear to save lives, not end them. But one doctor accused of doing just that also happens to be the governor of Kentucky, and a lawmaker willing to sign execution orders on death row inmates.
However, they do get credit for allowing the rebuttal:
“There is a distinct difference between acting as a physician for a patient and acting as a governor for the people of the commonwealth of Kentucky,” Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a former family physician and U.S. congressman elected to the state’s highest office last year, told FOX News.
Governor Fletcher is dead on target. I expect him to be governor, not whatever he was. As a doctor, he is expected to provide medical treatment. As a congressman, he was expected to determine and execute the laws of our country. Now, as governor, he is expected to do what is best for the state he governs. That is all.
Now, a group of doctors has asked the state medical board to investigate whether Fletcher violated the rules of the Kentucky Medical Association, which licensed Fletcher. The state guidelines are in sync with guidelines from the American Medical Association, which say that physicians shouldn’t participate in executions. The AMA defines an execution as anything that assists or contributes to the death of a condemned prisoner.
“That is a direct violation of Kentucky law as well as the AMA ethics code and Kentucky medical Association ethics code,” said Dr. Steven Lippman at the University of Louisville.
But opponents to Bowling’s execution also made the appeal that signing paperwork resulting in death violates Fletcher’s oath as a doctor.
“The basic Hippocratic Oath is ‘do no harm,’ and execution does irreparable harm,” said Dr. Stewart Urbach at the University of Louisville.
Wrong, Dr. Urbach. Here is the oath:
To consider dear to me as my parents him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and if necessary to share my goods with him; to look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art if they so desire without fee or written promise; to impart to my sons and the sons of the master who taught me and the disciples who have enrolled themselves and have agreed to the rules of the profession, but to these alone the precepts and the instruction. I will prescribe regimen for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgement and never do harm to anyone. To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death. Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion. But I will preserve the purity of my life and my art. I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art. In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves. All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal. If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot.
The italicized part is the only thing Dr. Urbach has going for his claim. However, as the bolded parts show, the Hippocratic Oath refers to their patients. The governor does not “prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death”. The advice is given by the jury, which is the governor’s peers in this case. The prescription of death is of the convict’s choosing.
And, what is this all about?
Last month, Fletcher signed the death warrant for 51-year-old Thomas Clyde Bowling, who was convicted in 1990 of killing a couple outside their dry cleaning store in Lexington, Ky. Death penalty opponents, including Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union, protested the governor, arguing that the case against Bowling had flaws and that he is mentally retarded. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2002 that executing people with mental retardation is unconstitutional. Kentucky already had the prohibition on the books when the court ruled.
The protesters are claiming Bowling is mentally retarded. His last measured IQ was 74. Which, they claim, is close enough to be considered retarded although he is not legally retarded. He did poorly in school, and needed help with basic functions as a teen. OK, here’s the rub. My step-son does poorly in school and needs help with basic functions. He is, however, not even remotely retarded. I really don’t like AI and ACLU’s argument. You either are retarded to the point of being disabled, or you are not. They are now wanting to muddy the definition simply because of this one case. Bowling was capable of functioning in society, albeit at a very limited capacity. He was capable enough to own and operate a vehicle. He was capable enough to purchase and operate a .357. Only after he used those tools properly in the execution of a double homicide does AI and ACLU come rushing to his defense claiming he is incapable of planning the act because he is retarded.
Bowling’s not retarded. He’s stupid. However, stupidity doesn’t absolve him of the fact he is a threat to society and society has deemed that it needs protection from him. As I’ve said many times in the past, if the ACLU is so worried about losing Thomas Clyde Bowling, take him in their homes. If they assure me, as a member of society, that he is no longer a threat to my family, I’ll be OK with letting him live. The only way they can do that is to keep him under guard 24/7 the rest of his life, and not do it at MY expense.
If the ACLU and AI can’t assure me that they will do that, then he just needs killin. That’s my answer, I want to hear theirs.
22
Dec
Orin Kerr at Volokh brings up this observation:
Presidential pardons historically have provided a critical safety valve in the federal criminal justice system. Today, though, that is no longer true.
Throughout American history, Presidents issued pardons in a measurable chunk of federal criminal cases. (Statistics available here and here.) Back when only a few thousand federal criminal cases were charged each year, Presidents generally exercised their pardon power in hundreds of cases. In the early 19th century, for example, James Monroe pardoned 419 people. In the early 20th century, Woodrow Wilson pardoned 2,480 people. On a percentage basis, pardons have been becoming rarer over time. Even in the 1970s and 1980s, however, presidents have averaged about 400 or 500 pardons per Term. And of course, the federal prison population in absolute terms has gone way up since that time: according to Bureau of Prison statistics, the federal prison population has jumped from 20,000 in 1970 to about 150,000 today.
Under George W. Bush, however, the pardon process essentially has come to a standstill. The Associated Press reports that the total number of pardons that George W. Bush has granted in his first Term in office is currently 31, jumping all the way from 27 with the addition of 4 new pardons announced yesterday……..
Could it be that none of them deserve Presidential pardons?
Now, for starters, I am not a fan of Presidential pardons in the first place. Although Kerr calls it a safety vent, I call it an abuse of the legal system. If a jury convicts someone, and they fail all of the various appeals process, why should one person be able to over-rule the entire process? It’s good that the ability to do so is there, but that doesn’t alone mean it should be used 400 times a year. Bush’s pardon’s have been largely symbolic. There have been no Marc Rich’s, no violent offenses, and definitely no murders over-ruled. I’m fine with that. In lieu of the legal system, I would challenge Kerr to find a true situation that merits Presidential intervention, and then puruse that.
Ms. Bracy has a heck of a challenge before her. I can’t believe she even found a lawyer to pursue this. This is specifically the problem:
A covered entity may not use or disclose protected health information, except as permitted or required by this subpart or by subpart C of part 160 of this subchapter. (1) Permitted uses and disclosures. A covered entity is permitted to use or disclose protected health information as follows: (i) To the individual; (ii) Pursuant to and in compliance with a consent that complies with (iii) Without consent, if consent is not required under § 164.506(a) and has not been sought under § 164.506(a)(4), to carry out treatment, payment, or health care operations, except with respect to psychotherapy notes; (iv) Pursuant to and in compliance with an authorization that complies with (v) Pursuant to an agreement under, or as otherwise permitted by, (vi) As permitted by and in compliance with this section, (2) Required disclosures. A covered entity is required to disclose protected health information: (i) To an individual, when requested under, and as required by (ii) When required by the Secretary under subpart C of part 160 of this subchapter to investigate or determine the covered entity’s compliance with this subpart.
§ 164.506, to carry out treatment, payment, or health care operations;§ 164.508;§ 164.510; and§ 164.512, or § 164.514(e), (f), and (g).§§ 164.524 or 164.528; and
Under the threat of federal law, no provider is allowed to share patient information. Now, under the mental health system, it gets even worse in that the provider can not assume the patient is mentally capable of understanding what they are consenting to in regards to releasing treatment information. Ie, no mental health provider is going to even try. They’ll wait for court orders to release information and often will fight those if they feel they are not in the best interests of the patient.
"We know that if they had so much as said, `Why do you want this?’ we would not be having this conversation because Shayla would have had a meltdown," said her stepfather, Garrett Bracy.
It doesn’t matter. Even if she had the meltdown, if she still wanted the gun, they have no reason not to sell it to her.
Also, Wal-Mart did a background check on Stewart, as required under federal law, but through no fault of its own, her name did not show up in the FBI database. The reason: The database contains no mental health records from Texas and 37 other states.
Texas does not submit mental health records because state law deems them confidential, said Paul Mascot, an attorney with the Texas Department of State Health Services. Other states have not computerized their record-keeping systems or do not store them in a central location for use by the FBI.
When lawsuits happen, the other states won’t either. There is nothing to prevent a credit card company from using those records to target people who are vulnerable. It was abuses like that that led to the HIPAA guidelines in the first place.
Federal law prohibits stores from selling guns to people who, like Stewart, have a history of serious mental illness.
The key word here is "history". Some histories manifest themselves into identifiable records such as criminal activities. If Walmart had seen evidence of this, and sold the gun, then they have an issue. The problem for the Bracy’s is there is no history available to back up their claim.
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-New York, who ran for Congress after her husband was killed and son wounded in 1993 by a gunman on a Long Island Rail Road train, wants to strengthen the federal background check system by encouraging states to share mental health records. She has introduced legislation that would give states grants to automate and turn over the information.
She drafted the bill after a priest and a parishioner were shot to death by a schizophrenic man in a New York church in 2002. He, too, should not have been allowed to buy a gun.
"When you see these deaths that could have been prevented it’s a shame," McCarthy said.
It could have been prevented. The only history known about their daughter was by them. She should have been institutionalized based on her history. She should have at least had a permanent caretaker. Most of these programs are funded by states. There is no reason Shayla should have been wondering around looking for a gun to kill herself. The fact she accomplished her mission at Walmart is no fault of Walmart’s under current laws. It is the fault of the Bracy’s. The Bracy’s lawyer should have told them that. As it stands, the Bracys’ will lose this lawsuit, as they should. HIPAA has a purpose that the MH/MR system put in place 35 years ago, to protect vulnerable populations. The failure of people close to Shayla does not justify eroding those protections.
21
Dec
I’ve added another Iraqi blog over there —–>
This is his "About Me"
Husayn Uthman
- Age: 25
- Gender: male
- Astrological Sign: Aquarius
- Born in the Year of the: Horse
- Location: Iraq
About Me
Born in Iraq, my father was educated in Europe. He taught his children English. I have a few cousins in the West who have encouraged me to write a blog. They say I have good English for someone who spent most of his life in Iraq. Right now I have a job, thankfully, and Im doing ok.
I wish him luck and plan on visiting often.
21
Dec
Orin Kerr gets very insightful in a post on a poll Cornell University did in regards public opinions of Muslim civil rights in the US. The come to some rather startling revelations. Kerr discusses the results in some depth.
Tucked away in his observations, he asks one very particularly revealing question:
I don’t want to be nitpicky, but am I right in thinking that a certain amount of spin is involved in how this poll is being reported? The pollsters made a judgment call that if you agree with any one of these statements, you are in favor of curtailing the civil liberties of Muslim Americans. Thus, the pollsters are claiming, and advocacy groups such as CAIR are trumpeting, that 44% of Americans are in favor of curtailing the civil liberties of Muslims.
Yes Orin, you have the right to be nitpicky. It is CAIR’s aim to protect and promote Muslims in the US, theyr’e gonna use it. It is the aim of media to sell their product, they’re gonna use it. It is not the job of media to verify content ( it should be, but htey don’t, they only report it. ). The only one thoroughly irresponsible in this is Cornell University of once again taking a select group of 715 responses and stating:
-
Christians with a high level of religiosity are almost twice as likely to agree that the government should have more power to monitor Internet activities (61%), that the government should outlaw some un-
- American actions (43%), and that the media should not report criticisms of the government in times of crisis (44%), when compared to respondents with a lower level of religiosity.
- Republicans are significantly more supportive of restrictions than either Democrats or Independents. The largest differences between Democrats and Republicans are on government power to monitor the Internet, the indefinite detention of suspected terrorists, and media reporting of protests or criticism of the government during times of crises.
Public support for restrictions on civil liberties also varied significantly by degree of individual fear of terrorist attack and religiosity. For example, roughly forty percent of Republicans agree that Muslim Americans should register their whereabouts and law enforcement agents should infiltrate Muslim volunteer and civic organizations compared to roughly a quarter of Democrats.
"Republicans" don’t feel a certain way, "Public Support" has not been gauged. 715 people polled by Cornell had their opinions, that is absolutely in no way indicative of anything other than the opinions of those 715 people. That’s all. Then, by making generic statements that anyone can take out of context, Cornell allows people like CAIR and the media to directly quote them and mislead the public as they see fit.
Bad reporting Cornell, really, really bad. It is this type of irresponsible conclusion drawing that gives media the ability to manipulate their biases for public consumption. It is up to academia to instruct their students in how to have their product delivered in it’s original intent. For that I give Cornell an F on this one for sloppiness.
21
Dec
In early 2004, Kerry made the Iraq War the centerpiece of his campaign. The media jumped all over it. Dan Rather assisted by running documentaries supporting the concept that the Iraqi conflict was so divisive it would run Bush out of the White House. The media pounded the US with anti-war propoganda daily. Hell, a movie was even made cashing in on the overwhelming anti-war sentiment. They ran polls showing how unpopular the war was. Given all this polling data, Kerry would have been declared brain-dead not to believe the media. Bush also made Iraq a centerpiece of his campaign as well. That looked pretty dumb given all the polls. A strange thing happened election day though. Bush won in an election not generally perceived as being all that close. It was wide enough that Kerry did not feel the support was there to challenge it.
Was that a confirmation that the US loves Bush? I don’t think so. I think it was a confirmation that the lesser of two evils in today’s complicated world was Bush. The media horribly misjudged this election, again. They looked inside and came to the conclusion that the exit polls were to blame. It couldn’t be that main stream media has an inheremt bias or geographic bias. It was someone else’s fault, the exit pollers.
Based on that conclusion, main stream media hasn’t given up their anti-war rhetoric and bias. They can’t do it. First it was the body counts, that when the 1,000th soldier died, the citizenry would rise up en masse to protest the war so loudly we’d just give up. When it happened, no one did. The media went wild, but that’s it. They patted themselves on the back and went right back to work. Eventually they realized that the revolution they so expected didn’t happen. And wasn’t going to.
Having realized that blaming it all on Bush didn’t work, and realizing that the body counts aren’t bad enough to evoke revolution, they’re aiming for something else. Enter Runsfeld, the man in charge of the war.
First it was the planted question in Kuwait. Did the media feel duped by jumping on in support of the question? Not at all. This guy sums it up:
The "heroes" Dionne is referring to is actually one of his own, the press. The soldier didn’t ask the question, he relayed a question the press planted. Rumsfeld’s answer wasn’t all that good, but it was realistic. You go to war with the army you have. Is this the army Rumsfeld wanted? I seriously doubt it. It is the army the US Sentate paid for. Who are critical players in determining what army we have? John McCain and Susan Collins of the US Committee on Armed Services. It’s their job to see that the military is properly funded. Rumsfeld has absolutel no say-so in that matter. McCain and Collins recently made disparaging remarks about Rumsfeld and the media jumped all over it. I haven’t seen one media outlet yet that questions why the people who gave Rumsfeld the army he has have been so critical of Rumsfeld for fighting a war with the army they gave him. IMO, they see that dog biting them, so they’re biting first. The media likes McCain, they don’t like Rumsfeld. Bush is supporting Runsfeld, but they don’t like Bush either.
So, we’ll watch the crucifiction of Rumsfeld continue. The media will pat themselves on the back again for butchering yet another Bush war supporter. They won’t concern themselves the actual issues ( who REALLY is responsible for the lack of armor? ). And, they won’t concern themselves with figuring out what real America thinks. They’ll take polls in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New Yorjk City, and state that is what America thinks. And when it’s all over, they won’t be disappointed with the result when nothing happens and no revolts because of it. They will feel just fine because they got to tell the world what they think, and that’s all that’s important to them.
Thank God for bloggers.
20
Dec
Two elderly women were eating breakfast in a restaurant one morning. Ethel noticed something funny about Mabel’s ear and she said, ‘"Mabel, do you know you’ve got a suppository in your left ear?" Mabel answered, "I have a suppository in my ear?" She pulled it out and stared at it. Then she said, "Ethel, I’m glad you saw this thing. Now I think I know where to find my hearing aid."
When the husband finally died his wife put the usual death notice in
the paper, but added that he died of gonorrhea. No sooner were the papers delivered when a friend of the family phoned and complained bitterly, "You know very well that he died of diarrhea, not gonorrhea." Replied the widow, "I nursed him night and day so of course I know he died of diarrhea, but I thought it would be better for posterity to remember him as a great lover rather than the big shit he always was."
An elderly couple were on a cruise and it was really stormy. They were
standing on the back of the boat watching the moon, when a wave came up and washed the old woman overboard. They searched for days and couldn’t find her, so the captain sent the old man back to shore with the promise that he would notify him as soon as they found something. Three weeks went by and finally the old man got a fax from the boat. It read: "Sir, sorry to inform you, we found your wife dead at the bottom of the ocean. We hauled her up to the deck and attached to her butt was an oyster and in it was a pearl worth $50,000 . please advise." The old man faxed back: "Send me the
pearl and re-bait the trap."
A funeral service is being held for a woman who has just passed away. At the end of the service, the pall bearers are carrying the casket out when they accidentally bump into a wall, jarring the casket. They hear a faint moan. They open the casket and find that the woman is actually alive! She lives for ten more years, and then dies. Once again, a ceremony is held, and at the end of it, the pall bearers are again carrying out the casket. As they carry the casket towards the door, the husband cries out, "Watch that wall!"
When I went to lunch today, I noticed an old lady sitting on a park
bench sobbing her eyes out. I stopped and asked her what was wrong. She said, "I have a 22 year old husband at home. He makes love to me every morning and then gets up and makes me pancakes, sausage, fresh fruit and freshly ground coffee." I said, "Well, then why are you crying?" She said, "He makes me homemade soup for lunch and my favorite brownies and then makes love to me for half the afternoon. I said, "Well, why are you crying?" She said, "For dinner he makes me a gourmet meal with wine and my favorite dessert and then makes love to me until 2:00 a.m." I said, "Well, why in the world would you be crying?" She said, "I can’t remember where I live!"
activities had been limited to meeting a few times a week to play cards. One day they were playing cards when one looked at the other and said, "Now don’t get mad at me….I know we’ve been friends for a long time…..but I just can’t think of your name! I’ve thought and thought, but I can’t remember it. Please tell me what your name is." Her friend glared at her. For at least three minutes she just stared and glared at her. Finally she said, "How soon do you need to know?"
THE SENILITY PRAYER
Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway,
the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.
Now, I think you’re supposed to send this to 5 or 6, maybe 10.
oh hell, send it to a bunch of your friends if you can remember who
they are. Then something is supposed to happen . . . . I think. 
)
