Month: March 2009

Has your head hurt more lately than normal? If that is the case one reason may be hot air.

A study published in the Neurology medical journal has concluded higher temperatures as well as low air pressure play some part in headaches. As one who suffers migraine-like headaches due to degenerative arthritis of the cervical spine, the latter part of that isn’t much of a surprise.

Periods of intense low barometric pressure such as from hurricanes and from certain types of winter storm systems often leave me feeling I was dragged through Hell hanging on to a sack of manure and the sack broke apart. I have read a good deal about the relationship or supposed relationship between low air pressure and arthritis but I don’t think any type of definitive link has ever been established. My friends sometime think I am stuck in the 19th century when I speak of my weather-related aches and pains.

But the higher temperature related to headaches is interesting. I have had headaches during times in which I was hot, including a few bouts of heat exhaustion. Also, I have seen people use a cool, wet rag on their head as a remedy for headache.

Given such news as this link between heat and low air pressure, it immediately gives me pause as to whether superheated air might be unhealthy such as that coming from our politicians. Of course, I don’t know whether all that hot air from places such as Washington and my state capital of Austin would produce high or low air pressure but either way I am sure if one is around it enough they are sure to get a headache.

But I also worry what might happen if all that hot air is not given a means to vent. Could you imagine? Why one day we could have a cataclysmic explosion (or implosion) from all that unvented hot air. So it seems we might have to choose. Do you want a headache, or do you want the Big Bang II?

Much ado about Barbie turning the big Five-O. I have to admit, the old gal still looks pretty good although it helps when you’re skin is plastic.

To celebrate five decades of America’s doll, Barbie is getting fabulous digs in Malibu as well as tattooed, whether that is as in “screwed, blued and tattooed” one can only guess. Ken is probably off somewhere searching for his Viagra.

Just what kind of scandal may result after Barbie finishes partying with the Hollyweird crowd remains to be seen. Of course, controversy and a hard-partying lifestyle has never been far from Barbie.

Barbie, born Barbie Jo MacAlister, grew up the daughter of a single mother who waited tables in a diner outside Cut and Shoot, Texas. The mother-daughter duo lived in a series of mobile home parks until being discovered by Mattel company officials.

With America in what some perceived as a more innocent age during the time of Barbie’s discovery, Mattel executives originally sought to mass market the Barbie as a very inexpensive doll whom young, impoverished girls could emulate. However, a focus group quickly steered the toy company away from the idea thus scrapping the idea for “Trailer Park Barbie Jo.”

The life of Barbie is the life of America over the past 50 years. If ever a trend surfaced, Barbie rode the crest of that trend. There was Beatlemania Barbie, Acid-Head Barbie, Patty Hearst Barbie, Punk Barbie, Saturday Night Fever Barbie, Urban Cowgirl Barbie, Flashdance Barbie, Wall Street Barbie, Coke smuggler Barbie, Federal Inmate No. 687743 Barbie, White House Intern Barbie, Pregnant Barbie, Conservative Blonde Talk Show Barbie and most recently AARP Barbie.

While some have expressed worries about the exposure from the 50th celebration of Barbie, they can rest assured that the Plastic One has kicked up her heels enough that she is in all likelihood too pooped to have a mid-life crisis.

Here is to another 50 years, Ensure Barbie and whatever the future holds.

Many comparisons are being made between the current economic funk and the recession of the 1980s. That said, it is a connection that I really have difficulty remembering.

During the first four years of the 80s I was a full-time college student drawing the fruits of the GI Bill — where a veteran would get a flat amount each month that was not a match of funds — as well as working full-time as a municipal firefighter. Just prior to graduating I was making about $17,000 a year in 1983, adjusted for inflation, that would have the buying power of more than $36,000 today.*** If I recall correctly, the rent of my first real apartment in those days was about $75 per month. I paid bills for a landline phone, all one had back then, electricity and after a year of working for the FD and just prior to starting college I bought my second new Corolla which set me back a little on the car note and insurance.

***Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation Calculator

If one was around back then and perhaps you were going to college you may have had it easier than me financially or perhaps more difficulty making ends meet. I never really worried about paying bills, or eating or where my next cold beer was coming from. No, working as a firefighter and attending college I had more serious things to worry about, such as whether that brunette wanted to go out and if not how easily could I score an alternative.

I didn’t keep up nearly extensively with the news then as I do today, one reason of course is that you are inundated with news choices these days. Plus, besides being active with work, school work, extra-curricular activities and fun extra-curricular activities, I didn’t pay much attention to what was happening with the economy.

With that long-winded preface I must say that I didn’t notice if there were as many workers taking pay cuts back then as it seems there are these days. Maybe there were and I just didn’t notice it.

I have heard of workers whose pay was cut through the years but it was usually in very dire circumstances such as when union members were forced to agree to pay cuts during bargaining with companies that would otherwise give up the ghost. But I don’t know whether it was this widespread in years past as now that people are having pay cuts forced on them. I don’t know how it is for most folks, but for a lot of people such as myself a sudden cut in pay could be or would be catastrophic. Just a very quick Google turned up these recent cuts in pay for workers:

–A group of Microsoft contract workers met on a street corner after work Monday night to organize a protest of a 10 percent cut in pay.
–Declining revenues are compelling employees of E.W. Scripps media company to cut employees’ salaries by 3-to-5 percent.
—This California police department with 126 officers is cutting salaries by 10 percent rather than lose 17 positions.
—Owners of small businesses themselves face pay cuts rather than cut or possibly lose workers.

These are real people with real families feeling real pain from this very real recession or mini-depression or whatever the hell one wants to call it. That’s why I have difficulty shedding tears for conservative leaders who predict the end of the world as we know it unless all taxes known to man are eliminated. The great GOP answer to all ills is “tax cuts.” Things have got to change and change for the better. But will they and will it happen soon enough to prevent perhaps hundreds of thousands of people ending up homeless and on the street? It is something to think about this weekend.

This whole hoo hah between the White House and Rush Limbaugh is just about the funniest political theater I have seen in years. It boils down to right-wing reactionary radio host Limbaugh being cast by the Obama administration as de facto leader of the Republican Party. Limbaugh with an ego the size of Texas, of course, is playing it for all its worth. If I were Rush, I’d be sending roses to the White House every day this little feud goes on.

Limbaugh’s latest laugh was that he challenged Obama to a debate. While I would love to see Limbaugh become so frustrated debating someone way out of his league that he might explode into slivers of Rush goo, I think that’s where the line should be drawn. The White House has had its fun and they can always bring this dust up to the surface for various political uses again someday, but I think the back-and-forth each day is getting a little old. Since the right wing noise machine all uses the same talking points every day, it results in hearing the same old lines over and over and over to where sometimes you can’t tell your Limbaugh from your Hannity. Not that I listen to either that much.

It all goes back to what I have said many time before which is all the static that comes from your AM dial (and Fox News on TV) is just beating the same drum over and over. Blame Obama. Blame the Pelosi-led House. Blame Harry Reid. Blame the dog, if he is Democrat, for farting. None of these guys ever emit one constructive thought. People like Limbaugh see themselves as intellectual powerhouses, Mensa personified. So it requires asking: If you guys are so freaking smart, why don’t you offer up some ideas to help fix the things that are broken in our world instead of continually dosing listeners with blame and empty rhetoric?

Answer that Mr. Limbaugh, the smartest man in the world, and you may find some actual worth in that hot air machine that is yourself.

This morning I watched British Prime Minister Gordon Brown address Congress where his remarks also included the news that Queen Elizabeth was bestowing honorary knighthood on Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. I am sure that this news about the old liberal “Lion” was met with no small amount of right-wing consternation as those of the conservative ilk view Ted Kennedy with almost as much disdain as the Clintons and Barack Obama. Not that any of this matters.

Some cable news analyst watching Brown speak of the closeness and the enormous debt of gratitude owed the U.S. by the U.K noted that the gesture towards Kennedy sort of brought the storied family to a full circle. The analyst — perhaps it was historian Douglas Brinkley — noted Robert Kennedy’s remark once that the only reason his family was in America is that they were run out of Ireland. He also mentioned patriarch Joe Kennedy Sr.’s controversial tenure as ambassador to the Court of St. James where the old bootlegger supported the British P.M. Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasing the Nazis.

I don’t begrudge any honors to Ted Kennedy because — despite all the things he has done both good and bad — he has done a tremendous amount of work for his country. I suppose though, that I am little awed by the act of honorary knighthood by the Queen of England. If some significance exists in a historical context by such actions between those of our country and the British crown then I could see the point of importance of this all being made on grounds that the foundation of our American nation came from the British Isles. However, even though I am of Scotch, Irish and British stock myself, I don’t particularly acknowledge Britain as being my mother country necessarily.

I was born, raised and have spent most of my years in Texas with the exception of the time I served the U.S. in the military. Texas, of course, has had six flags fly over it by countries with sovereignty of one way or another. Those flags, for the non-Texans, are Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America and the United States. I am sure knowing that pains some of the more conservative folks in my state who disdain all things French and Mexican (perhaps excepting the food style of the latter people.)

Nonetheless, it would neither be correct nor preferable for me to claim any of those nations as the mother country with the exception of the United States because I was, quoting that famous New Jersey fellow Springsteen, “Born in the U.S.A.” If I had to pick one of those countries which flew their flag over my home state, however, my preference would be the Republic of Texas because of its history.

So congratulations to Sir Teddy. It is kind of ironic that with all the talk of his brother’s short presidency and “Camelot” that Ted Kennedy would be the Kennedy who is knighted, at least honorarily. Perhaps someone down here in Texas will drink a toast in Sir Ted’s honor of cold Lone Stars (or perhaps a Corona cerveza por favor?)