Posting with wild reckless abandon...

In short, anything can happen here...

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First of all, the thought comes to mind (and I have no idea where it came from), that I could be POSTING IN THE NUDE right now and none of you would ever know!____________________

SOMETHING YOU CAN RELATE TO: According to a wire report in the local nooze-paper, Congress' Joint Economic Committee has recently reported that, so far, the "Hidden Costs of the Iraq War" have cost the average American family of four some $20,000. When you break it down that way, it's easy to relate to those figures. We can think in terms of "thousands" of dollars. What's hard to relate to is that, so far, the overall total of expenditures of our war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan total approximately $1.5 TRILLION dollars. It's a little harder to comprehend a TRILLION. Suffice it to say "it's a whole lotsa money". Whenever we spend money, we like to get something for it, right? Well, what are we getting out of THIS? Other than higher taxes, wounded soldiers, and loss of life? I can't see that we're making any progress over there. But then again, I don't possess a "great military mind", either. All I know is, we don't have to worry about the national debt getting paid-off anytime soon.

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SAY IT ISN'T SO, ETHYL: Driving down one of the main streets tonight, I passed the place where I buy most of my gas. And, I did such a fast double-take, that it almost gave me whiplash. What I saw was the stuff of horrific nightmares: Gasoline here is now up to and over $3.30 a gallon. This is not good. I daresay that the old cartoon I saw, picturing a guy going into a finance company to take out a loan so he could buy gas, may prove to be more than fairly accurate. Heck, if this keeps up, fuel companies won't be able to afford the gas for all their big tanker trucks that deliver the gas to you and me. Perhaps, in the (not-too-distant) future, cars will become nothing more than oversized paperweights. How does the public deal with all this? Well, we all just keep driving, but less is spent less on other stuff. Which in turn puts more people in more industries out of work. Can you say "downward spiral"? I knew ya could...

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EVERYONE KNOWS IT'S WINDY: (okay, music scholars...who did that song, and when did it come out? Answer in the obligatory italicized portion of this post, located at the bottom of this latest entry.) It has been WINDY lately. I was impulse-buying at a convenience store down here on the coast, and I remarked to the clerk that "most of the commercial fishermen must be staying home today", and someone in line said, "you'd have to be crazy to cross the bar (link between the bay and the ocean) today." That kinda told me that, although I'm a know-nothing newcomer to this area, that at least I was in the ballpark, concerning the severity of the weather. One point on the Oregon Coast, Cape Meares, experienced 92-mph winds a coupla days ago. I'd say that's quite a noticeable little gust of wind there.

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LEGAL DRUG DEALING: I didn't even know stuff like this happened. And I hope I'm understanding this properly. Things like this used to not mean much to me, but now I'm at the age where I'm partially relying on prescription medication. Allegedly, there is a thing called "reverse payments" in which a brand-name drug-making company pays a generic manufacturer to DELAY the introduction of (the money-saving) generic version of the drug. (That info came from an AP report.) So a Senate bill has been introduced to deal with this situation. And at the present time, Lobbying has STALLED that bill; those lobbying efforts costing close to $20 MILLION in the last year. Which means, full, "inflated" drug prices make the big drug co's more money for longer periods of time. So, let's look at this from a more personal level...

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While I was standing in line at the local in-store pharmacy last week, an older lady pushing a shopping cart came by to pick up some prescription drugs. She paid over $600 for what I guess was a month's worth of various meds. (I would venture that at least some of her meds were NOT generic.) I could tell, by looking at this lady, that she wasn't exactly in a higher-income-tax bracket. And in some cases, some people must choose between food and drugs, both of which they need to survive. Pure madness. I'm glad my meds don't cost a lot. I spend about $80 a month for prescriptions. All generic, thankfully. But them fat-cat bigwigs at the drug companies are makin' money off people who'll die (or at least, not function semi-normally) if they can't afford their medications. I remember how much all-over-body-pain I had before I began taking one of my vital prescription drugs, which I'll be taking the rest of my days...and I thank my lucky stars it's an economical GENERIC drug. Were it not, I'd pay easily 3 or 4 times as much for it. Then, I'd have less to spend on for GAS. Or other stuff. "Full circle", eh? And something else I've realized...staying alive costs a whole lot of money, doesn't it?

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He probably swore a lot, too: One last vital news tidbit here: This past weekend, a guy up in Washington state was working on his car, trying to remove one of the wheels. He had gotten all the lug nuts off his right rear wheel, except for one stubborn lug nut that just would not MOVE. He tried and tried and tried, and the lug nut just wouldn't budge. (sorta reminds me of Chuck Berry's struggle with his girlfriend's seat-belt in the song, "No Particular Place To Go".) So anyway, this guy got more and more frustrated with the stubborn lug nut, so much so that he pulled out a SHOTGUN and SHOT THE WHEEL OF THE CAR...some of that shot ricocheted and hit him, as far up as his CHIN. Which makes me ask, "Who is the real LUG NUT here?" His injuries were determined by fire & rescue personnel to "not be life-threatening". Which was good for him, considering his health insurance policy probably didn't cover "serious, debilitating injury caused by IDIOTIC actions."

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It's been a while since I distorted a photo: I'm sure the folks at www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/hbo will really appreciate my defacing the upcoming beautiful little picture that was on their website. This photo immortalizes a moment that Marlon Perkins would have truly appreciated:

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And now, for the "obligatory italicized closing portion" of this post: In the "Windy" section, I posed a question, which I shalt now answer: "Windy" was recorded by The 'Association', in 1967. It is a rock song, but I read somewhere that it was originally meant to be played in 3/4 (waltz) time. The song was written by one Ruthann Friedman, who was never heard from again. So there ya go. Oh, and, by the way (in reference to the title of this post), I still have my clothes on...