Start your week with a monkey story!

You will watch this video again and again.

That's Gotta Hurt

Nobody will shake his hand.

Hey. Off for the weekend. Go get drunk or something.

Abandoning a child

A horrible situation. However, I should be grateful this law was not effect when I was growing up.
My parents would have dropped me off and caught the first flight to San Juan. Believe me, they would have been totally justified.
In Nebraska, it's only going to be legal for a limited time only.

The safe-haven law was intended to save "Dumpster babies" by allowing desperate young mothers to abandon their newborns at a hospital without fear of prosecution. But lawmakers could not agree on an age limit, and the law as passed uses only the word "child."
All states have safe-haven laws, but in every state but Nebraska, the law applies to infants only.
Authier said her group and others had warned senators after the law passed early this year that there could be problems, but the lawmakers did not believe it.
"It wasn't like talking to a stone wall," Authier said. "It was just that people who aren't in the business of dealing with families, they aren't aware how desperate some of these families are."
Sure enough, 20 teenagers — six 17-year-olds, two 16-year-olds, six 15-year-olds, three 14-year-olds, three 13-year-olds — have been abandoned, along with eight children who were 11 or 12. Five of the children dropped off have been from out of state.

Back in my day, parents would just drop the kids off at school and let the teachers deal with 'em.

Oh, alright.

The Elderly Menace is not dead yet.

It is ironic that the Museum will be honoring a promoter of hate like Dobson, while at the same time many mourn the recent passing of journalistic legend Studs Turkel, whom the Museum never got around to honoring.

People like James Dobson are still around, spreading their hate. And I can't let it stand.

So, people like James Dobson will still have to deal with me for a little while more.

Aftermath.

Since Obama won, I've been thinking about this blog.
I don't want to brag, but I think part of John McCain's defeat resulted from this blog's message that the elderly in positions of power are dangerous.
I've been at this for almost three years. Maybe I should declare victory and go home.

Or, I could resume my focus on the University of Chicago Alumni Association. But, you know, having a U of C prof as a President of the United States means I can put down my sword in that war, too.

What do you think?

How I feel, as well.

From Tom Tomorrow:
Eight long years

We’ve regarded our leaders with dread and anxiety for so long, it has come to seem like the normal state of things. It has become a chronic pain, so much a part of our lives that we only really notice it when it subsides — and suddenly the relief is so overwhelming it becomes a tangible thing.

After eight years of an administration whose actions have run the gamut from stupid to venal, we will have a rational president who believes in things like, say, science. Who can string a succession of words together into a coherent sentence.

I confess, if McCain had won, my despair for this country would have been absolute. Instead, the cloud we’ve all been living under for so very long begins to lift, this morning.

The Republicans tried to win with hate and fear and division, and instead they failed. Spectacularly, definitively, repudiated in a landslide. And you know what I hope, at this moment? That Joe the Plumber becomes a widely-used symbol for all that has been wrong with America. That tv commentators invoke his name as shorthand for the politics of stupidity — “Maybe Joe the Plumber thinks we need to put all the Danish-Americans in internment camps, but no rational person agrees!” — and a heartfelt chuckle is had by all, and no more need be said, so universal is the understanding.

I very much want that to be the legacy of Joe the Plumber.

Off to the wilderness with them all. I have no doubt they’ll claw their way back eventually, but at the very least we’ve bought ourselves some breathing room, some time to try to repair the damage they’ve done to the very foundations of this country.

Yes. Yes.

Congratulations

President Obama,

Frankie Machine is at your service.

Not going to call it...yet.

But Frankie Machine, Sr. just scored Obama a win in Michigan.

Hearing this, Ohio got scared of my Dad, and, well...

"President Obama" sounds pretty good right now.

And to all those folks in Grant Park, a favorite haunt of Frankie Machine, I'd like to express that I am there in spirit.

History.

Frankie Machine just voted.
Let's go get some beers.

Bottled Hot Water

Daily Kos has all you need to know before voting tomorrow.

We can't trust the US to Old Man Huggies. He's lost his marbles.

No way. No how. No McCain.

Cheney endorses Old Man Huggies!

And Obama takes it deep!

An awesome speech.

Don't boo, just vote. I agree, President Obama. I'll be in line at 5:30, coffee cup in hand, scarfing down Munchkins. Making history requires a caffeine and sugar rush. History runs on Dunk'n.