Here's What I'm Thinking

Tonight two couples go home.  It is hard to determine which two should hang up their shoes.  At this point they should all go home.  They have been practicing for FIVE weeks and this is the best they can do?

Gone from next week should be Ashley, no talent, Hamilton and Macy Gray. I like Macy Gray, but one must be able to dance. So keep singing, Miss Macy and leave the dancing shoes to some one else.

BTW – DWTS started the nineth season not tenth.  If this year is reflective of bad dancers, what will next year hold? Perhaps a theme.  It could be all politicians. I want to see Sarah Palin.  At least will keep her mouth shut and her feet busy.

And my apologies to Shawn Johnson, last year’s winner, also Olympic medalist for not mentioning her rooting for her fellow Olympian, Natalie.   Perhaps Shawn can give her some tips on winning.

With No Further DeLay

And now, with no further delay, it is time for the high kick off routine of Here’s What I’m Thinking – Dancing With the Stars. The three day premier is only hours away now. Let’s meet the stars for season ten.http://celebglitz.com/37111/Celebrity-Gossip/dancing-with-the-stars-2009-lineup.aspx

And of course, my thoughts on this year’s contestants.

Aaron Carter, songwriter, producer, actor and younger brother of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter and once-teen heartthrob. Actually I have no idea who this is.  I barely heard of the Backstreet Boys.  At first I thought it said Amon Carter, but then realized I did not have on my reading glasses and besides Amon Carter is dead.

Natalie Coughlin, Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer. She is the most decorated female swimmer in World Championship history, with 16 medals. Bring it on. The adjective “Olympic” defining her fame could bode troubled waters for her fellow competitors.  It could also bring personal pressure.  You know Kristi and Apollo are watching.

Mark Dacascos, a.k.a “The Chairman” from Food Network’s Iron Chef! He is also a trained martial arts expert and an actor. And he is hot.  Let’s see if he can cook on the dance floor.

Macy Gray, a singer. And a good singer. But can she dance?

Ashley Hamilton, the son of George Hamilton and once-husband to Shannen Dogherty. Is having a genetic disposition and the exchange of bodily fluids with another star really criteria for being on the show?  I’m mean what do you do? What does your father do? Besides look pretty.

Melissa Joan Hart, of Sabrina the Teenage Witch fame. Cute. Perkiness could go far.

Kathy Ireland, former supermodel, current clothing designer. Let’s hear for my age group.

Michael Irvin, the token football player. Former Dallas Cowboy, three-time Super Bowl champ. Michael, do not embarrass the state of Texas or the Dallas Cowboys. Let Romo do that. What a challenge. Michael gets the rookie dancer and he has to live with knowing one of the triplets took home the trophy. I bet you will look good in those fancy clothes though.  Will you be dancing to Cole Porter’s “I get no kick from cocaine?”

Joanna Krupa, model, most recently she was seen on ABC’s The Superstars. Who?

Chuck Lidell, Ultimate Fighting Championship legend. Better be quick on the feet. Who?

Debi Mazar, actress, currently on Entourage. I am beginning to sound like an owl. Who?

Mya, Grammy-award winning singer. Could be a twitter contestant getting lots of votes.

Kelly Osbourne, reality star and daughter of Sharon & Ozzy. See Ashley Hamilton above.  Being the offspring of performers does not endure you with talent. However, you do seem to be the only sane one in the family. Relatively speaking of course.

Donny Osmond – sibling rivalry, Anything You Can do, I Can do Better. Do not forget to breath. I think those Mormons just pop out dancing.  It must have had something to do with crossing the desert and long, lonely nights around the wagon’s campfires.  With those huge families we know what else they did while crossing the desert. That polygamy culture helped provided lots of dance partners.

Louie Vito – Snowboarder?  I thought he made purses. His dancing partner is Chelsie Hightower. Allegedly Tom DeLay was offered the dancing partner of Ms Hightower, but refused because of political differences and fear he would be accused of dancing with a relative of Jim Hightower.

Tom DeLay, a former Republican Congressional leader, retired from Congress in 2006 after a Texas grand jury indicted him on money laundering charges. This selection confirms that the show has gone off the deep end.  Who is next? Dick Cheney dancing with the Devil?  Sorry that would be a solo dance.  Rumor has it that Mr. DeLay has difficulty moving to the left. I wonder if the former Republican House Majority Leader will be dancing to the Redistricting Waltz Across Texas. Gosh Dogget.  Besides I would rather see Sarah Palin.

The new season of DWTS premieres Sept. 21 at 8 p.m.

Welcome to Celebrity Show Your Behind.  The game show where you the viewers and readers get to pick which celebrity most showed their behind on national television.  Let’s meet our contestants.

Our first contestant is – rapper Kanye West. Mr. West interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards. He even took her award away from her during his outburst, while a stunned Beyonce watched him take away Taylor’s moment by saying “Beyonce had the better video.  Second apology from West “SOOOOO SORRY.” You can see Beyonce next on “There Are Nice People Out There.”

Our next contestant is basketball star Michael Jordon.  His acceptance speech into the Basketball Hall of Fame consisted of multiple fouls against his high school coach for cutting him as a sophomore, Dean Smith for not selected him to be on the cover of Sport Illustrated and other people, Air Jordon thought wronged him.  http://www.inthisweek.com/view.php?id=1309369 It was the EIGHTIES, MIKEE!!!

Our last contestant is tennis star, Serena Williams. Serena, “I did not threaten to kill you, Williams provided a colorful verbal opportunity to do a body cavity search on the line judge with tennis balls.  Two double faults, several f-bombs and two code violations AT MATCH POINT, gave the unranked Belgium, Kim Clijsters, http://www.usopen.org/en_US/players/overview/wta030458.html the win of the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF8ZoevMJQc

So cast your vote on which celebrity most showed their behind on national TV.  The winner gets a year of free treatment at the anger management clinic in their city.  In addition, the winner receives 100 hours of community service working with potential celebrities on humility, honesty, integrity and respect.

Dead Ted

Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy * 1932-2009

I just love irony.  In August 26^th Austin American Statesman, the news of Senator Kennedy’s death appeared on the front page, the left side above the fold.  Prominent placement in newspaper terms, especially since his death was announced in the early morning hours.

The brief story, from The New York Times, gave a synopsis of his life and work in the United States Senate.  The headline reads “Liberal lion was champion of health care and civil rights.”

On page seven of the Statesman, there is a full page advertisement whose headlines read: “Barack Obama and the Democrats did not inherit the bad economy; they caused it and made it worse.” This six column full page lists the “leading culprits who actual caused the subprime mortgage collapse which then caused the current worldwide deep recession.” They are: 1. Jimmy Carter 2. Bill Clinton 3. Janet Reno 4. Franklin Raines, 5. Chris Dodd 6. Barney Frank and 7. Barack Obama.

The advertisement asks one to sign up and join a non-profit organization made up of “U.S. Citizens” called appropriately enough, U.S. Citizens Association. www.uscitizensassociation.com.One gets a free membership kit that will instruct you on “how you can change the government to benefit you.” I thought that was called voting.

But you also get continuous information (just what I want continuous dribble) that I will not get in the “leftist news media.” Would that be any news other than Fox News? This is my favorite part. “You will be educated on how you can become an Empowered Citizen.” It does not say how much you have to donate to receive these outstanding conservative benefits and what exactly one is empowered to do. Is one a more empowered citizen with $5000 donation versus a $5.00 donation?

The advertisement has some quotes such as: “In capitalist countries, only 10% of the people temporarily live in poverty.” What about those who permanently live below the poverty line? According the article, “99% of the people in socialist countries live in permanent poverty. In most cities those people live on the other side of the tracks in places with colorful names like The Projects or The Barrio.

The crux of the advertisement is the concept that the United States is moving toward socialism. “Socialism means government controls everything and no freedom for anyone else.” Actually, I think that is closer to communism, but you have the right to freedom of the press and freedom of speech. Unless, of course ones gets shouted down by those who disagree at information gatherings called town meetings or tea parties.

And the evidence of such a move toward socialism can be found in the proposed health care reform which “they will eliminate private healthcare, which will leave only government healthcare, which is socialized medicine.” I think that is called Medicare and you get it when you turn 65 years of age and I suspect many of the backers of the ad fall into that age bracket.

As you turn to page nine of the paper, you find an article written by T. R. Reid. The special to The Washington Post is a three-quarter page article whose headlines read: “5 Myths about health care around the world.” http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/2009/08/26/0826healthmyths_edit.html

This article, obviously written by the leftist media, counters the points of the previous article by comparing the US current health care plan to countries around the world. Countries such as Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Britain, New Zealand and Canada.  Basically, this article says, the most persistent myth regarding health care is “that America has the ‘finest health care’ in the world. We don’t.”

And last, but not least, on the back page of section one is an advertisement for a clinical research study for adults with memory lost or mild cognitive impairment sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

It seems that we are all suffering from mild cognitive impairment when it comes to health care reform issues. Get the facts on the issues, not what you heard from the leftist liberal media or the rightest conservative media. I understand it is a new concept for many, but it is called thinking.

As for the late Senator Kennedy, he is probably thankful he will not be around to see how the healthcare reform issue plays out. Ironically, that makes him better off Ted. Sometimes those without health care find themselves that way too.

Praise the Lord and pass the hemlock.  Poor Obama, I mean Socrates, poisoned for corrupting the youth. http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/04/obama.schools/index.html?iref=mpstoryview There goes another teachable moment moved to the far right.

OK, you do not want your child to hear the speech from the President of the United States about the importance of setting goals and staying in school. Let me see if I understand.  Does that mean you are opposed to Barack Obama or opposed to staying in school? Or is it fear of what he might say?  Is it because you as a parent cannot provide an opposing argument? Can you imagine what might happen if children were actually taught to think?  Isn’t learning to think the responsibility of the educational institution?

This opposition seems to center on intervention of the federal government into education. The firestorm is about the lesson plan and what conservatives, led by the Chairman of the Republican Party in Florida, thought the president might say.  Jim Greer thought the speech might contain something about policy.

Those of you opposed, please make sure you do not mix your educational institutions, metaphorically speaking.  If you choose to not send your child to his or her school that day, it is your child’s school that will suffer, not the federal government or the president of the United States. This is due to the fact that state dollars are based on attendance. That is the mechanism that determines how much money comes from your state to your child’s school in support public education.

And what about the suggestion to call in sick with swine flu symptoms? What message does that send to the children?  That is acceptable to lie if you disagree?

Besides every child being kept home is saying “Cool! A snow day in September. Pass me the remote to the Xbox.”

Rather than harm your child’s school, have him or her go to school. You will probably need to take him because the school bus that picks up your child could have been purchased with federal dollars.

Tuck a note into his red, white and blue backpack that says “I do not want my child to hear the leader of my country because I do not like his policies because they are not mine.”  Another optional inclusion might be, “I am unable to distinguish between respect for the office of the President of my country and the individual who holds the office.” You may choose to include statements such as “In spite of the fact that I do not have any facts about the president’s address, as a parent, I prefer to censor any thing that I do not believe in or support.” And last, “As a parent, I will determine what my child sees and hears.”

Good luck on that last one. Instruct your child that he is to go to the large gathering place like the library and read The Pet Goat. Unless of course, the library books were purchased with federal funds.

On the Road Again

Or in this case, on the blog again.  As you can see it is just a test.  We shall see how we like it.  Loosing the blog site was somewhat traumatic. Suddenly I was left with many thoughts and no venue to air them. It was like being all dressed up and no place to go.

Selecting a site is also proving to be somewhat traumatic. Like all technology selection criteria, does it do what you want it to do?  For example, Here’s What I’m Thinking is open to every person out there in cyberspace who wants to make a comment. Enjoy your freedom of speech and First Amendment rights. However, do I want to have all of those people out there reading about my family, even if they are for the most part dead and gone? Open blog? Or closed blog?  Public or private?

And then there is the ease of use, user friendly criteria.  I tried one blogging site and never found it again on the Internet.  The major criteria centered around joining the blog site.  While these hosting sites offered the necessary privacy, readers had to join in order to read.  People do not want to join.  They want to read.

So after much debate I chose blogger.com. This was actually the first blog site I had years ago called Aunt Rose’s Wardrobe.  I thought this was “the one.” However, when I tried to post with links, the site wanted me to “correct the various HTML errors.” I do not want to get with the program.  At least not programming HTML – although I have been known to do so.  I just want to Pitch and Post.

So here we are at this site. Hwit.wordpress.com. That should be easy to remember. H  is for Here’s. W is for What. I is for I’m and T is for thinking. And we are pressing the words.  Get it?

So tell your friend and especially tell your enemies that Here’s What I’m Thinking is up and running. Enjoy.