Somewhere in the world there is a Pukin Pumpkin who needs a ride!

Finally a challenger to my original Pukin Pumpkin post!

 In recent months reader's of this blog have gone wild over it.

You've come from across the nation and the world to see the famous Pukin Pumpkin post in the past.

 Now, enter this new challenger (right) who had too much Kanterbrau (where the heck do you buy this brand of beer?)

 It's never good to drink alone, but sometimes it's less embarrassing!

If you know this pumpkin will you come and get it? I don't think it'll be rolling home on it's own tonight!

This controversial opinion piece is in today's LA Times

I decided to pick this column up this morning because it gives another view on the subject of Prop 8. Personally, I think everyone should be allowed to get married, regardless if they are the same sex. However, I also believe in showing both sides of an issue in order to be fair.

Jonah Goldberg:

An ugly attack on Mormons

The religious group has been the target of a campaign by liberal supporters of same-sex marriage.

Jonah Goldberg
December 2, 2008

» Discuss Article Did you catch the political ad in which two Jews ring the doorbell of a nice, working-class family? They barge in and rifle through the wife's purse and then the man's wallet for any cash. Cackling, they smash the daughter's piggy bank and pinch every penny. "We need it for the Wall Street bailout!" they exclaim.

No? Maybe you saw the one with the two swarthy Muslims who knock on the door of a nice Jewish family and then blow themselves up?

No? Well, then surely you saw the TV ad in which two smarmy Mormon missionaries knock on the door of an attractive lesbian couple. "Hi, we're from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!" says the blond one with a toothy smile. "We're here to take away your rights." The Mormon zealots yank the couple's wedding rings from their fingers and then tear up their marriage license. As the thugs leave, one says to the other, "That was too easy." His smirking comrade replies, "Yeah, what should we ban next?" The voice-over implores viewers: "Say no to a church taking over your government."

Obviously, the first two ads are fictional because no one would dare run such anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim attacks.
The third ad, however, was real. It was broadcast throughout California on election day as part of the effort to rally opposition to Proposition 8, the initiative that successfully repealed the right to same-sex marriage in the state.
What was the reaction to the ad? Widespread condemnation? Scorn? Rebuke? Tepid criticism?
Nope.

This newspaper, a principled opponent of Proposition 8, ran an editorial saying that the "hard-hitting ad" was too little, too late.
The upshot seemed to be that if the pro-gay-marriage forces had just flooded the airwaves with more religious slander, things would have turned out better.

 
At a pro-gay-marriage rally in Los Angeles after the vote, chants of "Mormon scum!" were reported. Envelopes containing white powder have been sent to Mormon temples in California and Utah; vandals hit other temples. Lists of businesses to boycott -- essentially Mormon blacklists -- have sprung up on the Internet. The artistic director of the California Musical Theatre resigned because of pressure after it was revealed he gave $1,000 to a pro-Proposition 8 group.

It's amazing. Hollywood liberals, who shout "McCarthyism!" as a first resort, see nothing wrong with this. If Jews were attacked in this way for giving too much money to a political cause, Barbra Streisand would already have a French passport.

 
Never mind that Proposition 8 carried nearly every demographic slice of voters. Put aside the fact that the Catholic Church and scores of other Christian churches supported it too. Discount the inconvenient truth that bans on gay marriage have now passed in 30 states. It's all the Mormons' fault.

The argument is that Mormons used illegitimate power, in this case money, beyond their numerical standing in the population to secure victory for the measure. Golly, wealthy gay liberals would never do anything like that! I bet they're not giving a dime to the legal effort to overturn Proposition 8.

No, it's just that Mormons are the most vulnerable of the culturally conservative religious denominations and therefore the easiest targets for an organized campaign against religious freedom of conscience.
Traditional religion is the enemy anywhere it runs afoul of complete social acceptance of homosexuality. In New Mexico, a wedding photographer was fined nearly $7,000 for refusing to shoot a gay commitment ceremony. The dating site eHarmony, run by evangelicals, was just bullied by gay activists via the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights into starting up a site for gays. The first 10,000 registrants must get six months free.

It's often lost on gay-rights groups that they and their allies are the aggressors in the culture war. Indeed, they admit to being the "forces of change" and the "agents of progress." They proudly want to rewrite tradition and overturn laws. But whenever they're challenged democratically and peaceably, they instantly complain of being victims of entrenched bigots, even as they adopt the very tactics they abhor.

 
My own view is that gay marriage is likely inevitable, and won't be nearly the disaster many of my fellow conservatives fear it will be. But the scorched-earth campaign to victory pushed by gay-marriage advocates may well be disastrous, and "liberals" should be ashamed for countenancing it.

Five figure bonus checks come as a big surprise to employees!

      In this difficult economic climate, it's tough to know if you'll still have a job at the end of the year, let alone a generous Christmas bonus. But recently, the employees of Illinois-based ball bearings company Peer Bearing Co. got a big surprise when they opened their end-of-year-bonus envelopes: instead of their usual gifts of several hundred dollars, the staff members had each been given five-figure checks.

The company was founded by the Spungen family in 1941, and has stayed within the family ever since. They've come to think of their employees as part of the family, too--many of their staff members have provided decades of loyal service.

So when the business was purchased by a Swedish company earlier this year, the Spungens decided to use their payoff to show their staff how important they were to them, distributing $6.6 million in profits from the sale between their 230 employees. The bonuses were based on time served with the company, and some of the most loyal staff members went home with checks as high as $35,000.

Here are some rare Black Light Posters from the 1960s

       

   (Rare -Above- 1969)             Rare 1960s silkscreen       Scarce- Iron Butterfly

 

Remember these ads from the 1950s and 1960s? Oh the ironies!

      

 

bb

Obama appoints Clinton and Gates to his cabinet

The pieces of the puzzle are falling into place as Obama firms up his administration. I wonder what kind of impact Bill Clinton will have now that his wife is back in the limelight?

He's been told to clean up his act with his Presidential Library and foundation so it doesn't reflect badly on Hillary.

I view Hillary's appointment much like I view what Lincoln did when he appointed his enemies to positions so that he could keep an eye on them.

Obama has the same idea. Gates was probably a good pick for the short term, to give continuity to our efforts in Iran and Afghanistan.

There's nothing like a heater on a cold Japanese day

These ring-tailed lemurs are warming themselves at the Monkey Center in Inuyama, Aichi Perfecture (state), central Japan.

Looking Like Christmas at Nana and Papa's house!

It was the last week of November, and all through the house, Nana and Papa were getting ready for some Christmas fun.

In 25 days there will be five grandchildren, and the rest of our family, here at our house which must be transformed before then to a place of wonder for children and adults alike!

In a slow, but steady stream, Christmas lights have slithered out from normally sealed red and green plastic crates throughout the household these past four days.

Stuffed Santa's and Angels have climbed out of their storage spaces, while the two, 3-foot-tall tin Nutcracker Kings, took up their positions on either side of the fresh pine sweet Christmas tree (still bare but waiting patiently for adornments sure to come).

The front porch glitters like a thousand stars when it's dark outside now with white and colored lights blinking in greeting to all visitors. Christmas ivy forms wreathes around the windows, inside and out, adding to the already colorful seasonal display.

Mrs Claus and elves are busy at work in one corner while Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer lights the way to a Nativity scene on one counter. The scents of the holiday dance throughout the room, a pleasant combination of odors for the visitor's delight.

This is what it's like in Nana's and Papa's tonight...

The high cost of low price: Wal-Mart Christmas in the T-S

The cost of doing business with Wal-Mart is another nail in American manufacturers/workers coffins.

There's a reason why they sell for less.

 Perhaps even more troubling is the response this year to shopping specials at Wal-Mart - one man dead (trampled to death by crazy shoppers) and others injured.

 Do Americans really want a deal that badly? Are the deals at Wal-Mart worth dying for?

As It Stands, in today's Time-Standard I look at Wal-Mart with a critical eye, and a deep suspicion they have contributed to this country's financial woes by their business practices.

 Click Here to read today's column.

Check out this blog by Josh Richmond of the Political Blotter

This is a sampling of political writer Josh Richman's blog, The Political Blotter. Read more and post comments at www.ibabuzz.com/politics.

Nov. 19

Oakland-based Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group, sued the California Department of Motor Vehicles today on behalf of Rose Johnson, 53, of Atwater. The Merced County Superior Court lawsuit claims that despite Johnson's clean driving record — not having caused an accident in 37 years of driving — the DMV refused to renew her license in July after finding she's a medical-marijuana user and deeming that she had an "addiction to, or habitual use of, [a] drug" that renders her unable to safely operate a car.

"The only evidence introduced by the DMV to support this conclusion is the fact of Johnson's medical marijuana use pursuant to state law," the lawsuit says. "The DMV abused its discretion by suspending Johnson's license on this basis."

ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford issued a statement this afternoon saying when California voters passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, "they never intended to authorize the DMV to strip medical marijuana patients of their drivers' licenses. The DMV should not be in the business of revoking the licenses of drivers like Ms. Johnson simply because she is a medical marijuana patient."

And ASA says this isn't an isolated incident.

The DMV has suspended or revoked licenses of medical-marijuana patients in other counties, including Alameda, Butte, Contra Costa, Glenn, Merced, Placer, Sacramento, and Sonoma.

Johnson's case seems particularly ironic because Merced County, where she lives, this past year instructed its sheriff's deputies to respect state law and not cite medical marijuana patients or seize their medicine. Yet Johnson, never accused of driving while under the influence of marijuana or anything else, was denied her license renewal by a state agency for an activity allowed by state law.

And as I write this item, having just finished an article on the state Supreme Court's impending review of Proposition 8, I wonder how much longer we'll have to keep litigating and re-litigating the effects of a medical-marijuana initiative approved by voters 12 years ago. It seems California just can't find a way to stop stepping on its own toes.