Good Morning.

I like to watch the president’s weekly address on health care reform, because to me it is the most important topic right now for everyone living in the U.S.  Did you see it yet? If not, I’ve posted it below.

When ever I hear the complaint that people are concerned over our government having control of our health care system…when people say, “I don’t want our government making decisions for me”, I ask the question, “Well, who do you think has control now?” If you guessed the insurance companies, you guessed right. And more importantly, Just how well today are the insurance companies taking care of us?

Readers: Think about those questions. I’ll say no more on the subject. However I am not done. This is just a lead in to my topic tomorrow. Stay tuned…

~~~~~~~~~~~~

You and me both ZL!  Have fun chillin’ – so happy for you that your long night was a successful one :)

Hey Al: I don’t know what it is about you, but you’re honesty is so amusing…and I mean that in a good way. You’re naïveté and worldliness in collaboration, forms a certain freshness in the way you verbalize yourself.

Helena:  Bill Maher is so correct. When I heard that comment about medicare my jaw just dropped. It enforces the importance of my questions above. People don’t have any idea just how much control insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies have over them. They need to wake up and start paying attention, and more importantly, put the control of our health back in our own hands.

Thanks to you both Peter and Luman for that bit of Guam History.

Lois:  Thanks for addressing my question. Can you take your comment a bit further when you say, “...when one of the Gods chooses to use the heart, it beats once every seven earth days.” What exactly does that mean? Do you mean emotionally when a God chooses to love? Or the God engages in physical sex every seven earth days, since he appears as man? Or is it just something physical not having to do with love or sex?

Anna: From how Amritha Alladi described the fiestas that happen so often, that you could trip over from one village’s fiesta into the next and wouldn’t know the difference, tells me that I would love Guam as much as Alladi does. It is one of the reasons that I love Bali so much and have wanted to live there 6 months out of the year, if I could. I love the daily celebrations and rituals, and the gathering of the community. I had no idea Guam was like that too. Thank you for sharing with me. I am now seriously considering visiting. :)

Terry: Everyone who reads my blog knows I can speak for myself. But I love that the girls all spoke up, as they like me, have voices that need to be heard.

I find it very interesting how you verbalized your words: “My religion makes me have to say this.” That is a very strong statement. In my opinion, it seems your comment is coming from religion deeply ingrained from a man (his words), and your mouth is a vehicle to get the words out, with your true spirit stuck in the middle without a voice. There is nothing wrong with feeling offended by the photo if you truly are, but I don’t think you are. I think you are wanting to break free from the religious restraints, also told to you by a man, that tells you my photo says, “Michelle is a sex object.”

My advice if you don’t mind me saying so, is to read what Gwen, Linda, Pearl, Sharon, Vicki, Trudy, Cathy and Mindy had to say. I think they all gave some very good advice. And just as well, read what George ( I think it is obvious, you’re not the bigot George:) had to say if you need a man’s opinion which you seem to value more than women.(?) But I don’t think your true spirit does.

I think you wrote in what you wrote to get the reaction that you needed to hear. Perhaps it is what you needed to help break yourself free. If that is the case then stick around, and heed George’s words, “But if you are looking to learn something about the world around you, then close your eyes to the” offending pictures” and get an invaluable education.” (Thank you George for saying those kind words and recognizing the fairness and openness of my blog. ) If George who is a pastor can look past the spicy language and ribald bandage, (I just love that description) and still read and get into the meat of my blog, don’t you think you can get past a little photo Terry?

And Hey Jesse had some wonderful words to add too (Thanks Jesse :)….“life’s beautiful why sweat it?”

Ah…what a great quote to end with…so I will.

Peace out….

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: Your Bad Ass Bitch Editor

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Aye!

The glass ceiling shattered yesterday. The Senate vote was 68-31 in favor of Sonia Sotomayor.

No surprise the votes were high to confirm her. It wasn’t probable that she wouldn’t be confirmed, but these days one never knows what goes on behind closed Senate doors. Yes, in spite of all the flack Sotomayor got from the repugnicants, as they stood stiff-armed in opposition to the unanimous vote of the democrats, she was confirmed. Yippie! – hey she even got more votes than Alito when he was confirmed. (58-42) Remember, no one said a word when he spoke about ‘empathy’ way back when. It looks like the motives of the repugnicants failed. Not that I think that they would’ve been successful. Oh…another feather in the Democratic hat.

And another check mark for the women. We needed more women representation. This is a milestone and this is just a start. It looks like while Obama is in office, one more and possibly two more vacancies may need to be filled. I’m hoping that the likely candidates will be of the female kind myself. Do I hear an ‘Aye!’? I trust our court justice system will change dramatically over the next few years, and all in a good way.

Anyway, I am just delighted for her. Congratulations Sonia! Welcome to the Supreme Court. You are the ‘It’ girl! May you have many successful years honoring your commitment of ‘fidelity to the law’.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey Wei: No kidding. What is happening with the weather? First the news yesterday morning said that it was going to cool down for the next two days and then last night on the news, it was reported to heat up over the next two days.

Hi Zen Lill:  Sorry for the miscommunicado…the shadow dress is hot(!) no doubt, but I’m not doing much lurking these days. Let me just ponder it a little bit longer and if I am just dying to have it, I’ll let you know. In the mean time,  I’ll just admire it on you :) Have fun at the opening! Take a pic – I’m sure you will look fab!

Oh…Billy: Keep ‘em coming. :)

Peace out peeps…have a fabulous Friday as you swing into the weekend. See ya tomorrow.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: Your Bad Ass Bitch Editor

For archives dated before January 17, 2008 click on my Blogroll:

or click here: “A Day in the life of…”

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2009

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Was it really that easy?

I’m talking about the release of Euna Lee and Laura Ling, the two girls that were sentenced almost two months ago, to 12 years of hard labor in No. Korea for illegal entry and engaging in “hostile acts”.  Don’t get me wrong, I am so delighted that they are free, but did the favor come out of selfless humanity (highly doubtful), or was it just clever strategy? (more likely)

The move to release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor, reflected North Korea’s “humanitarian and peaceloving policy,” the Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch from Pyongyang early Wednesday.

Jean H. Lee / Huffington Post

Hmm….again, not sure I buy the ”humanitarian and peace loving policy” bit.  Would those words be extended to Kim Jong Il since he was the one who issued the ‘special pardon’? Are we being naively optimistic in thinking his humanitarian side had a say in this? Is he projecting the image of a peace loving kind of man? – not exactly the words I would use to describe him. Gee, if I sound cynical or it seems I have lost faith in mankind, I don’t mean to sound that way. I’m just tossing out some questions – catch them if you wish.

Whatever negotiations Clinton made with Kim Jong Il, I doubt Kumbaya was being sung while peace, love, and human welfare were being tossed around the negotiations table. (Oops, my cynical side is showing again) Clinton has known to be a bit slippery in his past. Was his successful negotiations due to a skillful sleight of tongue, or was it simply, ‘Let the girls go, quid pro quo’? Or??

Anyway, I doubt we’ll ever know what went down. But…right now…right this very minute, I am just grateful that they were able to get the girls back home safely to their families and friends. A big congrats for a job well done – Way to go Clinton and co! Emphasis on the ‘co’.

Readers:  I just love happy endings. Comments? Anything on anything? Blog me.

Robert:  Are you on hiatus? Anything you dare to share?

Hey Zen Lill! – How’s it goin’ girl? Hmm…yes, the shadow dress….could be just the desired attire when I’m lurking. :) I hope sales are going great.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: Your Bad Ass Bitch Editor

For archives dated before January 17, 2008 click on my Blogroll:

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Business before pleasure….So sorry, I made a typo yesterday in regards to the next election. I stated that 2010 couldn’t get here fast enough, when I meant to say was 2012. I am sure Anonymous #5 meant the same.

Ok…onto today’s topic:

Happy Birthday Mr. President

….To be said in a breathy whisper….a la Marilyn Monroe. Not a very original title for my blog this morning, nor an original thought, but hey, I can at least post the original song, in honor of our president who is highly original. – Enjoy!

Gratefully your original blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: Your Bad Ass Bitch Editor

For archives dated before January 17, 2008 click on my Blogroll:

or click here: “A Day in the life of…”

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Just what am I talking about?  The coin that many of us get bothered by when we have too many, but are grateful to have when we need just one….I’m talking about the little copper Penny.

Here’s 10 things you might not know about this little coin:

1. Aug. 2, 2009, marks the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln penny, the longest-running U.S. coin still in circulation. The U.S. Mint had been producing one-cent coins since its founding in 1792, but the 1909 penny (which replaced the Indian-head coin) was the first coin on which a President’s likeness appeared. Teddy Roosevelt commissioned the coin to celebrate the 100th birthday of Abraham Lincoln. While most people applauded the new design, former Confederate soldiers were upset at the prospect of carrying the image of Lincoln in their pockets. Today, on the occasion of Lincoln’s 200th birthday, the U.S. Mint has produced four special-edition pennies with reverse-side designs that depict different periods in the famous President’s life. Three of the pennies have already been released; the final design will debut on Aug. 13.
2. Despite its declining buying power — and a call by some to drop it from circulation altogether — the penny is still the U.S.’s most popular coin. Last year 5.4 billion pennies were produced. That’s more than twice the number of quarters minted, and five times as many dimes. The Lincoln penny accounts for roughly half of all coins minted within a year. About 1,000 pennies are made per second.
3. Copper and zinc, the two metals found in a penny, were rationed during World War II, so the U.S. Mint had to come up with another way to produce its most popular coin. After much debate, the government decided on zinc-coated steel. The steel penny saved enough copper to make 1.25 million shells of ammunition. The gray-colored penny was manufactured between February and December 1943, but it encountered a number of problems: it rusted, it confused vending machines, and it was frequently mistaken for a dime. In 1944, a new metal combination was selected, and in 1946 production of the original prewar penny resumed.
4. Sometimes pennies can be more trouble than they’re worth. While a 1909 penny could send a postcard or buy a few eggs, in 2009 it can’t even purchase itself: the U.S. Mint spends 1.4 cents on every penny it produces. “When people start leaving a monetary unit at the cash register for the next customer, that unit is too small to be useful,” argued Harvard economics professor Gregory Mankiw in a 2006 Wall Street Journal article. Arizona representative Jim Kolbe introduced the 2002 Legal Tender Modernization Act to Congress, which would have eliminated the penny. The bill failed miserably.
5. In response to the copper coin’s declining value, some stores have stopped accepting it as a form of payment. In 2007, a New York City man was so incensed when a Chinese restaurant refused to let him pay for his dinner with 10 pennies (along with other cash) that he persuaded a state senator to draft a bill requiring pennies to be accepted everywhere and at all times. (The bill was not passed.) And in 2009, a number of Concord, Mass., shopkeepers banded together to protest pennies — on Lincoln’s 200th birthday, no less.
6. For much of its life, the penny was produced in three different mints. Most of the 1909 Lincoln pennies were produced in Philadelphia, where the presses stamped no identifying “mintmark” on the coins. A smaller number, produced in San Francisco, were marked by the single letter S. Coins minted in Denver — starting in 1911 — bore the stamp D. Production today is divided between two mints, Denver and Philadelphia, and has grown speedier: the U.S. Mint took more than two years to produce its first million coins, but today the Philadelphia Mint can make approximately that many in 45 minutes.
7. Like so much else American, the name penny comes from England. The first modern English coin was the silver penny of Offa, the 8th century king of Mercia. By the 18th century — when the first U.S. coins went into circulation — Brits still used the word penny as the singular for pence, just as they do today. The coin’s name derives from the Old English pennige, pronounced, roughly, penny-yuh.
8. To design the new Lincoln penny in 1909, President Teddy Roosevelt enlisted the artist Victor David Brenner, whose earlier Lincoln plaque he had admired. The design featured a Lincoln bust on one side and wheat shafts on the other. (In 1959, on the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s birthday, the grains were swapped out for a rendering of the Lincoln memorial.) The Lincoln cent marked the beginning of 100 continuous years of pennies featuring the words In God We Trust. (Read TIME’s business blog.)
9. Pennies will buy you so little today that the concept of dividing them into even smaller change seems ludicrous. Not so back in 1786, when the U.S. Continental Congress approved the mill, describing it as the “lowest money of accompt, of which 1,000 shall be equal to the federal dollar.” (The term comes from the Latin mille, meaning 1,000.) While the Federal Government never actually produced a coin worth one-tenth of a cent, some states and local governments issued mills made of such cheap materials as tin,aluminum, plastic or paper. By the 1960s, however, the coins had depreciated so much in value that their production was virtually abandoned.
10. The 1943 copper-alloy cent is one of the most enigmatic coins in American numismatics— and reportedly the most valuable Lincoln penny of all. Just 40 of the coins — probably created by accident on copper-alloy one-cent blanks left in the presses in the wartime years when pennies were converted to steel — are known to exist. The first 1943 copper cent was sold in 1958 for more than $40,000. In 1996, another went for a whopping $82,500. Their collection value makes 1943 copper pennies a prime target for counterfeiters: fakes are often made by coating steel cents with copper or altering the dates of 1945, 1948 and 1949 cents. How can you tell if your 1943 copper penny is real? Use a magnet. If the penny sticks, it’s not copper. Better luck next time.

-Time on line

Here’s my two cents on a few thoughts.

Hi Al: I am aware of the dictionary definition of ‘racism’ and I appreciate your point, as it allows me to say more.

What seems to be flooding the media, as well as this blog, is white people discriminating against otw’s. I have yet to experience otw’s trying to rid this world of the white race; they just want to be seen and treated equally to whites, not be rid of them. They want to share the world space and have the same opportunities that whites have. Racist whites on the other hand, do not want to share the world space let alone give otw’s equal opportunities.

Let’s also remember that it was the whites that annihilated the American Indian. The Germans (whites) killed millions of Jews. The Aborigines are victims of racism by the hands of the Australians (Whites).  And blacks were enslaved by the hands of whites. Need I go on?

The KKK are white supremacists.  What group of otw’s have a group that pushes supremacy? I know they’re out there but did they not come about defensively to counter white supremacy? If there were no white supremacist groups out there, would other supremacist groups even exist? If whites racists didn’t exist, would racism?

Let it be known, I do not hate my own race. I am just disappointed and outraged that people can feel so strongly against another human being because of their skin color.

Diversity is beautiful.

Anonymous #5: I will agree with you about 2012 not getting here fast enough. When Obama gets re-elected in 2012, watch out  - we think he’s got a set now? The man we see now is just getting started. And by the way aren’t we a tad hypocritical? I think the repugs have been quite good at bending the law their way, not to mention election fraud. Thanks Anonymous #8 for clarification.

Anna: If I could get away and come to your island, I would.

Umm…Anonymous #15, I agree with Anonymous #20, No one indoctrinates black children. As far as crime, I don’t believe that there are more black criminals than whites – that numbered is way skewed because blacks (and otw’s) are the targets and whites get off. We see it time and time again that blacks are sent to jail for a crime, when whites are set free for the same crime. Now, I’m not talking ‘dahmer’esque type criminals.

When a type of race is held down by another type of race, the group that is held down might resort to things that they would not do, should they have the same opportunities that the other group has.

In regards to black on black violence, how would whites act if the roles were reversed and whites did not have equal opportunity? How many whites would be fighting each other? How many whites would be targeted and sent to prison? And I’m not saying that all crime is because of the lack of opportunity to otw’s but you have to admit that it does encourage it. And then you have otw’s targeted to begin with….What easier way to help rid the world of a certain group that one doesn’t like?

Well…that is the end of my two cents.  A penny for your thoughts?  Blog me.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: Your Bad Ass Bitch Editor

For archives dated before January 17, 2008 click on my Blogroll:

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