Overheard at Table3: Soccer Moms

Lyndsey was saying, "and I got on the scale and I had gained four pounds in one day, and I said 'what the HELL?!' - I had NEVER heard of gaining four pounds in ONE day."

Gloria was replying, "God don't I know how that feels, I was on these vitamins that were supposed to help keep the pounds off and my moodswings just went crazy, I went into this, like, monster phase that I couldn't control!"

Overheard at Booth 2: Facebook Divorce

Taryn said to her husband, "My little brother replied like that to you because he was making fun of you."

Michael Medrasco said, "Yeah, I knew some people might think it was silly."

Taryn said, "How could you put something like that? I mean, 'Love makes people sweep the streets?'"

"It was just what I was thinking at the time, I was telling people that apathy makes you just lie there on the couch eating chips and fumbling your remote or your game control, and Love makes you wanna get out there and change the world."

"Then why didn't you just say 'change the world' - you said love makes you wanna sweep the streets! What kind of stupid idea is that?"

"It was a visual - something to illustrate the point!"

Taryn said, "Well, if you're going to keep putting crap like that on Facebook, I think you're going to have to unfriend me."

Michael held up his BlackBerry. "Don't worry. Just did."

Overheard at Booth 5: I Asked America

from 365.


I asked America, hey
why did you
let your bankers
play with our cash like it was monopolymoney
and stuff us so deep into a recession that
the rest of the world imploded with us?

And America told me, shut up
go back to watching Breaking Bad.

I asked America, hey
why do you get so mad about
health care for the poor and the children
and immigrants that you have fights in
town halls where people are biting off fingers?

And America told me, shut up
and go back to watching The Real Housewives of New Jersey.

I asked America, hey
why do you let big business buy
and sell and trade your senators on the
open market, like they were tarts who
will open their legs for some caviar and wine?

And America told me, shut up
and go back to watching American Dad.

I asked America, hey,
why are you sending your military
over to deserts for more than ten years,
doing nothing but exploding the last of our
standing, and draining every single dollar
this country has, putting us in a hole we'll
never get out of?

America told me, shut up,
and go back to watching Weeds.

I asked America, hey
why are you making your citizens
disappear
after tapping their phones
in direct violation of the Constitution of the
United States of America,

America told me, shut up,
and start watching your back.

Overheard at Table 2: Starting School Without

Amy: So how'd your daughter like the first day of school?

Lori: It got a lot better the second day. She was really nervous. High school, you know - ninth grade.

Amy: Can't even imagine, I've still got three more years before the boys start Jr High, I can't even imagine how nervous she is starting high school.

Lori: Yeah, she's a little upset with us. She says that everyone there has an iPhone and we just let her have that one that Verizon gave us.

Amy: Kids these days! Gotta have their stuff!

Lori: Yeah. I told Jon to stop by Best Buy on the way home from work tonight and pick one up for her.

Overheard at Table 4: The Thirst of the Rich

Angela: We've still got our backyard pools full, the whole neighborhood, we still water our lawns every morning, even though the state is facing the worst drought ever, my husband drives the Hummer to work ever morning instead of taking my Civic, because I could take the Metro if I had to, but still we all complain about our president as though he was some dicator in some third world country and we were all in food lines begging for bread.

Abigail: You're waking up to the irony that gorging ourselves on everything is never going to make us feel full.

Overheard at the Counter: Kate Winslet - Heroine!

Verble comes in, all beams and smiles, and slaps the iPad down on the counter to the page that shows the latest news, and shouts, "READ!"

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/Real-life-heroine-Kate-saves-Branson-mom-from-fire/articleshow/9715719.cms

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2011/08/23/2011-08-23_kate_winslet_saved_richard_bransons_90yearold_grandmother_from_necker_island_fir.html

http://billionaires.forbes.com/article/04970uS0ZEf9K

Verble continues, "Man, I thought she was hot, but it turns out, that lady is ON FIRE!"

Overheard at Booth 5: HP CEO

. . . and it only makes a blip on the radar screen but I still remember that last year, right about this time, maybe it was October/November, but NPR - at least I think it was NPR - reported that the CEO of Hewlett-Packard had just made the company $23 million dollars that year by laying off 4000 workers. Isn't it amazing when the only way companies can return to profitability is by killing the working class? Anyway, apparently he fudged something on his expense report, so they canned him. That's always internal politics. Whenever one jackal wants to kill off the top jackal, the wanna-be top jackal always finds the expense report that the other guy fudged, and then the board has to fire him. Makes the stockholders nervous. Not that they give a care, but the publicity makes the prices unstable, which dumps their ROI. So this now ex-CEO walks away with $40 million. $40 million! - It was in his pre-nup, which by pre-nup, I mean 'contract.' And this contract said that if he was ever removed unwillingly, he gets $40 million. Imagine! I'm thinking, 'Well heck! All that he just saved by cutting the necks of the workers just got erased doublefold by their payoff. What are they gonna do now? Lay of 8000 workers just to make it back up?"

Overheard at Table 4: Psycho-Killer (qu'est-ce que c'est?)

Hillary: Heard some more about that serial killer in Fullbright . . .

Jan: Oh, yeah, the one who torched his house in Oklahoma?

Shannon: What'd he do?

Corrinne: Oh, man it was terrible! He was on trial for raping his 8-year-old daughter, and he two days before he was supposed to be in court, he set fire to his house and left the state.

Jan: He'd actually had a mistrial the first time. This was the second trial. Apparently he didn't wanna go.

Hillary: State troopers kept passing up and down last night, all last night, shining their spotlights on the fields.

Jan: Huh, they won't find him if he's hiding in there.

Shannon: Oh my god! I mean, is he still around?

Jan: What I heard they were looking for him out by Clearview Creek.

Corinne: Ah! KKK!

Jan: Well, they can't come out and SAY that, but you know that's where they hang out.

Corinne: Sometimes you can see their fires through the trees.

Hillary: Crosses?

Corinne: Nah! Campfires. It's really nothing more than a old guys' country club these days.

Jan: Still, that's what they're thinking he came down here for. The meeting.

Hillary: So you're saying that a guy who raped his daughter and set fire to his house would actually cross over three states just to attend a KKK meeting?

Corinne: Sometimes it seems like they just make stuff up these days.

Overheard at the Counter: Visa is One Giant Scam

http://www.theonion.com/video/fbi-uncovers-largest-credit-card-scam-in-history-a,21178/

The Onion breaks the story: VISA ran the largest credit card scam in history! The story is embedded in this Onion's edition of Week in Review, but I've typed the transcript here:



The FBI has successfully executed a raid on the Visa Corporation, exposing what could be the largest credit card scam in history.

According to authorities, the Visa syndicate for years fooled millions of Americans by issuing convincing looking credit cards carefully designed to dupe consumers into
spending far more money than they had.

Investigators believe the fraudulent corporation also lured victims in with enticing rewards programs and free gifts, thereby trapping them in a spiral of debt they could never hope to repay.

Overheard at Table 1: Jesus Under Water

Read a post the other day about loving Jesus, something about how in order to be loved we first have to love others, and that to love Jesus or really show that love, we have to be loving toward others, but you know, I want to be loving toward others and I want to love Jesus but how can I do that when my co-workers just make me so mad all the time I just want to hold their heads under water until the bubbles stop?

Overheard at Table 2: Galveston Hospital Kicks out the Poor and the Dying

At table #2 at the Zen and Tao Acoustic Cafe, Herman Malvell sits slumped over his coffee mug. He is a worn man in a worn tweed jacket, looking like an ancient professor who would be more at home in front of a blackboard filled with chalk scribblings than with an iPad. He is not a professor, nor does he own either a chalkboard or an iPad. What he is, however, is a construct: a wan-faced man with sallow eyes and unkempt dishwater blond hair, thinning skin flecked with liverspots on the backs of his hands as they reach for the mug and, trembling slightly, hold it to his lips. His breath is bad and dandruff showers the shoulders of his worn tweed jacket, and you, dear reader, can tell from that first half of this sentence how magnificently I tied in the dandruff with the chalk dust, see? Quite nice, actually: it presents this image of the ancient and the old and the aging and the dying.

You see, dear reader, Herman represents The Dying: those who can not defend themselves against this world that is marching ever so onward toward the cliff whose precipice, once breached, will leave behind us every single last shred of decency we have as a nation, a country, in fact, as a human race.

Right now, Herman is thinking of Maria Sanchez. In February of this year, six months ago now, this 24 year old woman with a banana size tumor on her spine was admitted to the John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, Texas. The tumor was described as not malignant, but potentially life-threatening; however, it had cut off the use of her right hand and she was beginning to lose the use of her legs. Neither Maria Sanchez nor her husband had health insurance; they would not be able to pay the medical bills. Because of this, and this is the distinction, dear reader, so pay attention, because of this inability to pay, the hospital inquired as to her legal status and whether she had documents to prove that she had a legal right to be in the United States. Because she could not provide them, a doctor went to her room and told her in Spanish that she must leave the hospital immediately and that she should have the surgery in Mexico.

The important point is that the hospital did not care about her status; they only cared about her inability to pay, and it is this point that was lost in the ensuing rhetoric that lasted for the usual handful of days: the calamatous uproar about whether illegal immigrants should have access to medical care.

You can envision (if you have not yet heard this story) the great emotional debate, with the people who profess to be Christians (but really who worship Satan) saying that illegals have no right to OUR medical care because this is OUR country and THEY are criminals just for crossing a border. For the opposing view, we had the same tired arguments about decency and respect for all human life, kindness, mercy, all those qualities which are true and which follow the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ, but which, frankly, ring hollow on deaf ears, because the human race is now immune to such emotional appeals. Let's face the fact: nobody really any longer gives a damn.

Because if we did, we would have made sure that hospital was shut down. Right now. We as a people would have made sure that every employee was dismissed, starting with the CEO and the Chairperson of the Board and going through every single employee down to the very last janitor or cafeteria attendant. Then, decent caring individuals who believe in the sanctity of life and in the dignity of the medical profession would be in there right now, re-staffing the hospital with like-minded health care professionals (and yes, they would probably re-hire those with no culpability in this torrid mess - so your innocent janitors and blameless cafeteria staff would be re-hired. They might even be given raises!).

However, today the John Sealy Hospital is still going strong, and I am quite certain that the professionals who work there still perform their tasks as they always have done, the students still learn their trade, the technicians still run their equipment, the administrators still have headaches and drink heavily, and the rich fat men who run the place still have great gobs of cash deposited into their personal coffers while they lounge around the country club and make business deals with their buddies.

But nobody, nobody, knows just where Maria Sanchez is today.

Overheard at Table 2: Obama wants your 401k

Lady 1: I overheard my boss yesterday telling Kelli that the reason why all the investors were pulling out their money was because Obama wants to dig into their 401k's and give it to the poor. "That's Communism" she said.

Lady 2: It's also a lie. They're pulling out their money because they're not making any money, because rates are so anemic.

Lady 1: That's what Kelli said! I can't believe it, I mean, my boss is so smart in so many ways, how can she really believe that the president is trying to break into everyone's retirement savings.

Lady 2: Wasn't there something Jesus said that toward the end everyone would believe in the lie?

Overheard at Booth 2: Vampire Books-A-Million

A man, mid-30s, button down plaid shirt and jeans, is talking to a woman, early 30's, turquoise blouse and black capris, saying, "When I was taking Melissa to get her books for the required reading list for school starting, we went to Books-a-Million, and they had table after table just filled with all these new releases - and they were all about vampires! Every single one of them. I looked at her and said, 'With all these vampire books it's amazing we have any blood left!'"

Overheard at Table 1: Laptop fingerpads

and imgettin SO mad i can't standit annymore why does my cursor keep flippin back to the beginning of all my tweets n facebookins, i mean, like, each - time - i try it just jumps into the middle of the sentence a few lines up

i dunno i think it has something to do with the touchpad thingy, like, something about when ur typin i think the grease from your thumb like activates it or something, i think like i googled that somewhere

no man, lissen it can indicate a real bad virus that, like, everybody's got it, so really there ain't nothing you can really do

no no, dude, seriously you can, i mean i just checked this answer chat blather and they say there are fixes out there, free downloads, dude, like, here's the link . . .

Overheard at table 2: Making Movies

Sylvie: Heard they was makin a movie about those miners what got trapped down there in Chile last year:

Huge: Da's about a year too late. I expected 'em to havvit out by last Christmas. Who's gonna wanna see it now? Das' like - las' year, n'all.

Josiah: Yah, roight. B'sides, what movie I'd rather see is that one you KNOW they're gonna make about the Norwegian psycho killer. I can jus' see it. A kid, down on the ground, peekin out from under 'is hoodie, combat boots walkin toward him slowly, crunchin on the tiny rocks (behind him some pine trees of the mainland in the distance, y'know, across the fjord, so close you could touch, but so too far t'swimmit!) and then the feet stop, right in front of 'im. He's list'nin to his own breath - then - BANG! Black screen - movie title pops up! "Coming soon to a theatre near you!"

Huge: That sounds brilliant! Now I'd go t'see that!

Sylvie: Technically, he's not a psycho killer. He's a mass murderer. There is a difference, both what in reasoning and methodology.

Josia: Aw, Sylvie, don't go all specifics on us, now! People just want to see blood, carnage, and death! Nuffin' more!

Sylvie: Not the Chilean coal miners movie. That'un will be about life, and redemption, and hope, and salvation.

Huge: Like I said - BOR-ing!

Overheard at Table 3: London Burning

Joe: Man, did you hear what's happening in London?

Java: Yeah, the place looks like it's been turned into The Clash discography!

Overheard at Table 2: So who's running the show?

Billy: So.

Joe: Yup.

Jim: Un-huh.

Bob: Standard and Poors downgraded the US.

Billy: Like they had planned to all along.

Joe: But that those thick-headed dipwads in Washington said they were trying to avoid.

Jim: Debt ceiling.

Bob: For weeks upon weeks, and weeks after that. That's all they said, "We gots to reach ourselves a deal, American people! Or they's goan DOWNGRADE the US! Oh, lawdy mama, that can't be allowed to happen!"

Billy: Each and every one of 'em. Preaching fire and brimstone.

Joe: Doom and gloom.

Jim: And then the ratings agency goes and does it anyways.

Bob: Only two possible conclusions.

Billy: Our leaders are stupid.

Joe: Or liars.

Jim: Third option . . .

Bob: They're both.

Billy: On both sides of the aisle.

Joe: Our elected officials only have one true skill, you know. Only one true talent, only one field of expertise. They are experts at only one thing, and one thing only, and they know absolutely zero, nil, null, nicht, nein, nada about anything else.

Jim: And that is?

Bob: Getting elected. Beyond that one skill, they are worthless at everything else.

Overheard at Booth 5: If Dr Deuss Wrote Christian Poetry

from 365

221.

It may seem Sad-u-cee
and not quite Phar-i-see,
that Jesus died for me,
but now He lives in me;
now can you see the
joyous dichotomy
of Christianity.

Overheard at Table3: Jekyll

Just finished watching Jeckyll, on the BBC

How was it?

Brilliant! The only thing about it is I kept expecting the Torchwood team to come breaking in any minute.

Don't they just work with aliens?

Yeah, you're right. S'pose so. But this was some class A sci-fi, nontheless. With a bit of gothic horror thrown in. They tied it back to the book and such, and had swtiches in loyalty, surprise twists, good people turning bad, and a bad guy turning not so bad.

Sci-fi at its best, then?

Absolutely. You've got to check it out. It's only six episodes. The wife and I were just going to watch one before knocking off to bed, but we got so hooked we just kept going to each episode after next. Didn't get to sleep until three a.m.

That explains your fourth espresso.

Dang'roight!

Overheard at Table 3: Because those two-year-old illegals are taking your jobs . . .

. . . this man wants to keep them locked up. Not really because he really gives a smelly bowel movement about the mistaken ideal that "we need to keep America safe from the brown invasion" no, that's just the line he uses to make stupid people - and by stupid people I mean 90% of the American population - yeah, that's right, I said it - because this man, see this picture right here? I made it my cellphone background so I will always remember what evil looks like - this man is behind the Arizona Immigrant Law that SAYS it's going to 'keep America safe' but in reality just builds new holding facilities to hold INDEFINITELY those people who are here illegally - yeah, sure, I said illegal. So what? So we hold women and children, that's what these prisons are built for. These guys have already done the cost analysis and they figure that they can keep women and children for much longer than men, because men are easier to deport and women and children are much more complicated - because you gotta prove if the babies are born here or not, and you gotta take into consideration the culture shock of sending back an eight-year-old boy who doesn't even SPEAK Spanish, much less know what Mexico is like - no, THIS guy wants to build those facilities, because it will make him MONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEY - incarceration is BIG BUSINESS, and this man pushed through the Arizona immigrant law telling the people that it was to fight drugs, crime, 'stealing your jobs' - and that is a load of crap! It was all a freaking snow job, because these guys are going to build HUGE jails for immigrant women and immigrant children. And they know that we Americans won't give a damn, because these women and children are not US, they are THEM, and these a-holes are banking on that!

Take a look at this man. This is the face of evil. And this is the reflection of all Americans if we don't stand up and DRAG our politicians out of the deep pockets of Big Business like the Private-Prison industry.

There? 'Nuff said?

Bureau of Lost Objects

There is a Bureau of Lost Objects, located somewhere down a street whose name we have forgotten. The Bureau is open all hours of every day, but occasionally closes with when sun is particularly bright on a soft spring day, as those who work at the Bureau enjoy taking long strolls after picnic lunches around the small lake that horseshoes the park situated close by the Bureau of Lost Objects.

In the Bureau, all lost objects are categorized according to type, size, relative value, level of sentimentality, and dimension (current fixed point in space/time). Oh yes, they are also cross-referenced by what fruit or vegetable they closely resemble, but not for any particular reason.

The Bureau of Lost Objects contains such items as rings, pencils, pens, cellphones, keys, credit cards, snowshoes, banners, headlights, toy frogs, stuffed bears, checkbooks, memories, USB drives, old photographs, lost loves, books, iPads, heroism, virginity, speakers, helmets, soccerballs, Wal-Mart receipts (for items never to be returned or exchanged, as they are lost as well), objectivity, clarity, game cartridges, memory cards, passkeys, any number of thumb-thick toys from various vending machines, lottery tickets, train tickets, plane tickets, parking tickets, symphony tickets (yes, even those left at Will Call), youth, beauty, newspapers, reports, hardcopies of the PowerPoint presentation you made for your boss, transistors, remote controls, slippers, underwear (after having that one last shot that you probably shouldn't have, knowwaddImean?), self-respect, respect for others, decency, screwdrivers, piledrivers (if you're in construction), Hummers (if you're in the mililtary), spoons, stones, birth certificates, drivers licenses, pajamas, that one particular bra that you know he likes, jars, dog collars, windowblinds, senses of direction, Christmas tree ornaments, and senses of purpose . . .


just to name a few.

Overheard at the Counter: NPR - Intelligence diminished

Verble is standing at the counter, talking to Tom Canada (pronounced ca-NAH-duh), the manager of the next door pawn shop, called SHR.

"You were right, Tom," says Verble, "NPR has lost it. Completely lost it."

"I've known that for years," says Tom, "Ever since that one day back in '96 when the reporter said 'I have no words to describe it' - completely ignoring the fact that THAT'S HIS JOB - to have words for things!"

"Well, I'm finally on board - check this out - their lackluster, lackadaisical, and absolutely LACKING IN SUBSTANCE response to my tirade against the completely obnoxious panelists on Intelligence Squared last Sunday night. Their response just shows the total tepid attitude that they have toward their work, and their audience."




Response to Message #336346:
Dear Verble,
Thank you for contacting NPR.

We appreciate you sharing your concerns with us. We strive to offer the highest quality of news and information available. Listener feedback helps us to accomplish this goal.

We welcome both criticism and praise, and your thoughts will be taken into consideration.

Thank you for listening, and for your continued support of public broadcasting. For the latest news and information, visit NPR.org.


Sincerely,
NPR Services
www.npr.org
_________________________________________________

Original Message: I have been an NPR listener for 35 years and this is the first time that I have written to you; however, I feel something must be said regarding last night's Intelligence Squared show. This is the first time that I have heard the program, so please forgive my ignorance of the format, and if this is not the normal level of intellectual debate, but what I heard was farcical. The subject of illegal immigration was approached by all the panelists with nothing more than the same tired topical agendas with the usual emotional hot-button emotional appeals, i.e. "for the American people" "make us stronger" "the American dream" - please! Your listeners can hear the same drivel daily on Fox News. NPR should be held to a higher standard.

One point worth noting is that when the subject of indefinite detention was broached, the topic was controlled by the pro-detentioners who banged home the point that if the US did NOT hold these detainees, they would escape and continue to "commit crimes and steal jobs" (see the "hot-button"?) Notwithstanding that NPR, last year, BROKE the story that the harshest immigration law (in Arizona) was written in large part by the largest private-prison firm in the US. The logical conclusion reached is that the private prison industry guides our immigration policy for no other reason than to make money, not for ideals, not for dreams, not for security, only for money. To present a show that does not contain panelists astute or knowledgeable or ethical enough to engage in deepers issues such as this demeans the entire purpose of National Public Radio, which frankly is the only source in American media that strives to a higher standard.

Not to belabor the point, I certainly hope that was a throw away episode of this series, and not indicate of a general decline in NPR quality.

Thank you for reading this.

To reply to this e-mail, please click on the link below. Thank you.

http://help.npr.org/npr/consumer/clarify.asp?incidentID=%7B9438fcfe-abf2-45ce-a341-62e9879c67d2%7D

"So," says Verble, "Whaddaya think?"

"Maybe," Tom says, "their audience is no longer people who actually think, but perhaps are now the faceless masses who want to be led."

"You mean, Fox News viewers?"

"That, or they just know if they don't go to the side of the Conservative Right, their funding will be cut and they won't have ANY radio to produce."

Overheard at Booth 2: Quirky Guys

Husband: Your sister's moving back to Topeka, she just called me right before I got here.

Wife: So she decided to go back home? I knew she would. She moved here too fast, too soon.

Husband: Yeah, she also said something about how realizing that she really missed some guy that she's known forever but never really gave a second thought. Apparently he was going over the house regularly, taking care of her lawn.

Wife: Hm. She never told us about this guy.

Husband: Well, funny thing is, she said she was discussing it with Heather, and she was telling her that she never gave the guy serious consideration, because he was a little quirky, and apparently Heather said, "Well, it worked for Aunt Sofia."

Wife: They were saying you're quirky?!

Husband: Apparently so - but she told me all the sisters agree that you turned out the happiest, so she said she's gonna go for it and try to start dating the quirky guy.

Wife: The quirky guy . . . dang.

Husband: Yup! Let's hear it for the quirky guys!

Overheard at Table 5: 2 Misused Bible Verses

I've been thinking for a long time about this, and it's finally coalesced in my brain, how to say what I've been feeling, because frankly, I've always been uncomfortable with two Bible verses in particular:

2 Chronicles 7:14

Philippians 4:13

"I've heard of those - those are two of the more popular."

Yes, exactly. And why are they popular?

"Because of the exhortation, I suppose."

But like I said, these make me uncomfortable, it's as though they seem wrong, somehow.

"Now that's getting to sound like blasphemy. Be careful, there."

It's not blasphemy to ask for understanding, for admitting you don't know. Listen, 2 Chronicles 7:14 'If my people will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways, then I will heal their land.'

"A bit shortened, but essentially it, yes."

Why are the Christians using it to beat up the liberals and the gays and the tree-huggers?

"Well, I don't think it's the Christians - it's a certain segment of the Conservative Movement. what they claim to be trying to do is to bring a little morality back to America, in order to avoid certain descent into moral entropy and a corresponding economic doom."

Yeah, but why does it feel so wrong? I mean, the way it's being bandied about, it certainly doesn't sound anything like the love of God.

"It's because they're using it wrong. They haven't really looked at the phrase in context. In context, this was just after Solomon built the temple and had danced and celebrated and had praised God and done everything God wanted him to do, and then he talks to God and God says, 'Yeah sure, that's great - but it's not the stuff you build for me that I care about, what I care about is that the people don't just SAY they love me, but SHOW they love me with their actions.' Essentially, you can built all the megachurches you want, shout Jesus is Lord from the top of the Empire State Building, wear all the crosses and WWJD bracelets you can carry, you can tattoo a crucifix on your arm and you can even double your tithe and build a hospital and name it after a saint, but if you are not humble, and if you do not seek in intimate relationship with God through communication and prayer, and if you don't address your deep rooted, internal sins, then God will never hear your prayer."

So, God is talking to us individually in that phrase, and not about America as a country?

"You're right. There are those type of people out there who are trying to blame the gays and teenage girls for the death of America, and they use this passage to say, 'Hey! Since you had an abortion, the Midwest is having record drought!' It's a simplistic statement, I know, but it summarizes their attitude adequately. It's the MISUSE of the verse that you object to, not the verse itself."

Thank God!

"About the other one 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me' - that's a bit easier. Remember, every single word in the Bible is inspired by God. Every one. If you hear a phrase from God that doesn't seem right it means only one of two things: either you are sinning and don't want to change from your sin, or the person saying it is using the Word of God for their personal gain. This Philippians verse is a prime example, because people use it like it's some sort of incantation that will give them superhuman strength. While it's not up to me to change any word in the Bible, I've always thought that people have latched on to it because it has 'I' and 'me' at the beginning and the end, with 'Christ' sandwiched in the middle. With our self-aggrandizing society, perhaps it would be better for us to say, 'Christ will do all things through me according to the will of Christ.' While I know that Christ wants to be the center of our lives (as is reflected in this verse), maybe it would be better for the Americans to remind themselves that Christ is the beginning and the end, and we are just sandwiched into HIS creation, not us being so magnanimous as to allow Him to work for us."

Dang, Verble, that's a lot to take in.

"Sit for awhile, then, contemplate. Have another cup of joe."

Free refills?

"From the Alpha to the Omega."

Overheard at Table 4: New Co-worker

1: Working with a new guy this week. Funny guy. He's from Peru or somewhere, his last name's Pable' but his nickname's Inca. Inca Pable'.

2: So how's he working out?

1: Not so good. He's pretty much useless.

Overheard at the Counter: Uncomfortable Truths

Things Americans refuse to hear:


This year, there is a raging idealogical debate on how to make our country solvent: whether we should cut benefits or raise taxes. There are three words that would give us enough money for decades to come . . . STOP - THE - WAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



If you want to get out of debt, cut up your credit cards.


People who don't want other people to have access to birth control are mean. Plain mean.


Whenever a politician uses the words, "The American People" - substitute "Big Corporations" or even "Special Interests." The "American People" do not factor into any political equation - ever.


If the "American people" want to change government, then voting in every single election - including local elections, MUST have at least 75% turnout. Every single election. Then will the people have a shot at being truly represented.


The fault is not the goverment. It is ours.



Why are you so surprised that a tabloid did something horrible? Isn't that what you pay them for?



ANY TIME that a politician uses the word "entitlement," they are subtly leading you to see that your 89 year old grandmother who can barely walk and barely see, who sits in front of the tv all day long not understand half the shows that come on, who lives on a social security check that barely covers her 17 different daily medications for high blood pressure, diabetes, and Parkinson's, (among others) - that this lady is somehow the cause for the trillion dollar deficit of the ENTIRE COUNTRY. - oh yeah, they're also likening your grandmother to that 400-lb crack whore with 8 babies that she pumped out just so she can collect a welfare check.

Needless to say, this last kind of double-speak is somehow the most heinous of all.

Overheard at Booth 1

not to put too fine a point on it, but I would dare to say that we can never truly call ourselves a Christian nation so long as the majority of us still look at pictures of this:

and ignore pictures of this: