Mommy Deadest

In 1981 Mitt Romney's opinion of women was that they should die rather than abort a fetus that was the size of a lima bean. (Here's a more detailed version of the Carrel Sheldon story.)

But when Mr. Romney ran for the U.S. Senate in 1994 and Governor of Massachusetts in 2002 he was suddenly pro-choice.

Since 2008 he's been staunchly pro-life again and in the Republican primaries he even pledged to sign a bill restricting all abortion.

Now he's saying "There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda."

I realize that there are those who do not like President Obama's stand on abortion, but at least he has one.

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Where I live, right here in Dallas, Texas, we dispose of our bulky debris by putting it out on the curb, whereupon The City hauls it away gratis near the first of every month. So when I'm out on my frequent walks I'm visited by the most amazing piles of jetsam accumulating in my path leading right up to Junk Day. Usually it's tree limbs or construction debris or complete garbage, but last week I passed by a dryer of recent vintage. A newish, gleaming white Kenmore Elite.

I asked the owners if they were indeed tossing it out and they said, yeah, it had quit working so they'd bought a new one.

So I took it home with me, with their blessing.

$13 in parts later (a blown fuse) and it was working beautifully, even better than the dryer I own, but I had long since decided to give this to a friend of mine who needed a new one badly. Her old dryer was a creaky, avocado green Lady Kenmore that must be at least 40 years old. She complained often about it "burning the clothes" but as long as it worked it was one less thing to strain her self-employed budget. But she's now happy as a little clam and soon some lucky Craigslister will be the new owner of The Little Green Giant.

I can understand why less technically-inclined people would dispose of perfectly good items like this, especially when repairmen want $100 just to come look at it, but in this Age of Google, and all the easy self-help info it provides, even dopes like me can play the hero.

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Lastly, I'm delighted to say that I found a nice little Honduran restaurant in my area this past weekend, Cocina de Hondurena. It may have once been an old Dairy Queen and you eat with plastic cutlery on styrofoam trays but the food is delicious and, most important, not fucking Taco Bell, or any of the zillion chain Mexican places that blight every strip mall.

I had bean and cheese papusas served with fried black beans and a zesty slaw. Beloved Girlfriend had a fried chicken breast nestled in a bed of the same slaw balanced on top of a mountain of banana chips. Fun food! We washed everything down with huge bottles of banana soda which, we happily noted, were sweetened with sugar, not high fructose devil drool. We'll be back but next time we're taking our own forks and knives.

Speaking of blights, while doing a little research on the restaurant I discovered that on the very day we ate there a national chain called "Mi Cocina" had filed suit on this little hole-in-the-wall for copyright infringement. "Cocina" means "kitchen", so this would be like Toys 'R' Us suing for copyright over the word "toys". Good grief.

=Lefty=

Oh, That Mitt

Romney's plan for more Navy ships is unrealistic. - The New York Times.

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"Paul Ryan shirtless" is reportedly Googled 9 times more often that "Paul Ryan budget".

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The Salt Lake Tribune, the largest paper in Utah, home of the Fightin' Mormons, picks Mr. Obama as their candidate, calling Mr. Romney a "shape-shifter".

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Behold the awesome majesty of the Romney blimp.

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Should we consider a presidential candidate who has his own secret bank, one with ties to drug cartels? Seems like a bad idea to me.

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Ruh-roh! Old white guys that voted for McCain in 2008 are switching to Obama in 2012. One of them is worried that if Romney is elected he will put "Cheney and Rumsfeld back in there to run the show." Good call, old white guy.

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Quote of The Day

“Mitt showed a masterful command of women's issues at the last debate by explaining how he helped them be home in time to make dinner. ” - LolGOP

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Today's video: Behind the Veil: Never before seen footage of secret Mormon temple rituals. Holy heck!

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President Obama's Top 50 Accomplishments

Number 18: Passed Mini Stimuli

To help families hurt by the recession and spur the economy as stimulus spending declined, signed series of measures (July 22, 2010; December 17, 2010; December 23, 2011) to extend unemployment insurance and cut payroll taxes.

And now our Chart of the Day: Economic Growth Since 1999 (Yes, the U.S. rate of growth is back to normal now that Bush is gone.)



Much larger version of chart here.
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Republican Job Creation Update

For the past two years the Republican-led House had the chance to pass any number of jobs bills to get this country back on its feet. Instead, they did nothing, hoping that the lousy economy they were nurturing would ruin Mr. Obama's chance at reelection. That's the Republican way.

For the full 2001-2012 list of Republican sloth please visit republicanjobcreation.com.