Today's Tids Issue 3003
Opening Stuff:
Today the country celebrates LBJ's war on poverty. Yesterday a local columnist ended his column, "We must find common ground to pull ur fellow citizens out of poverty." Well after 50 years the war on poverty is going about as well as the wars in the Middle East -- backwards. Poverty is at a higher level now than in the sixties, maybe because the focus has been on obscuring the need for jobs instead of emphacising the real common ground to help fellow citizens out of poverty -- jobs. More money from largess only binds people to the state, and not to the basic concept of opportunity for all. But, that is the world of the idealist. We live a new world of lowered morality and increased world wide competition. And that is a combo that will not be helpful in resolving the curse of poverty. I persoally think that companies have a responsibilty to the country in which they operate to increase jobs rather than eliminating them, So, the real war is country versus investor. What is a fare return when whole families are at risk to achieve it? Lower poverty eliminates many ills, which should be the great equalizer in the dispurte between an exta point on the Dow and a lost job. Less poverty through hand-outs though improves nothing. It just breeds more poverty, mental and physical It is a predicament. And this is a very disjointed paragraph.

You may have noticed yesterday the item here about an Oklahoma group of Satanists erecting as statue of Satan in protest of the Ten Commandments. How would you like to live in an area where there are lots of people who don't believe in the ten commandments? Thou shall not steal, lie, kill? Seems to make sense for an orderly society.

I see where a large group of Rhode Island legislators see no reason to repay those "Moral" Obligation Bonds. Figures.

The Question:
What do Americans think are the five most annoying words or phrases in common use today?

The Headlines:
--Wall Street Breaks 3 Days Of Losses.
--Gates Says Obama Distrusted Military In General And His Own Afghan Strategy In Particular; Gates Adds That Joe Biden Is Nice Guy Who Got All Foreign Policy 180 Degress Wrong For 4 Decades.
--US Sending More Men, More Tanks To South Korea.
--Feds Probing Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, RBS And UBS On Whether They Cheated Clients By Deliberately Mispricing Mortgage Bonds Central To Financial Crisis.
--Police Now Pursuing Evidence That Would Tie Aaron Hernandez To Boston Club Drive By Shooting Double Murder.
--India Ups Dispute With US By Denying Access To Popular US Embassy Club In Delhi.
--Utah Landslide Biggest In Recorded History; Event Sets Off Mini Earthquakes.
--Freeze Beginning To Lift.

If there was a list for the Sleazeball of the Year, New York Pols Elliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner would be at the top of the list.

The big news yesterday about the crackdown on NYC cops and Firemen cheating the disability system is just the tip of the iceberg. If there is one truth about Government, it is that they more it gives for nothing in return, the greater the incidences if fraud.

75 years of anything is quite an achievement.
The computers are going mad! I brought a package to FedEx because it was mis-delivered to our place == the sender didn't realize that the addressee had moved 8 years ago! At FedEx I was told that I should try to find the sender because if it is put back into in their system it will continue to go around in circles forever, never reaching anybody. Like "Charlie and the MTA" (Now, MBTA).

If I'm buying Moral Obligation Bonds, the first question I'm asking the seller, "Are you moral?".

The Conscience: Chapter 32 continues.
    Smith's eyes looked at me. "She was alive." The air deadened.
    Ev and I turned to look at each other at once. Our expressions must have said what the hell is that?
    James loosened and he looked at me, smiled a friend;y smile. "Earnest Wu got you this job because his working partner Sanna Biglietto asked him to. Why do you think she did that, Jeffery?" My mouth sagged open and I slowly shook my head. I had no clue.     
     Evvy was beginning to wonder why she was here, I could tell; why this man she didn't know was asking these strange questions of her husband who had that blank look.. I know Evvy, and she is anything but inert.
    "First, Jeff, before I confuse you further I should tell you who I really am. The last words I said to you before a couple of days ago were, "It's not good to find little black boys next to daid white woman.
      His words hit me like a sledge hammer. I looked into those eyes and I knew. These were the eyes peering from that alley in my dreams for 30 years. These were the eyes that helped me open a bottle of vodka way too often.
      "You". It was all I could say. Evvy barely heard me.
      "What, Jeff?" she said. I looked directly at James Smith, waiting.
      Yes Jeff, it is me, that scared little boy who you tried to save from the scourge of a misguided woman. the boy who saw you kill her, the little boy who kept telling you, 'she daid, mister, She daid mister'." Words that must have haunted you for life."
      "Go on." It was all I could say. My stomach was rolling, but the call for a drink was silent
      "I wanted to tell you that day where from the alley. I saw you walking down the street. But I was afraid of that Nigger hater who was rampaging through our neighborhood. He and his son were the worst of them all. I could see your disgust, just as I saw it two nights before when you jumped in to help give me dignity. And I wanted to tell you. But I never saw you again."
      "Tell me what, James?"

The Answer:
"Whatever", is the most annoying word to Americans, garnering over 35% of votes. "Like" is #2 with 22. Next is "You Know" - 18 followed by "Just Sayin' " - 14 and "Obviously" - 8. "That being said", here are some newer bad phrases of the future -- "Here's the thing", "Totes amazeballs", "Masculine of center", "Bitchy resting place", "A bit Meh", Team Nigella", Troubling questions", "Selfie" and "Hardworking families". Personally, I'm not retreating into my "Man cave" because that is the most annoying phrase of al, to me.

If you're a bit younger than I, then you may not be familiar with going around in circles. I think the same person who wrote "Charlie on the MTA" (Sung by the Kingston Trio) wrote the Middle East diplomacy guidelines:

The Kingston Trio was one of the hottest record sellers of the late 1950'S. No light shows, no smoke. Just a couple of guitars, banjos and crew cuts.