Civics 101.

Today's Tids Issue 2,59
Opening Stuff:

How evil is "60 Minutes"...bringing out a report against sugar the week before Easter. It is criminal. I think Kids Twitter Nation should organize a protest rally and Cadbury Egg the CBS world headquarters. I would be more than happy to abet, sitting in protest with a box of chocolate and caramel on beautiful and expensive West 57th Street. Go kids, go.

Just in case you are interested, Newport RI was named by Forbes Mag as Prettiest Town in America. Pictures of pretty town regularly posted at todaystids.blogspot.com.

The Question:

1. Cloud will be in your future whether your head is in them or not. Name five of the Cloud storage giants. Bonus: Name the five biggest drug stores/services by prescription revenue.

The Headlines:

--Shooter Who Killed 7 At Oikos University Had Been Kicked Out Of School And Was In Serious debt.
--Stocks Expected To Pause After S&P Reaches 4 Year High.
--Student Loan Debt Reaches $1 Trillion; Surpasses Credit Cards And Auto Loans As Debt That Could Most Disable Recovery.
--Mock Movie Poster Warns That al-Qaida Is Returning To NYC.
--Kentucky wins Big Prize; Campus Erupts; One Man Shot.
--Media Ugliness: NBC Altered Martin Case 911 Tapes; Out Of Context Edit Made Zimmerman Appear Racist; Other Evidence Suggests Someone Altered Video Tape Of Zimmerman Injuries.
--Air Tran Named Airline That Does best Job For Passengers.

Finally, my skinny ties and wide lapels are back in style. Or, was that wide ties and skinny lapels? O well, I'll just keep wearing what I wear and someday somebody will come up and say. Cool man, Cool. Or, don't they say "Cool" any more? Of course, the key to tie survival is eating gravy carefully.

The Tids has always sought to upgrade the world's appreciation for good grammar. Let's examine "Complete" and "Finished". They appear to be the same, but are quite different. For instance, If a man marries the right woman he is complete. If a man marries the wrong woman he is finished. But, if the right woman finds him with the wrong woman, he is completely finished. So there you have it. Viva le differance'.

Our "Republican to the Core" Governor Chafee-Lite has just endorsed Mr. Sleazy Congressman Cicilini for re-election. I guess when you are owned by the unions you'll endorse anybody.

Yesterday the President warned the Supreme Court to be careful or else. He said it would be an "unprecedented, extraordinary step" to overturn the health Care law. OK, let's review basic grammar school Civics. It appears that this is where this President needs to start. This President who only seems to believe that the President has any power. OK, "The Supreme Court is a separate but equal branch of the US government. It's purpose as defined by the Constitution is to act as a check on the Executive and Legislative branches. One of it's three main functions is to 'Determine the constitutionality of Federal laws.'." Maybe the President has a problem with the Supreme Court because it is a "uniquely American institution". What's really extraordinary here is a President threatening a Supreme Court, not the supreme court doing its job.

Oh, it appears that the Admin and/or the Dem National Committee is calling on Ex-Prez Clinton to add credibility in Obama's fight against the Supreme Court. Clinton? Credibility? I don't get it.

Statistics say that 1 in 5 American kids are going hungry. Michelle says that American kids are over weight.

Let's be honest, Jaguar is making a great design comeback now that it isn't in the hands of Ford's accountants. This flagship of the India Auto Company Tata.is beginning to look like the special car it had been before Ford turned into a stretched out Focus. And, you can bet that Volvo will rediscover it's distinctive side again, now that it is out of Ford and under a Chinese management. They'll just steal a good idea or two form BMW or Audi.

Deep pocket investors are buying depressed homes at super low prices. It is expected that will increase dramatically rental opportunities -- until the market's rebound and houses can be sold. So the next great American tragedy in a couple of years will be people being forced out if they can't afford to buy. And, it's all because some dim bulb in the government decided to find a way that everybody should own a home whether or not they could afford it. Mixing socialism with capitalism will never work.

Almost Near: Chapter 67. --Samantha sat in her hospital bed just drinking in the smiles of her children. Rebecca was in hospital garb like her mom, being admitted after her ordeal with Tucker. The two were hanging on to their mom's arms like they would to branches on the edge of a cliff.
Samantha understood how much further she would have to go. How she would have to sort out all of the people she had met in her many lives. But that would be the easy part. She was still coming to grips with the reality of her life which she discovered the moment she saw Tucker with her daughter. It triggered the memory she must have suppressed for so many years. The reason she ran away from Tommy Lambert, her finance'. She saw clearly now that day when walking by a play ground, Tommy Lambert fondling a nine year old girl. She remembered the horror of her own father watching her undress, his eyes never leaving her young body. Her mother trying to step in between them. But she was never strong enough. How she walked fearfully through her own house. How Tommy was her only safe harbor, her hope. All of those years when Tommy and she had been best friends, destined to marry and be a perfect family. Like the one she never had. And now she discovered that the man she was to marry was as perverted as her father. Maybe even worse than her father.
So that night she wrote a note to Tommy Lambert saying she couldn't marry him. She packed a few clothes, found as much money as she had, money saved for a wedding. She drove to Portsmouth, and got on a bus. She didn't care where it was going.

The Answer:

1. ICloud with 100 Million subscribers is largest. Next is potential IPO fave Dropbox (50Mil). Microsoft Skydrive, box, and Amazon cloud drive (music only) round out the bigs. 2. CVS/Caremark with $56 Bil is the largest followed by Walgreen ($45B). Medco Health Solutions/Express Scripts ($40B), Wal-Mart ($17.4B) and Rite-Aid $17.1B.

If the President can't seem to comprehend the significance of the Supreme Court, how are we supposed to believe that voters can grasp the significance of real issues.

Michelle Obama should really be against illegal immigration. The ethnic group with the greatest percentage of fat kids is Mexican. Do you think she'll ever ban Tacos? Not in an election year. Here's the dope on percentages of overweight kids: White - Male 31.9; Female 29.5. Black -- Male 30.8; Female 39.2. Mexican - Male 40.8; Female 35.

Big Pile of Money syndrome.

Today's Tids Issue 2,298
Opening Stuff:

Did you ever stop to think how weird it is for the United States of America to be borrowing from China to give financial aid to countries who may or may not like us.

I like almonds quite a bit. I like em' to eat as a snack or toasted in green beans or atop chicken. How come then, I can't stand the taste of almond flavored cookies and other pastries?

Trump for Prez of a USA on the brink of bankruptcy makes sense. After all, who has had more experience at skirting bankruptcy than the Donald. Hair today, gone tomorrow.

The Question:
George Shearing, the great jazz pianist, died yesterday. Many of the great and most popular musicians of the 1950's were jazz pianists. Name five.

The Headlines:

--Weaker January Retail Sales Report Will Probably Send Stocks Lower Today.
--Italy's Berlusconi Indicted In Prostitution Probe.
--Iranian Protesters Facing Sterner Resistance.
--Southern Sudanese Blame North's Khartoum For Thuggery That Has Killed Over 200 In Advance Of Freely Elected Independence.
--IBM's Watson Holds Its Own In Jeopardy Match-up With Two Top Humans.
--Egypt Labor Marches For Higher Wages, Better Working Conditions.
--Dogs Follow Models Into NYC.

Back to More Stuff:
How about some meat before we get to the meat. I'm liking pork scallopini this morn, and it is easy to do. From loin of pork boneless roast slice pieces of about a 1/4 to 3/8's inch. Dredge with flour and sautee 1/4 cp butter about 3 mins each side. Remove from pan and deglaze with 1/4 cup Madeira (Or red of your choice) wine. Pour resultant sauce over pork and serve with favorite veggies and pot. I might saute spinach for this one.

One of my reliable Chicago sources points out that the new 0-Man budget is the first step in a Troy-esque move back to the far left. Typically a place where the 0-man has been unless, as now, political necessity demands he feign a move to the center.

I focus on that proposed Obama cut of the Pell Grants for summer school. Why do they have a fund for summer school in the first place? Why weren't those valuable funds always being used to put a couple of more deserving students into college? And, hey summer school grantees...did you ever think that the summer is a time you could work and maybe offset some of your parents sacrifice to get you through school? I don't want to see the media putting up students complaining about not being able to attend summer school on the taxpayer. No sympathy here.

But then, weren't many of the Obama budget cuts intended to do just that -- Bring out whiners that the media will rush to film.

Where ever there is a big pile of Government Money, there will be somebody there with a way to misuse it.

Almost Near: Chapter 7 continues. --Samantha stood there and stared at that now mysterious door. Locked doors are alluring. And this one for Samantha, felt eerily meaningful to her life. A life that seems new to her now. Yet not real. She tries the knob again. It resists. I'll ask Tucker about when he returns she thinks.
At the bottom of the narrow stairway she turns off the light, and notices a bowl of keys hidden behind a stack of papers near the refrigerator. She takes the bowl without moving the papers, turns the light back on and moves up towards the tempting door at the top.
The fourth key she tried works. It turns. She holds her breath and listens for the sound of anything approaching the house. The knob turns and she shoves open the door. She has to turn sideways to get in through narrow passage.
The room looks to her like a museum honoring one person who may have worked there. A handsome desk surrounded by expensive antiques
was the focal point. The art on the wall was quite remarkable she thought. One artist who seemed very good at capturing the beauty of a special town that looked like here, but not quite. Nothing seemed out of the place.
Samantha pulled open one drawer to find papers neatly bound with those metal fold back style pins. She picked up one and it appeared to be a manuscript. Turning the blank cover page, she gasped. the words she saw said "Days with Aunt Ginny.".

I was going to write a little piece on CBS 60 minutes and how on Sunday I noticed their host trying to get the Egyptian Google Guy Ghonim to acknowledge that their hero 0-Man was significant in the collapse of the evil Mubarak regime. I was going to write that until this morning when I read a Chilean rebuttal to another piece which 60 Minutes did that essentially threw a wet blanket over the heartwarming rescue of 33 miners. I don't watch 60 mins often because basically I don't like the interviewers, and because their journalistic judgment and honesty standards make my hair hurt. Oh, BTW, Ghonim deftly turned the Q about 0-Man's contribution aside with a politically correct answer.

It is interesting to note that while politics is quite a bit less than all of the stuff I write here, most people think I only write about politics. Well maybe not today.

Have you noticed how people like Italy's Berlusconi and Charlie Sheehan think that that their behavior is perfectly normal?

Did you know that the Budget proposed by 0-Man yesterday would add $7.5 Trillion to the national debt in ten years. That is the size of China's total economy! Oh, in case you missed it, China yesterday passed Japan to become the number 2 economy in the world...at $7.5 Trill.

The Answer:
I had quite a collection of jazz Pianist albums in the fifties. I would go into NYC to see the wonderful, blind George Shearing and others. I personally liked Ahmad Jamal and Erroll Garner. But Dave Brubek was close behind as was Duke Ellington and Oscar Peterson. Other notables were Art Tatum, Count Basie, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, Bill Evans and Horace Silver. I still have many of those 33's, but I fear they are covered with mold in a basement somewhere.

The End:
If you have been paying attention over the past couple of decades you have probably noticed that politicians propose cuts in budgets which they know will get the most vocal response; A response that will surely lend it self to media soundbites. This time however, we may have to have more people crying in the wilderness. It's real.

I think tomorrow's Tids will be funnier, and no political negativity. Unless somebody does something stupid.