It’s purely coincidental that I use the moniker “Hubman” and live in the Boston area, which is also known as the Hub (which dates back to the 1800s and Oliver Wendall Holmes calling the Boston Statehouse “the hub of the solar system”). Veronica coined Hubman, I’m her hubby and I’m her man, so I’m her Hubman.
Anyway, I got an e-mail the other day that made me chuckle, take a look.
What I like best is that it’s a sharing program 
Have a great Monday!
I heard that baseball hall of famer Harmon Killebrew passed away earlier today and was reminded of an anecdote I read once that was attributed to him.
The story goes that as a young boy he was playing ball in the yard with some friends when his mother called out and reprimanded him for messing up the lawn.
His father intervened and told his mother “relax, we’re raising a boy, not a lawn!”
What a simple yet important lesson that I hope I don’t forget!
An altered situation, that is! Specifically this photograph of the White House Situation Room, taken during the time when Navy Seals were sending Osama bin Ladin on his way to a well-deserved meeting with Allah.
Notice anything about the version in the bottom half, taken from Orthodox Hasidic newspaper Der Tzitung? They have a policy of never publishing photographs of women, and decided to publish Obama’s situation room photograph with Hillary Clinton and counterterrorism director Audrey Tomason Photoshopped out of the frame. Here’s what the fuck-tards at the newspaper had to say:
In accord with our religious beliefs, we do not publish photos of women, which in no way relegates them to a lower status… Because of laws of modesty, we are not allowed to publish pictures of women, and we regret if this gives an impression of disparaging to women, which is certainly never our intention. We apologize if this was seen as offensive.
So the US Secretary of State, number 4 in the presidential line of succession, shouldn’t be offended by this nonsense? Never mind women in general! I can’t imagine how draconian this group must be if simply seeing a woman in a photograph violates some modesty laws.
I think this image is what the newspaper should publish by way of apology
When the earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit Japan the other day, you couldn’t help but notice people saying they wish they could help somehow. I came across this list in today’s Boston Globe and wanted to share it. The immediate danger is passed, but the people there are going to need help for quite some time to come.
▸American Red Cross — US mobile phone users can text REDCROSS to 90999 to add $10 automatically to your phone bill. Or visit redcross.org or call 1-800-RED-CROSS.
▸International Medical Corps — Sending relief teams and supplies to the area. Call 1-800-481-4462, or visit internationalmedicalcorps.org.
▸Save the Children — The relief effort providing food, medical care, and education is accepting donations through mobile phones by texting JAPAN to 20222 to donate $10. People can also call 1-800-728-3843 during business hours or visit www.savethechildren.org/japanquake.
▸Global Giving — The nonprofit, which works through grass-roots efforts, says Americans can text JAPAN to 50555 to give $10 through their phone bill. Or visit www.globalgiving.org.
▸Interaction — The group is the largest alliance of US-based international nongovernmental organizations and lists many ways to help on its site, www.interaction.org.
▸Network for Good — The aggregator of charities has a list of programs and ways to donate, at www.networkforgood.org.
Okay I know that’s stating the obvious to many of us, but this post just reaffirms it for me.
Anybody wanna watch Mike Huckabee blow a three-day load all over his wife’s face?
No? Okay, wanna see Mike and the wife 69ing each other? No? Maybe you wanna see Mike and the wife doing it doggy style? Pegging? Pissing on each other? Fist fucking? Whipping up a little santorum before church on Sunday?
Or how about Mike gently fingers the wife and then dabs her vaginal secretions on his own nipples before he leans down and places his nipples one at time in his wife’s mouth so she can taste herself?
Wanna see that?
Look, Mike, I get it. You think gay people are icky and gay sex makes your eyes bug out. That’s fine. I totally understand where you’re coming from: cunnilingus gives me the willies and I’d rather see my own intestines wound onto a spool than see you fuck your wife. I don’t wanna see what’s going on in your bedroom—even if it’s just sleep—anymore than you wanna see what’s going on in mine.
But it’s like this, Mike: people shouldn’t be discriminated against because other people don’t wanna see ‘em fuck.
And answer the man’s question: How does denying marriage rights to the same-sex couple down the street make the single mother up the street any more likely to marry the father of her children? How does discriminating against gay people make straight people more responsible? How does that work?
Here is the video of the response by Mike Huckabee that inspired that. Some of the comments are really funny too.
From The New York Times
Frank Buckles, who drove an Army ambulance in France in 1918 and came to symbolize a generation of embattled young Americans as the last of the World War I doughboys, died on Sunday at his home in Charles Town, W. Va. He was 110. He was only a corporal and he never got closer than 30 or so miles from the Western Front trenches, but Mr. Buckles became something of a national treasure as the last living link to the two million men who served in the American Expeditionary Forces in France in “the war to end all wars.”
In April 2007, Mr. Buckles was identified by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs as one of the four known survivors among the more than 4.7 million Americans who had served in the armed forces of the Allied nations between April 6, 1917, when the United States entered World War I, and the Armistice of Nov. 11, 1918.
Two of the four — J. Russell Coffey and Harry Landis — had served stateside in the American Army. Mr. Coffey died in December 2007 at 109; Mr. Landis, in February 2008 at 108. John Babcock, who was Canadian born, served in Canada’s army in Britain in World War I and held dual American and Canadian citizenship, died in Spokane, Wash., in February 2010 at 109.
He was living in Oakwood, Okla., when America entered World War I and he tried to enlist in the Marine Corps at age 16, having been inspired by recruiting posters. The Marines turned him down as under-age and under the required weight. The Navy didn’t want him either, saying he had flat feet. But the Army took him in August 1917 after he had lied about his age, and he volunteered to be an ambulance driver, hearing that that was the quickest path to service in France.
He sailed for England in December 1917 on the Carpathia, the ship that helped save survivors of the Titanic’s sinking in 1912. He later served in various locations in France, including Bordeaux, and drove military autos and ambulances.
Thank you for your service Mr Buckles, may you rest in peace
I don’t know about you, but the US budget is so big as to be damn-near beyond my comprehension. Until I came across this piece from Slate excerpted on The Daily Dish. Here is the premise- President Obama’s budget he sent to Congress for FY12 is $3.73 trillion, while taking in $2.63 trillion in revenue. That’s proportional to a household that earns $60,000 spending $85,000!
How is Uncle Sam spending that $85,000?
$17,400 for Social Security
$10,700 for Medicare
$6,100 for Medicaid
$13,600 for other mandatory programs such as food stamps
So far we’ve spent $47,800 or over 3/4 of our $60,000 income on “mandatory” expenditures. Yikes…
Now we still have to consider what falls under discretionary funding
$20,000 for the Department of Defense
$5,500 for interest on existing debt
$10,400 on everything else, that is, non-mandatory/non-defense, items
Here are a few bits and pieces of that $10,400
$400 on energy
$500 on agriculture
$1,000 on housing and urban development
$1,800 on education
Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, summed up my thoughts pretty well
“Let me suggest to you that what game is being played down here is irresponsible and it’s dangerous. We need to say these things and we need to say them out loud. When we say we’re cutting spending, when we say everything is on the table, when we say we mean entitlement programs, we should be specific. And let me tell you what is the truth. What’s the truth that no one is talking about? Here is the truth that no one is talking about: you’re going to have to raise the retirement age for social security. Oh I just said it and I’m still standing here! I did not vaporize into the carpeting and I said it.
We have to reform Medicare because it costs too much and it is going to bankrupt us. Once again lightning did not come through the windows and strike me dead. And we have to fix Medicaid because it’s not only bankrupting the federal government, it’s bankrupting every state government. There you go. If we’re not honest about these things, on the state level about pensions and benefits and on the federal level about Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, we are on the path to ruin,” – governor Chris Christie.
While I understand people’s passion about the Republican’s attempts to de-fund Planned Parenthood, for example, the dollar amounts involved are a fucking joke, it’s all about symbolism and pandering to their base. If only we as a country could work up the same passion for seriously seeking solutions to those big-ticket items that are driving us to financial ruin, perhaps our fiscal future would look a little brighter.
[Excuse the glib title, this is actually a fairly serious post]
Please, Marc Savard, retire from the National Hockey League before the damage you’ve suffered becomes permanent.
A little background. Savard was hit at center ice by Matt Cooke of the Pittsburgh Penguins last March, a hit that left him with a pretty severe concussion that had him sit out the rest of the regular season. He returned for the playoffs but wasn’t himself, then he struggled with post-concussion syndrome over the summer. As a result he sat out the first 23 games of this season.
On January 22 Savard was hit with a perfectly clean, run-of-the-mill shot that happens multiple times in every hockey game, without incident. Unfortunately, Savard’s brain, for reasons not yet known to medical science, appears to be more susceptible to concussion after the hit last spring.
He’s been out ever since. Yesterday the Boston Bruins announced that he’s going on long-term injured reserve, he’s shut down for the season. He’s experiencing headaches, memory lapses and dizziness. As Fluto Shinzawa noted in yesterdays’ Boston Globe, Savard is normally alert and quick with a joke. At the press conference, he looked pale, tired and withdrawn and slurred some of his words.
Marc Savard is in the 1st year of a 7 year, $28.05 million contract. Should he retire, he will receive 100% of his salary via an insurance policy.
Why on Earth isn’t he retiring? He’s 33 years old, has 3 young kids, and already has the financial security most of us can only dream of. I understand passion for what you do, but there comes a time when long-term health concerns need to outweigh the desire to keep playing.
What do people say about the very old who have maintained their mental faculties well into their later years, even as their physical health has declined?
“At least he still has his mind”
I hope that Marc Savard still has his mind in his later years.
A few days ago my Twitter stream was filled with angry tweets about the notion of Michael Vick, convicted dog fighting ringleader, of owning a dog again someday. “I would love to get another dog in the future. I think it would be a big step for me in the rehabilitation process,” Vick said.
I’m genuinely conflicted about this. As a lifelong dog owner and dog lover, I can’t imagine doing the things he and others did to those animals in the name of “sport”. He didn’t just participate in dog fighting, he organized it, funded it, was basically the driving force behind this particular dog fighting ring. There really is no doubt about the barbarity of his treatment of dogs.
But…
He plead guilty to Federal conspiracy charges, served 23 months in prison and ended up having to file for bankruptcy. Let’s keep in mind the (possibly) quaint notion that our criminal justice system serves to deter crime, punish those found guilty of a crime, and rehabilitate them before they return to society. If we believe in all of that (especially the last part), why shouldn’t Michael Vick be allowed to own a dog again? He paid his debt to society, right?
Besides, can you think of a single dog owner who would be watched more closely by the SPCA, PETA, et al than Michael Vick?
So what do you think? Feel free to sound off in the comments.
