1 November 2009

We arrived at the beginning of fall, but when I look at the weather outside, well, I just know summer is going to be a bit hesitant to let go. Today's high: 82 degrees by the beach. Add about 10 degrees inland. Yesterday was Halloween and I passed out candy and the mini-cupcakes that Crumbs had on sale. Well, passed out would be a bit of an overstatement since all I did was put them out, but when you think of how many these kids took and the fact that I was out of candy and things in an hour and a half - it must have been a hit. I've been thinking a lot about little things lately and have had a pretty rough last few months. To say that I'm emotionally exhausted would not even be enough to say what I'm thinking. Ever been in a situation where you were completely out of control and hated it? That's me. My life is timed by other people. Then there is "real" life where I have become acutely aware of the fact that some of the people I work with are not only idiots, but back-stabbing ones at that. The worst part is this quote:

You're going to Israel for vacation? Most spies spied for Israel.

That came out of the mouth of someone who is ostensibly intelligent. I was gobsmacked that I am surrounded by some people who act one way to your face and another way behind your back, but when their true self comes out it comes out in a flutter of lunacy. The last time I wrote was Labor Day so I guess I have to catch up since then, but - truthfully - nothing has really happened. Yes, I had a wonderful vacation in Israel and things there were wonderful, but they always are. No, I'm not a spy, but wouldn't that be an exciting life? Not the James Bond kind of thing, but just the excitement of it all. Of course, I'd want to spy for America, but I haven't got the desire to go covert when I'm closer to 40 than 30. Speaking of age: my little brother and I had dinner last week, which was great, and it was typical deli food at Canter's in the Fairfax. I love that diner - reminds me of Chelsea Diner in NYC. I had a taste for matzo ball soup, but ended up not having it. Don't ask me why. It was good to see he and his wife, though. I've been called away to get ready as my cousin is coming into town and I'm going to meet her for lunch, but I will write more and although not exciting and for some reason the picture thing is not working, but when it does I have much to share.

Labor Day 2009

As I look back on my negligent blogging it is fairly obvious that I've not kept up with my thoughts. I still keep a diary and I love to write my thoughts about the day and how I'm feeling on any particular topic, but of late - well let's be honest - for a long time, I've been distracted.

It is not as if I'm not distracted today, but today I found some time that I could set aside and just write my thoughts out for people to read - if they want to. Labor Day is today, but I worked on the radio Friday night and yesterday so I didn't have the long weekend that I yearned for, but what I do have coming up is a few weeks where I will do nothing. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are sneaking up on me and I have some big plans that I'm keeping top secret (or at least secret). Needless to say, though, I'm looking forward to the High Holy days.

Yesterday during my radio program, and on Friday as well, the topic was all about Van Jones. If you don't know who Van Jones is, or was, he is the guy that quit the Obama Administration as a Czar for "green jobs." Whatever those are. Would someone define green jobs for me because all I heard him talk about was ways that Americans would lose jobs and nothing for how they would be created.

Friday night I was on the air and his letter to President Obama came out around midnight. I was already done, but I got to talk about it last night and I have one question for the president: Are you insane? WHY would you distract all that you want to do by bringing a self-described Communist into your Administration? Why in the world would you not at least google the guy so you could find out that he actually thinks that we attacked ourselves on September 11, 2001? Who is doing the vetting at the White House? This guy would not make it into the Armed Forces (like too many people serving in DC or in positions of power in the country today), but he made it into the White House.

President Obama, what were you thinking?

So he resigned and instead of saying "good" the bad guy is gone - Howard Dean and David Axelrod go on television to talk about the great loss to the American people because a Communist is no longer wandering the halls of the White House. How is the loss of an ACORN supporter and Commie a loss to the American people? Isn't it bad enough that we are losing our freedoms every single day of the week - they should have stayed quiet. The President does not have a lot of good people surrounding him. But Van Jones is gone now - now all that we have left are people who think we have to ban hunting, kill the unborn for population control and forcefully, if necessary, sterilize people that we do not want to reproduce.

Oy gevalt that is a scary thought.

Meanwhile, I was in DC recently and had a pretty good time. I was around people who were making their way up the ladder of the government and I made some acquaintances there that I'd like to keep. I think that the best people were there and then again there were some people who were awful, just awful. I know a wonderful woman named Christine who is a Senior Executive Service person working for the Department of Defense. She is the epitome of service and then I know people, who I shall not name, who work for the Department of Defense who are the worst of the worst. Their work ethic is that if they show up they are outstanding and if they do something wrong or bad that they should run to people and complain that it had something to do with their race or something silly. The worst offices in all of government are so-called Equal Opportunity Offices who actually advertise how people can complain.

What kind of crap is that? Who advertises how to make a complaint. It is as if government is so far removed from real life that instead of just sucking up the fact that they are colossal failures in what they do they have an office to go to in order to shelter them from that fact. The one good thing that came out of my attending this training (and it is not yet over) is that I was awarded the Combat Correspondent MOS from the USMC. While I was on active duty in the military I earned three MOS's and now I have a 4th. This one actually means the most and I will make the most of it. I'd like to go back to work in Iraq and I reported from there during the first elections and thought it was amazing.

Speaking of Iraq (an odd transition to Afghanistan) - I'm never again going to use anything provided to my station from the AP. The very fact that they would show the picture of a dying Marine after his parents asked them not to is beyond anything I could imagine. What is wrong with these people? I have to say that I would not care if the woman who snapped that photo ended up on the new bin Laden video that we are expecting to come out when Obama talks to Congress about health care. What a disaster that is (Afghanistan and health care). But I do have a question.

What is the President doing to find our missing (captive) soldier in Afghanistan. The Prime Minister of Israel speaks about the IDF missing soldiers every opportunity he gets. Barack Obama never spoke the name of our missing soldier. Israel went to war for Gilad Shalit, but we've barely busted down doors to find our man. What has happened to the war on terror? Have we gone so soft that we won't even acknowledge that one of our own is captive by people who would have no problem taking off his head and putting the video on YouTube for the enjoyment of the Arab world?

Shameful. Carpet bomb where we think he is and if he dies he dies a hero. If he is found alive the bombers are heroes. The PM of Britain wants to have a conference about Afghanistan. Can you imagine that happening during WWII? We'd all be speaking German. I'm sorry - there are some people who should not be in power during war and I think we see who should not be in power today.

Before I'm done ranting and get back to working on some things, I saw that Congress has a 7% approval rating - the poll came out today. This is a time that regular people, flawed people, should run for Congress and we should back them. It is insane that we keep returning the same people to the place the is running more and more of our lives. If you'd be a good candidate I think you should consider it. You'll lose your privacy (I've lost mine and somehow made it through) and you'll end up with Wikipedia writing things about you that are completely untrue, but in the end we will have good people in Congress. Can we ask for anything more?

I don't think so.

Happy Labor Day.

What is Islam - let's ask Wafa on al Jazeera...

Moral of the story: the Arabs and fundamentalists of Islam should be back living in the Middle Ages and THEY STARTED THIS...

So here it is - more than a month has gone by since Valentines Day, but I've been doing so much that I really didn't even write in my written diary let alone my typed one. So today is the day I'm going to catch up. I have a lot of things to catch up on and this is the one that has me with the least amount to do since so little has changed since Valentines Day that I figure I would start with the easiest and work my way backwards.

One of the things I do know is that I am going through my mid-life crisis. I don't know if it is mid-life crisis so much as it is just a crisis of getting older, but either way I'm going through one. I think it started out last month when my brother brought his wife and kids down to San Diego to the San Diego Zoo. I spend time with my little (well he is a little brother too, but I see one more than the other) brother, but seeing this one and his wife and kids made me feel old. I was thinking to myself over sushi (I do love the sushi place by where I live, but it made his wife ill - that or she was pulling a Princess Di) that it is time for me to make some tough decisions about life. So I began making them there and then.

The first is that I'm going to start saving for my retirement more aggressively. Outside of the fact that the economy has all of us feeling the pinch of a down turn in the market and all of our 401k plans and IRAs are earning less and less - there is something to be said for saving - so I'm going to start setting more money aside for the day when I get to retire. Sounds strange - thinking about retirement and I never thought about it before, but here I am thinking about my old age. It is kind of cool because I'm already retired from the military and have retirement already in my lexicon, but I mean the big retirement - the big one where you don't return from.

My other decision was more difficult because it involved vanity. Ever since I was in my mid-20s I've been getting gray hair. Part of it was just ignored as I had a haircut when I was in the military that I kept all the way through, but now I think I'm going to take the advice of my hair guru and actually let my hair grow out. BUT, that leads me to a big question: do I then color it (well, do I have someone else color it)? A lot of guys I know have been having their hair colored for a very long time, but this would be a first for me. Personally, I think some guys pull off gray hair easily (Jon Stewart comes to mind - meanwhile, how about his falling out with CNBC's Kramer - oy that is fun). I have no problem with letting my hair grow out a little bit (probably go from a haircut a week to a haircut every month), but while I let it grow it will be gray and I'm not sure I want gray hair poking out from all over.

Now that I've actually written that down I think it is kind of a silly thing, but it is my mid-life crisis so let me do it my own way.

Then there is the thing that all men do during their crisis - a new car. I don't have car payments so it is kind of nice being able to pay for a car, but do I do what all men do and buy a car that makes a lot of noise or do I keep the car I've had for almost 3 years (the longest I've really kept a car) and let it be mine for 5? Decisions decisions. If the answer is no I have to figure out what I want: do I want a true mid-life-crisis kind of car or do I want to go practical and go out of state to buy it at another brother's house so that I don't get stuck paying the huge sales tax that we're about to start paying in California. More decisions that I'm not happy about making so I might just stick to the car that I have until I see how far this mid-life crisis is going to take me.

Speaking of taxes - I got my tax bill back and see how much I owe and decided that I'm not going to pay my state taxes (CA) until my best friend in the whole wide world gets his tax REFUND from the state first. I may end up charged a penalty, but how unfair is that. He overpaid his taxes and CA is just saying - screw you, you're not getting your refund because we cannot afford to give them. Unfair and it should be criminal.

So I'm getting more and more fit, which is always a good thing, and I'm putting on a suit (it was an Armani) and I realize that I have an awful lot of fabric in the belly left over. I'm losing more fat again and I was mad because I buy suits and jackets in sets of four. Charles, I've written about him before, my shopper knows exactly what I like and he was able to get me all hooked up and I have some great suits and jackets, but I was terrified that I was going to have to give them to charity. Lucky for me I went to the tailor and the only master tailor I know was able to take them in one last time - if I lose any more weight I'm done and the suits have to go back, but this time I was lucky.

Speaking of luck: my brother is finally putting in my new floors. Yes, it took me forever to figure out the kind of floors that I wanted to change my old floors out for, but he did it and I love him for it. He is starting a business with a buddy of his and they are doing some kind of contracting. I should buy in for 51% and start getting some of these government contracts that the USA and CA are giving out. Should you do business with your brother? Probably not huh, but still - he's worth it and would make a really good business partner because he is a good guy and they need a leg up: two white males doing a business together doesn't get them very much, but I'm a veteran and to have a veteran owned business wouldn't hurt!

I don't know when my floors will be done, but soon I hope.

And on that note not much else happened in the last month. I've been very busy, but not too busy to be able to play with the dogs and to make their little tails wag. We get to spend a lot of time together during Passover because I'm not working (obviously) so we're going to have a good time together. We are hoping that we can do Passover with the special people in our lives and I think it is cute that whenever I take the dogs down to Del Mar they remember their favorite places to #2 and the rest. It is kind of adorable.

So the big decisions coming up is do I continue my mid-life crisis into a new car and do I color my hair. I've made the choice about letting it grow out (not to the point of being a hippie mind you), but I'm going to have to choose about whether or not to stay grayish or to color. Friends and co-workers are split, but I don't know where I fall. I guess I have to just flip a coin since if the color doesn't work out I can always get a hair cut, but if it does work out I will look younger for the first time in my adult life!

Until next time! Pictures will come later.

Valentine's Day 2009

It was pointed out to me that I have not updated my little online diary for a bit so I thought that Valentines Day would be a great day to do it.

This morning I had to wait for the cable guy, something I find most annoying - the idea that you get a two hour window for the guy to show up, and when he finally got here he was sloppy looking. X (I will only write their name if they don't fix my service) Cable then went on to "fix" my Internet service by bringing a new modem. Far be it from me to tell X how to do their business, but it is really not cost effective to send a guy to someone's home (albeit my weekend retreat) to bring a modem when they could have mailed it. Of course I complained about the ridiculous $30 fee that came with the cable guy's visit and it has yet to be waived. We shall see, but nothing is fixed yet so I'm still waiting for good email service.

Truth be told I guess that waking up at 7 a.m. to wait for a cable guy is better than waking up to the kid down the hill practicing his violin. I don't know what to say about that except his parents really need to give up on that little adventure into the symphony. Maybe it didn't happen today because it is raining, they usually kick the kid outside to bug the rest of us with practice and they close the windows, but I live on the top of a hill and LOVE open windows (to use one of my friends' sayings) "I heart them." He actually says that. I find it cute.  What I don't find cute is bad violin playing, no matter the age.  Poor  Stradivarius got lucky with the Little Ice Age and made some fantastic multi-million instruments - I dare say this kid is not in the running to play one.

Meanwhile, back to the evils of the cable company. Prior to the cable guy arriving I realized that I didn't have any milk and there just is no getting around the fact that I love cereal in the morning. The pantry is full of

cereals of all kinds, but today I wanted one of my favorites - chocolate Honey

 Bunches of Oats. In order to get my "fix" I had to get up, wet the hair, throw on my Nanuk of the North clothes since it was freezing outside at a mere 50 degrees outside, and schlep off to the closest place to buy it: Ralph's. So there I am thinking that I'll get in and get out (I'm not a grocery store kind of guy - if I have to do it I want the commissary, but if nothing else Bristol Farms delivers so why go) - I digress: the place was packed.

THEN it hit me. THESE men all forgot about Valentine's Day! I saw men buying those big cheap red chocolates and flowers from the florist department and I thought to myself that this has got to be one of the 

biggest days for stores all around the world that sell flowers and candy. So many men forget and they know good and well that if they don't turn up with something Valentiny today that there will be no "V" tonight! So they got it at a grocery store. Any woman (or man) that is willing to put out for Ralph's bought flowers (where there are about a million florists between Rancho Santa Fe - the Ranch - and Del Mar that were already open as I made the drive) would have put out regardless.

I guess the partner would talk less if they were chock full of candy, but what do I know? I'm sitting here alone for the Big V.  The good news is that on the drive I saw a sign that polo was starting up again soon!  how fast the winters turn to summer in this part of the world.

You can probably tell that I tend to write things backwards from the day that I create this diary even though my real diary actually goes in the right direction, but keep that in mind when I say this. I HATE WIKIPEDIA. Someone sent me a note asking if I wanted to comment on a comment I made on a show I did on January 29th. I didn't know what the hell they were talking about so I asked something sarcastic since I do not comment or quote on things and don't do interviews, usually,

sometimes I make exceptions, but it has to be something I really care about. 

Anyway - turns out that someone put on Wikipedia that during that show I endorsed the Bush Administration and said something like their policies made more people for America to kill. I said that? That didn't sound like me since I soundly reject MOST of what the Bush Administration did in the latter years and when it came to endorsing them it was usually on issues of fighting terror and that is it.

So I go read the Wikipedia drivel - something I hate because anyone can write to it and people from all walks of life get to write whatever they want. I do hate the picture that is there, but what can you do. I had my assistant go through the page when it was first brought to my attention to get rid of everything that was wrong, but what a waste of time - it just ends up being there again. Sometimes being a "public figure" (I hate that term) is tiring. Again I digress, maybe I do have ADD as I tried to tell my high school chemistry teacher when I was getting a D in that course... anyway - I listen to the show (they're all podcasted) and it turns out I said something LIKE what is written, but the damn Wikipedia thing didn't allow (nor does it mandate) context.

I said that closing GITMO was a mistake and that GITMO did not cause more terrorism (as many, including the VP claimed it did). Does anyone remember a GITMO during the Clinton years when we were hit by terrorists how many times? NO. GITMO didn't cause more terrorists, but IF it did, I said, so what - gives us more people that we have to kill.

People acted like that was a big deal. Some guy from Rhode Island published it and a "media watchdog" group (I don't want to give them hits) wrote about it. I can't believe that I'm even close to important enough for a media watchdog group to watch, but whatever fills the time and gets money out of George Soros right. Who am I to judge how a former conservative who is now a darling of the left because he had to be forced kicking and screaming out of the bathhouses and gay bars of DC does in his spare time? Ooops, did that give it away? 

Sorry Dave. Yes, we've met, but not at a bathhouse, but it was a gay bar and he pretended nobody would know that he was there picking guys up at WET - YES good ol' Wet where men danced in showers with their junk out for the world to see. And he thought nobody would notice?

Meanwhile, so I didn't say what I said the way that it is depicted, but I said screw it all to hell - I'm not even going to try to fix it.

Wow, this is just today. One more thing about today and then I'm done about today and can start working backwards. I'm spending the day with my little brother Johnny. He doesn't mind if I call him Johnny, but you better not because he will probably kick you ass. Beyond that, though, is that he's a huge rugby guy. Loves rugby and we're going to be surrounded (in a scrum if you like) with rugby men. Now, he's married to Danielle and is a great guy, but if he were gay he'd be doin

g so well (I doubt he'd have had to buy himself chocolates for Valentine's Day if you know what I mean). BUT, as much as he is better looking than I am - we think we're related - and that would be a trick since I'm fricking adopted and he is not. Go figure. 

Could my father's sperm have been donated to a woman on welfare who gave birth to octuplets and I ended up adopted by the same guy that donated the sperm who then went on to produce little Johnny? There is a whole other story to my adoption and it is touching, could this all be a fiction to protect a sperm donation?  Oh well.  He's not so little and at 27 or whoever the hell old he is he is still my little brother, but could he be my real little brother? Too much in common.

We're going to get a DNA test one day, but we have to wait for the right time (is there a right time for that) so we can fight over the family assets that have not been wasted by my over indulgent mother. Kidding mother - you don't waste money (how many times have you been on the plane this year?). Meanwhile...

So I had a fight with a bureaucrat this week. She is just a full fledged bitch. I ended the conversation by telling her how much I really hate her, and I do and I know hate is love, but I HATE her. She thinks she's great and she's as mediocre as they come. I don't think I could ever be someone like that - a bureaucrat who does little more than surrounds herself with people who tell her that she's brilliant while she can't do so much as answer a question without going full blown menopausal (you know the type). Anyway, I've decided not to deal with this woman again, unless I have to. Thank goodness I have a microphone in front of my mouth to wash my troubles away. I'll name her one day probably and where she works, but this is neither the time nor the place and maybe she'll find here way.

So Eyal told me that he saw my ex-boyfriend in Chicago over the weekend. He and I had a very, VERY, rocky split that lasted far too long. I won't tell you what happened, but he cheated on me. Oh wait, I just told you and I tend not to erase things. Yes, cheated on me. Hello, we're gay. No need to cheat when we can just break up with each other right? Not like we had kids, dogs or even fish to split up and find homes for. All we needed to do was break up, but he opted not to do that and he struck out on his own to find a new man. The funny thing was I caught them together. Was the worst day of my life and left me bitter for quite some time. He is on my Facebook page, but I won't tell you who he is and no I won't say that and not erase it - I'm being very careful. He says he won't cheat on anyone else again, but I say once a cheat always a cheat. That's just me though.

I celebrated my birthday on the 4th and that was okay, but as I inch my way toward 40 I realized that I never used to imagine that I would get to 40. I thought I'd be in my 20s forever and here I am closer to 40 than 30 and at what some gays would call the end of the line. I've never dated anyone older than me or significantly younger, but with people my age sometimes being so immature and some people in the 20s or early 30s so mature - I find that age is a mere fabric of our imagination (I can say that now that I'm older).

For my birthday I had a couple of celebrations. I hopped on a plane (thank you Mr. BlueStar Jet) to get to my birthday dinner and it was great. An intimate gathering. I like to fly places that are even close because you can fly out of small airports and it is the cost of a first class ticket. You do it on a weekend and the planes are full and you can all share the miles with the card, but on the weekday it is a crapshoot and you can end up paying the whole darn bill. Luckily for me there were a few people going the same day as me. 

Then another night I went to dinner with Sunil and Lena. I forget the name of the place (it will come to me), but everywhere in Hollywood is fabulous that was done by this one designer (I forgot his name too and I hate looking things up while writing - almost as much as I hate backspacing to correct things), but I know where someone is getting a birthday party - the Christina Aguilera room (it's not called that, but I'll know it when I see it). I think he'd like it and even though he might not - I would and that is really what matters in the grand scheme of birthday parties.

Before that I was at a short little conference where they had me stay at a chain hotel. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am as ashamed as anyone when I say that I stayed at the Westin. You remember - that awful hotel in downtown LA (all participants had to stay at the hotel - I guess they wanted us to be safe - meanwhile every death movie in a hotel was filmed here) and I was there for a week. I snuck away to my room (lucky for me I've got the right card to sneak away so I can get a penthouse and a Westin penthouse is no penthouse - it is sort of like a pent without the house) - tiny, no mini-bar and TVs that the stimulus package will have to pay for boxes to convert the signals to.
The good news is that I got to steal away to see Rosa and Gladys at Jose Eber to get my manicure and pedicure (Rosa) and my facial, nose hair wax and eyebrows done (Gladys). I've been seeing the same people for six years (I used to see Holly there until she moved to a competitor who I will not mention, really, I won't) and I'm loyal. I'm bad at many things, but if I learned anything in the military it was loyalty and I will not leave a place that treats me well. Jose does that. Thankfully.

So what did I do before that? Gosh, there had to be things, but I can't think of any. So enjoy your Valentine's Day and I hope that if you have someone a kiss that you do. You never know when you'll be like me and you won't have someone laying next to you at night to tell you that they love you. I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her - OH SHUT UP JULIA. Sorry - sometimes when I'm romantic I channel Julia Roberts characters (hello - Notting Hill), but it really should be my favorite author that I channel, Jane Austen, but they never got her on film so I can't. I do love Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibilities. Maybe I'll watch romantic movies all day so that I know what I'm missing. I did see one really good romantic film this weekend and it was "The Grocer's Son" - a French film about a guy who has a strained relationship with his family and he goes home after his father has a heart attack to help with the family store. It was a good movie and had a good message (and it was romantic - didn't hurt that the star was also cute - I do love gorgeous men, but give me man next door and I swoon. Rent it. Good idea.

Probably not. I don't heart Valentine's Day.

Until next time... XOXO

17 January 2008

It has been a little while since I last wrote my online diary so there is a lot to cover, but when I think about what to say and how to say it - there is really not that much.

Since my last entry a lot of things happened. The most stirring thing and that which stands out is the fact that the other day I received a package in the mail and I sat in stunned silence before I opened it. I have to say that it probably took me an hour to have the "courage" to open it as I knew it had something to do with my friend, Katie (talked about in my first entry) who died in November. Seeing his name on the return address made me certain that it had to do with Katie, but I didn't know what it was.

After sitting quietly for a little bit I started to open the box - it was pretty heavy - and in it I found pictures and things that she kept from a trip we took some years ago along with some things that were important to her. Katie was a scrap-booker and photo keeper. When I go on vacation I'm lucky if I find myself in a couple of the pictures, but not Katie. She had a way with making sure that not only did she keep pictures, but she kept ticket stubs and even the menu from the bed and breakfast we stayed in Bath, England in the late 90s.

It was a vacation that I cherished, but it was just a vacation. Seeing those pictures made me realize that that was our vacation and something that only she, me and Gina shared. Of course we shared it with the ghosts of the Tower of London, the geysers of Iceland and a litany of memories from our nights in clubs.

At first I was angry with J.T. for sending it because I was not ready for it. I realize after looking at those pictures and with those that I have at my own house that Katie lived far more in her 30 years than I did in my life. As I live my life in the future I am going to live it as fully as I can because you never know when that life can come to an end. I didn't thank him for sending it, but I should. I'm just not sure how to say thank you for memories.

It is difficult to transition from the most important thing that happened to me this week and to turn to some of the more trivial, but here goes:

First is that I was able to have brunch with friends today and the topic was what to ask Ann Coulter when she is on my tomorrow evening. I often tell my listeners that of course I do show prep, but when it comes to talking I tend to talk about what my friends are talking about. Ann is truly an amazing person because she is not the gay hater that people portray her to be and when you read her new book - GUILTY - you will see her at her best. 

She is funny, biting, honest and is able to call a spade a spade. Some of the questions that my friends came up with were kind of nutty, but one came from Eyal's boyfriend via email and it was simple: why the black cocktail dress? What a great question from a gay guy. We will talk wardrobe. I certainly don't want to talk about the dust up on The View. How many times can Ann be asked to go on a show to talk about her book and then end up talking about something that happened on another show? How boring.

So I have my list of questions, but I'm going to take a poll on getting someone fired over making my omelette the wrong way! I have a certain way of wanting things and when people don't pay ANY attention to what I ask for I get angry. Don't ask me why - maybe the $75 price tag per person, but how hard is it to make some eggs that do not have yolks (I don't want to die from heart disease) so I wanted egg whites, mushrooms, cheese with soy milk to make fluffy. They were all wrong. I got an "I'm sorry," but I didn't get the right eggs because I hate waiting for things that I want. Not a big deal so I guess I won't get him fired, but people should pay attention.

Second is the weather. It has been hot and today it is a little over 80 degrees and as I hear people yammering on and on about global warming I'm wondering where it is warm where it is not supposed to be. The people on the east coast are freezing and we're warm (like it is supposed to be - hello, the Mamas and the Papas didn't do California Dreamin for nothing), but it is kind of nutty that we're talking about global warming while so many people are freezing. Even the canals in Holland were frozen over so that people could walk across them.

Third (I'm going to stop numbering these now): Barack Obama is going to become the first black President of the United States on Tuesday and that is a good thing. America turned a corner on race relations to the point where a black guy is taking office the day after Martin Luther King Day celebrates the 20th anniversary (signed into law by Ronald Reagan by the way - Jimmy Carter didn't sign it).

The only thing that bothers me (outside of Obama's politics) is the fact that he is getting a pass on all of the things he promised to do if he was elected. I'm not talking about moving to the center to govern and I'm not talking about moderating something that was super liberal; I'm talking about the fact that he is going to do things that he criticized the Bush Administration for doing. Don't get me wrong - I was done with George W. Bush when he forgot that he was a Republican (I actually consider myself an Independent Conservative - I'll explain that to you again one day). But, GITMO and taxes were things that Obama ran on and now he's reversed course.

Instead, he'll become the Commander-in-Chief to an underpaid military and will hold court at the White House as a TRILLION dollars are spent to "stimulate" the economy. Part of that goes to giving money to people who don't pay taxes and calling it a tax cut. We're also going to stop foreclosures. How? Why should anyone pay their mortgage if the government will pay for it. We should just build Soviet style housing blocks and give people a home and $200 a month to live off of. The House of Representatives just passed a new tobacco tax (which is obviously a tax on the poor since they smoke far more than the middle or upper-classes) to help children get health insurance. Sounds fine right - BUT illegal immigrants will get it too. We're borrowing money from our kids and grandchildren (and theirs too probably) in order to pay for illegals to go to school and now - THE INTERNET! yes, the Internet is now a federal right.

Someone pinch me over his silly train ride too. What a joke. I like how we expected 3 million people to go and now we're downplaying expectations. I thought this coronation was the changing of the guard. I wonder if anyone from that plane that went into the Hudson River in NYC are going to DC to watch the man who will investigate the migrating birds that caused the crash get sworn in. Bet they drive?

Then there is Israel. Israel announced a cease fire with the Hamas - we'll see how long that lasts. The Hamas will continue to fire rockets into Israel and she is giving the Hamas a chance not to do it. If the Hamas sends ONE rocket into Israel I say level Gaza to the ground and start anew. It is insane to think that people who want Israel and Jews to die a terrible death are ever going to change their minds, but maybe Senator Clinton (soon to be Secretary of State) will be able to convince them to do something that her husband could not.

Counting down until January 20th at noon. Until then - if you have a question you want to ask of Ann Coulter - she'll be on the show on Sunday (tomorrow) so tune in and call 800-600-KOGO during the program or email me and I'll pick the good ones. Don't worry Brenden - yours is on top.

I went to Israel (I Liked It)

Depression does funny things to me - I seek out funny things.