Louise—Aggree except for Reagan. He set the stage for Bush II—his were the “trickle down , supply side economics”, the tax cuts for the rich, the destruction of Unions, and coded racitm. I just cannot belive how many people think he was ok.

If nothing else, he was a war criminal. Iran/Contra? Other Latin American atrocities.

Our soldiers may very well be hit with weapons he sold. I detst him , dead or alive.

The dirty old basterd.

Maani, November 8 at 11:37 pm #

Peace.
**************************************
Usually, it’s not the hair, but the animal’s dander that sets off allergies. Dogs that exudes a lot of oil from their skin can set off allergies—and the oils can be stinky. Many terriers are really, really smelly dogs, even if bathed frequently.  Many are very aggressive and quick to snap, exactly like Barney did at the WH the other day. My mom’s Cairn Terrier has exactly that behavior when trying to get him to do something he doesn’t want to do.  He’s bathed regularly but still smells extremely doggy. 

The Belgians shed like you wouldn’t believe, every 6 months, but they don’t put out much dander and their hair doesn’t get oily at all.  Plus they are big enough to be real protectors…but if they figure out they can jump a 6’ fence (and young active ones can) they’ll do it.  Our first one could run backwards (great for shooting in, then backing up from a ram that gets p.o’d at a dog nipping at his heels).

Sadly, we are dogless these days…I don’t know how long that will last but we’ll either get another Belgian or a Collie or Sheltie (if we can find one that thinks he’s a big dog, not a little yipper).

cyrena,

We don’t have to swallow any more of the Dick Bush crap. But that doesn’t mean were home free. Not until they are safely carted away. But old problems have an ugly way of resurfacing. Newt for example.

I like the way Olbermann put it when he was about to report something William Crystal said,

“Oh never mind,” he exclaimed, “William you don’t matter anymore!”

Maani,

I rarely get close enough to cats to check out the breed. The reaction is to terrible! Strange too, ‘cause I had at least a dozen cats running about when I had a farm, and never had a reaction! Maybe the secret was they were all feline versions of mutt!

KDelphi,

Once when I had to leave town for a job interview, I left the eldest in charge and took the little ones along. Concerned about her goldfish, my little girl phoned home.

“How are the fish?”

“OK I guess,” was the response. “I cant see them, but there aren’t any dead ones floating on the surface, and the foods gone when I get home from work.”

But soon he discovered when the bowls too cloudy to see into, the smells not far behind. Well it seems the fish were OK, but he accidentally lost them when he drained the bowl to clean it.

My little girl’s tears quickly vanished though, when he explained to her how water drains. She felt a sense of pride that somewhere in the vast reaches of water around the globe her little fish were swimming free! Which reminds me of another cute story. Daily hearing about the approaching demise of the Polar Bear, my granddaughter overheard a discussion about global warming possibly leading to a new Ice Age. “Oh goodie,” she exclaimed, “that means the Polar Bears will be OK!”

troublesum,

brash adj. , brasher , brashest . Hasty and unthinking; impetuous. Rash. Lacking in sensitivity or tact.
Boy you nailed that one! And that other brash ...
brash heartburn, with regurgitation of sour fluid or almost tasteless saliva into the mouth.

A not so nice visual that’s an equally not nice way of saying Bush has given us a world-wide stomache ache!
We’re all ready for a heavy dose of antacid!

Back to Nancy and Ron. He may have been approaching senility, but he wasn’t in any way brash. Rather a thoughtful man trapped in a rapidly growing swirl of nut-cakes and crazy’s who saw their mission in life as saving the world, so they could control the world!

When Reagan died the crazy’s jumped onto the hard-sell of comparing Reagan’s qualities to Bush’s qualities. (?) Something that enraged Nancy, who made no bones about the fact that she didn’t like Bush and certainly saw NO parallel! And I agree, and repeat, I’ll bet she enjoyed hearing from Obama. And I suspect she will again.

There’s a whole big difference between apologizing for breathing and taking up space, and being sensitive to the feelings of others!

Cyrena:

Sadly, neither Golden Labs nor Golden retrievers are hypoallergenic.  According to the AKC, the following (relatively common) breeds are hypoallergenic:

Bedlington Terrier, Bichon Frise, Border Terrier, Cairn Terrier, Fox Terrier, Greyhound, Goldendoodle, Havanese, Kerry Blue Terrier, Maltese, most Poodles, most Schnauzers, Scottish Terrier, Shih Tzu, Welsh Terrier, Yorkshire Terrier.

As you can see, terriers head the list because they don’t shed at all.  However, as ITW notes, there is no such thing as a completely hypoallergenic dog.

Louise:

Although there are no truly hypoallergenic cats, the Siberian and Russian Blue breeds come closest.  (And Russian Blues are gorgeous, wonderful cats!).

Peace.

A panda bear, a kangaroo, a shetland pony…

Inherit,

Thanks so much for the rundown on the Belgian Sheepdogs and the Tervs. They sound delightful, and worth checking into for myself, once I have space for a dog (and myself I might add) again. Two would be even better, as long as I’ve got someplace for us to be.

I hadn’t even considered the allergy question with the dog, because although I do have allergies myself, I don’t know that they are triggered by animal hair. So, I just deal with it for the most part. I don’t think I can eliminate everything that triggers allergic reactions, but mine are not severe here in this area at least.

Oddly enough, my beloved golden lab didn’t generally have a problem with smelly skin or hair. Maybe because of the very short hair. That is unless she got into something, and she did get skunked twice, which was annoying since she was primary a house dog. (or at least spent equal amounts of time in and out, depending on our living situation). Otherwise though, she made it a point to keep herself impeccably groomed, and so I generally didn’t have to do much more than bathe her from time to time, and she stayed pretty smell-free. Her hair did shed, and it was always amazing to me, since it never appeared to be any thinner. It’s like, where did it all come from?

The only thing I guess I’d wanna watch would be the neurosis from the inbreeding. That’s why I’ve always had mostly mutts, aside from my lab, who sort of mulatto herself. (at least part chow) And, while I never rubbed it in her face or anything, she had red neck roots. (She came to live with me in Texas). When we moved back to my home, I promised her I wouldn’t mention it to anybody, (about her being a red neck) if she didn’t. (act like one). So, it worked out.

Anyway, that’s my only requirement. Neurosis free pets. I can’t take the drama. Even the surviving goldfish acts a little wacky, but that’s because the BarackO kid still doesn’t remember to feed it. Then the thing starts knocking itself off the walls of its little house.

Louise…this is good.

“... Now I may or may not have seen ghosts, I don’t know. But I can tell you for sure if I did know I did, I would be scared crapless. So maybe that’s the answer to dealing with ghosts. Don’t know. ...”

Maybe this is the way to deal with them, rather than be scared crapless!!

But then, I’ve already been scared crapless, for the past several years for sure. So, it would take some doing for a ghost to work me into a crapless state at the point. I mean that’s the kind of stuff that doesn’t have an endless supply. Please tell me it doesn’t. Like if we don’t have to swallow any more of the Dick Bush crap, then there shouldn’t be anything to recycle. That’s not a good renewable energy source, except to make more crap.

OK….I’m done.

A boa constrictor, a llama, a macaw, an impala, some ferrets, or a zebra but not another dog please.

There—now we’re on the right track…

cyrena—I hate to say this, but, I had all kinds of goldfish and other little fish. It actaully is better to underfeed—-because, if you overfeed, they die. I didnt believe my dad—I thoguht it was so fun to feed them—at 6 or 7 , what else can you do with them, really? (Or any age!)

I kept feeding them—when they died my dad read me the goldfish food box—and made a littel coffin for me to bury it in—I am not kidding. We had 100s of pets buried around there.

Of course, the ones I spoke of were won at the county fair—pingpong ball game. So, they may have died anyway!

But, back to the dogs—I think a mutt suits , because of what Obama said, and , also, because mutts need homes. But then again…they need hypo-allergenic.

Oh—what to do?! lol

I dislike Obama’s personality.  I prefer Bush’s brashness.  The trouble with democrats is that they appolgise for breathing and taking up space.

On ghosts and God and dogs, oh my ...

I have never heard God speak to me from under my desk, or anywhere else, but I have it on good authority theres them that has.

Nor have I seen a ghost in the White House, but I’ve heard from them that has. And seances scare me, because negative energy is always powerful, and the sheer conceit of presuming to disturb the rest of those gone beyond, seems to me might call up those negative forces. Perhaps that’s part of the problem with Dick and Bush ...

Naw, they’re just blinkin’ bonkers!

Once while shielding my kids under the dining room table during an earthquake, I did call on God. The shaking had stopped and we all relaxed, then it began again, twice as violent. I could see the stone fireplace at the other end of the room swaying violently. I could hear crashing and cracking all about me. I could see the floor lifting and dropping and the kids were starting to cry. I was scared to death and asked God to please keep my kids safe. The kids stopped crying.

When it stopped, and we came crawling out, the kids were looking at me strangely. Not because of the earthquake, but because they had seen me call on God. “Hey it worked, didn’t it? You stopped crying.” They went on to explain, they stopped crying because they were fascinated by the picture of me calling on God. Maybe that’s the real power of prayer.

Nancy had/has her needs, and there’s always a person [hungry for profit] eager to answer those needs. But I liked Nancy. And truly we need to ask ourselves, is calling on a pyschic any more strange, or dangerous than allowing an un-elected holy guy to direct the goings-on in the White House? Speaking specifically of Billy Graham, who did indeed lead Nixons decision making process, on more than one occasion.

Now I may or may not have seen ghosts, I don’t know. But I can tell you for sure if I did know I did, I would be scared crapless. So maybe that’s the answer to dealing with ghosts. Don’t know.

I think the best way for the Obama’s to deal with the dogness allergy is to run a test trial. If they want a mutt, best way to find an allergy free one is to go visit. Not always a pleasant experience, but perhaps the only way.

I am horribly allergic to cats, but occasionally I’ll go into a home and discover as I go to leave, there’s been a cat under my chair the whole time, and I never had a reaction. So I think it’s the dander not the breed, and I confess I don’t have a clue what that means. [Do dogs have dander?] But I know cats from California don’t seem to bother me, while cats from Washington drive me nuts!

OK, I feel better now. Always important to get the important stuff thoroughly examined.

Cyrena:
We owned several dogs over the years of one of the few breeds that seems to be hypoallergenic: Belgian Tervuren.  They are a fawn-colored version of the black Belgian Sheepdog, with black faces and eyes, and coats from blonde to brown with lots of black.  There’s a short-hair version called a Belgian Malinois.  We had Tervs.  They are super-smart dogs, totally devoted to their families, each with their own unique personality.  They look like a cross between a Collie and a German Shepherd, about the size of a smaller collie and have played wolves in movies.  They are blazingly fast runners and love to herd.  They are a lot like border collies, only bigger.  Bordies are a bit smarter, but Bordies are known as the smartest breed.  Tervs can keep up with Bordies but also make good guard dogs. 

When they love you they like to lean against you—the Belgian lean is familiar to every owner.

Here’s the good part: They don’t really smell much. Their skin doesn’t exude oils that make them smell, well, doggy. If they get into something (and they can) then, of course, they stink to high heaven. But if they are reasonably clean, even when wet they don’t smell very much.

Here’s the bad part: Twice a year they blow their coat and shed like no dog you’ve ever seen. Comb ‘em every and you still seem to get nowhere.  But, at least, the hair isn’t smelly.  And, like all pure-breds nowadays, there are inbreeding issues.  They can have personality problems, or health problems, primarily displasia and thyroid problems. But we found that if the dog isn’t crazy, doesn’t have a genetic disposition to behavior problems, then the health issues are no big deal.

Caveat: No dog is totally hypoallergenic.  We did, once, meet a person who was hideously allergic to one of our Tervs.  His face got red and his eyes were swelling and he had to leave.  He’s the only one we EVER saw.  My wife and I have allergies (so why do we have cats??????) but the dogs never triggered them.

Breed rescue leagues are all around for Tervs, Sheepdogs, Malinois, and even the rare poodle-coated Laekenois.  Tervs and Mals are fawn, usually. Sheepdogs are black—long-haired like Tervs. Underneath the coat the dogs are pretty much the same.  I’m not biased or anything, but I just happen to think that the Belgian Tervuren and the Belgian Sheepdog (or Belgian Shepherd) are the most beautiful dogs on earth.

KDelphi,

I think they should get a Golden Lab or a Golden Retriever. Now I’m actually kind of into this dog thing, because I’ve been following this saga. (It actually interests me from a certain perspective - as academic as anything else I suppose).

So, this is no small thing, as I might advise other parents. This has been an on-going sort of negotiation and family coalition building going on in terms of whether or not the girls were gonna get this dog. (They’ve been wanting it for some years now, and pops has not been all that easy to persuade on the issue).

In fact, pops the president-elect has been typically/pragmatically lawyerly in this vein. (or ‘political’ if you wanna call it that). He’s been concerned about working out the pre-details of who’s gonna walk, and feed, and clean up after the dog. He even mentioned something about the wintertime walks, suggesting that the girls might be less inclined or passionate about their dog with those details. I had the same reaction when I returned home a couple of weeks ago to see the new gold fish. I started asking the 7 year-old what he knew about taking care of them, and my freshly cut hair was standing straight up on my head as I listened to him tell me (among other frightful things)they should ONLY be fed when they ‘looked like they were about to die.’ Holy Shit! But, he’s only 7.

Anyway, that’s why I sort of get the saga of the negotiations on getting the dog. We had a similar family exercise around the issue of how late I could stay on on my first date. (My dad even went down to the local police station to ask THEM how late I could stay out. How’s that for scary?) We eventually settled on midnight, but my dad was originally insisting that the only way I could even GO on the date, (to the movies) was if we went to the matinée and were home by dark. (I’m not kidding, and it was in the fall - got dark early).

So, I get this. It’s the closest I’ll come to soap opera or ‘celebrity’ notice. That’s why I think that now that they’ve won the deal, (wore pops down I guess) they should get a really special dog that Daddy will secretly enjoy as much or more as the rest of them. Labs are great for families with kids.

But then, I’m a dog lover.

This is perfectly absurd!

Cant you people focus on what kind of dog his kids will get?!

Jeez!!

Context people.  He made a minor joke without any intention of offense.  Apologizing made something innocent, questionable.  He shouldn’t have said anything to Nancy.

Though at the same time, Nancy is a raving lunatic for believing in such nonsense.

ITW:

I agree, Obama is a class act. How refreshing!

Nancy Reagan in the WH was a bit of an arrogant joke. Sometimes not so funny as she and Regan were bitter enemies, and he had to leave.

But after she has proven to be gracious and strong in the face of adversity, and stood up the GOP on stem cell research.

I think Obama’s joke was harmless but could have been read as offensive.  So he did the right thing and apologized to an elderly lady held in much respect by most of America.

Let’s look at the bright side—Obama apoligizes for when he thinks he’s made a mistake.  I don’t remember George W. Bush EVER apologizing.  He NEVER admits to being wrong or making a mistake.  He thinks it’s weak to say “I’m sorry.”  Obama hasn’t even been elected for 5 days and already he’s apologize for an off-hand remark to Mrs. Reagan.

Obama is class. Bush is just crass.

Where is John Edward when you need him??!!

How refreshing - a President-elect who doesn’t want an elderly American who is tied to the other major political point of view to be offended

in contrast to a President and Vice President who falsely accused their political opposition of being unpatriotic, of aligning with terrorists

things are getting better in America already

What in HELL does ANYBODY care about Obama “offending” Nancy Reagan by joking about her PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGED beliefs?

Did he really “apologize” to her?

For what?

Failure to toe some sort of insane “memory hole” line?

Am I the only one who was alive and rembers Nancy’s seances?

It is a perfectly funny joke.

For Obama to apologize is insane.

Can 90% of the people think OUTSIDE of what the TV tells them to anymore?

dsmith:

You said, “What is disturbing is Rahm Emanuel being selected chief of staff. This radical Zionist will project the same neocon policies that pushed this country to invade Iraq.”

I will repeat what I said before: although Emanuel will certainly have Obama’s ear, Chiefs of Staff do NOT make policy; they are chosen to carry out the policy agenda of the President.  And if Emanuel’s view is different from Obama’s, that will just be too bad, because he will not be able to do anything about it.

Peace.

there is nothing to apologize for.

Anyone “out there” heard yet from The Gipper about this?

Bet that old ghost was howlin’ like a banshee. He’s been rolling over in his grave now for more than a few months, dontcha know.

It wasn’t Nancy Reagan who talked to dead people; it was Hillary Clinton.  She used to have conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt in the white house.

The ‘Moral Majority’ began stirping US of Our religious freedoms, and of the Compassion usually associated with religious groups. When faced with GRID/AIDS they did not reac out, they scorned and damned those afflicted.They got Thomas appointed- real advocate for Women there. They help deinstutionize millions of Mentallly ill- causing anexplosion of Homeless…And Did NOTHING to help these newly ‘freed’ people who had to sleep on the streets, eat out of garbage cans and even froze to death.their irrational fear the ‘Godless’ USSR would take over America, they put US in Hock for some dumbass Star Wars program and aided that fledgling group of ‘Afghani Freedom Fighers’ who attacked US in ‘93 and ‘01.Heckova Job Bible thumpers!
Economically Ronny not only set up the monarchial system called Trickle Down, he assured it’s succes by undermining the Unions.While Nancy was so caught up telling parents to play Gestpo with their kids who might be smoking pot, Coke & Crack were Killing the inner city residents and theri Kids..and they Did Nothing!
If Nancy was chenneling any one during those years, It was not a ‘Casper the Freindly Ghost’, It was something far more Demonic…The results we are finally dragging ourselves out from under Now.
That’s a Thought Could we have a Mass Exocism For the Entire Neo Con Republican Party (and some Dems- Clintons).that’s It!!!! I kept wondering what drugs they were putting in the Water, It was actually a national Demonic Possession. that explains why we lost Our Souls,Our compassion, Our real sense of what is Right.And it goes a long way explaining the ‘Religious Right’...they call their’s “God”, while the rest of Us have always referrred to him as Satan!

My gosh, now Sarah will accuse Barack of palling around with fortune tellers!

Obama’s conversation with Jimmy Carter must have been interesting also since he banned Carter from the convention in Denver last summer in order not to offend Isreal.

Louise, on this:

“..Still others get so entwined in prayer for personal guidance, they start hearing Gods voice, coming from under the desk. [Or so I’m told.] ..”

~~

I’m really glad you added the (Or so I’m told.) Yeah, I wouldn’t have been a little bit worried. Just a tad..but still… 

Now in all honesty, I always believed that Nancy was as entwined in those astrology charts as my grandma used to get in her rosary. How do we ‘really’ know that she didn’t use the stuff to decide policy? Ronny was already getting demented when he went in the White House. He just managed (which Nancy’s help) to fake it for a long time.

Now maybe the astrology helped with that.

Meantime, I agree with you that she’s probably tickled to hear from Barack.

Some folks want their “spiritual advisor” holding their hand whenever confronted with a difficult decision. Others want the real deal, the spirit of someone gone beyond putting in an appearance to offer sage advice. Still others get so entwined in prayer for personal guidance, they start hearing Gods voice, coming from under the desk. [Or so I’m told.]

The White House is a very old house. One that has seen sorrow and death. And great joy, even in the face of defeat. So it’s not surprising to hear someone who lives there, might see ghosts. Or want to see ghosts. Or at least hear from them.

I can remember when Nancy and Ronald had their personal psychic. I can’t remember that any meaningful policy was determined or changed as a result of psychic imput. But I remember them taking a lot of teasing about it. That being said, I suspect she chuckled over Obamas comment. And I’ll bet she was delighted by his phone call. There probably aren’t a lot of people around who think much about her anymore. Let alone call her.

I suspect she is now a fan.