BARACK OBAMA STORY?I received the

BARACK OBAMA STORY?

I received the following from a good friend the other day. I am guessing that she and I disagree politically! LOL! She may have meant it as a joke, however.

"RICHARD EARL FOR PRESIDENT!

From the mouths of babes...

Barack Obama, the Presidential Democratic Party candidate, is for banning all guns in America. He is considered by those who have dealt with him as a bit more than just a little self-righteous.

At a recent rural elementary school assembly in East Texas, he asked the audience for total quiet. Then, in the silence, he started to slowly clap his hands once every few seconds, holding the audience in total silence.

Then he said into the microphone, "Children, every time I clap my hands together, a child in America dies from gun violence."

Then, little Richard Earl, with a proud East Texas drawl, pierced the quiet and said: "'Well, dumb-*ss, stop clapping!"

I immediately looked this piece up on Snopes, but I couldn't find it. I tried every set of key words I could and still no luck. So I wrote to Snopes and received an answer a few days later, saying that it was on Snopes and to look under "What's New" or the hottest 25 rumors. Finally, I located it, and I also saw the problem: The Snopes version doesn't include the reference to "Richard Earl", which was what I had thought would surely be an easy couple of words with which to search in Snopes' search engine.

The genesis of this story is quite interesting, and another reason that it was hard to find. It begins with Bono, of U2, segways into Hillary Clinton, and ends with Barack Obama.

The Bono story from Snopes is as follows:

"[Collected via e-mail, 2006]

Bono, whilst playing a gig in Glasgow, got the whole crowd to be silent and then began slowly clapping his hands. He got the crowd to clap along for a while, the stadium quiet except for the rhythmic clapping...

After a short period Bono spoke, saying that everytime he clapped his hands a child in Africa died...

Suddenly, from the front row of the venue a voice broke out in thick Scottish brogue, ending the silence as it echoed across the crowd, the voice cried out to Bono "Well stop ****ing doing it then!!"


[(South Australia) Sunday Mail, 2006]

IRISH supergroup U2, due to play in Adelaide next month, recently held a concert in Glasgow, Scotland.

Halfway through the concert, lead singer Bono stood in a spotlight on stage and asked the audience of 30,000 for complete silence.

Gradually the auditorium fell quiet.

Then Bono began slowly clapping.

The audience was spellbound. Was this the beginning of a song? Did he want everyone to clap with him?

He took the microphone and said: "Everytime I clap my hands a child dies in Africa."

The spell of silence was broken when a wag in the front row shouted: "Well, stop clapping."

I was unable to copy and paste the "Update" on the Snopes Bono article, where -- down the page -- it refers to Hillary Clinton and then Barack Obama, but it is easily found by following the link in this sentence.

I guess any political figure is vulnerable to jokes such as these, but they have a way of turning my sympathies even farther towards my chosen candidate.

*****

I was able to change my bedding the other night for the first time since injuring my arm. (There was a time when even pulling the covers up at night was impossible with the right arm; it just hurt too much.) As usual, I had my helper, Silver, who attacked the sheets as I put them on. Here he is with the top sheet, which he has just bunched up:



My Flickr friend Cynthia (Philosopher Queen) commented on what a darling expression he has on his face here. I have to agree -- I think he looks awfully cute.

MICHAEL CLAYTONI watched

MICHAEL CLAYTON

I watched the psychological thriller, "Michael Clayton," starring George Clooney, last night. Unfortunately, closed captioning didn't work with it so I had to turn the volume way up in order to get what was happening. (It's amazing how much noise interference there is to the ears when munching on popcorn.) ;-) I especially enjoyed watching Clooney, however, as I have always liked him, starting when I saw him on Sisters (a TV show back in the 80's that I don't believe he lists on his resume due to its sentimental and temporary nature; it was a show which my late husband Steve hated).

In "Michael Clayton," Clooney's title character is up against some evil corporate forces in addition to concerns and problems of his own. He also has to deal with a colleague who appears to be falling apart mentally. I won't say a whole lot more about the plot as I don't want to give it away. I recommend the movie highly, with the reminder that it is rated "R", likely for some language but I didn't find that overwhelmingly offensive as I did in "A Death at a Funeral." George Clooney continues to be nice eye candy, even for a little old lady like me. ;-)

*****

Hillary Clinton was in Oregon yesterday. I didn't rush out to Hillsboro (a Portland suburb) to greet her. I did watch some of the telecast of her speech there. I didn't hear anything new.

On CNN, there was also a broadcast of some of Barack Obama's recent speech in Pennsylvania. I still like Obama the best of the three prominent candidates, but I was concerned by the dollar figure he gave as the cost of one of his campaign promises. (Unfortunately, I don't remember which one.) I believe our government is in enough staggering debt as it is.

I also saw a Soledad O'Brian interview with Mitt Romney (on CNN again) a couple of days ago where Soledad asked Romney about whether John McCain will have enough money to run a long-term campaign. Romney was very definite in saying that McCain surely will have the money he needs; it made me wonder what Romney knows that I don't know. ;-) I won't be surprised if Romney is picked as McCain's running mate. I did appreciate Romney's refusal to say anything regarding the Obama/Rev. Jeremiah Wright issue except that he takes Obama at his word in distancing himself from Rev. Wright. He repeated that twice, with quite a bit of emphasis.

This catches me up on political thought, and I am hoping these thoughts last me for a while. ;-)

*****

On another subject, Jeff did get my lawn mowed the other day and it is lovely to go outside and smell the aroma of cut grass. It reminds me of what my late husband's mother Lola, who passed away in 1980, said were her two favorite things in the world: a fresh haircut on a man and newly mowed lawn.

TODAY, AUSSIE TIME, IS

TODAY, AUSSIE TIME, IS LYNNE'S DAY!

It is my privilege to know and to write here about another remarkable woman, Lynne, who is an Aussie who has touched my life in very special ways. I have referred to her before because she sends me the fun Ziggy cartoons, and I well know her enjoyable sense of humor. Today I am devoting much of my blog entry to her, because since it is the 29th there, she will be getting up in a while and then readying herself for a ceremony that symbolizes a great accomplishment: graduating with her Bachelor's Degree in Theology. She talks about this in a blog entry that is eloquent and beautiful, which I could never paraphrase, so I would hope you will go to the link at the beginning of this sentence to read what she has said about attaining this honor and what has motivated her to do so.

Have a wonderful day, Lynne!

*****

The Ziggy is funny to me because it has seemed like there was a Starbucks on almost every other corner in the big cities. Even in my small town, there is a Starbucks store in a strip mall and then just across the parking lot from it, there is a Starbucks bar in the Fred Meyers superstore so you can get a latte while you shop, if you so desire. I have heard that Starbucks was having some trouble but I'm not sure exactly what that is. Perhaps over-expansion?

*****

I heard the funniest line on CNN last night, and I wish I knew exactly who to attribute it to, but it was from one of several panel members who were, I believe, on Anderson Cooper 360, although Larry King had a similar discussion. Because I have to be so vague about it, I will just paraphrase the person, who said -- in essence -- that Hillary Clinton's comment about Barack Obama where she said you couldn't pick your grandmother but you could choose your pastor (referring to the retired Rev. Jeremiah White) could also be turned back to her, saying that, yes, you couldn't pick your grandmother but you could your pastor and your husband. The person making this comment elaborated that Clinton chose to stay with her husband despite the obvious problems he has had, while Obama chose to be loyal in some ways to his former pastor.

*****

I want to get this posted before too much more time elapses and then go downstairs to see if my sleepiness will produce much of a nap today, which hasn't happened in the last couple of days.