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.

DREAMS AND McDREAMYThis

DREAMS AND McDREAMY

This morning, in the early morning hours, I had a strange dream which I can't remember -- all I know was that it featured Michelle Pfeiffer. LOL! In mentioning this to online friends, one of them said she had recently dreamed about her apartment complex's maintenance man, while another friend said she had dreamed today while napping about a total mishmash of things, including the same former religion that I used to be. Dreams are so funny! Do you have any that you would share?

As for McDreamy -- Patrick Dempsey -- he was on "Live with Regis and Kelly" this morning but I didn't watch it because Regis and Kelly have been getting on my nerves lately. I get the impression that Regis doesn't like Kelly very well but that could be entirely my imagination. I'd rather watch Bobby Flay on "Boy Meets Grill." LOL!

*****

I've been hearing a lot of gloom and doom these days. If what is being said is true, I am more concerned for my children and grandchildren than I am for myself. Yesterday, I saw a quote several places that originated from NASA scientist James Hansen, where he told Congress that if we don't roll back pollutants in the atmosphere to 1988 levels, in a couple of decades, "We're toast . . ." Scary!

I believe that God will provide ways for us to solve these problems, but people -- especially big industrialists -- will have to co-operate with those that are given the wisdom to guide us.

*****

I received kind of a funny e-mail from the IRS today. It gave me the option of having my stimulus check deposited in my bank account if I filled out a form they included and sent it back. Hello! I received my stimulus check yesterday! Hmmm, I wonder if it really was from the IRS?!

Speaking of funny e-mails, one came through from my friend Jackie the other day showing what was purported to be the diamond-encrusted Mercedes of an oil-rich Arab. Something told me to check it out on Snopes and sure enough, that wasn't true. (If you want to look, just do a search under "diamond Mercedes.") I sent the information to Jackie and she wrote back to thank me, saying she wondered if it was possible to believe anything that she received any more. I told her that she was one of the ones who had taught me to check out everything online. ;-) (Son J.D. is another one, and also my old on- and offline friend, Linda.)

GUESS WHAT THE SNOPES VERDICT IS?!I received the following

GUESS WHAT THE SNOPES VERDICT IS?!

I received the following from a friend, who I will not name, today:

"and he wants to be president?

Can you hear me now!!!!!!!

This makes Bush Look Intelligent! We better all start Praying for Help!

Too funny not to pass along!



When you are faking a pose for a camera photo opportunity, at least you can get the phone turned in the right direction!
And he wants to be President??? ???























SHARP AS A BAG OF OATMEAL!"

Of course, as I support Barack Obama, this bothered me but it wasn't until tonight that I thought to look it up on Snopes.

Here is where you go to get the facts, as Snopes assures us that it is FALSE!!! (I was going to make a snide remark about wondering if my readers could guess which church she belongs to, but I will refrain from doing so.) ;-) She is a very sweet and kind lady but she has a blind spot when it comes to checking out forwards before she sends them on. I have asked her to let her mailing list know the above is false but I expect she may have too much pride to do that. It's unfortunate that such lies are being spread by otherwise-innocent people. Barack Obama doesn't deserve that.