What’s the matter with Sean Penn? I wouldn’t throw him out of bed for eating crackers!

I’m trying to think who they can get instead of Coulter. Dana Carvey? Too Canadian. However, he’s got the adam’s apple.

His brain must have been damaged by that Russian hat he insists on wearing in the house. Oh, crap, that’s his hair!

Ok, so let me get my head around this … Hostage situation has positive outcome for US citizen carried out by US military, while the commander-in-chief is Barack Obama, whom Rush Limbaugh hates and "wants to fail." So in order to cast the success as a failure, Limbaugh resorts to hypothetical circumstances. How the hell does he know what President Obama WOULD done? How does he know what President Obama DID or DIDN’T know in the first place? Whose side is Limbaugh on, anyway? (I know; his own.)

Does he wish the president had known the pirates were "Muslim teenagers" and would have sailed out to them himself to read the Koran with them and persuade them to free their captive?

Quote: "The story is out, I don’t know if it’s true or not, but . . ." that won’t stop you from running your fat mouth, will it, Rush?

What drugs is Limbaugh taking NOW?

And am I the only one with a headache?

Thanks, Beth; I haven’t been on in a few days. Kind words are always welcome!

Have any of you heard of or read a book by a Nevada MD named Mel Pohl, called A Day Without Pain?

Disclaimer; I work for the company that publishes ADWP (Central Recovery Press, LV, NV); however, that doesn’t make it a less-valuable resource. I felt I had to comment on this post because I’m working on a guide to the book today, and just switched over to wowowow for a "mind-break" in late afternoon, and ADWP was on my mind, and there was the topic on the front page! What a coincidence!

ADWP as a lot of great info on alternative therapies and mind-body work, as well as strategies to make use of the principles of twelve-step recovery to help chronic pain sufferers deal with the powerlessness, unmanageability, hopelessness and isolation of the condition, replacing them with the spiritual principles of surrender, hope, commitment, honesty, etc.

Sounded like a radical approach to me, but after reading the book, it made sense. Considering that the chronic pain epidemic has fueled the opioid-painkiller addiction plaguing our country, alternatives like those in this book are more and more attractive, for those with "simple" chronic pain, those with chronic pain who have become addicted to opioid painkillers or who are experiencing opioid-induced hyperalgesia, or those who are already in twelve-step recovery who have developed a chronic pain condition, and now must make a choice between their clean time/sobriety, or their pain.

I think it’s a good book that’s easy to read and that could help many people.

O.M.G. Are YOU high? These two losers are doing what losers (particularly substance-abusing losers) do; trying to drag their normal, responsible friend down to their level so they can feel "normal." They don’t want her life sitting in front of them as evidence that they have a lot of growing up to do (maybe because they fear they’re not up to doing it!) They deserve sympathy and maybe prayer (!) but LW 1 is right to distance herself.

LW1 stated briefly and succinctly her goals, plans and accomplishments to provide context. I saw no pretension. There was no boasting or bragging. She deserves the good life she is working toward, and if her friends straighten out and live long enough, they’ll all find each other 25 years from now on the 2034 version of facebook.

With age comes wisdom; that’s why this is happening to you now.

I’m a believer. My sons are not. And my most vehemently atheistic son has a soul SO big, I think he just needs a big God to fill it up. Religions don’t provide this for him now; but I think someday that spirituality might.

This is not an original thought, I know, but I prefer some people’s atheism to other people’s piety. I think God probably does, too.

My former mother-in-law, a stay-at-home ’50s-type housewife, Great Depression survivor, and really rather remarkable woman, used to love what she called "my stories." Her numerous chores and household activities were scheduled around them, and when I lived downstairs from her during the years when my children were young and she cared for them while I went to work, she got my youngest son watching with her. I have a vivid memory of coming home from my first job as an English teacher and having him point out the various characters, such as "Wook and Wauwah," and "the evil miscweant, Viktor Kuwiakis." Swear. He said "evil miscweant."

The soaps framed my former mother-in-law’s existence, and provided a sense, if not a source, of continuity and a certain stability.

While I watched on and off for a while during these years, I could never get beyond the performances, which all seemed influenced by "the Giant Sequioia School of Wooden Acting," or the dialog, which was too heavily influenced by the need for each character to provide ongoing updates and exposition to ever approach naturalism.

The whole Luke-Laura storyline, with a woman who falls in love with her rapist, was just too offensive for words, yet it dominated the airwaves for years. Was that General Hospital? Or Another World?

I also remember that women could align themselves with one another based on the soaps they watched. Another World girls were definitely different from General Hospital girls. And the Guiding Light? Please! The "Mary Worth" of soaps!

But I think the thing I object most to about the soaps is their influence on the naming practices of Americans. Children today are walking around with names that sound cute and sexy, but are completely devoid of history, gravitas, or sense. But soap opera writers contrived them in the 70s and 80s, and the bearers of these names and their "offspring" populate our colleges, high schools and day care centers to this day!

I can’t wait to see Bruno; evidently Sacha Baron Cohen skewers the celebrity-adoption race with his own African child to whom he gives the "traditional" African name; O.J.