Friday, November 4, 2011

Welcome to the morning after.

NOVEMBER 6, 2011

BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND

The news as I see it and the views as I want them.

November 6 is … Saxophone Day and Marooned Without A Compass Day



Ross and Heather are married. I hope both sets of parents were able to instill a workable moral compass in the fabric of our children’s lives.



I did not really want to work too hard today. Below is an email I received from my brother. It is a fun read and many of you will have seen it before.

Stuff you didn't know you didn't know!

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Men can read smaller
print than women can; women can hear better.

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Coca-Cola was originally green.

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It is impossible to lick
your elbow.

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The State with the
highest percentage of people who walk to work:

Alaska

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The percentage of
Africa that is wilderness: 28%
(now get this...)

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The percentage of
North America that is wilderness: 38%

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The cost of raising
a medium-size dog to the age of eleven:

$ 16,400
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The average number
of people airborne over the U.S.
in any given hour:
61,000

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Intelligent people
have more zinc and copper in their hair..

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The first novel ever
written on a typewriter, Tom Sawyer.

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The San Francisco
Cable cars are the only mobile
National Monuments.
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Each king in a deck
of playing cards represents a great king from history:


Spades - King David

Hearts - Charlemagne

Clubs -Alexander, the Great

Diamonds - Julius Caesar
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111,111,111 x
111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987, 654,321

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If a statue in the park of a person on a horse
has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.
If the horse has one front leg in the air,
the person died because of wounds received in battle.
If the horsehas all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes

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Only two people
signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4,
John Hancock and Charles Thomson.
Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.
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Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?


A. Their birthplace
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Q. Most boat owners name their boats.
What is the most popular boat name requested?

A.
Obsession

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Q.. If you were to spell out numbers,
how far would you have to go until you
would find the letter 'A'?


A. One thousand
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Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes,
windshield wipers and laser printers have in common?

A. All were invented
by women.

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Q. What is the only
food that doesn't spoil?

A. Honey

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Q. Which day are there more collect calls
than any other day of the year?

A. Father's Day

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In Shakespeare's time,
mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes.
When you pulled on the ropes, the mattress tightened,
making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the
phrase...'Goodnight , sleep tight'

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It was the accepted
practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply
his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink.
Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month,
which we know today as the honeymoon.
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In English pubs, ale
is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England , when
customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them 'Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down.' . . .


It's where we get
the phrase 'mind your P's and Q's'

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Many years ago in
England , pub frequenters had a whistle baked
into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups.
When they needed a refill , they used the whistle to get some service. 'Wet your whistle' is the phrase inspired by this practice.
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At least 75% of
people who read this will try
to lick their elbow!
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YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING
IN 2011 when...

1. You accidentally
enter your PIN on the microwave.

2. You haven't
played solitaire with real cards in years.


3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers
to reach your family of three.

4. You e-mail the person who
works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch
with friends and family is that they
don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your
cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you
carry in thegroceries...

7. Every commercial on television
has a web site at the bot tom of the screen

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone,
which you didn't even have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and
you turn around to go and get it

10. You get up in the morning and go on line
before getting your coffee

11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )

12 You're reading this and
nodding and laughing.

13. Even worse, you know exactly
to whom you are going to forward this message.

14. You are too busy
to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list
.

~~~~~~~~~~~AND FINALLY~~~~~ ~~~~~~~


NOW your LAUGHING at yourself!
" Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused!" (Unknown Author)
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Go lick your elbow.



Just a couple of thoughts I had and you should too or at least think about.

BRUCE A. BRENNAN

DEKALB, IL 60115

COPYRIGHT 2011





VISIT ANY OF THE SITES LISTED FOR REVIEW, RESEARCH, ORDERING MY WRITING PRODUCTS OR TO CONTACT ME.













Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase any of my books. The books are interesting and inexpensive reads. My third book is now available. The title is Public EneMe?



www.barnesandnoble.com (do a quick search, Title, my name)

www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search.





Book Titles:



Holmes the Ripper



A Revengeful Mix of Short Fiction



Public EneMe?



"As a man begins to live more seriously within, he begins to live more simply without." - Ralph Waldo Emerson






Have a great life, Ross and Heather!

NOVEMBER 5, 2011

BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND

The news as I see it and the views as I want them.

November 5 is … Gunpowder Day



The next two days columns will be up early. I have pressing personal business to attend to. Read them all at once or read them on the day they are dated.



This might help once the Barbarians arrive.



Today, my middle child, youngest boy gets married. He is marrying a lovely young lady named Heather. She is a welcomed and beautiful addition to our family. This is the second wedding in 2011 for my children. Both boys are now on the road to happily ever after. One more child to go; are you reading this Hannah?



The explosive day is here, good luck and all my love.



As said by Ovid, "If you would marry suitably, marry your equal." To Ross and Heather, mission accomplished.



Just like horse racing and the Breeder’s Cup races being held today, some are sprints, short races to show the initial strength and speed of a horse. These races do not show-off the stamina of a horse.



A marriage is more like the longer races, similar to the Belmont or the Breeder’s Cup Marathon. The horses with the front leading speed that jump out of the gate using all their energy in the beginning usually fade towards the end.



A couple must learn to pace their love, acceptance, annoyances and emotions. Keeping things even will help insure you do not fade as the relationship gets longer. The finish line is not in sight at the beginning of your marriage. There is no reason to rush out of the gate looking for the wire.



Ross, being a lawyer, you should already know this but here it is. Marriage (or wedlock) is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found. Such a union, often formalized via a wedding ceremony, may also be called matrimony.



People marry for many reasons, including one or more of the following: legal, social, libidinal, emotional, economic, spiritual, and religious. These might include arranged marriages, family obligations, the legal establishment of a nuclear family unit, the legal protection of children and public declaration of commitment. The act of marriage usually creates normative or legal obligations between the individuals involved. In some societies these obligations also extend to certain family members of the married persons. Some cultures allow the dissolution of marriage through divorce or annulment.



Marriage is usually recognized by the state, a religious authority, or both. It is often viewed as a contract. Civil marriage is the legal concept of marriage as a governmental institution irrespective of religious affiliation, in accordance with marriage laws of the jurisdiction.



Currently, the institution of marriage is changing by rewriting laws and definitions. Like most social changes forced on the majority by the liberals, this will fail and fade into history. Things do not have to change just because we can change them. If it was good enough for the world until now, good enough for the WW II generation, the greatest generation and good enough for the biblical generation, it is good enough for me. Jesus never turned water into wine at a gay union.



Just a couple of thoughts I had and you should too or at least think about.

BRUCE A. BRENNAN

DEKALB, IL 60115

COPYRIGHT 2011





VISIT ANY OF THE SITES LISTED FOR REVIEW, RESEARCH, ORDERING MY WRITING PRODUCTS OR TO CONTACT ME.













Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase any of my books. The books are interesting and inexpensive reads. My third book is now available. The title is Public EneMe?



www.barnesandnoble.com (do a quick search, Title, my name)

www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search.





Book Titles:



Holmes the Ripper



A Revengeful Mix of Short Fiction



Public EneMe?





"One can acquire everything in solitude except character."


Occupy prison cells; it is time.

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND

The news as I see it and the views as I want them.

November 4 is … Waiting for the Barbarians Day



I do not know what you will do once they get to the gate but keep waiting.



Ross and Heather, to me and my wife you are so dear, tomorrow is the day, it is finally near.



What took the regulators a decade to notice this fraud and deceit if is as obvious as the government now claims it is. The federal government sued one of the nation's largest privately held mortgage brokers on Tuesday, saying its decade-long fraudulent lending practices cost the government hundreds of millions of dollars and forced thousands of American homeowners to lose their homes.

The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan sought unspecified damages and civil penalties and named as defendants Houston-based Allied Home Mortgage Corp., founder Jim Hodge and Jeanne Stell, the company's executive vice president and director of compliance.



According to the lawsuit, nearly 32 percent of the 112,324 home loans originated by Allied between Jan. 1, 2001, and the end of 2010 have defaulted, resulting in more than $834 million in insurance claims paid by HUD.

The lawsuit said the default rate climbed to "a staggering 55 percent" in 2006 and 2007, at the height of the housing boom, when the government paid $170 million to settle Allied's failed loans. It said an additional 2,509 loans are now in default and HUD could face $363 million more in claims.



We all remember the great Super Committee solution to a budget crisis the chickens that run Congress refuse to deal with. Both political parties kicked the can down the road to late November even after all of the leaders said they would deal with the problem and not merely move the deadline. Well, they lied again. The committee can pass a resolution that would move the November 23 deadline back a few weeks (or more, if necessary). That resolution, provided that seven of the 12 members agree to it, would be sent to Congress. Once there, it would be granted the same parliamentary benefits enjoyed by the recommendations the committee is supposed to produce -- meaning it can neither be amended nor filibustered.



This Congress, as several before it, is out of control. Members should be sued for breach of their fiduciary duty, Obama also.



The Occupy Wall Street movement is being taken over by militants, thugs and criminals. A protest that shut down the Port of Oakland to show the broadening reach of the Occupy Wall Street movement ended in violence when police in riot gear arrested dozens of protesters overnight who broke into a vacant building, shattered downtown windows, sprayed graffiti and set blazes along the way.

At least four protesters were hospitalized Thursday with various injuries, including one needing stitches after fighting with an officer, police said. Several officers were also injured but didn't need hospitalization.

"We go from having a peaceful movement to now just chaos," protester Monique Agnew, 40, said early Thursday.

Protesters also threw concrete chunks, metal pipes, lit roman candles and molotov cocktails, police said.

The far-flung movement of protesters challenging the world's economic systems and distribution of wealth has gained momentum in recent weeks, capturing the world's attention by shutting down one of the nation's busiest shipping ports toward the end of a daylong "general strike" that prompted solidarity rallies across the U.S.

Several thousands of people converged on the Port of Oakland, the nation's fifth-busiest harbor, in a nearly five-hour protest Wednesday, swarming the area and blocking exits and streets with illegally parked vehicles and hastily erected, chain-link fences afterward.

Port spokesman Isaac Kos-Read said evening operations had been "effectively shut down."

Who does this type of behavior help? People protesting because they do not have jobs and others have more assets than them do not gain momentum or sympathy by becoming violent, causing the people with jobs to lose their jobs or at least work and wages and attacking the police. As soon as a policeman gets seriously injured and the police respond by doing their job will garner bad press and retaliation on the protesters.

Just a couple of thoughts I had and you should too or at least think about.

BRUCE A. BRENNAN

DEKALB, IL 60115

COPYRIGHT 2011





VISIT ANY OF THE SITES LISTED FOR REVIEW, RESEARCH, ORDERING MY WRITING PRODUCTS OR TO CONTACT ME.













Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase any of my books. The books are interesting and inexpensive reads. My third book is now available. The title is Public EneMe?



www.barnesandnoble.com (do a quick search, Title, my name)

www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search.





Book Titles:



Holmes the Ripper



A Revengeful Mix of Short Fiction



Public EneMe?



"To live is like love, all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it." - Samuel Butler