This Joy’s Life

Ok, so I’m falling in love all over again with the Humbug! blog and I just had to share this post which made me LOL. If I’d been drinking milk, it would have flown out my nose (shoutout: Suzannadu):

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I received an email earlier in the week from Dirk, recommending the following [Hell's Kitchen blog on how to win arguments]:

Use meaningless but weightly [sic] -sounding words and phrases.

Memorize this list: 
Let me put it this way 
In terms of 
Vis-a-vis 
Per se 
As it were 
Qua 
So to speak 

You should also memorize some Latin abbreviations such as “Q.E.D.,” “e.g.,” and “i.e.” These are all short for “I speak Latin, and you do not.” 

Here’s how to use these words and phrases. Suppose you want to say: “Peruvians would like to order appetizers more often, but they don’t have enough money.” 

You never win arguments talking like that. But you WILL win if you say: “Let me put it this way. In terms of appetizers vis-a-vis Peruvians qua Peruvians, they would like to order them more often, so to speak, but they do not have enough money per se, as it were. Q.E.D.” 

Only a fool would challenge that statement.

Indeed.

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LOL, right? That’s awesome. I think Miss South Carolina may have used the Hell’s Kitchen article to *help* her in the interview portion of the Miss Teen USA contest. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m happy to remind you:

Oh, it burns so good.

Because I need another pick me up . . .

And Clara loves to oblige . . .

Clara Slap Chop from Joy Fisher on Vimeo.

I find myself needing some inspiration today:

Susan Boyle – 40+ and never been kissed – on this year’s Britain’s Got Talent.

Clara: Look! I cleanin!

Me: That’s a great job your doing. I’m going to make you the Royal Duster.

Clara: Oh boy! That sounds like fun. Dad-dee, we’re going on a Roller Coaster!

*Thanks to Lorie on FB for bringing this to my attention.

Last night, my dad emailed me this video, which Clara and I have been watching over and over and over again! I think Clara has a new role model, someone she can really relate to in ‘ittle Connie Talbot:

Then, I had to see if she won the show for 2007 and she didn’t! I was surprised that someone could beat a 6 year old who can sing like THAT. So, I went on to find out who did win and fell in love with Paul Potts:

Did you see the way he was standing by the end! It’s Death of a Salesman meets Pavarotti! Two of my favorite things rolled into one Paul Potts. He’s gone on to make quite a name for himself in Brittan now.

Clara prefers to see the chidren, though, so I found Paul Pott’s mini-me in Andrew Johnston. Such an awesome story and wait ’til you hear what comes out of his mouth:

Finally, because Clara loves to dance so much, I found this boy for her. He’s George Sampson, who only made it through the first round in 2007:

Only to come back and win it in 2008 (Simon says, “Told you so”):

Dude. Britain’s GOT talent!

Really interesting TEDTalk on “the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend to honor most.”

If you’ve heard the talk about the earmarks in the stimulus package and it is as frustrating to you as it is me, check this out:

I love that Beck targeted both Democrats AND Republicans in this segment because even if you find yourself identifying with the politics of one side over the other, the “politics as usual” in Washington seem to be the only thing that’s truly bipartisan there.

So the stimulus started at 9,000 earmarks after Obama promised there would be none under his watch. I then heard Biden say in another interview that the stimulus package they passed now has “only 4000″ earmarks. 4000 = 0. That’s some interesting math right there. I hope the mosquito trapping earmark made it. Those mosquitoes are nasty buggers!

And speaking of mosquitoes, I just discovered this AWESOME thing called TEDTalks and watched my first one of Bill Gates talking about mosquitoes, malaria and education. You may have already heard about this because he released live mosquitoes into the audience. That Gates is one wild and crazy guy!

Had to share this article by Jubak on MSN Money because I’m certainly feeling as frustrated as Rick Santelli* by the, in the words of David Boze, “swindle-us” package.

Anyway, I thought this article stated exceptionally well why “helping” families avoid foreclosure isn’t really going to help us at all.  Here’s the excerpt if you don’t have time to read the article in it’s entirety:

Why does home value matter?
In introducing his plan, Obama rightly said that we’re all in this together. Helping families avoid foreclosure would prop up the value of every house in a neighborhood, so we all have an interest in keeping these people in their homes. That justifies the use of taxpayer money.

Or does it? Step back for a minute and think about the assumptions behind the president’s logic. They show the same mind-set that got us into this mess. If you saved for years, built up a big down payment and then bought a house you could afford, you’re not really thinking of a decline in the value of your house as an immediate problem. You intend to live there. It’s shelter. An asset for the long haul.

Propping up the price of your home in the here and now is important if you still think of your house as an ATM. Forking over tax dollars to prop up home prices in your neighborhood is worthwhile if you need a higher price so you can increase the size of your home equity line of credit to finance a lifestyle you couldn’t otherwise afford.

From the point of view of someone who sees a house as a place to live — and not as an ATM — that’s just nuts. And once you reject the president’s logic that spending taxpayer money like this helps us all, the plan starts to seem even more unfair to us chumps.

The administration’s plan to help 7 million to 9 million homeowners with unaffordable mortgages isn’t going to make any effort to separate the victims from the venal. I know the task of discriminating the real-estate sheep from the wolves in sheep’s clothing can be horrendously difficult, but let’s at least try before we spend taxpayer money. Some effort to detect fraud on the original application should be part of the plan, no?

*Here’s that above referenced Rick Santelli video if you haven’t already seen it:

The devil made me do it.

Look up pedantic in the dictionary and you’ll find this video.

Harry Reid is the Majority Leader in the U.S. Senate.