Friday, July 30

$445 billion deficit
Holy shit. I thought it was the Democrats who were the big spenders. Republicans control the White House and the Congress and have run up this deficit. Why is it when Democrats run a deficit the GOP screams that the end of the world is coming, but when they run the largest one-year deficit in the history of this country "it proves what they are trying to do is working."
#206 (04-55)
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Thursday, July 29

More on donuts
On July 26, (see below) I commented on the more than a 1,000 donut shops in Boston and asked how many were in other areas. Here are some edited replies I received:

Las Vegas – Thirty-one, enough for the locals and the 50,000 tourists here daily.

Virginia – I don’t drink coffee and I don’t eat donuts. Have to meet my friends on a park bench.

Boston – I visited Atlanta a few years ago and went out in the morning to fetch some donuts, a usual thing back home. An hour later, I returned to my worried friends empty-handed. No donut shops.

South Carolina - The South Strand Krispy Kreme has been here for years and a new Dunkin' opened this spring.  Murrells Inlet remains the "Seafood Capitol of South Carolina" but I guess this makes Garden City Beach the "Donut Capitol."


South Carolina – I like a Starbucks in Hanahan…us yokels like good coffee too.

South Carolina – Do Bostonians enjoy Krispy Kreme as much as people in other parts of the country do?

South Carolina – Does Columbia still have a Dunkin’s shop? A favorite of mine years ago when traveling with the kids and the high school band.

South Carolina – I went to Myrtle Beach recently and noted many Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donuts shops. I must have counted at least 20 and could not believe it.

South Carolina – Three in our area (North Charleston) closed…and you have to travel far to get a donut.  BTW: The Krispy Kreme shop on Rivers across from the Naval hospital was where they made all the donuts that the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, schools and different organizations sold to raise money.  It was a pretty good fund raiser! 

#205 (04-54) 
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Al Sharpton Impressive in DNC speech
Rev. Al Sharpton stirred up the crowd at the DNC Wednesday night with a spirited "our vote is not for sale" speech. Sharpton told the cheering crowd black Americans had been promised "40-acres and a mule" by Republicans and never got the 40-acres and never got the mule -"So we decided to ride this donkey (symbol of the Democratic Party) as far as it would take us."
#204 (04-53)
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Wednesday, July 28

Suicide in Russian Army
109 soldiers in the Russian Army have killed themselves in the first half of 2004, a rise of nearly 40% from last year. Every army suicide is investigated as a criminal case, since top brass themselves admit that a large portion of the suicides were driven to their drastic final step. Faced with violent hazing from their peers and indifference from their superiors, many young conscripts opt for suicide — the only choice they see when they feel their life has been destroyed.
#203 (04-52)
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Monday, July 26

Eat your heart out
There are at least 1,050 doughnut shops in Boston, one for every 5,750 residents, eight times the national average, according to The Wall Street Journal, (page 1, July 26, 2004).
#202 (04-51)
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Thursday, July 22

World War II Memorial and other sites
Over the past weekend I visited the World War II Memorial on the Mall in Washington and was touched to tears at the moment. The site is splendidly done, simple and dignified. The columns representing each state allow visitors to pause and think about the men and women from that state who served in the great conflict.  I and my wife were particularly surprised and pleased to find the columns for South Carolina and Massachusetts (my original state) were side by side. The four thousand stars, each representing 100 American men and women who died in the conflict are a sad reminder of the price of freedom.
I also visited the Library of Congress and saw the Bob Hope and Gershwin displays, as well as a selection of the cartoons of Ann Telnaes. In 2001, Ms. Telnaes became the second woman ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. Another stop was The National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles airport. The center currently houses more than 80 aircraft and 60 space artifacts. This will grow to more than 200 aircraft and 100 space artifacts as the ten story high building is more than adequate. Two of the many exhibits that overwhelm the visitor are the SR71 Blackbird and the Enola Gay. Two of the great airplanes of the twentieth century.
#201 (04-50) 
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Friday, July 9

The Twentieth Train

The spring of 1943 was a desperate time for Jews all over Europe. In Belgium, as elsewhere, the trains were carrying Jews to Auschwitz. This is a story told with simplicity of the courage of three men who, at the risk of their own lives, sought to rescue some of the victims. It is also the story of ordinary Belgium families - facing concentration camps and even death - who also rose to the occasion to prove once again that there are good people in this world. (The Twentieth Train, Marion Schreiber, Grove Press, New York, 2002, 308 pages, $25.00)
#200 (04-49)
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Thursday, July 8

Cheney's intelligence
Either Vice-President Dick Cheney is not as smart as some people think he is or he covered up for his drug-addicted doctor for years. According to reports in The Washington Post today, Cheney knew his internist was addicted to drugs yet continued to use him as part of his medical team. Is this a double standard, stupidity or what?
#199 (04-48)
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Tuesday, July 6

It's Edwards


At 8:27 this morning Presidential candidate John Kerry e-mailed me and said he had selected John Edwards as his running mate. The e-mail message was sent in advance of the public announcement to approximately one million supporters and contributors on the Kerry mail list. Onward to victory in November.
#198 (04-47)
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