THIS JUST IN!

I don't usually like to use internet stuff on the Blog, but my friend Tommy sent me this and I just needed to share it with you.

Proof That The World Is Nuts

In Lebanon , men are legally allowed to have sex with animals, but the animals must be female. Having sexual relations with a male animal is punishable by death.

(Like THAT makes sense.)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
In Bahrain , a male doctor may legally examine a woman's genitals, but is prohibited from looking directly at them during the examination. He may only see their reflection in a mirror.

(Do they look different reversed?)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Muslims are banned from looking at the genitals of a corpse. This also applies to undertakers. The sex organs of the deceased must be covered with a brick or piece of wood at all times.

(A brick?)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The penalty for masturbation in Indonesia is decapitation.

(Much worse than 'going blind!')
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

There are men in Guam ; whose full-time job is to travel the countryside and deflower young virgins, who pay them for the privilege of having sex for the first time
Reason: under Guam law, it is expressly forbidden for virgins to marry.

(Let's just think for a minute; is there

any job anywhere else in the world that even comes close to this?)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

In Hong Kong , a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her adulterous husband, but may only do so with her bare hands.
The husband's illicit lover, on the other hand, may be killed in any manner desired.

(Ah! Justice!)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool , England - but only in tropical fish stores.

(But of course!)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

In Cali , Colombia , a woman may only have sex with her husband, and the first time this happens, her mother must be in the room to witness the act.

(Makes one shudder at the thought.)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

In Santa Cruz , Bolivia , it is illegal for a man to have sex with a woman and her daughter at the same time.

(I presume this was a big enough problem that they had to pass this law?)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

In Maryland , it is illegal to sell condoms from vending machines with one exception: Prophylactics may be dispensed from a vending machine only 'in places where alcoholic beverages are sold for consumption on the premises.'

(Is this a great country or what?

Well, not as great as Guam !)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.

(Who volunteers for these tests?)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

(From drinking little bottles of?)

(Did our government pay for this research??)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Butterflies taste with their feet.

(Ah, geez.)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

(I know some people like that.)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Starfish don't have brains.

(I know some people like that, too.)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

And, the best for last?

Turtles can breathe through their butts.

(And I thought I had bad breath in the morning!)

Thank you all for reading this, if you need to reach me in the future I will be in Guam !

INTOLERANCE IS NOT A ONE WAY STREET!

Observation of the Day!

I thought it was an admirable choice that Barrack Obama ask Pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration. Obama stated that, although they disagree on several issues there was also common ground. To me it was a gesture of trying to bring the country closer together. The closing prayer will be offered by Reverend Joseph Lowry,who is at the other end of the political and religious spectrum. Obama has bookended his inauguration. Equal time

Rick Warren's statement

"I commend President-elect Obama for his courage to willingly take enormous heat from his base by inviting someone like me, with whom he doesn't agree on every issue, to offer the Invocation at his historic Inaugural ceremony.

Hopefully individuals passionately expressing opinions from the left and the right will recognize that both of us have shown a commitment to model civility in America.

The Bible admonishes us to pray for our leaders. I am honored by this opportunity to pray God's blessing on the office of the President and its current and future inhabitant, asking the Lord to provide wisdom to America's leaders during this critical time in our nation's history."

Obama's statement.

At a news conference in Chicago, Obama called himself a "fierce advocate for equality for gay and lesbian Americans" and said he will remain so as president. But he said it's important for people who disagree on social issues to work together.

"We're not going to agree on every single issue, but what we have to do is be able to create an atmosphere … where we can disagree without being disagreeable and then focus on those things that we hold in common as Americans," Obama said.

Compare those statements to the statement by the Green Party and other activists.

“Unless we make our anger known now, Mr. Obama will continue to betray gay people,” said Starlene Rankin, co-chair of the party’s Lavender Green Caucus (http://www.lavendergreens.us). “Barack Obama’s claim to be a ‘fierce advocate for equality’ is not credible when he chooses a pastor notorious for his ill-informed and slanderous opinions about homosexuality and vigorous support for Proposition 8.”

and

Gay rights groups say they are appalled at the selection of Warren, whose church is 22,000 strong. Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solomnese sent Obama a letter asking him to reconsider what they say is a show of "disrespect" and a "genuine blow" to the gay community.

The invitation to Warren has "tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place" at Obama's table, reads the letter.

"[W]e feel a deep level of disrespect when one of architects and promoters of an anti-gay agenda is given the prominence and the pulpit of your historic nomination," Solomnese wrote.Words in articles about the invitation say "Warren defends his selection" and "Obama defends his selection of Warren".

Why on earth should they have to defend an invitation. There was no call to defend Obama's selection of Reverend Lowry and outspoken gay rights supporter.

Whether you believe in Warren or Obama's position on the gay rights is actually immaterial. If Reverend Warren's beliefs are sincere, he has a right to those beliefs, as does Obama and the gay right advocates, but it is interesting that Obama's offer to recognize others that sincerely believe what they believe is attacked as a betrayal.

To me, this shows intolerance of the gays rights activists to any beliefs that are not there own. Intolerance is a one way street. Either agree my position or hit the highway. It is Warren and his believers who are more tolerant. I don't mean to say that there is not outrageous intolerance on the religious right. Some on the religious right attack Warren because he accepted the invitation. There is intolerance on both sides. Both add little to an inclusive America but hate and anger.

I commend Obama. I believe he has done the right thing.

In the immortal words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?"

Have a nice day!

Samuel C. Arnold

CRUSHED ICE!

From the Archives!

I was flipping channels the other day and came across a figuring skating program. To me ice shows have lost the glamour of the ones of my youth. Maybe it's just me. Ice shows now seem so gay, not that there's anything wrong with that. In the old days it was all about the star. Sonja Henie was such a star. I thought about a piece I wrote many years ago. I would like to share it with you.

Crushed Ice

Love really has nothing to do with wisdom or experience or logic. It is the prevailing breeze in the land of youth.

Rudolph Block (Bruno Lessing)

We all share in the unrequited love crush experiences of adolescence that play such integral roles in our coming of age. The commonality of all of these love affairs of the mind is that they are unattainable, not noticed by the objects of these squishy feelings in our stomachs, and, thankfully, are short lived. It’s the thought that counts. A first crush represents the embryonic stirrings of sexuality that often comes before we even understand the subject. Crushes are usually directed at a teacher, an athlete, a neighbor or an older boy or girl down the block. They go with all adolescent territories. My first crush was on Sonja Henie. “Who the hell was Sonja Henie?” You ask?

Sonja Henie was an Olympic and World figure skating champion and later a popular movie star from Oslo, Norway. She was simply the best amateur figure skater of her era, dominating every major world skating championship for more than ten years. To capitalize on the charisma of her beauty and skating talent, as well as her Olympic and motion picture fame, she formed the first exhibition ice show with full extravaganza, choreographed and star-driven audience impact. She knew there was an audience waiting for an ice spectacular -- and for her. She was right; they were waiting, and their wait was rewarded by the Sonja Henie Hollywood Ice Review.

I was about twelve years old when my parents took me to see the show at the Coliseum on the State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis. I was awed and excited by everything in the show, as was the rest of the enthusiastic audience. It had a full live orchestra with strings; whirling multi-colored spot lights; spectacular costumes; comedy acts that made us laugh at their antics and pratfalls; pairs of handsome couples, gliding and dancing as one; male and female featured solo skaters; chorus lines that started in the center of the ice with two skaters skating in a small circle and then joined by other skaters one by one attaching themselves to the rotating line of skating partners, as the line got longer and longer each skater had to skate faster and faster to catch up and finally came the last skater, usually the smallest, skating as fast as she could to catch the line and the cheers of the excited crowd; and, finally, the star of the show -- the adorable, sequined, bundle of blond energy with the beautiful dimpled smile -- Miss Sonja Henie. She made dramatic spot-lit entrances in beautiful costumes with white skates flashing to beautiful music and spun and waltzed and Hulaed her way into my young boy’s heart.

I thought Sonja and the rest of the young ladies in the cast were the most beautiful females I had ever laid my eyes on in my relatively short life. Maybe it was those great, long, shapely, athletic legs and those little skirts, so short you could see their underpants (well, that’s what it looked like to a boy my age); and the splits and spins that tickled my little boy’s fantasy, not to mention other things. The show was the most spectacular and exhilarating experience I had ever had in my life.

As we were leaving the building, with the warm glow of the show still fresh in our minds, Sonja came out on a balcony above us in a full length white fur cape and a sparkling tiara taking a final spot-lit bow to once more soak up the admiration and excitement of the thoroughly captivated crowd. Everyone stopped in their tracks to cheer and applaud, Sonja Henie -- the beautiful star of the show, and she was indeed a STAR in every sense of the word. It was an electric and spectacular end to a perfect evening.

I took the souvenir program home, clasped tightly in my moist little hands. It was a first class program with a maroon velvet-like cover and gold-tasseled binding. It contained stories and pictures of the supporting stars and acts and, of course, several glamour shots of my beautiful Sonja. I slept with the program and her picture under my pillow for weeks, looking at it every night before dropping off to sleep to dream of my beloved Sonja. My heart pined for the love of Sonja Henie.

I don’t know exactly when I lost my crush on Sonja. It went the way of most crushes, I suppose, other things got in the way -- like girls my own age. However, whenever I see a figure skater in her short skirt, long muscular legs and white skates, I think of the beautiful Sonja Henie; the first; the original; the star of stars; the queen of the ice; the queen of my heart.

As you might suspect, what you see on the movie screen or on the ice was not reality. I read her biography Queen of the Ice, Queen of the Shadows after writing most of this poignant tribute to Sonja and my first crush. I was crushed. The real Sonja, although at times could be a sweet person, was, for the most part of her adult show business life, a thrice married, hard-swearing, miserable, greedy, miserly, hard-to-get along with and work with, selfish, alcoholic, bitch of a human being. Real world and real people -- but that’s not what crushes are about. I will always love you, Sonja Henie.

Have a nice day!

Sammycarl

2009 ??????

Observation of the Day!

My first year of Looking for Nirvana is complete. I have enjoyed getting back to writing. I apologize for the poor performance during the last couple of months, but I was busy trying to stay alive. I promise I'll get back. I am still operating at about the 80% level, but feeling better everyday. I leave for California on January 12, and my winter will be over.

As we look ahead to 2009, I believe that things will get better. That is optimistic, I know, but have always believed in the concept 'This too will pass." Things are still unstable and bad things can happen, but I try to be positive.

I have been pondering a few thoughts on the state of the economy. This country has been brought to its knees by capitalism and socialism working together. The capitalist of Wall Street figured out how to leverage risky loans and make huge bonuses for there work. Bonuses beyond a reasonable amount. The risky loans were brought about by the socialist leaning left that felt everybody should have a home, and encouraged extending credit to those who didn't have any.

Now we bail out the Capatalist and in the mean time nationalize the some of the banking system. The taxpayers have equity staes. We put out $750B with little or no accountability. So some of the capitalistic financial sytem is no partially owed by the state.

Now everyone is lining up demanding a piece of the action. From state and local governments to the Vikings owner trying to get a new stadium. While all this is going the poor schlubs like us who played by the rules and are still playing by the rules are left to fend for ourselves.

Thank the greedy capitalist and thank the redistribution socialist. Together they have gone a long way in destroying America. Once the government gets into running businesses that they no nothing about we are doomed to second class world citizenship. Europe west.

Politicians are dangerous. I am optimistic on Obama. So far he has done the right things. I would hate to face what he is facing.

I question just how much debt we can take on a a nation. Of course to congress it doesn't seem to matter. It's not there money.

Have a nice day and let us pray for the best.

Samuel C. Arnold

LETS GET OUT OF 2008!

Lessons Learned!

Greetings from the dark side. I have not posted in quite a while due to a horrible two months healthwise. I won't bore you with all the detail, but as I turn 71 it makes me think about how we view our health and in particular my own. When we were young, it was a no-brainer. When you turn the last corner, it gets your attention.

I believe that in dealing with our health there is a spectrum of approachs ranging from denial to hypochondria. Being a stupid macho man, I am on the denial side, but have learned from experience to try to limit my denial. In 1982 I was definitely on the denial side. I was only forty-four, a little overweight, but a jogger. I did not have pain, but certainly felt that something was wrong that life changing afternoon. I remember sitting at my desk and thinking that I had never felt like this before. Must be the flu. I actually got on the company plane and went on a two day trip to introduce mozzarella sticks. I even took my running shoes. DENIAL! This doesn't happen to me. I am only forty-four and in good general health.

On the trip I kept thinking that if I could just eat something I would feel better, but I couldn't eat. In Atlanta the next morning I looked at my running shoes on the bed and thought maybe a run would make me feel better. Moving off my denial a little, I said to myself that that would be stupid. Thank God I took my own advice.

I did make a doctor's appointment from Philly. In my mind I knew something was not right. Must be the flu.

When I saw the doctor, he said it was probably the flu but wanted to do an EKG. He then said,"Sam, you have had a heart attack". Eight weeks of recovery led me to a angiogram and the discovery I had 95% blockage. They recommended coronary bypass and proceeded to a quintuple job.

It is interesting to note that my greatest career success came after all of this. I wasn't dead yet. In 1995 I got a sextuple bypass. That's a total of eleven grafts. I often refer to my heart as my McGyver heart. Juryrigged to make it work.

Of course in 2006 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. That wasn't supposed to happen. I am a heart disease man. However, getting my regular PSA identified it early and radiation killed it along with Richard (Dick) Johnson.

I had radiation because it was discovered that I could not take the anesthesia because of a heart anomaly. This led to the diagnosis that my heart was in a state of cardiomypathy (heart failure). Now that's more like it. No stinking cancer for me. The diagnosis was of no surprise.

After too many tests, my cardioligist determined that my extraction factor (EF) was 35%, when normal is 65%. 35% is the low point in considering a defribrillator implant. I decided against it. That brings me to November 2008.

The new Echocardiogram showed that in seven months the EF factor went from an estimated 35% to 30%. The doc and I had the defrib discussion once again. Since I still felt well, I chose to delay again. After thinking about it and reading my clinical report I decided to "Get ur done"!

Here is a portion of that report.

Mr. Arnold suffers from ischemic cardiomyopathy. He is about 26 years out from an anterior MI. We

actually have not done an EKG on him for many years so we got

one. Compared to 1995, his EKG shows sinus rhythm with the old

anterior septal MI. He has not developed a left bundle branch

block. His most recent echocardiogram shows perhaps further

deterioration in LV function. The end systolic dimension is up a

little bit as is the end diastolic. The estimated ejection

fraction is 30%. We once again discussed the possibility of a

defibrillator. He would not require resynchronization therapy

with functional class II symptoms, but I certainly think it

should be considered. He has really been reluctant to take this

step. Would like to continue to monitor this situation. We did

discuss it at length.

Well-nourished, well-developed older gentleman in no acutedistress.

The "older gentleman" part pissed me off. DENIAL!

I needed to stop denying. I am old in body, but damnit I am young of mind

On December 9, I had the surgery. It was easy, local and a one night stay.

Now after the implant, I wondered why get one. Of course the reason is if I have cardiac arrest the defribrillator with get her going again. But what happens then. Wait for the next incidence and finally die anyway. Something to ponder.

One week later I started with a cough. I felt worse and worse each day and was running a fever. My cough was so hard I thought my heart would come out.

After trying unsuccessfully to get an appointment with my doctor (that's a whole different story) I went to Urgent Care.

I told the doctor that I thought it was my age old bronchial infection once again. She gave me an antibiotic and sent me on my way. It got worse. I finally spoke to my Doctor's nurse and described what was going on. My sputum was a rust color. That meant blood, primarily because my blood thickness, went out of whack. She advised me to go to the emergency room. I told her I would go the next day. She insisted that I go immediately. After finally seeing a doctor, they diagnosed pneumonia. I guess I already knew in my mind what was coming. I had had pneumonia before. DENIAL/REALITY!

I spent the next three days in the hospital and got out on Christmas Eve. Nice Christmas!

I am on the mend. With all my issues, I have still felt good up until two weeks ago. I have found that having pneumonia makes you feel lousy. The implant is not even on my radar.

I guess my lesson in life is control your denial. It can happen to you. Listen to your body, but try not to think every little thing is a medical problem. That will drive you crazy. People who are in total denial are those men who don't go to the doctor for a prostate check because of (well you know) and women who don't do regular mammograms.

What I do know that I am a very lucky man. God's plan has given me twenty-six years of relatively good health and more success than I ever could have hoped.

2009 will be a better year.

Sam

EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE THEY GET IT RIGHT! I THINK?????

Observation of the Day!

This was my Capricorn horoscope for today, December 14.

If you let others know you can change for them, they'll ask you to do so. Consider whether deep down you really want to do things differently. Maybe what you really want is someone to accept you as you are.

Have a nice day!

Sam

I HATE "OLD" JOKES

Observation of the Day!

I'm glad I'm not old yet.

'OLD' IS WHEN...
Your sweetie says, 'Let's go upstairs
and make love,' and you answer,
'Pick one; I can't do both!'

I wish I were so lucky!

'OLD' IS WHEN...
Your friends compliment you
on your new alligator shoes
and you're barefoot.

Saves a lot of money on Alligator shoes !


'OLD' IS WHEN...
A sexy babe catches your fancy
and your pacemaker opens the garage door,

Getting a pacemaker tomorrow. Maybe I should disconnect the garage door!

'OLD' I S WHEN...
Going braless
pulls all the wrinkles out of your face.

Cheap face lift!

'OLD' IS WHEN...
You don't care where your spouse goes,
just as long as you don't have to go along.

Amen Brother!

'OLD' IS WHEN...
You are cautioned to slow down by the doctor

instead of by the police

Don't worry about the cops, you are already driving below the speed limit in the fast lane

'OLD' IS WHEN...
'Getting a little action'
means you don't need to take any fiber today.

That will be the day!

'OLD' IS WHEN...
'Getting lucky' means you find your car
in the parking lot.

Happened to me today!

'OLD' IS WHEN...
An 'all-nighter' means not getting up
to use the bathroom.

The DEPENDS work really well and save time.

AND

'OLD' IS WHEN...
You are not sure these are jokes?

JOKES? These were jokes????

Have a nice day!

Sammycarl