Cocktailhag, the blog

Recent items in the news: The commandant of the marine corps said a few days ago U.S. forces will likely be at the “war on terror,” or whatever it’s called now, for a bit longer, maybe another decade.  Or more. The marine leader’s remarks echo those by an obscure defense official overseeing undercover doo doo.  [...]

Prostitution in the old Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628-92), which then ran north into southern Maine and included the seaside town of Kennebunk (“So Close, Yet Worlds Away”), was a hanging offense. Times have changed however.  And so on Friday a state judge in Portland accepted a plea deal from alleged Zumba dance madam Alexis Wright [...]

“Gentlemen, we have run out of money.  It’s time to start thinking.” – Ernest Rutherford, British explorer – quoted sometime after 1910   Political analysts unaffiliated with The Onion suggested Monday that Silvio Berlusconi and upstart challenger Beppe Grillo may have enough votes between them to form a new, coalition government in Italy.  If this [...]

They’re everywhere – these little men. No tendentious description of the phenomenon is required, nor is a detailed and boring historical context necessary, since they (like the poor) “have always been with us.”   But the sudden “surge” of poseurs, fakers, demagogues, deadbeats, and crooks stands out right now, as our vaunted world economy teeter-totters, [...]

From the Oil Spill Commission (OSC), 10/28/10: “We have known for some time that the cement used to secure the production casing and isolate the hydrocarbon zone at the bottom of the Macondo well must have failed in some manner.  That cement should have prevented hydrocarbons from entering the well.” – snip – “We asked [...]

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0712/fox-legal-analyst-bush-indicted/

By Retired Military Patriot (RMP) Barack Obama knows that the U.S. highly discriminatory Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy is archaic, homophobic and morally wrong. Military organizations in Europe and around the world have long since dropped any pretense of believing that an open gay or lesbian in any way threatens the morale and welfare of [...]

At the time I wondered why I felt so emotional; why, just because Bush was going to start the second war of his tenure amid unanimous media cheerleading and the flimsiest of rationales for it, I felt as though a line had been crossed.  War had become the new national pastime, and all the king’s [...]

Barack Obama must be looking over his shoulder as he steps up and sets forth his war policy for Afghanistan. No, he doesn’t sound sure of himself and, despite donning his CIC chain mail for a speech at West Point, he may be be projecting weakness, just as Dick Cheney, our great, snarling former vice [...]

A good case can be made that U.S. legislators no longer represent their voters and that our two-party system is only one-party because not only do banks own Congress as my senator Dick Durbin so honestly said, but pay to play politics owns Congress on all legislative matters. Voters like me, learned in the 2008 [...]