Personal – Page 738 – Politics Plus

Open Thread – 10/4/2009

Posted by TomCat at 2:19 am Open Thread, Personal

Oct 042009

In the best laid plans of mice and men, I discovered that the backup software requires more space for the image file (made before writing it to DVD) than is available on my 2nd partition, so I’ll have to get a USB drive to use it, so instead of swapping disks all day as planned, I visited my whole blog roll. 🙂

That’s probably a good thing, since today is a holy day in the First Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, and I will be offline watching NFL games. I fully expect the Bronco’s winning streak to be severely threatened, since they are paying a quality team for the first time this year. Maybe they’ll surprise me, but I doubt it.

Today’s Jig Zone puzzle took me 6:56. To do it, Click Here. How did you do?

Here’s a new ad, confronting Boner Boehner’s bogus claim that he has met nobody who favors the public option.

Hat-Tip: Daily Kos

Perhaps he’s confused. There have been no family values scandals concerning him, because no matter how hard he tries to get into one, he has met nobody that favors the pubic option with him.

Here’s some humor.

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Cameron Cardow – Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com – Email this Cartoon

Sound off, and have a wonderful Sunday.

Open Thread – 10/3/2009

Posted by TomCat at 3:27 am Open Thread, Personal

Oct 032009

Today I have some great personal news to report. I received a finding from the Social Security Administration yesterday. After over two years of fighting, my SSDI disability appeal finally reached a judge. He reviewed it and determined that my case is so obvious that he ruled in my favor without requiring a hearing. It will probably be a couple months before I actually see any money, and I’ll still be very poor, but the abject poverty in which I have lived for three years, the times I have had to stretch one pork chop into four days of meals, will finally come to an end. In addition, I will get Medicare and will be able to attend to some pressing medical issues I have neglected for years, because I lack the ability to pay for the care. As overjoyed as I feel over this news, I can’t help but feel for the many thousands of people in the same boat. The SSA’s policy to deny so many obviously valid claims and to take so long dragging their feet before resolving them (I first applied in 2007.) is both unconscionable and responsible for tremendous suffering. This policy has existed for a long, long time, but Bush and the GOP exacerbated the problem by stripping the SSA of the employees who review such cases. I guess the GOP hoped that we would die quickly, making our claims moot. Sorry! I lasted!!

I’ll be offline most of the day, I think. My computer has a restore feature that, in the event of a failure will restore my system to the state when I bought it. However, I’ve made many changes since then, all of which would be lost. That utility will also back my computer up to DVDs to restore it to its present state, and I’m going to run that procedure today. I will probably be sitting here swapping disks for several hours. Have a great day!!

Today’s Jig Zone puzzle took me 4:55. To do it, Click Here. How did you do?

Here’s some humor for you.

Sound off!

Open Thread – 10/2/2009

Posted by TomCat at 1:57 am Open Thread, Personal

Oct 022009

Yesterday I tried to catch on visits after returning home, so the fur ball you may have noticed flying through your blog was me. I expect to be around most of today, and I’ll try to do better. Have a good one!

Today’s Jig Zone puzzle took me 5:48. To do it, Click Here. How did you do?

Here’s some wing-nuttery for your video pleasure.

Hat-Tip: Daily Kos

And here’s a bit of humor for the day.

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Pat Bagley – Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com – Email this Cartoon

What’s on your mind?

Open Thread – 10/1/2009

Posted by TomCat at 2:10 am Open Thread, Personal

Oct 012009

Welcome to a new month. I’ll be scarce again today, because I have an appointment this morning and a few chores to catch up. Please bear with me. I plan to change the poll today. I have an idea, but if there’s something you’d like, please comment. I won’t be sure for a few days, my lawyer called and told me that Social Security has my case listed as closed. He says that in that past that has meant they have reversed, knowing they would lose at the hearing. In short, I think I just won my SSDI appeal, although it may be some time before I get confirmation.

Today’s Jig Zone Puzzle took me 6:48. To do it, Click Here. How did you do?

Here’s a bit of humor.

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Nate Beeler – Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com – Email this Cartoon

Have a great day!

Open Thread – 9/29/2009

Posted by TomCat at 11:48 pm Open Thread, Personal

Sep 292009

I expect to be especially scarce today, so please don’t feel ignored. We’re having an extra-long session in the therapy group where I help watching and discussing a series of films on domestic violence. Since it is factor in the upbringing of so many men who subsequently become criminals, it is important for those who have suffered in this way to understand and come to terms with their past, in order to become good neighbors and productive members of the community. In any case, I’ll be gone most of the day, so I’ll fall behind in replying to comments and visiting blogs.

Today’s Jig Zone puzzle took me 4:41. To do it, Click Here. How did you do?

Here’s a bit of humor.

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Daryl Cagle – Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com – Email this Cartoon

Enjoy the day!!

Open Thread – 9/29/2009

Posted by TomCat at 1:22 am Open Thread, Personal

Sep 292009

I expect to be around most of the day and will keep catching up on blog visits.

Today’s Jig Zone puzzle took me 4:59 to complete. To try it, Click Here. How did you do?

And here’s some humor for the day.

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Pat Bagley – Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com – Email this Cartoon

It’s an open thread. Sound off, and have a fine day!

Open Thread – 9/28/2009

Posted by TomCat at 4:30 am Open Thread, Personal

Sep 282009

I expect to be around most of the day and catch up on answering comments and visiting blogs. I had a busy weekend fixing a database error on the 7th Step blog and getting the website back online. In addition I thoroughly enjoyed watching football, and actually got to see the Broncos play. If anyone had told me they would be 3-0 at this point, I would have questioned their sanity. But here it is.

Next, they play several quality opponents in a row, so I’d better enjoy this before it blows up in my face.

Today’s Jig Zone puzzle took me 7:11. To do it, Click Here. How did you do?

Have a great week and feel free to sound off.

Open Thread – 9/27/2009

Posted by TomCat at 3:59 am Open Thread, Personal

Sep 272009

I expect to be around all day, but I’ll be away from the computer for religious purposes for the First Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. That’s right, it’s NFL day. My gelded Broncos (impossibly 2-0) are playing the Raiders. Could there be another miracle?

There’s some bad news on the economic front. The labor department just released its July numbers. There are 14.5 million workers officially unemployed in the US. The real number is much worse, because the official statistics do not count millions more officially deemed “discouraged”, because their unemployment has expired. For all these workers there are only 2.4 million full time jobs available. This is the worst jobs:workers ratio ever recorded. This is the legacy of the only successful Bush/GOP undertaking: No Millionaire Left Behind. Let us hope that improves as the numbers are two months out of date, and because in a recovery, employment is the last thing to recover.

I completed today’s Jig Zone puzzle in 6:21. To do it, Click Here. How did you do?

Have a great weekend and feel free tro sound off here.

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PHP is a programming language used to build websites. We have it at all through our hosting partner, BlueHost. In order to update it, we have to go through Bluehost. During his life, TomCat was the only one who had access to our account there. I (JD) am now the only one. I have been to BlueHost and investigated updating our PHP to 8.3 or even to 8.1. I found instructions to do so - in fact, I found two conflicting sets of instructions. I went through one set of the steps and got the message that Our site could not handle 8.3, but that it had successfully updated to 8.1. I then went back here to see what it looked like. But I couldn't get in - either as an administrator or as a reader. It was just gone. I had to reach BlueHost by phone. It was determined that Politics Plus is in fact not compatible with any version of PHP newer than the one we have. BlueHost therefore uninstalled it for me, and the site came back to normal. Of course, like everyone else, I care about security. But I also am aware that TomCat elected to use different providers for several of the services that BlueHost provides, for instance backups. We are backed up daily - but not by BlueHost. However, out PHP is through Bluehost. I feel that if they are not worried about the older version, I am not going to worry about it. I believe that our security here is all or mostly through WordFence, whom I trust.