Massachusetts’ Brooksby Village Featured in Globe Magazine
My mother-in-law had been telling me about the Globe reporter snooping around her retirement village known as Brooksby Village located in Peabody, Mass. Mine own fine husband hails from Peabody.
My suspicious antennae went up as the Globe is notoriously liberal.
“Are you sure it won’t be a hit piece?” I asked, concerned that this reporter was talking to everyone and taking lots of pictures.
“He seems really sincere,” my mother-in-law responded.
Indeed MIL quite enjoys her retirement years in Brooksby Village. It is, as described in the Globe article, a fine place, designed for the elderly that they are fed, entertained and generally happy in their twilight years.
The article was, in fact, even-handed. Which is not to say the blemishes of such a living situation are not pointed out. Along with the benefits as fair-handed reporting would have it.
I’ve copied a pic of the article, with my mother-in-law indicated by an arrow. She’ll have a cow. But hey, it’s the Internet. It’s my Blog. And yon fine readers might enjoy the perspective of the article.
Warning: Brooksby Village is not for the poor. If Social Security’s all you got, forget about it.
 Globe article on Brooksby Village HERE |
For Kaitlyn Mae
For who knows what her history books will say?
Just for perspective, came upon this compilation of Clinton era crimes/investigations and indictments.
Emphasize here, this is NOT speculation or wishful thinking. All of the below is documented.
Remember this when you hear the Lamestream yelp about that one pathetic lone indictment of Scooter Libby. For telling the damn truth!
CLINTON SCANDAL STATS COMPILED BY THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Originally published October 1998. Partially updated 9/21/00 Please send corrections and additions to THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW Some of the data has not been updated recently and thus understates conditions. In certain areas, such as anomalous deaths, we have used an extremely conservative count. It is important in considering these fatal incidents to bear in mind the following: (1) The fact that anomalies need to be investigated further carries no presumption of how a death actually occurred, only that there remain serious questions that require answers. (2) The possibility of foul play must be taken seriously in a major criminal conspiracy in which over two score individuals and firms have been convicted and over 100 witnesses have pled the Fifth Amendment or fled the country. (3) If foul play did occur in any of these cases, that fact by itself does not carry the presumption that the White House was involved. Given the footprints of organized crime, drug trade, foreign espionage, and intelligence agencies on the trail of the Clinton story, such a assumption would not be warranted. ADMINISTRATION RECORDS SET - The only president ever impeached on grounds of personal malfeasance - Most number of convictions and guilty pleas by friends and associates - Most number of cabinet officials to come under criminal investigation - Most number of witnesses to flee country or refuse to testify - Most number of witnesses to die suddenly - First president sued for sexual harassment. - First president accused of rape. - First first lady to come under criminal investigation - Largest criminal plea agreement in an illegal campaign contribution case - First president to establish a legal defense fund. - Greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions - Greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions from abroad HISTORICAL CONTEXT - Number of independent counsel inquiries since the 1978 law was passed: 19 - Number that have produced indictments: 7 - Number that produced more convictions than the Starr investigation: 1 - Median length of investigations that have led to convictions: 44 months - Length of Starr-Ray investigation (7/00): 67 months. - Number of Starr-Ray investigation convictions to date (including one governor, one associate attorney general and two Clinton business partners): 15 - Median cost per Starr investigation conviction: $3.5 million as of 3/00 - Total cost of the Starr investigation (3/00) $52 million - Total cost of the Iran-Contra investigation: $48.5 million - Total cost to taxpayers of the Madison Guarantee failure: $73 million - Number of Clinton cabinet members who came under criminal investigation: 5 - Number of Reagan cabinet members who came under criminal investigation: 4 - Number of top officials jailed in the Teapot Dome Scandal: 3 CRIME STATS - Number of individuals and businesses associated with the Clinton machine who have been convicted of or pleaded guilty to crimes: 47 - Number of these convictions during Clinton's presidency: 33 - Number of indictments/misdemeanor charges: 61 - Number of imprisonments: 14 - Number of congressional witnesses who have pled the 5th Amendment, fled the country to avoid testifying, or (in the case of foreign witnesses) refused to be interviewed: 124 CAMPAIGN FINANCE INVESTIGATION - As of June 2000, the Justice Department listed 25 people indicted and 19 convicted because of the 1996 Clinton-Gore fundraising scandals. - According to the House Committee on Government Reform in September 2000, 79 House and Senate witnesses asserted the Fifth Amendment in the course of investigations into Gore's last fundraising campaign. [These figures are included in the larger figures elsewhere]. -James Riady entered a plea agreement to pay an $8.5 million fine for campaign finance crimes. This was a record under campaign finance laws. STARR INVESTIGATION - Number of Starr-Ray investigation convictions or guilty pleas to date (including one governor, one associate attorney general and two Clinton business partners): 15 - Number of Clinton Cabinet members who came under criminal investigation: 5 - Number of Reagan cabinet members who came under criminal investigation: 4 - Number of top officials jailed in the Teapot Dome Scandal: 3 SMALTZ INVESTIGATION - Guilty pleas and convictions obtained by Donald Smaltz in cases involving charges of bribery and fraud against former Agriculture Secretary Espy and associated individuals and businesses: 15 - Acquitted or overturned cases (including Espy): 6 - Fines and penalties assessed: $11.5 million - Cost of investigation: $22.2 million through 9/99 - Amount Tyson Food paid in fines and court costs: $6 million - Amount Tyson Food still has in annual government contracts: $200 million - Reasons individuals other than Espy were convicted or pled guilty: Concealing knowledge of gifts to Espy and his girlfriend (1), providing illegal gratuities to Espy(4), illegally supplementing the salary of a government official (2), concealing receipt of illegal funds on behalf of Espy (1) (Espy's chief of staff sentenced to prison in this case) CRIMES FOR WHICH CONVICTIONS HAVE BEEN OBTAINED Drug trafficking (3), racketeering, extortion, bribery(4), tax evasion, kickbacks, embezzlement (2), fraud (12), conspiracy (5), fraudulent loans, illegal gifts(1), illegal campaign contributions(5), money laundering (6) POSSIBLE CRIMES AND SUSPICIOUS MATTERS INVESTIGATED BY SPECIAL PROSECUTORS, CONGRESS, AND/OR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS Bank and mail fraud, violations of campaign finance laws, illegal foreign campaign funding, improper exports of sensitive technology, physical violence and threats of violence, solicitation of perjury, intimidation of witnesses, bribery of witnesses, attempted intimidation of prosecutors, perjury before congressional committees, lying in statements to federal investigators and regulatory officials, flight of witnesses, obstruction of justice, bribery of cabinet members, real estate fraud, tax fraud, drug trafficking, failure to investigate drug trafficking, bribery of state officials, use of state police for personal purposes, exchange of promotions or benefits for sexual favors, using state police to provide false court testimony, laundering of drug money through a state agency, false reports by medical examiners and others investigating suspicious deaths, the firing of the RTC and FBI director when these agencies were investigating Clinton and his associates, failure to conduct autopsies in suspicious deaths, providing jobs in return for silence by witnesses, drug abuse, illegal acquisition and use of 900 FBI files, illegal futures trading, murder, sexual abuse of employees, false testimony before a federal judge, shredding of documents, withholding and concealment of subpoenaed documents, fabricated charges against (and improper firing of) White House employees, as well as providing access to the White House to drug traffickers, foreign agents and participants in organized crime.  UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENA - FBI files misappropriated by the White House: c. 900 - Estimated number of witnesses quoted in FBI files misappropriated by the White House: 18,000 - Number of witnesses who developed medical problems at critical points in Clinton scandals investigation (Tucker, Hale, both McDougals, Lindsey): 5 - Problem areas listed in a memo by Clinton's own lawyer in preparation for the president's defense: 40 - Number of witnesses and critics of Clinton subjected to IRS audit: 45 - Number of names placed in a White House secret database without the knowledge of those named: c. 200,000 - Number of persons involved with Clinton who have been beaten up: 2 - Number of women involved with Clinton who claim to have been physically threatened (Sally Perdue, Gennifer Flowers, Kathleen Willey, Linda Tripp, Elizabeth Ward Gracen): 5 - Number of men involved in the Clinton scandals who have been beaten up or claimed to have been intimidated: 10 ARKANSAS SUDDEN DEATH SYNDROME - Number of persons in the Clinton machine orbit who are alleged to have committed suicide: 9 - Number known to have been murdered: 12 - Number who died in plane crashes: 6 - Number who died in single car automobile accidents: 3 - Number killed during Waco massacre: 4 - Number of one-person sking fatalities: 1 - Number of key witnesses who have died of heart attacks while in federal custody under questionable circumstances: 1 - Number of medications being taken by Jim McDougal at the time he was placed in solitary confinement shortly before his death: 12 - Number of unexplained deaths: 4 - Total suspicious deaths: 46 - Number of northern Mafia killings during peak years of 1968-78: 30 - Number of Dixie Mafia killings during same period: 156 ARKANSAS ALZHEIMER'S - Number of times Hillary Clinton said "I don't recall" or its equivalent in a statement to a House investigating committee: 50 - Number of paragraphs in this statement: 42 - Number of times Bill Clinton said "I don't recall" or its equivalent in the released portions of the his testimony on Paula Jones: 271 - Total number of facts or events not recalled before official bodies by Bill Kennedy, Harold Ickes, Ricki Seidman, Bruce Lindsey, Bill Burton, Mark Gearan, Mack McLarty, Neil Eggleston, John Podesta, Jennifer O'Connor, Dwight Holton, Patsy Thomasson, Jeff Eller, Beth Nolan, Cliff Sloan, Bernard Nussbaum, George Stephanopoulous, Roy Neel, Rahm Emanuel, Maggie Williams, David Tarbell, Susan Thomases, Webster Hubbell, Roger Altman, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton: 6,125 - Average occurrence of memory lapse by top administration figures while before official bodies: 235 ARKANSAS MONEY MANAGEMENT - Amount of an alleged electronic transfer from the Arkansas Development Financial Authority to a bank in the Cayman Islands during 1980s: $50 million - Grand Cayman's population: 18,000 - Number of commercial banks: 570 - Number of bank regulators: 1 - Amount Arkansas state pension fund invested in high-risk repos in the mid-80s in one purchase in April 1985: $52 million through the Worthen Bank. - Number of days thereafter that the state's brokerage firm went belly up: 3 - Amount Arkansas pension fund dropped overnight as a result: 15% - Percent of Worthen bank that Mochtar Riady bought over the next four months to bail out the bank and the then governor, Bill Clinton: 40%. - Percent of purchasers from the Clintons and McDougals of resort lots who lost the land because of the sleazy financing provisions: over 50% THE MEDIA - Number of journalists covering Whitewater who have been fired, transferred off the beat, resigned or otherwise gotten into trouble because of their work on the scandals (Doug Frantz, Jim Wooten, Richard Behar, Christopher Ruddy, Michael Isikoff, David Eisenstadt, Yinh Chan, Jonathan Broder, James R. Norman, Zoh Hieronimus): 10 FRIENDS OF BILL - Number of times John Huang took the 5th Amendment in answer to questions during a Judicial Watch deposition: 1,000 - Visits made to the White House by investigation subjects Johnny Chung, James Riady, John Huang, and Charlie Trie. 160 - Number of campaign contributors who got overnights at the White House in the two years before the 1996 election: 577 - Number of members of Thomas Boggs's law firm who have held top positions in the Clinton administration. 18 - Number of times John Huang was briefed by CIA: 37 - Number of calls Huang made from Commerce Department to Lippo banks: 261 - Number of intelligence reports Huang read while at Commerce: 500 POLITICAL FALL-OUT - According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Democrats held a 1,542 seat lead in the state bodies in 1990. As of November 2000 that lead had shrunk to 288. That's a loss of over 1,200 state legislative seats, nearly all of them under Clinton. Across the US, the Democrats controlled only 65 more state senate seats than the Republicans. Further, in 1992, the Democrats controlled 17 more state legislatures than the Republicans. After November, the Republicans control one more than the Democrats. Not only was this a loss of 9 legislatures under Clinton, but it was the first time since 1954 that the GOP had controlled more state legislatures than the Democrats (they tied in 1968). Here's what happened to the Democrats under Clinton: - GOP seats gained in House since Clinton became president: 48 - GOP seats gained in Senate since Clinton became president: 8 - GOP governorships gained since Clinton became president: 11 - GOP state legislative seats gained since Clinton became president: 1,254 as of 1998 - State legislatures taken over by GOP since Clinton became president: 9 - Democrat officeholders who have become Republicans since Clinton became president: 439 as of 1998 - Republican officeholders who have become Democrats since Clinton became president: 3 |
Rumsfeld and the Avian Flu
Interesting tidbit.
First, my daughter thought it was THERAflu that might help block the avian flu. Record set straight, it is Tamiflu and you can’t buy it at Happy Harry’s.
The Rumsfeld connection, I dunno. Just interesting.
The drug company that created Tamiflu - being touted as the only effective weapon against the spread of avian flu - has a little-publicized link to the Bush administration: Donald Rumsfeld was the company's chairman. Rumsfeld served as head of Gilead Sciences, Inc., from 1997 until he became Bush's secretary of defense in 2001. Gilead licensed the drug to Roche for marketing, and Roche announced Tamiflu's first approval in 1999. Now Tamiflu has been designated as the best drug available that can purportedly slow the spread of avian flu if it evolves the ability to readily jump between humans, and hundreds of millions of doses have been ordered around the world. Sales of Tamiflu are reportedly projected to reach $1.1 billion next year. |
California Moonbats Plan Ghoulish Veteran’s Day Ceremony
For California Moonbats interested in attending. Don’t forget…Maxine Waters will be speaking and reading names of the dead heros.
They make me ill.
Friday Nov 11 7:00 AM — Arlington West, the Iraq War memorial consisting of 2,000 crosses, (interspersed with crescents, and stars of David), will be set up at Santa Monica Beach in front of the main parking lot by the pier (and will remain displayed for three full days.) 11:00 AM Flag draped coffins representing the number of soldiers killed in the past week will be ceremonially installed & displayed at the front of the memorial. 1:00 PM — Reading of the names of the soldiers killed will start and continuing at the beginning of every hour for the remainder of the afternoon. A gong will sound with the reading and passing of each name. After several pages of names are read, Lance Corporal Jeff Key will play taps on the bugle. He will wear his dress marine blues and white gloves. 2:00 PM Maxine Waters is invited to speak and read names. 2:15 PM Santa Monica City Council members are invited to speak and read names. A gong will sound with the reading of each name. 3:00 PM — The Aztec dancers are invited to perform a dance in honor of Veterans Day and the Iraq War Memorial. Before dusk — a candle light vigil will begin. One thousand candles will illuminate a field of two thousand crosses and continue burning through the night. At dusk, Lance Corporal Jeff Key will play taps for the memorial. After dark a film projection of Bruce Royer’s film, A Line in the Sand, will screen outdoors on the wall of the pier next to the memorial. |
More Miscellany posts HERE
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The Glory of the Indoor Plants
They've been pruned and cleaned, tucked and shined. In all their glory, after a summer outdoors, the plants come in that a frost does not do them in.
There was, of course, that matter of the mouse living in the ivy. More on this later.
Above, for picture one, we have a collection of what had been itty-bitty plants that positively flourished with the summer sun. This collection includes a Chinese ivy and frankly I'm not sure what that colorful plant is. I think it's called a Croatan but I'm too lazy to look it up. She's a beaut though.
Number two, well I don't know what these are either. Quite a few of these plants have been grown from the living planter sent to us by husband's former employer, Sears, at the death of his father. Which has been since the mid-90's so these plants have quite a few year's growth in them. I call number two "elephant ears" and they are pretty, huh?
Number three is the ubiquitous Ficus tree. Which likes the sun and indeed, will be placed in the sunniest spot in the house. They drop their leaves like the dickens when moved from sun to no-sun.
Four is the ivy plant. Which looks a bit messy in the picture as all the drooping vines were placed on top for ease of transport. When set atop a high table with the vines allowed to drop down gracefully, it's a beautiful plant. THIS is the plant in which the mouse made his happening little home.
I got suspicious immediately when the cats all began to congregate around the plants the day they were brought inside. So okay, the cats think bringing in the plants to be a big deal for such as chewing, in the case of the ivy, the cats were showing an inordinate interest. I knew it was the mouse.
For this ivy plant lived a fine summer life on our front porch and at various times both dogs would show a strong interest in the plant. One day as I sat and listened to the water fountain, I noticed a mouse running across the resin border curving around my front porch garden. I pondered if this mouse, damn him, wasn't living in one of my plants.
And why not? The thing lives under a protective cover of ivy leaves. It is out of the elements what with being under cover on the front porch. It can get water anytime from the front garden fountain which runs endlessly from its electrical power. With but a quick trip out back to the deck, it has all the bird seed it wants.
Were I a mouse I'd do the same thing.
And I had to go and bring the thing inside. Although I did shake and kick the planter to, or so I thought, dislodge any errant rodents inside.
That night, five cats crouched down around the planter, their tails waving sinuously. I knew something was up.
The next day, husband goes to give the dogs their evening snack, a concoction of leftovers and a Milk bone they get just before their bedtime. I cover their snacks with pot lids. Husband lifts up the pot lid and boom. Well he doesn't exactly scream but he sure did jump.
"There's a mouse in the dogs' food," he shouts to me.
I am terrified of mice. There's a reason. We won't go there. But had I lifted that pot lid I would have went right through the roof like a rocket, head first. Husband wanted me to do something. I was paralyzed. The mouse ran off somewhere on the kitchen counter.
Which did, of course, make things work. "Get me something," husband shouts. I have no idea what he wants me to get and besides, like I say, I was paralyzed with fear. It's why I have so many cats. I choose to live my life without rodents thank you.
Husband then shouts and grabs a pot lid and evidently is chasing some rodent all around the kitchen counter. I'm thinking if he catches that thing I'm out of here. By me I'd have left the mouse alone and let the cats deal with it.
Although the little thing did manage to make it through one night with five cats all stalking about. It was probably desperate when it tried to make the move to the dogs' treat dishes. Trust me, mice in our abode are rare but hey, it happens. It doesn't take long for the cats to catch wind. Soon enough a mouse must drink and a mouse must eat. Just as soon as it comes out, the cats follow their natural instincts and mouse is history.
Only husband decides he wants to save the mouse from cat destruction, that man is not right. As for my assistance, he could forget it.
At some point the mouse made its way across the kitchen counter and back into his cherished ivy home. At which point the entire planter went back outside.
Where it still sits on the back deck. Whether the mouse is still inside we do not know. At some point husband will have to go snooping for the mouse and he better do it before the frost hits. That's fifteen years worth of ivy growth!
Above, number 5 is what I call the "low-light" plant. Number 6 is the Norfolk Island Pine, a specimen some twenty years old by now and almost as large as a real Christmas tree. Number seven is another montage of plants, to include snake plants now almost five feet tall, some bamboo and more Chinese ivy.
Number 8 is the rubber plant, also almost twenty years old.
Number 9 is the Christmas cactus and it's beginning its bloom. Around here we call it the Thanksgiving cactus as that is when it blooms. Number 10 shows a few of its buds up close.
Except for the ivy they are all ensconced in their winter spots. They don't grown as much in the winter but they do grow.
They give me cherished green when the winter world is grey.
More Gardens and Bird posts HERE
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A guy found a penguin and showed him to a policeman.
The policeman said, "Take that penguin to the zoo, now."
Next day the policeman sees the man with the penguin again.
The policeman stops the guy and says, "I told you yesterday to take the penguin to the Zoo, what on earth are you doing with the penguin in your truck again?"
The guy says, "What is there to do? Yesterday I took him
to the zoo and today I'm taking him to the movies."
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Once upon a time, there were two skunks named In and Out. When In was in, Out was out and when In was out, Out was in. One day, when Out was in and In was out, the mother skunk asked Out to find In and bring In in. So... he looked around the forest, found In, and brought In in. The mother skunk asked, "How did you find In so quickly?"
And he said, "In Stinks."
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More Fish Giggles HERE
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