Sleep Aids More Dangerous Than You May Know

Dry mouth, drowsiness, dizziness, headache, cold symptoms, abnormal thoughts and behavior including confusion, hallucinations, worsening depression, suicidal thoughts or actions, memory loss, anxiety, swelling of the tongue or throat, trouble breathing, nausea and vomiting. Can you guess from what?  No, not heroin. These are symptoms associated with the common sleep aid Lunesta.  I pulled them right off the Lunesta website.  And now, according to the latest study from a British Medical Journal, the side-effects list could legitimately include cancer and premature death.  Imagine getting a good night sleep, and awakening grasping for air with a swollen tongue, hallucinations and cancer.  Or imagine not waking up at all from a restful sleep. Quite a price to pay for a little insomnia.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’ll be asking my doctor if Lunesta is right for me.

 

Santorum: I AM AGAINST EVERYTHING

Former Senator Rick “Saint” Santorum is running on a very unique platform of being for virtually nothing and against damn near everything and everybody.  Let’s see, he’s against women, reproductive rights, sex, (except in extreme cases of marital procreation), birth control, gays, immigrants, college education for young people, regulations, clean air, unions, protestants, other Republicans, President Obama, Democrats, government, health care reform, the bailout of the auto industry, science, the separation of church and state, the 99%, the middle class, “the tired, the poor and the huddled masses” of the sonnet by Emma Lazurus for the Statue of Liberty.

What is St.Orum for anyway? 3 things:  a war with Iran, a theocracy to replace our democracy, and home schooling.  That’s pretty much it.

The GOP Has a Losing Message

As long as Republicans have control of a losing message courtesy of the far right and their Tea Party conspirators, President Obama has no need to campaign.  The President is also helped by the fact that the GOP has put up the weakest candidates in perhaps the history of presidential campaigns.  The original field was a joke, with the likes of Guv Rick Perry, the man who would put aviation assets on the ground to control the border and who encourages young people to vote when they turn 21.  And Pizza Guy Herman Cain who quoted Pokemon during his farewell address, and espoused the plan 999, like it was the prefix for a pizza takeout number.  One must not forget Michele Bachmann, or maybe one should, the Senator from Minnesota who lost badly in her home state of Iowa, and was around for too long pandering to the Tea Party.  And there were others and some still in it but with no chance like fig Newton “rich” Gingrich and Ron Paul, the man with two first names who has successfully passed 1 bill in his many years in Congress.   The two guys left standing are Rick Santorum, the former Senator from PA, the anti-birth control, anti-sex for any other purpose than to procreate activist who has surprisingly gained momentum among the GOP faithful, and catchers Mitt Romney, who stands tall for corporations and little else.

The candidates have tried to pounce on the President’s requirement that religious employers provide access to birth control.  They’ve called it an all out assault on religious freedom, the same folks who are dying to get Creationism taught alongside Evolution and would have praying as a regular school activity.   Their platform to date has been one based on attacking immigrants, the poor, the unemployed, gays, the middle class and women.   And it is they who attack religious freedom by insisting that there be no separation between church and state.

GOP, you have a losing message.  You are out of touch with “We the People” and with me, Ribbie the blogger.

Wheeler Dealers

Wheeler Dealers.  The show is about a couple of blokes from Brighton or wherever they’re from in England who buy old cars cheaply, fix them up and resell them for a very modest profit.  The show is a little like Wrecks to Riches and Desert Car Kings but with an accent.  Interesting accents at that.  Ed China, the 6’10 mechanic sounds like a proper mechanical engineer with a academic vocabulary and just the slightest of accents.  Mike, has a much grittier accent and is frankly, barely intelligible.  They pepper their speech with the oddest British vocabulary – saying things like, “it’s looking a bit tatty”.  “We’ll have that interiour looking smart in no time…just need a few more bits for the exteriour.”  They call the cars motors, and you’ll hear Mike saying, “that’s ‘quite the crackin mota,  just need to have the dings in the bonnet touched up and the dodgy engine sorted.”  Sorted seems to be Ed’s favourite word.

Have you noticed that poor Ed rarely leaves the garage or workshop as they call it, until Mike pulls up and honks with a new project. I’m left to wonder whether he can safely drive those small European cars with his nearly 7 foot frame.

As  Mike Brewer says at the end of the show, tarra, or ta da, or is it telah or salah?  As we say in my neck of the woods – whatehva.

Nissan Sales Surging Due to Stupid Car Names

Nissan is on a role.  Literally.  Sales are up and projections point to a more profitable year than Honda or Toyota.  What accounts for this success?  I have to say that I’m a little surprised.  I’ve owned Honda and Nissan cars and believe Honda makes a better car.  I never cared much for Toyota styling and have only driven them as rentals, never being terribly impressed with the ride.

My Nissan Sentra  with manual transmission was nice.  We drove it for about 8 years until it just fell apart at about 130K.  Anyway, I don’t think the Sentra accounts for the company’s success – no, I think it’s all the new cars in their lineup with silly names like the Juke, Rogue, Mirano, and one of my favorites, the Nissan Cube.  Incidentally, with the USPS running a billion or so deficit, I had recommended they replace their fleet of fuel inefficient delivery vehicles with the  Cube – they kind of look like mail trucks, don’t they? My suggestion has fallen on deaf ears, but I’d like to see a bunch of Cubes rolling around in neighborhoods across America.  The new mini SUV turbo charged Juke is said to be popular, but I’ve yet to see one on the road – not one.

Nissan is on the rise, but I am a little surprised.  I thought when they changed their name from Datsun to Nissan and discontinued the B-210, the automaker would collapse.  I called for the company to bring back the 40+mpg B-210.  They didn’t listen.  Now the B210 is the Versa.  What is a Versa anyway? And a Sentra, come on, they just made these names up, unless they mean something in Japanese.  It’s almost as if the company is mocking its customers, as if to say consumers are so dumb that the dumber the name, the more they’re inclined to drive one.  As the old slogan goes, “we are driven”, or taken for a ride as the case may be.