Well….it was a long day and I got a lot of work done yesterday but I fell asleep watching the b-ball game last night and that led to a very sore right shoulder this morning….so I should go get some ibuprofen to help that….and it is storming outside right now, which I normally like but storms when it is only 45 degrees is just not right….I do feel okay today even after going out with G for a couple and having one cocktail when I got back here….and the dreams were about races somewhere but the odd thing is that there was no human interaction at all even though there were crowds everywhere….not much to do today…I think I am going to make this a cleaning day…the fridge needs it desperately and the bathroom could use a going over, too…more later…
All posts by James DeVol
More shenanigans by Michigan Republicans…
Well…it must be nice for the relatives of the Michigan republicans these days when they can lose money, get sued, and then get a law passed that wipes out 2.4 million dollars in debt. If you haven’t heard, that is just what happened last week when Snyder signed into law a bill that relieved the brother of the house repub chair here, Bobby Schostak, of the 2.4 million dollar loss that the appeals court said he owed on a failed property in Traverse City. The gist of the story is that the Schostaks are wealthy developers here, and the younger Schostak signed a contract that said he would be personally responsible for losses on this property…when the economy tanked, he walked away from the property that was worth 2.4 million less than he owed on it, the bank sued, and all of the courts here said he owed the money. So, what does a connected republican do here in Michigan? As always, they change the rules and use crony capitalism to pass this law that retroactively immunizes the leader’s brother from the loss…wouldn’t you like to be able to do that with the house you are upside down on? It is a breach of the public trust for the repubs to cheat the system for personal gain…but, what else should you expect from these guys? After all they are the ones who raised taxes on workers so they could hand a 2 billion dollar tax cuts to the corporations that bought them the election….and it just goes on and on…geez….
One last thing…the bill was written by the Schostak brothers attorney…..
April 2nd
Well…it was a long day yesterday with losing at pool and then having a couple of cocktails last night so I feel a little slow today….it is a little difficult not having T to talk to while she is away…but I think I got over the hump last night and the rest of the week will be better….had a shifter problem on the bike yesterday but I think I may have it fixed..we’ll see when I get out later today…and I put the rear tire on backwards when I put the liners in so I may have to take that back apart later and switch it…..not much to do today…I do have some things to do around here and I am skipping the papers and coffee so I’ll get started after getting the workout in….I do have some chicken that needs to be cooked today so that will be something…more later…
April 1st
Well….it was another day off the bike yesterday since it was just too cold to go out without gloves etc. so I feel slow and lethargic today….and I know it’s not cocktails with only having one last night…I did go out to have one with K in the aft and it was good to see her…no dreams at all last night and I slept pretty crappy but that’s normal as you know…..okay, I need to make coffee and go out for the paper so I’m going to stop here and come back later….
I’m back for a few minutes and thought I’d get to what I normally do with these things….I did promise that I’d get to the nonsense going on in the Michigan legislature and I will later today but I’m not feeling it right now so I think I’ll do other things…not much to do today…I did get started on cleaning yesterday but the kitchen cleaner I bought has way too much bleach in it…I still smell it on my hands after a whole day of washing them and that is kind of bad….it was only two bucks so I guess I can just dump it…there are races on today which will make some good background noise for the day and I do hope to get out on the bike after 5 days off..oh, that reminds me, I should take some ibuprofen right now so the thirty miles won’t hurt as much…or maybe I’ll just do 15 to ease back into it….okay…that’s enough for now…it’s 9am and I’m already bored…and that does not bode well for a nice day…oh, well…
March 31st
Well…another night, another Wings loss and I am getting concerned that we are going to go out in the first round of the playoffs this year….the one plus of last night’s game was the new tv….even when it’s not in HD, the game looked really cool and I am getting the adjustments on the tv right so the picture really looks great…I could follow the puck and see the numbers on the sweaters for the first time in a long time and that was pretty cool….I am running late today but you know that is normal for the weekend….got a text from T that made me laugh yesterday….she was sitting on the ground in Atlanta (on a plane in first class), and at 10 in the morning was drinking a Mimosa on the way to her vacation in Costa Rica….I did have some dreams last night but they didn’t seem important, just a jumbled mess of bad plumbing and people I didn’t know…not much to do today…I do have to clean and I already have laundry going so that is a good start….got the tire liners on the bike yesterday and can’t wait to see if they affect the ride at all…it will be nice to be able to stop thinking about flats all the time….and the walking back pushing the bike is no fun…I do have one on more shenanigans going on here in Michigan for later so come on back…you’ll like it…
Oh, forgot to say happy birthday to Eric Clapton…67 years old this week…
It’s about the social contract…not healthcare…
Well…just another short one on the arguments that happened on the ACA in the Supreme Court and the fact that I think that people are missing the point of the whole thing….I can understand why some on the right don’t want to be “forced” to buy healthcare under the new law…but, how many of them are already forced to by the fear that a health problem will bankrupt them? What’s the difference between the two? How many of them have ever canceled their insurance in the name of freedom? You can probably count them on one hand. But, this whole argument has never been about healthcare to me….it is whether or not we we still have a social contract where we work for the common good of the society and where, sometimes, in that society we have to make compromises that will benefit the whole while placing a small burden on each of us as individuals. That is what the individual mandate is…a small burden for the majority of us that will help the 50 million people who can’t afford the peace of mind that comes with being insured….but, those on the right, including the debate audience that when asked about an uninsured person needing care to save his life and chorus sung out “let him die” are actively tearing down the social contract that has served this nation so well over the past 200 plus years….what kind of a country will we have left when those on the right get what they want…back to the days of “I’ve got mine, everyone else can go to hell” that prevailed in the early 20th century….I’m glad I’m getting older and won’t be around to see it if the right wins…geez…
More…but not politics…
Well….it’s been a morning of complete vegiosity and tv and I’m not proud of it…but things like that happen sometimes…I did have one observation that I did want to share…and it is kind of weird but fits my skewed view of the world and maybe yours, too….when I was watching the new flatscreen last night, one thing struck me as being somewhat incongruous….while watching the old tv, the box itself has some depth and made it easy to suspend disbelief when the picture had depth in it, too…but, with the new one…and it’s 2 inches of depth…I find it weirder to allow my brain to think that the 3-d effect is allowable…there just isn’t enough depth there…yep, I know, you’ve probably never thought of that…and you’ve never had a problem with it…but that is what makes me so strange…I just look at things differently…and I don’t really want to change…
It is the first Wings game on the new tv tonight…I hope I’m not disappointed…
March 30th
Well…it was a day yesterday but I didn’t do much with the cold and wind….I did get the tire liners for the bike and put the one in the back tire…will probably put the front one in this weekend and then I can stop thinking about getting a flat every time I’m out on the bike….I do feel a little excited with the Mega getting up to 560 million dollars and the cash value getting over 350 million…10 bucks to dream for the day is a pretty good deal….it was a cocktail night last night so I am feeling a little fuzzy this morning and I think I’ll stop here….T leaves for Costa Rica today and I am going to miss the many daily texts and the laughing….but I’ll live through it…more later…
The law and ACA…
Well…don’t know how long this one is going to be but I did want to comment on the supreme court and the ACA…aka Obamacare and the arguments that have been going on this week….one of the things that strikes me is how the conservatives have strayed from the traditional role of the court; deciding on whether a law is constitutional or not…with the questions that have come back from Alito et al…I can see the worst kind of judicial activism at work…where they are trying to set policy and write law when that is not their job, and I can see the ignorance of the roles of the three branches government that these conservative justices are showing. It is not their job to look at policy and implementation of laws and the effect of those policies, but that is what those on the right on the court have been doing during the arguments, usurping the traditional role of the legislative branch to write laws and placing themselves as equals to that lawmaking. We can see from the decisions that this court has made in Bush v. Gore, Citizens United, and now the ACA that the conservative justices feel they are only there to further the right-wing conservative agenda…ignoring precedent that reaches back to the founding of this nation for crass political advantage….now that we have seen this worst kind of judicial activism, it should make you realize that the court needs to be reformed…and the only way to do that is to re-elect Obama and hope that just one of the conservatives leaves the court so a justice who has respect for the law can replace him…geez…
March 29th
Well…it was an interesting day yesterday with finally getting the new tv….a 42 inch plasma that just overwhelms my living room but is still pretty cool to have….at least it doesn’t turn green like the old one…and I turned the tv off for the first time last night in months…the old one would really turn green in the morning if I shut it off…so I didn’t. Now I need to figure out how to get the old one that weighs about 80 pounds out to the trash…can you even put them in the trash? Don’t want to put mercury into the environment if I can help it….slept okay last night but no dreams to speak of and again, it was a no cocktail night so I feel pretty good today…but, T leaves for vacation and I’ll miss her like crazy…oh, said that yesterday, didn’t I? I do need to make the grocery run today and get back on the bike after three days off and my tire inserts should be here today so I can ride all summer without any flats…..I will be back for a long one later….