Well…another night at home but I feel good this morning and didn’t spend any cash so that’s a good thing…shared the Michigan game with T yesterday by text and that was a hoot…made her pot roast recipe and just pigged out; I’m still on the eating more thing to try to get my metabolism running again and I think it may be working some…I have gained some weight but that’s okay since I’m not as tired as I was…waiting for the F1 race to start and have the coffee brewing along with the newspaper waiting…it’s kind of strange at this time of the day…with the possibilities of the day still making me smile and the energy tank filled even though my sleep was kind of crappy…up at 4:30 and back down again…not much to do today…no SF planned so I think those are about over…more changes but I am kind of numb to them now…especially since there’s not much more to change….
Oh, this is number 499…I will have the 500th post later today but I don’t know what it will be like…you’ll have to come back to see…more later…
Well…after the release of the new TSA screening processes, I feel heartened that there is a growing group of us that are saying enough. We do not need to be molested in the name of safety by a government agency that has become as much a terrorist organization as al-Queda. Well…that is a bit of hyperbole but these folks use fear to change peoples behavior just like the terrorists; the TSA continues to inflate the threat of attack to raise their budgets and consolidate power over the people. But, as I said earlier, the people are starting to revolt, they are starting to actually think and realize how much of their freedom they have given up…completely disproportionate to the chances of any danger to any traveler from the terrorists. I think this is the pendulum starting to swing back to the American values of toughness…and people are seeing that fear is no way to live their lives and want to challenge these cave-dwelling idiots that want to do us harm. I, for one, am completely willing to take increased risk to protect the values that made this country great..after all, life is a risk…you are 100 times more likely to die in a car accident than from a terrorist attack. Are you going to stop driving?
With the lessons of 9/11 still clear in our minds, I wouldn’t want to be a terrorist going up against a planeload of pissed off Americans…please government…let us take care of ourselves…geez…
Well… running a little late this morning since I’ve picked up the newspaper habit on Saturdays, too…and I’ve been getting a chuck roast going in the slow cooker using T’s wonderful recipe…tried one the last time with a bunch of shortcuts and it was not the same…so, I’ve just used the oven recipe line for line…we’ll see how it comes out later. It was a kind of weird looking morning when I went out to get the papers with a kind of hazy, foggy look to it…had to stand and just take it in for a minute which I’m sure just cemented my rep as the weird, crazy old guy…one that I don’t really mind because I am that guy. Stayed in last night to try to save some cash but I might go out for a while to watch some of the Wings game later…but I probably should just stay in since I have about 60 bucks left in my pocket with no prospects of making any for a while. Not much to do today..going to watch the Michigan game later and then just continue the cleanup here since it feels good to accomplish something…and I will have some topics for later…
Oh, and F1 qualifying is on right now so I’m gong to go back to the couch and watch…
Well….as you know, the “bipartisan” group on the deficit leaked some of it’s initial recommendations the other day and I had to laugh with the predictability of them…these idiots feel that all of the financial problems that this country faces now and in the future are the fault of people like you and me…the people that worked all their lives and expect that the commitments made to you and that you paid for through taxes be kept. They go on to state that all of the social safety nets that make this a civilized country (and that have already been shredded by the repubs) need to be reduced or eliminated or we will never reduce the deficits. They also propose that the retirement age be raised to 69 since people are living longer…but they neglect to quote the statistics that clearly show that the only increase in life expectancy is in the group of upper income people…those of us in the rest of the classes have seen life expectancy stay flat or even reduce over the past decade.
You can look at this any way you want, but I see this as just another repub tactic to give cover to their plan to continue the redistribution of wealth upwards…since there was no mention of raising taxes on the rich or corporations but cutting their taxes more..even though their tax burden is the lowest its been in more than 50 years. If you listened to any of the rhetoric coming from the right during the election (before they were silenced by their handlers) their true plans were clear…they want all of the safety nets gone..they feel they are “socialism” and trick people into not taking care of themselves.
When are we going to fight back against this nonsense? A society is not a winner-take-all proposition where the rich and powerful get all of the rewards that the economy has to offer…it is supposed to be an entity where we take care of each other and revel in the success of the least advantaged….geez…
Well…this is going to be short one…out with G last night and feel like crap…so I’m going back to the couch for a while to heal the wounds a little…more later…
Okay, I’m back after coffee and feel almost human again….spent a boatload of cash last night and now it looks like I’ll have to take the next week off from spending anything…but that’s okay since I have to continue to clean this place up and I bought enough food yesterday to get me through until late next week…but no more out until something breaks and I get some cash coming in. I may even see how long I can go without spending anything…except for my papers and coffee in the morning…can’t give up everything. And, that means you may get more of these since I’ll be here with not a lot to do.
Oh, I do want to say Happy Birthday to Neil Young who turns 65 today….keep it up Neil…your last album was great and I can’t wait for the next one! More later…
Well…I could do the easy one here and just make jokes about sister Sarah….since Alaska, that last bastion of individuality, and independence (if you don’t count that it is the biggest welfare state in the union) is in the middle of another attempt by the righties to steal an election. If you liked Bush v. Gore, you’ll love what ole Joe Miller has in mind for Alaska. Where did he go to law school anyway…Bob Jones University? As you know, ole Joe is irritated that since about 20 thousand people voted for him in the primary, he wasn’t just anointed as the new senator….earlier, when it looked like he may win the election..he was all about counting all the votes to make sure no one is disenfranchised. But, as with all of these pseudo patriots, when the system and the people reject them, there must be something wrong and they call in all the lawyers. They have even gone so far to cite Bush v. Gore as the precedent for the challenges…did they even read the decision? It is stated in Bush v. Gore that it can NEVER be used as precedent in any other case…and it only applies to the one-off of the 2000 election.
But this doesn’t matter to the righties…they hate frivolous lawsuits unless they can gain political advantage from them…all I can say to ole Joe is “man up” and admit that your crazy beliefs and only passing familiarity with the truth is what is costing you this election…not any conspiracy that you dream up in that addled brain of yours…
Well…a thought has been coming to me over the past couple of days…yep, just one…so it must be a big one, huh? I think it is…and I know I’ve been pushing reasonableness in politics, that there is always room for compromise…but I think I may have been wrong. When I see the chicanery that the repubs have been doing since the election, with the instant rejection of anything Obama, with no mention of the people that are hurting in this country…but just payback and investigations of the normal workings of any government…where were these guys when Cheney was letting the oil companies write energy legislation? But that is not the point, the point to me is that even though the election was a setback, we progressives need to say stop, that we have already moved way too far to the right..just for the look of compromise that the repubs never really cared about. So, we need to use the power that is left to us, frame the consequences of the repubs agenda better…so they want to repeal the healthcare law? So they want a tax increase on small businesses by eliminating the subsidies that are included in the law? Let’s shout it from the rooftops. So, they want to allow insurance companies to cancel your insurance when you get sick? Let’s take out billboards that shout that fact. So they want to allow big banks to bet the economy on their obscene profits again? Let’s make sure that everyone knows that is what they want to do. I know, I know…that’s not reasonableness but I think the term needs to be redefined…is it reasonable to let the extreme right-wing agenda ruin this country in the name of compromise…not in my world it’s not….
Well…I did get out on the bike and got to 2K today….but that’s not really the subject of this one…when I got to the top of the first climb and my water stop, there was a glimpse of the happiness that I’ve been missing…but it was like when your car is wet and you are trying to start it…it wants to start; it almost starts, then it sputters for a few seconds while you work the gas pedal trying to get it to catch, then no matter what you do it just sputters and sputters and then quits with a strange wheezing sound. The next time you try the battery starts to go dead and you feel in your stomach that it’s not going to start. That was my bike ride today…and it is so damn frustrating when you can start to feel the happiness a little but then, when you try to understand and keep it going, it’s just gone and you’re back where you were….and it seems like such a damn fine line that you just can’t get across…
Oh, well…at least I could see across the river for a few seconds….maybe it will come back later….
Well…today’s the day…I’ll get to 2,000 miles this afternoon and I don’t know if that really means anything…it does to me since what other goals do I have? It was nice to get the wreck cleaned up yesterday…oh, that was a goal, too I guess. Does everyone’s life get small as they get older? Not going to deal with that today…or maybe I will later…who knows? Up early again this morning and feel like I’m walking in concrete…and that’s not good when I have the grocery shopping to do and maybe out for a couple with K or G but that’s about it. I do need to get into the bag o books that I got from T but the Hulu thing has been taking up that time…the novelty is wearing off, though, and if the weather goes bad as it is supposed to do, I’ll have lots of time to read. Hmmm….I will have topics for later…not sure what yet but there has to be something in the 4 newspapers that I read…if not, what’s the point?
Well…I’m really glad the election is over but there was one thing (there was more than one thing but this is what I want to deal with right now) that disappointed me so much about the media and it’s reporting on the people and ideas that were part of it. It seems to me that this election was one of “narratives” that took on a life of their own and were aided by a lazy media that was all too eager to use this shorthand in lieu of real reporting. The greatest example of this lack of rigor was the theme that this was a change election and the people were revolting against the Obama Administration’s policies when that was only true on the right…the real reason for the change that happened was that we progressives were lazy getting out to vote and somewhat smug in the fact that we believed our message was the best one and needed no explanation. This, along with the shortcuts of the media, allowed the right to dominate the story of the election that continues even after the data is available to refute this bundle of lies and wishful thinking.
This lack of rigor on the part of the media was evident in the vetting of the candidates like Christine O’Donnell and Sharron Angle whose lack of qualifications were glossed over by the media who were only interested in being right in projecting the Republican “tidal wave” even though their job is to do the hard work and provide the unbiased information that the people need to make informed decisions. What happened to the story on O’Donnell’s reported income of only $9,000 for the past two years? I know it’s hard for me to live on significantly more than $4,500 a year and I have no expenses. But, this story would make people think and the media have the wrongheaded idea that people won’t understand or think…that everything has to be a soundbite. I, for one, want the various forms of media to go back to the era where the facts are just reported without the thoughts of what the impact of the facts are. These days, it’s all too common that people don’t have the guts to have “the chips fall where they may” and shed some light on the dark corners of politics that money and ideology don’t want known. I hope the media do better in the next one…or they can start today…that would be a good way to return them to the importance that the founders knew…geez…