All posts by James DeVol

Politics

Throttling back my dismay…

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Well…I know that some of these over the past month or so have been extremely strident and they have not lived up to my call for reasonableness in our political discourse. But, I’m human and seriously flawed so what did you expect? As I said a couple of days ago, I have to remember to not take this stuff so personally…but, if I do that, I won’t have anything to write about but flowers and puppies and I don’t think you’ll come back. It’s like taking antidepressants…yeah, they work, kinda, but the edges get taken off so you look like Iowa…really flat. So, I’m going to continue to rail about the things that are not right, that are not for the benefit of ALL of the people, not just the rich and powerful. And, one promise that I will make that none of the outlets and bloggers on the right will do, I will stick to the facts…there will never be any lies that will come out of this site, and if something good happens, I don’t care whose idea it is…if something gets this country moving again and proves me wrong in my opinions…I will freely admit it and tip my hat.

I only want one thing from the citizens of America…hold the new guys accountable this time…just as you have held Obama accountable (even if it is for things he didn’t do)…open your eyes and ears to the lies and really see when inequality is being sold as fairness and infringement of your rights is being sold as safety..after all, we are Americans, and we are tough and fair, let’s not let money scare us into voting against our own self interest. See you on the other side…of the election…

My Life

November 1st

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Well..another month starts and with the election coming, I just want to cover my head and sleep for the next two years. But that’s not for this part of the post….I’ve been sleeping pretty well while I’ve been sick but now that I’m starting to feel better, it’s back to the same old fitful stuff that is normal. Oh, well….I had hoped that a new pattern had emerged but it doesn’t look like it. There wasn’t a lot to do yesterday…you didn’t see that one coming, did you? But, I did get the living room cleaned up and all of the spiders are gone…at least in here but I have to keep that up today and finish then move on to the kitchen. Not looking forward to that….

My back has been killing me with the pain running down my left leg when I sit or bend over but it’s nothing new and I guess I can just live with it until it gets better….not a lot to do today…looks like it’s going to be cold so no bike ride until this aft…maybe out with G later but I’m not sure…but that is about it. I will have a topic for later, of course, this being the last day of political rationality that we’ll see for the next two years…more later…

My Life

Trail weirdness part 37…

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Well…just a short one to relay some trail weirdness today…it was a little cold but tolerable when the sun was not behind the clouds…but, not cold enough for what I saw…a guy changing into a Santa Clause costume on the trail…nope, no joke, he had his bike parked and was finishing off putting the beard on when I went by….no other costumes, even though it is Halloween. But, isn’t that weird enough? It made me smile at least and I forgot how cold it was for just a couple of minutes…

My Life

October 31st

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Well…another month gone and not really anything to show for it…it hasn’t been that bad, though, I’ve had a lot of nice bike rides and have gotten cable internet that is really fast so that is a plus…I’m not going to get into the maudlin stuff of time passing, etc. You and I both know I’m getting older but everyone does so it’s not really any revelation. I do feel a little better today but had a slight setback yesterday afternoon where I felt crappy again. Must be a bug of some sort…

Not a lot to do today…had the huge disappointment of both Michigan teams losing yesterday but it was not unexpected…and having Fox sports back for the Wings was a plus…and they played well finally…it was cool to see Pavel back at his best and Ozzie having at least a reasonable game. Not much to do today…might have a SF if K didn’t go out and have to much fun last night but she is a youngster so she should be able to go two days in a row, right? There is also the Lions and Talladega on this aft so I won’t be totally bored even if SF doesn’t happen. So, on that note, I’m going to get to the other online papers that I read on Sunday mornings….might even find a topic for later…who knows?

Politics

The haters are back…

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Well…I don’t know if you caught any of the “Rally to Restore Sanity” that Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert put on today, but I found it to be funny at times (they are comedians after all), but more than that it seemed to be a friendly, reasonable response to all of the hate and venom coming from the right. And, the smiles on the faces reminded me that America can be a good place, one where there are reasonable people that can still want better for their country without having it be the all or nothing warfare that the right wants it to be. But, as you can probably predict, the right has been apoplectic that the middle would come together especially led by “entertainers” that, to them, have no right to their own opinions…conveniently forgetting that the right is led by two “entertainers”…named Beck and Limbaugh.

To get to the title…was just reading the message boards on Yahoo that followed a story about today’s event and the pure, unblinking, hatred of the right for anyone but themselves surprised even me….but do you expect any different? What kind of lives do these people have that they need to squat on these boards and spew their hate at any one that is different or thinks differently than them? Does it make them feel better to hate? I think the real problem is that the republicans have made it okay to hate again, no, have made it a requirement for their followers to hate…all Jon Stewart was trying to do was give a voice to those of us that want a return to reasonableness and compromise. Is that a reason to hate him and us? Geez…

Misc

There is still beauty in the world…

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Well…this one is a change of pace from the normal stuff, but it is something I wanted to pass along..was watching “countdown” last week and there was a segment about a violinist who had just purchased a Stradivarius violin for $3.5 million dollars..but that is not the remarkable thing…because, how do you really value a treasure like that? It’s provenance? I really don’t care who owned it before…what I do care about is that majestic sound…that, even through the tiny little speakers on my tv, it was one of the most glorious things I have ever heard. Luckily, the segment is still available on the “Countdown” site and it is worth seeing…and I have added “hearing a Stradivarius in person” to my list….those of you who know me know that getting on my list is important…to me at least…

I know this one is a little different but I have to take time off to see and hear the beauty that still exists in the world and I have to remind myself that this Strad will still exist even if the repubs win the election…and Steely Dan won’t disappear, and Led Zeppelin won’t disappear….at least I hope they won’t…

Politics

Ignorance still amazes me…

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Well…I don’t know about you but I think that the instances of just breathtaking stupidity are on the rise in our society…and it still amazes me when I hear ignorance being sold as gravitas…and the hard headed refusal to see that the lies they have been sold are not true. This little bit of revelation was spurred by an article I read in the Post this morning where one of their reporters went into one of the strong bastions of repub support…an area of Kentucky where only 14% of the voters went for Obama in 2008 and asked them why they are so angry; why they think America id going in the wrong direction. Of course, their responses were straight out of the 4 o’clock hour of Fox news…they are forcing socialism down our throats and taking away our freedom. Every time I hear that crap I just want to shout “HOW?”…how is your freedom less now than when the Bushies were wiretapping everyone in the country? Give me an example…maybe the healthcare law that doesn’t take effect until 2014? And no one seems to care that federal taxes are lower for most of the country than they were two years ago…not higher as the repub lies would have us believe…300 billion of the stimulus was TAX CUTS! Are you really so dense out there that you think that tax cuts mean higher taxes?

Let’s deal with the idea of socialism…first I think most of the people they interviewed don’t even know what socialism is…but they are sure that it is bad because they have been told that by Fox…but this whole socialism argument is trumped by the statistics of the area of Kentucky where the questions were asked..that almost 80 % of the people there live on some kind of government assistance…another case of the know-nothings shouting “keep your government hands off our Medicare”. Ignorance rules again…but with the republican party being based on ignorance, do you expect anything else? Geez….

My Life

October 30th

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Well…I hope I didn’t depress you with that last one but it was something I had to say…and you’ve seen me that way a few times so you really shouldn’t be surprised…but I am going to move into hunker down mode here for the next couple of years…and I do have hope that maybe, just once, people will surprise me and do something good with a bad situation…but just a little hope…I am a pragmatist after all. Oh, great news…Fox and Dish folks have settle their differences and I have my Red Wings back…but I have mixed emotions about it because it was forcing me to to go out amongst people to see the games…and I’m alone enough as it is…but, I will indulge in Ken and Mickey tonight here since the Michigan game is on at the same time and it’s kind of nice to hear the commentary. Going to make a pork loin roast in the slow cooker today…and then just clean this place up some…have another spider invasion since the weather has gotten colder and it is somewhat unnerving to have them in every corner again. That’s about it for now…I have a couple of topics gestating in the brain….oh, and I forgot to pass on that I am feeling better today…I think the bug is passing and taking the weekend off from beer is going to help…more later…

Misc

I’m so depressed…

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Well…I was going to label this one “October 29th part two” but I thought better of it…because I’m going to explain a little bit why I feel so depressed about what is happening in politics today. I think part of it was the euphoria that came with the ending of the eight years of hell under ole GW and having possibilities for this country to go forward again, to have the fingers of business lifted from the scale of life, and to see that maybe, just maybe, we could have a government that governed for people like you and me. And now, for reasons that I cannot comprehend, we are poised to go right back to those bad old days…to a governmental philosophy that can be best described as by the republicans and for business; the rest of the country be damned.

I know, I learned a while ago to not let these things take so much out of me, to not get so invested in things that I can’t control, but this one feels different…it’s like this is it for the country and the resilience that we have shown over the years is coming to a end. I’ve lived through the cold war, the communist scares, mutually assured destruction, and Watergate and I have never felt that we couldn’t come back until now…this time the people have killed the idea of America….they have bought into the lies and made them the truth of their reality even when it’s not so….we are no longer in this together…and I’m so depressed…

Politics

Another one I said I’d get to…

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Well…this is the second in the series of what you have to look forward to with the probable election of the repubs next week…this one deals with their promise to repeal the financial regulation bill that was passed this year. Really, they are going to go back to the wild west, free for all unregulated financial industry that cost everyone in this country but the rich and the perpetrators. Are you listening? they are going to go back to what caused the meltdown that cost almost 10 million jobs. But, hey, it only affected the middle class and the poor so why should they care? They never have so why start now?

Now let’s look at what this means..it means a return to their wonderful little world where when they bet right, they get rich, and when they bet wrong, you and I pay for it. A pretty sweet deal, huh? I’ll be you’d like to have that kind of a rigged market to take advantage of. How will this create jobs? How will this raise the wages of workers so they can share in the profits and benefits that the rich are stealing? The short answer is…it won’t…because the repubs are there for one thing and one thing only…to make themselves and their business buddies richer…that’s the simple bottom line and anything else they say is just lies…and they must be pretty good ones since a lot of people believe them. Or have people just gotten dumber over the last two years?

I have to agree with Paul Krugman…if you think things are bad now…just wait and hold your breath for the next two years…