All posts by James DeVol

April 23rd

Well….it’s after 8 so that means I’m running late this morning…didn’t even get up until 7:45 but all that sleep didn’t really help…feel pretty crappy this morning and the allergies are wreaking havoc on me already…sneezing, coughing, and my head feels like it’s full of concrete….didn’t take much for it last year but I think this year will have to be different..or not…who knows….when is the coffee going to be ready? Okay..it is so I’m going to stop and go get a cup and read the papers….

Okay…I’m back after reading the papers and much coffee but that hasn’t really helped me feel better…so I’ll just adjust and get into go slow mode for the rest of the morning and maybe even into the afternoon….it was a pretty good night last night and I resisted the temptation to text anyone…I may have to dump the dish here pretty soon and see if I can get the same programming on the internet services since they just raised the price again….we’ll see…I think I only watched about an hour on it yesterday and that is way too little to justify the price….not much to do today…trying to get motivated to get the bike out but I just don’t want to be cold today so I think I’ll wait until later this aft….making a whole chicken for lunch today and I am looking forward to having something different….it’s a pain to cook for one…have had leftover ham all week and I don’t think I can even look at it again for quite a while…will probably make salmon tomorrow since I have to eat out of the freezer…..but you don’t really care about that do you? On that note, I’m going to stop here and head back to the couch to lick the wounds and let the caffeine do its magic….more later…

Wandering around in my head on Friday….

Well….there are quite a few things going on in my head today so I thought I’d just free form it and let them come as they will…oh, free speech and the first amendment….read an article in the Detroit papers about the idiot Terry Jones and his plans to protest Islam outside a mosque in Detroit today…if you remember, he’s the one that burned a Koran in Florida that set off the rest of the idiots in Afghanistan and across the middle east and the protests there killed almost 50 people….so it’s not okay to burn a Koran, but it’s okay to kill 50 people protesting it? I just don’t understand that whole mindset….but, back to Detroit…the government there wants Mr. Jones to post a huge bond to cover the costs of security….since when does the first amendment come with a price tag? While I abhor the supposed preacher and his hate speech…we must all defend his right under the first amendment to that speech…and you do not have to pay for the privilege….so, kudos to the ACLU for defending him….

Hmmm….oh, to all of you who bitched and moaned about the bailout loans made to the auto industry in the meltdown….I have a bit of “I told you so” to throw back at you…the CEO of Chrysler today announced that they will be paying back the remaining 7.5 billion they owe 6 years early…yep, that’s right 6 years early and in full….another success story of the targeted government intervention that I advocate and it just adds to the success of the TARP programs that is going to show a 40-50 billion dollar profit for you and me…and these were things that the free market was unwilling or unable to do…take that repubs….

Anything else? Oh, another myth about taxing the rich fell today….that if their state tax rates rise, they will just move out of that state to another one that has lower taxes….doesn’t happen….the outflow and inflow of rich to those states was exactly the same as it was before the tax increases….so, let’s add this one to the myth that cutting taxes on the rich creates jobs and the corresponding one that says cutting taxes on corporations creates jobs…just doesn’t happen…..but the repubs will just keep lying about this until enough of us start paying attention and pushing back…..

That’s about it….for now, wanted to get this one out before lunch so you’d have something to kill time with when you come back from lunch….it is Friday, after all….

April 22nd

Well…up a little too early and was surprised to have a text waiting from T since she has the day off and thought she’d sleep in….pleasant surprise, though…stayed in last night and just watched tv but was really annoyed with the episode of “Bones” that was on where they used it as kind of a pilot for another new show and the main characters were only in about 10 minutes…disappointing to say the least….yeah, I know….but I don’t have a whole lot going on in my life so this stuff is more important than it should be….it was nice to get out on the bike yesterday but today looks a little iffy with the rain and cold….can’t wait for the weather to get a little more consistent so I can count on getting some aerobic exercise and lose the winter weight….not much to do today…groceries, of course, and maybe HH with K later but who knows? I need to get started on my day so I’ll end here….more later….

The Red Wings Sweep…

Well…should have gotten to this one earlier in the day but, as you know, my brain has not been working as well as it should and I’m not sure of the reason….I really hope it’s not the slow decline that is supposed to come with age….it could be staying up late to watch the Wings or it could be the couple of cocktails…or I could be dying and I don’t know it…wouldn’t that be ironic…eat right, take care of yourself, get plenty of exercise and die anyway….okay, don’ know how this one got away from me…let’s get back to the Wings. It looked close for most of the game last night even playing without Hank and Frantzen but then the Wings had some hockey luck and a couple of good bounces and put the game away with about 4 minutes left. We did get some reasonable goaltending from Howard but he still let in three which is something we won’t get away with in the next round. Finishing our series first with a sweep is going to help with the injuries since we should get about 8 days off before the next round starts…but any time we have that long of a layoff I feel a little concerned that we’ll have to shake off the rust and the second round teams very seldom let you get away with that. On that note, I’m going to go through hockey withdrawal over the next couple of days and Netflix should be the tonic to help me cope. On to the second round!!

One last thing…it was just such a cool sight to see guys that were pounding on each other a few minutes earlier shake hands in the center of the rink after the game and even cooler was the salute the fans gave the Coyotes since it may have been their last game in Phoenix…possibly moving back to Winnipeg where they used to be the Jets…

Still struggling…

Well…just thought I’d get a shorty out to let you know that I am working on getting another one going in my head but this whole day has been a weird jumble of things happening and I am so far off my normal routine that I haven’t even read the online papers yet…so I’m going to do that now and then come back in a while to finish this…

Okay, I’m back…had to run an unexpected errand and still haven’t found anything to write about….maybe the hurt feelings of Paul Ryan would be appropriate…I just had to laugh after Obama attacked Ryan’s radical budget proposal, with Ryan calling the speech “overly partisan”…oh, poor baby, you should be happy he didn’t call you the idiot that you are…well…he kind of did, and as time goes by and people other that the Heritage Foundation take a close look…we’ve learned that it does nothing to lower the deficit, yep, that’s right…nope, I can’t even fake surprise at this one….these guys have taken “voodoo” economics to a new high, and I am so happy they did it, finally letting the curtain fall on their agenda to end the social contract that has existed for the past 90 years. It is a little heartening to see the same kind of thing happening here in Michigan with gov Snyder losing support even from his own party where they still have some realists…..I can’t wait to see the ads for the next election where the dismantling of Medicare is going to be the subject…and it will make it easier to believe when the left says the repubs want to end Social Security, too….going to be interesting time over the next two years…strap in and hang on…

April 21st

Well…a pretty good day yesterday but I stayed up late to watch the Wings so I’m running late and slow this morning…and no, it’s not that I’m just getting old…I am but that’s not it…did go out to have a couple with G and that was too early to start when the game didn’t start until 10:30…oh, I didn’t tell you that the Wings won in a sweep…I’ll give you the details in the Wings update later today…I am so sore today and I can’t figure it out…haven’t been on the bike in a few days and haven’t done anything different…oh, well…not much to do today….it’s going to be a recovery day and I need to get back on the normal schedule so I’ll just lay low today….hope it gets warm enough to get out and get a ride in…I think that may have something to do with my fuzzy brain and I’ll try anything to get some clarity…more later…

Let’s Go Red Wings! 3-0

Well…if you read this morning’s post, you’ll remember that I promised to do a Wings update today and this is it…I forgot to do the one I promised after the third game but it probably wouldn’t have been that good anyway the way my brain has been working lately…so, I’ll give it a try now and see what happens. The boys are up 3-0 with the last game being one of the best I’ve seen them play this year…and Phoenix is becoming pretty desperate with being so far behind, hitting Nick a couple of times that looked a lot like cheap shots…it’s one thing that Phoenix doesn’t understand, though, when you start messing with Nick or Pavel, the rest of the team just steps up even more and it showed with two goals in the first three minutes in the last game. I am a little disappointed that Hank has been out for the whole series but the rest of the guys have stepped it up; especially Pavel who I would pay to see practice…just one of the best forwards in the game today and I’d take him over Ovechkin or Crosby any day…..I do have mixed feeling about today’s game, though, since G has tickets for Friday’s game if there is one, and I predicted they would win in five; that would leave me with no hockey to watch this weekend….that said….sweep, sweep, sweep, let’s get the brooms out boys!

Did you vote for this?

Well…if there was any confusion over whose side the newly elected repubs are on here in Michigan, you only have to look at what a new bill is doing to the foreclosure process here….where the current law provides a 6 month window for people trying to save their houses, the new bill, written and paid for by the banking industry, will cut that time in half and allow the banks to make the homeowners jump through more and more paperwork hoops while they will have absolutely no requirements for timeliness for their end of the process…basically allowing them to drag the process out to “run out the clock” on the homeowners and ensuring that less and less people will be able to save their homes. I will point this at those of you who voted for these thieves: “Did you vote for this?” Did you vote to have your friends and neighbors houses stolen when they run into financial trouble? If you did, then shame on you…geez…

April 20th

Well….I can’t wait for this damn weather to break and I can go back to shorts…it’s just so depressing getting up and hearing the furnace running in the last part of April….got whipped at pool yesterday and I’ll blame it on not playing on our normal table….not that I was shooting crappy or anything like that…nope, it was the table….and I was pretty good when I got home so I feel a lot better today than I did yesterday but that’s not saying much….not much to do today…there is a Wings game on late so it’s back to a nap this aft since it’s a 10:30 game and it could be the last one in the first round…it would be cool to sweep Phoenix and get to resting for the second round…damn….need to put this stuff in a Wings update for later……might have a few with G later but I probably should take the day off and let the liver rest for a while…I will be back for another one later…there has to be something going on in the world that deserves a comment…might just have to look a little harder….more later…

The brain still isn’t working…

Well….it’s gotten to almost noon and I don’t feel too much better either physically or mentally so there won’t be any politics today I don’t think. Have not done much yet…did go out for coffee and read the papers but there are no topics that have grabbed me…there was one about ethanol and the new rules that are going to allow 15% ethanol in gasoline but then it goes on to say that any car older than 2002 won’t be able to use it without damage….so, anyone who is poor like me can’t drive anymore? Or, are they going to put normal gas in one pump and then jack the price up because it’s “special” gas? I can see why people are concerned about government interference in their lives….and I haven’t even touched on the effect that the diversion of all that corn has had on food prices or the subsidy that the ethanol producers get to make the stuff. Okay, repubs, why aren’t you bitching about this…oh, that’s right it helps business and it’s okay if government helps business; but it’s wrong to help citizens. See…I can’t even work up the minimum of outrage that would power my writing so I’m going to quit here….