All posts by James DeVol

Misc

Going to wander around a bit…

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Well….I’ve read all the newspapers and still haven’t been able to come up with a topic so I’m just going to let the brain wander around a bit and see what happens…I have almost weaned myself from the NY Times since they went to a paywall model a couple of months ago…I guess the only thing that I miss is the commentary from their columnists that were commonly a trigger for my own thinking and writing…could be part of why I’ve been struggling lately and I really think it has been a slow news cycle….

There are more culture wars going on here in Michigan with the crazy right idiots spending time trying to vent their homophobia on the employees of universities here by withholding funding if they give health benefits to same-sex partners….this bill has been proposed by rep David Agema from here in west Michigan….all I have to say is this..Dave, where are the jobs? While you fiddle with this nonsense, more than 13% of the citizens here are out of work and you and your crazy religious nut allies try to impose your narrow minded agenda on the whole state. I grew up in west Michigan where the religious have always tried to impose their view on everyone….we even had the ONLY McDonalds in the world that was not open Sunday here in Jenison, and if you tried to mow your lawn on Sunday, they would call the police…not kidding…it’s like Westmichistan….

Hmmmm….oh, have to talk about the Wings and their inspired comeback last night…almost gave up on them when they were down 3-1 but then the texts from my friends started coming in with whoops and hollers and I knew something special was happening…so I put the computer back on and listened….it’s not like listening to baseball on the radio I grew up with…hockey is too fast to fit the radio format and I am glad I can watch the game at noon today…and they even shorten it by moving from perlod to perlod without any break….yep, you see it..misspelled period but if you’ve been here before, you know the reason….if not, leave a comment and I’ll explain again….

My Life

May 9th

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Well… no cocktails last night so I feel okay this morning but I think part of it is that the Wings won in a come from behind victory over the Sharks last night and they are still alive in the playoffs….it was an okay day yesterday but I am a little concerned about a left hamstring that started to flair up with some pain….we’ll see when I go out on the bike this morning. It is odd to not have a race to nap through Sunday aft and it was kind of boring but I can take it with the weather getting nicer. Not much to do today…I think we’re moving Tuesday to Monday and that will work out well since I think I may want to go out to watch part of the game…have I said I hate the NHL and Versus? I do get to watch last night’s game today, but it’s just not the same…with the clear head I have this morning, I will get at least two topics out today…yay, I’m half way there…more later…

Uncategorized

Recalling Rick Snyder…

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Well…have been thinking about this one for a while, ever since I heard that there are petitions being circulated to recall gov Snyder here in Michigan and while I think that recalls are not the most democratic way to run a government, I think it is justified in this case. There are many reasons why I feel this recall should go forward, the biggest one being the fact that Snyder would not answer any questions about his agenda during the campaign; knowing that if he had detailed his plans to give more away to business on the backs of the citizens, and to disenfranchise voters in communities in financial distress, he would never have been elected. We always see this pattern with the repubs, lie or conceal your true agenda, and then after you have duped the public with those lies, impose your far-right agenda on those dupes. The people of Michigan deserve better, they deserve to have honest politicians doing what is right for them, not just for the rich and business and I truly believe that the people here are tiring of those constant giveaways that do nothing to make their lives better….let’s take back our state from these liars and look for real new solutions; not just the same tired old policies of giving the state to the most well off that has never worked since the days of Reagan….geez….

My Life

May 8th

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Well…waiting for the coffee to finish and thought I’d do my duty and get one of these out…you know the pattern on the weekends, I always promise I’ll get another one or two out but it rarely happens…so don’t plan on it today but there is always hope. Yesterday was one of those days where I just didn’t know what to do with myself so I didn’t do much of anything…a great long ride, though. Found out that another one of the kids is moving out of state and I can be nothing but happy…I’ll give updates as it unfolds…not much to do today…since it’s Mother’s day, I don’t think I’ll see anyone or do anything other than take a bike ride…there is an F1 race on and then the Wings later…and I hear the coffee has finished so I’m going to watch the race and read the paper….more later…

Okay…got the ride in, made lunch, and the first half of Man U and Chelsea is over so I can get on to other things…like paying the cell bill and getting more of these out….oh, Man U is up 2-0 at the half and, since it’s my team, I’m happy….felt really crappy when I got up this morning and you and I both know the reason for that…the Wings game is on frickin Versus again so another time where I can’t see what might be Nick’s last game until tomorrow when the re-run is on the NHL network…might have to go out and watch part of it…well…I’m going to go back and read the paper again to get a topic for the day…nope, already have it but need to let it ferment for a while….more later…again…

My Life

May 7th

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Well…it’s Saturday so you know I’m going to be late….but if I’m always late, doesn’t that mean I’m on time? Wrap your head around that one….it’s an existential question that I really can’t answer or won’t….it was a pretty nice day yesterday…the Wings finally played one but I couldn’t see it since it was on Versus…what the heck is the NHL thinking? Do they want to grow the sport or kill it? It’s the same thing that Indy car did when it went exclusively to Versus and now the series is dying since no one can see it any more. Oh, yeah, right….this is supposed to be about life…I did splurge and make myself a normal breakfast this morning…there just is nothing like bacon and eggs…..and I’ve already read the papers and had my coffee so I’m ready to get the bike ride in and then come back here and get at the leaning tower of newspapers that has now reached such heights that it is taller than me when I’m sitting…there could be real danger here of serious injury if the tower falls over….not much to do today….might go out and have a belated Cinco de Mayo with K later and there is a race on tonight but I will have a hard time filling the rest of the day…maybe I should clean more…or maybe get a couple of posts out…who knows? More later….

Misc

Progressive Insurance is now “Big Brother”…

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Well….I was watching tv the other day…barely paying attention when an ad for Progressive Insurance with their spokesperson “Flo” snapped me to attention….have you heard of their new ploy? They will lower your insurance rate if you allow them to put a data tracker in your car, in their words, to “confirm your great driving”…yeah, you heard it, these people want you to put a device in your car that will give them more ammunition to not pay any claims..not that any insurance company needs a reason to deny claims since they deny them all of the time for no reason…or I should say trumped up ones that force you to fight to get what you paid for. What’s next? Will they propose that they put an ear tag in all of their customers that will track you at all times….that’s just what this new device will do…it will have gps tracking for speed but more than that, g meters that will label you as an “aggressive driver” and will raise your rates; no matter that you have no tickets or accidents. When are we going to say stop to these folks, to the cellphone companies that track our every move, and to the insurance companies that control what we eat and what we do to ensure higher profits for them….and if you expect lower premiums from giving up your freedom…I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you….

One last thing…boycott Progressive Insurance! Or at the very least, if you are a Progressive customer, throw the damn data logger at them when they show it to you….geez….

Politics

Thoughts, thoughts, and more thoughts…

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Well….I haven’t been able to make a coherent long-form thought in a couple of days so I think I’ll just go with it and write what I like to call short stories…pretty original, huh? Starting with the headline in the USA Today that states that American taxpayers are paying less in taxes than they have in any year since 1958…yep, so when you hear the repubs say that taxes are still too high and want to cut them more for the well off, remember that if we went back to the tax rates of the booming 1990’s, the deficit would be cut by more than a third without cutting the aid to college students, seniors, and the rest of the middle class that the repubs are saying is absolutely necessary. Remember, too, that it has never been shown that tax cuts for the rich and business do anything but make them richer…no jobs created, no benefit to those who are struggling.

Another one that got a rise out of me was an editorial in the Detroit News that did nothing but denigrate the people in localities around Detroit for approving millages to continue to pay their firefighters, police, and to maintain the services that make their communities more livable. The News goes on to assert that the voters in those localities are stupid for raising their own taxes instead of buying into the draconian cuts that gov Snyder is jamming down the throats of the rest of Michigan. Where the hell does the News get off telling the voters how to vote? I see this as just a huge snit by the News since they blindly think Snyder is the savior of Michigan and that only his ideas are worthy of action….and they are so irritated that the elected officials of those communities have decided not to attack their neighbors and buy into the bogus attempts that the repubs are making at playing the middle class off against each other. What’s next Snyder? Are you going to take over those communities that voted to raise taxes and appoint emergency managers since they are obviously crazy to not drink your repub kool-aid? I guess the Snyder honeymoon is over…can’t wait for 2012 when we can say goodbye to these idiots…geez…okay, only two thoughts so the title is not accurate….maybe there are more than one thought in each one?

Okay, let’s make it three….another report that came out today saying that the compensation for CEO’s is higher than it has ever been as compared to normal workers and has completely recovered from the blip of a downturn it took last year…I don’t have to tell you what that means…okay, I will anyway….these guys were not touched at all by the recession that decimated the rest of the nation….great work if you can get it…geez…

Misc

Part of it is the speculators….

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Well…I’m just getting ready to go out and do twenty on the bike and wanted to get this thought out on the turmoil in the commodities markets over the past week where we’ve seen silver fall almost 25% and oil down almost 12% in the past three days. In the case of silver, the trading board that governs these trades raised the margin percentage that traders had to risk in the market; making it more expensive for traders to speculate and drive the price up. This is exactly what I advocated last week in the case of oil and the results were exactly what I and some of the experts predicted; that when the traders actually had to put skin in the game they would flee like the rats they are. Even though we’ve seen oil correct over the past few days, I still advocate raising the margin percentages there, too, since it has been way too easy for speculators to maintain their grip on the market and manipulate it in their own interests… a tax that we pay to the rich who don’t care at all about tanking the economy just so they can line their pockets….geez…

My Life

May 6th

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Well…a quite busy day yesterday…I had finally had enough of the filthy car so I cleaned it from top to bottom…and then it rained and made it dirty again but that’s what life is about…little disappointments and all you can do is just sit there with a bemused smile on your face…..I think I did figure out the inability to write lucidly is related to my efforts to be a nicer person….it has taken the edge off and now I may have a decision to make…either continue on this path and not be able to write or take a few steps back and restore my abilities….yeah, I know what you are going to say…you never thought I had any abilities…but if that’s the case…why are you here? I don’t know either…..I did have work to do around here after the car and it was quite nice to not have to try to defeat the boredom for a day….not much to do today…I do have the grocery run and a bike ride for the morning and then the decision whether to watch the Wings play tonight…I’m so disappointed in their play that I may watch “Fringe” instead….or go out and do something…there will be topics later so come on back……

Politics

It’s the right decision…

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Well…just got back from the bike ride and I am sore…but that’s pretty normal for me….I did want to weigh in on the controversy over the pictures of a dead bin Laden and the president’s decision not to release them. I think it’s the right decision and is part of the type of things we need to do to restore our standing in the world; a businesslike way of running the country that takes the emotional bullshit out of decision making….something the Bushies never could figure out with their faith-based administration. I know, I should get over the Bushies at some point in the near future, but when people like Peter King continue to support and give credit to them and make excuses for them, I need to call them out on it. If you hadn’t heard from rep King, he trotted out the old repub talking point that torture got them the information that led to bin Laden’s capture and death….even though everyone in the intelligence community dismissed that years ago and he ignores the fact that torture did more to turn the world against us than anything else in the history of the country. Well…that may be a little hyperbole, but seeing these guys continue to want our names, as citizens of this country, associated with this dark episode still irritates the hell out of me…geez…