One last one…

Well…this might be the last one for the day or it might not be…there were some things I thought of out on the bike but I forgot them already….yep, you heard it right…out on the bike…in shorts…on December 31st..yay! I haven’t felt that good in a while…getting back in the saddle, working the shifters, and throwing the bike around with a huge grin on my face was just right…it was a nice way to put a coda on the end of the year. I can’t believe how fast my lungs have lost their fitness…no problem with the legs but it was hard to breath at times…I know, I’m 57 but that shouldn’t matter…and it doesn’t in my head. I think this is the muddiest I’ve been coming back…I’m going to have to take the bike over the the car wash to get it clean next week since the cold weather is coming back starting tomorrow and I don’t think I’ll get it out again until March or so.

So, I may be coming back later for more…I’ll try not to be maudlin and do the same crap as every commentator…but, you never know, I might….go, have fun, and Happy New Year!

The new religion of the right…

Well..just had this thought come to me while I was reading some of the online papers this morning but I’m not going to finish it now…just a little teaser to get you to come back…yep, not fair I know, but the idea is not fully formed yet. Here’s the question or premise…Doesn’t the right’s and tea party’s new found reverence for an unchanging constitution look like a fundamentalist religion to anyone else?

This one is not forming up as I hoped but I going to take a swing at it anyway…as it is quite well know,n most of the tea partiers; and most of the people that identify themselves as religious conservatives have beliefs that interpret the bible as literally the word of god…with no interpretation necessary or wanted. Things like the age of the earth being being around 6,00 years, that evolution is not possible because it contradicts the story of Adam and Eve…and many other stories are taken as fact by this group. I see the same type of blind faith being constructed in their interpretation of the constitution as being absolute and only taken in the context of the time it was written; not in the context of the present and a guideline for the society..purposely written vaguely to allow for growth. The question I have is “do they like to not have to think?” The true believers think all of the answers are in the bible and they never change or need to change since they are the word of god. No thinking necessary to apply the bible…just do what it says and everything will be okay. Now, the tea partiers are doing the same about the constitution…genuflecting to the document in every action they take with an unhealthy propensity to ignore the nuance of life and the varying interpretations that come with it…and to force their interpretation of in on the rest of us…just like they do about religion. I think this is a troubling development for our society…zealots of any kind lead to repression of those who don’t think like them…geez….

December 31st

Well..it’s 5:50 and I’m up early again but he sleep was okay so I’ll take it…had a nice day yesterday with lunch with T…lots of good conversation and laughs…made me smile a lot. The rest of the day was kind of a bore but that is the measure of my days lately…it is already 48 degrees but there is a thunderstorm heading straight for west Michigan from the southeast so I may have to wait for the aft to ride my bike…I am determined to get out on it today for one last ride for the year and if I go I’ll be in shorts…need to give the girls at the coffee shop something to talk about next week…I do have things to do today….not much but some things…groceries this morning, then over to G’s to pick up my slow cooker, then over to the west side for supplies….going to open the sunroof if it’s not raining….I may have one of those year-end summary things for later this aft but everyone does that so I may just do the opposite….but what’s the opposite of a summary?…way too much thinking for 6 am …more later…

Oh, I did make it to 60 with this one…yay? One last thing..it’s a sad day for me since it is the last day that I will be able to get the Times and Post without paying an exorbitant fee for the priviledge….I know, as Heinlein used to say “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”……

New thoughts…

Well…have been thinking about some things for a while but I don’t think any of them warrant a post of their own…or maybe they do, I don’t know…we’ll see as I go along. One of the things I’ve bitched about over the past few months is that the repubs, with their actions on taxes, financial regulation, and healthcare appear to be putting their own political interests ahead of those of you and me and the rest of the country. I have to admit that I’ve fallen into the same trap talking about the new repub administration here in Michigan…wanting it to fail to highlight the fact that the repubs have no new ideas…that they’ve never seen a tax cut they didn’t like and no matter that almost all economists think that this nonsense has helped put the nation in the financial bind it’s in.

What I am going to do is to wait and give governor Snyder and his team a chance…I don’t care who it is that gets our great state moving again; but it needs to get moving again….there needs to be good jobs for everyone who wants one…there needs to be good roads and great cities where the quality of life increases daily and people can stop worrying….

But, what I will continue to do is point out daily when the scale tips too far toward business and tax cuts at the expense of workers trying to raise families and live a good life….I hope it doesn’t have to happen much…

December 30th

Well…another night of crappy sleep and it is starting to get really old…just like me I guess…but that goes unsaid…or is supposed to…I am a little excited this morning since it is a lunch day with T and it will give me something to do other than coffee and working out…I did get three out yesterday and I only need three more to get to 60 for the month..it has just been too slow of a news cycle for the last couple of weeks and I haven’t felt that creative…not much to do today…I may get a haircut this morning after coffee but I’m not sure…it was finally yesterday that I finished up the rib roast from last sat and I am looking forward to other food..will probably not do that for another year….I hope it does get into the 40′s today, if it does, I’m going to take the bike out to take a look and see if the trails are melted off yet….for sure tomorrow since it’s supposed to be almost 50….you bored yet? Yep, I am so I’ll stop…more later…

Manny, Manny, Manny….

Well…I just have to comment on the column done by one of my favorite idiots that write for the Detroit News, Manny lopez…in his column today, he takes Governor Granholm to task for a puff piece that was done to “revise history” as Manny puts it. He goes on and on about how big of a failure the Granholm administration was and that it is the height of hubris for her to try to put a positive spin on what I agree has been a terrible 8 years here. But, I think he is serious when he finds fault with this type thing when he was one of the biggest cheerleaders of the failed Bush presidency, and then completely agrees with the revising of history that the repubs have made an art form…as evidenced by the new Bush memoir that again plays fast and loose with the facts. Now, what is it Manny? Are you a faith based person or do you belong to those of us that believe that facts are facts; and no amount of spin changes them?

This egregious changing of facts is now reaching a fever pitch with the repubs, led by commentators like Manny and abetted by politicians like Haley Barbour who, last week, said that the civil rights struggle in his home state of Mississippi was “not that bad” and that local governments of the time prevented discrimination….anyone with even a little knowledge knows that that is just not true. it took the federal government to break down the institutional racism that was the south of the time. Nice try Haley…

But, these are just miniscule attempts by small politicians compared to the wholesale attempts to re-write the reasons for the civil war that are taking place in Virginia and other southern states to closely match the new repub talking point of “states rights” and remove the continuation of slavery as the real reason for the war. So, Manny…if you are going to bitch about revising history…take your own party to task first…they are the experts at it after all. Geez…

Hypocrisy, hypocrisy, hypocrisy…

Well…if you’ve read any of these, you’ve see the well documented hypocrisy that runs through the repubs in the federal government on almost any issue, freedom, equality, taxes…you name it and they have been hypocrites…I think it’s in their DNA and that bad batch of DNA and it’s resultant hypocrisy has now made it’s way into our state of Michigan. Following politics here over the last 8 years, you have undoubtedly seen the consistent repub opposition to raising taxes of any kind..even when the budget deficit hit almost 2 billion dollars..even to mention that it would be fiscally responsible to do so always came with a loud cry from the repubs that socialism was taking over the state and comrade Granholm was leading the charge.

But now, when the repub governor elect mentions that there would have to be tax increases along with spending cuts to balance the budget, the repubs are praising him as a pragmatic leader who is making the hard choices to get the state moving again. If these choices are so good now, where were the repubs when the very same things were proposed last year and the year before? If there is one thing I can’t stand it’s politicians who put their party ahead of the citizens of our state…and stand there with a smile as the hypocrisy drips from them…but I think most of them are too dumb to see it…or just don’t care…

December 29th

Well….up and down all night and just couldn’t lay there anymore so I’ve be up since 5:15…but don’t feel as bad as I should, though, after the Ada trip…I won at pool but it came down to the last game….I’ve had this question running through my head for a few days now…why does it take all summer and 2200 miles on the bike to lose 20 pounds but then only takes about a month of not riding to put 10 of it back on? I’m just so tired of worrying about my weight and not looking how I want to…oh, well…I’ll stop whining now…not much to do today…might have to go out for supplies or a haircut but I’m not sure if I may just want to do a total veg today and get a few of these out…I do want to get to 60 for the month but I don’t want to just put out crap..Okay, if you’ve read some of these they can be crap at times…but I try..more later…

December 28th

Well…a short night out with G…ran into T at Peppino’s which was kind of odd…but I was not a good boy after I got home and feel like crap today…I still think I have a bug because I have a slight temp and I’ll stick to that story….it was cool that the Wings won for Ozzie last night….in OT but we’ll take a win any way we can…and it was his 400th which puts him 10th all time in wins for a goalie…pretty good…not much to do today…can’t get the onion smell out of my hands after cutting one last night…yeah, that really doesn’t mean anything but just thought I’d share…if I don’t feel better, I may skip coffee and pool today….more later….

Okay…I’m back for a few and I do feel quite a bit better after working out, so it looks like Ada is a go…had to fix my cue again and now Tom is bringing one of his since all of the good ones at Victory Club are broken…and I do like my stick better anyway….I am a little excited that the Mega is up to 200 million….so, If you don’t see any new posts tomorrow, I won’t be back…I’ll be on a beach somewhere doing what I was made to do…relax…but, I am going to try to buckle down and get another one out today…maybe…

The TSA…again…

Well….there have been developments in the TSA scanner mess that I felt I had to comment on….the more you hear about this great boondoggle of these multi-million dollar machines, the more you just want to say “what good is the TSA?” First, let’s start with the fact that the owners of the companies that make the machines have been spending million of dollars lobbying for their installation across the US…why do they have to lobby if these things are so wonderful and do what they are sold to do? I have a problem with any company making profit on fear that leads Americans to gradually lose their freedom….and with the latest revelation that the machines will only detect explosive material if it is in a block shape; not if it is shaped into anything resembling body parts…or into flat shapes that can then be taped to the body. Yep, that’s right folks..you have given up your freedom and dignity for a technology that does not work…oh, you’ll hear the TSA say it does because they’ve found small amounts of marijuana and a few “sharp objects”….but don’t say what those sharp objects were…a child’s hair comb? When was the last time anyone brought down a plane with marijuana? And, as shown on the show “Mythbusters”, you can just saturate clothing with odorless explosives and then make them explode…what’s next, do we all have to wear a TSA mandated jumpsuit that we are given before we can board an aircraft?

Now…in the last week or so…we’ve seen the unchecked power of the TSA being turned on the pilot that expressed his first amendment rights to criticize the agency by an “investigation” being started into his background and everything else in his life. If that is not terrorism, what is? These kind of tactics are not even done in supposedly backward countries anymore…

Let’s get down to the bottom line, even if you don’t think the 4th amendment violations are enough to justify removal of these imagers, the plain, true fact is that we are being taken again by that wonderful repub combo of big money and fear…just like they did in the last election…aren’t we tired of that yet?