Well…it has been such a huge pain that there is nothing really going on in the world, or at least politically here….haven’t had any topics that have really grabbed me and gotten the old outrage machine in my head going…but, of course, you see that and I have been looking really hard for work and that does take some time. There is one thing that did kind of materialize over the past couple of days..or I remembered it…I think I thought about this a couple of weeks ago but all of my ram is being used for other things and I have to forget something for something new to come in. I think the divide that is becoming permanent in this country is partially the fault of the segmented media and the fact that with the explosion of choice in the media and the blatant disregard for the truth in some of them, we can select media that only reinforces the ideas we already have…avoiding anything that can challenge those beliefs and give us the other side of the story. When I was growing up, news outlets prided themselves in their objectivity and tackling issues that were important to all of us…with a more eclectic mix of stories from both the US and around the world. I have even stopped watching the news since it is so superficial these days, being dumbed down since the people running the shows have been led to believe that it is more entertainment than informative. I fear that this is leading us to a permanent state of divide where our differences are the story; not the things that we Americans have in common….don’t know what to do about it….
Monthly Archives: January 2011
Sister Sarah….
Well….I know I promised one last one about sister Sarah but I am really bored with her and don’t think I should waste any more time writing anything about someone who is only famous for being famous….no accomplishments other than to lead the other far right crazies out from under the rocks where they live…as I’ve said before, in this media saturated environment where we live, folks who were left to howl at the moon and shout their craziness on street corners now have an outlet in fox news who have done their best to make it appear that these people are speaking for the majority if us when it is just not true. But, I detect a falloff of the novelty of their views and with that falloff comes the movement to the next crazy thing…so Sarah…your 15 minutes are up…go back to Alaska….no, that’s not what I wanted to say….I will never want to silence anyone for any thing they say or any views they may have that differ from my own….so, I won’t talk about her anymore but I hope she keeps up her comedy act…we all need to laugh more and I’m sure her self-important parody of a national figure will give us a few more good ones….
January 31st
Well…another month gone and we are one month closer to spring…here in Michigan it’s a countdown that I think most of us do…so maybe only a month or so and we will start to see the temps go up and the first whiffs of spring start to appear…didn’t do much yesterday…I had to watch Daytona but then just read a bunch and cleaned a little…just a little, though….did have some weird dreams last night that involved mutants that were part eagle and part rat….never did see what they looked like since I woke up just as we were going to attack a mall and wipe them out….tried to recover it sleeping a little more but it didn’t work…oh, well….not much to do today, might meet up with G later since I haven’t seen her in three weeks…I will have to get out my last ever sister Sarah post and a few more to get the numbers up for the month…I don’t feel that bad, though…over sixty for the month with only one placeholder is not bad….so, on that note…I’m going to get ready to go out for coffee…..more later….
January 30th
Well…a long day yesterday…had a fun SF with K and V and that set the tone for the rest of the day..starting at noon, takes a lot out of you, though and I’m kind of glad I don’t do that much anymore. I did cook that huge ham and now I have enough food for the week…have to start looking for recipes to use it all but that won’t be too difficult. No dream report for last night…again and I don’t know why…oh, well…not much to do today…I still have that damn bug that I’ve had for two weeks now and it is getting really old so I think it will be a lay low day where I just watch the rest of Daytona and then try to get a couple more of these out….still no outrage worked up over anything but you never know what will be in the paper today….so, heading for the couch and coffee…need to turn the music on and chill….more later…
January 29th
Well…a nice night of movies and popcorn last night…watched “The American” with George Clooney in it and it was a pretty good story…it unfolded very slowly and was one of those quiet movies…no big explosions or frenetic action…but, I really like that kind of stuff…seemed Swedish to me…okay, I got that from watching “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest” earlier in the day…another quiet movie…didn’t do much else yesterday. No dreams to report…darn…I feel more like me when I have those weird ones…but there is always tonight…not much to do today…possible a SF with K…I’ll have to look at my phone to see..I think I got a text from her last night but don’t remember…I did get a couple form C and T after I went to bed so I’ll have to return those this morning after I go out for papers…going to make coffee here since I feel a little low…more later…
I just don’t know…
Well…I have been railing on against the idiocy of the right all week and it has taken a lot out of me…and has taken me dangerously close to the feeling that events in the US have gotten out of hand…that we are sliding back to the bad old days where we citizens don’t mean much when compared to the clout that business and the moneyed interests have. But, I’m not going to turn this one into another screed against this rising tide…we all need to take a break sometimes and this is going to be mine…and talk about some other things that may be uplifting or might not….maybe getting away from the charged rhetoric will help me cleanse my head today, I’ve had the feeling that this might be necessary for a while now; that my heart was just not in it and I was lacking in lucidity…just going through the motions. So, today, I’m just going to ramble a bit and just talk…hoping that something will make me feel better about the world and myself. Who knows?
Hmmm…it is kind of heartening to see the people in some of the Arab countries get to the point where they have said enough, enough of the cronyism and theft by the elites that leave the people with no voice and no institutions that can help them express their desire for freedom…but I do have the fear that the well organized religious zealots will co-opt the popular uprisings and make it worse for them in the short term. We can hope that that won’t happen but unfortunately history is not on the side of the people…I just hope the US comes down on the side of freedom no matter what pain it causes us….
Oh, Sarah Palin…..nope, not going to write anything here….just a reminder that the ban on Sarah takes effect in three days…
Sports….I don’t really think that sports matters in the overall scheme of things…but I do want to say I am so happy that Nick Lidstrom was chosen for one of the captains in the NHL all star game this weekend…a better sports figure has never been seen here in Michigan….well…maybe Al Kaline or Alan Trammel…I feel good that we had these men to watch over the years….and it is so nice to see the unassuming kids we have coming up through the system for the Red Wings….probably one of the reasons I like hockey so much…very few self absorbed idiots…I forgot to talk about the new racing season that is starting tomorrow with the 24 Hours of Daytona…always the kick off of the year and I am looking forward to it..I think…not so much the Nascar season…I am tired of Jimmie Johnson and the lack of innovation that the series shows….way too many rules that make the racing bland and repetitive and it is only getting worse…guys, this is the reason people have stopped coming to the tracks and watching, not the points system…and, while we’re at it…lets get rid of the “Chase” and go back to talking about everyone that is on the track not just the top 12…
Okay…that’s enough isn’t it? I’ll try to get another one out later but I’m not sure if it will be a good idea or not…I’m sitting here listening to Pandora and just want to get out the last book from the bag o books I got from T and escape for a while….
January 28th
Well…another day of fighting off the boredom but I was at least a little successful because I had some work to do around here. It was nice to talk to G last night…it’s been quite a while since we’ve had a long conversation and that helped get through the evening. I don’t mean to sound depressed of boring but my life has been kind of boring lately…trying to conserve cash keeps me in a lot and no response to the resumes I’ve put out is starting to effect me more than it has in the past….I still have that little flicker of hope inside though, and I will try to keep it burning as long as I can….did talk to my daughter yesterday and she is becoming a real homeowner…replacing a toilet tank that was cracked yesterday…I think it is pretty cool that there is really nothing she won’t tackle. Not much to do today…going to get a few groceries and then out to read the papers….I don’t think the Pando trip is going to happen since I have not heard from anyone but that may be okay…can save some money and complete the recovery from the flu….I will have topics for later…I may need to get to the lies that the right is propagating about the “failed welfare sates” in Europe….geez…these guys lie about everything…
The gun thing again…
Well…with the tragedy in Arizona, I would have thought that we would step back and think about our gun laws; keeping the right to own them, but with some common-sense restrictions that would minimize the danger to the general public. But, what do we see here in Michigan? We have the repubs pushing now to remove all restrictions on where you can carry guns along with making it easier to get a concealed carry permit. Right now here, you can’t carry a gun into a school, bar, or government building…but these guys want these slight restrictions to go away…I for one don’t want to be in a bar with anyone carrying a weapon and when my children were small, I would not have wanted anyone carrying a firearm around them. As you know, I am a firm supporter of the second amendment, but as our society has changed, I feel that gun laws should do the same…why should the rest of us be uncomfortable when a small minority want to show off how tough they are by carrying weapons? Okay, that’s not quite fair….I would trust most of the people that I know that own guns to be responsible in public, but what about mistakes? What about the statistics that say that most people who are harmed by guns in home robberies are hurt by their own guns? I can’t grasp how this group can be so adamant about their 2nd amendment rights, and then think it’s just fine for the government to take away our 4th amendment ones.
I don’t know what the solution is, but I do know that common sense says that the more people you expose to dangerous things, the more injuries there will be. Geez…
January 27th
Well…It was kind of a boring day yesterday but the flu is finally receding….I think..slept okay last night but no dreams so that’s a little disappointing…no tiny bunnies or flaming clothes or celebrities….but I got a full 8 hours which is weird in itself….It may have been the antihistamines I took to keep my head clear overnight and be able to breathe so I’ll try it again tonight to see if that was it….I’m not even sore at all and it is nice to not have my neck hurt and be able to move it….little things still make me happy…not much to do today…have been trying to get some work done around here but haven’t had much luck..today should be the day to get moving, though, and I am looking forward to it. I am not looking forward to the snow storm we are supposed to get fri night….I haven’t really shifted into survival mode yet but this storm should do it….if you’ve lived in Michigan or anywhere else where there is lake effect snow, you know what I’m talking about…if not, consider yourself lucky…at least I don’t live in Buffalo…more later…
Manny, Manny, Manny….
Well….I just don’t get it…don’t these morons on the right think we have memory? Let’s get right to it again…over the past few years, the repubs have repeated, and repeated, and repeated that they think the federal government is too large and intrusive…led by ole Manny Lopez here who has said many times that he thinks it would be better if the state was just left to go it’s own way and to hell with the federal government…and any time that Governor Granholm went to Washington to try to get help for the state, it was a an extension of the welfare state mentality. But, today, in the Detroit News, Manny goes on that it is a wonderful thing that our current governor went to Washington to ask for money for the state going so far as to say that the previous Democratic governor never did that; a statement that is breathtakingly disingenuous. He then goes on to applaud the current governor for going 5 times to business leaders to get their advice, stating that is something that governor Granholm never did. Gee, I wonder why Manny? Could it be because governor Snyder is one of them….and puts their welfare above that of the workers of the state and just rolls over to whatever they want since they bought the election for him? C’mon Manny…at least try to be a journalist….oh, that’s right, you’re not….my mistake…geez…