Well…I think I may be coming to my saturation point for reading the news for a few days….one thing that has moved me to this realization might be what I see out there in the comments to articles that I read…and I know, I shouldn’t expect a change in the discourse this soon after the calls for civility…but the swamp has not been drained one bit…well…the lefties seem to have realized the error of their ways and have toned it down somewhat…but, why can’t we have the progressives be adults all the time? Why is there no thoughtful contemplation of an issue before everyone starts to weigh in? It used to be okay or even preferred when public figures didn’t comment on every story in the nanoseconds after it occurred but thought about it for a while… to make sure they had time to form an opinion that took in all the facts…but not any longer. Do they get paid more if they comment first? I think one factor that has spurred this kind of behavior is the fact that no one is held accountable for being wrong anymore. People can just spout whatever comes into their heads and then come back later to clean up the mess with their well-oiled spin machines.
Now that I have excoriated the left and it’s behavior, can I just ask one favor of the progressives out there? Can we stop talking about Sarah Palin? She just doesn’t deserve any more of our energy….and the right is never going to change so let’s just try to change ourselves; let’s be the adults here….
Well..running a little late this morning…was up at about 4 or so, watched a little tv, and went back to bed…I’m still shaking off the sleep but I thought I’d write a little just to see if it can be done in this state….not as easy as I thought….have skipped the news shows for the last couple of days…I think I’m trying to cleanse myself from the vitriol of the last week but it doesn’t help with topics…as you can see…my thoughts have been short and I don’t know why at this point…maybe I’ll just stop thinking about it and let it flow…not much to do today…C and D are coming into town later and will probably go out and have a couple with them to break some of the boredom…although…working around here helped yesterday…did get my bathroom done and it looks good so maybe I’ll use that motivation to get the kitchen done today….nope, going to be cooking a pork loin roast and that makes a pretty big mess…looks like the kitchen will have to wait…darn….more later….
Well…this thought came to me when I saw the Palin video and it’s reference to Reagan’s statement that ultimately individuals are responsible for their actions…not people that spew the imagery of violence and hate; that there is never a causal link between the two. Then why do the Islamaphobes on the right tar the whole religion as being one of violence and murder when there have only been a few individuals responsible for the terror attacks? Why do they oppose the building of mosques across the country and especially in Manhattan, when none of the people involved with these organizations have ever done anything wrong? I think we need to call these folks out on the inconsistencies in their statements…what is it, righties? Are individuals responsible for their actions or are the groups they belong to? You can’t have it both ways…geez…
Well…it’s finally good to see some of those on the left starting to use their heads….the wholesale rush to politicize the Arizona tragedy has started to be repudiated, with apologies coming from many of those who jumped to conclusions for their own agendas….a good thing to see that even in this supercharged political environment, there are still lines of propriety and standards that we can all agree on….except sister Sarah…who yesterday put out a video with 8 minutes of the “I’m the victim” schtick she has used since she started in politics….defending her behavior like a petulant 8 year old and including no pledge to cool the rhetoric. But, she couldn’t do that…then where would she get her money? I know, I shouldn’t turn this into a bashing but…we are all in this together and words do matter….geez….
Well…fun night out in Ada…won at pool for the first time in 3 weeks and I know it was the new tip on the stick….well…maybe…and I was good when I got home so I feel okay today…up quite early, though, and I wish just once I could get a good nights sleep…oh, well..I’ll stop complaining now….it was slick coming home which forced me into low and slow mode which really was a good idea anyway. Not much to do today…think it will be a cleaning day…need to get the bathroom done and after two days of having fun, I do need a rest day, too….so there will be netflix involved and some couch if I do it right…and some topics for later…not anything cooking in my head right now…couldn’t watch Keith last night since he is still harping on the Arizona thing and I am tired of the partisan bickering…more later…
man..I have been missing a bunch of stuff that has happened in the last couple of days…don’t know why, just that it slipped my mind…let’s start with M being in Denver for the Wings game a couple of days ago…we lost that one 5-4 but it was good to hear from him…then got a picture from him last night from Red Rocks…the really cool concert venue there that I would love to see…then, got up this morning and it looked like my car had been frozen into a block of ice…don’t know if it rained last night or if it was just from the snow coming home but the doors were frozen shut and I had to climb over from the passengers side to start it and let it thaw…works okay now but I’m getting too old to do those contortions….especially since it’s a stick and won’t start unless you push the clutch in….
Well…just as I predicted, many commentators are using the Arizona tragedy to try to further their political goals…and the attacks by the left on Sarah Palin, particularly by Keith Olbermann have me dismayed…but, I guess he’s not one of the reasonables that I talk about. Let’s get this straight at the top….the shooter was just frickin crazy; no political component to it, no connection to the abhorrent, hate filled speech from the right or to SP’s crosshair imagery…just another nut that heard the voices in his head and acted on it. So, what do we take away from this? is there anything to take away from this? There have been calls for tighter gun laws that may have prevented this nut from getting guns but we all know that it’s not true. Even if all guns were outlawed, rounded up and destroyed, it would take an enterprising criminal about 10 seconds to figure out how to make a profit and supply the underground demand that would result. What would have stopped this nut from just ramming his car into the crowd?
I didn’t really think about it until now but I guess this is somewhat of a defense of gun owners, most of whom are responsible and their legal guns never used for any purpose than what they are supposed to be used for. I grew up around them and many friends still own them…not once have they used them for illegal purposes. That said, there is a problem with them here in the US….just saw a statistic that between 1979 and 1997, more people were killed by guns in the US than in all of the wars we’ve fought since 1775…it makes the 3,000 plus killed on 9/11 kind of pale by comparison. I don’t have the solution..but I do know that it is wrong to exploit this tragedy for political purposes…shame on everyone that does…geez…
Well…long day yesterday..did go out for a few with G and that was fun…but the Wings lost…not that bad a thing since it was the 4th game of a west coast swing and we won 3 of them….do feel kind of crappy but I think it is more that I was up and down all night than anything else. Didn’t see the end of the national championship game but it is on again right now so I may stay here and watch it before going out for coffee but, maybe not…don’t want to blow up my routine since that is the way that I maintain discipline…but, then again…discipline may be over rated and I should just cut loose…who knows? Not much to do today…as always…do have pool out in Ada so that should be fun…I am going to try again today to get a couple more of these out…more later…
Well…yeah, coined a new word in the title but it seemed to fit my mood today…can’t get interested in anything politics today and I think that’s extending into almost everything that I’m thinking about. You’ve seen this before if you’ve been here…not to the extent that the couch is calling but there seems to be this veil of cobwebs between me and the world; insulating me from feeling that I’m part of it. Could it be that it is just January in Michigan? Don’t know, really….I do feel a compulsion to write something today…I called it onion peeling when this started back in April of last year, but there are still the shackles of self-control that I still wear…and a promise to myself that there would never be anything in this post that would embarrass my kids or friends…kind of limits really sharing but do you want that anyway? I did start this as a chronicle of what it is like to be old, educated, and unemployed and maybe I need to get back to that…I think I’ll try to do at least a couple of those every week from now on, but, I’ve broken promises to you guys before and I can’t promise I won’t again…there is still something rattling around in my head that is not taking shape….that’s part of the frustration where you wait and wait and think and think and nothing comes….so I write one of these free-form things hoping clarity will magically come…and it doesn’t….
It just seems strange that as my life gets smaller and simpler….it also gets harder and harder…
Well…the tragedy in Arizona has my thoughts all over the place….and I’m really trying to make them coherent, to understand how we got to this place. But, one of the things I think we can’t forget in our rush to categorize it is that 6 people died…why can’t we just mourn for these people? Why do we always feel the need to explain, dissect, and assign blame, then have everyone come out of the woodwork to try to take political advantage for their own agenda? A nine year old girl died….isn’t that enough? Isn’t it enough that these families have been torn apart?
There will be plenty of time for analysis as time passes…just not now.
Well…I would be remiss if I didn’t send out birthday wishes to Donald Fagen….half of the wonderful songwriting duo that is Steely Dan…if you’ve been here before, you know how much the snarky lyrics, sleek music, and general hipness of these two have made me smile over the years…I think this would be the group that I would pick to have if I was stranded on a deserted island and could only have one…followed, of course, by Led Zeppelin….you Dan fans out there know what I mean….how can you not like “there is nothing in Chicago for a monkey woman to do”, a lyric from ‘Your Gold Teeth” that has been running through my head every day lately.
So, everybody, send some good thoughts to Donald on his 63rd birthday…..