Well…it was an okay day yesterday but the planned meet up with everyone didn’t happen…so that made it a little boring but I survived it…slept okay but still feel a little worn out today..it was a cocktail night, after all, so that is the reason…and I am still having trouble taking in enough calories for doing 15 miles on the bike…it is weird to think of food as just fuel…takes the enjoyment out of eating but nothing really tastes good anymore so that is part of it too…I do like Fridays, though, since I am done with working out for the week and all I have to do is ride the bike…it was kind of fun yesterday riding through the flood in the park but that screwed up the shifter that i hope I have fixed with lubing it up….I was just coated with mud when I got back here but it felt kind of good to be able to do that at my age….not much to do today…pool day, of course, and the Griffins can win the Calder cup if they win tonight….more later…
The supreme court finally got one right…
Well…this morning the supreme court finally ruled on a case that I have been following with some interest, and they even got it right. Yep, burying the lead again…but you know I do that a lot…oh, back to the case…this one had to do with a patent that had been granted to a company that had isolated a human gene to use in breast cancer tests…something I never understood…and that had restricted vital research from any other university or company since this company, Myriad, had sued anyone trying to use this same gene. Today, though, the supremes got it right when they said that you can’t patent naturally occurring things and rescinded the patent…this will mean that much less expensive tests can be developed and Myriad will no longer be able to screw women by charging them up to 10,000 dollars for this test….it’s about time….geez…
June 13th
Well…running really late today and there are many, many reasons for it but none that you’d be interested in…it was an okay day yesterday but the highlight never happened…tried to get to downtown to see Tommy Castro but the traffic was backed up almost to here and it took me almost 45 minutes to go 3 miles so I turned around and just came home to watch the Griffins game instead…had those weird eye distortions again yesterday like the ones that come before a migraine and that was a little concerning…but they went away after 20 mins so I guess there is not much to worry about….I did get the squeak out of the bike for one trip and I am hoping for today, too, but I need to work out and get to it so I’ll end here…oh, might meet up with C for a couple later today but that is about it…more later…
Why do we have to continue?
Well…yeah, that title is a little misleading, but what I wanted to say would have been too long to be one…what I wanted to say was…why do we have to continue to reiterate the fourth amendment? Shouldn’t the fourth amendment itself be enough? I guess not, and some of the legislators in the US congress feel the same way with the revelations of the NSA spying on you me, and everyone in the country. In fact, Alan Grayson, a Florida congressman, has just introduced legislation basically saying again what the fourth amendment says…that you can’t gather info on anyone unless there is probable cause that a crime has been committed and the warrants are approved by a judge. No more of this “let’s just watch everybody” under the guise of protecting us…I, for one, don’t want to be protected if that means that the government watches everything that I do…every phone call, every internet search, every text, and even the location data from our phones…one of the things that always happens is that the government will find a use for this data and I have no faith this use will be limited to those uses that are constitutional so they must stop…geez…
June 12th
Well…it was kind of a long day yesterday with going out for a couple with G and then staying up late to see the US win it’s soccer match with Panama…so, I’m a little worn out today and running late…slept okay but no dreams again and that is starting to be the norm so I guess I won’t comment on it anymore…I did tear the bike down again yesterday since the squeak is back and I may have fixed it…but, who knows until I get out and ride but that may not happen today with it raining already and a huge storm coming in from the west…and, that may cancel Tommy Castro for tonight which would be somewhat of a disappointment…I may just go downtown anyway if it’s not raining too hard…not much to do today….almost out of food but I have enough for today so I don’t need to go for groceries until tomorrow…so, I guess I’ll get the workout in and then take a look at the radar….more later…
What’s wrong with transparency?
Well…I have been following this whole NSA/spying flap over the past couple of days and the question that pops into my head is: “What’s wrong with transparency?” Why is it so terrible that we, as citizens, know what the hell our government is up to…especially when it directly affects us? It’s not like they’ve foiled hundreds of terrorist plots gathering all of this data…in fact, the head of the NSA has said that there may have been one plot foiled…and don’t give me that crap that it is worth it if one plot is foiled…since we don’t even know what the definition of “plot” is…is a full scale terrorist attack that was foiled or was it a couple of wannabes talking back and forth on facebook? Even with all of this money being spent…and there are over 400,000 people that are working on gathering and analyzing the data…they didn’t catch the Boston bombers and they are the sort of people that the NSA is supposed to be protecting us from….all the while we spend billions upon billions of dollars on this nonsense while bridges collapse and thousands of people die from gun violence every year…and thousands more from preventable diseases that could be cured if they had health insurance. I think we are at the point where we really do need to bring some light to these programs so we, as a people, can actually have a say in how we want to be kept safe and how much liberty we are prepared to cede to do it…geez…
June 11th
Well…it was just another day yesterday and I didn’t get much done…I did fix my golf bag and got the paint to do the spare tire and the brackets for the battery but it was wet and raining yesterday and that is not good for paint so I think I’ll wait for a dry day to do that stuff…slept okay last night and I feel okay with it being a no cocktail night…dreamt of oil leaks in the Miata but they are not real so I’m not sure what that was about….I did take a drive just for the hell of it and to get out of here and that was fun…might be meeting up with T today to have a couple and that will be cool but that looks like my whole day…nothing much else to do and I am getting really, really bored…but I guess I’ll just have to live with it…more later…
What happened to the fourth amendment?
Well…for quite a while now, I have been concerned by the daily erosion of the protections of the fourth amendment both by the courts and by the legislature of the federal government. I don’t understand it, either…when there is so much outcry about any infringement of the 2nd amendment and the rabid howls from the right when even sensible laws controlling guns are proposed, and yet with the revelations that the NSA has been infringing on the 4th on a daily basis…only a few repubs have come forward to oppose this big brother dragnet. The most egregious justification for it is the general one of “safety” and that the government is “protecting” us from some amorphous threat that is out there but they won’t tell us what the threat is or what they are doing to protect us…this creates the next question which is why should we believe agencies that lie on a daily basis?”. This boils down to one quote that I use quite often that distills the balance between risk and freedom: “..those who give up essential liberty for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety…” Ben Franklin…geez…
June 10th
Well…it was an okay night last night and I did get to watch the Griffins win the second game of the playoffs…but, that means that they are back in town for a wed game and that is going to make parking for Tommy Castro a real pain….but, I think I’ll still go…just need to park across town and do a little walking…slept okay last night but I’m still worn out today…allergies are still here but not getting worse so that is something….and, I was kind of good last night so that helps…not much to do today…I do need to go out and get some black paint to do some touch up on the battery hold downs in the trunk and the spare tire….but that is about it….more later…
The name of the group is Phelegathon…
Well…my brother and I were trying to figure out the name of a local group here around GR…it just came to me…it was Phlegathon…if you’re reading…I think that is the one….