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…
May 6th
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……
It’s the right decision…
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…
May 5th
Well…I am really depressed this morning since the Wings lost again last night and they are almost out of the playoffs…oh, well…it is only sports after all….other than that, it was an okay day yesterday with having a couple with G and getting a nice ride in….I do feel a little crappy with the cocktails last night but I may survive it…we’ll see. Burned some sugar that leaked out of the foil I was cooking ribs in and this place stinks quite badly…hope it’s going to be warm enough to open the windows today and air this place out. Not much to do today…..I need to heal up for a while this morning and it looks like it is going to be sunny so a 20 miler should be in order….I will get back to the politics today and get a couple out…I hope…
Okay…I know I’ve not been as prolific as usual but I don’t know the reason yet…I wonder if it might be that I’ve stopped talking politics to anyone for my own mental health or maybe the distraction of the Wings games? I think I do need to take this more seriously…or not, who knows? As you can tell…I’m all over the place today…I did get the car cleaned and a workout in already so that’s an accomplishment isn’t it? I still feel like I’m just idling in my life…I wonder when I’ll run out of gas? I will get to another one today after I get the bike ride in…but I have to have lunch first so that’s what I’ll do now…
I just remembered…
Well…I’m in the middle of watching a movie and I just remembered that I promised some thoughts on the nullification strategies that the repubs are using on Obama, the same as they did with Clinton…using the birther controversy to match the Whitewater inquest to try to make sure that there are always distractions that take peoples minds away from what is really important. Doesn’t anyone else see this as un-American? The right goes on and on about supporting the commander in chief in wartime when one of theirs in in power, but when it’s not, all you hear is picking, sniping, and second guessing by these hypocrites. Contrary to what the right thinks, politics is not war…not a battle to be won at the cost of our very Americanness…..Yeah, I know, that not a real word but it is a good descriptor…America used to be the place where people of all political stripes could come together for the good of the nation, not just of their party and we all know it is the repubs that have ruined it. Let’s start holding them accountable…..geez…
May 4th
Well…it was a busy day yesterday with lunch with T and the out to have a few with C….needless to say, I feel a little crappy today…nope, let’s make that more than a little crappy…let’s make it medium to medium high crappy….and I know part of it is not eating…but you know that’s been a problem for me for a long time….but, I’m not going to complain about that right now since I did stop and get food to cook today….I’ve had a netflix movie sitting on the counter for a couple of days now and you’d think I would have enough time to watch it but I haven’t….maybe today but who knows? Not much to do today…should have a couple with G later and then holding my breath waiting to see which Wings team comes out to play today….and, since I do feel crappy, I’ll end here…more later…
Some new thoughts….
Well…wanted to get at this one before the day gets busy…it deals with a fear I have about how the news of bin Laden’s death will be exploited by the fear-based community (repubs and the security-military complex) to place further restrictions on American citizens and continue the undermining of the constitution and our individual rights. Now, I realize that bin Laden had pretty much been marginalized by the manhunt for him, left to communicate by human couriers to the world outside his complex, and that there were still terrorist attacks attributed to his metastitizing organization going on around the world; dangers that may or may not get worse with the killing. But, we already see the security-military complex taking advantage of the purported higher risk by asking for more money to increase police patrols and surveillance on the general public in the oft chance there may be reprisals. When is this going to stop? When are we, as a country going to say “enough” that we can take a little danger if it means that the government won’t be reading our e-mails, tapping our phones, and watching us with cameras everywhere we go. One of the things that the security organizations do not want you to know is the experience of England, where there is a camera on every corner and every move of their citizens is watched…with all of that watching, not one terrorist attack has been prevented by seeing the perpetrators ahead of time…at best, it may be a tool for hindsight but it is not preventative…and isn’t that what the increasing intrusion in our lives was sold as? I think the death of bin Laden should be the trigger for a real dialogue on what kind of society we want to be…a free one or the one of George Orwell from “1984″….we can’t be both….
May 3rd
Well…Monday was Tuesday yesterday and it was fun out playing pool…quite weird games, though where only two of the eight balls went into the right pocket at the right time….still fun, though and I was a good boy when I got home…no cocktails, just water, so I feel okay this morning. It was quite a bore after I got home…another of those nights where you just can’t wait to go to sleep to get the day over. Not much to do today…lunch with T, then maybe have a couple with C later….going to be good again after I see C and take it easy to give the liver a rest and cut down on the calories….not sure what the weather is going to be like but I do need to get out on the bike…all of the pain is going away and I have over 200 miles in already…need to pick up the pace if I’m going to get to 3K this summer but I really don’t have anything else to do…more later…
A little more on binLaden…
Well..I know I commented on the death of bin Laden in the earlier post but I have a few more thoughts that I would like to share….some of them kind of personal….in that terrible week in 2001, so many punches hit that when I look back, I wonder how I got through it as well as I did….on the day of the attacks, my beloved mother-in-law died heaping shock upon shock…and only a week later, the job that I had held for 28years was eliminated and I was out of work for the first time in my adult life. If you’ve read this at all, you know it was initially intended as a chronicle of the life of an “overqualified and unemployed” old guy looking for work in the worst economy in the past century….and that as really the focus for the first few months…oh, getting off track here.
When I thought about bin Laden’s death this morning out for coffee, my mind goes to the changes for the worse in our society that came from the overreaction of our government to the threat…the warrantless wiretapping, taking your shoes off at the airport, getting groped by strangers as a price for flying…how do we go back from this restriction on our freedom? After all, we did this to ourselves and, as Ezra Klein said this morning ” we can undo this if we have the will”, that was a paraphrase…not a quote…and I hope we start undoing these as soon as possible…
May 2nd
Well…woke up this morning to the good news that Bin Laden was killed yesterday…..it’s about time that this thug was brought to justice…but, since the body was quickly buried at sea, we are going to have Trump, Palin, and the rest of the right wing idiots saying it is a lie and the news is faked to get Obama’s poll numbers up. Can’t wait to hear the repubs twist themselves into knots to give the credit to ole GW…..
Had a good day yesterday but the Wings lost another one so it took a little out of it….had a few with the twins and V later in the day but that followed up over 20 miles on the bike in the morning and worked up a sweat for the first time really….felt quite good but I am sore today….didn’t sleep well at all last night getting to bed really late and then up quite early…no cocktails so I feel okay but I know I’m going to need a nap since today is Tuesday on Monday and I’m going out to shoot pool this aft….other than that, not much to do today….more and more resumes and I hope another long bike ride…I will get to more topics today since I feel my head is clearing…more later….