Well…just a short one to comment on the jaw-dropping new bill that is being passed in Arizona concerning women’s access to birth control….this new bill would make women prove they are not using birth control for non-medical reasons…like for contraception before their medical plans would cover this necessary medicine….and the worst part is that it would allow all employers to not cover birth control without any reason….and, depending on the interpretation, may allow employers to fire women who use it….I’m not making this up people….this is what the US is going to look like if the repubs win the White House this fall….I just have nothing more to add to this one…just can’t believe we are still talking about this nonsense in 2012…geez…
All posts by James DeVol
Finishing up the placholders…
Well…I promised I’d get back to take on the placeholders from last night..the first one is the repubs going into full attack mode on the proposed release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try to bring down oil prices…and, of course, the repubs don’t want to hear it, trying to tar this attempt to relieve prices for the middle class “just politics” and vowing to fight it….but, I have a different take on the whole thing…first, what’s wrong with spanking the speculators that are driving up the price? Every analyst says there is plenty of supply and the Saudi’s have said that there isn’t anyplace to put any increased output….so, the only reason that oil prices are soaring is the speculators are betting there will be a rise in prices which fuels the rise in prices…pretty neat for the speculators, huh? Second…why not sell of oil that was purchased at 20-70 dollars a barrel for 128 dollars? It wouldn’t hurt to sell off 10 million of the 177 million barrels in the reserve and even using the top price of 70 dollars, that would make a profit of almost 500 million dollars that could be used to reduce the deficit….I threw that last part in kind of tongue in cheek…500 million would be smaller than a drop in the bucket against the deficit but I wanted to say it before some politician. The only reason the repubs don’t want this release is that their oil company masters love it when prices soar…just more profits for the oil companies and campaign contributions for the repubs…geez…
March 16th
Well…I know there is a placeholder down below but I wanted to get to this one first…weird thing..split my heel open last night and now I have blood trails on my carpet…didn’t notice it until this morning so I have some cleaning to do today…it was a cocktail night last night watching the basketball so I do feel a little slow but okay….there is a really thick fog outside that I hope holds until it gets light so I can go ride in it this morning…the dew on everything makes it look so cool…not much else to do today….more b-ball but that is about it…I will be back for the placeholders in a few but right now I need to go back to the couch and drink some water…
Okay, I’m back for a few minutes to add to this one since doing another one on my routine, daily life just seems like cheating..but I did want to comment on the bike ride…went out early today to get into the fog that was quite thick and it was just so cool…it looked like the world had shrunk down to about 30 yards across and even the sound was different…and the dew that collected on my hands made the fine hairs on them look like I was turning into some kind of werewolf….all in all, one of the best rides of the year so far…
One last thing….I’m having trouble choosing which gear to wear today…Michigan or the Wings…okay, it’s Michigan….maybe if I don’t wear my Wings gear they’ll win tonight…
another placeholder…sorry
I need to put a placeholder in to remind me to talk about oil prices and the possible release from the SPR….cost now versus costs then….oh, and Mitt and the dog to his callousness about dogs and people…
A little known fact on Keystone…
Well…just a short one on some little known developments in the Keystone pipeline dustup…with the repubs continuing lies on where the oil coming through the pipeline is going to go; making the statement over and over that it will help reduce our dependence on foreign oil and all of the other nonsense they continue to shout, we had Ron Wyden, the senator from Oregon offer to help get the pipeline approved if the repubs would agree to legislation that would mandate that any oil that comes through the pipeline would be sold in the US. Seems to me to be a reasonable compromise, but the repubs went nuts and started their normal screeds that the government shouldn’t interfere in business, yada, yada, yada…..to any thinking person, what this means is that the repubs are lying again…even the pipeline company has said that most of the oil will be sold into the world market and will be used to “correct” the oversupply in the midwest; resulting in higher prices there. So, anytime you hear the repubs talking about Keystone (or Exxon for that matter in the new ads they have out), they are lying…lying about where the oil is going to go and lying about how many jobs the pipeline will bring….geez…
This is interesting…
Well… just a short one on politics since the NCAA tournament is on…I’m not usually a basketball fan but who can resist right now? Okay… read a really interesting article this morning in some paper..not sure which one but the interesting part is that as the repubs tack further and further to the right, they are becoming the party of angry, old, white people, that feel that their time has passed and who will do anything to try to maintain their privileged place in the world. And, it does nothing but get worse for the repubs as the changing demographics of the population is taken into account; with their harsh rhetoric against immigrants, they have alienated the fastest growing segment of the population. The article was interesting in describing the groups that the repubs have offended in this campaign…starting with women, Hispanics, independents, and basically everyone other than their base…and the stupid thing is that appealing only to their base to get through the primaries, they are limiting themselves to about 30% of the electorate in the general election. But, it couldn’t happen to a better bunch…who would vote for ole Mitt when he stated the other day “oh, Planned Parenthood, we’ll get rid of that”….an organization that does more for women’s health needs than any other in the US….this pandering to the hard right, hate everyone but themselves group is going to guarantee a loss this fall…keep it up, guys…
Snakes on the trail!!
Well…haven’t done a trail update in quite a while but today’s weather and the happenings out there have made one necessary…first off, what a fricking great day! I came back from the ride sweating through my shoes…oh, I’m burying the lead….okay, the snakes…first, on the run through the woods, I almost ran over an 18 inch Garter snake…just missed his head by about two inches and the thought entered my head “cool, first snake of the year” and it made me smile a bit….but then, up the trail a couple of miles, I was looking out about 30 yards or so and, since I had already seen one snake, thought there was another or a stick on the trail ahead….then, I noticed something big coming over my left shoulder, turned and saw a red-tailed hawk diving to skim over the ground at just a couple of feet of altitude and right next to me so close that I could see the feathers on it’s wingtips move…the hawk then stalled, hit what I thought was a stick, and carried another snake into the air; landing on one of the power poles that line the powerline trail. One of the coolest things I have seen in quite a while and it is such a huge cliche’ but it made me feel glad to be alive and there….
March 15th
Well…it was a long day yesterday and I felt like crap after deciding to try to sleep with a sleeping pill….won’t do that again…much prefer to take my chances than to feel like that again…so, you will hear me bitching here about it more….and last night was much better…but the Wings lost again and I am getting so disappointed in them that I may skip a few games…it is grocery run day today and I think I’m going to splurge on the real newspapers this morning and come back here and just enjoy myself for a change…it is already almost 60 and it is only 7 o’clock so it will be a t-shirt ride early this morning, too….making a slow cooked pork loin again today but I am concerned that the latest studies show that eating any red meat immediately shortens your life by 20%…but, how can you live on chicken and veggies? I guess I can eat fish but you can’t get it for the $1.69 a pound that you can get a half pork loin for…oh, well…it is getting to time to get going…I will be back later for more and might even make some sense…it is NCAA tournament day so I will have something to do…
A few thoughts on ole Mitt…
Well…after watching the gaffe filled campaign of ole Mitt stumble along to the repub nomination, one of the things that stuck me is that he just doesn’t seem that bright when he talks…like ole GW looked whenever he talked and I just made a connection in my head that explained Mitts and GW’s success…they are the poster children for crony capitalism and the bad results that come from removing merit from the economy and replacing it with the connections and advantages that come from being born into the right family…something that is accepted in Europe, but is not supposed to happen here in the US. Does anyone think that ole Mitt would be anything more than a middle manager somewhere without the family and political connections he has? Connections that he was born to…and just another example of having the world handed to you and deluding yourself into thinking you “earned” it….geez…
Voters may still have rights…
Well…it has been a heartening week if you believe that the right of the people to vote should not be able to be abridged by the lunatics on the right who believe that taking away basic rights is a justified tactic to steal elections. In three cases this week, the courts, both state and federal, have invalidated laws put in place by the repubs requiring that some sort of ID is necessary for people to vote; invariably affecting the poor and minorities and suppressing the vote that normally goes to the dems. In Texas, the repubs there cited the “rampant” voter fraud as the justification for disenfranchising over 600,000 poor people who don’t have the required ID’s, but, this “rampant” fraud was actually 50 cases over the span of 10 years…yep, 5 cases a year shows that this was a blatant attempt to fix the elections for the repubs but the court saw through this nonsense and stopped it….the same for a law in Virgina whose purpose was to do the same thing…keep the poor from voting by instituting what was, in effect, a poll tax, by charging these poor folks 22 bucks for these id’s…something that was outlawed with the end of the Jim Crow era…but these guys just can’t give up trying to discriminate and fix elections since it is becoming more evident all the time that it will be the only way they can win. In Wisconsin, the repubs tried to do the same thing with another of these laws that was written by ALEC…the Koch brothers legislative arm who have been writing legislation for the repubs that will further their radical, right-wing agenda and that the lazy repubs can pass to mollify their base. I’m just glad that the checks and balances that are built into our system worked this time….but, remember, this is more of the illegal nonsense you will see if these thugs get returned to office or if you vote for the repub in the presidential election…geez….