Well…don’t know if I will have any earth-shattering posts for you later today…I was thinking about Boehner and his band of miscreants as one but I’m just not sure that it has jelled enough to make sense. So, I may have to let that one percolate for another day or so…I’ve just had a lot of jumbled thoughts but one that has been bothering me is a little personal and a failing that I’ve been working on for some time now. You know the issue…letting my anger boil over in my personal life..I’ve been getting angry at everyone and everything again and I, again, need to do something about it. This whole thing was triggered by another person almost running me down in a crosswalk starting out on the ride this morning…it made me so mad that I almost allowed that person to ruin my ride on this glorious Michigan fall day. It took almost 5 miles before I stopped seething and there is something wrong with that…I’ve also noticed that my driving is creeping back to aggressive again and I’m bitching about people all the time.
So, I think my path here is quite clear…I need to start thinking about what I’m doing again; I’m going to try to not say one bad thing about anyone for the rest of the day….I’m going to smile more than I scowl, and I’m going to try to shift into laid back mode in the car when I head out to Ada today…I know I feel better about myself when I do these things but it is harder than it looks…these behaviors have to be turned into habits just like the anger and meanness….I hope I don’t get too relaxed that I can’t work up outrage for my posts…I wonder where the balance is?
Well…out with G last night and had some fun…but was not a good boy after I got home so I feel a little crappy today…but that’s okay…don’t have a lot to do today and with the weather changing, I can’t get out on the bike until later in the day…I do have pool out in Ada with Tom later and it is nice to not stack lunch with T on top of it…don’t really need to get a head start. Decided to make my bean dip for G’s birthday party on Friday so my contribution is taken care of…along with the bottle of Hot Damn that is getting to be tradition sitting around her outdoor fireplace. Not much else to say right now so I’ll stop and head for the couch for a while…as I said, I do feel a little crappy today…more later…
Well…I forgot to pass on the dual grasshopper and caterpillar alert for the trails today…the wooly bears were swarming along with a huge cadre of grasshoppers that met the generally accepted alert rate of 20 per 100 feet…so, be careful out there…I decided to ride my route in reverse yesterday and neglected to pass that on…it was so weird to not know where I was on the trail and to have to think to know what gear to be in….the terrain looked so alien going clockwise with the shadows and sun making a completely different view from the bike….places that looked like large hills turned into flats or downhills going backward and the last climb along M-6 was just a killer with dead legs after 10 miles…but it was still fun and I think I may do both weekend days that way…it may work the legs a little more and challenge the muscle memory I’ve built up over time. One last thing, I’m only 26 miles from hitting 1700…2000 still looks doable before the weather goes away….no more later….well…who, knows…I may have another topic…I really did have one but I forgot what it was…might have to go back through the newspapers to refresh my memory…
Oh…do have the normal night out with G I think…then Tom tomorrow, then out with T for HH Wed…maybe even K for HH Thurs…geez… a lot to do this week…
Well…have to clear a few things up this morning…you may have gotten the wrong idea from some of my previous posts that I’m just a run of the mill tax and spend liberal type…but that is not correct. I do believe that government has a role as referee between the people and the overwhelming force of the rich and business, but I don’t believe that the government is always right and always does the right thing. There have been many examples of pork on the right and left where politicians have used tax revenues as their own personal piggy bank and to reward the people and businesses in their districts. If these outlays are for the common good, then I can see where they are necessary but projects like the “bridge to nowhere” and increasing spending on the military industrial complex in the face of this deep recession is not something that should continue.
With that said, I need to get to the tax cut nonsense that is still being pushed by the right, in the face of all credible economic analysis telling us that these cuts did nothing to stimulate the economy in the years they were in place but cost us 700 billion dollars a year in revenue. One thing that the right will not tell you, or doesn’t want to emphasize in their attacks on the stimulus package is that a third of it was tax cuts…that’s over 250 billion dollars of tax cuts in the 860 billion package. In one breath they tell us that the stimulus failed and in the next they say that the only way to save jobs and grow the economy is more tax cuts that they just said don’t work. Is anyone else’s head about to explode with this blatant and cynical attempt to have if both ways? I know, I’ve talked about this before, but my ire was aroused by the new ads here in Michigan that keep repeating “the failed stimulus package” in attacks on the Dems here…while it is hard to prove prevention of the loss of jobs by the stimulus, it is not hard to look at the data and know that the rosiest projection of jobs created by tax cuts was under 1 million…over 8 years…compare that to the 22 million created when there was a sensible tax policy during the Clinton years.
Another tactic from the right that I want to deal with today is their method of calculating the cost of each job saved for the dollar outlay from the stimulus package; with those costs being estimated at wildly differing rates of 2 to 20 million dollars per job; but we know how bad the right is at math…they don’t believe in science so why should they believe in math? Well…that’s not quite fair, but lets look at the 3.7 trillion dollar total cost of the Bush tax cuts and compare it to the optimistic estimates of 1 million jobs added while the tax cuts were in force. Then, let’s compare that to the the 860 billion dollar cost and the generally agreed on number that there were 2.5 million jobs saved by the spending of the stimulus…don’t even have to be good at math to see that the tax cuts are a far more expensive way to create jobs…so, let’s end this nonsense once and for all…geez…
Well…it’s another harbinger of the coming winter here…had to put the heat on for the first time last night since it’s only 35 degrees outside. But, the cool thing is the heat is included in the rent so I can run it 75 in here if I want. I know that’s not something you care about but that’s okay…going to have to wait until after noon to go out on the bike but I don’t have anything else to do so it’s no big deal. Not a lot to do today….and not much of a SF yesterday but I still feel fuzzy this morning so if I’m not making much sense, that’s the reason. Probably should take the clubs out of the trunk and clean them up today….maybe not…more later…
Well…no big topics today…I did have a short Sunday Funday with K and V..watched the Lions lose but they played hard so maybe that’s progress? Talked to my daughter after she got back from Europe and agreed that the next time they go, I’ll go with them…I’ve always wanted to see England so I guess I’ll have to start saving some cash…and find a job…but that’s harder than it looks…and I’m still not that motivated…maybe in a couple of weeks…who knows? That’s about it for now….I promise some topics for tomorrow..but I don’t know what they’ll be yet….
Well…a really low key day yesterday….as I told you, cooked a chicken in the slow cooker that came out great and then just watched football all day…I am getting concerned that Michigan is always coming form behind (or tied) to win but I guess a win is a win. Looking forward to the Michigan Michigan State game next Sat and I am going to try getting some people together for it…I am so angry at Dish Network for their silly contract squabbles with Fox Sports that is taking away my Red Wings…have to look to see what is available on the cable system here…if I can get the channels I want, I’m going to dump the dish since it doesn’t work when it’s raining, or snowing, or sunny…
Not a lot to do today…I think I’m going to copyright that phrase…have to head over in a minute to let C’s dogs out since he is out of town for the next few days…then back here to watch the Lions lose again…there is also a race on but I am losing interest in Nascar with the cookie cutter cars and the lack of innovation…I guess that extends to all racing…way too many rules…like Clint Bowyer losing 150 points because his car was 10 thousandths of an inch out of spec….didn’t they meet the templates before the race? That kind of silly crap is going to ruin the sport…or it already has…let’s go back to the early days where you could tell a Dodge from a Ford from a Chevy….and if you weren’t cheatin’, you weren’t tryin’….I’m not sure if there will be topics for later but I do have some stuff careening around in my head…yep, that does hurt….more later…
Well…picked up a copy of Neil Young’s new cd a couple of days ago and have been listening to it almost constantly since….I like it quite a bit but if you’re a casual fan or a Neil novice, I’d listen to a few tracks online before I’d buy it. Again, Neil defies convention with the way the album was recorded…most of us are used to artists recording solo with acoustic guitars, but Neil does something different here; using an electric guitar and no other instrument or players. It does start to grow on you after a while and the electric guitar gives Neil and the producer a broader sound palette to work with, and they use it to make a full sound that is somewhat unusual at times.
But one thing that has not changed is that Neil can still write; songs of failure, loss, love, and anger are all part of the world he creates and it makes me really happy that us old guys still have it…or he still has it…I’ve been looking for it and would love to have it at some point….
Well…a kind of nice day yesterday…didn’t do a whole lot but did have HH with K that was fun and then a few cocktails here so I’m a little run down today…but I did get the slow cooker going at about 7 with a whole chicken this time that I browned in the oven first…made some rosemary butter with bacon to put under the skin. Starting to smell pretty good in here. Not a lot to do today but there is the Michigan game later and an 8 hour sports car race that starts at 11 so I’ll have something to do on this low key day. Not sure if there will be any other topics today but maybe…kind of cloudy in the head right now so maybe getting out on the bike in a few will help that…who knows? More later…
I’ve been vacillating all morning about writing this one but I just have to say something….part of my humanity and heart died when I read about the suicide of the Rutgers student after his supposed friends streamed his intimacy with another man to the internet using a hidden webcam. Who are those little monsters who would do such a thing? In what world is this kind of behavior acceptable?
I can answer that, I think. the kind of world where gay people are routinely demonized by the right, the kind of world where politicians pander to the lowest of their base, the kind of world where gays are routinely told they are second class citizens with less rights to happiness than the rest of us. I indict all of the haters on the right for making it acceptable and easier to hate these people by their daily screeds but I also indict the selfish parents who raised children like the ones who bullied this young man. I indict the religious leaders that still spew hate for gays from the pulpit every Sunday and hide behind the selective reading of their holy books to justify this inhuman behavior. I also indict all of the rest of us for not standing up to these bigoted idiots….this is what we get when we stand silent in the face of hate…and I shed a tear for the parents of this young man…