My Life

September 2nd

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Well…did win at pool last night and had a lot of fun but feel a little crappy today…have to do the grocery shopping today but don’t feel like it…maybe I’ll put it off until tomorrow….but then I won’t have any food to eat and I am trying keep my no fast food streak alive….no other plans for the day…more later…

Still feel like crap and it’s one in the aft….but I did get the grocery shopping done and it’s nice to have food in the place…that might be part of the reason I still feel bad…having a hard time getting enough food since nothing really tastes good any more…guess it’s just a phase…at least I hope so. I almost forgot this was a holiday weekend since they are all the same to someone who is not working….did finish the third book from T and need to start a new one today. Probably more later….

Just got back from the bike ride and got soaked but it wasn’t bad because it’s still warm enough…starting to feel human again but still not right…not sure what to do about it….probably just have some more ice water and take it easy for the rest of the day…

Oh, not sure if I’ll have another one today…nothing jumped out at me when I was reading the papers and the brain is still fuzzy anyway…but I’ll promise that I’ll get my butt in gear tomorrow and give you at least two, if not three…..

Misc

Find the Cost of Freedom….

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This one has been bubbling ever since Tom got me a copy of “Four Way Street” by Crosby Stills Nash and Young and I heard this wonderful little song that ends the album. The lyrics go like this: find the cost of freedom buried in the ground, Mother Earth will swallow you, lay your body down…and then it repeats…all a capella. I’m going to finish this one up later today or tomorrow…but it’s going to be about the most poignant way that the cost of freedom is measured. I’ll try to not be political because that will minimize the overwhelming meaning of that sacrifice.

I have all kinds of thoughts and fragments of ideas running through my head right now from the current sacrifices being made by our military but also of Martin Luther King, the Kennedy Brothers, the four Kent State students, and the many who gave their lives during the civil rights struggle trying to make this country a better place. But I’m having trouble making sense of the fragments; to make something cogent from the feelings that come whenever I hear that song. I will keep trying because I think it’s important for all of us as Americans to make sure these sacrifices were not made in vain; that they are not used as props for political gain or to divide us…maybe we can use the universality of this great gift to help us understand that we are all still Americans no matter what the issues are that some use to tear us apart.

Politics

Charles Krauthhammer drives off the deep end….again….

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Well…Chuck has done it again with his column in the Detroit News today. How can he, with a straight face make this assertion: that the Dems have presided over a huge expansion of government power, intrusiveness and debt and that is why the people are angry. How many time do I have to keep comparing what the repubs did when Bush was in power? How many times can these guys just outright lie and people will keep listening? Let’s look at the facts; expansion of government power? How about the Bushies assertion of the unitary executive branch when Cheney and his Ilk brought back the saying from the Nixon days that if the president does it, it’s not against the law. And then proceeded to usurp the Senates power to ratify treaties by ignoring the Geneva Convention’s sanctions on torture? A truly egregious expansion of executive power that was outside the system of checks and balances. But okay if the repubs do it.

Let’s talk about intrusiveness next. What can be more intrusive and against the constitution than spying on the entire country without the warrants that are required by the fourth amendment? I’m sure ole Chuck is linking his point about intrusiveness to the new healthcare law but the analogy is flawed since there are many things that Americans are required to do by law.

I cannot believe that ole Chuck wants to talk about debt. Let’s just take a dive down the rabbit hole where he lives and rebut that whole assertion. Where did 30% of the structural deficit come from that the repubs have now taken to heart as their major issue? The Bush tax cuts, and when we take into account two unfunded wars, the huge medicare drug benefit, and the TARP program, the repubs must have no shame to call the current digging out from under their pile of crap “socialism”.

To the last point Chuck makes, that because the popular opinion opposes any policy, it should be abandoned and the progressives are on the wrong side of popular opinion. It’s because the progressives are ahead of popular opinion that makes them progressive. In the 60′s public opinion opposed the Civil Rights Act…so, according to Chuck, it shouldn’t have been enacted. Now public opinion has turned against the Afghan war. So, Chuck, should we be bringing the troops home? Public opinion supported racial segregation; should we have kept it?

I don’t know why they keep paying this guy to spout his simplistic, prejudiced crap….geez…

My Life

September 1st

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Well…Here we go for another month and I hope that it will be better than the last…not really better since I can’t remember a nicer August and more trips to the beach..but that is going to change later in the week when the highs are going to only be in the 60′s. But with the coolness comes the fist Michigan game this sat and I am curious to see what the team is like this year. Not much to do today…have to get back into the fitness routine since I took the day off yesterday; I thought playing in the waves was a close approximation to the calorie burn from riding the bike so I didn’t ride…okay, let me delude myself so the guilt doesn’t come back. Might have a trip to Ada later but with Tom working now, I’m not sure….more later…

My Life

A last one for August…

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Well…it’s been a pretty good August except no responses to any resumes…and that is kind of disheartening since I’m slowly going broke and I could use a job…but it is what it is and I’ll just have to figure out how to deal with it. It was really a busy day today, for me anyway…with the beach trip, to the coffee shop, drinks with K, and the a call from two of the kids….good to hear that things are going well for those two. I just finished watching “the Book of Eli” from Netflix and it was a pretty good small movie; the type that I enjoy. At least all the activity kept the boredom at bay and all I have to do is get through the next 3 hours and it will be bed time….

Hmmm….just wanted to put a cap on the summer….no more later.

Politics

Hell freezes over….I agree with Kathleen Parker…

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Well…it was a nice morning out at GH..huge waves and warm water made me grin like an idiot and got a bunch of good rides in body surfing. But, that’s not the topic as you can see from the title. I’m sure you know Kathleen Parker…the well-known conservative columnist, her column today is a mirror of what I have said on many occasions; that we need to start trying to reclaim what it means to be an American and start talking to each other again. I also agree when she she puts some tenets down on paper…be considerate, mind your own business, and don’t talk about religion…one of the things that I was told when I was younger was to never talk either politics or religion; something that I had lost for a while and wasted so much sound, light, and fury on it….I have become more calm since following that simple dictate.

What really heartens me about Kathleen’s column, along with some from others on the right like David Brooks, is that there are thinking people on both sides of the aisle that can see that the current course this country is on is unsustainable and we long for the time that lies and inflaming of passions will make way for reasonableness. I just hope the demagogues don’t win….geez…

My Life

August 31st

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Well…last day of August and I am debating with myself what to do…I think I’ll take this day to celebrate the end of summer and go to GH… it’s supposed to be almost 90 today and then the weather starts to get crappy…down in the 60′s for highs Friday and Saturday…good for college football, though, and I’m looking forward to the start of the season…so, there won’t be another of these until later…but I’m supposed to have drinks with K later so it may not be until really later in the aft…talk amongst yourselves for a while….more later…

Misc

Why are there so many users? (the real one…)

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Well…I really have no clue where this idea came from but it goes something like this: Why do people, corporations, and other organizations use people like they do? Why do they think it’s okay to manipulate people for their own gain, either political of monetary? This isn’t going that well…so I’m going to make lunch, take a break and come back…well…still haven’t had lunch yet…had a few other things that just got in the way…but it is cooking and so I thought I’d get back to this.

This one is going to be little jumbled but I’ll start with the general idea of people using other people for their own ends..like the Catholic priests preying on their parishioners for their own cruel reasons. But that is just a small one compared to the systematic, organized use of people that range from outright slavery that has happened throughout the years to the less obvious manipulation of people in the US by Freedomworks and the other billionaires that are backing the tea party movement. Is it human nature to take advantage of other humans, and if it is, why doesn’t everyone do it? Lunch is ready so I’ll be back later…okay…I’m back…the Freedomworks thing…well…it is using all of the disaffected people in the US for it’s particular business reasons, something that I think has been underreported, by getting deregulation repubs elected which will make the billionaires backing it lots of money and give them the chance to move more jobs offshore…well…basically getting them back to the Bush years. What do the people who are part of this movement think it’s all about? Do they like being used so cynically?

I’ve had enough of this crap…geez…

My Life

August 30th

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Well…I’m going to get to the placekeeper later this morning but right now I’m going to read the news to look for topics that I can talk about this afternoon. Not much going on today…running a little late this morning for some reason, just can’t get started moving or thinking….so I’ll end here right now…were shooting for the record on monthly posts today so there will be at least three…more later…

What you never want to be….