My Life

July 11th

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Well…the boating was fun and I am really sunburned and sore from the beating you take in a boat going 70 across Lake Michigan. Going to have to take the day off of riding even; I feel so beat up that everything hurts and that makes it hard to walk. So, today looks like taking it easy until the stiffness goes away…I hope later today but you know how that works…the real pain takes about a day to come so Monday is going to be the bad one. But what the hell..it was worth it to be out and having fun again…lake Michigan was as warm as I can remember it and the lack of waves made the boat ride at least a little easier.

I do have something to say later about the habit the repubs have about just making stuff up that goes all the way back to ole GW and is alive and well with Jan Brewer of Arizona….more later….

Oh, forgot to talk about the rest of the day…it looks like out to watch the World Cup final with K later…my predictions have not been too accurate but I think it’s going to be the Netherlands that wins it…so bet on Spain…

My Life

July 10th

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Well…it’s early morning here and I.m trying to get the cobwebs out of my head to get ready for the day…you’ll be happy to hear that this is not going to be another day of boredom…have plans to get out on Lake Michigan this morning to hang out with some friends on boats. The same boat we almost flipped two years ago that resulted in a gash of 5 inches in my head, 15 stitches and a bill of 2 grand to fix it….nope, not concerned that it will happen again. It will be nice to be out and about reliving the fun that was a regular occurrence back then….

There may be a post later on important topics but I may be too sunburned to want to do that so check back about 6 or so…probably more likely that it will be Sunday…

Politics

Is Frank Beckmann an idiot or just a cynical Repub shill?

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Well….yay…it’s outrage day again here in the world of the sane. Reading the Detroit News this morning, I ran across a piece of tripe from the columnist Frank Beckmann, whose premise is that the Obama administration is crazy since they have chosen to enforce the federal right to control immigration policy by challenging the Arizona law on immigration. His posit is that since the federal government is not living up to what the people of Arizona want on immigration enforcement, it is their right to make their own laws regarding it. What’s next Frank, if they don’t like some trade laws or the Chinese manipulation of their currency, are you proposing that Arizona send a delegation to talk to the Chinese or make laws that would better fit the thoughts of the residents? Or, if they decide we should get out of Afghanistan, then they can bring home any Arizona Reserve or National Guard unit that they see fit?

Frank also goes on to say that since the Obama administration has decided to not enforce federal marijuana laws in states that have approved medical marijuana, their stand on the Arizona immigration law is invalid…no, Frank, it’s not inconsistent or invalid, it’s the feds recognizing that this is a medical issue that affects individuals in those states, not a federal policy one and has the compassion to see the difference. They federal government has always had to the right to chose where to apply resources in the application of the law.

He concludes that Obama’s administration is bowing to political pressure and is not prosecuting people that should be under current laws…all I have to say is: Where were you , Frank, when the Bushies were illegally wiretapping the entire country and torturing in the name of America; breaking too many laws and treaties to count….cheerleading as usual. So now, I guess your column means you would support prosecution of Bush, Cheney, and all of their cronies? No. I didn’t think so…..Geez…..

My Life

July 9th

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Well…it is shaping up to be a fun weekend for a change…going out with friends tonight for a while and then out on the boats for the first time in a couple of years tomorrow. But, before that, the mundane intrudes again and I have to get groceries this morning and do the physical stuff that kinda keeps this old body in reasonable shape. so, on that note, have to get going to avoid the blue-hair brigade that clogs the aisles…more later…I promise…and it will be quite a bit more lucid than yesterday’s posts…some days it just doesn’t work…

Misc

Look down

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Well…I did finish one of the placekeepers, but it is down on July 6th since that is when I started it….so if you want to see it….just look down a few…

The title is : Why isn’t this important?

My Life

July 8th

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Well…feel good this morning…there is something to be said for moderation…looks like a normal day today but I do have lunch with T so that should be fun. Might even be able to skip the bike ride since it’s going to rain and I think the legs could use a day off. I know, this is kind of boring for you but you should live this and you would really see what boring is. But, I will promise a couple of new posts this aft since I do have that placeholder from a couple of days ago to finish and who knows, there may be new stuff in the newspapers this morning that may generate some interest…more later…

My Life

July 7th part two

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well..just got back from Ada…won at pool again and had a great time….and you’ll be happy to hear I didn’t stop for a bottle of whiskey on the way home…small victories, I know, but victories nonetheless….Tom gave me his Bind Faith album on a flash drive and it is so cool to have them again…Yeah, I know….dating myself again but it is still good music….anything else? No, not really…I feel bad that Germany lost but it is offset by Spain being in the final for the first time…looking forward to the final on Sunday…I’ve seen every match and it has been fun to see the stories play out….not more later since I need to make some food….

My Life

July 7th

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Well…another boring night…do I sense a theme here? I do still feel like crap again today and I don’t know why…well, I do but I’m not going to share that right now. I am right for half of the wold Cup final…now, all that has to happen is for Germany to beat Spain today and I will be right for both of them…yay for me…hmmmm..can’t even work up any enthusiasm for being right…so I should get going to coffee….more later…

Back again…have to do a wildlife alert this morning…what is it with tiny little bunnies everywhere? I must have seen a dozen of them cut across in front of me today…and some of them are pretty fast…but why do they feel compelled to cross in front of me? Weird…
A little farther out, I saw a doe with two fawns just sitting beside the trail…can’t remember ever seeing twin fawns before. Then, there were two muskrats swimming in the little ponds that are next to m-6….seemed interesting to me…that’s enough for now…

Misc

Why isn’t this important?

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This is a place keeper…the idea is: why do we have to have everything tainted by politics? Why can’t we just do the right thing?When did political advantage trump doing what is best for this country?

No longer a place keeper…I’m back with a few thoughts about what’s going on in the economy and the country as a whole…can’t we agree that unemployment is a problem? That people losing their homes their lives work, and their healthcare is a problem? That the concentration of wealth in the top 1% is a problem? That the middle class as an endangered species is a problem?

Where are the solutions when we can’t even get the right and left to agree that any of the problems listed above are important? Why do we keep wasting time, money, and American lives in two wars; one that has been won and the other that can’t? And why do we keep supporting the hatred that makes even attempting to solve this country’s problem by compromise political death?

Political advantage is the refuge of scoundrels who don’t care a damn about this country and would rather see it burn to the ground than tell their rabid followers that they are wrong and we do all need to work together and sacrifice together…that’s what made this country great and could again….geez…

Misc

This has been troubling me…

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Well….as I said in an earlier post, I am trying to lower the outrage quotient and try to be a more reasoned voice…in fact, the name that I proposed for this site was “A Reasonable Voice” but when my son was putting it together for me, he thought the title should be “Overeducated and Unemployed” and when I got a look at the first template, I had to agree. It also made me laugh…
I know this isn’t the topic that I promised but sometimes I have to write what is in my head or I’ll lose it…I promise the one on the political middle tomorrow.

There were a couple of articles in the newspapers over the last couple of days that made a connection in my brain that I haven’t seen anywhere else so here goes….of course, you know about the Supreme Court decision giving corporations the same rights as citizens to give money to political campaigns? Then today, I read that the profitability of corporations is back to where it was before the economic meltdown and they are sitting on “mountains” of cash but no one is investing to create more jobs. This could be a leap, but with the rights that corporations have been given as “citizens”, doesn’t that mean that they have responsibilities, too? And not just to their shareholders, but to the society as a whole? I’ve talked about the flipside of the people screaming and demanding their rights; that it has to be balanced with the responsibilities to this society.

I think it also points out the fallacy of the reliance on the private sector to create jobs where there is no check on their power to do whatever they please….using the Chinese model to wrestle more and more work out of the individual; thinking only of their bottom line and of the obscene bonuses that are granted to their ceo’s while they complain about “government interference”. If they are being interfered with, why are their profits the same as when the Bushies were running the show? Geez….

What you never want to be….