My Life

February 13th

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Well….had a fun day yesterday…hung out with some of the old group at Logan’s and laughed a lot then came home to watch the race….fell asleep during it but that was okay..it looks like racing with the new car changes that nascar has done over the winter is going to be even crappier than last year…oh, well…there is always the Wings. Not much to do today…no SF since K is going to riverdance tonight but there is a Wings game this aft so I think it’s going to be a lay low day even though I don’t feel that bad….more later…I have to have my coffee and read the paper…I will be back later for another one…I hope…

Okay..waiting for the Wings to get to the last perlod and I still feel like crap this time of the day…it’s warm enough to go out on the bike if the trails were clear today an I am a little antsy to get out again…and I may take it out this week on the streets if it keeps getting warmer. No political stuff today I don’t think….finally watched the entire documentary “Supersize Me” about the guy who only ate McDonald’s food for an entire month and the effects it had on his body….not pretty….okay, worn out again and I’m heading to the couch to watch the rest of the game….still have that damn bug and I will be really thankful when it is finally over…I’ll look at the paper and see if there is anything for a topic…

Misc

Enjoy the insurance I paid for….

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Well….was just sitting here thinking after I paid my taxes this week and a thought came to me…and it is one that should anger everyone like me that is unemployed and struggling to keep their life together. Since employers get tax credits for supplying health insurance to their employees, you and I are buying health insurance with our tax dollars for those who are still employed, even though we can’t afford to buy our own…now, how sick is that system? According to a study that I read in the Post, if we stopped this subsidy right now and applied the cost to universal coverage, we could cover everyone in the entire US….that’s all I have to say right now…just wanted to share that little bit of the bizzaro world we live in…geez…

My Life

Februaruy 12th

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Well…running late this morning for no reason other than I have been watching the documentary “the Cove” on my roku about the dolphin slaughter in Japan that won the oscar last year….not quite done yet but I needed to make coffee and get my newspapers. Had a fun day yesterday…did meet up with K for HH and she was the one who wanted me to watch the cove so we could talk about it the next time we meet up. The Wings looked good last night and finally played like they can and having a couple of cocktails watching them was fun…feel okay this morning so I must not have gone overboard…meeting up with C this aft to have a couple and it is nice to have some plans for a change. So, on that note, I’m going to get a cup of coffee and watch the rest of the movie before I tackle the papers…more later….oh, one last thing….it’s already almost 30 degrees already…yay!

Misc

I need to talk a little about Egypt…

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Well…how can you not be proud of the human beings who rose up and took control of their own destiny in Egypt? I have been watching this story unfold and have been humbled by the dignity of the protesters that said enough; enough of being treated like children who were not mature enough to set their own course and run their own country. I am a little disappointed by the lag in our government’s response to the events there, but I also understand that diplomacy is usually deliberate and works in small increments.
But, things have changed….events move much faster these days and we need to adjust our foreign policy to be able to keep up…and I am tired of hedging our bets when people are trying to become free…it is one thing that we need to support anywhere that the flower starts to burst through the ground….let’s stop basing our actions on fear and and the belief that we are the only ones that know what freedom means…..

To the people of Egypt…Well Done!

Misc

TGIF….

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Well…I think I’ve fallen into the trap of waiting for the idiots on the right to say or do something stupid and then writing about it…kind of like a counter puncher in boxing and while it has some value, does it stifle original thought? Is there even any original thoughts anymore? I mean the written word has been around for quite a long time and how can you meet the expectations of being original? It just seems to be too easy to just comment on things other people say and it does get to be a habit but I’m going to try over the weekend to be original and have some thoughts of my own. I do have thoughts of my own sometimes, I did write two original novels after all….no, you can’t see the first one….it was written back in the time of 5 1/4 inch discs and no electronic copy exists anymore….I have been trying to find the original…geez, there’s that word again…let’s not say original…let’s say hand written manuscript…yep, on legal pads in ink…had a stack of them about 2 feet high before I finished that one. I will say this…the writing process has never been painful or difficult for me…when it comes it comes fast and easy…but I’ll bet you’ll say it’s easy to write crap…and I’ll counter with no it isn’t. I’ve done it….

Enough of that….how about the weekend…I did title this one TGIF after all…the Wings play again tonight but I am concerned that they’ve lost their fire with losing 3 of the last 4….I do like the fact that Babcock has called them out on it and is pushing them with the extended practices….I’ll still watch tonight since it is cocktail night and it is fun to settle in on the couch and watch it with a few friends via text…tomorrow we have the start of the nascar season with the shootout from Daytona and I am trying mightily to still like the sport with the crappy cars and lousy competition…they just need to stop using the rules to make it homogenized and let the creativity of the builders come through again….where are you Smokey Yunick?

I need to text K and see if there is a SF this week….it would be nice to get out…although, the Peppino’s over here was so frickin loud last night I couldn’t hear a thing…so maybe the mex place instead….need to see the guys there anyway…..or Logan’s, haven’t been in there in a while…..and the car could use getting up to temp at least once this week…that’s about enough for now…I’ll get to the political masturbation that is the repubs agenda tomorrow or Sunday….

My Life

February 11th

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Well…kind of a a good day yesterday…got the taxes done and a few things cleaned up around here and the fact that it is not 9 degrees this morning gives me hope that I’ll survive this winter. Okay, I know I’ll survive it but it is nice to see that it is going to be warming up some…yeah, when you get older, for some reason the weather becomes important…I would like to wash the car without it turning into a block of ice, though, and it would be good to be able to see out of the windows again. Did go out for a couple with G last night and it was good to see her…need to text K to see what she has going on…maybe a happy hour with her tonight would start the weekend out on the right foot. I do have some stuff to do today…groceries this morning and then the normal routine and it looks like the job market is picking up so I need to revise the resume and get a bunch of them out before I go completely broke….and cleaning, too…I’m surprised how much cleaning I have to do living alone….way too many cobwebs…oh, one thing, I found a live ladybug in my bathroom the other day…where do they come from in the winter? I guess I could ask the same thing about the spiders I still see…more later…

Politics

How can one guy be wrong all of the time?

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Well…I do hate to pick on one person all of the time..no that’s not true, I love to call out the idiocies and inconsistencies on both the right and left…but if you’ve been here before, you’ve noticed I do tend to to go after those on the right more…but I should because they are the ones that have taken idiocy to a new level that I could not have imagined a few years ago. This morning I was reading the Detroit News again (I know, why should I keep reading that right wing rag?) and our boy Nolan Finley is at it again…taking the president to task for going to the chamber and asking them to take part in the recovery by hiring. Well..old Nolan goes on either to lie, or to show his ignorance of economic reporting saying that companies are not going to hire until they are profitable when, as you and I and almost everyone else in the US knows, retained corporate profits are at their highest level in the history of the world. He goes on to assert that they are not hiring because of the repub talking point about uncertainty keeping business from being able to plan and know what their costs are going to be down the road. Nolan, Nolan, Nolan….the only uncertainty that business cares about it whether or not the billions they spent buying a republican house is going to give them free reign to steal more from the pockets of workers. You guys have created the uncertainty about the healthcare law….spending almost all of your time since the new congress started trying to repeal the law when you know it won’t happen and snowing your business buddies that the money they gave you is going to get them something; all the while collaborating with them to keep from hiring to make sure you have a new talking point.

But that’s not the worst of it….here in Michigan the earned income tax credit for lower income folks is being eliminated while business is given a huge tax cut…this is a tax increase no matter how the right tries to spin it…and these guys are held up as fiscally responsible when any time the previous governor asked for more taxes to help cut the deficit she was tarred as a tax and spend liberal. I guess it’s okay if you raise taxes on those that have no money, power or lobbyists…another example of the hypocrites that reside in the modern repub party….geez…

My Life

February 10th

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Well…felt like crap all day yesterday and I’m not sure that Tuesday was the cause….I hope I feel better today but I think that I have overlapping viruses since I have new symptoms that weren’t there when this crap started 3 weeks ago. Oh, well….it’s kind of like last year when I had this low level thing that lasted for almost a month. Didn’t really do much yesterday but go out for coffee and work out…watched another British show called “Wire in the blood” that is okay…and now have three more seasons to watch so I won’t get bored as much as normal. The chicken that I made yesterday came out really good and I will have to keep the carcass to make chicken soup next week….well, not next week since I do need two carcasses to have enough flavor…not much to do today…I do need to get the taxes done since I need to get the cash so I can pay the rent in April….and maybe out with G later but I’m not sure…I promise that I’m going to get more topics out almost everyday and I guess I’ll do the same today….More later…

Misc

Just can’t get thinking…

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Well…it’s been a tough day on the brain and with no topics that have grabbed me, I suppose I’ll just muse a little bit and do a little free form writing. I did see one news item that brightened up my day….Keith Olbermann has a new job at Al Gore’s Current TV channel where he will be news director and then have a new show later in the year…I have not turned on MSNBC since they fired him and that is both good and bad….my outrage level has certainly decreased but it has also resulted in having fewer topics to write about since he covered things that weren’t getting normal media coverage. I wish him well and can’t wait to see what the new show will look like. It looks like the job market may be brightening a little…two people I know that have been out of work long term have recently found jobs so that is starting to give me hope….it would be nice to get back to work before the car dies and I can’t wait to get out of this place and buy a house….it has been okay to not have the maint headaches but I do miss having a place to work on the car….or just wash it…

I laugh so much at the idolatry that the Reagan worshipers have trotted out in the last week…especially from “the one who shall not be named” but it just shows that with the repubs, faith still trumps facts or reality and I have to remind myself constantly that though it may be funny, there are policy decisions being made on this faith that are going to hurt the middle class and give more of the country to the rich and powerful…maybe I should create a shorthand so I don’t have to keep saying rich and powerful, What do you think?

Haven’t really touched on the super bowl yet but I didn’t think it was a very good game…and the halftime show was one of the worst things I have ever seen…that, after all of the bitching that was done about the Who last year, too. I would much rather see geezer rockers with talent than the trendy new thing they tried this year….talent is talent after all, and the Who has been around for 40+ years with many iconic songs that will always be remembered as long as anyone still listens to rock. Where will the black eyed peas be in 5 years? Where is their Baba O’Reilly, or Won’t Get fooled Again, or Who Are You, or Tommy?

That’s about it for now….I’ll try to be more topical later or tomorrow..or you may get another one of these..who knows?

My Life

February 9th

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Well…long night last night and I won at pool…finally, had a lot of fun but, like almost all Wednesdays, I feel a little crappy today. Was up and down all night starting at about 3 or so and I think that has something to do with it…still really tired right now so this one is going to be short and I will come back to add to it later…not much to do today anyway….might even skip coffee this morning but that is the only thing that keeps me going so doing that could just compound the problem….more later…

Okay…I’m back and feeling almost human again after coffee…I am getting really tired of the cold here in Michigan and my car isn’t faring much better….I think it may be time to replace it…but it’s going to be hard on me since I’ve had it for over 10 years and it has been a part of my identity for that time…but, the next one is going to be a convertible of some sort and that is good to look forward to…I know, canvas top converts are not the most practical things to have in Michigan but I lived with a Fiat 124 for 3 winters with a top that was held together with duct tape and didn’t have the heaters that the newer ones have…and rear wheel drive in the snow is a heck of a lot of fun…as my son has found out with his Genesis coupe…I think I have topics for later but have to work out first to keep from feeling guilty…and I have to check to see if the chicken I’m brining is thawed….

What you never want to be….