Well…the tragedy in Arizona has my thoughts all over the place….and I’m really trying to make them coherent, to understand how we got to this place. But, one of the things I think we can’t forget in our rush to categorize it is that 6 people died…why can’t we just mourn for these people? Why do we always feel the need to explain, dissect, and assign blame, then have everyone come out of the woodwork to try to take political advantage for their own agenda? A nine year old girl died….isn’t that enough? Isn’t it enough that these families have been torn apart?
There will be plenty of time for analysis as time passes…just not now.
Well…I would be remiss if I didn’t send out birthday wishes to Donald Fagen….half of the wonderful songwriting duo that is Steely Dan…if you’ve been here before, you know how much the snarky lyrics, sleek music, and general hipness of these two have made me smile over the years…I think this would be the group that I would pick to have if I was stranded on a deserted island and could only have one…followed, of course, by Led Zeppelin….you Dan fans out there know what I mean….how can you not like “there is nothing in Chicago for a monkey woman to do”, a lyric from ‘Your Gold Teeth” that has been running through my head every day lately.
So, everybody, send some good thoughts to Donald on his 63rd birthday…..
Well…okay, I lied…there wasn’t more later but the tragedy in Arizona threw me for a loop…I was going to comment on it but it would have been really hard to keep politics out of it and that just wasn’t appropriate. It was a normal day for a sunday…did have a SF with K and K and it was good to see them…spent most of the day on British tv from Netflix but did watch “Eyes Wide Shut”…the only Kubrick movie that I really didn’t like…just didn’t see the point of the thing and Tom Cruise doesn’t belong paired with Kubrick…It is nice to have T back in town but I will miss seeing the kitties….hmmm…said that before, I think….not much to do today…going to have to get back out for an hour walk this evening but the heel splits that I get in the winter are back and I’m limping like crazy since they hurt….I will have at least two more topics for today once I read the papers and get the coffee in me….no cocktails except out with the twins so I feel okay this morning….man, this one is really disjointed…the brain will be working better later…I hope…
Well…another day goes by and I really don’t remember much of it…and no, it’s not from the cocktails…this time anyway. I am kind of hobbling around today, still sore from the walking but the ibuprofen works so I guess I should take some, huh? Sometimes I just forget that that stuff is available…just like a couple of weeks ago when I was bitching to T about being cold…and then I remembered that the heat is included here and I can just turn up the thermostat….it’s about 6 degrees outside and the poor old car just hates this crap..but, on the bright side…only about 6 more weeks and we should start seeing a break…just had a thought…that there are things that are disappearing from my world….as I get older there are things that I enjoy that are just not suitable for someone my age…like water parks…and going out to bars to raise hell and dance…hmmm….need to think a little more about this to make sense…not much to do today…no SF planned so another day of boredom….I can smell the coffee so I’m going to go and get a cup and read the paper…more later…
Well…I just don’t get the repubs these days…never really have, I guess and their obsession with the healthcare reform bill passed last year is making it even worse. I know, I can look at it in the context of their complete disdain for anyone but the rich, but I think their constant attacks are going to be their undoing; especially since parts of the law are extremely popular and have proven to already be quite effective. What spurred this one was a short segment on “Countdown” last night that quoted an article in the LA Times (that I couldn’t find) that the tax credit included in the law has spurred a flurry of activity in small business; that thousands of them have started offering their employees health care since the credit makes it affordable to them. How are the repubs going to explain being against something that helps one of their core constituencies? In the last election, they rode the lies that they were the saviors of small business but I think it’s just another case of the repub disease; promise everything, deliver nothing, that has been their M.O. since the early 90’s. When are people going to learn that these guys don’t give a damn about anything but getting elected….I know, I’m becoming repetitive, but repetition helped the repubs turn lies into truth in the minds of some of the people…maybe it will work to keep the truth the truth…geez…
Well…was not good last night so I do feel kind of crappy this morning…tried to stay up to watch the Wings but crashed out when the score was 4-2 Calgary…just looked and we won 5-4….that must have been a good third perlod…I’ve got to try harder to make it through the games….not as much snow as they were predicting here and I’m okay with that…big storms next week, though….not much to do today…have the last day taking care of the kitties and I think I’ll miss them…oh, well….you know the drill by now…feel crappy..write less….so, I’ll be back later to finish the placeholder and keep going with this one…need water and the couch…
Okay…just finished the coffee and papers and feel quite a bit better…but I am sore from starting to walk again…had to do something to replace riding the bike and it is really strange how brand new muscles are screaming at me this morning…it’s not that I’m old…see, trumped that idea before it even started…already have everything done for the day but cooking and I’m not sure what I’m going to make…maybe chicken in a mushroom sauce…or a homemade pizza…made one the other day and it came out great so I’ll have to think about it….
Oh, the placeholder…I know there are things look like a good idea at night and then, in the light of day, you can’t figure out why you thought that way…that is kind of where I am with the placeholder….I sometimes have my enthusiasm jacked up by watching “Countdown” and cocktails but lose the thread the next day…I will try for later but it’s still early and I need to just veg for a while…and let the coffee kick in…
This is a placeholder about the facts on the new healthcare law…La Times article…small businesses…just putting notes down so I’ll remember it…now you see some of the guts of how this stuff comes together…
Well…you’d think that someone that always gets things wrong would be out of job, but I guess if you’re on the right, it just doesn’t matter…you can predict whatever you want, you can be sure of things that are not true, and you can ignore the successes of the opposition because that is what the ignorant right wants. In Nolan’s column this week, he rails and rails about the “job-killing” Obama administration in one sentence and then he says that the automobile industry is in a turnaround and adding jobs…all the while ignoring the fact that he excoriated the administration for the bailout that kept those jobs and set the stage for the automakers to thrive.
He then goes on to the next talking point…that it is Obama who is at fault for gas prices rising and that it will kill the auto industry if he doesn’t do something about it….can anyone say “drill, baby, drill”…
Hypocrisy, thy name is Nolan Finley…geez….
Well…today may be a day of a lot of short ones in response to lies and omissions that are coming out of the commentators on the right…I’ll start with Daniel Howes of the Detroit News…in his column this morning he talks about “failed states” and makes the assertion that the reason they have failed is the high incidence of unionization in those states, and the people that live there are at fault because their unions have been able to wrestle a living wage out of their employers instead of giving millions to the ceos. What he conveniently forgets to mention in his trashing of the middle class is that the conservative’s star state, Texas, with one of the lowest union membership rates in the country is on track to have a 25 billion dollar deficit this year; even with the destruction of the minimal social safety net they used to have, ranking it next to California. What do you say to that Daniel? Just another incidence where the right will make up facts and use outright lies to try to destroy the hated unions….Daniel, you should be ashamed…
Well…I just remembered this one from yesterday and had to get it down before I forget it since it just points out the idiocy of the leaders on the right…those who are proud that they don’t know anything and hold their ignorance up as a badge of honor….trying to browbeat those they don’t agree with to make their points. The topper of this kind of nonsense happened on Bill O’Reilly’s show yesterday when he was debating the existence of god with someone from the American Atheists….old Billo jumped the shark with the comment and challenge to the guest that he explain the tides in the ocean if there is no god…yep, really, a fact that 8 year olds are taught; that the tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon escaped this idiot….why is he still on the air…oh, I know…because the right reveres idiocy and ignorance above all else….and there will be much more to come…welcome to the idiocracy…and no, I didn’t coin that term….there was a movie with that name a few years back…I wish I did, though…