My Life

September 5th

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Yeah, I know, I’m late this morning…had way too much fun yesterday and Michigan won,,,yay! Started out the aft at Peppino’s downtown but 7 dollar draft beers? So, we moved over to OT for the rest of the game but didn’t watch much of it since we were playing shuffleboard and, of course, K and I won both games we played…that gets us to 23-2 when we play together. It was nice to have a few of the group back together if even just for the day. I’m debating with myself whether to go out for a bike ride but I probably will if just to get the toxins out. No sprints today, just a cruise.

Oh, a one last thing, I did buy a slow cooker yesterday and made some chicken, potatoes, carrots, and corn on the cob…well..don’t want to cook any other way….some of the best, most tender chicken I can remember….can’t wait to have the leftovers today….

Sports

Go Blue!

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Well…it’s been a long time coming but the day is here for the real college football to start with Michigan taking on UConn. We also have the State game at noon along with Notre Dame and Purdue. So, it should be a fun day…not a Sunday Funday, but a fun day nonetheless. Whew…any time I have to use words like nonetheless I cringe a little..but just a little since it fits so well. I am a little concerned that we are going to have another season like last year…I don’t know if I can take 3 losing seasons in a row and I can’t remember that happening since I have bee a fan. Could they turn into the Detroit Lions of college football? I shudder (literally) when I have those thoughts. At least we have hockey starting in three weeks if this goes bad. Or, State, since they are both Michigan teams, I have to root for them, too, and there is a little connection for me to that school since my daughter graduated from State a few years back.

Any other sports? Well, there is the Nationwide race from Atlanta under the lights for later if I make it that far…guess I’ll just have to pace today and stay to the one beer and hour limit…which is a good idea anyway and saves me money.

My Life

September 4th

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Well…another boring night at home but feel okay today…the change in the weather has been a little surprising but at least it’s not raining anymore. I DO have something to do today…yay! Going out to watch the Michigan game against Uconn and it looks like there will be a few of us at Peppino’s downtown. Had to look all over this place for my gear but found the shirt and need to de-wrinkle it so I don’t look too sloppy. I think I’m going out to get a slow cooker today and maybe cook some chicken, potatoes, and corn….should be yummy…more later…

I DO have to wish two of my sons happy birthday today…yep, two of them born on the same day 3 years apart…but the even weirder thing is that my oldest brother and I were born on the same day 13 years apart….match that one…

Misc

I think they may have won….

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Well…have been reading a lot today…yeah, I know, I do that everyday but today it seems that an idea has formed that I wasn’t even thinking about. Weird, huh? Not really, I’ll bet that happens to everyone…we have this long, protracted recession on our hands and one thing that I haven’t heard anything about is the decline of the middle class and it’s effect on the recovery. Since 75% of the economy is consumer spending, when the consumers have been squeezed as they have been by outsourcing of jobs, wage cuts, and rising health care costs, the engine of growth that used to be the middle class can only sputter. It has been an orchestrated attack on labor by the right and business that has led us to these straights; where the average worker makes less today than he did 30 years ago but the top one percent’s share of the economy has grown from 9 percent 30 years ago to almost 25% today. It is clear that it has been the goal of the right to decimate organized labor but I can’t understand why this same labor keeps voting for them because they will “get government out of the way” and allow them to keep more of their money. But more of less wages is always going to be less than what they would have had if the playing field wasn’t so tilted to business. And, the repubs have their thumb on the scale taking more and more from you and me and giving it to the rich.

I’ll end with a question that I now ask of all business but was originally aimed at GM: “Who is going to buy your 40 thousand dollar Suburbans when the middle class is destroyed?” I think we now know the answer….

Politics

Why are they rooting for the US to fail?

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Well…a thought came to me this morning when I was at the coffee shop reading the newspapers. That’s not the only place thoughts come to me but it seems that way sometimes…and it was not really a thought but a question. Why are everyone on the right rooting for the US economy to fail? Whenever more bad news is reported, the commentators that call themselves patriots on the right gleefully gloat that it’s all Obama’s fault and that nothing he has or will do will have any effect. This has been true for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, too, and I wonder why no one on the left is calling them on this ghoulish behavior.

I know why they are doing it, it’s just more of the scorched earth policy that the right has used since the early 90’s; led by the same guys, our old buddies Newt and Karl. When are we going to start recognizing that these two are responsible for most of the rancor that passes for politics these days? But it doesn’t have to be that way…we can change it if we just stop listening.

My Life

September 3rd

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Well…another night out, another day of feeling crappy…but I had fun so I guess it was worth it. And the Lions won…which was weird because when I left OT, they were behind. Looks like everyone is going to be out of town for the holiday so it’s going to be a low key weekend. Michigan plays Sat so that will be something to look forward to. I did promise to get a couple of posts out today and I’m going to try to keep it…but I feel worse today than yesterday so who knows…more later…

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…

What you never want to be….