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….
Well…I forgot to post my World cup final prediction…yeah, I know, the Ned Ur match has already started but my picks for the final are:
Netherlands and Germany…I think Germany will beat Spain tomorrow….anyone want to bet a buck?
Well…survived the night and I was right…I do feel like crap…need to go out for coffee to get the brain working and find some topics for later..so, I will be back after the bike ride….it may take a couple of hours so give me a little time…more later…
I’m back but still feel pretty crappy so I don’t know how long this will be…the day has been kind of a bore so far but I think it’s a good one to just veg and watch the World Cup since it is so hot. So, that is what I’m going to do…I do have an idea for a later post that I think will deal with the great, unheard, center of the country whose voice is being drowned out by the screamers on the right…haven’t heard many screamers on the left so I am leaving them out of this….
Well….an interesting day today..well…not interesting but more than just sitting here and doing nothing…went over to K’s for some outdoor and pool time and had fun….got scorched and then decided that it was not time to stop….so, it’s going to be a long night and I’m going to feel like crap tomorrow…but at this point, I really don’t care…I’ll do anything to drive back the boredom…yeah, I know, that is going to have to be addressed at some point…at the end of the summer? Not now, anyway….
Well….saw a headline in Car and Driver this morning that triggered a flash in this old brain. The title was ‘when did roads become pork?” And, in my fevered brain, that immediately became “when did everything become pork” in our society? There was a time that I can still remember where we were proud of new roads, schools, and other parts of our shared, communal infrastructure and people understood the value to our society of these kinds of projects. Now it seems that any necessary project to keep us even with the rest of the world is met by the excess tax crowd with loud cries of pork, pork, pork, and the projects are deferred by scared politicians who only think as far ahead as their next election. When did we lose our guts to take on the hard projects? And, when did the idea that we are all in this together go away?
Have we become so simplistic in our capacity for thought that slogans are the new thinking? This country became great by big politicians and big citizens who could see past that next election, that could see past the day that their kids grew up and were no longer in school, that could see that the ideal of America IS that we are all in this together and could put their selfishness aside and see that there are limited resources but didn’t mind paying their fair share of the tax burden when it is necessary for the country to go forward. Progress for the whole of the country cannot be left to the private sector whose very existence is based on the “I’ve got mine” premise….as a country we need to stop wasting time and energy on bitching and start doing again….geez….
Okay..I promise today that there will be some topical stuff…not just the everyday workings of and old guys mind…I wonder if the lack of topical stuff is related the the holiday weekend? Have not been watching any news of the past few days and it has been quite relaxing not knowing what is going on in the outside world but that just shrinks my world even more and it’s getting a little constricting. that could be a topic for later in the day…how my world used to be this big, wide-open place where there were possibilities and challenges everyday and now it isn’t..it’s more like enduring it again and that is just not a lot of fun.
Nothing but the routine for today as far as I know…K did say something about having a little bash at her place but I’m not holding my breath. Have to start figuring out more things to do…more later…
Well… that was quite a boring Saturday…although the soccer matches were fun to watch…my prediction, after watching Germany take apart Argentina, is that Germany goes all the way to the cup. There are no other teams left that looked even half as good as they did…I’ll even put a couple of bucks on it if you want…you decide. No plans for the day…didn’t go out to watch the fireworks last night…sitting here and sipping a martini had a lot more attraction than riding my bike in the dark….and by the time the fireworks would go…it was the third martini going down so it wouldn’t have been a good idea. I CAN think straight sometimes…
As you can tell from the lack of outraged posts, I’m having some success with controlling my anger…never really did have that much of a problem but I still feel like crap when I’m always ready to blow about everything. So maybe I’ll try humor instead…there are enough angry people writing out there so maybe that will make it easier….it will surely be easier on me. So maybe more later since I really don’t have anything else to do today….
Well…don’t remember a lot about last night but I think there was a race on..no sleeping pill and don’t feel too bad today..have already been out on the bike since I wanted to get done before the Argentina Germany match. Not a lot else to say right now…think I’ll take it easy today but might go out later to see the fireworks. More later…
Well…an interesting day at the World Cup today with probably the best matches I’ve seen so far…the Netherlands defeated Brazil…yep, you read that right…Brazil is gone in a 2-1 loss. While most people were picking Brazil to win it all, in the matches I watched, they were inconsistent and I never really saw the flair that they are known for…they looked like a beatable team and in the end they were.
The second match of the day, Uruguay and Ghana, was really entertaining with a wide open back and forth that went through overtime and into PK’s when one of the Ghanian players missed a PK on the last play of the match in overtime and then Uruguay won it in the shootout. Ghana played really well and I could see how they could beat us last week….I feel sorry for the player who missed the PK that would have won it for them but that is the game and how it works sometimes….
Looking forward to what I think will be the best match of the cup, when Germany and Argentina go at it Sat morning at 9:30….can’t wait to see that one!
Well…out for a while last night and I feel a little crappy today…no, a lot crappy..I do need to get groceries and take care of G’s house today so I’ll have to get going soon…would like to just hit the couch and veg but can’t but I guess that’s my own fault..can take a nap later when soccer is on so that is something to look forward to…I’ll have to come back later and complete this…more later…
Hmmm…I’m back after doing everything that I mentioned earlier including re-ducttaping the car at G’s…even got back to see Brazil get beaten in the World Cup…congrats Netherlands…feeling quite a bit better now and I’m going to take the rest of the day off…just like I do every day it seems…if there is anything that gets me going later, I’ll come back and do another one…