Well….I think I may have been a little premature in thinking that I was over the flu…and, it didn’t help that I had a couple of cocktails last night but I was bored so that’s my excuse…I did see “Inception” last night and it was probably one of the best movies I’ve seen in a couple of years….both in concept and execution…made me work a little which I like in a movie….other than that, yesterday was just a take it easy day, didn’t really cook anything special…just leftovers. I don’t know what I’ll cook today….probably just dig through the freezer to see if there is anything that I can get creative with. Other than that, not much to do today….just coffee and papers here and then probably some cleaning if I feel better…might just milk the flu chronicles for one more but who knows? More later…
Monthly Archives: January 2011
I’m on board Dana….
Well…just read an op-ed piece by Dana Milbank from the Washington Post where he proposes that all of the media declare February a “Sarah Palin free month” and I think it is such a good idea that I will pledge to do the same. So, after Jan 31…this will be a Palin free zone….even though she is such an easy target that on the days that I’m somewhat less than lucid I can still get a post out on her latest craziness….it is kind of a sacrifice for me since…as Dana said, when she is in the tags for an article, the article goes much higher in the search results…but that is a crutch I’m willing to do without if it will help to make her go away….
The repubs and the CBO…
Well…I am laughing out loud at a fact that I just uncovered in the news this morning, something I probably should have learned a couple of weeks or months ago with all of the news I read….I know you’ve read about the concerted effort by the repubs to discredit the Congressional Budget Office…the non-partisan part of the government that calculates (or estimates) the cost of proposed legislation, saying that the 253 billion dollar savings from the healthcare law is just their “opinion” and is based on untrue assumptions. They are going so far as is the tired old phrase ‘garbage in, garbage out” to describe the process used to come to those conclusions. Well…guess what? Guess where the repubs got the figures that put job-killing in the title of the healthcare repeal bill that was just passed in the House? Yep, you guessed it…from the very same analysis that reported a net savings from the healthcare reform bill….go on, you can laugh, too….
Can’t these guys even try anymore? Geez….
January 21st
Well…up kind of early this morning but a tolerable night of sleep so that’s okay…and the Wings won in OT so it was a good night. Still kind of worn out from the flu but there is light at the end of the tunnel…but I am going to milk the Flu Chronicles for one more post today…have to get the numbers up after last month….it’s been one of those weeks that has just been a blur and I don’t really remember doing anything…I wonder if it’s s defense mechanism against remembering feeling like crap or is is just getting old? I do have a few things to do today….I have to get groceries since I have emptied the freezer…well…that’s not true…I do have a few pounds of chicken but I am really tired of chicken….maybe I’ll make some chicken stir fry over the weekend….does anyone else get tired of eating healthy? See, the flu has affected me…not very lucid right now….I think I may need some fast food…okay…just not thinking so I’ll stop…more later….
One more thing…it’s 9 degrees here in the frozen wasteland….but spring is only 8 weeks away…
Nolan…you are still wrong, as always….
Well..I know I promised to be better in this post, to try to be less shrill and more reasonable, and to take no pleasure in the idiocy of the right and in particular to not name the commentators on the right who are so inconsistent in their writings. But, you know that hasn’t been true but I’m not here to apologize, since they just keep it up and no one is calling them out on this stuff. So, I’ll try to do it with one of my favorite people from the Detroit News; Noland Finley…again. His column today was this mish-mash of inconsistency where he blames the US for not taking care or having programs for delusional people like the shooter from Arizona, then moves on to charge that the violent images that Hollywood shows in it’s films and TV programs as the cause for many attacks by these deranged people. But, that’s not all, he goes on to assert that there is little that parents can do to counteract violent images in video games and today’s media.
How many ways can this guy be wrong and still have a job writing? First, let’s touch on his idea that there are not enough programs for the mentally ill but who is responsible for this? It’s the progressives out there who fight tooth and nail to keep just the skeletal safety net that is still there for ordinary Americans…and this type of social program is the first thing that the repubs attack as being the creeping “welfare state” whenever they are in power. Number two..if the media is so all-powerful, why did he, in an earlier column, assert that the right wing hate speech had nothing to do with the shooting…what is it Nolan? Does media matter or doesn’t it? Or is it just the media that is associated with the progressive leanings of many of those in Hollywood? And, your assertion that parents can’t effect the reactions of their children to these images, what about the millions and millions of children who see these same images and don’t go out and shoot someone? I don’t like to share the lives of my children here, but I have to add the anecdotal evidence that I have observed while raising my kids. They watched violent movies and tv shows…they played violent video games and still do to this day…but not once, and I’ll repeat that NOT ONCE did my kids ever get into a fight with anyone…and this is because their parents gave them the grounding of what is real and what isn’t…that when someone gets beat up or shot on tv…the actors can get up and walk away….but, in real life, there are real consequences to their actions and resorting to violence was a sign of failure; and not to be glorified like the right does today. These 4 young adults are the most peaceful, nice people you would ever want to meet and that is because of what Nolan says has no effect…parental involvement….geez…Nolan, think a little next time….
They’re taking credit?
Well…here’s the shorty I promised…did anyone else laugh when one of the repub congressmen had the gall or chutzpah to get up on the floor of the house and claim that the recovery that is slowly building is because the repubs took control of the House? Nevermind that they haven’t done anything but bluster and waste time on the doomed repeal of the healthcare law since they took control. These guys are the most cynical type of politicians…those who oppose real reform and stimulus for the economy to play to their base and then, when it looks like they were wrong, come crawling out from under their rocks to claim that their actions in opposing this help was what has made the economy turn around. I just hope they keep this up, I hope they keep trying to repeal healthcare..especially when only 18% of the country wants this done…they will be exposed as the shills they are for the insurance lobby and maybe, just maybe, the American people will start to vote in their own self interests, not in the interests of the wealthy an powerful….geez…
The Flu chronicles..day 2…
Well…damn…I thought I was going to get at least a week of using the flu I have for a new topic but it looks like a good nights sleep and being a very good boy is taking that away from me…I feel pretty good this morning, still sick and coughing but it’s 11 and I still have energy and the couch is not calling me yet. I know it will be after I have lunch and run the energy tanks completely dry but not yet….should I be hoping for a relapse? Naaa….there are enough topics for later today…in fact, I’ve got a shorty for right now that I am going to get out…
January 20th
Well…a total veg day yesterday but it was necessary since I’m still sicker than a dog with the flu…but I’ll update that later in the flu chronicles….spent the entire day just laying on the couch with a “Dollhouse” marathon on netflix….I did watch another movie on disc but I don’t remember what it was…yeah, my brain is not working much today…..at least the pain in my shoulder and neck has subsided and I can move again…I am feeling quite rickety today…and, as I said to T yesterday, I was feeling even more rickety yesterday with the effects of Tuesday in Ada thrown into the mix…but, I was an extremely good boy last night so I should get some flu points for that. Not much to do today,,,I am going to muster up the strength to go out and have coffee and papers but it is a little difficult to dress warmly enough when you have the chills all the time…also have to go to G’s to take care of her house while she is gone so that will put me at the bottom of the energy well for the rest of the day….geez…I’m already almost at the bottom and I’ve only done this…more later….
The Flu Chronicles…
Okay…only a weird mind like mine would take advantage of being sick to have another topic to talk about…but I thought it might take my mind off of feeling like crap…and you can only lay on the couch for a certain amount of time at my age..then, you start hurting in other areas that have nothing to do with the flu…I have a huge cramp in my left shoulder that I think is worse than the flu aches. So, the temp has stabilized at about 101 and I have shifted down three gears to conserve what little energy is left and the coughing and hacking is about as bad as it was this morning…now, a sore throat has joined the group of symptoms and is making me really miserable. So, on that note, I’m going back to the couch for a while since I’ve started to sweat like crazy just typing…more later…
George Will is wrong again…
Well…read ole Georges op-ed in the newspaper this morning and I just had to laugh at his rantings against the political power that he feels is too concentrated in the executive branch….I can trump this by just one question…where the hell were you, George, when your buddy GW was growing the executive branches power more than any president in modern history. And, George, you decry this growing power now, but where were you when ole GW was using “signing statements” to reserve to the executive branch the power to ignore congress and the laws it has passed? It is just another instance of “it’s okay if it’s our guy”, but if the opposition is in control, they are going to take over the country by executive fiat. Such a disingenuous take that I think you should be ashamed, George.
The second part of this one is his assertion that “American exceptionalism is obnoxious to progressives”, no, George, I have never met or heard a progressive say that America is not exceptional…but what progressives do is live that exceptionalism…who try to make this a better country for those who don’t have money or power; to use the power inherent in this country to truly become exceptional..not last in the industrialized world in access to affordable healthcare…or in the access and affordability of higher education. What the right does, aided by shills like George, is to thump their chests just like the fratboy jocks they are and dance around shouting “we’re number one!” when it’s not true…geez…