Well…it was a long day yesterday but I was good last night so I feel okay this morning…I did get a top down run in yesterday to see if I’ve fixed the car…not sure yet…it smelled a little while I was driving it but not much when I got back…maybe it’s just burning off all of the coolant that was spilled on the back of the engine…we’ll see today…going to take it out for a long run and get some heat in it…then I’ll move on to the next thing if it is still leaking…slept okay last night and there were dreams but again, I don’t really remember them…I may be able to get out on the bike in a t-shirt for the last time today but it is foggy right now so that may have to wait for later…not much to do today…I do need to clean some today and then get some resumes out…….but that’s about it…more later…
All posts by James DeVol
More deception about Social Security..
Well…have been reading a lot about the proposals that have been floated over the past few years about how to “save” social security since it is not going to be too long before I’m going to be that age…so, it has a real meaning to me. One of the things that the repubs are lying about again is the need to raise the retirement age since people are living longer…and, as always, they are just bad at math or are deliberately misleading people about the changes in life expectancy…which one do you think? I’ll go for the deliberate lies…I will admit that life expectancy has risen over the past 50 years, but you have to look into the numbers to see why…and the major reason is that less children are dying young from preventable diseases so the average goes up…not hard math to understand but it appears they don’t understand it. But, the second part of this puzzle is that the people that are living longer are concentrated in the upper classes…people who have had easier lives and good health care their entire lives…these people actually do live longer, but those that have done physical labor their entire lives don’t…so, raising the retirement age for these folks puts them at an age where they will probably die within a few years of retiring…just what the repubs have said jokingly is the solution to SS’s problems…don’t let them get away with this lie…geez…
December 2nd
Well….as you can see, I didn’t come back for another one yesterday but it is the first of the month and I just don’t feel that motivated right now…I did take the car out for a drive with the top down to see if it is still leaking and I’m not sure if it is…just a small whiff of coolant smell but that may be from all of it that is on the back of the engine…hope so, anyway, but I think I will take the coils off tomorrow so I can see down to the block on the back of the head that the coolant goes into and see if there are more leaks there…other than that, didn’t do too much yesterday other than watch soccer and take a bike ride….it was a stretch to fight off the boredom but I was somewhat successful….and today looks to be the same…I can get out on the bike early today since it is already almost 60 but I will need to wait for the rain to stop…and I will come back for at least one more today but I’m not sure what it will be about….
December 1st
Well…it was another bore of a day yesterday and I really didn’t accomplish much…didn’t even drive the car to see if it is fixed…think I’ll do that today to get two things done..putting the top down in every month…since it is going to be almost 60 today…that should get me out on the bike in shorts, too…didn’t sleep too well last night but I said I wasn’t going to bitch about it any more so I won’t…okay…the coffee is done and I do need to read the papers…more later…
More noodling…
Well…I do need to get this one in to get to the quota for the month so I thought I’d just noodle around a little and see what happens…I can’t believe how stupid the repubs have been in this whole deficit fight…last year, they wouldn’t take a deal that gave them 10 bucks of cuts for every buck of revenue increase because they really thought, in their deluded little minds, that they were going to win the presidency and the senate and then be able to do their slash and burn on medicare and Social security while given even bigger tax cuts to the rich. Guess what repubs? You lost and the dems ran on raising taxes on the rich and preserving the social programs…so why the heck are you surprised that this is what the dems are doing? Are you just stupid? You lost, and now you roll out the rejected Ryan budget as your one and only attempt to avoid the fiscal slope? I just hope you keep it up…keep showing the American people you don’t give a damn about them while we salivate about the prospects of 2014…what a bunch of idiots…geez…
November 30th
Well…it was a day yesterday…oh, sitting here waiting for the coffee to finish and thought I’d get this done first…before I get to the papers, that is…I did wait until a little later to do this one but I went over to Meijers already so that is as good an excuse as any…I am sore everywhere today and I’m not sure what the cause of it is…I did work on the car for a while to replace a heater hose that one end had turned to mush…I am hoping that this is finally the solution to losing coolant but how can I be hopeful when I’ve thought that the last three things I’ve fixed…and 19 bucks for a molded hose that is about 12 inches long? Cripes…not much to do today…I am going to take it easy today…I did buy a 1/4 inch ratchet that will make tightening the hose much easier when I go out to do that today…pretty nice little unit for 6 bucks…okay, coffee is done so I’m going to read the papers…more later…
Words mean something…
Well…listening to all of the talk, talk, talk that is going on about the budget negotiations, I have a piece of advice for both sides but for the dems in particular. Stop using loaded words when you talk about the negotiations….watching the news last night all I heard from the commentators on the left and in the middle was that the repubs were going to “cave” or “buckle” on tax increases on the wealthy to start to work on the deficit…and I think that these kinds of words mean something and are making any such deal even harder. I think it goes back to the Japanese concept of “face”, and it would be a good idea for the dems to think about how they can work to help the repubs save face in these negotiations and stop rubbing the fact that they got smacked in the last election in their faces. Of course, I would propose that this would only go so far as the repubs actually governing for the entire country and not their rich bosses….if they can come to the table with facts and be adults, I think it would be good for those of us on the left to help them…and go back to governing the country, not just fighting all the time…
November 29th
Well…it was a day yesterday and the car is still not fixed so I am very depressed about that….not sure what the next move will be about that but I just don’t want to think about that now…didn’t sleep at all last night and have been up since about 4 so today is going to be one of those days where I have to make up for it…and I am sore everywhere for some reason with my calves feeling like they are just on the verge of getting cramps which is really weird…might be from the bike ride yesterday but who knows? I don’t have a lot to do today so I’m not going to do it…didn’t win the powerball last night so that is depressing, too…so I guess I’ll just endure today and hope for a better tomorrow….
I’m tired of “Christians”….
Well…I really do need to comment on an article that was in the Daly Kos this morning about the utter glee that the Christian right is taking in the new “kill the gays” bills that are being passed through the legislature in Uganda. A little history is in order first…as the people of the US become more tolerant and understanding of gays and lesbians here, and the christian right sees they are losing the battle for discrimination against them, these ugly folks have taken their poison overseas; most notably to Africa. Groups like the Family Research Council, headed by the noted homophobe Tony Perkins have been instrumental in using the donations to their organizations here in the states to spread the plague of discrimination, going so far as to “advise” African countries on how to write laws that criminalize being gay…and yesterday, commenting on the law said “it is a worthy modern example” of the laws he would like to see restored here in the US. Another one of these so-called christians, Bryan Fischer, of the American Family Association tweeted this in response to the legalization of murder of gays…”Homosexuality is now against the law in Uganda, just as it was for 200 years on America, it can be done”, implying that he thinks that killing gays is the right thing to do in the US as well. If you had any question about how the modern republican party thinks about gays and lesbians, you just need to look at these two guys…who sponsor the “values voters” summit that all of the repubs attend and pledge their allegiance to. What kind of a value is it to support killing another human being because of who they are? It is breathtaking to hear the unvarnished truth of the type of folks that are the core of the modern repub party….even being an atheist, I can see that these guys are not christians…they are not even human beings…geez…
November 28th
Well…it was a nice day yesterday and I had a fun lunch with T which made it even better….slept okay last night and had some dreams I don’t remember again but that is okay…I was good for the third day in a row so I feel pretty good this morning….still coughing but the sore throat is almost gone and I think I have some energy to get through this day…I may have found the leak where I have been losing coolant in the car…will find out today when I take it out to Cascade but when I went out to meet up with T, I could barely smell it so there may be hope that the car will be complete again and I’ll have one less thing to worry about…and it was the silliest thing…just a clamp you can barely see at the back of the engine that was really loose….have my fingers crossed on that one….not much to do today…might be going out for pool with Tom but that is about it…I am still going to continue to manage the energy consumption so the recovery continues but there may be light at the end of that tunnel….more later…