All posts by James DeVol

Okay, here’s some outrage, finally…

Well….I have to point out this new set of hypocrisies coming out of the righties and their attempts to paint the Obama administration as a failure. Throughout the Bush administration, even when their policies were objectively abject failures, (read that Katrina, lies to get us into Iraq, etc.) the supporters of Bush and his cronies, and Bush himself, had not one word to say on the failures or even a word of criticism of his dilution of civil liberties that the courts have since ruled were illegal.

So what do we see happening now from the right wing attack machine? They have now taken to comparing the oil spill in the gulf as Obama’s Katrina, now trying to make the point that Bush’s handling of Katrina was a failure. Well guys, you can’t have it both ways, your beloved GW was incompetent (which most of the evidence points to as being true) or the comparison could not be made. I’ve had it with these supposed “experts” whose only claim to fame is that they have been the upholders of a failed philosophy; not unlike the southern apologists who are still revering the south’s role in the civil war. Geez…

May 13th

Had fun out in Ada last night and finally won the night at pool after losing for the last 4 weeks. Kept it pretty low-key so I feel okay today but this whole not sleeping thing is starting to get to be a pain. Looks like no bike ride today and I’m not too motivated to work out but if I just get my butt on the machine and get started, it will be okay. What else do I have to do anyway?

I so have to say thanks to the Montreal Canadiens for knocking off Pittsburgh in game seven of the East hockey semis…go home and cry Cindy…I just hate these guys after we let them win in the finals last year. Still not as good a rivalry as Colorado used to be but it’s nice to have a team that you dislike. Could it be an original six matchup with Chicago and Montreal? Hope so…the Sharks have to lose but I didn’t see anything in the Hawks playoff perfomance that would give me hope…oh, well.

Global warming must be fake…

Well…a day in the second week of May with a windchill? I can’t remember that happening in a long time, maybe ever. So, the logical conclusion that I have to draw is that, by my observation, global warming is a fake. After all, it snowed in New England this winter and they had the largest one-day snowfall on record in DC.

So I say to all those scientists that have spent their lives trying to figure out our climate, tough luck, you wasted your life. The repubs are right again…as they always are. Yea..go troglodytes! Geez…

May 12th

Well…this is new for me, I don’t have a lot to say again for a second day…did have some manhattans last night so I got up feeling kind of crappy but did work out already and am going to get on the bike in a few minutes to beat the rain.

More later…I promise..

May 11th

Well…didn’t go out to LC last night since the place is closed for some mysterious reason. Did go over to G’s and sat outside around the fireplace and had a few beers…got home pretty early. Still working on getting the tire sealer out of the carpet today, this place still smells like it has just been repainted so, even though it’s 43 degrees outside, I have the slider open to try to get the stink out of here.

I know I promised more outrage today but just can’t work any up right now…maybe some more life stuff later. No plans for tonight as far as I know…with the Wings done for the year there really isn’t anything I want to do…

May 10th

It’s been kind of an interesting day…well…not really, did have a flat on the bike and when I tried to put sealer in it so I could ride today, the damn thing blew all over my carpeting. I know that white latex on beige carpeting is not such a big deal, but the solvent that they have in the cans stinks like crazy and I have my slider open with the heat on to try to air this place out. the tire may be okay, though..

Looks like a night out with G since it is Monday…first drinks since thurs so this might be fun…still have the damn allergy headaches so I’m going to take an allergy pill right now to see if that helps. Not much else to say but I can feel some outrage building for tomorrow..so check back and I’ll try not to disappoint….

False equality in the news

Well….I am fed up with the tendency of commentators and of the righties to push the proposition that there is an equality in the bias that runs through the reporting of the cable news networks. I want to make this as clear as possible…Fox news is the Pravda of the American news channels and the others that are held up for comparison, i.e. MSNBC, NBC,and CBS are in no way close to being the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party as Fox news is to the Republicans. I hope you remember the bad old days of the Soviet Union when Pravda (ironically, Pravda means truth in Russian) would print blatant lies that were used to keep the populace stirred up and in line; but one of the sad things that is different about these two organizations is that the Russians had no choice but to read Pravda, it was the only news the Soviet rulers would allow. In America, the righties choose to listen to the propaganda that spews from Fox…but the result is the same; a significant part of the population that has abdicated their responsibility to think; succumbing to the visceral hatred of all things Obama or Democrat that makes them feel good but bodes I’ll for the continuing success of our society. Geez….

May 9th

I had to share the fact that it has been three days with no booze…but you know what the big problem is? I don’t feel any better than I do when I drink. I hope it’s not the fact that I’m getting old…that would irritate the hell out of me. I did get to take the bike out today, but when I went out this morning to get a newspaper, the damn car was covered in ice. Not supposed to happen going into the second week of May.

I’m just crabby today..there has been a lot of that going around…G had the crabbiness Thursday and I think I caught it from her.

That’s about it…more later.

Thank You Red Wings

Well…this is a post I didn’t want to write…our Wings lost to the Sharks last night and are out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I don’t know how I feel about this right now…as you can tell, it’s late in the day and I couldn’t bring myself to write anything until now.

One of the things that makes this a sad day is the all too real possibility that we have seen Nick Lidstrom play his last game for the Wings. It’s hard to let go of one of your favorite players, but even harder to let go of such a great person as Nick; the only other time I felt this way was when Stevie Y retired…I’m glad I got to see his last game and that I stayed up to watch all of Nick’s.

I know we’ll have a revamped team with many of our favorites gone next year; that’s something I’ll touch on tomorrow.

Thanks again, Red Wings!

News and how we get it..

This is just a placeholder for now. I want to talk about how people get their news and what I think we’re missing by limiting our exposure to opposing ideas.

Back later for more…well, I’m back and to elaborate on the title…and try to make sense to both you and me. This post was in response to the news of the week that the news magazine “Newsweek” has been put up for sale with a future that looks like what has happened to other icons of the American news scene; it’s eventual closure. This has made me somewhat nostalgic for the news environment that I grew up in…that included Life, Look, and other magazines where we could get an unbiased, in-depth type of news that exists in few places today. But, I think I’m using nostalgia not as a wistfulness for what was, but more to point out the differences in the news and it’s reporting from my youth and what it is today; a partisan tool that is used for distraction or political gain.

I think I was really fortunate to grow up in my time, where you could trust the media to report the facts but that has handicapped me somewhat for today…I still trust some outlets to report facts and I am well-read and intelligent enough to be able to see those that don’t. As I talk to my youngster friends and others, I see a large problem that has arisen from this polarization of media and government in general…the public been taught over the past 20 years not to trust anyone; and that their analysis of the news etc. no matter how puerile or shallow , has the same value as someone who is an expert in the field. In this environment, opinion has taken on the same weight as fact, and facts seem to be changeable related to how many times you repeat falsehoods.

As more and more of the truth-tellers in the media fail and disappear since the appetite for truth has been replaced by polemic, the opportunity for a person to get to the truth is drowned out by the loudest, most well-funded voices. Geez….