Search This Blog
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
The Gym and Thanksgiving Results
Just back from the gym with Smiley. Today was the first time in his life he showered in a public setting, which was a big deal, so props to him. In other health news, I somehow lost 4 pounds Thanksgiving week, which obviously means I have a fatal tapeworm, bc it truly wasn't deserved. I'm nearing, but not at, my lowest weight of this century.
Monday, November 28, 2016
That's a No from Me
Congratulations on beating an equally inept team, falsely raising hopes for the year, and giving Mike McCarthy a chance to stick around and run us into the ground. But, you know, by all means celebrate all over Facebook.
Kudos to OSU
Excellent job by the Ohio State University Emergency Management Team (OSU_EMFP) in immediately notifying students & faculty via social media with the message: "Buckeye Alert: Active Shooter on campus. Run Hide Fight. Watts Hall. 19th and College."
Kudos to OSU, in particular for including the word "fight" in their message. May the days of quietly waiting to die - or watching scores of others die - be gone. Run if you can, hide if you must, fight if given the opening.
Friday, November 25, 2016
Duh
Romney is obviously the better choice for Secretary of State than Ivanka Trump. This shouldn't even be a discussion.
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
A Nightmare
I had a horrific nightmare. We visited a cursed house dedicated to some demon but outwardly normal. A child was burned alive, we (my family) stood in a boxcar w/ many others watching The Hunger Games, and I snuck a for sale sign on the lawn but a lady was quick to tell buyers the contract included service to the demon. Apparently it was a selling point. And LuLu had her iPod stolen in the dream, which she knows is my trigger. Best part? At one point I was covered by hundreds of quarter sized puppies. But I broke the spell and realized they were hairy spiders. Why is that good? I'm not scared of spiders, but my friend Tre. Even in the midst of this terrible dream I was just enough of an as**ole to snap selfies with the spiders and text them to him. LOL
Monday, November 21, 2016
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Pumpkin Carving with Junie
Back in mid-October I took Junie to a pumpkin carving event at a nearby park. You carve a jack-o-lantern, leave it behind for a few days as the park celebrates Halloween, and then pick it in time for the actual holiday.
I didn't want to go. I was salty as heck about the 2015 event, when some folks in the neighborhood took it upon themselves to decorate their homes with (literally) dozens of jack-o-lanterns they swiped from the park.
I don't cotton thieves.
But obviously I went. Someone's taking the pictures, right? Unlike prior years the pumpkins were precleaned, which robbed us of the seeds, which ticked me off even more And it was pitch dark, and we had to carve it under the light on my cell phone. Which also annoyed me. But Junie had a blast.
She carved a face on one side, her initials on the other.
Some of her friends were there and they "dabbed" and showed off for the camera.
A few days later we picked up the pumpkin, avoiding the pumpkin grabbers, and proudly displayed it on our porch!
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
40 Years of TV Greatness
This month is the 40th anniversary of Jack Horkheimer's StarGazers TV show. It's original, longtime name of Star Hustler was abandoned with the rise of the internet when school search engines blocked sites with "Hustler" in the address.
I used to routinely watch these short, informative shows just as PBS was signing off for the night. Each one, of course, focused on things you could see in the night sky in the upcoming weeks. I don't think I ever got to *see* any of the wonders he promoted, as the lights of the city wiped out everything dimmer than Orion, but it was still fun to watch.
If I won the lottery
Where I would spend my money if I had enough to give away: dental and psychiatric clinics for children in Milwaukee, food pantry's, Catholic radio, local public television, and the Bay View Community Center.
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
One last thing
This will be my last post on the election itself, I hope. In response to the "HRC won the popular vote by 1 million, proof we should dump the electoral college" argument: you are actually proving the opposite. Take away CA and NY and Trump wins the popular vote by 7 million. California and New York should not, MUST not, have the power to overrule 48 states. The Electoral College has proven it's worth.
Friday, November 11, 2016
He Really Would Have Loved It
Man I miss Fred Bryan. He would have adored Tuesday's outcome.
Stating the Obvious
If you want a Republic, respect the outcome of its Constitutional elections. To protest them is to argue on behalf of dictatorship.
Thursday, November 10, 2016
A Public Service Announcement
Mein Gott, people are sharing way too much false information. Source people, source. If you're posting on social media, you by definition have access to the internet. Use it. And if you're proven wrong, correct and or delete it. I have. Don't respond by saying "I don't care, I hate him"; this ain't kindergarten.
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
My Thoughts on the Electoral College
My explanation of the electoral college: Your neighborhood is planning a block party, but you need to agree on one of two dates. You could take a survey of everyone in all 50 houses in the subdivision, but then the sister wives house with 30 kids is pretty much guaranteed to get their way. So instead you have every family decide what they want, and then collect the results from each house. The majority decision then stands.
While I'm at it, the candidates know the nature of the game and tailor their campaign to the electoral college. If the popular vote meant a win, they both would have distributed time and money in different ways, possibly changing the outcome in the popular vote and rendering your narrative moot.
And I love how people only find the electoral college archaic and wrong when their side loses, but it seems just peachy when they win. Odd that, dontchathink?
Forward, not Back
A friend was happy Trump's election could result in a thorough investigation into the Clinton Foundation. I disagree. I think Trump would be wise to ixnay any further foray into Clinton's life. Not that there isn't shady activity to be found, but now is the time to lead the country forward, not bog it down in the past.
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
If you're undecided . . .
If you are still an undecided voter, write in my name. If you can spell it correctly, it shows you've really studied up before the election, and it will count double. Would I lie to you?
Johnson won!! Wow!!
Forget the Presidential race - I would have been ecstatic with just this win. Wow. Congrats to Ron Johnson!
My Thoughts
Ok, you know what? I'm sad for the kid. But this is not news. Neither are stories about waitresses that get a rude table, a customer that gets bad customer service at a business, and all the other wobbly-spined fluff that is weakening our culture. Keep your petty grievances to yourself, thank you. Or at least restrict it to Yelp, like normal people.
Monday, November 7, 2016
My Day
Busy day. I had class in the morning, got a haircut, emptied the mower of gas and stored it and the patio furniture, grill, etc for the winter, prepped and started the snowblower, went grocery shopping, stopped at the library, picked YaYa up from school, visited my parents, and made dinner. All while looking marvelous.
R-E-L-A-X? Uh, no!
To date, I consider this fantasy football season a pitiful disaster. Oh, btw, -- I have as many wins as the Packers. So it's past time to "relax" and start breaking some boots off in some as#es up in Green Bay.
My Ballot for the 2016 Presidential Election
This election isn’t the first to
win my attention. This blog started as a response to the ’04 Presidential
contest, and twenty years before that,
having been raised in a household of Democrats, I remember my Grandmother
comforting me after Mondale’s defeat. I’ve followed every contest since that
(then) bitter Reagan win, and been fascinated with the workings of Presidential
elections, from the time of the Founders until today. There’s not much that I
thought could surprise me.
Oopsie.
This election has turned into a
circus, a free for all between a blowhard celebrity and a ruthless member of
the political machine. It’s a farce, a down and dirty tussle in the mud; there
is no line that cannot be crossed, no allegation a step too far, no behind the
scenes machination that is ruled unethical. Unquestionably the worst ballot in
my lifetime, it is a mess, a travesty, and nothing short of a schoolyard brawl.
I love it.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I
believe everything I wrote in the last paragraph, and I think this is a near
perfect example of what an election should NOT be. But, on principle, I enjoy
the tussle of an election year: it is the one time when Americans discuss
something more important than celebrity gossip and fad diets, when debates on
the direction of our country take place in offices, homes, and online – even if
discussions are shallow and revolve around memes and talking points.
You might hate to hear it, but
the 2016 election is the American political experiment in action, and it is to
be celebrated.
Alas, neither candidate is worth
the hoopla.
I dismissed Trump early,
convinced that more experienced, thoughtful Republicans like Jeb Bush would
carry the day. I misjudged the anger of the common man, and Trump barreled
through the primaries. I thought he would moderate, if not his views, than his
approach, once he had the nomination. Wrong again. I understand the gut appeal
of a candidate that speaks his mind, that isn’t handcuffed by the rigid and
empty scripts most politicians regurgitate. But a nice bit of Presidential
decorum would have been nice to see.
And then Hillary. My word. She’s
the unwelcome guest at dinner that just never leaves. For thirty years she’s
been despised by the Right, barely tolerated by the Left, and repeatedly passed
over by the center. She’s on pace to
become the first female American President, yet the resume of this “most
experienced candidate ever” is an unimpressive carpetbagging stint in the
Senate, a deeply flawed run as Secretary of State, and a marriage to a former
President. She could barely knock out a 74 year old Socialist in the primaries
(and then, only with a little help from the DNC), and has stumbled and bumbled
her way into almost losing the general election to a much disliked television star.
My word, THIS is the best
American female we had to offer?
We really should be allowed a
mulligan on this election.
So they’re both awful, awful candidates.
But you have to vote for someone, and assuming you correctly believe voting 3rd
party is about as valuable as staying home and watching bread mold, whom do you
choose?
(Disclaimer:
Here in Wisconsin the state’s electoral votes will almost certainly go to
Hillary, relieving me of any obligation to vote one way or the other. Alas,
with a crucial Senate race at stake, I’ll be in the voting booth, but with a
conscience free ability to vote 3rd party if I desire)
I’ll give you another disclaimer
at this point, and I won’t even hide it in parenthesis. There is one part of
me, the part of me that is contrarian, the part of me that’s blunt by nature
and appreciates it in kind, the part of me that recognizes the duplicity and
ignorance of the media . . . well, that part of me would love to see a Trump
victory just so I could collect and drink the tears of the Left. The very
thought gives me shivers.
Alas, so does the prospect of a
Trump win.
He wouldn’t be the worst
President ever. You’ll never convince me that a man of his great and long
lasting business success would somehow surpass Millard Filmore and Andrew
Johnson on that score. I don’t care how many bad words he said, or how many
millennials he triggered into running for their safe spaces, or how many people
somehow equate protecting our border with racism. I don’t buy the propaganda,
sorry.
But I think that Clinton would
do a better job at managing the ship of state. I think she’d govern from the
center, with occasional veers to the Left for show, ala her husband, and that
overseas she’d continue in the vein of a closeted warhawk, just like Obama. I
believe she’d do a decent job, with most of her egregious errors being
unrecognizable in the short term, which is what a President needs to maintain a
decent poll rating. No big snafus like invading Iraq only to come up empty on
WMD’s – no, her mistakes will be subtler, like the Arab Spring she promoted. It
led to ISIS, and Syria, and God knows what else, but at a comfortable enough distance
that it’s rarely (but properly) laid at her feet except by the partisan
opposition.
The problem is, she’s dishonest.
Not dishonest in the vein of all politicians, or dishonest in a “I’ll lie in my
campaign promises” way. She’s dishonest in a manner I’ve never come across in a
politician, the consistent and pervasive lies of someone that’s skated on thin
ice for decades but come out with nary a scratch, and assumes that streak will
continue into the future. A crook properly caught and punished may change their
ways; a crook that constantly avoids conviction is just emboldened. If she
isn’t indicted for her perjury to Congress over her email snafu, then mark my
words: at some point, probably just when the administration is going well,
she’ll screw up anew, and the lies will catch up to her. We’ll watch another
Clinton Presidency become bogged down in an impeachment, and unlike Bill (whose
impeachment I thought was undue) she won’t come out a winner.
I don’t want to see the already
much tarnished reputation of the Oval Office roughed up even more. I don’t want
this nation, at a time of turmoil, when our traditional enemies are rising yet
again, to be preoccupied with bulls**t and scandal.
I can’t, in good conscience,
vote for her. I’ll acknowledge her as President if she wins. I’ll root for her general success, as it is
America’s success, when she’s in office. But I know what trouble awaits, and I
can’t mortgage this nation voluntarily. I can’t.
You want an answer as to who to
vote for? Who *I’m* voting for? Good luck, because the best I can give you is
this: I won’t vote for Hillary.
To those who fret and panic over this election; to those who
label it “The Most Important Election of Our Lifetime,” (as opposed to the last
“Most Important Election,” and the next), breathe easy.
This might be the least
important election ever. The country is starkly but civilly divided, and
whichever candidate takes office will face a determined and obstructionist foe
in Congress. We’ll get bogged down by bureaucracy and the status quo. Critics
will cite this as proof the system is broken, but critics are morons. The
system is designed this way. It’s built to put a check on the President, to
avoid a rubber stamp on Executive Power. It was designed to lumber along, and that’s
what it will do.
The Republic will survive. Will
it be the better for it after this fiasco? That’s not up to me. That’s up to
the voters of the 2020 “Most Important Election Ever” to decide.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)