You Don’t Want To Read This

      A video that has nothing to do with this post to start thing up.

  

    I tell you something folks.  I am kinda tired this early morning.  I got up relatively early after getting to sleep kind of late, call it 5 hours sleep, maybe a little less.  Had my coffee, brushed teeth, got dressed, did all the other things normal humans do before doing what they actually do with their days, which took about an hour, and then went out on my weekly walk to the grocery store.  It’s 1 and 2/3 miles or so to the pet store, and just less than ½ a mile to the store where I do the actual food shopping.

     Cat food went quick, as it does. No worries there.  Get to the grocery store and the damn place was packed.   I normally shop on Tuesday afternoons but went early because I figured I’d try to beat the crowds that show up to shop and get extra supplies before snow storms hit.  FAIL.   Got there 3 hours before I normally do, and the place was packed.  It took 20 minutes just to find a shopping cart.  No big deal, more an annoyance than anything.  There were no worries with the actual crapgrab, got everything I need, relatively quickly, lines were no real hassle, once you realize there’s nothing you can do about it, it’s no big deal. 

    Everything cost $78.  Nice.  A year ago I wouldn’t have cared so much about price, gotten more than I needed and spent $40+ dollars more.  Amazing what poverty teaches you, isn’t it? 

      ANYWAY….get my hand cart that I drag around with me for carrying crap around, load it up, nearly full, probably 40 pounds worth of stuff, and walk home.  That mile and a half lugging a cart full of crap from the crapgrab, uphill, that’s a workout.  Get home, bring everything upstairs, put everything away. Go through the list to see if I forgot anything.  Garbage bags.  Dammit, forgot the garbage bags.  It’s always something.  Screw it, I don’t need the little shits now, f*ck it.  It can wait.    Something… I’ve forgotten something.  What could it be? Hmmmm……

      Oh THAT’S right!  I’m unemf*ckingployed!  GO LOOK FOR A JOB FATASS!  So I do.  And after a fairly long search something comes up.  Which is surprising. After a week of really not seeing much out there, I find a few new spots and put in for them. I would mention the places I sent my resume, but I don’t wanna ruin my chances at any place by placing a mention of them here.  Some nut bag at some place I’m looking to work at might READ this crap.  Crazier things have happened, but not in front of reliable witnesses.

    I want to get things done, but time is now not on my side.  It’s well after 2 pm, and after coffee, shower, shave, all that bullshit goodness, shopping for two distinct species that live under this roof, I’ve gotten a lot done but there’s more to do.  I haven’t run yet.  Dammit.  It’s gonna snow like crazy tomorrow, and I might not get to run tomorrow, so I want to run long today.  Read the Running commentary section to see what I ran, if you are interested. 

      Walk to the park, long run, walk back, get home, it’s now 4 pm.  Take off the smelliest clothes on earth, think momentarily about burning them, then think better of it, seeing how I might want to wear those clothes at some point in the future after scouring them with several detoxifying agents, and seeing how if I burnt them the smell would be bad enough to prompt locals to call the U.S  Chemical Safety Board to get the place declared a toxic waste dump.

   But I digress.  Another video that has nothing to do with anything here.

   

    Get the stink off, put some semi fresh clothes on, and work out just a little.  Finish just before 5 pm.  Oh BTW, did I tell everyone that I found a quick way to make a few bucks (a very few bucks) online?  Ya, I answer questions, at about the rate of 10 to 15¢ a question for the people at KGB.com. 

   Nice enough site.  I wouldn’t use it myself, just because I’m not the kind of person who would pay (99¢ each) to text a question to a stranger that I could potentially find out the answer to myself FOR FREE.  But people are lazy, and stupid, so they fork over money, and I answer questions.  No worries.   I worked (if you could call it that) for about 2 hours, and made all of $2.50? Some crap like that. 

     It works on a very simple concept.  I pretend to work.  They pretend to pay me. 

  So, after all of that.. Good lord I stink…so, shower.  A happy thing, no one has died from the toxic emanations from my person…though the cats looked positively ill (oxymoron of the day) Make dinner. Smooch the wife.  You DID notice the lack of wife in there, right?  She worked writing and whatnot til 8:00am, and slept while I did this stuff.  We are essentially on two different shifts now, despite the fact that I have no job.

   Then it’s time to take out the garbage(don’t forget to clean those f*cking cat boxes!) and then make dinner.  I’m going with simple stuff tonight, sausage patties and fries(and yes I washed my hands).  I’m kinda pooped at this point so I sit in front of my computer, and decide to hit the twit network  and watch some Net@night and some NSFW.  Note: those links are to the audio netcasts, the video you get on live.twit.tv makes the experience for me.

    Oh, joy, I think my right calf is cramping again….ARGH. 

    And that’s my day. The snow is falling, the cats are snoring, the wife is working, and I am winding down from a semi normal day.  Think I’ll go feed the cats and watch some C-span or MSNBC or UNTV  or some such.  Love me them contact sports after a long day of being unemployed.

    Odd how the days go, huh?

   That’s it from here.  Later!

Today’s nuggets, via wikiquote:  I think that happiness resides somewhere between the extremes of personal, religious, and political. I think happiness resides where we understand someone else’s point of view and needs. Happiness resides where we are not lost in the solitary dream.  Roger Waters

In every one of us there are two ruling and directing principles, whose guidance we follow wherever they may lead; the one being an innate desire of pleasure; the other, an acquired judgment which aspires after excellence.  Socrates

Seek And Ye Shall Find Only Works…

     …well when you seek the truth.

     A short aside on health care.  I am reading a story on Reuters, from their factbox. I’ve read factbox stories of theirs a fair bit for a while now.  ”Republican health care reform proposals”, a great title for the story, don’t ya think?  It would be if the story were true, but it isn’t.  I have a problem with this one.  And it is real simple.  Most of these things are in fact already in the legislation.  Among the ideas that are or at one point were in the health care reform legislation: Allow insurers to sell policies across state lines.  Barring insurers from excluding people with pre-existing conditions.  Crack down on waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid and in Medicare.  Now I’m not saying they haven’t got any good ideas in here.  They do, but to call all the stuff in this story “Republican health care proposals” when a number of them are Democratic, or were at the very least put in by the Democratic majority is a wee bit silly.

     When you can find evidence of a number of Bipartisan proposals that are almost a year old on a democratic senators web-page, and you still call it Republican…that’s just stupid.  Shame on Reuters for publishing this weak ass half-baked propaganda, calling this republican. Please.

____________________________________________________

    

     I was looking for a viddy to play here after I found that the CBS viddy I had here only had sound in one channel.   Found this one, and it’s a good viddy.  It speaks on morality and trust in politics.  Something which seems sorely lacking in today’s politics.

     And the reason it is lacking is multi-layered.  Yes, there are some honestly untrustworthy politicians out there.  Richard Shelby is one such.  Complains a few years ago of Democrats holding up political appointments to the Supreme court, then holds up 70 different political appointments himself for a few earmarks, or whatever.  The real reason is of no consequence.  There are also some very untrustworthy mouthpieces for political viewpoints.  Rush Limbaugh and Lynn Samuels come to mind.  Rush because he is the ultimate American ideologue, and Lynn because she is a barking lunatic, at least what I have heard of her ranting.

     But it is also the fault of our political culture, our confused political culture.  We have a political party(GOP) that says it hates government, while at the same time it is doing all it can to grab for power with all it’s might.  We have another political party(DEM) that says it hates corporate greed, while at the same time doing all it can to get as much of that cash from them as possible.   We have a burgeoning political movement which is nothing more than the old right-wing trying to push America to the right, while the left-wing, which helped vote in the current administration, is angry as hell, saying those they voted in aren’t left-wing enough because they aren’t doing exactly what they want.

     Is it surprising that there is an undercurrent of mistrust and cynicism about everything  that is the current state of politics?

     Perhaps I’ll delve more deeply into my view of these issues and the dilemmas which stem from our misguided political culture at another time.  I won’t do it now, it’s too complex, and to be honest, with as long as I’ve lived in this political system, and as many years as I’ve spent pondering our politics and our culture and our world, I’m not sure I’m up to that particular task.  But I will give it a shot at some point.  I feel I have to.

_______________________________________________________________

     John Murtha is dead. Rest in peace brother.  Let the rest say what they will about you, you fought the good fight.

_______________________________________________________________

     That is about it from me.  Later!

Today’s Nuggets, Via wikiquote:  The barbarous custom of having men beaten who are suspected of having important secrets to reveal must be abolished. It has always been recognized that this way of interrogating men, by putting them to torture, produces nothing worthwhile. The poor wretches say anything that comes into their mind and what they think the interrogator wishes to know.   Napolean Bonaparte

The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.   Arthur Schopenhauer

To study the meaning of man and of life — I am making significant progress here. I have faith in myself. Man is a mystery: if you spend your entire life trying to puzzle it out, then do not say that you have wasted your time. I occupy myself with this mystery, because I want to be a man.  Fyodor Dostoevsky

Slightly Off Color

       My stuff first, sports after.

   

     A happy viddy from Ray Maxwell w/ Leo Laporte.  There is a reason I am leading off with this viddy.  My monitor, it fails.  I had some kind of malfunction at around noon on Super Bowl Sunday.  The power went on my phone, my cable, lost my Internet.  Don’t know what happened, whether a power surge or spike (there is a difference between the two BTW), or Roddy the disaster cat got back behind my computer and did something to the cables back there, or whatever, crashed all of it.  When I turned everything back on, The color on my monitor crapped out.  Red is black, there is a light blue tint to my screen.

    I’ve tried everything I know to fix it.  My wife, who is significantly smarter about this stuff than I am, has tried everything she knows, to fix it.  If you have any ideas, by all means, drop me a line and lend me a hand.

     The curious thing about this though, is that if I put the screen in digital mode, I think I’d need extra wires to actually run it digital, I’m not sure, it is perfectly OK.  I’ve tried downloading new drivers for my GeForce Nvidia 6150le.  Nuttin.  No luck at all.  I’ll put it too you like this. The viddy above, on my monitor, Leo and Ray look…vaguely jaundiced, or more accurately like a crappy colorized B&W movie.

     BTW, If your science chops aren’t up to snuff with Doc Maxwell, keep moving, you’ll get lost, fast.

_________________________________________________________________

      Onto sports.  Congratulations to The New Orleans Saints!    WHO DAT GONNA BEAT DEM SAINTS!  Not the Colts apparently.  The Saints played one helluva game, what I saw of it.  I have to be honest, I missed a bit of it, despite the fact that there really wasn’t much going on.  I watched early, and saw the Saints struggle a bit, and to be honest I thought the Colts would just roll at that point.  I didn’t really change my on that when the Saints got those two FG’s and made it a 4 point game going into the half.  I saw the brilliant play call, the onside kick, and felt a momentum change. 

     Honestly it was at about point that things pulled my attention away from the TV.  I didn’t really catch all that much of the game from that point.  I missed the Shockey TD, but I did see the Tracy Porter INT.  That was a great adjustment by Porter to come to the ball and beat Reggie Wayne to the ball. 

     BTW, I nailed the Saints point total!  I…kinda goofed on the Colts points though.  I had the Colts scoring 25 points more than they scored.  Oopses!  But like I said, My head said pick the Colts, but I wanted to see the Saints win.  Gotta feel good for the long suffering New Orleans Saints fans.

    Now if only the Cubs could get themselves a world series championship… well, let’s not go that far.  THAT’S asking a bit much.

_________________________________________________________________

     A second Viddy from Doc Maxwell, then I am done.  This is actually the episode prior to the one I put at the top of this post.  If you are a big science fan, you can watch this show live 5:00pm on Thursdays on TWIT live. 

    

__________________________________________________________________

    Later!

Today’s nuggets, by Richard Dawkins, via wikiquote:  Never say, and never take seriously anyone who says, “I cannot believe that so-and-so could have evolved by gradual selection”. I have dubbed this kind of fallacy “the Argument from Personal Incredulity”. Time and again, it has proven the prelude to an intellectual banana-skin experience.

We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.

The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry.

Enemy Of The People

     That’s me.  Enemy of the people.  I must be.  Why?  I watched and listened to the entire Sarah Palin “National tea party” speech.  Populism, conservative style, apparently doesn’t touch me the same way that liberal populism does.  Why?  Well, from what I saw, there were equal parts Ad hominem attacks that were just as untrue as they were giggle out loud stupid, and conservative republican talking points.  The same worn out crap the right has pulled, about Democrats making America less safe, when the right has no corner on the “We kept America safe” market. 

     Apparently she doesn’t remember 9/11.  Dummy.   And how many Americans were kept safe in Iraq?  Ask those honored war dead who died their, in a war that did nothing to slow down, stop or end terrorism, and made Al-Qaeda stronger, and gave Al-qaeda an effective marketing tool to make more people terrorists. Over 4,000 dead for a false vision of strength. 

     When we fight in Afghanistan, the war you on the right oppose, we fight Al-Qaeda, the enemy the neocons didn’t have the nerve to fight when Bush was in office.

     There was talk about restarting the health care debate, this time with input from the right.  Surprising, seeing how there were parts of the bill that were suggested by republicans.  It’s not like they had no input, they did.  They had plenty of time to read the various bills, but she made the same old tired right wing main stream media claims about them not having any input. 

    

     She actually tried to co-opt left wing energy policy talking points by saying we need to get all types of energy production.  No crowds yelling “DRILL, BABY, DRILL”.  No talk of drilling offshore.  There was talk of more nuclear power, and she said it was nice that the Obama administration talked about it, but we need more than talk.

     Indeed, we do.  From you AND him.  Mind you, from Sarah Palin ALL we get is talk, and talk is cheap and easy. She has no power, no responsibility, and therefor anything she says comes from the safety of the sideline.  The President talks from the vantage point of having the capacity to do something about what he says.  His words have meaning, consequence.  Sarah’s don’t. It’s that simple.

   There was a lot of empty rhetoric, as would be expected from a meeting of neocons and their political cronies putting a fresh paint job on the conservative movement in America, with the hearty support of the right wing main stream media.

    She did have some points to make, and she made them, but they were points that, to be honest didn’t touch me.  I’ve heard all the points she made before.  She, and the tea party “Patriots”, are nothing more than conservatives trying to re-brand themselves.  That is not surprising really.  The fact that Feb. 6th , the day of the speech, would have been Ronald Reagan’s 99th birthday was referenced at least 7 times in the speech and the talk afterwards.  Mr. Reagan was praised like a god.

    Sarah referenced Reagan’s “shining city on the hill”.  I happen to remember that time as being a bad one for America.  New York was riddled with crime.  The big cities of America were in bad shape.  It was the era of crack and burgeoning inner city crime.  The crime and drug problems that this nation had, when it was at its worst, were when this nation was Reagan’s “Shining city on the Hill”, and anyone who tells you different is either in the employ of, or under the influence of, the right wing main stream media.

   So when I hear of Reagan, I don’t think pretty thoughts about America in it’s prime.  I see America as it shouldn’t be.  You can talk all you like about the current administration’s spending being out of control, and the current administration being out of touch because of the spending, but this administration would not be in the position it is in right now without the excesses of conservatism and of men like Ronald Reagan.

A liberal flag

   And when neocons and the right wing main stream media tell me that they have a vision of America, I really have to laugh.  We have seen this vision played out, and we are suffering the results of it.  And if Sarah and the Tea Party “Patriots” want that era back, they’ll have to do it with the knowledge that they themselves, and those who believe as they do, are responsible for the bleak economic world we are living in.

     And there is a reason I put  “Patriots” in quotes.  Conservatives do not have a corner on the Patriotism market, never have, never will.  There are very patriotic liberals, and i dare say the average liberal is at least as patriotic as the average conservative, and I challenge you to prove me wrong.  We on the left have something in common with the right as far as patriotism goes, we care about our country, we care about the future of America, and we want to make sure that this country is strong enough to ensure our future and the future of our children and our children’s children.  We, both liberal and conservative, are soldiers, we are laborers, we are the backbone of America.  But we have differences.

   Liberals do not hide behind the flag and spout platitudes about love of country, while fighting against the freedom we claim to love so much.  No liberal has ever tried the subtle subterfuge of getting the constitution amended to make flag burning and gay marriage unconstitutional.  No real American would willingly ban free speech or the ability to marry to anyone.   Remember that bit in the pledge of allegiance?

    “With liberty and justice,  for all.”  Notice it doesn’t say “for some” or “for whoever we want to have it”  ALL.

     

    The tea party “patriots” and Sarah Palin and the rest of the old guard conservatives masquerading as some new force on the scene need to learn that.  We are ALL Americans. 

  Have a good night.  Get a good nights sleep and get ready to watch the Super bowl.

__________________________________________________________________

Today’s nuggets, via wikiquote:   The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.  Samuel Adams

Men love their country, not because it is great, but because it is their own.  Seneca

The Rhino’s Superbowl XLIV Pick

    

      Seems like it’s been forever since i did my last football picks, to be honest I don’t remember who I picked, and how I did on those picks.  Time to take a look…

    Jaw drops… Ya mean i picked BOTH WINNERS?  ME? 

     That is what I call unprecedented success!  Lets look at my championship picks before I do my Super Bowl pick.

    AFC Championship game;  Jets at Colts.  The Colts were 7½ point favorites (39½OU) to make it to Super bowl. My Pick was the Colts and the under. My pick for the final score: Colts 21, Jets 13.   Actual score:  Colts 30, Jets 17. I missed on the under, hit on the pick.  

     I said that the Jets use the pass to set up the run (duh) and their 46 D was going to keep them close.  The jets were held to 86 yards rushing, and both Thomas Jones and Shonn Greene were largely ineffective.  The Jets O was far from silent though.  The Jets threw for a pair of TD’s in the second quarter, including an 80 yard strike to Braylon Edwards, and led going into halftime.

     The Colts however were not to be denied, and after the Jets walked away from the first drive of the third quarter with nothing, Jay Feely missing a 52 yard field goal, the Colts drove 58 yards, as Peyton went 6 of 8 in a little more than 3 minutes during a drive (without a run) that ended with a 4 yard touchdown pass to Pierre Garcon.  The Jets offense never got back in stride, despite some descent numbers from Mark Sanchez. 

   It was a pretty exciting game all in all, even though the second half left little doubt as to who the winner was going to be.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

   NFC Championship game;   Vikings at Saints.   The Saints were 3½ point favorites (53OU) to make it to the Super bowl.  My pick was the Saints and the over.  My pick for final score:  Saints 38, Vikings 27.  Actual Score:  Saints 31, Vikings 28.  I hit on the OU, and the game winner, but since the Vikings covered, I missed on the pick.  I’m still calling this a win though. I was too close in too many ways for me to call this anything but a win.

      This game  had everything. Adrian Peterson got his groove back and had his best running game since the middle of the regular season.  It had the Vikings getting a lot of yardage, and some really clutch playing on both sides of the ball by both teams.  And it had one play cost the Vikings their chance to make it to the Superbowl.

    Brett Favre gambled too much, and tossed an int with mere seconds left in regulation while driving his team down to what could have been the game winning field goal.  That however is the price you pay for having Brett as your quarterback.  He can do some amazing things, but he can burn you bad with mistakes made due to his overconfidence in his arm. 

     It got the Vikings to this game, so I don’t know how much they can bitch about it costing them the game.  The Vikings don’t get to this game without him.      

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

     So far this year, I am actually, surprisingly doing almost kinda well.  5 wins.  5 losses.   Three losses and only one win in the first round of the playoffs,  I broke even in the next round, and in an amazing turn of events won both games in the conference championship round.

    Let’s do this.

     Super Bowl XLIV.  Colts V. Saints Airing on CBS at  6:25 pm EST Sun Feb 7 2010 @ Sun Life Stadium in Miami.    The Colts are 5 point favorites to win it all.  The Over Under on this game is 56½ points. 

    The Saints seem to be a team of destiny.  So do the Colts.  Both of these teams have great passing games, and each has a run game that can get the job done.   Both teams also have key injuries, but this being the Superbowl, it will take a severe injury to keep players off of the field.  Dwight Freeney can hardly walk on his injured ankle to hear the word out and about, but they’re talking about playing him on third down.  Jeremy Shockey has been hurt all postseason, but he’ll be out there.  Reggie Wayne seems to have tweaked his right knee in practice,but he’ll be out there, unless something falls off. Vilma is playing hurt, so is Darren sharper, but neither of them is really really hurt, so they’ll play.

     I don’t know that this gonna be a really high scoring game…Oh wait, yes I do.  This game could well, despite some of the individual players on defense who are really very very good players, be the highest scoring game in Super Bowl History. 

     The Saints will have their A game on.  Expect Marques Colston and Devery Henderson to each have a helluva game, and look for Drew Brees to spread the ball far and wide and throw 3 TDS and throw for over 300 yards.   If Reggie Bush can get the ground game going, he can really be a game breaker here. 

     The Colts will have their A game on as well.   I am looking for a breakout performance from Joseph Addai, call it 120 yards, 2 TD’s.  I think Pierre Garcon will have a 2 TD, 100 plus yard game, Peyton will throw 3 TDS, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he ran one in. 

    I think the Colts are going to win this game.  I WANT the Saints to win.  That would really be a feel good story, THE feel good story of the year, something the NFL could use, seeing how there is a possibility of a strike looming.  But I don’t see it happening.  Sorry, New Orleans.

       Take the Colts and the Over.  Final Score:  Colts 42, Saints 31.  MVP:  Joseph Addai

    

Today’s Nuggets, Via Wikiquote:  There are a lot of people who can make tackles, but I always seemed to look for the big play. The big play got noticed, the big play was the one that changed the game…I have always wanted to be the one who made those plays.   Lawrence Taylor

The secret is to work less as individuals and more as a team. As a coach, I play not my eleven best, but my best eleven.   Knute Rockne

You hear about how many fourth quarter comebacks that a guy has and I think it means a guy screwed up in the first three quarters.  Peyton Manning