Technology is getting away from us!

Did you know that you can start a car from afar (think a "state away", for example)?  Of course the car has  to be equipped with a special "chip."   And the new cars probably will have that chip.  So, how fast do you think "car-jackers" are going to become car "hackers?"  Just think, no more broken windows, no more jimmied ignitions, no more shouting "get out of the car" at gun point (since they won't have to wait for the owner to open the car with his/her key.)  This must be nirvana to car thieves.

As fast as we invent something new, different, interesting, there's someone out there trying to defuse the glory, and take advantage of the situation.   Which of course creates jobs for people who are paid to figure out where the defusers will come from.    Which of course causes the defusers to work harder.  Which of course...well, you get the idea.

I think I'll keep driving my technology-challenged cars on Day 175!

If you rolled them all into one...

...you might have a viable Republican candidate. 

I say this because I heard something Ron Paul said, that seemed like a good idea, to me.  May I say that I only very occasionally vote for a Republican.  I'm mostly Democrat, born and raised that way!

I also agreed with something Michelle Bachman said the other day.

Oops, I haven't heard anything I could "value" out of Rick Perry's mouth yet, but hey, he has time.

Romney still has my ear too.  Ever hear of his own state health care plan???!!!

Roll them all into a really, REALLY good candidate, and you might have a VIABLE candidate, but from my side of the fence, not yet!

Just my political musings on Day 174! 

It's all just funny money!

Today Warren Buffet bought a boat-load of Bank of America shares.  Because whatever he buys seems to be golden, and his portfolio is to be admired, many people got on the bandwagon and bought more shares.  That brought the price up, per share.  Therefore by the end of the day, Buffet's shares, should he/could he resell them immediately at the latest asking price, would garner him a profit of about a billion (yes, BILLION) dollars!

If that's not funny money, I don't know what is!

Betting on Buffet, but not with my money on Day 173!

P.S.  Why couldn't he have bought Citicorp?  I DO own some of that, and it could have used a boost!

Dick Cheney...ho hum...

Dick Cheney wrote a book...

Ho hum...

You'll find me reading John Sandford's really good "fiction" on Day 172!

Bad sportsmanship du jour!

There's been yet another incidence at a professional sports venue.  This time it was a shooting after a San Francisco 49ers game.  One of the folks who was shot supposedly had an "offensive to the 49ers" shirt on.  Now isn't that why we buy "funny" t-shirts, to show a bit of humor or to make a point?  But is this reason enough to shhot a person? 

Earlier in the year an EMT was beaten, and is still suffering from brain damage after a Dodgers-Giants baseball game.  What is the matter with people?  Sports is just not that important! 

Both of these incidents, to me, speak of attempted murder!  Nothing less!

We worship overpaid atheletes, who don't know the vast majority of us, from anyone else in the universe.  Why should we attempt to "kill" for them? 

This behavior is also trickling down to the little league/mighty mites leagues.  The parents are starting to get wage war on the coaches, etc.  Maybe these goons who sought to hurt members of the opposing team's fans, learned this in the sandlots of their youth, from their parents!

Watching the games on TV only...Day 171!

So what, so what, so what???!!!!!

Kim Kardashian got married.

Her wedding may have cost in the millions.

She has an engagement ring equal to or greater than the GPD of a few small countries.

So what, so what, so what???

I did not read all the details.  This is just what flew in my face from headlines on the internet and newspaper! 

I did read or hear somewhere that her mother, Mrs. Bruce Jenner, was going to take back her "previous" married name, because it has become an "enterprise" in itself!  Huh? 

With all the trouble in all parts of the world, I can appreciate reading something a bit "light" but I'd rather see cute pictures of puppies than read about celebrities who have no know talents except their name happened to be linked with a particular event (and in this case it was the heinous OJ trial.)  Remember?  Probably the people fawning over the Kardashians don't even remember Robert Kardashian, or what he did in the name of "justice!"

Gonna go look at an e-mail with cute puppies in it that I received from a friend...on Day 170!

Can't a guy (even the president) get a break?

Sheesh...the president is going on vacation.  So what?   The "media" seems to berate him for this little trip to Martha's Vineyard.  Do we really think he's not going to have regular updates on what's going on around the country?

Do we think that he's turning off all cell phones and telling his "people" not to talk to him for the next week?  That he'll get his "news" from the local newspaper or the internet?

When congress goes home for their recesses, do we really think they're out talking to their "constituents?  Don't we really look upon those occasions as being mini-vacations?  Plus the "real" vacations they take while they're in Washington?  Yet we accept that as part of their position.

Everyone needs some time off to just be somewhat idle.  Spend time with family.  Even the president is entitled to that.  His job is 24/7/365 and vacations are no exception.  So he may be away, but he's not totally out of touch! 

And how many of us would postpone a vacation if our "job" needed us more?  Very, very, very few!!!  We feel we are entitled, and deserve our time off.  And the majority of us do have the good fortune to not answer calls from work, or spend time planning our next moves while the family frolics.

I'm going in October, so don't bother me, please...Day 169!

The EPA be damned!

Rick Perry didn't exactly say that, but he implied it today, when he said he did not believe in global warming, and that it was more-or-less a "ploy" of scientists to get funding for their research projects.  Un huh!  Yep!  That's the ticket!  But then here's a person who carries a lazer-sighted pistol when he jogs so he can kill snakes.  Mind you, any human being who is healthy enough to jog, can easily outrun a snake.  I mean, a person can outwalk a snake!

Oh, and of course big business says that as long as we have such "stringent(?)" environmental laws, they are hamstrung from creating more jobs.  Sure they are.  And then when they screw up the environment, there'll be plenty of jobs available to clean up their messes.

Think Katrina, and New Orleans.  If we hadn't built in the floodplains, and filled in the marshes, the town would not have gone underwater.   Think the Everglades!  And how the lack of them has caused some terrific hurricane damage to the coast of Florida.  So what are we doing now?  Trying to "restore" the Everglades...ah...jobs created, twice, if you count when we screwed it up in the first placed.

But how do you really "fix" a problem when the land has changed, the animals have vanished, the plants don't grow there anymore.  Are the "promises" of more jobs more important than saving the earth so it's habitable?   Notice I said "promises" of jobs; no guarantee there really would be jobs!

Getting back to Rick Perry,  Molly Ivens... you had your work cut out for you when you cussed and discussed the Texas ledg...and we miss you.   This story is about way more than Texas, but Perry started the ball rolling with his inane remarks.

Can't write as well as you did, but I'm trying, this Day 168!

Addendum to K2 (and I don't mean kindergarden!)

My last rant was about drugs. 

Since then I was talking to a friend who was in HR (human resources) and she mentioned it was her experience, and others in her field also, that fewer people were able to pass drug tests.  She told of one job opening that had over 500 applicants and yet only 10 could pass the drug test.

The United States and its people have fallen off a cliff in a big way.  If that's an accurate description of the state of employment, no wonder unemployment stays so high.  There are jobs out there, but no one to fill them, and it's not totally because they're not qualified; they're stoned!

You don't want drunk drivers, why would you want drunk workers?    Don't take me to task on semantics here...a drug is a drug is a drug!

I'm drug free and just got a new job, on Day 167!

K2, a disgusting little product...

For those of you who have not heard of this, K2 is a supposed "bath salt" that people are smoking, I believe, to get high!  It's illegal to sell in Missouri.   I passed by a store today (a topless bar, I believe) that said they sold K2 substitutes there.  Is that disgusting, or what?

Why must people get high?  Why must people think they're not having fun if they're not hallucinating?  Why must people "numb" themselves against the world, and its ups and downs?  Why must people go out of their way to find and manufacture such stuff, and try to get around the harmful effects by calling it "bath salt?"  And who thinks to "smoke" this stuff anyway?  Was it ever meant to be a bath salt?  Did anyone ever even try it as a bath salt?  And now that its not available, we've already found a substitute? 

Shaking my head and staying sane, and away, from ALL this junk...Day 166!

They'll cancel each other out!

Wow, did anyone NOT hear about Rick Perry possibly getting into the presidential race?  I think because "God told him to???!!"  Not really, I made that up about God.  But, in today's paper, there was a headline on the second page of him saying to the Evangelicals "...I'm one of you..."  So???

I do believe Rick and Michelle will cancel each other out.  They're too far right.  Take those kind of religious comments, with Michelle Bachman's rants, and it's a slam-dunk that Mitt Romney will be the next Republican candidate.   And if he were to not get the nod, it's a slam-dunk that Obama gets re-elected.

You can talk religion all you want to, but you can't make people "believers" if their hearts are not in it.  If you were to look at the lifestyles of what appear to be the majority of Americans these days, religion is a far distant thought while they're going through their daily routines.   This would appear to be especially true of the younger generation, and that folks is our future!

If there is a God and he answered all our prayers, there would be no war, no famine, no poverty, no murder.  Everything would be peaceful, calm, prosperous, idyllic.  Wwe need to try to get along, and respect and help one another.  That's what Jesus wanted us to strive for, when he preached over 2000 years ago, but not all of us took it to heart, and we're falling further and further away as time goes on.  Jesus is dead, and so are too many of his ideas.  Perry can try to resurrect him, in the form of God, but it's a dead issue, in more ways than one.

Just telling it like I see it, on Day 165!

Remember when...

...we all used to eat dinner together at dinnertime, with the TV off?

I bring this up because I'm tired of negative energy.  This particular issue was raised when a dietician was asked why we have such child obesity, and one of the reasons was that the family does not eat together any more.  But I'm not here to discuss obesity.  I could use a few pounds myself.

I remember watching TV at about 5:00 in the evening, in time to see The Mickey Mouse Club, with Annette Funicello, and a few others who's names I have forgotten, and leave with dreams of going to Disneyland.   I probably remember Annette because my next-door neighbor was Italian, and reminded me of her.  Of course the program ran an hour, and we ate promptly at 5:30, no ifs, ands, or buts!  So the TV went off!  Occasionally, and just occasionally dinner would be a few minutes late, and I could see just a wee bit more of the show, but never all the way through.

My mother was also a stickler for a proper dinner, which meant meat, potatoes and a vegetable.  She was a really, really good cook, which I never appreciated because she had a way of making things I really didn't like,  One of her specialities was Chop Suey.  I went to a very good Chinese restaurant in downtown Chicago and tried their Chop Suey, thinking that I'd finally find out what it was supposed to taste like!   It tasted just like my mothers!

Dinnertime, at the time, seemed to be a chore.  But today, with everything being fast, fast, fast, I miss those dinners.  My husband and I have dinner here. only occasionally, since he works nights and I work days.  He prefers to go out for dinner over the weekend, but I have to say that I really enjoy putting together an occasional dinner, on the weekends, where we sit down at the table.  A bit reminiscent of the good old days.

However, I am still waiting to go to Disneyland ...Day 164!

Well, good for Budweiser!

They're redesigning their packaging, thinking it will lure more people to buy their products.  Their sales are good, but down, as the economy is also down.  So they redesign their packaging?  Isn't that expensive, considering the retooling, etc?   They wouldn't be the first group that changed their looks and lost even more public appeal.   Someone did mention that the cans were more reminiscent of Coke cans...freudian?  Perhaps not!  But why not just lower your prices?

Speaking of that, yesterday Molson-Coors was quoted as saying they raised their prices as they were "losing money", and they still are losing market share.  In this economy you raise prices???  Oh sorry, those high-priced CEOs need their perks, so we must make more money.  Guess they're hurting too in this economy.  I think "losing money" simply means that they are not making as much profit as they anticipated.  They're not really "losing money" the way the majority of us define it!

Of course I could be wrong about all of the above, but there's another "problem" with selling more beer...called drinking responsibly!  A potential DWI, thousands of dollars in lawyer and other fees, plus jail time and the potential of really hurting other human beings, may have also cut into their profits.   As for those beer drinkers to which this is a wake-up call...I say "Good for you!"  Beer is not a necessity in your daily diet!

As for me, I'm gonna get myself an iced tea, on Day 163!

I'll watch out for motorcycles when...

...they start driving more responsibly.  And, I will admit, there are plenty that do! 

But today, as we were approaching a light, obviously in our favor, as other cars were going through it, a motorcycle turned in front of us from the cross traffic.  If we were travelling a bit faster, he or she would have been toast!  And everyone would be saying "Oh, the poor motorcycle driver that no one ever sees."  We saw them loud and clear!

I agree that motorcycles have a hard time expecially when car drivers forget the rules of the road, do not signal when changing lanes, or making turns, etc. And of course there is that infernal blind spot that we all seem to have somewhere in our line of sight.    But one motorcycle rider acting irresponsibly affects the motorcycle community as a whole.

Still watching out for the other guy...Day 162!

Playing the "blame game" and how responsible is the media?

Okay, the "debt ceiling" has been raised, and the "crisis" averted, and everyone's breathing a sigh of relief that the government didn't default on what it could default on.  So what?

After all the ballyhooing about the Democrats getting bashed for "spending" and "wanting to raise taxes", etc, etc, let's review a couple facts that the Republicans seem to have conveniently forgotten.

 First, when Ronald Reagan was president, he enacted some hellacious taxes.  He was a Republican!  And they won't soon let you forget him either!  He's always being deified!  If there was room on Rushmore, he'd be there...

Second, when George Bush took office, after Clinton, there was a budget surplus, which disappeared under Bush.  George is a Republican also!  So Obama gets in, and things were already in the toilet, and the Democratic party is responsible for the mess?  So says the media!

(Speaking of George, aren't you glad he did not get to tie Social Security in with the stock market???!!!)

Seems we have selective memory, when it serves us best!  For what I consider to be real insight, and not media hype trying to "tell" the American people what their brand of "truth" is, turn in to a venue like "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart.    He seems to have both sides covered.

Just trying to understand where the blame lies, on Day 162!

Everything is retro...even behaviors...

Lordy, lordy, the news on the Internet has been keeping me in stitches today.  Probably a good thing, because with the outside temps ranging in the 100s (it was supposed to be 107 today) there's not much else to do except stay in the air conditioning!  So the latest "scandal" was that the new "behavior" among 21-28 year olds (or somewhere in there) was NOT to live together, but to keep separate apartments, with occasional sleep-overs.

Again...HUH???

Thirty-five years ago, when I got married, I wanted to just move in with my husband, not get married, jsut see how well we'd cohabitate.  He would have none of it!  My mother was apoplectic when I even mentioned it to her.   So we got married, and obviously it has worked, but not without some hellacious fights, and one short separation. 

As they say "we've "come a long way baby" in those 35 years.  For better or for worse?  I don't know.  But to think of living "apart" as a "new phenomenon?"  Who writes these stories anyway?  Oh wait, I forgot, probably tech-savy 20 somethings, who have heard of marriage, but it must be for "old folks!"

So here I sit in my co-habitated house on Day 161!

I thought I had heard it all...till this...

...Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) expressed a fairly extreme concern on the House Floor Monday night about the expanded preventative health coverage: offering free birth control to women could eventually kill off the entire human species... (Huffpost AOL News 8/2/2011)

Free birth control might mean the end of the human race???   Surely he's joking!!!  Has he watched Maury Povich or Steve Wilkos lately?  There are plenty of sweet young girls, who's very last thought is birth control!  Even if it were free!!!

If there is an "end of the human race" it will be because Mother Nature decided to take back her planet!   With all the pollution, from a myriad of sources, we'll kill ourselves off without the use of birth control.   Oh, but then I've been led to understand that the Republicans do not believe in environmental controls against pollution, or global warming, or evolution.

I'm trying hard to like some Republicans as I'm not thrilled with the way the Democrats are handling themselves, but when ideas like this spew forth...what's a person to do???    I know, if I don't like it, I could move to another country, but I feel it's my duty to stay here to try to knock some sense into the populace, especially the younger, slightly less involved or informed populace.

Here for the long haul...on Day 160!

Do you know your neighbors?

When you live in the country your neighbors are not as close, geographically, as they would be in the city.  So out here, in the boonies, we don't even know all of their names.  We usually just recognize their vehicles and wave as we pass by.

The "neighborhood" is changing as the farms are being cut up into 3-5 acre tracts for housing developments.  That was, until the real estate crash of 2008/9.  Much of a relief to many of us who did not appreciate the farmland being "mowed over."  Anyway, one of the plots nearby was developed and the house stood vacant for over a year.  Besides the price being what we considered to be way too high, the market had crashed.  Finally, after at least a year, someone moved in.

I guess we decided someone moved in because the "For Sale" sign was gone.  But it was probably weeks, possibly even months, before we actually saw a person or vehicle by the house.  Since then, we've seen people there (within the space of 2 years) probably 10 times.  We almost never see a vehicle outside.  Guess their garage is empty...an anomaly in this age of 3-car garages, and no room for the cars in the garages.  When we do see a vehicle, it never moves from the place it's parked, for a few days.  Lately there's been a different colored vehicle in the driveway.  Or at least the three days it was there.

Let me say that the reason we're more  "in-tune" with this house is that we go past there at least twice a day, if not more often, so the chance of  "seeing the neighbors" is enhanced.

Of course this leads to fantasizing.  We've decided that the FBI or CIA owns this house and it's either a safe house, or the folks living there are in the witness protection program!  Makes it much more interesting from that perspective!  I could see that happening, except I would think that the house would be set back more, in some woods, rather than on an exposed, virtually treeless,  3-acre lot.   As long as they don't let their dogs chase my livestock, I don't care who they are, or why they're there!

So I'll just keep fantasizing...Day 159!

They'rrrrrre baccccccckkkk!!!!!!!!!!

I was driving down the road the other day, when I spied an unusual looking convertible sports car in my rear view mirror.  I knew it was an older model, but didn't recognize the front end, or the model.  Thought it may have been an old Alpha Romeo, as I know there's one in the area. 

When the car passed me, I looked at the tail end, and abruptly realized it was an old Sunbeam!  The very car that Andy has.   I have not seen one of those since the early 70s, I'm almost sure.  Living in a rural part of America, one doesn't see very many "odd" vehicles at all, mostly pick-up trucks, of all ages, and sizes.

I have seen more and more older foreign sports cars on the road around here.  Part of that could be due to all the people who have moved here from other parts of the US, and brought their toys with them.  But I'm also wondering if these old cars, and I'm talking  Triumph TRs, MGs, that older Alpha previously mentioned, and now the Sunbeam, etc. have finally overcome the mechanical problems they were famous for!

Who hasn't heard the acronym of F.I.A.T. (fix it again, Tony.)

I love seeing these old cars.  I've had the opportunity to purchase one in the past, but the mechanical problems were usually the reason the car was for sale.  If the current owner couldn't keep it running, what made me think I could?  So I passed on all of them.

Looking forward to seeing the past, without the mechanical problems,  on Day 158!