Tuesday, October 30, 2012

sliver of a silver lining

in the middle of this monstrosity of a hurricane/cyclone, there is one arena blessedly silent - the politician's have lowered their voices to a dull roar.  supposedly out of respect for the 60 million americans in harm's way.

i don't care what it took - this political obsessive is exhausted and burned-out from the babbling voices, my own choices of candidates included.

it's become fashionable every now and then to declare that THIS moment in political discourse is the nastiest, most partisan yet.  however, i think this current cycle truly is one of the most disgusting, despicable time periods, with few, if any, redeeming characters present.  i'm bone-tired of hearing who said what first and why.  usually i thrive on political analysis, can't get enough of it.  but not this go-round.  hope it's not about me aging, or me anything - i hope we truly have hit bottom.

i read earlier today that we could be heading for a gore/bush moment - al gore won the largest percent of voters, but lost the election.  this analyst i was reading, and i'd read the same thing a few days previously, was saying this time it could be romney who wins the popular vote, but obama who gets the electoral college and thus all the marbles.

if so, then it will have happened to each party once within a 12 year time span, and then maybe there'd be a critical mass ready to get rid of the electoral college.  at which point the nations emits a huge sigh of relief.

me, i just want a little more respect back in the process. a lot less hate-mongering, a lot fewer podiums for the ann coulter's of the world.  a little more honesty - no, make that a LOT more honesty.

and for now i'm happy for a couple days break in the action.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

time for fun!

after a vacation drought of 12 years, we're heading out to las vegas!  we're very excited.  four days and three nights at the bellagio.  cirque du soleil, sightseeing, a helicopter ride, gambling, good food.
about time!!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

poltical reality

the politics of the day are becoming rather scary.  it seems there's a real chance romney/ryan could win.

what i don't get is how a sane woman could vote this ticket.  pro-choice would go out the window, and what woman would not worry about that?  if not for herself than for her daughters, friends, women in general.  i think we suffer a surfeit of women who either remember the deaths pre-roe v. wade or suffer from an extreme lack of imagination.  pro-choice also means pro-contraceptive, and romney is on record as being against carte-blanche coverage of birth control in health insurance. the employer would get to pick if it was covered or not.

and now we have idiots saying medical technology is so advanced, there would never be a need for an abortion to save the life of a pregnant woman. as if.   why is it that only men come up with this ludicrous stuff?  we're still trying to bat down tadd akin, he of the 'women can control 'down there' and make sure they don't get pregnant if raped.  oh, i simplify.  i forgot about 'legitimate' rape.  again, why is it that men come up with this stuff and not women.  because most women know better!

i think there must be quite a few women concerned about romney-talk who've painted themselves into a corner by committing to him. and we have quite a lot of women out of child bearing age (exemplified by the RNC) enthusiastically supporting romney/ryan.

perhaps i reveal my bias too much, but i keep coming back to what sane woman would support these cavemen???

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

and that's the truth

is there such a thing as objective truth anymore? 2 + 2 = 4, right?  it's not about perspective, it's about fact.  both the republicans AND the democrats have become so good at manipulating the truth that few believe anything they hear as unvarnished truth.  when the labor department came out with their monthly numbers and revealed that for the first time in 3.5 years, unemployment had dropped below 8%, the figures were immediately jumped on and the obama administration was accused of somehow fixing the numbers.

today the u.s. anti-doping agency came out with a report of 100 + pages that put the final nails in lance armstrong's cycling coffin.  this is a controversy close to me because i live in the hometown of armstrong, and the HQ of his foundation, livestrong.  so i'm listening to the local news (something i usually avoid) and they have a reporter go to the foundation and interview the exec director.  and the ED says "well, they have their perspective and we have ours".  not everything is a perspective!! some things are simply true.

and the debate last week?  fact checkers have never been so busy.  tomorrow night we see biden and ryan.  the latter was so inaccurate during his convention speech that it was the headliner for days.

unfortunately, there are few consequences these days for lying.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

a faithful friend

dear chippy,

you were a King of Cats.  i will miss you.  yet i knew when you came out from hiding yesterday that you were telling me it was time.   i was very emotional and you were stoic. you didn't protest a whit when i put you in the cat carrier.  my mind was whirling through the wonderful 20 years we spent together, all the while you were purring ever so slightly, none of the crying you usually do when getting into the cat carrier on the way to the vet.

i knew what had to happen.  you'd mostly stopped eating and drinking, stopped playing, stopped coming into the bed to lie in between us - your all-time favorite thing.

one little moan of protest when i took you out of the carrier in the vet's exam room, then quiet on the table. no protest when they weighed you.  the tech asked if i wanted to talk about treatment options or........and she let herself trail off.  i said i wanted to talk about the "or...." part with the vet.

so we did.  he told me he could hydrate you, maybe give you a few good days, but then we'd be right back to square one.

i wouldn't put you through that, not since there was a chance you were in pain. you knew, you stayed curled up, pressing into me.  so he stepped out for a moment, you and i 'talked' and he came back in with a nice towel you could lie on, not the stainless steel of the table.  he gave you a tranquilizer shot and i kept telling you what a good boy you were. a few minutes later he came in with the other shot, and then you were gone, hopefully hearing my loving voice as you exited.

and now you're free of pain, no longer weak, hopefully in a garden of eden full of catnip.

you were my one soulmate cat.

Monday, October 1, 2012

raising expectations...odd

i think the republican establishment is setting mitt romney up.  oh, i'm not sad about it, but i do find it interesting.  notable republicans, john mccain among them, are talking about how well mitt is going to do in the upcoming debate, what a great chance he has.  there are several similar stories floating around the news sites on the internet.

mitt needs a "there you go again" moment, a "you, sir, are no jack kennedy" knife to throw.  obama is not going to give it to him.  it's being said that romney has a pile of one-liners to lay on obama.  i can see mitt panting in his corner, all eager to have obama walk into one of his traps.  barack obama is an exceedingly cautious man - he's going to look both ways before he crosses romney's street.

the usual modus operandi before a debate is to lower expectations, so that if the candidate breathes throughout the time he's exceeded his own expectations.  what gives?