No theme. No point. I despise themes, really. You know how some people's abodes look like a particular furnisher's catalog or the like? I'd hate my life if I lived in such a place.
My place? Very messy. And it screams "lots of kids" and "these people just don't give a shit".
Yup.
Movin' on.
We had a new patio poured, a great idea that - like acts of Congress - creates unintended consequences. Namely, that I gotta go and landscape the area around the new patio lest the estate languish as a mudpit for the kids and the two dogs.
Again.....dammit, I say. Dammit.
No matter, I'm not yet 40 and used to landscape plenty as a kid and am still strong enough for the work. It entailed moving a bunch of gravel - I did that on Sunday. Then I'll have to grade the mud into something resembling a bed and toss some mulch on it - AFTER digging out a trench for the drainpipe and connecting it. All in all, not a really big deal. Just crap that's gotta get done.
So last night Arlen Specter lost his Senate job. So long, pal, and thanks for....?? He was great to watch on TV when he was leading those Senate hearings (especially on the Judiciary Committee, which I seem to recall he chaired for a very long period of time). Godspeed. He's got his health, I think.
As for the so-called Tea Party, I guess their guy won in Kentucky last night. OK. Not sure what that says for the November elections. Here's how I see it: the folks who like the idea of the Tea Party's platform aren't voting Democrat any day soon, so it makes little sense for a Democratic candidate at any level to woo them. The Republican incumbents are jumping over each other to prove their bona fides to this "grass-roots movement", and that makes sense to me because most of the Tea Party's followers appear to be very, very white. I wonder if this is White America's last gasp before the demographics change forever. Only time will tell that tale.
I question the "grass-roots" movement that Fox News seems to love portraying on their propagandist airwaves. Does anyone recall there even being a "Tea Party" before the 2008 election? I think I can independently (without looking it up) recall some rumbling after the Bush-led bailout in 2008, but I don't recall anything "unified" until after President Obama's inauguration in January 2009. Almost immediately, people (mostly white people) were voicing "anger" at his policies.
At that time....I was drawing an incredulous blank...what policies??? He'd only just been sworn in.
Now, about 2 years into it, at least these folks have been given something to be upset about. The high cost of the bailouts and the healthcare battle have at least created tangible issues to justify wadded panties.
ANGER.
When I think of the word I recall Master Yoda's speech in Star Wars Ep. 1. "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering."
There's entirely too much of it in our society. You can see it in the way we jockey for parking spaces at a mall or grocery store. Or how we all rush to get the best spot in traffic, or the best this or that. I realize that competition is part of America, but I'm not sure naked frustration is the same. Or that it needs to be so petty. I've heard many people express themselves using anger as their focal point: "I'm pissed about this" or "That really pisses me off".
Why?
I haven't got a clue. But irrational anger must come from somewhere. What was so incredibly awful about our sitting President's policies that inspired so many to travel to DC and protest? I don't know. Or the former President's war in Iraq? (as an aside, where are all the war protesters now? Last I checked our boys and girls in uniform are still over there fighting and dying for....what?).
I understand disappointment. Frustration. Betrayal. Fear.
I guess I'm not one to hold a grudge.
EXCEPT WITH MY SPORTS TEAMS
My Boston Bruins blew it Friday. I was sad. The Red Sox are like this blog - all over the place. The Nationals are over-achieving. The Orioles? Uh, last place. And the Dodgers are streaking, finally perhaps achieving.
I'd hoped LeBron James would've won one for Cleveland this year, and by proxy the state of Ohio. They've gone a long time without a professional champion in the Buckeye State and the fans of those teams have weathered some of the worst of the current economic recession. Earnest Byner. The Florida F'ing Marlins. And now Bron Bron going belly-up. Sorry, Cleveland.
Speaking of Kentucky, as I did earlier, I'm endorsing the show "Justified" on FX. I'm a fan of FX's "Sons of Anarchy" which is....uh.....a man's soap opera. Justified isn't quite that, it's more a simply good cop show. Kinda funny in parts, and gripping in parts. Elmore Leonard's the producer and creator of the character of US Marshal Raylan Givens, played by a pretty good Timothy Olyphant (it's either Olyphant or Oliphant - I forget).
If you liked Get Shorty or Out of Sight, you'll like Justified.
Lost is chugging to a conclusion, as is 24, and I don't care. I think I could see where Lost was going sometime last year. I'll watch, like a lemming. Like I have a choice, I gotta know how it ends. Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer is going bananas killing everyone he encounters on 24, so - uh - I guess he's gonna be a bad guy.
I play ice hockey but, at 38 and with a major leg surgery behind me I don't play very well. Time waits for no one, hair today gone tommorrow (and the hair on top of my skull is definitely going...going.....going more.....it might be...it could be...). But it's fun and good exercise, plus I play with a pretty good group of guys. The interesting thing to note is that the longer I play the more I've moved from brash young upstart to team captain to grizzly veteran on his way down the depth chart.
Circle of Life and all that. Hakuna Matata, bitches!
Bye
Not saying goodnight, just sayin'
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