Q NOTES # 833: Meandering

Another week comes to an end, and some of the past seven days really sucked.

Many (maybe most) parents understand that if a boy is never punished for any bad behavior, he'll quickly conclude that none of the damn rules apply to him. The so-called precedence (sic) of Hopalong Hairdo illustrates the point. For various reasons, Hairdo never completely matured into a responsible adult, and because his precedence (sic) coincided with Trumplican majorities in the Senate, he was never held accountable for any of his corruption and depravity. This proved to him that an election defeat could be avoided by pretending it never happened.

Christian # 1: "I think abortion is wrong, and I'd never have one." Example of choice.

Christian # 2: : "Abortion is a sin, and no one can ever have one again." Example of theocracy.

One of the above is perfectly acceptable to me. The other should be totally unacceptable in this country.

Added 10:46 AM Tuesday 28 June: The evangelunacy contingent of the Supreme Court strikes again. If some halfwit high school football coach feels compelled to attract attention to himself by squatting in the middle of the field and praying aloud before and after games, I guess that might be a religious freedom / free speech issue. When the entire team is required to join him and participate in his ritual, that changes the deal in my book. 

Q NOTES # 558: Short Cuts 54

I began my blogging hobby in September 2007, after being introduced to the idea by my daughter's husband. When I started blogging, I had a lot of topics to write about, some of which were autobiographical in nature. As I expanded my field from one blog to two, then added a third, a fourth, and finally a fifth one, it became increasingly difficult to come up with essays on a variety of topics. I wasn't reading enough books, seeing enough movies, or watching enough football games to meet my content requirements.

Eventually I realized that the last years of the Bush 43 administration, and the political environment in Texas, were the origins of continuous rage, and I almost always had opinions on the news of the day. Five blogs became five forums for unloading anger, disgust, and sheer hatred of right-wingers who essentially controlled federal and state government.

Even limited exposure to daily political news gets depressing, and as the transition occurred from Bush 43 to Barack Obama, then to the giant orange snot bubble, I pushed myself to maintain at least some awareness of government activity and political games.

Four years of the giant orange snot bubble brought a degree of catastrophe I hadn't experienced during the Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush 41, and Bush 43 years. Every day produced tidal waves of insanity, chaos, ignorance, corruption and stunning evil. The founding fathers couldn't have envisioned a national miscalculation of the magnitude that put snot bubble in the White House, because the depraved motherfucker was allowed to pile outrage upon outrage, exempt from restraint or accountability. Worse, the so-called Liberal Media insisted on reporting these eruptions of toxic waste as though they were merely politics as usual.

By the time Joe was declared winner of the 2020 election, I was exhausted, and ready for the tranquility of sane leadership. Instead, the outrageous bullshit hasn't subsided because several million of the worst people on earth refuse to make the snot bubble completely irrelevant. Keeping up with the latest offenses against human decency is tiresome, so when a reason for even mild optimism surfaces in the REAL liberal media (which is almost all on the Internet), it's refreshing. Today's Daily Kos has an article that provides a little respite from the daily shit storm.

Magic number = 52

I've been thinking about starting a list of Good Republicans, which for the time being I'm defining as conservatives who are willing to condemn Donnie Dick Drops and support his removal from office. Right now, I'm wondering if I can come up with enough names to match the number of playing cards in a standard deck.

PS added 6:10 PM Friday: It's comforting to know that Putin and the (R) party are all on the same page. Is anyone really surprised?

Constipation

Donny Bump visited the hospital yesterday, supposedly to get a head start on the annual physical exam which verifies that his health puts him in the Superhuman category. There's been much speculation on the Internet concerning what the REAL reasons are. One idea that seems popular is that Bump is setting up the framework to resign for medical reasons. I doubt that one.

My guess is that Lindsey Graham has been so far up his butt, Donny hasn't had a decent bowel movement in two months.

Idle contemplation

Last night, I dreamed that Donny Mushroom leaped from the top of a tall building and landed on Mitch McConnell. God, what a mess that made. Actually, it was a daydream.

The world makes sense as long as I remember that Republicans talking on television programs are lying at least 99 percent of the time, or 100 percent depending on the topic (or the Republican).

Donny Mushroom is comfortable when he can publicly present himself as the beloved star of a hit TV reality show. It pisses him off when he can't, like during last night's address from the Oval Office.

The only time Donny complains about the news media is when he can't control what's being said about him. Nearly everything he does is intended to manage the conversation about him on TV talk shows, with his ultimate goal being all praise, all the time.

I'm now positive the only people Donny cares about are (a) himself, (b) Ivanka, and (c) people he believes will definitely vote for him in 2020... in that order. The rest of us are totally insignificant in his alternate reality.

The Year 1 AD

From The Hill: Is it time to start thinking about a post-Donnie America?

Here's one thing we know about the year 1 AD (after Donald): Those millions of voters who still support Donnie Mung didn't just pop up out of nowhere in 2016. Considering that many, if not most, of them are over retirement age or close to it, they've been voting for Republicans for years. They've been out there all along, but it took something like a psychopathic TV celebrity / con artist and a stolen election to liberate them and make them fascinating to the media. Once Donnie's gone, regardless of the circumstances, his cult will piss and moan for a while, then vote for whichever Republican replaces him on the ballot. All this speculation about a populist uprising of some kind is bullshit. Have you seen pictures of those dullards? Most of them would have trouble finding their own butts with a search party.

Yeah, they're soooo scary...

Taking the High Road

Every time Republicans set a trap, Democrats eagerly walk straight into it.

Democrats are ready to give Al Franken the boot. Republicans are ready to give Redneck Roy a Senate seat, and Donny Doolittle a massive personal tax break. That explains why Republicans are in a position to run the country into the ground while Democrats are standing over there in the corner.

Franken should resign after an ethics investigation verifies the accusations against him, or when The Nasty One resigns, whichever comes first.

It would be wonderful if Honorably Doing the Right Thing was something voters always rewarded, but in reality, they almost never do.

Update 11:51 AM Thursday: Excellent follow-up on Democrats doing Republicans' work for them

Definition of the Day

Political correctness is defined as a form of discrimination against socially maladjusted white people whose freedom to say any nasty things that cross their minds is inhibited by changing standards of civil behavior. This discrimination has its greatest negative effect among conservatives, who are not biologically prepared to adapt readily to change.

Anniversary

Yesterday, this thought occurred to me ~~

One pretty good way to measure strength of friendship and devotion to family is by the distance adults are willing to travel to attend the first birthday party of another adult's one-year-old child.

Trajectories

Thanksgiving weekend is time for some of the most interesting football games of the season, since that's when many of the traditional rivalry games are played. The old saying is that anything can happen in a rivalry game, and that was true today. Undefeated Ohio State had all it could handle with a so-so Michigan team (winning 42-41), and defending national champions Alabama lost to Auburn, their most bitter rival, 34-28. Coincidentally, the Tide and the Wolverines both went down on plays that were called to avoid sending tied games into overtime.

Tonight, Texas A&M lost 28-21 at Missouri. The Aggies played four tough SEC teams with strong defenses and efficient running games, and went 0-4. The Aggies struggled to win shootouts with Arkansas, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State. It was a rough year, because teams that win consistently in the SEC have potent running games and gritty defenses, and Texas A&M has neither. Their success in reaching 8-4 was mainly the result of having a quarterback with enough individual talent to win shootouts against teams like Ole Miss and Arkansas.

In 2012, the Aggies were red-hot. They stomped Auburn 63-21, and thumped Missouri 59-29. College Station was the center of attention in the world of college football after Johnny Manziel became the first freshman winner of the Heisman Trophy. The future looked bright.

In 2013, Auburn and Missouri had A&M figured out and outmanned on offense and defense. They will meet next weekend in the SEC championship game, and the winner may have a shot at the BCS championship game. What a difference a year makes. Auburn and Missouri spent the year working their way toward the top of the SEC hierarchy, while A&M was sliding down the food chain into middle-of-the-pack status. Today's SEC games allowed a glimpse of the future, and my conclusion is that until Texas A&M develops an ability to play the kind of football played by Alabama, Auburn, LSU, and Missouri, it doesn't have much future.

Failure

When the ACA is repealed, it can be declared a failure, since repealing the ACA will require a Republican president and Republican majorities in the House and Senate. Until that environment is created, the rollout problems that currently exist will be gradually corrected, so it's premature to declare the war is lost because of the outcome of the first skirmish.

Americans still remember the clusterfuck that resulted the last time Republicans were allowed to run the entire federal government, and a lot of computer glitches can be fixed before voters make that mistake again. That's what has the Teeps pissing blood today.

Consistency

From what I'm reading, conservatives don't have a problem judging all Muslims by the actions of two who blew up the Boston Marathon. But hell breaks loose if anyone suggests that all gunowners could be judged by the actions of lunatics who shoot up schools and theaters. Anyone expecting consistency and reason from conservatives is in for a long wait.

Conventional

The Republicans held their national nominating convention last week in Tampa, and I made a choice not to watch a single minute of it on television. I knew it was more important that I go to bed happy at night than to listen to anything those motherfucking assholes were saying.

This week, the Democrats took their turn. Tuesday night I saw most of Julian Castro's keynote address and Michelle Obama's speech. Last night I saw Elizabeth Warren and Bill Clinton, and tonight, Joe Biden and President Obama. Six speeches in three nights. I thought all six were as effective as any political speeches I've seen. Tonight, I'm proud to reaffirm that I am not and never will be a Republican.

Persecuted?

Evangelical Christians in this country are more likely to be the oppressors than the oppressed, but you wouldn't know that from listening to their complaints about how they're being mistreated.

Flameouts at Christmas time

That motherfucker in North Korea is dead. There are signs that Newter has peaked and is falling back into the pack in Iowa. And the U.S. House of Representatives is a goddamned embarrassment. Speaker Boner gets a kick in the groin from the tea-dious members of the GOP caucus every time he tries to cut a deal, and if this shit keeps up, maybe a bunch of Republicans will lose their House seats in November 2012. None of this qualifies as great news comparable to angels speaking to shepherds tending their flocks, but it'll have to do for the moment.

OWS

Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are basically wastes of space and oxygen, and if they both vanished into thin air tomorrow it would be a day too late to suit me. The only thing they're good for is helping me decide what I should support or not support. If Limbaugh is in favor of something, that strongly indicates I should oppose it. If Coulter is against something, I'll find something good about it. So it is with the Occupy Wall Street protests, which have the lardass and the skank puking up hairballs. I was indifferent regarding OWS until I started reading the opinions of those two and other right-wing scuzzballs.

Telecheckmate. Again.

A few years ago, I had my first head-to-head encounter with a company called Telecheck. During a 20 percent discount sale at Half Price Books, I went on a shopping binge and tried to write three checks in a 48-hour period. The third check was rejected, and it really pissed me off. I called Telecheck and ended up hearing an automated message explaining that personal checks may be disapproved based on the frequency and amount of checks written at a merchant participating in their system. It was my first experience with a profiling process. The check wasn't refused because of insufficient funds, but because I fit the profile of a hot-check artist ?

Somehow, I've become ensnared in the Telecheck matrix again -- Half Price Books is refusing to accept my checks because Telecheck won't approve them. Today I called Telecheck again, and jumped through all the hoops required to speak to a human representative. It was a hassle, but I was too fucking mad to be shuttled off to some machine. The young man who handled my complaint had an accent and fit the profile of someone filling an outsourced job, but he was courteous and confirmed what I already suspected.

People who think racial profiling is a good thing have not been profiled themselves and don't expect to be. I've been profiled as a hot-check writer --- it's humiliating and inconvenient and it influences my attitude toward the whole issue of profiling people.

Certitude, Part III

There are things in this world that I can't prove scientifically but know in my heart are true. For example, I'm certain that people who are afraid of the world and bitter about their lives are most likely to be both conservative and Republican. I can't prove it, but I'm sure I'm right.

I've recently become certain about something else I can't prove: It's better for your knees to walk wearing running shoes than to run wearing walking shoes.

Last May, I developed an enthusiasm for a routine known as high intensity interval training, which I wrote about at Hot Water Sandwich. It involved alternating short intervals of running with longer cool-down walking intervals. After a few weeks, I began to have pain in my left knee, which wasn't too troublesome as long as I was standing or walking, but was a real problem when I stood up after sitting for longer than ten minutes. The pain when I straightened my left leg and put weight on the knee was enough to make me wince. After a minute or so, the ache would subside. At any rate, as the weather grew warmer, the combination of summer heat and a sore knee led me to give up the running part of my routine.

Last week we got the first noticeable cool weather of autumn, and I realized I'd probably want to start running a little, particularly on chilly days. I decided to invest in my very first pair of running shoes, thinking that might prevent the hurt in my knee (which had diminished significantly after I stopped running this summer). I went to Academy and bought the least expensive running shoes on their shelves.

The first time I laced 'em up and started walking around, it was like bouncing on tiny trampolines. There was literally a spring in my step that I couldn't recall previously experiencing. Hmmm, I thought, maybe I shoulda tried this a long time ago.

In my neighborhood, the city recently opened a pair of trails through the wooded areas, and I enjoy the shade so much that I reconfigured my walking routes to include them. Since I couldn't measure the new routes with my car odometer, I began a series of measurements using stopwatches and pedometers, then calculating the distance based on averages and known quantities.

One of my most commonly-walked routes is 3.10 miles and requires an average of 6138 steps to complete. The first time I walked the route in the new shoes, it only took 5914 steps. WTF ? --- I knew for a fact the trail hadn't gotten shorter. Over the next few days, I started comparing the steps recorded on my pedometers to the averages I had calculated for each route when determining their distances, and in every instance, I was covering the same ground with fewer steps. I pulled out the calculator again and established that my stride had lengthened by roughly 0.6 inches, and the only thing that had changed was the shoes I was wearing. It'll take me more mileage to reach 10,000 steps, but that's a minor drawback to gain a knee that feels like it's only 35 years old again.

Calories

Steve Chapman is a Chicago columnist whose politics I can't pin down. Sometimes he writes like a semi-liberal, others like a moderate conservative. This column is one of the moderately conservative efforts, and I disagree with the point I think he's making. Just because most people ignore it doesn't mean that requiring commercial dining establishments (fast food joints) to post the calorie content of the stuff they're selling is a bad idea. I admit to a personal bias on this subject because I'm obsessed with calorie-counting, and sometimes circumstances require me to buy a meal in a franchise eatery like Red Lobster or Jason's Deli. Even if I wind up consuming more calories than I'd prefer, knowing how many helps me compensate the next time I eat.

We got a gift card to Red Lobster from some relative, and decided to use it rather than regift it. I went online, found their website, and used the nutrition information section to check the calorie content of my favorite menu choices. I was able to decide what to order to meet my calorie goal in advance, and enjoyed the meal more as a result.

So excuse me, Steve, if I don't share your negative libertarian views on the issue.

Improving America

Sometimes I spend part of the afternoon doing what I call store-walking, trying to accumulate another 2500 or so bonus steps on my pedometer and come up with ideas to write about. Today, I logged 1.66 miles just walking around Half Price Books and Walmart, and arrived at a recommendation that would definitely improve life in this country:

Ladies, if the circumference of either of your upper thighs exceeds thirty inches at any point, you may want to consider donating all your Daisy Dukes to Goodwill or another charity. Whatever you do, avoid wearing your short shorts in public places.

Added 3:54 pm, Thursday, 22 October:

OMG, there's a whole website devoted to the scenic beauty of Walmart aisles and the creatures who call them home. Thanks to my sister in Austin for bringing this to my attention.