Opening Day

Baseball season brings high hopes and low expectations. It is not easy being a Cubs fan.

Weekend Funny

I miss Johnny

If I was a reporter

...I would ask why only 5 million people have signed up for ObamaCare, when there are 40 million. 30 million, 16 million uninsured in the country? I would investigate why it is that of the 5 million who have obeyed the law and signed up at the exchanges by March 31, it is estimated that 4 million enrollees are people who lost their coverage due to ObamaCare. I would ask why only 1/16, at most, of the uninsured are now covered?

I would ask why the American taxpayer is on the hook for a $1.5 trillion dollar boondoggle to insure 5 million people? I would question the Democrats who designed this monstrosity how they can claim it is in any way affordable when the Affordable Care Act costs $300,000 to insure each sign-up?

If I was a reporter  I would tell my readers/viewers the truth: President Obama has gutted, pushed out, and changed the rules of the ACA far more than the leaders of the Republican Party desired and all in the name of helping fellow Democrats hide from the disaster that is my eponymous law until after the next election. 

Friday Music -- I gotta have one of those hats edition

I'm late getting to the old blog this morning. What say we hippy it up on this rainy and chill Friday morning?

I need one of those hats. Not want, need.

Please no

The idea of Clinton vs. Bush for President in 2016 scares me to no end.  I think America has had enough of both families to last a lifetime.

Since you are tired of my insane political rantings

Some days I think I fell through the looking glass into a bizzaro world. I think I am a modern Rip Van Winkle where America has turned exactly 67 degrees off course. Companies are in front of the Supreme Court arguing about the benefits they pay their employees. Russia invades neighboring countries and our President announces he is going to cut two of the most effective weapon systems we have, with no replacement alternative in the pipeline. The First Lady takes a vacation to China and refuses to allow the press to accompany her and the media is OK with that. We celebrate sustained unemployment levels of 7% or more as a "recovery". Gas prices have tripled, and the administration is refusing to allow new pipelines to be built.

The enemies of Israel proclaim they will never agree that Israel is a legitimate Jewish State, yet our Secretary of State argues it is Israel that is holding up the peace process.

Schools subject the kids to lunch inspection, and in some cases ban sack lunches from home. School kids are suspended for shaving their head in support of fellow students fighting cancer, and little boys are punished for being little boys and biting a pop tart into the shape of a gun. Imaginary bows shooting imaginary arrows are handled as if the miscreant had actually shot a fellow student. parents sue soccer leagues because their kid who is sadly confined in a wheelchair cannot compete with the active two-legged players.

I have been told about the dangers of mercury my whole life and through the vote of politicians I now have to replace perfectly functioning light bulbs in my house with mercury-filled bulbs that cost ten times more in the name of preventing Global Warming despite the fact that there has not been any warming for 17 years. The models are so inaccurate they cannot even predict the weather going back in time.

I think common sense has disappeared, a victim of political correctness and pure ignorance. I am so tired of tilting at windmills. I stand alone shaking my fist at hurricane-force winds of change I do not understand.

OMG Women are going to die -- fear mongering among the ignorant masses

The great slut women's rights advocate Sandra Fluck has spoken.  According to her near-hysterical rantings if Hobby Lobby wins their fight with ObamaCare, women will die, and women's rights will be set back to -- well 2008 standards.  You remember those horrid and evil days when companies determined what benefits they wanted to offer their employees?  Yes, women's rights will be set back 6 whole years.  Can she really be this clueless? As I said yesterday, win or lose, the Hobby Lobby decision will in no way impact a woman's access to birth control.

I will type that last sentence real slow so some of you progressives and Democrats can keep up:

Win or lose, the Hobby Lobby decision will in no way impact a woman's access to birth control.

Just because Hobby Lobby does not want to pay for it...

The owners of the retail chain Hobby Lobby have a religious and moral objection to paying for contraception and specifically pills that cause abortion. The rules of ObamaCare force the company to cover these products. The issue is now before the Supreme Court.

Earlier today radio news reports played audio of hysterical protesters outside the court claiming Hobby Lobby is endangering the protester's health. Get a grip, protest babes. Unless you work for Hobby Lobby,  their policies do not affect you at all. Second, the lawsuit does not deny anyone access to said products, it merely states that the company should not be forced to pay for them. Even if you work at Hobby Lobby, you can have all of the sex you desire, protected and unprotected, you can take the morning after pill, you can have an abortion. The costs will not be covered under your company-provided benefits.

 These bosses don’t agree with birth control, so they want to take away their employees’ birth-control coverage. That’s just plain offensive,” declares NARAL. “Women and families should determine what medications they need. Your birth control is not your boss’s business!” The group is also intending to bring the signatures of thousands that it has gathered online to show support for the birth control mandate. source

Indeed "[y]our birth control is not your bosses business". I think Hobby Lobby would agree.

No one is denied anything. Women will have the same rights to acquire and use contraception regardless of whether Hobby Lobby wins or loses. Yes, young lady, your body remains yours -- do with it what you will. You gotta pay to play, if you work at Hobby Lobby. No one is telling you that you can't, just the company will not pay for it. If you cannot grasp the difference you are either stupid, or willfully ignorant.

yawn

I stayed up late last night.  We were catching up some recorded shows on the DVR and it was 12:30 before I climbed into bed. For some reason I was awake at 5:30 this morning.  I tossed and turned until just before 6:00 and decided to get up.  I munched on some Cap'n Crunch and swilled some coffee while I watched the sun send the first orange rays across my backyard.

There is no light snow cover on the ground this morning as predicted by the weather watchers. There is that.

I had to reload a significant number of apps to my iPhone this morning. I deleted a bunch of stuff in order to free up enough memory to download the latest software update. I suppose I really need to eliminate some of the music, that is what is using most of the storage space. I don't want to. I like my copious music selections. Mick and the boys really did tell it like it is -- You can't always get what you want.

This post is a true double yawner -- one for me and my lack of sleep, one for you after reading this boring post.

I have questions

If the real concern over the HHS contraception mandate is protecting women's health and preventing unwanted pregnancies, why isn't the focus on abstinence? It is free and is 100% effective.

Weekend Funny

"I have no valid complaint against hustlers, no rational bitch, but the act of selling is repulsive to me. I harbor a secret urge to whack a salesman in the face, crack his teeth and put red bumps around his eyes."  Hunter S. Thompson The Rum Diaries

I never intended this to be a habit

Can you believe I have been publishing my shitty posts here for nine years?

I offer a sincere and heartfelt thank you to all of you who take the time to read and comment here, now and over the years.

#Ban descriptions

I thought the whole "Ban Bossy" thing was a one day news story.  Apparently it is a full-fledged movement among a segment of the population. Upon further reading it seems people are offended by the label "Bossy".  Seriously, don't we have some real issues to tackle in this nation?  Unemployment, taxes, the role of government, health care, terrorism, energy, education are all more important than a benign label. Are we at the point where a person is unable to describe another in any way?

On occasion my boss is well, Bossy. My wife and daughter are sometimes bossy. I am often bossy. I am also stubborn, opinionated and crass. Call the language police! If we are unable to describe a person by looks or by action the next generation of novels is going to be pretty boring.

He/she was a person. He/she contrasted sharply with the other person. He/she did or did not do some things that may be offensive to someone, somewhere. The End.

When did the Right To Not Be Offended enter into the Rights of Man?

Friday Music

Since yesterday was my birthday ( thanks for all of the gifts you cheap bastids) I am playing my favorite song today.



Oh wait, I guess I choose the music every Friday. Why am I doing all of the work around here?

What happens when you elect a guy president whose entire management experience was running a lemonade stand in his front yard in 1971?

In just two sentences the entire Obamacare debacle is articulated:

So Obamacare has resulted in higher costs, limited plans, restricted doctor options, a reduction of about 2.5 million full-time equivalent jobs and has failed to get the uninsured to actually sign up. If Obamacare isn’t a disaster, what does a disaster look like? source

52 times

If you have a steady hand you can balance an egg on its end at the equinox (12:57 pm EDT).  I bet you did not know that.

Blogpost jeopardy

Smooth Jif peanut butter and sugar-free apricot preserves on white Wonder bread, stale pretzels and a diet root beer.

Zippy title that draws your attention and makes you want to read more

I have a pounding headache this morning. Its epicenter is behind my right eye with pain waves spreading through my skull.  I think the root of my pain might be allergies signalling impending spring, the low pressure front that moved in overnight, or perhaps the general mendacity that permeates the Obama administration.

My current headache and usual morning snotfest brings to mind an important question that has bothered me for some time. Why is it necessary to have a special box to hide the tissues? Since the Kleenex and Puffs pop out of the slot in the top, everyone knows there are tissues hiding inside that decorative container. What is the point?

It is in the genes

In the early morning light yesterday morning I saw a hulking form come over the privacy fence in the back yard. It was a very large cat and it slunk along the fence line, behind the trees and sniffed under the evergreens. The big cat must have weighed more than 20 pounds. It climbed the fence and jumped away when I turned on the porch light. Later in the morning after the sun was fully up, I heard the cat growling under the spruce. Now I could see it was a big tom, tiger striped and it was after something, probably the bunny that lives under the tree.

I opened the patio door and the cat moved back unhurriedly along the fence and turning once more to glare in my direction, climbed the 6 feet of fence and leaped into the neighbor's back yard. A few moments later it scaled their fence and headed north.

He was back hunting in the early morning today. I have not seen the brute before this week. During the long weeks of snow cover this year, there were a plethora of rabbit tracks in the backyard, but no feline paw prints to be seen. I am not sure if this cat is new to the neighborhood, or has been shut up for the winter months, released to the wilds to hunt in the yet to arrive springtime warmth.

Happy St. Gertrude's Day

My calendar proclaims today is St.Patrick/s Day, or as my very Irish roommate used to call it, Amateur Night at the local bar. I suppose any gent who gets rid of snakes is worth celebrating. But for a variety of circumstances my own name might have been Patrick. My birth name is a long boring story (OK, I never really listened when my Mom went on about naming me something else).  I was not born on St. Joseph's day either. Since my family is heathen protestant from way back, the Saint's days did not figure into our names at birth. Too bad, some of the Saints who share my birthday are St. Benignus, St. Cuthbert, St. Tetricus, and St. Nicetus. If I ever have another kid, I am naming him Benignus. Maybe I should change the name of this blog to Breakfast with Benignus, or The Benignus Blog. or maybe The Cuthbert Chronicles. Dang, I finally come up with a catchy blog title nine years too late.

You know who really gets screwed over on March 17? St. Ambrose, that is who. And St. Gertrude. According to Catholic.org, "Gertrude was a mystic, gifted with visions. She befriended the Irish saints Foillian and Ultan. Gertrude is a patroness of travelers and gardeners". Gertrude was Irish, why aren't you swilling green beer in her honor today?  Today is St. Gertrude's day. Celebrate it.

At the moment I am not wearing green, though  I may put on a green T-Shirt later, or not, depending on my mood. I am wearing a faded and worn Cubs T-Shirt and jeans. I suspect that notion fails to rev the old motor of even one of my female readers, leave aside the fact I have not yet showered and my clothes probably smell faintly like the fried chicken I made for supper last night.