people, places and things that have piqued my interest
Piqued Observation:
My wife has a monthly get-together with a few women friends. They’ve all known each other for over 20 years. They can just sit and talk for hours at a time.
Most men, on the other hand, seem to need to be either playing a game or watching one, when they get together to hang out and talk.
Why do so many little birds have such jerky movements?
For the most part, I crave silence. I love quietness, and I enjoy going somewhere remote where the loudest sound is the beating of my heart and the breath moving in and out of my lungs.
But there are sounds that I like. Wind whispering through pine trees. Red-wing blackbirds in cattails. The warning horn of a distant train. The cry of an eagle. Riffles in a river. The crescendo of lovemaking, followed by the softening breath of post-coital embrace. Crickets and frogs calling for a mate. Meadowlarks. A babbling brook.
Now what?
For 2017 it seems like every conservation and environmental organization I contribute to sent me a calendar. And a whole bunch of other paper.
I wish they would stop sending unsolicited calendars, labels, bags, postcards, etc. etc.
This seems like a huge waste of both funds and natural resources and a big contribution to the waste stream. Yes, I recycle everything I can, but even that process uses and energy and resources.
Make the calendars and other things opt-in for those who want them, and otherwise use my donation for the purpose it was given.
Republicans have been trying for years to repeal the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare), without success. They had their best chance this week, but couldn’t make it happen. Realizing that they didn’t have the votes to pass their alternative plan, President Trump and Speaker Ryan pulled the plug.
Many Democrats/Liberals are rejoicing, and many supporters of a broad public healthcare plan consider it good news.
My guess is that a lot of Republicans are also (privately) rejoicing.
In a way, the failure to pass the Republican bill is a win for just about all factions. Consider:
The Freedom Caucus, which didn’t think the bill went far enough in repealing the ACA, can boast that they stuck to their principles and didn’t cave to pressure from the President.
The moderate Republicans can tell their more conservative constituents that they did all they could to repeal ACA, and at the same time not have to face the wrath of constituents who need the benefits that ACA provides. I’ll bet many of them are breathing a big sigh of relief.
Democrats of all persuasions might feel some vindication for all the roadblocks that the Republicans put up during the Obama administration. They will, however, still have to deal with the shortcomings of the ACA, and continued Republican efforts to replace it.
POTUS himself will of course put a good spin on the whole thing and consider it another win.
What do you think? Is this a win for you?
Of late it seems that the Republican party in the USA is dominated by the rather well-organized “Alt-Right”, and the more moderate conservatives are bending to the will of the ultra conservatives.
Why is it that there doesn’t seem to be an “Alt-Left” or a liberal counterpart to the Tea Party?
Now that Hillary Clinton has made history as the Democratic party nominee for POTUS, the next big question might be who will she choose as her running mate for Vice President.
I’m sure that many people think it should be her primary opponent, Bernie Sanders. Bernie brought a lot to this election’s process, and many of his ideas should most definitely be part of the Dem platform if the establishment Democrats want to gain Sanders’ supporters votes.
There are quite a few liberal/progressive voters who wished that Elizabeth Warren had mounted a presidential campaign this year. The fact that she declined to do so and also in the past few days has come out to challenge Trump on social media shows that she is totally in tune with the current political climate. She will definitely be a force to be reckoned with in the future US political area.
So what choices does that leave Hillary as a VP running mate?
Trump has so alienated Latinos and Muslims that I don’t think Clinton really has to worry much about those voting blocks. Remarkably, the mainstream media has not made much of the fact that Trump’s philosophy is totally misogynist and anti women’s rights.
What Ms. Clinton does need is support from old-school Democrats and that all important voting block of aging, white males, including The Greatest Generation, Boomers, X-Gens, and Millenials.
Considering that, who could Hillary Clinton better turn to as a running mate than our current VP, Joe Biden?
Joe Biden is a person who has proven his loyalty to the cause, is of the age of the majority of likely voters in this election, and most importantly, has demonstrated that not only does he understand the issues that Boomers are dealing with, he has and continues to be personally dealing with those issues that most concern the majority of likely voters this year.
No matter your political persuasion, this brings into consideration that Joe Biden is a well-known and respected person in the international political arena and this puts the USA in a huge advantage for future negotiations and international trade pacts.
Give Joe the job!
I have to admit that I am usually dismissive of all the cat pics and kitty videos on Facebook and Instagram.
And then there are days like today that have been a challenge and the neighborhood cat sneaks into our house, jumps on my lap, and lets it be known that the most important thing in life right now is that I scratch him between his ears give him a rub under his chin.
I understand that Google needs to make money by showing me ads when I’m doing something online. I understand that advertisers want to reach people who are or might be interested in their products or services.
What I don’t understand is that I keep seeing the same ads, or ads from the same companies, for things that I searched for once a long time ago.
Over a year ago I searched for a particular hiking shoe. I still get ads popping up for that shoe. A couple of months ago I went to a stock photo website. Now I’m barraged with ads from one of those sites.
Google knows what I search for and what I’m interested in. How about a little variety in the ads, and stop wasting the ad money for advertisers that I’m no longer interested in?