Monthly Archives: October 2009

Bruised, but energized

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I arrived at the gym at the crack of 11:30am on Sunday, ready to get back into shape.

Previously, I described my body as a pear with rhombus touches.  Right now, I feel like a square rhombus, which is a fatter, squatter, diamond shape.  I am going for the diamond shape rhombus — I am not getting any taller but I can shrink the girth.  Less girth, more mirth.  Somehow that isn’t slogan-y enough.  Let me try that again in sing-song perky voice — More Mirth!! Less Girth!!!  Naw.

How about:  It is time to put the T-O-N-E in my muscles.  (Except there is no “t”, “o” or “n” in “muscle”.)  Don’t I sound like an infomercial?  [imagine someone with perky, sing-song voice singing “All right, okay, waste that waist away!!” while doing something 1980s like jazzercise.]  (Didn’t some trainer of C-list celebrities say something like that?)

I still looked dweeby in my gym outfit because, while the length of my work-out pants covered my unshaven legs, they were toooooo form fitting.   (Here’s the sad truth — these once weren’t form fitting work-out pants.)  And my work-out shirt, which thank G-d was not sleeveless, wasn’t long enough. 

I did both cardio and weights.  I hurt today.  That is an understatement.  My body is SCREAMING at me.  Yet, I will go at it again, today, or, errrrrr, tomorrow.  But DEFINITELY, today or tomorrow.  Or Wednesday.  But I am committed, clearly.

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Sure, Goldman, give out billions

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but, first, put cash in an escrow account equal to all loans and other finance arrangements guaranteed by the US Government.  Second, the US Government will no longer guarantee those loans and other finance arrangements.  Whatever is left, go ahead, give to your heart’s content.

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Finally, a Hate Crime Bill Goes to the White House

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http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2009/10/senate_approves_hate_crimes_me.html?referrer=email

It is great that there is a federal hate crimes bill that will protect gays and lesbians.  Unfortunately, it had to appended to a bill authorizing pay increases for our troops in order to pass.  And, there is some pork barrel spending that Obama opposes in the bill and he will get tagged with perpetuating wasteful spending.

It is sad that there couldn’t be three separate bills:  “clean” appropriations bill for our troops, a clean hate crimes bill, and a clean bill on the controversial spending item.  They have nothing in common.

It is uncomfortable sometimes to look too closely into how we are governed.  But look, we must.

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Hey, Blue Dog Democrats, it is time to decide

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http://www.whorunsgov.com/Projects/Reform_Tracker/Bluedogs

Some Blue Dog Democrats are undecided about any or all of the following options:  public option, cooperatives, free market, individual mandatory coverage. 

It is no longer ok for you all to stay undecided.  You need to take a stand, one way or another, on each of these options.  If you take a principled stand, you will be respected even if people disagree.

But if you wait to see which way the winds of public opinion blow, you might experience a blow-out in the next election cycle.

Times a’wastin’.

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What does the Berlin Wall have in common with F Troop?

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As you may remember, in the early TV show, “F Troop”, the US Calvary was losing a battle with Native Americans (Indians, then) at Appomattox and was in retreat, until Private WiltonParmenter abruptly sneezed (the sound apparently misunderstood by some soldiers as “Charge!”) and turned retreat into victory.  He was then given the command of F Troop in Fort Courage.

What has this to do with the Berlin Wall? 

Well, according to the Wall Street Journal, apparently, East German Politburo member Günter Schabowski was fumbling through his papers at a press conference November 9, 1989, in response to a question about newly-instituted travel regulations.  A little addled by the questioning, he said some incomprehensible things that the reporters heard as, effective immediately, there would be free travel from East to West Berlin.  People swarmed the Wall and the confusion and chaos that ensued caused the Wall to come down.  I bet he wished he had only abruptly sneezed. 

He is apparently still alive but too sick to be interviewed.  The accidental hero of German reunification.

Aint it always the little things that bring down the giants?

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Slapstick at the gym, starring me

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Ok, I have not kept up with my gym routine.  But this week I resolved to get back into shape (a pear with rhombus accents).  So I spent two days getting psyched and yesterday I went to the gym. 

First, I have to say in my defense that I am sleepwalking most mornings before 10am so while I thought I was packing a gym “outfit”, I was, in fact, packing a gym “misfit”.

I am in the locker room and to my horror I discover that I packed running tights that go down just below my knees and are form-fitting.  Two things to note — since Labor Day, I can’t remember when I shaved my legs, and if form-fitting looked good on me, I wouldn’t need to go to the gym.  I soldiered on and experienced the unpleasant sensation of my butt touching the backs of my legs and creeping around my body to engulf my hips.  If you are eating while you read this, please stop one or the other.

I have a geeky t-shirt that stops at my waist making “my look” particularly unattractive.  If my skin were pasty, I would have won the Woody Allen female impersonator award.  Not pretty a pretty sight at all.

Nevertheless, boldly, I go upstairs amid the lovely, the young and the buff and claim rights to a Stairmaster.  Not the easy pedal kind, but the full-on steps.  I am going to do 30 minutes no matter what.

After 5 minutes I think I will die.  Then I decide that I should have turned on my iPod that is lying on the tray all tangled.  I am trying to untangle the iPod, while on Stairmaster and wearing bi-focals.  Well that lasted for less than a second because I am crumpled on the ground having banged my head.  Buff, beautiful and thin people come over, offering helpful excuses like, did you have a seizure?  Did you have a drink before going on Stairmaster?  Have you eaten?  No, in fact, multi-tasking on a Stairmaster when you are a klutz AND you are wearing bi-focals is stupid, but not an illness recognized by the medical community or any support group known to me.

Bruised, but undaunted, I return to the Stairmaster to conquer this beast.  I start the program over AND I up the level from 5 to 6.  I’ll show the machine who is boss.  I make sure to put my ear phones in first.  But after 5 minutes, I am ready to collapse.  I decide it is time to email my college friends to catch up.  At some point I knocked my ear phones out while thumbing a message on my blackberry.  Ah!! Another trick, you dangerous and mean Stairmaster!! You want me to retrieve my ear phones so that I can fall off again.  No, I say, NO!!!  I will not succumb to your evil tricks!! The ear phones are not near any mechanism.  I WILL CONTINUE FOR 30 MINUTES AND MY FORM FITTING OUTFIT WILL LOOK BETTER FOR IT!!

I spend the next 20 minutes on Stairmaster looking at the closed captioning on the TV screens (the bifocals did come in handy, or seemed to, anyway).  I am bored out of my mind.  But I am determined to burn 200 calories and climb over 2 miles.  I even do the 1.5 minute warm down after the 30 minutes are over.  Take THAT, you evil machine.

Triumphant, I walk around the gym floor looking at other tortures waiting to be vanquished.  Then I catch sight of my gym stalker in the mirror — that middle-aged gray haired lady getting a little thick around the middle.   You remember, the one who looks suspiciously like my mother.  I sigh.  My reflection and I have had enough of the gym for today.  We go home together.

But there is always tomorrow . . . . . .

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E-books recreated as paperbacks

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Wait, I thought the ad campaign for the Amazon Kindle was “think green, buy e-books”??  Now Amazon is going to print e-books in paperback?  Then why do you need e-books again?

There is something so odd, almost reverse-Darwinian about this. As if Thomas Edison decided that candles and oil lamps were better than light bulbs.  And printing paperbacks is SOOOOOOOOOOO ungreen, especially if publishers have unsold hardcover or paperback copies stacked in warehouses.  Don’t kill more trees.

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HP, Amazon to sell paperback versions of e-books

  • By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer – Wed Oct 21, 2009 2:16PM EDT  

SAN FRANCISCO –

Some of technology’s best-known companies are betting there’s pent-up demand for on-demand books.

Hewlett-Packard Co., the world’s top seller of personal computers and printers, is teaming up with online retailer Amazon.com Inc. to join Internet search leader Google Inc. as the latest entrants in the quirky new market of re-creating digital books as paperbacks.

The concept represents a different type of book recycling, as digital copies created from print get a second life as paperbacks.

[rest of article deleted]

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FOOTBALL — Orrin Hatch’s Legislative Priority

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You can’t make this stuff up. 

We are fighting for economic recovery, we are fighting two wars, we are fighting multiple insurgents in the health care industry, we are trying to save the planet from our carbon emissions, we are trying to prevent nuclear proliferation and SENATOR ORRIN HATCH WANTS THE PRESIDENT TO INTERVENE ON COLLEGE FOOTBALL BOWL CHAMPIONSHIPS?

Sen. Hatch says there is some antitrust violation involved in the way the championships are decided.  Senator, there may be another antitrust violation, too.  It involves health care.  Maybe you read about it.

Orrin, Orrin, Orrin.  Do we live on the same planet?  Don’t you have pressing matters of state in the Senate that require your UNDIVIDED focus?  Are our national problems a joke to you?  If you were a senator from New York, I would start a campaign to recall you.

By the way, in No-Where-istan, we have no organized sports leagues.  Since No-Where-istan lives in my head, cleats would be painful.

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 By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press Writer Frederic J. Frommer, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 9 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Shortly after winning last year’s presidential election, Barack Obama said he was going to “to throw my weight around a little bit” to nudge college football’s Bowl Championship Series to move to a playoff system.

On Wednesday, Sen. Orrin Hatch took him up on that.

Hatch asked the president to launch a Justice Department investigation into the way the BCS — a complex system of computer rankings and polls that often draws criticism — crowns its national champion.

“Mr. President, as you have publicly stated on multiple occasions, the BCS system is in dire need of reform,” Hatch, R-Utah, wrote in a 10-page letter, obtained by The Associated Press.

Hatch, who held a hearing on the BCS in July, told Obama that a “strong case” can be made that the BCS violates antitrust laws.

[rest of article omitted]

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GOP tries to link Obama to Nixon

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There is a difference between a secret enemies list (Nixon) and calling people out on their lies and inconsistencies (Obama).

Sen. Alexander (GOP TX) knows better than to compare Obama to Nixon.  Obama should strip health care of its anti-trust immunity if it uses its monopoly to the public detriment.  Neutering the US Chamber of Commerce (aka lobbyists) is not a bad idea.   And Obama is being open and transparent about it.

Obama sought bipartisanship and, in return, he has been villified by the right.  And, the GOP pressured Republican Senator Judd Gregg to resign as Obama’s Commerce Secretary almost as soon as he accepted the post.

Surely, Sen. Alexander, you aren’t making this comparison for political gain.  Surely, you spoke out against Bush/Cheney’s enemies list(s) because you are of course only doing the right thing for the right reasons.  Or are you doing the ultra-right thing for the ultra-right reasons?

Will you say anything just to defeat our President?

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Mr. President, please let me see you sweat

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Mr. President, I am sweating.  I am sweating the outcome of the healthcare reform votes.  I am sweating the outcome of financial system reform.  I am sweating the recession.  I am sweating Iranian nuclear proliferation.  I am sweating global warming.  I am sweating more troops in Afghanistan, which just seems to be a quagmire.  In short, everything on the micro-level of my life seems still as precarious as it was when you were elected. 

We elected you in part for your No Drama Obama comportment and you words of empowerment and calm assurance.  But now I want to see you sweat, too, Mr. President, in a take charge way.  Twist some arms to get the reform you promised.  Support the process of stripping health care insurers of the anti-trust immunity if they are bad players. 

LBJ was not Mr. Nice Guy when it came to getting Medicare passed.  And generations of Americans are in his debt.

Mr. President, be principled, be honorable and please be ready to rumble in order to get things done.

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