The Week That Was

It was an interesting week. I had guests for the week. It was a great, and sometimes trying, week with another adult and two small children around full time. Now don't get me wrong, it is great to have family visit and to see and spend time with those that you only see occasionally. But when you are use to the peace and quite of a household without children around, you begin to miss it shortly after their arrival.

We did all the usual touristy things, hung out with friends, and made a trip to Disneyland. Disneyland was not a crowded as I expected. Must be the economy getting to people. Usually the day after Thanksgiving is a zoo there. This year, not so much. The lines were noticeably shorter. But, god, everything is soooo overpriced. Still, we had a good time and the kids were ecstatic.

So, now it is Sunday. Everyone is gone and it is time for things to get back to normal -- whatever normal is.

And I have a plumbing story to tell, but that will have to wait until later. I have something else I must do right now.

Some Things Are Just Wrong

As I was perusing my way down the beer aisle yesterday, I came upon this:

I'm sorry. Beer, tomato juice, and clam juice do not belong together. And the fact that they put it together in a can is even worse. But the real shame of the whole thing is that people acutally buy it!

UGH!

Anti-Intellectualism

This on the license plate holder on the car in front of me at the stop light.

My kid can beat up your honor student.

What a lesson to be teaching your child -- on several levels. I would be embarrassed to ride in that car, let alone drive it.

Question?

The Iraqi parliament is debating a security agreement to keep US troops in Iraq past the end of this year. If they don't agree to the security pact, then we have to get out.

Why does the Iraqi parliament have to agree, but our own Congress does not even have a say in it? No debate, no vote, not even a nonbinding resolution. I don't understand.

Is It Payback Time?

Let's see. We have ponied up 700 BILLION dollars to bailout financial institutions. I have a very hard time getting my head around $700,000,000,000. That's a lot of zeros. I mentioned in a earlier post, you would have to earn $1,000,000 an hour, every hour of every day, for 80 years to earn $700,000,000,000. That's a lot of money for a long time.

Now we are hearing that they have given about 1/2 of that money to banks with few, if any, strings attached. We are not even sure what the banks are doing with the money, except that they are not helping the homeowners who are about to lose their homes. Hopefully they are not following in AIG's footsteps and spending it on parties.

Now along come the big three US auto manufacturers asking from money. They want about 25 billion or roughly 3.6% of the 700 billion -- not all that much, relatively speaking. The US auto industry employs about 10% of the work force if you include all the auxiliary industries attached to the big three. That's a lot of people. Some estimates say unemployment will rise to about 10% if the auto industry goes under.

Treasure Secretary Paulson says fuck you to the auto industry. I guess he wants to save that 3.6% for his banking buddies.

This shows you where the Bush administration's loyalties lay. They would rather prop up the financial institutions to the tune of $700 billion dollars rather than propping them up with "only" $675 billion and helping out thousands of auto workers and other associated hard working people with $25 billion.

One other minor point that seems to be missed in all the discussion that has been going on. The news reports keep referring to the $25 billion for the auto industry as a bailout. The banks and financial institutions are getting a bailout. We are giving them the money with no expectation of getting any of it back.

The auto industry is asking for a loan. Let me say this again. They are asking for a LOAN. They intend to pay it back. I've yet to hear a bank or financial institution say they are going to pay back their money gifts.

I'm no big fan of the US auto industry. I do own two US made cars, but that is only because they are cars that my wife wanted. I don't really care too much about what I drive as long as it doesn't break down on me and gets me from point A to point B. I think a lot of the problems the US auto makers are having are their own damn fault. Their managements are a bunch of idiots.

But their workers are a bunch of hard working stiffs -- good old Joe the auto worker. If we can GIVE money to a bunch of banks and Wallstreet crooks and expect nothing back, then we ought to be able to LOAN 3.6% of the bank/Wallstreet money to the auto industry.

We did it for Chrysler in 1979, and got paid back. Maybe they will pay us back again.

Carpet

Today is new carpet day.

I can't believe all the crap that has collected under our carpeting over the last 10 years or so. Maybe 15. And to think that the grandchildren have been crawling around on it. UGH!

Also, as a final farewell, one of the dogs peed in the middle of the living room carpet about 2 hours before they pulled it up.

A fitting end for the old carpet -- piss on it!

Let's Solve Gay Marriage

OK, I have a new plan. Actually it is not mine. I heard about it last night on the radio while I was driving home.

The arguments in favor of defining marriage as between a man and a woman only are religious. They have tried to use other arguments, but the basic reasons are really religious only. The arguments against defining marriage as between a man and a woman are legal. They say that marriage is a legal contract and has nothing to do with religion.

I say, fine. Let marriage be religious. Give religions the right to use the word marriage. Define marriage as a religious right to be defined any way any religion chooses. Marriage then becomes something like baptism or communion. It conveys certain religious rights as defined by the specific religion only. There are no legal rights.

All legal rights are conveyed by a civil union. Current "legal" marriages become civil unions. If your church chooses to recognize your civil union as a marriage within their definition of marriage, fine. If not, take it up with your religion. The civil union gives everyone regardless of their sex, the legal rights that a married man and woman now have.

This solution separates the legal and religious aspects of marriage as currently defined. The religious people can have their marriage and they can define marriage any way they want. Who can get married is up to each religion.

If you want legal rights, you get a civil union. The civil union can also be a church marriage if the religion agrees. Otherwise it only carries legal rights and not religious rights also.

This will also allow people to get married in church and have religious rights of marriage but retain all their single rights from a legal point of view.

Some people might consider this as having your cake and eating it too.

Till Death Due Us Part

My daughter-in-law's father is dying.

He has smoked himself to death. His lungs only partially work. He may or may not have cancer. He is on a lot of oxygen.

He has a couple of good days. He knows what is going on. Then he has a bad day and is drugged and restrained. Then it takes another day or two to get over the drugs. The cycle repeats.

This is no way to live, or to die; neither for him nor for her. It is a slow death for both of them.

But for the grace of god, go I (or is it me?).

Confession Time

It is time for a confession.

I watch Dancing With The Stars.

And I enjoy it. There is a reason that athletes do well on the program. It is actually very physically demanding and requires a great degree of coordination and gracefulness.

Plus the ladies' costumes are hot -- except for Cloris (and she is finally gone)!

Sunday Afternoon

Today was one of those great fall days that we seldom see in Southern California. It was windy, sunny, and about 65F outside. The sky had those big fluffy white clouds in it. Because of the wind, the sky was very blue. We get a blue sky with white fluffy clouds only a few times a year so it is really a great pleasure when it happens.

We got a call from our 9 year old granddaughter in the morning. She wanted to come over and spend the day with us. We picked her up and first went out to breakfast at IHOP. IHOP is her favorite breakfast place. She had pancakes and a "flat egg". She calls fried eggs, "flat eggs". If you ask her if she wants a fried egg, she will tell you no. She wants a flat egg.

After breakfast, we stopped at a neighborhood Christmas boutique where the GD picked up a Christmas present for her mother. Then we went home where "the girls" dropped me off, so they could go and do some serious shopping. I spent a nice relaxing afternoon reading and then walking the dogs while "the girls" bought crafting supplies. The GD loves to go to Joann's where Grandma buys her all sorts of stuff.

They came home later and hung around for a while. Then we made pizza for dinner before taking the GD back home. We all had a very fun Sunday playing with our granddaugher and enjoying the pleasant fall weather.