I shoulda went to FCN maybe

[altivo]

I have most of next week off. Working Monday, and Wednesday evening. That's all. I still had 28 hours of vacation left from last year, and this will use most of it up.

Weather looks iffy for the weekend, what with all the chances of thunderstorms, possibly severe, but we'll chance it. Should be the warmest temperatures we've had this year, and I'm planning to grill something tomorrow if at all possible. Just what depends on what fresh produce I can find tomorrow.

Fortunately, we aren't dependent on the morons in Congress for this, or we'd not be eating at all. Aren't you utterly fed up with all the grandstanding and non-cooperation? I sure am. It's all about drama and publicity, not at all about doing what needs to be done. (Which is NOT, I might add, tying crap like your attitudes about birth control, abortion, or sex education into a budget allocation bill. Nor is it tying your extreme ideas about killing programs like Social Security or Medicare into the bill. Those are issues that should be discussed and debated openly and in detail, in their own right, rather than sneaking them into some other large bill and hoping no one will notice until it's too late.)

Frankly, I think any individual whose annual earnings are more than a million dollars, like so many of the crooks who head big banks, ought to be taxed about 90% on those excess earnings. That is stolen money. They have no legitimate right to it when their banks are so busy stealing from small ordinary folks, foreclosing mortgages, raising credit card interest to usurious levels, and cutting interest on savings to fractions of a percent. All the while laughing as they stuff bags with money and ship it off to Switzerland or whatever it is they do with their ill gotten gains.

Right now there is something making very strange sounds outside in the dark. It isn't an Eastern Screech Owl, as we know those quite well. It might be a Western Screech Owl or a Lesser Nighthawk, except that they don't belong here. It's a long (5 to 10 second) pitched trill, with a sort of hollow echo to it. It's not any species of frog found around here, but I'm not familiar with the possible toads. So I suppose it might be a bird I don't know, or some kind of toad. Too early for any insect here to be making that kind of racket.

[Edit: After web searches for amphibian sounds likely in Illinois in the spring, we've decided it's a frog after all. The Northern Leopard Frog, to be precise. Lots of chorus frogs singing in the distance, but this one is up close and very distinct.]

Comments

[treppenwolf]

I was following Congress's dramatic antics on CNN. It would have been laughable if it weren't already so appalling. They're like a bunch of fourth-graders debating in the playground with arguments no more substantial than "Is not!" "Is too!" "Is not!" "Is too!" That they're willing to grab the arms of innocent bystanders and twist and twist until the other side concedes is even more contemptible. I can understand adopting that sort of mentality with nameless, faceless soldiers sent halfway around the world and killed where no-one can see them as part of some Greater Political Battle, but to threaten doing this to people in the homeland, people you see and interact with every day... it's beyond loathsome.

It's probably safe to say that all my respect for the US government has vanished at this point. This kind of drama is what you'd expect of a country like mine. Not of a first-world country. Not of a world power. I'm deeply saddened that so many Americans, including those in politics, still cling to a worldview that is so minuscule and detached, it borders on the psychotic. Whatever happened to the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave?

[moonhare]

We may grill Sunday if the weather holds as predicted.

Frogs make wonderful sounds. I'm really thankful that there are online sites with critter calls when trying to determine what is screeching and screaming out back ;o)

...so why don't you visit FCN? *sigh* I still regret not hitting FurFright, if only to have met a cetain deer friend.

[altivo]

I'm inclined to agree with you. Political discourse is always full of accusations and insults, but things have seriously degenerated here into a completely polarized situation where little or no actual communication takes place.

The problem goes back at least as far as the Reagan administration, and I don't know what can break it up at this point. I believe the wealthy power behind the scenes has been deliberately working to create this distracting barrage of idiocy in order to conceal the truth of what's going on, though.

[altivo]

FCN is a six hour drive, and at $4/gal for fuel, not really practical. I've given up on conventions anyway.

There are several reasons for this. First, I'm not a night owl. I never was. I can't stay up all night socializing. Second, I'm not a drinker and don't care for all the alcohol saturated parties. But most importantly, the cons have grown very large and noisy, and are populated with hyperactive kids. The friends I'd enjoy socializing with are more often completely taken up with ops, actually running the con, and have little or no time left to relax.

[deffox]

I'm currently on a trip that is more than a twelve hour drive. But I'd rather see my 15 year old dog and parents than go to a con. I'm not digging fuel costs though.

My dog Sophy now has bad sight and very bad hearing. She doesn't want to go on walks anymore, but still likes car rides as long as I lift her onto the car seat.

I've lost most interest in going to cons, and FCN is on my not interested list even though it's relatively close. I disapprove of their free alcohol policy, and having the drunk ass as a GOH.

Our last con was a disappointment. We had a bad case of 'alone in a crowd' syndrome. So to go to another con would require concrete plans to get together with certain friends for certain meals.

As for congress, my thought was to chain the doors shut and turn the thermostat to 90. Tell them they can't come out or have food until the budget is balanced. I'm sure they'd still screw it up by attacking any program that helps people rather than what really needs cutting. If they still can't agree and all starve then no big loss.

[avon_deer]

ought to be taxed about 90%

You're making me of all people sound like a moderate now. Has it really got that bad? What with work being as busy as it has been lately I admit I have somewhat taken my eye off the ball. What exactly is going on here? I heard something about a budget,

[altivo]

Agreed on all counts about the cons. I thought last year I might be interested in FCN but their alcohol policies and general disorganization put me off. I just mentioned them because a number of folks I'd enjoy seeing apparently did go up there this weekend. MFF is now much too large and noisy for me.

As for Congress, well, folks are getting what they voted for. I'm utterly disgusted with it but they voted for these twerps. That in turn shows us the "me first" attitude of most Americans and their utter short sightedness that disqualifies them from voting at all. The reprehensible behavior of Republicans in Wisconsin is absolutely not to be tolerated in my opinion, but those people up there voted for them.

I'm afraid your solution would just result in Social Security and Medicare being completely erased overnight. Not one nickel would be cut from the military or from the massive handouts to the wealthy and corporations. Republicans want to kill Social Security because they think that will force more people to put their retirement money into the stock market where the wealthy few can steal it just as they already did with all the real estate equity. After all, the economy is fine as long as the bankers are still getting their multi-million dollar bonuses and their wives can have fur coats, right?

[altivo]

The BBC has all the coverage you need. Republican majority in the House means cut, cut, cut on the budget, but only on social programs. Never touch the corporate handouts or the military's bloated funding. Those guys would sell their own grandmothers. Hell, their mothers, as long as it kept the campaign coffers filled and their corporate masters happy. Democrat majority in the Senate means the budget proposals from the House are met with a stone wall, and rightly so.

Democrats make a counter-offer, the Republicans tack on all sorts of amendments, like "no money for Planned Parenthood because they teach that abortion is an option" and "no money for educational radio or television because they make us look bad" and "no increasing taxes on rich people." Meanwhile the existing budget authorization is expiring and the national government will have to close down all sorts of functions because of no funding, as happened with Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich at odds back in the 90s.

In essence, the Republicans are still pushing Reaganomics. "Give more money to rich people and they'll take care of the poor." As we very well know, that's a lie and it doesn't work. Give more money to rich people and they just get richer and greedier, while the poor people starve.

[avon_deer]

Depressing. :(

I will keep my eye on this situation.