Here Comes That Clown Car Again

Ted Cruise was among those speaking at Steven King’s Iowa Freedom convention and he started off with light humor.  He says “I’ve spent several days in Washington and I just got back and let me tell you – it’s great to be back in America!”  He then spoke of meeting a man in the halls of congress with a screwdriver to change the sign on Harry Reid’s door, the one that says “Majority Leader” no doubt.  He then spoke of the death of Winston Churchill fifty years ago today.  I vaguely remember that in things like Life magazine.  Apparently one of President Obama’s first acts as president was to ship back the big bust of Churchill, as though he would have no need for it, presumably because he is disowning Churchill’s principles.  He then spoke of his two little girls 4, and 6 and how he fears for the sort of future they are facing.  Then he got to his main topic of “re-igniting America”.   The first way to make that happen is to kick this new class of senators out of Congress that have been elected since 2010.  That would work wonders right there.  Then we have to undo the damage the tea party has caused since their inception in 2009.   I thought I heard him say that Citizen’s United was partially responsible for putting on today’s event.  His next points about human rights coming not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God - - was stolen from John Kennedy.  But in one of the versions of the “Now’s the Time” song, “When these people speak of Freedom - - they mean the freedom to take your rights away - - be it voting or dealing with law enforcement or in the legal system, only they call it “Tort reform”.  Any time these people say ”reform” think “destruction”.  He then went into a thing about the unparrelleled “upward mobility” of America as a nation, and no doubt this used to be the case.  But now America is lagging way behind in this area while countries we used to look down on, have increased economic opportunities now.   Do you want to know what the kiss of death is for this six year economy?  It’s having these tea party people start believing it, too.  Because the minute that happens- - weight gets shifted and suddenly the teeter totter flips the other way and stock holders are standing there asking themselves, “Why?”  When he talks about "American exxceptionalism" I assume he knows that word is a euphamism for "Mentally Retarded".  (Selah)

JUST REMEMBER - - - WHEN YOU HEAR "RED SHIFT" - - - IT MEANS "RETARDED"

I was brushing my teeth around one and decided to call Paul and check up for later when we’d be going to see Mom’s new place.  Paul was just going to call me to tell me that particular trip was off because Mom just had another TMI, or transient, ischemic, attack.   I always thought ischemic started with an E anyhow.  It’s like a mini stroke and it’s what kicked this whole sad scenario off in late June of last year.  The only place Mom was destined to go today was Keiser hospital, and she doesn’t like it there because they treat her like a criminal and won’t let her get out of bed for anything.  Your relation as a patient is with the hospital, and the doctors work for the hospital and do what they’re told to, as far as what treatments to do and not do.   To my way of thinking this is not always in the patient’s best interest.  But it’s kind of, as Paul says, “Like having the government telling you what to do”.  I got into a conversation about Obama’s speech last Tuesday.  Paul hadn’t seen it and therefore did not have any specific opinions about it – one way or the other.  Of course we’re all praying for Mom and I told Nancy and she’s praying for Mom.  But I didn’t want to make the trip all the way down there- - especially in a Nicotine deficit condition.  Now if you told me that the hospital had free cigarettes, snacks and coffee it would be a whole different story.  (That sounds awfully mercenary to put it like that)  It would be a lot of waiting around to, in my mind, have tests that maybe could be done in three hours if they put their minds to it, so she could get back home the same day- - to taking three days, as drawn out and depressing as that is- - for Mom herself, and even me thinking about it gets depressed.  I went and sat in the front room a while with the sun shining in the window.  But oddly it was the coolest room in the building.

So I stayed here and had that chicken fried steak, which was made right.  We had mashed potatoes and gravy and the usual over-cooked broccoli.  We had applesauce for desert.  I roamed around out back and had two puffs on John’s cigarette and then Marsha gave me a long butt.  I talked with Glen two different times.  He let it slip it was OK for me to get instant coffee so I got it and the sun is still shining.  No time like the present.  This computer sound makes various noises when it does certain things.  Even in executing a BASIC program it changes noise

And now because you asked for it, here is more about "The State of the Union" according to Washington's Blog.  The air pollution levels are dangerously high for almost half of the U.S. population, putting Americans at greater risk of premature death, aggravated asthma, difficulty breathing and future cardiovascular problems.  Despite outlandish amounts of money being spent on the nation’s “infrastructure,” there are more than 63,000 bridges—one out of every 10 bridges in the country—in urgent need of repair. Some of these bridges are used 250 million times a day by trucks, school buses, passenger cars and other vehicles.

There was a substitute in for Sean Hannity.  He ties in the rising economy of the second half of last year to the dip in gasoline prices late in the year and early this year.  They’ll strain at logic, which tells you that NO cut in any tax rate can cut the price of a given commodity in half.   If what he claims is true, which it isn’t, then we should see a real explosion if gasoline prices continue low this entire first quarter.  He claims the idea of cutting taxes to boost revenue is a proven fact.  It’s not only not proven, it is an emphatically Dis-proven fact.  It isn’t true and we’ve seen it over and over.  Stephanie’s show featured endless joking about balls.  “Once I pull out my balls - - nobody touches my balls - - nobody squeezes my balls - - - my balls are perfect!”  Victor had one of Clyde’s goons arrested as a preemptive measure to prevent violence, probably on himself.

Leo Le Port states that there are still more people using Windows XP than there are Windows 8.   There are three different versions of Windows eight in operation that are all mutually imcompatable.  For Windows 10 what they will do is to be all inclusive but the operating system itself will determine what sort of a device you are using and make adjustments accordingly.  They have a Google phone system now that translates your spoken words from English to French, and then gets the waiter’s French response and turns it back into English.  Maybe it’s, “You fool, of course I know English!”    If there is a street sign in Polish saying “This way to the Dog Races” Google Glass will give you the English translation in the identical font as the sign.   Leo of course is in a continuing crusade to purge any Java or Flash from your system.

Most people I thought would regard ceramics as primarily things made out of clay and such that are molded and shaped and then fired.   Melinda Lee this morning spoke of ceramic covered cast iron pots, which puzzled me because I thought the differences in specific heat and elasticity would cause such a substance to crack off.  They claimed that enamel in the industrial sense is powdered glass or a mixture of powdered metal and glass.   I looked up enamel paints.   The term porcelain - - is classed as a ceramic though one usually associates it with sinks and toilets.   The word ceramic had a whole lot of broad application, and there was talk about how the atomic structure interacts.  To return to cooking for a bit, Mom always used stainless steel, and I always cooked with stainless steel whether living alone or with others.  I never worried about “hot spots”.  Melinda Lee points to the reduced conductivity of stainless steel as opposed to cast Iron, no doubt to the presence of carbon and chromium in the substance.   She says that the best thing to cook with is stainless steel with a center of copper or aluminum, preferably copper.  Of course cast iron objects are traditionally heavy meaning that they hold heat well and are good for stews and pot roasts and such.   Certain cookware that I would call “ceramic” (as in “China”) is obviously restricted to oven use and not on the stove.

I watched the highlights of Thursday and Friday for the Chris Matthews show.  It was uneventful and I dozed off for some of it.  I left here about a quarter to ten and went outside where a strong Santa Ana wind was now blowing.  I borrowed a cigarette from Nancy Bell because Paul turned me down.  Then in the courtyard I got two cups of coffee and one piece of chocolate cake from Rico.  He had cake left over but is saving it for the two o clock hour.   I was near the office but afraid of Federico’s reaction if I brought up the dentist again.  I’ll just have to be surprised.  Scott Walker right now is speaking live at the Iowa Freedom conference hosted by that Clown Car ring master Steven King.  Governor Christy and Mario Rubio and the usual suspects will be attending but notably absent are Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush.   Walker is claiming now that the “Occupy” movement actually began in Wisconsin in 2010.