Archive for category Breezespeaks

breezespeaks | The Awful Truth

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in Breezespeaks on July 18, 2012


Big Oil, Romney and a Rat

Posted on July 17, 2012   

 


Has anyone noticed that the price of a barrel of crude oil has stayed below $90.00 for some time now, yet the price of gasoline has risen about $.25 per gallon in the past two weeks.  When a barrel was over $100.00 we watched the price of gas rise daily, sometimes twice in the same day, yet when oil goes down it takes weeks for consumers to see a drop in price.  And still, both Democrats and Republicans are loath to take away Big Oil’s tax breaks, which are often, mistakenly, referred to as subsidies (or so I’ve been told.)  Just more tax breaks for the rich, which consumers pay for every time they fill up their cars, and more politics as usual.

Also of political note, the Republicans have been crying foul over President Obama’s recent campaign tactics, which include raking Romney over the coals for not releasing his tax returns, and his business practices while running Bain Capital.  Aren’t these the same people who Swift Boated three-time Purple Heart winner John Kerry back in 2004, and in 2000 intimated that Presidential hopeful, and fellow Republican, John McCain fathered an illegitimate black child with a woman in South Carolina?  This is like the Marquis de Sade complaining about a hangnail.

Speaking of Karl Rove, I caught him earlier today on FOX commenting on dirty politics.  I have to give FOX credit for once, as they went straight to the source.  Rove has a PhD in Political Skullduggery and has slandered more people than the National Enquirer.  Ol’ Karl would not come right out and say that the President was playing dirty pool, just that he was playing with fire, and that it could come back to haunt him.  But I disagree, because I really think people don’t much care for Willard “Mitt” Romney, and I’ll tell you why.

First, Willard looks like the fat cat CEO of a company that is just dying to lay you off; and he might have, during his days at Bain.  If you were casting the part of a heartless, brainless scion of a wealthy family, you could do worse than Willard.  His off the cuff offer of a $10,000.00 bet with Rick Perry at the Iowa debate shows just how out of touch, and filthy rich, he actually is.  And he pays less in taxes, percentage wise, than you or I (that is, if you don’t own stocks.)  I don’t hold a person’s wealth against them, I just think income should be taxed as income, no matter how it is derived.  Why should capital gains be taxed at a lesser rate than regular income?  Riddle me that, Batman.

And finally, Mitt shares the same first name with a very famous movie rat.  (Why does the word typecast come quickly to mind.)  It’s no wonder he goes by Mitt.

Most folks simply can’t identify with Willard.  With nary a hair out-of-place, his status in the top 1% of the 1%, and his almost smug air of superiority, he will never be mistaken for a blue-collar worker.  He is above it all, as was often his expression during the Republican debates.  He almost appears robotic.

President Obama, on the other hand, was seen smooching on the kiss cam at the Brazil-USA basketball game the other day, a very human thing to do.  I just hope it was with the First Lady, and not Vice President Joe Biden.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

 breezespeaks | The Awful Truth.

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Cat in a Box | breezespeaks

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in Breezespeaks on July 3, 2012


Cat in a Box

Posted on July 2, 2012 

 

No, it’s not a new fast food chain, or the latest dish from your local Chinese restaurant, but it is where our newest household addition likes to sleep at night.

A few weeks back we received a large delivery of books and happened to leave the box they arrived in on the floor in our bedroom.  Later that night, while looking for Polly, we found her curled up inside the box, sleeping peacefully.  She purrs up a storm in that box; Kathy claims she can actually hear it from our bed (I can’t, but then my hearing is as bad as my eyesight.)  This cat loves small spaces.

She also loves food.  Polly seems to be motivated mainly by food, which is a clear signal that she was living on her own.  During the long, hot summer days – and they are hot, as we have had six days over ninety, and it’s only July 2nd – we give her little handfuls of treats to keep her going.  Also, we always make sure she has fresh water in her bowl, as it is tough wearing a fur coat in this heat.

She truly has acclimated to having a family, and has no compunction about joining us on our bed, even if all four of us are already on it watching a movie. (Like on family movie night.)  I call her the Queen, because she thinks the house revolves around her.  If she wants something and we don’t move fast enough, she claws the box spring.  This gets our attention.  When she is hungry, which is always, she simply leads us to her food bowl.  She seems to have little patience with us, and I am waiting for her to fire us and hire new help.

And to think I felt sorry for this homeless feline.

I really do feel sorry for Chief Justice John Roberts.  Conservatives are roasting him all over the internet. 

He has been called a liberal in conservative garb, a fool, an activist judge, an Obama toady and many other unprintable things since his vote on the Affordable Healthcare Act.  You would think he just punched Grover Norquist in the face.  One person wrote that it is implausible that one mans vote can erase our freedoms so easily, not realizing that there are nine Supreme Court justices, and his vote was just the deciding vote.  Without the other four votes, Roberts’ vote would have meant nada.  Some folks have no clue.  Another tool commented that the Supreme Court should be disbanded.  Obviously, he was not a constitutional scholar.  Still another opined that Roberts has some sort of devious plan up his sleeve, as he wouldn’t have deserted his conservative brethren so readily.  Yeah, right.   And life goes on.

Can you name all nine Supreme Court justices?  (Answer below.)

Finally, let’s end on another recipe (I did start this piece talking about food, albeit our cat.)  Kathy came up with a good one the other day, as she gets bored if I make the same stuff all the time.  How about noodles with peanut sauce, she asked?  So I looked up peanut sauce on the Internet and found many recipes, and luckily we had most of the ingredients on hand.

Start with half a cup of peanut butter, five tablespoons of soy sauce, three tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar, a half cup of water and three tablespoons of sugar.  The recipe also called for scallions, which I lacked, so I diced up a small onion.  Although the sauce can be eaten cold, I chose to warm it over a low heat.  I then boiled up some linguine, as Kathy figured the thicker noodle would approximate Chinese noodles.  We also added a pound of pre-cooked shrimp.  Simple, right?  The meal was a big hit, with everyone having seconds.  Kathy even took the leftovers to work the next day.

Here’s the best part.  The shrimp was $6.33 – buy 1 get 2 free at Big Y – the pasta was $.79, the onion $.30, The peanut butter approximately $.50, and lets say another dollar for the rest of the ingredients (a high estimate.)  Overall price, $8.92.  You can’t beat that with a stick.

I realize this recipe isn’t for everyone, as peanut allergies are on the rise, but if your kids are into peanut butter the way my kids are, this meal will be much appreciated.

I guess I’m still Mr. Mom.

(Answer:  Roberts, Scalia, Alito, Thomas, Kennedy, Kagan, Sotomayor, Ginsburg and Breyer.)

 Cat in a Box | breezespeaks.

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breezespeaks | The Awful Truth

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in Breezespeaks on June 29, 2012


Shocking Decisions

Posted on June 29, 2012


Nationwide is on your side . . . as long as you make those payments.

In a move that shocked a nation, the Supreme Court upheld President Obama’s healthcare law, scathingly referred to as Obamacare.  Surprisingly, the deciding vote was cast by Chief Justice John Roberts, who is now persona non grata where conservatives are concerned.  In the past, Justice Kennedy – no relation to the clan – was considered the swing vote, but his liberal leanings are now under fire.  He dissented, along with the incompetent Justice Thomas, the ignorant Justice Scalia, and the Scalia toady, Justice Alito.  Thankfully, Roberts is more than a political hack, which cannot be said of the gang of four.


Conservatives began going into shock soon after the decision was announced, but not before FOX News got the story wrong and announced victory for the Republican cause.  Even after FOX amended the story, they refused to admit their error.  Fox doesn’t make errors, at least according to FOX.  (CNN also got it wrong, but admitted their error.)

What did throw them off was the way the decision was announced.  The Court found the law unconstitutional under the commerce clause, but legal under Congress’s power to tax.  Here is the simple explanation:

If you already have insurance, you will see no change.  If you don’t have insurance, you either must obtain some or pay a tax at the end of the year, which I believe is 1% of income.  As it stands today, if a person gets sick, they can go to an emergency room without fear of being turned away.  It is the law.  The cost of care is currently paid by everyone else who carries insurance, both in premiums and hospital/doctor expenses.  With this Supreme Court decision, if you can’t afford insurance, your cost will be subsidized by the federal government.  Plus, and I think this is paramount, pre-existing conditions are no longer cause for exclusion.  The insurance companies can’t cherry pick their customers anymore.  Insurance, and thereby healthcare, will be available to all.  And, hopefully, with doctor care more readily available, such drastic measures as emergency room treatment will decline.  It is all about preventive maintenance.

Justice Roberts made the right decision.  You just know he’s going to be excommunicated from the church of the conservative right, but I guess he doesn’t care.  Maybe the horrendous Citizens United decision finally got to him (the one that granted corporations personhood and claimed money is free speech.)  I know, I’m probably grasping at straws, but one can dream.


In other news, Ann Curry was fired from the Today Show.  I stopped watching this show after the kids became old enough to hold their own bottles, but this is the final straw.  Curry was the last actual newsperson left.  They should rename it the Fluff Show.  With the smarmy Matt Lauer as the titular leader, and Al “Roxie” Roker as weatherman, it really doesn’t matter what Barbie they trot before us, the show is dead weight.  Look for Good Morning America to lead in the ratings with great regularity.


United Technologies, which owns Sikorsky Aircraft locally, pleaded guilty to charges of selling information that enabled China to build their first attack helicopters, amongst other charges, and will pay a fine in excess of 75 million, chicken feed to a company so large.  American corporations long ago lost their moral compass in search of their next dollar, and this just reinforces the idea that American companies don’t care about America, just their own bottom line.

Okay, I hear more conservative whining.  “Without profits to pay wages there would be no jobs,” or, “Maybe companies should send all profits to Washington, they’re just going to get it in taxes anyway.”  Good try, my conservative friends, but liberals have nothing against profits, just price gouging.  Plus, most of the jobs being created are over in Southeast Asia.  And with loopholes and tax shelters, companies like Exxon Mobil and General Electric paid nothing in taxes for the last few years, if not longer.  So there go those arguments.  I guess UTC felt justified selling to China because Wal-Mart buys everything from China.


Speaking of China, it was disclosed yesterday that the fabled Apple corporation does major business with some of the biggest slave labor companies over there, and even by Chinese standards, which is saying something.  The companies force employees to work off the clock, provide no benefits, pay less than other companies, and are generally run like Dictatorships.  Sounds like a great way for Apple to make its products (and sounds a bit too much like the aforementioned Wal-Mart for my liking.)  All in the name of a buck.

And life goes on.

 breezespeaks | The Awful Truth.

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