Almost a million people, who have been out of work for over 6 months, more than a couple of whom are my friends, will be ineligible for further unemployment benefits. Apparently, Republican Senators, some old enough to remember the effects of the Great Depression, believe that, as many believed prior to the Great Depression, individuals are in control of their own destinies in the "free market" economy and have filibustered a bill into oblivion that would have provided an extension of unemployment benefits.
You see, the Republican Senators have a vested interest, not in helping people, but in perpetuating and creating misery during the Obama administration. The ostensible reason for the filibuster is that the bill costs too much. These were the same Senators, by and large, who supported rampant, uncontrolled spending on weapons of war and death in foreign lands to support the personal agendas of those at the top of the George W. Bush administration, turning a budget surplus into a budget black hole.
The people I know who have been out of work, a couple since before Obama was elected, are not sitting in their posh homes living off the public tit. They are looking for jobs; they are taking temporary work when they can find it; they are being sucked into the black hole.
This may be one reason why people wonder why a vacation in Cleveland is a bad idea. It's uphill and takes longer to get to Cleveland. Going North feels like one is going uphill according to a study Tufts University and U.S. Army researchers; so, people prefer to go South.
And over in Bowling Green, Ohio, a lawyer, Paul Redrup, in court there, shot himself in the foot. Good one, dude.
I guess it's time for an update on the lebron thing. not like I have any news anybody's looking for -- this blog is only about OUR feelings, opinions, reactions. last time I posted, it looked like we -- the cavs -- could be headed for the NBA finals. no such fucking luck. and since this side of the nbl is all about and only about MY thoughts, feelings, and reactions, don't be thinking that you'll find anything BUT that.
so, when we last spoke, we had hope. hope and tremendous excitement for Cleveland basketball and my city. we -- the cavs -- were still in the playoffs and playing well. really well. it was thrilling. I was a fan -- as I said in the previous post, a fanatic fan (yes, I know -- redundant). then came game 4 of the Cleveland-Boston series. Cleveland was up 2 games to 1. game 4 was in Boston. cavs lost. no big deal. it was a game. sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
game 5 back in Cleveland. series tied 2-2. jax and his girl, carrie, came with us. the city was flying high. before 3 or 4 minutes were up in the first period, I knew we were watching a basketball team meltdown. I couldn't watch. it was fricking unbelievable. I had to pick up my iPhone and play solitaire to keep my blood pressure down.
I am NOT, nor will I ever be, nor do I aspire to be a basketball expert. all I know is that the cavs were totally not interested, involved, or engaged in this game. ESPECIALLY lebron. what the fuck? all the experts want to talk about the coaching, the lack of any kind of offensive strategy, the elbow, whatever. I'm sure that a lot of things contributed, but the overriding factor was the fact that the team fell apart. totally and absolutely. something happened. I don't know what it was (frankly, I don't give a fuck), but it was there. it. was. there. and it pisses me off more than I can say, because these guys are in the BUSINESS of playing basketball. and as professionals -- they acted like self-indulgent CHILDREN. dan gilbert, the owner, said what I would have said -- that we didn't deserve that. I paid 5600 HUNDRED DOLLARS for my 4 season tickets. and close to ANOTHER THOUSAND for the seats during what little playoffs the cavs enjoyed. pffft. fucking grow up, assholes, and get out there and play basketball!
but they never did. they went down in game 5 in flames. they sucked. the series ended with game 6 in Boston where the cavs had 24 turnovers. lebron had 9 of those. unfuckingbelievable. [you may or may not have noticed, but I sometimes make an effort to reduce the swearing. sorry. not today.]
game 6 in Boston may have been the last time lebron will play as a cavalier. nice job, bron.
at this point, I have already purchased my seats -- again -- for next season. I fully plan to enjoy them next year. I have faith that dan gilbert will put together a team. that's HIS business.
I'd love for lebron to stay. for my city. and because he IS a phenomenal player when he WANTS to be. who knows if he will or is even entertaining the possibility of staying. right now, he's just enjoying the summer of lebron. it's ALL about lebron. he is star of the world. I'll be surprised if he doesn't call a press conference during the last game of the finals so that everybody tunes in to HIM and not the game. more and more, everything is only about HIM.
I'll never be the lebron fan that I was. I thought, naively and mistakenly, that he was different. that he cared about his city, that he wanted to be real, that he wanted to be a role model. I believe now that he only wants to be the biggest celebrity ever. that he is a pampered, spoiled millionaire, loving every minute of this carnival. and he couldn't care less who knows it. I don't believe one word he says -- everything that comes out of his mouth is a public-relations script.
we were driving into the city with friends the other night past the gigantic lebron photograph on the side of a building. at the end of the season, the "witness" word was erased, replaced with the post-season motto, "one for all."
they should change it now to "all for me." don't count on me, bron. not anymore.
A trip to Italy has been on the back burner for a while.
There is now no earthly reason to put off the trip. The value of the euro is down. The cost of flights is down. I got the name of a website that lists reasonably priced villas for rent.
And Galileo's finger, the one he gave the Pope, is on display! What more can one hope to see?
I went to Wendy's this afternoon to order a baked potato -- not for me -- "a baked potato, sour cream, no fucking chives" was the exact order because the last time I picked up a baked potato, I made the mistake of ordering the baked potato with sour cream, not realizing that menu item was "sour cream and chives;" so when I did not specify "no chives," it came with chives, which was kind of a really bad thing for me
So, I ordered the "baked potato, sour cream, but no chives ... got that, no chives." I paid the smiling, polite young woman at the first window and grabbed the bag from the second smiling, polite young woman at the second window, who said, "No chives."
And she was correct. Technically, the order was correct.
But the potato was about half the size of the potato that came with the wrong order the last time I was at Wendy's.
Is Wendy's now serving small baked potatoes, or was this merely an aberration?
I have not dabbled with electricity very much lately, much to the dismay of my long-time reader, I'm sure.
I found this article entitled "An Unusual Case of Light Headedness," the result of which will be a young girl being the butt of medical community jokes for eternity or for the next few months until the world ends due to the huge oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico (A nameless technician, fearing for his job, for however long it will last, told New York Times that "engineers never had a complete enough understanding of the inner workings of drill pipe casing or blowout preventer mechanisms to make the efforts work." These are the experts? I'm the one who doesn't have a complete understanding of drill pipe casing or blowout preventer mechanisms.).
That aside, the writers of this article on light headedness claim that "common, seemingly innocuous items can be a danger to young children who are prone to falling." The subject of the report, an 18-month-old, clumsy, little girl, fell and, well, got a light bulb stuck in her head.
Shocking, but enlightening.