Mojo

070, originally uploaded by randomjules.

Mojo loves his new and huge backyard. He leaps off the deck -- I need to get a shot of that. It's amazing -- and runs flat out in big loops around the yard. He does skid into the fence sometimes. He is not grace.

cranky.

So cranky lately.

Moments of cool, like realizing that the grill blew across the deck yesterday, during our very blustery day.

But mostly.  Shit.

The tiny number of people who have almost all the money in this country is obscene.  Mark and I have worked hard and tried to save money and do the right things, and yet we still have a house in Tucson that we won't be able to sell FOR YEARS.

Are we better off than we were a decade ago?  Hell, no.  This economy sucks.  We should be so very much better off than we are, and sadly, we are in so much better shape than a whole lot of people we know.

I really don't feel bad for the guy who nets $400,000 a year and doesn't want to pay more taxes.  Pay me $400,000 a year and I will be thrilled to pay more taxes on that, because I realize HOW DAMN LUCKY I AM.  Asshole.

Told you.  Cranky.

On the other hand, we watched Terra Nova last night.  Pretty good, not groundbreaking, but fun.  Not thinking about it too hard, because then I will start to notice the holes and the unoriginal writing and characters and stuff...

And Pinterest.  Sucked me in and won't let go.

I haven't started reading the SciFi/fantasy list yet, but I did get Guards Guards by Terry Pratchett on audible.com and started listening to that.  So so so so so so very good.

Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address in a Wordle

This made me happy.

Global Warming Poll Presents Challenge to GOP Candidates...
 According to a new poll, 83% of Americans believe the planet is warming and 71% believe it is caused by humans. (That other 27% are running on faith alone...there is no peer-reviewed science of any kind that supports the natural cycle idea.)

 But the current crop of Presidential hopefuls are all on the "global warming is crap" bandwagon. Which sucks for them, because most people do not agree with them.

 This is the part that made me very happy...

The campaigns will likely look at the poll and ask, "How did this happen?" The answer may be found in the Republican campaign strategy book. The poll seems to show that the recent campaign appearances and debates staged by the field of Republican candidates has focused Americans on the concern about global warming. The more the candidates talk about the "unsettled" nature of the science, the more the public has become interested in trying to figure out what the science actually says. Playing down global warming, the poll indicates, has had the opposite effect on voters. The law of unintended consequences has turned on the candidates who deny the science, and bitten them on the backsides.

Politicians are so willing to take a stand and start screaming about anything they think will get them elected, and over and over again our country suffers because of it.  Immigration, terrorism, personal freedoms and rights versus safety and security.  So for a group of pols to get bitten in the ass by their own game, awesome.

While I find it impossible to believe that the politicians will learn from this, it is heartening to think that Americans might actually be thinking for themselves instead of blindly believing what politicians are spewing.

It's not class warfare.

‎" There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there -- good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory... Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea -- God Bless! Keep a Big Hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along." - Elizabeth Warren More about Elizabeth Warren, running for the Senate in Massachusetts, here.