Oklahoma tornado, global warming, and James Inhofe

The effect of global warming is to intensify existing weather patterns, as I understand it.  The tornado that tore through Oklahoma City and has left, as of the last count, 51 dead, appears to have been massive and unusually large.  But James Inhofe and Tom Coburn, Senators-R-OK, says global warming is a hoax and has fought any effort to push back against it.  And now 51 are dead in Oklahoma and James Inhofe can go home and try to wash the blood from his hands.

Now Oklahoma will undoubtedly seek federal disaster relief.  And who was it opposed aid to the states hit by Hurricane Sandy?  James Inhofe and Tom Coburn, Senators-R-OK.  So unless they have every penny defined as to how they will pay for it, and as long as Oklahoma gives back other money in some way, I don’t see how the federal government can vote disaster relief to the state.

Finally, my heart goes out to the parents of the children lost in the disaster at that elementary school, but I have already heard stories of how a teacher shielded children with her body and kept them safe through the storm.  Parents expect teachers to do that, to save their children’s lives in times of danger, to throw their own bodies between their children and a tornado.  And then they vote down the teacher’s union and vote against salary increases for teachers and put teachers down and want to take away tenure.

Think about it, if you are capable of thought.  And if you are capable of thought, thank a teacher.

Minnesota Senate Passes Bill Permitting Same Sex Marriage

Speaking as a heterosexual, married male, I am delighted to see that Minnesota has joined the 21st century and granted me equal rights, because as long as anyone doesn’t have equal rights, nobody has equal rights.  I saw some comment on a web site that this was a granting of “special rights”.  No, it isn’t.  As long as heterosexuals were permitted to marry the people they loved but gay people couldn’t marry the ones they loved, it was the heterosexuals who had the special rights.  I love equal rights.   I don’t love Minnesota and never will, but the legislature did the right thing on this issue, so good on ‘em.

Indoors today

It’s raining, so I am working indoors today.  Such a pleasant spring rain day.  I do love the spring.

Isn’t it a baseball game?

I saw something about an umpire making a  bad ruling on a home run in a ball game last night.  There was a lot written about it, though I don’t have the interest to read any of it.  But isn’t it a baseball game?  And just one out of a 162 game season?  So who cares?  One bad call and there’s all this noise about it?

Sports fans remind me of five year olds.

It’s their own funerals

Minnesota’s representatives vote on marriage equality tomorrow.  If it passes the house and senate, Minnesota’s gay people will be able to marry legally.  I sent an email to my representative and told him that I support equality.  If gay people want to to marry, let them.  It’s their own funerals.

The back is better, the birds are still around

Spring remains lovely and my back is all better.  Saw a gorgeous red-bellied woodpecker in the yard yesterday.  We both worked from home, so we spent a good several hours working on the deck, side by side, on our laptop computers.  I have one consulting contract and a potential offer for a direct employment position in the pipeline.  Of the two, the direct would pay better, but I like consulting.  If I took the direct offer, there’s a chance I would keep looking for consulting work and, if I can build the client list, leave the direct spot.  I like working on my back deck.  I like having the cat wander around the yard as I work.  I like making my own coffee at home, since I make better coffee than I’ve ever tasted in any office.

The tweeting of birds, the twitching of the back

Spring has finally sprung here in these miserable, mediocre northern climes, and the birds are tweeting.  I’m so old, I remember when “tweeting” only referred to the noises birds make.  My lovely wife and I went for a walk this evening to the center of town, where shopping is to be had, and bought a sweet thing or two for dessert.  Coming back, we admired houses that were well-kept and dutifully sneered at bad designs or bad home care.  My back began to get touchy, as it does from time to time, due to straining it in yard work earlier today, so naturally it is very painful this evening.  Still, a nice two mile walk after dinner is a pleasant way to pass the evening, with all the toll on my back, and in the best of company, too.  You know I mean it, because my wife doesn’t even know I keep this blog.  She’s never read it.  Then again, neither has anyone else.

Smash (the TV show) brings the fail weekly

The writers of the crappy show “Smash” made the same mistake this week they make fairly often:  they included a really good song in the show.  A week or two ago they had MacPhee and Meg Hilty (man, I so love Meg Hilty) do a duet on “That’s Life”, a fine old song that demonstrated just how miserable the original songs that make up the score of this show’s “musicals” really are.  Now MacPhee and Hilty are excellent and those two can sing the crap out of anything, and their duet was exceptional, but the original songs in this show are mediocre at best.  This week they had one of the characters, one with a fairly weak voice, sing Billy Joel’s “Vienna Waits for You”.  Such a fine song, and it shows, by comparison, how crappy the songs they wrote for this show are.  They should never allow a good song into this show because of how the songs they wrote for this show suffer by comparison.

Oh, and the MacPhee character’s love for the Jimmy character still makes no sense at all.

Reese Witherspoon

Witherspoon was entirely right.  As usual, a cop overstepped his authority and arrested her for no good reason and will get away with it.  You can praise the Boston police all you want, but cops suck and individual cops in the street are little piggies.  A GOOD cop would have been able to handle the situation without arresting Witherspoon, but the little piggy in the video I saw was a typical cop who thinks he has the right to do whatever he wants to citizens.

The end of bread

I had noticed for quite some time, possibly years, that I was having problems with loose stool.  Lately it has been worse and I seemed to notice a connection between eating bread and the loose stool.  Three days ago I stopped eating any bread or other things with gluten.  I haven’t had a loose stool since.  I can’t believe it.  I’m finally getting good results when I bake breads and I can’t eat bread.