I'm in Chicago tonight. Just got in.
Lot's of traffic. They're lucky I left my road bazooka at home. Nothing clears a road faster than wire-guided weapons systems.
I got a call from a friend of mine that is in town from Hungary. It was a last minute thing and since he came all this way, I couldn't say no (sorry, Kimmy). He left me an email that said "Millennium Station at 6:00 pm." This is sort of like saying "Meet me in Oklahoma at 6:00 pm." Turns out Millennium Station covers almost all of Chicago.
I found a place to park but then spent the next fifteen minutes trying to find my way out of the underground parking lot. There were doors all over the place but every one of them was marked "emergency exit only." So, if this 100% cement structure ever catches on fire, I can get out just about anywhere. Since there wasn't so much as a puff of smoke, I ended up walking out the car entrance I drove in. Base on the parking rate, it cost me about $10 just to make it out of the parking lot.
We never did hook up. His cell phone had bad coverage so we never got it narrowed down to more than a few city blocks. I walked around quite a bit then tossed in the towel. No sooner had I driven my car out of the lot when he called. Too late for me. Maybe tomorrow.
On to politics.
The Republicans say they don't want to extend jobless benefits because they don't want to pass a spending bill that is not paid for. In other words: "Why give money to people that can't afford to contribute to my campaign fund?"
The Republicans want to extend tax cuts for the ultra rich saying now is not the time to take money from people that are just scraping by. In other words: "Keep giving money to those rich people that have fattened my campaign fund."
Take from the poor and give to the rich. Add this to their other bag of tricks of catering to people's fears while pandering to their faith.
In an effort to be fair and balanced: Obama needs to grow a pair. He walks out of a meeting with the GOP and says, "I think we can work together." They walk out of the same meeting and say, "Taking away the tax cut from the rich is a non-starter".
Here, let me take a stab at a speech he should consider:
"There will be no extension of tax cuts for anyone. There will be no extension of unemployment benefits. If you have a problem with this, talk to the GOP. Here is what I want, extend the benefits; extend the tax cut for low and middle incomes."
He won't do this because he is more of a coach than a leader. I want him to lead, but I am starting to wonder if he has it in him.
Gays in the military. The military says, "Go for it. We have no problem." The civilians in congress on the GOP side of the house are acting as if they have somehow been given wisdom in this area that supersedes the military's own view. The Chairman of the JCS says do it and a GOP, whose biggest battle was as a substitute member of his college debate team wants to act like he knows better.
What are they afraid of? To me its just homophobia. I'll tell you what, I have a few gay friends and none of them have ever tried to kiss me. I think the GOP is projecting their own belief that if they were ever in a foxhole with a gay man, they might want to have sex with him. I truly believe the louder people complain about gays, in any situation, the more likely they are to be suppressing their own inclinations (not that there's anything wrong with that.)
It's been a busy month for me. I wrote a novel, I posted to my main blog. I created and posted several times to my wrestling blog and short story blog. I have been on 10 planes and flown 25,000 miles. I coach high school wrestling when I am in town. I found 11 geochaches (look that up at www.geochaching.com). I did my regular job.
And finally, had time to do my secret job - saving worlds.
Up, up and away.
jim
