No more changing the station!!The grocery store up the street has a mini-branch of Wells Fargo, the bank I love to hate. I went in to make a deposit this afternoon and noticed a group of people standing over by the banana table who all looked vaguely similar. When I got up to the counter the teller asked me if I was a NASCAR fan. I assumed she asked because NASCAR is holding this week’s race at the Phoenix International Raceway. Turns out the group of people were all there to see one of the race car drivers who was going to make a promotional appearance in the store soon.
At this point I noticed two life-size cardboard cutouts of a guy wearing a yellow driver’s suit emblazoned with the Cheerios logo. I asked her who that was and she didn’t know either. So neither of us is a NASCAR fan.
I didn’t stick around.
I also didn’t do my run/ride today. I’m having trouble with my hips (arthritis? or training strain?) and couldn’t summon up the will to do a back-to-back. Instead I ran a longer route than I usually do. I may do the double tomorrow or I may do a morning ride and afternoon swim. Depends on how the hips feel in the morning.
I do NOT need this kind of trouble two weeks out.
Gerta is running as well as she has since I got her. Still hesitates, stumbles slightly off the line, which I think is a vacuum advance issue. But my efforts to fix carb and fuel pump issues seems to be paying off in terms of mileage. I’m eager to see what the next fill up tells me.
After last night’s paragraph about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar I was interested to see that his teammate Byron Scott got fired today from his job as head coach of the Hornets. Two years ago he was named NBA Coach of the Year. So was he really not that good then or has he somehow turned incompetent in the last 16 months?
I wish we got the NFL channel so I could watch Thursday night games.
Pam got me an iPod nano for my birthday. Mine is black.
I loaded it with most of the music on my laptop, including my “screaming ladies.” (I love my Kathleen Battle CD.) But I also loaded the three “Carbo Grooves” CD’s that Pam owns and had me put on her iPod. They’re workout CD’s of well-known pop songs done at a brisk tempo to help you exercise vigorously.
I cannot listen to “She Bang” without picturing a scrawny little Vietnamese guy.
The House passed its health care bill by two votes. In order to do that the House Dems had to put in language that prohibits government funds for abortions. It also prohibits any woman who gets govt. subsidized health insurance from adding private insurance that covers abortions. There were enough moderate Democrats who wouldn’t vote for the bill without that prohibition that Pelosi knew that provision had to be included.
That move has infuriated abortion rights advocates, including many liberal Congressmen and Congresswomen. (Is that correct form in this PC age? Seems unnecessarily cumbersome.) They insist that any govt. health care program must provide “funding for reproductive rights” - i.e., abortions. And prohibiting women who get govt. subsidized insurance from buying private insurance that includes abortion coverage is, in their view, beyond the pale.
The bill now moves to the Senate where it faces a tough road. Many consider Senate passage of anything very unlikely. But in between those two steps President Obama made statements which seem ambiguous at best. He says this should be a health care bill, not an abortion bill, and that it should continue the status quo which prohibits govt. funding of abortions. But he seems to say that allowing women covered in part by a govt. plan from buying abortion coverage should be allowed.
(You can read an ABC News account of his comments here.)
President Obama’s pro-abortion positions are well established and well known. While in the Illinois Senate he voted against a bill that would have made partial birth abortions illegal. He also opposed a bill that would have protected babies who survived failed abortion attempts on the grounds that extending them “person” rights would inevitably lead to extending those rights to the unborn. (Well, duh!)
I find this struggle within the Democratic party fascinating. It pits liberal Dems against “moderate” Dems with the President, their party leader, stuck in the middle. And what makes their dilemma worse is the shifting attitudes about abortion in the U.S.
A Gallup poll from last May shows that 51% of Americans describe themselves as “pro-life” while 42% describe themselves as “pro-abortion”. One year ago 50% described themselves as pro-abortion and 44% as pro-life - an amazing shift in one year’s time. And don’t think the Democrats, especially those from traditionally more conservative states, aren’t very aware of this shift!
Who would have thought that abortion would become the sticky wicket at a time when the Oval Office and both houses of Congress are controlled by Democrats?!
And what explains this shift in public opinion?
At this point I noticed two life-size cardboard cutouts of a guy wearing a yellow driver’s suit emblazoned with the Cheerios logo. I asked her who that was and she didn’t know either. So neither of us is a NASCAR fan.
I didn’t stick around.
I also didn’t do my run/ride today. I’m having trouble with my hips (arthritis? or training strain?) and couldn’t summon up the will to do a back-to-back. Instead I ran a longer route than I usually do. I may do the double tomorrow or I may do a morning ride and afternoon swim. Depends on how the hips feel in the morning.
I do NOT need this kind of trouble two weeks out.
Gerta is running as well as she has since I got her. Still hesitates, stumbles slightly off the line, which I think is a vacuum advance issue. But my efforts to fix carb and fuel pump issues seems to be paying off in terms of mileage. I’m eager to see what the next fill up tells me.
After last night’s paragraph about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar I was interested to see that his teammate Byron Scott got fired today from his job as head coach of the Hornets. Two years ago he was named NBA Coach of the Year. So was he really not that good then or has he somehow turned incompetent in the last 16 months?
I wish we got the NFL channel so I could watch Thursday night games.
Pam got me an iPod nano for my birthday. Mine is black.
I loaded it with most of the music on my laptop, including my “screaming ladies.” (I love my Kathleen Battle CD.) But I also loaded the three “Carbo Grooves” CD’s that Pam owns and had me put on her iPod. They’re workout CD’s of well-known pop songs done at a brisk tempo to help you exercise vigorously.
I cannot listen to “She Bang” without picturing a scrawny little Vietnamese guy.
The House passed its health care bill by two votes. In order to do that the House Dems had to put in language that prohibits government funds for abortions. It also prohibits any woman who gets govt. subsidized health insurance from adding private insurance that covers abortions. There were enough moderate Democrats who wouldn’t vote for the bill without that prohibition that Pelosi knew that provision had to be included.
That move has infuriated abortion rights advocates, including many liberal Congressmen and Congresswomen. (Is that correct form in this PC age? Seems unnecessarily cumbersome.) They insist that any govt. health care program must provide “funding for reproductive rights” - i.e., abortions. And prohibiting women who get govt. subsidized insurance from buying private insurance that includes abortion coverage is, in their view, beyond the pale.
The bill now moves to the Senate where it faces a tough road. Many consider Senate passage of anything very unlikely. But in between those two steps President Obama made statements which seem ambiguous at best. He says this should be a health care bill, not an abortion bill, and that it should continue the status quo which prohibits govt. funding of abortions. But he seems to say that allowing women covered in part by a govt. plan from buying abortion coverage should be allowed.
(You can read an ABC News account of his comments here.)
President Obama’s pro-abortion positions are well established and well known. While in the Illinois Senate he voted against a bill that would have made partial birth abortions illegal. He also opposed a bill that would have protected babies who survived failed abortion attempts on the grounds that extending them “person” rights would inevitably lead to extending those rights to the unborn. (Well, duh!)
I find this struggle within the Democratic party fascinating. It pits liberal Dems against “moderate” Dems with the President, their party leader, stuck in the middle. And what makes their dilemma worse is the shifting attitudes about abortion in the U.S.
A Gallup poll from last May shows that 51% of Americans describe themselves as “pro-life” while 42% describe themselves as “pro-abortion”. One year ago 50% described themselves as pro-abortion and 44% as pro-life - an amazing shift in one year’s time. And don’t think the Democrats, especially those from traditionally more conservative states, aren’t very aware of this shift!
Who would have thought that abortion would become the sticky wicket at a time when the Oval Office and both houses of Congress are controlled by Democrats?!
And what explains this shift in public opinion?
No comments:
Post a Comment