I’m Healthy and Outraged Again

Faithful readers, all 3 of you likely, it has been two months since my last post. Let me tell you a short story.

Toward the end of January, I could barely walk without intense pain. I unfailingly chalked this up to being old or being stiff from sitting or maybe an old injury. I started walking and doing yoga in hopes to feel better. Well, it turns out all those things were wrong and all my exercising made the problem worse. With every sun salutation or a brisk walk around the lake, I was grinding the hip’s femoral head (the ball) into the acetabulum (the socket). The labrum was destroyed, and all the cartilage was gone. With each step or hip-opening stretch I performed, the problem intensified.

Cue a visit to the doctor, and voila, hip replacement surgery was on the calendar just like that. 11-Feb I went under the knife. The procedure was a total success, and today, five weeks later, I am sitting and walking pain-free. Of course, I am sore all the time, but this wanes each day. I see the future of cycling and hiking without all that pain, and it’s a fine dream that will come true. Leading up to my surgery, I fell behind all my projects and podcasts, and show plans. Sitting and concentrating just wasn’t possible. Now that I’m back, I’ll be catching up as fast a possible.

This brings me to a few words on my outrage. There is no end to the terribleness of the US Republican party. I could make up bad stories about the shitty things they do, then over the months and years, just check them off the list when my fiction becomes their reality.

The newest outrage happened this week when these MAGA assholes voted against awarding valor medals to the Capitol Police because the bill used the term ‘insurrection,’ and if they agree to that, well, they will have some problems back home when their lunatic supporters find out.

Actually, this is a textbook example of a new twist on an old political theatre tactic. The 11 jackass Republicans who voted no on awarding the medals can say, “…look what I did standing up to the Libs”, while at the same time knowing the bill will overwhelmingly pass. This kind of dissent vote used to be about a protest on the merits, even if most of the bill in question was agreeable and should garner support from one party or the other. The bill would pass, and no harm was done. The dissenters had their say – but it was on policy.

Now, it’s about the fear of losing votes by rightfully labeling a riotous, violent mob an insurrection, rather than some other milquetoast, inoffensive term to mind the delicate sensibilities of the racist MAGA cult.

Seems I haven’t missed much at all during my hiatus.