It's 5:47AM...

And what the hell am I doing awake? Don't know really, well, I do know, but I figured I'd start this week off right, get into work at a decent hour, say 7AM, and make a list of things to do this week for work, and hopefully get them all checked off by Friday. I'm sure that something will derail me between now and Friday, and I'll get about one quarter of the things done that I need to do, and then we'll go from there. Re-make the list a week from now, wash, rinse, repeat, and continue throughout the rest of the year. I am looking forward to this week for the simple reason that I feel motivated again. I feel like riding again. I feel like training again, and for the the first time in about 3 weeks or so, I actually feel like getting out of bed and heading off to work, fully showered and everything. These are good things. I'm certain, almost certain, that as soon as I walk into the office this morning, someone or something is going to piss me off, it's almost a guarantee. Kind of like death and taxes, but hey, that's what they're paying me for, sort of.

In other news, Alito is going to get onto the bench, this I have no doubt about it. Kerry made a short sighted attempt at filibustering this nominee, but damn, the man is smart enough, can't he count? That's the basic skill you need to be a Senator, you've got to know how to count. If you don't know how to count, then you can't count how many votes and people you have on your side, and how many you don't. In the case of Kerry attempting to filibuster Alito, he couldn't count, or forgot how to count. Of course if he did count right, and did have the votes to do it, this would have triggered the old Nuclear option that the republicans are so fond of trotting out into the front of the US citizenry, and we would have had a gigantic mess in the Senate (not that it isn't already) for the remainder of the year until mid term elections. I'm sure that democrats would stall almost all of the republican agenda, and hey, nothing gets done. And really, what good is that for the country as a whole? Now we're looking at having a very right leaning court. People on there who don't so much believe in the right to privacy. People on there that don't believe in a woman's right in making her own health care choices. People on there who believe only certain rich white people should go to their former schools. Yep, turning a corner we are, down into a dark alley I think. I can only hope that Alito gets some enlightenment on the bench when he gets there, and actually does make decisions based on the merits of the cases presented before him, and not his own personal beliefs, because we can't have activist judges running the country now can we? Yeah, I know, that's a term that normally the republicans trot out, which is funny because if you look at the record of the SCOTUS in the last 20 years or so, all of the legislation that has been overturned, has been done so with a majority of the republican members of SCOTUS ruling in favor of it. A little fact that they forget to mention that most times when laws are ruled as unconstitutional by courts, it is done so by judges who are known conservatives and republicans. Prepare to see Roe overturned in the next 5 years unfortunately, and we'll see the death rates of pregnant women who sought abortions in that same dark alley we just turned down increase sharply, all the while, the rich daddy's girls will just get flown out of the country to have the procedure done. Once again, something that might come about that is going to highly affect the poorer population of this country as opposed to the wealthy. Also, a fact for you. The rate of abortions before they were legal and now that they are legal hasn't really changed over time. The abortion rate is almost exactly the same as it was before. It's just now, women can have it done in a clean environment by an actual doctor, and don't have to worry so much about something bad happening. Alito will take away some of our privacy, increase the girth of the executive branch, and make health care decisions for women. Is he good for the country? I think not.

Time to hit the showers.