And so another year's over... 2023 has been a wild year, and if you feel the ride has been piloted by the Looney Tunes gang, you're not alone! We finally started to see some consequences for the January 6 insurrectionists, but its only been the lowest of minions so far. The biggest MAGA Maggot of them all still has not been jailed, and you have to wonder if we'll live to see that day. Hope springs eternal. On the bright side, the economy is doing fantastic and we all know who gets credit for that. Thank you, President Biden! And so here are some miscellaneous thoughts... English When did we become a bilingual country? It used to be that immigrants learned English to integrate into our society. None of this crap about setting up Little { fill-in-the-blank-country-name } so that you didn't have to learn English - you could continue to use your native language even though you became a US citizen. Anyone else wonder just how much money our federal (let along state & local) government spends each year to produce duplicate documents in Spanish? Let's cut this crap out. English is our language, and if you are immigrating into the USA you should have to learn enough basic English to exist here as part of society. If you can't read English, then it should be up to YOU to provide your own translation services. Can't read, write and speak English? Then you can't pass the citizenship test. Period. Donations Does anyone else remember how non-profit organizations used to solicit donations? You were asked to make a donation - as much as you could afford to give - and you'd send it in. Well, not any more. Now, all these non-profit organizations have enough money to advertise on TV and they want you to commit to giving them $19.00 a month ("just 63 cents a day!") every month. And if you do, they will send you this adorable {blanket/tee shirt), They will even automatically take it out of your credit card or debit card so you can forget all about it & they will do the work for you! How nice of 'em! [ If you are crazy enough to give them such unfettered access to your credit or debit card, you deserve all of the problems you'll eventually have. ] So it is no longer good enough to send them a (as in one) donation - you must commit to a monthly pledge. Guess what - its the reason I don't donate to these organizations, even though many of them are the kinds of organizations I would otherwise donate to. But it will snow in hell before I give them my credit card info so they can deduct a monthly amount. CoVid Seems that most folks have come around to getting the necessary CoVid vaccines & boosters so that the pandemic is done! Oh sure, there are still some people dying from CoVid, just as there are some people who are dying from flu, but as a Biologist, I subscribe to the theory of Natural Selection. For those who, despite the vaccine, still get CoVid (or flu, for that matter) and die, I truly feel sorry for their families. But for those who refused to get the vaccines and die, let's face it: we all must be willing to take the consequences of our actions - good and bad - so if you elect not to get vaccinated and get the illness and perish, so be it. That was your decision, and those are the consequences of your decision. Hope you have a happy voyage! Bulbhead If you have watched more than a half hour of TV this past year, you have almost certainly seen ads from Bulbhead for any of their slew of products (almost all of which are $19.99). Basically, every single product that Bulbhead has is in jeopardy of being discontinued due to price increases and supply chain shortages, so you better act now and order! What bullshit! Public Television Here in Charlotte NC, our public television station ran Downton Abbey. Well, during one of their quarterly beggathons, they swore that the series run on public television was ending, and that is would never be on again. So we sent in the few hundred dollars donation to get the entire series on DVD so that my wife could continue to watch it. Well, guess what, Downton Abbey wasn't really ending its run on public television after all. A miracle happened, and so the next season, it was back on public TV. Now, I don't mind at all giving them a few hundred dollar donation. Not. at. all. But what I do mind is the outright lie that "the series was ending and would not be available on public TV ever again." Guess what? Public TV will not get any more donations from us. We don't like being purposefully misled. Period. INSP I watch a LOT of TV on INSP because I love the old westerns (especially those in B&W). INSP is run by some religious group (don't care enough to investigate to find out which one). Apparently, old westerns are very family-friendly (despite the killing). Ummm... now that I think about that, I am wondering which religion supports killing? Anyway, I can understand when the station edits out cursing. But they have been going far off the deep end lately. Examples: "...like ____ on a bull." "There will be ____ to pay." Really? "tits on a bull" is offensive, but allowing the ex-junkie My Pillow guy to hawk his wares after he supported the insurrection is fine? Maybe you need to re-evaluate your principles and priorities.

Everyone knows the old adage - you can't yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater when there is no fire threat. Why is that? You do, after all, have the right to say whatever you want, right? No, you don't. In the example of a crowded theater, there is an overriding civic responsibility to not put innocent lives in jeopardy unnecessarily. The short of it is quite simply this: you have the right to express your opinion and say what you wish within limits. You can voice your opinion on religion, politics, any topic you wish, so long as your words are not causing harm or potential harm to others in the community. We all live in a community, and we all have civic responsibilities to that community. The freedom of speech is not unlimited. Nor are any other freedoms we enjoy. You may listen to the music of your choice as loud as you wish, so long as it doesn't infringe upon the freedoms and rights of others to enjoy peace & quiet. Once your music infringes upon the rights of your neighbors to live in peace and quiet, you are directed to lower the volume of your music to an acceptable level, as measured by your community's standards. You have rights and freedoms as long as your rights and freedoms don't impinge upon those of others in your community. We have law enforcement and the judicial system to enforce those community standards and to mediate disputes between citizens when necessary. And yet, these days, it seems that everyone is concerned about themselves and inconsiderate of their neighbors. When told that they can not do something, they immediately cry foul, shouting that their rights are being infringed upon. And they may very well be, but again, it is the rights and freedoms of the community at large that need to be protected and also need to define what is acceptable behavior and speech. And you want those standards because without those standards and the mechanisms to enforce and adjudicate disputes, communities could not survive for long. You can drive your vehicle wherever you want, but you cannot drive on a sidewalk or across your neighbor's yards, and you cannot drive on the left side of the road. You must obey traffic signs and signals. These are all restrictions on your freedom, but without these restrictions, there would be lethal havoc for all in the community. So when we say you "have the freedom to drive wherever you want" what we really mean is, "you have the freedom to drive to whatever destination you want." So just because some of your rights and freedoms are restricted does not negate your overall freedoms and rights. Those restrictions are your everyone's protection, including yours. A healthy society is a community in which everyone respects those restrictions and recognizes that those restrictions are for everyone well being. Today, in the USA, we have a very sick society. Many people are only out for themselves, and not concerned about the safety and well being of others in the community. They cannot understand that they don't have unlimited freedoms and rights, that we must all accept certain limitations of those freedoms and rights for the benefit of the community as a whole. Those people don't have the ability to restrict themselves as appropriate - that just because you have the freedom to say something doesn't mean that you should. Words have consequences, and even though the words themselves may not be harmful per se, they can have the power to incite reactions in others that are a threat to the community. When you yell "Fire!" in that crowded theater, you incite the occupants to rush for the exits, which may cause a mob at the restrictive exits and people may get hurt or even be killed by the mob. And that brings us to the topic of the day, our Twice-Impeached-4-Times-&-Counting-Indicted-Fraudulent-Liar former President Trump. Why is this man allowed to continue to say things that put the community in jeopardy? He's yelling "Fire!" in the crowded theater that is his base. Why is he allowed to say things which incite his supporters to commit acts of violence? "Freedom of speech" is an excuse that is used with increasing frequency these days to justify inaction due to fear. We as a society need to grow the gonads to stand up to bullies like Trump and restrict their freedoms when the welfare of the community is jeopardized. His speech inciting violent responses from his base is, simply, unacceptable and needs to be stopped. Regardless of your political affiliation, such speech is intolerable and for the sake of our society, needs to be stopped sooner rather than later.

One of the major stories in the New York Times today was about the dire position the Biden-Harris administration is in regarding the next election. Some poll has reported that Trump leads Biden in 5 critical swing states. Really? And this conclusion is based upon what, exactly - polling data? How reliable are polling data? The answer is simple: extremely unreliable. The nature of polling is the culprit. First, the question is always, "If the election were held today..." Well, it isn't. So right from the start, the data are based on a false premise. Then, there is the fact that there are no nominees for President yet. Hell, anyone can say they are running for President today, but that means absolute diddly-squat. Given their ages, Biden and Trump may be dead & buried by the time Election Day 2024 rolls around. So the entire premise of polls so far out from an election are nonsensical and just plain idiotic. Polls done these days are nothing more than "mental masturbation". So many things can happen in a year to affect a voter's decision. The so-called State of the Economy also means diddly-squat. An individual's state of economy, on the other hand, weighs heavily on their decision in the voting booth. Add to that a blend of other issues between now and 05 November 2024 and an individual's outlook on life can be far, far different than it is today. So what's the purpose of asking a subset (more on that below) of Americans who they would vote for a year from now? It gives people (pollsters) a job and other people (the media) something to report (as news) as if they have some crystal ball about what will happen a year from now. Mental masturbation. How many times a day does your phone ring, you look at the caller ID, don't recognize the number & you ignore the call, figuring it's just yet another annoying telemarketer? The point is, a majority of Americans probably don't answer their phones for unrecognized caller numbers, so the pool of participants in a poll is not all of America but a small subset of Americans who take calls from unrecognized phone numbers. What we need to know is what types of people are in that small subset upon which pollling results are based. I'd bet a kidney that that subset doesn't look much like all of America. Back when cable news was born (1980), CNN was a true "news network" hosted by the fantastic Bernard Shaw. He and the rest of the CNN reporters reported news events . Fast forward 43 years. Today's cable "news" networks are anything but news. They are populated with talking heads discussing their take on a news story of the day. And one of the hottest "news" stories are political polls. This provides fodder for the talking heads, as if a poll's results mean anything significant. These polls are talked about ad nauseum until the next poll comes out. Polls are like statistics: as any statistician will tell you, they can give you the statistical result you want from a set of data. Ditto polls. If a poll is not directed to a real issue in real time (i.e. today) then it truly is an exercise in fantasy. Mental masturbation. Oh sure, you can argue that there have been polls that have been accurate. Of course there is. Some poll's will stumble upon reality and get it right; its like flipping a coin 10 times - you will get both heads and tails. Think of heads as "fact" and tales as "fiction". Some flips (polls) will turn up heads (fact) while some flips (polls) will turn up tails (fiction). Why the concern about polls? If a poll suggests that one candidate is ahead of the other, that candidate's voters may figure, "Why go out and vote if my candidate is ahead?" and thus stay home on election day. And vice versa: the candidate stated as "loosing" in a poll may have their voters energized to make the effort to go vote. Just like the major news media have agreed to not call an election before polls in the west close so as not to adversely affect the voting there, they should cease reporting polls on their networks all the time . A lot of voters will see one person, for example, Trump, projected as the runaway candidate for the Republican Party and decide why vote for someone else in the primary - go with the winner. And that's the problem with reporting these nonsensical polls now - the psychological effect on the voting public is unfair to all candidates for their party's nomination. Every serious candidate deserves a real chance. Probably the best thing to do is to turn away from all of the cable news networks with their talking head panels, and do your own research online about the candidates stated positions on issues important to you. There is a lot of dung on the internet, and you need to be able to recognize dung when you see it, and if you can do that, you can be quite well-informed come election day 2024. Polls have no value whatsoever so ignore all and do your own homework. And continue to ignore calls from numbers you do not recognize. And remember...

Here I am, sitting in my local Starbucks as I often do in the mornings, enjoying my decaf and solitude. Oh, I know most of the workers at Starbucks - a great group of gals and guys - but when I have my coffee and tablet in front of me, I get totally immersed in the latest J. Robert Kennedy thriller in front of me, and nothing around me gets through. Well, almost. Today, some inconsiderate slob of a person sitting at the table behind me decides it is appropriate to engage in a speaker phone conversation in this public place. What the hell??? Is there some reason beyond my ability to grasp that they can't use the freakin' phone like it was intended, with ear to speaker? Needless to say, I was a bit more than ticked-off that this specimen of inconsideration intruded upon my otherwise serene world. Folks, no one else cares to participate in your speakerphone conversation, nor do we care to hear it. It is common courtesy and decency to NOT put your phone on speaker in a public place. I was so tempted to turn around and engage in the conversation, and when she would inevitably say "This is a private conversation!" I could explain to her why it was NOT a private conversation. These same people are most likely the ones who bitch and gripe should someone or some company, or heaven forbid, the government!, put cameras in a public space. They cry foul on their right to privacy! When you are in public, by definition, you have NO privacy outside the clothes you wear and the purse or briefcase you carry. You have a responsibility to ensure that your "private" conversation on your phone remains private, and not broadcast into "public". In the same vein, people who create a mess at a table in a public place, such as a Starbucks, have a responsibility to clean up their mess before they leave. People think it is alright to unwrap their food, prepare their beverage, consume both, and then leave the wrappers, cups, napkins and whatever other flotsam they created on the table for someone else to clean up. These people obviously live in a pig stye of an abode and feel that it is their God-given right to leave the mess for someone else to take care of. Here's an idea - rather than stopping by a public restaurant, why not waddle over to your trough and slobber yourself some feed in the privacy of your own barnyard? And moms, please don't stand idly by, doing absolutely nothing, while your child screams at the top of their little lungs for as long as they can while you sip on the Triple-shot Half-Caf French Mocha Pumpkin Spice Latte you so desperately need. Children will be children - hell, we all were at one time, whereas some of us have grown up - but allowing a child to exhibit such bad behavior in public is neither considerate of others nor good for the child. If you allow such bad public behaviors unchecked as a toddler, don't wonder in disbelief when your teenager lands themselves in jail. Learning right from wrong = including what is acceptable public behavior - occurs before they start kindergarten and continues through grade school, and is YOUR responsibility as a parent, not the school system or anyone else, to instill in the child. If you're not willing to invest the time requires to raise your child correctly, get your freakin' tubes tied tightly into a big bow - it will be a gift all of us will enjoy.

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Two and a half years after the insurrection, the bozos responsible are still running around free. Sure, the foot soldiers who did the bidding of Trump have been/are being prosecuted, but what about the instigators? Why are each and every one of them still roaming the countryside, trying to cause trouble wherever they can? Let's just image for a minute that this was Trump's beloved Russia and not the United States. How long do you think Trump, Rudy and the rest of the gang would be free following the January 6th insurrection? Maybe 24 hrs? Maybe upon his conviction, Trump should be sentanced to life in Russia. See how long his bullshit would be tolerated under his good buddy Putin. He's be Putin Trump before a firing squad in the middle of Siberia. End of problem. Thankfully, this is not Russia but rather the Good Old USA. You know, the land where every man is entitled to a speedy trial . Yeah, right. Two and a half years is not what any reasonable person would consider "speedy". So let's ask ourselves, why hasn't this cabal of insurrectionists been tried before a court of law yet? The reason seems clear to me - we don't know how to proceed in this situation as it has never (thank God!) arisen before. We're afraid of what some of the population will say or do - you know, those mental midgets who continue to support Trump. We also don't want to have our history marred by the insurrection - you know, ignore it and it will go away. What will the world say seeing our orange-hair King of the Midgets in an orange jumpsuit behind bars? You know what they will say, "Yes, America IS a land of laws!" So let's not worry about the rest of the world. Let's do what is right. And what is right is the prosecution of insurrectionists. Those traitors to the Constitution of the United States who sought to overturn the election and overthrow the government. They are no more "loyalists" or "American heros" than those generals who fought for the South during our Civil War. They, too , were traitors and should never have been honored as they have been until lately. And Trump and his cronies should not only never be honored, but should be held responsible for the havoc they wrought on January 6th. Trump should be held in the appropriate light in history - his portrait should never be hung with those of every other president, and history should remember him for his evil intent and traitor behavior. He should be ensconced in the history books alongside Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Nero... So each and every true American should demand that Trump AND HIS ENABLERS such as Guiliani, Epstein, Meadows, Kevin McCartey, Jim Jordan, and the rest be dealt with appropriately by our judicial system. America deserves a swift and speedy trial, especially at this delayed time, and if the defendants are found guilty, they need to be handled in an expedient, fair and just manner. Except Trump. He needs special treatment so I'd suggest that he be stripped of every last cent of American money he made, and shipped to Russia as a gift to Putin where he can live out the rest of his days as Putin's lap dog.

In America, anyone can own an automobile. If you are able to afford one, you can purchase one. If someone you know wants to give you one, they can. And if you want to give one to someone, you can, too. America is great! But, if you want to drive that automobile, you can if you meet certain requirements. First, you must be old enough to acquire a driver's license, and to obtain a driver's license you must past a written test and a road test in most if not all states. These tests are to ensure that (1) you are familiar with the laws governing driving an automobile, and (2) that you can handle the vehicle sufficiently under most conditions. For example, if you are blind, you cannot handle a vehicle sufficiently to ensure the safety of yourself and others. Similarly, if you don't understand what a yellow traffic light means, you jeopardize the safety of others as well as yourself. Therefore, knowing & understanding the laws regarding operation of a vehicle are critical to obtaining your driver's license. Once you have your driver's license, you are free to drive your vehicle wherever you desire, right? For example, if you wish to drive to the grocery store, or to visit grandma, or take your children to school, you are free to do so. But, you must obey certain restrictions. For example, you cannot drive your vehicle on the left side of the roadway, or on a sidewalk. You cannot drive at any speed, but must obey speed restrictions posted on the roads. You cannot drive your vehicle at night without proper lights. You cannot drive the wrong way down a one-way street. The point is, these constraints are imposed by law to ensure the safety of yourself and others. Furthermore, there are constraints on the type of vehicle you may own and operate in public. You cannot own & operate an 18-wheel semi without the proper driver's license for that type of vehicle. You cannot own an Abrahms tank or a mobile missile launcher and drive it down a public roadway. Freedom of ownership does not imply you may own whatever you wish to own nor does it imply use without constraints, and the primary, if not sole, reason is public safety. Freedoms are not unrestricted. We all have the freedom to live safely in America, and that freedom trumps all others. You have the right to worship as you please, but you may not worship by conducting human sacrifice. You have the right to play your stereo as loud as you please providing it does not disturb your neighbor's right to peace & quiet. Why should gun ownership be any different than vehicle ownership? "The right to bear arms" does NOT mean you may own any type of armament you desire. You cannot own a grenade launcher, nor a so-called "dirty bomb" nor a nuclear warhead. You may not own an ICBM nor a landmine. In other words, you may not own arms meant for mass-destruction or mass-killings. There is absolutely no reason any civilian needs such weapons nor any legitimate circumstance for their civilian use. When the US Constitution was written, this country was a far, far different country than it is today. There were legitimate needs for having a rifle or handgun - hunting for food, and personal protection of self & family. Although some may argue today that those needs no longer exist, there are still individuals who do hunt for food, who do hunt to protect their livestock from wildlife predators, and those who do live in remote areas that cannot rely upon local law enforcement agents for protection. And yes, there are those who simply want to ensure their personal safety and that of their family by owning a firearm. Those who wish to hunt - for food or simply for sport - should be able to own a rifle or shotgun. And those who wish to own a firearm for home security and personal protection, should be able to own a pistol. If someone is breaking into your home, you cannot rely on the local police arriving there instantly to prevent home invasion. But the right to own a weapon does NOT come without constraints. First, just as you need to do to own & operate a vehicle, you need to be licensed, aka have a gun permit. And in order to obtain that license, you need to pass certain requirements to determine if you are able to operate that weapon safely. That is the true reason for gun permits - public safety. And for public safety, there needs to be constraints on the type of weapon you may own and use. There is no legitimate reason to own a weapon meant for mass destruction/mass killing. Just like you select the type of vehicle to meet your intended use, you should select the type of weapon for your intended use. If you intend to hun, you purchase a hunting rifle. If your intent is personal protection, you select a pistol. If you purchase a high-capacity fully-automatic weapon, you intend to kill large numbers quickly and indiscriminately. THAT is the reason there needs to be restrictions on the sale of high-capacity fully-automatic weapons. No reasonable person should be promoting the elimination of your "constitutional right to bear arms". I think the problem with the current national conversation is that it is focused entirely on banning specific types of weapons; it is far too easy for people to jump from "banning AK-47s" to "banning all firearms". The conversation should not concentrate on banning firearms but rather emphasize the public's right to ownership of hunting and personal protection firearms. Maybe we should change the language from "gun permit" to "firearm license" so that people subconsciously equate it to a driver's license with all that that implies. But most importantly, put the banning of any specific type of firearm within the context of protecting the public's right to hunting and personal protection firearms so that the NRA and others cannot easily make the jump to banning all firearms. Finally, it is critically important to recognize the role firearms has played in the entire history of this country. Some would say that it is now a part of the American DNA. As a young boy, I played old west Sherriff with my cap pistol, and soldier with my cap rifle hunting down Nazis. The most popular type of TV show was the western. Like it or not, there is no denying that firearms are a part of our culture and as such that will not change. What can change is the types of firearms the public is allowed to own and use, and the determination of who may own one. But that change is not possible with the current federal legislature. Everyone bitches and moans about Congress, yet they continue to re-elect their Congressmen over and over again. Apparently it is everyone else's Congressman that needs to be ousted, not mine! So long as we continue to re-elect the same legislators, we cannot expect change. "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome." Yes, it is insanity!

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