Squeeze Play Update

 

  Since 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been trying to “find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally in an equitable way.”

Through this Convention, “every country on Earth is treaty-bound to ‘avoid dangerous climate change,” and has done so via regular gatherings. The most recent was only weeks ago, entitled Council of the Parties, or COP26.

Sounding very important, COP26 was well-attended in Glasgow, Scotland, by world representatives including President Joseph Robinette Biden and John Kerry, from the United States. Both American representatives agreed that climate change represents an existential threat to the Earth, a sentiment agreed upon by most attendees.

Forget the existential threat of systemic racism, or systemic economic inequity, or education disparity, or systemic crime, or energy, jobs, or corruption, this COP26 was laser-focused on climate change.

Boltneck Kerry piously addressed the Council on America’s sin of using irreplaceable fossil fuels to keep our citizens warm, lighted, and able to prepare food, through electricity. Sins, indeed.

Poor countries seem to be given a free pass on their pollution transgressions because of their inability to be financially extorted the way more affluent nations have been.

Kerry’s horse face explained that the United States was willing to sacrifice comfort for long-term global goals toward climate stability which, by “expert” estimates, would mean great discomfort and sacrifices primarily by American citizens.

Gone would be the days of spacious vehicles, recreational boats and jetskis, and thermostats set at comfortable levels. But all would be for the common good of attempting to avert climate change. Yea!

President Biden mumbled his way through his allotted address time at COP26 to make similar concessions and promises of austere future existences of hard-working Americans who have earned their place at the table of rewards of air-conditioned summers and warmer winters. Alas, both Biden and Kerry felt otherwise.

Promising that major American automobile manufacturers would be making electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030, to appease this punitive Convention left me with more questions than answers for this climate change brain trust.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) has been a dismal failure for decades, losing a pleasantly surprising $9,200,000,000 in 2020. That figure is “pleasant” because it was expected to lose billions of dollars more.

The new USPS delivery truck

What could possibly turn this economic boondoggle around? The definitive answer is new postal vehicles.

This brilliant idea will buy as many as 165,000 new trucks for the USPS, some of which may be hitting the streets in 2023. The contract was awarded to a Wisconsin company through the equally genius Build Back Better plan which awards $6,000,000,000 to help speed production of the mail trucks.

According to The Daily Times story, appearing its November 12, 2021, issue, “Climate activists have pressured the USPS for the better part of a decade to retool its fleet.”

A Democrat California representative, Jared Huffman, put this legislation together. His take was, “we ought to step up and do something. This isn’t gonna fix everything. But it’s a very nice first step.”

Not being sure what the second step will be, $6,000,000,000 is lot of money. But the kicker is that this “first step” was rued by Huffman because “the USPS contract that allows for the production of gas-powered vehicles undercuts the climate goals.” Uh, oh!

“Gas-powered vehicles” you ask?

Yep. Those 165,000 new USPS vehicles are NOT EVs, rather they are nifty-looking gas-powered trucks that the COP26 was promised would disappear in order to save the planet.

Maybe Biden and Kerry will have continued luck goading Congress into squeezing more money out of United States citizens for other hare-brained projects in the future. Let’s hope they don’t run out of other people’s money, though.

Update:

Well, it has been four-years since this story appeared in this space, and we now have an important update on the goings-on with these brilliant USPS vehicles, as well as an excellent reason why the guvment should keep their noses out of the mail delivery business.

According to a New York Post article, “The US Postal Service has spent more than $3 billion dollars on a brand new all-electric fleet of mail trucks – and gotten just 612 vehicles for its money,” which information was supplied by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).

Ol’ Thrifty Joe Biden, former president, ardently pushed the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that desperately needed $3 billion dollars of taxpayer money to save the planet by building non-polluting USPS trucks.

Almost all that moolah was paid to “Wisconsin-based defense contractor Oshkosh to design and build 35,000 new environmentally friendly mail trucks,” the Post continues.

But that is not the good part of the story. Being bamboozled into believing the Earth would summarily die without these vehicles is the true definition of “ignorant.” As the late Paul Harvey used to say, “And now the rest of the story.”

A USPS spokesperson insisted they received more than 9,000 commercial-off-the-shelf electric vehicles that were also purchased with the IRA cash. That’s the good news. There seems to be a serious disconnect betwixt and between the guvment, USPS, and Oshkosh.

The Post further states, “The ‘greening’ of the USPS fleet was part of a $!0 billion project to have 106,480 new vehicles in its fleet by Sept. 30, 2028, around 60,000 of which were supposed to be next generation and 35,000 of which were supposed to be battery-electric powered.”

In case you’re wondering how many chargers are available for use with these new green vehicles thereby allowing us mortals to continue breathing clean air. Nobody really knows.

But “As of November 10^th,” the Post continues, “USPS VP Peter Pastre told Ernst that only 612 Next Generation Delivery Vehicles that are battery-electric powered are currently on the road, bringing mail to 15 sites across the nation.”

There you have it. Job well done. And that is why you don’t believe guvment Representatives when they promise to improve your life.

Frankly, I’m surprised no one thought of simply buying and using homing pigeons.

Super Important

 

  Because so many readers of this space are so varied in both age and life’s experiences this is an excellent time to, as my sainted wife likes to say, “Do you really need to build a watch to tell someone the time?”

The answer, plain and simple, is: “Yes.”

Once upon a time, there was no such thing as television or radio. People received their news, information, horoscopes, local arrests, civic interests, land transactions, along with a healthy dose of advertising via something called “a newspaper.”

Newspapers could be found virtually everywhere, including newsstands, street corner vending boxes, stores...in fact, there aren’t many places a newspaper was not available. Costing upward of 2¢ per edition, they were affordable and packed with something for virtually everyone.

Besides news, columnists would offer advice to total strangers asking for help with relationships, sports scores plus game recaps and stats were available, bridal announcements, obituaries, charitable events, upcoming parades, in addition to classified ads for homes, cars, and other secondhand miscellany, appeared at your fingertips as if by magic.

Paperboys selling their wares

These newspapers were usually written and delivered daily, delivered to your home or business by enterprising youngsters known as “paperboys.” Before your hair catches afire, girls were not normally involved in the schlepping of heavy canvass bags filled with upwards of fifty newspapers therein. Sorry.

But there was a science to these dailies to attract attention and create enough interest for those who didn’t get one delivered to their home. These newspapers were usually 12” wide x 24” tall; folded in half they only revealed the most important stories on “the front page above the fold.”

This eye candy was used as a draw to entice readers select which newspaper to buy when looking for information outside of the home delivery network. Sensation sells. The more sensational, the better.

And this is actually where today’s adventure begins.

I picked up a copy of today’s – November 23, 2025, edition of The Tampa Bay Times (TBT) – whose motto should be, “It looks like a newspaper, but it’s better for lining a birdcage.”

Above the fold were two hard-hitting stories: “DIY fertility case ruling looms.” The other breath taker was, “Why is St. Pete HQ deal dead?”

In case you were just rescued from a deserted island with no running water, electricity, means of communication, or a smoking hot companion, you would have likely heard we have a current United States President named Donald J. Trump. He served as our 45^th Chief Executive from 2017-2021, and again as the 47^th from 2025-present.

His history is fairly well-known with a split opinion on his style, personality, plus business acumen. Without going too deep into his history, President Trump was defeated by Joseph Biden who served as the 46^th president. The battle was contentious fraught with countless legal challenges and personal attacks.

Being a storied figure in the New York City (NYC) real estate and building world, citizen Trump was very, very successful – albeit with a bankruptcy, or two interwoven therein – making literally billions of dollars thereafter.

Feeling he could do better running the country than the usual lawyer-turned-politician with whom we’ve been cursed for decades, President Trump dipped his toe into the political swimming hole that was instantly realized to be not a swimming hole, but rather a swamp filled with lizardly, lifelong politicians.

These lifers quickly discovered there was plenty of moolah floating around their swamp, and they didn’t take kindly to a newcomer invading their sacred territory, especially a non-lawyer who actually made his money unlike the swamp lizards: by investing his OWN money rather than pick pocketing constituent’s wallet.

This odd behavior was foreign to a man who knew how difficult it was to make money based on merit and deep thinking rather than forced taxation on the complacent, uninformed voting public. Suddenly, upon the official announcement of this 2016 Presidential Election win, the knives came out. Let the games begin!

Some Congressional political tart California named Maxine Waters filed impeachment papers against Donald Trump before he was sworn-in. That should be enough to give you an idea how deep this icky swamp is.

But this is not about only Maxine Waters, Our Lady of Perpetual Grievances Saint Hillary Clinton, Racist Barack Obama, or the anti-Jewish Jew Chuck Schumer, it’s about a fellow named Jeffrey Epstein who died in 2019. Although I never met Epstein, I’ve heard a lot about him. Why?

Glad you asked.

This Jeffrey Epstein was a financier who was also a convicted sex offender. Of course, there a lot of child sex offenders, but this one had a copious number of buddies, pals, compatriots, along with clients for his alleged sex trafficking of minors.

Having enough unaccounted-for money to afford a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Epstein, it is said, would use his private jet to ferry well-heeled “friend” and “clients” to and from Epstein Island for alleged parties and romps with underage adults. Read: pimp of children.

If you are a “normal” human being with morals and scruples, you should – as I – feel great compassion and an odd sense of anxiety just thinking about all happenings with or near Jeffrey Epstein.

Keeping in mind that under the Joseph Biden administration, illegal aliens were encouraged to freely cross the United States’ border to find a better life here. Unfortunately, those crossings included a large portion of children without accompanying parents. Many are now missing and thought to have been abducted or sold into slavery and the child sex industry.

But just how many children are missing varies greatly. An interweb search revealed that anywhere between 300,000 and 450,000 children are “missing,” meaning they cannot be accounted for, and there is little anyone can do to find them. Unfortunately, the angst associated with these missing illegals appears to be moot made apparent by the then-President Biden, along with the Democratic Party, who encouraged this migration nightmare.

There is, however, good news. Six years following his suspicious death in prison, the Epstein expiry and associations are suddenly the most important thing happening today. How do I know? Democrats are racing to grab microphones, television cameras, and newspaper reporters to explain their personal take on how President Trump is somehow personally involved in Epstein’s sordid life and death.

With no more ability to explain how stock market wizard Nancy Pelosi made over $238,000,000 as a United States Senator, these agog Democrat politicians are far more than eager to help indict President Trump, and subsequently impeach him, for nothing more than any wild imagination they can muster.

Like dog poop on your shoe, which winds up everywhere, Jasmine Crockett, as well as Hakeem Jeffries quickly found avenues to spew their hatred toward Republicans in general, Donald Trump in particular, for simply speaking to one another. But does the smoking gun lie with the association of Epstein, or could it be financial donations?

It seems a though St. Hillary Clinton, and her spouse, William Jefferson Clinton, John Kerry, Chuck Schumer, Virgin Islands Representative Stacey Plaskett, and Bill Richardson, are just a few of the more notable Democrats who have received donated money from Jeffrey Epstein over the years, according to ABC News.

All this was deemed super important – SUPER IMPORTANT – by those media whores demanding an ounce of President Trump’s flesh for not immediately opening up the sealed DOJ Epstein Files.

If that’s the case, why was this Epstein-Trump association relegated to page three of the aforementioned TBT rather than front page above the fold? Perhaps because the unfortunate involvement of the Democrats in exchanging money with a now-deceased pedophile/child sex trafficker.

Oh, my.

What seems odd, though, is that for four years, “the Biden administration had no desire to release any names that appeared in the thousands of the infamous Jeffrey Epstein’s emails and text messages under its control,” The New York Post points out.

But suddenly, the Democrats are now demanding the release of ALL the Epstein files. This is where it’s going to get good.

Without thinking – likely clouded by Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) – those files which were kept private are now subject to public release at the demand of the Democrats.

I’m guessing you’ll soon see a resurrection of the words “FAKE NEWS!” from those Dems.

True Story of Thanksgiving, Almost

By popular demand, this story is being re-issued just in time for the 2025 turkey holiday.  Please enjoy it and eat lots!

  Every year we hear more about the secular holiday, Thanksgiving Day.  It means many things to many different people, and most of what you now hear is bunk. 

 

Buttinski’s – folks who don’t have lives of their own, so they want to get involved in yours – have been trying to rid America of this special day of gluttony and sports and naps.

 

They try to blame the extermination of Indians on the white man, and claim the original immigrants were vegetarians.

 

It’s time to gather the family around the table and read the real story of Thanksgiving Day to them. 

 

++++++++++++++++++++++

Pilgrims, Puritans, and Indians

 Back in 1621, the Pilgrims and Puritans, who were transplants from that awful place, Europe, finally had a good harvest of crops and decided to celebrate to give thanks.

 

Puritans were people who left England for more religious freedom, while Pilgrims were common folk who were escaping high taxes and reality TV shows.

 

Weather was terrible – too much rain, snow, not enough rain, hail, drought, and pestilence, caused poor harvests for years.  At last, ideal weather, along with better farming techniques, helped these refugees produce a great crop.

 

In the interim, many immigrants died from both starvation and diseases so, this bounty was true cause for celebration.

 

The Indians were patiently waiting for the Europeans to die so they could get their hands on those neat black coats and buckled hats, but alas.

 

To ingratiate themselves, and get the best fit of the clothing, they assisted the Pilgrims and Puritans by feeding them until sizes were perfect.

 

The Indians gathered turkeys and stuffing and mashed potatoes to help fatten-up the nasty white folks.  All worked well until this terrific harvest, when the homeboys no longer needed the Indians’ food.  That’s when the great massacre happened.

 

Known as the First Civil War, the ungrateful white folks tried to kill all the Indians and began naming all their football and baseball teams after them as a way to slur them.

 

This program worked so well that it took nearly 400 years to make things better for the last living Indian, Pocahontas.

 

Enlightened college students figured all this out and, driven by “white guilt” and “white privilege,” had begun campaigns to eliminate all sports teams with Indian names by 1633.

 

They even changed the name of Indians to “Native Americans.”  All seems to be working out well for them.

 

Pocahontas got her image on a coin.  Or was it Sacagawea?  I'm not sure.

 

In any case, the Europeans added an amendment to The Constitution to have everyone in America eat turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce for dinner, and sweet potato pie for dessert.

 

That same Amendment – the 38^th – requires football and basketball games to be played on that day.  And it made Keno legal in 17 states.

 

In 1637, Macy’s decided to have a parade, and Santa Clause showed up to celebrate, too.

 

But in an ardent effort to include African-Americans in this strictly white holiday, the Pilgrims and Puritans invented Black Friday.

 

And everyone lived happily ever-after.

 

That’s the truth.  Almost. 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Us vs. Them

 

  Over the past few decades our social structure has undergone an enormous transformation. In the late 1990’s, or so, civility began to disappear from the United States’ landscape.

Witnessed on television in the 1960’s, shows such as Laugh-In, Saturday Night Live, and Second City TV, were the main players making fun of the societal norms of the times. Whether it was race relations, gender differences, or fine political points, much of the fare appearing therein was generally light hearted ribbing.

We grew up with a good laugh or polite chuckle when our national origin, verbal accent, or skin color was mentioned as a means to both include us in the “conversation” as well as noting our apparent differences. But all was good.

Throughout the 1950’s, television introduced America to something termed “late night television.” It was on later – following prime time TV, and usually began airing following the 11:00 PM news. With hosts such as Steve Allen, Jack Paar, and Johnny Carson serving as the pioneers, late night television was fresh, daily.

Late night talk show pioneer
Steve Allen

Jokes, gags, and skits peppered these hour-long programs that often-included current political mentions cleverly disguised as tongue-in-cheek news items. Examples would be The President driving his golf ball into a tree before it rebounded onto his head, or some over-served Congressman falling down the steps of the Capitol. Harmless, but humorous.

Eventually, though, because of being within the throes of the Vietnam War, War of the Sexes, War on Poverty, Drug War, and the recently enacted Civil Rights Act, things shifted from cutesy and mundane to ugly and adversarial.

While all these changes were transforming into information, the news organizations were slow or nonexistent in painting a picture of this metamorphosis. But why?

It was their job to dig deeply into the concerns and happening of the day, hence the name “news.” It seems as though the media – print and TV alike – were already being infiltrated by Leftists, groomed by colleges in classes meant to report goings-on in the world in order to keep the masses informed.

These newly minted reporters were the recent products of a slanted crop of people expected to provide the multitude with, not only information, but true and accurate information. Instead, the “news” suddenly, magically became “opinions.”

Being taught by Leftist/Communist professors, the freshly minted creators of these opinions felt untouchable.

Nearly every decent-sized city had enough readers to buy newspapers to suit their taste as well as interest. Such audiences were ideal to sustain two different newspapers; one would be liberal, written by Leftists, and the other paper would likely bridge the gap by Conservatives. And all was supposed to be well from a perspective of balance.

The same held true for the late night television shows that anxiously found “new, cutting edge” hosts to contort the humorous jokes into outright savagery targeting Conservatives along with their supporters. It didn’t take long for the jokes to turn questionable bordering on toxic.

The transformation had begun to make the burgeoning information age tastelessly vapid.

Of course, as with virtually every movement there needs to be at least two sides. In this case, it was the Left vs. Conservatives. In other words, Us vs. Them. And there would be no winner.

According to Communist Party (CP) playbooks, the people are used as the pawns who will gladly heed the beckon of the CP handlers. In this case, they are the teachers. First, the “educators” attempted to drive a wedge between the K through 12 children. Introducing terms such as “latch-key kids” into he narrative, the impression was implied that children were not being fed due to working parents.

After a successful run to acquire public monies to “help” with feeding them, it was tacitly felt kids weren’t learning about the proverbial birds and bees, at home, from their parents. Now it was time to fill that void with lessons in sex-ed, that contained classes on how to have sex, use condoms, get birth control advice, plus where to find abortions that would be given without parents’ knowledge.

All the while, those same kids were prohibited from playing, tag, dodge ball, or any other activity that might have a deleterious effect on either the kiddies or their psyches. They were to be protected at all costs. They were both fragile and valuable. But who would know better how to raise their own offspring?

Then-First Lady Saint Hillary Rodham Clinton, published a book under her name, “It Takes a Village,” in 1998. This masterpiece was another step toward a socialist – soon to become a capital “C” Communist society eyed for the United States.

This book argued for shared responsibility needed to successfully raise children. St. Hillary “describes herself as a Moderate, which is evidenced by a combination of advocating for government-driven social reforms while also espousing conservative values,” according to Wikipedia.

Some of the goals and institutions that Clinton advocates for in the book include: Family and Medical Leave Act, Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, Community Policing, the Brady Bill, Amber Alert, immunizations, State Children’s Health Insurance program, financial regulation, expanded Child Tax Credits, Minimum Wage increases, universal Health Care, to name only a few, Wikipedia continues.

If you’ll notice, neatly tucked therein are ways the guvment can insert its talons into YOUR family’s life, with authority and without recourse. In case you missed it, health care, gun control, mandatory vaccinations, financial snooping, wealth redistribution, and additional law enforcement involvement.

Taking a step back, it’s not difficult to see where the last 27-years have gone, and how it changed. Feeling as though she remains relevant, St. Hillary is desperately grabbing for the brass ring to another ride into infiltrating the White House.

Unfortunately for the sleazy Democrats, Donald John Trump twice made the leap from private citizen to President of the United States, thwarting the Democrats from seizing the reins of power again in a consecutive run of controlling the three branches of guvment.

Such a coup would have guaranteed a national transition to the proverbial end of the Republican Party. And thank Heaven for enough common sense Americans who wisely voted for President Trump who quickly ended the blatant invasion of our once sovereign nation.

This latest election put a screeching halt to much of the mayhem introduced and encouraged by the desperate Democrat losers who brought us to this evident dumpster fire. Of course, a slew of local elections for state assembly persons, mayors, and aldermen, have proven the point that there’s a sucker born every minute.

Practically begging a new breed of morons to vote for, and elect, candidates for office that openly promised to confiscate private property – including homes, stores, manufacturing, - in addition to “giving” lots of free stuff to the downtrodden, those half-witted voters firmly placed several handfuls of Communists in elected office, nationwide.

The barometer of civility and stupidity is indicating stormy times ahead, because all that “free” stuff must be paid by someone. If you’re reading this, that someone will eventually be us. Add the estimated 12,000,000 illegal alien invaders to this sordid bastardization of morality, and we are looking at a future that is no bueno.

The Thems know exactly what is happening because they instituted this poop hurricane and continue to promote it. Unfortunately, it is the Us that will ultimately carry the burden of any and all progressive goodies.

It’s past time to educate yourself, as well as your friends and family. This master plan is not new; rather, it is a failed system of government that is repeatedly exhumed time-after-time by the elite on the Left.

Thems think, though, that this time Communism is implemented it will be different because this time it is being run by smarter people: Them. Them are wrong. Simply ask the starving populaces in China, N. Korea, or Russia. They, too were promised everything “free!”

If you don’t believe me, just watch and listen to their grifting promises – an approach to life very different from scholastic efforts and hard work.

There you have it: Us vs. Them.

Name Change

 

  A fellow named Kris Kristofferson, who died in 2024, wrote the song “Me and Bobby McGee” which was performed by the late Janis Joplin, decades ago. Within those lyrics is a phrase “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.”

That song along with its lyrics have been analyzed, reanalyzed and analyzed again to determine what special, hidden meaning might be hiding therein since it was released in 1970. For those readers too young to remember, the 1970’s represented the tail end of the hippie generation and associated peace movement.

After 55-years of deciphering, discussion, and speculation, it was determined – and confirmed before his death – Kristofferson claimed that those words were merely words. There was nothing deep and spiritual therein.

But another song, The National Anthem, contains the words, “Land of the free…” referring to the United States of America. In this stately song, also known as The Star Spangled Banner, is the official song of our nation.

It is the word “free” that implies since America’s divorce from Great Britain in the 1770’s, we Americans have the ability to do and say anything we want freely. This struggle to break free from England was every bit as monumental as new spiritual sects formed to meet the wants of those dissatisfied parishioners in the religious world.

Unhappy with King George III, people in the New World here still ruled with iron fisted rules and laws bordering on tortuous. Without rehashing the Revolutionary War, suffice it to say, The United States of America was soon born and continues to this day based upon a brilliant document: The United States Bill of Rights.

This Bill of Rights, sewn out of whole cloth, lain out ten amendments known as The Bill of Rights, on which is based our current Constitution, now consisting of 27 Amendments. It is the oldest written national constitution still in use, which speaks volumes for the Founding Fathers who crafted this remarkable guide back in the late 1780’s.

The First Amendment is chock full o’ so-called freedoms: speech, religion, press, assembly, are all specifically mentioned therein. And for nearly 250-years, this document has served America well for helping keep our sleazy politicians at bay. But things, as of late, have changed dramatically.

The Constitution is not – I repeat, NOT – a list of rights that are given to you by anyone except God. Those rights were well thought out to remind residents of the newly-forming United States. No one has the authority to nullify those rights, either.

Yet, not a day seems to pass without someone who is self-aggrieved complains about how they are – or feel as though they are – being directly affected by either a real or imagined slight. And to that end, the entire population must become involved. Like it or not.

Take, for example an apparent epidemic of sex changes among school-aged children. Youngsters are being instructed to examine their inner selves to ensure they were “born into their correct bodies.”

Little girls, once known as ‘tom boys,’ as well as young lads who aren’t necessarily over-masculine are being encouraged to acquire sex change operations to rectify their physical and mental ‘deficiencies.’ Of course, those aren’t necessarily deficiencies, rather merely over-educated school advisors misdiagnosing the growing, ever-changing stages of life.

Keeping in mind I am not a doctor, nor pretend to be one. But I grew up in an urban environment playing with, and attending school, with classmates plus neighbors who exhibited unusual tendencies in their youth, but wound up successfully seamlessly melding into society, without surgery.

Adding to this psychotic tornado, a bit older portion of our society who are integrating themselves into places once considered sacred ground. All this blossomed from freedom found in The First Amendment.

Growing up in the 1960’s and ‘70’s, nearly every conversation, magazine article, television program, and news item was seasoned with at least a mention of something called “women’s rights.” You couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting someone aboard the equal rights/civil rights/women’s rights movements.

Beating the drum to the song of women being able to do anything men can do was a mantra in the “war of the sexes.” Society politely nodded and accepted this slogan as sacred words unable to be disputed.

Sloganeering was rampant from the likes of actresses, female athletes, and reporters, all of whom found a way to integrate stories with messages of how women could only enhance the value of any job, bar none.

It wasn’t unusual to find women working as teachers, cashiers, nurses, desk clerks, secretaries, even school bus drivers. But, soon, we found ourselves with women pilots, lawyers, truck drivers, doctors, police officers, firefighters, corporate executives, and legislators. This change was monumental and positive.

But all is not without problems. Somehow, women became troublesome to the solution and appeared to be greedy in the eyes of anointed rabble rousers. Proving they were able and willing to do the jobs in this newly created arena, women have been, as of late, attacked for some unknown reason.

Men who “identify” as women are now overly anxious to ‘cross over’ to pretend to be women. Of course, they are not women, and short of an industrial mishap or a gonadectomy they have no more transformed into a member of the female species than they suddenly transformed into a sleeper sofa.

These men discovered women and men are different; that in and of itself is not a secret. Men are usually larger, more muscular, and faster than women, all of which contributes to creating an unfair imbalance in favor of men. In other words, freedom to be whatever one wanted to be.

Unfortunately, there are seemingly countless women politicians, reporters, teachers, and pundits that are actually encouraging men to blur the line between males and females. And after years of dedicated and grueling training, women are now finding themselves no longer able to viably compete. But why?

It seems as though all that aforementioned talk about women’s rights wound up being nothing except tripe. Women are currently crying “foul” because they are angry with the newly-identified “men” who are competing against biological women, and winning.

To make things even more confusing, the affected women competitors have misplaced their ire toward the wrong culprit. The powers-that-be in sports have proven to be the guilty parties by turning a blind eye to this miscarriage of fairness.

The men have been granted freedom to compete as any gender they wish without questions or consequences.

Politicians, judges, parents, teachers, school principles, even other students, are invoking the word “freedom” to ensure this bastardization of language is permanently scarred for any so-desired future “conversations” the opposition will impose.

Remember that ‘freedom’ stuff with which we began? Turns out it’s not free for everyone – only for a select few. But why?

With lines blurred between men and women, good and evil, as well as truth and falsehood, accuracy – facts – nothing can be discerned to be real or valid.

Suddenly, even gravity is subject to speculation.

Not Supreme Court Justice
Ketanji Brown Jackson

A recent vice-presidential candidate, Governor Tim Walz implied men were capable of having babies; the latest Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was unable to define “a woman,” under oath; while former President William Jefferson Clinton had trouble defining what the “meaning of the word ‘is,’ is.” None of that is necessarily high IQ stuff.

As you can see, the bottom line is not necessarily about the truth. Today, the bottom line is the ability, or permission, to question facts presented as the truth. Which leads us to freedom. And that freedom is quickly vanishing.

Remember, “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.”

Blow Me

 My fingers are terribly sore from typing so much brilliance for your reading pleasure.  And so, I'm taking another week off and rerunning this gem from April 27, 2015.  I hope you will enjoy it again.  I'll have a new story as soon as the Epsom salts rejuvenate my fingers.  Thank you for visiting!

  As children we are given coloring books and crayons to express ourselves.  Then, we are told to “stay between the lines.”  It seems as though if we color beyond those boundaries, we are somehow bad people.

 

That thought came to me while in a bathroom at a Hardee’s restaurant last week.  I had just finished peeing and was washing my hands when I noticed there was no paper towel dispenser, only one of those useless blow dryers.

 

When I was a little kid, I recall trying to dry my hands with one of those dryers, to no avail.  I recall reading the metal riveted sign that instructed the user to “rub hands vigorously,” again, to no avail.  I wiped my wet hands onto my trousers to reach the desired result.

 

The Hardee’s blow dryer produced similar results – none.  I left the men’s room with wet trousers and semi-dry hands.

 

It wasn’t as much the moist britches as much as it was the instructions that began to bother me.  After fifty years of wiping my hands on my pants I realized I was still following the instructions by vigorously rubbing my hands together.

Suddenly my mind switched gears to 1964.  That was the year the federal guvment mandated seat belts be installed in all cars.

 

I have been using seat belts for over a half-century in cars, airplanes, and on amusement park rides.  I would say I have some experience.

 

Alas, instructions about their use still abound.  On the sun visor is an ugly sticker that gives both written and pictorial directions for anyone who just awoke from a five-decade coma, or an Obama supporter.

 

On every flight I’ve ever taken, the stewardesses or flight chicks, or whatever their current title is, stand in the aisle with a miniature seatbelt.  They plug one end into the other and then demonstrate how to uncouple the pieces.  After roughly 400 visual examples, I have yet to learn anything new.

 

Keeping all this in mind, I feel that each traffic light and every stop sign should have a sign posted that explains the procedure for behavior at that junction.  I’ve witnessed many drivers simply roll through stop signs and drive willy-nilly across lanes of traffic without even slowing.  (Hence the installation of red-light cameras.)

 

In all my years I have never seen a person on a just-landed airplane frantically calling for an air chick to help them unbuckle their seatbelt.

 

Likewise, I have yet to spot a skeleton inside an automobile that spent their final days attempting to undo their safety belt.

 

Why are all those instructions given when we clearly know how to do things? 

 

My suggestion for all this insaneness is to stop with all those nonsensical instructions and spend that time and money on building something that will actually dry hands.

 

I think I’ll invent a paper towel.

Stop Protecting Me

 

  My mediocre life began many decades ago. In fact, it was so long ago, there were only 48 states in America when I was well into school.

Way back then, we lived a simple life with few rules and fewer legal obstacles through which to navigate life. I’m not implying things were better, just simpler. And I like simpler.

Take the automotive industry, for example. Before Alaska and Hawaii were included in the United States, automobiles sold here were largely made here in America. They were large, heavy vehicles that got us where we needed to go with semi-comfort, while surrounded with steel.

Pickup trucks were fairly rare because they were used by farmers and construction folks who needed to regularly tote stuff. The average person who saw a need to haul things on a regular basis bought and used something called station wagons.

Station wagons were, in essence, pickup trucks with covers over the open beds. In other words, they were vehicles that larger families bought for those trips to the beach or camping. They were purpose specific vehicles.

Owning guns is another area of interest that morphed into something now unrecognizable. As a kid, born following World War II, I often found myself hearing gripping stories from neighborhood veterans regaling their tough times and adventures during The War. Occasionally, they would bring out a towel which held a war trophy of a handgun or bayonet. As kids, we respected both the veterans and weapons, while being awestruck these show-and-tell items were able to be shared with us.

I occasionally found myself reading Popular Mechanics magazine for which my Dad had a subscription.

He received this publication because they contained articles and plans for building such things as creating a picnic table, roofing garden sheds, maintaining grass yards, along with a smattering about auto maintenance.

Not unlike many other magazines of that era, the back advertising section was chock full of mail order places to buy guns. It seems as though there were plenty of firearms that were surplussed from The War. They were easily had by sending in cash, a check, or money order to the vendor, no questions asked.

We also experienced a time when in its infancy, television was thought to be teetering between good and evil. They were known as black and white (B&W) because the broadcast signals were sent that way. Screens were small, akin to watching a toaster oven. Nevertheless, television was novel.

Most of the made-for-TV shows were westerns, while movies were war-related or science fiction. And kid fare was freely available to entertain and educate young brains of mush such as mine.

And school was a necessity, each day beginning with the Pledge of Allegiance, plus a morning prayer, while dressed in a pressed shirt and tie and dress slacks. There were rules, and they were expected to be followed.

No provocative clothing, dyed hair, or t-shirts were permitted. We were expected to fit in without excluding others because of differences beyond their control.

Yet here we are sixty-years, or so, later, and we now find ourselves in an unrecognizable world that was once familiar and comfortable.

Take, for example, those aforementioned vehicles once made of stout American steel. Throughout the decades, greed, tariffs, union actions, climate hysteria, and inflation have summarily changed the texture of the domestic automobile to reflect new vehicles made here, flimsier and more cost effective.

Rather than mounting giant windmills on vehicle roofs for propulsion, the steel has been replaced by aluminum, carbon fiber, plastics, and, I’m wagering, papier mȃché. While all these technological wonders made the vehicles lighter, they also became less durable and safe. Is the advancement worth lives?

Finally, a practical wind powered car

Moving on to the pickup truck side of the motor vehicle discussion, we find ourselves with replacements for oversized station wagons in favor of sport utility vehicles (SUV), that actually bur more irreplaceable fossil fuels than wagons once did. Not the stellar punch in the gut for which environmentalists were hoping.

Leading us to the aforementioned gun situation. It seems as though many, many Americans have gravitated away from the sports of recreational hunting, home defense, and target shooting, to appeasing new and newer generations suffering from hoplophobia by demonizing guns and gun owners.

Hoplophobia is the irrational fear of firearms which may be brought on by previous experiences or media influence, creating blind fear for those inanimate objects. To calm any fears of guns, politicians have chosen to remove Constitutional rights to pander for votes. Such actions make no one safer.

Schools, oddly enough, have taken a giant leap to the left rather than confront hipsters, as well as urban youth, when addressing the subject of proper and modest clothing. Because each school is different, rules are applied on an “as needed” basis, often turning a blind eye to provocative girl’s clothes, plus offensive messaging t-shirts. Uniforms have settled those sticky issues for decades.

Although no one issue mentioned above is critical enough to bring a nation or society to its knees, the utmost lesson herein is that if rules don’t apply to everyone, or are modified to exempt an anointed few, they are useless and actually apply to no one.

Creating loopholes to avoid conflict, or to defer a potential issue while sidestepping inconvenient rules and regulations, just begs for a test for the societal water depth. And if not uniformly addressed, any and all issues become more, not less, dangerous to a cohesive nation.

To all politicians attempting to improve life for me: Stop protecting me, please. You’re doing a horrible job.