Virtue Signaling

We are fortunate to live in a society where you can lie about your true feelings with a few simple tools available to all. You can be a raging racist in your heart and just by sticking a simple cardboard sign on your lawn that says black lives matter, poof -- you are safe from all harm. 

Another such tool to guard against hatred from strangers and friends alike is posting your vaccination card online, or better yet --posting a video of you getting it, or adding a frame to your Facebook profile picture that says you were vaccinated. 

You can be a wife-beater, rapist, or drunken, low-life drug addict, but if you do those two things and also say Fox News sucks you are seen as a ''good person'' in the eyes of those misguided and shallow people who seem to have grabbed the wheel of society.

Here are my truths: I am an anti-vaxxer who got vaccinated because I'm not stupid. I watch Fox News (along with all the other TV networks). I don't have a sign on my lawn saying anything, but if I did it would say Jewish Lives Matter. I think transgender people have a mental illness. My pronouns are Oy, Vay and Is mere. 

Correction -- I do have a sign on my lawn. It says, ''CAUTION, PESTICIDE APPLICATION, KEEP OFF UNTIL DRY, LUCAS TREE EXPERT CO."

Finding Gold in the Muck

Jamie Lee today, unretoched.

Inspiration often comes when you least expect it, and from the strangest sources. Yesterday I was indulging my lowest self by reading a story online about how the actress Jamie Lee Curtis wasn't really as hot as everyone thought way back when. It seems that some magazine cover photos had been digitally altered to make her appear flawlessly in shape, which was her hallmark at the height of her fame. 

So there I was, awash in the kind of mindless trash that's so prevalent on the internet, when in the middle of an interview with the actress today, she mentioned her two favorite sayings: ''Compare and despair'' and ''Nothing changes unless something changes.''

My head exploded. Both of those phrases hit home for me in a deep way. I decided right then and there to put them both into practice. So far so good.

Waking the Woke

Most of the people I really liked a lot are dead; that happens as you get older. That's not to say there aren't people I like who are still alive, but it's tricky to find them. My peers are in the same boat I am: aches and pains and complaints about the state of the world do not make for a roaring good time. But the younger ones are a turnoff, busy trying to be "woke" as if they think that's a good thing.

The definition of "woke" these days is "alert to injustice in society, especially racism." That's a crock. What it really means is, "Scared shitless one will do something wrong and be ostracized from society and mocked on Facebook." To avoid that horror people glom onto anything that is "trending," meaning being followed by the masses. After all, the masses, huddled or not, run things.

Anyone who is awake, which is the proper form of the word woke, knows instinctively that wearing your hair in braids does not rob Native Americans of anything. Or that a white person getting a tan does not demean black people or "appropriate" what is theirs, namely dark skin. Or that being able to run and walk on two legs is preferable to being confined to a wheelchair forever, or that fitting comfortably into an airplane seat beats being so fat that you need to buy two seats. Yet "wokeness" means pretending that all of that -- all physical handicaps, morbid obesity, criminal behavior due to a bad childhood and whatever the heck else you can think of that was once considered "abnormal" is to be applauded. And especially that wearing a face mask even after you have been vaccinated for Covid-19 and even if you are driving alone in your car or out hiking in the woods makes you a better person.

Perfectionism is now deplored. Success means you did something bad to get where you are. Having money means you stole it from a poor person. And if you aren't protesting something, you suck. Ironically, it's the woke people who are asleep.

Your Brain: Use It or Lose It

Something might be wrong with a lot of Democrats. Not being a doctor I can't say for sure what it is, but it's some sort of syndrome that affects all of them eventually. Yesterday I interacted with one of them and saw it firsthand.

A good friend (who shall remain nameless so as to protect her from scorn) stopped by for a chat. Since I had just heard that some young women were experiencing a new set of formerly unreported negative reactions to the Covid vaccine, and her daughters are in that age group, I mentioned it and asked if her girls had gotten their shots yet. Rather than thank me for passing along some potentially vital information, she asked, "Where did you hear that? FOX News?"

I responded that I had heard it several places, on the radio, on TV and in print, and could not remember which stations, but why would it matter? She said that it was obviously "a Republican thing, I haven't heard it, and Republicans are anti-vaxxers."

But I am, if pressed, a Republican although I am registered as an Independent, and my husband is also a Republican, and so are my cousins Valerie and Glen and their two grown sons and our friend Doug and several work colleagues of my husband, and they have all gotten the vaccine so what could she mean? She said that Tucker Carlson is anti-vaccine and she knows that I watch Tucker.

See, the thing is I can watch Tucker but that has no bearing on what I think, whereas Democrats get their talking points and base their beliefs on the scripts read by Anderson Cooper, Chris Hayes, Fredo Cuomo and Rachel Maddow. And this is where the problem comes in: brain freeze. As they say about any body part, use it or lose it.

Film Review: CHALLENGER: THE FINAL FLIGHT

The crew of the Challenger.

If you're still on the fence about whether we are lied to by our government or big business, this film will push you right off. "Challenger: The Final Flight" is a four-part documentary series on Netflix, each episode under an hour, about events leading up to the death of seven astronauts in 1986. Not to give too much away, but let's just say the tragedy could have been avoided.

Famous for having the first "regular person" on board -- 38-year-old elementary school teacher Christa McAuliffe -- the story of the Shuttle Challenger is engrossing even without the dramatic explosion 87 seconds after takeoff. The film opens back when the Shuttle was just an idea, and follows it to its retirement in 2011. Featuring current interviews with key figures from NASA and the Thiokol Corporation, the manufacturer of the failed O-rings on the spacecraft, it's interesting to see them "then and now' in original footage from the earliest days. 

Also interesting, and very alarming, is the revelation that more than a few people in high places suspected the doomed flight would fail and yet said nothing in order to ''stay on schedule'' and procure continued government funding for the space program. Despite its sad tale the film is engrossing and fun to watch, showing the long road that astronauts must travel to qualify for space flight. I watched it twice and a third viewing is not out of the question.

Pandemic Ironies

Even though yesterday Maine counted five more deaths and 403 new cases of coronavirus, the governor decreed that visitors from all over can come here without needing to quarantine for 14 days and without proof of a negative Covid test. I wonder what's changed? Governor Mills has also lifted the requirement of wearing masks outdoors, unless you are in a crowded venue like a ball game or concert, which of course there aren't any of because of Covid restrictions.

Personally I like masks, although I think they have little bearing on whether or not you will contract the virus. Instead masks allow me to hide my true feelings about people and situations, mutter obscenities under my breath without detection, save on lipstick, and most importantly, pick out the idiots among the general public. The first and most obvious group is solo masked drivers, followed closely by solo walkers on an empty street. These are people with serious problems.

It's ironic that in 1957, at the age of 11, I contracted the Asian Flu, a pandemic also originating in that part of the globe (Hong Kong), that had roughly the same impact on the world regarding deaths. It sickened mainly children and teens. I was incredibly ill for days, and my mother had it at the same time which greatly lessened the care I received. I remember wishing to die so I wouldn't have to throw up again. 

Dwight Eisenhower was president and he did not shut down schools or businesses, or require people to stay home in order to save lives. Restaurants were not forced to close. Nobody wore masks. This might be because Anthony Fauci was only 17 at the time and not yet wielding any power. Who knows how things would be today if Anthony had succumbed to the Asian Flu back then.

The Racist Creed of the Democrats Circa 2021

Republican South Carolina Senator Tim Scott

If you dare to say that all black people look alike, you risk being ridden out of town on a rail, or pilloried in the streets, and most certainly cancelled by Twitter and Facebook and YouTube for your obviously racist beliefs. Yet it's perfectly acceptable to say the following in 2021:

1. All black people are either too dumb or too inept to procure a voter I.D. card, according to the leaders of the Democratic Party. They also can't figure out how to vote in person, and if they do and must stand in line for a long time, they never think to bring snacks or water so, like dogs, they must be given those things.

2. All black people think alike, according to president Joe Biden, who famously said, ''If you vote for Trump, you ain't black.'' 

3. All black people carry hot sauce with them at all times, according to Hillary Clinton.

4. Most black people need handouts of food, health care, housing and education from the government in order to live.

5. Black students are less intelligent than whites and Asians and so must be allowed into college without test scores or other measures of their competence.

6. All black conservatives, NO MATTER HOW INTELLIGENT, NO MATTER WHAT LEVEL OF SUCCESS THEY HAVE ACHIEVED, NO MATTER WHAT OFFICE THEY HOLD, are considered to be Uncle Toms working in service to The Massa. But not Whoopie Goldberg, who as a black mascot, compete with phony dreadlocks, has kowtowed to white TV producers for years.