Understanding Government

Remember high school? All the pretty girls were cheerleaders and Prom Queens, all the handsome boys were star athletes, all the creative types were in the Drama Club or the school band, or editors at the school paper or on the yearbook committee. The serious brainiacs were in math or science clubs or some sort of national competitions like spelling bees. In my high school three of them competed against other high schools on a TV show called "It's Academic."

Then there were the annoying nerds who nobody liked except for the teachers. So in order to feel a sense of power and get back at all the kids who taunted them, they ran for office in the student government and got to "make the rules" and count the money taken in at the car washes and other fundraisers. 

It's exactly the same in the grown-up world. Nerds like Adam Schiff,  Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren think they are big and important, but it's easy to see the insecure dorks they are at heart. Now's their chance to shine, and they do it at our expense. This explains the high taxes, high cost of gas, increased inflation and those long, boring televised hearings they stage every once in awhile.

The Fat-Shaming Diet

Fat-shaming has earned a bad reputation when actually it is a very good thing. Being fat is unhealthy and it looks bad too. But to avoid getting into any trouble, I recommend that if you are overweight you only fat-shame yourself. (What do you care if other people are fat?) And the very best way to do it is to get in better shape. Only you can care enough, and only you can do it.

Honestly, Jenny Craig couldn't care less about you. She loves you being fat, her entire company and billions of dollars in revenue depends on you failing and coming back for more of that frozen stuff that was real food months ago -- somewhere far, far away from where you are now consuming it. The top executives of NutriSystem love you being fat; that's what feeds their families. Weight Watchers (now owned by the queen of obesity Oprah Winfrey) loves you being fat, their entire organization depends on you failing and coming back for more of their packaged snack bars, frozen treats,  food scales, food diaries, recipe books and calorie calculators. 

In fact, all the authors of all the dieting programs and diet books love you being fat: Stick to their diets and you will remain fat, eating not just bad foods but all their money-making schemes. There is only one way to lose weight and the word "diet" is not involved. It’s up to you and you alone, you can start immediately, and it’s free. The following Five Easy Steps are all it takes. 

1. You have to hate being fat more than you like eating fattening foods. In fact, you have to start seeing fattening foods as bad for you, which they are, and if you love yourself, which you should--and if you don’t why should anyone else?--you will not want to eat things that are bad for you. Simple.

2. It all starts at the supermarket. Do not buy the stuff that is bad for you. If it’s not in your house, you can’t eat it.

3. Look at yourself naked in a full-length mirror. (I dare you.) If you like what you see, forget losing weight. If you hate what you see, don't eat something, do something. Showers work for me. Or take a walk, drinking a huge glass of water, call a friend, paint your toenails, strip the wallpaper, move furniture, do yoga, walk the dog, call your mother. Anything but eating is fine, unless you have stocked the fridge with good stuff like fruit, cut up veggies, tuna, club soda and iced tea. If you have, then go for it.

4. Weigh yourself first thing every morning. As the number goes down, you will become more attached to the New You than the Old You. Really.

5. Eat only nutritious foods. No need to weigh and measure, just eat well, and you know what that means. You don't need to pay anyone to tell you. If you must have a cookie (or a chip or some ice cream or cake or whatever), go ahead and eat it but understand that you are giving away power over your life to something baked in a factory, and not by adorable Keebler Elves but by Serious Businessmen who have hired Evil Scientists to determine how best to hook your taste buds to their dastardly products.

End of story.

Cloudy With a Chance of Covid

Apparently this week's Covid variant, named omicron, is much milder than the normal Covid virus. Several credible doctors treating patients in South Africa have reported only two symptoms: fatigue and a little cough, perhaps lasting a couple of days. Yet Israel has shut its borders to all incoming foreigners, and many other European nations are not allowing people from South Africa and other African countries to enter. And for what? Something less debilitating and as contagious as the common cold?

This whole Covid "game" is getting pretty tiresome, with lame-brains like Joe Biden and Anthony Fauci telling us what to do or not to do about it. (Yeah, lame-brains, you heard me.) I mean, wear your mask between bites? What kind of moron believes that has any validity?

Like many people, if not most in America, I've been double-vaccinated and boosted, and now I'm supposed to worry about a whole new thing. It's unclear what's behind all these shenanigans, but surely something is. Let's hope that doesn't turn out to be even more dire than the virus.

 

When Men Were Men

As a prehistoric Baby Boomer my opinion counts for nothing with nobody. Still, I have many, on a variety of subjects. Today's topic is the sad loss of the male of the species. Oh sure, there are still a few to be found, holdovers from the good old days, but most of today's men are greatly reduced in stature, sex appeal, physical strength and almost all traditional male characteristics. 

A prime example is People magazine's current "Sexiest Man Alive," Paul Rudd. A fine actor and mildly handsome in an average way, to call him sexy is downright laughable. Here are some old favorites whose pronouns were always he/him:

Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Sean Connery, Harrison Ford, Robert Mitchum, Clark Gable, Cary Grant (gay or bi but still sexy), Warren Beatty, Mick Jagger, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jeff Bridges, Montgomery Clift (also gay), Marlon Brando, Denzel Washington, Gene Kelly, James Caan, Humphrey Bogart, John Cassavetes, Laurence Olivier and Roy Scheider.

Above: New York Times photo of San Francisco teacher Brendan Dunlap who says, "Some days a little sundress feels right."

The Never-ending Stories

Back when Trump was in office, the people who generate the daily news were in heaven. They had a built-in story every day, in fact every minute, with which to fill their 24/7-sized news hole. Many of those with paltry imaginations still use him, whether the angle is newsworthy or not. Fortunately for the newsmakers, Covid came along just as Trump's presidency was ending, giving them a whole new topic to exploit, since clearly Joe Biden wouldn't be very interesting.

But eventually interest in that big story started to wane. Enough Covid already, people were thinking. Just in time, the Delta variant showed up and got people talking again, but it's old news now. Nobody wants to talk about that. So today, with a new variant taking Europe by storm, journalists and editorial cartoonists and TV pundits the world over are re-invigorated!  

If you simply Google the words "new strain," you'll get some idea of how much verbiage is being spent on Omicron, as it's called. So many column inches! So many talking heads blabbing about it on videos! How exciting! It's almost enough to push Trump out of the picture. But never fear, he'll surely be back when concern about Omicron dies down. After all, there's always 2024.

  

A Two-Party Thanksgiving Story

Woke (Democrats): "A celebration of racist genocide," the Pilgrims were the original white supremacists who eventually turned into Republicans. They stole the land from the peace-loving Native Americans. They also slaughtered hundreds of innocent turkeys and ate them. On the plus side, they didn't slaughter the Native Americans until much later. (See Dances With Wolves.)

Unwoke (Normal People): The Pilgrims were pioneers joyously settling a new land. To celebrate the first harvest they had a huge feast. The Native Americans joined with them in the celebration and they all ate deer, not turkey.

The Antidote to Wokeness

I barely left my home today. It's so much easier, and certainly the only way to avoid offending someone. Here in Maine, just driving around my neighborhood I am trespassing on the sacred lands of the Wabanaki, and that can't be good. Although according to my son, the tribe ceded the land to the city of Portland so it's not stolen property. Besides, how else can I get around? I never learned to hover.

I did go to the post office to mail some bills. I just ran in without a face mask for a few seconds and then ran out, but not soon enough to avoid the steely glare and harsh words from a masked woman entering, who chided, "Masks are RECOMMENDED in here, didn't you see the sign?" I didn't bother telling her that the postmistress herself told me masks are now optional. Besides, don't two vaccinations and a booster count for anything?

The news is off limits because it's so bad these days and promises to get worse. I turned on the TV for two minutes to see if any active shooters were holding hostages or airplanes had struck any buildings or terrorists had taken over our government, and managed to catch sight of a pasty-faced Joe Biden stumbling through a teleprompter reading, saying, "Today all Americans have more money in their pockets than they had before the pandemic." Crazy talk from a nutty guy we call "Mr. President."

So by nightfall I'm ready for some laughs. Lately I've been watching random episodes of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm which are now streaming on Netflix and HBOMax. It's so refreshing -- the shows mock everybody equally and it's perfectly okay. Wildly funny too. I go to sleep with a smile on my face, resting up to do battle with the Army of Wokeness the next day.

Do Some Black Lives Matter Less?

About 80 thieves, all black, stormed a Nordstrom department store in Walnut Creek, California on Saturday night, each grabbing as much merchandise as they could carry, then ran outside and jumped into into one of several waiting cars that sped away. Inside the store, shoppers reported being terrified as many of the looters, or whatever you choose to call them, brandished crowbars or spray cans of mace.

The day after in Waukesha, Wisconsin, an SUV plowed into a Christmas Holiday Parade, killing five people and injuring more than 40 who remain in area hospitals, some in critical condition. Many are children as young as three years old. The driver, a black man with a long criminal record who recently ran over his own wife in a parking lot, was apprehended by the police.

So far Reverend Al Sharpton, Reverend Jesse Jackson, big-mouth TV personalities Whoopie Goldberg and Joy Reid, journalists Van Jones and Juan Williams and the leaders of Black Lives Matter have been silent about these crimes. When blacks get killed by whites, those folks are all up in your face, on TV, calling out every white person a "white supremacist." So where are they now? And how proud of her country is Michelle Obama these days?

Asking for a friend.

Strange Doings at the Symphony

Today my husband and I were excited to attend an in-person performance of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the first one since the onset of Covid two years ago. We happily returned to our usual great seats as holders of a season pass, but things were a little more politically correct than they were when last we went.

Upon arriving, instead of walking right in we had to join a long line of ticket-holders that snaked around the corner, down the street and around another corner in order to show proof of vaccination and a photo I.D. at the door. Everyone wore masks, even in the orchestra, except for the musicians playing wind instruments who of course could not. (I sure hope none of those floutists had Covid.) 

Entering the building, we had to pass through a metal detector, airport-style, and hand over our purses for inspection. Right away I got in a bad mood.

The concession stand, which normally did a rousing business during Intermission selling coffee, wine, cookies, nuts and candy, was closed. Signs warned that no outside food or drink, including water, could be brought in. Today there was no Intermission, I suppose to reduce the interaction between attendees. 

What was always the "Ladies Room" was now labeled "Gender-Neutral Restroom." My husband followed me in and used the stall next to mine.

The conductor came out and greeted the audience to much applause. Added to his always genial welcome speech was the following, somewhat dire, pronouncement which he read from a piece of paper: "The Portland Symphony Orchestra would like to acknowledge that here at the Merrill Auditorium we are making music on the ancient sacred land of the Wabanaki." The audience, unsure of what to do with that information since there didn't seem to be any members of that particular tribe in the house, remained silent.

But oddest of all was a woman three rows ahead of us who cradled in her arms what I thought was an infant dressed in a hooded snowsuit. I worried about what would happen if the baby cried during the concert, until I got a better look at the baby and it turned out to be a pug dog. I suppose that was her "comfort animal," although it sure made me uncomfortable.

Deadly Music Feeds Greedy Lawyers

Aerial view of the Astroworld concert.

Just like some people, some lawyers are despicable. Consider the ones currently earning their outrageous fees by suing the pants off of rapper Travis Scott for his "crime" of being absurdly popular with his fans. That popularity sparked the carnage at the recent Astroworld concert in Texas, where drug-infused revelers raged out of control and ten people died at the feet of OTHER CONCERTGOERS. Many more were seriously injured.

Sad, tragic and stupid, yes, but also a big money-maker for the families of the dead, who stand to reap the biggest rewards. Most recently, concert producers Live Nation and Apple, along with Travis Scott himself, were sued for a total of $2 billion by hundreds of concertgoers who claim they were injured when the crowds surged the stage.

A separate suit by even more lawyers is seeking more than $750 million in damages on behalf of 125 victims who still live and breathe. Scott was once again named in the complaint, along with fellow rapper Drake who performed as a surprise guest. On what charge? Supposedly, Scott's past actions and social media posts "glorify violence and other dangerous behaviors" whereas Drake "was well aware of the damage Scott had caused at his shows in the past." 

As for the charge of glorifying violence, for some interesting reading, Google "most violent rap lyrics." There's no end to them. Here's one pretty little ditty: 

"X-Is Coming" by DMX

"Man, if we was up north, niggas would have been fucked you/But then we in the streets, niggas should haven been stuck you/Plucked you like a chicken wit' your head cut off/They'll find you wit' your back open and your legs cut off/And as for your man, don't you ever in your mothafuckin' life/Know when I gotta gun come at me wit' a knife, a'ight?/And forgetting you ever saw me is the best thing to do/Don't give a fuck about your family, they'll be resting with you"

This is what young people are listening to these days. It's a wonder there aren't more dead found at the end of every concert. I'm thinking the lyrics must be written by undercover lawyers.

Some People Get Away With Murder

Celebrating the O.J. Simpson verdict.

The jury has spoken, and Kyle Rittenhouse was found innocent of all charges. For some reason -- even though he is white, the two men he shot were white, the jury was 11/12ths white and the presiding judge was white -- black people have grabbed this verdict and run with it, waving it around as further proof that America is systemically racist. 

Black New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones tied the verdict to the history of slavery. "In this country, you can even kill white people and get away with it if those white people are fighting for Black lives. This is the legacy of 1619," she tweeted.

I'd like to add to her comment by saying that in this country, you can even kill white people and get away with it if you are a famous black celebrity and hire a dream team of lawyers who lack a conscience. This is the legacy of 1997.

When black O. J. Simpson was found innocent of killing his white wife Nicole Simpson and her white friend, Ron Goldman, hordes of black Americans (who absolutely knew in their hearts that he was guilty) jumped for joy, including even black Howard University Law School students who were shown on national TV, joyously celebrating the verdict at a local D.C bar. 

Yet today black people, led by their leaders in the Black Lives Matter organization, are damning the verdict in the Rittenhouse case as a miscarriage of justice. Go figure!

The Booster Shot

Yesterday morning I received my Covid booster shot. I refuse to call it a "jab," a term that has caught on in the media and is used by young journalists hoping to sound cool. The word is completely inappropriate, since it means "to poke something or someone roughly or quickly with something sharp or pointed." I barely felt it when the nurse, a sweet, soft-spoken woman, lightly touched my arm and then put a bandaid over the spot. She in no way jabbed me.

However you describe it, the medicine got in my system and caused a reaction which came on slowly. For the rest of the day I felt okay, a little sleepy, but by bedtime my arm felt like it weighed 300 pounds. Plus, it hurt. The rest of me was exhausted and I had chills. Sleeping last night was pure misery as I woke every hour and felt how bad I felt. 

This morning I feel better, with my arm down to about 150 pounds. However, I now have a raging headache. Of course that's just me; other people have reported no reaction at all, while some I have heard about died from it. (Now that's a bad reaction.) As my husband points out, however bad you feel from the booster, it's usually short-lived  and better than getting Covid. 

The best thing about it is it makes you forget all the other things that have been hurting you.

The Wisdom of Joe Biden

Following are remarks made by President Biden in a speech to local voters in Woodstock, NH on November 16, 2021, concerning the Infrastructure Law he is trying to get passed:

"Conversations around those kitchen tables that are both profound as they are ordinary. “How do I cross a bridge in a snow storm?”  What happens -- no, I think about it.  You know, you’re in a situation. What happens if the bridge collapses and there’s a fire on the other side?  It’s going to takes 10 miles longer to get to the fire.  People can die.  I mean, this is real.  This is real stuff."

I certainly feel relieved that our government is finally looking into all the bridges that are collapsing in snowstorms with fires raging on the other side. I mean really, it's a problem. Who says Joe isn't thinking straight?

The Racism Game

These days racism is so popular, it can exist without even any people of color around! This strange circumstance is best illustrated by an exchange I saw on the liberal television news station known as CNN earlier today. Under discussion was the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, the latest real life horror story to grab the attention of Americans by the throat and give them something to talk about besides their own boring lives. 

A black male journalist and a white female journalist were the hosts for this particular news hour. The topic was the Rittenhouse trial. The black journalist looked right into the camera and with a totally straight face said that "the trial has a racial undertone." 

So, despite Rittenhouse being white and the three victims being white and the jury of 11 white people and one person of color, the journalist pushed the racial angle as far as he could. He said, "If Rittenhouse had been a young black man running around with a rifle, you could imagine how differently people would feel about it."

So now the brilliant minds over at CNN are taking a boring white crime and re-imagining it as having been committed by a black person, then discussing how a black perp would be judged much more harshly in the press and by most people, especially those mean old Trumpies. 

This got me wondering how Christmas would be celebrated if Santa were black. Probably much less of a big deal. And what if Oprah were white? Would she still be as rich, or maybe even richer? Would Morgan Freeman get cast in so many movies if he were white? Not likely. You can go on and on. In fact, the Racism Game is perfect for Family Game Night -- try it the next time you're in a group and run out of conversation. You don't even need a game board or dice or game pieces. Not even any race cards! It's totally free; all you need is a good imagination and a low I.Q.

Who Can I Sue?

I'm not happy. Surely this is someone else's fault. It can't be mine; why would I do anything to make myself unhappy?

Maybe I should sue the makers of Fritos, which I ate plenty of as a teenager. My favorite dateless Friday night snack was a bag of Fritos with Lipton's Onion Soup dip. And now I am a grown-up with high blood pressure, for which I take several medications. All that salt in my youth must be the reason!

Or maybe I should sue my former neighbors, who I really liked a lot by the way, for selling their house to the creeps who live there now and causing us no end of heartache and petty annoyances. They should at least pay the $12,000 for the fence we erected between the two properties to hide the ungodly mess of junk and cars now littering the formerly pristine landscape.

Sounds silly, right. Just as silly as the attendees of the Texas Astroworld fiasco who are blaming the concert organizers for the drug-infused unruly crowd behavior that resulted in nine people getting trampled to death. They say the organizers "suffocated" them! The venue was "too packed" even though it was built to hold four times as many as those present. The singer Travis Scott is being sued for being too popular and having too many fans, I'm guessing? After all, he continued to perform his part of the bargain, having no idea what was going on in the audience.

Or maybe I (and everyone) could just take some responsibility for my own life and actions. Now there's an outdated concept.

 

Government-Issued Fear

Our government, if you can call it that, seems to have one clear message for the people: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid. As for what you should fear, there are so many choices! The climate is at the top of the list, and of course since there is nothing we or anyone can do about it, this is a formidable enemy. Intense heat, parching drought, torrential rains, mudslides, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and more await us all.

Then there are other people, especially those horrid White People, a.k.a. White Supremacists. They are deadly and they are everywhere, especially in those states that vote Republican. And oh yes, you should fear Republicans, because they want to stop women from having abortions and prevent people who are confused about their gender from mutilating their bodies and buying new wardrobes.

But the latest, and most worrisome, is terrorist attacks on American soil. Yesterday the following bulletin was released: "The Secretary of Homeland Security has issued an updated National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) Bulletin regarding the current heightened threat environment across the United States. The starting date of this warning is November 10 at 4:00 pm and is set to expire on February 8 at 4:00 pm."

They can't specify where or when or by whom, just that bad things likely will occur and your holiday plans should allow for something to ruin everything. Personally I am doubling my dosage of Lorazepam, canceling my holiday turkey and staying home in my pajamas until the all-clear is sounded. So have a joyous Thanksgiving, a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. See you on Valentine's Day.

Please Don't Wake Me

There is a checkout clerk at my local supermarket who might have been considered to be insane years ago but is now just accepted as your everyday woke Millennial, or Gen Z-er or whatever the heck they are calling young people these days. He looks like a man, with a full beard and longish hair to the shoulders. He always wears either a dress or a blouse and skirt and heavy combat boots. Apparently this attire is just fine with his employer.

My son teaches at an elementary school in Portland. There too is a man in a dress greeting the kids in the morning, dispensing hand sanitizer to them. As if the hand sanitizer will compensate for their confusion about why this man is in a dress.

If being crazy is now considered woke, I'll just opt for sleeping.

I Survived Woodstock, Like Everybody Else

At Woodstock, no stampedes just love, peace and great music.

In 1969 I attended the Woodstock Music Festival along with 400,000 other young people in my age group.  Nobody died, although there were moments I wished I could. The rain, the cold, the noise, the lines to the Port-A-Potties, being in the Porte-A-Potties, and the naked zombies high on acid got old quick. But nobody was scary, and I was never scared. There were two fatalities, rumor has it, but they were from natural causes, not from other concert-goers stomping on their hearts and livers and lungs until they bled out. And while there was supposedly some "bad acid" going around, which was announced by the DJ Wavy Gravy so we could all be on the lookout, still it wasn't fatal.

At the Texas Astroworld rap concert a few days ago where eight people died and many others hospitalized owing to the actions of other concert attendees, it's starting to come out that lots of very toxic drugs were circulating and some of the deaths may have been from overdoses. Certainly much of the behavior was drug induced. 

The old days were definitely better. (Not to mention the music.)

The Last Frontier

The girls look great, even though they are old!

Imagine saying something like, "Oh God, not a TV show about three single black women living in New York! Who cares about them anyway?" Nobody would dare. Or how about,"What? Watch a show about fat women managing the dating scene? No way!" No way is right -- fat women on TV are in, mostly because there are so many fat women not on TV, there's a ready audience. And of course, wouldn't everyone just love a sitcom about three handicapped women, struggling to get in and out of restaurants in their wheelchairs? The likely answer is yes, and they'd tune in religiously and feel quite proud of themselves for doing so.

In fact, just about every group of misfits is accepted these days except for the one group that is still pilloried, mocked, shamed and told to stay home behind closed doors, and that's old people. And not even that old, really, just no longer in the bloom of youth. The proof of this miserable truth is everywhere, and now most glaringly evident in the public's reaction to the coming TV show And Just Like That, a new take on the wildly popular hit series Sex and the City that ran from 1998 to 2004.  

Set to appear on HBO-Max this December, the 10-episode revival will feature three of the four stars -- sexy Samantha (Kim Cattrall) will not be returning -- who are all now in their fifties. The fact that there are some gray hairs in evidence is freaking many people out. Rude and crude comments online range from distasteful to disgraceful, with one-time fans of the original show fairly shrieking that nobody cares about old ladies!

Listen up people, circa 2021 healthy women live well into their 70s, 80s and 90s, many enjoying happy, full lives. Lots of them still like having sex, although God knows why but that's another post. So STFU about how old people are creepy and get yourself ready for the distant day fast approaching when you are one yourself, you should live that long.

 

Something vs.Nothing

My favorite thing to do is Nothing. In fact I dearly love doing Nothing. I not only accept this character trait of mine, I relish it. I don't feel guilty about it, and I don't apologize for it. In fact, I believe it to be one of my best qualities.

The problem is, I am married to a man who has to do Something every minute of his waking life. If he is not doing Something he becomes irritable and pugnacious, and since I am usually right there doing Nothing, I'm the one who bears the brunt of his irritability and pugnaciousness. Then suddenly I am doing Something. I'm arguing with my husband, whose favorite way to begin a conversation is, "For the sake of argument..."

If you are a do-Nothing person, embrace it. You earned it -- after all, you survived nine months in the womb, which many millions do not, and made the treacherous trip through the birth canal. Nobody said you have to be doing Something every minute in order to justify your existence and believe me, there will be plenty of inescapable moments where you will be forced to do Something in your life, like jump into a swimming pool to save a drowning child, walk a dog in a blizzard, bake a birthday cake in the shape of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, go hiking, work out at a gym, etc. 

FYI, watching TV or playing with your phone do not count as doing Nothing. I'm talking navel-gazing, staring-into-space Nothing.

Trump Trumps Biden

Here's an interesting development I'd like to pass on to my readers: Since my husband's attempt to win a seat on the local Town Council was blown to smithereens by a bunch of rabid lefties who banded together to ensure that a Republican would not enter their ranks, and who somehow learned of this blog and decided that I am a racist and so therefore Mitch must be one too, those ladies have continued to read my posts even after the election has come and gone! 

I know this for a fact because my daily readership stats have basically quadrupled since they showed up and have stayed that way. So thanks to that group of small-minded Democrats, a.k.a. dolts, my words are reaching a far wider audience. Who knows, maybe if they read this blog long enough I can drill some sense into them. 

For example, things were much better under Donald Trump than they are under Joe Biden. We are now dealing with uncontrollable chaos at the border, pain at the gas pump since we were producing our own oil under Trump and now we are groveling for some from other countries, inflation making everything cost more, extended unemployment benefits causing people to choose not to work, leading to closed businesses and the supply chain problems, and Covid got much worse after Biden took over. 

Don't even get me started on how much more of a racist Biden is than Trump ever was.

Institutionalized Lying

It's not just politicians and doctors; liars are everywhere. Yesterday I went to the L.L. Bean store to buy some sheets. I was looking for Egyptian cotton, the best ones if you ask me, and worth the extra price. I know for a fact that I bought them at Bean's about five years ago, so I keep going back hoping that my ship has come in. 

I have done this about every four months for the last two years, and each time I've been told, "They are on back order, they should arrive in a few weeks." But this time the sales clerk added something new: "You know -- it's the supply chain thing."

"Seriously? Because I've been told the same thing for two years, and there was no supply chain problem before now," I said. "Why not just say Bean's doesn't carry them anymore?"

"I just work here," she said with a shrug. "They tell us to say they are on back order."

Wisdom from the Internet

 

Democracy Dies in Darkness

Come here if you dare, but remember -- no dissenting views allowed.

Alas, despite his vigorous campaigning, including posting 100 signs throughout the community, going from house to house meeting the citizens and hearing their concerns for several weeks before the election, then standing outside the polls on Election Day to introduce himself to the voters, with his opponent never anywhere in sight on the campaign trail, my brilliant and fair-minded husband came up short in his quest to join the Freeport Town Council. See, he's not a registered Democrat, and so even if he is possibly the smartest inhabitant of his 1,100-person district -- just my opinion, mind you -- the fact that he is a registered Republican did him in. Sadly, the town of Freeport will pay the price.  

But the real reason Mitch lost the election is because seven years ago I posted in this space a letter he wrote to a distant friend planning to visit and called it a "Guest Blog." Besides saying how great life in Maine is, Mitch said he found the locals to be "uptight" and "no fun." (This was before we met our friends Mary and Doug, who are tons of fun and not uptight, but also from "away.") I thought his letter was funny, sue me.  

Fast forward to now, when a group of those uptight and no fun Mainers were pissed about it and spread the word through the Democratic pipeline that the candidate's wife is a racist, having read some of my other posts in which I dared to mock those dumb Black Lives Matter signs. (Draw your own conclusions about whether or not both Mitch and I are right.)

On the plus side, I am now free to write whatever I want here, without fearing that some outraged neighbor will stumble upon it and attach to my husband my personal views. I can also let our house phone ring off the hook instead of having to answer it for some loon to ask if he can build a fence or please lower the cost of a dog license or weigh in on whatever other bits of trivia that feeble body deals with. So I guess we can call it a lose-win for the Roudas, despite being a big fat loss for Democracy.

Glenn Youngkin's Secret Weapon

"Favoring fleece vests, Youngkin sought to cut the image of a genial suburban dad."

That snotty sentence is taken from an article on the AP News website hoping to explain yesterday's surprising loss of the Virginia governor's race by Democrat Terry McAuliffe, the sleazy former chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign who hoped to slither back for a second term, bolstered by his insider friends inhabiting the Northern Virginia-DC swamp. 

But the voters in the rest of Virginia wanted none of it, opting instead for a wholesome new candidate (who happens to be a Republican) with all the appeal of actor Jimmy Stewart in the 1939 film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

So Glenn Youngkin wears fleece vests! Are we meant to believe that's some kind of trick to hoodwink the voters rather than a way to keep warm? Come to Maine and you'll see that every last person in the state wears fleece vests. Many of them are women, live in the city of Portland, hate the suburbs and are childless. Since when is what you wear considered a ploy to get elected?

The Democratic mindset is sickening, and thus I'm finally sick of it. Just the other day I virtually fled from a supermarket to avoid running into a rabid lefty "friend" who I usually greet with a smile. No more. A war is coming and I'm ready to do battle. Now where's my fleece vest?

It's Okay to Be Unhappy

Somehow, being "happy" has become the thing to shoot for in life. Nobody suggests that you get smarter, or more compassionate or more productive or more thoughtful or more intelligent. People don't ask if you are growing, learning or understanding your life's purpose -- just if you are happy. 

Total strangers tell you to "Have a nice day," or, "Have a good one," or the most annoying, "Have a nice rest of your day," when you see them in the afternoon, as if what transpired earlier in your day carries no weight. (Take Alec Baldwin, for example.)

This situation is a great disappointment to many, myself among them, who regard happiness as a fleeting emotion with little benefit other than a passing flood of endorphins that might help you forget your troubles for awhile. For surely we all have troubles, and while forgetting them momentarily may feel good, it won't solve any problems that might desperately need solving. Besides, some people have very little chance of any happiness ever due to circumstances beyond their control (take Alec Baldwin, for example), so suggesting that the Smiley Face is the only face to wear can be downright insulting.