Affirmative Action: The Ultimate Insult

You may have noticed there is no "affirmative action" ruling in sports. That's because it's obvious to everyone that minority players, usually black, are exceptionally talented in that realm and in fact rule the roost. So what is affirmative action in education implying? That many black and Hispanic students aren't smart enough to succeed in school, or life, without a handicap? (Nobody seems to care about all the white students who are less than college-qualified.) 

How insulting. Not to mention scary!

Maybe if lower education did a better job early on, more disadvantaged students could seamlessly move on to higher education without getting a leg up. A large part of the problem is the policy of high school teachers who pass minority students on to the next grade, despite their poor reading and math skills, to avoid being seen as racist.

Where's My Free Diploma?

I saw a headline, one among many, that read, "What To Do Now That Student Loan Forgiveness Is Off the Table." 

Here's a crazy idea I offer (for free) to those students who are stunned and shocked by yesterday's SCOTUS ruling: How about you pay it back yourself? 

Here's another crazy idea: Don't go to college if you can't afford it. 

If it's so hard to figure this stuff out, maybe college isn't the right path for you.

Ignorance Is Bliss

If there is such a thing as reincarnation, I hope I come back a lot dumber. 

I'll watch all the popular TV game shows and get upset when the longtime host dies or quits, and get hooked on Dancing With the Stars and talk about it the next day at my job at a big tech company. 

I'll frequent chain restaurants like The Olive Garden and eat lobster rolls and drink specialty cocktails like Cosmos.

I'll attend Super Bowl tailgate parties and be in a weekly bowling league.

I'll do karaoke and get manis and pedis.

I will have tons of friends who think just like me. (We will all be Democrats.)

I won't be Jewish and I'll never worry. 

I will definitely wear flip-flops, at least in summer and maybe even into late fall.

Best of all, I will get fatter and fatter every year and not care.

I can't wait.

A Racist on the Supreme Court

Besides being slightly dimwitted, saying she couldn't define what is a woman because she is "not a biologist" (when asked during her senate confirmation hearing,) Jackson now has come out as a racist* with her dissenting statement on yesterday's SCOTUS decision to eliminate affirmative action by institutes of higher learning when choosing applicants for admission:

"Although formal race-linked legal barriers are gone, race still matters to the lived experiences of all Americans in ways, and today's ruling makes things worse, not better."  

It might make it worse for black students who would be accepted with mediocre grades and lower aptitude simply because of their skin color, but it makes it better for the many Asians, and other ethnic groups, who have consistently been rejected by Harvard and Yale for being too smart. (FYI, Jackson graduated from Harvard.)

* Racism is discrimination and prejudice towards people based on their race or ethnicity. Racism can be present in social actions, practices, or political systems that support the expression of prejudice or aversion in discriminatory practices.

Everyone's A Racist

Obama's $12 million mansion on Martha's Vineyard.

Today everyone is a racist, even if they aren't. Take my cousin Brian, for example, who is possibly the least racist person ever born (except for my own son). All through his teen years and into adulthood, Brian has had close friends of many races. His best friend since high school is black. Okay, so Brian is still white -- he has not changed his skin tone or had any other work done to actually become black, although he does have very curly hair -- nevertheless he's an exceptionally fair-minded guy.

Last week he was driving along in his very fabulous new used car when the car in the lane next to him swerved too close, almost hitting him. Brian saw that the driver was texting, or at least holding his phone close up to his face. Naturally, as many people might, Brian swerved away and shouted through his open window, "You're an asshole!"

The guy in the other car got in front of him on the exit ramp, essentially cutting Brian off, stopped his car and walked over to confront him. "Well, you're a racist!" was his angry declaration. At this time I must mention that the guy was Asian.

Brian rightly pointed out that if he were a racist he would never have called him an asshole. Only when you are free from considerations of race, creed and color can you treat people equally, and anyone who texts and drives is an asshole, as we all agree. But if you're black, a racist would never call you that for fear of the dreaded R label. 

This explains why hardly anyone ever criticized Obama when he was president, even though he did such a sucky job and then bought a mansion in DC's richest (white) neighborhood and another mansion on (super-rich white folks) Martha's Vineyard instead of moving back to Chicago to help poor people of color. See, I can say Obama is a huge asshole because I am not a racist.

Mean Mainers

Maine's #1 sport: Boiling live lobsters.

This morning I made the mistake of joining a local Facebook group called Freeport Notes. Fool that I am, I ventured an opinion there that proved blasphemous with the townies, and in usual Maine fashion was told bluntly to "go somewhere else" where my heretical views might be acceptable. In other words, get the hell outta here.

Mind you, I was not advocating for banning lobster fishing or outlawing whoopee pies. I simply said that I was sorry the plans for a proposed new building had been shot down by anti-growth types, insuring that Freeport stays small and insignificant. 

For that unthinkable statement I was immediately excoriated. One man wrote "the success of LLBean must be prioritized over the comfort of any of Freeport's citizens." WTF? What's Bean's got to do with it? Naturally I left the group and will keep my mouth shut about things of that nature.

Maine sure is pretty and there's no traffic, but the natives are not friendly. 

Smart Guys On Drugs

Karl Goldfield, former sales consultant and now "microdoser" to the  elite.

I'm just a lowly worm with no aspirations of anything higher so what do I know? A few things from experience and that's about it. One of those things is how LSD turns your brain into a giant, dark and jumbled cesspool of thoughts, some of which are incredibly frightening and others that might have seemed deeply enlightening at the time but after the drug wore off proved totally inane and laughable.

So I was surprised to read a long article in today's Wall Street Journal about the growing and lauded use of the drugs LSD, ketamine and "magic" mushrooms that are now commonplace in the boardrooms and backrooms of many of our largest, most successful tech companies. Elon Musk, for example, uses ketamine to think deep thoughts and come up with new ideas. He also attends psychedelic parties in Miami and Mexico, along with many other tech company execs looking for their next big thing.

To be fair, Musk and some of the others are microdosing in search of brilliance. I must have macrodosed that time back in the 70's when I thought the walls in my apartment's bathroom were covered with black widow spiders and that the neighbors were all foreign spies bent on kidnapping me. I had no deep thoughts; my one insight was if this drug ever wears off I will never, ever, ever do this to myself again.

It's no wonder I'm not the head of any fabulous tech company: I hate vomiting. And lots of these top guys attend "ayahuasca retreats in Costa Rica geared to tech entrepreneurs and CEOS," that last for days. Drinking the stuff at first induces violent vomiting but "can also open the mind," said one leader who attends regularly. Former sales consultant Karl Goldfield (see photo) is now a consultant to the rich and famous, helping them determine the correct dosage to avoid becoming addicted or dead.

Hey, I don't care how smart anything might make me, I am not vomiting, no way no how -- it just seems wrong, and certainly counter-productive. I am also never buying a Tesla.

TV Series Review: THE BEAR

Jamie Lee Curtis and her fingernails having a smoke.

So, a few years ago it was Ted Lasso and today the hot show everyone who's anyone watches is The Bear. What a difference! Lasso, its third and final season recently airing, was fun, upbeat and basically a laugh-riot, with some poignant moments sprinkled in. The Bear, its second season just dropped a week ago, is chaotic, depressing and not a bit funny -- full of abject loneliness, a dying parent on life support, chain smoking, suicidal behavior and disturbingly dysfunctional relationships. 

Last night my husband and I squirmed through Episode 6 of Season 2 of The Bear, armed with a few Keebler Fudge Stripes to keep us grounded in reality. I could barely watch much of it, choosing instead to concentrate on my cookie, yet several online reviews I read this morning deem the episode "perfect" and praise it to the skies, one calling it the "single best episode ever seen on television." Honestly, this hourlong film makes the miserable family in August: Osage County look like the Brady Bunch.

Basically we are forced to watch the ruthless warring of a family and their hangers-on who have come together, as they do every Christmas Eve, for a big Italian feast. Instead of glad tidings, egg nog and presents tied with pretty red bows there is crying, fighting and literally unbelievable over-the-top chaos, with different family members having either heart-to-heart talks on the side or hysterical screaming matches out in the open, complete with fork-throwing at the dinner table like a bunch of toddlers high on too much sugar. 

Jamie Lee Curtis gives a great performance as the manic, alcoholic matriarch, looking old, ugly and psychopathic as she flings tomato sauce all over her tiny kitchen, her claw-like red fingernails dominating every scene. I sincerely hope she was wearing lots of makeup, or else something very bad has happened to her.

Anyway, it was completely ridiculous but we couldn't look away. You know, like at a car wreck, which by the way happens at the very end.

Whose Life Matters?

Last week five billionaires died when their carnival ride -- oops, I mean exploratory submarine -- imploded underwater, keeping them from seeing the rusted hulk of a luxury liner that sank over 100 years ago, just for giggles. 

The media went nuts, devoting all their TV coverage -- daytime and prime time -- to this disaster for days, as if it had meaning to the world and as if the dead were heroes to be lauded for their bravery. Leading newspapers also devoted many column inches and most front pages to the story.

Yet there was just a tiny, two-paragraph mention -- not an article at all --  in today's Wall Street Journal about 350 Pakistani migrants who perished when their overcrowded fishing boat sank off the coast of Greece last week.

Discuss.

A Fool and His Money ...

Here it is, for free.

Five extremely wealthy people who each paid $250,000 to join an underwater expedition bound for the rusted hulk of the Titanic are now dead. Their vessel, a submarine-like thing called a submersible, had been missing since last Sunday. With no food, limited water, and even more limited oxygen to breathe, it all sounds like a bad dream with a tragic ending. Still, I can't feel sorry for them. 

Lest you think I am cold-hearted, you're wrong. When 12 little boys and their soccer coach were trapped in that Thai cave in 2018, I could hardly sleep at night and worried about them constantly, feeling as if each one were my own son. I cry seeing those ASPCA commercials showing abandoned dogs. Every news report involving a horrific death of a child sends me to bed to hide under the covers. This is because of a condition called "hyper-empathy," which means I feel the pain of others as if it's my own.

But not this time. If a group of insanely rich people can't think of anything better to do with their money than sink it to the bottom of the ocean, it's not sad, it's sick. What's worse, unlike our brave astronauts who risk their lives for the future benefit of mankind, these five went only to gawk at a wrecked ship that sank in 1912, peeping at it through the one tiny porthole in their tiny submersible shaped like a tin can and just as comfortable.

Just imagine what you could do with an extra $250,000.

What Lies Ahead in Biden's America

Being a baby boomer, I am relieved that I won't be around to experience the grim future that lies ahead. We've all had a pretty good run, able to say what we think and get away with it. That privilege will soon end, coming to a stunning halt if Joe Biden or someone like him is elected in 2024.

The current regime's policy of outlawing personal opinions is underway and growing daily. It's common knowledge that the media is an arm of the Democratic party, and today YouTube removed a video interview in which Robert Kennedy Jr., a 2024 presidential candidate and a Democrat to boot, suggested that the Covid vaccine was responsible for several more dire side effects beyond the usual ones. His statement was ruled to be "disinformation," meaning anything that makes the public mistrust the government or reject its rules. (This is not the first example of YouTube's censorship; see illustration.)

I personally know two people who became severely ill after their first shot of the Covid vaccine; one of them remains sick while the other slowly improved over two years of doctor visits, various treatments including acupuncture and pharmaceuticals, weight gain, tremors, vision problems, night sweats and unrelenting fatigue.

Robert Kennedy Jr. is one of the rebels running for office. Look beyond the negative sloganeering about him to find out what he stands for, while you still have the luxury of having an opinion.