Category: Politics

  • ODDS and ENDS: The Mugshot, Don’t Get Caught in the Rain, and Fantasy Football

    (Mr. Campbell… who cares?)

    I will admit that I was one of those millions of online leeches waiting for the release of the Trump mugshot. I wanted to see it. I wanted to be there when it was released so I could be one of the first to see it. And I was very pleased with what I saw. A former President was arrested, and he was treated like any other defendant in the criminal justice system which, for me, sent a signal that no one is above the law in this country. I am also aware that not everyone will see it that way. There are a large number of people who will see this mugshot, and project their own feelings on it, to see a system out to punish political opposition. There is another reason why I wanted to see this mugshot, for I believe it is the closest form of justice we will get when it comes to Trump and the crimes he’s accused of committing. Sadly, I don’t believe that he will be found guilty on any of these charges in the four cases. He will be acquitted because deep down in our America soul, we cannot send a President to jail. We treat our Presidents like gods. Each one gets his own temple, though we call it a library. And if they happen to be one of the truly greats, we build a shrine to them in Holy City of DC. So, this mugshot, with his disgruntled gaze, is as close to justice as he will get. This humiliating picture will last forever in American history, never to be forgotten.

    Walking around in the rain with wet jeans on is the worst.

    I will not play fantasy football this season. The league I play in has not reformed, and I fear it is dead. The League is Dead! Long Live the League. I’m not sure anymore, but I think I have played in the league of old college friends, work collogues, and random people, for close to fifteen years. In that time, I have won the League three times, all the while just guessing on who to play each week. What brought about this timely death was the sad fact that everyone has lives that have pulled us in different directions. From marriages, kids, careers, and taking care of parents, we aren’t the same people anymore. It’s a little sad, but it does prove the old axiom that everything changes – nothing stays the same. Goodbye Fantasy Football…

  • ODDS and ENDS: UNION!, American Folklore, and Ice Cream

    (Casey Jones you better watch your speed!)

    Oh, shit! The actors joined the strike! Yup, SAG-AFTRA is on the picket line with the WGA, and now no one gets pretty new movies and shows this Fall! I hope you’re happy Studios! Both sides will make their case over the next few weeks, seeing who can build up the bigger public support, and then the real negotiations will begin. The truth of the matter is that the delivery of entertainment has changed. The traditional way for studios to earn income (movie theatres, cable, and ad tv) has declined and streaming hasn’t closed the gap, though that’s how everyone wants to get their entertainment. But I will also point out there are only five media corporations in the US, and it’s been that way for a very long time, so if they aren’t making money, that’s on them. It’s not like there is a ton competition out in the market. Media is an oligopoly so they are in control for how it all works. The studios could solve this tomorrow; stop paying your C-Suite hundreds of millions of dollars. Sorry, but CEO’s can only have two mansions, one Learjet, and one yacht from here on out. We all will have to make sacrifices to survive.

    And when was the last time you thought about American Folklore? Like, Casey Jones, Paul Bunyan, and John Henry. They don’t teach that stuff in school anymore. I asked my daughter about it, and she has no idea what I was talking about. I can’t prove this, but I have this weird feeling that schools were teaching American Folklore as a form of propaganda, to get us kids to believe that there was a mythology to American development and enguiniety, instead of teaching us that our past was a whole lot more about exploitation and exclusion. I can’t prove it, but these people who pushed the Folklore might have been the same people that killed teaching us kids the metric system.

    Ice cream really is the best. Doesn’t matter the season, ice cream is perfect.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Women’s World Cup, Sleepovers, and Running of the Interns

    (All this, in ONE place!)

    Another huge, international football tournament is about to begin in 19 days, when the Women’s World Cup gets underway! I’m excited about this, including the fact that USA has another powerhouse of a team, with a very good chance to, again, win the cup. And I say chance because as each tournament has come up, the international competition has gotten better and better. Even though Team USA is ranked number one in the world, Germany and Sweden are coming up fast. In the end, nothing is guaranteed, which only makes the whole tournament more competitive. I have a good feeling that I will be posting about it; either here or on Twitter.

    I am very happy that my kid can now do sleepovers at her friend’s homes. This was one of the last weird Covid issues, but now that we are all vaccinated, sleepovers are on! And my kid is behaving just like I used to – by trying to staying up all night! It’s a terrible idea, but man I use to love doing it. Outlasting my friends, watching all night movies, snacking, and then earning the reward of watching the sun come up and the day starting. Now that I am a parent, it drives me nuts that she won’t go to bed. All of her friends go to bed, but not my kid. She’s too much like her dad.

    As this is the final day of the Supreme Court’s term, we are currently waiting on the final rulings. Thus, we will be getting another “Running of the Interns.”

  • Tautology

    “Tautology” is my word of the day. In fact, I can admit that today happens to be the first time I have ever heard the word “tautology.” I read the word in a response someone was making to why libertarianism is a failed political philosophy; it was full of tautology, the person said.

    What the hell is “tautology,” I wondered?

    And Google told me:

    “noun – the saying of the same thing twice in different words, generally considered to be a fault of style (e.g., they arrived one after the other in succession).

    In logic, it is a statement that is true by necessity or by virtue of its logical form. (e.g., All logical propositions are reducible to either tautologies or contradictions.)”

    Who knew, right!?!?

    I had taken a couple of philosophy classes in college, and I really enjoyed it. I got rather lost when it came to Spinoza and Kant, but on the whole I thought I did well with grasping concepts. I felt that philosophy helped me as a theatre major by giving me a different type of context to put the characters I played in.

    So when I saw “tautology” today, I had a little bit of a learning thrill come over me. You know when you were a kid and you’d get all excited about learning something new; it was a little like that. This is a new concept that I was fascinated to start learning more about, and the philosophical implications of it.

    It’s been awhile since I had a feeling of wonder come over me. As I started getting older, I came to believe that those opportunities of experience were no longer possible. I have become more jaded than I would like to admit, and some experiences have left me feeling cold.

    Not sure what changed in me today. Maybe it was just as simple as being curious and wanting to learn.

  • Banning Books Never Works

    Was there ever a time in history when the group that was banning books ended up being the good guys? It’s like calling your country an “empire” because you might as well just say that “we have come to kill you and take your land.” There is no “good” empire, just like there isn’t a “good” book banning.

    I say all of this because on Sunday, CBS’ SUNDAY MORNING show did a story on the movement to ban books in schools and public libraries. In the story, they include the group, Moms for Liberty, who are spearheading the book banning. (I would tell them that their group name is rather Orwellian, but I fear they haven’t read any books by Orwell.) The mom’s claim that they are out to protect children from pornography, and LGBTQ+ influence by giving parents more authority over schools and libraries.

    These women are idiots, and should be reminded of it often and always. Clearly they have never read any history because banning books never works. It never has and never will. In fact, when someone tries to ban a book, the sales of said banned book explode. Just check the numbers. Also, when you start trying to ban books, you join the likes of other book banners like Nazis, Brown Shirts, Segregationists, Francoists, and the Spanish Inquisition (which no one suspects…) It’s a Murderer’s Row of suppression and, ultimately, failure. And yet these groups, Moms and Moral Majorities, keep thinking that they are different from the past, when they are only repeating it.

    So, yet again, books need to be protected, as well as our public libraries. Here is PEN AMERICA’s Books Ban page, with their report book banning in the USA. Also, here is Brooklyn Public Library’s Books Unbanned initiative, as well as American Library Association’s Banned and Challenged Books program.