Reflections from the Road

Back home after almost 2900 miles of driving, I have recovered enough to rant. My wife and I traveled to Louisiana last week for her to visit her family. While she enjoyed the company there, I drove over to Destin to visit my siter and her recently retired husband.  Too many miles, too little time.

Here are some random thoughts from my week:

A special RMOL salute to the mayor of Uvalde, Texas who called Beto O'Dork "a sick son of a bitch". No need to explain that one.

I tend to shy away from conspiracy theories, but as I get older some seem to make more sense. Where did the Texas shooter get the money to buy TWO rifles and a bunch of ammunition?  Why was the door at school left open? Why did he go to that door? Why was the school resource officer away from the school? Why did we have to wait for the Border Patrol for someone to think of getting a key from the janitor to unlock the room door? Did the police have the equipment they needed to handle this situation? If not, why not? I hate to second guess the people on the scene, but if they didn't want to rush the room, why not give their guns to some of those parents that they were restraining?  I bet they would have stormed that door. If parents had gotten to the shooter before the police, there wouldn't have been enough left of him to identify.

Biden says that other countries don't have school shootings. A list of school massacres shows that the top 12 are in other countries. Joe's not good with facts. If the government wants a "disinformation board", let's have them try it on Biden for a couple of years before they roll it out for the rest of us. 

Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard, who really gives a rat's ass how that ends?

Maybe if schoolteachers spent as much time tracking potential school shooters as they do convincing students to have their sex organs removed, maybe we could cut down on school shootings.

Gabe Kapler of the San Francisco Giants and his anthem protest? Just another egomaniac who thinks that anyone gives a shit about what he does. Must be something in the water out there.

In Waukesha, Wisconsin last year six people were killed and sixty injured by a guy driving over a crowd at a parade. Was the driver charged with a "hate crime" because all of his victims were white? Did the FBI investigate this? Did Merrick Garland speak about this? Is the Justice Department even aware of this? Has Biden called for more restrictions on owning SUVs?  Are we banning cars?

If out traveling, you see billboards for "Buc-ees", stop there. It's a must stop for the Jones family. I like the brisket sandwiches. Biggest selling point, the restrooms are spotless. They have a billboard that reads "Potty like a rock star". Wait!! I forgot the meat counter with about 20 varieties of fresh beef jerky. I think that they have some turkey jerky as well. 

Do violent video games cause young people to have problems? Does watching an ad for Omaha steaks make you want one?

Michael Sussman acquitted by a DC jury. I had hair the last time a Democrat was convicted in Washington, DC.  DC= District of Corruption.

Rue Beignet near Baton Rouge for great beignets. 

There seems to be some kind of relationship between the race of a mass shooter and the amount of media coverage. Just saying.

At the grocery store today, the vegetable oil that was $2.39 last year is $5.59 this year. I may not be good with math, but that is more than an inflation rate of 8.5%. 

Vote the leftist bastards out in November!!

             

Friday Fun, Follies, and Brain Farts

 According to the Washington Post, a Democratic action group spent sent six months researching and testing Biden's new "Ultra Maga" talking point. Their study showed that MAGA had a negative connotation with the public. Apparently, their study was done in San Francisco, New York, and Philadelphia. Biden started using the new "slam" a few days ago. Now, the Internet is flooded with tee shirts proclaiming that the wearer is "Ultra MAGA". It is either a case study on the fallacy of polling and market research or a sign of how out of touch Democrats are with reality.

As mothers search for baby formula for infants, the folks at Homeland Security sit on pallets of it near the southern border. They tell us that they are required to have age-appropriate supplies for illegal immigrants. Does this mean that they sre stockpiling condoms for the teenaged illegals? Beer Cerveza for the adults? Citizens cannot buy baby formula in the stores while the government stockpiles it to give it to illegals free. Write that fact down and take it with you to the polls. You will know what to do when you get in the voting booth.

Sen. Rand Paul refused to follow the others off of the cliff on Thursday and refused to go along with the bill to send Ukraine another $40 BILLION dollars. He rightly pointed out that we will have to borrow that money from the Chinese to give it to Ukraine. This will just slow down the unbelievable flow of cash to the nation that spent years stuffing Hunter and The Big Guy's pockets. I don't care about your party affiliation, but if you vote to give Ukraine another friggin dollar, you are just stupid and should find other work. This reminds me of a picture of a snake with two heads. Two heads, one body. That's Congress! Send Ukraine to the colonels Vindman for military assistance.

Who knew before Col. Vindman that Ukraine is the lynch pin of American national security? Asking for a friend.

The news media continues to report that the Russians are losing badly. Yet still they fight. Maybe they don't speak English, so they don't know that they have lost?

I saw some liberal idiot on television talking about how their five-year-old decided that he wanted to be a girl. I never let a five-year-old even decide what they will eat for dinner. I am damn sure not going to let them decide on a life of hormones, surgery, and later suicide. 

Teachers and administrators are calling parents if their child draws a picture of a gun. But if the child starts to "identify" as the other sex, they want to keep that a secret. Will they call you if your kid tries to cut off his arm? 

I have been through this for years with several different employees and a couple of cousins, but if you really believe that your sex life is your business, quit telling the rest of us about it. I don't care, I don't want to know, just shut the hell up and be about it. Just for the record, the rest of us are not required to endorse your behavior.

Funny how everyone tells us about "following the science" but forget all of that when we are talking about real world biology.

Children have been home-schooled for hundreds of years. The teacher unions forget that "Public education" is the experiment, and it is failing horribly.

Democrats can't count. They had the vote to move on a pro-choice abortion bill and lost 49-51. They are blaming the filibuster despite not even getting a simple majority. Like their constituent base, Dems suck at math. Memo to libs, 49 is always LESS than 51. Democrats are bad at math but lead the world in self-esteem. They can't add, but they feel great about it. Math is racist?

About fifty years ago, I had a friend who was a captain in the Tampa Fire Department. what did I learn from him? "Affirmative action won't carry Grandma's ass down the ladder at two o'clock in the morning."

Last, but certainly not least, this quote from the American Spectator today. "Now crazy people are running the military, so recruitment videos look like welcome week at the queer dorm on a college campus. Rather than featuring a fighting force that is superbly well trained to efficiently kill the enemy, the brass has decided that it’s more important to be “inclusive” than to win. But who wants to join crazy people? So, Army recruitment is down."

That's all folks!!

Killing The Greensboro Gun Show

 After at least thirty years at the Greensboro Coliseum, the Greensboro Gun Show is no more. The story has surfaced in the last couple of weeks due to a lawsuit against the city filed by Eric Robert, a mayoral candidate. 

In 2018, the Greensboro City Council wanted to ban the gun show after the publicity surrounding the Parkland High shootings in Florida. There is absolutely no evidence tying the Greensboro Gun Show to the Parkland shootings. There is no evidence linking the Greensboro Gun Show to the explosion in black-on-black violence in Greensboro. But a City Council that likes to brag that it has "no white males", didn't need a reason. They just chanted the leftist mantra, "We have to do something." The City Attorney at the time told them that they could not legally block the Gun Show. So, they hit the pause button.

 In what has to be the biggest case of "karma" in Greensboro history, the City Council public hearing in 2018 launched the political career of political novice Mark Robinson. Robinson is now the Lt, Governor of North Carolina. Nancy Vaughan is still pissed off about that. Vaughan also claims that she has a concealed carry permit and is not "anti-gun". She is not against her owning a gun, she just opposes the "common people" owning guns.

In 2020 with COVID closing down the Coliseum for almost everything but COVID shots and testing, Coliseum director Matt Brown went to work to solve his City Council's problem with the Gun Show. He worked out a deal with the Gun Show's owner to sell the Gun Show to the city for $400,000 to be paid in 5 annual installments of $80,000 each. Since a new City Attorney had issued his opinion that the city could ban the Gun Show, the road was clear for the City Council to act. But they didn't?

The City Attorney claims that gun shows on city property violate state law. There are several other cities in North Carolina where gun shows are held on government property. Obviously, someone is wrong. By the way, the state of North Carolina allows gun shows at the NC State Fairgrounds.

Oddly enough, there was no public announcement about the city buying the Gun Show. The Gun Show remained on the calendar for 2021 at the Coliseum. Why? There was a municipal election scheduled for 2021 featuring a mayoral election. Then this election was postponed until 2022 due to claims about the census and new districts. Now in 2022, more than 18 months after Matt Brown worked out his deal, the news has finally broken due to the lawsuit by Mr. Robert. The question that begs asking is "Why didn't the Coliseum or the City Council make a public announcement about this?" This is not an accident. By the way, Mr. Robert has asked for copies of e-mails between Matt Brown and Mayor Vaughan and has not received anything from the city. 

The city assures us that no taxpayer money was involved in this transaction. They say that it came from an "Enterprise Fund" that Matt Brown controls. They claim that this money is profits from the Coliseum and not taxpayer money.

Let me make this clear, like the city water department and the parking garages and other municipal enterprises, every dime that the Coliseum takes in IS taxpayer money. There should be controls over every dollar of city income. The Coliseum is no exception. If the Coliseum does not realize enough revenue in a year to cover costs, the city makes up the difference. The citizens of Greensboro paid to build the Coliseum, renovate it, and to expand it. If the Coliseum makes an actual profit, the money belongs to the city.

Matt Brown said that the Coliseum had bought two other businesses years ago.  They bought the Central Carolina Fair and the Super Flea. The Fair is still around but I think the Super Flea is no longer around. As far as I am concerned, this is like getting caught doing something wrong and offering a defense claiming that you had done it twice before. I don't care how many times you have done it, it's still wrong. The city should not be in the business of buying businesses.

Based on statements made by Mayor Vaughan and associates, Matt Brown may be the most powerful man in Greensboro government. Does anyone in authority ever evaluate his performance? Does he report to anyone? Is there an oversight authority on the Coliseum? Is the City Council afraid to do that? Based on statements by local leaders, they should consider changing the city name to "Brownsboro". Or at least make the Coliseum a self-governing district with that name. Wait! Apparently, it is already a self-governing district.

Reports are that the Greensboro Gun Show promoter made about $11,000 a show. There were two shows a year. So, he was making about $22,000 a year. Matt Brown bought his business for an amount that is roughly eighteen (18) times his annual earnings. Then Matt closed that business.  If Matt went to business school, he needs to apply for a refund on tuition. Just out of curiosity, let's see the numbers on what Matt paid for the Fair and the Super Flea. I am going to guess that they didn't get eighteen (18) times earnings.

Matt Brown paid the Greensboro Gun Show $400,000 because he wasn't just buying the Greensboro Gun Show, he was buying silence. In the purchase agreement, the owner agreed that he would not tell any vendor or customer that either of the 2021 Gun Shows was being canceled more than thirty days ahead of the show. 

Mayor Nancy Vaughan, City Attorney Watts, and Brown should all be removed from office. They all conspired to hide this from the public. They paid the Greensboro Gun Show owner $400,000 because they knew that they would probably lose in court if they just shut it down. 

Brown, Vaughan, and Watts couldn't keep the lid on their scam until the election. The primary is next week, and they are all lying through their teeth for damage control.

Today's story is that the profits from some new youth sports events will cover the $400,000. What will cover the revenue lost from the Gun Show? How much did the city take in from the Gun Show for rent, admissions, parking, and concessions? What are these youth sports events?  It's time for the city to share some actual numbers. Let's bring in an outside accounting firm and review the Coliseum books. 

Memo to Greensboro's "no white males" leadership: If you were doing the right thing, you would not be hiding it.

Bits and Pieces

 Just wondering why, the FBI hasn't searched Politico's office like they did to Project Veritas. Politico has a document from the United States Supreme Court that it is distributing. All Project Veritas had was Ashley Biden's diary where she wrote about showering with her father. The FBI is now officially an arm of the Democratic Party.

A friend told me the other day, "It was easier being twenty in the Seventies than it is being seventy in the Twenties. What do you think?" I told him that I would let him know next year.

The new White House secretary is a liberal black lesbian who calls everyone else a racist. The Democrats must find these people in some kind of scavenger hunt for nitwits.

In Vietnam, the news media showed us one side of the war and until the later days told us that we were winning. Fast forward more than fifty years and the same thing is happening in Ukraine. We keep pumping military equipment into Ukraine to feed what appears to be a stalemate. Why?

Disclaimer: I don't care for Mitch McConnell. Having said that, I thank God every day that Mitch didn't let that piece of crap Merrick Garland have a chance at the Supreme Court.

Parents at school board meetings are labeled "domestic terrorists." Antifa is labeled "peaceful protesters". This is what happens liberals are in charge.

It is accepted political thinking that revolutions start at lower levels and build to the top. School board elections are not on the side of Democrats. Watch out for the House and the Senate come November.

Joe Brain-Dead Biden says that his son Hunter is the smartest guy he knows. The easy shot here is that Hunter is obviously the ONLY guy that Joe Biden knows. How stupid is Hunter Biden? He makes Billy Carter look like a Mensa member. He makes Roger Clinton look like a Rhodes Scholar. 

I went ahead and forwarded my blog address to the Board of Disinformation. I expect Dr. Fauci to do the same. They already know where to find Biden.

Ice Cream Joe Biden is going to Chicago tomorrow. The Mayor, Lori Lighthead, is going out of town and will not be there to greet him. The Governor of Illinois will meet him later in the day, he can't be there in the morning either to welcome the President to Illinois. The manager of the Baskin Robbins near the airport will be at O'Hare to welcome the President. The Secret Service has worked out the details of scooping ice cream on the tarmac.

Jill Biden visited Ukraine the other day. The Secret Service worked out all of the arrangements and got Mrs. B in and out of Ukraine safely. The President's wife was able to get into the Ukraine, but we have no soldiers there. During the Vietnam war, we had no soldiers in Laos or Cambodia either? That was according to the Department of Defense. Those guys never lie.

The Leto High Class of 1971

In a previous post, "Thomas Wolfe was Right", I ranted about my experiences at a recent Leto High Class of 1971 reunion. The worst part of the reunion was that there weren't that many people from "my crowd" at the reunion. There were 714 people who graduated on that June day in 1971. We had about 80 grads at the reunion last fall. Before you start blaming COVID for the attendance, it was a bigger crowd than were at the other two reunions that I have attended. 

Why don't people attend these events? Locals don't attend because it costs too much. They can meet friends at McDonalds for a few bucks and talk. Why pay $95 for a buffet dinner? Can we have a cheaper reunion?

People who have left the area are often unaware of the reunion plans. Our class had everything on their Facebook page. After years on Facebook, my opinion is that Facebook is some kind of arm of the Anti-Christ, and I have chosen to stop participating. So, my info came from acquaintances still on Facebook who told me about the reunion. In the Information Age, there has to be a better plan than relying on Facebook.

I have already voiced my opinions on old white folks dancing the night away, but there is more. Instead of bad music and even worse dance moves, why not just have each graduate stand up and tell us something about their lives? Give each person a minute to speak about their lives. Here's an example.

"My name is Gilbert Jones. I used to be short and skinny. Now I am taller and bigger, I may even be fat. I should mention that I am bald, but that is obvious to even the slow among you.  I have been married more than forty years to a beautiful woman. We have two great sons. We live in God's country. That's North Carolina for those of you who don't know. I spent my life in the restaurant business trying to help customers to get fed and help employees get through their lives. I study history. I sell stuff. I am so conservative that it should scare you that I am here. I write a blog where I say stuff about you that you will never read. I can give you my email address and/or phone number but most of you will never contact me anyway. The good news for you is that my minute is up."

I just timed myself reading that and it was about 40 seconds. I had time left for a couple of off the cuff insults. That has to be better than watching half-lit 68 year olds trying to bring back disco.

To sum it up, my biggest disappointment at our reunion was that most of the people I had hoped to see weren't there. If you read this and think that you are one of those people, leave a comment with your contact info. I won't post the comment, but I will contact you.

Here are a few folks who I would like to hear from. Terry Rubio Fernandez, she was actually at the Friday night social, and I didn't see her. Terry Rubio was the Sweetheart of Pierce Junior High. Mike Namey, I lived down Burke Street from you. John Paul Jones, you had that Studebaker in our senior year. Dennis Barry, I haven't seen you since graduation day. Dennis was the president of the Leo Club, the only group I ever joined at school. Joe Hoffman, you are the only guy on out class memory list with a note that you are not dead. Ernie Hunt, you were a year behind us, but you were in an engineering concepts class with me. I remember you laughing at my entry in the bridge building contest. Delores Norred, you were a cheerleader at Pierce. You were also the first girl I ever danced with. I am sure you have forgotten but it was at our ninth-grade prom. Terry Prosser, I haven't seen you since the ninth grade. Pamela Carpenter, my rival know-it-all in American History and PAD class. Cathy Claytor, the Pride of Drew Park, who used to come in the Waffle House sometimes. Barbara Moncus, who I haven't seen since the end of ninth grade at Pierce. And just a few others like Maria Moura, Tracy Broadbent, the Murphy brothers, Walter and Randy, Gordon Brown, and Jim Looker.

This post ends my high school reunion series for at least the next five years. Thanks!

Thomas Wolfe was Right!!

 It is widely accepted that Thomas Wolfe was North Carolina's greatest writer. While I have read some of his work, I am not an expert on Wolfe. In the interest of full disclosure, I obviously don't write in the style of Wolfe.  That's just in case you haven't noticed.

In early October of last year, I decided to attend the fifty-year reunion of my high school graduating class in Tampa, Florida. I debated over several weeks about whether or not to go, but eventually decided that I would give it a shot. My wife had some work commitments and was not able to go with me. I think that she had attended two of our previous reunions and just didn't want to go through that again. I don't blame her.

The reunion organizers had scheduled a Friday evening social and a Saturday night dinner. The cost was $35 for the Friday social thing and $95 for the Saturday night dinner. We were meeting at the Godfrey Hotel on Rocky Point in Tampa. I thought that it was a little pricey, but I went anyway. I stayed at a Country Inn and Suites rather than the Godfrey since I had made my reunion reservations close to the deadline. That was the best move that I made in this debacle.

A minor crisis at work caused me to have to leave early on Friday morning and drive the 675 miles to Tampa. I haven't been to Tampa in 15 years and hitting the city limits at 5:00 PM on Friday was about as bad as you would imagine. Anyway, I made it to my hotel and checked in. A classmate's family farm used to be where the hotel was located.  Yes, the neighborhood has changed. 

I headed over to the Godfrey and the social event. The registration said that we would have "light" hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar. We were gathering on the hotel pier for the evening. I checked in and got my name tag with a picture that no one could link to me today. I walked over to the bar and got a $5 bottle of water that I could hide in the palm of my hand. I didn't know that they bottled water in containers that small. Hell, I thought that it was some kind of communion cup. I have to produce more liquid than that bottle held to pass a urine test. I can't remember how many times that I have told people, "What America really needs is a good Five-dollar bottle of water." I thought that I was at a NASCAR race, an NFL game, or a movie. But wait, there's more.

I had only taken a couple of steps before a server offered me some food. She handed me a small plate with TWO shrimp on it. Two? That was 15 bucks a shrimp. I was almost afraid to eat anything in that price range. That shrimp must have been farm raised in Perrier water with an attendant on call to cater to their every need. I took two bites to eat each shrimp so that I could stretch out that culinary experience.

Then I looked around to see if I could recognize anyone who I knew. There were about 100 people there. You have all been to this kind of event. You look at name tags until you find somebody that you think you know. I look absolutely nothing like the senior picture on my name tag. Let me elaborate. At graduation, I was about 5'2" and weighed about 110 pounds and had hair. Today, I have very little hair, stand about 5'7" and weigh about 215 pounds. Yeah, I've changed a little. Anyway, I had to explain to several people that human growth does not end at high school graduation.

I stayed about an hour and a half before I had to leave. I had to go get dinner at a restaurant before I lapsed into some kind of starvation induced coma. Before I left, they announced that the next morning they would have breakfast available in a meeting room. They were serving Cuban coffee and Cuban bread with butter. I don't drink any kind of coffee and I require more than bread for breakfast. I told a few people that I would see them for dinner on Saturday. 

I got up Saturday morning and decided to ride around Tampa and see some old sites. There wasn't much there that I recognized. It was like visiting a foreign land. There wasn't very much property that was undeveloped. I think there is a T-Mobile store on every other corner in Tampa. Waters Avenue ran in front of my hotel. In 1971, it was a two-lane road, today it is six lanes. At the intersection of Waters and Dale Mabry, they were going to build an overpass in the late 1970's. Fifty years later, still no overpass. 

In our old neighborhood, some things had changed. Some folks had turned their front yards into concrete slabs. No need to mow the grass all year, just paint the slab every year. Democrats still run Hillsborough County and Tampa. Want proof? There used to be a big drainage ditch/canal on the edge of our neighborhood. It's still an open sewer, but now it has a name. But I didn't write that name down.  Also, it's no longer a ditch, it's a "slough". 

Still looking for friendly territory, I headed west towards Oldsmar. There has been a flea market there as long as I can remember. I found the flea market and started searching for something that I don't have. I ended up buying something to resell. I bought what the seller claimed was a quantity of 1500 socket wrenches. Later at home I counted almost 1700 sockets. Good buy!!

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped at a fast-food place selling grilled tropical chicken. Damn if I remember the name, but it was great chicken with interesting side items. It turned out to be the best meal that I had in Tampa.

After a nap to rest up for the evening festivities, I got dressed and headed to the Godfrey. I wore a sports coat and a tie along with the mandatory shirt, pants, socks, and shoes. If dinner is $95, I think you should at least put on long pants and a collared shirt. A few guys didn't agree with me. 

Arriving at the Godfrey, I found the event room. It looked like it would be a bit crowded for almost a hundred people. I found a table with some folks I knew and settled in for the evening. We had some time to talk before dinner time. I had to explain to several other people that some of us kept growing after graduation. Had I known my size was going to be such an issue, I would have put together a few brochures explaining that phenomena to bring with me.

Therre were eight of us to a table for dinner. The room seemed pretty tight for a hundred folks. Then I realized that they had set up a buffet for us to use.  The serving line started somewhere over my right shoulder. With the line formed behind me, it was like eating dinner on an interstate entrance ramp. It wasn't a $95 meal.  I ate salad, some kind of chicken and a few green beans that you couldn't serve in North Carolina. The dessert was good. While waiting for the post meal festivities, I began to plan on where I would stop for food on the way back to the hotel.

There was some good conversation at the dinner table.  It was an eclectic group ranging from a minister to an old bail bondsman to a foul-mouthed restaurant manager. I forgot the Navy pilot with the required military vocabulary. It was good.

The reason that the tables were crowded together was that they had set up a dance floor. A bunch of 68 year olds need dining space more than they need a dance floor. Who wants to watch a bunch of old white people dance? Also, being a few hundred miles from home and having too much alcohol has a tendency to enable some folks to make an ass of themselves. I thought some of those people were smarter than that. They proved that I was wrong.

I went outside with some other non-dancers to talk. I was telling one classmate that I thought that the event was hopelessly overpriced. Another classmate's wife standing nearby said, "You don't understand how catering works". I quickly explained to her that after more than fifty years in the food service business, I knew more about catering than anyone in that building. It kind of went downhill from there and she walked away. 

They had drawings for prizes. The minister at my table won a few hundred dollars in cash. I won a Leto High polo shirt in size Small. I gave it to my granddaughter. I am not sure it will fit her. 

Around 10:15 with the crowd all wandering away, I headed to my car. On the way out, I encountered a classmate who I have known since the seventh grade. I had not had a chance to talk to him earlier. We stood in the hotel lobby and talked for a few minutes. He started by asking, "Gilbert, are you still preaching?" I looked at him and  said, "What are you talking about?" He replied, "I thought that you had gone into the ministry. By the way, if anyone says anything about that to you, they probably heard that from me." I just said, "Well, thanks." I was still smiling when I got in the car.

I was so hungry on the way back to the hotel that I stopped at McDonalds and got something to eat. After a $95 dinner, I had to spend $12 at McDonalds to fill up.

When I woke up on Sunday morning, I realized that I was ready to go home. I had planned to leave on Monday morning, but I couldn't take another 24 hours in Tampa. I called my wife and told her that I was heading home.By 8:30, I was heading north on I-75. 

On the ride home, I had lots of time to think. Somewhere around Webster, I realized that Thomas Wolfe was right. You can't go home again. 

Just the Facts Ma'am!

 Somewhere a leftist is proud of himself for leaking a Supreme Court document on Roe v, Wade. You know they are a Democrat because the Democrats desperately need a diversionary issue to have a chance in this year's Congressional elections. 

Is "the right" to get an abortion going to outweigh rampant inflation and $5 gasoline in the minds of voters? Will federal subsidies for abortions be used by Planned Parenthood for political donations to the Democratic Party? Wait, I am pretty sure that they already do that.

Which is more important to you, groceries on the shelf or Sally getting her third abortion? Do you want to wait in line for bread? Or do you want to get bred so you can have an abortion?

The Roe decision will be overturned at some point because it is simply bad law. The opinion of the Burger Court notwithstanding, there is simply no "right to privacy" written or implied in the Constitution. As long as I am on that issue, regulation of marriage, whether it be gay or regular is not a function of the Constitution either. Read that Tenth Amendment thing one more time.

Don't bother looking up the Tenth Amendment. Here it is, in all of its glory. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Given 49 years since Roe v. Wade, the Congress has failed to pass a bill "codifying" (this week's HOT word) that ruling. Why not? 1. They don't have the votes. 2. They don't have enough support from the people.

Liberals are screaming about Roe v Wade being "established law" for almost 50 years. Memo to libs: Courts are not supposed to "make laws".  They claim that Roe is a precedent and precedents must live forever. Unfortunately, precedents are frequently overruled. "Dred Scott" was a precedent, but I don't see anyone calling for it to be enforced. "Plessy v Ferguson" was a precedent for almost 60 years before "Brown v Board of Education". I have not heard anyone calling for that to be brought back. 

So now, Chuck "The Schmuck" Schumer says that the Senate will vote next week on a bill to "codify" Roe v Wade. He just wants to force everyone to take a stand on this during an election year. He may get a surprise or two in this voting. This bill isn't about 'abortion rights". It is about trying to influence an election where his party looks like it is going to take an ass beating. 

How stupid are Democrats? They want to vote on a bill that a leaked document has stated will be unconstitutional. If the Democrats want to "codify" abortion rights, it is going to take a constitutional amendment. They don't have 38 states that will support that. But this all isn't about "abortion tights", it is about political posturing. Democrats are posers pretending that they care about people. They only care on Election Day.

Everybody keeps saying that a majority of Americans support "abortion rights". This is caused by a lot of support in large population states like New York and California. Do they have a majority of support in a majority of states? The question is, do you have those 38 states that you need for that constitutional amendment? 

In the 49 years since Roe was decided, there have been scores of different birth control medications and devices developed to prevent pregnancies. Most of these are given away free by health departments. Why do we still need to perform hundreds of thousands of abortions a year?

We need more data on abortions. We need some facts to make a good decision. So, here's my list of questions.

How many abortions are actually performed every year? I want numbers for the last ten years.

How many of these are due to rape? We need police reports.

How many are due to actual medical complications? We will need details from doctors.

What is the income level of those getting abortions?

How many women have had more than one abortion?

What is the breakdown on ages of those getting abortions?

What is the racial breakdown on those getting abortions?

How many of those getting abortions had heard about "birth control"?

How many fathers were permitted to have a voice in whether or not the child will be aborted? 

If Democrats want support from the public, it is time for honest discussions about how and to whom all of this is happening. I will close this "way too long" rant with a simple question. If this issue is actually about "women's health", why isn't anyone talking about the health of the female fetuses being aborted? Let's face it, about half of those aborted would have been girls if allowed to live. 

Monday's Mind-Bending Minutiae Menagerie

 "There are only three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are." W. Somerset Maughan 

“When things turn south for the administration, Barack Obama—a sagging Netflix’s $50-million ‘idea man’—usually emerges from one of his three mansions in Hawaii, Martha’s Vineyard, or Kalorama to lecture clingers and deplorables on various threats they pose to the anointed.”– Victor Davis Hanson

At 6:00 AM, my bowl of Raisin Bran Crunch was disturbed by a screaming noise from my flip phone in the living room.  I ambled over to find an amber alert for a missing 17-year-old in Winston Salem. First and foremost, no one flees Winston-Salem and comes to Caswell County. I deleted said alert. This evening on the news is the face of a 17-year-old who faked their own disappearance. Wow?

In 1861, Abraham Lincoln did not want the southern states to leave the Union. He raised an army and sent it south to bring the seceding states back into the Union against their will. His armies killed, wounded, burned, looted, pillaged and raped their way across the South over a four-year period. Today many Americans hail Lincoln for "saving the Union." In 2022, Putin is trying to bring Ukraine back into the Soviet fold. Like Lincoln, he sent an army there to bring Ukraine back to Russia. So why was that technique good for Lincoln, but is a war crime for Putin?  Was Lincoln a war criminal? Asking for a friend.

There are those who want us to commit to using our military against Russia if they use nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons against Ukraine. You're shitting me, right? You want to end civilization to punish Russia for attacking Ukraine? Why would we do this to save the child sex trafficking capital of the world? Only in Ukraine is money laundering considered a career field. Yet we all must die to save them? Are you serious? It is just another backwater corrupt government.  Think of it as Illinois or Louisiana goes to Europe. 

Just for the record, we used chemical weapons in Vietnam. My brother-in-law died as a result of handling those chemicals. Thousands of other American soldiers have died from those chemicals and thousands more will. Tell me again about how evil other nations are. 

All of our news about the war in Ukraine is coming from one side of the battlefield. That was the same thing that happened in Vietnam and look how accurate that reporting turned out to be.  

Baruch Spinoza said it best, "No matter how thin you slice it, there are always two sides."

And in unrelated-to-Ukraine news, Biden had two scoops of chocolate chip this afternoon as he sniffed three little girls.