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And So It Begins…

drawing of crowd screaming and pointing at each other

Trump was inaugurated on Monday. And the screaming accusations started immediately. I have a number of friends, people who I know in person and have spent enjoyable time with, who apparently have quietly ramped up their TDS to the nth degree. It’s disheartening to say the least. I had hopes (slim as those hopes may have been, many of them were already claiming they would flee the country on Sunday) that these friends would at least watch as the revelations of corrupt and incompetent behaviors were unveiled and wait to comment. But, no. They’re all in on the crazy. Starting with Melania’s outfits, Elon’s supposed “Nazi salute,” the executive orders signed by Trump, and on and on.

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Government Incompetence and Malice

Man and woman in office laughing as city burns outside

We all always whinge about government incompetence. It’s an American sport. But there are times when that incompetence becomes deadly. The two examples of absolutely deadly government incompetence are currently staring the U.S. and the world in the face. The abysmal failure of the British parliament to pass a resolution to investigate rape gangs which have been operating for decades under the noses and with the knowledge, and at times, cooperation of law enforcement authorities. The second glaring example are the fires raging through Los Angeles right now. These both are horrifying reminders (or should be) that politicians and bureaucrats are not really in the business of actually being concerned about your wellbeing.

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Starting 2025 – We’re Baa-ack!

man and woman standing in the front yard next to a flag wearing shirts with slogan "we're back"

2025 has started out with a bang, literally. A car bomb in Las Vegas, a truck ramming through crowds on Bourbon Street in NOLA, protests in NYC, another almost subway killing in NYC (victim survived being shoved in front of a train), and other random acts of terror and horror.

Fair warning: This is a bit of a long rant. To quote Frank Costanza: “I’ve got a lot of problems with you people, and now you’re gonna hear about it!”

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Citizen Responsibilities

drawing of man sitting on bench in a park reading a newspaper. A U.S. flag is flying behind him.

As far back as elementary school, I remember teachers telling kids that we, as citizens of the United States, had responsibilities to ourselves and the country. I know that a lot of people would prefer to avoid politics and political topics altogether. I get it. Politics is frustrating, angering, annoying, and at times boring (ever try to read a policy proposal? I highly recommend them if you have insomnia and don’t want to take any drugs). But we as adult citizens have a responsibility to keep this country running as well as possible, oppose bad policies, and most importantly, we have a responsibility to pay attention so that we are fully aware of what is going on with our politicians and institutions. It’s our responsibility to pay attention and stop them from going off the rails.

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Freedom of Speech (Again)

Going back over my more recent blog posts, I find that I’ve been writing a lot about freedom of speech and that’s because it is, and has been for at least three or four decades, under ever-increasing assault. And the war on free speech has become far more open and vociferous over the last ten years or so. Make no mistake, “war” is the proper term here. I am a free speech absolutist.

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Videoing Your Tantrum

cartoon screaming toddler

X and Instagram are filling up with videos posted by women showing themselves screaming and crying in a car (usually, sometimes in their bedrooms or living rooms. These videos have several things in common, not the least of which is the toddler-level ranting, crying, and name-calling displayed by the women (and some men) in the videos. The primary commonality is a theme revolving around the statement “this election result means I’m now shaving my head, refusing to sleep with or date men, and not getting married. Ever. So, there.”

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Veteran’s Day

Bald eagle with flag background.

I am the daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter of military veterans. My father fought in the Cold War and Vietnam, his father was a colonel in the Air Force in WWII, including “working for Pan Am” building air fields in North Africa. Hitler declared war against the U.S. and voila! all those Pan Am pilots were suddenly officers in the U.S. Air Force. My great-grandfather was an officer in the Spanish American War and a balloon observer and pilot in WWI. My uncle was an officer in the Navy, and my dad’s and his cousins were in the Navy and the Coast Guard. There were so many active duty military on my dad’s side of the family that my mother, a Quaker , had to request no uniforms at their wedding. And even with that, my mother is descended from Quakers who broke away from the Arch Street Meeting in Philadelphia, so that they could fight in the Revolutionary War, contrary to the Quaker tenet of being conscientious objectors.

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Sackcloth and Ashes

Skeleton in "Scream" pose

The wailing, gnashing of teeth, and the donning of sackcloth and ashes Wednesday morning continued the Democratic trend of disparaging your opponents, questioning their morals and intelligence, and generally promising retribution for the heinous crime of disagreeing with them. It’s very clear that while the Republicans learned the harsh lessons of the 2020 election, the Democrats have not. Of course, Biden won in 2020 so the Democrats just knew they had no lessons to be learned.

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Squirrels, Raccoons, and Government Overreach

Fred the raccoon and P'Nut the squirrel napping together

No, I’m not equating government bureaucrats with rabid squirrels at a rave (that’s totally unfair to rabid squirrels). Yes, I am going to talk about the unnecessary and tragic demise of P’Nut the squirrel and his adopted brother, Fred the raccoon. As most of you probably know by now, a woman in Texas (yes, I’m sorry to say), got a stick up her ass about the Instagram videos P’Nut’s rescuer was sharing. She apparently decided that this was somehow an affront to all that’s good and holy in these United States. So, she filed multiple complaints with the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation regarding P’Nut. I am not privy to the details of those complaints, but I assume she claimed animal abuse or some such. Because a couple of nights ago, the NY DEC decided to RAID the house, with a SWAT team (as one does when confronting squirrel rescuers), tearing it apart (yes, they did, you can read the accounts), and kidnapping P’Nut and Fred, subsequently getting both animals euthanized.

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