Had Enough Yet? Pet Peeves

This post is about pet peeves. Some of mine and, I hope, some of yours. I'll start:

1. Please stop the posts and articles about former Baywatch babes still trying to look hot in 2022. They were in their thirties when they starred. It's 2022 now. Their kids have age wrinkles, brown spots and stretch marks. I've had enough!

2. Pierre Trudeau is the new age monarch of a complacent Canada. Doesn't anyone up there care enough to tell him to  STOP IT? I've had enough! Why haven't they? 

3. Why is Whoopie Goldberg tolerated by any sentient people? Why does anyone care what she thinks? She will burble her thoughts on topics du jour (yes, not completely unlike yours truly) and  she has a national platform from which to pitch her stupid mental farts. She gets paid a bajillion bucks (an actual sum) to do it. I've had enough!

4. (Whoopie continued) From Fox News:

Goldberg told The Times the Nazis weren't originally targeting a specific race, but those who were physically and mentally 'defective.'

Please click the above link if you don't believe me. Apparently, Whoopie has a different copy of Mein Kampf than the one I read. Hitler was "the Nazis." And, yes, he wanted to eliminate the physically and mentally unsound, too. And he wanted the government to decide who they were. I've had enough!

(Pet peeve 4.5) No one today knows what's in Mein Kampf. Shouldn't we, before we call each other Nazis? I've had enough!

I see I've only got one more. Hmmm.

5. Sharon Osbourne, why is she a thing? Ozzy was bad enough. Grossly bad, as a matter of fact. But his old lady? Why why why pay any attention to her? Talk about the physically and mentally unsound. I've had enough!

OK, now it's your turn. Please leave your pet peeves in the comments section. I'll write more about mine in the future.

Merry Christmas!

The Christmas Story

 I first wrote this post in 2009. The story itself happened 2,000 years ago. Nothing has changed. Please consider reading this to your family. Nothing would make me happier.

Luke 2

The Birth of Jesus

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

So they hurried off and found May and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed as what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

From Matthew 1:18-2:12

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place this way. When his mother had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means "God is with us."

When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage."

When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so has it been written by the prophet: "And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel."

Then Herod secretly call for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage."

When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

Too good to be true? To some, I suppose. To good to have happened? No, it really did happen. I believe.

Merry Christmas, good and faithful readers.

 Signs of Life

I've detected a heartbeat in this blog and it may be time to bring it back to life. 

My few followers, except Monte (bless you, Monte, did you forget?), opted out long ago. Who can blame them? I haven't written much here in several years and I've had plenty of problems of my own to worry me. Poor me.

But I have been writing. I wrote a book, a memoir, this year. It's in the hands of a good editor. I didn't think I could do it but she likes it and so do my beta readers. It is tentatively called Love and Taxes in a Small Land. I'll let you know if I ever find a publisher, or maybe I'll have to figure out self-publishing.

I wrote a good story, too, The Chechen. I had some help with that from my old pal Boris. He gave me some credible Chechen names and settings and history. That story has been accepted for publication by an online magazine. I'll boost it here once I see it in electrons.

I've been recovering from a two-year-long struggle with the disease NPH, normal pressure hydrocephalus. It used to be called "water on the brain." It hasn't been easy but I'm a lot better than I was. My recovery has been made possible by the devotion of my partner and love Kathy Webster. She did everything for me. She is a keeper.

There is so much strange and confounding news that I don't know what to address first. I'll try to be consistent with what I've written in the past, but who knows? I evolve, too. 

Please subscribe. I need your feedback and I love your comments. 

If you'd like me to regard something that particularly galls or pleases you, let me know what it is and say a few things yourself. 

If you are moved to write, I invite you to submit your own essays here. I'll publish them, even if I don't agree with you, as long as they don't exceed common community standards.

One last thing. This is an opinion and satire blog. Always will be.

Gummint Lying

Gummint Lying

Being around liars, doing business with them or having them impose their lies on you in any way is one of the most annoying things in the world. I was an IRS tax collector and manager. Lies were the coin of the realm.

To lie is, "to speak falsely or utter untruth knowingly, as with intent to deceive. Synonyms: prevaricate, fib."

-- (Thank you, Dictionary.com.)

We all lie a little, usually to make us look better than we are or to cover up something someone did or didn't do. There is little effect to most lies. They occur and disappear without anyone caring or knowing.

We know we're not supposed to lie but do we know why? Why did lying get such a bad rap? 

There are useful lies, aren't there? We delude ourselves so. National leaders lie to further their own aims, often cloaking their lies with "for the good of the state." Nations have been built on lies.

"A lie told often enough becomes the truth."
--Vladimir Lenin, setting the stage for Joseph Goebbels

"In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State." -- Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, setting the stage for politicians everywhere

 

In the USSR, everything the people heard from the state was a lie. In 1941, their government couldn't even admit the Germans had invaded until several weeks after the fact.  Didn't help the millions who had already perished though, or the millions more who would. 

I've read almost everything that Solzhenitsyn published.  He told the truth about the Soviet Union and he accepted the God-awful Gulag consequences. 

Fast forward to today. Zimbabwe (of our Z-Bux fame) has been transformed from an emerging and prosperous export economy to a failed state, based entirely on Joseph Mugabe's lies about native entitlements and forced redistribution of land, and his own nation-wide theft.

When did we start accepting lies as the normal state of government? Until LBJ, perhaps, lies were the exception rather than the rule. We resented them. LBJ was a Texas-sized liar and braggart of the first order. He sent me to war with a lie. He killed my friends with the same lie. But, no, there were thousands of lying politicians before him.

Today, Dec 13, 2022, gummint lying has become almost acceptable, expected even. We have no border crisis. We have no inflation. Our exit from Afghanistan was honorable. Lenin and Goebbels would have recognized all this.

COVID is a thing of the past, says the president, but mask mandates are again on the way. "Obedience masks" Tucker Carlson called them. But who am I obeying? Fed and state gummints? Why?

I've had COVID, thus I have some sort of natural immunity for a while. Don't know how long, sure, or how much, but SOME immunity. I've been vaxxed twice, boosted three times and I'm STILL in a vulnerable category, being old and all. There isn't any proof that the vaccines work but we still get them.