Turns out the “poncey” class in Great Britain didn’t realize that a third of their wealth was going to be washed away by their xenophobic vote to leave the European Union. It’s a shame that the English people have been led astray by their nobility for so long. It seems like after a few hundred years you’d get past the idea that the monarchy has your best interests at heart.
Anglophile Americans have been a curiosity to me for a long time. I clearly remember my American history lessons about the Revolutionary War and the return bout in 1812. Since reading the stories, I’ve held the sanctity of American heroes like Washington, Henry, Revere, and others close to my heart and mind. These men were beacons of freedom that shone the light on the disgraceful colonization practices of the monarchy. The American patriots were prepared to “give me freedom or give me death” in their quest to be free of the yoke of the British monarchy. Clearly, they hadn’t seen the Netflix series “The Crown.”
Before we get into a conversation of “that was then and this is now,” let’s discuss the possibility that America lost the Revolution. In the course of the last 246 years do we think the Monarchy would have displayed their benevolence by granting the Americas their freedom? What example could one cite of the country that is currently free that gained their independence from England without a fight?Furthermore, would an enslaved America been able to come to the rescue of the Monarchy in two World Wars? There is a strong possibility that we would all be speaking German now if not for our brave Revolutionary heroes.
It’s hard to realize when you’re at the top of an empire on which the sun never sets that the best thing for your longevity might be strong independent Allies and not colonies, but the Monarchy has never been accused of being the sharpest knives in the drawer. Centuries of in-breeding will do that. Close control of the gene pool allows for fascinating examples of natural selection like hemophilia and the occasional tragedies like Elizabeth’s cousins. While it’s true that the hoi polloi should only concern themselves with the royals that are in the direct line of ascension, it is interesting to note what a drain on the country’s resources the extended family requires. In March of 2019, the Sovereign Grant Reserve amounted to £44.4 million a year. Not bad work if you can get it, but I hear you have to be born to it.
On a related note(s), come we now to the kerfuffle caused by young Harry, third in line of succession, to attempt to alter the gene pool a bit. He and his poor wife Meghan were so outraged by their treatment by the Monarchy that they decided to leave the royals behind and hide in obscurity in Hollywood where they will be photographed every time they change their shoes and forced to create documentaries for Netflix. I guess the point here is that they wanted to shape their story rather than adhere to the one doled out by the royal family. The question becomes, how do you continue to live like a royal when you’ve cut ties with granny? Netflix specials, that’s how!
I don’t wish them ill; I wish them obscurity. I wish all of them obscurity. Like the horse and buggy, their time has passed. In modern times it might be fun to take the occasional horse and buggy ride, but let’s not keep them as our primary source of transportation because of tradition. Move on. Charles has the ability to dissolve the royal family and release all of the existing colonies to self- determination. Do it. It’s certainly worked for Ireland, or at least most of it. Looks like Scotland has finally got a clue. “The Crown” portrays Charles as an enlightened thinker, time to prove it. I’m in favor of England, like the cheese, standing alone. We’ll see how it goes.
Further news from Colorado Springs gay bar shooting indicates that the shooter had issues with his own sexuality, possibly. The court filing by his attorneys’ requests that the shooter be addressed as they/them and that the shooter self-identifies as non-binary.
After listening to the confusing, bizarre interviews with the shooter’s father, a former porn actor, it’s not that much of a leap to imagine that the son would presume that his dad would prefer to remember the son as a jihadist rather than a homosexual. As the history of the shooter’s life is revealed, it looks like there’s going to be a plethora of times when someone should have intervened and gotten the shooter help, but didn’t. The family is steeped in a right wing theology by all reports, so maybe inclusiveness was not part of the discussion around the dinner table.
Another place where diversity can’t be discussed is Florida, anywhere in Florida. Ron De Satan, current governor of Florida and future presidential candidate of the White Nationalist Party, has decreed that any discussion of sexual orientation is off limits. In his “don’t say gay” legislation, De Satan said teaching kindergarten-aged kids that “they can be whatever they want to be” was “inappropriate” for children. This statement is spinning a couple of unusual ways in my head.
Back in the days when the planet was still cooling and dinosaurs ruled the earth, it was a popular misconception that children were turned gay by attributes of one or the other parent. Domineering mother and shy father, “poof” gay son. Father who always wanted a son but had a daughter, “poof” gay daughter. There was blessed little concept that orientation occurred pre-birth. It had to be bad parenting, and children can be recovered from bad parenting. The fear of being deemed a “bad parent” clouded everyone’s relationships.
Now we learn from the De Satan brain trust that telling a child “they can be whatever they want to be” will be the catalyst to turning a generation of would-be insurrectionists into interior decorators. Oh my god, if only that were true.
De Satan was not happy with just picking on teachers and little children, though. He decided to throw his weight around with one of the state’s largest employers, Disney. Disney’s employees spoke up and rose up about the unfairness of the governor’s decree. Disney was faced with the hardest of corporate challenges, taking a stand. To their credit, the Disney hierarchy publicly condemned the “Don’t Say Gay” decree and then the battle was engaged.
De Satan responded by denying a tax advantage that Disney had been granted when they began construction in the swamp of the Orlando environs back in 1967. Governor De Spiteful had calculated that Disney couldn’t just pick up and move the 27,000-acre theme park. All he had to do was change the tax base for Disney and place the burden on the surrounding flaming liberal communities of Orlando. De Spiteful would show them who was boss by golly.
We can well imagine that the homeowners in central Florida affected by the tax change probably didn’t discuss their tax increase in positive terms. We can imagine that the taxpayers didn’t attribute their loss of income to their evil despotic homophobic autocratic governor. No, we can imagine where the blame will be laid. Just remember when you talk about it, “don’t say gay.”
Comes the news this week, just in time to reflect on all of the things that we have to be thankful for, that the Republican party is planning on trading on Kyle Rittenhouse’s celebrity as a stone-cold killer to further their stranglehold on the right-wing nut jobs.
Talk about a “match made in heaven.” This is the party that pontificates that had Jesus had an AR15 he would not have been crucified. Their theory depreciates the fact that Jesus died for our sins, a tenet of their deeply held Christian views. The Republicans are willing to let our salvation be delayed to have one more shot at owning the libs. Like so many other issues that would be meaningful to help the “every man,” the Republicans choose to run off on tangents to avoid helping to eliminate any of the problems that they ran their campaigns on.
In the five points of major concern for the newly anointed keepers of Democracy, none of them concern “we the people.” No Social Security, no Women’s Rights, no Healthcare, no DACA, no Respect for Marriage Act, just the same old tar and feather the other guy and hope that your constituents are more concerned with getting a pound of flesh rather than the price of a pound of hamburger.
How is an investigation of Hunter Biden’s laptop going to bring down inflation? How will investigating the Afghanistan withdrawal, which the Donald set the timeline for, bring down the crime rates in the U.S.? How will investigating the Department of Justice’s right to recover stolen documents from Mar-A-Lago impact the Republicans proving their claims of widespread election fraud?
The Republicans have long displayed their preference for knee-jerk reactionism to reality. Allow me to display the latest knee-jerk:
Grinning like a pair of simians that are about to mow down a flock of doves with unregistered automatic weapons, KR and MTG as they are known to the members of their respective Klaverns, are caught celebrating MTG’s introduction of a bill to award KR the legislative branch’s highest award, the Congressional Gold Medal. No, really, MTG wants KR to be recognized for his lifetime achievement of killing innocent citizens. God only knows what she’s got planned for Jeffrey Dahmer.
We can only speculate that MTG’s bill was an attempt to not be outdone by her brother in crazy, Matt Gaetz. Gaetz has floated the proposal that KR would be a welcome addition to his staff. Intern today, inquisitor tomorrow. Who wouldn’t want a clearly emotionally unstable proponent of “shoot first and don’t ask no questions” hanging around the office being rejected for dates by Gaetz’s staff of almost legal female interns? I can’t imagine the tension when Sadie Hawkins day brings no offers.
Kyle’s got the bona-fides to be a successful Republican congress critter. He knows how to beat a rap. He’s adept at overstating his qualifications and he’s completely delusional about his self-worth and importance. Of course, the republican hierarchy have helped a lot with his world view by blowing smoke up his skirt about the importance of his act of murder in Kenosha. Unfortunately, Kyle has taken their praise and attempted to market it in a video game that would allow players “to shoot fake news turkeys.”
The Republican party adding the normalization of murder, and insurrection to their old standards of graft and corruption. Same as it ever was.
You know, the funny thing about politics is that the politician’s family is supposed to be off limits to the criticisms and slanders thrown at the politician. It seems like such a small thing to do, to leave the family out of the fray. I get that politics is blood sport now, but if MMA fighters started tearing into their opponents entourage, someone would call “foul”, right? I think the “off limits” rule should apply as long as the politician’s family doesn’t decide to mix it up politically. Clearly the physical attack of Nancy Pelosi’s husband by a would-be assassin and the follow up character assassination by the right-wing nut job pundits is an example of how the family should be left out of the argument as long as they are not active themselves. That said, once you get into nepotism, the gloves can come off.
Just for grins let’s forecast a nightmare 2024 election result and the Donald has returned to the throne that he had built specifically for the occasion. He has named Don Jr. Secretary of Defense, Eric Secretary of Treasury, Jared Secretary of State, and Ivanka First Lady-in-Waiting. Obviously, family in that situation should be open to all of the scrutiny due the candidate. Of course, in that nightmare scenario, there would be no more agencies to provide scrutiny. The appointment of Rudy Giuliani to Attorney General and Roger Stone to head the FBI would negate any self- introspection of the administration.
All of that said, the Donald made his announcement this week that he is running again for dictator of the planet. Everyone’s favorite prevaricator formally threw his hat in the ring for the 2024 presidential race. The hat thrown into the ring was not the Donald’s hat actually, it was snatched from the head of a sycophant standing at ringside. The Donald loyalist is now working as a truck stop lizard to be able to earn enough money to replace the hat and continue their $19.99 a month commitment to Make America Great Again.
The announcement speech was offered to all of the networks and even Faux news cut away for a round table discussion while the Donald wandered aimlessly through the desert of his discontent. Interspersed with promises of taking America to places it has never been before, that hits an 11 on the “pucker factor” doesn’t it, the Donald regaled the audience with the abuses he has received from a free people exercising their rights. The famous wit and writer Molly Ivins might have commented about the diatribe, “It sounded better in the original German.” Which brings me to my point.
First wife Ivana said that the only book on the Donald’s night stand was of Hitler’s speeches. Over the years we have had ample examples of the Donald’s xenophobia, his racism, his bigotry, and hatred for anything that doesn’t fit his worldview of white supremacy. We’ve seen how this worldview plays out. There are parts of Europe that are still rebuilding from World War II, eighty years later. Rather than plagiarize Hitler’s Generalplan Ost why can’t the Donald and the republican party break out in a new direction and lead us to some place better than we’ve already been?
Of course, a new direction requires new thinking, a new plan, and the ability to communicate the new paradigm to others. It’s just easier to cheat off of someone else’s work, I guess.
With all of the mean despicable things being said on the campaign trail, all of the spiteful allegations back and forth, the insurrectionists still flaunting their guns and all of the election deniers denying the peoples’ will, I’d like to take today’s discussion to a higher level. The act of legalizing recreational marijuana is underway in Missouri. Missouri, slab dab in the middle of all of those red states that want to take us back to the 1850s. Missouri is the 21st to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use. Somewhere in well-tended mausoleums, Messrs. Anheuser and Busch are spinning in their quiet repose. The millions spent on lobbyists to keep alcohol as the only legal over the counter sedative is going the way of the dodo bird. While more and more states make inroads in the legalization process whether by allowing “medical marijuana” or outright legalization let’s talk about those groups financially opposed to legalization.
1. Drug Companies – The drug industry spent 145 million on lobbying in 2015. No, not all of it was on marijuana suppression, but it was certainly a topic. How can you sell pain relief when it can be grown in a window box? Currently, California’s marijuana industry is worth about $5.3 billion dollars. New York’s first year of legalization was 2021 and estimates were that the revenue would be 1.1 billion. That’s a lot of Soma not being sold by the drug companies.
2. Police Unions – In addition to the billions received from the federal government in the form of grants for pursuing drug enforcement, many police jurisdictions enjoy the possibility of asset forfeiture when they make a drug bust. As long as marijuana is listed by the DEA as a schedule 1 drug, police departments will benefit from their pursuit of even casual users.
3. Private Prisons – The topic of private prisons has been covered before and there is no question that private prisons lobby on behalf of establishing as stringent laws as possible to protect their bottom line. “Heads” in the beds is their business model and reducing the number of incarceration offenses effects their profits.
4. Prison Guard Unions – For the same reasons as the private prisons, prison guards are self- interested in keeping the prisons full. The California Correctional Peace Officers association gave one million dollars to help defeat Proposition 5 which would have “reduce[d] the parole terms of nonviolent [drug] offenders.” It’s easy to see that Cheech & Chong would be easier to deal with than Charlie Manson.
5. Alcohol Companies – The American Alcohol industry has spent over 237 million in lobbying over the last two election cycles. We can assume that the money wasn’t all spent on dropping the legal age to 14. The alcohol industry’s self-interest is totally aligned with opposing legalization of marijuana for recreational use. From this study, “Compared to all other states that did not legalize recreational cannabis, Colorado households showed a 13% average monthly decrease in purchases of all alcoholic products combined. That fact seems to suggest that the alcohol industry is right to fear the legalization of the devil’s weed.
The CDC lists the following long-term effects of alcohol use:
High blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, liver disease, and digestive problems.
Cancer of the breast, mouth, throat, esophagus, voice box, liver, colon, and rectum.
Weakening of the immune system, increasing the chances of getting sick.
Learning and memory problems, including dementia and poor school performance.
Mental health problems, including depression and anxiety.
Social problems, including family problems, job-related problems, and unemployment.
Alcohol use disorders, or alcohol dependence
I guess you could say the stakes couldn’t get any higher.
Something that has been showing more bark than bite lately is the dialogue between the Republican establishment and their insurrectionist “there are no fair elections unless I win” candidates. Potential Trump heirs to the throne and likely vice president nominees are jockeying for favor with the “I’m crazier and meaner than you” crowd.
Once upon a time we had the expectation in this country of candidates that were above average, if not in intelligence, at least in morals and decency. Now we are faced with a race to the bottom of the human intellect in a dystopian future where only the crazies rise to the top. Clarification, the mean crazies. If the fate of our country, and the perception of the rest of the world were not issues, it would be laughable. As it is, it’s scary for all.
For example, John Boehner, former speaker of the House and friend to everyone not named Obama, described perennial candidate Ted Cruz as “Lucifer in the flesh.” In a speech at Stanford university, Boehner stated, “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.”
Now from a contrarian point of view, that’s pretty high praise for someone who wants to be perceived as an outsider. You just know that Boehner has dealt with some really difficult personalities over the years, and to be called out as the number one SOB of them all is quite a prize. The Cruz did try to damage control the statement by pointing out that his inability to get along with any of his constituents in Congress just verified his “outsider” bona fides. I don’t think that I’ve heard a denial from Cruz about the Lucifer part.
To their credit, a group of Satanists have gone on record as saying, “Satanists do not “want” Cruz and that he “is everything opposite of what we represent.”I guess you’ve hit rock bottom when the Satanists won’t take you in.
There are certainly links here for Bible scholars. The story of Revelations tells of a false prophet who is believed to be the second coming of Jesus. It is widely stated that Cruz’s wife, Heidi, heard the voice of God telling her that her hubby would be the next President. Ted even used God’s intervention to explain his win in the Iowa primary against the Donaldwhen running for the Republican primary in 2018. Ted’s Dad was out preaching to anyone that would listen that The Cruz was divined to win the Presidency to turn the tables on the wealthy. Sounds like the setup to a disaster movie where a guy becomes the most powerful man in the world and then turns out to be an absolute nutcase. Oh, that’s right, we’ve already seen that movie.
To offset the damage to his rep done by Boehner’s statements, and the rather sound beating in the primaries by The Donald, The Cruz has been on a mission from God/Satan to prove that he indeed is the most miserable SOB ever. This week, after one of the Maggats that had drunk too much of the Crazy Kool Aid tried to kill Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s husband, The Cruz helped spread rumors that the assailant was known by the victim, that the encounter was some kind of a meetup that went bad. The Cruz had not a whit of concern for the eighty-two-year-old man that had been bashed in the head by a hammer.
Not to be outdone in the race to the bottom of human cruelty, Georgia representative, Marjorie Taylor Greene announced that the attack was the result of the Democrats lax immigration policies. She went on to opine that if Paul Pelosi had been a “Second amendment gun owner” that he could have shot his attacker dead. To give the full depth of her depravity I must quote MTG’s Tweet, “It’s dangerous Democrat policies that led to Paul Pelosi being attacked.”
Evangelicals like The Cruz and MTG believe in The Rapture and that the righteous will be “called up” ahead of the rest of us. I would assume that his call to Heaven would be sufficient to get him out of the hair of the rest of us mere mortals. Although, if he is the “Second Coming,” I guess he gets to choose what he wants to do most. Take his seat at the right hand of God or run again to be President of the United States. Decisions, decisions, decisions.
One decision that should be easy for The Cruz is who to pick for his running mate. Picking one of the meanest hateful women on the planet as your V.P would be a fait accompli. No doubt she will accept. Her acceptance should scare the bejesus out of Cruz. MTG is someone who is willing to get down and roll in the mud for delusional Bible thumpers and Qanon nutjobs alike. What would be on her list of things that she wouldn’t do to get to sit behind the Resolute desk?
Like I said before, if the fate of our country, and the perception of the rest of the world were not issues, we’d be having a good chuckle. As it is, it’s scary, on a Biblical scale.
Gorgeous weather yet again. We are a little behind in rainfall this month. I’ve noticed a little parching of the bedding plants, but not enough to get alarmed about. I’m just thankful that our specific area has been spared the excesses of weather that have been visited on most of the rest of the country. Whether it’s droughts or floods, it all seems to be at that level of “500-year events” that are supposed to only occur, like, well, every 500 years. What the heck is happening?
We have been so much more fortunate this year than folks to the West or South of us. I can’t imagine the amount of rain that they’ve had in Dallas this year. Calling all of the animals together two by two would be considered a good idea if you lived in the Dallas environs.
Biblical floods are not something we worry too much about here in the foothills of the Appalachians. After all, we are on high ground here, for the most part.There have been problems to the North of us, like in the valleys of West Virginia, for example. Runoff from the West Virginia hills has flooded whole towns in some parts of the area.
It is our “convenient truth” to be in an area that has had relatively normal weather. While fires continue to rage out West, the mid-west is being devastated by tornadoes, high winds and now a drought that has allowed people to literally walk on the Mississippi river bed. Florida and other areas have been devastated by a super hurricane causing billions of dollars of damage and displacement for hundreds of thousands. The polar caps continue to melt, and the snow is pink because an algae is growing in it. Sea levels continue to rise and threaten coastal populations all around the world.
If you are a believer of the mystical, strange, and weird, it’s like Nostradamus was reincarnated in the body of Al Gore. How else do you explain all of Gore’s predictions from “An Inconvenient Truth“ coming true unless he is somehow supernatural and connected to Vishnu? Who could have had enough information nearly twenty years ago to be able to predict the weather catastrophes that are occurring not every 500 years, but every year? Not Nostradamus, but Al Gore and a ton of scientists that studied the climate and determined the path that big oil had put us on was not sustainable very much longer, that’s who.
Twenty years later we see that the facts and the science behind the predictions of “An Inconvenient Truth“. were correct. The fact that was misjudged was the reaction to the truths. Who could have predicted that big oil wouldn’t slow their process in killing the planet one iota? Who could have predicted that the big oil companies wouldn’t diversify and choose to get in on the ground floor of clean renewable energy? Who could have predicted that big oil not only didn’t have a sense of social conscious, but of their own survival? A dead planet requires no gasoline.
Who could have predicted that our elected officials would look the other way until prompted to look into the matter by the insurance companies? Who could have predicted that we who will suffer the most would continue to buy gas guzzling cars and send climate deniers back to represent us in Washington? Who could have predicted that when the scientific evidence that is all around us proves that change needs to come and come in a hurry, there would still be people more aligned to their cult party affiliations than making a change?
I like to think that even the most diehard climate denier will have to own up to the fact that things are just not right anymore.
As we see racism pop up its ugly head every day in tweets from The Donald; I am reminded that it was eighty-six years ago in 1936, that “Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell was first published. A romantic novel about lost causes, the book was transferred to film in loving detail for the unwashed masses who to this day long for the “good old days.” It does make one wonder if certain topics weren’t romanticized if the public would be more inclined to let go of bad ideas. Bad ideas like racism, antisemitism, and white supremacy.
The book was rated in a Harris poll in 2014 to be the second most popular book in the world, just behind the Bible. The film was a resounding success and won all of the awards possible including the first Academy Award won by a Black actor. The movie was seen by everyone that could get to a theater and was an annual event for most families when television began broadcasting it over the airwaves.
Though the tone of the movie was not as dark and cynical as “Birth of a Nation” all of the now familiar tropes were there. Lazy, shiftless Black men who were solely concentrated on deflowering our genteel southern belles. Offset the shiftless men with the compassion and long-suffering strength of the ultimate female protector, the Black nanny. The Black female that could be trusted with not only our children but the family’s deepest darkest secrets.
Logic is completely dispelled when one tries to reconcile the overwhelming fear of the members of one sex as opposed to the absolute trust given to the other. Do we just assume that the surrogate mothers raising the white children were not applying the same methods and ideologies on their own children? The mind boggles as to how we can ascribe certain qualities to a race of people just because it is more convenient than getting to know the actual person.
And yet here we are, nearly one hundred years from the birth of one of the most revered books of all time and we still can’t address its fallacies.
Like the members of the Royal family, most rednecks, and they’re not all in the South, believe that they have racial superiority because of Divine Right. They won the birth lottery and “cain’t nobody” take white right from them. As bad as their life might become, as bad as they may fail, at least they’re not the “other.” God picked them out of the assembly line, painted them white and determined that they would always be the premiere model.
Of course, I’m joking, a little. But even the most “woke” redneck can justify voting for Republicans by using the economy, crime or taxes while ignoring that those three core issues fluctuate no matter which party is in office. As long as there is an issue to point to other than “we’re being replaced” the “compassionate conservative” can ignore all of the other evils perpetuated by the Republican party and vote for candidates that no longer hide their distaste for democracy. It’s out there in plain sight now, the Republicans have embraced an autocrat that uses hatred and bigotry to stoke up the base. Their fear of color is overwhelming.
I live in a “minority/majority” city. Atlanta was officially a Black majority in the 1970 census. Fifty years of Black mayors and councilmen and we’re still here. We’re not only here, but we’re also thriving. Atlanta is the jewel of the South and opportunities abound for people of all colors and persuasions. In my eyes, the people causing most of the problems are the good old boys who can’t let go of the “good old days.”
To me, an aging white person, the last fifty years have been the good old days.
Following up my discussion last week about things that can kill you, I’ve decided to give voice to some of the other dangers lurking out there.
Global pandemic: looks like most of us dodged the Covid bullet or had sufficient inoculation to avoid a deadly outcome. But what about the next one? What if we continue to dumb down our society and to shortchange the medical community? When the next super bug rises its head will we have the medical minds in place to affect a solution? Will the general public be so devoid of scientific knowledge that they don’t trust the solution? Logically, I think that won’t happen, but logic only applies to those of us willing to use it. Cults rarely use logic.
Speaking of things that will keep you awake at night, how about the claim that North Korea has tested a hydrogen bomb? I think the “hydrogen” declaration is being disputed, but apparently, they did set off something big.
As I understand it, the hydrogen bomb takes a level of expertise that is relegated to a handful of countries. North Korea has not yet been a verified member of the “end of the world” club. Considering that the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un seems to have some serious compensation issues, it benefits the world, and the insurance companies to limit his reach.
There was a time, before Ted Turner started buying up all of Russia’s nukes, that the world was set to go into a nuclear “throw down” at a moment’s notice. The “insurance policy” that was in place to keep both sides in check was called “Mutual Assured Destruction.” “MAD” is the perfect acronym for two superpowers slinging thousands of nuclear bombs at one another because one or the other of the leaders “looked at me funny.” To launch a missile attack that would surely bring about the end of the world is, indeed, mad.
So far, we’ve dodged the “nuclear bullet” and neither the Russians nor the United States has gone MAD. Let’s hope we can keep Putin from settling his border dispute with Ukraine from going nuclear. I propose we give him Ivanka, or Jared, or whatever it is he wants that is not more territory, to keep his hands in his pockets and his finger off the button.
By all means Google or follow links on Wikipedia if you want to depress yourself further. It just depresses the heck out of me that we spend so much wealth and intellect on the destruction of life. I get so depressed that it makes me want to eat a Twinkie. The good news is that according to the movies, they’ll survive everything.
As I count down to the dreaded annual physical, I survey all that is about me and declare it to be “not good.” To say that I’m not in as good a shape as I once was, is an understatement of monumental proportions. Heck, I’m not even in as good a shape as I was last year, and that is truly the worrisome part.
How long can you keep eating half as much, and exercising more, to maintain what the medical professionals are calling my “target BMI.” BMI stands for Body Mass Index, which is an acronym to use instead of, “you’re the perfect weight for someone seven feet tall, the problem is, you’re five feet ten inches tall.” According to my BMI, I’m 7’4″.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for improving everyone’s health. Even if it’s the insurance companies driving the bus. Insurance companies fixed the tobacco problem in the United States. Now they’re going after the fat people. I suspect at some point they’ll target alcohol abuse, since they’ll get a twofer, cancer, and car accidents.
Maybe, eventually, the insurance companies will go after the gun manufacturers. I’d love to see it, but I don’t think the numbers support the effort, from the point of view of the insurance companies. There have been 33,675 shooting deaths in the U.S. so far in 2022, 18,282 are suicides. This is just a blip on the radar to the insurance companies. Even if 1,253 of the deaths were children.
The website “National Cancer Institute,” predicts that in 2022, that there will be an estimated 1,900,000 new cancer cases diagnosed and 609,360 cancer deaths in the US. See my point? Even if the gun companies weren’t protected from civil suits by our government, the amount of potential liability from gun deaths pales by comparison to the amount of money spent on cancer treatment.
Using a bit of twisted logic, that only I can employ, it is actually beneficial to the insurance companies if folks shoot each other, rather than die from the traditional causes of heart disease or cancer. Particularly now that we have the Affordable Healthcare Act. Twisted, I know, but these are the big players that are in it for the long game. They have actuaries that can give you a death toll, down to the last gnat, for every area of the world. Why wouldn’t they use that knowledge to their own benefit?
Speaking of twisted logic, how about the realization that the thing that gives us life, is also the thing that hastens our departure?
Yes, I’m talking about food, and I’m not even including the “it’s filled with pesticides and plastics” arguments. I’m talking about having a ready supply of food that has been engineered in focus groups to make us want to eat more. Sweet foods beg for salty foods and salty foods beg for sweet foods, and if they’re combined together, well, let’s just eat all we can. Why would we ever want to get up from the table?
Think about bacon cinnamon rolls or chicken and waffles. Now think about the fat count and caloric values. Is there any wonder why my BMI is higher than Hank Aaron’s lifetime batting average? I think not. At some point the insurance companies will have to put their foot down on America’s eating habits and get us to toe the line, to preserve their bottom line. Until then, I’ve got a Frosty and some fries that I’m entering into a Mutual Assured Destruction pact with. Mine will just take a little longer.
