Blow Up Your TV

We did it!

We finally upgraded from our old, out of date, obsolete, antiquated, ancient, antediluvian, antique, dated, dinosaur tube TV set to a brand spanking new Smart TV.

I remember the time when the TV set was an actual dumb piece of furniture and had to be delivered by two men. Some TV sets had stereos included!

It may come as a surprise to you that the humble Manis family had one of the first COLOR TV sets in Beverly Hills. (Our subdivision in East Cobb not the city in California.)

You would not believe what a big deal they made out of COLOR TVs. You could see "Gomer Pyle, USMC" in COLOR!  (Like it would have made a difference.)

Now we were not pretentious. We had a simple COLOR TV, not one of those monstrosities that had the stereo included which had to be delivered by a crane. Nope, we had a simple COLOR TV.

It came in handy when I made my television debut on "The Popeye Club" as "kid in white shirt sitting in the third row."

When it comes to children's television, I rank "The Popeye Club" as number one because:  it was a local Atlanta show and they didn't try to teach kids to become Democrats.  It was just a guy (Officer Don) and a dragon (Orville, who was green). Office Don would have the kids play some games like "The Ooey-Gooey Bag" and watch Popeye cartoons. It was great.

You actually had to "turn the channel" to find something to watch. In the Atlanta area, you had the choice of 2. 5, or 11. If you thought you were better than everyone else, you could turn the channel to channel 8, which was the "educational channel".

Having a color TVwas a big deal because in a few years you could watch "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In".  Kids today have no idea how big this show was and how much parents hated it.  It was dancing, corny jokes and catchphrases like "Here comes the judge", "Very interesting", and "Sock it to me"

It may surprise you that Marion and Inez (my parents) were not too keen on "Laugh-In".  Mom didn't like what she called "silliness".  My dad thought everybody associated with "Laugh-In" came from another planet, if not from another solar system.

So when "Laugh-In"  was on, the COLOR TV set was on the show God wanted us to watch: "Gunsmoke". That meant I had to watch "Laugh-In" on the old black and white set in my bedroom. I remember this one particular skit:

Ugly Lady (sitting on a park bench)

Dirty Old Man (walks up and sits next to the Ugly Lady):  "Say, do you believe in the hereafter?"

Ugly Lady: "I most certainly do"

Dirty Old Man:  "Good. Now you know what I'm here after."

Ugly Lady (hits Dirty Old Man repeatedly with her purse).

You can't imagine how funny that was in 1970.

All through the years, I have followed the changes in television.  First, it was cable. You went from five channels to four hundred, with half of them being either Spanish channels, Shopping channels, or preacher holding microphone channels.

Then it was VCR. You rented VCR tapes at a store, usually a Blockbuster. I can't tell you how many times I have yelled at a pimple faced kid about charging me a late fee for a return and having him remove the fee. For some reason, when I got home I would remember that I did return that movie late.

Time marches on and soon Blockbuster only rented DVDs and you had to buy a DVD player. which I did.

Then, God and his mercy provided something called On Demand for your cable package and you no longer had to go to Blockbuster to rent a DVD.

Now there is something called "streaming" and don't ask me to explain it. There are services like Netflix and Amazon Prime which streams movies, old TV shows, and original programs via a "Smart TV" which is the type of TV we bought.

We have already watched the two seasons of  "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" on Amazon Prime. It is about a young divorcee who stumbles into becoming a stand-up comic in the late '50s. It is a very funny show. It has several historical lapses, like having Bob Newhart becoming famous two years before he became famous and people dropping F-bomb like they were in a Martin Scorsese movie.

We have also finished the first season of "Stranger Things" on Netflix.  I know, 2016 called and it is looking for its Pokemon Go.

I can't describe what "Stranger Things" is about except it is about some kids on bicycles and monsters. It is sort of like "Twin Peaks" but without the dancing midgets. I liked "Stranger Things'.

I  paid to have the store where I bought the Smart TV to come out and install it in my house. I was pretty sure if I attempted it, I would somehow set the house on fire.

They sent only one man. He set it up in 30 minutes. He didn't even bring a crane.

The People Speak On Fast Food.

Last week, the topic was fast food joints.

This week, the topic is fast food joints.

Yes, a multi-week treatment on the same topic. Don't try this at home kids, I'm a professional. (Actually, I'm not, but people have paid me for my e-books, which by the way, are still for sale.).

I decided to do what all great media outlets do now: go to social media to see what "the people" think if by "people" you mean those that respond to questions on social media.

I placed this question on my Facebook page: "What’s your favorite fast food restaurant that’s not named Chick-fil-A? Please tell why. Also, your least favorite and why." 

I was genuinely interested in what my Facebook friends favorite fast food restaurants were and I am also convinced Chick-fil-A is the best fast food restaurant around. The reason is simple: their food is great and their help is good.  I've heard complaints about their "forced and insincere" response to thank you ("my pleasure"). I'll take a forced and insincere "my pleasure" over a sincere mumbled "no problem" any day.

I'm happy to say my nephew Robert was the first responder and one of the few that answered the question in full.  He said, "Cookout is my favorite fast food restaurant, because they have good bbq, burgers, and shakes. Least favorite would be McDonald's, I don't think I have to state why."

Cookout is a relatively new restaraunt and their hamburgers are very good. You also get a lot for your money. Which is probably the reason they seem to be around college towns.  The first time I heard of Cookout is when my son was in school at Georgia Southern University (School Motto:  "It is Five O'Clock somewhere")

My Son:  "Dad, there's a great place in Statesboro called Cookout."
Me:  "Why aren't you studying?"
My Son:  "I've graduated."

Scott Hardesty, who is one of the funniest people of Facebook said, "What-A-Burger (or as it's pronounced in Texas, "Waterburger") I always get a triple meat and cheese on a heart-healthy wheat bun."

 

I knew as soon as I posted my question, one of my Texas friends would mention Whataburger.  There is one Whataburger in Georgia. Thomasville.  Forty billion people in Atlanta and you put your only restaurant in the state in Thomasville, which is the second largest city in Southwest Georiga with a population of 18,515.  

As a heads up to the Cathy family, Randy "Tater" McArthur says this about Whataburger's breakfast menu: "The "Waterburger" chicken biscuit with honey butter melted on it is to die for. Just don't try to eat them driving. Will make you forget Chick fi la's name"  

 You ought to pay attention to Randy "Tater" McArthur when it comes to driving. He once drove a Chevelle halfway up "The Sky Slide", which was a big blue slide we had in Marietta, Georgia in the 60's.  Randy "Tater" McArthur will not confirm if alcohol was a factor in deciding to drive a Chevelle halfway up The Sky Slide.

Another not-in-Georgia restaurant is In-N-Out.  It must be something because I see people wearing their t-shirts all of the time. I hear people talking all of the time that it is the greatest hamburger of all time. The nearest In-N-Out is in Texas.  Does that seem fair to you? 

The fabulous John Spiller wrote: "What about the V? Cause we all need a dose of vitamin G! Better than most laxatives". Spiller (or as his friends call him, "Spiller") is talking about The Varsity, which now has several locations in the Atlanta area. The mother ship is in Upper Mid-Town Atlanta across the Interstate from Georgia Tech.

The "vitamin G" he mentions is grease, which all Varsity "o-rings" are drenched in. Besides being called "The V", The Varsity is also referred to as "The Greasy V".

All of this grease does terrible things to the insides of your tummy  I do not recommend long car trips (i.e.: any car trip longer than three miles from your favorite toilet) after eating at The Varsity.  I can confirm, however, that physicians are not using a Varsity Chili Dog and Onion Rings as a prep to clean patients out for a colonscopy.  At least not at the present time.  

Another friend, Jim "No Relation To Paul) McCartney mentions two Boston area fast food restaurants I had never heard of before:  Clover and BGood. As a part of my commitment to journalism, I took it upon myself to research these two restaurants.  In other words, I looked up their menus on Google.

BGood looks like a restaurant I would go into.  They serve "craft burgers" (what this means, I don't know, but I assume it is good for you). Their website says, "We want our food to be the roots that connect community and inspire goodness".  I must admit it is classier than the Varsity website which says, "We want our food to go through you very, very fast".

Clover is a true healthy fast food restaurant. They serve something called BBQ Seitan.  I have never heard of Seitan, much less BBQ Seitan.  Jim provided me with some information.  "Seitan is made when wheat flour dough is washed with water until all the starch is removed, leaving just insoluble gluten. This gluten is then cooked  and used as a meat substitute.  Yum.  You can get it with a side order of french fries with Rosemary. ($4.91)

It is not a place where you can order a Diablo sammich with a Dr. Pepper.


Next Week:  Can I squeeze out another blog post on this topic?

My Kind Of Place

My generation is called "The Baby Boomers".

It refers to those of us born from 1946 to 1964. The soldiers (and in my case, sailor) came home from World War II with one thing on their minds. They created a population explosion the country hadn't seen before and haven't seen since. That population came with mouths that had to be fed.

And so, the fast food restaurant was born.

One of my earliest memories is coming home from my Aunt Elizabeth's house. Aunt Elizabeth (or as we pronounced it "Lizbeth") had a 'beauty parlor" called "Elizabeth's Style Shop".   She was my mom's "stylist" and mom would have to take me with her when she went to "the beauty parlor" (Aunt Lizbeth's house) because I was too young to leave at home.

We always visited one place on the way back home. A small fast food joint located where Powers Ferry Road met Roswell Road called "Burger Chef". We'd get two burgers and two small bags of fries. The fries were always hot and salty. A love affair was born: me and hamburgers with an order of fries.

It looked like this

Some people are hot dog people. Some people are pizza people.  Some people like tacos. Put me down as a hamburger guy.  I can always eat a hamburger. A piece of meat between two buns.

It was at school I heard of a place that was even better than Burger Chef.  It was called McDonald's.

We had a McDonald's in Marietta, but it was on "The Four Lane" (US 41).  It wasn't that far away from us, but "The Four Lane" was a busy road and Mom didn't want to hassle with making a left-hand turn with a bunch of yard apes in the car.

I'm not sure of the exact date, but I'm pretty sure Nixon was President.  A McDonald's opened on Roswell Road. Soon Burger Chef became the second choice.

McDonald's was pretty nifty back then.

They had a song:  "McDonald's is my kind of place. A clean and snappy place"

McDonald's introduced a new hamburger, "The Big Mac" with a song too. "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun".  That came out in 1974.  45 freaking years ago.  I've had my cell phone number 21 years and still don't know my cell phone number.

You had other fast food joints by then.  Burger King, which lets you have it your way. This was a slap at McDonald's because McDonald's promised you real fast food if you wanted it the way McDonald's made it.

Wendy's came to town. You could actually watch them make your hamburger if you are into that sort of thing.

I liked them all. Burger King's Whopper was good, but their fries were just okay. Wendy's hamburgers were great but their fries were thick and crusty.  McDonald's got you with their fries.

McDonald's started going downhill, in my opinion, when they began to emulate Burger King and Wendy's and to try to satisfy every customer.

At one time, getting more than one pack of ketchup from McDonald's took a subpoena. Lord don't order a hamburger without a pickle. It may take you years to get that burger. Just get the burger as they made it and take the pickle off when you got to your seat. What are you, a Rockefeller?

Now, you can order a Big Mac without a pickle if you want to be a hipster heretic. You can even get iced coffee at McDonald's and it is way better (and cheaper) than at Starbucks.

I purposefully went to McDonald's the other day.  I admit it. Their advertising got me. The sons of Donald Draper hooked me line and sinker to try a Quarter Pounder with bacon.

As the nation gets more anal retentive it is nice to know that while bacon is not good for you, it sure is awesome.  I would say more, but I'm afraid Jim Gaffigan might have it copyrighted.

They also have a new treat: Bacon and Cheese Fries. You can't tell me there's not a God.

Well, my quick review: the Quarter Pounder with bacon was okay. Not as good as I thought it would be, but it wasn't bad. The Bacon and Cheese Fries was bacon bits with that melty cheese you put on nachos.  When you got the cheese and the bacon on the fries, it was pretty good. However, most of it was cheese fries and it is messy. Duh.

Maybe I've outgrown McDonald's.  The best fast food place is Chick-fil-A, hands down. No question. They act like they want you there.  But McDonald's has always been there and will always be there because it is a hap, hap happy place even if the ice cream machine is broken.

Next Week:  The People Speak.

The Refs

Okay, Okay, New Orleans, we heard you the first time.

Y'all were robbed, ripped off, shafted, screwed, cheated and you had a Super Bowl stolen from you due to something called Spontaneous Blindness on the part of the referees

I'll let NOLA.Com, the New Orleans online news paper describe what happened.

"With 1 minute and 45 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, and the game tied 20-20, the Saints faced third-and-10 at the Los Angeles 13. Quarterback Drew Brees threw a pass along the right sideline to wide receiver Tommylee Lewis, and Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman leveled Lewis before the ball arrived. However, none of the officials threw a flag."

It was textbook pass interference.  It wasn't a "judgment call". It was pass interference because Robey-Coleman did what he had to do to prevent a possible touchdown, just like he's been taught all of his life.


But, there was no flag. New Orleans lost the game to Los Angeles. And New Orleans went bonkers.

You have never seen bonkers like a New Orleans bonkers. Like everything New Orleans, it was way over the top involving law suits, speeches on the Senate floor and your basic whining. The good times stopped rolling in The Big Easy.

It would be easy to tell the good folks in New Orleans to get over it. But, they have a point. If a ref can't see that, what is he doing in the business?

It is sort of that way with the news media.

It is important to have a free and independent news media.They are the referees of society. They  are the ones to let us know what is going on at City Hall, the County Commission  and all the way up to the White House.  They are the ones entrusted with letting us know what all of those knuckle heads are really doing-not what they say they are doing.

By the way, I hate that quote from  "Mr. Dooley":  "The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable".

No, it is not. The job of the news media is to tell the story as accurately as possible. 


Two recent stories have revealed a new purpose of the news media.  The purpose of the news media is to somehow get rid of The How In The Hell Did He Get To Be President, President Trump.

Buzzfeed reported the latest blockbuster news that President Trump told his lawyer, Michael Cohen to lie to Congress.  Lying to Congress is a clear impeachable offense. The problem: Buzzfeed said their source came from inside Robert Mueller's Independent Counsel's office.  Mueller's office issued a tweet stating that it was not true.  Buzzfeed stands by their story. Good luck with that guys.

The second story is the now all-too-familiar story of The Covington Catholic Kids at The Lincoln Memorial.  It had all of the elements of a great story  Race. Wise Indigenous "Elderly Man" (wait, he's only four years older than me). MAGA hats. Smirking.

I did not realize smirking was such a big crime in America. 

A lot of Blue Check Mark people of Twitter condemned these kids and one, in particular, that was pictured standing in front of the   "Elderly Man" beating a drum.  According to the Blue Check Mark people, this one kid was smirking.

That infuriated a lot of people.  How dare he smirk at an elderly man beating a drum in his face!

One journalist said this:

"And to all you aggrieved folks who thought this Gillette ad was too much bad-men-shaming after we just saw it come to life with those awful kids and their fetid smirking harassing that elderly man on the Mall: Go [expletive] yourselves".

Twitter was going on a couple of minutes of the tape. Other tapes show something different, which it wasn't this gigantic crime against humanity that the original story portrayed.  As late as Wednesday night, some in the news media were still trying to demonize these kids, who were just living their own personal Bonfire of The Vanities.

By the beginning of the week, we learned that the news media totally botched this story, basically making a mountain out of a molehill.  The first story in  The New York Times was titled: "Boys In 'Make America Great Again Hats Mob Native Elder at Indigenous Peoples March.”.  The next story they ran, after the fog of baloney dissipated, was titled:  "Fuller Picture Emerges of Viral Video of Native American Man and Catholic Students.”

This story was just too good to investigate.  It checked all of the boxes, particularly the new odd one that we have to fear roaming bands of Catholic School boys.

It all goes back as a reflection on Trump and how he "empowers" hate groups by making them wear red hats and smirking at elderly men

The problem is the news media for years have been picking the good guys and the bad guys. You can tell the good guys by their drums, the bad guys by their smirks.

When the press totally messes up a story like this one, it is like the refs missing a pass interference call in the football game.  It doesn't make you trust the refs.

Catlin Flanagn says this in The Atlantic:

"I am prompted to issue my own ethics reminders for The New York Times. Here they are: You were partly responsible for the election of Trump because you are the most influential newspaper in the country, and you are not fair or impartial. Millions of Americans believe you hate them and that you will casually harm them. Two years ago, they fought back against you, and they won. If Trump wins again, you will once again have played a small but important role in that victory."

Don't You Forget About Me

Okay, millennials, I have something to confess to you.

Baby Boomers (born from 4,000BC to 1964) have been playing a little joke on you.

We will make a cultural reference from our youth just to watch the blank stares you give us.

For example, on WSB radio's The Von Haessler Doctrine, the host, Eric Von Haessler will repeat a common Boomer Cultural reference like Mikey from the Life cereal commercial.  Eric's producer, who is two years older than my son, will have no clue who Mikey is and may not have heard of Life cereal.


Boomers do this all the time. We'll talk about what a lady killer Warren Beatty was and a Millennial will ask you who Warren Beatty was.

I first noticed this several years when watching a TV show with some friends.  Sheryl Crow was introduced and she sang a song called "Steve McQueen".  My friend's teenage daughter asked "Who's Steve McQueen?'

I couldn't believe it. But thinking back on it, Steve McQueen had been dead for well over twenty years by then, so there was no real reason for her to know about Steve McQueen.  I didn't know anything the stars from my parents' youth.  I had heard of Jack Benny and Bob Hope. But I would bet you most of the Class of 1977 had never heard of Fred Allen and still haven't.

But the problem is and what we (boomers) are trying to prevent what Kyle Smith (Kyle is a millennial name if I've ever heard one) calls "The Great Forgetting".

He describes a MIT professor playing a song in class, asking students to name the artist and the song if possible.  One student, now mind you this is MIT, said "Coldplay".   It was John Lennon and the song was "Imagine".  Smith says, "That’s as close as you can get to iconic, when it comes to a work of popular art. Culturally speaking, it’s just about dead. John Lennon has been gone for 38 years. His work is disappearing from our collective memory".  

The professor, Cesar Hildago, is studying how long "famous" people endure after they die. His estimate is five to thirty years.   Help me if you can I'm feeling down.

Smith goes on to say, "Even very intelligent young people who are highly attuned to popular culture have more or less shrugged off everyone who was famous before they were born. If you can be as famous as John Lennon was and be forgotten in 30 years, fame is even more evanescent than we all thought."

I've experienced this myself with the famous Beatles debates I've had with various millennials over the years.  I will hear a millennial say, "The Beatles are overrated" and I have to argue because it is so stupid.

I know music is all about taste and if someone doesn't like The Beatles, that's okay, everybody has an opinion. But as Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, "You are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own set of facts."  You cannot deny the impact The Beatles had in the short period of time they were together.

Smith says, "These days, in a cultural sense, the only two pre-1960 singers who still linger in the memory are Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley." Like it or not, Bing Crosby barely makes a blip when it is not Christmas and he was one of the most popular singers and actors of his time.

It is not just about music either.  You hear people talk about "Back To The Future" and "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" but rarely about "E.T", the biggest box office hit of the '80s.  "Rain Man" swept the Academy Awards in 1989, but if you go up to a millenal and say "It is time for Wopner", they will look at you like you have two heads.


The problem is we are losing a lot when we forget the past. We lose that Bing Crosby was an incredible singer and performer. We lose "Help", "Penny Lane" and "Hey Jude".

But we, and I'm speaking for The Boomers now, are worried that you Millennials will forget about us.  We just wanted y'all to enjoy what we enjoyed. We should have known you wouldn't. We did the same thing to our parents and our parents' friends.

Time Keeps On Slippin'

You may remember that a couple of years ago I was knee deep in class reunion stuff.

Yes, the Wheeler High School Class of 1977 had their fortieth reunion in 2017 and I helped out and gave a little humor speech, that was mainly about "rolling".

If you don't know what "rolling" is, it is when a bunch of kids get together and throw toilet paper in the trees of a friend's house. Now, some people call this "vandalism" because you are on someone's property, uninvited and throwing toilet paper into trees.  You just can't win with some people.

Back in the mid-'70s, we called this "innocent fun".

Everybody rolled houses. I mean everybody. The Baptist kids, the stoner kids, the nerd kids, the jock kids, and the band kids.

My wife even rolled houses.

One time, my wife was telling me one of her rolling stories. It was about how she and a couple of her friends went out at 2:30 in the morning and rolled this guy's yard.

I listened and said, "Your mother. Let you. Go rolling. At 2:30 in the morning?" My wife's mother was a saint and would not approve of this use of toilet paper at this time in the morning.  Especially for a boy's house.  The boy would learn that it was some girls had rolled his yard and soon he would wonder if they were naked while they rolled the yard.  To be fair, she wasn't wrong, because back in the '70s the only thing boys thought about was naked girls doing things naked (opening a locker, getting the mail, taking an algebra test, etc). By the way, "Doing Things Naked" would be a great name for a band.

My wife looked at me and said in a sexy whisper, "My mother never knew about it."

Rowr!  I responded by requesting her to bring her bad girl self over to me.

I don't hear about rolling anymore.  Maybe it's because of all of the perpetually knotted panty people got their way and it is taboo to throw toilet paper into a friend's tree. I don't know. It might have more to do that if a bunch of kids did go rolling today, all of them would have to post an Instagram story about it as soon as it happened.

What got me into thinking about my reunion, which was very successful I might add, is that it dawned on me that I will turn 60 years old this year.

Five years until I am eligible for Medicare.

I was the last kid born in my immediate family. I was the last kid born on my mother's side of the family.  I was the third to the last kid born on father's side.  I was always the youngest. However, now I am not.

I don't feel 60 years old except for my back, which sometimes feels like 120 years old. My hair is sprinkled with gray, but still, I have all of it. Like the saying goes, I'd rather it turn gray than turn loose.

I try to keep up with pop culture as much as I can.  I know Drake is famous. I'm not sure what for, but he is famous.

To be honest, pop culture is sort of boring to me.  Everybody is "woke" and there are certain things you can say, like the F word except in church and broadcast TV. At least right now.

But, there are a thousand words you can't say and if you do, woe be unto thee.  The Twitter mob will come after to you and convict you without a trial or jury.

Back when I was in high school, there was no GOOGLE.  We had the encyclopedia.  Today, it can take seconds to find information on a topic.  Back then, it took weeks, sometimes months to research a project.

The picture below illustrates this:

This is a picture of some of Wheeler's finest if you have an elastic definition of "finest". (I am the striking young man wearing glasses and the hairstyle called "Combed Once A Week".)

You will notice that we are in the library (or "lie-berry" as the Vice Principal pronounced it) "working" (again: elastic definition) on a research project.  Only one book is open and only one person has a pen.

My point is back then you had to work to obtain information. Now it is at your fingertips.  I told my wife that if we had PCs, tablets, and smartphones back then, I'd probably have at least two PhDs by now. But, there wasn't and now I'm entering "the golden years" with zero PhDs.

I was one of the lucky ones. The Vietnam War ended when I was in 8th grade and they ended the Draft.

Our music was great. Much better than whatever is out now.  Back then, country music was country music written by and for people who wore their names on their work clothes.

Okay, we had disco. Sorry.

One more thing and this is going to show my age: GET OFF OF MY LAWN. Unless you have toilet paper. That stuff is not cheap.

The Goofy, The Crass, And The Tax Lovers

Just when you think things could not get any goofier, here comes the 116th Congress.

Supposedly it is the most "diverse" Congress in history if by diverse you mean more women and minorities.  However, there's not a lot of diversity if you look at the out and out goofiness that was on display.

For example, Arizona Senator Krysten Sinema's swearing-in received a lot of attention.  Here's a sample of some of the headlines from the internet. As the great Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up.  I have added parenthetical comments.

AZ CENTRAL. COM:  Krysten Sinema's dress draws attention at Senate swearing-in.  (Sen. Sinema's dress was, let us say, different, and it certainly drew attention to her swearing-in.)


Huffington Post:  Krysten Sinema's swearing-in look was a bold Queer statement.  (It was a bold statement. It said: DO NOT TAKE ME SERIOUSLY.)


Boing Boing:  Arizona's kick-ass new bisexual Senator took her oath on the U.S. Constitution administered by cringing, homophobic Dominionist Mike Pence  (I'm not sure how many cups of coffee the writer had before writing this headline.  I'm pretty sure, though, Mike Pence was not "cringing" since he had swore-in Richard Grenell as the Ambassador to Germany with Grenell's same-sex spouse holding the Bible. I know a majority of "Boing Boing" readers have no idea what a Dominionist* is.)


It is odd. I listen to Hugh Hewett every weekday morning. I read National Review. I watch Fox News. I never once heard anything about Sinema's sexuality.  It seems to me that we here on the awful right would have at least casually mentioned it. Nope, never did.

However, as bold as Senator Sinema was, it was a distant second to Representative Rashida Tlaib's potty mouth.

In case you have been in a cave, Representative Tlaib said of President Trump, "We are going to impeach the (phrase that rhymes with Brother Trucker)".

So many things to unpack here, but let's give it a try.

I'm about 99% sure Trump will be "impeached" because, according to Yale Law School Graduate Gerald R. Ford, 38th President of The United States, an impeachable offense is anything The House says is an impeachable offense.  For Trump, the impeachable offense is winning The White House.

There is a 0% chance Trump will be removed from office because the Senate would have to expel him and Republicans control the Senate. Absent of a tape where you hear Trump say, "You know, Vladimir, collude in the election and help me win" you will simply not get 60 Senators to remove Trump from office.

So, at best, impeaching Trump will be an empty political gesture.  It does nothing to address infrastructure needs, reform entitlement programs, create economic opportunities, or a host of a hundred million problems that  Congress should be looking at.

As far as the language is concerned, SMH as kids text nowadays.  I'm not sure why the F-dash-dash-dash word has become acceptable in society.  Maybe it is Cable TV. Maybe it is Popular music. It is difficult to find an F-dash-dash-dash word free zone.

To be fair, there have been some Democrats who have condemned  Sliaib's sailor talk. However, Speaker of The House  Nancy Pelosi was her typical homer self when asked about it.

Aunt Nancy said, "You have to weigh the equities. That is not the position of the House Democratic Caucus. The equity to be weighed is: that’s freedom of speech of an individual member. As I said, generationally, that would not be the language I would use, but nonetheless, I don’t think we should make a big deal of it. I really don’t. 

"That’s probably the way people talk. Again, I’m a grandmother. It’s a different story. Words weigh a ton, and the president has to realize that his words weigh a ton, too. Some of the words that he used [have] a direct impact on people’s lives. My colleagues’ comments do not have an impact on people’s lives".

What is so hard in saying it is vulgar language and has no place in our national discourse?  We have spent the last three years clutching our pearls at Trump and his awful vocabulary and The Speaker of The House can't even send a bar of soap to a new member?

Finally, we had our latest national cutie-pie, Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez propose a 70 percent marginal tax rate to create a "Green New Deal" to fight "climate change", which GQ says is sensible.

My question:  why only 70 percent?  Why not 80 or 90 percent?  Shoot, if "climate change" is such an issue, why not a 100 percent?

Yes it is true in the '50s and the '60s the marginal tax rates were up to 90 percent, but, and this is important, the SUPER RICH, did not pay 90 percent of their income in taxes back then. There were deductions and loopholes back then too.  There's no reason to assume there would not be deductions and loopholes now.  It would just make the Super Left feel good because it makes it look like they were doing something.

Plus, let's be transparent and honest.  The only thing Democrats really love is taxes. At least it seems that way.  They can't wait to get into office and raise taxes.  Even here in Cobb County, we had two Democrats elected on to the county's school board. The first thing to come out of their mouths was to raise taxes and have a "conversation" about repealing the senior citizen school tax exemption.

Democrats had (note the word "had") a great opportunity to run towards the middle and create a sensible dialogue that all liberals claim they want.  What this week proves is that they don't want to do this.

*Dominion theology is is a group of Christian ideologies that seek to institute a nation governed by Christians based on their personal understanding of the Bible.



















AOC