December
30, 2021
I got
an unexpected gift this Christmas.
I found the album of Christmas music that we listened to when I was a kid,
And whose music I have tried and failed to replicate with other albums for decades,
And it sounded exactly the same as I remembered it.
How
many things remembered and re-encountered are truly as good as you thought they were?
It
was indeed a gift.
December 30, 2021
When
I read that Hawaii’s coach was blaming his team members’ leaving on a “transfer
portal”, I wondered if they were going through a wormhole, or at least using a
teleporter.
Turns out it’s just a fancy way of saying they’re looking into options for playing elsewhere.
Well,
it sounded fun.
December 30, 2021
New
York’s incoming mayor has a detailed plan to help fight COVID.
That’s
swell, considering he’s being sworn in in Times Square, just after the ball drops,
among a crowd of thousands of New Year’s revelers.
December 15, 2021
I’m amazed
at people who are blaming inflation on the current administration.
Once people started buying more, after pandemic restrictions eased and people went back into the workforce, there were fewer goods available.
Fewer goods means higher prices. Remember how people grabbed toilet paper and hand sanitizer and prices went up because there was less to go around? Or think of a spring that gets really compressed: When the pressure’s off, it sproings back higher than normal before it goes back to its resting level.
Yes, the administration can try putting policies in play that will mitigate the effects; but to say that the current president is responsible for causing inflation defies the basic economics lessons people (should have) learned in high school.
December 30, 2021
Last July, I wrote about Joshua Williams, who was sentenced to 8 years for participation in the Ferguson riots. He committed vandalism, but didn't kill anybody. Prosecutors asked for 15 years, but he got 8.
Lately I've been reading about other sentences handed down: Almost 4 years for a man involved in one of the most violent attacks on police during the Capitol riot; 10 years for a member of a notorious drug gang.
To the best of my knowledge, Joshua Williams is still doing time for smashing a window, stealing some chips, and setting a trash can on fire.
December 30, 2021
I got my day off to a great start this morning. The movie “2012” was playing on cable, and I found it before the good disaster scenes got going. I love that movie. Plot-wise not so great, but special-effects wise: Terrific.
It’s by Roland Emmerich, the king of disaster movies. He did “Independence Day”, about space aliens trying to take over the planet. Although I love “2012” I have to say that space aliens taking over the planet seems way more believable than the Yellowstone volcano blowing up and the people standing right next to it not going deaf. A minor caveat, though.
This guy is so great at disaster flicks, I wonder how he’d do “2020–The Movie”.
December 30, 2021
There was a segment on the morning news about how coronavirus is disrupting travel; in addition to airline backups, some cruise ships are not allowing people to disembark. One passenger interviewed said, "I don't know what we're gong to do."
I dunno. If you're going to be stuck somewhere, there are worse places to be than the Queen Mary 2 (which is where he was).
December 28, 2021
Have you ever heard the phrase, “the red-headed stepchild”? As in, “This
department always gets treated like the red-headed stepchild.” You always come in a distant second when good
things are passed out.
I was listening to a sermon the other day, by a guy who was preaching about David, and how he was just considered ordinary by his family. He said that when Samuel came by to check out the kids for possible kingship, Jesse didn’t even send for David, who was stuck in field watching the sheep. But Samuel refused to sit down and eat until David was summoned.
The preacher also said that David was a redhead (“ruddy” was the word, but he said it translates as “red-haired), and that that was pretty rare in Israel (the only other redhead mentioned in the Bible was Esau). So, putting two and two together, I wondered if David was the original red-headed stepchild, with all the discomfort accruing to the position.
THEN I thought, “Well, that would explain why Isaiah said that the Messiah would come from a shoot from the stump of Jesse.” That phrase has puzzled me for some time—like when a tree gets cut down, but a little branch will sprout from the side, like an afterthought; why didn’t he say that the Messiah would come straight down the line from Jesse? But if David were a half-brother—for whatever reason—that would explain the phrasing, and the lack of enthusiasm on the part of David’s family.
January 12, 2022
I heard the same pastor today saying that David was illegitimate. So I checked the trusty internet, and there is a school of thought that says he may have been. Guess I should brush up on Biblical history.
December 28, 2021
I started wondering if someday the federal government might say to places
like Missouri that discourage COVID precautions,
“Hey, we can either pay for your roads, your education, and your economic development, or we can pay for COVID fallout. Since your COVID costs are higher because you won’t take precautions, you’ll have to choose what to spend the money on.”
December 5, 2021
I met some
people from China, who were unacquainted with each other, and it was interesting hearing their perspectives on the
current generation of Chinese. They seem much more comfortable with the Chinese
government than the previous generations, who had to endure so much change.
I was
unsure if it was because the government was relaxing a bit, or if the
government was just winning a war of attrition—the generation that remembers
how it used to be is dying off, and the new one is used to things as they are.
Maybe a mixture of both.
December 17, 2021
Missouri Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick won’t help schools refinance bond debt
unless superintendents promise not to enforce mask requirements and other
COVID-19 safety measures. If that doesn’t make you angry, I don’t know what
will.
There has to be a special place in Hell for officeholders who abuse their
authority in order to put people—especially children—in danger, just to meet
the officeholders’ personal, warped goals.
Carry on, Mr. Fitzpatrick. You ought to be hanging around some interesting people
in the afterlife—some whom you know personally, others whom you (should have)
read about in your history classes.
December 25, 2021
I was sitting alone in the choir loft, watching all the people in church
down below celebrating the Christmas service in the middle of another COVID
surge that’s filling up hospitals. The churchgoers were smiling, happy and maskless.
And I thought, “If I were a health-care worker, I’d probably want to wring all their necks.”
December 24, 2021
According to the Post-Dispatch, gas bills are set to rise about 25% for St.
Louis customers, to begin recovering costs from last February’s cold snap.
Times are tough for the gas company, I guess.
Not that tough, though.
The CEO got a 26% raise in pay this past year, resulting in a whopping $5.6 million salary. The company says that it is rewarding her for a year of “record earnings growth”.
So, the ratepayers are paying more so that the CEO can be rewarded for making record earnings—from the ratepayers.
Got it?
December 26, 2021
An article in today’s paper was explaining that the shocking lack of civility
these days—roughing up flight attendants, threatening teachers and school board
members, etc.—is partially due to the stress of the pandemic and economic uncertainty.
People are separated from their loved ones, they explain.
Well, when the Berlin Wall went up, and when North and South Korea were
divided, people really WERE separated from their loved ones: No Zoom, no cheap long-distance
calls, email, Facebook, etc.
And despite the propaganda, their economic situation wasn’t all that great,
either.
So tell me again how your life is so tough that you have to beat up total
strangers who are trying to keep the rest of the population safe from ignorant
jackasses who won’t follow simple health procedures?
December 26, 2021
Lots of people taking items to the recycling place today. Good citizens
doing their bit for the environment.
But I was bemused by how many of them left their engines running while they
were waiting for somebody else to leave the good spot, instead of just parking
farther away and walking the recyclables over to the bins.
Well, they’re trying.
December 24, 2021
The regional provider of natural gas was sending out dire predictions of shortages
this winter if a particular pipeline got shut down. The claims were bogus—all they
really did was to give already stressed citizens more to worry about. It even
led some of the less self-controlled citizens to threaten some environmentalists
with harm should their rates go up.
The claims were so egregious that the Missouri Public Service Commission made the company send out emails correcting the false impression.
As much as big business gets bad press, you still, in your heart of hearts, hope for better.
December 24, 2021
I have a few posts ready to go, but they aren’t very Christmassy, so I’m
saving them until after the big day.
In the meantime, I sincerely wish you a very merry, very blessed Christmas.
December 23, 2021
One of the reported symptoms of COVID-19 is “brain fog”.
Sometimes I’m not sure I’d know the difference.
December 15, 2021
Russia is massing troops at the border of the Ukraine; the general feeling is that once Russia has successfully taken over the Ukraine, it will move against other countries in short order. Making his position clear, President Biden has given President Putin a stern talking-to about the situation.
I appreciate the fact that President B. doesn’t want to plunge the world into war; but the last megalomaniac who backed down when somebody tried to reason with him was—wait…wait…
I got nothin’.
December 14, 2021
California governor Gavin Newsom decided to put Texas’s “anybody can sue
over an abortion” statute to good use.
He wants to allow citizens of California to sue in order to enforce a ban
on the sale and manufacture of assault weapons.
If he could pull it off, it would be an ironic twist.
December 14, 2021
Scenario: You’ve just been laid off. You’re a little
depressed, but you know that you have marketable skills, so you’re also
optimistic about being able to get back into the workforce. Even so, you can’t
help worrying about being able to pay the bills if your safety cushion runs
out. If you don’t have a safety net, you may be frantic.
You put your resume online. You sign up on job
websites. You read all the (often contradictory) how-to articles on writing and
submitting a resume: Use buzzwords, make it long, make it short, blah, blah,
blah.
Shortly after you’ve uploaded your resume, you may get
contacted by a recruiter. He or she will be very personable, find something in
common with you, and build what feels like a bond. Then—Great news: There’s a
position available that has your name all over it. Can you be available for an
interview? Great, s/he’ll call back with a time.
You hang up, your heart considerably lighter; maybe
you even get a spring in your step, because if this pans out, you’ll barely miss
a beat in the paycheck department.
So you wait; and you wait; and you wait.
Sometimes the recruiter will call back. That position
didn’t work out, but there’s another one. When are you available for an
interview with this other company? Sounds plausible, so you bite. And the cycle
is repeated. They rarely call a third time, though.
Sometimes they never call
back.
At some point, you may
get yourself an interview with a company. Curiously, many HR directors, who
have the name “human” in their title, will pull the same inhumane stunt. “We’ll
let you know.” And you wait.
It’s a cruel game to play
with depressed, desperate people.
And IT IS NOT YOUR
FAULT.
One job-seeker told me
flat out, “Ignore recruiters when they contact you. Just get on a job website
and keep looking and applying. Even if you get an interview, don’t stop
applying for other jobs.”
It was sound advice.
One other piece of
advice: Your state Department of Labor website really can be helpful. Don’t ignore it when
you’re trying the brand-name sites. Good companies post jobs with the DOL as
well as on other sites.
Best of luck to you.
December 12, 2021
I’ve never been a fan of people who post personal stuff on the internet, or
of the people who take it upon themselves to comment, often critically and
often flat-out nastily, on the original post.
However, I did read a story about a pregnant woman whose husband invited 26
people to stay at their house for 5 days over Christmas, and demanded a hand-written
apology when she cancelled the plans.
Readers gave her lots of support; one even said that instead of an apology,
she should give him divorce papers.
So—I guess social media actually can be a much-needed support network. I
hope lots of people in need can use it that way.
December 11, 2021
What’s with people who blog, tweet, or post that they won’t get vaccinated
because they’re afraid of government intrusion on their privacy?
They lost that when they signed up with Google, Twitter, and Facebook. So by the time
they’re posting about it, it’s already too late.
December 11, 2021
Former news anchor Chris Cuomo’s book has been scrapped by its publisher,
after allegations that he used his news contacts to help his brother Andrew’s defense case in sexual harassment
lawsuits, instead of maintaining journalistic neutrality.
When Josh Hawley’s book publication was cancelled after Hawley’s role in
the Capitol riot, Hawley claimed “Orwellian” censorship.
I don’t notice him yelling it now.
December 12, 2021
It seems that the good citizens of Broward County, Florida will be ponying
up $25 million—for starters—to compensate the families of victims of the
Parkland school district massacre.
And the school district of Oxford, Michigan is being sued for $100 million—from
the first, but probably not the last—lawsuit being filed in that school
shooting.
Is there a chance that taxpayers may stop listening to the NRA and start
paying attention to their wallets when it comes to allowing all and sundry
access to lethal weapons?
December 10, 2021
In a puzzling twist, a student who had planned a school shooting apparently hadn’t lost all respect for rules.
He planned to use a silencer in the library.
December 9, 2021
These people are seriously around the bend, and nobody can stop them. I am
honestly wondering if they are going to start foaming at the mouth soon.
Not that it would make a difference to their followers.
November
21, 2021
When
people say, “For the love of God…!”, they usually don’t mean it. They usually
mean, “For crying out loud!” or something.
But when I hear people gripe about Christmas lights being too early; people complain that stores aren’t being Christmassy enough (remember the Starbucks coffee-cup frenzy a few years ago?); or people have a hissy fit when someone says, “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas,”
I mean it when I say, “For
the love of God, stop using Christmas as a reason to be hateful.”
November 21, 2021
I was in line at a store today, and after having waited for quite some time, I was finally second in line, and the woman ahead of me had several items, and the last one NEEDED A PRICE CHECK!
I feel strongly that stores should equip the checkout lanes with signs that
people can hold up saying, “I need a price check” so that other people will
know not to get in line behind them.
November 20, 2021
Republicans are warning that President Biden’s choice to become a top banking regulator will nationalize the banking system.
I don’t know anything about her, or the situation. But I do know that people who won’t admit that the Capitol rioters were dangerous; who believe that the last presidential election was stolen; and who won’t admit that masks can help prevent the spread of COVID-19
Are certainly not people whose word I would take for anything.
And that’s a shame, because someday they may actually be telling the truth about something important;
And a whole segment of the population will tune them out.
November 20, 2021
There was another article in the paper today about a developer wanting to build in a flood plain.
There was also a column about why we shouldn’t offer tax credits to the entertainment industry—music, this time—seeing as how it didn’t go well for us vis á vis the film industry.
And let’s not forget subsidizing sports teams, hoping that the billions they make for the owners will somehow, someday, translate into dollars for the citizens of the host cities.
How about we try doing something we don’t already know will fail?
November 13, 2021
Here’s a shout-out to my sister, who pressed for 5% raises for teachers connected with her church.
The teachers had done without raises in the lean years (and let's face it, churches aren't famous for paying high salaries to start with), and the cost of living has increased substantially in the meantime; so she persuaded the thriftier members of the board, who thought that 1- or 2% raises would be ample, to go to 5%.
Way to go, Sis.
November 12, 2021
Don't get grumpy when people turn on their Christmas lights before Thanksgiving.
View it as a non-religious attempt to lighten the Fall darkness and cheer people up.
November 12, 2021
It has come to my attention that leaving the vacuum cleaner in the living room for days on end doesn't mean that the carpet will get cleaned.
I may actually have to turn it on someday.
#nevertoooldtolearn
November 9, 2021
I don’t generally see insurance companies in the role of patsies, but in one particular instance, they are being snookered on a regular basis.
My doctor left the medical group where he practiced. Since my choices are, of course, limited by insurance, I decided to go to another doctor in the same practice; besides, when he wasn’t available, they’d send somebody else in to do my workups, so it’s not that much of a stretch.
Here’s the kicker, though. Even though all my medical information is available to the practice, they want to sign me up as a new patient, with new patient fees.
Ridiculous.
Yes, insurance pays for it. But I’d rather the companies put their collective foot down on this egregious money-grabbing scheme so that they could save their money to pay for medications that people actually need.
Why do insurance companies put up with this nonsense, and when will they crack down on this fraudulent practice?
