Month: April 2019

The game of golf was so-described by some wag back in 1904, and, if you’ve played the game at all, there are certainly times when you’d agree.

And, then there are other occasions (maybe for just one well-struck shot) that the game can bring great joy to the player who believes, usually mistakenly, that he’s finally mastered it.

A couple of weeks ago, after my friend Terry DeArmond visited and we hit some driving range balls together, I decided to give another go at the frustrating game. My worn-out left hip and arthritic hands aren’t in agreement with my decision, but…f… them: you only live once, go for the gusto, miracles can happen, prayers can be answered, and, every now and then, you can surprise yourself.

Well, maybe.

For Father’s Day, Charlie bought me an annual driving range pass at our Sun City Mesquite “Conestoga Golf Club”. So, in the past week, I’ve been down there several times trying to resurrect my old golf swing. It is tough, because I haven’t played in 18-months and I’m older now, with the above-described physical issues.

Accordingly, I have a dozen swing thoughts on my mind when I address the ball, and my flexibility, once I attempt to swing, is pretty lame.

A nice surprise is that, with a little grip modification, my hands aren’t aching after a driving range session. This is very good news, because those arthritic joints were the reason that I gave up golf (and bowling) a year and a half ago.

More good news is that my neighbor, Al Howa, who is a scratch golfer, told me yesterday that he would be willing to give me some guidance at the range from time to time. I’m hoping that he can video my swing so that I might analyze it afterwards; usually, I can spot flaws and self-correct faster that way. That’s how I learned to bowl.

I don’t think that I will be venturing out onto a golf course proper in the near future. My standards are too high, I think, and I would probably induce a depression if I hastily attempted my comeback and laid a turd.

So, just hitting range balls and trying to groove a swing is enough for now. It will give me something to do, provide a form of exercise, and give me something to achieve.

I’m thinking that “shooting my age” is not out of the question, particularly since I don’t intend to play much golf from the championship tees. The White and Red tee boxes are put on a golf course for a reason (i.e. for old farts like me), and I’m not too proud to avail myself of them, like I do my AARP discount around town.

But, it would be cool if I could shoot 72 when I’m 72 years old.

That would be next year, if I live that long.

(And, maybe I can win the Powerball lottery, too.)

Can you believe that it was not that long ago (perhaps the mid ’90’s) when the World Wide Web, now known as the Internet, came to the attention of the common man?

Wow, has the world changed in the past twenty-five years!!!

In 1994, Netscape came out with the first commercial Internet browser, there were ten thousand websites (mostly academic, governmental and military), and maybe two million computers connected to the Internet worldwide. Today, there are an estimated 45 billion Web pages and at least 3.2 billion Web users, most of whom have a Web-connected “smart phone” on their person.

It is hard to fathom that twenty-five years ago the Internet was, essentially, non-commercial. The ubiquitous Microsoft 95 operating system for personal computers was released back then without an Internet browser. Incredibly, Amazon, Google, Facebook and all of the other current behemoths that have hugely monetized the Web, and affected everyone’s life, didn’t exist at all!

I can remember that, up until the early 2000’s, the Wall Street jury was out on whether lots of money could be made using this clever, but unproven, technology.

Just one generation later, we live in a world where seemingly everything is connected to the Internet and seemingly everyone in the world has this technological miracle at their disposal…for good or for bad.

Therein lies the rub, in my opinion.

For one thing, the Web has provided the opportunity for an army of fraudsters, quacks, impostors, tricksters, cheaters, and organized crime types from all nations to establish a potential beachhead in virtually every home, purse and pants pocket throughout the developed world. It is criminal how easy it has become for these folks to fleece the flock.

P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute!” Yes, there is, and it’s amazing how stupid some of those suckers are.

Another problem with the Internet is that is has no filter, or, at least, marginal filtration. This allows people of all races and creeds, the rich and the poor, and the educated and non-educated to broadcast their opinions (like I’m doing in this blog!) pretty much instantly…to the world. This is a cool thing, unless the broadcaster says something in error or accidentally blurts our something offensive or just makes a stupid statement that he or she instantly regrets.

Too late, Dude, it’s “out there”, for all to ponder and wonder what the f… the person was thinking. How embarrassing!

Instant opinion messaging via Twitter offers everyone an opportunity to shoot from the hip, spread gossip, and opine witty and, often, hurtful things about others. Whatever happened to “Count to ten” before opening one’s yap?

In my opinion, the greatest downside to the Internet is the ease by which disinformation can be disseminated. It is possible for some bogus “fact” to be introduced into the Web, anonymously, and for that fake information to be spread all over the world within minutes.

The phenomenon of something “going viral” (in essence, quickly gaining a huge cult following), is nothing more than gossip gone amok. “Did you see…?!” or “Did you hear…?!” or “Everyone’s talking about…” something outrageous that appeared on Facebook, U-Tube, Twitter, or the like.

For example, back in January, a video surfaced supposedly showing a Tesla self-driving vehicle crashing into another test vehicle. This was an immediate “news” sensation, the video went viral, and Tesla shares suffered. The problem with this news scoop: Tesla has no self-driving model. It was later determined that the viral video was produced by a Russian firm that was hired by Tesla competitors to damage consumer confidence in Tesla.

In 2003, a fake Associated Press announcement on Twitter stated that President Obama had been injured in a bomb blast. This caused an immediate drop in the stock market. The news was bogus, but the impact on Wall Street was real, if short-lived, and could have enriched the perpetrators of the hoax, if that was their aim.

In the old days, it took awhile for actual news to ferment; i.e., become ready for dissemination. In that interval, between an event and publication, there was the opportunity for fact-checking, editing of the story for bias, and such. Nowadays, the public appetite for, and expectation of, immediate gratification is such that anything that smells at all like “news” is put on the Web…ASAP…for the purposes of scooping everyone else, getting “likes” on social media.

The public’s ravenous appetite for titillating and salacious information helped Russian cyber spies manipulate the 2016 Presidential election. Carefully planted fake news (of a political nature) was disseminated into American communities, like a plague, by an orchestrated network of hacked computers. Then, regular folks like you and I spread the propaganda among our friends via social media, not knowing that we were being used.

The quickness and ease by which disinformation is broadcast via the Internet encourages and enables bad actors to spread dangerous ideas. It is obvious that young, impressionable people throughout the world are being mobilized via the Internet by faceless recruiters to become terrorists. This has sparked a wildfire of hate crimes and mass murders here in the United States and, of course, the ongoing strife between the Muslim world and, seemingly, everyone else.

Recruiting mentally imbalanced and socially-deprived individuals to do the devil’s work has, unfortunately, never been easier. How many Manchurian Candidates (i.e. brainwashed fanatical killers) are walking the streets beside us, pre-programmed for terror, with their fuse already lit? It is a scary thought.

In this aspect, the wonderful potential of the Internet has been corrupted into a savagely cruel Pandora’s Box of horror.

One wonders if civilization will survive this particularly technology.

It’s mid-April, and there’s good news to report.

After suffering for a month with a compression fracture of her 1st lumbar vertebra, Charlie finally got some relief yesterday, when doctors performed a “kyphoplasty” on her up in St. George, Utah. It involved inserting a balloon in her crushed vertebra, inflating it to restore the original dimensions, and injecting the vertebral cavity with cement. An hour after the procedure Charlie and I drove back to Mesquite, the pain all gone!

Hooray for science!

Also re: Charlie, she had her first cataract surgery done last month and that repaired eye now works much better. She is amazed at the vivid colors that she can now appreciate. Her second eye will be done next week; she can hardly wait!

Hooray for science!

Speaking of health (note: Do old farts really talk about anything else?), JayJay, our Man dog, has been suffering for about a month from an ulcer on his right eye. He’s the guy who had double-cataract surgery a couple of years ago. Anyway, a condition in his eyes due to chronic kidney issues apparently led to this ulcer, which was quite an annoyance to him, causing him to squint in pain. Thanks to a local vet (Dr. Steyee) and an animal ophthalmologist in Las Vegas (Dr. Smith), and the miracles of medicine, JayJay’s right eye seems to be on the mend.

Hooray for science!

Big news: we have pretty much completed our outdoor landscaping here on Buggy Whip Court! The pergola has been constructed on our second patio in the backyard, and Yours Truly has completed the landscaping of our entryway courtyard. The place looks great, as it should after all of the money and sweat equity poured into it.

My poor back really took a beating; maybe I need a kyphoplasty?

Some old friends (Terry DeArmond and Barb Jarvis) made the pilgrimage to Mesquite from So Cal, and we all enjoyed a nice visit. It afforded us a chance to test-out our new fire pit under the new pergola, and we spent several hours under the stars catching up on stuff. The next day, Terry and I hit some balls at the Conestoga Golf Club driving range. Neither of us had played for over a year, and we stunk. But, it was fun, nevertheless.

Speaking of a stench, the redacted Mueller Report has hit the fan and, despite being watered down by Trump’s recently-appointed toady/Attorney General, paints a comprehensive and pathetic picture of the 2016 election hijinx by the Russians, obvious knowledge of same by the Trump campaign, and a significant campaign by the President to derail the subsequent investigation by the Special Counsel.

We already knew most of that, thanks to very fine investigative reporting by the major news organizations (except Fox News). Of course, all of the non-flattering information was derided by the President, at the time, as “Fake!”. But, as everyone knows, he lies a lot.

It is hard to read the 400-page report without feeling an overwhelming sense of sadness that our democracy has devolved to this level: that our elections can be so easily manipulated by foreign powers; that “winning” is more important than honor; and, that the President of our country has no qualms about debasing his Administration in a grand attempt to misdirect scrutiny and criminal liability.

The ease by which the election was impacted by the Russians is a testament to the stupidity and gullibility of many Americans. These are the same folks who keep their kids from getting vaccinations, believe that online dating “matches” are actually who they say they are, send money to Nigerian scam artists (“you have won $1 million dollars; just send us $500 to prove your interest”), deny global warming, give large amounts of money to televangelists for miracle healing cloths, and spend inordinate portions of their lives watching “reality” shows like the Kardashians and The Bachelor. You’ve got some outrageous information to share…they’re in. The moon landing was fake, Barack Obama was born in Africa, the Sandy Hook school massacre was staged, etc…yeah, that makes sense!

The tragic news for America is that these nincompoops are entitled to vote. So, nefarious types (like the Russians, in this case) milk them like cows. (With the Trump Campaign’s blessing, according to the Special Counsel’s report. In fact, just yesterday, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani stated that there is nothing illegal about accepting Russian assistance to get elected. Obviously, in Trumpland, anything that isn’t patently illegal is fair game, even if it is morally reprehensible or works to degrade democracy.)

Apparently (according to the report), the only thing that kept Mueller from determining that Trump legally obstructed justice was the fact(s) that several Administration officials refused orders from the President to scuttle the investigation.

Hooray for principled public servants!

Congress will now have to determine how they want to pursue this matter. If the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, Trump would be impeached, for sure. But, since the Republicans control the Senate, nothing much is likely to be done, except many hearings conducted with the objective of airing dirty linen. The President will claim that he is vindicated, but anyone who actually reads the report will know otherwise. As the saying goes about the Mafia boss, “He got off on a technicality” because he personally didn’t carry out the murder (even though he ordered it).

The most troubling aspect of all of this is that our President has yet to acknowledge the intensity and scope of the Russian debasement of the 2016 election, and why such a thing is bad for our country. Consequently, one wonders how much Administration effort will be applied to make sure that there will be no repeat of such Russian assistance in the 2020 elections?

Trump would have to be a dope to refuse such help again…right?

Our President once said something that was absolutely true (a rarity, for sure) about such matters: that “America, itself, is not so innocent”.

He was undoubtedly referring to the covert and overt efforts by U.S. intelligence and military agencies, over the past 70 years, to ensure that “friendly” leaders were in charge of countries of strategic interest to America. Our C.I.A. has rigged foreign elections, undermined democratically-elected leaders, torpedoed economies, and even assassinated heads of state. We’ve helped to install despots and dictators, and have instigated wars to prop up same, all in the name of protecting our “national security”.

All the while, we congratulated ourselves, as Americans, for being so honest and morally pure. “The Greatest Country on Earth!”, we all like to proclaim.

Our 9-11 calamity was instigated by U.S. covert involvement in Afghanistan, where we actually provided weapons to Osama Bin Laden’s jihadists fighting the Russians. Emboldened by their subsequent victory, the jihadists turned Afghanistan into a thuggist Muslim theocracy (the Taliban), and provided Bin Laden a base (Al Queda) from which to prosecute his war against infidels such as…his heretofore American benefactors.

God is Great!

Of course, the Soviet Union, which had been undermined in Afghanistan by our C.I.A., leading to a humiliating defeat and eventual dissolution of the U.S.S.R., had a score to settle with America for interfering with what they believed to be an internal matter. “Payback”, as the saying goes, “is a bitch.”

In that context, it is hard to criticize Russia for attempting (with success) to place in power an American President that it felt would be easier to manipulate than Hillary Clinton. That intent and motive is right there in the Mueller report, straight from Russian lips.

Hip, Hip, Hooray, Comrade Putin! Well played…

One wonders whether the American public even cares about their once-cherished democracy any more.

We have a PRESIDENT who is disdainful of it, and a Republican Party that that is hell-bent on undermining it. Yesterday, Senator Mitt Romney, who had said he was “appalled” by the Mueller findings, was publicly derided by President Trump for losing the 2012 election. (Of course, Romney didn’t get Russian help, which Trump did without any qualms.)

We’re circling the drain.

Excuse me if I don’t join in to sing “God Bless America”. I’m not in the mood lately.