Month: December 2021

We’re in Yuma, Arizona visiting Dan and Peggy Quinn at their personal RV park. We’ve got our three Boston Terriers (Baby, BonBon, and Vinnie) and the Quinns have their Boston named “Katie”.

Playtime on the lot can be hectic, with four imbeciles running amok, fighting over toys, and playing bitey-face. Fifteen dollar dog toys last about a minute with this bunch of munching and jerking gangbangers.

The four Bostons get along pretty good, although the Vinnie-Katie relationship needed some seasoning. Initially, Katie was standoffish from Vinnie and thought he was a pimply-faced bore. As time went on, however, Katie (who is 3 years old) realized that she could tune up Vinnie whenever she desired, so there has been some good-natured bullying. Vinnie (who is 20 months) is a bit of a pest, so it’s hard to blame Katie for putting him in his place. Besides, it’s her house, not his.

On December 26^th, some friends of the Quinns (Bill and Sharon) came by to visit with their TWO Boston Terriers, “Buffy” and “Gracie”. Buffy is about five years old, while Gracie is a rambunctious one-year-old.

And so, the Boston Tea Party commenced, with six tiny beasts sprinting about the lot, wrestling, fighting over pull toys, and generally making fools of themselves. Chaos, mayhem, etc. for several hours.

It was precious.

Amazingly, no one got bit in the frantic, six-dog scrum.

Vinnie barked a lot, out of excitement, I’m sure. He has been socially-deprived, and this spectacle was like a first day at Kindergarten or a pre-teen being parachuted into Disneyland with a $100 bill. He also looked goofy, as he has an inflatable collar which restricts him from scratching his neck, eyeballs, and nape that are a-twitch with allergy-related aggravation. He looks like a lion with a mane in his protective get-up, but it doesn’t bother him from mixing with the healthy dogs. Despite his odd appearance and immaturity, he joins in on the fun and acts like he’s a member of the club.

This is Vinnie’s first trip in the motorhome, and he’s learning how to behave himself when left with the other two dogs while we go out on the town. No peeing in the coach or chewing on things not permitted. However, he has developed a habit of jumping up onto the dash and posturing behind the 8-foot wraparound windshield. I think he fashions himself a friggin’ Chihuahua…a breed which we hate. Anyway, this seems to be his signature move and we will probably just have to live with it. He looks cute in the window, actually.

We will be here a few more days and then we will move on to the Temecula (California) area for five days.

The ultimate goal is to drop off the motorhome at Temecula Valley RV for a to-do-list of repairs. Charlie, the three mutts, and I will then drive the 400 miles back to Mesquite, Nevada in our Jeep.

Happy New Year!

America has its faults, but one good thing about our country, “The Land of the Free”, is that we have the right under the Constitution to say what’s on our mind. It’s protected under the First Amendment and is popularly known as “Freedom of Speech and Expression”.

Citizens of dictatorships, autocracies, theocracies, Communist countries and such don’t enjoy such freedom. If a resident of one of those countries were to publicly utter criticism of the President for Life or the Ayatollah, he or she would be apprehended, severely punished, or put to death.

We Americans have lived with this freedom of expression for so long that we take it for granted: it’s our birthright…we think.

Some people in our country enjoy their freedom of speech but don’t believe that others should be allowed to freely exercise theirs. Our recently deposed President exercised his free speech rights virtually non-stop via Twitter when he was in power, saying hateful things, lying a lot, and even condoning violence. On the other hand, he was quite resentful when others spoke out about his hate speech, his lies, and his fanning the flames of insurrection. In fact, he publicly advocated laws should be adopted to stifle opponents of his ideas and journalists delving into his Administration scandals. In one case, peaceful protestors at Lafayette Park in Washington D.C. were routed with tear gas and truncheons when the President didn’t like the optics of angry citizens near the White House.

This is how dictators behave.

I mention this because it’s pro football season and a segment of football fans are upset that some players have pro-Black Lives Matter slogans on their helmets. Most professional football players are African Americans and take issue with the different standards of justice in America. The exercise of free speech by famous Black people on a public stage offends some folks.

I’m old enough to remember the “Black Power” salute by gold medalist Tommie Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos on the awards platform at the 1968 Olympics. This incident outraged many so-called “patriots”, who called those athletes traitors, Communists, and worse. Essentially, White Americans didn’t want Black Americans to exercise their right of free speech: America’s dirty laundry must not be aired in public.

Almost fifty years later, with still a lot of dirty laundry hidden away, some NFL players decided to kneel during the National Anthem, to draw attention to racial injustice in The Greatest Country on Earth. Not surprisingly, lots of Americans found fault with this demonstration of free speech, couching it in the language of “disloyal” and “un-American”. The President himself (yes, Trump again!) opined publicly that these “disrespectful bums should be fired”, making points with his political base while intentionally missing the point that Black citizens feel that the flag disrespects them with an unequal justice system.

Since kneeling during the Anthem drew such withering fire, the NFL players have found a less intrusive way to express their feelings. Of course, the disrespect of the flag was never the issue with their opponents…they just don’t like Black folks speaking their mind. And so, we now see the counter-protest of White folks refusing to watch NFL games.

Personally, I don’t like advertisements for products or political opinions on professional athletes’ uniforms. It takes away from the game, in my opinion. NASCAR, in particular, festoons not only the driver’s uniforms but also the car itself to the extent that it is hard to see anything else but a gaggle of whizzing advertisements circling the track. This so-called “sport” is basically a several-hour long commercial for tires, batteries, dishwashing detergents, and other products. NASCAR fans, who are primarily White folks, apparently love this freedom of expression by the so-called “athletes” and “teams”. Most of the major pro sports, like baseball, basketball, and football have kept such expression to a minimum. Perhaps that’s why the BLM stuff on NFL helmets annoys serious fans. Who knows?

Another freedom of expression that we have in this country is the right to cast a vote for whichever candidate we prefer. At least we’ve had that right in the past.

Apparently, according to the ex-President (yep, the same guy!) and his staunch followers, this right is guaranteed unless one votes for “the wrong guy”. In that case, the vote cast is considered fraudulent, an election won by an opponent is considered “stolen”, and the entire election should be thrown out. According to this logic, candidates elected in urban areas populated by dark-skinned Americans are highly suspect, thus justifying efforts by incumbents (like the ex-President) to declare such elections tainted and coerce elections officials to “find” enough votes to swing the election in the correct direction. If that doesn’t work, intimidation of Congress is acceptable, including physical violence.

This is the America that is coming, my Friends.

Gone will be the days when someone can proudly decorate his car with a bumper sticker saying “Fuck the President” or cast a vote in opposition to the regime.

Enjoy the time you have left.

Our rescue Boston Terrier “Vinnie” got neutered this week.

He will miss out on some excitement, sure, but he’s got two girlfriends for life in Baby and BonBon. Vinnie’s quite the gentleman with them, and the three run around and play and cuddle like they were cribmates.

We signed the paperwork to adopt the lad today. The rescue agency only wanted $125 but we gave them $300. “We Care For Animals” does such important work here in the community and are such nice folks. We are so grateful (as is Vinnie) that he found his way to the Manning pack. He needed us more than we needed him, but only a few weeks into his presence here…Vinnie’s become a fixture in the household. He ain’t leavin’: fuggetaboutit!

He’s my Man Dog.

We will be leaving soon for Yuma to visit our good friends Dan and Peggy Quinn and their Boston Terrier “Katie”. Oooooh, there’s going to be mayhem down there with four Boston Terrorists running about and fighting over toys. And, the Quinns have some friends with Bostons…oh, Boy, the fur is going to fly.

Vinnie lost his jewels this week and we lost our Mexican vacation. Our plan was to visit the Yucatan to visit our good friend Lloyd, who recently bought a house in Progreso. Unfortunately, our health has been crummy for several months (allergy, bronchitis, urinary tract infections, old age, etc.) and, taken together with the recent Covid-19 “Omicron” variant spread, it is not wise to go out of country at this time. So, we’ll reschedule at a later date.

I hope people have learned from this pandemic: you can’t shuck and jive biology! Those viruses don’t give a damn what your politics are; they are super-focused on doing their thing and change tactics when obstacles are placed in their way. It’s called Evolution and it’s how we human beings came to be here. We’ll probably need several more booster shots of Chlorox before this damn pandemic calls it quits.

(By the way, the Covid-19 testing requirements for airline flights to/from Mexico right now are quite burdensome. One must get a test within 24 hours of a flight (incoming or outgoing) and have the verified results at the time of the flight. It’s awkward and expensive (several hundred dollars per person per test). That’s around $800 for our trip to/from Mexico, which is more than we would have paid for the flight, hotel or car rental. No bueno, Senor.)

Our “adopted 5^th son” Jason and his girlfriend Kami stayed over last night on their way from Las Vegas to Denver. The two of them are hauling the last of her possessions up to Jason’s big home in Aurora; it looks like they are going to give their romance the big test of living together.

We are so happy: Jason, a very intense guy, seems mellowed out a bit, and she is such a sweet gal. He’s a big shot with Richmond America, a nationwide homebuilding company, and she’s working toward her Registered Nurse degree. We hope to see them when they get settled in.

Hopefully, they will live happily ever after.

Which reminds me: Charlie and I are celebrating our 48^th year together. That’s a long time, nowadays. My parents and Charlie’s were both married for 50 years, and my brother Terry and his wife Kay have been together for 50-something. Wow, that’s a long time!

It takes work, of course. There are ups and downs in life, arguments, and differences of opinion. Spouses can get crabby when they are sick, frustrated, overworked, and such. We yell at each other from time to time, for sure. But, we have so much history and things in common, by this point, that blowups don’t last long, thank goodness. We work through the rough spots and focus on common goals: it’s not nuclear physics.

I hope Jason and Kami can experience this wonderful thing that we’ve found: the miracle of love.

Charlie’s birthday is January 3^rd (76 years young!). We are now planning on taking the dogs and the RV down to SoCal on that day, spending some time with our kids (Tim & Shanon and Jeff & Carol), turning in the rig for repairs at Temecula Valley RV, spending the night with our good friends Clark and Karin Pace, and driving home to Mesquite on January 6^th.

I have a list of items that need to be done on the motorhome and, at this point, I don’t trust anyone else to work on my rig (except Dan Quinn, who’s got bum knees).

Hopefully, I can return to SoCal in a few weeks to pick up The Beast, which will be in tip top shape for another Summertime romp up to the Pacific Northwest.

Yee Haw, I’m ready for 2022!

There seems to be an inherent need among human beings to “belong” or identify with groups, so as to convey some sort of individual specialness to them: it is as if simply being themselves is not enough. And, the obverse: if you’re not a member of my club, then you are lesser than me.

My first exposure to this phenomenon was back in elementary school. In my lily-White classroom, I was the odd duck, because of my red hair. I was a sociable kid, did well in class, played with everyone on the playground, etc. However, I must have not been a member of “the club”, as one of my friends in 5^th grade class (a girl) held a backyard birthday party and invited everyone in class except me and the poor kid with leg braces who had polio. That was my first exposure to “discrimination”, it hurt me deeply, and is probably why the “Whites only” signs in the Southern states offended me so strongly during the Civil Rights enlightenment of the 1960’s.

In high school, there was a caste system of sorts. Atop the pyramid were the “soshes”, who were the kids who came from upper class families, did well in class, and held all of the elected class offices. Then there were the “jocks”, who were the athletes who competed on behalf of the school. Other components of the social order were the “dweebs” ‘(the plain folk), the “nerds” (the introverted guys with glasses and pocket pencil protectors), the “surfers” (wannabes, mostly, as we were 40 miles from the ocean), and the “beaners” (i.e. the Latinos who wore distinctive oversized clothing, tried to look tough, and fought with each other).

There were also male and female “service clubs”, membership in which distinguished one “soshe” from another.

I was a hybrid guy who got good grades, competed on sports teams, and was a closet surfer on the side (i.e. I was a competitive swimmer, lifeguard, and body surfer in the Summer). I mainly hung out with “soshes” and “jocks”, simply because I took a “college prep” curriculum and played on the basketball and cross country teams. My best friend and neighbor, Pat Freemon, who was a year behind me, ended up Senior Class President, and my future sister in law, Kay Dennerson, was also a senior class officer of some sort. They were “soshes”. You could tell the “caste” of someone by noticing who they had lunch with; there wasn’t much socialization between groups. We had one African American guy at our school. He was a celebrity, of sorts, because “Negroes” were so rare in our town. He happened to be a nice, bright guy and fit in with the “soshes”, as I recall. But, realistically, he was in a club of his own.

Although I hung with a lot of soshes (because of academics), I didn’t date because I had no car. In fact, I was a social virgin until prom time, when I was a Senior. Kay Dennerson, who was dating my brother at the time, hooked me up for the prom with a prominent “soshe” named Sally Browne, who had been a homecoming princess. I was a placeholder for her boyfriend, who was off at college. Despite my awkwardness and inexperience, we had a good time. She was beautiful and nice.

While in high school, I became a “born again” Christian. It happened by chance, really. One of my best friends, a neighbor teenager named Glenn Sato (a Japanese-American), attended the L.A. Free Baptist Church in East Los Angeles and got me and my brother to try it out with them. The entire congregation was Asian except the Manning boys. We decided that we liked it for two reasons: (1) There was a food fest each Sunday after services; and, (2) The church had an indoor basketball court and a church team that competed against other Asian church teams. My brother and I were welcomed to the team because we were athletic and had size. It was fun. Eventually, we went to a religious retreat in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and it was there that the religious epiphany occurred. Unfortunately (or fortunately), my religious phase was short-lived, as I became more and more aware of the difference between Sunday behavior and everyday behavior by God-fearing, Bible-thumping Christians. We’re all sinners, I determined, and I had better things to do on Sundays than shout out “Hallelujah” at the right time.

So, I dropped out of the Christian club.

There was a minor caste system in college: the “Greeks” and the rest of the students. I really wasn’t interested in fraternities when I was a Freshman, as I thought they were an elite clique of “soshes” who wanted to impress others with their clothes, parties, and alcohol consumption. I wasn’t focused on much at the time and wanted to meet people, so I happened into a recruitment by Alpha Phi Omega, which is a national “service”, rather than “social”, fraternity.  That didn’t last long, as the members spent a lot of time hazing recruits. I guess the idea was that the current members were special (i.e. they already belonged), and this entitled them to be cruel to prospective members. Since the goal of a service fraternity is to do good things for the college and community, it would naturally seem that they would bend over backward to enlist the help of eager students. But, no, even those ex-high school nerds felt it necessary to lord over newcomers. I bailed early in the pledge process: it was bullshit.

I was a pretty fair athlete at the time, and it came to pass that a social fraternity recruited me a year later…because they wanted to compete at a high level in Greek intramural sports. At the time, I was essentially treading water academically, with no fire in my belly, just doing enough to retain my “military exempt status”. Competing in sports was fun, so I joined Delta Chi fraternity. That year, we competed in the Greek football championship game and lost at the end. Other than that, there were a lot of parties, booze, good times living at the fraternity house, lots of dating nice gals, and friendships. However, in the end, it was a fruitless exercise, as my health and grades suffered, and I eventually moved back home to live with my parents. Shortly thereafter I was in the Air Force, my Greek experience at an end.

After college, I basically had nothing to do with Delta Chi until Charlie’s nephew Adam Way one day mentioned that he had been a Delta Chi brother at the University of Idaho. Just to shake him up, I began the “secret” greeting among Delta Chi fraternity brothers and he turned red with shock. Anyway, that’s about all I retained from my time in an exclusive club, other than dancing with supermodel Cheryl Tiegs at a mixer in my fraternity house. I suppose that I wouldn’t have met her if I hadn’t been one of those elite Greek guys.

Later in my life, I joined a country club. We’d just moved into Jack Nicklaus’ brand new Bear Creek golf course community in Murrieta, California. Our four kids were all on their own by then, I was a golfer, and Charlie was quite the social butterfly. We did the country club thing for almost two decades. I ended up a pretty good golfer and was appointed to the Board of Directors toward the end. Charlie was at one point the mover and shaker of the Social Committee. We eventually soured on The Club, as did many of our friends, because the membership degenerated into cliques and mean spiritedness.

During our last ten years at Bear Creek, many of our close friends (over the twenty years previous) shunned us, as we were now pond scum because we didn’t belong to The Club. You were either “with us or against us”, I guess. It’s too bad that those cliques developed, because almost one-third of the dues paying members quit The Club like we had. Bear Creek Golf Club later went into bankruptcy. All of this could have been avoided by not letting silly partisanship foul up a very pleasant social situation.

Exit one more club.

As one might imagine, the gated Bear Creek community was very conservative politically. Within the gates were the guys who owned the factories in the nearby industrial park, the auto dealerships, and were bigwigs in local real estate. These folks lived in mansions, while the rest of the well-off residents lived in nice condos. Like I said, very conservative folks for the most part.

One guy in Bear Creek really flew the flag…literally. He was regular golfing buddy of mine, and Charlie and I socialized with he and his wife. He was in the custom shipping business and hit the jackpot when the Gulf War began. The U.S. military needed specially fitted containers for Tomahawk missiles and the like. Almost immediately, he turned from rich to very rich, and became a Super Patriot, supporting all manner of military organizations and installing (at his own cost) an avenue of American flags along the main boulevard in Bear Creek. Not surprisingly, the political attitude of the community became supercharged, windbag/right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh became a saint, and Democrats were viewed as communists.

I was a registered “Independent” voter (neither Red nor Blue) but kept my head down. Unlike most of the Bear Creek “patriots”, I’d actually served my country in the military, and I had my opinions about such things…which may not have played well with the Bear Creek crowd. Besides, I prefer that political opinions not mar social relationships: I don’t care what your beliefs are as long as you don’t jam me with them.

Somewhere along the way, there was the 2008 Presidential election. Bear Creek probably voted 95 percent for the Republican ticket, but Democrat Barack Obama was elected. What an uproar there was! The election had to have been stolen, the bad-losers said, because “everyone we know voted for McCain/Palin”.

Now, gee, how could that happen? Maybe it’s because you folks only hang around with other super-conservative wingnuts, and the only views that your “club” tolerates are the ones you all support. That’s a problem with beliefs (i.e. “truths” not supported by fact): believers tend to hang together, mutually reinforcing the bullshit, making them impervious to other ideas. Wisdom is difficult to acquire when one wears blinders 24/7.

It seems to me that 2008 was the year that national politics came off the rails, metaphorically. The conservative G.O.P. lost, big time, and the new President was an African American…heaven forbid! Not only that, but his Secretary of State was Rush Limbaugh’s longtime punching bag, Hillary Clinton. Republicans were incensed and the G.O.P. commenced a scorched earth campaign to make sure that the new Administration fail at everything that it attempted.

From that time forward, the Nation has been fixated, in a political sense, on the “Red vs. Blue” state dichotomy, and partisanship has permeated American society. Even churches have taken sides, for God’s sake. Televangelists, in particular, have riled up the populace with all manner of condemnation towards those Blue “devils”. Not to be outdone, the Fox Network “news” shows have flooded the Nation with right-wing propaganda and the idea that all other news networks are putting out “fake news”.

Social media is a major culprit in the downward spiral of civility in our society. An enormous amount of misinformation and hate is disseminated immediately and constantly to citizens eager to be “in the know”. What we used to call “gossip” is now coin of the realm in social media, and a lot of it is political stuff targeted to defame public figures. It is entertainment of a cruel and destructive sort.

Donald Trump, a salesman who told Americans what they wanted to hear, rode the Red vs. Blue bandwagon to success in the 2016 Presidential election. His populist campaign was built on lies and exaggerations, as was his subsequent Administration. Four years later, the circus left town after two Impeachments, numerous scandals, a botched handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and an inept (thankfully) effort to execute a bloodless coup via the January 6^th Capitol Riot.

And yet…the Trump loyalist “club” retains its vitality even now, almost one year after the ex-President left Washington D.C. in shame.

 Trump’s followers insist that the 2020 election was “stolen”, despite no evidence of this being unearthed by either Trump, his attorneys, or elections officials from any State. The truth does not seem to matter to loyal Trump followers…if he said it, it must be true. Of course, he claimed that he was gypped in 2016 as well…until he miraculously won. A lot of his followers also believe that Jesus walked on water…

I have a neighbor who flies the Blue flag, literally. He had the big Trump “Keep America Great” campaign banner on his house in 2020, so he’s a member of that club. He also has blue night lights on opposite sides of his garage door, which indicates that he is a member of the “Support Your Local Police” contingent. His car has a license plate which reads “THKUGZS” (Thank You, Jesus), an in-your-face reminder that he is a member of the Christian club. He also used to ride a Harley Davidson motorcycle, which connotes “manliness”, I think. He is also an unabashed NRA gun owner, which alludes to his membership in the testosterone club.

This guy is defined by “clubs”. I like his despite this, as he is a friendly guy who I occasionally play golf with.

He recently forwarded to me some very sophomoric anti-Democratic jokes passed on to him from other right-wing nutjobs, thinking that I might like the put-downs of our President, the Vice President, the Speaker of the House, the Covid-19 vaccination program (which he and his wife proudly brag that they have not and will not participate in), and so forth.

In other words, he and his wife are true-blue “Red” folks and want everyone to know it.

I can recall a time in my life when no one wore their political party affiliation on their arm 24-hours a day. It used to be that folks would go to the polls to vote on Election Day, and then return to their lives and move on. The political parties in Washington D.C. and statehouses throughout the Nation would arm-wrestle a bit and work out differences. Then, the government would do the best it could.

In this age of “identity politics”, the internecine political warfare goes on 24/7 via social media, propaganda disseminated via “fake news” broadcast media, and even “holy men” spewing hatred from pulpits. Government doesn’t stand a chance of working, no matter who is running the show, Red or Blue.

That’s because “Ya gotta belong” to one side or the other. It’s the game, you see.

Democracy appears to be in a death spiral here in the United States.

What began as the Republican Party “Southern Strategy” in the late 1960’s to polarize ethnic voting and emphasize “states’ rights”, the initiative matured into the Nixon Administration’s “dirty tricks” campaign in the early 1970’s and eventually morphed into continuous mudslinging and non-cooperation in Washington D.C. coupled with an epidemic of virulent partisan behavior in American society.

You know, the “Red vs. Blue” thing: you’re either with us or you’re not.

Democracy, as envisioned by the Founding Fathers and designed into the U.S. Constitution, is supposed to find solutions to important problems through evaluation of options, meaningful debate, and eventual compromise that works for the benefit of the majority of “the people”. There have always been differences of opinion amongst our Federal elected officials, but solutions have been worked out. That’s how we grew from sea to sea, how the transcontinental railroad was built, how the Interstate Highway System evolved, how we became the industrial powerhouse of the World, how we helped win World Wars, and created “The American Dream”.

We used to all be in this thing together, as Americans. Generally speaking, we’ve welcomed immigrants to bring labor, new ideas, and energy into the fold. Every resident of the United States has an immigrant in their family tree, even “Native Americans” (who immigrated across the Bering Strait from Asia). The goal of all of us, going back the many generations, was to improve the quality of life for ourselves and our progeny.

Nowadays, a significant number of Americans seem to think that immigration is a bad thing, particularly if those immigrants have brown skin. White-skinned Northern European immigrants, legal or illegal, are encouraged. Interestingly, most of the hard-working, unskilled labor force in the U.S., deemed “essential” during the pandemic, is non-White. Evidently, their contributions aren’t really essential.

Democracy, as designed, gives every American, even the non-White ones, a voice in collectively moving the needle of progress. At least, that was the theory back in 1787. Of course, back then there were no political parties, just responsible citizens from each of the thirteen original colonies trying to fashion a republic that worked satisfactorily for their friends, neighbors, communities, and regions. Lots of compromises were made to come up with a contraption that worked for the majority of the people.

And, thus, the Great Experiment began.

The idea of compromise seems to have become lost in American politics. Both dominant political parties have become stubborn and hidebound, refusing to acknowledge that the “other side” may have a good idea. The supposedly “honorable” elected officials back in Washington D.C. (and in State capitols, as well) spend the vast amount of their time shooting spitwads and trash-talking their colleagues who don’t agree with them in every aspect. Consequently, nothing of consequence gets done, despite many important issues desperately needing creative solutions. The cost of government increases, while the effectiveness of government decreases.

This has not gone unnoticed in American society. People are fed up with the Rube Goldberg democracy that we are stuck with. Finger-pointing has morphed into public bad-mouthing which, thanks to the Internet, has now become a constant refrain of nasty behavior that divides neighbor from neighbor. Some neighbors that I know won’t even talk to others if they don’t support their political brand.

What’s to blame for this catastrophe? Each political party would have you believe that it is the fault of “the other guy”…as if that’s an excuse for do-nothingism.

Actually, the U.S. Constitution and the evolved rules that govern our Senate and House of Representatives may be at fault.

Despite the “majority rules” concept of democracy, it is possible for a minority party, or even one single Senator, to thwart the intention of the majority of Senators. This happens virtually every day in Washington D.C., slowing down or stifling Administration initiatives. The “Administration” is the Executive Branch of government installed by the President, as elected by the majority of the people.

A single Senator can filibuster to death a legislative proposal. A Committee chairman can block a bill. A single Senator can place a “hold” on a proposed Cabinet appointment. The Majority Leader can block the appointment, by the elected President of the United States, of a Supreme Court Justice.

These are examples of how our system of government virtually treads water if the Executive and Legislative branches are controlled by different political parties. This happens often, and causes the Executive branch to issue “executive orders” to bypass the Legislative branch when it fails to develop laws needed to solve important problems. Overreach by the Executive, because it cannot get the Legislative branch to do its job, often results in those Executive Orders landing in the Supreme Court (the Judicial branch) to determine if they are lawful. Hence, the Supreme Court takes on an importance even greater than originally anticipated. This is why appointments to the Supreme Court, which is supposed to be apolitical, have become extremely political.

Gamesmanship and nasty politics have begun to typify Supreme Court appointments which, in another failure of the U.S. Constitution, are lifetime appointments. This means that an incompetent or extremely political Supreme Court judge will affect SCOTUS decisions until he or she dies.

Another failure of the U.S. Constitution is the means by which top Federal elected officials gain office.

Congressmen are elected for two-year terms, which means that they are always campaigning for the next election. Successful campaigns require lots of money, so Congressmen are susceptible to the entreaties of campaign donors. Hence, they are more accountable to donors than to their constituents, and their legislative work tends to focus on donor interests as represented by lobbyists. If Congressional terms were for six years, like those of Senators, the constant campaigning and need for cash would abate somewhat.

There are two Senators per State. This presents a problem, as nothing can get done without the approval of the Senate, and the majority of Senators represent a minority of Americans. This occurs because there is a wide variance between the populations of States: a Senator from California represents 20 million people; a Senator from Wyoming represents 300,000 people. Thus, the “majority rules” principle of democracy is blatantly defeated via the provisions of our own Constitution.

This same defect plagues the Electoral College and is in fact that reason that it is possible for a President to be elected despite being rejected by a majority of American voters. This has happened on numerous occasions, the latest being the election of Donald Trump in 2016. In that year, the opposing candidate garnered 3 million votes more than her opponent…and lost.

When a President gains election in this manner, he/she faces a daunting task of governing, particularly if his party does not control both houses of Congress. This problem does not occur in “parliamentary” democracies such as that in Canada and England, where a vote of “no confidence” can occur at any time if the Prime Minister’s agenda is not supported by the majority of the people.

The frustration of dealing with the faults inherent in our Constitutional democracy have encouraged some partisans to sabotage it and go in a different direction: anti-democracy or autocracy.

It is now apparent that the events surrounding the January 6, 2020 Capitol Riot were an effort, orchestrated by the White House and carried out by extreme partisans, to ignore the vote of the American people via a bloodless coup. The excuse was that the election was tainted, something that has never been proved in the slightest. What was really going on is that one party, and its leader, didn’t like losing and having to relinquish power to “the other guys”.

This is what occurs in dictatorships: elections are held and, if the dictator loses, the election results are tossed out…because the other party allegedly “cheated”.

If it weren’t for a few public officials in key “battleground” States, and for Vice President Mike Pence doing his job on January 6^th, the coup would have succeeded, despite Joe Biden beating Donald Trump by ten million votes nationwide.

That our country came that close to losing its democracy so easily is a frightening thing.

Moves are already being made by the Trumpist faction of the G.O.P. to insure a victory in 2024, even if the majority of Americans don’t vote Republican. Gerrymandering (modifying Congressional election boundaries to lock in G.O.P. wins) and the installation of “friendly” election officials in “Red” States is underway as we speak.

In this way, a candidate can win even if he/she doesn’t win.

That, of course, is the end of democracy.

At this point, does anyone care? Maybe most Americans don’t care anymore. However, they haven’t lived in a dictatorship.

It is easy to allow a dictator to come to power but almost impossible to overthrow him once he gets settled in. As the proverb goes, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Can one even imagine the consequences of a guy like Donald Trump invested with absolute power?

Unfortunately, America could be on the brink of another “Great Experiment”.

I was in the post office today waiting in a long line among a bunch of annoyed citizens. There were only two postal employees handling the windows, and one of them was absorbed by a couple who were filing for passports. So, basically, there was one guy serving the thirty customers waiting in line.

The folks in line were bantering to try to ease the boredom. Somehow “California” came up (perhaps it’s that State’s fault for the crappy postal service?) and several people found it necessary to diss the Golden State. One guy loudly chimed in, “That place sucks!”, and even the postal clerk, who should have been concentrating on his work, announced that he “wouldn’t live there if he was Brad Pitt and was worth a million dollars”. (I doubt that: he’s got a lously job in a Post Office and looks like he couldn’t get laid in a whorehouse!)

“Gee, folks, you don’t live in California, so…why the hate?”

Like probably half of the retired folks living in Mesquite, Nevada, I am an émigré from California. And, like most of my elderly peers, I didn’t leave California because it is a crummy place but, rather, because it is cheaper for retired folks to live in Nevada. “I’m on fixed income”, as the saying goes. There is no state income tax in Nevada: that’s $500/month in my pocket.

Maybe the ex-Californian wisecrackers in the post office line had to move to Nevada to stay afloat financially? There’s no shame in that: shit (and age) happens. Right?

There are a lot of California haters out there, most of whom haven’t lived there. A lot of the bad-mouthing is political, as the state is the most populous (i.e. has the most Congressional seats and electoral votes), has the most diverse racial makeup, and consistently votes Democratic. Right-wing political partisans hate that, and love to denigrate anything that comes out of California. It’s a Red vs. Blue state thing, I guess: some people obsess over that.

I was born in California (as was my wife Charlie), I was raised and schooled there, enjoyed a lengthy career there, raised a family there, and would probably still live there if not for economics.

California, like New York, is “where the action is”. If one wants to succeed wildly in a business endeavor, the chances are much greater in megalopolises than in sleepy rural areas and declining cities. There are a lot of billionaires in California, not so many in North Dakota, Wyoming or West Virginia. There are a lot of corporate ladders to scale in California. In fact, there are probably more businesses in California than there are people in Montana! (But, at least, they have a “Big Sky”!)

Cost of living is high in California, for sure. Of course, wages and job opportunities are greater there, as well. So, in the maximum earning years, there is a better chance of economic success in California than any other state. That’s why one-tenth of Americans live there. Are they stupid to do so?

It is, therefore, ironic that Republicans consistently throw shade on California. Supposedly, the G.O.P. is all about economic vitality, but conservative politician windbags endlessly ding the “failure” of California…even though the state’s economy is larger than all but a handful of nations in the world. Accordingly, it is difficult to see how California leaders are fucking things up so badly.

Taxes are high in California. Of course, the quality of infrastructure is very high: this is one reason why business thrives there. As someone once said, “The price of civilization is taxes”. Folks who don’t like high taxes shouldn’t go there: stay on your half-acre parcel served by dirt roads, where the nearest hospital is 30 miles distant, there is no cell service, and local town shops were boarded up thirty years ago. But, hey, at least you can shoot your guns there whenever you want.

There is no doubt that the Golden State engenders a lot of jealousy among non-Californians. Many folks who haven’t lived there, or can’t afford to live there, or can’t get hired there, or can’t afford to vacation there, envy Californians. And so, they come up with lame taunts. I ran across a lot of this when I was in the military. Guys from the South, in particular, felt it necessary to bad-mouth West Coasters…as if the southern states had much to brag about. Bad weather, crappy economy, “bad loser” politics, missing teeth…I’ll take a pass on that region.

If low housing and fuel costs are so great, why don’t more people live in Alabama?

One thing that is undeniable is the diverse beauty of California. Spectacular coasts, towering redwood forests, the snow-capped majestic mountain ranges, the solitude and beauty of the desert regions, the gorgeous grape-growing valleys, the Golden Gate, San Diego Bay, etc. One only has to drive through the boring Midwest (or most of Texas along I-10) to appreciate stunning variety of the California landscape.

I still feel like a Californian, even though we’ve had a home in Nevada for three years now. We still spend one month a year in Oceanside, near San Diego, in our RV.

If we win the lottery, we’ll probably move back.

It’s the time of the year that pious Christians remind we holiday-celebrating pagans not to forget the “Christ in Christmas”.

Yes, we’ve all heard the fable about Jesus, the manger, the angels, the Wise Men, etc. It is a story for the ages… that is easily proven to have been made up out of whole cloth, but it makes for nice yuletide songs, solemn Church ceremonies, and lofty praise of God’s Son, the so-called “Prince of Peace”.

Surprisingly (to many curious people), at the time of Jesus’ alleged birth, no note was taken of the sacred event by anyone. The fables of his miraculous conception and all his Holy activities leading to the ignominious death on the Cross were fabricated by unknown persons many decades (and, in some cases, centuries) after his demise. The Gospels (called “the gospel truth” by the faithful) are full of inaccuracies and falsehoods that have had historians derisively shaking their heads for hundreds of years.

None of the events of Jesus’ alleged life were documented by any reputable scribe at the time…and there were many working in the Middle East at the time. For example, one would think that hundreds of dead people, rising from their graves (Matthew 27:51-54), would have been noticed by the general population and historians of the time. Nope. No temple scribe, no historian, no one in government…absolutely no one in Jerusalem…noticed this odd event except an unknown writer (who obviously wasn’t there) who put the fable to pen at least a century later.

Truth be told: there is more evidence that Paul Bunyan dug the Grand Canyon with his ox Babe pulling a plow than there is the alleged “facts” that the Son of God was born in Bethelem, carried out his ministry, and was put to death by the Romans. Or, that the Apostle Paul did anything that he claimed to do.

Of course, people can believe whatever they want to believe if it makes them feel better or justifies actions that they want to take. (Take, for example, the “stolen” Presidential election of 2020.)

It is ironic that the Hebrew people (the folks who invented the God of Abraham) have absorbed so much misery from Christianity (the religion that they invented).

Long before Christianity was born, power-hungry “holy men” devised a one-God religion which, not surprisingly, anointed the Hebrew folks “God’s chosen people”, justified them confiscating property that they desired (the “Promised Land”), and gave the creators of the Old Testament (the clergy) vast powers over the faithful. Although the Old Testament stories that the clergy devised to sell this theology are almost entirely fabricated events, the Hebrew faithful wanted to believe them because they: (1) made them feel specially blessed by God; and, (2) promised them good times ahead if they obeyed God (and, importantly, the rabbis who concocted the holy fable).

The whole thing fell apart when the Hebrew people were regularly overrun, slaughtered, and made destitute by conquering armies. The Babylonian and Roman conquerors exiled vast numbers of Jews from Palestine. The Hebrew concept of a “messiah” who would rescue the Jews from their woes arose during the Roman occupation, but that savior never materialized. The God of Abraham had evidently given up on the Jews, and the Hebrew peoples were losing their faith.

Enter “Jesus Christ”.

If one is to believe the New Testament fables, Jesus was born of Jews, was a devout Jew, and became a rabbi (a teacher of the faith). All of his friends were Jews, as were his disciples. Even the Apostle Paul, who supposedly wrote many of the books of the New Testament, was a Jew. As is clear in the Biblical story, Jesus was never a “Christian”: he was a Jew until his death, never denouncing the faith of his parents and relatives.

The numerous New Testament fables (none of which have any factual basis) were devised by Jewish clergy to re-imagine the faith into a more salable product. The God of Abraham was still the Boss, but the promise to the faithful was no longer freedom from oppression from enemies (currently the Romans) but, rather, the promise of a happy and everlasting life in Heaven. That was the “new Covenant” from God, according to the Jewish/now-renamed “Christian” clergy. Keep listening to us, keep those collection plates full, and good things will happen (“Thank You, Jesus!”). Of course, if bad things happen, it’s the Devil’s work, you haven’t been praying hard enough, or its “God’s Plan” (that you’ve contracted leprosy!}.

The legacy of the construct “Jesus Christ” has a lot to do with the ministry that he supposedly carried out. According to the Gospels, Jesus spoke to thousands of people at a time, said a lot of nice things, made a lot of promises to people in need of hope, etc. No historian of the time noted throngs of people attending said orations, nor did any historian note a character of “Jesus” speaking to multitudes, walking on water, miraculously making wine out of water, and so forth. All of these fables were invented later on. As were Jesus’ quotes in the Gospels: supposedly verbatim speeches, many of which are quite lengthy, and are highlighted in the New Testament (“Jesus said it, so I believe it!”) Let’s be serious, folks: there were no tape recorders back then, scribes had to painstakingly etch expensive papyrus, etc. There was no evidence of these events, or anyone making the extensive effort to record them, until generations later…when someone made all the stories up. Nowadays, we call this type of literary product “fiction”.

No one, even Biblical scholars, knows who wrote anything in the New Testament.

Based upon all of this, it’s pretty evident that a bunch of ex-Jewish clergy devised these stories to make a clean break from the failed Hebrew religion…to keep their jobs and the power that those jobs enjoyed. Christianity was, essentially, the “new, improved Tide”, available now at your supermarket.

The message was this: not only should everyone purchase the new product, but they should shun the old version (i.e. Judaism).

Hence, we see the beginning of the two-thousand-year conflict between Christians and Jews. As Christians obtained more power, they employed that power to discriminate against, punish, and even kill Jews. The Jewish people became scapegoats for every lost war, plague, economic hardship, and such. Annihilation of Jewish populations became popular in Christian nations, particularly in Europe. Adolph Hitler (a Catholic choirboy in his youth), with the Vatican turning a deaf ear, took this righteous cause to the extreme in the Holocaust.

Anyway, now we’re celebrating another Christmas. Whooppee!

Actually, the idea of a year-ending celebration did not begin with the fabled birth of Jesus Christ. First off, there is no evidence that Jesus Christ ever existed. And, secondly, there is no evidence that the fabled birth occurred as written or happened on December 25^th. In fact, there was already an age-old  celebration in the Roman world, at that time of the year,  called Saturnalia, which commemorated the winter solstice and the god of agriculture, Saturn. (In Germanic countries, there was a winter solstice celebration of the pagan god Odin called “Yule”. Once Christianity arrived in force, the celebration was commandeered as in the Roman world. The term “Yuletide carols” is a nod to those ancient European traditions.)

In the fourth century A.D., when Christianity had become the state religion in Rome, the popular/pagan Saturnalia festival was appropriated by the Church and State as the “official” celebration of Jesus’ Christ’s alleged birth some 300 years earlier. It was also at around this time that the “official” stories of Jesus’ life and ministry (the four Gospel fables) were officially declared by the Catholic Church as “canon”, or the adopted truth. From that point on, if anyone challenged the officially-approved fable, he or she was a heretic, subject to punishments like confiscation of property, stoning, burning at the stake, and such. This is the impressive power that the clergy, the people who had invented the fables, possessed by that time.

As a result, for the next thousand years or so, it was a matter of faith (and law) in Christian countries that Jesus Christ, Son of God, was born on Christmas Day, December 25^th.

End of discussion (unless you want to be tortured on the rack).

I am not a Christian now, although I once was a “born again” believer. Too many things have happened in my lifetime to reassure me that the God of Abraham or Jesus Christ ever existed, that a Heavenly Father watches over humankind, and/or that prayer of any kind, to any spiritual being, works to anyone’s benefit. Things happen, good and bad, to everyone, whether they are religious or not.

Moral codes existed before Judaism and Christianity: one does not have to be religious to do the right thing. Believing in God (any version) does not make a person any better than another. Christians, for example, kill people, exhibit infidelity toward their spouses, and cheat friends and neighbors out of money just as often as non-Christians. Although Christians celebrate Jesus Christ as the “Prince of Peace”, Christian nations have been responsible for as many wars of destruction in the past 1,500 years as any non-Christian nations. Does the term “crusade” ring a bell? Christian “true believers” have no problem discriminating against non-Christians and people of different races and colors (even Christians!). “Hate crimes” in the United States are perpetrated, primarily, by Christians.

So much for the “Prince of Peace” and his birthday.

I say, “Humbug”.

Back in the day, human beings used to live longer, according to the Bible.

That’s probably because the people weren’t subject to HMO’s, Big Pharma, pesticide-tainted food and water, and crackpot presidents pushing phony medical advice for political purposes. Cancer had yet to be invented, “fast food” was a pipedream, and there were no doctors (or lawyers!) to confuse people. According to Genesis, Average Joes lived for hundreds of years, and one guy named Methuselah lived to the ripe old age of 969.

Alas, those were the Good Old Days.

Today, I turned 74 years old. It is amazing, given all the obstacles, particularly in this age of pandemics, horrible diseases, and gun-happy lunatics wandering our streets. When I was a teenager, it was my belief that anyone older than forty was a fossil, with one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. Growing up in the Nuclear Age, and with the Commies threatening to “bury” us, I doubted that I’d live to drive a car, grow a moustache, or get laid.

Against all odds, I survived!

Looking back on the seven-plus decades, I must give thanks to my parents for conceiving me and giving me a moral code by which to live, my teachers for educating me, my colleagues for helping me achieve a very fulfilling career, and my wonderful wife Charlie for giving me forty-eight years of a wonderful marriage and four stepsons who have enriched my life. Really, it’s been a wonderful life.

So far.

I’ve been blessed to have a relatively illness-free life. No major diseases, very few injuries, and I’ve successfully avoided (up until this year’s crappy allergy-caused bronchitis, which has finally ended!) flus, common colds, and the like which most people have to deal with. Good genes, I guess: again, “Thank You” to my parents! And, of course, good luck.

Reflecting back on the many years that I’ve survived, it seems to me that the key to living is…to not be bored. Accepting the physical changes that occur in one’s body, and actually seeking changes in one’s life to remain engaged, is important to feeling alive…despite advancing age.

I’ve always sought out new hobbies, new career opportunities, and new adventures to pursue in my marriage with Charlie. Who wants to be stuck in a rut? The same food on the same day of the week, the same boring job, the same friends, the same routines…not for me! “Variety is the spice of life” and a key to a long, interesting one.

In my younger days, I played all manner of sports, swam competitively and was a lifeguard, water and snow skied, became a “6 handicap” golfer, played billiards for money, enjoyed the fraternity life in college, and dated a lot of nice gals. In my thirty-year career, I changed jobs periodically for the challenge of mastering new skills, I became progressively more valuable to my employer, and rose to the assistant CEO of a 12,000-employee organization. I married a woman with four young sons: what a challenge that was! I owned a horse for a time and became an arena competitor. I’ve traveled all over the world in my 48-year marriage. Charlie and I have lived in five progressively finer homes.

It has been a very interesting and fulfilling life, thus far.

For the past fourteen years, Charlie and I have enjoyed the company of several Boston Terrier dogs. This has given us much satisfaction in training them, playing with them, and providing them with a quality life. Up until yesterday, we were a two-dog household (Baby, 5, and BonBon, 1-1/2). However, another Boston Terrier who needed a home came to our attention via the local animal rescue organization. We didn’t need “Vinnie” (age 15 months), but he needed us.

In a way, the little fellow is my 74^th birthday present. But really, Vinnie hit the jackpot when he joined the Manning pack: the other two dogs adore him, and he now has a safe, wonderful life to look forward to. We eagerly anticipate many happy years with the little guy, going for walks, playing in our spacious backyard, and traveling with us in the RV. He’s going to love the beach in Oregon!

So, just a little extra spice added to our lives, something “new” to keep things interesting as we head into our mid-Seventies. Change is good.

Maybe that’s how Methuselah lived so long? (He had Boston Terriers!)