$16,000,000 vs $32,000 SON OF A BITCH vs MOTHERHOOD AND APPLE PIE

I have been boycotting professional sports for many years now for reasons that touch on the (im)morality of the relationship that the athletes and the owners and the media and the public have with one another.  To state that the athletes are disparaging our great country is pure, fresh fertilizer straight from the source.  The salary of the successful career military professional will never attain 8 digits but his healthy life expectancy will outdistance that of the millionnaire athlete whose conditioning regimen and violent livelihood will cut his life expectancy by decades in comparison. Both will have to overcome huge statistical odds to gain the promotions and professional status that they attain.  Both will be compensated according to their state in life.  Both know what to expect and neither one will be jealous of the other because both will be at home with the status that they have achieved.  Given that incontrovertible fact, each will have reasons to exercise the freedom of expression that is guaranteed to each and everyone of the citizens of the United States of America.  To imply that the $16,000,000 guy should be happier than the $32,000 one is to be blind to the human fact that gold alone is not the source of happiness.  (Don't forget to add about 45% more to the $32K for non-cash benefits, present time and post active duty.  Don't worry, all that will not equal $16 Mil)
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To see a similar, but slightly different way of expressing myself on this topic, you can click here if you are so inclined.

Furthermore, I am shaking my head at the accusation that those who demonstrate disagreement with the expectations of others when they exercise  the freedoms that we all have because of the sacrifices of those who have created this country thanks to courageous revolutionary demonstrations are disrespecting the flag and the country itself.

The son of a bitch who leveled that accusation at the players is spitting on the graves of those who broke the yoke of the Kingdom that never dreamed of granting such freedom to its subjects.  That same Kingdom now imitates the life that the Son of a bitch in the West Wing is supposed to be protecting, not accusing.  

Oh, by the way, what is he, the self declared billionnaire, complaining about?  Shouldn't he be the first to shut up and be happy with his mountain of gold?  All he ever does is complain.  If America is not so great, as he himself proclaims (MAGA ???) why isn't it OK to demonstrate dissatisfaction, like he does all the time?  

This is a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

FIRE THE SONS OF BITCHES - PRESIDENT TRUMP

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._national_anthem_protests

Village Idiot son of a bitch Trump is nothing but a pile of human detritus, wannabe dictator of the national territory between Canada and Mexico.  I have lived during the presidency of the following:

Tommy Smith & John Carlos
Mexico City Olynpics, 1968

1. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933-1945
2. Harry S. Truman, 1945-1953
3. Dwight David Eisenhower, 1953-1961
4. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1961-1963
5. Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1963-1969
6. Richard Milhous Nixon, 1969-1974
7. Gerald Rudolph Ford, 1974-1977
8. James Earl Carter, Jr., 1977-1981
9. Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1981-1989
10. George Herbert Walker Bush, 1989-1993
11. William Jefferson Clinton, 1993-2001
12. George Walker Bush, 2001-2009
13. Barack Hussein Obama, 2009-
14. and, of course, Village Idiot Trump

During this time there have been many public demonstrations against racist, white supremacist violent and cruel behavior against African American people.  Never, NEVER has any one of these men, some of whom had rather colorful vocabularies, as the stories have it, never, in 80+ years has any one of them ever called a segment of the populace of the USA "Son of Bitch."

There are those who would think that if anyone could have said something similar, it could have been LBJ, the sitting president at the time.  The two athletes in the picture above did what they did on the international stage of the Olympic Games in Maxico City(1968), and LBJ dealth with it in a professional, diplomatic way.  

There is a long history of National Anthem protests.  The latest one is far from the first and I predict, far from the last.  The Village Idiot president of the United States these days says that these people do not have the right to protest because they make a lot of money.  Therefore, the white supremicist president is saying, they should be quietly comfortable in their corner of the plantation and enjoy the privilege of their riches.  Their human freedom is limited to the boundaries of their bank account.  Thanks, Village Idiot.  Is that how you define your freedom, racist son of a bitch?  

This meme of yours makes you the lowest breed son of a bitch of the land.

You are wrapping yourself in the flag while you never dare to challenge Putin, you never accuse the killer who drove a vehicle into the crowd in Charlottesville, Virginia and you continuosly and viciously attack the media.  So, don't wrap yourself in the flag that signifies freedom of speech, even to the point where you can use foul and insulting language against African Americans.  You are so steeped in your idiocy that you don't realize (or you have actually intended) that speech of that degree of insult coming from you, the president of the country, can actually be an illegal threat against the safety and security of the person(s) to whom it is directed.

You, the Village Idiot POTUS, son of a bitch,  make us ashamed to be citizens here.  Thanks to your warped mind and idiotic behavior your place in the USA history Hall of Shame is guaranteed.  

WALLS, WALLS AND MORE WALLS DO NOT EQUAL JOBS.

Unmistakable sign of weakness

Border walls are the greatest proof of weakness that governments display in the name of national security, job protection and of course, racial "purity."

Weakness?  You bet.

1. Weak border control at the gates.  

2. Weak visa enforcement re. students, tourists, sales reps, politicians, etc.

3. Weak tracking of holders of temporary stay visas.

4. Weak enforcement of labor laws.

5. Fear of loss of campaign contributions from those who hire low wage undocumented migrants

These are but a few elements of our national weakness concerning the entry and stay of migrants.  In order to escape our national responsibility to govern and enforce the migratory movements of  people in our land, there are some who insist on delegating these responsibilties to brick and mortar.  History has shown us that brick and mortar and even other more or less sophisticated erections do not do anything more than to make those who built them happy for a short period of time.  After a while they all become nothing more than tourist attractions and historical footnotes.  The proof of this is spread out over our planet, from sea to shining sea and from fruited to non-fruited plain.

My position to the government of the United States is:  Save money.  Get in your car and go find those who are thumbing their noses at the existing immigration and related labor laws and you will solve what you seem to believe is a problem.  Believe me, building a wall is not going to stop the US employers from hiring non documented persons...in fact, those employers will smuggle people in through the existing gates - mark my words.

HISTORICAL FACTS -- ¿REALLY? -- WOW! THANKS

This is one of those days when I receive my favorite class of emails.  The kind that someone "forwards" with a forceful directive on the subject line to "read this carefully"- or - "Your History Lesson for Today" - like the one I am talking about as we proceed.

This one is an apotheosis of Robert E. Lee.  It closes with the finger-wagging warning that I, and anyone else I might forward this drivel to, should not change history.  Aahhh, OK. 

We therefore proceed to the deep study of the historical facts that according to above referenced email, will support the idolatry due to Master General in charge of the Confederate Forces.

1. He worked with Grant during the Mexican / American War - USA

2. That earned him a decoration as a war hero - USA

3. His wife broke the law by teaching slaves to read and write

4. He believed that slavery was a great evil

5. He worked with Andrew Jackson in the Reconstruction - USA

6. He became popular with northern states and some barracks at West Point are named after him

7. He was a great man who served his country his entire life in one form or another - ?

8. No decorated war hero should be treated as such - ?

9. This is not Iraq and this is not a statue of Sadam(sic)

10. He was very torn about the prospect of the South leaving the Union -?

11. George Washington had a great influence on his life

12. He believed that states rights trumped the federal government

13. The government demanded that he pay his taxes in person - USA

14. When he did not pay his taxes in the proper form, the government took his land and turned into a cemetery for burying Union soldiers - Now Arlington National Cemetery

Poor Robert!  Looks like he had a pretty good thing going until he decided to commit treason. He had some good things going for him.  He had a rather good upper middle class life, what with having a solid education, arable land, working slaves and solid political connections.  The decision that he made to fight for the independence of the states over the decisions of the federal government was a bad one. The decision to fight to the death for the continuation of slavery was a bad one.  The decision to go counter to the intelligence that had been delivered to him did not deter him from attacking at Gettysburg was a bad one. 

So, General Robert E Lee agreed to meet with the respected General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomatox. Lee surrenders.  Grant accepts.  They go their separate ways...but it doesn't end there.

What the email doesn't say is that Lee was never prosecuted for treason.  Why doesn't anyone ever bring that up?  It is true.  He was never brought to justice for all the killing and the misery that he visited upon the country that he tried to vanquish.  Something happened between that April day in 1865 and the rest of Lee's life.  It is my strong suggestion that what happened between that day and the rest of Lee's life is the greatest monument that could exist because it tells the story of how the United States treats the victims of the wars that it wins.  It happened despite the fact that Lee had tax problems.  It happened because his friend, General Grant and Frederick Douglas (Yes, it's true), who lost the debates to be the presidential candidate,  convinced Abraham Lincoln not to pursue charges.  

The bottom line is that history does not have to be changed.  It is beautiful as it is.  I won't change it.  Before you warn me not to change it, be sure that you have the bottom line facts that matter, not just the feel-good fluffy ones, but the hard ones, straight.  Like the one that an escaped slave was instrumental in saving your hero's ass from prosecution.

You are surely one person who will not be tempted to cry at my funeral.  

100% PLAGIARIZED FROM A REAL FRIEND, EXCEPT FOR THE PICTURE

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE (PART 2) (You need 15 minutes of quiet time for this one)

Listen first to this presentation, then click here to read the original post here then see the comments below.  I have been having a polite and respectful discussion about the building of walls around countries. This discussion was started as a comment sent to me by a brother in the faith. 

Comment 1.
Anthony here. Been a while.
Hope you and family are having a fruitful Lent. Interesting comments on your post. I suspect we are on different political ends but I wanted to make sure. My Lenten work is to not have quick opinions about others without at least 10 exchanges of ideas. People are complex and ideas are complicated. I need to give people more time to express themselves and vice versa.
1) Do you see the problem that Trump is trying to decrease with a wall? 
That is the most important question before anything else can proceed in a potential discussion.
 I realize you are probably very busy and may or may not have time to start a discussion but I was interested in seeing the viewpoints on a fellow Catholic who may have different political views.

God bless you and your work.
Sincerely, Anthony.

Response 1.
Anthony:
Glad to hear from you.  This email was a good way to open Lent.  Now I know that most of those on my list are still alive, and that's a good thing.  It beats sending an email asking for a "Test response."  I hope that you and your family are well.
The answer to your question, "Do I know the problem that he wants to solve?" is yes, because he has said it.
My opinion is that walls only exacerbate human problems, but they are great solutions in the control of water flows.

I will not forget you during Lent.
Paul

Comment 2.
The reason I wanted to make sure we see the same problem is because only then can we discuss the urgency and severity of the solution proposed.
 Do you see the illegal immigration problem as I present it below? Here is information garnished from several websites and edited by me.
The main problem with illegal migrants is lost jobs, depreciated wages, stolen taxpayer resources, and increased numbers of crimes and domestic terrorism. Each of these problems harms Americans in many ways.
Illegal migrants force taxpayers to pay for their education, their healthcare needs, increased infrastructure to handle their presence in our land, and increased costs in our courts and prisons.
Illegal migrants fill our emergency rooms, classrooms, and courthouses and demanding that we speak their language and provide free interpreters for them.
Illegal migrants use food stamps and welfare to benefit their families ahead of US citizens.
Some illegal migrants steal American identities and engage in document fraud.
Illegal migrants come from lawless third world countries where the gangs rule, not laws or Constitutions or elected officials. Many of them retain that "rape and pillage" mentality once they enter the US, and to make the problem worse, our own government shows illegal immigrants that they can violate our laws and get away with it! That is why many illegals also drive drunk, burglarize homes and cars, molest children, join violent gangs, deal drugs, etc. They know that the US Government will turn a blind eye or only slap them on the wrist if they are caught, or if they become wanted for a serious crime, they can simply escape justice forever by returning to their home nation.
Terrorists are among the illegal migrants coming into America from the Mexican border.
A few illegal migrants are members of gangs like MS-13 and the Mexican Mafia.
The 9/11 hijackers were violating their student visas and here illegally.
Illegal migrants are voting in US elections stealing votes from Americans.
 All of these actions dilute and weaken the American culture that makes America what it is. That is why I refer to such people as illegal migrants and not illegal immigrants --- we cannot even say they want to be part of America. They don't want to assimilate and learn how to abide by laws and learn English. Immigrants are invested and respectful of the new nation they move to. Migrants are not.
 Protecting America from illegal migration is not about hating immigrants. It is about loving the people already in America by keeping them save. It is about being fair and just to those already here.
 The Catholic Church and its excessive focus on social justice is misguided I believe. Jesus was not an illegal migrant. I am positive that Mother Mary and St. Joseph respected the laws and customs of Egypt when they legally migrated there for protection from Herod.

If we see the problem as above, we can work on what the solution is. We can discuss Trump's zero-sum game tactics in the future.
Sincerely,
Anthony
PS: Cognitive dissonance is an intrapsychic phenomenon --- it occurs when a person has beliefs that conflict with each other and lead to actions that are not consistent with one of those beliefs and thus result in discomfort. Your use of the term is out of place. I doubt Trump has any discomfort doing what he is doing. Our view of what he is doing may not agree with what we belief but that is not cognitive dissonance more than it is just disagreement.

Response 2...Based on Krauthammer YouTube presentation as well as your comment
Interesting position.  I am against walls because they are a radicalizing catalyst for those who live on both sides.  In the end, wars, or better accords make them come down or the gates swing open never to close again.  The gates then become social gathering locales and positive energy is rekindled on both sides, but only after a long time of discomfiting internal and external strife.
Your example of the Holy Family taking refuge in Egypt is pertinent here because Egypt had no wall, and still does not.
On the theological and spiritual side we have the salvation story through the centuries that is a long exhortation toward openness and care...naturally tempered with a dose of discrimination and war.
Krauthammer skirts the issue.  The wall is a material barrier that is doomed to crumble.  The real wall is in the will of the governed and the governing.
The governing have no will to follow the laws that they pass.  They failed to enforce Simpson-Mazzoli and they ignore over-stayers of visas. (I'm sure that any family with immigrants in the house knows how this works.) I enforced Simpson-Mazzoli from my office as Human Resources Director.  My intransigence before the law made hundreds of people unhappy.
The governed are unhappy about the influx and blame many social ills on the migration activity..  The truth is that the movement over the border has made room for the "legals" to get the higher paying, less strenuous employment while the interlopers take the work that the "legals" really don't want to do anyway.
A look at history through some of the early pages of Scripture reveals that when things would get rough in the Euphrates/Tigris/Canaan area, the migrants went to Egypt. There they found themselves where the Egyptians did not want to be...the Nile Delta region.  Father Abraham was likely a part of this migration.  (Google "Hyksos.")
As you know, even that turned bad after a while, just like everything else human.

I have no quarrel with border control. I have the quarrel with the lack of will to exercise it in a human and humane way.  That excludes walls.  I have a quarrel with the governing "class" who accepts millions of legalized bribe dollars (campaign contributions) in exchange for turning away from the existing law and then placing the blame on the "illegals" who did not break the law in absolute fashion...they took/take advantage of the venality of the system.

I suppose that it is unnecessary for me to mention that Jordan, Italy, Germany and Sweden to mention but a few seem to be refuges whose resources are strained but who are comforting those who need it most.

I close my opinion by noting that I am aware that in any wave of refuge seekers there is a percentage of "snakes and rats."  So, I ask, what else is new?  We have that approximate same percentage of humans born in every country that fall into those categories.  The only difference is that we have to wait for them to grow into them.

Anthony, I thank you for staying on this topic.  I willingly admit that I am a "Catholic globalist."  It is out of religious conviction resting on a fairly long life of multiple international experiences.  The latest one is two-fold: Annual visits to the Holy Land (with all that entails) and a sincere friendship with the Muslim community in the Riverside area of California, including the Imam of the local mosque.  Finally, the visits to the Holy Land show that there is a weakening, slight but tangible, of the discipline imposed with regards to crossings through the Wall.  I am confident that this wall too, will crumble someday.  All I can say is, "Why waste the time, especially in God's country?"
Followed by, "Find a higher resolve to straighten out our USA situation without a brick and concrete barrier..
God bless you.  You made me fight my gouty fingers into doing this without my voice recognition tool.
Peace and joy to you.
Paul

NEW TOY -- TOY?

21st century marvel

Hey there.  Here it is a new phase in the life of "365 Thoughts."  We have come upon a situation where I have to type what I write with my tongue.  Thank God for this 21st century invention.  I have been quiet because my typing hands are not what they used to be.  So now I have to change the way I say things from my writing personality to a an electronic invention typing personality. That is according to the typing that I can do with my tongue through the magic speech recognition invention.  I will try to stay in touch or to get back in touch with you all as we go forward towards the twenty second century.  You are all invited to join me in this new phase of my life and yours as it relates to mine.

The rest of the family are doing quite well thank you.  Isabel and I live in San Diego just as we have for the last 40 plus years.  We will visit Western Massachusetts for a couple of days just to visit dear hearts and gentle people who still walk the ground where I was born.  Our two sons Mark and  Jo-El will accompany us.

They have given me a list of just what it is that they want to see.  These things we're all normal to me as I was growing up before they became what they have now become,  museums for the younger people of today to visit and to roll their eyes in amazement over the way things looked so many years ago.  Here is their list:  the Springfield Armory, the Basketball Hall of Fame, the Museum of the Titanic, the Museum of Old Ironsides, and the Airfield Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut.  Good luck!
I will take pictures, so stay tuned. You might have a small trip through Memory Lane.  Happy Nostalgia.

Mothers Day, 2017

1946 - I REMEMBER

Today, driving home from a morning "mission" my mind got to wandering.  I was listening to the radio of course, and of a sudden, I remembered a time in my life when automobiles didn't have standard equipment radios.  The buyer of the vehicle had to buy the radio.  They were not inexpensive.  A new car was maybe an $800.00 dollar purchase and the radio at the time was around $75.00.  A real luxury.  

Along with that, I moved on to one of the great experiences of my childhood life.  I was coming home from a fishing expedition with my three uncles, brothers to my father.  We had been fishing in the morning and now were heading back home toward the end of the afternoon. On the way the radio was playing so that we could hear the play-by-play description of the seventh game of the World Series.  It was a very special series that year because the Boston Red Sox were engaged in the World Series.  We lived in the western part of Massachusetts. My uncles were all Red Sox fans.  My father and I were Braves fans.  

As I was basking in the memory of the game, I enjoyed remembering that in those days there were 16 major league teams.  I enjoyed remembering the distribution of their locations.
Boston - 2; New York - 3; Philadelphia - 2; Chicago - 2; St. Louis - 2; Washington, DC, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Detroit, one each.

Anyway, the score is now tied at 3 apiece.  Second half of the 8th and St. Louis gets a man on first. His name is engraved on the brains of every baseball fan in the state of Massachusetts, one, Enos Slaughter.  It all happened so quickly.  Slaughter breaks for second and  the hitter swings and drills one into left center field.  The regular centerfielder, Dom DiMaggio had to be replaced by Leon Culberson because of a pulled hamstring.  Now Slaughter is already around second and steaming ahead at break-neck speed with absolutely no intention of stopping at third.  Culberson gets lackadaisical and sloppy while Slaughter has pulled out all the stops.  The throw from the substitute centerfielder is late and short and Slaughter scores from first, spit, sweat and a cloud of dust at home plate.  My uncles are stunned, shouting semi-swears (I'm only 9 years old) and stating that what happened to Dom was the curse that made this happen.  Well, as everyone in the galaxy knows, the Red Sox did not recover and that is why the picture at the top of this article is of the Cardinals. 

Surely there is someone in the audience who has a memory of this event. It should also be mentioned that back then each team played 154 games and the Word Series were finished by the third or fourth week of September.

As for me, I have come a long way since then.  Now I don't even know who the participants in the World Series are from year to year.  The Braves are no longer in Boston and Bickford, Spahn and Sain are gone.  So has my interest.  But the memories are great.  

No, I did not have to check this out at Wikipedia.

I GOT A J.D., NOW WHAT?

I find myself around the parish church a lot.  I get to do a lot of important things around campus.  I check the postings that deface the walls and take them down when the dates that they announce are many weeks past.  When the dates are still in the future and the material is not all wrinkled and torn I leave it up.  Many times during my quasi aimless wandering I am acosted by people of various sizes, ages and colors.  Most of the time they are lost and want to know how to get to an office that may or may not be occupied for the moment.  This is the easy stuff because I have been vagranting around the same campus for well nigh 12 or 13 years now.  Sometimes I get asked something interesting. Like a short while ago I was met by a quiet, soft spoken lad who, after the initial greeting formalities announced that he had just passed the bar...first try, too. I was impressed and then quickly unimpressed.  Soft spoken lad says to me, he says, "What do I do now?  I have a JD and I want to know where I can find work where my JD will give me an advantage."  Whooooaa!  Similar to a question that I had 45 years ago.  So, I am ready.  Here's what I say to my new found quasi child.

This is a question that drives me to my innermost, deepest conviction about education. I am convinced that human life is a complex of experiences, all of which make up the “university” of hard knocks. So, every day we live and breathe is a day at school. My father drilled that into me from the day of my birth, and maybe even before.

I, personally, have come to the conclusion that we don't have JD, MBA, Ph.D, etc. we live the initials we place after our name.  

EFR Dion had to leave school in his sophomore year because of the death of his father. My father was the eldest of 8 children and this was 1914, before social services were a common way of life. He grew up in a machine shop environment. His leadership skills put him in lower management at 22. Before he was 30, he was the superintendent of a 50 person machine shop. At 38, he passed the state of Massachusetts professional tool engineer certification exam on his first and only sitting. All along the way, he told me to knit all of my life experiences together so that everything that I did would be inter-related to make me more and more knowledgeable about many things.

I have a master’s degree in Theology. That means that I was in school a long time. I worked my way through a private boarding school for 6 years. I worked for the Church, so a lot of my education was payment for my “in-house” work. Along the way I married, fathered children, lost jobs, quit jobs, was in debt, out of debt, totaled a couple of cars, sold vacuum cleaners, painted, drove airport shuttle vans, security guard, teach Catholic doctrine, Bible studies, organize and host religious pilgrimages and make a little bit of change as a translator. Through it all, I was a missionary pastor, a canon law counselor, a personnel recruiter and a personnel director. How much of what I learned in school did I apply? All of it. However, not all at once, of course. We never apply what we have learned, in school or along the road of life, all at once. No matter how much life learning we knit together, we only use what is sufficient for the moment. Furthermore, while we are using, we are learning from the feedback that the job gives us.

Therefore, everything that you have learned, from the crib to now is going to be useful for you on your first job, assuming that you are talking about your first job. If not, realize that you already know a lot. The first day on the job is going be your first day at new learning experiences as well as a new day of practicing some of what you have learned, not just in school but also in life.

So, don't carry your JD around like a badge or a passport. Live it.  Do what you want to do.  No matter what you do, you will be better at it because you are a JD.

We entered the church.  I said a short prayer for him, blessed him and he left.  I suppose that the next time we see one another he'll be on St. Peter's Public Defender staff.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

These sure are interesting times.  At least I think so.  I keep wishing that I could entertain myself with the antics of the DC Village Idiot.  It turns out that the more time goes by, the more mental garbage that flows into the Village Square.  The more I try to accommodate the language with the goal that I am told is desired, the more mushy my brain becomes.

I am told on a daily basis that the goal is the safety of the people and the security of the nation.  Oh, and by the way I also hear "Jobs, jobs, jobs."  The larger issue of safety and security is really where the fun is.

"Illegals" from Mexico are bad people sent here to make life miserable for us.
Answer:  Build a wall.
Me:  Huh?  Will you wall off the beach side too? You know, the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.  Are you including the eastern shore?  There are some interesting possibilities there.  I'll bet the Mexicans are already plotting those routes as I sit here doing this.

Drugs from Mexico are flowing across the border.  
Answer:  Build a wall.
Me?  Huh?  What about the drugs that are smuggled in through the border gates open to legal crossers, pedestrian and automotive.  Many people who cross through the border gates legally are USA citizens, traffickers bringing tons of drugs in every single day because the USA market has a ravenous appetite for them.

How much wall do we need?  
Me?  I wonder what we are going to do about walling off 7,558 miles of possible entry points, excluding the Alaska / Canada border of 1,538 miles more.  We also have a very decided habit of shooting ourselves in the foot by not forcing overstaying visa holders to get out and go back where they came from.  There are nearly 300,000 Illegal Filipinos here right now.

History of walls.
1. Jericho - Historical oddity - remembered in song.
2. China - Histrical oddity - Tourist attraction
3. Jerusalem - Historical oddity -  Tourist attraction
4. Constantinople - Historical oddity - Tourist attraction
5. Berlin - Tourist attraction
6. Athens - Tourist attraction
7. Carcassonne - Tourist attraction
8. West Bank - Tagger's playground
9. Belfast - Curiosity item
10. Masada - Tourist attraction
Me?  I'm laughing already because I think it will be a tourist attraction from the first shovel full

Tension, Apprehension and Dissension are alive and well.
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester 1953
Department of State budget is in line for shrinkage of 37%.
Me?  Huh?  Safety?  Security?  Deals?  This does not make a wall anything but a tourist attraction.  We stay safe by interacting with the world, not by shutting it out.  Shaking my head in sheer disgust over this one.

Our country is retrogressing into being nothing but an object of humorous inanity.  Yes, our democratic constitutional republic is inching toward the edge of the tyrannical cliff.

One way or the other, now you have a reason not to cry at my funeral.

A TOAST TO "ALTERNATIVE FACTS"

Leonardo da Vinci

Not too long ago, I heard and saw a shameless political shill lie through her teeth on TV.  When the interlocutor pointed out her lie, she said, "Don't get so upset over nothing.  It's an alternative fact."

Upon hearing that, I was immediately reminded of one of my favorite poems.  It is entitled "My Madonna" and came from the pen of the prolific poet, Robert Service.  Through this genteel poem I present you an illustration of an alternative fact.

MY MADONNA

I haled me a woman from the street, 

Shameless, but, oh so fair!

I bade her sit in the model's seat

And I painted her sitting there.

I hid all trace of her heart unclean;

I painted a babe at her breast;

I painted her as she might have been

If the Worst had been the Best.

She laughed at my picture and went away.

Then came, with a knowing nod,

A Connoisseur, and I heard him say:

"'Tis Mary, the Mother of God."

So I painted a halo around her hair,

And I sold her and took my fee,

And she hangs in the church of Saint Hillaire,

Where you and all may see.

As far as I know this poem dates from late in the 19th century.I have been enjoying it for some two decades now.  This is the first time I share it.  Like I said, I couldn't resist after being subjected to the "alternative facts" intellectual dissonance.

I hope you enjoy it.