Reflections of Me

It's been a tragic beginning to this new year of 2018, with so many major stories piling up, day to day, but immigration reform has been one of the constants.  The classification of 'illegal' versus 'legal' immigrant has been yet another issue leading to great divides in our country, with a mass of social media rants and supports, most substantiated by misinformation, skewed facts, or downright stupid conspiracy theories. The last are the most fun, as they reveal some of the most stupid among us. Now, one thing we all are in agreement on: 'illegal' immigration has been, and could be, a problem.  Something should be done, but, I know I have no solutions.  I do know that, whatever we come up with, we have to strike a decent balance between regulation/documentation, and humane action.  Not everyone feels that way, although, the ones who don't really aren't worth talking to, about, or among. One of the least of the issues is people entering the U.S...

In my lifetime, February has meant only one thing to me: the beginning of Baseball's Spring Training.  Other than that, it has been always a rather dull and boring month of continuing Winter. Cue modern technology and social media, and suddenly each February day seems filled with breathless news about the latest political scandal, tragic event, bombastic statements from political leaders across the spectrum, constant overwhelming fodder for serious comics around the globe, the decline of American democracy, and, Wall Street. Our current President, who has surrounded himself with some of the worst examples of humanity since the decline of the Roman Empire, continues to issue impossible declarations, insults, deranged visions, and some of the most outlandish conspiracy theories, all in a fashion designed to make even the most lax grammar and spelling student cringe.  Members of his crew are abandoning his ship in near record numbers, and he is finding it increasingly more di...

I started out as a child. Not exactly what one could call a talent.  A trait, perhaps.  We all started out as children. Well, most of us.  There are some I do occasionally wonder about. Among some of my earliest memories, in no particular order, are Hopalong Cassidy, Davy Crockett, The Lone Ranger, and---baseball.  Not clear memories, mind you, but I found something fascinating about baseball, beginning with the equipment.  My Mother, and her Father, were both fans of baseball.  My Dad, not so much; he was the football nut.  I do recall playing catch with him, and my Mom, and my Grandfather when we would visit.  I loved the feel of the ball in my hand, the glove and how it was used.  Of course, this was during the 50's, when baseball was still  the sport America followed most.  I had already, even before the age of 5, been exposed to baseball on the television and the radio.  As my interest grew, so did my time spent listen...

Well, here we sit, in the greatest nation in the world ( Okay, the 10th greatest now.  Perhaps even the 99th greatest...) and we still cannot figure out quite how to wipe our own butts properly. Not that there is a 'proper' way.  I just liked how that sounded.  Appropriately combative, without being overly aggressive.  It astounds me sometimes that some people still think we are great.  Certainly, we are a wealthy nation, right? Oh.  Yeah.  No.  We have some wealthy people, yep!  Entertainers, politicians, Wall Street members, athletes, bankers, business investors.  Wall Street is experiencing great gains almost daily ( a good thing?  Hmmmm.  Wonder what has happened in the past when Wall Street made exceptional gains? ) which worries some of the more intelligent Americans.  A breed I thought was dying out, but, lately, have seen make a resurgence, activating my pessimistic optimism.  Still, there is ...

I get burrs in my saddle.  They irritate me, until I write them out and take a look at them.  Here's one that has been in the news a lot lately.  A lot.  I mean, a LOT. Sexual misconduct, Washington and Hollywood-style.  Ad infinitum. On the one hand, I am sick of hearing about this.  On the other hand, I am not.  What I am finding most wrong about this is the dialog itself.  It is a dialog we need to have, that is 100% true.  But we need to also understand what the problem is, and there seem to be a awful lot of folks who want it to be about the differences in genitalia.  That isn't the problem.  The problem is in power, perceived or otherwise.  For centuries, men have indeed dominated the positions considered powerful, but we have seen that change over the last 50 years.  What hasn't changed is the perceived 'rights' that we consider attendant to those positions.  The taped statement made by Donald Trump during hi...

Well, here it is, 2018.  Several days in, as a matter of fact, and honestly, I see no difference.  Except having to write 2018, instead of 2017.  But, I have had trouble with that since I was old enough to start writing...it has occurred to me, perhaps we should just write the full year only twice.  Once when the century starts, once during the last year.  The remainder of the time, we could just go '20xx'.  Easy on everybody, except the tax collectors, and heck, they're always confused anyway. Well, and calendar makers...okay, I concede.  Terrible idea.  ( I still think it would be fun, though....).  Just think of all the things we refer to as happening 1, 5, 10 years ago; without a sure way to measure, we could discover, heck, the information wasn't all that blasted important anyway.  " That was yesterday, and yesterday's gone..".  Hmmmm?   Yeah, okay, Sheesh; no need to get all technical on me.  However, speaking...

As usual, I have a word stuck in my head.  I always get words stuck in my head.  Words are so fun to use when writing; you can mix them, match them, move them around, toss them up and catch them or just let them fall where they will, you can wiggle them and shake them and add/subtract letters and make them do all sort of crazy tricks.  Several problems do arise, however, when one uses the written word; inflection is almost impossible to reflect on paper, so sarcasm is often wasted in written conversation unless the reader already knows that such was the intent. Also, meaning: quite often, we write something, knowing full well what we mean when we used such and such a word, only to find the reader has assigned a completely different meaning.  So, when we write, we often put a bit more thought into what we are saying, whereas in speech we tend to soldier on, assuming our listener understands the words we use the same way we do.  This can occasionally lead to sur...