Month: November 2015

Good morning, y’all. My head cold, like the weather, is clearing up. The strong storms that passed through that brought tornadoes to the South Atlanta area brought unreal thunder, wind and rain to our area. Now that the storms have passed, we have blue skies above and leaves and limbs below. Guess I’ll get back on limb patrol as soon as I can walk without coughing up a lung.

There’s a ton of things that are different in small towns from big cities. The topic for today is policing. I grew up watching Andy Griffin of Mayberry fame. While his character is based on a true life character, most folks believe a policeman with strong ties to the community is a fiction. Not true. Sheriff’s in small towns are elected, and, as a result, are known by the community they serve. More importantly, they know the members of their community. I suspect that has more to do with how criminals are handled in the smaller communities than in the cities. When was the last time you heard of a small town sheriff rolling up to a report of a kid playing with a toy gun and opening fire in three seconds? Never. In a small town, the sheriff would have likely rolled up, told the kid to quit acting a fool or he’d tell his Momma. The sheriff would probably mention the kid’s Momma’s name, just to drive home his point.

I get it, we don’t all live in small towns where everybody knows everybody’s name. That said, I feel a national effort to humanize suspects is in order. Kind of a “Black Lives Matter”, with a subset of, “All Lives Matter”. The dynamics change when you view a “perp”, or my favorite, “un-sub”, as a daddy, mommy, son or daughter. The preservation of life should be the absolute first order of business for the police, even if it means that occasionally they’ll get their uniform a little dirty. A life should have a higher value than a cleaning bill, right?

The police are so over-equipped with gadgetry that is designed to disable suspects, I think they feel cheated if don’t get to use their toys. It has been reported that there have been 634 deaths due to tasering in the United States. What do all of these dead subjects have in common? They were all unarmed.

So, are there other methods available to police that are possibly less lethal to use? Of course. Most countries use the baton as the method of choice. The baton allows the officer to apply a proportional amount of force to a situation while not running the risk of killing a suspect who might be endangered by other methods, such as pepper spray. Since 1990, there have been 60 in-custody deaths in which pepper spray was a contributing factor. In-custody deaths. Pepper spray is not just an irritant to an asthmatic, it’s a death sentence.

To what can we attribute the over use of force in America by the police? I believe the police are scared to death. I’m not ready to cynically say that they all are a bunch of neo-Nazis. I think they’re scared, and out of that fear, overreact. Do they have reason to overreact? In my opinion, and a study done by the CDC, no. According to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI, “In America, more preschoolers are shot dead each year (82 in 2013) than police officers are in the line of duty (27 in 2013) ” Let that one soak in for a while. You are three times more likely to be killed by gunfire, if you are a preschooler than if you are a policeman. Something is clearly out of whack here, and the answer is not that we need to up armor the kids.

To me, the answer is the sense of community the police officer needs to have, and the training in non-lethal methods. It’s not sexy, and it doesn’t move billions of dollars worth of military weapons to the police, but it could work. It works everywhere else. Don’t spare the rod, and save the child.

Good morning, y’all. I mentally awoke to the hymn, “Up From The Grave He Arose”, this morning. I think it was some sort of subconscious message my brain was trying to get through to me. Kind of like, “You’re old, you need to start taking better care of yourself, or one of these days you’re not going to arise.” Apparently, my self evaluation, that “I’ve been doing much better”, is being contradicted by the facts. I hate that when that happens.

One of those areas where facts get in the way of perception is the notion that raising the age of retirement is the only solution needed to fix a secure future for the elderly. It’s true, the longer you’re able to provide for yourself the better you should be. Social Security even tilts the retirement income to a higher monthly stipend if you wait until age 70 to begin withdrawing benefits. The reality is that if you start your benefits at 70, it will take you 13 years to “earn” back the money you would have been drawing if you started at age 66. It is simple math. The extra couple of hundred dollars a month looks attractive, particularly if you were planning on working to 70 anyway, but, if you want to get the maximum from your benefit, retire at the minimum full retirement age. Keep working as long as you are able. Recent changes brought about by the Obama administration greatly raises the amount of income a retiree can earn before being taxed on the income. Good policy for a host of reasons.

The first question you should ask when you’re deciding to wait until 70 to take retirement is “how many of my family members have made it passed 83?” Weigh that answer with your general health before making your decision. Also throw in the fact that the Social Security system uses your last five years average earnings as an index to your monthly benefit.

That last little tidbit is a hook into a greater societal problem that Congress, et al seem to be completely oblivious to. It has been my observation that when the workforce approaches age 50, the worker’s usefulness is under extreme scrutiny in most work environments. Replacing an aging worker with his higher associated costs of salary, health insurance and possibly retirement, with a younger model is very attractive idea to management. It happens everyday in America. While there are ageism laws in place to prevent it from happening, I’ve never heard of anyone successfully mounting a case.

So now, you’ve got an aging worker with his higher salary expectations, higher health care costs, turned loose on the job market. For those middle age workers that are able to make the transition successfully, I say, God love you, you are the exception. For the most part, the aging worker takes lower and lower salaried jobs, if he can find a job, until he retires. As you can see, not supporting the ageism laws helps reduce the Social Security outlay because of the indexing factor. The “unwritten policy” of not enforcing the ageism laws is so blatant that even the Bureau of U.S. Labor and Statistics don’t even track age groups after age 48. The message is clear, they’re old, let them fend for themselves.

Now I am not naive, I know that for new workers to have a job, older workers have to step aside. I know that for folks out there wondering if they’re ever going to get Junior with his degree in English Literature out of their basement, there has to be a job. I’m just saying there has to be a better way. Our current system puts me in mind of the time me and The Tacky Ones were playing a little venue in Helen, Ga. and a wise young bard in the audience yelled, “hey old man, get off the stage”. Getting old ain’t for the faint hearted, I tell you. Stick around long enough and you’ll see for yourself.

Good morning, y’all. Still trying to shake this cold. Mulva brought home these throat medications that guarantee that you’ll feel better each day if you take these lozenges all day long. It occurred to me that if you didn’t feel better each day, with or without the lozenges, something was real bad wrong. I do feel a little better, so I’m going to keep taking them just in case.

It’s funny, most of the stuff I do these days is, “just in case”. While we’re in our twenties and thirties we didn’t think too much about “just in case”. We had plenty of time. While the politicians have been telling us forever that Social Security was going to die, we had time when we were younger to change course and plan for our future. Now that I’m past sixty, I find it’s not that easy to chart another course.

“Just in case” Social Security does die, what plans do I have? None. I guess I’ve always believed that the politicians would never be stupid enough to screw with retirees. In fact, I’ve bet my future on it. As we old timers become a bigger and bigger demographic, and all of us baby boomers are retiring, the politicians want to blame the “imminent” failure of the system on us. Now, I’m no rocket scientist, but I can do my times and goesintos. Seems to me that back in the early fifties somebody in charge should have been doing their math homework and doing some projections on how much money would be needed based off of births and deaths. For a point of reference, find any actuarial and pick his brain. I mean, if an insurance actuarial can calculate how to payout a $10,000 burial policy for a premium of $9.99 a month, and make a profit, Social Security should be child’s play.

In fact, it’s the children playing with Social Security that have been the problem. The children I’m referring to is Congress. Over the years, members of both parties have borrowed money from the Social Security Trust Fund, and not repaid it. The deficit is now calculated at 2.6 trillion dollars and is scheduled to start being repaid in 2020. This was money generated from our payroll taxes and during many years, resulted in a surplus. As is its nature, Congress abhors a surplus, and Congress promptly converted the money to wars, vacations and gym equipment. While performing this sleight of hand, the conservative shills publicly called out all of the current and future recipients as communists. How dare we expect the government to give us back the money they’ve been taking from us for forty plus years?

In sad truth, much of this vitriol has stuck with the younger generations, and they fully expect that Social Security will not be there for them when they need it. I don’t know if they expect the payroll deductions to stop first, or not. I do know that one little change to the system will keep it healthy through 2065, and no, it doesn’t involve carnage to Congress. By removing the limit on the Annual Social Security Wage Base Limit, Social Security gets well. Currently it’s capped at $118,500 in wages per year, but there’s a whole bunch of folks making more than that. Of course, that’s the folks that already think they’re paying more than their share. The Donald should be happy to pay taxes on his full income, after all, the folks working at Burger King do. Adjusting the tax rate from 6.2 to 7.0 would work as well, it’s all about wanting to preserve the system.

Conservatives don’t want to preserve the Social Security system for a couple of reasons. First, what conservative wants the largest example of socialism in the world to be working? Kind of cuts across the grain of a conservative. Next, is the movement by the conservatives to hand Social Security to Wall Street. The most recent attempt at privatization was by “W” back in 2005. The Jebber talks about it all of the time. I mean, what if all of that income was put someplace that was not guaranteed by the government, someplace that was super safe for the elders, you know, like the stock market? We all know how the stock market favors the average uninformed investor, what could go wrong?

I don’t think it will happen, but I guess I need to start on my “just in case” plan. It’s probably going to involve a Mason jar and a hole in the back yard.

Good morning, y’all. There’s nothing worse than a head cold, I think the flu might be better than having all of this pressure building up in my head. Fortunately, I’ve got a good wife who looks out for me. Mulva is willing to try any medication she can find in the checkout lane at Walmart in the hopes that it will be the miracle cure. So far, no cure, but we’re not going to quit trying.

Speaking of the indomitable spirit of human beings, puts me in the mood to speak a little bit about the tragedy on going in Paris. There is so much that has happened, and so much that is still on going, that it’s hard to put anything in to a “resolved” column. The terrorists attacked civilian populations, what CNN likes to refer to as “soft targets”. To CNN I’d like to say “Duh”! Would the attention that the terrorists have drawn to themselves have been as big if they had tried to blow up a military base? Of course not. Attacking military bases is not the nature of terrorism. For terrorism to work, the general population has to be paralyzed. When no one feels safe going to the grocery store then the heat is turned up under the politicians to deal with the terrorists demands. Look at a hundred years of Irish – English relations for a primer.

While the “troubles” had a religious component, as certainly the Isis issue does, I can think of a couple of differences in the Isis terrorists methods. First, the IRA never went to a music venue for the purpose of carnage. Second, the IRA were not intent on killing themselves in the effort. I guess the Catholics lacked the “72 virgins”, component in their training. The self immolation seems to be a trait that is strictly of a religious bent, and stands apart from the political goals, to me. Some, like Bill Maher, would say that the terrorists were brave like a Marine charging a machine gun nest, sacrificing his life for a perceived greater cause, I chose to think of them as cowards. I feel they have been indoctrinated so strongly in their religious beliefs that they are immune to feeling or independent thought.

So now, our “longest standing ally”, has been attacked by a bunch of wacky-doodles bent on turning the world back to the fourteenth century. While I’m enjoying the reversal of stance of our politicians who brought about the term “freedom fries”, I’m wondering if the politicians will now acknowledge why France didn’t want to get caught up in George Bush’s war in the first place. France really is our longest standing ally, and has played a vital part in the formulation of our country and the pseudo democracy we live in. We should have treated them with a lot more respect than we did during the George Bush war.

The difference between the United States and France has been described as, “in the United States the people fear the government”, in France, “the government fears the people”. For you folks that like history, France really did have a revolution, and in addition to wiping out all of the aristocracy, they wiped out all of the clergy above local priest level. Seems the average Frenchman knew who was delivering the pain to their daily lives and decided to clean house while they were at it. Hence, in France, “the government fears the people”. So when the people of France said they didn’t want any part of George Bush’s war, the government heeded their wishes. What a concept, government for the people.

Sadly, now France has been drug into it. All of our hearts are broken over the events. The French are extremely resilient, and if history is any indication, they will persevere. I am confident the French will not give in to terrorism. Besides, I’m self interested,  I want to go back here.

Good morning, y’all. I woke up this morning with the mother of all colds. I’m guessing all of the rain was keeping down the Fall allergens, and when the rain stopped, the allergens were allowed to roam free and do their nasty work. I guess getting out and doing a lot of physical stuff helped me breathe deeply of the pollinated air. Oh well, I guess I’ll just “rub a little ‘tussin on it” until it goes away.

The “rub a little ‘tussin on it” line comes from a Chris Rock routine. Chris is describing how poor his family is, even though his dad is still in the family and working at least two jobs all of the time. The family is so poor they can’t afford a doctor, even in the most dire of circumstances. Chris’s dad had hit upon a cheap cure for any situation, Robitussin. Chris does a fabulous job with the material, describing how he once fell off his bike and broke his arm. Chris’s dad is there extolling him to just rub a little Robitussin on, and to “rub it in deep so the ‘tussin can do it’s work.” Funny, funny stuff about a sad situation. Poor folks will reach out for any low cost solution for ailments. I’m going to throw the “laying on of hands” into the category of slightly less effective solutions than “rubbing a little ‘tussin on it”.

I bring up the laying on of hands because of the revival going on down at The Full Gospel Original Church of God. For those of you unfamiliar, laying on of hands is a practice of some churches whereby the ordained can ask the holy spirit to do works through the ordained for the benefit of the believer. It is a component of all evangelical churches, and is used at the times that are considered most effective by the church’s elders. Some churches will close every service with an altar call for the infirmed to come forward seeking help. Other churches, like The Full Gospel Original Church of God, will wait until revival time to do “healing en masse”. I believe the thought process at The Full Gospel Original Church of God was that nobody wanted to hear about Hugh Morris’ prostate problems every service. By relegating the laying on of hands to revival time, the Elders have a bonus attraction for attending the revival, and, they avoid the weekly reminder to the congregation that Mr. Morris still has a dribbling problem.

Anyway, the The Full Gospel Original Church of God was packed to the gills again this week and the line of folks in wheel chairs went out into the parking lot. It’s a good thing it was a nice day. It’s also a good thing that someone thought ahead and built a ramp for the wheelchair bound folks to use. I could see a lot of the ushers needing a laying on of hands on their backs from dragging wheelchairs up the steps.

Since the service was televised, and folks in wheelchairs don’t have the mobility one would need when avoiding snakes, the serpent wrangling was kept to a minimum. The Reverend Helen Handbasket kept everything “close to the vest”, you might say. The Reverend didn’t allow any of the fellers to roam free, or be handled by anyone other than herself. She did a fine job getting through the entertainment portion of the show with minimal liability exposure.

The altar call looked like that scene in “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” with everyone lined up for their meds. There were folks that didn’t know where they were, but they knew they were going to get a miracle. To her credit, The Reverend Helen Handbasket didn’t make folks “take up their bed and walk”, like some evangelists do. The Reverend also didn’t cause any neck damage by laying hands so forcefully the sick were dumbfounded. All and all, The Reverend conducted herself well and didn’t go all Benny Hinn on anybody.

We’ll have to wait until next week to see how Mr. Morris’ flow goes.

Good morning, y’all. Let’s all be honest. Even if you were suffering from the gout, had a sty on one eye and pink eye in the other, you’d feel better after watching the Dawgs beat the convicts from the Plains. If you’re watching the game in a room full of War Eagles, and you have various non-monetary wagers placed on the outcome, it is even sweeter. Georgia wins 20-13.

The game looked like it was going to be a struggle of two very bad teams trying to not lose. In fact, I can joke and say that rather than the Bulldogs winning, that the Bulldogs didn’t lose. It’s not that I’m not thankful, it’s just that this season has been a massive disappointment in a myriad of ways. I think the overwhelming conclusion that I’ve drawn from this season is that our head coach is operating at about fifty percent efficiency. There can be a host of reasons for his lack of involvement, at least until he’s placed in the “hot seat”.

There’s always mid life crisis, and we can be thankful he’s not Bobby Petrino. There’s the possibility of his superiors telling him to “manage” rather than getting into the weeds himself. There’s the possibility of some sort of “work-life” balance thingy where everyone works from 9 to 5 and then goes home and forgets about the job until the next day. There’s the possibility that coaching is a young man’s game, or at least a job for men who still have goals that are larger than mediocre. Whatever the answer is, and there’s a bunch more possibilities, I don’t see us getting Coach Richt’s best efforts. Like any employee, it’s time to evaluate and determine if his baseline performance is suitable for retainment. 

One person who does seem to care about winning is coach Jeremy Pruitt, the defensive coordinator. Since Coach Pruitt’s group led the effort against the War Eagles, we’ll begin with the defense first.

Defense:

Again, I was very impressed with the Freshmen play. If the coaches don’t kill one of the kids on the sidelines due to a forearm shiver delivered unawares, this group has potential. The defense held Auburn to 275 total yards, with just 62 yards through the air. Pass defense is supposed to be our weakness, so when you add the fabulous interception by Malkom Parrish to an otherwise workman like performance, you have hope for the future. Hat’s off to Jordan Jenkins and Lorenzo Carter for forcing fumbles and generally causing havoc in the Auburn backfield. Bend but don’t break worked.  Hat’s off to the team for staying focused.

Special teams:

Well, our mixed bag of nuts played well and actually provided the spark that led to victory. The human joy stick, Isiah McKenzie, ran a punt back for a 53 yard touchdown to give the advantage to the Bulldogs.  Marshall Morgan was 2 of 2 in the field goal department, and made his 2 extra points. Brice Ramsey shared kicking duties with Collin Barber and Ramsey shined with a 46.0 yard average. A stellar effort on special teams, I wish it was this way every week.

Offense:

Greyson Lambert went the whole way as quarterback, yielding only to Sony Michel and Terry Godwin in Wild Dawg situations. Lambert was 12 of 17 for 97 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions. I guess adequate is the new great.

Sony Michel continues to give it his all in spite of a broken hand. He finished the day with 77 yards rushing on 26 attempts.

Isiah McKenzie was allowed to play this week, and he played with a vengeance. Isiah finished the day with 26 yards rushing on 4 attempts and a touchdown. I hope whatever doghouse he was in has been destroyed, we need him on the field.

Malcolm Mitchell contributed 20 yards receiving, on just 2 receptions. Malcolm continues to be our dominant downfield blocker and should be rewarded for his selfless play.

Time of possession was tilted in our favor, 35.5 minutes to 24.5. Maybe the coaches see the importance of maintaining possession of the ball.

Watching Tech lose was a treat. Gosh, if we can just manage to beat them the season might not suck as bad.

Good morning, y’all. Power is restored and the folks here at TackyToo have returned to focusing on something besides getting me, “to do my job”. You’d think I was CEO of Georgia Power, or in charge of cutting trees away from lines, or both. I can tell you right now if I was CEO of Georgia Power I’d live some place nice, like Rotterdam or Krakow or somewhere.

I bring up Rotterdam and Krakow because they were featured on one of Mulva and I’s favorite TV shows, “The Amazing Race”.  In case you’ve been living in a cave, or Alabama,  “The Amazing Race” is this great TV show that pits couples against each other to win a race around the world. The couples take all sizes, ages, shapes and relationships. This year’s group has got a mother and son, a couple of cheerleaders and a couple of cowboys. The mother and son are a double pull at the emotions because they are using the challenge to reconcile their relationship after a bad “coming out” party for the son. His Momma didn’t take too well to him being gay. The cheerleaders and cowboys are eye-candy to give us something to look at while we watch all of the teams struggle with the puzzles and physical challenges placed in their path.

The leading couple is an obnoxious couple who have been doing the “Amazing Race” for years, in an unofficial capacity, awaiting their call to the real show. The male is particularly obnoxious, constantly berating his partner and just generally acting full of himself. He is the antihero we all pull against. I speak for all of the viewing audience when I say that I hope karma is real and that this dude gets his comeuppance soon. The show will be much more pleasant to watch without him.

Part of the joy of the show, besides seeing new places you’ve never been, is watching how other couples handle the adversities they encounter. Mulva and I are quite sure that there would never be a cross word between us and we would always be respectful of one another. We both agree we’d enjoy a trip around the world on somebody elses’ nickle. Seeing Krakow, Poland had never made it on our bucket list, so this week’s show was particularly interesting. One of the show’s challenges involved visiting the Oscar Schindler factory. The factory has been turned into a memorial for the people Schindler helped save in World War II. Most of the couples were overcome by emotion at the viewing and it made for an easy choice for our date night movie, “Schindler’s List”.

Do not go into “Schindler’s List” unprepared. First of all, it’s in black and white. There is one piece of color used in the movie, but I won’t spoil the where or the why of the display. Just let me say that the director, Steven Spielberg, did a fantastic job of pulling us into the story and keeping us riveted to the screen. It’s not a happy story, although we are celebrating the success of Schindler in keeping his workers from the gas chambers. Liam Neeson is just insanely good in his role. Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes are excellent in their roles as well. There is a “cast of thousands”, as one could imagine for this type of movie, and Spielberg maintains control of all of the players to give the scenes power and depth.

There is violence, after all we’re talking about the worst example of man’s inhumanity to man, but it is not a gore fest. In fact, the rather “matter of fact” examples of violence  further reinforce the cold detachment from humanity the Nazis had. Six, or six million, didn’t matter to the Nazis. Eradicating all Jews was their “final solution”. Their “final solution” was partially thwarted by Schindler’s efforts to protect his workers. Schindler’s success was beautifully portrayed at the end of the movie by the real life survivors and their children and grandchildren visiting Schindler’s grave. It was a very powerful statement of survival.

A great movie, check it out, and check out the “Amazing Race”. You might see me and Mulva on there some day.

Good morning, y’all. We’ve had a bit of inconvenience today from a large pine tree falling over the power line that feeds our electricity here to the park. If you pass by here on Highway 60 you might have noticed that the neon TackyToo sign was dark. It didn’t take a dark sign for the residents here to notice the lights were out, even though the tree fell in the middle of the night. I must have had fifty plus phone calls in the first hour after the tree fell. On my cell phone. How they got my cell phone number I’ll never know. Do you know how hard it is to explain to some folks you can’t call Georgia Power until they quit calling you?

Anyway, crack of dawn, Georgia Power was out here hooking stuff back up. Lineman is my second worst job. Tree topper will always be the worst. I mean chainsaws and climbing rotten limbs fifty feet off the ground, what could go wrong?

Anyway, all of this tree talk put me in mind of the old adage about, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Well, of course it would. The laws of physics are not suspended because there’s no one there to record the event. The fact that a sound unrecorded doesn’t mean that the sound didn’t occur, spring boarded my brain into thinking about sights that previously have gone unrecorded.

I’m talking about the police wearing body cameras. Let me tell you, I’m a big, big fan. I realize that a visual recording might have had a more deleterious effect in court for some of my misdeeds, and, I’m ok with that. I understand the guilty must do their penance. That said, and I’m admitting I’m a sinner, I believe all law enforcement everywhere should wear body cameras. I also believe there should be strong penalties to personnel who, “forget to turn the camera on”, or suffer “malfunctions”.

We have the opportunity now to correct a lot of wrongs that have been perpetrated by the folks who are pledged to “protect and serve”. I realize I am painting with a very broad brush, but I’m going to keep on stroking. Since the police reflect the society they are drawn from, that means that some of them are going to be scared to death all of the time, some of them are abusers of power, some of them are physically unfit for the job, some of them are psychologically unfit for the job, and hopefully, most of them are qualified, good public servants. I’m hoping the body cameras weeds out all but the best, with a minimum of civilian carnage during the process.

Lest you think I have wildly overstated the problem, let me relate two recent items in the news. The first is the very disturbing body cam footage of a suspect who was being brought to the hospital by the police for a drug issue. Suspect is handcuffed behind the back and poses no threat to the officers. He did kick out the car window of the police car and bolted for the hospital. The footage shows the suspect subsequently tasered over twenty times by the three offices while at the front door of the hospital. From the footage, you see no physical threat to the officers. You do see three white officers and one large black suspect.

Previous to body cams, both sides would have to tell their side of the story in court. In this case, suspect dies en route to jail, and so his side of the story would have never been told without the body cams. Why the officers decided to take the suspect to jail instead of leave him at the hospital for treatment, which was their original destination, will be one of the many questions they will have to answer.

My second news item is the news that the shooting of Tamir Rice, the 12 year old boy shot and killed by police while holding a pellet gun, was deemed, “clearly objectively reasonable.” The child was shot two seconds after the police rolled onto the scene. The two seconds is factual, not my interpretation, and is mind boggling on the surface. Do I have the time to say, “Police, put down your weapon!”, in two seconds? Can I draw my gun after arrival at the scene, position myself in a safe manner to confront a supposed gunman in two seconds? My gut sense is the officer went in with gun drawn in the car and opened fire immediately. “Not a word was spoke between us”, as Bob Dylan said.

If body cams had been in play at the time of the shooting of the 12 year old child, I’m sure we would a have a different finding than, “clearly objectively reasonable.” Weeding out the unfit for service is what I’m hoping the body cams will do for society. Whether it’s psychologically or physically, society deserves nothing but the best from their police.

If a tree falls in front of a body cam, we’ll hear it.

Good morning, y’all. I was happy to sit down and minimally participate in our Republican debate potluck supper last night. Trying to catch up a couple of week’s yard work in the one day of sunshine we’ve had was fool hardy on my part. I can see the improvements from my efforts, but I feel the pain.

Speaking of things that involve pain with minimal improvements, let’s talk the Republican debate. I can see the candidate’s debate strategies improve with each telecast. The candidates are more comfortable with each other and the format. Given a very supportive group of mediators, the candidates were able to babble ad nauseum. What I can’t see is any substance behind their rhetoric.

The debate was missing two of the more bombastic personalities, Mike Huckabee and Chris Christie. Low polling numbers relegated the two candidates to the “kiddie table”. It is sad to see them sent down to the JV in one respect. Chris Christie is by far the best politician in the group, with Huckabee not too far behind. Christie and Huckabee may be misguided, but they are not clueless.

It has gotten painful in watching each of the candidates trying to outdo the other for the “most clueless” award. Now, you would have thought Dr. Ben Carson would have been awarded the “most clueless” crown at the start of the season, and then the award would have been retired. In a surprise move to ascend to the clueless throne, The Donald came out swinging this debate.

The Donald – Came out for an immigration plan that was widely held as inhumane treatment when deployed during the Eisenhower administration. Hispanics had their heads shaven and were dropped in remote parts of the dessert to prevent their return to the U.S. Eisenhower tried to remove one million Hispanic illegals. The most accurate number of actual deportees is two hundred and fifty thousand. The fact that we have eleven million illegal immigrants now speaks volumes to the success of the program. BTW, The Donald will be attempting to send back forty four times the number that Ike sent back. The Donald keeps saying the word, “Humanely”. “You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means”.

Ben Carson – it must be painful to be so convinced of your infallibility and have the knaves of the media continue to point out your shortcomings. If the media only knew that the picture of Dr. Carson and Jesus that hangs in Dr. Carson’s house is a self portrait. Doubling down on his anti-abortion stance, Dr. Carson has stated that he didn’t think Hitler should be aborted. I guess we’d just wait for Hitler to be born and then smother him. That’s how right to life works, right?

Carly Fiorina – Got spanked by The Donald, rightly so, for interrupting everyone else all night. Carly is at no loss for an opinion on any topic. Carly has problems with reality and the truth, but no problems with formulating an opinion. Carly chastised The Donald for meeting Putin in a green room, while she had actually gazed mano to mano with Putin in person, in a green room.

Jeb Bush – it’s gotten so bad for him that you feel sorry for him. I mean, I feel so sorry for him I might even vote for him. Let me qualify that statement. I might vote for Bush, if I was a Republican, and I had had both of my frontal lobes removed. I guess that statement was redundant. The Jebber did say he’d travel back in time to kill a baby Hitler. Don’t know if he’d abort Hitler, but he would definitely do the “wet work”, if given the chance.

Marco Rubio – got a big dose of money this week and has now jumped on the repeal Dodd- Frank bandwagon. After the deposit cleared, Rubio has decided that you can’t have a bank too big. Got totally spanked by Rand Paul for being a selective conservative.

Rand Paul – he’s my “a broke watch is right twice a day” analogy. Calling out Rubio on his conservative “creds” was priceless. As Paul pointed out, how can you be a conservative if you don’t apply those values to every aspect of government, especially the military? Paul became the pot calling the kettle black when he did his appeal for a “diversified energy program”. Paul comes from a coal state.

John Kasich – Continues to “cast pearls before swine” and have the swine just muck them up with everything else. Kasich is clearly the most qualified and sensible candidate the Republicans have got. I’m stunned he’s lasted this long. Big money is going to want another mindless twit like “W” for their candidate. Kasich has no chance, but I do appreciate a throw back to what the Republicans of my youth looked like.

Ted Cruz – it finally hit me during one of Cruz’s long winded diatribes. He’s the living embodiment of Montgomery Burns of Simpson’s fame. Listen to him, look at that receding jawline. There’s a nuclear power plant in his future, I can feel it.

Time for my nap. Maybe the sun will come out tomorrow.

Good morning, y’all. It’s been so refreshing being able to get out and do my little walk around the loop here at TackyToo. I can fight the masses, pun intended, to use the treadmill over at the Rec room, but it’s almost as bad a signup situation as it is for the computer. Being able to walk my laps around the park in the sunshine is the way to go for me. Brain cells get oxygen that haven’t been activated since “back in the day”.

Speaking of “back in the day”, we all have memories of our teens and early twenties that are enhanced by the passage of time. Maybe enhanced isn’t the right word, maybe numbed is more apropos, but you catch my drift. Our successes and strengths are exaggerated, and our failures and weaknesses are diminished. We fashion a memory that is something we are comfortable with. I feel certain that is true of all of us. We all recall “the good old days”, right?

Events of this week at the University of Missouri got me to thinking about “the good old days”. My “good old days” included the shootings at Kent State and the riots in Harlem, Watts and others. My “good old days” were some of the most turbulent times in American history, and watching the events at the University of Missouri put me in a most reflective mood.

First and foremost, racism is not dead in America. We see it every day and are reminded of it every time we hear of another black person being shot by police. The militarism of America has continued unabated since the unleashing of the National Guard on the student population at Kent State. Our local police departments are equipped with better grade weapons than most country’s armies. Why? Who do our local governments fear that has brought about this escalation of weaponry? As near as I can tell, it’s not armed bands of Isis running amok in our streets. It must be someone else.

Watching how the students of color handled themselves this week at the University of Missouri was eye opening. Part Dr. King, part Ghandhi, and part Donald Trump, the student body were able to get their demands met without a shot being fired. While I give great props to the student who launched a hunger strike, and the other students who marched in solidarity to their cause, the real winners of this skirmish were the black athletes on the University of Missouri football team who refused to play until the president resigned. After watching a few clips of Tim Wolfe, the ex-president, it is easy to see why the students of color didn’t feel like the president held their best interests at heart. The chancellor of the University has also since resigned. It sounds like a good house cleaning is in order.

As an old dog who has now been taught a new trick by this generation, let me say that had we known all we had to do to get our demands met was to refuse to play football, why heck, you all would be living in a different world now. Had we known the secret to social change then, I expect everyone today would have a house and a good paying job with free medical care and using hover boards to get to and from work.

Withholding football never occurred to us, “back in the day”. Each cancelled game would have cost the University of Missouri over a million dollars. Turns out, it was an easy financial decision for the folks in charge. Good on you, Missouri Tigers and all of the coaches and teammates that supported the movement.

In memory of a different time I give you Crosby Stills and Nash. There are still four dead in Ohio: