Sirens
We are a Nation in crisis. There’s lots of verbiage that often precedes that: existential, Constitutional, generational, apocryphal, and so on and so forth. As an “essayist” (I really don’t like the term “blogger”, and I don’t feel like I’ve earned the title of “author” or “writer”), it’s easy to fall into the trap of constantly “yelling from the mountaintop”. It’s not that warning the world is wrong. But, like the tornado sirens that go off every week, they lose their alarm function. God help us if a tornado decides to strike at noon!
(Which reminds me: we almost always did our school fire drills in the afternoon. That way, a lot of our students were already gone for the day, and the weather was warmer. We seldom had fire drills in the morning, or before school started, or, heaven help us, at lunch. Fires, like drills, had better be convenient!! And we won’t talk about the Dean of Students (me) who watched the TV stations call off the Tornado Warnings, and sent kids out to get on the buses. Funny, with all of those buses running, you can’t hear the wailing sirens just a few miles away!!!)
One of my readers (not often in agreement) called my recent effort, “just another of Marty’s doom and gloom” essays. And while his analysis and mine seldom agree, there is a legitimate point. It’s probably time to refrain from yelling for a bit, otherwise I become just another part of the background noise; a tornado siren at noon on Wednesday.
Two Hour Tour
So here’s some good news. The marooned astronauts finally made it back to earth. Their “Two hour tour” (remember Gilligan’s Island?) went from ten days to ten months. The news is full of retraining their balance mechanisms, and the fact that their eyeballs reshaped because of the lack of gravity. But it’s all said in fun. The world (all sides) is happy their home, back on earth.
And it was humorous to hear the media try to avoid naming their actual landing place. The geographic identifier was: off the coast of Florida, or, in the warm waters off the coast, or the friendly waters where they were welcomed by dolphins and the Space X recovery team. No one dared say that they dropped into the GULF OF MEXICO (though CNN and probably Fox used the current, politically correct alternative choice – the newly minted Gulf of America).
Crown Royal Apple
And, (this is political) I’m enjoying my Canadian friends reaction to the current American regime. Canada is considered a friendly place of cold winters, cold beer, and flannel-plaid shirts And there are the summers of almost endless daylight (and interminable black fly season – May through July!!).
But there is a fighting spirit in Canadians. After all, their national sport is hockey. Fights in any other sport means ejection from the contest, fines and suspensions. In hockey it’s a couple of minutes of “time out”, like a five-year old, then back on the ice. It shouldn’t be a surprise that Canadians are willing to match the US, tariff for tariff, and Crown Royal (it all comes from Canada) against Kentucky Bourbon. Canadians are saying everything that 48% of Americans want to say – but won’t.
Hurt Feelings
Remember a few years ago when the folks really worried about the environment, and the “greenies”, were pushing electric cars. Those vehicles were a solution to the massive problem of internal combustion engines, filling the sky with pollution and particularly carbon dioxide. And the wealthier of the “greenies” put their money where their mouth was, and bought an electric car, usually, the “top of the line”, a Tesla.
Then the owner, founder, chief operating officer and head bottle washer of Tesla decided that his bromance with Barack Obama and Joe Biden was over. It really was all about a Biden invitation to the White House. Biden’s Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, called a summit of car manufacturers to talk about reducing pollution. For what seems like an obvious reason, he didn’t invite Musk – the Tesla didn’t create air pollution. But little Elon got all hurt and “salty” because he wasn’t invited to lord his car over the others. Soon, he was backing Donald Trump.
Point of Attack
Tesla owners could handle Elon backing Trump, but they are struggling to stomach his actions after Trump took office. After all, many of them were buying Tesla’s because of their green views about the environment, and probably have other more “progressive” ideas as well. And here was Musk, the “point man” for reversing the progressive gains of the entire past century!
Tesla sales have crashed (almost as badly as their self-driving cars or the big Space-X rockets). Tesla dealership are the ideal location for protests against Trump and Musk. And some “activists” have taken to burning Tesla’s on the lots. Now I don’t advocate that kind of violence. Putting Tesla fires out is a tricky deal for our First Responders, what with the batteries and all. But I do understand the sentiment.
Trump tried to intervene, turning the White House lawn into a Tesla showroom. I was waiting for him to turn to the cameras and say, “We’re Dealing!!!!” (If you’re from Central Ohio, you know. Everyone else: it’s the catch-phrase of the most successful car dealer in the area). And Attorney General Pam Bondi has declared the burning Teslas is an act of “domestic terrorism”. That’s kind of funny, until you realize that she’s the chief law enforcement officer for the United States. And I’m sure FBI Director Kash Patel will volunteer from Las Vegas to open the investigation. You can bet on it.
Who Killed JFK
And, finally, all of the Kennedy Assassination files have been released. 80,000 pages of unredacted information hit the public this week, and we were all poised to finally know what happened. Were their shooters on the grassy knoll? Did the magic bullet really turn “down and to the left” after exiting Kennedy’s neck? Was Lee Harvey Oswald a KGB operative, a Cuban operative, a CIA operative, a Chicago Mafia operative; or really just a kook?
I’m waiting. Dozens of news agencies and probably thousands of conspiracy theorists are digging through the volumes of information. It’s been three days – and no one has any new answers. We are back to the existential question of our lifetime: was the Warren Commission really on the up and up? Was Oswald a lone assassin, despite all of the rumors and speculation?
And the answer is: nothing new here. It’s just another distraction, while all of the “bad” stuff goes on, and on, and on…
So, that’s my “Happy News” for this week. I’ll head back to the mountain top soon enough!!
