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Monday, February 28, 2022

Rant #2,842: Stop Stop Stop



Will wonders never cease?
 
This past Friday, my family and I finally received our coronavirus test kits from the federal government.
 
Now, we have the ability to test for something that we probably will never have to self-test for, something that perhaps we could have used six months ago but now … just something else to take up space in our house.
 
And reports are that millions of these tests sit waiting for people to order them, but with the pandemic turning into an endemic … well, nobody wants them, because the panic period has passed, no matter how much our officials want us to still be in panic mode over this thing.
 
Rates have dropped all over the country, mask mandates are pretty much being put on the shelf, and pretty much the general public itself has determined that enough is enough, that we now have the tools to fight this thing, and even though our supposed leaders evidently want this thing to go on in perpetuity, the real danger appears to be over.
 
So as I said previously both here and to others, the test kits will be a relic of the time, and one day, we will all find our kits, maybe put out a little giggle, and say, “Remember when … ?”
 
We now have a bigger virus to face, and that is Putin and the Russians, who have decided that they can simply walk in and take over a country and try to bring back what was once the USSR.
 
That is certainly a bigger virus than the coronavirus ever was, but if they take the Ukraine, what else do they think they can take?
 
That is the problem puzzling world leaders, who are throwing sanctions at Putin while they paint him as a current version of Hitler, someone with a Napoleonic complex who will stop at nothing to gain countries as if he were collecting baseball cards.
 
Funny, we have been so divided in this country about the coronavirus, but we finally have a subject that we all seem to be on the same page about, and that is stopping Russia from extending itself at the expense of the people of these innocent countries.
 
It is a sad state of affairs when we are brought together by a war that has nothing directly to do with us, but that is what is happening now.
 
Protests across our country—and across our world—show that Russia and Putin are the #1 enemies of our civilization right now, and this belief has brought together people from all backgrounds, all races and religions … everyone seems to have joined together to protests Russia’s moves, but isn’t it sad that a war with guns and tanks has gotten us on the same page rather than a war with inoculations and supposed science?
 
Yup, it doesn’t make sense, but in a strange way, it does.
 
Sure, as Americans this is NOT our war, and we can send over any amount of money that we want to, and any amount of arms and weapons, but we should not actually physically enter this war in any way, shape or form.
 
Let’s remember Afghanistan and while we are at it, let’s also remember Vietnam.
 
The American people will have to put up with some nuisances if Russia moves ahead right now, but although we don’t like to be paying exorbitant prices at the pump, we can handle that, as long as no Americans are sacrificed in this conflict.
 
I do hope our leaders understand that, and understand that if you want to take us off the same page, all you have to do is to get us involved with boots on the ground, and you think you saw protests during the coronavirus?
 
Well, God forbid if that happens, well, as the old song goes, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.”
 
The sanctions we and the rest of the world are launching should be enough for Putin to get hit in the gut; it won’t help the Ukraine right now, but it will prevent this imbecile from gong further … we have to hope.
 
And we do have to hope this, because if he decides to push further and gain more countries and more territory, those coronavirus kits are not going to help us even one little bit.
 
I don’t even want to think what could actually help us, but let’s just hope that he comes to his senses and listens to his own people—many of whom have taken to the streets to protest their own country’s moves—and pulls back.

There is supposedly a meeting happening now between Russian and Ukrainian officials, and maybe simple negotiations can stem this thing in the bud, but there are still lingering fears about what Russia could do if they don't get their way, or even if they do.
 
And with his nuclear threat, if it comes to light, we might just need to mask up again for our own safety.
 
Putin is nuts, we have no idea where he plans to take this sudden urge to add pieces to his collection, and he needs to be stopped before he can continue to do what he doing right now.
 
He has become the world’s Public Enemy #1, and like with any other person in that category, he needs to be stopped pretty much by any means possible … and you just know that there are some people, somewhere, probably thinking—and plotting for--the same thing.
 

Friday, February 25, 2022

Rant #2,841: Gimme Some Truth



You are never too old to see things that you have never seen before, and that is what happened to me on Wednesday evening while watching television with my son.
 
I didn’t report on this on Thursday, because I needed a day for it to sink in, and also to see if mainstream media would cover this episode … and they did, both here and overseas.
 
It related to professional wrestling. Say what you want to say about it, but it is a global, worldwide phenomenon, where reality often intersects with fairy tales, and vice versa.
 
Every wrestlers’ background is fair game for exploitation, both good and bad, and that is what happening during the All Elite Wrestling telecast on Wednesday night.
 
Let me explain …
 
Maxwell Jacob Friedman has been the most prominent bad guy in not only AEW, but in pro wrestling, during the past few years.
 
He is young, good looking, snarky, underhanded, and very good at what he does.
 
He goes by his initials, MJF, and by the way, he is also a 25-year-old kid from Plainview, Long Island, which he tells everyone in attendance at arenas around the country to get the fans’ ire up, playing it all up as if he had a silver spoon in his mouth from day one of his existence.
 
For pretty much his entire seven-year wrestling career, MJF has been portrayed as a character who you would instantly want to hate, because he is so snarky, but on the telecast the other night, he went completely out of character in a soliloquy the likes of which I have never seen before.
 
Here is pretty much how it went, after he told the audience in the arena and at home that he has a myriad of developmental disabilities.
 
He said: “When I was growing up, I played American football. For those who aren’t aware, I am Jewish — although the name probably gave it away.
 
There were no other Jewish kids on my football team, so it was an adjustment.
 
The other kids didn’t exactly love the fact that there was this Jewish kid taking their spot.
 
When I had the first day of practice, I beat out all of the other kids who had been playing longer than me for the middle linebacker spot.
 
The next week these douche bags walked up to me and said ‘hey, Jew boy’ and threw rolls of quarters at me and told me to pick them up.”
 
He continued as the tears welled up in his eyes:  “I was pretty floored and it messed me up pretty bad and I went home and balled my eyes out pretty bad.
 
I realized that you had to kill the person you were born to be in order to become the person you want to be and I was never going to allow myself to be bullied ever again.”
 
And when he was done, he received a standing ovation from the thousands in attendance, the very people who had booed him when he walked into the ring just a few minutes earlier.
 
MJF has never hidden his Jewishness; in fact, he revels in it, wearing a scarf as part of his ring attire that looks like a talis, the prayer shawl one wears signifying manhood.
 
However, he had never openly discussed such incidents—and I don’t know if anybody has--on live television.
 
There have been dozens of Jewish wrestlers over the years, led by Bill Goldberg, who also was so obviously Jewish with the name and all that you couldn’t help knowing his background.
 
There have been numerous other Jewish wrestlers, such as Kane, Alexa Bliss and many, many others, but their Jewishness was never, ever brought up on national television or anywhere else.
 
So, what MJF did was very likely the first time that a Jewish wrestler has ever done so in the history of wrestling, be it scripted or not.
 
Look, the whole thing revolved around his upcoming match with CM Punk—who might be Jewish himself, as per rumors—and that Punk and MJF took a widely circulated photo when MJF was a young man, around the time of the supposed bullying—and that Punk somehow let MJF down with his attitude that the photo was taken on “just another Friday night,” when to MJF, that Friday night was not only Shabbat, but a major turning point in his life, so it wasn’t just “another Friday night.”
 
Yup, there is a lot of unanswered questions revolving around what MJF did, but I don’t think that even a pro wrestler—or a pro wrestling company—would allow such a verbal exhibition like this was to go on if it wasn’t true.
 
Even the announcers, who take umbrage with everything MJF says each and every week, were completely dumbfounded, with one actually saying that for the first time, he felt sorry for him.
 
This might even be a change of face, meaning that MJF will go from the top villain in the industry to a “babyface,” or a good guy.
 
But whatever the case, I do think it was all real and above level, and it surprised me, mesmerized me, made me happy at his candor, made me sad and angry at what had happened to him—yes, I have had my own anti-Semitic episodes, too, and my own daughter went to the same high school as he did—and made me want to put my arm around this guy and tell him that I knew exactly what he was talking about.
 
With anti-Semitic incidents rising to unprecedented levels not just in the New York Metropolitan area but around the country and the world, I simply don’t think that he did what he did without thinking this out, one piece at a time, one word at a time.
 
It was heartfelt, and made MJF real, not the cartoon character he is normally portrayed as.
 
Watch this thing for yourself at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAf6epYTUAM
 
Have a good weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday. 

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Rant #2,840: Lucky Guy



Happy Thursday, February 24, to everyone!
 
Yesterday was a weird winter day, because it hit 65 degrees in my neck of the woods on Wednesday.
 
But to demonstrate that winter hasn’t taken an early hibernation yet, temperatures are going to be more winter-like today—probably half or so of what they were yesterday—and we are supposed to be getting some snow on Friday.
 
So be it … before you know it, the cold weather will finally give way to the warm stuff, and by my birthday at the end of April, we will be able to kiss winter goodbye, and we will be set for a few months of warm and nice days.
 
And looking at my birthday on April 28, I guess it is not too soon to plan for the big day, because that is what it is this year, a big day for me.
 
I will turn 65 years of age on that day, I find it hard to believe that is true, but yes, it IS true, and sometime around that date, my wife and son are planning a party for me, to celebrate both that birthday and my retirement.
 
It will be more low key than what I did to celebrate my wife’s 65th birthday, which is fine with me.
 
For her special day, my son and I had a party in a local Italian restaurant, and we were equally celebrating her big birthday and her retirement.
 
Me, I was forced into retirement, so what am I celebrating?
 
So the main direction of my celebration will be my birthday, because while I am happy to turn 65 years of age, I have no reason to celebrate my forced retirement, even though it is more “semi-retirement” than anything else.
 
Thus, since it will be more a birthday party than a birthday/retirement party, we will probably have something in the house, bring in some food from some local place, and have some friends and family there to enjoy the moment.
 
And as far as being 65, funny, I don’t really feel that old, to tell you the truth.
 
It really seems like yesterday that I was running around and getting to know my new environment as a kid in South Jamaica, Queens, but I know that all of that took place nearly 60 years ago.
 
I remember as a kid, watching TV on the black and white TVs that we had, and thinking that some of the actors looked so old to me.
 
Sure, the styles of the time—and probably the black and white motif—contributed to my observation, but a lot of those actors were actually younger than I am going to be, even though they looked a heck of a lot older than 65.
 
Everyone looks younger today … I dare say that if you did not know that my mother is going to be 91 years young in March, you would probably think that she was in her 70s.
 
People simply don’t look as old today as they once did. I don’t know if it is modern medicine or good genes, but to me, we look just so much younger than we are in today’s world.
 
As I approach age 65, I guess I simply don’t feel that old, but I do have aches and pains and other things that do tell me that yes, I am not 25 anymore.
 
I physically cannot do many of the things that I once did, but mentally, I feel that I am as sharp as I have ever been, so one obviously compensates for the other.
 
I look at my kids and my nephews, and that is the future of our family right there.
 
Me, I guess I am old news, just another rung in the ladder of our family, and I guess that rust is starting to build up on that rung.
 
The future is in the younger people, but that doesn’t mean that I roll over and die before my time.
 
I still have a lot in me, and I look at age 65 as simply another chapter in my life, and I do believe that the book is far from closed on me.
 
So the party will be a nice cherry on top of my life, but I will move on from that and look forward to the years as I get closer to 70 years of age.
 
It is incredible that younger Baby Boomers like me are getting Social Security now.
 
We were the “younger generation,” and we did “have something to say,” but we are so many years removed from all of that.
 
It is just so hard to believe that all the years have come and gone like they have.
 
Yes, I am really looking forward to that party … because you know what?
 
I deserve it, I really do, and I am so happy that my wife and son are going to hold it for me.
 
Yes, through all the trials and tribulations I have been through in my life, I am, in fact, a very lucky guy, because as that old song said, "all you need is love," and as I have grown older, I have learned to appreciate that more and more each and every year.

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Rant #2,839: Gas Money



Good morning!
 
It’s Wednesday, February 23, and it is time to get out of bed!
 
No, I am not going to write about the war overseas involving Russia, but I will say that as long as it goes on, we should pretty much stay out of it.
 
And by staying out of it, I mean keep our troops out of it.
 
Period.
 
That being said, inflation is crippling us now more than the pandemic is, and I know that things are going to get a lot worse the longer this conflict goes on.
 
It is going to impact several major industries over here—including the oil industry—and we are going to be paying much more for the “privileges” of driving and heck, even going to the supermarket.
 
We can throw any sanctions we want at the Russians, but I truly wonder who is going to suffer the most here, the Russians or American taxpayers.
 
We are really in a bad situation here, and I mean here at home, and this conflict isn’t going to make things better here, they are going to make them worse, and I do mean much worse.
 
And the place that we get hit the most, the hardest and the most directly is at the pump, naturally.
 
Right now, the average price of gas in the country is in the $3.70 range, which actually means that depending on where you are and where you go to get your gas, the price is anywhere from about $3.40 to $4.00, a lot of it buttressed by state and local taxes that we must pay as part of what we pay at the pump.
 
I have heard forecasters state that by Memorial Day, we will be averaging $4 a gallon, again meaning that depending where you are and where you go for gas, you will be paying anywhere from about $3.70 to $4.30 per gallon of gas by May.
 
The problem is that I think that prognostication is off by about a month.
 
At least in my neck of the woods, I have seen prices increase by 10 cents a gallon a day, and sometimes, the gas increases occur a few times a day.
 
Due to this price fluctuation, I think we will see an average of $4 for a gallon of gas as early as late April.
 
It is already averaging in the $3.70s where I am, so adding 30 cents to the average shouldn’t surprise anyone.
 
And yes, there are places already charging $4 per gallon of gas, on the East End of Long Island and in California are two places that I know about, but you can bet that there are many more who have reached that level.
 
And if $4 is around the bend, is $5 a gallon out of the question?
 
No, for sure it is not.
 
I think what the states and the feds should do is temporarily suspend any taxes we pay on gas, or at least lessen them so that we can afford to even buy gas.
 
We are taxed at a ridiculous rate to begin with, but this is a time of crisis, and it would be nice if our legislators—who I dare say don’t drive as much as we peons do—think of the little guy and put taxes on hold for a while, until things can stabilize a bit.
 
And again the question must come up:
 
Why are we still depending on foreign entities for a good portion of our gas?
 
We haven’t learned a thing since the 1970s when there was a gas shortage, and 50 years later, we still rely on too many foreign entities for a majority of our gas and oil.
 
I really don’t get it, but I am sure that there is some explanation.
 
And no, the way to fight it is not to fully change over to electric cars or hybrids … the car companies, who you can bet are in bed with the oil companies on this, have priced these cars way above fuel-using cars, so most people are not going to rush out and buy an electric or hybrid car until the prices are about the same or even lower for these non- or partially-gassed vehicles.
 
But even getting ANY new car today is a crap shoot, because much of the metal that is used to construct these cars also comes from Russia … and you just know that this war is going to crimp our supply of that commodity, too.
 
So I will keep my nearly eight-year-old car, and just have to grin and bear it at the pump as it takes me over $40 for one fill up, and probably $50 for one fill up in the near future.
 
What can anyone do about it?
 
Nothing, nothing at all … and that is the rub here.
 
We are at the mercy of foreign countries and even our own country when it comes to such things, and we just have to roll with the flow with all of this stuff and try to do the best we can with what we have.
 
Not a nice prospect for the next several months, but what other solution is there?