America

Tidbits Or Bits of Tid?

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What a wonderful thing Ai is. I asked Emma about the word “tid” and she gave me the rundown. First, it IS a real word, or it used to be. The Oxford English people list it as “Obsolete”, with its “last recorded use in the 1890s”. Must be because of tid’s close proximity to Id? There is an acronym “tid” commonly used by doctors. It is Latin for “ter in die” or “three times a day” as in medication, and it must save the docs lots of time.

Tid* originated in Olde Middle English and meant something “small and tender”. Nope, not a Valentine but a cut of meat or other small bit of food. Oops. Think we just found out where “tidbit” came from. All of us know what tidbits are so let’s get on with the essay, especially since the Modern English now use the word “titbits” which we will not look into, since we may “uncover” historical “titbits”.** Apologies.

It is still a mystery why they make “muscle cars” for societies with speed limits. If we all used small, four-cylinder engines, imagine…ha, why say it. Let’s build bigger and faster and more powerful cars so we can get to someplace sooner. Forget any other issue. It is funny, though, when gas prices rise dramatically.

Guns, too. How many guns does anyone need? On the farm we had two rifles, one for each boy. It was tough at first, to have one gun when the two of us went hunting. Yes, if one of us shot the other, the problem would be solved but neither of us thought about that? As an older, married, person a rifle didn’t seem like a good weapon for home protection, so we made sure we had a small but practical handgun in case the wife was home alone when unwanted visitors knock. Yes, even the next-door neighbors if we were in a bad mood. Gun proliferation is a result of great marketing and economies of scale that make manufacturing a weapon shooting 1million rounds a minute affordable for all.  And branding makes many people want more than one.

The United States of America is warped. Not sure when it started but I’ll blame Mitch McConnell. In 2010 he openly stated, in public, his “top priority” was to make sure Obama did not get re-elected. Not pass good laws or write great bills or represent his constituents. His job was strictly political obstruction. Obama did get re-elected but then so did Mitch. It is a concept as old as politics, so why is McConnell’s statement a problem? It was the first time a politician admitted it out loud, in public. From then on everyone could admit it. How do you feel as a voter when the person you elect is not going to do anything but obstruct the party who won? See, I’ll bet most of you are okay with that, aren’t you? In our warped society just beating the other guy is all we strive for. Feck all the world’s problems. And when is the last time an elected official represented all the constituents in his district/county/town or country? Is it even possible?

Related to the obstruction issue is the “hate” word and “fight” word. Republicans hated Obama. Democrats hated Bush. Many different groups hate Trump. And politicians want you to elect them so they can “fight” The Others. WTF!! Funny when I ask a hater if he/she/them has ever met the person he/she/them hate…

Maybe someday we can get back to constructive, productive debating and work together to solve the things killing us all. Yeah. Right. Or Left. Respect and cooperation? Who’s kidding*** who…

Note to anyone who wants to argue with me about politics: if you use either “hate” or “fight” in your argument it will cause a big…sigh. Think about that before you speak. You want that on your conscience?

*Grammar Police keep telling me tid is misspelled. I can stop that if I add it to the computer’s dictionary. Just another decision for an old man to make. Stay tuned.

**Hope you giggled like I did.

***I originally typed “kissing”. S and D are so close, only a titbit apart.

Randomies and Bits and Bobs…again

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Yeah, it’s a made-up word. I’ve been watching too much British television. So? Doesn’t it sound right?

I’d like to ignore it but there has been a lot screeching from the Trump administration about upholding the law. Bondi, Leavitt, and et. al., have parroted Trump in the shouting about obeying the law. The irony is lost on them and it’s okay, but sheeesh. Have some pride, for goodness sake. Just think “kettle meet pot, pot meet kettle.” At least be a little quieter and show some humility. An old saying of my father’s comes to mind: “it’s better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool-” You’re a smart reader, you know the rest.

Same with the “liberal bias” nearly everywhere in Trump World. “Fox meet MSNBC, MSNBC meet Fox”. And not for nothing but the “free press” has always been seen as the opposition to the sitting administration. In Trump World Fox is part of the administration so that might be why when the whiners complain of bias in the “main-stream media” they never mention Fox.

A randomy (sic) of note: nearly all of Trump’s Executive Orders deal with, imply, reveal, expose, and try to remedy the insecurity displayed by the MAGA movement. Everything not kissing MAGA’s rings is a threat.

DEI. If you want to see what DEI is, go out to eat in a big city with a partner. Know what the biggest problem will be?: You want Chinese or Italian? Korean? Mexican? Viet Namese? Schnitzel? Creole? Southern?

Or music: Latin, classical, rock, hip-hop, polka, K-Pop, soul, reggae, or any one of the many styles?

And sports fans will rue the day Trump orders all professional sports teams to be made up of only American, white, Christian players. When I wrote this I tried to see how Native Americans fit in it, but, alas. Can you do it for me? **

DEI is all around us. Grow up.

Most Americans, and this includes MAGAs. are incapable of understanding complex issues. That lack of understanding is the major reason we still have big, unsolved problems. The deportations Trump is rushing through, for example. Not one single American thinks deporting bad non-citizens is wrong. Not one. For those that have working minds, the problem isn’t any one individual, but Trump is throwing out so many people, so fast, the only way to get the point about “due process” is if you imagine it happening to you: sent to CECOT by “mistake”. “Administrative error”. The calculus is the same as the death penalty argument: No one is really against the death penalty for someone who “deserves” it, but after so many convictions overturned, for example, do you think it’s possible we, us, America, have executed one, single innocent man?

For some real immigrant fun, watch the Movie “The Gangs of New York”.

Trump’s efforts are being supported by an “the end justifies the means” argument. Again, fine, as long as you are not the one being “ended” by mistake.

In a previous post I mentioned how hard it is to talk with senior people. Another, happier reason not to is how long it takes. Bill (name not changed, there are no innocents) and I often talk before early morning fitness routines about the past. Bill is 84 and has a larger, longer past, but when we talk it isn’t about troubles but about those pasts. He’s 84, driven, successful, gregarious, while I’m lazy, misanthropic, and happy to get by, but the stories we tell are about the same things. And they are all funny…in a slightly wistful, nostalgic way. I’m 110 (sic) per cent sure neither of us exaggerates the stories, but the most important part is this: Bill tells one, I think of two of my own, and I tell one and he thinks of three of his own, and he tells one and I think of ten, and I tell one and he thinks of 20…ad infinitum.

To shorten this story, the pre-workout morning is storytelling and laughing,…with, sometimes, a hint of “did that really happen”? And that “hint” is not about Bill’s stories, but my own, unless he feels the same way and when we part we both go home thinking: “Did I really do that?”

Life is wonderful if you live long enough to realize it, are fit enough to remember it, and find someone who cares to hear you talk about it.

**wonder if anyone is offended