Month: March 2022

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Everyone is talking about the Smith/Rock dust up so I thought I would add my two cents. I will admit it is great television but, other than that, its significance to greater world seems limited to the excitement you would get from watching a fist fight at your favorite drinking establishment. A little thrill to talk about at the water cooler and nothing more. Or so I thought. It seems to be about much much more. Toxic Masculinity. Culture of Violence. Anti-Woman. Racist. I keep thinking am I missing something? Is it really that meaningful?

People were shocked. Really? I just don’t believe it. Shocked, you say. We are talking about actors living in a reality television world. Everyone knows the game here. Do something, anything, to be noticed. If you can get on a reality television show who knows how far you will go. This only intensifies the pressure on your regular actor to be noticed. Decorum isn’t in the handbook. For example, if a typical male was invited to attend the Academy Awards, what would you expect him to wear. I am betting most guys would choose a nice conservative black tuxedo. But who would notice that. Better to choose a discarded Ice Capade outfit and why bother with a shirt when you look like a god? Poor Timothee Chalamet. How could he know that the discussions about his naked chest would last a mere hour or so before the topic of conversation became the fist fight on the Academy stage. But is any of this shocking. Remember the 2016 Republican Presidential Debates. The candidates ruminated on Donald Trump’s dick size. These are Republicans, mind you, the purveyors of traditional morality and Christianity, not those wacky Democrats. If sober Republicans cannot maintain decorum, a group of drunk actors can hardly be expected to do better.

But the violence. I do get it. Really, I do. Violence is not the answer. It causes more problems than it solves and should be discouraged. On the other hand, a man is publicly making fun of another man’s wife. The mans wife is understandably sensitive about her hair because she suffers from a disease that has caused her hair to fall out. Smith wants to protect his wife from embarrassment. And, yes, I know, a fist fight on the Academy Award stage with the whole world watching is hardly the best path to save her from embarrassment but then you would also have to assume that he didn’t know, at least at first, that he was going to punch Rock. The decision to punch Rock came in the moment and not with much thought put into the repercussions.

It was the wrong thing to do. But what was it the right thing to do? As far as I can tell, Smith had a bunch of bad choices. Choice 1. He could sit quietly, maybe shoot Rock a mean glare, while his wife was humiliated publicly by another man. I think a lot of men would feel badly about this approach. A man should protect his wife from such behavior. Yes, you can have a press conference the next day saying how badly your wife was treated and how Rock owes your wife an apology. It looks bad. See the following meme comparing Smith’s actions to Ted Cruz’s tepid response to Donald Trump saying Melania was better looking than Cruz’ wife. https://americasbestpics.com/picture/ted-cruz-s-wife-after-seeing-will-smith-defend-jada-QXtoer0R9

Choice 2 is to make a scene which Smith initially tried until he decided to go further. It is better than sitting on your hands and smiling but Smith screaming obscenities at a deeply confused Rock wasn’t exactly a strong look or a sane look. Everyone in the audience is wondering why is Smith yelling at Rock like a crazy man. It, also, would have left Rock at the podium where he could continue his riff and could potentially escalate the jokes to making fun of Smith’s unhinged behavior.

Choice 3 is deck him so he will stopping talking. What’s a man to do?

Smith was reacting in the moment and didn’t give rational thought time to kick in. Faced with these horrible choices, Smith decided to punch Rock. Again, it was a bad choice but it may have been the best one to make with so little time or thought put into the decision. This is why government has created all these laws differentiating the penalties for various violent acts, some violent acts, while discouraged, are more understandable than others. Smith’s reaction to Rock’s monologue falls into that category of wrong but understandable. And, it is up to Rock to now press charges. At this point, Rock appears willing to forget the whole thing and move on. Smith should be appropriately grateful to Rock and move on himself.

Keep in mind, it may be an act. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if it were. But, then this makes Smith response even more intriguing. After cold calculated thinking about the performance he is about to give, Smith decides that the best response is smacking Rock. Smith knows the right way to act. He knows his audience and he knows what will satisfy them. So a punch it is then. How would you like to be remembered as the man who punched his wife’s tormentor in order to make him stop or as the man who politely asks his wife tormentor to cut it out? I know it is not rational nor right but I think I would rather be remembered for the punch.

Ultimately, all that matters, is does this make great television. It certainly does. This really puts the pressure on next year’s Oscar’s nominees though. They are going to have to thing big to top Smith’s act. I am betting that a losing actor will tackle the winning actor on his way to the podium. With a minute or two of wrestling in the aisle before it is broken up by some beautiful person. Perhaps if there is blood, Timothee Chalamet could remove his shirt, tie it around the wound in order to stop the bleeding. Now that would be good television.

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Many years back, so long that I can’t remember exact dates, Bob and I were forced by our insurance company to get an alarm system. No alarm system, no reasonably priced insurance. Bob determined that the reduced price of the insurance would offset the additional price of the alarm system so we took the plunge. I write this because while it is comforting to know that if we have an emergency (Break In, Fire, or Radon Gas) an alarm will ring, the truth is the system has served as an annoyance more than a comfort. The alarms have gone off for a variety of reasons other than a genuine emergency. Wind blowing a badly closed door opens, someone leaving the house and forgetting to disarm the alarms, burning food in the kitchen and low batteries are just a few of the examples. This means when we hear the alarms sounding we usually think why is that goddamn system going off now.

The other day, we heard a chirping noise. We ignored it. Then we heard a few heart stopping blares, then back to the chirping. Much to our chagrin, we paused our television program that, by the way, was getting really good, to search for a reason. We discovered that the batteries in the fire alarm were low. We changed the batteries. The chirping noise stopped, the heart stopping blare stopped, so, problem solved. Or not. The warning light on our console now was telling us that the alarm system was tampered with. Initially, we thought it was a simple matter of acknowledging the error and the system would reset. It didn’t reset. We tried numerous times. Nothing worked. Left with no other options, we called the alarm company’s customer support.

You know the routine, phone tree, press button 1 if you want, and after a minute or two we were connected to a nice person who tried to help us. Before we could talk to the agent, we had to verify that we were indeed the owners of the house. Bob gave our profile information and the secret code that confirms our ownership and allows the tech person to talk with us about our problem. The tech support person suspected that I hadn’t screwed the alarm all the way back into the ceiling when changing the batteries. I get on the ladder, notice that there was indeed a slight gap between the apparatus and the ceiling. Good, maybe she was right. I tried to screw it in. It doesn’t move. I twist, I turn, the apparatus doesn’t move. Bob tries. He, too, is unable to move the alarm. It is a very delicate mechanism and we are afraid that we are going to break the alarm as we tug, pull, twist and curse it to no avail. We let the agent know our concerns and she tells us it would be better off if we didn’t break it because then we would have to buy it. We agreed with her.

We were actually happy customers now except for the error notice on the console. Bob told her that the alarm seems to be working as there were no more chirping noises or heart stopping blares from the alarm. All we wanted was for the noises to stop. The noises have stopped, so we were happy to end the call there. She informed us that the noised could return after we end the call. Bob asked her to just turn off the alarm in the central system. This was, for some reason, impossible. She tried to explain. I still can’t understand her explanation but Bob seemed to. I deferred to his judgement. She told us that we need to disconnect the system’s battery to insure that the noises would stay stopped. Bob goes to where the alarm’s central system is in our house. She told him to look for the green battery. Bob doesn’t see a green battery and, on closer inspection, the battery he does find with the alarm system doesn’t appear to be connected to the system at all.

Seeing that this going nowhere fast, she tells us so schedule a tech person to come out and fix our system. Bob, thinking logically, I believe, asked her to schedule us. She can’t schedule service call, she handles customer support problems. She needed to transfer us to the scheduling department which she kindly did. The man who answers asked us for the profile information and the secret code that identifies Bob as the owner of the house. Bob explained the problem again. The scheduler was stumped because he was at a central number and this was an urgent matter. If he were to schedule through the central scheduling system it would take a week or more before he could get an open date for someone to come out to us. He said we needed to contact someone at local tech support in order to get faster service. He doesn’t understand why the central tech person transferred us to central scheduling in the first place. It would have been easier for her to have contacted the local tech person who would then call us. Why didn’t she take care of this? Bob, unfortunately, can’t explain the tech person thinking. The scheduler tells us he needs to send us back to the tech team so they can schedule someone locally. Bob asks will he have to repeat the problem. The man assures him that he won’t.

But Bob did have to give the new tech person his personal profile details and the secret code which showed he was the owner of the house. Once supplied, the new tech person was stumped because the scheduling agent sent us to the wrong company. Apparently, the parent company had gobbled up a bunch of other alarm companies so it could become the biggest alarm company in the whole damn world. So while she worked for the parent company technically, the different companies still stored their information in different computer systems. She didn’t have access to our information. She was perplexed on why the man would send us to her in the first place. Bob couldn’t help her with an answer.

She transferred us to another very nice woman who, after Bob supplies his personal details and his secret code, is from the right alarm company and can help us. She reads us the notes the other agents have been taking so we have some assurance that people have been listening to us and documenting the information. She has to notify a local tech person to schedule a visit. They will have to talk to us because they will need to squeeze us in between the already scheduled customers and will need to talk to us in person in order to do this. She tells us that this usually takes no more than 24 hours for them to return a call.

What about the chirping noise and the heart stopping blare which we haven’t heard since starting this marathon phone call and the only reason we have pursued this matter further was we wanted to make sure these noises were stopped. She didn’t really know for sure. It could work fine until the local tech person came to reset. Or the chirping and the heart stopping blare could resume after we hung up. She told us to call back if the noises began again. Bob assured her we would.

The within 24 hour response came 70 hours later. The return call was from the central tech support and not the local tech support. This was baffling since the whole reason for us asking local tech support to call us was because the central scheduling department told us it was an urgent matter and we would get a much faster service call locally. But, never mind. She then asked if we could wait a few more tiny days. Since the chirping and the heart stopping blare were quiet for now, we could. It is, however, amusing to think that if the original scheduler, who didn’t want us to wait a week for an appointment, had only scheduled an appointment when we first called him, we would have probably gotten faster service than we were going to get by waiting for the local tech support to squeeze us into their schedule. But, yet again, never mind.

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I am about to turn 65 and I will finally get socialized healthcare (otherwise known as Medicare). Yeah.

Except the insurance companies are involved and everyone (otherwise known as people already in Medicare) says you have to choose the right program. Grrrrrr.

I thought I was done with the yearly Hell of medical elections but it seems that the insurance companies have found a way to stay in the game after we turn 65. At this point, I am not going to complain. One, it does absolutely no good because there is no way, outside of rewriting of the American Constitution. And two, all it does is raise my blood pressure which is now something I need to watch.

I do however have a suggestion on the names that might help someone like me choose the write program. Gold, Silver and Bronze are meaningless to me. I know the Olympic medal system and get the idea of Best, next best, and least best but, for some reason, that doesn’t necessarily apply here or, at least, not always. Which means I have to go in and spend some of precious few years of life parsing Health Plans.

Instead of the Olympic medal description, I suggest:

Rich and Hypochondriac

Just Pay the Damn Bills

Poor, young (read here 65 to 70 years of age) and careless.

If would be invaluable aid to someone like me and would also insure that my eyes will be relieved to skip the insurance fine print. This is important because Medicaid does not automatically cover eye care. Grrrrr.

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Medicare is socialized medicine. I think it is important to note this. Every American 65 years and older gets their healthcare paid for by the government.

A lot of people, particularly on the Right, hate socialized medicine but like Medicare. In their misunderstanding of what Medicare is they trick themselves into believing that Medicare is a uniquely American idea of healthcare. It isn’t. It is socialized medicine for every American 65 and older pure and simple.

I think if people would start calling Medicare socialized medicine, some opponents of socialized medicine just because the word socialized is in the phrase would see it for what it is — a government run program designed to control the costs of healthcare. And, as far as I can tell, people actually like Medicare, which is the same feeling that most of the citizens of other countries who have socialized medicine have about their healthcare system.

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President Zelensky says Putin is bluffing about using nuclear weapons. This means we can give the Ukraine more weapons without worrying about it. Except I do worry about it.

The 24/7 news coverage of the war seems to be leading us to intervention on behalf of the Ukrainians. As far as I am concerned, the Western World has one overarching goal — to avoid World War III. Everything else is secondary. Calling Putin’s bluff in this case could be suicidal.

This was my opinion when the war started. Now I seem less sure of what I think. The Russians have inflicted terrible suffering upon the Ukrainians. I feel guilty for just standing by and watching them get massacred. It’s like watching a little old lady getting beat up by a street gang. Other than cheering her on from the sidelines, I am doing absolutely nothing as I see the gang destroying her house. I should be doing something, right? The nightly news is giving me all the evidence I need to jump in and help the little old lady.

Perhaps if the nightly news showed the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I would have a different perspective about what to do. The news is very now. This is going on now. Watch these horrible events. And I do. These Ukraine stories are wringing me out. Every night I end up in tears because I feel so terrible for the Ukrainians. But is it leading me to make a rational decision what to do about the war.

Here is my problem. Rationally, I know I shouldn’t decide something so important as going to war based on sad or moving stories. There are a lot of sad stories in this world, billions I am sure of it. Why is this war so important to risk World War III? After all, there are other wars going on right now with similar stories. There are other disasters with their own victims and their own sad stories. Those people need help too. Why is every news outlet focused on the sad stories emanating from this war and not the other stories?

There is no question in my mind Putin was wrong to invade the Ukraine. He is a menace the the world. He has repeatedly lied about his intentions. When he invaded, he gave a crazy ass reason for invading. And, most importantly, seems willing to kill innocent women and children to win this war. He deserves to lose this war. The problem with Putin is he has nuclear weapons which he could launch leading to a disaster consequences to the entire world.

The Ukrainians, on the other hand, deserve to win this war. They were invaded because they have the misfortune of bordering Russia. Their president has galvanized the Ukrainian people to fight this war and the world community to provide limited support for their cause. The Ukrainians bravery under these terrible circumstances is inspiring. I want the Ukrainians crush their Russian invaders. But is it worth worldwide destruction to do so?

A nuclear war is the worst possible outcome for everyone including the Ukrainians themselves. The whole world loses if there is a nuclear war. No one knows what is going to set off Putin. He is dangerous, angry at the world and perhaps unstable. Since avoiding nuclear war is our number one mission, why I am so confused? The right thing to do is there, coldly staring me in the face. Stay out of this war.

Except. Except the Ukrainians are doing surprising well and could possibly fight the Russians to a stalemate. Which could mean a much better resolution for the Ukrainians and destroy Putin’s power in Russia in the process. He has wrecked the Russian economy for an avoidable war. I am betting that the average Russian doesn’t give two shits about the Ukraine and certainly don’t appreciate becoming a world pariah so Putin can bring back the Ukraine into the Russian fold. The Russian movers and shakers might view an endless war with the Ukraine as a good reason to change Russian leadership and then perhaps a better resolution to the war could be found for the Ukrainians. It looks possible. If the Ukrainians are willing to fight, I will cheer them on but I am afraid that is the extent of the support I would be willing to give.

In the meantime, Ukrainian cities are getting bombed and bloodied. Millions of Ukrainians are fleeing their country to avoid the war. Is it really right to encourage the Ukrainians to continue fighting such a destructive war if we really have no intention of giving military assistance they need to win. And, let’s face it, the Western public, if not their governments, is encouraging the Ukrainians to fight. The Ukraine is crawling with media who are bringing their story to the Western public. The Ukrainians know their stories are reaching the West because they hear the support coming back to them every night from journalist telling them how inspiring their struggle is for the West. They know that the British Parliament gave President Zelensky a standing ovation for his rousing speech.

But what we see as great television, the Ukrainians might see as hope. Hope that we will change our minds and give more substantial military aid. When I see some Ukrainians on television, I get this sense that there is an exhaustion with explaining their situation day after day and nothing really happening in regards to military help. They are thinking what is wrong with you people. You say that we inspire you, yet you sit idly by as our world is blasted apart. When are you going to stop asking question and give us the help we need to turn back the Russians.

This passive encouragement is wrong. The Western press and the Western public are misleading the Ukrainian people with their reactions to the Ukrainians plight. We need to let them know that no matter how inspiring their stories are, no one is coming to rescue them. I wish I knew how to stop it. How do you stop encouraging people to fight a just war?

So far Western governments have behaved well and with restraint. They have done the absolute maximum they can do without sending Putin over the edge to nuclear war. That the Ukrainians want us to do more might make sense to them. They are in a desperate struggle. I am afraid we will have to live with seeing the terrible things happening in the Ukraine. We will have to get used to doing nothing as good people are killed and their homes destroyed. But let’s not be guilted into fighting a nuclear war. Nuclear war isn’t going to help anyone.

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I attach this link for your perusal: https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-says-us-should-just-mark-its-planes-with-chinese-flag-and-bomb-russia

Every time a Republican complains about Biden being too old and weak to hold his position, I stop and think: would I make the same decision today. After thinking about it for a second and a half, I come back with a resounding yes. When I read that Trump thinks the American military should disguise our planes like Chinese planes and then bomb the Russians you know that you are definitely better off with Slow Joe.

I don’t know where to begin there is so much wrong with what Mr. Trump is saying. But I will put this one out first: Who would believe that the Chinese would bomb the Russians? I didn’t know that there was that much animosity between the two that would warrant an attack. Why would the Chinese suddenly and without provocation attack the Russians? Wouldn’t this cause someone in the Russian government to think something is a bit fishy.

Modern technology. Radar would point fingers in the right direction and then, fairly quickly, the Russians would, through the other wonders of modern technology, figure out who the real culprit was. So we would move from one nuclear power a little pissed at us but nowhere near mad enough to go nuclear to two nuclear powers really pissed at us and more than willing to press the nuclear button.

Nuclear fallout. Mr. Trump thinks it is a good idea to provoke the Chinese and the Russians into a shooting nuclear war. Yes, I can see that he might experience a small cathartic thrill of eliminating two rivals in one swoop but the rest of us would suffer from the radioactive material blowing across Europe and Asia. And we aren’t talking Chernobyl levels, we are talking a nuclear fallout from two well armed nuclear powers. It won’t be pretty for anyone.

Ethical. The Chinese government is evil. But we are risking the Russians launching nuclear warheads on the Chinese people. Millions of innocent people could die based on our trickery.

More ethical. If we bomb a country, and by doing it, putting the whole world in danger — we need to have the balls to admit it. Though I don’t think it is wise, given the present circumstances, I can see a case for bombing the Russians. They are behaving like a bunch of assholes and, if Putin didn’t have nuclear arms, the Russians would be facing more than just sanctions right now. A country of our size and stature needs to come clean when we use our power in war. We need to show we have nothing to hide and we had good reasons.

One more ethical consideration. Besides the whole world is watching. Someone somewhere will figure it out. Until they do, good people will have to lie to protect the lie. And, what happens when someone can prove it was a lie? It is lie upon lie upon lie. Not all people are as comfortable with lying as Mr. Trump and it is terrible to needlessly put them in that position of having to lie.

This man was our president.

So, when some nitwit says Biden voters need to apologize for our choice, I say make me. Biden was not my first choice, Hell, he wasn’t even my one hundredth choice, but I can say I am happy with my vote. Joe may be slow but, at least, he isn’t an unprincipled idiot.

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This damn war is so depressing. The Ukrainians desperately need the world to witness what is happening so they are sharing their experiences in the various different ways that modern technology has to offer. It is heart rendering. I can’t think of another way of saying it. There is a particularly moving one where a Ukrainian girl is evacuating Kyiv with her mother and saying goodbye to her father who must remain. The little girl is inconsolable. The father is inconsolable. I, of course, am moved to tears myself.

Usually, I avoid watching scenes like this because they depress me. There is nothing I can do to make the father or his little girl feel better. I am watching a family’s intimate moment, perhaps last moment together. Is this something I should be watching? Who is filming this and why? I don’t think the family is filming it so that 20 years from now the family will sit down and watch the day that they all broke down because they were being separated by war. It’s being posted by someone for all the right reasons — to show the trauma of the war on people experiencing this violence. OK. I have seen it. It made me cry. What now?

It worries me that the Ukrainians might have a different idea about what these videos are doing. I think many of them are trying to move us to action. Action that will genuinely help them in their struggle. Military action. You can hear it in their voices. The Russians are terrible. Help us. We, on the other hand, are just watching the news. Genuine help is not coming. We all know this. We are dealing with an unstable man who has been embarrassed on the world stage. He also has nuclear weapons. The biggest responsibility for the rest of the world right now is to see that Putin doesn’t start recklessly sending nukes this way and that. This means that the Ukrainians are on their own and all the heroic and heart rendering videos showing their struggle isn’t going to change that.

I sincerely hope that the Ukrainians throw the Russians out. They absolutely deserve a victory. But, I am having really mixed feelings about giving them any hope that the West will change their minds and help them out militarily. All these brave people saying look what is happening to us, you can’t just stand there and watch, can you? I am afraid we can and, sadly, we must.

In the meantime, all the war coverage feels wrong to me. Nightly, I see desperate people asking for help. After I have a good cathartic cry about their situation, I change the channel to my regular television viewing of murder mysteries and situation comedies. Aside from giving them my best wishes, there is nothing much I can do. The war, however, is great reality television. The hero rallying his people to fight back, brave civilians taking up arms to defend their country, a menacing villain everybody loves to hate and emotional conflict for days. What I don’t want, and what I am afraid I am seeing, is for a whole country to commit suicide because they think that help is on the way when all we really plan to do is watch it on our televisions. Has the war just become a snuff film which we can all safely watch under the guise of responsible journalism?