Commotion in the Pews

I’ve been really good about keeping the tank full on this thing for the last 12 years. I think. It’s been over a decade. 

January 2022 was the month it all fell apart. I feel I owe you all an explanation of why. I probably don’t, but if you’re reading this you get all the inside dope.

First, some snark: If you are at an intersection and are more than 3 feet from the car in front of you, I know that either you were texting, or you’re a moron who thinks you might get Chinese Virus from getting too close. Uh, what about the car next to you? Yeah, lateral dispersion. This has come to my attention lately since I’ve been driving into to town almost every day for 3 months +. Not only do the local drivers drive like maniacs, pass on the double yellow, and ride the bumper (it looks like their being towed) of the vehicle in front of them, but since they’re texting they get to the stop light and stop 2-3 car lengths behind the car in front. It’s more than moderately annoying, it means that if you’re trying to get to the turn lane and you’re more than 4 cars from the light, there’s a great chance that two of these “gappers” have now blocked your chance. 

I checked with the State Police, and it is not a lawful remedy to fire warning shots to encourage them to pull up. Oh, well.

In light of the last paragraph, I have not been locked up against my will in any sort of institution. Instead, I had the worst case of flu (influenza, not the Chinese bioweapon that is making the world needlessly tremble) that I’ve experienced since the 1980’s on ship when they jabbed us all and I was deathly ill two different years out of 3 in the Navy. 

This hit me like a bus. Chills, sweats, no fever that I could detect, cough, some sniffles, body aches, and fatigue. Not just “weary” but sleep 14 hours exhausted. I barely managed to do the minimum stuff I had to to get by. I did no recording for a month, no blogs. I sat on the couch and read. I took naps. If you know me, naps ain’t my thing. I was so sick that Chewy slept next to me several days. He complains that I kick my feet and break wind when I sleep. True. But he’s a darned fine nurse and he knew I needed his comfort.

Once I’d finally put the flu behind me, and was in day two of resuming my training for next week’s 1/2 marathon (yeah, I didn’t train for a month. Remember, I was doing great to get out of bed) I managed to give myself food poisoning. I figured out that it wasn’t the church pot luck, but a brick of cream cheese on a bagel. Huh? Well, also during the month of january I lost about 20 pounds. I had no appetite. Food wasn’t nauseating, but I just couldn’t bring myself to eat much. I would guess that average daily calorie consumption was under 600 most days. Those were the days I forced down a Clif bar for breakfast. That was often it for the day. As a result, that brick of spread went south and took me along with it for about 12 hours of “unhappy decorating” as I think of it.

Mind you, the jeans I bought just before the Chinese bioweapon attack once again fit me well. But what a price to pay: a month of lassitude.

I’m feeling much better, but as an asthmatic I am coughing more than ever. That will pass based on experience. But the fatigue is still hanging on. For the first time in my later life I’m not feeling guilty when I eat cookies or candy: I need the calories. Today was probably about a 1100 calorie day. Big eating. 

The 1/2 marathon? I’m going to try it on Saturday. I will not be lugging the 35 pound ruck this time around. I’m glad that I trained (up until Christmas) with a heavy pack: it means I’m ready to at least wing it with a light harness just to carry fluids. I am also in possession of so many finisher medals for marathon style races that if I poop out at mile 9 I won’t be ashamed to take a ride to the finish. I’ve checked that box on the life list at least 20 times so I ain’t got nuttin to prove. 

Well, back to the couch. Chewy is waiting for me to rub his back and watch the tube. I’m good with that.

My apologies for the long absence. But dang, at least I look almost skinny.

Mainly because I feel like something a swamp buggy dragged out of the canal.

I doubt it’s “The Rona” but when you’re an asthmatic idiot who overworks his muscles training for a race, the cough and muscle aches sure seem like the symptoms. No fever, mint cookies still taste like mint, and my good looks are undiminished. Well, maybe I’m a bit delusional…

As to words having meanings, and meanings having impact, I’d like you all to look up the word “Insurrection” for next week’s blog. To steal a line from a popular movie of the last generation, “I don’t think it means what you think it means.”

Now I must return to the things I must do for work. Yes, even the most deadly virus ever discovered in my lifetime… well, a few achy muscles and a cough can’t keep me from the stuff that needs to be done today.

Next week!

The American justice system has devolved into two tiers over the years. It has always persecuted the poor and ignorant. That’s a simple statement of fact (I know, shocking coming from a conservative former cop, eh?) The past few years, however, have driven down the road of political prosecutions on a massive scale. 

If you’re a white cop who screws up, you’re going to prison. If you’re a white pedophile with a big bag of money and fame, you’re getting a sealed document in court and a pass on human trafficking. If you’re a black kid who makes an honest mistake of some sort, you’re getting a criminal record to be sure. If you grope a bartender at a resort and force yourself on him as a wealthy black television personality, it’s all just fun and games.

The system is not rigged against black people except that most do not have great wealth and power. It is not rigged in favor of white people except when they have wealth and power. 

The sealing of documents in the Maxwell trial is an abomination. The press releases tidbits in a slow drip, making sure that all ends of the political spectrum are indicted by smear. This way they can always say they were balanced, and refuse to actually investigate the story.

What do I want? I want that damned book published. I want prosecutors to send the people who raped kids, forced teens into sexual slavery, and subverted justice to go to prison for decades. Many decades. Let the cards fall where they may, if you were involved in this pedophiliac orgy of human misery, you go to prison and never again see the light of day. All your money is good for at that point is getting better commissary in the prison where you are serving time. 

Being rich and powerful does not make you less guilty. In fact, it should probably make you more guilty since you had the ability to know what you were doing in a way that a stupid kid doesn’t understand at age 18 when she has sex with her 16 year old boyfriend. Both are rape in the eyes of the law, but circumstances…

Time for us to blow the lid off the justice system. Time for people who commit these types of crimes to do time. Time for a revision of our trial system to allow overturning clearly unfair/political verdicts without having to prove things in the very narrow window now allowed for such action.

Everyone is equal before the law in theory. Time to make it so in practice.