Wayward Landlubber

According to Senator Alexander regarding the calling of witnesses to the Senate impeachment trial, we already know trump is guilty of something and one more witness will not make him less guilty. This is my translation of what he said. What his purpose was for making this statement is as murky as his logic.  One of the witnesses Democrats would like to call, would be John Bolton, who has a book coming out that clearly states the President Trump conditioned granting aid to Ukraine on implicating Hunter Biden in some form of nefarious activity. This revelation is fresh, and not covered in the House Impeachment proceedings, even though the charges dealt peripherally with it. To connect this back to Senator Alexander, this witness could definitely confirm the Democratic allegations, so why make the President look even more guilty? The argument Republicans have finally settled on is that President Trump is guilty, just not guilty enough to impeach.  The questions we, who have been ...

History has examples of walls that have stood over generations, sometimes hundreds of years. Some examples of that would be the Great Wall of China, Hadrians Wall, and the Antonine Wall. Naturally they are not as complete as they once were. You could excuse some crumbling due to age. Some walls last only a short time. The Berlin Wall exists only in memory, with a short portion kept for historical record. It was torn down by an irate citizenry after the German Democratic Republic (which wasn't democratic) collapsed. The French, Maginot Line is an example of a wall that was oversold and underperformed.  President Trumps border wall may exist in that realm; oversold, underperformed. A portion of the California wall has just collapsed, underperforming even the Maginot Line. Like Hadrians Wall and the  Antonine wall it is constructed to keep people out. In their case, the walls were to prevent invasions from marauding Celtic clansmen on the Roman cities of what is now England. In t...

Men of my age tempt fate wearing tan slacks in public.

It was a dream I thought never would be realized. But there I was outside of the convention center with my ticket for the CES in hand. A ticket I had kept unspoiled between the pages of my copy of, Free-market Economics For Dummies which I had picked up at a garage sale and kept in my small collection of unintentional irony. I also had its companion, Christianity for Dummies. I was not there for the chance to see previews of electronic wizardry. No, I was there because Ivanka Trump was to give the keynote speech on, (are you ready for this?), The Future of Work. Who else could be an expert on the subject of work? This speech, which I intended to capture on my cellphone, would be the capstone of my collection. I had no idea that that gem of irony could possibly be exceeded.  The speech was predictably unremarkable through the haze of righteous weed, though I would find much to laugh at, and had plenty of company. I have no idea how many of my colleagues in the cheap seats were exper...

   "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed".    I do not understand the confusion regarding this wording. As I read this, a well regulated militia is, well, regulated. Regulations are important to a healthy democracy, important even to prevent the free state from becoming, well, less free. Conservatives do not understand this concept, especially the justices appointed by conservative presidents who's purpose is to keep the court from becoming too free. We can and do, have that discussion regarding how much regulation is healthy. It has been a part of our political life since we were a colony. For a very powerful segment of the conservative party, regulations are to be avoided, unless it comes to people of a color darker than our European ancestry, or women's vagina's. Neo-liberal economists believe in a concept called free-markets, which have become a free-for-all for capit...