I came across this little exchange this morning. I will take advantage of the freedom available here to quote the Governor of California accurately.
Call out:
“You didn’t give a shit about the President of the United States of America posting an ape video of President Obama or calling African nations shitholes — but you’re going to call me racist for talking about my lifelong struggle with dyslexia?”
California governor Gavin Newsom
Response:
“This seems like a good time to remind you that a black student in Mississippi is 2.5X more likely to read proficiently by 4th grade than if he or she lived in California. We would be happy to send one of our reading coaches to assist you, Gavin Newsom. Learning is a lifelong journey, and you might achieve some of the gains that our black fourth graders have.
“Incidentally, one nice feature of increased literacy is that you do not have to fall back on vulgarity to seem passionate. Let me know!”
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves
As I have mentioned many times, my wife's factory hires high school graduates - and eliminates 50% of the applicants for being illiterate and/or innumerate. Just like crime, this affects mostly the poor of all colors, whose parents either cannot or will not ensure their children are educated.
I have come to the conclusion that we have eliminated useful teaching from our government school system in order to provide the Left with ignorant followers, who thanks to their total lack of education are also dependent on government to survive. Of course, the underclass and their deplorable habits keep themselves down - but the innocent children should be given a chance.
I assume you're funnin', if you're not I have no idea how she would get your email. I am hoping to bring her to CC5, in fact if I can’t I probably can’t go either (small number of vacation days). I look forward to you two meeting each other, I don’t look forward to the inevitable “shop talk”.
I'm not really a hussy, of course. I've met you and chatted with Clark. I am only devoted to sweetheart and he to me. But if you two and I WERE available...I'd probably have to work out a deal with Tracy. If she were available.
Next week is a definite "no". My living hell of Sisyphean examination of our health care system has been extended, after which I get rewarded by a month of no internet (but I'll try to get to the library on Fridays.)
Long story. My oldest friend has been crippled up and has no family. He needs an operation to recover and while we're not at Canadian wait times yet, the impecunious still get to wait. And do paperwork. And more paperwork. And BS appointments designed to fend of malpractice suits. And get messed with by young, woke, medical assistants.
Someone has to take care of him and he is deep in the Low Country where infrastructure still suffers from the activities of one General Sherman. I had to have cell access to the 'net on the road, and I never want to pay bills like that again. Besides a month without surfing will be refreshing.
That reminds me. Do we really need a federal Department of Education? They seem to do more harm than good.
President Reagan was going to eliminate the Jimmy Carter department. Come to think of it, so was President Trump. What are the betting odds of getting rid of the U.S. Department of Education? The latest line out of Vegas is 500-1 against.
In my experience, the weakest, least impressive parts of most universities are the Colleges of Education. I predict that abolishing the USDE will improve the quality of primary/secondary education.
So would getting rid of those stupid education degrees. Many years back, I read of a black man from South Georgia who had turned a Master's in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech into a good job at a defense contractor in California. The end of the Cold War led to some layoffs, and he volunteered.
He thought he would go back to his dirt poor county and show the people there what an education can do. He applied for, and got, a job teaching high school algebra.
When the state heard about they wanted him fired. He didn't have an education degree, so he was unqualified to teach high school algebra. Luckily, Georgia's a Southern state, so the locals were unmoved.
My kids had a teacher in high school, coincidentally named Mr. Clark. He had decided to leave his well-paying job as an engineer at Motorola to follow his patriotic duty to turn out more engineers for the USA.
He was a brilliant teacher and built the STEM program into a powerhouse at our local high school. At the time our kids went there, the high school was rated the best public high school in the U.S. Three of our four kids graduated from college in engineering. Thank you, Mr. Clark for your advocacy.
I hope with all my heart that the school he served so well, and which has largely become a majority-minority school has not succumbed to the DEI pressures and given up on STEM. Our youngest daughter took multivariable calculus, differential equations, and advanced physics in high school. Thank you again, Mr. Clark.
Jack, I go even further back. In the fall of 1960 it quickly became apparent to me that we engineering students were to be "flogged" endlessly (i.e. 7 days per week of difficult homework). But the education majors pledged fraternities and soon got into the party life. No regrets as I look back on my career, but sheesh, college could have been a lot more fun!!
My experience was taking a course, "Statistical methods in psychology and education," during the summer when the classroom was filled mostly with high school teachers and principals. A stupider group of people I had rarely seen. The guy sitting next to me was a principal who had not taken any math beyond freshman algebra, and didn't understand the equation ax=b. The instructor got so many stupid questions that he seemed to need a stiff drink after class.
When Jimmy Carter - the man who tempted me to change my name to Reagan - established the Department of Education the United States was rated first in the world for universal education. We are now 24th - as of a couple of years ago. I have no idea how much worse they have made it since.
Ms. McMahon is doing what she can to wind-down the department. I think she has made some progress but...
...you don't touch any elements of the Administrative State without having your "hair mussed," (hat tip to General Turgidson in the film "Dr. Strangelove.")
I wish I could post here a cartoon of the control panel at Cheyenne Mountain showing multiple missiles being fired and a dismayed General saying "No, Alexa, I ordered LUNCH!"
Clark, I made the mistake of responding to a comment that Tony Petroski made on Powerline about Jane Fonda, where he sarcastically used the word "hero" in the same sentence as his reference to her. I called her a Traitor.
I included specific citations to the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Code. Nonetheless, I was put into Scott's remediation for 8 hours. Our fellow commenter, Deb, thought that the words, traitor or treason were the triggers for remediation. She's probably right.
Still, it takes a HUGE amount of arrogance and chutzpah to ban words that are used in the Constitution and U.S. Code from the commentaries. Deb thinks it was a Disqus rule. I don't think so, but ultimately I don't care.
Here, you get treated like an adult, which I've come to expect after 78 years on the planet. BTW, in addition to my primal scream above, your comment here is excellent.
Well, I'm there a lot. Didn't notice a high level of profanity. But, like beauty, profanity is in the eye of the beholder.
I suppose that we used more profanity in the Army than they did in the USAF. Then again, we drank far less Jeremiah Weed. Perhaps the Air Force had a higher class of service member. Then again, we had more folks sleeping in the mud, and worse.
I managed to serve eight years with only a mild profanity habit and sweetheart served twenty with a near-zero profanity habit. I acknowledge that made us rarae avises in terra (I may have my Latin plurals wonky). But we were also medics and we took care of family members, so we didn't have the freedom of speech found in other career fields like aircraft maintenance or civil engineering.
I was dismayed by the profanity habits common among teenagers, young men and women alike, as they came into the Air Force.
I suspect both the Army and the Air Force would acknowledge that the language of the USMC made us look like Amish.
I remember my Mom catching me (age 10) dropping an F-Bomb at a good play by a rival team as I watched TV on our small B&W set. I muttered it and she said, "What did you say?" I said it was a bad play by a guy named Faust. (Larry Foust was a prominent NBA center in the 1950s, playing from 1950 to 1962, for the Fort Wayne Pistons...thank you AI). I learned two things: 1) be really quick with a good come-back, 2) stop cussing!
Cherchez la femme. According to Max, Arnold's wife was jealous that he wasn't as prominent as Washington and some others and she could not get the recognition she craved. She was the one who suggested selling out. AG
We all know Wikipedia has a leftist slant, but even they can't ignore Newsom's mental health issues.
"He continued at Notre Dame des Victoires from third through fifth grades, where he was enrolled in remedial reading classes to cope with his learning difficulties. Throughout his years in school, Newsom relied heavily on audiobooks, summaries, and verbal instruction. Newsom has written that as an adult, he still prefers audio interpretations of documents and reports. In a 2023 interview, he said his dyslexia "forced me to find workarounds and think differently.""
It's good to read this now as Wikipedia often "scrubs" their bios of Democrats. Their bio of Kamala Harris was scrubbed of objectionable information right after she was made the presidential candidate in 2020. Deleted were the remarks about her getting into UC Hastings law school via a program for students of a "disadvantaged background".
Gavin Newsom may indeed be dyslexic. When he said he was as stupid as his audience, he gave genuine dyslexic people a real insult and he may have been overrating himself.
My brother is dyslexic. I've known many other dyslexic persons. None of them (ones I knew, so the odds on intelligence would skew high) were stupid, many were brilliant. Gavin seems like a slicker Eddie Haskell.
Really top-flight commenting today, my friends! Thank you one and all. If you want an awesome reward, RUN, don't walk, to put on YouTube of Nicholas de Santo's latest set in Britain called "Operation Epic Fury". Nicholas de Santo is an Italian/Iranian comic who has done time in an Iranian prison and now lives in the UK. He is MILITANTLY pro-life.
I'm sorry I can't help quoting one spoiler: "Operation Epic Fury should have been called 'Operation Persian Carpet Bombing." AG
Also, just in case anyone has forgotten -- all of us at PQ appreciate it when you hit the Like button. No big deal, really. We just like it. It makes us feel, well, LIKED. AG
My predictions are often wrong...last year I was 5-51 against the spread on college and pro football games although I somehow "won" the Super Bowl prediction (meaning my many newsletter subscribers betting against me lost).
Kyler Murray is going to put the Vikings into the Super Bowl in 2027. I see purple lighting-up SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles with Lizzo twerking for the halftime show...hopefully with a "wardrobe malfunction."
i got 3 posts fired off today on TWIP before they locked me out with the red internet box .... so a lil improvement .... i need to know who is doing this so i can place my boot up their backside .. my bet would be Century Link
Ammo Grrrll, since I have some actual experience in law enforcement and prosecution of crime (and almost five years of criminal defense in the Army) I found your column particularly compelling. Your ability to meaningfully comment across a staggeringly wide range of topics is - IMHO - unmatched by most of the other pundits on the Internet.
In spite of your genuine humility, don’t chide me for my praise of your work. It’s truly unique and praise worthy. I visit other sites, and watch other pundits (some of whom are true experts in a narrow field, and publish stellar comments in their area of expertise) utterly fail when they venture beyond their natural limits.
Andy McCarthy at NRO comes to mind. He was a Federal prosecutor in the SDNY, and a managing assistant US attorney for a time. He has few peers when he’s addressing topics involving Federal Criminal Law or Procedure issues. Unfortunately he suffers from the worst case of TDS that I’ve ever seen,
So, he feels compelled to comment about everything that President Trump does. His TDS forces him to put a negative spin on each and every issue that he addresses, and he does not limit himself to the topics where he has real talent. Even a large subset of his fan club has recognized his fixation. So the comment section has devolved a battle of those with TDS and those without it.
Here your followers recognize the excellence of your work, and your efforts to publish the best column you can muster every Friday. Bravo, AG, bravo!
My dear friend, we stubborn Arizonans don't observe DST, so I arrive a little late to the party, "sleeping in" til 6:15! And almost immediately find myself forced to "upvote" am embarrassingly flattering comment because of the parts that did not refer to me! Thank you so much. AG
So, now you reveal the calculus. If I include others or other topics, I can get your support even if I tell the truth about your immense talent.
Okay. I've got it. Here goes: How about that war in Iran? The dems don't like it at all. Won't fund DHS, and we're starting to see the Lone Wolves attack. Perhaps the sleeper cells are on the move. How abut that stuff?
Your position makes sense, since he was well known to the authorities. However, he did possess all the other traits you might expect of a sleeper: loyalty to Islamic terrorism, animus against the US, a willingness to use violence etc.
A clever ploy to get free room and board and exercise at government expense, followed by official ignorance as you aren't allowed to enquire too deeply into criminal records.
Hahahaha. ISWYDT. I think one of the gifts of being quite elderly is that so many incidents and statements trigger fond memories. My neighbor lady who would sometimes drive us to school during EXTREMELY inclement weather had a son who was in 8th grade when I was in 7th. One particular day -- which was a Gym Day -- her son was twirling his athletic supporter. She said, "Dean, if you want everybody to see what you are carrying, why don't you just put it on your head?" I had no older brothers and had never before SEEN the item, but even a naive twelve-year-old can figure it out pretty soon! AG
One of many advantages of attending the school of “suck it up” parenting is learning to appreciate the occasional exceptions.
Brother and I were stupefied when Dad, on a windy -25 pre-dawn Sunday, volunteered to drive the station wagon on our paper route. Stacking the bundles on the tailgate and running the streets took about half the normal time.
So, let me get this straight. If someone calls me an athletic supporter, that could actually be an insult? Wow! Here, I thought they were just making an observation about my devotion to various sports.
See, this is one reason why I'm devoted to the wonderful commentariat here. You can learn so much.
Supporting one's home team is noble, even All-American as in "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." "For it's root, root root for the home team, if they don't win it's a shame. For it's one, two, three jocks you're out at the old ballgame."
Andy McCarthy is only one of a list of people on NR I used to read assiduously, sometimes even dare I say it adoringly. I went on NR cruises so I could meet and talk with them. That would include Jay Nordlinger, Mona Charon, and David French.
For a while in 2015 and early 2016 I was on that side. Then I went with my bride to the GOP convention in Cleveland, where we ran into people who actually knew and spoke for Donald Trump. We ended up waving Trump signs on the floor of the convention, where many old acquaintances recognized me....anyway by then I was retired.
When I was on a sabbatical in the Army (1983-84) at George Washington University School of Law, I knew Mona Charen. She was in one of my classes (She was working on her JD & I was in the LLM program). We even socialized a bit.
She was a true conservative then, and a protege of William Buckley. I was a genuine fan of her work, until she became a huge critic of anything Trump did. She is, however, a woman of great character, who has borne more than her share of life's difficulties. Bless her.
When it comes to morals, NR has fallen on hard times. Derbyshire was kicked out for telling the truth. He wasn't "fired" since he wasn't an employee but rather a stringer. But he was never published on NR again.
I thought I should leave a brief note on my health as I have been pretty much incommunicado for the last two Fridays. At last I have had good news from the doctor and they have canceled today’s (high risk) procedure. Everything is looking very good, and my new device is working at last.If there is no unexpected downturn, I may be out of here in a couple of days.
BTW Doctor Goodheart, when I had my three ablation surgeries I was in my 70s. The folks at the hospital said they won't do it for someone over 80. Is that true?
You do have a knack for getting my blood moving in the morning, Susan. So much of what you wrote above tweaked memories of my years teaching in public schools, particularly those of black students who came to schools sans books, paper, pencils, pens, and motivation, but had the latest version of Jordans on their feet while they snacked on free breakfast and lunch. My school's population had roughly 75% on free or reduced lunch. At the end of the lunch a quick look in the garbage cans showed that about 90% of whatever was served them was dumped. However, when I awaited the "Cheese Bus" that carried my door to door students, every morning I watched parents drop off their kids from fancy expensive cars. The kids carrying all sorts of electronic toys or basketballs, but no books or other school supplies.
Obama was without a doubt the worst president we have ever had, worse even than Biden who was simply gone. Obama was intentionally destructive to the country, and to the culture in general. The laxness that his administration caused in schools towards discipline and academic achievement was probably more destructive than the Covid mess. Its effect are still there since they included a generation of poorly trained and prepared teachers whose skill set was directed at creating little red diaper babies totally dependent on the dole, and believing that it was their unalienable right to receive it.
Obama's absurd statement about Trayvon Martin being what he thought his son would be like if he had one, his calling out cops for doing their duty in protecting property when they saw a man apparently breaking into a house, his endless prattle about racism while he accumulated millions of dollars and lived high on the hog, a thing that continues to this day, are all an incredible joke when you realize that when Harry Truman finish his term in office he got in his old car with his wife and drove home. He had no big pension from the government. He lived modestly for the rest of his life, as most presidents before him had. My blood boils when I think of those Obama years during which it was absolutely necessary to bite my tongue in faculty meetings to keep from saying the truth which would have likely ended my career.
Yeah, retirement is a joy. But looking back and seeing where this country is and has been going is infuriating. What has improved is that people are beginning to say the things they were forbidden to say or even feel during those "glorious days" of Obama's presidency.
I agree about the Obama years. The most tiresome things he said, in my opinion, were his relentless reminders about how "historic" his presidency was. But neither he nor his mean-spirited wife showed any actual appreciation for how far they had come in a supposedly racist America. I am quite sure that many, many people voted for him because he was black, and America was indeed ready for a black President. Just not that one.
It was notable, and ironic, to see over time how the country became overly-sensitive about race during those years, and the effects are still with us. Until then, I remember feeling positive about how far we had come in race relations. But since the Obama presidency, race resentment has become far more obvious with a greater emphasis on disparities and a damaging and distorted attention from elites and the media on our history of racism, eg "the 1619 Project" - and a distinct increase in both the number and shrillness of public voices,, black and white, damning the country for its "legacy" of slavery.
It's long past time for someone, please, to write a detailed history of the long, dangerous and controversial abolition movement , particularly the roles played by the whitest of white countries, England and America. It's time for an alternative narrative about the lengthy and dangerous fight to abolish the slave trade. We've had enough voices shaming us for something the human species has done since we climbed down out of the trees.
My understanding of history is sketchy, but I believe it took decades, if not a couple of centuries, of anti-slave ships intercepting slavers on the oceans, and repeated international confrontations and diplomatic efforts to convince European and South American countries to give up the slave trade for good. We DID that, and we should celebrate our own efforts to do so.
Absolutely! The nonsense which is thrown around by ignorant demagogues to stir hatred and, often to make money has been amazingly successful. Obama was the most divisive president we have ever had. Rather than pour oil on the water he stirred it, increased hatred, and undid so much good that had been done since the 1960s. We can only hope that history will portray him exactly as he was.
There are many excellent texts about the fight against slavery in Europe and the United States, as well as South America and the Caribbean. What is missing from much history is the continuing existence of slavery in the Muslim world. Its long, long history goes back to the inception of Islam, and has never been extinguished or fully documented. It has certainly been ignored by those who wrote the 1619 Project and those who pushed it, notably The New York Times.
My wife, who is demonstrably the best person with a group of kids that you’ll ever meet, went back to school in her forties to get her Masters ( long story but California wouldn’t recognize her lifetime teaching credential from Texas).
Her emphasis was on reading.
As in teaching kids to read.
One day, out of frustration, she piped up in class and asked “ when are we going to discuss ways to better teach kids how to read?” The ‘professor’ replied “why are you asking that?”
She said “this is a reading education class and all we’re ever talking about is social justice!”
The response:
“That’s right … this IS all about social justice.”
It is time to eliminate all public (re)education in our nation.
Thank you for that. It is such a classic story. I had to take some classes at University of Washington School of Education when I came out here. I had two masters degrees, an MS in Marine Biology and an MA in Classical Theater. I had gotten my teaching credentials in New York after grad school in a program called The Intensive Teacher Training Program. It was 13 credits of Education Methods during one summer. Then we were dumped into the worst schools in the city. In my case PS 28K in Ocean Hill-Brownsville. I basically did what my private school elementary school teachers did with me. They were all great teachers at Kew Forest School where Donald Trump and I both attended, he two years below me. Those are the same techniques I used throughout my career enhanced by some technical stuff I learned in Special Education classes on behavior modification. When I started teaching in 1967 they had abandoned phonics for nearly a decade. It was the way I had been taught to read, so that is what I did. Math was largely taught through drills and algorithms. It took a couple of years for the schools to start using phonics again. I got strange looks from other teachers for doing it that way, but the success of my special needs kids was undeniable, and all of my principals over the years simply left me alone to do my thing independent of the rest of the faculties. I was also a hardnosed disciplinarian. I learned that from my father. The combination of academics and discipline made my students very productive. Most teachers had no idea how to disciple effectively. One very powerful tool was personal integrity. I never lied to my students. I never said I would do something without doing it. Big lesson is don't threaten something you aren't going to follow up on. However, positive reinforement was also a major tool. I spoke to the parents of my kids at least once a week. Even when I called to report a problem I tried to have something good to report as well. When you have parents who have never gotten a good report on their kids they tend to not listen when you call. It didn't all happen at once, but over a 45 year career it served me well.
Schools don’t educate anymore that’s true. Last summer I visited the local Sherwin Williams, noticed they finally had those little cheap plastic scrapers back and bought three, for cash, with a five dollar bill. The young woman, had to be in her twenties, said the total was $3.56. I was supposed to get $1.44 back. She counted out the change muttering to herself.
She then gave me a one dollar bill, five quarters and 2 pennies. I said thank you, put the change in my pocket (so I could show my husband when I got home) and then burst out laughing after leaving the store.
Man, that chick couldn’t even count out four cents.
My favorite cash stories: Some of my nieces did not believe there was a $2 dollar bill. So I ordered a hundred of them from my credit union and passed them out to everyone in the family. My brother tried to pay with them in a cafe and the cashier reported him to the manager for passing counterfeits. A good laugh was had by most.
I tried to pay cash for a shirt, but the teen girl would not accept it without my name and address. She was sweet and conscientious, but could not comprehend the difference between a request and a demand. I asked the manager to be kind as he explained the priorities of retail - profit over mailing lists. We both spent some minutes convincing the tearful girl she was not an awful person. She needed hugs that neither of us dared provide.
I'm old enough to remember replying to somebody saying "That's as phony as a two-dollar bill" with...uh, a two dollar bill. Who was on it? It wasn't Elizabeth Warren, was it?
Hey Tony. I don’t remember the bill bust. Hiram Maxim would have been my pick.
FYI - I learned Wednesday that one can actually purchase too many White Castle doubles. Especially the Jalapeños. Three consecutive meals leared me. (The Somalis bring me enless joy.)
"So much of what you wrote above tweaked memories of my years teaching in public schools, particularly those of black students who came to schools sans books, paper, pencils, pens, and motivation, but had the latest version of Jordans on their feet while they snacked on free breakfast and lunch."
(Not intending the following as a joke)
A couple of days ago I watched the film "Slam Dunk Ernest" starring the late, great Jim Varney. The film was made more than thirty years ago (how time flies). It's a great film for the youngsters with a solid message. There was a pair of tennis shoes that a yute in the film wanted more than anything in the world but the yute was taught and transformed by Ernest along with the help of the Archangel Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
They (there's always a "they") should show the film in school rather than propaganda teaching yutes how to "transition."
The word that always chapped my dad's jeans was "gay" no longer meaning 'happy, glad, frolicsome.' He would want to take that language back if he was still around.
Trigger Warning: Feminists will despise what follows, though it is intended to be a good natured observation of real life.
I am plagiarizing a joke I saw on YouTube. With apologies to the comedian who used it, here it is:
You may be surprised to know that there is an obvious bias in the demographics of divorce in the United States.
The group that has the highest divorce rate, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is comprised of lesbian couples. The next highest group, coming in at a distant second, is those marriages made up of heterosexual couples (running at 40-45% nationally).
Now understanding that the word "gay" as Susan notes above really means happy, it should be no surprise that homosexual male couples are the most stable.
So, why is this so? Well, lesbian couples have TWO women in them. And, it follows that heterosexual couples still have at least ONE woman. By definition, gay couples have NO women. So, ......
Fair dinkum, my dear friend. However, think about the stress points of most marriages: finances (in a gay couple, both are men who generally have higher earning capacity than women); infidelity (as near as I can tell, gay men do not value fidelity); and children (99% of gay men do not have any, whereas even lesbians often do. Children can be troublesome and VERY expensive.). My lesbian comic friend did tell me that one of the benefits was that you doubled your wardrobe! AG
You are hilarious. Good thing you can't see MY closet -- a more fiercely heterosexual woman would be hard to find -- but I do love a good, soft, plaid flannel shirt! AG
When we were first dating during our training, the first garment I appropriated from sweetheart was a flannel shirt. I wore it to a Trivial Pursuit game one evening and that was the first time our classmates figured out we were an item. My roommate was one of our group and she knew, of course, and others were highly suspicious.
Some day I may send you my first-ever selfie -- or have Joe take the picture so that my record remains pristine -- of me in my favorite pink and blue plaid flannel shirt! Lol. Es verdad. AG
There is a british couple that post a lot of jokes on YT while filming her reactions (Joelle and Mike). That is where I 1st heard that one. My 1st thought when gay marriage was made legal was who benefits? It wasn't the gays, it was the divorce lawyers.
Audrey Meadows (Trixie) was the sister of Jayne Meadows, who was on What's My Line and the wife of Steve Allen. I don't know if Betty used Audrey's voice, but it sure sounded like her.
Chaps my jeans, and grates on my brain, too. The old books that I read to the grandkids, and the old songs I play on the radio, all celebrate innocent gayety.
My childhood crime spree ended at the age of 7 when I ate a grape at the grocery store. Given that it happened in the produce section and not after we went through the cashier line, it was a stolen grape. My mother marched me up to the service desk, told her what it happened whereupon said service lady called for the manager – on the store intercom
The manager asked how I planned on paying for the grape and when I said I had no money, I remember him shaking his head sadly and saying “then it's prison.” I started to cry but then the service lady put down the phone and informed the manager that the prison was full that day. My mother then said she would pay for the grape and the manager sighed and said that would have to do, I remember he glared at me and said I was lucky.
For years after when ever I ate a grape, I felt the start of a panic attack.
That was it for my childhood crime spree.
My oldest kid got in trouble at school and I informed him that his mother might have been the one to bring him into the world but that if he did that again I would be the one to take him out of it. His younger brother then asked if I would allow his brother to at least go to Confession before “I Returned Him to Sender” and I said probably not. His younger brother than eagerly told his sibling that meant he would go to Hell. I would like to think the older kid never got into trouble again, not true, but that was the last time he got sent to the principal's office for running in the hall.
All these teenage criminal masterminds like to think they are criminal masterminds, baby Lex Luthors, when in reality most of them are the Penguin's henchmen from the Batman TV show.
Last year I was supposed to meet the missus for coffee. As I waited, movement on a nearby sidewalk caught my eye. I saw three young lads out for a stroll, one disappeared behind a pillar pushing a cart and two others were holding black garbage bags. Suddenly one of the black bags broke open spilling about a dozen containers of laundry pods.
Tide Rustlers!
Quickly his bag-holding companion tried to help him but then his bag broke open as well. Their cart pushing buddy came back and tried to help but to little avail and they quickly scampered off with only the pods they could carry in their arms. I turned to the lady next to me who was watching this in complete horror and told her “rookie mistake, always use a contractor or a high mil bag when shop lifting.”
When the missus finally did arrive and I told her what had happened she asked why I didn't try to stop them. I told her they might have had a gun. When she said “so?” I replied that meant the police would have gotten involved, I probably would have to wait to make a statement, and then she would blame me for finding yet another reason blowing off our coffee date.
Geez.... women, just cannot win
A friend of mine once told me he had a yute pull a gun on him. Thinking fast, my friend told the aspiring gangsta that he must be new at this because he had forgot to “pull the harness on the striker” of his gun. When the kid said “what?!!?” and looked at the pistol to figure out why friend meant, my buddy said he high-tailed it out of there.
Speaking of writing, I was one of the first people in my school to use a word processor. This was on an Osborne "portable" - not a laptop since it was the size of a suitcase and had a 7-inch screen and ran CP/M. I did it not for professional reasons but because my handwriting was so poor it drove my old English teacher to drink.
Even though I typed my work, I think it still drove that poor man to drink.
My handwriting was (and is) so bad that in college I had blue books (remember those?) returned as illegible. Two I remember: One I was told to resubmit typed. Another professor had me come and and read it to him. The typed one got a poor reception. When I read the other, I was able to interject and elaborate a bit, which actually convinced the prof that I knew what I had been writing about.
Towards the end of my career, when teaching advanced courses, I only gave oral exams. The students seemed to like the format and no effort on my part was required to decipher illegible handwriting.
MTG: I learned to type because of my awful orthography. The first time I used a word-processor to back over a sentence and modify it, I thought I'd fainted and woke up in Disneyland. The word-processor was key to my going back to college and eventually becoming an obscure author on Amazon.
Trust me, Geoff. We are ALL "obscure authors on Amazon". We sat for four hours at the Craft Fair our Gated Geezer Enclosure puts on annually and were THRILLED (not being sarcastic) that we sold 23 books!! Which meant we broke even on the fee for the table and the device Max bought to take credit cards with just a tap. Plus, a very small profit which we immediately spent on doughnuts as a gift to the lovely REAL saleswoman friend who helped out. We are NEVER going to make any money on the books. But, it is nice to think that somebody is reading them. AG
I learned to type in high school because I knew I would be writing a lot of term papers in college and I planned to type them myself. That led to my lifelong habit of never beginning a term paper before the night before the paper was due. First draft = final draft. Saved money on typists, though, as I didn't have a girl friend who typed--or would have been willing to type.
Same here, amigo mio. First draft = final draft. Not only that. But I was known to turn in the term paper at the END of the class for which it was written, not the beginning -- using that extra hour to "finish up". Terrible. I do wish I had been a bit more disciplined in college, but I can't see how it would have made much difference in how my life turned out. AG
-- His younger brother then asked if I would allow his brother to at least go to Confession before “I Returned Him to Sender” and I said probably not. -- (Faking blockquote)
I read a book about the troubles of the Plantagenets in Olde Englande. They had a number of occasions to send enemies to Our Sender but they were apparently meticulous about giving them a chance for confession and absolution if they were not actually in battle. This ceremony was called "shriving" (as in Shrove Tuesday) and the hasty events gave us the term "short shrift".
Do you suppose they intended to eat those Tide Pods? The Tide Pod Challenge was a fad for a brief period of time until a few pesky deaths dampened the enthusiasm. You have to admit it was less dangerous and pervasive than the transgender fad that persists to this day.
Now this is the Ammo Grrrll I like second best, the one who writes calm, well-reasoned columns. My favorite Ammo Grrrll is the one who goes off on unhinged rants but…we can’t have that every Friday, can we?
Mrs. Grrrll got-in two aphorisms worthy of Yogi Berra:
> “Black youth are still mostly at risk from each other.”
> “People do not steal because they are poor. People are poor because they steal.”
Yogi coined this one: “Mostly-peaceful rioting is habit-forming.”
Ammo's recollection hit home for me: “...the recipient of ‘a mad dog look’ meant you were obligated to go to your car and get a weapon from your glove box and shoot wildly around the dance club…”
[What follows is a true story]
I was minding my own business, in line at the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise on Broadway Avenue in North Minneapolis, waiting to place an order when things came to a halt because of a yute right in front of me. He claimed he'd paid for his order with a twenty but only got change for a ten. I maintained a steady expression, but for some reason he turned to look back at me. I maintained my steady expression. Yikes...my“steady expression” was perceived as a “mad dog look.”
The yute walked briskly to the east exit; I knew trouble was brewing. I walked briskly out of the west exit and then began running down the alley as fast as I could. On the way I turned to see the yute pulling something out of his glovebox, I assumed a pistol. I ran even faster…I wasn’t armed and even if I was, I wasn't going to shoot it out over a mad-dog look…which brings us to the song of the week,
(Cue: Kenny Rogers)
“You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em. Know when to fold ‘em.
Know when to walk away, and know when to run…”
By the by, that Kentucky Fried Chicken place is now a Popeye's…it was ransacked in the mourning period after George Floyd tried to pass a bad twenty in payment for a pack of smokes. Thank goodness I wasn't behind George at the Cup Foods in South Minneapolis on that fateful day.
As always, the highlight of this or any other week, the well-reasoned offering of the gal from Dusty Village, granted, no longer a yute but…she’s not a lady of ill repute, that fact no one will dispute. She can compute 21, daughter of a gun (ladies, I thought I would mix things up with a feminine version of "son of a gun"...what was I rhyming? Oh yeah…among the Paiute and the Aleut, Ammo is considered as wise as King Canute. But for the Commentariat it's enough to say in our own way that we give thanks again for another gem from our beloved Mrs. Ammo Grrrll.
I am very very glad you are still with us to write your unique brand of poetry and organize legendary conferences! During the time -- the year escapes me now -- that Mpls got dubbed Murderapolis, white friends of ours wanted to prove they weren't racist by buying a home in North Mpls. During the year they lived there, there were 19 murders within a mile of their home. They moved. AG
And we all know how the moniker turned out for Beirut. We actually have a regular top five seed in the title for Murder Capitol of the USA here in California-East, Md. We have the high crime, horrible education results for excessive education costs, fraud, the waste, graft, the redistricting (with the goal of getting rid of our only Republican in Congress), the raised taxes, raised fees, increased suffocating regulations, and Governor who has has a bit of a habit of embellishing his military and academic prowess.
Of which I am one. I look forward to reading your next novel, Tim. It should be out by the time I finish volume 7 of Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series. About 1000 pages per novel; I get to read when the grandkids are in bed, long before my own bedtime. The house is dark and quiet, but what goes on in those pages is fire and brimstone.
My great grandpa lived close to a Paiute reservation. He spent a great deal of time there, where he learned to speak the Paiute language. He also learned how to carve wood from them. He became known for the beautiful wood figures he carved.
I'm also interested in the relationship of white math to black math and, perhaps, ethnomathematics. Heaven forefend, though, that one may believe me a racist. As an at risk geezer with the usual old guy maladies, I am concerned about driving over a bridge constructed with calculations not in accord with my age and cultural group. The same may be true within medicine. If I have a serious health problem am I to be assigned a physician who barely passed multicultural chemistry and biology? On top of it all, Susan has amply demonstrated that I am at risk of bad, imprecise and bureaucratically inspired language.
Our numbering system was invented in pre-Islamic India. Not exactly a white invention. The Europeans were glad to replace Roman numerals with the Hindu version.
Well, folks think that Aryan means white, so they are surprised when they find out that Aryans can be of any complexion. For that matter, surprised that Arabs and Iranians were classified as white. Still are when convenient.
What a great column. And do all people have to be forced into our terrible schools? I just heard about (know its accurate) a boy who dropped out of high school in 10th grade. But his parents said fine so you have to work. And they signed him up to be a welder. He now has certificate on certificate, necessary to do his job. Married with children responsible and a true good person. Oh he can certainly read and write and add. And his job loves him and he's being recruited. If you want to try you can.
Next one will be a sequel to "Ant Poison Revenge" - in which case I haven't come up with a name yet - or it won't be (doubtful) and it'll be called "Where the Oklahoma Wind Stops".
(Market it as a Christmas movie with millions of hungry ants, lots of flamethrowers, many bombs blowing up and a new Bruce Willis character only this time, a chick...) (I'm thinking of the movie version here.)
I really enjoyed today’s column, AG. When I was a young man that, there was a black man who said people should be judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin. I wonder what happened to him.
I was in Vietnam when James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King. African American Partroopers comprised about 25% of my unit. Every single one of those soldiers demonstrated the courage and discipline necessary to serve in an elite infantry brigade.
When you recall that Black Americans made up about 13% of the population in those days, and they volunteered for hazardous duty in roughly twice their part of the citizenry, you can conclude that there was a strong streak of character and courage among them.
After Reverend King's death All of us mourned him, though his popularity in greater society was just beginning to grow. My First Sergeant (an African American from the deep south) was a man of many parts. his steady hand, natural wisdom, and leadership skills guided us in meaningful ways. Instead of splintering in racial animus, we got a bit closer and reinforced the unit cohesion.
However, when I returned to the "World," as we called America, things were very different, and far worse. Our racial issues were slowly resolving themselves in the way of natural demographics. That is, they were, until Obama and other race baiters re-lit the flame of animus.
I don't know Zeek Arkham, the man who wrote this letter and posted it to X, but my black neighbors seem to have a similar opinion.
Dear Chuck Schumer,
Hi. Black dude here. I can trace my family ancestry to slavery. I even know where they were slaves. My mom experienced Jim Crow. I think I’ve watched every episode of “Eyes On the Prize” when I was younger.
With that said…
Can you directly explain to me how the SAVE Act is “Jim Crow 2.0?” Literally every black person I know has ID. Literally every black person I know has a car or at least a ride. Literally every black person I know knows how to vote (well… except the ones with felonies… but they don’t count).
With your advanced white liberal thinking, you must know more than me. Apparently, as I experience daily on this app, white liberals are experts on being black; even more so than actual black folks. Perhaps you could explain it like I’m five. I’d look it up on the internet, but Kathy Hochul has already told me I don’t know what a computer is and Joe Biden said I can’t navigate it, anyway.
"Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.
“I solemnly pledge to do my utmost to uphold the fair name of the Jews — because bigotry in any form is an affront to us all.”
There is an affecting scene in Russell Crowe's 2005 Depression-era movie, "Cinderella Man," where his son steals a sausage from the butcher shop. Despite their poverty, his dad makes him return it and apologize. Then, after his character Jim Braddock wins the championship against all odds, he pays back the government relief he "borrowed" with a roll of cash. Crowe's character had character.
This was one of your best columns ever - thank you! If more people would just tell the truth to themselves and to others - lay it out as it is - we’d sure have fewer problems. But that takes common sense, a bit of fearlessness and backbone. I’m with you. I’m sick of the nonsense and refuse to play their game. Brava, Susan! Brava!
We live in an age of deception. If you can get people to believe and say a boy is a girl and a girl is a boy, you can get them to believe anything. And get them to do just about anything.
I came across this little exchange this morning. I will take advantage of the freedom available here to quote the Governor of California accurately.
Call out:
“You didn’t give a shit about the President of the United States of America posting an ape video of President Obama or calling African nations shitholes — but you’re going to call me racist for talking about my lifelong struggle with dyslexia?”
California governor Gavin Newsom
Response:
“This seems like a good time to remind you that a black student in Mississippi is 2.5X more likely to read proficiently by 4th grade than if he or she lived in California. We would be happy to send one of our reading coaches to assist you, Gavin Newsom. Learning is a lifelong journey, and you might achieve some of the gains that our black fourth graders have.
“Incidentally, one nice feature of increased literacy is that you do not have to fall back on vulgarity to seem passionate. Let me know!”
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves
As I have mentioned many times, my wife's factory hires high school graduates - and eliminates 50% of the applicants for being illiterate and/or innumerate. Just like crime, this affects mostly the poor of all colors, whose parents either cannot or will not ensure their children are educated.
I have come to the conclusion that we have eliminated useful teaching from our government school system in order to provide the Left with ignorant followers, who thanks to their total lack of education are also dependent on government to survive. Of course, the underclass and their deplorable habits keep themselves down - but the innocent children should be given a chance.
Wow! Incredible contribution, my friend! And you emailed me that you probably wouldn't even be available today! Thank you. AG
Bonnie emailed me that Clark is not available AT ALL. Sweetheart reminded me that I am not either.
I assume you're funnin', if you're not I have no idea how she would get your email. I am hoping to bring her to CC5, in fact if I can’t I probably can’t go either (small number of vacation days). I look forward to you two meeting each other, I don’t look forward to the inevitable “shop talk”.
Well then...be gone meddlesome woman.
No.
(First big smile of the day)
Nice to see you here M'Lady.
I'm not really a hussy, of course. I've met you and chatted with Clark. I am only devoted to sweetheart and he to me. But if you two and I WERE available...I'd probably have to work out a deal with Tracy. If she were available.
So it's really best the way it is.
Next week is a definite "no". My living hell of Sisyphean examination of our health care system has been extended, after which I get rewarded by a month of no internet (but I'll try to get to the library on Fridays.)
?
Long story. My oldest friend has been crippled up and has no family. He needs an operation to recover and while we're not at Canadian wait times yet, the impecunious still get to wait. And do paperwork. And more paperwork. And BS appointments designed to fend of malpractice suits. And get messed with by young, woke, medical assistants.
Someone has to take care of him and he is deep in the Low Country where infrastructure still suffers from the activities of one General Sherman. I had to have cell access to the 'net on the road, and I never want to pay bills like that again. Besides a month without surfing will be refreshing.
You're a good a faithful friend. Get to the library when you can. Good luck.
It's the build your own electorate process.
The Replacement Theory has gone from established conspiracy theory to established fact. Always glad to see you here.
I too love to see Bill Gensert here.
I second that!
Are you still living in NYC?
How’s it going?
(She asks, totally attempting to hijack a convo)
Well-stated Mr. Carter!
That reminds me. Do we really need a federal Department of Education? They seem to do more harm than good.
President Reagan was going to eliminate the Jimmy Carter department. Come to think of it, so was President Trump. What are the betting odds of getting rid of the U.S. Department of Education? The latest line out of Vegas is 500-1 against.
In my experience, the weakest, least impressive parts of most universities are the Colleges of Education. I predict that abolishing the USDE will improve the quality of primary/secondary education.
And that's true whether you mean Dept. of Education or Dept. of Energy.
When I recall my time at University, the students with the most free time were Education Majors.
So would getting rid of those stupid education degrees. Many years back, I read of a black man from South Georgia who had turned a Master's in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech into a good job at a defense contractor in California. The end of the Cold War led to some layoffs, and he volunteered.
He thought he would go back to his dirt poor county and show the people there what an education can do. He applied for, and got, a job teaching high school algebra.
When the state heard about they wanted him fired. He didn't have an education degree, so he was unqualified to teach high school algebra. Luckily, Georgia's a Southern state, so the locals were unmoved.
My kids had a teacher in high school, coincidentally named Mr. Clark. He had decided to leave his well-paying job as an engineer at Motorola to follow his patriotic duty to turn out more engineers for the USA.
He was a brilliant teacher and built the STEM program into a powerhouse at our local high school. At the time our kids went there, the high school was rated the best public high school in the U.S. Three of our four kids graduated from college in engineering. Thank you, Mr. Clark for your advocacy.
I hope with all my heart that the school he served so well, and which has largely become a majority-minority school has not succumbed to the DEI pressures and given up on STEM. Our youngest daughter took multivariable calculus, differential equations, and advanced physics in high school. Thank you again, Mr. Clark.
What the Left has done to education in general is a tragedy. What the Left has done to education for our brightest minds is a catastrophe.
"In my experience, the weakest, least impressive parts of most universities are the Colleges of Education"
That was my impression as far back as 1963.
Jack, I go even further back. In the fall of 1960 it quickly became apparent to me that we engineering students were to be "flogged" endlessly (i.e. 7 days per week of difficult homework). But the education majors pledged fraternities and soon got into the party life. No regrets as I look back on my career, but sheesh, college could have been a lot more fun!!
Ol' Mel
My experience was taking a course, "Statistical methods in psychology and education," during the summer when the classroom was filled mostly with high school teachers and principals. A stupider group of people I had rarely seen. The guy sitting next to me was a principal who had not taken any math beyond freshman algebra, and didn't understand the equation ax=b. The instructor got so many stupid questions that he seemed to need a stiff drink after class.
Oops, upon further reflection, a correction:
The equation the guy didn't understand was actually y=ax+b.
Sorry for the confusion.
When Jimmy Carter - the man who tempted me to change my name to Reagan - established the Department of Education the United States was rated first in the world for universal education. We are now 24th - as of a couple of years ago. I have no idea how much worse they have made it since.
IOW the DOE is working as designed.
If we were 24th because other nations had surpassed our standards, I'd be pleased. But of course that isn't the case.
What's the status of the departmental abolition? The current Secretary was charged with it. Is it Congress that's keeping it going?
Ms. McMahon is doing what she can to wind-down the department. I think she has made some progress but...
...you don't touch any elements of the Administrative State without having your "hair mussed," (hat tip to General Turgidson in the film "Dr. Strangelove.")
We recently watched that film for probably the 5th or 6th time. Just terrific acting and script. Hilarious. AG
Many unforgettable lines.
"precious bodily fluids"...
"...you're some kind of a deviated prevert"
"War is too important to be left to the generals. {or the politicians!]."
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the War Room!"
I wish I could post here a cartoon of the control panel at Cheyenne Mountain showing multiple missiles being fired and a dismayed General saying "No, Alexa, I ordered LUNCH!"
Major Kong: "Well boys, I reckon this is it...nuclear combat toe-to-toe with the Rooskies."
Clark, I made the mistake of responding to a comment that Tony Petroski made on Powerline about Jane Fonda, where he sarcastically used the word "hero" in the same sentence as his reference to her. I called her a Traitor.
I included specific citations to the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Code. Nonetheless, I was put into Scott's remediation for 8 hours. Our fellow commenter, Deb, thought that the words, traitor or treason were the triggers for remediation. She's probably right.
Still, it takes a HUGE amount of arrogance and chutzpah to ban words that are used in the Constitution and U.S. Code from the commentaries. Deb thinks it was a Disqus rule. I don't think so, but ultimately I don't care.
Here, you get treated like an adult, which I've come to expect after 78 years on the planet. BTW, in addition to my primal scream above, your comment here is excellent.
Being fair to our Powerline hosts, your comment was released when the moderator had time to see it.
One reason I gave up on Instapundit was the level of profanity in the commentary there.
Well, I'm there a lot. Didn't notice a high level of profanity. But, like beauty, profanity is in the eye of the beholder.
I suppose that we used more profanity in the Army than they did in the USAF. Then again, we drank far less Jeremiah Weed. Perhaps the Air Force had a higher class of service member. Then again, we had more folks sleeping in the mud, and worse.
I suggest that we had more stuff to swear at.
I managed to serve eight years with only a mild profanity habit and sweetheart served twenty with a near-zero profanity habit. I acknowledge that made us rarae avises in terra (I may have my Latin plurals wonky). But we were also medics and we took care of family members, so we didn't have the freedom of speech found in other career fields like aircraft maintenance or civil engineering.
I was dismayed by the profanity habits common among teenagers, young men and women alike, as they came into the Air Force.
I suspect both the Army and the Air Force would acknowledge that the language of the USMC made us look like Amish.
And thank the Almighty for our survival - no need to curse Him!
I’ve noticed that even on FB some people can’t make a comment without profanity. The “F” is liberally sprinkled throughout the remarks.
It’s as though they’re 3 yrs old & have just learned a “bad word” so they say it as often as possible. 🙄
I remember my Mom catching me (age 10) dropping an F-Bomb at a good play by a rival team as I watched TV on our small B&W set. I muttered it and she said, "What did you say?" I said it was a bad play by a guy named Faust. (Larry Foust was a prominent NBA center in the 1950s, playing from 1950 to 1962, for the Fort Wayne Pistons...thank you AI). I learned two things: 1) be really quick with a good come-back, 2) stop cussing!
Ol' Mel
You cannot use the "T" word or even the "t" word on Powerline.
So what to call the actions of Benedict Arnold? George Washington was once fond of the man.
Cherchez la femme. According to Max, Arnold's wife was jealous that he wasn't as prominent as Washington and some others and she could not get the recognition she craved. She was the one who suggested selling out. AG
Stand by your man.
(Cue: Elvis)
"Hard-headed woman, soft-hearted man,
been the source of trouble ever since the world began.
I knew a cat who was doing swell...
'til he started messin' with that evil Jezebel...
a hard-headed woman been the thorn in the side of man."
I'm pretty sure I've used the words 'traitor' and 'treason' in comments on Power Line without any problems.
Hmmm...maybe you ain't on the list L.E.
We all know Wikipedia has a leftist slant, but even they can't ignore Newsom's mental health issues.
"He continued at Notre Dame des Victoires from third through fifth grades, where he was enrolled in remedial reading classes to cope with his learning difficulties. Throughout his years in school, Newsom relied heavily on audiobooks, summaries, and verbal instruction. Newsom has written that as an adult, he still prefers audio interpretations of documents and reports. In a 2023 interview, he said his dyslexia "forced me to find workarounds and think differently.""
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Newsom
It's good to read this now as Wikipedia often "scrubs" their bios of Democrats. Their bio of Kamala Harris was scrubbed of objectionable information right after she was made the presidential candidate in 2020. Deleted were the remarks about her getting into UC Hastings law school via a program for students of a "disadvantaged background".
Gavin Newsom may indeed be dyslexic. When he said he was as stupid as his audience, he gave genuine dyslexic people a real insult and he may have been overrating himself.
My brother is dyslexic. I've known many other dyslexic persons. None of them (ones I knew, so the odds on intelligence would skew high) were stupid, many were brilliant. Gavin seems like a slicker Eddie Haskell.
And not just from the hair gel.
Really top-flight commenting today, my friends! Thank you one and all. If you want an awesome reward, RUN, don't walk, to put on YouTube of Nicholas de Santo's latest set in Britain called "Operation Epic Fury". Nicholas de Santo is an Italian/Iranian comic who has done time in an Iranian prison and now lives in the UK. He is MILITANTLY pro-life.
I'm sorry I can't help quoting one spoiler: "Operation Epic Fury should have been called 'Operation Persian Carpet Bombing." AG
Also, just in case anyone has forgotten -- all of us at PQ appreciate it when you hit the Like button. No big deal, really. We just like it. It makes us feel, well, LIKED. AG
Nicholas de Santo is fearless and very funny.
hes pretty good .... Tony .. Kyler Murray? really ?
My predictions are often wrong...last year I was 5-51 against the spread on college and pro football games although I somehow "won" the Super Bowl prediction (meaning my many newsletter subscribers betting against me lost).
Kyler Murray is going to put the Vikings into the Super Bowl in 2027. I see purple lighting-up SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles with Lizzo twerking for the halftime show...hopefully with a "wardrobe malfunction."
i want want your smoking
My stock in trade?
Sober analysis.
i got 3 posts fired off today on TWIP before they locked me out with the red internet box .... so a lil improvement .... i need to know who is doing this so i can place my boot up their backside .. my bet would be Century Link
lol ... .i have a double
Ammo Grrrll, since I have some actual experience in law enforcement and prosecution of crime (and almost five years of criminal defense in the Army) I found your column particularly compelling. Your ability to meaningfully comment across a staggeringly wide range of topics is - IMHO - unmatched by most of the other pundits on the Internet.
In spite of your genuine humility, don’t chide me for my praise of your work. It’s truly unique and praise worthy. I visit other sites, and watch other pundits (some of whom are true experts in a narrow field, and publish stellar comments in their area of expertise) utterly fail when they venture beyond their natural limits.
Andy McCarthy at NRO comes to mind. He was a Federal prosecutor in the SDNY, and a managing assistant US attorney for a time. He has few peers when he’s addressing topics involving Federal Criminal Law or Procedure issues. Unfortunately he suffers from the worst case of TDS that I’ve ever seen,
So, he feels compelled to comment about everything that President Trump does. His TDS forces him to put a negative spin on each and every issue that he addresses, and he does not limit himself to the topics where he has real talent. Even a large subset of his fan club has recognized his fixation. So the comment section has devolved a battle of those with TDS and those without it.
Here your followers recognize the excellence of your work, and your efforts to publish the best column you can muster every Friday. Bravo, AG, bravo!
My dear friend, we stubborn Arizonans don't observe DST, so I arrive a little late to the party, "sleeping in" til 6:15! And almost immediately find myself forced to "upvote" am embarrassingly flattering comment because of the parts that did not refer to me! Thank you so much. AG
So, now you reveal the calculus. If I include others or other topics, I can get your support even if I tell the truth about your immense talent.
Okay. I've got it. Here goes: How about that war in Iran? The dems don't like it at all. Won't fund DHS, and we're starting to see the Lone Wolves attack. Perhaps the sleeper cells are on the move. How abut that stuff?
The ODU attack smells like a sleeper to me.
Not much of a sleeper since he'd been convicted of a terrorist charge before and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Your position makes sense, since he was well known to the authorities. However, he did possess all the other traits you might expect of a sleeper: loyalty to Islamic terrorism, animus against the US, a willingness to use violence etc.
A reformed sleeper.
A clever ploy to get free room and board and exercise at government expense, followed by official ignorance as you aren't allowed to enquire too deeply into criminal records.
Could be!!
Those ROTC students deserve a dinner at the White House
In the ARMY we learned that sometimes have a knife in a gunfight can save lives. A knife beats being totally unarmed.
And, YES, the POTUS should praise the courage of those students, and especially the knife bearer.
One you can't upvote:
Bravo, AG, bravo!
And thank you.
Hey there TonyP of the famed One, Seven Three.
Ammo Grrrll does not have "followers." The Reverend Sun Myung Moon had followers. Now that I think of it, whatever happened to him?
Anyways, Mrs. Grrrll has admirers and supporters.
Do you know who else has supporters? Famous athletes...well, mostly male famous athletes.
Hahahaha. ISWYDT. I think one of the gifts of being quite elderly is that so many incidents and statements trigger fond memories. My neighbor lady who would sometimes drive us to school during EXTREMELY inclement weather had a son who was in 8th grade when I was in 7th. One particular day -- which was a Gym Day -- her son was twirling his athletic supporter. She said, "Dean, if you want everybody to see what you are carrying, why don't you just put it on your head?" I had no older brothers and had never before SEEN the item, but even a naive twelve-year-old can figure it out pretty soon! AG
I was wondering if anybody would "get my drift."
Uhhhh, yes. 🤣
One of many advantages of attending the school of “suck it up” parenting is learning to appreciate the occasional exceptions.
Brother and I were stupefied when Dad, on a windy -25 pre-dawn Sunday, volunteered to drive the station wagon on our paper route. Stacking the bundles on the tailgate and running the streets took about half the normal time.
So, let me get this straight. If someone calls me an athletic supporter, that could actually be an insult? Wow! Here, I thought they were just making an observation about my devotion to various sports.
See, this is one reason why I'm devoted to the wonderful commentariat here. You can learn so much.
Dubious learning, perhaps?🙂
Supporting one's home team is noble, even All-American as in "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." "For it's root, root root for the home team, if they don't win it's a shame. For it's one, two, three jocks you're out at the old ballgame."
The reverend is diseased but his son, Justin, owns Kahr Arms—they make some pretty fine firearms.
Andy McCarthy is only one of a list of people on NR I used to read assiduously, sometimes even dare I say it adoringly. I went on NR cruises so I could meet and talk with them. That would include Jay Nordlinger, Mona Charon, and David French.
For a while in 2015 and early 2016 I was on that side. Then I went with my bride to the GOP convention in Cleveland, where we ran into people who actually knew and spoke for Donald Trump. We ended up waving Trump signs on the floor of the convention, where many old acquaintances recognized me....anyway by then I was retired.
When I was on a sabbatical in the Army (1983-84) at George Washington University School of Law, I knew Mona Charen. She was in one of my classes (She was working on her JD & I was in the LLM program). We even socialized a bit.
She was a true conservative then, and a protege of William Buckley. I was a genuine fan of her work, until she became a huge critic of anything Trump did. She is, however, a woman of great character, who has borne more than her share of life's difficulties. Bless her.
When it comes to morals, NR has fallen on hard times. Derbyshire was kicked out for telling the truth. He wasn't "fired" since he wasn't an employee but rather a stringer. But he was never published on NR again.
https://www.johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/NationalQuestion/talk.html
I thought I should leave a brief note on my health as I have been pretty much incommunicado for the last two Fridays. At last I have had good news from the doctor and they have canceled today’s (high risk) procedure. Everything is looking very good, and my new device is working at last.If there is no unexpected downturn, I may be out of here in a couple of days.
Praise God! I agree with Tony Petroski -- best news of the day! AG
This is the best news of the day.
Phew. No scaring us like that!
Great news, so happy for you!
Good news! Answer to prayer.
Great news, Louis! You are a well appreciated pillar of this community.
Wonderful!! This brightens my day, Louis.
So glad to hear this news, Mr. Mullinger!
Bless you, Louis.
Thanks for the update and double thanks that it is good news.
So no ablation, then? (No need to respond at all, Louis. Just so glad you've got good news!)
BTW Doctor Goodheart, when I had my three ablation surgeries I was in my 70s. The folks at the hospital said they won't do it for someone over 80. Is that true?
Ol' Mel
You do have a knack for getting my blood moving in the morning, Susan. So much of what you wrote above tweaked memories of my years teaching in public schools, particularly those of black students who came to schools sans books, paper, pencils, pens, and motivation, but had the latest version of Jordans on their feet while they snacked on free breakfast and lunch. My school's population had roughly 75% on free or reduced lunch. At the end of the lunch a quick look in the garbage cans showed that about 90% of whatever was served them was dumped. However, when I awaited the "Cheese Bus" that carried my door to door students, every morning I watched parents drop off their kids from fancy expensive cars. The kids carrying all sorts of electronic toys or basketballs, but no books or other school supplies.
Obama was without a doubt the worst president we have ever had, worse even than Biden who was simply gone. Obama was intentionally destructive to the country, and to the culture in general. The laxness that his administration caused in schools towards discipline and academic achievement was probably more destructive than the Covid mess. Its effect are still there since they included a generation of poorly trained and prepared teachers whose skill set was directed at creating little red diaper babies totally dependent on the dole, and believing that it was their unalienable right to receive it.
Obama's absurd statement about Trayvon Martin being what he thought his son would be like if he had one, his calling out cops for doing their duty in protecting property when they saw a man apparently breaking into a house, his endless prattle about racism while he accumulated millions of dollars and lived high on the hog, a thing that continues to this day, are all an incredible joke when you realize that when Harry Truman finish his term in office he got in his old car with his wife and drove home. He had no big pension from the government. He lived modestly for the rest of his life, as most presidents before him had. My blood boils when I think of those Obama years during which it was absolutely necessary to bite my tongue in faculty meetings to keep from saying the truth which would have likely ended my career.
Yeah, retirement is a joy. But looking back and seeing where this country is and has been going is infuriating. What has improved is that people are beginning to say the things they were forbidden to say or even feel during those "glorious days" of Obama's presidency.
WOW! I feel like saluting you, Eugene, and saying, "Thank you for your service!" AG
I agree about the Obama years. The most tiresome things he said, in my opinion, were his relentless reminders about how "historic" his presidency was. But neither he nor his mean-spirited wife showed any actual appreciation for how far they had come in a supposedly racist America. I am quite sure that many, many people voted for him because he was black, and America was indeed ready for a black President. Just not that one.
It was notable, and ironic, to see over time how the country became overly-sensitive about race during those years, and the effects are still with us. Until then, I remember feeling positive about how far we had come in race relations. But since the Obama presidency, race resentment has become far more obvious with a greater emphasis on disparities and a damaging and distorted attention from elites and the media on our history of racism, eg "the 1619 Project" - and a distinct increase in both the number and shrillness of public voices,, black and white, damning the country for its "legacy" of slavery.
It's long past time for someone, please, to write a detailed history of the long, dangerous and controversial abolition movement , particularly the roles played by the whitest of white countries, England and America. It's time for an alternative narrative about the lengthy and dangerous fight to abolish the slave trade. We've had enough voices shaming us for something the human species has done since we climbed down out of the trees.
My understanding of history is sketchy, but I believe it took decades, if not a couple of centuries, of anti-slave ships intercepting slavers on the oceans, and repeated international confrontations and diplomatic efforts to convince European and South American countries to give up the slave trade for good. We DID that, and we should celebrate our own efforts to do so.
Absolutely! The nonsense which is thrown around by ignorant demagogues to stir hatred and, often to make money has been amazingly successful. Obama was the most divisive president we have ever had. Rather than pour oil on the water he stirred it, increased hatred, and undid so much good that had been done since the 1960s. We can only hope that history will portray him exactly as he was.
There are many excellent texts about the fight against slavery in Europe and the United States, as well as South America and the Caribbean. What is missing from much history is the continuing existence of slavery in the Muslim world. Its long, long history goes back to the inception of Islam, and has never been extinguished or fully documented. It has certainly been ignored by those who wrote the 1619 Project and those who pushed it, notably The New York Times.
You are right on the mark, Eugene.
My wife, who is demonstrably the best person with a group of kids that you’ll ever meet, went back to school in her forties to get her Masters ( long story but California wouldn’t recognize her lifetime teaching credential from Texas).
Her emphasis was on reading.
As in teaching kids to read.
One day, out of frustration, she piped up in class and asked “ when are we going to discuss ways to better teach kids how to read?” The ‘professor’ replied “why are you asking that?”
She said “this is a reading education class and all we’re ever talking about is social justice!”
The response:
“That’s right … this IS all about social justice.”
It is time to eliminate all public (re)education in our nation.
Thank you for that. It is such a classic story. I had to take some classes at University of Washington School of Education when I came out here. I had two masters degrees, an MS in Marine Biology and an MA in Classical Theater. I had gotten my teaching credentials in New York after grad school in a program called The Intensive Teacher Training Program. It was 13 credits of Education Methods during one summer. Then we were dumped into the worst schools in the city. In my case PS 28K in Ocean Hill-Brownsville. I basically did what my private school elementary school teachers did with me. They were all great teachers at Kew Forest School where Donald Trump and I both attended, he two years below me. Those are the same techniques I used throughout my career enhanced by some technical stuff I learned in Special Education classes on behavior modification. When I started teaching in 1967 they had abandoned phonics for nearly a decade. It was the way I had been taught to read, so that is what I did. Math was largely taught through drills and algorithms. It took a couple of years for the schools to start using phonics again. I got strange looks from other teachers for doing it that way, but the success of my special needs kids was undeniable, and all of my principals over the years simply left me alone to do my thing independent of the rest of the faculties. I was also a hardnosed disciplinarian. I learned that from my father. The combination of academics and discipline made my students very productive. Most teachers had no idea how to disciple effectively. One very powerful tool was personal integrity. I never lied to my students. I never said I would do something without doing it. Big lesson is don't threaten something you aren't going to follow up on. However, positive reinforement was also a major tool. I spoke to the parents of my kids at least once a week. Even when I called to report a problem I tried to have something good to report as well. When you have parents who have never gotten a good report on their kids they tend to not listen when you call. It didn't all happen at once, but over a 45 year career it served me well.
No matter what else you have done with your life, sir, your place in Heaven is guaranteed! AG
If I could only say one word to improve reading, the word would be "phonics". If allowed a few words, they would be "Danny and the Dinosaur".
Schools don’t educate anymore that’s true. Last summer I visited the local Sherwin Williams, noticed they finally had those little cheap plastic scrapers back and bought three, for cash, with a five dollar bill. The young woman, had to be in her twenties, said the total was $3.56. I was supposed to get $1.44 back. She counted out the change muttering to herself.
She then gave me a one dollar bill, five quarters and 2 pennies. I said thank you, put the change in my pocket (so I could show my husband when I got home) and then burst out laughing after leaving the store.
Man, that chick couldn’t even count out four cents.
My favorite cash stories: Some of my nieces did not believe there was a $2 dollar bill. So I ordered a hundred of them from my credit union and passed them out to everyone in the family. My brother tried to pay with them in a cafe and the cashier reported him to the manager for passing counterfeits. A good laugh was had by most.
I tried to pay cash for a shirt, but the teen girl would not accept it without my name and address. She was sweet and conscientious, but could not comprehend the difference between a request and a demand. I asked the manager to be kind as he explained the priorities of retail - profit over mailing lists. We both spent some minutes convincing the tearful girl she was not an awful person. She needed hugs that neither of us dared provide.
Hey there Phil.
I'm old enough to remember replying to somebody saying "That's as phony as a two-dollar bill" with...uh, a two dollar bill. Who was on it? It wasn't Elizabeth Warren, was it?
Jefferson?
Hey Tony. I don’t remember the bill bust. Hiram Maxim would have been my pick.
FYI - I learned Wednesday that one can actually purchase too many White Castle doubles. Especially the Jalapeños. Three consecutive meals leared me. (The Somalis bring me enless joy.)
The Jalapenos special is known as the Tony (Petroski) because The Reflux just didn't sell.
Eugene, you speak for me, and I'm sure for many of us. Thank God for DJT.
Great comment Eugene.
"So much of what you wrote above tweaked memories of my years teaching in public schools, particularly those of black students who came to schools sans books, paper, pencils, pens, and motivation, but had the latest version of Jordans on their feet while they snacked on free breakfast and lunch."
(Not intending the following as a joke)
A couple of days ago I watched the film "Slam Dunk Ernest" starring the late, great Jim Varney. The film was made more than thirty years ago (how time flies). It's a great film for the youngsters with a solid message. There was a pair of tennis shoes that a yute in the film wanted more than anything in the world but the yute was taught and transformed by Ernest along with the help of the Archangel Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
They (there's always a "they") should show the film in school rather than propaganda teaching yutes how to "transition."
The word that always chapped my dad's jeans was "gay" no longer meaning 'happy, glad, frolicsome.' He would want to take that language back if he was still around.
Yes, the word is even in "My Old Kentucky Home" where, I believe, the children are all happy and "gay". AG
Heck, it is even part of the FLINTSTONE's theme song!! "We'll have a gay ol' time!"
I always was mystified by what a "Gail time" meant when I was a wee one watching my cartoons, but I felt honored by it. 😆
Trigger Warning: Feminists will despise what follows, though it is intended to be a good natured observation of real life.
I am plagiarizing a joke I saw on YouTube. With apologies to the comedian who used it, here it is:
You may be surprised to know that there is an obvious bias in the demographics of divorce in the United States.
The group that has the highest divorce rate, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is comprised of lesbian couples. The next highest group, coming in at a distant second, is those marriages made up of heterosexual couples (running at 40-45% nationally).
Now understanding that the word "gay" as Susan notes above really means happy, it should be no surprise that homosexual male couples are the most stable.
So, why is this so? Well, lesbian couples have TWO women in them. And, it follows that heterosexual couples still have at least ONE woman. By definition, gay couples have NO women. So, ......
Fair dinkum, my dear friend. However, think about the stress points of most marriages: finances (in a gay couple, both are men who generally have higher earning capacity than women); infidelity (as near as I can tell, gay men do not value fidelity); and children (99% of gay men do not have any, whereas even lesbians often do. Children can be troublesome and VERY expensive.). My lesbian comic friend did tell me that one of the benefits was that you doubled your wardrobe! AG
Who doesn't dream of having two dozen flannel shirts!
You are hilarious. Good thing you can't see MY closet -- a more fiercely heterosexual woman would be hard to find -- but I do love a good, soft, plaid flannel shirt! AG
When we were first dating during our training, the first garment I appropriated from sweetheart was a flannel shirt. I wore it to a Trivial Pursuit game one evening and that was the first time our classmates figured out we were an item. My roommate was one of our group and she knew, of course, and others were highly suspicious.
They go so well with the pink and blue hair!
Some day I may send you my first-ever selfie -- or have Joe take the picture so that my record remains pristine -- of me in my favorite pink and blue plaid flannel shirt! Lol. Es verdad. AG
Wow!!
There are some gay men who have twins and take advantage of the 12 week parental leave policy, as the airlines are in chaos.
Name a scenario worse than Karen vs. Karen.
Impossible!
There is a british couple that post a lot of jokes on YT while filming her reactions (Joelle and Mike). That is where I 1st heard that one. My 1st thought when gay marriage was made legal was who benefits? It wasn't the gays, it was the divorce lawyers.
One argument for gay marriage: if we gotta put up with it, so do they.
Do you know where you can have a gay old time?
No, not San Francisco.
The town of Bedrock with Fred, Wilma, Barney and Joyce Randolph.
So, Trixie Norton becomes the inspiration for Betty Rubble? Only you would have that warehouse of cartoon knowledge.
Audrey Meadows (Trixie) was the sister of Jayne Meadows, who was on What's My Line and the wife of Steve Allen. I don't know if Betty used Audrey's voice, but it sure sounded like her.
There was some copyright argy-bargy between the producers of the Honeymooners and the Hanna-Barbera studios.
And to think Mom said I was wasting my time watching all that TV.
I deeply regret that use of a perfectly delightful word.
My Dad's brother was named Graham. and his nickname was "Gay" which he decidedly was not! He was one of the most manly men I ever knew.
I think we should reclaim that word in its original meaning.
English changes too readily. We have nothing like the "Cité Internationale de la Langue Française".
Was he a southern white?
He was a Canadian fighter jet pilot.
He flew for both Canada and England in WWII.
I was going to make a joke about him being "Graham cracker".
Good one!
Chaps my jeans, and grates on my brain, too. The old books that I read to the grandkids, and the old songs I play on the radio, all celebrate innocent gayety.
I have seen young people titter singing "Don we now our gay apparel."
It's in the lyrics of "When Johnnie Comes Marching Home Again".
Dennis is right. Bob Dylan never imagined what was ahead for his big hit.
"We'll all feel gay as we prance about,
the Pride Parade will march the route,
and we'll all dress fey when Johnny comes marching home."
LOTS of wisdom in today's comments, but this made me LOL, Tony. AG
Or when Johnny comes out.
My childhood crime spree ended at the age of 7 when I ate a grape at the grocery store. Given that it happened in the produce section and not after we went through the cashier line, it was a stolen grape. My mother marched me up to the service desk, told her what it happened whereupon said service lady called for the manager – on the store intercom
The manager asked how I planned on paying for the grape and when I said I had no money, I remember him shaking his head sadly and saying “then it's prison.” I started to cry but then the service lady put down the phone and informed the manager that the prison was full that day. My mother then said she would pay for the grape and the manager sighed and said that would have to do, I remember he glared at me and said I was lucky.
For years after when ever I ate a grape, I felt the start of a panic attack.
That was it for my childhood crime spree.
My oldest kid got in trouble at school and I informed him that his mother might have been the one to bring him into the world but that if he did that again I would be the one to take him out of it. His younger brother then asked if I would allow his brother to at least go to Confession before “I Returned Him to Sender” and I said probably not. His younger brother than eagerly told his sibling that meant he would go to Hell. I would like to think the older kid never got into trouble again, not true, but that was the last time he got sent to the principal's office for running in the hall.
All these teenage criminal masterminds like to think they are criminal masterminds, baby Lex Luthors, when in reality most of them are the Penguin's henchmen from the Batman TV show.
Last year I was supposed to meet the missus for coffee. As I waited, movement on a nearby sidewalk caught my eye. I saw three young lads out for a stroll, one disappeared behind a pillar pushing a cart and two others were holding black garbage bags. Suddenly one of the black bags broke open spilling about a dozen containers of laundry pods.
Tide Rustlers!
Quickly his bag-holding companion tried to help him but then his bag broke open as well. Their cart pushing buddy came back and tried to help but to little avail and they quickly scampered off with only the pods they could carry in their arms. I turned to the lady next to me who was watching this in complete horror and told her “rookie mistake, always use a contractor or a high mil bag when shop lifting.”
When the missus finally did arrive and I told her what had happened she asked why I didn't try to stop them. I told her they might have had a gun. When she said “so?” I replied that meant the police would have gotten involved, I probably would have to wait to make a statement, and then she would blame me for finding yet another reason blowing off our coffee date.
Geez.... women, just cannot win
A friend of mine once told me he had a yute pull a gun on him. Thinking fast, my friend told the aspiring gangsta that he must be new at this because he had forgot to “pull the harness on the striker” of his gun. When the kid said “what?!!?” and looked at the pistol to figure out why friend meant, my buddy said he high-tailed it out of there.
You are a delightful and hilarious raconteur. I think it is entirely possible you are a professional writer? AG
No sadly I am not, but thank you for saying that!
Speaking of writing, I was one of the first people in my school to use a word processor. This was on an Osborne "portable" - not a laptop since it was the size of a suitcase and had a 7-inch screen and ran CP/M. I did it not for professional reasons but because my handwriting was so poor it drove my old English teacher to drink.
Even though I typed my work, I think it still drove that poor man to drink.
My handwriting was (and is) so bad that in college I had blue books (remember those?) returned as illegible. Two I remember: One I was told to resubmit typed. Another professor had me come and and read it to him. The typed one got a poor reception. When I read the other, I was able to interject and elaborate a bit, which actually convinced the prof that I knew what I had been writing about.
These days you would have been declared disabled and given extra time to make it legible.
Towards the end of my career, when teaching advanced courses, I only gave oral exams. The students seemed to like the format and no effort on my part was required to decipher illegible handwriting.
MTG: I learned to type because of my awful orthography. The first time I used a word-processor to back over a sentence and modify it, I thought I'd fainted and woke up in Disneyland. The word-processor was key to my going back to college and eventually becoming an obscure author on Amazon.
Trust me, Geoff. We are ALL "obscure authors on Amazon". We sat for four hours at the Craft Fair our Gated Geezer Enclosure puts on annually and were THRILLED (not being sarcastic) that we sold 23 books!! Which meant we broke even on the fee for the table and the device Max bought to take credit cards with just a tap. Plus, a very small profit which we immediately spent on doughnuts as a gift to the lovely REAL saleswoman friend who helped out. We are NEVER going to make any money on the books. But, it is nice to think that somebody is reading them. AG
Pretty much my experience as well!
I learned to type in high school because I knew I would be writing a lot of term papers in college and I planned to type them myself. That led to my lifelong habit of never beginning a term paper before the night before the paper was due. First draft = final draft. Saved money on typists, though, as I didn't have a girl friend who typed--or would have been willing to type.
Same here, amigo mio. First draft = final draft. Not only that. But I was known to turn in the term paper at the END of the class for which it was written, not the beginning -- using that extra hour to "finish up". Terrible. I do wish I had been a bit more disciplined in college, but I can't see how it would have made much difference in how my life turned out. AG
Writing a paper on the school bus did not improve my handwriting.
You might have been so successful as a typesetter that we would have missed out on you.
Not so good as a proofreader either.
-- His younger brother then asked if I would allow his brother to at least go to Confession before “I Returned Him to Sender” and I said probably not. -- (Faking blockquote)
I read a book about the troubles of the Plantagenets in Olde Englande. They had a number of occasions to send enemies to Our Sender but they were apparently meticulous about giving them a chance for confession and absolution if they were not actually in battle. This ceremony was called "shriving" (as in Shrove Tuesday) and the hasty events gave us the term "short shrift".
Short shrift. Now this is history worth knowing.
Yes, but not worth looking up. ;-)
I had heard it, I think, but didn't remember it.
Great stories Mike. In the Old West Tide rustlers used to be hanged.
Do you suppose they intended to eat those Tide Pods? The Tide Pod Challenge was a fad for a brief period of time until a few pesky deaths dampened the enthusiasm. You have to admit it was less dangerous and pervasive than the transgender fad that persists to this day.
Next to mayonaise, liberal doses of Tide Pods go great on hot dogs.
With some of today's youth, it is the rest of us who are 'at risk.'
West Side Story's anthem "Officer Krupky" still applies. And is still ignored.
(Cue: The Jets...no not the football, team, the prancing gang in West Side Story)
"Officer Krupke, you've done it again, this boy don't need a job, he needs a year in the Pen. It ain't just a question of misunderstood—
Deep down inside him, he's no good!"
I know us slumlords are at risk.
Now this is the Ammo Grrrll I like second best, the one who writes calm, well-reasoned columns. My favorite Ammo Grrrll is the one who goes off on unhinged rants but…we can’t have that every Friday, can we?
Mrs. Grrrll got-in two aphorisms worthy of Yogi Berra:
> “Black youth are still mostly at risk from each other.”
> “People do not steal because they are poor. People are poor because they steal.”
Yogi coined this one: “Mostly-peaceful rioting is habit-forming.”
Ammo's recollection hit home for me: “...the recipient of ‘a mad dog look’ meant you were obligated to go to your car and get a weapon from your glove box and shoot wildly around the dance club…”
[What follows is a true story]
I was minding my own business, in line at the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise on Broadway Avenue in North Minneapolis, waiting to place an order when things came to a halt because of a yute right in front of me. He claimed he'd paid for his order with a twenty but only got change for a ten. I maintained a steady expression, but for some reason he turned to look back at me. I maintained my steady expression. Yikes...my“steady expression” was perceived as a “mad dog look.”
The yute walked briskly to the east exit; I knew trouble was brewing. I walked briskly out of the west exit and then began running down the alley as fast as I could. On the way I turned to see the yute pulling something out of his glovebox, I assumed a pistol. I ran even faster…I wasn’t armed and even if I was, I wasn't going to shoot it out over a mad-dog look…which brings us to the song of the week,
(Cue: Kenny Rogers)
“You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em. Know when to fold ‘em.
Know when to walk away, and know when to run…”
By the by, that Kentucky Fried Chicken place is now a Popeye's…it was ransacked in the mourning period after George Floyd tried to pass a bad twenty in payment for a pack of smokes. Thank goodness I wasn't behind George at the Cup Foods in South Minneapolis on that fateful day.
As always, the highlight of this or any other week, the well-reasoned offering of the gal from Dusty Village, granted, no longer a yute but…she’s not a lady of ill repute, that fact no one will dispute. She can compute 21, daughter of a gun (ladies, I thought I would mix things up with a feminine version of "son of a gun"...what was I rhyming? Oh yeah…among the Paiute and the Aleut, Ammo is considered as wise as King Canute. But for the Commentariat it's enough to say in our own way that we give thanks again for another gem from our beloved Mrs. Ammo Grrrll.
I am very very glad you are still with us to write your unique brand of poetry and organize legendary conferences! During the time -- the year escapes me now -- that Mpls got dubbed Murderapolis, white friends of ours wanted to prove they weren't racist by buying a home in North Mpls. During the year they lived there, there were 19 murders within a mile of their home. They moved. AG
Tony is probably now the owner of their former homestead.
Trace is right...their loss was my gain.
And "Murderapolis" is now no longer called "Murderapolis."
It's now known as "The Paris of the Midwest."
Have you seen Paris lately? It's "Burkas R Us".
That's why I'm working hard to change the motto to "Minneapolis: The Upscale Mogadishu."
Land of the Fraud, and home of the grave.
And we all know how the moniker turned out for Beirut. We actually have a regular top five seed in the title for Murder Capitol of the USA here in California-East, Md. We have the high crime, horrible education results for excessive education costs, fraud, the waste, graft, the redistricting (with the goal of getting rid of our only Republican in Congress), the raised taxes, raised fees, increased suffocating regulations, and Governor who has has a bit of a habit of embellishing his military and academic prowess.
What we don't have is the brutal winters
Good morning Tony. "People don't steal because they are poor. They are poor because they steal." AG's best line today, in a column full of them.
Don't waste TOO much time commenting, however much we enjoy them. Get cracking on that new novel. Your fan base awaits. AG
Of which I am one. I look forward to reading your next novel, Tim. It should be out by the time I finish volume 7 of Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series. About 1000 pages per novel; I get to read when the grandkids are in bed, long before my own bedtime. The house is dark and quiet, but what goes on in those pages is fire and brimstone.
Another gem from Mrs. Ammo Grrrll.
And good morning to you Tim.
The sight
of you running, Tony, does not be thinking about.
Good to see your comments, Louis. I hope that you know that you are a man I deeply admire and respect.
So good to see your face, Louis! (Even if it's only in an avatar shrunk down to the size of an aspirin.)
(Second good laugh of the day provided by the All American, my friend Louis.)
For all the people in the Commentariat I say this most heartily: Great to see you here.
Believe it or not, I was a good athlete in my yute. Today I would choose to shoot it out.
With what? A five iron?
I'm deadly from up to two-hundred yards with a five wood and a Titlelist.
I've hit many people in my day.
My great grandpa lived close to a Paiute reservation. He spent a great deal of time there, where he learned to speak the Paiute language. He also learned how to carve wood from them. He became known for the beautiful wood figures he carved.
Nice story Ms. Fan Girl.
"[What follows is a true story]
I was minding my own business,"
(I wish we could do block quotes)
The second statement puts the first in grave doubt.
(third good laugh of the day)
Actually AG, it’s now the hard bigotry of no expectations, and has since The Obama brought his light to the country.
I think, thanks to Unwoke, we have a new aphorism here.
"It’s now the hard bigotry of no expectations."
I'd say it's worse than the bigotry of low expectations or no expectations. It's the bigotry of suppression by pretending to help.
Amateur insight of the day!
Do we have Yorkshireman thread potential here?
"You talk about the bigotry of pretending to help...luxury.
We were given only the bigotry of being taught to love living in a shoebox in the middle of the road...a busy road."
"We were taught the bigotry that those who could afford shoeboxes in the middle of roads had stolen those shoeboxes from us."
But I got the shoebox in the Treaty of 1873 granting us Hoi all the shoeboxes of the Polloi.
As for getting the prime lot in the middle of the road...that took the art of the deal.
NOOOOOOOO _ PLEEEZE NO MORE MONTY PYTHON!! It never ends!
I'm also interested in the relationship of white math to black math and, perhaps, ethnomathematics. Heaven forefend, though, that one may believe me a racist. As an at risk geezer with the usual old guy maladies, I am concerned about driving over a bridge constructed with calculations not in accord with my age and cultural group. The same may be true within medicine. If I have a serious health problem am I to be assigned a physician who barely passed multicultural chemistry and biology? On top of it all, Susan has amply demonstrated that I am at risk of bad, imprecise and bureaucratically inspired language.
Our numbering system was invented in pre-Islamic India. Not exactly a white invention. The Europeans were glad to replace Roman numerals with the Hindu version.
Well, folks think that Aryan means white, so they are surprised when they find out that Aryans can be of any complexion. For that matter, surprised that Arabs and Iranians were classified as white. Still are when convenient.
Math: The bridge stays up.
Any other kind of "math": The bridge is in the river.
If we're talking about the bridge on the river Kwai, it took math to put it in the river also.
What a great column. And do all people have to be forced into our terrible schools? I just heard about (know its accurate) a boy who dropped out of high school in 10th grade. But his parents said fine so you have to work. And they signed him up to be a welder. He now has certificate on certificate, necessary to do his job. Married with children responsible and a true good person. Oh he can certainly read and write and add. And his job loves him and he's being recruited. If you want to try you can.
Some people, once the learn to read, write, and add, are better off without a degree. That was a theme in my book "Larry's Hidden Lair".
What's the name of your latest book Clark?
"No Supporting Paperwork". Thanks for asking.
Next one will be a sequel to "Ant Poison Revenge" - in which case I haven't come up with a name yet - or it won't be (doubtful) and it'll be called "Where the Oklahoma Wind Stops".
Ant Poison Revenge II...the Humans Strike Back!
Ah, but they don't strike back.
Sometimes the best war is the one that isn't fought. Although an initial demonstration of your flame-throwing seriousness is required.
Ants and Americans Allied: Payback City
(Market it as a Christmas movie with millions of hungry ants, lots of flamethrowers, many bombs blowing up and a new Bruce Willis character only this time, a chick...) (I'm thinking of the movie version here.)
I really enjoyed today’s column, AG. When I was a young man that, there was a black man who said people should be judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin. I wonder what happened to him.
I was in Vietnam when James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King. African American Partroopers comprised about 25% of my unit. Every single one of those soldiers demonstrated the courage and discipline necessary to serve in an elite infantry brigade.
When you recall that Black Americans made up about 13% of the population in those days, and they volunteered for hazardous duty in roughly twice their part of the citizenry, you can conclude that there was a strong streak of character and courage among them.
After Reverend King's death All of us mourned him, though his popularity in greater society was just beginning to grow. My First Sergeant (an African American from the deep south) was a man of many parts. his steady hand, natural wisdom, and leadership skills guided us in meaningful ways. Instead of splintering in racial animus, we got a bit closer and reinforced the unit cohesion.
However, when I returned to the "World," as we called America, things were very different, and far worse. Our racial issues were slowly resolving themselves in the way of natural demographics. That is, they were, until Obama and other race baiters re-lit the flame of animus.
I don't know Zeek Arkham, the man who wrote this letter and posted it to X, but my black neighbors seem to have a similar opinion.
Dear Chuck Schumer,
Hi. Black dude here. I can trace my family ancestry to slavery. I even know where they were slaves. My mom experienced Jim Crow. I think I’ve watched every episode of “Eyes On the Prize” when I was younger.
With that said…
Can you directly explain to me how the SAVE Act is “Jim Crow 2.0?” Literally every black person I know has ID. Literally every black person I know has a car or at least a ride. Literally every black person I know knows how to vote (well… except the ones with felonies… but they don’t count).
With your advanced white liberal thinking, you must know more than me. Apparently, as I experience daily on this app, white liberals are experts on being black; even more so than actual black folks. Perhaps you could explain it like I’m five. I’d look it up on the internet, but Kathy Hochul has already told me I don’t know what a computer is and Joe Biden said I can’t navigate it, anyway.
Looking forward to your answer.
No hugs.
Zeek
Wow! That should be an ad spread far and wide. Brilliant and wonderful. AG
Fantastic! It should be sent to every one of the idiot Dems who don't care about anything but refusing to give DJT a win.
That’s excellent.
Love this story TonyP.
The spirit of that black man is still with us.
And the body and spirit of Mr. Louis Mullinger is still going strong.
He died in 1968 and his words have been cast aside.
"Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.
“I solemnly pledge to do my utmost to uphold the fair name of the Jews — because bigotry in any form is an affront to us all.”
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
There is an affecting scene in Russell Crowe's 2005 Depression-era movie, "Cinderella Man," where his son steals a sausage from the butcher shop. Despite their poverty, his dad makes him return it and apologize. Then, after his character Jim Braddock wins the championship against all odds, he pays back the government relief he "borrowed" with a roll of cash. Crowe's character had character.
I once stole a "cat" mask in New York from a "Dime store" while escorting my date around the town...
...Ok...I did no such thing. I stole that one from the film "Breakfast at Tiffany's."
The only thing I've ever stolen are clever lines from Yogi Berra.
This was one of your best columns ever - thank you! If more people would just tell the truth to themselves and to others - lay it out as it is - we’d sure have fewer problems. But that takes common sense, a bit of fearlessness and backbone. I’m with you. I’m sick of the nonsense and refuse to play their game. Brava, Susan! Brava!
We live in an age of deception. If you can get people to believe and say a boy is a girl and a girl is a boy, you can get them to believe anything. And get them to do just about anything.