Guilt

  Had to take another break from Facebook. I have friends. In this modern world, where everybody I ever knew has moved to the four corners of the Earth, I try to keep in touch via the Internet. Unfortunately, as it turns out, that means Facebook. My friends who happen to be on the political left. Ugh. My friends who happen to be on the political right. Ugh. My friends who happen to be solid Christians. Ugh. A constant stream of their idiosyncrasies. Constant. Unending. What became of pictures of the grand kids? The garden? I’m not stupid, uneducated, or evil because I got the vaccine. Or because I didn’t. Or because I wear a face mask. Of because I don’t. I’m a realist. If I want to go into a store that requires a face covering, I’ll wear one. I got the vaccine so that I could go places that require it. Fact is, I’m pretty certain that I’m not going to die in three years because I got a Covid shot, like at least one of my right-wing friends claims.

  I follow a major league baseball team, but I refuse to pay MLB for their black-out infected programming. Fortunately, I am a SIRIUS XM radio subscriber, and, as such, can listen to the home broadcast of my favorite team on their service (for the time being, I imagine, but it’s what I now have)--Baseball is really a radio game anyhow, and I’m happy with this solution. Well, “happy” might be overstating it, but it’s satisfactory. For now. SIRIUS XM radio has a new baseball channel that is strictly about negro league baseball—something I know about already, but don’t want a daily dose of—I just want to follow my team. Daily. For several months of the year. Like I’ve been doing since I was a little boy. Several times during the course of every game, there’s a commercial break that highlights the existence of the negro league channel. I’m thinking that anyone who actually listens to baseball games on the radio isn’t a newcomer. Probably like me, and listen daily. That all be

  Based solely on watching a little bit of baseball on TV over the past 2 years, it seems overwhelmingly obvious that the concept of “fans” in the baseball park is irrelevant. Unneeded. Here’s what MLB really ought to do, based on what they’ve ALREADY done to the game: First, and right away, completely dissolve the concept of “leagues” and geographical divisions. Remake the divisions into 4-team divisions, with a champion in each division. Make certain to include second place finishers in the post-season, so that at least half of the fans can have some reason, however remote, to buy some more t-shirts and hats for their guys. Just like they do in basketball. Re-name the divisions with cute names, sort of on the concept of what they do in hockey. You know—the Eco division for the Pacific Northwest, the Snow division for the upper Midwest—that sort of thing. Next, MLB seems to have plenty of money, so buy up a crap-load of real estate in a fly-over state like Kansas

  I heard Jon Miller (the radio man for the SF Giants baseball broadcasts) killing some air time a couple of days ago by making a comparison in favor of the Designated Hitter rule that’s used in the American League now, and has been for quite a while. His comparison was that a quarterback in the NFL doesn’t play defense, so why should a pitcher in MLB take a turn at bat? He seems to think that this is a valid comparison. I disagree. In the not really distant past, football players went “both ways”, in the parlance, playing both offense and defense. In high school, I did that too. Lots of us did. Things changed in football, and specialists became the manner of play. In football you’ve got an offensive team, a defensive team, and “special” teams for kickoffs, kickoff returns, punts, punts returns, field goals, extra points—Etcetras. It’s endless. That’s fine for football. I don’t care. The NFL has been off my personal radar for so long that I don’t even know i

 No, there's no particular reason for this.....It simply caught my eye.

  I read that Bruce Springsteen will be featured in a Super Bowl commercial. The sponsor will be Jeep. Figures. Springsteen has always been an anti-Trumper and is in his glory at this juncture. I understand that he’ll be espousing “unity”. Great. Just goes along with what I always thought about both Springsteen (whose music has always been sub-standard) and Jeep (whose drivers are among the worst tail-gaters on the road) Not like I was on the cusp of going out and buying a Springsteen record and a Jeep anyhow, but it solidifies my decision to skip Super Sunday altogether. Why can’t sports just be about sports?

  OK then. Tomorrow is Joe Biden’s inauguration day, and it looks like this means all is well in these United States. I see that schools are opening again all over this great country, and the only thing that had to happen for this to occur was that Donald Trump needed to be ousted and vilified, and the democrats had to be put firmly in control. The pandemic, it seems, is over. Joe did it!! Trump is still the devil and old odd Joe is the savior. Well, in fairness, law enforcement is reportedly on “high alert”. Does this mean that the police are our friends again? No longer just a gang of racist murderers? I wonder if anyone in charge of anything can smell what they’re shoveling.

  This might be old news to some, but it was a revelation to me. I’ve monkeyed around with Linux distributions in the past—Mostly Ubuntu—but haven’t in the past 4 or 5 years. The house has been all Windows 10 all the time. The problem was that Ubuntu, which I became really familiar and comfortable with in days gone by, had managed to morph into something more mainstream and “ready for prime time”, which necessarily meant that it became a bit more bloated. I had initially gone to Linux in the distant past to resurrect some older under-powered machines and try to breathe some more life into them. I’m probably not really very unique in that respect. Since the desktop computers were all completely capable of it, everything went to Windows 10. A grand operating scheme, by the way. I have no complaints about Windows 10 other than it’s power and resource mandates. It’s a hog. Like Ubuntu had become. I have a box of old tech. I’ll bet you do too. Stuff that sits

  I might be completely wrong here, but it seems to me that if the BLM/antifa riots and lootings this past year had been dealt with in the same ferocious manner as the Capitol riot is now being dealt with, much of the grief of the past summer of discontent could have been avoided. Not saying this prosecutorial conduct is specifically motivated to punish and intimidate Republicans and traditional Americans, but…..Oh, shit. I am too saying exactly that. In other news, it’s beginning to look like 2021 is going to be worse in every possible way than 2020 was. Restaurants and bowling centers will never re-open and I’ll never again see the expression of a full face in any public area. Are the democrat overseers happy yet? Is it even possible that California will impeach Gavin Newsome? Stay tuned. Maybe Biden will say something coherent from time to time. You never can tell.

  We all have our share of corporate partners, now don’t we. I certainly know that I have my share. And, they’ve all lined up to send me a friendly little e-mail about how concerned they are for my mental well-being given the “challenges” of the recent past. Not one of these moronic e-mails has made hay on the fact that the emotional wellness that has suffered so mightily   over the past year or so was perpetrated by our democrat governors, democrat apologists, left-wing riots, the press and television media, Hollywood idiocy……….Oh, you get the point. What got me going today was the one I got from my bank. My bank. Apparently they’re concerned about my emotional wellness. What do you suppose they’re really concerned about? I haven’t a clue.