2018 into 2019

If there is one thing we have learned from 2018, it is how the "educated elite" are really idiots.  Take it easy today, and then tomorrow,go out and change the world.  I plan to hit hard and hit fast.  The idiots will be hung over....:-)

Merry Christmas!

Leaving Syria

The US intervened in Syria in 2015 and now American soldiers are leaving. What does this mean?

One less headache for starters.

The reason they were ever there to begin with is because of the Russian intervention in the same year. Syria plunged into its multi sided civil war in 2011 and it took us four years to even notice.ISIS is destroyed and the best way to keep it from coming back to like is to keep it out of our borders.  Keep alleged "immigrants" with terrible records out and things get easier.  The people of Syria need to determine their own future, not run from it.

The US sought to overthrow Assad and that is not happening.  Russia and Iran have seen to that.  NATO "ally" Turkey saws it will take up the fight against any ISIS remnants.  A lot of people are afraid they will go after the Kurds again. It might happen. 

Others think the Turks are going to take over Syria and Iraq and start some sort of neo-Ottoman Empire.  Well, the last time the Middle East was stable was when one power controlled the whole region...ie The Ottoman Empire in 1914.  Let the Turks have the joys of running the madhouse a while.  The US has been running in circles in Afghanistan since 2001 and this is our THIRD trip into Iraq. Let the lunatics kill each other.

Do you realize that an US Army recruit going into boot camp this year was not even born when the first troops set foot in Afghanistan?

Let that sick place eat itself too.

The real losers are the "merchants of death" who make money off of wars, so that is where the real outrage is coming from along with a clearly unhinged Democratic party that hates everything Trump does despite their progressed dislike for any intervention anywhere.

Let them eat each other.

1777-Irony

 

On December 17, 1777, the Bourbon monarchy of France granted the USA diplomatic recognition.  It was probably more to irritate Britain more than anything else....LOL

The irony was that the French decision to intervene in the American Revolution exacerbated the French debt crisis that led to the French Revolution.  Then after the monarchy was destroyed, a wildly unstable democracy was set up, chopping heads off left and right until it collapsed and Napoleon set up his empire.

Throw a rock in a pond and you never know where the ripples end up going.

It just shows that the people in charge have no idea what they are doing....especially in France.

French Revoltuion?

I always said that the next revolution in Europe would come in France.  It perpetually runs on the edge of chaos to begin with, so it does not take much for France to go off the rails.

It is off the rails now....89,000 security forces (not totally sure what that means) and 8,000 cops are protecting the Presidential Palace to keep it from being stormed. Some commentators wondered why the French Army has not been mobilized..

Remember 1789?

That's why.

In 1789, the Revolution started over the price of bread.  Yes,there were other reasons, but that is what pushed everything over the top.  In 2018,it was a proposed--now rescinded--30% gas tax.

It has now expanded into a dislike of the tyrannical EU, a demand for a constitution that is "for the people and by the people",  and calls for Macron to resign.

The last kind of violence on this scale to rock the French capital was in 1968, leading to the fall of Charles De Gaulle's government.

1789, 1830, 1848, 1870, 1944, 1968....yeah, looks like France is due for a revolution.  It is just one of those things that happens from time to time.  And it is spreading all over the country and apparently spilling over into Belgium.

Socialism works great until you run out of other people's money. The truth is that Socialism does not work and tends towards heavy-handed regulations and dictatorial behavior, especially when it begins to fail.

The French people are out of money and patience.

But there are plenty of Yellow Vests.

And there are even more of them than yesterday.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

History in the making

I am not sure what is going to happen on the US-Mexican border.  It is definable a head scratcher.

US soldiers are on the border to hold back thousands of illegal immigrants who formed a cravan to come north from El Salvador, Hondorus, and Guatemala.  If they get into the US, more will follow.

I have the unsettling feeling that a large mob will rush the border and US soldiers are going to open fire.  These "migrants" are 80 % male and pushed though the gate on the Guatemala-Mexico border.There have been clashes between alleged migrants and the people of Tijuana.

The US Army is doing what it was meant to do; protect America.  No need to patrol the Iraqi-Syrian border when America's Southern border is under siege.

Sit back and watch....this is History.

A century ago 11/11

One hundred years ago, the First World War came to an end.

It was called the Great War since the Second World War had not happened yet.  Over ten million people died and it was the worse war in history.  Until the second one.

Poison gas, machine guns, trenches, mud,mud, and more mud.  If it was not for the atomic bomb, the First might have been worse the the Second.  Not that both were anything anyone sane would want to go through.

As bad as the war was, the Treaty of Versailles did not end the First World War, it paved the way for the Second, holding Germany down to the point of crippling the country.

It was easy for the US to advocate letting Germany off the hook.  We did not suffer the way our European allies did. France saw the northeast part of their country destroyed and Britain suffered horrendous casualties.  Russia went through a twenty year cycle of revolution, civil war, and terrible mismanagement at all levels leading to the establishment of the Soviet Union.

The treatment of Germany after the war, some of it deserved, nonetheless led to the rise of Adolph Hitler and the Nazis.  The good times of the 1920s might have ameliorated Versailles,but when the Great Depression hit, the opportunity for some right-wing lunatic arrived.  If it was not Hitler, it would have been someone else.

Sometimes I think the First and Second World Wars were really the same war with a twenty year ceasefire and maybe it should be called the Great Twentieth Century War. The First clearly led to the Second and it is a miracle the Second did not lead to the Third. With the advent of nuclear weapons, a Fourth World War would have never happened.

A century later, we are still here,so there is some hope.

Once again, another reason for aliens not to make contact!  :-) 

Tragedy in Pittsburgh

What sort of sickness is our society suffering from?

Even a house of worship in a normally calm city comes under attack? 

I am not even sure what to say.I have been past this building several times and never thought about it other than it was a synagogue.

Sad,bitter day. :-(

Tough month!

It was a tough month,but we made it though!

I know October is not over yet,but the weather is changing and I finally got out ahead of everything!

Hurricanes, make up days, days we were supposed to have class but did not...One big mess,but we worked though it.  Could have been worse...could have been on a subway in Philly

If you have not had the pleasure, don't worry about it!  You have not missed anything!

The weather is cooling off--no more hurricanes!-- and hockey season has started.  Now is the time of the year I shift to afternoon running.

There is a lot coming down the pike in the next few weeks.  Potentially huge change. 

I will keep you posted!

Battle of Gaugamela

On this day--or perhaps tomorrow--Alexander the Great and his Greeks and Macedonians shattered the army of the King of Kings and sent Darius III running, thus delivering the knockout blow to the Persian Empire.

This sounds odd from a Greek, but if you were going to be taken over, Persians were pretty good overlords.  Other than a prohibition on human sacrifice, they let you keep your religion and your language, though you had to speak some Persian to communicate.  Other than be there when they needed you for the army, it was a pretty good set up.

Ironically, Alexander was using Persia as his model for a world empire.  He wanted to be on the top instead of having any non-Alexander there.  Alexander was trying to create a world empire for everyone, even encouraging his officers and men to take Persian wives. 

He had said on many occasions, once to Carthage itself, that after reaching the eastern edge of the world in India, he was going west along the North African coast and along northern side of the Med back home after unifying everything.

Confidence or trash talk?  I am still impressed.

Alexander vs the Romans.

That would have been something!

Not how to handle it

Another penalty coming...

There comes a time in every athlete's life where he or she realizes that they can't do it anymore.

Serena Williams hit that point and she made a fool out of herself.

Berating the ref (been there, done that on the receiveing end), is not a smart idea and it leads to more penalties (done that too and tossed people out of the game).  It was a stupid thing to do and she dishonored the sport and herself.  Referee Carlos Ramos did not back down and even the classless baying mob of a crowd did not deter him from his duty. 

If you act like a moron, you will treated like one.

At least she tried to make amends to Naomi Osaka at the awards ceremony, but some of her classless fans booed Ms Osaka.

No matter, we know who won and who lost.

Serena lost more than a tennis match.

She lost a lot of respect.....

...for herself.

Act of Random Kindness

With all of the stupidity currently roiling planet earth, I figured this would be a good thing to post.

You can't change the whole world at once, but if you clean a corner and someone else does the same,the world WILL  change for the better.

Go do something nice!

Or else! :-P

Chicago out of control

Chicago has turned into a war zone with constant press conferences decrying the "unacceptable level of violence"  America's third largest city has draconian gun laws that are unconstitutional, yet there are guns everywhere and shootings almost 24/7

What can be done?

Arresting people doesen't seem to be working, stricter laws don't seem to work, and calls for martial law probably are not going to be heeded because that is not a good idea.

Militaries don't like policing their own people and they are not trained to do that. Way too much firepower in a civilian area will result in many,many unnecessary and accidental casualties.

The people of Chicago have to change. 

Clear and simple.

Rahm Emanuel, the mayor, does not seem interested in doing anything, the Chicago police is trying its best and even federal aid might not do anything useful.

The people have to change, clear and simple.

Is NATO too big?

Montenegro was added to the NATO roster recently,bringing the number of members to a staggering twenty-nine.

NATO decisions are unanimous.  How are you supposed to get twenty-nine opinions to line up?

NATO was established to protect Western Europe from a Soviet invasion.  That threat vanished in 1991, yet the alliance has grown.  Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary joined in 1999 over Russian objections that it violated a promise not to expand the alliance beyond a newly reunited Germany.  In 2004,Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania were added along with a penetration of the former Soviet frontier with the inclusion of the Baltic States.  Croatia and Albania joined in 2009 along with the return of France.  Do any of these new additions add to the alliance's strength?

An attempt to bring Georgia in in 2008 led to a Russian attack on that country than nearly split it in half.  Two clumsy "revolutions" in Ukraine in 2004 and 2014 led to the "little green man" takeover of Crimea.

NATO's enemy is radical Islam, not Russia.  There has not been a serious Russian action threatening Europe, but many Islamic terrorist attacks.  NATO has gotten larger and is facing the wrong way toward a threat that is not there.

Typical government in action

Looks like their's is as stupid as ours.

Kayaking!

Michelle and I have been kayaking around in the rivers and lakes in NC.

This is a lot of fun and I seem to be a natural....in my own mind, anyway.Well, I know enough not to stand up in a kayak so that has to count for something!

I remembered reading about Canadian fur trappers and how they handled canoes and I remembered how they drove the paddles into the water to steer.  I also remembered how they leaned forward to pick us speed.  And there is Thucydides describing how to "back water".

You can move around the lakes and streams fairly easily and it is amazing how you can disappear from the urban jungle.  There are some spots on the map I looked at later and found I was only a few hundred yards from shopping center, but you would have never known it!

It is a good thing to get a new hobby now and again.  I was going to name my kayak Thucydides but my dad suggested "Ious Nicholau" (St.Nicholas) since he came out of the water to give fish to villagers.

Sounds familiar......

More adventures await!

France wins World Cup

I was hoping for Croatia to win since it was their first time to the finals, but France played great, winning the Cup for the first time since 1998 and their second overall. 

The French team used a lot of long range shots and eventually enough of them got in for a 4-2 win.  I was tempted to crack a joke about the French winning in Moscow in a way they could not in 1812, but I refrained :-)

Four years from now the world will get together for another Cup, this time in Doha in the United Arab Emirites.  It will be in November instead of summer, because it gets real hot in the Middle East.

Let's see if the US team can stagger in!

Siege of Jerusalem, 1099

On July 15, 1099, the First Crusade came to a bloody and horrifying end with the fall of Fatamid-held Jerusalem.  The Crusaders stormed the city and proceeded to massacre everyone in the city. Moslems, Jews, and even other Christians  The primary sources record that the blood was ankle deep in the streets.

Religious fervor, or just the feeling that everything you do is justified, can led to horrifying things sometimes.  This is a lesson that works for any era in any part of the world.  Such feelings can blind ordinarily sane people and turn into monsters

Remember this in our insane political climate.  Even in the civilized (?) twenty-first century.

Let's try to avoid a trip backwards into the Dark Ages.  It wasn't a lot of fun and people smelled.

No one wants to go through that again!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

Happy Canada Day!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!

Too bad the Roughriders are 1-2, but it is a long season!

Homestead Strike, 1892

Not a Star Trek vs Star Wars debate

Every good Yinzer (person from Pittsburgh) knows about the Homestead Strike.  Steel workers in 1892 demanding higher wages and better working conditions come to blows with private security and twelve people are killed.  Eventually, the US Army is called in to pull everyone apart.  As you can see from the picture, I do mean everyone, including women combatants.

Why bring this up?

Because of the idiot phenomenon of mob harassment of government officials.  This is idiotic and it will lead to violence.

This started with the eviction of Sarah Huckabee Sanders from a restaurant in Virginia and later escalated to the harassment of Florida's attorney general at a Mr Rogers movie (!!!).  Maxine Waters, Representative from California, called for more of this and ended up having to cancel appearances due to death threats.  In other words, what she called for, boomeranged around on her.

Brownshirt tactics have no place in American politics.  If you cannot be civil, you are the problem.  All this will do is lead to a heavy security presence and "protesters" getting arrested or hurt.

Sometimes, you cannot fix stupidity, but if you give them a warning, they might get the point.

If not, oh well....not everyone is a genius. Learn the hard way.

World Cup 2018!

The World Cup kicks off in Russia!

The world comes together in a mass demonstration of misplaced priorities mixed with international friendship.  Soccer, or football as the rest of the world knows it, is played in every corner of the globe, including America, who generally suck at it...LOL

Enthusiasm counts for something!

The winner will probably be a European or South American team but the fun is infectious.  Politics takes no seat (except possibly nationalism) and it is fun for everyone, even the teams that don't win. 

The World Cup is a lot like the Olympics--fighting stops, even in the Middle East (!) and a lot of things stay open 24/7 to catch every game.  This will be all anyone talks about for a solid month.

The audience in America probably won't be that big, but it will seep into the news coverage.

I will watch it like I always do since it is a fun game to watch and it gives me something to do before the Canadian Football League season opens!

Korean Rollercoaster

The off again/on again summit between the US and North Korea is back on again.

The US answered North Korea's petulant attitude by calling off the June 12 meeting in Singapore.  Now it is back on after some reconsideration in Pyonyang.  It is all for the better.

Any kind of reproachment with North Korea is good for the entire planet. It removes (we hope!) nuclear weaponry from unstable leadership a stone's throw from Seoul, home to millions, and prevents a war that could easily escalate to something of global proportions.

A defanged North Korea also allows America to concentrate all of her East Asia attention on an increasingly assertive China.  North Korea has the potential to distract and stretch out US resources i the event of conflict.  Hopefully, this will never come to pass.  With North Korea, you have to assume worst cases.

The June `12 meeting will not solve everything.  It may solve nothing.  But, it is the first step and this is a step that has never been taken with North Korea.  It is a step in the right direction and hopefully brings peace to this dangerous corner of Northeast Asia.

North Korea has no future.  It has no economy, no real sense of nation and is clearly behind the South.  I think reunification is on the horizon and King Jong Un is probably looking for a nice pension from Seoul before the whole thing goes down the drain.  China may or may not let this happen, though I have the feeling if they do let North Korea be absorbed the way East Germany was absorbed by the Federal Republic in 1990, the price might be Korean neutrality and removal of US forces.

Who knows?  Maybe this neutral unified Korea could become Asia's Switzerland!

Hockey in the desert!

Las Vegas in the National Hockey League?

Vegas in the Stanley Cup in their first year?

This is truly amazing!  I bet the Phoenix Coyotes are upset.  Well probably not as angry as the Washington Capitals, who lost game one tonight.  Well,they play seven so we have to wait, watch and see.

I have to admit,it seems a little shady.  Vegas in its first year in the championship?

Stranger things have happened though none are coming to mind immediately.

I wonder how the Oakland Raiders will do once they move to Vegas.  Something to keep and eye on and maybe build that "shadiness" folder.

Hockey in the Sunbelt seems like a risk but many teams from hot climes have won the Cup....just not in their first year.  Vegas, next to Death Valley is clearly the hottest of all!  Seeing the Stanley Cup in Vegas....hosted by an actual team...is surreal.  Definitely very far removed from the pre-1967 days of the Original Six.

Gotta admit....It's pretty fun and I am enjoying the show!

Exploring the East

Michelle and I usually travel north and west.  There is not really anything interesting to our south and the east usually does not figure into our geographic worldview.  On the other hand, it is fun to go outside the box every now and again.


We went east towards the ocean.

It was interesting.

The first thing I noticed was a lot of water....a LOT!

There were a lot of little creeks and small bridges.  Lots of little lakes dotted the countryside, which tended to turn swampy at random intervals.  It seemed more prevalent as we approached the coast, which made sense if you thought about it....the Atlantic Ocean was there.

Many of the little towns along the way followed the same sort of template....small, agriculture and apparently shrinking.  I also saw large neighborhoods in the middle of nowhere and I wondered where they worked.  Actually, I wondered where they went at all?  There was truly no place to go!

Humans are all over the place in every environment and sometimes in places you don't expect.  Sometimes picking a random direction and going as far as you can be quite enlightening.

Watch out for the deer!

East coast or West coast, they are always around!

May 13, 1865!

On May 13, 1865, nearly a month after the surrender of major Confederate forces in the East, the last battle of the Civil War took place.  A few hundred feet from the Mexican border, the Confederate States Army won its final victory.

Talk about pointless.

I really feel sorry for the soldiers at the Battle of Palmito Ranch, fighting and putting their lives on the line for a war that was all ready over.  Private John Williams of the 34th Indiana was the last soldier to die in the war, the last of 620,000 Americans to die in the worst war in US history.

Nonetheless, the war finally ended and the horrific process of Reconstruction began.

It is a shame they simply did not just fire in the air three times and go home.

A half century later, Adam Gunther would be the last man to die in the First World War, in other words,history repeated itself.  The difference is that Private Williams died in the last battle of a war that truly ended.  We have not had a civil war since.  Private Gunther died in 1918 and the war resumed in 1939.

America learned in 1865 to let the Confederates off the hook early and the former CSA was reintegrated back into the Union by 1870, including the hotbeds of Southern nationalism, Virginia and Texas.

In 1919, despite the US attempts to get the Allies to moderate their approach to a defeated Germany, the Treaty of Versaillies was harsh and laid the groundwork for a worse war twenty years later.  Of course, it was easy for the US to call for a moderate approach to Versailles, especially since 10% of France was destroyed and Britain took major casualties.

Still,lessons of history slipped past.

Par for the course on planet Earth!

A great weeK!

What a great week!

The world is a sick place, on the heavily militarized, overly tense Korean Peninsula, two long time foes met and are discussing if not full reunification, at least a normalization of relations!  North and South Korea?

Shocking but true!

The Korean War is about to come to an official end and the Chinese helped the US behind the scenes.  Cooperation in Asia seems to be alive and well.  Now we move on to the rest of the world.

North Korea is promising to end its nuclear program and is talking about demilitarizing the border.  The fact that Kim Jong Un is even in South Korea is a shock.  Watching the Jong Un and Moon step hand in hand over the borer....North to South and South to North and back again...was surreal.

They won't solve everything in one meeting but the first step is always the hardest.  They have taken it and they are on the same path now.

Donald Trump Nobel Peace Prize winner?

Weird planet, man.

Hey, its better than Korean War 2.0

Syrian stuff

Syria has always been a trouble spot.  Actually, the entire Middle East has been a trouble spot.  You just change the names and dates.  Hittites vs Egyptians, Persians vs Greeks, Ottomans vs British etc...it never changes.

The US missile strike a couple of days ago has complicated an already complicated situation.

The Syrian government is backed by both Iran and Russia while a number of rebel groups are backed by the United States.  Some of these groups are fighting each other and a couple thousand US Marines are shooting up the remnants of ISIS.  There is the real potential for the US to be pulled into another Middle Eastern war.

This is the last thing America needs.  Afghanistan has been a live item since 2001, Iraq has been an ongoing problem since 2003 and Arab Spring has yielded a fractured Libya and a bloody civil war in Syria that is grinding into its seventh year and has featured the use of chemical weapons.

In 2013, then President Obama threatened to hit Syria with cruise missiles if Damascus used chemical weapons on its own people.  Assad did and Obama did nothing.  In 2017, the Syrians again employed such weaponry and President Trump hit 59 Syrian air force planes.  A year later, the same story unfolded.

Fortunately, the Russians had some warning before the missiles came down so we could avoid World War Three.  Supposedly the Syrian anti-aircraft defense system, modeled on the Soviet Interrogated Air Defense System (IADS), knocked down 70% of the incoming US missiles.  I have the feeling that the Russians were at the controls.

It is hard to predict what will happen, but the US is broke, both financially and emotionally.  Too many wars with no point.  It appears that Washington is looking for a middle ground, hitting Syrian chemical weapons facilities from a distance with cruise missiles while warning the Russians.

It is about as well as you can do in the Middle East.

Real Easter! :-P

OK, time to let the Fourth Crusade go....the Catholic Church apologized in 2004.

Easter is always a fun time.Lots of eggs and bunnies (Pagan rites?) and sometimes I wonder if it should be the real New Year.

Today is April 8, but tomorrow is a busy day!  The Mongols destroyed an army of German knights and Polish/Hungarian auxiliaries at Leignitz and allegedly cut off enough ears to fill up nine bags. 

Robert E Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia though his buddy Joseph E Johnston took his bloody time in Durham, NC to finally surrender a week later.

And US troops stormed Baghdad in 2003.

In 2018, Spring Break comes to an end and it is time to get back to work.

Just as well....it keeps me off the streets! :-P

Happy (Western) Easter!

Happy Easter!

Lots of jelly beans today!

Happy Greek Independence Day!

HAPPY GREEK INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!!

GYROS FOR EVERYONE!!!!

Night running

I like to run at night.  I am not sure why. Maybe I am a night creature at heart, but it is hard to say. I also like to wake up at 0600.  That is a good time to run as well.

Running on Sunday night is always magical for some reason.  Not sure why. Is it extra adrenaline from watching football?  Nope, it is March.  Looking at the moon.  Maybe.

I used to think it was the feeling of having the world to myself, but I see a lot of cars. Maybe it is the animal life I like to see....cats, raccoons, rabbits, bats.

Sometimes it is possible to overthink stuff...like Ranous in Ares Marching.  It worked out for him.

Maybe....a word I have seen a lot in this post....I should just enjoy it and let it go at that!

Running in snow showers!

Why do I like horrible weather?

More importantly, why do I like running around in horrible weather.

The East Coast has been hit by its third Nor'easter in as many weeks.  The Northeast has really been hammered but here in NC, we usually get hammered by rain.  Today, the temps plummeted and we had showshowers!

Naturally, I went out into it!

I have been in -40 in Saskatchewan and in 109 F in Death Valley in the Nevada/California border deserts.  Greece can get hot and even PA gets hot and humid and then cold and rainy.  I like all of it.  Maybe I like the challenge of being out in it?

I have played football in borderline hurricanes, even reffed a couple of games in cold pouring rain and loved it.  Maybe feeling the sweat pour down my face makes me think I have done something or perhaps the heat blast of coming in from the cold means the same thing to my demented brain.  A lot of my fondest memories have been formed by bad weather, from marching in the summer heat at Gettysburg to the ice cold of Three Rivers Stadium.

I could be overanalyzing it.

Maybe it is just fun.

Michelle disagrees and stays inside.

She is clearly smarter than I am.

Tornado Alley of the East Coast

If North Carolina is not the Tornado Alley of the East Coast, it is pretty close!

The other day we were rocked by a series of these things.  Fortunately no one was hurt but the sky turned black real fast and I almost expected to hear the voice of Charleton Heston booming out from the clouds/

Wind and rain followed by a cold front.

Naturally, I was outside for most of it! :-P

The thing about tornadoes is that they are completely random at times. They can destroy a house and leave the one next to it completely untouched.

If Mother Nature gets mad at you,there is not one bloody thing  you can do about it!

At least it wasn't a hurricane!

Or even worse, a 24 hour disco marathon like one of the local radio stations began that day.  I don't think Mother Nature approved....

A lightening bolt would have worked just as well!

Why all the hate?

No need for a picture on this one.

Tough love time.

After the school shooting in Florida, the usual debate began, veering away from the real issues onto gun control.  It is predictable and disheartening.

America needs to look in the mirror.  If you are looking for the problem there it is. 

Political discourse is toxic.  Road rage is all over the news.  Air rage too.  Nothing but anger and hatred aimed all over the place.  Did you not think it would happen in schools too?

School kids grow up in this environment and they think this is normal.

Add in the usual teenager angst, combined with snowflake syndrome and absentee parents, and you end up with what we saw in Florida last week.

Parents need to raise their kids,  Kids need to treat each other with a modicum of common courtesy and adults need to be responsible role models.  Social media just seems to amplify the worst of human nature.

There was one lunatic proposal to create a "School TSA".

That is one of the stupidest things I have every heard.  The proposal turns schools into prisons...and the threat is coming from the students.  Jump off a cliff while you are at it and don't forget the anvil.

Again, treat others as you yourself you like to be treated.  High school cliques can be vicious and that--again combined with social media--is what contributed to the horror last week in Florida.  This is often the root cause of most school shootings.

On the other hand, rejection is normal in life.  Get used to it.  Yet, there is not reason to make it worse.  That goes for rejectors and rejectees.

You will not get along with everyone you meet. You will not be friends with everyone you meet.  Still, common courtesy alleviates and disarms most potentially hostile situations.

Furthermore, don't run to the government crying plaintively "Fix it!".

Experience shows that usually does not work since the government, aside from being naturally incompetent, is not geared for this sort of thing.

If you fail to learn from history, you will repeat it.  History--as bad as it is--has been made.

Learn the lesson.

Maybe just as well....

A lot of times, things don't work out and strangely enough, it turns out for the better.

I always thought the best example was not getting the noontime shift at that idiot radio station I once worked for.  I never realized how toxic the atmosphere was there and it naturally led to its collapse.

No one misses those idiots.

Back in 1997-1998, I tried out for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League and on the second try, I made it into the preseason.  I have always been a huge football fan but lately after seeing all of the news on brain injuries and CTE, maybe it was a good thing I did not play football for more than a game.

I often wondered how far I could have gone had I played in college and perhaps gotten drafted.  I look at what we have learned about CTE and suddenly I am glad I did not take that path.

It is not by any stretch of the imagination sour grapes. It was a great experience, however brief, in the CFL.  It was a great adventure. Not many have done that.

I can see why.

If you play football, please be careful.  All it takes is one hit to change your life in the worst way possible.

I have fun in Canada and although I did not get to hoist the Grey Cup or Lombardi trophy, I am in a good place with the whole thing.

XFL 2.0

Vince McMahon announced the second reiteration of the XFL this week and one has to admit it is getting a lot of attention.

It promises to be different from the short-lived 2001 version, this time with no cheerleaders, no real "in your face" promises of violence,  and promises of a safer, quicker game.

If there is a time for a competitor to the NFL, this is it.  The older league appears to be staggering.  Although the anthem protests are a definate factor, the NFL has other problems.  Those problems are high ticket prices, teams holding cities hostage for new stadiums, an increasing gulf between players and fans and what seems to be a general sort of contempt for those same fans.

Anger the customers and you will not be in business long.

Like the old XFL, the new one will be playing in the Spring.  McMahon is calling for a "re imagining" of the game.  No politics, no players with police records, less rules and safer.  It certainly seems like a re-imagining.

It is probably what the game of football needs.

The NFL has become slothful and lazy.  Competition brings out the best.  Things have changed since 2001.  It does not matter which network agrees to carry XFL games.  They can be streamed live on a variety of digital devices.  TV networks themselves may be in danger.

Every now and again, you, the fans, have to yank the chains to show sports leagues who the boss truly is.

Fans can live without the NFL....the NFL cannot live without the fans.

Keep that in mind.

Missile launches

Hawaii was in complete panic on Saturday,thinking a North Korean missile was inbound for the island.  Later Japan had a false alarm, but unlike the authorities in Honolulu, Tokyo was able quickly correct the error.  For some reason, the alert went on every medium imaginable for 38 minutes.

It seems odd in the Hawaiian case that there seems to be no communication between military and civilian authorities.  Was there communication?  How did someone hit the "wrong button" and no one noticed for 38 minutes?

I cannot predict what North Korea will do--I am not sure anyone can--but somehow I do not think North Korea wants to commit national suicide.

Kim Jong-un owns his own country.  Why would he jeopardize that? 

If North Korea attacked South Korea, the NKs stand about a 1% chance of winning.....and I am rounding it up. A lot of people would be killed, especially in Seoul, and in the end, the best North Korea could hope for is a draw.

A North Korean nuclear attack on anyone, especially the United States, would result in Kin Jong-un presiding over a radioactive wasteland, assuming he was not blown into another dimension.  The West will not launch a preemptive attack on North Korea.  China and Russia will not go to the mat for North Korea.

North Korea has no chance of victory and any attempt to seize that victory will result in its destruction.

Cold, wind, did I mention "lots of SNOW?!"

The 2010s have seen a lot of what is referred to as "Winter Events" not only here in NC but up and down the East Coast.  We have had Pittsburgh-like temps since New Year's with quite a bit of ice and snow while Pittsburgh and the rest of the Northeast has been hit with Arctic-like temps and record ice and snow.

I hate to see what the actual Arctic must be like this January.

Could you tell the difference?

If anything, at least people might (?) be getting used to it.  I have not seen as many wreaks out on the road this time around.  I also noticed people were dressed for it this time--no shivering goofballs at the grocery store wearing shorts with a bewildered look on their face wondering if a new Ice Age was upon them.

As long as you don't see sabre-tooth tigers prowling around the back yard, things will work out.

If you do, well......

The cats go out to the carport and venture no further.  They batted at the white stuff and even ate some of it, but quickly came back inside.  Michelle and I tromped around and saw only our own footprints, so it seemed everyone was taking the advice of Muffins the cat.  My running sked was completely destroyed so, I will pick that up again on Monday.

Naturally my Pittsburgh Penguins were in Raleigh to play the Hurricanes and naturally I could not go, not because of the weather, but because the game was sold out!

Nothing stops hockey!

Oh well, we lost 2-1 so such is life!

The Penguins will be back in a couple of weeks and hopefully, someone in the stands will be someplace else!