Author: cogitationator

Where Did Everyone Go?

It’s been some time now since I’ve seen any new posts, any new comments or even any new gratuitous insults. What happened?

Could it all be a symptom of “lockdown?” How do people spend their locked-down time anyway? The first things occurring to my alleged mind would be eating, drinking and sexing. With none but my own experience to offer, I can say that: (1) I’m not eating very much at the moment, and that mainly soup or extremely soft food, due largely to some extensive (and expensive) oral surgery I’ve recently had, (2) I’ve never been that much of a drinker anyway, even though at the moment I’d rather like a very small glass of my treasured Islay malt, despite it being still somewhat early in the day, and (3) What was that other thing?

Or has everyone on this site been carried off by the dread Coronavirus? Hopefully not! I myself am having nothing to do with COVID-19 and am holding out for COVID-27.

Continue reading “Where Did Everyone Go?”

Destroying History and Civilization

Before I begin, let me say that my own hands are clean. My family background is mostly Swedish and none of my known ancestors was ever involved with slavery of mistreatment of darker-skinned people. I have nothing against black people per se  and judge individuals more by the content of their heads than by the skin covering them. Indeed, I have known a number of blacks whom I considered friends.

Continue reading “Destroying History and Civilization”

I can’t breathe!

More to the point, I simply cannot believe what gets into people. It’s certainly more than understandable that many are distressed, outraged, angry, etc. over the death of George Floyd in police custody. I am all of that myself and applaud the immediate firing of the police officers involved and the subsequent bringing of charges against the principal offender. Continue reading “I can’t breathe!”

Another New Year

I woke up this morning, which is always a good start.  Brought to a state resembling full functionality by liberal caffeine intake, I turned on the TV and watched part of the Tournament of Roses Parade from Pasadena, California.  Quite a spectacle it always is (they’ve been doing it for the past 131 years), with floats decorated exclusively with vegetable matter and many horses.  This year there was a flotilla of miniature horses, which are increasingly used as service animals.  The Budweiser (beer) Clydesdales were there, of course, a team of eight (8) posing even more of a challenge to manage than those drawing the Chariot.

Let’s see, now, what shall I do for the rest of the day?  Eat and drink.  Maybe even declare war on whichever group or country displeases me most at the moment.

But first, before I get too immersed in such things, I want to wish the Charioteers (and any others who haven’t offended me recently) a pleasant and prosperous 2020.

Gun Control

It is almost inconceivable to have had so many mass shooting tragedies in the USA within such a short time span. But so we have and here we are, with a large part of the populace reflexively calling for “gun control,” whatever that is. I darkly suspect that those people have no better idea about it than they do about “global warming.” If they were all so clever as they like to think they are, surely by now we’d have had some possibly useful ideas about how to solve the problem.   Continue reading “Gun Control”

Departure

Elvis has left the building

It’s not my country, these are not my own political concerns, not my people, etc., etc., so please excuse my ignorance in not understanding why this “Brexit” business requires any sort of “deal” to be made. After all, what could be easier than leaving? In Paul Simon’s words:

“You just slip out the back, Jack.
Make a new plan, Stan.
You don’t need to be coy, Roy.
Just get yourself free.
Hop on the bus, Gus.
You don’t need to discuss much.
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free.”

Or, to recall Douglas Adams on the dolphins leaving Earth, just say: “So long and thanks for all the fish.”

Continue reading “Departure”

Everybody Needs an Enemy

Uncle Sam and bear

Having an enemy helps a government stay in business. A good enemy can provide a focal point, a distraction, a source of fear (always useful for keeping the population in line) or, if we are feeling cynical today, a way to transfer tax revenue into the hands of the military-industrial complex. The first thing necessary is to get the public to believe in the enemy. If there is no real enemy at hand, simply make one up. Continue reading “Everybody Needs an Enemy”

The strange case of the disappearing ink

THE STRANGE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING INK

Maybe my wife is right and I have indeed finally lost my grip. Maybe I’m just having a funny half hour. Whatever the reason, I can’t escape the feeling that a recent thread, an entire thread, has disappeared from the Chariot.

I could, of course, be wrong – I frequently am – but the alternative is not pleasant to contemplate. Either some sort of technogremlin has crept into the system (electronic vampires from Dimension X?) or some sentient being has deliberately, with mallets aforethought, deleted the original posting along with all comments thereto appended.

Any such person should be aware that some of us may expend considerable time and effort in writing for public consumption. I myself take the greatest pains to make my points clearly (if not necessarily concisely) while, most importantly, avoiding anything that might be deemed offensive, sometimes going through several drafts in the process. To have all that work wasted is… well, troubling.