Several of my more alert followers have noticed that I have not been blogging lately. Good for them. Not a single robot scanning the internet for key words or key locations has mentioned it to me. Not one of them.
Score four points for human beings.
Now, first, an apology. And some reasons.
Lots of life has been happening to me and my family lately, and I just didn’t have it in me to say “hey, you’ll have to drive yourself to the hospital. I’m busy thinking.”
Second, I was thinking. A lot. About a lot of things. Just not doing anything about it. And, as my long-suffering wife has heard me say at least a dozen times: “This isn’t a blog any more. It’s a term paper.”
Yes. Facts nag at you. And, if you blog to tell people what you are thinking - as opposed to simply repeating what others are saying, like an empty-headed echo chamber, the Blog Gods will punish you for hubris. “HOW DARE YOU THINK YOU CAN KNOW EVERYTHING, MERE MORTAL” those little manifestations of electron fields will say.
Well, that’s what I get for looking things up. Things like how long will it take for someone to immigrate from Mexico compared to how long it would take to immigrate from France? That is, by the way, a question that is impossible to answer in fewer than 3,000 words, and even that would be incomplete.
Or, here’s another. Why do our politicians keep talking about Socialism as if there were a Socialist Party that got a significant vote for its presidential candidates every four years?
Well, that should be enough of a justification. I have many more. But, just one more is worth mentioning. I am, by nature, lazy.
Now lazy people do blog, sometimes. Actually, a lot of bloggers have the kind of intellectual laziness that means their blogs never back up their positions with hard facts or historical consequences or anything else except their opinion. The kind where a quick search will discover a half a dozen other bloggers saying the same thing.
So, now some good things about lazy. It is comforting. It is refreshing. And, of course, lazy people invented virtually every invention in the world worth having. Doubt it? Just try moving things in a wheelbarrow with a triangular wheel.
Now for the interesting part.
In my thoroughly enjoyable lazy spell, my mind rebelled. It kept thinking.
There I was, watching the New York Yankees break their record for a winning streak, not to mention shooting across their division like some angry comet. And did I wonder how their third-string players worked that magic? No.
Instead, I thought about how much of our political discourse has been hijacked by people who should know better simply abusing language to hide the fact that they don’t know what they are talking about. or, worse, that they do know, and don’t want anyone else to know it.
Then I wondered when the next White House prayer breakfast would be held (it should be the first week in February) and if anyone would pray for the children taken from their parents by our government.
Here are a few other random thoughts, for your amusement. I’ll slip back into serous blogging in a week or so. Decompression from laziness is a very dicy thing. You can’t do too much at once.
First Idea - With all the Democratic presidential debate questions flying across out television screens, the reporters who play “lets you two fight” or try to get a deep thought out in 30 seconds are missing the point. I would simply ask each candidate a question calling for a two word answer: “Except for you, which other candidate do you think has the best chance of becoming President?” Follow-up? “Except for you, which other candidate would make the best President?”
Bonus points if you get any two or three who give the same name twice.
Second Idea - President Trump says he wants to come to an agreement with the Democrats on immigration and gun control. Well, let’s take him at his word. He can deport as many people in this country illegally as he wants, but for every person deported, he has to take away one assault rifle now in private hands. Can’t be done, you say. Well, if ICE can track down immigrants, they should certainly be able to track down firearms.
Third Idea - When our President goes on the attack, whoever is the target should simply say “he’s said that before.” Unless, of course, the President can expand his vocabulary and actually say something he hasn’t said before.
Watching him try would kind of be like watching the Yankees try for a new 11-game winning streak - somewhat boring but suspenseful and certainly entertaining.
