Author: haroldblackphd

Knoxville Focus

August 5, 2023

Brenda Russell’s “Against the Law” ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FQFRlrA9Mw) brings back some unpleasant memories of growing up black in the segregated south. I knew of no one under the illusion that justice was blind. Justice was not impartial and objective. Blacks expected and received harsher punishment than whites. Whites controlled the police departments, the judges and juries. The question is why is justice still not blind?

We all know that there are racial disparities in the administration of “justice” but we must be careful not to use racial disparities as a proxy for discrimination. For example, confinement rates for blacks are greater than for whites. However, confinement rates are misleading if blacks commit more crimes than whites. If the crimes committed by blacks are more serious than those committed by whites, then black sentences should be harsher. So the question is one of ceteris paribus (all other things being equal). Discrimination occurs if blacks and whites who commit the same crime and have the same priors receive different treatment by law enforcement and by the courts. More specifically, the correct test would be to look at treatment by race within the same law enforcement unit, the same prosecutors and the same judge. If a jury trial is involved, then the same approximate jury. Of course that is not possible, so inference becomes important. Moreover, it would be important to see differences in enforcement, incarceration and sentencing when control of the government flips from white to black. It is obvious that in some areas now in the hands of “progressives” that their solution to disparate treatment is perverted. Rather than advocating for equal treatment, their solution has been to lessen the penalties of crimes committed by blacks. Not surprisingly, crimes have increased in cities with progressive DAs. Look at the explosion of car thefts and smash and grab crimes in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. 

Justice is not blind because all of its components are biased. All-white juries levy harsher punishment against blacks than whites. It was not long ago in the deep south that a white person who committed a crime against a black could expect no punishment – even in the case of murder – because the cops, judges and juries were all white. Thankfully, those times are gone. But the question remains: will the punishment today be the same for a black committing the same crime as a white? A lot depends on the juries. Each juror is biased even though the justice system assumes otherwise. However, jurors are not tested for implicit biasness. By the way, the most widely tests for implicit biases are fatally flawed and woefully unreliable.

Even the judges who administer the law are biased. When a case goes before a federal judge, it is always reported who appointed the judge. Was it Trump or Biden or Bush or Obama? This is an acknowledgement that justice is not blind and the politics of the judge will determine the outcome. More often than not, Supreme Court decisions revolve around which president appointed the justices. If justice were blind, then the opinions of justices Brown and Sotomayor would be different than how they vote. That is, even if their examples of the benefits of an unconstitutional act were true, they still should have voted against the unlawful act given their supposed fealty to the Constitution.

We all know that Donald Trump will not receive a “fair” trial in New York, Washington, DC or Atlanta, GA. The DAs, grand juries and trial juries are all biased and hate Trump. In order to get a semblance of a fair trial, Trump’s lawyers should demand that the juries be split evenly among whites and blacks and republicans and democrats. A black and or a democrat jury in those cities guarantees a guilty verdict. Trump juries with some republicans would likely result in a hung jury and a jury of Trump supporters would find him not guilty – all hearing the same evidence.

Again, blacks have never thought that justice was blind. In fact, the term “justice” is itself a misnomer. I think that most whites have always felt the same way but since “justice” was tilted in their favor they didn’t object. However, the prosecutions of Donald Trump have changed all that. Citizens see now the uneven application of the law in our system of “justice”. The two tiered justice system that has always been present in black America is now front and center. The question is whether we are finally going to do something about it?

I am suffering from Trump Fatigue Syndrome (TFS).

Trump dominates the news. When he was president 92 percent of the media coverage of him was negative. Now still 92 percent is negative. Amazingly – but not surprising – Biden has received less negative media coverage than any president on record. Who was it that said that the legacy media was the PR arm of the democrat party?

There is a new COVID virus afoot and the Biden, the CDC and the media are already starting to raise the possibility of masks and mandatory vaccinations. I thought this was the “my body my choice” crowd?

Trump has a video in which he says “The left-wing lunatics are trying very hard to bring back COVID lockdowns and mandates with all of their sudden fearmongering about the new variants that are coming.” “But to every COVID tyrant who wants to take away our freedom, hear these words: We will not comply, so don’t even think about it. We will not shut down our schools. We will not accept your lockdowns. We will not abide by your mask mandates, and we will not tolerate your vaccine mandates.” “When I’m back in the White House, I will use every available authority to cut federal funding to any school, college, airline, or public transportation system that imposes a mask mandate or a vaccine mandate.”

I guess that he forgot that he was the first to impose mandates that shut the economy down, issued mask mandates and closed the schools. Remember flattening the curve? Remember 15 days to stop the spread? That was Trump. Remember Operation Warp Speed and the rush to produce mRNA experimental vaccines that indemnified Big Pharma? That was Trump. 

I don’t blame Trump for his initial response with all the fear mongering from Fauci, the CDC and all the models predicting the end of the world. But Fauci and the CDC were lying and the models were bogus. I do blame Trump for shutting down small businesses while allowing the giants to remain open leading to thousands of small business failure. I do blame Trump for not pivoting when the evidence came in showing the folly of masks and vaccines for less vulnerable groups. Masking and vaccinating children is akin to child abuse. Those who were vulnerable – those over 70 with co-conditions – should be protected and the rest of us left alone. For the vast majority of us, COVID was a bad cold or the flu and we don’t shut down and mask for either.

Biden is now asking Congress for $35 million to fund the development of a vaccine to counter the new COVID variant. Big Pharma made billions on the old vaccines. Couldn’t they afford to pay for the new one? Of course, scientists are uncertain whether the vaccines will be effective for the new variant and history has shed doubt on the efficacy of the old ones.

There have been serious adverse effects of the previous vaccines. I have two otherwise healthy friends who almost died from the Moderna vaccine. There were adverse reactions to the Pfizer/AstraZeneca vaccine with myocarditis and pericarditis risks. It just stands to reason that if Big Pharma is indemnified then they will be less careful in the production of the drug.

It’s a wonder that the democrats do not blame Trump for rushing through the production of the vaccines and all their adverse side effects.

Trump’s first campaign was overtly racist. Remember when he advocating banning all Muslims for entering the country? He also said that a Latino judge should recuse himself because of his Mexican heritage. I also remember him being especially vocal about Mexican illegals and pointing out how many were criminals and rapists. I remarked at the time that I had not heard such a racist campaign since the days of the segregated south and that I thought George Wallace was dead.

Biden is so bad that he has made Trump look good. We tend to forget Trump’s inability to govern. He pledged to end the administrative state and reform the Civil Service. He did neither. Instead he wasted his time on efforts to “repeal and replace” Obamacare. I said this was a mistake. The two should be separate. The first effort should be repeal and then introduce an act to replace. The effort failed due to the one vote of John McCain who likely voted “no” simply because he hated Trump. Now Obamacare with all its warts is imbedded and will never be repealed.

Although he didn’t attack the administrative state, regulations fell during Trump’s presidency. The number of pages in federal register fell dramatically reducing the regulatory burdens on the American public. The reduction was 35 percent less than under Obama. Biden’s number is larger than Obama’s.

Trump also ranted and raved about NAFTA claiming that it was the worse trade deal ever. He was wrong but was trying to appeal to workers in the industrial north who had lost their jobs because of NAFTA. Studies had shown that those states most adversely affected by NAFTA actually had positive gains in employment post NAFTA. But facts don’t matter in politics. So Trump and his people worked for countless hours to replace NAFTA with USMCA – the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Rolls right off the tongue. Close scrutiny shows that there is not much difference in the two despite the rhetoric.  The main difference is that the USMCA imposes a $16 hour minimum wage on workers in factories that import to America. Apparently, Trump and his people figured that the new wage would force manufacturers to move their work to the United States rather than pay Mexicans the higher wage which was three times what they were earning. The response of the manufacturers was to realign the Mexican workforce and to pay the higher wage. There was no bump in hiring more American workers.

At least he appointed three Supreme Court justices.

I have written earlier about Biden’s cabinet being the worse and most incompetent one I have seen. Well Trump’s was the second worse. Just to refresh your memory Tom Price at HHS was forced to resign. Jeff Sessions at Justice was a disaster and lost his senate race in Alabama to an Auburn football coach. David Shulkin at VA was an embarrassment as were Ryan Zinke at Interior, Wilbur Ross at Commerce and Rex Tillerson at State. Only Betsy DeVos and Ben Carson were great but they were hated by the left: DeVos because she was a stanch advocate of school choice and Ben Carson because he was black.

To quote Gil Scott-Heron: “four more years of that?” The sad truth is that four more years of Trump will be better than four more years of Biden and his crew. 

Knoxville Focus

August 28, 2023

I am probably the last to admit it but we are in trouble as a country. We have become more polarized than at any point in our history save the Civil War. All the polls indicate that the vast majority of democrats and republicans differ on virtually every issue. Those differences are intractable with no comprise offered and none acceptable.  I have noted before that one of my good friends is gleeful over the Trump indictments. I have reminded him that what goes around comes around and when the republicans are back in power, that it will be tic for tat. It doesn’t matter to him as long as Trump keeps getting persecuted. 

Yet it bodes ill for the rest of the country. Biden’s Department of “Justice” has weaponized its components against his political adversaries. We now have a two-tiered justice system. Once it was white against black and now its Biden against the conservatives. Trump’s supporters have been raided and indicted. The January 6 “insurrection” had resulted in a seeming suspension of Habeas Corpus, incredibly long prison terms and fines while the destructive rioters of Black Lives Matter get compensation. Trump’s classified documents case is serious but is it as serious as Hilary Clinton’s email erasures and use of a non secured email account? Is it as serious as Biden’s classified documents being found in his garage, in his University of Pennsylvania center and at his beach house? Biden’s administration is harassing gun dealers, revoking their licenses. It has pressured banks to cancel the accounts of conservative groups. It has arrested abortion opponents while not prosecuting those who torch anti-abortion counseling centers. When the republicans come back into the presidency they will likely to do the same to the left. We will then spiral downward into retribution upon retribution levied on the other side.

We have lost respect for our most important institutions. Our republican form of government designed to counter the tyranny of the majority is under attack. The Supreme Court is being vilified and politicized. We have lost trust in our system of justice. The FBI and IRS are now political weapons against the opposition. Local DAs pursue political opponents on Trumped up charges with flimsy foundations. Political organizations are being labelled as hate groups and as white supremacists simply because they oppose parental rights being subordinated to local school systems indoctrinating their children.

When I was a senior in high school, the first two black students at the University of Georgia faced opposition to their admission. After the court ordered them admitted to the university, a mob gathered on campus outside the dormitory of Charlayne Hunter Gault. Hamilton Holmes lived off campus. Although the mob never physically assaulted the dorm, the university said that it could not protect them and expelled the black students “for their own safety.” The court immediately ordered them re-admitted and the governor of the state called out the national guard. When Hamilton and Charlayne returned so did the mob outside her dorm. Only this time the national guard was there and the mob soon dissipated. Rumor had it that several members of the guard which now protected Charlayne had been among the mob days before. Also, the governor went on TV and said that the ordered integration of the university marked the saddest day of his life but “in Georgia we obey the law”.

That respect for the law no longer exists. Now Joe Biden condemns Supreme Court rulings and orders his departments to find ways around them. He condemned the Dobbs decision on abortion and allows the Pentagon to pay to let service members get abortions in less restrictive states. He orders the Department of Education to find ways around the Court’s ruling on student debt. He hosts meetings to find ways to get around the Court’s ruling on affirmative action. He and his administration are openly defying the Supreme Court. This would have never happened in my generation. Imagine what would have been the consequences of openly defying the Supreme Court’s ruling on Brown v. Board of Education which ended “separate but equal” and led to the integration of the public schools. Or the voters rights legislation? Or the Civil Rights legislation? Or even the Court’s rulings on Roe versus Wade. It would have chaos and even open rebellion with blood in the streets.

I don’t wish to be an alarmist but all indications are that we are headed in that direction. With our leaders instituting a two-tiered “justice” system and openly defying Supreme Court rulings, the civility and respect for the law that has bound our country of disparate groups together is being frayed and will likely break. If the president of the United States has no respect for the rule of law then how can it be demanded of its citizens?

COVID is back in the news. Biden wants the congress to fund a new experimental drug and bypass the old restrictions on bringing it to market. I presume they will indemnify the manufacturers from liability from those who will suffer adverse reactions to the drug. Here come the mandates again. Universities which used to be operated by smart people are starting to issue mandates. Rutgers University is requiring all students to show proof of vaccination and requires masks. Morris Brown College in Atlanta is doing the same. It doesn’t matter that all the research shows that for college aged students, COVID is akin to a bad cold or the flu and seldom fatal. One New Jersey legislator has recommending that the Rutgers administration be fired. While you are at it, why not expel them from the Big “10” too. 

The question is whether Biden will attempt to bring back the mandates and the lockdowns. He said that he wanted all in the country to get the new vaccine and hinted that it might be mandated. Surely he wouldn’t dare. I think that if he did, he (or any democrat) will lose the presidential election in a landslide. This time I suspect that mandates will be met with mass civil disobedience. Last time I got the J & J vaccine because it was a single shot. I only got the shot to keep peace in the house but I drew the line on the boosters. I only wore masks when it was required by the establishment. I eventually stopped wearing masks and usually no one said anything. I gave up my Costco membership when some snarky employee there told me to cover my nose. I left the merchandise in the cart, walked out and never returned. I liked Sams better anyway.

I still went turkey hunting – an essential outdoor activity – and still drove to Georgia every other week to visit my mother. The lockdown prevented me from seeing her in her assisted living facility so we would meet at the front door and talk to each other on our phones. Although she tested positive from COVID she died from heart failure at 101. To this day, I am bitter that I couldn’t physically be with her, hold her hand and say “I love you.” I should have taken her out of the facility and taken her home to die surrounded by those who loved her.

No more mandates. No more masks. No more lockdowns. No more abdicating fundamental rights to government tyrants and bureaucrats who make up stuff on the fly. No more ignoring the research. Protect the vulnerable and leave the rest of us alone.

If we all drive electric cars (perish the thought) what happens to the gasoline tax? How will states then finance the upkeep of the roads? Mandating that the auto companies install tracking devices in cars? My insurance company wants me to have some device in my cars that track my driving. No way.

Speaking of tracking, it is obviously that my credit card purchases are being tracked. Kroger sends me coupon for the stuff I buy. Walmart has a list of everything I buy there as does Sams. When I google, ads appear that reflect by buying history. It is apparent that the merchants use my purchasing history to determine what not to carry. My favorite mustard and salsa are no longer made. Items that I like disappear. Even my favorite dishes vanish from menus.

Speaking of ads, where did all the Temu ads come from. They are the most obnoxious offensive ones I’ve seen to date.

Isn’t it interesting that the taxes from tobacco are often used by states to fund  social programs? California which banned flavored cigarettes has seen tobacco tax revenues falling. This has led to a drop in funding for some early childhood services programs. One California county recently ended a program that provided support for pregnant women and babies up to a year old. Funds for other programs supporting foster children and dental health services have been cut. California had already raised the tax on tobacco and thinking that the demand was inelastic assumed that tax revenues would increase. Instead revenues fell. Incidentally, since menthol cigarettes are most popular among blacks it’s a wonder that they were banned. Didn’t the banning constitute an aggressive hostile action toward blacks and is racist?

Am I the only one who is irritated by commentators commenting on other commentators who commentate on them commentating? The non-news shows on Fox spend most of their time commenting on what commentators on CNN and MSNBC are saying. In many cases those commentators are commenting on what is being said on Fox. The same is true on the emails I get where the writer – who obviously had no ideas that morning – is writing on what the other side has written. The two main objects of derision are the obnoxious Keith Olbermann and Jemele Hill who both were sports anchors for ESPN. Both are extremely bitter with Hill only capable of shouting “racist!”. She recently called Nikki Haley an Indian-American for calling another Indian-American (Kamala Harris) inept.

Speaking of ESPN, I was wondering how long before Sage Steele was fired by ESPN. She obviously was not in line with the leftist dogma on the network (which is owned by Disney). Well she wasn’t fired but left after her lawsuit against the network was settled. 

I can’t abide Stephen A. Smith but think that it is a tribute to him that he is so well compensated and attended an HBCU (Winston-Salem State) rather than an Ivy League school.

Knoxville Focus

September 25, 2023

Prior to the Civil War this country was referred to as “the United States are.” Afterwards, it became “the United States is.” Now it may be appropriate to once again refer to the country as a collection of individual states. I seriously believe that within my grandchildren’s lifetime there will be efforts by some states to secede due to irreconcilable differences with those in power at the Federal level. I have a friend who thinks that the Administrative state will thwart any republican president leaving the democrats de facto in power into perpetuity. If that were the case, then certain states would find increasing support to justify secession. The question is whether that secession will be peaceful unlike the attempt in 1861. If part of a state wants to secede and create its own state or join another state, secession is virtually impossible because it requires approval of the state itself. Thus, although Staten Island would like to secede from New York City, the state of New York won’t allow it. The same goes for regions who want to secede from California, Illinois, Virginia, Washington and Oregon. Their state legislatures will veto every effort. Such was not always the case. In the early years of the nation, New York ceded Vermont, Virginia ceded Kentucky, Massachusetts ceded Maine and North Carolina ceded East Tennessee. West Virginia was carved out of Virginia and is an illegal state. The western counties of Virginia were pro-Union and voted against secession. When Virginia seceded, the western counties formed a new Virginia legislature and approved its own secession. The US government recognized the rouge legislature and admitted the new state as West Virginia over the protests of the government in Richmond. In 1871, the Supreme Court in Virginia v. West Virginia upheld the unconstitutional secession as constitutional. Now the western counties of Virginia want to join West Virginia. Although West Virginia approves of such a move, Virginia does not so those counties are stuck with being dominated by the DC suburban counties and liberal Richmond. Another instance involved Texas seceding from Mexico in 1836. Mexico did not recognize the secession and tried to use force to stop it. Legends were made.  Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, William Travis, the Alamo, Santa Anna, Sam Houston and the Battle of San Jacinto were the result. Texas then petitioned to join the United States and was accepted resulting in the Mexican-American War. I have often wondered what would happen if Alberta which is always at odds with the government in Ottawa would try to secede from Canada and join the United States. Would the congress vote to accept them and if it did, would Canada threaten war?

The esteemed Justice Scalia said “If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede.” There is little chance that any effort by a state to leave the union would get the approval of both houses of congress and three fourths of the states. However, I do wonder if there were serious civil discord within a state (or states) that became violent against Federal authorities and that state’s national guard were poised to fight against the Federal government, if there might not be a mutual agreement to part. Perhaps we should revert back to the Articles of Confederation which were adopted by the Congress in 1777 that bound the 13 colonies to a weak central government. There are reasons why that arrangement did not work in 1777 but might work in 2023. Switzerland is a modern confederation made up of 26 cantons and a relatively weak central government. It seems to function as a nation. If our differences are truly irreconcilable then perhaps a confederation is our only hope to survive as a nation.

August 26, 2023

I just got my Tennessee University of Georgia license plate. Twenty five years ago I organized an alumni chapter of Georgia graduates here in Knoxville and could not get enough signatures for a plate. I tried twice. This irritated me to no end since Georgia Tech had a plate as did most of the SEC schools. Even Purdue, my brother’s alma mater had a plate. Purdue!  I then asked the alumni office in Athens to try. They tried twice and were unsuccessful. Finally last November they tried one more time and lo and behold they succeeded! I put it on my convertible. I have been trying to get the Buckeye Club to try to get one for Ohio State. That one would go on my F250.

The liberal media is referring to Trump as the “disgraced former president” because the democrats impeached him twice and indicted him four times.  In fact the New York Times proclaimed that “Donald Trump is forever disgraced”. Really? Disgraced? Certainly not in the minds of his supporters or even among us who are not his supporters. So the question is that if only the democrats consider him as “disgraced” is he actually disgraced? The right wing press calls Joe Biden a disgrace. So should he be referred to as “the disgraced current president”? I guess he should if you apply the same standards that the left employs for Donald Trump. Hilary Clinton anyone? 

Bill Clinton was impeached. Why isn’t he also labelled “disgraced”?

Are you a single adult in a relationship with another single adult? I am and have been for the last 28 years. How do you refer the other person?  “Girlfriend” doesn’t work because she is an adult. “Womanfriend” sounds strange. “Partner” sounds like a law firm and many think that it only applies to same sex couples. “Comrade” sounds like we are communists. “Mate” sounds like we are in the Navy. “Companion” works because we are not blood relatives and are a romantic pair who associate with each other on an almost continuous basis. So “companion” it is although a friend suggests I use “main squeeze.”

Isn’t it interesting that the left still runs cover for the Bidens insisting that no evidence of wrong doing has been presented – only innuendo. Hunter’s laptop is not evidence? Certainly there is more evidence in the case of the Bidens than in the Russia hoax. Why wasn’t Hilary Clinton not indicted for trying to sabotage the Trump campaign with false accusations ? Trump was. But of course we now have a two tiered “justice” system.

Its ironic to Civil Rights veterans like me that black DAs (Alvin Bragg in New York and Fani Willis in Atlanta) are applying uneven “justice” to whites much like how the “justice” system has historically had white DAs treating blacks unfairly.

I had lunch with my “progressive” friend who was livid about Florida’s proposed AP course. Like the rest of the libs he had seized up the statement that some slaves acquired skills that proved beneficial when they were freed. He asserted that this implied somehow that the acquisition of skills outweighed the human cost of slavery. Of course it did not. But the left’s narrative fabricated that lie. My friend insisted that Dr William Allen who was part of the group that wrote the curriculum actually said as much. He did not and there is no evidence to support that lie. But of course, if you tell a lie often enough it soon becomes the truth.

I still say that neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump will be their party’s nominee.

There is little doubt that all the Bidens will be indicted. I think he should be impeached for his open border policy which clearly imperils the nation. Biden’s secret documents are as bad as or worse than Trump’s. His financial dealings with Hunter are impeachable and criminal. Its only a matter of time. I think the only out is for Biden to pardon his whole family and then pardon Trump.

Hollywood actors and writers are on strike. The question is “will anyone notice?” I certainly won’t since I don’t go to movies. The last movie I sat through in a theatre was Saving Private Ryan only because my other half’s father was a Bedford Boy in the first wave at Omaha Beach. My favorite movies are the Godfather, Choose Me, Pulp Fiction and Casablanca. Netflix and downloads have essentially killed the movie theatres much like music stores have dwindled because of Pandora, Spotify and downloads. I don’t even have a Netflix subscription because there is little being produced in Hollywood worth my watching. Movie trailers are so violent that I mute them or turn them off. Hollywood does not share my morals or values. They do precious little that interests me. It seems that Hollywood today offers mostly retreads and remakes – most of which are grossly inferior to the originals. They exhume faded stars hoping to rekindle interest in old themes played by old actors. Indiana Jones anyone? Then they remake old movies injecting wokeness. The little mermaid is now black. Snow White is now Hispanic. The seven dwarfs are now a group of full sized strangely dressed actors who look like the Village People. Since Snow White was supposed to have skin white as snow, do they retitle the movie Brown Snow because of the Latina lead? Thank goodness they did not choose an Asian actress. Disney is well documented in putting LBGTQ scenes in their movies including animations aimed at children. That they are losing money should come as no surprise given that the LBGTQ communities are  so small and large only in their protestations. 

I also don’t watch any television programming that needs actors and writers. I watch baseball, Critter Fixers (featuring two black veterinarians who are alums of my mother’s school, Fort Valley State University), Port Protection and First Alaskans. But mainly I read. Science fiction, mysteries, global politics and economies, historical fiction, history and science fact among others are on my shelves and in my ipad, iMac and iphone. I am a curious person. The academic in me always asks for evidence both confirming and contrary. I have wide ranging interests and was once asked by a student how did I know so much. I told him that he was asking the wrong question.

I grew up in an era of minimal dumbing down with no participation trophies. Competition was encouraged. I only had one true-false multiple test while in college. The tests were always essays and short answers. Virtually every class had reading lists in the library and required term papers. I kept injecting microeconomics into my sociology, political science, philosophy and history classes. All of my professors – except for one – encouraged the exchange given that most had no knowledge of the implications from economic theory.

I was in the era where black parents seldom praised their children. My folks thought that if they said “good job” that I wouldn’t work as hard. I never told them what I was going through my freshman year at Georgia because I knew that I would get no sympathy from my father and would just worry my mother to death. When I graduated she said that she could now get a good night’s sleep. They never found out until they read Calvin Trillin’s “An Education in Georgia” some years later. Mother said “Is this true”? When I said yes, her reaction was that she should give me a spanking. When I got the grades from my first quarter – actually they were mailed to my father – Dad balled them up, threw them on the floor and pointed his finger at me saying “Don’t you ever bring grades like that again into this house.” I made an A, B+ and a B. The quarter that I made all A’s, Dad said “Don’t they give A+’s at that place?” The only indications that they were proud of me was what I was told when I went to our home church and when I received a letter at the end of my freshman year inviting me into the honors program. Mom framed the letter and hung it in my bedroom. 

Why do white people eat so many casseroles? I don’t think I ever had a casserole while growing up – unless mac and cheese is a casserole. 

I love to cook and get several emails a day from cooking sites. Almost daily comes another recipe for a casserole including links to things like “Grandma’s 142 favorite casseroles.” I have yet to try any.

Southern Living magazine has an article “Why do Southerners make casseroles?” saying “These 12 recipes will tell you exactly why Southerners, if given a chance, will almost always make a casserole”. Actually, the title should be “Why do White Southerners make casseroles.” Not one of the recipes appeals to me.

The magazine also announced “50 Bake And Take Casseroles Your Neighbors Will Love.” If my neighbors brought me a casserole, I would consider moving.

What about “15 irresistible au gratin potato recipes”. Fifteen? Is au gratin a casserole?

Is baked ziti a casserole?

Growing up I thought that you ate because it prevented you from starving to death. My mother was an awful cook. She knew it. But Dad was worse. Once when Mother was in the hospital, Dad cooked us breakfast but we could not recognize what he put on our plates. My brother and I took over the cooking until Mother got back. She used to joke that if she were dying that Dad would ask her to cook him dinner before she died.

I had never had a fresh mushroom. Italian was canned Chef Boyardee (to the day she died Mom hated pasta). All eggs were soft scrambled. All meat was floured and fried except for turkey and roasts – although once she deep fried a pork roast. There was a grease can on the stove. All vegetables were cooked to death so that the only way we could tell them was by the color. She fried squash and boiled okra. I refused to eat them then and won’t eat them now. Her biscuits were from a can. However, I looked forward to the winter because Mom’s growing up on a farm meant that in the winter we got breakfasts with fried catfish and grits and fried pork chops and grits. Dad loved fried oysters and grits (with Mother’s canned biscuits). I grew up thinking oysters were a breakfast food. When I first saw oysters on a dinner menu I was shocked. It was like seeing bacon and eggs for dinner.

At Georgia, the cafeteria food wasn’t great but it was different. The cooks were all black and cooked southern. But there were fresh mushrooms, vegetables that were not overcooked, pastas and eggs over easy (which would have probably caused my mother to retch). I also had my very first omelets, baked chicken and marinara sauce. The cooks always managed to sneak something onto my plate like an extra piece of ham. Soon I realized that there was joy in eating and kept discovering flavors as I learned to cook. Mother once remarked how my brother and I learned to be such good cooks because we obviously didn’t learn it from her. My brother was really skilled and after he retired from flying airplanes actually studied to be a chef.

My food enlightenment started when I lived in Konstanz am Bodensee finishing my dissertation while visiting at the University of Konstanz. The local cuisine opened my eyes. Back in the states, pizza was just being introduced and tasted like tomato sauce spread on cardboard with cheese sprinkled on top. In Konstanz the local pizzeria had wonderful pizzas, calzones and pasta. Here I had my first taste of pesto in pasta and on pizza and knew that this was confirmation that there was a god. My favorite pizza was spargel (asparagus) pizza with pesto. I thought about expatriating knowing what food I would face when I got back to the states. But I was homesick. So much so that I asked my mother to send me some red dirt. She sent it in a small box and I was called into the customs office and asked “Was ist das?” I said “dirt”. “Schmutz?” “Ja. Schmutz.” They just shook their heads, handed me my box of Georgia red dirt and let me go.

I moved back to the states and took my first job at the University of Florida in 1971. I weighed 235 pounds having sat on my behind during the four years in graduate school eating mostly fast foods. In Gainesville I lived in the same complex as the great marathoner Frank Shorter. Inspired I started to lose weight by changing my diet and started to run. I eliminated all meat having read that the great boxer Archie Moore who fought in several weight categories would stop eating meat if he wanted to lose weight. So I stopped eating meat and all fried foods. I gradually lost weight and kept running. I started running in the local races. I was no Frank Shorter and in my first marathon I was passed by a race walker. But eventually I was running a weekly 10K, two half marathons and a fully marathon yearly. I now weighted 165.

When invited to eat at friends, I would tell them that I did not eat any meat but cook whatever you want and I would eat the vegetables and salads. I did eat fish because fishing became a passion. Gainesville had great fresh water fishing and quick access to salt water. Later when I moved to Knoxville, I was fishing with a friend weekly until deer season when he quit fishing to hunt. He took me one day and although I did not see anything living, I became addicted to the solitude and peacefulness. I relived my memories of following my grandfather around the family farm in Gray, GA with my little 22 while he hunted squirrels or rabbits. Since I was now hunting deer, I ate them and to this day, the only red meat I eat is what I kill myself.

I would rather eat my cooking than at any local restaurant. But I always crave Nashville’s Hattie B’s fried chicken. I have yet to duplicate it in my kitchen and all the places that advertise Nashville Hot Chicken are just a parody of the real thing. I also do not cook Chinese at home or Indian. When my son was going to UT we would eat at a local Indian restaurant once a week. I love curried dishes but don’t care for the smells in my house.

One of my favorite memories is when my son was around six he was asked what was his favorite food and he said ziti with pesto.

In Knoxville, the local cuisine is bland – straight down the line middle American. Ruby Tuesday’s started here as did Wendy’s. I miss the food in DC. The local Chinese restaurants were spectacular, especially the chili crabs and escargot. The Cuban restaurant’s cuttlefish in its own ink was to die for even if it looked like the crankcase of a 49 Ford. The Italian restaurants were great and every pizza place I ventured into while in New York was excellent. I can’t believe that the Greenie Weenies want to ban New York’s wood fired pizza ovens. 

Yet I would rather live in Knoxville than in DC or New York. The quality of life is hard to beat.

August 19, 2023

I hate “journalism” by Twitter. That is where the supposed journalist writes one paragraph and then fills up the article with Tweets.

I still don’t know what an influencer is and who the influencer influences.

I get confused trying to figure out why they call soap “body wash.”

The Fed may actually achieve a “soft” landing. Its policies in conjunction with what is happening in the rest of the world’s economies have meant a slowdown but no crash while inflation is coming down. This while countering the government’s exploding expenditures. It is akin to driving a car with one foot on the gas pedal while the other is on the brake.

I don’t understand what “white supremacy” means with white males being discriminated against by other white males who happen to be “progressives.”

I am suffering from Trump Fatigue Syndrome.

I don’t understand the Fulton County, GA Trump indictment. Isn’t the charge by a local DA rather than at the federal level? If any local run of the mill DA can bring charges, then why are Republican local DAs not indicting Hunter Biden?

There is solid evidence that trade wars caused the Great Depression and Biden is following Trump’s lead and heading us toward a trade war with the latest imposition of tariffs on tin. Putting tariffs on our allies will lead to retaliation and retaliation will lead to recession. You heard it here first.

Nobody is saying the obvious: China’s economic woes are a result of its failed industrial policy. This should be a warning to the US which with its CHIPs act and “Inflation Reduction Act” is headed down the same road. Some so-called experts are amazingly calling for China to add stimulus to get out of their recession. That’s what got them in it! This would actually only make things worse. Again, you heard it here first.

Will a severe Chinese recession spill over to the rest of the world?

Will a severe Chinese recession lead to the end of Xi’s regime?

It is a wonder that it took so long for China to spiral downward with its extreme COVID lockdowns, its imprisonment of successful entrepreneurs, its paranoia regarding security, its failed family planning policies, its shrinking population, its imploding real estate sector, its high youth unemployment, its huge and growing debt burden and its repressive government. Why “progressives” like Paul Krugman love the Chinese is beyond me.

We are in serious trouble as a country when the President does not respect the rule of law.

We no longer trust our most hallowed institutions. Without that trust, anarchy soon follows.

The Founders feared the tyranny of the majority in a democracy so they created a representative republic with checks and balances. However, what we now have is the tyranny of the minority where an absurdly small minority has imposed their will on the rest of us. The LBGTQ communities have found allies amongst the left. They get local school boards to introduce their literature into the classrooms of our youth. Schools are hosting queer drag shows. Governments proclaim queer month and fly gay flags. Corporations cater to them. Retailers prominently display their merchandise and market directly to kids. The Bud Light boycott was a result of the beer maker marketing with a man who is pretending to be a young girl which is simply weird. Universities openly silence and discipline those who do not kowtow to the LBGYQ mantra. The Biden Administration is endorsing open bathrooms and locker rooms, letting males participate in women’s sports and including gender in Title IX. The military leadership is openly woke with total disregard to what this means for fighting effectiveness. They were even using a trans sailor in recruiting videos. No wonder they are having little success in recruiting. I find it difficult to believe that the majority of Americans agree with any of this. They are just silent and  afraid to rock the boat and afraid to be called bigots. However, it is not bigotry to oppose the grooming of children. These matters are best left to the parents in the home. Under no circumstances do these issues belong in school curricula. Lastly, Denmark is the latest country to restrict the use of gender “affirming” care for children. Although the advocates loudly proclaim that such “care” lessens suicide among confused children, there is little evidence to support this claim. The use of hormonal and surgical procedures on children is truly frightening. Yet the American Academy of Pediatrics remains solidly behind the idea of the medicalization of puberty. I don’t deny that there are some children who suffer from gender blending issues but I am not convinced that these issues should be addressed with powerful drugs and surgery. I also think that children claiming gender confusion is more social contagion than real. Again I bet that most of these children reside in cities and states that have adopted the propaganda of the LGBTQ communities and it has become a fashion fad. If these children want to transition as adults, let them. But not as children.

One “expert” whose “research focuses on the development and psychological experiences of transgender, gender-nonbinary, gender-expansive or gender-exploring children” claims that children can be a gender Tesla, a gender Prius or a gender minotaur. Excuse me? This is truly frightening and even more frightening is that this expert is a professor in a school of medicine.

Did you know that Arkansas has joined Florida in removing the AP course on black “history” from its schools? No? Its because its governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is not running for president and considered a threat to Joe Biden’s reelection. I am waiting for the NAACP to issue a travel advisory for Arkansas. Obviously, its governor has created a hostile environment for black people by not adopting Critical Race Theory and queer black history. I am also waiting for the National “Educators” Association and the American Federation of “Teachers” to blast the decision as trying to eliminate black history. Will black organizations cancel their conventions in Arkansas? Imagine no longer being able to partake in the charms of Little Rock or visit Bentonville, the home of Walmart.

Arkansas stated that the AP African American studies course was not a history course but rather an exercise indoctrinating liberal woke ideology. When Ron DeSantis said the same thing, the progressives wailed and gnashed their teeth. The Arkansas “Education” Association did say that the decision is of “grave concern” to its members and worried about “the abandonment of teaching African American history and culture”. The president of the NAACP intoned that state-level attacks on Black history are undemocratic and regressive. But no travel advisory? I really don’t understand the “undemocratic” and “regressive” nature of the bans. So please explain. 

What Arkansas did was to pass a law that prohibits the teaching of certain topics including gender, sexual orientation and Critical Race Theory. I personally think that these are best left out of school curricula. Rather, schools should concentrate on teaching basic skills like reading, math, science and language. That teachers’ associations, school boards and school administrators have veered off into liberal ideology is likely due to their miserable failure to teach basic skills. Student proficiency in math and reading is pitiful in virtually all public schools in the country. Arkansas had aggressively moved to rectify the poor education received in its schools.  It passed – over the usual objections of the education establishment – an education reform bill that enacts a universal school choice program. I wonder if such a program is “undemocratic” and “regressive”?

The left is always going to contend that the right is trying to suppress the teaching of black history which is a blatant lie. As Arkansas (and Florida) noted, the AP course was not a course in history. When Florida replaced the AP course with one that really was about history, the left pounced on one statement that said that some slaves learned skills that were helpful when they became free claiming that the new curriculum stated that slavery was beneficial. However, the same statement appears in the AP course which the left endorses. However, they fail to see the contradiction and have no shame.