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Random musings

My NextDoor account was suspended. I guess they want more queries about the best plumber than one about the best government.

I don’t understand the attraction of plug-in hybrids. You get only about 30 miles as an EV. I guess that might do for a short daily commute. You have both the gas engine and an electric motor with battery. Doesn’t this just make the vehicle heavier, more complicated and more expensive to maintain and fix? So wouldn’t you get a better vehicle if you eliminate either the EV or the gas part? 

Isn’t it interesting that many of those on the left feigning outrage over Alito’s upside down American flag are the same ones who have professed hate for the flag? I hear no condemnation from the same whiners on the left over those who say that the flag is racist and a symbol of hate.

I must admit there are times in which I am tempted to turn my American flag postage stamps upside down.

So why is Biden trying to tell the Israelis how to fight their war? Who anointed him in the first place?

Surveys show that Trump’s conviction did not move the polls and that he and Biden remain tied. That Biden is actually tied shows what a terrible candidate is Donald Trump. A cardboard cutout would be up by 20 points.

This may be one of the few elections where the choice of vice president may actually matter. A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris for president. Does anyone think that Biden will be able to last 4 more years if reelected? I wonder if the dems will change VPs due to the thought of the voters not voting for Biden because of a President Harris. 

I just returned from a camping trip to Florida towing my fifth wheel behind my diesel pickup. For the first time I saw a number of EVs on the highway with out of state tags. In Florida EVs abound, just like in west Knoxville. My daughter who lives in northern Virginia said that there EVs are as plentiful as rabbits. So I wonder if all the EVs have had a noticeable impact on energy consumption and energy prices. Worldwide fossil fuel energy consumption continues to rise as developing countries increase their consumption. Recall the president of an African country in response to the Paris Accord said that no country ever emerged from poverty using expensive energy. Well fossil fuel consumption is higher now than before the Paris Accord was signed.

Going to Florida we saw two sites where the landscape was covered by solar panels. This strikes me as an incredibly wasteful use of resources. This is not putting these panels in a desert but on arable land. I guess it is because of all the Federal handouts subsidizing solar. It seems to me that if the government gives incentives it should heavily subsidize solar for the home while funding nuclear power if it wants to force a movement away from fossil, rather than using inefficient solar and wind to generate power for everyone.

The results in the European elections should send a warning to the greenies in this country – but they are tone deaf. The growth of the European right coupled with the loss of seats on the left are due to the consequences of aggressively going green. The shutting down of nuclear plants and coal plants made the situation worse. The higher costs of energy are being painfully felt forcing a slowdown in the transition to a carbon free environment. This is because of the stupidity of the left. Why not say how much carbon is a good thing rather than trying to eliminate it totally? I am reminded of the comments of a friend with a $100,000 stereo system who said that for $20,000 you could capture 95% of the sound. But you have to spend an additional $20,000 for every one percent gain but you can never capture 100%. The same is true for carbon emissions.

The green left is overplaying its hand. Yes, they have gotten the endorsements of western governments. But most of us in opposition are more opposed to the heavy handed government edicts than to the idea of green energy (if market driven).

Trump has proposed to make tips nontaxable. If he wants a winning issue he should take my recommendation to make the salaries of all active duty military tax exempt.

Benny Gantz has quit Netanyahu’s cabinet with the statement that “Fateful strategic decisions are stuck due to hesitancy and procrastination out of political considerations.” Sounds like Biden and Blinken’s nosing into Israel’s business has produced a fallout where military decisions are being trumped by political ones. Sounds like Viet Nam.

How do the panhandlers get to their street corners?

I don’t give to able bodied beggars. With all the “now hiring” signs out there, economics tells us that the panhandlers must be making more by begging than by getting a job.

I will occasionally give to disabled panhandlers and always if they have a dog.

Lastly, did you see where the left wing media is trashing Byron Donalds? They already hate him because he is a nonapologetic black conservative and are now contending that he said that Jim Crow was a good thing for black families. Of course Donalds said no such thing but the media knows that the vast majority of the public are intellectually lazy and will not read what Donalds actually said. He stated the well known fact that there were more nuclear families and children born into them prior to Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society not that Jim Crow was good for black families.  But as Hitler’s Joseph Goebbels once said that if you tell a lie enough times, it will become the truth.

Random thoughts

June 7, 2024

Trump found guilty in New York show trial. What did you expect? What is interesting is the reporting on those who would not vote for Trump if he were found guilty. What is not reported is how many of these would not have voted for Trump before the verdict.

So now Biden wants to tighten the border ahead of the election. I think voters know that he is the main cause of the open border and will see through the ruse. We will know if it is a serious effort if AOC and her ilk go ballistic.

Did you see where over 350,000 amnesty cases have been dismissed since 2022? This means that the amnesty claims were not reviewed and they are allowed to remain in the country indefinitely.

Much like Biden’s policies are the result of high energy costs and gas prices, his releasing gasoline from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to temporarily lower case prices is a similar ruse. We all know that gas prices are over a dollar a gallon more than when he took office. So don’t you love Biden claiming he is fixing problems that he himself caused?

The headlines shouted that Mexico has elected its first woman president. What is less known is that both candidates were women.

Isn’t it interesting that both sides claim that the other is a “threat to democracy”? I guess the left has jumped on the Trump off comment about being a dictator for a day while the right claims that Biden has been a dictator for three years. I know that some will say that the congress is endorsing his actions but doesn’t the Politburo rubberstamp Putin’s?

Biden claims that the republicans are attacking “bedrock freedoms”. What are these freedoms? He says women’s reproductive rights, Social Security and voting rights. How is abortion a “bedrock freedom”? What radical changes to social security have the republicans endorsed? How have voting rights been hindered? More fundamental are the dems wanting to stack the Supreme Court, to abolish the Electoral College, to make the Constitution a “living document”. Which is the greatest threat to democracy?

Both parties present the other in a dystopian view. However, it is much more dangerous to rule by the flavor of the moment than in staying true to fundamental principles.

A lot has been written about the dems favoring open borders in order to convert the illegals into voters – assuming that they would mostly be democrats. The right considers this an attack. But little has been written about whether such an effort if successful would permanently enshrine the dems in power. It would depend on where the illegals settled – if they got the vote. If they landed in New York, Illinois, California, Washington, Oregon or other democrat run states, they would not have an impact – except perhaps supplanting blacks as the favored minority. But what about Texas and Florida? Those would be interesting. I doubt if they could flip Florida and south Texas is strongly republican due to bearing the brunt of the illegal invasion.

So Fauci finally admitted that there was no scientific basis for masking or social distancing. He has kind of admitted that Rand Paul was right about the gain of function financing of the Wuhan lab. I guess I was ahead of my time when I was writing for the USA newspaper in Knoxville which refused to publish my article in 2020 listing all the restrictions placed by our health department. I wrote that I could find no scientific evidence for any of the restrictions. The paper being in the “keep them scared” camp would not publish it so I quit and starting writing for a local weekly. I don’t reach as many people but at least I am no longer censored.

We are on our third camping trip of the season. For us camping is in a fifth wheel with 2 flat screen TVs, air conditioning and all the comforts of home. We don’t like sleeping in strange beds and if it were not for the fifth wheel, we would likely not travel to any place other than the farm in Gray, GA. We are in Florida and it is 100 degrees with oppressive humidity. There are no tents at out campground. It is a testimony to how awful it must be to live in the democrat run states in the north that their residents are moving to Florida with its heat, palmetto bugs, mosquitos, black flies, love bugs, alligators, fire ants and boa constrictors. Do they still have walking catfish?

Finally, the left is gleefully calling Trump a convicted felon. The Babylon Bee points out that before the conviction the left was imploring a change in “hateful language” preferring the term “justice impacted individual.”

Harold A Black

June 1, 2024

One of my favorite things to do is to look at the legislative scorecard from the Institute for Legislative Analysis (https://www.limitedgov.org). And yes I do have a life. The Institute lists all senators and representatives with its Limited Government Index. So a priori one would assume that someone like Rand Paul would be the most conservative senator and Bernie Sanders would be the most liberal. In the House someone like Chip Roy– or Marjorie Taylor Green – would be the most conservative and a member of the Squad like Jasmine Crockett or Jamaal Bowman would be the most liberal. Within parties, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Milt Romney should be the least conservative of the republicans and Joe Manchin should be the least liberal democrat (Manchin has just declared himself an independent). 

Those are my priors. Looking at the scorecard, Mike Lee not Rand Paul is the most conservative senator with a score of 100%. Rand Paul is the second most conservative (98.18%).  Not surprisingly the least conservative republican senators are indeed Mitt Romney (59.49%), Lisa Murkowski (51.79%) and Susan Collins (50.00%). No democrat senator ranks ahead of any of the three “liberal” republicans. Joe Manchin is the least liberal democrat but his score is only 35.19%.Recall that I cautioned all those who were wishing Manchin would change his affiliation to republican? Obviously those who wanted that didn’t have a clue as to his voting record. Manchin only looked like a conservative when compared to any other democrat in the senate. The next least liberal democrat senator is Jon Tesler who only scores 28.57%. Tesler keeps getting elected in Montana despite his record. What about the most liberal senator? Surprise! It is not Bernie Sanders who ranks only number 67 on the Institute’s scale with a 7.14% ranking – tied with Maria Cantwell – meaning that there are 32 democrats more liberal than Bernie. The most liberal is Connecticut’s Chris Murphy at only 1.79%. Compared to Murphy, Bernie is moderate.

On the House side, the most conservative republican is Scott Perry who scores 100%. Scott Perry? Who is Scott Perry? He’s from Pennsylvania. Chip Roy and Bob Good also score 100%. If Bob Good scores 100%, then why did Trump endorse Good’s opponent in the Virginia republican primary? It’s because Good endorsed Ron DeSantis. I wonder if Trump called Good a RINO? Paul Gosar, Josh Brecheen, Andy Biggs and Dan Bishop all score 99+%. Majorie Taylor Green ranks only 28^th(95.87%), behind our Tim Burchett (#23 at 96.77%). Andy Ogles (98.39) is the most conservative Tennessee representative. Not surprisingly Steve Cohen is the least conservative ranking 330 with a rating of 6.09%. The least conservative republican representatives are Brian Fitzpatrick from Pennsylvania at 36.51% That’s not far from the least liberal democrat Jared Golden of Maine at 33.33%. The most liberal democrat is indeed a squad member Jasmine (Fake Eyelashes) Crockett at 1.61%.  Jamaal Bowman scores 3.23% tied with Don Beyer (the auto mogul from Virginia) and followed by such luminaries as Cori Bush (2.97%), Joaquan Castor (2.73%), squad member Ayanna Pressley (2.59%), Sylvia Garcia (2.46%), squad members Ilhan Omar (2.40%), Rashida Tlaib (2.38%) and Summer Lee (2.38%), Greg Casar (2.38%), Delia Ramairez (1.67%), Raul Grijalva (1.64%) and Valarie Foushee (1.63%). AOC? She is ranked 398 at 4.07% meaning that there are 34 representatives more liberal than AOC!

What is interesting is that on the senate side Romney, Murkowski and Collins are called moderates while on the democrat side, Manchin, Tesler are called moderates. But their scores are far below those of the republican “moderates”. I guess it is like the Les McCann song “Compared to What?” Romney, Murkowski and Collins are moderates compared to Mike Lee and Ryan Paul. Manchin and Tesler are moderates compared to Chris Murphy and Mazie Hirono.

Again, there is no overlap in either the senate or the house. Is there any wonder there is so much rancor between the political parties. Is there any wonder there is so much discord amongst the rest of us? 

The Food Network has a headline “What is kefir?” I was outraged. That is the term used by the racist apartheid whites in South Africa for blacks and is the equivalent of the n – word. Consider this definition from the web: 

Any Black African — a disparaging and offensive term used by white South Africans 

I was totally outraged until I noticed that the Food Network said “kefir” not “kaffir”. Seems like “kefir” is a “tangy, yogurt-like fermented drink that’s made from dairy milk or water and kefir grains, a type of yogurt starter with a gelatinous texture and white to yellow color.”

Never mind.

Recall the posting to my old blog (haroldblack.blogspot.com) on India Hicks.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2011

India Hicks?

In the Wall Street Journal’s weekend edition for April 23-24 was an article entitled “India Hicks”. I was expecting 
1. seeing a woman in a sari smoking a corncob pipe
2. guys throwing hummus cans out of pickups
3. people ordering light bread pita sandwiches
4. elephants with “88” painted on their sides
5. Ravi Shankar-Dolly Parton Grand Ole Opry videos
6. trailer parks in New Delhi
7. reruns of the Mumbai Hillbillies
8. sales reports on white socks and Blue Ribbon beer in Bangalore
9. Jeff Foxworthy routines of “you might be a brown neck”.
10. cobra handling

But no. It turned out to be an article on an interior designer of that name. To quote Ruth Buzzi “never mind”.

Trump is to be sentenced four days before the republican convention. Why are the republicans holding their convention in Milwaukee? Yes I know it is in part an effort to get Wisconsin back in the republican column. But Milwaukee will go for Biden regardless and is solidly democrat. It is solidly union, has elected three socialist mayors, and hasn’t elected a republican mayor since 1908. Its mayor has said “I’m a Democrat, and I don’t espouse to support any of the policy proposals that Republicans will spew” “But I’m a mayor of a city that wants to have large-scale investment and exposure.” What about going to Green Bay instead? I guess Milwaukee may be the only city in the state with enough hotel rooms to host to convention but somehow Green Bay can accommodate the Packer fans on football Sunday.

Back to Trump’s sentencing. He can be fined, given a suspended sentence or sent to jail. The thinking is that in no way would the judge send Trump to jail. But what if he did? From all accounts, the judge was prejudicial. First, he allowed the trial even though an impressive array of legal minds argued that the case was bogus. Second, he granted leeway to the prosecution that some argued was unusually lenient. Third, the judge’s instructions to the jury were just plain weird. He said (quoting another source) “that it is not a requirement for them to be in unanimous agreement about what “other crime” Trump committed, instead receiving a choice of three separate crimes they can select to convict the former president.” Again, I am no attorney but couldn’t the verdict be overturned on appeal simply because of these instructions to the jury?

The democrats have failed to derail the Trump campaign due to Biden’s incompetence. Would it be a shock if the judge – who is obviously biased – remanded Trump to jail sending him off in shackled to serve out his time? Would that stop Trump from being nominated at the convention? If so who would the republicans nominate? Surely not Nikki Haley. Wouldn’t they be obligated to nominate Trump if he has the most delegates pledged to him? If they nominated Trump, would the judge allow him to campaign from jail? Well Joe Biden campaigned successfully from his basement. Of course, a vice president nominee would emerge from the republican convention and that person could do the campaigning as would a bevy of surrogates. Then what if Trump were elected from prison? Could he pardon himself to allow himself to go to the White House? BTW, the Constitution is silent on whether a convicted felon or even one imprisoned can be elected president. It only speaks to birth and age.

This verdict has those on the left celebrating. I know people who are overjoyed. But I caution you. As I said when Harry Reid suspended the 60 vote rule to elect Obama’s judges, what goes around. Reid got his judges but Trump got Kavannah, Gorsuch and Barrett. Dems may be rejoicing the Trump conviction but Pandora’s box is now open. Expect that Republican AGs will go after high ranking dems on flimsy charges. Expect that if Trump is elected that his “Justice” Department will have a different view of justice than Biden’s. Expect charges brought against all the Bidens, Mayokas, Garland and a host of others. You ain’t seen anything yet.

So now Biden wants for the justice system respected? In response to the New York conviction of Trump he now says “Our justice system has endured for nearly 250 years and it literally is the cornerstone of America. Our justice system should be respected.” Huh? This is from a guy who says to ignore the Supreme Court ruling on abortion. He said “What we’re witnessing wasn’t a constitutional judgment, it was an exercise in raw political power,” “We cannot allow an out of control Supreme Court, working in conjunction with extremist elements of the Republican party, to take away freedoms and our personal autonomy.” Wow. That certainly shows respect for the law. Biden also has defied the Court’s ruling on his student loan forgiveness. Remember when he said “The Supreme Court blocked it but that didn’t stop me.” This guy also has his agencies routinely exceed their authority in pursuit of DEI and climate change and is regularly sued by the Republican AGs. Our justice system should be respected? Only when it suits him.

Again, it appeared to me that the democrat strategy was to sue Trump whenever possible to make him the sympathetic choice to face Biden thinking that he was the only republican that Biden could beat. Now that Biden has botched the job so badly, the strategy was then to keep Trump off the campaign trail by making him sit in court. When that didn’t seem to affect his poll numbers the democrat strategy has now become to try to bankrupt him.

I am certainly no lawyer but I would bet that all the Trump trials will result in convictions. Does anyone think that juries in New York, Washington, DC and Atlanta would vote for acquittal? However, each conviction will be overturned. But Trump won’t be refunded a penny for all the millions he’s paying to his attorneys.

There is little need to point out the unevenness of “justice” in this country. We blacks have been on the wrong end of it too many times. Yet this is one of the starkest reminders that justice is not blind. Just look at the parallels: Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden himself. You can find the same – or worse – incidences by them that Trump is being accused of. Yet no indictments and no convictions. And what about Hunter?

Respect for the justice system? Way to go Brandon.

Harold A Black

May 27, 2024

I was looking at a Cubs game, they were announcing a pride night in Chicago with a pride Cubs jersey giveaway. Oh boy, I bet folks will be lined up for that much like the Dodger fans lined up for the Shohei Ohtani bobblehead. Well the Powers-that-Be has designated June as Pride month – although I don’t know what they are proud about. Anyway, who decides what month is which? Last year we went to a Tampa Rays game and found out it was Pride night. Most but not all of the employees were wearing rainbow stuff. The field was decked out in rainbow colors and it was the most weird collection of fans I had ever seen with various piercings, face paint and colorful attire. I was wondering if these prideful folks only showed up for pride night since I had not seen them at any of  the other games we had attended. Or rather, if they were at those games, why were they not dressed in their prideful attire? Why do they have to make it a point to look so weird? Well we are going to a Tampa Bay game when we make our annual camping trip to Madeira Beach. Saturday night is pride night so we are going to the Friday night game. Of all of the major league baseball teams only the Texas Rangers do not have a pride night. The Rangers are nonapologetic about not hosting the LBGTQ crowd and are refusing to genuflect to the pressure. I salute them.

Remember when calling someone a queer was insulting?

Did you see where the park superintendent in Denali national park in Alaska asked contractors not to fly the American flag but she flies the pride flag? Senator Dan Sullivan vigorously protested but interestingly no word yet from Lisa Murkowski. 

I don’t care if someone is LBGTQ. What I mind is the effort to indoctrinate young children through the drag shows and gay literature in the schools. This is a private matter left out of the public domain.

I mind the overly public displays of kissing, holding hands and flaunting one’s sexuality in public. But I am equally offended by heterosexual displays.

Is there a straight pride month?

Somehow we have gotten to the point where people get fired for resisting the LBGTQ mantra. The left has demanded tolerance – except to the Jews – so keep your criticism to yourself. Federal, state and local governments fly the pride flag during pride month. Biden even hosts a group at the White House and flys the flag. Hopefully, this year a trans person won’t expose his artificial breasts.  I am certain that with its leftist leaders the city of Knoxville will fly pride colors but I doubt if the county or the state will do so. My feeling is that if you want to fly the pride flag then why don’t you fly the flag for whose ever month it is? For example, June is also African-American Music Appreciation Month, Caribbean-American Heritage Month and National Safety Month. If you are going to fly the pride flag, then make room on the flagpole for the other three.

I wonder what the African American Music Appreciation flag looks like?

I was on a talk radio show – one in which I appear monthly – and the engineer played a Rolling Stones song as a lead in. I told him that if I when I am on the show not to ever play the Stones. When asked why, I told them that I have never gotten over “Brown Sugar”, one of the Stones’ greatest hits. When asked why I read the lyrics which are about slavery and the rape of black women. I could never figure out how this ever got radio play and no one pointeed out the lyrics. Think I am kidding? See for yourself:

Brown Sugar

The Rolling Stones

Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields 
Sold in the market down in New Orleans 
Skydog slaver know he’s doin’ all right 
Hear him whip the women, just around midnight

Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good? 
Brown Sugar, just like a young girl should, oh no

Drums beatin’ cold, English blood runs hot 
Lady of the house wonderin’ when it’s gonna stop 
House boy knows that he’s doin’ all right 
You should have heard him, just around midnight

Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good? 
Brown Sugar, just like a young girl should, yeah

Brown Sugar, how come you dance so good? 
Oh, got me quittin’ 
Brown Sugar, just like a black girl should, yeah

Now, I bet your mama was a tent show queen 
And all her boyfriends were sweet 16 
I’m no school boy but I know what I like 
You should have heard them, just around midnight

Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good? Oh, no no 
Brown Sugar, just like a young girl should

I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, woo 
How come you, how come you dance so good? 
Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo 
Just like a, just like a black girl should 
Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo

Random Thoughts

The Supreme Court upheld the funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – one of the terrorist groups in the Federal government. Clarence Thomas writing for the majority stated that the Congress has wide latitude in the funding of agencies when they mandated that the CFPB be funded out of surplus funds at the Fed. Well the Fed for the past few years has been running a deficit meaning that it has no surplus funds. Well how can the CFPB be funded if there are no surplus funds?

Biden is still trying to buy votes by his last forgiving of student loans. Its “only” $7.7 billion which amounts to a rounding error in the budget. But again it is in defiance to the Supreme Court ruling that he does not have the authority to cancel student debt. The president ignoring the law does not set a good example for the rest of us.

The Harvard board decided unanimously to deny granting degrees to the 13 worse pro Hamas student demonstrators. Two were Rhodes scholars and were Muslim. One was from Pakistan and should have been expelled from the country. One hundred and fifteen faculty members – likely from the nonacademic majors like gender studies – had voted to allow the miscreants to graduate. Some have threatened further action against the university for ignoring their whines. The board’s actions surprised me especially because its chair is Penny Pritzker who is not known for rational thought.

I would hate to be a Jew on the Northwestern campus, Not only did the president cave to all the demands of the pro Hamas agitators, he then went before the congress and lied about it. Northwestern agreed to give scholarships to Palestinians, to establish professorships for Palestinians, to study its investments and relationships with Israeli universities. Logic would have it that in the spirit of diversity, equity and inclusion that the university would do the same for the Jews. But no.

Biden’s Title IX revision is a joke. Now just claim to be another gender and be allow access to the facilities of the other sex (yes there are only two). Males can play women’s sports. Obviously, Biden has the trans vote but why tick off the rest of us? My advice to the girls is “just say no.” If a boy shows up, don’t participate. If one goes into the locker room, walk out. Remember ignore your Marxist teachers, principals and school boards. Your parents have your back.

Trump has three groups of advisors plotting strategy for his return. They are on tariffs, immigration and the Fed. The tariff group is a bunch of mercantilists who think that tariffs will preserve jobs by keeping out competition despite evidence to the contrary. The Fed group wants the president to be consulted on monetary policy. The immigration group wants to expel the 30+ million illegals from the country. The Fed group has forgotten what harm a democrat president could do to the country, much less Donald Trump. As to the immigration group, I would hate to live in a country that would evict 30 million people regardless of legal status.

A friend of mine pointed out that the spate of rules and regulations from the Biden camp are coming fast and furious because they are trying to get as much in place in case he loses. That way Trump will spend all his time trying to purge Biden as much as Biden as tried to purge Trump.

The one thing I dislike about major league baseball is the umpires inability to tell what is a ball and what is a strike. Some like C B Buckner and Angel Hernandez are worse than others but most are bad. Although 90 percent of the calls are correct, umpires still miss on average 14 calls per game. Most of this missed calls are one balls thrown on the edges left or right or up or down were bad calls. That is stunning but look at any game and I get the calls will have you scratching your head. I favor use of technology to call balls and strikes and just let the home plate umpire call foul balls and the plays at the plate. Currently there is an automated ball-strike (ABS) technology being used in the minor leagues but MLB says it is not ready for prime time. I watch baseball and have seen umpires routinely miss balls and strikes that are on the edges of the strike zone. Two times balls were clearly out of the strike zone but were called third strikes with two outs in the last inning with runners on base. But there is no appeal. What is particularly disturbing is that If the ABS is not ready then I suggest that teams be allowed to appeal balls and strikes. If the team loses the appeal then the team loses its ability to appeal a call in the field. I don’t know if this is optimal but MLB needs to do something about the umpires’ inability to accurately call balls and strikes on the edges.

Lastly, did you see where the majority of House democrats voted against repeal of the DC law to let the District’s 40,000 noncitizens vote in local elections? Now how do you think the democrats really feel about allowing the 30+ million illegals and all the legal noncitizens vote?

Harold A Black

May 24, 2024

I’m a dog person and dogs know it. Perhaps they sense it because they very seldom are aggressive toward me. I once was called by my vet who wanted to know if I were interested in another female German Shorthaired Pointer (my favorite breed). They said her owner was terminally ill and wanted to find her a nice home. The only problem was that she didn’t like men. I said “She will like me.” When I went to see her I met her in the back of the building. She came right to me, sat wagging her bobbed tail and looked at me with sad brown eyes. I took her home. Her name was Greta. She was wonderful and protective. She was patient and loving with my grandkids, including my then young grandson. But if a strange male came to the door she would literally attack the door. However, if I told her it was all right and let someone into the house, she would either go into her crate or lie on her pillow and forget about the visitor. I would occasionally host a poker game. Greta with my other two GSPs would be on pillows in the kitchen while we played in the dining room. I would tell the players to ignore the dogs and don’t pet them. Once I was ignored and one player reached down to pet Greta. She bit him.  He never played in our game again.

The only time she threatened a woman was when my other half was recovering from a horrific automobile accident. A nurse came to the house periodically to take blood and do other ministrations. One day the nurse hurt her while drawing blood and continued even though told to stop. Greta jumped up on the bed and growled deeply at the nurse who asked “Is she going to bite me?” “Yes, if you don’t stop.” The nurse stopped. From that point on, Greta had to be put in another room whenever that nurse appeared.

A few years ago a German Shorthaired named CJ won best of show at Westminster. CJ made my GSPs look like mutts and got me wondering which breeds had never won best of show at Westminster. I was shocked to find that 11 of the top 20 breeds had never won best of show including the Labrador retriever and the Golden Lab. In fact, 160 breeds have never won best in show. Obviously, the judges are prejudiced with blind spots. How else to explain it? The breeds that have won the most are the wire fox terrier (15 times), the Scottish terrier (my other half’s favorite breed) 8 times and the English springer spaniel (6 times). The standard poodle has won 4 times and this year the winner was the miniature poodle. Personally, I hate the poodle cut and would disqualify the dog because of it.

If your breed is one of the 160 that has never won best of show, then why bother showing up? All the goldens, all the Labs, the dachshunds, rottweilers, Welsh corgis, Great Danes, Shih Tzu, miniature schnauzer, Australian shepherds and French bulldogs are just wasting their time. Even those that have only won once have the odds stacked against them like the Pomeranians and cocker spaniels. They might as well stay home.

In today’s world there would be massive protests by those on the left demanding equity and fairness at Westminster. Even though the best of every breed gets a participation trophy, equity would demand that one of the 160 win best of show. That means that for the next 160 years one of those dogs would take home the top prize. It would only be fair!