I Got Your Message

The person who I am writing about is a “friend” for about 20 years. I expected that she would be a friend till I died. For some reason, she has not responded to my e-mails or my invitation to have lunch. I’m stunned. She was so helpful to me at different turbulent periods in my life, notably when Chris had breast cancer. Not the first time I have experienced this where I feel frozen out.

******

Geez, it sure has been awhile since we last spoke
So I called your cell phone hoping to catch up.
No answer.
So I left you a short message asking you to call back when you had the time.
No response.

I figured you missed my phone message so I texted you.
I know you are busy but I was counting on you seeing my text
So I drafted a short message asking you contact me when you had the time hoping to catch up.
No response.

We always remembered each other’s birthday so I e-mailed a funny card
I figured you were busy but I was sure this would brighten your day and spark a reply
I included a short message with the card asking you contact me when you had the time.
No response.

No response to my phone message, text and e-mail, so I wrote a personal letter
I figured that even if you were busy, you would take the time to read of my confusion and disappointment on your non-response when you had downtime.
I ended the letter asking you to contact me
No response.

A few months later, I had lunch with another mutual friend
Aware of my numerous efforts to contact you, I was asked,
”Did you ever receive a response from all the texts and messages you sent?
“Sadly I did,” I replied.

Resonance

Words, phrases, ideas and thoughts of resonance…

“Moving on, after all, is the favorite American activity. And technology has exacerbated our twitchy consciousness and sensationalist culture. We now live in a world of nothing but distractions, with a blizzard of stimuli.”
Kim and Pete, or Vladimir and Volodymyr? NYT Maureen Dowd 4/10/22

“Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson today became the first Black woman to be confirmed to the Supreme Court, in case you’re wondering why the flag over the Fox News building is at half-staff.” — SETH MEYERS

“Today’s today’s housing market has become a game of musical chairs due mostly to the significant inventory shortage,” said Ken H Johnson a real estate economist at Florida Atlantic university. “No one wants to be holding equity, but the trade-offs, moving to a lower cost part of the country, overpaying to own or over paying to rent, are not very attractive.”

“For years, exercise scientists tried to quantify the ideal “dose” of exercise for most people. They finally reached a broad consensus in 2008 with the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, which were updated in 2018 after an extensive review of the available science about movement, sitting and health. In both versions, the guidelines advised anyone who was physically able to accumulate 150 minutes of moderate exercise every week, and half as much if it is intense.”

Is 30 Minutes of Exercise a Day Enough? NYT Gretchen Reynolds 4/6/22

“Liberalism’s most important selling point remains the pragmatic one that has existed for centuries: its ability to manage diversity in pluralistic societies. Yet there is a limit to the kinds of diversity that liberal societies can handle. If enough people reject liberal principles themselves and seek to restrict the fundamental rights of others, or if citizens resort to violence to get their way, then liberalism alone cannot maintain political order. And if diverse societies move away from liberal principles and try to base their national identities on race, ethnicity, religion, or some other, different substantive vision of the good life, they invite a return to potentially bloody conflict. A world full of such countries will invariably be more fractious, more tumultuous, and more violent.”

A Country of Their Own:Liberalism Needs the Nation Foreign Affairs Francis Fukuyama

Moral Responsibility

Who is more morally reprehensible? The person or persons who commit or initiate acts of murder, violence, atrocity, and treachery OR the person or persons by either their active support or silence condone the evil that is occurring or has occurred?
EAB

Smith-Rock (Round 1)

The big news story today is not the war between Ukraine and Russia or Ginni Thomas or the Final Four teams decided for the NCAA Championship. It was a physical altercation between actor Will Smith and comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars. I did not watch the show but I have seen the slap administered by Smith to Rock a few dozen times on social and broadcast media. I have also heard Smith’s profane threats to Rock to keep his wife name out of “your fucking mouth.”

Everyone has an opinion and here is mine that is a bit different than what I have heard on Twitter or elsewhere.

Smith is 6’1. Rock is maybe 5’7. Smith looks like he is in pretty good shape. He needs to be to garner action adventure roles and movies like Ali. Smith picked on a guy who was not capable of fighting back. Smith was a bully.
Smith slapped Rock hard. What intrigued me was that Rock did not fall or go down. For all of Smith’s anger and physical prowess, he was no Ali. Rock took the hit and quickly regained his composure.
I did not see Smith’s acceptance speech live for Best Actor that he won shortly after this incident. He apologized with tears coming down his face to the audience and the Academy but not to Rock. A spineless crowd reportedly gave Smith a standing ovation. That may have been Smith’s best acting performance.
Smith claimed he was defending his wife from a joke that Rock told and that Smith initually laughed at. Jada Pinkett is no Meryl Streep. Pinkett has courted interest and controversy due to the couple’s open lifestyle and extramarital affairs.
I expect that some loony copycats may assault other comedians at clubs or other venues. Smith got away with it. Rock, to his credit, has not pressed assault charges.
Incidents like this give racists ammunition. They’ll argue this was an example of black on black violence shown live before a national audience.
It will be hard for the Academy to find comedians as hosts with this kind of crowd and fears of retribution if an audience member is offended by a joke.

Who is our Zelinskyy?

We exist in a game of lifelong dodgeball. Life throws a lot of challenges and problems where we have to bob, weave, duck and adjust. However well we dodge what is thrown at us, the last throw always hits us and eliminates us from the game.

Antidotes for anxiety and depression: a warm shower, a long walk, favorite music, and leafing through old family pictures.

I had a conversation with my 95-year-old uncle a week or so ago. He mentioned to me that he never feels angry anymore. He views it as a waste of time and given how short of time he may have left, he has downsized useless emotions and feelings. Anger does seem to be one of the top items that all of us should downsize no matter what our age.

If I had a choice and given the unity and bravery of the people and leadership in Ukraine, would I prefer to identify myself as an American? Or as a Ukrainian?

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) at Trump’s Save America Rally in Commerce, Georgia tonight: “And you know what? Pete Buttigieg can take his electric vehicles and his bicycles and he and his husband can stay out of our girls’ bathrooms.” The crowd actually applauded this line…

List of women (Trumpunts) who have me reaching on my remote for the Power Off, mute or change channel buttons…
Marjorie Taylor Greene
Lauren Boebert
Ginni Thomas
Laura Ingraham
Jeanne Pirro
Kayleigh McEnany
Maria Bartiromo
Marsha Blackburn
Toni Lahren
Candace Owens
Ann Coulter
Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Good vs. Evil

Retirement Challenge

The challenge of retirement is adapting to getting older but not getting “old.”
EAB

Eloquence

“My money was losing 7% every year due to inflation so I decided to invest it in the stock market. Now I’m losing 7% every day.” Not Jerome Powell, Twitter

***

“Here we are with a vaccine that can save you from dying or going to the hospital with Covid, and tens of millions of people refuse to help themselves by taking it. Which goes to prove that no pandemic is deadlier than stupidity.” Bret Stephens NYT

***

“Humorlessness has crept in its petty pace to the right, where it is conducted with North Korean-level solemnity by the bellowing myrmidons of MAGAdom. A sense of humor, much less self-awareness, is not a trait found in cults of personality. If Tucker Carlson has said anything advertently funny, witty or self-knowing from his bully pulpit, I missed it. Maybe you had to be there.”Christopher Buckley PJ. O’Rourke and the Death of Conservative Humor

***

There is no official count of the number of pregnant women who have turned to hospitals and clinics when something goes wrong, only to be denied the medical treatment they need on religious grounds. And it’s not easy to publicize the most intimate details of traumatic experiences in order to prove what should not have to be proved: that pregnancy carries significant risk of complications, and hospitals and medical professionals in a modern society ought to allow best practices, rather than religious dogma, to guide their protocols of care.

Why was a Catholic Hospital Willing to Gamble with my Life by Katherine Stewart NYT

***

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was asked to evacuate Kyiv at the behest of the U.S. government but turned down the offer. An American official tells me Zelenskyy said, “The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.”

History Repeating Itself

The similarities between the invasions of Poland in 1939 and Ukraine in 2022 are striking…

September 1, 1939	February 23, 2022
Poland	Ukraine
Hitler	Putin
rationale: revenge for Versailles; reparations	rationale: revenge for 1989; NATO expansion
Final Solution	Denazification
Allies Strategy: “Peace in our Times”	NATO Strategy: Sanctions
Start of World War II	Start of World War III???
Father Coughlin	Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Candace Owens
Charles Lindbergh	Donald Trump
Propaganda: Joseph Goebbels	Propaganda: RT and Fox News
compliant German military and citizens	compliant Russian military and citizens

EAB