Ah well there's always ice fishing

 MN Governor Tim Walz was "a little surprised" he and Kamala Harris lost the presidential election to Donald Trump.  He feels "I did the best I could."  Not in the VP debate with Vance you didn't you knucklehead.   In his first post-election interview with KSTP a Minnesota news outlet he said "It felt like at the rallies, at the things I was going to, the shops I was going in, that the momentum was going our way."  Rallies can be a lot like rock concerts.  You go to a blink-182 concert and you think the whole world likes blink-182.  So puberty blockers and transgender surgery for minor kids had nothing to do with your loss.  It's really that the rest of the country isn't progressive enough is his take.

I hope you run into a nice school of yellow perch.

To prognosticate or not to prognosticate

 Normally I would not prognosticate a presidential election this close but I will although not with supreme confidence as there will be millions of Americans default voting against Trump.  It will come down to the economy as it usually does.  Harris can point to this or that positive economic indicator but what people are paying for groceries is still too high.  Too many people still remember the Trump pre-pandemic economy when a trip to the supermarket was more normal.  This remains an albatross for Kamala Harris.  People also have been paying too much at the pump although I went to the station the other day and the cost took a remarkable dip.  What a coincidence!  Most voters are not academics and don't intellectualize that presidents don't really control the price of oil.  It was the Biden/Harris Administration during this time.  Correlation in the public mind and that's usually enough.  That the polling is still this close shows the defects in Trump's personality have had a negligible impact.  Disposable income trumps Trump you could say.  I want more disposable income to buy cigars.  To the undecideds Harris might be different than Biden but why take the chance?  If you vote wrong that's a long four years.  Trendy issues like climate change and trans issues those are more issues for the Left imo not bread and butter for most folk.  Abortion could have a significant but overall limited impact since people's views run the gamut.  It's the economy stupid.

Trump wins.  Not by a landslide but he comes out on top when the dust settles.  My somewhat shaky prognostication.

Is the pro-abortion vote enough to swing the election?

Complex but in the final analysis I'm gonna say no.  The msm would probably say yes.  So far I've seen only one commercial from Kamala Harris, a short tv ad talking about workers and the economy and protecting reproductive rights.  The pro-abortion vote - I would have to say that demographic is fairly sexually active and as my brother likes to say it's like they plan on having abortions (ok not the best way of putting it but you get the gist).  However there are other people out there, quite a few who are not into abortion, who don't like abortion and you don't have to be an official card-carrying RTL member to feel this way.  Also a large portion of the population go to bed every night in cold sheets.  They'll even say they've had nothing going on for years maybe had a bad marriage.  Abortion may not be uppermost in their minds.  Just a ramble and I'll cap it here.

Is Kamala Harris over-emphasizing the issue?

Random Thoughts On Last Tango In Paris (1972)

Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.  Widely seen as a landmark in the history of sexual explicitness in cinema.  So where was the explicit sex I must have missed it?  Even the uncut version is not overly graphic.  Many people if the movie is mentioned automatically think of butter.  That's a childish mind.  Some of the scenes that come to my mind is the character of Paul played of course by Marlon Brando talking to his dead wife alone in the room as she's being prepared for burial.  To my mind this is some of the best acting in the history of cinema.  Also the classic ending where Jeanne played by Maria Schneider shoots him.   The ending is so open-ended it called for a sequel but there never was one.  She's rehearsing her lines for when the police will interview her later (he was a lunatic, I never knew him, he tried to rape me) but so many people had already seen them together at the dance hall but the movie simply ends with the sultry music coming on.  My takeaway - she was okay with having a kind of strange even perverse relationship with him.  She kept going back to him in the apartment even though she was engaged to another man yet when Paul wanted a normal loving relationship with her she basically kept saying it's over and killed him.  A cinematic and much discussed enigma.  Although not by any stretch an exemplary character he's been through the mill after his wife's gruesome suicide and this is his fate.  A movie with many layers to it it's worth a watch or a few.  The actress appeared nude in many of the scenes while Brando kept his clothes on except for one brief scene early on where they didn't show much.  Much vulgar language throughout.  So that's my take the movie is worth diving into.

Trumpology

Transgendered people cannot now serve in the U.S. military.  The rationale being to go to the Pat Robertson bbq?

The SCOTUS TX Abortion Decision

I'll be honest I don't much follow the abortion debate  anymore main reason is it's agitating especially right before you go to bed.  A large
part of society practices abortion, always have and always will so that social fact is agitating so I prefer to think of other things.  I'm tangentially aware of the issue though as Justice Kennedy didn't much care for those abortion restrictions down in TX designed to close as many clinics as possible.  Must be my advancing age, my general social irritability as when presented with the need for abortion these days I'm most likely to go had to have sex didn't you?  (Church Lady id)  Those women activists down in TX they act like they won the World Series or the Super Bowl or something.   IMO the Ole Gray Lady's love for abortion and yes it is love is on another level, otherworldly even.  OK agita;)

Where to pee in North Carolina

Personally I prefer a tree in the woods.  You don't have to bring a birth certificate either.

The death of Prince, a break from the Trump cycle

According to the wiki meaning provided by Prince himself Purple Rain means "the end of the world, being with the one you love, letting your faith/god guide you."  Prince was a religious sex symbol and according to one Times writer his sexual orientation was he loves You.  Prince dead at 57.  Why do the world's dictators live such long lives?  Former SS guards live into their 90's, Manson still getting three squares a day?  Prince 1958-2016 RIP

Now why would you wanna rile old Huckabee up?

The case of Rowan County KY clerk Kim Davis and her biblically rooted refusal to license gay couples could be an episode of "Modern Family."  Federal Judge Bunning says she'll remain in jail until she complies.  What is this Cuba?  It reeks of an eerie and creepy totalitarianism.  Even the first gay couple to get their marriage license in that somewhat hostile county didn't want to see her go to jail.  Why not start with a fine and see how it goes?  Maybe Rosie O'Donnell can waterboard her:)

Thoughts on the Ashley Madison hacking issue

Ashley Madison has 37 million users? Why get married? play the field if that's your thing. I can't believe nobody but nobody saw this coming! OK so the hackers are threatening to release ALL the account information on all the millions of users of this online adultery website. That'd be real interesting when the List finally does come out. I wanna know if anyone I know is on the list. Don't tell me you're not curious. Reminds me of typing your VIN# on the government safer cars website to see if you have an open recall. How many open recalls on marriages are there gonna be in this new and massive adultery database? They can't be fixed either by ordering an airbag inflator or ignition part. Notice your spouse suddenly having more bouts of diarrhea? skid marks in the drawers? anxiety/stress, poor sleep? kinda quiet lately? goes for that extra tumbler of Scotch and made stronger than usual without the ice cubes and the ginger ale? Wanna see the doctor honey? Yup it should be interesting.

Planned Parenthood, fetal harvesting and a roomful of beagles

Liberals have always acted like you're emotionally, morally and spiritually obligated to support Planned Parenthood. Actually that's not true, it's up to you. I'm not against birth control but I am personally against abortion so for me to support Planned Parenthood is a logical impossibility and the extended topic of fetal harvesting is definitely out of the question.  Doesn't make me a bad person. It's a larger issue for me than the latest undercover viral video made by the pro-life group Center for Medical Progress showing PP not in the best light. We can discuss that and folks are sure to bring up PP health clinics are big on breast cancer screenings, STD prevention and whatnot but now we got a little beagle problem on our hands. Let's say your local animal shelter does exemplary work for the most part, placing adoptions of pets, spaying and neutering and shots but in the room in the back they gas beagles maybe once a week. Some will support the shelter 100%, some will support part of the shelter and pretend the other room doesn't even exist and some may not go there at all because they're morally opposed to cat/dog euthanasia on principle. The grisly room in the back overrides everything else for some people. In my view that's perfectly valid and needs to be respected. Ditto those who withhold their moral support for PP because an integral part of their daily work is they do provide abortions. Again I'm not getting why I'm a bad person if I don't support the organization.

Take me to your 9 Leaders

Thoughts on the SCOTUS' latest rulings on ObamaCare and gay marriage...

It's not that I don't care about the Hillary e-mail scandal, it's that I don't care

Conservative commentators are sure riled up about this one and it doesn't even involve Sex. I have the barest skeleton knowledge of the scandal and that's because, well the title says it. For me it's like a scandal totally revolving around some technical violation like a worker not washing his hands after he comes out of the stall. Now there are still people who won't vote for Hillary Clinton because they feel the Clintons had Vince Foster murdered but at least this is more interesting subject matter. Look I watch quite a few of them true-crime shows like Snapped on the Escape channel and cops today are pretty sophisticated in these matters. A few of them are quite good at sniffing out the vaguest, the most subtle wisp of a major crime what with advanced forensics and all and believe me if there was really something there we'd hear about it. A couple conservative commentators are focused on Russell Brand's porn addiction and his new anti-porn stance (now there's an old subject I thought was kinda settled) but conservative commentary in general has been well-dispersed in its topics over the years. Instead of focusing on the things that really matter you'll get one that really goes off on a tangent, say Maggie Gallagher who starts ruminating about all things marriage and why this demographic group that never married is gonna be more unhappy and...it's just gets tiresome and all like this is gonna defeat ISIS. OK so about the scandal tell me why I should care.

In other Pope Francis news

Ebola and ISIS have kind of consumed the news of late but there's also the gay synod, I mean the synod that addresses gays and the Church. The draft of the draft is widely seen as being pro-gay, the only thing missing are the sex ads and Pope Francis always seems to be flirting with changing church teachings but then denies having led you on. He's a bit of a theological coquette but he still gives you that tingle. So the pre-draft/working paper talks about the gifts gays bring to the Church and society. Nobody's denying this (interior decorating, the arts, Chaz Dean's WEN Shampoo) but the more traditional wing of the Church wants to crack down harder on the sodomites and those couples in general who are living in sin. Now Francis always noted for saying Trendy Things has also said you can believe in evolution and God at the same time, there's no contradiction. I've no problem but do the evolutionists think that? Does Stephen Hawking agree with Francis? doubt it. OK so the church cafeteria is open and I'm gonna go grab me a bottle of abbey ale:)

iCloud Storage for Life's most intimate moments

Re that celebrity nude photo hacking scandal personally speaking I don't use my smartphone for those purposes. I'd be slightly trepidatious and I don't care if it's on your device, in the Cloud, on the moon whatever. Maybe it's trendy right now among the Hollywood set, take a picture of your twat and put it in the Cloud but even if you delete it from your device it's still right up there floating around in the atmosphere somewhere along with Anthony Weiner's pecker. BTW what's Ariana Grande doing on the list? Now the time and effort by these pervo-nerds to actually pull this off by one hacker's admission it took literally months of time and hard effort. Two things do they work and think of the energy that could have been committed to a cancer cure instead or even a successful weight loss program! Apple and iOS are supposed to be impervious to these types of things not like the ever dangerous Android operating system but I've always said that's only a matter of time. The new iPhone 6 is supposed to have a bigger screen something like 5+" and I'm thinking a phone should be rather fairly small to begin with. Ya got a phone now with the screen the same size as a small tv set - "Excuse me I have to make a phone call" - and there's an old guy at church I know has a big one by the size of his black case prominently strapped to his belt for all the parishioners to see. Probably an LG, showoff. So what kind of gallery do you have? BB's smart, he doesn't have a phone.

Maybe it's not so much the NSA, maybe it's Google

Slow day at work so we got to discussing Google. A woman thinks Google+ is a good idea but I said I wasn't comfortable. That's a public profile so if you're not big on privacy folks can get to see that you downloaded The Advanced Guide to Rimjobs let's say or a self-help book regarding substance abuse. I was reading an app review for Yonkers PD Tips and there's an actual guy's name who commented and I clicked something and got to see his literal movie, book and music library on whatever devices Mike has. Now they make conservatives out to be nosy people poking around in folks' business but I really don't care to know all this. Google Maps and the Street View, guy at work told me how they get those images. They have a team who drive these white cars around with yellow things on top that take the pictures and they do this every six months. Hey BB there's a job for ya. Of course out in CA Google is test-driving driverless cars and then there's all the Glassholes out there. It's ALL OUT THERE but it ain't all good imo. Dunno, maybe the Snowden rage is misplaced or could be divvied up more. Mommy there's a Google monster under my bed.

OK so maybe now we can all hate the SCOTUS

For decades now conservatives have hated the Supreme Court because of the Roe vs. Wade decision among other things. There are other things of course but that was/is primary. NOW liberals including feminists and the New York Times hate the SCOTUS because of its recent Hobby Lobby decision even though for the longest time liberals have counseled accepting Roe as the Law of the Land mainly because the SCOTUS said so. Here's a thought though, maybe the Supreme Court shouldn't be the most powerful branch of government in the Land. If it takes the various cycles of the political pendulum to see that so be it.

Other thoughts on the Santa Barbara shootings

I was watching the PBS Newshour last night and Judy Woodruff was interviewing reporter Adam Nagourney of The New York Times. I didn't know this but Mr. Nagourney stated quite clearly that the guns 22-yr. old shooter Elliot Rodger used in the seaside massacre in Isla Vista were all legally purchased and CA has some of the nation's strictest gun control laws on the books. I've long felt while I'm fairly in support of gun control in many cases and welcome some legislation to that effect I'm also realistic enough to know it's not the magic bullet if you'll pardon the pun. It was truly a bizarre manifesto Rodger left behind and my first thought was angel dust or bath salts but you know what's scary? if you're this Nutz and you're NOT on drugs, I mean at least ex-rapper Big Lurch can fall back on that. My other thought was let's say Rodger in his YouTube videos and other postings steered clear of the more violent and weirder elements it would have come across as angry and whiny but truth be told many men would have agreed with him. So instead of discussing maybe a valid social issue or two once the person behind the "cause" resorts to violence that invalidates the cause right off the bat so then the trending topic turns to potential armies of psycho virgins training in the caves somewhere instead of maybe what alot of men can relate to. I honestly think if he was this far gone take away ALL his guns he would have easily found another way to commit mayhem perhaps with a samurai sword say. This is one of the very rare times when I actually agree with the Scientologists as I don't put much stock in psychiatry as a whole as the guy had his therapists and counselors and look what happened. The debate needs to go beyond gun control and the latest theories of the shrinks but that's where it seems to be stuck:)

Further thoughts on Pope Francis

Haven't been selling as much seafood at work as we thought we would despite a fairly strong demographic showing of Catholics in the area then I thought maybe I missed the memo, maybe this theological modster changed the rules again and we can now eat meat on Fridays during Lent. He has so many things in his head that are spilling out right now (e.g. civil unions) that the Vatican is scrambling to spin things along the lines of don't read too much into his words he's still upholding Church teaching but I'm wondering how long they can do this before they say Houston we have a problem. He was recently voted Man of the Year by BOTH Time magazine and the gay-rights magazine The Advocate so unless he's down with that I would have expected a polite but clarifying letter-to-the-editor to the gay review. The phrase I'm hearing most lately is he's some sort of rock star. That's kind of an interesting analogy considering the personal history of most rock stars and it kinda puts faith on a cheap pop culture level (Justin Biebs in charge of interfaith/ecumenical affairs?). If I may borrow a line from the classic Sidney Poitier movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Francis seems to be saying to all the mostly dead popes except one who have gone before him "it's time we got the dead weight of your generation off our backs" (Spencer Tracy was a great actor btw). Things are murky right now but Francis' foglight seems to be beckoning in the opposite direction so try not to hit all those traditionalists bobbing in the water as you steer towards some progressive's promised land. Does he have a Facebook page yet?

& oh btw Happy Birthday

I'm just a few days shy of my 50th B'day and already I got a one-year membership offer from the AARP in the mail yesterday (didn't know they did this that early)and if I join now I get a free tote bag. Then for practically the whole past year my doctor has been peppering our discussions with the subject of colonoscopies. I feel like a vampire, I've been alive for half a century already. There's something gauche and vaguely offensive imo about all of this as I feel you should enjoy your birthday without incident instead of others overlaying it with dreadful reminders. It should be a light and happy time no matter what your age but in this case instead of thinking about a birthday cake with candles they got me thinking about the ass then the AARP got me thinking about my mortality (how much more time do I have?). Hell instead of downloading the latest issue of the Nat'l Review why don't I just subscribe to Arthritis Today? So is a colonoscopy indicated at the exact stroke of midnight as soon as you turn the big 5-0? I think it has more to do with our cultural OCD obsession with round numbers that end in zero. Remember all the media coverage of the 47th anniversary of JFK? didn't think so. Maybe in a few years time, hell maybe in a few months I'll get a brochure from Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. I've pretty much decided after much thought and Internet sleuthing the full hardcore 4' colonoscopy is off the table for me and I've said as much. As well I don't need a handy travel bag with the AARP logo just yet but thanks just the same. I pretty much just want to enjoy my birthday so leave me alone. You turn the 1/2 century mark and they got one foot in the grave for you already. Lastly conservatives have spent a lifetime talking about the importance of the rich and powerful that they can make you feel pretty insecure about yourself. Of course the sex-drenched men's magazines don't help matters and don't take into account all your romantic failures so when you put the two together you're supposed to be a Trump or a Koch Bros. who gets laid all the time. Better yet after you're done with me you can put a birthday candle in there and leave the tote bag on the side:)