Hyperbole Gone Too Far

Every politician stretches the truth. Sometimes it is using selective facts and statistics. Sometimes it is a slight exaggeration, sometimes a gross exaggeration or an outright lie. It may be a lack of knowledge or a mistake or on purpose. 

We have become numb and immune to the normal hyperbole of most politicians. Words like most, best, biggest, first, worst, and other superlatives have mostly lost any real meaning. Unfortunately, the current rounds of political speech have gone too far. Politicians, pundits, reporters bandy about words like traitor, treason, lynch, unAmerican, unpatriotic, fake news, an enemy of the people, hate the US, soviet style behavior, for anyone they disagree with. 

There has also been the use of derogatory personal slurs for those on the other side of the aisle. It's a favorite tactic of Trump. He labels all those who are not in 100% agreement with him. There is Nervous Nancy, Crazy Chuck, Pencil Neck Schiff or Shifty Schiff, Lying Ted, Little Marco, etc. Trump is like that big bully in junior high. 

There are many examples of this completely unacceptable oratory. 

After Democrats questioned the wisdom of assassinating Soleimani in Iraq, certain Republicans said that Dems loved terrorists. That they cared more about Soleimani than gold star parents. What complete bullshit. Trump was the one some months ago who badmouthed a gold star family and former POW John McCain. Not a single Democrat questioned Soleimani's character as a bad guy. They were questioning the administration's decision to kill him at that time in that manner in that location based on less than clear reasons. Amazingly GOP House member Doug Collins apologized for his comments on Fox news. Kellyanne Conway and Nikki Haley didn't feel the need to apologize for their inappropriate comments. I hope everyone remembers their out of bounds slurs. I will.

How about people in both parties just say that they disagree with those on the other side of the aisle. Maybe say that they are completely wrong, uninformed/misinformed, ignorant, have ulterior motives, etc. Do not question their patriotism. Being patriotic does not mean agreeing with everything our government does.

Neither political party has a monopoly on patriotism or dedication to our country. Let's dial back the rhetoric.

wjh

My Top 2020 Election Issues

In our diverse country, we each have political issues that are important to us and others that we barely care about. Those issues differ based on political party, age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, economic status, job, geographical location, and a thousand other things. In fact, the important issues change for individuals throughout life as our circumstances change. Listed below are some of the issues before us as a country for the 2020 presidential election. These issues are not absolutes. Differing definitions blur the exact meaning of each. Some are so intertwined that they can not be separated. None of them are single binary issues and they can not be addressed with a single solution. They are somewhat in my order of importance here going into the 2020 elections. The order may change as domestic and international events occur but they will all still be important. 

1. Climate and environmental change.
2. Health care reform.
3. Immigration reform.
4. Human rights. Including reproductive and gender identity rights.
5. Gun legislation.
6. Tax reform, particularly for corporations and the rich.
7. Campaign finance reform. 
8. The retaking of Congressional authority ceded to the President over the years. That's regardless of which party wins the White House.  
9. A more fiscally responsible budget.
10. Repairing our foreign alliances including trade.
11. Domestic terrorist crackdown.
12. Government corruption.

The top few are somewhat interchangeable depending on the latest news and current events. They are all vitally important. Climate change is both important and very time-sensitive. Inaction could be irreversible and deadly. 

I have no litmus test issues. If a candidate is aligned with me on most issues, she has a chance to get my support and vote. I think we should take every candidate as a whole. I did not agree with Obama on every issue in 2008 or 2012 but overall I thought he was the best candidate for the Democratic party and then in the general election. Likewise, although less so with Hillary Clinton in 2016. I also have optimism that my candidate will come around to the right view on an issue over time. An example is that I have for years been in favor of same-sex marriage, Obama was not. He eventually came around and supported it. I doubt McCain or Romney, Obama's Republican opponents, would have changed their minds.  

I think being a single-issue voter is dangerous to our democracy. That appears to be what happened with Trump. Evangelicals latched on to Trump because he allegedly was anti-abortion and promised to appoint judges that agreed with that stance. He has followed through on that promise, one of the very few he has fulfilled. Those evangelicals also got an immoral president who has committed a plethora of anti-Christian acts, statements, and policies. Trump was also formally a pro-choice advocate until he decided to run for president as a Republican. Always look at the candidate's entire policy, their life, and more importantly, their character. 

I believe most of the Democratic presidential candidates check off my issue boxes in general. The exact plans and implementations vary. I like some more than others. 

It is still early in the campaign and things will change. I hope our citizens pay attention and in November vote with their brains, not with their emotions. Make up your own minds, not what some TV network, newspaper, talk radio personality, or even a political party says to do. 

Decision 2020 is important. Treat it that way.

wjh

2020 New Year Resolutions

I don't usually even attempt to make New Year's resolutions. They seem to be artificial, mostly unrealistic and almost always forgotten in just a few days. That being said, I do have a couple of changes I would like to make going forward. Call them resolutions, goals, targets, behavior modifications, new habits, etc. It doesn't really matter. So, here we go in no particular order.

• Read 60 minutes or 100 pages a day. That means books, short stories, or long-form articles. It does not mean daily news or social media.
• Clean up a backlog of unfinished blog posts. I have about 40 unfinished posts. I need to either finish or discard them. Some are time-sensitive and no longer relevant, others need additional research, and still, others just need to be completed and edited. 
• Be more consistent in my physical activities. Overall, I do OK with cycling and walking but sometimes the activity comes in spurts. I may overdo it for a few days and then mostly lump around for a few. I'd rather do something almost every day. That can be a challenge in the winter.
• Cook more consistently. Same story as above. I've been known to buy and cook enough food for a couple of armies. Then, I may go for a few days with just opening cans, jars, and prepackaged stuff and relying on the microwave. 
• Be careful about overdoing the multi-tasking. I sometimes have three sports programs on at the same time. I put them all on mute and simultaneously listen to music or podcasts and do stuff on my PC. That's too much. Chill Bill.  
• I also plan on going to museums more in 2020 even if I have to go alone. I love museums plus they remind me of my Mom who also loved them. DFW has world-class museums and I need to visit them more often. Maybe some other cultural events too.

I'm lucky that I don't have to resolve to lose x number of pounds or go to the gym. I don't have to give up sweets or cigarettes or coffee.

Wish me luck. I'm not sure whether I'll report back on my success or failure. Happy New Year!

wjh

Very Random Thoughts - December 2019

• I'm so glad that Michael Bloomberg is running nationwide TV political ads for his presidential run. I was afraid we wouldn't have any political ads here in Texas before next year's primaries. 
• When is the last time you saw a tap dancer, not counting kids or grandkids recitals?
• Once again at Christmas, we had many advertisements for perfumes and colognes. I do not understand a single one. 
• A titmouse has nothing to do with a mouse or a tit. 
• It is starting to change, but I never understood why the home team in basketball wore white, usually rather drab uniforms, instead of the school colors. 
• One of the advantages of the digital age, fewer paper cuts.
• A related advantage, I no longer get newsprint all over my hands and everything else. I now read the newspapers on a tablet, phone, or PC.
• Does anyone send real Christmas cards via snail-mail? I got two this year, one from a dear friend with a personal note. Nice.
• Is Scientology still a thing?
• Is Catholocism still a viable religion? Do they have any moral capital left? 
• How many times in 2019 did a good guy with a gun stop a bad guy with a gun not counting law enforcement people?
• Almost every expert and talking head on TV should be required to preface their bloviating with "in my opinion".
• I always encouraged my kids to leave beer and cheese & crackers out for Santa. No milk & cookies needed while trying to assemble the kid's presents. 
• I'm always amazed at how sick people get when they have to go on trial or to jail. Bill Cosby went blind, Paul Manafort got gout and now has heart problems. Harvey Weinstein now needs a walker and or two assistants to walk. Many others too. The rich seem to get much sicker. 
• The term for flying the flag in respect and mourning is half staff. Half mast refers to a broken or incomplete mast on a ship. 
• If you put a fitted sheet and a fitted mattress pad in the dryer together, you will get one or two big balls of laundry at the end of the cycle. 
• I sometimes think that there is a central clearinghouse for questions journalists ask of politicians. They all seem to have the same questions framed in almost the exact same words. 
• I find it a little creepy that Jimmy Dean Sausage is still using Jimmy's voice and pictures in their TV commercials. He's been dead since 2010. 
• We probably should stop saying something is filmed or even taped. Nowadays, almost all video is digitally recorded. No film, no tape. 
• I'm always very suspicious when a product advertisement states not available in stores.
• I wonder how much the members at Doral or Bedminster hate it when Trump shows up to play golf? It has to be extremely disruptive. 
• What's the cutoff for something to still be Breaking News? Is it 15 minutes, an hour, four hours, a day, a week? 
• Sometimes it's not so much that "you can't go home again" as it is "I don't want to go home again".
• Between the holidays and being retired, I have no idea what day it is. 

wjh

Beyond Burger

Fake, or should I say plant-based, burgers and meat are all the rage these days. Several restaurants are heavily advertising these alternatives to beef. I've also read a few articles that compare plant-based to real. Most of them are quite complementary to the plants. Livestock of all types seems to be the newest enemy in our environmental battles for a variety of reasons including cow farts and burps. 

So I tried to be environmentally correct last tonight. I cooked one of those plant-based burgers. It was a Beyond Burger from the Beyond Meat Company. Spoiler alert, this did not turn out well. 

See that nice pink patty in the above picture. My patties were closer to grey. I cooked the patty in a skillet on the stovetop. I even followed the recommended cooking instructions which were four minutes per side over medium-high heat. This "meat" does not smell that great raw and was even worse during cooking. Not a rancid smell, but not pleasant. It also tended to burn a little, the second side worse than the first. There was almost no juice exuded during the cooking. On the bright side, there were no grease splatters to clean up.

Now for the taste test. The short story, after two bites I threw the patty out. The longer story, it was rather dry and the texture was strange. It even seemed to have some gristle. Do they add artificial gristle for more realism? There was no pink center. In fact, there was no color variation except for the burnt spots on the top and bottom. 

The package states "previously frozen". The ones I bought were not frozen and were in the regular meat case. They are supposed to be eaten within three days of thawing. I did eat it by the "use by" sticker on the package although I have no idea when the store actually thawed the package. These plant burgers are no bargain either. The two ¼ lb. patties, a ½ lb total, cost $5.99. That makes this "meat" about $12/lb. That would buy some mighty special ground beef, more expensive than Wagyu beef.

I did some research and it seems these plant burgers are really no healthier than real beef. It depends on what you are most sensitive to or need in your diet. 

4 oz Beyond Burger →

Calories: 250

Total fat: 18 g

Saturated fat: 6 g

Cholesterol: 0 mg

Sodium: 390 mg

Carbohydrate: 3 g

Fiber: 2 g

Protein: 20 g

4 oz Grass-fed beef burger →

Calories: 224

Total fat: 14 g

Saturated fat: 6 g

Cholesterol: 70 mg

Sodium: 77 mg

Carbohydrate: 0 g

Fiber: 0 g

Protein: 22 g

Another issue for me is the ingredient list. Beyond Burgers are truly a man-made manufactured product. Real beef contains one ingredient: cow. A Beyond Burger, however, includes 18 ingredients: water, pea protein isolate, expeller-pressed canola oil, refined coconut oil, rice protein, natural flavors, cocoa butter, mung bean protein, methylcellulose, potato starch, apple extract, salt, potassium chloride, vinegar, lemon juice concentrate, sunflower lecithin, pomegranate fruit powder, and beet juice extract (the beet juice gives the burger its meat-like “blood”). I did not detect any "blood". 

Beyond Burgers might be fine for some people, vegetarians or vegans for example. As for me, I'm going to wait for science to get a little better at imitating a cow. 

wjh

College Bowls 2019/20

Once again it is time for the college football silly season. Each year there are way too many bowl games, only three of which matter. The rest are the equivalent of soccer friendlies or exhibition games. It only takes a .500 season to qualify for a bowl. That means six-win teams get to play. Hardly a mark of excellence. In addition to a lack of good teams, there are also suspect bowl names and locations. Many are just made for TV filler events, particularly by ESPN. So, let's get on with this year's rundown. 

For 2019/2020 there will be 40 bowl games. That means 78 different teams will participate. There are 130 Division 1 - FBS football schools, so 60 % get to play in a bowl. That is quite an exclusive club.  The first game is December 20th, the last on January 6th.

There are always some funny, awkward, or unfortunate bowl names. Almost every bowl now has some tie-in to a title sponsor.  Some of them this year are:

• Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl - Two problems here. First, it is in Nassau Bahamas, not exactly a hotbed for American football. The game is played in a crappy 15,000 seat soccer stadium. We have bigger and better high school football stadiums in Texas. Second, Makers Wanted is just a slogan for an industrial park in Elk Grove Village, IL. 
• Tropical Smoothie Cafe Frisco Bowl - This game is also played in a rather small 20,000 seat soccer stadium. No, it is not in San Francisco, it is in Frisco, TX. 
• Cure Bowl - Again a soccer stadium, this time with 25,500 seats. The CURE refers to breast cancer. 
• Cheribundi Boca Raton Bowl - What's a Cheribundi? It's cherry juice.
• Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl - At least it is played on a natural grass field.
• Walk-On's Independence Bowl -  Walk-On's is a sports bar/restaurant chain. Hardly any of the players will actually be walk-ons. 
• Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl - Shouldn't this be named Tony the Tiger Cereal Bowl? No tigers will be playing in this bowl. It will be the Seminoles vs the Sun Devils. 
• Vrbo Citrus Bowl - Can I buy a vowel? 
• Famous Idaho Potato Bowl - I always find this name confusing. What exactly is famous? Idaho, potatoes, the bowl, some or all of the above? This is the game played on the blue field.
• Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic - Not a funny name but the game is no longer played in the actual Cotton Bowl stadium which still exists, it's at Jerry's World. For a few years, there was a minor bowl at the real Cotton Bowl, but none this year. 

The sponsorships change every year. Many only last a year or two. A few stick around for years. 

Because of the lax requirements for bowl eligibility, there are some pretty bad teams in the mix. If in any year there are not enough six-win teams to fill all the slots, they just waive that requirement. In theory, a six-win team will have a .500 winning percentage. Because we now have conference championship games, some teams play 13 games so a 6-7 team is still good enough. It doesn't look like that aberration happened this year. In fact, there was one extra bowl-eligible team this year. Toledo (6-6) is the unlucky team that lost the lottery. However, there are 13 6-6 teams in the fray. That includes The Kent State Golden Flashes and FSU Noles, two extremes of the college football spectrum.  

Enjoy the games, root for your team. If your school is one of the have-nots who made the dance, this is your chance to get a national TV game and maybe a big upset. If you root for a major school that snuck in with a 6-6 record you just hope for a win so it's not a losing season. I'll certainly watch the three playoff games that count and the Gators play in the Orange Bowl. A few others look interesting too. There is also the yearly tally to see which conference does well in the bowls. The ACC has ten teams in the bowls. The SEC and Big 10 each have nine teams. 

If these 40 games are not enough, remember there is an even sillier season at the end. That would be the four all-star games that have lost almost all relevance in recent years. They are now mostly populated by marginal players hoping for a look by NFL scouts. 

So, let the games begin. Happy bowling. Go Gators! Go SEC!

wjh

Sad, Angry, & Pissed

I held off publishing this post until after the Thanksgiving holiday. I was certainly not thankful for this incident. 

This post is partly a vent and a rant. As the title says, I am sad, angry, and pissed off. 

A few days ago I got a text from my son. He was informing me that one of his friends and softball teammates had been shot and killed. This friend, Jared, was also a friend of mine. I have known him for a few years through the softball team. 

The best way I can describe Jared is that he was a good soul. He was almost always in a good mood despite any problems he was having. He seemed to enjoy life. I never once heard a cross word from him. He was funny and fun to be around. From what I know, he was conscientious and hard-working. Everybody liked Jared. Well everybody but maybe the shooter. 

From the news stories and what I have gathered, Jared was shot by his half brother. The original story to the police by the shooter was that Jared was going into the half brother's house through a window. This house is also Jared's mother's house. The cops were suspicious and a couple of days later filed murder charges. I won't go into the specifics since they really don't matter at this point. The bottom line is that a 30-year-old good man is dead and his 19-year-old half brother is charged with his murder. In addition to the tragic death, that family is now doubly devastated. Unless the shooter confesses, we may never know what actually happened. It has all the makings of a family argument. Jared was shot multiple times, like the kind of shootings that occur during a rage. 

Besides being a good soul, Jared leaves behind a wife and two young boys. From all accounts, he was a very devoted father. He was also a gifted athlete so while his boys may inherit his genes, they will be denied his teaching, coaching, and encouragement in their athletic endeavors not to mention their journey through life. 

The last time several of us saw Jared was on October 16th. The last softball game of the fall season. The Broncos had just won the league championship. It was a fun night. 

Broncos Softball - Jared back row right

My son and I attended the visitation and funeral. Both made me more sad and angry. Hearing from those who knew Jared and seeing the photos and videos of his life reinforced my impressions of him. The funeral was a very nice service with a large crowd. Jared had a big family and many friends. Very nice services and big crowds will not bring Jared back or heal the hole in all our hearts and lives. 

Jared Moore 2016

Now the rant part. While I have no knowledge of whether the gun involved in this tragic incident was legally purchased or the shooter was the owner. That doesn't matter to me. The fact is that a loaded lethal weapon was within easy reach when this situation occurred. That made it deadly instead of maybe a pushing match or a fistfight. That might have resulted in some injuries but probably no deaths. There are way too damn many guns in our society. It is estimated that there are more guns than people in the US. I know several people who have no guns, so some folks have a lot of guns. Why do we need all these guns? About 99.99% of the folks in this country don't need to hunt and shoot for their next meal. Many folks don't live in particularly dangerous areas. The neighborhood where this incident took place is middle-class suburban residential. I know the stock phrases like "guns don't kill, people kill". Well, bullshit. People without guns don't shoot and kill. The fact that a gun is within reach when a family or domestic argument occurs instantly makes that event potentially deadly. 

I have no simple solution but I do know that we need fewer deadly weapons in the public domain. Let's make it harder to buy and own a gun. Let's make it easier to take a gun from those who shouldn't have them. Let's fund more and better mental health services. Let's change focus to saving lives rather than maximizing the profits of gun manufacturers. Let's worry about the gun victims and their families instead of NRA head Wayne LaPierre and politician's war chests. At least, let's pass the gun restriction laws that the majority of Americans support like universal background checks and red flag laws.  

Every time I think of this tragic incident, I get a tear in my eye and very angry. 

RIP Jared. We will all miss you. This didn't need to happen. 

Jared's obituary.

wjh