Tag Archives: Keith Wilson

Beavis and Butthead-like

Posted on by under History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Roger and I have often talked of our mutual blogging buddy, Keith, as being our ‘gold standard’. While Christians have that saying, “What Would Jesus Do?”, or WWJD, Roger and I have one that is WWKS, or “What Would Keith Say?” But despite the fact that he is calmer, more soft-spoken and mild-mannered than people like myself and Roger, he does a fine job of getting the point across, as you will see in his most recent post!

musingsofanoldfart

People who follow this blog know I am not a fan of labels or name calling, as I view them as lazy arguments. The user wants you to accept their labeling without debate or further study. It is akin to weaponization of a term that can do the dirty work for the user.

I would prefer to define the actions rather than actor. So the focus should be on the lying not the liar, although it is very hard to separate them sometime. There are occasions where actions are so over-the-top that it is interesting to contrast them to characters who do the same over-the-top actions to illustrate the inappropriateness.

Earlier this month, the former president was found liable to the tune of $5 million for the sexual assault and defamation of E. Jean Carroll. While he is appealing the decision, his own deposition did not help his cause nor…

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Per a former Republican Governor and EPA Administrator GOP response to climate change is “mindless” (a repeat post)

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Economic issues, education, Environmental Issues, History, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Ron DeSantis, governor of the state of Florida, is not a very smart man. Florida is the single most vulnerable state in these times of climate change and rising ocean waters. And yet … DeSantis doesn’t focus on that at all, he’s too busy focusing on what he refers to as “wokeness”. And then, there’s his battle with Disney World, the single largest employer and single largest tourist attraction in the state. The economy of Florida is dependent on its tourist industry … namely its beaches and Disney World. Instead of protecting these, DeSantis is demeaning them. Smart move … not. Our good friend Keith has more on this …

musingsofanoldfart

I wrote this post nine years ago. And, yet we have some elected officials who are still touting a fossil fuel funded PR campaign that denies or diminishes climate change. We have some Republicans who are purposefully focusing on things like wokeness, book language and themes, critical race theory rather than real threats right in front of us. It is telling that four leaders in the GOP are in Florida (former president, governor and two US senators) where the fact the state is surrounded on three sides by water, is under consistent hurricane threat and has the city with the most risk in the world to sea level rise seems not to matter as long as we pound on Disneyworld for trying to be open-minded.

The above quoted phrase is from an interview with former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman who was the keynote speaker at the Charlotte Chamber’s…

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We need Trump – Really?

Posted on by under Economic issues, Election 2020, Election 2022, Election 2024, Environmental Issues, History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Keith ponders the many, many reasons that the former guy should NEVER be given the keys to that big White House on Pennsylvania Avenue again. After 4 years in office, and another two spent attempting to subvert and destroy this nation, some people still believe he is a viable candidate for the job. I’m with Keith here … he is the WORST possible candidate! Thank you, Keith … your words need to be heard far and wide!

musingsofanoldfart

I saw a MAGA fan of the former president holding up a sign that said “We need Trump.” My response is “really?” A person voted by over 150 presidential historians as in the bottom five as one of the worst presidents ever? I am sure this poll of historians does not make many far right’ news blips.

The rationale for such a low rating, per one of the historians who so voted, is on top of his policy decisions and making America’s standing in the world fall, his poor handling of the COVID pandemic and his role in the seditious insurrection against a branch of government pull him down. It is not a surprise that his sycophants are trying to re-write history on these two issues.

But, these two issues do not stand alone. Here are a few other things to chew on:

  • His one focus his first year was…

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Channeling my inner Stephen King

Posted on by under Environmental Issues, Global Issues, History, Political commentary, Re-blogs, Social commentary

While I don’t deny the importance of the issues on the table today, issues that if left unchecked could result in the destruction of our nation as we know it, we tend to sweep the single most important issue under the rug. WHY? Probably because a) it’s harder than most to deal with, requires a bit of sacrifice from us all, and b) it’s not as ‘exciting’ as the clown show, the mudfest that occupies so much of our attention. I’m as guilty as any of pushing the environmental issues back in order to focus on the latest exploits of our politicos, but we really do need to open our eyes and work together, else none of the political disputes will matter 50 years from now when humans are gasping for breath, searching for food & water, and trying to stay alive. Our friend Keith has a not-too-subtle reminder for us today …

musingsofanoldfart

Amid all the contrived and exaggerated banter by one of the US ‘ political parties about fairly pedestrian topics, I am sure a story out of Australia was missed about the Antarctic ice melting at an even faster pace. This is not good for our planet, especially the billions that live in our coastal cities.

Citing the lead character Johnny from Stephen King’s book “The Dead Zone” might help get people’s attention. After an accident, Johnny could see a hazy future when he touched someone which could be altered if people acted differently when told of his prediction. An arrogant father chose to ignore Johnny as he told the father his son and other kids would drown at a hockey practice on a frozen lake that afternoon. Johnny hit the table with his cane and said you know who I am, don’t you? You investigated me before letting me tutor…

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“Verdant canopy of lies” – resume inflation is growing

Posted on by under education, Election 2022, Free Press Issues, History, Political commentary, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Lies, lies, and still more lies. There is a very real danger in the recent spate of lies by our elected officials, the very people to whom we entrust our lives. When we become inured to all the lies, when we come to EXPECT politicians to lie about anything and everything including who or what they are, then we no longer vote based on qualifications, but rather on personality. That, my friends, is dangerous, as we saw so clearly in the 2016 election. Keith’s post today highlights a few of the many lies that have been told by politicos recently and addresses the issue of trust. Thank you, Keith, for this timely post.

musingsofanoldfart

Jack Shafer of Politico wrote the following opinion piece earlier this week that should concern each of us called “Opinion | The George Santos Caucus Is Growing – Resume inflation on Capitol Hill is getting out of hand.” Here is the first few paragraphs, with a link to the article below.

“The verdant canopy of lies tended by Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) requires no summary here. They’re so thick and leafy that they now block the sun from the forest floor. But he’s not the only freshman member who struggles when self-reporting. According to a recent Washington Post investigation, Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) can’t keep her ethnicity straight, claims to have grown up destitute and neglected when she didn’t, and appears to have incorrectly portrayed herself as the victim of a home invasion. (Luna has contested the Post story and won one correction and a clarification.) Meanwhile, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) has…

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♫ If You Could Read My Mind ♫ (Redux)

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music, Social commentary

Today’s song is brought to you courtesy of our friend Keith, who planted numerous earworms yesterday with his fun post titled, “I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then – an encore post”.  Check it out if you haven’t already seen it!  And now, for today’s offering …

Written by Lightfoot and released in 1970, this song was inspired by the breakup of his first marriage.  In the liner notes of his boxed set Songbook, he describes it as “A song about the failure of marriage.”

At the request of his daughter, Ingrid, he performs the lyrics with a slight change now: the line “I’m just trying to understand the feelings that you lack” is altered to “I’m just trying to understand the feelings that we lack.” He has said in an interview that the difficulty with writing songs inspired by personal stories is that there is not always the emotional distance and clarity to make lyrical improvements such as the one his daughter suggested.

In 1987 Lightfoot filed a lawsuit against the composer of Whitney Houston’s hit The Greatest Love of All, Michael Masser, alleging plagiarism of 24 bars of If You Could Read My Mind; the transitional section that begins “I decided long ago never to walk in anyone’s shadow” of the Masser song has the same melody as “I never thought I could feel this way and I got to say that I just don’t get it; I don’t know where we went wrong but the feeling’s gone and I just can’t get it back” of Lightfoot’s song. Lightfoot has stated that he dropped the lawsuit when he felt it was having a negative effect on the singer Houston, as the lawsuit was about the writer and not her. He also said that he didn’t want people thinking that he had stolen his melody from Masser. The case was settled out of court and Masser issued a public apology.

The song reached #1 in both Canada and the U.S., and #30 in the UK.

If You Could Read My Mind
Gordon Lightfoot

If you could read my mind love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie
About a ghost from a wishing well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
You know that ghost is me
And I will never be set free
As long as I’m a ghost you can see

If I could read your mind love
What a tale your thoughts could tell
Just like a paperback novel
The kind the drugstore sells
When you reach the part where the heartaches
Come the hero would be me
Heroes often fail
And you won’t read that book again
Because the ending’s just too hard to take

I walk away like a movie star
Who gets burned in a three way script
Enter number two, a movie queen
To play the scene of bringing all the good things out in me
But for now love lets be real

I never thought I could act this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feelings gone and I just can’t get it back

If you could read my mind love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie about a ghost from a wishing well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
The story always ends
And if you read between the lines
You’ll know that I’m just trying to understand
The feeling that you left

I never thought I could feel this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feeling’s gone
And I just can’t get it back

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Gordon Lightfoot
If You Could Read My Mind lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

You want to pull this book from school libraries in Florida?

Posted on by under education, Free Press Issues, History, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Just in case you needed something to really growl about, I’m sharing our friend Keith’s latest post. Remember, as you read this about Mr. DeSantis’ latest lunacy, that what he’s doing to Florida today, he could end up doing to the entire nation in a couple of years! Thank you, Keith, for sharing this latest abomination.

musingsofanoldfart

Our blogging friend Scottie (see link below) alerted me to a library book being pulled and reviewed in my home county of Florida under the mandates of the current governor, Ron DeSantis. In an article by Chris Hoffman called “Roberto Clemente book pulled from shelves in Florida school district” on the CBS News outlet in Pittsburgh, the following paragraphs can be found:

“PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A book about the life and legacy of Pittsburgh Pirates legend Roberto Clemente has been pulled from shelves in a Florida county.

The legacy of Clemente is usually viewed favorably, from his amazing on-the-field skills to his work the community. So, it has some questioning why a book about his legacy was pulled.

The book “Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates” has been pulled from classrooms in Duvall Country, which includes Jacksonville.

‘Wait, a second. What is going on? I was upset about it,’…

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Context and perspective – a reprise that still applies

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, education, Global Issues, History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Our friend Keith is always a fountain of wise words, but his post of yesterday went above and beyond. It is both thoughtful and thought-provoking, and I urge you to read it, ponder for a bit on the price to be paid for the whitewashing of history, for our failure to teach the next generation the reality and consequences of our past. Thank you, Keith.

musingsofanoldfart

A few years ago, I felt a great need to write this post with the continuation of white washing of history and gaslighting others to believe a certain narrative. In spite of the ongoing efforts by certain governors in Florida, Texas and elsewhere, true history is not getting discussed and taught like it needs to be. Bad things were done by so-called leaders based on inflamed fears. Fear has been a selling tool as long as people have been in power to get the masses to do what they want.We must know this and learn lessons to avoid it in the future.

I learned yesterday, a former colleague passed away. She was an interesting person whose history was a lesson in and of itself. Her mother escaped Nazi occupied Poland with her on her mother’s back as a toddler, running across a field with machine gun fire over their…

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Snarky Snippets From Da Rabbit Hole

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, guns, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry

I’m keeping nice and warm down here in the rabbit hole, and the rabbits are generously sharing their carrots with me … so I don’t have much desire to write a lengthy post in this nice warm, dark space, but a couple of thoughts do come to mind …

A hint of … conscience?  Convince me

I have found at least three Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives who maybe … just maybe … actually have a shred of decency and a degree of intelligence.  Their names are Ken Buck (Colorado), Nancy Mace (South Carolina), and Victoria Spartz (Indiana).  I was told a couple of weeks ago that there are about 40 ‘moderate’ Republicans in the House today, but I had begun to doubt, since I hadn’t seen anything to give me reason to believe that.  These three, however, have all said they would oppose removing Representative Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee on which she serves as the Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations and the Subcommittee on International Development, International Organizations and Global Corporate Social Impact.

McCarthy’s intention to remove her is retaliatory in nature … he’s still trying to “pay back” the Democrats for removing conspiracy theorists Marge Green and Paul Gosar from their committee assignments last year due to their roles in the January 6th attempted coup and other transgressions that proved them untrustworthy.

“I think that we should not engage in this tit-for-tat.” – Ken Buck

Don’t let that fool you, though, for these three have voted along the party line often enough to prove their loyalty to party and when push comes to shove, I imagine they will toe the line.

And then there were seven … and three more …

First, five police officers were fired, then charged with second-degree murder among other charges in the case of the brutal murder of Tyre Nichols.  I questioned why five officers were even involved in what began as a routine traffic stop.  I still question that, but now we’re up to seven officers having been involved!  Two more, one unnamed, and Preston Hemphill have also been “relieved from duty” but not charged … yet.  Hemphill apparently fired a taser gun at Nichols.

Preston Hemphill

The other officer has not been named, for reasons beyond my comprehension.  I wonder how many more are going to go down in this investigation once the full truth comes out?  How many police does it take to question one unarmed man during a traffic stop?

In addition to police, EMT personnel failed to exercise the standards of care and two of the EMTs and the ambulance driver have also been fired.  They are Robert Long, JaMicheal Sandridge and Lt. Michelle Whitaker.

Not only did the EMTs fail to do an assessment of Mr. Nichols’ condition, but it took a full 27 minutes after their arrival until the ambulance left to transport Mr. Nichols to the hospital.  Was there not one single person there who cared about this human life???  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

As if it weren’t bad enough …

Yes, I’m talking about the gun crisis in this country.  As if it weren’t bad enough that on average 117 people lost their lives every single day in the United States this year thus far, now the Florida legislature wants to make it even easier for people to own and carry a gun … in public.  Says Florida’s Republican House Speaker, Paul Renner …

“What we’re about here today is a universal right that applies to each and every man and women regardless of race, gender or background.”

The bill in question is one that would remove the requirement to obtain a government-issued permit to carry a concealed weapon.

Stupidly, the Florida Sheriff’s Association has thrown its support behind the bill, and Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis has already said he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.  And it should come as no surprise that the National Rifle Association (NRA) is also 100% behind the bill — in fact, they are laughing and chortling wildly.  The governor recently applauded the Sheriff’s Association for saying they would outright refuse to enforce any and all gun control legislation!  Is Florida still a part of the U.S.???  I’m not so sure it should be!

And on the subject of guns, our friend Keith Wilson had an excellent post yesterday that I urge you to read!

No delusions – poor governance in action

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Economic issues, Election 2022, Law and justice, Political commentary, Re-blogs, Social commentary, voting rights

The U.S. House of Representatives is supposed to be “the people’s” branch of Congress, but today it is anything but. The goals of about half the members of the House do not align with the goal of a government that is “… of the people, by the people, for the people.” Check out what our friend Keith has to say about the House and responsible governance.

musingsofanoldfart

In case you had any delusions that the new majority in the US House would offer up good governance, please note:

– Returning Congress representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar have been seated on Committees by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, after being removed in the last Congress for their inflammatory and inane remarks. When I think of Greene and Gosar, the words reasonable and collaborative are not top of mind.

– New Congressman George Santos, the one with the highly fabricated resume, will be seated on two Committees by Speaker McCarthy. Instead of advocating for his being censured or even removed, Santos gets two Committee assignments. I guess the Speaker holds lying in higher regard than most people. Either that or he needed his vote to remain Speaker and will put up with anything.

– Numerous bills have been proposed to restrict voting. As an independent voter, the greater problem…

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