The 'Fad' Question

 I was reading a social commentary today, and it just stuck to my mind.  Their comment was: "The majority of humans seem mentally retarded. Has this always been the case, or is it newish?"

First, I thought the term 'retarded' was probably wrong.  You could have used 'witless', 'irrational', 'foolish', 'absurd', or 'wacky' instead.

Second, I probably observed this trend around 2000 to 2005, and at that point....it was a couple of junior airmen (Air Force period) who were talking over their medication rates.  They were four 'ladies'.....all in the 19 to 24 year old age group, and on some type of SSRI-type drug (prozac-like).  One was a 'tiny' gal....maybe 100 pounds max, and the AF doctors were prescribing to her....the maximum amount for her weight.  I'll just describe her as unable to fully concentrate, with 50-percent of her work effort mostly in a daze.  All four had some behavior-issue and if you asked me to hand out pistols for defense....I would refuse to hand any of them a weapon.

Third, by 2010, I would have suggested that around 10-percent of society were in some form of irrational behavior.  Some were young....some were in their forties....some were unable to really concentrate or react in a normal way.

Where we stand in 2023?  I would probably suggest in a typical day (from home-to-work-and-back-to-home), you probably encounter five to ten people who are not rational.  It might be in a bar, or at McDonalds, or at work, or just hanging around Wal-Mart.  

I watched a video last week of some 8-year old kid who'd finally had some kind of break-down at Wal-Mart, and fully engaged into whooping up on his mother (public setting).  Don't know if the kid was drugged-up....but it was the type of confrontation that going to endanger someone (either the kid or the woman).

Is it a fad?  I'm not sure about the use of the word, and it fitting for the events.

What bothers me here....what happens in a decade....say 2033?  Would you have to carry a baseball bat with you into Wal-Mart?  Would you have twelve people a day killed in town....because of the irrational physical threat?  Would ministers be suggesting demon-possession as part of the trend?  

Why NPR Can't Give Up Government Funding?

 Well....here's the simple truth.  Their budget each year....from the federal government side....amounts to about half-a-percent to one-percent of their budget.  On this alone....they could give it entirely up.

But here's two odd things which are never discussed.  First, around 2-to-3 percent of the remaining budget comes from state budgets and local city budgets.  If the fed guys left the table, and then a dozen states realized that they could also leave the table....then you'd have two percent minimum missing from the budget.

Second...through various other fund vehicles....state public channels are funded by the federal machine and the states.  

For example, from the state of Tennessee....there are 11 public radio stations.

For example, from the state of Kentucky, there are 12 public radio stations.

NPR does a word game where they make it think that it's really not that much that comes from the federal government.  On these state contributions....it's possible that some or even half of their budget to the local stations....really come from a grant or two....from the federal government.

If the funding was drastically cut?  You'd have people all bothered that their favorite network was cut, but it wouldn't really be the end of the world....because NPR is mostly news, and you get everything from your commercial networks.  It'd be different if NPR was literature, poetry, jazz or classical music (what they started out as, you know).

Ten Things I Wonder About

 1.  From the school shooting in Nashville....I wonder if the police had taken the shooter alive (wounded)....if a murder case could be developed, or if the court system would render the person incompetent and sent off to a mental facility for the remainder of their life?

2.  I wonder, if the Democrats had just starved off the court stuff on Trump....if political donations would have been marginal and downsized his campaign?

3.  I wonder, from each time a serious journalist tries to interview Stormy Daniels....if the audience view immediately revolves around to SEX?

4.  I wonder if Joe Biden could run in 2024, and announce he was 'gender-fluid'.....would it hype his campaign and help for re-election?

Then I wonder....would Joe understand the term 'gender-fluid' or think it has something to do with sex oil?

5.  I wonder if anyone can prove or disprove that a fair amount of PAC money for politicians today....come from overseas?

6.  I wonder if this new time-limit business in professional baseball is going to permanently ruin the game?

7.  I wonder if a majority of people learned their bank was in a 'bad' way....would they rush down to remove their life savings, and trigger a total collapse of the banking sector?

8.  If your neighbor came over and said he was abducted last night by aliens....would you pause and give him an hour of your time, or pretty much feel he was suffering a mental breakdown?

Then I wonder if you asked the neighbor about alien women, and if they had any special features?

9.  I wonder if we mandated mental competency tests to own a gun.....wouldn't you have to mandate the same tests for driver's licenses, credit cards, getting married, and voting?  And then with the failed applicants....who were deemed mentally incompetent....what would you do with them?

10.  I wonder....if we could create a brain-washing technique to convince everyone to become Klingon warriors....would they all rush out to get plastic surgery, and buy up $1,500 Klingon swords?  

Observations

 1.  Yesterday, Marjorie Taylor Greene talked New York City....say it was disgusting…repulsive, had a funny smell, and generally described as a terrible place.

I contemplated the description (I've been there 3 times....once for five days).  Yeah, there is some kind of weird smell (between mildew and dead fish)....that you pick up real quick.

Yeah, the subway system is probably 40 years behind most of what you'd see in Europe.  

I won't use the word disgusting, but you lose a fair amount of your 'wonderland' feeling after five days.  

2.  Reverend Al Sharpton Called Trump’s Indictment.....‘Spiritual’ Payback.

I guess he pulled it up from Revelations and from that end-of-days chatter it has.

3.  I noted someone commenting that the loss of Hillary Clinton in 2016.....has some weird connection to a PTSD issue today, and people being unable to accept or comprehend reality.  

National PTSD?  How would you send these people off to rehab for this?