Seven Things I Tend To Believe

 1.  Lee Oswald did not fire the rifle and kill Kennedy.

Various reasons....but one odd factor is the paraffin test given to Oswald after the arrest....to his hands/cheek.....did show positive on the hands, but negative on the cheek.  Meaning?  He probably did fire a pistol, in the killing of Officer Tippit, but not a rifle in terms of killing JFK.

2.  Charles Manson probably participated (unwillingly) in gov't sponsored drug tests in the decade prior to the California killings.

3.  If you evaluated the bulk of Russian men over age forty....more than two-thirds of them have alcohol conditions which limit their rational thinking or productivity.  This is probably the primary reason why most of what Russians use...can't be produced within the country.

4.  If you asked 100 Americans over the age of thirty what a primary number is.....less than one-percent would get explanation correct.  But lets be honest here, it's not like you will ever use this bit knowledge ever again in your life.  

5.  A lot of this bad-boy/bad-girl behavior you see on planes today....goes to alcohol/drug usage.  

6.  As more and more New York residents (with money) pack up and leave the state....eventually, the political elite (mostly Democrats) will have to admit a problem exists....but left wondering how they can reassure people it's still pleasant and safe to live there.  It's now become an impossible task.

7.  For the year 2023, I believe more than 2-million Russians will end up leaving the country....seeing a failed economy, and leaving them little choice. 

Meaning of Ruminate

 It's an odd word.  I saw it used in a Twitter explanation.

Basically, you'd use it to say that you've been heavily thinking or calculating about something....usually over an extended or prolonged period, and it suggests that you can't come to a happy solution.  

How you'd use it?  You would say: I spent the entire afternoon....trying to ruminate about the problem.  

A new term?  No.....the word people suggest this goes back to 1533, where some guy needed to explain something....and he likely pulled this word out of thin air to get the problem across to his associate.

The general problem here with ruminate....in most problems, you can throw the mess on a white-board, and in three minutes....draw some kind of conclusion or end-point, with a rational list of solutions.  

The minute you insert a money limit, a manhour issue, a potential failure ending, or a benefit-gained scenario....then you enter the world of ruminate.  That five-minute pause to think will twist and turn into an hour or two.  

To be honest, if you polled folks....a majority of people have never entered the stage of ruminate, and probably have never wasted more than 15 minutes in their life over thinking about a problem.  

Why Do 'BIG' Stories Get Released On A Friday Afternoon?

 Well....because they get turbo-charged up as a topic for Sunday political talk shows, and by Monday....it's value is zero, so it disappears.

Maybe it wasn't this way in the 1970s or 1980s....but with cable and news networks now....it's the way things have developed.  

Is it even worth viewing?  I would suggest that half the material for the various Sunday talk shows....have reached such a marginal level....that you are mostly amused more than you are seriously curious.  

A  prediction: within three months, if someone in your 'circle' brings up Trump's tax returns....at least half the people in the 'circle' will say they are still waiting on Trump's returns to be released.....having not realized it was done already.  

Ten Things You Tend To Notice These Days

 1.  Just an awful lot of people who can't cope or handle any stress or problems in their lives.  It's like we opened up a gate and 10-percent of society is 'breed' to behave like 6-year old kids....even when they are thirty to forty years old. 

2.   As much as we used to be a hefty-drinking society (to the extreme)....we now seem to be a more sedated or medicated society....to the extreme.

3.  We are forever discussing 'who failed who', in that schools failed kids, parents failed on responsibilities, bosses failed on keeping a business afloat, kids failed to grasp realities, TV executives failed viewers, so-and-so actor failed such-and-such series, wife failed husband, husband failed wife, etc.

4. If you asked writers to create a freaky movie about an asylum closing down and the crazies allowed out to terrorize society (like some Batman movie)....the reality is that we'd describe present day America....except without Batman.

5.  Mob rule is more prevalent now....than at any point in the past fifty years.

6.  We've reached a point where you can confess and admit your veganism....over and over, while munching on a burger or eating a steak.  It's just plain OK to be in a bizarro world where nothing can make sense.   As long as you say it.....it's true (even if it's 100-percent false).

7.  A whole society of people in their 70s....probably can remember the test episodes in high school on nouns, pronouns, adjectives, etc....where they asking why the hell any of this was important to remember.  Today, by the time you turn four.....you need to have some vast knowledge level of pronouns.  

8.  Capitalism brought you a million-odd advantages in life....from whiskey and diet-beer.....to Game of Thrones and gender surgical stuff.

9.  There's just not that much compassion for out-of-work politicians.  

10.  There's just not a day that passes that 'Elon' doesn't come up in news hype.  It's like he's become some Jesus-cult figure, Tom Brady, and Batman all rolled up into one.  

The Buffalo 'Storm' Action

 I've followed a good bit of the Buffalo winter storm story.  

It's a curious piece to me.  

People act like this was a mega event, and beyond one's imagination.  

Back in the 1990s, I worked with a guy who grew up just outside of Buffalo, and he could sit for ten minutes each week....describing winter storm action in the 1970s/1980s.  

His stories would be the stuff that Hemmingway or Steinbeck would write.  Intense....dramatic....'threat of death', and so on.  

So I'm kinda wondering....did Buffalo just simmer for the past two decades with marginal winters and people get dopey?  

Something is not right about the dramatic angle that the news folks portrayed the situation, and you are left to believe they went through a long era of 'light' winters.  

Ten Rules of Advice for 2023

 1.  Stop trying to reason with unreasonable people....unless they are buying the drinks.

2.  Anything that Aristotle ever suggested (from 2,000 years ago).....bank on it, and live your life by his 'code'.

3.  If someone seems mentally deranged....keep a good six foot distance.

4.  If people appear in a cult-like state of mind.....then they aren't sane enough to sit on your porch and sip your tea or whisky.  Send them home.

5.  If you reach a point where you think censorship is a good thing.....you might want to find some Jesus-like person to trust.  

6.  If someone comes up to you with a problem, but their statement adds a extra-layer....suggesting they don't want to really fix the problem (they just want to retain/hold it)....maybe you should change the topic of discussion to favorite Beatles tunes, the strategy of poker, or best episodes of Star Trek.

7.  Maintain a balance on 'free' stuff.....other than a handshake, a wink, or a bit of advice....nothing is really free.

8.  In a normal day, you will likely bump into 200 'experts'.  You might want to evaluate things and regard 90-percent as marginal experts, or fake experts.

9.  You need to get used to 'failing-up'.  It means people hired up a marginally educated or capable person.....knowing they were ill-qualified for the job, but the system requires management to hire such people.  Fail-uppers will eventually reach CEO status, and even become President of the United States (this may have already happened).

10.  You don't always need a plan, but in 99-percent of cases....it helps to have 'something'.  

Eight Things I'm Confused About

 1.  If it seems logical that 8-year old kids can be taken into a drag-show.....shouldn't the same logic dictate that a 12-year boy could be sitting in a topless dancer show, and sipping a beer?

2.  Once you explain the XX and XY chromosome 'thing', and that you can't flip/change your 'X's'.....how can any further discussion occur with genders?

3.  Isn't all this gender-talk really a long talk about fetishes?

4.  At the rate that SBF spent crypto 'profits' from his fake-pretender crypto currency....how did he really expect it to survive on?

5.  All this Trump tax stuff....revolves around the idea that he paid a low sum of taxation in some years, and the IRS folks don't seem hyped-up to get into this situation.   Something doesn't make sense....unless his accountant went by the rules and the tax code is fu*ked-up.  Would you really want to admit 80,000 of crappy tax code?

6.  Everyday, Russia loses another dozen-odd tanks and probably around 200 men dead (maybe 20-odd guys who just surrendered and gave-up).  Where's the logic of continuing?

7.  When someone says they 'identify'.....I get confused and start thinking they are in some imaginary state of mind (LSD or something), and that I probably need to find the exit of the room.

8.  I always thought the border....meant THE BORDER.