Thoughts of a Common Man

The numbers of men who sacrificed their own life for the good of the country is staggering. From World War I on through Vietnam and all of the Middle Eastern conflicts... ...just staggering. Many of those who lost their lives didn’t even get to really live one... ....they were just kids. There are even more who were severely injured, both mentally and physically. And fundamentally, I’ve always wondered about whether or not conflict could be handled in another manner. Is war and fighting a necessary evil? That’s my disconnect, and I have received some feedback from some who are a bit more gung-ho about conflict resolution through battle, who have explained that I’m hopelessly naive and that war is a last resort, but certainly necessary to maintain peace. And maybe that is indeed true. I appreciate all the men and women who paid the price. I think about the Mom’s and Dad’s who go to sleep worried about the fate of children who are far away. My heart aches for those ...

There’s a full-on war against the media. The entire week has been an absolute attack on reporters who are asking questions of the administration. CNN is the favorite target of this administration, and it all came to a head during an absolutely crazy press conference. (I’ve never seen anything like it). CNN reporter Jim Acosta, who is an unabashed critic of Trump, asked a question about the caravan. Trump went off on him. Then a young girl tried to retrieve the microphone to ha d to the next reporter. Their hands brushed. And it got way worse from there. Trump went off. The White House put out a video that didn’t look right. Some people claim that it was doctored. They yanked Acosta’s press credentials. Another American institution under blatant attack. It all seemed silly to me... ...but the next day... ...a young, black reporter asked a question about the new attorney general... ...”That’s a stupid question. I’ve seen your work, a lot of it is stupid.” ...

Read a report today that said the first human to live to the rip old age of 150... ...has already been born. I was born in 1964. If I’m the guy they’re thinking about that would put my death at 2114. Or 96 years from now. I’m going to really, really hope that doesn’t happen. What a freaking mess I would be! I can barely walk now. Yet, it called to mind a conversation that I had with my grandpa on his 80th Birthday. “80 years is a long time,” I said. “Not sure I wanna’ live to 80!” (A horribly dumb thing to say!) Grandpa was ready though: “You do when you’re 79,” he said. And that’s true enough, but going all the way to 150 years old??? I’d have to pass. It also called to mind a conversation I had with a friend. We’d worked together in 1990. I mentioned four names to him, asking if he knew where they are now. “John is out west. Fred is dead. Bob is dead. Doug is dead.” “Damn!” I said. “Well, it was 28 years ago.” But think about retiring at 65 and t...

Up and out early, and the dogs did their usual trek across the front yard. I stepped on a piece of glass. It was early, I was a little worn. “Why the hell is there glass in the driveway?” I looked up... ...at Sam’s bedroom window. “BAH!” I texted my beautiful wife. “How’d the imbecile break his window?” “Not sure. He told me about it. It’s not a story of sheer brilliance.” So, who fixes glass? “We may have to take it in,” came the message back. “What do we take in? The broken glass?” Sam asked. “Yeah,” I said. “They’ll glue it back together.” “Really?” “No! Not really! You dopey bastard!” I had to find out why I was picking glass out of my bushes, but I also realized that I broke plenty of windows at the mansion on the hill in North Collins. “It was really dumb,” he said. “Try me.” “I was playing a game, had my controller in my hand, lost, kind of forgot that glass breaks if you hit it with your hand.” “You forgot glass breaks?” “Kinda’.” “We...

So, the attorney general has been dismissed. Shocker! For the last couple of years, the president has lambasted Jeff Sessions at every turn. He wouldn’t quit, until yesterday, when he was effectively fired. Now, all hell will break loose. Because the reason for the firing is that Trump is trying to get rid of all the people who are trying to investigate him. “Witch hunt! Hoax!! No Collusion!!!” You’ve heard the greatest hits, and now, we wait and speculate. Jeff Sessions was arguably the worst attorney general ever. He was called to testify about what he knew about the ties to Russia and he “I do not recalled” his way through a couple of hearings. I listened to him for about an hour one day, and I was livid with his rope-a-dope attempt to hide. His stances on gays and marijuana are mind-numbing. His weird laugh, his be-tough voice, and his ass-kissing of a man who was verbally abusing him every chance he got... ...made me sad for him. I don’t know how any man, w...

I saw a post on twitter from a woman who said: “I’ve been alive for 18,345 days, and I am clueless about how any of this works.” I don’t even know why she was talking about, but it made me think: How many hours have I been around? You’ll be happy to know that it’s more than 19,000. I’ll make it to my 20,000th day in early August of 2019. So, what have I spent those hours doing? One-third of it sleeping. A couple of hours a day eating, showering, brushing my teeth, and what-not. (I love ‘what-not’ as an expression, by the way). From April to October I usually spend 3 hours a day keeping an eye on the Yankees as I do other things... ...been doing that for about 45 years. I’ve logged a whole lot of hours at work... ...40 years of about 8 hours a day there. I’ve seen Bruce 32 times at 3.5 hours a clip. So many hours in the car or on a plane... ...hours in church, at funerals, weddings and as an altar boy for a long time. About a thousand hours writing too....

The Bills are historically horrendous. There was a play in the game where there receiver lined up to catch a pass but was obliterated by the defensive player. “How is that not pass interference?” One of the boys who actually went to the game for the first half but left ‘cause it was 28-0. Turns out it’s legal if you’re still on the line of scrimmage. The QB was throwing the ball to a guy who was three feet in front of him! And I don’t ever watch a whole football game, but I caught a little of Rams-Saints. “Doesn’t look like the same game the Bills play, does it?” Jake asked. “Why can’t Buffalo have anything good?” Sam chimed in. So, they shifted their love to the Sabres who won 9-2 on Saturday. “The Sabres are back!” Jake tweeted. The Rangers beat the Sabres 3-1 on Sunday. Back to normal! “We’re looking at our first lake snow of the season!” Channel 2 exclaimed. “It could be a significant event!” Oh, goody! Just over a month ago, I played golf with my buddie...