Some Thanksgiving Musings

Let me start nice and then the rest will be all over the place. Former President Jimmy Carter's beloved Rosalynn died over this weekend and thus ended a marriage that lasted longer than most Presidents have actually lived. She and Jimmy were married in 1946, the same year another President, a hair and makeup fetishist, was born. I wrote a piece about them a few months ago when her dementia diagnosis was made public.

In Defense of a Quiet Man | Texas Outlaw Writers

Yeah, Jimmy Carter, peanut farmer. Perhaps he wasn’t the greatest president to hold the office, but nowhere near the worst. And importantly, a decency we don’t see much anymore.

Texas Outlaw WritersRoger T. Gray

I'm fairly proud of that one and hope you'll give it a glance. I am privileged to have met and talked at length with them, and can verify that you would be hard pressed to find two more decent souls on the planet.

Not that the two of them would recognize the political landscape today compared to what we only thought were the tempestuous 1970's. The old saying is that politics is show business for ugly people. I am now convinced it's high school for slow learners.

I mentioned last week that this Republican primary is like the worst high school class president contest ever. And this week, it really looked like my junior year at Sam Rayburn High School in Pasadena, TX. Don't get me wrong, great school and some wonderful classmates.

But who would have thought we'd have a "meet me behind the gym after school" moment in a hearing room of the United State's Senate. Oklahoma (of course) Senator Markwayne Jim Ed Sodbuster (R-Hooterville) challenged some big Teamsters Union official to a fist fight in the middle of a hearing.

Noted pacifist Bernie Sanders had to remind him that a large enough group of pinheads sent him to D.C. and he should act like it. At least until the cameras are turned off. Then they can meet behind the congressional gym. And may I point out, the guy he challenged is a Teamsters President? The Teamsters, for crying out loud! We know how that's going to end.

The Teamster President is named Sean O'Brien, so you know he's be up for a fight. But in an interview on the Neal Cavuto program on Fox, which is the one they point to when they want to deny that Murdoch is the anti-christ, O'Brien said this...

"It was the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen, because first he says we’re “consenting adults,” which was bizarre because it sounded like he wanted to date me."

And, yeah, it kind of does. So maybe this is more of a "Deliverance" thing than "Fight Club."

Then there's that jerk whose girl you took to a movie. He never got over it and shoves you every time you pass in the hall. In this case, it's the guy who was voted out of the class president's office, Representative Kevin McCarthy, (R-Central Casting) who managed to elbow a guy who helped vote him out, Representative Tim Burchette (R-Butcher Holler) as he passed by in the corridors outside the House Chamber. Burchette then chased him down the hall and a parliamentary session of "Did too! Did not!" was convened. To me, there is only one answer...

Meanwhile, a loveable group of killjoys who call themselves "Moms for Liberty" have their Mom panties in a wad over what one source called the most loved person in America outside of Dolly, LeVar Burton. Yep, Kunta Kinte, Star Trek and for the last several years, the host of "Reading Rainbow," wherein LeVar is trying to convince little snot-nosed rug rats to pick up a book every now and then.

And the "Moms" are OK with that, even though he is black, as long as those books tell the truth about, oh, you name it, gay folks, black folks, history in general and include a heaping helpin' of their brand of religion. And they are on a crusade (pun intended) to root out the offending volumes root and branch and consign them to hell where they belong.

Well, when it was discovered that a couple of "Moms" were caught hanging with a noted white nationalist group, the Proud Boys, the bunched panties got even more wedged, and something had to be done.

And then they were caught quoting a certain mid-20th century German leader who said “He who OWNS the youth GAINS the future.” 

So, cover had to be found, and they think LeVar gave it to them. He opened the National Book Awards with a joke.

"Before we get going, are there any Moms for Liberty in the house?” he asked. “No? Good. Then hands will not need to be thrown tonight."

As a result they have labeled him a "groomer" who wants your kids reading porn. Yeah, LeVar freaking Burton. Oh, and he wants to do them bodily harm, too. So, calm TF down, brew some tea, curl up with a good book, oh, and don't hang with white supremacists.

And finally, it's that time of year again. Can you feel the excitement in the air? The music, bells, smells of turkey and delicious pastries cooking. Yes, it's time for the War on Christmas! Over at Fox, Their dime-store Tucker Carlson, the execrable Jesse Watters, launched the festivities with his badly acted high dudgeon over, are you sitting down? Gay nutcrackers.

The appropriately named Target stores are again ground zero for whatever the hell Watters and the rest of the self-righteous pearl-clutchers have found to be angry about. Because, make no mistake, they need something to be PO'd about, and preferably, something that signals the end times. And what says the final days more than, well, your basic toy soldier wooden nutcracker painted, uh, colorfully. I've figured out how I'm going to cope. If I'm walking through Target, I won't buy one. I won't buy a "straight" one either. In fact, nutcrackers aren't on my list at all this year. I imagine most folks will follow my plan. Armageddon avoided.

Indeed, what says Christmas more than yelling about something. Oh, sure, being the lefty fellow traveler that I am, I would prefer it to be about war, hunger, need, the climate or something like that. But, for Jesse and the gang it's a wooden toy, or the disabled, black Santa figurine you can buy. Yes, his spittle-flecked TV script included that as well.

I'm reassured that Jesse will make sure some minority Santa won't be wheeling up to the manger to spout something about brotherhood. That was a close call. All this and it isn't even Thanksgiving yet.