All of you who back in your school years were part of the disciplined students will not be able to relate to those of us who found ourselves in mild panic on Sunday afternoon because a book report of an unread book was due the following day. Such is my case this sunny and somewhat lazy Sunday afternoon; I got nothin’ with 935 words to go. Nonetheless, I am undaunted and will proceed.
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Random words and thoughts with some minor factoids. Here are two 19th century English words: 1. Snollygoster, noun: A shrewd, unprincipled individual; particularly one who holds public office. 2. Quockerwodger, noun, 1) a wooden puppet with many strings which cause the arms and legs to flail about, 2) a puppet politician whose strings are entirely pulled by someone else and who has no independent thought. Kakistocracy is from the Greek, a noun meaning a government ruled by the least suitable or experienced people. (I’ll leave it to readers as to why these words caught my attention.) Recrudescence is a noun dating back to 17th century English and is defined as the return of something or someone unpleasant after a period of relief; this seems to me applicable to January 2025.
There is much talk these days about how news media have lost the public’s confidence, how they are all owned by a few billionaires with money-making agendas and have lost credibility as balanced news sources. I recently came across a story that seemed to support that view. It caught my attention because I was raised on post WWII, Korea and Vietnam movies and documentaries and so am aware one of America’s most effective weapons has been the F-15 fighter jet. The prototype of the F-15 was tested first in 1972 and the jet entered service in 1976; it is in its fifth generation as America’s premier fighting aircraft. In its present incarnation it is a stealth craft capable of avoiding most detection measures and releasing immense firepower at tremendous speed. Iran claims to have shot one down. This is not a story about the three F-15s that were hit by friendly fire in Kuwait in the opening chaos of an ill-planned invasion; this jet was allegedly brought down by Iranian defenses.
A highly trained crew was able to land the craft in friendly territory without loss of life or injury, but it was disabled for duty. And that was pretty much all the story offered. In thousands of missions since 1976, three F-15s were disabled by enemy fire in the Gulf Wars, the last in 2003; this reported downed craft is a fifth generation F-15 with 23 years of upgrades. The rebuttal to the Iranian news media’s report was offered by the USCentCom, one of 11 unified combatant commands in the US Dept. of Defense, this one covering the Middle East, who flatly refuted the claim. They cite that in over 8,000 flights over Iran that while some jets have been downed for various reasons, the three noted above among them, no American jets have been downed by Iranian fire. And then a report from one of America’s major networks claimed a source inside USCentCom claimed that in fact Iran did take down an American F-15.
So, who do we believe? I, for one, have come to a point where so many lies and so much disinformation has spewed forth from Mr. Trump and his mentally ill-equipped defense secretary, I must go with the Iranian report. I am of the opinion the Pentagon did not want a lot of attention paid to this incident; I mean after all we were told we had superiority over the Iranian military and their rocket supply was almost completely depleted.
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Here is a random bit of “news” and a couple of quotes, some cited and others anonymous, I will include in this column and let you readers determine if accurate or applicable:
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, 400 women have been arrested for “pregnancy related crimes” and miscarriages, while of the scores of names of men found in the Epstein files, not one single arrest or prosecution has taken place.
In one of his rambling salad mixes of nonsense, Mr. Trump replied to the question of a comprehensive Republican health care plan by stating he had “a concept of a plan” and that such an undertaking was “very complex.” But apparently it is only complex to him, as are most important issues, because of 33 developed nations, 32 have universal healthcare. In America, the wealthy stay healthy while the poor wait for more.
“Do not waste your time wishing for a calmer world; build a calmer mind. Events will remain chaotic, people will remain imperfect, and outcomes will stay uncertain. Peace belongs to the ones who govern their thoughts, not to the ones who wait for ideal conditions.” I don’t know the author but it sounds like a good way to negotiate the madness unleashed by the present administration. And with that thought in mind, I can relate to the words of Albert Einstein: “Life is like riding a bicycle; to keep your balance you have to keep moving.”
And here are a couple of quotes, or at least sentiments, that will no doubt put some folks on edge. I am merely repeating here, not advocating. The first is controversial, I’m sure. “Morality is doing what is right regardless of what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told regardless of what is right.” No author cited. And this one is curt and to the point, also anonymous: “If you don’t like me, it is because I don’t want you to.” I wonder how many of us subconsciously do this with some of the people in our lives?
It is no doubt apparent to you folks that the column I had planned for this week didn’t work out, so I have cobbled together what you just read. I’ll try to do better in future.
Take care. Peace.
