Old & Opinionated

February 28, 2026- Saturday February has been  national  black history month. June is  homosexual  month. March is  Irish American  month. It is not well  known  because Irish people are  generally white . May is Asian American month.  May is also Jewish American  month,  but you  won’t  see much in the media  about  that. It is also Zombie Awareness Month. September is  National   Hispanic  Heritage Month.    There are many groups who have gotten together and  mounted  campaigns to celebrate and promote their differences  and their separate cultures . There is not much attention, if any, devoted to American nationalism. There  is  constant emphasis placed on differences among t he people in American  and   very little  time spent  promoting  America. That usually happens only on July  the 4 th .   Through  the year, so...

  February 27, 2026- Friday   I recently finished the book, “The Blinds ”,  written by Adam  Sternbergh  and published in 2017. This book was in a middle school library and was withdrawn for good reason.  Children in  the ages of middle school students have no business reading this book.   Maybe high  school age teenagers are an acceptable  audience,  but that is still a bit of a reach. Why would I feel this book should have age  restrictions?   The amount of profanity in  the book  is not necessary.  The profanity  does not add to the story or the believability as many authors like to say. Allowing this type of book to pre-teens and teenagers paints the image that pr ofanity is acceptable. It is still not acceptable regardless of how much authors and screenwriters want us to think it is.   The violence in this book is  expected,  and  I personally think the graphic nature of the vio...

  February 25, 2026- Wednesday   President Donald Trump completed his State of the Union Address last night. Whether the speech was any good or not depends on your  political  and social philosophy. This was the longest State of the  Union speech ever. We were  warned  this was going to be  a long  speech.    As we were told before the speech, the Democrats were going to sit through the speech because of their  philosophy  to  immediately  oppose anything Trump is for. For those Democrats who did attend, they mostly followed through on their actions. A couple of the socialist members of the D emocratic Party began shouting at the President as he criticized the idea of sanctuary cities. One was warning an expletive included badge concerning Immigration Customs Enforcement.    Illegal aliens who the  Democrats  allowed into the country so they could give them the right to vote, have killed too m...

February 25, 2026- Wednesday The 2026 Olympic Games will be finished tomorrow. I am happy about this. I should not be surprised but the international competition has become like our society. There has been too much personal drama as far as I'm concerned. First came the Olympian who confessed to sleeping with a woman different from the woman he had been in a relationship. He came before the international media and confessed of his dalliance and proceeded to prevail upon the first girlfriend to take him back. He failed. Next came the American women's skater who fell very short of expectations and reference people on social media because she is a lesbian. Do we really need to know who she wants to have sex with? No. It seems the only people who want to make a public issue of who they have sex with are homosexuals. Then there is Eileen Gu who lives in the United States and goes to school in the United States but skis for China. Gu's mom is Chinese but why compete for a country ...

February 21, 2026- Saturday I fully admit I am behind the curve when it comes to reading certain books. I will always stay current reading anything written by John Grisham. I enjoy a healthy number of action-adventure mysteries, some are current, but many are much older books. I am not making any apologies for that. As I lay this groundwork, I write about a recent book I read. This week I finished "At First Sight" by Nicholas Sparks. As I previously mentioned, I lean more to the action-adventure mysteries, but I wanted to read a book written by Nicholas Sparks simply because I had heard his name mentioned as a famous writer and I was searching for something different to read from what I usually read. I found that in this book. I did not realize I would be reading a love story between two individuals and the twists life had in store for them. First, I became enthralled with the two primary characters in this book. Sparks developed these characters very well and did not give me...

  February 19, 2026- Thursday Where is moderation when you really need it? We are unfortunately entering into another election season. I say unfortunately only because we will have to endure a litany of half-truths and total exaggerations all designed to manipulate our opinions of the candidates. Due to the polarization of opinions of the candidates and their views on the issues and due to the polarization of opinions and philosophies in our country, it is hard to find a moderate voice or a voice of reason. It is also hard to find a politician who does not use inflammatory language in order to get as much attention as possible. The following idea appears to be pure fiction and i realize that but let me float the idea. What is a contemporary Ronald Reagan came on the political scene? I am not proposing a conservative or a liberal Ronald Reagan.  I am talking about a principled Ronald Reagan who knows how to effectively communicate without rancor and someone who could negotiate ...