Blog Archives

You're A Mean One, Ann Coulter. You, Too, Jay Weber

8/30/2024

Seriously, what's with these right-wing media personalities who made fun of Tim Walz's son Gus for bursting into tears and calling out "That's my dad!" at the Democratic National Convention?

Sure, ultra-conservative pundit Ann Coulter's stock in trade is sharp, cutting mockery of those whose politics and religion differ from hers. But to put up a post on X calling a 17-year-old learning disabled boy "weird?"

What adult does that? Who in the world is that mean?
Ann Coulter, obviously.
Not that it should come as a complete surprise that Ann Coulter could be that mean. After all, she's apparently one of those self-righteously devout Christians who, with her faith as her sword and shield, believes of herself that everything she says and does is right and good because God is always on her side...because she's a Christian. She even compared herself to Jesus Christ.

So, I guess if you consider yourself the modern day equivalent of Jesus Christ you feel entitled to be as mean - or as anything else - as you want to be.
As it turns out, Ann Coulter has been vociferously called out for her meanness to young Gus Walz, for which she unapologetically excused herself (and blamed the Democrats) by saying that she didn't know the boy was "autistic." Gus Walz is not autistic. He has a non-verbal learning disorder, and suffers from anxiety and ADHD, as Coulter must have known, since this fact was shared by the DNC commentators at the moment that Gus was captured gesturing to his dad.
Still, would it have been more acceptable for Coulter to publicly mock a youngster who hadn't been diagnosed?
No. It would've just been mean.
And then there's conservative Milwaukee radio talk show host Jay Weber,

...whose X post about Gus Walz was even meaner than Ann Coulter's:

Not surprisingly, Jay Weber's despicably cruel post stirred up great public outrage. Subsequently he, like, Coulter, offered a non-apology (which included calling Gus Walz's father, Governor Tim Walz, a congenital liar) and excused himself for not knowing that Gus was disabled when he made the post about the boy.
Unluckily for Jay Weber, he is not possessed of Ann Coulter's fame, status and commercial success, and his non-apology apparently didn't fly with the powers that control his radio career. His non-apology was taken down from X and replaced with this one:
"This is a fuller apology for something stupid and hurtful I said yesterday. I said it without thinking or having the facts. No excuses. Having been a teacher, I've had a standard of never involving children, I broke that, and I'm disappointed with myself. I apologize to the Walz family and anyone who was offended. I feel horrible, I am so sorry."
However, as it turned out, Weber's second apology apparently didn't fly with his employers, either, and he's been pulled off the air.
Which begs the question, Mean Mr. Weber: Who's the blubbering b**ch boy now? And do you suppose your mother and father are very proud of you?

0 Comments

A DNC Sugar High

8/25/2024

0 Comments

   Books by Patti Liszkay available on Amazon:
"Equal And Opposite Reactions"   http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
   "Hail Mary"    https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
"Tropical Depression"       https://www.amzn.com/B0BTPN7NYY

A DNC Sugar High

What a sugar high was this past week's Democratic National Convention!
It was part love fest;

...and part big-tent revival, with Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike,

...up on the stage inviting everybody, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike to come on into the tent.

And it was no small part entertainment, provided by, among others, Stevie Wonder,

...Pink

...John Legend,

...and comedian Keenan Thompson.

Not to mention a gorgeous rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" sung by The Chicks.

(Here's the link to The Chicks singing the "Star Spangled Banner," in case you'd like to hear it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICojk2H936k).
There were some great moments, as when Michelle Obama said of Donald Trump, “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’?”

...and when Barack Obama made a quip about Trump's weird obsession with crowd sizes, using a visual,

...that brought the house down.

There was the arrival on the stage of sixteen former members of the Mankato West football team that Tim Walz coached and helped lead to the 1999 state championship.

And there was meeting Kamala's menschy husband Doug.

There were several brave women - and men - who shared their stories of how profoundly their lives were affected by the availability of reproductive care, or their suffering from the lack of it.

But the show was indubitably stolen by Gus Walz, the 17-year-old differently abled son of Tim Walz, in the poignant, heart-melting moment during Governor Walz's speech when Gus sprang up from his seat, pointed to his father, and tearfully called out, "That's my dad! I love you, Dad!"

A close second was the scene of the Walz family together on the stage, with Gus the most ebullient and happiest of campers.

There was some policy talk during during the week, much of it having to do with women's reproductive rights.
As the campaign now kicks into high gear there will be time over the next two months for the meat and potatoes of platform and policy. However, for the Democrats, last week the dessert came first. And how sweet it was.

0 Comments

"Dead Egyptians"

8/19/2024

0 Comments

My fellow bibliophiles, you know how it is. You read lots of books: good books, great books, not-so-great books, books you like, books you love, books that make you go “meh,” books so boring, bad, or otherwise unengaging you just can’t go the distance with them.
But then once in a while you come across a book that seizes your imagination and, as Emily Dickenson would put it, sends you off on a frigate that takes you lands away; a book that you lose and forget yourself in the first time you open it and every time you come back to it, so that when you look up from it you blink, snap back to reality and think, “dang, this is good!”
I recently read just such a book, Del Blackwater's’ historical novel “Dead Egyptians.”

Exceptionally well-written and evoking in style Norman Mailer’s “Ancient Evenings” (which happens to be one of my favorite books, so mayhaps I’m biased),

...but less labyrinthine than Mailer's book (and I mean that in a good way), “Dead Egyptians” transports the reader and immerses us in Egypt, a land full of magic and the ghosts of an ancient civilization, at a time when British imperialism laid claim to the land, its people, and its archeological treasures.
The multi-layered story is set in Cairo at the turn of the twentieth century. A young British linguist named Albion Stanley, who, haunted by a vision he saw as a child while visiting an archeological dig in Egypt with his father, returns to Cairo where he finds a job as a translator of ancient scrolls at the British Office of Antiquities while he searches for he knows not what. Pulled into the opulent, decadent world of the English upper class in Cairo, Albion meets a young libertine named Aleister Crowley who introduces him to opium houses, illicit sexuality, and the dangerous – yet, for Albion, illuminating - world of the occult, or beliefs centered on supernatural, mystical, or magical phenomena. As one character in the book observes, “The occult is as inseparable from Egypt as the sand and the pyramids. One comes with the other here.”
One of the central characters to the story is the historical figure Imhotep, deified priest, physician and architect of the Saqqara pyramid.

Imhotep, destined to immortality, yearns always for his love, while the object of his love is destined to die and become reincarnated but with no memory of past life or love. Imhotep's lover will rediscover and fall in love with Imhotep over and over again but will die, forget, be reborn, rediscover. But until that rediscovery happens Imhotep must wait, yearn, and live with memories from the past that won't exist for his beloved.
The book also deals with thorny issues of archeology, especially the problem of ancient artifacts being removed from the countries to which they belong and taken into possession by other countries.
In the colonial times of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries countless priceless objects were taken from Egypt and acquired by European museums, most by the British Museum. But over and above the injustice at play, there was the destructive ignorance of the fact that some artifacts, especially ancient scrolls, that would survive indefinitely in the dry Egyptian heat will disintegrate in the humid climate of more northern countries.
Many of the characters in the book are figures from Egyptian history and mythology and others are British and European historical figures, among them early twentieth century archeologists, Egyptologists, and the notorious occultist Aleister Crowley, pictured below at around the age he would have been in the book.

Blackwater has included a helpful glossary of terms at the end of the book, as well as a guide to the hieroglyphics used throughout the story.

Anyone with a love of ancient Egyptian lore will love this book. And if one didn’t have a love of ancient Egyptian lore before reading “Dead Egyptians,” this page-turner may well serve as the spark.
"Dead Egyptians" is available on Amazon. Here's the link:
https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Egyptians-Del-Blackwater-ebook/dp/B0D4NFDGQ6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=37Q4YDHZJPFV1&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.TSQjgBwnHDH-wZmeAVefKQ.P0inWlOibtMT5Tk3eNPXCWBYFOLJC7lavyKJYuERwXc&dib_tag=se&keywords=dead+egyptians+del+blackwater&qid=1724108366&sprefix=%2Caps%2C323&sr=8-1

0 Comments

Love Me Some Tim Walz Jokes

8/16/2024

3 Comments

Love Me Some Tim Walz Jokes

There's so much to like and admire about Kamala Harris's affable Vice Presidential running mate Tim Walz.

There's his rural Nebraska upbringing, his high school summers doing farm work, his enlistment in the National Guard at seventeen and his 24 years of service thereafter, his journey from factory worker to high school teacher and football coach to member of Congress to Governor of Minnesota to candidate for Vice President of the United States.
There's the fall-and-redemption chapter of Tim Walz's life, when at 31 years old he was arrested for drunk driving, pled guilty, paid his fine, admitted his conviction to the principal of his school, dropped out of coaching, gave up drinking, and soon after left his teaching job in Nebraska to take a teaching and coaching job in Mankato, Minnesota at a high school whose down-and-out football team had lost their past 27 games and, in the stuff of a stand-up-and-cheer movie, led the team to a championship season.
There's Tim Walz's good-natured personality and home-grown Midwestern optimism,

...a welcome tonic for the negativity that so many Americans had been feeling about the current Presidential election.
Yes, there's all that to like about Tim Walz.
But, hey, if all that's not enough, now there's the avalanche of funny Tim Walz memes, jests, and jokes that have blown up on social media since Mr. Walz moseyed onto the national scene.
As for me, I'm loving the Tim Walz jokes, affectionate, good-natured dad-joke-style joshes in the spirit of TP-ing Coach's front yard the night before the game. I can't get enough of them. And, fortunately, they are plentiful.
For those who haven't yet discovered the wide, wonderful world of Tim Walz jokes and memes, here are a few:

And as for Donald Trump's VP running mate, JD Vance, who's had the gall to try slinging mean-spirited, meaningless, bottom-of-the-barrel barbs against Tim Walz's military service,

...why, the social media wits have been rushing to Walz's defense with a few JD Vance barbs of their own:

 I sincerely hope that Tim Walz is enjoying all the Tim Walz jokes as much as I am.

3 Comments

Another Summer, Another State Fair

8/10/2024

0 Comments

Another Summer, Another State Fair

I could - and often do - go on and on over all things I love about Columbus, Ohio.

And right up there among my favorite Columbus things is the Ohio State Fair. The State Fair comes to our lovely city for twelve days every summer, and for the 46 years that we've lived in Columbus, it's the rare summer that my mate and I haven't spent one of those days at the Fair.

This year we went to the State Fair on Thursday, July 25, the day after opening day, where we joined what was a pretty typical weekday crowd of fairgoers.

The crowd of fairgoers was, like us, there to see the sights; and some of them, unlike us, were there to indulge in the more notorious offerings of State Fair cuisine, which obviously seeks to prove that there's nothing that can't be deep-fried,

...wrapped in bacon,

...or drenched in cheese.

And then there's the pièce de résistance of incredible Fair edibles,

As for Tom and I, we spent this day as we always do, strolling the grounds,

...and making the rounds of our favorite exhibits.
We started with the youth exhibits at the Lausche building.

...some of which were for youngsters,

...and some by youngsters,

...my favorite of which was the display of beautiful cakes decorated by members of the 4-H.

4-H contestants before the judges.

I certainly hope this cake won a prize.

Next after the youth building, we headed to Kasich Hall for my favorite of all the Fair exhibits, among which I usually spend the most time, the Creative Arts.

...where all kinds of pieces are created from all kinds of materials and media.

...including the wearable,

...the edible,

...and the usable.

A crocheted model of St. Basil's Cathedral,

...and a crocheted cockroach.

The amazing miniatures.

The table place settings

The student artwork was also on display.

The entrants for best honey were likewise among the arts and crafts, which leads one to conclude that the propagation of superior honey must be an art.

By the time we finished seeing the creative arts we were ready for lunch. And so we looked around among the food offerings,

...until opted to split a giant chopped sirloin burger and some fries.

The burger was rare and juicy, the fries hot and crispy. We decided that from now on the giant chopped sirloin would be our go-to Fair food.

After lunch we stopped by the Dairy building to see the butter sculptures,

...and have some ice cream.

Next we visited the Cox Fine Arts Center to see the art, sculpture, and photography exhibits.

Sadly, no photographs may be taken in the Fine Arts Center. However, the entries were for the most part quite engaging and wonderful.
Having made the cultural rounds, we then visited the animals.

After the animals we went to see the plant and vegetable exhibits.

After seeing the plants and vegetables we headed towards the commercial buildings, passing on our way the tent of a Columbus landmark restaurant, Schmidt's, known for it's German cuisine, and most especially it's giant delicious cream puffs.

"Do you think we ought to split a cream puff?" Tom asked me.
I replied that in view of all the walking we'd been doing, I thought we should. And so we did.

After our cream puff we continued on to the commercial buildings, where one can find all sorts of items, new and used, for sale,

...as well as numerous public service booths,

...and any kind of candy you might want,

...along with a couple of kinds you might not want.

There was a plethora of Trump merch,

...including copies of the Trump Bible.

After the commercial buildings we strolled for a while around the Natural Resources Park.

And then, after six and a half enjoyable hours, we decided to call it a day.
Funny, though, how some things just never grow old.

0 Comments

A Lesson From Venezuela For Americans

8/3/2024

0 Comments

With our national interest focused on our upcoming Presidential election, perhaps is would well behoove us Americans to turn our attention to the outcome another country's recent election and learn from it a lesson for ourselves.
Once upon a time Venezuela was an oil-rich democracy, the most democratic and politically stable country among the generally authoritarian regimes of South America.

Forty years ago Venezuela enjoyed such affluence that it was a magnet for immigrants and refugees from its poorer, more repressive neighboring countries.
Though a plunge in the price of oil in the 1980's sent Venezuela into an economic downturn, government leaders continued to be chosen in fair elections.
Then in 1998 Hugo Chavez, a charismatic insurgent Presidential candidate,

...broke onto the scene promising a revolution to end government corruption, oil dependence and the status quo. Chavez vowed to lift up the poor, bring down the elites, and be a President for the common people.
In 1999 Hugo Chavez won the Presidency in a landslide that would be Venezuela's last free, democratic election.
On the platform that only he could fix the country's ills, Chavez took authoritarian control over all the other branches of government as well as the election process. From then on any opposition to Chavez and his political machine was suppressed and the votes of Venezuelan citizens became meaningless as elections were invariably thrown to Chavez and his party. Meanwhile Venezuela's economy was neither wisely nor sustainably managed under Chavez and the state of Venezuela's economy rose and fell depending on the price of oil.
Hugo Chavez ruled Venezuela with an iron fist until he died - an attempt at a coup failed in 2002 - and in 2013 he was replaced in another meaningless election by an even more corrupt and repressive dictator, Nicolás Maduro.

Under Maduro the Venezuelan economy has failed, most Venezuelans live in dire poverty and basic human freedoms and rights are nonexistent. Protests are crushed, dissidents are arrested, free speech is suppressed.
But in the midst of Venezuela's hopelessness and political apathy, in the months prior to the Venezuelan Presidential election in July, a strong social movement in opposition to Maduro rose up under the leadership of Maria Corina Machado,

...a political activist and former member of the national assembly who was running for president in opposition to Maduro until Maduro's court had her disqualified. Ms. Machado nonetheless took up the cause of 74-year-old Edmundo González, an opposition candidate whom Maduro decided was a safe opponent.

Maria Corina Machado then travelled the country whipping up hope among the Venezuelan people and support for Edmundo González, with promises of a return to democracy, economic reform, and the reinstatement of free speech and human rights.
Leading up to the election, polls showed Edmundo González with a 47-point lead over Nicolás Maduro.
Last Sunday, July 31, the Presidential election was held in Venezuela. Exit polls indicated that Edmundo González won the election in a landslide. Though the government-controlled election body refused to make the voting tallies public, some opposition workers managed to get paper copies of the ballots, which indicated that Maduro had lost the election with 31% of the vote to González's 69%.
Democracies the world over have acknowledged Edmundo González as the new legitimately elected President of Venezuela. However Maduro and his party have declared victory.

Protests across Venezuela in opposition to the fraudulent election results have already been crushed by the government-controlled police and military. Global outrage has been blown off by Maduro and his enablers. Though Maduro lost the election, there seems to be little anyone can do to make him leave. So he'll continue to be the dictator over a country that doesn't want him.
There's a lesson in the plight of Venezuela for all democracies, and it's that democracies aren't guaranteed to last. Any democracy must be carefully guarded by its citizens, who must never allow themselves to be wooed by any candidate, no matter how appealing, into being reckless with their vote.
Beware of the candidate who seeks all power for himself under the pretext that he alone can save the country. Beware the one who seeks to consolidate all the government agencies under his direct control and to control the other branches of government. Beware he who aims to bend the courts and justice system to his will.
Beware of anyone, no matter how magnetic or appealing, who gives off even a whiff of authoritarianism. Because once a dictator is voted into office, he will never leave until he dies, after which he'll be replaced by a new dictator from among his protégés.
Once democracy is lost, abandon hope of getting it back.

References:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/30/world/americas/venezuela-election-maduro-chavez.html

https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/venezuela/

https://www.britannica.com/place/Venezuela

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/24/world/americas/venezuela-election-opposition-machado.html

0 Comments

You're A Mean One, Ann Coulter. You, Too, Jay Weber

A DNC Sugar High

​​A DNC Sugar High

"Dead Egyptians"

Love Me Some Tim Walz Jokes

​​Love Me Some Tim Walz Jokes

Another Summer, Another State Fair

​Another Summer, Another State Fair

A Lesson From Venezuela For Americans

Archives

Categories

A DNC Sugar High

Love Me Some Tim Walz Jokes

Another Summer, Another State Fair