Everybody's wrapped up in politics these days and the disconcerting uncertainty of this unusual election campaign, this fragile president, and his often-incompetent administration that still has 508 days left in office.
God help us!
I was scouting around online the other day and came upon a piece of news I found rather surprising. A significant percentage of Americans now view even moderate drinking as bad for their health. Not long ago, that was not an issue at all.
Most people, if they're honest and sober, would admit that excessive drinking is bad for your health. But moderate drinking? Moderate is defined as just one or two drinks a day.
It reminded me of how smoking in excess was once widely accepted, even by those who did not themselves light up. To put it mildly, that has changed immensely since those days. It happened slowly but steadily.
I got to thinking this different attitude toward alcohol consumption could be the start of a similar long-term larger trend. Once upon a time, drinking too much was funny, even hilarious because of the stupid things drunk people say and do, like this.
By the way, here's the link I promised to the front porch story I mentioned on the tape.
So, I did some research and thinking on drinking and this week's audio is the result. Grab a cold, uh, soft drink and listen.
Speaking of smoking, I posted here the other day a piece about the clever little, counterintuitive trick my father pulled on me as a new teenager about smoking. I hadn't really given much thought to trying it at the time, although many of my junior high friends were trying it, in secret.
Dad offered to buy me some cigarettes. Say what? Here's what happened. (Make sure you read the Comments that readers left. Turns out, my Dad, who later died from smoking complications, was not alone in teaching that lesson, even before the government's anti-smoking campaigns.)
One recent audio commentary took a concerned look at Joe Biden's dangerous new deal with Iran. What is it about Biden and Barack Obama that they both seek to do unbalanced deals with those murderous mullahs?
The most recent audio commentary got me steamed a bit. It seems, quietly, the Biden administration is crafting a plea deal with the guy who designed the 9/11 terrorist attacks and his cronies. The deal would involve dropping the death penalty for these guys who killed 3,000 innocent human beings on that awful day.
They've dragged these legal proceedings out through several presidencies and just want to get it done now. That might seem expedient to government goofs. But it's not justice of any kind for those victims and their thousands of survivors. And actually, for the rest of us who suffered along with them in our own ways.
This is what I had to say about that.
By the way, here's a link to the latest in my new series on Memories, more of my encounters with fame, including Judy Garland's body. Readers had their own recollections of such run-ins as well. And there are links at the bottom to the previous Memory chapters.
I almost forgot the latest column. How could I do that? They take forever to research and write.
With everyone opining on who won or lost the recent Republican presidential primary debate, I took a different tack. Big surprise, right?
I looked at what they had to say and how that outlined their basic campaign themes and messages. Some of the candidates are still massaging their messages, trying out different lines, and reading their own internal polls about what their target audiences are eager to hear them talk about.
When I was in politics, slipping the main messages in several different ways was the key to any of a candidate's public appearances, even seemingly spontaneous media interviews.
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