I wish I could take credit for the title; I actually “borrowed” part of it from the late LTC David Hackworth (in an article he penned over 15 years ago). I also wish I could move off this topic (I’ve already written three posts on this subject); however, it seems to me that the US Air Force is locked into an unrecoverable spin because of its single-minded plunge into identity politics.

Friday night, I was cooking on the back patio, well into my third beer; all was right with the world. However, from the family room TV came the voice of Tucker Carlson and his latest comments on the state of our military. This time, Tucker was running a video of an interview with the honcho of the Air Force Education and Training Command, Lieutenant General Brad Webb.

I just bought a 2018 Nissan Leaf that tells the world. in very handsome lettering in the rear and on the side panel, that I am a “Zero Emissions” kind of guy.  Saving the planet.  That’s what I do. Darn straight.

Yes, yes, I know about the infrastructure that has gone — and goes — to support my Leaf. It’s still less than that that goes to support your gas guzzler (That’s what we EV drivers call you internal combustion guys behind your backs.)

But I don’t care about any of that.  The earth can go to hell. I’m an enthusiastic follower of Ayn Rand’s idea of “rational selfishness,” the principle that an action is rational only if it maximizes one’s self-interest.”  What a great philosophy!  John Galt lives!

I’m old enough to remember when the ACLU stood for something (agree with them or not). They were free speech absolutists who defended the rights of Nazis to march in Skokie, because they believed that shutting down speech was more dangerous than what the Nazis were saying.  They stood up for Japanese-Americans facing FDR’s concentration camps. They defended Communist Party members and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

To be truly principled, though, you need to be honest.

I am sure they have a draft of the tweet, that reads “mostly peaceful far left activists”, who killed a police officer in a heist gone wrong:

Few prosecutors have been as directly touched by incarceration as San Francisco’s new DA, Chesa Boudin. When he was a toddler, his far-left activist parents were imprisoned for their part in a fatal heist. His mother served 22 years. His father's still in. https://t.co/OzEMZRYTMV pic.twitter.com/7ZsVDGDuve

I am officially a cancer survivor.  My dermatologist removed a barely visible little spot from my back and found it to be malignant.  I did not get a chance to know I had this (eventually) life-threatening condition until after it was largely cured.  But I am still claiming the T-shirt and whatever sympathy and adulation I can garner for having just shared my story.  In its entirety. In one lousy sentence.   [I feel like one of those fake Vietnam combat veterans that John Kerry used to pal around with back in the day.]

Have you ever tried to assemble a complete list of health events in your life that could have been fatal if you had lived during an earlier age? Appendicitis, the absence of routine dental care, none of the numerous instances in which topical and oral antibiotics were given, or an intestinal polyp not removed all would have created chances to die.  And we have not touched on all the contributions by people who currently make our buildings and products safer, our entire physical environment cleaner, and our food and water untainted.  Had I lived in the 16^th century (I often fantasize about living in Florence at the peak of the Renaissance), I would likely not have survived long enough to have required much less not received many of these kinds of medical treatments.  My lousy vision unaided by corrective lenses would have been a major ongoing handicap.  (It certainly would have reduced my enjoyment of the rich art of the era and thus kinda undercut the whole point of this particular time-travel fantasy.)

Twenty-five years ago, my wife and I bought our first – and last – house. Like all real estate decisions, we fell in love with the possibilities, not the realities of the house. It was built during the post-WWII boom years and had taken some wear. It has since been a quarter of a century of “getting there.”

Two things we did right away was to redo the kitchen and the bath. The bathroom was especially bad. Decorated in early cab stand, with lots of yellows and a black-and-white checkered tile job, it was an abominable combination of bad aesthetics and bad functionality. It also had a wood frame window in the shower. So much for privacy. Replacing that with glass block was the first and easiest decision.