Do's And Don'ts

We have often wondered during the age of Me Too and especially amid the exploits of Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, and P. Diddy, didn't any of these women have a husband, a boyfriend, a brother or even an Uncle, to punch the miscreant's lights out?  Well as the picture of Prince Andrew above shows, somebody does.

And we often wondered about the intelligent quotient of some of our elected officials and not because Donald John Trump  POTUS 45 & 47 says they are low I.Q individuals.  We think it's a legitimate question.  Well Scott Bessent Secretary of the Treasury was in one of those dog and pony shows called Congressional hearings and he wanted to make a point by repeating something Woodrow Wilson 28th POTUS said.  So he asked his inquisitor Congresswoman Judy Chu.  "Who was the President of the United States during World War I?" Expecting Congresswoman Judy Chu to answer.  "Woodrow Wilson."  At which point he would give the quote.  But all Scott got was a blank stare, tabula rosa, from Congresswoman Judy Chu .  She had no idea.  She tried talking over him, as he persisted in asking and she finally answered.  "I don't know."  Which in turn answers our question do some of out elected officials have low I.Qs..  They do.

And Scott Pelley of CBS's 60 Minutes was fired after he lambasted his Boss in front of  a staff meeting of 60 Minutes.  Scott then went on to claim in an interview with the NY Times, that he was a hero who had been under fire in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Shades of Brian Williams maybe.  But Pelley with choaking voice and tears streaming down his face said he was willing to go into combat because he loves his country and believes in the freedom of the Press or as he put it.  "You can't have democracy without Journalism."   

Now he is slated to go into that vast cornfield inhabited by Dan Rather, the aforementioned Brian Williams, Joy Reid, Chris Wallace, Poppy Harlow and a whole host of others, whose fading voices  disappeared into the gloam of obscure TV cable news networks or worse, Substack.

Like they say a word to the wise is sufficient, so if you ever feel compelled to tell your Boss off in the middle of a staff meeting...  Don't.

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Quiz Time

Every once in a while we like to see if everyone is paying attention.  Just like when you were in school, it is now Quiz time!

Question 1.  As the midterms approach celebrities rear their heads like Groundhogs on February 2 and start endorsing candidates, which begs our first question.  When was the last time a celebrity endorsement, helped a candidate win an election?

A. 1960 Presidential election

B.  1981 New York City Comptroller's election.

C.  2004 Presidential election.

D.  Never

Question 2.  Jill Biden former first lady and wife of Joe Biden 46th POTUS thought her husband was performing so badly during his debate with Donald John Trump POTUS 45 and 47, that he'd had...

A.  Brain freeze from have one too many ice cream cones that day.

B.  A demon had entered his body.

C.  A Eureka moment about history, the Presidency and the why of it all.  So much so that he couldn't find the words to express it.  Maybe no one can.

D.  A stroke.

Question 3.  The IRGC and the United States of America will sign a peace deal today because.

A.  The IRGC is winning and they are tired of winning.

B.  The United States has run out of missiles and bombs.

C.  Somewhere in the vortex that is The Once Was The Main Stream Media, someone is declaring that both sides have agreed.  Sometimes with the terms listed and one of these days, they might be right.

D.  All of the above.

E.  None of the above.

Question 4.  David Rush a former CIA officer was arrested with a cache of 40 million in gold bars, 35 luxury watches and 2 million in cash.  How did he accumulate all this stuff?  He asked the CIA for it.  But how was he able to do that?

A.  It's classified, they can't tell us.

B.  David Rush was a former pilot, graduate of Clemson and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who needed these things for...  It's classified they can't tell us.

C.  David Rush had no degrees, never flew a plane but the CIA was impressed by how he faked it and got away with it for decades, so they hired him.  Then of course, well he could ask for things.

D.  All of the above

E.  None of the above.

F.  Ya don't know do ya?

Answers.

Question 1.  D, never.  This was easy.  We like to start with easy ones.

Question 2.  D, A stroke.  Jill Biden gave this information in an interview with the WOWTMSM.  She must have thought Old Brains had a stroke, a few times every day.

Question 3.  The answer is C, but no matter what you picked you get this one right, as all of the answers have appeared repeatedly in the media.

Question 4.  This is another one where no matter what you picked, you got it right, as don't expect a rundown of the events leading up to the arrest of one David Rush.  Expect this story to just go away.

Scoring.  25 points for each correct answer.  If you got 100 congratulations!  You know what is going on.  You're probably one of our regulars here, who gets all the pertinent information that is out there.  If you got 75, try to tune in here more often.  If you got 50 you need to think about where you are getting your information from.  If you got less than 50, seek remedial help.  Starting with mathematics.

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One Little Question For Memorial Day

The recent Iranian kerfuffle has brought out the hate America and the not quite hate, but the disdain for America crowd.  These are not just the Trump haters but the people who have spent their whole lives disparaging America.  And this well before there was a Donald John Trump 45th and 47th POTUS.  They can't write a book, make a speech or have a discussion without saying something degrading or nasty about the United States of America.

In response, we happened to realize something and that led us to this one little question.

The United States of America has military bases in 49 different countries.  If you ask the internet it will give you different numbers every time but we can be pretty sure it's at least 49 countries.  So the question is, what do all those countries have in common?  Different parts of the world, different cultures, different languages, different religions and yet, one thing in common.

It's just a one word answer but before we give it to you, we have to make a little notation about the U.A.E. Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordon, Turkey and Oman.  They all came under attack during this Iranian kerfuffle.  But stop to think about how many casualties those countries would have suffered had they not had American air defenses, intercepting most of those missiles and drones fired at them.

And now for the answer, drum roll please....  The answer is...  Peace.

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Have You Been Paying Attention?

Certain things have appeared in the WOWTMSM since the kerfuffle with the Iranian regime began and we were just wondering if people were paying attention.  This is not an official quiz.  There will be no prizes.  But have you heard these?

Another forever war.

America has no plan.

The war is expanding.

America is running out of missiles.

The Houthis have entered the conflict.

The war is expanding.

The IRGC will wait till the bombs stop, crawl out of their holes and start the regime all over again like nothing happened, other than a lot of guys will have gotten promoted.

Iran still has a nuclear program that they can start over in three weeks, no two weeks, no by next Tuesday.

The war is expanding.

Another forever war.

This war is like 'Whac-A-Mol'e, kill one IRGC or Basij leader and another pops up.

The war is expanding.

The IRGC and the Basij militia will go into Guerilla war mode after the bombing stops.

The Terrorists have won.

Another forever war.

And now to see if you have been paying attention.  But just two questions because as previously mentioned, this is not an official quiz.

Question 1)  How many of the above statements have appeared in the WOWTMSM?

A.  8  

B.  5 

C.  All of them except, the Terrorists have won.

D.  2

Question 2)  How many of them turned out to be true?

A.  All of them.

B.  10

C.  None

D. 1.

Answers

Question 1)  Correct answer C.  All except the Terrorists have won.  We haven't heard that one in a long time.  It was big after 9/11.  We just threw that in to be funny.

Question 2)  Correct answer C, none.  But if you picked D, we'll give that to you because the Houthis did fire one missile at Israel and they kept announcing that they were going to join the war even if they never did.  We're not hard task masters.

If watching and listening to the WOWTMSM has left you perplexed don't worry, as they don't worry about it too much either.

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Don't

Yeah, yeah we know there is a war going on but it's just blah, blah, blah everyday with whoever you happen to tune into saying the same old, same old.  Like they know what's going on.  Now we've put our military hats on and we know what's going on but we'll wait till the smoke clears before we give our analysis.  

And there are other things happening in this world.  Take those commercials that jump out of you whenever you're watching something on Youtube and usually just when something got real interesting.  Sometimes right in the middle of a word. 

Hey we're not complaining.  We have to log onto a lot of sites and we just don't want to pay the few bucks that will make the advertisements go away, so tough noogies on us.  But we can't help but wonder which one of these dumb ass commercials are the worst.  We even have categories.

The One That Can't Possibly Be True.  There is this little box, designed by former NASA engineers that will cool any room in 90 seconds.  Any room?  You mean like St. Patrick's Cathedral?  Cost?  19.99? 29.99?  Doesn't matter you can buy a fan for less which is what this thing will turn out to be.

Don't Try This At Home.  A middle aged guy comes on and tells you.  " Forget Viagra!  Don't waste your money on those pills!  I'm going to tell you how to get rock hard for hours!  Just get some Vick's Vapor Rub and..."  Not only don't try this at home but hit the that skip button real fast.  Before you even think of it.

It Won't Work But It Can't Hurt.  It's a little drawing that shows a woman drinking a glass of water.  Then a nice soothing voice comes on and says.  "Drink a glass of warm water before you go to bed and your vision will improve overnight."  And when that doesn't work don't worry, as there are commercials that will tell you how they got something to stop you from getting up to pee three and four times a night.

Okay, okay there is a war going on and try not to get too stressed out.  Remember the terrorists have won.  The Russians are this fearsome military power, that will over run Ukraine in a few weeks.  Global warming which was later changed to Climate Change, will cause the seas to rise, and the Polar Ice Caps to melt by the year 2000.

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Do Ya?

We all grew up in this Queens neighborhood back in the 1960's and like most young teenagers in New York City neighborhoods, we all had something smart to say.  Smart, as in wise cracks, friendly insults and sometimes genuine insight into the human condition.  Things like "the hardest part about doing nothing is you never know when you're finished" or an actual situation.  A  a guy came into one of our Luncheonettes at closing.  Pulled out a gun.  Put it in the face of the kid working the counter that night Tommy Hsu and said.  "Give me the money."  Tommy calmly put his index finger on the gun barrel guided it towards the owner Willie Bly and said.  "Point it at him.  He owns the place."

You get the picture?

Well there was one guy Ed Khammer, nice guy, good ballplayer.  He was also a great ice skater and hockey player.  But not a guy who could come up with wise cracks on the spot.  I think he and his family had come to New York from some place way out in Pennsylvania or maybe Ohio even.  So when everyone would be on the corner cracking wise, Ed really couldn't join in.  But he did have this one thing he would say and he would say it at the most opportune moment and it was.  "Ya don't know, do ya'?"  And that could be real funny, so Ed would see everyone laughing and a happy, little smile would form at the corners of his mouth.  He'd found his place on the corner.  So much so, that his little smile would come out just before he'd invoke.  "Ya don't know do ya?"

We are reminded of Ed because we watch all the Talking Heads, the Know It All's and The Cognoscenti Of The Known World discuss the current kerfuffle in Iran. And they all do it in their usual fashion, with authoritative and dramatic voices, that makes it seem as if they have it all figured out.  And doing this in spite of the fact or facts, that they have been wrong more times in the past, than anyone could count.  Just check their previous exhortations and of course their polls.  But they are undaunted by previous errors, as they drone on about whatever the current situation is, and they do this without inhaling too much.  But when they do manage to stop, to take a breath, we wish Ed Khammer was there to give that little smile and say.  "Ya don't know do ya?"

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Bread And Fish

We diverge today from our usual fare, issues of the day, because it was Easter yesterday.

Everything, politics, wars, social/cultural issues and just about everything that is, or ever was, topic du jour, gets discussed, as if money has nothing to do with it.  Everything is all ideology or belief systems or some story someone has to tell you for your own good.  But by the way do you mind giving the ubiquitous do-gooder a few bucks?  For the greater good of course, and yours too.

So where are we going with this you ask?  What does money have to do with the Jesus?  Well it's not money but the love of money to the exclusion to all else, that is one of the roots of evil.  And so it seems that back in the day, you had to belong to the temple.  And of course the temple has expenses and The Pharisees have to be paid.  They need the shekels, the moola, the bread.  So you had to pay taxes to the temple, not just Caesar.  What if you didn't have the half a shekel (two drachmas)?  Maybe you only had one drachma.  People were not just poor but specie or money was not something everyone dealt in, every day.  Well that's what the money lenders were doing in the temple.  There were there to help you.  Of course there was the Vig*.  Maybe you paid off the half a shekel and the Vig.  Maybe all you could ever come up with was the Vig.  And maybe that's why Jesus drove the Shylocks from the temple.

Then there is the Sermon on the Mount.  Probably the greatest lecture on humanity ever spoken.  It's teachings echo through every day of our lives, even for for followers of other religions, even for atheists.  Nobody paid to get in. 

And Jesus fed the 5,000.  Did he actual create enough fish and bread?  Did everyone just start to share what they had?  Was it a metaphor; If you listen and follow the teachings of Jesus, you are fed spiritually?  Take your pick, but at the end of the day, it did not cost anything to listen to Jesus.  When the basket was passed, it was to feed people, not to collect shekels and drachmas.

Maybe if you start to follow Jesus, you don't need to go to a temple.  Maybe the shekels started to dry up for the Pharisees and their Shylocks too.  No more easy moola, no more bread, or fish either.  Maybe that's what pissed them off.  Maybe it wasn't that Jesus had so many followers.  Maybe it wasn't anything he said.  Maybe,  maybe, he was costing them money.  People have been known to kill over that.

Jesus said to render unto Caesar that which is his.  God wasn't interested in your money.  He didn't care how much you had and He didn't need it either.

This has just been one of those idle thought that rattles around in our brains here.  We don't aim to preach or ever tell anyone what to think.  We just have these thoughts.  Maybe we're wrong.  Happy Easter to all, even followers of other religions and even you atheists out there.

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*Vig (short for vigorish), the interest paid to a Shylock on the loan.