Musing of one thinking about the inveterate woman chaser who spotted a pretty girl in a market and was half way through his opening spiel before he realized she was a nun.

Politically people are generally classified as Democrat, Republican or Libertarian. Philosophically they can generally be classified as liberal, conservative or libertarian. Liberals usually think that the economy should be run by the government and the private sector should comply with its dictates. Conservatives generally feel the economy should be run by the private sector and the government should help wherever it can. Libertarians feel that each person should do his own thing and everyone should stay out of the way. So there you are. I would simply add one observation; the government is no big separate being with its own brain. It is run by people who are no smarter than the rest of us.

Musing of one thinking about a nonagenerian who coined the phrase, "I may be old but I'm feeble" and then bragged about it.

Many years ago when we lived on the Mohave and son Mike was a little tyke, he had an interesting adventure.

The desert around the place was full of flora and fauna and a railroad ran right next to it.  One day I went out to look for Mike and found him sitting on an old remnant of a packing case which consisted of planks nailed onto 2x4’s.  He was sitting on top, and directly underneath him was a sidewinder rattlesnake, asleep.  Somehow I got the snake away from the area so Mike could be rescued.   It just goes to show some people live charmed lives.

 

Musing of one thinking about the absent minded driver who pulled up to a four way STOP and sat there waiting for the STOP sign to turn green.

Long before the Heimlich manuever was invented, my mother came up with a similar manuever to rescue children. When I was a kid about half past three (as Johnny Mercer would put it) I was sitting in the swing on our front porch swinging as high as I could and sucking on a jawbreaker. For those who may not be familiar with it, a jawbreaker is a spherical piece of hard candy perhaps 3/4 of an inch or so in diameter. Inevitably I swallowed the wrong way and the jawbreaker blocked my airway. Mother who was maybe 5'5" tall was inside the house. She heard me choking, ran out, grabbed me by the heels, flipped me upside down and shook me so hard the jawbreaker popped out. It is amazing what mothers can do when there is a threat to their progeny.

Musing of one thinking about the man who got in an argument, lost his cool, and tried to regain it by stripping down to his shorts.

I live in Albuquerque, NM which has acquired a reputation as a place where the police go around shooting people.  Once a reputation is acquired it is difficult to live it down and it will take Albuquerque some years to live this down. 

And now for a known sequitur.  After getting an application for an absentee ballot, I began to think about how candidates acquire votes.  There is a variety of reasons among which are reputation, party line voting, and votes acquired by super salesmanship.  In the last case the candidate is usually so persuasive that people decide to vote for him/her regardless.  So elections turn out to be a kind of lottery.

Not directly related, my mother's method of betting was somewhat similar.  When Mary Kay and I lived in San Diego, she came for a visit and we took her to Tijuana to the Jai Alai games. While waiting for the game to begin she was looking at the players standing around and she said, "Number such and such is cute. I think I will bet on him."  And so that is what she did throughout the games. Oddly enough she did very well.  So I guess we will call it Nana's Principle, so much for scientific analysis.

Musing of one wondering what the world would be like if Adolf Hitler had been accepted by the art school which turned down his application.

I think it would be a good thing if high school curricula included a semester to give students an overview of the various governmental and economic systems which exist in the world. Especially  there should be an introduction in some detail to our own government - its nature and its structure. Also the course could include an overview of the various forms of doing business. I must confess that I did not learn any of this in my high school civics class back in the dim dark ages. But that was in the depths of the great depression when schools concentrated on getting students ready to qualify for one of the occasional job openings which occurred. 

Musing of one thinking about the Chinese Zillionaire who, on a visit to the U.S., went to the White House and offered to teach President Obama how to run a country.

When one reaches an advanced age perhaps 90, a little frog takes up residence on his vocal cords. When the old guy wants to say something, he first has to clear his throat. This knocks the frog off the vocal cords, and the old guy gets out about five words, before the frog jumps back on and he has to repeat the process. This goes on until he has finished his remark. Alternatively he can ignore the frog and just let the voice be the one of old age, possibly cracked and indistinct. Either way it must be an annoyance to the listener. And that's the way it is.What we need is some way to get rid of the frog. Incidentally, we have been going through this process while writing this.

Musing of one wondering if there is any truth to the rumor that an unnamed university offered Joe Biden a job teaching public relations when he leaves offfice.

Everything I hear on the news points to action by congress to keep the government running, but I see no evidence whatever of any effort to balance the budget. So I guess we will keep piling up deficit on deficit until the bubble bursts and we will have rampant  inflation and financial chaos. It seems to me that if they will ignore politics, they could balance the budget in spite of the effect on various individuals and organizations.