Some days are diamonds, some days are dust

The weather is warmer. We have enjoyed lots of sunshine. There is ample evidence that spring is here. The awful pollen seems to have abated.

There are ongoing and manifest signs that the country is bucking off the shackles of Covid. There is a rapidly emerging sense of ‘We’re going forward again’ now. Schools are almost out. Vacations are being planned. Baseball is back. The Kentucky Derby is this weekend. God is in His Heaven and all is right with this world.

Uhhhhh, not quite.

I have recently been a slacker about my blogging. I’ll admit to being remarkably distracted over the past few months, even, at times, almost frozen. I’d finished the third book in my ‘Adventures of Eddie Terrell’ and two overwhelming sensations joined hands in conflict about me- ‘I did it!’ and ‘Oh God, What’s next?’ Unsure of myself, I was hesitant and inert about many things so I kept pushing only the little rocks up the hill, leaving the big rocbeks to just sit there awaiting my further struggles. But time waits for no man and it surely was not going to wait for me so a renewed vitality has  Has been happily and unexpectedly cooked into me and I am on the move again. I am grateful. And, as the smart person says, “The only thing constant in life is change.”, so lead, follow or get the Hell out of the way. I choose the first two; the latter has always been anathema to me.

Standing on the sidelines while the world moves just aint for me.

Thus the old, double edged sword of blessing and curse circles back, as it always does, over and over again: ‘May You Live In Interesting Times.’

It is inevitable.

So today I take a measure of today’s disruption and chaos from the headlines of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Don’t worry. I’ll have thoughts and opinions.

As many of you know, I, almost every day as part of my ‘Gentlemen Start Your Engines’ routine, go to the giant grocery store just down the street and one block over and buy both of those national publications as well as our local national paper. To go through them all gives me perspective and makes me think. The Times is liberal. The Journal is conservative. The Post and Courier is local and often all over the lot.

So let’s take a look. These are the three, above the fold-articles in today’s Old Gray Lady paper.

NYTs: LEAK INTENSIFIES VIEW THAT COURT IS TOO POLITICAL (Top Left Corner-Most Prevalent)

Huh? If the (criminally, illegally?) leaked first draft opinion dealing with Roe v. Wade was seen to uphold and affirm a woman’s right to an abortion, would that have also been ‘Too Political’? I think resoundingly not.

(I do think that the leak was a terrible invasion of the Court’s ‘right to privacy’ and am amazed (but not surprised) that the current administration and all those so angry and riled up about its import have not roundly condemned it.)

I have just copied off the entire Roe v. Wade case and am going to study on it. I’ve never read it. It now is in a clipped stack next to my chair. It was published fifty years ago. I was twenty-two and had not even started law school (where I ended up being an academically hideous, barely avoiding anchorman putz). It did not resonate with me. ( In great part because it did not involve medical malpractice and tort work and also, because I’m a guy…duh!) asked a good friend yesterday what she thought about it all. Her answer was a cheerful and terse,
“If they don’t have a vagina, they need to stay out of it.”

It will be interesting  to read the case. I am a ‘law’ guy and I want to see what the legal foundations are for something this (forever) rife with controversy subject are.

So, I’m not sure where I stand just yet but I will come to land on a limb in a while, probably somewhere in a middle ground. In cases of rape and incest, no doubt the ladies should have the green light. I think a lot of these brief, very short limits are unknowing and basically truncated unto the point of arbitrary idiocy. Full term abortions? Sorry folks-that’s tantamount to murder in my mind. And I am mindful that so many of the folks that seek abortions are from the echelons of the lower funded socio-economic groups. And too, I am mindful that the Pro-Lifers are a powerful force out there and they vote too.

So, more later on this truly Hot Button Issue but that’s how the Times’s opened its top left front page article this morning.

NYTs: U.S. HELPED KYIV IN TARGETING RUSSIAN GENERALS/AID TO UKRAINE INCLUDES REAL TIME BATTLEFIELD INTELLIGENCE (Center)

Huh? Why in the world would the administration and the Pentagon release this unless they’ve already been busted or otherwise exposed/found out. And even if this were the case, why publicize such information. Are we going to now ‘stop’ doing this? Fat chance. In for a penny, in for a pound.

We are a ‘little bit pregnant’ on this one and so much more. Where’s the tactical or strategic advantage? I just don’t get it. Is this going to scare Putin?

Also, fat chance. In my opinion, this administration has chronic diarrhea of the mouth.

NYTs: RATE INCREASE IS THE LARGEST IN 2 DECADES-(Far right, beneath a large war photo from Ukraine, smaller headline print)

Here is the Administration’s nightmare. This is the Ying to the Roe v. Wade Yang. Pro-Choice versus Pocketbook issues. Which will be at the top of most voter’s agendas. Inflation is still hot. The Fed is behind the curve of way too much money being thrown out like candy at the Christmas parade. Now, they start to tighten but many think they are too late. And if the Fed cools it all down too quick, here comes Stagflation-persistent high inflation with stagnant demand. Uh-Oh.

Now, onto the Journal. 

I’ll just give you a Reader’s Digest version.

Here are the WSJ’s front page headlines.

BIG BOY LARGE TOP OF THE PAGE BANNER

FED RATE RISE IS BIGGEST SINCE 2000

UKRANIANS RECLAIM VILLAGES, EASING PRESSURE ON KHARKIV

TRADE DEFICIT CLIMBS TO RECORD

CHINA’s COVID 19 LOCKDOWNS REIGNITE SUPPLY-CHAIN WOES

Interesting, No Supreme Court Roe v. Wade news there. Of Course, there is inside but there is no palpable hysteria as I see in the NYTs.

So now, y’all chew on this.

Much work to be done so I’ll get to it, I promise.

I must note it is nice to have newspapers, in essence, write my blog for me.

A last note. None of us are immune to the losses that gather around us as time and years pass. As many of you will recall, I lost my dear friend and ultimate mentor, the great Kermit King, a few weeks ago. Now another good and fine one has left the building.

My first cousin and wonderful friend, Jim ‘Book’em’ Butler had to leave. He was very sick with pulmonary fibrosis and could not be helped. His death was a blessing. Please y’all don’t smoke or if you do, please quit it!

RIP JAMES ARCHER BUTLER-one of the true and real good guys.

Everyone please stay safe out there! Keep reading. Keep thinking.

All my best,

Vernon