I FEEL BETTER NOW.

The U.S. Supreme court has alleviated some of an old timers fears when in a moment of unthinking, I might have put myself in the predicament of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

If perhaps darkness is coming on and I am, like an unthinking citizen, am out for a walk on a city street am confronted by two or three 250 pound hulks coming toward me sharing a sidewalk only wide enough for two, maybe three. One of us is going to have to go. Guess which one will be encouraged to give way? Yeah you're right. But now instead of looking at the worst, a mugging and a little face rearranging, I can now feel much safer knowing that the Supreme court of the United States has given these good citizens who are probably going to assault me physically a 'metal convincer' that he can now carry legally just in case the other sport they will have with me bores them a little.

Of course I too can start packing as Matt Dillon used to say, but what good is one legal gun against three legal guns, I lose. Well I suppose the highest court of the land is working on the reasons to set us back a century into those good old rooting tooting days of the wild west. Now we can live through the good new days of the wild east, south and north too. Anyway I certainly feel safer, I won't have to call up the Equalizer, I'll have it in a holster when I take that little walk before bedtime.

Are we looking at some 'bad times' coming up? Nuh uh you think.

I'm certainly no economist, but I am aware of what is going on at the fuel pump, at the grocery store, how much the utilities cost to run our house on a monthly basis. I am aware that my trash hauler will have to raise his cost for the service because he is losing money every time he takes his truck out on the road (he makes less than last month because he has to fill that tank with higher and higher priced gas. All suppliers of goods that we use are in the same pickle, so more and more of the prices we pay will cost us more next month for the same amount.

My wife and I talk about this almost daily. We are retired and can to some extent control our financial destiny insofar as using the car less. We can cut down on our food budget and my wife is a whiz at making a feast out of small quantities of raw material. After all we raised three children on my, compared to today's salaries, measly pittance I brought home. We have two trips we have to make this year. Our daughter is having her first baby and we would like to be there for that, but after that we have the option to put the car in the garage and use it as infrequently as we can.

How are the people who exist on the fringes today going to exist in a decent manner tomorrow when those relentless prices continue to rise?

Would it not be wonderful if we had a president who could go on the television and speak to us and try to explain exactly what is going wrong, what has to be done to fix it, and this is the biggie, we believed what he was telling us, ala Franklin Roosevelt in the thirties.

I read an article this morning in the Times that stated that drinking copious amounts of red wine could extend your life. Seriously, they are and have been conducting studies that they believe will do that. The article goes into the subject in more depth and is fascinating to read and conjure upon. It adds that the 'magic pill' would also slow or end cancer and alzheimer's and they are deadly serious about it. I don't wish to make a comic routine out of the article, but it's too late for me if it came out on the market today and you have to admit it sounds like the mad scientists is at work in his laboratory somewhere in Romania. Comedy aside, it is serious enough for Glaxosmithkline to be offering up millions of dollars for the 'formula'.
Read the article here

Somewhat seriously though what if this would pan out? Life changes would follow for all the world. Except maybe for my crowd, the retirees of the world. First it would extend our expectations of how long we would be around and the delights and problems it would cause. It's my nickle so I would say it will add forty years to our lifespan. I'm not sure my neighborhood will be safe to live in forty years from now, so moving might be in the cards. Where would I want to spend my newly expanded life? I like where I'm at, but if someone is waving a collect $200, get out jail card at me I guess I would have to think about it.

Another thing, I might want to go back to work, oh my God, what am I saying. But it's true. I love my wife completely, but she would probably have a slight change of thought and be thinking it might be a good idea for me to get out of the house and give her a little privacy now and then, matter of fact, she might want to go back to work also.

If I went back to work, I would not want to work where I did, but I'm probably not trained to do what I really want to do, so I might have to go back to school. Actually millions of us would have to go back to school to bring us up to date on the technology needed to get by in the everyday workplace. Oh jeeze this might get more complicated.

I can see some businesses that might be in for a little lean spell. The funeral business I would think would have a forty year depression until we have used up our forty year gift of new life and started to wear out and succumb to some disease that hasn't yet reared it's ugly head. The government might have to cross train funeral directors in the interim as philosophers or guidance counselors.

I could go on and on, but it brings up a more serious aspect of the life extension. Would we use it for ill or good? My snap judgement is the former, but everyday brings something new, so we hope for good things.

Go Ahead and Smile, I Know You Want to.


Two very funny movies in years past were: The Ma and Pa Kettle series and Mr. Blandings builds his Dream House. Here is a scene from each with the same comic actor Emory Parnell playing the foil in both.

THE NUMBING DOWN OF OUR SENSIBILITIES
By Jim Kittelberger

Our television (what a waste) is turning into a daily no class, reality show. It is not merely a game of switching channels trying to find something that is not inane pap, but now it is trying to find something that doesn't make you want to hurl from it's effrontery.

Add to the list some stupifying commercial with very polite people sitting around the dinner table when one of the diners asks to be excused so she can 'pass gas'. In one of their little disgusting episodes the husband or boy friend says its okay, go ahead.

My God, watching television these days is not unlike running the gauntlet of bad manners and bad talk, it's just plain embarrassing. Somewhere freedom to express your every thought in front of any gathering has crossed over to mean that anyone has license to do or say whatever they want, wherever they are, without thinking of it's merit.

I'm reminded of the consul for the army back during the Joe McCarthy HUAC hearings, when the consul Joe Welch could not take any more of Joe McCarthy and said, "My God sir, is there no end to what you will do or say?" (paraphrased)

In order to make a buck, evidently there is no end to how crass, how disgusting, how damaging to whatever civility remains that they would not trash to sell a product. I remember reading once that it didn't matter much what you said in a commercial but you should repeat the product name as many times as you could, as loud as you could and people will remember and chances are purchase it. Sad but probably true. But everytime one of these commercials that lower and demean the publics sensibilities airs, it also lowers and demeans us.