On my most recent driving excursion, I heard the Democrat mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, announce the relaxation of some COVID-19 restrictions he had imposed upon business and the movement of citizens in the city. With that, he said, “let's continue to earn this freedom.”

Early in January, I was watching Fox News when host Greg Gutfeld declared that the Pandemic would be over for him on February 1st. Greg wasn’t being a prophet. He regularly mixes humor and politics. In this case, he spoke with a mix of humor and frustration. He decided the first of February would be the day he would stop worrying about the virus.

I was flipping through TV channels earlier today and stopped for a moment on an interview with Kathy Griffin. For those of you that don’t remember, Griffin is the alleged comedian that in 2017 decided it would be funny to have a picture taken of her with the mock, bloody, decapitated head, of President Trump. I changed the channel.

In a crisis, what you expect from the government depends upon your political viewpoint. In 2005 as hurricane Katrina reached New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin directed residents to shelter at the city convention center without any provision for food, water, or medical care. Within a day, many were desperate for drinking water.

This last year it seems as if we are caught in an Orwellian nightmare where some seek to rewrite history, burn and loot our cities, and then declare they are the victims. Yes, this is a time of trial and tribulation, but this is also a day to remember and celebrate.

Throughout the COVID pandemic, my thoughts about politicians, scientists, and teachers have evolved. I’ve mentioned before that in 2019 a little teriyaki restaurant I enjoy had a fire that forced the owners to close for repairs. Just when they were ready to reopen, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee shut them down. They were non-essential in the age of COVID-19. However, the nearby liquor store remained open. In Nevada, churches were closed, but casinos remained open. It all begins with an idea.

Each year my wife buys a daily Jeopardy calendar and after breakfast, we read the question of the day. On Easter morning this year, we read, “A little birdie told us there’s a 2009 documentary all about these marshmallow Easter treats.” Peeps is the answer.

I’m sure you’ve tried to call a business and ended up on their automated answering system. You know the type, “Press 1 for English, press 2 for Spanish, press 3 for Icelandic.

During the Blitz, in the dark days of early World War II, Nazi bombs rained down on much of England. Millions of children were sent to the relative safety of regions farther north and west. Many Londoners slept in the subway tunnels as bombs exploded above them. In the morning, they emerged to the smoldering ruins of their city. They checked to see if they still had a home and then went on to work manufacturing rifles, ammunition, ships, planes, and other weapons of war. Amazingly, the rates of suicide and drunkenness actually declined.

YouTube had restricted access to a video called, The Ten Commandments: What you should know. That’s what the article by Dennis Prager, the creator of the video declared.

I did some checking. He’s right. Don’t misunderstand me; you can still watch the video unless you’ve activated the YouTube restricted mode. The restricted mode prevents the viewing of pornography, violence, and obscenity.

Recently, Yahoo Movies criticized actor Chris Pratt for wearing a ‘white supremacist’ t-shirt.’ You can read the article, now cleansed of all white supremacist references, here and see the t-shirt below.

Anyone with a high school education should be familiar with the flag created by Christopher Gadsden during the Revolutionary War. It was used by the Continental Marines as an early motto flag and has a completely non-racist history.

Bill Maher thinks I’m angry.

I first heard of Bill Maher as the host of Politically Incorrect on Comedy Central. I watched a few shows but soon moved on. Like so many comedians, Bill struck me as someone who thinks they’re funny and knows for certain they are the smartest person in any room.

Such people annoy me, but I’m not angry.

As a fiction author I try to stay out of politics on this site.

I really do. But that may have to change. With each passing week, I have become more displeased with the NFL players and others on the left.

Deadline Hollywood reported that before the most recent Seattle Seahawks game, Michael Bennett, Sheldon Richardson…

The Public Theater of New York City recently decided that it would be a good idea to stage Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar” in a modern setting. In this version of the play the dictator, Julius Caesar, looks a lot like Donald Trump and, of course, in act three he’s murdered in order to save the country.

I’ll start this off by stating that Donald Trump was not my first choice for president. Early in the primary season I believe there were seventeen Republicans running for the office. Trump would not have been in my top ten. I’m a conservative. During most of the primary I had no idea what Donald Trump was, other than a better choice than Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.

I continue to get emails from politicized organizations.

I’ve tried to use a website called Meetup to find writing groups in and around my area. It never worked well. I found networking with other authors led me to far more people than the website, but I never deleted my membership with Meetup.

Yesterday NaNoWriMo.org, the organization behind the event felt, compelled to send me an email in which they stated, “Because of this core organizational value, we join the many voices standing against the presidential executive order that bans refugees and people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.”

Why is National Novel Writing Month involving itself in issues of immigration, foreign policy, and national security?