It is 2016. The presumptive choices for President of the United States this year appear to be Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The president-elect of the Philippines is urging residents to shoot and kill suspected drug dealers. Vladimir Putin can't seem to keep his shirt on, while his fighter jets won't get off our Navy's back. OJ may confess to killing his ex-wife. The 1970's television show “All In The Family” and movie “Blazing Saddles”, both hailed in their day as brilliant assaults on the ignorance of racism, are considered today to be too racist and insensitive to be viewed by the public. College students need counseling and “safe places” from offensive thought, and colleges routinely establish “free speech zones” within a country whose very first constitutional amendment would suggest they should not be needed. Our federal governments primary concern today appears not to be soaring national debt or radical Islamic terrorism, but instead our right to pee where we want to based on what gender we identify with this morning.
And this past weekend, we learned that fitness guru Richard Simmons was hospitalized for “bizarre behavior”.
Regarding that final point, my very first thought upon reading that headline was “How could they tell?” I mean, have you ever seen Richard Simmons on television? Bizarre behavior is what he did. It was his calling card. In case you missed it now many years ago, here is just one example:
So just now he did something bizarre? Go figure.
The world is getting very strange, indeed. As I write this short article this morning, I am sitting on the lanai of my home, listening to the soft rain brought courtesy of Tropical Storm Colin, a gathering of precipitation struggling to maintain even the barest minimum of winds to justify its naming. Yet weathermen are all a tizzy because “Colin” represents the “earliest named ‘C' storm” in the history of the entire Universe – with the possible exception of any storm missed 20 years ago because satellite surveillance is vastly improved these days.
This of course will fuel the ongoing global warming alarmists. Along that vein, Al Gore told us over a decade ago that the sea level would rise over 20 feet. Disappointingly that appears not to be the case. I bought a home 3 miles from the Gulf of Mexico in the hopes that I would have beach front property by now. Alas, today the sea only appears to be rising in Miami.
Such disappointment. But there is always tomorrow, and the promise that things will get even stranger than they are today.
In case you might be wondering, I arose this morning with nothing on my mind to write about. If this epistle seems incoherent and a bit disjointed, as well as completely lacking in any coherent message, don't be concerned. It is perfectly fine under the guidelines of the “new normal”. After all the world is getting weirder, and I am just trying to keep up. Don't worry; you'll get there eventually as well.