Friday Chuckles

After a couple of days earlier this week in the lower 60s, we had snow all day yesterday.  Overnight, it kept snowing, about an inch of accumulation at daybreak.  Tomorrow is slated to be in the mid-60s and Sun in the mid-70s.  But today, opening day for the Tigers, it will still be cold, in the mid-40s with blustery wind.  I know they have to get in their 162 games, with as few double headers as possible to make ever-more money, but have any of these schedulers played in this cold stuff?  I suppose many of them have and money trumps all, but still.  "Fond" is not a word I use to describe my memories of playing in the winter weather.

So, "50 advertisers have pulled their ads" from Fox News due to the alleged sexual harassment of Bill O'Reilly.  (BTW, I was surprised to read it is the top-rated talk show on cable TV.  I don't know if that's true; I can't remember ever watching it.)  And some USA Today reporter "excoriated" a well-known professional golfer (I guess "well-known" to most folks; I never heard of him and can't recall his name--nor that of the reporter.) for golfing with Don Trump.  It's his treatment of women or at least what he says about them, esp in light of the golfer's comments about country clubs that still exclude or minimize the number of women members.  Yet, Bill Clinton still commands hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, for short speeches.  So does his wife.  And, speaking of treatment of women--and common folks in general......  I wonder how many of those "50 advertisers" have paid either of the Clintons for speeches or, at the least, have CEOs who have attended their speeches.

A newspaper article this AM covered an attempt by local school districts to attract young males into teaching.  It plays into several serious conversations I've had recently with quite a variety of folks.  I think the first step those seeking to draw more youngsters into teaching would be to check how much teachers are paid.  If I recall correctly, a couple weeks ago one of these fellow conversants said the average starting pay for a teacher in Michigan is $33,000.  I checked online and that's pretty close to the actual figure (2015).  At the same time, I checked our local district, which remains (as it has historically) one of the lowest paying districts around, not just in our country. The median teacher income is about $51,000.  And very few new teachers are being hired since it is claimed student enrollment is declining and declining significantly.  It really rankled me to hear a teacher tell me of a colleague who tried to rationalize the low pay with the trite and ridiculous, "But teachers have a great pension."  No wonder teaching/education is in the state it's in.  As I've said to many others for quite a few years, "How about paying me what teachers are worth and I'll take care of my own 'pension.?'"  Nah, nobody takes that seriously, apparently not even other teachers.  Another one of these guys I talked to claimed the average teacher gets out of education within five years.  Is that true?  I don't know, but I have no reason to doubt it.  Yet the CEOs of the top two US auto-makers made more than $22 million in '16.  I'm not saying they do or don't deserve it; somebody obviously thinks so.  Let's just consider the comparison.

The President and his team are trying to unseat some members of the House Freedom Caucus.  I'm no fan of Trump, not in the least.  He's done little to change my mind that he belongs nowhere near the Presidency.  And this attempt to get even with the no-voters on the deeply flawed recent health care bill is not only appalling, but revealing.  For instance, I am not sure I'd vote for Justin Amash, the Michigan Congressman.  He's not in my district and, besides, he's carrying some baggage I find disturbing.  But for the guy who claimed he was going to "drain the Swamp," going after Amash (and other Freedom Caucus members) for actually living up to campaign promises he (and they) made to their constituents--that is, not deliberately lying!--is pathetic.  Isn't it interesting that Trump has said he's going after the Democrats who opposed the bill?

The IRS has been mildly harassing us about a tax problem, a minor one at that.  Let's just say, you probably spend more at the grocery store in a week that the amount over which we are scuffling.  I have already used the IRS's own data to refute half of the claim.  It is still "investigating."  C'mon!  It's not like were talking about big bucks here.  Like I said, it's about $100 or so.  Yet, I wonder, why doesn't the IRS go after the really big buck guys?  It can't find some problems with all credits, deductions, etc, the loopholes supposedly allow them?  Even more, we have rec'd several "urgent" phone calls claiming the IRS has "prepared to file a lawsuit against" us.  We've had that call a number of times over the years.  I did a reverse phone number check and found out this is a company pulling a scam.  (Sometimes, to attract return calls, it uses "lottery winnings," "insurance benefits," etc.)  So, if I can easily discover this is a scam, why isn't the IRS all over these folks??????  As I've said many times before, there is something seriously wrong when citizens (namely, my wife) are intimidated and filled with terror by their own government--at least one of its agencies.  Yes, I'm sure she'll pay the $128, likely when I'm not paying attention.

It reminds me when, during Prohibition, the federal gov't ordered mercury and strychnine to be added to liquids people were drinking for their alcohol content.  Oh, the liquids are revolting and disgusting, things such as auto anti-freeze, rubbing alcohol, embalming fluid, and formaldehyde.  Yet, to prevent US citizens from drinking their alcohol in this manner, poisons, lethal ones, were ordered added.  An activity, that is drinking, that was legal just a year before, had been an accepted practice (in moderation) for centuries, and was legal in almost every other nation in the world now threatened the lives of US citizens.  Perhaps I'm just paranoid.