thependulumswings

We picked 10 crayons out of our box of 64 and sharpened them for good reason.  We want to color outside of the lines this AM.

So, enjoy some opinions mixed with facts and some sports mixed with news and politics.  Why not?  Journalism as you knew it is dead and gone anyway.  Your nuggets are served.

1.  Inflation is upon us and everyone knows it but the Federal Reserve it seems.  The worst of it all, you ask? No, it’s not soaring lumber prices.  It’s the government.  When you print money and give it to the minions they stay home.  Employers, desperate to reopen after the too-long shutdowns, are having to pay up to get them back to work to climb over the handouts.  Free money, yea!
2. Governor Greg Abbott joined a few other governors yesterday as he will pull the plug on any “free federal individual relief money starting June 1.”  His message is simple, “go to work.”  If you feed ducks every day they’ll wait in the same spot for you every morning and quack happily when you get out of your car with the loaf of bread.
3.  Nothing is free.  We repeat. Nothing.  America is only borrowing against itself.  You owe the money, it just doesn’t hit your email inbox once a month looking like a Visa or Discover bill.  It’s called the national debt.  If you’re wondering it crossed over 28 trillion and counting.  But, who is counting?
4. We’ll recognize this 9/11 that 20 years have passed since many passed during the attack on 9/11/01.  Shortly after the tragedy, a terrorist was arrested with a bomb device in his shoe on a plane bound for the US.  Since then we’ve dutifully taken our shoes off every time we pass through an airport scanner.  The scanners cost about one million dollars a copy.  Twenty years later we’re still buying them like hotcakes and they still can’t detect harmful shoes.
5. Speaking of planes, if you fly soon, the pilot will remind you that keeping your mask on for the flight duration is mandatory.  That is unless you are drinking the drinks or eating the food that the flight attendants serve you.  So, stay safe unless you’re adding to the biggest problem you can have if you get the dreaded Covid-19.  Obesity.    And, they keep making the seats smaller, but we digress.
6. Speaking of Governor Abbott, his thinking, when he said Texas “stay home” was no longer a couple of months back, was labeled “Neanderthal thinking” by President Joe Biden.  Biden’s old enough to know we suppose.  Yesterday Texas recorded no deaths from Covid-19.  We aren’t saying Abbott was right, and perhaps he was even too early.  We are saying that many books will be written about the multiple missteps this nation has taken and will continue to take surrounding this pandemic.  At least he allowed individuals to choose.
7.  As of this past weekend, 122 million Americans are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.  That’s 37% of our country’s population.  Several states are offering incentives to get vaccinated.  Free Lyft rides to and fro, free french fries (how bad is that?), and five chances in Ohio to become a millionaire are but a few of the “come and get its.”  It says here that the total will not pass 60%, ever.
8. Trainer Bob Baffert was suspended Monday from entering horses at New York racetracks, pending an investigation into Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit’s failed post-race drug test.  Baffert has had five violations involving impermissible levels of medication in his horses over the past 13 months.  It’s a real black eye for a sport when people at the top of it are accused or “convicted” of cheating.  Ask any Houston Astro if you need further proof.
9. One year ago LeBron James was all for the NBA’s idea of play in playoff games.  A few weeks back he tweeted, and we directly quote, “whoever came up with that s*** needs to be fired.”  The King himself will grace us with his presence as is LA  Lakers will play the Golden State Warriors in the play-in tourney and need one win to secure the seventh seed.   A man has a right to change his mind.  Now about China, LeBron?
10.  Last year Lake Charles, LA bore the brunt of not one but two hurricanes just weeks apart.  If you drive through the city of about 100k you still see the aftermath.  Then, this late February a once in a one hundred years freeze wreaked havoc on the southern city that isn’t built anticipating deep freezes.  Yesterday, more than eight inches of rain fell in a few hours and flooded many homes and businesses that just reopened.  Maybe there is something to this climate change rhetoric after all.  Or, maybe it’s just bad luck on top of bad luck.  Either way, it’s another serious gut-punch after the fight should have been called.  Plenty of more rain is expected in the next 96 hours.

If you live near the Gulf Coast, stay dry.  If you live elsewhere enjoy the Spring day.