Hands Off Protest St. Louis April 4th – Pictures

This is a heavily Republican state.  Our particular district is so Republican it makes the rest of the state feel liberal.  I will have to confess I have been feeling hopeless and isolated when all I mainly see around me is a tsunami of red hatted MAGAs.

Señora and I attended one of smaller Hands Off rallies at the next little suburb from us, Ballwin.  It took place on Manchester Road (old Route 66), a heavily trafficked thoroughfare lined by shopping centers, car dealerships, restaurants, etc. Turn out to this event would have been amazing if it had been a warm, sunny day. It was not. Temperature was in the mid 40s. It was raining much more heavily than was comfortable with thunderstorms predicted. Given that, the turn out was phenomenal.  If you are familiar with this street, protestors were lined up on the north side from the 141 overpass to Home Depot, with many more on the south side of the street.

Besides the protesters on foot, many cars were driving by with anti-this-pathetic-excuse for an administration signs in their windows. Many more were honking and waving in support. My unofficial, unscientific survey was that for every car that drove by flipping off the protesters there were 200 or 300 honking and waving in support.

One protest is not going to do it.  We need to protest often and in large groups.  We need to get rid of tArse and his clown alley of Nazis who are hell bent on destroying our nation.

Finally the promised pictures:

Protest11
Protest12
Protest13
Protest14
Protest15
« of 6 »

Just as a little side note.  Señora kept her streak alive.  We can hardly go anywhere in the St. Louis area without running into someone she knows. We ran into several at this rally.

Subscribe to Curmudgeon Alley

Google Kowtowing to the Idiocracy

Screw Google and screw those idiots occupying the White House.  This the GULF OF MEXICO.  It is not the Gulf of America.  I am surprised El puto pendejo naranja  did not name it the Gulf of Trump.

I am so embarrassed to be a citizen of this country with such a person occupying the presidency.  I have been wanting to call this administration The Gang That Could Not Shoot Straight, but that would be a compliment for them.

When will this nightmare end?

I complained to Google about this change and it would wonderful if a lot of other folks did too.  However, they do not make it easy to send them feedback.  I hunted around for 10 minutes before I figured out how.  And then there is the fact that they really do not care what I think.

Subscribe to Curmudgeon Alley

 

Keb’ Mo’ – Put a Woman in Charge feat. Rosanne Cash (Official Music Video)

Keb’ Mo’ and Rosanne Cash, two of my favorites, singing Put a Woman in Charge.

I say we try it. How wonderful it could be if we brought some feminine sensibilities to governing the world…

Although I have know some Southern, gun-toting, Republican women who would make JD Vance seem like a liberal choir boy.

Vote today as if the future of our country depends on it… because it does.

Subscribe to Curmudgeon Alley

Missouri GOP Looking to Criminalize State Teachers

The following article appeared in the local alternative newspaper RiverFront Times:   Missouri Bill Makes Teachers Sex Offenders If They Accept Trans Kids’ Pronouns

1st Objection

Personally, I am not a big fan of this whole pronoun phenomenon, BUT as it says in the Book of David 1:1

“Within the bounds of the Golden Rule, people being who they are, and loving who they love are not immoral acts.”

I once worked with a fellow named Walter.  He was very insistent on being called Walter and not the diminutive of Walt. I understand as I prefer the formal David to any of the diminutives of that name, but most of the time I just let it slide.  I am just generally glad someone has acknowledged my existence by calling me by name.

I see selecting a personal pronoun, more of less, in this same category.  And yeah, I realize there is a serious qualitative difference, but isn’t it the GOP that spouts all these libertarian ideals… like getting rid of helmet laws and allowing folks to carry firearms wherever they want.

The kicker for me is from the article:

“We showed that the more contexts or settings where they were able to use their preferred name, the stronger their mental health was,” the author of the study, Stephen T. Russell, University of Texas at Austin professor and chair of human development and family science, said. 

Transgender youth already face a heightened risk of suicidal ideation. Another recent study, this one by the Trevor Project, showed that in 2022 nearly half (45 percent) of LGBTQ youth surveyed seriously contemplated suicide. One in five attempted it.

Sadly the article went on to say:

Missouri remains at the forefront of anti-trans legislation efforts and is one of the most prolific in the nation for bills targeting trans youth. 

2nd Objection

My wife, Señora, was a  special education teacher, retiring after more than 30 years in the profession.  It had changed from a job she dearly loved to one she had a very hard time with.  The last three or four years she taught, at the beginning of the school year she cried for a couple weeks from having to go back.  It is, without a doubt, a very hard profession, one that does not pay particularly well when you consider the level of education and expertise required.  I could write several blog articles on why the profession has become so difficult, but the burnout rate speaks for itself.  If you are interested here is an article on the subject: K-12 Workers Have Highest Burnout Rate in U.S.

And now the Missouri GOP wants to criminalize teachers for doing their jobs and supporting students that who in all likelihood are already having a very hard time adjusting. I just cannot get my head around the fact that there are individuals out there that want to force teachers to register as sex offenders for saying he or she when this person’s rigid beliefs insists it should have been she or he.

Some things are more than a little wrong.

A Little Lagniappe

Interestingly enough the British newspaper, The Guardian, picked up this story: Missouri: home to child marriage, corporal punishment and sick ‘child welfare’ ideas

Sometimes I do not know if I am more embarrassed by living in Missouri or being from Oklahoma.

Subscribe to Curmudgeon Alley

Supreme Court Ethics: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

I truly have never been more discouraged about this country than I have been in the last few years… this Supreme Court definitely plays into that discouragement.

I would hate to see John Oliver give this awful Supreme Court Justice $1,000,000 a year for life, but he certainly does not need to be on the Supreme Court bench.  Of course Clarence Thomas is 75 years old, statistically he will likely be out of here within 8 or 10 years.  However, at the end of the day, John Oliver has made a bet with himself that Clarence Thomas will not accept his offer.

We should have listened to Anita Hill.

Subscribe to Curmudgeon Alley

It’s Not That Hard Folks | Golden Rule

I came across this cartoon this morning.

Which reminded me of a story I had read about Rabbi Hillel…

The Talmud is the second most important book of the Jewish faith. As described at the website Sefaria.org:

“The Talmud is the textual record of generations of rabbinic debate about law, philosophy, and biblical interpretation, compiled between the 3rd and 8th centuries and structured as commentary on the Mishnah with stories interwoven. The Talmud exists in two versions: the more commonly studied Babylonian Talmud was compiled in present-day Iraq, while the Jerusalem Talmud was compiled in Israel.”

There is a story attributed to two second century rabbinic scholars of this book , Hillel and Shammai. As recounted at the website Forward:

“[They were]…contemporaries paired together by Jewish tradition as archetypical opposites: Hillel the tolerant and liberal ‘loose constructionist’ of the Law, Shammai the exacting and inflexible ‘strict constructionist.’

In one story about them, a gentile comes to both and asks, with the obvious intention of provoking them, to be taught the whole Torah while standing on one leg. Shammai is indeed provoked and gives the man an angry whack with a measuring rod. Hillel replies, ‘That which is hateful to you, do not unto another: This is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary — [and now] go study.’

How hard can this be people? Apparently too damn hard.


To see the Golden Rule as expressed by many other religions follow this link: The Universality of the Golden Rule in the World Religions

CFOP – Consideration for Other People

My mother had a unique and characteristic method of passing on values, morals, correct behavior – I am not quite sure how to categorize what she was attempting to do.  She had a library of canned routines that were triggered by the conduct of, first of us boys, and then later by grandchildren.  I theorize that she was utilizing the marketing method of repeated hearings to drive home a point. She was not above turning these chastisements into little ditties.  I do not have fond memories of her educative method, quite the contrary.  I did not see then Continue reading “CFOP – Consideration for Other People”