Mind Meanderings

Sunday afternoon, listening to I.H., drinking a beer and Jesus H. Christ (pronounced "Hay-zeus" "H" "Krist") it's HOT outside.  Everybody sing:  "I'm living in Purgatory, I know what Purgatory is, this ain't no sanctuary, this ain't no way to live.  You gotta have a sense of humor, you gotta know how to laugh to live.  I'm living in Purgatory, and anything's better than this!"  Frickin' furnace that Phoenix is in July; my brain's too hot to think too deeply, not that I'm some kind of deep thinker, but ranting just doesn't seem to be on today's to-do list.  Please note that I have not forgotten last weeks promise to offer the necessary fixes for our economic woes, and this will be revealed soon, but today I offer some milder observations and, perhaps, a little something more.

Divorces are down.  Only in the '70's did 1 out of every 2 marriages end in divorce even though that dreadful statistic keeps getting repeated even today.  In fact, the divorce rate peaked in 1980 and has been dropping ever since.  Many reasons are intuitive - the freeing of souls in the 1960's, the "me" decade of the 1970's and the waiting until later pattern of the 1980's and beyond.  Still, an excellent trend.

In Arizona, it turns out that the majority of political donations are not from corporations, lobbyist or their like.  It's from individuals, with retirees leading the pack.  Surprising.  Democracy lives!

America continues to fatten up as the percentage of obese people keeps getting, ummm, bigger.  Two fixes I've mentioned before - charge people higher health care premiums for increased BMI and outlaw high fructose corn syrup - seem to be in order.  The corn farmers will then have a bunch more to sell the Chinese who have shown a willingness to pay big bucks for it.  This, in turn, will reduce our trade deficit and eventually turn all the billions of skinny, hard-working Chinese into fatter, lazier and sicker workers so we can get all of those jobs back that have been shipped over there.  Win-lose!

Bill Maher must be an unidentified follower of this blog, as his last New Rule the other night was exactly the same theme of as the parting paragraph of my last blog - out of work, downtrodden, middle-class Republicans voting for the people who are screwing them over. Come on Bill, identify yourself!

Another sad documentary of our times:  the price of a grave at a municipal cemetery is quadrupling in some cities.  Yikes, best to keep living for a while.  On the up-side, funeral costs for pets are dropping due to good old American capitalistic competition.

And now a little something more.  Please indulge this old web-footed, bug-eyed amphibian for a minute whilst I get a bit philosophical.   You see, sometimes I just can't help but wonder why so many good things have happened to me and what I did to deserve them.  I know there are many, many people hurting these days - good, honest people who are just trying to hang on and likely wondering what the hell they did to deserve their situation.  This only amplifies my wonderment and appreciation, and I can tell you that this goes way beyond economic circumstance and even good health.  It's family and love (see profile!).  And at the heart of this good fortune are the ladies in my life.  And so I would like to say, to my wife of 30 years, thank you and I love you.  To my daughter of 26 years, thank you and I love you.  To my mother of 58 years, thank you and I love you.  To my daughter-in-law of 3 years, thank you and I love you (love you too son, you lucky bloke).  Each of these women are the best - loving, caring, intelligent, beautiful, witty and just absolutely delightful in every way.  Oh, and to one more lady I almost forgot.  To lady luck, my sincere thanks for making me the luckiest frog in the pond!