Liberal aggression

It's gotten to the point where I don't really like writing about politics because there is plenty of division and hate burning in America without my throwing any gasoline on the fire. If I publish this article and post a link on Facebook, I expect there will be some people perfectly willing to defend horrible behavior, as if the end can be justified by the means. Sigh. When I do post something on my blog with a political slant, you can rest assured that I felt like I have no choice but to write it. As much as I'd rather be working on a novel, a short story, or even watching paint dry than arguing about politics, occasionally I'll see something that makes me stop what I'm doing to press both hands over my ears in order to keep my brains from leaking out. And then I'll have to write another article like this one I'm writing now, because I can't witness evil in action and remain silent. Please watch this short video. It's truly astonishing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=75&v=3Qoc4ZVsS1M I really don't want to get into the pro-life versus pro-choice debate at the moment, because it's much more important to focus on the mindset of our social justice warrior, the "star" in this video. It's quite disturbing to realize this young liberal thinks his behavior won't have adverse consequences. He's stealing private property on camera, in broad daylight. The exchange caught my attention early, when an off camera pro-life person pointed out that stealing their personal property was illegal and the liberal's sarcastic response showed nothing but contempt … [Read more...]

Ralphie’s escape from Death Row

One of our favorite dogs we'd fostered over the years was a tiny beagle named Freckles. She was cute as a button and had an adorable personality. When Freckles got excited she would dance on our tile floor, nails clicking like tiny castanets. Freckles radiated heat better than an electric blanket when she slept on our bed every night. The two biggest challenges of acting as her foster parents were keeping Freckles calm while she recovered from treatment for heart worms, and letting her go when the time came for Freckles to be adopted into her perfect forever home. Years passed in a blur. Our own little island of misfits eventually grew into a permanent six-pack of large dogs that all lived inside our relatively small house, and we were forced to take an extended hiatus from fostering. Eventually a couple of our oldest pack members crossed the rainbow bridge. Without warning, our sweet Husky Sasha suffered a fatal heart attack, and beloved Wyatt the Wonderdog succumbed to lymphoma, and eventually, sadly, we found ourselves with only two remaining pack members. We didn't immediately return to fostering because we'd moved since our days volunteering with the Humane Society of Forsyth County, and we were no longer actively associated with any rescue organizations, Then one day I noticed an email in my inbox with a desperate message in the subject line: "Urgent! Beagle stuck..." That was all I could read without clicking on the link. Stuck where? Beagles are scent hounds, which means they will often detect and track a specific smell for miles. For this reason, … [Read more...]

A Real Trooper

Trooper [This was the first story I wrote for Always a Next One. It remains my personal favorite, the only real "tear-jerker" in the collection. Please don't ask me to read this story aloud, because I can't. I get emotional when I recall the rollercoaster nature of the experience in my mind. The "voice" of the narrator had to be my wife Lisa, because the story only works if told from her perspective and seen through her eyes.] If cats have nine lives, how many does a dog have? Decisions of life and death take their toll on me. It’s not easy to be president of the Humane Society of Forsyth County. I recognized her phone number on the call display. “Lisa, thank God you answered your phone.” “Hi, Leslie. What’s the matter?” “I just found a dog that was hit by a car lying on the side of the road. I thought he might already be dead. I only stopped and got out to make sure there was nothing I could do. I really can’t believe he’s still alive. The poor thing … his legs were all twisted and his body is scraped and bloody. Even the skin on his nose is rubbed off. The worst is his head injury. It breaks my heart to see how badly he’s hurt – at first I was sure he was dead. But as I turned back toward my car, I saw his chest move.”  Leslie finally paused to take a breath before plowing forward. “Lisa, he evacuated his bowels. I had some rags in my trunk and cleaned him up as best I could … but he’s dying. Please, can the Humane Society help him? I don’t know where else to take him or what to do.” Her torrent of words hit me like a hammer. Another good-hearted volunteer with yet … [Read more...]

An obligation to Al Gore

Chicken Little According to Nathan Rott at NPR, we all owe Al Gore an apology because there has been severe flooding in Arkansas, and of course that must mean catastrophic climate change is true. After all, our intrepid reporter conducted a scientific poll of nearly two dozen people in Oklahoma and Arkansas (that's twenty-four, for those of you living in Alabama, Tennessee, or Rio Linda) and all of them said they agreed the climate is changing, so that makes it unanimous, right? The general gist of the story by Mr. Rott at NPR is that Al Gore has always been right, and anyone who doubted him about the reality of the threat from CO2 to our planet should be ashamed of themselves, and owes Mr. Gore an apology. Fat chance. There's a snowball's chance in hell Mr. Gore would ever get an apology from me for my past criticisms. His ego has surely been stroked by honorary doctorates, an onstage appearance at the Oscars, and even a little slice of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Yet none of his most dire predictions have come true. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXinJIvpPOo There's a problem when a "journalist" tries to reshape facts to fit a certain narrative--other facts must be omitted. In his article, Mr. Rott tried to use emotional reactions and cherrypicked anecdotes instead of facts and statistics as the foundation for his argument. Why has it recently flooded in Arkansas? Could the floods have anything to do with record late snowfall this past spring? No one can look at images of destruction from floods, earthquakes, tornados, or other natural disasters and … [Read more...]

Putrid politics

Candace Owens (Photo: Zach Gibson/Getty Images) I tend to think of myself as an American, not a Republican, Democrat, or Independent. I don't give either political party anything except my vote, and even then I never vote for the political party. I have always voted for the candidate and his or her platform, not the donkey or the elephant. That was then; this is now. The cesspool known as Washington, D. C. has become so putrid that the stench permeates all the way down here to the outskirts of Atlanta. Smells just like a septic tank. So without further ado, here are my top seven reasons why I won't be voting for any candidate in 2020 with a "D" behind their name, not even for garbage collector: Number 7: Representative Rashida Tlaib was reported as saying that thinking about the Holocaust gave her a “calming feeling.” Just think about that. Six million men, women, and children were murdered only because they were Jews. Rather than apologizing for any confusion her words might have caused, Tlaib accused her critics of being anti-Muslim and claimed her words had been taken out of context. Tlaib is also famous for shouting “We’re going to impeach the mother******!” in reference to President Trump at a public event held in her honor.  Frankly, she's an embarrassment to Congress, or she would be if Democrats ever experienced any emotions resembling pride or shame. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlkOLEQqo7Y Number 6: Jerry Nadler demonstrates remarkably poor table manners while accusing Attorney General William Barr of committing perjury in his … [Read more...]