Author Archives: Sam Ross Jr.

In a man-bites-dog moment for the political ages, no less a Democratic icon than Barack Hussein Obama has called out the radical leftists for going “overboard” with cancel culture.

Sure, the Harris-Biden odd couple figuratively heads the Democratic party, and Congressional geriatrics Pelosi and Schumer are, in theory, party leaders. But it is Obama who is the patron saint of the party.

And so, it was noteworthy in the extreme to have Obama come out on CNN, a house organ of the left, and point out that the woke puritans are being ridiculous in their latter-day witch hunt for the politically incorrect, a frenzy that goes under the shorthand of cancel culture.

These zealots act as judge, jury and executioner on matters ranging from taking down statues of past heroes, to boycotting businesses of those who don’t kiss the hem of their purity robes, to generally tossing out enough holier-than-though judgmental horsecrap to fill the stables of Louisville Downs for the next century.

Reality, Obama noted, means that no one is perfect, including those conducting the witch hunts, and so a modicum of restraint is more than called for going forward.

Back in the days when Obama slept in the White House, a top level aide of his supposedly characterized the Obama political style as leading from behind.

But, in this case, I’m thinking that Obama sees his party imploding with its ridiculous leftward crusades and he is trying to get in front of it, if only to be able to issue some “I told you so” boasts should the radical pursuits end up backfiring on all those smug socialists currently running wild in the real and digital streets with their actual or metaphorical torches and pitchforks.

It is perhaps noteworthy that this Obama critique of cancel culture comes in close proximity with some Democratic Senators, most notably West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, standing up to their party and professing unwillingness to go along with them ramming through initiatives designed to make this, in practice, a nation of one-party rule.

Manchin already is being subjected to vitriolic attacks from the usual Democratic mouthpieces both in media and other positions of prominence.

Will these same people be willing to take on Obama for criticizing cancel culture and its equally ridiculous co-conspirator, the woke movement?

Probably not. More likely, Obama’s little indiscretion will be allowed to pass unless he continues to preach a message of restraint in the culture wars.

Their problem is Obama is inoculated against the typical weapons the cancel culture and woke crowds use to beat down the opposition – branding them as racists, or misogynists, or, gasp, heartless conservatives.

The product of a black father and white mother, Obama has the race card Trumped (political pun intended). We have no reports of him mistreating women and no rational person would brand him as being on right end of the political spectrum.

Obama’s honesty on this cancel culture subject presents a true problem to the radical leftists.

Even worse, his public utterances on the topic might prompt some of the jelly-spined to grow a pair figuratively and stop grovelling to these political correct cancel culture movements.

Bullies have a problem when their victims decide it’s time to stand up and fight back. Dare I dream such a time is near for the cancel culture/woke mobs?

I’m retired, yet never have been busier, which explains the shortage of blog posts of late.

Already today I’ve been performing ongoing dog-sitting duties at my son’s house; collected one of my Mustangs that was having work done on it; picked up my brother for a visit to our mother and took him home; stopped at my house to attend to various duties, including a failed attempt to start the power washer for my wife; got in a quick walk amidst the humid, 80-degree conditions; cleaned the interior of my son’s car which I’m driving because he has my Kia SUV on his current family trip; and tended to some other chores.

But still I pay attention to the strange happenings that pass for everyday life in these United States circa 2021 and I’m struck by the urge to produce a news-and-views post to cover the many items that captured my attention.

THE NEWS: West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin is standing pat on his refusal to vote for the Democrats’ cynically mis-named “For the People Act” which in the interest of furthering Democratic far-left ideals seeks to turn this into a one-party nation by eliminating the Senate filibuster rule.

THE VIEWS: Democrats are apoplectic that Manchin won’t toe the party line, regardless of how far left that line is. He’s been called a traitor or worse, often by the very same people who lionized Republican turncoat Senator Mitt Romney when he would not back his party’s agenda. More hypocrisy from the Democrats. I’m stunned.

THE NEWS: Dr. Anthony Fauci’s wishy-washy flip-flopping continues to be outed, this time by his emails made public due to a freedom of information request, yet Fauci continues in his role as the highest paid federal employee. Yes, he makes more than the president. Note that I did not write “earns” more than the president.

THE VIEWS: Fauci is the quintessential lifelong bureaucrat, feathering his nest at taxpayers’ expense and refusing to leave gracefully even though he is well past normal retirement age and exhibiting Biden-like cognitive difficulties.

THE NEWS: Speaking of Joe Biden, he and/or his handlers forgot to acknowledge the 77^th anniversary of D-Day June 6.

THE VIEWS: Biden was too busy noting the “Tulsa Massacre,” which fits better into the Democrats’ agenda of promoting racial divide in this country, the better to keep the populace fighting among itself and not paying attention to plans to turn this once great land into Venezuela north.

THE NEWS: De facto president Kamala Harris made a point of passing out cookies bearing her likeness to the media accompanying her on a trip to Guatemala.

THE VIEWS: In the-great-minds-think-alike category, I immediately thought of Marie Antoinette, before she lost her head, uttering the infamous “Let them eat cake” line. Now, I read that Republican chairwoman Ronna McDaniel beat me to the punch with a Marie Antoinette analogy.

THE NEWS: It wasn’t exactly a PR coup for Harris on the Guatemala trip, during which she urged Guatemalans to stay home and not charge through Mexico to our southern border, lest they be stopped there.

THE VIEWS: Imagine the surprise of Guatemalans who thought that by voting via mail-in ballots for Biden and Harris they were assuring themselves a warm welcome as they moved north to the land of milk and honey and no election integrity.

Word comes to me of the ultimate bastardization of the phrase “living the American Dream.”

It was uttered by a man with no visible means of support – as in no job. But said man has a mate, a couple of kids and a dog.

He resides in a house in the suburbs, has multiple takeout food deliveries daily, and generally lives what used to be considered a middle class existence, but without the need to put in that pesky 40-hour work week.

It used to be the American Dream meant opportunity to move up the socioeconomic ladder by virtue of hard work and development of one’s skills. The key word was opportunity, not a guarantee of outcome enabled by handouts designed to make the dream come true on the tab of taxpayers.

An individual’s eventual success, or failure, rested squarely on the shoulders of that individual.

Hard work customarily was rewarded with improvement in standard of living. Now, such improvements are provided through all manner of governmental largess.

Statistical and anecdotal evidence continues to pour in that life on the dole never has been more popular.

News items and postings on social media tell the stories of job vacancies going unfilled due to a lack of interested workers.

Just today it was announced that more than 15 million Americans continue to be on some sort of government dole, ostensibly to help them financially with the economic decline fostered by the government but blamed on COVID-19.

This occurs against a backdrop of record job openings. But those jobs are not interesting to people getting traditional unemployment along with supplemental benefits.

At least 20 states are planning to cut off the flow of those excess pandemic relief handouts, meaning that in a month or so, some of these idlers are going to have a come-to-Jesus moment regarding the need to work.

I’m not sure my example of the man living the American Dream (perhaps a welfare lifer) will fall into that category. But many others will.

And you wonder what the reaction will be? The socialists among the Democratic party likely are praying to their Marx/Lenin/Mao gods that the layabouts take to the streets to demand the government nanny state put them back on the dole.

This will be leveraged by the lamestream media into a steady drumbeat of “poor me” stories from individuals and heads of families who opted for the non-working lifestyle and now are lamenting their dire financial straits.

We will be asked how can a person be expected to exist in 2021 without the latest smart phone and an unlimited data plan; food, housing and medical care; tattoos; state-of-the-art gaming systems; and a smart television the size of the average drive-in movie screen, all provided at no cost to them?

Joe Biden’s handlers will tell the feeble one that dramatic action is needed, and another trillion or so will be added to the national debt with one labored scrawl on some sort of “emergency” bailout legislation.

That’s the American Dream these days. It will become the American Nightmare if and when producers decide to stop going to work and paying taxes, thereby cutting the legs out from under the government and its ability to fund all its giveaway programs.

What a contradiction it was to watch pre-race coverage of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday – actual Memorial Day, not the Monday observance designed by the government to provide three-day weekends – and witness ongoing attempts to manipulate the masses and squelch freedom.

How refreshing it was a few hours later to watch the pre-race scenes from NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600, where individual freedom was celebrated and those whose military service made it all possible were remembered. There was no heavy-handed infringement on individual rights to be seen.

The maskholes were at their virtue-signaling best at Indy. Driver introductions before the race had drivers parading across a stage, three at a time, all neatly masked. When some drivers had progeny accompany them to the intros, the kids were masked, too.

Yet moments later, in unstaged scenes from pit lane, some of those same kids had dispensed with the masks, as had many drivers, team members and assorted others.

Among those others was Mario Andretti, arguably America’s greatest racing driver, who is one of three drivers in the history of motorsports to have won races in IndyCar, Formula One, NASCAR and World Sports Car Championship.

Andretti is the only driver ever to have won the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500 and the Formula One World Championship.

Andretti also is 81 years old, amid the demographic that should be terrified of catching COVID-19, but he boldly moved around pit lane mask-less, at least when he was shown by the television cameras.

The most absurd image from Indy was when some trumpet players from the Purdue University marching band were shown, ostensibly playing their instruments through masks.

I confess that even after several internet searches I was unable to explain this incongruous image. Was the music pre-recorded? Were other band members elsewhere playing while these few stood as a human Potemkin village?

That web search did turn up an article from earlier in the week about how Indy “scofflaws” were going mask-less, and congregating, in direct violation of dictates, and while they wouldn’t be prosecuted, they would be urged to toe the line by “mask ambassadors.”

This would be ridiculous against any backdrop. But at a time when more and more states are opening up fully, without any of the predicted disastrous effects, the powers-that-be trying to keep the citizenry under their thumb by citing the so-called COVID emergency is pathetic.

That so many in an American populace that holds liberty so dear would allow themselves to be dictated to in such an extreme way, for such a long time, is a sad state of affairs.

That a NASCAR race in North Carolina showed that not all the populace is similarly cowed helped salvage the day.

Drivers, announcers, bystanders that included world heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury, moved about maskless taking in pre-race NASCAR pageantry. Fans in the stands apparently had left the masks at home, too.

In nations around the world, citizens are rising up in protests against draconian governmental over-reaction in the name of fighting a virus. Yes, people die from this virus. But cogent arguments and statistical evidence have been provided that our lockdown/shutdown cures have had worse cumulative effects than the virus itself.

Hopefully, by this time next year, this country will have shaken off the yoke of governmental oppression in the name of virus control and the holiday once again will be observed across-the-board with liberty on display, not being forced to hide behind a mask.

If you spend much time on the internet you likely have seen some of the abundance of Hitler parodies.

Based on a 2004 German movie about Adolf, clever people have inserted subtitles of their own with legitimate film clips to comment on a variety of subjects through the years.

I was emailed links to three Hitler parodies centering on our figurehead president, Joe Biden, watched them recently and found them able to hammer home their point using the basis of all good humor, truth.

The message common through Hitler phoning Biden, Hitler interviewing Biden and Hitler heckling Biden, was Biden’s ever-diminishing mental faculties, as viewed by a character who knows a thing or two about catastrophic intellectual decline.

Videos of vintage Biden stumbles and bumbles were interlaced in the videos. But you don’t need to wait for more Youtube creations to get some additional laughs. Simply observe Biden if and when he has to think on his feet, maybe answer questions without a teleprompter or written notes, and you are reminded of the charade that is Biden’s presidency.

Biden got hit by some friendly fire this week when CNN amazingly went with a story that Biden had canceled a State Department inquiry, begun by President Trump, to look into the origins of COVID-19.

Public outrage was palpable and stumbling, bumbling Joe, or at least his handlers, attempted to change the subject by promising the U.S. intelligence community would launch a 90-day investigation into the origins of the pandemic.

I guess the U.S intelligence community has a lot of spare time now that it doesn’t need to run a full-time operation to manipulate the laws and discredit Trump with false claims.

So, supposedly in 90 days we Americans will know whether all those liberal fact checkers were correct when they immediately and without legitimate reasons, shot down any suggestion the virus escaped from a Chinese lab. Already the ministry of truth types operating internet sites have backed off (without fessing up) on their previous hit jobs on the Chinese virus angle, which should speaks volumes about the legitimacy of their fact checking.

But, it is most likely that the truth never will be revealed.

Asked if the findings of the U.S. intelligence community investigation would be released in 90 days, Biden issued more of his vintage gobbledygook: “Unless there’s something I’m unaware of.”

This coming from a man who during his campaign was unaware he was running for president, instead proclaiming at a rally in South Carolina that he was running for Senate, does not inspire confidence. To paraphrase Shakespeare, there are many, many things both in Heaven and on Earth that Biden is not aware of, even a little bit.

Expect any release in 90 days to be vague and unlikely to finger the Chinese. Once again implicating the Russians is a more likely outcome.

But while we wait, enjoy the mounting daily evidence that our once great country is becoming a pathetic mishmash of hucksters, grifters and opportunists.

ITEM: A North Carolina auto repair business had a vehicle stolen and others vandalized. Racist graffiti was left behind and the kneejerk response was yet another black businessman had been targeted by white supremacists, likely Trump supporters. Except that black business owner set up surveillance cameras and caught two black men doing the damage. Ooops!

ITEM: Atlanta City Councilman and mayoral candidate Antonio Brown (not the former Steelers wide receiver of the same name) managed to have his car stolen during a stop Wednesday. The perpetrators allegedly were children, but one of them “acted as though he had a gun.” And you wonder if Brown, your defund-the-police candidate, might want to rethink that, if only to give him protection from having kids steal his car, or his candy, in the future.

No doubt, once the intelligence community has wrapped up its COVID-19 investigation, Biden will have it look into false flag racial incidents or defund-the-police political candidates who need help crossing the street.

And in 90 days, Biden might share those findings with us, unless there’s something else he’s unaware of.

Christmas arrived before Memorial Day this year, with the Penguins unceremoniously departing the Stanley Cup playoffs in the first round — again.

Cue the fireworks.

You say you’re confused as to how a resident of Western Pennsylvania and a hockey fan to boot, possibly could take pleasure in the Penguins being laid low.

Let me explain. Ever since retiring from sports writing and becoming a mere fan, I can indulge in personal prejudices. As a sports writer I just watched the games and wrote about them, a detached sort of thing the late sportswriter Jerome Holtzman chronicled in his classic book “No Cheering In The Press Box.”

That was the traditional way of sports journalism – observe and report. But these days too many members of the sweaty literati, much like journalists in general, have turned to a reporting style that is a mixture of propaganda, boosterism and outright hero worship.

Check how many times you hear “we” references to a team of which they are not members.

Along that line, think of the way CNN, MSNBC, major television network news and national print outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, covered Team Biden in the most recent election. They might as well have been wearing Sleepy Joe jerseys.

I expect a sporting team’s radio and television announcers to be biased. But, if you’ve ever had the opportunity to follow broadcasts with other home team announcers via a platform such as NHL Center Ice, you would find that Penguins announcers are over-the-top in terms of their homerism.

By happenstance I listened to a radio broadcast of a Penguins loss to open this series, with the Penguins ahead after two periods, and the one studio guy was particularly condescending in the second intermission. His tone came off as especially patronizing toward the New York Islanders, as in hey, they’re gutty and trying hard, but . . . we’re the Penguins!

Well, the Islanders were gritty, tried hard, and sent the Penguins to the offseason golf course in just six games of a possible seven-game series.

When the late Bob Prince performed the home-viewpoint style of broadcasting for the Pirates, it was an engaging kind of bias, replete with amusing anecdotes, engaging nicknames and pet expressions.

This is different. It’s not particularly entertaining and seldom is credit given to the opposition.

Instead it’s orgies of self-congratulation if the Penguins are winning, and, if the Penguins are behind, laments about cheap play or luck on the part of the opposition, or even critiques of the obviously blind referees.

Similarly, too many media members issue reports on games that read like they sleep in Penguins jammies.

When you see this sort of thing close up through the years, as I did, you develop a bit of a distaste for it. Throw in that my son decided on his own to grow up a Detroit Red Wings fan, mostly because he enjoyed former Wings star Steve Yzerman’s production on video games, and you have a family that doesn’t exactly bleed Penguins black and gold.

Along that line, by definition, fans like to think they can influence the outcome of games with their rooting. The NBC Sports Network broadcast of the clinching series win for the Islanders Wednesday night even gave the third star to the team’s rabid home fans.

I’ve found another way, if not to affect the winner or loser, at least to be able to enjoy whatever outcome transpires.

As something of a jinx and a decidedly unlucky individual, I find myself engaging in small sports bets on my DraftKings account that make me happy regardless of which team wins. Simply put, I bet on the team I actually want to lose.

I’m not claiming to be a practitioner of voodoo, sticking pins in dolls of Penguins players. But I did make a parlay bet for the Penguins to win the series before it started, and individual bets on the Penguins to win the past two games, all of which ended up being won by the Islanders.

If the Penguins had won, I’d have had a few extra bucks to ease the pain.

Suffice it to say I won’t miss the money now that the Penguins have lost the games and the series. It was all worth it just for the smile brought to my face by the thought of all those Penguins fans – media and otherwise – dealing with this latest cold dose of reality.

Recently I shared the state of my ‘hood in a posting here. Events demand a short update.

On the positive front, the jungle that was taking shape across the street has been hacked back to what passes for a yard.

The promised lawnmower arrived. It was put into use and, after many a fit and start, success was achieved by the renter there.

Previously I’d alluded to the sale of a house up the street causing concern among its immediate neighbors due to shady behavior by the newcomers. Already there is some confirmation of those early worries.

Police were called, apparently from someone within the lengthy roster of residents, to deal with domestic discord. Since then, there have been reports of assorted comings and goings but it is not clear if anyone currently is living in the house.

As if on cue, another house just a few addresses up on the other side of the street from me has gone on the market. It’s owner died last year, but the house has remained unoccupied. We can only hope that a family with some modicum of stability purchases it and helps restore some domestic tranquility to the block.

The focus of another neighborhood update is not a resident, but rather our mailman.

A few days back I saw a mail truck parked in front of my house – unusual in that it most often is parked at the corner up the street when it is the customary delivery person. Only when it’s a parcel delivery does the truck tend to end up in front of my house.

Closer examination revealed the mailman across the street. He was shooting basketball with the neighbor kid at the driveway hoop. The play went on, and on, and on.

I’m estimating, conservatively, it ran at least half an hour and more like 45 minutes. Lunch?

By the way, I received no mail that day. Perhaps if I had a basketball hoop?

Finally, allow me to share something that falls under the category of ‘hood happenings only because it involves me. It was my lot to be contact person in efforts to sell one of my mother’s cars.

It was a low-priced vehicle, advertised by my son with a ton of caveats as to its condition and future road-worthiness.

And yet the average inquirer, after opening with how much under the asking price they might be able to limbo, seemed to want varying degrees of guarantees as to future reliability. New cars have been known to come with less in the way of warranty.

Included in the sales effort on Sunday was me picking up a prospective buyer, driving him to look at the car, accompanying him on a test drive of 15 miles or so, and then taking him back to his apartment.

He didn’t buy the car because he failed in his quest for OPM – other people’s money – from within his family to fund his purchase

Someone else did end up taking the car off our hands today. And, thankfully, I’m spared this daily interchange with the unreasonable among us on the subject of low-priced cars and projections of their future use.

Submitted for your consideration, things that make you go hmmmm.

Make up your own minds if these things pass the smell test, seem rational, or are just more hypocrisy.

Item: According to emails from Hunter Biden’s famous laptop, a charitable foundation for Joe Biden’s grandchildren reportedly received a $100,000 donation from a trust controlled by former FBI director Louis Freeh. This might matter because Biden was vice president at the time and Freeh was an attorney for three foreign businessmen that ran afoul of the law.

Item: The White House is teaming with nine dating apps to offer special perks to people receiving COVID-19 vaccinations. No mention of STD prevention rewards.

Item: Meanwhile, the State of New York will offer scratch off lottery tickets as incentive to get COVID-19 vaccines. Also, no STD bonuses.

Item: A total of 22 states have acted to drop the extra $300 a week unemployment bonus, which a substantial number of “unemployed” have used to fund their remaining outside of the employed workforce, the better to play video games or enjoy other leisure activities without that pesky 40-hour work week intruding.

Item: According to no less a reliable left-leaning source than The Washington Post, CNN host Chris Cuomo was instrumental in formulating the policy of his brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, in dealing with mounting accusations of sexual misconduct. The most busted name in news strikes again. Ethics? We don’t need no stinking ethics.

Item: Dominion Voting Systems had “coding errors” in the past week’s Pennsylvania primary election, but the company has assured that all votes were counted correctly. Sounds familiar.

Item: Mr. Mask, AKA Dr. Anthony Fauci, who in recent weeks has made it a point to wear masks in public even while bragging about being fully vaccinated, has conceded that, just as Senator Rand Paul said during Fauci testimony, it was all for show. Fauci admitted it was for public consumption, but now he’s more comfortable with the reality that there is no pressing need for his mask, indoors or outdoors.

Item: A solid 71 percent of respondents to a recent poll said their country is full of immigrants and can’t handle any more. That country would be France, which sent this country the Statue of Liberty as a gift. Sometimes, enough really is enough.

Item: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who had the gall to go to closed beauty parlors during COVID-19 lockdowns to help her appearance, but can’t get a handle on her city’s murder sprees, has a new solution to her image problems. According to a tweet from a Chicago political reporter, Lightfoot now will grant 1-on-1 interviews only to “Black or Brown journalists.”

Item: All of a sudden the sanctimonious truth police of the internet are pulling back on labeling as debunked speculation all stories about Chinese labs as a possible source of COVID-19. Republicans in Congress have released a report with strong circumstantial evidence of a Chinese leak and even the hysterical head of the CDC was forced to admit in testimony that such a lab leak is definitely a possibility. Considering some other information coming to light, this could be even more embarrassing for Dr. Fauci than his constant flip flops, or that anemic first pitch at a Washington Nationals baseball game.

Item: And, finally, a Bloomberg opinion writer posits that should the planned release of all United States government information on UFOs this summer provide strong evidence of ET presence, that could be good for the U.S. dollar and domestic investment markets. Buy now and avoid the rush from space immigrants – I guess.

When we first moved onto our street 35-some years back, it was the sort of neighborhood in which there was a traditional singing of Christmas carols while walking behind the borough fire truck, and then refreshments were served in a two-car garage.

Neighbors visited and interacted throughout the year, beyond the passing nod. You actually knew names, and other details about the neighbors. Not any more.

These days, the ‘hood has devolved into something less social.

I’m not totally against that. Neighbors are an accident of geography. If you have similar tastes and philosophical leanings, you get along. If not, you avoid the neighbors.

My problem arises when the peculiarities of the neighbors infringe on my peace and happiness.

It seems there are more and more of these annoyances daily.

For a few years there has been a game played on the street I call simply “The Parking Grab,” in which many neighbors feel compelled to tie up as many on-street parking spaces as possible, leaving their garages and driveways unoccupied by their vehicles.

It’s poor manners, but perfectly legal. What isn’t perfectly legal is a deranged neighbor cursing out my son a couple of years back for having the temerity to park IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE, because said neighbor wanted that space for his wife.

The error of his position was pointed out to him and his wife, and punctuated afterward with a few no trespassing signs on my property to keep his progeny from treating my yard like a playground.

They now leave me alone and I ignore them. It’s bliss, if only they didn’t feel the need to acquire two dogs who bark each and every time they are put outside, which is about five times a day.

Many times in the past few years we’ve had drug dealers and drug users living in the ‘hood. Fortunately, they’ve moved on, to be replaced by better behaved residents in many, but not all, cases.

A relatively recent addition to the neighborhood apparently operates under the delusion that grass mows itself. It’s not that he seems to be too busy with anything like a job to find time to mow the grass.

In an amusing incident Mr. I Don’t Mow leaned out his second story window and yelled to a neighbor kid who was mowing grass the other day. My wife and I both saw it and thought he might be going to offer the kid a few bucks to take on his overgrown yard while he was at it.

Nope. The neighbor was telling the kid, for no apparent reason, that he had a lawnmower arriving the next day and would tackle his jungle soon. That was two days ago and counting.

What happened on the mower delivery front isn’t clear. What is clear is this guy, who lives with a woman and child, sure has time to scream maniacally as he plays video games at all hours. This is readily apparent because the windows are open, even in the winter.

Meanwhile, some people up the block are incensed because new arrivals on their end have little or no respect for property rights, feeling free to pile garbage on the land of others, not to mention taking the liberty to visit the neighbors’ yards without benefit of being invited to do so.

My wife, who makes periodic forays out to visit her friends in the ‘hood, reports that one neighbor of the newcomers found his construction of what used to be called a “spite” fence back in the day delayed due to the skyrocketing price of lumber and a shortage of funds.

The neighbors on the other side of the offending newcomers have the police number on speed dial, the better to report transgressions by the recent arrivals, as well as to call out a young driver from closer to my house who doesn’t seem to understand the meaning of stop signs, or speed limit signs,

Also close to me is a house whose teenage male has friends who keep mistaking our otherwise quiet residential block for the burnout box at a dragstrip.

I pointed out to the neighborhood kid a few months back – ironically while I was monitoring a guy who’d had too much to drink (he’s being charged by the DA) and took out a car and a neighbor’s small tree/bush as he careened down the street at about 9 a.m. – that if his friends wanted to prove how healthy their cars are, I could get out my Mustang GT, we could go to a grudge night at a dragstrip, and we could race for some cash.

So far, no takers. Regardless, they were advised to take their tire-melting antics somewhere where it doesn’t disturb the peace, lest the police need to be contacted.

Not that our police force would do anything. They make a point of ignoring a family that’s been driving a Jeep Cherokee sporting an inspection sticker that expired in May — 2019. No, it is not an antique exempt from inspection.

The police say they can’t watch vigilantly to catch the driver(s) in the act. I say since they are not exactly policing a hotbed of shootings, rapes, murders, robberies or other felonies, perhaps they should spend a little time trying to get a long-running scofflaw off the streets.

Just Saturday, while returning home from a pizza run, said vehicle pulled out of a side street behind me, so I got a quick video and am weighing asking the police whether they are willing to watch it and then to do something now. Probably not.

It occurs to me that if such a decline in behavior, social niceties and law-abiding behavior is evident in this formerly pleasant middle-class neighborhood, one wonders how bad things must be elsewhere. Probably I don’t want to know.

We promise some sports on this blog, an aspect sorely neglected of late, but here is a crossover entry.

Big-time sports operations, in an orgy of virtue signaling, have demanded vaccinations. Yet just last week news broke that no fewer than eight members of the New York Yankees – players and staff — had tested positive for COVID-19.

The knee-jerk reaction among the vaccine Nazis would be how selfish and disgusting these people are to have refused to take the jab. But, no, all eight had been fully vaccinated for more than 14 days prior to testing positive.

The question, asked here previously, why get vaccinated if it possibly does nothing for you?

Predictably, there has been a rush to obfuscate the situation. Seven of the eight had no symptoms, so the vaccine worked is one claim.

Well, I know unvaccinated people who have had COVID-19 and their symptoms were mild. I also know at least one person who got vaccinated after having “recovered” from the virus and found the post-vaccine symptoms worse than the disease had produced.

My favorite rationalization for the Yankees outbreak was they got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is not as effective as alternatives.

This Yankees news has come out against a continuing backdrop of COVID-19 mania despite conflicting facts.

A porky Wisconsin school teacher lectured an unmasked student, calling him a jerk in a scene that of course was captured on video and posted on social media. Said teacher is cooling her heels on administrative leave – no doubt with pay.

But wait, the student claimed to be fully vaccinated and the teacher didn’t care. The student still could infect others, she screeched.

Didn’t she listen when our figurehead president Joe Biden proclaimed that the vaccinated no longer had to wear face diapers, an act of contrition now reserved for those refusing to surrender to the jab?

There was an insert in the teacher story showing a social media post from a virtue signaling young twit noting that he wears a mask outside even though he’s been vaccinated just to be sure he’s not mistaken for – horrors – a conservative.

No problem, twit. Similarly, you never will be mistaken for an independent thinker or someone no longer needing mommy’s help wiping your butt.

The party line being preached is vaccines are great, and those who chose not to get the jabs are Neanderthals. Except, super bureaucrat Dr. Anthony Fauci, the guy who makes more in salary than any other federal government employee, including the president, had to admit to a dirty secret.

Testifying before the U.S. Senate, old One Mask Is Never Enough Fauci had to concede that about 40 percent of his staff at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases had not been vaccinated. Similar percentages were reported for people at the Food and Drug Administration and the Marine Corps.

It is estimated that maybe one-third of the general population in the United States has been vaccinated. And yet, according to a report from the Human Mortality Database, deaths in the United States are down to pre-COVID levels.

An interesting side note to that report was that as much as one-third of the so-called “excess deaths” during the COVID-19 lockdowns were due to untreated medical conditions (owing largely to the lockdowns) as well as increased drug overdoses, suicides or murders.

This drop in the overall death total was not supposed to happen until 70 percent or more of the population had been vaccinated.

Could it be that cutting back on the lockdowns and forced isolation has helped as much as vaccines?

The message of this report will be lost on the must-vaccinate crowd, whose blind evangelism is scary to behold. They cannot be expected to let the facts get in the way of advancing their cult of control.

This doesn’t mean that you need to join them just to fit in.