90-Seconds Book Review: Look, I'm Gone by James Howard Kunstler Exorcises Catcher in the Rye

 Look, I'm Gone by James Howard Kunstler is a coming-of-age novel set in New York City over the 1963 Thanksgiving holiday season. 

Jeff Greenaway, 12 years old, is a student at Ponsonby Hall, a New Hampshire boarding school for troubled adolescents from wealthy families. President Kennedy’s assassination disrupts the orderly life of the school, and school authorities decide to release the kids a few days early for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Jeff returns to his parents' home in Manhattan and spends the next several days exploring New York City, watching movies, and spending a wad of cash he obtained at a schoolboy poker game. 

On a whim, Jeff enters "Dreamboat Landing," a dance studio advertising "Girls, Girls, Girls... 25 cents a dance." He dances with Yvonne, a young, working-class woman who teaches him the box step and the foxtrot. 

During their brief encounter, Yvonne decides that Jeff is a screwed up but decent kid, and she impulsively gives him her copy of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. "Here," she tells him, "the story of your life."

Jeff is enchanted by the novel, which he reads three times over a few days. He identifies with Holden Caulfield, the book's depressed and morose main character, and soon adopts Holden's persona, including the fictional character's habit of inserting the word "goddamn" into casual conversations.

Like Jeff, Holden Caulfield is a boarding school student on holiday in Manhattan. Jeff is amazed at how much Holden Caulfield's world resembles his own. He begins to feel that Catcher in the Rye was written specifically for him, like "a message in a bottle."

 Thanks to Salinger's book, Jeff recognizes "the phoniness and pointlessness of everything around him," and he embraces Holden's view that the “goddamn world is full of phonies." 

However, Jeff Greenaway is not Holden Caulfield, and his holiday odyssey in New York City differs from Holden’s. In a bold move, he talks his way backstage at a Broadway theater and persuades a beautiful child star to have dinner with him at a swank restaurant. 

And Jeff has another un-Holden-like experience. Jeff believes that the Russians assassinated President Kennedy, which leads him to stake out the Russian UN embassy. The Russian ambassador, touched by Jeff's naive intensity, tells Jeff that "truth will set you free," and that the CIA, not the Russians, killed President Kennedy.

Jeff's initial attraction to Catcher in the Rye leads him to search out Salinger's other books: Franny and Zooey and Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters. He hopes these works will be as inspiring as Salinger's blockbuster, but he finds them boring and incomprehensible.

On his return trip to boarding school, Jeff finds out where Salinger lives, and he manages to have an extended conversation with the reclusive author on a snowy New England night. I won’t tell you about that passage in the book, because that would spoil Kunstler’s story for people reading Look, I’m Gone.

Catcher in the Rye is often described as a coming-of-age novel, and the book is required reading at some American schools. But Salinger’s novel is not a coming-of-age tale, because Holden never achieves the mature self-awareness that young people must obtain to transition from youth to adulthood. At the novel's end, Holden is as depressed as he was at the beginning.

Look, I’m Gone is an exorcism of Catcher in the Rye. Unlike Holden Caulfield, Jeff Greenaway engages with the world around him, takes chances, and embraces new and unsettling experiences—like his meeting with a Russian diplomat and his brief encounter with a vibrant child actor.

Millions of young Americans will read Catcher in the Rye and become depressed, cynical, and world-weary. Thus, as an antidote, I recommend all Salinger fans to read Look, I’m Gone immediately after reading Catcher in the Rye.

However, one need not read Catcher in the Rye to appreciate Kunstler's novel. Look, I'm Gone stands on its own as one of the great American coming-of-age tales beside Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Richard Bradford's Red Sky at Morning, John Knowles's A Separate Peace, and Robert Anderson's Tea and Sympathy.

Image credit: Slate

The Governmnt Shuts Down But the Hummingbirds are Still on the Clock

 My wife and I recently returned from an extended vacation in the Desert Southwest. We spent a few days at our family cabin in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico, and then motored on to Utah, where we toured Canyonlands and Arches National Parks.

Our timing was fortuitous because the federal government shut down a few days after we returned home. Most national parks, including those in Utah, remain open, but who knows when the shutdown will affect park operations.

So far, at least, I haven't been inconvenienced by the government shutdown. My faithful postman still delivers my mail, and the politicians assure me that my Social Security checks will continue being deposited in my checking account.

Life goes on. I spied a hummingbird in my garden this morning, sucking nectar from a lavender plant. He's still on the clock.

 In another part of the garden, a mourning dove pecked around our sunflower patch, because doves adore sunflower seeds more than life itself. I walked within three feet of the creature, and it did not startle.

In the coming days, Progressive journalists will comb the country looking for hard-luck stories about people suffering because government offices are closed. However, most Americans are unaffected by the government shutdown, and many who are impacted will blame Senator Chuck Schumer and the Democrats.

For the present, I will enjoy the change of seasons in southern Mississippi, plant a fall garden, and give thanks for living in Flyover Country. The political turmoil in Washington, DC, has nothing to do with me or my family.

Lake Mary, Mississippi

Should Pregnant Women Who Hate Trump Keep Taking Tylenol?

In a recent news release, the Food and Drug Administration announced findings that pregnant women who take acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, may run an increased risk of autism for their unborn child.

In a news conference, President Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr emphasized the importance of the FDA's advice. In his inimitable way, Trump urged pregnant women to "tough it out" rather than ingest Tylenol Tablets.

Democrats quickly renounced Trump and Kennedy's advice. Representative Rosa DeLauro, the purple-haired Democratic congresswoman from Connecticut, denounced Kennedy's Tylenol warning. In a prepared statement, DeLauro called Kennedy's warning "absurd" and urged women to ignore it.

The claim from President Trump and Secretary Kennedy is baseless. Scientists and doctors agree that Tylenol, or acetaminophen, is one of [the] few safe pain relievers available to women during their pregnancy. President Trump and Secretary Kennedy’s claim is misinformation and it should not be taken seriously, as it could lead to women taking dangerous alternatives. 

NPR, ever ready to criticize the Trump administration, also cast doubt on Kennedy's Tylenol warning. NPR began its story on the topic with this headline: "Trump blames Tylenol for autism. Science doesn't back him up."

However, Kennedy and Trump's warning about the dangers of taking Tylenol during pregnancy is not baseless. In an internal email message, Rachel Weinstein, director of epidemiology at a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary (manufacturer of Tylenol), alerted J & J's global head of epidemiology about a disturbing scientific review. 

As reported in the Epoch Times, the review "concluded that nine studies suggested that use of acetaminophen—the active ingredient in Tylenol—by pregnant women was linked to autism and other neurodevelopmental issues in the women’s children." Weinstein added that “[t]he weight of evidence is starting to feel heavy to me.”

Professor Zehan Liew of the Yale School of Public Health had this to say on the Tylenol controversy:

We do not know yet for sure whether acetaminophen [Tylenol's active ingredient]causes autism. Multiple observational studies conducted across different populations have shown associations between frequent and long-term use of acetaminophen in pregnancy and some negative effects on a child’s neurodevelopment.

In addition, a Harvard study reached similar findings. Andrea Baccarelli, Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, reported on a "rigorous review" that "found evidence of an association between exposure to acetaminophen during pregnancy and increased incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders in children.” The study recommended that "[a]ppropriate and immediate steps should be taken to advise pregnant women to limit acetaminophen consumption to protect their offspring’s neurodevelopment."

Americans can conduct their own review on the possible link between Tylenol and autism; it's easily accessible online. Nevertheless, everyone should know that the Trump administration's advice about Tylenol is not baseless or absurd. 

Congresswoman DeLauro urged her constituents not to take medical advice from Secretary Kennedy. I encourage them not to take medical advice from DeLauro or the rabidly anti-Trump media.

Pay no attention to the purple-haired lady wearing green glasses.

 

Stick a fork in the Democrats: They're Done

Like I have a potty mouth, especially when I’m mad.

Representative Jasmine Crockett 

 Perhaps you've noticed that the United States no longer has a two-party political system.  

The Republicans are alive and kicking, propelled by an energetic septugenarian president. The Democrats, however, have devolved into "the Resistance." 

As demonstrated by today's government shutdown, the Dems no longer see a need to compromise on significant policy issues. Their congressional leaders are content to engage in bombastic, profanity-laced rhetoric and embarrassing public spectacles, like Representative Al Green's tantrum during President Trump's congressional address earlier this year.  

At the local level, Democratic-run cities are unable to keep crime in check, operate functional schools, or control illegal immigration. They care more about transgender sports than children's reading proficiency.

The Democrats' elites realize that they have no hope of winning the next presidential election. The swing states are shifting red, and voter registration patterns favor the Republicans. California Governor Gavin Newsom has a better chance of becoming the Pope than being sworn in as the next POTUS. As for Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, he comes off to most voters as a real-life Jabba the Hutt.

The Democrats' new strategy is to sabotage American culture and undermine democratic values from their sinecures in blue states, blue cities, and safely blue congressional districts. Their party leaders--Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff, Bernie Sanders, AOC, Jasmine Crockett, the Squad--seem to think their jobs are simply to be obnoxious.

However, the Democrats have one last chance to regain relevance. If they pour millions of dollars into key congressional districts during the 2026 election season, they may be able to recover the majority in the House of Representatives. 

If the Democrats regain control of the House, they'll pass an impeachment resolution to oust Trump. Of course, the Senate will never vote to impeach him, but the histrionics around an impeachment effort will give Democratic politicians media visibility.

Even if the Democrats recapture the House of Representatives, they are done as a viable political party.  Americans in the Heartland are sick of them, and there are enough voters in Flyover Country to consign the Democratic Party to the dustbin of history.

The Democrats are done. Stick a fork in them.

Our Madmen Assassins: Their Political Ideologies May Not Matter

Over the course of a few weeks, assassins with murky motives have murdered strangers with guns.  Robin Westman, an 18-year-old, shot up a Catholic mass in Minneapolis, killing two children and wounding 18 more. Tyler Robinson, age 22, allegedly assassinated Charlie Kirk, a young, conservative Christian spokesperson, while he was speaking on a Utah college campus. Then, more recently. Joshua Jahn, twenty-nine years old, shot into a Dallas ICE facility, killing a Hispanic detainee and wounding two others.

Two of the assassins--Robinson and Jahn-- shot themselves at their killing sites. Tyler Robinson, the man who reportedly killed Kirk, was captured alive.

Politicians and the legacy media have attempted to identify the political ideologies of these murderers. Some commentators blame right-wing politics for the violence, while others argue that political violence is most often associated with leftist ideologies.

I don't think the political leanings of these madmen explain their violent actions or are even relevant. They're all nuts. 

Without exception, the killers are young men suffering from mental illness, although a few identify as women. They are isolated, lonely guys who spend too much time playing video games, and most of them probably smoke too much marijuana. They don't have a girlfriend or romantic partner. None of these killers has a clear vocational identity or any hope of joining the workforce. None of them dream of owning a home, marrying, or raising a family.

 In short, all these sadsacks are losers, not in the perjorative sense but in the existential sense. These guys were never going anywhere in life, and they all know it. 

So, why not get a gun, preferably a semi-automatic assault rifle, and start killing people? By committing murder, at least they'll get their 15 minutes of fame, a brief burst of online notoriety.

Every time a school shooting or mass killing occurs, left-wingers call for gun control. But that horse has already left the barn. The United States has almost 400 million guns in circulation, more than one gun for every man, woman, and child. We will never get those firearms out of circulation, even if we had the political will to try.

And rifles and pistols are cheap. Even a guy working at McDonald's can afford an off-brand assault rifle. 

Our society is to blame for all this carnage. What kind of world have we created that has caused some men to invest in killing tools rather than marriage, a family, and a vocation?

ICE to Deport an Iowa School Superintendent: A Story with No Heroes

Ian Roberts, a citizen of Guyana, entered the United States under a student visa in 1999. He obtained four degrees in the U.S., including a doctorate from Trident University. 

While in the U.S., Roberts pursued a career in public education, holding jobs in California, Maryland, Missouri, New York, the District of Columbia, Iowa, and Pennsylvania. He is the author or co-author of at least three books, including Radical Empathy in Leadership, published in 2021, and The Power of Seven Second Chances (co-authored with Nicole Price in 2023).

In sum, until last week, Roberts was enjoying a brilliant career in public education. He was Superintendent of the Des Moines School District, Iowa's largest school system, pulling down a salary of $286,000 a year. According to his supporters, almost everyone in Des Moines loved him.

Then it all came crashing down. Unbeknownst to the Des Moines school board, Roberts was not an American citizen, and his federal work permit had expired. An immigration judge had issued a deportation order against Roberts in May 2024.

On Saturday, September 26, ICE agents sought to arrest Roberts, but he allegedly fled in his vehicle. With the help of Iowa law enforcement officers, he was apprehended and jailed. Police found a loaded handgun in his abandoned vehicle.

Roberts's supporters maintain that he's an excellent school administrator who should not be deported. Des Moines School Board Chair Jackie Norris called for her community to show "radical empathy" for him, a sly reference to one of Dr. Roberts's book titles. Demonstrators protested Roberts's detention, whom Time Magazine described as a "beloved superintendent."

However, Roberts' civic record is not unblemished. He was cited in Pennsylvania for illegally possessing a loaded firearm in a vehicle in 2022, and federal sources claim he was charged with a weapons violation in 2020. The loaded handgun that police reportedly found in Roberts's vehicle last weekend is another blemish on his record.

I confess I have some sympathy for Dr. Roberts. After all, he's resided in this country for a quarter of a century, and his federal work authorization didn't expire until 2020. Thus, he was a legal resident in the U.S. for more than two decades.  

Roberts's supporters say the embattled school leader is the target of an "overzealous and racist administration," but I disagree. It's more accurate to say that Roberts's predicament is an example of a poorly administered immigration process. 

Deportation is a harsh penalty to impose on a man who has a strong record of public service as an educator. Nevertheless, Roberts is partly responsible for his woes. ICE alleges that Roberts possessed a loaded handgun on the day he was arrested. If the charge is true, that fact won't help him avoid deportation.

Ian Roberts. Photo credit: Coppin State University

Would RFK Jr. be Welcome at Cid's Natural Food Market? Make America Healthy Again

My father built a cabin in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico not far from the historic town of Taos. My family has vacationed there for more than 60 years, and over that time I've seen the sleepy town of Taos transformed into an upscale vacation destination and skiing community.

It was inevitable then that Cid's Food Market, a natural food store, would open in Taos, where affluent, health-conscious shoppers can buy organically grown vegetables, grass-fed meat, and other food that isn't ultra processed or laced with preservatives.

Cid's groceries are expensive, but I shop there occasionally beause it's conveniently located on the road to my family's cabin. I dropped in a few days ago and bought a bag of groceries costing me $132.

Among my purchases was a green chilie and bacon quiche, expensive but very good. I also bought a loaf of rustic bread--all natural ingredients and no preservatives. Also very tasty.

I observed my fellow shoppers--a few aging hippies from the days of Easy Rider but mostly affluent people with ample disposable income and a desire to eat healthy food. I wondered: what are the politics of people who shop at Cid's?

I suspect everyone in the store are Democrats--people who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024. If I were to walk into Cid's in a MAGA hat or a Trump campaign button, I might spark a heated confrontation.

How do these folks feel about HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) campaign? Do they appreciate Kennedy's efforts to improve our nation's food supply and eliminate ultra-proccessed corn syrup in so many packaged foods? Do they approve of his work to lower our obesity rates and diabetes diagnoses?

I hope I am wrong, but I suspect the nation's healthy food community lump Secretary Kennedy's MAHA campaign with Trumpian politics, Indeed, as some Democratic Senators maintain, they may have written Kennedy off as a wingnut and and anti-vaccine zealot.

If so, that is unfortunate. In this time of heated partisan rhetoric and hyperbolic speech, I believe Americans need to become more discerning in shaping their political philosophies. Whatever progressives may think about Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, they should celebrate the appointment of RFK Jr. as the nation's Secretary of Health and Human Services. 

Finally, a guy has shown up in Washington who is alarmed by the fact that Americans are the unhealthiest people in the developed world. Kennedy wants to make us healthy again, and we should show him our support. And we should rebuke the Senate Democrats--Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Maggie Hassan, Ben Ray Lujan, etc.-- who are trying to discredit and destroy him.

Second Thoughts About the Death Penalty After Charlie Kirk's Assassination

Yesterday, my local newspaper ran a story about a 25-year-old man charged with raping a four-year-old girl. According to the news report, the man, who had a history of indecent behavior with juveniles, infected the child with chlamydia, a sexually transmitted disease.

What punishment is appropriate for such an offense?

A few months ago, a 45-year-old man shouting "Free Palestine" set Jewish Americans on fire in Boulder, Colorado. An 82-year-old woman died from her injuries. 

What is a just punishment for such a vicious, racially motivated hate crime?

Earlier this week, an assassin killed Charlie Kirk while he was speaking on a university campus in Utah. Kirk, a conservative political activist, was 31 years old with a wife and two small children.

A 22-year-old Tyler Robinson was arrested. If convicted, what should be done with him?

When I was a college student, I took a class in criminology, which included a field trip to the Oklahoma's maximum-security prison. The warden was our tour guide, and he appeared to take pleasure in showing students the prison's death chamber, where the electric chair was displayed. 

I recall the wooden chair was fitted with restraining straps and a metal cap with wires attached. It looked like a medieval torture device.

I also remember a viewing area where seated spectators could watch a prisoner being electrocuted. Over the chair was a large sign stating "Crime Doesn't Pay."

All the students were shocked by the scene. I, however, was overcome by nausea, physically sickened and frightened by what I saw.

From that moment until this week, I've been opposed to the death penalty. Gazing on the electric chair,  I was overcome by the brutality and ugliness of capital  punishment. I felt coursened by the sight of that chair and by the fact that I lived in a society that would kill a man in such a way.

This week, however, I re-examined my stance on capital punishment. I asked myself whether there are some crimes so heinous, so destructive to moral order, that the death penalty is the only appropriate punishment. Does society have the right and even the duty to signal its repugnance to certain violent acts by killing the perpetrator?

This morning, I was prepared to believe that a man who rapes a child deserves the death penalty as does a man who sets people on fire out of racial hatred. And I was certainly prepared to believe that the man who killed Charlie Kirk in cold blood should be executed.

But then I saw an image of  Tyler Robinson, the man who was arrested on the charge of murdering Charlie Kirk. So young, so confused, so obsessed with violence. 

If Robinson is convicted of this killing, he certainly deserves to die, and society has the moral right to execute him. Nevertheless, I hope the state of Utah doesn't inflict the death sentence because killing Tyler Robinson coursens us all.

Rather. I hope he is sentenced to a very long prison sentence, perhaps life in prison. After all. as Pope Francis observed, a life sentence is a death sentence, and that should satisfy society's sense of justice.

Weekend at Lake Mary: Gratitude and Expectations on a Mississippi Autumn Morning

The days I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, those are good days.

Ray Wylie Hubbard

I have suffered from insomnia for at least 65 years. Even as a small child, I had trouble sleeping, and my inability to nod off easily made me perpetually anxious about the coming day.

Perhaps this affliction could be traced to the stories my father told me when I was four years old about his years in a Japanese concentration camp during World War II. He often described fellow prisoners who starved themselves to death, committed suicide, or drowned when a prison ship sank and they didn't know how to swim. 

I interpreted my father's stories to be a message that weak people die when confronted by hardship, and I felt certain at age four that I would never be strong enough to survive what my father endured as a Japanese prisoner of war. My father ate bugs and lizards to stay alive, and I could hardly swallow broccoli!

Or perhaps my nighttime anxieties sprang from my encounters with the hell-and-brimstone Protestant religion that my childhood friends practiced and my fantasies about roasting on hot coals for eternity because I was a Methodist and not baptized by immersion like my playmates.

Now I'm in the evening of life and sleep better, especially when I'm home on Lake Mary in southern Mississippi. Last weekend, I slept exceptionally well and awoke refreshed just before 5 AM. I told myself it would be a good day because I planned to mow my property's four-acre woodlot. I would start early and finish my work before the day turned hot.

Some of my family members are early risers and nearly always start the day before me, but I woke up long before dawn that morning. The darkened house was quiet when I walked into the kitchen. I pushed the brew button on Mr. Coffee, which began gurgling benignly, filling the kitchen with the heavenly fragrance of dark-roast Community coffee.

I found a pack of Pillsbury biscuits in the refrigerator and a pound of Wright's thick-cut smoked bacon. I opened the biscuit package, placed eight dough globs on a baking sheet, and slipped them in the oven to cook.

I fried bacon while the biscuits baked, and in a few moments, I had prepared a feast. I buttered the biscuits, smothered them with mayhaw jelly, and made bacon-and-jelly biscuit sandwiches, which I ate with my coffee.

Knox, my family's genial springer spaniel, woke when he heard me stirring. He smelled the bacon and came into the kitchen, subtly letting me know he was joining me for breakfast. 

"No, Knox," I told him, "this bacon isn't for you," but I warmed a hot dog for him in the skillet and poured the warm bacon grease over his dry dog food. Knox seemed satisfied.

It was dark outside, and there was no sign yet of dawn. I sipped my coffee and ate my simple meal silently, pleasantly conscious that I had no morning newspaper to read or email to open. 

Gradually, the sun introduced itself with long shadows creeping over the roof from the east and casting its pale light on Lake Mary. The lake was placid with no wind this morning, and the water looked bluish white in the predawn ambience.

Finally, the morning sun rose high enough to dominate the day, and it was light enough for me to begin mowing the four-acre woodlot with my zero-turn lawnmower. The grass was overlong because the mower broke down the last time I mowed, and it took me several days to get the replacement part I needed to drive the lawnmower blades.

Would my mower start? I asked myself, and suddenly recalled repeatedly pulling the starter rope on my family's Briggs & Stratton push mower when I was a kid. The misery!

Fortunately, my Toro zeo-turn mower has a battery, not a starter rope, and the engine roared to life with one turn of its key. I set the cutting level at three inches, and soon I was off, riding in padded comfort into the woodlot.

I drove slowly and cautiously to keep the long grass and weeds from overwhelming the mower.  As I crept over the field, I stirred up dust and bugs, but I'd smeared insect repellent over me--the good stuff, laced with DEET. The bugs didn't bother me.

I remembered mowing 40-acre fields when I was young, pulling a brush hog behind my father's John Deere tractor hour after hour. I suffered from asthma as a teenager and self-medicated with double doses of Dristan--eight pills a day.

To stay hydrated on mowing days, I'd make a couple of gallons of Nestea instant tea in a plastic jug, sweeten it with copious amounts of sugar, and fill the jug with ice from the old-fashioned ice trays that I'd take from my family's venerable Frigidaire.

I would end every summer day of mowing covered with dust and grit and my face blackened by diesel smoke. Even my teeth would be black.

This day, however, I only had four acres to mow, and if I needed refreshment, I could get a cold beer out of the refrigerator--much better than powered instant tea.

If I cut my grass weekly, the mowing job takes less than three hours. It would take longer on this day because the grass was so long. Nevertheless, I was starting early while the day was still cool, and I would be shaded for much of the time by the lot's many trees--cypresses, red oaks, pecan trees, and sycamores.

And so I traversed my woodlot, moving along slowly and steadily, taking satisfaction from seeing my property slowly transformed into a neatly clipped, tree-shaded lawn.

 I was finished before noon--just in time to watch the New Orleans Saints play the Cardinals. My wife grilled venison burgers from a deer I shot in January.

It was a good day. As Ray Wylie Hubbard might have said, my gratitude exceeded my expectations. I was grateful for my little piece of Mississippi ground, my wife and family, my riding lawnmower, my venison burger, and my cold beer.

 

Illegal Asian Immigrant Assaults Five-Year-Old in Southwestern Mississippi: Assailant Still At Large

 An Asian illegal alien assaulted a five-year-old child at Lake Mary in southwestern Mississippi on Sunday. 

An Asian carp weighing approximately 18 pounds leaped out of the water and struck the child tubing with his father on the remote lake. The family reported the incident to Mississippi wildlife authorities, who were on the scene within minutes.

An anonymous ranger who was not authorized to speak publicly said the carp was a member of an invasive species originating in Eurasia. The ranger added that the carp's gender identity and preferred pronoun are unknown.

President Trump was briefed on the incident over the weekend. In a prepared statement, the President said that large gangs of Asian carp had entered the United States illegally, flown in by NGOs funded by George Soros, and were making their way up the Mississippi River to the Great Lakes. 

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that he had deployed National Guard units from six states to Chicago, where the carp is believed to be headed. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker opposed the move, pointing out that Chicago is a sanctuary city where approximately 150 million unhoused Asian carp are residing in the Ritz Carlton.

Krisi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security, expressed confidence that the assailant will be captured soon. "Once apprehended," she stated at a hastily arranged press conference, "the carp will be transported to a secure facility at Angola Prison in neighboring Louisiana, which makes Alligator Alley look like Disneyland."

The child, whom I'll call Sunny, experienced a noise bleed but is expected to make a full recovery.

I got hit by a fish that was THIS BIG!

Robert F. Kennedy Jr Testifies Before the Senate Finance Committee: The Democrats Broughgt a Knife to a Gun Fight

A gaggle of U.S. senators questioned HHS Secretary RFK Jr. at a Senate hearing yesterday, and Kennedy's performance was masterful.  

Democratic senators tried to discredit  Kennedy, asking a barrage of zinger questions that Senate staffers had prepared in advance. Unfortunately for Kennedy's inquisitors, the questions were so convoluted that the Senators had to read them, which made their indignant tone seem feigned and insincere.

At times, I felt like I was watching a Jason Statham movie. Kennedy punched, kicked, pirouetted, and bobbed like an action hero set upon by a gang of street thugs.

Kennedy told Senator Maggie Hassan that she was "just making stuff up," and he dismissed Senator Ben Ray Lujan's rambling questions as "gibberish." And he defanged Senator Warren's nasty questions by reminding her she had taken $855,000 from pharmaceutical companies. Warren was so taken aback that all she could do was shriek.

It would be hard to say which Senator was most humiliated at the hearing. My vote goes to Senator Lujan of New Mexico, who was clearly outmatched intellectually by Trump's Health Secretary. Luhan ended his questioning by saying he wouldn't give Kennedy a lapel pin because the Secretary didn't deserve it. Luhan's statement was so bizarre that Kennedy, a masterful public speaker, was briefly speechless.

Public health policy is a complicated topic, particularly as it pertains to the COVID-19 vaccinations. It's easy to get bogged down in obscure and esoteric discussions about what "the science" says. 

Kennedy's detractors sought to frame him as an irrational madman, whose administration of the Department of Health and Human Services would kill hundreds of thousands of Americans. But their attacks fell flat.

Kennedy's responses to hostile interrogation were so clear and succinct that most objective observers will conclude he is a knowledgeable and civic-minded public servant dedicated to making Americans healthier. As he has said repeatedly, the United States is the sickest nation in the developed world. No one disagrees with him.

If the Democratic Senators hoped to discredit Kennedy at yesterday's hearings, they failed miserably. Indeed, his "up yours" performance before a band of buffoons endeared him to the American people.  The Dems brought a knife to a gunfight, and RFK Jr. blew them away.

* * *

Note: I found the brilliant image of Kennedy in an adapted Norman Rockwell painting on X. I don't know who to credit, but it is an inspired artistic expression.

What if the Russians Don't Want to End the Ukraine War?

 Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig just loves it. 

 Attributed to George Bernard Shaw

 When Donald Trump was campaigning for president, he promised to end the Ukraine war within two weeks after taking office. I thought he could do it.

After all, the battle front had stabilized with Russia holding Crimea, the Donbas, and other portions of eastern Ukraine--about 12 percent of the country. If Ukraine made modest territorial concessions, surely the Russians would make peace.

Trump gave it the old college try--drawing on all his considerable negotiating skills. He leaned on Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, urging him to make territorial concessions. And he leaned on Russian President Putin,  alternating between flattery and veiled threats. The President even arranged a one-on-one meeting with Putin in Anchorage, Alaska. 

Pundits and commentators assured Americans that the Russians are paying a heavy price for their invasion--a million casualties, growing unrest in the civilian population, and an economy nearing collapse. Surely, Putin was ready to throw in the towel and stop fighting. 

Yet the carnage continues. 

Perhaps the Russians don't want the war to end. Maybe Putin is content to grind down the Ukrainian national identity, no matter how long it takes.

This is the view of an essayist on Zero Hedge, who goes by the name of Armchair Warlord (AW). AW posits this theory: "[M[aybe the killing itself is the point of all this."

AW argues that the Russians are fully capable of capturing large swaths of Ukrainian territory, but have not done so. Instead, [t]he Russians have . . . consistently forgone breaking the front and taking swaths of ground in favor of killing the largest possible number of Ukrainian soldiers on the existing front under the existing attritional combat dynamic."

AW maintains that the Ukrainian army has sustained massive casualties--1.7 million dead, wounded, captured, or missing. This number is far higher than the figures given by the mainstream, pro-Ukrainian news media.

So what is Putin's long-term objective? According to AW:

Putin wants to make Zelensky put on a suit, come groveling to the Kremlin, and sign a treaty that will see the Maidanite government surrender its arms, disgorge massive amounts of territory, and reverse every single anti-Russian policy position it ever had.

Is AW's assessment correct? I don't know. Nevertheless, the mainstream Western media has not reported accurately about what's going on in Ukraine. Contrary to what Americans have been told, the Russian economy is not nearing collapse. In fact, its GNP has grown since the war began, and the Russian ruble has gained in value against the U.S. dollar.

And Ukrainian casualties are surely higher than the Ukrainians are reporting. And let's not forget the millions of Ukrainians who are refugees from the war. 

America's progressive politicians--the Democrats--support continued American involvement in the largest military conflict since World War II. Unlike President Trump, they're not thinking about ways to stop the fighting or the consequences for our country or for Europe if the war drags on for several more years. 

It's time for our political leaders to confront reality, and these are the facts. Either the U.S. and NATO will have to make a long-term investment in propping up Ukraine, or they will be forced to accept the fact that Ukraine is slipping back into the Russian orbit. 

And this much is certain. Russia wants more than Crimea and the Donbas to stop the killing--and that is a chilling realization.

Image credit: Mauricio Lima for The New York Times

 

The Texas Congressional Redistricting Battle: Rep. Jasmine Crockett Ain't Goin' Nowhere

 Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett is the Democratic politician whom Texas Republicans love to hate. Who can blame them? 

Crockett called President Trump "a piece of shit" and a "wannabe Hitler." She compared Republicans to neo-Nazis and accused the U.S. Supreme Court of bribery.

Crockett's public speeches occasionally skirt the edge of racism. Indeed, Texas Republic Governor Greg Abbott believes she's crossed that line, recently observing, “It would not be a day that ends in the letter Y if Jasmine Crockett didn’t say something racist.” 

Crockett represents the Texas 30th congressional district, where she is wildly popular. District 30 encompasses the South Dallas metropolitan area, where Crockett garnered 85 percent of the vote in the 2024 election.

The Republican-dominated Texas Legislature recently revised the state's  Congressional district boundaries. One might think they would redraw Crockett's district so that she would lose the next election.

But that's not what the Texas Legislature did. District 30's boundaries were adjusted so Crockett's residence is outside the district, but the district is still overwhelmingly Democratic.

 And Crockett is not legally obligated to live inside District 30. She can reside anywhere in Texas and represent her loyal Dallas constituents in Congress. 

So what's going on? As the Texas Tribune explained:  

Republicans have proposed to pack more Democratic voters into districts in the state’s blue urban centers, giving Democrats even bigger margins in districts they already control, such as those represented by Crockett . . . 

In other words, Texas Republicans' scheme to create more Republican-leaning congressional districts may make Representative Jasmine Crockett unbeatable in her congressional district.

Potty-mouthed Crockett is in her forties and serving her second term in Congress. If Republicans think she is insufferable now, what do they think she'll be like when she is in her fifties and in her tenth term?

 

Labor Day at Lake Mary: Serenity in the Midst of Climate Change and the Trump Derangement Syndrome

 My home sits on the banks of Lake Mary in southwestern Mississippi. Shaped like a ten-mile bratwurst sausage, Lake Mary is an oxbow lake formed when the Mississippi River changed course long ago--in the eighteenth century, I've been told.

Unlike my region's recreational lakes and waterways, Lake Mary is undeveloped. Even on Labor Day, when other watery playgrounds are packed with boaters, skiers, and jet ski enthusiasts, Lake Mary is virtually deserted. I saw only three boats pass by all day.

Lake Mary is only 90 minutes from Baton Rouge, a leisurely weekend drive. Why aren't there more lakefront homes here?

Climate change is the primary reason Lake Mary has been passed by, leaving it a Southern Living Brigadoon. In the mid-twentieth century, Lake Mary and nearby Lake Foster were a famous duck hunting paradise, and hunters came from near and far to hunt ducks and geese. A few lodging houses near the lakes catered to these seasonal visitors, but now they are largely devoid of guests.

What happened? Global warming changed the fly routes of migratory birds. Now, ducks are more likely to spend the winter farther north--in Oklahoma or Arkansas. 

Thirty years ago, Lake Mary was a reliable fishing spot where anglers could catch largemouth bass. No longer. Now the lake is stocked with Asian carp, an invasive species that swam into the lake from the Mississippi River. Wildlife officials along the Mississippi drainage system are fighting to keep the carp from extending their range, but Lake Mary lost that battle long ago, and the Asian carp have taken over.

 Alligator gar, a needle-nosed prehistoric-looking species, has also muscled its way into the lake, and together the carp and gar have pushed out the sport fish. Both species are edible, but few people want to eat them.

Another sign that the ecosystem is changing: alligators are moving north, and my family occasionally spots a gator sunning on the lake bank. Swimming in Lake Mary has become less inviting.

Feral hogs have also grown in numbers in southern Mississippi, and climate change may explain this expansion. These beasts roam the woods in large sounders--20 pigs or more-- and compete with the deer for forage.

Given all these disadvantages, why would I want to live on Lake Mary? Several reasons. First, I cherish the serenity and the solitude. 

My neighbors occasionally pass by my homestead on the gravel road that borders my property-- people in 4-wheel drive pickups or all-terrain vehicles. But there are no traffic jams or road rage, no carjackings.

I also love my Mississippi home for the abundant bird life: snowy egrets, great egrets, white ibises, blue herons, tricolored herons, kingfishers, and the occasional stork and bald eagle. Late in life, I've become a hack birdwatcher.

Even so, living on Lake Mary has a significant drawback. My property floods yearly when spring rains flow down from the upper Mississippi Valley, depositing as much as eight feet of water under my house.

Climate change? Many of my neighbors think so. According to the oldtimers, the Mississippi River hardly ever flooded this region until 30 years ago. People speculate that extreme weather events have caused more torrential rainstorms and that the excessive water has triggered soil erosion, silting up the Mississippi River and its tributaries.

No matter. My home sits on steel piers 15 feet above ground level. It would take a flood of biblical proportions to threaten my habitation.

So, as Waylon Jennings put it, "Let the world call me a fool." I'm content to live out my days in a backwater of southern Mississippi, where the sunsets are gorgeous and no one suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome.

The Texas Redistricting Battle: Representative Al Green's Congressional District is Going Republican

 The Texas Legislature, dominated by Republicans, recently redrew congressional district boundaries to disadvantage Democrats in the next election. This political maneuver, called gerrymandering, is as old as the Republic.

For example, Al Green, a Democratic congressman and a perpetual burr under the Republican saddle, represents Texas Congressional District 9, a historically safe district for Democrats. No doubt, Green felt confident enough about his congressional seat to disrupt President Trump's address to Congress last spring. His Democratic constituents undoubtedly loved his buffoonish behavior. That's our boy!

Then things changed. The Texas legislature drastically altered District 9 to encompass voting precincts that are reliably Republican. The district's stalwart Democratic neighborhoods were shoved into District 18, and Green's congressional sinecure was wiped out. He will lose if he runs for reelection next year in District 9. 

Indeed, unless the Republicans' gerrymandering maneuver is overturned by the courts, Texas will probably send five additional Republicans to Congress after the next federal election. No wonder that Democratic Texas legislators fled the state in August to stall a vote on the Republicans' redistricting scheme. 

Of course, the Democrats didn't take the Republicans' gerrymandering scheme lying down. California Governor Gavin Newsom, self-appointed leader of the increasingly deranged Democratic Party, signed gerrymandering legislation countermanding the Texas action by gerrymandering the Golden State's congressional districts to favor the Democrats. 

Now, gerrymandering battles between Republicans and Democrats have broken out in other states. It seems likely that all this political turmoil will have to be sorted out by the U.S. Supreme Court.

No one can predict the outcome of the gerrymandering war. Nevertheless, Americans are waking up to the fact that congressional districts have been gerrymandered nationwide and that most of it has benefited Democrats. 

New England's six states have no Republican-held congressional seats, even though the region has many Republican voters. Illinois is the poster child for corrupt Democratic gerrymandering. No wonder that 33 conservatively leaning counties want to join with Indiana to escape the state's oppressively corrupt, Democrat-dominated political system.

All this sturm and drang over congressional redistricting highlights the fact that numerous congressional representatives are lunatics who behave childishly and irresponsibly because they are in safe districts where their constituents prefer to be entertained rather than governed. 

Congressman Al Green's fans need not mourn the loss of their wingnut representative. Although he is being pushed out of District 9, he will probably run again in District 18, where many of his supporters were placed due to redistricting. If Green runs in District 18 in 2026, I predict he will win.

Gerrymandering for me but not for thee.

All School Shooters are Deranged Males, Including Robin Westman

 Robin Westman, a 23-year-old male who identified as transgender, killed two children at Assumption  Catholic School in Minneapolis earlier this week. Armed with an assault rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol, he wounded fifteen other children and three adults while the victims were celebrating Mass. 

With his mother's support, Robert Westman changed his name to Robin when he was 17 and declared he identified as female. Later, he regretted that decision.

The New York Times deferentially referred to Westman as "Ms. Westman," and darkly observed that "some conservative activists [had] seized on the shooter's gender identity to broadly portray transgender people as violent or mentally ill . . ."

Two observations about the Times's characterization of Robin Westman. First, all American school shooters are young men. There is not a single school shooting perpetrated by a female. 

Second, all schoolground assassins suffer from severe mental illness and a psychopathic disregard for human life--including their own lives. 

Westman's writings suggest he was antisemitic and anti-Catholic, but basically, he was just nuts. For the legacy media to insinuate that his transgender ideation had nothing to do with his homicidal rage is disingenuous. 

How would I feel if I were a 23-year-old man who'd changed my sexual identity as a teenager and realized I'd made a mistake? The prom I missed, the girl in my algebra class I didn't date, the varsity track team I didn't try out for.

I would be furious at anyone who encouraged me to identify as a woman and at the school that tolerated this charade. Indeed, I might be angry enough to start shooting people--although not so angry that I would shoot a child.

The Big Crack Ditches the Cracker and His Barrel. Will Little Debbie Be Next?

 Cracker Barrel, the rustic-themed restaurant chain, is known for its traditional food menu and nostalgic, rural Americana decor. Some of my relatives dine regularly at a Cracker Barrel, which they affectionately call "The Big Crack."

For good or ill, the Big Crack is getting a facelift. Under the direction of the chain's chief marketing officer, Sarah Moore, Cracker Barrel is modernizing its dining rooms by removing antique farm tools and assorted bric-a-brac hanging on the walls.

Unfortunately, Moore outraged some of the chain's patrons when it removed the iconic country bumpkin from its logo. Critics compared the move to Bud Light's disastrous marketing decision to hire a trans influencer to sell its beer.

I'm okay with these changes. I never liked Cracker Barrel's uber country theme. All the antique geegaws hanging from the walls always made me feel like I was dining in my grandfather's barn. 

The new minimalist-style decor works just fine for me. The Cracker Barrel's updated look is more like America's authentic small-town cafes, where the focus is on the food and not the ambiance.

And I'm also okay with the new logo. I never swore allegiance to the image of an old dude wearing overalls. My grandfather wore overalls, which weren't always clean. Believe me, you wouldn't want to eat anything he cooked.

So, Godspeed to Cracker Barrel and CME Sarah Moore. But let's not take the modernizing trend too far. We've already lost the Cracker Barrel dude, Uncle Ben, and Aunt Jemima. I'll go to the barricades to save Little Debbie.