The National Football League needs to end the matter of actually tackling players to end a play.  Too many people are getting hurt, and we cannot have that every Sunday on national television. This past weekend, two faulty  “roughing the passer” penalties were called during NFL games . Both significantly impacted the outcome of the  two games. The Atlanta Falcons’ Grady Jarrett drew the ire of an official when he flipped “no-touch” Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the ground following his tackle.   And portly DL Chris Jones of the Kansas City Chiefs actually had the audacity to land on Raiders’ QB Derek Carr with his full weight, again drawing a red flag from an official for unnecessary roughness.
Football is a dangerous sport, even more so at the professional level. That violence and rough stuff is part of the reason tens of millions of Americans watch the NFL   No one wants injuries, but we sure want to see some collisions.   If the NFL starts treating its players, particularly QBs, like Peter Pan, I for one would rather watch some youth flag football on local fields.      WHAT THE HECK !

I really dislike the term “the good old days”, as it implies the thinking of a person solely living in the past and not pursuing new adventures. Having stated my disdain upfront, in the good old days, political candidates encompassed a wide spectrum of thought and belief , whether Republican or Democrat.  Although we voters generally knew from which side of the political spectrum a candidate leaned, we could count on his/her intellectual honesty and character to guide their behavior (and votes) when in office.   Votes on congressional and Senate bills more often than not reflected some degree of party independence.  Rarely did we see straight party line votes.

But quoth the raven, nevermore !  Partisanship today runs at a fever pitch, and seldom do we see a House or Senate member stray too far from the party line, out of fear of losing coveted committee positions, or heaven forbid, a party-led primary challenge during his/her next election cycle.

I raise this chronological distinction as the result of a question I have for my Pennsylvania friends.   What possible reason, even for a Proglibocrat,  would you have to send John Fetterman to the U.S. Senate ?   Here’s a man who lived in Mommy’s house until age 49, has never had a real job, was given his house for a $1 payment to a sibling.   Oh, let’s not forget that, sadly, he suffered a stroke in May that has severely hindered  his cognitive abilities.   How silly of me to ask the question, because the answer is quite simple; the actual candidates do not matter any more.  My golden retriever could win in Pennsylvania if running as a Proglibocrat,  because his supporters know that he will vote 100% in a way he is told by the party leadership.   So why do candidates  waste time and resources debating, giving speeches, raising money, producing TV ads ?   Beats me !     The people running don’t matter    WHAT THE HECK !

It is difficult to wade through the assorted court and agency challenges to President Biden’s executive order to rescind somewhere between $600 billion and $1 trillion of student debt owed by households with annual incomes not in excess  of $250,000.    Each borrower can have up to $20,000 of student debt cancelled.   And if you’re lucky enough to be an employee of federal,state,tribal (?) or local governments, you could be eligible to have all your debt forgiven.

Beyond the obvious pandering for youthful votes in next month’s elections, I have three bones to pick with this blatantly bad allocation of taxpayer funds.    First, is it wise to add another trillion dollars to our national debt which now exceeds $31 trillion ?  Why not say the Proglibocrats , we’ll be dead before these IOUs come back to haunt our kids.   Secondly, under the guise that these poor borrowers were somehow misled or cajoled into borrowing big bucks to pay for their degrees in 18th century Asian pottery or in systemic racism, for which there are no obvious avenues for employment that might support repayment of that debt (sorry for the long sentence), why then are we as a society continuing to make these stupid loans.  The best analogy would be to forgive a bunch of mortgage debt while continuing to lend to people with no jobs.

Lastly, and most importantly, I was blessed with the economic ability to squirm through higher education while incurring zero debt, and stay gainfully employed for many years.  Many in our society are not so fortunate, either for economic reasons or because academically, they could not cut it.    This very large group works very diligently to find careers that support their families without dependence on the largesse of the federal government.   And therein lies the rub. These folks, who the politicains like to call the middle class, or the working class, are being forced to pay, through their tax dollars, for the stupidity of students and their parents who insisted on that B.S. from Southeastern Birdsboro Tech University.   Another group, including my lovely bride, has  faithfully paid off, or is in the process of faithfully paying off the student debt they incurred in past years.  They are also pretty ticked off, and  with good reason.     Robin Hood has returned in the form of Joe Biden, but he misread the book’s intentions.    WHAT THE HECK !