The U. S.  Immigration & Customs and Enforcement Agency yesterday extracted a $2.25 million ransom from Broetje Orchards in eastern Washington state.  This major grower of apples was (gasp)found guilty of utilizing the labor of over 950 individuals not authorized to work in our country.  I know my mind slows with age, but let me get this straight:  1) we have over 12 million people in the U.S. not authorized to work,  2) these folks need to eat, 3) our elected public servants (what an oxymoron) from both ends of the political spectrum refuse to secure our southern border, 4) we now antagonize and hold for ransom major employer of these individuals while most of us hire the same category of workers routinely on our roofs , in our yards, and in our homes.   It’s my daily affirmation of the “L” status on my voting card.   WHAT THE HECK !

No, I didn’t find one of these in the attic.   Note the word “reprint” under Honus Wagner’s name.  But if I had found an original, appraised at PSA MINT 9 (almost perfect), it would be worth well into eight figures.   I did however spend the past few years collecting some of this set of 100 year old baseball cards, originally distributed in cigarette packs from 1909 until 1911.     The closest I got to the famous Honus Wagner card (The Card) were PSA rated 5 versions of Ty Cobb and Cy Young.   My interest was in the history of each of these old timers, and in the beautiful artwork involved in the production of these cards.  Amazingly, the bright colors used have not faded with time, and the cards remain absolutely gorgeous.

I just finished selling my collection of over 70 cards, and unlike many collectibles of the past generation, I actually made a little money on the hobby.  But as they sat in my office, viewed less and less each year, I realized that one of the neat things about aging is the opportunity and desire to try new things, and to engage in new activities.  Thus, the 100 year old baseball card adventure comes to a close, hopefully to be replaced by something new and exciting that I have not yet discovered.      WHAT THE HECK !

The Supreme Court this week began debate whether same sex couples have a constitutional right to marry as they open arguments in  Obergefell v. Hodges.  An unexpected twist, however, occurred early in the discussion over whether the 14th Amendment requires states to issue same sex marriage licenses, a twist that in my mind far overshadows the question of gay marriage. When asked by the Justices whether religious universities that offer married housing  would be required to provide such housing to gay married couples, or risk losing their tax exempt status, U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli ducked the line of questioning several times before admitting that “I don’t deny that it is going to be an issue”.

As I’ve mentioned several times in this blog, I do not care what people do behind closed doors.  It’s none of my business. I’m not the judge.  But please , please , let’s not blatantly mess with biblical law mandating marriage between men and women.   Our society is so afraid to step on anyone’s toes that we let minority opinion holders, and their aggressive lawyers, to dictate serious  changes in our culture.   In this case, it boils down to the rights of gays who want to marry trumping the free speech rights of religious institutions to express and behave in a way consistent with their religious beliefs.  What happens next ?  Assuming the Supreme Court gives the middle finger to the Bible, and makes the oxymoronic gay marriage the law of the land, what happens when a gay couple comes to my church, or thousands of other churches adhering to biblical principles of marriage, wanting to be wed ?   Hmmmm !  Do the churches lose their tax exempt status as they exercise free speech ?                           WHAT THE HECK !

On the checklist of events that signal the erosion of societal freedom,  restricting the ability to move money beyond borders, and controlling speech,  are at the top of the list.   And Americans are just letting it happen.   WHAT THE HECK AGAIN !

.    ……………..but not this woman !

Let the record show that this writer has absolutely no issues with female leadership, whether it be my community association, the police chief, a governor, a senator, or POTUS.    You would have thought folks would have learned with Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 (for those of you in Birdsboro, PA, she ran unsuccessfully for VP), or with the current Emperor of the Land in 2008 and 2012, that hiring a totally unqualified person for a leadership role can backfire big-time.    When we as a falling nation want to break barriers, whether they be color, gender, age, whatever, try and do so  with quality and experience and character.

I used to believe that the American public was pretty savvy about their political picks, usually opting for patriotism and character and their wallets.  I no longer believe that to be true, as the influence of money (on both political parties) and dependence (the prime tool of the Proglibocrats) now dominates the public’s decision making.   Ask yourself what the ramifications might be when 51% of our electorate is on some form of the public dole.

Hillary Clinton has the exact same qualifications to be POTUS as the wife of Brett Favre (Deanna) has to quarterback the Green Bay Packers for the next four years.   Deanna knows the playbook cold from living with her husband’s quarterbacking career, and she knows all the players and coaches.    Hillary has a similar resume, except for the few times she has fumbled the ball when given any serious responsibility (Whitewater, Benghazi).    WHAT THE HECK !

Where can one in the journalistic field enjoy the greatest degree of job security ? Why, Rolling Stone magazine of course.   And not only can one feel safe and comfy about maintaining one’s job,  but can also rely on their employer to cover your reputation from even your most egregious errors.  Wow, sign me up !

The magazine finally retracted its piece regarding an alleged gang rape at one of U.Va’s fraternities when an independent study by the Columbia University School of Journalism found serious flaws in the concoction of the story, and the Charlottesvile, VA police found no substanitive basis to support the  article’s depicted assault.  But instead of a full and honest apology, famed publisher of Rolling Stone, Jann Wenner,  suggested that the piece represented an isolated and unusual episode, and that the writer of the piece, Sabrina Erdely, would continue to write for the magazine.   Mr. Wenner went on to attribute the primary blame on the source of the article (Jackie), whom he called “a really expert fabulist storyteller” who managed to manipulate the magazine’s journalism process.  Oops, forgot to add that Mr. Wenner gave free passes also to the magazine’s managing editor (Will Dana ) and the editor of the article (Sean Woods).    How’s that for job security ?   And how many of us have bosses that would go that far out on a limb for us ?   WHAT THE HECK ! 

To me, the sorriest epilogue to this story comes straight from the horse’s mouth, the writer of the hoax Sabrina Erdely, who in exchange for keeping her job (my conclusion), profusely apologized to Rolling Stone’s readers, her colleagues, and “any victims of sexual assault who may feel fearful as a result of my article”.   How about the other victims whose reputations you have smeared, Ms. Erdely – the University of Virginia and its alumni, its President Teresa Sullivan, the fraternity in question on the grounds of U.Va., and the Greek system in general ?

As the never-ending talks between the good guys (us, Germany, Russia, UK, France) and the bad guys drags on day by day, I have come to the conclusion that this administration, and John Kerry in particular, are really, really bad negotiators.   The eventual cost of this sorry state of affairs to the world as a whole could be catastrophic.   But in trying to maintain good humor, I have two things to say.   First, I’m thankful that I do not have to sit at that table listening to diplomats and staffers and mullahs and henchmen drag on and on about the same old topics for weeks at a time.   Secondly, I need to position myself to be the first buyer in line when John Kerry sells his residence, wherever that may be.  If I keep negotiating long enough, and make increasingly absurd demands, I am likely to get the home for 50 cents on the dollar, with two years of homeowners insurance,  six months use of his maid staff, and maybe even a pool boy,  thrown in for free.

Now he’s done it.   Along with ESPN co-conspirator Colin Cowherd, the Emperor officially throws his hat into the hate Virginia basketball ring.   For those of you living in Birdsboro, U.Va. basketball ended the season with 29 wins and a #3 national ranking, based on a smothering defensive philosophy that some find boring.   In a series of Tuesday tweets, Cowherd suggests that “watchable basketball dies a little each time U.Va. wins”, and that “rooting for U.Va. basketball is rooting for pleated khakis”.  Later he incorporated the President in his rant, echoing Obama’s call for a shortened shot clock to make college basketball look and feel more like the NBA.  I’ll take the wins by a group of players that actually go to class and graduate.                                            WHAT THE HECK !

A more accurate title might ask whether our representative democracy can survive 22 more months of political encroachment by the current President turned Emperor .  Almost every day we wake up to news reports detailing yet another chapter in the Emperor’s rule book entitled, Love Your Opinion As Long As We Do It My Way.   In ancient Rome, malcontents in the Senate were shipped to the Coliseum to pursue their objections with the lions.  Today, the Emperor’s minions throw the whiner, the complainer, the objector, the senator representing his state’s citizens to MSNBC or CNN, who engage in the modern-day version of media crucifixion.   Frankly it scares me !

Just this week, the Emperor bulldozed the long-standing FCC Chairman, Tom Wheeler, into regulating the internet, and putting in place the mechanism to determine access rates just like an electric utility.  And then after donating campaign operatives on the ground in Israel to unseat the standing leader of our ally, he not only fails to congragulate the victor, but proposes dragging our ally to the U.N. Security Council over Palestinian rights.  So an American President wants to undermine our ally, Israel , at the U.N., in favor of our enemy, Iran and its consorts, Hamas and Hezbollah.  Thank those brave Senators who last week bravely stated their override powers on the upcoming wildcat treaty concocted by the Emperor and his sidekick, John Kerry (“I have a plan, a really big plan”) that essentially opens the door for an Iranian bomb(s).  And this morning, darn if he didn’t propose mandatory voting in the USA, stating “Americans who skip the polls on Election Day are younger, lower income, and more likely to be immigrants or minorities.  There’s a reason why some folks try and keep them from the polls.”

Don’t be surprised if you see an Executive order sometime this year raising tax rates on the rich, greedy rich folks, with no input or blessing from the Legislative branch.    Hopefully, Rome will not burn in the next 22 months.        WHAT THE HECK !

After almost a full year of posts on topics ranging from sports to politics to social issues, I’m going to afford myself one annual rant about the fairer sex.  I now know what the term nauseous means, because a I am  feeling a simply horrible unsettled feeling in my gut as I sit upstairs at my desk.  Just had a new refrigerator delivered, replacing our perfectly good one that just happened to be eight years old.   The new specialized one cost three times (not two times) what the most expensive one I could possibly find in the Sunday newspaper ads could have set me back.

As I slinked down the stairs to see what new features our new refrigerator possessed, I was stunned to see what looked like our old refrigerator, which  I thought we sold yesterday on Craig’s List for peanuts, sitting there in the kitchen.  Same silvery color, same doors, same freezer compartment on the bottom, same size.    And when I opened the main compartment doors, it was laid out exactly the same as the old model.   It was as if a blind person bought this model to make it easy to remember where everything was located.

I thought at a minimum that soft drinks would flow from the front of the unit, or that I wouldn’t have to bend down to obtain ice cubes, or that it might spew out free popsicles. But no, it’s deva vu all over again !   What am I missing ?  Do I really want my food colder ?  What am I missing about females ?                           WHAT THE HECK !

I accidentally tuned in to the last ten laps of the Daytona 500 today, and I just don’t get it. Twenty two cars finished within twelve seconds of the eventual winner, and some dude named Allmendinger (apologies to his parents, but gee, change your name) finished in twentieth position, one spot ahead of the token female driver, Danica Patrick.  And before anyone challenges me for that sexist comment, remember that the last time she sniffed the winner’s circle was in a go-kart race at age ten against her brothers at the county fair.

Purists will say that twenty  cars within twelve seconds of the winner underscores the keen competitive level in the sport. I say it looks like a traffic jam of brightly colored vehicles driven by guys unable to make the big time.   Give me Formula 1 anyday.   Oops, gotta go and hear the winner tell a national audience how his # 22 Krispy Kreme, Firestone, Luv’s Adult Diapers, Fruit Loops,  Scientology fired Chevy ran hard on all its cylinders today, and to thank all the rednecks who managed to change his tires so efficiently.                              WHAT THE HECK !