Tag Archives: Musings

Where Have You Gone, Bill the Cat?

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Editor’s Note: Notice the people you knew who slept through high school civics and changed their university major to forestry to avoid college civics have become experts on the Constitution, the Electoral College and political issues of all sorts? They know things. They’re also allowed to vote and drive and birth humans. Yea, your fear is real.

Vote and Vote Often.

Citizens pressed forward to get a glimpse. The front-runner from Cromwell County mounted a contentious, arduous campaign, and with the polls opening in less than 24 hours, his election as state legislator was all but assured. The Bowie Review & Caller was on the scene.

“Helluva a candidate, I say. One HELLuva a candidate,” said Dexter Bottomfeed, long-time political consultant and full-time backslapper, wingman and good buddy. “Bar none. We’re no longer taking names. Gerald P. McGillicuddy will be the finest legislator from Jackson County who’s ever roamed the statehouse.”

“Cromwell County?” said Bonnie Truthfinder, recent graduate of the Texas State School of Journalism and now political reporter. “You just said Jackson County.”

“Didn’t I say Cromwell?  Dang. After 20 years, these elections start to run together. Jackson County was last year,” he said. “Well, no matter the county, we all need a Gerald P. The finest man and the finest candidate I’ve ever had the pleasure of representing.”

“Pleasure, I’m sure. You’re declaration, I’m not sure. How much is he paying you?

“Balderdash and folderol. The campaign has nothing to do with compensation. It’s about providing effective leadership to the most downtrodden of our citizens, the disaffected middle class and the hardworking wage earners desperately clawing their way back from the abyss of social decay and economic calamity.”

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Clinton, Trump Eye the Florida Prize

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Editor’s Note: The following story by Jeffrey Rembert was posted by FORWARD Florida on its website under Legislative on August 11, 2016.

Late-night comedians have spent the better part of the past decade and a half ribbing the Sunshine State’s electoral mishaps and for good reason.  Even our well-heeled counties have found ways to offer comedic fodder with voters misunderstanding the mechanics of voting and creating embarrassing delays in Election Day vote tabulation.  But comedy aside, based on the numbers and the state’s recent refusal to be labeled electorally either red or blue, Florida is the most important state in the upcoming presidential election.

Of the top seven most populous states, all but two have consistently given their electoral votes to the same party, election after election, since 2000. And of these behemoths of population and electoral votes, Florida and Ohio are the only states to accurately select the past four winners.  California and Texas?  Locks respectively in the Democrat and Republican columns.  New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania?  Though Pennsylvania claims diversity in its voting ranks, all three states have gone Democrat since 2000.

Florida and Ohio remain electoral powerhouses of no certain allegiance but one is more so than the other.  Read more →

Florida Takes Center Stage at GOP Debate

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Editor’s Note: The following story by Jeffrey Rembert was posted by FORWARD Florida on its website as a Blog on September 21, 2015.

Was there anyone left in Florida last Wednesday night? Or, was the state’s entire population at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley for the second Republican primary debate? Ok, so that was an exaggeration. Only the 35% of the state’s voters, those registered as Republicans, attended. More on that soon enough.

With The Walking Dead television marathon unavailable, I devoted my Wednesday evening to the debate. And after more than four hours of watching 15 candidates squabble over issues while a 16th candidate, with an approval rating consisting of his wife and three fishing buddies, watched from his Virginia basement, I can attest little differs between the CNN “reality show” and a zombie apocalypse.

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Dixie: Old Times There Are Best Forgotten

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Editor’s Note:  The following blog also was posted in abbreviated form as “Reader View: Clinging to Dixie?  Society will judge” by the Sante Fe New Mexican on July 20, 2015.

Original Meaning Has Come And Gone

You ask your son before he goes out to wear something other than a T-shirt otherwise people might think he’s a punk. You ask your daughter to put on a skirt with more length otherwise people might think she’s, well, you know. You ask your husband to shave before a dinner party otherwise people might think he’s a slob. You might even ask your wife to … best keep that to yourself.

What’s consistent is concern for how society perceives us and loved ones. We understand society perceives things a certain way and desire to avoid misunderstanding. So you ask yourself and those you care about to avoid giving an impression that’s not accurate as society will think what society wants to think. It might not be fair but historically we bring it upon ourselves.

Some people want to continue to fly the Dixie flag as a symbol of their Southern pride without being perceived as racist. Well, like Gen. William T. Sherman and his “March to the Sea” that army has come and gone. Society will judge you, I and everyone else based on modern-day perceptions, and of all the symbols representative of the Confederacy, Dixie is one symbol that long ago lost its original meaning. Today it stands for segregation.

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Deflategate: “Our Long National Nightmare is Over?”

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Showdown on the Horizon for Brady and Goodell

Tom Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriots, will appeal a four-game suspension for his alleged role in Deflategate at a June 23 hearing presided by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who handed down the suspension. The NFL Players Association had requested Goodell recuse himself from the hearing in favor of a third-party arbitrator, but the request was rejected.

To paraphrase President Gerald Ford, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is ALMOST over.” While Watergate and the threatened impeachment of President Richard Nixon lingered in our political subconsciousness well into the 1980s one might suppose Deflategate has similar ramifications the way football fans, and the news media, have reacted.

Then again life must be pretty good on your side of the planet when Deflategate touches a chord while Baltimore investigates questionable police tactics, Ukraine remains a powder keg reminiscent of the Cold War and Florida endures the traveling circus also referred to as the Legislature. Did I mention I put together a Presidential exploratory committee in anticipation of a run in 2016? Just so you know.

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Mother’s Day Remembrance of One Who Cut a Path

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The following piece originally was posted June 15, 2013, on my first blog “If You Knew the Voices in My Head.”  With the discovery of old photographs (and the nostalgia that accompanies such a discovery) and my youngest daughter a year away from joining my oldest daughter as a college graduate, I thought it time to revisit the piece.

A Car Ride From the Airport and Small Talk

On the way home from the airport my college-age daughter and I discussed the now completed spring semester of her freshman year. It had gone well. She continued to make new friends, took interesting classes, experienced all she could experience in the diverse environment of a well-regarded university. She took a classical course load where her understanding and appreciation of society was stretched as her academic skills were enhanced.

Mom 1950sThe conversation was the small talk of car rides that follow a day of getting to, through and around airports from one end of the country to the other. How was the semester? How were finals? How was the flight? Mind bending stuff. And during our conversation we found ourselves discussing the past spring break when she enjoyed much-desired sun in the backyard while reading two books addressing distinct schools of thought. One book on feminism and one book on cultural conservatism. Truly mind bending.

Politics aside it was encouraging to hear she was exploring various views. And during our car-ride conversation she said she had come to realize just how far women have progressed in the past 100 years. How past generations fought for the right to vote. How past generations fought for equal participation in society. Yet the changes are subtle when viewed as single efforts yet significant when viewed collectively. It’s a shame we today don’t readily discuss these efforts with our young women in any place other than the classroom.

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How NFL and Fantasy Football Can Enhance Education

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A Tool to Improve Math Scores

While reviewing emails from a Nigerian prince, perusing Canadian pharmaceutical options and considering how my morning coffee companion in Florida was mugged one hour later in London, I came across a short piece in the Los Angeles Times. According to the piece, Mark Waller, NFL chief marketing officer, said to The Wall Street Journal, “We’re also trying to work with groups to get the concept of fantasy based into the curriculum of elementary schools. If you love football and you teach them math through football, the chances are you may teach them better math and more quickly.”

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