I hereby post this:

And now for something completely different.

Last month my mother decided to take our household to a Minnesota Twins game which happened to be scheduled the same day as a gathering of her own natal household's (now-aged) siblings and family. Since the H. H. Humphrey Metrodome (the Humpty-Dumpty Dome, as we sometimes call it) had sold out the lower deck, we'd acquired more expensive terrace-suite seats, a first for us. We all thought they were great--but that's not my point here.

For once we were using metropolitan mass transit, in this case the new light-rail system whose Hiawatha line runs from downtown Minneapolis to the mega-mall in Bloomington, near our lodgings (and, coincidentally, on the site of the Twins' old stadium). A convenient downpour started just before we had to make it to one of the train stations. Cars were crowded with Chicago Cubs fans. After the game, which the visitors soon lost, we took a hint from a brother who'd done it before and rode a less-crowded train the short distance to where it reversed course back out toward the suburbs.

Well, someone else had evidently had the same idea. The particular someone I refer to was a disappointed, admittedly drunk and obnoxiously loud Cubs fan who happened to be situated right in front of where my mom and I were seated--and to be on the train for the whole distance--holding a little boy, whose head he'd shaved, as he explained, for "luck". At one point he mentioned that his son here was two years old and weighed "only 20 lbs." My mom figured he didn't weigh more because his dad (unintentionally, we presumed) kept him too upset. My brother remarked that the kid would likely grow to become a criminal or otherwise screwed up. (Belonging to an official racial minority no doubt would render this outcome more acceptable in some pop-culture sense.) Meanwhile Daddy showed himself a bigger loser than the Cubs, arguing with other passengers about sports, then other less-advisable topics. More than once he ranted about his plan for the next game, which was to bring a broom, break it, throw it at a certain player, and run onto the field to get arrested. Genghis freaking Khan, what a self-hating jerk!

It may be too late for him, but I hope it's not for his offspring. Ladies and gentlemen, do not be like this pathological parent. He's an example of something we need less of.

This is a belated complaint about one of the Evil Eye's hit forensic shows, which earlier this year ran an episode involving a dead US Marine corporal. When the heroes finally piece together his demise, it turns out he intervened in a crud's smacking his wife/girlfriend around. When the bad guy came at him with a folding knife (at least it wasn't the traditional stiletto beloved of on-screen punks, though this weapon has its champions--and I've even carried one myself), the corporal naturally incapacitated him--upon which the jerk's deluded woman picked up the knife and stabbed the good guy once in the front--after which he immediately & dutifully fell down.

Come on! An untrained female suddenly decides to rescue her violent pal by stabbing a serviceman, proving strong enough to drive in the blade and lucky enough to hit a vital spot--and he's out of it within five seconds! That's hardly enough time for what they'd call fatal exsanguination, or even unconsciousness from shock. Bah! (Full disclosure: I've never knifed anybody and can't speak from experience.)

My criticism may appear strange, and this example probably wasn't timed so well; but I had to get it out before proceeding to the next subject....

Those jerks.

See BS comes out (again) for the globalarmist agenda, putting on a "magazine" story dedicated to the triple canard that human activity is forcing climate change, that such change will be deleterious, and that it could be prevented by international agreements which, not coincidentally, would restrict the United States most of all.

Even my quasi-working-stiff brother had a quick comeback/reaction to this slanted sensationalism: The climatic stability we assume is normal actually came about recently, in geological terms, making agricultural society possible. As I've probably mentioned, climate has naturally fluctuated even in historical times, with real consequences for civilizations over the centuries and millennia.

Regrettably, it seems, my comments here come in response to stuff I want to criticize--like this.

The latest CSI show I saw may have been the most bizarre yet--and that's saying something. I won't go into details, but it didn't even make bad sense to me. And, with five or six "executive producers" listed in the credits, you'd think that someone would realize that the town of Sparks, Nevada, is nowhere near Las Vegas, though it is quite close to Reno--hundreds of miles away!

Now, after I've praised that sci-fi show on the Evil Eye Network, it's disappeared--without a trace, to coin a phrase--or, as my family likes to call a certain program, without a cold case.

Meanwhile my latest complaint about the Crime Scene Investigators is that the stories too often center on rare medical conditions.

New Year already, and I haven't contributed to my own distinguished blog since November!

First a necessary quote from my journal, documenting the purchase I was threatening to make and, in fact, did last month:

The weapon in question is a European American Armory/Tanfoglio “Witness” polymer .45 model, which cost me a total of $343.

OK, here's my next (unrelated) subject. Within the past few days I happened to tune in to National Pub(l)ic Radio, which I seldom hear except for news breaks on Minnesota Public Radio's classical music service. At this point several radio types/guests, whose names I didn't catch, were discussing journalism. One pompous elitist lamented how easy the Internet has made it for the ignorant masses, the uneducated, uninitiated hoi polloi, to weigh in on matters that should obviously be left to their betters in the journalistic class. Those accursed blogs! They encourage mere laypeople to spout off on any subject without the learned wizards of The Craft to interpose their filters between suspect scribes and The Public, who need to be protected from unapproved info.

Maybe I should have listened longer instead of tuning away in disgust. But there you have it: a stereotypical bad attitude from the Main["Lame"]stream Media. Can't be bothered with true freedom of expression, no Precious! I haven't even raised the part about their being unable to see their tilted forest for the tilted trees that they are; since they all lean in more or less the same direction, their slanted view appears, to them, correct.

That "sophisticated professional" ought to debate this blog's owners.