Sweet Dreams and singing bearsLos Angeles Post-Examiner

Sweet Dreams and singing bears

Another early start to my day has me up at one o’clock in the morning thanks to a strange dream involving Vladimir Putin, Lamar Odom, vampires, and a five-year old flying Chinese boy. I can’t even blame this on anything I ate or drank and I sure as heck do not want to hear from a shrink what it all means. As a result, it seems like a good time to write down some random thoughts.

Nike promotional photo

Nike pulls a shoe with a Betsy Ross designed flag on it because Colin Kaepernick tells them it represents a time in our history where slavery was acceptable. Mitch McConnell is insisting Nike release the shoes, probably so Trump can wear a pair on his tender feet during a military parade about nothing.

The nation is in an uproar over who gets to own our flag; the left, the right, or Nike? Through all this nonsense, did it occur to anyone Nike profits off the use of very cheap overseas labor that stitches those Betsy Ross flags on its shoes just so they can profit off good old American Patriotism?

No one can take a joke anymore. Case in point, Alex Morgan managed to offend all of England when she celebrated her game winning goal in the Women’s World Cup semis by pretending to sip a cup of tea. This from a nation that thinks nothing of soccer fans beating the crap out of one another over a game. I wonder how well they will handle an NFL team where players celebrate touchdowns in the manner we do here?

I see where MAD magazineis coming to an end later this year. While this might sadden some who grew up laughing at their takes on politics and celebrities, it should not come as a surprise. After all, in the 1970s when you were a 12-year-old reading it, did you ever imagine a time in which the world would be so screwed up that not even MAD magazinecould outdo it with their nonsense? Lunacy has become reality.

Coco Gauff after defeating Venus Williams at Wimbledon (YouTube)

The first day of school for Coco Gauff.
“What did you do this summer?”
“I went to England with my family.”
“Oh, how nice. What did you do there?”
“I beat Venus Williams.”

She might be the next big thing in tennis.

A political party that gets more worked up over a damn flag on a shoe than it does over the horrific conditions children must endure in the cages they have them packed in is not what our Founding Fathers considered when declaring our independence. Listening to them justify their actions is infuriating. Reading what supporters say in their defense is mind boggling. It’s a shame we do not need to outsource our stupidity. We won’t have a shortage of it for some time to come.

Walt Disney Studios (Ron Irwin)

Movie Studio Meeting.
“Does anyone have a fresh idea for films that will sell?”
“How about taking a bunch of old Disney cartoon films and remaking them into live action films?”
“Yes. I like it. And if they do well at the box office, we can turn them into Broadway Musicals, TV Series, and video games.”
“And let’s not forget theme park rides, cruises, resorts, and clothing.”
“Absolutely, but we will not put the image of Ariel on a shoe. Some things are sacred.”

Back to England. How is it music artists like The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Clash, and any other band that begins with “The” can lose their accents when they sing, but American country western singers have a twang? That alone makes anyone who sings country music more “rednecker” than me. We may think people from England speak funny, but at least they don’t sound stupid when they sing.

Hillary Duff gets “mom shamed” for piercing her one-year old daughter’s ears. I am guessing many of these “shamers” had no issue with circumcising their sons. I’ll take a prick of the ear over the slicing of my prick any day.

I am all for something like the Ice Bucket Challenge because it helped raise money for a worthy cause and provided many participants with a much-needed shower. I am even in favor of the Tide Pod Challenge because it helps thin out society. However, we need to call an end to the Bottle Cap Challenge. Let’s face it, most of the time, it results in a perfectly good bottle of alcohol or soda being destroyed.

Dodgers starter Hun-Jin Ryu will start for the National League in the MLB All-Star Game (Claudia Gestro)

Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game is almost here. This means one thing: it’s time for football geeks to get their fantasy football team together. This is another head scratching concept that keeps me wondering what has happened to our society. Guys sit around and select players from teams they root against to throw five touchdown passes in a game played against their favorite team while hoping their team still wins. What happened to cheering for Ray Nitchke to rip the head off Joe Kaap?

True story. Yesterday, while working in our local senior center, a woman brought in a singing teddy bear dressed in red, white, and blue. Before the start of the day’s big bingo game, she got up to show it off to everyone and then pushed its button to make it start singing. The bear broke out into “God Bless America” at which time a room full of 70 bingo loving seniors stood up and listened. When the bear finished, they applauded. These same people get into heated arguments over politics all the time, but a singing bear can make them come together as one. You see, these folks learned their history. United we stand, divided we fall. Somehow our leaders have taken the tact of divide and conquer. We have a lot to learn from our seniors.

Top photo is a YouTube screenshot of Alex Morgan celebrating her goal over Great Britain



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James Moore


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