Last Outpost

This is not a blog I wanted to write. This will be easier than explaining the same thing each time anyone wants to know where I've been the last year or two.  Unfortunately, I have been dealing with chronic pain issues since June 2023. It started with pain in my right palm that came out of nowhere. I went to the doctor who said he didn't see anything on x-ray - probably just some kind of inflammation, so he gave me a cortisone shot and told me to take it easy. Not long after that I started getting occasional light pain in my left thumb. After some months, I went to a sports doctor who took fresh x-rays and said I have basal (CMC joint) arthritis in my right thumb. This was devastating. She didn't know what was going on in my left thumb (x-ray showed nothing). I'll try to skip some of the boring details, but the pain and dysfunction in both my hands has only increased the last 20 months. I now get similar pain on both hands that moves around between the center of each pa...

My Dad has been on a genealogy kick the last few years, trying his best to trace his family tree back as far as possible. He has a particular interest in whether we are (likely) related in some way to our nation's 11th president, James K. Polk. This question admittedly holds great interest for me, although I think I take a dimmer view of Polk's presidency than my Dad does.  Even his critics admit that Polk was certainly one of the most accomplished presidents. He campaigned on  four large goals : cut tariffs, reestablish an independent U.S. Treasury, secure the Oregon Territory (from the Brits) and acquire the territories of (Alta) California and New Mexico from Mexico. He did all this, along with annexing Texas, in just one term as planned, indelibly and massively changing the United States forever. He promised to be a one term president and kept this promise, working himself to death in the White House. They say the presidency ages the office holder at an advanced rate,...

Given the recent eye-opening decisions from the Supreme Court, especially overturning Roe v. Wade it's hard for most of us to keep quiet. Like many, I feel compelled to write some words about it. I should preface this by stating that A) As a man I'm not sure I have the right to say much about anything on that topic and B) I owe all my liberal leaning friends an apology for abstaining from voting in the 2016 presidential election. I still consider Hilary Clinton to have been a terrible candidate and I'm tired of choosing between the lesser of two evils, and I did vote in every other race that year. However, as has been pointed out it was worth voting for her for no other reason than the Supreme Court nominations which have obviously tipped the scales far far to the right. I can console myself with the excuse that I knew my vote wouldn't matter, as Nevada was solidly in her favor. But still, I was wrong and in the future I will hold my nose and vote for the more progressi...

I took this blog down for a while, but I'm republishing it to own up to my decision not to vote for either candidate in the 2016 presidential election as a protest vote (I still voted in all the other contests). I still believe all my written points (and many others I didn't get to in this blog) were valid, and I still believe Clinton was a terrible candidate both on content and electability/likeability. And there were most likely shenanigans going on in the DNC with regards to anointing her as the chosen candidate over Bernie (we could chat for a long time about how the Democrat party shoots itself in the foot over and over and over again). But regardless, I should have sucked it up and voted for Hilary instead of a protest vote of "none of the above" (which is an option in my state - I would like to make it clear that I did NOT vote for Trump). Would my vote have made any difference in a state where the result of the election was not close in 2016 (with Clinton winn...

We all know the mantra, because it’s true:  baseball isn’t America’s favorite pastime anymore, that title belongs to (American) football.  Based on the way it’s portrayed in our media and supported with larger and larger chunks of our collective incomes you could be forgiven for mistaking it for a national religion. But I’m having a harder time than ever justifying support of this sport.  Between the insatiable greed present at its uppermost levels and an undercurrent of violence leading to an epidemic of brain injuries that has largely been swept under the rug, is supporting this sport moral? Full disclosure:  it may be easier for me to write pessimistically about football, as my favorite teams are hard to root for.  My Houston Texans are mired in perpetual mediocrity thanks to a mixture of poor draft choices and bad luck (my hometown Colts aren’t any better).  On the rare occasions I see them on TV it’s usually a massive disappointment.  As for m...