Snarky Tom's Rants, Raves and Ruminations

The clock is ticking down to the Iowa Caucus. Not sure why anyone should give a spit about Iowa's choice for President. I probably have next to nothing in common with those folks. However, the cast of characters that are vying for the Democratic ticket nomination has dwindled (slightly) from 428 candidates to the still less than manageable 12. There were as many as 17 maybe 20. I don't remember. However, the following have dropped out: Steve Bullock. I know! Who??? Kamala Harris. She shot herself in the foot in the debates. She came off like a racist asshat, and she's black. I would have expected something better from her. And she kept picking on Papa Joe. Julian Castro. Not yet his time, but I don't count him out for a future election. Marianne Williamson. Someone who shouldn't be listening to those mystical voices in her head telling her to spend all that book revenue on a presidential campaign. Cory Booker. I think, he, too, has potential. Down the road....

Unless you've been in a coma or living under a rock, on January 8th, 2002, 176 innocent people lost their lives to ineptitude that can't be blamed totally on anyone person or faction. Questions that have been (maybe) asked but left unanswered. Knowing the current atmosphere between Iran and the USA, why was this plane allowed to take-off? Shouldn't all flights have been grounded until the tension subsided. After 9/11, no planes were in the air until 5 days later. Knowing the current atmosphere between Iran and the USA, why didn't the military attempt to make contact with would-be missile? A missile would not have replied back. If you contacted and received no reply, then bomb it into oblivion.  As this flight took-off from Tehran and I'm sure a flight plan was filed and flight path had been established, why wouldn't the military know what might be already or soon to be in Iranian airspace? Do they lack communication? Who is to blame? That list is a s...

Hi-ho! It's been over a year since I last posted anything. I've been busy!! However, I have a desire to make an observation and give an opinion concerning the Impeachment of the President. There are a lot of memes out there these days. I wanted to give a shout-out to this young lady. I remember reading a tweet from Trump taking potshots at her. A 70 year-old rich white man picking on a 16 year-old Swedish student. How mature and responsible??? Let's frame up my mindset, I never liked the man. Ever. Long before he was a reality show icon and now the rich guy who basically bought and/or stole an election and has disgraced the office, I saw the man in commercials hawking burgers and other TV stuff. I think he always wanted to be famous for TV or movies or something. I read about his terrible business management skills. I concluded he was not concentrating on being a giant in industry. He's consistently half-assed and failed at the majority of his businesses. I just ...

Today, I decided to tackle a real problem...getting people to pull that stick out of their butts. Global warming or climate change, whatever you want to call it, is as real as Donald Trump is President. Yes, both situations are very frightening. However, we can only eliminate the one. Don't re-elect him. But for the other, no dice. That puppy is here to stay and it's going to grow up to be like Beethoven. Not the long dead classical musician, but the giant St. Bernard doggy from those cheesy movies. So, does that mean we should not give a spit. Mmmm...well, I, for one, have bigger fish to fry. I have to concern myself with living and surviving day-to-day life. Here's my belief. Part of it is borrowed/appropriated without permission from far more intelligent scientists than I and part is what I recall from Junior High School Science classes. I was an average student. Let's step into the Twilight Zone. We have a room. Twenty feet by twenty feet by nine feet high. ...

A Pair of Cute Kittens What makes some cats lap cats and others standoffish? I’ve had cats around me most of my life. As a teen, we had a family cat that would sleep at the bottom of my sleeping bag in the family travel-trailer that my parents purchased and parked in the Poconos. I hate the Poconos. All summer long almost every weekend when I wanted to be down the Jersey shore, we were in the Poconos. Of course, we brought the animals, yes, my younger siblings, but also the cat and dog. I mean, if I had to suffer through the family vacations and weekends, they had to too. As with cats, this one was a female, she went into heat one summer day and her constant howling drove my father crazy. So, he let her loose outside. Of course, she came home pregnant. I can tell you the man didn’t understand birth control. After all he sired five children. This cat later that summer gave birth to a litter of six. We gave Mom and five kittens away and kept the male calico. For those who are unfam...

Hate. What is it good for? Absolutely...well, it depends how it's placed. There's so much talk about hate and not hating. But let me clue you in. For some of us, hate is our motivator. Our raison d'être . Don't try to fill me with that tolerance shite. Not everyone is TOLERANT. Not EVERYONE is meant to BE TOLERANT. Some of us THRIVE on INTOLERANCE. I'M NOT TOLERANT. I used to be. But no longer. I'm getting too old for this shite. Prime example. I hate privileged white people. Specifically, whiny little shite bags born with a silver spoon in hand that expects that because they're white they're entitled. I hate poor people...of all races. Most of them are in their situation because they lacked the skill set to be successful, for many of them, they didn't apply themselves to better themselves so they could have a better situation. To quote Dean Wormer from Faber College (Animal House), "Being fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life,...

May tenth was the first escape from the humdrummery of my life in several years. I was traveling to Central Wisconsin for a celebration. A most happy occasion as a family/friend was celebrating retirement. Not a 100% retirement, but one close enough to say that if he and the Mrs. wanted to dash off to Canada or Outer Mongolia, they could. The flight in, rental car pickup and the drive from Chicago to Central Wisconsin all went flawlessly. I flew on Southwest Airlines. An airline that has yet to treat me like I was cattle. The boarding went well; No hassles from TSA. It was just a picture perfect start of a mini-vacay.  My plane to Chicago The time came to go home Sunday afternoon. The morning breakfast with the family was fantastic. The long car ride was pleasant. I made a few stops along the way. The old bladder is not as robust as it once was. The rental return was pain-free. All seemed to be going well. I had TSA pre-check status… fantastic. UNTIL they scanned my backpack...