Curtain Raiser

Any time there is one of these mass shootings there is at least one thing that smells like three day old fish.  Like most of them, there are the sunken glassy eyes, that, to me at least, suggest some kind of drugging. (Most likely some kind of psychotropic drug)  The reports that this . . . lost boy . . . had African-American friends in high school just reinforces my suspicions that he was more an unwitting dupe than some poster child for this or that.  The real story won’t likely come out.  The media wants us to focus on:  #1. The “gun control” issue.  And #2. The racial divide in this country.  Using #2 to promote and further #1 is shameless and shallow, and is extremely offensive to me, as it should be to all of us.  Unfortunately, racism is as alive today as it was 50 years ago, as it has almost always been.  There HAVE been improvements, but I think things took a huge step backwards with all this “political correctness”.  Banning language, even hurtful language, is like sweeping dirt under the rug.  It doesn’t get rid of the problem, it merely covers it up.  What we need is honest, up-front, open discussion, not new age semantics.  Getting caught up in language and symbolism is a fool’s game, that no one can possibly win.  It’s time this country wake up and face the realities like adults, instead of like little kids, who fear getting their mouth’s washed out with soap.

—   YUR

CollTales

Racism Is a Loaded Gun, Colltalers

The tragedy at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston was a calculated act of terrorism, its timing and victims carefully chosen, and the shooter’s intent crystal clear. And unlike the appearances, he was not alone.
So will this be it? We’ve lost track of how many times we came this close to do something about it, and we don’t mean going back the intervening century and a half that’s supposed to separate our era from the official end of the American Civil War.
We’re talking about less than a decade, for instance, and President Obama’s 2010 inauguration is as good a time to start counting as any. And still, we lost count of how many times racism has shown its raw, brutal face, and we failed to act.
So is time ripe enough now? Or again we’re about to engage in yet…

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Jumble Spoiler – 06/23/15

Visual Description:  Tenderfoot tribulations.

CIMMI  =  MIMIC,  DEAGA  =  ADAGE,  SWOORR  =  SORROW,  TERPYO  =  POETRY   – – –   Giving us:  IMCDAESRRPR

Clue/Question:  When the author went for a horseback ride, he ended up getting – – –

Answer:  “RIDER‘S“ CRAMP

(I can hear the moans all the way up in Rochester!  It is a stinker of a pun!  There were no new clue words today, but two of the jumbles were new.  The ones for “sorrow”  and “poetry” seem to be new.  I thought the answer letter layout was exemplary.  A truly lovely jumble.  The cartoon was very entertaining today.  Any time you put cowboys and critters together you are going to make me smile.  That’s about it, folks.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR 

Cryptoquote Spoiler – 06/23/15

“Nothing was ever so unfamiliar and startling to me as my own thoughts.”   —   Henry David Thoreau

(As peaceful and pleasant as we may like to think we always are . . . we all have some pretty dank and dark thoughts, from time to time.  As long as they’re only passing thoughts – and we don’t act on them – then they are only natural.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR