Tax Day + Earth Day = Tearthax Day

It’s all about transparency and accountability.

For the first time in more than two generations, the United States is governed by a President whose financial life remains stubbornly shrouded in secrecy.

His environmental policy harkens back to the rapacious avarice of the so-called “robber barons” of the 19th century.

And a significant number of Americans seem to be okay with that.

Or at least they will be until their own finances are in ruins and almost everything they eat, drink or breathe is toxic.

Of course, in the end, the irony is that the ultra-wealthy will end up trapped by their own heedless avarice, imprisoned in a tightly circumscribed bubble that becomes their permanent and eternal habitat.

Of course, eventually the walls are breached, their sole comfort being that they will be the last to go. There will be none left to mourn or bury or remember them.

But they will have lasted the longest.

Well, THAT was certainly depressing! Time for some comic relief, I think!

Okaaayy, let’s try again shall we?…

Many thank yous to all who take time out their own days and nights to visit this humble blog! Please share, like comment or whatever using the assorted widgets below!

Do you know for the longest time I thought a “widget” was what happened when Gidget got mixed up in Necromancy!…

Shows you how much I know!…

Annnnnnd I’m out!

Your Humble Blogger

Your assurance of quality… pretty much…

Several Reasons Don Rickles Will Be Missed

As I write these words, beloved insult comedian Don Rickles has been dead for about 72 hours.

His ability to reduce audiences to near helpless laughter was practically the stuff of legend. What follows are just a few of the jokes he made in the presence of – and at the expense of – the revered and the famous:

Bob Hope

“There’s no booing! There’s no booing! If there’s another outburst we’re going to let Bob Hope get up and do his jokes.”

Bob Hope, as you all know, he’s in the back standing there with three soldiers and an American flag saying ‘find another war.'”.

“We kid, we kid about great stars such as you, Bob. Why? Because you’re old and washed up.”

Sammy Davis Jr.

“I wish you wouldn’t touch me, Sammy. You people rust.”

“Sammy, you’re a black man. I took a guess. If you ain’t black you fell into a bucket of M&Ms.”

“All peoples are alike. You live in my neighborhood, I’ll live in yours, right Sam? Are you crazy?”

Dean Martin

“Dean, thank you for the wonderful introduction. You would love the evening if you knew you were here.”

“Dean’s laughing. And why not, Dean? There’s a contract out for you.”

Lucille Ball

“My wife said to me last night as we laid in bed, she said, ‘Is Lucy young?’ and I said, ‘Baby, young is not the point. It’s what’s in your heart.’ Right, Lucy? Lucy? Put her in a home! Look at this, the husband went, ‘Yeah!'”

Orson Welles

“Orson Welles, ladies and gentlemen, has been a great star for so many years. This man was married to a great many women in his life. They’re all flat now.”

Howard Stern

“The man works in a closet, for Christ’s sake.”

“Howard, you look like a Jew Zulu.”

Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro

“Marty, you are the most annoying director I ever had in my life. DeNiro is sitting there–God bless you, Bob, he’s got the beard on. To know him is a treat, he’s one of the great actors of our time. You ask him! You ask him, he’ll tell you.”

Frank Sinatra

“Stand up, Frank, be yourself and hit somebody. And all the guys with him went ‘Is that funny, Frank?'”

“Everybody around couldn’t believe I had the macaroons to say this to him. And I did, and when I came home my cousin was on a hook in the living room.”

“You’re 64 years old, Frank, I’m a friend, I’ve been listening to all the people. You look it, Frank.”

(All I can possibly add to any of the above remarks is that I don’t think I would envy St. Peter right about now… Or even the Devil, for that matter!)

If you missed the cartoons, please don’t worry, I hope to have some more to share next week!

Annnnnd, I’m out.

Your Humble Blogger

Operators are standing by…

Is Donald Trump Mentally Stable?

If you have concerns in this area, I highly recommend you follow the link below!

Rational Opinions Blog

If you have watched Trump’s actions and reactions during his campaign and after, you probably understand why so many observers think something is mentally wrong with him. Apparently, many psychologists agree. Enough so that three psychologists wrote the President and Vice President a letter expressing their grave concern regarding the mental stability of President-Elect Donald Trump. They believe Trump to have Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

According to the APA (American Psychiatric Association), there are 9 criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder. If an individual has 5 out of the 9 they have a confirmed diagnosis of this illness. Many individuals have “traits” of narcissism but only about 1% of the population has clinical NPD.

Traits of NPD:

1. Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
2. Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal…

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“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.”

— John Winston Lennon (1944 – 1979), Beatle

RSDS: The Argument Never Ends!

Sometimes I don’t even have to LOOK for the political angle; it just comes to me…  And sometimes, as a curator and editor of this humble blog, I have to make some difficult choices…

And sometimes, I am reminded of George Carlin‘s famous advice: “Don’t sweat the petty things and don’t pet the sweaty things.“

Welcome and read on…

And then there’s this…

And this…

And ultimately…

And now, an editorial mea culpa:

It was I, gentle reader, who placed those two asterisks into that last panel above!

I was really conflicted about it…

I absolutely respect the integrity of an artist like Rick Stevens, but at the same time, as an ancient American broadcaster, I am haunted by the spectre of George Carlin‘s famous “Seven Dirty Words.”

Since I cannot ever be completely certain that my audience is absolutely nothing but 100 percent adult readers, I ultimately decided to make this one edit. Please believe me when I say that I do not embrace censorship casually.

Mr. Stevens has always been most generous with his artful talent, I hope and pray he doesn’t consider this minor editorial decision has gone a step  too far.

You are welcome to comment and/or share and/or re-post below!

Thanks for visiting! I hope to see you back here soon!

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.

Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.

If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.”

 

― Lao Tzu, Chinese Philosopher, circa 300 BC

Some Thoughts on Labor Day

Slightly more than two years ago, the following blog post first appeared on this web site. I recently returned to it to tweak things a little and the result is available to you if you will please click on the following link:

https://jaypochapin.wordpress.com/2014/08/24/labor-day/

Personally, I hope to get some rest over the upcoming holiday weekend, so it may be a couple of days before any newer posts show up here.

Thanks for your patience, thanks for your visits to this blog, thanks to the talented artists who give permission for the fruits of their own labor to appear on these pages and thanks for taking time to consider all of us who toil for a better life for all.

See you next week!

Tom Tomorrow Weighs Back In!

Well, gee willikers, boys and girls!  It seems like almost forever since we last saw anything of Tom Tomorrow on this blog!

Or at least a month, anyway!..

In any event, we’re overdue to catch up with him, so let’s take a look, shall we?

Here’s an interesting piece of trivia: did you know that among the world’s various democracies, the U-S has the lowest rate of voter turnout of all?

That’s pretty ironic when you consider that the U-S was the first major democratic republic since the days of ancient Greece or the Roman Republic more than 20 centuries ago.

So here’s the deal:

• Are YOU registered to vote?

• Do you know how to get to your local polling place?

• Do you care about what happens to the leading advocates of Freedom and Liberty less than 100 days from now?

  Well?…

• If you’re not registered to vote, please register!

• If you’re registered to vote, please be sure to save the date (Tuesday, November 8, 2016)!

• And PLEASE make it a personal PRIORITY to cast your ballot on Election Day!

• Also please remember, there’s more than just the White House in play this season; there’s a significant number of U-S Senators and ALL seats in the U-S House of Representatives up for grabs as well!

This is TRULY IMPORTANT and no matter what you may hear from any candidate to the contrary, your vote counts and your vote will be counted fairly.

So, PLEASE take advantage of this all-too-rare priviledge in this world of ours and VOTE!

(Man, this soapbox stuff sure gets to be exhausting, sometimes!  But then I remember what David Letterman used to say with his most earnest gaze into the camera, “We’re tired, but it’s a good kind of tired!”)

Thanks for visiting and please return soon!

I gotta sit down…

The Latest from “DS”

As in “Diesel Sweeties“, Rick Stevens‘ digital web comic which is swiftly coming to be a regular feature on this humble blog…

Okay, that’s one point settled anyway…

I’m so pleased to have his permission to spread the exposure to his talented point of view!

BTW, I have been known to advise some of my youngest friends, “Try not to age if you can ever possibly help it.”

I’m not promoting any kind of suicidal act, I’m just explaining to them that, as we trundle down the timeline, time WILL take its toll. You can keep trim and fit, which is all to the good, watch your diet, keep hydrated and on and on and on, but inevitably the aging process wins out in the end.

So get used to the idea, kids!… Because this is what WILL happen even if you take the most obsessive care of yourself.

Love ya! Please come back soon! Bye for now…

          “Mr. Putin played upon Mr. Trump’s vulnerabilities by complimenting him. He responded just as Mr. Putin calculated…

          In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.”

    — Michael Morell, former CIA Director (1958 —     )