Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

I’m finally watching Breaking Bad, which I resisted for a long time even after acquiring Netflix and being introduced to the concept of binge watching, which I took to as a duck to water, as the saying goes, because I really do have an easily addicted personality. I guess part of the reason I was so resistant is because so many people raved about it, which is kind of twisted logic, but there’s another flaw in my personality.
Most people either like a show or they don’t. I’m the kind of person who is either ‘for’ or ‘against.’ Same with art, music, and literature.
But, I came to it through the back door (after watching Better Call Saul) and, I must admit, it’s a pretty good show. Not as good as Better Call Saul, actually, but still compelling viewing.
The reason I liked Better Call Saul better is that there’s a bit more comic relief, and a few more likable characters who’ve never killed anybody. Jimmie, of course. Kim. Francesca. The lady who owns the nail salon. Ernesto from the mail room. The UNM film students.
Breaking Bad doesn’t have that. Walter White is kind of a loser, a wimpy science teacher who nobody respects (maybe I identify with him a bit too much), and he really is a dick to Jesse Pinkman, and that is the root cause of a lot of their problems. Jesse really is a moron, though. But the characters I particularly dislike are Skyler and her sister. People who think marijuana is absolutely a tool of the devil.
Strangely, though, I kind of like Hank, although we would be sworn enemies in real life.
But there’s nobody I can latch on to and say “That’s a character I really like. I hope he (or she) comes out on top.” There is no character on the show who I hope doesn’t die (except for Jane, who did).
Anyway, it’s still a pretty good show, I’m on season 3 and will watch all the way through, no doubt. But I’m looking forward more to 2021 and season 6 of Better Call Saul.

Kamala Harris, whose presidential campaign imploded after the 1st debate (or maybe it was the 2nd) when Tulsi Gabbard called her out for having been a horrible, evil attorney general who let killer cops skate and tried to block evidence that exonerated a man who was on death row, because just being innocent is no reason to let somebody out of jail, said something extremely stupid on “The View” today.
Of course, if you’re going to say something stupid, The View is the place to say it. None of the panelists are smart enough to know when somebody is saying something stupid, so she’ll probably get away with it.
What she said was that it would be very difficult to get a conviction against Derek Chauvin. There is video of the incident, there were lots of witnesses, plenty of whom told him he was killing George Floyd and that he should take his knee off his neck. Even one of the other officers suggested maybe changing position and, since they are being tried separately, that might well come up. Also, Chauvin has a long list of complaints about violence, including one previous killing.
Getting a conviction should be the easiest thing in the world. Pretty much everybody in an American prison today is there on less evidence. The murder was recorded. You don’t get more evidence than that.
To be fair, her full statement was “It will be difficult to get a conviction because people tend to believe cops.” Has she not been paying attention for the last week? Nobody believes cops any more. And nobody believes Kamala Harris. Except, probably, for the ladies on The View. Who, I believe I mentioned, are all stupid.

I learned a new word today. Kente cloth. It’s cloth, which comes from Ghana, woven with traditional African colors. It’s very useful because, prior to this, I would have just written ‘cloth woven with traditional African colors’ which is a bit unwieldy. LOL.
I learned this word, of course, because Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and a whole bunch of other congressional democrats who couldn’t give a shit about black lives decided they would kneel for 8 minutes, wearing shawls of this cloth, in honor of George Floyd.
It looked terrible. Just terrible. Embarrassingly terrible. Dukakis in a tank terrible.
Police forces across the country must be demilitarized. Cops who commit murder must be prosecuted. Something must be done to improve the lives of people in our poorest communities. You know, like a jobs guarantee. A $15 an hour minimum wage. Free college. Stuff like that. All of which these people are fighting against tooth and nail.
8 minutes of kneeling on a marble floor while wearing a shawl you have no business wearing is not going to do it.
I have heard some people say that they did this at the behest of the black members of congress. If so, then the black members of congress are missing the point almost as much as Nancy Pelosi, and should also be replaced.
The people want real change. Not bullshit.

Well, it looks as if this is actually going to happen. The Minneapolis city council has voted to disband their police force.
On the one hand, this would seem to put the old argument between anarchists and everybody else, i.e. should we have any kind of a policing body at all, into the spotlight, right into the middle of the old Overton Window, which seems to shift as wildly as weather patterns, depending on the headlines of the day.
But, I’m sure it won’t be as radical a change as all that. Probably, the National Guard will continue to roam the streets of the city until a new police department can be formed.
It will be an interesting social experiment. That old anarchist v. everybody else argument always had a flaw (I mean in the whole debate, not in one sides argument or the other), which is that there was no example to point to, the social experiment had never been done. Not in modern times, anyway.
My guess is that fewer people will be shot and killed, or even harassed and imprisoned by the police, since there won’t be any police and the National Guard aren’t used to doing that. They’re more of a crowd control thing. How will they respond to people speeding, or not stopping at red lights? How will they deal with domestic violence?
Will we find we can get along without the police, or will we find that they are, in fact, a very necessary evil?
All I’m saying, at this point, is that this will be a very interesting social experiment, and I hope we can look at things scientifically and learn from what’s about to come, whatever it is.

Colin Kaepernick, and all black NFL players and, in a way, the entire black race, has received an apology from the NFL. Both for ignoring their protests, which represents great progress on their part because it means accepting that black lives matter, and for keeping him from playing for the last three years.
I doubt that will actually translate into a job offer. He’s been sidelined for three sports years, which is like dog years. It’s a very long time. I suppose it could happen. There are good comeback stories in every field, and sports is no different but NFL Quarterback is about as elite a position as there is, and new ones come into the profession every year.
But, without that, it’s kind of a weak apology.
Anyway, I have a suggestion for how to avoid this ever happening again. Stop playing the National Anthem at sporting events. It’s sports. It’s not a Nationalist Rally, nor should it be. You don’t have to stand up for the national anthem if you go to a movie. You don’t have to try to sing along to the song that fewer people know all the words to than Auld Lang Syne before watching the strippers spin round on the pole.
So, just stop it. It won’t change the game one bit and it will help end the whole problem.