Insomnia: A few things keeping me awake

Hopefully this article finds readers happy, rested, and most of all, finished with displaying your holiday lights. If for some reason they are still up, quit reading this article and do the world a favor, take them down. This is particularly meant for the neighbor around the corner who somehow thought he could postpone his work by incorporating his Halloween cutout ghosts with his Christmas display. Just so you know, I got back at you when one of my dogs unloaded his back end on your lawn and I left it there to be cleaned up when you take down your nonsense.

So it’s a new year. It’s still the old me — and here come a few things that are making it difficult for me to shut off my brain and get a decent night of sleep.

Consistency: Let’s start with “The Wall.” Here is my primary issue with those who want to build a wall along our southern border. You forget we have a northern border. You actually believe this wall will keep people from entering our country illegally. If it is Mexicans you want to keep out, take away their shovels, back hoes, and tractors because your wall won’t keep them from digging bigger and better tunnels than any government agency can build a wall.

Now if you have no problem with Mexicans and still want that damn wall because it will make you feel safer, then insist on making Canada build us one as well. You do know a lot of people with dangerous (code for different) religious beliefs move to Canada. You really think they can’t find their way here from Ottawa?

While we are at it, maybe we can build walls up and down our coastlines just in case these sneaky bastards decide to swim here or worse, invade us with an armada of papyrus ships. Better yet, can we get Jerry Jones to just build us a gigantic retractable roof like he did over AT&T Stadium? That will show the world how great America is.

No Salary: Wow, our new president is not taking a salary. That’s such a great gesture. His freeing up $400,000.00 should pay for the cost of his new health care plan. It could actually pay to meet the basic needs of six families of four. Maybe if all those other billionaires he has in cabinet posts do the same, we can up that number to about 150 people. That alone should end poverty in this nation.

Son-in-law: I don’t care if Trump hires his son-in-law to work for him. Why is it a conflict of interest, but if he hires a good friend or former business partner he trusts it isn’t? Presidents should be able to surround themselves with those they trust and then pay the price when the shit hits the fan. Hiring people you don’t trust always works in the real world, right? Besides, this is Washington DC; no one trusts anyone, not if they are smart.

Meryl Streep: STFU. Six and a half minutes and she isn’t cut off? Does anyone think if she, or any other actor, stood up there and went on about what a swell guy Trump is the network would not have queued the music and break to commercial? I just wish Joan Rivers were around to rip her and bring her back to earth. Streep is a great actress, not a courageous person. All she did was preach to the choir at the Golden Globes, which is easy to do. Stand up and do that before the NRA or KKK and see how the speech turns out.

Media: Was I the only person who noticed as soon as the media realized the man who shot up the airport in Ft. Lauderdale was not a “terrorist” they packed up and moved on? Had the guy been Muslim, he would have been portrayed as a sick bastard coming here to destroy our country and religion. Instead, he is just a sick bastard who was mentally ill and slipped through the cracks. If we can’t catch our own sick bastards and prevent them from doing harm, how the heck do you think our government will catch those from other countries?

It was government employees using a government-instituted program of checks and balances that allowed a sick man to check a gun through TSA and shoot up an airport. This act alone will serve as an inspiration to foreign terrorists who want to do the same to us.

Finally, why isn’t this guy called what he is, a terrorist? He did what he did to make his own statement and his nation of origin or religion has nothing to do with the terror he inflicted on innocent citizens.

NCAA Football: Boy, can I pick them. I believe I said rematches either surpass the previous game or turn out to be a dud. I then said this year’s NCAA title game would NOT live up to last year’s and that Alabama would win by 14.

I don’t mind missing the mark with my prediction nearly as much as I do having to live my life looking like one of those idiots who are well paid to appear on TV and are just as off the mark as I am. I am not well paid which only makes me dumber than them.

Now that the NCAA season is over, I wonder what the reaction would be if Clemson quarterback DeShaun Watson had announced he was not going to play in a meaningless college title game and risk getting injured like athletes in some of the other bowl games did? What if he said he wasn’t going to play for free and wanted to be compensated? What if other players from Clemson and Alabama did the same thing?

They’d all be ripped to shreds by the media and fans and in the end be viewed as the Curt Floods of College Football because the NCAA would have no recourse but to either scrap their title game system (that ain’t happening) or actually pay kids to play college football.

Yes, they are on scholarship, but do you really think these guys are students first and athletes second? Does the price of a free college education come close to the money schools and the NCAA make from their performances, jersey sales, and video games? And just so you know, most of these players are not promised a four year free education. Their scholarships come up for review every year and can be pulled, leaving them high and dry to make room for a new recruit.

Final Thought: I recently finished reading Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography. If you think it is going to just be a book about life as a rock star, you’re missing out on a great read. Like so many other people in this country, he has struggled with many of the same issues we have to face. A lack of love from a father who didn’t give any, poverty, homelessness, mental illness, and having the odds stacked against you just to succeed at anything in life, let alone fame.

Anyone who is viewed in the same light as the Boss is viewed and who opens up his life like he has is far more courageous than anyone who stands before an audience of their peers in a gown that costs more money than many earn in a couple of months and proceeds to tell us what’s wrong with our nation.

Springsteen is far more in touch with the common man and woman and despite his wealth and fame has always gone to great lengths to chronicle what it is like to chase the American dream and have to face one obstacle after another. To do so while owning up to your own personal demons and short comings makes being a fan of his that much more enjoyable.