Another typical Tuesday in these parts. Happy to report that my weekly ATM visit provided the required bounty without incident. The usual mediocre darts were somehow good enough to make it to the finals.

After darts, Kevin, Alan, and I went to Mango’s for some dinner. We all wound up ordering the pork chops.

The big news from back home is the leaking of a draft Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Kevin Kim has a lengthy and thorough post covering the abortion debate from pretty much every angle. I highly recommend giving it a read. Although I strive to avoid politics here at LTG, I do have my own viewpoints on this topic that I’ll share for whatever they are worth.

I’m opposed to abortion and I’m also opposed to the government intruding on the moral choice of whether or not to have one. I do draw the line here though: when the fetus/child is capable of surviving outside the womb, the mother no longer has the choice to terminate what is undeniably a life. If you are going to get an abortion, make up your mind to do so within the first trimester. Or better yet, take the “morning-after pill” and don’t conceive in the first place. These people advocating for the right to choose to abort right up to the moment of birth are arguing for infanticide–there is no moral justification for that action.

When I was in high school I got my girlfriend pregnant. Why we weren’t using readily available birth control is something I can’t explain. A toxic combination of lust and ignorance I suppose. I was 17, she was 16. The state of California had recently passed a law where a minor could choose to have an abortion without parental consent. That’s the route we chose. I went to the clinic with her and stayed with her after the procedure. I remember growing impatient because it took so long for her to be released when the abortion was done. I was am such a jerk. The next day at school she started bleeding, I especially remember the white slacks she was wearing looked like she had pissed blood. Her mother was a nurse so I surmise she figured out what happened, but she never confronted me about it. Our lives went on, she moved away, and the relationship ended. But I still sometimes wonder what that life I helped prevent may have turned out to be.

When I was 19 and my girlfriend was 17, she told me she was pregnant. In my defense, she was supposed to be taking birth control pills, but apparently, she was often forgetful. She was Catholic and abortion was off the table for her, so we decided to give the baby up for adoption. She moved in with me during the pregnancy and when the baby was born and I saw my helpless little girl laying in the hospital crib I knew I could never give her up. We got married instead and I became a father.

When I was 25 and divorced, my girlfriend was attending grad school in Idaho and I was living in Arizona. One weekend I was unable to reach her by phone (this was before email and text messages). I finally got in touch with one of her friends who told me my girlfriend was unavailable to speak with me. I said bullshit, either she calls me now or I’m getting in my car and driving up there to find her. She called and told me she was in the hospital getting an abortion. I said, wait a minute, don’t I have something to say about that too? She replied, No, you are not the father. Damn, that memory still hurts.

When I was 35, I was remarried to a Baptist woman and living in Columbia, SC. We would attend church with the kids every Sunday. In Sunday school class one week the lesson was all about how God gave mankind free will. After class was finished, there was an announcement that there was going to be a march on the South Carolina statehouse in support of legislation banning abortion. I raised my hand and asked, “if God gave man free will, why would you support passing a law to take away that free will?” The teacher responded simply, “It’s a matter of faith”. That was the day I quit the church for good.

So, my position was then and remains, if you oppose abortion try to change minds, not laws. But a human being has the right to life and your “choice” doesn’t change that. Once the fetus becomes viable, it is not abortion, it is murder.

Anyway, that’s how I see it.

Coincidentally, today is Mother’s Day in the Philippines. I was reminded of this song that my nephew sang at my mom’s wake in Enid, Oklahoma more than 11 years ago. You never forget the love of your mother.

So may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten
Sons are like birds flying always over the mountain

When I have ceased to break my wings
Against the faultiness of things,
And learned that compromises wait
Behind each hardly opened gate,
When I have looked Life in the eyes,
Grown calm and very coldly wise,
Life will have given me the Truth,
And taken in exchange–my youth.
–Sara Teasdale

Greetings faithful readers! Sorry for not posting yesterday, but the time just got away from me. Here’s a recap:

As usual, I was up before 5 a.m. That’s when I do my daily slog through my blogroll catching up on the news and views from voices I trust. This has gotten to be quite the chore of late because the news from my homeland is depressingly bad. It made me sick that the voters chose a senile old fool over a competent yet clownish incumbent. That the election was apparently rife with fraud is downright scary and demonstrates that the swamp creatures have no intention of letting the people have their say. So much for democracy. The icing on the shit cake was the Georgia Senate results. Just thinking about the adverse impact Dem control of Congress and the Presidency will have on our nation’s future is the stuff of nightmares. Bottom line–we are screwed. I’m thankful that I’m so far away and don’t have to experience this fiasco up close and personal. I do expect a wrecked economy will cause the dollar to lose exchange value making me a poorer man. I probably won’t live long enough to experience the worst of what is in store for my homeland.

But life, such as it is, goes on. Did my morning routines, fed and walked the dogs, then met up with my Friday walking group. We did a pleasant mostly urban and flat 8K hike. Finished at my house where I treated the guys to a lunch of beers, chicken nuggets, calamari rings, with chips and dip.

When we were done with that I barely had time for a shower before heading out to Queen Victoria for a Hash mismanagement meeting. The agenda included appointing folks to positions of responsibility. Demolition Derby was unanimously chosen to continue serving as Grand Master. I was selected to be the Circle Jerk Master. That’s basically a Sergeant-at-Arms type role, mainly helping to maintain order in the Hash circle by telling people to shut up and pay attention. Seems like my being an asshole made me qualified for the job.

There’s been a bit of controversy at the Hash from a few disgruntled members not satisfied with the way things are being run. Boo fucking hoo is my attitude towards these whiners who were still hiding in their basement afraid of COVID while the rest of us worked to resurrect the Hash under difficult circumstances. So I don’t give a shit if they don’t like the decisions we made to make that happen. We raised the entry prices and now the Gash (females) pay the same amount as men. Well, so what? Most of them drink as much as the men do too. We also changed the start time because of an early curfew. The disgruntled few wanted a return to the traditional 3:30 start. I was opposed to this because I think the earlier start works better. It’s no fun to still be up on the mountain when the sun is starting to set. Anyway, we voted to implement a compromise start time of 2:30 p.m. We’ll see how that works out.

Had a few beers during the meeting, then moved over to Alley Cats to play in the dart tournament. Of course, I was early so I had some more beer while waiting to play. And then of course I drank while playing (I call it aiming fluid). It was a good tourney and I was satisfied with my play overall even though my partner and I lost a tough match in the finals and settled for second place.

Needless to say, I was feeling no pain when I got back home last night. But today is a brand new start, right? Stopped at a hotel called Papagayo for breakfast. I was last there years ago for a dinner so wasn’t sure what to expect. I thought the menu was a little limited in offerings, but the service was good. And nice views from my table as well.

Here are the photos from yesterday’s hike. These are mostly from Scott:

All right, I do try and avoid politics on social media. Nothing to be gained from it. But I couldn’t help sharing this meme pointing out the hypocrisy of the left regarding “protests”:

Here’s an example from ex-wife #3:

You don’t know the difference between protests and insurrection? Well the former seeks change(s) in the law. The latter seeks to change the government.

To which I responded:

Yes, I know the difference. Do you know the difference between protests and riots? Do you know the meaning of the word hypocrisy? Where was your outrage when the Federal courthouse in Portland was being attacked? Where were your posts decrying the violence and destruction in Minneapolis, Seattle, and other cities last year? Make no mistake, I am equally disgusted by what happened at the Capitol this week. Once you engage in violent criminal activities in support of your cause, whatever that cause may be, you are no longer a protester. Rioters on the left or right are no different and are unworthy of support or sympathy if we are to remain a nation of laws. This post merely pointed out that people like you encouraged the rioters through silence and now are suddenly appalled by the same tactics being used by people you don’t agree with. Disgusting.

And of course, the ex immediately saw how wrong she had been and is now a committed Republican. Well, actually she doubled down, proving my point that these arguments or not going to ever lead to a meeting of the minds. Another commenter did chime in with this in response to the whole “insurrection” argument:

The right to overthrow the government is a right of the people. As of late, some people may feel that it is a course that needs to be taken. A fair bit of the population feels disenfranchised.

Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. -Declaration of Independence, July 4th 1776

Hard to argue with that, so I’ll just leave it there.

Let’s cleanse the palate with this:

Alright, one more for the road:

More darts on tap for tonight. I’m starting to feel at least some of my game is coming back. I wore my old Columbia Singles League jersey for my Barretto Singles League match this week and came away with a 12-4 victory.

Okay, this post may not be twice as good as usual, but it is twice as long. Hope that makes up for yesterday’s absence.

I’ll be back with more of something or other tomorrow.

UPDATE: I was surprised to see I used the “Mourning in America” title once before, back in September 2010. That post consisted of a link to this one-minute long anti-Obama commercial. I said back then that it made me almost dread my decision to move back to the USA. Well, maybe we’ll get through this too.

Well, I guess we will all be sorry. I fear for the well-being of my country and I’m very disappointed in my fellow citizens. I think I’ll just leave it at that for now.

I took a good long walk this morning hoping to keep the blues at bay. Can’t say that it worked but nothing to be done but to keep on keepin’ on I suppose. A solitary 12K, mostly on pavement.

And that’s about it from here. I blew off playing darts this afternoon. Think I’ll get a haircut instead. Maybe I’ll get drunk after that.

Life’s a beach sometimes for sure.

Over at the Big Hominid, Kevin has a post with a video showing people actually talking through their political differences in a sane and civil manner. I mentioned in the comments that I recalled having similar conversations with a few liberal friends, usually over some beers. Minds weren’t necessarily changed, but we could usually find some common ground at least.

I don’t do politics here at LTG much anymore, and even less on social media like Facebook. But most mornings I will take a peek behind those doors at the political insanity that currently has America divided in the grips of uncivil war. It makes me glad to be here on the other side of the world. Obviously, we have always had differing views amongst the people and different ideas on how to change things for the better. I’m old enough to remember the Vietnam protests and cultural wars of the late 60s and early 70s, but somehow things seem worse these days. So, what’s changed and who is to blame? I honestly believe the problem has a lot to do with the biased news media.

Ignorance abounds, and maybe it always has. But when I see otherwise reasonably intelligent people regurgitating half-truths and outright lies they’ve read somewhere without questioning the source, it makes me worry for the future. I mean, we’ve got the whole damn internet available to fact check information and you want to rely on someone’s Tweet to make your case. That’s pretty damn scary.

Here’s but one example: Bloomberg News sent out a Tweet with a link to a story about the Vice President, stating: Pence tells U.S. food workers to “do your job” as some fall ill. Wow! What a cold-hearted bastard! Except when you go to the story and read that quote in context, it’s a whole other animal:

“You are vital,” he said during a press conference late Tuesday. “You are giving a great service to the people of the United States of America and we need you to continue, as a part of what we call critical infrastructure, to show up and do your job.” In return, Pence said, the government will “work tirelessly” to ensure their workplaces are safe.

Of course, people ran with the Tweet and that became the story. Truth doesn’t matter, it’s all about the narrative. Anyway, it made me write about politics and for that, I apologize. Let’s get back to the kind of stuff you come here for!

Like this:

Yesterday afternoon I was doing my usual thing at “Gomans” and this was my “interesting” view:

Oh yeah, I left out a part of the story from Wednesday’s hike waiting for Scott to post some pictures. As we were marching along, Scott pointed to a shack and said “Derek used to live here”. I don’t know Derek, but Scott told me he used to be a bar manager in Barretto and he has subsequently moved back to the States. As we rounded a corner on the trail I was struck by this view:

Turns out, that’s Derek’s ex-girlfriend and mother of his two children. She told me her name is “Gam Gam”. Apparently, she has some other family staying with her up here on the mountain. Like most folks, they are struggling to get through this difficult time. Well, she said Derek still sends her 10,000 pesos ($200) a month so she is doing better than a lot of folks I guess. Plus, her house is paid for, such as it is.

Maybe I was just feeling horny tired from the walk, but I enjoyed looking at chatting with her. I do admire these gals doing the best they can for their family and in our brief conversation, I gathered that was what she is all about. I was out of candy and cookies by this point in the hike, but I gave her 300 pesos which she seemed to appreciate. Maybe I’ll pass by again one of these days to check her out on how she is doing.

I make my living off the evening news
Just give me something
Something I can use
People love it when you lose
They love dirty laundry

You don’t really need to find out
What’s going on
You don’t really want to know
Just how far it’s gone
Just leave well enough alone
Eat your dirty laundry

I refrain from engaging in politics much these days, but that doesn’t mean I’m not observing the ever escalating bullshit emanating from the Democrat presidential wannabes. And now Joe Biden has entered the fray by recycling the whopper that Trump said some of the neo-Nazis at Charlottesville were “fine” people. Which as anyone with half a brain knows is a complete fabrication. As Althouse notes:

…
we were shown images from the Charlottesville march — replete with the “Jews will not replace us chant” and swastikas — and then Biden’s blandly earnest face asserted that Trump said some of them “are fine people.” But Trump did not say that! It’s absolutely established that Trump excluded those people explicitly before saying that there were some fine people on both sides of the question of keeping Confederate statues. (At the time of the fine people remark, Trump said, “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists because they should be condemned totally.”)

I can only hope the vast majority of Americans are tuned in enough to utterly reject this kind of bullshit. Well, I guess with the economy humming along, lies are all the Democrats have to run on.

Meanwhile, here in the real world (at least the one I live in) things continue pretty much as the always do.

Summer is upon us now so I find it best to be off the streets by 10:00 a.m. and pick up again after 3:00 p.m. Two shorter walks as opposed to one long hot one. We’ll see if I can maintain that kind of motivation.

I continue to self-medicate my bout of the blues.

Honestly speaking I’ve got no room to complain and what I do complain about are things pretty much within my control to change. Sometimes it’s just easier to go along to get along. And sometimes it isn’t. I’m kind of in a transition between the two at the moment I think. But rest assured a bad day here is better than a lot of the so-called good days I’ve lived in the past.

I’ve just got to stop giving people the power to hurt me. Heh, you’d think after 63 years on this planet I’d have figured that out by now.

You stand in the line just to hit a new low
You’re faking a smile with the coffee to go
You tell me your life’s been way off line
You’re falling to pieces every time
And I don’t need no carryin’ on

‘Cause you had a bad day
You’re taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don’t know
You tell me don’t lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don’t lie
You’re coming back down and you really don’t mind
You had a bad day

I had to laugh when Nike got called out and deleted this ad a few hours after publishing it:

I’m no fan of Nike regardless. I swore off their products when they hired Kaepernick as their spokesmodel. I mean, I’ve got quite a bit of Nike shit that I still use, but will replace them with other products when the time comes.

I don’t want to come off like I’m virtue signaling with my personal boycotts. But as a consumer I’m just not interested in supporting companies that don’t share my values. I stopped buying Gillette products when they announced they didn’t like men like me to be men like me. And I canceled my Netflix account (which truth be told I never used much anyway) when they hired Susan Rice to be on their Board of Directors. Does it make a difference? Of course not. I do it for me and my own personal satisfaction, I don’t expect to have an impact on a company’s bottom line. So there.

Enough about politics, how about this:

As my high school coach once asked “McCrarey, are you ignorant or just apathetic?” I replied “I don’t know and I don’t care!”

Yeah, yeah, I know. Thousands of comedians out of work and I’m trying to be funny.

It rained on me during my morning walk today. At first it was kind of refreshing, then it gave me a good soaking. Well, soaked with sweat or soaked with water is really all about the same. Still, it was some relief from the heat, so there’s that. Not raining now so it should be a pleasant afternoon for the Hash.

And there you have it.

I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten,
Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land.
In Dixie Land where I was born in, early on a frosty mornin’,
Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land.

Then I wish I was in Dixie, hooray! hooray!
In Dixie Land I’ll take my stand to live and die in Dixie,
Away, away, away down South in Dixie,
Away, away, away down South in Dixie.

It’s a fine day to be in the Philippines far, far away from all the political madness in the USA.

Took my morning walk out towards Subic town, 45 minutes up the National Highway and 45 minutes back.

Here’s a pleasant street scene to give you the flavor of my walk. Well, since you can’t taste on the internet (yet) it reeked of exhaust fumes and was loud and busy. Why did I choose to walk down such a busy road? Because I can!
Actually, I took side streets yesterday but they were equally busy and without the benefit of a shoulder to walk on. Not all my walks are this way, I just need to change it up now and then to alleviate the boredom.

Speaking of the Kavanaugh hearings, what a fucking fiasco. I stand with the man!

We have a lot in common. Except for the high school shenanigans. I was stoned most of the time so can’t say what I did or didn’t do for sure.

But I knew his accuser looked awful familiar!

Of course, the internet and Facebook are on fire with commentary and memes. The left is basically arguing that all men are guilty until proven innocent whenever a woman makes an unsubstantiated claim of sexual assault. I loved how Senator Booker kept referring to “her truth” instead of “the truth”. Kavanaugh did a good job defending himself against the spurious attacks and Senator Graham was on point in calling out his colleagues on their McCarthy-like behavior.

That’s gonna leave a mark!

So glad I’m here and not there.

Well, I’m glad for the most part anyway.

Rest assured I will continue to navigate the slow seas of connectivity to bring you scintillating posts like this one!

You’ve been warned.

It was a quiet drama-free weekend around here. The helper went home to Manila and coincidentally so did Marissa. At least I had my Buddy here to keep me company.

Not much else to report. All indications are that I’m a healthy old fucker. Blood pressure consistently in the low 120s. Resting heart rate is back in the high 60’s after an unexplained rise. Weight is holding steady in the mid-190’s. Averaging 19,000 steps per day so far this month.

Finances are staying in the black notwithstanding my effort at wealth redistribution in the bars. Inflation is becoming an issue for the already poor folks here, but I’m not noticing it much personally. I’m helped by a strong dollar with near record high exchange rates.

The basic staples like rice and fish have increased even more than the rate of inflation as I understand it…

I’ll be making a run out to the S&R store (think Costco) in San Fernando this week. It’s a long trip I only make once a month so I like to stock up as much as I can. I’ve regretted that I didn’t purchase a larger refrigerator/freezer as that limits my purchasing ability. I took a step to alleviate that problem:

A sweet little stand alone freezer should meet my needs nicely. Just delivered this morning so I haven’t been bothered with putting the handle on yet.

What else? Well, I really don’t do politics much these days. It seems pointless, especially on Facebook. So when I saw this, I had to laugh:

I mean, I actually say this to my computer screen several times a day. I ought to be posting it in the comments of the worst offenders I suppose, but I really can’t be bothered.

The fact that I don’t argue about politics doesn’t mean I don’t keep myself at least minimally informed on what is happening back home. It’s total insanity from what I can tell. This parody on the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings was funny as hell:

You gotta laugh. Or cry.

I’ve never been a big Trump fan. I preferred the clown option to the crook though. But two years in it is hard to argue with his many successes, especially on the economic front. I think there’s a lot more people like me who react to the over-the-top bashing (he’s Hitler don’t you know) with being dragged firmly and fully into his camp of supporters. Yeah I know, that makes me a racist.

Anyway, I’m also not a fan of those who choose to disrespect the flag and all that it stands for by taking a knee during the National Anthem. Yeah, I believe they have the freedom to do so, but they are not free from the consequences of their actions. So, the government cannot and should not arrest them (like they do in the Philippines!) but if I owned an NFL franchise I’d fire any player who refused to stand. I’d say I’m boycotting the games, but honestly I haven’t watched American football in years. And although I own a pair of Nike shoes that I’m not going to burn, I will be replacing them with something from New Balance when the time comes.

Bwahahahaha!

I thought this video offers a nice counterpoint to the one Nike paid Kaepernick to make:

Enough about politics! I live in the fucking Philippines and will watch America do it’s death dance from thousands of miles away. Thankfully!

Time for me to Hash!