Paging Don Henley

 The Taliban have banned music in Afghanistan, and I'm sure that Vice President Harris has a really good plan to deal with their new rule that women need chaperones when out in public.  With this kind of work, and with the Taliban forcibly taking wives rape victims from the ranks of the single women (and young boys, too) of Afghanistan, I think the Democrats can be quiet about their support for womens' rights and #MeToo pretty much forever.

Now that was interesting

 As a guy who grew up 18 miles from Gary, rode the South Shore Railroad through Gary into Chicago (through some of the rougher projects around Chicago as well), took the "El" in and out of the city many times, and who spent a fair amount of time in Compton, I like to believe I've seen a little bit of the rougher part of the world.  Not that I'm terribly street smart, but I've learned a little.

Even I was surprised, however, when riding on the "blue line" from Fort Snelling to Target Field for a baseball game, mostly through neighborhoods that would be "on the right side of the tracks" if you put them in Gary or South Central, and my ticket was checked by a group of three transit police armed with taser and a pistol.  It was a far cry from the jovial old guys I'd meet on the South Shore who would put your ticket in a slot on the edge of your seat and make small talk while the Gary city hall and Genesis Center were in view.

I can't figure out for the life of me whether it's simply misplaced resources, or whether there really is a big reason that the conductors on our "death train" (it kills pedestrians regularly) need to be armed.  Either way, it's rather strange.

(side note; the Twins won with a beautiful line drive with the bases loaded against the Indians/Guardians/Kielbasi in the 10th)

Biden's Saigon moment

 Yes, the left is trying to soft-pedal the disaster in Afghanistan caused by Biden's premature withdrawal, but as the (democratically elected, ahem) government collapses, I'm reminded of something I saw at a former employer that spoke eloquently to how catastrophic the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam was for freedom-minded Vietnamese.  Specifically, I visited security for some reason, and I noticed that there were 24 binders of personnel security files there.  Two of them were filled solely with the surname "Nguyen."  They were great workers in clean rooms, but it speaks to the horrors of the Communist regime that saw 800,000 of their own people flee--and which saw millions killed in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

Pray for the Afghan people.  The Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians could flee over the border into Thailand, and hundreds of thousands did.  The Afghans are surrounded by China and several Islamist nations--Pakistan, Tajikstan, Iran, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.  It's not going to be easy for freedom minded Afghans to escape the Taliban tyranny, to put it mildly.

Sam Perry, RIP

 Today, my family learned that a friend we'd never met in person passed away--despite the same last name, we're not quite sure where our lineages meet, with the obvious exception of Noah.  Sam Perry was born around the beginning of the second World War in Everton, just "up the hill" from Liverpool.  If you're a real football fan, that explains the logo of the Toffees, Everton's football club.  (Nil Satis Nisi Optimum, by the way)

Sam grew up in workingman's housing of the type that is memorialized in the movie Hobson's Choice, a row house on the hill that is Everton, and remembered putting pennies (and slugs) in a meter in the home to get some gas for light, walking out to the outdoor loo, bomb shelters to protect people from the Blitz, and the fact that despite it being a humble dwelling, it was home.  In the 1960s, the row houses were demolished to make room for 12 story flats, and just as any former resident of Cabrini Green, Pruitt-Igoe, or the Robert Taylor Homes would tell you, it just never quite became home.  Those displaced from the old row houses call themselves "The Lost Tribe of Everton".  

As a young man after the war, he did not make the cut for college track high school, and by a stroke of luck wandered into a tailor's shop, where he was told that if he could read and cipher better than the proprietor, he had a job.  He thus became a master "cutter", the man who cuts the fabric for the tailor who sews it together, and even developed college/trade school level programs for teaching this now mostly lost art to young people.

Sam had children of his own--I believe at least two sons and a daughter--and married twice, both times ending in divorce.  As we got to know him, we learned about his love for the history of Everton, especially the old "Iron Church" of Everton.  Sam could be found at the Iron Church, historical society meetings, at the Salvation Army in Liverpool, and at the White Star pub in Liverpool.  He is survived by his children and grandchildren, by a good friend Pam in Wales, and by his adopted children and grandchildren in Minnesota.  Rest in peace, Sam, and thank you for all the fun and memories--and the beautiful vests you helped us make.

Competing with the IOC....

 ....for stupidest statement of the year is Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who has argued that the failure to remove Donald Trump from office cost 600,000 lives to COVID, claiming that not only would they be alive, but they would be walking the streets today.

Given that they don't give oak leaves to people with IQs of 60 (despite what sergeants might tell you), I think it's safe to say that Lt. Col. Vindman is indulging a vendetta against President Trump.  He certainly knows that a great portion of victims were aged and in nursing homes, and were in no condition to walk the streets even before the 'rona, and he certainly also knows that the worst states to be in for coronavirus were those run by Democrats.   He also certainly knows that if Mike Pence had had some great ideas to deal with the epidemic, he had the ear of Donald Trump.  In other words, he's almost certainly aware that his statements are a load of bull.

Really, the man is lucky (or clever) that he was walked out the door and is no longer subject to military justice, and that he wasn't making these inane statements under oath.  He knows better, but is still saying it because he knows that the media will repeat it and help him with his little hissy fit.