So, this is where we’re at now. A 50-year-old husband and father of two gets gunned down on a Manhattan street, and, among many others, internet sleuths who normally jump into action are sitting on their hands and saying “absolutely not,” when asked if they’re going to help look for leads. And it’s because the victim was CEO of United Health Care, apparently the face of Big Health, some sort of ogre, a target, a symptom of… what?

It’s no secret that America’s health care system is in serious need of not only a makeover but some sort of total revamping, restructuring, refocusing, and a bunch of other words. So, some angry yet quite methodical Robin Hood(?) decides to take matters into his (are we sure it’s guy?) own hands, and the general public is suddenly indifferent to a violent, cold-blooded killer.

He shot the guy in the back from close range. In one of the most highly surveilled places on earth. With a silencer.

To many, apparently, he’s become some sort of hero. To many, this will not be troubling. In this nation of itchy trigger fingers and short tempers and outsized grievance and a growing list of “things that aren’t working for me”, no big surprise.

Welcome to Dodge City.

Less moping, less sitting around, less doom scrolling (swearing off the newsfeeds didn’t last long), less talking and more doing.

We refuse to evolve. Or maybe it’s that we can’t? The tails have gone away, but self-interest appears to be a tougher appendage to lose.

Maybe we never leave that behind. Self-preservation is hardwired. We’re just evolved hominids with the capacity to verbalize and give voice to ideals we have no intention of, or little stomach for reaching.

We’re no different than the rest of the animal kingdom. It’s looking like survival of the fittest is ultimately our lot in life, too. Which might seem ironic, given that we have the brain power to envision alternatives.

If Yuval Harari is right, we have it in us to create myths that become standards and rules, but only because enough people get on board and are willing to abide by them. Look at any system of governance, or, dare I say, religion. Yes, much is codified, bureaucratized, but what are the underpinnings, what is the foundation? It’s not stone or cinder block. Basically, it’s enough people who are willing to give it a whirl, kick the tires, take it for a spin.

And trust each other.

It’s too bad taxes are such a thorny issue. Can’t there be agreement that taxation is a necessity, and then the people we elect work out some fair and equitable tax structure so there is money in the coffers to fix roads and improve infrastructure, take care of people who need help, and encourage research?

Where’s the money gonna come from otherwise, or do certain government services just go away because Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have been given an assignment to “cut waste”? Because there’s no funding anymore, and because the rich are the ones getting the tax breaks while the rest of us end up shouldering the resulting burdens or going without?

Is this just pure power play and selfishness manifesting themselves, or is there something we’re missing here?

Trump tapped into the frustration of the working class, but only as a campaign pitch. In reality, he looks to do little, if anything, to help them. So, somehow, Democrats have to hold the line and keep Trump and the misfits around him from blowing everything up and turning the country into a playground for the rich and morally bereft.

Yes. Deer, mostly, but on occasion a fox or an eagle, maybe a possum, a rare black squirrel, or some species of hawk. My wife saw a bear once, but I’m still waiting to see one of those. I know we have skunks that frequent our yard looking for grubs. I haven’t seen one, but the evidence is unmistakable– the lawn looks like a scene from Caddyshack after it gets done foraging for its grubby meal.

The wind sounds different when there are no leaves on the trees.

Yesterday was one of those days that had me thinking about warmth and sunshine and calmness. My thoughts drifted to the changing seasons and how moving from the comfortable early- and mid-Fall—as abnormal as it might have been—to temps that have fallen off a table as winter approaches is mostly undesirable.

I sat in the house yesterday and swore at the wind. I found myself muttering obscenities under my breath, because it was relentless, finding its way into the house through the basement windows and every tiny crack and imperfection in the siding and insulation. I hate wind. It has a grating, deterrent effect on me. There’s a significant difference between a gentle breeze out of the southwest and a gale force howl out of the northwest, the latter being what’s on our plate from now until sometime in May.

I was grateful each time I’d hear the click of the thermostat, which meant the oil burner was kicking in and it would be getting warm for a few minutes. But on a windy day like yesterday, it didn’t take long for the chilliness to seep in.

Wow. I’m a real ray of sunshine sometimes.

I’m not a world traveler, but I’ve had the opportunity to visit Israel and the north of England, along with various spots in the U.S and Canada.

I’d have to say that the Israel trip stands out, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity which unfolded in the Spring of 2013. It wasn’t a commercial tour, but more of a private one with a Roman Catholic priest, the brother of a brother-in-law, who knew the country well and was able to take me and seven other… pilgrims, I guess, to places that weren’t on any other itinerary. We visited most of the usual spots, except for Bethlehem (too unstable at the time), and a few out-of-the-way and obscure places. We stayed in hostels all over the country, from Mitzpe Ramon to Acco to Tel Hai, and several others along the way.

There were reminders of the tension and fragile peace at every turn, beginning with harrowing stories from our shuttle driver as we traveled from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The current hostilities in the north have affected places we visited, like Kiryat Shmona. We strayed quite close to the Lebanese and Syrian borders when we got lost one day. We followed behind a UN jeep as we headed to the remnants of an Israeli underground bunker and abandoned tank and still dangerous minefields from a 1973 skirmish near the Syrian border. We ate lunch in a Druze village in the Golan Heights.

We lingered at the beginnings of the Jordan River in Caesarea Philippi, caught glimpses of Mt. Hermon, floated in the Dead Sea, saw the famous cave where some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, visited En Gedi, walked the Via Dolorosa and the ramparts of the Old City of Jerusalem, and prayed at the Wailing Wall. We were part of the crowd at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We became familiar with most of the gates into and out of the Old City.

One of our favorite places to eat was a restaurant in the Muslim Quarter, and we often gathered in a coffee shop in the Christian Quarter. I bought several small paintings and prints from an artist with a shop on Cardo Street, and a piece of pottery in the Armenian Quarter.

We walked through an outside market in Jerusalem, outside the walls, and visited Yad Vashem. We saw David Ben Gurion’s modest retirement villa in Sde Boker, in the Negev Desert, walked the ruins of Beersheba, sat at the edge of Maktesh Ramon and drank in that fantastical view. We walked the Snake Path to the top of Masada, swam in the Sea of Galilee and worshiped on its northwestern shore at Tabgha, walked the summits of Mounts Arbel and Tabor, visited Cana and Nazareth and Tiberias and the Temple Mount. We walked through the Garden of Gethsemane and stood on the Mount of Olives looking back over the Kidron Valley toward the Temple Mount and Mt. Zion and the modern city rising beyond.

There are many more details. It was my trip of a lifetime, most likely.

Let’s just cut to the chase and declare the next Trump administration to be one long reality TV show.

It’s looking like all we’re gonna get is four years of drama and retribution, a tit-for-tat game of vengeance and payback. Little governance, few policy considerations other than “How can we make life miserable for Democrats and the general populace?”

Is anyone else’s spidey sense tingling? It should be!

What 75 million Americans voted for is a four-year revenge tour. Your pocketbook, your concern about inflation, your feelings that the economy “just isn’t working for you”? Trump and the rest really don’t give a shit about any of that. They’re incapable of addressing your concerns.

And besides—based on numbers from Black Friday and Cyber Monday, is the economy really that bad for you? Or were you just buying the line and regurgitating what you were hearing from Fox News and all the talking heads during the campaign?

Trump is contemplating a replacement of Hegseth with DeSantis, which is like replacing an incompetent middle schooler with a slightly less incompetent middle schooler and professional curmudgeon.

Nobody’s making this stuff up. Trump seems intent on nominating the worst possible people for important positions in what’s going to pass for an administration, but this is who he has to work with. And this is probably his intent, anyway.

It’s difficult to think of this in any way other than despicable, and that we’re on hand to witness the makings of another four-year disaster. Even, and especially if JD Vance ends up taking over.

Loyalty, patience (in some things), persistence (in other things), attention to detail, and lawn care.