Donald trump is a buffoon

I’m of the opinion that Donald Trump (pictured below with his real hair) is not qualified to be the President of the United States. My opinion of “the Donald” , however, has not hurt his popularity among Republican voters. According to the most recent political polls, Trump holds a commanding lead over the guy who is currently in 2nd place, Ben Carson.

Since Ted Cruz is not actually a United States citizen, I’m not sure why he is still in the race, but he is currently ranked 5th in the polls. Ultimately, of course, he’ll drop out, probably in a dramatic fashion, and he’ll be relegated to the dust bin of history.

I’m also of the opinion that all of us should be careful of how we voice our opinions, but I AM in agreement with Trump that sometimes political correctness can go too far.

In December of 2013, I published an article titled “politically correct Santa”, which took a light-hearted look at political correctness.

I also explored the more serious side of political correctness with the publication of “Niggers, Jews, and queers in February of 2014 and “Just the fact, ma’am - just the facts” in September of 2015.

Controversy has long simmered over the name of the Washington Redskins,who recently lost their federal trademark registration on the orders of a Federal judge.

Columbus Day has also generated controversy for a very long time, and further details can be found in the article posted below:

don’t shoot the messenger

In recent years, an increasing number of locations have been promoting “Indigenous People’s Day”.

4 states ( Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, and South Dakota) no longer celebrate Columbus Day, and neither do a number of cities in the United States. The city council of Minneapolis, Minnesota took a more creative approach in April of 2014, when they voted to recognize BOTH Columbus Day and Indigenous People’s Day.

One group that would NOT be in favor of eliminating Columbus Day is the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal service organization that was started in 1882. The KC’s were named in honor or Christopher Columbus, the mariner.

Columbus Day has been celebrate in America since 1792, and it is now celebrated in other countries as well. The first state to establish a holiday for Columbus Day was Colorado, in 1906. As a result of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, the day became a Federal holiday in 1934. (The group was also largely responsible for having the words “under God” added to the pledge of allegiance in 1954.)

There are a variety of reasons why some folks object to Columbus Day, but one of the most troubling reasons was that some people felt that Columbus Day was being used to expand Catholic influence. That same mindset still existed in 1960, when some of our fellow Americans voted against JFK because they were convinced that the Vatican was going to take over America.

To be honest, the celebration of Columbus Day is NOT a topic that I get very excited about. Eventually, I think that you’ll see more locations adopt the “dual holiday” method used by the city of Minneapolis, but I don’t think that you’ll ever see a time that it is eliminated as a Federal holiday.

For those folks who DO get excited by this topic, my advice is simple:

Take a deep breath, count to 10, and enjoy your day off.

Me and the President

Apart from the fact that we are both Democrats, and that I agree with a lot of his ideas, Barack Obama and I also have one other thing in common - we both got married during the first week of October.

Barack and Michelle got married on October 3, 1992, which means that TODAY is their 23rd anniversary. In view of the fact that 48% of the marriages in America last less than 20 years, that’s a pretty remarkable achievement.

According to Michelle, the secret to their longevity is not to sweat the small stuff, which seems to be pretty good advice for the rest of us as well.

If you’ve read “Why Men don’t listen, and Women Can’t read Maps” (Barbara and Alan Peace) or pretty much any other relationship book, you’ll probably come to the conclusion that men and women shouldn’t be able to live with each other at all.

If you’re interested in statistics, here’s a few facts that you might find interesting:

1) The more education that you have, the more likely you are to stay married

2) You’re far more likely to divorce if you live in a “red” state. All of the states in the top 10 for divorces are “red” states, and Nevada is on the top of the list.

3) The younger a person is when they get married, the more likely they are to get divorced

4) Iowa (the locale for the affair depicted in the “Bridges of Madison Country“ ) has the lowest divorce rate in the country

5) Arkansas has the highest rate of individuals who have been married 3 or more times, but 67% of the Republicans in America believe that gay marriage will destroy the “sanctity of marriage”. If you’ve been paying attention lately, though, you’ll know that Tide detergent can SAVE the sanctity of marriage:

leave it to Tide

Sharon and I got married on October 6, 1972, which means that we’ll be celebrating our 43rd anniversary this coming Tuesday, and a few of our friends are rapidly approaching their golden anniversary.

There really isn’t any magic formula for staying married a long time, but I still maintain that having a good belly laugh together on occasion seems to work as well as anything else.

I occasionally still fall asleep in a chair after having one too many glasses of wine, and Sharon occasionally goes shopping when she shouldn’t, but I totally agree with Michelle Obama - don’t sweat the small stuff, and you’ll get along just fine.