From irascibility to serene

For those of us who number our life spans in a multiple of decades we've witnessed an interesting range of adjectives used to describe our Congress, from irascibility to serene. For the current Congress, albeit in its infancy, the appropriate adjective seems to be irascible: “easily provoked to anger,” and “very irritable.” These fit quite well. In fact, this may be the worst Congress in our history as it relates to trampling our nation's raison d'etre into dust.

At the other end of the spectrum of definition is another adjective: serene. Some 36 years ago, Americans enjoyed the serene presidency of Ronald Reagan, which gave us a relatively peaceful, untroubled eight years, despite some of the headline grabbing events that took place during his terms as President of the United States. Where President Reagan stood toe-to-toe with the Soviet Union over the Berlin Wall, President Donald Trump is under suspicion by the Democrats of being in some sort of sinister, unproven, league with the Soviets; one of the most sinister of the league of transgressions manufactured by the Democrats.

All the while the population is treated to a disturbing list of other manufactured sins said to being perpetrated by the President and his cronies. After the dust has settled in the wake of the presidential elections, America had returned to “business as usual” and went about its business; which has ranged from being involved in a number of wars, depressions, and recessions, to periods of peace and serenity. In most seniors' memory, never has the United States been more disunited and troubled as it is today.

On the other hand, we recently saw the Democrats defeat the Republicans 11 – 2 in the game which followed the infamous ballpark shooting. They did this without name calling and invective, but in a sportsmanlike manner which was once typical of most of America.

But this true American sportsmanship display experienced a short shelf life. By the following morning representatives of one of the political parties was spreading vitriol with abandon.

So much for the spirit of American sportsmanship; it was back to name calling. The founding fathers must be turning in their graves.

In my book...

By Dr. John Bitter

When watching television programs in which celebrities are being interviewed, practically every one of them peppers his or her appearance with sentences which begin with the words: “In my book...”

But, in reality, about the only actual writing that was done by the celebrity was writing a check to the ghost writer who actually did the recently published literary work, so writes Margaret Hartman in a recent issue of New York magazine.

As youngsters, little did we know that The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, were not written by Alexander Dumas; they were ghost written.

Likewise, the famous James Bond thrillers, were actually written by someone other than Ian Fleming.

The Hardy Boys series most youngsters enjoyed were ghost written, as was the Nancy Drew series.

Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum, Alan Greenspan, Sarah Palin, Ronald Reagan, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, Hillary Clinton, and many former presidents, with the exception of Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama, have all had someone else do the actual writing of their memoirs. They've just pocketed the royalties and taken the credit.

So, the next time you watch some celebrity on TV open every other paragraph with the words: “In my book I wrote...,” take it with a grain of salt; it's mostly an ego trip, or a sales pitch; or both.