What's your big goal for 2026?

I'm on a mission. I've never been a big fan of the word "goal." A goal is just a wish, right? It's something you say you want, but it doesn't necessarily come with any action behind it. An objective, though—that's different. An objective has weight. It has a plan attached to it. The goal is the desire. The objective is the roadmap.

A few years ago, not long after I (temporarily, for now) left the workforce at 50, I started tinkering with the idea of building a YouTube channel as an extension of The Springboard—if you want to call it a "brand." The blog, the writing, the commentary...all the stuff I've been doing for years.

The Springboard has lived in a lot of places. This Blogspot blog under The Springboard Answers, the main blog, The Springboard itself, my presence on HubPages back when Arena Media cared about it, and a handful of other platforms that have since also dried up like HubPages recently did.

My writing always had the built-in audience. I've had well over 1 million views on my posts. It paid enough to justify the time.

For me, writing is easy. It comes very naturally to me. Videos are another story. They're harder to produce, require a skillset I don't necessarily have, and are time consuming.

You wouldn't believe how long it actually takes to make even a short 5-minute video from start to finish. Needless to say, it's an entirely different beast.

So, at the time, I paused. Or shelved it. Or perhaps procrastinated. You pick the verb.

The final coffin nail, or motivator if you will, was when HubPages pulled the plug. In the writing world, I had been there for almost 16 years, and it was my main source of income from any of my writing efforts, despite higher view counts from Blogspot.

Despite millions of views, Blogspot just doesn't have the goods when it comes to money. And that's just me being honest. It's not to say I do any of this for the money. I love to share my thoughts and perspectives. Writing is something I feel like I almost have to do, just as much as my heart has to beat.

But the pursuit of anything taken seriously needs to have a monetary element to it to keep doing it, right? That's just the nuts-and-bolts reality of things. The more money you can make doing something the more time you can afford to spend doing it, of course.

So, the thought occurred to me that if I am going to put in the time for little reward (as it is now), I might as well put that time into something with a higher ceiling. Which brought me back to YouTube. But this time with intention. With purpose. With actual ambition.

I mean, think of it. What would a million views mean for me from something like YouTube vs. any of the writing efforts? And if I could achieve that doing that, why couldn't I translate that into something as equally successful on YouTube?

Now, before I go any further, if you've followed me for any length of time, you know I'm also into music. Truth be told, I'm actually a bit of a polymath, but that's for another day. I've released an album and a few singles over the years. Look up Pink Flamingoes on Spotify or any music streaming service and you'll find me—yes, spelled wrong on purpose.

The reason behind the misspelling, again, for another day.

When I dipped my toes back into YouTube, I actually started a brand-new channel. Synthetic Echoes. It's basically AI meets original music. I run my songs through Suno, turn them into music videos, and the whole idea from idea to upload is faster, and maybe even a little more fun.

But somewhere along the way—after batching videos on Synthetic Echoes into March, after watching HubPages collapse, after realizing Blogspot was never going to pay the bills—I thought maybe it's time to return to The Springboard channel and give it a real shot.

A serious shot.

So that's what I'm doing. With a new objective. Get monetized in 2026. Through either channel—Synthetic Echoes or The Springboard. Preferably both. I have my reasons, trust me. But the point is to pursue them with actual intent.

That goes for all of my social media presence by the way. My Facebook fan pages. My TikTok. My X account. All of them.

This wasn't a New Year's resolution. I gave up on those ages ago. My last resolution was to never make resolutions again, and ironically, that's the only one I've ever successfully kept.

Will it happen? Who knows. Growth is slow. Painfully slow. But I'm seeing signs of life. The Springboard channel went from 23 leftover subscribers to 31 in just a couple of weeks. Synthetic Echoes went from zero to 8 in about a month.

Meanwhile, I'm breathing new life into my main YouTube channel—the one with almost 1,500 subscribers—by posting AI videos and other fun stuff even though it's considered my "artist" channel. And my TikTok, sitting at nearly 1,400 followers, is still kicking. At some point, I think all of these efforts might converge into something meaningful.

Will I hit the objective? Maybe. I've got a plan now. I've got direction. And I've got more determination than I've had in a long time. The world is competitive. The platforms are crowded. But anything can happen.

Besides, what do I have to lose when all is said and done? Some time. Maybe a little pride. That's about it. The upside, though? The upside could be huge. If I manage to monetize even one of these channels in the coming months...

That could be a game changer.

The Springboard on YouTube

Synthetic Echoes on YouTube

Jim Bauer on YouTube

Jim Bauer on X

The Springboard Fan Page on Facebook

Jim Bauer on TikTok

© 2026 Jim Bauer

Are you giving HubPages a trial run?

If anyone has followed me for any length of time, they are aware that I also write for a site called HubPages, of which I have been a member for many years. I did take a few hiatuses from the site, as things changed here and there that I wasn't all that comfortable with.

But I always found myself eventually making my way back. 

I mean, consider that the money's better there than it has ever been here at BlogSpot. It is what it is. I don't write primarily for the money. I like doing it. But let's face it—you still have to keep the lights on.

But there does seem to be a bit of "trouble in paradise" at HubPages as it seems problems are beginning that might be the markings of the beginning of the end. They haven't stopped paying. No, that's not it. But the status page is broken, and they haven't updated it, for going on three months, as I write this.

There are questions looming about whether HubPages is now considering going kaput, a decision that would be made by the parent company that owns it, The Arena Group. We haven't heard anything official, but of course, we're not stupid and it's not like we can't see that the potential writing may be on the wall, here.

Naturally, I hope that's not the case. Like I said, I like the site.

I did write an article for the site shortly after the statuses got stuck called An Innocent Woman? The Belleville McDonald's Shooting Incident, and it did get accepted for publication and did also become a featured article, a designation that simply puts the article in a "high quality" status that the site gives more attention to regarding internal promotion.

So, despite the stuck status updates, at least that part is still working. Or, I should say, it was working then. I wrote that article two months ago a couple of weeks into the statuses being stuck.

Needless to say, because the status updates are still stuck, and there's been no real communication from the powers that be on what's going on, or whether it's really being worked on to unstick them, it has made me a bit reluctant to pour my heart and soul into anything to publish there.

Who wants their efforts to be all for naught, right?

But, there was something that I wanted to talk about that I felt was just more suitable to the HubPages format, and thought well, maybe I will be doing this for nothing, but I'm going to give it a whirl anyway, and see what happens.

Will the article get accepted? Will it become featured? Or is that now broken too? I suppose I will know soon enough. Perhaps you will too. 

Thing is, it generally takes about two days to get accepted, and another few days for the article to be "classified." I have my profile settings set to only show featured articles. So, if one were to visit my HubPages profile, if it is ultimately published, but more importantly, featured, which most of my articles are ultimately, then it will show up there.

I guess we will have to wait and see. Is it on my HubPages profile now, or does it forever live in limbo? 

I suppose at the end of the day, whatever happens, it will tell me more than I know now about at least the status of the site and how they are handling future articles that appear there. It will also tell me if I need to begin to set the wheels in motion to find a new home for my work.

Like the things I write about or the way I write about them? Follow me on my Facebook page to keep up with my latest writings wherever I may write them. Want to help me keep the lights on? Consider the next time you are headed over to Amazon, using my link. I get a little something for every purchase you make, and it is greatly appreciated.

©2025 Jim Bauer

Walmart, Can You Ever Get it Right?

It forever pains me to have to complain about Walmart customer service since I have long been a shareholder and customer of their stores, and most of the time, take Walmart with a grain of salt and still shop there anyway.

I think that's probably true for most of us. We shop there because, hey...the prices, right? But is that enough for the company to really sustain itself over the long haul? I mean, at some point isn't someone else going to come along? Another brilliant mind like Sam Walton was, for example, to come along and take the retail world by storm and firmly plant themselves as the new retail leader and knock everyone else out of their way?

What does it take, after all to build a great business that succeeds against the competition? Simply to find a problem and offer a solution, and Walmart seems to present enough problems, most of which aren't really all that hard to solve, to make way for someone to do just that.

Take today. My wife and I were shopping at the Belleville Walmart at Green Mount Commons and saw that avocados were priced at 50 cents. A bargain, if you ask me. So, we bought four of them. Just a few weeks ago they were 60 cents, and so we thought, "The deal just got better."

Lo and behold, when our order was rung up, the avocados came out to be 70 cents each. Not the advertised 50 cents.

I wasn't all that concerned about the 20 cents. 70 cents is still a fair deal. I went over to customer service and told the girl working behind the customer service desk, Saria, that their sign was wrong. I did not ask for a discount or even a refund. I simply wanted them to know about the error so they could fix the sign.

Saria seemed very off put and annoyed by me taking time out of her day to do her customer service job and pretty much blew me off with a snide, "I will let someone know," before huffing and walking away.

Normally, I'd have left it at that. Okay, fine. I did my part. It's up to the other customers to check their receipts and pose their own questions about what they were charged. But her attitude prompted me to go back to the avocado bin and snap a picture of the sign to bring back and show her.

I went back and another girl was about to assist me when Saria turned, and I simply directed her to my phone to make it clear the sign was wrong. "I told the team lead about it," she said, not in a nice way, rolled her eyes, and walked away.

I have no idea if the sign was changed. I tried to call my Walmart store an hour or so later to speak with a manager just to make him or her aware and make sure the sign was fixed. I'm not a Karen. Not even a Darren. I just felt Saria was not taking the matter seriously and felt I was simply looking out for other customers who might load up on avocados 20 cents more than the sign said they were.

But of course, getting hold of customer service proved to be impossible. After 100 rings I gave up, only to ring through to the pharmacy on a second round, and was told they cannot transfer calls from there, and good luck getting hold of customer service.

They can't get hold of them either and all the phone does is ring and ring and ring.

Too often, it's the customer service area that is lacking at Walmart, and it seems like such an easy problem to fix, it makes you wonder why they don't? How long are customers going to give Walmart business just because, and is that really a long-term business strategy? Again, as a shareholder, this concerns me. Why make it so easy for another Sam Walton to come along and make a better Walmart? Worse, when the economy improves, and it will, there may be many customers willing to pay a premium price for better service. 

Oh well. Like I said, it wasn't that big of a deal to me that the avocados were more than advertised. What was a big deal to me was the response.

Like the way I write or the things I write about? Follow me on my Facebook page to keep up with the latest writings wherever I may write them.

©2025 Jim Bauer

Why does writing for Blogspot suck?

Okay, so that may sound a bit harsh at first glance considering I have been writing for Blogspot for a very long time and have at least two current active blogs on here, the main one being The Springboard where I write most often. And the fact that I absolutely love the way the platform is set up to post. It's nice and simple, and easy to work with.

I have also built a strong audience of readers, and through the years my posts have received hundreds of thousands of views—that's all potential ad loads and from those numbers, you would think that the blogs earn a considerable amount of ad revenue money.

They don't. In fact, Blogspot is the worst performing of any writing platform I have ever been on. Which is strange to me considering it is directly tied to the biggest ad platform in the world, Google AdSense.

If Blogspot ads worked like they do at another site I write at that receives a significant number of views as well, HubPages, my ad revenue would be in the high hundreds, if not thousands per month. And I would write more often on HubPages if HubPages was more geared towards what I want to mostly write.

Blogs.

HubPages is more geared towards longer length, evergreen articles. Which is another reason Blogspot is more suitable to the kinds of things I write about, which are timelier and have a shorter lifespan. It requires less formatting, and I can just sit down and write my thoughts and keep it rather simple.

So, it's a double-edged sword. Blogspot offers less in terms of monetary value, by a lot, but does offer exposure in other ways, which sort of helps to make up the difference—although, other places I write also have different audiences, so it's not exactly a direct shot for readers going back and forth from one place to another. Even here, with the Springboard Answers, it's a different audience from The Springboard, and a different audience from HubPages.

It has even been difficult to transfer my Springboard audience from the main blog to my YouTube channel which directly correlates with the material on The Springboard—and while my audience is quite large based on the numbers, few people follow my Facebook Springboard page either, where I post links to almost all of the writings I do.

Part of it could be that because most of my "work" on Blogspot happens to be political in nature, there just isn't the same availability of ad revenue there to make the payoff. Either way, there is a mix of financial and stock market opinion that exists both here and on The Springboard that one might think could also make up the difference—but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I should point out that my assertions here are not complaints. They are simply observations, and perhaps a bit of reflection as well. As I said before, I simply love the Blogspot platform and write on it more than anywhere else despite the real downfalls of doing that.

But it also highlights just how hard it is to actually make a living blogging, even when you have close to a million views and a large audience—some more loyal than others.

Sure, I could attempt to monetize the blogs in other ways. For example, make more Amazon affiliate offers. Ask for donations. Sell merch. All of those things are technically possible. But not necessarily practical, at least not for my blogs and the things I write about. That's generally the best way to maximize earnings if you have a large enough audience on YouTube. Perhaps sponsors might want to reach out for endorsements of products and services, but that doesn't translate well on blogs either.

Either way, I will continue to use Blogspot despite the misgivings, and frankly, the disappointment I have with the monetary value of doing what I do here. If it remains to be nothing more than a labor of love, that still works for me. 

It's still fun to have ears and eyes on what I do even if it doesn't add up to dollars and cents.

Like the way I write or the things I write about? Consider following me on my Facebook page to keep up with the latest writings wherever I may write them.

© 2024 Jim Bauer

The Springboard on HubPages:

What if Bob Joyce Really Was the King of Rock and Roll?

Whoever Pastor Bob Joyce really is, his story rekindles the imagination for many people that the King of Rock and Roll never really died, and the legend, and the legacy lives on through him.

How I Went From Navigations to Ship's Stores on the USS Enterprise

My time in the United States Navy was supposed to go very differently. Yet even though it didn't necessarily happen the way I thought it would, what I experienced nonetheless was something I will never forget, and certainly never regret.

What Are the Drones Doing Over Our Heads?

Despite reassurances, the mystery of the drones over New York and New Jersey has imaginations running wild. Until we have some answers, it's anyone's guess why they are there and what they are up to, leaving growing public concern and speculation.

If you'd like to see the entire table of contents at The Springboard on HubPages, you can click here to see my full profile and catalog of articles published there.

What did you think of Charlie's Off Main in Belleville, IL?

Charlie's Off Main is a historic restaurant and bar in downtown Belleville, IL that recently reopened its doors after a pretty extensive renovation, and being from Wisconsin, where we love our fish fries, ever since moving to southern Illinois, finding a proper fish fry is impossible. So, when I heard that Charlie's was serving up a Stag beer battered haddock, I was sold on the idea that very soon I'd be giving them a try.

And last night we did exactly as my wife and I met up with my sister and brother-in-law for a couple's night out for some dinner and drinks.

It was a Saturday night and when we walked in, the place was full of people and bustling. We told the hostess we'd have a party of four, and were told it would be about a 25-minute wait since we wanted a table.

Our wait time was what we were promised, give or take a few minutes.

Meanwhile we sat at the bar and service was attentive and good, although when my sister and brother-in-law arrived and were conversing behind us, standing, I did have to flag down the bartender who had walked past several times not acknowledging them for them to order some drinks.

Granted, the place was very busy.

My wife and I ordered the fish and chips, which was the Stag beer battered haddock with a side of fries and a small sauce container of cole slaw. 

Overall, I thought the fish was a bit overcooked, and for $20 I expected more than one filet. But it was still good, even if the portion size and being overcooked a bit missed the mark. They could have spared more than a couple of tablespoons of cole slaw as well, although there were plenty of fries.

It was no Wisconsin beer battered fish fry, but not something I won't have again. Perhaps it's something to order on a less busy night when the cook has more time to tend the fryer.

My only other complaint was being served our fish on metal platters lined with paper. I'd have preferred it served on a plate, as the paper is thin and cutting into the fish, the paper was tearing, and I am sure I probably ate some bits of paper with some of my fish.

Overall, our experience was good, and I thought the place had a nice atmosphere even if it was rather loud. They also have plenty of other menu items, and so on our next visit there we may certainly try other offerings.

If I were to rate them, it would be as follows:

Service: 4 stars
Atmosphere: 3 stars
Prices: 3 stars
Quality of our platters: 3 stars
Portion size: 2 stars

Despite our minor issues we had, I think Charlie's Off Main is a fantastic place for a night out and I would recommend giving them a try.

Like the way I write or the things I write about? Follow me on my Facebook page to keep up with the latest writings wherever I may write them.

© 2024 Jim Bauer

It's the Low Information Voter and Idiots Who Are Scared

There are what we like to call low information voters and then there are idiots, and some people are a little combination of both.

Hey, I am not trying to be mean. I am just trying to keep it real.

I am referring to a recent post I saw on Facebook following the very real realization that our 47th president would be Donald J. Trump. The post simply read, "We are fucked," followed by "the economy is about to be messed up."

First of all, what economy are you referring to? The one where median income has been whittled down to nothing due to 40-year high inflation? That economy? The economy littered with myriad retail and fast-food jobs because someone decided we didn't need good manufacturing ones, or oil and pipeline jobs that pay at minimum $70,000-$120,000 a year? The economy where housing is practically unaffordable at any income level and people have racked up credit card debt in record trillions of dollars just to pay bills and buy groceries? 

Look, the reality is that there are two people who have not really been touched all that much in this economy. The rich who have the money to deal with it, and the poor who are given the money to deal with it.

And that's not to disparage the rich or the poor. It's simply to make a point. Some people won't feel the economy in the way that say, the blue-collar middle-class working families will, who bear the full brunt of everything.

If you are living on rental assistance and food stamps, not only are you less impacted by the economy, but you are also insulated from it as well because, of course, it's not your money.

The post had other comments of course, as well, citing a wide range of things. But come on, how it is a bad thing that we will once again have a secure border? What's so bad about declaring energy independence and using our natural resources as a source for fueling a better economy that we can all benefit from?

We can't kill inflation. It already happened. But we can stall it dramatically if we can bring the cost of things down by bringing down the cost of energy which is baked into higher prices in a very big way. Trump's going to do that. Harris had no interest in it. They wanted more solar and more windmills, while at the same time denying adding to grids to produce all the power we need to fuel the electric everything technology they want to curb fake climate change initiatives.

Look, I could comment all day on all the benefits of a Trump administration. But I know my audience. I'd just be preaching to the choir. We know what they are. All I will say is that people who think we would have been better off with Kamala Harris in office clearly have their heads buried deeply in the sand and either are beneficiaries of government subsidy in one form or another, or like I alluded to before, are simply stupid.

Open borders. High crime and looting. Appointment of soft on crime prosecutors and judges. 40-year high inflation. Gas and energy prices straddling hardworking Americans. Poverty at all-time highs. Men competing in women's sports. Boys in girl's locker rooms, bathrooms and showers. Median income decimated. Businesses struggling to survive due to ridiculous minimum wage laws.

I could go on and on.

That is what we voted against. That's why Harris lost. Because nobody wants any of those things. We are not fucked. That already happened over the past four years. If Harris had won is when we'd have really been fucked.

As for people now wanting to say they want to move to Canada, I say pack your bags and go. Canada is already there when it comes to liberal policy. They are way ahead of us. If that's what you wanted, they have already done it. If you need an Amazon link for some nice luggage, let me know. I'd be happy to provide it.

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© 2024 Jim Bauer

Has Dawn changed its formula?

My wife and I tend not to be brand loyal people, although there are a few things we do tend to stick with. Rain-X windshield washer fluid, for example. It works great and I like the way it beads rain on the windshield. We also prefer Cottonelle brand toilet paper.

Years ago, we also stuck with Dawn dishwashing detergent. We had used several brands before it, and nothing would last as long in the sink or bust down grease better than Dawn, hands down.

But I think over the years they must have changed the formula, because I have not been impressed. The soap doesn't last as long through a round of dishes and barely cuts grease like it used to. In fact, it is quite noticeable how much less effective Dawn is at cutting grease than it used to be.

It can't just be my imagination. It is quite a noticeable difference. I should note that I started seeing this difference before inflation, so I don't necessarily think "shrinkflation" in the sense that they have watered down the product to increase margins is the cause.

This was an intentional effort to change the product but still sell it and market it as the same product. But I don't think it is.

As a result, Dawn dishwashing detergent has pretty much lost our business, and we will switch to a cheaper value brand from now on. We were willing to pay the premium for the brand name because it worked. But if the product no longer works, it's not worth the added cost. Plain and simple.

Businesses do these things and have this idea that customers will not notice the changes. But we do. And when we are sure changes were made, we make changes as well to our buying habits, and it seems to me that businesses should be aware of this.

It takes years to build a loyal customer but only seconds to lose one.

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© Jim Bauer 

Do you ever do the math on eggs, or just buy them?

Well, by math what I mean is, comparing the price of different sized cartons. Generally, when you think of eggs you think of them in terms of one dozen. But of course, you can buy them in cartons of 18, and 36 when you buy the twin packs at Walmart, for example.

I always do the math because I want to know if there is a better deal or not if I buy them one way or the other, or if they are sold somewhere else at a different price that I am aware of.

So, if I want to know how much per dozen an 18-pack of eggs costs, I divide the price of the carton by 18, and then multiply by 12.

Let's say the 18-packs costs $3.49. $3.49 divided by 18 equals 0.1938 cents per egg times 12 equals $2.33 per dozen.

In this example, I know the price per dozen at Ruler Foods happens to be $1.99 per dozen, so they are cheaper than the bulk 18-pack at Walmart. 

Unit cost is what I am almost always concerned with when it comes to comparing food prices, and it helps to guide me in the right direction when making purchasing decisions. Is it a good deal or isn't it? I can't know unless I do the comparisons.

Comparing ounces, pounds and so on and so forth is very helpful in knowing whether one price is presenting more value than the other.

I may use these comparisons in other ways as well. For example, buying a box of instant mashed potatoes. Say the box costs $2.99 and is 8 ounces. That's roughly $1.50 per pound. But I can buy a 10 pound of potatoes for $3.99 or 39 cents per pound. Even if I add in the butter and milk and any other ingredients, aside from the additional time it may take to make mashed potatoes from scratch, clearly the better value is the raw potato sack.

One final piece of trivia if you were curious, going back to eggs for a moment. One dozen eggs weighed on a scale is roughly 1.11 pounds. If you account for the shells, which you don't eat, the yield of a dozen eggs is about one pound. You can use that as a guage to compare whether you want hamburgers or scrambled eggs for dinner one night.

Like the way I write or the things I write about? Follow me on my Facebook page to keep up with the latest writings wherever I may write them? Have a question you'd like me to try to answer, leave it in the comments and I'll see if I can tackle it.

© 2024 Jim Bauer

What Are The Pitfalls of Being A Conservative Blogger?

I hope what I am going to say doesn't disappoint. It's not about the lack of money. It's there. It's not about the lack of an audience. It's definitely there. It's not even about getting hate mail or being lambasted and ridiculed in other places by people who disagree with me all over the Internet.

It is that politics is a constantly moving thing, and the news cycle is fast and furious. 

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Just as soon as you digest the news of the day, analyze it, and then spit out your commentary and observations about it, it's pretty much old news already and very quickly people have moved on to the next thing.

At best, your posts will have a life cycle of about a week. But most begin to die off rather swiftly after a day or two.

It just means you really have to love what you do and be okay with having to do it constantly. It's a lot of material. It's a lot of time spent. And it's of course a lot of writing that has to happen. How much of the stuff that gets written is evergreen?

Hardly any of it.

It does surprise me how often older posts do still get reads though on subject matter that when you look at it, should no longer be of interest to anyone. Yet, someone searched for it and ultimately someone found their way to it.

Maybe it's to research something? Or perhaps some people just enjoy the history of it?

Take Herman Cain as an example. Not only is he long out of politics, but he is also dead. Yet time and time again I see reads on posts about Herman Cain and his presidential campaign efforts from years ago.

Remember his 9-9-9 plan?

The point is that it's just an ongoing effort that sometimes you do find exhausting, and some days you do scratch your head a bit and wonder, "Is it all worth it? Wouldn't it just be better to write something that has no time stamp on it and let that just earn for you forever?"

Even going back and rereading certain older material to see if you can rehash some of it and make it new again can be a fruitless effort, because it's all directly tied to the news of that day when it was written. There's not a lot that can be recycled. Even funny lines or phrases often don't have any lasting value.

At the same time, I do feel like it is still an important thing to do. That is, to write about these things anyway and be able to share my thoughts and perspectives. People do read them, and hopefully they also walk away from some of it with a different take on things that maybe they wouldn't have otherwise considered.

Being a conservative blogger certainly presents its challenges. All of it is worth it in the end though. Besides, when one is a writer, I guess it doesn't matter what you write about or the work that goes into it, or even who it reaches or for how long. You're going to do it anyway.

There may be some days when conservative blogging can seem aimless. But it does still have a purpose. And even if I am only fulfilling that purpose for a day or two after I run my mouse over that publish button, I know that each post may be but a small ripple in a vast ocean of discourse, sparking thought, debate, and perhaps even change.

However short lived that happens to be. I'll take it.

THE WRITER'S LIFE

"Like that elderly man in that tiny studio apartment, one never stops doing it. Because writing is more of a thing a writer must do to exist than to eat. The words within them are as much a part of their being and as vital to their survival as the next beat of their heart. When the words come, they must find their way onto an empty page."

Like the way I write or the things I write about? Follow me on my Facebook page to keep up with the latest writings wherever I may write them.

© 2024 Jim Bauer

What Are Your Thoughts on Trump Media?

I am a Trump supporter, but as an investor, I simply find the Trump Media stock to be weird. Not in a strange way like, "This is a really weird thing." But more in the way that it moves.

I have been investing for several decades and the stock makes little sense to me, at least as an investment.

To me it's acting more like a gauge of voter sentiment than a stock—or moreover a gauge of voter sentiment when it comes to Trump supporters. How many democrats do you think own the stock? I'd guess very few, if any.

Take the most recent dip following the debate. It's not like anything has changed with regard to the company itself. Profitability hasn't changed, there's nothing moving the stock up or down except what shareholders, who are no doubt tied to Trump politically, feel are Trump's chances of winning.

I think it is also a way for shareholders to indicate in a very direct way whether they like what Trump is doing or not.

"We sold our shares," they say. "Because we thought you did not perform well enough during the debate and we want you to step up your game, sir."

I won't begrudge the company or its shareholders. They can do what they want with their shares and their investment. But it is not supposed to have anything to do with the valuation of the underlying business, and by all measures, the company is grossly overvalued, with the stock moving for reasons that are not tied at all to the business.

Whether or not Truth Social or Trump Media has a future, even, is debatable. I guess it would depend on what happens in November and how much interest anyone would have in Trump's social media page after the fact, especially if he loses to Kamala Harris. So, for that reason, to even call it an investment seems like a bit of a stretch.

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© 2024 Jim Bauer

Should There Be Another Presidential Debate?

Well, I think so even if Trump is on the fence about it for the moment. An offer has been put out there by Fox News, and certainly Fox News could be fairer to the former president and harder on the vice president than ABC's moderators were.

Trump is adamant that he won the debate. I think on a technical level he's right. But I think in the eyes of most, only accounting for the debate performances themselves, Harris won.

A technical win, you say?

Here's the thing. We already know who Trump is. And that's true no matter which side of the aisle you are on. Even the independents and the undecided voters know who Trump is. Who they were at the debate to see was Kamala Harris.

Well, because she's the supposed "new and improved" Kamala Harris, complete with a whole new package of goods she's selling.

I think what the independents and undecideds wanted to know more than anything is how she would explain her sudden changes of policy. Of course, that never happened because David Muir and Linsey Davis, who moderated the debate, pretty much spent the whole night grilling Trump and giving Harris a pass.

Unfortunately, the technicalities aren't what matters in debates like this. It's about how you look. It's about how you perform. It's about how you answer the questions, or don't.

Trump had some good responses. But he did lose focus more than once, and I think one of the greatest opportunities he missed was to lash back at Harris after she brought up that confounded border bill Trump was against, that the media adamantly refuses to not tell the truth about.

The fact is that the Biden administration never needed the bill to secure the border. Just as easily as, on day one, Biden sat behind his desk in the Oval Office and reversed all of Trump's border policies, he could have sat behind that same desk and restored them.

Trump could have said that. Trump should have made that abundantly clear. But he didn't, and that was a serious missed opportunity, I think, that (at least in the eyes of some voters) mooted his other points about the seriousness of the border issue even though I still think most people get it.

Trump's take is essentially that he won. For him, that's all he needs to know. As he told Sean Hannity after the debate, the only time you ask for a rematch is if you think you've lost. But again, he only won on technical basis.

Granted, it may still be way too early to say whether or not the debate had any impact on either candidate. Polls will have to be done, and we probably won't know any real answers on that until days later.

Harris had a good day. At least for all intents and purposes—again, regardless of whether or not anything she said was true or could be taken at face value. That's not the point. So close to the election and with this crazy roller coaster ride getting wilder and wilder, I don't think Trump should pass up any opportunity to do a debate and get his message out, and potentially expose Harris for what she really is.

A complete fraud.

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© 2024 Jim Bauer

Do You Think Price Gouging is Real? No. But Neither Do Democrats, Really

It has been one of the key issues touted by the Kamala Harris campaign that she wants to propose a ban on price gouging, especially when it comes to food prices, laying down the claim that grocers have been taking advantage of customers by keeping prices artificially high.

There are two issues here with this. For one, price gouging is not happening and is not the cause of higher grocery bills. For two, it's a theory that, whether true or not, resonates with a good number of people. Especially Democrat voters who tend to view big business as greedy and corrupt.

What it should tell voters is that the administration Harris is a part of does not want to accept blame for inflation, which their policies are clearly responsible for, and thus, without acknowledging the real problem, going forward they cannot adequately address fixing the problem.

Granted, it may not matter. Inflation is coming down. The whole thing, in the end, may simply be no more than a moot point and a campaign talking point.

But the reality is that even most Democrats either don't think the claim is true or have no confidence that even if an attempt was made to institute a ban that it would ever get anywhere in Congress. It is doubtful that even Harris is all that serious about the claim.

She has to know it's not true.

The one thing that remains to be true, and is a key consideration here, about the grocery industry, and this has not changed at all since inflation began to rear its ugly head, is that grocers run on razor-thin margins of anywhere between 1%-3%. If price gouging were happening, those margins would be higher than normal. But they're not.

The bottom line is that prices have gone up because the cost of bringing them to market has gone up. From raw materials to the cost of manufacturing and higher labor costs, to higher transport costs—that's what behind the higher prices.

First of all, in order to make a ban on gouging even worth doing is you have to prove it is occurring. Once you scour a balance sheet it will be clear it isn't happening, and again, the whole idea becomes moot.

You can't impose a ban on something that doesn't exist, and therefore, even if a ban was in place, it would do nothing to lower prices.

And where are these record profits? Maybe grocer's bottom lines have been boosted a bit. But in lock step with inflation? Not hardly. According to the USDA, food prices between 2019-2023 have risen by 25%, yet at the same time grocer's profits have only risen by 6%. That's hardly a rout against the consumer.

What is the whole idea, really? It is a deflection. Harris knows inflation has angered voters across all aisles, and she doesn't want the blame for it. If she can convince voters it's the evil, nasty corporations causing the problem she can maybe get a pass on the whole thing.

Ultimately, not only is the idea dead on arrival, but any plans also to make a ban possible are as well. It's a lie. It's smoke and mirrors. It's a passing of the buck. She knows it, and so do the Democrats as a whole. 

Passing a price gouging ban stands no chance of ever seeing the light of day.

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© 2024 Jim Bauer

Do You Want to Make Money Talking About Nothing?

Back in the day the Internet used to be quite ubiquitous with opportunities to "write" things and get paid. I put the word, "write," in quotations because it's not writing like writing poetry, short stories, or even articles or blogs.

It's social media kind of writing. Similar to what one might do when they post something on X or Facebook. The difference between those sites and the other ones was that you got paid for it.

But the premise was the same. You could talk about your day, an experience you had, share what you had for dinner or pretty much anything you wanted to talk about. And like I said, sites like this were ubiquitous. 

Sites like Bubblews, DailyTwoCents, PersonaPaper, Niume, and even a site like WebAnswers, which was a question-and-answer site, were quite popular, and people did actually make a decent amount of money doing it even if it was not life changing money, nor enough to replace a regular income.

Oh, but it got close. 

Bubblews, for example, allowed people to make sometimes a hundred dollars or more a month, and the same could be true of WebAnswers which was tied directly to Google AdSense and generated a lot of cash for users.

If you were on multiple sites combined, as I was, income could be really good. Close to $1,000 a month, and I am not joking about this.

On top of that, if you could actually write, there were other places like HubPages that were open to writers, and some of the top writers in a place like that could actually make an income akin to a job. Or pretty darn close to it.

But of course, this was back in the day and all of the sites I mentioned, with the exception of HubPages, no longer exists. Part of the issue was always the pay structures. The site owners essentially paid too much, and I think the idea was that eventually one of these sites would be able to go public, find new sources of income, and be able to become platforms open to the public that could offer alternative sustainable incomes for people.

The idea is mostly dead, unfortunately, save for one site that I am aware of that remains. That would be myLot.

Surprisingly, it's become a rather small community despite having been around for nearly 20 years. But it still pays, although it's a tiny amount. Payouts occur each month so long as a member has earned at least $5, and on average, depending on user activity, people generally earn between 10 cents and 25 cents a day.

So, it's hardly a job. But it is a fun place that is fun to write about anything, and have interactions with different viewpoints and cultures from around the world.

Call it an electronic pen pal site if you will. 

Each post is called a discussion, and what they are essentially, are conversations among "friends." And it does happen to be a very tightknit community. People really get to know each other.

If you are looking for a place to share your thoughts and ideas and life with others and get paid for it, myLot might be just the place to give a try. Whether it sticks around for a long time to come is up in the air. But considering it has survived longer than any other of the sites like it says something about its successful model to at least keep the doors open as long as it has.

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© 2024 Jim Bauer

Could RFKJr. Help Donald Trump?

The short answer is yes. He can. The thing is that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s campaign has started suggesting that he may drop out of the presidential race and endorse Trump. Granted, that's quite a bit up in the air as we speak.

But it would also make sense, if you think about it, if he actually did that, and Donald Trump has already publicly said he would strongly consider RFKJr. for a cabinet position. That would be quite a bit more likely if RFKJr. actually did decide to go to Trump's side.

We already know that Kennedy has been very much opposed to the policies and direction of the Biden administration. It's part of the reason he ran in the first place. And he's no fan of Kamala Harris, either. And he has also said that if he does decide to drop out, he has no plans to endorse Harris.

So, what else is left to do? If he believes Biden was wrong for America and that Harris is no better, what's the other option but to endorse Trump?

One thing Kennedy was able to accomplish was to be a more serious alternative candidate in the race. Perhaps he does not have as much pull as, say, Ross Perot did in 1992—remember, he actually made the debate stage between Bush and Clinton—but believing that Kennedy could get as much as 5% of the vote if he stayed in the race is not far removed from possibility.

Perot won roughly 18% of the popular vote, although he won no electoral college votes.

If what we are talking about here truly is a neck-to-neck race between Trump and Harris, if RFKJr. does step aside and endorse Trump, while certainly not all of Kennedy's supporters would rush to Trump, his strongest supporters likely would. And he has many.

It would be enough to greatly turn the tables against Harris who he helps if he stays in.

The bottom line is that it is definitely too early to call anything. But it certainly adds yet another element to the entire race that makes it rather more interesting, in what has already been a very interesting election.

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© 2024 Jim Bauer

What Did You Think About the George Stephanopoulos Interview with Joe Biden?

He nailed it!

No. He really did. George Stephanopoulos nailed his one-on-one sit down with President Joe Biden. Unlike the usual fare of softball questions, you expect from the media whenever they sit down with a Democrat in the White House, these were some hard questions.

There was no room here for things like, "So, Mr. Obama, are you thinking the Knicks might win that game tonight?" or, "So tell me Joe. You're at Baskin Robbins. Are you having butternut crunch or mint chocolate chip?"

This one will be one for the history books when historians of the future look back on this very unique political landscape we've been living in for going on eight years. 

In the days of old, the excuse posed by the White House, that he simply traveled too much before the debate and was tired, would have been easily accepted. Nothing to see here, folks. The president has just worn himself thin working hard for America's best interests.

But Stephanopoulos didn't let Biden pull that punch. "You did have a tough month," he allowed. "But you came home from Europe 11 or 12 days before the debate, spent six days in Camp David. Why wasn't that enough rest time? Enough recovery time?"

"I was sick," Biden chimed back. "I just had a really bad cold."

While I think Stephanopoulos maybe should have pursued that a bit further—we've all been sick and have had bad colds, but we could still mostly function—I'll give him a pass. There's limited time in these interviews, and there were tougher questions to come.

And much more important things to weigh in on and have the president respond to.

Biden tried to point to Trump to help explain his bad debate performance. He talked about all the lies Trump was allegedly telling and went on to say that it was a distraction. And again, normally the media may have given a pass and shook their head yes and said, "Yeah. Sure. I can see how that could be a bit jarring. How do you respond to such lies in two minutes?"

"But," Stephanopoulos responded, "It seemed like you were having trouble from the first question in, even before he spoke."

Slam dunk!

Time to put the onus on you, Mr. President. We all saw how Trump performed. We can agree or disagree about the lies you said he told. Fine and good. But what about you? We're talking about you and how badly you performed, and there's a much bigger question here that the American people have, and it's not the question about whether or not Trump told the truth. It's about why you couldn't answer the questions and gather your thoughts. 

The American people want to know about Joe Biden. Is he fit to lead? Can he endure another four years? Is he in mental decline as so many people suspect he is? Can he be the president?

In other words, Mr. President, this interview is giving you an opportunity to try to reassure the American people that you can do the job you're asking to be rehired to do. It's not about Trump anymore, Mr. President. He's not the bigger worry. 

You are, and you have to give it to us straight with no fluff. No smoke and mirrors. No deflections. Just the facts, plain and simple.

One glaringly good question from Stephanopoulos came when he asked if Biden had ever undergone a cognitive test and whether or not he would be willing to take one. An important question considering the suspicions of mental decline, the continued assertions there aren't any, and the fact that so many Americans are questioning that.

Why not just take the test and let the American people know the results, and then go on to make whatever judgement they want to about what's behind the lapses and mumbles and slurred speech, or whatever other signs might be pointing to something not being right about the president?

The fact that Joe Biden essentially said no, he would not do a test is very telling. "Look, I have a cognitive test every single day," Joe Biden said. While Stephanopoulos didn't fully take on that answer with something like, "Well, and in the eyes of the American people you are failing that cognitive test every single day," he didn't give it a complete pass either.

"And you have been doing that and the American people have been watching, yet their concern about your age and your health are growing," Stephanopoulos pointed out. In other words, you keep telling us you're good and we should just take your word for it. But people aren't convinced. 

"That's why I'm asking. To reassure them. Would you be willing to have the independent evaluation?"

Biden went on to insist he won't take the test and that they (the American people) will make their decision.

Stephanopoulos did suggest that perhaps the American people have already made that decision. Trump is winning in all the polls and handily. And Biden's approval ratings remain abysmally low. "Mr. President, I've never seen a president with a 36% approval rating get reelected."

Biden simply denies the polls are true.

All said, the interview was a knock-down one with question after poignant question lobbed at the president. A no holds barred event chock full of what I think are very revealing answers to questions so many Americans have about Biden's fitness to lead, and most importantly where his thoughts are regarding what's in the best interests of the American people.

Stephanopoulos even called Biden out on his claims that Trump is in the race just for himself and couldn't care less about the people. Without saying it directly, when there are so many questions about Biden's health and well-being, his ability to beat Trump, and the list of people on his own side asking him politely to step down for the good of America and for the good of the party, isn't he doing the same thing? Putting his interests before the party and before America's interests?

He allowed Biden to sidestep the answer to that, and simply closed the interview. It was enough that everything that needed to be said, and that the American people needed to hear was heard. 

The bottom line is that the interview did nothing, really, to reassure anyone. It left nothing different to decide than what had already been decided following Biden's debate performance. I am going to give Stephanopoulos great compliment for an interview very well done. 

If I say so myself, it's as good and honest of an interview I think I may have ever seen conducted with a sitting president. The mere fact alone that the media is allowing such honesty, with so much at stake for the future of America supposedly on the line, should be enough to make the choice for the American people in November glaringly clear.

In an odd twist of fate, as the media has in the past sort of declared itself as the mechanism through which America decides things according to their influence, it seems now they're pointing Americans in a direction I thought I might never see in my lifetime.

Vote for the other guy. Vote for Trump. We don't think Biden can do this.

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© 2024 Jim Bauer

Should Bills Have an Any Date Due Date?

When you think about it, sometimes the struggle for some families isn't that their paychecks overall are not enough to cover their bills. It's when the bills that come are due that force families to make choices that can be the problem.

People are paid in many different intervals. Some are paid weekly. Some are paid every two weeks. Some are paid on the 1st and 15th such as military families. Others are paid once a month.

You get three bills on your first pay cycle, but the check itself is only enough to cover two of them. What do you do?

You borrow, or pull from savings, or you postpone paying the third bill then incurring late fees which just adds to the problem. Beyond that, there are other life expenses that have to be dealt with on a day to day basis. 

You need gas for the car. You need to buy groceries. Sometimes things come up like parties or gatherings, or birthdays or holidays that you need money for. Again, even if you earn enough overall in any given month, you may fall short only in terms of when you get paid.

Many people make up the difference by using their credit cards. And statistically, most people do not pay those off each and every month, but instead carry a balance, costing thousands of dollars a year in interest charges which only further exacerbates the problem.

The idea of the any date due date could help millions of families to better navigate between paydays and bill that are due in any given month.

If a bill could be paid any day that is convenient in the month it is due, people would not be forced to make other choices and even when it comes to paying for necessities, or even discretionary things, people could better manage those expenses as well.

How many times have you gotten a paycheck only to determine that once you pay all the bills that are due at that time eat up every dollar you have and you're left scrambling until the next payday, even though you know you are technically making plenty of money to cover everything?

It puts people in a bit of an unnecessary pickle, if you ask me. Of course, businesses want their money when they want it. They have bills to pay as well, as well as salaries. But so long as they get their money sometime in a given month, how difficult would that be for businesses to navigate?

The savings rate in the United States is abysmally low. And I think part of the reason for that is the stress being constantly cash strapped can cause people. When they do have a payday where there happens to be something left for them, rather than save some of it, they simply have the urge to relieve the stress and feel like they are doing something for themselves for a change.

It's an idea that will never happen, of course. But perhaps businesses ought to consider it. If people are making enough money to cover their bills when all is said and done, they should not be forced into a situation where they are still behind when in reality, they are not.

Their paydays simply don't agree with when the bills are due.

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© 2024 Jim Bauer

How in the Hell Do the Democrats Recover from Joe Biden's Debate?

What an absolutely embarrassing moment for the White House after President Joe Biden's historic debate with former President Donald Trump on CNN last night. You have to be kidding me. This is what we got after more than a week's worth of preparation with the president at Camp David? 

He stumbled, fumbled and bumbled all the way through it, barely uttering a single coherent sentence. "Where's Joe Biden?" could have been the theme of the evening. We can't even be sure that he knew where he was.

And of course, the commentary afterward by none other than CNN itself, was rather shocking. Well, that's because the commentators were being honest. At the same time, how on Earth could they have spun the performance as anything other than it was?

An utter disaster.

When you've got CNN struggling to understand what they just witnessed, that has to be something that causes great alarm for anyone. These are people who would otherwise be in the bag for Joe Biden no matter what. They are just now finally figuring it out that Joe Biden's somewhere in Lala Land? 

And they weren't pulling any punches either. "The campaign is over," and "Joe's got to go," were said several times by panel members. "He can't be the president," and "he is incapable of finishing out a second term," were other utterances. 

Beyond that, did anyone see Jill Biden interacting with Joe Biden after the debate in the post-debate rally they held? It was like she was speaking to a toddler who just successfully poopied in the toilet for the first time.

"Good job, Joe. You answered all the questions and knew all the answers!" Jill Biden cheered, mic in hand, smiling from ear to ear. Granted, that may be cringeworthy in any setting. But when you are saying this to the supposed leader of the free world?

That's terrifying.

What do you think the conversations are that Putin is having right now? Or the Ayatollah? Kim Jong-Un? Xi Ping?

It's anyone's guess where the Democrats go from here. It's clear they can't win the election. We're in Nixon territory, folks, when all support is gone. Even his staunchest supporters are scratching their heads in an "Oh shit" moment where they are caught between a rock and a hard place.

"We can't have Donald Trump in the White House, but...Jesus Christ!"

Even Kamala Harris when she was interviewed by Anderson Cooper, who had surprisingly stinging questions for her about the performance, seemed visibly shaken by the whole thing. If Kamala Harris were a man, her Adam's apple would have been bobbing like a sideways pendulum on a clock measuring time in milliseconds.

Everyone was expecting a stellar performance. Donald Trump was supposed to be scared out of his wits. Some suggested we'd see a Joe Biden similar to the amped up one we saw during his final State of the Union address. We were supposed to get a beautifully constructed omelet and what we got was a splatter of burnt scrambled eggs.

It leaves the Democrats in a very serious dilemma here. Who do they pick in his stead? Can they even expect that helps? Can they pull the 25th Amendment and install Kamala Harris and put her out there in September on the debate stage with Trump? Will that even do any good?

It seems to be me it's too little too late. And frankly, with all that's happened not just last night, but over the past going on four years, how much trust can anyone, including the Democrats themselves, have in the party to get it right no matter what they decide?

Haven't they lied over and over and over again to the American people about the president's condition? Haven't they tried to gloss it over? To what end? To win an election? What about the damn country? What about the American people? What about the importance of democracy? How in the world can any of those things be protected if the sitting president isn't even capable of finding his way off a stage?

Beyond that, when it is determined that enemy missiles are headed our way—who the hell is told about that and who the hell decides what to do about it? 

Because if anything is clear as a bell now, it's not Joe Biden on the other end of that call. And if that's not on the mind of anyone right now, especially after last night's debate performance? It sure in hell ought to be.

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© 2024 Jim Bauer

Do You Think Grandpa's In There?

It has been something that's bothered me since the day of my grandfather's funeral. Did they actually bury him?

While it is purely conspiratorial and I have zero proof, my strong suspicion is that they simply conducted the funeral, took the body back to the funeral home and put him in the cooker. Or maybe he wasn't even at the funeral. Maybe they cooked him beforehand. 

We can't know. It was a closed casket.

But it was the way we were hurried away that made me quite suspicious of the whole thing. Is that normal? Do mourners usually get rushed away from the burial site like that? Did they even put the coffin in the vault or is that just as empty as I think the coffin might have been?

You see, we never even saw the casket lowered. The entire funeral was done on site at the Veteran's cemetery in Milwaukee.

I mean, are there sometimes back room deals made between funeral homes and certain coordinators of the VA? "Just make it look good, and we'll slip you a few bucks so we can resell the coffin a few times." Here we had a 93-year-old man who died of natural causes, who was in a closed casket. Who's ever going to try to dig him up?

I remember my grandfather always joked about what we did with him after he passed on. "Bury me in a burlap sack for all I care," he would say and laugh heartily. 

We at least got him in a slight step up. It wasn't a bad coffin, but it also wasn't a particularly pretty one. I think it cost somewhere around $1500, but I may be off on that. But it was essentially a "universal" casket that could be used to buried in or cremated in.

I tried to direct my aunts to go for something nicer. "It's grandpa after all," I told them. But they picked the one that could be used for both. At first everything looked beautiful. The casket was there before the services started with the American flag draped over it. 

The color guard came to fold it and that's when the reality hit. My uncle leaned over to his sisters and quipped, "I think we screwed up on the coffin." 

Granted. Our family isn't all that serious a bunch. We had a good laugh about it, probably thinking back to grandpa's old joke. "You wished. We delivered, old man." At least it was a respectable and honorable sendoff with the gun salute and the pastor's words.

Grandpa was a World War II veteran.

But it was when it was done when the alarm bells were initiated for me. I didn't think of it right away. But over time it has become something I have thought often about. What did they actually do with grandpa?

There were groups paying their final respects before heading off. Again, there was no casket lowering. Finally, one of the directors or whoever he was began waving people off. "Not to be rude and rush anyone off, but we have another funeral right behind this one and we need to clear this space for the next one rather soon."

The Hearse grandpa came to the site in sat waiting. Presumably to transport the casket to the burial vault. 

Or back to the funeral home.

It's not like something like this is unheard of. Sometimes there are bad players in this world who simply see the money and don't care about the loved one. Sometimes business is just that. Business. "Who's going to know?" they might say. "Does it really matter where the body goes?"

At the end of the day, it probably doesn't matter. Unless you happen to be very religious. And even though I'm not that guy, even I think it does matter a little bit. It's my grandpa, after all. I loved him and respected him, and he was a powerful and influential force on my life and who I became.

At the same time, knowing the man that grandpa was, even if they did toss him into the cooker and run off to take the casket back and sell it to another mourning family, I think my grandpa would have appreciated the comedy of that—if any comedy can exist for something like that.

He viewed death as just a part of life. He saw the body as just a shell of the person. The person is what's alive, not dead.

I have no idea if grandpa's in that grave. Maybe they at least put his ashes in there? But what I do know is that wherever grandpa is in the great beyond, he still lives on in my heart. And no one can take that away from me. 

Now, where my heart winds up when I leave this world may be another question. And I guess whatever anyone decides to do with it when I'm gone won't really matter in the end either.

© 2024 Jim Bauer

Do You Ever Write About People You Know Personally?

Why yes. As a matter of fact, I do. Look, while it's not my primary source of income, I do earn at least a portion of my living from writing stuff. And of course, I write about all sorts of people. Politicians, CEO's, criminals, average Joe's in the news that are interesting to me for one reason or another. To me, when you write, while there are obvious things you don't write about for all sorts of reasons, everything is still essentially and necessarily, and quite possibly open to being fair game.

Especially when I happen to be a writer of mostly opinion and make a fair amount of observations about life and all sorts of things that happen to us in it, you kind of have to at least have some modicum of advance knowledge that something you say to me, or do to me, or some situation you put me in may very well become fodder for something I write.

It's sort of like walking into Denny's and ordering a steak. You pretty much know what to expect from it. You can't order it expecting gourmet and be surprised if it's actually lousy.

That's going to be a Denny's steak. No surprise when you get what you get.

And the same goes for me. If you are in my company, expect that I am a writer and expect that the nature of what I write may include you in some form or another. If you don't want to be in my "story," don't offer me a reason to become my fodder.

Beyond that, being that I am strongly opinionated, and use all sorts of things around me to help drive my points home—and being a staunch supporter of the 1st Amendment as well as strongly of the opinion that no one has the right to NOT be offended—it's just not something I tend to care all that much about.

Oh sure, you can change names. But whoever you are actually writing about is still going to know who it is that is the subject of the commentary.

When I was in management, I used to have a very simple rule. "Don't tell me anything you wouldn't want upper management to know." In other words, understand that I have a different priority and a different obligation with regard to any information I may have at my disposal.

That is the nature of our relationship.

Truth is truth and I keep no secrets. And my opinions matter even if someone else doesn't like them or disagrees with them.

And that includes people who are around me on a personal level. I'm going to be real and tell it like it is. And because the main media of my expression is through the words I put on a page that happen to be published publicly; I am going to fill those pages as I see fit.

It is never something to be taken personal. And, it should be noted, it is never something done to be malicious or mean. It is simply me being me.

The thing is people talk all the time in their circles about all sorts of things and people. And while that may be considered somewhat of a closed circle of sorts, once something is uttered anywhere is it ever truly private and done in confidence?

No. In the real world, even sometimes the circle expands and something you held in confidence now becomes more public.

My writing, and the outlets in which I share what I write, are my circles. Just like in real life I know no circle is sacred, and word might get out—one should be aware that whatever happens in my own circle may also not be held in absolute confidence.

"If you didn't want John to know what you thought about what he did, and told Colin and Ray and Kevin, you can't be mad at Colin, Ray or Kevin if what you said happens to wind up landing in John's ear after all if one of them happens to spill the beans in another circle."

Like I said. I am careful. There are some things that are simply too personal. And I do avoid that. It is simply the "right thing to do."

At the same time, when I do write about someone personally, I have every expectation that it may well reach the person I was talking about. And if it is something I choose to share publicly, I am confident that I won't care if that person I am talking about sees it.

In fact, sometimes I want them to.

Besides, wouldn't we much rather live in a world where people are honest and open about their thoughts rather than keep secrets and tell the truth only to other people?

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He Shot a Man in the Behind for WHAT?

We say it all the time that truth is often stranger than fiction and sometimes there are things you can't make up. Well, everyone remembers movies like Fargo and Pulp Fiction, so perhaps that's not entirely true. Because out of movies like that a scene like this one would not be all that surprising to see.

Those were some great and entertaining movies, by the way.

If you hadn't heard, there was a 64-year old Kentucy man who shot his roommate in the butt after a dispute over the roommate apparently eating the last Hot Pocket in the freezer. Yep, you heard that right. He shot his roommate in the butt for eating the last Hot Pocket in the freezer!

Beyond the clear idea that people are simply nuts these days and seem to be getting nuttier by the minute, when I read the story one thought came to mind.

There's more to this than just that last Hot Pocket.

I would actually be more interested in hearing what the back story is before this went down. Because of course there has to be one. This was not just a spur of the moment idea, "All right, Imma let him have it!" There's a lot more that has been going on in that house for a lot longer and the Hot Pocket was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

I am reminded of two stories from some years back. One where a man was cited for shooting his lawn mower after it wouldn't start. "For the last time the damn thing wouldn't start, and I'd simply had it," the man told police.

Clearly.

Still, you know, as many times as I have found myself in moments of utter frustration never once has it ever crossed my mind to pull out a gun and blow something to bits. Okay, maybe dynamite came to mind. But of course, it was just a thought. It's not like I would ever intend to actually make good on such an idea.

Well, maybe if dynamite was more readily available. I mean, if I could walk into a Menard's and the guy said, "Dynamite, aisle 6," perhaps I would more heavily consider that. But I digress.

Or take the two old men who were neighbors for something like 30 years. One day one of the men walked over to the other man and beat him to death with a spaded shovel. But, as the man said, "After 30 years of bickering back and forth and irritating each other, I'd just had enough and decided to do something about it."

There were 30-years of back story here. And even in the case of the lawn mower shooter, I am sure that mower was a thorn in that man's side long before the day he shot it. In fact, he probably had an entire garage full of menacing, maddening power tools and other equipment—that lawn mower just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and BLAMO! It became history.

Either way, now that the story is out, I bet that will be all we will ever hear about it. However unfortunate for inquiring minds like mine it happens to be to get the whole tale. But hey, maybe the makers of Hot Pockets can take this one to the bank and come up with a new slogan?

Hot Pockets. So good, they're worth a bullet in the ass!

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