You Spelled Justifuckation Wrong

George Floyd was murdered.  There is no justification for the actions of Officer Derek Chauvin.  There was no reason for him to place his knee on Floyd's neck and keep it there for anywhere near that long, well after Floyd stopped pleading for his life because he could not breathe.  He stopped pleading for his life because he passed out.  It turns out, when you put your knee on someone's neck for nine minutes, you might cut off the flow of blood and oxygen to that person's brain, which can result in death.  The three other officers involved should have known that too.  The specific name for this type of death is murder.  It's not enough that all four officers were fired.  Chauvin has been charged with murder, and charges are coming for the other three officers as well.  There will be justice.  Unfortunately, even long prison sentences for those responsible won't bring back George Floyd, a Black man who did not deserve to die.

I don't really know what it's like to be Black in America, because I'm not Black.  My Black friends have told me about their experiences, such as getting pulled over for a DWB (Driving while Black) on several occasions, among other things.  My own town had a problem within its police department several years ago where a number of officers were racially profiling Hispanic people.  There are a lot of great police officers, and some terrible ones, but I've never feared a police officer because of the color of my skin.  The same can't be said for many other Americans, whose lives matter just as much as mine.  Black lives matter.  George Floyd's life matters.  And now he's dead.

When I watched the video of Floyd's murder, I was infuriated, as was everyone who watched what happened.  I'm sure there are a handful of racist people who praised it, but I don't know any of them, and no decent person even tried to justify what happened.  It's rare that the President, major celebrities, and mainstream journalists are all on the same page these days, but they were on this point.  But that's where the agreements stopped, because protests turned to riots and clashes with police officers, and a whole lot of people then decided to justify a whole lot of things that are not justifiable.

Some on the Right justified the use of violent police tactics on non-violent protesters.  Running over protesters when your life is not in danger is not justifiable.  Using tear gas, rubber bullets, and similar weapons on protesters who are not rioting or blocking emergency vehicles is not justifiable.  The President of the United States taking to Twitter to express that "When the looting starts, the shooting starts" is tone-deaf, and yes, he should absolutely be held to a higher standard than those who are not elected officials.  I'm not a fan of him using a Bible as a prop either.  His response to the riots could have been earlier and better as well, even though he would be criticized and vilified by many in the media regardless.  But Trump still needs to lead, and he needs to stop saying dumb things on Twitter, especially now.  A Nobel Peace prize to anyone who can get him to stop tweeting!

Of course, Jerry Falwell, Jr. must have told Trump to hold his beer (which he won't allow students at his University to drink), because the President of Liberty University's tweet of his COVID-19 mask with a photo of his terrible Governor's racist yearbook photo on it is absolutely reprehensible and unjustifiable.  I have no problem with him calling out Governor Ralph Northam, but that was not the way to do it.  It takes tone-deaf to a whole new level.  It's not surprising coming from him though.  I'm a Christian, but I take plenty of issues with a number of Christian Universities, such as those whose administrations were (or even still are) against interracial dating and marriages, a position for which there is no justification, Biblical or otherwise.  There are some Christians who would be more upset with me embedding a word they don't like in the title of this blog post than they would be with blatantly racist words and actions, and that's a huge problem.

Not to be outdone, many on the Left must have asked Falwell to hold their proverbial beers (which he probably drank).  I'm old enough to remember when the Left was saying that protests should not be allowed because of COVID-19, because I'm more than a week old.  A week or two ago, people were protesting extreme lockdowns, while some people on the Left were even calling for citizens to narc on each other for breaking lockdown rules and for the police to arrest these violators.  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio personally showed up to tell a bunch of Jews who weren't socially distancing to go home.  But suddenly, now that the Left agrees with the protests, protests should obviously be legal, and even de Blasio's daughter got arrested at one.  And protests indeed should always be legal, especially when a Black man is killed by a police officer.  Riots, however, are not legal, nor should they be.  And those on the Left justifying the rioting are dead wrong.

Rioting hasn't just occurred in Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed, but in large cities throughout the country.  And people on the Left are justifying it.  They're justifying looting.  Windows have been smashed, and goods have been stolen.  They're justifying burning down the businesses of private citizens.  In some cases, those buildings have had people in them.  They're justifying physically harming people.  Many have been physically harmed by rioters.  They're justifying killing people.  More people have died after being attacked by rioters.  I've seen social media posts from friends in cities, showing buildings and cars burned, people throwing bricks at firetrucks, and people blocking traffic to break into vehicles with people in them.  We should be angry, and we should be protesting, but not like this.  Not only are people being hurt and killed, but people are losing their livelihoods.  Plenty of people of all colors are victims of the rioting, whether by assault or by destruction of their businesses, like the African American bar owner in Minneapolis whose bar burned down just before it was about to open.

Those who justify the rioting say that it's just property, which isn't as bad as murdering a man.  That's true, but it still doesn't make it right, and it's based on a false premise when the rioting is literally hurting and killing people.  I saw footage of several different men getting beat up.  I saw footage of a woman getting beat up.  I read an article about a black police officer who was killed.  It's not just property.  Stop the comparisons to the Boston Tea Party too.  That was an uprising directly against a tyrannical Government, and this is rioting and destroying the property of private citizens, often with fire, and in many cases physically hurting people very badly, some to the point of death.

Another popular thing I've seen on social media juxtaposed the calm police treatment of the "white" armed lockdown protestors at the Michigan Capitol with the forceful treatment of the "black" unarmed protestors who were rioting.  This is also a false juxtaposition, because neither group was racially homogeneous, and the difference in treatment was because one group was protesting peacefully and the other one, while it likely included plenty of peaceful protestors, also included people who were acting violently and committing arson.

Yet another popular social media post mentions that there's something wrong with you if you had a problem with Colin Kaepernick taking a knee but don't have a problem with Chauvin killing Floyd with his knee.  I actually agree with that one, but it creates a straw man, because I've yet to come across someone who did not have a problem with what Chauvin did (those would be actual white supremacists who would be cool with that).  Kaepernick had a right to do what he did, whether I agree with it or not.  My main problem with Kaepernick is that he's a clown.  He's not someone I can take seriously when he's a multimillionaire athlete protesting injustice while wearing a Che Guevara shirt and socks with policeman dressed like pigs, as his girlfriend says ridiculous things about Ray Lewis on social media, but he has the right to make any peaceful statement he wants to make.

I would even go as far as to say that sometimes, in specific situations, non-peaceful protest is warranted, but that does not extend to hurting people or putting people in danger by burning things down.  Yes, Jesus Christ himself overturned tables because he was displeased with what was going on in the temple, but the rioting in the aftermath of Floyd's murder did not end after the destruction of the police precinct in Minneapolis that was burned down (thankfully, abandoned and with no one inside).  Jesus overturned tables in the temple.  He didn't physically harm anyone or then go out and destroy all the nearby buildings.

I've seen several videos, and there are an awful lot of white people committing crimes at these riots.  People of all races are to blame.  It's certainly not even remotely exclusive to the Black community.  Antifa is not a good organization.  They're involved in some way, and it's very likely that there are both people on the extreme Right and extreme Left out there, of all colors, intentionally igniting violent riots on the streets.  Some of these people may be white supremacists, and others may be anarchists.  Some on the Right may point out that more white people are killed by policeman every year than black people, and some on the Left may point out that a higher percentage of black people are killed by policeman every year.  Regardless of who is rioting and what the statistics say, the fighting is causing people to lose sight of reason the protests started: George Floyd is dead.

Many Black people in this country are scared.  I understand why so many people are angry, even as I can't possibly understand what it's like to have black skin.  I feel so badly for them.  Yes, we've come a long way in 400 years.  Slavery was abolished during the Lincoln administration, but Jim Crow laws lived on for far too long.  We've made a lot of progress as a nation since then, and America is a great place for anyone to live, but more progress still needs to be made, both racially and otherwise.  I don't know whether or not Chauvin is a racist (the photo of him in white supremacist clothing that went viral was fake), but even if he isn't, that doesn't bring back Floyd.  And even if he isn't, police brutality is still a problem.

I urge people to listen to people like Barack Obama, Tiger Woods, Killer Mike, Dennis Rodman (who is apparently now a voice of reason), and members of Floyd's own family, who recognize Floyd's murder as horrific, but also discourage rioting.  Killer Mike even told CNN to stop feeding fear and anger every day, which is a great point.  All things that could remotely be construed as racially insensitive are magnified in the mainstream media in extreme ways, especially on CNN.  This has added fuel to the fire, as have the prolonged lockdowns and lost jobs.  The horrific killing of Floyd came at a time when America was a tinderbox.  Rep. Maxine Waters did not help when she said to TMZ, "I believe sometimes some of these officers leave home thinking, 'I'm gonna get me one today.'  And I think this is his one."  And the celebrities and those on Joe Biden's staff who are donating to bail funds for rioters aren't helping either, unless there's a way to ensure that none of those funds go to those who were arrested for violent crimes.  Ted Cruz's response to Justin Timberlake's bail fund donation was spot on: Why not donate to the African Americans and Hispanic small business owners whose businesses were looted and destroyed?

If my neighbor kills a member of my family and I burn down his house, you would understand why I did that, right?  We can have a conversation about whether or not I would be justified, and regardless of what you think about that, I would also be charged with a crime.  But if I decide to instead burn down my whole neighborhood, that would be entirely different.  This is similar to the problem with riots.  Similarly, if I go outside because I hear one of my neighbors yelling that he can't breathe and someone has his knee on my neighbor's neck, I'm naturally going to go over and get that person off of him in a very physical way.  But if that person has a gun on him, what would I do?  I'd go back inside and get my gun, point it at him, and tell him to get off immediately or I would shoot him.  See why people are angry at what happened to George Floyd?

Unfortunately, if the person with a knee on my neighbor's neck was a police officer and there were three other officers with him, what could I possibly do?  I could yell and scream and call 9-1-1, and I could physically try to get to him to help, but if I even threatened to shoot a police officer, I would be dead or charged with a very serious crime.  One man with a gun will lose against four men with guns.  I would feel helpless, like I'm sure many of the people who witnessed Floyd's murder felt.  As I watched the raw footage, I just kept hoping that the other officer in view, the Asian American one who was keeping the crowd back, would somehow tell Chauvin to remove his knee from Floyd's neck.  If only he could have done it, Floyd's life could have been saved, and others could have been saved as well.

This is a sad time in America.  We need to do better.  We must do better.  This is not who we are.  Whether you're a police officer or a civilian, there is no justification for murder.

How the Left Raped #MeToo

Remember back in 2018, when President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to serve on the Supreme Court?  At the time, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford came forward and alleged that when Kavanaugh was 17, he groped her and tried to remove her clothes so he could rape her, but she was able to escape.  And then a bunch of other women came forward with outlandish claims, including alleging Kavanaugh's involvement in gang rape.  Kavanaugh was angry that people were saying knowingly false things in an attempt to keep him off the highest court in the land, ruin his life, and destroy his family.  The Left said it was an unpardonable sin that Kavanaugh showed his emotion, and that he should be disqualified from consideration to fill the SCOTUS vacancy based on that alone.  And also because he said he liked beer.  Which is also bad.  Nearly in unison, Leftists said they knew these women were all telling the truth, all women must be believed, and just the fact that he was accused of any of these things should have been reason enough to vote no on confirmation.  Fuck due process.

After Kavanaugh was confirmed, most of these women recanted their claims, quietly retreating from the spotlight, and you barely heard a whisper about that in mainstream media.  Ford was not one of those women.  I said it at the time she first went public with her claims, and I'll say it again now: I do not know whether or not she is telling the truth.  I don't care that most people to the left of me know she is telling the truth, and I don't care that most people to the right of me know that she is a liar.  If you're one of those people from either side who claims to know exactly what did or did not happen at an unknown place sometime in probably 1982, to borrow a phrase from Joe Biden, you're a lying dog-faced pony soldier.

While we're on the topic of Joe Biden, he was recently accused of sexual assault by Tara Reade, who claims that he penetrated her with his finger without consent in a Capitol Hill basement while he was a sitting Senator.  She used to work for Joe Biden, and she detailed exactly where and when it happened, as well as having people she told at the time confirm that she was saying the same thing then (in the 1990s) as she is now.  Many of the same people who knew that Ford was lying know that Reade is telling the truth, just as many of those who knew that Ford was telling the truth know that Reade is lying.

Suddenly, the "believe all women" mantra had disappeared from the Left.  Instead of calling for endless investigations, many are saying that it's already been investigated sufficiently, and Biden is clearly not guilty.  His own campaign commented on how The New York Times ran an article that cleared him of any wrongdoing (it did not).  They're not calling for additional investigations of a man who has already been investigated, as they were with Kavanaugh, but instead lining up to defend Joe Biden.  Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's defense of him is that "Joe Biden is Joe Biden."  That's an accurate assessment, but not a reason to believe that he isn't guilty.  I mean, the man has been accused of inappropriate touching before, by Amy Lappos and at least seven others, and there's plenty of video where he appears to be acting a bit too touchy around women and young girls.  But don't worry, Joe Biden is Joe Biden.  Imagine if Trump defended Brett Kavanuagh by saying that Brett Kavanaugh is Brett Kavanaugh.  It would have been yet another reason to call for his impeachment.

To me personally, Joe Biden seems to act like a creepy Grandpa sometimes, but he never really struck me as a rapist or someone who would overtly sexually assault someone.  He's just always kind of been creepy old Uncle Joe, odd but occasionally endearing.  Yet, his other accusers and uncomfortable videos have been around for many years, standing in stark contrast to Kavanaugh's sterling reputation prior to Ford's accusation.  You know what else stands in stark contrast to Ford's accusation?  Reade's accusation.  While Reade detailed where and when the alleged incident with Biden happened, Ford didn't know where or when the alleged incident with Kavanaugh happened.  Reade didn't have other witnesses, but she had plenty of people confirm that she was telling the same story right after the incident as she is today.  Ford named people who were supposedly at the party where the incident with Kavanaugh happened, and none of them remembered the party.  Some of them didn't even know Kavanaugh, and none of them could corroborate Ford's story.  Yet the narrative I'm supposed to believe is that Ford was definitely telling the truth and Reade is definitely lying?  Is that the excuse for why mainstream media has treated Kavanaugh and Biden so differently?

The mainstream media was covering the Kavanaugh story non-stop, digging up everything they could to try to tear him down.  They've barely covered the Biden story.  One was nominated to serve on the Supreme Court.  The other is the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States, the most powerful position in the world.  So what's the difference?  Is it because one is a Republican and one is a Democrat?  I think that oversimplifies it.  Remember, many of the Democrats went after one of their own, Senator Al Franken, who was accused of doing something far less than either Kavanaugh or Biden have been accused of.  They forced him out.  Why?  Well, because the Democratic Governor would just replace him with another Democrat.  Kavanaugh serving on the Supreme Court and Biden serving as President are both far more consequential.  To what?  Well, a lot of things, but perhaps most prominently among them, abortion.  Democrats fear that Kavanaugh will help overturn Roe v. Wade (which is unlikely), so they did whatever they could to keep him from becoming a Supreme Court Justice.  Biden could name another Supreme Court Justice or two (or potentially more) if he becomes President, which would help protect Roe v. Wade and lead to other favorable decisions for the Left.  They have to do whatever they can to defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden.

Some Democrats are at least being honest about what's going on.  A few of them are pointing out that Joe Biden should not be held to a different standard than Brett Kavanaugh, Al Franken, Donald Trump, or anyone else.  Others are even admitting that they believe Reade's accusations are true, but they're going to vote for Biden anyway, because Trump must be defeated at all costs.  But the majority, with mainstream media implicated most of all, are either remaining silent on Reade's accusation or dismissing it as a lie.  We've come a long way in two years.  Apparently the #MeToo movement is only important when it's convenient now.

To be clear, I am implicating the Left and mainstream media, and as Andrew Klavan is fond of saying, but I repeat myself.  I do believe that Reade's accusations are more likely to be true than Ford's, as they at least include a when and where, but I do not know whether or not either one is telling the truth.  I also do not know whether or not Brett Kavanaugh lied, or if Joe Biden is lying.  And at this point, he probably doesn't know if he's lying either.

Rudy Gobert: The Man Who May Have Saved America

I understand the gravity of the situation that our nation and our world are in right now, and I realize that this may not be a particularly popular view, but hear me out: Rudy Gobert, the man who made light of coronavirus and then tested positive for it, may have helped saved America.

For me, February began with a business trip to California, where I also stayed the weekend to visit family after going to Disneyland with some wonderful friends I've worked with for many years.  I knew what coronavirus was then, but in no way did it impact my everyday life, nor did it for most Americans.  I remember waiting in line for one ride in front of a young Chinese boy who was coughing his head off, though I wasn't particularly concerned about catching anything from him.  At least he had the decency not to cough right on me.  Turns out, I caught a cold at the end of my trip, though I blame that on the middle-aged white guy in the airport who literally turned and coughed in my face when he was getting off of the plane.  Didn't cover his mouth or anything.  Totally disgusting.  I just gave him a look like, "Really, dude?"  If it happened today, I might have given him more than a look.

February ended with a vacation in Florida, where I introduced my girlfriend to Grandma, went to Disney World, and went to a Yankees Spring Training game.  Coronavirus was a thing in the U.S. by then, but I still didn't think much of it.  March started in much the same way: Going places and doing things, per usual.  March 6, Spurs vs. Nets NBA game.  March 8, Casting Crowns and Matthew West concert.  March 9, plane to Washington, D.C. for another business trip.  The March 10 conference I was in D.C. for was about a quarter smaller than usual, and some things were beginning to get cancelled.  I remarked to a co-worker that I thought that was probably an overreaction, and she agreed with me.

My meetings on Capitol Hill went on as scheduled.  I met with Rep. Stanton (AZ) and several folks from the staffs of Senators and Representatives.  The only thing different than usual was that no one was shaking hands anymore.  A wonderful woman from the staff of Rep. Hastings (FL) has the distinction of being the person to introduce me to the elbow bump as a greeting in lieu of a handshake.  I used this newly-found greeting that evening when I met Rep. Veasey (TX).  That night, I met up with a buddy from college for a few beers.  We talked about coronavirus.  He explained that it was going to be a serious problem, and he had just cancelled an upcoming vacation.  I told him we had to take basic precautions, but I didn't think it would become a huge problem.  I had to fly back to Westchester the next day and was hoping the flight did not get cancelled.  It was more than half empty, and I landed early.  That night, all hell broke loose.

After the previous game, Rudy Gobert had been joking around about coronavirus, going out of his way to touch the microphones of all of the reporters, and apparently just about everything and everyone in the locker room afterwards as well.  On this night, March 11, Gobert was not in the arena, so the game against the Oklahoma City Thunder was about to start without the All-Star Center for the Utah Jazz.  Suddenly, it was called off without warning and all of the fans in the packed arena were sent home, undoubtedly booing mercilessly.

The ESPN alerts on my phone came in fast and furious.  Gobert had tested positive for coronavirus, which led to the game's cancellation.  Then NBA Commissioner Adam Silver postponed the NBA season.  And the NHL season was postponed.  And the NCAA Tournaments were cancelled.  And pretty much every other sporting event in the country and the world was cancelled or postponed as well.  Whoa.

Well, being a sports fan, that's what it took to wake me up, and the same was likely true for hundreds of millions along with me.  I looked at the information, the numbers, and what the experts were saying, and realized the situation was damn serious.  Even the eternal optimist President Trump had changed his tone at this point.  Now, I'm one of those people who always washes his hands and almost never touches a door handle, so nothing changed for me on that front, but social distancing was now a thing, and I'm doing most of my work from home for the short-term (and thankful that I still have a job where I can do that).  The mass hysteria and the shortages of toilet paper and hand sanitizer though, not to mention those who bought them up just to try to price gouge, are totally ridiculous.  But the cancellations of all large events are warranted and make complete sense.

Meanwhile, the stock market has tanked, and my 401K, Roth IRA, and small collection of stocks are in the toilet.  I expect that they will bounce back in time once we get through this, but we need to keep the social distancing in place in order to get through this in a way where we flatten the curve and can hopefully return to normal in several months, losing perhaps a few thousand people in the U.S. rather than a seven-digit number (every life is precious, but the sad reality is that some number of people, mostly elderly and those with underlying conditions, are going to die from this).

No sporting events.  No concerts.  No church services.  No school for children.  No commute to work.  No having to put on pants in the morning.  It's nothing like I've ever lived through, nor has anyone under the age of 100 who wasn't around for the Spanish Flu, which is, by the way, not a racist term.  Look, President Trump and his administration could have responded better initially, but hindsight is 20/20, and I believe they're doing a much better job now, and his labeling of this as the Chinese Virus is not racist.  It's accurate.  This originated in China, and it happened because the Chinese government allowed it to happen in the first place, because people are apparently allowed to eat bats.  They then failed to act and tried to cover it up, allowing it to spread.  It's similar to what Russia did with the nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl, except this has now spread worldwide.  We call the Chernobyl disaster by its location rather than by some other name.  It's not degrading to Chinese people to call this the Chines virus, but to the garbage Communist Government of China, which is now trying to spread the lie that the U.S. Military is actually responsible for the virus by the way.

One major thing that I will give President Trump credit for is that he banned travel from China very early on.  This saved countless lives.  And he did so despite people calling that policy racist, like so many people on the Left do with virtually every fucking thing President Trump does.  The man is far from perfect, but he's not a racist, and he's certainly no authoritarian, even though many are now begging for him to essentially become one.  Anyway, that's enough on President Trump for now.  Let's get back to the taller hero.

Rudy Gobert was the first celebrity I heard of who was diagnosed with coronavirus, with a displeased Donovan Mitchell (Gobert's teammate) soon following, as well as Tom Hanks and a slew of others over the last week or so.  Rudy Gobert is me.  And you.  He was joking around and making light of the virus one day, and the next day he was the most infamous NBA player to test positive for something since Magic Johnson.  People were pissed at him.  He recognized that he made a thoughtless mistake, apologized profusely, and donated a lot of money to help.  He did the right thing.  In his error, subsequent diagnosis, and subsequent recognition of the seriousness of coronavirus, he may have inadvertently saved America.

As Rudy Gobert went, so went America.  The NBA was the first domino to fall, followed by the other sports leagues, and then concerts and pretty much every other gathering.  So, thank you, Rudy Gobert!  We're all in this together now, so even if you're a young person, for the sake of the older folks and the at-risk folks especially, let's make some sacrifices and practice social distancing.  Let's all try to help those in need, like the sports stars and team owners who are paying the salaries of those who usually work in the arenas and stadiums for the teams.  Let's reach out to people and call them to check on them and to connect.  In the absence of church services, my Pastor has taken to daily brief messages online, the last several of which have encouraged us all to call a few people, especially those who may be feeling especially isolated or lonely.

We can't always correct mistakes that were made in the past, but we can do better going forward.  We can make the future better.  It won't be easy, but we must do it.  And this too shall pass.  Yes, it's unprecedented, but we will come out on the other side stronger than ever!

---

For those of you who are wondering about how to pronounce Rudy Gobert's last name, it's similar to Stephen Colbert's last name (Rudy is a 7'1" French guy).  For those of you who are wondering when I got the cards in the photo signed by him, it was over a year ago, so he did not have coronavirus at the time, although he does happen to have an abysmal signature...

Welp, I Guess I'm a Racist Now!

I haven't written very many blog posts in the last year or so.  The country's been in great shape overall.  Sure, we've elected a handful of terrible people to Congress, and President Trump still says a lot of dumb things on Twitter, but the economy is great, unemployment is low, and the Mueller Report came up as empty as Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.  But it's time to speak out on a few things, as the country continues to be split, and this fracture seems likely to grow leading up to the 2020 election.

First of all, I state for the record that I condemn President Trump's recent remarks on Twitter, wherein he stated that certain women in Congress should go back to where they came from.  I will not defend this xenophobic remark, even though Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar have both said similar things, with Tlaib actually saying that Trump should be deported.  While Omar is the only Congressperson Trump appeared to be talking about who wasn't actually born in the United States, the biggest issue with the statement is the trope that it taps into, where racist and xenophobic people have historically told people who immigrated to the United States or were otherwise considered not white to go back to where they came from.  Whether or not Trump intended it in that way (the Left says obviously yes, the Right says definitely no), Trump chose his words poorly.  The statement is repugnant, immoral, and xenophobic.  We have an unfortunate history in which black and brown people, as well as Italian, Irish, Jewish, and those from various other ethnic backgrounds, have been told to go back to where they came from.  As President of the United States and leader of the free world, Donald Trump really ought to choose his words much more wisely.

Plenty of folks in the media, and Democrats in the House of Representatives, have been quick to call Trump's comments racist, and a slew of articles have been written saying that if you support Trump, you too are racist!  It doesn't matter that Black and Hispanic unemployment levels have been historically low under this President.  It doesn't matter how many people of color that his administration's policies have benefited, or how many it has employed.  He's racist.  And if you support him, so are you!  You might wonder how supporting him makes you a racist, even if you condemn his remarks.  Let me try to explain...

If you supported President Obama in 2008, who stated that marriage was between a man and a woman, it means that you are homophobic.  Hence, if you supported President Trump in 2016, who held up the gay pride flag at a rally, it means that you are racist.  You see, the gay pride flag does not have black or brown in it.  That's why he held it up on stage.  It was an affront to black and brown people.  It was a dog whistle, just like the racist MLB team owners (itself a racist term since it hearkens back to slavery) who allow their teams to put up three Ks after the home team strikes out three batters, spelling out KKK.  Don't believe me?  I have provided photo evidence with this article, proving the Mets are unequivocally racist.  That means that all Mets fans are also racist.  This display of racism that they allow to take place at nearly every game is almost as egregious as MLB not allowing blacks to play in the league until 1947, which is not excused by the fact that they begrudgingly allowed some wops like Joe DiMaggio to join the league before that.

If that was a poor example that confused you, here's another example.  If you supported President Obama in 2012, who had two Betsy Ross flags prominently displayed at his inauguration, it means that you are a racist.  It doesn't matter that President Obama is black.  Colin Kaepernick has a problem with the Betsy Ross flag, and he's been elected Nike Pope.  Plus a bunch of Leftists have said that the flag is racist, so it's racist now, just like a MAGA hat or a KKK hood.  Just imagine if Trump gets elected again in 2020 and displays two Betsy Ross flags at his inauguration.  That will just show for the thousandth time how racist he truly is.  It will be like giant middle finger to non-white America, telling them all to go back to where they came from.  After all, this isn't a one-off.  He has a history of saying racist things, like calling shithole countries shithole countries.  We all know that Haiti is a bastion of opulence thanks to the efforts of the Clinton Foundation.  Calling it a shithole country is a very racist thing to say.  It may be acceptable to tell Nancy Pelosi to go back to where she came from though, since she's white.  It isn't considered racist to tell her to go back to San Francisco, where people are literally shitting on the streets due to decades of Democrats controlling the city.

Speaking of Nancy Pelosi, even she's called BDS (the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement) anti-Semitic, to the chagrin of Omar (my nominee for worst person in Congress, and that's quite an honor considering all of the well-qualified folks to choose from) and Tlaib, who support the terrible organization.  But while it's fine to call Trump racist, the media is careful to call racism and anti-Semitism on the Left alleged, and the House of Representative even refused to condem Omar's anti-Semitic comments.  Omar, like President Trump, has used tropes that are steeped in a history of bigotry, such as making accusations of dual loyalty and saying that support for Israel is "All about the Benjamins."  She's even suggested that Israel has hypnotized the world, advocated leniency for a Muslim terrorist, and described 9/11 as "some people did something."  I'm not saying this in order to defend what Trump has said, because both Omar and Trump are wrong to have said these things (I'll let you decide which one is more ignorant and which one is worse), but I want to point out the difference in response.  Why is no one saying that anyone who supports Ilhan Omar is anti-Semitic?  Is it because it's a claim just as absurd as claiming that support for Trump translates to racism?  Or is it because if anyone says that, it's clearly being said because Omar is Muslim, which then makes it an Islamophobic remark?

No doubt, there are many on the Left who defend what Omar has said and condemn what Trump has said, and there are many on the Right who defend what Trump has said and condemn what Omar has said, but there are also many on both the Left and Right who, rightly, condemn the comments of both Trump and Omar.  I've brought up Omar first since Trump's comments seem directed more at her than at anyone else, due to her birthplace, whereas the other three members of "The Squad" were born in the United States.  Omar, along with Tlaib, Ayana Pressley, and the incredibly stupid Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, make up "The Squad" of four freshmen Congresswomen with terrible Leftist ideas, which is the reason they should be criticized.  No decent person cares that they are all women of color.  It's their ideas that are problematic, and I will treat those bad ideas the same whether they're coming from "The Squad" or from Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, or Jeremy Corbyn.

I could write pages on the ridiculous things that have come out of Ocasio-Cortez's pie hole, but plenty of people have already done that, so I'll skip her for now and go right to something that Ayanna Pressley said recently.  Speaking of those interested in running for office, Pressley said, "If you’re not prepared to come to that table and represent that voice, don’t come, because we don't need any more brown faces that don't want to be a brown voice. We don’t need black faces that don't want to be a black voice. We don't need Muslims that don’t want to be a Muslim voice. We don’t need queers that don't want to be a queer voice. If you’re worried about being marginalized and stereotyped, please don't even show up because we need you to represent that voice."  To her, brown voices, black voices, Muslim voices, and queer voices are all voices of the Left.  If you're brown, black, Muslim, or queer, and you hold values that are more Centrist or even Conservative, you don't have a brown, black, Muslim, or queer voice at all, so don't even bother coming to the table.  That means you, Ben Carson, Thomas Sowell, Allen West, and Clarence Thomas!  None of you have black voices.  Go away, Dinesh D'Souza and Ravi Zacharias!  You may be brown, but your voices are not.  Let's instead write absurd attack articles tearing down Panamanian-American Mariano Rivera.  Thank you, Daily Beast.  That's the best fucking way to fight racism.  Thanks for upholding the racist values of Ayanna Pressley.

But we can't say Ayanna Pressley is racist, because she's black and she has a black voice.  You can say that Ben Carson is racist though, because he's black, but he doesn't have a black voice.  See the difference?  In the modern day Democratic Plantation, if you're a person of color, if you're queer, or if you're a Muslim, you're only allowed to have a certain set of beliefs, and it's the one that those on the far Left believe that you should have.  This, you see, is the opposite of racism.  If you support the other side, especially if you support President Trump, you're racist.  If you support a candidate who believes in abortion and hangs out with Louis Farrakhan, it doesn't make you a baby murderer or an anti-Semite, but if you support the opposing candidate who has said xenophobic things on Twitter, among other highly questionable remarks, you're a racist.  After all, we knew President Trump was a racist from the moment he said there were good people on both sides in Charlottesville, even though his comments were taken out of context and he's clarified many times that he was not saying that there were any good neo-Nazis.  We know that's what he was really saying though.  It was a dog whistle.  Don't let him fool you.  He may be helping improve the lives of people of color all around the country right now, but it's all part of his racist plan to destroy them.

I hate bigotry.  I hate xenophobia.  I hate racism.  I call it out when I see it.  I've railed against even organizations led by Christians, such as Bob Jones University, for not allowing interracial dating until 2000.  I speak out when I see actions by police officers that appear to be motivated by race, which have occurred even in my own hometown.  Jackie Robinson is my favorite non-Yankee baseball player of all-time.  I grew up idolizing Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Michael Jordan, and Emmitt Smith.  But, while I'm not a big fan of his, and I still really, really wish that he would miraculously stop saying dumb shit on Twitter, I'm probably going to vote for President Trump in 2020.  That makes me a racist.  Because if you're called a racist in America these days, it no longer necessarily means that you're racist.  It just means that you're not a Leftist.  And Leftists are generally the real racists.  President Trump isn't the one who wants to institute laws that disproportionately kill people of color before they are even born.  So I'd rather be called a racist than a Leftist.

Give me a damn Betsy Ross flag.

Sandman Enters Unanimously

This year's National Baseball Hall of Fame voting was unveiled yesterday, and Mariano Rivera was voted in, alongside Mike Mussina, Edgar Martinez, and the late Roy Halladay.  Those four legends will be enshrined in Cooperstown on July 21, along with Lee Smith and Harold Baines, but Rivera's legacy stands tallest.  It is undisputed that Mariano is the greatest closer of all-time, and among the greatest pitchers of all-time, and he is now the answer to a trivia question sure to be asked many times in the future.  Who was the first man to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame unanimously?  Named on all 425 ballots, the answer is Mariano Rivera.

Casting a vote that did not include Rivera's name would have been without excuse.  His numbers speak for themselves, but his character sets him apart.  Call me a biased Yankees fan if you'd like, but Mariano is my favorite ballplayer of all-time.  I've met Yankees legends before, and I've really enjoyed those experiences.  I talked to Johnny Damon about stealing two bases at once in the 2009 World Series, and about the drinking habits of Wade Boggs on airplanes.  I conversed with Clete Boyer about manning the hot corner flawlessly and winning World Series with Mantle, Maris, Yogi, and Whitey.  I spoke with Doc Gooden about pitching a no-hitter and which stadium they took his picture in for his 1984 Fleer Update rookie card he had just signed for me.  But if I'm ever fortunate enough to meet Mariano, I might just cry and give him a hug.

And that's how his career ended.  Nearly 44 years old, pitching in his final game, Manager Joe Girardi sent Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte out to the mound to take Mariano Rivera out of the game.  He broke down and wept in the arms of both teammates.  Three legends stood there, who had grown up together in the minor leagues in the early 1990s, Rivera having signed with the Yankees as a fisherman from Panama for a signing bonus of a few thousand dollars.  Jeter had become the Captain and one of the greatest shortstops of all-time, Pettitte a premiere starter who thrived in the playoffs, and Rivera the one you trusted on the mound in the game's most tense moments on its biggest stage.

Rivera finally broke into the big leagues in 1995 at age 25, the same year in which the other three members of the Core Four (Jeter, Pettitte, and Jorge Posada) made their major league debuts.  He was not great.  The Yankees had him come up and start some games, which went poorly, and he was then banished to the bullpen.  Between ten starts and nine appearances out of the bullpen that year, Rivera finished the season with a 5-3 record and an uninspiring 5.51 ERA.  However, his performance out of the bullpen in the playoffs was stellar and the Yankees hung onto him, rather than moving forward with tentative plans to trade him.  Rivera never made another major league start.

The Yankees moved Rivera to the bullpen permanently, and he had a great year as the setup man in 1996, ending with the Yankees winning the World Series.  Closer John Wetteland won the World Series MVP Award after saving all four Yankees wins, but the Yankees chose not to resign him after the season, instead opting to give Rivera a chance at closing out games.  It was a decision they will never regret.  By the time he walked off that mound one final time, tears in his eyes, taking off his hat to salute the crowd, Mariano Rivera had saved a record 652 games during the regular season.  Named to 13 all-star teams, his record stood at 82-60, with a 2.21 ERA and a WHIP of 1.000.  Those are impressive numbers, but his postseason numbers put them to shame, because they don't even make sense.

Rivera somehow got better when the heat was on in the playoffs, against the best hitters in the game.  He was named MVP of one of the five World Series Championships he helped the Yankees win, but he should have been named MVP of the dynasty.  In 141 innings across 96 playoff games, Rivera saved 42 games, with an 8-1 record.  His WHIP was 0.759.  His ERA was 0.70.  No one will ever match what he did in the playoffs.  Most of the damage, to opposing teams and bats, was done with his cutter.

While he had a great year out of the bullpen in 1996, it wasn't until 1997 when his cutter showed up.  Rivera told the story to Michael Kay on CenterStage: He was playing catch with fellow pitcher Ramiro Mendoza before a game, and Mendoza was getting frustrated because the ball kept cutting at the last moment.  Rivera insisted he wasn't doing anything differently than usual, and certainly wasn't doing it on purpose.  He and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre tried to fix it, but they could not, and they soon realized it was not something that ought to be corrected, as batters were largely helpless against the pitch.  Rivera, a devout Christian man, calls it a gift from God.  It sure was.  Batters knew what was coming, but they still couldn't hit it, for nearly two decades.

What a treat it was for a Yankees fan like me to grow up watching Mariano pitch, from the time I was a kid, through much of my 20s.  I remember being in Yankee Stadium countless times when the Yankees went into the ninth inning with a lead.  Inevitably, Metallica's "Enter Sandman" would blare over the loudspeakers, and Mariano Rivera would jog in to finish the job, just as he had during the World Series in 1998, 1999, 2000.  When Jimmy Rollins said the Phillies were going to beat the Yankees in five games during the 2009 World Series, and Rivera was asked to comment, rather than offering his own prediction, he simply stated, "That's not what's going to happen."  The Yankees won in six games, with Rivera once again closing out the Fall Classic.

My favorite piece in my memorabilia collection is a baseball signed by Mariano Rivera.  My dad got it for me when he was working somewhere where Rivera's brother-in-law was also working.  I was in college at the time, and when Dad told me who he was working with, I asked if he could get Rivera to sign a baseball card for me.  A few months later, my dad told me that his friend had apologized to him because he lost my baseball card.  But to make up for it, Dad's friend gave him a baseball signed by Rivera to give to me instead.  Dad passed away in 2011, but some of the memories I have with him are of going to Yankee Stadium, watching Yankees games on the couch at home, and playing catch in the backyard.  I never accidentally developed a cutter.

Rivera is spending a lot of time with his family now, and with his church, and helping out those who are less fortunate.  He always has.  He never asked to be Sandman.  If he chose the music that played when he came into the game, he said he would have chosen a Christian song.  He never asked for the most devastating cutter of all-time, or to create so much scrap lumber on a baseball field.  God gave him a gift.  And, with Mariano Rivera, God gave Yankees fans and baseball fans everywhere a gift.  He embodies all of the great things a baseball player and a compassionate human being should be.

Mo wasn't a perfect ballplayer though.  He was a subpar starter for ten games, and he blew some saves, even in the playoffs, and even in Game Seven of the World Series.  And he's not a perfect human being.  Everyone sins, and everyone makes mistakes.  But Rivera's legacy is incredible because of how many times he did things well and did things right, inside and outside of the diamond.  I was at Yankee Stadium in 2013 on the day the Yankees retired Rivera's number, 42.  Having been retired across the Major Leagues in 1997 to honor Jackie Robinson, Rivera was grandfathered in and became the last man to wear that hallowed number (apart from every April 15 when everyone wears it to honor Jackie).  He was humbled and honored by this, and did Jackie and baseball proud while wearing number 42.  No one could have done it better, and if anyone is deserving of 100 percent of the vote for induction into the Hall of Fame, it is Mariano Rivera.  A unanimous selection is the perfect way for Sandman to enter Cooperstown.


...And for those of you who thought this was going to be a political post about Nick Sandmann, besides the obvious differences in spelling and baseball statistics, Sandman has stared down the Indians and emerged victorious more than once.

Kavanaugh or Kava-Yes?

I had to eventually end my long blog post Summer break.  Somehow, I withheld the urge to post something about that googly-eyed crazy person with a loose grip on reality: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  You know, the one with an Economics degree but no real understanding of the economy and why Socialism fails 100% of the time.  The one with the International Relations degree but no real understanding of what's going on in the Middle East.  The one who thinks we can fund all of her plans by getting tens of trillions of dollars from, well, even Jake Tapper verbalized his realization that he wasn't going to get an answer to that question...  God help us if the far Left ever takes control of our Government.

But in this Trump-era news cycle where you usually forget what Monday's stories were by the time Friday comes around, there's been one story dominating the news for the last few weeks: Sexual assault allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump's nominee to replace Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court.  The allegations came out a few weeks ago, after the Senate hearings on Judge Kavanaugh had concluded.  However, Senator Dianne Feinstein had had this information for roughly seven weeks before saying or doing anything about it.  Because when you're a reasonable human being and someone tells you about alleged sexual abuse, the normal thing to do with that information if you believe it to be credible is absolutely nothing for nearly two months.  At least when your goal is to try to prolong the vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation as long as possible, because let's be clear: whether the allegations are true or not, that was the primary goal of Senator Feinstein and her Democratic colleagues here.  And for those calling for the FBI to get involved, I'm not really sure what the FBI is expected to do with allegations of a sexual misdemeanor in Maryland from 36 years ago at an unspecified time and place.

To recap, in case you've been living under a rock, Dr. Christine Ford alleges that a drunken 17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh groped her and was allegedly trying to remove her clothes in order to rape her.  She was 15 years old, and somehow got away when Kavanaugh's buddy Mark Judge, who was also in the room, was roughhousing with Kavanaugh as the alleged assault was occurring.  Kavanaugh and Judge deny this ever happened, and the other friends that Ford said were at the party, including a female friend, have no memory of the party.  In fact, her female friend who was supposedly at the party says she doesn't even know Kavanaugh and has no memory of ever being at a party with him at all.  Ford doesn't remember when or where the party occurred, apart from saying she believes it was Summer of 1982, and there is zero corroboration thus far.  And Ford has pushed off her day of testifying in front of the Senate, in part because she is apparently too traumatized to be on an airplane, but in larger part because Democratic operatives are running the show, and pushing off the testimony until Thursday means that Kavanaugh apparently will not be seated on October 1.  Senate Republicans have allowed this, as well as allowing a number of demands from her largely ridiculous list of demands for appearing before the Senate.  She is expected to show up to testify tomorrow, probably.

I'm someone who generally believes women when they come forward with allegations like this.  I believe Juanita Braoddrick's rape allegations against Bill Clinton, I believe the super creepy allegations against Roy Moore, I believe the women who came forward with allegations against Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein, and I believe Keith Ellison's accuser.  The things with Al Franken and Cory Booker are not nearly on the same level as the others I've mentioned, and at this particular moment, the allegations against Judge Kavanaugh really do appear to be part of a massive smear campaign.  If true, he should absolutely be disqualified from the Supreme Court, as well as his current position.  If the third allegation is true, I'd like to personally beat the shit out of him, and he should be rotting in prison.  Oh, yeah, I haven't yet mentioned the subsequent allegations that materialized after the first one.

The second allegation against Kavanaugh is from someone who said she was at a party with him at Yale.  It took her six days of consulting with lawyers and psychologists before she was able to decide whether or not the memories she had did indeed include Kavanaugh exposing his penis to her, near her face, while they were both drunk.  She thinks it does, but isn't entirely sure, and she has stated that she will not testify.  At one point she thought it was a fake penis, but then apparently she remembers someone saying that "Brett Kavanaugh's" penis was in her face, because using his full name is exactly how someone would express that thought.  Memory is a weird thing.  Like with the first one, I have no idea whether this occurred, and neither do you, and no one has corroborated this one either.  The New York Times and Washington Post wouldn't even report on this one at first, because the story is just too dubious and they couldn't find anyone else who remembers the incident.  And in my opinion, unlike the first allegation, I do not deem this as a massive problem if it did occur.  If I walked in on a guy doing to a girl what Ford alleges Kavanaugh did to her, I would physically remove him from that situation.  Violently.  He would be injured.  If I walked in on someone who had their penis out at a drunken party, yeah... I went to college.  I walked in on that shit a few times.  If it's actually in someone's face, that's not cool, and that person should be pushed away.  But a lot of college parties include some amount of indecent exposure, or naked partying, or streaking, or something of that nature.  I saw way too many penises in college.  Nevertheless, I persisted.

The third allegation against Kavanaugh is by far the worst, and this one just came out.  Creepy Porn Lawyer and 2020 Presidential Candidate Michael Avenatti has a client named Julie Swetnick who alleges that Kavanaugh and Judge essentially orchestrated a gang rape ring when they were in high school in the early 1980s.  According to Swetnick's statement, they would spike the punch or give girls some of those Cosby drugs, and once they were incapacitated, the guys at the party would form a line outside of a bedroom and take turns raping the girls.  According to Swetnick, who kept going to these parties for some reason, she was allegedly raped at one of them in 1982, which is two years after she graduated college.  So, for some reason, she was still going to high school parties while she was in college--parties where she was an adult and knew that the gang rape of underage girls was occurring.  What?  The thing about this one is that, if it occurred, there have got to be some people who will come forward and corroborate it.  So many witnesses.  So then we'll know.  And if it occurred, I hope we do find out for sure that it did, because I sure as hell do not want Kavanaugh anywhere near the Supreme Court or any gavel at all if it occurred.  I'd rather he was thrown in prison and got what he has coming to him if it occurred.  I have zero tolerance for rapists.

Oh, then there was a fourth allegation that hit the news cycle today.  Something about a woman who said Kavanaugh was drunk and shoved her against a wall.  So we have everything from indecent exposure, to shoving someone against a wall, to groping, to drugging and gang raping teenage girls.  Wow.  And Kavanaugh went on TV and claimed he was a virgin throughout high school and for many years thereafter.  That's not something many guys want to admit these days, but he got blasted for that too, by Avenatti and others, because apparently that's not a believable thing for a guy.  Well guess what, it's certainly plausible.  I was a virgin throughout high school and many years thereafter as well, by choice.  And I know plenty of guys who waited to have sex until marriage, and at least one who somehow never even kissed a girl until he asked her to marry him (not sure how that happens, but apparently possible--dude must have some INSANE self-control--him and his wife have three kids now though).

I'm waiting for a fifth accuser to come out saying that they saw Kavanaugh dildo a stripper at a bachelor party.  The stripper told him to do it, but he did it for a few seconds too long, or went a bit deeper than she wanted, so he's unfit to be on the Supreme Court.  But where we are now is waiting for tomorrow's hearing and still without any of these stories corroborated by anyone, and it's not like they occurred in isolation either.  People were allegedly around when these things happened.  I'm not going to pretend that I know whether or not any or all of these women are telling the truth.  There are people on the Left who just know that they're all true, and there are people on the Right who just know that they're all false.  They're all bullshitting.  None of them know.  You don't know.  I don't know.  Until there's corroboration or something resembling evidence, I cannot oppose Kavanaugh.  If that comes to be, then he can GTFO and President Trump can nominate Senator Mike Lee, or Ben Shapiro (lol, triggered?), or even better, Amy Coney Barrett--hopefully no one can come up with #METOO allegations against her (they might get Shapiro for cat-calling Ocasio-Cortez to debate him).  If it turns out that Barrett gets on the Supreme Court instead of Kavanaugh and helps overturn Roe v. Wade, something it seems doubtful that Kavanaugh would be on board with, it would be a moment rich with irony.

I think the #METOO movement has been a positive thing overall, exposing sexual abusers for the monsters they are, but if the accusations against Kavanaugh turn out to be manufactured by Democrats solely for the purpose of obstruction, they're using, twisting, and probably killing the #METOO movement.  And unfortunately, some women do make up false sexual abuse claims under the guise of #METOO.  It's like Norm Macdonald said, "It used to be, ‘One hundred women can’t be lying.’ And then it became, ‘One woman can’t lie.’ And that became, ‘I believe all women.’ And then you’re like, ‘What?'"  I can picture tomorrow's hearings now...  Democratic Senators and their guests standing up one by one.  It will be like Cory Booker's Spartacus moment, except that it will be an actual Spartacus moment, but straight out of The Onion.
"I was raped by Judge Kavanaugh!"
"I was raped by Judge Kavanaugh!"
"I was raped by Judge Kavanaugh!"
"Judge Kavanaugh is raping me right now!"

When Many Wrongs Make a Right

Today's post differs slightly from most of my previous posts in that it's more of a fun, perhaps slightly embarrassing, personal story, and less of a political rant, despite its setting...

I was on a business trip in Washington, D.C. last month, the intent of which was to attend a supplier conference for a major customer and also help lobby Congress on behalf of this customer.  I had scheduled a few meetings with members of Congress--one with a Senator himself and another with the staff of a Representative from my district.  I live in Connecticut, so neither meeting was with someone I line up with particularly well politically, but last year at the same conference, I met a Democratic Representative from Connecticut, as well as the Staff of a Senator, and both meetings went well.  I flew into D.C., which is rarely my mode of transportation to that particular destination, but almost always my preferred transportation for business trips.  I met up with two of my friends from college who I still keep in touch with and hang out with multiple times every year.  I grabbed a beer with one and the two of us went to meet up with the other friend at an upscale Michelin Star Restaurant with incredible food and wine.  We spent the evening together and I got an Uber back to my hotel room, tentatively planning to meet up with them again the following evening.

It started to snow that night, but being from Connecticut, this was not the kind of snow that worried me in the slightest.  The morning portion of the conference went on as planned the following day, but then I found out that things run a bit differently in D.C. than they do in Connecticut when it snows.  The roads looked fine to me, but apparently a few inches of snow shuts down that city.  Both of my Congressional meetings were cancelled, and both of those offices were closed due to the weather.  So I ended up back in my hotel room for the afternoon, working from my laptop via VPN.

At some point, while answering urgent e-mails in my boxers and beater, the fire alarm went off.
You've got to be kidding me.
I sat there for a few seconds pondering what I should do.  Was this an actual fire?  A false alarm?  Should I run for the exits in what I was wearing?  No, I couldn't do that.  I threw on some jeans, a jacket, and a cap, and walked out into the hallway.  Everyone was evacuating.  The fire alarm also had voice instructions saying not to use the elevators.  For some reason, the stairs were not near the elevators.  An older gentleman and I figured out that the stairs were down the hall, and so we went down six flights of stairs to the exit.

Immediately upon entering the staircase, a girl coming down from the floor above caught my eye.  She was a stunningly beautiful brunette in a college sweatshirt.  A word came out of my mouth.
"Hi."
I didn't know what else to say, and it was probably a weird thing to say in the middle of an evacuation.
"Hey."
"So much for anyone trying to nap."
"Yeah, I was just getting some work done."
"Me too, but I had just finished a quick nap and had to throw some clothes on."
"Same.  Did you see any smoke?"
"No.  Probably a false alarm.  Hopefully."
It was a false alarm.  There was some working being done on the hotel, and it somehow tripped the fire alarm on several floors.  But in the few minutes we were standing outside in the snow before a hotel employee called us all back in, the two of us began an interesting conversation.

As it turns out, I ran into the one other conservative-leaning person in D.C.  She told me she was here because she was lobbying Congress in favor of school choice, and she went on to tell me all about school choice and her own experience with it.  I went from being mildly in favor of school choice to being very much in favor of it.  On the elevator back up, we were still talking, so we sat down in the seats outside the elevators on my floor for the next hour or so.  This girl was fascinating person.  She came from a large family in the Midwest, was a Christian with a Catholic upbringing, and benefited from school choice during high school.  She said she wasn't very political, yet she was here lobbying Congress for school choice, and she had participated in the March for Life.  But overall, she seemed like a Conservative-leaning Libertarian much like myself.  She had met several members of Congress, as well as Betsy DeVos, and said she would likely meet with Mike Pence at some point.  She was intelligent, moral, and gorgeous, with a bubbly personality and a smile to match.  And there I sat, in my shitty plaid jacket that I had thrown on over my beater, realizing that I soon had to go to dinner with the others who were there for the conference, as well as the higher-ups who worked for the customer and some Congressional Staff members.
"Hey, I can talk to you for another few hours, but I need to get back into my suit and go to a dinner.  What are you doing in a few hours?"
"Nothing.  Just getting some work done."
"Can I get your number?  You want to go out for a drink after dinner?"
"Sure.  We can't go for drinks though."
"Oh..."
"We can go to the Restaurant in the lobby, and I'll get a Coke or something though.  ...I'm 19."
"Oh!  Sure.  That sounds great.  I'll text you when I get back."
She put her number in my phone, and we went back to our respective rooms.

As it turns out, she was only there because her flight had been cancelled, and she had to switch hotels because the one she was staying at didn't have any space left for an extra night.  While it was one hell of a chance meeting, I was not going to hit on a college freshman.  However, I was most certainly going to meet up with her later that night.  I told my friends who I had seen the previous evening that I would see them the next day instead, and I put my dress pants, shirt, jacket, and tie back on for the dinner reception.

I met some good folks at the reception and had a few good conversations, great food, and two glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon.  I texted her when I got back, changed back into jeans and a plaid shirt, and we met in the hotel lobby and headed to the hotel restaurant.  I ordered a hard cider, she ordered a coke, and I bought her dinner too.  We stayed there for the next three hours just talking.  There was barely a break in conversation.  She was a talented girl who was an athlete and dancer during high school, and was now in her first year of college, planning to become an Optometrist.  We essentially exchanged our life stories, and as conflicted as I may have been about it, when the elevator stopped on my floor at the end of the night, I simply gave her a hug goodbye and walked off to my room.

When I got back to my room, I realized how ridiculous it was that I even met this girl in the first place.  Finding anyone in D.C. who leans conservative is a task, and my friends sometimes think it's hilarious to tell girls we're talking to in bars that I voted for Trump, which goes over as swimmingly as you would imagine.  But the number of things that had to go wrong for me to have met this particular girl was laughable.  It had to snow hard enough in D.C. well into March, such that her flight was cancelled and all my afternoon meetings were cancelled.  But all of the other people in her group had to have flights that were not cancelled, so she would be relocated by herself to another hotel, at which there had to be a system malfunction that caused the fire alarm to go off.  A fire alarm that I was pretty pissed off had even sounded in the first place, though it turned out to be the best thing that happened all day.  There was a note from hotel management under my door when I got back, apologizing for the disturbance of the false alarm.  I laughed to myself and kept it.

I guess the point of the story is that sometimes a lot of bad things happen, and they can be pretty annoying at the time, but they can end up happening for a good reason.  If you're a Christian, it's like Romans 8:28, which states that "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."  And another point of the story is that sometimes you can find the needle in the haystack, or the other conservative-leaning Christian in Washington, D.C.  And maybe yet another point is that you should leave your hotel room if the fire alarm goes off, but probably put on some clothes before doing so if you don't see or smell smoke.  Also, the girl I met is Hispanic, which I only mention because it will piss off the same people who are now saying that Kanye West is a member of the alt-right who doesn't care about black people since he supports President Trump, which is truly hilarious if you remember a specific Kanye comment about President Bush.  It's all as priceless as the looks on the faces of Mike Myers and Chris Tucker that day...  Life is weird.