Tag: Good Guys

Way To Go, Roger

Men & Women, Sports

I always liked this guy, as much for his ability as his quiet, classy sportsmanship.  And here’s further reason why I should:

Roger Federer has revealed that he refuses to sleep in a bed without his wife of almost a decade by his side.
The Swiss-born tennis ace, 37, who is widely considered the greatest male player of all time, admitted that his wife, children and friends come first, despite his passion for the sport.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Federer explained that his wife, whom he married in 2009, and their two sets of twins, who are home-schooled, travel everywhere with him when he is on tour.

Gives new meaning to the term “family man”, doesn’t it?.  And yeah, his massive income makes that lifestyle possible.  Doesn’t mean I shouldn’t applaud him for doing the right thing.

Predictably, Ishmael has an even better (and funnier) take on Federer’s grace and class.

And just for a bonus:  some Federer magic.  Enjoy.

Change — An Alternative View

Politics

In this article, Rick Moran worries about Orange County Going Socialist, and What That Means:

Orange County Is Reagan Country No More
They used to vote Republican in huge numbers in Orange County, California. The county used to be one of the most Republican in the country, but with Democrat Katie Porter unseating GOP incumbent Rep. Mimi Walters, Republicans are beginning to look nervously at 2020 and wonder where all their votes have gone.

And Moran’s take is:

Is Trump accelerating the GOP decline? There’s no doubt that Trump’s antics as president have energized his base. They are, if anything, more loyal and enthusiastic today than they were when he was elected.
The rest of the country? Not so much.
As leader of the party, Trump is responsible for its growth or decline. Right now, it’s declining across the board. The answer is not goosing Trump’s base supporters. The answer has to be broadening the appeal of the party.

I’m not so sure. I think that the answer to the Orange County change is simple:  I bet that Hispanic voters (i.e. Socialists) are moving in;  but mostly, Republican voters are leaving California.  And as Orange County has (or had) a huge number of suburban middle-class families — the people most adversely affected by California’s insane government — it’s a simple case of changing demographics.

I know that the plural of anecdote is not data, but not long ago I gave a lift to a one-time Orange County resident (a conservative Republican, by his own admission) who had moved to Plano because he was totally sick of California government’s effect on his small business.  He told me that he wasn’t the only one;  almost all his friends from his neighborhood (also Republicans) had either already left the state or were in the final stages of doing so.  And he admitted to me that he voted for Trump in 2016, as had all those same friends whether still in California or not.

I likewise suspect (also from anecdote) that this is happening in Ventura County as well.

I would love to see the population-shift statistics from Orange County by party affiliation to see if that, and not Trump, has been the reason for the change in voting patterns.  If that is the case, there’s nothing Trump (or any Republican) can do about it.

Oh, and one more thing:  I think I persuaded my ex-Californian passenger to buy a gun and get his carry permit — and I’m pretty sure he’s going to do it because when I gave him the names of a few of our local gun shops, he keyed them into his phone.  (I told him that he should do it just to stick it in CalGov Jerry Brown’s eye, and he laughed like hell at the thought.)

One at a time, folks;  one at a time.

End Of An Era

Politics

As I might be unable to vote next Tuesday, I went and did the early-voting thing yesterday, punching the “straight Republican” ticket as usual.  (Not much of a wait, for a change:  only about a hundred people in line ahead of me.)

This time, however, I missed voting for our longtime Republican paisan Sam Johnson, who will be retiring (at age 86, the oldest Republican) at the end of the year.

I cannot say enough good things about Mr. Sam (as we called him):  a Vietnam POW vet, an endless opponent of not only the IRS but of the entire federal tax system (“Abolish the I.R.S.!” was once a feature of his website), a champion of veterans’ affairs (duh) and in short, a tireless hardline conservative who even in suburban TX District 3, usually squeaked by with about 65% of the vote, cycle after cycle.

So when people talk about “public service” (not meaning it as a derogatory term), this is what it’s all about.  And it’s congressmen like Sam Johnson who make a mockery of term limits initiatives — if his health had been good enough to stay in office (it isn’t), I would have continued to vote for him for the next twenty years.  In my entire life, he is the only politician to whose campaign I ever donated money.

Go with God, Mr. Sam, and thank you — thank you — for all your service as a patriot and conservative American.

And a note to Van Taylor (whom I’ve met before and voted for as well), Sam’s likely replacement in the House:  before voting on any piece of legislation, ask yourself “What Would Sam Do?” and vote accordingly.  You will not be disappointed, and most of all, you will continue to get my vote.  Now get in there, and kick Democrat ass.  Just like Sam Johnson did.

Damn it:  I have tears in my eyes.

Killing The Monster

Entertainment

I see that singer Michael Bublé has decided to quit singing and the limelight.  I can quite understand why.  At a time when his beloved son was close to death from cancer, Bublé found himself in a blizzard of “well-meaning” Press attention, with articles sensitively entitled “Michael’s Torment“, “Michael Looks Depressed As He Leaves Hospital” and the always-popular “Will Michael Bublé Ever Be Able To Sing Again?”  (“No” being the eventual answer to this question, as it happens.)

Under those circumstances, Bublé discovered that while his fame sold albums and made him rich, the price he had to pay was the complete loss of privacy and even dignity.  For attention-whores like the Kardashians and their ilk, this celebrity and attention might have been accepted, even welcomed;  for him, facing that most awful and personal of tragedies, the scouring of his anguish and its parade in the tabloids must have been torture — and his desire to quit the spotlight both literally and figuratively is both understandable and even laudable.

And good for him, say I.  His wealth is secure, his family likewise;  but should his young son ever get nailed by cancer again — a horrible possibility — I can only hope that he and his wife can deal with whatever happens in solitude and isolation.  I don’t even want to hear about it, for that matter.  Whatever happens, Michael Bublé deserves his privacy, and I can only hope that the Media Vultures leave him alone from now on.

I for one will refuse to read anything about him and his family ever again.  I can’t escape the future headlines, should they occur, but I don’t have to reward the Jackals Of The Press by reading about the details.  He deserves the anonymity he craves, and I’m happy to grant it to him.

Michael, I wish lasting happiness, health and peace to you and your family;  and thank you for sharing your magnificent talent with us while you did.

Quote Of The Day

QOTD

From Guy Benson at Townhall.com:

“Now that Kavanaugh has been approved, I do not feel happiness.  I’m still appalled by everything that just transpired.  I’m fearful about the zero-sum, say-anything nature of our politics.  I’m furious at an activist media that couldn’t disguise its rooting interests, evidenced by repeated abandonments of core journalistic practices.”

Furious is good.  Keep that fury, everybody:  feed it, nurture it, let it grow and grow, and feel it every time you cast your vote whether now, in November 2018;  in the presidential elections of November 2020, or in every poll to come.