Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Happy Blog Birthday Number 11

11 years done, starting year 12.

A somewhat erratic and enthusiastic post launched this humble but lovable blog. Visions of multiple posts per day flew about my brain but pretty quickly I saw that would not be the case. Amid a cacophony of online voices and corporate blog productions, I realized I could take my time, my own sweet, sweeeet time. Not much clickbait here, no advertising, just me and you humble but lovable readers. 

I am still here, many are no longer publishing. 

Thousands of posts have been written and published by myself, thousands more never made the cut. For reasons I cannot offer, the most read post on this page has been this one right here. You are welcome to ponder on why that is so.

There have been many, many posts on politics - but sadly it seems Tennessee's governing bodies have successfully eliminated all but the voices of a single political party in Tennessee. Only Republicans dominate, all other voices are dismissed and demonized and most recently they have been flatly outlawed by the state legislature -- Tom Humphrey explains that every county election commission is forbidden currently from having a Democrat chair such a commission - no minority voices allowed.

"The cited law, enacted earlier this year by the Legislature to take effect on July 1, declares that all county election commission chairmen must be members of the political party representing a majority of the commission. Under separate state law, Republicans have a majority on all county election commissions and on the State Election Commission as well."

So, yay Freedom. I live in a state where a single political party rules and has ruled for some years. I'm not saying they are bad folks - I'm saying my views, my voice, and that of many more Tennesseans, are not heard, not acknowledged, not allowed and that reality comes at a price.

The other most common posts here over the years are about movies, and I recently watched again a comedy favorite which I shall share - it's called "The Impostors", a slapstick comedy following two dim-witted out-of-work actors forced to stow away on a luxury cruise headed to Paris. The cast is chock-full of great performers - Isabella Rossellini, Tony Shaloub, Allison Janey, Woody Allen, Steve Buscemi, Oliver Pratt, Billy Connelly and many more. Worth a look --