A COUNTRY RUN BY IDIOTS

1. If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license (or drive with one open wine cooler), but not for being in the country illegally, you live in a country run by idiots.

2. If you have to get your parents’ permission to go on a field trip or take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion, you live in a country run by idiots.

3. If you have to show identification to board an airplane, cash a check, buy liquor or check out a library book, but not to vote on who runs the government, you live in a country run by idiots.

4. If the government wants to ban stable, law-abiding citizens from owning gun magazines with more than ten rounds, but gives 20 F-16 fighter jets to the crazy leaders in Egypt, you live in a country run by idiots.

5. If, in the largest city, you can buy two 16-ounce sodas, but not a 24-ounce soda because 24-ounces of a sugary drink might make you fat, you live in a country run by idiots.

6. If an 80-year-old woman can be strip-searched by the TSA but a woman in a hijab is only subject to having her neck and head searched, you live in a country run by idiots.

7. If your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more, you live in a country run by idiots.

8. If a seven year old boy can be thrown out of grade school for saying his teacher’s “cute,” but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class in grade school is perfectly acceptable, you live in a country run by idiots.


9. If hard work and success are met with higher taxes and more government intrusion, while not working is rewarded with EBT cards, WIC checks, Medicaid, subsidized housing and free cell phones, you live in a country run by idiots.

10. If the government’s plan for getting people back to work is to incentivize NOT working, with 99 weeks of unemployment checks and no requirement to prove they applied but can’t find work, you live in a country run by idiots.

11. If being stripped of the ability to defend yourself makes you more “safe” according to the government, you live in a country run by idiots.

Conclusion: We live in a country run by idiots.

ON WAITING TABLES

Drew: The Man Behind the Poster

I recently watched the Drew Struzan documentary, to which I have linked, above, and was surprised to learn from the artist himself about his having suffered abuse at the hands of his own family. This reminded me of my own experience with ‘familial matters’ several years ago when my brother’s festering, carbuncle-of-a-grudge boiled over and spewed its venomous pus in every direction.

Here’s a ‘pull-quote’ from a letter he wrote to me:

“Just in case you're curious, here is my opinion: Being a full-time artist is not a right. It isn't even a privilege. It is a luxury, a luxury you cannot afford, and thus others are forced to shoulder your burdens.”

I ask: How can any rational person claim to have an exclusive right to pursue the dream of fulfilling his own calling, to the exclusion of anyone else pursuing said dream?

My answer: Only that individual who thinks his fleeting hold on success is at best tenuous, a weak and selfish person who feels threatened by any other individual seeking the very same fulfillment of making a successful living doing what he loves doing.

I still marvel at He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Mark’s sudden insistence that I should altogether abandon my career as a fine artist, illustrator and sculptor, and immediately take up making a living, “…waiting tables.” The scolding tone of his letter and condescending attitude toward me are both indicative of a self-righteous individual who believes he owns an exclusive entitlement to the fine art profession, of one who must denigrate his own brother -- eliminate the competition, if need be -- so that he himself no longer feels threatened by the one person who can not only do what he does, but can do it better in every way.

For this and various other invective hurled at me for the sole purpose of inflicting pain, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Mark has proved that he is a very small man, a very selfish man who is hell-bent on destroying anyone he feels might diminish his inflated sense that he is the ‘top dog.’ What a hypocrite.

Finally, I have found a kindred spirit in a brilliant and humble man named Drew Struzan.

“Set sail in your dreamboat and live the life you've imagined.“ - Me