Briefly

Briefly: Everybody needs this kind of family support and love

By David McElroy · May 2, 2019

A man on Reddit posted this sweet story today: “Had a crummy day yesterday; got this note on my nightstand this morning from my daughter.” We all need people who love us and are there every day — when things go well and when they don’t. Somebody needs you, whether you know it yet or not.

Briefly: Honeysuckle this time of year connects me to childhood and Nature

By David McElroy · April 30, 2019

Every year about this time, I start smelling the sweet scent of honeysuckle in the evenings outside — and the smell was strong tonight as Lucy and I walked in our neighborhood. I’m always taken back to the warm spring and summer evenings of my childhood, when my friends and I played outside with reckless abandon in the darkness and safety of the lovely southern neighborhoods which I called home. There’s something magical about being connected to Nature, whether it’s the smell of honeysuckle or the beauty of these wildflowers in my yard. Nature and Nature’s Creator have much to offer us — if we accept the beauty and love which we’re freely offered.

Briefly: Tell the people you admire how amazing they are — before it’s too late

By David McElroy · April 30, 2019

Never forget the dramatic loving effect you can have on the people in your life if you choose to show them. A friend of mine got a message from an ex-co-worker today which said, “I have become sentimental in my old age and watching life happen before our eyes and I would hate to think you never realized the impact you have had on me — personally and professionally. You are truly an amazing person.” As you might imagine, this made my friend feel really great and it made me really proud of her. That note didn’t cost the sender anything in time or effort, but she made another person feel great. Just remember that you have the chance to make someone feel special, too, every single day. Don’t miss that chance. The time will come when it’s too late.

It hasn’t happened yet, but there’s a possibility that I might be taking in a fourth feline. A couple of months ago, a cat-loving neighbor asked whether I’d seen a “tuxedo cat” hanging out in the neighborhood. I hadn’t, but this guy eventually wandered past my house a few weeks later — and we haven’t been able to find evidence that he has a home. I’ve been giving him water and food for the last week and he finally let me pet him two nights ago. He’s purred for me two nights in a row and he let me take a low-quality selfie with him Thursday night. Tonight, though, he let me pick him up and bring him inside to look around. This went surprisingly well, as you can see from this photo. I don’t know whether he’ll be joining the family, but I’m certain that Alex, Oliver and Sam would vote no, at least until they get to know him. I’m trying to make certain he doesn’t have a home, but if he does join us, what do you suppose his name will be?

It turns out that the radical far left has been training “Antifa cats” to sabotage anything important to Donald Trump. Everything he did was perfect. Honest. It was all the cats’ fault. Arrest all the cats! This is the latest of my ridiculous satirical shorts. Please go watch it. Then “like” it and subscribe. Please. I’m begging you. (Too much?) Although a couple of the previous videos have had views in the hundreds, most have still been seen by fewer than 20 people. So I seem to be having trouble letting people know that page exists.

Here’s the latest of my ridiculous parody shorts. It crossed my mind Tuesday to wonder what a slick and fast-talking car dealer might do right now to try to turn the high price of gasoline to his advantage. So I conceived of a fat and lovable character who tried to sell cars that don’t use any fuel — and then I started wondering if it would be funnier if all the characters were felines. Designing the King Cashpaw character took about four hours, but the rest took only another four hours, so this was a relatively quick piece that virtually wrote itself. I know it’s almost impossible for these parody videos to find a larger audience, but at least they amuse me — and there are 19 of them on my YouTube page now. The first few were very limited, but they’re getting more complex.

The Republican Party is dead. It still exists in name, of course, but it’s nothing but a shell. All that’s left are idiots and stooges and con men of the MAGA party. When Donald Trump is gone — which won’t be long — those populist idiots and pragmatic fools will have no one to follow. Democrats will thrive. They will take more power than ever and they will push the federal government further to the radical far left than ever. When that happens, don’t just blame Trump if you’re a conservative. Blame every person who has claimed to be a conservative and has given up on principles, character and everything else that Republicans once claimed to stand for. As someone who worked as a GOP political consultant for many years, this is disgusting and disturbing to me. Those who have enabled Trump to have almost unchecked power are going to be shocked when they see what they will unleash in the long run. It’s been plain all along what this narcissistic con man is. It’s your fault that you chose to pretend not to see what he really is.

We are ruled by the dumbest and most incompetent people among us — and we have a system which allows stupid and irresponsible people to force the costs of their idiocy onto smarter and wiser people. Can we get away with that? Yes, for quite some time. But we eventually reach a point at which the dumbest of the dumb — who are habitual liars and mentally ill fools — lead us to the disasters and destruction that some of us have seen coming for years. We are approaching that point. And yet most of the idiots around us still wave their rhetorical banners of support for the evil people who are leading us to ruin — and all of them point their fingers at someone else, never noticing that their own enthusiastic support of evil is to blame. When things finally fall apart, blame yourself for your blindness to the evil, not whoever happens to be in power when it happens.