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David McElroy

making sense of a dysfunctional culture

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THE McELROY ZOO: Meet Tommy, who needs a home before winter

By David McElroy · October 9, 2011

It breaks my heart that I can’t save all the cats and dogs who need homes, but it’s just a simple fact that I have no more room for additional animals. Tommy is one of the outdoor strays who I really want to find a home for, though. With cold weather coming up, I’d really like to find a home for him before winter gets here.

I don’t know where Tommy came from, but he’s been in the neighborhood for a couple of years. He was among a group of strays who a former neighbor got fixed and got shots for. She and her husband used to feed them, but they already had seven indoor cats of their own, so they couldn’t take anymore, either.

After they moved away a few months ago, I took over feeding several of them, including Tommy. (The former neighbor felt so bad about leaving them that she still brings food for me to feed them.) He’s just now getting to the point that he’ll trust me to touch him and pick him up every now and then, so he’s going to need patient humans in his new home. He’s never had consistent love and attention.

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Despite liberal predictions, ending gun bans didn’t lead to Wild West

By David McElroy · October 9, 2011

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that Americans have a constitutional right to keep a gun in their homes for self-defense, the progressive left was angry and full of dire predictions. The decision was going to lead to blood in the streets, we were told.

The mayors of two cities with very restrictive gun laws were especially apoplectic. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley called the Heller decision a “frightening ruling,” and he said we were going to have Wild West shootouts, because people “are going to take a gun and they are going to end their lives in a family dispute.”

Daley wasn’t alone is his dire warnings. Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty said, “More handguns in the District of Columbia will only lead to more handgun violence.”

If those predictions had come true, we would be seeing special reports in magazine and on television, along with demands that “something must be done to stop this.” But since the truth is very, very different, the news media have been strangely silent.

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Politicians sometimes lie even when they know they’ll be caught

By David McElroy · October 8, 2011

Did you hear about the poor ol’ Boston teacher who Barack Obama talked Thursday about having met? He’s the experienced teacher who Obama talked having been laid off three times as he pushed his jobs bill — so we can get “Robert back in the classroom teaching our kids.”

There are only a couple of problems with the story. First, Obama never met the guy. Second, the guy is still happily employed in a school as a “data and literacy coach” working with other teachers to make them better at what they do.

Unfortunately for the Liar in Chief, the Boston Herald tracked down the facts and pointed them out, even if the paper was polite enough to simply sat that Obama’s story “stretches” the truth.

Here were Obama’s actual words:

“I had a chance to meet a young man named Robert Baroz. He’s got two decades of teaching experience. He’s got a master’s degree. He’s got an outstanding track record of helping his students make huge gains in reading and writing. In the last few years, he’s received three pink slips because of budget cuts. Why wouldn’t we want to pass a bill that puts somebody like Robert back in the classroom teaching our kids?”

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Here’s proof that reality and satire are indisting Here’s proof that reality and satire are indistinguishable these days.
This was the sunset I saw from the parking lot out This was the sunset I saw from the parking lot outside of the Walmart near my house just after the sun went down Friday evening.
This little parody was inspired by my trip to buy This little parody was inspired by my trip to buy gas a little while ago. Even at a no-name brand, the price was $4.09. If I remember correctly, it was $2.29 a gallon at the same station on the day the war started. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of winning. 🤣
For the best and most sophisticated in lawn care, For the best and most sophisticated in lawn care, check out the sponsor of one of my upcoming YouTube video episodes. 🙃 #parody #threestooges
Have you felt as though you’re living through Grou Have you felt as though you’re living through Groundhog Day lately? Me, too. Here’s a quick-and-dirty political satire I made this evening for fun and stress relief.
About three minutes before sunrise, vibrant color About three minutes before sunrise, vibrant color is poking through the skies to the east of my back yard.
The lights and color might have been more spectacu The lights and color might have been more spectacular a couple of minutes before this, but this was the best view I had of the Monday afternoon sunset from a bridge over I-20 in Moody, Ala.
I just remembered this shot I got a couple of hour I just remembered this shot I got a couple of hours ago of the fading sunset while I was in the Publix parking lot on the way home. If you suddenly find yourself craving Arby’s or Wendy’s, blame the giant icons in the sky, not me. 😃 (BTW, this was with the iPhone’s 8X telephoto lens.) #nature #naturephotography #sunset #birmingham #alabama
I had just pulled into a parking lot Friday night I had just pulled into a parking lot Friday night and was watching traffic through the distortion of the gently falling rain on my car window when I realized that the abstract view I had matched the way I was feeling tonight, so I turned it into a brief abstract video to match my mood.
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According to Oliver, whatever I had planned for th According to Oliver, whatever I had planned for this evening can wait.
Alex is practicing the ancient feline art of doing Alex is practicing the ancient feline art of doing nothing with complete confidence.
I came home long enough to change clothes before h I came home long enough to change clothes before heading back out. Oliver decided that what I really needed was a mandatory lap session. As usual, the cat won.
Alex was confidently relaxing on the fireplace man Alex was confidently relaxing on the fireplace mantle Thursday afternoon, carrying himself with the quiet certainty of a cat who has never once doubted that he belongs exactly where he is.
Alex has been hanging out with me while I worked a Alex has been hanging out with me while I worked after midnight, but by 1:30 a.m., he’s given up and gone to sleep right under the lamp on my desk.
Sam is taking the morning shift of Neighborhood Wa Sam is taking the morning shift of Neighborhood Watch today.
Oliver thinks it’s a remarkably nice morning for s Oliver thinks it’s a remarkably nice morning for some extra sleep.
It’s unusual for me to get all three of the cats i It’s unusual for me to get all three of the cats in the same shot. Although this is primarily showing Alex grooming Oliver, Sam is in the background taking a bath for a good portion of it.
Alex is in an office window at the front of the ho Alex is in an office window at the front of the house keeping an eye on the neighborhood Tuesday afternoon.
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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.

I’ve been making some changes to the site lately and there are more changes coming in the days ahead, so don’t be surprised if you some small differences. This is not a wholesale redesign, but rather the addition of some features. Since they’re smarter than I am, I’ve put Oliver and Alex in charge of the technical work, which you can see in this action photo from the control room of our media complex. I recently added a series of landing pages for readers who randomly discover the site from an Internet search. I’ve also changed the YouTube link at the top of the page to go to the new YouTube channel for video essays that reflect things I’ve already published here. (Here’s a little bit about both of the YouTube channels I’m working on.) In addition, I’m trying to move away from using Instagram, so I’m experimenting with photo plug-ins that will eventually allow me to host the pictures — cats, dogs, sunsets, whatever — that I often take. So don’t be surprised to see more changes. Thanks for your patience. Let’s hope Alex and Oliver know what they’re doing.

I have no use for the theocratic and repressive government of Iran. The people who run the country are cruel at best and evil at worst. The Iranian people deserve freedom. But I have no personal quarrel with anybody in Iran. While I’m not thrilled about a future Iranian government having nuclear weapons, I’m just as concerned about nukes in the hands of politicians in Israel, Pakistan, India, China and Russia. I’m not even thrilled with the U.S., Britain and France having them, either, because I don’t trust any politicians to be responsible with such terrible weapons. All I can say with certainty is that American taxpayers have no business attacking Iran, especially since we’re being forced to pay for this attack in order to benefit the politicians of Israel — and nobody else. If Middle Eastern countries want to fight among themselves, that’s none of my business. It’s not the business of the U.S. government, either. I have no quarrel with anybody in Iran — and having the government which claims to represent me launch an unprovoked attack against a sovereign country will only make all Americans less safe in the near future. This attack is poorly conceived and morally unjustified. Remember that when the Iranians launch attacks that we will then condemn as “terrorism.” What the U.S. is doing right now looks like terrorism to me. And let’s not forget that the attack is the latest in a long line of unconstitutional wars by various U.S. presidents — who have no legal power to declare war on their own, according to the U.S. Constitution.

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