It seems like our systems of shaming or bullying people into behaviors considered objectionable by the self-appointed elites is just so 2018.

It looks like 100 years of liberation for women has not been liberating after all. Suddenly, 2019 looks like 1919 in so many ways for women. The lack of progress is palpable. Women should be furious and protesting in the streets – just like 1919.

To put the following in the proper framework, realize I long ago said, “A bad day in Atlanta traffic beats the best day I ever spent in a hospital.” I am here to affirm that, but every once in a while a few things get under my skin.

Take a country the size of the United States with the diversity of cultures we celebrate. We are not Scandinavia – we are too large, and we are certainly no longer homogenous in our culture, if we ever were. We could easily become Venezuela, should we believe the siren song of those promoting socialism here today.

Several sources tell us the weight of all the humans on the earth is approximately 316 million tons. The venerable Canadian newspaper, the Globe and Mail, reported on Feb. 21, 2018, that the weight of all insects in the world, not including spiders (classified as arachnids, not insects) is about 70 times the weight of the human population, or 22,120 million tons.

Scientifically, we have been looking at many subjects through a low-resolution fog. The fog is clearing, and the resolution is tightening. Thank the new tools. Hold on to your seats.

This was the quarter I graduated from high school. It was a quarter filled with many memories. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Although there was little in the way of protests or disturbances in our little town, the large cities were torn apart in the riots that followed this heinous act. As a 17-year-old focused on my own world, I did not give this the consideration it deserved.

If Congress can do only one thing as a united body, surely straightening out our time mess would be a good place to start. Forget the high-minded ideas and ideals, let’s start with the dogs who become confused each fall and spring when the stupid humans change the times of their daily walks for no apparent reason.

To this day, if I am driving across the country midday and come upon a stock auction operation on the day they are having a sale, and, if I have just a bit of time, I stop. I’ll stop and have lunch and sit in on the auction for a bit. I tell my city-slicker friends the best and cheapest lunches you can find are church women’s auxiliaries serving at a stock sale. Great food, great prices. I have stopped at them all over the country.

Democrats, and most of today's version of Republicans, are of the same ilk. Spend more, let us solve your problems. The parties are virtually indistinguishable.

When one looks back in history, public education was established, not to train people for employment, but to train voters to be intelligent in a democratic society. Education has lost this purpose and, as mentioned earlier, today's voters' knowledge of critical issues is often nearly as ignorant as the fine citizens of old Salem, Massachusetts.

Among the many things the federal government has taken from us, the joy of giving may just be the most serious.

Many in the press demean people today – just look at the headlines in some of the well-known newspapers or the stories on some of the news channels. Sadly, I have to confess there have been times when I have demeaned people, too. That's not good, and I hope I have matured enough through my walk with Jesus Christ to check myself when I am about to do this. The act of demeaning says more about the one doing the demeaning than it does about the target.

However, I have some friends in Highland County who I am sure are very happy about the recent temperatures you have been experiencing. I heard from one of them around the first of the year who casually remarked they had run out of ice. For those of us who live with modern appliances, that would mean either filling the ice cube trays or checking on the water tubing that feeds the automatic ice maker. Not for these friends.

OK. Maybe it is my age, but I have my eyes checked routinely. What is with the comma key on my keyboard and the representation of the comma on my computer screen?