“And when you stop and think about it
You won’t believe it’s true
That all the love you’ve been giving
Has all been meant for you” — Justin Hayward

For some reason, I have been thinking about scumbags lately and when I think of scumbags my mind somehow wanders to Kirk Cameron. For those unfamiliar with Cameron and his work, he gained some fame and notoriety as the child star of “Growing Pains” back in the 1980s. Like most child stars, he didn’t successfully make the transition to adult actor. Once he stopped being cute he left the public eye for the most part.

What also happened is that Cameron went through a pretty dramatic conversion to Christianity. This conversion to Christianity may or may not have resulted in an actress getting fired from the show. For those that don’t want to go down the rabbit hole, Julie McCullough played his girlfriend on the show, but it was discovered that she had posed for Playboy. The rumor was that Cameron had her fired, because that kind of image didn’t jive with his new found Christian beliefs. Of course, he denies this version of the story. Needless to say, her career went the way of the doodoo bird and he went on to make more sanctimonious films and creative works.

Well, all that is old is new once again. Cameron is embarking on a library tour to read his children’s books. A Hendersonville Library director made the call to cancel an event involving Cameron as a way to keep the library from becoming a venue that would take part in a culture war. The director in question stated that he wanted to keep all potentially controversial events away from the library. This would include drag queens reading to children as well. Fair is fair after all. Well, the Sumner County Library board voted 4-3 to terminate the director of the library after Cameron and his group complained.

In a growing trend, some threatened violence if they didn’t get their way. To be perfectly fair, his supporters were not the only ones to threaten violence. Some on the left responded with threats as well. We aim to be fair here as much as possible and being fair means calling out bad behavior all the way around. All that being said, this is a pattern with Cameron. I’m legitimately thrilled when anyone finds a religion that works for them. If his Christian beliefs keep him on the straight and narrow then that is fantastic. Those Christian beliefs are also supposed to be tolerant and forgiving of those that may not subscribe to the same mode of thinking.

That goes for a young actress that may have made a decision she regrets and it goes for a librarian that decides that he doesn’t want his library to be used in a game of political ping pong. Free speech is a right that protects people from government oppression or government censorship. I suppose a library is in some way an extension of that, but the first amendment states, “Congress shall make no law…” It certainly doesn’t guarantee you the right to a platform and it certainly doesn’t make you look more Christian if you use coercion and threats to get your way. I’m sure Cameron’s books have a nice message, but that message is at least somewhat sullied by his tactics to get the story heard in the first place.

Hey, Ted Cruz is now touting hisownself as a “best selling author.”  And he is – at his own address.

I don’t know this to be true, but I’ve heard that if you buy a hot dog at a ballgame, you get a free Ted Cruz book you can use as a napkin. However, complains were filed that those thin paper napkins were far superior to Ted’s grammar.

Since all of us at the World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc. have been lazy this week, there’s something I’ve been meaning to share with you for a couple of months now but just never got around to it.

Remember back during Covid when low interest loans were given by the federal government to small businesses so they could make payroll?  Well, it appears that most of those loans have been forgiven.

Now here’s my problem, I think it’s a good thing to keep people employed. But when I see the names of local rich, rich, rich anti-government guys in my own small town get $2 million free and clear from the government they hate while whining about paying any taxes whatsodamnever, it kinda steams me.  They want all the profits but none of the risks.

And I am also bothered about forgiven loans to churches and religious schools – especially the far right wing ones who were telling people not to wear masks.  What’s the matter, dudes? God didn’t answer your prayers?

So anyway, the next time I hear my very politically active neighbor Joe Guerecky (who owns a large machine shop) try to own-the-libs by griping about taxes, I have already made a copy of his forgiven loans to show him where the hell my tax money goes – over a million dollars of it went in his pocket. You may want some receipts from your hometown and notify these people that you haven’t gotten your thank you note from them yet.

So, here ya go.

So, we didn’t do diddle squat after the last bank bail out, and now we’re all surprised that there’s another.  Yes another, who incidentally gave enormous bonuses to their top executives a couple of hours before padlocking the front door.

I have a solution. No bail out.

Here’s how we handle it. We have all of their executives show up at the bank for a “party.” Once they arrive we strip them down to their boxers and hand them a big box with all their money in the world, except for $250,000 which we allow them to keep, and then open the door to account holders.

It would be a mess, but we’d never see a bank fail again.

Oh yeah, we also give a microphone to Elizabeth Warren so she can remote broadcast color commentary of the big event.

A friend sent me a tweet that makes me chuckle.

Hope your Monday has some good news.

I am easily one to laugh at photos of people who make selfies with Republican politicians while wearing an “I’m With Stupid” t-shirt. Or wearing a t-shirt with a screw drilled through a baseball and an arrow pointing to the one fooled.

I am easily entertained, and they’re so easily duped.

So it should come as no surprise that when the Florida governor got a taste of Iowan photographic humor I just had to lift the pic from the Tampa Bay Times.

Lookie here what a FOIA request turned up about Ron DeSantis after he claimed to be a naval pilot.

Uh, maybe not so much.

Bless his heart, Capt. DeSantis was the Asst. Urinalysis Coordinator. The assistant. I mean, he wasn’t even the head urinalysis coordinator.

I have my doubts he was any good at it since most of his coordination experience seems to come from the other end.

And, no, I don’t have anything better to do with my time. It’s pollen season here and I’m trapped inside with a loud HEPA filter. Damn, baseball season better start soon.