Staying neutral.

Today's Tids Issue 4,238

Look up to the October sky; there are no problems: 

I have to tell you that I have to work extra hard these days trying to be exact in my opinions. Now there will be those who don’t think I‘m exact at all, but it hopefully should only be because they just don’t agree with my side of the coin. So, I will continue to try to put out what is at least the non-hyperbolic truth from this point of view, trying not to be trapped into exaggerations that seem to be plentiful. And, of course, quickly issue corrections that are based on factual complaints. After all, what does a columnist/blogger have if he or she doesn’t have integrity. Yes, the clouds of doubt hover menacingly upon the pursuit of rational truth.

Just in case you haven’t been paying attention, The USA has just been named by the World Economic Forum as the “World’s Most Competitive Economy”…for the first time in a decade. Something good must be going on.

Before smart phone map app technology, people off cruise ships wandering around town used to ask me for directions. Now all I see are frowning people huddled in corners trying to interpret their maps. See. new technology inhibits social interaction.

The floor was so dusty, that it seemed to be suffering from sweep deprivation.

This just in: the “Sailing Hall of Fame” Board of Directors just voted 17-9 to move the Hall from Annapolis Maryland to Newport Rhode Island. Maybe I can get a job making up stories for tours.

The Question:

After yesterday’s comment about the Doris Day/Gordon MacCrae duet, a reader wrote to say he much preferred Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. So, who do you think are the top all-time duets.

The Headlines:

--Markets Give Back Some Of Yesterday’s Gains In Early Trading, Then Swings In True Tums Day; Housing Starts Fall More Than Exacted; Oil Prices Rise After New Report Shows Lower Inventories; Goldman Sachs And Netflix Point To Optimistic Future.

--Mueller Said To be Ready To Deliver Key Finding in Probe. It Is Expected To Be Made Public After Mid Term Elections.

--Another Trooper Shot Dead During Routine Traffic Stop. Suspect Found And Arrested In North Carolina Woods. 

--Smoke Filled Cabin Forces Plane Carrying Melania Trump To Return To Airport.

--Official Death Toll From Michael Rises To 29; 1000+ Said To Still be Unaccounted For.

--MegaMillions Up to $900 Million

--Pecan and Cotton Crops Hit Hard In Michael Catastrophe.

--Recreational Marijuana Is Officially Legal In Canada.

--Cleveland Indians Accuse Houston of Spying During Their Playoff Series; Red Sox Reported Similar Suspicious Activity In Game One Of ALCS,

The Voice is into it’s Battle Rounds, which have always been the most enjoyable segment, to me. Before I get to the Battles, I have to give little thumbs up for Katrina Kane, one of the last picked in the blinds. She could do well.  I wasn’t overwhelmed with many acts on Monday or Tuesday night. On Monday, Patrique Fortson was very good as was her battle with Colton Smith. For some reason, I liked Michael Lee who won his battle with Joey Green. The judges went bananas over the Cody Ray Raymond and Sandy Redd duet. I didn’t. On Tuesday we had another round which again did not have me jumping out of my chair. But I’ll kee watching, looking

NCIS is getting too folksy. Plots look like afterthoughts

Elizabeth Warren dressed in a formal Native American deerskin outfit walks up to the distinguished maître d in fine restaurant. She says, “I’d like a table”. The maître d says: “No.” She replies: “Why Not”. He answers: “You don’t have a reservation.”

There’s no truth to the rumor that the Saudis say Khashoggi’s Accidental death was due to too much bleach in the water boarding procedure. Well, it’s an excuse.

If you know anybody looking for a good job, send them to Pittsburgh, Saint Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Hartford, Boston, Memphis, Raleigh, Cleveland and Detroit. That’s where there are good companies looking for good employees and paying well. All of those cities have reasonable housing costs except Boston, which also has by far the highest average wages.

A lot of people are saying that “our democracy is in danger of failing.” How odd. We aren’t a democracy at all. I guess that means that even the well-educated, worlds smartest woman Hillary Clinton doesn’t understand are a republic, or else she would grasp the idea of the Electoral College. So, to all of those who say the EC is undemocratic, they are complete correct. And that would be meaningful, if in fact we were a democracy. The FF’s went to great lengths to protect us from being a “democracy’, and f you look hard and wide you will not find it in the Constitution, Declaration of Independence or in any founding documents. The idea of course behind a Republic, is to protect the average citizens from all powerful voting blocs, majority ruling factions.

Walter Williams, points out in one of his columns these quotes by the leraned wise men who put together this great country. John Adams: “Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minority party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.” Edmund Randolph: “That in tracing these evils to their origin, every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy.” Chief Justice John Marshall: “Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the different is like that between order and chaos.”

There is a marketing thought out there in the political media management abyss that says if you repeat a mis use of the truth often enough, it will eventually become a truth in the minds of the unknowledgeable voter.

A Connecticut reader reports to Tids Central that there is no truth to the rumor that Senator Richard Blumenthal claims he is 1/1024th Viet Nam Vet.

I don’t know if they have used it before, but I except weather-people to now overuse use the phrase “Canadian High” going forward.

If you read and/or hear the talk beneath the aura of big time media you see pretty clearly that the deplorables are out there, and rising up again – madder than ever.

The Answer:

This list could be all over the lot, because I have found many diverse choices… and have left out many.  So, I’m not going to rank the duets. Most common are Sonny and Cher – I Got You Babe, Lionel Richie and Diana Ross in Endless Love, Elton John and Kiki Dee in Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga in It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Don’t Got That Swing), Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers In Islands in the Stream,  Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder in Ebony and Ivory, John Travolta and Olivia Newton John  in You’re the One That I Want, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off, Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond in You Don’t Bring Me Flowers Any More, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan in Baby It’s Cold Outside, Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty in Stop Draggin’ my Heart Around, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrel in Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Queen and David Bowie in Under Pressure,  and Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley in (I’ve had) The Time of My Life (From Dirty Dancing).

So, here we are bout 3 weeks until the very important election. Every republican vote counts, except of course in Rhode Island. When you think about it, maybe the founding fathers chose the idea of a democratic republic to forestall the development of United States that looks like RI, where the minority party has absolutely no voice. See, RI pollical system is good for something – an example of what not to do.

Other than that, how could you not be happy walking outside today in the brisk cool air of October.