Ever wonder where old-fashioned common sense went in this troubled nation? Poof! All but vanished.
I'm talking about the inherent logic that tells us not to touch hot stoves, play in traffic, jump headlong into deep and swirling rivers, drive 90 mph in front of a police officer, or shout fire in a crowded theater.
I wonder about this a lot. I see many signs of this terrible loss today, permeating society at every level. Who stole it from us?
I wonder what occurred in our once-rational adult population that allowed those with biologically male bodies who once competed against males to now compete against women in "women's" sporting events.
By the same token, who in their right mind decided we can choose our gender any more than we can choose our race, or age? And why would thinking adult Americans condone such nonsense?
I wonder when we accepted the destructive philosophy that it was even remotely prudent for our nation to spend far more than we take in, as if by doing so our nation can ever hope to acquire enduring safety and security.
I wonder why we as a free people stopped supplying citizens with our own more-than-abundant supply of oil for the energy we must have to survive economically, while asking enemy countries to sell us their oil.
I wonder why any people of our sovereign nation would knowingly open its once-protective borders to the free flow of deadly recreational drugs and those (many of whom are infected with covid-19) from Third World countries who would do us harm.
I wonder why those elected to prosecutors' offices, paid for with our taxes for the single purpose of prosecuting crimes and criminals, instead choose to ignore their responsibility, setting repeat violent criminals free to continue assaults on decent, innocent citizens. If they won't effectively prosecute the worst, who will they prosecute?
I wonder why law-abiding citizen voters in some major cities once known for their charm and beauty have allowed their downtowns to be spoiled with crowded homeless encampments, filthy and toxic human waste, and destruction caused by corrupt and radical local governments.
I wonder why concerned parents of public school students are labeled "domestic terrorists" by various elected school boards simply because they are angry over the way these partisan public boards are "educating" their children and operating with what seem to be unspoken political agendas.
I wonder when we decided to make the over-regulation of many businesses so onerous that industrious and hardworking business people could no longer afford to keep doors open.
I wonder when the nation's news media, which must rely on hard-earned credibility, willingly choose to throw away theirs in favor of pushing radical political agendas.
I wonder why so many Americans are reluctant, even afraid, to stand up to intimidation from the preposterous "woke" and "cancel culture" mobs simply because their beliefs and opinions conflict with their radical views.
OK. Whew! I'm tired of typing now. Besides, I'm sure you can think of more without my assistance. The evidence abounds.
Talking to dogs
If any other dog owner is anything like us, they talk to their fuzzy children as if they understand us.
In Benji's case, we've become convinced he understands our words by the way he cocks his head left and right, or drops and lifts his ears as if he's straining to comprehend every sentence.
That reassures us, especially since he clearly can understand limited words like "outside," "go outside," "mommy," "daddy," "stay," "walk," "eat," "toy," "treat" and more.
Hey, if Dr. Dolittle could talk to his animals, why not us?
Watching Facebook videos that show some dogs seeming to actually utter expressions such as "I love you" (Huskies and Malamutes especially) only reinforced our certainty.
Then, like so much in this life, we finally got some facts from those who should know, the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and their informative April newsletter about dogs.
These doggie docs, who know of what they speak, say that as much as we want to believe our eyes, we are fooling ourselves. They're not actually speaking, but are imitating sounds "because they delight in our delight, and that makes them try to get it right," the story says. Their inability to utilize their tongues and lips to make the same sounds we do accounts for their poor pronunciation.
Plus, dogs don't have language centers in their brains, which I suppose is the bottom line.
Recent research out of Hungary suggests dogs can differentiate between our spoken language and gibberish. MRIs performed on 18 dogs showed a different form of brain activity in response to gibberish and speech.
"The researchers think it may be something about rhythms of real speech that dogs pick up on. Whatever it is, their capacity to 'read' us runs deeper than we know," the story concludes.
Just to prove these vets wrong, I sat down with Benji in my lap the other evening and began reading to him from a child's book of fairy tales and poems.
He seemed very attentive when I mentioned the quick brown fox. His floppy little ears perked up and his head cocked to one side. "Oh yeah," I thought with an encouraged smile. He especially reacted when I mentioned what a "treat" something had been for one character.
That word seemed to be the high point of my experiment. Afterwards, he laid his head on my knee, yawned really big, then fell fast asleep.
What's in a name?
Live in Arkansas? Having a baby soon? Found a name you like?
Good for you.
If you're still searching for just the right moniker, I happened across a list of the male and female names predicted to be most popular in our state in 2022, based on past lists by the Social Security Administration.
Care to guess which ones led each gender?
No. 1 for the boys is Liam. That's followed in order by the traditional William, then Noah, Elijah, Oliver, Asher, Wyatt, James, Hudson and Henry.
Seven of the top 10 in Arkansas also are on the national top 10 list. Unique to us are Asher, Wyatt and Hudson.
For the girls, Olivia led the list, followed by Amelia, Ava, Emma, Harper, Evelyn, Charlotte, Sophia, Isabella and Willow.
Of those, eight names also are included on the national top 10 roster. Harper and Willow are unique to Arkansas.
Eternal payback
Riddle me this, valued readers. After ol' Vlad the Russian Baby and Mother Killer's criminal invasion of Ukraine reduces the once-civilized and developed Ukraine to rubble and savagely murders untold number of innocent women and children, what then?
Will he install a puppet government headed by a loyal sycophant to rule over the piles of bricks, stone, rubble, blood and mass graves?
Does he believe, with the civilized world now viewing him as the pure evil (some insist demonic) war criminal he most assuredly is, that those who lost everything including their families because of him will not conduct endless insurrections marked by murdering Russian occupiers and sabotaging Russia's pipelines?
Could he believe he can restore and govern what was there before his hideous rampage destroyed it all?
I believe that by behaving as a monster, Putin has become a monster that will continue to achieve deserved payback for generations to come. After all, humans who lose everything they cherish to a tyrant often have nothing left to lose.
Books at supercenters
I recently wrote about Ronnie Williams' compelling book "Markham Street" that explores the brutal 1960 murder of his older brother Marvin while he was in the Faulkner County jail on a bogus charge. I'm told the book, in addition to Amazon, etc., also is available in Walmart supercenters. Pick up a copy. You won't regret it.
Ronnie's book reading and signing is set for 5:30 p.m. March 31, at the Clinton library.
Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master's journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.