I’m being mean I know, BUT…

I have been enjoying the hell out of Trumps first week in office.

If the Democrats stay this mad for much longer, they’re going to have aneurysms. Not that I’d shed too many tears about it.

CNN is laying off, Deportations are ongoing, Jim Acosta may lose his prime time slot and possibly his job. The J6 folks are free as are the pro life protestors who prayed at an abortion clinic.

I caught an article today saying that Klaus Schwab was big mad at the people in the United States for re-electing Trump. Apparently he thought the lock was in with Kamala and since she’s so weak willed, I’m betting he expected her to sell us out to the WEF and make him king of the world.

We pesky Americans! We just will not submit to being ruled. Klaus told the WEF that perhaps we shouldn’t be allowed to have elections anymore. We’re just too unpredictable.

This is coming second hand from a whistleblower who’s at Davos.

Sorry, when this guy and his buddies, all dress in robes that look like something out of a SciFi movie it gives me pause.

I mean their outfits look like the traditional outfits that the bad guys in such movies wear.

Come on, this screams “I’m the bad guy!” All he needs is some dark and foreboding entrance march.

What the hell are they dressed as?

Anyhow, I think the enemy might be the WEF. Their minions in the form of whatever old Klaus is funding are already here in the states. Schwab commented on a number of “Black Swan” events happening in 2025. Trouble is, Black Swan events are by definition unpredictable so why would Klaus say he was expecting not one, but multiples in one single year?

Maybe it’s a good thing we got Trump.

It’s nice to see common sense, prevailing. I’m not sure about pulling the US out of NATO but I’m pleased he pulled us out of the Paris Climate shit. I’m glad he’s sending illegals back to their countries of origin.

Hey, at least they didn’t have to walk…

I heard this evening that Mexico is refusing the shipments. Isn’t that interesting? 

I’m glad to see the border being closed, I’m also glad that those people being returned are telling their countrymen it’s not worth the trip and that immigration is all over the place. I’m not meaning to be a bastard about this, but wait your freaking turn folks… The illegal crossers just screw up the world for the people who’ve been standing in line to come here legally.

I also like that Trump is moving so fast with so many of the changes and executive orders. Before Democrats read that, and say, “the courts will overturn those executive orders.” I’d like to remind them, Biden forgave student loans, the court said, “You can’t do that,” and Biden did it again.

Where was your outrage then?

If the court says, “No, you can’t do that to Trump,” I think he’d be well within his right to behave exactly as Biden.

I’m for the stipulation Trump set on Federal funding to California too. I think he rightly sees the root cause of the problems being an effectively single party state. So he say, I’ll give you federal funding, but you need to enact Voter ID and divert a lot of the water that runs into the ocean now, back into California.

Seems simple. I’d like to have voter ID in California. I think that would solve a number of issues an it would be interesting to know once and for all if the poor choices in government officials are the result of cheating or stupidity.

DOGE is cutting bullshit studies and programs. They’ve got a slot on USDebtClock.org showing how much they’ve saved. It’s here if you’re interested.

There was a list describing just some of the things they’ve cut. There was a Department of football huddle. They were supposed to regulate the symmetry of football huddles and had the capacity to fine teams that didn’t measure up.

Uhhh really??????? I hope to God that’s a parody. Thus far I can’t confirm or deny it. The sad part is that I wouldn’t be surprised in the least.

Petty assed bureaucrats would try to institute a masturbation tax or fee, if they could figure out how to monitor everyone. There’d be special waivers for minorities and anyone pumping a load into a cup at a sperm bank.

Hegseth was just confirmed as Secretary of Defense. I’m sure a lot of jackasses in the pentagon are shitting themselves right now.

It’s wildly inappropriate but I’d like to see Hegseth rip his shirt off, grab a sword, and yell, “Y’all are righteously FUCKED NOW!!!!” He can’t but I think it would be epic.

Once he gets rid of a bunch of dead weight in generals, I’m hoping he’ll flush the bullshit projects that have been running for 20 years, produced nothing, cost billions, are already obsolete, and not even close to producing a working prototype.

I’m looking forward to week two.

Maybe the CNN, ABC, NBC, & CBS reporters, and this vile bitches on The View will start dropping with heart attacks, since they’re so pissed off. That would be entertainment!

OMG! Talk about Maximum Irony!

Fu NWQOXgAEVFSM.So the SLPC (Southern Poverty Law Center) has put Gays Against Groomers on its list of so called “Hate groups”.

You can’t make this stuff up!

Their reasoning is that Gays Against Groomers is ‘anti-trans conversion of children’. Which is by their definition hateful.

By my definition, making permanent alterations to something as fundamental as a child’s reproductive system is hateful beyond belief. We’re talking Josef Mengele level criminality.

Oh and not for one minute do I believe the medical profession saying that puberty blockers and hormone therapies are reversible.

I’m linking the Breitbart article here.

Ya gotta love the irony, A gay group, who is about protecting children from harm by taking a stand against what amounts to medical malpractice driven by a fringe group within the gay community, (if one subscribes to the concept of “Do No Harm” from the Hippocratic oath,) is defined as a hate group.

Why? Because they are taking a stand against the Trans agenda that is quite honestly destroying the LGB community.

It’s not that gay people hate trans folks, it’s that Trans folks have damaged almost everything that the LGB community built and they’re continuing to destroy the LGB community. Bars, Dating, and the cohesiveness of the LGB community have all been poisoned. Traditionally male and females spaces outside the LGB community are being invaded by, I believe in most cases, individuals who are not Trans, but who have seen opportunity to “belong”. Some within that group are simply about being perverts getting thrills offending others while being a protected class.

Screenshot 2022 09 19 152756.There are women who’ve had mastectomies that call homosexual men, (note the word homosexual) horrible names because the men are not interested in them. Uhh one defining feature of homosexual men is that they like, and want to have sex with other biological men. Ya know, men who can ejaculate and have actual working penises…

The Trans agenda has wrought more harm to the LGB community than the Westboro Baptist Church and similar religious organizations across the United States EVER did.

[I tried searching for the other names of churches and organizations who fought against gay marriage and gay rights. Interesting thing about that. It’s kind of difficult to locate articles about those folks. Where once there were hundreds of articles both pro and con, now there’s this weird miasma of articles that are sort of related but not informative. Even narrowing the search to a specific range of years doesn’t help. Regardless of the organization existing or not, I’d expect for the articles to still be available.]

I suppose that highlights what I’ve pointed out several times about the underlying flaw in the internet. It’s very easy for something to be deleted or “go missing”. The internet is not an archival system. There is no rigor whatsoever in publications. 

[I wonder if I’d find the same “missing” information were I to look for negative articles written about folks who questioned the recent COVID responses? That might be worth a shot just for shits and giggles. Especially since there have been those in positions of fame or power who called for, “conspiracy theorists” and the unvaccinated to be placed in concentration camps, who have recently said “Forgiveness”, “Kindness” and “Grace” should be given to them.

It has not gone unnoticed by me that not once have these authoritarians admitted they were wrong or apologized for their hateful rhetoric.]

I digress.

I find it interesting that the SLPC also classifies Anti-Government Groups right along with Hate Speech, and White Nationalist groups.

Excuse me? Who in this country after the past 3.5 years isn’t anti-government? Has this administration done a single thing to engender trust in the government? 

One of the groups the SPLC describes is called Neo-Völkisch. Honestly, I’m not entirely sure that Neo-Völkisch is wrong. Of course I could say the same of The Proud Boys. I think the SPLC triggered on the Neo-Völkisch because there’s German in the name.

I’d bet that gave at least a few folks at SPLC “The Vapors”.

I’d say that Gays Against Groomers is in good company. Based on the descriptions of some of the other “Hate” groups. I think it’s hysterical that Gays Against Groomers is on the same list as California Family Council which is anti-LGBT. How’s that work exactly???

I think this points to two fundamental things.

1) The Southern Poverty Law Center is no longer trustworthy, and quite possibly a front for a totally communist agenda.

2) Gays Against Groomers is having an impact against the Trans Agenda, and the Trans folks are attempting to rally their troops.

If I were part of Gays Against Groomers, I’d be reaching out to other “Hate” groups on the SLPC list. Particularly those groups that are for home schooling, and generally anti-government. Some of these would also be Anti-Gay but those that were simply about parents having the right to dictate what their children are taught in school might be natural allies. For that matter, the National Coalition for Men might also be an ally if their Philosophy is to be believed. They’re also on the SPLC list of Hate Groups.

I’ve noticed a pattern. To get on the SPLC hate list, all you have to do is be slightly counter culture.

Who would have thought that educating children in traditional ways with traditional subject matter, or protecting children from chemical castration would be controversial? I’m surprised that the SPLC hasn’t added anti circumcision groups to their “Hate” list. BloodstainedMen for example. However, the National Coalition for Men also mentions that circumcision isn’t cool.

I’m sure that next week, Doctors protecting Children, will be added to the SPLC list of hate groups. Especially since they just released this;

“Therefore, given the recent research and the revelations of the harmful approach advocated by WPATH and its followers in the United States, we, the undersigned, call upon the medical professional organizations of the United States, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Endocrine Society, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry to follow the science and their European professional colleagues and immediately stop the promotion of social affirmation, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for children and adolescents who experience distress over their biological sex. Instead, these organizations should recommend comprehensive evaluations and therapies aimed at identifying and addressing underlying psychological co-morbidities and neurodiversity that often predispose to and accompany gender dysphoria. We also encourage the physicians who are members of these professional organizations to contact their leadership and urge them to adhere to the evidence-based research now available.”

Pretty powerful stuff and 180° opposite what the Trans would have any of us believe.

I think the real problem is that Gays Against Groomers and other organizations like them, threaten the medical industry’s income.

Face it, hormone therapies, and continuing medical care for a Trans Child or Adult is lucrative. The Doctors are creating a patient and associated income stream for the life of the patient. Virtually all disciplines of the medical profession stand to make money. Psychologists, Endocrinologists, Surgeons, & General Practitioners just to start. Over time, all the rest of the Medical Industry gets a taste of that patient. The younger they start, the longer the doctors get to bleed money out of them. More properly, out of their insurance companies.

No-one wants to think about the medical profession being driven by greed instead of the desire to help. I however, believe that greed is the driver and as proof I point to the last 4 years.

Gays against Groomers also has a position that the liberal left can’t assail. Gay people know damn well that 40% of the population suddenly identifying as Trans is absolute bullshit.

Trans people, real trans people, not fetishists have always been very rare, and they do deserve protection. The Gay community has always afforded real Trans people protection and inclusion.

What we’re seeing today is something else entirely, and it is destructive to the rest of the LGB community in that instead of having a cohesive group, that looks out for each other, we’re being divided and subdivided agains and again until no one subgroup has a strong enough voice to actually be heard.

Gays Against Groomers may well be our only voice, and it’s not about banning or marginalizing Trans people. Gays Against Groomers is about not damaging children.

In the course of an afternoon, a child can go from being a fireman, to spaceman, to doctor, to Indian Chief, to policeman. Typically we understand that all of those are possibilities, but wait until the child settles down before handing them a gun, firehose, scalpel, or blasting them into space.

Gays against Groomers is simply saying we should be a lot less quick to pump a bunch of drugs into kids before they have the capacity to understand what it all means.

Somehow it figures that the SPLC would list “normal” LGB people as hateful. 

This kind of irony is comedic and actually pretty sad.


6/14/2024 Update:

The SLPC announced layoffs. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch of people! It’s unclear how many people are out the door, but early reports say as many as 60.

Super NOT Funny!!!!

So today I did the famous snake dance! This dance is listed under Exotic Interpretive Modern Dance, and the soundtrack goes something like, SHIT! SHIT, SHIT, SHIT! OH SHIT!

Here’s the background. 

Jesse and I were walking in our usual area. There are a lot of critters out & about, mostly lizards and a few very brave or very foolish ground squirrels. I call the squirrels brave or foolish because they’ve taken to darting across Jesse’s path sometimes only inches from his face.

All of this is perfectly routine and normal. Jesse though doesn’t hunt or try to hunt these critters like any dog I’ve ever had.

After all, why would he do anything “normal”?

Instead of just running after a lizard or squirrel, he leaps. It’s more like the pouncing of a cat. It looks like he’s trying to anticipate where the critter will be then come down on top of the animal.

If he misses then he leaps up again, and perhaps does some running after the animal then leaps again. This goes on for a while until Jesse decides that the animal isn’t where he thought it was, or should be. Then he does this very graceful bounding move, easily clearing pretty high brush, to return to the trail. 

While all of this insanity is going on, he’s got this goofy laughing look on his face. It’s actually a look of pure joy. 

Given that he was a street dog there are a couple of things I can’t break him of. One is anything edible along the trail is his. He will not give it up for love, money, or even another favorite treat. He will literally eat whatever he’s found, then look at me like, “I saw that other treat, now give it to me.”

The second thing is that he can hunt for himself. He’s killed lizards but apparently they’re not to his taste. Last week he terrified a bird and chased it into the house.

I was alerted to the situation because I heard Jesse slipping and sliding all over the floor. He fell a couple of times on the slick surface. 

The poor bird in its panic to escape, had slammed into the front window and stunned itself.  So now I’ve got Jesse trying to lay claim to his “not quite dead kill.” I’m having to defend this poor bird from Jesse and he’s very confused as to why I’m messing with his prey.

I really thought the bird was going to die from the stress. Its little heart was beating so fast it felt like a vibrator. The little thing’s breathing was very fast and labored.

I wrapped it in a towel and took it out front into some peace & quiet and warmish sunlight. I stood there holding the little thing wrapped loosely in the towel. I wasn’t sure if it was going to die or not, but I didn’t want it to die alone or become prey to something while it was trying to recover.

After a time, it seemed to get better and stronger, it didn’t fly away but did flutter to a convenient bush. Jesse was watching all of this from the rear deck and was not in the least amused.

I relate this to illustrate that Jesse is very fast, and agile, in addition to his strength.

Normally on our walks we’re making enough noise that critters get out of the way. Even deer will usually bolt before we’re close enough for Jesse to think he could catch them. 

Were it not for the highway being so close to the northern edge of where we walk I’d let Jesse run free after a deer sometime. My concern would be that he’d chase a deer out onto the road and while the deer could probably clear a car, Jesse can’t. 

Once he fixates on something, he becomes very single minded about it and there have been times when I’ve literally tied the leash to a tree. The leash is a 25ft long retractable. It’s very strong but if he’s pulling at its extreme length or worse leaping and running randomly trying to chase a deer it’s very hard to control him. 

Fortunately there are a lot of trees around. I’ve tied my end of the leash around a tree more than once and simply waited until Jesse gave up. Sometimes that can take as long as 10 minutes and I’d much rather the tree take the stress & strain than my knees, arms, & back. (Although it’s a really dynamic workout.)

Now that you’ve got all the background… Back to the snake dance!

Jesse saw a fairly large lizard run into a clump of bushes. He leapt, landed on the bush and started looking for the lizard. I’d seen the lizard escape and was in the process of swatting a hoard of small flying insects away from my eyes, nose, ears, & mouth. Yes, I was being swarmed, the annoying pests were flying under my sunglasses and into every orifice.

At this point I saw Jesse running directly toward me. He was in pursuit of something which as my eye focused, turned out to be a long slithering creature. I only had one eye working at the time because a helpful bug had flown into the other one. 

I began doing the snake dance thinking if this was a baby rattlesnake they’d find my bleached bones out on the trail and Jesse would probably get distracted on the way back to the house, get lost, and we’d both end up “Vanished”…

Then I pictured what the row of houses up on the ridge could see but not hear. “Hey Mabel you should see what that guy with the dog is doing today…

At this point the litany of “SHIT” gave way to laughter. I was laughing in part because of the insanity of the situation and in part because I’d seen one of a pair of dull yellow stripes running the length of the snake. The snake went right between my legs, then disappeared.

Jesse stopped chasing it and instead was looking at me like I’d lost my mind. I don’t think he could figure out if I was mad at him, and if I was mad why I was mad. In his confusion he stopped with his head cocked with an expression of, “What’s your problem?”

Jesse had scared up a Striped Racer (Whipsnake), that was probably looking for a quiet place to shed its skin.

The dull yellow stripe(s) I’d seen identified the snake species, It’s characteristic for a snakes coloration to get dull & sometimes they’ll take on a dusty appearance just prior to shedding. It’s also near mating season for this species so Jesse might have interrupted someone’s good time.

I’ve got a Striped Racer that lives somewhere near the house. This particular Racer & I cross paths several times during the summer months. I watch out for it so that I don’t injure it with yard tools. I’d prefer to have it living in the yard because it keeps insects and rodents under control.

The first snake picture above, is of the snake that lives near my place. If you look closely you can see a bright yellow stripe. This snake had just finished shedding its skin in my rosemary bush. We startled each other one morning a couple of years ago.

I’ve included a better picture of the species. Thanks to www.californiaherps.com

Yes, I know this snake looks nothing like a rattlesnake. However, being partially blind due to one eye fighting to drown a bug, and the other eye tearing in sympathy, trust me, the brain interprets any long slithering creature as a poisonous critter worthy of summoning Saint Patrick.

As we completed our loop and were once again on the trail where we’d seen the snake, Jesse put himself crosswise on the trail so that I had to stop. He was looking around very carefully to see if the snake was still around. I was patient with him and found it interesting that he wasn’t going to let me pass until he was sure the snake was gone. 

Oh before you think, “What a good dog…”

Don’t delude yourself. Jesse couldn’t give a rip about me… He just didn’t want to get bitten. He’s self-serving like that.

That’s not entirely true there have been a few situations where he’s pointedly put himself between me and a threat. He earns his kibble, most of the time.

Enjoy the mental image of my modern dance routine. Laugh all you want, I’m still chuckling about it.

Maybe I should get a GoPro and wear it anytime we’re walking. That could produce some funny video.

Now they’re worried about it!

I had to laugh. 

There were two reports coming out of Columbia University that gave me pause.

One was of a student making demands, saying they would continue to occupy some building or other, in defiance of University policies. Then effectively asking for milk and cookies. Saying that the University needed to supply them with food because they were hungry.

What? I asked. 

Clearly this student was a gender studies major. If He/She/It/Whatever, was a history major they might have encountered a concept called a Siege. That is, unless the university thought it would be too disturbing for their students to read about armies starving each other out of fortified towns. If they put a trigger warning on the material then surely no student would have read any part of it.

Then I laughed at the complete and utter stupidity of the entity making these demands.

A second report that made me laugh was the kids essentially begging/demanding that their arrests or involvement in this idiotic protest supporting terrorists not be on their records.

That REALLY made me laugh. “Uh no snowflake, welcome to being an adult where actions have consequences!

Hippy protestors against the Vietnam War in the 60’s had their arrest records follow them throughout their lives. The arrest records weren’t so bad, but the FBI files were really damaging. 

If any of the students had been taught anything of use, they’d have known that from their American History classes. Instead they were apparently being taught genitalia doesn’t define Male or Female but surgical alteration and removal of genitalia is necessary for transgenderism.

Additional scattered reports from around the country about these Pro Terrorist protests really upped my brain’s RPM (Reboot Per Minute counter.)

Copy of mugshot background 4 5.At UCLA or USC (Who cares? Either one wastes the students time and Daddy’s money. How about just letting the student buy their useless diploma at registration, then they can immediately go work at StarBucks.)

Anyway, at one or the other of these so called educational facilities, the Pro Terrorist protestors set up barriers, one could call these barriers a Fence or Wall, that kept “Undesirable students” out of the particular building and associated library. 

But I thought Fences and Walls infringed on basic Human rights. Oh that’s only when we’re talking about immigration. Right! So many rules and so much subtle nuance, it’s hard for an old “Boomer” like myself to keep track of or understand.

The school in question was assisting in this endeavor by providing wristbands identifying those persons who supported the approved political speech. Those without wristbands were social outcasts, therefore worthy of being denied access to their classes and studies in that particular library. You know, the very things they’d paid excessively expensive tuition fees to use.

Seemed a lot like NAZI Germany, Jim Crowe, The Age of COVID, visitors to Epstein Island, or how the billionaires deal with keeping the riffraff out of golf clubs.

So while these wonderfully “educated” children would be quick to point out how wrong it is to segregate people, and quicker still to point out the evil of the oppressors in our society. When given the slightest chance, they became the oppressors themselves. 

I doubt that these moronic children will have any moment of introspection wherein they see they’re exactly the same as the evil they claim to abhor.

It’s a pity. That would be a lesson worth learning.

Georgia Trooper.The X application lit up when a Georgia Trooper got tired of dragging some whiney snowflake out of an encampment.

There’s a priceless video of a student throwing themselves on the ground much like a 5 year old having a tantrum, and this Trooper without missing a beat, picking the squalling pseudo-adult male student, up off the ground and carrying him bodily toward the waiting police vans.

The trooper looked to be about the right age to have children who’d try that same temper tantrum stunt.

The look on his face was almost serene, like this was just him doing “Dad stuff” on a Saturday afternoon at the toy store.

Florida police teargassed an encampment at the University of South Florida. The previously “Committed” students scattered like cockroaches abandoning all their possessions.

This one caught my interest because as a kid I spent a lot of time at the USF library while my Mom was studying or attending classes. Early on, I realized I could do homework in any library. Knowledge was knowledge and books contained pretty much everything that was known.

USF holds a special place in my heart and I was glad to see the Florida Police fumigating the place.

From vietnam to gaza student led protests that shook the v0 13VAy3Vnt7i7rGQodRVTQ0sNpBnaPzHFkwn9ZZltEFc.jpg.My goodness, I sound very much like the elders of my youth discussing the “Damn Hippie Protestors”. I should probably compare and contrast the protests against the Vietnam War and the Pro-Terrorist protests happening today.

Nah, not worth the time. We probably shouldn’t have been in Vietnam, certainly not with the rules of engagement imposed on our troops.

I’ve always believed that if we’re going to be engaged in a war we should be fully committed to winning. If that means the complete and utter destruction of the enemy, and their country, so be it.

I’m not particularly merciful.

I’m also not a big fan of rebuilding our enemies countries. They pissed us off, they could have surrendered any time, they could have opened negotiations at any time. If our enemies chose not to do these things and we pounded them back to the Stone Age, Oh Well…

In the case of Hamas, the Palestinians, and what happened in Israel on October 7 2023. I find that I have zero mercy. My lack of mercy in this situation borders on “negative mercy”, what would that be called, Vengeance? The IDF can, and probably should turn all of Gaza into rubble. Plow Gaza under, along with the bodies, simple, neat, and efficient.

The people of Palestine are a despoiled people, they demonstrated their depravity on October 7, they have chosen this and it’s their problem.

We don’t have boots on the ground (at least we’re not supposed to), so this is Israels issue. I believe we should support Israel due to treaties and contractual obligations. Beyond that, we should keep our mouths shut. It’s none of our business how Israel goes about defending themselves.

I oppose sending aid in the form of food or money to Gaza or the Palestinians at all. Again, that’s not our table or any of our business. We sure seem to be playing both sides of this foreign war and I disagree with that.

As to these useful idiots on college campuses. I’m all for arresting them even if it’s a misdemeanor charge. If they’re here on student visas then send them home. Deport their asses and never renew their visa again. 

You don’t come to someone else’s country and stir up trouble. You be grateful for the opportunity, pay your tuition, and return to your home when your studies are completed. You do not stand on a street corner or college campus screaming “Death To America”.

I know that’s a quaint perspective these days. I still subscribe to the concept of being a good and polite guest in someone else’s home.

One of those things that you don’t think about unless…

So I fired up Word. Yeah, after Microsoft being asses in the summer and my cancellation of the subscription. I waited a week or two then created another subscription that was for me only.

I don’t know why the idiots at Microsoft make it so difficult to change your subscription from Family, to Individual.

Nonetheless, I was able to signup using a different email address. If you try to use the email that you cancelled, Microsoft will only allow you to buy the PREVIOUS SUBSCRIPTION.

You know, the one you were trying to alter… 

Talking to Microsoft gets you to someone in India who is completely unhelpful and honestly… a bit obnoxious.

Anyhow, I fired up Word to type a letter. It wasn’t anything special but I don’t like the default font that came up in the blank document. Not really thinking about it, I pulled the font list down and was immediately presented with hundreds of fonts. 

A large number of those fonts were from languages that I don’t speak. I was sitting here thinking I don’t need Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, or Tagalog. I figured I’d leave one representative example of these languages in the event that some email or webpage I stumbled upon used them. But I saw no need to have 10 variations of each installed on my system.

That’s when I found that I could delete pretty much anything I wanted to delete, except Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, or Tagalog. I thought at first that I could delete any European character set, but couldn’t delete anything else. I’ve found that I can’t delete a few European character sets. The restriction doesn’t seem anywhere as broad as it is for non-European sets.

I found the font I was looking for and typed my letter.

As I was typing I began to wonder and remember there was a time when you’d have English (because you purchased your computer in the US. If you wanted additional languages you purchased the corresponding character sets and installed them.

My early personal systems had only European characters. Because I worked in the printing and font industry, I’d added Greek, Cyrillic, and Hebrew. 

I don’t think I ever had more than 20 or 30 fonts on my system. Now there are 387 fonts! Fully 1/3 of those fonts are fonts to languages I don’t read and rarely see.

Fonts themselves aren’t all that large, but having all these fonts makes my Font Dropdown in Word and other applications a pain in the ass to utilize.

You’d think deletion or deactivation would be an option. Apparently I’m terribly misinformed.

Do I really need Urdu?

I have been able to deactivate a large number of the foreign fonts. Don’t get me wrong, some of the Kanji fonts and Arabic fonts are beautiful to look at, but without the ability to read or write in those languages the fonts are simply in the way.

I suppose I’m a minimalist when it comes to computers, and phones. I tend to only have stuff on my technology that is used frequently. I like being able to see exactly what I”m looking for and not have to weed through a ton of distracting crap.

(See, “some of the Kanji fonts are beautiful…”) that’s how you know I got lost just trying to find a favorite Adobe font, to type my letter.

Being someone who may well be a legitimate ADHD person, I actively try to minimize distractions. If I don’t, I never get anything done. I’ll get started on a project, but if there are too many distractions I’m going to wander off into the weeds and never get back to the project I was working on. 

This is especially true if I’m stirred up emotionally about something.

This has made me wonder if our headlong rush into preserving or mandating diversity. As in the case of the fonts on my computer doesn’t inadvertently do a couple of things. 

1) We forget that those among the population who are legitimately ADHD aren’t being served at all by putting distractions in their way. ADHD folks like diversity and bright shiny objects, but too much stimulation causes us to be completely unproductive because we like chasing things down rabbit holes… Until we’re bored, or something else catches our attention. 

2) Aren’t we diminishing everyone’s freedom of choice when we force diversity upon them. I’m not talking about people here. You’ll always run across different people. But when even our technology, A.K.A. our tools have an enforced DEI can you really say that we own the tools? If something is mine, then I should be allowed to customize and configure that tool exactly the way I want it. I shouldn’t have to wade through things I don’t want just to get to the things I do. In this case 55 fonts that serve no purpose and that I’ll never use to find the one font that I purchased and installed because I prefer it.

By attempting to include everyone, we have excluded whole groups of folks “On the Spectrum” because we’re throwing bright shiny objects, metaphorically, in their path.

Perhaps we should get back to allowing someone to select what they want or need when they’re installing an operating system.

I wouldn’t mind spending 10 minutes answering configuration questions about my computer when I’m upgrading or installing an operating system.

What language(s) do you speak?

Do you want to install only character sets compatible with those languages?

Do you want to install Emojis, and special graphical character sets such as Dingbats?

Are there any other languages or character sets you’d like to install such as Math symbols, or Map symbols?

You can add additional fonts or languages from the control panel later is you desire.

Letter typed, I spent some time trying to figure out if I was missing something in turning fonts on or off. That led me to wondering what other fonts I could buy, which led me to wandering through font catalogs and coming to the conclusion that I didn’t really want to spend money on fonts right now. 

Which led me to updating my Desktop publishing  and Graphics software. Then I wandered digitally into a couple of rabbit holes before I remembered that I needed to print an envelope to go with the letter I’d finished a couple of hours ago. That required updating the laser printer driver, and so on…

Which is how I lose many hours just trying to do the simplest of things. And now it’s time for lunch.

How’s your day progressing?