Marrying Manson, or Chucky's Pre-Nup

My first thought when I read about Chucky Manson’s plans to marry a 26-year old moron was what would that pre-nup look like? My second thought was who would even think about marrying Manson? That’s marrying Manson, not the rock group Marilyn Manson.

In my circles, I have heard he is not the marrying kind. Let’s not dig too deeply into my circles, but when I first started dating my wife of 27 years, Jackie Person (then), I had to pass her hidden check list.

What is a hidden check list you ask? Well, it’s really pretty simple: 1. He has a job; 2. He has a car; 3. He has his own place to stay. Voila! Pass the test and you are a viable candidate for a, to use the current term, BF.

So, how does the likes of Manson fit into that scheme? Well, he does have a place to stay. It may not be his own place to stay, but it does provide “three hots and cot,” so to speak. Of course, he has a few roommates and he is sort of a loner, despite being cooped up with a bunch of ne’er-do-wells. Oh, and lest we forget, he is a convicted mass murderer.

But I guess for some marrying a mass murderer beats hooking up with some of the derelict boys on the street. I am certain there are a few out there who are just as scary as Chuck.

But still, if you want a nice quick cheap thrill all you have to do is post a line on FaceBook about wanting to hook up with some of those ISIS hotties. If you don’t get over to Iraq or Syria quickly enough you will get a visit from the Feds. And if you do get over there, I am certain that relationship will go out with a bang. Literally.

Still, back to the Manson marriage thing. Why would anyone provide a license? What purpose would this marriage serve? Not even thinking about how someone might consummate the marriage. And then, there’s the whole devil spawn issue we would have to deal with.

Any way you look at it, monsters exist. Manson is merely one. But his previous actions disclude him from normal society. Do you suppose he regrets his swastika tattoo? Do you really believe a guy who was responsible for the Tate-LaBianca murders could somehow be salvaged?

There’s a reason they locked him up. Let him stay locked up. He terrorized half of California, and his “kids” were nothing less than demons. It’s even more amazing to me that he didn’t receive the death penalty. I know he would have here in good old Virginia, or in Florida, and especially in Texas.

So it seems this woman, Elaine Burton, has spent the last nine years trying to exonerate Manson. Exonerate!? Here are a bunch of synonyms for exonerate: absolve, acquit, vindicate, forgive, pardon, exculpate, clear, and free. Which one do you think fits best when it comes to talking about Manson?

None!

Ms. Burton must have some serious issues to think that any of those words apply to Manson. He has not changed very much, methinks. He was manipulative back in the day and has shown a tendency to continue to manipulate whatever he can; for my money he would love nothing more than to be back in the 70s.

Where will it end? Same sex marriage, interspecies relationships, and now the Manson Family nuptials. Man, it makes me want to move to Oregon.

Voter Malaise Leads Colonial Heights

While the rest of the state and country was deeply engaged in election battles, the City of Colonial Heights had no such problems. There were no challengers for any seats in either the City Council or the School Board races.

That I suppose explains the lack of local signage. But it calls into question just how much the public is concerned about what happens in the city.

Is it really just candidate malaise, or is it just a major indifference among the voters? If we take a closer look at the election results, we can see that Mayor C. Scott Davis garnered the most votes, with 3,287 in the City Council race. On the other hand, both John E. Piotrowski and John T. Wood earned 400 fewer votes. What should we read into the fact that at least 400 people opted to vote for only one candidate?

Even if you remove the nearly 200 write-ins, you still have 200 people who opted not to exercise their extra voting privileges. In truth, the lack of a vote for the others improves the chances of the person you do vote for. In other words, a null vote to the other candidates carries as much weight as yes vote for the candidate of your choice. In effect, you get to vote twice, or thrice, for your candidate.

Even the School Board election had its share of abstainers. Mike Yates pulled in a massive 3524 votes, which was 200 more than Davis pulled in for City Council. In an uncontested race, Krishan Agrawal netted 2740 votes and secured the vacant seat. There were 93 write-in votes for School board.

I wonder where those other voters went?

It would seem to me, given that difference in voter counts, that somewhere in Colonial Heights there are a bunch of people who did not care to vote for some of the candidates in these races. Perhaps that means there is room for a new candidate, someone who has new ideas to try to move the city forward?

On the other hand, perhaps it means that the voters in Colonial Heights are happy with their representatives. I know I cast my votes, and somewhere in the mix all of my permitted votes were registered. After all, one can’t complain if one doesn’t take part in the election.

There are lots of people out in the world and in our community that like to raise a ruckus when city council or the school board does something they don’t like. Most, I like to believe, are law abiding, God fearing, voters. But for many that’s not true. Unfortunately, there are people who simply live to rail at the state of politics in general and local politics in particular while not bothering to vote.

They would like to be seen as players. But if you fail to vote you’re not really in the game. So what are we to think about the disparity in the number of voters who actually cast ballots?

Maybe the bigger problem is that no one came out to challenge any of the people seeking office. There were just enough candidates for the open positions, and for that reason not one of the candidates opted to purchase signs to announce their candidacy. Not needed so why spend the money.

I agree with that.

But what I would rather have seen is some other potential candidates stepping into the arena. We like to think of our elected officials as being battle hardened from the election process, but this time around there wasn’t much to the process.

In Politics, the Ball is Round

There’s a soccer saying in Europe concerning the perception that calls are going against your team: the Ball is Round. The meaning, of course, is not much different from the American adage “what goes around comes around,” or in other words things tend to even out over time.

That’s pretty much where I think we are in the scheme of American politics today.

Just the last election cycle it seemed as if the Grand Old Party (GOP) was dead. People claimed the GOP was out of step with its constituency. And perhaps to some extent it was. But it didn’t take an “is you is or is you ain’t my constituency” Homer Stokes (Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?) moment to make the turn.

Somehow, and I am not saying the blame lies with any party per se, but somehow the ball has turned. Those who were on top, glad handing and jaw jacking about how the GOP was dead and ought probably to be buried, one supposed no longer seem to be on top, at least according to the latest polls. It doesn’t take much to change things or so it would seem.

Now, on the very doorstep of the elections, it seems those who were on top fear they will no longer hold their perch when the totals are totaled come Tuesday night. The powers that be in the U.S. Senate are seemingly preparing to get ousted and the formerly lifeless GOP is set to assume control of that body, to go along with the House of Representatives.

My my, we have come such a long way in a short period of time. Just when you thought the infighting and battling might be over; just when you thought we were in a political morass forever; the ball turns and the in’s become the out’s and the out’s become the in’s.

Or so it would seem.

And in truth, it hasn’t really helped either party to control either house. Both parties appear inept to a certain degree, and their arguments could easily support each other with just some minor tweaking. Neither seems to possess the moral fiber to beckon real change to the process.

Perhaps the best thing a democracy allows to flourish is the gadfly. A political gadfly is someone that bugs or nips a politico with the intent to influence him or her to do the right thing.

Socrates is fine example of a gadfly. He even called himself one, when he tried to influence the Athenian Democracy to “do the right thing.” Of course, the Athenian Democracy eventually arrested Socrates and forced him to commit suicide by drinking hemlock. But I suppose that’s one of the prices you pay for speaking up.

Still, a good democracy deserves a gadfly or two. And having a gadfly is especially necessary when it comes to local politics. Some politicians would tell you that all politics are local politics, and to some extent that is true. No matter what happens with the election, no matter if the Senate falls to the GOP or if it remains in possession of the Democrats, things in Washington won’t change very much. Yes, there may be some ballyhooing and some cries for change, but will there really be a change? And will the change have any lasting effect? Will such a change have any effect on the country at all? It’s hard to believe that any change in leadership will result in significant change for the constituency.

Meanwhile, we have to wait upon the tally to determine the winners and the losers. Ultimately, as things seem to work out with Washington politics, the public will fall cleanly in the loser category. It seems no matter what course we take, or are forced to take, the result will be bad for us – the constituency. It sort of makes me want to scrape up some hemlock. Happy Election Day – oh, and cheers.