A cartoon that sums it up perfectly . . .

After recent current events, this cartoon sums up my feelings perfectly: 

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

"Hate won't win."

At the bond hearing for Dylann Roof, the man who has confessed to shooting nine people in a Charleston, SC church, family members, one by one, spoke and said they forgave, said they had no room for hate.

Tonight, if you feel the need to gather in groups, demonstrate, and/or march, let this be your chant:

Hate won't win.
Hate won't win.
Hate won't win.

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

I am just weary . . .

I don't know what to say about the massacre in Charleston, South Carolina that left nine people dead at the hands of a racist bigot. 

Except that I am weary.

I am weary of the violence in this country.
I am weary of the lack of progress in race relations.
I am weary of the constant charges of "racism" and the actual practice of racism.
I am weary of the bickering and fighting among people that changes nothing.
I am weary of my own impotence and inability to do anything about the problems facing us as a nation. 

Right now, I am also physically weary, and that isn't helping me any. 

But right now, I am just weary.

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

Triple Crown, at last!

The last time it happened, I was 14.  I was between my freshman and sophomore years of high school.  

In August, my sister would celebrate her 18th birthday with a week-long trip to Disney World.

"Hashtag" was not a household word, and "twitter" was used to refer to the sounds birds made.

You didn't use "social" and "media" in the same sentence.

CNN was two years away from fruition.

Jimmy Carter was President. 

The words "inflation" and "stagflation" were being bandied about, and economic pundits were busily writing the latest bad news on the implosion of the American economy. (Some things don't necessarily change.)

And a horse named Affirmed, ridden by young jockey Steve Cauthen, nicknamed "The Kid", roared down the final stretch of the track at Belmont Park, defeated a horse named Alydar, and won the Belmont Stakes.

He would be the last Triple Crown winner for 37 years. 

Thirty-six other horses tried.

Thirteen of them won the Derby and Preakness, but not the Belmont:

Spectacular Bid in 1979
Pleasant Colony in 1981
Alysheba in 1987
Sunday Silence in 1989
Silver Charm in 1997
Real Quiet in 1998
Charismatic in 1999
War Emblem in 2002
Funny Cide in 2003
Smarty Jones in 2004
Big Brown in 2008
I'll Have Another in 2012
California Chrome in 2014

Number thirty-seven, American Pharoah (and the misspelling is intentional), did it today.

He won the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes.

The drought of 37 years is now over.

Congratulations.

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.