For my son…

The dude was riveting in just about everything he was in, good or not so good. I first saw him in “Real Genius” then “Willow”, “The Saint”, “The Doors” and of course, “Tombstone”. A real movie star.

Val Kilmer, “Top Gun” Actor, Dies at 65

I apologize (if anyone reads this) for the rash of political stuff. It’s hard to ignore. However, on the personal front I bought one of these…

Sort of an impulse. “But wait” you say, “Doesn’t that look a lot like the one you got from Goodwill years ago for $15? (shut up)

Yeah, it’s a known quantity, that’s why. I owned a Sansui 7900z and gave it back to Goodwill because, nevermind. I’ve had that apart before, and De-Ox’d it so I’m familiar with the build quality. And you must admit it looks cool, and this one has 125 watts per channel!! Yeah!

UPDATE! – Looks like I’m not getting this one. The seller is refunding my purchase. I think he figured out he had it priced too low.

I saw him on David Letterman many, many years ago. He was funny and self depreciating. But as he talked all I could think about was, “How many times did Ali get hit in the face with that fist?” Jeeze. His fist was the size of my head! He became a heavyweight champion a second time at 46, the oldest ever, then retired at 48. Through a fluke endorsement deal, he became rich and famous again for selling indoor grills. He named all his kids George (for the girls, some female variation). What a life.

George Foreman, heavyweight boxing champion, dies at 76

Social security is the most successful poverty ending program in history. So much so that is has been copied by many countries. Elon wants rid of it. No one voted for that, no one wants that. I’m lucky enough to have a few pensions. My teaching job has given me a “Defined Benefit” pension and a “Defined Contribution” pension. The first is a traditional pension where the company you work for agrees to pay you a certain amount each month when you retire. The kind of pension our fathers and grandfathers may have enjoyed. The second is a more modern pension where you put money into an investment account and draw off it when you retire. Despite record growth in the stock market guess which one pays me more? As traditional retirement plans have disappeared, have average Americans become more secure in their retirement or less?
Privatizing Social Security will create massive poverty amongst our elderly. How do I know? We have already been there and done that. That’s why the program was created in the first place. Same with Medicare. If it were privatized costs would soar. How do I know that? Compare the efficiency of Medicare with a private health care plan. Many people have and Medicare always wins.
The Trump/Musk administration represents the greatest danger to the security and stability of our country since the Civil War. These are bad people and their plans for our country are a disaster. But I do know of one guy who’s cheering them on, but he lives in Russia.

I love “Letters of Note” this is a good one…

“There has never been a ‘Gene Hackman Type.’ There has only been Gene Hackman.” – Tom Hanks

nicely put.

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