I was walking by the teevee yesterday morning, and some twit on GMA (no clue who she was, as I don’t actually watch these morning “news” shows, but I tend to leave the TV on after I catch the lo-cal weather when I’m going about getting ready for work; if I turn it off, the dogs figure I’m fixing to up and leave, so I leave it on ’til I’m ready to sneak out the door) talking about the stuff going on in London, and she asked, breathlessly, “can it happen here?”

Hmmm. Riots, looting, burning, angry disenfranchised people in the streets?

Here? 🙄

I realize I have underwear older than this “news” twit, but has she never heard of Watts? Chicago? Detroit? Stonewall? Camden, Baltimore, DC, Crown Heights, LA…?

Nah, couldn’t happen here.

You may have heard that Fux News darling Megyn Kelly didn’t take too kindly to co-fuxhead Mike Gallagher calling her maternity leave a “scam.” I won’t refer to Kelly as a twit, of course, because she lived in Syracuse until she was 9, and then, understandably, couldn’t get enough CNY manliness, so she came back here to go to college and graduated from SU.

“What a moronic thing to say,” she said. When Gallagher started to defend himself, she cut him off incredulously. “Are you doubling down? Is maternity leave, according to you, a racket?”

“Well, do men get maternity leave?” Gallagher asked. “Guess what honey?” Kelly thundered back. “Yes, they do! It’s called the Family Medical Leave Act. If men would like to take three months off to take care of their newborn baby, they can.”

Gallagher kept putting his head in his hands. He tried a humorous tack, saying, “I was drinking that day.” But Kelly was not to be deterred:

“I want you to know that the United States is the only country in the advanced world that doesn’t require paid maternity leave. Now I happen to work for a nice employer that gives me paid maternity leave. But the United States is the only advanced country that doesn’t require paid leave. If anything, the United States is in the dark ages when it comes to maternity leave. And what is it about getting pregnant and carrying a baby for nine months, that you don’t think deserves a few months off so bonding and recovery can take place?”

Don’t f*ck with Syracuse chicks, Mike.

I’m off today, which is always a good thing, though my 3-day weekend will be somewhat dampened by the fact that I have to work 5 days (five f*cking days) next week (and it’s one of these weeks when everybody’s off and I’m stuck with the support duty).

Today’s excitement will be a visit from the propane dude (who is disappointingly not named Hank Hill) who is gonna make sure my pool heater won’t blow up before sending on the “tech” guys to set me up with propane. I have struggled with whether or not to throw money away on this, but we’ve taken a turn for the cold around here and the water is just too cold for Granny to swim in – even with the cover on at night. I could probably tough it out for a while, but it’s getting a bit nippy.

Funny, isn’t it? Okat is dumping ice into the water, while I need to pay to heat mine.

Anyhow, hopefully I can extend the season until at least the end of September without going completely broke when I have to pay the school taxes (note to Mile Gallagher: if you wanna talk scam, talk about a childless man having to fund other people’s kids’ educations by paying property taxes; property taxes should be for things related to property – city water, roads, public sewers, fire departments, cops – and schools should be funded by state and federal income taxes. Why should some kid in Redmond WA deserve a better – or at least better funded – education because Microsoft pays property taxes there, while kids in East Bumfuck Mississippi are lucky to get 10-yr old books because they live in an area with tarpaper shacks and no plumbing).

I don’t know if you’ve seen the Colbert Super PAC IA commercials, but you might note that in the first one, one dude is sitting on a little Kubota tractor. Well, you might not notice, but I did.

Speaking of Kubotas, I should be getting some tractor parts today, which means I can hopefully fix the tractor mower deck height adjustment. That will be exciting.

Oh well, time for more coffee.