I hate long weekends

Richard Belzer is dead, Jimmy Carter is receiving hospice care at home and I'm not feeling too well myself.  

What exactly is this Presidents Day crap anyway?  Why do we need an equivalent of the Sovereign's Official Birthday?  Couldn't the Congress even agree on George Washington, First in War, etc. (but a slaveowner, I know)?  Why do we have to pretend to honor all the fumblers, bumblers, mediocrities and crooks who make up the majority of presidents?  Just another excuse for half-price mattresses and a Monday off when the weather is most oppressive.

I found out we'd lost the Belz when I went to the Washington Post to find out about the "antiwar" rally in DC (the hometown paper), but there's nothing at this hour.  They do cover a pro-Russia event at the gathering of world leaders in Munich yesterday, which was really more of an anti-America event with cries of "Ami go home!" and denunciations of Starbuck, Amazon and "fracking gas" (I believe the euphemism you want is "fricking").  They're wobbly about NATO, but I don't expect that to last more than thirty seconds after the first Russian tank crosses the border.  Ask Granny what happened the last time Russia liberated Germany.  

When the Russians were driven from Kherson, Ukraine, last summer they left behind a cache of radio propaganda and "humor" from Radio Tavriya which would have embarrassed Axis Sally.  Let's just say that truth is not their tovarisch.  As in Floridastan, books were burned:

 

"The propaganda has been poor," observed Timothy Snyder.  "They do not really know their audience anymore."  But we know them.  

This week's mass shooting took place in rural Mississippi -- three guns, six dead -- but we're so deathlagged that it came and went before most people figured out where Arkabutla is. (Forty-five miles from Memphis.) The killers are getting older.  Richard Crum, who also shot himself, was 51.

Also shot to death:  David O'Connell, auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles.  This one will get more attention.  The bishop was known for his work with migrants, gang kids and the poor.

This gun story is more...amusing?  School superintendent Robby Stuteville was using a bathroom stall in an elementary school in Rising Star, Texas (I don't where that is in relation to Memphis) and left his gun behind.  A third grader came across it and notified a more responsible adult.  Stuteville says he and the principal routinely carry handguns on campus, and probably elsewhere.  What could go wrong?  Let me re-phrase:  What else could go wrong?

Farewell, John Munch.  We'll miss you.