MEMES: SNATCH und SPREAD

(I just like this one.)

(Yes, this is Chuck's wife!)

A Eulogy for the Ever-Failing

Massenet photographed by Pierre Petit, 1880

As a self-described “failure” (in a crazy-mixed-up-world) I wear my “failure-hood” as a badge of honor. I am a writer who delves into what goes on in the dodgy world of domestic (and geo-)politics, only to get a bit bored by it all. My tendency is to break through the normative, the conventional (to transcend what I have often referred to as “consensual reality and culture trance”). But in doing so—when I “go there”—I find that I may lose the interest of managing editors who sometimes publish my work. It may be too ethereal or beyond the “news-junky-mark” for them. Such is the life of a failure; this is the blues.

If and when this phenomenon comes around yet again, I just jump into my rattle-trap and continue on down the road, blazing forth, going my own way (or going down in a blaze of inglorious anonymity). I don’t care.

A more established American writer I used to like once said, “The concept of an independent scholar in America is a null set.” He was exiled to the dreaded “fringe” (even though, surprisingly, he turned out to be more of a lefty than I had at first thought.) Despite the hopeless sound of the sentiment he expressed, it is not far off the mark.

If you write, you write. There’s no accounting for editorial whimsy or public taste; when you are drawn to the writing life you go on in the face of many obstacles, as in “writing chose me, and not the other way around.” So on we go…

It’s a lonely craft when even family members and friends are ambivalent about (or even hostile to) your written work product. In fact, being a writer can be akin to being a prophet—about whom Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.” (Luke 2:24) Well, divinely inspired or not I ramble on, writing merrily away.

Still, stop for a moment and consider Élégie, Op. 10, by Jules Massenet, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezwvgug9neo

Then consider the generic “eulogy,” not to be confused with “elegy.” (But aren’t they essentially the same thing? Yes, I think so.) We’re in the domain of the blues here. I’m playing this elegy and writing this eulogy to honor my inner failure as a writer.

I find that I am drawn more and more into the soulful realm of spirit, of spirituality—the invisible world—yet an invisible world made beautifully visible in nature’s pure aura, in the haunting melody as heard in Massenet’s Élégie, or in a simple, babbling brook, for that matter. To intuit something greater and grander than yourself is to be on the verge of the spirit world. Is it OK to go there from the mundane world of politics? I say, “Why not?” (After all, Archbishop Viganò thinks so. See, https://theduran.com/roman-catholic-bishop-pens-honest-letter-to-president-trump/)

All manifest things-actions-events-people, have a spiritual essence, do they not? So is it then permissible, even logical and expected, to be circumspect by bringing in the spiritual dimension to chosen topics under discussion? I certainly do think so.

And so I will go on my miserable-merry way, expounding as I go and as I wish. And may the Holy Spirit guide me along that way, infusing what few readers I may have with an apprehending grace and appreciation. Am I not forthright in my stance? Yes! And I am a content and proud, ever-failing failure!         

Our Demented Carnival of Life, Part 2: Amercia the Beautiful (and the Schizoid)

     An important essay by constitutional attorney and author, John W. Whitehead, was published on May 7, 2019. It’s entitled D Is for a Dictatorship Disguised as a Democracy and is available on his Rutherford Institute's site.[1] Here is an excerpt:

John W. Whitehead, Esq.

 Free speech, the right to protest, the right to challenge government wrongdoing, due process, a presumption of innocence, the right to self-defense, accountability and transparency in government, privacy, press, sovereignty, assembly, bodily integrity, representative government: all of these and more have become casualties in the government’s war on the American people.

The American people have been treated like enemy combatants, to be spied on, tracked, scanned, frisked, searched, subjected to all manner of intrusions, intimidated, invaded, raided, manhandled, censored, silenced, shot at, locked up, and denied due process.

None of these dangers have dissipated.

They have merely disappeared from our televised news streams.

The new boss has proven to be the same as the old boss, and the American people, the permanent underclass in America, has allowed itself to be so distracted and divided that they have failed to notice the building blocks of tyranny being laid down right under their noses by the architects of the Deep State.

Frankly, it really doesn’t matter what you call the old/new boss—the Deep State, the Controllers, the masterminds, the shadow government, the police state, the surveillance state, the military industrial complex—so long as you understand that no matter who occupies the White House, it is a profit-driven, an unelected bureaucracy that is actually calling the shots.                                          

While I take exception to Mr. Whitehead’s “new boss has proven to be the same as the old boss” cynicism, his words speak an eerie truth when we consider, for example, the FBI’s overkill raid on Roger Stone, or the legal-paradox-box-maze to which patriot General Flynn was subjected. Yes, I take exception to hideous examples such as these being foisted onto our current president. Indeed, I’d call these “trenchantly portrayed ops by an antagonistic Deep State”; they depict the subverted state in action—an out-of-control, bureaucratic, administrative (deep) state and the very antithesis of who President Trump is and what he stands for.

Read Mr. Whitehead’s fine essay and weep, for it catalogues in a nutshell the grotesque stagecraft that passes for normalcy; that provides the gloss for a sham republic, as disconnected from its constitutional underpinnings as it is divorced from the rule of law. And now (March 16, 2021) he has written a frightening postscript to that original essay, our nation's obituary:  https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/digital_trails_how_the_fbi_is_identifying_tracking_and_rounding_up_dissidents

I wonder whether Mr. Whitehead, in his zeal to protect both his victimized clients and our Bill of Rights, has over-reached by conflating the Deep State with this president. In the normal state of affairs, wherein the president is chosen by an “unseen hand” and essentially selected, not elected, I would agree. (Just look at these prior pathetic American presidents—Obama, Bush II, Clinton, Bush I, Carter: actors all.) But the usual alliance between Deep State and the president does not exist in Mr. Trump’s case. To John W. Whitehead I’d say: “Not this president”—though Mr. Trump is very much the law and order president.

The cryptic difference, the base enigma here is that indeed we currently have a sham republic, but one that is being steered back onto its moorings. Without getting too far out into the weeds, let me explain.

    President Donald J. Trump presides as the CEO of USA, Inc. And while “USA, Inc.” is a euphemism for our lost republic, its incorporation is real; it is a fictional entity controlling a population of straw men and women that hides behind the façade of a representational democracy. (Don’t believe me?—go research it for yourself.[2]) USA, Inc. limps along as a schizophrenic nation of dumbed-down populants presided over by actor-politicians, activist-judges and a freakazoid mélange of corporate/military-intelligence operative/media propagandists who give lip service to a (de facto superseded) Constitution.

Pres. Trump has done a masterful job of managing this dual-track, schizoid nation. It must require an almost superhuman effort to withstand the constant assault of negative forces aligned against him, while balancing the interests of a fictionalized USA with its façade of struggling, constitutional Republic—and he must have some heavy-duty back-up to stay alive and keep at it the way he does.

Trump’s work is a heroic undertaking of an almost impossible task, viz., re-aligning the nation under the rule of law while that nation is unbound from its lawful moorings (thanks to an elitist, globalist/socialist cabal that’s been systematically dismantling “America the Beautiful” by pre-planned degrees since its inception). The particular genius of Trump is his ability to (apparently) bifurcate his love of an idealized America the Beautiful from USA, Inc., and yet do everything within his power to have USA, Inc. serve a long-term, endpoint attempt of restoring itself back to the Republic-as-originally-designed.

In this respect, the work of our 45th president has established a new mythological standard—Trumpian—which perhaps surpasses the Herculean one of past ages. By these words, however, this author is not, willy-nilly, a sycophant condoning every act of the Trump administration. But taken as a whole, I commend the Trumpian dynamism and vision, warts and all. He is the best and brightest leader we’ve had in a very long time.

Listening to Donald Trump valorize law enforcement (e.g., calling for the death penalty for murdering a policeman) is a far cry from John W. Whitehead’s A-Z litany of police transgressions resulting from a gutted U.S. Constitution. These two public figures seem to hold antagonistic, competing views of law enforcement.

Given Trump’s interest in maintaining law and order in the midst of onslaughts from unhinged legislators, armed communist thugs, and their media enablers, I don’t think the comparison is quite apt. Whitehead's interest is in protecting John and Jane Q. Public from an uber-zealous police force acting as the enforcement arm of USA, Inc.'s “national security state gone wild.”

Is it hard to delineate between criminals deserving of punishment and innocent constituencies in need of protection? Not at all.

For this author, the bad guys are the enforcer thugs, viz., those fascist, “politically correct,” lefty morons who have been mass-produced by a debased university system, then subsidized by socialist NGOs and justified by radicalized Democrat apparatchiks; just as bad, however, are those fascist, “politically expedient” enforcers acting under color of law who abuse the God-given rights and sovereignty of the People.

The good guys are those who seek to live by the Golden Rule and the Rule of Law. Regardless of whether persons are acting in privately organized groups or as paid government employees, as long as they are acting on behalf of such “good guy interests” then they, too, are good guys.

The apparent Trump/Whitehead dichotomy withers in the face of this analysis. Each man has his overriding mandate: Trump, as the chief or unitary executive, is responsible for maintaining law and order; Whitehead, on the other hand, is an attorney-author looking to preserve the safety and welfare of We the People. As such, each has his part to play in a national drama. It's essentially the regulatory law function of Trumpism v. the emancipatory law function embraced by Whitehead.

Trump, we must always remember, occupies a dual, schizoid role as CEO of USA, Inc. and as (the would-be) president of the United States of America, if the republic was more viable at the moment(—but give him four more years and we shall see!). It is because Trump must wear the CEO hat that he leans so heavily on the regulatory side of law and order.

Whitehead, too, must participate in a kind of charade that the U.S. Constitution has not been completely abrogated by (illegitimate) statutes. To the extent attorney Whitehead can find sympathetic judges whose rulings must hold up to public scrutiny he helps to resuscitate our trampled constitutional rights with each case he wins. Emancipation from the restraint of law's regulatory properties belongs more properly in the domain of a constitutional republic, the persistent and resilient existence of which Mr. Whitehead presumes as the premise of his work.

Both are dealing with the heroic-yet-schizophrenic task of saving the nation while holding it to account and guiding it toward its better manifestation: a constitutional republic operating under the rule of law. Each man deserves credit and our respect for doing the right thing (in a time during which “doing the right thing” seems quaint at best and hopeless at worst). Unlike many tepid and spineless Republicans out there, I offer my ardent support for President Trump and an abiding admiration for both these men and their efforts.

In closing I thank one other great American I’ve long admired:


                                           

Ray Charles sang America the Beautiful in 1972.[3] He would sing it again, live, at the opening of the 2nd game of the World Series in October 2001, during a time of national mourning.

۞

 

Jack Suss a/k/a Wyman Wicket is a cultural mutant multi-career virtuoso (blues piano player and singer, writer/poet, one-time military officer, lawyer, English professor, and Ph.D. in Humanities) – and a tireless poet-fighter against the “glare” of consensual reality and culture trance. Often believing that he is doomed to live the scruffy life of a bluesman, this hard-working creative loafer is now in semi-retirement from his string of seemingly unconnected endeavors. Bereft of ambition to “be” anything further in this phony baloney world, he bemoans the decline of the authentic and agitates for the demise of corpocracy’s TV bumperoo/techno-soul-snatching and a return to more primal simplicities.

Blog: https://spyoptaelip.blogspot.com/

Books:  https://www.wymanwicket.com/buy/

NOTE: Part 1 of this two-part essay can be accessed here: http://stateofthenation.co/?p=36873

---

[1]https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/d_is_for_dictatorship_while_america_feuds_the_police_state_shifts_into_high_gear 

[2] See, e.g., Christopher Strunk, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv_UUqHEHMMCgq2c0eTnw9w ; and, Mark Emery, http://www.onefreemanswar.com/home.html — each retrieved on Jan. 17, 2020; Wanta, L.E., Wanta!: Black Swan, White Hat—A Biography Every American Must Read and Understand (Viking Int’l, LLC, Spokane Valley, Washington, 2013, 2014, 2015). More to the point, have a look at the work of Anna Maria Riezinger or that of :Russell-Jay: Gould. 

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRUjr8EVgBg&list=RDTRUjr8EVgBg&index=1

America Subverted from Within, Part 1: The Making of “Mini-Me”

Face Painting (original) by Dawn Hudson

The American People are finally verging on apprehending the sellout of their great nation. How has a naïvely self-indulgent populace of “sheeple” come around, now awakening from their hypnotic slumber?  

President Trump has been instrumental in this Great Awakening. He has been (1) pounding away at MSM fake news, our corporate versions of Pravda and Izvestia; (2) he has taken aim at the bankers’ Federal Reserve System(-of-money-fraud) and; he has pinpointed evil in (3) a whole amoral panoply of Satanic curses (mostly war and abortion “sacrifices”—resulting in a propaganda stew of mindless fornication—fomenting public vulgarity and a gluttony of other twisted perversions). There is more, but these are the offending fundaments: fix them and a lot will fix itself naturally.

Now, with this brazen, in-your-face election-steal attempt, We the People “get it.” Lordy Lord, at last! But what is it exactly that we now “get”?

To begin with, we’ve had it with Deep State “slow-walkers.” These include, for example, Jeff Sessions, Bill Barr, Chris Wray, Gina Haspel, and recently decapitated, Mark Esper. There are many, many more, of course. Bureaucrat sell-outs such as these are among the 8,000+ traitorous Senior Executive Service (SES) bums that comprise the internal resistance to the president’s directives.

PDJT has been keeping them, his enemies, close—a good strategy for the first term. For the second term, however, all the slow-walkers must go, to be replaced by real patriots. (In this regard, Sidney Powell leads the pack.) And so, by reining in regulations and the “administrative state” generally, PDJT is doing good work for our tattered constitutional republic.

Still, to understand the national sell-out we need to grasp a certain historical perspective. We can probably start our encapsulated mini-me-review back in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War. Yes, we won, but British duplicity retained covert control through a merging of its media/monetary/and intel agency influence. British control has gradually tightened its noose ever since, now keeping tabs on us via “Five Eyes,” The Queen’s Privy Council, The Pilgrims Society, the SES, SERCO, the Council on Foreign Relations, and various socio-cultural institutions, e.g., Tavistock and its spin-off nonprofit foundations (funded by debauched oligarchs such as George Soros, etc., ad nauseum). These days, only the intrepid gadfly, Nigel Farage, stands out as a Brit hero in my book.

President Andrew Jackson “fought the bloody British in the town of New Orleans” (to quote the popular Johnny Horton tune from 1960). Jackson was the only other true outsider populist president to lead us, while conscious and privy to what he called the central bank of his time: “a den of vipers.”

President Jackson fought the central bank foreign influencers with noted success, giving rise to a decade or more of noted American economic resurgence and abundance. Gradually, however, this economic independence eroded. Predictably, the unholy influence of British infiltrator/subverters began creeping back into America as the Industrial Revolution gathered steam.

The Civil War (a/k/a the “War between the States” and the “War of Northern Aggression”) was the next historical lynch pin. Wars always need financing. When that destructive war was over, the creditors-came-home-to-roost. When the dust settled we were left with the Lieber Code, bankruptcy, a hollowing out of the Constitution, and a diminishing common law led by robber baron railroads and banks and carpetbaggers—and the unhinged ascent of private corporations to “personhood” (making them “persons,” albeit “fictional persons,” but with all of the rights and privileges that attach per the Constitution).

With the turn of the 20^th Century and the election of Woodrow Wilson, the central bank plotters were hard at work once again. The deceptively named “Federal Reserve System” was the result of their handiwork, to be funded by a new income tax, ultimately enforced by the hated Internal Revenue Service. WWI offered the distracting cover and then the “Roaring ‘20s” followed, that introduced a moral loosening or the “softening up” (demanded by Marxists in their Communist Manifesto and much later popularized by Bolshevik “community organizer” Saul Alinsky, idolized by the one and only Hillary “Pantsuit” Clinton. But I digress…).

The Depression of the early ‘30s caused the great fear (mirrored today by this sensationalized “wu-wu flu Lockdown Mentality”) that drove the People into FDR’s socialism. His “New Deal” was characterized by those (now ubiquitous) three-letter acronyms or “alphabet agencies,” e.g., TVA, WPA, FCC, et al. These would morph into other, commonly-known agency acronyms, e.g., FBI, CIA, NSA. And of course WWII provided yet more cover for ever-growing statist shenanigans and infiltration into our institutions.

In 1947 the CIA was founded. The CIA would soon infiltrate and control every aspect of industry, commerce, and government activity. Not even the religious and their places of worship were exempt. As private industry came in line with CIA dictates and (as Chauncey Gardner put it in the film Being There, a shared “TV life”) our country was lulled into self-complacency. Next the populace would be bloated into obesity by high fructose corn syrup, introduced into many, many food items beginning about 1980.         

The rest is a continuance of ever more “conspiracy theory,” of course. Most of us can fill in the blanks. Our more modern era is accentuated by the JFK assassination, the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building, 9-11, more (neocon) wars and numerous false flags. This sad chronicle of terror and cover-up was proceeding nicely; the blackmail of supposed “leaders” and bribery has been accomplished via their children and other family members, and the wealth funneled into straw foundations.    

This brief historical overview is meant only to depict the gradual decline that was intentionally brought about by infiltration and subversion. Yep, Joe McCarthy was right. The John Birch Society is right. And so are the La Rouchers (distinguished among them being the well-informed and articulate Harley Schlanger).

And thus it was that the Mini-Me was born and bred in the USA. And this Mini-Me strategy quickly spread worldwide into developed and developing nations. Using a deranged Rockefeller plan to mis-educate and medicate, Mini-Me has become a successful clone of the socialist-globalist NWO plan of world domination.

For what it’s worth, its Antifa and BLM forces are now deployed. These are the ultimate robot Mini-Mees that form the Mighty Mouse contingent who like to beat-up women, the elderly, and generally those suspected of being physically weak. They spout their “critical race theory” of irredeemable white guilt, while projecting their own fascist-racist orientation onto regular Joe Americans. More horsefeathers!

Yes, the Mini-Me seems to have risen to full power now in the form of milquetoast soy-boy-and-girl-(and, well, whatever) self-hating jackasses who wear all black. These black-guard morons from their parents’ basements emulate their fearless leader-commander: “President-Elect” Biden the Bungling Basement Dweller (and his Bottom Feeder Followers).

So I think that Americans now get it, at least this much of it—despite the best efforts of MSM lies and misdirection, and the worst idiocies that the Demented Demos offer up in their “spin.” More importantly, because the (mis)election was allowed to proceed full-moron, We the People were treated to a real time show of just how voting machines steal our sacred voting rights. It seems PDJT really learned the finer points of the reality show during his sojourn in TV-land. Informed Americans can now say, “Now we know, now we know! It’s on TV so it must be real!” (Well it's almost on TV anyway.) And now we can dismantle these republic-mutating-digital-shredders once and for all.

                                           ∏†‡€

But wait, there’s more! Tune in to Part 2 for more in this, our “Demented Carnival of Life.” Part 2 is entitled America the Beautiful (and the Schizoid) by Jack Suss (aka Wyman Wicket), adapted from the original essay featured in Soul Enticed III: Lagniappe Essays, among my other books that are available here:  https://www.wymanwicket.com/buy/

The COVID Cult Unmasked

Come and get me, jackasses! I’ve never worn a mask during this whole, imagined “pandemic” and I never will—and I have yet to get “sick.” It’s been nothing but a “shamdemic” and a “plandemic” from the start. Wake up, all you foolish people out there!

If it’s such a “killer virus,” why do you have to go get “tested” to even know you have it? What nonsense! And these “tests” are not even scientifically sound, resulting in huge false positives based upon who-knows-what. Hey, I know, they’re meant to establish more and more “cases” in order to create more and more fear. Well, “cases” do not establish that people have a real, symptomatic disease requiring quarantine and treatment. And yet idiots readily buy into this notion and why?—conditioning.  Reports of mounting “cases” do not scare me. Do they scare you?

Is there even such a thing as the “COVID-19 virus”? Even if there is, uh, take some hydroxychloroquine or the latest anti-body regimen and get better. Take vitamin D if you’re worried. Again, what is everyone afraid of? What’s with the big emphasis on “safety” and “security” when there is a 99+% of NOT dying from this boogeyman virus? Horsefeathers!

But so many idiots are out there wearing their masks. Why? They even wear them while walking around outside or driving alone in their cars—something not even “mandated” by repressive governments (at least the one in Montgomery County, Maryland). “Safety” is their God, “health experts” are their priests, and “submission” is their mantra. What utter crap!

And how about all of those self-appointed mask detectives out there? Since when am I supposed to take medical advice from cashiers and clerks? If a place is open to the public, we all have an irrevocable license to enter onto that commercial property for purposes of buying whatever they’re selling—period.

I can claim that I have a medical disability as my legitimate reason for not wearing a mask. No one can lawfully question me or refute that. Yet some self-righteous cashiers seem to relish being “gatekeepers-behind-the-counters,” probably full of resentment themselves for having to wear masks; they want to make sure you, too, have to submit to mask directives from their moronic bosses who, in turn, “take a knee” to imagined government “health mandates” as if they were law. These self-appointed enforcers will actually deny you your lawful ability to purchase something; they are unfazed by your claim of medical exemption and openly flaunt their bias against your disability—as if it is now fashionable and acceptable to discriminate against those with disabilities. How absurdly maddening. And what, may I ask, are they afraid of?—they, and every other sheep in their stores, are all masked. So what's their worry? Aren't they "protected"? To these pretenders I say, "Drop the mask!"—they really only want you to CONFORM. 

Keeping “safe” from virus transmission by wearing a mask is comparable to trying to keep mosquitoes from passing through a chain link fence. (Who knows if a virus is even transmissible?) Reliable studies have shown that masks cannot prevent transmission of viruses. And those wearing masks claim they are “science believers”? Good Lord, we are reaching new levels of idiocy!

I get in a bad mood now just seeing people with these muzzles, these face diapers on. “True believers” have all become “armchair virologists” practically overnight. But even those trained (like good circus “animules”) in allopathic medicine, virology, or even basic biology, can’t agree: phony political scientists such as Dr. Fauci go around preaching doom, while thousands of more highly degreed, properly thinking doctors and scientists refute him and his ilk. (See, The Great Barrington Declaration.)

And true believers in “social distancing” also rankle me. Have you experienced walking somewhere and a person walking toward you goes WAY around you? I’m getting to the point I want to go up, accost them, and cry, “BOO!” What a crock of you-know-what!

It really is amazing how successful our phony media, complicit government, and cowardly corporate wankers have been at brainwashing people into mask-wearing. I sometimes get the sense that mask wearers get some kind of “rebel thrill” (or Democrat identity rush) out of being masked. (In fact, a crackpot neighbor who refuses to take down his Biden/Harris sign from the public tree belt, is also a committed germaphobe on whom I have, inexplicably, taken pity. Not wishing that he become more overwrought than he is, I have elected to ignore this temporary irritation.) 

Getting one’s temperature taken and being forced to use hand sanitizer adds to the indignity of having to participate in this idiots’ pantomime. Again, who gave any-old-moron the right to practice medicine?

The bottom line is this: it is all a dry run, preparing us (the sheeple) to readily submit to both government and peer pressure, and why? Why indeed! 

Leftist governments in particular want to control people; they are power-addicts who don’t give a hoot about personal liberty, about our sovereignty as We the People. Wake up! So-called "mandatory" mask wearing is a stage in the genocide of us as a people. And we will be finished as a People once they convince everyone to be injected with their “vaccines.” Beware, People, Beware!

Don’t give in to this insidious nonsense, this façade of foolishness, this pooh-bah pantomime. If you can’t see through the devious, planned destruction of your natural rights and God-given liberty then march willingly to your perdition, oh sheepish fools—march: one, two, three to your deaths. If it all wasn't so laughable, I'd feel sorry for you, fools! 

So, there’s no “pandemic,” OK? Get over it. Everyone stop wearing these ridiculous (and dangerous) masks. If we all do that together, then the hysteria and fear will be over, once and for all. Things can return to normal. Really, what is everyone afraid of?      

Wine and Tobacco

I like a well-made wine, preferably red. Wine helps us to drown our sorrows, to heal our bodies (of all alcoholic drinks, only wine contains lots of minerals), and to help us celebrate triumphs and joy. That, in a nutshell, is why I am a wino.

I also enjoy a good smoke. By that I mean well-made tobacco, preferably pipe tobacco. If you can find such a thing now-a-days, without added chemicals and “flavors,” then you’re lucky. The reason you’re lucky is because tobacco has been so demonized and over-taxed as to have been effectively exiled from commerce. Sad but true. Yes, proper tobacco too has been swept up in the regulatory witch hunt.

If you’re looking for the chemical reasons why each “carcinogen” is actually good for you, well, look around and good luck. For example, the resveratrol in red wine has been touted as a kind of fountain of youth. But look here and you may reconsider; you may have been conned:  

The Best Source of Resveratrol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihz3aKca5lQ

Tobacco offers nothing similar to resveratrol. It just has tar and nicotine, right? But doesn’t it keep evil spirits away? So I’m told. And while I am not a Native American purist when it comes to tobacco, it is reassuring to know that it bequeaths spiritual benefits when not misused:

Traditional Tobacco Use

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXFPBD6k73I

But my point here is not to prove anything scientifically or otherwise about these two guilty pleasures. I only wish to state for the record that I enjoy fine wine and, for example, a pipeful of Rattray’s (if that good ol' tobacco can be found at all these days). After a long day of dealing with the mundane and irritating details of living what can be more relaxing than good wine with good food, followed by a smoke?

That’s all I wish to say (though I may add to this little micro-opinion-piece as the spirit moves me).