He's BAAACK!

MIO has suffered a bit of neglect the past week, owing to all the visiting with friends and family over the Thanksgiving holiday.  My regrets for the dearth of new content, but surely all you Refuters would agree I've had my priorities straight? But now it's back-to-work.  I hadn't even been keeping up  with the news of the day, and find myself in catch-up mode.

If you have been a reader of mine, you will know that I generally write focused articles that provide my vizier's insight on a single topic.  Today, I feel like zig-zagging a tad.  Maybe just to shake off the tryptophan-induced ennui.

One smart thing I did this past week was to set a DVR in front of dear old Dad (who is about 77) and collected a good six hours of interviews and stories from him, to preserve the family history.  We had a grand time doing it, and I have no reservation that it will be a family treasure in the years to come.  Should you want to do something like that with a family member, here is some quick advice.  There are two features you want to make sure your digital recorder has (the cheaper versions don't.) One, is make sure the audio files are exportable to other devices.  You will need that.  Two, make sure you can rewind and fast forward within a single audio file, and not just back and forth among separately recorded file segments.  The latter is very important  if you later decide to capture any transcriptions. Sony makes a good one, and it's not that pricey.

As for catching up on the news: of course, everyone is digesting the Ferguson grand jury decision. I'll say this about that.  This prosecutor was pretty choosy about his witnesses, and was clearly determined to achieve failure to launch from day one.  The saying goes, a prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich if he wishes.  Clearly officer Wilson is not a ham sandwich.  So, the story goes, Mr. Brown, turned and charged Wilson RUNNING INTO A HAIL OF BULLETS like some kind of comic book super villain.  Right.  According to the prosecutor's witnesses of choice, if the kid's hands were up, well, they just weren't up high enough.  And he was making "fists".  Couldn't be his hands were clenched in a physiological response to having a chest full of bullets.  Nah. As we used to say, it doesn't pass the smell test.

The Grand Jury was not tasked to convict Officer Wilson of anything.  The only question is whether under the very low threshold of "probable cause" there will be a trial on the facts.  Well there won't be.  Rest assured white America, Officer Wilson shouldn't have to answer any questions.  Just give a speech to the Grand Jury.  Trust us, he's a swell guy.  Think Jake from State Farm.  Immediately afterwards, he goes on TV, showing not even the slightest sub-atomic particle of regret.

Enough of that. What else.  Oh yeah.  Then there was the kerfuffle over  some mean-spirited comments about the Obama daughters posted on Facebook by one Elizabeth Lauten, a hit-person, er, communications director, for an obscure congressman from Tennessee. The opprobriums were as awful as unnecessary, and I won't reproduce them, but you can  read it here.  Nevertheless, her apology seemed, unlike so many, heartfelt, and you would think that would be the end of it.  You will have correctly guessed not.  Her resignation was reported today.

Let me know what else I missed.  It's good to be writing again.  I'll be back. And remember, record your family stories.  Even from your crazy uncle with the NRA tattoos.

Twitter: @unrefuted
Email: myirrefutableopinion@gmail.com