181 Comments

There are some that would argue things are not better or worse today. They are just different. Really? I'd take back the '50's and '60's in a heartbeat. When men were men, girls were girls, right was was right and wrong was wrong. Was all kind of simple. And made perfect sense.

Expand full comment

I hated Clinton, but at this point I'd even take back the 90's! Let's hope for and work towards a revival of the American spirit and faith in God.

Expand full comment

When the mulatto messiah said that Mitt Romney winning the presidency in 2012 would take us back to the 1950s, my response was, “And what’s the problem with that?”

(I was born in 1952.)

Expand full comment

Isn't weird how, in the early 1970's, Gary Marshall made a show about the horrible, oppressive 1950's called Happy Days? Maybe the name was supposed to be ironic.

Expand full comment

Those of us who can remember the '50s and '60s are all on board with that idea.

Expand full comment

When my husband and I were visiting different places around the country to find where we wanted to relocate to once he retired as a beltway bandit near DC, we were driving around and I suddenly exclaimed "I know where I want to move to!" and he said "Really, where?" and I said "TO THE 1950s!"

True story, as our POS 'resident' would say.

Expand full comment

The Beach Boys… best music ever! How those sniveling rats the Beatles got away with it I’ll never know!

Expand full comment

She's Not the Little Girl I Once Knew. Brilliant.

Eventually we would be joined by Green Day, Three talentless jerks

with their fists wrapped around their dinkies.

Expand full comment

Good idea for a stamp collection.

Expand full comment

Ditto

Expand full comment

I agree A D .

Expand full comment

Amen!

Expand full comment

01/01/24: And when Uncle Sam got 50,000 of us killed in Vietnam (this is why I dread nostalgia).

Expand full comment

Superb entre into the New Year, with a closing from God, no less!

May the Light of His truth shine brighter and bolder this year than ever before, & May He have mercy upon us all.

Expand full comment

Amen

Expand full comment

“Poor girl wants to marry

And a rich girl wants to flirt

A rich man goes to college

And a poor man goes to work

A drunkard wants another drink of wine

And a politician wants the vote

Well, I don’t want much of nothin at all

But I will take another toke

And I ain’t askin nobody for nothin

If I can’t get it on my own

If you don’t like the way I’m livin

You just leave this long haired country boy alone”

The late Charlie Daniels and his band played Pickin In The Panhandle right outside Martinsburg the night before Son and I won the Member-Guest golf tourney at The Woods in 2011. The music’s gone to shit in the new century but there are still a few tasty morsels to be had. And, God willing, will have again.

Expand full comment

Z ,the CDB is and forever will be one of the greatest of all time.

Expand full comment

Steve, my handicap has followed a similar trajectory (I.e. downward. Or maybe upward is more accurate…)

Marlan, Bob Zimmerman hisself once said sessions always went better when Charlie was around (for Nashville Skyline)….

Expand full comment

Got some friends named Zimmerman. Didn’t know that was Dylan’s real name until I told them.

Roll your eye’s, here comes another prison story:

When I first got to FPC Ashland (where I spent a lovely year and a half), my first job was serving on the chow line. It’s was great bc our shirts had our last names on them (as well as our numbers), and I quickly learned everyone’s name.

One day a young black kid came thru the line. Afterwards I caught him and asked if he was related to Muddy. In amazement he said “yes” and asked why I thought so. I said every blues-loving white guy knows that McKinley Morganfield was Muddy Waters real name.

Expand full comment

Oddly enough, Morgan Fairchild's real name was also McKinley Morganfield. Her agent did the su nombre nose-job.

Expand full comment

Does life hold many greater joys than winning a Member-Guest with your son?

My sons hit it 300 yds with no short game, and I’m a 16 handicap (with the curse of being a 5 in high school).

Expand full comment

And for you non-golfers, that means my winning anything on the golf course, with or without my sons, is an astronomical longshot.

But love/hate the game nevertheless.

Expand full comment

Don is able to channel my thoughts. Great column for the New Year.

Life is fundamentally simple. We make it complicated. It’s a side effect of human nature.

We are tinkerers. We tinker with everything, even when we should leave it alone. We get in each others’ business, when we should leave it alone. The whole Leftist movement is based on ignoring human nature and controlling others. The biggest problem is huge government, which justifies its absurd existence by inserting itself where it doesn’t belong until it breaks whatever it’s trying to fix. Government and politics are eating the world. We have to get back to less government, less management, less entitlement, and more individual rights and responsibility. It’s probably going to take total collapse to get there. But let’s see. I want to see what this crazy guy Millei can pull off in Argentina. Maybe we can learn something.

The 20th century, mostly the second half TBH, was a great time to be an American citizen. People were happier, life was simpler, and more affordable. Now more people are miserable, broke, and everything is complicated. It’s not a recipe for success. We still have wonderful people in the USA. We need to cut through the fear and the self doubt which are poisoning us, and save the country. It’s just a big job. It’s not rocket science. But we have people for that too.

Best of luck to all in the New Year. Trump 2024.

Expand full comment

Agreed! The whole western world from government to business to education is extremely administratively top heavy. It is crushing everything. I guess they needed to find jobs for all the people who have degrees in indigenous lesbian post postmodern pottery studies.

Expand full comment

These are BS jobs without any utility. Administrators have to justify their existence so they have to make more rules and busywork. Most of these people should be unemployed.

Expand full comment

They will be soon. I think this is going to be the year of the mass layoff of diversity coordinators and people who move things from the inbox to the outbox. People who actually move things, like say from California to Texas will be quite busy.

Expand full comment

And they all will be shocked and upset when their world comes out from under them, but it will be a healthy change. There is a GIGANTIC shortage in the skilled trades right now, which are desperately trying to get new workers. If you've had any home repair work done, you know what I mean; don't get me started. They could also start their own new business. In the end, they will be far happier, more fulfilled, and wealthier.

Expand full comment

Tell me about it! I haven't been able to find a decent mechanic since the Jandemic. A friend helps me out this time of year in his off season. I thought after this many years in business I was going to be sitting behind the desk running my business with two ace mechanics and an oil change guy working for me. I actually see a glimmer of hope in some of the Gen Z'rs around here.

Expand full comment

Tanto ,sanity can and is winning albeit slooowwwly.

Expand full comment

You nailed it but I would say government just inserts itself anywhere to break stuff so it can claim to fix it after raising taxes and throwing all our tax money at each and every broken thing so that the government bleeds reds.

Expand full comment

They steal your wallet and then offer to help you find it. They steal your watch and then offer to give you the time.

Expand full comment

sounds about right.

Expand full comment

I believe that America's greatest strength - and weakness - is that Americans - at least Americans of my age - are Polite: they don't want to offend and meet social aggression with polite silence.

That is over for me. Everything is at stake this year, and if it takes being impolite, confrontational, or aggressive, so be it. Any Leftist nonsense, any Woke idiocy, any attempt by any-body to control my life will be met eyeball to eyeball, nose to nose, and under no circumstance will Leftist nonsense stand unchallenged. We have too much to lose. How much? Everything. It's time to fight.

In that spirit of impolity I offer RT's latest take, "Grandpa on a Leash."

https://rumble.com/v43fa28-project-grandpa-on-a-leash-biden-gets-russian-software-update.html

Expand full comment

We are good people and tolerant to the point of our own demise. (drag queen story hour, kiddie porn books in middle school, Satanic displays in a statehouse) No more!

Expand full comment

I never cared if I offended a Lefty. Grew up with too many know it alls or my way or the highway. I was in the “out” crowd, but I marched to my own beat, always asking for God’s guidance, help & discernment. While my 2 brothers are miserable Democrats, I am happy & thankful to the good Lord for each day here and how I can help my fellow man.

Expand full comment

Same here. I have rehearsed my response when someone tells me their pronouns are different from the obvious. I will correct them and offer my reasoning.

1. We, and all our ancestors back to Adam and Eve have used conventional pronouns, and in all that time not one person has credibly claimed to have been harmed by the practice. Therefore, it is harmless.

2. No one -- even those most fervently committed to this new fad -- has any intention of maintaining a mental spreadsheet with everyone's name and their preferred pronouns. Good heavens! New York recognizes over 70 nonce pronouns. Don't be ridiculous.

3. While individuals show little evidence of attempting to compel others to adopt this new practice in a personal way, many are eager to use the state as their proxy to do exactly that. New York will fine you up to $200,000 for deliberately or maliciously "mis-gendering" someone. Who determines what is deliberate or malicious is, of course, problematic, but you get the point.

4. Those who applaud this practice should consider well that the state that can compel my behavior in a particular way can compel anyone's behavior in any way it pleases. Let that sink in.

5. Such pronouns are third-person, and most often -- though not always -- used when the person referenced is not present. How would they know what pronouns are used when they can't hear them? Think about that as you go to sleep. What do people say about you when you're not around?

Expand full comment

Profundity, thy name is King Richard

Expand full comment

You are too kind. I forgot to mention that if we encounter anyone who is devoted to this pronoun nonsense, our pronouns are Your Majesty/Your Majesty's, and in the third person, His Majesty/His Majesty's.

Expand full comment

Destroying pronouns would result in complete language confusion, especially for people who today use them without even realizing that they are doing so.

How many times have you responded to "He went to work" with "WHO went to work?" [which of the four or five people that he was previously referring to is he talking about?] --- and they stare at you, lost at sea for a moment, before they can even remember the actual name of the person that they're referring to? And imagine trying to write the preceding sentence without being able to say the word, "they"!

Expand full comment

welcome to the party pal. better late than never i suppose.

Expand full comment

i see what you did there.

Expand full comment

??

Expand full comment

ok doc, let me explain. for some reason i thought someone had commented back to me using my same post, jabbing me a bit for being negative. i didn't realize that i had actually stumbled upon my own post. make sense? me either. 75 years old, what can i say. by the way i enjoy your tweets on x.

Expand full comment

No problem.

Expand full comment

Agreed. I’m sick and tired of polite. Political correctness has slaughtered this country. I will no longer be silent and I’ll say what I want. At 71 years old, I really don’t give a crap if I get shot and sent to see the Lord Jesus.

Expand full comment

Boy, the way Glenn Miller played---Songs that made the hit parade---Guys like us, we had it made--- Those were the days---And you knew who you were then---Girls were girls and men were men---Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again---Didn't need no welfare state---Everybody pulled his weight---Gee our old Lasalle ran great---Those were the days---People seemed to be content---Fifty dollars paid the rent---Freaks were in a circus tent---Those were the days---Take a little Sunday spin---Go to watch the Dodgers win---Have yourself a dandy day---That cost you under a fin---Hair was short and skirts were long---Kate Smith really sold a song---I don't know just what went wrong---Those were the days!

Expand full comment

Who actually remembers a LaSalle? I have an uncle who had one when I was about four or five. The first car I actually remember. It had a long stick shift coming out of the floor with an ivory knob on top with the gear pattern engraved in it. Funny the things that are engraved in little boy memories. I come from a family of car nuts. For those who never heard of them they were lower priced Cadillacs built in the 1930’s.

Expand full comment

Well played .

Expand full comment

Making sense of daily living in this crazy world is beyond my abilities so I'll just wish a healthy New Year to all.

2024 is a leap year so we get one extra day to make a difference. Keep your powder dry.

Expand full comment

Don!!! Keep on writing in 2024. We need your sanity in the midst of the bizarre. Happy New Year!!! May the Lord continue to multiply your efforts.

Here’s a good lyric for 2024

He Lives, He Lives

Christ Jesus Lives Today

He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way

He Lives, He Lives

Salvation to impart

You ask me how I know he lives

He lives within my heart!

Expand full comment

'Are the Tides Finally Turning? Tech Companies Are Slashing Huge Amount of DIE Jobs’.

Got excited about the link at Liberty Daily-Sadly, the article used DEI-be nice if all conservative outlets would use DIE-much more descriptive. Spelled out would be even better: Degradation, Intolerance, and Exclusion.

Expand full comment

Yes, they are. Reality is the great educator. Put another way, the chickens are finally coming home to roost. Let's ask all the Hispanic and black citizens why they are walking away from Democrats. They also see the absurdity of everything and want their normal society back.

Expand full comment

The left, as usual has gone to far. All the hyphenated Americans are remembering that they are Americans.

Expand full comment

Instapundit: "DEI offices have proved to be epicenters of division and ideological conformity, stirring hostilities and imposing an intolerant monoculture. Fortunately, 2023 saw more than a dozen states start to take action against the DEI hydra, with six achieving concrete steps that other states should follow.”

Expand full comment
Jan 1Edited

It is simple, DEI is expensive and not a ROI department. So yes, it is the first to get cut. IT used to be first, even in the tech companies because the companies couldnt charge their time to a profit center, like a product.

Not sure it has anything to do with the Reality that DEI is stupid

Expand full comment

Don, amen. And amen to Ps 46. (I use BibleGateway at least half a dozen times a day)

I’ll tell you one measure of your greatness- the awesome community of readers that have gathered around you.

Thx for being the adult in the room.

May you live long and Bentley!

Expand full comment

Apparently, the government's only job is to ruin lives and steal money...lots of it. Prove me wrong.

Expand full comment

Thank you Don.

What an incredible column! I had to stop reading halfway through to take a breath.

Expand full comment

Happy New Year Don from a WV reader in Roane County.

Great article as always. Have to laugh at the poll. We won’t get fooled again? lol. Yes we will. We haven’t learned anything. How do I know? Because the 46% think that elections matter. They don’t. The establishment lies and cheats. They will again this fall. Another difference between the centuries. We could elect a President in a day in open view of the people. Now, they select a President in a matter a months behind closed doors.

Make the world go away. Or Stop the world, I want to off.

Expand full comment

i am 75 and had enough of america. unfortunately for me 75 is a little too long in the tooth to start over in another (problematic at best) country. so here i am and here i must stay....awaiting the inevitable. no one gets out alive greg. nope.

so i enjoy my golf and the few friends i have left. i agree with your assessment that we will get fooled again. america is dumb as dirt because the sheeple are intellectually lazy and feminized beyond comprehension.,,,,and continue to bite the apple.

jimmy buffet was right. to paraphrase: "it's our own damn fault".

Expand full comment

Donald, I'm 77 and your point of view is understandable. But I'm optimistic and her's why: Trump's greatest achievement was ripping the cover off the deep state. Now, we all know the whole place is run by bribery, blackmail and ideological corruption. They're not even attempting to hide it any more.

That is an excellent starting piont for the road back to sanity. The MSM is broadcasating the impression that most of the country has signed on to this woke bullshit. It hasn't. The vast (silent) majority is really pissed about all of this. Democrats have hugely overstepped their usual pace because they're in a desperate race to finish their tyranny project before the sleeping giant fully wakes up. When that happens they're screwed ten ways to Sunday.

Also, news from aroound the world is encouraging. Argentina is just the latest win. I refer you to the saying, "What can't go on, won't go on." And, we know this insanity can not go on.

I'm not even sure the 2024 election results matter in the long run. If Trump wins...great. If not, and the steal is as obvoiius as it probalby will be, the giant will be super pissed. How do you govern when most of the country wants you dead?

Yes, these are trying times, but, with God's help, the human spirit will not abide Soviet-style tyranny and freedom will prevail. Even at my advanced age, I know I will live to see it, all because of Trump's brave action, starting in 2016. That's why I think of him as our Re-Founding Father because he, too, is risking his life, his fortune and his sacred honor, all on our behalf. Who else is dong that?

I could go on about our coward politicians but, here, I'd be preaching to the choir. I'm just waiting for the precipitating event that finally breaks the dam and all that pent-up anger sweeps the criminal class away. That is scary but necessary because, when most of the judges in the land are corrupt, working within the system is a cruel joke. Storming the Bastille seems to be the only solution left to us. They know it and they fear it.

God bless America!

Expand full comment

I agree with you that Trump's greatest achievement was getting the real powers in our country to remove the mask and show their hideous ugly real face to everyone who wants to see it.

Expand full comment

I’ve known the “deep state” was running & corrupting everything since I was in my 20’s. I’m glad DJT finally exposed & woke up a few more to that fact, but many are still asleep.

Expand full comment

A high school principal told me once that if you are giving away gold, 25 percent will be for it, 25 percent will be against it and 50 percent won't care. Rush hated the independents in the middle because their not caring kept the steal alive. Here's praying that the middle really starts feeling the pain and consequences of Dem rule in 2024. God won't help us if they don't.....

Expand full comment

They fancy themselves as more intellectual, don't ya' know. They like to think things over, to analyze the pros and cons before they forget to vote. Rush was correct. They are a menace to a free society. Freeloaders...

Expand full comment

Yaaaaah, you betcha.

Expand full comment

Ripping off the cover. Yes. Yes. Yes. It's like we all knew DC was corrupt - sort of. But We Had No Idea. And then The Orange Man came along, and it was like walking into a dark kitchen, opening the refrigerator, and all of a sudden the light falls on a floor full of cockroaches.

They gasp in recognition and had to make a decision: scurry for the dark corners or take out the human.

Now that they were exposed, there was too much at stake. They decided to go for broke.

... and here we are.

Expand full comment

Am with you all the way, Gary! I have a degree of optimism too.

Expand full comment

Don, be of gret heart and strength.... look around, Old Women, 77 and older, are lining up silently, armed and ready to fix the problem. Sitting around awaiting the inevitable?????? Please, stand up, walk, exercise, get armed, plan your future, and rally your friends who have already given up. We Old Women are behind you 100%

Expand full comment

Yep...I'm 82.

Expand full comment

You might appreciate this... Phil Mushnick at the NY Post said, "The AARP College Athlete of The Year" is an eighth-year basketball player now at the University of Hawaii. He might be old enough to have witnessed Pearl Harbor.

Expand full comment

you're better off being in front of me. i live by the idea it's everyone for himself and that includes the gals. good hunting to you.....sincerely.

Expand full comment

Thanks for the good wish... we truly are on our own now. I hope the tide is turning, I see positive aspects of a turn on this amazing site,;. being super busy keeps me closer to sane.... sane or not, We Are Winning! Seeing those sour faces each day with new frowns makes me laugh out loud.They know they are Disrespectful and Disrespected - what will the History books have to say about such Hatred of their own country and their own People??? One of us should start writing the True History of this Time... it is so important! I think Don Surber should do it. Or You!

Expand full comment

it's a thought. i've never thought of myself as particularly literary. more like opinionated. i do read a lot. i was thinking of you.

Expand full comment

Don't Givw Up Yet, whippersnapper! There's WORK to be done.... who will do it if YOU WILL NOT?

Expand full comment

mid-michiganistan is crawling with donks. perhaps i need to relo to a warmer and more compatible climate.

Expand full comment

I have no complaints about Georgia weather, but there was ICE on the lawn yesterday... hey, stop laughing, its freezing cold this week... Not sure what a donk is, but I believe there may be 40 million or so of 'em just around the corner..... trying to avoid eye contact...

Expand full comment

a donk is my cryptic way of expressing my distaste for democrat voters.

Expand full comment

Only guns matter now? So, the old women must be armed and ready? OK, thanks for the tip... we can handle it.

Expand full comment

Remember, if they want to confiscate your guns it is because they want to do something to you that you would shoot them for.

Expand full comment

I am now very often surprised at the level of Ignorance around me, and that so many people are choosing to be active members of that group. A conversation with my cat is easier than one with a long time neighbor...

Expand full comment

So hard to talk to so many people! Have to avoid the important subjects.

Expand full comment

Must be cautious... inflection, choice of words, and yes, No Important Subjects... being a very busy old lady works well for me!

Expand full comment

Just ask them if they know sign language, because, unfortunately, you're deaf. Watch them stammer and then slip away (hopefully forever).

Expand full comment

Exactly Mike .

Expand full comment

Apropos the item about Washington, DC becoming engorged with people, it should be noted that an unusually large proportion of them seems to be degenerate. Well, OK, you knew that, but I meant to refer to a poll taken lately in which about 11% identified as "trans," compared to a about 1% nationwide. I guess that includes the Obamas, since they have a home (one of four, I believe) in Kalorama. Is it something in the water or the air? Or is it that the current "administration" (or "regime" if you prefer) attracts malcontents, losers, weirdoes and degenerates of all stripes? On another note, for those of us who have been watching the new installment of "Reacher" on Amazon Prime, have you noticed the dialogue the actors have been allowed to recite, about the nature of government corruption (taxpayer funds going into politician's pockets instead of paving roads, Congressional aides facilitating politician's graft in the name of "protecting" us, hiding all kinds of "goodies" in thousand page pieces of legislation, and Neaglie describing a bureaucracy as "the cold sores of government oversight.") Good stuff. Plus there's the vicarious thrill of Reacher committing righteous mayhem on the bad guys. If we can't do it personally, at least we can cheer on the cinematic variety. Happy New Year, all you denizens of Surberville!

Expand full comment

I love all the Reacher books!

Expand full comment

I told you about Roz’s funeral, yesterday I learned her husband Dr. C has passed. He had been too ill to attend the funeral. Dr. C was a jet fighter pilot when he, jet fighters and the Air Force were young, and the went to medical school.

Expand full comment

Thank you for this message. May these heroes Rest in Peace. They have done well; we are proud of them. God Bless them both and God Bless You! Sending you deepest condolences and love, Grandma

Expand full comment

What a gruesome fate, not to be able to attend your wife's funeral!

Expand full comment

I’ll believe the current nonsense when I see the first pregnant man give birth.

Until then, no. We’re being lied into submission.

Expand full comment

The world is a dystopia. My reality is built on God's Word, not on the vanities of this dark age. Thank you Don for all your reminders today.

Expand full comment

Amen. Just remember how dark He said it will be before it ends.

Expand full comment

Don't we have sanitary napkins in some mens rooms now? We are living in a world of make believe. If someone would have wrote the world we live in now as fiction it would have been laughed at for being way too absurd... maybe relegated to Science Fiction!

Expand full comment

I’m still with Rush: when the first electric 747 fully loaded flies non stop from New York to Australia.

Expand full comment

I want to see those tanks Biden and the current crop of silley Milley's replacements that they say can go electric actually work longer than getting from the factory to the next town, let alone work in the field.

Expand full comment

With the woke girly men surviving kinetic contact.

Expand full comment

pretty much.

Expand full comment

I miss Rush Limbaugh. Are you familiar with The Radio Patriot? She is amazing, and has been around for a long time.

Expand full comment

Or as I say: we are getting used to mediocrity. Same as Germany did.

Expand full comment

LOL...something tells me there will be "photos" coming soon..... they just cannot stop themselves... such total nonsense! Why are they not Embarassed !!!

Expand full comment