Dan Conry, R.I.P.

During the lengthy interim in which your faithful Peasant
could not be with you, my fiercely loyal readers, a radio
luminary Milwaukee whose show I enjoyed for several
years, with his wonderful wit, sometimes wacky humor,
and endless good cheer (even when there was little to feel
cheerful about), Dan Conry, passed away after several years
of increasingly poor health. Dan was one of the stable of
fantastic conservative radio talk show hosts on Milwaukee's
home of conservative political discussions and dissertations,
WISN-AM, and periodically guest-hosted for one of his
colleagues, giving his personal, very colorful take on the
political news of the day, commenting on the national
as well as state and local news.

Dan interspersed his stories of his childhood, growing up
with a no-nonsense retired Marine father and a stern but
loving mother, with stories from his days as a police
detective in New York City (Dan was from Brooklyn).
He would talk about the mischief that he and his brother
would get into and how their dad would raise the roof
in chewing them out Marine Corps style! My favorite story
was of how the boys lit an M-80 (that's a Cherry Bomb)
while in their bedroom, and Dan tried to toss it out the
window but FORGOT TO OPEN THE SCREEN after
opening the window! The M-80 bounced off the screen,
landed on the floor, and went off with a deafening blast,
causing their dad to rush into the room to see the debris
and then make an explosion of his own in excoriating the
mischief makers.

Conry spoke about his undercover work on the NYPD going
after drug rings, his being shot at, stabbed, beaten up,
and about the courage of his compatriots, being especially
effusive in his praise for gay officers whom he worked with.
Dan constantly stressed that he never judged anyone by their
skin color, their ethnicity, or their sexual orientation; he always
looked for the good in everyone he met. He had gay callers
with whom he had friendly and respectful conversations,
finding areas of agreement regarding some topics Dan was
discussing. Some of them even told Conry that they were
conservative gay people, a few of them "coming out"
as such. Some even admitted that they found it harder to
come out as conservatives than coming out gay. Dan made
them, as he did all his callers, at ease with his humor and
good-natured way. He also did very funny impressions of
political figures as well as various celebrities.

Dan would spread his cheer to his audience in sad times
(as when Barack Obama was re-elected president in 2012)
and in happy times (when Donald Trump was elected
four years later). He also talked about the local sports teams
and his impressions on the quality of their play during
their respective seasons. Although from Brooklyn, he was
a big supporter of the Green Bay Packers, the Milwaukee
Brewers, and the Milwaukee Bucks as well as the teams of
the University of Wisconsin and Marquette University. He
celebrated with his audience when the teams won and
shared their pain when they lost.

Dan would never speak of others in a demeaning way but he
also called a spade a spade; he would be critical of politicians,
be they Democrats or Republicans, liberal or conservative
if he felt they were not taking the best tack on an issue,
especially concerning a piece of legislation before them,
looking to serve themselves rather than the people.
He also was the same way with police, activists, pundits,
and others on all matters.

Sadly, your sorrowful Peasant never did get the opportunity
to meet Dan in person but we did talk a little online. He
also read a few posts from PWAP and told me he enjoyed
them. I told him that I enjoyed his radio show immensely,
and that I set Sunday afternoons aside to tune in.

I sure wish there was a way for Dan to broadcast his show
from heaven. Requiescat en pace, my fellow Irish-catholic
(Dan was of Irish and Scottish heritage), fellow conservative,
and fellow seeker, partaker and provider of good craic 
(Gaelic for "good times"). You're the best!


MEM

A Unique Independence Day

This Fourth of July, our nation's birthday, will be remembered
for many things: being caught up in the Coronovirus panic with
the subsequent lockdowns of various businesses and the cancel-
lations of events, such as (here in Milwaukee) SummerFest,
various outdoor concerts around town, fireworks shows (yes,
you read that right, my sharp-eyed readers), and scores of picnics
--- company, church, family, erased like so many errors on a
handwritten note. Although some communities are still planning
to host some fireworks displays, many others (including New
Berlin, my suburban community) have cancelled theirs; it's
going to be mighty strange and not a little disconcerting to
have an Independence Day without fireworks.

Although some places around the country are still under various
degrees of lockdown, one can still reflect on the special meaning
of this day, the historic day when our United States declared its
independence from what was then the world's foremost superpower,
a veritable David thumbing his nose at the Goliath of the day,
risking all for the taste of freedom, of self-determination, and of
autonomy, to not have to answer to or seek permission from an
all-pervasive power to do anything. And aren't we in a similar
position  today, but the all-pervasive power we face is an internal
one rather than external. It's right here with us, rather than across
an ocean. And this power has played politics with the Coronovirus
situation, going beyond reasonable health safeguard measures
in order to gain more control over us and how we conduct our
daily lives.

Think about this on July 4, and on Election Day.


MEM

NPR: Nannying Public Radio

A few weeks ago your favorite Peasant was listening
to the radio one Sunday evening, listening to the some
of the Sunday fare offered on WHAD-FM Delafield, WI.
Please don't be shocked when I tell you, my fantastic
readers, that this station is a National Public radio affiliate.
Yes, I do realize that NPR is a very lefty media enterprise,
but I have ever only listened to their non-political shows,
especially their "Old Time Radio Drama" show which
was presented every Sunday evening at eight for 30 years.

This marvelously entertaining show featured the classic radio
shows from the "Golden Age" of radio; shows from the '30s,
'40s, and '50s such as Jack Benny. Fred Allen, Phil Harris and
Alice Faye, Groucho Marx ("You Bet Your Life"), Our Miss
Brooks (starring Eve Arden), and many fine dramas, westerns
("Gunsmoke"; "Have Gun Will Travel"; "The Six Shooter";
"The Lone Ranger" and may others), detective stories,
police dramas ("Dragnet"), adventure stories, and so much
more. Many people, including your faithful Peasant, enjoyed
these shows over the thirty years that the show has been on the
air. Until this month, that is.

Two Sundays ago, as I was listening to the beginning of OTRD,
its host announced that the show as airing for the final time that
evening, and that he was happy to have been its host over the
years. He didn't give any reason why, he simply carried on with
his hosting duties, then signed off with still no reason given as
to the show's demise. A few days later I was listening to one of
Milwaukee's local conservative talk shows, and the host noted
the cancellation of the show which I had looked forward to each
Sunday. According to the story, the show was given the ax for
having material which the station's bigwigs, and WPR (Wisconsin
Public Radio) determined to be racially insensitive, the classic
shows portraying black people, Latinos, and some others of certain
other groups as being somehow inferior.

Here's some truths about those classic radio shows which have escaped
WPR's executives: those shows presented scenes involving blacks
and whites in social situations based on the mores of those times.
While indeed those times were not as enlightened as out present time,
upon closer examination one would discover that many of the
non-white, non-Anglo-Saxon characters came off pretty well. Take
"The Jack Benny Show", Jack's (black) chauffer and general helper
Rochester (played by the fantastic Eddie Anderson) would invariably
get the better of Benny with his remarks about the former's aged
Maxwell automobile, a suit he'd plan to wear to a special occasion,
a party he'd want to host or to attend, always getting gales of laughter.

On "The Great Gildersleeve", Gildy had a black cook who always had
helpful advice for Gildersleeve and his nephew LeRoy, whenever
they found themselves in some sort of quandary. The Cisco Kid and his
partner in adventures in the Old West, Pancho, were two Mexican men
who were traveling crime fighters taking on robbers of stagecoaches,
banks, families and individuals; mining claim jumpers; con men;
other criminals of various sorts, always prevailing in every episode.
The Lone Ranger? The Masked Man (white) benefited greatly from his
friend and crime fighting partner Tonto, a Native American (referred to
in the stories as an Indian; again, that was consistent with those times).
As an aside, your exacting Peasant prefers the term "Native American"
to "Indian" for referring to our indigenous Americans, because the
latter can cause some to mistakenly think of someone from India.

The Green Hornet had Kato, expert in the martial arts. indispensable
to GH in fighting crime. On "Have Gun, Will Travel" Pallidan was
well-looked after by a Chinese couple when he was home at the San
Francisco hotel where he stayed when he was not out assisting a client
with his trusty gun. Yes, admittedly the couple both spoke without
using prepositional phrases, sounding rather comical, but perhaps
many of the Asian immigrants to the United States in that century
(19th century) spoke English that way, either coming over or in the
process of learning to speak English after their arrival.

And in no instances did any of these or other similar characters on
these beloved old radio shows get any belittling, degrading treatment;
no stereotypically slanted lines delivered, none of the things that would
present a degrading view of the characters' racial or ethnic grouping.
And through the years, people of many racial and ethnic groups, skin
colors, whatever categories people can be classified under have enjoyed
these shows, including when they were presented on the now-cancelled
Old Time Radio Drama show on WHAD-FM. I visited WPR's website
and read their statement explaining the reasons why they dropped the
show. They thought that the classic shows featured were not fit for
modern times, that they were stereotypical in their portrayal of
said people, and were therefore demeaning to them. They then averred
that they would be replacing OTRD with a series of interviews, some
live and some taped, some podcasts focusing on a wide range of topics;
knowing WPR, it will certainly be a solidly left-wing bill of fare. They
are going to use this opportunity to pull us ignorant, hapless peasants
out of the lowly depths from which we issue, where we actually laugh at
comedy radio shows and thrill to the adventurous bill of fare whose
only fault is having been created years ago, being simply snapshots in
time showing how far our society had progressed at that time in getting
away from the times and their accompanying ideas of blacks and
other non-white people being fit for little more that menial, drudgery-
filled manual work, just one step removed from slavery. And this is
going on at a time when others on the Left are pulling down statues of
our historical figures, eliminating books, films, and TV shows which
they find not to be sufficiently politically correct for whatever reasons
they concoct. It's all part of the effort to remake our country, our
society, and her people, to be a more fit and pleasing place to satisfy
their elite and elitist selves, never mind the fact that We the People
can think, reason, and discern for ourselves --- and we'd rather, instead
of having these arrogant jerks do that for us.

And the nannies of NPR and their affiliated organizations are part of
the process.


MEM

Jammed Solid This Week

Your faithful Peasant is sorry to say that I will not
be able to post anything this week, for my whole
week is chock-a-block with appointments, commit-
ments, and personal duties to tend to. I am taking care
of a backlog of things which were held up and
turned into a veritable logjam by the COVID-19
lockdown. However, I'll be back in the coming week!
Thank you my fantastic readers, for your understanding,
your patience, and your indulgence.


MEM

The Spring of Our Discontent

Not meaning to sound like a broken record, but it feels
SO good to be back! When the Coronavirus, a/k/a
COVID-19 came to the United States earlier in the year
the governors of most of the states enacted executive
orders to either close down for a time or to curb certain
activities, i.e. visiting parks and beaches, going to movie
theaters, attending concerts, festivals and sporting events,
and visiting our community libraries. Sadly and painfully,
this has certainly been the case here in Wisconsin.

Our Milwaukee Irish Fest has been cancelled for this year;
so have all the other major festivals, including SummerFest.
The State Fair went away as well. There has never been a
cancellation of our state fair in its 130+ year history until now.
All to avoid having too many people in one place at one time,
so as to run the risk of the virus being spread around by
people who might not even know they have it.

Some major league sports stopped in mid-season (basketball,
hockey) while others saw a postponement of their seasons
(baseball). Auto races were either been cancelled or postponed.
Ditto golf tournaments. And the three most famous horse races
in the country? The Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the
Belmont will either be cancelled or postponed as well. I've
heard that the Kentucky Derby will be held at a later date,
likely in autumn. College and high school sports? Cancelled.

Schools? The spring semester was cut short for many students,
teachers, and administrators. Graduation ceremonies and related
activities have been converted into "virtual" events, held online
with everyone participating from home. Colleges and universities
too.

Restaurants, cafe's, and drinking establishments have been
shuttered, except for those fortunate restaurants that were able
to do deliveries or carry-out. Many friends of The Peasant who
work in these places, especially my musician/singer friends,
have been placed on the shelf for the time being. As of this
posting, some of them are still waiting to return to work and
to re-schedule their gigs.

Churches, temples, and other houses of worship were locked as
well. There have not been any masses or other activities at
the catholic church next door to me as a result.

In some cities and states, there have been rules either suggesting
or mandating that people not venture out from their homes unless
it is for an appointment with their doctors, to visit their drug stores
for medicine, to buy groceries, or to go to their local post offices.
At least here in Wisconsin we could still go out for walks in our
neighborhoods, and your favorite Peasant has been taking advantage
of this! I am trying to lose a few pounds and the exercise has been
most beneficial.

At this time, there has been a stepped-up though still gradual
re-opening of our state as far as the aforementioned things are
concerned. Gov. Tony Evers (D) issued an executive order pro-
scribing our activities in reaction to the COVID-19, which many
(including your favorite Peasant) have found unnecessarily
stringent, and with no plans to ease up anytime soon.
Many Wisconsinites complained to him, many also have publicly
protested, including your outspoken Peasant, attending "Open
Wisconsin Now!" rallies around the state. I participated in one
which was held in Brookfield; it was one of the first such gatherings
held, and was nearby New Berlin where I live.

During the shutdown which was part of Gov. Evers' "Safer at Home"
edict many small businesses have been greatly hampered and are
still hurting. Some of them may close for good or already have,
with some declaring bankruptcy because they could not pay their
bills without revenue coming in. Many of these business owners
have appealed to Gov. Evers but could not get him to budge.
So they went to their state assembly reps and state senators, most
of whom are Republicans, and eventually the legislators launched
a lawsuit against the governor to get him to back off on his edict
and let at least some businesses open up and bring back their
furloughed workers, many in the same financial straits as their
employees without any income. The case was decided by the
Wisconsin Supreme Court in favor of the people, 4-3, breaking
Evers' grip on the people and the state economy, both of which
languished during the lockdown which caused our once-vibrant
economy to become weak and sickly. Some think that Evers and his
administration have tightened said controls so severely as to
harm the economy of our state on purpose and then blame President
Trump for the downfall, by not taking swift and decisive action
from the White House to deal with the Coronavirus. All to turn
people against him so come November Trump will be easily
defeated by the Democrat's candidate, they figure. Many other
Democrat governors are doing the same, and they are thought to
be doing this to sink Trump as well. Your watchful Peasant also
shares this suspicion. I have supported some of the lockdown
measures early on, but thought that they should have been eased
somewhat when signs of the COVID-19 case curve was flattening.
Although new cases have been reported in recent weeks here in
my home state these were due to an increase in testing for the virus
which turned up some new cases; however, the cases where some
people tested positive were running behind those where people
tested negative by around 9 to 1. Still, some governors, including
ours, have refused to let up one iota on their stay-at-home rules.
This I found to be unreasonable, unfair, and overly restricting,
as have many other Wisconsinites, hence the series of events
which consequentially came about.

Because of the State Supreme Court ruling, many mom-and-pop
stores and the like have re-opened for business with alacrity.
There still are some safety measures which must be followed
but they are quite reasonable ones which are in fact quite helpful
in thwarting any further spread of the virus. There must be six feet
of space between customers and staff at all times; when this is not
possible, such as waiting at a checkout station, there is plexiglass
placed between the cashiers and customers. Also staff have to wear
safety masks, and some businesses require their customers to do
the same. Not unreasonable requirements at all.

No one is saying that they don't care about COVID-19 infecting
people, causing death to some. And no one is against reasonable
precautions taken to avoid spreading the virus further. We all
want to "flatten the curve". But certainly no one wants to see
our economy die either, due to businesses closing and people
being laid off for long periods or released altogether.
Even larger businesses in Wisconsin have felt the crunch, with
some cutting back operations and placing many employees on
furlough. It's happened to your Peasant as well, as I have been
on a two-month layoff from my employer, Goodwill. I since
have been brought back to their store here in New Berlin, but
many other workers are still without a job and a paycheck.
As I am now semi-retired, this job has been a wonderful income-
enhancer for me as it complements my passive income. However,
some people are not as fortunate. And we can help them, and
the owners of the businesses which employ them, by getting
our elected leaders in Wisconsin and elsewhere to realize that
protecting the health and the lives of the populace and
enabling businesses to operate again are not mutually exclusive
choices, nor should they be. And self-serving politicians should
not create a false choice in the minds of the people to manipulate
them in an election year.


MEM

So Much to Catch Up On!

IT'S GREAT TO BE BACK!!! It's grand to be together with you,
my dear, wonderful, enthusiastic, grand readers! These last
couple of months have been straight from some sort of a twilight
zone; Rod Serling could have thought this up!

I posted a notice to you all when I learned that, along with almost
everything else, the libraries in Wisconsin would be locked down
as part of the "Safer at Home" rules created and implemented by
my state's gubernatorial administration, making it impossible to
get in to my local library to post on this blog. Although I have a
mobile phone which accesses the internet, it doesn't work very
well; in fact, it's slow as molasses, when it does get me to where
I want to go online I am invariably kicked out of said place after
a few minutes, so I didn't want to try blogging under such circum-
stances, as my blood pressure is high enough without the extra
aggravation!

And in that interim, so much has happened on our political scene
as well as with our economy. And it tortured me to not be able to
comment on it all, sharing my thoughts and observations with you!
But now that the lockdowns are easing here in the Badger State,
and I hope they are easing in whichever states many of you reside
in as well, I am back at the New Berlin Public Library and seated
before a computer in their lovely and spacious computer lab, typing
this blog piece for you all!

We've got a lot to catch up on, but we now have all the time in the
world for that. Meantime, I'll start shopping for an affordable,
reliable, second-hand computer, perhaps a nice laptop or a tablet.
And if I can get an unbelievable deal on a brand new one of these,
heaven! My financial picture is brightening, and I now can make plans
for such purchases as well as purchases for other things I've needed
but had to postpone while things were tight for so long. Then we'll
be able to get together without any lengthy interruptions!

So we'll gather here again for our weekly get-togethers as before,
starting right this minute! Thank you all for hanging tough, keeping
calm, and carrying on! God bless you all, and God bless America!


MEM

I'm Back!

I just want to let you, my grand readers know, that I am now officially
back. I shall be posting commentary again very very soon, and I have
a helluva lot to say!

Thanks everyone for your understanding, your patience, and your support!


MEM