John Andrist: The Last Time Trump Saw Paris

They spend a lot of time these days fussing about climate change, particularly since President Trump walked away from the “Paris Accord” agreement.

What particularly piqued my interest was a map of the United States published in USA Today, showing in color the temperature change over the past 22 years.

It included most of northern and western areas of the country, Alaska too, in an area where temps are 1.5 degrees higher.

Yet most of the southeastern part of our nation has not shared in the rise, Florida excepted. Temperatures have actually dropped up to 1.5 degrees cooler in Mississippi and Alabama, according to the map.

Overall, it seems there is no doubt we are putting a lot of man-made CO2 up there.

But the zealots who are in panic are pretty laughable to me. No matter what happens, they blame it on climate change.

Some folks just aren’t comfortable if the sky isn’t falling for some reason.

Learning from history?

Despite a hatred for high school history, because I was blessed with the world’s worst history teachers, I have been fascinated by the subject most of my adult life.

[mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]Overall, it seems there is no doubt we are putting a lot of man-made CO2 up there. But the zealots who are in panic are pretty laughable to me.[/mks_pullquote]

The two largest heroes for me were Ben Franklin and Tom Jefferson. Both were larger than life for lovers of America.

I’ve often told you about my affection for Jefferson impersonator Clay Jenkinson, who has spent much of his life accumulating the world’s best understanding of our third president and author of our Declaration of Independence.

This week I’ve been feasting on Jefferson Hour podcasts to help me get through the boredom of our fitness center.

One I heard noted that America has had no stronger proponent of limited government than Jefferson.

He wanted nothing other than essentials for the tax dollars spent.

That’s somewhat laughable today — the opposite of socialistic thought which legitimizes all things possible.

Food? Social services? Medical care? Education? Arts funding? Protection from all things? A system that promises “To big to fail” to all of us, not just bankers and auto makers.

If you were king, how comprehensive would you make it? That’s something all of us should ponder.

Most of us would tend to concur in principle that government cannot be all things to all people. But me thinks we don’t practice what we preach when goodies are held up in our face — or when take-away is threatened.

Lay that pistol down

One of the simple pleasures of aging is when an ancient song pops into my head.

It happened again last week when the tune was played on public radio, except it was a whole new song, with different lyrics.

Wikipedia says “Pistol Packin’ Momma,” written in 1943, was the product of a Texas song writer named Al Dexter, who himself borrowed the tune, called “Lay That Cabbage Down.”

Perhaps that’s the one they were playing on the radio last week?

“Pistol Packin’ Momma” was recorded by such legends as Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, and even Gary Cooper, and it was number one on the charts of that year.

It was finally forced off by another popular oldie, “Paper Doll”.

Come to think of it I guess they don’t chart anymore. They just keep track of copies sold stats and how much money was made.

If you are curious enough to Google it, like I did, you will find it became one of the biggest hits of World War II. Otherwise you may hear an earlier or later version one of these days and never know that it was once “Pistol Packin’ Momma”.

“Drinking beer in a cabaret and was I having fun, until one night she caught me right, and now I’m on the run.
“Lay that pistol down, babe, lay that pistol down. Pistol Packin’ Mama, lay that pistol down.”

I suspect in this day and age it just isn’t politically correct to have a song about guns on the loose in a bar.

You can’t just laugh at whatever you want today. It might start a protest