Why has it become excruciating to invest any time in viewing what used to be called “the news.” 

Five minutes and it’s time to start drinking. 

These days, I’m having a difficult time choosing between Maalox and Mylanta.

It appears that the surest way to get folks’ tail feathers up is to tell them they must do something. It’s debatable about our leadership. There are so many avenues to travel that turn that trip into a destruction derby.

This week, we found out it’s time to abandon the “Sleepy Joe” nickname and start calling him “Truck-Drivin’ Joe.”

Nope. No way. The President has about as much business jamming gears in a Peterbilt as I do dancing The Nutcracker at the Fox.

This vaccine business has become frustrating and silly. It’s tearing us apart. I spied a snippet that Nancy Pelosi is fully prepared to arrest any member of Congress not wearing a mask. 

So, if you’re vaccinated, why do you need to wear a mask? I’ve heard all the tripe about lessening the symptoms if you become infected. The problem is this: Nobody is sure about anything.

This entire vaccine process has been mismanaged from the beginning. And now we have a frat party of variants: alpha, beta, delta, lambda, gamma. Maybe some enterprising soul will start marketing COVID-19 trading cards inside packets of alcohol swabs. Humanize and demonize the virus as an impetus for giving COVID a proper butt whipping.

As parents prepare to send their kids to school (this Thursday, if you can believe it!) it’s not clear whether a gargantuan supply of face masks should be added to pencils and paper on those school supply list.

Wouldn’t there be wisdom in moving the start of the school year until next month? 

The time might allow those in charge to get a better handle on a solution. Administrators could meet while the kids swam and rode bikes.

•    •    •

Despite living here for more than 30 years, no matter how much I love the area, I have quickly come to grasp that my people are from somewhere else. 

Please don’t misconstrue that last sentence. Forsyth County is home. I wouldn’t live anywhere else. Sure, there are warts. But the fact remains that, to me, North Georgia offers so much. 

I was raised in Bakersfield, Calif., in what used to be a wonderful town. It seemed like everybody knew everyone. I honestly don’t remember locking the doors to our house. Despite only two hours north of Los Angeles, Bakersfield was small enough that we knew we’d never want to be Los Angeles.

Kern County was a showcase for agriculture and so many other things.

Crime was a Friday-night drag race. But it looks like things have finally gone big time.

These days, the disturbing news came last week that Kern County Sheriff’s Deputy Phillip Campas was shot and killed while doing his job, responding to a domestic disturbance incident involving victims being killed by a gunman who figured that was how he was going to spend his Sunday.

Deputy Campas woke up, got dressed and went to work, never figuring that would be his end of watch.

Political leaders, national and local, commented. So did neighbors in the Wasco neighborhood, an impoverished predominantly Hispanic (think of the movie McFarland USA) community.

We’ve got to stop all this! 

A traffic stop has become iffy, the officer not knowing if there will be cooperation or conflict. Retailers are watching as customers deplete store shelves, walking out the door without paying for their merchandise. I guess that doesn’t make them customers. Just thieves.

I shudder at saying it can’t get any worse, because it might. I think I’ll go upstairs and say a Rosary. 

Mike Tasos’ column appears every other weekend. If I encounter anyone walking out without paying, am I allowed to trip them? If not, I have greatly increased what I will be giving folks for Christmas. Get your gift requests to me soon. He is on Facebook and can be emailed at miketasos@earthlink.net.