Jimmy Buffet’s demise recalls lyrics around America’s drug of choice.

• Wastin’ away again in Margaritaville  .  .  .
  But there’s booze in the blender and soon it will render
  That frozen concoction that helps me hang on.”
  Jimmy Buffet
  
• “Jose Quervo
  You are a friend of mine.
  I like to drink you with a little salt and lime.”
    Cindy Jordan
  
• “Tiny bubbles
  In the wine
  Make me happy,
  Make me feel fine.”
    Leon Pober
  
• “Oh whiskey, you villain, you’ve been my downfall.
  You’ve kicked me, you’ve cuffed me, but I love ya for all.”
    The Pirates Charles
  
• “Pour me somethin’ tall an’ strong.
  Make it a Hurricane before I go insane.
  It’s only half-past twelve but I don’t care.
  It’s five o’clock somewhere.”
    Jim “Moose” Brown and Don Rolins

We suffer.  Alcohol numbs the pain—for now.  Given its consequences: hangovers; alcoholism; organ damage; spousal, child, and other abuse; automobile and other accidents; and lost productivity, our alcohol dependence seems masochistic.  Compared to the costs related to alcohol, the money America spends on its “War on Drugs” is Petty Cash.

It’s not just America.  British belly-up for stout, gin, and scotch.  Wine is a French and Italian staple.  Beer keeps Germans fat and happy.  To push Russians over the edge, confiscate their vodka.  Saki in porcelain cups have the Japanese smiling.  Tequila keeps Mexicans afloat.   

Alcohol dependence seems a European, hence, American issue.  In Africa, Asia, India, China, the Near and Middle East, it appears not problematic.  The Quran and Islamic dietary law forbid alcohol and other intoxicants.     

Why is a significant chunk of humanity alcohol dependent?  Again, to be human is to suffer.  Eons back, someone discovered that ingesting spoiled fruit juice or elixir from fermented grain alleviates suffering—for the moment.

It “helps me hang on,” is “a friend of mine,” ”Make(s) me happy; Make(s) me feel fine.”  In the end, “I love ya for all!”

It’s Happy Hour somewhere.   

Cheers!

On Moring Joe, September 25, conversative commentator Charles Sikes opined, “Joe Biden can say: ‘Yes, I’m old, but he is crazy.’”  Crazy is three years junior to Old.

Lest we question, a handful the Crazy one’s Malignant Narcissistic notions:

• Toxic chemical injections to cure COVID-19.
• John McCane, and hence all prisoners of war, is not a hero.
• Reputedly, armed forces personnel are “suckers” and “losers.”
• He beat “Obama” in 2016 and 2020!
• Biden could start World War II.
• Wind turbines kill birds.  As always, Donald’s source is not specified.  Automobiles kill 500 times, communication towers 50 times, and buildings’ windows twice the number of birds killed by wind turbines. 
• Wind turbines kill whale! 
• Despite over sixty failed court challenges, overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and near-universal consensus that he lost, Donald insists he won the 2020 Presidential election.
• In consort with Trump’s Secretary of the Army, Mark Esper, Joint Chiefs of Staffe Chair, General Mike General Milley assured his Chinese counterpart America would not attack his country.  Presumably, for acting without his expressed blessing, Donald called this “act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would be death!”
• On the heels of, (1) orchestrating an attack on the Capitol, Congress, and Constitution, (2) pressing Secretaries of State, Governors, and Legislators to overthrow 2020 election results, and (3) absconding with thousands of official government documents, Donald Trump insists, “I did nothing wrong.”
• Undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our county.”

Old or Crazy. Your choice.