13

OPINIONOPINION

MOUNTAIN 
VIEWS

NEWS

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR

Dean Lee 

SALES

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698

WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

DISTRIBUTION

Peter Lamendola

CONTRIBUTORS

Lori A. Harris

Michele Kidd

Stuart Tolchin 

Harvey Hyde

Audrey Swanson

Meghan Malooley

Mary Lou Caldwell

Kevin McGuire

Chris Leclerc

Dinah Chong Watkins

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Rich Johnson

Rev. James Snyder

Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

Despina Arouzman

Jeff Brown

Marc Garlett

Keely Toten

Dan Golden

Rebecca Wright

Hail Hamilton

Joan Schmidt

LaQuetta Shamblee

STUART TOLCHIN

PUT THE LIGHTS ON

RICH JOHNSON

A SIMPLE EXPLANATION OF 

BASEBALL AND ZENO


PROBLEMATIC SELF=AWARENESS IN 
A WORLD OF UNFAIRNESS


Independent of the ongoing horrors occurring in the world, I want 
to be a good person. That should be achievable, but I am not sure 
what it means. It is something more difficult than being an A 
Student which was pretty easy to achieve. To be an A Student all I 
had to do was to follow instructions and do what I was assigned to 
do. I was not expected to create the assignments. The teachers did 
that for me and there was little conflict. After I left school, life became more difficult 
What was I supposed to do now?

Am I responsible for what is happening in the world? Is it acceptable for me to ignore 
the ongoing wars and the murders of innocent civilians? I tell myself it’s not my fault 
that the world is the way it is. Should I care about anyone but myself? With all the 
trouble in the world how can I accept the fact that I spend most of my waking hours 
watching baseball games on television? As you probably know this is post-season 
playoff time and on certain days four important play-off games are presented, and I 
have done my best to watch them all. Frankly I find my action, or rather, my inaction, 
despicable but I know that I will undoubtedly watch a couple of games today.

Frankly I am pleased that my wife has brought my son over to watch the Dodger Game 
and that he has spent the night with us. How lucky I am to have a caring wife and a 
loving son here to share the experience. The question is whether I can take credit for 
their love and attention. The question seems ridiculous. Can I take credit for living 
this long and living in a beautiful, comfortable place?

As I walked my dog around the canyon circle this morning two young deer approached 
us. To me, it seemed clear that these deer had lost their mother and were confused as to 
what they should be doing. Alright, I admit it! I feel the same way. What should I be 
doing? How do I get an A in this adult world? The problem is that there is no teacher 
to grade me. I have to grade myself and I am filled with self-disapproval.

Are my expectations unreasonable. Can I forgive myself for not applying myself and 
achieved fame or wealth or honors. I have always wanted to be a “writer” whatever that 
means. A writer is something more than someone who writes. It should involve taking 
the craft seriously and producing something deserving pride. The writing should 
contain something of value that enriches the life of those who take the trouble to read 
it.

What am I talking about? How am I responsible for the feelings of others. Thinking 
about it now my desire seems arrogant. I should be content to at least write something 
and not try and judge it. Should I try to judge my own feelings?

Yesterday I noticed that a part of me wanted the Dodgers to lose so that there would be 
another playoff game that would be televised today. How selfish of me; how disloyal. 
Should I pretend not to notice or is noticing good in itself? What am I measuring 
myself against? Can I accept conflicting feelings and confusion? Of course that is the 
answer. Self-acceptance is the answer.

You and I must rely on our own awareness. If we notice something about ourselves that 
we do not like we should do our best to change it. If we cannot change it accept it as a 
part of ourselves giving ourselves extra-credit for just noticing. Extra-credit, indeed. 
I am still acting as if I am a teacher grading myself. Surprise, surprise there is no 
grading system, and all the past is passed. There is only tomorrow which will offer its 
opportunities. That is a fortunate part of being human and I realize that my life is much 
easier than that of a motherless, confused deer. But, sure, can I take credit for that? 
We all must notice that being born human was not our choice. But then who is there 
to thank or to blame? At least I want to notice that there are some questions I cannot 
answer which I must accept and live problematically with that awareness. Seeking the 
ultimate meaning of life or even knowing one’s true self does not seem achievable. It’s 
easier to be a loyal Dodger fan but I have trouble even doing that. So, for today, I will 
root for the Dodgers and hope for World Peace.

Readers note: If you are 
a faithful follower of 
my columns, you may 
remember the essence 
of this column from 
2021. In 2021 the Dodgers beat the San 
Francisco Giants in the division win 
but lost to the Atlanta Braves in the 
National League playoffs. Let’s just say 
they got the rest of 2021 off.

Well, the Dodgers are giving their best 
effort to win back to back World Series 
titles. And enthusiasm is high. As a 
public service to those “fans” who join 
in only when it looks like the Dodgers 
could go all the way, I resurrect 
my thorough, easy to understand 
explanation for how the game is played. 
I must admit I discovered the following 
explanation on the world wide web. 
If any of you know who penned this 
brilliant discourse please let me know 
so I can properly attribute credit. So 
here goes: (take notes)

 

Baseball is a game played by two teams, 
one out, the other in. The one that’s in 
sends players out one at a time to see 
if they can get in before they get out. 
If they get out before they get in, they 
come in, but it doesn’t count. If they 
get in before they get out, it does count. 
(with me so far?)

 

When the ones out get three outs from 
the ones in, they get in without being 
out, the team that’s out comes in and 
the team in goes out to get those going 
in out before they get in without being 
out.

 

When both teams have been in and out 
nine times, the game is over. The team 
with the most in without being out 
before coming in wins unless the ones 
in are equal. In which case, the last ones 
in go out to get the ones in out before 
they get in without being out.

 

The game will end when each team has 
the same number of ins out, but one 
team has more ins without being out 
before coming in.


There, that should clear baseball up for 
those of you a bit in the fog regarding 
America’s favorite pastime.

 

Speaking of fog, and a related sense of 
intellectual understanding, how many 
of you know about Zeno’s paradoxes? 
Zeno of Elea, Greek philosopher living 
from 490 – 430 BC. Time, space, ink 
and paper considerations preclude 
us from a thorough comprehensive 
discussion. You are more than welcome 
to continue the investigation and the 
answer on your own.

 

Talking about a “arrow in flight” Zeno 
argued for an arrow aimed and fired at 
a target, to arrive at that target would 
have to pass the half-way point. Sounds 
reasonable. Where the paradox comes 
in, is at the half way point, another half 
way point pops up for the remaining 
distance. Capiche?

 

The argument is the arrow should never 
be able to arrive at the Bulls Eye because 
the arrow has to pass an infinite number 
of “half way points”. Therefore, for 
example, Saint Sebastian, a 3rd Century 
Christian saint, martyred by being shot 
with arrows, must have died of fright.

 

Don’t spend too much time on this 
article or pondering Zeno’s paradoxes. 
From Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas, to 
Bertrand Russell, smart people have 
been wrestling with the puzzle for well 
over two thousand years. 


The really smart people are the ones 
who ignore Zeno. Interestingly, I could 
find no comments on the paradoxes by 
women. Proof positive who is smarter.

I hope this upcoming week finds the 
Dodgers advancing to the next level in 
the hunt for World Series glory!

-Rich 

MAGA HAS PERFECTED 
THE UNREPENTANT LIE

DICK POLMAN

Mountain Views News 
has been adjudicated as 
a newspaper of General 
Circulation for the County 
of Los Angeles in Court 
Case number GS004724: 
for the City of Sierra 
Madre; in Court Case 
GS005940 and for the 
City of Monrovia in Court 
Case No. GS006989 and 
is published every Saturday 
at 80 W. Sierra Madre 
Blvd., No. 327, Sierra 
Madre, California, 91024. 
All contents are copyrighted 
and may not be 
reproduced without the 
express written consent of 
the publisher. All rights 
reserved. All submissions 
to this newspaper become 
the property of the Mountain 
Views News and may 
be published in part or 
whole. 

Opinions and views expressed 
by the writers 
printed in this paper do 
not necessarily express 
the views and opinions 
of the publisher or staff 
of the Mountain Views 
News. 

Mountain Views News is 
wholly owned by Grace 
Lorraine Publications, 
and reserves the right to 
refuse publication of advertisements 
and other 
materials submitted for 
publication. 

Letters to the editor and 
correspondence should 
be sent to: 

Mountain Views News

80 W. Sierra Madre Bl. 
#327

Sierra Madre, Ca. 
91024

Phone: 626-355-2737

Fax: 626-609-3285

email: 

mtnviewsnews@aol.com

A member of 
the

California 
Newspaper 
Publishers 
Association


Politicians have been lying since the dawn of our formerly 
vibrant democracy.

Random examples abound. John Adams and his pamphleteering 
surrogates said that Thomas Jefferson if elected 
would shut down all the churches. JFK tried to pump up 
his anti-Soviet credentials by inveighing against a Republican-
created “missile gap” that in truth did not exist. Bill 
Clinton said, “I did not have sexual relations with that 
woman, Miss Lewinsky.”

But nothing in our history can compete with the industrial-strength lies that 
emanate with fascistic discipline from the mouths of the cultists who’ve already 
degraded our public discourse to an unprecedented degree. Steve Bannon said 
a few years ago that the goal was “to flood the zone with s–,” to the point where 
the average Joe is clueless to discern what’s true. Now it’s part of our daily diet.

Exhibit A, at this very moment, is the mendacious MAGA mantra about the 
government shutdown. The new Big Lie goes like this: Democrats shut down 
the government because they “want to give free health care to illegal aliens.”

Trump went a step further, naturally, by reposting a fake AI appearance in 
which a fake Chuck Schumer made this fake statement: “If we give all these 
illegal aliens free health care, we might be able to get them on our side so they 
can vote for us.”

To paraphrase what the writer Mary McCarthy once said about writer-rival Lillian 
Hellman, every word MAGA utters is a lie, including and and the.

It requires five seconds of cognitive thought to realize how brazenly stupid the 
lie really is. What political party, except one bent on committing political suicide, 
would ever propose spending billions of taxpayers’ money on giving free 
health care to millions of undocumented immigrants – and shutting down the 
government (thus imperiling many federal services and federal workers’ jobs) 
in a bid to advance such a scheme?

Besides, it couldn’t happen anyway because it’s illegal – and the Democratic 
party alone still respects and hews to the rule of law. Undocumented people are 
expressly prohibited by law from signing up for federally-financed health insurance. 
They can’t get Medicaid. They can’t sign up for Obamacare coverage. 
They can’t sign up for Medicare. They can’t sign up for the Children’s Health 
Insurance Program. And not a single syllable in the Democrats’ budget plan 
even hints that the millions of undocumented people should be granted eligibility 
for any federal health care.

Brazen lying that stokes hatred of immigrants – and ties Democrats to those 
immigrants – is diabolically brilliant. The MAGA cultists may not realize (because 
their knowledge of history is at best shaky) that they are veritable disciples 
of Vladimir Lenin, who said more than a century ago that political rhetoric 
should be “calculated to evoke hatred, aversion and contempt…of such a nature 
as to evoke the worst thoughts, the worst suspicions about the opponent.”

Right now there’s also an ancillary Big Lie, as articulated by deputy despot 
Vance: “If you’re an American citizen and you’ve been to the hospital in the 
last few years, you’ve probably noticed that wait times are especially large and 
very often somebody who’s there in the emergency room, waiting, is an illegal 
alien, very often it’s a person who can’t speak English. Why do those people get 
healthcare benefits at hospitals paid for by American citizens? The answer is a 
decision made by the Biden administration.”

But in truth – for what that’s worth – Biden made no such decision. Under 
longstanding federal law, hospital ERs are required to help everybody in need, 
and a tiny portion of Medicaid spending – .4 percent in 2023 – picks up the ER 
tabs. That 1986 law was signed by a wacko deep-state commie named Ronald 
Reagan.

Why do the MAGA leaders lie so shamelessly? Because it works. Emotions 
trump facts; the gut trumps the brain. When the convicted felon lied a year ago 
that Haitians were eating pets in Ohio, his dearth of veracity was irrelevant. 
He’d tapped into the rampant anti-immigrant racism; empirical details didn’t 
matter. His crew is pulling the same con now.

Democrats have long been notoriously bad at refuting MAGA’s lies. In our 
post-truth dystopia, millions of Americans – the deluded and the credulous – 
have forfeited critical thinking and pledged allegiance to their own Jim Jones. 
Facts are strictly for the “libs”; what they crave is his anger. Unlike the stony-
faced military brass, they swallow whatever he says, and they’re happy to drink 
his Cruel-Aid.

Which is worrisome, and compels me to quote Voltaire: “Those who can make 
you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

HOWARD Hays As I See It


Usually, I’ll open my 
column with a quote – 
then take it from there. 
But today, with so much 
happening, so many 
stories that in “normal” 
times would dominate 
news cycles all by themselves, 
I’ll instead do what Rich often does 
in his column (upper-right on this page) – 
and pass on sage observations from others. 
Most of these come from X (nee Twitter), 
compiled on sites like BuzzFeed.

 

President Trump says, “We’ve got a lot 
of stupid people in this country running 
things.” Luke Thomas responds, “Yeah, 
we’ve noticed.”

 

MonitorX posted a congressional hearing 
exchange between Rep. Jasmine Crockett 
(D-TX) and FBI Director Kash Patel. 
Crockett: “You’re the least qualified FBI 
Director in history.” Patel: “That is false.” 
Crockett: “I didn’t ask you a question.”

 

With another post describing Lindsey Halligan, 
newly assigned to prosecute former 
FBI Director James Comey, as “an insurance 
attorney and a Miss Colorado finalist 
. . . never prosecuted a case.”, Thomas 
Williams notes that it’s “Genuinely mind-
blowing the extent to which MAGA 2.0 
boils down to: absolutely no one is qualified 
to do their job.”

 

Reacting to White House imaginings of the 
upcoming UFC event on the South Lawn, 
Christian Borys recalls, “Remember when 
they said Zelensky desecrated the sanctity 
of the White House by not wearing a suit”?

 

Alex Cole points out, “Charlie Kirk gets 
killed. MAGA: THIS IS CIVIL WAR!!! 
Iraq veteran with American flags on his 
truck shoots up a church. MAGA: Come 
on guys, let’s not be quick to judge.”

 

One that I can’t find attribution for: responding 
to Trump’s speculation that 
Charlie Kirk might have become president, 
someone asked, “Those 19 kids 
killed in school shootings so far this year 
– what might they have become?”

 

Covie wonders, “Weird how Republicans 
can link Tylenol to autism with no evidence 
but can’t see the link between guns 
and mass shootings despite a mountain of 
evidence.”

 

Derek admits, “Folks, I’m so confused. 
Every pediatrician says we should vaccinate 
our babies to live longer. But this one 
guy who swims in sewage with no medical 
background whatsoever says we shouldn’t. 
I have no idea what we should do.”

 

Responding to the headline, “DOJ Deletes 
Study Showing Domestic Terrorists Are 
More Often Right Wing”, Melanie D’Arrigo 
says, “The new ‘if we stopped testing for 
Covid, the number of confirmed cases 
would be lower’, just dropped.”

 

To news that “MASSIVE groups of armed 
Border Patrol agents have just arrived in 
Downtown Chicago”, Micah responds, 
“Remember kids, wearing a mask in a 
pandemic is literally 1984, but military occupation 
of US cities is totally chill and not 
authoritarian at all, actually.”

 

To the news item, “ICE Offers $50K Bonus, 
$60K Student Debt Repayment, and 
25% Premium Pay to New Recruits”, Isaiah 
Martin posts, “Democrats tried to do 
this for teachers and Republicans lost their 
mind”.

 

Victor Shi observes, “Let me get this 
straight: the same Supreme Court that 
ruled colleges CAN’T use race in the admissions 
process has just ruled that law 
enforcement officers CAN use race to 
conduct raids and detain people. You can’t 
make this up.”

 

Following White House press secretary 
Karoline Leavitt’s inability/unwillingness 
to answer the question, “Should ERs check 
immigration status before treating a dying 
patient?”, Merrick reacted, “The refusal to 
immediately take the stance that ‘dying 
people should receive care no matter what’ 
is deeply disturbing and immoral and I 
think crosses a line we haven’t seen yet.”

 

Responding to George Orwell being included 
on a list of “Top 10 Books Radicalizing 
The Left”, UltimateBruh observes, 
“Reading 1984 and coming (to) the conclusion 
that it’s against your ideology is 
such a massive red flag”.

 

Trump posts vid of “Some of the highest 
quality 24 Karat Gold used in the Oval 
Office and Cabinet Room of the White 
House . . . Best Oval Office ever, in terms 
of success and look!!!” Kyle Kulinski responds, 
“He cut pediatric cancer research 
and meals on wheels”.

 

Responding to the item, “The 400 richest 
people in the U.S. are now worth a record 
$6.6 trillion after getting $1.2 trillion richer 
over the last year.”, Dean assures, “It will 
trickle down any time now”.

 

Briana Mills posts, “Yes, a cashier at McDonalds 
should be able to afford rent, groceries, 
and bills with their paycheck alone. 
That’s what jobs are for.”

 

Yael posts, “’Not all jobs are supposed to 
earn you a living wage’ oh for sure, this is 
my recreational job.”

 

To a clip of Brian Kilmeade on Fox explaining 
how Jimmy Kimmel’s comments went 
“way too far for television executives”, Gov. 
Gavin Newsom responds, “Says the guy 
who declared we should execute homeless 
people on television.”

 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announces, 
“At my direction, the soldiers who 
fought at the Battle of Wounded Knee will 
keep their medals . . . Their place in history 
is settled.” Tom Morello responds, “What 
the (heck) is wrong with these people. 
Wounded Knee was a bloodthirsty massacre 
of Lakota Sioux, including dozens of 
women and children.”

 

When that birthday note from Donald 
Trump to Jefferey Epstein was released, 
James Line noted, “In a normal country, 
the president having this sort of relationship 
with the most infamous child sex trafficker 
of our time would bring the government 
to its knees.”

 

Lastly, here’s one from Coca on Bluesky: 
“I want to live in a world where the flags 
are lowered for Jane Goodall.”


Mountain Views News

Mission Statement

The traditions of 
community news-
papers and the 
concerns of our readers 
are this newspaper’s 
top priorities. We 
support a prosperous 
community of well-
informed citizens. We 
hold in high regard the 
values of the exceptional 
quality of life in our 
community, including 
the magnificence of 
our natural resources. 
Integrity will be our guide. 

Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com