Chuckmeisterunleashed!

Happy New Year!  I don't have to wax too awfully philosophic about the wonderful year just passed, as 2020 was the suckiest on record!  So, 2021 won't have to try very hard to be mucho better than the crappy year we see in our rearview mirrors.  That stated, I dug into my almost bottomless bag of tricks and extracted something you might find interesting to start off your New Year.  Soooo, without further ado, or adon't, let us proceed...

An old friend asked the other day how I came by the name for my unassuming little blog.  He wanted to know how I concocted such a "strange" name.  I told him to have a chair and I'd tell the him the tale of how the "Chuckmeisterunleashed" blogpost came to be...

For those of you who don't know, my dearly departed wife and I started, owned and operated a medical services business in Orange County, California.  For nearly 40 years.    So, being fully invested in my community, I got to know the local movers and shakers, and often expressed my opinion about all sorts of things going on in my old Stomping Grounds.  Nosy people who just can't keep their opinions to themselves are kind of like that.  And so, among my efforts at so doing I started sending in little opinion pieces - letters to the editor - to our local newspaper, "The Daily Pilot."  

I'd see or hear something of interest and I'd innocently whip off a Letter to the Editor.  And Lo and Behold!  They started printing them!  Almost all of them!  They did the very thing one should never do with a guy like me.  A guy who just loves to write and loves to write stuff that is often, shall we say, a bit controversial.  And a guy who just loves to cause trouble, I might add.  On purpose.  Well, not really.  But I've found that telling the truth to those not willing to hear it often, can cause "trouble."  

Anyway, they chose to publish my work apparently unaware that doing so was applauding bad behavior.  And one should never, ever applaud bad behavior.  Because when you applaud Bad Behavior, you get more of it... 

The paper in question serves the beachy communities of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, California.  Roughly 200,000 in population between them, I'd guess.  A 100+ year-old little throwaway full of gobs of stories about the weather and business openings and closings and meetings of the Lions Club and car wrecks and DUI checkpoints and ads for restaurants and local events and, obituaries, of course.  And columns written by local luminaries expressing their opinions.  Like I did.  Just your basic little small town newspaper that tells the day-in, day-out story of "you" and "me."

Well, being interested as all get out about local politics, and having arrived at that point in my professional career that I could carve out some spare time for little hobbies, I started sharing my opinions about local political events via this little paper.  And people began to read them.  More than 200 separate offerings in all.  

Opinions are like a**holes, you should know.  Everybody's got one...  

Anyway, they published first one, and then a second, and then many, many more.  Sometimes one a week.  Sometimes even two.  Enough that I got to feel like I'd expressed my opinions and made sure others had a chance to read them.  I fancied myself sort of like a "man-on-the-street," opining about all sorts of stuff in my local newspaper.  And this conversation wasn't one-way.  I got tons of feedback from members of the community, at the supermarket and drugstore and Norm's, who I learned actually considered me as a part of their local media.

Me, a citizen journalist.  What a hoot!

Now, I should say that I'm a bit Conservative.  Not rabidly so, just enough to know that government should be small and taxes should be low and those in authority should stay out of my wallet, and my home, and my bedroom, and my gun cabinet, and my business.  I wanted - and want - a Government just large enough to provide the services necessary to keep its constituents safe, and not even a tiny bit larger.  Because, I knew that permitting Government to grow unimpeded can, and does, result in out-of-control growth in rules and regulations and taxes and fees.  And all of those things reduce efficiency.  And profitability.  And therefore growth.  Simple, right?

Need an example?  Look at California!  From the very best state in the nation to a dystopic "Utopia" full of homeless derelicts and hoodlums and drug addicts and shoplifters and nosy Left-wing billionaires.  People pooping on the streets, and billionaires stepping over it.  Just picture that...

Example:  Did you know that 80% of all the large cranes in America are in use today in Washington, D. C.?  Cranes are used to build buildings.  Thus, one could deduce that 80% of all the big buildings being built in the U. S. today are being built in and around the D.C. area.  Out-of-control growth.  Too much excess money without an important place to go.  Like I said...

To continue, many, and it now seems maybe most, tend to believe that Government should be gargantuan!  Large enough to provide everyone a cradle-to-grave entitlement state that takes care of our every need.  Paid for, of course, by "the rich."  Those are the people who make more than they do.  Anyone, anywhere that makes more than "they" do should be forced to pay for whatever "they" need.  And thus, "identity politics" came into being a few decades back, resulting in class warfare.  That's socialism in a nutshell.  

"Don't tax you, don't tax me.  Tax the man behind the tree."

To continue, one fine day the Editor of the Daily Pilot called to offer me a job.  A paid job!  A job writing a weekly column.  On pretty much any subject I wanted, of pretty much any length.  Not much in the way of pay, but paid, nonetheless.  I jumped at the chance, figuring that my writings would now give me the opportunity to effectuate personal priorities without having to roll around in the pig sty of electoral politics.  In other words, I could hide in the bushes and throw spitballs.  Safety is and has always been a priority of mine.  Heh, heh...

Funny thing about electoral politics.  The moment you decide to run for an elected office, it seems that you've immediately pissed off half the population.  Just formally proclaiming oneself a "Republican" these days automatically causes those who "aren't" to circle the wagons and prepare for battle.  To mount all necessary resources to make sure you don't win.  Example:  On Election Day 2018, seven Orange County Republican candidates were ahead when the polls closed.  They were proclaimed the winners.  Two weeks later, after Democrat operatives "found" more than 250,000 ballots, all seven lost.  Lost!  Like that...

(BTW, notice that the Democrats did to the Country what they did to Orange County back in 2018.  Massive amounts of "mail-in" voting - millions and millions of unsolicited votes - and then "ballot harvesting" to guarantee the local "bag man" makes sure those votes are for the right candidates.  And we're paying the price for it as this is written.)

So whereas the community had welcomed my occasional offerings to the "Pilot" prior to my formal column, once I began to write it those who wish to silence Conservative thought came out of the woodwork.  Negative commentary from those on the Left caused the Editor of the L. A. Times, owner of the "Daily Pilot," and (in)famous Left-wing newspaper of little repute, to send me packing within only a few weeks.  Sad to say my journalism career was...over.

But all, I'm happy to say, was not lost!  My good friend Geoff West was at the time the publisher of a very popular blog called "A Bubbling Cauldron."  His blog was famous for the pithy, straightforward way he provided us, the members of the community, with the goings on in C.M. and N.B.  I shared with Geoff that I'd been sent to the showers.  He consoled me by suggesting that I write a blog like he did and put everything in it I'd like to have said in my column, but couldn't, because the "Times" wouldn't let me.  He said that I'd been "liberated" now, or "unleashed," as he called it.  And the light bulb went on.  I'd always been called the "Chuckmeister" from my days shooting professional pool and billiards (I was at one time back in the 'sixties considered among the 20 best in the world!).  I just added the "unleashed" part to it and ... Voila! ... 

                         "Chuckmeisterunleashed!!!"  

There you have it, fellow Pilgrims.  My blog isn't much to look at, but as they say, it's all I have.  And every couple of days I take a deep breath and publish an opinion on one thing or another.  Most often in essay form.  That's shorter than a short story, but longer than a novel, doncha' know.  And thanks again to Geoff, my blog spirit animal.  I hope you all enjoy what I write.  But understand that I write what I see and feel.  And I do it for myself!  I do it for psychic income, caring not one whit once I push "publish" whether another human anywhere likes it or not.  And every now and again I believe it's worth the time it takes to read.

I hope you'll agree...  

(http://chuckmeisterunleashed.blogspot.com)