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My wife and I watch the Food Network a lot, mostly the cooking competitions like Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay. We get ideas for cooking dinner that we try out based on something we’ve seen.

One of the other shows we watch is on Bravo, Top Chef, where pro chefs compete over a season to be – wait for it – Top Chef. One season began with Wolfgang Puck as a judge and he was presented with a risotto that apparently did not measure up. SO much so, that he got up, led the chef back to the kitchen and began to show the chef how to cook it right.

The chef, the other chefs and the other judges were mortified. And I think that chef was not cut that week simply out of sympathy for being shown up like that.

Today, at lunch, I almost went full Wolfgang Puck.

We’ve been trying out area diners, drive-ins and dives (sorry, Guy Fierri) in and around Omaha since moving here back in May. Today we stopped in at a restaurant in Fremont that allegedly serves Mexican food.

I say allegedly, because I’ve had Mexican food. I’ve made Mexican food from scratch. This was in no way shape or form Mexican food. It was, however, an abomination.

The way I decide if a restaurant has Mexican food worth eating is very simple. I order a chille relleno. The proper way to prepare this item is to take a roasted Anaheim chille, stuff it with cheese (my favorite is a mix of mild cheddar and monterey jack), coat it in flour and beaten egg whites, fry and serve covered in green sauce and topped with a dollop of sour cream.

What I got today was a chille of dubious origin, stuffed with cheese and then wrapped inside a flour tortilla, fried and covered with a tomatoey red sauce with bits of hamburger meat.

It was the worst Mexican food I’ve ever forced down my throat. Not just as far as rellenos go either.

This even tops the Blue Jay Inn up in Jamestown, ND back in the mid-1970s that served up a fried burrito complete with fried tortilla, beans and – I kid you not – a hot dog wiener dead center. On purpose.

Yeah, tell me about it, sister.

Fortunately, we had to get going so that chef was spared getting schooled on the proper preparation of Mexican cuisine. Of course, maybe my first clue that something was wrong with the place should have been the presence of ranch dressing at the chips and salsa bar…

Something I noticed early in my sports writing days was a change in how games were approached among the young kids. At certain levels, the score was not kept. There were no winners, no losers and everyone got a participation trophy.

This was done, so they said, so that kids’ self-esteem would not be damaged by losing. Then came the mandatory “if the kid is on the team, the kid has to play at least a certain amount of time regardless of skill and ability” rules.

The kids were no longer being taught valuable life lessons in lieu of making them “feel good about themselves”. But by making everyone happy, those proponents of this approach were actually doing a huge disservice to the kids and to society.

Winning AND losing teach valuable lessons on the field that can be used off the field. Yes, winning is wonderful and the desired result at all times. I’ve enjoyed my fair share of on-field and off-field wins. There is nothing like that feeling of victory.

And yes, losing sucks. I’ve had my fair share of defeats in sports and in life. It isn’t fun to go through. But here’s the thing. Losing can teach you a whole lot more than winning does. And those particular lessons come in very handy off the field of play.

I was taught, by my father and several coaches, to win and lose with the same grace and dignity. I was also taught to use those losses as motivation to improve my own abilities and efforts in order to emerge victorious the next time. And trust me, after each defeat suffered I came back the next time highly motivated to do better. And more often than not, I did better and collected more victories than losses.

I was not taught to blame the other side for my inability to win the day/game/contest. Nor was I taught to constantly attack the winner endlessly simply because they bested me on the field of play. It was up to me to win by getting better, and not chasing my opponent off the field of play with underhanded attacks.

But what happens when you aren’t taught those early lessons? We see it today in the way this generation is handling losing. Back in 2016 this Participation Trophy generation suffered its first loss in a Presidential election here in the U.S. And what have they done for the last two years since?

Throw a temper tantrum that would make 22-year-old John McEnroe blush, that’s what.

They’ve marched in the streets at the drop of a pussy hat and for reasons of cosmic insignificance. They’ve taken to confronting officials who are out to dinner with family long after the office doors have closed, chasing them out of restaurants and events. They are viciously slandering innocent people with outright lies.

They are stomping their feet and whining and wailing over a loss suffered two years ago with all of the gusto of an eight-month-old child that just had its binky taken away. Actually, I should apologize to all of the eight-month-old children I just insulted. They at least have an excuse for their behavior. They just haven’t learned how to behave yet.

These 20-30 somethings don’t have that excuse. They really should know better.

I do recall, way back when this feel-good, participation trophy horse-hockey was originally introduced, many of us actually warned that this would be the end result. Well, let me qualify that. I think we knew it would not end well. We just didn’t know it would be this big of a charlie-foxtrot.

Extremists will be the death of this country. I truly believe this.

I’m not talking about Islamic extremists who fly planes into buildings, blow up people at sporting and entertainment events or run about stabbing people in subway stations. Those lunatics we can deal with. They have no chance of undoing the foundation this country was built upon 242 years ago.

But the extremists on both the left and the right can and they seem hell-bent on doing just that. The sad fact is that neither side seems to care about the damage they are doing to the country – or the harm to innocent people caught in the crossfire – just as long as they “get” the other side.

On the left, we have those who blithely toss out accusations of sexism, racism, etc., etc. at anyone and for the mere crime of disagreeing with them over a single point. Many times that point of contention has nothing to do at all with the “-ism” charge being leveled at that.

For example, Comicsgate has seen this to a level far surpassing insanity. If you say a particular storyline is terrible and completely disregards years of a character’s established story the immediate response is that you are a racist. If someone involved with that particular comic is female. you are sexist. And don’t even get me started on what happens when the gender-identity stuff gets tossed into the mix.

The original point of contention – the STORY itself – is ignored and the extremist rants about being discriminated against rather than addressing the actual issue. This is done because in fact, they can’t defend what they did and the best defense – in their world – is a bald-faced lying offense.

Now, lest you think I am being biased, the extremists on the right are no better. Because many of them are in fact racist and sexist. But most of them only show up to be racist and sexist and don’t actually bring a valid concern to the table. Like their counterparts on the left, they just want to burn everything to the ground and claim “victory”.

Meanwhile, you, me and the rest of the sane people who just want to read or watch great stories are caught in the middle of this stupidity. The vast majority of the Comicsgate people are like me – we just want to produce and enjoy great stories. We don’t want to indoctrinate, pontificate or obliterate people. We also don’t want – when we are the consumers instead of the producers – to be indoctrinated, preached at or told we should be eradicated from the face of the Earth.

Yet, both sides are so engaged in their mutual destruction that they don’t care who among us they take out in the middle of their little war. I know. Because I’ve been targeted by both sides.

The lefties are dead certain that I’m a racist (my Native American ancestors are laughing their asses off in the afterlife, trust me, as will my half-Japanese grandson when he gets old enough to understand how stupid adults really can be). I’m sexist (my wife is laughing her ass off over that charge). I’m homophobic (my son and my cousin are laughing their gay asses off over that charge). as well as a slew of other charges without any foundation in actual fact.

Meanwhile, the righties have called me every name in the book and even gone so far as to threaten to “deport me” because I have not bent knee to Donald Trump, Vox Day and a few other sacred cows of theirs. I’m not sure to where I would be deported, being that the last member of my family – maternal AND paternal – to immigrate to the U.S. did so back in the 1890s. Not to mention that at least two of my ancestors might have been standing on the beach when the Mayflower first pulled up to Plymouth Rock back in the 17th Century.

But, as with the extremists on the left, facts don’t matter. The target must be destroyed at all costs, even the truth itself must be sacrificed for the “greater good” it seems.

Which brings me to Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Who is being targeted for destruction by the extremists on the left. There are now two allegations dating back nearly 40 years against him. They’ve been levied at the very last minute, neither of them have one scintilla of factual evidence to support them, and even the people mentioned as potential witnesses are denying every aspect of both allegations.

Yet, despite the fact that neither claim is believable (the fact that these allegations were known for months and kept hidden until the very last second screams political hit in my opinion), we have a man being targeted for destruction simply because he disagrees on a political point: abortion. And for that “sin” he must be utterly destroyed. No matter the harm done to him, his reputation or his family. No matter the harm done to people loosely connected to this attack. No matter the harm done to the concept of “Innocent until PROVEN guilty” that is the foundation of our legal system.

He must be destroyed. At any cost. “For the cause.”

The problem is this: In taking out a Brett Kavanaugh in this fashion, the extremists are taking out our country at the same time. Because if this continues it will only escalate further until this becomes a shooting war.

We had one of those back in the 1860s. I don’t think we’ve fully recovered from that one yet and it has been 150 years since the last shot was fired. If we start shooting again, we may not have a country left when the last round is fired.

It’s time for the extremists to shut up. There is a way to disagree without being disagreeable. There is a way to oppose someone’s position without destroying their lives and those of innocent bystanders.

Its called being an adult. So grow the fuck up, children, because those of us caught in the middle of your temper tantrums are adults. And it will not go well for you when we’ve finally had enough of your childish antics.

So the purpose of this particular series of posts is going to be about whatever happens to pop into my head at any given time. It could just be about any subject under the sun.

Today it’s about San Diego. They have a nice zoo there. Beaches are great. Weather always seems to be 76 and sunny. I enjoyed going to Sea World. Legoland was something of a disappointment.

But what brought it to mind today is the Los Angeles Rams are playing the Los Angeles Chargers today in the NFL. The Chargers originally played in Los Angeles for a brief time in the 1960s AFL before moving south to San Diego. Last year, they moved back to Los Angeles.

It isn’t the first San Diego team that Los Angeles has pilfered from its southern neighbor either. After eight years in upper New York, the Buffalo Braves of the NBA packed up and headed west for San Diego in 1978 and changed their name to the San Diego Clippers. But in 1984 the team moved north and played in the Sports Arena as the Los Angeles Clippers.

That leaves San Diego with just one major professional league team out of the Big 4 (NFL, NBA, MLB & NHL): The San Diego Padres. Now, the Los Angeles area already has two baseball teams in the Dodgers and Angels.

But given the history, San Diego should probably keep an eye out on Los Angeles. Besides, even if they don’t pilfer another San Diego franchise, the way L.A. is growing they might just up and annex everything between Norwalk and the Mexico border.