Burs Under My Saddle Blanket… aka…

Charlie’s New Year’s Bitch List

“Burs under my saddle blanket” is an idiom for a persistent source of irritation, annoyance, or trouble that agitates someone, much like a prickly burr makes a horse act up. It describes something small that causes significant, ongoing pain or mental distress.

A saddle blanket is a piece of horse tack (specialized equipment and accessories), traditionally a thick, woven wool cloth placed under a saddle to provide cushioning, absorb sweat, prevent chafing, and protect the horse’s back from friction. It often features colorful patterns and designs, especially in Western riding. While modern saddle pads offer a more customized, tailored fit and padding, blankets provide a traditional layer, sometimes used decoratively over a performance pad.

I have a few of these burs under my saddle blanket, and it’s time to remove them. Each of these burs could easily be a full commentary on its own, and I’ve used parts of them in past articles. This is an abbreviation, a synopsis of each gripe, and, for what it’s worth, my opinion. Stay tuned…

Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?

Perception vs Reality – Indoctrination and Programming:

The phrase “perception is reality” is a common aphorism suggesting that how an individual interprets the world is, for all intents and purposes, their truth. While often used as a tool for success, it is also a subject of intense philosophical and psychological debate. If you believe something, you can convince yourself it’s true. It’s become a powerful tool in brainwashing and indoctrination, convincing someone that their perception is reality, even though it is only their understanding of the situation. Yet if this is what you want to believe, it becomes true for you.

This reintroduces an abstraction I used in Where, Oh Where has America Gone. The phrase “two movies, one screen,” coined by cartoonist Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, describes how different groups interpret the same information (such as a news event or a tweet) in completely opposite ways, as if watching different films on the same screen, thereby revealing a polarized reality. Adams popularized this idea in his book Win Bigly, illustrating how people filter information through existing beliefs to reach opposing conclusions. As a result, people viewing the same data (on one “screen”) experience two vastly different movies, realities, or interpretations, because their perceptions become their reality.

Adams’ insightful description explains why we can witness an event yet still believe what we’re told we see. The narrative reigns supreme, proving categorically that you can’t believe your lyin’ eyes. “Trust me… I represent the mainstream media, and we have your best interests at heart…” is implied by every news broadcast ever made.

Intentional lies to craft a compelling narrative… CYA

CYA stands for “cover your ass/arse,” meaning actions taken to protect oneself from future blame, legal trouble, or other negative consequences. I discovered an interesting definition in political parlance – Accountability Avoidance… I think this one wins the trophy…

Mark Kelly recharacterizes the legal acquisition of election files and records in Georgia as an illegal raid on the office, even though the FBI executed a lawful order to retrieve these documents under the DoJ’s authority. In Kelly’s view, this further substantiates the claim that the DoJ and all other government agencies are the puppets of the Orange Hitler, Donald J Trump, 47th President of the USA. The internet and not-so-social media are awash with Kelly’s comments. BTW, he is also accused of sedition for comments stating that military personnel must ignore ‘illegal’ orders.

Search for the phrase “who authorized the acquisition of the Georgia election files” in your favorite web browser and see the spin applied to the responses. Every response is rife with partisan political positioning and prevarication, and this is what we call news and unbiased reporting in America. Who can you believe when the information is tainted with partisan political bias, as discussed in the previous paragraphs about perception and reality? If you don’t know to investigate these statements, you accept them as fact based solely on the source.

I find Kelly’s partisan observation a bit more troubling because most listeners are products of modern education, not classically trained in critical thinking. His retired rank as a Navy Captain and his position in the US Senate place him in the upper echelon of credibility in most eyes, so he is seen as the solution to problems, not the creator. It all comes down to perception and reality.

I judge the content by the source. I treat anything from the DC Swamp, regardless of who says it, as suspect and to be taken with several Ivermectin – horse wormers… and not at face value. Kelly’s comments were performative, intended to solidify his standing in the US Senate and a potential run for the US Presidency. Kelly’s public bloviation danced on a razor’s edge between treason and free speech. I’m not the judge; the DoJ and DoW are. I leave this to them, but that doesn’t change my opinion.

The question of whether the mainstream media should be required to be honest is negated by the First Amendment’s protection of the Freedom of the Press. Any sentient being would realize that lying is wrong, yet this simple three-word phrase gives them carte blanche to say and print whatever they please. Of course, there are complex and convoluted legal and regulatory codes of journalistic ethics, and specific legal legerdemain, and gymnastic hoops to jump through to prove damages, all of which justify the necessity for lawyers.

This all follows the quote “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should…” which means that having the capability, permission, or power to do something does not justify doing it. It underscores that actions should be guided by wisdom, ethics, and consequences rather than by ability alone, often serving as a reminder to consider potential negative outcomes or to set boundaries. I know there are a few foreign words in this paragraph, but a few moments with a dictionary or thesaurus will help you understand them.

I’m sorry for this flippant comment. It reflects my callousness toward ignorance and selective stupidity. There is no excuse in this era of instant access to information. The choice to remain uninformed and obtuse is personal. Some of the most successful people of our era are business-savvy and, by modern standards, uneducated, yet they are captains of industry and the envy of the financial world. They don’t lean on excuses; they saw an opportunity and acted. They didn’t wait for someone to hand it to them, and they resisted the siren’s call of easy money.

I’ll address the idea of Government Service another time, but it bears mentioning that there is a shit-ton of money to be made through backhanded, closed-door dealings in America’s Congress and the Non-Government Organization (NGO) world. This year alone has exposed trillions of dollars in Waste, Fraud, and Abuse at the state and national levels. The citizens of Merka have only seen a small sample of the professional-level tap-dancing about to commence when the covers are pulled back… Grab your favorite beverage and a comfy chair and watch the exposé begin… unless the Left takes control, in which case the real obfuscation and recriminations will begin.

The American government, especially the US Congress, has devolved into comedic rhetoric, particularly in the House of Representatives (HoR). I can only stomach a few moments at a time, but what I see is nothing more than pure grandstanding and self-aggrandization on an epic scale. The questions are all craftily worded to elicit “gotcha” responses from the witness, making them appear unprepared, unknowledgeable, or hypocritical; commonly called the ‘loaded question’. It’s rarely about the actual topic and is usually a platform for partisan political braggadocio.

Racism:

In the 1960s, a passionate Baptist preacher named Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) joined the American Civil Rights Movement, insisting that character should be the measure of a person, not their race. His stance on this issue eventually killed him, but the sentiment permeated our culture, at least for a while. When Black community activists realized it was a ‘hot button’ issue and the White community, being overly sensitive, feared being called racist, everyone wanted to move past it. It became the cudgel used to end any productive discourse. Now, it’s announced to ensure that it’s perfectly understood that the speaker is about to shove their race up your ass, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Your race – the White race – is guilty, regardless.

“Black people have shackled themselves to the Democrat Plantation. They accepted the indoctrination that this is not their country and that they are second-class citizens within it. They’ve adopted the limiting belief that their skin color is an insurmountable obstacle they cannot overcome, and that you actually believe in yourself.

Being black provides you with preferential treatment and simultaneously absolves you of responsibility. If you fail, it’s indicative of a corrupt, racist system that you never had a chance to succeed in, but if you succeed, you’re praised and celebrated for overcoming all the systemic challenges. It all supports the victim mentality.” ~ Brandon Lehman (Podcaster)

Listen closely for this preface: “As a Black woman/man in (insert elected position), I…”
Pay close attention to the cues surrounding the social dynamics and identity politics of the Race-Warriors, the Race-conscious, Race-first, Woke Race-centric, or Identity-focused bigots as they open a conversation or speech. There is always an affirmation of their race and position. I find it most prevalent among women; men assert their racial masculinity, educational snobbery, and positional arrogance differently, but it is there for all to see. It is a preface warning any non-black individual not to challenge them or risk being labeled racist!

Listen to any news feed’s description of events, and there is always, ALWAYS, a label assigned when the perpetrator is a person of color, especially if they are Black. Yes – this is a mainstream media standard, irrespective of their political bent. It’s 20 times more prevalent today than in 1970, especially in crime reporting. A majority of Black Americans, about 63%, believe that news about Blacks is more negative, and 43% feel that the media is significantly stereotyping their community. Additionally, 83% of stories on mass shootings involving shooters of color used the words “terrorist” or “terrorism,” compared with 17% for white shooters.

Roughly four in five (80%) Black adults say they see racist or racially insensitive news coverage of Black people at least sometimes, and 39% say it occurs “extremely” or “fairly often.”

Black History Month? How about Black History decades… It’s all we ever hear about – how the poor black race was set upon by the evil white race and dragged into slavery in the American colonies is an absolute fabrication meant to propagate the lie. What about other races, ethnicities, or cultures? Weren’t many of these immigrants persecuted as well? How about the Jews, Irish, Germans, Poles, Persians, American Indians, Vietnamese, Cambodians, and the list goes on. Each of these groups suffered the indignity of discrimination; some still do. Shouldn’t they also have a History month to celebrate them?

This special recognition further divides American society into easily managed groups. Since all these races and cultures have assimilated into America, their histories, cultures, and backgrounds are now part of our society and culture. That’s what assimilation implies. We should all celebrate America as the Great Melting Pot, not the land of hyphenated tribal groups.

The first recorded instance of slavery occurred in Mesopotamia in 6800 BCE, when war captives were forced into bondage. By 2048 BCE, slavery was already institutionalized in Sumer (Sumeria), now southern Iraq, with records indicating its presence as far back as 6000 BCE. This pattern in these Middle Eastern countries persists to this day. There are an estimated 740,000 people in modern slavery in the Arab States.

The people sent to the American Colonies were captured by warlords and tribal chiefs in Africa, then sold to Dutch merchants who transported them to the American Colonies. The image of White Slavers rampaging through the African savannas and jungles, searching for unsuspecting people, is a patent lie propagated to generate animosity between the two races. As for the treatment of these slaves, I leave that to your imagination, because that is precisely where all the graphic depictions of their horrors reside.

In point of fact, there are over 50 million slaves in the world today, with the highest concentrations in the Asia-Pacific region, which accounts for roughly 60%, followed by Africa and the Arab States.

If you have access to the Daily Wire, look for their news series “The Real History of Slavery.” It’s worth watching because it exposes the lies we’re told about its origins.

Perception vs Reality:

The phrase “perception is reality” is a common aphorism suggesting that how an individual interprets the world is, for all intents and purposes, their truth. While often used as a tool for success, it is also a subject of intense philosophical and psychological debate. If you believe something, you can convince yourself it’s true. It’s become a powerful tool in brainwashing and indoctrination, convincing someone that their perception is reality, even though it is only their limited understanding of the situation. Yet if this is what you want to believe, it becomes true for you.

This reintroduces an abstraction I used in Where, Oh Where has America Gone. The phrase “two movies, one screen,” coined by cartoonist Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, describes how different groups interpret the same information (such as a news event or a tweet) in completely opposite ways, as if watching different films on the same screen, thereby revealing a polarized reality. Adams popularized this idea in his book ‘Win Bigly’, illustrating how people filter information through existing beliefs to reach opposing conclusions. As a result, people viewing the same data (on one “screen”) experience two vastly different movies, realities, or interpretations, because their perceptions become their reality.

This explains why we can witness an event yet still believe what we’re told we see. We’re constantly reminded that the narrative reigns supreme and that you can’t believe your lyin’ eyes. Trust me… we represent the mainstream media, and we have your best interests at heart. That’s the underlying message…

We use intentional lies to make his narrative work… Mark Kelly paints a picture of the legal confiscation of election files in Georgia as a raid on the office, all in an effort to distract and deflect attention from his seditious comments. These statements employ insidious language to obscure their true intent, allowing the speaker to say one thing while meaning something entirely different or nothing at all.

It’s easy to lie, but difficult to remember what you’ve said unless it’s your nature or job, like that of a politician who lies for a living, which gave rise to the truism – “You can tell when a politician is lying because his lips are moving.”

There are literally thousands of quotes about honesty; over 100 in the bible alone, leading me to believe that it’s been an issue from the beginning of time.

The AWFULs => Affluent White Female Urban Liberals

I extracted this section from Part II of Where Is My America. I wanted to expose the negative power of hatred and what it does to you.

There seems to be an endless supply of hate, lunacy, and depravity from the Affluent White Female Urban Lefties (AWFULs), who appear unapproachable and intentionally unattractive. An interesting parallel struck me as I was writing this, involving a character in Tolkien’s fantasy “The Hobbit” and its follow-up trilogy, “The Lord of the Rings,” namely Gollum, who was severely disfigured in “The Hobbit” due to the long-term, corrupting influence of the One Ring and centuries of isolation in the dark caves of the Misty Mountains, which twisted his body and mind beyond natural limits.

One Ring to rule them all, the Ring of Power, is this all-encompassing socialist crusade, and Gollum is the AWFULs. I’ve heard their quest described as women in search of someone to nurture, a fundamental feminine drive to care for, support, and encourage the growth of others’ projects, stemming from biological needs for connection and evolutionary societal conditioning. It’s expressed through actions like providing comfort, teaching, protecting, and offering validation, fulfilling a deep need for purpose and connection for the giver, though it can sometimes lead to overextending oneself if boundaries aren’t set.

I see a parallel between Gollum and the AWFULs, who seem bent on fighting for hopeless, lost causes and isolating themselves from any good in the world. Their professed hatred of men in general separates them from any potential meaningful relationship, so they turn to their own gender for solace. This isolation from society and the natural discourse of heterosexual relationships reinforces it. As for their appearance, let’s just say they couldn’t be more unattractive to men if they tried. (Enantiodromia?)

The Ministry of Comedy => Our Government

I’m using the word comedy in the Greek sense: sharp political satire, social commentary, and fantastical, often vulgar humor. It features pungent political satire, rampant obscenity, personal attacks on prominent public figures, and absurd underlying premises. It’s a farce…

I touched on this topic above, referencing Senator Kelly. The buffoonery and arrogance of our elected leaders are mind-numbing. Every word and decision seems to outdo the last ludicrous choice, further exposing their ineptitude in government. There are myriad examples, but the most telling are the government shutdowns. Our elected representatives held the citizenry hostage to advance their agenda, and we stood by silently, powerless, disenfranchised, and unable to stop the lunacy. Their demands centered on continuing multi-trillion-dollar funding for Obamacare for Illegal Aliens and extending social programs that reward the welfare class they created. This is just one of the moronic programs they foster.

I theorize that the Left requires these costly fiscal expenditures to maintain their pet-project-cash-flow through the NGOs that fund their extracurricular activities – graft and corruption. Discovering Outrageous Government Expenditures (DOGE) exposed slivers of this fraud, but there is more beneath the surface. I maintain that it exceeds the GAO’s 7% estimate by at least threefold, to over 21%. Using the GAO’s estimates, that would put the total closer to $1.6 trillion.

I’ll remind everyone that this is OUR money – taxes we paid to ostensibly run our government. If this doesn’t totally piss you off, it should. I’m not sure if it’s ignorance or stupidity, maybe a combination. The thesaurus tells me the best descriptions are ignoramus, dunce, and fool. I like the last option, fool. It’s simple and to the point. We truly are fools for allowing our government to continue in this profligate manner.

Profligate:

* utterly and shamelessly immoral or dissipated.
* thoroughly dissolute: recklessly prodigal or extravagant.
* shamelessly immoral or debauched
* wildly extravagant or wasteful

I think this sums up my opinion of our government. There are other words that come to mind, but I’m trying to limit my use of expletives.

The Completely Worthless – Do Not Call Registry (DNC): As soon as this barren, futile, bogus, inconsequential, ineffective, meaningless, unproductive, useless registry was created and enacted by Congress in 2003, the calls increased and have shown no signs of decreasing. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) continues to police the list. In 2025, they registered 2.6 million complaints but did not release the total fines.

The highest call rates are in Arizona, followed by Tennessee, Nevada, Illinois, and Florida – all major retiree centers. The call center business reported $11.6 billion in revenue for 2025, and it is expected to reach $26.5 billion this year.

Historically, the FTC collected $178 million in civil penalties and $112 million in restitution, for a total of $290 million, from a business profit of $11.6 billion – about 0.0025% of those profits. This is a friggin goldmine with little or no downside, although AI is proving to be a valuable ally in enforcement. We’ll see…

I receive between 10 and 20 calls per day; statistics show that between 2.5 and 4 billion calls are received every month. So, this bullshit DNC idea clearly isn’t working… at all. The problem is enforcement. Congress, the opposite of progress, expected the FCC to handle the complaints, but reporting is left to those who are violated. The integration of AI technologies will not only enhance efficiency but also transform how businesses approach customer service, making it more personalized, efficient, and data-driven.

And in the end…

It all circles back to the consequences of actions. If the goal is to stop an activity, the penalties must be significant enough to deter it. Yet we frequently reward unethical and immoral transgressions and punish those who are actually moral and ethical, based on interpretations of our laws and their foundations, the US Constitution. We find new and more devious ways to circumvent these laws at the personal level, yet we reward violators at the business and, especially, the political levels, establishing an inverted expectation of right and wrong – a dichotomy of the logical legal precepts. It’s OK to violate the law if you can afford the penalties, making it a business decision rather than an ethical or moral one. Yet when applied to a middle-income or lower-income individual, they become catastrophic.

“What good is money if it doesn’t keep you out of jail…” ~ Nicky Santoro – Casino, Joe Pesci (1995)

We elect people to represent us and manage this republic, but they turn that responsibility back to us. I can appreciate the uneducated view of Socialism as the panacea for our constitutional federal representative republic. I would, too, if I didn’t know any better.

The devil you say…

For the Amalgamated Heavy…

 

 

February 10, 2026

~ the Author ~
Charles R. Dickens Was Born in 1951, Is a Veteran of the Vietnam War, for Which He Volunteered, and the Great-Great Grandson of the Noted Author, Whose Name He Shares.

He Is a Fiercely Proud American, Who Still Believes This Is the Greatest Country on the Planet, With Which We’ve Lost Control and Certainly Our Direction. He Grew Up in Moderate Financial Surrounding; We’re Not Rich by Any Stretch, but Didn’t Go Hungry – His Incredibly Hard Working Father Saw to That. As Most From That Era, He Learned About Life From His Father, Whose Story Would Take Too Long to Tell, Other Than to Say That, He Is Also a Fiercely Proud American; A WWII and Korean War, Veteran Marine.

Charlie Was Educated in the Parochial System Which, Demanded That You Actually Learn Something, and Have Capability to Retain It Before You Advance. He Attended Several Universities in Pursuit of a Bachelor’s Degree, and Chased the Goose Further to a Master’s, and Has Retained Some Very Definite Ideas About Education in This Country.

in Addition, Charlie Is a Retired Blues Guitar and Vocalist – a Musician. This Was His Therapy Career. Nothing Brings Him as Much Joy as Playing Music, and He Wishes That He Could Make a Living at It… but Alas… Life Goes on!

Who in the Hell Can Afford this Crap Anymore?