Say What? Common Cents: Disarray in DC OPINION

anything they said or did since I was kneehigh to a grasshopper.

#8 Excuse me — This is a derivative or subspecies of the phrase "come again." Nowadays teenagers are more apt to say, "What chew talking about?"

By Lee Pitts Columnist

Please pardon me for being brash, but I think I'm a very polite and well-mannered person. I owe it all to my grandmother who was a real stickler for proper manners, vocabulary, and elocution. Believe me, if my thank-you notes for Christmas gifts weren't postmarked on December 26, I might be cut off completely the following year, and I could hardly afford that. My grandmother was probably the reason why I didn't learn how to be a really good cusser until I went to work in the oilfields.

People who study such things say that a language somewhere in the world becomes extinct every two weeks. Even in America, we're losing words at an alarming rate, and while I think it's good that the "n" word is used less and less, it saddens me not to hear words like persnickety, cahoots, and horsefeathers anymore. Regarding our present sad, sickly state, we need to round up all the doctors who had anything to do with curing "cooties" and making that word disappear from the American lexicon and replacing it with COVID-19. Listen to the way today's teenagers talk, and you'll realize we're witnessing the death of chivalry in this country. Here are ten words or phrases that are more endangered than all the monkey tree frogs and fanged bats combined.

#10 Hello or Goodbye — On my daily walks, I often pass others and only about 20 percent of them bother to acknowledge my existence in any way. Mostly it's because they have earbuds in their ears listening to rap music or they are too busy yelling at their smartphones. When I was a kid, we got a kick out of using creative ways to say "goodbye" and used phrases like, "See you later alligator," "After a while crocodile," and "See you around like a donut."

#9 I'm Sorry — Heavens to Murgatroyd, I haven't heard anyone take responsibility for

#7 Thank You — The last time I got a thank you note in the mail was during the Nixon administration. And e-mail thank you's don't count because they are too easy. To show real appreciation you should have to look for a Hallmark card, buy a stamp and go to the Post Office.

#6 No, thank you — This idiom has been replaced by "Get lost." Or, "For the hundredth time, please tell your computer to quit robocalling me and take my name off your list."

#5 How are you? This query used to show one's sincere interest in a person's physical well-being. Now it's only heard when the beneficiary of an elderly, sick, rich person wants to know when you intend to bite the dust and if there was anything said recipient could do to hasten such an outcome.

#4 Your welcome — This phrase went out with Betamax, get the lead out, cut a rug, soda jerks and hobos. The updated version is: "No problemo."

#3 Let me get that for you — This phrase was last heard in 1987 and was used when a man would open the door for a lady or a bus full of ladies from the rest home. A gentleman did this even if it meant not getting his favorite seat by the window because one of the ladies took it.

#2 I beg your pardon — This was used by the older, more well-bred, and civilized people of my youth. We on the playground used an alternative phrase: "Liar, liar, pants on fire." This polite expression is older than Methusala and was used when someone said or did something that flabbergasted you. Since no one is "flabbergasted" anymore or has any idea of who Methusala is, people just say: "Chew messin' with me, man?"

#1 Please — A polite request as in, "Please, Mister Big Shot, would you turn off that obnoxious phone or go outside to talk. I'm trying to enjoy a $45 lunch with my wife and don't need to know about your booming business, your sorry sex life, or your otherwise egotistical existence.

Lee Pitts is an independent columnist for The Santa Ynez Valley Star; you can email them at leepitts@leepittsbooks.com.

By Scott Dittrich Guest Columnist

Many Americans are feeling an unease not experienced since the 1950s, with hiding under your school desk and public fallout shelters in the event of nuclear Armageddon.

Are recent banking failures a harbinger of worse things to come? How could regulators allow the second and third worse banking failures in US history to occur? Add the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, threats by China to invade Taiwan, Iran on the verge of a nuclear bomb, our justice system being politicized while violent repeat criminals are released, fentanyl killing our kids, and government pressuring tech to censor free speech, people are scared.

Framed against a background of COVID and what many believe was a botched response with unnecessary lockdowns, lying about vaccines with limited efficacy, and denial of major side effects, the promise of the shining city on the hill seems to have lost its luster. The administration tells us all it is under control; just get your annual booster, but increasingly the concerns of nuclear confrontation and a major economic collapse hangs over us like the sword of Damocles.

Inflation is stuck around 6 percent. Except it's not. The ever-increasing cost of food and eating out is at least double, maybe triple. Not a big deal if your retired and make 200K a year, but for a family with an average income this is devastating.

The stock market is down 20 percent, CDs and treasuries are up but lag far behind price increases, and the purchasing power of cash is at least ten percent less than one year ago. California's new "mansion" tax will take 5 percent of the sale price — not profit — of your beach home.

The FED especially seems to be in disarray, waiting too long to raise interest rates and then imposing historically rapid increases, only to get cold feet recently as their policies undermine regional banks like Silicon Valley and Signature. Apparently, those banks were the only ones unaware interest rates were increasing — unless they, like Sam Bankman-Fried with crypto, felt their political connections would shield them from failure.

Then there is Jerome Powell and Janet Yellen. Neither will admit our current inflation and banking contagion was caused by the massive spending by the Biden Administration — magnifying Trump's already huge spending during the COVID lockdowns. The lack of honesty by those in charge of economic policy undermines confidence, and it is confidence in the future that grows the economy through investment. Instead, we see layoffs and cutbacks, suggestive of impending stagflation.

While the war in Ukraine gets much attention — at least with good coverage on CNN — other international news seems strangely absent from much of our media. While Biden has slowly ramped up military support for Zelensky — aiming for regime change in Russia, most analysts believe it was his muddled withdrawal from Afghanistan, combined with President Obama's weak reaction to Russia taking Crimea in 2014 (he sent blankets) that encouraged Putin to invade Ukraine. Remember Biden assured us Russia would not invade as their army spent months amassing troops on the Ukrainian border. This has been widely reported, but America's weakness in foreign affairs is much deeper, though seldom discussed.

Our adversaries — namely China — realize that it is our energy policies, focused on limiting fossil fuels years before we can transition to renewables, that has and is weakening our economic base, while the PRC — figuratively with a middle finger raised to the West and to the environment — builds 50 plus coal power plants every year, in a headlong rush to overtake us, knowing cheap energy is the key to economic growth on which military superiority can be built.

Other seldom-reported events reveal how the administration's weakness and ineptitude is shifting the balance of power internationally. The Saudi rapprochement with Iran can be laid at the feet of our President's naive (but valid) condemnation of the Saudi King. Russia has been driven closer to China. One-time allies are secretively seeking nukes, no longer confident the US will protect them. But most dangerous to the US are recent Saudi oil sales to China and Brazil. These will no longer utilize petrodollars (and Biden pushed left-leaning Silva in a razor-thin race for president there).

Should the dollar fail as the world reserve currency, our huge national debt will crash the dollar, resulting in an unprecedented and sudden decline in our standard of living and probably social unrest, allowing China to reach its goal of surpassing the US economically as well as militarily.

Scott Dittrich is an independent columnist. The opinions expressed by the writer in this article are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or values of The Santa Ynez Valley Star or its affiliates.