SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:53 P.M. ET: 

THIS DATE:  March 4th plays a special role in presidential history.  With the exception of George Washington's first inaugural, all presidential inaugurations were held on this date until FDR's second inaugural, which was held on January 20th, 1937.  All scheduled inaugurals since then have been held on January 20th.  Of course, presidents have been inaugurated on other dates due to death or resignation of their predecessors.  The March 4th date worked well in times when transportation to and from Washington was slow, and could take weeks from distant locales.  But with the advent of train, automobile, and especially air travel, the March 4th date passed into history. 

CARRYING THINGS A BIT FAR – FROM HEATSTREET:   A Vegan woman in Georgia was arrested for taking out her anger on the world of meat by slamming her car into a truck carrying chicken.  The woman was identified as 26-year-old Judith Moriah Armstrong. Police were able to track her down, but she refused to leave her house until they produced a warrant. She did, however, speak to them through different windows in the house.  After originally telling police it was an accident, she admitted to hitting the truck on purpose. She claimed she did it because she was a vegan. The driver of the truck says she hit the truck once from the side and then rammed it again after he slammed the breaks, causing his truck to spin out. The driver called 911 to report the color of the car, but Armstrong had already fled the scene.  I will call for new defensive measures at all hot-dog stands.  This vegan  aggression must stop.  This is how Hitler got started.

SOME AMERICANS ARE JUST SO UPSET – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:   A new Fox News poll found more than nine-in-10 Democratic voters are "nervous" about the state of U.S. politics, while just more than one-quarter of Republicans feel the same way.  The Feb. 11-13 survey concluded 92 percent of liberals and progressives are worried about the country with President Trump in the White House, while just 29 percent of conservative voters do. Those numbers have changed significantly from last March when eight-in-10 people of both parties said they were anxious about current political affairs.  So nervousness is now the subject of pollsters?  What's next?  Anxiety?  Apprehension?  Butterfly stomachs?  The softness of our society is on full display.

March 4,  2017