The official definition of the witching hour is when witches -- or magicians, ghouls, Republican senators and other demons -- are said be at their most powerful.

Thats the myth, the folklore.

The reality is that the witching hour is when we wake up in the middle of the night and our minds are clear enough to be haunted by our own bitter realities.

Unanswerable questions, many about futures we cant control, ravage the brain.

I was hit with one so immediate this past week that not even my home remedy sneaking downstairs for some old Sopranos episodes could make it right.

The question was this: Am I a bad person?

Here are three examples, hot off the presses, that had me wondering:

Andy Reid Much of Eagles Nation has forgiven and forgotten the specifics of the Reid Era here. They instead focus on the general success between 1999 and 2012.

But not me. I remember high hopes repeatedly dashed, and the seasons that ended in despair.

I invested too much in time, emotion and money (season ticket holder) -- to be stranded at the altar again and again and again.

Maybe some forget the feeling of having their hearts eaten out that were then met with the subsequent kick in our collective gut when Reid would act smug and indifferent during postgame press conferences.

Even when mishaps (dropped passes, missed tackles) werent directly his fault, Reids standard line was it begins with me.

Fine, Andy, you wanted the blame, you got it. I would have told you so if they let me to drive you to the airport when you left town.

Why, then, would I or anyone else who bleeds green root for Reid to have success elsewhere?

There was no worse scenario than his new team, the Kansas City Chiefs, winning a Super Bowl when he didnt do it in Philly after all those years of knocking on the door without finding a way to kick it in.

When we finally got it done two years ago, some of the edge was taken off. Still, when the Chiefs reached the big dance this year, I became a temporary fan of the opposing San Francisco 49ers.

Truth be told, I am more than a little bit angry with the end result (particularly the touchdown that wasnt a touchdown) and irked by all the glad tidings for Reid around the Delaware Valley.

Bad person?

Self-vote: Yeah, sigh, I am. Its not like he tried to lose big games here (it just seemed like it).

Iowa Caucuses I have been a detractor of the overall primary system for a long time, and my criticism begins with the disproportionate role little Iowa plays in the process.

I wrote all about it in my Sunday column a month or two ago, but I never could have imagined the Monday meltdown that will leave the final tally with an asterisk.

The root cause of the chaos was the already silly caucus process being further complicated with some second-round scenario that was clearly over the heads of those Iowa straw-chewers to comprehend.

While the good news is that this is probably the last we will see of the Iowa Caucuses, and maybe even Iowa getting to bat leadoff and set the pace as it has been doing, despite clearly not being a gauge of Americas diversity (its well over 90 percent lilywhite, for example) the embarrassment for the Democratic party could prove to be colossal.

Bad person?

Self-vote: Nope, not at all. A little bit of vindication is good for the soul.

Rush Limbaugh The right-wing AM Talk Radio host revealed that he is terminally ill.

If you are waiting for tears, keeping waiting.

I understand the man may have had a job to do, sort of in the Howard Stern shock jock sense, and that he may or may not have even meant half the hateful things he was saying.

But listeners many with pea brains accepted his postulating as fact.

And he knew it.

And he kept on spewing his garbage -- ironically losing his own hearing, so he couldnt even hear himself anymore.

If we are truly mired in a modern day Civil War, one in which lives (i.e. Heather Heyer) have been lost, Limbaugh is a general in the militia that fired the first shots (albeit away from the fray while on his bully pulpit).

It could be said that there would have been no coming of your president (not mine), without Limbaugh among others laying the groundwork.

No wonder Limbaugh got the Presidential Medal of Freedom the other night.

Hard to believe, though, considering this is the same person who called Iraq War veterans subsequently opposed to the war phony soldiers.

Then again, this prize was given to him by the phoniest of soldiers, one who got out of Vietnam with phantom bone spurs.

Like your president (not mine), Limbaugh built his empire on lies and half-truths.

Consider that Polifact rated Limbaughs on-air statements as either mostly false or pants on fire at a rapid-fire rate of 84 percent, with only a mere 5 percent registering as true.

While a lot of his false statements are about climate change, we are also talking about someone who continually degraded President Barack Obama with racially charged innuendoes calling him (and Oprah Winfrey) uppity, etc. and who compared NFL games to showdowns between black gangs.

He also said actor Michael J. Fox was exaggerating his Parkinsons disease in an ad for stem cell research.

I wonder if hed like some of that stem cell research for himself now? Maybe he is just exaggerating his symptoms.

Take the high road? Not this so-called snowflake. Its all low road here in Gordonville.

Bad person?

Self-vote: Abstain.

Originally posted here:
Glantz: Taking the 'bad man' test | Local News - The Times Herald