Billy Joel, one of Long Island’s most famous residents, has apparently departed for Florida. That’s the big crazy on today’s Insanity Wrap — an entire week’s worth of nuttiness wrapped up in one easy-to-swallow medicated news capsule.
Before we get to today’s big story, here’s a short video to make you lose whatever little faith you might still have in humanity.
How Long Can You Stand to Watch?
Australian girl is triggered that there are so many American flags in America 🇺🇸
Should we start a gofundme to pay for her flight back to Australia?pic.twitter.com/m0gp9MZCSf
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 14, 2023
In this week’s “How Long Can You Stand to Watch?” challenge, I made it all of five seconds before closing the tab with extreme prejudice. Honestly, I’m a little ashamed at my lack of will power but, man, am I missing Paul Hogan right now.
How long did you last?
Billy Joel Ain’t Got the Time to Go to Cold Spring Harbor No More
Billy Joel’s Long Island community has become a ghost town after many fled to Florida
“Welcome to Centre Island,” says the New York Post. It’s an isolated spot on Long Island — and home to Billy Joel — that by design has “no gas station, no grocery store and no post office.”
“All that exists are houses with scenic views of the Oyster Bay Harbor and Cold Spring Harbor.”
That ain’t no crime, but despite the beauty, Center Island is under such pressure that it’s also running out of people. Many big-shot residents — including Joel — are movin’ out. Unlike previous decades, when New Yorkers would become Los Angelenos, Joel and company have made haste for Florida without so much as a stop in Nevada.
Joel listed his estate in May. “Maybe he’s older. He’s retiring,” said local real estate agent Cottie Maxwell. “And he’s spending more time in Florida.”
She may be right. Maxwell also said that “Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Centre Island — which holds about 200 homes, according to Census data — has seen a massive selling spree.” More than 50 of those home have changed hands since then, with nine currently on the market. They include one new build, a 7,500-square-foot mansion that has “been on the market since July 2020, with no takers.”
Don’t ask me why, but maybe it’s the $6.25 million to live in a dying town, which isn’t exactly easy money.
NOT QUITE RELATED: In other Billy Joel news, I just learned that Fall Out Boy recently released an updated version of “We Didn’t Start The Fire,” so humanity had a good run, but we’re over now.
Previously On Insanity Wrap:</ strong> Well Done, Everybody — Anheuser-Busch Is in Real Trouble Now
Your Weekly Dose of Mostly Peaceful Protest
AUSTIN, TX— A large group of trans rights activists attempt to drown out the Let Women Speak event with loud chants. Video by: @libbyemmons pic.twitter.com/2iNb4K0sM1
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) August 13, 2023
Here you go: Women who think that men can be women shouting down actual women trying to defend other actual women.
Because womyn’s rights or something.
Canada’s MAIDs Are Straight-Up Killing People
I hate to do this to Insanity Wrap but I’ve got to set serious for a minute.
It seems like just last week [It was just last week, Steve. -ed.] that I reported on a Canadian hospital in Vancouver asking a suicidal young woman in good health if maybe she’d like to try a little “medical assistance in dying’ (MAID) because its “broken” healthcare system didn’t have any psychiatrists available. The otherwise healthy woman with chronic depression was lucky enough to emerge from her local hospital alive, but that’s not the case for shocking numbers of ill Quebeckers on the other side of the country.
This week comes word from the CBC that in Quebec, they no longer see “doctor-assisted deaths as exceptional.”
Quebec is on track to finish the year with seven per cent of all deaths recorded as doctor-assisted, Bureau said. “That’s more than anywhere else in the world: 4.5 times more than Switzerland, three times more than Belgium, more than the Netherlands. It’s two times more than Ontario.”
And the numbers in Ontario are exploding, just like in the rest of the country.
Direct comparisons aren’t easy to come by, but if I’m reading this page correctly, euthanasia might be the sixth-leading cause of death in Canada, somewhere between chronic lower respiratory diseases (for both sexes) and diabetes (for women) and Alzheimer’s (for men).
MAID was supposed to be a government-assisted suicide option for the terminally ill with “unbearable suffering” and with various safeguards like getting a second opinion and a waiting period. Nevertheless, “We’re now no longer dealing with an exceptional treatment, but a treatment that is very frequent,” according to Dr. Michel Bureau.
“We see, more and more, that the cases receiving medical aid in dying are approaching the limits of the law,” he said — and the law has been expanded to cover “non-terminal illnesses or disabilities, and severe refractory mental illnesses” starting in 2024. But as I’ve reported previously, MAID has been offered as a final solution to such “unbearable suffering” as poverty and disability.
There’s even an official memo reminding doctors not to shop around for a “friendly” second opinion. I suppose the “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” is implied.
All government programs expand to the breaking point, and MAID is already there.
Exclusively for our VIPs: MAID in Canada: The Doctor Can’t See You Right Now, Would You Like to Kill Yourself Instead?
Before We Continue, Here’s a Short Video to Restore Your Faith in Everything…
This dog makes friends with every stranger ❤️ pic.twitter.com/UdmhPK4S6m
— B&S (@_B___S) August 15, 2023
This is the most Golden Retriever video of all time.
Quote(s) of the Week
Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss totally, publicly contradicting and humiliating yourself.
And Now For a Brief Moment of Sanity
One more Billy Joel item because I can’t help myself — and this is a Genuine True Story™ from the VodkaPundit archives.
It’s 1989, I’m 20 years old, and I’d landed a sweet morning show gig at a pop station in northern California. Our music director knew I was a big Billy Joel fan, so he asked me to join him in the production booth to listen to Joel’s new single. It turned out to be “We Didn’t Start The Fire.”
It isn’t easy for a young fan to admit something by their favorite artist actually sucks… but as the song got going I said to Mike, “This is pretty bad, isn’t it?”
Mike said “Yep.”
We listened a little longer and I said, “It’s going to be huge, isn’t it?”
Mike said “Yep.”
Then Mike put it into hot rotation, so we had to play “We Didn’t Start The Fire” literally every other hour for two weeks. Then almost as frequently for another month or two.
And you know what? The dang thing grew on me — Billy Joel started the fire, after all.
A quick little something before we get to the closing meme…
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One More Thing…
That’s a Wrap for this week.
Come back next week for another Insanity Wrap… …assuming we make it that long.