Well, here we go with a column that is guaranteed to honk off the Democrats, the leftovers from the old Republican party, the MAGA crowd, and the rest of Rabbit’s friends and relations.

I believe Grandpa Joe Biden did the right thing when he issued a presidential pardon for his son Hunter.

I can visualize my liberal friends clutching at their pearls and gritting their teeth when they say: But he promised he would not pardon his son. He lied. That is terrible. As if politicians never skirt the truth.

My FIM (Friends in the Middle) pals point to how Hunter was convicted and awaits sentencing on gun and tax charges. Even the judge in that case groused about the pardon. My MAGA fans said it is a double-down dog disgrace proving that Hunter, his dad, and all their aunts, uncles and cousins by the dozen are part of a nefarious crime family rivaled in history by El Chapo, Al Capone and Jesse James.

Let's start at the beginning. According to White House Historical Association, a pardon, and its cousins, commutation, amnesty and reprieve, are presidential “get out of jail free cards” granted by Article II, section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. Just for the record, it was Alexander Hamilton’s idea to put it in the Constitution.

George Washington used it for the first time in 1795 to free the folks involved in the Whiskey Rebellion. Thomas Jefferson used it to free citizens convicted under the Alien and Sedition Acts. A. Lincoln (remember him?), pardoned the ex-Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Andrew Johnson pardoned all the Confederate war veterans. Warren G. Harding pardoned the socialist Eugene Debs and others.

Jimmy Carter pardoned Vietnam War draft evaders. George H.W. Bush pardoned former Sec. of Defense Casper Weinberg who was caught up in the Iran-Contra scandal. Richard Nixon committed the sentence of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa and, of course, we all remember when Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon for all crimes that may have been committed in the Watergate scandal.

I remind my MAGA fans that their hero pardoned his political pals, Mike Flynn, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Steve Bannon. He also pardoned Albert Pirro, the ex-husband of Fox talker Judge Jeanine Pirro, and Charles Kushner, the father-in-law of his daughter, Ivanka. Others pardoned included former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who tried to sell a Senate appointment for cash, Dinesh D’Souza, the conservative “2000 Mules” film boss who recently admitted the pic was a hoax, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and stock scammer Mike Milken.

There is some chatter in and around the pundit class (both right and left) that some of the enemies on the incoming administration enemies list may also get a blanket pardon for stuff they might be charged with after Jan. 20, but that is another story for another day.

We live in an age of peril, not only for the older set, like Moi, but also for our sons and daughters, the grandkids, and now the sweet great-great-grandkids.

Our parents faced the Great Depression and a terrible world war. But it was a shared experience. It was a tough time, but they suffered together watching as city parks became known as Hoovervilles, home to citizens living in cardboard boxes. Others lost jobs, their savings, and family self-respect. The war, which began 83 years go when the Japanese navy bombed Pearl Harbor, was a shared experience. Everyone had a husband, brother, uncle, or neighbor involved in the war effort.

Today, we have friends with family members suffering from the ravages of drugs, especially the pills containing fentanyl. But they suffer alone in silence, hoping against hope that their winter slumber will not be interrupted by a knock on the door from a sheriff’s deputy delivering the news they dreaded would come - someday.

The current president has suffered the same fears when his son Hunter was caught up in the vortex of dope and despair. Somehow, some way, he escaped. For several years, he has remained sober, although at best, his business career has been checkered. Then he was thrust into the headlines, and he became a toxin in the recent presidential campaign. This notoriety led to special prosecutors and convictions for tax evasion (he has paid the taxes) and another for purchasing a pistol while being a drug addict. Both are crimes. I get it.

But for all his fumbling on the debate stage and before TV microphones, the POTUS is the elderly father of a troubled child. He is a man who lost his wife and his young daughter in a car crash. He lost another son to cancer. I believe he is acting to protect his only remaining child, even if it causes a political ruckus. Isn’t that what Luke was trying to tell us in Chapter 15:11-32?

What would you do?