In the old days, I recall my mother would occasionally have to empty the little pan under the ice box into which water would collect. With so many items winding up in my in-box, every so often I have to do a little emptying myself.

To begin with, I thought Charles Krauthammers’s comment regarding the peddling of influence by the Clintons was well worth sharing: “If there isn’t a shred of evidence that they accepted bribes in exchange for favors, it’s because they shredded the evidence.”

The more I see of Bill and Hillary doing everything imaginable in pursuit of a few extra dollars, the more I find myself thinking of them as the Kardashians on steroids. As for Hillary’s presidential aspirations, I think that the only people who would like to see her elected more than Bill and Chelsea are America’s editorial cartoonists. With her snarky smile and her multitude of pantsuits, she is easily drawn, although some of us would prefer to see her drawn-and-quartered.

Being a liberal can’t be easy. First, you had to be embarrassed by all those University of Maryland college students trying and failing to identify a photo of Ronald Reagan. Then you got to watch Diane Sawyer trying to process Bruce Jenner’s admission that he/she is a Christian conservative. I suspect that immediately after the interview, Ms. Sawyer took to her chaise lounge with a severe case of the vapors.

Much has been made of the fact that Hollywood bubblehead Ben Affleck pulled strings to make sure nobody ever found out that one of his ancestors was a slave owner. If, God forbid, he had discovered that another had been a Republican, Ms. Sawyer would have had to shove over and make room for him.

Not to be outdone in the loony sweepstakes, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on his return from vacationing in Cuba, said he admired the Castros’ handling of the media. When you’re the governor of New York, it’s not enough to want to see the Second Amendment abolished; you also have to express contempt for the First.

Before Ferguson, MO, made anti-cop riots so popular in urban black communities, what did these louts do for amusement?

As we all noticed, in Baltimore, as in Ferguson, the thugs are given free rein to loot, burn and destroy, for at least 24 hours, even when the National Guard is standing by. We know that, under Obama, members of the military will never be called upon to fire a weapon in anger. Thanks to the wimps running our cities and states, apparently the same holds true for National Guardsmen. Our new national motto might as well be “No Matter What, No Boots on the Ground.”

In spite of over 300 arrests in Baltimore, anyone who thinks the thugs will serve any real time for burning down neighborhood stores, thus destroying the dreams and lives of the small business owners in the community, must be puffing the magic dragon. In today’s world, villainy isn’t punished, it’s more often rewarded. Those thugs won’t even lose their welfare checks.

During the riots, we kept hearing that the Crips and the Bloods had put their turf differences aside and agreed to a truce so that they could concentrate their efforts on putting cops in the hospital or the cemetery. My question is: how is it that those criminal enterprises are still in business?

After all, it was 45 years ago that the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act was passed. Over the decades, it has been used against organized crime to put any number of Mafia kingpins behind bars because it allows prosecutors to go after the guys who actually give the orders, not just the goombahs who carry them out.

But when do we ever hear that the government has gone after black and Hispanic gangs? Apparently, if you want to cause mischief and get away with it, the best way to go about it these days is to join a street gang, sneak across our border or convert to Islam.

Furthermore, when I hear Obama or Mrs. Clinton explain away the Baltimore riots, I know that I am going to hear a call for more tax dollars to be tossed into the black community. When you consider how many trillions of our dollars have already been squandered on programs to assist people who show, by their contempt for education and their soaring rate of illegitimate births, that they have no real desire to break the shackles placed on them by Democrats, the notion of wasting even a single additional dollar makes me queasy.

A great many people, I among them, was delighted to see the black woman whacking her teenage son upside his head when she spotted him huddling with the Baltimore troublemakers. But before anyone elects Toya Graham “Mother of the Year,” we need to know if she’s single as a result of divorce or widowhood. Otherwise, she’s just another unmarried woman with six kids at home, which would mean she is part of the problem, not the solution.

Still, she is far more deserving of our respect than all the other adults, including Baltimore’s mayor and city council members, who essentially stood by and made excuses for the young hooligans.

But it does serve to remind me of all the people in America, mainly strangers, who do so much to make our lives slightly more bearable, in spite of the best efforts by politicians to make them far worse.

Those unsung heroes I have in mind are the fathers and mothers who do their best, in spite of impossible odds, to raise decent children; telephone employees who keep lines of communication open during natural disasters; the people who brave the elements to clear the roads while the snow and ice are still coming down; the life-savers who never seem more than a few minutes away when someone has a heart attack, finds himself involved in a highway collision or trapped in a burning building; and even plumbers, however much they charge, who manage to show up on Thanksgiving or Christmas, like Mighty Mouse, ready to save the day.

So if you happen to be any of these people, I know I speak for everyone else when I say: “Take a bow. You’ve earned it.”