Cabernet & Chocolate

Passing the Buck, again and again

2011-04-26T13:17:00.000-07:00

After twenty eight months of being in office, I am a bit confused about what President Obama’s goals are. What are his goals for the economy? What are his goals for helping those out of work? And my big question is who is in charge? Is it Obama? It seemed to be Pelosi and Reid but they have been demoted, so who is now? I wonder and why, because not much has changed and certainly I cannot feel any improvement, have you? Fact is even those on the left are beginning to bicker and complain about Obama. He did not close Guantanamo; he has not ended either Iraq or Afghanistan. And his goal to revitalize the economy is MIA. What is the outcome? What is he going to change to make things “really” better for Americans? I am not sure are you?

Why is this administration so afraid of dealing directly with the economy, the goals and hopes of our allies across the world, the international monetary policies and the threat of religious and political upheaval from the adversaries that dislike America? Why, well, let me explain. I think it is because fundamentally Mr. Obama does not understand how business works or why business works. He has spent most of his life with the belief that corporations are not the source of wealth or good in the US but they are a problem. They are a problem and they need to pay for the problems they have cause. And do not get me wrong, but when you say corporations those are the people who sell you things. Everything from sub sandwiches to airplane tickets. From Grocery stores to ship builders. They are the bad guys. Yet, what Mr. Obama does not understand his future rest with their success.

We have entered a time when the financial future of America is at risk and not only are politicians lying about the reality of such things but are kicking the proverbial “can down the street”. A few weeks ago, Paul Ryan a Republican came up with a number of suggestions that put into place would at least address the issues at hand. What is the public result on TV and in the Newspapers, Obama and his minions calling those who are doing their best to actually address these issues as thieves who are trying to take away the very provisions the US Government may very soon be too broke to support if we follow his policies. Crazy, it gets crazier.

Harry S. Truman had a sign on his desk which said, “The Buck stops here”. In the 1930’s it was a saying that politicians would pass the buck as far as they could to avoid having responsibility for anything. The origins of this phrase come from the 19th century and pioneers playing poker. Instead of a chip indicating who was to be the dealer, often a “buck” knife would be used to identify whose turn it was to deal. By “passing the buck” the responsibility could be passed to the next person in line.

President Truman, a Democrat from Missouri who followed Franklin Roosevelt, was a no nonsense pragmatist who was faced with extraordinary issues following World War Two. He was challenged with the decision to drop the Atomic Bombs upon Imperial Japan in 1945, how to rebuild Europe and avoid the chaos and confusion following World War One, with the rise and hunger of the Soviet Empire following World War two and Stalin’s desire to conquer the world. All of these handled in a manner which backed up his simple sign on his desk.

Paul Ryan, in that same mind set as Truman, set out a complete proposal to attempt to deal with all of these issues. In his proposal the Congressman attempts to preserve Medicare, give tax breaks for the purchase of medical insurance and to personalized the social security program to preserve this program. It would allow investment in an individual’s retirement through the stock system giving American citizens the right to choose how they invest in their retirement. It would be a boon to investment, savings, business, the economy and would turn around the very nature of our retirement process into a win-win experience. It would make Social Security permanently solvent; translate that as to keep it alive. Why wouldn’t anyone support this? Well, 1st it takes the control of this from politicians and gives it back to citizens, you know as well as I that none of us can be trusted with anything. And secondly Senators and congressmen would not have Social Security to steal from anymore, Oh my gosh!!

This plan also attempts to reorganize the tax code to prevent theft and illegality with the goal of simplifying this system while giving the Corporate Tax Rate a break and bring it in line with the rest of the working world. You and I work for, buy from and realize most of our investment growth from Corporations when they succeed and compete in the World Markets. So, we ought to give them and us every opportunity to succeed, yes? Retirement plans and IRA’s, mine and yours, need to be given the chance to succeed and not be vilified. Corporations make the economic world go around and America needs jobs and jobs are created by those who do business. Making the businessman evil is in direct contrast to job creation.

Why are we then so inept in 2011? The dirty secret most politicians know is that the social commitments, called entitlements (social security, Medicaid, Medicare) will consume our entire tax base by 2025. What is not being told to the electorate is that we are on the edge of the US Dollar being devalued and the dollar becoming a second rate currency. In addition, this Obama administration is making an attempt to answer all these questions with the response that the richest Americans do not pay enough and we need to expand and raise the tax rate.

Raise taxes,why is that the first and only answer? Well, most Americans are not rich, and in our hearts we are fully convinced that most got rich like the Kennedy’s, that they inherited. Most Americans who have some money work as small businesses to make ends meet. Tax rich guys more? The top 50% of all taxpayers pay 96% of all of the taxes already. Did you know that? Rich guys pay a lot of our taxes already. Give people back their money and guess what? They do what you and I do, they spend it. And when they, those guys, the rich guys, spend, they spend a lot and when they spend a lot the economy gets good! Sshhhh, it is a secret, apparently to the Democrats.

Millions of Americans count on the government for the social network set up under Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930’s, namely Social Security. The expansion of Medicare and Medicare, a health insurance program, under Lyndon Johnson set a new health quality level and insured those with Social Security for health concerns was expanded even more under Republican George Bush. Tell seniors these benefits are being adjusted is risky. Fact is Obama Democrats are telling American that Republicans want to end all of these protections. In reality and this is the part that is crazy, if the United States does nothing these programs WILL go away. A dirty political trick is to accuse your adversary of the very thing you seem to be doing to mask the good sense your opponent holds.

We could raise taxes on everyone. Raise rates such that for every $100.00 a person makes the treasury comes and takes, say 50%. Rich guys don’t need more. They can spread it around to the un-rich. The problem is rich guys have businesses and when you tax them they pay their taxes like good citizens and do not reinvest in more workers, more expansion and more equipment and the country enters into a depression. Oh, we are close to that already. Well, maybe we should change course then!!

Why does he, Obama, do nothing about international status of the dollar? How, by not balancing the budget like every household in America must do. A weak dollar has a huge impact at the cash register. What would happen to the American economy if gas prices hit $6.00 to $7.00 per gallon at the pump? What? You say that would cut down on the frivolous use of the automobile and lead to America actually confronting its need for fossil fuel. Wow, we could go green. Americans believe in preservation. Look around you; see how many National Parks and preserves within miles of your home exist. When it comes to fuels, you better slow down comrade, the exchange rate affects the purchase of oil, which affects the price of everything shipped anywhere in the US. We are now dependent upon oil from around the world. It goes up and the price of everything rises. And soon, even the middle class folks are poor and cannot afford the simple things they used to afford, like health care. So, am I to become dependent on the Government for more…….maybe, I have discovered the underlying goals of Mr. Obama. I might need to be dependent upon government. I don’t like it, I don’t. I do not want to be dependent upon anyone who does not see the provisions for success we have been given in the United States. I like my freedom and I do not want the rest of my world turning into the Department of Motor Vehicles or the Post Office. Sorry, most of what the Federal Government does sucks. My problem is twofold: The Buck does not stop with Mr. Obama; fact is he has just stopped the buck from moving period!!

Spinning like a TOP

2010-11-08T12:31:00.000-08:00

I heard the spin on the Sunday shows yesterday and was flabbergasted. Democrats spun the results from last weeks elections with silky smooth and almost understandable clarity, Dems lost not because of policy but because of the economy. It is hard for incumbents to win when Americans are concerned about their paychecks. And well, there is no question that is the truth. Repeat that mantra over and over and one comes to the conclusion if the economy was just better then everything would be ducky for the Democratically elected President, Senate and House of Representatives.

But it is not! Why? Well, Mr. President, Mrs. Pelosi and Mr. Ried you had two years to work on this problem and you did not get anything, zip, zilch, nada ...well almost nothing. You passed Obamacare and you have given millions perhaps billions away and you still received the largest butt whipping in a political world since 1938.

1938.....few of us remember 1938. I do, you might recall I teach US History, so I spend a fair bit of time remembering such examples. Why was 1938 so volatile. FDR had just won the Presidency in the largest landslide in political history. FDR had won 538 electoral votes to 8 for someone who was goofily named Alf (Landon). So why did the election turn so cold for the Democrats. One 1937 was the worst year of the depression, yes the worst year of the depression. Made doubly worse because the Federal Government had spent five solid years expanding the size and scope of everything Washington and had directly or indirectly employed between 14 to 20 million Americans and the depression had worsened, got worse, bad, badder..... I thought we had learned our lesson then that big government cannot spend its way out of a recession-depression but we did not. And for those who have FDR as a hero, particularly in the African American political scheme, that lesson was missed.

There are those who clearly say the the onset of WWII brought the needed expansion to allow full employment, and it a way that might be true if you included the millions of men who were sent around the world and picked up a paycheck from the government during this time. But it is what happened after the war that held the "good times" and extended them into the future.

Franklin Roosevelt died in 1945 and during the war many of his New Deal Reforms were killed. The CCC, the WPA and the NYA because the war came first. Both Roosevelt and then Truman wanted to hold to the New Deal and its program but by 1946 something had happened. The House was controlled by Republicans 248 to 188. Americans no longer liked the big government policies of the 1930's. Truman could not pass his Revival of Roosevelt's policies. The Republicans repealed the high tax rates of 94% on income over $200,000. Dems pick on the rich often! In 1945 and 1946Congress repealed the excess-profits tax, cut the corporate tax to a maximum 38%, and cut the top income tax rate to 86 percent. In 1948 Congress sliced the top marginal rate further, to 82 percent.

Those rates were still high from the standpoint of modern non-war America, but they were the first cuts since the 1920s and sent the message that businesses could keep much of what they earned. That message was heard loud and clear. Why do you presume that business' are hoarding cash this year.

The reason is that for the last two years there have been consistent messages attacking businesses, for my liberal friends that means CORPORATIONS. Businesses where people have jobs, where retirement companies invest and buy stocks and try to make a profit. They still have profits but they are hoarding it...why? Obamacare, unease with the new tax policy. What new tax policy, well, the old one, the tax breaks created by George Bush to hold off a recession in 2000. Yes, he had one too but he did not scare business but gave them what would HELP them! Those are going away and the solution from the formerly employed folks on Capital hill was to have them expire. To raise taxes on those rich guys. I heard Phill Gramm formerly the Senator from Texas who by the way is married to an economist think tanker, said " I have never received a job from a poor person". True...all the people I have ever worked for where in several tax brackets higher than myself. Frankly, I liked them and wanted there businesses to stay lucrative. Our government should as well.

When the uncertainty with health care and the future of the tax base resolved adding a bonus for hiring and a tax break for hard goods and business investment would go a long way to ramp the business world. Demonizing those who create jobs from the Jimmy Johns sandwich shop on the corner to Microsoft is not good solid political or business practices. Why? Government does not create jobs business does.

I often ask my students if you or your family had more money to spend, translate for the Democrat less tax, what would you or your family do with it? Consistently the response is clear, we might spend some, we might save some, we might send me to school, we might take that vacation more Mom wants or we might add the second sandwich shop. That is how you expand jobs, quit taking so much money, spend less in Goverment, for those not working teach them to work and for those working let them keep more. Learned that back in 37 someone needs to teach some history to our New Democrats!

Why I decided ..........

2009-03-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

Every once and awhile a lovely note sends my brains racing for the "right stuff". A note sent to me about this blog did so. It led me to review why is it that I am a conservative. I am not a Republican. Fact is on certain issues I lean towards some Libertarian views on one or two issues. I used to be a Liberal.

Why I am a Conservative?

Every once and awhile it will come up in conversation, for the most part when I am at school and discussing a historical or political topic. I hear it in the lilt of the discussion. It sounds something like, “You Republicans….” Offtime to which I respond, “Technically I am not a Republican or a Libertarian, I am by choice a Conservative.” I thought this through because, well because it is important.

I haven’t always been a conservative. There was a time in college when everything Phil Donahue said made sense, when I wanted to fight for freedom and choice. I wanted to have choices and believed that all should have them including the North and South Vietnamese. I did not trust government and certainly felt that Richard Nixon was too good of a politician to be trusted. Fact is everyone over thirty did seem to look at the world different than I. Then I read the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence from start to finish and made some decisions.

I read about Thomas Jefferson who did not trust government and in agreement to get the Constitution passed advocated for the ten amendments that were added. Those who use those amendments as legal tools today forget why they were crafted. The danger lies not in us but government and those who try to do things for us by it.

Why I am a Conservative:

1. 90% of life is maintenance, keeping what works working. Love works. Marriage works. Family works. Church and a belief in something other than self works. Work works. Hard work makes all the above work. Even my Communist teaching colleague has his car serviced at regular intervals-to keep it working.

Jesus said, “No greater love has a man than to lay his life down for another”. Things that work are worth sacrificing for. The issues are to prioritize what really works. I try to support the things that work. Freedom works. Capitalism works. Wanting to get ahead works. And the adage that matters...if it works don't fix it, especially if you are the government!

2. Equality is a given to those that understand that life is a precious commodity, equality is a mindset not a mandate. Freedom is not. Freedom has always been earned and work must be expressed for it to be retained. See America at War-with the exception of the Spanish American War which was bogus.

To mandate equality is impossible. One can only mandate the lowest common denominator of a society. Freedom is different than mandated equality. Under the law each of us should have the same freedoms. I often ask my students, "What if I gave every one of you a C, no matter how hard or how little you work, what would you do and how hard would you work"? The answers are always the same. "Nothing, I would do nothing". It is a function of humans ....they will work with the chance of success. Give a person the Freedom to experience excellence and they will seek it. Hand to them mandated equality and they will remain standing with their hand out forever doing nothing.

I prefer freedom as principle over the virtue of making the right decisions. I believe just as I did thirty plus years ago that Citizens of the World deserve a free and unbridled ability to CHOSE. Choice makes the difference. Choice is balanced by a hierarchy of values and freedoms. IE. I can choose to shoot a gun as long as it is not at my neighbor or my neighbors house. Choice and the hierarchy of choices trump even the hope that people do things in the proper fashion. We must allow people the choice to fail if they want to. We can be either equal or free but both do not hold the same space in politics. To enforce the equality of all men at all times eliminates real freedom. Given real choices, in my humble opinion the human spirit does its best work and soars. Given real choices apart from pathology humans choose and find themselves on the levels of the Philosophers. Humans will choose freedom over tyranny and our history has ample evidence to that point.

“Are we maximizing Freedom…? Barry Goldwater.

3. Human nature must be dealt with suspiciously. Romans 3:20 says “For all have sinned…”James Madison wrote that: “If men were angels no government would be necessary….
Why do they want it passed? Follow the money….follow power! Question Authority. (some sixties stuff so resonates in my brain I cannot get past it) I trust nothing that I hear on ABC and half of what I see on the Radio. *S*

4. Power as a tool tends to corrupt. Since it corrupts, those who wield it must be dealt with suspiciously-be sure that those who have it can’t do too much damage. Therein lies the danger. See Thomas Jefferson. See the Bill of Rights

5. Government for the protection of all must be kept limited. Government cannot do all things and in fact does little well, with the exception of the creation of protections. Protections against adversaries and ourselves. See Army and FDA. If you look to the government for help. You have entered into the world where you government must and will get bigger and bigger because you realize it is never enough. Why? Because government never solves anything. So, it appears like more of it would make a difference. You see the yen but not the yang.
Henry David Thoreau said, “That government that governs least governs best”.
Ronald Reagan said, “Government is not the solution to our problem: government is the problem.

6. Some individuals can do more. They should not be punished because others cannot. I learned that from Paul Hayden. He could always run faster than me.

7. The old adage holds, “Give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime”. Conservatives love on the long term and wish those who can, to be able to do so as well and to do so for a lifetime. Liberals feel better about the fish and feel best when they can give the fish away. It works but not for as long-see rule 1.

8. Creating a welfare state is a method of earning votes for a lifetime. It is also a method of re-creating political "sharecropping". No one ever gets out of poverty when there is that kind of sharing. We have new slave owners in America they believe they are helping others......but the slavery remains a condition of the institution itself. Once you have created an institution it does its best to remain. And to remain forever. If the money comes from the government....be suspicious. Not much will get done and it will stay that way forever.

Political Gymnastics

2009-03-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

There are questions I have been asking about the new administration:

There is something that I have always been amazed at those who have the linguistic skills of salesmanship and politics. I am not sure I really am the proficient at either. When I trained with the best reputable company in the business, they are Mormon if that helps, in timeshare. I learned it is not what you say but how you say it that seems to have most people buying timeshares in droves. My wife says often....I have no problem with what you are saying....but how you are saying it. Might be just a man thing but ....there were some timeshare guys who I would not trust any farther than I could throw them across a river but they sold timeshare. Does your client, customer, owner, whatever you were going to call them that day, trust you? The counsel was it was all how you asked the question. So many bright, intelligent and financially secure timeshare veterans would seem to know all the tricks, "When did you stop beating your wife", as an example of the power of framing a question properly. It is the perfect "gotcha" question of all time. Most of us today see through such framework but not all of us. You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time but not all of the people all of the time.....famous guy said that not me.

Those who are fans of the Sunday News shows of Foxnews Sunday and Meet the Press know that how one frames the question is substantial in getting the proper response. These are lessons glean from years and years of watching 60 minutes pummel their guests with the microphone in their face as they ran down the street. By the way, Chris Wallace and Mike Wallace...yes, Father and Son. So when did you stop beating your wife?

Health care professionals have learned it is imperative to ask the proper questions if you MUST have the truth. Dr. Kevin Fiscella found it matters a great deal medically,
The first question was, “How long has it been since you’ve had a mammogram?” Most women of all races and ethnicity's tend to underestimate how long it’s been: They’ll circle 1 year, for example, when in fact it’s been 18 months or 2 years since their last mammogram. Indeed, the responses showed no significant differences in mammogram rates among black, white and Hispanic women.

But the responses changed to the question, “What health care services have you received in the last four months?” Fiscella found that when he looked at an entire year, 28 percent of white respondents versus 15 percent of black respondents reported receiving a mammogram. He believes the 13-percent disparity gives a more accurate picture of mammography rates.

Even the election of last year has its very unique and different views. Of course Barack Obama who won the electorate by a 52-48% margin has a "mandate" and has turned the world around according to some TV moderator types who are wondering how the Republican party is ever going to recieve one more vote.....Ever! While at the same time California rejected same sex marriage by 52-48%...and the comments by the same TV moderator types is that it passed by the "narrowest of margins". It is not only how you frame the question but sometimes how you frame the answer. Did anyone notice this small but significant inconsistency? Does the guy have a mandate? More than that.....does he really know the right questions to ask. He is a bit of a newby when it comes to making anything work. And making things REALLY work is what this fellow is going to need to do.

I teach US History and am just about to embark into a discussion and trapse through the mess known as the Stock Market Crash and the New Deal......did you know the New Deal did not work. Take out employment provided by the federal government and the worse year for unemployment, prices and a down economy was 1937. Most knowledgeable History types easily say, "Well, it was World War II that brought us out of the depression". And it was. So why do Democrats wistfully remember Franklin Roosevelt as the cure all, savior and Icon for the Democratic Party. There were all kinds of solutions and the ABC's of any government plan. Most have gone away but a lot stay FOREVER!!! Well, you can fool some of the people....and they were and are.....and well, now we have Barack Obama. But all of the people all of the time?? More government does not help business. Where is it the easiest in the world to set up and get a business going? Try Hong Kong...one of the business centers of the world. Might take me two months in Orlando but could take two hours to get up and running in Hong Kong. Government knows what makes that Island work. Do we? How does government create one job. And if there do it is temporary at best. What is the definition of a government employee? Bureacracy, red tape and worse...incompetant.

What concerns me most is this. The bad guy for the last eighty years in the Stock Market Crash and Depression was Herbert Hoover. Know what he did? Support and give money to banks and insurance companies, try to fix the home loan business....YIKES. Mr. Obama...the New Deal did not work. The Moment Roosevelt was out we saw the next fifty years dominated by Republicans. Why? You can't fool all of the people ALL of the time. We do not need more government! I do not trust the government. I remember walking the freeways of Seattle in 1970 knowing not that I did not trust anyone over thirty, my Dad was over thirty and I trusted him, but that I did not trust government. I do not trust anyone who does not understand and know history as well.

We need regulation...Teddy Roosevelt was right! I want my environment clean (thank Nixon for EPA), I want my food clean (thank Teddy for FDA) and I want people to get hired and work and to be prosperous.....(does this administration know how that is done)????? That is the Question isn't it! Or are you ready for fifty more years of Republican Rule?

Advantage McCain

2008-09-01T14:47:00.000-07:00

She rocks!

Several weeks ago I heard Bill Crystal mention Sarah Palin Governor of Alaska as a possible running mate for John McCain. Sooooo......like all good political junkies I googled my way through Sarah's life. Wow...here is a mother of five, a very successful Governor who has an approval rating in Alaska in the 60% level., a seemingly quite happy marriage to Iditarod snowmobile Champion and a veteran of 15 years of racing (the Ironman of Alaska) By the way they call him the "First Dude". Sarah Palin is all of that and more as my 19 year old said.

Just wait the liberal bloggers are going after this young woman as you have never seen. Sarah Palin is not the woman who married a political genius who first was the Governor of Alaska. SHE was the Governor of Alaska while her hubby stayed home to race, hunt, fish and watch the kids. Listen, I would do it for Sarah as well....I've seen the bio photos just like you. She Rocks!

Sarah Palin can stand on her own two feet and that is going to aggravate liberal types to the core. "Did you know her husband worked for an oil company". Unfortunately, in Alaska that is NOT a bad thing. But, certainly in the minds of a liberal who has no concept of the need, the neccessity and the importance of energy companies he will be demonized.

Did you know she is a moral reformer who has taken on everyone including the Republican party in Alaska. As one 60 minutes commentator used to say...."I like that". What is missing in politics is honesty. Pelosi cannot tell the truth through her caps. Clinton....well, Bill is an embarrasment and I just feel sorry for Hillary. But if she had not been married to Bill where would she be today. A successful corporate lawyer in Illinois making the big land deals she is famous for. Biden...and Republicans are just as politically vexing as the Dems.

It is true that people do not vote for VP but it does say a lot about a candidate who their choice is. Kennedy picked LBJ for one reason without Texas he would lose and LBJ could deliver Texas. By the way, without some very unscrupulous voting shennanigans in Chicago by Mayor Daley Kennedy would have lost and Nixon would have been President. Reagan picked Bush because he was a moderate to dispell the Barry Goldwater rap that had been bestowed upon him. Gore was the Son of a Democratic hardliner and Clinton needed some mileage from the insiders. Each choice is different.

This one is about where does the future of the Republican party go? Sarah Palin is the face of that party. She is the woman who can handle her own. She can touch all of the bases politically and personally. She is the right to lifer who KEEPS the baby herself and helps her daughter do the same. She lives in the real world. She Rocks! I say....she is all of that too!

Along Route 66

2008-07-24T18:23:00.000-07:00

I have always liked taking a trip and driving at night. I remember clearly the first time I knew it was great. When I was six we took a trip from California to Illinois. I learned it was my Dad's choice to drive at night. Almost every trip of substance started either at 9pm after dinner or early, early in the morning, 4am.

My Father would say, "We need to get ahead of the traffice or We want to cross the desert when it is cool".

This one would start after dinner. Dad had found an automobile Air Conditioner, it attached to the passenger side window and it looked and worked like a jet engine, taking air blown into the front and blew cooled air from the water inside the container into the car. It dripped a bit. But it worked! It was like having a wet rag on your face with the wind blowing in. What was the best about these trips is that most children fall asleep as soon as the car starts. At least mine did. I didn't. My parents would say.

"Mark, does not want to miss anything."

That wasn't really accurate but when I was a youngster you did not contradict Mom or Dad. Times have changed for most parents. The truth of the matter was that it was the only time when I had my Father's complete attention. Mom would fall asleep, my three brothers would fall asleep and I could talk with my Father for miles and miles. My folks had purchased a fire engine red 1956 Chevy Belair Nomad Station Wagon for the trip. It was a beautiful car. My Dad had a pad made so that when the rear seats were put down it turned into a rather comfy bed. By the middle of the night I was sitting on the passenger side getting dripped on while everyone else was asleep in the back.

I would learn a great deal. My Dad would tell me how to find which way you were traveling from the stars. As a pilot in World War II it was part of his training. How to reckon from the North Star and figure which direction was North. Where Orion would rise and set and which direction it would travel. The Big Dipper and Cassiopeia, due North I was sure my Dad was some kind of genius. I would learn about farming beans. A High School project to earn money he and his twin brother had engaged in. Green Beans was a warm weather crop and if skillfully farmed could allow for lifeguarding at the community pool during the summer days as well. The key was moisture and soil. Being a shallow crop the key was enough moisture for growth but not enough to allow for "rot". Wasn't really sure what "rot" was but it didn't sound good.
I would learn about how teenagers in the 30's spent their summers. That practical jokes of the 1930's I am sure would land someone in jail today. And how in fact my Father had been arrested. It was a revelation of immense purportions. I learned the important questions: how? Where? Really? Why? What happened then? Climbing and swimming in the cities water tower during the hot summer nights in Iowa.

"Seemed like a good idea at the time." It really was the first time my Father admitted to consuming adult beverages. He told of how after being arrested it was his Grandfather who had to sentence he, his twin brother and another friend for swimming in the city water supply.
"Was it worth it"?, I asked.
Then this sly grin came across my Dad's face.
"I was never so scared, I had never climbed so high before. It seemed you could see the lights of Des Moine from that tower."
It had been worth it. For hours my Father would quietly talk as we moved down Old Route 66. Across California and Arizona. I remember the asteroid showers in the middle of the night in the dessert. I had never seen them before. My Dad said August is a great time as he explained the extraterrestial visitors plummeting to the ground somewhere over the mountains and plains of the United States. Sometimes two or three a minute and every once and awhile a big one.

" ... could be a small rock but it burns up and lights up." My Dad would comment. It was amazing.

Route 66 was never boring. There were signs, interesting signs about place to eat and places to stay and about shaving. Rhymes about shaving. Every two or three hundred yards would be part of a poem.

They looked like this but spread along the highway.

DINAH

DOESN'T

TREAT HIM RIGHT

BUT IF

HE'D SHAVE

DINAH-MITE!

USE BURMA SHAVE

DROVE TOO LONG

DRIVER SNOOZING

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

IS NOT AMUSING

BURMA SHAVE

The Grandest experience of all was the lights. Route 66 had Neon lights when you went through a town. Not like today where the Highways bypass the business sections. On old Route messages galore along the highway did their best to entice you to get gas, eat, stay the night, enjoy air conditioned sleeping and communicate the reality of vacancy or no vacancy.

On that trip I remember driving all night and coming to a town. It was a larger town than most. While driving by one motel I notice it had a train in the middle of the hotel grounds and that train would go through the parking lot around the pool and kids could ride it. If you stayed at the hotel you could ride if for free. It was suppose to help with the ease of taking bags and people to thier rooms. But to a six year old it was Disneyland. It was clear to me that the motel was a bit over what my parents had imagined the budget to be. But, after a long night of commoraderie with me Dad he thought it was a fine idea and said so to my Mom. What a place. What for the train to take you to the pool or to the gift shop or just get on board and ride. I have wondered how much did that engineer get paid to run around and around in that train. I have got a feeling he would have done it for free!

Years later I would drive Route 66 as a graduating college student. Cars, girls, fireworks, 4th of July, Indian Reservations.......a bit different view of Route 66 but still magical.

The Left "Ya Gotta Love em"

2008-07-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

I always liked Michael Kinsley, he was entertaining, and like most entertainers facts don't matter much to them entertainment is the key. Most entertainers have a script. Michael has written a piece about how liberals need to get along with each other. It is the remaining fallout and bad blood from the primaries of Clinton vs. Obama. You may recall Michael as the nerdy but clear spoken liberal with CNN's late 80's Crossfire. It was the format today used by Hannity and Combes and more formidably satirized by Ackroyd and Curtin, great journalist they may be, commenting on Abend and Offit on NY TV, on Saturday Night Live in the 70's. Remember Ackroyd's politically sentient opening, "Jane, you ignorant slut"? I always laughed at the politically imprudent line. I envision Kinsley in a political essay in his chair opposite of Pat Buchanon and defining why the mean Republicans are going to chew up the nice Democrats, "Pat your ignorant manwhore if Democrats don't get along it will be the only reason John McCain, the class elist gets elected President! It is a great article in Newsweek where Michael points out the "real" problems. The real problems for Democrats and the real problem. I must agree he does!

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1821662,00.html

In his Time magazine article in speaking of the Democratic Party Primaries he states,

" The one-on-one rivalry between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama lasted only about three months from beginning to end. Their policy disagreements are negligible. For many Clinton supporters, the chance to elect an African-American President represents the culmination of a cause they have been fighting for all their lives. Yet almost half of Clinton supporters tell pollsters that they will not vote for Obama. And Clinton's big-money backers are deflecting money and energy away from their party's presumptive nominee."

Kinsley has it right. Their policy disagreements are negligible. So what's the problem? The problem is this. This was supposed to be Hillary's chance. Bob Dole had his chance. Al Gore had his chance. Hell, they gave John Kerry a chance and even Democrats knew he was only electable in Mass. And this upstate new Senator from Illinois, Hillary's home state, beats her out of her chance. Beats her out, outwitted the smartest woman in the world, the greatest political machine created, outsmarted Bill! Something must be wrong in America! He is new. He is inexperienced. He defeated the best politicos in America. But more than that he isn't Hillary. Fact is some of the smart folks in the Democratic party don't like Bill or Hillary either. But it reveals something far worse.

When it comes to policies, Iraq, Taxes, The Supreme Court and its appointees, The Environment, Defense, China, Korea, Fuel Prices, Drilling in Anwar, etc. etc. there is a minuscule difference between Obama and Clinton. So why the Clinton angst. Kinsley points out that the Clintonistas believe there was sexism in the race. Like there is no racism in the race when it comes to Obama? Democrats need to walk softly here. If the only reason you don't like Obama is because there is sexism in the press concerning Hillary, what has Obama to do with that? The second question arises then is what is the only reason Clintonites don't like Obama, Racism? No, no that is not it. Cannot be it. Democrats are never racists are they? They are the party who likes Black America. Aren't they?

Kinsley adds one reason the Hillaryites don't like Obama is that Obama is moving aggressively to the center. Oh, really! Was it not Hillary who got her seat on the Armed Services Committee, voicing reservations about abortion, Hillary expanding on her fervent religious ideals sounding more like John Wesley or Billy Graham or her strong support of the Iraq War before she was against it. Democrats are as hard to follow as a Muhammad Ali rope a dope-bob and weave. So why don't they like Barack?

The element to recognize is that a Democrat will go where no other has gone before as long as it gets them elected. Hillary will meet with Newt Gingrich, Obama will redefine his position on Iraq three times in one day while later they can redefine their position in another vague interview because the standard press rarely presses the Dem leaders on issues where they concur.

What is the problem Michael asks? You don't want that McCain to win do you. Because if you think the Republicans are going to play nice. If you think McCain or the Republican are good guys, think again. This is the same Michael Kinsley who wrote about John McCain,

"Even better, he delivers the fresh air without the cloying aroma of piety. Or, rather, he can be pious, but the piety is diluted and made bearable by the knowing wink. He makes jokes at his own expense. That's attractive in a politician, but sometimes it is nothing more than a party trick. McCain goes further: Like Bob Dole, he makes jokes -- mean jokes, in public -- about others. That takes more wit and more guts. McCain is a good kind of cynic: He shares his cynicism with the rest of the class. The cynicism makes the piety bearable, while the piety makes the cynicism acceptable.
Journalists love him, of course. His frankness flatters us, and he flatters us more directly as well. Visiting a big convention of journalists last fall, McCain joined a group that was gambling at the hotel casino until the wee hours. In his speech the next morning, he cleverly nailed his audience and himself by declaring that he was happy to be among "my base."

Kinsley reveals his unwavering and adulterated bias towards Republicans clearly in this statement.

"For the Democrats to find it easier than the Republicans to raise money is a recent development, and a somewhat inspiring one. Affluent people who give to the Republican Party are advancing their own class interests, whereas those who give to the Democrats generally aren't."

The rascally Republicans give money to their party only to advance their own class interests. While Democrats generally don't. LOL....OMG. Read this as anti-intellectualism at its best. William F. Buckley is screaming in his grave saying, " And America believes this is the pinnacle of Left Wing Intellectualism".

I do so miss Daniel Patrick Moynihan who said,
" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."

"....advancing there own class interests..." it is the speak of those who will say that only Republicans label others while in fact this tag is reminiscent of those who create the envy of rich vs. poor and the haves vs. the have nots. Oh, I forgot those Republicans hate the poor, hate the unemployed and only like rich people. No, Michael, it is that they have different ideas than the Democrats. To say that people only give to the Republicans because there is a class interest in play is intellectually lazy, dishonest and frankly shows a hard bias of the intellectually dishonest. I forget this is not about truth but position. Frankly it is but entertainment once again.

But Michael says it best himself,
..."So they are taking their revenge(speaking about the Hillary supporters) on people without health care, women who need abortions, and others who they (if they supported Hillary) must think will be harmed by a Republican victory in the fall. That'll show 'em."

Harmed by a Republican victory. People who do not have health care or need abortions seem to be the criteria for this election. What we need from the Demos if Obama is elected is more abortions and a plan to put the government into the health care business.

Well, Mr. Kinsley again you are entertaining and in between the lines enlightening. What is the truth her is the rough and reality of the hard feelings between these groups, Feminists vs Black America. A large group of folks in the Democratic party are not thrilled that Obama is the candidate. And as you so aptly put it this is not a difference between Hillary and Barack with the exception of gender and race. So who are the racists in this one? What is the discovery that smells the worst. It is not the call to pure pragmatism and get your guy elected but the dirty secret you are tying to sweep under the floor. Some Democrats don't like the guy because he is black.

Difference is Michael, I don't like the guy because he just like Hillary, a unprincipled and politically expedient socialist. Here is my prophecy. If Obama does not win. You are going to spout that the only reason is that America is racist and that it is not about ideas. That Republicans are racist. You will be entertaining but you will not be accurate or truthful.

Clinton Meets Dukakis

2008-04-18T05:26:00.000-07:00

I have wondered when it would finally catch, when the rock in the shoe would start to make one uncomfortable, when would the antics of the Clinton-OBama campaign might affect Americans. The media "come to Jesus" time for Michael Dukakis in 1988 was his quite attractive and ludicrous look inside a tank. This photograph would never had taken place unless there were voters some counselor believed would be impressed. For Dukakis it had the opposite affect.

Hillary had made one of the great blunders of an election. She has put on the cap of an election lie and someone took a picture. Hillary's "CTJ" seems to have been on a tarmac in Bosnia years ago. The memory of this event that had slipped in the repressed collective conscienousness of reporters who covered Clinton "The First Lady". Traditionally these reporters had been offered news events from Hillary that where quite simular to previous First Ladies which usually included visiting Hospitals, opening schools, developing reading and nature programs. These events most certainly where and are under the radar of the hard core newsies of Washington.'

Yet, even these news brokers when it was reported Hillary dodged bullets in Bosnia scrambled for the video tape to recover their lost memories of that event. When they viewed the videotape clearly it did not seem to match the rhetoric of the candidate. When the footage was run it was clear Hillary had misunderstood her own memories. A rare plight for the woman who is suppose to be the smartest woman in the world. Fact is her memory was selective.

With Dukakis it was the inconsistency of his political positions with the frivolity of the picture. For Hillary it is the rhetoric of being the "smartest woman in America" and stretching the truth-telling a lie. The question is where else is this practice used in her campaign. Doubts emerge, newsies talk. "My gosh, I have heard she stretches the truth. We might need to look into some of the things she says"!

It confirms the thoughts that others have voiced about Hillary, mainly that she will re-write her history to emphaisize what she wants others to think about her. That she is just another political hack. Now the Newsies have noticed!

Global Warming the Tide has Turned.

2007-11-10T18:14:00.000-08:00

Here is a bit of current news I found interesting..........and I wonder who might know a bit more about weather, Coleman or Gore? Uhmmmm?

COMMENTS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING

By John Coleman

jcoleman@kusi.com

it is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM.

Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data back in the late 1990's to create an allusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental wacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the "research" to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus.

Environmental extremist, notable politicians among them then teamed up with movie, media and other liberal, environmentalist journalists to create this wild "scientific" scenario of the civilization threatening environmental consequences from Global Warming unless we adhere to their radical agenda.

Now their ridicules manipulated science has been accepted as fact and become a cornerstone issue for CNN, CBS, NBC, the Democratic Political Party, the Governor of California, school teachers and, in many cases, well informed but very gullible environmental conscientious citizens. Only one reporter at ABC has been allowed to counter the Global Warming frenzy with one 15 minutes documentary segment.

I do not oppose environmentalism. I do not oppose the political positions of either party.

However, Global Warming, i.e. Climate Change, is not about environmentalism or politics. It is not a religion. It is not something you "believe in." It is science; the science of meteorology. This is my field of life-long expertise. And I am telling you Global Warming is a nonevent, a manufactured crisis and a total scam. I say this knowing you probably won't believe me, a mere TV weatherman, challenging a Nobel Prize, Academy Award and Emmy Award winning former Vice President of United States. So be it.

I suspect you might like to say to me, "John, look the research that supports the case for global warming was done by research scientists; people with PH D's in Meteorology. They are employed by major universities and important research institutions. Their work has been reviewed by other scientists with PH D's. They have to know a lot more about it than you do. Come on, John, get with it. The experts say our pollution has created an strong and increasing greenhouse effect and a rapid, out of control global warming is underway that will sky rocket temperatures, destroy agriculture, melt the ice caps, flood the coastlines and end life as we know it. How can you dissent from this crisis? You must be a bit nutty.

Allow me, please, to explain how I think this all came about. Our universities have become somewhat isolated from the rest of us. There is a culture and attitudes and values and pressures on campus that are very different. I know this group well. My father and my older brother were both PHD-University types. I was raised in the university culture. Any person who spends a decade at a university obtaining a PHD in Meteorology and become a research scientist, more likely than not, becomes a part of that single minded culture. They all look askance at the rest of us, certain of their superiority. They respect government and disrespect business, particularly big business. They are environmentalists above all else.

And, there is something else. These scientists know that if they do research and results are in no way alarming, their research will gather dust on the shelf and their research careers will languish. But if they do research that sounds alarms, they will become well known and respected and receive scholarly awards and, very importantly, more research dollars will come flooding their way.

So when these researchers did climate change studies in the late 90's they were eager to produce findings that would be important and be widely noticed and trigger more research funding. It was easy for them to manipulate the data to come up with the results they wanted to make headlines and at the same time drive their environmental agendas. Then their like minded PHD colleagues reviewed their work and hastened to endorse it without question.

There were a few who didn't fit the mold. They did ask questions and raised objections. They did research with contradictory results. The environmental elitists berated them brushed their studies aside.

I have learned since the Ice Age is coming scare in the 1970's to always be a skeptic about research. In the case of global warming, I didn't accept media accounts. Instead I read dozens of the scientific papers. I have talked with numerous scientists. I have studied. I have thought about it. I know I am correct when I assure you there is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril. It is all a scam, the result of bad science.

I am not alone in this assessment. There are hundreds of other meteorologists, many of them PH D's, who are as certain as I am that this global warming frenzy is based on bad science and is not valid.

I am incensed by the incredible media glamour, the politically correct silliness and rude dismal of counter arguments by the high priest of Global Warming.

In time, a decade or two, the outrageous scam will be obvious. As the temperature rises, polar ice cap melting, coastal flooding and super storm pattern all fail to occur as predicted everyone will come to realize we have been duped.

The sky is not falling. And, natural cycles and drifts in climate are as much if not more responsible for any climate changes underway.

I strongly believe that the next twenty years are equally as likely to see a cooling trend as they are to see a warming trend.

Now there are three....

2007-07-17T07:36:00.001-07:00

Something happenned yesterday for which I was not prepared. Being prepared for death is hard work and I am not sure if any of it is easy. My brother Michael died Sunday evening at home, in bed, after a easy Sunday around the house.

Mike had "an episode" several weeks ago where his blood pressure had skyrocketed in the middle of the night and he was taken to the ER until it could be stabilized. Something just wasn't right and Mike went to sleep and did not wake up. Not a bad way to go I presume yet this one bothers me.

When my parents passed away everyone said, " it was a good life" and "things are better for them now". To be sure that was true my father had been ill for a very long time and even he was more than ready. I am not sure Michael was. He was only sixty. That was elderly a hundred years ago but today we are living a great deal longer. The scary news is Mike is only five years.....actually four years and some months older than I. So the call to move into the time of life that sees others go and come seems to be at hand.

I am not going to presume that I know the ins and outs of what happens when one dies. I am convinced that it is the preminent question of life. And to run away from the thought and inevitability of death is a futile activity. I fool around with the history of my family-geneologically. Everyone who has come before has passed away. Sounds like something out of Forrest Gumps lips but it is true. Part of process and function of life is the closing of death and its transformation into what is next.

Michael leaves his wife, three children, two grandchildren and of course his car. If we could afford it we should bury Mike in his car. Would be fitting. I believe we could tell his life story by the different automobiles that he had utilized. From hopped up 1956 Chevy Station Wagon Nomads to sports cars to rebuilt classics. As a Junior High Student having Mike pick me up in his British Racing Green sports car from school was a thrill. He liked going fast and was fond of sliding into the driveway on pleasant place jacking the handbrake in a four wheeled slide.

I am rather pleased he never came to visit. He would be appalled at my garage. He would tell me something to the tune that I am cluttered with teaching thoughts and need to get my brain back on terra firma which translated meant get your tools in shape. My wife would adore his work ethic and voice out loud why I cannot be more like he. She has secretly been envious of my brothers wife. My wife can identify she is a doer as well, just no project or garage skills like Michael.

When my Mother died there was some family squabbling, as there sometimes is, over this and that. And Mike and I would sit on his lawn while I smoked cigars and he smoked cigarettes and talk about being a kid and "the old Man", his term for our Dad, and I learned a bunch. He had values. He wondered why he never made it in the car or dune buggy or some kid of auto business yet he never gave up. Always had something going. He was a doer. I am told he just about vacuumed the lawn before he was finished. Me, I mow it when the neighbors start yelling.

Me ......well, I have not felt well since I heard the news. Took to my sleep regime to be sure I not deprived of any rest. Took a nap yesterday, went to bed early although I was up most of the night watching DIGGING FOR HISTORY, slept in late today and wonder when I am going to get the gumption to get a few things done.

He was my big brother and I have never had life without him. I will miss him.......the old curmudgeon.

Liberals and Global Warming

2007-06-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

It was in my college days that I became aware of the calamity that was soon to befall America and the known world. It was the new Ice Age that was to come our way! There was Paul Ehrlich saying that the rise of aerosols was causing the climate to cool in his huge bestseller the "Population Bomb".

Newsweek Magazine on April 28, 1975 article in Newsweek magazine Titled "The Cooling World," it pointed to "ominous signs that the Earth's weather patterns have begun to change" and pointed to "a drop of half a degree [Fahrenheit] in average ground temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere between 1945 and 1968." The article claimed "The evidence in support of these predictions [of global cooling] has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it."

Peter Gwynne the author of this story said in Newsweek, "The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it. In England, farmers have seen their growing season decline by about two weeks since 1950, with a resultant overall loss in grain production estimated at up to 100,000 tons annually. During the same time, the average temperature around the equator has risen by a fraction of a degree – a fraction that in some areas can mean drought and desolation. Last April, in the most devastating outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded, 148 twisters killed more than 300 people and caused half a billion dollars' worth of damage in 13 U.S. states."

Oh really, well, I was certainly taken up with the notion because I remember going to Safeway in Seal Beach California and having to make a hard choice. One that I made for my brothers and sisters who like me were fighting for the cause. I had moved to California after college days in Seattle, and within a year was working at an upscale Newport Beach eatery. It required the highest levels of personal grooming, style and frankly my Right Guard personal deodorant which had been a mainstay since college day. It had to go! Why, well, it was clear from the media that it was aerosols that were bringing the snows quite soon to L.A.. I turned to a roll-on just as New York turned to Hillary. Hoping not to sweat and to cut the stink. The jury is still out on one of those.

So as the blog discussion goes.....Which issue of Newsweek is one to believe the one of 1975 or today's. The rhetoric is vitriolic when it comes to the "reality" of Global Warming in this political climate. In from the cold, comes Edward J. Wegman who the author must disclose is neither a meteorologist or a climatologist. Mr. Wegman is a statistician. He teaches at George Mason and is chair of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics. His forte is numbers and what does the grouping of numbers say to us. The good Doctor has his masters and Phd. and twenty years of teaching in the field. You can check his stature in this little bio.

http://www.galaxy.gmu.edu/stats/faculty/wegman.html

Dr. Wegman was brought in to review the reports of scientists which included one Michael Mann. It is the same Mann who made some of the largest claims about global warming using statistics from a study of his own which were presented to the US House of Representatives. It began a discussion, albeit one way-most liberals find it difficult having core spiritual beliefs challenged by facts, wherein Wegman identified and analyzed the content of the material used in the statistic of global warming.

Wegman believes that much of the climate science that has been done should be taken with a grain of salt -- although the studies may have been peer reviewed, the reviewers were often unqualified in statistics. Past studies, he believes, should be reassessed by competent statisticians and in future, the climate science world should do better at incorporating statistical know-how.

Lawrence Solomon, National Post
Published: Friday, February 02, 2007

Now before we start attacking Mr. Wegman, the University of Iowa had the misfortune of giving him their Distinguished Alumni Award in 2004 for his achievements in statistics. It is the same Dr. Wegman who coined the phrase computational statistics and developed a high-profile research area around this concept, which focused on techniques and methodologies that could not be achieved without the capabilities of modern computing resources and led to a revolution in contemporary statistical graphics.

Wegman states some clear but concise arguments:

1. Most of these climatologist and meteorologists are not
statisticians and make huge mistakes that are in the purveyance
of the statistical world.

2. If one wants good science then technical statisticians should
be found to handle the massive data that is attempted to be analyzed
centuries of temperature and environmental changes.

3. Bad science comes from bad data and what many in the scientific
community are basing their conclusions on is bad data.

The first and single most argument heard in the non-debate over global warming is that it is a "settled" scientific fact. It is only those who still have their proverbial heads in the ground and perhaps believe that the world is flat or 4,000 years old who could ever disagree with such a massive ecological truth that the world is in turmoil over global warming who might disagree. Mr. Wegman disagrees. He say something simple about data coined during the early years of the computer age.

"Garbage in-Garbage out"

Tough to write off Wegman as a crank or lunatic.......but you must remember if it is talking points one is interested in...the truth does not matter.

Maverick Lives Again

2007-06-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

Never been all that found of AOL but AOL has a new program where you can watch old TV and Movies. You know that my favorite TV program of all time is Maverick. Would you like to watch them in the original? Here is the link!

Disney Delights

2007-05-06T18:43:00.000-07:00

In the 1960's if you lived in California Disneyland was a great place if you were in Junior High. Your parents would drop you off and it only cost $1.20 for 12-17 yr olds to get in. And the great thing is that there were girls. Girls liked Disney and better yet, the parents of these girls liked Disney and they would drop them off as well. It was the once place that in Junior High you could spend an entire evening and be some place where there was girls and no parents to bother you.

I wanted to be older. When you are 14 older is 16 or 17 seems elderly and you had to have the stuff .......you had to carry. Not the same as now...but it was contraband nevertheless. I would sneak across to local hamburger joint Zesto's during the week or the Saturday before and buy a bunch of cigarettes, Zesto's had a cigarette machine outside and to the left of the order window. When you were in Junior High smoking was cool. So, I would cruise into the magic kingdom with not only my own supply of Marlboros but a supply of Kools or Kents as well.

I had a friend from Fitz Junior High who had an older brother and he had a car. Never mind that it was a 1949 studebaker.......no paint...........torn front seats..........no seat in the back.....just bare metal........and there was rust in the back and if you got the right angle you could see the drive train go round and round as the asphalt blasted past.

We would go into Disney and for me there was one prerequisite for the evening. I had to go to the Pirate Ship and get a grilled tuna sandwich. I remember there were .60cents and for .20cents more it came with chips. I still remember that sandwich. I have tried to duplicate it but...just cannot. It was toasted and grilled but moist and the tuna was sweet and it tasted like real tuna not the canned junk we see today. If you have ever eaten sushi quality fresh tuna you know of which I speak. Followed up of course by a Coke. No one would ever have thought of an alternative. No diet....7-UP or a bubble-up maybe....or I might spring for a quality lemonade but it was coke in those days.

And off one went.....of course you had to light up, it was that which communicated ....."

I am here and my Parents are not within miles of the place".

I remember meeting a very cute blonde from far far away Downey who asked...."You mean you parents just dropped you off and they are not here" The level of incredulity was so thick it took me a few assurances to convince her I was not joking. Lighting that Marlboro seemed to do the trick. Just don't light it up in front of one of the giant six foot plus security guards. And keep moving ....don't stop and smoke so parents of other kids have to answer the question ......."Where are their parents" and then one of the giant security guards might come and hassle you and call your parents. It had been done!

I you met a girl there were the good rides to take young females on. Peter Pan's ride...it was dark, ditto for Mr. Toad's and Alice in Wonderland, the Matterhorn was great because you got to be behind and .........of course the skyway was not bad as long as you did not mind the gawkers going the other way. It was mostly walking and being someplace that mattered.

The summer between the 8th and 9th grade I met and fell for a lovely young woman from Granada Hills. I had an inclination where Granada Hills was but it was a bit hazy. Her name was Sharon. I remember her cute flower printed sun dress she wore. She had said she had just come back from the "river" and was tan. I have always liked tan lines. I remember the dress had these huge sunflowers, something not unusual in the sixties. It was yellow and the flowers were white and green. She had white and green ribbons in her blonde hair. She wore cute green sandals that matched. And unlike many of the other young women in Junior Highville she had become curvy. Something I noticed and liked.

When you are in Junior High and your main ride has holes in the back floor board, Granada Hills is a long ways away. Just for historic accuracy in 2000 I drove from Orange County to Granada Hills in my rented Mustang Convertible and it was a long haul. Yet week after week that summer her Father would pack up she and a friend......sometimes it seemed these friends were interchangeable and there she would be just about 5:30 Saturday afternoon in front of the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Boat.

Parents trusted Disney. It was safe. They had security. It was a known commodity and a gorgeous 13 year old with an overdeveloping body and tan lines should be safe at the Land that Walter built.

But..........no in that innocent 1965 world where Spin and Marty still hung out at the Dude Ranch. It was a good summer. That girl loved to kiss, forget about me...she loved to kiss! Get into Peter Pans ride and .........bang lip lock. Over and over.......I knew ......." here we go...up up and away".......it was always a challenge to smootch while Mr. Toad was thumpin down the rail road tracks towards hell. She could bend her kneck back riding the Matterhorn.....one forgot it was a roller coaster. She loved to kiss and found a joy in kissing that today delights my small mind some forty two years later. It was joy in touch that was hers. I remember eating an ice cream cone on main street sitting on the curb....she molded her body to fit into mine. Not sure how she did it but it was a natural thing. Not contrived or thought of ....it just seemed like she fit. We found ourselves alone each Saturday...everyone else, my friends who I had come with and her friend or friends would just disappear. We never quite noticed but would be by ourselves. And we would look to find a ride to smootch. It was a pastime. Never rushed ...never hurried and I found the softness and the slowness that a tender and light kiss brings. My mouth would tickle and my breath would just evaporate. I believe if we had known each other as adults we would have brought ourselves to unconsciousness....but that is another whole thought.

I remember one of her friends she had brought from Granada Hills became quite irritated when I came into the picture one evening. It was my thought that she had been a last minute replacement and was not prepared for "boys", meaning me as part of the evening. She asked the girl to stay but she left and it was not until the bewitching hour when they had to leave that she showed up at the circle in front of the Castle. At just about 11pm she would have to race to the front of the park and her father would be there waiting to pick her up.

I remember one night realizing I had not smoked one cigarette that evening. It was merely a prop. Trying to be older or .......at least to desire to appear like "The Thin Man" or some other movie noteable.

And then one Saturday night she was not there. I had her phone number....I really never knew if Sharon had my number. But, it was long distance. In my house that was a big thing. So, the next day I asked my Mom if I could call a friend I had met at Disney who lived in Granada Hills.

" This a friend, a boy you met at Disney", my Mother asked. With that look that only a way too knowledgable Mother might employ.

" Well......someone I met at Disney, Can I call them"?, I silently pleaded without wanting to give up the goods.

" Ok, but remember long distance is not cheap", she chided like the butcher who is speaking of a bad cut of meat.

"OK, Ok, OK", I said as the reality sunk in I would have to find a place to call. So, I took the princess phone from my parents room and hooked it up in the living room as far away from any inquiring minds as I could.

"May I speak with Sharon please," I said in the tone of voice which most resmembled Eddie Haskell I have ever used. And bingo it was her. She was shocked.

"How did you remember my number......(I never had the chance to tell her I kept it like a secret swiss bank account)....I could not go....my folks aren't going to let me go to Disney anymore.", everything blurted out at once. And it one second I knew how Romeo felt when confronted with confrontational parents. I wanted to say let us run away somewhere.......find another place to go on Saturday night, just let me smell the prell in your hair and wonder how those lips got so soft. I wanted to say....I have never felt better being around someone in my life and I like the person I am around you. But, I did not quite say that. I said...."That is too bad what happened"?

"Well, remember Debbie, Well she told her Mom I was meeting a High School boy and she told my Mom and My mom told my Dad and my Dad talked to me but he really did not talk to me he yelled and I cried and tried to tell him I didn't do anything like Debbie said and he said if I was meeting and hanging out with strange boys and tried to say you were not strange but a nice boy and he said that Debbie had told her Mom who told my Mom that I was being loose and I think she is just jealous because last year there was a boy we both liked who went to our church and she didn't like him later and I did and she has really like me since but I needed someone to go to Disney or I could then my Mom talked to me and warned me that I have to watch out for boys because you can pregant and I just said that I had kissed and nothing else nothing that I should ever be ashamed of and I wish I could do it again and I liked it and ......they said they are not going to let me go again ..................never a breath taken! It was amazing.

I had been walking for weeks with a calm, sophisticated and I am certain sometime in her life a creative nymphomaniac but right at that moment she was a frustrated 13 year old who was brave and told her parents she liked kissing a boy, me and she knew what she was doing.

I never saw her again. I tried to call the next week but that call was interupted by her mother who said she could not come to the phone. I called once again in a week or so and it was a repeat of the same. Soon, life seemed to have moved on and I did not go back to Disney much the summer between 9th and 10th grades. It was not the same.

I called one time when I was a junior. We both had boyfriend and girlfriend each and I told her she was the best kisser I ever knew and she said I was the sweetest boy she ever knew and why didn't I live closer. The next year I did have a drivers license but by then.............well, it was later and there was this beautiful girl named Susan.

And later Disney was a great date place, a fun place. Disney was safe, they had security and parents trusted Mickey and his giant 6ft tall security guards. And it had dark places........but i have to admit, ...there is only one first time when you smell fresh prell and feel the touch of silky skin creme and there are ..........tan lines and she is curvy and she melts when you put your arm around her, she melts when you put your arm around her and that look ..........even forty two years later.

When Einstein Got Bored!!!!

2007-03-26T19:42:00.000-07:00

Here is a fun riddle and I guess it comes from the desk of Al himself.

No tricks....this can be solved.....it is all about logic.

ALBERT EINSTEIN'S RIDDLE

ARE YOU IN THE TOP 2% OF INTELLIGENT PEOPLE IN THE WORLD? SOLVE THE RIDDLE AND FIND OUT.

There are no tricks, just pure logic, so good luck and don't give up.

1. In a street there are five houses, painted five different colours.
2. In each house lives a person of different nationality
3. These five homeowners each drink a different kind of beverage, smoke different brand of cigar and keep a different pet.

THE QUESTION: WHO OWNS THE FISH?

HINTS

1. The Brit lives in a red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The Green house is next to, and on the left of the White house.
5. The owner of the Green house drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
7. The owner of the Yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The man living in the centre house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
12. The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbour who drinks water.

ALBERT EINSTEIN WROTE THIS RIDDLE EARLY DURING THE 19th CENTURY. HE SAID THAT 98% OF THE WORLD POPULATION WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO SOLVE IT.

New World Order

2007-03-22T16:41:00.000-07:00

I was told the other day that I have not been writing much on my web site and that this someone checks the thing often. Sorry, I am a son of gun....or as our five year house guest from Columbia used to say....You are a ..and would use words not fit to translate.......not always sure of the exact translation but since this fair lady had reputation of being able to swear in Spanish like a drunken oil worker, it must have been bad.

Did you know the world changed here just recently. Two major discoveries: one light might be particles and waves-not just particles and sometimes waves. Or sometimes waves and sometimes particles..........or either and the magnetic vortices on the sun explode and may collapse back into themselves NOT leaving the suns gravitational pull. Something that was thought to be IMPOSSIBLE, like Al Gore having a sensient thought. Imagine the magnetic pull of the earth being retracted by immense forces..so immense we have no idea what they are.

Just thought I would drop in a share a thought or two. Been reading some Einstein lately. Have a Phd. in physics on the staff at school and he thinks I am smart. No fooling....got this guy fooled....so he shares all of this crazy stuff with me about logic and math and .......I am sure he did acid in the sixties. So hear is one of the articles we talk about.

Read on:

Newswise — Work completed by a visiting research professor at Rowan University, physics professors and a student from the institution shows that light is made of particles and waves, a finding that refutes a common belief held for about 80 years.

Shahriar S. Afshar, the visiting professor who is currently at Boston's Institute for Radiation-Induced Mass Studies (IRIMS), led a team, including Rowan physics professors Drs. Eduardo Flores and Ernst Knoesel and student Keith McDonald, that proved Afshar’s original claims, which were based on a series of experiments he had conducted several years ago.

An article on the work titled "Paradox in Wave-Particle Duality" recently published in Foundations of Physics, a prestigious, refereed academic journal, supports Albert Einstein’s long-debated belief that quantum physics is incomplete. For eight decades the scientific community generally had supported Niels Bohr’s ideas commonly known as the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. In 1927, in his “Principle of Complementarity,” he asserted that in any experiment light shows only one aspect at a time, either it behaves as a wave or as a particle. Einstein was deeply troubled by that principle, since he could not accept that any external measurement would prevent light to reveal its full dual nature, according to Afshar. The fundamental problem, however, seemed to be that one has to destroy the photon in order to measure either aspects of it. Then, once destroyed, there is no light left to measure the other aspect.

“About 150 years ago, light was thought to behave solely as a wave similar to sound and water waves. In 1905, Einstein observed that light might also act as being made out of small particles. Since then physicists found it difficult understanding the full nature of light since in some situations it acts like a particle and in others like a wave,” Flores said. “This dual nature of light led to the insight that all fundamental physical objects include a wave and a particle aspect, even electrons, protons and students.”

Afshar conducted his initial theoretical and experimental work at IRIMS, where he served the privately funded organization as a principal investigator. He later continued his work at the Harvard University Physics Department as a research scholar, where he was able to verify his initial findings before going to Rowan.

In 2004, Afshar claimed that he had devised an experiment that challenged Bohr’s principle of complementarity. The Rowan team was formed to verify Afshar’s claim at extremely low light intensity levels. Afshar, Flores and Knoesel conducted experiments at Rowan that validated Afshar’s initial findings for single photons.

In this modified double-slit experiment, a laser beam hits a screen with two small pinholes. As a particle, light goes through one of the pinholes. Through a lens system, the light is then imaged onto two detectors, where a certain detector measures only the photons, which went through a particular pinhole. In this way, Afshar verified the particle nature of light. As a wave, light goes through both pinholes and forms a so-called interference pattern of bright and dark fringes.

“Afshar’s experiment consists of the clever idea of putting small absorbing wires at the exact position of the dark interference fringes, where you expect no light,” Knoesel said. “He then observed that the wires do not change the total light intensity, so there are really dark fringes at the position of the wires. That proves that light also behaves as a wave in the same experiment in which it behaves as a particle.”

The findings of the Afshar experiment were published online on January 23 in the Foundations of Physics, an international journal devoted to the conceptual bases and fundamental theories of modern physics, biophysics and cosmology, with several distinguished Nobel laureates on its editorial board. The print version was published in the February 2007 edition and is now available in libraries throughout the world.

“The important new contribution is that light carries both wave and particle aspects at all times, and future experiments will further clarify the nature of each component.” Afshar said.

Flores continued, “It is interesting to note that even after 80 years we can still gain a better understanding about the nature of light using refined measurement techniques and creative ideas and therefore are able add to the vast insights of former scientists.”

Gotta love this scientist name! Nickname the Shah!!

still kicking.......

2006-10-16T06:19:00.000-07:00

Still kicking these days......we are in the middle of school and the middle of Football, in the middle of Grandkids and in the middle.....of life. Last week went to two High School football games and spent Saturday as the barbecue King raising money for the Varsity Football Team in Town. Our local team has already qualified for the Regional playoffs which are preliminary rounds in the State Playoff system. This team is good, very talented but undisciplined. A malady of the age and indicative of what must be overcome not only on the football field but also the classroom with High Schoolers today.

Young men and women, mine included, have not lacked for much in this generation. My bride and I just built an gym for our youngest. Took one of bedroom and free weighted the place. Getting four or five high school guys in the house lifting weights is a testosterone experience at level 10.

Even the poorest of the community here in our fair town live well and are resplendent with clothes, cell phones and automobiles. Granted, there remain some who do lack but one cannot make too many assumptions at any level. Not long ago one young man who I believed might be from a less fortunate family came to school with a much nicer automobile than I drive for his 18th birthday present.

Many of these young men and women have been involved with competitive sports, football, baseball, cheerleading, soccer and others since early elementary school. The more affluent have personal coaches, personal trainers and attend expensive camps over breaks and summer. Several young men involved with football whose parents can easily afford it have engaged personal sports counsel whose number one aim is to garnish a scholarship at a reputable institution of learning through their sport of choice. These professionals, for a fee, do all of the leg work and do their best to match needs with skill at one of the major institutions of sport for an athlete who just might be overlooked.

Much of this business is the same as yours....networking and advertisement. Once a player starts to get his name recognized.....blogs, sports internet sites and message boards often can secure a full ride to a University setting. But, if your name does not hit the electronic bricks then alternative routes must be utilized.

At our large and rather sophisticated High School, the Coach of our Varsity has a goal simply to win the state championship and place 20 plus students on a full ride scholarship. He has tapes that he, or his staff, mails to Colleges and Universities every week. He wants to start the advertising tsunami first. At a very small school in Georgia he had 18 full ride scholarship out of his program in one year. Why does he do this work. Well, frankly, if you were a parent who had been going to Pop Warner football games since your boy was five and hoped and prayed that he stayed healthy and believed he could participate first in High School and then had the skill sets for a University career, where would you want your boy to attend High School at the school which has no facilities to help him out or one which proactively believes in touting their talent. Granted in our fair community there are homes in the millions but a lot of these young men are like us who can afford to get a car for their youngster but not hire a professional scholarship magnet. Already, several fine athletes have come our way seeing a program that wants to win and take care of their athletes.

Then, how do you find the balance to encourage these athletes to work hard and become disciplined. When I went to High School, in the late sixties, there were no questions. It was the Coaches way or the highway. Our coaches were punitive. When you made a mistake you paid for it later in practice or the next practice after a game. My vision of what or who Nero or Caligula was came directly from my high school football coach. Going off sides or a downfield block after the play was over would have been terminally unacceptable. The behavior very close to spitting in the coaches face during a practice. You just didn't do it.....ever! Or even think about it. I still shudder thinking about a hundred up downs and having to run after practice for going off-sides during a scrimmage game. The coach standing over me and watching me run around the practice field five times. I concentrated after that and was rarely ever penalized. Mental acuity, yet I am told even marine drill sergeants are much more friendlier these days. A "New generation".......has come our way.

I see the same lack of ability to handle life issues in the classroom every week. There are youngsters in my classrooms who cannot control themselves and who look upon those who ask of them to be disciplined, namely me and consider them to be out of step. I work at a very affluent school. It cost parents about $10,000 dollars a year to send Dick and Jane to this institution. Most of these youngster come from the side of the tracks where they ARE hiring personal trainers and advertising agents in sport. Yet, I find the desire to break rules or to challenge authority a far greater issue than I ever experience in the crazy sixties. Yet, once the parameters of behavior are identified, enforced and done with a smile a good number of these young men and women are far happier and find themselves accomplishing a great deal more. If you ask it of them, they will deliver.

When one of these High School students catches the vision and commits to working hard, their advantage is extraordinary. What transpires is that they earn A's and start on athletic teams. It is what money cannot buy that brings success, momentum and maturity. Not particularly complicated but this simple notion eludes many.

News for me: I am being moved in my parochial school of choice. From being a jack of all subjects to teaching U.S. History and World History. I love the stuff.......my desire is to infuse the energy and clear thinking that was gifted to me from my mentors to these young minds full of mush.

By the way, did a survey of 118 seniors in our economic classes and 66 had been involved in a car accident in the last year-73 had received at least one ticket. Know you know why the charge so much money for auto insurance and even more for a high school student......ya think!!

By now you have forgotten me........

2006-07-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

It is not that I do not care......it is that I have been lazy and I have not written. Have to admit between playing poker, trying to reinvent my genealogical line and a bit of this and that time goes by.

To put one's mind to string a number of cogent thoughts is sometimes a challenge. If you don't believe me go to one of any spots on my space . com and read almost any of the blogs, email and profiles that are available. Few youngsters either write or can write.... many that do use a form of urban or suburbanbonics. Like almost every other over 50 parent it was my youngsters who alerted me to the new world of internet positioning.

"Did you see the pick from Jen on my space....I'm with that" said Z...my Son's 112 pound wrestling star friend.

" So you have a space Z...where is it"?, I creatively asked.
"Ha, Ha.....You are too much, your Dad is trying to be funny again", Z snapped.
" No, really"...... I realized I was the only person in the room who did not know what my space.com was.

Da Daaaa.....the wonders of Google and presto chango I am in the world of "their space". Lots going on here by the way. High Schoolers, College Age and older are all into my space.....with schools now exercising warning labels about the dangers of predators and sex fiends perusing the pages of the blogs of young people in America. You can be certain there is a lot of adult stuff on the my space world. However, that is not what I was going to write about. There are some craaaaaazzzy my space blogs out there. Forget about that fellow looking for a fifteen year old take a peek around the my space blogosphere it is worth the price of an e-ticket. I found Shaquille O'neil's spot....nice guy and gosh all mightly everybody wants to be his friend. Here is the thing....once you find someone you can see who he has b-friended. Then a whole new world comes crashing your way. By the way did I say Shaquille O'Niel appears to quite a nice fellow.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=4314523

Take a peek for yourself. Shaq has 37,000 friends. Hell, that actually is the definition, albeit in England, of a small urban town. More than 37,000 and you are not country any more but urban. Shaq might be a small town unto himself.

http://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/rural_resd/rural_definition.asp

Link here and link there...and before long I am wondering why Mistress Bianca who lives in Santa Monica.....has tatoos and multiple piercings....looks good on her photo profile and who wants kids and grandkids...can't seem to find the right man. There is the 40ish engineer who has his engineering information that he is working on right there for all his peers to review. There are church guys.....BDSM couples and students galoooooore. It is possible to drift from one profile to the next traversing the hemisphere.

Here and there someone pops up and it dawns on me.....there is a great my space truth. Everyone is special...it is easy to see when you can see the time and effort put forth to quiz, inform, tantalize, explain and define each of us as human beings. I wonder at the Japanese American, the athlete, the musician, the student and the Goth who lives in Des Moine as they work to make their way through the world. Fact is I like to have a beer, a glass of Oregon Pinot, a whatever.....with a large number of these folks....they seem ...like Shaq...nice people. Even the strippers and porn queen types love their cats and are looking for Mr. Right or Mrs. Right as their nature might deploy. They seem to have a lot of friends as well but have decided not to email anyomore. I guess that is an occupational hazard.

These spots do reflect the world and the reality of life for these good people......I need to go get a space just to see what I might look like. My son and a bunch of his friends don't use conventional email anymore they have moved now to these profile locations where they can "hook up" with their friends.

So what should I call myself?? I think I am going to call up Z....(my direct line to things cool in the 11th grade) and find out what to do.

Til later............

.....Hey 19 that's Retha Franklin

2006-05-12T15:33:00.000-07:00

.......Hey Nineteen That's 'Retha Franklin She don't remember The Queen of Soul.
Steely Dan

Teaching High School...having a High School student and formerly being a High Schooler, albeit close to forty years ago, has provided for me a crows nest view of High School Seniors this week. With it being the last official week of their High School career certain absolute essentials dominate their lives. ..... "Got to get their cap and gown and have to have everyone sign the year book and got to get the last test in so I can graduate with the grades I want, got to make sure I know who is throwing the grad party and where..moaning and groaning about the hard, tough or mean teachers who might make the 'last days' of High School such a drag, .....it isn't fair", they say.

All of the above seem so excruciatingly important. Nothing in any way could surpass the desire to write in someone's yearbook. When I told one of my senior classes that is was not but a few years ago that my daughter discovered my high school yearbooks in the bottom of a very ancient box with an espresso machine I believe I bought at the very first Starbucks in the Pike Place Market in the 70's of which yearbook and exspresso machine I had not set my eyes on in over twenty years, they were a bit befuddled. I said to them, " you might look at this for a few months, later before your High School Reunion but for the most part it is left for a relic upon your book shelf or a part of the "stuff" box you drag from apartment to apartment until you decide either to store it in the antique section or in fact you misplace the thing entirely".

What was entirely off the wall strange was that when I named the people who I had been in contact from my High School in all these almost forty years could be counted on my right hand that did amaze and stupefy. My #2 step son and his High School friends are closer today than when they were in High School. It would be entirely possible for him to put together a cocktail party of 25 to 35 of such pals who live near each other, play golf weekly, do business with each other, take vacations together and whose children now are the best of friends as well. Not true for me. The people of closeness for me out of the academic world come from College not High School. I live thousands of miles from my high school and would not move back.
I told them of a friend of mine who passed on his College Graduation to take a seat in the arena next door to watch Mick Jagger cavort with Stevie Wonder onstage. That at least moved into the realm of cool but still left lines of doubt about someone who might forgo the pleasure of cap and gown. For most of them it did not compute.

When I mentioned to them I can only remember the really hard ass teachers that I had, they were the only good ones as well, they could not believe me. Sorry, it may be the lack of an old mans memory but I am not the only 50 year old to mention that only the tough ones stay in one's head.

This lead to me to one of my crucial rules of life; don't really have a number for these crucial rules of life but if I did my children would be able to shout out a number rather than be forced to hear them over and over again as they have all of their life. One is that history is lost from generation to generation and has to be relearned in times of stress or indulgence. It takes History to bring perspective. It takes seeing the big picture to make things work. One reason the founding fathers put a simple age requirement on President. They didn't do for anyone else. There are others, but I will leave that to another post.

Steely Dan's Donald Fagen and Walter Becker seem to know and sing about such things.

Hey Nineteen
That's 'Retha Franklin
She don't remember
The Queen of Soul
It's hard times befallen
The sole survivors
She thinks I'm crazy
But I'm just growing old

Hey Nineteen
No we got nothing in common
No we can't talk at all
Please take me along
When you slide on down

The Cuervo Gold
The fine Colombian
Make tonight a wonderful thing

It is apparent when I ask one of my classes what they believe everyday life in Rome in the midst of the Roman Empire might be like. These Romans lived in marble and granite with steam heated floors, efficient water and sewage systems, a bath system to keep all but the poorest clean and comfy. Some of the middle class abodes in the Roman cities would fit right in to one of our gated communities close by. It is simple discoveries that open one's heart and mind.

I'll never forget the day my oldest step-son Tom came to ask me an important question, "did you know that Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings". One of those small discoveries that change everything. BTW yes, I did know that one. There have been other questions since, Tom is now something of a music expert, that I could not answer. It remains a question of perspective. Perspective.........the larger view. Or perhaps the insiders detailed view, both work.

Regardless, half of the instructional battle with modern 14-18 year olds is to give some level of perspective that might allow a peak above the trees to see that there is a forest. Today one of my youngest son's friends was offered a full scholarship to Harvard. Harvard estimates that to attend for one year it should cost $48850.00 in 2006 not counting health cost of $1200.00 or so to keep a student on a health plan....do the math. Times four....$194500.00 add some inflation ....and that ticket is an E ticket worth just under $225,000 dollars. I asked this handsome, athletic, football player just how many hours he believed he had studied in High School. He figured roughly under 1450 real hours he will invest over the course of four years in academic endeavors of improvement. That is about $154.00 per hour. Nice investment.....by the way this kid is a tough defensive back on our football team who can deliver the hard punishing lick to an opponent. He is also black. I asked him how he had produced such excellence on the field and in class. He said, "I knew I had a chance I just had to remember that chance everyday". I admire this kind of big picture kid. I am just thrilled for him and his future. Big picture....big future!

I don't believe I had this big picture view as a youngster. I looked for pleasure and fulfillment in things that were good........some excellent but still were trees and not the forest. I believe that the forest begins to form and many adults get grumpier, bitter and some even start to blame the trees for their situation. Or worse yet they start to recarve the forest into something they believe they can explain their own life with. Sometimes.....the Cuervo takes over. Each of us does have our own plan.

Italians, Wine and Gina Lollabrigida

2006-04-28T14:05:00.000-07:00

" Oh, you were in the wine business? (Rhetorical Question this is) Tell me what is your......favorite wine"? This is question that was asked of me last night in the midst of drinking some mediocre wine (be careful of Rotarians with wine) and is asked not only at the dinner table at home by guests but oftimes comes out socially as well. The question remains and I most often respond with something to the effect that I love Italian red wine. And frankly I do. Italian red wine has breadth, quality, diversity and ingenuity. These wines can be light, powerful, tannic and liked a seasoned lover gentle and understanding. I do like them.

However, I was reminded last night that a great number of items and products that are produced from Italy hit the top of the mark standard. Italian automobiles certainly have left their mark on the world. Just talking price tag one cannot stop and consider expensive cars without the name brands of Maserati, Ferrari, Lamborghini making their way in the collective automobile shoppers consciousness. Shoes come in Berluti and Testoni with mens and womens both requiring your credit rating to top 800 to make purchases. While the tile expert in my family says that some of very best and most pricey tile comes from ancient and modern sources in Garabaldi's homeland. Add to the list clothiing, furniture and well............my favorite ......delicious women from my childhood.

I don't believe I was much out of junior high when I was tipped to the pulchridutinous delights of Verna Lisi, Gina Lollabrigida and Sophia Loren. Let me pause here my good friends, you and I know that I have been married close to 23 years now. And her majesty is my all in all. And if I was to break her anonymity here on the blog I would post her pic and you would see a close resemblance to those pictures posted, one of those developmental easy imprinted things I am sure. Regardless, choosing a wife who is as hot as SL is not a bad thing. Concerning SL....read on.

Just take one moment and say ........Sophia Loren, no woman would be jealous if I thought a 70 year was hot....So-fi-ah.......and she is....over 70..... and have you seen her? Oh my goodness gracious me. Teach me Italian and get out of the way. No wonder Cary Grant went crazy over her. No, it wasn't the LSD, he met her before all that.

When I was fourteen years old, Jack Lemmon made a movie with Virna Lisi called "How to Murder your wife", still a good movie if you ignore the chauvinistic comments. Today Virna Lisi remains one of the most beautiful women of the world. At just under 70 Virna is working hard. Although few American producers felt Virna might light up the screen as she did in the 65 flick with Jack, she has worked steadily in Italy for now almost five decades. Just goes to show you the Italians have good taste. Add to the mix Gina Lollabrigida and instaneously you are thinking

about an Italian vacation to chase geriatric women. Regardless these Italian femme fatales names they just rolls off the tongue and to view Gina....all of her just fits and rolls into one gorgeous full flavored package.

Italian women don't exhibit anorexia. They probably like fine wine. I wonder if they would like a quirky 50 year old from Florida.

Well, fine cars, fine shoes, fine women and fine wine...all Italian and I still have not answered the question-"What is my favorite wine"? Is a bit like choosing which of your children you love the most but here is a stab.

I enjoy flavorful foods and conversation that borders on revolution with my dinner as a result let me bring to you a Barolo from the Piemonte area of Northern Italy. One fav...Giuseppe Mascarello, Barolo (Piedmont, Italy) "Monprivato" 1999 packed with red and black fruit flavors, touch of herb and black berry jam and rings around on your palate until you can't stand it any more, as you drink the wine over a lenght of minutes and hours (if you have any discipline) the joy of such wines is that they produce a four act play within the bottle, ever changing before you. I adore being with good friends and tasting the production evolve outside and inside one's mouth. Now that is entertainment and the wine is a good value to boot. Many Barolos require you to get a small business loan before you drink them and can come in at the hundreds of dollars from your local wine merchant let alone at a restaurant where a $400 to $500 price tag for hard to get vintages is not out of the question. But that does not mean that all "good" Italian wines are pricey quite the opposite. And that includes reds and whites.

I used to say leave the whites to some other the country the Italians can roll along quite nicely with thier reds but that is no longer true. Some very tasty, creative and delicious wines albiet from the groovy non-chardonnay category are now quite active on the Italian radar for good wine. Most think of Pinot Grigio or they step up to a Gavi when thinking of white but there are burgeoning secrets in the trade. I happen to love a wine I discovered years ago Arneis Blange from Cerretto. This is an ancient grape that the Ceretto family rediscoved, remarketed and have touched heaven with. This 100% Arneis grape with a crisp lovely light lemon body with long lingering finish is perfect with great cheese, pasta and.................... uhm...........Virna, Sophia...Gina..........and most delightfully my lovely Bride as well. What a group...............Whew! Go Italy!!!!!!!

Lord Have Mercy...I am crossing myself and speaking in Latin

2006-04-21T17:03:00.000-07:00

My roll is changing in the employment arena. For the last several months I have been a Johnny on the spot substitute teacher for the pre-eminent Catholic High School in this fair town. You may or may not know this is quite a culture shock for this boy. Not the gainfully employed part but the professional academic and the Catholic part of the equation. Now I have taken on a post for the rest of the year teaching Latin for first year and fourth year students. Since it has been 40 years since I have graced the inside of a Latin class I am moving slowly as you might expect. Sum, es, sunt...

Frankly the school is really quite good with strong attention to the current world of academics. I am constantly impressed with the skill sets of those who are instructing. One of the science teachers is a professor emeritus from the University of Florida and each of those who I have the pleasure of conversing with have exhibited strong credentials and fine backgrounds in their field. I do enjoy being around those who genuinely show a passion for their world and for their life.

The High Schoolers themselves have no or little perspective concerning the quality of instruction they are encountering. My youngest son, my beloved's baby boy, attends public school and will continue to do so because of the advantages he has in honors classes and being fully involved in a mature and focused athletic department. For example, just two days ago a young man who has played two years on the football team was offered a full ride scholarship to the University of Mississippi worth about $160,000 if one was to do the math. Yet, academically it might be reality that the parochial school where I work has real advantages over this larger public domain. Yet those who I see every day, students and faculty alike, at both facilities don't seem to be aware of the quality of the product offered to those priviledged kids. Perspective in life, as it is personally, is difficult to conjure on a consistent basis. Educationally the private school has lots of advantages discipline being primary. However, at our public school the work of the Arts and Athletics do not lack and are in the realm of the excellent.

I am refreshed daily by the ability to pray in the classroom, although few of the youngsters at the Catholic institution seem to care much about the practice. While students who are Christian at my son's school rally around the flag pole before school enduring comments and slander aimed at their obvious mental faults. It is a constrast I find quite odd.

As a non-Catholic I do find the Catholic symbolic ritual of crossing one's self after prayer and during mass a bit uncomfortable at times. I wonder is it so obvious that I am not a Catholic at that moment. I don't feel like I have any rhythm for such things. I am like a white guy at a Spinners concert the way I am fumbling through the process. I must admit I like the idea of the cross over my flesh. It is my flesh that will die while my spirit lives on but I do like the idea that my body can have something to do with what Christ did on the cross. So, I fumble through. I just wonder. Is there anyone watching to check out who does this properly anywho??

I broke the law and loved doing it.

2006-03-31T11:18:00.000-08:00

Ok.....We have broken the law. There I said it. Take me and my beautiful wife and throw handcuffs on us and take us away. You can use our handcuffs if you want.

What are we guilty of? We have helped illegal immigrants for over twenty years. I cannot even get the word illegal alien out of my mouth or through the keyboard for they were not. These were and remain fine people and grand friends who have not only enriched our life but made America a better place to live. You may not agree but these have been some of best we have known.

Twenty years ago my bride and I lived in the guest house of an estate in Orlando. The house was in the middle of a large orange grove and had a great deal of privacy. The groves included oranges and mandarin oranges and it was my job to maintain the lawn, the grounds apart from the groves and to show a presence on this large property. The main house was a small miracle in Florida sun for it had been built by an officer in the Army Corp of Engineers and was designed to stay cool without air conditioning even in the hottest of summer temperatures, something we could not do with modern homes without the A/C.

The woman who owned the house, a Mrs McDonald, would visit once a year usually pre-summer. She would say she was coming to visit often but would never show giving some excuse about life in Washington D.C. This I gather was to keep us off guard and wondering. She had married a elderly diplomat who had the Army Corp of Engineers design the house years and years earlier. When she did come that first year she brought with her an assistant, an older woman who spoke no English, who did all the manual labor for Mrs. McDonald and for the house. This woman worked so hard that I frankly was a bit ashamed that I liked to sleep in on Saturdays. My bride because of her first marriage to a Spaniard was and is fluent in Spanish. It was she who tentatively began a relationship with Bessie. She would bring her a glass of water or visit with her when she did laundry. Soon it was apparent that Bessie was not only overworked but frightened as well. Bessie had been approached in her home country of Chile by Mrs. McDonald. Several of her friends had worked for the woman in the past. The offer was to come to the United States and work for her in Washington D.C. and in the mean time Mrs. McDonald would help Bessie acquire paper work for either a green card or some permanent status. Bessie had worked for the woman now over three years for very little money, all she made would be sent to Chile to support two children who were waiting for her either to fetch them or to return to Chile. In the meantime she put up with the eighteen hour days, hard manual labor and very little rest in the hope of gaining a new life. Bessie was stocky not very tall and not someone who would make a fuss over anything. She was not, however, happy.

For Bessie what occurred was neither a new life nor any hope of a future but a form of indentured servitude. Mrs. McDonald would routinely say that if Bessie would not do what she asked she would turn her in as an "illegal alien". Ok, I said the word. The fear of such a suggestion left poor Bessie mentally cowering in fear much the same as with "battered wife syndrome". She was terrified to leave or to contact anyone she might know for the fear that the U.S. Government would put her in prison. She was fed a bunch of half truths that no one cared for illegals and they were persona non grata. Mrs. McDonald had taken Bessie's passport for safe keeping when she arrived in the United States. Bessie believed that she must work for the old woman or she would be in jail. All Bessie wanted to do was to work, make some money and send as much back to Chile as she could to make a better life for she and her two children. It was Cindy who decided to strike. She arranged for someone to come by the house. Bessie would gather her belongings and meet them at the end of the road. They would take Bessie to their house and then send Bessie to some friends out of town. It was cloak and dagger stuff in the middle of the night. Bessie was terrified of course. But, once my wife has something in her mind.... get out of the way. Needless to say, if asked we knew nothing of the adventure and gratefully nothing was said to us for several days. When the issue of Bessie being absent was brought up by my wife, we were told she was visiting friends. Fact is the underground railroad worked and no one would mention Bessie again until Mrs. McDonald returned to Washington D.C. By fall of 1988 we had purchased our house in which we live and never saw Mrs. McDonald again. The large parcel of land was divided up and several hundred homes today remain in a gated community so popular in Orlando. That artfully crafted and luxurious home was unceremoniously torn down. It got in the way of the development plans and with it the oak trees which were years and years old to keep the entire house in shade. A tool used by the Corp. to keep the house cool.

Bessie, eventually moved in with us. For years she lived with us helping my wife and I raise my two children. She was not the last. There was Racquel..........she is from Columbia and worth a completely fresh blog. Michael from Mexico. Maria from Columbia. A lovely fellow from Mexico who I remember as being one of the nicest humans I have ever met. We had some trouble along the way from a woman and her man friend from Ecuador, There was Erica from Cuba, her family had escaped and because she was Cuban she had a different status, Why?-Different politics. And Anna Maria, a gorgeous Columbian whose beauty never escaped the young hispanics in our area. Got some training about being a Dad with a daughter then. There was a family who came from Venezuela. The Mom, Dad and the four children. Never met a harder working group than that one. The children remain in touch and one of them graduated third in her class from a local High School. I fondly remember my Mexican cohort. Who love to play pinochle and loved my kids. You love those who love your kids. The list goes on even now. None of these people ever wanted or asked for a handout. All they needed was a hand. Whenever I needed anything they were there in a heartbeat whether it meant changing a transmission in a car, painting my house, cleaning a garage or loving my children, they were there to help and to contribute.

Each works twice as hard as I ever imagine someone might. Each has done well, some going home with money in their pocket to gather the paper work to move here with papers, some gaining legal status through the system, and some remain in a non-citizen status or immigrant, cannot say the word. They are not alien to me or my family. These good folks are what America should be about. They come because they love their families and need to give them a better life. You would do the same given their choices. I know I would.

When the issue of illegal immigration comes up I say this: Find a way to let these people come here legally. They are going to come whether you like it or not. They love their family! They need to work. We have work and we can pay them and there is work that others do not want. Find a way to secure the borders. Good fences make good neighbors-that is what my neighbor says! And create a method to handle those who can show they desire to be United States Citizens. If they do not want to stay fine but let us bring some sensibility to this issue. And while you are factoring such remember I have broken the law as well. I am just as guilty as someone who comes to Orlando to see Mickey and stays for five years. Just as guilty as someone who has traveled 250 miles over the dessert, been hungry, thirsty, cold and willing to do anything to get here. I am just not as brave! I am just not as courageous to leave everything and everyone I know and go somewhere new because you are told it is better and the Americans are good people. Let's be good people here and do the right thing!

Do you have an open mind? Might want to check.

2006-02-22T13:20:00.000-08:00

What is it about the statement that someone is "open minded" really mean. Usually the open minded statement comes from someone who very well thinks that the other person is not. Well, let's check our hats at the door and really see who might be open minded.

500 Scientists....who are willing to put their names on a document have stated.

WAIT A MINUTE DARWIN MIGHT NOT HAVE IT RIGHT!

http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=2732

The list of 514 signatories includes member scientists from the prestigious US and Russian National Academy of Sciences. Signers include 154 biologists, the largest single scientific discipline represented on the list, as well as 76 chemists and 63 physicists. Signers hold doctorates in biological sciences, physics, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, computer science, and related disciplines. Many are professors or researchers at major universities and research institutions such as MIT, The Smithsonian, Cambridge University, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, the Ohio State University, the University of Georgia, and the University of Washington.

Don't believe it yourself. Take a look at the list and the institutions these good folks hail from as you can see above.

http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/filesDB-download.php?command=download&id=660

Certainly not slackers in the Higher Education world. Now open any conversation of said topic with such information and you are bound for the "are you kidding me" quotes from the enlightened. But have you thought about this topic or is it dogma for you? And if it is are you open minded? Might want to take a look at the points some of these bright guys make.

Play Money Play Poker Who is the Tall Talk Stranger

2006-02-19T20:02:00.000-08:00

I am constantly amused at dinner, a party, social setting or an after work gathering when the subject of television comes up. Did you know that no one watches elimidate or Springer or Trading Spouses. All anyone watches is National Geographic and the History channel. I am not sure how the rest of these programs stay in business. Actually both programs are quite good by the way. No not Springer and elimidate but NGeo and the history channel. I admit to watching both.

So, it may come as a real surprise to most that the most popular programs on television today revolve around poker and the World Poker Tour. Surfing across the cable world it is impossible not to see old TV stars or even Nascar Drivers playing poker on TV. Poker is big. The programs draw huge crowds to watch at all times of the day. Huge poker rooms have sprung up where it is legal and Vegas poker rooms have gone all poker. What has done this is TV and Texas Hold em a form of poker which is quite easy to learn and has a competitive element that is seductive.

Across the internet, I do know that you know what the internet is or you would not be reading this, poker playing sites where you can play for free or gamble the real doh-ray-me are numerous. Millions of folks are playing this very second on web sites called U-bet, Poker Stars, full tilt and more. You can play for the real bucks using your credit card......YIKES or play at the free sites where I play. Yes, I play. Am I good. There is not one poker player on any of these sites who does not think they are a genius. I have won almost sever or eight million chips and lost seven or eight million and one. The seduction is the ease of competition and the desire to win both intoxicating.

One of my favorite television shows, I admit to loving TV, was the late 50's and early 60's Warner Brothers TV show Maverick starring James Garner as Brett Maverick. Remember the song.....

Who is the tall dark stranger there?
Maverick is the name.
Riding the trail to who knows where
Luck is his companion
Gamblin' is his game.

I loved that show. Year and years later in the 70's I discovered that Ted Turner on early cable would play Maverick at 6 am on Saturday Mornings. Those were the days I would work almost until morning working in a restaurant called Thirteen Coins http://www.13coins.com/ in Seattle Washington. After working all night I would saddle up to fiesty bottle of Chardonnay to watch Jack Kelly figure out what his brother Brett was going to do next. And of course poker was the game of choice for the Maverick family. Brett was too cool, handsome and inherently cowardly. His main goal was to move through life getting as much as he could without giving much. That certainly became unavoidable much of the time as his streak of bravery would unwillingly come out at the worst moments. Later Garner would make a hit movie call "Support your Local Sherrif" where the Brett Maverick character solved a towns outlaw problems and married the local mayors rich daughter all while crying that he was "just on his way to Australia".

I love playing poker. I love winning even more. I am so thankful that the "free sites" are available. Playing with the fake chips is good for by now I would have mortgaged the house again, sold the kids into slavery and been selling myself for sexual favors just to keep my addiction going. Fake chips make it easy. Today I lost 560,000 chips. Can't do that every day with real money and not want to watch CNN for hours as punishment. And addiction can be the word. I know some folks who play...........well 12 plus hours a day. Fake chips.............fake life.

Know what I recommend to those folks.....good dose of Jerry Springer and elimindate. Got to get them to round out there lives. Seems like a trivial matter in comparison. Of course much of life in comparison is fleeting. Wish I had Maverick on tape would play one right now.

Legal Mindbending at its best

2006-02-15T14:32:00.000-08:00

This last weekend I was the Proud Father of a talented wrestler who had worked his way through Metro, District and now a Regional tournament hoping to qualify for the Florida State Tournament to be wrestled this weekend. It was the culmination of two years of hard work and his and my experience was shared by countless sons and parents throughout the gymnasium for two days. Four very strong, determined and talented athletes will go to the State Tournament while my Son and I eagerly watch these talented kids in the stands. He lost but showed well and did his best. Fortunately, he has two more years to grow and develope.

Yet, every good experience has its yang and during one match of the finals last Saturday it was a parent, one of those always yelling, never thinking, emotional and not in touch with any reality one can put a finger-let alone a rational thought on-kinds of parents screaming about the injustice of the authority at hand, the Referees. It was embarassing. And, if the son had not been so involved in the wrestling match getting his provebial whipped by a clearly finer athlete he might have been embarassed as much as those around in the stands.

What impressed me so clearly is that the facts did not matter to this Dad. The fact that the other wrestler was light years ahead of his Son had no impact that all of the things this Dad was yelling were just not true. The referee was doing a good job. It was his son that was creating a significant "vacuum" in the gym. But that simply did not matter.

In the last several days I have been struck with the goofiness of the liberal press. "Dick Cheney should resign", why because there was a hunting accident. Never the mind that the man shot broke several hunting commandments that are prescribed to avoid exactly such results. And never the mind that the family of said man took the responsibility to share the story in Corpus Christi and not Washington D.C. The outcries of "fowl" play are loud.

The outrageous behavior of this "Wrestling Father" and so many liberals are born of the same irrational and emotionally over the top responses. David Gregory, a White House reporter for NBC, acted childish concerning the whole affair. What is that about? Little League and or wrestling parents and the top echelon of the White House press media should never be linked in the same thought. But sadly that is not true. These folks dislike Bush, Cheney and Republicans so much they are no longer ever close to being unbiased. It is one thing to be an emotionally out of control parent who son is wrestling for the chance to go to State Finals and it another thing to hold up the standard of the press core and to do the same. Both just TOO goofy for me!!

To those who don't support the troops

2006-01-24T09:05:00.000-08:00

Joel Stein of the Los Angeles time has made the unpardonable sin in liberalism. He has told the truth! Buckle your seat belts this could be a bumpy ride.

Mr. Stein has in his article dated January 24, 2006 made the decision to come clean with those around him. He no longer wants to say that he is "against the war but for the troops".

But I'm not for the war. And being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken — and they're wussy by definition. It's as if the one lesson they took away from Vietnam wasn't to avoid foreign conflicts with no pressing national interest but to remember to throw a parade afterward.

Well, the cat is out of the bag here. Joel you broke rule #1 for liberals. You cannot really tell the truth because if you do we get to see what you really think.

Joel if you think that telling the truth is going to be something that is going to catch on with liberals you got to get your head out of the proverbial sand. Do you think Hilary is going to fess up and say anything like she is against the war and against the troops. She probably is. But, not on your life pal.

If this disease was spread we would have Ted Kennedy blurt out that what he really doesn't like about America and the United States is that he is not the President. Someone whisper to Ted that not only that but it can never be. Or Nancy Pelosi and her pals would come out and say openly that they wish that someone as bold and courageous as Hugo Chavez would be President of the United States. Hell, Belafonte did and you and he are pals. Nancy might say that what we really need is a good ole dose of marxist socialistic principles. Or Dick Durbin might come out and say "look as long as George Bush is President I am against everything he says, does, thinks and ever could do. However, if a Democrat did the same things as Bush it would be ok cuz........well, he is a Democrat." At least we might get at the truth.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to hear a political speech to go something like this. "Folks, my law practice is in the toilet and I am really just doing this for the free plane rides and the money". Could not have that.

What we might get is someone who says ........"forget about the polls, we as Americans need to do something because it is right. We need to stand up, voice our opinions and looking at the long haul and the cause of freedom and Democracy fight for something because it is right. No matter what those who are only trying to get re-elected might say or do." Ooops, Joel. We have someone like that already as President. He discovered it is better to speak the truth a long time ago. Glad you have discovered it as well.

Ann Coulter is a Conservative Pin-up

2005-12-01T17:46:00.000-08:00

Let's get this straight and clear. I am absolutely sure she knows the difference between single malt scotch and single barrel bourbon and very clear she knows the humorous nuances between why some of Woody Allens movies are boring and none of Monty Pythons Flying Circus, as long as it involves religion, is not. She gets why some Republicans are so whipped, after forty five years of no power, and why Demos are bordering on sheer lunacy. I love to watch the smirk. She is a big picture girl who sees the movement across the board. What part is it that we need to get straight and clear....she does all of that and is a major babe. The best political guest on Television.

The old Joe is back

2005-11-30T18:45:00.000-08:00

One would think the prodigal son had returned the way the Conservative media is speaking about Senator Joe Lieberman of Conneticut. Granted he is the first Democratic Senator to speak with some cogency concerning Iraq and it future. I felt rather good about Joe up to the Gore/Lieberman run in 2000. I had found Joe to be a solid thinker and someone who had the capability to be reasonable. Then he drank some of the Gore/Clinton cool aid and he was gone. Well since of his return from Iraq, Joe is back. This morning the Senator was squaring off against The I Man on national radio and publishing his very positive thoughts about Iraq....

"The country is now in reach of going from Saddam Hussein to self-government and, I'd add, self-protection," the Connecticut Democrat said in a conference call with reporters. "That would be a remarkable transformation ... I saw real progress there

U.S. military officials told him they hope that by next year, two-thirds of Iraq's military will be able to carry the fight to insurgents with limited logistical support from U.S. forces. Lieberman said U.S. commanders had learned from their early mistakes and were successfully pursuing a "clear-hold-build" strategy against rebel forces. He cautioned, however, that "prematurely" pulling out U.S. forces would jeopardize the progress made thus far. The senator said he ate three Thanksgiving meals at different bases visiting with troops, including about 50 soldiers from Connecticut. "They look good, they're proud of what they're doing and of course they're anxious to get home, but they know they have a job to do," said Lieberman.

All of this flying in the face of the current rant being shouted from the likes of Joe Biden and others who want the White House back in 2008. What is refreshing is that instead of getting some data and taking a Howard Dean spinorama with it. Good ole Joe can report some honesty and hard work is paying off. Time to kill the fatted calf.

When is a Woodward not a National Hero??

2005-11-19T07:41:00.000-08:00

A movie with Robert Redford playing the handsome, brave and risk taking hero was the first that I can remember having a face to Bob Woodward. He was the hero! Everyone knew he a white hat somewhere. We never saw it because the newrooms of Washington don't allow such Texas type attire then or even more in 2005. A few months ago the news came out about who was deep throat, the secret hero lurking in the parking garages of Washington D. C.. A sworn to follow and obey the law FBI executive who purported never had any desire to wear women's clothing but did want to run the FBI. For some reason, maybe like he never got the job from Richard Nixon, he decided to break the law and leak highly classified information to the boys at the Washington Post.

"All the President's Men" was great movie with lots of newsroom drama. It was about the thugs who worked for Nixon and not the news guys and Felt who were breaking the law as well. No wonder Woodward and Bernstein kept Felt "undercover" he might have gone to jail. Remember he was prosecuted soon after anyway. No one seemed to care then or last summer that leaking was against the law. Least of all Woodward who listened to Felt share classified information without the knowledge of his department. Yet, he may be in hot water because he was listening to White House or FBI or Cia leaks the very same thing that created his heroic status as a medial darling. Unaccustomed as he might be to leak it may shock him to realize that some folks have lost there jobs and may go to jail for such behavior. Mark Felt was deep throat and some have called him a traitor. They really dont' count because they are Republicans from that era who thought that leaking classified material while on the payroll of a an official department is against the law.

Mr. Woodward may very well feel the 30 year old effects of his journalistic legacy applied to himself. I can almost feel the feeding frenzie. Some Washington Post staffers already have sprung. Woodward doesn't have to go to meetings like they do. Uh-oh, nothing a good reporter likes better than fighting agains the "big dog" on the block. This should be interesting.

Protesters, the 60's and now

2005-11-18T06:06:00.000-08:00

In the recent months I have heard from the Demo counterparts the mantra that we are in a quagmire, like Vietnam, that we are in a war we cannot win. The mental results for these good folks is one response vilify Bush and call for retreat.

I grew to some level of adulthood during those conflicting years where the left fought itself over Vietnam and foreign policy. Remember it was Kennedy-Johnson as Democratic Presidents who expanded and deepened our commitment in Vietnam and it was Richard Nixon, of whom all on the left love to hate, who closed and got us out of Vietnam. It was the deception of Kennedy who hid his involvment in the invasion of Cuba, the Bay of Pigs, which was a major failure because of his lack of resolve. And the sense that Johnson had no purpose and commitment to the concepts that sought to protect a free Vietnam that gave the foundation of protest and the sense that our government always "lies" to us. They lied about Cuba, Vietnam and then by gosh the fellow who got us out of Vietnam lied about watergate. They all lie, right?

Today Vietnam remains a Communist backwater that has none of the foresight of the Chinese and all of the Moscow like weakness of Communism keeping a society one century behind. The result was the never ending chinese water torture of protest after protest by ever angry and ugly protesters and the American public growing weary of night by night awful messages being transported across the nation by the televison media. It was the gruesome pictures of bombs exploding and the loss of American life that eventually eroded the generations of resolve that had fueled our passion to defeat oppressors in an evil world. World War II brings little discussion that the world would have been better if Hitler, Tojo or Mussolini had offices in St. Louis. We persevered through the United Nations mess of Korea, a war still being played out upon the national and international scene. But we faltered, retreated and failed eventually to walk away from Vietnam. They were just Communists and hell what made the difference when your Political Science teacher was a Communist as well.

We had a few forays of military force internationally since. Jimmy Carter, whose main view of the milatary was to be sure someone got him on Air Force One, tried to rescue the hostages in Iran. He looked weak. The world knew he was weak and so it began where the opponents of freedom began to know that if they could keep media pressure upon politicians and the American mindset they could win. Americans were soft. Somalia and the answers to the bombings of the Cole and the Twin Tower trade center of the 1990's gave even deeper impetus to this thinking. Clinton was weak. He could not fathom being compared to Carter or Johnson. Who would?

What is the result? In Iraq a view of the Islamic Fundementalists that if they keep blowing things up and keep the news in the United States about who has detonated what, that eventually the resolve and purpose of a populus who spends the majority of their thinking time to who is going to be voted off the island will weaken in the same fashion that it has for thrity years. So far my bet is on those who are blowing up Iraq. They seemed to have pegged us properly. We are weakening. At this point the Islamic fascists are blowing up mostly Iraquis and most recently Jordanians. The result "protests" which says for the most part, when you are doing that to weaken the United States that is one thing but to attack other Muslims, NO, NO, no not acceptable and the resolve of the Jordanians comes through. I have to hand it to them at least they stood up better than the crowd CNN reports about ready to "cut and run" again!!

Mike Wallace BE SERIOUS

2005-11-14T14:18:00.000-08:00

Senator Jay Rockefeller has been dipping into the Demo Kool Aid it seems. Echoes of Kerry resonate. He was for the war before he was against it as well. With stark evidence provided by Mike Wallace of Fox News concerning Rockefellers statements prior to the Iraq invasion (showing the tape is devastating), Senator Rockefeller, one of the ranking Senators on the Intelligence Committee did not sound that intelligent as he did his best to avoid the “responsibility” of voting for the war in Iraq.

Senator Roberts, the co-chairman of same committee, sitting next to him said he believed that the Intelligence Briefings the President received would have has even less controversial or conflicting messages than the ones the committe recieved. But there was Senator Rockefeller telling the world from the Senate floor that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and would have them soon in the form of Nuclear capabilities. Revisionism........or just I need to sound like the rest of Howard Dean's talking points in 2005?

So if the reporst the Senator got had much more conflicting information than what the President got…………….who is the bonehead for making this argument now. Who pressured Senator Rockefeller. Seriously .......................Mike Wallace wasn't drinking any of this Kool Aid.(After showing the clip of Rocekefeller saying the Iraqis had weapons of mass destruction)

WALLACE: Now, by that point, Senator, you had read the National Intelligence Estimate, correct?

ROCKEFELLER: In fact, there were only six people in the Senate who did, and I was one of them. I'm sure Pat was another.

WALLACE: OK. But you had read that, and now we've read a declassified...

ROCKEFELLER: But, Chris, let's...

WALLACE: Can I just ask my question, sir?

ROCKEFELLER: Yes.

WALLACE: And then you can answer as you choose. That report indicated there was a disagreement among analysts about the nuclear program. The State Department had a lot more doubts than the CIA did about whether he was pursuing the nuclear program. You never mentioned those doubts. You came to the same conclusion the president did.

ROCKEFELLER: Because that — first of all, that National Intelligence Estimate was not called for by the administration. It was called for by former Senator Bob Graham, who was chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and Dick Durbin.We didn't receive it until just a couple of days before we voted. Then we had to go read it and compare it to everything else that we thought we'd learned about intelligence, and I did make that statement. And I did make that vote.But, Chris, the important thing is that when I started looking at the weapons of mass destruction intelligence along with Pat Roberts, I went down to the floor, and I said I made a mistake. I would have never voted yes if I knew what I know today.

WALLACE: Well, but a lot of people are not — that's not the point of the investigation, Senator.

ROCKEFELLER: Chris, it is always the same conversation. You know, it was not the Congress that sent 135,000 or 150,000 troops to...

WALLACE: But you voted, sir, and aren't you responsible for your vote?ROCKEFELLER: No. I'm...WALLACE: You're not?

ROCKEFELLER: No. I'm responsible for my vote, but I'd appreciate it if you'd get serious about this subject, with all due respect. We authorized him to continue working with the United Nations, and then if that failed, authorized him to use force to enforce the sanctions.We did not send 150,000 troops or 135,000 troops. It was his decision made probably two days after 9/11 that he was going to invade Iraq. That we did not have a part of. And yes, we had bad intelligence, and when we learned about it, I went down to the floor and I said I would have never voted for this thing.

WALLACE: But my only point, sir — and I am trying to be serious about it — is as I understand phase two, the question is based on the intelligence you had, what were the statements you made.You had the National Intelligence Estimate which expressed doubts about Saddam's nuclear program, yet you said he had a nuclear program. The president did the same thing.

I think the cat is out of the bag here. If anyone in the Senate coulda, woulda, shoulda it mighta been Jay Rockefeller but he felt the same way as the President.

It is time to quit messing and trying to cover his proverbial. You got it wrong too Senator. The whole world thought there were nucs in Bagdad. So better safe than sorry. If there had been and the President had not been brave and MADE A DECISION you and your group would have been first in line to have a congressional inquiry on why we did not stop Saddam before he dropped a bomb on Tel Aviv or did some other dastardly deed, imagine that scenario being played out in Congress.

Female Iraqi suicide bomber describes her failure

2005-11-14T06:51:00.000-08:00

There are moments when watching the news when I am just dumbfounded. Wondering just how the world got to be so crazy. It happens when I hear of how pedophiles work or how they have eluded being caught after years of abusing children. It comes to me when I hear of babies being dicarded in trash cans by seemingly aware eighteen year olds. I have the same incrudulity when I wonder of the mental makeup of a mass murder. This weekend I heard some of the report of the woman who spoke of her bomb not going off to match her husbands in a crowded wedding party in Jordan.

These good folks not only strapped explosives to their bodies but included a large amount of ball bearing to increase the death and devastation that would be blasted upon the unsuspecting wedding revelers. They dressed in their western best to blend in and gain access. Women and children where known to be in the room. Like that matters. What if were just 300 men would it make it any less ruthless and unimaginable. Regardless of the political manifestations what kind of mindset would one have to have to spend weeks getting "ready" for such a inhumane and evil event. To walk into a room and know you are going to kill the people around you is not in my mindset. These people do not believe in a God that I understand at all.

War is crazy. War is hell. But this is not war this is murder. Plain and simple. To give any credence to this kind of act is beyond the pale of any reasonable human being, period. It is time good people speak.

I am pleased to see the people of Jordan marching to say that this is not the way Muslims should behave. That this is not the way the faith of Mohammed should function and that others have hijacked this religion. Where is the indignation at these behaviors from the rest of the faithful of Islam. The inhumanity has got to be apparent. Or is it only when it happens in a Radisson in their country. It is time for the faithful of all faiths to begin to repudiate this kind of inhumanity. To tell the Palestinians to start to farm and feed their families rather than get young men and women to strap bombs upon themselves and kill. Just time for this madness to stop.

I am told repeatedly that Islam is not a faith of killing and death. Then it is time for those whose faith is being hijacked to speak and clarify just what kind of people they believe are doing such things. Are these bombers victims of a repressive western regime or are they mass murderers who are evil?

Cabernet Chocolate and a look around

2005-11-13T18:18:00.000-08:00

Why Cabernet Sauvignon and Chocolate? Well, I clearly remember that moment. I have had others. When I met my wife. When the children were born. The C & C thing is down the list from all of that, but having one mind changed is a good thing. I remember when I decided to vote republican for the very first time. Oh my, I even voted for Jimmy Carter twice, what a buffoon. Blame me for putting him into office. Thank God we grow. Although, I still love my wife's meatloaf (that is a mid-western thing) but I love Cabernet and Chocolate. Forgive me for the Carter thing and let see where we go from here.