48!

This is something very few Americans alive today could know about or would remember, but I longed to hear it Tuesday night.

First, let me assure you I cannot imagine a finer group of young people than the West Point cadets who listened to President Obama's speech Tuesday evening. Among them, discipline is an art form. Count on them to be always dependable. For that I am grateful. But, my baser instincts yearned for a lesser PC group of Americans who once saved the world from tyranny.

During World War Two, our mostly drafted Army consisted of Americans of all walks of life who obeyed their mandatory call to duty because of their unshakable love of country. But these people were rarely inclined to go along with political b.s.

Starting in the ETO (European Theater of Operations) G.I.'s developed a way to quickly and uniformly express their collective dislike for some sort of bureaucratic edict. This practice spread around the globe, but quickly faded once the shooting stopped. Which is why it is little remembered today (unlike "SNAFU", another G.I. creation, which survived).

It went like this: Following some sort of pronouncement to a large, assembled group of unimpressed soldiers, a lone voice in the crowd would suddenly shout "48". A second voice would immediately yell "49". A third would follow with "50", whereupon the entire assembly, in one unified voice, would say "s-o-m-m-m-me shit!".

Tuesday night, when President Obama finished his speech, I pleaded to the sleepy cadets on my TV set... "Someone yell 48!"

A Commercial My Dad Would Write

I have been writing commercials for 60 years. To do it well takes a lot of hard work. My father never wrote a commercial, but I know one he could write in a heartbeat.

It would be for Taxmasters; for J.K. Harris; for irstaxagreement.com - or whatever they call themselves. You've probably seen their efforts at writing a commercial on TV.

My Dad would write:

"Do you owe thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes? Is the IRS coming to your home or place of business? Are you receiving harassing mail or phone calls? I'll solve your problem in two easy steps, and I will not charge you a cent for using my two-step program!

Step One: Open your checkbook and write a check for the full amount of your taxes.

Step Two: Mail that check to the IRS.

Tax problem solved. No more visits by IRS agents. No more harassing mail or phone calls."

What about the guy who complains that his taxes were unfair or excessive? Dad would agree. He thought we were all taxed excessively and unfairly. But, not paying would necessitate breaking the law and in Dad's world that was never acceptable. First, it was futile. As singer Bobby Fuller pointed out in the lyric of his 1960s song, when he fought the law... the law won!

Second, it was a temporary victory. Wipe out past tax bills, but with that bad law still in place, you'll continue to get unfair or excessive tax bills in the future.

The solution is to change the law. Dad's greatest frustration was with people who incessantly complained about the government, but always voted the same guys back into office.

You'd never do that. Would you?

Should a citizen attempt to serve in Congress?

A citizen, that is, with no prior political experience, no track record of offices held? That is what the Founding Father's had in mind! They set up Congress with two houses. The Senate to be a more deliberative body, with six year terms. The House of Representatives was to represent immediate concerns of their constituents. Any citizen could agree to give up two years of their life to serve. They could then run for re-election, voluntarily return to civilian life - or the electorate could replace them.

Anyone could run for Congress. Being elected required convincing voters to choose you. That would take some money and a lot of time visiting with voters. As years passed, the required amount of money increased. I recently read where a long retired Congressman said his first Congressional campaign cost $30,000. Today, it takes about $1.5 million. A Senate candidate now needs $6 or $8 million.

A popular candidate may well be able to raise that amount of money. But that could be just the beginning. Former House Republican Whip Tom Delay was heaped with all sorts of charges of ethics violations. All were investigated. All were proven frivolous and dismissed. But defending himself against the claims cost Delay some $8 million in legal expenses.

Many business people are sued every year for charges that are untrue, and on the surface, readily defensible. Many, if not most of these persons, on advice of legal counsel, choose to capitulate and pay some negotiated monetary settlement. That route being less costly and requiring less time and effort than it would take to mount a successful defense.

But political office holders do not have that luxury. Ethics claims against them must be investigated... the accused have no choice but to defend themselves or be punished - perhaps with imprisonment.

Witness the case of Sarah Palin. She faced unending ethics charges, all of which have proven unfounded. But the mounting costs for her and for the State of Alaska became untenable. She resigned to stop it.

The current debate on the cost of health care has made us all aware of what we are forced to pay because of medical malpractice lawsuits. If - and the operative word here is if - a medical professional makes a mistake, how is it to be corrected? Should we all have to contribute to give the allegedly abused a huge payday?

It appears to me that if a citizen has the time and knowledge and wants to serve our country, rather than run for office, a better way would be to mount an attack on the abusive use of our legal system. The Founding Fathers created the system to assure justice for all. It has been morphed into a tool for winning political battles, buying political favors, and punishing political opponents. We can no longer afford this foolishness.

Those three elections

There is speculation as to what the outcome of the November 3, 2009 elections will say about the current mindset of the electorate. I believe the races for Governor of Virginia and New Jersey, and the Congressional race in NY23 each tell a different story.

If the Republican wins in Virginia, it will tell me that the disinterested first-time voters of November, 2008, who voted to elect Barack Obama, voted then for personal reasons - personality, race, rhetoric, anybody but Bush, etc. - and have now drifted back into the "I couldn't care less" abyss.
If the Virginia Democrat wins, it will signal that those first time voters are still engaged - they just can't be reached by the pollsters.

If the Republican wins in New Jersey, I will read that to mean the voters are fed up with their incumbent Governor and no amount of campaign spending or high - powered endorsements will sway them.
If the Democrat wins, it will show us that big bucks and appearances by political big shots can still buy the votes.

If the Conservative wins in NY23, I will conclude that a majority of voters have opted to choose policy over party... that party label alone can no longer be a sure fire ticket to ride into office.
If the Republican wins, we will know that old time party loyalties are still a big factor.
If the Democrat wins, I guess we concede that third party candidates can still split the spoils and elect the one who should have been the runner-up.

Happily for me, in the Mountain Time Zone, I won't have to stay up too late to find the answers.

Due Date

Some Hollywood types are producing a movie which will carry that title. Some scenes for the movie are being shot near my home. That is the sum total of my knowledge about the upcoming film - except to say that Robert Downey, Jr., is in town, so we assume he is starring.

New Mexico is a big state - area-wise. At 121,593 square miles, it is the fifth largest state. With a population of under 2 million, it is only the 36th most populated state. (For comparison, New Mexico is more than twice as large as Georgia, but has only 20% of Georgia's population.

Those numbers mean lots of wide open spaces. Much of it is public land. White Sands Missile Range is 3200 square miles. That is about the size of South Carolina and is bigger than ten other states.

But, even on private lands, people are comparatively scarce - ideal for shooting movies.

Anyway, for "Due Date", the producers apparently want to run some cars off the side of an overpass. Now, in New Mexico, bridges on the U.S. Hiway system are quite attractive. I don't know what they are doing elsewhere, but when they build a bridge here, it is decorated in a Southwest motif and painted to match. Maybe that is why Hollywood likes this location. Maybe it is the aforementioned population scarcity.

Where U.S. Highway 70 runs through our town, there is a very nice frontage road along both sides of the hiway. If a stretch of hiway is blocked, it is very easy to divert traffic off at one of the exits, onto the frontage road, then back onto the hiway a couple of exits down the road, past the blockage.

New Mexico likes to host movie production companies. they pay the state to "lease" a chunk of our real estate. They hire a lot of local support people. The state was delighted to close down a short section of U.S. 70 for shooting film.

That is to say, the State Government is happy about the film shoot. A lot of New Mexicans are very unhappy about being inconvenienced ever so slightly. One reader of the local daily newspaper has even suggested a class action suit against the governor.

Since New Mexico is legally a bi-lingual state, you can call that either "selfish" or "egoista". means the same.

The real danger
in our schools.

There was Columbine. There was Virginia Tech. There have been others. People died simply because they were seeking an education at a time and place where some deranged person(s) struck out with deadly force.

Bodily harm is always a terrible thing. But another kind of harm is being inflicted in our schools.

At this moment, a six-year-old Delaware boy is both the threat and the victim. Think of it. This little boy is apparently being reared as a modern girly-boy by loving parents who sometimes send him to school wearing a tie. Thankfully my parents never did that to me during my first few days of elementary school. That was during the depression when farm boys came to school in bib overalls, homemade shirts and bare feet. If a boy had shown up in a tie, some kid may have strangled him with it.

But that attire is what this Delaware boy knew. Then there came a transformative event in his life... he became a Cub Scout! Suddenly he was thrust into the world boys love... learning about trees and bugs and birds. And getting the attire to match. A real Cub Scout uniform! Having once been a small boy, I can tell you he must have been euphoric.

Then, he came into possession of a thing that must surely have originated in boy heaven... a camping tool, akin to a Swiss Army knife, that consisted of a knife, a fork and a spoon, that folded up into a pocket full of treasure.

He surely ate a meal or two at home using this wondrous new thing. Since cafeterias are such an important part of modern schools, it follows that thinking about school must encompass thoughts of food. Logic tells you that he must have been bursting with pride at the thought of taking his new Cub Scout tableware to school, and being the only kid eating his lunch with such a modern thing.

Nope. It didn't work out that way. A teacher discovered his treasure, and he is being severely punished for bringing a "weapon" to school.

I am reminded of an incident involving my youngest son, when he was about nine years old. I was on a business trip to Washington. My wife and son were to join me for a little vacation time after my meetings concluded. Somewhere, my son had acquired a paper weight that had been fabricated from a real 50-caliber machine gun bullet. There were no explosives in the thing, but it certainly looked threatening. As they checked in at the airport, he played with his new toy. The airline person asked "What is that?". He told her: "A machine gun bullet!" My wife, of course, explained that it was really just a paper weight.

Being infinitely more intelligent than the officials at the Delaware elementary school, the airline person instructed my wife, "Okay, Mom, you take charge of this thing. Put it in your purse and keep it there as long are you are in the airport or on the plane."

The Delaware school official could have gently told the small boy, "The school has very strict rules about carrying a knife. Since your camping utensil includes a knife, I will have to take it and call your Mom or Dad to come to the school to pick it up. I'll bet an arm that the boy would have been puzzled, but would have instantly yielded to authority.

But, then, that would have required a small amount of common sense, something in short supply today. So, this small boy is sentenced to "Reform School", an experience which will leave who knows what permanent scars.

Modern day Vandals.

Shortly before the Taliban were removed from power in Afghanistan, they discovered some huge stone carvings of likenesses of Buddha carved into the side of a stone cliff by ancient inhabitants of the area. The Taliban determined that these Buddhas were religious symbols and were an affront to Islam. They moved some artillery pieces in place and proceeded to shell the ancient carvings, causing considerable damage.

Before the assault, historians around the world pleaded with the Taliban not to destroy the ancient carvings.

After the assault, people everywhere protested the insensitive destruction of the antiquities. Today, some dedicated persons are painstakingly trying to repair the damage, stone shard by stone shard.

Something like that could never happen among a civilized people. Right?

During the first quarter of the last century, hundreds of thousands of Americans obeyed orders from their government to go to Europe to help end a bloody conflict there. When the World War ended, a group of surviving veterans wanted to create a permanent memorial to their comrades who had fought with them. In about 1934, they went out into California's Mojave desert and erected a cross for that purpose.

Was that a religious symbol? Probably. But, it was the way those American veterans (all of whom are now deceased) wanted to remember their comrades... men and women who had died in service of America.

Some Taliban-like judges have ordered the memorial disguised and want it removed.

Happily the U.S. Supreme Court is intervening.

Soon we will know if we are any more respectful of our forebears than were the Taliban.

What has happened to our world?


In 1988, Joanna and I were fortunate to have spent a week in Rio. We thought it was the most beautiful city we had ever seen.

Never ones for guided tourist events, we just converted some cash and took off on our own. We rode public transportation, we rode taxis, we walked. A must see attraction was Rio's spectacular, modern cathedral.


We marveled at the sidewalks in Rio... hand-laid pieces of stone in varied colors, forming beautifully symmetrical patterns.

We shopped the open air leather market and the art market. Like every tourist, we loved the open air fruit and flower market, and the friendly people buying and selling.





We watched a street performer putting on a show with a pet lizard. We were impressed with the easy assimilation of people of all races, with no evidence of racism.






Yes, there are poor in Rio, living in the slums they call flavelas. But remember, these are not cardboard shacks or tents. They are permanent homes, mostly built of concrete blocks... not in keeping with modern building codes, but permanent, nonetheless. And remember, it never freezes in Rio, so this is hardly like living under a bridge in Chicago.

Everywhere we went was peace and tranquility.

Food in Rio restaurants was just wonderful. Someone ordered a seafood platter and we were all amazed at both the quantity and the quality.

And, there were those beautiful people! Think the girl from Ipanema, endlessly cloned.

Yep! We loved Rio. At no time, and in no place did we ever feel unsafe or threatened. The only mention of crime was that women were advised not to wear dangling gold jewelry which a thief could grab and run. But we saw no evidence of such activity.

Against that experience, you can imagine my surprise this morning to turn on the TV and see video of a gunfight on those once beautiful streets... and a narration about the terrible crime rate in the city.


Closer to home, I also heard today that there have been 1,700 murders this year in Mexico. Ciudad Juarez, a city only forty miles from my home is one of the deadliest places. We used to visit Juarez about once a month and always felt safe and warmly welcomed.


So, what has happened? Is it all because of illegal drugs? Or is there more?


Okay, here comes my opinion: Yes, drugs are the core of much of today's violence. But that springs from a deeper problem. We used to adhere to the old adage discerning the difference between giving a man a fish, and teaching him to fish.


Once we clung to the latter. Then the misguided liberals became more powerful. They insisted we give the man a fish. Being basically a compassionate species, the fishermen acquiesced. But before long, it wasn't enough to give the man a fish. He now wanted it broiled and served with side dishes. And he no longer asked, he demanded. Gradually he expected more: like a share of the fisherman's profits if any fish were sold.


Generations raised on the take, saw drugs as a way to enlarge their riches and still do no legitimate work. Is it a surprise, then, that men of this generation - in Mexico and elsewhere - are now killing each other for rights to certain areas of these easy riches?


Can this cancer on mankind ever be cured? Only with a great deal of pain for those who have never truly known a day's work. In Europe, where the fruits of misguided liberalism are fully experienced, things are beginning to make a slow right turn. In America, where the liberals have only recently assumed full power, it is going to take a while longer.

About those uninsured...

I've been listening to all the pundits discuss the 40 million - or 47 million uninsured (whatever number is handy).

No one wants to say the cruel truth, so here it comes from this opinionated old man:

First, I must point out that I am not a "mean-spirited little weasel" as Don Imus described Jimmy Carter. At our house, I am not permitted to answer the doorbell. If the person at the door is a peddler, which they most frequently are, I will buy whatever they are selling. I just like people and admire the hell out of people who persist in the face of repeated rejection on people's front porches. Recently, when I was home alone, a man came selling magazines to support what seemed a worthy cause. I just didn't want any of his magazines, at any price, but I gave him a couple of bucks for his cause.

Back to the truth about the uninsured. Linda Halderman, a lady doctor on the west coast wrote a revealing piece which you can read courtesy of Investor's Business daily, at

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=507807.

Here are some excerpts:

"Upon questioning a pretty 46-year-old seeking wrinkle relief, I learned that four of her immediate family members had been diagnosed with breast or colon cancer before 50. Alarmed, I asked why she had not had the recommended screening mammogram for more than four years. She said that she knew already that her risk for developing breast cancer was likely higher than that of most women. "But I don't have insurance," she replied.
A screening mammogram could be obtained for about $90 and was discounted or free at local facilities every October for "Breast Cancer Awareness Month." She smiled when I proposed a deal: If she were to get a screening mammogram within 60 days of her treatment, I would offer a discount on what she paid me for cosmetic services.
"I'll think about it," she said, then shelled out over $400 for Botox injections that took me 10 minutes to administer.
Five months later, when she returned for her next wrinkle treatment, she still had not obtained a mammogram.

"I encountered patients who gladly paid upward of $1,000 in cash for laser hair removal treatments. The paperwork filled out during their initial consultation asked them to indicate whether or not they had health insurance. Several hair-removal patients reported being covered by Medi-Cal, the government-funded health coverage for California's low-income population.

"A friend of mine sells private health insurance plans. He told me of the 39-year-old father of two whose family was quoted a monthly insurance premium of $250.
"Are you kidding?" he said, refusing the coverage. "That's almost as much as my boat payment!"

"When serving in the rural health center in my community, my colleagues and I offered free or discounted care for a large number of patients. Many were covered by Medi-Cal or one of dozens of state programs paid for by the taxpayers of California.
The following items were commonly seen on patients or carried by their dependent children, who were also covered by subsidized programs:
• Cell phones and BlackBerry PDAs, including just-released models with a price tag of $400, plus an ongoing monthly service fee of $65-$150.
• IPods and portable DVD players.
• Game Boys and handheld electronic games.
• Artificial fingernails requiring maintenance every two weeks at a cost of $40-$60 per salon visit.
• Elaborate braided hair weaves, $300 per session plus frequent maintenance.
• Custom-designed body art, including tattoos covering the entire torso, neck and arms, as well as body jewelry piercing every skin surface imaginable — and a few unimaginable ones.
Custom tattoo work, particularly the "portrait-type" and "half sleeve" art popular in this area, runs from $100-$300 per hour and can require up to 20 hours of work, depending on the complexity of the design."


The cruel truth is that a lot of the uninsured prefer not to pay for health insurance, not because they are poor, but because they would rather buy a BlackBerry, or an elaborate tattoo, or Botox.

Sometimes people are honestly "poor" (out of money, that is) because of circumstances. I will help those folks when I can.

But for those who are "poor" by choice? Sorry, but my sympathy just ran out.

Rhetoric counts.

I guess if you can advance an idea that sounds really good, people will keep buying it, even after it is proven wrong. To me, that seems to be the case with communism. Karl Marx suggested a world where everyone produced and everyone equally shared, so there was no more poverty... everyone lived in comfort and security.


That idea has been tested over and over and has always failed. In those few places where it persists, Cuba and North Korea, for example, poverty is the worst in the world. Never mind the corrupt leaders that always emerge, communism as an economic system just won't work. Not with humans, anyway. Inevitably the lazy say, "Why work? I'll still get my share." While the true workers say "Why work? No matter how hard I try, others refuse to work and my share is always diminished." Then the system collapses - unless, of course, those corrupt leaders build an Army to force people to keep grinding away in poverty. (Ala Kim Jung il and Fidel Castro)


On the other hand, capitalism and the free market have succeeded everywhere they are allowed to flourish. Compare the two Koreas. Take a look at tiny Japan. The system is very simple. Work hard, be thrifty and you can improve your own life. Be lazy and wasteful, and your life will not improve.


Yet, many people persist in promoting the Marx "feel good" idea while rejecting the proven success of capitalism.


Following the recent protests against the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh, Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity interviewed a couple of the protesters. Both bright young, well educated women. One asked "Why would anyone need to earn more than 500 thousand dollars a year?" Hannity didn't really know how to answer them, so I will. It doesn't matter if a person needs to earn that much money. The need is on the part of the employer. Obviously the person getting the big pay has a skill, a talent, a certain knowledge that the employer needs badly enough to pay.


And what about the athletes, the actors and musical performers who are paid millions. Do they need that kind of income? Irrelevant. The need is on the part of millions of adoring fans who happily shell out the bucks to see them perform.


Does Bill Gates need to be the richest man in the world? Hardly likely. But he developed a company which produced products needed by millions of people around the world who bought the products.


Has there been fraud in the capitalist/free market system? Yes, but most often in those organizations where the government is involved. Names like Fannie Mae and Franklin Raines come to mind.


In the above mentioned interview, one of the interviewees said her father worked his fingers to the bone and never made more than $10,000 a year. I wanted to ask, "Did he have a color TV and other luxuries of the day?" In other words, did he just consume everything he earned? Did he take advantage of the opportunity to advance a new idea or develop a new skill that could enhance his income potential? My father never made as much as $10,000 a year, but he raised five children through the depression and we never missed a meal, because he managed his earnings carefully, eschewed all luxuries, and used the money instead to develop other ways to better support his family.


But.... hard work and sacrifice don't sound very appealing, so few promote that!

Maybe we need to find a way to describe those virtues that will make the lazy as well as the highly educated say, "Hey, that sounds great!"

It's Time to Serve
the other white meat!

Due to the stupidity of whomever and the ignorance of the public, the new strain of flu, that H1N1 thing being called the "Swine Flu", a large segment of the public assumed that you could catch it from eating pork.

Wow!

So, people in great numbers quit buying pork and pork producers have suffered mightily. How sad!

My wife served pork chops for dinner. So good! So tender! She also made a great salad, and I embellished mine with bacon bits!

For breakfast I had pork sausage! Such great flavor!

Pork is a wonderful, tasty treat. It is not connected to H1N1.

Go ahead. Serve pork!

If your religion forbids eating pork, sin a little. It is a lot less troublesome than adultery!

Arguing With Idiots

Glen Beck has a new book with that title. It is something I have always advised against, so I will read Glen's book to see what he suggests.

You've seen some of the idiots interviewed on the street by the likes of Jay Leno and Sean Hannity. (Glen, himself, had a Fox producer asking questions of students on the campus at Berkley. Idiots, all!) You've encountered the idiots yourself. We - you - have always just dismissed them. But now, we are seeing them taken seriously, deadly seriously, in the highest levels of government. They are no longer being dismissed.

Attorney General Eric Holder is listening intently to the idiots. He says he will prosecute the intelligence people who, oh so criminally, poured water up the noses of people who gleefully murdered thousands of innocent Americans. President Obama said he will not stand in the way of law enforcement people, if they are enforcing the law against those law breakers: the waterboarders, not the waterboarded!

What is next? Will the idiots direct their outrage to those World War II veterans who, it turns out, actually shot at people for the singular reason that they wore the uniform of Japan or Germany and were shooting at them first? If waterboarding is criminal, what should we say about the GIs who used flame throwers to rout Japs out of a machine gun nest on some Pacific island?

Do you think I am crazy? Pay attention to what the idiots are saying and you, like I, will shiver.

What say you, Glen?

As Pogo 'Possum Once Said...

We have found the enemy - and it is us!

You hear rants and raves about the First Amendment... always in some sort of reference to freedom of the press. Actually, the subject is in the Constitution as what almost seems an afterthought. The exact pertinent wording is "Congress shall make no law -- abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." Pretty simple.

That "right" from the Bill of Rights has been well-preserved so far as Congress is concerned, largely because the press is itself a most powerful lobby. As has been famously said, one should not argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel. Today, "press" often means people who set no type and buy no ink. And one might well advise against arguing with a man who can speak into a radio microphone and be heard by twenty million pairs of ear.

As one time Republican Presidential candidate Wendell L. Willkie once said, "Freedom of the press is the staff of life for any vital democracy." To me, that trumps the ability to win an argument on the strength of numbers alone.

I am okay with defending freedom of the press, because we so desperately need a free press. But what are we to do when the press commits suicide? The true strength of a free press is the ability to spread the truth. Why have millions of Americans picked up their daily newspaper? Why have millions tuned their television or radio to a favored news program? Because they seek the truth. My mother, a sincere but lightly educated person, believed what was written in the newspaper. Really believed it. Somehow, major newspapers missed that. They ceased to understand that it was printed because it was true, and started believing that it was true because it was printed.

When the press, now more commonly known as "News Media" no longer tells the truth, circulation and audience ratings sag. Today, nearly every major newspaper is losing circulation. Every major television news department is watching their audience ratings plummet. They certainly cannot blame the Congress. They may blame their competition... the internet, or whatever is handy. But the real problem is that the readers and the viewers are beginning to doubt the truth in what they read in their newspapers and see on their television.

Readers and viewers have good reason to be doubters. The September 12 anti-big government protests in Washington, D.C. is a textbook illustration. Photos of the crowds sent home by participants clearly show hundreds of thousands of participants, perhaps a million or two, but editors at the major media outlets just cannot put their political bias aside and report that truth.

Will we reach the point where newspapers are no longer printed? Will television broadcasting one day become solely an entertainment and sports medium?

Will our democracy survive without that staff of life that is a free press?

Medical Mistakes???
Shoot the bastards!

The very idea of medical malpractice lawsuits has always mystified me. No... it has angered me.

There's a joke floating around the Internet about a heart surgeon who owned a motorcycle. One day he took his bike into a garage. A mechanic said, "Doc... you and I do the same kind of work. You get into a person's heart and repair a problem. I do the same thing with motorcycles. I get into a bike's heart, it's engine, and repair a problem. Why should you get paid more than I?"
The surgeon replied, "Try doing it with the engine running."

For me, this "more truth than fiction" story perfectly describes the difference between a medical professionals job, and the job of folks like me, who fix things when the "engine" is not running.

Do medical doctors make mistakes? Are they human? Everyone makes mistakes. I have made some whoppers. Once I made a direct response TV commercial for a client in Philadelphia. I will always believe that I did it well. But when we made a tape of the commercial to send to a TV station, someone transposed the figures on the 800 response number that appeared on the commercial. The commercial aired several times on a Philadelphia TV station, but no calls came to our 800 number. In a panic, I called the TV station and asked that someone view the tape and tell me the 800 number they saw. The mistake was discovered. Any viewer who may have responded to our commercial would have called a wrong number... perhaps hearing a message that the number they dialed was "no longer in service."

I paid for that mistake. I was not paid for my work. I had to pay the TV station's charges for airing the commercial, and I lost the client. But I was not sued! Should I have paid the client for the loss of time in getting his advertising campaign underway? Perhaps. Should I have paid one lawyer a big paycheck for dragging me into court and paid another a fee for keeping me out of jail? Well, I didn't have to.

But, if I had been a medical doctor, I well may have had to pay the client tens of thousands of dollars, and paid the lawyers many more thousands.

There are some crazy things accepted as "the way it is done" in America. None are crazier than medical malpractice lawsuits. Do doctors sometimes become careless and negligent? It is possible. But, should the "harmed" patient receive a huge payday, vastly greater than his actual losses? Should all other patients contribute to that big payday and simultaneously make a trial lawyer wealthy? Like it or not, that is what is happening. and we are paying twice because doctors are then forced to practice "defensive medicine".

Okay... maybe defensive medicine is a necessary step in protecting us. But should insurance company profits and obscene legal fees also be piled on?

We all know that the government fails miserably when it comes to running things. Be it the postal service, Social Security, Amtrak, even Cars for Clunkers. The reason they fail is because decisions are made for political reasons: To gain votes. To shift the blame. To make an opponent look bad or make a friend look good, or, as in the case of trial lawyers, to make a payback for earlier support.

Maybe it will take an uprising of the population. Maybe a new, powerful leader will emerge to do the job. But if this government of, by and for the people is to survive, the job of running things must be forever taken out of the hands of politicians.

Don't shoot yourself in NY!

NFL Super Bowl star Plaxico Burress pleads guilty to weapons charge and accepts plea bargain deal to go to prison for two years. That was the way our local newspaper wrote it. In case you've been on a desert island, Burress stuck a loaded handgun in his jogging pants and went to a NY night club. The thing went off, the bullet lodged in his thigh. And he is going to prison.

It is hard to argue with the law. Carrying a gun in a public place in such a way that it accidentally fires is public endangerment, which is, and should be, against the law.

Big mistake, Plaxico. But think of the reason why he did it.

More and more NFL stars are being assaulted by thugs hoping to prove their toughness by beating up someone they consider the very symbol of toughness, NFL football players. Anyone who has ever gone through full military foot-soldier training knows their is a vast difference between being able to stand up to the poundings of professional football play, and being able to survive a no-rules fight with some one interested only in inflicting bodily damage. NFL players are unequaled in the first. Largely inexperienced in the latter.

I remember Army Infantry basic training noncoms trying to explain to we rookies that hand-to- hand combat in war is not a college level wrestling match. Your opponent has one thought in his mind: your death. No rules. No ethics. He will rip your guts out unless you rip his out first.

Playing football has an entirely different mission: stop the forward progress of the ball. Yes, it requires brutally attacking the ball carrier. But when he is stopped, it is "mission accomplished". But the thugs attacking an NFL player in the street want to rip his guts out.

Surely Burress had no desire to shoot anyone, much less himself. But if attacked, he wanted to be able to produce an "equalizer" which would say, "Back off... I can defend myself."

I am a strong advocate of gun rights. I own four guns, all purchased and used for hunting. But I fully appreciate the use of a gun for self defense. Burress' most costly mistake was in not hiring a bodyguard who would have been capable of safely handling a gun and legally licensed to carry one. It was also a mistake to carry a gun and not know how to do it safely.

Therein lies another important lesson to be learned. This year, gun sales have soared. Americans across the country are buying guns because they feel a greater need for more personal security. (I suspect that Plaxico Burress was one of the new gun owners.)

I was in a large sporting goods store recently and witnessed several people wanting to buy 9mm ammunition. The store, they were told, was sold out. That could have been partly caused by government restrictions on manufacture of the ammunition, but was surely acerbated by increased demand.

So, here is the lesson. If you have recently purchased your first gun, do a bit of what we were required to do in Infantry basic training. Learn everything there is to know about the thing. Be sure all live ammunition is in the other room, then play with the gun. Take it apart and clean it. Put it back together again. Operate the safety over and over. Get to know everything there is to know about the weapon. Be certain you can handle the thing in the dark, with your eyes closed, and know exactly what you are doing. Then go to a shooting range or any safe, approved place, and practice firing that gun. Practice all you were taught about safe gun handling, and make sure you know how to hit your target.

Respect your weapon. In Army basic, woe be unto the rookie who got careless and dropped his rifle. He would have to carry it with him twenty four hours a day. Carry it to mess hall. Take it to bed with him. And never, ever let it get dirty.

If you buy a gun, put a trigger lock on it and store it safely somewhere without that period of total, intimate familiarization, you are asking for trouble.

And, above all, protect your gun. In the Army, a rifle is called a "piece". I remember a salty old non-com saying words to the effect that "In civilian life you had a piece (meaning girlfriend) whom you would protect against any danger. In the Army, your rifle is your piece. Protect it the same way." Twice in my lifetime I have let one of my guns fall into someone else's possession. In both instances, they were used in some abusive fashion. It is one thing to learn gun safety yourself. It is another to risk letting some untrained person have access to your gun - even for a moment.

Okay, I apologize for the sarcastic title of this post. I really feel sorry for Plaxico. He made a mistake - a dangerous one. He is being punished severely. Don't let it happen to you.

What's wrong
with universal health care?

So far as health care is concerned, not much is wrong with the universal health care we now have. Other than being pretty unfair. Every hospital has an emergency room. If you are sick, you can go there to be treated. They would like you to pay. If you cannot, the law says they must treat you anyway. Is that fair?

Supposing you were hungry and ordered a meal in a restaurant. They would like you to pay, but if you could not, should they be required to feed you anyway? Hey... you'll die if you don't eat!

What's wrong with the universal health care being proposed by our government? One word: Government.

Recently I've seen TV commercials for something called "Angie's List". These commercials tell of a plumber who performed far above and beyond what he was paid to do. He is highly recommended. Then there is the painting contractor whose employee, in a pique, stomps off the job tracking paint across the customer's carpet. Avoid this outfit.

We all know about the Better Business Bureau, a private, franchised outfit that catalogs complaints against business establishments in their locality. If you want to hire a contractor, or buy a car from a used car lot, call the BBB. They'll tell you of complaints they have received from earlier customers.

Past performance counts. It is an indicator of how an outfit may perform in the future.

So, we are now offered a health care program by an outfit called the Federal Government. Let's check their past performance.

Benjamin Franklin conceived a postal service as a reliable way for us to exchange letters. To be run by the U.S. Government. Good idea... better than leaving letters at the local tavern for your friends to pick up.

I can't know what Franklin proposed the service would cost. I imagine he believed the service could charge each patron a small fee per letter, which would cover all costs. But each succeeding Congress heaped on more free services for the USPS to perform, so the fee had to be raised. The original objective - delivering letters - had to be somewhat curtailed.

Then Congress decided that a Postmaster, unlike any other business manager, could not fire an employee without hearings, etc., so the easy way was to just keep loafers on the payroll. The USPS became bloated and inefficient.

Throughout my youth, the cost to deliver a letter was 3¢. At the moment it is 47¢. That's a rise of 1,567%, and the USPS is still losing money. $7 Billion this year. Another $7 Billion projected for next year. With our current population, a billion dollars amounts to about $3.25 for every man, woman and child. For a family of four, the $7B Post Office deficit amounts to about $90. a year. That would have mailed 3,000 letters when I was a kid.

Will someone please call Angie's list?

When I was 13 and took my first job away from the family farm, the government informed me that I was now the proud owner of a retirement insurance policy, and that I would pay a premium, a percent of every paycheck I ever earned, throughout my working lifetime. Also, every employer I ever worked for would match that premium. Never mind details like total premiums or eventual benefits - they would work that out later.

Each succeeding Congress became more benevolent. They extended benefits to people who never paid a premium. They added hospital bills and doctor bills, and prescription drugs. They never considered that improved health care would help people live longer.

They needed money for other things. so instead of investing our premiums as private insurance companies do, they spent the money. Now they tell us the system is going broke and they may not be able to pay the promised benefits.

Will someone please call the Better Business Bureau?

Similar stories can be told about Amtrak. Veteran's hospitals. Land management. You name it.

We can debate HR3200 all day. We can read, dissect and quote the Senate bill - if and when it is ever written. But none of that matters. Past performance indicates that any health care program initiated and run by the United States Government is going to swell to unimagined costs, and never, ever provide the benefits it promises.

Does our health care system need reform? Indeed it does. We must eliminate restrictions on buying health insurance across state lines. As Dr. Charles Krauthammer suggested, we must "end malpractice lawsuits." (Quit making attorneys like John Edwards rich, and end costly defensive medicine.) "We must end employer provided health care." (This practice, incidentally, arose when government mandated wage and price controls forbade employers from giving raises to attract and hold valued employees. In lieu of raises, they gave them free health insurance.) "Tax employer-provided health-care benefits and return the money to the employee with a government check to buy his own medical insurance, just as he buys his own car or home insurance."

Let's tackle these problems one at a time. Let's debate them. Let's have knowledgeable people on all sides contribute their ideas. Let's do it right.

What can you do? Call Congress. Write Congress. Then call them again and write them again. Let's keep their computers and their telephones and their mail boxes overloaded until they understand what we insist they do.

The New Miracle Meat


I saw a TV news story this morning, stating that goat meat is the most widely consumed meat in the world... except in the U.S., where it amounts to only about 2% of the total meat eaten.

However, they say, that is changing. Goat meat has more of the good stuff, like protein & flavor; and less of the bad stuff, like fat and cholesterol. So, goat meat is now called the new miracle meat and is appearing on more restaurant menus.

About time!

I've liked goat meat ever since the first time I ate it at a Restaurant called The Bahamian Kitchen in Nassau. My wife wouldn't eat it because she doesn't like curry! Her loss!



I've liked goats a lot longer. In fact, I have long insisted that the goat, not the dog, is the animal that should be rated "man's best friend." Goats were one of the earliest animals domesticated for agricultural purposes. Uncounted millions of people have survived on goat milk and/or goat meat, while clothed in garments made from goat fiber or goat skin. I understand kid skin was once used to make 'bottles' for wine and is still used to make fine gloves. Goats eat plant material - any of it, including weeds, and are happy to live in the barn. This little animal, since biblical times, has sustained mankind.

I once owned a goat - a little, white nanny. She was a great pet but got me in trouble when she jumped onto the hood of my Dad's new car to nibble leaves from an overhanging tree limb. As a matter of fact, she loved to jump up onto any elevated surface, be it the dog house or a chicken coop. Guess it was some residual mountain goat genes.

Dogs are, indeed, trainable to be seeing eye dogs, and to work cattle or sniff for drugs, explosives and cadavers. They can do guard duty. But beyond that, they are disgusting animals. They pee on your carpet. Crap on your lawn. They bark and they bite. They love road kill and long to smell like it. They lick the nastiest places then lick your face or hands.

Cats are not readily trainable (I say 'readily' because someone out there has surely trained a cat to do something), but I haven't seen any seeing-eye-cats. But they still make cleaner, quieter companions than dogs.

So when it comes to animal friends of humans, goats should surely be first. Dogs edge cats for second place because of their train ability. But, they should always be housed in a kennel. If you want a house pet - make it a cat.

If I were running schools.

We'd be in big trouble because I don't know squat about education. But there sure would be some changes.

I've expressed my opinion about math education. But, again, before we baffle kids with multiplying letters and numbers and adding all sorts of little symbols and new words, like exponential, multiplicand, etc., let's teach the fun part of math. Want to multiply 17 by 12? Write it down and take two times seven, bring down the four and carry the one. Then two times one, add the carried one and bring it down. Or, just teach that multiplying by 12 is to multiply by ten and by two. 10 times 17 is 170. 2 times 17 is 34. 170 and 34 equal 204. Why make it harder? Once they learn the principal, they can move on.

History. In school we read about wars. Place names we cannot pronounce. Generals names we cannot remember. Dates, dates, dates. Who cares. In school I read about a Civil War battle in a place they called The Wilderness. Didn't remember where it was, when it was, or who was commanding the opposing forces. Years after school, I read about that battle in a book by Bruce Catton. A large Union force was moving along a road through a woods when their commanders decided it was time to camp for the night. Strung along the road, the men stacked their arms nearby, removed their boots to rest tired feet, and proceeded to eat what food they had available.

Suddenly, from the woods behind them, a deer came charging down the road. Frightened and confused by the large body of men, the deer should have returned to the safety of the woods from whence it had come. It did not. The reclining soldiers laughed at the animal, and proceeded about their campsite rituals. Suddenly the cause of the deer's panic became known. A huge Confederate force, in a line perpendicular to the camping Union forces, marched out of the woods and assaulted the resting troops. Unable to escape, the Union soldiers were slaughtered and the enemy forces moved on down the road. As the battle passed them by, the woods became silent again, except for the moans and screams of dying men, calling for help that never came.

The Battle of The Wilderness. You can always look up the details. But remember those men and boys, strewn, dying, along that wilderness road. Why don't people ever learn the horrors of war? Because they are never taught those horrors.


Democracy. I would require every child to memorize the first ten amendments to the constitution, which constitute the Bill of Rights. Not word for word, but the spirit of each right. It is easy, really. There once was a TV program called "Eight is Enough". That is how I remember the 8th Amendment: "No excessive fines; No excessive bail; No cruel and unusual punishment." Okay, maybe young kids today never heard of "Eight Is Enough", but surely clever teachers can think up other memory tricks to make the job easy. But kids should know the Bill of Rights from an early age. Can you describe all 10 amendments?

Capitalism. Some years ago a small businessman in Arkansas opened a general merchandise store. His plan was to offer lower prices and better service with the creed that the customer is always right. Sam Walton called his store Wal-Mart. My oldest brother-in-law (now 89), then also from Arkansas, bought a small TV set from Wal-Mart. After a time it quit working and he carried it back to the store. Without condemnation or accusation, the manager of the Wal-Mart asked if he wanted to replace the TV. When the answer was yes, the manager said, "Well, go back to the display and pick up a new one." No cost, no obligation, no questions... Wal-Mart just replaced the defective unit.

My brother-in-law now lives in Texas. Visit him and ask about a good place to buy just about anything. He will point you to Wal-Mart. Honest dealing, low prices and customer service has built old Sam Walton's store into the largest retailer in the world. But today, people are demonizing Wal-Mart. Why? Because Hollywood and the entertainment industry at large, have chosen to attack America's business community. I would beat them to the punch in school. Teach what it takes to start and run a business. The costs. The risks. The hard work. The number of people who fail and lose it all, with no reward.


Geography. Very few Americans know anything about geography beyond their realm of familiarity. Can't we find a way to make geography interesting and memorable?

The joy of learning... and, it's free! My goal would be to make every child eager to go to school each day.

Remembering Duke and Dan

When I was 13, my dad bought a team of work horses. Duke was solid black. Dan was a sorrel - a sort of reddish brown. These were big, broad-backed horses, capable of pulling heavy loads. Both were sold as "broke to harness". We led them home and turned them to pasture. The next morning we harnessed the team and attempted to hitch them to some sort of two-horse farm implement, probably a cultivator.

Duke was the sweetest animal one could imagine. He stood quietly in his harness, waiting for "instructions". Dan went wild. He seemed impossible to control. Much too excited. Much too nervous. After some period of time trying to calm the big horse, my Dad gave up and we led Dan back to the place where we had bought him. The horse salesman threw a harness on Dan, hitched him to a one-horse cultivator, and proceeded to cultivate a garden patch.

My father was born in 1893. He grew up with horses. He had a deep scar on his right temple, marking the point of impact of a horseshoe where he was kicked in the head - and into a coma - when he was a lad. So serious was the injury that his father proceeded to build a coffin for his son.

But dad recovered and led a very normal life. Horses having been a big part of it.

We led Dan home and turned him to pasture. The next morning, Dan was harnessed again, and again went wild. Once more we returned him to the "used horse lot". Once again the sales person harnessed Dan and proceeded to demonstrate that the big sorrel was well trained and gentle as a kitten. Dan in tow, we returned home once more.

The next morning, Dad was sure he had the answer to Dan's behavior. For some reason this horse had to be "warmed up". Can you imagine an athlete who, before taking to the gridiron, runs several laps around the field, then engages in a series of physical exercises? Anyway, Dad hitched the horses to a wagon and took them for a trot down the road. In about a mile or so, we reached a wide spot, turned the team and wagon around and returned home. Dan, then hitched to the cultivator, performed splendidly.

Duke, on the other hand, seemed to have a human-like understanding of what had to be done. Among other crops, we had a large patch of watermelons. One day I set out to cultivate the patch with Duke pulling a little one-horse cultivator. He set out like he intended to finish the job before lunch... much too fast for me to control the implement he was pulling. I reined him to a stop and walked around to his head. There, far from any other human observation, I took hold of his bridle and explained the problem. Yes, young farm boys do things like talking to horses.

When I again took my position behind the implement and clucked for Duke to move out, he just leaned forward into his collar, ever so slowly tightening the traces that would pull the cultivator. "C'mon, Duke, let's go", I encouraged. Duke took one step, then another, and proceeded to pull the cultivator carefully forward. We continued slowly through the patch, ripping up the soil and removing weeds between the watermelon "hills".

Once I had to go somewhere on the farm and decided to ride Duke. We had no saddle, so I mounted him bareback. Some breeds of riding horses can glide along in a smooth and even gait. Duke was not one of those horses. After plodding along in a slow walk for some distance, I encouraged the big horse to hurry. He launched into his awkward, bouncing gate. Astraddle his wide back, my legs spread far apart, I bounced about a foot into the air and landed hard on his back. The landing mashed my testicles and I experienced pain I had never known. Trying to grasp myself where it hurt, I fell from Duke's back landing in a fetal position in the dirt.

I don't recall how long it took for the pain to become bearable, but when it did, I was aware that I was being pushed about. It was Duke. He continued to nuzzle me until I took hold of his reins and staggered to my feet. When I fell, Duke had stopped running, turned around and returned as though to be sure I was okay.

There has never been a grazing animal that did not think the grass was greener on the other side of the fence. One time Duke arrived at that conclusion and stepped one front leg across an old barbed wire fence. The wire was loose and springy and when Duke tried to withdraw that front leg, he found that he could not. The wire was caught behind his ankle. It was necessary for him to lean forward until his leg was free, then raise his hoof high above the sagging wire, and back himself into his own pasture. Instead, he swung his leg back and forth, the barbs on the fence wire cutting into the back of his ankle. When I found him, blood was spurting from the wound.

I freed Duke's leg and led him to the barn. I was alone on the farm that day, but remembered having been told that tea leaves would help blood to clot. Securing Duke in his stall, I ran to the house and grabbed mother's supply of tea leaves. Returning to the barn I sat on the floor next to Duke's front leg and held a handful of dry tea leaves tightly against the wound.

Eventually it did stop bleeding. Whether or not the tea helped or hurt, I'll never know, but Duke healed and seemingly suffered no long term consequences.

Dad built a wagon on an old automobile chassis, retaining the rubber tires. That wagon rode like a cloud behind Duke and Dan, and I made some extra money hauling things for nearby farmers.

I loved those big horses. Today, some sixty-plus years later, I can no longer remember what happened to Duke and Dan. My father probably sold the horses. Surely they are both long since dead now, and while I do not believe in an after life for horses, it is pleasant to imagine them somewhere, grazing knee-deep in clover with not a barbed wire fence in sight.

Electric cars.
Some day - just not yet.

If you drive the highways of the west, where the distance between point "A" and point "B" may be hundreds of miles, it is a great gift of technology to be able to cruise at 75 miles per hour in a big, new car. The climate inside the car is perfectly controlled for your comfort. You are surrounded by a steel frame and airbags for safety. Your seat is comfortable and instantly adjustable for your greater comfort. The stereo plays your favorite CD. Radio - local or satellite - entertains or informs. Your speed is automatically maintained.

Just thinking of making the same trip in one of those golf cart size electric cars sends a chill down your back. They have barely enough power to run their tiny motor... much less all the comfort extras.

Why should this be? You see a train on a track parallel to your highway, some 100 cars pulled along by a few locomotives running in tandem. Here are thousands of tons pulled along at, sometimes, speeds greater than the speed limit of your highway. These locomotives are pulling with electric motors.

So, why are electric cars so under powered? The difference is the source of the electric power to operate the motor. The rail locomotive has a huge diesel engine, turning a huge generator which powers the electric motor. This is an inefficient system, but is necessary because the internal combustion engine derives its power through RPM. It can develop a lot of horsepower, once it gets up to speed. To start moving a load from a standstill requires a clutch - or an automatic transmission. It is impossible to build either capable of starting in motion a load of thousands of tons.

The electric car must use a battery to provide power to run the motor. Current battery technology is much improved, and will some day be better still. But, today's batteries, are seriously lacking.

A lot of people want to invent and own the breakthrough technology that will one day permit batteries that can store power enough to drive automobiles as well as do today's gasoline or diesel engines. One of these researchers will one day hit the jackpot. Maybe it will be nano technology. Maybe something else. But I believe it will come.

Real cars powered by electricity are coming. Soon I hope. In the meantime, let's drill, drill, drill. Let's keep the cost of gasoline and diesel down to help the economy thrive. To keep those dollars at home in the U.S.! To help fund those researchers working on new batteries.

Mathematics - the fun subject.
Recently, my college professor son mentioned that today's college students are flocking to the study of social sciences, largely to avoid mathematics.

What?

Why would anyone want to avoid math? Mathematics is a great subject - fun because it is full of interesting patterns. Easy because the answers are precise.

In that same conversation, he mentioned one interesting pattern. If you square a series of numbers, the difference between the squares of any two numbers is always two more than the difference between the squares of the two preceding numbers. In case you have forgotten, to square a number is to multiply it by itself, and is indicated in math with a small "2" written to the right of the number to be squared. The square of 2 is 2 X 2, and is written as 2². The square of 3 is 3 X 3, written 3².

Okay, as I was saying, 2² = 4. And, 3² = 9. The difference between 4 and 9 is 5. Continuing, 4² = 16. The difference between 16 and 9 (the square of 3) is 7. That is an increase of two over 5. Now if we square 5, we get 25, which is 9 more than 16, which is two more than 7. This pattern will continue as long as you want to square and subtract numbers. Now, if you don't find that at least a little bit interesting, your brain has been twittered - or tweeted - into terminal numbness.

But, this is only the beginning of the surprises in math. If you don't like multiplication or division, just fall back on addition and subtraction, You can, with logarithms. Every number has a logarithm. To get the logarithm (which is often shortened to just "log") of a number, you can go to a log table. When I was studying electronics, we used a slide rule to find the log of a number. Today there are calculators and computer programs to do the job. Anyway, to multiply two numbers, just find the log of each, add them together, and find the anti-log of the result. That result wil be the same as if you had multiplied the first two numbers. For division, just subtract the log of the second number from the log of the first, find the antilog of the result, and it is the same as if you had divided the first number by the second. Sure it is extra steps, but very helpful if you are multiplying or dividing complex numbers.

The study of mathematics can be one of wonder and joy. When I was studying mathematics, I found myself repeatedly saying, "Well, I'll be darned... that is amazing!" Sometimes I thought ahead of my then current level of study and wondered, "How do they know that?". When the answer was finally explained, it was a delight.

Knowledge of mathematics is core to many scientific disciplines. It is well to study math in college. How do you teach a child that mathematics is not a subject to be feared? Start early with simple number games. Make them fun. Learn shortcuts. Suppose you are watching a telecast of the Tour de France. The TV screen says the riders have 25 km to go. How far is that in mles?

Well, you could grab a calculator and multiply 25 by 0.62 and see that it is about 15.5 miles. But most people find that difficult to do "in their head" without calculator, or paper and pencil. Here's a shortcut you can easily do without calculator or pencil: divide the km (25) by 10, to get 2.5. Double that to 5.0. Multiply by 3 and you have 15. Actually, that is equal to multiplying the KM by 0.6, not 0.62. If you want a more accurate answer, multiply the 25 by 0.2 and add that to your original answer. But the shortcut is close enough, if you are only satisfying a moment of curiosity. And, certainly close enough to check your result if you go for the long, accurate computation. Your answer better be close to 15... not 150 or 1.5, either of which would mean you had misplaced a decimal point.

There are many such shortcuts in math, and just finding them is a great way to start making math a fun game.

Can anyone explain to me
why the term "lobbyist" has come to mean something evil?

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the opening salvo of the Bill of rights, protects the right of citizens to petition their government for the redress of grievances.

The generally accepted definition of a lobbyist is someone who tries to influence legislation by influencing legislators. Does that not mean to "petition" them? If I seek redress of a grievance, but am personally dereft of the powers of persuasion, can I not ask you to speak on my behalf? Do you not then become a lobbyist? And who is this "government' we have the right to petition? Is it not a member of the legislature - which our Constitution guarantees the full power to create legislation?

I hear references to "undue" influence by lobbyists. Where in that 1st amendment does it proscribe limits to a citizen's petition?

The problem seems to be that the Constitution has been over interpreted. Too many great minds have expanded the meaning of those simple, clear sentences crafted by the founders. In broadcasting, we used to say: "K.I.S.S. - keep it simple, stupid". The Founders kept it simple. Why have we complicated it? The solution seems to be that we return to those simple, clear snetences.

Maybe it was John McCain (the very guy who comdemns lobbyists), in an appearance on the television program "The View" during the last presidential campaign, who suggested that return.

Whoopee Goldberg, one of the foolish voices on that program, began mouthing about a return to slavery, which existed when the Constitution was written.

Wait a minute, Whoopee... read the 9th amendment: It assures that enumeration of rights in the Constutution (which rights did NOT include slavery) could not be construed to deny citizens other rights. For further clarification, the 10th amendment spells out that any powers not specifically granted to the Federal Government or specifically denied to the states by the Constitution, are reserved to the states, or to the people!

The only thing clearer, perhaps, was Ayn Rand's explanation: The citizen has the right to do anything not specifically prohibited by law, so long as it does not infringe upon the rights of fellow citizens. Conversely, the government has no rights unless specifically permitted by law. Seems to me that enslaving a person would certainly infringe upon his or her right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Palin: No one will value it,
but here is my opinion.

Sarah Palin held her resignation news conference one week ago, but I just read another columnist's examination of "why she quit". Being genetically disposed to be a motormouth, I can be silent no longer.

Some years ago I knew a young lawyer who was very idealistic and very disturbed with the political turn of events in his state. He decided to enter politics to make things better. He filed as a candidate for a seat in the Missouri Legislature's House of Representatives. The law firm where he was employed took little interest in his candidacy. Some friends of mine who were in the advertising business helped him write copy for flyers which he personally distributed door to to door.
When he was elected, the seniors in his law firm called him into a meeting and spelled out the agenda they wanted him to follow as a legislator. It was entirely opposite of what this young man had in mind and he refused. Eventually his employment situation became untenable and he resigned the job.
In the legislature, he confronted one stone wall after another. I no longer remember the time span it all took, or how many terms he served. But one day he reached the conclusion that there was nothing constructive he could accomplish in the state legislature, and at the end of the term, he walked away.

Most of us Conservatives yearn for politicians who truly care about their community, their country. We wrongly conclude that all politicians are egotistic maniacs, stumbling through their terms, concentrating only on being reelected. That's too bad. There are still people like the young, idealistic lawyer who try, but party hacks and special interest pros wear them down, one way or another.

Sarah Palin certainly is an idealist. Her entire public record proves that conclusively. She saw and struggled against corruption with no regard for party lines. She was successful in all of her Alaska endeavors. But when she entered the national scene, she was met by the real pros at the politics of personal destruction. Some crafty mind among them discovered that you could completely hogtie a political office holder by simply filing ethic complaints, one after the other. The law rightly requires that complaints be investigated, no matter how frivolous they may seem on the surface.

In the span of six months or so, Palin came to the realization that she, personally, had wasted a half million dollars - enough to put all of her children through college - defending herself against the false charges. Worse, the state she loved and wanted to protect, had spent four times that amount. Never mind that all charges were proven false and were dismissed. She, and those around her, knew that the charges would continue. Why would they stop? They were taking their toll, and it cost nothing to lodge them.

In Palin's case, she saw that the problem was her personal popularity on the national political stage. At her side was a Lieutenant Governor who shared her political ideals and goals. With no apparent national political ambitions, he would be of little interest to the destroyers. She could remove herself from the picture, put a stop to the financial bleeding of her family and her state, and still see her objectives for clean state government realized. She had only one choice.

Would resignation destroy her political career? Perhaps. Would it allow her to continue to pursue her goal of making a change in the political climate of the country she loved? Absolutely! And that was her true ambition.

For this, I feel a great personal debt to Sarah Palin. Do I think she'll run for some higher political office? I hope so - we need people like Sarah Palin. But that decision is hers to make. In the meantime, if she appears in my area in support of some candidate or another, you can bet I will turn out to hear her speak, and I will vote for the candidate she supports.

As a postscript, I might add that a similarly evil tactic was used against Mitt Romney. When Mitt ran for president he was already out of office, so his enemies needed a different line of attack. Romney didn't have a lot of vulnerabilities. But, Mitt was not a Catholic, or a Baptist, or a follower of any of the other heavily populated religions. He was a Mormon. Nobody had any bad information about Mormons, but their numbers were fewer. Perhaps it would be possible to stir up feelings of prejudice against Mitt, because of his religion.

To his great credit, and unlike Barack Obama who quickly deserted his church when it became politically expedient to do so, Mitt Romney stuck by his religious beliefs. Why? Because he really believed them!
Is religion what defeated Mitt Romney? We'll never know. But we do know that every little impediment can diminish the chance of winning a race, be it swimming, bike racing, even a horse race... or a political campaign.
UPDATE:
When I wrote this, I titled it "Palin: My 2¢ Worth", meaning, "no one will value this, but here is my opinion. When I looked at the post I thought that was a pretty dumb title, one that everyone might use. To check this, I did a Google search for "Palin: My 2¢ Worth" and Google found 46,500,000 pages. To be fair, not all were about Palin, some were just about "My 2¢ Worth".
Aren't people funny?

Tour de France

You may have never ridden a bicycle, but you surely are hearing about this 96th running of the Tour de France bicycle race. American Lance Armstrong, who won the race seven years in a row, brought it to the forefront of the consciousness of most Americans.

For me, however, it is quite different. I watch the Tour in wonder... how do these guys do it?

I bought my first bicycle 67 years ago. Raised on a farm in Missouri, it was a long way from home to anywhere I wanted to go. No one will ever know how badly I wanted a bicycle, but buying food and other basic life necessities sucked up all the family resources in the 1930s. It was impossible for my parents to afford a bicycle for me.

I used to run down those country roads, holding my hands in front of me, as if I were holding on to handlebars, stepping high to imitate the leg motion of riding the pedals of a bike.

Finally, in 1941, I managed to earn and save a few dollars. Six, as a matter of fact! A friend of mine who had just turned old enough to get a driver's license, had grown tired of his bicycle and said he would sell it for eight dollars. Somehow my mother scraped two dollars from the family living cache, and we went to consummate the deal. My friend was not at home, but his mother took the eight dollars and gave me the bike. An old Schwinn, fat tire model. God I loved that bike.

I have owned several bikes since then. This morning, like every morning, I headed out on my little Trek mountain bike for a 45-minute ride. It was gorgeous at 5:30 a.m.! In the west, the full moon was hanging low in the sky, turning a bit orange as it neared the horizon. To the east, the sun was climbing behind the Organ mountains, painting the overhanging clouds a wonderful, glowing neon orange. The temperature was 76º. Breeze about 5 mph. Life was good. This morning my average speed was 8.6 miles per hour. Top speed was 16.5. Duration of ride was 0:45:25. Total distance, 6.5 miles. I thought about the riders in the Tour, averaging over 25 miles per hour for many hours. How do they do it?

None of my early bikes had an odometer. The odometer on my current Trek is nearing 4,000 miles. My other Trek has logged over 6,000 miles. Ten thousand miles - like coast-to-coast three times. That's a lot of wonderful hours on a bike.

When my youngest daughter was about eight years old, She had a bike... they weren't fancy in those days, and probably a real chore to pump up hills. I rolled out my latest Schwinn, a 3-speed model I had won in a contest, and took her for a ride. Foolishly I headed us out on a two-lane highway and ended up riding perhaps 20 miles round trip.

Our turn-around point was an ancient Indian burial ground a local farmer had discovered and turned into a bit of a tourist attraction. We left him a souvenir from our radio station. Years later, as an adult, she re-visited that place and found that the owner still had the souvenir we had given him. He returned it to her.

I still shudder to think of all that could have gone wrong on that long ride with that little girl, but she never complained once. Lance Armstrong would have been proud!

When my youngest son was about the same age, I bought him his first bike. He was really having trouble getting up even the smallest hills. Upon close examination, I discovered that the crank, the pedals, were equipped with a plastic sleeve, not a ball bearing. Ouch. We bought him a small Schwinn, and his riding improved immeasurably. Today, at 36, he owns a quality road bike and rides every day that weather and his schedule permit.

Riding a bicycle is great exercise. But it is so much more than that. This morning I saw three jack rabbits and two cottontails, along with the moon set and the sun rise. If you own one of those stationary indoor bikes, sell the damn thing and get yourself out on the road. Early morning, if possible! What a way to start a day!

Who knows, maybe you'll see this eighty year old kid soaking up the joy of riding his own bike!

Obesity Optimizer

Getting too thin? Help is on the way! Peppers Cafe, a part of a local restaurant in my town, is now serving what they call "The World's Largest Green Chile Cheeseburger". Forget the "Two all beef patties" relic of yore. This new entry has one patty - a full pound of ground beef - served on a ten-inch bun!

Wow! Just what our fat population needs!

It's on the menu at $18.95, plus tax and tip.

Bad people and REALLY bad people.

For some reason, bad people are given more attention than good people. History books detail the evil deeds of people like Adolph Hitler, who personally caused death and pain to so many. But history ignores millions of others who spent their entire lives as good citizens, who dealt with their fellow man according to the kind of compact described by the philosopher Epicurus (342-271 B.C) 'not to harm or be harmed'.

But history also ignores - or incorrectly records - the deeds of those I see as really bad people. My all-time leader on that list is one Rachel Carson. Back in 1962, Carson wrote a book called Silent Spring. That book is often cited as the birth of the modern environmental movement. Rah Rah!

But the one thing Silent Spring really accomplished was the worldwide ban of the insecticide DDT. Carson advanced the not conclusively proven belief that DDT caused birds to lay eggs that would not hatch because the shells were too thin.

But, the ban on DDT gave a new lease on life to the anopheles mosquito, the conveyor of malaria. Before the ban, malaria was almost eradicated. Since the ban, millions have died from malaria. It is estimated that 1,000 African children die from malaria every day. That makes Hitler's death camps seem small by comparison.

Today, more really bad people are at work. Take the U.S. Congress' House of Representatives. That body just passed the so-called 'Cap & Trade' energy bill. The bill they passed was 1,200 pages with a 300 page amendment, that none of them had read. Not only was it unreadable, some experts are now saying it was not even written at the time of the vote. Some group of persons, with some kind of evil motive, sat at word processors and ground out 1,500 pages of gibberish which had no intelligent meaning. Then, those really bad people used the power we had in good faith given them, to advance that to become the law of the land! A fully enforceable law they would slam down on us.

How bad would that law be? That depends entirely on what the final bill will say. A few things are certain. We will never know who the final authors/editors will be. The president who would sign it will not have read it. Some people, somewhere, would become very rich because of it. More would become poor because of it. Not exactly the compact Epicurus had in mind.

Priorities???

I liked Michael Jackson. I thought he was an extraordinary talent and have often said that when you practice something from the cradle you will get very, very good at it. Jackson did that.

I never believed any of the pedophile charges. A famed attorney once repeated endlessly to a jury: "If it doesn't fit you must acquit". In my opinion, the charges of child molestation against Jackson never did fit. Not even close. Like much of the world I was saddened by the death of this lonely famous man.

Now, can we stop talking about him?

When Dwight Eisenhower died, I was General Manager of a radio station in Salina, Kansas, just 25 miles from Eisenhower's home town of Abilene, Kansas. Ike was well liked everywhere. He was especially well liked in Kansas.

General Eisenhower was the Allied Supreme Commander in Europe in world War II. He engineered the Normandy invasion, which liberated Europe. At wars end, Ike was elected president. His first act, even before inauguration, was to go to Korea and stop the killing in the Korean War which Harry Truman had exacerbated but could not end.

Eisenhower then presided over an eight year presidency of peace and prosperity. People often refer to that period as a ho-hum presidency, but Eisenhower gave us a balanced budget. For younger readers, that means the government did not spend more than it took in. Amazing.

Perhaps Ike's greatest legacy is the Interstate Highway system. Before Ike, we made our way across country on two-lane highways. With steep hills, big trucks were slowed and there were few passing opportunities. I have driven from Kansas City to St Louis behind a big truck almost the entire journey. Get an opportunity to pass one and you soon overtake - and are stuck behind - another. Ike realized this could be a fatal obstruction to the rapid movement of military forces in the event of a national emergency, and initiated a nationwide system of high speed, limited access highways. The Interstate Highway System.

Dwight Eisenhower was a very important leader in our nation's history.

What has this to do with Michael Jackson? When Eisenhower died, I stopped the broadcast of all commercials on my radio station and programmed only quiet, respectful music as a memoriam to this great former general and former president whose hometown was well within our coverage area. I was widely criticized for this act. Even some of our station's stockholders were critical. So, after only a few hours time, I resumed regular programming.

Harry Truman once said he was amazed at the celebrity accorded the office of the president. I am amazed at the much greater attention and devotion heaped upon entertainers and athletes. Michael Jackson died. That is very sad. Now shut up about it. Time to resume regular programming.

Only in America?

Heading out for my bike ride at 5:30 this morning, I loaded my bike on the back of my old Cherokee, then picked up the newspaper lying at my feet in the driveway. The headline read: 'Crowds Pack In for 'Transformers' .

What the heck are 'Transformers'? Maybe some kind of new and highly advanced military gear? After all, the Physical Sciences Laboratory at NMSU does operate a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) Test Facility near here. Just over the mountain is White Sands Missile Range where the U.S, tests and tests shooting down missiles. Included there is HELSTF, the High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility, where even the Israeli government tested shooting down missiles or rockets with a laser. Twenty five miles north the new Spaceport is under construction. So, public demonstrations of new technological marvels are often held.

The headline was intriguing, but the morning bike ride in the desert was more appealing. Don't think riding in sand among cactus... I ride on paved streets and roads. But the cool, dry air of a pre-sunrise summer morning in our desert climate, may be the most appealing climatological experience on the planet.

I put the newspaper in the garage, and backed out of the driveway. The radio was on in the Jeep, and was tuned to a talk show. The host was talking about a new movie he had just seen, called 'Transformers'. Aha! Our newspaper had a headline... a front page, "A" section headline, about a movie, a creation of Hollywood, the world capital of foolishness?

First, the radio host was predicting how much money this thing would make. Over one hundred million this weekend, he guessed. Then he talked about the movie. Explosions? Biggest ever. Did you see 'Armageddon'? that was nothing. 'Transformers I'? That was nothing!

So, people may spend $100 million this weekend to see a bunch of filmed explosions? Well, I may well go see a fireworks display on July 4. But at least it will be free, and I don't have to put up with some incomprehensible story line. Just watch the pretty flash. Hear the big boom.

We complain when asked to pay $3.00 for a gallon of gasoline (which will push our car twenty miles down the highway) but happily pay $2.00 for a 16-oz. bottle of water - that translates to $16.00 a gallon!

Maybe the difference is that we don't have to go see the movie. We don't have to buy the water. It's okay to waste time or money of your own free will. Just don't create a situation where we have to waste it!

Now we know!

Those brilliant people who figured out that humans (and now animals) are causing climate change which will warm up the planet, melt polar ice, cause oceans to overflow, etc., etc., have further enlightened us.

After setting in motion foolishness that will condemn us all to driving golf cart-sized autos on our Interstate hiways, the latest claim is that the real problem is animal flatulence. So, they are threatening what some in the U.S. Congress are calling the "Cow Fart Tax"!

There are a lot of cows in America (not to mention hogs, sheep, etc.). One dairy not far from my home, has some 30,000 cows! But that is nothing to the number of bison who once roamed the Great Plains. We are told that the herds numbered in the millions. Millions!

Imagine the quantities of methane gas they expelled. Since we now know that that gas causes global warming, the warming must have been intense in ancient America. All of the present day U.S. and Canada must have been tropical.

That, then, explains why there were so many palm trees - even alligators - in Minnesota and North Dakota!

???

Coming to New Mexico This Summer?
Here are some tips.

The cuisine called Mexican Food is sweeping the country. And, it is becoming more authentic. In 1950, I worked in Wisconsin for the summer. I once ordered a bowl of chili in a Wisconsin restaurant and was served what I considered a bowl of vegetable soup with a dash of chili powder. Today, in most of the U.S., a similar order would bring you something we call Texas chili... a dish made with beans, ground beef, and varying amounts of chili seasoning.

Actually, the name Mexican Food is, in itself, not authentic. It should accurately be called Southwest Food. While it is served in northern Mexico, other parts of that nation never heard of an enchilada, and many areas prefer seafood. In fact. one of the best fresh seafood dinners I ever ate was served in a beach side restaurant in Acapulco.

Back to New Mexico, where Southwest dishes are so popular there is a "Mexican Restaurant" on every other street corner, our state legislature actually passed a resolution declaring the Official State Question to be "Red or Green?". It is asked at every Mexican restaurant to determine if you want your meal seasoned with red chile or green chile. And, yes, in New Mexico we do use the Spanish spelling... C-H-I-L-E. Chili refers to that brown stuff from Texas - which we also serve, but more often than not, you will be served true Southwest chile, which contains neither beans or ground beef.

However, the Official Question has given way to a new version... "Red, Green or Christmas?". It seems a lot of us just can't decide if we prefer red or green chile, so we ask for both... red on one side, green on the other... now called "Christmas".

Sometimes you will hear a diner ask his server "Which is hotter?" That is because there are a lot of different chile varieties grown in the state. Green chile, which all chile peppers are before they ripen, ranges from a variety named Barker (which is too hot even for me, and I love hot chile), to Big Jim which I find to be not hot at all.

After chiles turn red they are dried, ground or crushed, and used for seasoning in numerous ways. Again, some species are much hotter than others, and if you are a new customer in a given restaurant, you won't know which kind of chiles they use.

Someone came up with what we call Scoville Heat Units (SHU) to rate the heat of a given chile variety. A common jalapeno chile measures about 10,000 SHU, while some New Mexico green chiles measure only about 1,500 SHU.

Since chiles are an important agricultural crop in New Mexico, New Mexico State University (an agricultural school) takes chile growing seriously and even has a Chile Pepper Institute, to help chile farmers grow varieties which are more drought resistant and more resistant to fungus and insects.

Abot two years ago, experts from the Institute discovered a chile variety in the northeast part of India. This variety, known as Bhut Jolokia, measures over one million SHU!

That's 100 times hotter than a jalapeno! Paul Bosland, director of the Institute, has even developed a hot sauce called "Holy Jolokia", which is to be sampled in moderation.

So, maybe a better question for your restaurant server would be, "Are you serving Bhut Jolokias?". Don't be surprised, however, if they answer as a young waitress recently answered me, "Oh, gosh... I just started first year Spanish and I don't understand that", even though the name comes from India and is not Spanish.