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!

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