To the shores of Tripoli.

Marines have been singing that refrain for well over 100 years, as a part of their The Marines Hymn.

It refers to the Battle of Derne in the First Barbary War in 1805. Not unlike the activities off the coast of the African Horn today, pirates had been ravaging shipping in the Mediterranean. Unlike today's Somali pirates, the Barbary pirates were state sponsored, and nations could make a deal with the pirates to pay a mafia-like "protection" sum to avoid the pirate attacks.

In 1800, the United States was in financial straits from the recent war, and paying a ransom seemed the least expensive way to avoid pirate disruptions to U. S. shipping. The pirates, however demanded unreasonably high payments from our new nation, so the U.S. president said no. The U.S. Marines settled the dispute, as they continue to remind us in their Hymn, ending the piracy. British Admiral Nelson called the Marines action the most bold and daring act of the age.

Why then, I wonder, can we not do the same in Somalia today? I hear that unlike 1805, the U.S. Military today is involved all over the world; and that we just cannot afford another engagement.

Maybe that is true, but in 1805, the U.S. Population was about 5,300,000, less than 2% of today's population. And, the U.S. Military was very small, whereas it is now the most powerful in the history of the world. But, in 1805, Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States, and Americans were on fire with the concept of liberty! When faced with an unjust affront to that liberty, America took action.

Has that fire gone out in the belly of the American government? Does America no longer engage in bold and daring acts in the name of liberty?

Surfin' porn on the company computer

There's been a lot of talk on TV news this week about employees at the Securities and Exchange Commission spending hours - in some cases hundreds of hours - surfing pornography on the government computers while "on the clock". Much of what has been said is about the possible reasons for or results of a seeming addiction to porn. They miss the point!

When you - private enterprise or government bureau - employ someone, you make an exchange agreement... so many dollars for an agreed upon time at work. Work forty hours - I pay you $500., or whatever amount agreed upon. Now, suppose the boss decides to renege a bit and give you something less? Well, now! You go to NLRB and complain. They, in turn, tell your employer to make up the shortage or face the wrath of the law.

But what happens if the employee decides to renege and not work the agreed upon hours. Maybe the employee, instead, spends several hours a day on the phone, visiting with friends or family. Or he spends those hours glaring at a computer screen (furnished and powered by the employer) showing naked people engaged is all sorts of explicit sex acts. In the latter incident, all sorts of learned people carry on as to why you chose that particular endeavor, and how that may affect your life or your behavior!

Like I said, that's beside the point. The point is that you purposely failed to keep your agreement with your boss and it is payback time... your next check should be docked pay for every hour you were not working.

If an SEC employee is drawing $100,000 a year, as claimed, and they spent 1600 hours looking at porn, they owe back $76,923.07.

Hey, fair is fair!

My problem with "social networking"

I don't use Facebook, don't Tweet, don't participate in any of the wildly popular social networks. I have nothing against daily contact with friends and family. My opposition hinges on the requirement of brevity.

Radio and television, love them though I do, introduced the era of brevity. Of quick little sound bites. In broadcasting, we always talked about "time constraints" as the cause for brevity. These constraints existed because we knew we had to get off the serious side of informing people with real news and get back to entertainment programming, or we would lose our listeners.

Now, in the era of broadband, high speed Internet connections, our society has become an impatient society. If it takes too long to download, forget it! If you cannot tell a story in one brief sentence, you will lose your listener. The new social networks serve to reinforce this practice. I wish to eliminate it.

We no longer want to take time to read a lengthy analysis of a current news topic. The result, in my opinion, is a population uninformed, easily misled, easily fooled.

For example, today's news is anchored with President Obama lecturing Wall Street, and his plan to "reform" their practices. Sounds okay, until you start thinking. The president is scolding - punishing, if you will - people who invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to support his election. What's going on?

In the suspicious mind of this old man, something is wrong. But you are not likely to learn more from sound bites. This is a big, involved subject for the average guy. Needed is a patient, detailed explanation. I found one in John Mauldin's "Outside The Box" column today. It is long, requires time and concentration to read and understand, but if you want a peek behind the curtain, please check it at www.johnmauldin.com/outside_the_box.html

Mauldin points out that, tucked away in the 1300 page financial reform bill, are requirements that will seriously impact investing by (comparatively small) "angel" investors, while heaping crippling obligations onto innovators seeking investments in their new business venture.

Could it be that this new "reform" legislation, meekly accepted by the people it is supposed to be punishing, is actually a tool that will force billions in new business their way?

Sorry, that question cannot be answered with a sound bite. But if you are willing to spend fifteen minutes or more, Mauldin may well answer it for you.

More problems with changing definitions

I know it is a product of aging, but when you have accepted the definition of a word for decades - or for a lifetime - it scrapes on the edge of your nerves when someone changes that definition.

One that irritates me is the now universal practice of calling a serious TV news program a "Show"! To me, Show means Barnum and Bailey, proprietors of The Greatest Show On Earth!

In my day, we called a newscast a newscast or perhaps just a report. I think it robs your effort of dignity when you say "At the end of our show, we will..... ", or "on tomorrow's show we will... ".

The other word that more people are using is in reference to politicians who belong to the Democrat party. You know what it is... Democratic! Columnists and reporters I love now talk about the Democratic Caucus, or the Democratic majority! Can't you just, please, refer to them as Democrats. Increasingly, they demonstrate that they are anything but democratic!

If I were to start a new political party, I might call it the Virtues. Then maybe people would refer to us as Virtuous.

Probably not!

Tempted and tried...

Back in the 1940s, on country music radio, we were playing a country/Gospel song titled "Farther Along". The lyric said, in part,

Tempted and tried we're oft made to wonder
Why it should be thus all the day long
While there are others living about us
Never molested, though in the wrong.

Through the years, I've known people who seemed to fit that lyric... good, decent people who were struck by one disaster after the other. People who were good parents, good neighbors, but faced one devastating illness after the other.

But, did you ever know a nation that seemed to fit that lyric?

I do, it is Poland. That nation of good and decent people has never caught a break. Before World War I, their nation was destroyed. After that war, it was somewhat restored. Then came the Nazis. Polish men, intent upon defending their homes marched out to meet the German tanks, some armed with nothing more than pitchforks. Who has that kind of courage, that resolve! My, how I admired those brave Polish farmers.

The Soviets marched through and wiped out the Germans, only to replace them with a new kind of brutality. But the Poles persevered again, finally winning their freedom once more.

Recently, in the process of remembering past Polish heroes murdered by a foreign power, the Presidential plane crashed, killing the nation's president and many other Polish leaders.

Now, a volcano erupts, just in time to halt air traffic and prevent many from attending funeral services for these latest Polish victims of unending misfortune.

Perhaps, as the old country song continues,

Farther along we'll know more about it
Farther along we'll understand why.
Cheer up my brothers, live in the sunshine
We'll understand it, all bye and bye.

We can hope!

A National Day of Prayer

Everyone who knows me well knows that I am not a religious person... at least, not a promoter of organized religion. I know some truly religious people who are magnificent humans. However, my lifetime experience has found about as much corruption among "religious" people as among politicians. Do the names Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton ring any bells? How about Jeremiah Wright, Father Flager or Louis Farrakhan. Might I add Oral Roberts and a few other TV evangelists to the list?

But beyond that, most religions - and I mean the established religions, not the storefront things with the strange names like "Church of the Guiding Light" - or flashing light - or whatever they call themselves... most established religions have their roots in ancient times when curious but uninformed people were searching for answers to things they could not understand.

So, they decided the earth was the center of the universe. And that the earth was flat. And lots of other things which certainly appeared valid to the average observer, but proved to be patent nonsense.

But, through the years, they also discovered a code of conduct which, by and large, is as applicable today as then.

So if a teacher today tells my grandchild or great-grandchild that God guides the stars across the skies, I object. I have no idea exactly what guides the stars to go wherever they are going, but that doesn't mean "God" is doing it.

If someone points to the Ten Commandments and says "Thou Shall Not Kill" or "Thou Shall Not Steal", I agree. If they say "Thou shall have no other Gods Before Me", I disagree. I, you see, don't have any "Gods"... if that means one specific being sitting on a throne somewhere.

But "prayer" is not religion. To some, prayer means the Christian "Lord's Prayer". Of course, that is nothing more than a wish for basic life (our daily bread) and a wish to be a better person, (lead us not into temptation). To some, prayer means to drop on your knees and ask that your team wins the game. To the Muslims, it is a five times a day ritual of facing Mecca and doing some kind of orchestrated bow.

To others, prayer means a moment of personal reflection to think of what you are doing, what you should do, and how to reconcile the two.

Frankly, I don't care what prayer means to you. But to each of the above-mentioned, prayer is, obviously, a serious, important thing. So, why is that not okay? Someone, okay, some politician hoping to accrue good will (I'm too lazy to look up the origin) by promoting that feeling of personal fulfillment, initiated a "National Day of Prayer". No problem. A national reminder to take a few moments and think about your feelings as to what the world is doing... what you are doing.

Now a Federal judge, one Barbara Crabb from Wisconsin, has decided that a National Day of Prayer violates the basic law of our land! Unless someone can better explain those ten clear, concise words of the First Amendment that deal with religion, I conclude, Your Honor, that you are an idiot!

To my environmentalist friends...

Where I live, in the Southwest, the wind blows. Today we are under a huge wind warning and the wind is screaming around our house. Such raw power! How many kilowatts are there for the capture?

I love the wind generators. they are big, clean and, in my opinion, rather graceful looking. Sadly, as an energy source, they are a long way from fulfilling their promise. That is why I can scan the wide open landscape and see not a single wind generator.

A friend of mine in another state also loves the generators. so much so that he decided to erect one on his property. Then he learned that the going price is about one million dollars! Wow! What are the chances of recovering that kind of investment? Pretty slim.

Much the same can be said about a nuclear generating plant. Big, big investment. Questionable rate of return.

This is why some two-thirds of America's energy comes from burning coal. I know you hate those "pollutant belching" coal powered generators, as one of my liberal friends described them. But think of the good we all achieve from electricity. Without electricity, we would be hard pressed to continue to live in our home. I don't like air pollution, either. but, I can live with it. I cannot live without electricity.

So, today, in wake of the tragic loss of life in a West Virginia coal mine, I am especially thankful for coal, and for the many men and women who secure it for us. Talk about unsung heroes! How long could America last if their efforts ceased?

Thank you - and bless you, coal miners!