Yard Signs

The state of Missouri is known as "The Show Me State". Amazingly, few Missourians know why. The nickname came about in the Civil War. Some states permitted slavery. Other states did not. Missouri was divided. When Missourians met a stranger, they never knew if the stranger was pro-slavery or anti-slavery. Before expressing an opinion, they sought a signal from their new acquaintance.

In today's election periods, we put yard signs in front of our homes to show which candidate we support. A yard sign shows your political choice and indicates you are not ashamed of  that choice.

Knowing yard signs receive only a fleeting glance from passersby, these signs rarely show more than the name of the candidate. I would like to display a different message for next November's presidential election. Perhaps I should make a sign that said "Due to the policies of President Obama, this home is worth 40% less than four years ago." or, maybe, "President Obama's policies wiped out my equity in this home".

Maybe I will.

Bonus Schmonus

The current outcry against bonuses for executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac proves that Barack Obama's efforts to create class warfare are succeeding. It is further evidence that our educational system still has not taught that labor is a commodity. Its price determined by market forces.

Commodity prices are governed by the rarity of the commodity and the demand for it. Gold and corn are both yellow. Ounce for ounce, gold is "worth" the most... unless one is starving on a desert island, in which case the demand for the corn would greatly exceed the demand for the gold.

I started two small businesses, both highly successful in terms of the product we provided. But I lacked the necessary management skills and both businesses failed. A lot of people lost their jobs. What would it have been worth to each of those companies to have found someone to do the job, and had the money to hire them away from their former position?

I have no idea whether the Fannie - Freddie officers now receiving the bonuses are capable of pulling those entities from the jaws of greater disaster. I have no idea how many dollars it will take to keep them on the job if they do. But, to simply say they should not be paid the required amount because taxpayers have money involved, is foolishness of the first order. (Or, perhaps, of the second order! Hope and Change supporters who elected Obama in the first place could hardly do anything more foolish!)

Occupy - the Liberal mindset

This weekend, the media has overflowed with stories of  filth, lawbreaking, illegal drugs, even murder amongst those in the Occupy Wall Street movement. Mayors and police in various cities are saying "enough" and evicting the rowdy, destructive crowds.

On Sunday morning, the Managing Editor of our local newspaper, a Liberal Democrat, wrote a lengthy column about the OWS movement. I did not read the entire column. When I reached this sentence, I quit reading:

"I support it completely and wish them well in the cold winter months ahead"

Sunday evening, 60 Minutes, the CBS TV news magazine carried a story about Congressman Brian Baird, from Washington, a Democrat, and his efforts to thwart unlawful inside stock trading by Congressmen. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Liberal Democrat, apparently the biggest offender.

And, I recall a recent statement by an old friend, a lifelong Democrat and once a close family friend of Harry Truman, saying the former president must be spinning in his grave over the conduct of the current Democrat Administration.

I have felt ill about Democrats for 75 years. As a small boy, I heard my father and his friends complain that Franklin Roosevelt was destroying their country.

Today I am easing a bit on the old-fashioned, labor favoring Democrats and placing the blame purely on the Progressive Liberal movement. Yes, I still believe that some Democrats will support any Democrat - think Bob Beckel! But it is only when Democrats fully adopt the Liberal ideology that they go completely whacko.

Unlike our local newspaper editor, I hope the scum "occupying" Wall Street, and other cities, freeze in the cold winter months ahead.

American Culture

What's that? I guess it depends on whom you ask. You've probably heard the story of the California school boys who got in a bit of trouble for wearing patriotic American T-shirts to school on Cinco de Mayo (Fifth of May). To some Americans, that was outrageous.

After the Mexicans gained independence from Spain, Napoleon III of France and a group of Mexican monarchists backed that clown Maximilian to become Emperor of Mexico. The Mexicans pretty well ended the adventure when their Army defeated a French force at Puebla, Mexico on May 5, 1862. In Puebla, the date is celebrated as the anniversary of The Battle of Puebla. Elsewhere in Mexico, the date is generally ignored.

In the U.S., it is fun to say "Cinco de Mayo" and the date has become an excuse to drink a lot of Tequila. Some Hispanic American kids - especially in California and other border states - celebrate the day out of some sort of ethnic pride. Okay? Then, why is it not also okay for non-Hispanic American kids to wear red, white and blue T-shirts?

On November 11, a number of TV personalities observed Veteran's Day by wearing little "Buddy Poppies" on their lapels. Buddy Poppies came on the scene some time after World War One. During that war, Army surgeon John McCrae wrote a poem titled "In Flander's Fields", in which he spoke of poppies growing in the military cemetery in France. In 1918 US professor Moina Michael, inspired by the poem,  vowed to always wear a red poppy as a symbol of remembrance for those who served in the war. Throughout my life, I remember the Disabled American Veterans organization selling little artificial poppies (on Armistice Day, which later became Veteran's Day) they called Buddy Poppies, to help fund their activities.

Yesterday, I was shocked when TV commentator Juan Williams, seemed to not know why people were wearing Buddy Poppies.

How is it that today, in America, more people seem to know about Cinco de Mayo, an almost insignificant event in Mexican history, than about Buddy Poppies which commemorate an event in which over 116,000 U.S. military personnel were killed?

Do events in our history need a more catchy name to survive in our culture?

I wish...

We all say that, throughout our lives. I often say it to myself when I think of my father. More than anyone I have ever known, he appreciated the good that has come from industry, technology. Born and raised in the era of the horse, I often heard him marvel at the convenience and comfort of travel by modern automobile, on modern "hard-surface roads", as he called them.

He once told me of driving an early automobile from Tulsa, OK to Oklahoma City. The existing dirt road had three deep ruts, two caused by teams of two horses and the wheels of the wagons they pulled. A center rut caused by a single horse pulling a buggy. Driving the car on the road often meant the ruts were deep enough that the car would "high center" and the wheels just spin. So, they drove alongside the road through pastures, cutting and mending fences as they went. The trip takes about two hours today. His trip took a couple of days.

He told another story of attending some sort of fair in which a telephone company had set up a display where people could stand on one side of the room and talk, by phone, to someone on the other side. One attendee remarked that "Some day they'll do it without the wires".

My father died years before cell phones or personal computers. Imagine the fun of demonstrating smart phones to him... or explaining the internet and all it offers. He may have a little trouble grasping the techniques of operating these new devices, but he would be impressed and appreciative. 

I wish... I could.

But, they paid a Settlement!

So, he must be guilty, right?

Republican presidential nominee hopeful Herman Cain, it is revealed, was accused of sexual harassment 12 years ago. His employer at the time, the National Restaurant Association, paid a settlement to the women who made the charges.

I hold that that fact tells us nothing.

If the public knew the truth about "settlements", I believe there would be a huge outcry against the kind of lawsuits clogging our courts.

In my career in advertising, I have witnessed events where a business is sued for some wrong-doing and said, "Bring it on", so certain were they of their innocence. Offered a chance of making a cash settlement in lieu of the lawsuit, they said "No Way!"

Then their lawyers tallied up the time it would take to successfully defend their case, and advised them to take the settlement.

Understand, please, that it costs money to practice law. Even the most rudimentary practice requires an office, utility bills, employees to answer phones, prepare complex legal documents, do research, etc. A lawyer cannot work for free and still pay his staff, his bills, etc., even if he wanted to donate his time.

So, if a lawyer computes that it will cost $10,000 to defend a case and the matter can be closed with a $5,000 settlement, the honest lawyer will so advise his client. That happens over and over and over in America. Doesn't matter if the charges are valid or just made up. Sad, but true.

But, let me speak to the fact of sexual harassment. There was a time when sexual harassment was rampant in the business world. A superior of some rank catches a secretary in the supply closet, closes the door and forces her against the wall, attempting to undress her. That was bad, really bad, and the perpetrators should be severely punished.

Some were. Some companies have paid big bucks when that sort of behavior was proven. And, quite naturally, some persons have seen charges of sexual harassment as an easy route to a big payday. Bring the charge, challenge the accused to a costly lawsuit - or in the alternative - a handsome cash settlement.

Happily for the women of the business world, the reality of harsh punishment for acts of sexual harassment has helped to minimize the practice.

No charge of sexual harassment should escape investigation. But, no charge of sexual harassment should be plastered across national news media unless and until substantiated. Especially not 12 years after the event, when the accusation can cause irreparable harm to the accused, even if never proven valid.