Perception,

they say, is everything! In politics, anyway.

Don't know about everything, but perception does count for a lot. Once I perceive that something is happening a certain way, it takes a lot of persuasion to change my thinking.

I have always marveled at how brief, how concise our Constitution was written. It is remarkably clear, unmistakeable in purpose.

Laws are no longer written that way. Now they are thousands of pages long, unreadable, unless you have the time to check all the references. I once thought that was because the attorneys writing these laws wanted to make them very narrow, wanted to make them "escape proof". My perception has changed.

Now, I believe these bills are written long and complicated to provide lots of wiggle room. To obscure, to obfuscate, to hide certain politically unpopular agendas.

I find that saddening. Must we start from a position that will allow us to deceive? What is the reason for this position? If a politician has an idea for a new law, why cannot he/she throw it out there to be tested in open debate? Is it the desire for re-election that drives them to couch things in a way that can be modified without admitting they may have been wrong?

As Charles Krauthammer noted, the beauty of passing a bill of such monstrous length. You can insert a chicken soup recipe and no one will notice.

Once a long, complicated piece of legislation is introduced, why do Congressmen and Senators vote on it, and presidents sign it, without even reading it? Is it all for the protection of their particular political party? Have we really fallen that low?

Don't know, but that is my perception.

Santa Teresa, NM

Ever heard of that place? You may, in the future.

Most of New Mexico's southern border abuts against the state of Texas. But, moving westward, Texas ends at El Paso, while New Mexico extends westward to the Arizona border. All of which is a way of saying that part of New Mexico's southern border adjoins Mexico.

Mexico happens to be the largest trading partner of the U.S. Many American manufacturers have their products parts assembled in Mexico, then shipped back as finished products. Mexican store shelves are crammed with U.S. brand products. Agriculture trade is huge. Much of your grocers produce comes from Mexico when it becomes too cold to grow it on U.S. farms.

Much of that trade travels north and south along the route of the old Spanish Camino Real (royal highway) which ran from Mexico City to Santa Fe, New Mexico. A historic trade route! That route passed through El Paso, Texas, named originally El Paso del Norte by the Spaniards. That translated to The pass to the north, which pretty well describes the geography there... a fairly narrow pass between two mountain ranges.

That pass was adequate for the old Spanish ox carts, but today, the hundreds of trucks and trains which transport the commerce between our two nations, has caused quite a congestion.

And, since the Rio Grande delineates the border at El Paso, all trade traffic must cross bridges! Another impediment.

Smart planners on both sides of the border determined that they could skip west of the mountains that formed the west wall of El Paso's "pass" and find a much less congested route to the north. They built a modern, efficient Port of Entry on the Mexico-New Mexico border, at the little town of Santa Teresa. This is beyond the Rio Grande so there are no bridges. Extra lanes can be added to hiways, less expensively.

Doña Ana County, NM, built its airport nearby and New Mexico greatly improved the highway from Santa Teresa, northward. A huge freight handling depot was built to accommodate the truck freight traffic through the new POE. A number of businesses have sprung up in the area to serve the increasing population in the area.

Now, a $400 million rail facility is nearing completion at Santa Teresa, and will open early in 2014. This will greatly increase rail traffic between our two nations.

Trade routes have historically determined population growth and area development. The Santa Teresa route will be no different. Albuquerque, currently New Mexico's largest city, was built along the old U.S. Highway 66 (now Interstate 40) a major east-west trade route.

And, remember, the world does not end at Mexico. Latin America is booming. Trade with Brazil and other South American nations can only grow.

I predict that the Santa Teresa route will be even more important and that eventually the population there will surpass that of Albuquerque.

Observations, on December 25

Nothing to do with the holiday, today... except that I have time for a little abstract thinking.

We just removed all the carpet in our home - except for the bedrooms. Replaced it all with tile. The tile my wife chose is very pretty, and the men who laid it did a great job. I love the look, but there is, of course, some of those unintended consequences.

First, the tile has significantly hardened the acoustics. I am seriously hearing impaired, a condition which almost no one with good hearing can understand. Everyone thinks the problem is volume. So they talk louder, which does not help. The problem is intelligibility: I can hear them, I just cannot understand them.

I don't know how to explain what has happened between my ear drums and my brain, but the effect is very disconcerting. If two people talk over each other, I can understand neither. If people talk too fast, it seems my brain cannot process that jumble of words, especially if they are not clearly annunciated.

With our new tile, there is a slight echo effect. I'm sunk, unless I am close enough to the speaker for their voice to drown out the echo.

Watching television, I have great difficulty understanding anyone who does not annunciate like a professional announcer. Even then there are differences. I notice that speakers with a wider mouth annunciate more clearly than do speakers with a narrower mouth.

Sound weird to you? It certainly does to me, but it has proven to be true in countless observations.

As a radio announcer, especially when I went on the air at 5:00 a.m., I did various exercises to "wake up" my lips and tongue. I drove to work in the pre-dawn hours, repeatedly articulating the phrase How Now Brown Cow exaggerating each word, as I spoke.


There was another phrase that helped me to annunciate:
The cow moos, the kitten mews. Each day at noon, we read the news.

A cow never mews, a kitten never moos. We never read the noos... at noon, or at any other time. We only read the news!

Often I listen to TV commentators and wish they would take a break and repeat How now brown cow a few dozen times.

Most conversationalists do not like to be asked to repeat, so I wish I could avoid asking "What did you say?" It is often better to just smile and chuckle, but certainly not always. Sometimes they give you a puzzled look and say "I asked you to please hand me that pencil."  Oh! Sorry.

Okay, enough abstract thinking!

Color, color, color

The human ability to visualize color is a wonderful gift. It beautifies our world, and it gives us another way to communicate: red light means stop.

Talk about the color of skin, however, and people go nuts.

When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., came on the scene, it took me awhile to warm to his philosophy. After thinking about it however, I agreed, character is important. Skin color, not so much.

Looking at the world as a community, it seems the closer to the equator, the darker the skin. Go to Norway or Sweden and see light skin. Did it originate with the sun? From without, not from within?

When Barack Obama was elected president we heard endlessly of his overwhelming support by Black Americans... even when his policies were failing. Were all Blacks voting for his skin color? You may expect that from people who care little about politics, policy, or the results thereof.

But, what about Black "intellectuals"? As in Black college professors, physicians, CEOs and other people of high accomplishment? Wow! There is a huge diversity of opinion. These outstanding Americans care more for character than for skin color.

Then it was time to analyze comments by some race hustlers. They demand that we be colorblind about skin, while demanding that we be more fair to people of color. What color? Have we not all become "skin-colorblind"!

Fox News Channel's Megyn Kelly made some remark about a white Santa. Her colleague, Bill O'Reilly backed her up by saying the mythical character originated in European nations with white populations. The ladies on ABC TV's The View took issue.

What color for a Department Store Santa? Who can you find to do that job? Stick a bushy white wig, mustache and beard on him, and, who can tell?

What color do you want Santa to be? Wait! Remember, we are "skin-colorblind"!

Some insist we should have more Black actors on TV. How can we tell if we're skin-colorblind?

Affirmative Action, diversity in employment practices? How can we tell if we're skin-colorblind?

Then, there is the question, "What color was Jesus?" We don't know because the contemporaries who wrote of him were obviously skin-colorblind!

Well, I, and most white people today are not skin-colorblind. Tanning devices, tanning lotions, etc., are a zillion-dollar business among white populations. We love a beautiful, healthy, brown skin.

It's time to enjoy skin color the same as we enjoy the beauty of color everywhere.

Inflation

The Government has an interesting way of deceiving us. Take the U.S. Unemployment Rate. This figure is achieved by telephoning a sample number of households and asking if anyone is looking for work.

Okay, the findings tell us about people looking for work. They say little about the number of able bodied folks who would like to work, but do not currently have a job. Are they not unemployed?

Or, how about the widely touted inflation rate? For this they use the Consumer Price Index. They survey prices of a number of items, and compare those prices with the prices of the same items one year ago - or at some arbitrary date in the past. Problem is, they do not include the prices of certain categories of products or services.

How meaningful are the numbers they offer? Not very.

Telling us that the average price of some things we buy has increased a percentage point or two, compared to the average price of those same items one year ago, doesn't tell us a lot.

What is telling is when you go to the store and buy some item you have not purchased in a while. That tells you something about inflation.

I don't know if there is an accurate way to compute how many Americans are unemployed. I simply feel the current method is bogus.

Inflation? Well, the thing that matters is the buying power of our money. When our money buys fewer items, we say prices are inflated. Actually, that is not true. Modern manufacturing and farming methods, have brought products to market more quickly, efficiently then ever. Modern transportation means more products can come to us over greater distances then ever. Why are these products costing more every year? Because our money is worth less.

There may be an accurate way to compute rates of unemployment, inflation and other economic indicators. But, the results may show some government policies to be wrong. Not likely they will ever be developed. 

Someone's really stupid!

Is it me?

Recently, at a news conference, President Obama said "We're also discovering that insurance is complicated to buy." The Hartford has been in business since 1810; Prudential since 1875. If insurance could be purchased through a web site, wouldn't one believe that these companies and others, would have figured out how long ago?

If you want to lower the cost of insurance, increase competition. No more of this stopping at state lines. Or, international boundaries, for that matter. If an insurance company in Toronto, or London, or Berlin or Tel Aviv can offer a better product for less, encourage them to do so.

It has been proven time and again that competition reduces costs. If you want to reduce health care costs, increase the number of health care providers. Make the practice of medicine more attractive, more lucrative. Encourage more and more bright, young Americans to enter the field of medicine.

Don't threaten to sue them at every turn. Common sense would surely indicate that most medical malpractice lawsuits are bogus. A doctor's entire career hinges on his/her medical license. Is anyone likely to jeopardize that career by providing sloppy care? Eliminate medical malpractice lawsuits. Surely there is a better way to oversee the profession - if oversight is called for. 

Don't study ways to pay doctors less and less for the service they perform. The more hours a doctor must work to pay his staff, his office expenses, pay off the enormous cost of his education and still make a living, the more we set the stage for hurried care.

And, what about medicines? Today it probably costs as much to shepherd a new medicine through bureaucratic red tape as it does to develop it in the first place. Then, the manufacturer is subject to a lawsuit at every turn.

Look what we have done in the  field of electronic technology: phones, computers, tablets, whatever you call the latest machine. Imagine what we could do in the field of prosthetics and other medical devices if we could cut red tape and make their development profitable.

These steps seem so obvious. Or, am I just stupid?

Things to be Thankful for III

People who do dirty jobs.

In our modern, highly civilized society, there are still many dirty jobs to be done. Thankfully, there are people who do them!

The abundance of dirty jobs even spawned a hit television series by that name. Each episode meets and joins people doing dirty jobs. Mike Rowe, the multi-talented host of the show revealed in a recent interview, that the people who do these jobs do so with dignity and with pride in a job well done!

It says something about different people's perception of what is a dirty job, and also about the inner satisfaction of mastering your task and doing it well.

Tackling and completing a dirty job can often be a learning experience. My close acquaintances have all heard me talk of an incident from early in my Army career. Working a shift at K.P. (They call it Kitchen Police to disguise the fact that it is simply cleaning up after cooks and sloppily-eating soldiers, three meals in a mess hall.), the Mess Sergeant pointed to a small manhole-like cover on the floor and ordered me to "clean that grease trap!" What? I'd never heard of a 'grease trap'! I pried the lid open and beheld the most disgusting mass of... whatever it was that had accumulated and filled the 'trap'.

I guess I spent a few seconds too long staring at the mess. "Just roll up your sleeves, use your hands and scoop that stuff out of there", he instructed.  Fighting back the gag reflex, I did as told, scooped the mess into a bucket, finished cleaning the trap and replaced the cover. Then I hurried to a latrine to scrub and scrub and scrub.

Yes, I learned what is meant by grease trap, and how to clean one. While I've never again needed that knowledge, I did learn a larger lesson: no matter how dirty your hands, they will come clean. That lesson has served me well throughout my life.

On a few dirty jobs, such as in auto mechanics or as a pressman, where you get black grease or printing ink under your fingernails, it takes a little longer. But, your hands will come clean.

Every day, countless numbers of people go to work at dirty jobs. In heat, cold, or some other unwelcome environment, they do the work that keeps our civilization civilized.

Remember to take a moment, this Thanksgiving, to silently thank them.

More Things to be Thankful For.

Scientists and medical professionals. I don't mean to separate Physicians and other Medical Doctors from PhD scholars, but there are differences.

First, consider the scientists who are not involved directly in medicine. Their never-ending search for truth has done so much to improve our lives. In ways we daily take for granted.

As recently as the 1960s, I remember concerns about a possible world-wide food shortage. Fifty years later, scientific advances in pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, genetic engineering, animal health & well-being and farming practices in general. has resulted in a food supply threatened more by politics than by actual shortages.

And, just think what the medical community has given us. In recent years, five acquaintances have had hip replacement. At one time, hip failure meant confinement to a wheel chair. Today these people are all fully mobile and pain free.

In the year 2000, someone dear to me endured major surgery for lung cancer. Today this person is cancer free, healthy and hardy.

In the 1950s, it appeared that Polio was a real and present danger for everyone. Today, Polio is no more.

How blessed we are that people in laboratories toil endlessly to solve our most dangerous problems. No wonder the workplace of a scientist is called a laboratory... it is, indeed, a place of intense labor.

As you give thanks for the turkey and dressing, remember to include scientists, all that strive to bring you that abundant feast and your good health.

November 22, 1963

Do you remember what you were doing the day President Kennedy was assassinated? If you are over fifty years of age, you most likely do!

But, you do not have to have been alive 50 years ago to know about the conspiracy theories, and have formed an opinion.

Was Oswald the lone gunman? Probably, though it would have been a tough shot for even a highly trained marksman, which Oswald was not. He had just bought that rifle, and probably had fired it very few times.

We know that three Navy Seals, on the fantail of a ship, underway, fired three shots in perfect coordination to take out three pirates on a bouncing boat which their ship was towing. That kind of marksmanship is extraordinarily rare.

Was there a second gunman? Possibly. Was he/she in a conspiracy with Oswald? Very unlikely.

Was it a hired gunman? Theories point to LBJ, the CIA, the mob, Castro, the Russians. Any one of those is possible. None is probable. But they would have had no connection to a loose cannon like Lee Oswald.

If any of those forces were involved, no one will ever know. Unless, that is, someone, at some future date, discovers some irrefutable evidence. Or, perhaps someone makes a deathbed confession. Neither of which is likely.

So, why so many conspiracy theories? Because it is almost impossible to believe that any one such person as Lee Harvey Oswald could pull off such a feat.

This makes ir perfectly clear...

Few can deliver an opinion of the day's events with more wit and wisdom than can Mark Steyn.

Steyn examines President Obama's position on the Obamacare web site rollout in his latest column.

Read it... I promise you will not be bored!

Here's a sample:

"Ooooo-kay. So, if I follow correctly, the smartest president ever is not smart enough to ensure that his website works; he’s not smart enough to inquire of others as to whether his website works; he’s not smart enough to check that his website works before he goes out and tells people what a great website experience they’re in for. But he is smart enough to know that he’s not stupid enough to go around bragging about how well it works if he’d already been informed that it doesn’t work. So, he’s smart enough to know that if he’d known what he didn’t know he’d know enough not to let it be known that he knew nothing. The country’s in the very best of hands."

For more Steyn, check here.

Things to be thankful for

Engineers.

Yep! Those nerdy guys who actually like mathematics!

It is said there are three kinds of people... those who make things happen; those who watch things happen; those who wonder what happened! Most often, it is the engineers who make things happen!

Driving on the Interstate recently, we came upon a site where a new interchange was under construction. It looked like complete chaos. Big concrete support pillars sticking up out of the ground. Wooden frames, for holding concrete forms, one would guess. Workmen swarming all over the place.

My wife noted all this and mused, "Who figures out how all of this should go?"

Engineers.

The other day I was pressing a favorite old shirt. It was getting pretty ragged, and I concluded that it would one day have to go to the rag bag. Then, I noticed, not one button was missing. But, if I discarded the old shirt, all the buttons would go with it.

That started me thinking about buttons. (Ironing is, after all, pretty boring!)

There was a time when buttons were handmade from metal, wood, animal horn, seashell, or some other natural product. Buttons were expensive. Now they are so cheap, we hardly ever save them.

Engineers.

Some bright people figured out how to make machines that make buttons inexpensively and lightning fast, so they are now abundant in every conceivable color and style.

Go to any food processing plant and you will see marvelous machines that process and package food quickly and efficiently. That brings freshness quickly to your grocers shelves, at lower cost.

Back to ironing shirts. I remember when my mother spent many hours with hot, heavy old sad irons, ironing the family laundry. Such drudgery! I won't go back to riding a horse to work. Why should my wife go back to ironing shirts? Send them to a laundry where they have machines that can press a shirt beautifully, and fast. (My exception is ragged old shirts I wear only around the house. I press them!)

Engineers.

Engineers have contributed much to making our lives better, easier, tastier, healthier, safer... I could go on and on.

This Thanksgiving, give a thought to all those calculator wielding geniuses, those engineers who make things happen.

Typhoon Yolanda

The typhoon Yolanda recently struck the central Philippines. Damage was greatest to the town of Tacloban on the island of Leyte, and to the nearby island of Cebu.

I spent nine months (1946 and 1947) at U.S. Army Base "K", in Tacloban. (Then, G.I.s called it 'tack-low-buhn', but since the Filipinos called me 'psalm', the name probably should be prounced with soft "A"s, as in Psalms: 'tahk-low-bahn'

See http://www.gov.ph/crisis-response/updates-typhoon-yolanda/ for news of the typhoon.

For a little background, Tacloban has been through a lot. When the Japanese Army occupied the islands, the people of Tacloban were treated brutally. One friend of mine said she spent four years in hiding because the Japanese soldiers raped every young girl they could find. I heard many personal horror stories.
 

Because the east side of Leyte faces the open Pacific Ocean, General MacArthur chose that spot for his initial landing to liberate the islands. My youngest sister, Carolyn Baker's late husband, Hugh, was a soldier in those initial invading forces, and his outfit suffered heavy losses. Happily, I was not among those first American troops.

Tacloban was devastated by the force of the invasion. But the Filipinos loved the Americans and treated us like royalty.
 

When the atomic bombs were dropped and Japan surrendered, the Pacific was 'full' of ships carrying material for the invasion of Japan. The U.S. Government made the decision to unload the ships - on Leyte - to provide empty vessels for hauling cargo (such as G.I.'s) back to the U.S.

There were hundreds and hundreds of trucks, tanks, Jeeps, and all sorts of ordnance to be disposed of. Not to mention mountains of boots and other non-lethal items. That was the job at hand when I arrived on Leyte. In additiion, we had 10,000 Japanese prisoners to repatriate, as soon as the economy in Japan could support their return home.


Ironically, we loaded the last Japanese soldiers on transports bound for Japan, on December 7, 1946 - five years to the day after they first invaded the islands. However, isolated groups of Japanese soldiers still occupied remote Philippine islands for decades.
 

I was appointed Chief of the A.G. Radio and Cable Section at Base "K". I had three G.I.s and four Filipoino civilians assigned to my office. During those nine months, we became close friends with the Filipino employees in the Adjutant General's Department. They were really smart, competent people. 

One girl, whose job was to complete each day's morning report, memorized the name, rank and serial number of every officer and enlisted man in the Department. An amazing feat.

My top employee was a man named Alfonso R. Amante, nicknamed 'Poonsing'. Poonsing had fought the Japanese in the resistance. Once his group was crawling through some underbrush when a Japanese soldier spotted him and fired.

The bullet entered the front, fleshy part of his left cheek, exited a few inches back, then entered the flesh on the back of his shoulder and exited again, leaving four bullet holes, but not striking any bone. 

Poonsing was out of action until he healed, and one day a Japanese officer spotted him at an open air market and asked if he was a member of the resistance. Poonsing replied that he was not. He said there was a full stalk of bananas hanging on the front of one of the market stalls. 

The officer drew his sword and with one swipe cut the stalk of bananas in half. He told Poonsing that was to show how easily he could cut his head off if he lied. Poonsing said he replied that "even if you cut me this way (indicating vertically through his body), I do not lie to you". Poonsing said when the officer walked away, his heart started beating again.

One day Poonsing asked me about the U.S. "If water can freeze on the ground, why doesn't your blood freeze in your veins?" He grinned, as if to say 'explain that one if you can'. I assured him that your blood will freeze in your veins if you are exposed long enough... and that it happens to people in northern parts of America every winter.

Next in line on the staff was Salvacion Caminong, "Salving". Salving and I also were great friends and, since I was so young (seventeen) Salving often played the role of 'mother' to me.

One day Salving wanted to tell me that a girl we both knew was pregnant. But she could not bring herself to use the word pregnant in conversation with me. So she told me the girl was "in the family way." I had no idea what she was talking about, until Poonsing explained it to me.

Another girl I knew was named Adoracion. Names like Salvacion (salvation) and Adoracion (adoration) are indicative of the Filipno's strong Christian faith, and family values.

At that time, there was a country song in the U.S. titled "My Filipino Baby". It was about a sailor with a Filipino sweetheart. But, the Filipino girls in our office thought it referred to an infant Filipino, the love child of a sailor and a Filipino girl. They hated that song, I tried to explain that in the U.S. it is common to call your girl friend your 'baby'. I'm not sure they ever believed me.
 

I left the islands 66 years ago, so most of my Filipino friends have grown old, if still alive. Please be aware that these people are not ignorant savages. They are smart, friendly people who have faced many hardships.

Fresh water streams are infested with some sort of bacteria which makes the water unusable, so their drinking water has to come from wells. Without electricity, I can't imagine what they are doing for water. Relief from the U.S. and other nations is now arriving on Leyte and Cebu.

The arrival of a U.S. Aircraft Carrier in Leyte Gulf is most significant. The Carrier has capacity for desalinizing large amounts of sea water. It has on-board hospitals and medical staff. And, it has a fleet of helicopters enabling relief to reach isolated mountain villages.

If you are looking for some worthy cause for a Thanksgiving donation, call the American Red Cross and ask that your gift be earmarked for Philippine typhoon relief.

Those Thieving Insurance Companies

The Federal Government, and others, keep telling us that the insurance companies are ripping us off, big time!

How do they - the Administration's hordes - keep getting away with this lie?

When I enlisted in the Army, a tough old Master Sergeant explained the Army's life insurance this way:
"You bet the government $3.20 that you are going to die this month. If you do, you win, and your beneficiary gets the $10,000.! If you do not die, you lose and the government keeps your $3.20."

Like most of what the Army told us: to the point, simple, true,

The whole concept of insurance can get under your skin. For decades I paid auto insurance without having an accident. Premium payments, it seems, were wasted money. On the other hand, supposing I had "won"... had an accident, and the insurance company had to pay off. Would that have been better? Supposing I was injured? Supposing someone died in the accident? Really, now... it's better that I "lost" and the month's premium payment was "wasted".

Well, not entirely 'wasted'. Those premiums had bought me peace of mind, knowing I was protected against catastrophic loss. Not a bad buy, actually!

A couple of decades ago, my wife was diagnosed with systemic lupus. Pretty scary at the onset, and I thought she was going to die. But, good medical care brought it into remission, and there were no further complications. We essentially forgot the entire lupus episode ever happened.

Eventually we downsized our business and gave up our company health insurance plan. When we applied for new health insurance, she was flagged with a preexisting condition, and no one wanted to insure her. We were directed to a high risk insurer, who insured her, with monthly premiums increased more than 400% over what we had been paying. Boy, were we angry.

Then, as my late sister used to say, "Up jumped the devil", my wife was diagnosed with lung cancer. The high risk insurer picked up the entire tab, tens of thousands of dollars, and she received the very best care. Thirteen years later, she is still cancer free. She "won" in the old Master Sergeant's perspective, but that high risk insurer "lost", lost really big bucks.

Do insurance companies want to make a profit? Of course. Do they want to maximize their profit? Of course. It would be terribly dishonest to their shareholders if they did not. Are they ripping us off? Not in my personal experience.

Modifying Babies

Babies of all species are almost universally adored. Show off any baby... a puppy, a kitten, any wild animal, but mostly human babies, and expect a chorus of oooohs and aaaahs.

We love them. But why do we so often want to modify them?

Many dog owners will trim their puppy's ears or tail, to conform to a certain standard "look" for the breed. And, spay and neuter is the battle cry of animal lovers around the globe. Imagine being a dog. and hearing. 'I love you so much I am going to neuter you.'

But, much more frequent is the modifying of human babies.

Many primitive tribes punched a hole in their baby's nose bridge, or ear lobe, and inserted a small round bone. When the child healed, they replaced the bone with a larger bone. This process was repeated until the earlobe, or the nose bridge, was grotesquely elongated. Some even did that to their lower lip! Today we just use little gold rings...maybe even with a diamond!

For centuries, the Chinese bound a baby girl's feet to keep them from growing. They wanted their ladies to have tiny feet.

In parts of the Muslim world, a common practice, to this day, is to surgically remove the clitoris from a little girl's vulva. We call that genital mutilation. We call it barbaric.

A more common practice, started by the Jews, is circumcision. As soon as a baby boy is born, a Rabbi lops the foreskin off his tiny penis. Some say the practice was to discourage masturbation . Some say it was a matter of hygiene. (Whatever happened to soap and water?) Some say it was a religious practice. Today, in the western world, Jew or Christian, a boy can expect to lose his foreskin before he ever leaves the hospital nursery.

It is an age old practice that most likely will continue. Love your baby. Just modify it.

And, I won't even go into abortion, which says, "Before you deliver your baby, If you think you won't like him or her, just kill it."

The Emperor's Clothes

In that beloved tale, it took a child to see through the BS and tell the truth.

Well, it has been about 3/4 of a century since I was a child, but here goes:

Our esteemed president is not the smartest guy in the room. He is a dumb SOB. Am I insulting his mother? Well, she posed for nude photos of her bod. Not for a big Playboy paycheck (judging from the quality of the photography), apparently just for fun with an amateur photographer.

Obama has a single accomplishment: he has become pretty good at reading a speech. Not in a class with Ronald Reagan, by any stretch, but pretty good. His handlers, whoever they really are, know how to write for his reading, and they write endlessly. Even if this emperor has to address a classroom of children, his every word is prepared.

Take away his beloved teleprompter and he stammers like the idiot he is.

But, you say, he was president of The Harvard Law Review! No kidding! Now he is president of our United States (of which he has visited 57 with two more to go).

The only thing he ever wrote during his distinguished academic career (that isn't secret), was something about gorillas stomping grapes. Deep thinker.

As a youngster, Obama was mentored by Frank Marshall Davis, a Chicago Communist, who fully loaded his young mind with a belief that his mother's race - all white people - are evil. He has not strayed from that belief, but added to it all successful, accomplished people. He never knew Barack Obama, Sr., but bought his beliefs that all British are also evil.

A guy who pronounces 'corpsman' as 'corpseman' couldn't possibly identify a World War Two genre M1 Carbine, yet he has banned the re-importation of these relics from nations to which they were 'loaned' in the 1940s. (I once carried one when I delivered restricted military messages around the Philippines. Would love to have one now to show my grandkids.) Just who is pulling Obama's strings?

Obama repeatedly asserts things which prove to be complete falsehoods. Political opponents call him out. TV comedians tell jokes about him. But it does not stop his utterances.

American Foreign Policy is a mess. Iraq and Afghanistan are lost. All of North Africa is lost. The Middle East is in shambles. The few Arab allies we have enjoyed are turning against us. Our allies in the West are confused and suspicious. Iran is about to test an atomic weapon, vowing to destroy Israel, while we sit at a negotiating table with the Mullahs.

At home, each time a new scandal is uncovered, Obama asserts he did not know until it was reported by news media. How could Edward Snowden, a young contractor employee, know all these secrets while The Preisdent of The United States did not?

I worry that America may not survive until January, 2017, when Obama will retire with his ill-gotten millions to earn millions more speaking to still adoring idiots who support him.

What should be done? Beats me. I'm just a country boy who's grown old, deeply loving America every day of my life. Maybe "the media" could get rid of him. They forced Nixon to resign. But they didn't like Nixon and they adore Obama.

How phony is our Federal Government?

Here is an illustration.

Deep in the Gila National Forest of western New Mexico, is a place where some ancient people, perhaps the Mogollons, found some caves high up the side of a mountain, laboriously carried stones up the slope, and improved the caves to create inhabitable living spaces.

Stone is (almost) everlasting, so the efforts of these ancient people have remained, largely intact. This is such an interesting place that it has been designated a National Monument, known as the Gila Cliff Dwellings, to ensure its preservation. The National Park Service built a nice visitor's center, and employs a single person to oversee the operation.

Then, interested, civic-minded persons educated themselves in the history of the place and  regularly volunteer to act as guides. They help visitors understand the dwellings, and further protect the site from vandalism - or simply from over-enthusiastic visitors who want to take home a rock as a souvenir.

With the government shut down, the Monument is closed. The single paid employee is still on the job, still paid their salary, to keep the gate shut, the Visitor's Center shuttered, and advise visitors that they cannot enter the area. The unpaid volunteers are also forbidden to enter the Monument.

October is, perhaps, the most beautiful month in New Mexico. It is a wonderful time to explore our "Land of Enchantment". But, you can forget seeing the Gila Cliff Dwellings. They are 'shut down'.

The paid employee is still paid. The volunteers cannot volunteer. The visitors cannot visit. All because the Administration wants the public to 'feel the pain' of an affront to their policy.

Affordable Care Act

Each time I read that title for that piece of legislation, I shake my 84-year-old head.

Are we really that stupid? Do we really believe the government can provide health care, affordable or otherwise?

Health care is provided by a professional health care provider. Not by politicians, insurance companies, or anyone else.

What good is it to have some third party willing to pay the bill if there is no one to provide the care and present the invoice?

Some 45 years ago, I was heavily involved in private flying. At the time, avionics (electronic communications and navigation equipment), at least those brands with a proven record of reliability, were quite expensive. Then, some manufacturer introduced a lower-priced version of one item. A close friend, a seasoned charter pilot and flight instructor, would have nothing to do with the lower priced equipment. But, I argued, it comes with a guarantee! "Supposing", he replied, "I am flying somewhere in the middle of the night and the thing fails? What should I do... pull out that guarantee, wave it at the failed equipment, and demand that it respond?"

If the ACA is fully implemented and I become ill, can I wave my insurance policy in the air and produce a medical professional to provide care?

Our government wishes to provide medical care to millions more people, while enforcing policies destined to reduce the number of care providers.

Again, I ask... "Are we really that stupid?"

In our music, our entertainment,

you find a snapshot of current social norms. Change those norms, and our music, our entertainment follows.

If you are old enough, you may remember a song titled "My Reverie", wherein a portion of the lyric read:

"...I dim all the lights and I sink in my chair - The smoke from my cigarette climbs through the air..."

Or, a song called Dream:

"Just watch the smoke rings rise in the air, you'll find your share of memories there..."

How about Two Sleepy People:

" ...here we are, out of cigarettes, holding hands and yawning, my how late it gets"

Those songs are gone because they made smoking sound too delightful (which it was until we learned the ravages of lung cancer).

From my childhood, I remember a song which said "Every old crow thinks her baby's white as snow..." 
On the farm, we considered crows a thieving bird. Someone once estimated how much corn a crow would eat in one year's time. We angered, loaded the shotgun and went crow hunting. But that song told us that a mother crow saw her fledgling as, not a thief, but pure as the driven snow. Motherly love.

But, folks came to believe it meant that "white" is better than "black" (the color of crow feathers). The song was racist, had to go.

Do you remember Amos and Andy?  It was a radio sitcom with a white cast acting in a stereotypical way as blacks. I saw the comedy as funny, clean, not degrading. But it was a white cast, acting black. Today, black performers act in a much more stereotypical, often derogatory, often vulgar way. But, it is a cast of blacks poking fun of blacks, which makes it okay.

There was a time when there was not so much hate, a time when most were too busy earning a living to worry about having their feelings hurt... a time when we all recognized our own silly habits and we laughed at ourselves as much as we laughed at each other.

There was a time when our popular music, our popular entertainment reflected those feelings.

Little boys

are interesting creatures. They bring about:

In Dads: amusement and angst. Amusement as we recall our own childhood antics. Angst as we remember that some of those antics brought us dangerously close to disaster.

In Moms: Love and pride. But Moms don't always know about the secret lives of their little boys.

In Sisters: Disgust. Utter disgust.

In other Little Boys: Respect and admiration for their honesty, truthfulness, predictability.

Little boys earn all those assessments. Adventurous and imaginative, they do some really dangerous things. I remember, during my own childhood, some boys who watched a freight train rumbling across a trestle wondered how it would feel to hang onto the underside of that trestle as a train thundered overhead. So, they tried it. They (regretfully, I was not among them!) crawled onto the underside of the trestle and held on for dear life as the train roared over their heads. Fortunately, they suffered no physical harm.

Early on, little boys learn that some of their most enjoyable pursuits are universally frowned upon by adults. It never occurs to a boy to give up something he truly enjoys, so he learns to do it in secret. In secret from adults, that is. Never in secret from each other. As a kid, I remember rolling cigarettes with dried corn silk and smoking them. When they burned too fast, we learned that dried, dead pieces of grapevine are hollow - you can draw air through them. So we cut pieces, three or four inches in length, lit the end of them on fire, then smoked them like a cigarette. We could always trust our friends to keep the secret.

Little boys are open about subjects adults never discuss. I knew one little boy who always checked his stool and classified his excrement as 'floaters', 'sinkers' or 'greasers'. I knew of two little boys who, in turn, dropped their pants and bent over. The other held a lit cigarette lighter near his friend's anus while he farted... just to see if the expelled gas would burn (I never knew their findings). Little boys like to stand on a creek bank and see who can pee the greatest distance. And, of course, little boys are obsessed with the subject of sex - a subject about which they have almost zero knowledge. As they grow a little older, boys sometime boast of sexual conquests with girls, all of which are imaginary. It is this thinking that disgusts girls.

While girls grow to avoid hurting each other's feelings, boys grow into men who delight in insulting each other. If girls/women meet an old friend on the street, each will compliment the other on their makeup, hair style, attire - all the while believing their friend has made stupid choices in each of those areas.

Two boys/men meet and the first says, 'Where'd you get that gut, Hoss... did you swallow a watermelon or are you pregnant?' To which his friend replies, 'Hey, don't criticize my gut...it took many cases of beer to get this gut. And, by the way, you'd better get some suspenders or your pants are gonna fall off your skinny ass!' Whereupon, the old friends put their arms on each others shoulders and head for the nearest park bench to reminisce and enjoy each others company.

It is this kind of honesty that makes little boys appealing. Hopefully, if not persuaded by feminists to become metrosexual, little boys grow into men who finesse their language while retaining their boyhood honesty.

Finally, watch any sporting event and you may conclude that there is still a measure of "little boy" in many grown men.

Imagination

I remember an old song with that title, by songwriters Van Heusen and Burke.. In part, the lyric stated:

"Imagination is funny, it makes a cloudy day sunny
It makes a bee think of honey, just as I think of you"

At my first broadcasting job, my boss was the father of a boy of about seven or eight years. That boy loved to talk, and if you engaged him in a conversation he would launch into an amazing tale of imaginary monsters and battles and victories, in the greatest and most colorful detail. His Dad was concerned about the boy's tall tales, but I thought he had an interesting mind.

Like him, I love to engage in imagination. Sometimes I awake in the middle of the night. I don't want to get out of bed, knowing I should, and would (sooner or later) go back to sleep. So, I imagine things. Deep things, like the origin of man. Understand, I am not so arrogant as to think I know anything about the subject. Was it Creation? Was it evolution? Was it a combination of the two. Don't know. Don't really care. We only know, to some degree, what is now. Let's imagine how it happened.

Genesis 2:27 says God created man and woman in his own image. Let's imagine it happening. He created man with muscular arms and legs, a hairy chest and face. Satisfied with this 'self portrait', he gave man life, reason, courage, integrity, all the things we hope to discover in a 'real' man.

Then, God decided to make a companion for man. But, He thought, let's make this one beautiful. I'll give her more delicate arms and hands, a nicely curved body, long shapely legs. I'll give her a gentle touch and a loving kiss, a companion man can cherish, will protect and provide for all the days of her life. 

When satisfied with this ultimate work of art, He gave woman life, intelligence, grace. He made her enjoy makeup to enhance her natural beauty. He made her to love perfume so man would sense her presence even before she came into view.

Pleased with this creation, He said, I will create no more. I will endow woman the exclusive ability to create more humans in my image. Man may participate only to contribute his genes, but it is woman who will carry and deliver each child. I will give her the exclusive ability to produce milk to nourish her newborn. I will give her compassion and tenderness to nurture her child.

Sometimes my imagination goes on, wondering how He will judge men who may mistreat his special gift. How He will judge women who mishandle the gift of beauty through gluttony, slovenliness, or whatever.

Depends on how quickly I go back to sleep.

More on Smart Politics

If you question the depth of the wisdom of the Founding Fathers, it may be because you have not really studied their actions. I do not claim to be a scholar, but time and again I am impressed with the way matters were handled.

When I first read the Declaration of Independence, I wondered about the term "... pursuit of happiness." Would not life and liberty guarantee the pursuit of happiness?

It seems the real issue was the protection of property. In old, English Common Law, it was recognized that man was never truly free unless he was guaranteed ownership of the fruits of his labor. The Founders wanted this to be a part of American's rights.

But, remember, slavery was very much a fact of life in the late 18th century. The Founders wanted to abolish slavery, but they knew it would have to be done in an effective, and, sadly, a patient way. It was pointed out that slaves were considered 'property' and any language protecting 'property' would be used by slaveholders to argue for slavery as a right.

So, the language was changed to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Who could argue against that? Then, in the Bill of Rights, in Amendment V, the Founders wrote "... nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation." They had protected private property in a quiet, almost after thought way, in the Bill of Rights.

Many state Constitutions do directly address private property. Section IV, the Inherent Rights section of the New Mexico Constitution reads: "All persons are born equally free, and have certain natural, inherent and inalienable rights, among which are the rights of enjoying and defending life and liberty, of acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and of seeking and obtaining safety and happiness."

I'm sure there are more examples of the Founders practicing 'smart politics', and if I find them, I'll pass them along!

Congress

I've read sme harsh criticism of the way Congress is considering the Syria question. Some say they will dither endlessly, never coming to a conclusiion.

I disagree. I am rather proud of Congress' response. Rather than jump into a politically partisan vote, members seem to be using due diligence to hear all the learned opinions before voting?

That's the idea behind a republic. We elect representatives. We provide them the time and resources to research each question. We trust them with their decision - even if it opposes our own.

Good for them!

Should Employers Pay Higher Wages?

The other night I listened to a hilarious TV debate during which a young, liberal lawyer argued that businesses should pay their employees higher wages. Just to be nice, apparently.

This person has satisfactorily completed elementary education, high school, college and law school, yet still has a total lack of understanding about how business works.

The liberal mind cannot grasp the idea of an individual and an employer agreeing to trade:
   from the employer, a certain number of dollars and other benefits;
   from the individual: a certain number of hours working at some tasks.

Is that really so complicated? To the liberal mind? Yes! If the agreed-upon wages and benefits do not provide the employee with the liberals' notion of "a living", the employer is evil!

With rare exception, if an employee decides to "throw in" some extra effort, the employer will "throw in" some extra dollars, in the form of a raise. I have experienced that phenomena several times. Once I worked for a radio station as an engineer. My employer was in the process of building a second radio station in another community. On numerous evenings and weekends I voluntarily drove to that other community to help with the construction. I did it for the joy of practicing my trade... the satisfaction of seeing something built with care and precision. When my employer found out what I was doing, he immediately increased my salary.

In later years, as an employer myself, I experienced the rarity, and the special value of an employee who truly believes in honest work for honest pay. I learned to bend heaven and earth to more generously compensate such an employee. Often, unfortunately, to my own detriment and to the detriment of that valued employee, and other, less-valued, employees.

Business is about arithmetic. If things don't add up to equal enough profit to keep the company going, the business will fail and everyone will lose. That is a concept which the liberal mind, despite years of formal education, cannot grasp.

Well, well, well...

An interesting thing happened recently in my adopted home county (Doña Ana County, NM). The County Clerk decided to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. A local minister from some off-beat religion agreed to perform marriage ceremonies. As you may expect, same-sex couples from throughout the region flocked here to be married.

But, the boom may be ending... the County Clerk of Bernalillo County (Albuquerque) has agreed to do the same. Albuquerque has an airport served by many carriers and is much more accessible.

(UPDATE: Eight New Mexico counties are now issuing same-sex marriage licenses.) 

NM Governor Susanna Martinez is not pleased. She thinks we cannot have a situation where the legality of marriage varies county by county. She wants a vote of the people to settle the question on a statewide basis.

While I oppose same-sex marriage, Technically I agree with both the Governor and the County Clerks.

Recently, August 18, we observed the 93rd anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protected the right to vote, irrespective of gender: Woman's Suffrage.

The 19th Amendment was good - enumerating that right, but was not really necessary. The 9th Amendment assured that enumerated rights did not deny or disparage other rights. The 10th Amendment went a step further; it says that unless something is specifically prohibited by the Constitution, that right is retained to the states or to the people. Nothing in the U.S. Constitution specifically prohibited women from voting, so they always (at least since March 4, 1789) had that right.

The New Mexico Constitution has similar provisions. Article II, Sec. 18 says: "Equality of rights under law shall not be denied on account of the sex of any person."

Article II, Sec. 23, "Reserved Rights", has language identical to the 10th amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Thus, it does not specifically deny the right of same-sex couples to marry.

Then, there is that other matter; custom. or, the good of the many. Our second president, John Adams, commented, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Why did he say that? Because the very nature of immorality is to deny moral accountability to anyone but one's self! Immorality says, “I will do what I please”; morality says, “I will restrain my behavior for the good of myself and the good of the many.”

Recently, NY Senator Charles Schumer made the absurd statement that 'none of the Constitutional Amendments are absolute. You may not falsely yell "Fire" in a crowded theater'. As per John Adams' premise, surely no moral person believes the 1st Amendment was written to protect the right to falsely yell "Fire" in a crowded theater!

Marriage, between one man and one woman has been the custom throughout recorded history. As  British Historian, Paul Johnson said, “The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.”

History also tells us that homosexuality has existed for eons. Is not the current trend of same-sex marriage one of the 'glib assumptions' Johnson referenced?

K.I.S.S.

Keep It Simple, Stupid!

That was one of our rules in radio broadcasting. Our language is full of thousands of wonderful words, which more perfectly describe daily events and common objects. Many of those words are unfamiliar to a large swath of the population. Our job was to communicate, not confuse. We worked hard to keep our speech immediately clear to all of our audience.

If you are writing for print, I believe in using the more descriptive words in our language. Reading the printed page, you can take a moment to check the definition of a word, then continue reading. My Dad had only a fourth grade education, but he loved to learn. He bought one of those Oxford unabridged dictionaries (about ten inches thick) and built a special stand for it. He kept that massive dictionary next to his chair, and he read all sorts of things. He constantly referenced his big dictionary for definitions.

Yet, we know that few people will be so diligent in their quest to comprehend. So, important writings, such as law, should be written in the language of the average man. The Founding Fathers understood, and wrote the blueprint for our entire government in a brief document we call The Constitution. Recently, sitting in a waiting room in a doctor's office. I re-read the entire document. Amendments and all.

I believe most people prefer simple language for daily communication. That is why most native Spanish speakers speak Spanish in their homes. For them, Spanish is more instantly understood - they don't need to stop and puzzle over the meaning.

The popularity of the new reality TV show Duck Dynasty is further proof that many people are happiest when you 'keep it simple, stupid'.

Sometimes, however, the simplest form of expression is the most descriptive, the clearest in meaning.

Recently, Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the Duck Dynasty family gave a speech on abortion. He said our Declaration of Independence described life as an inalienable right. So, asked Robertson, how do we justify depriving an infant that inalienable right by ripping it, piece by piece, from its mother's womb.

Harsh language, to be sure. But what choice of words could actually be a more accurate description of the event we so delicately call choice?

Have we just forgotten?

I watched hours of TV news yesterday, listened to the radio a couple of hours, and checked the on-line version of our newspaper, yet I saw or heard no mention of the fact that August 15 is the anniversary of V-J Day - the day (in 1945) when the Imperial Government of Japan surrendered, ending combat in World War II.

I know, it has been 68 years. But when World War I ended, that date (November 11) became a national holiday. I am not suggesting another holiday, just a brief remembrance.

On December 7, 1941, when Japan dragged the U.S. into the war by destroying much of our Naval facilities in Hawaii, we were ill-prepared for war. But, within the span of just 1,347 days, we rebuilt our manufacturing capabilities and our military, and defeated the ready-for-war Axis powers.

Wouldn't you think someone in news media would have mentioned that? Given that youth is the valued asset in today's culture, there probably are no working reporters who were alive 68 years ago. But, is that date not noted on anyone's calendar? Or has Japan become such an important ally that it would not be PC to remind them of their defeat?

How about teaching Japanese students, and our own, that on August 15, 1945, the Japanese people came to their senses and tossed out the conquest-bound leaders who had led them into so much death and destruction? 

Smart Politics

Since I was a kid, suffering through Roosevelt's depression (there was nothing "great" about it), I have said that the Democrat Party will lie, cheat, steal, commit fraud, and do anything and everything illegal, to win an election. That is not "smart" politics. That is crooked politics.

I believe the original display of "smart" politics occurred in 1787. Then, The Founders wrote Article I, Section 2 of The Constitution. It enabled slave-holding states to count a slave as only 3/5 of a person, for the purpose of determining the number of their representatives in Congress.

Yes, that was a horrible proposition, but it was not illegal. The prejudiced slave-holders happily agreed, believing, as they did, that a black man was not fully a human being.

The result was that the representation in Congress by the slave-holding states was reduced, paving the way for the passage of anti-slavery measures. Then, in 1868, after the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, the 14th amendment was ratified, striking the 3/5 language from The Constitution.

Smart politics!

Now we are engaged in a debate over defunding The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). President Obama has threatened to "shut down" the government if such provisions are in a Continuing Resolution which, again, will bust the budget and spend another trillion dollars.

Recalling the events of 1995, many fear such an event would cause great harm to the Republican Party! It is time again for Smart Politics! Every credible poll shows that majorities of every imaginable group of Americans are opposed to ACA. If the Republicans clearly articulate their intentions to fund all of government except ACA, the public will support them. If the Democrats reject that proposal, it is they who will be shutting down the government.

Doing the will of the people, for the good of the people, is always smart politics!

Who Are We???

Are we Japan, where our Emperor is a Deity?

Are we England, where our Dear Queen, by virtue of birthright only, is entitled to respect and reverence for her entire life!

Are we North Korea, where one can be imprisoned for insulting our Dear Leader?

No! We are the United States of America, with three co-equal branches of government. Where the head of our Executive Branch is just another politician who has conned millions of citizens into
voting for him/her. Where we are guaranteed the right to criticize or speak against this political person.

Now comes an incident in my native state of Missouri, where a rodeo clown (clown=pretend-to-be-a-fool) is banned for life from the State Fair Rodeo, because he wore a mask of our current president and acted a fool.

Come on, people! This is not 1850 or 1860. This is 2013! Enough of the skin-color BS! Good Grief!

There have been "clown masks" of every president, since people learned how to make them cheaply and sell them, for a buck or so.

I am disgusted with Missouri State Fair officials, the NAACP, Sharpton, Jackson, and every other race-baiter on the planet.  

Opinions of recent observations

 
1. The gift of organized labor: Just read (or heard) some gal talking about all that organized labor has given the American people. She was so misinformed it was painful to observe. Organized labor did not give us the 40-hour week, as she said. Henry Ford did that. When he developed the assembly line for making automobiles, the work was so monotonous he could not keep employees. So he cut work time to an 8-hour day, five days a week, and doubled the hourly rate.

It worked pretty well, but later, when a young Japanese engineer named Toyoda sought his advice, Ford taught Toyoda many other things, like giving every employee the ability to stop the assembly line if he temporarily fell behind. These things made working on the line more bearable.

Toyoda employed Ford's advice in his motor car company (spelled Toyota) and became hugely successful. Interestingly, Toyota employees are not often union organized.

I'll tell you what organized labor gave us: an adversarial relationship between employers and employees. After the Great Depression, during which it was almost impossible to find a job, men were so grateful to have a steady paycheck, they believed in giving their employer an honest hour's work for an hour's pay.

Labor unions taught workers to believe they should squeeze every possible dime from their employers, while reducing their performance to the minimum necessary to hold their job.

2. Employer provided health insurance... isn't that a good thing?: Shakespeare wrote about "the tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive". Indeed. "During World War II, Employer-sponsored health insurance plans dramatically expanded as a direct result of wage controls imposed by the federal government.

The labor market was tight because of the increased demand for goods and decreased supply of workers during the war. Federally imposed wage and price controls prohibited manufacturers and other employers from raising wages enough to attract workers.

When the War Labor Board declared that fringe benefits, such as sick leave and health insurance, did not count as wages for the purpose of wage controls, employers responded with significantly increased offers of fringe benefits, especially health care coverage, to attract workers." (Wikipedia, the Online Encyclopedia.)

So, it all began with an effort to 'legally' break the law. Yes, that law was a misplaced idea, but that is all part of the tangled web.

3. Minimum wage laws: Of all the dumb things that originated in the last century, the mandated "minimum wage" is surely the dumbest.Two kinds of people push minimum wage: A: well-meaning, but ill-informed individuals who think they are bettering people's lives. ("You cannot support a family on minimum wage!") B. Well-informed but dishonest politicians who only seek more votes.

I once worked for 10¢ an hour. Hard work, too! I didn't need "support", I just wanted to earn some spending money. But I learned a lot about showing up on time and doing the job I was supposed to do.

I remember when movie theaters hired teenage ushers for 50¢ an hour. They just hung around at the back of the theater and when a customer came in, they used their flashlight to guide the customer down a dark aisle to a vacant seat.

The kids got to see movies for free and earn a little spending money. Like me, they also learned to show up for work, on time, bathed and appropriately dressed. They learned how to relate to people. Valuable experience for when they were ready to seek a full time job.

The minimum wage ended all that. Many kids, who had no skills, could no longer work. What do idle kids do? Many take to the streets and get into trouble. They may later mature. They may learn some skill. But without the experience of actually working on a real job, they are largely unemployable.

Should we forgive them?

Elliot Spitzer, Anthony Weiner and Bob Filner are just the latest in a long string of politicians, involved in some sort of scandal, who have said they are sorry and have asked forgiveness.

Should we forgive them?

No!

The Founding Fathers wanted us to know that integrity in office was absolutely paramount.

John Adams wrote: (referenced by W. Cleon Skousen in The 5000 Year Leap Copyright 1991, 2006 by The National Center for Constitutional Studies)

Politics are the divine science, after all. How is it possible that any man should ever think of  making it subservient to his own little passions and mean private interests? Ye baseborn sons of fallen Adam, is the end of politics a fortune, a family, a gilded coach, a train of horses, and a troop of livery servants, balls at court, splendid dinners and suppers? Yet, the divine science of politics is at length in Europe reduced to a mechanical system composed of these materials. (Quoted in Koch, The American Enlightenment. p.189.)

"Some might feel inclined to smile at such a puritanical ideology in a practical politician such as John Adams, but he had a ready answer for the skeptic. Said he:"

What is to become of an independent statesman, one who will bow the knee to no idol, who will worship nothing as a divinity but truth, virtue, and his country? I will tell you; he will be regarded more by posterity then those who worship hounds and horses; and although he will not make his own fortune, he will make the fortune of his country. (Ibid.; italics added.)

Benjamin Franklin had some comments as well. In a speech to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Franklin said:

   Sir, there are two passions which have a powerful influence in the affairs of men. These are ambition and avarice; the love of power and the love of money. Separately, each of these has great force in prompting men to action; but when united in view of the same object, they have in many minds the most violent effects. Place before the eyes of such men a post of honor, that shall at the same time be a place of profit, and they will move heaven and earth to obtain it. The vast number of such places it is that renders the British government so tempestuous. The struggles for them are the true source of all those factions which are perpetually dividing the nation, distracting its councils, hurrying it sometimes into fruitless and mischievous wars, and often compelling a submission to dishonorable terms of peace. (Smyth, Writings of Benjamin Franklin, 7:4. Referenced by W. Cleon Skousen in The 5000 Year Leap Copyright 1991, 2006 by The National Center for Constitutional Studies)

 And, Edmund Burke said, "Constitute government how you please, infinitely the greater part of it must depend upon the exercise of the powers which are left at large to the prudence and uprightness of ministers of state." Prudence and uprightness. Remember those characteristics?

Can anyone imagine any reason but ambition and avarice for any of the aforementioned to seek or hold political office? I am not aware of any talents they may possess for making money outside of politics, but certainly high office is a road to riches. Something the Founding Fathers warned against.

Consider Barack Obama. Abandoned by his  father, before his birth, raised by a middle class family, but today worth millions. Just imagine the millions more he will be paid making speeches when he is finally out of office. Outside of politics, that is an almost impossible accomplishment.

Consider Nancy Pelosi. Already wealthy, she continues, after 26 years in Congress, to make the arduous journey between Washington and California. Averaging one trip per week, that is over 1,300 round trips at some 5,000 miles each. Over 6.5 million miles! 265 times around the earth. Only an insatiable thirst for power would drive that. Why, oh why, do voters keep re-electing such people?

Learning from the obvious

I'll give one thing to ancient mankind. When they made an observation, they thought about it. They often came to the wrong conclusion, as in the cause of weather phenomena, but at least they tried.

Modern man seems to prefer turning a blind eye to things most visible. British Historian, Paul Johnson, said, "The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.”

It isn't just history. There are everyday things we might honor, but many ignore. 

Recently we've heard much about crime among black youth in America, and many opinions as to the solution. Most of those opinions seem wrong to me. For example, Thomas Sowell decried the fact that these are often called "troubled youth". He said "... they are not troubled... these young thugs are having the time of their life."

I look at black Americans and I see so many quality people. I am reluctant to start naming names, as I know I will forget some of the best. But here are a few: Dr. Benjamin Carson, Dr. Thomas Sowell, Dr. Walter E Williams, Star Parker, Col./Congressman Allen West, Deneen Borelli, Charles Payne, Ken Blackwell, the list is much longer. These are individuals who have earned the respect and admiration of a vast swath of America.

Barack Obama spoke of white people being afraid of black men. Col. Allen West said that no white woman ever 'clutched her purse' when he stepped into an elevator. No one fears the likes of Dr. Carson or Larry Elder. Personally I'd give anything to spend an hour or two in the presence of any of the aforementioned. Just to hear them talk.

Shouldn't every black child be taught to emulate these extraordinary people? Yes, I can imagine a single black mother, working two jobs to support her family; fighting the kids to do their homework, clean their room, take a bath, etc. She has little time for morality lessons.

Still, A number of these men attribute their success to a mother who insisted upon a certain code of behavior. Often we hear "mother made me study". Yet, several of these successful men were raised in poverty by a struggling single mother.
 
It seems to me that the blueprint for success is glaringly apparent to every black child in America. What can be done to make every one of them see it?

Intelligence vs. Education

Knowing I had not obtained a college degree, a friend recently asked me 'where the intelligence came from'.

Won't comment on my level of intelligence, but in our modern world, intelligence is equated to formal education. Strange. My father, born in 1893, had only a fourth grade education, but he had a curious mind and a thirst for knowledge. He purchased one of those huge, ten-inch-thick unabridged dictionaries and built a stand for it. It stood beside his reading chair and he consulted it frequently. He was, indeed, a very intelligent man.

That's not to say that formal education does not foster intelligence. An education in which one learns how to learn, will surely develop an aware, thinking human.

IQ tests are supposed to measure intelligence, or, at least the 'intelligence quotient', apart from education. But I hold that some measure of formal education will certainly help one attain a higher IQ score.

Schooling can bend the learning curve. But, so may other life experiences. Ralph Waldo Emerson pegged it when he said “Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar? It is this: every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him.” Always be prepared to listen to what someone has to say. You may be surprised to learn what you may learn!

Years ago a friend remarked that "the first time an internal combustion engine is started, it tries to tear itself apart. Eventually it succeeds" When you think about all those pistons and connecting rods and valve lifters, the crankshaft and the cam shaft, all whirling and clicking some 4,000 revolutions per minute, you see the reasoning behind that comment.

But, until I read this column by Philadelphia Daily News Columnist, Christine M. Flowers, I never applied that to humans. Ms. Flowers, commenting on a nephew who had just lost his first tooth wrote, "...even at the beginning of life, we start losing bits and pieces of ourselves. It's a subtle diminishment, but as they say, we start dying with our first breath."

That was not the main thrust of that particular columns, but isn't it great when another little light bulb clicks on above your head and you think, "Gee, I never thought of that!"

I love to learn!

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20130712_Of_life_and_morality__in_the_shadow_of_a_saint.html#7CP18xHbRdy4yQI1.99

even at the beginning of life, we start losing bits and pieces of ourselves. It's a subtle diminishment but, as they say, we start dying with our first breath.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20130712_Of_life_and_morality__in_the_shadow_of_a_saint.html#vxUpx3Bfks1oR5fU.99

even at the beginning of life, we start losing bits and pieces of ourselves. It's a subtle diminishment but, as they say, we start dying with our first breath.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20130712_Of_life_and_morality__in_the_shadow_of_a_saint.html#MkMxUzibU6uoQaX6.99

even at the beginning of life, we start losing bits and pieces of ourselves. It's a subtle diminishment but, as they say, we start dying with our first breath.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20130712_Of_life_and_morality__in_the_shadow_of_a_saint.html#MkMxUzibU6uoQaX6.99

Black Pastors and Trayvon Martin

With protests against the 'not guilty' verdict in the George Zimmerman murder trial erupting in over 100 cities today - protests sparked by race-baiters Sharpton, Jackson, Obama, et al, it may seem that the entire black population of America opposed the verdict.

Not so.

A number of black Americans have spoken out in favor of the verdict, and in support of George Zimmerman.

Notable among them have been at least two black pastors. I have listened to black pastors during my lifetime. While elitist academians may find these pastors lacking in formal education, I have always found them unusually wise in everyday common sense knowledge. Something many academians are not.

Dr. James David Manning, speaking from the pulpit of his ATLAH World Missionary Church in New York City, called Martin a "pot-smoking, paranoid boy".

Rev. Jesse Lee Patterson, in a television interview, called Martin a "thug", not a "nice little boy".. Asked for evidence for that charge, Patterson spoke of Martins' use of marijuana, his behavior problems in school, and his propensity to engage in fighting.

The interviewer demanded to know if Rev. Patterson regarded everyone who had used 'pot' and had run afoul of school officials, as a 'thug'. Patterson explained about single-parent homes and other symptoms of a youth gone astray. Mostly his reply dealt with what I have always called 'moral grounding'. Many people engage in poor behavior in their youth, but those who have been taught morality soon discover the error in their ways. Without moral grounding, it is all downhill.

Several other black Americans, whom I consider intellectuals, have also spoken out against Martin's behavior. If you see news coverage of today's protests, do not think for a minute that all of black America agrees with the protestors.

More things that make an old man cry

Mark Steyn is always a good read, but this one is a crown jewel! Steyn revealed: The other day, The Boston Globe ran a story on how the city's police and other agencies had spent months planning a big training exercise for last weekend involving terrorists planting bombs hidden in backpacks left downtown. Unfortunately, the Marathon bombers preempted them, and turned the coppers' hypothetical scenario into bloody reality. What a freaky coincidence, eh? (snip) In the far more exciting Boston Police fantasy, the bombers were a group of right-wing militia men called "Free America Citizens," (who) even had their own little logo – a skull's head with an Uncle Sam hat.

"I was taught that if I left home, I would be fully responsible for any evil that befell me, because men cannot be expected to control their extincts." -  Manal al-Sharif, on growing up as a young girl in Saudi Arabia.

The crime is not hate speech, but hate thought -- a state of mind that apparently only self-appointed liberal referees can sort out. - Victor Davis Hanson in a discussion on charges of hate speech against conservatives.

Ron Kelly retired from the Army in 1993 after 20 years of service. As an infantryman who fired tanks and machine guns, he likely expelled over 100,000 rounds. But when he tried to buy a .22 caliber rifle at a local Wal-Mart recently, he was turned down because of an old conviction. Forty-two years before, when he was in high school, he got arrested for having a baggie of marijuana. He wasn’t even sentenced to a night in jail, but he did get one year of probation. He contacted his home state of North Carolina to find out if they had a  record of his arrest, and they didn’t, because it was so old. But the FBI obviously remembered. And they’ll never forget, because they want to make sure that no gun ends up in the “wrong hands.” - Political Outcast

 

Black Education... or, the lack thereof.

Dr. Walter Williams is probably today's most coherent writer about America's black community. Yesterday he wrote a column titled Black Education Tragedy. For his opening shot, he wrote:

"As if more evidence were needed about the tragedy of black education, Rachel Jeantel, a witness for the prosecution in the George Zimmerman murder trial, put a face on it for the nation to see. Some of that evidence unfolded when Zimmerman's defense attorney asked 19-year-old Jeantel to read a letter that she allegedly had written to Trayvon Martin's mother. She responded that she doesn't read cursive, and that's in addition to her poor grammar, syntax and communication skills."

I have not closely followed that trial, but I did see the segment where Jeantel testified. I was saddened by her performance. Saddened that this young American girl will, next spring, graduate from High School unprepared for a successful future.

It made me think of the difference an education, and a dedication to learning, can make. Williams, himself, and Dr. Thomas Sowell, are both positive proof of the successful future awaiting a couple of poor black boys, raised in the housing projects of Philadelphia and New York.

They are proof, also, that skin color, ethnicity and "pedigree" are irrelevant.

So, my question is this: Why isn't their story being shouted from the rooftops? Why isn't their story being told in schools? Why aren't black mothers telling their sons they could grow up to be another Walter Williams or Thomas Sowell?

I am hopeful that today's black students are taught about outstanding black Americans of the past. That is good. But it would seem that the story of two men who grew up in an environment similar to the one in which today's students live, would be more powerful.
 

The puzzle.

A 13-year-old girl, raised in a Liberal household, asked her Conservative grandmother why she disliked President Obama. Not having been privy to the conversation, I don't know the grandmother's answer.

But, hearing of the conversation, caused me to think: How would one explain something so complex to a 13-year-old? Puzzling!

I think I would first try to explain that, while you vote to elect only one person, you are actually choosing thousands of persons to run the executive branch of our government.

Yes, the name of the Vice-President is on the ballot, but that person was personally chosen by the presidential candidate. Once elected, the President gets to choose the people to run the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Health and Human Services, Justice, and more. The President also chooses the Secretary of State, who oversees our relations with all foreign nations, the Secretary of Defense, who oversees our entire military force, and others.

So, when you speak of the policies or the actions of "President Obama", you are actually describing the policies and actions of tens of thousands of people.

Many of these people, like Barack Obama himself, have little experience to qualify them for such important jobs. Many are well-meaning people who propose rules and regulations which sound plausible, but in practice are burdensome, costly and restrict the freedoms of law-abiding citizens.

As a Conservative, I believe the government has grown too large and unweildy. I believe there is much waste of taxpayers money. Because the government has grown so large, I believe it is impossible to keep track of everything that is happening, and that leads to fraud and abuse.

In the past, many new government programs were created. If they were later proven to be ineffective, those programs were discontinued. Today, however, failing government programs are never ended.

For example, in the 1970s, it became apparent that America was too dependent on foreign nations for our supply of oil. If those nations were to cut off shipments of oil to America, we could no longer operate our cars, planes, ships or trains. We could no longer make many of the plastics we use in everyday products.

The Department of Energy was formed to solve that problem and end our dependence on foreign oil. The D.O.E. has clearly not solved the problem, yet we continue to spend billions of dollars each year to run the D.O.E.

We Conservatives would like to abolish the D.O.E., but President Obama does not agree.

So, when we say we dislike Obama, we are really saying we disagree with the way the government is operating.

Is my young teen listener still awake?

Stop it!

Paula Deen has lost her Food Network Gig and some spokesman roles, for truthfully admitting, that in the past, she had used the N word.

How many of us have? There was a time in America when we were so proud of our great "melting pot". People of diverse ethnic and nationality backgrounds came together as proud Americans. We had varying social characteristics, which became stereotypes, and we pretty much laughed at those stereotypes... ours, and theirs.

 Remember when we told 'Pat and Mike' jokes, about two dumb Irishmen. And, Irish were considered drinkers. There were unending Polish jokes. Italians were chided for their manner of speaking English: American sailor, "Is that a U-Boat?" Italian sailor, "No, That's nota my boat." Asians were considered bad drivers. I had a close friend who was an Italian immigrant. When he entered the United States, his documents were marked "W.O.P.", meaning "without papers". He called himself a Wop.

Mexicans were pictured in a sombrero, asleep under a palm tree. Both Scotsmen and Dutchmen were considered tightwads. Jews were money-hungry, always seeking to "Jew someone out of" something. Germans were Krauts. Frenchmen were frogs. Blacks were called the N word. Nobody hated anyone. We laughed at our differences and moved on, abandoning many of those terms over time.

I am sure some people were hurt by this practice, although I hold it was mostly folks who did not have strong self-confidence. My guess is that the word, itself, was not too painful, since many black comedians and black youth use the word freely. I suspect it is who uses it that matters.

Years ago I worked with a wonderful young woman who was Jewish. She told me, "Jews love Jewish jokes - when they are told by other Jews. When told by non-Jewish people, we are never sure if they are laughing with us - or at us." Fair enough. I get that.

I, for one, have never understood exactly why black Americans were called the N word. The definition of the word, after all, is a meanly stingy person. Doesn't fit any black people I know! Think Joe Louis, the heavyweight boxing champ who made lots of money and gave it all away, 'treating' his friends.

Then, something happened. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, et al, learned they could become rich and famous, while destroying their enemies, by claiming victimhood. Some of those terms were declared to be hate speech and people bought those definitions. The meanings changed entirely. Like the now-despicable C word. Once a vulgar, slang name for a part of the female anatomy, it morphed into a demeaning term for women. Where did that come from?

I never advocate violence, but I wish the mother of the lawyer who interrogated Paula Deen could grab him by the ear and wash his mouth out with soap for using unacceptable language.

He asked Deen if she had every used the N word. She could have just lied and said, "No". But she told the truth and is vilified. Has she been accused of truly demeaning any person because of their skin color? Has she exhibited racial prejudice in hiring practices? Hardly.

What about that planned "plantation wedding", with blacks as old time servants, posing as slaves? I am sure everyone would have been well paid and the 'actors' appreciative of the gig. If she had just had cameras rolling and called it a movie, it would have been wonderful.

Since these race-baiters have successfully turned certain terms into "hate speech", we, including Paula Deen, have quit using them. 

It is time to stop this divisive nonsense. If Sharpton and Jackson really deserve the "Rev." prefix before their names, let them go back to their congregations and preach the Gospel. Stop destroying people with this victim nonsense. 

It couldn't. Could it?

World news gets scarier every day. There is civil war in Syria. Not just unrest, but war, with tens of thousands dead.

There have been massive riots in Greece, protesting some action by their government.

More riots in Turkey. Sparked by announced plans to build a shopping mall in a park.

Now riots in Brazil, over... gee, I forgot what they were protesting.

So I settle back in my chair and think "Thank heavens I am in America where ths sort of thing doesn't happen."

Then comes the news that busloads of protestors supporting the cause of illegal immigration, descended upon the Kansas City area home of Kansas' Secretary of State, Kris Kobach. An estimated 200 persons, screaming in English and Spanish. such taunts as "Kris Kobach come on out, we'll show you what Kansans are all about!"

Happily, Secretary Kobach, his wife and four young daughters were not home at the time. But, imagine 200 angry, screaming people on your front porch!

Someone called the police. They were on the scene in just 15 minutes. Imagine what an angry mob could do in 15 minutes!

I am not faulting the police. Most police departments are so under paid, under staffed, over worked and loaded with stupid tasks, it is impossible to be everywhere in their jurisdiction in a moment's notice.

A former sheriff of my huge home county once told me, "sometimes in an emergency, the nearest available deputy can be 40 miles from the scene."

A State Police official once revealed that he cautions his officers with this warning: if you make a highway stop 'out in the middle of nowhere', do not talk yourself into a dangerous confrontation. Back-up may be a half hour away.

I am not involved in government. I am not a policy maker. It is impossible to imagine a mob descending on my home. But I'm willing to wager that before last Saturday, Secretary Kobach would have imagined it improbable, if not impossible, for a mob to rally on his front porch.

Secretary Kobach says it is vital for all Americans to be armed, to protect themselves and their families. I agree.

But, arms are most effective when you have ammunition. In the Army, we were taught how to use an unloaded rifle to defend ourselves. That, too, may become necessary. Locally, Wal-Mart stores (open 24/7), say customers begin gathering at 2:00 a.m., waiting for the store's daily shipment of ammunition to arrive. The more popular calibers are instantly sold out.

Think they are kidding? Stroll by the sporting goods department of your nearby Wal-Mart and note the empty shelves in their ammunition department.